Temple Chima Ubochi
Practice what you preach (Barry White)
What can you say to a man who tells you he prefers obeying God rather than men, and that as a result he's certain he'll go to heaven if he cuts your throat? (Voltaire)
No matter who you are, do not be a fanatic. Do not be a fanatic neither religious, nor ideological, nor political, neither positive nor negative, neither any look nor lifestyle. Fanatic has an image of a goner (Ilkin Santak)
oko Haram sect members are not only obsessed with killing people; they are also at their best when it comes to raping women. The leader of the sect once claimed that they don’t hurt women and children, but, he should tell us what the unlawful compelling of women and girls, through physical force or duress, to have sexual intercourse is? May be for those Jihadists, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the abduction and the use of force to gain unlawful carnal knowledge of women and girls. It's not at all (or hardly) surprising that the Sharia enthusiasts in the Nigerian senate and many Boko Haram apologists approved unhinged carnality of any girl from the age of 13 years (child marriage), confirming what Salman Rushdie (1947), wrote in his book, The Satanic Verses, that “From the beginning, men used God to justify the unjustifiable”. Christopher Hitchens (1949 –2011) was right that “We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid.”
According to the Vanguard, indications that Boko Haram insurgents, who say they are against Western education and anything to do with the west, have been deceitful emerged after troops found packs of condoms, used and unused, in their camps. Also found were syringes and narcotic drugs believed to have been used by the insurgents to get high before embarking on their deadly attacks. The Guardian wrote that the Defence Headquarters has described life in the captured camps of the terrorists as dirty. A statement issued recently by the Director of Defence Information, Brigadier General AC Olukolade, entitled, 'Life in Terrorists Camp: Condoms Everywhere', reads, "More of the dirty sides of the insurgents' life style are being revealed as troops continue to stumble on strange and bizarre objects, including used and unused condoms, charms and amulets of various shapes in the camps deserted by the Boko Haram sect. Other common items usually found in the rubbles of most of the destroyed camps, according to him, are syringes, test tubes and hand gloves. Apart from chemicals and materials for producing Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), Kayode said, narcotics of all types are also found to be common features as troops combed through camps in Sambisa forest, New Marte, and others. Vehicles and various brands of electronics, believed to have been stolen from various parts of the country, were also found abandoned or destroyed in the camps or the escape routes of the insurgents. Most of these items were either destroyed or set on fire as the terrorists fled in different directions."
The insurgents, who claim to be “saints”, are also stealing, as the Tribune of Saturday, June 29, 2013, wrote that over 200 vehicles, consisting mainly of Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs), have so far been recovered from the camps of the Boko Haram Islamic sect since the beginning of the onslaught against the insurgents. The vehicles are believed to have been stolen from their owners in various parts of the country. The insurgents are said to have demonstrated a preference for SUVs or 4-wheel drive vehicles as these facilitate their quick escape in the desert area. According to the source, locally fabricated rocket stands and other equipment were being manufactured in the forest. One of the bullion vans taken away by the terrorists when Bama prison was attacked was seen in the forest, which the terrorists set ablaze while they were fleeing. Also, the troops discovered a tailoring factory where the terrorists were sewing fake army uniforms and camouflage and other materials.
It’s sheer hypocrisy that the insurgents, despite all they preach, are also drug addicts. And to prove that there are highly placed and influential individuals and politicians supporting or aiding the sect: The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency says it has begun investigating the finances of drug barons for possible links with the Boko Haram sect and other terror groups operating in northern Nigeria. The agency says it was aware of the possibility of terrorist activities in the North being funded through drug deals, hence the ongoing investigation. In its words: "There is usually a link between drug money and terrorism. Apart from terrorism being funded with the drug money, indications have also emerged that Boko Haram members, who have killed thousands of Nigerians, act under the influence of illicit drugs. On Wednesday June 26, while commemorating the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, said that recent discoveries had shown that members of the Boko Haram sect act under the influence of hard drugs, adding that there was the need to cut off their drug supply. Corroborating Shettima, the NDLEA spokesman said that the possibility of the terrorists acting under the influence could not be ruled out, noting that the major illicit drug in the North-East was cannabis (Indian hemp), which is produced locally. The spokesman regretted that insurgency and the consequent emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states had made it even more difficult for the NDLEA to track down drug traffickers in the region. He however noted that last year, 37.5kg of illicit drugs were seized and 35 people arrested in Borno; 175.7kg drugs seized and 36 people arrested in Yobe while 2529kg drugs were seized in Adamawa and 168 people were arrested. A report published by the Director, Inter-University Centre for Terrorism Studies, USA, Yonah Alexander, in February, stated that Boko Haram and Ansaru were being funded by drug cartels in Latin America. The report entitled, "Terrorism in Northern Africa and the Sahel in 2012: Global Reach and Implications", said the Al-Qaida in Islamic Maghreb, had aligned with many other groups, including Boko Haram and Ansaru, in order to expand its sources of funding. It stated that "Primary sources of financing of their activities include kidnapping (in some cases, kidnapping is outsourced to criminals), piracy and illicit trafficking of drugs, human, vehicles and other contraband goods. "Intelligence reports and arrests have confirmed that AQIM has established links with Latin cartels for 'drugs-for-arms' smuggling into Europe through terrorist-trafficking networks in the Sahel." (Punch)
The Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, while inaugurating a 10-man committee on drug abuse at the council chambers of the Borno State Government House on Thursday June 27, declared that some of his cabinet members were drug addicts. Governor Shettima also said most of the Boko Haram insurgents arrested were found with tramol and psychotropic drugs, adding that, some of the boxes also found in possession of the sect members at various camps included not only weapons, but drugs of different kinds. The governor said people under the influence of drugs can commit heinous crimes such as rape, murder, robbery and sometimes even commit suicide, because the drugs control them, adding that drugs are like forbidden fruits which once tasted, it is difficult to resist (Tribune).
