Saying “the time has come for a new policy” in Syria, veteran Republican Senator John McCain called Monday for U.S.-led airstrikes on President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in an effort to protect civilians from a bloody year-long crackdown by the regime.
“The United States should lead an international effort to protect key population centers in Syria, especially in the north, through airstrikes on Assad’s forces,” McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a speech on the Senate floor.
“To be clear: This will require the United States to suppress enemy air defense in at least part of the country,” said McCain, who has repeatedly called in recent weeks and months for a stepped-up U.S. effort to protect Syrian civilians.
Assad has waged a year-long, deadly crackdown on opposition to his regime, drawing fierce criticism from Washington and other world powers, though Moscow and Beijing blocked a UN Security Council resolution aimed at halting the bloodshed.
The White House has sharply criticized Russia and China, but has resisted calls to arm the Syrian opposition as premature.
McCain said “the ultimate goal of airstrikes” would be “to establish and defend safe havens in Syria” where Assad’s outgunned opponents “can organize and plan their political and military activities” and points for the delivery of humanitarian and military aid “including weapons and ammunition, body armor and other personal protective equipment, tactical intelligence, secure communications equipment, food and water, and medical supplies.
“After a year of bloodshed, the crisis in Syria has reached a decisive moment,” McCain said. “Increasingly, the question for U.S. policy is not whether foreign forces will intervene militarily in Syria. We can be confident that Syria’s neighbors will do so eventually, if they have not already.”
“Some kind of intervention will happen, with us or without us. So the real question for U.S. policy is whether we will participate in this next phase of the conflict in Syria, and thereby increase our ability to shape an outcome that is beneficial to the Syrian people, and to us. I believe we must,” the Arizona Republican said.
“However, it is not clear that the present policy can succeed. If Assad manages to cling to power — or even if he manages to sustain his slaughter for months to come, with all of the human and geopolitical costs that entails — it would be a strategic and moral defeat for the United States. We cannot, we must not, allow this to happen,” McCain said.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
BENGHAZI, Libya — A large map of Libya hangs on the wall in the home of Idris al-Rahel, with a line down the middle dividing the country in half.
Al-Rahel, a former army officer, leads a movement to declare virtual autonomy in eastern Libya, where most of the country’s oil fields are located. The region’s top tribal leaders meet Tuesday in the east’s main city Benghazi to consider unilaterally announcing an eastern state, linked to the west only by a tenuous “federal union.”
Opponents fear a declaration of autonomy could be the first step toward outright dividing the country. But some easterners say they are determined to end the domination and discrimination by the west that prevailed under strongman Moammar Gadhafi.
Al-Rahel points to the capital Tripoli on the map, in the west. “All troubles came from here,” he said, “but we will not permit this to happen again.”
The move shows how six months after Gadhafi’s fall, the central government in Libya has proved incapable of governing at all. Other countries that shed their leaders in the Arab Spring revolts — Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen — are going through rocky transitions, but none has seen a collapse of central authority like Libya. The collapse has only worsened as cities, towns, regions, militias and tribes all act on their own, setting up their independent power centers.
After liberation from the rule of Gadhafi, Libyans dreamed their country of 6 million could become another Dubai — a state with a small population, flush with petro-dollars, that is a magnet for investment. Now they worry that it is turning more into another Somalia, a nation that has had no effective government for more than 20 years.
Libya may not face literal fragmentation, but it could be doomed to years of instability as it recovers from four decades of rule under Gadhafi, who pitted neighbor against neighbor, town against town and tribe against tribe. The resentment and bitterness he incubated is now bursting forth in general lawlessness.
“What Gadhafi left in Libya for 40 years is a very, very heavy heritage,” said Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the National Transitional Council, which in theory rules Libya but doesn’t even hold sway in the capital Tripoli. “It’s … hard to get over it in one or two years or even five years.”
Signs of the government’s weakness are everywhere.
Tripoli remains under the control of various revolutionaries-turned-militiamen, who have resisted calls to integrate into a national army.
Kufra, deep in the deserts of the south, is a battleground for two rival tribes, one Arab and one African, who killed dozens in two weeks of fighting last month.
And Misrata, the country’s third-largest city and just two hours’ drive east of the capital, effectively rules itself, with its militias ignoring government pleas and exacting brutal revenge on anyone they believe to have supported Gadhafi.
At a Misrata garage that has been turned by militiamen into a makeshift prison, one detainee, Abdel-Qader Abdel-Nabi, shows what remains of his left hand: The fingers have been cut off in a ragged line about halfway down. Abdel-Nabi said militiamen lashed his hand with a horse whip until the fingers were severed.
“Then they threw me bleeding down the stairs,” he said. His interrogators were trying to get him to confess to working with Gadhafi’s forces during last year’s civil war and collaborating in the killing of rebel fighters.
Around 800 other detainees are held in the same facility, which militiamen allowed The Associated Press to visit. The detainees are accused of involvement in killings, torture, rape and other crimes under Gadhafi. There are no courts at the moment capable of addressing the suspicions, so the detainees are entirely at the mercy of militiamen.
Medics in a clinic set up in the garage said they have treated dozens tortured in interrogations. One medic said he had seen nine prisoners whose genitalia had been cut off, and others given electric shocks. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation by the militiamen.
