WAS HALF OF A YELLOW SUN SIMPLY A LOVE STORY?

Even I, the no-nonsense analyst that they call me, do have time for soft news. I was checking out the internet for official Lagos State Government releases concerning the current Lagos @50, MY SUCCESS STORY poster campaign. Having earlier commented very briefly on the grumbling by some that Ndigbo were being curiously omitted, may I now take this opportunity to announce the good news that I came across Dr Pat Utomi's own poster yesterday. It is located just by the Strabag roundabout at MM2, Ikeja. That should quieten that group. It is however not unlikely that some will still regard that as a token. You can't please everyone, can you?

Which brings me to the discovery I made in the same Internet neighbourhood concerning a post on the movie HALF OF A YELLOW SUN based on a book of the same title authored by our very own Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The writer summarized the intro by saying,

"The film is a love story that follows two sisters who are caught up in the outbreak of the Nigerian civil war. . "

Good grief! Caught up?

For goodness sake these were Igbo girls, sisters, like many other hundreds of thousands of that era who were living their lives in their own country Nigeria and subsequently Biafra, among their own folks. How could they have been caught up? Where else could they or should they have been in that season of bestial madness? I hope that the writer was not suggesting that if only they had stayed away in Somalia, Eritrea or Rwanda they would have had a more gentle fate. That war was real. It was no movie. It cannot be whitewashed simply by a turn of phrase.

As for the "love story", I cannot go into Chimamanda's mind to discern her core intentions. Granted that she is about the same age as my eldest daughter, the difference being that she was surrounded in her childhood by storytellers, I doubt that her parents and the then still living grandparents were so keen on making sure that their precious daughter saw ONLY the sunny side of life regarding Biafra and the war. My take is that Chimamanda took on a task, after (like the gospel writer St Paul) having gone through so many other accounts by others, decided to put hers on paper. I recall a young lawyer friend who had a specific problem with her narrative. He asked dispairingly, "How can such a young girl write such a story?" I had dutifully responded that obviously, (and she has said so herself on many occasions), she is a very good listener.

They say that the future belongs to the youth. The enemies of peace in Nigeria are scared stiff that the badly told story of the remote and proximate causes of the Nigeria-Biafra war, the course of the conflict and the ongoing tragic aftermath is now being relitigated by people who were not even born when it started. Hence IPOB, etc. The reviews of Chinua Achebe's THERE WAS A COUNTRY by the likes of Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr (now late), Noor Saro-Wiwa and Robinson Sibe, all children of the Niger Delta, are very instructive. They are available on Penguin, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

I therefore posit that Chimamanda did NOT set out to write a love story in order to regale a dangerously forgetful populace. No, she wrote a most tragic snippet of current and still evolving history, blended with a love story in order to rivet the attention of the reader. The writer above has done posterity a lot of damage by this overt oversimplification.

As we keep revisiting our bad history, hidden under a heavy cloak of government enforced amnesia, it is important that we revert to calling a spade by its proper name. Only the truth can set Nigeria free.

OLISA AGBAKOBA'S CLASS-ACTION SUIT AGAINST NIGERIA ON BEHALF OF NDIGBO.

Some observers have taken exception to this move by Barr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN. Is their objection realistic? I believe that such a stance is based on limited or warped understanding.

Barrister Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, has paid his dues in vibrant activism, in lost opportunities and in blood. If I know him, I cannot imagine him decending to OBFUSCATE the ongoing case for Biafran/Ndigbo self-determination. This has nothing to do with the level of his own passion for the project.

Enemies of Ndigbo are always quick to point out, "See, they are not even united on this issue." My honest stock response has always been that to do otherwise would be un-Igbo. Ndigbo, unlike others, do not possess the herd instinct. They will disagree, analyze, debate, etc. That's Ndigbo for you. I will not even go to that matter of "Igbo enwe eze." Others have dealt with it adequately.

If the writer has followed the brief analysis by US constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein, it would have occurred to him that a case file, such as has been prepared by Agbakoba, could turn out to be one extra nail in the coffin of Nigeria’s continued claim to sovereignty over Biafraland.

Uche onye adiya njo! However we should learn to bow, not sheepishly though, to superior knowledge. His youth apart, Barr Agbakoba is up there in the pantheon of the legal profession with the likes of Prof Ben Nwabueze. A proud old boy of the College of the Immaculate Conception, CIC, Enugu, he just cannot begin, so late in the day, to conceive of what would not be in the overall interest of Ndigbo. That does not however make him infallible.

Semper fidelis!

My detractors, where are you?

Most can accuse me of coming to wrong conclusions on issues. Granted! HOWEVER I CANNOT BE ACCUSED OF NOT THINKING. I AM NEVER AFRAID OF BRING MISUNDERSTOOD. Here we go:

The following plea is a year old today, - Thanks Facebook. . Unlike Governor Ortom of Benue State, I am not waiting for Buhari a.k.a. the Federsl Government to solve this problem.
* *** ***** *** *

ON YORUBA GOVERNORS AND FULANI HERDSMEN: - A SOLUTION:

I have observed that Jide Oluwajuyitan has strained to present the past to have been a lot more glorious than it actually was.The many saints that he extolled all had their dark sides, otherwise we wouldn't be the sad way that we are. Secondly, it us most unhelpful the way he presented the many acts of ommission in confronting the menace of the "Fulani" herdsmen as a Yoruba problem. It is national. Whether good or bad, all the governors watch what the others are saying and doing for a clue on the next line of action. Therefore unrelenting pressure from WE THE PEOPLE is vital. On that score, I fully welcome the opinions expressed by Jide even if I may not agree on all the details. At least we are striving towards a solution. The naming and shaming is in order.

Now let me propose a solution:
All Middle-Belt and Southern states should as a matter of urgency pass legislations on animal control and quarantine and traffic control on all state and rural roads. The primary MANDATORY PROHIBITION would restrict the crossing of cattle across state boundaries ONLY in transport vehicle like trucks, trailers and trains with a properly established chain of custody at a level above the typical untraceable and nameless nomadic wanderer. That will automatically make the work of the State Animal Health Services easier or even possible. The other alternative is for the cattle breeders to slaughter their cattle on their home turf and ship down the beef. Wake up! REFRIGERATION has since been invented more than a hundred years ago. It is 2016 for goodness sake! Eighty percent of the chicken that Nigeria consumes do not arrive at our stores and markets ON THE HOOF. Why does it have to be different for beef?

PLEASE PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, THE US SHOULD NOT SELL EMBRAER A29 ATTACK AIRCRAFT TO NIGERIA.

It is not usual for citizens of a country to wish that it's armed forces are not as powerful or as effective as the nation can reasonably afford. I have chosen to speak on behalf of the oppressed people's of the old Eastern Nigeria, who are suddenly faced with such a dilemma.

On the eve of the first Gulf War after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, there was understandable trepidation in the Western World and among Iraq's immediate Arab neighbours about the scope of Sadam Hussein's possible response to pressure from the outside world. Iraq had a couple of SCUD missiles and perhaps a number of French made Exocets. Would Sadam Hussain create an environmental catastrophy in the Gulf? He could sink a couple of crude supertankers in that most important waterway. Or perhaps obliterate Jeddah and/or Mecca? When the "false" information hit the headlines about Sadam Hussein's WMDs, the Western World, led by the US, promptly decided to err on the side of caution. Allison Gray, the long time CEO of Intel is often quoted as saying that "Only the Paranoid Survive." The rest get eaten. We therefore urge the government of the United States of America to toe the path of extreme caution in the understandable urge to help Nigeria. Ndigbo are paranoid and rightly so.

