Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD, DD
Odogwu of Ibusa, Delta State
President, International Coalition against Christian Genocide
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://icac-gen.org
It is not often the weird dancer that is ashamed of his performance in the public square but his relatives among the spectators. So the relationship between Anioma people and their Southeast core-Igbo kinsmen is neither a matter of hatred nor denial of Igbo identity as it is now being insinuated by some politically and intellectually gullible fiends from the Southeast.
This is my case with the Igbo of Southeast Nigeria who often style themselves core-Igbo, while the rest Igbo subgroups domiciled outside the Southeast are described as peripheral or fake Igbo who are only useful as foot-stools for their exclusive political interests. To them, these are people who should be cowered to either join the Southeast geopolitical zone without question or dance to their dastard political drum-beat in order to be identified as proper or true Igbo.
It does not matter how much an Igbo from Anioma or Rivers State Igbo sacrifices his life, energy and time in pursuit of collective Igbo interest, he remains an incomplete Igbo worthy of acclamation and only good as instrument of sabotage and reckless contempt.
On the other hand, no matter the degree of crime or sabotage committed against the Igbo by any political leader from the Southeast, such a person remains a hero to the people protected under the vile political cover of any criticism against him is anti-Igbo. You become an Igbo hater when you as an Igbo from Anioma or Rivers State criticize an Igbo leader of Southeast descent whose policies and actions go against collective interests of Igbo ethnic nation.
To these political torn-coats what defines a true Igbo identity is not one’s degree of patriotism to collective Igbo cause but physical belongingness to the geographical expression called the Southeast Igboland. To them therefore, unless Anioma people dance stupidly in support of Senator Ned Nwoko’s reckless Bill of their annexation to Southeast, they are not truly Igbo. Unless Anioma people decide to raise the defunct Biafran flag and join the IPOB leprous chorus of Nnamdi Kanu’s supreme leadership they are not truly Igbo. Yet these same people are telling us that such conquest mentality does not translate to annexation! Where has it happened in Nigeria that outsiders should be more concerned about the creation of a State than the indigenes? Was it not through that means that the British started their colonization of present Nigeria?
It is only in Anioma because some people believe in their vile imagination that Anioma people are so historically daft and politically spineless that they can just walk over them with a cacophony of incendiary campaigns of calumny and ahistorical debauchery of common language means commonality of origins and political destiny driven by swarms of political nonentities and intellectual minions.
Anioma people in spite of their diverse ethnic origins have always seen themselves as part and parcel of the wider Igbo ethnic nation without anyone reminding them of the degree of their Igboness. They are always willing to contribute their best quota to advance the common interests of the Igbo ethnic nation with unequalled dedication driven by untainted ethnic patriotism. But oftentimes their Southeast kinsmen have come to see such sacrifices as the acts of the foolish in the service of the wise; a sort of domineering syndrome that makes Anioma people feel their strangeness of being Igbo.
Anioma people have also tried by examples to inculcate into the minds of their Southeast Igbo kinsmen the true spirit of being Igbo, which does not lie in wearing spotted Isi-Agu attire adorned with red Moroccan Fez-Cap and dancing around hilariously to the mono sound-beat of tired Igba ndi Eze drums, or syndicated abuse of the spirit of their ancestor and desecration of their time-honored ancestral deities under the guise of unfulfilled Christianity.
I need not recount the records of gallant Anioma soldiers and commanders of the Biafran Forces which remain untainted till date without any record of sabotage against the Biafran cause. While most Anioma were occupied by the Federal Forces, Ibusa remained a battle ground while Oko-Ogbele remained under the control of the Biafran troops under the command of Anioma sons who protected their people in their forests that linked up with Southeast through Atani. Indeed it took our elders with the support of Federal troops to enter the forests to plead with them that the war had ended.
There has also been the deliberate and devilish attempt of some of our Southeast brothers to demonize the illustrious icon of the finest but aborted revolution in Nigeria, Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu as the leader of the January 15, 1966 coup and subsequent cause of current Nigeria’s political problems.
But the truth is that, not only was Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna from Southeast the authentic leader of the coup, but Major Nzeogwu who diligently executed his own part of the coup without recourse to ethnic considerations, was sabotaged by his Igbo kinsmen who decided without his consent to work towards transferring political power to Major General Aguiyi-Iron against the original plan of transferring power to Chief Obafemi Awolowo; hence Ironsi was spared against the original plan of eliminating him.
If General Aguiy-Ironsi together with Dr. Michael Okpara and Chief Dennis Osadebay were killed like others, there shouldn’t have been any excuse for a counter-coup or pogrom; not even any reason for secession and the resulting civil war. They spared these corrupt politicians because of vile ethnic considerations against the wish of Major Nzeogwu. Even till today, the Igbo leadership is yet to learn from the lessons of that episode; that a single act colored in ethnic bigotry could reverberate disastrously against the entire Igbo population.
Ambassador Raph Uwaechue as Biafra”s Representative in France stood dedicatedly with Ojukwu till the end of the war, while Ojukwu’s Southeast kinsmen were sabotaging him and diverting money meant to purchase arms. He did the same as the President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo sacrificing his time and money but went down to his grave unsung without a single honor from the same Southeast leaders during his burial.
Similarly, Professor Frank Ndili took over a University of Nigeria dotted with wooden prefabricated buildings constructed by his predecessor-Southeast Vice Chancellors—Professors Kodilinye and Ezeilo with the huge sums of money given to them by the Federal Government, and decided to initiate a massive post-civil war reconstruction of the University with solid building structures. Midway into his tenure the same Southeast ganged up against him and threw him out of office ignominiously.
