Columns
Can Tinubu release Kanu without appeasing Buhari?
By Sunny Igboanugo
On Sunday, June 23, 2024, about 50 members of the House of Representatives wrote a passionate letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, with one request – the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the Leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB).
“Your Excellency, we are concerned members of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with a strong belief and trust that the Renewed Hope agenda and the various positive reforms would be seen and felt by all.
“It is against this backdrop that we, the undersigned, hereby beseech Your Excellency to direct the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN, to invoke his powers of nolle prosequi under the provisions of Section 174(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and Section 107(1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, and cause the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from detention and discontinue his trial.
“We collectively believe this is long overdue and would be instrumental in opening the door for much-needed conversations surrounding peace reformation and inclusivity, as well as addressing the issues that led to the agitations, especially at this time when Nigeria is going through several constitutional reforms,” they wrote.
Quite significant as it might seem, assuming it is not another political move in itself to hoodwink unsuspecting Nigerians, my take is that the lawmakers are in the wrong place. Instead of Tinubu, their destination should be Daura, in Katsina State. They should be talking to Muhammadu Buhari, the President’s predecessor. He is the one that has a problem with Kanu, not Tinubu.
Since the last appearance of the IPOB leader in court, there has been this report that he has opted for out of court settlement, which some people see as capitulation and begging. I don’t know to what extent this could be valid. But assuming, but not conceding that this were so, then even Kanu and his team, have also missed the road. It means that they have no knowledge of where the rain started beating them and where it will eventually stop. Certainly, it will neither be in Lagos or Abuja. Destination is Daura, Katsina State.
Indeed, if there is any way to pull Kanu out of his current abode in the gulag of the Department of State Services (DSS), take him to Daura, and make him lie prostrate and clean Buhari’s feet with his tears in utter supplication for mercy in a manner that could create a thaw in the former Military General’s frosty and stony heart, that should be the clincher. Anything else would be akin to misfiring. Tons of letters to Tinubu and, or, any other manner of rapprochement move to or with Abuja, will not work.
That is my current reading of the situation. There is no way Tinubu would order the release of Kanu without offending Buhari. It is only when he is ready to damn the consequences of being at a crossroads with Buhari that he could take such audacious step. Trying to spring the IPOB boss out of his current situation without first appeasing Buhari, would be akin to knocking their heads together.
The current moves by the lawmakers, which, surprisingly, but perhaps understandably, does not have anyone from the South West among them, from the list of 44 names I saw, can not be more potent than similar ones embarked by South East leaders, including Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the pan-Ndigbo socio-cultural organisation and the apex decision-making body of the Igbo people.
If Tinubu, was ready to rebuff the highest authority in Igboland, which could be interpreted as a big snub on the entire ethnic group that is the third leg of the Nigerian tripod, what is a group of 50 people? But he has evidently shown that he is ready to commit that political hara-kiri for obvious reasons.
The lawmakers might do well to find out from the ex-President how much Nigeria must have shelled out from the commonwealth to conduct such a high-octane operation that successfully brought Kanu back from Kenya. They might be surprised that the dent the operation made in the national till, might have contributed to the parlous situation of the entire economy Nigeria is presently contending with. I won’t doubt it if I heard that he practically opened the vault of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to achieve the feat.
Better still, if Buhari is too far to reach, Asari Dokubo, could be another option. He has been high on gloating in recent days, and has made a video to emphasise how he has fulfilled his promise of putting Kanu away. Remember how he told the world last year after his symbolic visit to Tinubu in Abuja, that he signed a military contract with Buhari. Obviously, the capture of Kanu, must have been part of the deal. An idea of how much he was paid for the job, could be another way of ascertaining what the Kenya operation cost Buhari and his government.
Surely, with his current mood, where he is mocking the IPOB boss – for begging and reducing himself to a mere puppy, and especially regarding his propensity for flippancy, he might just be too willing to spill the beans. After all, was he not the one recently listing his assets including choice houses across the globe and some of the most exotic automobiles from the factories of western nations to prove how stupendously rich he is? Certainly, that military deal done in darkness, could have contributed substantially as a veritable source for the acquisition of such assets.
But that is just one entity. On Tuesday, July 29, 2021, Abubakar Malami, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF-MoJ), had in a joint media interaction with the leadership of the DSS, announced that the arrest and return of Kanu, from the East African country, was through what he described as “international collaborative effort.”