Having followed the resurgent peaceful agitation from the territories formerly known as Eastern Nigeria, referred to once again as BIAFRA by the now well-known group Indigenous People Of Biafra, IPOB, we are constrained to step in and oppose this arms sale. The current president of Nigeria has openly declared himself a sworn enemy of the Igbo people of the South-East of Nigeria, simply for being Ndigbo and lately for voting massively for his opponent in the last 2015 presidential election. These together with the peoples of the Niger Delta are the so called outsiders who gave him only 5% of his vote. Against all standards of behaviour and diplomacy, our president declared his fellow citizens personae non grata and enemies to the hearing of the foreign press. He has not been able or willing to walk back that faux pas.

It is on record that President Buhari has pursued a scorched earth policy toward all nonviolent dissent expressed by Ndigbo citizens of the South-Eastern part of Nigeria and their immediate neighbours in the Niger Delta. The recent unprovoked massacre of unarmed IPOB members in several locations in Igboland, now a subject of an extensive Amnesty International investigation and Report, coming on the heels of a similar outrage in Zaria, North-Central Nigeria are all clear indicators that President Buhari, as Commander in-Chief, should not be trusted with sophisticated weaponry. He has a very dangerous mindset that does not recognize that the 30 month long Civil War between Biafra and Nigeria ended fifty years ago. President Buhari is emotionally still in the trenches. He needs to be liberated from it and the oppressed citizens of Igboland too.

Most Nigerians of every persuasion appreciate the strains on the fabric of Nigerian society traceable to the unrelenting Boko-Haram "muslim" insurgency in Nigeria's North-East. The jury is still out regarding the professional dedication and performance of the Nigerian Armed Forces in that theatre of operations. While individual officers may be the best in the world, our people do not put much trust in the command structure under the present Nigerian administration of President Buhari. All observers are still at a loss regarding the serial bombing of refugee camps housing displaced Nigerian citizens in the North-East. Whether they were deliberate acts or as a result of incompetence, just like in Syria, the dead are dead. The official explanations never added up. We are worried that when a Nigerian administration, so patently hostile to Ndigbo, and indifferent to the very refugees of the same ethnic stock as its predident, turns it's guns fully on Ndigbo, as its patrons have routinely threatened, it would be one huge genocide, the peamble of which we are now witnessing.

Therefore we have no choice but to oppose this sale of Embraer A29 Super Tucano attack aircraft to the Nigerian military. We do not trust the ultimate finger on the trigger, the Commander-in-Chief President Muhammadu Buhari. It is as simple as that.
Yes, it is a matter of trust.

THE UK WILL NEVER ALLOW THE BREAK UP OF NIGERIA - SAYS AMBASSADOR ARKWRIGHT.

The above insolence is hardly news.

From the many headlines of reports covering this story, I have deliberately chosen the above because it is particularly offensive - to me. The speaker was the current UK high commissioner, (ie ambassador) to Nigeria, Mr Paul Arkwright. I have taken the liberty to check the information available online concerning him.

By the time Mr Paul Arkwright was born in Bolton, (of the Wanderers fame) England on March 2, 1962, I was almost 14years old and had already marched for both Princess Alexandra and Queen Elizabeth. Nigeria had been "independent" for two odd years, and I had assumed that I was finally done with the UK. I was however not in a position to participate in the protests by Nigerian undergraduates against the retained constitutional linkages bordering on security that shackled Nigeria to its erstwhile colonial masters in London.

Now fast forward to 1966 to 1967. Paul Arkwright must have been barely out of diapers, if indeed he was a sharp kid. Meanwhile I had joined the Biafran war effort as a field operative in the Propaganda Directorate. With the correct history suppressed, what then does Paul Arkwright know beyond the sanitized version of events and potential future outcomes served in the British Foreign Service training academies two decades down the road?

If indeed the British High Commissioner was stating the official position of the UK government, pray what UK was he referring to? Does it include Scotland? In a world of fluid boundaries that we live in, which we hope Mr Arkwright is smart enough to recognise, we find it strange that the UK, while loudly asserting it's sovereignty vis-a-vis Europe and recognising the inalienable right of Scotland to pull out, would hold the patently untenable position of deciding what is good for Nigeria. Or any of of its component parts for that matter.

I hardly take myself too seriously. However this is one occasion when I do. I have taken this insult as a personal affront. If I was an academic or researcher at Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College, MIT or Stanford, the likes of Paul Arkwright would normally have a heck of a time getting to step into my cloistered environment. I clearly imagine young Paul Paul Arkwright in my class, exuding the lack of confidence expected of someone of his background. He would be very much out of place. That is why I feel so bad about such unguarded and ill-informed comments by him on matters clearly beyond him. With his condescending attitude, would Arkwright have survived in an environment where world renowned Indian born astronomer Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was leading the field more than sixty years ago. I hope he never gets posted to New Delhi. With this attitude, they may literally eat him for breakfast.

Since the reinvigoration of the nonviolent agitation and protest by the Indigenous People Of Biafra, IPOB, many have gone into the archives to unearth earlier analysis of the unrelenting anti-Igbo stance of the main British government propaganda organ, the BBC. To the BBC and Mr Arkwright, the Catalans, the Basques, the Scots, the Eritreans, the Chechnyans, the East Timorese and the turbulent South Sudanese are nationalists. But not Ndigbo, not Biafrans. Some pejorative expression will be cooked up to describe one of the most vibrant, articulate and educated groups on the African continent. Earlier today I watched an ad on the BBC where the narrator among other things included the lie that the network NEVER TAKES SIDES IN ANY WAR OR REVOLUTION! . Pheeew! That certainly took my breath away.

If Mr Arkwright ever read the mea culpable confessions of colonial civil servants Mr Harold Smith and others after the declassification of the records pertaining to British colonial era atrocities, I wonder if he learnt anything from them. Or has his vow at the Foreign Service Academy inured him and his ilk to the finer aspects of our shared humanity. It is then all about service in the interest of Queen and non existent empire. If Britannia was so stiffnecked, why then did it not try to hold out against China in Hong Kong?

The perfidy of the United Kingdom as a colonial and postcolonial power knows no limits. No analyst has been able to point out even one sector where British intervention and obstructionism has advanced the interest of our Hausa - Fulani co-travellers. They remain as backward as ever, thanks to Her Majesty's people.

The Ashanti Kingdom, Amristar, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya, etc. The story is all the same. It is most interesting and humiliating that China is bringing direct foreign investments into the UK, and even offering to revamp its nuclear power industry. The Ahiara Declaration clearly foresaw a situation whereby Ndigbo, Biafra-by-whatever-name-called, and perhaps a new, improved and truly democratic Nigeria, free from the current contrived hegemonies stranglehold, would call the whiteman's bluff. To the UK that was to be an unacceptable affront. The alliance with the forces of darkness was the step that has led us so far to this sorry mess. I recommend Basil Davidson's BLACKMAN'S BURDEN to anyone interested in pursuing my line of argument. It even makes the conclusions drawn by Karl Maier in his THIS HOUSE HAS FALLEN understandable from a historical perspective.

Hence Ndigbo have all this while been shackled to a train that is willy-nilly running off a cliff. This is a man-made disaster. As the UK's man-on-the-spot, Ambassador Arkwright bears a major responsibility. We have read what happened at Yalta duting tje 2nd World War, where the Polish people were sold for a mess of pottage. We have also been witnesses to the unconscionable romance of David Hunt and others with General Yakubu Gowon after the murder of General Aguiyi Ironsi. Perhaps my grandchildren may yet pore over the inexplicable intervention of Arkwright as Nigerians were striving to work out a sustainable union. May God forgive him. Better that he mends his ways.

HOW TO GET A BETTER CENSUS FIGURE IN THE CROOKED NIGERIAN ENVIRONMENT.

Census?
The following idea of mine may appear original but it's not. However I cannot immediately recall the original author. Here we go:

A new revenue stream should be introduced whereby every citizen captured by the census, pays a Federal citizenship levy or tax. THE CENSUS MUST BE PRIVATELY ORGANIZED BY THE INDIVIDUAL STATE GOVERNMENTS, without the help of the Federal Government.

