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No General Gowon! Two million children needn’t die to keep Nigeria one!
By Sunny Igboanugo
Would you do the same thing today as you did then? This was a question I put to the late Ikemba Nnewi, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in one of the several meetings I had with him while he was alive. Of course it was all about his Biafra Story. He turned to me with his trademark bulging eyes almost boring holes in my forehead. Then, chuckling, as usual, he retorted: How do you expect me, at 70 to do the same thing the same way I did it in my 30s.
I didn’t press further. That was enough. There was no need to. The response was indicative of his acknowledgement that some of the decisions and actions he took, prior, during and even after, as the leader of the Biafran effort turned out to be mistakes, some out of youthful exuberance and he wouldn’t travel the same route in his later years, given the wisdom and benefit of age. Ojukwu died on November 26, 2011 at 78, many years after that interview.
The same question was posed to Yakubu Gowon, Ojukwu’s opposite number, who prosecuted the same war on behalf of Nigeria, during an engagement with Daily Trust, as one of the events to mark the 90th birthday anniversary of the General, who today, is the longest-serving military leader – 1966-1975 – nine years.
In the interview I read at the weekend, he was asked if he would have acted differently given another opportunity. His answer was emphatic. No! It was then followed with a long narrative of how he needed to do anything and everything to keep Nigeria together and to prevent it from disintegrating. He embellished it by going into a chest-beating mode about how he achieved the Biafran defeat without outside help.
Hear him: “I don’t think I would have done anything differently. Every effort was made to make sure that the situation did not degenerate into a breakaway. I had a duty to make sure that the breakup of the country did not happen. We had to fight for two and a half years and made sure that there was no interference from outside.
“There was no question of allowing any nation or power to get involved in our crisis. If you remember, in the Congo you had United Nations forces made up of Nigerian troops and others from other parts of Africa to deal with the problem. At least we were able to deal with that problem and make sure we were able to live again as a people. So, I couldn’t have done it differently.”
Now, this is where I have a problem with the General. His penchant for sticking to the same narrative for more than 60 years since that awful event, is what rankles. I never heard Gowon, either before or in the recent, admit for once that there was any mistake on his part in the series of events before, during and even after the war.
It is not only regrettable, it is tragic! What the former Head of State, said invariably, is that he would still have killed over three million Igbo, two million of them, women and children, as some estimates would have it, just to keep Nigeria together and there was no other way he could have gone about it and achieved the same purpose.
Now, you would have thought age was playing a fast one on him and either he did not grasp the question put to him quite clearly or he lacked the articulacy to string together a credible, believable and more judicious answer. But that is hardly the case. This is the same string of logic he has maintained all through in his account of the war – a narrative that flows principally from the propaganda components of the Nigerian war managers.
It means, were the war fought over again, and were he to preside, he would’ve still sanction the soldiers who wantonly shot at the able-bodied youths that congregated at the Ogbogologo Square in Asaba to welcome them with drumming and dancing, killing an estimated 2,000 of them in one fell-swoop – the notorious Asaba massacre.
He’s saying that he would still be silent while Russian and Egyptian pilots, who conducted those deadly flights dropped their lethal contents in market places, hospitals and other sacred places, which left decapitated human parts scattered in different directions apart from burying many more in deep holes made by the impacts of the blitzkriegs.
Even with the benefit of hindsight and the present picture of Nigeria, Gowon, at 90, and 60 years after the war is still maintaining that he would still ignore those pictures of thousands of children with chicken legs, distended stomachs, glazy eyes buried in shrunken socket, mounted on heavy, hairless heads. How else does anyone describe tragedy?
Even in his own narrative about the war, Gowon still found an uncanny way of pushing the blame outside his domain, despite being the Head of State during the outbreak of hostilities that eventually led to it. Hearing him talk about how the South East decided to secede from Nigeria, as the sole culprit, you’d think that Ndigbo, who occupied the area just woke up one day and decided to break out from Nigeria to form Biafra.
Not in the Daily Trust encounter, nor anywhere else where he gave his account, had anyone heard Gowon mention the hundreds of Ndigbo, slaughtered in different places in the north – the pregnant women, whose bowels were torn open with daggers and their unborn babies pulled out, the headless bodies that were littered everywhere in all the cities and town, the young Igbo ladies that were corralled into leprosy colonies and forced to mate with the inmates and the other atrocities that formed the story of the pogrom of that era that happened under his nose without raising a finger.