Today it is on record that after the retirement of Bishop Eneje of Enugu Roman Catholic Diocese there was in-fighting among the Southeast over who should succeed him. It took an Anioma son—the pioneer Bishop of Issele-Uku Diocese, Bishop Anthony Gbuji to stabilize the Diocese, and he did it very passionately until his retirement as Catholic Bishop of Enugu Diocese.
Similarly, almost at the same time Bishop Anthony Gbuji was presiding at Enugu Catholic Diocese, another Anioma son—the recently retired Archbishop of Enugu Province of the Anglican Communion, Most Reverend Emmanuel Chukwuma, was presiding as the Bishop of Enugu Anglican Diocese, again with the aim of bringing stability that arose after the retirement of Bishop Otubelu of Ukpo in Anambra State. Not only did he perform extraordinarily but did what no other Southeasterner could do. He presided over the splitting of his original Diocese into seven Anglican Dioceses at a time most of his Southeast colleagues were resisting the splitting of their Episcopal realms into two.
While working at Enugu-Airport as Assistant Superintendent-in-Training of Air Traffic Signals of Civil Aviation Department, I began to notice injustices and frauds in administration especially against those of us on the technical line. Out of anger I began a one-man protest writing for the public opinion pages of the Enugu-based Satelite and Daily Star newspapers. Not long after that, I was elected in absentia as Propaganda Secretary of Civil Service Technical Workers’ Union of Nigeria (CSTWUN), Enugu Airport Branch.
I became in the process a covert member of “Jim’s Vanguard” under the guidance of later Senator Fidelis Okoro of Nru-Nsukka, then officially the Chairman of Anambra State Road Safety Corps (Jim Nwobodo Police), and Chief Frank Oloto of Ovoko-Nsukka, NPP Youth Leader and Operational Head of Jim’s Vanguard, formed by Governor Jim Nwobodo to curtail the excesses of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’s “Ikemba Front” which was unleashing mayhem on defenseless NPP supporters of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.
I was enraged by the saboteur tendencies of the NPN Igbo Fulani stooges at the time, the infamous NTA-sponsored “Federal Government Presence in Anambra State” by Chike Ubaka, the Ojukwu-led Ikemba-Front attack on Governor Jim Nwobodo at Nkpor Junction, the dastard activities of Police Commissioner Bishop Eyitene, the burning of ABC Transmitting Station at Ngwo, the struggle over the construction of Nnewi-Igbo Ukwu-Ekwulobia road and, a host of other acts of sabotage against the spirit and soul of Igbo victims of 1966 pogroms and Nigerian civil war.
Today as I am writing this essay, nothing has changed in that age-long quisling mentality of those individuals who present themselves as the political leaders of the Igbo of Southeast. This explains why there is massive support for the now trending Anioma-Fulani stooge Senator Ned Nwoko from his likes in Southeast against the collective will of Anioma people.
On April 30, 1999, I was dismissed by University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for what they described as “by the order of the Visitor of the University and Head of State of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria”, then Gen Abdusalami Abubakar for no stated crime.
But I knew it was not unconnected with my role in the struggles to defend the Igbo cause within University of Nigeria, Nsukka and the wider Nigerian polity, especially against the attempt to demonize the progressive Vice Chancellor of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, from Item, Abia State, Prof Oleka Udeala by his Southeast Igbo kinsmen; during which I was suspended five times, arrested five times, charged to court five times and acquitted of the whole five cases.
After my dismissal I consequently relocated to Lagos where I formally joined NADECO through the General Secretary of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) Chief Frank Ovie-Kokori under whom I served as Personal Adviser. The first day I met Ubani Chima in his office in Surulere he was apprehensive of my presence thinking that I had come to undermine the pro-democracy activism in Lagos State.
He even warned one of his old-time colleagues at University of Nigeria, Comrade Adewale Adeoye to avoid me as possible as he could because I was still as dangerous as before. But Adeoye told him not to be disturbed because the Tony he was seeing was a different Tony of the Campus Students’ politics.
At the time I entered Lagos in 1999, the Igbo in Lagos State were in a precarious situation; more serious than what is happening today. The OPC was carrying out unprecedented harassment of the Igbo residents in the State because of the provocative roles of some Igbo elements against June 12, 1993 Presidential election as agents of Fulani oligarchy; at the same time engaging in constant violent confrontations with the Hausa and Fulani settlers, and later with the Ijaw.
The Igbo in Lagos were like sheep without a shepherd. They were constantly harassed in their markets by both wayward OPC members and miscreants called Alaye. The Ohaneze Ndigbo led then by Prof Ben Nwabueze, SAN was dancing to the melody of Fulani political sabada dance; and was openly antagonistic to Afenifere, who were then the backbone of the pro-democracy struggles.
The few NADECO progressives of Igbo extraction—Rear Admiral Godwin Ndubuisi Kanu, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, Okwadike Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, among others were treated as political persona non grata by their Igbo kinsmen. Meanwhile Chiefs Ohazurike (Tokas Pure Water) from Ihiala, Anambra State, and Christian Nwachukwu from Obodoukwu, Imo State were slugging it out over who would be the authentic Eze Ndigbo of Lagos State.