That statement could also help anyone to add up the cost. Add top officials of the Kenyan government, add to the middle and lower officials, add to the security and others in the international chain including the informants and those who tricked Kanu into Kenya, before the Nigerian boys that all worked to ensure the operation was successful this time. That would give anyone the idea of what must have gone into the operation.
Recall that Buhari, had attempted a similar operation as Military Head of State, when he tried to bring back the late Umaru Dikko in a crate from the UK. It was a mission that failed at the last second. He must have put extra effort and extra funding to ensure that the Kanu mission, was not only top notch, but a full success this time around.
Just imagine how ecstatic he would have been the day he saw Kanu in handcuffs and the alluring feeling of waking up every morning from the Villa in those days to realise that he was still cooling his heels in the dark dungeon of the DSS. It is obvious that even today in Daura, one of the first things he would do each morning would be to run a check through the channels to ascertain that the situation has not changed. Imagine the kick he would be getting from Igbo leaders falling over themselves on bended knees to beg him to free Kanu – something that was denied him some 50 years ago with Dikko.
In the first place, Dikko, did not do half of what the IPOB leader did. Not even a quarter. Dikko did not declare him dead. Dikko did not call him Jubril of Sudan. Kanu did all that. Yet, he went after the ex-NPN big wig. What he was denied decades ago by the eagle eyes of the British security is handed to him on a platter and someone wants him to throw it away. How possible.
It would even have been more manageable were it another person. Any other broad-minded leader, would have let Kanu’s obvious slight, slide, especially when they are at best, what the Igbo call, cannons fired with the mouth, which have no real effect or poses any threat to anyone, particularly when they are only part of political disputations. Agitators all over the world use heavy words to draw attention to themselves and that is what Kanu seems guilty of.
But it is not Buhari to ignore such and certainly not in this situation. He takes it to heart. To him it is a personal fight – a personal war. Don’t forget that Kanu is an Igbo man – a dot in the circle – the 97-5 per cent – the group of Nigerians Buhari never wanted to have anything to do with – who probably needed not have existed on the surface of the earth were he to have the chance.
I have always argued that Tinubu’s sudden antagonistic attitude towards Ndigbo was influenced by Buhari. Apart from being naturally open and receptive to all, Tinubu, as Governor of Lagos State, actually threw his doors open for the Igbo people, both in Lagos and elsewhere, surrounding himself with his Igbo friends, all which disappeared since his Buhari contact in the All Progressives Congress (APC) political marriage.
Nobody needed to be told that one of the criteria to be friends with Buhari is to hate the Igbo. It is one of the ways to make him happy. So, even as President, Tinubu knows that to turn around and embrace the Igbo, even if he desired it, was the surest means of losing Buhari’s friendship. In the 2023 presidential campaign, he almost ignored Ndigbo completely and only managed to visit few places. That obviously would have increased his place in Buhari’s heart to enable him break the door with impunity to ensure that the Presidency was his.
When he pledged to continue with Buhari’s legacies, keeping Ndigbo as far away as possible from the leadership of the APC and from government appointments, must certainly be part of it. In fact, something tells me that for as long as Ndigbo are never given a pride of place in Tinubu’s reckoning, Tinubu could go ahead and do as he wishes. Buhari would not be too perturbed with the President upping the ante in the manner he has since filled virtually every federal position with his Yoruba people.
So, yes! The lawmakers are right in their assertion. There are more than a thousand ways of officially freeing Kanu, except for one glitch – the Buhari factor! Ordinarily a typical open-minded politician like Tinubu would have let all the supposed sins Kanu committed against Buhari ride were he the one involved.
For instance, the hollow ritual on June 12, 2024 in the name of Democracy Day, in Abuja, could have been given a strong impetus as a national event, if Tinubu had announced the release of Kanu. It would have shown that he was ready to shelve the vengeance mentality that saw the late military despot, Sani Abacha ignore all pleadings including the Catholic Pontiff, the Pope and other global leaders to keep the late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola in detention, until providence intervened to solve the problem.
Such a gesture would have been more meaningful and more nationally rewarding than banal, insipid and totally empty speech that preceded the fanfare at the Eagle Square. It would have shown a certain semblance to Abiola’s robust politics and open mind, which would have done much good to his memory than unveiling a giant painting of himself on that occasion, which further took away the shine.
Most certainly, the report of the entire event would not have been eclipsed by his tripping and falling, which the Nigerian media and their foreign counterparts gleefully feasted on, because the Kanu story would have attracted more attention.