Vindication of Ojukwu
An Igbo Proverb says that “One doesn’t need a mirror to look at what is on the wrist (Ihe agba la aka, ejighi nyoo ele ya)”. The state of emergency declared is a short term solution to Nigeria’s serious security threats. Ojukwu professed the long term solution about 45 years ago and nobody took him serious; Major Orkar professed another version about 24 years ago and nobody cared. Those times, Ojukwu and Major Orkar were vilified and forced into exile. But today, majority of Nigerians are saying that the duo were somehow right, meaning that they saw things ahead of their time, confirming Jean Baudrillard (1929 – 2007), where he wrote that “The great person is ahead of their time, the smart make something out of it, and the blockhead, sets themselves against it”. Shehu Sani, a civil rights activist, said that “the state of emergency declared by the President in three states: Borno, Yobe and Adamawa will not crush the insurgents. According to him, what it is doing now is simply pushing the insurgents to a retreat, to re-group, but it cannot address the problem that has led to this. The state of emergency is like spraying a fragrance on a heap of excreta with the hope that the fragrance will be able to address the odour of the excreta, it will not. Any person who thinks that military action will crush this insurgency should think again. Pakistan under Musharraf declared several states of emergencies, yet it did not solve the problem”.
In one of his articles few years ago, this writer wrote that it’s taking many Nigerians more than 40 years to understand every statement Ojukwu made. It’s taking many Nigerians more than 40 years to comprehend the truth in what Ojukwu negotiated in Aburi (Aburi Accord), which Gowon and the Hausa/Fulani oligarchs did not allow to see the light of the day then. What Ojukwu saw and pointed out in Aburi, is staring the people in the face now. Ojukwu warned about these (problems) more than 40 years ago, and nobody understood him then. What Ojukwu saw as the solution to Nigeria’s primary problem in 1967, is what Gaddafi recommended for Nigeria in 2010. The point is that it will take dumbbells in Nigeria almost half a century to decipher whatever the Ikemba of Nnewi said.
In his article of Wednesday, February 29, 2012 (nigeriaworld), this write described Ojukwu thus:
“……….."Once or twice in a century, nature or the Good Lord sends to a people a phenomenon. Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Ikemba of Nnewi, Eze Igbo Gburugburu was such a phenomenon. He was not just an Igbo man; he was a Nigerian, an African, a Pan-African and a black man. He was a man of great intelligence and a soldier's soldier", and, Ross Perot (1930) said that "Eagles don't flock - you have to find them one at a time". Although Ojukwu is immediately synonymous with the civil war that raged in the country for 30 months from 1967 to 1970, he was first and foremost a national patriot; a detribalised Nigerian who believed strongly in the unity of the country and did everything he could to achieve that unity in peace. That he spearheaded the Igbo to secede from the rest of the country is an irony of fate inspired not necessarily by his desire to be a Head of State, (he was already military Governor of Eastern Region) but by a passionate inclination to stop a widespread oppression of his people who were being witch-hunted, indeed massacred, by other Nigerians.
