Col Joe Achuzia in Conversation with Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

THE CHINUA ACHEBE FOUNDATION INTERVIEW SERIES 
November 2005
All Rights Reserved ©

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*Achuzia

*About Col. Joe Achuzia

Born seventy years ago, in the present day Delta State, Col Joe Achuzia has been involved in the programmes and activities of Ohaneze NdiIgbo, the apex socio-cultural organization in Igboland, for the past fifteen years. Since he assumed office as the Secretary-General of Ohaneze NdiIgbo, he has been distinguished by his frankness in public communications and the passion with which he canvases the Igbo position on matters of national and regional interests. He believes strongly in one, united Nigeria, where equity, justice, fairness and mutual respect for one another are unreservedly operational at all levels of governance and social interactions. He is of the opinion that the deterioration in the country is as old as the country itself and that the only way to ensure harmony and progress in the nation is to convoke a conference of ethnic nationalities where the thorny issues plaguing Nigeria could be properly addressed.

After the Biafra/Nigeria in which he played a prominent role, he was detained by Nigerian authorities. Fearing he might not survive the incarceration, he wrote his book, Requiem Biafra, to articulate his role in the war, and check attempts by later writers to, in his own words, “superimposed falsehood” on him.

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Excerpts:

WHERE THE RAIN BEGAN TO BEAT US

Do you think it is possible to identify a particular period in Nigeria’s history when the deterioration commenced, or should we assume the downward slide is, perhaps, as old as the nation itself?

Nigeria, in my opinion, started deteriorating from day one. The gladiators who fought for our independence made all the classical mistakes. They failed to understand that those who pitch themselves in mortal combats to gain independence for the people should quit the stage for peaceful gladiators to take over. You cannot be a warrior and a peacemaker at the same time. No. But, they tried to combine the two, and so failed woefully. And we’ve been going down ever since.

Why then does your generation speak nostalgically about the good old days?

The good old days is a cliché used by people reminiscing about their secure lives as adolescents, and referring to the past as “the good old days...”The bad old days then begins when they have to start taking responsibilities. (Laughter)

So, there have been no good old days in Nigeria?

No, there has been nothing like that.

The Wailing Of Madam Oluremi Tinubu

By Modiu Olaguro

"For what Ricardo foresaw was the end of a theory of society in which everyone moved together up the escalator of progress. Unlike Smith, Ricardo saw that the escalator worked with different effects on different classes, that some rode triumphantly on the top, while others were carried up a few steps and then were kicked back down to the bottom. Worse yet, those who kept the escalator moving were not those who rose with its motion, and those who got the full benefit of the ride did nothing to earn their reward. And to carry the metaphor one step further, if you looked carefully at those who were ascending to the top, you could see that all was not well here either; there was a furious struggle going on for a secure place on the stairs.”

—The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers by Robert L. Heilbroner.

*Oluremi Tinubu

Remi Tinubu’s outburst on the seeming side-line of her hubby, Bola Tinubu, by the Muhammadu Buhari administration illustrates the existence of an acrimonious struggle for dominance by actors in the political space. It connotes the very fact that the poor masses of Nigeria are not the only victims of the serial subterfuge by politicians who find their thumbs useful before elections only to find their faces unworthy after.

Why I Pity Bola Ahmed Tinubu

By SKC Ogbonnia

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu means different things to different people. But if dynamic opposition is the lifewire of democracy, it is very fitting then to name him the saviour of Nigeria’s current democratic journey. Tinubu, more than any other Nigerian, nurtured and sustained the opposition movement that removed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from power. Before Tinubu’s party, All Progressive Congress (APC), there appeared to be no consequences for bad behaviour in Nigeria whatsoever. Despite mounting corruption and gross mismanagement of national resources, the PDP was boasting that it would rule Nigeria forever.

