University to make Igbo language compulsory course

University to make Igbo language compulsory course for all students

on December 29, 2013   /  

Prof. Ihechukwu Madubuike, Director, Igbo Renaissance at the Gregory University, Uturu (GUU), Abia, said on Saturday that the university would soon introduce the Igbo language as a compulsory course in the second year.

Madubuike announced this at Uturu during the 6th edition of the Igbo (Uturu) Cultural Carnival, which held at the university.

“By the next two years, the university plans to introduce the Igbo language as a compulsory subject for all students in the second year.

“Whether you are Yoruba, Hausa or Efik, you must take Igbo as a compulsory subject, in spite of your area of specialisation,’’ he said.

Madubuike described the Igbo language as the ‘’soul of the culture of Ndigbo,’’ adding that the disappearance of the language would mean the ultimate death of the culture.

Earlier, the traditional ruler of Oko in Anambra state, Igwe Laz Ekwueme, called for concerted efforts by people of the South-East to save the Igbo language from going extinct.

Ekwueme, who was the chairman of the carnival, expressed regret that the Igbo language was under serious threat, due to the decline in its usage as a means of communication in various families.

He noted that many families of Igbo origin preferred to communicate in foreign languages, especially the English language, with their children.

“More often, nowadays, you find many parents communicating with their children and relations in the English language, rather than the Igbo language,’’ he said.

Ekwueme regretted that the development was capable of endangering the Igbo language, if not promptly checked.

The monarch, who was a former Minister of Education, commended the Chancellor of the University, Dr. Greg Ibe, for initiating the carnival.

“Anything that is done to encourage the sustenance of the Igbo language and culture would be encouraged,” he said.

Ekwueme noted that the event would add value to similar efforts designed to re-establish and reinforce the Igbo culture.

He urged governors in the zone to rally support toward the sustenance of the culture and the language of Ndigbo by identifying with the carnival.

Prof. Barth Chukwuezi, a director in the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, expressed delight that the Igbo cultural heritage and artefacts could be found in abundance in Uturu.

Chukwuezi, who is the Head, Educational Services and Training, said that the commission often encouraged the people to communicate in their native languages during its outreach programmes.

He noted that the Igbo language ranked among the few native languages in the country facing serious threats of possible extinction and called for urgent steps to stem the tide.

“Once a people’s language and culture go extinct, then the people literally cease to exist,’’ Chukwuezi said.

He advised parents to encourage the use of the Igbo language in their homes, as a major means of communication with their offspring, to save the language from dying.

The initiator and sponsor of the carnival said that the objective of the yearly event was to provide a platform for the transmission of Igbo culture from one generation to another, among others.

He said that the theme of this year’s carnival: ‘’Ibu anyi danda’’ (meaning ‘’resilience and the indomitable spirit’’) of Ndigbo, underscored the numerous challenges and struggles faced by the Igbo man.

Ibe noted that God had always rewarded the Igbo man with huge success in his vocations and determination to succeed in life.

The Chancellor explained that the ceremony was organised as ‘’our contribution to the cultural heritage of mankind‘’.

He described the celebration of a people’s culture as ‘’the celebration of their history, civilisation and the totality of their way of life’’.

The lecture on the theme was delivered by a renowned author and publisher, Mr Chinedum Ofomata.

Highlights of the ceremony included cultural dances by various dance groups from 16 states of the federation.

Different kinds of masquerades, including ‘’Ijele’’ and ‘’Atu’’ from Anambra, took turns to perform at the event, which attracted a large crowd from within and outside the country. (NAN)

“I get am before” no be property.

Igbo scholar disgraces Femi Fani-Kayode •Demolishes claims on Igbo/Yoruba history with facts and figures

By News Express on 17/08/2013


An Igbo scholar, Dr. Samuel Okafor, has made one-time Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, look so small and uneducated by using facts and figures to demolish the claims he made in the controversial August 8 article, “The Bitter Truth About The Igbo”, which set off a storm that almost threatened Igbo-Yoruba relations.
In the first part of an article entitled “The Lies of Femi Fani-Kayode”, Okafor, who has a First Class in History from the University of Nigeria Nsukka and then did a Ph.D in Nsukka on scholarship, dismissed Fani-Kayode as a “half-baked intellectual.” He then proceeded, point by point, to address what he termed “the most reckless amongst the tangle of reckless comments spewed by Femi, a character who with each punch of his keypad stresses his severely unwell conditions of logorrhoea, delusions of enlightenment, history and sociology – amongst others.”
Below are Okafor’s words:
FEMI AND HIS SEVERELY IGNORANT LIES:
•Femi Lies About the Yorubas Being Nigeria’s Earliest Graduates:
From his myopic bubble Femi FaniKayode claims the Yoruba were the first to acquire Western education; the first ever known record of a literate Nigerian in the English Language is the narrative of an Ibo slave who regained his freedom and documented his life history as a slave from the time he was 11 years old in present day Ibo land till the time when he gained his freedom in the middle of the 18 th century. He later married an English woman and had 3 children. He died in 1795.
Femi, a basic Google-research will do you good here; check out the name, Equanoh OLAODAH. Further Femi claims that the Yoruba were the first lawyers and doctors in Nigeria. This is again a big falsehood. The first Nigeria doctor was an Effik man Silas G. Dove who obtained a medical degree from France and returned to practise medicine in 1840 in Calabar. This fact can also be verified from historical medical records in Paris.