The only functional apex Igbo organization in Lagos was the Igbo Speaking Community led by Chief Uche Momah from Nnewi which was more or less an appendage to the Northern oligarchy, since the President’s elder brother, Major General Momah was before then the Minister of Science and Technology.
Nobody could speak for the Igbo or defend the Igbo at that point in time. The harassments became so pronounced that Chief Ovie-Kokori had to call me one day and said in a mocking manner, “Tony, what is happening to your Igbo people? Is it because they were defeated in war that they cannot stand up and defend themselves in Lagos?”
Disturbed by Chief Ovie-Kokori’s admonition and fired by the zeal to save my people from their second fiddle predicament in Lagos State, I moved straight to Besthope Hospital, Mushin Lagos, where I met the Leader of OPC Dr. Frederick Faseun. We discussed at length over the need for the protection of the Igbo residents in Lagos State against constant harassment by his boys, as well as the need for Igbo-Yoruba alliance, since it would not augur well for the Yoruba to be at war with many ethnic groups at the same time.
He informed me that their problem was that both Ohaneze Ndigbo and other Igbo groups in Lagos State were working with the Fulani to undermine collective Yoruba interests in Nigeria right from the time of annulment of June 12, 1993 Presidential election, and that he was not ready to work with any of them.
I then proposed forming an independent organization to work directly in collaboration with OPC; which he subsequently endorsed. That was how Igbo People’s Congress (IPC) came into existence. We soon went ahead and signed a memorandum of understanding between the OPC and IPC with respect to Igbo-Yoruba cooperation and protection of Igbo interests in Lagos State. I was the sole signatory representing collective Igbo interest and Dr. Faseun the sole signatory representing collective Yoruba interest in that memorandum of understanding. There was no Southeast Igbo present at that stage until I started to gradually mobilize the few willing ones.
At that stage a number of Igbo leaders now resident at Abuja were in Lagos State. Okwadike Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife was living at Apapa with his office at Awolowo Road, Ikoyi. Joe Igbokwe had just published his book on Heroes of Democracy and had his office along Western Avenue where he sold imported Second-hand cars and published a local Nnewi newspaper; while the Igbo Speaking Community were meeting at Apapa Road by Costain, as well as at the residence of Chief Anonneze from Orlu, Imo State, at Ikate, Surulere by Kilo Bus-Stop.
At the initial stage, all my entreaties to these Igbo groups to buy my idea of joint Igbo-Yoruba alliance fell on deaf ears. Not until the Apapa Wharf attack that led to the loss of one Igbo life and destruction of their property did they realize my importance and the necessity of such alliance. The OPC and other Yoruba groups had invaded Apapa Wharf and attacked the Igbo workers there, killing one person. There was pandemonium in Lagos State since nobody could confront either the OPC or their leaders.
At the Igbo community meeting at Chief Anonneze’s house in the midst of the crisis and the dilemma posed by the threat of further attacks, I proposed that a delegation be sent to the OPC leader at Century Hotel to plead for truce and reconciliation. None among the Igbo leaders present at the meeting was willing to go for the fear of being attacked and killed by OPC.
It was at that point I proposed to them to instead fix the meeting somewhere outside Century Hotel, Okota, and then I would invite Dr. Faseun to come and address them. But they could not believe I had such influence over Dr. Faseun to the extent of honoring my invitation. They were later proved wrong.
Nevertheless they eventually accepted and fixed the meeting at Apapa Road with the condition that Dr. Faseun should not come with his OPC members, which I promised to ensure. Immediately after the approval of the meeting every one of them began to boast of how they would caution Dr. Faseun over the activities of his boys. Although, we came with a bus load of OPC members in case of emergency, they were however stationed at Costain Bus-Stop nearby waiting for any signal; I proceeded to the meeting with Dr. Faseun and one of his closest Assistants called Mukaila.
Ironically when Faseun eventually came and addressed them, promising that there would be no further attacks against the Igbo anywhere in Lagos State, it was the same group of people who earlier boasted of how they would reprimand him that struggled more than others to collect his contact telephone number. It was at that point that he informed them to use me as their main link person to him in the event of any conflict or attack against the Igbo in Lagos State.
However, the first baptism of fire I received from my Southeast Igbo kinsmen was when this same group of Igbo Speaking Community leaders I used my time and resources to bring Dr. Faseun to the same table with them decided to pay a thank-you courtesy visit to Dr. Faseun at his Century Hotel Okota for the return of peace at Apapa Wharf.
They did not deem it necessary to either inform me or invite me to join them as the person who initiated and facilitated the meeting and subsequent return of peace at Apapa Wharf. I was no body as far as they were concerned. I had been used to advance Igbo harmony with the Yoruba in Apapa Wharf and the rest were my business as Anioma stranger among the Igbo.
As they landed at the Hotel and sat down, Dr. Faseun came down to join them. Looking around without seeing me, he asked them about my whereabouts. But Chief Momah and his men had no explanation. He then told them to excuse him for some few minutes to attend to some people. He then took his phone and called me and said “Tony where are you now?” I said I was in Surulere. He asked if I could make it in thirty minutes and that he was going to give me a surprise, and I said I can.
I then drove straight to Century Hotel, Okota, entered the Hotel, lo and behold, sitting with Dr. Faseun were the cream of Igbo Speaking Community leaders in Lagos State. On sighting me, they were all too embarrassed to look straight at me and began to mumble one excuse or the other. Dr. Faseun immediately directed me to sit beside him and introduced me to them as the leader of Igbo People’s Congress who should be contacted in any matter involving the OPC and Igbo people in Lagos State.
