Waffling Ohanaeze And The Igbo Aspiration

 By Ugo Onuoha

In light of the challenges facing the Igbo today in Nigeria, the last thing that the beleaguered people should have to contend with is a fractionalised socio- political umbrella body. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Ohanaeze Ndigbo has been grappling with for some years. And it seems the situation is deteriorating rather rapidly. 

*Iwuanyanwu 

The Igbo who are the only large, in terms of population, group of people who are indigenous to Nigeria [a fuller exposition on this another day] have been facing existential threats. The threats to emasculate and possibly annihilate the Igbo have been on for the better part of a century. And evidence abounds.

Deborah’s Immolation: All Religion And No Faith

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

Cordelia Ego Ejiofor died like no one should, clobbered to death by her employer. Her dead body was never found. Around December 3, 1972, Alhaji Rauph Gaji, a senior lawyer in Kaduna beat Cordelia to death in his own house.

Late Deborah Yakubu

He drove her remains to the outskirts of the city and disposed of them at a location along Kachia Road, where, months later, scanty human remains were located after Alhaji Rauph led Police to where he said he disposed of her body.

Mamman Nasir, like Alhaji Rauph, a Muslim, prosecuted the case to a conclusion, securing a conviction for manslaughter, which the Supreme Court affirmed on Friday, May 23, 1975.

If this case happened today, Cordelia’s killer would never have been brought to account. Her scanty remains would not have drawn any attention. Cordelia’s killing would hardly have merited the attention of the justice system and Mamman Nasir would have come under unbearable pressure not to prosecute a fellow Muslim for this killing.

Nigeria: A Troubled Country In Search Of Redemption

By Chiedu Uche Okoye

Nigeria’s political troubles and the vexed issue of her disunity date back to our pre-independence era. We should remember that we had the 1953 Kano riot during which the northern people produced the nine point programme and threatened secession, thereafter. And soon after the country had become a sovereign nation-state, it descended into an internecine civil war, which raged for thirty months and caused the loss of millions of human lives.

*Nigerian leaders' during the 58th
Independence Celebrations 

It is a known fact that political squabble, which has existed among the ethnic groups that make up Nigeria, is one of the major features of our political history. Have we forgotten the annulled June 12, 1993 Presidential election, which led Nigeria to a political cul-de-sac? That Nigeria didn’t disintegrate owing to that cancelled Presidential poll is a miracle of high magnitude. 

The Enemy Within And The Cold-Blooded Threat From Arewa (2)

By Femi Fani-Kayode

READ PART ONE HERE

Apart from Afenifere, the OPC and a number of noble and courageous elders and leaders hardly anyone else from the south west has spoken up publicly for the Ifes and the Yoruba in this matter and that is a crying shame. What happened to the voices of the APC Governors in Yorubaland? What happened to the voice of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo? What happened to the voices of the respected Pa Bisi Akande and the great Jagaban of Borgu, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu? We need to hear from all of these distinguished personalities now more than ever before. The celebrated American spy and defector Mr. Edward Snowdon urged public figures and leaders throughout the world to “speak NOT because it is SAFE but because it is RIGHT”. How right he is!

 

*Femi Fani-Kayode

The black American civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King jnr. took it a step further by saying, “in the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends”. Finally, in his famous poem titled ‘The Inferno”, the great poet and immortal writer Dante Alighieri wrote “the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of moral crisis preserve their neutrality”.

Those who remain silent as their compatriots and kith and kin are butchered have much to learn from the words of these three great and deeply profound men. When faced with the level of orchestrated carnage and the magnitude of pure malevolence and evil that was unleashed on the local indigenous population by the Hausa Fulani in Ile-Ife every single Yoruba leader worth his salt has a solemn duty and obligation before God to condemn it and speak out against it.

Honor and decency demands that much from each and every one of us and, more importantly, we owe it to the dead and to those that were cruelly butchered and cut short in their prime. We can appreciate the fact that the Presidency and the Federal Government will not commiserate with us for those that we lost in the conflict given their rabid pro-Hausa Fulani disposition but we cannot comprehend the devastating and incomprehensible silence that comes from our fellow Yorubas who happen to be leaders, members and supporters of the ruling Hausa Fulani-led APC.

Instead of standing in solidarity with us and publicly condemning those that drew first blood in the carnage, a few identifiable individuals within their ranks who have clearly lost their way and who ought to know better, are talking rubbish, running for cover and exhibiting nothing but good old fashioned trepidation and fear. Worse still they hate those of us that have the courage of our convictions and that are prepared to stand up, pick up the gauntlet and face the challenge.

 One wonders why this is so? Could it be because, as is being speculated, they had assured their hegemonist masters that they had Yorubaland under lock and key and that they could go ahead and kill as many of our people as they pleased? Could it be because they assured them that no-one would challenge them or complain when they did so? Is it possible, as many believe, that things have got that bad and that those from the south west that suffer from this slavish disposition have degenerated to this level? If so then what a tragedy this is! What a shame! What cowardice! What treachery!

