LONG JOHN SILVER NWARU &i (The SP)

The war was fought and everyone lost as in  many wars . I found myself in Awgu County  Sec Sch.(1972)and Jon was in class 4   (with my cousin Law Nwarueze). He  was  the deputy SP. The next year he was overwhelmingly and almost  unanimously voted for the post of  the SP. 

County had the air and hope equal to the one in Nigeria when Obi was winning with the obidents. It was a beautiful time.

Everyone attended the morning  assembly to see this  handsome SP that had  much swags. His English  was better and more Queenly than what you hear now in London . How he did that  is still an enigma.His uniform fitted him more than ordinary and he had a way of carrying his frame which we all called 'Pirates walk' and imitated it. I remember my mom observed I was walking differently and cautioned me sternly. 

He didn’t carry the SP functions  with  iron fist ; we all obeyed all rules happily…… He was loved!

We were told by some seniors that all the girls coming  from Girls schools like Queens sch. Enugu , Rosary High sch Awgu , Ovim girls , Sedess Oghe etc  to bring invitations to  parties or association events all wanted to talk with him even if he wasn't the person to receive the invitations! . The SP was popular in all the female schools who 'crushed on' him and I suppose he knew but it  didn’t  bother him…..

December 1972 the WASC/GCE.., the send-off and we missed him …….

To be continued 

Charlie.mbc@gmail.com 

LONG JOHN SILVER NWARU & I

  LONG JOHN SILVER  NWARU  & I

It was 1966/67 the pogrom was on, and like many places in the southeast, Nenwe had her own share of returnees. The schools especially St Peters  were filled with new faces like the Mbahs, Mbanwarus,Nwaruezes,Chukwukadibes ,Kanus, Onwes etc. Most of them spoke igbo sparingly. 

However , there were also some people at Peters who weren't returnees but 'migrated' from St. Paul's, St David's and St Theresa's that hadn't elementary 5 classes, so we had to decipher the "Nenwe refugees" from the locals through their level of grip of olu Nenwe. 

Jon was a college fellow anyway but when the real  war began,schools closed the militias came to  quarter in County from  then we started to see such people around.

My first contact   with John was at the Altar under Rev Fr  Silvester Eze  who became the chaplain for the Biafran Militia in Nenwe etc.. He doubled with serving also Rev Fr Orji  of Nenwe who also returned home . He was ordained just about a year or less.

John was always elegant and thought us the junior ones mass serving diligently. It was the period that followed the transition of the old ways of mass( the Rev and alter backing the congregation) which we knew already. John was a patient and nice teacher. We travelled in Fadas'  small Fiat 600 all around Nenwe. We served him, the reverend and the mass but I think  serving him(Jon) was what we cared more for because as kids he would recommend any efforts to the Rev  and his approval of our abilities was paramount …..Nenwe fell into the handsome the Federal troops (a.k.a Vandals) and we parted………. Truncated 

To be continued.

Charlie.mbc@gmail.com 

HOPE by Ejike Eze (esq)

Hope is such a powerful emotion.

It has been mined and manipulated by generations of smart people to get by in no small way and I am careful with words here.

What will the day , tomorrow or next week feel like without hope ? 

Hope for a better life, better results and outcomes even in the face of abysmally skewed odds!

Life is a pain and we must continue to create hope to get through each day .

Now some have moved  hope to another court . The Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Some  had hoped in the appeal  court. Lived the hope even when our heads and environment screamed otherwise. Our hearts kept hoping. It was the only way to keep going. 

In a few months , we may begin to hope in the African Court of Justice , United Nations or the mirage like intervention of some foreign powers, or some supreme deity whose track record should ordinarily call for caution. We may even hope for the poisonous chalice of men in boots and armed with our guns.

Hope must be kept alive, even if to reduce for a short while , the hopeless misery that our lives are.

 ( by Barr. Ejike Eze)

Reacting to the court pronunciations on the electoral cases in Nigeria today 

GABONESE PRESIDENT ( BONGO) AN IGBOMAN?

