Recently, the Kaduna State Governor asserted that the Nigerian military would have wiped out the Bandits terrorists, but for fear of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
That is a lame excuse, Mr. El-rufai. The Bandits do not need to be wiped out; they need to be apprehended after being overwhelmed by superior military fire power and brought to trial and jailed if convicted – unless they resist arrest. We know the rules of engagement even against terrorists in international law. So let security forces, including the Army, go after the Bandits and Boko Haram, etc, wherever they are found in this country (including inside the Sambisa forest!) and neutralize them to set the society free from their murderous menace. The Army and allied security forces can rid the whole country of Nigeria of terrorists and terrorism if the will power is there to pursue so a holistic engagement; it has to be a political decision and not just for the Army and allied security forces to begin a wild goose chase for terrorists. So, Governor El-rufai should give us better reason or reasons why the military has been unable, since Bandits were declared a terrorist group, from neutralizing them so as to set the entire country free from their menace. After all, the same Nigerian military and allied security forces have often acted with greater muscle/energy in dealing with IPOB/ESN in the Southeast region without any fear whatsoever of the ICC! Governor El-rufai and his masters at Abuja should devise more effective and honest means of dealing with and neutralizing the Bandit terrorists across Nigeria rather than rationalize absurdities, especially failure of the Federal Government so far to render the country safe from these terrorist depredations. Professor Zullum, Governor of Bornu State, said recently that at least, two Local Government Areas in Bornu State have no human population – all their inhabitants fled, leaving their homes and out of their Local Governments owing to terrorist murderous menace; we are equally aware that in some Local Government Areas in the North, Boko Haram terrorists are ruling, that is, in complete control of their Local Government administration. I believe that Governor El-rufai and his masters in Abuja know what to do in order to retrieve this ugly, embarrassing and completely unacceptable challenge to and violation of the country’s sovereignty. We want more sincere effort and concrete action to both secure lives and property as well as restore the territorial integrity of Nigeria in areas currently under terrorist occupation.
(Dr.G.A.Onuoha)

I once escorted a friend to our children’s school Accounts office to help plead for more time to pay her children’s school fees.
My friend was a single parent, her ex-husband would not pay school fees but would buy the children expensive stuff like phones, gadgets etc so he could be seen as a good daddy whilst shirking his responsibilities.
Anyways, back to my story, The Accountant was apologetic and told us that he couldn’t do much as the school was servicing a huge loan and many parents were owing. In confidence, he told us that the graduating set of that year owed over N20 Million in fees. I was shocked because I knew most of the parents of the children in that class and they were high fliers, rode expensive cars, went on exotic holidays, had the best phones and gadgets. They also ensured that their children got the latest games, phones etc.
I was upset because here I was striving to pay fees on time, at the same time envious of these same set of parents not knowing that they were more interested in making social statements than ensuring that their children’s education was priority.

There is a lot of “pepper dem “going on in our society and I am afraid it is reaching ludicrous heights. We have 8 year olds asking their friends- when you go into a plane do you turn left or right? Left being 1st or business class and right being Economy.
We have young children telling their peers about houses bought in their names, how much their fathers or mothers earn. We have children bringing huge sums of money to school, all decked up in designer wears and carrying designer bags. Children being introduced to skin whitening products from primary school, telling teachers they don’t need to read much because they will marry rich or already have monies in Trust Funds set up in their names. Children insisting on being ferried to and fro school by particular models of cars.
I read an article recently written by a young man who went to an elitist school and unknown to him, everyone thought he was the poorest child in school (by the school standards) because his school uniform and stationary were purchased in a shop in Lagos, not at Marks and Spencer or WHS ‘in the abroad’, his father picked him up with an old car- a 1989 Peugeot 504 whilst other children were picked in Prado jeeps and SUVs. It wasn’t until a close friend of his visited him at home that the news that he wasn’t poor made the rounds.

