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Mrs.
Oyibo Odinamadu,
Prof. Chinua Achebe
Mrs. Oyibo Odinamadu
About Obi Nwakanma Obi
Nwakanma
was
educated at the The Interview _______________________________ What do you think about
the current crisis in The current crisis in Mrs. Oyibo Odinamadu
I believe that through its agents, the Government, in its usual manner,
had very seriously infiltrated the MASSOB
in order to defeat its policy and agenda. It also used its political agents in manipulating the NARTO and other such organizations to foment disturbances and
violence during MASSOB’s activities.
Nonetheless, I feel that MASSOB
was not vigilant enough to cry out about “the presence of wolves among them” before it was too late. Do you think the crisis
was properly handled by the I think that the first thing in a situation of violence is to stop any
on-going violence. And this is done by separating the violent parties, keeping them apart. On that score, I think
it was a very good move to disband the warring organizations, that is, in effect, to separate them and render their
members disconnected and incommunicado with each other, thereby, non-functional, for a period of time. It was totally wrong for the demonstrators or protesters to release prisoners
from the Prisons, as a way to spite the Government. This is in actual fact, cutting one’s nose to spite one’s face.
The prisoners were put there after a due process of Law, and found to be dangerous to the society, and therefore,
deserved different grades of punishment, ranging from short to long-term incarceration. Releasing them without
due process of law is taking the law into their own hands; and taking the prisoners and the society back to square
one and beyond, to the disadvantage of the society. How does the Government go about returning the prisoners to
confinement? That some of the prisoners returned to the Prisons on their own was a great mark of either, their
ethical standards, or their uncertainty as to whom and where to run to and what the next action should be. I condemned, in no uncertain terms, the posting of soldiers to patrol
and maintain peace and security in From your experience in
government, how would the Okpara Government
have handled a similar scenario or conflict? In my opinion, I think that Dr. Okpara’s Government would have done the first things,
Advertise here
Dr. Okpara’s Government would not have called in soldiers to parade the place under false pretences of helping
to keep peace and security, which function is the opposite of what they are trained to do. The Government of Premier
Okpara would not have accepted
the order that the citizens of the state should vacate their The Government of Dr. Okpara would not have, by any stretch of the imagination, acquiesced to the order to shoot anybody on
sight. That is a declaration of War on the people, under false pretences, with the soldiers who have already been
positioned there. The order to shoot at sight is an approval of mass murder, perpetration of genocide and totally
lacking in any element of protection for the people’s lives and human rights. It is Shame on President Obasanjo, Governor Peter Obi, Chris Uba and their collaborators for this declaration of War on Ndi Igbo and the Igbo Youth! OBJ is a soldier, and a soldier to the core, who cannot see any other way of handling the problems
of the country he was mandated to govern, other than by sheer brute force. And the South-Eastern Nigeria is his
permanent battle-ground! There is no doubt that OBJ is handling Ndi
Igbo and the South-South with an iron hand; that he wants to see whether he could complete his job of complete
destruction and annihilation of these peoples, before he vacates office in May, 2007. These activities of his are
all the reasons why his going would, of course, be good riddance! Right now, President Obasanjo is on the rampage throughout For Governor Peter Obi, this is his first activity and engagement with
the people after taking over the administration of As for Chris Uba and his cohorts, who have no compunction in standing with OBJ in his bid for total destruction and annihilation of Ndi Igbo, their lives, property and
geographical space, I can only call their attention to a saying by Ndi Igbo, to the effect that: “Onye n’ako n’ubi Chukwu, Chukwu an’ako na ubi ya; mana onye n’alubi alubi n’ubi Chukwu, Chukwu an’alubi na ubi ya”, which means: “If somebody is doing good cultivation in God’s farm, God will also be doing good
cultivation in the person’s farm; but if the person is doing destructive cultivation in God’s farm, certainly,
God will be doing destructive work in the person’s farm”.