President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon is a Nigerian of the ethnic Igbo stock, adopted by a former leader of the country during the Biafran war.
This startling revelation is about to be revealed as a court in western France Thursday allowed a family member of Ali Bongo Ondimba to view the birth certificate of the leader after accusations that he lied about where he was born.

With next year’s presidential elections approaching, controversy has been brewing over Ali Bongo’s place of birth with critics saying he falsified his birth certificate to hide the fact that he was adopted from another country.

If the allegations prove true, it could keep him from running for another term and cost him his wealth.
The court in Nantes allowed 25-year-old Onaida Maisha Bongo Ondimba, a daughter of former president Omar Bongo, to view the documents in full.
Her lawyer Eric Moutet hailed the decision as “enormous”, though “diplomatically complex”.
Ali Bongo is the only one of ex-president Omar Bongo’s 54 declared heirs not to have produced the identification documents.
Ali Bongo assumed the presidency following the 2009 death of his father Omar Bongo, who had presided over the west African nation and its oil and mineral wealth since 1967.
The Gabonese constitution says one must be born Gabonese to serve as the head of state, but French investigative journalist Pierre Pean alleged in a recent book that the president was actually Nigerian and was adopted during the Biafran war in the late 1960s.
Bongo himself claims he was born in Brazzaville in 1959, former capital of French Equatorial Africa.

The Nantes civil registration centre is responsible for all birth certificates of people born in French Equatorial Africa up to 1960, when the former colonial countries in the region gained independence to become Gabon, Congo, Chad and the Central African Republic.
Ali Bongo announced in late August that he would give “all his share of the inheritance” from his father to “the Gabonese youth” in a speech marking the 55th anniversary of independence.

SOURCE  (written in 2015)

SIRIKA LIED ABOUT AIR PEACE

 ARISE NEWS INTERVIEW: SIRIKA LIED ABOUT AIR PEACE

We watched with dismay the interview granted by former Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika to Arise TV on Sunday, June 11, 2023, where he made spurious claims about Air Peace, Nigeria's foremost airline. 

Air Peace deems it absolutely necessary to debunk these false assertions.

Firstly, Sirika, in his bid to denigrate Air Peace while praising Ethiopian Airline, stated that we leased 'two’ Boeing 777 aircraft on a monthly lease fee of $250,000, parked the aircraft for several months and incurred losses of $19 million while all the aircraft engines and landing gears became due for replacement when we were ready to fly. He went on to ask, "who does that?". He stated that Ethiopian Airlines would never do that.

This is a blatant lie as we have three and not two Boeing 777 aircraft which were never leased or rented, but were purchased outrightly by the airline. 

Air peace never incurred such a loss, we never paid rentals contrary to his lies. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA) can attest to the purchase and ownership of the Aircraft by Air peace. 

Secondly, Sirika said the airline stopped flying to Dubai because 'we lack capacity'. This is another stark lie. 

Air Peace never stopped the Dubai operations because of lack of capacity.  Air Peace commenced operations into the UAE in July, 2019, but in October 2022, the UAE Government announced a total visa ban on Nigerians. 

Neither Emirates nor Air Peace is operating the Nigerian/UAE route since the ban. The persisting non-issuance of visas and the accompanying inconveniences necessitated the suspension of our Dubai operations from November 22, 2022 till date. 

For the former minister to ascribe the suspension to 'lack of capacity' is not only shocking but also shows how keen he is to disparage an airline which ascendancy, has defied all the commercial odds and hostile environment placed on its path to continue to serve our nation proudly.

How could an airline that placed a firm order for 13 brand new E2-195 aircraft, a firm order of 15 Boeing 737 Max 8 & Max 10, with over 30 aircraft already in its existing fleet be accused of lacking in capacity? 

How can an Airline that stood up for the entire nation during the Covid-19 outbreak, and embarked on rescue operations worldwide, evacuating Nigerians from far away China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India, UK and South Africa during the Covid-19 lockdowns be accused of lacking capacity? 

We implore the general public to disregard these lies told by the former minister of Aviation against Air Peace during the Arise TV Interview. 

We take serious exception to a situation where Airpeace is being misrepresented in the public sphere, causing wrong perceptions about our brand. 