Those headless bodies and others in various stages of decapitation which arrived in train coaches in Enugu and other tales of mindless atrocities committed against Ndigbo and the need to give the survivors a safe haven, were the reasons Ojukwu gave as immediate cause of the demand for Biafra and therefore the war. Any critical mind would have expected Gowon to speak to this, either to debunk it or give his own argument as to why it was not enough to demand for self-governance.
But mum has always been the word. As he has always been wont, all you hear is the repetitive, one-sided, puerile, spurious and mostly obtuse monologue of keeping Nigeria together, as he maintained in the latest outing, where he told his host: “I have always said that if there’s no secession, there wouldn’t be a break out and there wouldn’t be a question of civil war because it got to the stage that the situation was getting pretty clear that a part of the country, the South-east wanted to secede. My duty and profession at that time demanded to make sure that we kept the country together. And that was how it happened.”
I never even knew him to be a narcissist or possessing any element of that trait in his blood. Indeed, I had always taken the General as the humblest Nigerian leader ever. That was until I heard his gloating in that interview. He even accepted himself being likened to Abraham Lincoln. Of course he should be cut his slacks. Lincoln won a civil war in America while he won the Nigerian edition. So, he’s right.
But then what? Okay, he succeeded in “keeping Nigeria together.” How is the face of that Nigeria today? Is he happy with the optics as well as the sights and sounds? That same America of Lincoln has progressively integrated all segments and component parts of the society and progressively worked at it that all the veneer of discrimination has almost been eliminated to create equality of all citizens.
Today, the picture of a black man is hanging somewhere in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington as a product of the war against slavery Lincoln fought. But what do you have here? At the same time the highest Igbo man in power in Nigeria today is the misery Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. Yet, not a whimper from the General.
Intriguingly, the snake, which bit Ndigbo so many years ago, seems to have found its way into the General’s backyard. Like the South East, the North Central part of Nigeria, has remained a theatre of wanton human carnage for many years now. Gowon’s kins have been served the same fate, if not worse, of which made Ojukwu pick up arms and say ENOUGH!
Yes! Probably not by jets dropping bombs or fighters firing at fleeing children, but the results are as devastating. I wonder why the General kept silent on that in last weekend’s encounter, just as he has done over the years. Probably the Daily Trust host didn’t ask. It would have been great to know if his idea of one Nigeria included his own kits now scattered in IDP camps all over Nigeria.
Once in Enugu, I interviewed a President of the Rosicrucian Order (AMORC), some decades back. I listened to him connect the Asaba massacre – the bodies of those young men torn apart by bullets, which became eyesore evidence of the darkness of some human hearts – with the bullet-riddled body of an ex-Nigerian leader fingered as the purveyor of that calamity after his assailants waylaid him during a coup.
He had used that connection to adumbrate his teaching about the efficacy of the Law of Karma and how every man must be served with the same plate he did others. I don’t know how this applies to Gowon. But I’m sure that as he clinks glasses in celebration last weekend, a part of his inner voice might be tugging at his heart to remind him of his brothers languishing in those IDP camps, after being chased from their ancestral homes by some brutal invaders.
From what I hear, those now living like refugees, the likes that were replete in Biafra are the lucky ones. Others who were not lucky, faced the worst kind of deaths possible, delivered to them by the same people on whose behest their fathers and brothers visited Igboland with the worst kind of mindless bestiality.
As he sips his wine and digs into that rich plater, the picture of Sunday Igboho at No 10 Donning Street, submitting a letter in demand for the Yoruba Nation, is currently on display everywhere in the media. So are the pictures of the devastation by Boko Haram and other terrorist group who have carved a fiefdom in the North East as well as their brothers doing no less in the North West.
What this suggests is that Ojukwu’s idea of Confederation, which was at the core of the Aburi Accord, and the immediate trigger of the war, might not be a bad idea after all. The idea, which principally was an advocacy for a loose centre for Nigeria, might have allowed for those who see western education as a sin to conduct their own affairs devoid of that external pollution. It would have saved the lives of thousands of Nigerians that have lost their lives in military formations, churches, mosques and plazas.
Gowon swears that he suddenly took ill on return from Aburi, hence could not announce the content of the Aburi Accord. Other accounts think he lied. But whether he lied or not, the fact remains that Ojukwu made the announcement and all he asked was clear. It was not strange either. Rather, it was for Nigeria to be modelled after Great Britain, made up of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England.
