•Leo’nel

As new hip hop sensation, Leo’nel prepares for his debut album, which is billed to be released later this year, the youngster has dropped yet another single Dancia.

Leo’nel, who recently signed on to Dope Mates Music, said Dancia will confirm the positive rating he has been enjoying since his debut in the Nigerian music industry.

He described the new single as his new music identity and a prelude to great things. “Dancia is a fluid party song, with heavy percussion. It will surely keep party goers busy on the dance floor and make club houses hotter than they used to be,” said the singer.

Leo’nel, son of Nollywood star, Zach Orji, also said he had been busy making and recording new materials since the release of the videos of his first two singles, Rockstar and Drank In My Cup. He noted that he just finished work on two new singles which were mixed in the UK and will be ready for the Nigerian public via the airwaves soon. One of the songs was produced by Leo’nel himself and the other by a young talented producer named Chiliz.

“My experience playing music in the UK came to bear on Dancia, so I decided to take from a mixed recipe of Nigeria with 20 per cent UK flavour and the result is a perfect meal for party buffs,” Leo’nel said.

Last Saturday’s fundraiser in Lagos, in aid of St. Stephen’s Anglican Church Deanery and Youth Development Centre, Otuoke, Bayelsa State – a church being promoted by President Goodluck Jonathan – was clearly an abuse of office and privilege.

President Jonathan, on the day, had led few state governors, business tycoons and other benefiting political hangers-on to donate to the church, which was originally donated to his community by Gitto Contstruzioni Generalli, an Italian construction firm working in Nigeria. The fundraiser, which yielded N6 billion, has become as controversial as the initial donation of the 2,500 capacity church to his community.

Critics argued that the offer and acceptance of such gift is morally reprehensible, corrupt and a violation of Section 6 of the Code of Conduct for public officers embodied in the First Schedule of the 1999 constitution and the Code of Conduct and Tribunal Act (CAP C15) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

The section states that, “A public officer shall not ask for or accept any property or benefits of any kind for himself or any other person on account of anything done or omitted to be done by him in the discharge of his duties.

“For the purposes of subsection (1) of this subsection, the receipt by a public officer of any gifts or benefits from commercial firms, business enterprises or persons who have contracts with the government shall be presumed to have been received in contravention…unless the contrary is proved.”

But the President barefacedly defended his action, with such gusto and impunity Nigerian “power adventuresrs” are noted for. The President’s latest misdemeanour underscores his flagrant disregard for constitutionalism and the constitution, which he swore to uphold.

The church donation saw the single biggest donation of N1.8bn from an oil magnate Prince Authur Eze. Other donors included the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, N230 million, which he donated on behalf of PDP Governors Forum; Governor Liyel Imoke, N100 million as well as the private sector, N5bn. Expectedly, stern condemnations have dwarfed whatever good intention the President might have, particularly because he had chosen a wrong time to pass his elitist offering basket.

While we do not oppose donating to God’s cause, if that was the intention, it is brazen corruption to goad businessmen, who have links with the Federal Government, to donate to a cause that is entirely a private affair. This is crony capitalism that has a tendency to inspire preferential treatments to the donors by the government.

Given Nigeria’s patronage system and the loose, crooked and opaque machinery upon which our economy runs, the donors might have been driven more by lip-service and display of naked loyalty to power. Arguably, many of donors are crony capitalists, who would always ensure the preservation of the abhorrent status quo.

This explained why Authur Eze, in a media interaction in 2009, argued that the despotic regime of General Sani Abacha was better than civilian administrations in the country since 1999. We state unequivocally that because former President Olusegun Obasanjo did same in the case of his Presidential Library is not a license for other officers of government to follow suit. It is essential that public office should not be used for private gain.

By Sola Ogunmosunle

When Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, one of the very first issues that characterised the polity is the clamour for the re-adjustment of our lopsided federalism, created by many years of military rule that was rather very autocratic. The other tiers of the federating units i.e. the states and local government areas have continued to make raucous demand for a drastic shift in our fiscal federalism. Particularly, they have been calling for the adjustment of the revenue sharing formula that sees the federal government go home with the lion’s share of the nation’s resources.

In Nigeria, the revenue allocation formula has given the federal government greater resources than it needs to perform its functions thereby leaving the states and local governments with more responsibilities and functions than they can cope with. It is quite obvious from our democratic experience that the states and local governments are closer to the people and they better understand the developmental needs of their people. People tend to benefit more from developments in their immediate environment. But because of the very limited resources going to the states and local governments from the federation account, it is a herculean task for some of them to even pay workers’ salary. It is, therefore, extremely difficult for most states and local governments to meet the developmental needs of their people

However, since infrastructural renewal and development in any state requires enormous funding, and the federal government seems to have turned deaf ears to the states’ demand for more money from the federation account, the time has come for states to become a little more creative by discovering other sources of income and funding and not to be totally dependent on the stipends from Abuja. They should explore the myriads of untapped potentials in their domains to generate additional funds that can be used to develop their states and improve the lot of their people. In the United States of America, USA, for example, as the state of Virginia is using the advantage of its arable lands for agriculture to develop so is the state of California tapping from the advantage of its entertainment industry. And now, one veritable approach that many of the states in Nigeria have not adequately exploited in addressing the paucity of funds, that has been the bane of visible development in their states, is the involvement of the private sector in governance.

It has been realised by governments world-wide that funding of infrastructural projects can no longer be sustained by the government alone without the participation of the private sector. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is a contractual relationship between the private and public interest as a systematic collaboration geared towards ensuring communal, state or national socio-economic development that is comprehensive and self-sustaining. It is an arrangement with clear direction and defined roles and responsibilities of all the actors in the plan. PPP is a financial module designed to attract private investors to engage in infrastructural projects with short and long term benefits to the people. Various funding options available in PPP include Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT), Concessionairing, Join Venture, Franchising, Equity Participation and Leasing, especially for projects which ordinarily should have been handled by the government.

In adopting any of these varied intervention funding options, government is not abdicating its responsibilities but essentially releasing scarce resources for other uses and thus creating a win-win situation for the government and the private enterprise as well. Roads and Transportation, Housing and Environment, Energy and Water Supply and Tourism Development are some of the critical sectors where the exploration of the PPP can bring immense benefits to some of the states.

Other states can take a cue from Lagos state that has been taking advantage of the benefits that PPP offers. With regards to roads and transportation, for instance, the state is developing an integrated transportation system that is private sector driven. The popular Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) scheme, first of its kind in Africa, moves over 150 thousand passengers along the mile 12/CMS route with dedicated lanes. The greatest breakthrough in mass transit in the city will come this year with the commencement of the nearly completed Badagry expressway incorporating BRT lane and light rail. The state has also created an enabling long-term regulatory environment that is conducive for significant Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in the provision of water-based transport services.

The Lagos state government awarded a contract for rehabilitation and upgrade of approximately 50km Lekki-Epe Expressway to Lekki Concession Company Limited (LCC). The project, which will be executed under Public-Private Partnership (PPP), also grants LCC a 30-year concession. LCC will build the infrastructure, operate it for 30 years and later transfer it to the Lagos state government. This model in PPP lingua is known as Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT). In this way, not only has Lagos State started to enjoy new world class infrastructure as a direct consequence of this agreement, users of the road have also been experiencing  the positive service-based approach that  has been adopted by the Concessionaire to deliver key benefits.

Other projects of the Lagos state government that embrace the PPP approach  include the Eko Atlantic City, the Lekki Free Zone, Save Our Schools Initiative, grassroots sports development,  waste management, Rice for Job initiative, just to mention a few.

The major advantage of the involvement of the private sector in governance is the efficiency it brings to project management. The issue of wastes, delayed delivery and abandonment that is usually associated with public projects is highly minimised. This is as a result of the optimization of the returns on huge investment of the private sector.

However, the major risk in PPP, because of our finicky political environment, is for the political class in Nigeria to enter into atrocious PPP agreements with their families and cronies against public interest.  Aside this, political and other parochial considerations could hinder the successful execution of PPP projects when the overall interest of the people is not properly factored. One other hindrance to the effective implementation of PPPs is the lack of local talent in the area of technical and structuring competence.

Since PPP is fast becoming an acceptable model for rapid infrastructural development in most countries of the world, it is vital that cash-strapped states across the country, and indeed the federal government, properly and effectively key into the unlimited window of opportunities that this option offers to enhance rapid socio-economic transformation. It is a better, safer and quicker way to get our dear nation out of its sorry state of rapid infrastructural decay. It is the way forward.

•Ogunmosunle is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

By Oluwole Sholanke

It is a general perception that politicians are corrupt and that they use political parties to loot the nation’s treasury. It is lamentable that this kind of situation is having negative impact on the nation’s economy. The so-called representatives of the masses that were voted for by the masses to cater for their needs could not do so but care for themselves and their political godfathers with only the crumbs reaching the people where possible.

You may ask: who are the political godfathers or the cabal? They are the unseen elements that helped the representatives rig elections and win. Another big challenge is that parastatals of government are headed majorly by politicians whose parties are ruling at a given time rather the use of technocrats to meet the desires of the country. In some situations, government agencies are dominated by politicians from the same political party that won the election without considering their experience. At times, you will discover that it is a case of square pegs in round holes!

It is on rare occasions that you see opposition parties being nominated into the cabinet at the federal and state levels. This system does not exclude the national and state assemblies. All ministers, commissioners, directors-general etc are selected on party basis. With this, all government activities including the economy are subjected to the dictates of politicians of the same political party.

The electorate are made to believe that they are the appointers of those to be selected from the constituency, e.g. senatorial districts. Each of those people being selected for election may have been subjected to scrutiny by the ruling political party or the cabal. Indeed, the cabal is the most powerful, inevitable but invisible third house before the House of Representatives, without whose authority or approval, nothing can be done by members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

To hit the nail on the head, the House of Representatives, whilst appearing to represent the people and to do what the electorate want, dare not do anything for the electorate without the approval of the cabal, hence, the double allegiance to the political party, the platform they used to campaign and the unseen cabal that controls both house remotely.

All these have contributed to the dwindling impact of democracy dividends and the nation’s economy.

It must be mentioned here that the cabal lives like the kings in the palace, always making it impossible for the National Assembly to reach a common ground on issues that affect the citizens of the country. Example of this is the rehabilitation of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Recently, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Samusi, condemned the amount being spent by Nigeria to finance the federal legislators putting it at about 25 percent of federal government overhead.