For every child under the age of ten a citizenship tax of N2000, every youth under 22 a tax of N4000, whereas ALL other adults are levied N8000. This must be collected by the individual crooked state governments and paid into the Federation Account ahead of the relevant accounting year. Meanwhile the raw data should be available for unscheduled snap audits by federal authorities. The impact of this salute to the Nigerian Flag will be a drop in the population of certain states. There will also be an additional gain at the state level because suddenly the states will possess accurate demographic data and a better knowledge of their true tax base. All the positive impacts will still be there irrespective of the eventual revenue sharing formula. Everybody is forced to stand up to be counted and also brings something (real cash) to the table, not just proceeds of oil

RELEASE NNAMDI KANU TO US, WE WILL ADVISE THEM - Igbo Elders.

Chief Dozie Ikedife, "disclosed that the elders resolved that if the Federal Government could release Kanu and other detainees to them, they would take up the responsibility to advise them as elders."

Good. 
However, pray, who will advise Buhari and his forces of coersion? They need it more.

Note that the elders also decried the lack of a speedy trial for Kanu and others. Obviously these elders do not get it. Has the Nigerian "federal" government EVER concluded ANY of the various trials for treason instituted against MASSOB leader Chief Ralph Uwazurike over the past twenty years? The overt aim has been to cow Ndigbo into submission, even to the point where they no longer demand to even participate in their own governance. That is why there is never an official response when Ndigbo state what is obvious to all, that 50years after the end of the Nigeria-Biafra war, Igboland is still treated as hostile conquered territory. To quote our daughter Chimamanda in a different circumstance, we are supposed to "get over it." Really?

The following is not a prophesy. Unless Nigeria let's Ndigbo go free either within or outside this not-so-funny federation, it can never achieve its manifest destiny. Even the impoverished north cannot be developed by its own elite. It is not in their DNA to do so. Ndigbo will do it for free, but they have to be FREE first. Shame on the northern elite, who can hardly lace their own shoes.

One final point. I really wonder what position this Buhari administration can give to me to be able to shut me up, cease being analytical like my revered Prof Awojobi, and make me abandon my civic responsibility to criticize the government IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST. I am stating this because there is this silly notion that if an Igboman is appointed to head INEC, Ministry of Finance, the DSS, EFCC, the Nigeria Police, Nigerian Navy, JAMB, etc, etc, then these agitations will perhaps cease. Like I said, this is silly. For goodness sake how many Ndigbo, (this actually applies equally to other Nigerians) work in any role for the government? It is not as if I will ever benefit from the salary and fringe benefits that accrue to Dr Emeka Ngige or that noisy chap at Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu. Many will recall that the irrepressible Eddie Iroh held that position with impeccable dignity.

Restructure Nigeria.
Das all.

When I wrote my article "CAN NIGERIA ADVANCE BY DOING ONLY THE EASY THINGS‎?"...........

....some three years ago, I made a broad sweep through the various technologies where Brazil had made its mark.

https://www.businessdayonline.com/can-nigeria-advance-by-…/‎
‎
Today some collaborators have drawn attention to purported US government intervention in the making to supply a dozen Embraer A-29 Super Tucano turboprop light attack aircraft to the Nigerian military. My immediate reaction was to point out that Embraer is a noted Brazilian aircraft company. I dug deeper. It appears, (see Wikipedia below), that collaboration with US engine manufacturers has provided the American connection. The US needed to approve all such sales. We can all recall that third party entities could not incorporate US technologies in their products sold to Iran until recently.

Which takes us back to the basic issue that I had addressed, ie Nigeria's unwillingness to wean itself from dependence on other nations, advanced or not, ‎in just about every sector. From the Brazilian/Embraer example, it is clearly NEVER easy. It is also not meant for jokers, the type we have been having in governance in Nigeria.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_EMB_314_Super_Tucano

Exerpt:‎
‎The aircraft differs from the baseline EMB-312 Tucano trainer aircraft in several respects. It is powered by a more powerful 1,200 kW (1,600 shp) Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-68Cengine (compared to the EMB-312's 560 kW (750 shp) powerplant); has a strengthened airframe to sustain higher g loads and increase fatigue life to 18,000–12,000 hours in operational environments; a reinforced landing gear to handle greater takeoff weights and heavier stores load, up to 1,550 kilograms (3,300 pounds); Kevlar armour protection; two internal wing-mounted .50 calibre machine guns (with 200 rounds of ammunition each);[9] capacity to carry various ordnance on five weapon hardpoints including Giat NC621 20 mm cannon pods, Mk 81/82 bombs, MAA-1 Piranha air-to-air missiles (AAMs), BLG-252 cluster bombs and SBAT-70/19 or LAU-68A/G rocket pods on its underwing stations; and has a night-vision goggle (NVG)-compatible "glass cockpit" with hands-on-throttle-and-stick (HOTAS) controls; provision for a datalink; a video camera and recorder; an embedded mission-planning capability; forward-looking infrared (FLIR); chaff/flare dispensers; missile approach warning receiver systems (MAWS) and radar warning receivers (RWRs); zero-zero ejection seats.[10]The structure is corrosion-protected and the side-hinged canopy has a windshield able to withstandbird strike impacts up to 500 km/h (270 kn).[11]
‎

Did I bore you? Please accept my apologies. I was not addressing the masses.

ARE SOUTH-EAST GOVERNMENTS TO BLAME FOR THE STATE OF PRODA?

Recently some Igbo youths posed the above question on a number of online platforms, especially Facebook. They unanimously answered the question is the affirmative. This has made it necessary for me to intervene to set the records straight.

PRODA?
Who can recall the precise mandate of PRODA at it's formation some fifty years ago? Many current commentators are not old enough to dabble into this matter.

Was PRODA set up to see to the technological advancement of greater Nigeria? . No! It was purely local.

There were so many proud Biafran scientists and engineers, still in their prime, eager to keep busy DOING SOMETHING. The government of then East Central State, headed by late Dr Ukpabi Asika strangely enough keyed into that hunger, despite the palpable paranoia at the federal capital inLagos. Hence PRODA.

The newly reunited nation, Nigeria, never indicated a recognition of a technological gap that needed filling. Recall that money was no object to development, according to Gen Gowon. PRODA was at best a local manifestation, barely tolerated by the Gowon and subsequent administrations. These same administrations demolished all traces of Biafran technological achievements, Uli and Uga Airports, functional refineries distributed down to the Biafran Army Brigade command level, etc.

I am almost 70 years old and I never imagined that I would live to see the day when Nigeria's very survival, regarding petroleum products, would hinge, not on the much touted intervention by the Dangote Group, but on the rag-tag operations in the swamps of the Niger Delta by unrepentant militants. At the rate we are going, we may yet forgive MASSOB and IPOB activist all their "sins", considering that they have killed nobody. It seems like the restructuring has already commenced.

It is conceivable, in the absence of any other documentary evidence, that as time went on, the potential for PRODA to engage in "untoward" R&D activities was identified. Hence PRODA was roped in under the suffocating embrace of the Federal Government of Nigeria. The rest is history.

In conclusion, no government(s) of the South-East states is responsible for the sorry state of PRODA. The current situation was by design. For some people, the war is not yet over. The nostalgia by the youth of the South-East regarding PRODA is on a very false premise.

PS:
It is with regret that the Nigerian Airforce has to go begging INNOSON for brake components for some of its aircrafts. Similarly the Nigerian Army has apparently ignored STEYR of Bauchi, PEUGEOT of Kaduna and VOLKSWAGEN OF NIGERIA in Lagos, etc while turning to the same INNOSON to design and produce Armoured Personnel Carriers. I just don't get. Some time ago, I had asked if indeed anything good can come out of Bethlehem. The story of PRODA is indeed part of a much larger epic tale.