*Tinubu

And, one cannot blame it. It was unfathomable, as at then, for an incumbent president to lose election in Nigeria. But, not anymore! APC recognized the Tinubu genius, and had no problem conferring him with the title of the “National Leader”. But, the honour would become queer in the course of 2015 election campaigns, because Bola Tinubu was neither the party’s national chairman nor the presidential candidate. Seasoned pundits had reasoned that Muhammadu Buhari, having been elected president, would assume the title of the National Leader while the Asiwaju would be anointed the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees. Glaringly, that was not meant to be.

Tinubu’s political sagacity was seen as a threat by Buhari’s post-election inner caucus, a clique of primitive loyalists, whose visions appear concocted from the philosophies of Stone Age native doctors. Instead of the change agenda of the ruling party, the clique focused its energy on strategies to decimate the Tinubu-led brain trust that brought Buhari to power.

The president had no reason to look back. Buhari was still gloating with precipitate pride having been greeted with worldwide goodwill after declaring that he “belonged to no one”. Many took the memorable line as a quaint exit from the military arm of Nigeria’s corrupt oligarchy that needed to be carried along to dislodge PDP from power. Well, events have since shown that Buhari’s “I belong to no one” statement might have been referring to an imaginary freedom from Tinubu. The rest, they say, is history.

This history is that party indiscipline, which had been a cancer of past regimes, became full grown as soon as Tinubu was sidelined. The opposition took advantage to wangle its men to critical leadership positions at both arms of the Legislature. The paradox is that a corrupt opposition party dictates the content and character of the much-anticipated change under the APC government. Even the boards of vital government agencies, including strategic foreign posts, remained in the hands of the opposition for over two years after Buhari assumed office.

The president remained indifferent. To his advisers, the post-Tinubu Tsunami would eventually subside in time for the next election. This false hope prompted Buhari to openly admonish that Bola Tinubu was not the National Leader but merely one of the leaders of the party. The mockery of Tinubu became an appetizing ingredient in every pepper soup joint. But, the man kept calm. He had to.

What could he possibly tell the political gods about his predicament? How could he face his long-standing, left-leaning NADECO allies and the powerful Southwest media that he coopted to produce a Buhari presidency? How could he possibly reconcile his new fate in APC after enduring the worst political fire ever directed to a non-candidate in the history of Nigeria? How could Bola Tinubu reconcile the fact that, instead of Buhari, the Nigerian masses are mocking the Asiwaju himself for the failures of APC government?

One can now relate to why I pity Tinubu; and I truly do. But, what has followed is even more intriguing. The Asiwaju is now re-baptised “the National Leader”. With APC in crisis, combined with his waning popularity, President Buhari did an abrupt U-turn, turning to the same virally discredited Tinubu. The goal is to salvage the party and create a favorable image in time for 2019 elections.

Buhari deserves commendation for the peace move. Tinubu, on his part, has embraced the assignment as a Christmas in June, and he has what it takes to weave the innocent opinions of party members as well as the Nigerian people towards a common purpose. However, how that common purpose aligns with the president’s 2019 individual agenda is another aching dilemma.

Nevertheless, as a fervent fan of Buhari from ages and a sapient adherent of Tinubu’s visions, and now a presidential aspirant under APC, let it not be misconstrued that I openly state as follows: The president can make the assignment less herculean by recognizing that Muhammadu Buhari has become the problem. Yes, there comes a time nonsense paves way for commonsense.
Commonsense dictates that Nigerians are in dire need of a newbreed president—regardless of tribe or religion—who is roundly equipped to lead the country to greatness. The Nigerian people also yearn for a party that can earn their trust. APC can become that party once again, if Asiwaju Tinubu is seen as an agent of the truth.

The truth is that history already celebrates President Buhari for his sacrifice in rescuing Nigeria from the ruins of PDP, but the same history will commit him to its darkest side, if he ignores the warning signs and furthers any individual ambition that can propel PDP back to power.

*Ogbonnia is an APC presidential aspirant (SKCOgbonnia1@aol.com) 

2019: How Will Gov Ganduje ‘Manufacture’ 5 Million Votes Promised President Buhari?

