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AfricaWorldnewspaper |August 16-31- 2015 Opinion02

my pattern of say-ing he is from Lokoja Town. Then Dr.Leon asked Moh’d again, please where is Lokoja Town? His explana-tion shocked every-one and i felt elated once again as a Vil-lage-Nigerian in the United Kingdom after he further educated Dr.Leon. Here are few of his reply: “I am a European-trained Med-ical Doctor, i am from Lokoja town. Lokoja town is the capital city of Kogi State of Nigeria just like Lon-don is the capital of England”. This opened another round of debate and made the class so exciting that day. Funny enough, we couldn’t continue the Epidemiology class because of time. To the average Briton or American, his or her place of birth is where he or she comes from unlike what we have in Nigeria. Meanwhile, whilst the camaraderie was go-ing on in the class, my hippocampus and the broadman areas of thought in my brain raced to my Akwa-Ibom friend who lives in Maidugu-ri. My friend whose name is pronounced in Ibibio as “Uruak’ but in written form, it is “Uduak”. Uru-ak (Uduak) was born and bred in Maiduguri the capital of Bor-no State but she’s not from Maiduguri or Borno State. She is way above thirty (30years), but when-ever she’s filling out forms and the ‘non-sense’ State of Origin line comes up, she’d quickly put ‘Ak-wa-Ibom State” on there. Truth is, Uruak (Uduak) knows noth-ing about Akwa-Ibom State compared to the way she’s conver-

si-coma phase. Whilst i was still in the quasi-coma state of bewilderment, be-hold it got to my turn to introduce myself. Before then, i had asked myself in pid-gin as thus: “Guy, this one wey you no be lawyer, you no be ‘likita’ (Hausa way of saying Doctor), you no be Engineer, you no be tailor, you no be politrician or poli-tician etc, na weytin you wan tell them say you be sef? Though i was still in shock but i managed to quickly remember the words of Late Obafemi Awolowo’s saying that; “He is first a Yoruba man before being a Nigerian”. In like manner, i just told them, “I am from KRAKRAMA”. Guess what the reaction was? Everyone bust-ed into laughter and the Nigerian emergen-cy-Londoners felt i should have followed their lead by lying about my identity like them. Well, I did not lie, i am a KRAKRA-MARIAN. Now the dis-cussion continued and our lecturer (DR.Leon) was so interested in knowing what part of the world KRAKRAMA is on the world map, she’d also asked what language (my dialect) Krakramarians speak etc. Then i seized the op-portunity to educate them. I told them KRAKRAMA is a for-gotten and betrayed town in Rivers State of Nigeria and that we speak the Kalabari-Ijo language. This served as a pacifier and gave respite to my Nigeri-an paddyman (Moh’d) who was sitting right next to me. Moh’d is from Kogi State of Ni-geria and he followed

As the introduction commenced. Some intimidating personal-ities reeled out their dossiers of degrees, work experience and the number of years put in. My class (mostly a class of MD’s (Medical Doc-tors)), is made up of some who have put in 18years in the medi-cal practice as G.P’s, some (as Young as i am or even Young-er) have put in as much as 8-10years as G.P’s, as Nurses, as Midwifes etc. 95% of the White-Briticos, white-Americanos and other white-western-ers in my class never mentioned their Coun-tries, rather they said; I am from California, i am from Chicago, i am from London, i am from Derby, i am from Kent, i am from New-castle, i am from Lol-worth etc. This went on until it got to the turn of the ‘local-vil-lage-Nigerians’ like me. Suddenly 99% of my ‘Naija’ classmates and course-mates introduced them-selves as; my name is this this this, that that that, i am from London. The other followed i am from Canada, the next said she’s from Sunderland etc. Oops! Immedi-ately, i felt a whoosh of adrenalin and my heart quickly jumped into my throat. The hairs on the back of my neck bristled, my body tensed. I was so disgusted and dumb-founded. I lost grip of my vocal cords, so i did not know when i screamed “Tamu-no eeeh” (meaning ‘oh my GOD’ in Ka-labari-Ijo language), then i ran into a qua-