As he buries his teeth into that chicken breast, the General must be reminded that the echoes of anguish reverberating from communities in Benue, Jos, Taraba, Kaduna, Katsina and Zamfara are as loud as those in Igboland and that the people of Ibarapa in Oyo State and Owo in Ondo, are still reeling from their own share of pains from the cold hand of gunmen. Those pains might not be there had the Ojukwu variant of the Aburi document been allowed to work.
Even more, the clime called Nigeria today, could have presented the African version of Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Dubai by the competition that could have endured. It would mean sustaining the spirit of what was already on ground in the different regions before the war, had the Confederation idea been allowed to fester. Granted, military rule truncated that idea through the unitary system that it came with, but Confederation would have restored the country back to the status quo ante.
Now, I might not like the idea of mockery and taunting from the traducers of the General who are claiming that God allowed him to live this long to punish him with memories of his people suffering the same fate as the Igbo people he supervised their near annihilation. That would be dancing on the graves and memories of those victims. I’d rather go with the positive side that as the Chief Actor in that horrible theatre of tragedy, Gowon is being offered the opportunity of righting the wrongs of the past.
I think at 90 he must have borne the burden from the images of those children that starved to death long enough and must now offload it by offering the needed apology. I think 60 years is long enough to tell the whole truth as he knows them. That might serve as the adequate penance and restitution he needs to meet God by the time he finally boards the flight that is already taxiing at the tarmac.
Otherwise, to continue to maintain the not-guilty narrative is akin to claiming sainthood. I think his sticking to this unconvincing narrative is to please man. What’s the benefit of looking good to man and displeasing God? If at 90, he is still claiming to have got things right at 32 even with the present picture of the country starring him in the face and saying the direct opposite, it means an uncanny attemp to compete with God for infallibility. That in itself is a great sin and no sinner can see God. Not one with the burden of those two million children of Biafra.
My name is Sunny Igboanugo and I’m The Tiny Voice!
The story was told of a certain Nigerian billionaire and world figure. This man was a father of many children. He neither hid his escapades, nor was he ashamed of the different versions of them either whispered in private or in public domain.
To underscore how this man was into women and how he employed his immense wealth to sponsor his randy lifestyle, it was said that if he saw a beautiful woman driving a car, he would ask his driver to hit the car from behind, enough to create a dent. Naturally, the woman would stop and step down, of course fuming at the obvious recklessness.
That, of course was all the randy billionaire needed – a chance to meet the woman. After a lengthy heart-felt apology, he would ask for the woman’s address. The next day, a newly-minted version of that same car of the latest grade or even a bigger version would be delivered at the said woman’s address. The rest would be history.
Hear another version. But remember it is rumour. This same man, eventually had a problem with a bigger authority in the land and was incarcerated for a completely different reason. It had nothing to do with his lascivious lifestyle. But he found himself in detention. Of course, a man of his status would not be detained in a cell with some red-eyed, broken-teeth, swollen-faced criminals. He enjoyed the privilege of a whole house, with all the luxuries thereof, except he was prevented from seeing the sky as often as he wished.
Because of the circumstances of his case, many people visited the authorities responsible for his detention to demand for his arrest. One of the big men who did so was a prominent traditional ruler from the man’s area. He was said to have mounted so much pressure that the man he was coercing was forced to act. And what did he do? He called for a certain video tape from his aides.
When the tape arrived, the big man slotted it into the player and before the eyes of the monarch, were two images. The naked picture of his precious wife, the youngest and most beautiful among his harem. The king was said to be speechless with what he saw as the obviously starved prisoner was dealing mercilessly with the woman. Of course, the monarch could not have objected to the wife’s request to visit the man in detention, given his relationship with the family.
What is the essence of this story? Well, this billionaire business magnate and celebrated philanthropist later went into politics. In fact, it was actually in this politics that he met his trouble. But that is not the issue here. The story was that the man who had carried his escapades outside the shores of the land was confronted in the United States as a result.
Obviously, one Oyibo lady had gotten wind of his political intentions and went to work. You know the way it is over there. Of course, you heard how the hundreds of thousands of dollars Donald Trump paid one Olosho over there to keep quiet after the had a tumble between the sheets. eventually got him into trouble. So, this lady thought Africa was Oyibo land where what she had was raw cash.
