PDP LGA Party Primary:Obusom Floors Demian

*We are a united party, ready to win all election....Evang Maduemezia

*Some Party Elders shun Primaries

*Olejeme Supporters Cry Foul

In what observers and partisan political analysts described as one of the freest and fairest party primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Oshimill South LGA chapter, the delegates decided their choice today.

The party primaries which started at about 11am had the LGA party chairman, Evang. Ebielim Maduemezia welcome both delegates, elders and leaders to the venue with the assurance that the party is more stronger, united and better positioned to win all elective positions in the council area.

The party primary that almost had the image and shape of a mono-contest, as was evident, one of the two contestants, Lady Sandrah Demian, was visibly absent from the venue of the primaries.

Despite the above, voting was conducted for both contestants, Pastor Barr. Chuks Obusom and Lady Sandrah Daimian, which started at about 12.10noon.

Delegates to the primaries were drawn from ward and LGA party chairmen and secretaries, former LGA council chairmen, vice chairmen and secretaries, former and current state party executive members from the council area, federal and state legislators.

About 85% of expected delegates attended the primaries, the events also registered the absence of some key party elders and leaders from the council area.

Some political analysts at the venue confirmed to Asaba Post News-Wire that some of the party elders and leaders not present today, were either absent to boycott the exercise as a demonstration of an advance displeasure over the outcome of the primaries or were on the party's train of party faithfuls who travelled to Osun state for the guber polls today.

After about one hour delegates casted their votes, the returning officer, Hon Mozia, from Oshimili North Local Government Area, invited both contestants's representatives to witness the vote counting.

Party delegates overwhelmly casted their votes for Pastor Barr. Chuks Obusom to be the party's flag bearer, come October 25th council polls.

Out of the 110 expected delegates, 88 delegates were accredited to decide who becomes the party flag bearer.

Pastor Obusom became the delegates's choice as he polled 86 delegates votes, one delegate voided his vote, while another delegate casted the lone vote that Lady Sandrah Daimian had.

An agreeved loyal supporter of Lady Diamian and a well known Dr Mrs Olejeme fan, though not a delegate, who don't want her name online, registered her displeasure over the outcome of the party primaries.

This is totally unacceptable, in fact this is a coup against Dr. Mrs Olejeme, this local government council delegates have zero respect for women proactive politicians.

Who in recent times have supported the party in this LGA like Dr. Mrs Olejeme, she helped most of these delegates's children and relations get jobs, God is this how our people can so quickly forget good gestures.

My most painful aspect is that the women delegates forgot their fellow woman, our source lamented.

Another male Pro-Olejeme fan almost broke down in tears when granting this media chat with Asaba Post News-Wire.

How can the current PDP LGA Exco members so quickly forgot to cast some votes for the aspirant sponsored by the female politial leader who on monthly basis had them on her pay roll.

Of all Dr. Mrs Olejeme has done for these party LGA executive members, she bought van for them, took some to Isreal, gave some of them their first life time opportunity to board an aircraft, too bad what i saw today.

Indeed am afraid of our people, what is the worth of all the good great works of Olejeme in this local government area, so just one vote is due this great female asaba politician, so only one person out of 87 delegates appreciate my principal, Dr Mrs Olejeme, cheei, this is just not fair, Olejeme's male fan lamented.

LG POLLS:DSIEC Committs To Credible Elections

The Chairman of the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC), Mr. Moses Akpoyoma Ogbe, has declared that his commission will is committed to entrench free, fair and credible electoral process during the forth coming Council Polls.

The Commission's chairman while delivering his keynote address to stakeholders drawn from the three senitorial districts of the state at Asaba, called on Deltans to partner with the Commission to ensure credible Council Polls.

The stakeholders's engagement witnessed huge speaking at turn out of non state actors drawn Community Based Organizations(CBOs), Faith Based Organizations(FBOs), Non Governmental Organizations(NGOs), Youth/Women Group Leaders and delegates from labour unions.

The stakeholders's forum which had as theme "Curbing Violence And Other Electoral Malpractices" witnessed active participation and reactions from the stakeholders.

I call upon Deltans to resist Politicians beckon to be lured into any form of electoral violence during this period of our Council Polls, as doing so will amount to gross violation the state's electoral laws, the Commission's Chairman warns.

Addressing Youth Leaders, Mr. Ogbe charged them to be worthy agents of change, a change that demonstrates quality departure from past actions and roles Young Deltans were previously identified with.

Young Deltans should refuse and resist Politicians vain ploy to use them as agents of Democratic and Political Maddness.

I encourage you youngsters to shun Politicians attempts to use you as thugs, rather encourage them to recruit and involve their children and close relatives, Mr Ogbe advised Young Deltans.

Delta State Independent Electoral Commission remains committed to the foundation legislative guidelines that established this Commission.

We are more than before now ready to conduct the most credible Council elections, the people, especially, those at the grassroot will be proud of, the Commission's Chairman Observed.

Wole Soyinka: Conscience of the Nation still waxing strong at 80

Renowned Nigerian playwright, dramatist, poet, author and essayist, Prof. Wole Soyinka, is eighty years old. The trajectory of the life of this distinguished writer, who became the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, is an inspiration to Nigerians. His outstanding body of works, which enjoys global acclaim, traverses all genres of literature such as prose, drama and poetry. He has also written several short stories and essays, but he is better known for his plays, which earned him numerous prizes and accolades from home and abroad.

Till date, Soyinka has authored over thirty books in all genres. Some of his literary works are A Dance of the Forests (1963); The Lion and the Jewel (1963); The Strong Breed (1965); The Swamp Dwellers (1965); The Road (1965); The Interpreters (1965); The Trial of Brother Jero (1965); Kongi’s Harvest (1966); The Man Died (1972); Death and the King’s Horseman (1975); and Idanre and Other Poems (1967).

Apart from his literary exploits through numerous publications and seminal lectures, Soyinka is known worldwide for his political activism and polemics. He has been a constant critic of administrations in Nigeria, both civilian and military, and a foremost human rights crusader and defender. From the 1970s till date, Soyinka has been a consistent voice on critical national issues. There is no issue or topic that is beyond his criticism. Even in old age, he is still waxing strong and has remained a barometer to gauge the national conscience.

Born on July 13, 1934 at Abeokuta, Ogun State, as Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka, he attended St. Peter’s Primary School, Abeokuta in the early 1940s, and was admitted into Government College, Ibadan, in 1946. He was at the University College, Ibadan, where he studied Greek, English and History from 1952-1954. He also studied English Literature at University of Leeds, England. After graduation from Leeds, Soyinka worked at London’s Royal Court Theatre where he also directed some of his early plays.

He returned to Nigeria in 1960 and was involved in research into indigenous dramaturgy of the Yorubas and African Theatre. During this period, he was reputed to have written and directed dramatic sketches said to be critical of the government. In 1965, Soyinka was reported to have seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. For this action, he was arrested but released after a court trial. During the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970, he was imprisoned without trial and put in solitary confinement for 27 months for his alleged support to the secessionist Biafran Republic, by the Federal Government of General Yakubu Gowon (rtd).

He was appointed Head, Department of Theatre Arts, University of Ibadan from 1969-1971; Professor of Dramatic Literature, University of Ife in 1972; Visiting Professor in Drama, University of Sheffield, England, 1974; Visiting Professor in Drama, University of Ghana,1975; and Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Ife, 1975.

The Swedish Academy, during the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Soyinka in 1986, described him as one “who, in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence.” Most of his plays portray individual and collective predicaments of mankind in this plain of existence with high dosage of humour and outrage.

The Federal Government of Nigeria, in recognition of his contribution, conferred on Soyinka the National Honour, Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR), in 1986 in recognition of his contributions to nation building. The University of Leeds followed suit and awarded him D. Litt., honoraris causa in 1986. He was also appointed Pioneer Chairman of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in March 1989. He is, unarguably, one of Nigeria’s most celebrated citizens, having won numerous prizes and awards at home and abroad.

No doubt, Soyinka is a rare gift to Nigeria, Africa and the world, especially for his remarkable literary output and socio-political activism. He is a bundle of talents and intellect. As a playwright, his powerful command of the English Language and his deep knowledge of Yoruba language and culture are legendary.

Soyinka is a connoisseur of wine and music. He is a poet, author par excellence and a role model. He has done Nigeria and Africa proud with his literary achievements, and we urge upcoming writers to emulate his shining example.

•Adapted from a Sunday Sun Editorial.

EBOLA:Delta State Is Free

*State Government's Response Is Proactive

*Special Isolation Centers designated

Today, the Delta State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Joseph Otumara, in a press brief declared that Delta State is free of the dreaded disease.

Gentlemen of the press, there is no reported case of Ebola Virus Disease in Delta State yet, Dr. Otumara unveiled.

The commissioner confirmed that the state government is not leaving any stone unturned to ensure that any suspected case is promptly contained.

Dr. Otumara hinted that his ministry has mashalled out response to avoid loss of livea and reduce economic impacts Deltans stand the risk of suffering.

My ministry comducted a stakeholders meeting chaired by His Excellency, the Governor of Delta State, an inter-ministerial Ebola Virus Outbreak preparedness and response committee has being set up, Dr. Otumara said.

A meeting with relevant stakeholders like traditional rulers, owners of private health institutions and other related groups has been fixed.

We have started public sensitization on awareness about Ebola disease through electronic and print media as well as the social media, the commissioner told Asaba Post News Wire.

Dr. Joseph Otumara informed Deltans that special isolated health care centers has being designated as follows:
Warri, Ughelli, Sapele, Agbor, Oleh, Central Hospitals, others include Eku Baptist Government Hospital and DELSUTH Oghara.

As preventive measure, the health commissioner encouraged Deltans to avoid touching infected persons or their body fluids: sweat, blood, vomitus, urine, faeces or diarrhea, Deltans were adviced to maintain wholesome hygieni standards and strick hand washing regime.