Caveat: This is more like a compendium, although lengthy but worth reading if you have the luxury of time. This is a true story, no fiction, not a figment of my imag-ination. When i contemplated the need to ejacu-late this thought, one thing that comes to mind, is the heading. The heading of this narrative speaks vol-ume simply because; i just love the name of my character (So-tonye), one of my kids (when they ar-rive GOD willing) will be named “Sotonye” too. This is how much i like the name. Plus, my little princess and niece (‘Popi-bae-bae’ (Soty Bae-Bae) as i call her often) also currently bears the name “Sotonye”. So, those who know me may be quick to con-clude that i am refer-ring to my little Niece. Nope, in this context, i am not. The “Sot-onye” i am referring to is a ‘Britico-Nigeri-an here in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, “Britico” in local par-lance connotes “Brits, British or a Briton”. GOD’s decision, GOD’s desire, GOD’s wish, GOD’s state-ment, GOD’s fi-nal-word, etc. These are few of the many meanings of “SOTO-NYE” in the Ijo (Ijaw) tribe. For those who may not know, ‘Sot-onye’ is a Rivers-Ijaw name, predominantly amongst the Okri-ka-Ijaws, Opobo-Ijaws, Bonny-Ijaws, Abua-Ijaws, Engenni-Ijaws, Andoni-Ijaws, Nkoro-Ijaws and the Kala-

bari-Ijaws. Although, some Bayelsans also go with the name ’Sotonye’, however a good percentage of Sotonyes’ are Riv-ers-Ijaws. Therefore, the “Sotonye” in this text is a Homo sapi-ent, not an ungulate or an orangutan; just for the record. So-tonye is a Nigerian and on a normal day, Sotonye can be a He or a She. I still vividly can re-member my first ‘Ep-idemiology” lecture in my Postgraduate days here in the UK. As common with the lec-turers, every first lec-ture/class would start with everyone intro-ducing themselves. The introduction al-ways takes the fash-ion of; telling us what you studied in your first Degree, where you’ve worked, what you were doing before coming here, why you chose to pursue a ca-reer in Public Health, what you intend to achieve at the end of this course etc. But, the most important item on the introduc-tion list is: “Where you come from” (Country of Origin). But before this time, i had earlier spotted and even exchanged banters with some ‘core’ Nigerian villag-ers like me. Notwith-standing, i was able to mix-freely amongst them simply because i have been around this city and i am some-how familiar with this University environment before we commenced our course. So, whilst some of them were like “JJC’s” (newcom-ers), to them i am a ‘landlord’… smiles.

THE STORY OF SOTONYE: A TRUE STORY.

AfricaWorldnewspaper August 16-31- 2015|Opinion 03

of cerebral malaise) because this has been the trend right from time immemorial in this Country. Before i get to my major character (Soto-nye), too often i have heard most Nigerians in the diaspora ex-pressing their fear of relocating back to Nigeria. Their fear is mainly on the seeming bleak and blank future of the Country giv-ing our current atti-tude to development. Some of them who are world-class profes-sionals fear that they may not secure their dream job in Nigeria because they’re not connected politically and they may not fall within the catchment area for their dream job. I have heard of cases where Nigerian Scientists in the dias-pora offered to lend their expertise back home and gets frus-trated in the end. In-deed this is the quag-mire most Nigerians in the diaspora face, but i call it “the fear of the unknown”. This brings me to a Young man who ac-cording to my Gha-naian friend (Charlie), is ‘ebony black’ fine boy. Meanwhile, i work in a firm in the UK where i had to sit on a wooden chair in front of an old com-puter to sort out some challenges for clients who may need help. Better put, i do some part-time job here. So i have been noticing this newbie Youngster full of life, according to ‘Charle’ my Ghanaian friend, “Ebony black fine boy”. My first guess was, he is either Gha-naian or a Jamo (a Jamaican), but i was so wrong. I cannot but notice this Young

Rivers State, today Bayelsans contribute 50-60% of the econ-omy of Rivers State. (Emphasis mine). The best indigenous lectur-ers in the Rivers State University of Sci-ence and Technology (RSUST) that i know were Bayelsans. The University (RSUST) was established by a Bayelsan (HRM King Alfred Diete-Spiff), the funds came from Bayelsa and Rivers. So I was overly discomfit-ed, shocked and dis-gusted when a former Governor of Rivers State said Bayelsans in the RSUST should pay ‘non-indigene’ fees different from what Rivers Students pay. That was the most repulsive and pungent news i still haven’t been able to comprehend till date. To my mind, if there’s any State that should benefit more from the University (RSUST), it should be Bayel-sa State, although their Government too should also contribute to the funding of the institution. As if this is not enough, few years ago i met with some insecure Bayel-sa Young men who had cerebral malaise (that is, they were intellectually lazy and ignorant), as a result, they were quick to feel uncomfortable with non-Bayelsans in their midst. In fact, one of them openly said to me; “Nengi (though mine is Nan-gi), concentrate on your Rivers politics and leave our Bayelsa alone”. Funny enough this Young chap is from Delta State un-like me that still has my Nembe route, so i laughed at him. Not-withstanding, i would not blame that Young man for his cerebral laziness (my coinage

