Sultan Of Sokoto’s Excuse For The Killing Of Ndigbo In Northern Nigeria

By Jude Ndukwe

The Sultan of Sokoto’s recent visit to Enugu State where he went to felicitate with Enugu Rangers as champions of the 2015/2016 NPFL season has been described by a section of the media and some commentators as a bridge-building one. But then, is it really?

*Sultan Abubakar, Gov Ugwuanyi, Deputy
Senate Pres. Ekweremmadu

In as much as the visit is commendable, the Sultan himself putrefied his own oil when he said that the reason why Ndigbo are killed whenever there is a crisis in the north is “because they are the industrious ones found in everywhere and in every village but nobody plans or sends people to kill the Igbos”.

Apart from being ridiculous, it is insulting to the sensibilities of the Igbo and horrifying to upright members of the society that the reason why a people are usually targeted for mass murder is because of their industry and number. They are not killed because they are bad neighbours; they are not killed because they are trouble makers, they are not killed because they are law breakers; they are killed just because they are industrious and large in number!

This statement by His Royal Highness, Alhaji Mohammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, is a confirmation of what we have always known: that the Igbo are hated for nothing but jealousy and that most crises in the northern part of Nigeria have been instigated not because of anything serious but as an alibi for a systematic extermination of the Igbo people.

Little wonder then the Igbo are targets of northern Islamic extremists when there is a crisis between Israel and Palestine in far away Middle East. When some Danes draw a cartoon of Prophet Muhammed in far away Denmark, Ndigbo in Kano, Kaduna and Niger would have to pay for it with their blood. When there is a furore about Nigeria hosting an international beauty contest in Abuja or Lagos, the Igbo in Zamfara and Yobe would have to be killed and their sources of livelihood destroyed for the message to be passed that such contest is Haram to some people.

When the US bomb Iraq, the Igbo in Adamawa are bombed by northern elements in return. When there is a sharp disagreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, it is the Igbo in Bauchi that pay for it. When the Sunnis and the Shi’as have issues with each other in Kaduna or other places, it is a recipe for Igbo sons and daughters to be beheaded in those places even when they are neither Shiites nor Sunnis.

Gov Ugwuanyi And Enugu Workers

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Enugu State governor, Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has enjoyed a rather impressive portrayal in the media since he assumed office. I have seen several articles parroting his “marvelous achievements” and some of the articles have even found their way to my email box for publication on my blog – which I published even though they were always sent by a totally unfamiliar name.

*Gov Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi 

Although, after the horrendous tragedy perpetrated in Ukpabi-Nimbo in Uzo-Uwani by murderous herdsmen, pictures of Mr. Ugwuanyi in flowing ‘agbada’ grinning from to ear to ear while shaking hands with President Muhammadu Buhari (who, many believe, had done nothing to avert the callous slaughter of those innocent villagers) had deeply shocked many people who had expected to see him in a mourning mood, the Enugu governor has still managed to pass himself off as a public officer trying his best to impress his people.

During the last May Day celebrations, the Enugu State chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Virginus Nwobodo and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) colleague, Mr. Chukwuma Igbokwe, had heaped praises on him for what they called his “dynamic leadership in promoting government-labour relationship” and creating “a peaceful industrial atmosphere” in Enugu State.

But in mid-October, I was in Enugu and was shocked to learn that some workers absorbed into the State Civil Service from one of the government parastatals were being owed arrears of salaries for the past 15 months! Indeed, it is difficult to believe that any public officer could have the heart to subject his fellow human beings to such a harrowing ordeal. But then, this is Nigeria where leaders derive strange animation from riding roughshod on the people with utmost impunity.

Following the decision of the previous administration of Mr. Sullivan Chime to absorb the permanent workers of a number of parastatals and corporations (ESBS, Enugu State Capital Territory, ENADEP, Enugu State Sports Council, Enugu Fertilizer Company, ESWAMA etc.), into the State Civil Service, several of the affected workers were duly verified, their data biometrically captured and they were received into the general public service.  And since then, they have been working and receiving their salaries. Even though there are some workers who are being owed a few months arrears of salaries, they are still hopeful since their absorption into the general service has been fully effected.

But in the case of ESWAMA (Enugu State Waste Management Agency) the workers were verified and biometrically captured in batches. In 2010, the first batch was fully absorbed and all of them have since been posted to several ministries where they have been receiving their salaries.  In August 2014, the second and final batch made up of about 91 permanent staff of ESWAMA (some of whom may attain retirement age in a couple of years from now) underwent their own absorption process. This was duly communicated to the Enugu governor through a letter jointly signed by the Secretary to the Government and the Head of Service (Ref: ENS/SSG/M.505/11/227) dated August 6, 2014. Another letter on the issue dated August 11, 2014 (Ref: GHS/33/XXX/11/100) was also written to the governor. By April 2015, just before the new administration of Mr. Ugwuanyi was inaugurated, the verification and posting of these 91 workers were concluded and their letters of posting to the various ministries to which they have been redeployed were handed over to them. What remained now was the approval of the governor for their biometric data capturing to enable them to start receiving salaries through the state’s e-payment system.