He drew their ire. In truth, it works out simply thus: if the overhead of the federal government of Nigeria stands at N536.2 billion and the National Assembly gets N136, 259, 768, 102 (N136.2 billion), what does it constitute?   Is it 25.41% or 3.5%?

All these will be eliminated including the cabal and make our representatives responsible directly to the electorate if we hearken to Sanusi’s words.

Nigeria’s current democracy is a system of government adopted from our colonial masters, Britain. Going by the definition of democracy, the 16th  President of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln, who served his country from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865, democracy is the ‘Government of the people, by the people, for the people’.

If you examine this definition, there is no where Abraham Lincoln turned the definition around as ‘Government of the people by the party or the cabal for the people’ which Nigerian politicians now practice.

It must be stated here that political party system was devised in Britain over a century ago. Britain, like the other western nations, is a capitalist country.

Capitalism is a system of government whereby a single party rules and controls the affairs of government.

As Nigeria’s colonial masters, Britain introduced the political party system to Nigeria at independence when Nigerians were largely illiterate and the system was extremely strange to them.

Nigerians, being very intelligent people, saw the loopholes in the system, and these loopholes enabled them to adopt corrupt practices. These corrupt practices, observed prior to independence in 1960, developed in many ways. Now corruption is Nigeria’s albatross with our treasury being the major victim and the people the end sufferers.

To be honest, I am very sure that members of House of Representative are under allegiance to ensure that their party cabals are well and truly financially maintained and sustained. But how? It is by all sorts of corrupt practices, secret inflation of contracts and creation of unnecessary offices.  Imagine the colossal sum of money spent on electioneering campaigns. Where does the money come from? It is no wonder that Lamido Sanusi again cried out loudly a few months ago that more than half of the nation’s income is gulped by the House of Representatives and Senate, not mentioning the “Third House”.  What allocation is left for infrastructure and other essential developmental projects?

To be honest with ourselves, it is difficult not to conclude that the cabal is the citadel of corruption in Nigeria. And when the head practises corruption, all the big and small names there will do likewise.

Under normal circumstances, a member of the House of Representatives ought not to earn more than a university don. But most of them earn a don’s annual salary in one month. For doing what, you may ask?

Below are other reasons political parties ought to be abolished:

*It is sheer waste of public funds.

And how is the money obtained? Through corrupt practices in high places.

*Electioneering campaigns, generally, are too riotous, violent and full of intrigues. Political parties will do anything, including arson and assassination, if that would enable them capture people’s votes to form the government. It is a highly criminal procedure.

*Political office holders, because of the assistance obtained from top party hierarchy, compensate the cabal that helped them win election.

It is my belief that, the two Houses often formed by political parties are foreign to Africa and can be abolished or amended. This was done in a north African country a couple of weeks ago. Similarly, a West African country suspended their senate a couple of weeks ago.

Imagine all the rioting, arson, assassinations, unlawful killings and armed conflict taking place all over Africa, they all arose as a result of the intrigues of political parties justling for power.

Let us tell ourselves the truth: adoption of the ordinary rules of meetings practised by organizations like the Nigerian Bar Association, the Nigerian Medical Association, the Nigerian Labour Congress, the various unions in universities and other tertiary institutions is much simpler to understand, much cheaper — it will cut the unnecessarily exorbitant expenditure of the legislature by at least 75 percent and with a better result.

Once again, the political party system is a mere grand design to provide cheap jobs for the elite to get fat salaries or income at the detriment of the workers and ordinary citizens in the community.

Strictly speaking, with a well and properly constituted INEC and the already laid out constituencies as well as a properly supervised computerised system of voting,  elections should take place joyously and results announced within 48 hours in peace and without the presence of the army or police at the polling booths.

Let us take the bull by the horn, let us abolish the political party system, for peace and faster progress in Nigeria.

•Sholanke, lawyer wrote from Yaba, Lagos

The chairman of Kosofe Local Government Area, Lagos state, Southwest Nigeria, Babatunde Sofola, in this interview with EROMOSELE EBHOMELE, says the impression Nigerians have of council chairmen is justified

Babatunde Sofola

You were one of the council chairmen recently commended by the state Assembly Committee on Local Government Administration. How has it affected you?

I’m very happy that I was commended by members of the House Committee on Local Government Administration and Chieftaincy Affairs. I thank the members for the commendation, but sincerely, rather than make me happy, the commendation has brought more fear. I’m seriously scared because when one is commended, one is being told to do more. Now all I think about is how to surmount what they met on ground so that when they visit again, the commendation would be double.

How would you describe your experience so far as a council chairman for almost one year now?

It’s been full of ups and downs. At inception, I realised that there was  need to do a lot of re-engineering. The IGR which is supposed to assist in the development of my local government was in a very bad state; where you discover that a lot of our staff were taking what should have been paid into the pocket of the local government.

So we have been doing a lot of re-engineering and I can say confidently that today, we are now beginning to witness a larger amount of money coming in. Before, it used to be hand-in-hand cash transactions, but now we insist on e-payment and we do follow up. We also do reconciliation on what we have in the banks and that has to a larger extent reduced the level of thievery and fraudulent activities.

I am not saying we don’t have fraud, there is still a lot of fraud, but we have to reverse that trend.

On assumption of office, I also realised that our youths had never witnessed empowerment and you know youths are burning with power and if you do not channel such energy positively, it will work against you. We are now putting them in vocational centres. We will be doing our one year in office in few days; we are going to empower those that are qualified; those that have finished their vocational studies. For instance, those that have done fashion designing, we will on that day give them sewing machines, so also those that have done other vocational studies. We also intend to empower them with vehicles, buses that will be used to generate funds. These will distributed among the seven wards we have in this local government.

Are these the only areas you have made your mark?

No of course! Realising that education is very important and any nation that neglects education is doing a great disservice not just to itself, but also to the people, we immediately moved to change all the blackboards in all our schools. Today if you go to all the schools in Kosofe Local Government, they all have the white marker boards and we supply them with the marker every month. We realise that this marker board make education easier and friendly, children learn easily with it and the teachers also find it easier to teach the pupils, not to talk of the health implications that comes with using the chalk, because it has been found that these chalks we use can cause cancer. We have also provided school bus, which takes children to and from their various schools and parents have been able to relax on funding their children’s transportation to school and back.

We have also discovered that some of our pupils roam about the streets during holidays, so we introduced summer schools where we train them. And it has paid off because their results have started to improve, unlike before when a lot of them failed examinations. Education is the best legacy you can give a child, which no one can steal from him. So it is one area we don’t joke with.

Similarly, there were challenges at our health centres, there were no drugs and we didn’t have the necessary personnel. So we had to first renovate a lot of them because they were nothing to write home about. You are aware Governor Babatunde Fashola has laid a lot of emphasis on healthcare in the state and we have also taken a cue from that. We have improved our health centres, we now have generators and inverters there; we have the pre-requisite staff. Though we still need more; at least, we have improved on what we met on ground.

We have been able to provide accommodation for our doctors so that we can have resident doctors and we are able to operate 24/7 at Ogudu Health Centre now. We have renovated Mende Health Centre, Oworo Health Centre, and we hope that this drugs revolving scheme is fully operational in Kosofe Local Government. I make bold to state that our local government was the first to fulfill conditions attached to starting the drugs revolving scheme. Why must somebody go to the General Hospital just because he has typhoid? Or just because you want to deliver a baby, you now drive down to the General Hospital, when right there at your doorstep, a health centre should be properly equipped to take delivery of such children. We are already taking so many deliveries at our health centres and have been able to surmount the challenges we had.

When we came into government, we had flooding everywhere. Once it rains a little, everywhere was flooded. Today I can make bold to say that we have done what I will consider a major clearing of drains. The last time it was done the way we have done it was when Lateef Jakande was the state governor. We did not just take a broom to sweep the surface, we opened up the drains. A lot of the dirt inside had become rocks, we had to break and remove them, because this is what stops water from flowing. We have educated our people on the danger of throwing refuse into the drains because it goes to block the canals. We have facilitated the clearing of canals by the state government too, since the local governments don’t have the power to clear canals.

Of course, we would have loved to do much more than we have done till date, but as you know, paucity of funds is a major issue. We are trying the best we can to also do some roads and rehabilitate others just as we are rehabilitating schools and health centres.

Before I decided to become the chairman of this local government, I knew I would have to make a lot of sacrifices because local government is where you have the biggest of problems and challenges and it cannot be compared to any other tier of government.

What is your position on local government autonomy?

If we have more funds at the local government level, we will do more for the grassroots. If I could remember, there is a bill at the Senate which has reached its third reading; the bill is on local government autonomy. The fear within a lot of people is that if so much money is released to the local governments, the chairmen would not be able to handle it.

People are also asking if this would not encourage fraud. But I laugh because in local government system, we have checks and balances on fraud and fraudulent people. We have what you call the Public Account Committee of the House of Assembly and every quarter, they review all our transactions. You have to defend what you have been using your money for, you take all your papers and documents there and they look at them, if they find where fraud has been committed, they pick it out.

Apart from that, we have a Committee on Local Government Administration which is saddled with investigating and monitoring what we are doing at the local government level. We also have external auditors from the state government; they go through our files and give queries where queries need to be given. So a man that wants to steal had better be very ready to steal. It is not easy to steal such money. Those that are saying money that will be given to them from autonomy will be mismanaged, I don’t think it is good enough. We have had opportunity to travel abroad and we’ve seen the system of government being practised out there.

They also have local governments in the United States of America. We practise the presidential system of government and the system of government is an expensive one, but it is workable. We went and we saw what they were doing out there. They call themselves counties and we call ourselves local government. We call ourselves Executive Chairmen and they call themselves Mayors and the system of governance there should be commended, because there is freedom to operate. The amount of funds that is made available to local government there is very comfortable.

I am in support of local government autonomy because I believe it will enable local government chairmen to work effectively and do more for their respective communities.

How have you been able to manage your internally generated revenue?

I will not tell you all that I have been doing in order to curtail leaks in the generation of revenue, but we hold revenue meetings once a week, which from time to time, I also attend. At these meetings, we want to know what was collected the week before, why there is a reduction or an increase. All these keep our staff on their toes. We introduced incentives. In this case, where the staff have been able to generate beyond their targets, we encourage them to make them more active.