It was either that she had approached the man with the information to squeeze his balls and get him slice out with some hefty amount to keep her mouth shut, or out of plain anger from obvious heartbreak of the past. The story did not cover that aspect. But it was said that the lady bided her time to strike at the appropriate opportunity.
Soon, the occasion came. The big man was holding court at a public function, when the said lady, breaking all protocols approached where he was seated with other important dignitaries and dumped a little boy she came with into his laps and shouting at the top of her voice, told the crowd that this was the son she had for the man, a product of illicit affairs. You know, hell hath no fury than a woman scorned, Shakespear, once said.
But instead of the embarrassment an average Oyibo politician would fall into at such a situation, knowing it could signal the end of his political career, the big man, was said to have grabbed the child with so much happiness after giving him the special scrutiny – they said he had a way of identifying his children by just looking at one organ – shook him and continued to hold him tightly to his chest.
Then came the bombshell. He announced the special benefit for the child as was wont of all his children, while declaring to the audience that his purpose at the gathering had been achieved if for no other reason, being offered the custody of another of his children – for children are a blessing in Africa. The Oyibo lady, totally nonplused, was said to have broken into uncontrollable tears – purpose defeated.
Quite a lengthy story? Yes! But there is a purpose. Just imagine that it was in the United Kingdom or the US that a whole female Senator or Member of Parliament, came on television to reveal that the Speaker of the Congress or Prime Minister or whatever is the equivalent of a Senate President in Nigeria did as much as “undressed her with his eyes,” not to talk about actually uttering a word suggesting any sexual desire to her person. Just imagine the scenario!
Yes! There, a woman could accuse you of undressing her with your eyes or imagining her nakedness by just the way you stared at her and the result could lead to dire consequences, depending on your ability to spring yourself out of the conundrum. But just imagine the story of Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan is telling about Godswill Akpabio, Nigeria’s Senate President.
You don’t need to look far. Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York is an example. His case happened in 2021. All he did was hugging women. The women claimed he hugged them without their consent. There was no proof that he harboured any impure intentions. But that was enough.
Now, since the obviously frosty relationship between the two boiled over with the confrontation on February 20 as captured in the video which had since gone viral, not a few Nigerians have wondered if there was nothing beyond just legislative matters between the two, who were elected Senators to represent their constituencies. Natasha has now answered that question in the affirmative.
Here is her story. Just in part: “Many people do not know what I’m about to say, but I’m going to speak my own truth and the Senate President is allowed to counter that. It all started on 8 of December, 2023, a day to his birthday and my birthday – we’re birthday mate. We were all in Akwa Ibom, because he had a big fanfare in the stadium. Myself, my husband and a few of his close friends, we went to Akwa Ibom.
“At first we’re in Ikot Ekpene, then we all moved to his house in Uyo, which was at about 8pm. He held my hand and said he wanted to show me his house. My husband was walking behind us – just the three of us – we were walking around from room to room. He showed me the beautiful interior – this was done by this, by that – this design here he bought this from – it was beautiful.
“Then I noticed he hastened his pace, while still holding my hand. My husband was behind, still on his phone, but he was catching up whatever he could. Then he got to this particular sitting room, then he said, do you like my house? I said, of course sir, every room is beautiful, nice interior, quality taste. He said, now that you’re a Senator, I’m going to create time for us to come spend quality moments here. You’ll enjoy it.
“At that point I just pulled away. I was like, I didn’t understand what that meant. But when I turned around, the way my husband looked at me, and looked at him, I was beginning to wonder, did he hear part of that exciting statement or not? And the Senate President too, I saw that he also had that face that did my husband hear the invitation to treat or not.
“Then, the Senate President now said, let me show you my chapel. He had a chapel in his house as well. So, when we were going to the chapel, we walked in silence and all. So that evening, before we left the Senate President’s house at about 11 – midnight to the four-point in Ikot Ekpene and my husband asked me Natasha, what did the Senate President whisper to you, what was he telling you.
“I thought, should I tell him that he was talking about bringing me here at a special time for us to have a good time or should I just kill it there or wrap it as if nothing happened, because tomorrow was a big day and I know how much my husband adores the Senate President. He loves him as a brother. My husband would do anything to support him.
