The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has expressed worries over the turn of events in Guinea Bissau and Togo.
The President of the ECOWAS Commission, Ambassador Desire Ouedraogo Monday in Abuja said the body has been disturbed by the political and security situation in the last few month.
The President of the ECOWAS Commission, who spoke on Monday at the opening of the 2013 first ordinary session of the Third Legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja, said the political and security situation in the region in the last few months has been a source of concern.
"The situation in Guinea Bissau and Togo ahead of elections is disturbing, we appeal to all parties to engage in dialogue for peaceful conduct of the polls," he added.
While also noting that the crisis in Mali is under control, Ouedraogo assured that the sub-regional body will do everything possible to promote the values and principle of democracy among member nations.
He told his audience that the role played by the sub- regional body in quelling the insecurity in Mali has raised its stock before its development partners.
Ouedraogo also commended the Republic of Chad, France and other states that contributed troops to Africa led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA).
The ECOWAS Commission president paid tribute to all troops that lost their lives in the intervention efforts.
On ECOWAS Parliament, Oudraogo promised to recommend to the ECOWAS Heads of States and Governments (HoSG) the need to enhance the powers of the parliament to empower it to continue to assist in the integration process.
The President of the Nigerian Senate, Senator David Mark was full of praises for ECOWAS, saying that the regional body has lived up to expectations in upholding stability and peace in the region.
Mark also commended the regional body for standing up against undemocratic practices in the region.
He said Nigeria took the crucial decision to send a high number of troops to Mali because of the realization that terror threat in any part of the sub-region is a threat to the continent and the world.
Speaking on the enhance power sought by the regional parliament, the Speaker of the Parliament, Senator Ike Ekweremadu who expressed hope that the enhanced power for the parliament sought come to fruition, however said it was not meant to diminish the relevance of the other organs of the community.
He stressed that the essence of the power is to ensure the organ take the lead in the emergence of a stronger, more result oriented and more people responsive community.
----------Xingua, May 7, 2013
Monday, May 06, 2013
Kenyan Court Gives Life Sentences To 2 Iranians Over Terror Plots
David Barnett
Long War Journal, May 6, 2013
Two Iranian nationals suspected of membership in the IRGC Quds Force were sentenced to life in prison by a Kenyan court today. The two, Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammed and Sayed Mansour Mousavi, were arrested in June 2012 and are suspected of plotting attacks against Western and Israeli targets in Nairobi, among other places.
Iran's foreign ministry denounced the ruling, saying that the two Iranians had entered Kenya "on a valid visa for tourism purposes last year and were arrested as part of a pre-planned plot with baseless accusations." Mohammed had previously alleged that Israeli agents had interrogated him while in detention in Kenya.
When the two Iranians were arrested last year, they led authorities to 33 pounds of RDX, a powerful explosive that they had received near a golf club in Mombasa shortly after arriving in Kenya. Over 185 pounds of additional explosives believed to be linked to the two men has not yet been recovered, according to the Associated Press. The explosives reportedly arrived in Kenya on the MV Padriz.
At the sentencing on Monday, Magistrate Kiarie Waweru Kiarie said, "I shudder to imagine the amount of life and property that would have been forever destroyed," if the Iranians had been successful in using the RDX. Last July, an official from Kenya's Anti-Terrorism Police Unit told a Kenyan court that the two Iranians, who were arrested exactly a week after arriving in the African country, "have a vast network in the country meant to execute explosive attacks against government installations, public gatherings and foreign establishments."
On March 6, the Counterterrorism Bureau at Israel's National Security Council issued its semiannual travel warning. According to the report, there is an "ongoing potential threat" to Israelis in Kenya. The report further warned that there was a "very high and concrete threat" for coastal cities in Kenya, specifically Mombasa.
Mohammed and Mousavi will reportedly appeal the sentences with the help of the Iranian government, according to the BBC. At least one accomplice is still at large.
Today's sentencing comes just a few weeks after a Cypriot court sentenced Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, 24, a Swedish-Lebanese citizen, to four years in prison for helping Hezbollah plot attacks against Israelis. On Feb. 20, Yaacoub admitted in court to being a member of Hezbollah. On the same day, Nigeria's State Security Service announced the arrest of three members of an Iranian-backed terror cell that was reportedly planning to carry out attacks on US and Israeli interests as well as former Nigerian officials.
The targeting of Israeli and Jewish targets by Iran and Hezbollah appears to be on the rise over the past two years. Between May 2011 and July 2012, over 20 attacks tied to Iran and Hezbollah against Israelis and Jews abroad were thwarted. These thwarted attacks, not all of which were publicly reported, took place in Cyprus, Turkey, Kenya, India, Thailand, and Azerbaijan, and elsewhere. The only successful attack thus far was in July 2012 in Burgas, Bulgaria, when Hezbollah operatives exploded a bomb on a bus carrying Israeli tourists. On Feb. 5, Bulgaria declared that Hezbollah was responsible for the terror attack in Burgas. The two primary suspects are believed to be residing in Lebanon.
The Counterterrorism Bureau at Israel's National Security Council recently warned that Iran and Hezbollah are still looking to exact revenge for the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists and senior Hezbollah operative Imad Mughniyah and are likely to do so by targeting Israelis abroad via suicide attacks or kidnappings.
Long War Journal, May 6, 2013
Two Iranian nationals suspected of membership in the IRGC Quds Force were sentenced to life in prison by a Kenyan court today. The two, Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammed and Sayed Mansour Mousavi, were arrested in June 2012 and are suspected of plotting attacks against Western and Israeli targets in Nairobi, among other places.
Iran's foreign ministry denounced the ruling, saying that the two Iranians had entered Kenya "on a valid visa for tourism purposes last year and were arrested as part of a pre-planned plot with baseless accusations." Mohammed had previously alleged that Israeli agents had interrogated him while in detention in Kenya.
When the two Iranians were arrested last year, they led authorities to 33 pounds of RDX, a powerful explosive that they had received near a golf club in Mombasa shortly after arriving in Kenya. Over 185 pounds of additional explosives believed to be linked to the two men has not yet been recovered, according to the Associated Press. The explosives reportedly arrived in Kenya on the MV Padriz.
At the sentencing on Monday, Magistrate Kiarie Waweru Kiarie said, "I shudder to imagine the amount of life and property that would have been forever destroyed," if the Iranians had been successful in using the RDX. Last July, an official from Kenya's Anti-Terrorism Police Unit told a Kenyan court that the two Iranians, who were arrested exactly a week after arriving in the African country, "have a vast network in the country meant to execute explosive attacks against government installations, public gatherings and foreign establishments."
On March 6, the Counterterrorism Bureau at Israel's National Security Council issued its semiannual travel warning. According to the report, there is an "ongoing potential threat" to Israelis in Kenya. The report further warned that there was a "very high and concrete threat" for coastal cities in Kenya, specifically Mombasa.
Mohammed and Mousavi will reportedly appeal the sentences with the help of the Iranian government, according to the BBC. At least one accomplice is still at large.
Today's sentencing comes just a few weeks after a Cypriot court sentenced Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, 24, a Swedish-Lebanese citizen, to four years in prison for helping Hezbollah plot attacks against Israelis. On Feb. 20, Yaacoub admitted in court to being a member of Hezbollah. On the same day, Nigeria's State Security Service announced the arrest of three members of an Iranian-backed terror cell that was reportedly planning to carry out attacks on US and Israeli interests as well as former Nigerian officials.
The targeting of Israeli and Jewish targets by Iran and Hezbollah appears to be on the rise over the past two years. Between May 2011 and July 2012, over 20 attacks tied to Iran and Hezbollah against Israelis and Jews abroad were thwarted. These thwarted attacks, not all of which were publicly reported, took place in Cyprus, Turkey, Kenya, India, Thailand, and Azerbaijan, and elsewhere. The only successful attack thus far was in July 2012 in Burgas, Bulgaria, when Hezbollah operatives exploded a bomb on a bus carrying Israeli tourists. On Feb. 5, Bulgaria declared that Hezbollah was responsible for the terror attack in Burgas. The two primary suspects are believed to be residing in Lebanon.
The Counterterrorism Bureau at Israel's National Security Council recently warned that Iran and Hezbollah are still looking to exact revenge for the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists and senior Hezbollah operative Imad Mughniyah and are likely to do so by targeting Israelis abroad via suicide attacks or kidnappings.
Nigerian military plane crashes in Niger; 2 dead
NIAMEY, Niger (AP) - An airport official in the capital of Niger says a military plane from Nigeria has crashed, killing the two people aboard.
Chaibou Massalatchi, the head of Niamey's airport, said the plane had taken off Monday to do a reconnaissance mission.
The Nigerian military is taking part in the regional effort to support France's operation in northern Mali.
Massalatchi says the plane crashed in Dargol in western Niger, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of the capital. Both occupants were killed, he said.
France launched the military operation in January to oust al-Qaida-linked jihadists from power in northern Mali.
Some 6,000 troops from neighboring countries including Nigeria and Niger have been taking part, though Chad has said it's withdrawing its nearly 2,000 soldiers.