When I got here, there were no awards for staff; I introduced an award for staff of the month and staff of the year.  All these have helped in the area of IGR. We also go to our Community Development Associations (CDAs) and Community Development Committees (CDCs) appealing to members of the community to pay their tax. We made them understand the reasons why they must pay their tax, and that if they do not pay, there was no way we will be able to ensure development. I will not discuss the other things we do to block loopholes for now because that is my own joker.

Nigerians are complaining that the local government system is too distant from them…

In reacting to that, I will say a journey of a thousand miles starts with a step. Some of those that are saying this are correct in a lot of cases. I can say their anger is justified, because we have a lot of communities where the presence of local government has not been felt and we need to be frank with ourselves. A local government cannot reach all the nooks and crannies because you are limited by funds.

But with good administration, you can start holding meetings with the CDAs and CDCs in various communities to know what their problems are; know the ones you can solve and those you cannot solve. Let your presence be felt. It is not so much a matter of tarring a road, when especially the cost implication is too high. You are talking of about N20-50 million to grade a road, tar it and do the drainage, it is not a small amount of money when you consider what we collect. If you collect a lot, then you can do a lot of roads. Where you are limited by the amount of fund you receive, then you look for the area where you can spend small amounts of money and reach each community.

If it is borehole, provide it for all the communities, choose roads that are not too wide and long that you can grade and put latarite on them and ensure the rains cannot wash off these roads, then when you have money, you can put asphalt. We bought a roller in this local government and whenever we discover any pot hole, we quickly go there with our roller and block it before it becomes too wide and the cost implication higher.

 Briefly tell us how your journey into politics began?

My political experience began with being a ward chairman in Kosofe Local Government and this is about 45 years ago. And during that period, I became very familiar with most of the problems that have to do with the community. Thereafter, I went into the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board where I was a permanent board member for five and a half years; it was also a political appointment.

The two appointments I had gave me the necessary tools with which to work and my appointment at the board was renewed for another five years, but I decided to resign so that I could assist a larger number of people. With grassroots politics, if you want to assist a larger number of people, you don’t do it from the board; you do it from the local government.

The yearning and aspirations of the people are enormous and anyone that says we don’t have problems in this country, especially at the grassroots, is not being sincere. It is because of my desire to contribute a little to solving problems of the masses that made me go into the election for local government and by the grace of God, I was fortunate enough to get there.

The traffic of visitors to the Transcorp Metropolitan Hotel, Monday, where the Super Eagles are camped for Saturday’s Brazil 2014 World Cup qualifier against the Harambee Stars of Kenya could be described as unprecedented.

Victor Moses: brace saved Nigeria

Checks by our sources in Calabar have it on good authority that football fans have been hovering around Canaan City to catch a glimpse the stars as the Europe footballers hit town today.

Nigeria’s defender Ambrose Efe

Chidi Asoluka, who is presently undergoing his Post Graduate Diploma, PGD at the University of Calabar informed P.M.NEWS Sports early today that fans are waiting with bated breath to see some of their darling stars, who they only watch on television, playing for their European clubsides.

It was also gathered that as early as 7a.m. some football fans had besieged the Abraham Ordia Sports Complex inside the University of Calabar to see the team train, but they left disappointed after they were informed that the morning training session had been called off by the technical crew.

Media Officer of the Eagles, Ben Alaiya disclosed that Tuesday’s morning training session was cancelled because Chief Coach Stephen Keshi says he wants a full house, adding that the evening session would still hold as scheduled.

According to Alaiya: “We would have a full house for Tuesday’s evening training and from there we’ll see how ready the players are for the task ahead”.

John Mikel Obi

As at the time of filling this report, the number of foreign-based players in camp have increased to four, which include: Israeli-based keeper, Austin Ejide, bulky Ukraine-based left sided midfielder Babatunde Michael, Velaranga of Norway combative midfielder, Fegor Ogude and Vincent Enyeama.

Meanwhile the Kenyans are expected to hit Lagos Wednesday, as team sponsors East African Breweries will give the team an official send off at the Serena Hotel Tuesday at lunch time.

According to the Kenya FA, the team will take off at 0800hrs aboard a Kenya Airways flight from Nairobi and are expected to land in Lagos by midday.

The team will then be flown to Calabar where the match will take place.

The Stars who performed poorly in their opening two Group F matches, only picking one point, will be looking to win to boost their chances of progressing in the qualifiers.

Nigeria top the group, while Kenya are placed bottom.

—Adebobola Alawode

David Beckham is out in front as the highest-paid player in world football, according to a report that appeared in Tuesday’s edition of France Football magazine.

The veteran Englishman, who joined PSG in January on a short-term deal until the end of the season, is nearing the end of his playing career but still comes in ahead of world player of the year Lionel Messi and prolific Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo.

France Football report that Beckham will earn 36 million euros (about $47m, £30.9m) in 2012-13, leaving him just ahead of four-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi.

Beckham, who left the Los Angeles Galaxy in December, is reported to have earned an annual salary of 1.7 million euros, with his income supplemented by 1.3 million euros in bonuses and some 33 million euros from other sources, including advertising deals.

The 37-year-old Beckham revealed after signing for PSG that all money due to him from his contract with the French giants would be donated to charity.

In contrast, Messi’s income of 35 million euros includes 13 million in salary and bonuses, with the remainder coming from advertising and other sources.

Ronaldo comes in third, with total income reaching 30 million euros, including 13.5 million euros from salary and bonuses.

The magazine also reports that Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho is the best-paid coach in the world game, earning 14 million euros a year.

Behind him are two Italians, Carlo Ancelotti at Paris Saint-Germain (12 million euros), and Marcello Lippi at Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande (11 million).

Globacom, in a press statement early today in Lagos advised Nigerians not to allow the loss to Young Eagles of Mali on Sunday to affect their support for Coach John Obuh and his team, expressing the belief in the Nigerian youngsters to turn around the country’s fortune when they meet the Gabon national team on Wednesday.

Ajagun

The Flying Eagles will lock horns with Gabon in the second match in Group B at the on-going African Youth Championship in Oran, Algeria on Wednesday.

“We should not allow the set back against Mali to affect our preparation against Gabon and Congo DR.   These are must-win matches which will determine the team’s qualification for the next round,” the Company said.

Globacom charged the Flying Eagles to go the extra mile and re-enact the determination and can-do spirit of an average Nigerian, qualities which won them the trophy during the last competition in South Africa.  “We remain optimistic that Flying Eagles will make it to 2013 U-20 World Cup in Turkey, the statement added.

Globacom also advised the Flying Eagles to learn from the recent success story of the Super Eagles, who surmounted all odds in South Africa to emerge the African champions.

The John Obuh-tutored Flying Eagles conceded the goal early in the first half of the match and could not level the score despite dominating the fellow West Africans. They will now have to win in their next Group B games against Gabon and Congo DR to stay in contention for a spot at the FIFA U-20 World Cup billed for Turkey in June.

Globacom is the major telecommunication partner of Nigeria Football Federation, NFF and official sponsor of Nigerian national teams.

Ogaga and Asuquo, who were not part of the team that defeated Gombe United 2-0 two week ago at Adamasingba Stadium are listed in the squad that will confront Dolphins in an encounter expected to be tough for the visiting team.

Speaking ahead of the tie, 3SC Coach, Babatunde Odubola told P.M.NEWS Sports that Ogaga would replace Gabriel Adiku, who sustained injury during a match against Gombe FC, while Asuquo will start for the club after missing the opening match two weeks ago in Ibadan.

“Ogaga and Asuquo will make the trip to Port Harcourt because we want to play the game with our best players. It is going to be a difficult match but we shall come out victorious by the grace of God,” he said.

Another coach of the team,  Akeem Busari, predicted a tough encounter between his side and Dolphins. He told supersport.com that despite the contrasting fortunes of both sides on the opening day of the season, he has warned his players that they have to be on top of their game to avoid defeat in Port Harcourt.

“It is going to be a tough game for us because Dolphins lost their opening game, and they will also have it at the back of their mind that we held them to a draw in the corresponding fixture last season,” he said.

“It is their first home game of the season and there will be a lot of pressure on them to win, but we have also prepared for this match and must adhere strictly to our plan for us to get something out of it.

“Though it’s an away game, it’s all about attitude and psyching. All we pray for is good officiating,” he added.

—Sunday Akintoye

COD defeated Bendel Insurance 2-1 last Saturday at the Onikan Stadium, Lagos, and will now confront Remo Stars in the tie that promises to be competitive.

Awakan told P.M.NEWS Sports that having defeated Bendel Insurance last Saturday in Lagos, his team are in high spirits to win their next game against Remo Stars, saying that anything short of victory will be a disappointment.

“We are going to Shagamu with positive mind. We have a balanced team and committed players who are hungry for success,” said Awakan.

Commenting on the performance of his players in their last match against Bendel Insurance, Awakan said he was impressed with the way his players responded after Insurance scored their goal.

He said if his team can continue the way they played against Insurance, they will secure promotion ticket to the Nigeria Professional Football League at the end of the season.

“We are getting better in every match. The way my players responded against Bendel Insurance showed that we are better off and if we can continue with this in our next game, the sky is limit for us,” he said.

—Sunday Akintoye

Ndanusa, who made this confirmation to P.M.NEWS Tennis Special explained that it was a move to ensure that wheelchair tennis players are adequately prepared for the forthcoming World Team Cup in Turkey in May.

“I can confirm to you that wheelchair tennis will feature at next month’s CBN Open. After the Junior Championship few weeks ago, I met with the management of the apex bank and the officials agreed to include wheelchair tennis in the programme of the CBN Open this year. “I’m really excited about this because the players have been complaining of not having tournaments to play. We want to use the players’ participation in the CBN Open as preparatory tourney ahead of the World Team Cup in Antalya, Turkey in May,” said Ndanusa, who is also the President of Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC.

Ndanusa further stated that henceforth every major championship in the country will be featuring wheelchair tennis.

“This gesture doesn’t end with CBN Open, every other major championship which will take place in the country this year will also feature wheelchair tennis. We believe this is the only way we can develop the sport in the country,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s top wheelchair tennis player, Alex Adewale has lauded the latest efforts of the federation to give players playing times. Like Oliver Twist, he wants the NTF to do more by including wheelchair tennis in next year’s National Sports Festival.

“This is good news, but I’ll like the federation to do more for us by including the game in the sports festival,” Wasiu said.

Also reacting to the new development, assistant national coach of the wheelchair tennis team, Kayode Savage he would wait till April when the CBN Open is staged before he believes the news.

