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John Chuma Nwosu: When integrity speaks, when passion takes over
By Sunny Igboanugo
Only the bereft will stand hands-akimbo and watch nonchalantly at the happenings in Anambra State today. Only the totally soulless would be unmoved by the vibes currently emanating from the state, with regards to the issue of real governance or lack of it, especially as a citizen, resident or even a passerby.
Such a state of being must be as a result of either complete moral bankruptcy, lack of mental acuity or total absence of physical consciousness – perhaps out of brain-dead or comatose condition. Those are the only reason for one to be a standpatter to the current state of affairs in that enclave.
Otherwise, anyone that possesses the littlest iota of physical and psychological consciousness, mental balance or moral suasion would not only react to the continuous stimuli vibing out of the state but would be willing to act one way or the other for or against it.
Though there was not such an outburst of fanfare, apparently because the world was still smarting from the COVID 19 pandemic that swept across the firmament, the emergence of Charles Chukwuma Soludo, as victorious about this time four years ago, left not a few people upbeat that a new positive phenomenon had occurred in the state.
Watchers of events across board including even his opponents and their supporters had expected the immediate transformation of the state, if not anything world-class as in the countries he chose as his model, at the least, beyond what existed in Nigeria before him, especially in Anambra. Indeed, those who opposed him had other reasons outside performance or ability to deliver, given his pedigree and tall credentials he was parading as a first-class economist and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The thought of mediocrity or underhand performance, was quite distant in the estimation of the people, especially as he promised to transform Anambra into the Dubai-Taiwan-Silicon Valley model of development.
Today, that lofty idea of an Anambra brimming with activities such as booming industrial base, iconic shopping malls, tourists and holiday makers and glittering lights under beehive sort of night activities, characteristic of the envisaged model in Dubai or Taiwan have completely evaporated from the minds of people.
Instead it has been replaced with the wincing sounds of victims of all sorts of societal ills – banal and insipid economic records – families mourning their dead ones caught in the fires of blazing guns from criminals or running from pillar to post to raise money to pay ransom to secure the freedom of their wards in various detention camps of kidnappers dotting all over the forests and private centres in the state or even in the various detention centres of state exploitative actors disguising as security agencies.
As in a funeral pall thrown over them, Anambra is in a state of total desolation. Except for state officials and other fringe beneficiaries, it has sunk into an abyss of despair and helplessness, not only as a result of planlessness, directionless and impulsive leadership thrashing around frantically to give the impression of doing something, but due to the total lack of empathy and general inertia.
While some stakeholders have contented themselves by crying silently behind locked doors, others allowing feeble protests and others just adopting a wait-and-see attitude, some have picked up the gauntlet to reverse the ugly trend.
So, when John Chuma Nwosu, candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), filed in his papers to contest the November 18 governorship election, it is not just to add another title to his name, but to end the steady slide the state is taking towards the edge of the precipice.
In other words, it is a rescue mission to save the state from the rudderless swing it has found itself in the hands of Soludo, who has not only posted the worst outing in the history of the state but is actually guiding it towards the inevitable crash down the precipice by the time it finally tips, which is no longer far.
The proof that the move Nwosu is making towards the Government House, Agu Awka, is not being driven by a personal ambition to add the title of “Governor” to his name or enjoy the pecks thereof, was emphasised when he appeared at the Anambra State High Court, Awka to put paid to a very fundamental issue raging since he came to the scene.
Hear him: “I Mr. John Chuma Nwosu, of Odida Nnewichi, Nnewi, Nnewi North Local Government Area of Anambra South Senatorial zone, Male, Adult, Christian, nominated candidate of ADC (African Democratic Congress) for the governorship election on the 8th day of November 2025, do hereby make this affidavit and swear under oath as follows:
- That I am aware that there is rotation of the office of governor of Anambra State among the three senatorial zones, namely Anambra North, Anambra Central and Anambra South Senatorial zones, based of equity, natural justice and good conscience.
- That the South Senatorial zone currently occupying the seat of governor of Anambra State has only one term of four years remaining of the term of office due to the South Senatorial zone and thereafter it shall be the turn of the Anambra Central Senatorial Zone to nominate a candidate for the office of governor of Anambra State for eight years before the office rotates to the North Senatorial zonal for eight years.
- That it is in total agreement and submission to this rotation principle that I depose to this affidavit under oath that I, Mr. John Chuma Nwosu shall, as elected governor of Anambra State under ADC on 8 November, 2025 DO ONLY ONE TERM OF FOUR YEARS IN OFFICE AS GOVERNOR OF ANAMBRA STATE to allow Anambra Central Senatorial Zone produce the next governor after my term of office.
- That accordingly and by the foregoing, I appeal to all Anambra Central Senatorial Zone stakeholders, entire voting population of the zone, all men and women of good conscience to support and vote for me under ADC on Saturday 8 November 2025 as I hereby swear under oath to honour and respect the governorship rotation principles of Anambra State under natural justice, equity and good conscience.
- That I depose to this affidavit under oath, the law and in good faith.