But certainly not with the Buhari factor dangling around like the sword of Damocles. An Igbo! Except Femi Fani-Kayode was lying in that revelation of his encounter with the former President, no one should be left in doubt about the obvious. The former Minister of Aviation, had explained that he had never seen the type of hatred and anger against a people as Buhari expressed against Ndigbo for “killing our leaders.”
So, this account must not be lost on the lawmakers or anyone indeed, who might wish to dabble into the Kanu issue. Though the civil war has ended some 53 years ago, Buhari is still at it. Kanu and the numerous acts of malevolence of Buhari towards the Igbo, which were clearly evident in his eight years in power, were demonstrable examples. It is up to G-50 to contend with the situation. But I still maintain that going to Tinubu is the wrong route.
Indeed, if the passage of time of about six decades could not wipe off Buhari’s memory of the January 15, 1966 coup incident, if the wiping off of scores of Igbo military officers, if the blood of millions of Ndigbo killed in the several pogroms that followed or millions of others wiped out during the civil war proper are not enough to quench Buhari’s thirst for vengeance against Ndigbo, I wonder how far the G-50 could even go should they toe this line.
Yes! The lawmakers are equally right that there are many reasons the release of Kanu would impact positively on Tinubu and indeed Nigerian as a whole. They are right to believe, for one that it would address the current security crisis in the South East and clear the air about the nebulous atmosphere in the area. Today, every crime in the zone is linked to IPOB. Even the usual armed robbery and burglary seem not exist anymore. They are now grouped as IPOB. Nobody seems to be thinking outside the box as IPOB presents a ready answer. Of course, Kanu’s continued detention, remains a good cover for this to endure.
It is not that anyone is trying to dissuade the lawmakers. My take is to advert their minds to the other side of the argument. Who knows? They might just succeed in scraping the scales of Tinubu’s eyes. He might one day decide to take the bull by the horns. He might decide to address the South East question.
He might realise that inheriting Buhari’s enmity with the Igbo might not be the best way after all and make a detour. That will be the day he will tell himself that keeping Kanu in detention while the likes of Sunday Igboho, Yoruba nation agitator, accused of similar crime is breathing the air of freedom is bad for national health, as it bespeaks of nothing else but unfairness, if not outright hypocrisy.
Perhaps, someone might remind him that now Buhari is out of the way, the implication of a Bello Bodejo, leader of the Myetti Allah Kautal Kore, who was recently arrested and charged for terrorism, strolling the streets a free man, while Kanu is in the DSS gulag, would no longer be a Buhari issue but would be traced to him at the end of the day, especially if anything happens to him.
He might just realise that the gains of releasing the IPOB leader, would certainly be more than the pains of giving political offence to one man, for the simple reason that with that move, he would have allowed the people of the South East breathe some fresh air for once in a long time and they might not forget it in a hurry.
Maybe, by then he would realise the need to extricate himself and severe the bond that has put him at the centre of a war he did not create and from which he would hardly benefit anything positive. That may be the push for him to do the needful. But until then, efforts of the G-50 and those that might come after, will remain the same – wasted!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice!
By Sunny Igboanugo
The kite swooped on the herd of sheep and picked a lamb, soared above the skies onto its nest. The father asked one question – what did the parent say when you took their child. The kite replied – nothing father – they were just gazing at me in silence. Then the kites father made an order – return it immediately. Any parent that keeps mute when its child is in danger, has a more sinister intention hidden in his heart. The kite obeyed and returned the lamb.
The next day, the same kite swooped on a brood of chickens and picked one of them. Then the mother went hysterical flying from pillar to post in frenzied movements. On return, the father again put the same question. This time, the kite presented a different picture, describing the shrieking cries of the mother-hen and how it tried to attack and failure to retrieve its chick, went into a frenzy.
Let’s have dinner, the father quipped excitedly. Danger is over. The parent has displayed every weapon in its arsenal. That is the reason chicks remain the main dish of kites till date. My father told me this story decades ago, which of course is one of the anecdotes that is as old as minds could picture. My father probably picked it from his own father.
Yet, the implication in terms of central message has never lost its texture, despite its longevity. Rather, it has become truer with time – be careful of that man with few words – refrain from attacking a man that has not offended you – never bear false witnesses. These are standard cautionary and globally accepted natural edicts, which when observed in breaches, could result in highly disastrous consequences.