Misrata was one of the few major cities in the west to rise up against Gadhafi last year, and paid for it with a months-long, devastating siege by regime forces. After repelling the assault, its militias joined the final march on Tripoli that captured the capital and brought down Gadhafi in August. It was Misrata militiamen who found Gadhafi in his final stronghold, the city of Sirte, and killed him in October.
Now the city seems determined to decide its own fate, creating a de facto self-rule. Last month, it held its own elections for a new city council, after forcing out a self-appointed council formed in the uprising which came to be seen as corrupt and ineffective.
In the isolated southeastern town of Kufra, 600 miles (990 kilometers) from Benghazi, fighters from the powerful Zwia Arab tribe have besieged the African Tabu tribe in a battle for the past two weeks.
The Tabu, an ethnic minority indigenous to the area, were heavily suppressed under Gadhafi. After Gadhafi’s fall, the National Transitional Council assigned the Tabu to police the nearby borders with Chad and Sudan to stop smuggling — a trade dominated by the Zwia.
The Tabu say fighting erupted Feb. 11, after a Zwia smuggler killed six Tabu border guards. The Zwia in turn say the Tabu attacked them in an attempt to declare their own state in the area, which the Tabu deny.
Zwia, backed by tanks and armored vehicles, took control of the streets and entrances to the town of 700,000, battling with Tabu gunmen. They surrounded the main Tabu district, where an Associated Press reporter saw widespread damage to homes from rockets.
The district’s tiny, three-room hospital was packed with the injured, with only one doctor and 15 nurses. Empty water bottles were being used as blood bags. The doctor, Tarek Abu Bakr, said he has recorded 54 people killed. One Tabu leader, Eissa Abdel-Majed, put the toll at more than 100.
After two weeks of fighting, independent militias in the region finally mediated a tenuous truce. Authorities in Tripoli could do nothing, despite bluster about sending troops to separate the sides.
The violence highlights the weakness of the National Transitional Council, made up of representatives from around the country. The Council is overseeing the transition to democracy after Gadhafi’s fall, including the organizing of elections set for June. But besides having little ability to enforce decisions, it has been mired in its own divisions.
NTC chief Abdul-Jalil, a former reform-minded justice minister under Gadhafi, was largely welcomed as a clean and well-intentioned figure. But many feel he is not providing strong enough leadership.
Mohammed Ali, a politician who works closely with Abdul-Jalil, described his style as that of a boxing referee. “He stands on the side watching to see who wins, then raises his hand to declare him victorious,” said Ali.
A frustrated Abdul-Jalil admitted mistakes. “But democracy is the reason,” he told AP. “In every single decision, I have to get the vote” of 72 Council members.
The Council’s attempts to put together a law governing the election are weeks behind schedule. It has put forward three drafts, each met by a storm of criticism from various factions that forced a rewrite. The election is to choose a 200-member assembly tasked with writing a new constitution and forming a government.
The drafts allocate about 60 seats for the east, compared to 102 for the west, because the drafters say the breakdown reflects the larger population in the west. But for angry easterners, it smacks of the years of discrimination under Gadhafi, who focused development in the west while largely neglecting the east and its main city, Benghazi.
The east was long a center of opposition to Gadhafi, the source of failed coups and assassination attempts against him — and Gadhafi punished it by depriving its cities of funds for services, health care and schools. However, the east, with its oil fields, is also the source of the vast majority of Libya’s revenue.
“The westerners have been milking us like a cow,” said al-Rahel.”They built towers, airports and hotels while we were deprived of everything.”
Benghazi was the first city to shed Gadhafi’s rule last year, and the entire east quickly followed. But after his death, the National Transitional Council moved from Benghazi to the capital, and formed an interim Cabinet dominated by figures from the west.
The fight is also fueling a movement to revive a federal system that existed in Libya under the monarchy before it was toppled in the 1967 coup led by Gadhafi. Under that system, Libya was divided into three states, Tripolitania in the west, Fezzan in the southwest and Cyrenaica — or Barqa, as it was called in Arabic — which encompassed the eastern half of the country.
Al-Rahel’s National Federal Union movement calls for a return to that system, giving each region its own capital, parliament, police and courts. Al-Rahel cites the American model of states and a federal government.
On Tuesday, at a gathering of about 3,000 easterners in Benghazi, planners aim to announce the creation of Barqa state and call for other regions to follow in forming a federal system, said Abu Bakr Baaira, a co-founder of the group. He dismissed worries the move will break Libya apart and said Barqa would seek U.N. backing if Tripoli refuses.
“Are the U.S., Switzerland and Germany divided?” he said. “We hope they don’t force us to a new war and new bloodshed. This is the last thing we look for.”
Easterners have already formed their army, the Barqa Supreme Military Council, made up of revolutionary fighters who rose up to battle Gadhafi last year. Their commander, Col. Hamid al-Hassi, said his forces are now willing to fight for autonomy if Tripoli doesn’t grant it.
“Even if we had to take over the oil fields by deploying our forces there or risk another war, we will not hesitate for the sake of Barqa,” he told AP.
A spokesman for the Tripoli government, Ashour Shamis, said the NTC rejects the plan, and instead backs a decentralization that would give considerable authority to local city or district governments but preserve a strong central government.
Even some easterners are worried. Fathi al-Fadhali, a prominent writer originally from Benghazi, says Libya isn’t ready for such a system. First, the country has to overcome the poisons of Gadhafi’s rule and establish a civil society where rights are respected.