NIGERIA AND GAS - The Conundrum subsists.

I have commented so much about Nigeria, electrical power, gas, coal etc, that short of repeating myself, I find comfort in propagating views expressed by other analysts. The following written in 2013 by Raj Kulasingam comes in handy.

Enjoy, if that is even possible.

On gas flaring, Raj referred to
A GLOBAL LEAGUE OF SHAME:
Exerpt -
"Nigeria has been flaring gas since oil companies began production in the 1960’s. According to the World Bank, Nigeria flared 14.6 billion cubic metres of natural gas in 2011. Nigeria was only second to Russia ( a clear winner at 37.4 billion cubic metres) in the international league of shame of countries that flare gas. The more surprising fact is that Uncle Sam (USA) flared 7.1 billion cubic metres and was fifth in this league of shame (behind Russia, Nigeria, Iran and Iraq). . "

ON BRANDI BRENNAN and daughter SOPHIA

IS THAT NOT THE DOCTOR McSTUFFINS EFFECT? 

I always had a thing for kids, no matter how young, being able to climb down to their innocent world and dealing with them closer to their own terms. I am normally completely unfazed by the machinations of a three month old. This came in rather handy when finally my seven grandchildren started to troop in.

There is this game that I play with the seven year olds, wherein I claim that chocolate skinned Dr McStuffins is ACTUALLY my friends and not theirs. The ruckus that this usually causes can only be imagined. From the following narrative I suspect that the Brennan kid, Sophia, is also a fan of Dr McStuffins. The image of a non-white, successful, caring, motherly and happy medical doctor has been imprinted so early in her young mind. She is unlikely, later in life, to ask any non-white woman she meets in a hospital setting if she is "the cleaning lady."

One of my grandsons is so expressive and effusive in narrating his background and experiences at home and school that I would not be surprised if some of his friends want to be engineers like his dad and my-(not-so-humble)-self. For them Bob The Builder will have to be black of course.

Meanwhile this Brennan experience is an eye opener for those who still kid themselves about the home and dinner table origins of racism.

"Another commenter pointed out the greater lesson in this story — that colorism, racism, and prejudice is something that is learned: “A color is just that — a color. Children are so innocent. They don’t have hate in their precious little hearts. Sadly all of that including prejudice are taught in the home. . . "

https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/little-girl-has-perfect-answer-for-woman-who-wondered-why-she-wanted-a-doll-that-didnt-look-like-her-193253439.html

FEMI ADESINA AND GARBA SHEHU SHOULD HEAR THIS.

Are we stuffy, uptight or what?
As they say, if you can't stand the heat, then get the hell out of the kitchen.

In another forum, I had written that Nigerian politicians, and this includes the military despots that we had until recently, want to be both loved and feared. Dense as they are, they don't get to understand that that mixture is incompatible. That explains why Buhari's media handlers led by Garba Shehu are so frustrated by what they imagine to be the meanness of the Nigerian press and us vampires in the social media space. It is the Buhari team that doesn't get it. We have had it up to "here" (you should know what I mean) with ALL politicians.

Candidate Muhadu Buhari kept gunning for the top job for more than 12years. Now that he achieved that goal not one Nigerian who is not senile will cut him any more slack. It is as if he had been preparing for this job all his life. Now "Olukwago n'omume!" Time for action. We have almost run out of "ink" advising that Buhari should get on with the job.

For those who still think that the press and other "wailers" have been mostly unfair to our president, just consider what Donald Trump has to bear. Comedy Central is NOT taking him unawares. They have informed him and his followers in advance "hoha" what this new parody is all about.

Tell your friends that you learnt about this monster show here.

Any Nigerian equivalents? Like they do even on Egyptian television? As I asked above, are we uptight or what?

On BRAIN GAIN - From South Africa with Love

Fellow Nigerians, please don't hang me yet or whatever. I watched the closing act of President Jacob Zuma's midnight massacre. It was long past midnight Nigerian time, in short almost 2.00am in Pretoria, when I saw the new South African ministers being sworn in. Zuma didn't look exactly overjoyed but he maintained a dignified presence.

Now that embattled Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan has been let go, would it not be a good idea if we Nigerians borrowed him briefly, say for 24months. After all he is available. It is on record that foreigners have run British Steel and the UK Central Bank. Hence mine is not exactly a landmark proposal.

Having turned our backs on all our homegrown prophets, Henry Boyo, Odilim Enwegbara to name just a few, we may be left with no other option than to farm out our financial and economic management. Was it not the Buhari administration that proudly announced to the populace that, "We don't need an Economic Management Team."? What else can one say?

NIGERIA'S $4.5 BILLION AJAOKUTA STEEL MILL NEARLY COMPLETE February 9‎, 2016

# Please ‎note the date of this report.

http://bostoncommons.net/nigerias-4-5-billion-ajaokuta-ste…/
‎
‎Today is Saturday, April 1, 2017.

‎How far have we gone since then?

This night, I saw the Minister of Solid Minerals on ChannelsTV Hard Copy ‎an interview program. He discussed many issues, briefly mentioning the Ajaokuta Steel Company (or was it only the rolling mills?) takeover by yet another Indian company, Premium Steels.

The minister was appreciably more fluent and avoided the typical hyperbole enamoured of government functionaries. I am still not impressed. Learning in the job is not the way to take the great leap forward in mining and derivatives.

I am so glad to have heard the Minister mention dimension stones. I believe he meant marble, granite, etc to the layman. I am however disappointed that he did not mention Pam Fedap, Igbetti, Julius Berger and others BY NAME. These are the pioneers in the upstream operations of this sub sector. They deserve celebration and support for their role.

What exactly is going on?
ASCO has incredibly been 97% complete for 30years ‎now. And still counting.

Any news Natasha? ‎

TO ANDY UBA: WHY ON EARTH WOULD I WANT TO PASS OFF AN ACADEMIC QUALIFICATION THAT I DO NOT HAVE?

The above question seems to be directed to distiguished(?) Senator Andy Uba. No, it is not only him but equally all those Nigerians of every hue who on the one hand recognise and covet the public adulation to which well educated individuals are perhaps entitled. These on the other hand demur when it comes to burning the proverbial midnight oil necessary to come out with FLYING COLOURS. That this man Uba worked cheek to jowl with former President Obasanjo in the innermost sanctum of Aso Rock boggles the mind. And he also tried to be a governor of Anambra State. Imagine the nerve.

Would Andy Uba and those covering for him allow a "medical doctor" of identical plumage and track record to perform a surgical procedure on him or any of his loved ones? Or allow an apprentice pilot who was taught, on and off over a number of weekends, by his drinking buddy, to fly a plane in which he or they are passengers for a 9hour Trans-Atlantic trip? The answer is obviously a resounding NO!

It was more than ten years after I left Stanford University that I learnt via the Commencement Address by then CNN ace anchor, Ted Koppel, that Stanford DOES NOT AWARD HONORARY DEGREES! Period! I dug further into that matter. It was revealed much earlier that the founders had decided that if you wanted a Stanford degree, you better come and work towards it. There is no short cut! Was I ever so proud to learn that? If Stanford was a Nigerian institution, it would surely not attract one kobo in endowment.

Which brings us to the question of why young or not-so-young people will defer gratification and take on an onerous course of study in one academic discipline or the other. Pride? Service to the fatherland? To please parents? To measure up with peers? Etc, etc. The reasons are legion, but to be awarded an academic degree at any level connotes a proven achievement in both character and learning. As you go for higher degrees, an indication is provided that the awardee has the ability to pursue intellectual enquiry and independent thinking with the ability to stand up to his peers. Hence to claim to have a higher degree, not to mention a PhD is no small matter. This writer has had several occasions where I had to emphasize in order to remove all doubts, " No, I am not a Professor; actually I do not teach except in a training environment in the private sector. No, I am not a structural or electrical engineer although I have done a lot of work in that area." Because I used to hobnob with many Harvard Business School alumni in certain environments, it was natural for a good many to assume that I was one of them. However I dutifully corrected them, "I do not hold an MBA degree, not from Harvard, not from Stanford." The typical awe expressed by, "Who the hell is that guy?", was more than enough validation for me. Not that I or anybody should need that.

