FG should charge Nnamdi Kanu for treason - Igbo leaders

• says they should be counted out

BY FRANCIS IGATA

Igbo leaders appear divided over the government move against Radio Biafra Director,Nnamdi Kanu Nnamdi’s lawyer,Mr. Egechukwu Obetta, told Sunday Vanguard on the phone, last Wednesday, that the DSS has not granted him access to his client who is also the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra,IPOD, despite a court order allowing him access to his lawyer and physician.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo

The magistrate court before which he was arraigned had granted Kanu bail last Monday in the sum of N2 million with a surety (civil servant) of grade level 16 in like sum.

President General, apex Igbo socio-cultural group,Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Gary Enwo-Igariwey, when contacted on the phone,declined comments on the self-determination movement, saying, “I am at the airport on my way to South-Africa. The issue is a very sensitive one. I do not want to make casual statements on it. I will be back next week”.

A former Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo,Chief Nduka Eya, echoed the same sentiment to Sunday Vanguard.

Eya said: “The young people who were born after and during the civil war do not know the history of Nigeria. The civil war between Nigeria and Biafra ended in 1970. We are now a sovereign state of Nigeria.

“But there is nothing wrong if a group agitates for a state but you cannot do so by confrontation in a sovereign state of Nigeria. It is treason. Biafra ended with the civil war in 1970. The Federal Government should detain and charge him(Nnamdi) for treason. I am an Igbo man and a Nigerian. You cannot be agitating for a state within Nigeria adopting confrontation.

“When the leader of the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra,MASSOB,Chief Ralph Uwazuruike’s mother died,I was then the Secretary General of Onahaeze and pleaded for his release from detention to enable him bury his mother.

“I was among a private delegation, led by the late Senator Uche Chukwumerije, to Uwazuruike. We told Uwazuruike that `you cannot be talking of a sovereign Biafra inside a sovereign Nigeria’. Nnamdi should be charged for treason but his undue detention without charge cannot be supported.”

Another pan-Igbo group,Enugu Unity Forum,EUF,frowned at any move to secede without employing  constitutional means, adding that such confrontation will amount to treason.

President,EUF,Chief Tahil Ochil, said, “The law should take its course. It is not a criminal case and as such is bailable. He should not be detained more than the law prescribes. The Biafra struggle should not be confrontational. They should follow the dictates of the law. They should look at how Sudan broke up. As an Igbo man,I will be part of struggle if it is done constitutionally. But if it is done by force,I cannot be part of it.

“The Nigerian government should look at why agitations are rife from the North to South-west and South-south/South-east. They should go back to the National Conference report which addressed these issues that trigger ethnic unrest. Apart from Biafra,the Yoruba, through Odua people, are calling for their our state. The Boko-Haram issue in the North is a call by the northerners for secession. The Federal Government should implement the Confab report which addressed the injustices plaguing the nation.”

FG should charge Nnamdi Kanu for treason - Igbo leaders

Prove you are not being influenced – Igbo leaders tell Buhari

IGBO Leaders on the banner of the Igbo Leaders of Thought (ILT), yesterday, insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari is being influenced by some former leaders in his anti-graft crusade and challenged him to prove otherwise by waging a holistic war against graft.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo

Responding to a paper by the ILT written by Professor Ben Nwabueze (SAN) that instead of limiting his searchlight to Dr Goodluck Jonathan administration, Buhari should also probe the General Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Olusegun Obasanjo and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua regimes and that he was being influenced by some of these leaders, the President said he could not be tele-guided by anybody.

Speaking through Mallam Shehu Garba, his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, President Buhari said he is not being tele-guided by anybody and that he would not a deaf ear to the looting of public treasury and crude oil theft. He also said he would not stop the anti-corruption agencies from doing their work.

However, the ILT in a statement by its Deputy Secretary, Evangelist Elliot Uko, yesterday, said that Mallam Shehu avoided the real points in his response.