Is it not intriguing how this reality has stung Omoyele Sowore like those wicked agbisi – only those who sat on the bare floors would relate with the brain-twisting, sharp and excruciating pains those black ants delivered through the bare buttocks of children – in our mother’s kitchens in those days?
Have you been watching Vincent Otse, alias Very Dark Man, recently? What do you make of the multiple arrows he has been aiming at the heart of the Revolution Now exponent? I have my people and both the optics and the import derivable therefrom could only taper towards a central reality – cow wey no get tail na God dey drive am fly!
It was a song, sung by the popular Prince Nico Mbaga – that legend of the 1980s, whose epic – Sweet Mother – still resonates centrally in the Nigerian music history even till date, long after he was gone. I think it was the flipside of that legendary outing that dominated the airwaves at the time.
Never had that song, which you heard in those days blasting from the record shops at Achapo Street – in Ajegunle – the popular centre for music records business or through the windows of privileged homes in the face me I face you compounds in the days when even the poor afforded stockfish – now a delicacy you could only enjoy the aroma from a distance if your income is not in six figures – days when even the local women looked at ice fish with disdain and derisively related it with the “poor” as Ozu Nwada. O! What memories! But I digress!
But before I walked too far and disappeared into those days when me, as a child sleeping on a mat at a one-room apartment at Number 14 Uzor Street, but still ate lavish meals which I must now struggle to offer my wards, I return to today’s reality to ask myself why this is happening before my eyes. Why must it be VDM that is now waging a war against Sowore – with whom he was only too cozy – just yesterday!
For months now, this selfsame Sowore, had launched a massive blitzkrieg against Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), in the 2023 presidential election. In what is more of a cocktail of bits and pieces, odds and ends set of drivels rather than any form of articulated reasoning based on facts and figures, this same man, actually came out with what has now become his catchphrase – Obi is a packaged fraud!
Don’t bother to ask him for facts supporting his conclusion. The only one he supplied was that the former Governor of Anambra State, was hobnobbing with supposed thieves and brigands responsible for Nigerian woes.
Yet, this selfsame Sowore, conveniently left out his central role, and incestuous relationship with the same people at an auspicious period, which ended up in watering the ground for what he now complains about from the rooftops. Were it not for Sowore, there might not have been a President Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu as APC governments – the worst era Nigeria has ever endured and currently cursed with!
Videos even showed him being celebrated nationally for this singular role. Yet, this is the same man, assailing Obi for keeping bad company! But that is what happens with the purveyors of anti-Obi sentiments. They inevitably meet a drought and are left with nothing more to rely on but contrivances. Where the well is dry, they import water tankers to try a rescue.
Where deceit fails, they try illogic, then subterfuge, half-truths, outright lies and then mischief as they meet more frustrations. Imagine a Sowore saying that Obi packed Northerners in lorries and sent them back to their homes. In Nigeria? At what period? The same Obi who built his personal and state security architectures around northern people – Northern Aide De Camp (ADC) and Norther Commissioners of Police throughout his eight years?
To Sowore, nothing is good enough! He even mocks Obi for saying that he owns only one house in Nigeria – a development, which elsewhere defines absolute personal contentment. Elsewhere, the fact that Obi could prove this claim is demonstrable evidence of reduced propensity for induced stealing and absence of hunger for corruption and therefore a call for celebration. But what do you have here? Spite, mockery and contempt.
Now, it is not like Obi’s records – public and private are hidden. This was a man, who even as a university student, had become so successful in business that his chain of buildings were used as bank branches – that at a point was one of the 10 richest men in the UK – in fact, one of the 8.000 richest men in the world – so the source of his wealth is not suspect.
In office as governor, this was the same Obi who took schools in Anambra State from number 26 to number one, starting from his second year in office by sheer dint of visionary leadership anchored on self-denial – the only governor in history that left a whopping N75billion in the coffers – capping it all with emerging as the best in the implementation of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).
Now, if a governor attains the first position in this globally-accepted measurement instrument – covering all indices of developmental – physical infrastructure and policy frameworks for human capital development, what else defines excellence in leadership? Yet, people like Sowore will never be persuaded.
Now you know why! VDM has supplied you with the answer. Sowore is in business. His activism is business – his Revolution Now – business – attacks on Tinubu – business – Obi is a packaged fraud – business – presidential ambition business.
Not that the world didn’t know this. But coming from familiar quarters – given the relationship between the two – both erstwhile friends – it is only gotten clearer and better. It is even moreso when the further and better particulars is not coming from Obi, but a more virulent voice!
