Corruption And The Rules Of Engagement

By Chuks Iloegbunam

The fight against cor­ruption has been dominating national discourse since the inception of the Buhari ad­ministration. The Rules of Engagement of the Nige­rian Armed Forces recently weighed in as a topic for de­bate. Discussions on corrup­tion have remained central for two reasons: Candidate Buhari indexed his presiden­tial campaign on it. And it is the one topic President Buhari seizes every opportunity to declaim impassioned commit­ment.

*President Buhari

At the annual Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe Foundation Lecture in Abuja last week, he was at his sanctimonious best: “Without our collective will to resist corrupt acts as a people, it will be difficult to win the war. Nigeria has been brought almost to her knees by decades of corruption and mismanagement of the public treasury. We must come to a point when we must all collec­tively say ‘Enough is Enough.’”

Unfortunately, the Presi­dent’s anti-corruption rheto­ric, and the manner his gov­ernment is prosecuting the war point to duplicity. This is because the fight against entrenched corruption can­not succeed unless it is sys­tematized. But Buhari’s anti-corruption war is bereft of system. It is selective. It is running on the wheels of me­dia hysteria. It is unconcerned with preventive measures. It is overloaded in censure and sanction. It is, therefore, bound to end in tragic failure. Commentators unwilling to acknowledge the foregoing cannot honestly claim to love the man or support his presi­dency.

After The Onitsha Massacre

By Chuks Iloegbunam

One of the stories out of last week’s massacre in Onit­sha had to do with a uniformed man who sud­denly paced a few steps ahead of his cohorts, raised his as­sault rifle, trained it on Nkiru­ka Anthonia Ikeanyionwu, a 21-year old undergradu­ate, and pulled the trigger at pointblank range. Red-hot lead homed into her chest. The impact flattened her.

*Nkiru­ka Anthonia Ikeanyionwu: Shot dead by 

security agents during the pro-Biafra peaceful 

protests in Onitsha 

Blood spouted immediately, turning her light-blue dress crimson. She died instantly. She was armed – with her cell­phone! Her scandalized com­rades raised a concerted voice of protest but colleagues of the cowardly shooter covered him with their outstretched arms and led him to their backward formations. Some others re­portedly shot dead in similar circumstances were named as Chima Onoh (Enugu State), Kenneth Ogadinma (Abia State), Angus Chikwado and Felicia Egwuatu (Anambra State).

There was one weapon wielded by almost every par­ticipant or watcher of the demonstration that blockaded the Niger Bridge. That weap­on was the mobile phone. This has heightened incredulity re­garding some other stories in circulation. Since every mo­bile phone has a camera and a cine-camera, was it possi­ble that major aspects of the Onitsha demonstration could have passed unrecorded? How come that, of the thou­sands of photographs taken on the bloody day, there was no single frame and no sin­gle clip that captured a single demonstrator who was armed with a bludgeon, a machete, a gun, or an explosive device? Some were armed with the Bi­ble, singing Christian hymns. Some were armed with the Biafran flag. Most were armed with mobile phones. Yet, their members were rewarded with hails of gunfire!

A fabulous story claimed that the pro-Biafra agitators had burnt down the Onitsha Central Mosque. How come that, to this day, not a single photograph of the incinerated mosque is available for public viewing? Another fantastic story claimed that the dem­onstrators torched branded Dangote vehicles. Why, then, is it that not a single picture of a single one of the burnt vehi­cles is on exhibition anywhere in the world? On the night of the demonstrations, the Sabon Gari Market in Kano went up in flames. Pictures abound of the burnt market; films exist of the market burning. How come that, as concerns Onit­sha, there is no pictorial evi­dence of violent demonstra­tions, no pictorial evidence of the “burnt” mosque, and no pictures of the “torched” Dan­gote vehicles?

IPOB Protests: We Will Not Tolerate Any Breach Of Peace Under Any Guise – Gov Obiano Warns

Text Of Broadcast By Gov Willie Obiano Of Anambra On The Evening Of Wednesday, December 2, 2015 

“My beloved people of Anambra State, I wish to address you on the on-going protest staged in Onitsha by the members of the Indigenous People of Biafra and MASSOB.

“The government of Anambra State has been monitoring developments and is greatly concerned about the security of lives and property of residents and visitors to the state. As your Governor and Chief Security Officer of the state, I am compelled to act to avert any likely breakdown of law and order. In all situations, the preservation of human life comes first and I am determined to enforce that.

“Since the inception of my administration, we have made the security of lives and property our priority and we are not going to compromise on that. I, therefore, sincerely appeal to members of the IPOB, MASSOB and other aggrieved groups and individuals to maintain the peace and resist any attempt by hoodlums to take advantage of the situation and destabilize any part of Anambra State.

“I am in constant touch with all the security agencies in the state to ensure that what has otherwise been a peaceful protest is not hijacked by trouble makers. All mischief makers are hereby warned to keep off as we will not tolerate any breach of peace under any guise or pretext. You are seriously warned! I therefore wish to assure Ndi Anambra and all visitors to the state to go about their normal businesses peacefully as the security agencies are on top of the situation to preserve law and order.”