His words: ”The anti corruption war and probe in order to recover our stolen common wealth is not only needful, but commendable. Nigerians know that the only pathway to restoring sanity, probity and accountability to governance in our much battered and so much abused nation is to carry out the exercise in a holistic manner without granting a clean bill of health on the 1999-2007 regime or any other regime since returning to civil rule in 1999.

” The insinuation that Mr. President is scared of probing the 1999-2007 is a by-product of the statement from the presidency that only the Jonathan regime is targeted for probe. Had the presidency announced that sordid affairs located within the 1999-2007 regime will also be looked into, Nigerians will not have formed the opinion that ex president Obasanjo is not only above the law, but that his larger than life image hovering over the Buhari presidency will obviously make it extremely difficult if not out-rightly impossible for president Buhari to be objective, unbiased and upright especially in the probe of corruption in our polity.

”Nigerians are wondering why the monumental fraud and sleaze that occurred between 1999-2007 is about to be swept under the carpet while our government’s only area of interest begins some where after 2009. Truth is bitter, and this truth is also obvious to all Nigerians over 20 years of age; that the 1999-2007 PDP led government laid the foundation for all the other regimes after it. Nigerians know that the sleaze under that regime stink to high heavens. Any fight against corruption and probe and recovery of stolen funds that exempts the 1999-2007 regime is tainted, selective, and a confirmation of the large influence of the “invisible government” in our polity.

”The Igbo Leaders of Thought did not say that president Buhari is teleguided. The Igbo Leaders of Thought identified the over-bearing influence, powers and connections of past heads of state who played very key roles in the emergence of President Buhari in March this year and wondered how he expects Nigerians to believe him when his aides point at “distraction” as the only reason he is avoiding probing the 1999-2007 POP government.

”Nobody believes that. Everybody knows that the rat cannot probe the cat. Some past Leaders’ shadows are hovering over president Buhari. He is clearly constrained by certain factors.

”This factors will certainly affect the credibility of the probe and recovery exercise if it is only targeted at the last regime. The issues raised by the Igbo Leaders of Thought represents the thought and views of millions of Nigerians who share the opinion that the only way sanity would be restored in our country is to make the exercise a holistic, unbiased and all-inclusive one. The very point Alhaji Garba Shehu cleverly avoided in his response. Nobody said Buhari is teleguided. Nigerians merely want the probe and recovery of stolen funds to date back to 1999. That is the only way Nigerians, the international community and indeed future generations will agree the exercise is not a witch -hunt.”

 

Prove you are not being influenced – Igbo leaders tell Buhari

Buhari owes Igbos nothing - Junaid Mohammed replies Ezeife

The Convener of the Coalition of Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, has dismissed the sentiments shared by a former Governor of Anambra State that the Igbo have not been treated fairly in the governance of Nigeria.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo

Ezeife had argued that President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointment of Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who hails from the Igbo-speaking part of Delta State, to head the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, was not enough to satisfy the South-East.

But in an interview with our correspondent on Friday, Mohammed criticised Ezeife, insisting that people of the Igbo nation have enjoyed favourable treatment.

He added it was wrong to reward the Igbo simply on the basis of the Nigerian Civil War, which lasted between 1967 and 1970.

Mohammed said, “If it is about Buhari making the appointments based on merit, I have no problems with it. I don’t believe Buhari or Nigeria owes any Igbo anything. I don’t care what Ezeife says; if they had seceded, there would have been no Nigeria today. As people who acted outside the interest of Nigeria as a country, to expect compensation is a very odd logic.

“If the Igbo don’t like it, they can attempt secession again. If they do, they must be prepared to live with the consequences. Nobody owes them anything and nobody is out to compensate them for anything.”

The doctor-turned-politician also condemned claims that Buhari’s appointment of northerners into key positions in government was done out of ethnic sentiment.

He said, “They (critics) should tell us which ethnic groups have been favoured by Buhari in the course of making his appointments in parastatals and agencies. Those who are making those allegations, particularly the Igbo, have not told us exactly which parastatals.

