TELEVISION COVERAGE OF THE MILITARY INVASION OF THE SOUTH-EAST

I need help here. 

For over a decade, my television station of choice has been ChannelsTV. This is not unique to me otherwise they would not consistently win the Station Of The Year Award over and over again. I watch ChannelsTV especially when I need to put certain conflicting reports to rest. One cannot count on NTA for factual reportage.

Now some people have recently been accusing ALL major television networks, including ChannelsTV and of course TVC, of colluding with and being on the payroll of the Federal Government. This is a weighty accusation which I would want to dig into over time before I can take a definitive position.

However, apart from any editorial position and posturing on these happenings in Aba, Afara-Ukwu in Abia State and other parts of the South-East, has our favourite ChannelsTV been providing viewers with footage out of the South-East, hence allowing them draw their own conclusions? The surfeit of self produced videos by interested parties has been a source of serious concern. People weep over them. Others condemn them as untrue or true but sensational, and since they affect our sensibilities need to be suppressed. Meanwhile ChannelsTV and others REFUSE to give viewers authentic coverage.

If indeed the IPOBians are as bad and violent as reported, we need to see the pictures, together with records of the "justified" reactions of the military supposedly "just passing by or minding their own business." Without these, I sense a serious cover-up. Those who have been shouting themselves hoarse that a pogrom, (if genocide is too harsh a word for you), is in the offing, see in these developments the evidence they have been looking for.

ChannelsTV is fully on the ground in Awka, Enugu and the rest of the South-East. It provides blanket coverage for the activities of Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State. I have the sneaky feeling that the monsters at the Abuja military high command and 82 Division Enugu instructed them to stay away from their areas of operation. Otherwise all military exercises are newsworthy and are thus given comprehensive coverage. That was how I got to know the popular NTA military correspondent Muhammadu. In the heat of the Fulani campaign in Agatuland, ChannelsTV's Charles Erukaa kept us updated on the happenings there despite the obvious risk to his life. Why then are all the stories about the carnage emanating from Operation Python Dance in the South-East coming only from the "enemy" side?
This is sinister.

IS DANGOTE THE ONLY BILLIONAIRE IN NIGERIA?

Two decades ago, Alhaji Aliko Dangote was one person most of us loved to hate. He belongs to that small select group of Nigerians who had unfair access to government and government patronage. It has been said that behind every huge fortune lies a huge crime. That said, was Dangote the sole beneficiary of unrestricted access to Gen Babangida and all other heads of state after him? The answer is a big no. Where are the others?

I say this on behalf of the teeming masses. Whatever sins Dangote may have committed have long been forgiven him. The purgatory of the interminable board meetings, travels, financial and technical sessions that he routinely has to contend with is enough to kill four regular folks. Our Dangote inexplicably keeps going at it. The other Nigerian billionaires must think Alhaji Dangote to be really mad to take all that trouble when he can choose to take things easy. They know themselves. The public knows them. Hence I do not have to waste any time identifying them one by one. Physical and intellectual laziness is second nature to such characters. Pulling out their loot stashed overseas and investing same in productive ventures at home would involve risk and a requirement to WORK, a strange notion indeed.

Finally, I must point out that budding youth entrepreneurs do not create the quantum of jobs that a potentially growing economy, like Nigeria, needs in the absence of the Dangotes, MTNs, etc of this world. We need as many big players, both local and foreign, as we can cultivate. Apart from direct sales to the public, it is the demand from the big investors that often constitute the critical mass for the success of these youthful entrepreneurs that Emefiele covets. I doubt that the government and its nascent economic team understand these fine points.

REUBEN ABATI CANNOT DECRY THE EXCESSES OF THE FULANI HERDSMEN WITHOUT INSULTING NDIGBO

dailypostng article by ruben abati

Reuben Abati wrote:

"Ethnic hate, serving as sub-text to the January 1966 and July 1966 coups, for example, set the stage for the civil war of 1967 -70. The root of Igbo-Hausa/Fulani acrimony can be traced back to that season when Igbos were slaughtered in the North, and (wait for this) . .

1)THE HAUSA/FULANI WERE SLAUGHTERED IN THE EAST  . .

Really? Please Reuben tell me about it! 

This is a rather strange way of providing balance in a narrative by throwing in a few chunks of falsehood as ganishing? Reuben Abati had earlier been confronted and rubbished by better organised professionals like Chuks Iloegbunam, but obviously he has refused to learn any lessons.

2) He continued, "Ethnic hate also led to the Tiv riots, crisis in the Middle Belt since then, . "

"Since then. ?" Since when?

Reuben has messed up the order of events in history. The Tiv riots against the Hausa - Fulani hegemony in the north spanned a period from before Nigeria's paper independence in 1960 to just before the military coup of 1966. Hence that agitation for Tiv freedom led valiantly by Joseph Tarka of blessed memory could by no stretch have been a  diirect result of whatever "sins" Ndigbo committed (later) in January 1966 as Reuben Abati would have us believe. It is on record that Ndigbo have been hunted as game every so often since the 1950s. Just check the historical records.

Instead of sticking to profering solutions to the menace of Fulani herdsmen (and other criminals elements who have found that appellation a good cover for their illegal activities), Reuben could not resist taking another poke at Ndigbo. I find it rather strange that some people who "write for a living" would suddenly rouse themselves from their self-induced stupour to address issue that ordinary folks like me had taken on a year ago. Thank God that Mr Abati now has time on his hands.

3) Reuben dutifully  warned that if the situation is not urgently addressed, "A resort to self-help SUCH AS OCCURRED IN 1966, could have serious national security implications. . " . Here we go again.
Self-help? It is most amazing that a government organised, approved and tolerated genocide of Ndigbo in 1966/67 could be presented by an otherwise educated Nigerian, who had the priveledge of serving (himself?) in the highest levels of government, to have been as result of self-help by the aggrieved. Even General Gowon cannot say this. He would rather keep mum or accuse the Ikemba of another infraction long fogotten. This is probably part of the reasons Gowon has adamantly refused to write his memoirs.  At this rate, Nigeria has absolutely no hope going forward.

Meanwhile I will concede that Mr Abati's excessively long opinion piece is not completely bereft of redeeming features. Shorn of the Igbophobic overindulgence,  it should serve as another wake-up call to Nigerians and the sleepwalking government at Abuja. His belated commentary was an inelegant rehash of earlier writers.