-----Associated Press, Monday, May 6, 2013
Pini Jason-Yakubu Gowon Interview For The Chinua Achebe Foundation, Part 2
Nigeria: A Meeting of the Minds(Gen. Yakubu Gowon in Conversation with Pini Jason, Part 2) By The Chinua Achebe Foundation |
He held many appointments in the Nigerian Army. He was Gen Ironsi’s Chief of Army Staff in 1966 when Ironsi was killed in a counter coup of young Northern officers on 29 July 1966 and he became Head of Federal Military Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces throughout the civil war years of 1967-70. He was toppled while attending the OAU Summit in Kampala, Uganda on 29 July 1975. When he was overthrown in 1975, he enrolled at the University of Warwick from where he obtained a Ph D.
Following the Col Buka Suka Dimka-led aborted coup of 13 February 1976 in which Gen Murtala Ramat Mohammed was killed, the Federal Military declared him wanted and stripped him of his military rank. In 1981, President Shehu Shagari offered him state pardon, which he rejected. His military rank was restored in 1987.
Gen Gowon was very instrumental to the formation of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS. He was chairman of OAU 1973-74. He was awarded honorary doctorate degrees by Universities of Benin, Ibadan, Lagos, Ife as well as the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA and University of Cambridge, England. He has been honoured by several African countries.
Gen Gowon leads an NGO, Nigeria Prays, and is on the board of several blue chip companies in Nigeria. He is married to Victoria Hansatu and they have three children.
He was interviewed by PINI JASON.
Q. Perhaps, I should begin with what I have personally observed during this interview. Your graciousness, notwithstanding the important position you have held in this country, is something many Nigerians talk about whenever you are mentioned. What do you subscribe this to?
A. I suppose you can put it down to my family’s Christian values that call on all of us to be gracious to one another. I think, in general, it has to do with the society one lives in or the group one associates with.
Q. Does the quality of your military training provide an explanation?
A. Well…in the military, we are not trained merely to be brutal or inhuman. We are trained to be gracious. There's the saying: we are officers and gemtlemen! And if one is an officer and a gentleman, then one has to be gracious. Really, in the end, my love for my country and my people requires me to be gracious to the country and to the people, no matter their status.
Q. You say “officers and gentlemen.” But permit me to say that, these days, we might have “officers,” but not that many “gentlemen.” Very recently, a Naval Officer put a gun in the mouth of a commercial motorcycle rider, and shot him dead on the street in Lagos, for merely brushing against his car.
A. (Horrified) Are you sure it was an officer who did that, and not some other rank?
Q. Well, he was in the full uniform of a Naval Lieutenant.
A. A Naval Lieutenant! Well, certainly that is not the type of officer we should have in the military! That behaviour is utter cruelty. I do not know if such a chap should be in uniform as an officer, because that is surely murder! If that is really the case, he should face the law!
Q. You earlier mentioned your family; what was it like growing up in your family?
A. It was fun growing up. My family loved and respected each other. We did quarrel, quite all right, but were immediately brought to order. As far as I can remember, we grew up as a close-knit family, brought up strictly and very religiously by my parents to love each other and those around us. In our house, there were children from diverse ethnic groups and religions in Wusasa where I grew up. In my community, there were Muslims, and we loved and respected one another, and one would say, cultivated the spirit of sportsmanship.
Q. I will get back to the subject of Wusasa, because there is an interesting aspect to it. But I want to ask you this -- when you lost your father several years ago, you seemed deeply touched by his death. What was it about him that you remember most?
A. Well I suppose that on occasions like that one begins to recall all sort of things. I recall that as a little boy, I was especially close to my father. I would go to the farm with him on holidays or at weekends, tilling the small field where he grew crops to feed his family. Usually, he would talk to me about God, about living a good and honest life; to love and respect fellow human beings as the scripture teaches us. He would teach me how to clear the weeds and how to differentiate from weeds and the proper crop. He would teach me about trees, their medicinal properties and how to prepare them for medicine. Of course at the time, I thought I would always remember these things, and so never wrote them down. And as years went by, I forgot them. Now I regret it, and I will tell any young child: whenever you are with your old man, listen to what he tells you, and if you can write them down, do so. It may not be as clear, but at least it will bring the major information back to your memory.
Apart from that, when I was told that he was ill, I was not given the impression that his condition was that serious. So I said that I would probably come at the weekend, because I was very busy at the time; I was Head of State. Sadly, towards the weekend that I was planning to see him, my younger brother, Daniel, rang me to say that he had passed away. And I felt very, very bad. If nothing else, my father would have given me that last blessing; the last prayer of an old man; I can assure you, the good Lord does hear. But I missed that.
Still I am sure that wherever he is, he has been praying for me, especially when I was the Head of State. He never expected it. But he took it graciously that God had blessed his seed to reach that position, not through greed, but the act of God. The same thing goes for my mother. When one’s father admonishes with words, it is sometimes more painful than the bulala or koboko (a whip made of cow skin) that a mother uses to lash a naughty child. But, for me, the combination of the two resulted in a very wonderful upbringing, and certainly no regrets. Since it is said: spare the rod, and spoil the child, I can assure you that I was not spared the rod, and my parents did not spare any words to put me right.
Q. Something just crossed my mind. People know you and talk about you. But unlike other Heads of State, past and present, Nigerians do not hear or know much about your children who are not rampaging all over the place as others do.
A. (Hearty chuckle). Well, I thank God! It might be because they didn’t grow up in Nigeria to probably imbibe the …
Q. (Cuts in) Rat race culture?
A. Probably! Who knows? But I’ll admit that my wife and I tried to bring up our children the way our parents did; to be good children, obedient, not haughty, and to be considerate. So that is the way my children have been trained. And as far as my wife and I are concerned, that they are children of a former Head of State does not give my children any right to do whatever they want, no. In fact they have to be more concerned about behaving themselves, and not doing anything that would give their parents a bad image. In other words, if that Head of State allows his children to behave badly, how then can he look after the country? Is that how he would hope to run the country? Honestly, my children were brought up as normal children, to behave themselves and not shame or discredit the family.
Q. Are they in Nigeria?
A. (Almost apologetically) No, unfortunately. As you know, the family left Nigeria after my overthrow, when Ibrahim was just under five years old, and his immediate younger sister was under three years old; and then one was born in the United Kingdom. Since then, they have only come home about two or three times. I think this is probably my fault. I wish I had brought them home more often; it would have been much better for them. However, they had all their education in the UK, apart from early elementary school, here in Nigeria. Most of their schooling has been in the UK, and they are either working there or finishing up university. But as far as we are concerned, my wife and I expect them to behave as decent young Nigerians, decent human beings wherever they may be.
Q. That is surprising and I must pursue this further, because our values today constitute some of our greatest problems, especially at the highest level of governance. Nowadays, one finds that the situation in the government is very much Father, Mother and Sons Incorporated. Children of certain people in high positions -- which I must admit was not the case in the First Republic, and up to your time -- now print letter heads and cards, and rush all over the place cornering choice contracts by peddling influence. And their parents don’t seem to see that this concerns ethics in public office. Your children could just announce your name and it would open doors for them! But they don’t do this.
A. Well, it is true that this could be the case. But my hope is that when the time comes, and my children want to set up their own business, they can do so decently and not merely by flaunting the name. They have been told not to abuse the family name, or to use it for wrongful gain. So they do not go round using the name in order to get favours or have anything done for them.
Q. Now back to Wusasa. You were born in Lur, Pankshin, but Nigerians know you in connection with Wusasa. How did your family come to make Wusasa home?
A. I was actually born in a small town, not in Lur. Lur is my father’s home and Kingdom as I am from a Royal family. But I was born in a small town called Garam in the old Pankshin Division. I think it is now in Kanke local government. My father was a Christian and itinerant Evangelist and was stationed there when I was born. One of my sisters was born there as well. I think it was a CMS mission who had just then handed over to the Sudan United Mission. But my father didn’t quite like the change, because the CMS had been very progressive. Theirs was not just evangelization; they also set up schools and hospitals. They did not just teach one to read the Hausa Bible; they went over and beyond education.
So when one CMS Bishop – Smith -- visited the area, my father complained to him that he was not happy, that he was very concerned about the education of his children. By this, he was asking if he could go to a CMS mission in Wusasa, Zaria where his children could become educated. The Bishop then told him to come and help with evangelizing the people, and have, as well, the opportunity of giving his children education. So that was how the entire family moved to Wusasa. I was between two and three years then. In Wusasa, my father built a home and was involved in preaching the gospel to the local people all over the place, walking on foot nearly Gusau, to Makarfi, Dutse and back to Jos. We all went to school in Wusasa.
Gen Gowon was very instrumental to the formation of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS. He was chairman of OAU 1973-74. He was awarded honorary doctorate degrees by Universities of Benin, Ibadan, Lagos, Ife as well as the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA and University of Cambridge, England. He has been honoured by several African countries.
Gen Gowon leads an NGO, Nigeria Prays, and is on the board of several blue chip companies in Nigeria. He is married to Victoria Hansatu and they have three children.
He was interviewed by PINI JASON.
Q. Perhaps, I should begin with what I have personally observed during this interview. Your graciousness, notwithstanding the important position you have held in this country, is something many Nigerians talk about whenever you are mentioned. What do you subscribe this to?
A. I suppose you can put it down to my family’s Christian values that call on all of us to be gracious to one another. I think, in general, it has to do with the society one lives in or the group one associates with.