Wole Soyinka: How he saved my life

By Onyeka Nwelue

“Fairytales do come true”, Frank Sinatra sang,”it could happen to you”.

Years ago, on a certain Sunday night, around 9.15pm, I was snoring away in my bed, sleeping soundly, maybe, when my father woke up: "Wole Soyinka is on NTA!" My eyes just cleared immediately. I ran out of the room and sat, beery-eyed before the TV and watched as the man in beautiful white hair read poems with a musical background to it. My father kept looking at me and he could sense the joy that engulfed me each time we talked about Wole Soyinka, read about him or even saw him on TV. My father had newspaper clips of Wole Soyinka, saved for me.


Fastforward to when I was 16 years old, during the 70th birthday anniversary of the Nobel Laureate, I was on a night bus, in a rickety Ifesinachi boss, coming to Lagos, for the first time in my life, to be part of the Wole Soyinka Festival. Before I got onto that bus, my father had cursed the nonsense out of my life. How could you risk your life like that? He refused to give me a penny. My mother gave me money and said, "Onyi, go. Be safe! Find what you are looking for!" This might sound a bit homo-erotic, but I was looking for Wole Soyinka. I think my father was just jealous; that was why he tried to stop me. Sometimes, you don't stop people when they have made up their minds on some things. That bus journey was scary. I arrived the city of madness, stressed, exhausted, but completely excited.

Before I got onto that bus, I had been communicating with a certain man called Professor Femi Osofisan. He was in charge of the National Theatre in Iganmu then and that was where this event was taking place to celebrate Wole  Soyinka. As soon as I got to my aunt's house in Okota, on the next day, I found my way to the National Theatre to find that man. I sat for a long time in his office, because I came very early. I didn't even tell him I was coming. When he walked in, I knew he was the one. I stood up, greeted him and he was full of smiles. I didn't tell him I was the one bombarding his email box. He went into his office and his secretary quickly went in and told him I was waiting for him. He asked me to come in, "Are you Onyeka?" He asked me. I nodded, shivering, because I had read almost everything he wrote. His essays, his poetry and his plays. And the ones he even wrote in newspapers with pen names. I froze. Dreams come true, I said to myself. He asked me to sit down and said he would send me to another man called Jahman Anikulapo. My heart started racing. Fast. This was my first time in Lagos and all these Yoruba people are just kind to me like this, I kept thinking.

That afternoon, after he bought me lunch and gave me money, Professor Osofisan introduced me to Jahman Anikulapo. Jahman quickly left everything he was doing and paid attention to me. It was the first time I was seeing Joke Silva in person; she was clapping and smiling at me when I read a poem I had written for Wole Soyinka. I know; everything I did was childish: my presentation and how naive I thought people in Lagos were. They were all childish, but they accepted me.

I met Wole Soyinka finally at night, inside Jazzville in Onike, Yaba. He had come for a poetry reading organised in his honour. It was the first time I almost fainted because I saw a human being I loved. We stood there on the podium and camera flashlights engulfed the whole place. He held me on the shoulder for some minutes and I felt all my problems had come to an end.

Life has never been easy, but reading about the life of Wole Soyinka, on everything he's been through, I've got much power to move on. I have never really thought that I would some day achieve some of the things I dreamed of achieving, but with the thought of Wole Soyinka conquering the entire universe, I've been able to swirl all through the world in pride.

After the publication of my first novel, The Abyssinian Boy, I travelled to India with my publishers and we were going to 'hang out' with Wole Soyinka. We were not surprised that he was mobbed by the Indian media, so getting to him at his hotel was very difficult. He was not available at all. I thought of what to do and then slipped a note underneath the door of his hotel, with my name on it. When we returned, the receptionists ran to us and said the Nobel Laureate had tried calling us and that he was waiting for us at the lobby. We went there and he politely discharged all the people who wanted his attention and sat with us for hours, talking to us, having the conversation taped by my publisher, Ayodele Arigbabu. He narrated his experience travelling to St. Lucia for the 80th birthday of his colleague, Dereck Walcott. He said: "Let me tell you what happened on my way here to give you an idea. I went to St. Lucia for the 80th birthday of my colleague- Derek Walcott, the Caribbean writer. I went to deliver the keynote address at what they called the Nobel Laureate Week in St. Lucia and my flight took me via San Juan in Puerto Rico to re-enter the United States. And there I was pulled aside! When I came through the immigration, they looked at my passport, saw I was Nigerian, asked me all sorts of questions, I answered them. So I was told to go for what they called a secondary check. So I had to sit there with illegal immigrants or suspect immigrants or whatever….just a few days ago, on my way here. I must have been kept there for 20- 25 minutes – I nearly missed my connection – and eventually I was called to the desk and I was not asked one single question. The man smiled, he just asked a perfunctory thing…”how long are you staying? Okay, do have a nice stay”. He did not ask me one single security question and gave me back my passport, they all smiled and so on. So I said, is that what we, who carry this passport now have to undergo every time? I said, you haven’t asked me any question but obviously, you’ve been making enquiries. He just smiled an apologetic smile. So this is what this passport now means. This was just a few days ago. So the problem is not trivial at all and I can imagine that’s happened to me, I can imagine it’s happening to hundreds of other Nigerians." That night I gave him a copy of The Abyssinian Boy, which he read and emailed me, encouraging me to write more.

As a child growing up, I was overly obsessed with Wole Soyinka and his coinage of words; he made the English language so beautiful that I felt he created that particular language. I was fascinated by verbose and bombastic expressions, especially made in his writings. He played on words, he derived joy in conjuring up words to make things seem very comical. That was his power. Honestly, I didn't make any sense of what I read, but I enjoyed the construction of the sentences. JP Clark's Wives Revolt and Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel made me bubble back then. I could read them again and again and yet, I didn't understand what these characters who are commoners said. I also read poems by these geniuses without understanding them. I was told that a genius is someone from hell who is from hell who is never understood.

Intellectually, Wole Soyinka has influenced me. Radically, he has twisted my mind. Personally, he has saved my soul. Just earlier this year, I got into a big problem at one of the foreign embassies in Lagos. I tried many ways to resolve the issue. It was difficult. I made up my mind and emailed the Nobel Laureate, honestly explaining the situation I found myself in. And quickly, as usual, he replied: "Oh dear, that's a great pity. However, I'll see what I can do. I return home in about a fortnight and will have a word with him." That problem was solved once he got back! He kept to his promise.

And I bounced back. And I am happy that he is alive watching over those of us who revere and love him. I am happy he's 80 years. I am happy that he is very strong and still speaking out against inhumanity!



Onyeka Nwelue is award-winning author of The Abyssinian Boy (DADA Books, 2009) and Burnt (Hattus, 2014). He's currently Professor of African Studies and Literature at Instituto d'Amicis, Puebla in Mexico.


Onyeka Nwelue
International Director / Dirección InternacionalAlcorce EdicionesCalle Magdalena
#6 Colonia La Paz. Puebla, Puebla 230 17 53
onyeka.nwelue@alcorce.mx
www.alcorce.mx
Mexico: +52-22-22-028481

ASABA: THE CRY OF A NATIVE

''ANA EGBU ACHALLA, ACHALLA ANA ETO''

By Austin Biosah

Schools of thought are always diverse.From the period man appeared on the surface of the earth till date,no human achievement nay breakthrough has achieved total acceptance.For every positive man has put in place,consciously or unconsciously,there is always a negative perception towards it.For those of us who are Christians and thus believe in the theory of creation,God's gesture of Eve towards Adam,turned out to be a debatable gesture.Adam was droven out of the garden of Eden because of Eve's contact with the serpent!.All we know now is the very irony that all must come to pass,for the scriptures to be fulfilled.

Colonialism was another 'phenomenon' that thrived in Africa and elsewhere for over 300 years.For Africans,it was bad news.History has it that for over 300 years,millions of Africans were forcefully taken to the Americas in the form of slaves for forced labour.The painful aspect of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade was that over 90% of those taken away from Africa were the work-force.Put differently,those taken away were between the ages of 12 and 45,the population that drove Africa's economic vehicle.Thus,Africa was stagnated for over 300 years!.

It may surprise you to learn that despite all the setbacks and drains Africa suffered in the hands of Europeans,some schools of thought are still of the opinnion that inherent in imperialism cum colonialism were advantages like Christianity,western education,industrialisation et al,all of which Africa enjoys today.

One of the most difficult exam questions I came across as an undergraduate came thus:'oil in Nigeria,blessing or curse'?.I leave you to ponder on this and think of what your answers would be if faced with same question,given the present state Nigeria finds herself.The point in emphasis is that never in the history of human existence has man not been divided on issues of interest.This brings us to the topic of discussion.

I am from Asaba,the capital city of 'oil rich' Delta state.My people have a saying that can be interpreted thus,'when a child talks,his age can simply be ascertained'.Ignorance is not always the issue.Tribal chauvinism is worse than ignorance and no matter your status in life,when caught up with both ignorance and ethnic chauvinism,you cannot but speak like a child.I read an article not quite long ago by one Ese Onajite in the Vanguard newspapers.Its so ironical that it was a masterpiece shrouded in ignorance!.

The writer,Ese Onajite,talked about Anioma's 2015 agenda as it concerns equity and zoning.To be fair with him,he made some very salient points and his write-up was beginning to make sense until he stated that the Anioma's have the state capital and cannot hide under the influence of zoning and equity to clinch the governoship come 2015.He also said that if that is the case,the capital should be moved to a more 'acceptable place' other than Asaba.At that point,Mr Onajite's article became laughable and I wished i could face him with the over a hundred questions I had for him.I wanted to ask Mr.Onajite,amongst other questions,if it is unconstitutional for someone who hails from the capital to aspire to the highest office in the state;I wanted to as him where the more acceptable place for the seat of capital in Delta state is.