Kano Blasphemy Killing - Where Is Justice For Bridget Agbahime

By Godwin Onyeacholem

Indeed, for any keen observer of governance in post-colonial Africa, Nigeria must be a very depressing address. And this is more so for the simple reason that no country, in many people’s reckoning, has done so much as Nigeria in consistently consciously making itself an object of perpetual ridicule in the comity of civilized countries of the world. That explains why those who argue that Africa’s backwardness is a function of Nigeria’s pathetic leadership vision cannot be entirely wrong after all. Even Nigeria’s own citizens, who look up to their country to provide the required domestic and international leadership, have continued to be utterly disappointed and embarrassed in very many ways.

Take for example the case of Bridget Agbahime. On June 2, the 74-year-old kitchen utensils trader from Imo State was brutally attacked and killed at Kofar Wambai Market in Kano by a Muslim mob who accused her of blasphemy. According to reports, she was pounced upon and murdered after she refused to allow a Muslim man perform ablution in front of her shop. As expected, the circumstances of Bridget’s death sparked outrage within secular, Christian and progressive Muslim circles across the country and beyond, provoking once again that troubling question as to when these ignorant killings in the northern part of the country in the name of Allah would come to an end.

On behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, promptly issued a statement describing the incident as “sad and regrettable.” In the usual tone of such statements, it urged the people not to take the laws into their hands and affirmed that justice would be done in the matter.

On his part, Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, also called a meeting attended by prominent personalities including state chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Ransome Bello, the husband of the deceased, Pastor Mike Agbahime, of Deeper Life Bible Church, Igbo leaders in Kano, Islamic scholars and security agencies. At that meeting, the governor named the prime suspect in that heinous crime as one Alhaji Dauda. He said the killing was “unjustifiable” and that justice would be done in accordance with the provisions of the Nigerian constitution.

Who Killed Bridget Agbahime?

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

When Bridget Agbahime was murdered on June 2, 2016, in the presence of her husband, Pastor Mike Agbahime, by Muslim fundamentalists in the name of “Allah”, Nigerian leaders made the usual noises.

Agbahime, who hailed from Imo State, and was a member of the Deeper Life Bible Church, was said to have prevented Muslims from performing ablution in front of her shop at Kofar Wambai Market in Kano, where she sold plastic wares.

Late Mrs. Bridget Agbahime 

The punishment for such a “crime” was death, in the opinion of her traducers, who promptly accused her of blasphemy and lynched her.

She was murdered at 74 by those young enough to be her grandchildren. Even her age could not act as a leash on their murderous impulse.

The market was preparing to close for the day’s business when the soulless characters carried out the gruesome murder. So, it was in broad daylight. Those around saw and knew the murderers.

The hideous characters didn’t wear masks. In their usual impunity, like the axiomatic son whose father sends him to steal, and who, therefore, kicks the door open with his foot, the religious bigots, didn’t care a hoot.

They knew that nothing had happened to their fellow blood-thirsty zealots who beheaded Gideon Akaluka in the same Kano and paraded the streets with his head hoisted on a spike with blood dripping on their hands.

Because the murderers were known, it was not a surprise when police headquarters in Abuja announced almost immediately that two suspects had been arrested, even as then Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, called for calm while assuring that justice would be done.

A statement issued by then Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olabisi Kolawole said: “In order to ensure a diligent and professional investigation, [Arase] has directed the deputy inspector general of police in charge of the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID) to deploy the Homicide Section of the Department to immediately take over the investigation of the case and ensure a meticulous investigation and speedy prosecution of the arrested suspects.”

Mrs. Bridget Agbahime’s Horrific Butchery(1)

By Mike Ozekhome

Introduction
Few weeks ago, 74-year-old Mrs. Bridget Agbaheme was brutally murdered in cold blood. She had her head gruesomely decapitated from her body in Kano. Her alleged ‘blasphemy’ was that she objected to an ablution by some muslim youths, right in front of her shop, at Kofar Wambai market, Kano, in broad daylight. As Nigerians join their brothers and sisters in Islam all over the globe to observe the holy month of Ramadan, the question can now be asked: Is violence the true tenet of Islamic religion? Does God or Allah need to be defended, or protected by us, mere mortals, who are his creation?
Twenty-four-year-old trader, Methodus Chimaeje Emmanuel, was also killed in Pandogari, Rafi LGA, Niger State, for alleged blasphemy. In Kakuri, Kaduna, 41-year-old carpenter, Francis Emmanuel, was savagely attacked for not participating in the ongoing Ramadan fast. Recall also that Gideon Akaluka, a young Igbo trader, was, in 1995, hideously and horrendously beheaded in the same Kano, allegedly for desecrating the holy Quran. His decapitated head was grisly paraded about on Kano streets, on a pole. I cannot remember the perpetrators, who were initially arrested ever being prosecuted.