SIGNED

Toyin Olajide (Mrs)

Chief Operating Officer 

Air Peace

DEMOCRATIC DESPOTISM* By JUSTICE CHUKWUBUIKE ANINWORIE

*DEMOCRATIC DESPOTISM*

_(My June 12 democratic address)_

by Justice Chukwubuike Aninworie

_*"Democracy is not by turns or waiting for it; democracy is by intense opposition to despotism wearing the garb of democracy."*_ -Juspoet

Today, 12th June 2023, as in June 12, 1993, Nigeria faces the greatest threat and tyranny to Democracy.

Democracy has been hijacked again after a fortuitous walk to it. And, once again in the hands of despots who determine for the people, as for the people, and as by the people. Riding on the back of democracy to crucify all that democracy stands for.

Democracy was given an eternal definition by Abraham Lincoln at the Gettysburg address on the 17th of November, 1863 as "Government of the People, by the people, and for the people. " That simple definition of democracy for the assimilation of all men of whatever mental cognition was what was typically aborted in Nigeria by the erstwhile government of General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida in a dastardly executed silent coup which only brought Democracy to the threshold and murdered it; midwifed it, and mortified it, enthroning in its wake a government reincarnation of itself in changed garb, hyping a false hope of democracy. On February 25th, 2023, the Nigerian Government, a lingering lethal force of the changed garb of 1993 took it to a new height. It raised the hope of the ordinary Nigerians with diversionary promises and reforms hawked in dubious throts around the globe; it midwifed true democracy, and again mortified it with experienced ease and dexterity it has perfected over the 3 decades it held sway. It enthroned itself in changed garb.

We are talking about a government of the cabal which has turned Nigeria between the People and the Government. The Government, being select self-styled heroes of democracy struggle and oligarchs. The People are the Constitutional ordinary Citizens to whom belonged Power to chose by whom and how led in a majority. The government of Babangida determined the fate of Nigeria for the People, and flunked the will of the People aside. In the same vein, the wholesomely dependent Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria has again flunked the will of the People aside, crowned the people of the government, by the government and for the government, for the upteenth time. And, that's what we are forced to holiday in celebration.

Today, the people rue in holiday, while the government celebrate. It is the celebration of the few over their onslaught on the People. 

The biggest damage to Democracy in its celebration on June 12 in Nigeria is the use of everything undemocratic to celebrate democracy. The Civic Academy defined Democracy as that system of government that allows ordinary people a decisive say in who governs a country and how they govern it. In this celibate celebration going on in Nigeria today, the ordinary people, to whom right and power to determine who and how Nigeria is governed have been ordained to the backwaters of bystanders who must listen to uncouth hominies and professionally written delusions on days like today, peremptorily poisoned with threats that send tremours to the very foundation of democracy. Democratic salvos come off podiums to threaten civil protest, rule of law, judicial actions, and majority good.

Democracy is not democracy because our leaders broadcast it thus. Democracy is founded on these principles in the least:

They are:

1) Respect for basic human rights,

2) A multi-party political system paired with political tolerance,

3) A democratic voting system,

4) Respect for the rule of law,

5) Democratic governance, and

6) Citizen participation

It is not the abridgment of garb-change of leaders on 29th May that abridges democracy. It is the abridgement of basic citizen's rights, intolerance for multi-party parliament, a sacred democratic voting result legally transmitted and unmutilated by hijacked electoral umpire, respect for Judicial self-correction through rule of law, democratic governance, and citizens participation that not only abridge but also abort Democracy and leave it a tragic comedy.

Today, the Elections held to enthrone democracy has emasculated it. The majority of the People are held in contempt by the minority of government. National milestones are reminders of despotism that has robbed them of their right to legitimate leadership. Today, the Courts see themselves as scapegoats rather than blind determiners of rights that has remedies. Today, state broadcasts are crafted by flocks of bigoted minders of tribal interests than national justice who mock the vanquished on an alexandrian Bucephalus.

Two lessons come out of June 12, today as in 1993.

