How The Agilis with Honor and Royalty Celebrated Their Mother's Passage Unto Eernal Glories

genuity of Major Gideon Orka

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Category: Opinion

Published: Monday, 23 May 2016 09:50

Written by Nnaemeka Onumonu-Uzoaru

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It is very important that we look back at some very special actors in our journey inwards (IJE ANYE). 

Of all the coupists both successful or not, one stands out - Major Gideon Orkar.

What is it that is very special about this great African son?

What is it that this great visionary saw that the other coupists did not see?

 Yes, Orkar was a great analyst and in time Africa will celebrate this her great son.

Recently as I listened to "National Public Radio" talk about how the Government of Kuwait will have to cut back from the excesses that were being doled out to its citizens, I was reduced to tears. 

Where does one start?

•        Should one start with the free schools, up to college level?

•        Zero unemployment and infrastructures that work?

•        Free health care and services as advanced as any in the advanced world?

Again the thought of this major crossed my mind.

What did he see that other coupists could not or were not insightful enough to see?

Why was his coup based on a different set of summation?

How could the whole country have been so wrong?

Even after millions lost their lives trying to 'Keep Nigeria One', here comes a Major saying the opposite.

What madness possessed this major, or all along was he the only sane person in the whole country?

After all these years, one fact remains constant, Orkar was a genius.

He had finally come to the realization that most of us even up to this very day continue to labour under and refuse to believe, that Nigeria was unworkable.

He finally understood that the entity - Nigeria, was a mistake.

He understood that there was no way one could get a democratic system and a feudal system under the same government.

He understood that Nigeria was not designed to cater to the needs of her citizens but to enrich some western interests.

He looked at all the speeches of all the Northern leaders from the inception of the abomination Nigeria and one thing was clear, these guys were only interested in conquering the country. 

To them Nigeria was an entity set up to be raped and pillaged by them. 

In a flash of brilliance, he thought that since this mafia came from one part of the country, all he had to do was push that part out of Nigeria and the problem would be solved.

Great solution, but obviously doomed to fail.

No matter how correct he thought he was, no one has the right to force nations under any umbrella without consulting them. 

But because this "Great Son of Africa" was ready to take a chance for "Mother Africa", we say NDEEWO to him. 

Because this "Great Son of Africa" saw the suffering around him and decided to do something about it we say NDEEWO.

Because this "Great Son of Africa" had a vision, and was ready to put all on the line for this selfless goal, we say NDEEWO to him. 

Yes, MAJOR GIDEON ORKAR, you are a man among men. Thank you for thinking of the common man.

There has to be dissolution of Nigeria, BUT IT MUST BE PEACEFUL!

It must be achieved through friendly negotiation by all the ethnic groups in Nigeria. 

Why remain in a bad marriage when one could be peaceful and friendly neighbors? 

The time has come for all alternatives be examined.

 If USSR, a world power, can allow itself to peacefully split into 15 countries, how much less Nigeria?

Nigeria must show the world that Africans can solve their problems without guns. 

WE MUST DO THE RIGHT THING.

With the declaration of the 'Core North' as an Islamic nation, the division is already in process. It is time for the other nations to speak for themselves. 

It is time for all ethnic groups to tell Nigerians where they stand. The die is cast, there is no going back.

Nigeria is dead; long live the new real emerging African countries.

Now we can finally shout UHURU!

Ndeewo.

- See more at: http://elombah.com/index.php/opinion/7253-the-ingenuity-of-major-gideon-orka#sthash.GJjeThCn.dpuf

 



 


 



 

Editorial: The way to returning permanent peace in Niger Delta

The resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta region has again put Nigeria on the edge. The bombing of oil infrastructure in the creeks has not only been blamed for the collapse of electricity generation systems, it has also affected revenue accruing to government by dwindling the volume of crude oil exported by Nigeria to the international market.

Regrettably, the singsong now is the drop in power generation or collapse of power generating systems. The System Operation/ Market Operation, SO/MO, of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, disclosed that electricity generation into the national grid dropped from 2,730MW to 1,400MW on May 17, 2016. The usual suspect remains the blowing up of pipelines which prevented the supply of gas to power stations.

As if this is not bad enough, Nigeria has been stripped of its position as the largest producer of crude oil in the global market. That title is now been held by Angola because Nigeria’s crude oil production has fallen by almost 40 per cent to 1.4 million barrels per day due to militant attacks on facilities in the Niger Delta.

The Minister of state for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, while making this disclosure, specifically said: “because of the incessant ttacks and disruption of production in the Niger Delta, as I talk to you now, we are now producing about 1.4 million barrels per day. We were at 2.2 million bpd, but we have lost 800,000 barrels.”

This extent of damage was done while Niger Delta Avenger, NDA, was the sole militant group holding the nation to ransom. Now that another band of militants under the auspices of Red Egbesu Water Lions have joined the fray, Global Reporters shudder to think of what their activities will now cause the nation.

Amidst the ultimatum handed the federal government, the militants on Friday destroyed another section of the Escravos gas trunk line in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State. The damaged valve supplies gas from Escravos to the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System, ELPS, owned by the Nigerian Gas Company Limited. This would cause a reduction in gas supply to the ELPS which supplies gas to Egbin Power Plant in Lagos, meaning that power generation from the plant will decline further.

Earlier this month, a pipeline transporting crude oil to Warri and Kaduna and a 16-inch gas line, owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, were blown up by the NDA. In January, the Escravos-Warri-Abuja-Lagos pipelines came under attack, a development that affected gas supply to power firms.

The growing apprehension has been deepened by the one week ultimatum handed by the Red Egbesu Water Lions for the federal government to meet its demand or have all oil exploration activities shut down in the Niger Delta. This is after the Niger Delta Avengers issued a two-week ultimatum for oil operations and personnel to leave the region or face “bloody attacks.”