My professor of Extractive Process Metallurgy, Norman Parlee, like all profs do, tried his best to lure me to pursue one or two of his pet enquiries. Believe me, you don't want to know. I had declined telling him that I was already too educated for Nigeria as at that year 1979. I look forward to any fellow cuntryman who will debunk that claim of mine. In light of that, what then was Andy Uba trying to prove? That he can outsmart us all? He actually did, but not for too long. It would be interesting to do a postmortem to determine the amount of damage the polity sustained by having a man of such limited intellect and academic achievement, a man who has so much to hide, permanently looking over his shoulders, as a very close and trusted aide to President Obasanjo. Historians have so much work to do.

ON COAL IN NIGERIA - I COULD SEE THE TREND AND THOUGHT I GOT IT ALL FIGURED OUT - WRONG.

However I have found the speed of the transition away from coal most bewildering. The sad thing is that Nigeria, unlike South Aftica, never rode the coal wave. As we wake up from our five decades long slumber, almost nobody wants to discuss coal any longer in a power plant application. Not US-EXIM, not the World Bank or any European financial institution. I envisage a situation whereby the Chinese and Indians will succumb to pressure from bigger allies and multilateral institutions and demure at collaborating with Nigeria on coal power. How sad. We missed our chance, the train and the boat!

Economic and technical imperatives - AVAILABILITY, PRICE, "CLEANNESS"

THE GOD PARTICLE, . THE GOD WHAAT?

Sorry readers! 

I meant to draw attention to that "crazy" book, FREE RADICALS - The Secret Anarchy of Science - by Michael Brook, a mean scientist himself. I had succeeded in getting my younger colleagues at The Lagos Country Club, Ikeja, to glance through my copy and subsequently ordering their own. We had fun discussing some of the arcane topics so effortlessly covered by the master storyteller Brooke.

When the news broke that "they have found the Higgs Boson," we joined the celebration, without forgetting to ask again: "What the hell is that?" Having read about the Boson in Brooke's account didn't necessarily make us any wiser or smarter. We were unfazed because we honestly believed that we were in the same boat with 99.9% of otherwise educated humanity. Rather nice company.

Why am I revisiting this matter? The Scottish professor, Peter Higgs, who initially proposed that quirky particle in 1964, and has himself been equally elusive, has been finally ferreted out of his unobtrusive life to ruminate publicly over his work. A well-deserved Nobel Prize in Physics was recently awarded him. Congratulations Prof!

I hope no one asks me what we are going to do with the Boson particle if and when we can lay hands on one. That would be most unfair. The wizened and wispy-haired professor at age 87 has confessed that despite working on this aspect for more than 50years, he still has no clue. What then can a strapping 68 year old lad like me do? This is completely outside my league. . Tara!

LET LAGOS STATE GO!

Now I know the origin of the demands for a special status for Lagos State. Jide Oluwajuyitan had only amplified it in an opinion piece. It bears repeating that Lagos State does not need to be granted a Special Status by any person, group or authority. LAGOS IS SPECIAL AS IT IS. Lagos State has left the other states and the Federal government behind in the dust a very long time ago. That we have an APC-led administration in Abuja does not alter this comparison.

To be fully unshackled, Lagos State should go the whole hog and drive for comprehensive Restructuring for True Fiscal Federalism. Lagos State is eminently qualified to lead the charge to overcome entrenched and irrational opposition. Mark you, Ogun State is not too far behind.

NNPC WANTS TO GENERATE 10,000mW - NEWS . .Please don't make me laugh.

Who dash monkey banana?

Whose idea is this hare-brained scheme? The NNPC has not been able to collect government oil revenue and account for it. They have proved incapable of ensuring the smooth running of our four refineries. The NNPC had been unable to build a new refinery in over thirty years. Now whereas six presidents, ten GMDs and about the same number of MDs of NEPA/PHCN and Ministers of Power have barely developed a capacity for 5000mW, the incompetent NNPC will, all by itself, add 10,000mW to the grid! . Pheeew! . Why didn't we think of this simple solution before?

Finally, I recommend that NNPC fully accounts for all our money, remitted and unremitted, perhaps including the odd $7m traced to Andrew Yakubu's residence. After doing that, the current magicians running the place may decide to resubmit this crazy proposal. No harm in trying.

Nice try!

NIGERIA SPENT $2.6BN ON BOKO HARAM - (HUMANITARIAN) CRISIS?

Really? Where did we find that kind of money?

If we could afford to splash that much in the North-East, why then didn't the Buhari administration think it necessary or viable to apply just 10% of that in assuaging the bruised feelings of the restive youths all over the federation, especially in the South-East, the recruiting ground of the IPOB movement? Perhaps it doesn't matter or Buhari doesn't give a damn. Which explains why the extremely provocative Operation Python Dance came naturally to him. Unfortunately it solves nothing.

ARE WE ALL BIAFRANS? THE JURY IS STILL OUT

A couple of months ago I went public with my refutation of the claim by Chido Onumah, in his widely acclaimed book and subsequent lectures in Dallas among other places that, WE ARE ALL BIAFRANS. I had no illusions that mine was going to be the last word. And I was not disappointed. Chido's book has spawned a large body of works around this theme, that it has almost become a genre of its own.
For those who have not been religiously following these developments on the intellectual plane, I present Godwin Onyeacholem who unlike me agrees with Onumah that INDEED, WE ARE ALL BIAFRANS.
I still stand by my own conclusions. However it is only fair that we hear him out. . Enjoy!

LEST WE FORGET - AGAIN ON THAT WAEC PERFORMANCE LIST

It is amazing how a report like the following becomes so routine and commonplace that almost nobody remembers to gloat, to crow! Even a newspaper editor and friend, who a year ago prefaced a similar report with the title WISE MEN OF THE EAST, must have been seriously distracted, like my humble self, by more important affairs of state. What with Trump's month in office and the disappearance of President Buhari from public view. For those who have taken a firm position on Igbo triumphalism, there you have another reading for your graph. Just take it easy.

Ndibe-anyi, ekenee mu unu! . Yaa!

http://punchng.com/again-south-east-leads-in-wassce-perfor…/

ON TRUE, FISCAL FEDERALISM:

I have probably said enough. Now let's hear others. 

Lecture (fifth) by Tony Osborg, True Federalism Activist

Title: THE HYPOCRISY OF NATIONAL LEADERS ON TRUE FEDERALISM; THE WAY FORWARD.

In April 2012, the present Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, published an article titled ‘A Federation without Federalism’. In this article, El-Rufai gave a passionate and critical review of the skewed unitary federalism which Nigeria practices and advocated that the structure of Nigeria’s federalism is faulty and should therefore be restructured to reflect true fiscal federalism so to allow the states (or regions as the case maybe) compete among themselves so as to drive a productive, fair, efficient and sustainable Nigeria.