Area of Rivers State. Do you think Okorie is unwise not to have claimed Rivers State as his State of origin? Now this quick-ly brings me to yet another nonsensical issue bedeviling this Country’s growth and unity; “Catchment area and Quota sys-tem”. Few years ago i met with some cor-pers who were serving in Oyo State. After their service year, they decided to ap-ply for a job in one Federal Government Research Institute in Ibadan. I met these gentlemen on the bus when i visited Og-bomosho, they had come to Ogbomosho for a programme. The corpers (Ugochuk-wu, Olakunle, Belema, Shugaba, Garba) all served in Oyo State. Amongst them, only Garba whose degree is not relevant to the Research Institute was given the job simply because; he is from the catchment area and the earmarked Quota for his State of Origin (Gombe State) is yet to be filled-up. Garba, though very smart and articulate but he read ‘Library Science’ unlike the rest of his colleagues who all had Science Research-based de-grees. Although they are all happy for him, but it beats me that one can gain employ-ment simply because of his catchment area over others even when there is enough room to employ all of them? Who should be blamed for this, please? Still moving on. Need i say more about the relationship of Bayel-sa State and Rivers State. Bayelsa State was carved out from

sant with Borno State. She has only been in Akwa-Ibom just three times last time i checked, she has lived all her life in Maidugu-ri. She speaks Hausa more than fluently, she writes Hausa with-out making mistakes, she speaks Kanuri, Bura, Barbur, Marghi, and almost all the lo-cal languages in Bor-no State and nearby Adamawa State, yet she’s not from Borno State. Now, should i blame Uruak (Uduak) for not claiming Borno as her State of origin? My friend, Abdulla-hi Lawan was one of the Prefects in our Secondary School days in Port Harcourt. Abdul as we fond-ly call him was born at the University of Port Harcourt Teach-ing Hospital in Port Harcourt town area those years. Abdul’s Dad and his wives all happily lived on Vic-toria Street of Port Harcourt. I have been friends with Abdul from Childhood, we were at I.B Johnson Street (a stone-throw from Victoria Street). Though we did not at-tend the same Prima-ry School, but fortu-nate for us, we found ourselves in the same Secondary School around the Boriki-ri axis of Port Har-court town. In spite of the fact Abdul is a Port Harcourt boy, he has never claimed to come from Rivers State. Though Abdul knows everything in Rivers State (even more than some of us), he will always tell us he is from “Bau-chi State”. Mind you, Abdul speaks and understands Kalabari and Okrika. I guess his Dad, Alhaji Lawan must have sold this reality to his dear Son

that he is not a Rivers man. As we speak, today Abdul (well over 30years of age) is happily married to Amina with two lovely kids and still lives in Port Harcourt but he is not a Rivers man. Would you blame Abdul for not claiming Rivers State? Three to four years ago, i met a Young chap (Okorie) on a bus in London. For some reason, we ex-changed banters and started a chit-chat, we exchanged num-bers before i alighted at Stratford. As luck would have it, this Young man lives in the same city i live in, so it made life a lot easier for us to hook-up at intervals. I was shocked when he told me where he was delivered. This paddy man of mine speaks Ikwerre like crazy, in fact, he has infected me with one of the Ikwerre excla-mations “Chineke le”. Today, i unconsciously exclaim “Chineke le” when in shock. Oko-rie was put to bed at ‘Ogbunu-Abali’ a small Ikwerre-domi-nated town in Port Harcourt. Yet Okorie would always tell you he is from Umuahia, the capital of Abia State. Okorie’s par-ents were also born in Rivers State, today they have contributed largely to the econ-omy of Rivers State based on their line of business, but they still say they’re not from Rivers State. Okorie who is also married today and moved down here just few years ago would tell everyone he is from Umuahia, the capital city of Abia State, not Ogbunu-Abali in the Port Harcourt City Local Government