I would also ask that you google the name BLYDEN – Edward Wilmot BLYDEN – an educated son of free Ibo slaves who by the mid-19th century had acquired sound theological education. He was born in Saint Thomas in 1832. He is one of the founding missionaries that established the Archbishop Vining church in Ikeja. Before the next time you succumb to your long-running battle with logorrhoea, Femi please do some research.
What about the third president of a free Liberia – President J JRoyle – again, a man of Ibo descent. Please take some time to do some research so that we can discuss constructively. It is wrong to peddle lies to your people. It is academic fraud to knowingly misrepresent facts just to score cheap points with people who do not have the discipline to do research and accept anything you pour out simply because they say you are well educated. To again quote the great Nobel Prize Winner in Economics Joseph Stiglitz; Femi fits into the category of third rate students from first rate universities with an inflated sense of self-importance. Let’s go on!
Who was the first Nigerian Professor of Mathematics – an Ibo man – Professor Chike Obi – the man who solved Fermat’s Last Theorem. He was followed by another Ibo man, Professor James Ezeilo, Professor of Differentail Calculus and the founder of the Ezeilo Constant. Please do some research on this great Ibo man. He later became the Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria Nsukka and one of the founders of the Nigerian Mathematical Centre. Who was Nigeria’s first Professor of Histroy – Professor Kenneth Dike who published the first account of trade in Nigeria in pre-colonial times. He was also the first African Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan. Who was the first Professor of Microbiology – Professor Eni Njoku; he was also the first African Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos. Anatomy and Physiology – Professor Chike Edozien is an Asaba man and current Obi of Asaba. Who was the first Professor of Anatomy at the University College Ibadan? Who was the first Professor of Physics? Professor Okoye, who became a Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1960. He was followed by the likes of Professor Alexander Anumalu who has been nominated for the Nobel Prize for Physics three times for his research in Intermediate Quantum Physics. He was also a founding member of the Nigerian Mathematical Centre. Nuclear Physics and Chemistry – again another Ibo man – Professor Frank Ndili who gained a Ph.D in his early ’20s at Cambridge Univesity in Nuclear Physics and Chemistry in the early ’60s. This young Asaba man had made a First Class in Physics and Mathematics at the then University College Ibadan in the early ’50s. First Professor of Statistics – Professor Adichie who’s research on Non-Parametric Statistics led to new areas in statistical research. What about the first Nigerian Professor of Medicine – Professor Kodilinye – he was appointed a Professor of Medicine at the University of London in 1952. He later became the Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria Nsukka after the war. What about Astronomy – again another Ibo man was the first Professor of Astronomy – please, look up Professor Ntukoju – he was the first to earn a double Ph.D in Astronomy and Mathematics.

Let’s go to the Social Sciences – Demography and statistical research into population studies – again another Ibo man – Professor Okonjo who set up the first Centre for Population Research in Ibadan in the early ’60s. A double Ph.D in Mathematics and Economics. Philosophy – Professor G D Okafor, who became a Professor of Philosophy at the Amherst College USA in 1953. Economics – Dr. Pius Okigbo who became a visiting scholar and Professor of Economics at the University of London in 1954. He is also the first Nigerian Ph.D in Economics. Theology and theological research – Professor Njoku who became the first Nigerian to earn a Ph.D in Theology from Queens University Belfast in Ireland. He was appointed a Professor of Theology at the University College Zambia in 1952.

I am still conducting research in areas such as Geography where it seems a Yoruba man, Professor Mabogunje, was the first Professor. I also am conducting research into who was the first Nigerian Professor of English, Theatre Arts, Languages, Business and Education, Law and Engineering, Computer Technology, etc. Nigerians need to be told the truth and not let the lies that Femi Fani-Kayode has been selling to some ignorant Yoruba who feel that to be the first to see the white man and interact with him means that you are way ahead of other groups. The Ibo as The great Achebe said had within a span of 40 years bridged the gap and even surpassed the Yoruba in education by the ’60s. Many a Yoruba people perpetually indulge in self-deceit: that they were the first to go to school; to be exposed to Western education; that they are academically ahead of other Nigerian cultures of peoples. Another ignorant lie.
As far back as 1495 the Benin Empire maintained a diplomatic presence in Portugal. This strategic relationship did not just stop at a mere mission but extended to areas such as education. Scores of young Benin men were sent out to Portugal to study and lots of them came back with advanced degrees in Medicine, Law and Portuguese Language, to name a few.

Indeed, some went with their Yoruba and Ibo slaves who served the sons of the Benin nobility while they studied in Portugal. These are facts that can be verified by the logs kept by ship owners in Portugal from 1494 to 1830. It is kept at the Portuguese Museum of Geographic History in Lisbon.
Why then would several Yoruba people peddle all these falsehoods to show that they are ahead educationally in Nigeria? The true facts from the Federal Office of Statistics on education tell otherwise, showing that 3 Ibo states for the past 12 years have constantly had the largest number of graduates in the country, producing more graduates than Ondo, Osun, Ekiti and Oyo states. These eastern states are Imo, Anambra and Abia. Yet he calls Ibos traders. Indeed, the Igbos dominate because excellence dominates mediocrity – truth.
Let me enlighten this falsehood’s mouthpiece even further: before the civil war Ibos controlled and dominated all institutions in the formal sector in Nigeria from the universities to the police to the military to politics:

•The first Black Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan was an Ibo man
•The first Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos was an Ibo man
•The first Nigerian Rector of the then Yaba College of Technology was also an Ibo man
•The police was run by an Ibo IG
•The military as a professional institution was also run by elite-ilk Ibos.

