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Abia, S’East: In defence of Benjamin Kalu
By Ben Benson-Okoli Esq
Succinctly put, politics is about power, influence and control. In his treatise, “Prince,” Niccolo Machiavelli argued that politics is about acquisition, maintenance and exercise of power though he sees deceit, violence and manipulation as part of the methods politicians often employ.
Aristotle was even more emphatic. To him, it is the art and science of running a state. In a broader sense, it is about contestation for ideas and power.
It was this contestation and the geo-political imbalances in our polity that threw us into the convulsions that consumed over three million lives and left the remainder gasping for breath and survival. It was for that reason that after 13 years of suffering the consequences of trying to save the Igbo people from what he called slavery that the late Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (Ezeigbo gburugburu) threw himself into the arena to push them into the centre of governance.
This strategic move was undertaken by him because the Triple “Rs” put in place by Yakubu Gowon, the Head of State, who prosecuted the Biafran war had not worked, his vision then, being to align his people to the centre, utilising a strong regional base.
That was the basis of Ojukwu joining the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN). In his own words: “I joined NPN to bring the Igbos into the mainstream of Nigeria’s politics, since I was the one that pulled them out in the first place.”
Today, the same lot seems to have fallen on another illustrious Igbo son – no doubt with the same consequences of being misrepresented or misinterpreted – The Rt Hon Benjamin Okezie Kalu. Recall that fresh from exile, Ojukwu had sought to represent Ndigbo at the Senate but lost out.
It was not that he lost, not the least to little-known, Edwin Onwudiwe, but a clear scrutiny of that outcome showed that contrary to the claim that it was the machination of the then big wigs in the NPN who didn’t want him at the Senate for obvious reasons, it was actually his people that were used to scuttle the ambition.
In other words, it was not an Alhaji Musa that manned and superintended the polling units, but either Mr Okoro, Mr Okonkwo or Mr Okeke. So, it was a conspiracy of his own people – a war from home and a war we must defeat to progress.
The next big opportunity to reintegrate Ndigbo into the mainstream is here once again. This captures the advocacy and current efforts of Kalu. The emergence of this deep thinker and conscious mind at this time in our history, therefore does not seem ordinary, but rather a divine intervention. Given the shortcomings we have suffered as a people and circumstances of the birth of the biblical Benjamin, the Deputy Speaker will seem a divine gift. His political career, his antecedents, how his paths were cleared and the sweatless journey to becoming the leader of his people against all odds, bear eloquent testimony to the unseen hands behind the man with grace.
Clearly, the man carries grace, and like they say, woe betide him that fights a man with grace. Even with all that, nothing has troubled our polity in the recent time more than the uproar, controversy and furore raised by the seeming competition and contestation between Kalu and Alex Otti, Governor of his home state, Abia.
No doubt the governor has achieved some appreciable milestones but the Deputy Speaker stands out, even at that as the man behind the mask. As a great student of Napoleon Bonaparte, he is a firm believer that politics of diplomacy and robust engagement is the best way to recover lost grounds and shortest route to the reintegration that his people yearn.
If you consider all he has achieved, including the Peace in the South East Project (PISE-P), the South East Development Commission (SEDC) and the many Federal Government’s unusual presences in the South East, you will agree that this transformational leader has out- performed all the leaders who came before him put together in terms of bringing the dividends of democracy to his people.
Again, one of the demonstrable indications of this model of political engagement is his work to secure freedom for Nnamdi Kanu and restore peace in the region. Yes, he may not have carried placards nor appeared on the gallery like others but like Bonaparte, he daily works behind the scene to persuade President Tinubu to have MNK delivered to him and other Igbo leaders. This is sure to happen.
Regrettably, rather than lend our support to this brilliant mind, many of us have by our actions and inactions, made his job a lot difficult. The insinuation that the highest-ranking Igbo man in our national politics is in competition with anybody in the South East, including his Governor, is the purest example of the ejiri mara (trademark) politics of our people, and which must be rejected.
This is the reason the recent diatribe credited to the governor, which is aimed at this political icon ought to be considered as most unfair thing to say the least. BOK is very deliberate in his vision, focus and actions, which is reflected in the attention South East is now attracting from the federal authorities unlike in the past when it was totally ignored in the scheme of things.
What then is the sin of BOK? Is it in insisting and truthfully so, that his productivity would be greater and his negotiating strength stronger with his base overwhelmingly behind him?
The impression that BOK wants to remove the Governor that he has helped and still helping to develop Abia State by the huge resources that he is attracting is quite unfortunate, because neither the impression nor the sentiment is correct.
Incidentally, this false alarmist thinking may have gained traction, given that this is the first time that the state is enjoying the dividend of democracy since its creation.
Sadly, the governor seems to be leveraging on the ignorance and the weakness of the people to demand the reversal of roles, notwithstanding the established hierarchy that donates that position to BOK. For instance, the manner in which a statement BOK made in the closet before his kinsmen, has been magnified, misinterpreted and taken to the market place to depict him as the enemy of the state despite attracting infrastructure, projects and appointments more than any other leader, living or dead.
Indeed, it is regrettable that while Kalu is celebrated nationally and internationally, attempts are being made to undermine him in his own base. God forbid! Yes, Otti has awakened a new dawn but it must be said that there is one illustrious son that has the magic wand that must be acknowledged as well. Ndi Abia need this leader, Otti needs him even the more, to smoothen his path to greatness and greater Abia. The conversation must now shift to whether it won’t be to the collective good to give Abia to BOK, the critical support he requires to penetrate the Federal Government even the more.
In closing, like Napoleon Bonaparte 1786-1821, the French emperor and General whose victories over Australia and Russia singled him out and made him the master of Europe, what BOK is telling his people is – it is my design to lead you into the fertile plains of the world…….. There, you will find honour, glory and wealth. That journey may have begun since June 13, 2023, when the lot fell on him to lead his people.
Now is not only the time to think, but time to act!
Benson-Okoli, is a journalist and lawyer. He writes from Abuja via benchinee@yahoo.com
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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