AfricaWorldnewspaper |August 16-31- 2015 Opinion / News04

Do not get me twist-ed, i know Sotonye’s mindset should be the mindset of every well-meaning Nigerian. But would you blame me when the system itself is conscious of “Catchment area, State of Origin, Tribe, Religion, political party affiliation” etc before gaining admission into the University, before getting a job or even being allowed to have a word with anyone in power? Would you say i am wrong? Should i choose to educate Sotonye on the re-alities on ground in Nigeria? Would you call me an unpatriotic Nigerian if i choose to arm Sotonye with the ‘hard truth’ so that he does not fall prey and get frustrated in the end? Also, would i not be causing more harm than good to Sotonye if i choose not to educate him on the reality about Nigeria? Please ad-vise me, i am in dire straits and i feel ter-ribly bad whenever i see this Young man dedicating his life to what he is researching on, only to be dis-appointed tomorrow because he is an alien in his chosen State of origin in Nigeria. Your advice will do. …To be Continued. I am,

should start by telling him about the Lagos he so love and re-vers or that there is xenophobia attacks in Lagos and across the Country. I was confused whether to remind him that even the Oba of Lagos do not see non-Yoru-bas like his parents as Lagosians even though they had lived there all their lives. I do not know whether to educate him that in Nigeria, where you were born and bred is not necessarily where you are from and that you do not have any right whatsoever to benefit anything from the Government of the place of your birth. Like Abdullahi, like Okorie, like Uruak (Uduak), like any oth-er Nigerian? I do not know how to break the news to Sotonye that he is not from Lagos State, but Rivers State and that the Government of Lagos State of Nigeria like every other State Government in Nige-ria would alienate him and his good ideas. I am in a fix on how to tell Sotonye that he should not think what happens in his saner clime (the Unit-ed Kingdom) is same with all other climes (like Nigeria), sincere-ly, i am confused. How do i tell Sotonye that he would be frus-trated out of Lagos State in the end?

did? He laughed and brought out his Ni-gerian passport and showed me, behold his State of Origin is Lagos State. OMG! i screamed uncontrol-lably, i melted that moment and i became furious and agitated. Now i felt like stran-gulating Sotonye for being ‘brainwashed and not being a ‘true Nigerian’ but delud-ing himself. Sotonye’s parents were both born in Lagos, they both did Queens Col-lege and Kings College in Lagos together be-fore jetting out to far away England where they got married and brought forth Sotonye and his siblings, but ‘originally’ (as the Briticos would say), they are both full-fledged Rivers people. As we continued our conversation, Sotonye killed me by exposing why he had to vis-it Lagos three times this year and what he intends to use his Re-search to do in Lagos State.

At this point, i be-came confused and was lost for words. My mouth was wide open whilst i keen-ly listened to him. As he was explaining his passion for Nige-ria, especially Lagos State, internally i was battling with my emo-tion, i didn’t know how to break the news to him about Nigeria. Whether i

chap because he is always using the li-brary, half the time i have seen him, he is in the library study-ing. I knew he was a ‘Britico’, but i kept wondering why he will be studying that hard. Ehen! (meaning wait a minute), there is this phrase in the UK i have noticed to be frequent amongst non-white Britons whenever they try to introduce themselves to you. That word is “Originally i am from”. For instance, if you meet a Ghana-ian-Briton, he or she would say thus; I am from Manchester, but ‘originally i am from Ghana’. This ‘original-ly’ is almost becoming a hackneyed phrase amongst the non-white Brits here. As fate would have it, one day this ‘eb-ony black’ Young chap walked up to my table for help. He gave me his details in his British accent, but before then he had said ‘hello mate”. Obviously i know he is not my mate, but this is the British style of establish-ing friendliness when exchanging pleas-anteries. In Britain, your grandfather is your ‘mate’ in terms of greeting. So, i did not pick offence at his ‘hello mate” even though we are not mates. So, on seeing his particulars i was

dazed, petrified, dis-organised and in dis-belief but i still strug-gled to ask him to pronounce his name if perhaps my eyes were playing tricks on my mind. Then again In his British accent, he said my name is “Sotonye” something something “J”. I knew all his names (includ-ing his last name) were Ijo (Ijaw) names, i am 99.99% sure he is from Rivers State. So i went on to ask him where he is from? As usual he said, he is from London but he further broke my heart by saying he is ‘originally from La-gos-Nigeria’. At this time my neck could not carry my head again, i started de-veloping pink disease, i was in shock. My bulky eyes turned red, i was ready to break the sky. Sotonye is a 24year-old Young research Student (a PhD Doc-toral Researcher) in one of those wowing fields. He has only been to Lagos six times since he was born, he had trav-elled three times this year to Lagos and once every year since he turned 20. My aproko nature (my curious nature) would not let me keep qui-et so i asked him again “are you sure you are ‘originally’ from Lagos” of Ni-geria? Guess what he

denied entry into the Ivory Coast where he was supposed to officiate at an African Development Bank (AfDB) meeting’s closing ceremony.