But for reasons that have remained inexplicable, Gov Ugwuanyi has chosen to sit on the fate of these poor workers, thereby, subjecting them and members of their families to unspeakable hardship and trauma. As somebody under employment, it is such a torturing experience trying to imagine what it would be like not to be paid salaries for a couple of months. But here are our fellow citizens who have been denied salaries for a whole 15 months! How heartless and callous could some of our leaders be!

Gov Ugwuanyi And The Rampaging Herdsmen

By Dan Amor 

Like a typical Nigerian nightmare, the incessant attacks on some communities in Enugu state by suspected Fulani herdsmen have generated more heat than light. In March this year, 70 youths on a rescue mission to extricate their people from the vice-grip of Fulani herdsmen at Ugwuleshi in Agwu local government area of the state, were rounded up and detained by security forces. 

President Buhari and Gov Ugwuanyi

On April 25, barely a month after the first incident, several indigenes of Ukpabi Nimbo village in Uzouwani local government area were reportedly killed by Fulani herdsmen. And most recently, a seminarian, Lazarus Nwafor, was killed and four others including a pregnant woman, severely injured by the herdsmen. The woman later gave up the ghost from the injuries she sustained during the attack. Apart from the usual pantomimes by the authorities that they would not tolerate criminal herdsmen, the Buhari-led Federal government appears helpless and lacks the political will to confront this hydra-headed monster threatening the peace and security of the country.

It is this ugly development which has generated sustained tension in the state hitherto acknowledged everywhere as the most peaceful in the entire South East geopolitical zone of the country. Standing in the middle of this tension is Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the governor and 'chief security officer' of the state on whose desk the buck stops. And since irrational impulses are not surprising in the stress and tension that characterise a demented society such as Nigeria, many furious indigenes of the Coal-City state are calling on the governor to declare war with the marauders. True, in an atmosphere of violence, reason is sometimes abandoned and humanitarian principles forgotten since the inflamed passions of the time lead men to commit atrocities. But the concern here is not with the psychological pathology of those who commit atrocities but rather with what has turned our nation to a slaughterhouse where human beings are daily murdered with intimidating alacrity.

It would, of course, be absurd to deny that the Federal government is implicitly or explicitly responsible for this carnival of anomie enveloping the nation. In the case of Enugu state where some of us virtually grew up, the lamentable absence of development before now, especially in the rural areas, provides an alibi for the germination and cross fertilization of criminals especially of the herdsmen variety. For instance, Enugu state parades some of the most dreaded and deadly forests in the South East. Some of these forests include Ugwuogo Nike, Umuopu Enugu Ezike, Umuogbo Agu, Ette in Igboeze North, Affa Eke Road by Ninth Mile Express, Akpakwumeze, Nimbo, Obollo Afor, Atakwu, Akwugbe Ugwu, Agwu, Ugwu Onyeama, etcetera. In fact, there are so many thick forests in Enugu state that would even make Sambisa Forests, the Boko Haram battle field pale into insignificance. For so many years, the Fulani herdsmen have been living in these forests and nobody cared any hoot to ask why they prefer to live in the forests like apes. It is in these forests that the herdsmen stay to perfect their strategies to unleash terror on their host communities since even the natives lack access roads and rural telephony to alert the police and other security agencies.

Matters Arising From Herdsmen’s Attack In Enugu

By Samson Ezea  

The recent fatal herdsmen’s attacks on the Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Council Area of Enugu State has once more brought to the fore the urgent need for a permanent solution to the recurring menace of herdsmen/host communities clashes across the country. Obviously, the clashes have assumed a more sinister dimension in recent times. Not helping matters in forestalling, precluding or quelling these clashes are the various security agencies that have always appeared unprepared, incapacitated or compromised in dealing with the situation as appropriate.

Unlike some attacks across the country where security agencies were taken unawares, that of Nimbo calls for introspection, investigation, punitive measures, and outright overhauling of the security agencies in the State for better performance. There is no doubt that the attack has raised more questions than answers, following the events that preceded the attack, explanations of the Enugu State governor, Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and the roles of the security chiefs in the saga.

While governor Ugwuanyi’s efforts and quick intervention as the Chief Security Officer of the State to prevent the attack is quite commendable, the role of the security chiefs in the saga is questionable, conspiratorial, shocking, and disturbing. Is it not obvious that if governor Ugwuanyi had not summoned the emergency security meeting and indigenes of Nimbo got hint of the impending attack and moved out, the killings would have been more disastrous? Quite surprising is the fact that none of the state security chiefs has refuted or countered governor Ugwuanyi’s explanations since then. There is every need for them to quickly explain to Nigerians why they decided to act otherwise after the meeting with the governor prior to the attack. This is despite the fact that the governor provided them with the intelligence report and other logistics required of them to carry out their duties. The State security chiefs’ studied silence signifies their admittance of failure to carry out their constitutional responsibilities of securing lives and property.