Now, what is said about fate? What does the law of Karma say again? How does a tailless cow deal with flies again? Sowore has given us the lead and VDM has given you the answer.
But hear the philosopher! Beware of your thoughts, lest they become words; beware of your words, lest they become actions; beware of your actions, lest they become habits; beware of your habits, lest they become character; beware of your character, lest it becomes your destiny! Nigerians, think!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice!
His Excellency
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar (Waziri Adamawa),
Former Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria
Abuja, Nigeria
Your Excellency
Permit me, to use this medium to address you. I apologise most profusely for breaking protocols and not following proper and established channels. But I believe this is the best and ONLY way to reach you immediately because of the urgency of the matter at hand.
I had to write you quickly after watching the interview when you appeared as a guest on Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS Television. I must confess being enthralled at your physical fitness, mental alertness, eloquence, articulacy and richness of ideas. You looked every bit presidential.
That you appeared superlatively healthy physically and mentally at the ripe age of 79 can only be a gift from Allah. God has indeed preserved you so well and I congratulate you, while praying that God will grant you more years here on earth to see Nigeria become a great nation that it is meant to be and that you will make fruitful contribution towards that outcome.
Now, this is where I want to anchor the essence of this letter – the blessing of God and His expectation of man. There is no doubt from what human eyes could see that you have enjoyed this blessing tremendously. Look behind you and see how far you have come.
How many of your colleagues in the Nigerian Customs, where you left as a Deputy Director (Deputy Controller) are still remembered today? How many of them could even unlace your shoes today in terms of national recognition. How many of the people you started business with got to half of where you reached as a business mogul? How many of the people you went into politics with got to your level. How many of them are still around today – even those that are younger than you?
Please, Waziri, take a look back and count the blessings of Allah on you. How many can you count? You were preparing for your inauguration as Governor of Adamawa State, when suddenly, you were spirited from a Governor-elect to contest for Vice President and for eight years you enjoyed that position. Was that not evidence of Allah’s hands in your affairs, when the same position others sought with everything in them was offered to you on a platter of gold?
Now, compare that with the Presidency. Since 1992, you have sought this position with every effort. You have fought doggedly with the last breadth in you. Like the General you are, you have fought gallantly. But even a General must retire from the warfront and hand over to younger officers to continue where he stopped.
Such retirement does not suggest defeat. Rather, it suggests wisdom. It suggests experience. It suggests circumspection. It suggests prudence. It suggests strength.
For record six times, you had made attempts at the Presidency and for that number of times, you had failed to attain that feat. Why continue – even when time and circumstances clearly indicate that your chances of getting it at the seventh trial is bleaker than the rest? Is it not even an attempt to tempt God?
Waziri, please permit me to share this anecdote. It is about the prototype developed by Brazilians to catch monkeys. They throw utu – a kind of nut usually craved by monkeys into a bottle with a narrow neck and hang it on tree branch. The opening is wide enough to allow the hand of the monkey in, but too narrow to allow a clenched fist out.
Knowing that monkeys are greedy and would never let go, they take full advantage of this fact in setting this obvious trap. True to their expectations, the monkey would usually fit its hand into the bottle and grab the nut, but would be unable to pull it out with the nut. The owner of the trap standing by would then begin to approach. The monkey on sighting the obvious danger would start struggling with the hand inside the bottle.
Now, all the monkey needed do is to free the hand and let the nut go to save itself. But it never does. Because all its senses are focused on the sweet taste of the nut it loses the sense of danger and stays with the bottle until it is caught – not even having the opportunity of tasting the same nut. That is how the Brazilians catch monkeys.
Alhaji, does this send any meaningful message? Does it look or sound familiar? Like the situation of the monkey with its hand in the bottle, Nigeria is in danger at this time. You have the singular opportunity of saving it. The only way to do it is through the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Your insistence on running for the ticket of the party ahead of the 2027 presidential election represents the perfect imagery of the monkey’s hand in the bottle.
No doubt like the nut to the monkey, the Presidency is sweet. But like the unpromising situation of the monkey, there is no way you can pull the nut out with a clenched fist. The only option is to loosen your fist and let go.
Waziri Adamawa, free your hand. Let go this quest for Presidency. It is not yours. Destiny has denied you the opportunity. Your biggest opportunity was in 2019, though it was not to be for reasons that are now history.