One: Enemies of Democracy can never produce Democracy. Those who take the People captive for the government can never release the people on Democracy day! They are eternally incapable, lacking in moral and intellectual ability to midwife democracy. Nemo dat quod non habet. They cannot give what they don't have. No matter how their broadcasts, self-claims, and their gilded vaults are tailored, they can never culminate in a relief-sigh solution. IBB lavished so much goodwill and national wealth in a bid to enthrone a Government of the People, by the People and for the People, and despite the patriotic stands of Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, hevended up in a reincarnation of his kind. A still-water-that-runs-deep chairman of an Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mamoud Yakubu galvanized unprecedented patronage in the People's participation in a Government of the People, by the People, and for the People. He spent national treasure in trial, but ecause he is a chip of the old block, he lacked the moral capability to deliver. He dashed the historic destiny of a whole Nation without bathing an eyelid.

Secondly, as President Bola Tinubu rightly prophesied, June 12 was our 'second independence' to return to democratic governance. It is championed by those who take turns in reaping from their struggle. The ordinary People, Nigerian Youths, or Majority of Nigerians must rise and take Nigeria from those who turn democracy to despotic sharing and determination of government by government, for the government, in a 'Third Independence' from democratic tyranny where the powerful select leaders and determine how the country is run in defiance to the will of the People. Democracy is traversed when strongmen build bridges that cross the Niger and land on strongman's doors, while the People wallow in the mire of whitewashed sepulchre on which democracy is painted on National colours, but whithin which democracy has been interred. The People achieved so much in the 2023 election to let go. Those who end up their speech urging or begging the government of the Government to live up to expectation, turn a new leaf or support democracy are like angels urging hell to throw up its captives. Democracy is not by turns or waiting for it; democracy is by intense opposition to despotism wearing the garb of democracy.

-Justice Chukwubuike Aninworie (Juspoet) is a lawyer, Author, Poet and advocate for political and social rights and Justice in Nigeria.

THE "DOMINATING"IGBOS

WE ARE NOT TRYING TO DOMINATE YOU...WE ARE LIVING THE BEST WAY WE ARE WIRED.

How do a people who have never picked arms to fight their host community home and abroad or people living in their own enclave always accused of dominating or colonising? How?

We are not dominating you, we only travelled to your village, fill a need you probably did not see, render services you could not, sometimes start by sleeping in overpriced shops in the same village, few years down the line, buy small land, build one small hut, tried to just run our business and feed our kids while struggling with the evil policies of those who have hijacked governance since we were brushed aside decades ago....tell me, HOW ARE WE TRYING TO DOMINATE YOU?

Igbo boy finished his youth service in one village in Zamfara as a young medical doctor, decides to stay back in that VILLAGE to help because there is need for medical services which everyone is running away from....he noticed that if he stays, while solving these needs, he can also make some money.....few years down the line, after years of suffering while trying to grow...it is either he is dominating or he did blood money.....

TELL ME, HOW ARE WE DOMINATING YOU?

Igbos have the greatest number of graduates that could not find their way into government pay job but instead of complaining about others DOMINATING, we can join spare parts b usiness to survive....even after doing that, few years down the line, it is either it is blood money or we are trying to DOMINATE. HOW ON EARTH CAN YOU DOMINATE A PEOPLE WITHOUT FIGHTING THEM, NEITHER DO YOU CONTROL GOVERNMENT THAT IS DEALING WITH EVERYONE.....HOW?

If we demand for better treatment so we can be proper Nigerians as you claim you want us, we are trying to DOMINATE.....if we say, ok, allow us to leave this union and go and suffer like you have predicated we will, you will say we are making trouble. HOW ARE WE REALLY TRYING TO DOMINATE YOU?

The lies of trying to DOMINATE fueled the bile why we were almost wiped out in 1966-1970...yet, after that near extinction, we are still accused of trying to DOMINATE....HOW?

Quota system and several other policies we believe was meant to stop us from DOMINATING have killed the fabrics of this nation...our kids are meant to score way beyond other kids in order to gain admission among their equals....even in the face of those injustice, WE ARE STILL TRYING TO DOMINATE...HOW?