A lot of schools especially the elite ones have had to cancel party packs from being shared in school because they contained everything including the proverbial kitchen sink and parents were going to ridiculous lengths just to better the other.
It’s the same scenario we are seeing at weddings. The proposals are becoming silly, the comical photo shoots, the astronomically expensive asoebi. Everything is done extravagantly mostly with the motive to out-do the last social gathering and trend on social media.
We have people who grew up in Yaba, Surulere, Ebute Metta telling you with glee that they don’t “do bridges” forgetting that the international airport is on the mainland.
Some years back, I was in a shop on the island looking at curtains for my home and was approached by another lady in the shop, a friend of the owner who enquired as to who was making my furniture for me. When I told her I lived in Ikeja, she told me that she wouldn’t be able to do me the favor of making my furniture as she lived on the island and only worked in VGC/ LEKKI. I smiled and told her that I already had someone making my furniture.
At that time, I lived in GRA Ikeja where one plot of land was the price of 3 plots in VGC and 2 plots in Lekki.

This peer pressure cuts through so many sectors. We are sending children to secondary school at ages 8, University at ages 14, mostly because our friends are doing the same, forgetting that every child is different. Some can handle it but most can’t and also, that there is a reason why educators advocate that children enter into classes at certain ages.
Both my children spent a gap year at home when they finished secondary school because we wanted them to be 18 years before they went into university (I had just turned 15 when I went to Uni and as far as I am concerned, it didn’t help me at all, I may have been book smart but not emotionally ready for adult life so it was no huge surprise to me that I had an extra year in school).
Of course our children grumbled and complained about having to stay at home whilst their friends were already at university and how they would be in lower classes than their mates but we kept our resolve and kept them occupied by learning different skills, ensuring they became street smart as they learnt how to go out by themselves in public transport (danfo not Uber ) and gave them time to bond well and relax from academics before they began the journey to proper adulthood.
We parents are sending the wrong signals to our children that appearances matter a lot and the end justifies the means but are we thinking circumspectly?
Do we know the consequences of the seeds we are sowing?

We are seeing children that think their life is over because at age 25 or even 30 they don’t have the kind of cars or material things that their mates have, children that are not satisfied or content with their lives but want to be and look like others. Children that are killing themselves because they don’t fit into their supposed social groups. The most devastating effect of peer pressure is that it breeds discontent and our children are beginning to look at their lives as being inferior when compared with their mates. This results in them always wanting more without enjoying what they have, as Nothing will ever be good.
I know some people will be quick to defend parents especially those who have the money to meet their children’s needs and I agree, if you can afford it please indulge.
My problem, however, is with those who cannot afford it and those who can afford it but do it for the wrong motives. The Yorubas call them “ Kari mii “ they must see me. It’s the motive that breeds the peer pressure, the feeling that they must know that I have arrived – “I will show them”. “My money has come”.
It is true that children suffer and will be subject to pressure from their peers, that’s the way of the world and it’s a rite of passage, I have, however, come to the conclusion that we parents also suffer in no small measure from peer pressure and we tend to pass our insecurities to our children. The tendency to always compare our children with others, to over compensate, to always run things by our friends, to go against our values and beliefs because our friends, religious heads etc are doing the same are subtle ways that show how affected we are by the opinions of others.
Peer pressure has both good and bad effects and some of our decisions will be affected by our peers, I however hope that the motives for our actions as parents will be based on our beliefs and values and no one else’s.
Finally, I ask the question, are you consciously or unconsciously a member of the pepper dem gang?

Ndigbo are the glue that holds the country together

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

The usual refrain on the lips of Nigerian leaders, particularly those who successfully prosecuted the brutal civil war against the breakaway Biafran Republic is the indivisibility of the country.

One of them, General Ibrahim Babangida, in an interview with Arise Television on August 7, 2021 to mark his 80th birthday anniversary, put it rather bluntly: “When we were in the military, we talked about certain issues concerning Nigeria: the unity of Nigeria as far as we were concerned was a settled issue.”