Facts can never be hidden. To be first does not mean you would win the race; let us open up all our institutions and may the best man win. Let us not depend on handouts or privileges but on heard work. Let us compete and give the best positions to our brightest – be it Ibo, Yourba or Fulani, and then we shall see who is the most successful Nigerian.
I find it difficult not to respond to some of these long-held lies that are constantly being peddled by Yorubas. One is that the Yoruba have the largest number of professors in the country. I would again ask that we stick to facts and statistical records. The Nigerian Universities Commission has a record of the state with the largest number of professors on their records and as at 2010 that state is Imo State followed by Ondo State and then Anambra State; the next state is Ekiti and then Delta before Kwara State. I am sure you Yorubas are surprised. When you sit in the South-West do not think others are sleeping but I wish to address another historical fact and that is who were the first Nigerians to receive Western education. It is important that these issues be examined in their historical context and evidence through research be presented for all to examine.
I have continued my research for as the great sociologist and father of modern sociology – Emile Durkheim – put it, the definition of a situation is real in its consequence . What this simply means is that one must never allow a perceived falsehood to become one’s reality and by extension individuals who accept a defined position act as though the situation is real and apply themselves in that narrowly defined perspective.
Why is this important to state it is because for long the Yoruba have peddled lies that have almost become accepted as the truth by other Nigerians but it is important that we lay down the facts for others to examine and come to their own conclusion for facts are facts. Let’s go back to education. Historically, Western education resulted as a product of indigenous ethnic groups interacting with the whites through trade. The dominant groups sold slaves, ivory gold and a host of other products to their European counterparts in exchange for finished goods – wine, tobacco, mirrors, etc.

The Bini who were the dominant military force from the 15th to the 19th century raided and sold other ethnicities to the Europeans. Top on the list of those they sold were the Yoruba, Ibo and Igala. Various other ethnicities suffered as a result of the Bini military expansion. And the Benin Kingdom stretched from present-day Benin up to what is now geographically referred to as Republic of Togo. Indeed, the influence of the Benin Empire extended to the banks of the river Niger to present-day Onistha. There are huge Yoruba settlements in the Anioma part of Delta State who fled Yoruba land as a result of these attacks and constant raids. Yes, there are Yoruba people who are currently living with Ibos in the Ibo-speaking part of Delta and they are full citizens of the place no one refers to them as strangers and there is no talk about the Ibos being the host community like we hear from the Governor of Lagos State. But let me return to research. Slaves were moved from the hinterland to the coast and many were sold through Eko to the New World. These slaves were the first to encounter the Europeans and by extension their way of life – this included education in a Western sense. The Bini King had taken pains to establish a diplomatic presence in Portugal and the relationship developed into areas that extended beyond trade in the late 15th century and lasted well into the early 19th century. Scores of young Bpni youth were sent to Portugal and studied there, coming back with advanced degrees in various disciplines. The next set of people to receive Western education were the slaves themselves. Some of them managed to buy their freedom and develop themselves further.


For the Ibo it does not matter who your father is; the question is: Who are you? Who was Obasanjo’s father? Was he the most educated Nigerian? I am sure the answer is no. Yet this Great Nigeria led this nation two times as a military Head of State and as a civilian President. What about GEJ? Who was his own father? Was he the first Nigerian to go to London? The answer is no. In fact, he had no shoes, yet he is fully in charge. So it does not matter if your father was the first Lawyer or first Doctor in Nigeria but rather what matters is what an individual does with the talents the Almighty has given to him. Let us open up Nigeria for competition. That is the solution to our problems. Those who want privileges keep reminding us that their fathers were the first to go to school in London. Every generation produces its own leaders and champions. Like Dangote who is the biggest employer of labour in Nigeria today and the richest man in Africa. Was his father the first to go to study in London? Yet he is the master of people whose parents gave them the best. My brothers, the answer to the Nigerian problem is that we should establish a merit-driven society. “I get am before” no be property.
http://www.newsexpressngr.com/news/detail.php?news=2547

Inside Innoson Motor Manufacturing Plant Nnewi Nigeria - World's First Black-Owned Car Manufacturer

Pubblicato in data 20/ago/2013

The youngest among six children, Chief (Dr) Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma (OFR), was born into the family of Mr & Mrs Chukwuma Mojekwu of Uru-Umudim, Nnewi, in Anambra State, without the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth. But, what he lacked in affluent parental background, he made up for with intelligence, hard-work, discipline and business acumen - qualities that have continued to interplay remarkably in his many ventures.

In February 2007, Chukwuma embarked on what some analysts perceived then as a mission impossible, when it incorporated INNOSON Vehicle Manufacturing Company Limited (IVM), to produce sundry commercial automobiles, utility vehicles and passenger cars, in collaboration with a consortium of Chinese auto manufacturers.
With the public display of some of the vehicles at the 2nd Nnewi International Auto Trade Fair held at the Beverly Hills Hotels (Gabros Sports Complex) in the last quarter of 2009, IVM did not only silence the critics, but made a bold statement about its readiness to achieve the avowed mission of being the first (indigenous) auto maker to produce truly Nigerian vehicles that are affordable and reliable.

IVM is today a success story which has attracted effusive commendations and awards from various quarters, including the nation's seat of power. While opening the plant on October 15, 2010, President Goodluck Jonathan not only hailed Chukwuma for the courage of venturing into an industry many ran away from, but also assured him of government's patronage from the government.

But even before the President's visit, IVM had attracted an official delegation from the Ghanaian government, which through a minister, dangled incentives before Chukwuma with an appeal to come over to Accra for talks on how he could set up a similar plant in the former Gold Coast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukk42wLeVpI&feature=player_embedded

A WORD FOR THOSE THAT CALL ME AN IGBO-HATER - Femi Fani-Kayode

13 August, 2013
Those that call me a tribalist and an igbo-hater are simply misguided and ignorant. Perhaps they do not know the meaning of those words or the true import of their meaning.