You build market stalls, over price them because Igbos will pay, yet, when you are done enjoying the money used in buying or renting the stalls, you turn and accuse us of DOMINATING....how?

Tell me how we are DOMINATING or colonising you, you sold a land to us, we bought, build small house or shop....you use the money for survival, send your children to school or abroad...yet, few years down the line, we are either accuse of DOMINATING or buying up your place? How exactly can a people who are not known for fighting tribal wars DOMINATE YOU?

What instrument of force are Igbos using in this utopian DOMINATION?

To kill a dog, give it a bad name.....to go after Igbos, first accuse them of DOMINATING.

The truth is that lots of people don't know why they loath Igbos, they try to find or create the reason...

Few years ago while Aisha Yesufu was trying to diagnose negative energy she obviously noticed against Igbos, she made a claim that IGBOS NOT INCLUDING OTHERS IN THEIR APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM IS WHY OTHERS DON'T LIKE THEM....how?

Apprenticeship program that was jeered at by others just few decades ago until now the world is noticing that it is a great tool for wealth redistribution and empowerment....and does not mean taking ourselves into slavery like many Nigerians accused us before.

Please, explain this to me like a nursery School child, HOW EXACTLY ARE IGBOS DOMINATING ANYONE?

I used to hear that music does not suffer  language barrier....no, not in Nigeria. A Catholic priest in Lagos of all States has taken the Igbo paranoia of DOMINATING into the church of God.

Now tell me, instead of banning Igbo song why not encourage the learning of other songs in other languages? The priest of course used the language that precedes every Igbo loathing enterprise..."THEY WANT TO DOMINATE".....

How do a people that come into any space, respect the authority there, never causes any violence because violence is a minus to our businesses....how on  Earth are this set of people trying to DOMINATE anyone?

We get to church of any denomination or ministry, try to make ourselves visible, work, offer our time, offer our money....in the midst of this, all some people see is attempt to DOMINATE....how? 

This country should make up their minds about Igbos.....they seem to be saying, we don't really want you out of our way but  we want to control the h.ell out of your destiny....place a limit to your aspiration, dictate how much you can grow?

...but I have a good news for you my people, it won't work....we will sprout from every corner of the earth....we won't let a coming generation of Igbos to grow on bended knees, we will not cower, we will not bow.

 Block us in governance, we will sprout in commerce, even if you eventually block commerce, our chi will open up several other avenues.

EVEN in the midst of our internally generated challenges and our faults which every human race and individuals posseses, we are the least of those attempting to hurt you, we only do what is done in every modern society... compete, seek growth, try to improve on our circumstances, do whatever we found doing with all our hearts, chase success, want to render services in your neighborhood and get paid for it.

HOW IS THIS A PROBLEM? HOW IS THIS DOMINATING? 

It is more honourable to kill a dog if you so desire....but giving a dog bad name just to attempt killing the dog is lowest of all lows.

HOW DO A PEOPLE DOMINATE OTHERS WITHOUT WEAPONS OR GOVERNING POWER? 

NB: For the Igbos that do not wish to offend friends, not speaking up on this danger of having next generation of Igbos grow to walk on egg shells and self guilt and condemnation.... ochestrated by others who want to dictate how they will breath and be defined....don't worry, we will do this work for your children and grandchildren and it will be on record that you were sleeping when the reputation of future Igbos were getting redefined. 

To friends who think we are sensitive rather that speaking to those who make us their punching bag always....we won't be gentle while sediments of profiling is heaped on even the generation unborn, it seem harmless now but we know that these constant profiling is a time bomb waiting to happen, it is a piling up of seemingly harmless profiling which will sediment decades from now and form the Igbo perception.

It will be utter irresponsibility that while we have several platforms now to counter both official and unofficial profiling, unlike our fathers, we sacrifice it on the altar of pleasing you, our friends.

Remember, Igbos loving money stuck on Igbos but we know those that have the highest number of billionaire army generals in the world and those their political leaders are more billionaires than anyone without them having a product or services in the market place.....this is while growing massive poverty.....yet, they are modest when it comes to Money and Igbos mainly struggling from one corner of the earth to another are the money  lovers.......that is the power of unchallenged lies and profiling.