AND THAT I swear to this affidavit sincerely and conscientiously believing same to be true and correct in accordance with the provision of the Oaths Act, 2004.”
For emphasis, Nwosu went further to adumbrate his raison d’etre, just to leave no one in doubt and to settle the fears which many have harboured as a result of the zoning issue.
Providing further and better particulars, he wrote: “Because we take our mission and vision to rescue Anambra seriously; because asking for public trust is serious business; because as a person, campaign organisation, and political party, we are not frivolous; because we believe in transparency and accountability; and because our word is our bond, I have deposed on record in the Court of Law that I will serve only one term, if elected.”
After this unprecedented move, which binds him by the force of law and makes him a candidate for jail should he renege, because it would amount to perjury, having taken an oath, who is still in doubt about his motive?
Who is still doubting that he is being driven by the hunger and passion to save Anambra from destruction? Who is still doubting that he is on a rescue mission? Who is coming along in this worthy project? This is no time to be a standpatter. It is time to take a stand. Now is the time!
Igboanugo is Director, Media and Public Affairs, JCN Campaign Council of the ADC
I will always refer to the encounter I once had with Kenneth Idiodi. He was then the leader of the Rosicrucian Society in Nigeria, otherwise known as Amok. It was a sit-down at Zodiac Hotel Enugu. Then, I was the reporter of The Guardian in the Coal City.
You know the Amok faith bases its philosophy or belief on the law of Retributive Justice – the law of Karma. That is to say, everything you do in life has its rewards or punishment in equal measure – much like the measure you give, the measure you receive.
I don’t know how much this society draws or links this belief from or with the Bible, but I do recall Jesus Christ warning Simon Peter – return your sword to the scabbard – for he who kills by the sword, dies by the sword.
As a child growing up I listened to one of the epics of Oriental Brothers with the lyrics – ogbu mma ga-esi n’mma na, ogba egbe ga-esi n’egbe na ooo! Translated – he who kills by the sword will die by the sword, he who kills by the gun will die by the nozzle of the gun.
Now, here is where this is relevant in present Nigerian reality – the reason I’m putting details of that encounter out publicly once again, having done so previously.
During that encounter, Idiodi used one event in Nigeria to illustrate his point. He told me of a Nigerian leader who commanded the troop that carried out the Asaba massacre in the heat of the Nigerian civil war – an episode, said to have claimed over 2,000 able-bodied men who had come out to welcome the Nigerian soldiers with songs and dances only to fall in the hail of bullets that descended on them like rainstorms – was not spared by fate.
That commander was to meet his own death in a hail of bullets even as a Head of State. He never mentioned the name of the military top brass. But I used my tongue to count my teeth to come to the answer. You could also do same – use your tongue.
Now, how does this relate? You may have followed the outing of General Yakubu Gowon at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre, Abuja, where he presented his autobiography titled: My Life of Duty and Allegiance, that contained what seemed his memoir on the Nigerian civil war, which he prosecuted as Head of State.
I’m sure you must have been observing the debate therefrom that event. Now, I’m not so much enamoured of the debate as I’m of the nuances surrounding that unfortunate episode and the role of Gowon in it, given my takeaway from that Idiodi encounter some two decades ago.
Does Gowon, now a nonagenarian really believe that presenting a pious, if not saintly account of himself to the world as snippets of his book, which I picked up here and there suggests, truly suffices for the atrocities of that period?
Take the Asaba massacre for example. Was that the handiwork of Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Biafran leader, whom the former Head of State seems to blame for everything that went wrong. Was he also the one that commanded that mass slaughtering of innocent men?
Under your nose as Head of State, you watched citizens slaughtered mercilessly like infested herds in the streets – you watched young girls corralled into leprosy colonies and wantonly raped before being wasted – you watched as train coaches bearing people fleeing the scene were stopped and their human cargoes thrown alive into River Benue like rotten goods for fishes to feast on – you watched all these and didn’t lift a finger.
Then as Head of State, you not only supervised but watched millions of children with distended stomachs, tiny feet, glazy eyes, heavy heads on ropelike necks, practically begging for death to come quickly and save them from further punishment.
You supervised and watched the cataclysmic eruptions from the blitzkrieg on churches, markets and hospitals – all to keep Nigeria together. In your mind the brutal and merciless butchery of innocent people who were not soldiers and had nothing to do with the war could be explained away just like that?
O! It was Ojukwu that caused it. Ojukwu was the one who released the bombs, caused the blockades that led to the kwashiorkor that killed millions or other atrocities thereof? What a pity!
Now, I return to Idiodi. How else could anyone interpret today’s Nigeria without introducing the law of retributive justice that the Amok leader spoke of? How do you fault the link of the commander who massacred over 2,000 souls dying by the barrel of the same gun, even as Head of State?
How could anyone fail to relate what is happening to our Gowon today with the past? This is a Geneal that wakes up to see hundreds of his brothers and sisters being buried in mass graves as was done during the onslaught he supervised against another people and he still thinks it has nothing to do with him?
Now, the story you told at that event in Abuja on Tuesday, is not new. You simply repeated yourself. My interpretation of that event is that you’re a man undergoing daily torture. You wouldn’t be a human being otherwise, given what is before you, which didn’t start today.
