Me and Sir Abubakar Tafawa Belewa (Part Two).

WE had a lot to discuss he wanted my opinion on Nigeria's newly acquired independence. I gave him my candid opinion. From the picture you can see that he was completely attentive to me!

Me and Sir Abubakar Tafawa Belewa (Part One).

When Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa 

(1912-1966)  Came to see my late father Kenneth Onwuka Dike at the University of Ibadan, (pictured above), instead of looking at my mother who was shaking him he had his eyes on me. I was dressed in my cowboy uniform complete with pistol.No wonder he had his eyes on me!

Poem-The Burden of Truth

THE BURDEN OF TRUTH

 

The burden of truth has tangible weight.

The Guardians of Truth lie in wait

Holding faithfully the ancestral line,

Regal robust upright, somewhat difficult to define.

Made of fine substance given by the Gods

It is not at all at odds,

With the inescapable truth

That lies hidden, but not for those who play sleuth;

Determined to get to the very bottom of it all.

Have you heard the words uttered by the Oracle?

Does it condemn you to slavery and damnation?

As you leave the shores of this nation

Never to return, to see the sun set

As it did from your youth until you and destiny met.

A meeting that the Guardians of Truth had foreseen

Would bring the downfall of the Sacred Forest, ever so green!

A maiden so young yet so beautiful

Has cast a spell on the land so powerful,

That it has left the elders stunned.

How come the Oracle had not forewarned?

That one so young, yet consumed with such evil power

Could deliver such a blow at this fateful hour

When we thought man had regained his place

In time and space.

Even the Masquerades had failed us

We had no choice eventually, but to embrace the Cross.

 

 A poem from the novel  “ The Burden of Truth” (Work

 In progress).  August 2009

 

Emeka Dike.

Anambra State A Rogue State?

ANAMBRA STATE A ROGUE STATE?

 

I used to joke with my Yoruba friends (who used to tease me about the political savagery in Anambra State during the Chris Ngige and Chris/ Andy Uba “saga”) by telling them that Anambra State was not part of Nigeria but was indeed a “rogue State”. The recent Gubernatorial elections held a few days ago has indeed finally confirmed to anyone that was in any doubt, that Anambra State is indeed a “rogue State.” Without polling booths or ballot boxes or indeed even INEC officials Anambra State “held elections” and it seemed (by waving a magic wand) “returned Andy Uba (as he is notoriously known) as the Governor elect of Anambra State”. In a State that had earlier on announced publicly by radio that no elections had taken place in the State that day.

One of the definitions of the word rogue in the dictionary is “an elephant or other large wild animal driven away or living apart from the herd and having savage or destructive tendencies: a rogue elephant. Or a person or thing that behaves in an aberrant, faulty, or unpredictable way or simply a rogue without ethics scoundrel, villain, miscreant, reprobate, rascal, good-for-nothing, ne'er-do-well, wretch; informal rat, dog, louse, crook; dated cad; archaic blackguard, picaroon, knave.” Shall I go on? Any, which way you look at it “rogue”, is the best way to describe Anambra State. A State that appears to be different in a negative sense, a State where nothing is done according to the norm that pertains elsewhere and in other States, a State in which the indigenes through no fault of their own have been made to feel ashamed of where they come from.

Why do you wonder am I so understanding of the plight of the Anambra Citizen? For one I am one of them and secondly I do have some grasp of Nigerian History, even though the Federal Government has done its best to eradicate history from our lives by removing it from the secondary school curriculum of this country, (a subject that is not for this article but will be revisited at a later date.) If one examines the political history of Nigeria particularly that of the civil war period from 1966-1969 it becomes painfully obvious that Anambra State played an important role in the civil war in terms of providing Biafra with leadership, intelligentsia and military prowess. Anambra was also the bedrock of “inventions” promoting self-reliance and adaptation of alternative technology during the civil war, which led to the establishment of the PRODA Research Institute in Enugu after the civil war.

Prior to the civil war, Anambra State produced the first Chief Justice of Nigeria Sir Louis Mbanefo and the first Nigerian Vice Chancellor of the first indigenous University, the University of Ibadan, Professor Kenneth Onwuka Dike just to name a few. Academically, “old Anambra State” and “old Imo State” produced the best academic results at the secondary school level in the entire country; not to mention countless academicians and intellectuals generally in all professional fields that Anambra State has produced. Why then has it now become a rogue State?