“We are all polluted by Gadhafi’s evil, violence, envy, terrorism, and conspiracies,” he said, “myself included.”
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
An 85-year-old music legend in Nigeria, known for the “highlife” dance music that once dominated West Africa, Fatai Rolling Dollar has mounted a surprising comeback five decades after his heyday.
The octogenarian, who saw his fame and money dwindle when highlife’s popularity faded, is again playing the upbeat sound on guitar to packed venues and remains, despite his age, one of Nigeria’s snappiest dressers.
Wearing a yellow-and-blue outfit, canary yellow sunglasses and a military beret, he sits in a popular Lagos bar discussing the highlife music that was born in Ghana in the early 1900s and reached its peak in the region in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Highlife features quick, repetitive rhythms driven by electric guitar and wind instruments played beneath a sometimes melancholic chant that typically satirises modern life.
In highlife’s golden era, Fatai was a nationally celebrated performer along with Fela Kuti, the legendary afrobeat musician who also boldly campaigned against Nigeria’s military dictators.
Although the rise of hip-hop has radically changed the music scene in Africa’s most populous nation, Fatai is trying to ensure that highlife does not disappear completely.
“We are reviving and reforming highlife,” he told AFP outside his modest Lagos apartment. “Highlife makes people happy.”
The beat’s new guardians have also started to emerge.
Chijioke Enebechi, a saxophone player and front man of the Highlife Africa Heritage band sees Fatai as “a kind of inspiration.”
“Despite his age, he’s still playing, and… he advises us to make sure that we don’t let this music die off,” he said.
Fatai is unimpressed at the surging popularity of hip-hop in Nigeria and questions the musical credentials of the genre’s artists.
“Hip-hop… has its own time, when this time will pass, everything will close up, but highlife will be there, because highlife is the root of the music that we have in Nigeria today,” he said.
“If you want to know a good musician, a good musician should know how to play any instrument,” betraying a slight irritation with hip-hop artists he accused of sometimes being “lazy” and simply seeking “easy money.”
Sitting in the shade of an acacia tree, — this time sporting a leopard print hat and sky blue pants with matching embroidered shirt, plus white plastic sunglasses — he seemed ready to chat endlessly about his love of music, life… and women.
“I love women,” he said with a mischievous smile. “They are important to music. There is no music if there is no woman.”
He is the father of 15 children. The youngest, not yet two years old, was born he says of an “adventure” on the sidelines of a concert in Germany.
While Fatai claims he is 85, the date of birth printed on the sleeve of one of his albums puts him at 83. Regardless of the exact figure, the salt-and-pepper goateed artist seems unbothered by his advancing years.
Money, or his lack of it, is a more pressing worry.
With his talent ignored and his fame forgotten, he lived in poverty from the 1970s until luck smiled on him in the late 1990s. Nigeria’s Jazzhole Records released the album “Fatai Rolling Dollar Returns” and the German Goethe Institute funded a concert — marking his grand return from the musical wilderness.
That reignited his passion for music, and now he is working on a new album.
He hopes to set up a music school for young artists with no opportunity to develop their talents.
“They are roaming about the streets…. They leave university, they have no jobs but they have the talent to play music,” he said.
He has appealed to the government to back his plans so that “my name will not perish.
“I have no job than music in my life. If I stop what can I eat? But God knows what will happen to me when I become very old, because I am not very old now, I am still young,” he declares.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Nigeria’s Arik Air has suspended its daily flights to Johannesburg after 125 Nigerians were refused entry into South Africa over a dispute with airport health authorities, it said on Saturday.
Arik decided to suspend flights between Lagos and Johannesburg, the two financial hubs, due to a dispute with health authorities over yellow fever vaccination documents presented at OR Tambo International Airport by passengers, it said in a statement.
Arik, the only Nigeria-owned airline on the lucrative Lagos-Johannesburg route, said that 50 passengers were refused entry on Friday while ThisDay newspaper said that 75 other Nigerian passengers on South Africa Airways were also turned back.
“Many passengers have been detained and refused entry in recent months,” the airline said in a statement.
It said health authorities gave the reason as incorrect or unrecognised batch numbers on the documentation which is mandatory proof before entry.
Hundreds of Nigerian and West African passengers travelling from the region are being refused entry into South Africa, the airline alleged.
Arik described the protocol as “irregular and obfuscating” and said it was not prepared to continue operations into a country where customers were at risk of detention or “any other measures meted out arbitrarily by the authorities.”
The airline’s chief executive, Michael Arumemi-Ikhide, said that the protocol was “haphazard” and “discriminatory to many of our passengers,” according to the statement.
Arik began once-daily flights to South Africa in June 2009.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Dim Oma! How do I sum up 23 years in one page? I don’t know. How do I describe you? I cannot. Not in any depth. Not for anybody else – you were my husband, my brother, my friend, my child. I was your queen, and it was an honour to have served you.
You were the lion of my history books, the leader of my nation when we faced extinction, the larger-than-life history come to my life – living, breathing legend. But unlike the history books, you defied all preconceptions. You made me cry from laughter with your jokes, many irreverent. You awed me with your wisdom. You melted my heart with your kindness. Your impeccable manners made Prince Charming a living reality. Your fearlessness made you the man I dreamt of all my life and your total lack of seeking public approval before speaking your mind separated you from mere mortals.
