This is the News Analysis segment of the Voice of
For
July 29 1966 General Aguiyi Ironsi was brutally murdered by a cabal of Northern Nigerian Military Officer-coupists under the leadership of Danjuma,, with Gowon in toe to be foisted on the peoples of the then Nigeria by the marauding coupists, and to force himself on the then government of Nigerian.
General Ironsi was a brave, distinguished and decorated soldier, an unassuming man who motto was honesty, fairness, humbleness and brotherhood. He brought meaning and life to the term, “An Officer and A Gentleman.” We remember him at this time for demonstrating to
General Ironsi’s life and death at the hands of these criminals—low persons now living in high places in Nigeria, albeit still living as low veritable parasites off the system— also teaches the lesson of the treatment which Igbo-Biafrans have received in Nigeria and from Nigeria, bearing in mind that Igbo-Biafrans are indisputably the greatest patriots Nigeria has ever known, and will ever know.
General Ironsi shall rest in his grave now knowing that
For our part, we shall actualize
Let us point out to you how and why this structure is falling apart. First and foremost is the idea of a strongly centralized Federal Government in a multi-pedal supporting mixture of ethnic nations and peoples.
The Army is a federal army—on the surface, it is seemingly okay. But then, check and see how the important offices and officers have been deliberately “zoned” to the Northern Nigerians during the periods when the Northern coupists were in power; and now, being “shifted” to the Yorubas by General Obasanjo, a Yoruba himself, ever since he came to power. As if that is not enough, see how the Igbo-Biafrans are deliberately kept out of high-ranking positions?
Then, there is the Police Force, which is federalized, too. All the important positions are occupied by Yorubas and Northerners, with no Igbo-Biafran representation. Once again, to rub salt into injury, Igboland was “zoned” to
It is bad enough that Policing, which is most effective when local citizens are used to police their own locale, is being done on this heady Federal paradigm—a bad one for that matter—but the way this has been used against Igbo-Biafrans amounts to “Occupation.” It was used in the same way in
In any case, it is because the Police is federalized as such that it is not effective at all, with the result that the personal and societal security is lacking in
While on Security, it is known that Igbo-Biafrans are not represented at all in the National Security team of General Obasanjo federal government of Nigria, thus continuing a tradition of deliberate exclusion of the Igbo-Biafrans from the security apparatus of
There must be a special case of national paranoia that afflicts
So we can see how in this Federal Structure of Nigeria, all the power belongs to the Federal Government. Can you not see the danger? Who is the Federal Government, anyway? Of course, it is the Presidency and / or the President of Nigeria. Not really: it is actually whoever controls the Presidency and or controls the President of Nigeria. During the Military governments, the Military leader controlled it all. With the civilian government, the Northerners are feeling and acting as if this control of the Presidency and of the President is slipping from their grip, hence, hear the North crying “marginalization!” Ya, right!
But whatever you do, don’t include the House or Senate as representing the federal government or as wielding any power. They are a totally emasculated fixture of politics whose area of influence is concerned with their office furniture, the length of their motorcades, and the size of their allowance. It will be an even graver error to think that the peoples of
Not only the power, but also all the revenue, is practically confiscated by the Federal Government. Here again, the federal government collects the revenues from the Oil drilled right out of Igbo-Biafraland. Same federal government does not bother to take any revenues from any natural resources from any other regions. And same federal government fails to use even a tiny amount off this loot to repair the environmental and social damage caused by Oil drilling and processing—to the detriment, of course, of the Igbo-Biafrans.
It does not stop there: the powers that be get a hold of the “federal money” and do something with it to the extent that there is not enough money to pay the wages of even the Federal Security apparatus, including even the soldiers, so the Police have learned how to go on strike, and the soldiers are threatening.. There is not enough money to re-allocate to the States, so the States cannot meet their obligations. There is not enough money to pay the LGA officials either.
The House and the Senate say they use the same figures as the President for budget forecast and allocations calculations, but no matter what they allocate, the President only authorizes a small fraction each year saying that there is not enough money. In the meantime, foreign bank accounts owned by Nigerians otherwise without tangible means of earning money, are multiplying. Highly placed officials, friends and contacts of the federal government buy up expensive houses and land in European countries. Now you know why
This abominable Federal structure puts the entire revenues in the hands of one man, General Obasanjo. He can use it to blackmail political opponents; advance the cause of his political party, PDP, which has not done even one good thing for the people; advance his own personal ambitions including self-believed delusion of God-sanctioned self-succession. But, he is only one man, and he can’t count too well either, so a lot of the money is unaccounted for. Nevertheless, he can still do a lot with all that money, but what matters to him most is what he will REFUSE to do for Igbo-Biafrans: he will not repair the Oil processing-induced damages there, and he will not build any federal infrastructure in Igbo-Biafraland, in a deliberate act of singling out Igbo-Biafrans—once again, to teach Igbo-Biafrans a lesson.
How bad is this structure deliberately designed to hurt the Igbo-Biafrans? Consider the recent case of Nwada Chukwuemeka, an Igbo-Biafran athlete, and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), as reported in one of
The treatment of this great hardworking champion Athlete mirrors
Thus,
That’s the news analysis for the week
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God bless and keep