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Saturday 23 March 2013

OPINION

When Kalu offered to end the menace of Boko Haram

By Odimegwu Onwumere

When a former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu offered on November 12, 2012, to negotiate the end of insurgency in the northern part of the country on Federal Government’s (FG) behalf, many Nigerians took him seriously, not the government.


Kalu’s offer came when it was obvious that the chief-nominee of Boko Haram for the dialogue, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd), shamed to accept the offer. However, Kalu gave reasons why he offered to be the agent of peace.

Through his Special Assistant on Media, Emeka Obasi, Kalu did not blame Buhari, he rather said: “General Buhari took a laudable step by opting out. For one who contested the 2011 presidential election, meeting with Boko Haram may be misconstrued because many believe that the group’s activities heightened after the emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan.”

With the killings on March 18, 2013 in Kano through bomb blasts that took over one hundred lives and damaged many property, numerous people, especially those from the southern part of the country resident in north, have condemned the FG’s lackadaisical approach to Kalu’s earlier benevolent bid.

Upon that President Goodluck Jonathan had condemned the bomb blasts and described it as barbaric, these Nigerians who are now living in fears in the dreadful northern region, said that the president was just using mere rhetoric, instead of practical approach such as Kalu’s.

The conviction of many people is that the FG was only boasting that it would not be deterred from what it claimed was its “strong-willed determination to overcome those who do not mean well for the nation”, when it has become obvious that it has been stampeded, but has only turned to using the media as its proffered measure of fighting the hyper-terrorists, who were bent on incessant bombings and killings of people and destruction of property.

Following that, it could be deduced that Nigerians were not strongly convinced that President Jonathan can win the war against terrorism in the country, no matter his reassurances to the citizens and foreigners in the country that the Nigerian Government will not relent in its efforts to bring terrorism to a halt in the country.

In an e-mail to this writer, a university don in one of the universities in the northern part of the country who comes from the Igbo extraction wrote under anonymity and bemoaned his fears that he doubts if the FG can halt the terrorists; but added that if that would be, it might not be in the soon. He cried that they, none-natives in the northern part of the country, can only walk the streets of the north, after embarking on spiritual exercise. He wept that those of us residing outside the north might not be entirely feeling the shock they in the north feel every second.

Hear him: “You guys that live in the homeland cannot appreciate completely what those of us who live among them pass through on a daily basis. What baffles me more is that the authorities have already made up their minds that the only solution is to saturate the airwaves with their messages of condemnation.”

He admonished that the FG should take more steps above censuring anytime there was killings in the north to proffering practical solutions to the danger. He stressed that Ndigbo (Kalu’s people), are killed in droves in the north, not like human beings, but like rats and other pests.

Hear him again: “Igbos are being decimated on a daily basis, yet, people who should speak and act pretend as if chickens are being slaughtered. Somebody should be bold enough to tell Nigerians that we have permeated one another so much that there are many other tribes and religious groups in my village. How would they feel if we begin to slaughter their people the way they slaughter ours in their midst?”

Further he said that traditional rulers from the Igbo region have not done enough to send message to their counterparts in the north in the language they could possibly understand. He affirmed that it was only Orji Uzor Kalu, who have done this; and that was when he was governor. (1999-2007).

“Please, my brother, you should not misunderstand me. I am not a politician. I am not holding brief for any person but I must tell you that if there is any politician we miss now, it is only Orji Uzor Kalu”, he said, and added: “This is the point we shall begin to make as from now. What are our traditional rulers doing? How many of them have spoken out against what we are suffering in this country? Does it imply that these people who were slaughtered in Kano last week did not come from villages and towns with traditional rulers? What stops them from protesting to their counterparts in Northern Nigeria?”

He went down memory lane and told how they in the north now miss Kalu, even when he was not a governor in the north. The university don smoldered: “You may like to ask. We once had a big problem in Kaduna, some years back, when Kalu was the governor of Abia State. He did not waste time in protesting to the Sultan of Sokoto. Check the records. Since that time, nobody had targeted the Igbos in Kaduna because he was very practical. But today, I can tell you unequivocally that things have fallen apart. Our leaders are relaxing on their comfort zones, because their own children are not directly affected.”

The lecturer pleaded that he was not wrongly transferring his aggression, but he was of the philosophy that somebody like Kalu whose voice should be heard must speak out, because Ndigbo residing in the north have turned all the cheeks they have, which the northerners have taken advantage of.

“I just feel that somebody whose voice should be heard must speak out to tell the world that nobody has the monopoly of violence. We must speak my brother. We have turned all the cheeks we have. Maybe, our leaders expect us to voluntarily turn in our necks this time around. Ndigbo should have their agenda in this country. Every group in this land now has a clear identity. We seem to be the only group that is still groping. We must stand up and go back to the drawing board. When we do that, I believe we must stop being the dumping ground of all the evil in the land.”