“For example, an Igbo man has just been appointed as the head of the NNPC, one of the most important government agencies in Nigeria. And over 50 per cent of those appointed before him were also Igbos. So, if people decide to be mischievous, there is nothing anybody can do about it. As far as I am concerned, those appointed have been good and credible persons.”

On reports that Buhari may head the petroleum ministry for the next 18 months, the northern leader stated that there was no living Nigerian at that public level who knew as much about the ministry as Buhari.

According to Mohammed, there is full justification for Buhari to be petroleum minister for as long as he desires.

He added, “Moreover, the consequences of what happens in the oil ministry are so dire. When one looks at the track record of the past minister, one can see what we have to deal with as a country as a result of her being made a minister.

“In fact, I encourage him to retain the defence ministry because we are in a state of war and he is a distinguished retired general who has headed every single division of the Nigerian Army during his service. If he decides to be the defence minister, I would be more than glad.”

Buhari owes Igbos nothing - Junaid Mohammed replies Ezeife

Nobody can tele-guide me - Buhari replies Igbo leaders

The presidency joined some Igbo leaders who accused President Muhammadu Buhari for being teleguided by some former leaders.

Presidency fired back at the Igbo leaders under the aegis of Igbo Leaders of Thought.

The group is led by constitutional lawyer, Prof. Ben Nwabueze.

General Buhari

Specifically, the Igbo Leaders of Thought faulted the Buhari administration’s prosecution of the war against corruption which it described as selective, saying government was being teleguided by Generals Ibrahim Gbadamosi Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar, both former Heads of State, as well as erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The Igbo leaders went  ahead to classify the former Nigerian leaders as belonging to what they called “the invisible government of Nigeria.”

Reacting to the statement, yesterday, The Presidency said: “Whoever knows President Buhari will not say that kind of thing of him. Nobody can teleguide President Buhari as a leader because he is a  listening leader. He will listen to Chief Obasanjo, he will listen to Dr Jonathan, he will listen to everybody, both high and low; and that is what a good leader should  do.

“He will listen to everyone as a leader who is open to all. Nobody should lose sight of the fact that responsibility is his own and he is conscious of that. So, saying that somebody is teleguiding him cannot be the case.”

The Presidency spoke through Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity, Mallam Shehu Garba.

Speaking on the intention of  government to probe corrupt practices, Garba said that though the administration was not probing anybody at the moment, his principal cannot  stop the anti-graft agencies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, from doing their work.

The presidential aide stated that Buhari, who swore to protect the Constitution of the country, cannot turn a deaf ear to the looting of public treasury and crude oil theft.

“People who don’t know him can make those assumptions but those who know him cannot make the mistake of saying this. From his days as a candidate, he said government will not dissipate time and energy on probes. As I speak to you now, President Buhari’s government has not engaged in probes,”he said.

“Government is not probing anybody at the moment. But there are matters that he has turned on the table, going through the processes of investigations by the EFCC, ICPC; whatever, those things are, they must go on. Whatever is on the table must be treated.

“In Nigeria, if people have stolen money running into billions of US Dollars, crude oil in billions of US Dollars, the Constitution of Nigeria does not permit President Buhari to wave that off. He has no power. If the EFCC is investigating the theft of  the assets of the country, the President cannot be legally and morally right to stop that from happening. So, this is what is going on”.

‘Invisible Government

In a paper, dated August 7 and signed by Nwabueze on behalf of the Igbo Leaders of Thought, the group had protested the reported move by the Buhari administration to probe the immediate past Jonathan administration while leaving out the regimes preceding it. The group said: “President Buhari  probing other past administrations in addition to Jonathan’s is  constrained by two main factors. One, with perhaps more constraining force, is the existence of a group known as ‘the invisible  government of Nigeria’, whose existence and activities with respect to governance in Nigeria are not known to many people, because it operates stealthily. Hence it is called ‘the invisible government’.