As part of the argument put forward by El-Rufai, was the need to revisit the 1963 constitution and decentralize power so as to enhance fiscal responsibilities to the governments closest to the people. Like he rightly said in that article, ‘from one perspective, there might be a nexus between our anomalous federal structure and the lack of accountability, particularly at the state and local government levels. If we reflect on our distant past, the 1963 Republican Constitution was close to an ideal federal structure, with clear guidelines on how the Nigerian federation and the federating units were to be financed without undue reliance of one on the other. Unlike the 1979 Presidential Constitution and its successors including the current 1999 version, the 1963 Constitution set clear parameters for territorial and fiscal federalism and carefully avoided undue centralization. For instance, section 140(1) (a) & (b) of the 1963 Constitution foreclosed any agitations in the guise of ‘resource control’. While all minerals – solid or liquid - remain unequivocally the property of the government of the federation, the Constitution provided thus: “There shall be paid by the Federation to each region a sum equal to fifty percent of – the proceeds of any royalty received by the Federation in respect of any minerals extracted in that Region; and any mining rents derived by the Federation from within that Region…In reciprocal terms, the regions were contributing towards the costs of administration of the federal government at the centre in the proportion of what they received as their own share of proceeds of export, import and excise duties collected in each region by the region on behalf of the government at the centre. In the case of oil production, the same applied with the unforeseen exception that the federation will go into joint ventures and production sharing contracts that bring in revenues other than rents, royalties and taxes. This system was maintained until the circumstances of the civil war changed it radically in favour of retention of most of the revenues by the centre, in order to prosecute the war. Things have never been the same since then.”

If there is one thing all patriotic and intelligent politicians will agree upon, irrespective of political inclinations, it would be to admit that the structure of Nigeria’s federalism is faulty and this is mostly responsible for the unlimited abnormality we have experienced in Nigeria. In one of our early articles on Fiscal Federalism, we insisted that the politicians and their political parties are actually not the cause of our national problems; they are not the solution either. The cause of our national trouble is grounded in our skewed system of unitary ‘feeding bottle’ federalism. PDP did not cause it, APC will not solve it, only Fiscal Federalism will. Even the massive level of corruption we see at the centre is only a byproduct of the system we have chose to practice; a skewed federalism breeds inevitable corruption and underdevelopment.

Sometime in 2011, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu made an appeal to the elected lawmakers on the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) platform. In that appeal, as like in subsequent appeals, Senator Tinubu urged the lawmakers to support true fiscal federalism. Tinubu was not only stating his personal opinion, he was expressing the philosophy of the ACN. Like Senator Tinubu rightly stated in that appeal ‘only fiscal federalism can accelerate Nigeria’s development’. He was obviously right. He went further ‘What should be our agenda? What we stand for is what we are saying. And the stability of our country. We have Federal Republic of Nigeria and we are running a federal constitution. Then, we are here to ensure true federalism and I hope I am clear. Now fiscal federalism is mandatory for us. It is only the legislature that can effect the change in the revenue sharing formula…In the last 12 years, I have not heard that the revenue allocation has been reviewed and implemented. We have a lopsided revenue sharing formula…Critical to that, you have a lopsided revenue formula giving the Federal Government 52 per cent of the commonwealth of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is not acceptable. The real people are there in the states and local government levels. The Federal Government should not take more than 25-30 per cent of the revenue…In the federal principle under the constitution, it is the state who ceded power and trust to the Federal Government to hold certain aspects in trust on behalf of the states. Without the states, there is no federal. The situation is sad…we have not been running an effective federal system; it has been unitary system and it has to stop. And we have to work hard on that.’

Those were the words of an opposition leader who understood the metaphysical foundation of Nigeria’s challenges.

By 2012, Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar had become an advocate for fiscal federalism. In one of his debates, he regretted his refusal to support regionalism in the past and expressed his disappointment in the present structure.

“I was among those who opposed it (fiscal federalism) because I thought that Ekwueme, coming from the defunct Republic of Biafra, wanted to break up the country again…Now, I realise that I should have supported him because our current federal structure is clearly not working. Dr. Ekwueme obviously saw what some of us, with our civil war mindset, could not see at the time. There is indeed too much concentration of power and resources at the centre… And it is stifling our march to true greatness as a nation and threatening our unity because of all the abuses, inefficiencies, corruption and reactive tensions that it has been generating…There is need, therefore, to review the structure of the Nigerian federation, preferably along the basis of the current six geopolitical zones as regions and the states as provinces…The existing states structure may not suffice, as the states are too weak materially and politically to provide what is needed for good governance.” He went on “Why should we be talking of federal roads and federal secondary schools? Decentralisation is not an invitation to the breakup of the country and national unity should not continue to be confused with unitarism and concentration of power and resources at the federal level.”

That was Atiku in 2012.

The issue of Fiscal Federalism was once the major objective of the opposition party. And its proponents were from various parts of the country. Fiscal Federalism was therefore not even a regional ideology. It was a national concept championed by opposition men such as El Rufai, Tinubu, Atiku and even Muhammadu Buhari. In March 2011, the then presidential aspirant of the Congress of Progressive Change (CPC), General Muhamadu Buhari (rtd) stormed Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, promising to practice true fiscal federalism if elected into office.

It is indeed confusing to see all these men who once believed in the power of true fiscal federalism become mute upon gaining control of the central government. One would believe that true fiscal federalism would become the impressum of their government. Alas; they have all gone mute. President Buhari who once preached about fiscal federalism in soliciting for South-West vote did not even have the courage to mention the word ‘fiscal-federalism’ in his inauguration speech. And the rest of the leaders agreed with him. Is this not the height of national hypocrisy and deceit? Even Sen. Bola Tinubu has gone mute!

Just before the 2015 general elections, the All Progressive Congress (APC) published its party manifesto which it titled ‘Securing Nigeria’s Future – A Roadmap to a New Nigeria’. Two pertinent points are to note in these documents. The manifesto begins with a promise on true fiscal federalism by asserting that if the APC is voted into the central government, it would "Initiate action to amend the Nigerian Constitution with a view to devolving powers, duties, and responsibilities to states in order to entrench true Federalism and the Federal spirit…". It also went further to state that it would "Make sure people at a local level benefit from mining and mineral wealth by vesting all mineral rights in land to states."

The APC is now in full control of the central government. By full control we mean, controlling both the executive and the legislative houses, both at the state and federal level. Yet, two months into the government, no attempt has been made to at least begin the debate for true fiscal federalism.

Again, we ask, is this not the height of national hypocrisy both by the APC and its leaders?

Nigeria cannot continue to practice this skewed unitary ‘feeding bottle’ federalism. The change that Nigeria desires is not a change of politicians nor political party, it is a structural change. Until this is done, we shall continue to have the experience of ‘the more things change, the more they remain the same or get worse’.

True Fiscal Federalism is the solution and the APC led Federal Government has a moral, legal and patriotic obligation to make this happen.

Like El-Rufai once said “Without question, I believe the situation would have been different if true federalism in which every state generates the bulk of its recurrent needs, lives within its means and gets help from the centre on need basis; operated as in the 1963 Constitution. Rather than blame the government at the centre for the woes of the states, citizens would have learnt to hold state governors and local government chairmen responsible for their neglect, and the incessant scramble for political positions at the federal level would have been less desperate and divisive. As it is, the attitude is one of “it is our turn to rule and chop” - with dire consequences for national cohesion, transparency and accountability in governance…A sound federal structure with balanced devolution of powers among the federating units would provide a respite for the security challenges currently facing the country...”

President Buhari and the APC must save themselves from the pitfalls of our present skewed structure by doing the needful- restructure the country. That is, if they wish not to be overwhelmed by the criminality of the present structure, just like the leaders and party before them.

One thing we must note is that the central (federal) government has so much power, resources and control, this is why politicians become hypocrites and insane once they are connected to this central government. They only regain their senses once they are disconnected from the central government.

We as Federalists and members of this Movement must now begin to act as a way of getting the government to understand that the call for restructuring is beyond politics.

We must be ready to hit the streets, fund ourselves and confront the government with our own facts and demands. We must now take back our country from the politicians and put an end to the national hypocrisy. We must now bring the government from Aso Rock and state government houses and bring it down to our localities.

The Hypocrisy must stop.