It is no news that since that fateful day in August 27,1991 when our inlaw IBB announced Asaba the capital of Delta state,our 'brothers' from the south and central parts of the state have refused to accept Asaba as their state capital.Prior to the creation of Delta state from the defunct Bendel state,agitations for state creation were rife.A high-power Anioma delegation that included the late obi Onwuegbuzia were in all fronts canvassing for the creation of Anioma state,of course not overlooking the inputs of the likes of Ide-Ahaba towards the agitation.

At the same time,the urhobos,ijaws,itsekiris,isokos were clamouring for Delta state.But while the Anioma canvassers were looking for an Anioma state that will have Asaba as its capital,the south and central people who wanted Delta state were undecided on where the capital will be situated.We are just being made to believe that warri is generally acceptable to them all,but I make bold to say that it is not true.We all witnessed the wars between the Ijaws,Itsekiris and urhobos prior to Ibori's emergence in 1999.

It was obvious at the time that not more than one state could be carved out of the defunct Bendel state,thus the creation of Delta state with Asaba as it capital-a worthy buffer zone?.This development was met with mixed reactions.While we were busy dancing,our other Anioma brothers were semi-happy due to proxy(we never knew till recently),but the south and central peoples were devastated.It was not too long before their devastation came to the fore.They claimed that the nomenclature,Delta,belongs to them because of their terrain and oil and that it was impossible for them to be under Asaba,nay Anioma.Series of petitions started flying from all corners,but all fell on deaf ears.

So,it is not surprising that 23 years after,people are making statements to the effect that the governorship is theirs since Anioma has the capital.A whole lot have happened over the years.Since the advent of democracy in 1999 and the emergence of James Ibori as the governor of Delta state,Asaba people have been faced with the harsh realization that we are not one.

As an undergraduate in 1999,I enrolled for the shell undergraduate scholarship test with a bossom friend of the Urhobo stock.When we got to the exam centre,I was shocked when I was told I would not write the same papers with my friend.The examiners was quick to let me know that my friend was from an oil producing area and I was not.The rest was history!.

We all can see the state Asaba is in after 23 years of being a state capital.Towns that were announced capital cities the same time as Asaba have gone far. Infact,Abakaliki was made a state capital in 1996 but I bet you will be shocked if you visit Abakaliki. All these brought up the issue of zoning the governorship.Its all about trust and leadership.If we had leaders we could trust,why call for zoning?,what we have now is a situation whereby you gain political power so that you can enrich yourself and at the same time develop your place and empower your people.

The peculiarity of Asaba's case as the capital city of Delta state is that while our Delta south and central 'brothers' are against our development,our own Anioma brothers particularly our closest kinsmen,who the also enjoying the advantages of the capital territory are also fighting us.It is painful when persons from Ibusa and okpanam make statements to the effect that Asaba was nothing before August 27th,1991. Recently, a govt official whose town is better passed as a hamlet was bold enough to say that Asaba was a remote village before his pay master (Uduaghan)came into power. So if such comments are made by persons from Anioma,what do we expect from the ,Urhobos,Ijaws,Itsekiris et al.

Not too long ago,these our Oshimili brothers identified themselves as Asaba people in far places.Infact,I had a friend who was fond of telling people he is from Asaba.One day,I engaged him about his identity and he said...''actually''...I started laughing because once you hear 'actually',you know the person is Asaba by proxy.But they have started witnessing expansion and they now identify themselves by where they actually come from,therefore Asaba is on her own.

Just a couple of months back,some Okpanam youths cleaned the signpost of the state school of midwifery along Okpanam road that was reading,'P.M.B.Asaba,Delta state'

.They said the school is situated on Okpanam land and cannot bear 'Asaba' on its signpost.The same thing happened at Ibusa.Some youths went to the state command of the Immigration service situated along Asaba-Ibusa road and erazed the 'Asaba' written on their signpost and replaced it with Ibusa.Again,their reason being that the office is situated on Ibusa land and not Asaba.
They all forgot that Asaba and its environs cum adjoining properties form the capital territory and that its the understanding of governing that all those places are part of the capital.It therefore means that had it been that the government built the Asaba international airport at Issele-Azagba land,for example,by now the airport would have turned to Issele-Azagba international airport!...gross ignorance!.

But I have one little advice for persons seeing Asaba from a distance,Asaba is blessed by God in human and material resources.We do not need guns to agitate for our pride of place,we put God first and use the pen,just like we did in 1991!.So the more you try to pull us down,the more trouble you get yourself into

makana

''Ana egbu achalla, Achalla ana eto''

Odinma Ahaba di Chukwu na aka!.Daalu nu!!!

From Commonwealth Games gold to the firing squad: The untold story of Nigeria’s forgotten hero Emmanuel Ifeajuna

The first time Emmanuel Ifeajuna appeared before a crowd of thousands he did something no black African had ever done. He won a gold medal at an international sporting event. “Nigeria Creates World Sensation,” ran the headline in the West African Pilot after Ifeajuna’s record-breaking victory in the high jump at the 1954 Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver. He was the pride not just of Nigeria but of a whole continent. An editorial asked: “Who among our people did not weep for sheer joy when Nigeria came uppermost, beating all whites and blacks together?”

In the words of a former schoolmate, Ifeajuna had leaped “to the very pinnacle of Nigerian sporting achievement”. His nine track and field team-mates won another six silver and bronze medals, prompting a special correspondent to write “Rejoice with me, oh ye sports lovers of Nigeria, for the remarkable achievements of our boys”.

Ifeajuna, feted wherever he went, would soon see his picture on the front of school exercise books. He was a great national hero who would remain Nigeria’s only gold medallist, in Commonwealth or Olympic sport, until 1966.

The next time Ifeajuna appeared before a crowd of thousands he was bare-chested and tied to a stake, facing execution before a seething mob. He had co-led a military coup in January 1966 in which, according to an official but disputed police report, he shot and killed Nigeria’s first prime minister. The coup failed but Ifeajuna escaped to safety in Ghana, dressed as a woman and was driven to freedom by a famous poet. Twenty months later, he was back, fighting for the persecuted Igbo people of eastern Nigeria in a brutal civil war that broke out as a consequence of the coup.

Ifeajuna and three fellow officers were accused by their own leader, General Emeka Ojukwu, of plotting against him and the breakaway Republic of Biafra. They denied charges of treason: they were trying to save lives and their country, they said, by negotiating an early ceasefire with the federal government and reuniting Nigeria. They failed, they died and, in the next two and a half years, so did more than a million Igbos.

The day of the execution was 25 September, 1967, and the time 1.30pm. There was a very short gap between trial and execution, not least because federal troops were closing in on Enugu, the Biafran capital, giving rise to fears that the “guilty four” might be rescued.

As the execution approached, the four men – Ifeajuna, Victor Banjo, Phillip Alale and Sam Agbam – were tied to stakes. Ifeajuna, with his head on his chest as though he was already dead, kept mumbling that his death would not stop what he had feared most, that federal troops would enter Enugu, and the only way to stop this was for those about to kill him to ask for a ceasefire.

A body of soldiers drew up with their automatic rifles at the ready. On the order of their officer, they levelled their guns at the bared chests of the four men. As a hysterical mass behind the firing squad shouted: “Shoot them! Shoot them!” a grim-looking officer gave the command: “Fire!” The deafening volley was followed by lolling heads. Ifeajuna slumped. Nigeria’s great sporting hero died a villain’s death. But he had been right. By 4pm two and a half hours after the executions, the gunners of the federal troops had started to hit their targets in Enugu with great accuracy. The Biafrans began to flee and the city fell a few days later.

Of all the many hundreds of gold medallists at the Empire and Commonwealth Games since 1930 none left such a mark on history, led such a remarkable life or suffered such a shocking death as Ifeajuna.

His co-plotter in the 1966 coup, Chukwuma Nzeogwu, was buried with full military honours and had a statue erected in his memory in his home town. But for Ifeajuna, the hateful verdict of that seething mob carried weight down the years. His name was reviled, his sporting glory all but written out of Nigeria’s history. His name is absent from the website of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, appearing neither in the history of the Federation nor in any other section. There is no easy road to redemption for the gold medallist who inadvertently started a war and was shot for trying to stop it.

Nigeria’s first foray into overseas sport was in 1948, when they sent athletes to London to compete in the Amateur Athletic Association Championships, and to watch the Olympic Games before a planned first entry in the next Olympiad. In 1950 there was cause to celebrate when the high jumper, Josiah Majekodunmi, won a silver medal at the Auckland Commonwealth Games. He also fared best of Nigeria’s Olympic pathfinders, the nine-man team who competed at Helsinki in 1952. Majekodunmi was ninth, with two of his team-mates also in the top 20. Nigerians clearly excelled at the high jump.

With three men having competed in that 1952 Olympic final, the Nigeria selectors had plenty of names to consider for the Commonwealth Games high jump in Vancouver two years later. Ifeajuna, aged 20, was not a contender until he surprised everybody at the national championships in late April, less than two months before the team were due to depart. His jump of 6ft 5.5in, the best of the season, took him straight in alongside Nafiu Osagie, one of the 1952 Olympians, and he was selected.

The high jump was on day one of competition in Vancouver and Ifeajuna wore only one shoe, on his left foot. One correspondent wrote: “The Nigerian made his cat-like approach from the left-hand side. In his take-off stride his leading leg was flexed to an angle quite beyond anything ever seen but he retrieved position with a fantastic spring and soared upwards as if plucked by some external agency.”

Ifeajuna brushed the bar at 6ft 7in but it stayed on; he then cleared 6ft 8in to set a Games and British Empire record, and to become the first man ever to jump 13.5in more than his own height. This first gold for black Africa was a world-class performance. His 6ft 8in – just over 2.03m – would have been good enough for a silver medal at the Helsinki Olympics two years earlier.