Mugabe left Nigeria a bitter man, after he was not only stripped of his security pro-

and the younger crop of African leaders.

The most striking rebuff of Mugabe (91) occurred when he went to West Afri-ca in May to attend Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration in Abu-ja, only to be later

dramatic tenure and leave a lasting legacy on the continent were largely dashed be-cause of the age gap and contrasting view-points between him

ZIMBABWE President Robert Mugabe tenure as Southern African Development Commu-nity (Sadc) rotating chair comes to an end on Monday, but his

leadership has hardly been plain sailing, let alone remarkable.

Hopes by his inner circle and admirers that he would have a

HOW IVORY COAST, NIGERIA EMBARRASSED MUGABE

AfricaWorldnewspaper August 16-31- 2015|News / Editorial 05

tection leaving him vulnerable to pressure and harassment by the country’s jour-nalists, but was also denied salutation as an elderly African statesman and current African Union (AU) chairperson.

Despite being ha-rassed by journalists, government officials say Mugabe was par-ticularly angered by what he perceived as political and diplomatic hostility towards him by Nigerians. He be-lieved the hosts were “ignoring, overlooking or deliberately refus-ing” to recognise him as the AU chairper-son.

Taking matters up with BuhariHe was so angry that he stormed out of Ni-geria to nearby Equa-torial Guinea, where he was accommodat-ed by his good friend Teodoro Obiang Ngue-ma Mbasogo.

Mugabe engaged Bu-hari over the matter when they met at the AU summit in South Africa in June in an effort to resolve the fallout.

But the most embar-rassing episode for Mugabe was the de-cision by Ivory Coast authorities to deny him permission to land in the country where he was due to give a speech at an AfDB meeting attended by finance ministers from the continent.

Mugabe was invited by the bank to ad-

dress the meeting during the official opening ceremony, but failed to do so because he was at-tending Buhari’s in-auguration. While in Nigeria officials from the bank asked him to make a statement at the closing ceremony instead.

Mugabe said Ivory Coast officials commu-nicated that President Alassane Ouattara was ill and in bed and could therefore not host him or allow his aircraft to land. Mug-abe however believes Ouattara was influ-enced by France.

Mugabe failed in his bid to influence Afri-can countries to with-draw from the Inter-national Criminal Court (ICC), moreso after attempts by South African civil society organisations to have Sudan President Omar al-Bashir arrested and handed over to the ICC while he was attending an AU sum-mit in South Africa in June.

Mugabe helps Bashir ‘escape’The AU chairman played a role in ensur-ing that al-Bashir flew out of South Africa, in defiance of the country’s High Court order which banned him from leaving the country until an appli-cation calling for his arrest had been heard, resulting in questions being asked about the continent and South Africa’s commitment to the rule of law.

Mugabe however got much support from a number of African leaders who believe the ICC has been pur-suing African leaders while ignoring “war crimes” by Western countries such as the US and Britain. Some African leaders also believe the AU should have its own court.

Al-Bashir has been a polarising figure in Africa. In 2012, then Malawi president Joyce Banda barred al-Bashir from attend-ing the AU summit in her country resulting in the summit being moved to Ethiopia.

Mugabe, who is in his seventh term despite Zimbabwe’s economic collapse, failed to deal with third-termism in Africa and shocked delegates during the AU summit when he suggested there should not be term limits arguing two terms could feel as short as two weeks.

“It is a democracy, if people want a leader to continue, let him continue,” he said.

Mugabe was, however, very vocal on African issues particularly in relation to resource ownership and ex-ploitation for the benefit of indigenous nationals.

He also tried to at-tend as many AU meetings as possible, at the expense of Zimbabwe’s collapsing economy, many feel.

Mugabe has failed to

have any influence in conflict zones such as South Sudan, the Central Africa Republic and Nigeria where Boko Haram insurgents continue carrying out bloody attacks.