Let us now hear your opinion about the article.

Mr Tony Osborg is on Facebook.

HOW CAN FACTS PREVAIL IF THE MILITARY PROBES ITSELF?

The Punch may imagine that it has delivered a scathing editorial, properly balanced, equally indicting both the Nigerian military command and Amnesty International, AI. The Editorial Board failed in that regard. Moreover, if that was the aim, it was an unnecessary pandering to the military which to date has never been answerable to just about anybody. For the Punch to bend over backwards to sanitize the rightly deserved odium, a result of its excesses in the area of non-observance of Human Rights, is to remove the one single leverage "we the people" still have. The military loves it's image dearly, even if it is a false one. From all indications not a single officer appears worried at the prospect of a sojourn at The Hague as guest of the ICC.

Quoting the former military Head of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon was certainly unhelpful in reining in the forces under the command of Gen Buratai. That comment was both insensitive and not politically correct. One would wonder what the prayer warrior would have to say about the serial massacre of IPOB activists, who unlike Boko Haram, have murdered nobody.

The Editorial had also commented,
"AI should be accurate in its claims, as it has no direct access to military facilities, . " This is besides the point. The tendency of the military to obstruct any investigation of its personnel, premises and facilities is legendary.

On the matter of "accuracy" of the numbers killed/murdred, I do not get it. For anyone to choose to dwell on whether actually 250 or 296 or 347 followers of Zakzaki were killed in order to meet the standard of accuracy is both insensitive and wicked. What exactly does it matter? We are not doing a census here. This is a macabre head count of murder victims for crying out loud.

Again let's look at the report concerning the IPOB. Was the casualty17, 177 or 577. Does it make any difference? The Punch may have forgotten that the initial reports based on eyewitness observations and video recordings came to us from our own compatriots via Facebook and YouTube. The final collation by AI was of no particular interest to any observer who had seen enough gore. Amnesty International confirmed nothing that we did not know already.

Finally, where was the knockout punch by The Punch rejecting this travesty of an investigative panel? John Nnia Nwodo spoke our minds when he reminded all and sundry that NO ONE SITS IN JUDGEMENT IN HIS OWN CASE.

I rest my bag!

YES, WE HAD OUR TEETHING PROBLEMS.....

.....and definitely bountiful contradictions with which Ahmadu Bello, Awolowo, Azikiwe and others tried valiantly to contend. Hence the definitive 1963 Republican Constitution. They never claimed to be perfect. To date that document remains the best we ever had, arrived at without coersion, until the rough outlines of The Aburi Accord was hammered out of the ashes of the fire set by the military leading Nigeria down a ruinous path. Now the Nigerian Army PR guru wants some gratitude from us. You create a huge problem out of sheer ignorance and youthful exuberance, then you sit around in my house for two to three decades claiming to try solving the problems you created. And I am supposed to show gratitude for your puny efforts, accompanied by helping yourself from the public till? What nerve?

I used to be an employer of labour. I could have been overawed in 1972 or threabouts by the swashbuckling swagger of a typical army officer. Based on what I now know, I wouldn't hire most of the members General Gowon's cabinet and inner circle for any serious undertaking, especially when a little bit of intellect was required. We still remember the Cement Armada, a total failure in planning and logistics. We were regaled with the false notion that "money was no object" in our efforts at development. We have been living with the dire consequences of that lie ever since. The tragedy was that the speaker was not lying. He simply didn't have ANY idea of what he was talking about.

Even war requires intellect. I have pointed out that whoever drove into that famous Abagana Ambush deserved to be court-martialled.

Now let's get back to the original boast by General John Enenche. The Indian Army in the years following independence in 1948 was a mean fighting machine, feared and respected by the British and it's neighbours. More recently the nuclear and conventional armed forces of the mighty Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR, was supposedly more than enough to cow down any separatist tendencies in the Soviet Union. Even now the Nigerian Army is no match for the Serbian Army, not to mention the combined forces of the post-Tito Yugoslavia. I have gone far and wide to illustrate that these powerful militaries were ultimately incapable of enforcing unity among it's fractious peoples. I therefore suggest that the general should stop kidding himself. Whereas Nigeria may yet remain united and perhaps even peaceful, I however fail to see how the military, which has been a major part of the problem, can claim credit.

On the other hand, the last Nigeria-Biafra War may yet turn out to be a mere rehearsal if we don't mend our ways. You cannot continue to ignore calls for RESTRUCTURING and hope to shoot your way out of the quagmire. That would be hopeless. A discredited South Vietnamese army and political class, even with the support of a whole United States of America, could not stand in the way of the wishes of the masses.

The Nigerian military class should disabuse itself of the false notion that it possess a mandate to define or re-define for the people any aspect of the doctrine of national development. To do so would be highly presumptions. That's the job of the masses and the political class. The military should OBEDIENTLY fall in behind the political class and await it's command. Any one of the officer who desires even to suggest a way forward should simply give up his command, resign and joint the fray.

RE: BABANGIDA'S PDP MILITARY WING, AN INSULT TO NIGERIANS

It was as far back as 1988 or thereabouts. Based on my limited reading, I was able to correctly deduce that then military president Ibrahim Babangida was taking copies out of the playbook of late Argentinian dictator Juan Peron, while his wife saw herself as another Eva "Evita" Peron. I was therefore not shocked when the Babangida regime, without any prompting, confirmed that it had sent out feelers to Buenos Aires.

Why should it then surprise anyone that a very prominent member of this "military wing" of the PDP, former president Obasanjo has to date not found anything good to say about Chief MKO Abiola. Fayose recently only said what we all already know.

There is general agreement that Nigeria has a sordid past. How come then that the same past is overpopulated with heroes, with all manners of criminals and despots fully rehabilitated? Streets, boulevards and stadia named after them. The case of Abacha is not just an open wound, in addition it is more like twisting the dagger in our innards.

On our part, we are culpable by playing along, honouring the despicable with our presence and accolades at public events.

FOR THOSE WHO MAY PRETEND NOT TO HAVE READ THE PRESIDENT OF OHANEZE NDIGBO, JOHN NNIA NWODO. THIS IS YOUR CHANCE.

NEWS » IPOB Killings:
Ohanaeze tackles Buratai IPOB Killings:
MARCH 10, 201712:37
By Peter Okutu

The President General of the Igbo apex organization, Ohanaeze, Chief John Nnia Nwodo has picked holes in the Chief of Army Staff, Lt General TY. Buratai’s inquiry into the alleged killing of members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, by troops of the Nigeria Army. Nwodo said in a two page statement titled, “Buratai, with respect you cannot be a judge in your own court’ signed by him that General Buratai’s inquiry cannot stand the test of objectivity and therefore its outcome would not be acceptable to the umbrella body.

The Ohanaeze boss expressed regret that his ceaseless call for judicial commission of inquiry on the army brutality fell on deaf ears until Amnesty International got involved. “In Ezu River in Anambra State, twenty-one bodies floated for two months without anyone identifying them up till today. Claims that they were MASSOB members hacked down by combined Police and Army personnel remain uninvestigated. “In Aba, IPOB members were gunned down by soldiers for just gathering to hold a meeting. No investigation was done. “In Port-Harcourt, IPOB claimed eleven of their members were gunned down by soldiers. I called for an inquiry but nothing happened.

Instead further killings were done in Asaba.” Nwodo said that Ohanaeze is not opposed to the Army Chief carrying out an internal investigation in his service but noted that “the findings of such an investigation will neither be acceptable to Ohanaeze nor stand the test of objectivity until it is subjected to an impartial body. The basis of our rule of law is that you must not be a judge in your own court” Nwodo expressed regret that the Army Chief is further exacerbating the mood of IPOB members by his threat that Nigeria cannot be divided in his lifetime describing the statement as unnecessary. “That kind of talk conditions the mindset of his troops to think that they are at war with these agitators. The constitution of Nigeria guarantees freedom of association, assembly and speech.