The team arrived back home on 8 September. That afternoon they were driven on an open-backed lorry through the streets of Lagos, with the police band on board, to a civic reception at the racecourse. The flags and bunting were out in abundance, as were the crowds in the middle and, for those who could afford tickets, the grandstand. There was a celebration dance at 9pm. Ifeajuna told reporters he had been so tired, having spent nearly four hours in competition, that: “At the time I attempted the record jump I did not think I had enough strength to achieve the success which was mine. I was very happy when I went over the bar on my second attempt.”

After a couple of weeks at home Ifeajuna was off to university on the other side of the country at Ibadan. His sporting career was already over, apart from rare appearances in inter-varsity matches. He met his future wife, Rose, in 1955. They married in 1959 and had two sons. After graduating in zoology he taught for a while before joining the army in 1960 and was trained in England, at Aldershot. Ifeajuna had first shown an interest in the military in 1956 when, during a summer holiday in Abeokuta, he had visited the local barracks with a friend who later became one of the most important figures in the Commonwealth.

Chief Emeka Anyaoku joined the Commonwealth Secretariat in 1966, the year of Ifeajuna’s coup attempt. While his good friend escaped, returned, fought in the war and died in front of the firing squad, Anyaoku moved to London, where he rose to the highest office in the Commonwealth, secretary-general, in 1990. For four years at university he lived in a room next door to Ifeajuna, who became a close friend.

Why did the record-breaking champion stop competing? “From October, 1954, when he enrolled at Ibadan, he never trained,” said Anyaoku, nearly 60 years later. “He never had a coach – only his games master at grammar school – and there were no facilities at the university. He simply stopped. He seemed content with celebrating his gold medal. I don’t think the Olympics ever tempted him. I used to tease him that he was the most natural hero in sport. He did no special training. He was so gifted, he just did it all himself. Jumping barefoot, or with one shoe, was not unusual where we came from.”

Another hugely influential voice from Nigerian history pointed out that Ifeajuna, in his days as a student, had “a fairly good record of rebellion”. Olusegun Obasanjo served as head of a military regime and as an elected president. He recalled Ifeajuna’s role in a protest that led to the closure of his grammar school in Onitsha for a term in 1951, when he was 16. Three years after winning gold, while at university, Ifeajuna made a rousing speech before leading several hundred students in protest against poor food and conditions.

The former president also held a manuscript written by Ifeajuna in the aftermath of the coup but never published. It stated: “It was unity we wanted, not rebellion. We had watched our leaders rape our country. The country was so diseased that bold reforms were badly needed to settle social, moral, economic and political questions. We fully realised that to be caught planning, let alone acting, on our lines, was high treason. And the penalty for high treason is death.”

In 1964 the Lagos boxer Omo Oloja won a light-middleweight bronze in Tokyo, thereby becoming Nigeria’s first Olympic medallist. It was a rare moment of celebration in a grim year that featured a general strike and a rigged election. Another election the following year was, said the BBC and Reuters correspondent Frederick Forsyth, seriously rigged – “electoral officers disappeared, ballot papers vanished from police custody, candidates were detained, polling agents were murdered”. Two opposing sides both claimed victory, leading to a complete breakdown of law and order. “Rioting, murder, looting, arson and mayhem were rife,” said Forsyth. The prime minister, Tafawa Balewa, refused to declare a state of emergency. There was corruption in the army, too, with favouritism for northern recruits. A group of officers began to talk about a coup after they were told by their brigadier that they would be required to pledge allegiance to the prime minister, from the north, rather than the country’s first president, an Igbo. Ifeajuna’s group feared a jihad against the mainly Christian south, led by the north’s Muslim figurehead, the Sardauna of Sokoto.

The coup, codenamed Leopard, was planned in secret meetings. Major Ifeajuna led a small group in Lagos, whose main targets were the prime minister, the army’s commander-in-chief, and a brigadier, who was Ifeajuna’s first victim. According to the official police report, part of which has never been made public, Ifeajuna and a few of his men broke into the prime minister’s home, kicked down his bedroom door and led out Balewa in his white robe. They allowed him to say his prayers and drove him away in Ifeajuna’s car. On the road to Abeokuta they stopped, Ifeajuna ordered the prime minister out of the car, shot him, and left his body in the bush. Others say the Prime Minister was not shot, nor was the intention ever to kill him: Balewa died of an asthma attack or a heart attack brought on by fear. There has never been conclusive evidence either way.

Ifeajuna drove on to Enugu, where it became apparent that the coup had failed, mainly because one of the key officers in Ifeajuna’s Lagos operation had “turned traitor” and had failed to arrive as planned with armoured cars. Major-General Ironsi, the main military target, was still at large and he soon took control of the military government. Ifeajuna was now a wanted man. He hid in a chemist’s shop, disguised himself as a woman, and was driven over the border by his friend Christopher Okigbo, a poet of great renown. Then he travelled on to Ghana, where he was welcomed.

Ifeajuna eventually agreed to return to Lagos, where he was held pending trial. Ojukwu, by now a senior officer, ensured his safety by having him transferred, in April, to a jail in the east. Igbos who lived in the north of the country were attacked. In weeks of violent bloodshed tens of thousands died. As the death toll increased, the outcome was civil war. In May, 1967, Ojukwu, military governor of the south-east of Nigeria, declared that the region had now become the Republic of Biafra. By the time the fighting ended in early 1970, the number of deaths would be in the millions.

Arguably, if either of Ifeajuna’s plots had been a success, those lives would not have been lost. The verdicts on his role in Nigerian history are many and varied: his detractors have held sway. Chief among them was Bernard Odogwu, Biafra’s head of intelligence, who branded Ifeajuna a traitor and blamed him for “failure and atrocities” in the 1966 coup. Adewale Ademoyega, one of the 1966 plotters, held a different view of Ifeajuna. “He was a rather complicated character ... intensely political and revolutionary ... very influential among those close to him ... generous and willing to sacrifice anything for the revolution.”

The last time Anyaoku saw Ifeajuna was in 1963, in Lagos, before Anyaoku’s departure for a diplomatic role in New York. He later moved to London and was there in 1967. “I was devastated when I heard the news of the execution,” he said. As for Ifeajuna being all but written out of Nigeria’s sporting history, he noted that: “The history of the civil war still evokes a two-sided argument. He is a hero to many people, though they would more readily talk about his gold medal than his involvement in the war. There are people who think he was unjustifiably executed and others who believe the opposite.”

One commentator suggested recently that the new national stadium in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, should be named after Ifeajuna. It will surely never happen.

•Courtesy of the Observer, London. This is an edited extract from the book, “The Commonwealth Games: Extraordinary Stories Behind The Medals”, by Brian Oliver, a former sports editor of the Observer, published by Bloomsbury. Photo shows the late Ifeajuna.

Source News Express

PRESIDENT JONATHAN ADVOCATES REMOVAL OF CONSTITUTIONAL AGE LIMIT FOR YOUTHS TO BE PRESIDENT

President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja on Saturday advocated the removal of the constitutional age limit of 40 years for a Nigerian to become president.

Jonathan described the provision as discriminatory against young Nigerians, who had the energy, ideas and other qualities to lead the country to greatness.

Jonathan spoke at an international youth conference, organised by the Nigerian Young Professionals Forum (NYPF), with the theme, ``Capacity for Change for a New Nigeria’’.

He challenged the youth to forward a constitution amendment bill to the National Assembly for the removal of all discriminatory provisions in terms of age and promised to support them.

The president said the call by the Chairman and Founder of NYPF, Mr Moses Siasia, for 35 per cent affirmative action for the youth in governance also limited the aspiration of the group.

He noted that asking for a percentage amounted to self-limitation, considering that the youth had all that was required to govern, especially the numerical strength to get the highest office in the land.

``The youths have no limit in terms of number and capacity to lead this country to greatness.
``The only limit is that for youths to contest as president, they need to be 40.

``If Gen. Yakubu Gowon was able to rule this country at 32, there is no reason why the youths should not be given the chance.

``So, don’t ask for per cent because by that request you are limiting yourselves.

``I think what the youth should do now is to come together, and I will support you, and take a bill to the National Assembly to amend some discriminatory provisions of the constitution in terms of age.’’

Jonathan pledged the continued support of his administration to the youth through policies and programmes that would continue to harness their huge potential for national development.

He said through programmes, such as YouWin, SURE-P, Graduate Internship Scheme and the Community Service Programme, his administration would continue to create opportunities for young people.

Igbo scholar disgraces Femi Fani-Kayode

•Demolishes claims on Igbo/Yoruba history with facts and figures


An Igbo scholar, Dr. Samuel Okafor, has made one-time Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, look so small and uneducated by using facts and figures to demolish the claims he made in the controversial August 8 article, “The Bitter Truth About The Igbo”, which set off a storm that almost threatened Igbo-Yoruba relations.

In the first part of an article entitled “The Lies of Femi Fani-Kayode”, Okafor, who has a First Class in History from the University of Nigeria Nsukka and then did a Ph.D in Nsukka on scholarship, dismissed Fani-Kayode as a “half-baked intellectual.” He then proceeded, point by point, to address what he termed “the most reckless amongst the tangle of reckless comments spewed by Femi, a character who with each punch of his keypad stresses his severely unwell conditions of logorrhoea, delusions of enlightenment, history and sociology – amongst others.”

Below are Okafor’s words:

FEMI AND HIS SEVERELY IGNORANT LIES:

•Femi Lies About the Yorubas Being Nigeria’s Earliest Graduates:

From his myopic bubble Femi FaniKayode claims the Yoruba were the first to acquire Western education; the first ever known record of a literate Nigerian in the English Language is the narrative of an Ibo slave who regained his freedom and documented his life history as a slave from the time he was 11 years old in present day Ibo land till the time when he gained his freedom in the middle of the 18 th century. He later married an English woman and had 3 children. He died in 1795.

Femi, a basic Google-research will do you good here; check out the name, Equanoh OLAODAH. Further Femi claims that the Yoruba were the first lawyers and doctors in Nigeria. This is again a big falsehood. The first Nigeria doctor was an Effik man Silas G. Dove who obtained a medical degree from France and returned to practise medicine in 1840 in Calabar. This fact can also be verified from historical medical records in Paris.