Q. Does the quality of your military training provide an explanation?
A. Well…in the military, we are not trained merely to be brutal or inhuman. We are trained to be gracious. There's the saying: we are officers and gemtlemen! And if one is an officer and a gentleman, then one has to be gracious. Really, in the end, my love for my country and my people requires me to be gracious to the country and to the people, no matter their status.
Q. You say “officers and gentlemen.” But permit me to say that, these days, we might have “officers,” but not that many “gentlemen.” Very recently, a Naval Officer put a gun in the mouth of a commercial motorcycle rider, and shot him dead on the street in Lagos, for merely brushing against his car.
A. (Horrified) Are you sure it was an officer who did that, and not some other rank?
Q. Well, he was in the full uniform of a Naval Lieutenant.
A. A Naval Lieutenant! Well, certainly that is not the type of officer we should have in the military! That behaviour is utter cruelty. I do not know if such a chap should be in uniform as an officer, because that is surely murder! If that is really the case, he should face the law!
Q. You earlier mentioned your family; what was it like growing up in your family?
A. It was fun growing up. My family loved and respected each other. We did quarrel, quite all right, but were immediately brought to order. As far as I can remember, we grew up as a close-knit family, brought up strictly and very religiously by my parents to love each other and those around us. In our house, there were children from diverse ethnic groups and religions in Wusasa where I grew up. In my community, there were Muslims, and we loved and respected one another, and one would say, cultivated the spirit of sportsmanship.
Q. I will get back to the subject of Wusasa, because there is an interesting aspect to it. But I want to ask you this -- when you lost your father several years ago, you seemed deeply touched by his death. What was it about him that you remember most?
A. Well I suppose that on occasions like that one begins to recall all sort of things. I recall that as a little boy, I was especially close to my father. I would go to the farm with him on holidays or at weekends, tilling the small field where he grew crops to feed his family. Usually, he would talk to me about God, about living a good and honest life; to love and respect fellow human beings as the scripture teaches us. He would teach me how to clear the weeds and how to differentiate from weeds and the proper crop. He would teach me about trees, their medicinal properties and how to prepare them for medicine. Of course at the time, I thought I would always remember these things, and so never wrote them down. And as years went by, I forgot them. Now I regret it, and I will tell any young child: whenever you are with your old man, listen to what he tells you, and if you can write them down, do so. It may not be as clear, but at least it will bring the major information back to your memory.
Apart from that, when I was told that he was ill, I was not given the impression that his condition was that serious. So I said that I would probably come at the weekend, because I was very busy at the time; I was Head of State. Sadly, towards the weekend that I was planning to see him, my younger brother, Daniel, rang me to say that he had passed away. And I felt very, very bad. If nothing else, my father would have given me that last blessing; the last prayer of an old man; I can assure you, the good Lord does hear. But I missed that.
Still I am sure that wherever he is, he has been praying for me, especially when I was the Head of State. He never expected it. But he took it graciously that God had blessed his seed to reach that position, not through greed, but the act of God. The same thing goes for my mother. When one’s father admonishes with words, it is sometimes more painful than the bulala or koboko (a whip made of cow skin) that a mother uses to lash a naughty child. But, for me, the combination of the two resulted in a very wonderful upbringing, and certainly no regrets. Since it is said: spare the rod, and spoil the child, I can assure you that I was not spared the rod, and my parents did not spare any words to put me right.
Q. Something just crossed my mind. People know you and talk about you. But unlike other Heads of State, past and present, Nigerians do not hear or know much about your children who are not rampaging all over the place as others do.
A. (Hearty chuckle). Well, I thank God! It might be because they didn’t grow up in Nigeria to probably imbibe the …
Q. (Cuts in) Rat race culture?
A. Probably! Who knows? But I’ll admit that my wife and I tried to bring up our children the way our parents did; to be good children, obedient, not haughty, and to be considerate. So that is the way my children have been trained. And as far as my wife and I are concerned, that they are children of a former Head of State does not give my children any right to do whatever they want, no. In fact they have to be more concerned about behaving themselves, and not doing anything that would give their parents a bad image. In other words, if that Head of State allows his children to behave badly, how then can he look after the country? Is that how he would hope to run the country? Honestly, my children were brought up as normal children, to behave themselves and not shame or discredit the family.
Q. Are they in Nigeria?
A. (Almost apologetically) No, unfortunately. As you know, the family left Nigeria after my overthrow, when Ibrahim was just under five years old, and his immediate younger sister was under three years old; and then one was born in the United Kingdom. Since then, they have only come home about two or three times. I think this is probably my fault. I wish I had brought them home more often; it would have been much better for them. However, they had all their education in the UK, apart from early elementary school, here in Nigeria. Most of their schooling has been in the UK, and they are either working there or finishing up university. But as far as we are concerned, my wife and I expect them to behave as decent young Nigerians, decent human beings wherever they may be.
Q. That is surprising and I must pursue this further, because our values today constitute some of our greatest problems, especially at the highest level of governance. Nowadays, one finds that the situation in the government is very much Father, Mother and Sons Incorporated. Children of certain people in high positions -- which I must admit was not the case in the First Republic, and up to your time -- now print letter heads and cards, and rush all over the place cornering choice contracts by peddling influence. And their parents don’t seem to see that this concerns ethics in public office. Your children could just announce your name and it would open doors for them! But they don’t do this.
A. Well, it is true that this could be the case. But my hope is that when the time comes, and my children want to set up their own business, they can do so decently and not merely by flaunting the name. They have been told not to abuse the family name, or to use it for wrongful gain. So they do not go round using the name in order to get favours or have anything done for them.
Q. Now back to Wusasa. You were born in Lur, Pankshin, but Nigerians know you in connection with Wusasa. How did your family come to make Wusasa home?
A. I was actually born in a small town, not in Lur. Lur is my father’s home and Kingdom as I am from a Royal family. But I was born in a small town called Garam in the old Pankshin Division. I think it is now in Kanke local government. My father was a Christian and itinerant Evangelist and was stationed there when I was born. One of my sisters was born there as well. I think it was a CMS mission who had just then handed over to the Sudan United Mission. But my father didn’t quite like the change, because the CMS had been very progressive. Theirs was not just evangelization; they also set up schools and hospitals. They did not just teach one to read the Hausa Bible; they went over and beyond education.
So when one CMS Bishop – Smith -- visited the area, my father complained to him that he was not happy, that he was very concerned about the education of his children. By this, he was asking if he could go to a CMS mission in Wusasa, Zaria where his children could become educated. The Bishop then told him to come and help with evangelizing the people, and have, as well, the opportunity of giving his children education. So that was how the entire family moved to Wusasa. I was between two and three years then. In Wusasa, my father built a home and was involved in preaching the gospel to the local people all over the place, walking on foot nearly Gusau, to Makarfi, Dutse and back to Jos. We all went to school in Wusasa.
Q. What was life like in St Bartholomew’s Wusasa?
A. At St Bartholomew’s, there was the church as the fulcrum, but there was also a very good hospital and a very good school. The school had a good kindergarten, a primary school, or what we called junior school, and then the middle school. One could take the Cambridge and the Teacher Training examinations while studying other subjects for the senior Cambridge. In Wusasa at the time, one could even take the London Matriculation for entry to universities in the UK. That was St Barth’s Wusasa at the time.
Apart from St Barth’s, there was the church which, whether you liked it or not, you dared not miss any service. Our house was less than thirty yards from the church, and our mother saw to it that whether you liked it or not, you attended service. Of course, one became involved in a lot of the church activities; ringing the church bell for people to come to church or funeral service, or whatever it was. We were in the church choir as well as the school choir. But the school, of course, was where you spent a lot of your time. It was a school where all the ethnic groups could be found; Igbo boys and girls, Yoruba boys and girls, Hausa boys and girls, Kanuri boys and girls, Tivi, you name it! Most of Nigerians were there. And so we grew to know and love one another as Nigerians.
Wusasa was a training ground in many ways; morally, religiously, ethically. The first question you asked me about being gracious; yes it was the home, the church and also the school that inculcated all these values in us. So, our training in Wusasa was exceptionally happy and productive. Wusasa gave one the opportunity to know Nigerians, and all the young people that we grew up together.
Q. Are there people you met at St Barth’s that you are still in contact with today?
A. People like Jacob Nwokolo, I don’t know if it is the same Jacob in politics! The Onuaguluchis, and my friend, one John from Okigwe; we used to crack a lot of jokes together. There were a lot of families I knew from Wusasa.
Q. You trained in Teshie, Ghana; Eaton Hall, Chester; Sandhurst, Camberley; etc. Which of these military establishments left the greatest impression on you?
A. Each of them left a good impression on me. One after the other, they built one up to the good professional officer one became. But I would say, in particular, the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. But otherwise, yes, Teshie was very important. That was the initial breaking ground. I met people like (Alexander) Madiebo, Anwuna, Arthur Unuegbe, Okwechime there. From there we went to Eaton Hall inChester for training, and to sit for War Office selection board and then the Regular Commission board, before going to Sandhurst. If, after eighteen months or two years, you are able to finish that training successfully, you get your pip and you know that you are now an officer and a gentleman!
After Sandhurst, one went to other young officers’ courses at Warminster at the time, and other attachments with other British military institutions or units. Later on you were sent for professional staff training at Staff College, Camberley. The Staff College is where one is trained to become more professional as a staff officer and it also trains you for higher command, later. There are others like the joint services Staff College that I and Emeka Ojukwu attended in Latimar; it is not too far away from Sandhurst in Camberley. Staff College Camberley trains you for professional special duty to arm, and it gives you that grounding in staff duties.