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

If recent political developments in Kano State point to the direction Nigeria is headed when the election bell tolls again in 2019, then the country is in clear and imminent danger. The augury is stark. The prognostication is as portentous as it is scary.

*President Buhari 

Every election circle brings out the beast in us as the legendary Afrobeat maestro, late Fela Anikulapo Kuti, sang. That is true. Our democracy is a jungle where the will of the powerful but vicious minority, who takes no prisoners, will always prevail.  

But there is something particularly telling about the Kano electoral stench.

On Saturday, February 11, 2018, the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC) conducted local government poll. A day after, the chairman of the commission, Prof. Garba Sheka, announced that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) won all the 44 chairmanship and 484 councillorship seats, in an election where 25 political parties participated.

Checking Inequality In Nigeria’s Security System

By Oludayo Tade

The attitude of the leadership of Nigeria and its security institutions to the safety of the poor and vulnerable is condemnable. In the same system, the social structure ensures the securitisation of the rich.

While the tenets of the rule of law prescribe equality before the law, supremacy of the law and fundamental human rights, the practicality of these in Nigeria is gradated to one’s social position. The poor are worse off in security of lives and property, food security, health security, education security, road security, human rights security, among others.

Hurdles Before The Nigerian Youth

By Matthew Ozah

There are plenty of good reasons for a young person to enlist in the ‘army’ to fight the war in the four walls of a university.

Some of such reasons are intellectual growth, career opportunities among others. Of course, fun cannot be divorced from the excessive freedom one derived from being a student in tertiary institutions. But the danger is that most students are unable to control their feelings in the flight of fancy as they chose to gallivant on campus and refuse to be committed to the fight to acquire a sound degree. These students most often become easy prey for cult activities.

Please, Halt The Needless Carnages On Nigerian Roads Now

By Lekan Alabi

Again, one is pushed, yes pushed, to appeal to Nigerian governments and road users alike to halt the needless carnages on our roads, caused by bad (dangerous) roads and mad traffic manners.

I first made this appeal in my article, titled, Blowing Their Killer Sirens, published in The Guardian on Sunday issue of February 20, 1994. When that appeal with those of other Nigerians appeared to have fallen on deaf ears, I updated my 1994 appeal in 2013, in another article titled, Convoys, Carnages and Caution. 

Dark Cloud Over South Africa

By Charles Onunaiju

Following the desperate push to get him out of office and the eventual capitulation of former President Jacob Zuma to the intense pressure by his own party to quit, dark clouds hanging over the country since the December elective national conference of the ruling party, which narrowly produced Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa as the leader of the party has not and will not be clearing soon. 

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa
and former President Jacob Zuma

Mr. Ramaphosa, former labour organiser, ANC top stalwart turned tycoon and now President of the Republic of South Africa has promised a new dawn, not only for his country but for Africa. Given that inaugural speeches in Africa by newly triumphant helmsmen are replete with such boisterous and optimistic rhetoric, it will be more reasonable to wait and see the magic wand that Mr. Ramaphosa wants to wield.

Obasanjo: Ambushing The Emergence Of The Proper Third Force

By Alade Rotimi-John

General Olusegun Obasanjo’s Coalition for Nigeria Movement has been expressed as the former President’s projected avant garde prescription for taking beleaguered Nigeria out of the political woods into which it had been marooned by successive visionless administrations. Fiercely patriotic, Obasanjo is touted as the embodiment of the values for the preservation or continuing corporate existence of the Nigerian contraption.

*Obasanjo 

For good measure, he is an inflexible defender of the status quo. He has after all, been a major beneficiary of the system. Even as the general mood of the nation is in favour of the political restructuring of the country and of charting a proper course around the issues of good governance, equity, justice, etc. the Obasanjo intervention contained in his letter to President Muhammadu Buhari is cleverly positioned to divert attention therefrom and guide the national narrative in the direction of a prepared script.