I would also ask that you google the name BLYDEN – Edward Wilmot BLYDEN – an educated son of free Ibo slaves who by the mid-19th century had acquired sound theological education. He was born in Saint Thomas in 1832. He is one of the founding missionaries that established the Archbishop Vining church in Ikeja. Before the next time you succumb to your long-running battle with logorrhoea, Femi please do some research.

What about the third president of a free Liberia – President J JRoyle – again, a man of Ibo descent. Please take some time to do some research so that we can discuss constructively. It is wrong to peddle lies to your people. It is academic fraud to knowingly misrepresent facts just to score cheap points with people who do not have the discipline to do research and accept anything you pour out simply because they say you are well educated. To again quote the great Nobel Prize Winner in Economics Joseph Stiglitz; Femi fits into the category of third rate students from first rate universities with an inflated sense of self-importance. Let’s go on!

Who was the first Nigerian Professor of Mathematics – an Ibo man – Professor Chike Obi – the man who solved Fermat’s Last Theorem. He was followed by another Ibo man, Professor James Ezeilo, Professor of Differentail Calculus and the founder of the Ezeilo Constant. Please do some research on this great Ibo man. He later became the Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria Nsukka and one of the founders of the Nigerian Mathematical Centre. Who was Nigeria’s first Professor of Histroy – Professor Kenneth Dike who published the first account of trade in Nigeria in pre-colonial times. He was also the first African Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan. Who was the first Professor of Microbiology – Professor Eni Njoku; he was also the first African Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos. Anatomy and Physiology – Professor Chike Edozien is an Asaba man and current Obi of Asaba. Who was the first Professor of Anatomy at the University College Ibadan? Who was the first Professor of Physics? Professor Okoye, who became a Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1960. He was followed by the likes of Professor Alexander Anumalu who has been nominated for the Nobel Prize for Physics three times for his research in Intermediate Quantum Physics. He was also a founding member of the Nigerian Mathematical Centre. Nuclear Physics and Chemistry – again another Ibo man – Professor Frank Ndili who gained a Ph.D in his early ’20s at Cambridge Univesity in Nuclear Physics and Chemistry in the early ’60s. This young Asaba man had made a First Class in Physics and Mathematics at the then University College Ibadan in the early ’50s. First Professor of Statistics – Professor Adichie who’s research on Non-Parametric Statistics led to new areas in statistical research. What about the first Nigerian Professor of Medicine – Professor Kodilinye – he was appointed a Professor of Medicine at the University of London in 1952. He later became the Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria Nsukka after the war. What about Astronomy – again another Ibo man was the first Professor of Astronomy – please, look up Professor Ntukoju – he was the first to earn a double Ph.D in Astronomy and Mathematics.

Let’s go to the Social Sciences – Demography and statistical research into population studies – again another Ibo man – Professor Okonjo who set up the first Centre for Population Research in Ibadan in the early ’60s. A double Ph.D in Mathematics and Economics. Philosophy – Professor G D Okafor, who became a Professor of Philosophy at the Amherst College USA in 1953. Economics – Dr. Pius Okigbo who became a visiting scholar and Professor of Economics at the University of London in 1954. He is also the first Nigerian Ph.D in Economics. Theology and theological research – Professor Njoku who became the first Nigerian to earn a Ph.D in Theology from Queens University Belfast in Ireland. He was appointed a Professor of Theology at the University College Zambia in 1952.

I am still conducting research in areas such as Geography where it seems a Yoruba man, Professor Mabogunje, was the first Professor. I also am conducting research into who was the first Nigerian Professor of English, Theatre Arts, Languages, Business and Education, Law and Engineering, Computer Technology, etc. Nigerians need to be told the truth and not let the lies that Femi Fani-Kayode has been selling to some ignorant Yoruba who feel that to be the first to see the white man and interact with him means that you are way ahead of other groups. The Ibo as The great Achebe said had within a span of 40 years bridged the gap and even surpassed the Yoruba in education by the ’60s. Many a Yoruba people perpetually indulge in self-deceit: that they were the first to go to school; to be exposed to Western education; that they are academically ahead of other Nigerian cultures of peoples. Another ignorant lie.

As far back as 1495 the Benin Empire maintained a diplomatic presence in Portugal. This strategic relationship did not just stop at a mere mission but extended to areas such as education. Scores of young Benin men were sent out to Portugal to study and lots of them came back with advanced degrees in Medicine, Law and Portuguese Language, to name a few.

Indeed, some went with their Yoruba and Ibo slaves who served the sons of the Benin nobility while they studied in Portugal. These are facts that can be verified by the logs kept by ship owners in Portugal from 1494 to 1830. It is kept at the Portuguese Museum of Geographic History in Lisbon.

Why then would several Yoruba people peddle all these falsehoods to show that they are ahead educationally in Nigeria? The true facts from the Federal Office of Statistics on education tell otherwise, showing that 3 Ibo states for the past 12 years have constantly had the largest number of graduates in the country, producing more graduates than Ondo, Osun, Ekiti and Oyo states. These eastern states are Imo, Anambra and Abia. Yet he calls Ibos traders. Indeed, the Igbos dominate because excellence dominates mediocrity – truth.

Let me enlighten this falsehood’s mouthpiece even further: before the civil war Ibos controlled and dominated all institutions in the formal sector in Nigeria from the universities to the police to the military to politics:

•The first Black Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan was an Ibo man

•The first Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos was an Ibo man

•The first Nigerian Rector of the then Yaba College of Technology was also an Ibo man

•The police was run by an Ibo IG

•The military as a professional institution was also run by elite-ilk Ibos.

Facts can never be hidden. To be first does not mean you would win the race; let us open up all our institutions and may the best man win. Let us not depend on handouts or privileges but on heard work. Let us compete and give the best positions to our brightest – be it Ibo, Yourba or Fulani, and then we shall see who is the most successful Nigerian.

I find it difficult not to respond to some of these long-held lies that are constantly being peddled by Yorubas. One is that the Yoruba have the largest number of professors in the country. I would again ask that we stick to facts and statistical records. The Nigerian Universities Commission has a record of the state with the largest number of professors on their records and as at 2010 that state is Imo State followed by Ondo State and then Anambra State; the next state is Ekiti and then Delta before Kwara State. I am sure you Yorubas are surprised. When you sit in the South-West do not think others are sleeping but I wish to address another historical fact and that is who were the first Nigerians to receive Western education. It is important that these issues be examined in their historical context and evidence through research be presented for all to examine.

I have continued my research for as the great sociologist and father of modern sociology – Emile Durkheim – put it, the definition of a situation is real in its consequence . What this simply means is that one must never allow a perceived falsehood to become one’s reality and by extension individuals who accept a defined position act as though the situation is real and apply themselves in that narrowly defined perspective.

Why is this important to state it is because for long the Yoruba have peddled lies that have almost become accepted as the truth by other Nigerians but it is important that we lay down the facts for others to examine and come to their own conclusion for facts are facts. Let’s go back to education. Historically, Western education resulted as a product of indigenous ethnic groups interacting with the whites through trade. The dominant groups sold slaves, ivory gold and a host of other products to their European counterparts in exchange for finished goods – wine, tobacco, mirrors, etc.

The Bini who were the dominant military force from the 15th to the 19th century raided and sold other ethnicities to the Europeans. Top on the list of those they sold were the Yoruba, Ibo and Igala. Various other ethnicities suffered as a result of the Bini military expansion. And the Benin Kingdom stretched from present-day Benin up to what is now geographically referred to as Republic of Togo. Indeed, the influence of the Benin Empire extended to the banks of the river Niger to present-day Onistha. There are huge Yoruba settlements in the Anioma part of Delta State who fled Yoruba land as a result of these attacks and constant raids. Yes, there are Yoruba people who are currently living with Ibos in the Ibo-speaking part of Delta and they are full citizens of the place no one refers to them as strangers and there is no talk about the Ibos being the host community like we hear from the Governor of Lagos State. But let me return to research. Slaves were moved from the hinterland to the coast and many were sold through Eko to the New World. These slaves were the first to encounter the Europeans and by extension their way of life – this included education in a Western sense. The Bini King had taken pains to establish a diplomatic presence in Portugal and the relationship developed into areas that extended beyond trade in the late 15th century and lasted well into the early 19th century. Scores of young Bpni youth were sent to Portugal and studied there, coming back with advanced degrees in various disciplines. The next set of people to receive Western education were the slaves themselves. Some of them managed to buy their freedom and develop themselves further.

For the Ibo it does not matter who your father is; the question is: Who are you? Who was Obasanjo’s father? Was he the most educated Nigerian? I am sure the answer is no. Yet this Great Nigeria led this nation two times as a military Head of State and as a civilian President. What about GEJ? Who was his own father? Was he the first Nigerian to go to London? The answer is no. In fact, he had no shoes, yet he is fully in charge. So it does not matter if your father was the first Lawyer or first Doctor in Nigeria but rather what matters is what an individual does with the talents the Almighty has given to him. Let us open up Nigeria for competition. That is the solution to our problems. Those who want privileges keep reminding us that their fathers were the first to go to school in London. Every generation produces its own leaders and champions. Like Dangote who is the biggest employer of labour in Nigeria today and the richest man in Africa. Was his father the first to go to study in London? Yet he is the master of people whose parents gave them the best. My brothers, the answer to the Nigerian problem is that we should establish a merit-driven society. “I get am before” no be property.



Source News Express

ANI AHABA Vs EBOLA

*Why ANI AHABA must not be afraid.

Ani Ahaba last month, July, as a unitied comminity performed an age long bi-anual sacred communal cleansing ceremony, we call ICHU ULOR ANI AHABA.

Folks you will recall that on this forum, i did share with you the idea and rational behind the communal cleansing ceremony of ICHU ULOR ANI AHABA.