(COPIED)

RIPOSA IN PACE IL NOSTRO BIG SINDACO DOTT M. CARTURAN

Riposa in pace nostro “Big Sindaco”.

La notizia della scomparsa del Dott Mauro Carturan è arrivata con un dolore inimmaginabile, anche con la consapevolezza che la morte verrà un giorno per tutti noi. Mi sono sentito peggio stando all'estero e non vicino alla nostra addolarata Città di Cisterna di Latina, durante questo giorno triste. Il Dott Carturan da più di 23 anni è stato non solo il mio "Capo" in ufficio ma un fratello-amico come si dice in Africa. La sua amicizia alla mia famiglia, la solidarietà all’associazione WELCOME e a tutta la comunità (migrante e non) non è quantificabile, anche quando non era sindaco. 

La sua umanità, assistenza e umiltà verso tutti i bisognosi sarà ricordata da Dio.  Ciao,ci vediamo "Big Sindaco"(come si chiamava amorevolmente nella comunità di lingua inglese).

Le nostre prime condoglianze vanno alla famiglia e alla città di Cisterna di Latina. Dedico nella mia pagina facebook 100 foto in memoria della sua amicizia e solidarietà .

Charles O Chukwubike 

charlie.mbc@gmail.com

IGBOLAND IS NOT LANDLOCKED

 Igboland is not landlocked

By Aloy Ejimakor

26 May 2020   |  

It’s often said that a lie told so many times, if unchallenged, may – in course of time – begin to pass for the truth. One of such is the terrible lie, institutionally purveyed since the end of the Civil War, to the effect that Igboland is landlocked or has no access to the sea. The purpose of this essay, therefore, is to debunk this lie with some simple historical and topographical evidence that are even in plain view, if you care to dig or do some physical explorations of your own. Suffice it to say that it is a profound tragedy that entire generations of the immediate post-War Igbos never bordered to check but seemingly accepted this brazen institutional falsehood, largely intended to taunt the Igbo and put them down. A few that knew it to be false just didn’t care anymore. And that History was banned since the end of the Civil War made it worse, plus the fact that most people don’t take physical Geography that serious anymore, otherwise they would have known that Abia, Imo and Anambra States have varying short-distance paths to the Atlantic through Imo, Azumiri and Niger Rivers.

It’s not really rocket science, as you can easily confirm this if you know how to read Google Earth; or conquer your fear of swamp snakes and walk through these areas on foot. There are also many other hardly explored waterways and slithering tributaries, including the remote reaches of Oguta Lake and Oseakwa River in Ihiala (Anambra State) that meandered through Igbo-delta wetlands to the Southeastern ends of the Atlantic waterfront. These rivers have varying lengths of short navigational paths to the Atlantic, and in some cases, are far shorter nautically (and even on footpath) than the Portharcourt, Calabar and Ibaka seaports are to their side of the Atlantic. Many of these pathways, including particularly the ones from the outer reaches of Imo and Azumiri Rivers terminate at the Atlantic at no more than 15 to 30 Nautical miles to the beachhead. To put it in lay language, one nautical mile equals 1.8 kilometers. Thus, the contiguity of Southeast (not even the greater Igboland) to the Atlantic is less nautical miles than the Atlantic is to the seaports in Calabar, Onne, Ibaka, Lagos and Portharcourt. If you discount the territories excised from Igboland during State creations and the damnable boundary adjustments, it will be far less.

To be sure, Ikwerre land or Igweocha which bears the greater portions of the Portharcourt seaport was dredged up to 50 miles to the Atlantic front through the Bonny River.  Onne seaport was dredged up to 60 miles to the Atlantic and Calabar seaport was dredged some 45 nautical miles to the Atlantic. Ibaka seaport is about 30 nautical miles to the Atlantic and the Lagos seaports dredged up to about 50 nautical miles to the Atlantic. Compare all these to Obuaku in Abia State, which is only 25 nautical miles to the Atlantic from the confluence of Imo and Azumiri Rivers, of which Azumiri, on its own merits, lies not more than 30 nautical miles to the Atlantic beachfront. The less obvious one is the little-known Oseakwa River in Ihiala (Anambra State) which is mere 18 nauticals to the Atlantic, all with its 65 feet of natural depth, unarguably comparable to no other River in Nigeria. Additionally, what is geopolitically known as Igboland today is far smaller than what it was and legally supposed to be. 