Every year that I spent with you was an adventure – no two days were the same. With you, I was finally able to soar on wings wider than the ocean. With you I was blessed with the best children God in heaven had to give. With you, I learnt to face the world without fear and learnt daily the things that matter most. Your disdain for money was novel – sometimes funny, other times quite alarming.
It mattered not a whit to you. Your total dedication to your people – Ndi-Igbo – was so absolute that really, very little else mattered. You never craved anybody’s praise as long as you believed that you were doing right and even in the face of utmost danger, you never relented from speaking truth to power – to you, what after all, was power? It was not that conferred by the gun, nor that stolen from the ballot box. No. You understood that power transcended all that. Power is the freedom to be true to yourself and to God, no matter the cost.
It is freedom from fear. It is freedom from bondage. It is freedom to seek the wellbeing of your people just because you love them. It is the ability to move a whole nation without a penny as inducement nor a gun to force them. When an entire nation can rise up for one person for no other reason than that they love him and know he is their leader – sans gun, money, official title or any strange paraphernalia – that is power.
To try to contain you in words is futile. You span the breadth of human experience – full of laughter, joy, kindness and sometimes, almost childlike in your ability to find something good in almost everyone and every situation. You could flare up at any injustice and in the next instant, sing military songs to the children. You could analyse a situation with incredible swiftness and accuracy. In any generation, there can only be one like you. You were that one star. You were a child of destiny, born for no other time than the one you found yourself in.
Destined to lead your people at the time total extinction was staring us in the face. There was no one else. You gained nothing from it. You used all the resources you had just to wage a war of survival. You fought to keep us alive when we were being slaughtered like rams for no reason. Today, we find ourselves in the same situation but you are not here. You fought that we might live. The truth is finally coming out and even those who fought you now acknowledge that you had no choice. For your faithfulness, God kept you and brought you home to your people.
You loved Nigeria. You spent so much of your waking moments devising ways through which Nigeria could progress to Tai-Two!!! You were the eternal optimist, always hoping that one day, God will touch His people and give us one Vision and the diligence to work towards the dream. It never came to pass in your lifetime. Instead, the disaster you predicted if we continued on the same path has come home to roost. You always saw so clearly. Your words are indelibly preserved for this generation to read and learn and perhaps heed and turn. You always said the dry bones will rise again. But you always hoped we would not become the dry bones by our actions. Above all, you feared for your own people, crying out against the relentless oppression that has not ceased since the end of the war and saddened by the acceptance of this position by your own people. In death, you have awakened the spirit that we thought had died. Your people are finally waking up.
At home, you were the father any child would dream of having. At no point did our children have to wonder where you were. You were ever at their disposal, playing with them, teaching them of a bygone era, teaching them of the world they live in and giving them the total security of knowing you were always present.
In mercy, God gave me a year to prepare for the inevitable. I could never have survived an instant departure. In mercy, God ensured that your final week on earth was spent only with me and that on your last day, you were back to your old self. I cannot but thank God for the joy of that final day – the jokes, the laughter, the songs. It was a lifetime packed into a few hours, filled with hope that many tomorrows would follow and that we would be home for Christmas. You deceived me. You were so emphatic that we would be going home. I did not know you meant a different home.
The swiftness of your departure remains shocking to me. You left on the day I least expected. But I cannot fight God. He owns your life and mine. I know that God called you home because every other time it seemed you were at death’s door, you fought like the lion that God made you and always prevailed. In my eyes, even death was no match for you. But who can say ‘no’ to the Almighty God? You walked away with Him, going away with such peace that I can only bow to God’s sovereignty. Your people have remembered. The warrior of our land has gone. The flags are lowered in your honour. Our hearts are laden with grief.
A Unique Moment In The Life Of The Ikemba…
But I will trust that the living God who gave you to me will look after me and our children. Through my sadness, the memories will always shine bright and beautiful.
Adieu, my love, My husband, My lion, Ikemba, Amuma na Egbe Igwe, Odenigbo Ngwo. Eze-Igbo Gburugburu, Ibu dike. Chukwu gozie gi, Chukwu debe gi. Anyi ga afu na omesia
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Beautiful, if that could capture it, is like an understatement. For in her seventies, the grace and elegance that must have made the Ikemba fall head over heels in love decades ago were apparent. With a disarming smile, an intellect that is confounding and a memory that is outstanding, Mrs Njideka Odumegwu-Ojukwu is a subject for a whole biography. But that may never come out of her. She just is not attracted by publicity. In this interview, a lot of areas were marked as no go areas, a lot of fields not to be touched. Obvious, however, is the fact that there are far too many truths lurking within her that only a book can fully capture. What we serve here therefore is the summary of an interview session with the woman who saw the Nigerian Civil War as the wife of one of the two most important players – Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu; a woman who gave birth to four successful children and has remained elegant even in her seventies. Eni Akinsola spoke with her. (Note: this interview was first published in The Nation on Sunday, June 22, 2008. Mrs Ojukwu passed on March 24, 2010)
What was your childhood and growing up like? My birth was said to be special in that my mum was barely seven months pregnant when I came prematurely with my twin sister. We were said to have been covered with all sorts of clothing, wool and other things to make us warm. My mum could not offer breast milk because she was not too well and so we had to be breast-fed by other women. I made it but the other child didn’t. I was named Njideka, which means “I am grateful for this child.â€
My parents had seven of us, one died at thirteen and I became the second from the original third position among the children. I attended St. Monica’s in Onitsha and Archdeacon Crowder Memorial Girls School, Elelenwo, near Port Harcourt. I was born in a Christian family. My parents were very strict Christians. It’s difficult to say this, but the truth is that I was born in abundance. I had everything I wanted. True also is that it wasn’t a happy childhood. My father, for reasons best known to him, wanted very much to marry me off and yet he had five daughters, I was number two.