This age long festival was laid down by our fathers who through quiet and calculated observation of the world around them and sound mastery of Nature laws, demonstrated that there this a harmless pattern to stay free from bodily and environmental disorders.

Our Ani Ahaba fathers really do understood that by mid year and at the turn of the seasons that seasonal swapping has potentials to bring forth some health imbalance, hence through a perfect understanding of the above, they instituted the ICHU ULOR ANI AHABA and mandated us who believe in OMELI IFE ANI AHABA never to forsake the commemoration of this bi-annual communal cleansing ceremony, ICHU ULOR ANI AHABA.

At the communal cleansing ceremony, Ani Ahaba People as early 4am to 5am, woke up, set up burn fire, with the burning red amber went round their building casting off all spells, misfortunes, miseries, unwanted happenings, poverty and illness, all the early morning bi-annual ritual ended in a body of water, afterwards celebrants dance home, celebrating a vision of a new world based on the FAITH that their active involvement in the communal cleansing ceremony is a natural protection, and for all you FAITHFULLY believe in the Natural path of OMELI IFE ANI AHABA, Amen attends to their engagement and active participation.

Current happenings arround me in the last few days has demonstrated that ANI AHABA has indeed won the war against the Imperialist Driven Biological War Weapon.

Yesterday, in trueness to the efficacy of the saving grace in our age long cultural heritage, the Commissioner for Health called for a press conference on the dreaded Ebola Virus, yours truely was invited.

True to our ICHU ULOR potency, the honourable commissioner declared authoritatively that ANI AHABA is free from the mad rave called Ebola Virus, also the commissioner confirmed that the state is equally free of the virus, what a great PLUS to OMELI IFE ANI AHABA.

With rapt attention i listened to the commissioner as he listed the towns desiginated as Ebola Isolation posts, to the glory of who and what we are, ANI AHABA was never mentioned.

Again our land's state of all round cleanness was medically established yesterday.

Another ground was broken today, very early in the morning say as early as 4am my neighours were alerted with both SMS and phone calls.

What you may ask was the object of the alerts, neighbours were told to wake up, boil warm water, add salt and bath with same.

I hope in the above you can see the manifestation of ICHU ULOR, especially, those who did not participate with us, by this early morning alert has participated in same ritual, have same symbolism.

Thanks to my Ani Ahaba Roots,
am ever grategul to a heritage that carefully studied and understood Nature and through communal ceremonies and festivals preserved/packaged her discoveries to generations unborn.

To a few of us who having being exposed to colonial thought process and her fellow imperialist cum capitalist peespective about Ani Ahaba, we have come to the conclusion that a lot of harm and misfortunes could be averted in Ani Ahaba by a simple understanding of how Nature works, a pattern that abhors abuse, waste and zero-purpose driven agenda.

Thanks to ANI AHABA
Thanks to you my FOLKS

ANI AHABA AMAKA

Koyenum Immallah Foundation Takes HIV/AIDS Advocacy To Isoko North LGA

The leadership of the NGO pose here in group photograph with the repersentatives of LGA Caretaker Committee Chairman and with the LACA team of the LGA

Time for statesmen

Let us not kid ourselves, our country is in danger. We live under a storm cloud, even if we carry on with the routine optimism of the unwary. This is not a time for the mere blossom of rhetoric or the grandstanding of a political virtuoso. It is time for home truths, and we seem to suffer parsimony in that regard.



What are at stake? The survival of Nigeria and the security of lives of our citizens. We seem to be living in denial. Both major political parties are at each other’s throats. The tribes do not trust each other and the religions see themselves are God’s and the other as the devil’s. The PDP is in power and it is accused of using the military and the impeachment weapon to cow the opposition. The PDP, in its recriminatory wisdom, is also accusing the opposition as the mastermind of Boko haram, and employing public relations firms to launder its ineptitude in the world. The opposition, the APC, fresh from what some have characterised as a contentious convention, has however had its national executive, and has accused the PDP of failure.



Yet three things haunt us today. One, the remorseless raids and rapine of Boko Haram; the deployment of soldiers as an arm of the ruling party; the fury and flurry of the impeachment saga, and the fear that the whole country is in the throes of an imperial presidency. All of this is happening amidst poverty, a collapsing infrastructure and absence of it, educational crisis and youth unemployment.



Everything is directed clearly at victory in 2015. But how are we sure that violence will not torpedo the trek to that date? How are we sure that we are not on the edge of a civil war? Politicians on both sides are not speaking to each other. Rather they are lobbing words at each other.  With Adamawa down, the agony lingers. With Nassarawa in the crosswind, the polity aches with fear. In Rivers State, Edo State, and even a hint in Oyo State, we have seen the primitive dust of distrust and mayhem. Meanwhile, we see a leadership at odds with an answer to the violent impunity of an insurgent militia, the latest victim being the convoy of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.



We don’t have a history to fall back on in this instance. Our past never had the convoluted skein of today’s narrative. We have had religious angst in the past, but not this sanguinary. We cannot think of Maitatsine riots in the same bloody register as Boko Haram. Religion was always a factor in our politics, but there was no time we saw clerics line up publicly in defence of their faithful as candidate and spewed hate words about the other faith like we have today. People did not insist on a Muslim or Christian candidate. We had the Abiola-Kingibe ticket on this land once, and religious murmur purred into silence.



We have had impeachments in the past, not even the Balarabe Musa story carried the omen of a national catastrophe as we feel today. Obasanjo’s impeachments were projects of revenge and humiliation. But they did not threaten the fabric of the nation on the present scale.  The impeachments flattered Obasanjo’s pride and we spoke of a heated polity. We did not express fears about the fragile temper of the whole country in this apocalyptic mood.



So, this is the time to put away party differences and realize that whoever wins may resemble that of the Roman General Pyrrus who conquered and conquered and conquered and lamented, “ one more victory and we are finished.” That is the origin of the phrase, Pyrrhic victory.



But this is the time for statesmen. The tragedy is that I cannot see anyone in the country who can serve as an arbiter in this battle to the death between the parties. Maybe I have not searched well. I see no one. The closest is Wole Soyinka, but he has spoken himself hoarse over the malady that his melody is heard without its prosody. Soyinka is a critic as statesman. We want a soul who is a political figure. But they are either compromised into partisanship or bought with filthy lucre. “In our times,” wrote poet Alexander Pushkin, “man, whatever his element, was a murderer, a traitor or thief.” That is the pass today.



All institutions have been abused. The word is tainted, the money is adulterated, the pulpit bastardised, the gun does not protect but the criminal. Fear belongs to the strong and confidence to the harlot. Truth is only perceived because no one can pluck it like a fruit because it does not hang low. We have the council of state, but what we want is a council of statesmen. That council has not spoken truth to power because no one has risen to a moral stature that would lend him an unimpeachable voice.



In the past when the leaders erred we had men who spoke and they shook the moral moorings of the land. One of them was Chief Obasanjo. Because he did not rise up to the substance of his rhetoric when he became president, he has not retreated into the high cheer of a statesman. He is seen as a contributor to the crisis rather than a voice out of the void.



 Shehu Shagari is insistently quiet because he was never a moral force, either as president or ex-president. Ibrahim Babangida left office in murky ways and his doings show he belongs to one side of the divide. Buhari is an APC chieftain and the weight of his recent warning is lightened by his partisan cloud.



In other countries, we have seen men show moral gravitas in times of crisis. U.S. presidents perennially comment on crisis and their voices are taken seriously. This began with the grandeur of their first president George Washington, who thankfully would not turn the position into a regal one as life president. He had the opportunity. That made him a statesman and intervened in feuds after he left office, including when Jefferson was president.



Mandela played key father-figure role after he vacated office. His voice kept the system in calm waters. We want the sort of leader max Weber designated as the charismatic figure. Such are rare these days because technology and easy access to information take away the myth of leaders. That raises the stakes of leadership. Or are we victims of technology that subdues the greatness of men?



If we don’t have men on top, the other alternative is the mass. But the crowd has been compromised in today’s world. Crowds can be conjured by politicians for any cause these days. A scoundrel can buy a crowd and claim to be the people’s heroes. The crowd has lost its innocence. In his Crowds And Power, Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti shows how the crowd can emerge for just any purpose, for feast, for god, for the devil, for reversals. We cannot count on the crowd to save us because the Nigerian masses do not trust them anymore. Each crowd suffers from solitude in the logic of David Reisman who wrote a book titled, The Lonely Crowd.



If the crowd that should represent the masses cannot help us, and the charismatic leader is lost in the Nigerian sea, to whom shall we turn? That is the question that can stand between peace and disaster for Nigeria in the coming months. This is not an APC or PDP matter. It is a Nigerian matter, and the political class cannot be saved from blame if Nigeria lapses into collapse with division and bloodshed.

 - In Touch, The Nation newspaper, 28/07/2014

HOW MANY WILL HAVE TO DIE BEFORE THE WORLD GETS IT?

Tony Okoroji


Except you are made of steel, not born of a woman or consumed by bigotry, your stomach must churn at the images of the massacre and pain the Palestinian people in the Gaza strip have been subjected to in recent weeks.



I am fully aware that those of us from this part of the world who are Christians have had our minds shaped for a long time to see a historic and spiritual connection between us, Israel and the Jews. In the same manner, our minds have been shaped to see the Palestinians who are mainly Arabs and probably Moslems as perennial bad guys and habitual trouble makers who want to destroy the world. In the kind of ‘us against them’ mentality I discussed last week in my article, How can any war be Holy?, we take a stand sometimes without thinking through the issues.



The Palestinians are probably the only people in the world without a nation of their own. In the small strips of land within the West Bank and Gaza where they have been pushed to, they are blockaded by the Israelis like animals in a cage. They cannot come and go or do as they wish. Simply put, they do not have any of the freedoms that all of us take for granted.