For example, an officer should be able to analyze any problem correctly; what we call military appreciation. That is, said officer comes up with a number of courses, and decides which best resolves the problem. One is taught to be able to attend to any problem, and to deal with it. And I can assure you that it was the sort of thing that became very useful to me when I became Head of State. I was not trained to be Head of State! But because of that type of training, when I had a problem, I had to analyze the problem, seek advice on how to deal with it etc, and then come out with a way to deal with it. So that sort of training was very useful.
And if it were possible, you studied at the Royal College of Defense Studies, which used to be called Imperial Defense College, IDC. That, of course, is the highest training. Civilians instructors are brought in, because of the high level strategy, diplomatic and governmental issues involved. The understanding of these things is in preparation for the very highest command -- GOC and above. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the IDC; I was to have gone there in 1966 or 67, but events intervened. However, I visited the IDC as a Head of State to give a lecture, so I am an honorary member of the place. So you can say that I went through its portals too (Laughter), as a lecturer; I remember, in 1973!
Q. What inspired you, the son of an evangelist, to choose the military as a career?
A. Ah! You know, Montgomery was the son of a priest! (General laughter). I think sons of evangelists make good Christian soldiers! To be very honest, though, the military was not my first choice. Throughout my life I had wanted to teach. I thought of studying medicine. I thought of engineering as well, then teaching. But teaching was one of those things I wanted to do so that I could impart knowledge as repayment for the kindness that the mission bestowed on me by giving me a good and free education. I thought I could impart that to others as well.
However, in my last year at school, there had been a lot encouragement to the young people to go into the army. And, of course, we had some seniors as officers, like Mai Malari, Kur Muhammed, and so on, from our school, Barewa College. There was encouragement, also, from some of our teachers, especially the Europeans, who were ex-soldiers, and served during the war, after which they went back to the universities and were teaching in our school. And because I was a sportsman and a prefect, everybody thought I should go into the army.
The principal and other teachers wanted me to go into the army, and I said no; I just wanted to teach. I was hoping then to probably go the College of Arts Science and Technology, Zaria, and then on to the university, probably Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, at the time, probably Ibadan. I don’t know what I would have graduated in, probably Geography, History or Economics or something like that, but at least, a subject I could teach. But then a lot of my friends like Sunday Awoniyi and others were going for military interviews…
Q. Sunday Awoniyi attended a military interview?
A. Yes! In those days, from the school! About ten or so of them; I was not one of those. So they had gone ahead, and I started thinking seriously about what to do as a career -- engineering, medicine, military or teaching. I decided to cut out pieces of paper and write each of the professions and jumble them up. And three times, the one that came up was not teaching, not engineering, not medicine, but the military. When I did it the fourth time, I think, teaching came up. So I said, well, probably that is what God wants me to do. So I went to the principal, and I told him what I had decided, and he was so excited! He wrote a note and gave me, saying: we don’t have any transport to take you to the depot for the interview, but all your colleagues have gone ahead. But you are a good sportsman; you’ll catch up with them. And of course, that’s what I did. To cut the long story short, about twelve of us went to that interview. In the final analysis, I was the only one that made it through the initial interview to the military training. You can say that it was more providential than anything else.
Q. As a young military officer, what were your hopes and aspirations at the time for an equally young nation like Nigeria?
A. At St Bartholomew’s, there was the church as the fulcrum, but there was also a very good hospital and a very good school. The school had a good kindergarten, a primary school, or what we called junior school, and then the middle school. One could take the Cambridge and the Teacher Training examinations while studying other subjects for the senior Cambridge. In Wusasa at the time, one could even take the London Matriculation for entry to universities in the UK. That was St Barth’s Wusasa at the time.
Apart from St Barth’s, there was the church which, whether you liked it or not, you dared not miss any service. Our house was less than thirty yards from the church, and our mother saw to it that whether you liked it or not, you attended service. Of course, one became involved in a lot of the church activities; ringing the church bell for people to come to church or funeral service, or whatever it was. We were in the church choir as well as the school choir. But the school, of course, was where you spent a lot of your time. It was a school where all the ethnic groups could be found; Igbo boys and girls, Yoruba boys and girls, Hausa boys and girls, Kanuri boys and girls, Tivi, you name it! Most of Nigerians were there. And so we grew to know and love one another as Nigerians.
Wusasa was a training ground in many ways; morally, religiously, ethically. The first question you asked me about being gracious; yes it was the home, the church and also the school that inculcated all these values in us. So, our training in Wusasa was exceptionally happy and productive. Wusasa gave one the opportunity to know Nigerians, and all the young people that we grew up together.
Q. Are there people you met at St Barth’s that you are still in contact with today?
A. People like Jacob Nwokolo, I don’t know if it is the same Jacob in politics! The Onuaguluchis, and my friend, one John from Okigwe; we used to crack a lot of jokes together. There were a lot of families I knew from Wusasa.
Q. You trained in Teshie, Ghana; Eaton Hall, Chester; Sandhurst, Camberley; etc. Which of these military establishments left the greatest impression on you?
A. Each of them left a good impression on me. One after the other, they built one up to the good professional officer one became. But I would say, in particular, the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. But otherwise, yes, Teshie was very important. That was the initial breaking ground. I met people like (Alexander) Madiebo, Anwuna, Arthur Unuegbe, Okwechime there. From there we went to Eaton Hall inChester for training, and to sit for War Office selection board and then the Regular Commission board, before going to Sandhurst. If, after eighteen months or two years, you are able to finish that training successfully, you get your pip and you know that you are now an officer and a gentleman!
After Sandhurst, one went to other young officers’ courses at Warminster at the time, and other attachments with other British military institutions or units. Later on you were sent for professional staff training at Staff College, Camberley. The Staff College is where one is trained to become more professional as a staff officer and it also trains you for higher command, later. There are others like the joint services Staff College that I and Emeka Ojukwu attended in Latimar; it is not too far away from Sandhurst in Camberley. Staff College Camberley trains you for professional special duty to arm, and it gives you that grounding in staff duties.
For example, an officer should be able to analyze any problem correctly; what we call military appreciation. That is, said officer comes up with a number of courses, and decides which best resolves the problem. One is taught to be able to attend to any problem, and to deal with it. And I can assure you that it was the sort of thing that became very useful to me when I became Head of State. I was not trained to be Head of State! But because of that type of training, when I had a problem, I had to analyze the problem, seek advice on how to deal with it etc, and then come out with a way to deal with it. So that sort of training was very useful.
And if it were possible, you studied at the Royal College of Defense Studies, which used to be called Imperial Defense College, IDC. That, of course, is the highest training. Civilians instructors are brought in, because of the high level strategy, diplomatic and governmental issues involved. The understanding of these things is in preparation for the very highest command -- GOC and above. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the IDC; I was to have gone there in 1966 or 67, but events intervened. However, I visited the IDC as a Head of State to give a lecture, so I am an honorary member of the place. So you can say that I went through its portals too (Laughter), as a lecturer; I remember, in 1973!
Q. What inspired you, the son of an evangelist, to choose the military as a career?
A. Ah! You know, Montgomery was the son of a priest! (General laughter). I think sons of evangelists make good Christian soldiers! To be very honest, though, the military was not my first choice. Throughout my life I had wanted to teach. I thought of studying medicine. I thought of engineering as well, then teaching. But teaching was one of those things I wanted to do so that I could impart knowledge as repayment for the kindness that the mission bestowed on me by giving me a good and free education. I thought I could impart that to others as well.
However, in my last year at school, there had been a lot encouragement to the young people to go into the army. And, of course, we had some seniors as officers, like Mai Malari, Kur Muhammed, and so on, from our school, Barewa College. There was encouragement, also, from some of our teachers, especially the Europeans, who were ex-soldiers, and served during the war, after which they went back to the universities and were teaching in our school. And because I was a sportsman and a prefect, everybody thought I should go into the army.
The principal and other teachers wanted me to go into the army, and I said no; I just wanted to teach. I was hoping then to probably go the College of Arts Science and Technology, Zaria, and then on to the university, probably Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, at the time, probably Ibadan. I don’t know what I would have graduated in, probably Geography, History or Economics or something like that, but at least, a subject I could teach. But then a lot of my friends like Sunday Awoniyi and others were going for military interviews…
Q. Sunday Awoniyi attended a military interview?
A. Yes! In those days, from the school! About ten or so of them; I was not one of those. So they had gone ahead, and I started thinking seriously about what to do as a career -- engineering, medicine, military or teaching. I decided to cut out pieces of paper and write each of the professions and jumble them up. And three times, the one that came up was not teaching, not engineering, not medicine, but the military. When I did it the fourth time, I think, teaching came up. So I said, well, probably that is what God wants me to do. So I went to the principal, and I told him what I had decided, and he was so excited! He wrote a note and gave me, saying: we don’t have any transport to take you to the depot for the interview, but all your colleagues have gone ahead. But you are a good sportsman; you’ll catch up with them. And of course, that’s what I did. To cut the long story short, about twelve of us went to that interview. In the final analysis, I was the only one that made it through the initial interview to the military training. You can say that it was more providential than anything else.