He said: “It’s a fantastic idea and timely if you consider the fact that the World Team Cup is fast approaching. Having said that, I’ll only wait for that time when this whole thing will materialise before I know what to say.”

—Damilare Okunola

Speaking told P.M.NEWS Tennis Special on arrival from South Africa where he played a two-week tournament that “it will be good if the NTF can organise more local tournaments for players in the country this year. The  reason is that we need tournaments not only to keep the players busy throughout the year, but to also keep them fit and be on top of their game at all times.”

“The prize money doesn’t have to be too much. For instance, the NTF can organise tournament where a winner wins $1, 000 and if this is converted to Naira, it is not too much,” he said.

Alade, a student of Yaba College of Technology said that exposure rather than the prize money has been the motivating factor for him going abroad to play circuits. He disclosed that he had to sponsor himself with the assistance of a sponsor to South Africa. “Playing tournaments helps exposing players. You can believe that in the tournament I went to play in South Africa, I lost out in the quarter final and I was given $400 with racquets and bags. I was so happy with these because the competition exposed me to certain thing I didn’t know before. “For some of us who are always clamouring for sponsorship, we shouldn’t rely so much on the sponsors, we should try to bail ourselves out first before sponsors will come to assist us in any other logistics,” Alade said.

—Damilare Okunola

Two suspected car snatchers were this morning arrested by heavily armed operatives of Nigeria’s Department of State Security Services (SSS), at the premises of the Nigerian Union of Journalists on Reservation Road, GRA, Benin.

The operation which lasted for over 20 minutes, created some pandemonium as journalists and newspaper distributors who resumed work early in the morning scampered for safety upon sighting the gun-wilding security operatives.

The robbers were said to have a few days earlier stolen a black-colored Toyota Corolla car valued at N2.5million from its owner in Warri, Delta state at gunpoint, and had contacted various car dealers in Benin City with the intention of selling the stolen car to any unsuspecting buyer at a giveaway price.

Unknown to them, however, a security agent who posed as a buyer contacted a number used by one of the thieves, arranged a meeting at the NUJ Press Centre to conclude the deal.

The thieves who drove the stolen car into the NUJ Premises this morning, were engaged in serious negotiations when a team of SSS men drove in and at gunpoint made to arrest the duo, but one of them took to his heels on sighting the men.

The hot chase given to the fleeing car thief by the SSS operatives resulted in the pandemonium, with everybody running for cover.

Calm later returned to the centre as the security men handcuffed the suspects and drove them away to the State Headquarters of the SSS.

—Jethro Ibileke/Benin

A 46-year old man, Eze Okoro, has been shot dead by drunken policemen in front of his house  at 1, Oguntolu Street, Ijaiye, Ojokoro area, Lagos State, southwest Nigeria. But the police have denied taking part in his murder.

The policemen, according to sources, had been drinking for about six hours at a hotel nearby before they gunned down the man while he was enjoying evening breeze in front of his house after work .

Eze Okoro: Gunned down by drunken policemen

After shattering his waist with bullets, the policemen who were said to have come from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, Ikeja, forcefully took his corpse away and dumped it in a mortuary at Yaba.

P.M.NEWS gathered that they did this after the Ikeja mortuary officials  insisted that before his body could be deposited there, they must fill certain forms, which they refused.

The circumstances surrounding the shooting of Okoro were still strange to the residents who told P.M.NEWS that there was no violence or robbery in the area that warranted such police action.

According to Okoro’s wife, Mrs Ugo Okoro, her husband, who is a businessman, returned from work on the fateful day, and because there was no electricity supply, they went and relaxed in front of their house to enjoy some breeze before going to sleep.

She said their family friend, Chinedu Nwanu and his wife, Nneka Nwanu, who is heavily pregnant, also joined them outside.

Ugo said it was not up to five minutes after she left them and went into their apartment that she heard gun shots and the residents started running in all directions.

She said while the commotion was going on, she heard her husband, who was wearing a pair of shorts and simple shirt, shouting that he was not a robber and was explaining to the policemen that he was just relaxing in front of his house.

“Nneka also fell down and started shouting that she was pregnant and showing the police her husband who was beside her. She was allowed to leave with her husband and one of the policemen shot my husband in the waist and he died on the spot,” Ugo narrated.

P.M.NEWS gathered that after they shot Okoro, they forcefully took his body away, perhaps to cover up their heinous act.

Sources  told P.M.NEWS that the team of policemen had arrived a popular hotel in the area beside Okoro’s house in a Sienna bus with registration number KJA 280 BD and were drinking heavily in the hotel from 4p.m. till 10 p.m. before the incident happened.

Police sources claimed that the man was shot in error during a gun batttle with armed robbers in the hotel, a claim disproved by Okoro’s wife and relatives.

Even the hotel management told P.M.NEWS that there was no shootout between the police and robbers as claimed by the police and that they did not know their mission in the area that day.

The hotel sources, who pleaded for anonymity, said they only noticed the unusual presence of  policemen which caused panic in their hotel.

One of the sources said that the policemne did not disclose their mission. Rather they were there having their drinks for several hours.

The source said it was later that they heard gun shots outside and residents including workers of the hotel started running for safety and that after some time, he got to know that they had shot and killed Okoro.

He insisted that there was no robbery incident in the area that day.

Okoro’s younger brother, Innocent, said he was informed about what happened and he immediately contacted other members of the family and they started searching from one police station to another for his corpse.

He said they went to many police stations and commands and to their greatest suprise, they all denied having anything to do with the incident.

Innocent said the search lasted for three days and there was no information whatsoever before they contacted a top police officer who made the police to open up.

He said the police then asked him to go to Yaba mortuary and search for Okoro’s corpse. And when he got there he discovered that the corpse was dumped there as an unidentified corpse.

He said the corpse was brought back to Ikeja General Hospital mortuary where he filled the necessary documents.

Innocent expressed shock about what happened and the way the police treated the whole matter by not even contacting the family because they knew he was an innocent resident they killed for no reason.

He also told P.M.NEWS that “the police admitted that Okoro was killed in error and asked us to come forward with the elders of the family.”

The late Okoro hailed from Imo State. He had a son called Divine.

Meanwhile the Officer In Charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Superintendent of Police, Abba Kyari, has claimed that it was armed robbers that shot  Okoro while they were trying to escape during an exchange of gunfire with the police.

Kyari said: “ On 8 March, at about 1p.m., I received an information that a gang of armed robbers who had planned to rob a bank on Isolo road ,Ajao Estate were approaching Lagos from Ogun State through Sango-Ota axis.

“Immediately I received this information, I alerted a team of crack detectives. We quickly moved and laid ambush at Abule-Egba Junction along Lagos /Abeokuta Expressway where the armed robbers were intercepted. After a gun battle with the robbers, seven of them were injured while two of them, identified as Olubode  Mudashiru, 27, and Gbenga Joseph, 48, were arrested with bullet wounds.”

He explained that after the arrest, they  received further information  that one of the operational vehicles of the robbers, a golden colour Toyota Camry  carrying three AK-47 rifles and two rocket launchers had driven through Abule-Egba junction towards Ajao Estate/Mushin area of Lagos.

“I quickly deployed my men to that area where we were informed that the robbers had lodged at a popular hotel in Meiran area of Lagos, where they normally smoke Indian hemp and drink before embarking on operation. I quickly  mobilised SARS operatives to the location.

“On sighting the patrol team, the robbers opened fire at  us and we responded. During the gun battle, one of the robbers, Tunji Bamidele, 28, was arrested with one AK-47 rifle and a bag. Other gang members escaped along with two AK-47 rifles in their possession.

“ But one man, identified as Okoro, was shot dead by the robbers as they were trying to escape. We were on operation.We don’t know who is who. It was one of the suspected robbers, Bamidele, who told us that the person that was killed was not one of  them.

“We quickly transferred the victim to a morgue, where I took charge of the mortuary bill. We were not the one that shot Okoro,” Kyari said.

According to him, during the operation, SARS recovered two AK-47 rifles, eight  AK-47 magazines fully loaded, three locally made double barrel pistols, 65 live catridges along with two of their operational vehicles Toyota Sienna with registration number AKD 54 AG and Nissan Sunny with registration number BT 914 APP.

—Cyriacus Izuekwe & Ayodeji Dedeigbo

Pope Francis knelt at the tomb of St. Peter and donned the symbols of papal power at a sumptuous inauguration on Tuesday, vowing to embrace the “poorest, the weakest” of humanity.

Nearly 200,000 pilgrims cheered Latin America’s first pontiff in St. Peter’s Square, waving flags from around the world as the newly elected pope promised that his would be a “lowly, concrete and faithful” papacy.

In an address strongly influenced by the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi, the saint he has chosen as his inspiration, he urged world economic and political leaders not to “allow omens of destruction and death to accompany the advance of this world!”

His voice raised in emotion, the 76-year old Francis said a pope must “embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important.”

“Amid so much darkness, we need to see the light of hope,” said the Argentinian, after touring a sun-drenched St. Peter’s Square in an open-top car to cries of “Long live the pope!”

The former Buenos Aires Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was a fervent critic of the International Monetary Fund and unregulated market capitalism, a stance that could make him an important voice in an austerity-hit Europe.

At the ceremony, the 265th successor to St. Peter received from his cardinals the papal pallium, a lambswool strip of cloth that symbolises the pope’s role as a shepherd and has red crosses to represent the wounds of Jesus Christ.

Pope Francis during his inauguration in Rome today. Photo: AFP

The “Fisherman’s Ring” bestowed on him by Angelo Sodano, dean of the college of cardinals, is a personalised signet ring traditionally worn by popes in honour of St. Peter, a fisherman.

“With Pope Francis, the Church will be closer to the people and to the modern world,” said Rodrigo Grajales, a 31-year old Colombian priest.

Francis gave the thumbs-up as he toured the square, stopping to kiss babies and getting out of the car at one point to bless a disabled man.

“Go Francis! We Will Be With You Wherever You Go!” read a sign held up by a group of Brazilian nuns in St. Peter’s Square.

Sister Rosa, an elderly Italian nun, said she expected the pope would be “another St. Francis on Earth for love, goodness, poverty and humility.”

The Vatican said there were between 150,000 and 200,000 people present at the ceremony.

The son of an Italian immigrant railway worker, Francis has already won hearts in Rome with a disarmingly informal style which contrasted with Tuesday’s pomp and ceremony.

The Vatican said 132 foreign delegations attended.