Those that know me well like you can confirm the fact that I am not a racist or a bigot and that I consider such sentiments as being unworthy of a man of class, good breeding and culture. I am however a firm believer in the propagation of truth and I, like you, appreciate the value and importance of history. Sadly many of our igbo brothers and sisters do not believe in that. History for them consists of only one thing-how other Nigerians have always marginalised them and treated them badly.

If only they knew their own history, where they are coming from, what they used to be and where they were 100 years ago and what their forefathers did to the rest of Nigeria over the last 80 years they would know why they have always had such a hard time in this country. Sadly because they dont know any of these things they cannot learn from it. And if they cannot learn from it they will continue to make the same mistakes. That is why they can come to another mans land and territory and call it their own and when we say ''no'' they tell us to shut up and call us tribalists.

I was not a tribalist when I wrote a tribute to Ojukwu after he died or when I condemned the '60's pogroms that took place in the north in which their people were slaughtered like flies. I was not a tribalist when I wrote against Yarima and child marriage in the north. Yet now I am a tribalist because I spoke the truth about our history and who we the yoruba are.

I was not a tribalist when I had a long-standing and intimate relationship with Miss Bianca Onoh, an igbo lady, who later married Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu the leader of Biafra and who is now our Ambassador in Spain. I was not a tribalist when I had a long-standing and intimate relationship with Miss Chioma Anasoh, another igbo lady, who I almost married. I was not a tribalist when I had a long-standing and intimate relationship with Miss Adaobi Uchegbu, another igbo lady, who was exceptionally close to me and who is now a leading figure at the National Headquarters of the ruling PDP.

I was not an tribalist when I wrote essays defending the rights of the igbo and every other Nigerian nationality to exercise their right of self-determination and leave Nigeria if that is what they wanted to do. I was not a tribalist when I consistently wrote that Nigeria must have a Sovereign National Conference where the rights and obligations of all its various nationalities will be clearly defined and agreed upon. I was not a tribalist when I employed more igbo people as a Minister of the Federal Republic than even my own yoruba. I was not a tribalist when I wrote an essay, just two years ago, extolling the virtues of igbo women. I was not a tribalist when I condemned the bombing of predominantly igbo and catholic churches and the killing of the igbo and others by Boko Haram in the north over the last three years.

I was not a tribalist when I risked my life by consistently writing against Boko Haram even though I live in the north. I was not a tribalist when I wrote against political sharia. I was not a tribalist when I wrote in defence of the igbo when it came to the abandoned property issue. I could go on and on.These people have very short memories and anyone that does not agree with them all the time or that says one word against them at any point in time is labelled a tribalist for life.

They called Chief Obafemi Awolowo a tribalist, a genocidal maniac, a child-killer and an igbo-hater simply because the man refused to join sides with them in the war yet they forgot that when Awolowo ran for the Presidency his running mate was from the east and not from the north. They called Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, Chief S.L Akintola and Sir Ahmadu Bello as igbo-haters and tribalists simply because they saw through the igbo agenda at a very early stage and they killed them for it. They called General Yakubu Gowon a genocidal maniac, a child-killer, an igbo-hater and a tribalist simply because he stood up to Ojukwu and insisted on keeping Nigeria together and even though he declared that there was ''no victor and no vanquished'' after the war.

They accused President Olusegun Obasanjo of being a tribalist and an igbo-hater even though he appointed an igbo man as the first GOC in the Nigerian Army since 1966 and even though he appointed more igbos into key positions in his government than any President before him. They accused President Shehu Shagari and the northerners of being tribalists and igbo-haters even though he pardoned Ojukwu and allowed him to return back home after the civil war. They have accused the Nigerian people of being tribalist and igbo-haters simply because we have not had an igbo President since 1966 forgetting that Nigeria was magnamonious in victory and that she not only gladly welcomed them back into the fold after the civil war but that she also gave them the Vice Presidency only ten years later.

They have labelled the yoruba as tribalists and igbo-haters simply because we have refused to accept their claims to our land and territory and even though we were more charitable, hospitable, accomodating and generous to them than any other nationality in Nigeria after the civil war. We have been too kind and gentle with them. That is the problem. They see our liberal and accomodating nature as stupidity and weakness. That is why they always like to go around calling the yoruba cowards forgetting that the history of the yoruba proves otherwise. It is now time to tell the truth. They despise the yoruba and they only pretend to believe in one Nigeria as long as they can always have their way and laud it over others. Worst of all they have no restraining factors because money and the acquisition of wealth is their sole objective and purpose in life.

Someone ought to tell them that this is not a virtue but a vice. It is a cultural deficiency which is borne out of not having any history. If they did they would be less aggressive, more restrained and far more civil to others. If speaking these bitter home truths and yearning and fighting for a better Nigeria makes me a tribalist then it is a toga that I would be happy to wear. I will not sit by quietly and allow my people, the yoruba people of south western Nigeria, to be rubbished, insulted and cheated by anyone no matter how aggressive that anyone may believe he is. I make or offer no apology for my views. My numerous assertions in my two essays titled ''Lagos, The Igbo and the Servants Of Truth'' and ''The Bitter Truth About The Igbo'' respectively stand.

Meanwhile I have read all sorts of strange submissions in various newspapers and blogs that have held themselves out as rejoinders to my two articles titled "Lagos, The Igbo and the Servants Of Truth" and "The Bitter Truth About The Igbo". Sadly other than the usual abuse and irreverant thrash not one of those so-called ''rejoinders'' has been able to address ANY of the issues that I raised in either of the two articles, answer any of the questions that I posed in them or successfully challenge my presentation of historical facts.

