Ancient Igbo Pyramids: The Nsude Pyramids

Court grants order to arrest, sack Amaechi, Onu

Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division has granted an order of mandamus seeking the arrest and immediate sack of Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and his Science and Technology counterpart, Ogbonnaya Onu, over recent allegations levelled against them by two justices of the Supreme Court.

The applicant, Human Rights Foundation International, sought the order in its substantive suit where it prayed the court to compel the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to “perform their statutory obligations” by immediately arresting and prosecuting the two ministers.

The group also sought an order of mandamus compelling President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sack both ministers “in the interest of the public and morality” based on allegations of attempts to influence court decisions as claimed by the two jurists.

A copy of the enrolled order made on December 1 specifically called for the disengagement of the ministers pending when they were cleared by a court of competent jurisdiction.

The plaintiff further asked for an order of mandamus under the reviewed Administrative Action/Inaction Procedure, to first seek and obtain the leave of court through an ex-parte application to properly commence the suit.

In the relief sought, the plaintiff raised the following questions: “Whether or not the allegation made by Justices Inyang Okoro and Sylvester N. Ngwuta in connection with the criminal-like invasion of their houses by the DSS on allegation of corruption, which the matter is already in the public domain, should be investigated and those arrested be prosecuted by the third and fourth defendants.

“Whether or not the allegation is a reasonable ground to warrant the 5th defendant, which is the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and who claims that his administration is fighting corruption, to sack or compel Amaechi and Onu to resign from office as ministers pending when they are cleared of every allegation of corruption.”

Both justices had in two separate correspondences to former Chief Justice Mahmud Mohammed accused the ministers of attempting to influence court decisions in some election cases between 2015 and this year.

The matter has, however, been slated for mention on December 15.

http://guardian.ng/news/court-grants-order-to-arrest-sack-amaechi-onu/

ROOT CAUSES OF THE BIAFRA STRUGGLE. --- By Femi Aribasala

In the eight years of Obasanjo’s presidency, there was no headline-grabbing demand for Biafra. Ditto for the eight years of the Yar’Adua/Jonathan presidency. However, within months of Buhari’s presidency, the Igbo demand for Biafra has become deafening.

Without a doubt, the blame for this new impetus must be laid firmly at the doorstep of President Buhari. Moreover, rather than attenuate it, the president and the APC have exacerbated separatist tendencies in the country.

This was part of the reason why people like me did not support Buhari’s election as president of Nigeria. I have written severally in Vanguard that Nigeria must remain a united nation. In my column of 4th March, 2014 entitled: “Re-inventing Igbo Politics in Nigeria,” I maintained that: “Nigeria cannot survive without the Igbo.” The following week on 11th March 2014, I wrote another article entitled: “Nigeria Cannot Do without the North.”

I remain persuaded by both positions. But if Nigeria is indeed to remain united, there are certain things that must be said and done. The problem with the Buhari administration is that it seems totally impervious to these imperatives.
Second-class treatment

There is no question that, as one of the major ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Igbo have been hard done by. Since the civil war 45 years ago, they have been treated as if they were a minority ethnic group in Nigeria when in fact they are one of the majorities. No Igbo has been considered worthy of being head-of-state. The South East of Ndigbo is the only one of the six geopolitical zones of the country with five states. All other zones have six or more. Indeed, the number of local governments in the North-East is virtually double that of the South-East.

As a result, the Ndigbo receive the smallest amount of revenue allocation among all the zones, in spite of the fact that some of the South-eastern states are among the oil-producing states.

The roads in the South-east are notoriously bad. Government after government have simply ignored them. Inconsequential ministerial positions are usually zoned to Ndigbo. Time was when it seemed the lackluster Ministry of Information was their menial preserve. It is also a known fact that every so often the Igbo are slaughtered in the North under one guise or the other. Many are forced to abandon their homes and businesses and run for dear life. The people who perpetrate these acts never seem to be arrested or prosecuted.

When a major tribe is treated procedurally as second-class in their own country, there will be a demand for self-determination sooner rather than later. When a group of people feel unsafe in their own country, they cannot but be expected to decide to opt out. It is not the responsibility of the government to imprison the Igbo in Nigeria. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure and guarantee that they feel safe and are treated with respect.

Discrimination against the South: While these issues have been brewing under the surface for some time, the lop-sided tendencies of President Buhari have brought them all out to boiling-point. In his first-coming as head-of-state in 1984, Buhari antagonised Ndigbo by locking up Vice-President Alex Ekwueme, an Igbo man, in jail in Kirikiri; while President Shehu Shagari, a Fulani man was only placed under house arrest. In addition, Buhari

 arrested and jailed Ojukwu, another Igbo icon for no just cause.

As Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund, Buhari discriminated blatantly against the South and especially the South-east. For example, his PTF built only 4,440 kilometres of roads in Southern Nigeria representing a paltry 24%; while 13,870 kilometres were built in the North representing 76%. Of these figures, the Southeast and South-south combined only received 13.5%.

Under the PTF’s National Health and Rehabilitation Programme, NHERP, the entire South got 0% allocation, while the North got 100% in the tertiary programme. In the vocational programme, the entire South had only 3% while the North had 97%. The same was for the primary side where the South had only 12% but the North was allocated 88%. The secondary area was no different. While the North had 86% percent, the South had just 14%.
Disenfranchisement of Ndigbo

These anomalies have been duplicated to date in the seven months of Buhari’s presidency. In the first place, Buhari won virtually without Igbo votes. In order to diminish Jonathan’s votes, a major assault was made against them; recognising that they are some of the staunchest Jonathan supporters. INEC ensured that, far more disproportionately relative to other geopolitical zones, millions of South-East voters disappeared between 2011 and 2015.

Only 7.6 million voters were registered for the 2015 election in the South-east, and only 5.6 million PVCs collected. Compare this with Buhari’s North-west, there were 17.6 million registrations and 15.1 million collections. While in the South-west, there were 4.2 million votes in 2015, relative to 4.6 million in 2011: in the South-east, there were only 2.6 million votes in 2015, relative to 5 million in 2011; a drastic drop of 2.4 million.

While Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Jigawa and Bauchi posted their traditional humongous figures; Imo, Anambra and Abia posted relatively disappointing figures. While the internally displaced Northerners in the North-East could vote; internally displaced Igbos from the North could not. While the card-readers failed in many parts of the South-east, suggestive they were programmed to fail; they worked in most parts of the North. In places like Lagos and Kano, many non-indigenes, including the Igbo, were not even given their PVCs.

Making of a hero: President Buhari then added insult to injury by stating on his visit to the United States that he could not be expected to treat those who voted for him in the same way as those who did not.

He said: “(Going by election results), constituencies that gave me 97% cannot in all honesty be treated, on some issues, with constituencies that gave me 5%. I think these are political realities. While, certainly there will be justice for everybody but the people who voted, and made their votes count, they must feel the government has appreciated the effort they put in putting the government in place.”

While his media assistants later tried to water down this disturbing statement, the reality was that, apart from the constitutionally-stipulated requirement that every state must be represented in the presidential Cabinet, Buhari has virtually ignored the Igbo in his appointments.

Two moves showed the level of insensitivity of the Buhari administration to these anomalies. The first was the decision to move Boko Haram prisoners down from the North to the South-east; a move firmly resisted by the Igbo as it would have made them a target of suicide-bombers. The other was the blunder of placing Nnamdi Kanu, the director of Radio Biafra, under arrest; charging him with treason and terrorism.

All the government has achieved by this is inflame passions in the South-east. It has also made a hero out of Kanu. Those who did not know about Kanu before now know him. Those who were not disposed to Biafra before are now shouting Biafra. For weeks on end, Biafra has become the biggest news item nationwide, with agitations, demonstrations, threats and arrests.

Agenda for action: The government needs to apply more wisdom here. At the moment, it has become the biggest promoter of Biafra by the way it has gone about things. The idea of Biafra cannot be killed with a sledge hammer, if at all. What is required is to address the root causes that impelled Biafra. Unfortunately, it would appear the Buhari administration is unwilling to do this.

As a matter of urgency, Nnamdi Kanu must be released unconditionally. If the government persists in labeling him a terrorist, his supporters might decide to become terrorists. Nigeria already has enough problem of Boko Haram conflagration in the North-east. We cannot afford to light another fire in the South-east.

Kanu was living in England. If he were a terrorist, he would have been arrested there. The fact that he lived there without constraints or restraints shows he was not considered a threat, either to Britain or to Nigeria.
It is not a crime to fight for self-determination; it is a right. The government must not give the impression that Nigeria is a prison where we must all live, irrespective of the living conditions. The government needs to address the grievances of the Igbo. Their roads and bridges must be built. Their waterways must be opened up to the Atlantic Ocean.

Eastern sea-ports must be developed. Railways must link their mercantile cities to the North. Their coal resources must be profitably exploited for the benefit of their unemployed youth and citizenry. An additional state must be created in the South-east to bring it up to par with other geopolitical zones.