There is no question that the Holocaust, the abhorrent extermination of Jews in Adolf Hitler’s gas chambers is an indelible stain on human history. Following the Holocaust, it is understandable that the Jews have enjoyed the sympathy of the world. It has however become an immense tragedy as the Jews who themselves where victims of horrendous injustice are now encouraged to visit injustice on the Palestinians. The central question in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appears to be: Should the Palestinians be robbed to pay the Israelis for the grave injury done to the Jews?



The massive Jewish political machine in the United States has not helped matters. The fear of the Jewish political machine is the beginning of wisdom for every American politician. So the United States, the untiring advocate of human rights and fairness to all around the world looks the other way while Israel does the kind of things that America will not tolerate from anyone else. Unfortunately, this seeming double standard and perceived injustice is behind much of the radicalization of the Moslem and Arab youth around the world. Down the road, it has led to the breeding and spread of such poisonous groups as al Qaida, al Shabab, Boko Haram, Isis and others. Many in far flung places who have nothing to do with what is happening in the Middle East have paid with their lives for the unsustainable situation.



When Obama came into office, he attempted to navigate the landmine with a different tone. That was bad news to the hawks in the corridors of power in Washington. When you listen to John Kerry, Obama’s man around the world, speak in public these days, you wonder what happened to the famed American moral authority. There is no question that Obama is feeling the heat. The tone has changed. It appears that it is now full support for Israel regardless of the issues.. Over the weekend, not knowing that he was on a live microphone, John Kerry showed that after all he is a human being and that he understands that something terrible is being visited on the Palestinian people by Israel.



To most discerning observers of the global tragedy that has its roots in the Middle East, the Israeli arrogance and swagger and the seeming belief that the Jewish state can do whatever it likes and get away with it is predicated on the unflinching support Israel enjoys from Washington. The military machine being used to torment the Palestinian people is provided by Washington which provides a substantial part of the dollars and diplomatic muscle that support that machine.



In the recent conflict, Israeli Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu, a master PR man who was spokesperson for Israel in many conflicts gone by, has tried to frame the land, sea and air bombardment of the tiny Gaza strip and the relentless military assault on the women and children that live there in the manner of self-defence. To justify the senseless killing of hundreds of Palestinians and the injury inflicted on thousands of others, Mr Netanyahu points to the tens of almost harmless and old fashioned rockets fired into Israel by the Palestinian group, Hamas. These rockets don’t kill anyone because with the aide of the Americans, Israel has developed a missile defence shield that picks up and detonates these rockets in the sky. This is like shooting catapults at guys with an array of bazookas.



Netanyahu’s bogey man used to be the late PLO leader, Yasser Arafat. Arafat is long gone and the war without end continues. While Netanyahu’s military has been most efficient in killing Palestinians, his PR offensive has failed woefully. While the Israelis are doing the killing, the Palestinians are winning the war. With the several live television cameras of the various news channels transmitting unedited images to every corner of the globe, what the Israeli Prime Minister and his retinue of PR men say no longer carry much weight. People can see for themselves what is going on and make up their minds. My take is that the world does not like what it is seeing.



Anyone would have thought that after many wars, Israel, the Jewish political machine in America and the world would have learnt that no military machine can crush a people seeking freedom and self-determination. Israel cannot kill every Palestinian not to talk of every Arab. The answer to this conflict, like any other similar conflict, lies in honest give and take at a negotiating table. And it should be clear to everyone that Israel, the Palestinians, America and indeed the entire world will not know peace until this conflict is resolved and each of the parties feels that justice has been done.



This article was first published in  Locomotion, Tony Okoroji’s weekly column in Nigeria’s Saturday Independent.

Madmen and specialists

Sam Omatseye

This is the season of Wole Soyinka, Nigeria’s master artist, whose works, whether as a playwright, a novelist, a poet or an essayist, have dramatised the Nigerian harried existence. He has poeticised Nigeria either in the mocking tones of comedy or in the depressing ether of tragedy. As we celebrate his 80th birthday, we also mourn the Nigerian season of anomie, as we have morphed into a nation on the edge of a precipice. His oeuvre broods over his country.

Nothing demonstrates this atrophy of hope as the harmattan dust unleashed by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration in the name of democracy. It is the hobgoblin of impeachment. Ordinarily, we can say impeachment is a legitimate weapon of politics to oust any elected officer, whether governor or president, who has breached the moral code of office and drawn the cathedral aura of the people’s mandate into the cesspit. So, to impeach legitimately is to affirm the people’s will, but also to retrieve the high ideal of the vote. It is the re-legitimation of the people’s will and the sublimity of democracy as a popular revenge. It is a reminder to the incumbent that he is flesh and blood, human like all of us, and he cannot soar into tyranny or fall into contempt at will. It is a milder form of the Roman tradition where a slave lurked behind an emperor during a triumphal parade and whispered: “Remember, you are only human.”

Yet, I can say that in this inchoate republic, we have had quite a few impeachments, and I can say we have never had any, no matter the political party, that actually carried the inviolate encasement of the people’s hurrah. It has always been politics as revenge, sometimes with the hue of atavistic butchery.

But never before in our history has this weapon become so savage in its intent as the gale that the Jonathan administration is flinging open from his house of storms. The Acting Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, exemplified the low moral standard with his celebration when he arrived the national headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja. “I have delivered,” he crooned with self-satisfaction. What did that mean? “As a loyal and obedient party member, I came on a courtesy call to my party and the National Working Committee as my first assignment after the battle to remove Governor Murtala Nyako, who had stolen the mandate of the PDP under which he was elected. I came here to bring back the mandate and I have handed over to them (party leaders) the mandate.”

Clearly, the ouster had nothing to do with higher ideal of integrity in public office. It was just an act of partisan malice. For Governor Nyako had many sins before he defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC), and they were legion. Yet, I cannot say all were unconstitutional sins. I found them very nauseating. How do you turn your office into a nepotistic fiefdom advertising your husbandry of wives by making them special advisers, or how do you turn fecund with about 1,000 special advisers in the name of stomach infrastructure? How do you turn your son into a political gladiator just because you have one, and you can flex any paternal muscle? Those were some of the things that the public detested about the man, and all of these permeated the Adamawa body politic as a PDP man. He was not impeachable then. Suddenly his sins as a PDP man were saintly until he became an APC man. He did not have body odour until he found another lover. The trial, like the trial in Soyinka’s best work, A Dance of the Forests, created optical illusion. Is Nyako being tried as the PDP sinner or as the APC defector? Who was innocent here, who was the madman? Was it the man who was tried, or the accuser? Or who was the specialist? Was it the person who claimed he had control of the judicial process and turned it upside down, or the man who fled because he knew justice had tumbled over? In Soyinka’s Madmen and Specialists, the border is nebulous. Was it not the same house that gave Nyako a vote of confidence in the halcyon, back-slapping days when he had committed the same offences over which he recently fell at the guillotine? By impeaching him, were they not carrying out the absurd theatre of self-impeachment, an act of legislative self-execution?

So, what we are seeing, however, is a play of giants. Jonathan is the giant here, but not a giant of moral grandeur. He is a parody of the giant of the television advertisement standing him with Mandela, Obama, etc. But he is a giant, who Soyinka mocked in a play of that title. So, it was clear Fintiri was not acting for the Adamawa State people, but his party leaders in Abuja, and who is the helmsman of Abuja? Unless we lie to ourselves, it is President Jonathan. Was that not why Nyako scurried there, cap in hand, to see if he could save him? He forgot that nobody ever begs Jonathan in this matter. He, a snake with sly venom, never forgives and never takes responsibility. Fat with prey, he snorts quietly in his nest. Nyako just learned that lesson after wasting his pride in a servile visit to Aso Rock. If you knew brother Chume well, in Soyinka’s Jero Plays, you won’t have a doubt. He watches from the stealth of his abode his opera of Nigeria. He does not have to have wonyosi.

So, why not Nasarawa, why not Edo, or Rivers, etc? But we forget that his first target has been Rivers State, but he has consistently failed. He is still hopeful. But what is at stake is not the party victory now, but the Nigerian democracy or our survival as a nation. Jonathan does not have a conscience for consequences or an acute sense of history. That would have subdued him to sobriety. If you succeed now, does democracy succeed? Politics is a contest for power, but malice and contempt for the dignity of the constitution are dangerous. They uphold the cynical high point of technicality over substance. You don’t win a people from above, but from below. Jonathan wants to conquer rather than win the hearts of Nigeria. You don’t know when a soup is over-burned by staring at the surface bubbling appetisingly. Any such strategy is superficial. It is flirtation with death for this democracy like the King’s horseman in Soyinka’s play of that title. It’s not the road for us.



 - In Touch, The Nation Newspaper, 21/07/2014

Koyenum Immallah Foundation Takes HIV/AIDS Advocacy To Ndokwa West LGA

The leadership of the NGO pose here in group photograph with the repersentatives of LGA Caretaker Committee Chairman

The NGO delegation in a group photograph with the LACA team of the LGA

Asaba Would Have Gotten More From Uduaghan If He Was Appreciated....Ngozi Okolie

*Asaba Youths Pays Condolence Visit To Him

*Urges Youth To Strengthen Bonds of Unity

The leadership of the apex Asaba Youth Platform, Asaba Community Youth (ACY) paid condolence visit to Olorogun Ngozi Okolie, at his country home over the demise of his father.

Under the leadership of the group's national chairman, Comrade Joe Okafor, the youth body consoled him and promised to stand by him all through these moment of mourning.

Olorogun Ngozi Okolie in his remarks thanked the leadership of the youth body over their concern, prayers and well-wishes for his family at this point of mourning.

The youth body also ceased the occassion to enlighten Olorogun Ngozi Okolie about the anticidents and activities of the body since inception and inauguration by the Asagba Of Asaba, Asagba Prof. Chike Edozien.

Olorogun Okolie charged the youth body to put more efforts into increased youth character development for the betterment of the overall interest of the Asaba community.

One of the major task and huge challenge before your leadership i believe should be the task of changing the "pull him/her down" syndrome common amongst Asaba Youths, Olorogun Okolie emphasized.