Q. As a young military officer, what were your hopes and aspirations at the time for an equally young nation like Nigeria?
A. Nigeria became independent in 1960, but we started our training from 1954 as cadets. We were in the Queen’s commission at that time, not the Nigerian commission. In 1956, we became an independent army. As a young officer, what was on our minds was simply to be a good officer, loyal to the government of the day, loyal to our superiors, to our men, and above all, to our nation and its leadership. That is what it was. And as far as we were concerned, those days, the aspiration was to be very good officer; to make one’s way through the military officer ranks, from second lieutenant to captain and above. But nothing beyond that!
At the time, all one was thinking was to be good enough, one day, to command one’s own unit; probably nothing beyond that…because anything higher, such as the office of GOC – was political. Apart from professional issues, decisions were made at the political level. Our ambition was limited to professional expertise, not advancing two, three, four levels ahead. One looked forward to becoming the Adjutant of a unit or a company commander, and then the Commanding Officer of one’s unit, and probably a Lieutenant Colonel commanding one’s battalion etc. After that, it would be on to becoming a Brigade Commander, and may be one day the GOC. And since there was only one position of GOC, there was a hell of a competition, and political good luck more than anything else! We also wanted to prove that now that Nigeria was independent, we could be as good officers, if not better, than the British officers serving the Nigerian Army and the nation at the time.
Q. Amongst the military, the politicians and the civil servants, who would you say, is more responsible for the problems we’ve had in this country over the years?
A. I want to just rule out the civil servants, because people seem to want to place blame on them. If they no longer give their honest advice after they have been emasculated and dismissed left right and center for doing their best, you should not blame them. They are in the office working their guts out in order to advise the leadership, and then they were dismissed. Civil Servants were hardworking, loyal at the time. But what then happened to them? And civil servant no longer wanted to advise freely and honestly. They would advise in such a way as to get their own cut and what not. So whom should you blame? Those that created the situation, and turned them into such bad eggs!
The military! Don’t blame the military. Certainly it was wrong of the military, in the first place, to become directly involved in governance the way we did in the first coup. But it is not all the military. At least I can account for the military in my time; one tried to give the correct military leadership of an officer and a gentleman and a patriot, and to do the right thing. And in the position that I found myself, I tried to provide the best leadership for the good of the country and the well being of the people. But we are all human beings, and there are people who have a totally different view of how leadership is, and the way to do it. And there are some people whom you may not agree with, and who have really caused quite a lot of sadness. Certainly, they have created a bad image for the military leadership and the military. And, that, we have to accept. But let us also give due credit where it is deserved. There are those in the military that have done reasonably well.
The political group! The problem is that I don’t know if we have learnt the politics of integrity, the politics of service rather than merely the desire to enrich ourselves. So our politics and a lot of our politicians are suffering from that. And if some of the blame is placed on the military then a lot goes to our politicians. But of course, our politicians will tell you that they have not been allowed to operate properly; that the military boys came and intervened in the political process. It is true that since the military had gone ahead and interfered in governance, they have the right to say that there was not enough time to ensure that the political system works the way it should. Yes, we should have remained loyal to the profession, loyal to the government of the day, to one’s men, to our senior officers. We should have ensured that we remained purely professional and not become involved in governance, except if we wanted to do so to leave the uniform and go into politics like it is done in most civilized countries, and let our good work propel us to power. So I think the military and the politicians have to accept blame for a lot of what has gone wrong. But certainly, I would not blame the civil servants.
Q. A disease that has continually plagued this country is corruption, even in some past military regimes. Nigerians remember that you left office as a Head of State without a mansion of your own. What can you say was the deterrent against corruption and indiscipline, especially in the military during your own time?
A. I think it was the upbringing that we had. You know that if you associate positively with words like honesty, integrity, telling the truth, you are less likely to cheat, or do any of those things. You are unlikely to become corrupt if you have total integrity. We were brought up and thought to work hard, and to only live within our means. One earned one’s salary and lived on that salary. And as soldiers, we were told under no circumstance to get in the red. If one was in the red, one could be court-martialed, and that would be the end of one’s career.
We were also taught responsibility. If you are put in charge of people’s money you can never tamper with it. You have got to account for everything. So this was the way we were brought up and this was the life we knew. Certainly, we believed that those ethical standards were the correct ones to live by, and had no regrets about it. Except that sometimes when you are looking for money to make ends meet, you begin to wonder; if I had done things the way things are being done today, probably it might have been a different story! But thank God that one did not fall into that temptation!
When I was Head of State, I never allowed myself to come too close to seeing cash. The only time that I came close, at the very beginning of my time as Head of State, was something to do with security, and money was needed to be made available, and it was to be given by me. I must say I was so uneasy with that amount of money lying around. And how much was it? It was between eighty and ninety thousand pounds at that time! But I was so afraid, should anything happen to it, or it would somehow become lost; how was I going to account for it?
However, thank God! When that deal was done, I said I don’t want to have anything more to do with money, and if it comes, I will trust it with either my secretary, the Secretary to the Government, or any other person delegated to be in charge of that issue. Throughout my time as Head of State, nobody came to say or to offer me anything. Possibly, some aides might have; but I believe I also know the aides I had at that time. They were very careful not to do anything that would soil my name and the image of the office that I was holding at the time. And so all those who were close to me, whether my PS (Personal Secretary) or people like Hamza Ahmadu, Ekaette, or whether it was the Secretary to the Government, starting from Ejueyitchie, Abdul Atta, Lawson, Ayida, or M.D Yusufu -- as far as I am concerned, I know they were very careful.
But, as I said things changed when for doing nothing, you were being terminated “with immediate effect,” and you lost the only hope of means of living or your pension. What signal would that send to the others following you? They would certainly try to make hay while the sun shines! And that was what happened. And probably, some of the leaders that came after us said, well, if this is going on, I might as well start building for the future. I might be unceremoniously sent off, myself, then how will I survive? That might have caused people’s values to change. But that is unfortunate, really tragic.
As a young officer, I built my own little house on my father’s land in Wusasa. But after the religious crisis that burnt the old house down, I rebuilt it. Then as Head of State, I applied for an allowance to build a house. I think I received double my salary at the time (Two Thousand and Five Hundred pounds); so I received Five Thousand pounds, and built a two-and-half bedroom bungalow -- the type Civil Servants were building in those days. So, those were the only two little things that I possessed as a former Head of State. Of course, I was in a position to have a lot of houses built for me. It would all be for the asking. But I did not consider that correct, and therefore, did not engage in that. Neither did I accept unnecessary favours. Yes, people brought me wristwatches, shoes and things like that. Yes, one did accept things like that from friends. I was also lucky that my wife never compromised herself or my position by demanding favours --which she could have done, and made herself rich; today, I would probably have been living off her proceeds (laughter).
Q. I was at the launching of the biography of Abdul Atta, who, you just mentioned, was one of your top advisers then. I was amazed at the quality of the character of the man. Can you tell us about some of the people you worked with in terms of their qualities?
A. I have always said this when people say that I was being controlled by those Permanent Secretaries in those days: I can assure you it was not that. When I came into office, the politicians were not there. Usually they would have been the major players. We only had civil servants; very experienced civil servants. I knew a few of them quite well, at the time, and others from a distance. I knew people like Abdul Atta, Musa Daggash, Damcida (we were in school together); I knew people like Philip Asiodu, because I thought him quite cheeky (laughs). I used to ask -- who is that cantankerous young man? I didn’t realize we were about the same age at that time. But I was impressed with him. A few of them I knew, others I didn’t. But when I came into office, one had to work with whoever was around.
When there was uncertainty after the coup -- the military was in place – but who were the people making sure that the affairs of government proceeded normally? These civil servants that I mention would either give the military leadership the guidance it asked for, or suggested what needed to be done. If I thought it was all right, then I got it done. As I said, I did not come to rule as such. I came to save a very difficult situation from getting out of hand. Therefore I was prepared to learn how things were done properly.
At the time, there was the Secretary to the Government, S.O Way. But after three coups, Tafawa Balewa, Ironsi and then me, he could no longer take it anymore. So we had to let him go. So I looked at the people available; the people that I knew very well were Abdul Atta and Musa Daggash, because they were permanent secretaries in the Ministry of Defense! And Abdul Atta was responsible to me as Lt. Col., and Adjutant General. When Abdul Atta left, Musa Daggash was brought to become the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defense. So I was thinking of selecting one of them. But Musa Daggash said to me: no, there are other people senior to him, who are very good and effective.
The late H. Ejueyitchie was mentioned, and I appointed him as the Secretary to the Government! Now, the present Oba of Benin wrote in his book that I appointed Mr. Ejueyitchie Secretary to the Government, because he spoke fluent Hausa. I wrote in the foreword that this autobiography was the first time I knew that Mr. Ejueyitchie spoke fluent Hausa! (Laughter).
But H. Ejueyitchie and others were very experienced civil servants who had received tutelage under the British colonial masters and administrators. They became a source of pride for the nation for giving the most excellent advice. Of course, we all loved our country. We were loyal. We were patriots! We wanted the government to succeed! We had no political ideology that would pull us left, right and center. Our political ideology was -- the good and success of the government!! We had very brilliant people. Do you want to talk about Udoji? What about Abdul Atta? Lawson? Ejueyitchie? Daggash? Or Ebong and others?