As far back as 1856, Baikie – one of the earliest and credible Geographers of ancient Nigeria, had this to say – “Igbo homeland, extends east and west, from the Old Kalabar river to the banks of the Kwora, Niger River, and possesses also some territory at Aboh, an Igbo clan, to the west-ward of the latter stream. On the north it borders on Igara, Igala and A’kpoto, and it is separated from the sea only by petty tribes, all of which trace their origin to this great race” (Baikie, William Balfour, published with a sanction of Her Majesty’s Government in 1856). But with that infamous post-War abandoned property policy and the egregious institutional injustices in boundary adjustments and the widespread anti-Igbo gerrymandering, Igbos physically and psychologically lost hold of their vested ancestral lands, all to the point of not caring anymore about their historical contiguity to the Atlantic, which their ancestors beheld and called ‘Oshimiri’ (The Great Sea). The psychological beat-down and gang-up got so bad that some of the descendants of these Igbo ancestors (nearest to the Atlantic and now lying outside Southeast) are no longer sure whether they are Igbo or not. The worst injustice was in 1976 when the Justice Nasir Boundary Adjustment Commission made a serious and targeted agenda of carving out core Igboland territories into some neighboring States of the South-South. But they didn’t quite make an absolute success of it. They missed the southernmost Southeast lands that possess Rivers that meandered through slices of Igbo-friendly South-South territories and ended up at the Atlantic, thus unwittingly placing Igboland and its right of access to the sea under the canons of customary international law. As it stands, international law of the sea guarantees Igboland (whether it remains Nigerian territory or not) unhindered access to the nearest sea (in this case: the Atlantic) peacefully by the many short-distance rivers, waterways and tributaries that originated from Igboland but ultimately washed into the Atlantic through contiguous South-South territories. For avoidance of doubt, there’s particularly the Obuaku confluence in Ukwa West (Abia State) that flows through Ikot Abasi in Akwa Ibom State before expanding out and washing into the near-reaches of the Atlantic.  And the River Niger which ultimately joined the Atlantic through a vast network of hardly explored creeks and mangrove swamps that abut the Bight of Bonny in the South-South.

Nigeria is subject to the International Law of the Sea and is therefore bound to abide by its provisions, should the need arise in a scenario of persistent sovereign oppression of an identifiable indigenous group within Nigeria.  The others are the United Nations Treaty of the Sea and the African Union Treaties and Conventions on the Sea, including particularly the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, which Nigeria ratified and domesticated in 1983. The pertinent provisions are mostly embedded in the copious provisions relating to the collective economic and commercial rights of indigenous peoples lying within the Treaty nations. Ndigbo are undoubtedly an indigenous people presently lying within Nigeria. So, international law will surely come into play if a conflict arises out of Nigeria’s persistent institutional resistance to granting a seaport to Igboland.

Ejimakor, wrote from Abuja

source

ENGR. FRANCIS N. NWONYI (RIP)

 

We came to know this fine gentleman (Engineer Francis N. NWONYI)about 36years ago through his daughter Ngozi and through out the period I worked at Abakaliki he was like a father to us. I would rather say 'a friend ' due to his way of relating to the younger ones and the amiable heart to heart discussions he always had with me on different topics at anytime we met or we came to his residence.

I admired much his listening abilities to issues which he had in some occasions sort my opinion.

I admired his resemblance with my father ;a complete 'family man' who valued the sane upbringing and good education of his children more than anything. He was a complete Igboman.

It is really a pity we are not able to be present on this special day due to this pandemic that has disorganized many things this year especially when one is in another continent.

We the Chukwubikes of Nenwe,Rome & UK pray that the Almighty God acceot your soul in his kingdom. AMEN.

signed .

Charlie.mbc@gmail.com