Coming from a wealthy home, how was school like? It was not easy at all. Teenagers had their own ways of thinking. We had so many people. My father would not allow one to say hello to a man. But here was I, in Elelenwo, with students from University College, Ibadan coming to teach. I will be going on, and see one and say hello, or shake hands, my father would see that and descend on me. Our house was so high that he could see you from afar. In any case, I was not ready to play hide and seek. I read a lot, stayed indoors a lot.
My father was one of the pioneers in the recording business. There was another called Joe Febro, though I have forgotten the man behind it. Those days, they used to work together.
My father, had seven living children I was first number three, but when the eldest died at thirteen, I became the second. How did your relationship with Ojukwu start? It was after my divorce from Dr. Brodi-Mends, a Ghanaian and the father of my first child, Iruaku. Ojukwu is somebody you see around or bump into because our parents were business people. I’d seen him the day my younger sister was going to England at the airport. She knew him before me. Later on, he told me my sister was my best ambassador. That she was always talking about me and that I was always at home. Then, you had to fly by a small aircraft from Enugu to Kano to join the British Airways. So, we had gotten to the airport when my name was announced, I was shocked. I had the feeling that maybe something terrible had happened to my father. My hands were shaking when they were giving me the telegraph. I opened it and what was the content: “I am sorry; I mean to come to meet you at the airport. But I was sent to Keshi in Ghana. Emeka. “When I read it, I had to wonder, why is he concerned and where is “Keshiâ€. Because, I was not familiar with military locations. After that, I went to London and continued with my life, until three years later, when I met him again at a tube station. I had gone with a friend of mine, Mrs. Obiekwe, she is late now. While we were going with the husband, somebody just said ‘they do not greet people in Igbo.’’ I turned back and lo and behold, it was Emeka, who had escorted his father to the station. He said he was on a course and asked for my phone number and I gave him. A week later, he called. “Hello, I am very sorry I have not been able to call,†he said, I said no problem, in any case, you give your number to several people not with any expectation that they’ll call. We met on several occasions thereafter. He pursued me like I have never experienced. At a point he asked me about a Canadian friend of mine and said that I had to let go of him. One major reason I didn’t mind him was my father. I was afraid he could have a heart attack and die if he got to know I had a white friend. By then, we were thinking of a serious relationship. Anyway, Emeka was calling and calling and staying on the phone. I didn’t realize what he was up to until I asked him why he liked wasting time and money on phones. He asked if I really wanted the truth, then revealed that he wanted to take that my friend, who he had christened “Canada.†off me! (laughter). One day, Emeka invited me to his house. I took a friend of mine, Efun Shobande, with me. We got to his house and he took me aside. So, you brought someone to come and spy on me? I laughed it off but that was indeed why I brought my friend with me. By the way, I lost contact with Efun and have not seen her since. I understand she was married and was in Kaduna, she was brought up in Jos. On the way back the next day, we talked about him and I was so confused, that when we go to Baker Street, I almost passed out. Efun told me that she liked and preferred Emeka. In any case, she added, “he is a Nigerian.†I thereafter, told him to get in touch with my parents if he was serious. He had known about Iruaku, my daughter by Brodi-Mends. She was two when I left home. When I got back to Nigeria, I saw a huge teddy bear with Iruaku and when I asked who gave it to her, I was told it was Emeka. He had obviously wooed everybody in the house over. My mother and the rest were all in love with him. Our parents, fathers were well known to one another, though they are from Nnewi and we are from Nawfia, not too far from Awka. Your marriage with Ikemba started on a high. He was a military man and all that… Did you know he was in the military when it started.? I knew he was a soldier. But I didn’t know much about what being a soldier meant. There was a day he came home while in London with the British Army uniform, I asked him and he said he is on course and so have to put on the uniform during the duration of the course. I only got to know more when I came back. The first party he took me took me to was Ironsi’s. I didn’t remember seeing many women there. I remember seeing Murtala Mohammed who was then Ironsi’s Aide De Camp. The men were so polished; spoke impeccable English, well mannered and unbelievably polite. I was pleasantly surprised. So we had people like this in Nigeria? I sort of liked them. The crop I saw was impressive. And Emeka was very good at taking care of a woman. Was he randy, full of soft words, romantic? I didn’t even know the word is romance. Not really. He is just a very kind man, very polite, not intrusive. He cared less about what happened in the kitchen, he just settled for whatever you offered him. He respected me and my opinion a lot. Later, when the children got across to him, he would ask them what my opinion was on issues. And I loved him immensely in return. If you were this in love, why the separation? Well, somebody summed it up: Fredrick Forsyth in his book. He knew the very beginning of the story. I agree with him that it is the war. I suppose, in a given situation, where things are very bad, there is always a casualty. I guess I was the last casualty of the war. I do not hold Emeka responsible. I think there was pressure on him to have another wife and he was resisting. And you know there are other undercurrents that are better left in the past where they belong. So, one day, you just decided to leave him or he asked you to leave? No, I just left. I disappeared. I went to London. Okigbo my last son was then around two and a half years. He didn’t allow any of the children to go with me. Eventually, we communicated again and I got the children back. Maybe the problem is that I can’t tolerate distraction in my marriage. I gave all, my soul, life and all and could not stand ridiculous stories. The unfortunate part of it all was that I kept marrying single sons. But if I had married again and had trouble, I would just have left I love my peace. Since then, what have you been doing? I have been doing business. When I was in London, I was ordering George, jewelleries from India, Italy and selling them to other traders. I couldn’t