Fruitless Peace Negotiations. The End of Biafra. Today—Which Way Forward? Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war — Ernest Hemingway On September 7, 1968, as renowned Biafran diplomat Raph Uwechue recounts, some anxious senior Igbos held a meeting in the Algerian capital Algiers where an OAU summit which would tackle the imbroglio of...
World Health Organization (WHO) has been facing a lot of backlash from around the world for varying degrees of accusations bothering on its inability to meet the expectations of different people across the globe in its efforts managing COVID-19. The US President has accused the WHO of negligence and failing in its duty to alert the world of the seriousness of coronavirus in Wuhan China despite being fully aware of the danger it then poses...
With the pattern of duplicity and cruelty that conjures the Donald Trump’s policy actions against the people of color, tell me how these ethically malnourished oppressors can educate any organization about good character and accountability? For clarity, the African Development Bank (AfDB) is not like Chase. Nope, it is not the traditional bank where folks drive through a narrow pathway to use the ATM. It is a bilateral development finance institution facilitating sustainable economic and...
As I write, the wild beasts are in the house, our house, your House; according to their kinsman, to ‘do business’. How could a race of people known for their resolute prowess of Africa’s wildest outposts, people who beg for a living, have the wherewithal to do business? Dear God: I hope you will find the time to read this. I have been wanting to write you over these years, but the story about your...
While Rome Burns, Emperor Nero Fiddles The Roman Emperor Nero is considered by many religious scholars to be the Antichrist, the beast code marked 666, who ordered the execution of his own mother, persecuted and brutally executed many early Christians (including the apostles Peter and Paul), a group he falsely blamed for the fire that consumed most of Rome in 64 AD. Legend has it that as Nero watched the six-day conflagration, he somberly played...
What the federal government owes these badly governed states is tough love. It should make it very clear that henceforth, it will no longer bailout any state that receives the FAAC allocation. This because some governors have become addicts, hooked on Abuja manna. It is, therefore, appropriate for the federal government to enforce constraints on them… Many analysts argue ad nauseam, that before the 1966 coup in Nigeria, the true practice of federalism was responsible for the great...
The current spate of the pandemic ravaging the global community has kept world leaders and organizations on edge to find a possible cure. Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, schools, religious places of worship, markets and other places of gathering were shut down so as to curb the transmission and spread of the virus. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, records, 191 countries implemented countrywide closure of educational institutions and over...
I was at the venue where Hon. Nonso Okafor representing Nnewi North Constituency in the Anambra State House of Assembly handed a house he built for childless indigent widows in Okpuno Nnewichi Nnewi, Anambra state. A bungalow built to well above average taste —painted and furnished, again to a taste that is above typical. One question kept on popping in my head, “really, are some people more disposed to serve than others on the basis...
Gowon welcomed people who had expert advice; Ojukwu shunned them Prior to the unsuccessful Enugu peace meeting between Ojukwu and Awolowo, Col. Gowon had been showering honors on Awolowo. For instance, when Awolowo first arrived at the Lagos Airport from Enugu, upon his release from the Calabar Prison in early August 1966, Gowon welcomed him with an honor guard. In the days following the May 1967 meeting in Enugu, after it became clear that Ojukwu...
“A president who avoids the media; who does not speak directly to the people on a weekly briefing particularly during a national emergency has something to hide. That is fact one. Buhari seems to be hiding something about himself and his ability to govern as a result of his health from Nigerians.” The health of the president of any country is a National Security priority. Elaborate structures are put in place to secure the capacity...