*Ozekhome

Nigeria Is Multi-Religious, Not Secular
Nigeria’s Constitution abolishes theocracy. Some erroneously call this secularity. No. Nigeria is not secular, agnostic, atheistic or irreligious. Rather, Nigeria is multi-religious. Section 10 of the Constitution laconically provides: “The government of the Federation or a state shall not adopt any religion as state religion”. Section 15, inter alia, prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion. Section 38 allows freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to change one’s religion or beliefs. When Sections 10 and 15, therefore, specifically mention “religion”, it means we are a religious country, not a secular one. Indeed, the preamble to the 1999 Constitution specifically says Nigerians have “firmly and solemnly resolved to live in unity and harmony, as one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation under God…” Our National Pledge ends with “so, help me God”. The penal code that operates in the northern part of the country is influenced by Islamic principles, while the criminal code that operates in the southern part of Nigeria is greatly influenced by the common law and Christian religion. So, Nigeria, whilst not adopting a particular religion, as state religion, is neither secular, atheist, nor irreligious. Rather, it is a multi-religious country that believes in God Almighty. However, blasphemy, even if any, was committed, in the above episodes, is only a demeanour under Section 204 of the Criminal Code that is punishable with two years imprisonment, not death.

Wrong Interpretation Of The Holy Books
Most fanatics and fundamentalists interpret the Holy Bible and Holy Quran wrongly. For example, they erroneously rely on the Quran, 8:12, which states: “When your Lord revealed to the angels, I am with you. Therefore, make from those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore, strike off their heads, and strike off every fingertip of them.”
On the surface, if taken literally, this would appear to mean that the Quran expects violence to be a divine command intended to inspire terror. No. The explanation from knowledgeable Islamic clerics is that the background to this command was within an actual war situation, dealing with the spoils of war, at the battle of Badr in the year 624. It is just as unfair, therefore, to generalise from this verse and say that the Islamic Religion encourages or condones killings, as it is unfair for critics of Christianity to say that the latter is a violent religion, merely because Christ had said, ‘I have not come to bring peace but a sword’. But, everyone understands that Christ did not mean this literally, or willed that the statement He made be taken out of context. He was merely speaking metaphorically.
In the Holy Quran, 5:32, we are warned: “Whoever kills a person (unjustly)… it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life, it is as though he has saved all mankind”. In the Holy Bible, we are admonished “thou shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13). The consequence of violating this sacred injunction is that, “he that killeth with this sword must be killed with a sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints” (Rev. 13:10).

Nigeria: The Futility Of Bandaging Septic Wounds

By Chuks Iloegbunam

December 1994 and June 2016 are two ep­ochs, separated by 22 years, which send an unambiguous and implacable message – the impracticality of the most mouthed of Nigeria’s platitudes.

Dig this: In December 1994, a hysterical crowd forced itself into a Police station in Kano and bundled out a detained Gideon Akaluka, a young Igbo trader and Christian, who had been falsely accused of using pages of the Koran like toilet paper. The mob decapitated Gideon, spiked his severed head and carried it around town like a trophy.

*President Buhari and Emir of
Kano, Sanusi

On June 2, 2016, Mrs. Bridg­et Agbahime (74), an Igbo housewife and Christian, was seized in Kano and lynched – on a false charge of blaspheming Islam. Naturally, there has been the anticipated outrage and up­roar from the afflicted camp. It could be treated just like an­other statistic: an old woman murdered because she was of an unwanted ethnic group, and because she professed a religion that, in the eyes of her killers, automatically made her an in­fidel.

There are screams for the cul­prits’ apprehension and punish­ment. But, that does not address the problem; it merely scratches at the surface of a malignant tumour. Of course, it is natural for some Nigerians to blow hot air in the face of difficult chal­lenges. Still a fundamental clari­fication is imperative because anyone unaware of the sources of their pummeling stands little chance of activating a defence mechanism.

The crucial point is the politi­cally contrived dispensability of the Igbo life. It started in 1943 in Jos, when the first massacre of Ndigbo took place. There is a documented history to it all, which the volume entitled Mas­sacre of Ndigbo in 1966: Report of the Justice G. C. M. Onyiuke Tribunal [Tollbrook Limited, Ikeja, Lagos], will help to ven­tilate.

First, some background in­formation. Following the po­grom of 1966, the Supreme Military Council of General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi set up a judicial tribunal of inquiry to investigate the grotesquery. But, days before the tribunal was to start sitting, Ironsi was assas­sinated and his regime toppled. Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon, who succeeded Iron­si, promised that the tribunal would carry on with its assign­ment. When this promise was negated, Lieutenant-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, had no op­tion but to establish the Onyi­uke Tribunal via an instrument called the Tribunal of Inquiry (Atrocities Against Persons of Eastern Nigeria Origin: Per­petuation of Testimony) Edict 1966.