continue with my education, so I went into buying and selling. Some people asked me, what was Deka (West Africa) Limited (my company) into? And I answered: we sell everything except illegal things. Like your dad who was into buying and selling before going into recording? Yes, I learnt trading from him. He was into several other legitimate things. For instance, when he started the record business, he would bring in sample records and play them, he would then ask us to listen in and from our reactions, he gets a fair idea of how the record would be received by buyers. In that way, we were being used as sounding boards. Then he went into importing ladies’ things. Later on, he opened a recording factory, CTO, which stands for Christopher Tagbo Onyekwere. Before I married, I worked for him for one year as a clerk and I was for the important and export section. So, I learn on the job. Of the several of us Tagbo is an accountant, Ndubuisi, the other boy, an engineer, is the one managing the rest of my dad’s business. Tagbo was in London for sometime and then moved to Zambia, where he was like the governor of the Central Bank for some time. Definitely after the war, my family was not comfortable here. The factory was burnt during the war, because it was on the water front. My elder sister, I told you was a nurse, and was one of the best nurses I have ever met. She had a clinic. She is late now and had children. When I was asking about you from the commissioner, your son, I could read admiration and deep respect. And he said, he never heard any bad word from you against his father. I know you have your grouses, why did you keep them to yourself? You see, it is destructive to bring children into the disagreements of their parents. In my case, he is not a criminal; he is a very kind man. He was not criminally involved. He did not steal while in government, he doesn’t know how to steal government’s money. And that was why he was even spending our money. So, there was indeed nothing to tell. I couldn’t make up a story because I wanted to make him bad with the children. If there was a crime you could hold against him, it would be that he loved women. Ordinarily that is a thing one should be able to put up with, but it is not that simple when you are in love with a man. In any case when you love a man, there are so many things you don’t ever do. He, I must say, is unlike most Nigerian men. His likes are not common. In maintaining the family, he was much like my dad. He does not interfere with what happens in the kitchen. He has a long of good points. Well, have you been communicating? Yes, very well. In bringing up the children, he is always there. Whenever, proximity allows, he comes in here and we discuss specific issues of importance. We were never in any irreconcilable crisis. And we share respect for one another. How was the war for you? The fact that you were the wife of the Head of State of a breakaway country; how was the pressure of the war, the children and the family? Let me tell you one true story. When the war started, the wife of the Commissioner of Police came up to my house and asked; Madam, how do you survive in all these because the tension was just too much? She said: “do you know, this man, she was referring to her husband, whenever he goes out, I always feel I am going to melt. My body would be shaking. You know, I love my husband so much I can’t imagine what I would do if he dies.†I told her that I tackle the tension by settling for the worse, even when I pray fervently that it does not happen. Each time he goes out, I pretend that it may be the last time I’ll be seeing him. I felt that the best thing to do is to be prepared anytime to be a widow. That I felt would be the best attitude because if not, you will die immediately. If you love a man like that, all you could do if the unexpected happens, is to swallow very hard and just move on. You see, I am so calm. There was this particular doctor who used to come to take what he needed for others from the little we were getting as relief materials during the war. He refers to me as ‘always unruffledâ€. May be it’s in the way I’m made. Was there no time you felt threatened as a person? When you felt death was close? Were you prepared to die for the cause? Were you convinced about the Biafra thing? If you saw what happened to Igbos in the north… I was so angry. I told my husband I would have been in the tanks if I wasn’t married to him. When they were bringing people from the North; headless men, women … they put bottles inside them. I was very angry. I felt I should go out there and kill all of them. There was no way you could see the returning casualties and not get angry. Let me give you an example. One day, when I came back from Ivory Coast, I was on my way to Broad Street. I didn’t know my way around. One gentleman in suit, extremely light in complexion, obviously from the North, introduced himself. Please can I meet you? His name was a northern name. I said, oh my God! And went away showing how bitter I was. Is there any reason for Biafra now? You tell me. Is there any reason for Biafra as a Nigerian? (Here there was a debate on present realities.) I don’t know. It’s almost impossible, but it won’t be. It can happen if they are not careful. The way they are treating everybody, even Yorubas sometimes ago threatened to go away. And you people (Yoruba) let us down because we wanted southern solidarity. Have you not heard of that? It is not over yet. It may not come in this manner. It may not be Yoruba wanting to go away or Igbo wanting to go away. Something terrible can happen. You cannot continue to oppress people like this. They force their ways into power or rig elections and rob the place dry and they are not even ashamed. What haven’t we seen? When Emeka was a governor, he was young, early thirties because both of us were married when we were thirty. I remember one day, one ambassador came and left a small chain and pendant for him to give me. He rejected it. It took a lot of persuasion from everybody there before he accepted it. The case now is different. Do you know that Nigeria is the 10th country in the world in terms of the gap between the rich and the poor? And the people who are rich don’t even know how to make money, only how to steal. In our own time, my father worked himself to death. They didn’t know what resting was all about. Nowadays, people just flaunt their unearned wealth. It’s not fair. To some people he was unforgiving… Yorubas or those that he dealt with? Not Yorubas. Several people in write-ups have said he is stubborn, inflexible and rigid. I know you love him, you still love him, and he was your husband. How do you see him? He wasn’t intransigent or inflexible. You see, he was not stubborn to me, and that is the gospel truth. The only thing that sometimes caused friction was women. And