While it would have been good if the unity of Nigeria was, indeed, a settled issue, happenings in the country tend to suggest otherwise unless the unity Babangida and his ilk talk about is the agreement by those who won the war to permanently exclude those who lost from the table.

Otherwise, what kind of unity is it in a country where a people that constitute a significant percentage of the population are hated and despised not for any crime committed but because of their ethnicity?

Two recent events prompted this reflection.

First was the shameful conversion of the sanctuary of God by a Catholic priest to a launch pad for his vitriol against Igbo congregants in his parish.

On Sunday, February 6, Rev. Fr. James Anelu, the priest-in-charge of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Ewu-Owa Gberigbe, Ikorodu, Lagos State, abruptly, without provocation, stopped the singing of soul-lifting Igbo songs during a service he was conducting.

In a video that went viral, the visibly angry clergy pontificated that the excesses of Ndigbo must be curtailed if they are to be kept from “dominating other people in this parish.”

And what was their crime? They were joyfully singing and dancing to the altar of God during the second collection.

To the embittered and resentful priest, singing Igbo songs in a Catholic Church in Yoruba land is not only sacrilegious but also an intolerable act of domination.

He was so incensed that he uttered a heresy: The spirit of God in any place recognises only languages indigenous to that geographical location.

It is instructive that Fr. Anelu is not Yoruba, yet he is mad at Ndigbo, his bête noire, for the audacity of being heard in a land where they are all sojourners. If he had asked, he would probably have been told that over 65 per cent of the money used in not only building the Holy Trinity Catholic Church but also maintaining it, including feeding him, was contributed by Igbo parishioners.

Barely 24 hours after his ecclesiastical faux pas, an obviously embarrassed Alfred Adewale Martins, the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, issued a “disclaimer” directing Anelu to proceed on “an indefinite leave of absence.”

In the suspension letter which he personally signed, Archbishop Martins urged all “Catholic faithful to hold on to the faith and continue in our worship of God as one big family united in love and not separated by language, culture and race.”

I doubt if Anelu, wherever he is now, is penitent. He is simply consumed by hate. He is a victim of prejudice. And we commit a serious error of judgement if we think he is an outlier. He is not because there are many Anelus out there in the church of God.

The second incident happened in Yola, Adamawa State. An Igbo businessman, Vincent Umeh, who lives in the state, bought a house from a willing seller, Ismail Mamman. Today, he cannot live in the property not because of any infraction of the law but simply because he is Igbo.

A Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Ibrahim Babazango, currently serving in Lagos, says it is an insult for an Igbo to be his neighbour in Yola.

Umeh should reverse the purchase deal or face bitter consequences, including risking his life, DCP Babazango decreed.

“We are a homogeneous community, I don’t want you; you can’t be my next door neighbour, I swear. What sort of insult is this? Can any northerner move now to the South-East, say Onitsha and just bump into any neighborhood to buy a property; just like that?” DCP Babazango asked Umeh on phone.

Such chutzpa may strike some as bizarre. But it is not. Just like Fr. Anelu, DCP Babazango is also not an outlier. There are many Babazangos in the security services who kill and maim innocent citizens just because of their ethnic origins. That is why over 95 per cent of security personnel deployed in the South-East at any point in time are people with Babazango’s warped mindset.

That is the humiliation Ndigbo are subjected to in their own country. From Lagos to Sokoto; from Bayelsa to Kebbi, they are being harassed every day for daring to invest and own properties in their own country.

Most times, some of these harassments are state-sanctioned. For instance, two weeks ago, the Kano State Sharia police, Hisbah, destroyed nearly four million bottles of beer in a crackdown on alcoholic beverages. The bottles were crushed into the ground by bulldozers in front of crowds cheering “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great). After the bulldozers had done the job, Hisbah operatives then lit the crushed remains on fire and allowed the blaze to burn into the night.

“Kano is a sharia state and the sale, consumption and possession of alcoholic substances are prohibited,” the head of the religious police, Haruna Ibn Sina, crowed after supervising the mindless ruining of people’s lives.