National question

Moreover, we need to revisit again a critical issue addressed during the truncated National Conference: the issue of resource allocation. This is a major gripe of the Igbo and it is a legitimate gripe. It is not in the interest of Nigeria to continue in this age-old practice where all the states gather every month in Abuja for handouts, whether they are productive or not. This gives the wrong impression that some states are insisting on being piggy-backed by others. We need to develop a system that rewards and encourages productivity.

Those who produce should be allowed to keep disproportionately what they produce, instead of the current situation where they are required to share it disproportionately with those relatively less productive. The truth of the matter is that every part of Nigeria is resource rich. Every part of Nigeria has the requisite manpower. Unfortunately, our current over-concentration on oil militates against the development of other indigenous resources.

A situation where national resources are distributed according to the number of local government councils, and where there is now supposedly only 96 local government councils in the South-East, relative to 186 in the North-west does not suggest equity and justice.
The disgruntlement in the South-east about the Nigeria project will not disappear by ignoring it. It will not disappear by arresting Kanu. It will not disappear by issuing threats. Neither will it disappear by denying the youth of the South-east their freedom of speech and assembly.

Today, the demand for Biafra remains the demand of a minority of the Igbo. If the root causes of their anger are not addressed, the minority will soon become the majority. If that happens, Nigeria might unravel. I repeat what I have stated before: the Nigeria of our manifest destiny cannot be realised without the biafrans.

Nigeria envies growth of Igbo people

Professor Chinedu Nebo has said that Igbo need to unite to be strong

Professor Chinedu Nebo who is the former minister of power has revealed that the reason Igbos are being hated in Nigeria is because of their level of development and growth.

Vanguard reports that the former vice chancellor of the University of Nigeria said there would have been no Nigeria without Igbo people as they were made by God specially to develop the economy.

Nebo made this assertion at the South East Development and Leadership Initiative (SELDI) 2016 in Enugu with the theme “Integrating the Southeast Economy for Sustainable Growth and Development

He said the resourcefulness, dignity of labour and rich cultural heritage of the Igbo people have made them the envy of other Nigerians.

He said: “Nigeria is angry with the Igbo’s growth and development. It is obvious. It is only in Nigeria that a traditional ruler will open his mouth and say that if you do not vote for this person, then we will drown you and throw you into the lagoon. A traditional ruler who is suppose to be the promoter of peace and custodian of the people’s culture and tradition”.

“It is high time we woke up and believed in ourselves. The Igbos are great people all over the world. About 80% of Igbo wealth is in the Diaspora. We invest outside the country without coming back home. We need to adopt the “think home philosophy”, come back home and develop our land.

“We need to build and develop love for one another. The philosophy of “igwebuike” (togetherness) is still there. There shall be capacity for mentorship for our younger generation. The former Minister, who described the summit as timely and apt, also advocated for an improved educational system that will ensure that capable individuals are produced from institutions of learning.

“We need to build an educational system that is relevant. It is not just enough to churn out graduates into the labour market. We need to develop our education system and curriculum in science, innovation and mathematics."

The lead promoter of SELDI, Mr Ikenna Modebelu, said: “SELDI’s vision recognizes the challenges of the southeast region and aims to tackle them by promoting leadership that will foster development in areas of investment, infrastructure development, economic growth, value re-orientation, emerging market opportunities and youth empowerment through intensive advocacy campaigns”

The promoters of SELDI believe that there is leadership deficit across all classes in the region including elites who have failed to lead by example. SELDI is committed to the “Think home, build home” philosophy and believes that time has come for the southeasterners to come together and join hands in developing the region for the good of present and future generations,

Igbos Biafrans are Making Us Proud Everywhere They Go: Another Igbo-Born Pearlena Igbokwe Announced as the New President of Universal Television, USA

The New President Of Universal Television, USA Is Nigerian born Yale Graduate Pearlena Igbokwe. She is an Igbo Civil War survivor.
Igbo-born Pearlena Igbokwe has been named President Universal Television, a subsidiary of National Broadcasting Cable (NBC), Universal Television Group.

The veteran Executive Producer is not only the first Nigerian to head a major US television studio, but also the first African-American female to assume the position.

She was named studio president on Friday, replacing Indian-American Bela Bajaria who stepped down earlier in the week after nearly five years of running the Los Angeles-based unit.

Announcing Igbokwe’s new position on Friday, the president of NBC Entertainment, Jennifer Salke, described her track record at NBC as remarkable, thus making her a good choice for the topmost position at the studio. Jennifer said:

“Pearlena’s remarkable track record in drama programming at NBC over the last few years made it clear that she was the ideal choice to lead the studio into its next phase of growth.