“I told my husband. nothing. I don’t even remember what I created. But I just gave him some words to just mask what was said. When we laid in bed – I laid to my right and my husband wrapped his hand around me and he said, my love, I know you could tell me anything, what did the Senate President tell you? Again, I was like don’t you believe me? I said, nothing, nothing. Moreover it’s my birthday in a few minutes, let’s just be happy.
“Then, my husband told me, he doesn’t want to see me travel out of the country alone and I should not go to the Senate President’s house, because he had a guesthouse and many Senators do go there after office to get approvals and all that. So, I told okay, no problems. That was it. I thought that was going to be the end.
The female Senator also narrated how the Senate President sat on her bill over what she claimed was the massive heist going on in Ajaokuta Steel Development Company, located in her Kogi constituency, refusing to allow it see the light of the day despite her efforts on five different occasions of presenting it.
She said: “I listed that motion five times. It was the sixth time that it was listed on the order paper that was approved. Many Senators could attest to that. Each time the motion is listed, just before he takes it, he’ll say, oh, Senator Natasha, we can’t take this motion, because the mood of the Senate cannot accommodate it or he will speak on others and let it drag so that before the motion is taken, time would be well spent.
“So, he kept on doing that. I went to him in his office and I said, Senate President, you know how important this Ajaokuta Steel Company to me is. You know how important it is to my people and to Nigerians. I have noticed that you have stepped down this bill.
“As a matter of fact, a number of Senators told me, go and see him and plead with him so that he would take it. I was like, Sir, why can’t you take this motion, it’s very important? He then said, Natasha, I’m the chief presiding officer of the Senate. You can enjoy a whole lot if you take care of me and make me happy.
“At that time, I said, Sir, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear this. He said, well, the ball is in your court. I left his office and when I got home, I told my husband. I didn’t tell my husband what happened, I just told my husband, please, can you speak to the Senate President to allow my motion scale through?
“I think I also spoke to the DSP (Deputy Senate President) to the leader and a number of Senators that they should please intervene to allow me do that. I never told them what happened. My husband had to take a trip to London. Then, the Senate President travelled to London. My husband met with the Senate President in London and pleaded with him. Help my wife, take this motion on Ajaokuta, it is very important to her.
“He said it’s okay, that he did not take it because he was protecting me. Protecting me from what? Anyway, by the time my motion was finally taken, it was my Deputy Senate President, Barau that actually sat. The Senate President stood and walked out. So, it was Barau that actually took it.”
By Sunny Igboanugo
Let me start this story with a digression. All the same it’ll be relevant and tied to the main import of the subject matter. It happened some decades back. Then yours truly was the Correspondent of The Guardian in Enugu. But I was quite influential – as influential as journalists in those days were – a small man in a powerful garb. Working with The Flagship of Nigerian journalism made you even more so – an important man. Its identity opened steel doors and elevated you to sit at table with the high and mighty, who not only respect you, but fear you too.
But much as I operated at that top level, again to emphasise, not by my power, but on the wings of that powerful medium, I didn’t entertain myself with the seducing thought that I had arrived at the port of destination for the Nigerian big man. I still recognised where I truly belonged. That place was with the people
So, I could safely say I was at the centre of activities, not only in that state, but even much of the South East in general given the strategic place of Enugu. In fact, my office at Number 23 Edinburgh Road, was the accurate example of what the late Igwe Osita Agwuna depicted to be the picture of palace of a true king. Such a palace, he said should never be surrounded with a wall, to enable both humans and spirits have free ingress in and egress out.
I remember the likes of Asisi Asobie, the President of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), who used it as their war room to plot their battles with Umoru Gomwalk, then Sole Administrator of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) – one of the many outlandish features of the Sani Abacha junta, arguably, Nigeria’s most despotic and brutal military leader.
Politicians, visiting and resident, professionals, visiting and resident – all manner of people strolled in, individually either to meet and greet or engage in other businesses. Labour leaders, students and their leaders, injured citizenry – everyone came to meet and greet, lay their complaints, submit their petitions or engage in other businesses.
That is how I came across the story I’m about to narrate now. Sometime within this period, Enugu was awash with some of the most bizarre tales, ever conceived and contemplated by human mind. It was a period of mindless police brutality. It came in different forms, shapes and sizes. Many of them came to my table as victims sought solutions.
In one instance, one of my cousins came to my office one afternoon, highly agitated. What was the problem? A squad of policemen swooped on their compound the previous night and picked up two of his elder brothers, he narrated, tears welling up. What did they do? Nothing! Police just sighted them sitting idly in front of their house and dragged them into their vehicle and sped off.