Nigeria: Nasir El-Rufai’s Politics Of Demolition

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Carl Von Clausewitz has an ardent disciple in Nigeria. Clausewitz was the Prussian general and military strategist who theorised that war is an extension of politics by other means. But Nasir El-Rufai who is evidently enamoured of this theorisation has reformulated it to suit his condition.

*Gov Nasir el-Rufai

Obviously encumbered by his lack of access to an arsenal to prosecute his political war, the Kaduna State governor might have appropriated demolition as a form of war to extend his politics. 

I See Buhari Going The Jammeh, Mugabe, Zuma Way

By Reno Omokri

The news that the South African President, Jacob Zuma was resigning with immediate effect came as a bolt of lightning on Wednesday the 14th of February. It was a Valentines Day special for all of Africa.

*Ex-President Zuma and President Buhari

Apparently, to stave off a vote of no confidence on him by his own party, the African National Congress (ANC), Zuma, quit the stage while the ovation was lowest. In the space of just s little over a year, Africa got rid of some of its worst performing leaders (if you can call them that). First Jammeh, then Mugabe, and now Zuma. 

The South And Nigeria’s Democracy

By SKC Ogbonnia

The handshake across the Niger summit has come and gone.  Though the event was fraught with strategic shortfalls, the move ought to be encouraged by all, because disunity in Southern Nigeria has been a stumbling block to Nigeria’s democracy.

Here is why and how. A definite problem that dogged the Nigerian democracy for ages was lack of dynamic opposition due to proliferation of political parties. This phenomenon contributed to systemic dictatorship and, by consequence, a history of power abuse. The god of democracy came to the rescue by provoking the creation of the All Progressive Congress (APC). Unfortunately, however, the desired outcome has been elusive because of another dimension of dictatorship in form of primordial ethnic tyranny.

Nigeria: How Long Can A Country Run On Generator?

By Amanze Obi

From 1960 (if not 1914) Nigeria has been running on generator. That’s at once an empirical, profound and unassailable statement. There’s not one sector of our national life today that would keep this country breathing one more second, if we shut off the perennial, inevitable life support. There never was, yesterday and, the way we’re going, there may never be, tomorrow.

God forbid! That’s our habitual consolatory refrain, right? Wrong. I can no longer be consoled with the silly daydream that Eldorado would fall on me, after I vehemently elected to ignore the fact that heaven had empowered me to create it. That’s the tragedy of our reality: Nigerians have what it takes to fix Nigeria but we would rather she remained on life support forever.

The Fulanisation Of Nigeria And The Perfidy Of The British (2)

By Femi Fani-Kayode
READ PART ONE HERE
Perhaps the most insightful and concise contribution that I have read about the history of the Fulani and their inordinate ambition and insatiable thirst for domination and conquest was provided by Mr. Gbonkas Ebiri.

His research and analysis of this topic is as historically accurate as it is outstanding. Permit me to share his words.

*Femi Fani-Kayode

"Kingdoms that accommodated Fulani herdsmen in the past were eventually overthrown by the Fulani. In all situations, these herdsmen took up arms and fought for a Fulani leader to overthrow the kingdoms that accommodated them and their cattle. Examples in history:

The first Fulani Jihad was at Futa Jallon. Fulani pastoralists migrated here in large numbers from North Africa in the 1600’s (they migrated in smaller factions earlier).

Dishonesty Of Buhari Administration Knows No Bounds

By Reno Omokri

On December 18, 2013, then President Goodluck Jonathan unveiled the first ever made in Nigeria drone built by the Nigerian Air Force in Kaduna. Yesterday, President Buhari went to Kaduna to unveil the same drone and declared it the ‘first made in Nigeria drone’. Why can’t the Buhari government stop lying? Why must they be so dishonest?

SEE HERE: JONATHAN UNVEILS FIRST MADE-IN-NIGERIA DRONE

That is how the same Buhari administration tried to lay claim to other infrastructure and achievements of the Jonathan government.