Bergoglio was the surprise choice at last week’s conclave of cardinals to find a successor to 85-year old Benedict XVI, who last month brought a sudden end to a papacy that had often been overshadowed by scandal, saying he was too old to carry on.

He was the first pope to resign since the Middle Ages.

Francis has called for a “poor Church for the poor,” warning the world’s cardinals against pursuing worldly glories and saying that without deep spiritual renewal the Roman Catholic Church would crumble “like a sand castle.”

The arrival of world leaders has presented him with a first diplomatic headache in the form of a request from compatriot President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina to mediate in a row with Britain over sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.

Francis is still haunted by criticism from left-wingers at home for failing to speak out against the excesses of Argentina’s military rule during the dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s.

The Chinese government also said it would not be sending any representatives after Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou said he was attending.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe flew in, sidestepping an EU travel ban over human rights abuses that does not apply to the Vatican.

Latin America was heavily represented at the inauguration of the first non-European pope in nearly 1,300 years, with the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and Paraguay all in attendance.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and European Union leaders were also present.

Leaders of the Eastern Catholic Rite were also there, including Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

Vatican radio said it was the first time a patriarch of Constantinople had attended an inauguration since 1054 when the eastern and western halfs of Christendom split.

The Vatican was in security lockdown for the event, with 3,000 officers deployed including sharpshooters on the rooftops and bomb disposal experts.

Church leaders have urged Francis to move quickly to reform the intrigue-filled Roman Curia, the central administration of the Roman Catholic Church, and his appointments in the coming weeks will be closely watched.

Francis has indicated he will press for a friendlier faith that is closer to ordinary people and for social justice, although the moderate conservative is unlikely to change major tenets of Catholic doctrine.

Vatican experts say he has also signalled he will pursue a more inclusive “collegial” style of leadership together with the cardinals and bishops.

Vast crowds also gathered on the other side of the Atlantic outside the Buenos Aires cathedral to dance and sing as they watched the inauguration.

Catholic high school students chanted slogans praising Francis, while seminarians and nuns waved Vatican flags and signs supporting the new pope.

“This pope has awakened deep emotions within me, not only because he’s from Argentina, but because of his warmth as a person,” Celia Farias, 33, told AFP.

“As a Catholic, it has renewed my faith.”

When the Clinic-On-Wheels, one of the programmes of Leah Charity Foundation, a pet project of Mrs. Omolewa Ahmed, wife of the Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, was launched in November 2011 at Baboko in Ilorin West Local Government Area of the state, it set as its target for 2012, restorng the sight of 100 people. Clinic-On-Wheels is a mobile clinic that takes health-care delivery to people, particularly at the grassroots, who could not access the orthodox medical care system owing to ignorance or financial constraint. Two ambulances, usually accompanied by qualified health personnel, drugs and diagnostic equipment to carry out minor tests, are deployed for the scheme which has traversed the three senatorial districts of the state.

In the course of tests conducted during the programme’s outings, minor ailments such as malaria and minor eye problems were reportedly treated, while referrals were made to the Specialist Hospital, Sobi, Ilorin, for those with serious eye problems that would require surgical operation. The costs of all these were borne by the Leah Charity Foundation in collaboration with the Sight Savers International and Avenue for Wealth, a Lagos-based company.

While briefing the press in Ilorin, Mrs. Ahmed marvelled at discoveries made during such tours, wondering how a minor defect could be left to become a big issue that could permanently impair sight due to ignorance or lack of fund. Moved by the pitiable situation, she ordered the immediate commencement of registration of all eye surgical cases. At the end, 100 patients with cataract-related cases, comprising 48 children and 52 adults, were registered and successfully operated upon at the end of 2012. She added that collation of names for the next batch of 100 in 2013 is on.    Mrs. Ahmed made a clarion call to the people to embrace the programme rather than silently killing themselves as a result of lack of money or ignorance. Most blindness, she said, can be traced to cataract, which can be operated to restore normal sight.

With the commencement of registration for another batch, Mrs. Ahmed appealed to well-meaning individuals and corporate bodies to partner her foundation in the project. With no budget from government, she said, she said she has been going about looking for donors to ensure that the charity work the foundation is doing does not stop. Other charity works the foundation is embarking on are in the areas of social welfare and education.

—Stephen Oni/Ilorin

All Progressive Congress accuses the Peoples Democratic Party and Independent National Electoral Commission of collusion to frustrate its registration

•The Abuja office of the African People’s Congress, a hardly known party

The smooth sail the newly formed All Progressive Congress, APC, has had since its emergence on the country’s political waters seems to be troubled by the sudden appearance of African People’s Congress, a hardly known party with the same acronym. But apart from sharing the same acronym, the circumstances of their emergence are strikingly different. Unlike All Progressives Congress, which is an amalgam of opposition political parties, namely, Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN; Congress for Progressive Change, CPC; and All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, the origin of African People’s Congress has remained a mystery to many watchers. In fact, it was literally unheard of until the recent announcement by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, that the party had, indeed, applied to it for registration. Despite the Commission’s claim on its application, the identities of the party’s promoters have remained unknown; except that its letter of application emanated from a certain Abuja-based law firm, Leather World Chambers, and was signed by one Nwokorie Samuel Chinedu. The two political parties having the same acronym, according to INEC, foreshadows the possibility of the grand opposition party’s registration by the electoral umpire.

The current reality was confirmed by the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Kayode Idowu, last week. According to Idowu,  “We (INEC) do not encourage  political parties with similar names, manifestos, logos and acronyms and this is aimed at avoiding confusion between registered political parties.” He cited a similar situation in which the Commission had declined to register the United Progressive Grand Alliance, UPGA, promoted by disgruntled former chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Chief Chekwas Okorie, on the grounds that the acronym of his party sounded alike with APGA. Although INEC, in Okorie’s case, cited Section 82, sub-section 2 (c) of the Electoral Act 2010, as amended, for its action, and may rely on same to rationalise its decision against the All Progressive Congress, the said section  is however ambiguous. According to the Section 82 (2) (c): “The Commission shall register the symbol of a political party if it is satisfied that its use will not be offensive or otherwise objectionable.”

Based on the unfolding development, opposition political actors within the fold of the All Progressive Congress have warned of an all-out protest to the INEC, if it failed to register the party. The first salvo was fired  by former governor of Zamfara State, Senator Ahmed Sani, on a Hausa radio phone-in programme, Hanu Dayawa, in Kaduna. Yerima, an ANPP chieftain, during the programme warned of a mass protest, on the scale of Egypt’s Tahrir Square’s demonstration which spurred the Arab Spring, to be led by leaders of the All All Progressive Congress, to express their grouse against the Commission. The threat, which obviously did not go down well with the authorities, led to Yerima being questioned by the police.

Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, Olufemi Adenaike, reportedly acting on an order from Abuja, invited the lawmaker for questioning bordering on his threat. Though Sani was later released, the news of his arrest sparked furious reactions from opposition parties and other Nigerians, who saw it as an attempt at intimidation. For many commentators, the action was capable of stifling dissenting opinions and antithetical to freedom of expression. The import of the arrest was not lost on the House of Representatives, which debated the matter and condemned the police. To CPC, the action reflected  desperation by the ruling PDP, using INEC to frustrate the merger plan.

•Adenaike (l) arrested Sani (r) for allegedly inciting the public

According to its National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, the original plan was to ambush the coalescing parties by frustrating All Progressive Congress from meeting the requirements for registration . He, therefore, urged the Commission to prove its neutrality by showing it was not in an unholy alliance with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  as alleged by its former Presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari. Just last month, in Abuja, Buhari, a three-time presidential candidate, had scathed the PDP that it needed no alliance to retain power in 2015. To him, the party was already “in alliance with the Police, INEC, Judiciary, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and pension funds”.

•Metuh: Blames the crisis on negligence and incompetence of “our inferior opponents”

But PDP spokesman, Olisa Metuh, in his response, described Buhari’s jibe as “un-presidential”, and accused the former head of state of lifting jokes from the social media in a bid to get at PDP “at all cost”. Undeterred, Buhari, two weeks ago, unleashed another round of expletives against the INEC, this time calling for the sack of its chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega. As a guest speaker at the 4th British-African Diaspora conference held at the British House of Commons in London on 7 March, Buhari alleged that “INEC’s top echelon is immersed in deep corruption,” and that it “would be unable to deliver any meaningful election in 2015.”

He accused Jega of having “a cosy relationship with the executive and judicial arms of government that its impartiality is totally lost”, and called for his sack. Coming on the heels of the controversy over the identity crisis of the two parties, the opposition parties seemed to have found a justification for its outcry against INEC. In a statement he issued last Monday in Abuja, National Publicity Secretary, Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Lai Mohammed, described the comment adduced to the INEC spokesman as “reckless and provocative”. Like Fashakin, Mohammed argued that the statement “clearly betrays INEC as truly having merged with the PDP to frustrate the merger of the progressives” under the new party. Mohammed explained that the African People’s Congress had only written a letter of intent to which INEC had not correspondingly replied with a letter of acknowledgement, let alone verifying its documents. He added that not until that was done, in compliance with the provisions of Section 78 (2) and Section 78 (6) of the Electoral Act, the “phantom” party could not be regarded as an applicant.

Moreover, Section 78, subsection 2 of the Electoral Act reads: “The Commission shall on receipt of the documents in fulfilment of the conditions stipulated by the Constitution immediately issue the applicant with the letter of acknowledgment stating that all the necessary documents had been submitted to the Commission.” Subsection 6 of the same section states that: “No application for registration as a political  party shall be processed unless there is evidence of payment  of administrative fee as may be fixed from time to time by the Commission.” On this score, and based on INEC’s inability to show it had issued a letter of acknowledgement to the African People’s Congress, or that the party had paid the required administrative fee, the argument seems to be in Muhammed’s favour. The PDP, which had been accused of floating the strange party has denied its involvement, accusing the opposition of sloppiness. Metuh said the opposition parties should be blamed for their predicament, rather than blaming the PDP for the “negligence and incompetence of our grossly inferior opponents”.

But, rather than blame PDP for the opposition party’s dilemma, CPC’s National Secretary, Buba Galadima, blamed it on the All Progressive Congress’merger committee, which he said “was busy playing to the gallery rather than moving faster”.

•Galadima: Blames APC’S merger committee

Galadima added that the committee “should have silently done what they are doing, register the party and then do convention, (but) they have to change the name now”.