The bellicose nature and vulgarity of these so-called rejoinders goes to prove two things. Firstly that those that I have descibed as being collectively unlettered, uncouth, uncultured, unrestrained and crude in all their ways really are all those things and a lot more and secondly that they cannot put up any reasonable or serious arguement to discredit or refute the message so instead they are attempting to destroy the messanger. Meanwhile the two essays have been published in various newspapers in our country and outside and it will continue to be published by others long into the forseeable future.

The message is clear and it is already out there. It cannot be called back in. The horse has bolted from the stable and the falcon has left the nest. No matter how hard those that are attempting to intimidate us into silence may try it will not work and we will not be cowed. The message is already out there and the genie is already out of the bottle. Those that seek to continue to denigrate and belittle the yoruba and lay claim to what is rightfully ours should desist from doing so. They should grant us our peace and give us our due respect and they will get the same in return. If they do not do so those things will elude them and eventually history will repeat itself again in this country.

Meanwhile when anyone reads a rejoinder that addresses the issues that I raised in my essays and that has some level of scholarship and intellectual content they should please let me know and I may well dignify it with a response. The shameless and emotional thrash and disjointed verbiage that have been described as rejoinders so far are just not up to scratch. They are bereft of any scholarship and intellectual content. They also invoke pity in me for the the faceless plebians that wrote them and those they claim to represent. When the igbo, or anyone else, find a real writer that can cross swords with me and give me a good run for my money someone should please let me know. I am itching for a real debate with a worthy adversary on this issue. 

Like the great Achilles I feel that I have no match. Are there no Hector's out there? Sadly it appears that my accusers, traducers, opposers and haters cannot find one. All they have is their hate, their ignorance, their insults and their inbred crudity and vulgarity.

http://news.naij.com/43387.html

Deportation: Ohanaeze condemns Police role, rejects Lagos govt’s explanation

on August 13, 2013   /  

By VINCENT UJUMADU

AWKA—THE Ohaneze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Monday, condemned the role played by the Nigeria Police in aiding the recent deportation of some Igbos from Lagos on the order of the state government.

Anambra State president of Ohanaeze, Elder Chris Eluemunoh, at a news conference in Awka, also faulted the explanation by the Lagos State Government on the matter, arguing that the deportation was an inhuman act aimed at insulting and embarrassing the Igbo race.

He said: “Ohanaeze must not fail to condemn the role of the Nigeria Police, who escorted the vehicle that brought the deportees down to Onitsha from Lagos. What a travesty of justice that security agents, who are paid from public fund to protect the rights of citizens were used to perpetuate the violation of the constitution they all swore to defend and protect.

“We urge the Inspector General of Police, IG, to investigate the role of his men in the despicable and illegal action of the Lagos State Government. Ohanaeze also totally rejects the explanations by the Lagos State Government in defence of her action and we ask whether the dumping and abandoning them under the bridge at Onitsha at midnight was the best way to return them to their homes for proper integration.

“Ndigbo and the people of Anambra State in particular rightly deserve an unreserved apology from the Lagos State Government, else it would be taken that her action was a calculated insult aimed at creating unnecessary friction between the Yoruba and Igbo, who have been living and working peacefully in Lagos for decades and contributing immensely to the development of the state.”

The organisation also faulted those blaming Governor Peter Obi for letting the president know about the development, noting that the governor’s action was a mature way of handling the vexatious action.

According to Eluemunoh, “Ohanaeze supports all the steps the governor had so far taken to seek redress for the degrading treatment meted out to Ndigbo, even as he appealed to Igbo people to remain calm and law-abiding.”

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/deportation-ohanaeze-condemns-police-role-rejects-lagos-govts-explanation/#sthash.eJFAszLh.dpuf
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/deportation-ohanaeze-condemns-police-role-rejects-lagos-govts-explanation/

'THE IGBOS.....'according to- Femi Fani-Kayode

By Femi Fani-Kayode
Permit me to make my second and final contribution to the raging debate about Lagos, who owns it and the seemingly endless tensions that exist between the Igbo and the Yoruba. It is amazing how one or two of the numerous nationalities that make up Nigeria secretly wish that they were Yoruba and consistently  lay  claim  to  Lagos as being partly theirs. Have they forgotten where they came from?

I have never heard of a Yoruba wanting to give the impression to the world that he is an Igbo, an Ijaw, an Efik or a Hausa-Fulani  or claiming that he is a co-owner of Port Harcourt, Enugu, Calabar, Kano or Kaduna. Yet more often than not, some of those that are not of Yoruba extraction but that have lived in Lagos for some part of their lives have tried to claim that they are bonafide Lagosians and honorary members of the Yoruba race. Clearly it is time for us to answer the nationality question.

Dr Alex Ekwueme, Chief Achike Udenwa, Dr Samuel Egwu, Senator Ben Obi and Others during an Igbo Summit

These matters have to be settled once and for all. Lagos and the South-west are the land and the patrimony of the Yoruba and we will not allow anyone, no matter how fond of them we may be, to take it away from us or share it with us in the name of ’’being nice’’, ’’patriotism’’, ’’one Nigeria’’ or anything else.

The day that the Yoruba are allowed to lay claim to exactly the same rights and privileges that the indigenous people in non-Yoruba states and zones enjoy and the day they can operate freely and become commissioners and governors in the Niger Delta states, the North, the Middle-Belt and the South-east, we may reconsider our position. But, until then, we shall not do so. Lagos is not a ’’no-man’s land’’ but the land and heritage of the Yoruba people. Others should not try to claim what is not theirs.