His reign started on a bad note with South African President Ja-cob Zuma and then Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba refusing to sign the Protocol on Trade in Service despite Mug-abe putting pressure on them during a closed door meeting of a summit in Victo-ria Falls, Zimbabwe.

An angry Mugabe then blasted Zuma at a press confer-ence saying he should co-operate with other regional leaders in-stead of seeking to turn the region into a market for South African products.

Khama’s snubDuring the summit, Botswana President Ian Khama skipped the official opening ceremony where Mug-abe took over the Sadc chairship.

Khama, diplomats said, felt Mugabe was not an exem-plary leader and was against the region-al body appointing someone who had given the region headaches over many years, the most re-cent being elections won in July 2013 amid systematic rig-ging claims.

Ironically, Mugabe was

championing regional economic growth at a time his country is going through massive de-industrialisation which has resulted in company closures and massive retrench-ments.

As Sadc and AU chair, he was ambiguous on xenophobia which rocked South Africa. He will be remem-bered for apologising to Zuma for Zimba-bweans flooding his country and disrupting the country’s social structure.

Although he tried to tackle Zuma on xeno-phobia during a Sadc industrialisation meet-ing in Harare, he was crushed by the South African president and Khama, who insisted that regional govern-ments were also to blame for failing to provide opportunities for their people.

Mugabe subsequent-ly blasted Zuma at a press conference in his absence.

True to form, Mugabe was very involved in events in the region where he also attend-ed presidential inau-guration ceremonies in Namibia, Zambia and Mozambique. He toured the Sadc head-quarters in Botswana and showed interest in solving the crisis in Lesotho, although in the end South Africa played a pivotal role as chair of the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation.

BACK TO BASICS

GREETINGS! I am happy to announce to you that preparation for the 2015 pan-African Lecture and Communi-ty Service Awards is in top gear. As convention demands, we will be talking about one of the greatest political icons and African nationalist - Nnamdi Azikiwe. The great ‘Zik of Africa’ inspired many around the world with his eclectic works, particularly on social justice, decolonisation and political development of Africa.Titled ‘Nnamdi Azikiwe: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’, the lecture hopefully will follow tradition to unearthing the salient ingredients necessary for Africa’s progress in this new age. Stay tuned to AfricaWorld social media platforms for details of the Lecture and Community Service Awards. As part of our re-branding program, Africa-World logo will change in a couple of weeks to address the concern of our growing followers worldwide. More so, our website is now www.africaworldnews.net Follow us on twitter @AfricaWorldNews Come in. Uka

Editorial

AfricaWorldnewspaper |August 16-31- 2015 Opinion06

help Iran to neutralize or minimize the impact of any sanctions that America may want to impose on Iran. Re-publicans forget that America cannot sanc-tion Iran to submission if there are other pow-ers ready and willing to help Iran neutralize the sanctions like they have managed to do for years. Iran came to the negotiating table in large part because they could no longer count on those coun-tries to help them endure the pains of the sanctions once they became partners to the peace initiative of Barack Obama. Those other world powers involved in crafting the Deal that the Congress is threat-ening to reject would be less inclined to side with America if America declares war on Iran. If Iran fails to keep her own side of the bargain in the deal they have signed at any time, Iran would have to answer not just to America, but to the 4 world powers in the United Nations Security Council. That was the crux of the interview Fareed Za-karia had with Barack Obama last Sunday. It was a great inter-view any way you slice it because Fareed brought out the best in Obama who showed he was on top of his game answering all the questions put to him with confidence and clarity.Obama’s side of the debate had the great-est credibility com-pared to the position taken by the Repub-licans who may well

as an ally is far more important than Ameri-ca doing business and having credibility with the rest of the world. If America loses her capacity to influence the rest of the world, it loses everything. Israel is only safe as long as America main-tains her leadership of the world.No American President however powerful is al-lowed to micro-manage the Israeli Prime Minis-ter the way Natanyahu wants to macro-man-age the current Amer-ican President. What is so offensive about it is that Barack Obama matches Natanyahu pound for pound in intellect, maturity and the gift of the garb... Yes. Natanyahu is a product of MIT. Barack Obama is a product of Columbia and Harvard and is married to a product of Princeton and Harvard. It doesn’t get any better than that for any American President with the pos-sible exception of Bill Clinton. Natanyahu is laying a bad precedent that future American Presidents cannot and should never tolerate or condone. To stop Iran from ever building a nuclear bomb which is the ulti-mate goal of the deal, America would forever need the cooperation and collaboration of the other world pow-ers who are perma-nent members of the United Nations Secu-rity Council like Great Britain, France, Russia, and China. If the push comes to shove it is one or two or more of those countries that have the capacity to