After the meeting, Dr. Faseun specifically warned me to be very careful with those people I call my Igbo brothers because they were not trustworthy. This was a Yoruba man warning me to be cautious of my Igbo kinsmen. How then can any Igbo man tell me leave that a Yoruba man because he is my enemy and follow the Igbo man because he is my brother, and expect me to believe him without any reservation?
The second baptism of fire was when Dr. Faseun directed me to prepare a proposal for the inclusion of Igbo people in the Lagos State Government Executive Council, a proposal that eventually led to the appointment of Mr. Akabueze as Lagos State Commissioner for Budget and Planning.
After writing the draft of the proposal, I gave it to Dr. Faseun to go through. He went through, did some corrections and handed it over to me to produce the final copy. After producing the final draft, I called my Deputy Mr. Chris Ezeiyiaku from Akaeze town in Ebonyi State and gave him the copy to go through before final submission to Dr. Faseun. Everything about the proposal soon skipped off my mind. I did not think of collecting it back from Mr. Ezeiyiaku.
But what happened was that as soon as Mr. Ezeiyiaku collected it from me he took it to Mr. Joe Igbokwe and they both used another third party to submit it to Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu with Joe Igbokwe now assuming the IPC leader in my palace. Being that the proposal still bore Igbo People’s Congress, the Governor had to make further inquiries from the OPC leader, Dr. Frederick Faseun.
After about a month, Dr. Faseun called me and said I should come quickly to his office. When I got there he demanded to have the proposal he gave me for corrections and return back to him. I was mopping like a Sallah ram awaiting slaughter. He told me that he had just returned from Alausa where he spoke with the Governor over my proposal which the Governor accepted as a laudable idea. But that he knew that he did not either submit the paper to the Governor nor did I return it to him.
He however told me that he had instructed the Chief of Staff Alhaji Lai Mohammed to kill it. But I pleaded with him to rescind his action since I was not doing it so that I would personally benefit. He looked at me for a while and said, Tony, you are a different person. He said okay, if I insist he would inform Lai Mohammed to go along with the proposal. I said yes I insist Baba. Again he warned me to be very careful with the people I call my Igbo brothers.
The third baptism of fire came when I stood firmly to defend Mr. Michael Ololo-Ogwu from Umuahia whose inheritance from his father—a four-storey building at Ikate, Surulere, Lagos, was confiscated by his mother and junior brothers and clandestinely sold to a Yoruba man at the ridiculous price of two million naira. The buyer Mr. Akintomide subsequently invited members of OPC to eject him and his tenants who were mainly Igbo, from the house, until the Police came to their rescue that day.
It should be noted that at the time I left University of Nigeria, Nsukka I had no car and the car I was using then at Lagos—a Daewoo Racer was bought with the support of Dr. Faseun. Yet that did not in any manner obliterate my sense of objectivity in any matter concerning Igbo interest between us.
At a stage, he was queried by the then National Security Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo, General Mohammed Gusau why he was so close with unparalleled trust to that Igbo boy. His response was that Tony was a different person unlike every other Igbo man he had made contact with. He was not with me for the sake of money but to fight injustice. This indeed explains his indelible trust in me till his death while I was already in exile.
He believed in me and rarely disagreed with my opinion on certain national issues. Indeed when he informed that he strongly opposed the marriage of his only daughter—a Medical Doctor to an Igbo man against his wife’s support, because he wanted her to be close to home, I reminded him of our objectives in the struggle and that his feelings and actions matter a lot in that struggle and advised him to rescind his position. He agreed, even went further to confess to me that to be fair to the young girl, he never instructed her where to marry and where not to marry.
Back to Michael Ololo-Ogwu matter. One fateful afternoon, Dr. Faseun called me as usual to come to his office quickly for a very serious and urgent matter. Meanwhile no Igbo individual paid me a kobo for all the sacrifices. the source of my meager albeit unstable income was few consultancy levies I received for specific jobs assigned to me Dr. Faseun.
When I got to his office at Century Hotel, Ago-Palace Way, Okota, he at once brandished before me a copy of the original Survey Plan of the property in dispute which was built in the early 1950s. He immediately instructed to go and ensure that the young man quits the house immediately for the Yoruba buyer otherwise he would no longer restrain his boys from further action.
I said okay Baba, but let me go there and investigate the matter first and return back to you latest the next day. He said okay and that I should do it quickly. I then left and moved straight to the property which was on a short street that links Folawiyo Bankole Street with the main Ikate Street by the popular Kilo Hotel Bus Stop, just directly opposite number 28 Folawiyo Bankole Street, my kinsman’s office—Mr. Bialonwu Okonta where he published our town’s local newspaper—Ibusa Pathfinder, which I later used as my office. So the location was a familiar terrain to me. But even though I was familiar with the area I never took notice of the building until that fateful moment of the crisis.
When I got to the venue and introduced myself as the leader of Igbo People’s Congress (IPC) and that I was sent by the OPC leader Dr. Frederick Faseun to investigate the conflict surrounding the sale of the house, it was like a messiah had arrived. The whole tenants immediately trooped down to listen to me, including the embattled owner of the property Mr. Michael Ololo-Ogwu who unfortunately had hearing challenges. I assured them that so long as I remained in Lagos, provided their case was genuine, nobody would quit them from the building, and that all I needed from them was the truth of the matter and nothing but the truth.