I am not involved in this debate for fun or for political gain and I am not participating in it to play politics but rather to speak the truth, to present the relevant historical facts to those that wish to learn and to educate the uninformed. That is why I write without fear or favour and that is why I intend to be thoroughly candid and brutally frank in this essay.

And I am not too concerned or worried about what anyone may think or how they may feel about what I am about to say because I am a servant of truth and the truth must be told no matter how bitter it is and no matter whose ox is gored. That truth is as follows.

The Yoruba, more than any other nationality in this country in the last 100 years, have been far too accommodating and tolerant when it comes to their relationship with other nationalities in this country and this is often done to their own detriment.

That is why some of our  Igbo brothers can make some of the sort of asinine remarks and contributions that a few of them  have been making in this debate both in the print media and in numerous social media portals and networks ever since Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola ‘’deported’’ 19  Igbo destitute  to Anambra State a while ago.  In the last 80 years, the Igbo have been shown more generosity, accommodation, warmth and kindness and given more opportunities and leverage by the Yoruba than they have been offered by ANY other ethnic group in Nigeria. This is a historical fact.

The Yoruba do not have any resentment for the Igbo and we have allowed them to do in our land and our territory what they have never allowed us to do in theirs. This has been so for 80 long years and it is something that we are very proud of. As I said elsewhere recently, to be accommodating and generous is a mark of civilisation and it comes easily to people like the Yoruba who once ruled empires.

It does not come so easily to those who never had any history at all and who never even had monarchs or structured, properly-organised hierachial  societies that placed value on tradition and culture. The reason why many of our people take strong exception to the apparent outrage of the Igbo over this ‘’deportation’’ issue and the provocative comments of my friend and brother Chief Orji Uzor Kalu when he described Lagos as being a ‘’no man’s land’’ is because the Igbo have not only taken us for granted but they have also taken liberty for licence.

Trouble in the North

We cannot be expected to tolerate or accept that sort of irreverant and unintelligent  rubbish simply because we still happen to believe in ‘’one Nigeria’’ and we will not sacrifice our rights or prostitute our principles on the altar of that ‘’one Nigeria’’. Whether Nigeria is one or not, what is ours is ours and no-one should test our resolve or make any mistake about that.

‘’One Nigeria’’ yes, but no-one should spit in our faces or covet our land, our treasure, our success, our history, our virtues, our being and our heritage and attempt to claim those for themselves simply because we took them in on a rainy day.

It is that same attitude of ‘’we own everything’’, ‘’we must have everything’’ and ‘’we must control everything’’ that the Igbo settlers manifested in the northern region in the late 50s and early and mid-60s that got them into so much trouble up there with the Hausa-Fulani and that eventually led to the pogrom in which  almost one hundred thousand of them were killed in just a few days.

Again it is that same attitude that they manifested in Lagos and the Western Region in the late ’30s and the early and mid-40s that alienated the Yoruba from them, that led to the establishment of the Action Group in April, 1951 and that resulted in the narrow defeat of Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe in the Western Regional elections of December, 1951. As a matter of fact, they were the ones that FIRST introduced tribalism into southern politics in 1945 with the unsavoury comments of Mr. Charles Dadi Onyeama who was a member of the Central Legislative Council representing Enugu and who said at the Igbo State Union address that ‘’the domination of Nigeria and Africa by the Igbo is only a matter of time’’.

This comment made in that explosive and historic speech did more damage to southern Nigerian unity than any other in the entire history of our country and everything changed from that moment. To make matters worse, in July 1948, Chief Nnamdi  Azikiwe made his own openly tribal and incendiary speech, again at the Igbo State Union, in which he spoke about the ‘’god of the Igbo’’ eventually giving them the leadership of Nigeria and Africa.

These careless and provocative words cost him dearly and put a nail in the coffin of the NCNC in the Western Region. This was despite the fact that that same NCNC, which was easily the largest and most powerful political party in Nigeria at the time, had been founded and established by a great and illustrious son of the Yoruba by the name of Mr. Herbert Macaulay.

Macaulay, like most of the Yoruba in his day, saw no tribe and he happily handed the leadership of the party over to Azikiwe, an Igbo man, in 1945 when he was on his dying bed. How much more can the Yoruba do than that when it comes to being blind to tribe? Can there be any greater evidence of our total lack of racial prejudice and tribal sentiments than that? If the NCNC had been founded and established by an Igbo man, would he have handed the whole thing over to a Yoruba on his death bed? I doubt it very much.

Not mere traders

Again when northern military officers mutineed, effected their ‘’revenge coup’’ and went to kill the Igbo military Head of State, General Aguiyi-Ironsi, on July 29, 1966 in the old Western Region, his host, the Yoruba, Col. Fajuyi (who was military Governor of the Western Region at the time), insisted that they would have to kill him first before taking Aguiyi-Ironsi’s life and the northern officers (led by Major T.Y. Danjuma as he then was)  promptly obliged him by slaughtering him before killing Aguiyi-Ironsi. How many Igbos know about that and how many times in our history have they made such sacrifices for the Yoruba? Would Aguiyi-Ironsi, or any other Igbo officer, have stood for Fajuyi, or any other Yoruba officer, and sacrificed his life for him in the same way that Fajuyi did had the roles been reversed?

I doubt it very much. Yet instead of being grateful, the Igbo continuously run us down, blame us for all their woes, envy our educational advantages and resent us deeply for our ability to excel in the professions and commerce. Unlike them, we are not mere traders but we were (and still are) major industrialists and investors and when it comes to the professions, we were producing lawyers, doctors, accountants and university graduates at least three generations before they ever did.