Her leadership, vision and taste have resulted in an impressive string of drama successes – from The Blacklist, Blindspot, Chicago Med, Shades of Blue and the upcoming series This Is Us, Timeless and Taken—that coincides with our return to a top position among networks.”

Pearlena Igbokwe was born in Lagos State, grew up in a small village in the southeastern part of Nigeria where she hails from and had joined her father in the US at the age of six after the Nigerian civil war.

She joined NBC Entertainment four years ago as executive vice president for drama development after working two decades as a programming executive for Showtime Networks, which is owned by CBS Corp. Greenblatt was in charge of programming at Showtime until 2011, when he joined NBC.

She was featured as one of Multichannel News’ “Wonder Women” in 2010, had  also appeared previously in Hollywood Reporter’s “Top 35 under 35,” as well as in Ebony and Black Enterprise’s “Top 50 Showbiz Players.

Nigerian novelist: How I was banned from speaking Igbo

In our series of letters from African journalists, Nigerian novelist and writer Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani recalls how she was banned from speaking her mother tongue.

My parents forbade my local language, Igbo, from being spoken in our home when I was a child.

Unlike the majority of their contemporaries in our hometown of Umuahi in south-east Nigeria, my parents chose to speak only English to their children.

They also conversed between themselves in English, even though they had each grown up speaking Igbo with their own parents and siblings.

On the rare occasion my father and mother spoke Igbo with each other, it was a clear sign that they were conducting a conversation in which the children were not expected to participate.

Guests in our home adjusted to the fact that we were an English-speaking household and conformed, with varying degrees of success.

Our live-in domestic staff were equally compelled to speak English.

Many arrived from their villages unable to utter a single word of the foreign tongue, but as the weeks rolled by, they began to string complete sentences together with less contortion of their faces.

Over the years, I endured people teasing my parents, usually behind their backs, for this decision. "They are trying to be like white people," they said.

Similar accusations were levelled against Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's former prime minister, when he replaced Chinese with English as the official medium of instruction in schools.

But, as he explained in his autobiography, From Third World to First, "With English, no race would have an advantage.... English as our working language has... given us a competitive advantage because it is the international language of business and diplomacy, of science and technology.

My parents seemed to share these convictions.

Each time it was my turn to stand and read to my primary school class from our recommended Igbo textbook, the pupils burst into a giggling session at my placement of the wrong tones on the wrong syllables.

Language tests

Again and again, the teacher made me repeat the words. Each time, the class's laughter was louder. My off-key pronunciations tickled them no end.

But while the other pupils were busy giggling away, I went on to get the highest scores in Igbo tests. Always.

Because the tests were written - they did not require the ability to pronounce words accurately.

The rest of the class may have been relaxed in their knowledge of the language and so treated it casually, probably the same way a reckless Briton might treat his or her study of English.

I, on the other hand, considered Igbo foreign and so approached the subject studiously.

Igbo banned in school

I also read Igbo literature and watched Igbo programmes on TV. My favourite was a comedy titled Mmadu O Bu Ewu?, which featured a live goat dressed in human clothing.

Speaking Igbo was also banned in the boarding school I attended.

The Federal Government Girls' College, Owerri, was one of the country's "Unity Schools" founded after the Nigerian civil war to promote integration among ethnic groups and to discourage divisions and tribalism.

Local languages were part of the curriculum, but speaking them beyond the classroom was a punishable offence.

And so, under the tutelage of some of the country's best teachers, I continued my ardent study of Igbo, despite not having the opportunity to practise how to speak.

By the conclusion of secondary school, I was confident enough in my knowledge of Igbo to register it as one of my subjects of choice for the university entrance exam.

Everyone thought I was insane. Taking a major local language exam as a prerequisite for university admission was not child's play.

Results for language exam

I was treading where expert speakers themselves feared to tread. I still meet many Igbos who have been speaking the language all their lives, but are unable to read and write it fluently.

On the appointed day, presided over by supervisors in premises outside my school, less than six of us sat in the large hall, never mind that the exams were taking place in an Igbo town.

When the results were eventually released, my score turned out to be good enough, when combined with my scores in the two other subjects I chose, to land me a place to study psychology at Nigeria's prestigious University of Ibadan.

In Ibadan, south-west Nigeria, home to the Yoruba ethnic group, I was free to speak Igbo at last.

Far away from home, from the giggling voices, and from those who did not allow me to speak Igbo, I was finally free to express the words that had been bottled up inside my head for so many years - the words I had heard people in the market speak, read in books and heard on TV.