These were very fine and loyal civil servants. I demanded that they be honest and frank with me, and to disagree with me on any issue in order to find the best answer to a particular problem. If any of them did anything surreptitiously to undermine the government, well that is left to them. But I did not see that in any of those that served me. There was this level of trust and confidence, and my style was -- trust begets trust, confidence begets confidence.
Q. One thing that stands out in our discussion of your permanent secretaries is that you were able to employ them based purely on the merit of their services, on what they could actually accomplish; what they represented, not where they came from. Today, people are selected to sensitive offices based on ethnicity and religion, and each state is required to produce ministers, even when we don’t need so many. Where will this way of thinking lead us?
A. I think there is a desire to see that every part of the country is represented. Earlier on, you talked about the Igbo feeling marginalized business-wise because of the indigenization policy. Now I think it is that sort of feeling that they are trying to avoid; government being accused of marginalizing various parts of the country. So if you can get representation from and for every part, good. Those days, I had such representation. We had a commissioner from each of the states of the Federation. Well, some had more, but it did not matter really. You choose people, as you said, based on their ability, irrespective of their tribe or religion. Every Nigerian has the capability of working hard if given the opportunity. It is only a bit of selfishness and greed -- some people say “avarice,” but I say avarice sounds like “have a rice” (General laughter) that probably makes people deviate from doing the right thing. If people would try to serve honestly, without fear or favour, and to eschew corruption for their own and the good of the people of the country, things might improve a little.
Q. Your generation was the product of very good schools and quality education. Today our educational system has collapsed. How do we get back on track?
A. I was reading one of the papers where someone was saying that the standard of education in Nigerian universities is as good as anywhere in the world! So I said, yes, anywhere in the world! I hope it is not some of the backyard universities in America or India! But otherwise, things have gone really bad with our education and something has to be done, especially in Igbo areas where it seems the boys don’t like going to school, and only the girls seem to be going for education. I think it is something serious we have to look into. I am not saying that it is a bad thing for the girls to go to school. I am delighted; it is very good for them. Women are showing hard work and industry and are probably more dependable than most of the men. So it is a good thing as far as the girls are concerned; but I am really concerned about the young Igbo boys not willing to go to school.
Q. One of the institutions you left behind, and thank God it has not been scrapped, is the National Youth Service Corps. It is an institution that, at least, tries to make Nigerians understand one another. On the other hand, however, we have so much ethnic acrimony and tension. Would you say the National Youth Service Corps is really delivering on its mandate to unify this country?
A. Well, it is not its duty and responsibility to do that, but it does it by its own example, and I believe it is doing very well, indeed. I am always very delighted, and members of the Youth Service Corps are delighted too, whenever they see me. You see them rushing to me as if am the great grand father of Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps! But they are demonstrating a unified goal through their example, and this really helps. At least, this helps to reduce those unfortunate areas of acrimony that create niggling worries to anyone who loves the nation, and would like to see more harmony, people not worried about ethnicity or religion. But remember, Nigeria is made up of over a hundred million people. Why should you be worried unless, of course, those problems lead to the kind of serious crisis that, for example, led us into the civil war? But I hope that this won’t happen, and that sooner or later, those concerned will evolve a more acceptable way of relating to one another and not creating more problems.
Q. (Cuts in) Your Excellency, it is not enough, because in the Niger Delta alone, some militias have more arms today than the whole of Biafra ever had! And they are waging all sorts of wars.
A. (Alarmed). Where did they get the arms from? It means that a force from outside, desirous of fomenting trouble, is responsible for this, and we have got to find out where it is coming from! In that case, then we need to deal with the issue very, very firmly! I think that is the only way it can be done. We can try to dialogue or through political persuasion. But what is happening is not right! It may not even result in what they desire! No nation should allow such a thing to happen! Many nations that have gone that way, you yourself know how it ended with those people.
Q. You are a very religious man. Do you think the religious organizations in this country have done enough to help with Nigeria’s problems?
A. Well, I know that in our little organization, Nigeria Prays that is what we are trying to do. At least, those we got through to seem to believe in what we are doing, and are playing their part in helping to keep the oneness and peace of the nation. At least, by being peaceful, law abiding, patriotic citizens, we are playing our own part. Differences in religion can create problems, especially the imported ones. Some of the extreme differences that we are having in Nigeria today, if Christian oriented, are probably imported ideas from some of these American churches -- fundamentalism from some of the American churches -- because I have some experience of that.
If it is Muslim, on the other hand, one gets extreme Muslim groups from the Middle or Far East. Some of these dogmatists or Fundamentalists get to a stage where they begin to cause disharmony to the rest. But I hope that in Nigeria, we will try to tolerate each other, and through honest and sincere dialogue weather the storm.
Q. You mention the influence of external religious forces; when Gen. Babangida dragged Nigeria into the Organization of Islamic Conference, OIC, this caused a great deal of controversy. However, a regular excuse was that General Gowon, a Christian, had put Nigeria in an observer status in the OIC. What was the merit of OIC?
A. My government was a government of all Nigerians, of all ethnic groups, of all faiths. And the OIC was an Islamic organization that looked after the well being of all Muslims worldwide, but wanted Nigeria to join as a Muslim country. I said, no, Nigeria is not a Muslim country. Nigeria is a secular country as far as religion is concerned; it does not take any one religion as its dominant religion. However, for the interest of our Muslims, I saw nothing wrong in Nigerians, NOT the government, acting as observers, and that was why we sent either the Sultan or a Muslim religious leader. If we sent any member of government, he went only as an observer in order to learn how the body could help Nigerian Muslims develop even more strongly in their faith as well as become faithful and loyal to their country. Yes, we sent observers, but the Nigerian government was never a member! Nigeria is not an Islamic country and therefore cannot become a full member!!
Q. Do you feel sufficiently rewarded by the Nigerian nation, given that you served this country at a very critical moment?
A. I have no regrets whatsoever. I thank God for the opportunity of a leadership role in this country, and I thank those who helped me in my government. But above all, I thank the people for their support and love. You may say what of the Igbo, and I will say, no, I am not fighting the Igbo as a people. I was only fighting the authority that used some of the Igbo sons and daughters to fight against their nation. Once that was done, it was a question of embrace of true love. And the love and affection that one had from the Igbo people, yesterday and today, and as I tell people, some of the best sleep that I had was in the Igbo area, after the war when I was visiting that part of the country. And that says something and today, one can go there and one is at peace with the people. If therefore they had not given that support, it would have been a different story. They said, okay, let us trust him and see. If he says he wants us in One Nigeria, let us see whether he would be sincere. And that was when they accepted to come back to the fold. Yes, although I said I had no regrets in fighting the civil war, it was to bring the Igbo back to the fold, I say this with a sense of endearment, because Nigeria would have been the loser without the Igbo making their contributions to the greatness of this country in whatever sphere it is.
Q. By the way, have you taken any chieftaincy title in Igboland?
A. Yes. I think they have given me something. Are you a chief?
Q. Yes. I am a chief.
A. Okay! (He exchanges the traditional greeting of Igbo chiefs: three back hands and one fore hand) Now you know! (laughter)
Q. Now if you met Ojukwu, what will you call him? General….
A. (Cuts in) I will call him a rebel! (Laughter). No, no, no. Don’t you worry! Honestly he is an old colleague, an old brother. That’s all. I call him Emeka and he calls me Jack, because that is what I was known by in my training days at Eaton Hall. Honestly, he may say harsh things about me, and I may say harsh things about him, but we are friends. And it is only in Nigeria this can happen. In other countries, would he be allowed to run for President? I remember I used to make a joke. I said, well, if Ojukwu was going to run for President, I would run as well, and let the people freely and truly choose whom it is they want. But then it would have seemed like a repeat of the civil war, so I said we needed to avoid giving such impression.
Q. How do you spend your time as an elder statesman?
A. Well, I have been busier than ever. I told you I was going to Abeokuta for Nigeria Prays, and then for the Guinea Worm Eradication programme in Ogun and Oyo States. When I come back, I shall be off to Abuja for the Commonwealth Games bid meeting. The following Monday, I have the Carter Centre Partners review meeting. I come back home, and then I’m off to London for the Global Fund International meeting. I can assure you that I am very, very busy with one thing or the other. Last week, I was in Nanka village. (Prof Dora) Akunyili was being honoured by her people. A post office was being named after her. I was there. There are a lot of things I am involved with; apart from the Council of States meetings, there are also board meetings of the companies I am involved with.
Q. My last question, and it is the million-dollar question. When are you going to publish your memoir? The nation is waiting!
A. Very good! They have been asking me that question. Honestly I have not been able to get that written. I’m sure you know Chief (Joop) Berkhout of Spectrum Books?
Q. Oh Yes!
A. He has been pestering me to do this for sometime now. A great many people are pestering my life about writing a memoir, and when I see them, I run away. I think I will begin to run away from you too! (laughter) But I hope, one day, you will be able to help me poof-read it, and make it better.
Q. I am at your service. Thank you so very much, Your Excellency, for your time.
A. All the best!
Sunday, May 05, 2013
Nigeria Facing 'Twin Monsters Of Corruption And Insecurity' - Bishop
By John Newton
Aid To The Church In Need/Christian Today
Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja, with members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. Image: Aid To The Church In Need
Nigeria's leading bishop has told the European Parliament and other politicians of the threats of corruption and insecurity.
Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need invited Cardinal John Onaiyekan, Archbishop of Abuja, and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto to meet with officers of the European Union to reveal the scale of the problems facing one of the EU's three priority countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Cardinal Onaiyekan told the delegates: "Growing corruption and religious violence jeopardise the west African country of Nigeria".
The cardinal and Bishop Kukah went on to warn of "the twin monsters of corruption and insecurity".
The prelates spoke with the Foreign Affairs Committee, European Commission members, other MEPs, and the Council – which is made up of representatives from the governments of the EU's members, including the UK.
Bishop Kukah said levels of health, education and income in northern Nigeria are among the worst in the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa.
The bishop, whose diocese is in north-west Nigeria, where Catholics are a minority, said: "The region has a Muslim majority in power.
"The way they spend federal funding follows their own priorities and the concept of education and public health is not the same as that of UNESCO.
"This is the region where the group Boko Haram was created."
Cardinal Onaiyekan added that poverty, mistrust and an influx of weapons from Libya have increased tensions.
He said: "Very often the criminals are better armed than the Nigerian security forces."
But, according to the Church leaders, Nigeria is not a poor country – with a GDP of $244 billion as well as generous international aid – but corruption and mismanagement are widespread.
Commenting on the corruption, the cardinal said: "This has generated extremely high levels of mistrust among the population, which feeds into the other daily menace – insecurity."
He said that in the country's most impoverished regions, key public services – including schools, hospitals, legal aid centres and other basic services – are being provided by the Catholic Church instead of the government.
During the meetings, Cardinal Onaiyekan said: "The Catholic Church is concerned about the well-being of all Nigerians, not only those baptized in our churches.
"We are 170 million Nigerians, roughly half are Christians from different denominations and half are Muslims, also of different groups.
"Catholics are still the largest single-faith group in the country so we have considerable influence and responsibility."
Police: 10 Killed In Nigeria Church, Market Attack
ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 6, 2013
Police say at least 10 people have been killed in an attack in northeast Nigeria that targeted a church and a local market.
The attack occurred Sunday in Njilan, a village in Adamawa state.
Adamawa state police spokesman Muhammad Ibrahim said that six people had been killed in the market, while another four were killed around the church. Ibrahim could not immediately offer a motive for the attack, nor could he say whether police had any suspects in the violence.
Northeast Nigeria has faced increasingly bloody attacks by Islamic extremists since 2010. While the government has deployed more soldiers and police in the region, the attacks by the extremist network Boko Haram, splinter groups and others continue.
Nigeria, Boko Haram and the US War on Terrorism by Nkem Ekepara, Part 2
By Nkem Ekeokpara
It is doubtful if any Nigerian ruler, past or present, has taken time out to get and study the 9/11 Commission Report officially named ‘Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States’ since it was released on July 26, 2004. This is easily noticed when the Nigerian rulers ‘give advice’, ‘take action’ or ‘set up their own commission’ on the ongoing terrorism in Nigeria. Possibly, none of their advisers, including those in charge of security, has bothered to get hold of this report and digest it. And this is in spite of the fact that the red flag on terrorism has been fluttering in the skies of Northern Nigeria and had been noticed in far-flung places in recent times.
This situation was allowed to fester in spite of even the fundamental knowledge that part of the reasons Nigeria’s former colonial power, Britain, acceded to whatever the Islamic North wanted in an independent Nigeria was because ‘they did not want a Northern Nigeria looking towards Pakistan and Egypt’, literally implying they did not want a fundamentalist Islamic state. They dreaded that, even though with recent developments it is doubtful if they achieved that objective; what with Nigeria’s membership of Organization Islamic Countries (OIC) and D8 masterminded by the erstwhile Northern hegemony, but executed by Retired General Ibrahim Babangida and late General Sani Abacha dictatorships respectively? Then, there came the introduction of Sharia as state religion in 12 Northern states and now, Boko Haram/Ansaru. This British fear is there in the relevant material. But the Nigerian rulers and their coterie of aides don’t read, and even if they do, they are not bold enough to take actions based on the truth.
From former Nigerian ruler Retired General Olusegun Obasanjo during whose time this terrorist group emerged on the eve of 2004 as earlier mentioned, to the present Nigerian ruler Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, what we have seen are knee-jerk responses to an evil devouring innocent Nigerians daily, especially the Igbo and Christian communities in Northern Nigeria.
After they debuted on the eve of 2004, precisely, in Kannama, Yobe State, North East Nigeria, styling themselves as “Taliban” and attacking police posts, killing police officers, and confiscating their weapons, Obasanjo ordered the security forces to stamp them out. The security forces claimed mission accomplished after a fierce battle with the terrorists. Obasanjo did set up a ‘Joint Commission’ comprising members of the military, police and the State Security Service supposedly to investigate the incident. However, like most commissions or committees Nigerian rulers set up, nothing was ever heard of it. No effective and long-term containment strategy was evolved.
Of course, the Islamic fundamentalists were never stamped out. The remnant that survived in the Kannama encounter resurfaced in Borno State in 2009 and started slaughtering Christians under the supervision of their leader Mohammed Yusuf, in their camp in Maiduguri. It was when they decapitated three pastors who refused to convert to Islam and the Nigerian media reported the gory details that Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua, who was ruling Nigeria at the time, ordered a military operation against them. In that operation, their leader was taken alive by the army officer who led the operation and handed over to the police chief in Maiduguri. And Yusuf was killed under a circumstance that pointed to a possibility that the Nigerian authorities did not want him to expose those financing him. In particular, there were speculations that the then Governor of Borno State Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, the ‘chief security officer of the state’ was complicit in Yusufu’s killing. There were calls for Yar’Adua to investigate and uncover who killed Yusuf and bring them to justice. Even though Yar’Adua set up a commission to do that, the move did not lead anywhere. And just like the one set up by Obasanjo, nothing was ever heard of it.
With Dr. Jonathan’s presidency, things got compounded when a prominent Northern elite, Alhaji Isa Kaita threatened to make the country ungovernable for Jonathan if the latter became re-elected, and Retired General Mahammadu Buhari, a former military dictator, used the most intemperate, inciting and bigoted statements to ask his supporters during his campaigns to resist any outcome of the 2011 presidential election that didn’t go his way. Many believe that the threat and, indeed, the provocative statements by General Buhari spurred Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) supporters to visit violence on innocent Nigerians in the Northern states. That violence began as soon as Dr. Jonathan was announced re-elected by Professor Attahiru Jega, the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In that violence, more than 800 people were killed in 12 northern states and that included young graduates participating in the compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme who played a commendable role in ensuring that the April 2011 elections were better than the preceding ones since ‘democracy’ was restored in Nigeria in 1999. Of course, Buhari knew he was not going to win. He never campaigned in the South, but concentrated his campaigns in the 12 Sharia states that latter violently attacked and killed innocent Nigerians. You see, these people are still carrying on with what the British told them that they are ‘born to rule’. It is a shame that journalists can be arrested under this government while these individuals continue to roam free in Nigeria’s political space. What an animal farm of a country!
So, rather than a united effort to fight terrorism that reared its head in 2004, as we have seen in the US, some people appear to have aided growth and spread of this terrorism. And today, everyone knows where Nigeria is on the issue of terrorism, nearly a decade that group emerged with a name and series of actions that provided insight into its intent. Today, the Jonathan administration wants to grant amnesty to these jihadists on their own terms. And characters like Buhari are backing this inhuman move even when he had earlier rejected an attempt to get him to negotiate a truce with the jihadists.
Now, with respect to oil, the American leadership clearly understood the risk America faced being dependent on hostile and unstable countries for 60% of their oil need. They have often been criticized for undertaking military operations or supporting oppressive regimes because of their quest for oil. Indeed, at various times in their history, American leaders did formulate one doctrine or the other to protect their national interests with regard to oil. The most memorable one was the Carter Doctrine in 1980, which the then President Jimmy Carter formulated to warn the former USSR that ‘the US would use military force if necessary to defend its national interests in the Persian Gulf region’, literally to ensure that the region, which holds two third of the world’s proven oil reserves and from where America sources part of her oil needs is not threatened by the Soviet’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Sure, the US has taken such steps in the past and some analysts believe that President Bush Jr. invaded Iraq in 2003 so that America could have access to that country’s oil. That could not be ruled out. However, I do know that America’s best friends in the region are the six Gulf Arab States, namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman; and these countries were never comfortable with Saddam Hussein’s tight grip of power in Iraq. In fact, to them as long as Saddam Hussein was in power in Iraq, the Operation Desert Storm by the senior Bush that liberated Kuwait in 1991 was like scratching the snake but not killing it. And I believe that some leaders of the Gulf Cooperating Council countries (GCC), as they are sometimes referred to demanded a regime change in Iraq before they could accede to a possible demand by the American leadership that they should start introducing tolerable democratic reforms in their monarchical system. Therefore, the War on Terrorism provided President Bush the ample opportunity, using spurious intelligence, to finish an apparently unfinished war.