Apart from that Kalu had sought to bring peace in the north on behalf of the government, he had also warned that there should be an end to the monumental killings of Ndigbo. He disclosed this to media men on Tuesday, January 10, 2012. He had expressed sadness in particular, over the ceaseless killings of Ndigbo, and southerners in the northern Nigeria.

In strong terms, Kalu said that it was offensive that Ndigbo had come to be besieged whenever there was a discrepancy or crisis of any sort in the north. He was disappointed, and added: “Everyday, Igbo people in the North are now being slaughtered in huge numbers and the Federal Government appears clueless, helpless and incapable of coming to the defence of these citizens.”

It was obvious that there were statements from certain northern elders during the advent of the 2011 general elections of how Nigeria would be made ungovernable if the country refused to produce a northern presidency that year. To these elders who spoke like kids, they argued that since President Musa Yar’Adua (north) did not complete his purportedly eight year term in office before his sudden demise that somebody from the north must complete his apparent unfulfilled years in office. But to Kalu, he argued that if the citizens believed that the country was one, how come the flagrant statements.

Kalu said: “Unfortunately, northern political leaders have made statements and interventions at levels that further question the essence and founding vision of one Nigeria notwithstanding the obnoxious dimension of carrying out such killings in holy places of worship.” He conversely quoted literary icons such as (Chinua Achebe (now late), Wole Soyinka and J. P. Clark) in their shared response to the disgustful national calamity thus: “All who possess any iota of influence or authority, who aspire to real leadership must act now to douse the first flickers of ‘responses in kind’, even before they are manifested and become contagious.”

Known as a peacemaker, Kalu did not only talk about the catastrophes, he also submitted advise to Ndigbo and other southerners resident in the north not to rest on their oars to seek gauge to protect their lives and property in the north. He warned that they should not sit down and watch themselves being hacked down by marauders among the northerners.

Hear him again: “Christians (northern and southern) and all southerners must also refuse to be made scapegoats and must get together to resist these unwarranted attacks. If the attackers get help from outside the country to attack, Christians and southerners should also do the same to defend themselves, if help will not come from within. If we are singled out for attack again, we shall no longer turn the other cheek, but shall demand an eye for an eye.”

Notwithstanding, many Nigerians had scrutinized disappointingly that the elements that originated the civil war of 1967-70 were being experimented. It was a known fact that many Igbo people were killed and mutilated in a program in the north, which was chiefly the cause of the 1967-70 (un)civil war. These Nigerians are afraid that the country does not experience another war, but added that the war mongers could have been disciplined only if the Federal Government had heeded to Kalu’s offer to negotiate the end of insurgency in the northern part of the country on its behalf.

Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, is the Coordinator, Concerned Non-Indigenes In Rivers State (CONIRIV).

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Editor's Mail

Love the article on Gaddafi
We must rise above tribalism & divide & rule of the colonialist who stole & looted our treasure & planted their puppets to lord it over us..they alone can decide on whosoever is performing & the one that is corrupt..but the most corrupt nations are the western countries that plunder the resources of other nations & make them poorer & aid the rulers to steal & keep such ill gotten wealth in their country..yemen,syria etc have killed more than gadhafi but its not A̷̷̴ good investment for the west(this is laughable)because oil is not in these countries..when obasanjo annihilated the odi people in rivers state, they looked away because its in their favour & interest..one day! Samosa Iyoha

Hello from
Johannesburg
I was amazed to find a website for Africans in Hungary.
Looks like you have quite a community there. Here in SA we have some three million Zimbabweans living in exile and not much sign of going home ... but in Hungary??? Hope to meet you on one of my trips to Europe; was in Steirmark Austria near the Hungarian border earlier this month. Every good wish for 2011. Geoff in Jo'burg

I'm impressed by
ANH work but...
Interesting interview...
I think from what have been said, the Nigerian embassy here seem to be more concern about its nationals than we are for ourselves. Our complete disregard for the laws of Hungary isn't going to help Nigeria's image or going to promote what the Embassy is trying to showcase. So if the journalists could zoom-in more focus on Nigerians living, working and studying here in Hungary than scrutinizing the embassy and its every move, i think it would be of tremendous help to the embassy serving its nationals better and create more awareness about where we live . Taking the issues of illicit drugs and forged documents as typical examples.. there are so many cases of Nigerians been involved. But i am yet to read of it in e.news. So i think if only you and your journalists could write more about it and follow up on the stories i think it will make our nationals more aware of what to expect. I wouldn't say i am not impressed with your work but you need to be more of a two way street rather than a one way street . Keep up the good work... Sylvia

My comment to the interview with his excellency Mr. Adedotun Adenrele Adepoju CDA a.i--

He is an intelligent man. He spoke well on the issues! Thanks to Mr Hakeem Babalola for the interview it contains some expedient information.. B.Ayo Adams click to read editor's mail
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