Most of these businesses are owned by Ndigbo. There is no law in Nigeria banning alcohol. Nigeria is a secular state, yet Sharia law trumps the Constitution when Igbo businesses are involved. Nobody raises a whimper in defence of the right of the people to do legitimate business in their own country.

The irony is that just like Fr. Anelu who is sustained by offerings made by his Igbo parishioners, Hisbah officials are paid with money raised from the Value Added Tax (VAT) paid on the same alcoholic beverages they destroy with glee.

Those who blame Nnamdi Kalu and his Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) mentees for preaching secession ignore the asinine antics of Fr. Anelu and DCP Babazango, the same way those who blame Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu for declaring an independent Biafran nation in 1967 conveniently gloss over the waves of pogrom that resulted in the killing of thousands of innocent Igbo folks, patriotic Nigerians, most of them born in the North, with no other place to call home until the state-sponsored carnage began in 1966.

Between May and October 1966, more than 30,000 Igbos and other Biafrans were killed in Northern Nigeria, and between October 1966 and June 1967 more than 100,000 more were massacred. In some instances pregnant women were killed, unborn babies pulled out of their wombs and murdered as well. Many of the victims were beheaded.

Those who defend that bestiality by invoking the equally condemnable killings in the January 15, 1966 coup conveniently ignore the fact that the then Military Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Army, Major-General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, and the cream of the Igbo officer corps were wiped out in the revenge coup of July 29, 1966.

They also forget that long before the January 15, 1966 coup, which was conveniently branded an Igbo putsch by those who had an extermination agenda, pogrom had been the lot of Ndigbo in the North.

A report, “Chronology of recorded killings of Biafrans in Nigeria: From June 22, 1945 to September 28, 2013,” put it this way:

“The first incident in which the murder of Igbo people took place in Nigeria was in Jos on June 22, 1945. Hundreds of Ndigbo were murdered by the Hausa-Fulani during the pogrom and tens of thousands of pounds sterling worth of their property either looted or destroyed. No single person was apprehended or charged by the British regime nor an enquiry set to determine the “official” cause of this gruesome act.

“The second mass killing of Igbos and other Biafrans happened in Kano in 1953. In both cases, thousands of Igbo people with their families were brutally murdered and their property looted.”

So, what informed the pre-1966 pogroms against Ndigbo in the North, senseless and gruesome killings which have continued till this day?

What those who raise the spectre of Igbo domination simply because Ndigbo are everywhere forget is that the people love adventure. It did not start today and it is very unlikely to end tomorrow. Many Igbo leaders were born outside Igboland.

Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was born in Zungeru, a town in Niger State, on November 16, 1904, ten years before Nigeria came into being in 1914. Odumegwu-Ojukwu was born in the same Zungeru on November 4, 1933.

The fact is that Ndigbo love travelling. They enjoy it. That is who they are.

Do they dominate their environments? No, not at all. Unlike what the Fulani did to the indigenous Hausa population, no traditional institution has been usurped by Ndigbo anywhere in the country. No traditional authority has been supplanted. Rather, they help in building their host communities. Ndigbo are peace-loving people, who take pride in the upliftment of other people.

In Kano and Jos where they were massacred before independence, the Igbo State Union built schools and gave the indigenous people scholarship. They make others happy when they are sad.  That is a virtue, not a vice, which should not call for envy and bad blood. If all other Nigerians can imbibe the culture of live and lets life, which underpins Igbo philosophical worldview, the country will be better for it.

Ndigbo are the glue that holds the country together. They are the biggest ambassadors of one Nigeria and they do it not by talking like the Babangidas of this country but by action. Such a people should be appreciated and not despised.

Nigeria is not making progress principally because of the way Nigerians have treated Ndigbo. It is high time they decided what exactly they want from this egalitarian race.

Not wanting Ndigbo out of Nigeria and at the same time not allowing them to enjoy their rights as citizens is the reason why the country continues to plumb the depths of anomie and normlessness.