That is the bitter truth and they have been trying to catch up with us ever since. For example, the first Yoruba lawyer Christopher Alexander Sapara Williams was called to the English Bar in 1879 whilst the first Igbo lawyer, Sir Louis Mbanefo, was called to the English bar in 1937. Again the first Yoruba medical practitioner, Dr. Nathaniel King, graduated in 1875 from the University of Edinburgh whilst the first Igbo medical practitioner, Dr. Akannu Ibiam, graduated from another Scottish University in 1935.

SuspicionDespite all these and all that they have been through over the years and despite their terrible  experiences in the civil war, we are witnessing that same attitude of ‘’we must control all’’, ‘’we must own all’’ and ‘’we must have all’’ rearing its ugly head again today when it comes to their attitude to the issue of the deportation from Lagos State and when you consider the comments of the Orji Kalus of this world about the Igbo supposedly ’’owning Lagos’’ with the Yoruba and supposedly ’’generating 55 per cent of the state’s revenue’’. It is most insulting.

And I must say that it is wrong and unfair for anyone to lay the blame for the perenniel suspicion and underlying tensions that lie between the two nationalities on the Yoruba because there is simply no evidence to substantiate such an allegation. We are not the problem, they are.

Pray, tell me, in the whole of Nigeria, who treated the Igbo better than the Yoruba after the civil war and who gave them somewhere to run to where they could regain all their ‘’abandoned property’’ and feel at home again? Who encouraged them to return to Lagos and the west and who saved the jobs that they held before the civil war for them to come back to when the war ended? No other tribe or nationality did all that for them in the country- only the Yoruba did so.

And the people of the old Mid-West and the Eastern minorities (who make up the zone that is collectively known as the ‘’South-south’ today) have always viewed them with suspicion, have always feared them and have always resented them deeply.

From the foregoing, any objective observer can tell that we the Yoruba have always played our part when it comes to accommodating others. This is particularly so when it comes to the Igbo who we have always had a soft spot for and who we have always regarded as brothers and sisters. It is time that those ‘’others’’ also play their part by acquiring a little more humility, by knowing and accepting their place in the scheme of things and by desisting from giving the impression that they own our territory or that they made us what we are.

Igbo firstsNow let us look at a few historical facts and one or two more Igbo ‘’firsts’ that many may not be familiar with to butress the point. The Igbo people were the FIRST to carry out a failed coup on the night of Jan 15, 1966 under the leadership of Major  Emmanuel  Ifeajuna,  Major Chukuma Kaduna  Nzeogwu, Major Christian Anuforo, Capt. Ben Gbulie, Major Timothy Onwatuegwu, Major Donatus Okafor, Capt. Ude, Capt. Emmanuel Nwobosi, Captain Udeaja, Lt. Okafor, Lt. Okocha, Lt. Anyafulu, Lt. Okaka, Lt. Ezedigbo, Lt. Amunchenwa,  Lt. Nwokedi, 2nd Lt. J.C. Ojukwu, 2nd Lt. Ngwuluka, 2nd Lt. Ejiofor, 2nd Lt. Egbikor, 2nd Lt. Igweze, 2nd Lt. Onyefuru, 2nd Lt. Nwokocha, 2nd Lt. Azubuogu and 2nd Lt. Nweke in which they drew FIRST blood and openly slaughtered and butchered leading politicians and army officers from EVERY single zone in the country except their own.

I should also mention that even though this was clearly an Igbo coup, there was one Yoruba officer who was amongst the ringleaders by the name of Major Adewale Ademoyega. It was a very bloody night indeed. Amongst those killed were the Prime Minister, Sir Tafawa Balewa, the Premier of the Western Region, Chief S.L. Akintola, the Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Federal Minister of Finance, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, Brigadier Zakari Maimalari, Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun, Colonel  Ralph Shodeinde, Lt . Colonel  James Yakubu Pam, Lt. Colonel Abogo Largema and numerous others. They did not just kill these reverred and respected leaders but in some cases they mocked, tortured and maimed them before doing so, took pictures of their dead and mutilated bodies and killed their wives and children as well.

For weeks after these horrific acts were carried out, the Igbo people rejoiced and celebrated them in the streets and markets of the North, openly displaying pictures and posters of the Sardauna’s mutilated body with Nzeogwu’s boot on his neck, loudly playing a famous and deeply offensive anti-northern song in which northerners were compared to goats and listening to it on their radios, jubilating that they had brought an end to what they described as ‘’northern rule and Islamic domination’’ and openly boasting that they themselves would now ‘’rule Nigeria forever’’. Though the first  coup failed, the matter did not end there.

At gun point

The very next day after the Jan.15 mutiny and butchery had failed and did not result in Ifeajuna taking power in Lagos, The Igbo people set their ‘’Plan B’’ in motion and they were the FIRST to carry out a successful coup in Nigeria just one day later on Jan. 17 1966.

This was when the Igbo Major-General J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi (who was Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Army and who had inexplicably and suspiciously not been murdered by the young Igbo officers in their violent mutiny and killing spree the night before), in collusion with the Igbo Acting President Nwafor Orizu and the entire Igbo political leadership of that day, invited the remnants of Sir Tafawa Balewa’s cabinet to a closed-door meeting, threatened their lives and took power from them at the point of gun.

Aguiyi-Ironsi did not just ask them to give him power but he took it from them by force by telling them that he could not guarantee their safety if they refused to do so. Meanwhile Orizu point blank refused to do his duty as Acting President and swear in Zana Bukar Dipcharimma as the Acting Prime Minster when the members of the cabinet and the British Ambassador (who was also at the meeting) implored him to do so since by that time there was a power vacuum because the Prime Minister, Sir Tafawa Balewa, had gone missing and had probably been murdered.

