The American Presidential election will take place in a few days time and frankly some questions still need to be answered. I wish that Governor Mitt Romney had put one of those questions particularly to President Barrack Hussein Obama during their last Presidential debate which was on foreign policy. Permit me to put that question here and it is as follows. Why did the President bow so low before Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah four years ago during his first state visit to the Arab Gulf state and why did he feel the need to almost touch his toes with his forehead when he did so. It is a matter of historical record that no American President in the last 200 years has ever bowed so low before any foreign leader, Prime Minister, Head of State, President or monarch.
Today is yet another sad day for our country Nigeria. This morning General Mohammadu Shuwa was murdered just outside his Maiduguri home by a group of heartless people who are suspected to be members of the muslim fundamentalist sect Boko Haram.
I am glad to hear that General Muhammadu Buhari has rejected the suggestion of Boko Haram to represent them in talks with the Federal Government. My confidence in and respect for the General remains intact and it is fair to say that since he has turned BH down he cannot possibly be described as its face.
”Igbo domination of Nigeria is only a matter of time’ ‘- Charles Onyeama, a prominent igbo lawyer and member of the Central Legislative Council, 1945. (Pg. 204 ”Ethnic Politics In Kenya and Nigeria” by Godfrey Mwakikagile).
”It would appear that the God of Africa has created the Igbo nation to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of ages ….” – Dr Azikiwe, President of the Pan-Igbo Federal Union. (The West African Pilot of July 8, 1949).
The first statement from Charles Onyeama, which was made in 1945, was the first overtly tribal and divisive comment that was made and recorded in the politics of southern Nigeria in our history. That is where and when tribalism in the south actually started. After that comment and as a direct reaction to it,
Liberty Report, October 27, 2012
by Femi Fani- Kayode.
”Igbo domination of Nigeria is only a matter of time’ ‘- Charles Onyeama, a prominent igbo lawyer and member of the Central Legislative Council, 1945. (Pg. 204 ”Ethnic Politics In Kenya and Nigeria” by Godfrey Mwakikagile).
”It would appear that the God of Africa has created the Igbo nation to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of ages ….” – Dr Azikiwe, President of the Pan-Igbo Federal Union. (The West African Pilot of July 8, 1949).
I am a historian and I have always believed that if we want to talk history, we must be dispassionate, objective and factual. We must take the emotion out of it and we must always tell the truth. The worst thing that anyone can do is to try to re-write history and indulge in historical revisionism. This is especially so when the person is a reverred figure and a literary icon. Sadly it is in the light of such historical revisionism that I view Professor Chinua Achebe’s assertion (which is reflected in his latest and highly celebrated book titled ‘’There Was A Country’) that Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late and much-loved Leader of the Yoruba, was responsible for the genocide that the igbos suffered during the civil war. This claim is not only false but it is also, frankly speaking, utterly absurd. Not only is Professor Achebe indulging in perfidy, not only is he being utterly dishonest and disengenious but he is also turning history upside down and indulging in what I would describe as ethnic chauvinism.
Dim Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu was not an ordinary person or one of the run of the mill leaders that we often eulogise after death in Nigeria. He was much more than that. I had read and heard so much about him throughout my youth and in various history books including the bestseller written by Fredrick Forsythe, his old English public ...school friend and biographer, titled ''Emeka'' and another book titled ''The Dogs of War'' which was later converted into a Hollywood blockbuster.
Israel has a special place in God's heart which is inexplicable to the human mind and beyond human comprehension.
No nation on this planet will ever wipe out, defeat, overcome, overwhelm, occupy, exile or scatter the nation of Israel again before the return of the Messiah.
Today is yet another sad day for our country Nigeria. This morning General Muhammadu Mamman Shuwa was murdered just outside his Maiduguri home by a group of heartless people who are suspected to be members of the muslim fundamentalist sect Boko Haram.This is a tragedy of monuemental proportions.
The Dana Air crash and the recent lifting of it’s suspension from flying in Nigeria has once again brought to the fore the issue of plane crashes and the safety of air travel in our country. The fact of the matter is that ninety nine per cent of fatal air crashes that have occured in Nigeria in the last 10 years have taken place on a weekend.
I am sad and troubled for our nation. I just cannot sleep when I consider the amount of innocent blood that has been spilt in the 24 hours before I wrote this piece. Kano, Bayelsa, Bauchi....it goes on and on. So much blood, so much hate, so much division and so much destruction. And at the end of it all, just in the space of one afternoon, Nigeria's second largest city of Kano has been brutally raped and violated and no less than 260 innocent and defenceless Nigerians have been butchered mercilessly in broad daylight and are now lying dead in the mortuary or the cemetery.
Boko Haram say they have ''no problem with Jonathan'' yet they are killing his people like flies, destabilising his country, bringing his government to it's knees, destroying national unity and cohesion, waging a relentless religious and ethnic war against the state and committing genocide and ethnic cleansing against a section of the population.