I know their dear mother fairly well. In fact, we were friends; lived
in the same neighbourhood on
I know that it may not mean anything to you, Chris Uba, what Ndi Igbo might feel and think about you, but it must be very disturbing to your dear mother. I want
you to give her my regards and this message: “That she should do all that is in her power as a good mother to call
her sons, especially you, Chris, to order, because Ndi Igbo, especially How do you react to the
phenomenom god-fatherism
in Nigerian politics - particularly given the experience of Anambra and The phenomenon of God-fatherism or King-maker in politics and societal life, is one that operates all over the world, but which
has, like other practices in Nigeria, gotten out of-hand and thoroughly abused. This practice is among the ugly
ones that have given The person who entered into such a contract in order to win an election
has, in effect, mortgaged his soul and those of the people he sought to be elected into in order to serve to his
mentor; but has trifled away the life and destiny of the people of the State in exchange for his personal aggrandizement
to be in that office. And in an effort to collect the dues from a commitment the client/public officer has decided
not to honour, such public
officer is hounded, dragged about; disgraced, impeached and very nearly killed, all for the sake of the “god-father,”
for whom the exercise was merely a business venture and investment, to exact his “pound of flesh.” In
the case of Dr. Chris Ngige entered into
Mrs. Oyibo Odinamadu
To what extent did the two “Chrises” not go to contain each other? They went from the above to swearing by the Holy Bible to patronizing
the Okija Shrines, and culminating in the destruction of It is obvious that Chris Uba was not doing all this just for the money he would have collected from Dr. Chris Ngige. I believe that he was executing a well-calculated plan
of the destruction of the new Anambra to keep it from existence at all! What did the President say or do in all
this? “Something”- eminently something - to write home about; and that was his most outstanding statement of his
whole administration: “That if Dr. Ngige
was in agreement with Chris Uba,
he should go and settle him! That sort of statement, in the face of all that threat and destruction, left no doubt
in people’s minds that Obasanjo
was behind it all. That undoubtedly confirmed the old adage of Ndi Igbo that: “Onye nna ya zili ori n’eji okpa agbawa mgbo”, that is: “The person who was sent to steal
by his father breaks the door with a loud, thunderous bang”. That was it! In
the case of
As we all recall, Chief Akinjide’s “fuzzy” Arithmetic meant that two-thirds of 19 States, as they were at that time, was thirteen
and two two-thirds of a State or a person, which the NEC accepted as tenable and practicable. Therefore, the runoff
election, which would have taken place between Alhaji Shehu Shagari’s ticket
and a candidate of the Progressive Parties Alliance (PPA comprising the NPP,
UPN, GNPP, NEPU) was called off, and victory was again granted to the Alhaji Shehu Shagari and Dr.Alex
Ekwueme ticket. It was this
second-term administration that the military intervention of Alhaji Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon overthrew in August 1984. But in the case of Chief Adedibu, he achieved the two thirds majority in the Oyo twenty-five member Assembly, sitting and voting,
by sending nine of them on vacation, and convening the House with the remaining members. Having gotten his two-thirds
of a fixed number sitting, he sacked the Governor, and installed his deputy. When Gov. Ladoja ran back to the President to give him an up-date, the
President told him that he was coming to Oyo. Evidently, it was in the effort of the President to bend backwards
to help Governor Ladoja, that
at the public meeting arranged by Governor Ladoja with Chief Adedibu,
that President Obasanjo presented
the very worst of his public image of his administration: He prostrated to Chief Adedibu, belly flat on the ground, and begged him to let go of
Governor Ladoja. Probably,
being a citizen of an ethnic culture where prostrating is an accepted form of greeting and submitting to an elder, the President did
not realize that he had dragged the whole of Nigeria in prostrating to Chief Adedibu. Worst of all is that he still did not get Chief Adedibu to forgive Gov. Ladoja and to go easy on his demands from him. What a thoroughly,
crying out shame! What in your view led
to this peculiar type of shadow authority? This type of shadow authority is a demonstration of the lack of any kind
of respect, even for the high office that persons in public office, even if sponsored, occupy. It is downright
uncivilized; greedy; avaricious; corrupt; limitless; and a complete disregard of public opinion. “Godfathers” make
nonsense of the electoral process, by which they want to be not only the “king-maker,” but the “king” through the
back-door. These individuals only see things from the point of view of the money they spent on a “business venture
and investment,” and which returns they must collect. Otherwise the whole thing becomes a bad investment and a
failure. This shadow authority inflicts a slap-in-the-face on office holders and Godfatherism and election-rigging are OBJ’s stock-in-trade. Right from the 1979 Presidential Elections when he first informed Chief Awolowo of his intentions, and then proceeded
to rig him out his victory in the Elections, to prevent him from probing the Military. He has also institutionalized
election-rigging in What has changed in the
time you became active in the NCWS and the
place of Nigerian women today. Actually, I did not just become active in the NCWS; I was a founding and foundation
At the time, men were quite unwilling to let their wives attend meetings
of organizations that were not religious; in village associations and market unions men could know what was going
on. It was an uphill task to get women to break those bonds and attend the meetings of organizations that did not
quite fit the requirements of their husbands. But they started to come out gradually; to participate, and even