when you look at this women problem, a lot of them used to bring themselves to him. Donate themselves! Though I believe that sometimes a man should be able to say no. Earlier on, you alluded to the war as reason for separation. What particular situation can you point to in the war? The whole war itself. We were not together all the time; it was too dangerous. If it was about closeness, the war made us close like this (showing two hands tightly held together). Very, very close. Although he was far away from us, we were very close. We had a radio, the children used to talk to him every evening, every 9 o’clock. He was sending messages to me almost every night by dispatch rider. He would write a letter. I would give the person a reply. His fears, his feelings…? Very serious things. But I don’t want somebody else to know about them. I remember when we were in Ivory Coast. There was this debate in France about Quebec and French Canadians and something about someone who had information that was needed by parties to the crisis and they killed him. I don’t know how it happened but when I finished reading it I went and burnt all the letters. When he knew that I burnt them, he was upset… but I am glad I did it Those are things you could have used to write your memoirs… All the things I burnt are in my head. At my age I don’t forget anything. They come out like pictures in my head. So, it’s not about that. Let’s pray you write your book. I am longing to read it. Maybe I would have been gone by then. You mean you are not going to write your book? You don’t have to write it yourself. You have your sons. They can do that for you. I said you are still very young. You will read it, even when I am gone. You don’t want it launched before you go, but why? For some personal reasons… You met some other top ranking Nigerians who were leaders as well. How well did you relate with them? And have you met some of them of late? I knew some of them but we were not friends Like who particularly? Let me see. You know we were colleagues. Our husbands worked together, but their ways were different from my own. I didn’t like to be what they were. I don’t want any person to come and tell me about my husband because it may kill your spirit. I also don’t want to tell them about their husbands. They weren’t terribly educated. I am not terribly educated either, but I have a different outlook. I remember one instance when Emeka was governor. One day I got a message from Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi ordering me to attend a function. I ignored it and didn’t go. I felt she could have called me on the phone. I wasn’t a military officer? Some of them were carrying on as if they were military officers too. She shouldn’t have done it. I was sorry when her husband was killed. She was a nice lady too in her own. Others though were not as nice, and to that end, I used to keep some distance from them. Gowon’s wife… have you ever met her? I have never met her. Gowon was not married before the crisis. You know he was a rank lower than my husband. What would you say was the lowest point in your relationship with him? It was in Ivory Coast. It was the conspiracy that eventually led to my leaving. It is better left for another day. From the way you have been speaking of him, it is obvious you loved him and you still love him. Yes, but if I love him what can I do. It’s not something you just write on. It is deeper than just writing about it. The young woman who is the wife of the Ikemba now, Bianca, is she close to you? No, not really. Though, we have met on some occasions like when Emeka (my son) got married. You are from the same area? No, she is from Enugu state, I’m from Anambra. How have you been coping; I mean running your life? I am more or less retired now. I live on pension from me, from my family and from my children.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
For the Nigerian security agencies, the days ahead may turn out a game of bloodbath and destruction as another Islamic militant group has emerged with the determination to take vengeance to defend the rights of black Muslims in Africa. The new group, which calls itself, Ansarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan (Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa) has as its motto, Jihad Fi Sabilillah, which means, Jihad for Allah’s sake. NigerianEYE reliably gathered the new group, which is an offshoot of Boko Haram may be a splinter group from the dreaded Islamic sect that has left on its trail bloodbath and destruction of lives and property. In a letter sent to a few select media organisations, the new group, which seeks to rival Boko Haram, is dedicated to waging a Jihad and ensuring that the lost dignity of Muslims is regained and to “reinstate the once sprawling Sokoto Caliphate established in 1804.†The group’s logo shows a book, purportedly Qur’an, with a gun on each side. Tied to the guns were black flags on which it is scribbled; “there is no deity but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.†According to its first letter announcing its formation, the new militant group declared:
“For the first time, we are glad to announce to the public the formation of this group that has genuine basis. [the group] will have dispassionate look into everything, to encourage what is good and see to its spread and to discourage evil and try to eliminate it.†It announced. The statement, which was signed by Abu Usamata Al’Ansari, the leader of the group, revealed that they intend to pursue their vision through various approaches in a bid to ensure the success of their dream. Hinging its vision on the need “to propel the words of Allah over anything else through all appropriate ways,†the new militants promised to protect the lives of all Muslims and seek vengeance on those who killed and attack Muslims. Identifying Jihad as a veritable weapon in the fight against injustice and secure the rights of Muslims, the ‘new Boko Haram’ said that “Jihad as enshrined by Allah and the Prophet entails all means through which one promotes the true religion and subvert injustice and falsehoodâ€. Describing Nigerian Muslims as main targets in various ethnic and religious upheavals that have wreaked the nation, Ansarul group explained that the decision to form the new group was taken after a holistic review of contemporary events in the country. The leader of the group, who chronicled religious disturbances from 1986 to 2009, lamented that despite bloodshed resulting from such crises no tangible measure was taken by successive governments to punish offenders. The group accused the government of fuelling crises through its sponsorship of various militant groups and socio-cultural organisations which include OPC, MASSOB, AFENIFERE, MEND, AKWAD AQWAP, IYC (Ijaw youth congress) and IPC (Igbo people congress).