The delay Galadima claimed landed the merger party in a quandary, however, does not sufficiently explain the contradictions in the statements credited to INEC’s spokesman, Idowu, or the belief that the electoral body was complicit in plans to frustrate All Progressive Congress’ registration. In one breath, Idowu was, on 8 February, quoted to have said, “INEC is expecting the leadership of the All Progressive Congress to apply for formal documentation.” Few days later, on 17 February, Idowu, in what appeared to be a volte face, described the coalition party as just a political association since it had not fulfilled all requirements for its registration.

Picking on Idowu’s conflicting statements, Lai Mohammed said: “One wonders who the spokesman is speaking for and what interest he represents.”

Joe Igbokwe, Lagos State Publicity Secretary of ACN, could not agree more. “Did INEC not see the efforts being put in place by the progenitors of the APC? Did INEC  not see how APC emerged through an excruciating process?” In the same vein, a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Abdulrasaq Balogun, contended that, with “the formation of the APC, the PDP has become jittery that power is leaving its hands in the next election”. Balogun told this magazine that the current situation leaves the APC with no choice than to let the world know the machinations of the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan in trying to scuttle the merger.

While the issue remains a boiling cauldron, there was an indication last Thursday that representatives of All Progressive Congress would be meeting with the Commission to formally present its grouse.

—Fola Ademosu

By Kanayo Esinulo

My cousin, Godfrey – Goddy for short – is not particularly unknown in political circles in Imo State. Under Nigeria’s prolonged military rule, I managed to prevail on him not to accept to serve, either as Commissioner or Special Adviser, any military administration in Owerri. We argued several times, and for many hours, on this matter, and in each instance, he conceded that the points I raised were convincing. When he managed to bow to my arguments and accept my advice, he would grudgingly add that a lion does not accept defeat easily. He was at Nsukka in the early seventies and strongly believes that a lion must not feed on vegetables. As politics resumed in 1999, he located on the side of Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu, the man evil men of Nigerian politics severally teamed up to deny the governorship of old and new Imo State by brazenly rigging him out at each political competition in the state. I supported my cousin, Goddy, in his choice of Izuogu as a governorship candidate. Before 1999, Izuogu had solidly established himself as a towering political figure in the East. But somehow, the then formidable Izuogu political machine that my cousin supported and worked for never made it to Douglas House, Owerri. Chief Arthur Nzeribe and all he represented made sure that never happened. Those were the ugly days of political godfathers, and Nzeribe was then a big player in the murky waters of Imo politics.

When the numerous court cases that Izuogu instituted failed to restore his mandate, my cousin went back to his public service job – angry with and disappointed by a rotten political practice that promotes and sustains injustice. Goddy was on sabbatical when he went into the field with Izuogu. As he went back to his regular job, he preferred to remain out of politics. He became somewhat apolitical for a good number of years. But suddenly, his interest in the politics of Imo State was awakened soon after Chief Ethelbert Anayo Rochas Okorocha surfaced in Owerri as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA. Surprisingly, Goddy was again ready to take out another sabbatical to work for the man he saw then as a “God-sent rescuer of Imo State”. His sympathy and  support were totally for Okorocha and his new love, APGA. I would arrive Owerri, and right from the airport where he picked me, it was Rochas, Rochas and Rochas, all the way. Obviously, he was part of the mass hysteria that greeted Okorocha’s arrival in Owerri brandishing APGA’s governorship ticket.

Happily, my cousin knew where I stood. I refused to be fascinated by his theory that “this man’s entry into the politics of our state would re-configure its landscape.” I was convinced that the incumbent governor then, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, was doing a good job and obviously on the right track and, if given a second term, I believed and still believe, he would transform Imo State. Besides, the resuscitation of the old Owerri Master Plan by Ohakim attracted the attention of some of us who had taken time to study and write on it when several military administrators in Owerri chose to ignore and abandon it. As the general elections of 2011 approached, Goddy, who, like I said, had become so excited by Okorocha’s governorship gamble in Owerri, and was confidently referring to him already as “governor-elect” even when the campaigns were only beginning to gather steam and momentum. I knew that some like him in the state would be carried away by sentiment. And this was at a period of the alleged mistreatment of a Catholic Reverend Father by an overzealous security detail, which was a veritable propaganda material for those who wanted to cut short Ohakim’s socio-economic programme in Imo State. The opposition led by Okorocha had been looking for excuses to give a good dog a bad name in order to hang it. Curiously, my Lord Archbishop, Anthony Obinna, was sold on this exaggerated story and, painfully, he bought it and stuck to it. No apologies or explanations were able to mollify an ‘outraged’ Catholic community. The Okorocha camp feasted on the sad event.

When Rochas ‘won’ in a controversial election that almost divided a homogeneous state right down the middle, Ohakim, advisedly, congratulated Okorocha, welcomed him to Government House and handed over an elaborate and, I am told, self-explanatory note that detailed everything an in-coming governor needed to know or be briefed on. But we all know how he reciprocated that brotherly gesture: as a governor-elect, Okorocha wrote to all the banks that transact business with the state government (on a letter-headed paper that no one has disclosed to us yet!) and instructed them not to honour cheques or any financial instrument from a government that was still in power. I reached out to Goddy in Owerri immediately and told him: “That is your man, Rochas, on duty – Mistake number One. Watch out for more mistakes. Many more will follow, I assure you!” The Deputy Governor-elect, Sir Jude Agbaso, may have been enjoying his new boss’ style and carelessness. And it was too early for a governor that was yet to be sworn-in to be making silly mistakes. But that was a sign of what to expect.

Today, Agbaso, the Deputy Governor, is at the receiving end of an administration that he and his boss have been running on flat tyres. It is not difficult to know why the deputy governor is now game for those who think that the wonderful state should be disengaged from civilisation. The on-going fracas and cracks within the top ladder of the Okorocha administration are not coming as a surprise to some of us. The administration lost focus too early in the day. Instead of concentrating on governance and delivering on his specific promises to the people of Imo State, Okorocha was busy feasting on cheap populism, cheapening and discontinuing many good projects that his immediate predecessor was dutifully executing – the Ring Road that could have decongested and set Owerri free for those moving on to Port-Harcourt, Aba, Uyo and Calabar, for instance – wasting time, energy and resources witch-hunting and probing everybody and everything, and in the process may have lost opportunities that could have enabled him to improve the state and the living standards of the people.

Only last week, I called Goddy, my cousin, to know what exactly was happening in Imo State and why the conventional and social media were feasting on the alleged resignation of the Deputy Governor of Imo State, how true were the points raised by the two construction firms about the N458 million bribe that Agbaso allegedly demanded and received from the Lebanese Managing Director and the degree of seriousness and commitment by the state House of Assembly to find out the truth and possibly impeach or punish any culprit. His reply was short and direct: “We no understand this government again. We no understand my man again-ooo.” It appears the Rescue Mission now needs to be rescued. It is a pity indeed.

Kanayo Esinulo, www.kanayoesinulo.com.

At 80, Brigadier Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia (retd.) is in good health except for a recent accident, which warranted his use of crutches. Ogbemudia, who became the Administrator of the Midwest after its liberation from the Biafran Army on 21 September 1967, is currently convalescing in London, where his meeting with DAMOLA AWOYOKUN yielded a six-hour interview. In the interview, Ogbemudia addresses the revelations about him, as contained in the US diplomatic documents recently published by this magazine, and challenges some notions about the Nigerian Civil War

Take us to Kaduna where you were based during the first coup in Nigeria. 

First of all, allow me to say I wholeheartedly accepted to host you this evening and to tell you my feelings about TheNEWS’ recent reports on Biafra. The reports are first-class. When I came back from training in Fort Bragg Special Warfare School in the US, I was posted to the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna as an instructor. First, I was the chief instructor, but when Nzeogwu came, because he was senior to me, he was made the chief instructor and I became the senior instructor, special warfare, supporting arms and other related subjects.

Where was Nzeogwu posted from? 

I think it must have been the Staff College. When he came newly, together with Major Onwatuegu, we used to share the same table, sitting opposite each other. We met daily to discuss our training programme. Some civilian friends used to come and see us and during our discussions, they’d ask: ‘What the hell are you people doing? Are you going to allow this rotten government to continue like this?’

In other words, the civilians were asking you to take over government?

They never said it directly, but I guessed that was what they wanted.

What were they expecting from you?

Remember that at that time, a few things had happened around Africa. (Col. Gamal Abdel) Nasser had taken over power in Egypt. And one of these civilian friends brought us a book published on Nasser to see if it could influence our attitude. And this visitor was very friendly with us. Then, there were several meetings, but I didn’t attend. One morning, about  10 January 1966, Nzeogwu called me and said he was making a roster of senior officers in the infantry wing going on leave and he wanted me to go first. ‘You will start next week. When you come back, I will then go,’ he said. Then, some soldiers brought radio equipment to install and test. To communicate with whom, I don’t know.

Where was this?

In the Military College. I didn’t bother to ask because I had been given arms to write instruction pamphlets on and teach such to our students. One of the officers I used extensively in teaching the 105 recoilless rifles was 2nd Lieutenant Sani Abacha. Sometime in January, I got instructions to send 105 recoilless rifles to Abeokuta [2nd Field Artillery Battery] for demonstration at an officers’ course. I sent Abacha there with the rifles to demonstrate to them. Abacha was in Abeokuta when the first coup took place.

What were your thoughts about the coup? Were the mutineers right or wrong?

With the benefit of hindsight, I have seen that most of the problems we are having today as a nation came out of that coup. I didn’t support soldiers taking over government and I let Nzeogwu know that when that man  gave us the Nasser book to read. I think that was probably the reason he sent me on leave. I had negotiated with Armel’s Transport to come to my house and take my luggage to Benin for my leave. Around 9:30am on the morning of the coup, the driver came back and said soldiers turned them back at a roadblock in Kakuri. I told them soldiers don’t mount roadblocks, only police do that. They said they were soldiers. So, I said, ‘Get into my car, let’s go and find out.’ When we came out of the cantonment, driving on the Kaduna-Kawo Road, the Ministers’ quarters were located on the left and the railway line and the car sellers were on the right. I was looking at those cars and didn’t look on the left. When we got to the roadblock, I asked the 2nd Lieutenant in charge why they were putting up roadblock. He asked if I hadn’t heard what happened. I said I hadn’t. He said: ‘Ok sir. When you go to the brigade headquarters, they will tell you.’ On my way back, I saw the wife of Lt. Col Hassan Katsina. I asked: ‘Hajiya, why are you walking on foot when  your husband has a beautiful car?’  She told me the Sardauna had been killed and his house completely burnt down.  I went there and saw the house still burning. Then I went to the brigade headquarters, which was on the way to Kaduna, just before Kingsway Stores. There, I found a lot of soldiers. As I was going upstairs, I saw the governor of Northern Region, Sir Kashim Ibrahim, sitting on the floor. I said: ‘Ranka dede, what are you doing here?’ He said, ‘You people brought me here.’ I asked, What for? I left him when he was reluctant to answer questions because there were soldiers there. I walked towards the brigade commander’s office.  There, I met Nzeogwu. He had a white bandage around his neck. He told me he was forced to strike last night. He said the whole of the Northern Region was under him right now and there were still some problems with Lagos. I asked him why he didn’t tell me. He replied that they couldn’t tell everybody. I asked him if he regarded me as everybody. I left his office and told him that whenever he wanted me, I was at home.