Building stronger bonds of unity, peace and brotherhood among Asaba youths will open many doors of advantage and opportunities for our youths, these opportunities they must access through peaceful engagement and unified fronts and platforms, Okolie said.

In a post condolence visit media chat with Asaba Post News-Wire, Olorogun Okolie urged young Deltans to seek out and support credible aspirants who mean well for the state, who can deliver democratic dividends to the people.

When ask what he thinks should be the right response of Asaba people in view of Governor Uduaghan's impact in Asaba, his views went thus:

I believe My Asaba people need to always commend the governor for the much he has done for the comminity so far.

Yes, he might have not done all that there is to be done for Asaba and her people.

But, recently, in the governor's word, if i may quote him, he said, if he does all that there is to be done, then what will the next governor do? what use will the next guber elections be then?

Olorogun Ngozi Okolie in his further chat with Asaba Post News Wire shared that there is need for Deltans to respect their public office holders.

There is no need to abuse them, run them down nor drag to the mud their efforts to bring more democracy dividends to the people.

I know one fact for sure and its that Asaba and her people stood a lot of chances to benefit more from the government of Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan if not for they weakness at appreciating the much the governor has done for our Asaba and people.

Asaba people would have benefitted more this we see so far, if Asaba people had praised and appreciated the governor's efforts so far.

No person does more for family members, friends or associates who do not appreciate what has being done for them, Olorogun Okolie stressed.

Umu Ani Ahaba Obu Ife Okwu Nye Di Wo ooooo

Gi bu obi unu?

ANI AHABA AMAKA

HIV/AIDS Advocoacy: NGO Shares Thoughts With Udu LGA LACA Team

Mass failure as WAEC releases results

•145,795 results withheld over malpractices


It was yet another sad tale of mass failure as West African Examinations Council (WAEC) yesterday announced the release of the result of the May/June 2014 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

Addressing reporters, Head of WAEC National office in Lagos, Mr. Charles Eguridu, disclosed that 1,705,976 candidates registered for the examination, out of which 1,692,435 candidates, consisting of 929,075 males and 763,360 females, sat for the test.

According to him, only 529,425, representing 31.28 per cent, obtained credits in five subjects and above, including English Language and Mathematics.

Lamenting the poor result, Eguridu said: “This figure, when compared to the 2012 and 2013 May/June WASSCE diets, shows a marginal decline in the performance of candidates. In May/June 2012 WASSCE, 38.81 per cent of candidates obtained five credits and above including English Language and Mathematics. In 2013, the percentage declined to 36.57 per cent; and this year, we have 31.28 per cent.”

The WAEC chief disclosed that 1,605,613 candidates, representing 94.87 per cent, have their results fully released, while 86,822, representing 5.13 per cent  have a few of their subjects still being processed due to some errors, mainly traceable to laxity on the part of the candidates and the schools in the course of registration or writing the examination.

“Such errors are being corrected by the Council to enable the affected candidates get their results fully processed and released as soon as they are ready,” he said.

Eguridu said the results of 145,795 candidates, representing 8.61 per cent, are being withheld in connection with examination malpractices.

“The cases are being investigated and the reports of the investigations will be presented in November to the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC), the highest decision-making organ of the Council on examination-related matters in Nigeria for consideration. The Committee’s decisions will, thereafter, be communicated to the affected candidates through their schools,” he stated.

Eguridu announced that the Council has decided to extend the normal registration period for the November/December 2014 WASSCE to Sunday, August 17, 2014, so as to enable candidates who sat for the last May/June examination, and who may have any deficiencies, to register for the November/December examination diet, if they so wish.

He advised candidates who sat for the May/June 2014 WASSCE to check the details of their performance on the Council’s results website www.waecdirect.org within the next 24 hours.

•Adapted from a Guardian report.

HIV/AIDS Advocoacy: NGO goes Grassroot

*  KIF Meets Aniocha North Council Boss

The leadership of the NGO pose here in group photograph with the LGA Caretaker Committee Chairman and his LACA Team

It’s a draw

Sam Omatseye

Shall we say, we had a miracle, we have love, we have a free and fair election, and we have reached the land of peace and promise? We cannot say so even if the All Progressives Congress (APC) rejoices over its victory and the virtue of the Osun masses exult in vindication.

I warned last week that the election was neither about Otunba Iyiola Omisore nor Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, neither was it about the APC nor the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It was a Nigerian vote and I warned the president and his party to beware of turning a ritual of democracy into a rite of blood. The president though deserves praise for not pushing the tension over the brink. Also the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for bowing to an inevitable mass will. We peered the precipice, but peace prevailed.

Some lessons were not learned. Prior to the election, we saw a repeat of the Ekiti impunity. Some party apparatchiks of the APC were hounded into detention. Exit town crier Lai Mohammed. Exit Sunday Dare, etc. One prominent lawmaker hid in the bush. The charges? Still unclear. Ambiguity. Impunity. Fear. In Ife, gunshots tore through the dust motes of the ancient city. Hooded men, sometimes identified as hoodlums, sometimes as government troops, sent terror by their sartorial ill grace. Hoods, doubtful uniforms, guns. Democracy as enchanted battlefield.

The virtue of the people spoke. They defied the gun and the minatory ferocity of their presences. On some occasions, reports had it that while shots rang to the heavens, denizens of the state hailed them in irony. The weapons of the weak: satire. The guns lost their bullets of fatality in the mockery of the folks.

But victory came, not because of the innocence of INEC, or because of the willful integrity of the party at the centre. It came because of the vigilance and tenacity of the people. As playwright Maxim Gorky said, the only people who deserve freedom are those ready to fight for it everyday.

The masses are not always innocent. Stalin once derided Lenin for putting too much trust in the proletariat, and it failed him. That was why he retraced his steps from Marxian dictatorship of the proletariat to what became an elite-driven New Economic Policy.

After the Ekiti poll, I noted that the masses vote according to the template and issues presented by the elite. The competing elite battle for the mind of the common man. Who wins won the argument. It does not mean the winner had the truth. The masses have many times had remorse when they voted for a particular idea and got another thing later. The French and British had voter remorse when they voted back Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill. That is the omen that may await the Ekiti electorate if Ayodele Fayose turns out to have turned a folksy image to con votes out of a suspecting electorate. Are the Nigerian masses an excellent sheep, obedient even unto death? Time shall tell.

But in the case of Osun, Ogbeni had from the beginning held the issues in his palm. Whether it was his tablet of knowledge, school feeding programme, jobs and uniforms, or the issue of whether his priestly beard should anchor his being or cause rancour in his detractors.

Most importantly, his signature project was education. His reclassification agenda, for all its beauty and promise, became a matter his detractors wanted to take from him. They turned it away from an educational agenda, to make schools accessible and cheap and raise standards. They turned it into a fight between the two heavens, that of Jesus and Mohammed. It became the defining controversy of his first term.

Even prior to the election, in spite of the soothing voices of notable Christian clerics about his good intentions, speculations still danced about the Osun horizon. Some said a sort of block votes from some Christian bodies would tilt the scale against him. Some people were gazing skywards even though the rain had stopped falling. Their heads dry, they did not know their feet were wet. The matter was not in heaven but here on earth. It was politics as religious vanity, as pious manipulation.

The Ogbeni did not have any qualms fighting back, reconciling here and there, and pushing the integrity of the message. The result shows he did not quilt and he won the virtue of the people to his side. He will have to continue this message, with fervour and with deliberate interaction with that part of the society.

But this election has proved that programmes are important. Those who hail the hailstorms of stomach infrastructure did not get this from Ogbeni. But politics is not always about programmes. It is about connection, and if you want to see that, go to any rally where Aregbesola is a speaker. By my account, in my life time, I have never seen anybody who can beat him in working a crowd. His is at once the ultimate impresario as folk and folk as impresario. He walks on the stage like a teenager, the broom twirling like a thousand strands of light. With his beard as lead, his feet stamping in rhythm, his waist wiggling in a half-erotic dance, his tiny body waxes like an apparition hiding a larger frame. That tiny speck of a body explodes into a voice that seems to come from a big, muscular cousin. His diction, his dances, his songs work the crowd out of a political reverie. It could have been a religious fiesta, a new year party or a festival. The crowd loses itself in the ecstasy of the man. Some have said he is not gubernatorial when he is on stage. I disagree. He is never less gubernatorial. He bows in order to soar. He is folksy for the vote.

That is Aregbesola’s virtue. That is Osun virtue, and that is why he earned their votes last weekend.

It is also an APC victory, but it is no time to gloat. The PDP was not crushed. With over 292,000 votes, Omisore showed a strong foothold on the state. It shows that the PDP is not yet a pushover in the Southwest. With Ekiti to PDP, and Osun to APC, it is in sports language, 1-1. A draw. It is time to go back to the drawing board. Last week’s victory is more an Ogbeni victory than an APC swagger. The Southwest folks want to be convinced. They have said, they are not for the taking. That is why the battle for the APC in Oyo and Ogun states must not be taken with the same sense of accomplishment as the one in Osun. There is a lot of work to be done.

We can do road, we can do schools, we can do hospitals, but we should do the heart. Loyalty to a cause often transcends the loyalty to material gains. Money is good. Stomachs will rumble. But the grumble of the humble come more from a sense of understanding, a belief that you feel my pain and you are not here to con me.

If the APC wants to build on this momentum, it has to follow the Ogbeni style. Not all of it. But his sense of folksy virtue, his animal enthusiasm for work. The other governor that shows an open animal joy for work is a PDP man, the Akwa Ibom governor, Godswill Akpabio, who speaks about his work as though an amorous affair. But he has evidence to prove his doings, in massive infrastructure, especially.

When he became governor, Ogbeni promised an unusual reign. He delivered in the way he performed and in the way he won last week. It should not be different in the next four years.


 In Touch, The Nation newspaper, 11/08/2014