The tenants then narrated their ordeal in the hands of the OPC and how they managed to invite the Police to save them and subsequently rescued their landlord from Yaba Psychiatric Hospital where he was held captive and chained to the bed under the pretext that he was a violent mad man. The young man who owned the property informed me that his father was Chief Michael Ololo-Ogwu from Umuahia who was once the owner and Proprietor of Metropolitan College, Isolo, Lagos, which the Lagos State Government took over and renamed Isolo Secondary School, and that his name also was Michael Ololo-Ogwu as his father named him after him.
According to him his mother Madam Rosalyn Ololo-Ogwu divorced his father and bought a land at Ajangbadi, Lagos where she built her house and lived with his two younger brothers and a sister; while he lived with his father alone, against his mother’s order to join her. His father’s second wife who was married later after his mother’s divorce on the other hand chose to live in his father’s second property close to his former school, which his father bequeathed to her and her children, while bequeathing the said building in contest to him. I looked closely at the documents of the building, I discovered that they bore the name “Michael Ololo-Ogwu” which was the same name borne by both the young man and his late father.
Being an Igbo, I was aware of the guiding principle of inheritance regarding the first son and thus there was no arguing the matter to the effect that the said property rightfully belonged to the man’s eldest son according to Igbo customs and tradition by right of inheritance of his father’s Obi, especially since both of them lived together in the same house till his father’s death.
Although the Ohafia-Abam/Abiriba axis of Cross River Igbo sub-group where a mixed matrilineal and patrilineal pattern of inheritance is observed might present a slight exception in this principle of inheritance, this is not however the case with Umuahia which belongs to Ohuhu/Ngwa sub-group of Southern Igbo. Hence like the rest part of Igboland, in Ohuhu-Ngwa axis of the Southern Igbo the patrilineal pattern of inheritance holds sway
Thus by the same token, the house belonged to the young man as the eldest son of Chief Michael Ololo-Ogwu, a fact which his mother and younger siblings were aware of, hence the criminally induced artificial insanity on the man; since that was the only means they could bye-pass him as the legal owner of the property in line with the laws of Lagos State, to sell his property without his consent. In other words, they needed credible medical evidence to prove that the first son was insane or mentally impaired before they could legally sell the property without his consent.
The young man equally informed me that when one of his younger brothers brought the sum of two hundred thousand naira to him as his share of the sale of the building, he simply told him that he did not understand what he was saying because he never dreamt of selling his property and consequently drove him away with the money. He further stated that his mother had earlier warned him that she would deal with him after his father’s death and that was exactly what she was doing in collusion with his younger brothers.
In fact looking at both the size and location of the building, it was roughly assessed at a cost of forty million naira as at that time in question. Thus for such a property to be sold at the miserable price of two million naira was the height of criminality and injustice to a man whose future had equally been rendered partially pitiable by childlessness and impaired hearing.
Satisfied with my investigations, I returned to Dr. Faseun the following day to report my findings. After jointly analyzing the result of my investigations we agreed to invite all the concerned parties for a fact-finding dialogue and eventual settlement of the problem. When I informed the young man that we would be going to Century Hotel to settle his matter before Dr. Faseun he flatly refused to go there insisting instead that he would prefer to be killed by the OPC in his house where people would see his dead body than at the OPC Headquarters.
Even some of his leading tenants I invited to join the meeting were initially afraid to go. However, I eventually succeeded to convince them to the contrary, assuring them of their security so long as I was with them. I further informed them that I was going to invite some leaders of the Igbo-Speaking Community in Lagos State to join us, since we needed some important Igbo personalities to support their case.
Thereafter I went ahead and pleaded with the President of Igbo-Speaking Community in Lagos State Chief Uche Momah with some members of his executive committee, as well as the leaders of Tejuoso Market Igbo Traders’ Association to join me in the defence of the young man before the OPC leader, after briefing them the situation of the matter.
I was confident that with these men, I would be able to stand my grounds in defence of my oppressed brother. But I was swimming in the Ocean of Fantasy, since these men turned out to be the very expression of unsuspecting Igbo cowardice against the proverbial habitual Yoruba cowardice.
With OPC militants mounted everywhere at Century Hotel, my entourage right from the entrance gate of the Hotel were caught between the cowardly decision to turn back or, attend the meeting with the mind-set of “yes” to everything Dr. Faseun would say. They eventually chose the latter.
When we eventually gathered at Century Hotel for the Dialogue, the first frontal assault against me came from the young man’s Ngwa-born mother who threatened me with hell and brimstones for interfering in their family matter. Well, I calmly responded by reminding her that if other Igbo people fear his people—the Ngwa for their tradition of inveterate cannibalism, for us the Delta Igbo we do not eat human beings because we had enough fishes and meat at our disposals, but our ancestors were inveterate practitioners of human sacrifice, and so there was nothing she could do to me.
After presentations by the three parties—Mr. Michael Ololo- Ogwu, his mother, and the buyer—Mr. Akintomide, it was obvious that the business was not only illegal but criminally conceived. But oftentimes truth becomes an orphan where lies are borne on the shoulders of the king and the people often will have no other alternatives than to accept lies as royal decree by tradition. That was what the matter turned out to be. Dr. Faseun had accepted the fact of both the illegality and criminality of the transactions during our in-house analysis of my investigations.