Immediately, I ascertained where they were being detained, I set off. At the Abakpa police station, the DPO, put up the usual deadpan no-nonsense expression – their entry point for business. His story was that my cousins were raided at a “dark spot,” where they were smoking Igbo. For evidence, he called on one of his men to bring the “exhibit.” Soon an empty can of shoe polish was produced. Opening it, the DPO displayed stubs of wrapped, half-finished hemps.
Of course, I wasn’t a novice. I understood the picture clearly and what he was driving at. But I was also prepared. I betrayed no emotions. In my mind I was already calculating the number of times the same exhibit would have been on display in so many other cases. So, my next line was to ask what would be the next step.
Can I take them on bail? That was my next move as I decided to play along. I knew what to expect toeing this line, having been a customer in terms of how many times I intervened in other similar cases. I could see the self-induced anger. I wasn’t showing the right attitude expected of one whose wards were criminals. After all he had shown me the evidence in the stubs of Indian hemps, which was supposed to convince me to that effect. I was too relaxed and confident instead of being scared, diffident and panicky.
I watched him flare up and go into self-induced rage. As he vibrated on top of his voice, almost accusing me of being their patron in crime, I just stood up and walked out of his office. The unschooled would have started begging. That pretended anger was supposed not only to cow, but to deflate me and set me on for the next thing – negotiation.
I simply went upstairs to see the Area Commander who was a friend of the media and particularly my personal buddy. After giving me the usual chummy welcome, he simply burst into hearty laughter halfway into my narration of the encounter downstairs. You no tell am who you be? I knew and my friend knew that I understood everything. There had been so many debates and encounters between us about the subject matter for him not to understand where I was coming from.
He simply put a call to the supposed angry DPO and invited him to the party? I could see the shock in his eyes as he walked into the office to witness the hearty, convivial atmosphere between the man he had just walked out of his office and his boss. You no know Sunny from the powerful Guardian? Sunny is our friend o. Na him dey help us fight crime now!
That did it. I not only left that office with my cousins, the supposed criminals much later, I left as a friend of the same man, who had almost called me a patron of criminals just some hours earlier. There was no need for us to push the subject. All of us knew that no crime was committed. I agreed with my new friend that profiling was part of crime-fighting – his drift and excuse for his previous action. I also agreed on the enormity of crime and the need to employ peculiar solutions in peculiar circumstances to fight crimes. I just had to agree – just for peace to reign.
Each of us knew the true story. He knew I didn’t believe him. It would have been a different story if I wasn’t from the powerful Guardian, with a friend upstairs. With someone else, that allegation could have stood and those “exhibits” in the shoe polish can would have counted. In fact, it could have graduated from smoking Igbo to armed robbery or any other imaginable crimes, for which those my cousins could have added to the list of Awaiting Trial Mates in some prison somewhere if they failed to do the needful.
Those exhibits stood in so many other numerous cases as proofs against several victims that were so unlucky at that time. The case I just narrated, is one of the countless other cases that came in different shapes and forms at that time. Imagine a case in which policemen would hire a commercial bus, arrive at a bus-stop and pick passenger, only to discharge them at police stations as criminals.
Those who could not afford the prescribed amount – N500, N1,000 or N5,000, depending on the going price for the day imposed as bail fees, simply became true criminals and were detained permanently. Nobody even had the heart for pity to free anyone – you’re just a commodity – too bad if you had no money – your fault, not theirs.
I won’t be surprised if many of them are still in prison till date, victims of trumped-up charges. It was when I was so inundated with multiple complaints in this regard that I upped the ante. One day I decided to see the police commissioner. Unlike the Area Commander, the CP was not truly a friend, but unlike the DPO, he was also not uncouth or unfriendly either.
In the paper I filled, I had deliberately tagged my purpose for the visit: Police Brutality in Enugu. It was after a long back and forth, questions and answers, arguments and counters, that the police boss, told me what I’m about to share with you now, my compatriots, which I believe is quite germane in what we are contending with as a country today, at this moment – evidence!
Here is what he said. Hope you have the heart to contain it. Laugh or cry, if you would! “If you truly want to be a patriotic citizen, there is only one way to help the police,” he said. I waited. Then the bombshell. “If you see any policeman bullying anybody taking bribe or engaging in any fraud, drag him to me and see if I won’t punish him.”