They, together with  other reactionary oligarchic elements opposed to democratic rule, manipulate governmental affairs, unseen, from behind the scene. Nigeria must be one of the few democracies in the world, outside Africa, where retired military officers, with oligarchic outlook and interest, wield such great influence in government as well as in the political process after transition to democratic rule. This clearly augurs ill for democracy in the country. The country  deserves to be left alone to pursue its experimentation with constitutional democracy free from the retarding influence of retired military men.

This group, whose most  notable members are former Military President Ibrahim Babangida and General Abdulsalami Abubakar, both of whom are former Heads of the  Federal Military Government, had declared support for Gen. Buhari in the March 2015 presidential election, as reported in the Vanguard Newspaper of Tuesday 20 January, 2015. Their rank and influence have been  augmented by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, self-proclaimed father of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the progenitor of god-fatherism in Nigeria, who has now left the party after declaring and vowing that it will rule the country in perpetuity.

The constraint on President Buhari in probing the administrations of these three past rulers is near insurmountable, but it is better to admit it openly than to call such a probe a distraction or to hide under some other argument based on expediency or convenience. The other factor comes from a group of die-hard Islamists determined to impose Islamic (Sharia) system of government on Nigeria – a theocracy, such as the Caliphate and Sultanate systems and other dictatorial forms – and to whom a new beginning  for Nigeria and the liberal democracy it implies is anathema. We will wait and see how President Buhari can overcome these constraints on his powers, and betray the sponsors of his election to the presidency.”

 

Nobody can tele-guide me - Buhari replies Igbo leaders

Don"t disgrace Jonathan - Igbo leaders tell Buhari

Igbo Leaders of Thought, a body of eminent Igbo personalities, has warned that the plan to probe the immediate past federal government should not be a ploy to humiliate political opponents of President Muhammadu Buhari, including former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Jonathan vs Buhari

The group, led by constitutional lawyer, Professor Ben Nwabueze, also urged Buhari to immediately restructure Nigeria without delay.

In a statement titled “Only truth and justice endures,” which was signed by its deputy secretary, Evangelist Elliot Uko, the group said the impending probe must be devoid of “witch-hunting and smear agenda.”

It stressed that the probe would be reduced to a jamboree if it becomes an avenue to humiliate political opponents.

Using the probe to humiliate political opponents of the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government would cause problems for the country, the Igbo Leaders of Thought warned.

“Desirable as the probe and prosecution of corrupt officials of the outgone regime is, we must endeavour to avoid witch-hunting and smear agenda.

“Only the probe and prosecution of factual, traceable and clearly identifiable cases of abuse of office and misuse of public funds will inspire confidence and receive commendation of the citizenry and the international community.

“Humiliating and deliberately degrading political opponents in the guise of probe and prosecution of corrupt officials will only reduce the whole exercise to a jamboree, that could lead to a lot of a acrimony and bad blood which we believe, is the last thing Nigeria needs at the moment,” the group said in the statement.

The Igbo Leaders of Thought also insisted on the restructuring of the country into federating units.

The proposed restructuring of the country was canvassed by several groups, including the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, and Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural body, during the 2014 national constitutional conference.

Insisting on restructuring, the Igbo Leaders of Thought argued that it would amount to living in denial to pretend that the current federal structure was sustainable.

The group noted that fighting corruption and insurgency alone would not be enough to restore the confidence of Nigerians in the country’s future.

Arguing that the current federal structure, which was established by the military, was the bane of contemporary Nigeria, the Igbo Leaders of Thought described the proposed restructuring of the country as urgent.

It said, “We believe that Nigerians from all persuasions, political divide, zone or status all agreed that the unity, security, stability of Nigeria should be the priority of all concerned at this juncture of our national growth.

“Sincerity of purpose, commitment to what is best for the country and for the good of all should guide actions and steps of our new leaders.

“While views and opinions may differ on solutions to the myriad of problems confronting us as a people, truth is usually located somewhere near the court of justice, equity and fair play.

“Continuing to pretend that the present political structure is sustainable is clearly to live in denial of reality.”

Don"t disgrace Jonathan - Igbo leaders tell Buhari