But beyond the politics of oil, the American leadership has taken some other fundamental and non controversial steps in an effort to meet their oil needs. It has been subsidizing the development of alternative energy sources just as they did for oil and gas. In a report on their study on apparently a debate as to whether the government of the United States should continue to subsidize alternate energy sources titled, ‘Should the government subsidize alternative energy?’ Nancy Pfund and Ben Healey did mention in the report that ‘The government heavily subsidized each energy source, often at both the federal and state level.’ In that report published on Yaleinsight website in 2011, they also stressed that ‘energy subsidies have been constant in American history, literally going back to the country’s earliest days, and these subsidies have been crucial in America’s overall economic development.’
Certainly, the word ‘subsidize’/’subsidies’ will jump at some Nigerians who do not agree with the policy thrust of the Western-groomed economist, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, leading the economic team of the current Nigerian government. Yes, the American leaders have been subsidizing the development of ‘traditional’ energy sources for ages just as they are subsidizing renewable energy sources now. And this is understandable. They want the best for the American people. That is what should be the desire of every responsible and responsive government.
The critics of Dr. Iweala would wonder if she does not know about the referred subsidies. This should make one feel sorry for poor Nigerians who bear the brunt of subsidy removal in petroleum products by Nigerian rulers on the prodding of World Bank and IMF. It should make one feel sorry for poor Nigerians who are now being asked to pay a deposit of 25,000NGN - 50,000NGN for a pre-paid meter for unavailable electricity. That maximum amount is nearly two and a half times the annual minimum wage in Nigeria, which most states in the country are unable to pay. And in the package of the so-called reforms in the power sector, the Nigerian people were supposed to get this free. If one believes anything from this government, you believe everything (apologies to James Hadley Chase).
And the American leadership has not just been subsidizing the development of renewable energy sources, but also is encouraging oil companies to use the hydraulic fracturing technique to substantially increase production from hitherto unreachable reserves locked in shale formations. Although there are environmental concerns, the government is closely working with oil and gas industry operators to monitor and address those concerns. In November, 2012, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) stated that between 2017 and 2020, the United States will be the world’s largest oil producer, ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia that were producing 10,900,000bpd and 9,900,000bpd respectively at the time.
2020 is the magic year for Nigerian rulers. It is the year they are unrelentingly deluding their gullible populace that the country will become one of the 20 leading economies in the world. They call it “Vision 20-2020,” but most objective analysts think it is delusion. If there is anything that puts a closure to that pipedream, it is the astronomical jump in the US oil production largely due to the application of the hydraulic fracturing technique. This is so because this increase in production will be yielding sweet crude. This is what is commonly called Bonny light; it is the type of crude Nigeria has. This light crude commands a good price in the international crude market. The US used to import about 10% of its daily need from Nigeria. But according to Bloomberg Businessnweek, since July 2010, the US has cut its Nigerian import from 1 million barrels per day to 543,000 as at October 2012. It quoted Edward Morse, head of commodities research at City Global Markets as predicting that by mid 2014, the US and Canada will stop import from West Africa, which includes Nigeria. The implication is that the price of crude oil will nosedive. And the consequences for Nigeria could be disastrous.
But you can give it to the American leadership. Each of their leaders, from George Washington to Barack Obama, has been a visionary. They are not blinded like the mindless looters that have ruled Nigeria from independence to date. Nothing unmasks the brainlessness and wickedness of those who have ruled and the ones ruling Nigeria now than their inability to use the enormous earnings from many cycles of oil boom to diversify the Nigerian economy through investments in various sectors. If they did that, they would have created a pool of competent and employable pool of graduates. They would have had going industrial concerns that would utilize the natural resources that the country is blessed with to produce all kinds of goods. Nigeria would not have become an import dependent country that it is today. Ultimately, they would have created jobs for the army of unemployed young graduates in the country at the moment. The only areas where huge investments had been made in this regard are in Education and Agriculture in Northern Nigeria. Yes, in Northern Nigeria! I will return to this later in the Part 3, which will conclude this piece.
There was even the pathetic case of Yakubu Gowon who proudly told the world that Nigeria had so much money that he didn’t know what to do with it. Well, the only time Gowon knew what to do with money was during the Biafra-Nigeria War. He knew how to use it to pay for all manner of arsenals and mercenaries he used to perpetrate the genocide in Biafra. These are the type of people that have ruled and still ruling Nigeria.
Put succinctly, Nigeria’s woes will no doubt multiply when the US attains the level of oil production being predicted between 2017 and 2020. Undoubtedly, this will bring down the price of crude oil as earlier noted, and drastically reduce what is available to be looted by the Nigerian rulers before the leftover is applied to the needs of the Nigerian people, assuming there will still be a Nigeria then.
Already, the disputation between the executive and the legislative arms of the Nigerian government over budget estimate is a pointer to the fact that the years of prodigality will soon be paid for. But who will pay for the years of prodigality?
Contact Nkem Ekeokpara: nkem360@googlemail.com
Angry Jonathan Summons Israeli Firm Over Internet Spy Contract Disclosures
Image: Bello Isiaka/Facebook
The Nigerian government has summoned the management of Elbit Systems, an Israeli security firm contracted to spy on Nigerian Internet users, for a meeting to explain why the contract should not be revoked after it allegedly breached a confidential agreement in the contract.
The management of the Israeli company are expected to first appear before two Nigerian security chiefs – the national security adviser and the director general of the National Intelligence Agency – in Abuja this week. They would then be taken before President Goodluck Jonathan, who is miffed that Elbit’s action had let this newspaper to probe into details of the secret contract.
The security chiefs will relay government’s anger over Elbit System’s ‘breach’ of confidentiality in the $40million contract which will see the Israeli company spy on citizens’ computers and Internet communications under the guise of intelligence gathering and national security.
The Nigerian government is angry the Isreali company went public with the contract, in a global press release that tipped off PREMIUM TIMES which, after extensive investigation, revealed the details of the deal.
The disclosures sparked national outrage, with a lot of Nigerians now apprehensive that their country might be sliding back to dictatorship.
A source close to the deal has told this newspaper the government is angry for two reasons.
First, the administration is angry and embarrassed that the contract, considered by government as top national security secret, has now been blown open.
Elbit announced the contract award few weeks ago in a global press release in an opaque statement that did not disclose the Nigerian destination of the deal.
“Elbit Systems will supply its Wise Intelligence Technology (WiT) system to an unnamed country in Africa under a new $40 million contract announced on 24 April… for Intelligence Analysis and Cyber Defense,” the company’s general manager, Yehuda Vered, said.
But PREMIUM TIMES was able to tap its sources within the administration to determine that Nigeria is indeed the “unnamed African country.”
The contract will help the Jonathan administration access all computers and read all email correspondences of citizens in what is clearly, an infringement on constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression, multiple channels confirmed.
On the other hand, politicians in Aso Rock are angry over the disclosure of the contract sum, and what is left of the originally approved sum, our sources say.
The administration had indicated in the 2013 budget that it would procure a Wise Intelligence Network Harvest Analyzer System, Open Source Internet Monitoring System and Personal Internet Surveillance System at a cost of N9.496 Billion ($61.26 million).
With that the contract awarded to Elbit for about $40million, and the story made public, attention has been drawn to the leftover $21million earmarked for the project.
“That money was meant to be shares,” our source said. “It is a security contract and no one will ever ask questions. Now everybody is angry that sharing the money is now difficult.”
Investigations indicate that the Isreali company was awarded the contract without tenders or call for bids, just as there were no public announcements.
8 ex-militia youths shot dead in south Nigeria
Eight young men suspected of being ex-militia members from two rival groups were killed early Sunday in a shootout in Lorbia community in Nigeria’s southern oil-rich Bayelsa state, their relations and the army said.
Among those killed were five youths belonging to a group led by ex-militia leader Reuben Wilson, who embraced the 2009 government amnesty.
Wilson’s 37-year-old younger brother, Benaibi Wilson, died in the clash, the former militia leader said.
Mourners and sympathizers who thronged the home of Wilson on Sunday in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa state, were seen wailing over the deaths.
A spokesman of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, Lieutenant Colonel Onyeama Nwachukwu, confirmed that some people died in the clash between two armed groups but declined to give a death toll or further details.
“At about 2:00 am (0100 GMT) today, there was an armed collision between two armed groups at Lorbia in Southern Ijaw Area which led to the death of unspecified number of persons”, he said.
Among those killed were five youths belonging to a group led by ex-militia leader Reuben Wilson, who embraced the 2009 government amnesty.
Wilson’s 37-year-old younger brother, Benaibi Wilson, died in the clash, the former militia leader said.
Mourners and sympathizers who thronged the home of Wilson on Sunday in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa state, were seen wailing over the deaths.
A spokesman of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, Lieutenant Colonel Onyeama Nwachukwu, confirmed that some people died in the clash between two armed groups but declined to give a death toll or further details.
“At about 2:00 am (0100 GMT) today, there was an armed collision between two armed groups at Lorbia in Southern Ijaw Area which led to the death of unspecified number of persons”, he said.
“Our troops have carried out a cordon and search operation in the community,” he said, recovering items including two AK47 rifles, six AK47 magazines and a speed boat.
The cause of the clash was unknown.
Rival gangs in the region have in the past clashed over money, status or to avenge an earlier bloody attack.
The cause of the clash was unknown.
Rival gangs in the region have in the past clashed over money, status or to avenge an earlier bloody attack.
Bayelsa is the home state of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The 2009 amnesty calmed a wave of violence which harmed oil production in the region.
The 2009 amnesty calmed a wave of violence which harmed oil production in the region.
-----AFP
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