I simply stood up, looked hard into his face and walked out. Of course, I took in the smirk in his face and the smile playing at the corners of his lips. They spoke more than words. They were signs of triumphant expression. He believed that he had won the argument and defeated me, his opponent. Now imagine me, an ordinary, bloody civilian dragging a policeman with a gun, probably high on something, by his trousers to his boss to prove that was taking bribe. Tell me the difference between that and jumping from the last floor of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.
This is the case of Dele Farotimi today. The mantra in certain quarters since the palaver with the fiery activist erupted on December 3, when he was spirited away from his office in Lekki part of Lagos, is that he must prove his case that the Nigerian judiciary as an institution is rotten. Many of those elevating this mantra to a deafening din, know that the institution is as rotten as the bloated stomach of a dead dog. Yet, they sing along.
They pretend they didn’t hear Ahmed Bulkachuwa – that Senator who regaled the whole world through the Senate chambers during the 2023 valedictory session about how he “encroached on the freedom and independence” of his wife. They pretend they did not understand that the man was simply relating his hand in making his wife, a judge, who later rose to preside over the Court of Appeal to bend backwards to skew justice, just to “help” his colleagues.
They probably did not hear Rochas Okorocha, another Senator, who also pled with Godswill Akpabio and Ahmed Lawn at the same forum to teach him the magic that made them return to the Red Chambers. They’re probably struck with Mongolian Idiocy Syndrome, not to know what the ex-Imo governor and their colleague was driving at was pointing to the manifest corruption in the judiciary – the same crime for which Farotimi now his neck on the guillotine.
Recall that Akpabio, now Senate President and Lawan, each contested against President Bola Tinubu in the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the National Assembly and against the backdrop of a clear law barring them from contesting any other election within the same election period, returned to contest for the same chambers. Has anyone explained that magic Okorocha, Senator from Imo State sought yet?
Less than 24 hours after the Supreme Court verdict on the 2023 presidential election, Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammed, only next in command to then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Ayo Ariwoola, captured almost the same thing Dele did, only that he did not mean it when he said that the judiciary leadership stank, but was only saying that it didn’t smell roses. So, they are in search of evidence.
Just like that police boss that demanded of me to drag corrupt policemen to him before he could take the required action to save the citizens of Enugu from their nightmare, Farotimi’s adversaries, many of them the lawyers through whom the massive corruption in the judiciary has been caried out are also searching for the same thing – Proof! They, like the Enugu police boss know what they seek is almost impossible.
They know the only way Farotimi could prove the rot is to perhaps round up the culprits at the crime scene. In other words, they want him to drag the corrupt, bribe-taking policemen to that police boss. How would he do that? You could always also recognise the same triumphant smirk, mimicking that police boss as I left his office in utter disgust as they demand of the same EVIDENCE, today. Just like that day!
Well, by their standard and prediction, Dele’s day with the jailor is assured. But by the time Dele walks into the jail house, chained arms and legs, because he had no evidence, the mantra of these antagonists would have been complete. So, their joy. But to many others, the clanging sound of the chains would also be a reminder that Nelson Mandela and many other global greats, also walked this path, heads unbowed.
Interestingly, many of those who cheered and jeered to the melody from the chains, as he took that walk to Roben Island, in South Africa, also lined up to witness a different melody as the same man waltzed through the same path, 21 years after, this time, without the chains – the melody of thunderous ovations and the clatter of excitedly eager tongues. Though some of them were denied the chance of witnessing it, their children represented them. Only this time, they watched with heads, bowed!
So, it might be with Dele Farotimi. Those who cheer and jeer today in triumphalism, should not be quick to forget that even in Nigeria, there are a surfeit of examples to authenticate that inscription on the body of that lorry labouring through the ditches on Lagos-Benin expressway – No Condition is Permanent. So might it be with Dele. The irony of life!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo and I’m The Tiny Voice!
Sowore is putting every spin to turn the table against Peter Obi using the Farotimi case. He wants to exploit it to gain cheap political popularity.
In his little mind, he believes Obi is his albatross and once he’s out of the way he’ll be the natural replacement and most probably inherit the massive support of the Obidents.
Such asinine childishness. So, he’s worked very hard at it, introducing all manner of innuendos and direct attacks in his attempt to skew the minds of the people.