Today, the odds are stacked against you! You are not from the South – make it the South East. You are no longer young. You belong to the old order. Yes! You are favoured to win the ADC primaries but winning the election proper is a different kettle of fish. There is no way you can win it. Forget what your followers are telling you.
On the other hand, sitting right beside you is Peter Obi. All the odds are in his favour. He is from the South – the South East. He is young. He has the organic following. He will win the presidential election of Nigeria before midday on January 18, 2027.
Let me conclude this letter by creating two scenarios. Consider a situation where you contest this election and fail as you are bound to. What will it be said about you? How will history record you?
Will you not be seen as the man who finally sounded the death-knell on Nigerian democracy by allowing President Bola Tinubu transform Nigeria into another Paul Biya’s Cameroun, Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni? Surely, that imminent fall will not only be a fall in unfulfilled goal, it will be a fall of destiny of a national. The consequences are heavy, grave and unimaginable!
On the other hand, if you conquer the greed of the monkey and let the nut go, you will not only have helped in freeing Nigeria from the immediate bondage in which it is destined in the hands of Tinubu and his brood of vipers, you would have saved it from the cataclysmic eruption of blitzkrieg that might result as a counter.
Remember how it is now history that you destroyed the PDP by insisting to run against the zoning arrangement. How will it sound that after delivering the fatal poison that killed the once largest party in Africa with a deadly political fang you whipped the ADC with a poisonous tail to achieve the same result.
As we speak now, David Mark, ADC National Chairman is from the North. Now, you want to take the presidential ticket, thus replaying the reel of the PDP scenario. Is it not obvious that the result will be the same? Is it not the same PDP playbook?
Waziri Adamawa, remember that even Nnamdi Azikiwe, with all his greatness, never became President. Obafemi Awolowo never attained the position either. Yet, as a reporter with The Guardian in Enugu, I could not count the number of dignitaries, Nigerians and foreigners, whom I reported their presence at Onuiyi Haven in Nsukka, home of the late Owelle of Onitsha.
I assume that of Ikenne, the home of the great Awo would also have been the same before his demise. Who says your own home in Abuja or Yola, would not be a Mecca for Nigerians and world leaders to pay their homage by the time this race is run and the mileage counted.
That will only be possible if you decide to play the role destiny has put in your hands. Waziri Adamawa! Save Nigerian Democracy! Save Nigeria! Let your name be written in gold letters and not with blood of Nigerians. Yes! President may be denied but Father of Democracy is there. It even sounds sweeter!
May God guide you.
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice!
I bet you didn’t know Abike Dabiri. Two factors will make this possible. Either you were not around in Nigeria in the golden era of our Nigerian television girls – the era when being a regular face on Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) gave you the golden key to open all doors – or you were somewhere in the villages very far and distant from civilization – many of us were – that included not having access to the television.
O! You didn’t know? You didn’t know a time was in this clime when seeing a television screen from a distance, was one of the biggest privileges one could get let alone watching it – that people clustered at the windows of homes with television sets to catch a glimpse of Village Headmaster, for instance.
You’re carrying shoulders because you probably met the time when carrying a Blackberry phone was all you needed to get that fine babe behind your sheets! Today, you thought that because you could now watch your matches on your phone – I watched all the AFCON matches on my phone, being on the road most times – there was no time men had to climb walls to turn television antennas to get some appreciable pictures. Chai! This changing world.
Bet you didn’t hear about Bimbo Roberts – later Bimbo Oloyede, Julie Coker and later Augusta Maduegbuna, Elizabeth Nze, Sienne Alwell-Brown, Ruth Benamesia-Opia, Eugenia Abu, Ronke Ayuba, Kehinde Young-Harry, Lola Alakija, in no particular order. No! You wouldn’t if you were not that privileged in the 1980s and even 1990s. They were the glamour of that era.
Glamour? Not in the sense of beauty – but glamour, because television made them so. For indeed, some of these television faces, were not that glamourous.
But beauty or no, Abike Dabiri was one of the discoveries of that era. Obviously not in competition with these others who were the newscasters on NTA News At Nine, she actually carved a niche for herself elsewhere on Newsline – the soft-sell edition of the station’s news programme aired every Sunday.
Abike Dabiri was a toast of that programme. She was a reporter’s reporter – traversing beyond the seven seas and seven wildernesses to bring to Nigerians those rare stories that either made Nigerians laugh their hearts out or cry their eyes out – a doyenne of human-interest reporting.