You’re probably trying to escape your fate by appealing to public sympathy. How helpful could that be in the face of the clear evidence of your culpability in the deliberate wasting of more than three million souls? Nobody would believe you.
Yes! They could humour you. But that’s the best anyone could do for you. I hear money rained like a fountain and that you left the scene with billions of naira in your kitty. At 90? Haba General!
Now, here is the thing General. None of these would help.
None would work. You have tried prayers. But you forget that the prayer of sinner is an abomination and a reproach before God, unless he repents. You have also written the book. Surely, this too would end up in the trashcan of history – meaningless piece of conjectures, propaganda, half-truths and outright lies – perhaps!
But, why don’t you try the one thing you have been running away from, for more than five decades – go on your knees in total supplication and surrender, repentance and penance – then rise, call all Nigerians and empty yourself with the truth.
Thereafter openly apologise to the millions of souls whose tormenting wailing you probably hear every day during your disturbed sleep and in your quiet moments, but choose to suppress with these baby tales. Ask them for forgiveness, genuinely and see. There may lie the answer you seek.
Try that and see if it wouldn’t be a more efficacious cure for this decades-old wound than this Ojukwu-bashing and those wasted prayer sessions. You might not only have atoned for the past, but saved the future. May God guide you.
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice
“Now that the court has ruled against it, we are sure that, in the coming days, we will witness a mass exodus from the ruling party,” were the words with which the African Democratic Congress (ADC) welcomed Wednesday’s ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja reversing the deadline for party primaries, among others.
Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesman, who conveyed the party’s excitement over the development, said it viewed the ruling as vindication of its objections to key aspects of the electoral body’s guidelines at the time they were issued.
Recalling its specific objections to the strict timelines on membership registration as well as the conduct of party primaries, the statement, said: “The decision of the court on these issues, including those that directly contradict the constitution, is therefore a welcome vindication of our position.”
Stressing that the ruling, which removed the impediment placed by the guidelines on politicians who wished to seek alternative platforms to contest elections, was a positive development that would promote freedom of association, the statement, added: “We believed at the time that that particular restriction was designed to prevent people from leaving the ruling party, APC.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Cuba on Thursday that the United States was laser-focused on changing the communist system, after the island was stunned by a US indictment of its former president Raul Castro.
The US military announced that the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and its escort warships had entered the Caribbean, although President Donald Trump, asked if the deployment was meant to intimidate Cuba, said, “No, not at all.”
Rubio, a Cuban American and vociferous opponent of Havana’s government, described the island 90 miles (145 kilometres) from the US shore as a “failed state” as it suffers a major economic crisis.
“Their economic system doesn’t work. It’s broken, and you can’t fix it with the current political system that’s in place. What they’ve gotten used to all these years is just buying time and waiting us out.
“They’re not going to be able to wait us out or buy time. We’re very serious. We’re very focused. The US preference is always a diplomatic solution, but President Donald Trump has other options at his disposal.”
Stating that Cuba had tentatively accepted an offer by the United States of $100 million in aid in return for reforms, he said it was unclear if the United States would accept Cuba’s terms, as Washington insists on circumventing the military-backed conglomerate GAESA, which dominates the island’s economy.
Rubio said Thursday that the GAESA chief’s Florida-based sister, Adys Lastres Morera, had been arrested and was being held by US immigration authorities, adding in an X post: “Managing real estate assets…while also aiding Havana’s communist regime, until I terminated her permanent resident status.”
The charges against Raul Castro — younger brother of Fidel Castro, the late iconic US nemesis who led Cuba’s communist revolution that culminated in 1959 — stem from the deadly downing of two civilian planes manned by anti-Castro pilots in 1996.
Cuban authorities called on citizens to protest the “despicable” indictment, with the official newspaper Granma urging Cubans to gather outside the US embassy in Havana on Friday at 7:30 am (1230 GMT).
“This isn’t really an accusation, something from more than 30 years ago, but rather a public attack on a public figure,” Fabian Fernandez, a 30-year-old accountant, told AFP in Havana.
Trump in January seized on a US domestic indictment of Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro to send in US forces to depose him and take him into custody.
“The idea is to say, we can do to you what we did to Nicolas Maduro,” said Christopher Sabatini, senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House.
The Maduro operation led to the end of free oil from Venezuela to Cuba, which relied on its ally for nearly half its needs.
Cubans have suffered power outages of up to 20 hours a day and taps running dry.
Runaway inflation has caused the price of basic goods to soar and mountains of trash have piled up on the streets of Havana.
In addition to murder, Castro has been charged with conspiracy to kill Americans and destruction of aircraft.
The Cuban government called the 1996 shootdown was “legitimate self-defense” against an airspace violation.
China and Russia both criticized Trump’s steps on Cuba, which come as he tries to end an unpopular war he started with Israel against Iran.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a press briefing that Washington “should stop brandishing the sanctions stick and the judicial stick against Cuba and stop threatening force at every turn.”
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We believe that under no circumstances should such methods — which border on violence — be used against either former or current heads of state.
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