However, finding himself torn between his sentimental attachment to his Yoruba kinsman whose cause he had sworn to defend in the face of challenges from other ethnic groups in Yorubaland, and the naked truth of a business transaction constructed on the thoroughfare of unconcealed criminality, he immediately sought a soft-landing spot for his buyer-kinsman.
Indeed that was the first time I saw Dr. Faseun propelled unethically by ethnic sentiments, in which he clearly swerved off the course of his habitual sublime objective mind-set. Instead of looking at the merit of the case as we agreed prior to the meeting, he immediately sought respite from Yoruba tradition of inheritance in order to provide a ground of legality to the transaction by declaring that since the property was situated on Yorubaland the Yoruba tradition of inheritance in which all the siblings have equal rights to their father’s property should apply in the case.
Short of reminding him our earlier position on the matter, I rejected it out rightly, insisting that location does not change the basis of one’s tradition of inheritance and that as the first son, the building which his father lived—Obi belongs unquestionably to the first son. This is Igbo tradition and must be applied in this case.
The young man lived with his father in the same property till the latter’s death, while his other siblings camped with their divorced mother in Ajangbadi from the point their mother divorced their father. It would amount to the height of injustice, breach of our time-honored customs and tradition, as well as an act of criminality without bounds for the same people who abandoned their father to collude with their mother who equally abandoned her husband to appropriate the property without the consent of the first son who lived there with his father until the latter’s death and inherited the same as the first son for more than three decades.
The buyer Mr. Akintomide on his part welcomed Dr. Faseun’s position and further promised to increase Mr. Michael Ololo-Ogwu’s share to five hundred thousand naira. The Igbo leaders I invited to be on my side who had all the while kept mute with jaundiced submission immediately took sides with Dr. Faseun and subsequently supported the proposal that Mr. Michael Ololo-Ogwu should collect the sum of Five Hundred Thousand Naira to save his life. I looked at them with utter disbelief but nevertheless stood my grounds, rejecting both Dr. Faseun’s thesis of Yoruba tradition of inheritance and the concessionary five hundred thousand naira. Indeed I saw myself abandoned and standing alone in the midst of supposed Igbo kinsmen.
When I sensed that I was alone in the entire house, I decided that the only option left to me was to abort the dastard decision by way of beating a tactical retreat. Consequently, I requested an adjournment to enable the young man think over the proposal, since in Igbo tradition land cases are not often settled in one day.
They agreed and the meeting was subsequently adjourned to another fixed date. When we left the meeting the Igbo leaders were just gazing at me speechless expecting me to say something to them. I just returned the gaze with a disgusting hiss and beckoned on Mr. Michael Ololo-Ogwu to enter my car and we drove off.
As soon as we got home, I immediately drafted a petition on behalf of Michael Ololo-Ogwu to Itire Divisional Police Station reporting a case of attempted murder by his mother and siblings, and went further to direct him to immediately consult a lawyer, which he did, enlisting a member of his Assemblies of God’s Church, Ikate, Surulere Lagos, where his family used to worship.
The lawyer immediately filed civil proceedings against the sale of the house at Lagos State High Court and immediately secured an Ex-parte Injunction restraining the buyer from taking possession of the building pending the outcome of the Motion on Interlocutory Injunction, which was later granted as well. It is important to note that I was a star-witness in the said case which both his mother and siblings refused to attend even as the sellers of the disputed property.
Furthermore it is again important to note that on the adjournment of the meeting, Mrs. Rosalyn Ololo-Ogwu vowed that I would not live to come to the next meeting; a threat I simply ignored and moved ahead with my plan to scuttle the entire meeting and devise another strategy to help the young man re-possess his inheritance.
Armed with the petition and evidence of High Court processes, I informed the young man that I had cancelled the meeting and that he should stay back at home to save his life while I drove to inform Dr. Faseun of the new development. True to the woman’s threat, at the service lane of the busy Palm Grove Bus Stop along Ikorodu Road, I had a collision with a Danfo (kombi) bus in which both my front fender and the passengers’ door of the bus pulled off.
Within a short moment I saw myself engaged in a scuffle with both the conductor and the driver in their attempt to carte away the damaged fender of my car. In the process we blocked the road and caused a serious traffic-jam. When the Police eventually arrived at the scene and stopped the fight and further ordered us to pull off our vehicles out of the center of the road, I informed them that my car had ignition problem and so could not start unless pushed. The Policemen quickly ordered me to enter the car immediately to enable them push it aside to clear the traffic-jam.
Having secured my damaged fender at the back seat of my car, as soon as they pushed the car I pushed the gear lever to number two, released the clutch and zoomed off on the open road and, within some few minutes landed at Century Hotel, just as Mrs. Ololo-Ogwu was leaving the premises.
When I informed Dr. Faseun why the meeting should be temporarily suspended, brandishing before him the copy of the petition and that of court processes, he looked at me in rage and said, so Tony you stabbed me at the back. But I said not so Baba. The point was that I could not stop the young man from taking decisions that would help his case and save his life. He retorted, saying no; it was my handiwork. However, there was nothing he could do beyond that point. That was how the battle for the property was transferred to the High Court, thereby saving the Mr. Michael Ololo-Ogwu from further harassment from the OPC, as well as the illegal dispossession of the house.
Beyond the above three instances which mainly border on instances of double-crossing my sincere efforts by my fellow Igbo kinsmen, there were countless roles I played in defending collective Igbo interests in Lagos State, most of which concerned the security of lives and property.