This is the same group that threatened to cripple the Nigerian economy. Regrettably, it seems to be succeeding in this bid as President Buhari admitted at a meeting with the Global Director (Upstream) of the Royal Dutch Shell Group, Mr. Andrew Brown, that, “We have to be very serious with the situation in the Niger Delta because it threatens the national economy”.

Government’s resolve to proceed with using the military to quell the Niger Delta situation is ill-advised. The threat by President Muhammadu Buhari in China last month to crush vandals and saboteurs blowing up oil and gas installations like Boko Haram has been identified by many as what stoked the embers of militancy, particularly given that the President failed to use the same tone in condemning the rampaging Fulani herdsmen killing and wrecking havoc in villages across parts of the country.

Thankfully, the stance of the President has changed a bit since he made the statement on Wednesday April 13, 2016. While still directing “the Chief of Naval Staff to reorganise and strengthen the military Joint Task Force, JTF,  in the Niger Delta to deal effectively with the resurgence of militancy and the sabotage of oil installations”, the President at a meeting on Friday “urged aggrieved persons, militants and communities in the Niger Delta to drop their confrontational stance and work with those who have been charged by the Federal Government to review the Amnesty Programme initiated by the Yar’Adua Administration for the benefit of all parties.”

Although the President may have mellowed a bit, the above quotation shows that military action is still on the card. Global Reporters is not in support of using the military to whip the militants into line. We don’t see that achieving the expected result since the same military tasked with the responsibility of safeguarding oil installations have spectacularly failed in guaranteeing this. It is not an understatement to say that the nation’s military is overstretched, allowing them face another guerrilla warfare at a time Boko Haram may still spring up surprises will expose the vulnerability of the nation’s armed forces to the world.

There is lesson to be learnt in the recent disclosure by Kachikwu at the Federal Government’s town hall meeting in Kaduna State which has unfortunately been glossed over. He said after his phone number had been published online, he had got millions of phone calls.

“One of the first phone calls I took not knowing who was calling me was from a militant somewhere and when I picked up the phone, he said, ‘Are you the minister of petroleum’, I said yes.

“He said I dey go blow pipeline tomorrow, and I said why would you do that my brother if you love Nigerians? He said ‘are you sure you are the minister’, I said yes.

“Then he said for being so humble, I will drop the plan. That’s the kind of environment under which we operate.”

This shows that the militants can indeed be won over if only government can come down from its high horse. The attacks and violent posturings of the militants may just be a bluster that would vanish once they see government’s readiness to engage them in talks.

Beyond this however, Global Reporters believes that the resurgence of violence in the Niger Delta only goes to show how ineffective the politics of appeasement, which the amnesty offered Niger Delta militants by late President Umaru Yar’Adua, can be. It has clearly proven not to be a permanent solution, but only succeeded in postponing the evil day.

We believe that what can permanently return peace to the Niger Delta and indeed all parts of the country is when every constituent of the Nigerian union is fairly given a sense of belonging and made to believe they own the government, not minding whether the President is from their geopolitical zone or they voted against him at the polls.

Bearing this in mind, Global Reporters makes bold to say that the country would not have come to this terrible pass occasioned by the renewed militancy in the Niger Delta if President Buhari had allowed his famous inaugural speech of belonging to everybody and belonging to nobody guide his actions and utterances.

The Niger Delta situation is not rocket science, it can easily be resolved when leaders acquit themselves as fair and nationalistic by allowing equity, federalism and justice reign supreme. Our stand is that the seeming absence of these virtues has made the militants appear to have a compelling case, hence the need for government to engage them in dialogue.

http://globalreportersnews.com/2016/05/editorial-the-way-to-returning-permanent-peace-in-niger-delta/

Missing N30tr: Okonjo-Iweala blasts SERAP,

takes legal action

Our attention has been drawn to media reports regarding a court judgment alleged to have been entered against the Federal Government of Nigeria and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in respect of an action by the Socio-Economic Rights Agenda (SERAP) pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act.

The High Court, according to the media reports, ordered the Federal government and Dr. Okonjo Iweala to provide information relating to N30 trillion Naira allegedly unaccounted for.

Please note the following:

- Dr Okonjo-Iweala hastens to state that she was never served with any court processes in relation to the said matter. 

She has not read the judgment and would therefore defer any comments on the matter.

- However from the media reports, the case was instituted in February 2015 but was not served until July 2015 after Dr Okonjo-Iweala had already ceased to be the Minister of Finance.

- By the date the said papers were purportedly served Dr Okonjo-Iweala was no longer a public officer and could therefore not be the subject of a request for production of any documents or information under the Freedom of information [FOI] Act.

- The Court processes must have been served on others because the attention of Dr Okonjo-Iweala was never drawn to the matter in which she appears to have been sued personally. 

She therefore did not engage any lawyer to act for her in the matter.

- The decision of SERAP to anchor its case on a baseless and unsubstantiated allegation by former CBN governor, Professor Charles Soludo that N30 trillion – about seven times the total annual budget during the Jonathan administration – is missing confirms SERAP’s dubious motives and its role as a tool for politically motivated actors.

- It is curious that the first time Dr Okonjo-Iweala is being made aware of a matter filed against her in court is in news reports reporting the delivery of judgment. 

She has instructed her lawyers to take steps to set aside the judgment as it affects her.

Paul C Nwabuikwu

Media Adviser to Dr Okonjo-Iweala

- See more at: http://elombah.com/index.php/reports/press-statements/7264-missing-n30tr-okonjo-iweala-blasts-serap-takes-legal-action#sthash.F4QjvoJu.dpuf