go on representations to conferences and seminars, even beyond We organized Leadership Training Courses to acquaint women with voluntary
and charitable work, and what officers of such organizations were expected to do. We also explored fundamental
human rights, and how they applied to women as wives and mothers, and to their children. More girls started to attend school; but the proportion of girls to boys
in schools was still deplorable, until the Nigeria/Biafra War acted as a catalyst; an eye and mind-opener for Igbo
men to appreciate that, even though their daughters might not carry their family names after marriage, many had
survived the War due to the hard work, attention and care of wives and daughters. Of major concern was for the girl-child to have equal opportunity as
the boy-child for secondary and tertiary education. There was also the need for employment opportunities to open
up for the girl-child as much as for the boy-child at each stage of their education. We also demanded better working
conditions for women, especially to enjoy the same working conditions as men; and even extra maternity and sick
leave. We also demanded that women were not only employed, but promoted in due
time, and to be appointed to policy and decision-making positions. Some action was seen in this direction, but
improvement was more or less cosmetic or a window-dressing where you found one woman among twenty to fifty men
or none at all; as in the “fifty wise men” who drafted the 1979 Nigerian Constitution. Do you think Nigerian
women have arrived at the dream your generation of women activists set out to accomplish? Of course not! Far, far from it! Women have come a long way, though, and not by a sudden
flight. Today we no longer have to pressurize women into attending meetings of cosmopolitan organizations; they
are even organizing some themselves. Nigerian women, even Igbo women, have entered the field of partisan politics,
and are pushing right into it, with or without Affirmative Action. It is no longer necessary for women to obtain
the written consent of their husbands to even travel locally, or to obtain a passport; they are traveling all over
the world for whatever purpose – education, business, conferences, politics, holidays, health purposes, visiting
with children, family members and friends. The outstanding recommendation of the International Women’s Year 1975
was that the Federal Government should set up a Commission on the Status of Women. The Commission was set up ten
years later, in 1985. It took this long because the Military Boys did not want to know about it. However they set
up the Better Life Program for Rural
Women, which was replaced by the Family Support Program (FSP) in 1994. This Programme was upgraded to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development in 1994, and is run by Ms.
Rita Akpan as Minister. The
Ministry is doing a very good job of studying, delving into, and executing solutions for women’s problems, as well
as representing women at national and international forums such as the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; and the Beijing Conference. The establishment of the Center
for the Advancement of Women is particularly effective. Today, Nigerian women are in almost every profession, and are displacing
men in quick succession. Women used to be confined to employment as teachers, nurses and even that, at the lowest
echelons. But they have worked quietly; slowly but steadily, and have come up from the grassroots; not as mere
sprinkling, frosting, or window-dressing any longer, but in strengths to take over in quite a few areas. Teaching
and administration of primary and secondary education, and tertiary-institution professorships are a few of such
disciplines. A few are also in administration. Women, of course, are in the nursing profession in all grades; they
are in pharmacy, the medical field; architecture and engineering. They practice the law as attorneys; magistrates
and judges, they are economists and finance experts, as well. They are in law enforcement as agents, in the armed
forces; they function as law-makers; permanent secretaries, directors-general; chairpersons of boards of parastatals, and of corporations. Except in the Roman Catholic Church, and in the There are no female governors, yet; but there has been a woman deputy-governor.
The exclusion of women is due primarily to the chauvinistic stances of men in political parties, who view a position
opened to women as one lost to men. My humble self is a typical example of that act of discrimination and exclusion
by male members of my political party, at the State level. Most of Nigerian men still think and believe that the
place of the woman is in the house and kitchen. The good news is that some other men are very much emancipated
and forward-looking about the advancement of women. Now that Liberia has put Nigeria to shame by electing the first
African woman President, may be Nigerian political parties will wake up to the possibility and realities of nominating
and electing a woman governor “with immediate alacrity,” as Zebrudaya would say. Perhaps, a female President will
follow in the very near future. I pray God to spare my life to see these developments, because it is said that:
Onye diruka, o’vuruka. “The longer
one lives, the more s/he witnesses.” When people talk about the greatness of i.
at least fifty-percent of ii.
the generality of women and the girl-child, in all ethnic nationalities,
are so downtrodden by oppressive cultural practices, to the approval of their men-folk; iii. women have to fight tooth and nail for any advancement, any ground gained in education, employment,
freedom to travel, political participation, etc; iv. men still do not see anything wrong with girl-childhood marriage, in v.
which biologically undeveloped and immature girls are put in the family-way;
mostly by men old enough to be their fathers and grand-fathers; vi. young
girls either dying or ruined for life by obstetric fistula, which is the vii. tearing
of the female reproductive system at the time of delivering babies, unaided medically; vi. high maternal and infant mortality at birth, as well as the toll of malaria,
diarrhea and malnutrition;
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