What were you expecting from him? 

I was expecting him to take me into confidence and I would have dissuaded him.

Weren’t you concerned about the whereabouts of the official  brigade commander, Brigadier Ademulegun and his deputy, Shodeinde? 

I asked him. He said they were not around. It was on my way down that I met Obasanjo, then a major.  Both of us went back to see Nzeogwu. Obasanjo and Nzeogwu were best of friends and they understood each other very well. Obasanjo asked: ‘Kaduna, what’s all this about?’ He gave Obasanjo the full brief of what they had done. It was then it became known to me that Ademulegun, Shodeinde, the Premier and a number of others had been killed.

Obasanjo and Nzeogwu were very good friends, as you said, who understood each other. Why didn’t Nzeogwu tell him of the coup beforehand? 

I don’t know why. Ask Obasanjo when you meet him.

Alright, go on.

Nzeogwu said it was during the operation in the Premier’s house that he sustained the injury he was using the white bandage on his neck to cover. He lobbed grenade but didn’t bend low enough.  He told us he was sending a contingent headed by Captain Swanton to Lagos to capture Ironsi and bring him to Kaduna. When Obasanjo and I got out of his office, we discussed it and we went back to tell him it was a suicide mission. We warned him against sending the boys to their death.

 Why would he want to bring Ironsi to Kaduna? Won’t that create a power vacuum? 

At that time, the government had not been handed over to Ironsi. We later heard that day that he had taken control of the government. Eventually, Ironsi sent Colonel Conrad Nwawo to bring Nzeogwu to Lagos. After Ironsi became the commander-in-chief, he went round the country and visited Kaduna. I was appointed the brigade major [of the 1st Brigade] and a new brigade commander was posted to Kaduna. He was Lt. Col. W.U. Bassey and the deputy was Lt. Col. Effiong. Lt. Col. Hassan Katsina had been appointed the governor of the Northern Region. In my position, I attended various security meetings held in the Government House. The intelligence reports sent from time to time showed there was tension all over the North that the coup plotters were not punished.

Among soldiers or civilians?

Both. The rumour had started that it was an Igbo coup because some Igbo in the North made photographs of Nzeogwu standing on Ahmadu Bello’s corpse. The intelligence report said unless Ironsi did something, they would do it themselves. And Katsina made efforts to deny it was an Igbo coup. But I don’t think the denials convinced the soldiers and civilians, because it got to a stage that Hassan Katsina himself told all the soldiers that, ‘We (the northern soldiers) are not cowards. When the north wants to carry out a coup, it will not be in the night like the Igbo. It will be in the day.’ Then in July (1966), it happened.

 Can you shed more light on the reported  killings of Igbo officers?

I didn’t see many dead bodies. It was only Lt. Col. John Okoro, Commanding Officer of the 3rd Battalion, Kawo, who was killed by mutineering officers. The mutiny by the northern soldiers was on. Anybody regarded as Ibo didn’t find it easy with them. Even myself. Until Abacha told them I was not Igbo, they didn’t believe that I wasn’t. That was when he came to me and said, ‘You must leave now.’ And he escorted me from Kaduna around midnight till we got to Ilorin at 5am. He turned back and I arrived Benin around 2pm. In Benin, I took over from Major Mobolaji Johnson (station commander) who had been posted back to Lagos.

 Before you became a target, there were some officers you helped escape the northern mutineers…

As the brigade major, Col. Festus Akagha and some soldiers came to me and said he couldn’t go back to his house because the northern soldiers and civilian rioters might kill him for being Igbo. I gave Akagha my pistol and ordered an escort to take him to the Kaduna South railway station where they were put into a locomotive tank and filled it with water to their neck level. That was how they were able to travel out of Kaduna.

 When Abacha drove you to safety in Ilorin, what kind of discussions did you have in the car?

We were not in the same car; I drove my car and he was in a Landover in front with escorts. Gradually many more Igbo-speaking Midwestern officers, who had escaped from their various units, assembled in Benin. And once a senior officer came, he automatically walked into the command chair. When Col Nwawo took over as the commander of the Midwest area command, 12 of them were senior to me and I was appointed the deputy quartermaster-general. The Igbo-speaking officers said since Col. Nwawo was senior to Ejoor, he should take over as the governor. Those of us who were non-Igbo-speaking opposed it and it did not happen.

The American secret cables report that Ojukwu had been gathering arms since October 1966, after the mass killings in the North. In fact, one of the planes of his arms dealers crashed at the border with Cameroun.

If Ojukwu had been gathering arms, I wouldn’t know. Between Benin and Enugu is a minimum of two hours drive and it is difficult for me to know.

 What about the intelligence officers of the Midwest Command?

The intelligence officers were not supposed to be gathering nationwide intelligence, but intelligence relating to the safety of the Midwest.

Which included Asaba?

Yes. The bridge was the boundary.

There was no unit in Asaba, boundary to the region with which the country was at war?

At a certain time, there was a unit commanded by Lt. Col. Ochei. But there was a shortage of weapons.

In his interview with this magazine, Major Paul Ogbebor (retd.) said you went to Lagos to pick up explosives to defend the Midwest?

I never saw explosives. Because we didn’t have enough weapons, Ejoor negotiated with the Army Headquarters in Lagos and they sent a DC3 plane, which took me from  Benin to Kaduna. The Army Ordnance Depot gave me only 41 rifles!

 As the drums of secession were being beaten, there was an incident in which Ojukwu’s boys hijacked a plane in Benin.

The plane was a passenger plane and they went to the pilot with a gun and asked him to fly to Enugu.

 What was the reaction of the Midwestern Command?

They only said all planes leaving Benin should be properly checked.

Now to the war itself. Did you know Victor Banjo before the war?

Very well. In Ibadan in the late 50s, I was assigned to the University of Ibadan to train what they called Cadet Corps. In the cadet corps, we had Banjo, Emmanuel Ifeajuna and some others.

You just mentioned Banjo and Ifeajuna – two figures who reshaped history of the nation as we knew it and who were executed together on the same day. Tell us what you think of them?

I was assigned to train cadets in University of Ibadan. Occasionally, they would bring the students to the barracks and I would teach them how to assemble, dismantle and clean rifles. Banjo and Ifeajuna were among them. One day, the Defence Minister, Alhaji Ribadu, visited the 5th Battalion in what was described as an inspection tour. So the CO (Commanding Officer) introduced Ifeajuna to Alhaji Ribadu. He said: ‘Your Excellency, please meet Emmanuel Ifeajuna, the gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games.’ Ribadu shook his hand. Later in the day, the CO called me and said Ribadu was not happy with what we were doing. He said the students were already violent and we were training them to use weapons. He said, ‘These boys may turn these arms against us someday and we won’t be able to control them.’ Gradually, we withdrew the weapons and didn’t continue with the cadet corps training.

Samuel Ogbemudiajpg

What was Ifeajuna’s reaction to the withdrawal? 

They were students and couldn’t have had any telling reaction. But Banjo was a good cadet. He was always willing to learn and often asked many questions. After training, he often asked more questions about how to assemble rifles. Sometimes, I joked with him that his pair of glasses were too big and he should take them off.  He’d reply that if he took them off, he wouldn’t see well.

 And Ifeajuna?

When Ifeajuna joined the army, everyone welcomed him because the army was interested more in his gold medal than anything else. They were thinking by the time the Olympics Games came, he would get another gold medal. But I didn’t think he prepared very well.

How did Banjo arrive in the East?

What I heard was that when he went to see Ironsi just after the January coup, someone had already informed Ironsi that he was coming to kill him. Once he got to Ironsi’s office, he was arrested and detained along with the coup plotters and then moved to the East with them.

Who among the Midwestern officers did you know collaborated with the Biafrans?

The intelligence reports named almost every Igbo-speaking officer: Nwawo, at the apex, Trimnell, Nzefili, Okwechime, Nwajei, Ochei and all the others.

 Who compiled this intelligence report?

The special branch of the police.

 With the benefit of hindsight, would you say that the E Branch of the police was right? 

Yes, in a way. For example, Lieutenant Ochei was assigned to defend the Asaba end of the Niger bridge. Later on the day of the invasion, it was reported that the same troops were redeployed to the Lagos end of the Midwest. And people asked if an attack was coming from Lagos or from the East. Also, the night before, Nwawo gave orders that the weapons of soldiers of the area command should be withdrawn.

According to the American secret diplomatic files, Ejoor was meant to be assassinated by the Biafrans when they invaded. Did you know about this? 

I was not aware.

 Why did you think Ejoor fled, leaving behind his wife and children once he was hinted of the Biafran invasion?

I don’t know.

 In  the middle of July, while the war was on, Ejoor made a broadcast that he had intelligence that Ojukwu was planning to invade the Midwest, using soldiers wearing mufti. Were you aware of that?

It was an open secret that Ojukwu was planning to invade the Midwest. We met and demonstrated how we were going to defend the Midwest by holding training at Benin airport.

There was also an instance when Ejoor met with Ojukwu at the Niger bridge in Asaba.

I remember Ejoor saying to me that he was going to Onitsha tomorrow and he would need an escort. I organised an escort and commanded it myself. The meeting was at a building on the right just after the bridge in Onitsha. The door was closed and we the escorts stood outside. And  when they came out, I was not in the same vehicle with Ejoor to ask him what they discussed.

 What about Ojukwu’s escorts?

What they said was we should have two Nigeria: one is a dominion of southern Nigeria and the other the North. When it came to who would rule, the Easterners insisted it should be Ojukwu. We said Awolowo. They said no.