From Big Brother Naija To Moral Rectitude

By Edidiong Esara

I dare not watch that thing called Big Brother Naija. It is Vanity Fair extravaganza. Textual snippets of the show make it obvious that the viewership is not worth my while. Neither will one take the unenviable role of analyzing and decrying its immoralities. That would not stop it from being a commercial success. 

Reality show is what they call it; and reality is what it brings to homes. It is reality that immorality is the in-thing. Depravity is appealing, immorality makes sense, wantonness sells fast.  So you are not to blame, BBNaija, for showing people what they love to see. To be rich and relevant in today’s world, you must patronize the craze.

The Fulanisation Of Nigeria, The Perfidy Of British (Part 1)

By Femi Fani-kayode

Mr. Gwnfor Evans MP, the great Welsh politician, lawyer and author and the leader of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, for no less than 36 years before he passed on in 2005, made the following historic and profound observation many years ago.

*President Buhari and Gov El-Rufai of Kaduna 

He said, “‘Britishness’ is a political synonym for ‘Englishness’ which extends the English culture over the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish”.

As a student of English and European history and one that was not only trained and educated by the British from the age of 7 but that is also highly conversant with their system and their ways, I can confirm that Evans is absolutely right. His words are relevant to our situation in Nigeria as well and, in many ways, has some application here.

Nigeria: A Short Essay On ‘The Other Room’

By Banji Ojewale

“In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman”

– Margaret Hilda Thatcher (Late British Prime Minister)

*President Buhari and wife, Aisha

It’s fast turning out that ‘the other room’ in the cosmos of President Muhammadu Buhari is where we have to look for answers to some of the bewildering national questions of the day. When he was grabbed on camera as he faced the world to disclose the existence of an enclosure exclusive to his wife, the president hardly perceived the location as a world beyond his own vision. His remarks were a gratuitous riposte to a loving spouse’s customary admonition. He ignored her and sought to cage the woman, as it were. But the genie was out of the bottle.

Nigeria: A Vote For State Police

By Ike Ekweremadu

The National Security Summit initiated by the Senate kicked-off on Thursday, February 8, 2018 with a clear pro-state police/decentralised policing disposition by the presidency.

In a speech delivered on his behalf by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, President Muhammadu Buhari said: “The nature of our security challenges is complex. Securing Nigeria’s over 923,768 square kilometres and its 180 million people requires far more men and materials than we have at the moment. It also requires a continual re-engineering of our security architecture and strategies…. We cannot realistically police a country the size of Nigeria centrally from Abuja. State police and other community policing methods are clearly the way to go.” 

This is a cheery paradigm shift coming from the presidency and recently from the Governors Forum.

Polio, Lassa And Yellow Fever: Where Is The Political Will?

By Patrick Dele Cole

Since the conception of Nigeria as an independent country it has struggled with a number of deadly viruses and diseases. The most prominent and reoccurring have been polio, Lassa fever and yellow fever. These three have plagued parts of the country for many years and appear sporadically, peaking and dipping throughout the country’s history. Under colonial rule vaccinations were kept for the expatriates and British citizens in the country. The indigenous population was mostly ignored and this allowed the viruses to spread unchecked throughout the country. It wasn’t until later in the country’s history that measures were taken to slow the spread and commence eradication of the disease.

Reemergence Of Viruses

The return of the polio virus in 2016 sparked a mass emergency vaccination campaign. The return was seen in two young children in the Northern part of the country, in areas affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. The return of the polio virus is especially disheartening for the country because it was a year away from being declared polio free by the World Health Organisation (WHO). WHO guidelines state a country must not experience any new cases of the wild polio virus for three years before being declared polio free. The return of polio can be attributed to presence of Boko Haram. The insurgency has made it very difficult to get necessary treatment and vaccines to that area of the country, allowing polio to creep back in.