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
There was commotion at the Akure main branch of the First Bank of Nigeria Plc on Friday afternoon when a young lady, Miss Sade Babatunde, entered the bank with a polythene bag full of faeces packaged in a can and allegedly poured the content on a cashier who was attending to customers. According to reports, Babatunde, who came to Akure from Owo town, went straight to the cashier, Miss Agnes Olasehinde, and accused her of snatching her husband in the presence of other bank workers and customers inside the banking hall.
It was further learnt that Babatunde opened the polythene bag and, before the security guards could stop her, allegedly poured the entire content with its offensive odour on Olasehinde who was neatly dressed in native attire.
The development caused a pandemonium as everybody inside the hall ran towards the electronically controlled door to escape from the stench which had taken over the entire hall.
Babatunde, according to sources within the bank, did not stop at that as she allegedly held Olasehinde and slapped her on the face severally.
Senior officials of the bank were said to have ordered the security personnel attached to the branch to arrest Babatunde while the cleaners took Olasehinde to the toilet and washed her.
The management of the bank later provided a vehicle that took Olasehinde home so that she could clean herself properly and change her clothes.
An employee of the bank, who would not want his name published, described the development as not only an embarrassment to Olasehinde but also to the organisation.
The Police Public Relations Officer at the Ondo State Command, Mr. Aremu Adeniran, however told our correspondent on the telephone that the suspect had been arrested and detained by the police. “The incident happened around noon on Friday and the suspect who is with us came to Akure from Owo with a can containing smelling faeces which she poured on the banker. She will be charged to court after necessary investigations have been carried out.”
Our correspondent however, gathered that the suspect was not legally married to the man who she accused the banker of snatching from her but that she already had a child for him. It was further gathered that the man is a driver.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Christian Oyakhilome (known popularly as “Pastor Chris”) is a Popular Nigerian televangelist,faith healer and founding president of Believers’ LoveWorld Incorporated also known as “Christ Embassy“, a Pentecostal Christian ministry headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria
Recently a video of the popular pastor surfaced on the web, Where he said Masturbation is not a sin. So for the people worried about offending God while doing it, according to Pastor Chris, you have nothing to worry about
Like they say “Seeing is Believing”……. BELOW is a Video of the Pastor explaining better{source} <!– You can place html anywhere within the source tags —>
<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/SP0CDsvu8DM” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe> <script language=”javascript” type=”text/javascript”> // You can place JavaScript like this </script> <?php // You can place PHP like this ?> {/source}
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Yesterday Wednesday February 29, 2012, University of Maryland Police investigators arrested and charged Oluwafemi T. Charles, 28, of Silver Spring for his involvement in the burglary of a 7th floor Cumberland Hall residence on the University of Maryland College Park campus which occurred in the early morning hours of February 26, 2012.
During the incident, Charles entered the residence of an 18 year old female student in an attempt to steal property. While he was in the room he touched the student without her consent.
“I am very impressed with the excellent work and quick arrest made in this case by our detectivesâ€, stated David Mitchell, Chief of Police. “Their dedication and commitment in identifying and apprehending dangerous suspects should send a strong message to those preying upon our community of this agencies vigilance.
Charles is charged with the following criminal offenses: 1st Degree Burglary 3rd Degree Burglary 4th Degree Burglary Theft $1,000- $10,000 Theft less than $100 4th Degree Sex Offense 2nd Degree Assault
INCIDENT: Burglary OCCURRED: February 26, 2012 / 3:50 a.m. REPORTED: February 26, 2012 / 4:23 a.m. LOCATION: Cumberland Hall / 7th Floor UMDPS CASE #: 2012-11752 BRIEF DETAILS: On February 26, 2012 at approximately 3:50 a.m. a female resident of Cumberland Hall was asleep in her bed when she awoke to find a male in her room touching her thigh. Her roommate entered the room and confronted the male. The male stated he entered the room by mistake and then left. It was noticed that the resident’s laptop had been moved and packed in an apparent attempt to steal the laptop. It was learned that the male entered the room through an unlocked door. Officers spoke with other 7th floor residents and learned that other residents had heard the sound of someone trying their door knobs. One resident looked through her peephole and noticed two males who didn’t appear to belong in the building.
The victim and roommate witness provided the following description to police of the first suspect who was involved in the burglary:
5’08†tall, African American male wearing blue jeans, a grey hooded sweatshirt and grey baseball hat.
The second suspect observed through a peephole by a witness could only be described as an African American male who, along with the subject described above, did not appear to belong in the residence hall.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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