Imagine his suggestion that the reason the Ekiti Court delayed granting bail to Farotimi is because Obi visited Afe Babalola “to beg.” Of course, he failed to provide the “HOW” of such a spurious position.
Like Reno Omokri, his half-self, he believes his audience should either take his word for it or figure the rest out for themselves. But the bottomline, is that Obi must go as a sellout to be replaced by Sowore the Rock of Gibraltar. He wants to take over.
Like many of his ilk, he fails to understand that Obi is what he is because of a single element – sincerity. The people who believe in and follow him know that he doesn’t lie or attempt to deceive them.
Unlike Sowore and Reno his half-self whose every public move is laced with subterfuge, half-truth, outright lies and deceit, Obi’s followers can predict that his intentions are pure and genuine even if they don’t agree with the method.
Of course, being human, there’s no way he’ll get it right in all cases and all the time. So, that margin of error must be allowed, not as a way of betrayal but a natural human failing.
Take the case in question. Farotimi was so supportive and inebriated in the Obi project that he became one of his campaign spokesmen.
Till his current ordeal, he still professed his belief in the Obi idea of a New Nigeria. He has given countless reasons for this choice including why he dumped the same Sowore and embrace the Obi project.
On the other hand, Afe Babalola is also believed to be his (Obi’s) supporter as well, though apparently not as virulently as Farotimi, which invariably qualifies him as an ally in the New Nigeria project.
So, in Sowore’s infantile mind, it’ll be wrong for Obi to troubleshoot in a situation in which two of his allies in the same project are in dispute regardless what’s in issue?
In other words, not plunging into blind support for one party over the other is the harakiri Obi has committed – that Obi should have either drawn his bayonet and driven it though the heart of the legal luminary to show his solidarity or taken newspaper adverts to castigate him?
So, today, if Farotimi also takes on Ayo Adebanjo, the Leader of Afenifere, who staked everything including his high position of Yoruba leadership to support an Igbo man, perhaps over a church dispute between them, Obi should abandon every other option and join in the roforofo fight?
To prove what, please? On the other hand if Farotimi institutes a legal case against Obasanjo another of Obi’s allies, over personal wrongdoing as President, Obi should just key-in or else risk a fatal fate?
Even Farotimi will be a huge disappointment to think in that direction. From the look of things, Sowore is projecting that the first thing Farotimi would do on regaining freedom is to call a press conference to tear Obi apart as a traitor and announce the withdrawal of his support.
Well, we shall watch him do that and see where it leads. Let’s see how many Nigerians will join him if he says that Obi is no longer his model for taking Nigeria out of the woods and that it’s Sowore henceforth.
Of course, the Farotimi Nigerians know is a wise man who knows the difference between white and black and who is fake between Obi and Sowore.
He knows why Ijebu garri is so sought after unlike the other makes. If he changes his mind because of the propaganda by people like Sowore, it means he’s simply not what many think of him.
To begin with, where is the Mother of all Protests Sowore promised? Has he mobilised it yet? December 10 is come and gone without as much as a whimper anywhere in Nigeria, not to talk about the US and UK where the world is supposed to see rising dusts from human feet.
That’s how to determine fakery from the real, how to separate the grain from the chaff. That’s how to also know who’s serious and who’s a noisemaker.
Obi never hid where he stood on the matter. He was among the first to lash out against the authorities on the method of Farotimi’s arrest and demand his release. That should serve.
As for Sowore, the joke is on him. He would have to prove that he’s not even a mole camouflaging as activist as many suspect. Nigerians are not all fools yet.
Certainly, they know their docility has not gotten to the level they’ll be led by the nose and start looking in the direction of a Sowore as a replacement for Peter Obi. Their mumu will get to a head the day they start considering that.
Dele Farotimi himself knows the difference between a lizard and crocodile, butterfly and bird. Not a million Sowores are likely to change that.
Of course, nothing suggests that Sowore is not intelligent enough to realise that the only workable way to the kind of society he claims to be crusading for is to team up with Peter Obi, who has proven even to his worst enemies that he’s not only a man of premium character but equipped with the right tools to fix Nigeria.
So, not doing so, shows he’s either a willing tool in the hands of the people he daily accuses or is himself afflicted with the same disease of selfishness and greed, and to mimic them when he sees the opportunity, which is bad enough.
My name is Sunny Igboanugo and I’m The Tiny Voice!
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