It was in these very suspicious circumstances and as a consequence of this murky and deep-seated Igbo conspiracy that General Aguiyi-Ironsi came to power. Amongst those that were present at that famous ‘’meeting’’ that are still alive today are Alhaji Maitama Sule, Chief Richard Akinjide and President Shehu Shagari who were all Ministers in Balewa’s cabinet. Those that doubt the veracity of my account of this meeting would do well to ask any of them exactly what transpired during that encounter.

Yet the seeming success of the conspiracy was short-lived. Only six months later, on July 29 1966, General Aguiyi-Ironsi and no less than 300 Igbo army officers reaped the consequences of their actions and plot when they were all slaughtered in just one night during the northern officers revenge coup which was led by Lt. Colonel Murtala Mohammed,  Major Abba Kyari, Captain Martins Adamu, Major T.Y. Danjuma, Major Musa Usman, Captain Joseph Garba, Captain Shittu Alao, Captain Baba Usman, Captain Gibson S.Jalo and Captain Shehu Musa Yar’Adua  as they then were.

Lt. Colonel Yakubu Gowon was put in power by this group after that and a few weeks later between September 29th 1966 and the middle of October of that same year, approximately 50,000 Igbo civilians were attacked and slaughtered in a series of horrendous pogroms in the north by violent northern mobs as a reprisal for the killing of the northern leaders, including Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sarduana of Sokoto, by Major Nzeogwu, Major Ifejuna and other junior Igbo officers on the night of Jan. 15, 1966.

Please note that despite the fact that a number of Yoruba leaders were killed on that night as well, no Igbo civilians were massacred anywhere in the west by mobs in reprisal killings throughout that period.

The Igbos understandably left the North in droves after those terrible pogroms and fled back to the East from whence they came. And perhaps that would have been the end of  the story but for the fact that they also declared secession and sought to dismember Nigeria.

They then made their biggest mistake of all by provoking a full scale military conflict with Nigeria when they launched a vicious and unprovoked attack against the rest of the South by conscripting the eastern minorities , overwhelming  the Mid-West and attacking Yorubaland in an attempt to capture and enslave it.

Thankfully they were stopped in their tracks by the gallant efforts and courageous fighting skills of Colonel Benjamin Adekunle’s Third Marine Commando (which was primarily a Yoruba force) and who repulsed them, stopped them from entering the Western Region, drove them out  of the Mid-West, forced them back into the East, defeated them in battle after battle and eventually brought them down to their knees and forced them to surrender to the Federal forces in Enugu in 1969.

The Igbo and their Biafra fought Nigeria and killed Nigerians for three  hard and long years in that brutal civil war in which over one million courageous, loyal and faithful sons and daughters of the Federal Republic lost their lives at the war front trying to stop the Biafrans from succeeding from the federation, from taking our land.

*Fani-Kayode is a former aviation minister
 http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/the-bitter-truth-about-the-igbos/

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/the-bitter-truth-about-the-igbos/#sthash.o0IbgMbT.OjhITkLl.dpuf

THAT FASHOLA DEPORTATION AND SILENCE OF EVIL MEN

Onyema Uche

THAT FASHOLA DEPORTATION AND SILENCE OF EVIL MEN

More than 67 Igbos were reportedly deported from Lagos state, and dumped by the bridge of Onitsha. I want you my reader to recall the over 50 bodies of Ndigbo dumped at Ezu river last year. Everywhere in Nigeria Ndigbo are being targeted, singled out like the Jews to be killed, expelled from the cities, dispossessed of their belongings, and to be maltreated. The worst of this is that no body from other geopolitical zone is condemning these inhuman acts. They kill us, they dispossess us and we are blamed for venturing into another zone, yet they bombed us when we said let us go home.

Evil does not only triumph when good men keep quite, but it also hatched, incubated at the doors of everyman that kept silence when the innocent persons are persecuted. By deporting Ndigbo, weather destitute, scums of the city, or even criminals is unjust, immoral, unconstitutional, and despicable to imagine. The effort to rationalize the act, or to explain it, or even to justify it is an insult to a bleeding wound.

The argument of rehabilitation makes me want to puke. How are you rehabilitating a citizen whose state and LGA you do not know? How can you rehabilitate a street beggar when you did not provide shelter for them? Ok let me ask what informed this malice in the first place? Why only Igbos? I hope the people of Bere in Ibadan, Oyo state are being rehabilitated. How about the beggars from the North that flung the streets of Lagos? Have they been rehabilitated and relocated? How about Agberos, Alayes and the Yoruba scums who live under the bridges and constitute nuisance in the city? Who is next in this rehabilitation and deportation program? More importantly, why target the Igbos? This means or suggest one thing, time for exodus has come.

The impudence, the audacity of silence by the law makers is very sickening. The senseless ranting of the opportunist Ngige is terrific. Who could believe that the deputy senate president is an Igboman. The deputy speaker of house of rep is an Igboman. Please somebody help tell Ekweremadu on Igbo issues is defeaning. We want to hear not only his voice, but his proposed response to this calamity Fasshola and the citizens of Lagos brought upon us.

Where are the Igbo senators and reps? How could they keep quite or have they also been deported? Where is Uche Chukwumereije?

To you stubborn sojouner, when will you start going back? Here I call on our governors to speak out. Visit those deportees, negotiate for their adequate compensation from the Lagos state. Rights of their citizenship have been impetuously violated. It behooves on the state governors to advocate for their compensations. If no such laws exits, bill should be made to stop further madness of this magnitude.

https://www.facebook.com/onyema.uche1?hc_location=stream