One cannot be arraigned for declaring a war, which every ruler has to do once in a while, but only for running a war badly. — Bertolt Brecht What Ojukwu did to senior Igbo military officers to make them irrelevant in authority he also did to the most senior Igbo politicians. In May, 1966, military governor Lt. Col. Ojukwu arrested and detained the very popular and revered ex-Premier of the Eastern Region, Dr. Michael I....
One of the greatest misconceptions of Nigerians or Africans about age in leadership is being unable to differentiate age from wisdom Minutes after Professor Ibrahim A. Gambari was announced the Chief-of-Staff of Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, the social media went wild with commentaries and analysis. Professor Gambari replaces the former Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, who died on April over COVID-19 complications. While the majority praised him as a level-headed intelligent leader...
The basic psychology of a dictator is entrenched in unrestrained power, fear, and anxiety. Out of anxiety and paranoia, he resorts to extreme vendetta which impedes the process and permeates his ability to make rational decisions. But there is one irony about a dictatorship that people always ignore. Often, dictators are created by those that would become their victims. In Nigeria, such is the case, because the man who currently serves as the Governor of...
The fact is, COVID-19 apparently has come to stay, and frankly, there may be no such thing as post-COVID-19 except to the extent that we are prepared to create new reality moving on, notwithstanding. The latest events from South Korea leaves indelible lessons on how post-COVID-19 may likely be created. South Korea is one of the leading lights in the fight against COVID-19 and among the first countries to reopen after swift repression of the...
Beware, least you inspire in me not an act But a cobweb on the soul– “How do you say no in an attempt?” No man ever did—an elemental balm. For men the work of God’s creation drives A tradition up against the wall. You must nurture it, watch it, like a newborn— Otherwise, the spark can travel the path of stone. For us the breast undoes itself over and over: Just like the fingernail grows...
The dilemma facing Nigeria today might not be rooted, as many believe, solely, in the management of her state of affairs, but also her avowed colonial quiddity. For Nigeria to realize her standing locus in the world, she must, first, extricate herself from the doom sustained and maintained from an ethos of colonial dependency. There must, therefore, be an effort for an overall progressive and decolonization agenda. If history continues to serve as a guide,...
“Dear John, You Have Left Me With No Choice” Ten thousand men, and it could be more were determined to liberate France on D-Day. Those soldiers that survived the carnage could have said a couple of Our Fathers and maybe, just maybe, another couple of Hail Marys…that is, if they had any love for the Mother of God. The Germans themselves were lying in decapitating waste in their vast beach dug-out, in the thousands, as...
It is as if the developed world does not expect any major advancement in science, medicine, ICT, etc from Africa. The outside world always approaches African discoveries or solutions with skepticism that advances further into utter disbelief. This then extends even further to the issuance of public caution and warning against African solutions under the pretext that it is not verified. At this stage, one is left with a clear impression, a direct instruction even,...
And I would affirm; that if the massacre of 30,000 Igbo indigenes were not enough to go to war, then the world can as well legalize genocide as a periodic sporting competition. And I would tell you, Igbos would bring home the winning trophy. As a matter of editorial principle, I avoid writing rejoinders; in life however, our actions are not just driven by values, but are sometimes triggered by unanticipated circumstances. So when Dr....
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. — Sun Tzu Fifty years ago, this past January, the short-lived country called Biafra came to a very humiliating end. To say that the Igbo people and some of their cousins in the old Eastern Nigeria passed through a meat grinder in the preceding three years would be a great understatement. However, that history is largely lost on the majority of Igbos living...