What point am I trying to make? Well to put it simply, why should a State that has been known for excellence in the past be reduced to a “rogue” status? The answer is simple.

 There has been a concerted and systematic policy (even though unspoken) from the “centre” (centre refers to the political psychic of the Nigerian Federation as we understand it today) to politically, socially and economically de-stabilize Anambra State and bring it or shall I say it has been brought already to its knees politically. Typically this has resulted in a lack of law and order, a lack of united political leadership and lastly a lack of direction either in political or economic terms. This has been achieved partly by the “political empowerment” of individuals (usually indigenes of the State who typically are not fit to hold political office; by virtue of background, education and social status.) by “external factors” from outside the State; with the sole aim of using these “rogue politicians” to destabilize the State thus preventing the accepted and traditional leadership within the State to take political control of the State. Typically “empowering” these “rogue politicians” has caused disunity, corruption and material exploitation of the State for their self-gain and aggrandizement to the detriment of the State and its indigenes. (This creation of “rogue politicians” has been carried out in other States other than Anambra State but motivated by a slightly different political agenda.) Typically this “empowerment” is financed by funds looted from the Centre through various avenues of corruption. Hence the need to recoup these ‘investments” through further material and political exploitation of the State as has been witnessed time and time again in Anambra State (as well as other States). Another factor that has led to the lack of focus and cohesion has been the splitting of the Igbo States themselves, carving Anambra and Enugu State from the old Anambra state and Imo and Abia from the old Imo State. Need I say more?

Why should that be? I hear you asking. What is so special about Anambra State? Why should the “Centre” be involved in such a sinister plot?  Who does destabilization of Anambra State benefit you may ask?

The answer to all these questions is simple and can be summarized in one unambiguous word, “Biafra” This is the canker worm that is eating into the heart of this country. We should endeavor as a nation to learn from the mistakes we made during the past Civil War and then move on.

We should stop holding one part of the country (Anambra State) and indeed any other part of the Country responsible, for a civil war, which, ultimately the whole nation is collectively responsible for. We should learn from the South African experience in terms of the way they dealt with the psychological, political and racial residues of “apartheid.” It is only by discussing such emotional and deep-seated issues openly that the wounds of a nation begin to heal and real change comes about within the nation as a whole.  Call it a” Truth and Reconciliation Conference” or whatever you will, but bear in mind that a nation cannot move forward unless “battle scars” are acknowledged with singularity and honestly within the framework of a collective political will to heal the emotional physiological economic and political wounds of conflict, whether it be in terms of civil war, apartheid, slavery or indeed acts of genocide perpetuated against a particular ethnic group.

Nigeria is no exception. We cannot continue to standby and watch a people or a race marginalized because of a problem (in this case civil war) that we all have collective responsibility for as a nation. Enough has been “allowed” to go on in Anambra State. It has to come to a stop! Our polity as a nation and indeed our sense of fair play decency and Justice will continually be questioned until we effectively deal openly with the political, economic and ethnic residues of the Biafran Civil War. It is as we speak an “albatross” around the neck of our nation Nigeria dragging it seemingly further into an abyss. We must wrestle and defeat this “albatross” in order to rid ourselves of this state of injustice, oppression, and mediocrity in which we find ourselves in Nigeria. Anambra’s “rogue status” is as a direct result of the creation of  “political rogues,” (described above) by the “political centre” in order to prevent “past mistakes” typified by the Biafran Civil War from re-occurring again in Anambra State.

If Ibos or Anambrians allow them selves to be used as “political rogues” against their own people it does not absolve them of the fact that an injustice is being done to a people who did no more but stand up to fight for their survival. I advocate that Nigeria is stronger as well as better off as “one” rather than fragmented but then let the playing field be level and let all its citizens be treated equally in terms of their right of political self determination and participation in leadership in a Country that rightfully and morally belongs to us all. Let us stop sweeping our dirt under the carpet but clean house once and for all without leaving any nook or cranny unturned.

Chukwuemeka George Dike

Economic Historian

Harvard AB 1981

April 17, 2007

 

(The verdict pronouncing Andy Uba was later over turned by the courts and the former Governor Obi returned on the grounds that he had not completed his term as Governor as per the Constitution.)