Then, suddenly – suddenly – suddenly – the serpent came with the forbidden fruit – the temptation of higher ground – the allure of high office – Tinubu’s tainted chalice that comes like glittering ornament but with hollow and rotten underbelly. She took, she ate and now everything scatter-scatter. Our dear Abike Dabiri accepted and ate the sour grape and now her teeth are set on edge! What a pity!
The breeze has blown to uncover the romp of the hen. Before now, whoever believed that our dear Abike Dabiri farts. But we now know that Abike Dabiri-Erewa not only farts, but her fart smells badly. At first, no one noticed the degeneration.
The time she was at the House of Representatives, was the golden era of Tinubu. That was when the Jagaban Borgu was the governor of Lagos State. She glowed along by tapping from glittering appeal of the Lagos show boy!
At that time, Tinubu was generally holding the golden trophy adorned with the beautiful calligraphy of democracy in Nigeria. That was before he drank from the poisoned chalice of Muhammadu Buhari, his predecessor by joining him in the hatred for the Igbo man – a phenomenon that becomes the nemesis of some Nigerian leaders – Buhari’s major insignia. Then the desperation! Then the degeneration! Now the albatross!
Now, whoever hates the Igbo and remains the same? None! That was what sealed Buhari’s fate. And surely the snake that bit that braindead archeological discovery – that museum piece – has definitely whipped Tinubu with its tail and the rest is now history. If not, compare a Tinubu as governor when he was all cozy with Ndigbo and now he has turned 360 degrees.
And as long as the darkness will give way to reveal the sun breaking from the East, the sting of the snake’s tail will reach everyone who toes that line. You know why, the dominant culture of the Igbo man is ofo n’ogu – justice, equity and fair-play! Have you watched an Igbo man pray with colanut.
He wakes up and with his cola in his hands, beckons on his chi with these words – ndu mmiri, ndu azu, mmiri atanaa, azu anwuna – the life of the river, the life of the fish – may the water not dry and may the fish not die! Egbe bere ugo bere, nke si ibeya ebena nku kwaa ya – let the kite perch and let the eagle perch – whichever says the other should not perch, may its wings whither. Which other people say the same or similar prayer elsewhere?
Now, because the kid-goat watches when the mother-goat is chewing the cud, hating the Igbo has become a fad among those who want to please Tinubu. Obviously, the totem through which this sentiment find expression is Peter Obi. He has become the tree standing by the roadside that receives the strokes of the machete. Obi has remained the hieroglyph for expressing real and imagined pro-Igbo angst.
So, in 2025, when Babajide Sanwo-Olu wanted to mend fences with Tinubu, after allegedly falling out of favour with his boss, he launched an unprovoked attack on Obi, using the latter’s Johns Hopkins University lecture as a pad. Reno Omokri, has since made himself Minister of Peter Obi Affairs. Daniel Bwala, Femi Fani-Kayode et al along this line never end a line without Obi getting a slash of their machete.
Enter our dear Abike Dabiri-Erewa. The little birds flying around whistle that her tenure as Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiCOM) is coming to an end and she is eying a renewal or another job from the Jagaban. How else to go about it than the low-hanging fruit? – Peter Obi.
From nowhere, on Sunday, the media were suffused with the screaming headline – “Peter Obi has actually raised monsters.” As it were with syndicated stories, each of the medium used to transport the outing carried the same headline – well crafted – of course, using her journalism skill to make maximum impact.
After rambling some clearly obtuse and incoherent words in form of reasoning, she ended up with even more brainless, imbecilic and asinine submission – by the time it is Igbo turn to produce Nigerian President, Obidents – followers of Obi – would have destroyed his chances. Me paraphrasing. Chai!
Now, aunty Abike, whose turn is it now? Isn’t already the turn of Ndigbo and the selfsame Obi? Isn’t it part of the argument that the seat your Jagaban is occupying was stolen from Ndigbo? So, you know that Ndigbo also have a stake to it? Yes! You know. But now you have eaten Tinubu’s palm nuts, see how your teeth have all turned red.
But Ndigbo have another way of invoking justice – ochu nwa-okuko nwe ada ma nwa-okuko nwe nwenwe-oso! I won’t explain. Find an Igbo staff at NiMCOM – if there is one – because I hear you hate them so much that finding one near you might be impossible. But even a cleaner in your office could help or better still – ask your spare parts seller. He’s sure to be Igbo!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice!
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