 So long as the agitators are peaceful and unarmed, they are entitled to protection by our security services”, the Ohanaeze PG said. He reminded the Army Chief that the agitation for Biafra can only succeed if the National Assembly orders a plebiscite and majority of the people in the area vote for it and warned that the democratic expression for it cannot be halted by guns!! The Ohanaeze leader then advised that the completely non-Igbo committee of the Chief of Army Staff should serve their masters views, and not concern itself with an impartial inquisition which will not have our patronage or regard. ‘Buratai’s comment compromising’ Also yesterday, an Igbo leader of thought in Ebonyi state, Chief Abia Onyike stated that the comment credited to the Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Tukur Buratai that “You can’t divide Nigeria in my time; those agitating for an independent state should “forget it” had compromised the integrity of the 8-man panel set up by the Nigerian Army to investigate the alleged series of allegations of extra-judicial killings of members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB by the military in the country. According to him, Buratai is assuming already that the killing of the agitators was justified.

In a statement issued in Abakaliki, the Igbo leader added that the Chief of Army Staff should not be talking about his lifetime when he is not one of the founding fathers of the country but a mere public officer whose portfolio is tenured. The statement read in part: “While I welcome the probe of the alleged killing of pro-Biafran agitators by some Nigerian military personel by the Nigerian Army, I think that the comments by the Chief of Army Staff,Gen.Tukur Buratai has already compromised the outcome of the probe. “Buratai said that the agitators cannot achieve their aim in his lifetime. Buratai has put the cart before the horse, thereby destroying the legitimacy of the probe.

By saying what he said, Buratai is assuming already that the killing of the agitators was justified. His statement is an overreaction to the challenge at hand. “He should not be talking about his life time in this circumstance because he is merely a public officer and not the founding father of Nigeria. He can talk about his tenure or the period of his career as Army Chief because even former military presidents cannot afford to be that fanatical. “Buratai has failed to address the root causes of the agitations engulfing the Nigerian state, namely regional imbalances, economic inequalities, mass unemployment among the youths and religious intolerance. “Instead, he has always yielded to the parochial view that the crises can be resolved through maximum force.

Nigerian leaders should watch their excesses by taking note that the international community can no longer tolerate their genocidal instincts. “They should address their internal problems with maturity and stop the wanton destruction of innocent lives under the archaic canopy of enforcing national unity “On the throat of conquered and dehumanized nationalities. Buratai should review his strategies especially in the wake of the Zaria massacre of 2015 and the recent bombing of IDPs in Borno state. His tenure should not be a study in genocide before he could be adjudged as an effective Chief of Army Staff”.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN !

 What if?
What if Colonel Adeyinka Adebayo had manned up, boldly stepped up to the plate, (after Wey and Ogundipe demurred), and assumed the mantle of leadership of the Federal Military Government after the demise of Gen Ironsi?
We will now never know.
It is probable that Ojukwu would have played along despite the pogrom.

It is a pity that we will never know.

OBJ BLAMES POOR LEADERSHIP FOR NIGERIA'S RETROGRESSIVE GROWTH

It has been most interesting "hearing" the lament of former president, Olusegun Obasanjo on the lack of adequate synergy between the Private and Public sectors of the economy. OBJ must be a new convert, because it had been rumoured that when he came into office, more or less straight from Abacha's gulag, he was most resentful of the personal successes that he met on the ground. 

As it is, he has had his own Road-to-Damascus conversion on this matter. That is a good thing. However I wonder if this occurred early enough to positively influence decision making in the Obasanjo Presidency. Or did he wait until he was out of office and is now checking out how the shoe fits on the other foot? . That would have been a disastrous waste. Every subsequent regime stating from Yar'Adua needed to stand on the shoulders of its predecessor.

Regarding poor leadership, I wonder who former President Obasanjo was referring to. Did he include himself, before, during and after his presidency? We would love to know, especially now that his agemates are wrapping up.

God bless Nigeria!
He does. Can Nigeria grab the blessing?
That's the real question.

I HAVE BEEN INVITED INTO A FACEBOOK Group named RESTRUCTURE NIGERIA.

I swear that the individuals that I have encountered there are very sharp minds. One of the many webinars that are being hosted there is currently dealing with potential of a constitutional review whereby states are responsible for the electrical power that they need. Here is my contribution:

FROM MY ARCHIVES:
Oduche Azih: Government (CBN) N300bn bonanza; gas-to-power infrastructure conundrum and other related matters - Daily Post Nigeria
https://www.google.com.ng/…/oduche-azih-government-cbn…/amp/

Exerpt:

WHY NATIONAL GRID?
Let's try this "Crazy” Idea. . In one forum I had proposed the idea of discontinuing the national power grid as a way of resolutely devolving power over power (no pun intended) to the states and/or the six geopolitical zones. Within three months I read of three different individual who had independently come to the same conclusion. One was/is an engineering professor at the University of Lagos, the second a foreign technologist who had come into Nigeria for an event. The most amazing was the last, wait for it, a lawyer somewhere within the decision making structure of the ruling party PDP in Ogun State! I immediately linked up with him.

I envisage a situation where for example the people of Benue, Taraba, Nassarawa and Kogi States after despairing of waiting for ever to get the power they need. They then decide to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, determine by themselves just how much power they need and proceed to build the power plant required. Each of these states is bigger than The Gambia many times over. I do not want to bother visualising what the Lagos State Government can and will do if we simply stop standing in its way. The single fact of approvals and contracts no longer being awarded at Abuja will probably provide an extra four percentage point boost to the growth rate of the GDP.

I rest my case.

I invite readers to access the full article which is also available in BusinessDay, The Punch and on my blog.

MASS HOUSING FOR ABUJA: HOUSING IN MOSCOW UNDER REVIEW AFTER 60 YEARS OF SOVIET POLICY. CAN ABUJA PICK UP ANY LESSONS?

Maxim Trudolyubov grew up in Moscow and knows her neighbourhood well. She now takes on a "political" kite recently flown by President Vladimir Putin and his handpicked Mayor of Moscow. If Putin and Co can revisit post-Stalin housing policies inroduced 60 years ago in the Chkruschov era, perhaps Nigeria should start right now to correct the masses - unfriendly Housing Policy it has been pursuing in Abuja these past 30 years.

Hear Maxim:
"So-called “mikrorayony” (microdistricts, or neighborhood units designed to house tens of thousands of inhabitants each) were reproduced throughout the Soviet Union.

"The vast majority of Russians, myself included, grew up in such a microdistrict. Microdistricts WOULD NORMALLY HAVE GREEN SPACES, APARTMENT BUILDINGS SCATTERED AT 50 TO 200 METRES' DISTANCE FROM EACH OTHER, A METRO STATION SOMEWHERE IN THE VICINITY AND MOST AMENITIES WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE."

And I ask. What were the designers of Abuja thinking? In all thinking advanced societies, it is the well-heeled elite that live in the suburbs removed from the city centre as in downtown. Anytime this arrangement is reversed through re-gentrification of downtown, new problems do crop up. Abuja's problems were instituted on day one. Very sad!

Maxim continued,
"It would have made for a beautiful living if the apartment buildings had been a little nicer and if the shops had had better food—or sometimes any food at all. But we loved it anyway. We did not have much to compare it to. And of course, we valued the clean air, the walks in the woods, the skiing in winter, the cycling in summer."

That is NOW besides the point, a historical milestone. In Lagos we survived Jakande "temporary" housing and have since moved on. Russia was poor. Period. Abuja, (not to mention Ajaokuta, another story!) was built while Nigeria was awash with petrodollars. We didn't have and still do not have any excuses for the deliberate scatter - brain mass housing design in the Abuja masterplan.

Are we ready to learn now?