 What were the reasons each side gave for its choices?

If Ojukwu were to be the head of state and using seniority, it would take a long time before it could get to a non-Igbo Midwesterner, who was number thirty-something in the armed forces. That was not good.

What if Awolowo was the Prime Minister?

For us, there was nothing wrong with that. Remember, Awolowo was the deputy chairman of the Federal Executive Council. In other words, he was already the prime minister. When Ejoor came back into the vehicle and we were going back to Benin, he said: ‘Don’t mind these people [Biafrans]. They think we are fools.’ What led to that, I couldn’t ask; I was a junior officer.

 On 5 August 1967, three days before the invasion, Ojukwu made a radio broadcast warning Ejoor not to allow “the Hausa soldiers” passage through the Midwest to the East. 

I think what he said was that we should not allow them to step on the Midwest soil at all else they will come across the Niger Bridge and fight them.

 Then he invaded. Yet, there were no Hausa soldiers in the Midwest. 

Yes.

 Did he say that so that the Biafran Army could have unimpeded access?

I can’t say.

 On the day of the invasion, did Ejoor tell you why he left? 

Nwawo, the Area Commander, phoned me around 5am and said: ‘Sam, I was told the Biafrans have already crossed the bridge, come and discuss how we will deal with them.’ I replied that I thought it should have been done earlier. I went to the headquarters where I met other senior officers. With no emotions, no anger, no disgust, they said the Biafrans are here. I then suspected the motive of the meeting was to organise us to go and welcome them. I left them and went to the Government House to see Ejoor. They told me the governor had gone. The day before, Ejoor’s ADC, Lt. Col. Idahosa, told me he was not sure of those boys Nwawo sent  to guard the Government House. That evening, I brought non-Igbo speaking troops.

Did Ejoor know about that?

I don’t know, but his ADC was aware.

At that senior officers’ meeting, wasn’t anyone curious about the whereabouts of Ejoor?

Nobody discussed the governor at all.

 The most senior officer in the Midwest was Ejoor. He was also the chief security officer of the state. Shouldn’t he be the one to make the phone calls Nwawo made, calling officers to assemble for security meeting on how to deal with the Biafran invaders instead of running away?

No. Ejoor was a governor; he did not control any troops. Nwawo was the area commander. And from the beginning, he never hid his feelings that there had been some injustice and therefore we must support Biafra to succeed.

According to the information contained in some American diplomatic cables, you phoned Bisalla at 7:22 in the morning of 9 August 1967, when the Biafran army reached Benin.

It was from Owo Post Office that I phoned Bisalla and that was between 12 – 16 of August. I never phoned him on the day of invasion. Later that morning, I went into hiding for four weeks.

From that day of invasion till 9 September 1967, when you appeared in Lagos, you were in hiding. Tell us about it.

That, I can never tell.

 Why?

Because it is my secret.

 Forty-four years after the war, you are still keeping secrets about an important part of our history?

No. You’ll be exposing the people or the village to danger.

I don’t think so. There is already information out there you collaborated with the Biafran invasion?

All I want to say is that on the day they reached Benin, I took refuge after talking to the non-Igbo soldiers that since we didn’t have weapons to fight, we should all go at 6 O’ clock and assemble at Maria Gorretti Grammar School, and we held our meeting. And we started what was called hit and run against the Biafran forces. Also, my wife at that time, was a senior police officer and took me anywhere I wanted to go.

And she passed several Biafran roadblocks in the Midwest?

Yes. They even saluted her and let us pass. She was a deputy superintendent of police.

 How come they allowed her to move around freely? Was she Igbo?

The police were already cooperating with them. Whenever things like this happened, the police were easily subdued.

Who was the head of the Midwest police?

Izirien.

Well, your hideout was in the village of Uwissan. Your mother was there too. What was the name of the reverend father who brought Victor Banjo to you?

I don’t know his name; he was an Irishman.

 How did the reverend father know your hideout?

He met my brother-in-law who brought him to me.

When the reverend father said Banjo wanted to see you, how did you react?

I told him I didn’t mind. The Banjo I knew since the Ibadan days won’t come and shoot me, but at the same time, I sent for my relations so that if I was going to be killed, it was going to be in their presence. I sent for my mother and brother in-law. When he came, he said they had taken over the state and wanted me to cooperate with them. He said they would make me the military governor. I said we already had one in Ejoor.

 Wasn’t it the same situation when Lt. Col. Murtala Muhammed,  head of the 2nd Division, made you the administrator of the Midwest after its liberation on 21 September 1967 and you accepted?

That one was different. We all fought together to liberate the Midwest.

But why didn’t you defer to Ejoor then? 

Murtala knew Ejoor was the governor. I only accepted to administer the liberated areas.

 Which you did from then till July 1975? So you never asked Banjo why they invaded and occupied the Midwest and to what end?

I knew very well the feelings of Banjo. I was satisfied in my mind he wasn’t a secessionist. As far as I know, Banjo’s aim was to go to Lagos, stabilise the place and get the West to start taking care of themselves.

What do you mean “stabilise”?

I am using his own word. It made sense the way he analysed it. The war was on, he didn’t want the Midwest to take part. He didn’t want the Yoruba to be involved. Since it was North versus the East, let them fight it.

So there was no mention of Ojukwu?

No, he didn’t mention Ojukwu at all. And he left. I decided the place was no longer safe. The following day, I was on my was to Lagos. I slept at a village near Ovbioghe. From there I walked through Egbeta, Ogbese, crossed the river and took motorcycle to Owo. It was at Owo post office that I phoned Bisalla.

 How many troops did you command from your hideout?

About 100.

Is there any of them that is prominent today?

I don’t know.

How successful was this hit and run campaign?

It was very successful because it delayed the Biafran army from going to Lagos. They had to stay to restore and maintain law and order.

 Was this in conjunction with the 3rd Battalion already stationed at Akure-Owo on the western fringe of the Midwest?

We were on our own and the local people helped us a lot. When I got to Lagos, I briefed Bisalla and Gowon. They were happy to see me. They told me of the existence of Midwest Solidarity Committee headed by Chief (Jerome) Udoji and the secretary, A.Y. Eke. The Army Headquarters then told me the second division had been formed under Murtala Mohammed for the purpose of liberating the Midwest and that I should go and join them. Because I had no weapon, I travelled to meet Obasanjo in Ibadan, took his sten gun and then went to join the second division at Sabongida-Ora.

  Did you talk about Banjo when you met Obasanjo in Ibadan? 

I told him I was asked to join the second division and I was in a hurry to take the sten gun. I took it and left. I didn’t have time for any discussion.

  Because he too had some contact of sorts with Banjo?

I have told you Banjo’s matter was not a serious thing to start telling people around. He offered me governorship of Midwest, if I cooperated with him. I told him that if Ejoor said we should cooperate with him, I would do that.

 According to the American documents, the morning Biafra invaded Benin, Ejoor sought a sort of asylum at Bishop Kelly’s house and stayed in the Catholic seminary for two weeks. The same way Banjo solicited your cooperation, he, Nwawo and some other Midwestern officers solicited his cooperation with Ojukwu.

Ejoor never told me that. What he said was that he took a bicycle. Haven’t you read about the bicycle matter.

That was the popular account. We never knew, for instance, that Banjo came to you in your hideout. It was reported that the day the federal troops liberated Benin and you had been made the temporary administrator, up to 900 innocent people were killed.

Many of the stories of mass killings were not true. My house was full of Igbo people. They stayed in my compound for more than 10 days. I opened my door and said all those who were not sure of their safety should go there. They went there and my soldiers guarded them.

Not sure of safety? It meant something unwholesome was going on.

There was a war going on. When we set up the Justice Omo-Eboh rebel atrocities tribunal, many people who said they killed this and that couldn’t go to that tribunal to testify under oath.

 But some went there to testify. So why didn’t you release the report to the public? 

There was nothing to release that the public didn’t know already. The major newspapers, radio stations and the three television stations we had in Nigeria covered the sitting of the tribunal, so the public knew everything going on. And my purpose of setting up the tribunal was to get the truth told and in the meantime, to lower the tension. And it achieved that. By the time Omo-Eboh submitted his report, tempers had already gone down and there was no need to act on it any more. It wasn’t meant to punish people.

In November 1967, Murtala Muhammed sent a letter to Gowon describing what was happening in the Midwest. The letter, the American ambassador then noted, was a sharp contrast to his widely accepted public image. Murtala’s letter showed someone who cared about the unity of the country, healthy relations among the various ethnic groups in the Midwest.  He was even concerned about witch-hunting the Asaba Igbo when, according to him, all the ethnic groups had representatives who collaborated with Biafra during the invasion and occupation.

I agree. Murtala was a federalist. He did everything to save innocent lives. The Nigerian soldier who killed two people at Ibuzor Post Office was brought to Benin for trial and executed. Murtala asked the soldier why he killed them. The soldier said they were Igbo. Murtala asked if that was an offence? He had no answer. He was found guilty and executed at King’s Square, now called Roundabout, in Benin. He gave strict instructions that on no account must civilians be touched. And Murtala broadcast it at a meeting with the soldiers. But if you listened to the Radio Biafra, if you count the number of Igbo they said got killed, there would be no person left in Biafra. The Biafran propaganda was good. The day I saw Okoko Ndem (popular Biafran radio presenter), I said: ‘My friend, I respect you because you tell stories.’ He once said that Mobolaji Johnson had his brain in his size 13 boots and met with a motor park tout called Ogbemudia and went on and on.

Reuben Abati, Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Media and Publicity told journalists that reports in some sections of the media insinuating that Gates has cancelled his planned visit to Nigeria because of the recent pardon granted to some Nigerians was false.

Abati who added that the President is in touch with the Microsoft founder said Gates travels are usually dependent on the schedules and availability of people who are his partners and that it was because the partners will not be available at the time he is scheduled to visit Nigeria that the visit was rescheduled.

“Nigerians should note that President Jonathan and Mr Bill Gates have met several times in the past and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is one of the major partners working with Nigerian government to ensure that polio is completely eradicated by 2015”, Abati who added that the Microsoft founder will continue to visit Nigeria in continuation of his work alongside the Federal Government and other partners to eradicate polio said.

“What we will like to reassure people is that those who are always looking for opportunity to pull down the country should realise the fact that this country belongs to all of us and that nobody will gain anything by trying to pull down the country”, he added.