Ojukwu was right to lead his people then out of Nigeria, because, as Gbooza.com noted, "the same kind of incidents that led to his being forced to secede over 40 years ago is beginning to rear its ugly head again. Day in, day out, scores of Southerners living in Northern Nigeria are being killed by the terrorist group, Boko Haram, and (are) forced to return to their homes. Majority of these are Igbos, the ethnic group of the late Biafran leader". Talking about the current crises of Boko Haram and insecurity in Nigeria today, especially in the North, Debe Odumegwu-Ojukwu, first son of the late general said: "In Mathematics, the most malignant aspect of mathematics is what we call recurring decimal. The issue has kept on recurring. Why not we try that panacea which we rejected? There was an alternative, to become a confederation, if not separation, the main thrust of the Aburi Accord. And it was rejected over the years, running to 40 years. Why has it been difficult for us to try the alternative panacea?" My Biafra of today encapsulates injustice. So if you are unjust to me, the Biafran in me rises. If you are just to me, the Biafran in me is doused. The clamour for Biafra today as I extensively discussed with my father is a cry against injustice. If truth is fully entrenched in Nigeria, there will be no clamour for Biafra. But it's the flagrant and perverse injustice in the nation that engenders these pockets of cries for Biafra".
Ojukwu understood the flawed nature of the entity called Nigeria and the effect of neo-colonialism when an excerpt of the Ahiara Declaration, made by him, reads: "They are only concerned with the preservation of that corrupt and rickety structure of Nigeria in a perpetual state of powerlessness to check foreign exploitation".
This writer wrote on Friday, March 2, 2012, that Ojukwu foresaw the future more than 40 years ago before other Nigerians started understanding what he was talking about. Suffice it to say that he (Ojukwu) was ahead of his time; he analysed Nigeria’s problem and professed the solution even when many were living in denial. In 1966, he asked Nigeria to adopt the principles of Aburi Accord as the only panacea for peace and progress, but, Nigeria rejected it and nobody listened to him. But today, almost everybody is saying that Ojukwu was right then, as the problems of yesteryears are still haunting Nigeria, and for there to be headway, Nigeria might go back to the Aburi accord it rejected more than 40 years ago. Even those who opposed Biafra then are now supporting Ojukwu and what he stood for in 1966. Now, the stone rejected by builders might be made the cornerstone in the near future. Just as Brian Tracy (1944) wrote “Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems”.
On August 9, 1966, a meeting of representatives of the Military Governors of the Eastern, Mid-Western, Western, Northern regions and Lt. Col. Gowon met and unanimously reached agreement on five issues which were vital for reducing the tension then existing in the country. The first demonstration of bad faith on the part of Lt. Col. Gowon was his non-implementation of a number of these agreements which concerned him, particularly the one stipulating that soldiers should be repatriated to their Regions of origin and confined to barracks. In Aburi, an accord was reached and communiqué issued and war was then as good as averted. Then Gowon came back from Aburi meeting and decided to renegade on the accord and agreements signed in Ghana because the bureaucrats then in Lagos told him that he signed away too much to the Igbos and that he allowed Ojukwu to deceive him into signing what will not favour Nigeria as a nation. Gowon being the kind of person he was then decided to reject the accord, then Ojukwu had no other choice but to declare war.
Chief Tola Adeniyi, a foremost journalist and former Managing Director of Daily Times, has asked Nigeria to return to Aburi Accord. In this interview with Vanguard, he stressed the need for restructuring of the polity into a confederal system as agreed at the Aburi, Ghana meeting of 1966 to address the myriad of problems facing the country. At a requiem mass organized for Ojukwu in Enugu on March 1, 2012, the Administrator of Holy Ghost Catholic Cathedral, Rev. John Nwafor, in his sermon, noted that Ojukwu was committed to a united Nigeria, but opposed the marginalization of any of the ethnic components. He advocated a true federalism with a weak federal government adding that “unless Nigeria embraced true federalism with a weak centre, which Ojukwu proposed many years ago, the country would know no peace.” The clergy said that although he desired a strong and united Nigeria, there is the need for stakeholders to come together and dialogue (African Examiner). In his own reaction, the IYM President, Evangelist Elliot Ukoh, said, ''The truth of the matter at all times is that Ojukwu was the man who saw tomorrow; whose life read the Nigerian contradictions. It is left for Nigerians to accept the truth that his life was all about the contraption of Nigeria. Until we sit down at a national conference and re-define the existence of Nigeria, so that future generations can enjoy an enduring nation, we will continue to crawl and wobble in the dark. If Nigeria appreciates the fact of Ojukwu's life as a book, reading the contradictions of Nigerians, Nigeria (will) honour him. If Nigeria continues to use state power to force and beat the federating units into line, then the hypocrisy, Boko Haram, corruption and the fake mouthing of indivisibility or unity will continue and we will continue to crawl, drift and wobble until we face the reality that there is great need to re-define the structure for the sake of posterity.''
To be continued!
For more on the insurgents’ sordid lifestyle, please read:
TIT BITS
THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!!!
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