Through my connections and subsequent efforts with the OPC, the incessant dubious activities of the Omo n’ile in respect of re-possession of landed property purchased by the Igbo in Lagos State, especially along the once swampy Okota-Mile Two axis which was at that point in time undergoing rapid development was curtailed to the barest minimum.
Many Igbo people who had one problem or the other with their Yoruba counterparts began to troop to Century Hotel to seek respite from Dr. Faseun using my network of IPC-OPC Alliance. Indeed in many serious matters of Igbo concern in Lagos State that required OPC attention, I was often the first person to be consulted by Dr. Faseun before adopting any opinion on the matter.
For instance, when Dr. Faseun was asked by the State Government to assist the Lagos State Council of Oba and Chiefs to resolve the Eze Igbo of Lagos State dispute between Chief Ohazurike popularly known as “Tokas” from Ihiala in Anambra State and, Chief Christian Nwachukwu from Obodoukwu in Imo State because of the inherent security threat the dispute posed, I was the one Dr. Faseun recommended to the Lagos State Council of Oba and Chiefs to give an unbiased bidding opinion on how the matter should be settled.
I was subsequently summoned by Oba Oyekan to the Council Meeting at Alausa, Ikeja where I advised them that the best decision to adopt in resolving the matter, since it would be difficult to convince any of the two contestants to step down for the other, was to give them blanket recognition as Eze Igbo Lagos State without recognizing any one of them as the overall Eze Igbo of Lagos State.
In other words, both men should be granted the freedom to organize their separate groups as their own Eze Igbo of Lagos State without interfering with the activities of the other or acting in such a manner as to generate conflicts among their respective supporters. That was the decision the Council eventually adopted that gave both men the right to run their respective cosmetic traditional Igbo kingdoms in Lagos State.
When the Igbo residents of Ojo Local Government Area because of their superiority in number threatened to elect the Chairman of the Local Government Council, in addition to the Deputy Chairman which they already had, the OPC reacted by attacking Igbo traders in Alaba Electronics International Market.
When some Igbo leaders under the leadership of Okwadike Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife intervened and arranged a peace-meeting at Alaba International Market to resolved the conflict, Dr. Faseun initially refused to accept the invitation because he did not see the reason why the Igbo should be contesting with the Yoruba to be the Chairman of a Local Government Council in Lagos State. I was still the person reached by some Igbo leaders to intervene and plead with him to stop his boys and attend the Peace-Meeting to settle the matter, which he eventually did.
I was also at the fore-front of the series of harassments faced by the Igbo Second-Hand Cloth Traders at Yaba ]Bus-Stop Railway Line Market in the hands of Lagos State Government officials, often linking them up with Dr. Faseun to intervene on their behalf on several occasions. Evangelist Okey Anorue from Imo State, the long-time Chairman of Yaba Railway Traders Association and current Eze Igbo of Igbogbo, Lagos State, was a witness to my countless efforts in helping them fight back the frequent harassments and demolition of their structures they faced in the hands of Lagos State Government agents all at no cost from them, until they were eventually re-located to Olosa Market in Mushin Lagos.
When the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Niger Dock Ship-Building Company Dr. Nnamdi Ozobia from Onitsha was being harassed with the intent of disgracing him out of office by some interested groups, and Dr. Faseun was invited to intervene, I was the one he called to lead the battle which eventually created a respite and stability for Dr. Ozobia till the expiration of his tenure.
In most of the conflicts that involved the OPC and the Hausa/Fulani Muslim community in Lagos State, like the Ketu/Mile 12 and Idi-Araba conflicts, I risked my life on the battle-line with OPC just to ensure the safety of the Igbo in those areas. In fact it was through me that the Middle Belt Groups, including the Southern Kaduna People’s Organization (SOKAPO) under Isuwa Dogo then began to move closer towards the South for re-alignment of forces and cooperation. That was after a Middle Belt Pastor of ECWA Church was mistakenly killed by members of OPC during the Ketu/Mile-12 conflict because of his Hausa Dan Cikin riga attire.
It is remarkable to note that on the second day of the ketu/Mile 12 OPC-Hausa/Fulani conflict I and my Deputy Chris Ezeiyiaku were on live-AIT Kaakaki TV Morning Program at their Alagbado Office under Mr. Jika Atoh’s anchorage when a detachment of Mobile Policemen were sent to arrest us, together with Mr. Jika Atoh for supporting the OPC action in our discussions on air. We were lucky since we finished the program few minutes before their arrival.
As we marched out of the studio, we saw battle-ready armed Mobile Policemen trooping into the AIT premises. We immediately sensed danger, moved to a corner and pulled off our neck-ties and boldly marched through them without their realizing we were the same people they were looking for. Of course with my age and tiny stature then there was no way they could have noticed me as their main target.
We eventually escaped through the already heavily-mounted Policemen at the main gate, took refuge briefly at a nearby provision store, and finally zoomed off to safety, subsequently landing at Oshodi Bus-Stop where we bought new shirts to change our previous ones to disguise ourselves in case we were being trailed through our attires.
But Jika Atoh was not so lucky. He was apprehended right inside the studio as he was preparing to continue with another program. He was beaten pulp and blue and eventually bundled away. That episode indeed turned out to be the end of his career as a journalist with AIT, as he eventually resigned after surviving the Mobile Police ordeal.