Speaking Igbo in university was particularly essential if I was to socialise comfortably with the Igbo community there, as most of the "foreigners" in the Yoruba-dominated school considered it essential to be seen talking their language. "Suo n'asusu anyi! Speak in our language!" they often admonished when I launched a conversation with them in English.

"Don't you hear the Yorubas speaking their own language?" Thus, in a strange land, I finally became fluent in a mother tongue that I had hardly uttered my entire life.

An English-Igbo man

Today, few people can tell from my pronunciations that I grew up not speaking Igbo.

"Your wit is even sharper in Igbo than in English," my mother insists.

These days, she enjoys it when I gossip with her in Igbo, although I still can't get myself to speak the local tongue with my father who, despite being a typical Igbo man in many ways and a titled chief, has never regretted choosing English over Igbo.

And, for some strange reason, my eloquence in Igbo often regresses whenever I am in the presence of anyone who was privy to my days as a non-speaker.

Maybe it is the memory of their mockery that ties up my tongue.

Eager to show off my hard-earned skill, whenever I come across publishers of African publications, especially those who make a big deal about propagating "African culture", I ask if I can write something for them in Igbo. They always say no.

Despite all the "promoting our culture" fanfare, they understand that local language submissions could limit the reach of their publications.

Now comes the BBC with its announcement that it will broadcast in Igbo, as part of the World Service's biggest expansion since the 1940s. At last, the next generation of Igbo experts have an international platform on which to display their skills.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-38069481

Operation Python Dance: FG, S/East govs plot to let Army loose on us – IPOB - By Chimaobi Nwaiwu, Nnewi

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has described the recent launch of Operation Python Dance in the South-East and the threat to deal with them as “an attempt to divert attention and a diversionary measure to free itself from the indictment, condemnation and criticisms it has roundly received over the Amnesty International report that criticized their barbaric activities in South-East states. It is also a plot to kill more IPOB members.”

IPOB said “the report is unsettling the military in Nigeria and outside Nigeria because of its involvement in the  senseless and avoidable killing  of innocent Igbo. They should bury their face in shame over their unsuccessful attempt to deny their barbaric killing of innocent, unarmed and non violent IPOB members, other Biafra agitators and non agitators.”

IPOB in a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Mr. Emma Powerful, alleged that “the Federal Government, through the military and South East Governors have connived to unleash another terror on IPOB members and other Biafra agitators and innocent citizens, less than six months after the killings they are trying to deny but without success.”

According to the statement, “this Operation Python Dance is not necessary in any part of South-East because the area already has peace and security, and does not need the army  and its checkpoints which they will turn to toll gates for making money. The Federal Government of Nigeria and the Army Defence Headquarters have stationed the military in every part of the South-East to snuff life out of all IPOB members and Biafra agitators in South-East and South-South.

“However, we are going to hold the South-East governors responsible if any life is lost in the South-East, because the Federal Government of Nigeria and Defence Headquarters cannot afford to bring the military equipment in all the parts of South-East without the consent of the governors.”

IPOB lashes out on Al-Mustapha

Also yesterday, the group lashed out at Major Hamza Al-Mustapha for saying that the Igbo are not united, saying that he is not properly informed.

IPOB alleged that it was his Northern counterparts who are deceiving him that the Igbo are not united, adding that Igbo of today are more united than the Northerners who are killing everybody in the name of senseless Boko Haram insurgency.

“The Igbo are united, and with IPOB, we are achieving more unity in this fight for the restoration of Biafra. Even our brothers separated with the creation of states and named Niger Delta region are part of this unity.”

MASSOB urges for prayer

The leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Comrade Uchenna Madu, yesterday, urged the pro-Biafra agitators in the country to pray ahead of the Federal High Court ruling on the leader of the IPOB tomorrow.

He said: “Ndigbo shall not abandon their own son because of  personal interests. As Nnamdi Kanu and others  appear in court  onDecember 1, MASSOB  urges the people of Biafra all over the world to observe praying, fasting and supplication for our brothers and Biafra heroes.

“MASSOB members will engage in charismatic prayer meeting at MASSOB headquarters, Okwe on  December 1.  As we demand for the release of Nnamdi Kanu  and others, we shall maintain our non violence principle.

“Until Igbo leaders understand the efficacies, potencies and political value of MASSOB, IPOB and others, they will never progress politically in Nigeria.

“Today, major Igbo leaders have abandoned Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Nwawuisi and Madubugwu of IPOB; Innocent Orji, Sabastine Amadi, Uchenna Nicholas and 17 others of MASSOB and Benjamin Onwuka and others of BIM because they thought that these men pose threat to their political adventures in Nigeria or economic interest.”