The last OPC operation I coordinated Igbo interest was after the Hausa/Fulani Muslim residents in Idi-Araba attacked their fellow Yoruba residents and razed their homes. The OPC was ready for immediate retaliation as expected. But as usual the Police had to quickly intervene by stationing a detachment of Mobile Policemen in the area. That was during the time Mike Okiro was the Lagos State Commissioner of Police and Sunday Ehindero was the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Lagos Zone. Because of the gravity of the attack that saw the razing of the homes of Yoruba people in their homeland by the stranger Hausa/Fulani elements, both Okiro and Ehindero had to visit the scene for on-the-spot assessment of the damages, with Dr. Faseun on the entourage.
I was later invited by Dr. Faseun to join them at the scene. When I met them he specifically told me that he had called me to warn the Igbo residents in Idi-Araba who had fled the conflict not to return in spite of the presence of Mobile Policemen and to as well warn those still around to leave immediately the Police entourage leaves, because they were not going to take the attack against their people lightly, the Mobile Policemen stationed there notwithstanding.
I knew right from the onset that the OPC would not take the attack lightly in spite of the detachment of Mobile Policemen stationed there. Even from the countenances of both Okiro and Ehindero, it was obvious that it would be very difficult for them to stop the OPC from retaliation. They were both very sad with the sight, with Mr. Ehindero speaking with suppressed tears.
I quickly made hasty enquiries and later assured him that there were no Igbo living around that Idi-Araba LUTH axis and that if there were at all, it would be foolish of them to return to their homes so quickly. Well, after midnight, the Mobile Policemen were dramatically withdrawn when they sensed the impending danger. Not long after the Mobile Policemen left the scene, the OPC invaded the area and carried out a most devastating retaliation. It was indeed that Idi-Arab episode that subsequently put a stop to the incessant belligerent dispositions of the Hausa/Fulani Muslim residents in Lagos State.
Even after I left Lagos State to take back my job at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2008 we continued to collaborate in our common mission for greater Igbo-Yoruba understanding. He never hesitated to call me up for any assignment that required my attention. For instance after the bombing of the Southern-bound Luxury Bus Park in Kano, Dr. Faseun called me and sent me to the Chairman of Luxury Bus Owners Association in Lagos to inform him that the Coalition of Ethnic Nationalities of Nigerian would hold a Press Conference to protest the bombing. The shocker I received from the Chairman was that as businessmen they would not like to get involved in the politics of the bombing.
Then there was the Nimbo Ukpabi blood-cuddling massacre by Fulani herdsmen which sent cold shivers all over the veins of every Igbo citizen. Immediately after the heinous episode Dr. Faseun called me and said I should brief him about the true situation. After briefing him he directed me to seek an appointment with the Enugu State Governor, His Excellency, Ozioko Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for a solidarity courtesy call by the Coalition of Ethnic Nationalities Nigeria in reference to the killings. I immediately met the Chief of Staff State to the Governor then from Abia State who subsequently directed me to put my request in writing, which I did. When I came back the following week to know the outcome of my request, his response was that “His Excellency does not want anything that would offend the North.”
When Femi Fani-Kayode wrote his hate-filled and debasing tirade against the Igbo and in particular Barrister (Mrs.) Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu nee C. C. Onoh, on the pages of the Vanguard newspapers, His Excellency Okwadike Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife—former Executive Governor of Anambra State, called me and said: “Odogwu have you read the nonsense Femi Fani-kayode is dishing out against the Igbo on Vanguard?” and I said yes.
He then said what was I doing about it, and I said I was thinking of contacting Dr. Faseun to caution him. But he said that was not enough, commanding me to reply him immediately. The results of that reply were the following articles:
“FEMI FANI-KAYODE: Haunted By Nupe Ancestry-Fighting A Foggy Yoruba Identity Complex”, Africanewscircle-Africa and the World in Perspective, www.africanewscircle.com/category/opinion;Newsafrica,www.newsafrica.com/en/search/nigeria/key%2objective
Do I still need to recount that it was an Imo State-born Muslim that reported me to the Libyan Government that I was an agent of the State of Israel which led to my long interrogation by Libyan Secret Security agents in Tripoli in 2009, during my visit on the invitation of Brother Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan Government.
It was still the Imo State-born Chairman of Nigerian Association in Ngaoundere, Republic of Cameroon that revealed to my assailants that I was escaping to Republic to Republic of Congo, since he was the only one I secretly informed my next move, that led to my being traced to Batouri in East Region where I again saw how death looked like.
It was yet another Imo State-born resident of Dakar, Senegal that blackmailed me before the American Embassy that I was a fanatical supporter of President Donald Trump, and for that reason, I should not be granted visa to attend an international conference in the United States. This blackmail was further extended to American Embassy, Lome, Togo, where I was specifically asked to explain the allegation against me in American Embassy in Dakar. I leave the rest for my coming book on my wilderness experience.
But the above narratives do not underscore the honest fact that not one, not two, and not three, but quite a number of my Southeast Igbo kinsmen had played significant parts in my survival today in the course of my present struggles; many I am yet to meet physically and many I met physically in the course of my wilderness experience.
There is no gainsaying the fact that there are still a number of my Southeast kinsmen I can give AK-47 rifles and move ahead of them without the fear of being shot from behind or, leave my unfinished cup of wine uncovered with them to ease myself elsewhere and come back to drink the same wine without the fear of being poisoned. But the dilemma before this class of honest and principled men is that they do not possess the clandestine stamina to contest the political space of Southeast with their domineering heartless and mischievous ideologically bankrupt political leaders.