I have just finished watching a serious interview between two Harvard graduates on the Iran Deal and how the approval or the rejection of it by the US Congress could negatively or positively impact the possibili-ty of Iran getting the nuclear bomb. The guest was Barack Hussein Obama the first black President of the United States who collaborated and led the Leaders of the five most powerful na-tions in the world who put aside their inter-nal squabbles, rivalries and shifting strategic interest to unanimous-ly to produce the monumental deal in the interest of world peace. The interviewer was Fareed Zakaria, the brilliant and pow-erful moderator of the Global Public Square, a CNN talk show that is watched all over the world every Sunday. Obama is an Amer-ican with his roots traced back to Africa and Fareed Zakaria is another American with his roots traced to India. They both qualify to be called the best in what they do in the melting pot that America has become.The majority of Dem-ocrats have always demonstrated a better appreciation of the melting- pot transfor-mation of America, They do so more than the Republicans who still act and behave as if nothing has changed in America. The Dem-ocrats and the Repub-licans both agree that America remains the greatest military pow-er on Earth but they

both have a profound disagreement on how that power should be projected or deployed around the world. The Republicans dominate the military industrial complex of America and they love and appreciate war more than they treasure and seek peace.Republicans want America to remain a bully and to use her superpower status to intimidate and to force the other world powers to go along with whatever Amer-ica decides even if it is against their best interest. They forget that to subdue Adolf Hitler in the Second World War, the Amer-icans have to team up with Russia and European nations and their satellite colo-nies around the world to get the job done. There is a limit to how much America alone can do to guaran-tee the peace of the world. She is going to need all the help and collaboration she can get from the rest of the world.The Republicans be-lieve that America and the tiny state of Israel as allies are powerful enough to force the rest of the world to do their biddings even in the age of global-ization when the whole world has become one global village where no nation however pow-erful can continue to bully the rest of the world without paying a heavy price. Natanya-hu is wrong to cast aspersions on a deal signed by the whole world and to pretend that that having Israel

use their majority in both Houses of Con-gress to reject the Deal but would not be able to muster suf-ficient support from the Democrats in both Houses of Congress to override a presidential veto.The debate is not whether or not the Republicans would support the deal. It is crystal clear they have been opposed to the deal ever before it was concluded and before most of them have even had a chance to read the fine prints. They are opposed to the deal because they are always opposed to any initiative from the first black President of America because they don’t want Obama to succeed or take credit as the author of such a monumental deal that could go down in history as one the greatest achievements of any American Presi-dent... Obama Care is one such monumental achievement pretty much like Social Secu-rity which was signed into Law by another democrat, Frank-lin Delano Roosevelt and the Medicare Bill signed into law by Lyndon Baines John-son, another demo-crat. Republicans do not want to hear that a black President ever left his foot prints on the sand of American history like few of his white counterparts. They want to belittle everything Obama has ever done. They hardly ever give him credit for being the conquer-or of Osama Bin Laden or for ending the two

“THE IRAN DEAL” Obama lives in the real world & Republicans live in the world of fantasy.Dr. Wumi Akintide.

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world its best chance other than war to stop Iran from acquiring the nuclear bomb.It was one of the most productive in-terviews I have ever watched on television. The President an-swered all the ques-tions put to him with-out referring to any notes meaning that the man clearly knows what he is talking about. Republicans must now appreciate that Obama did not just become President by sheer accident. He was the anointed of the Lord. God has destined him to be President and that Republicans are wasting their time to continue to put every possible obstacle on his way. They cannot succeed because when God says yes who can say no?“Obama ti g’oke odo k’afara to ja” simply means in Yoruba that Obama has crossed the river before the bridge gave way. The Deal is going to pass if not by a nar-row margin at the Congress, but thru a presidential veto that cannot be overridden. God Almighty Himself and most Americans are all for it. It is the right thing to do.I rest my case.

Iran want a war just like the Republicans are clamoring for war but he was convinced and persuaded the deal on the table has enough provisions within it to stop Iran from making that bomb and that is why he is determined to veto the Bill if for any reason the Congress did not pass it. He assured Fareed that the Republicans were yet to provide with an alternative solution to the one he has of-fered. He remained an optimist and he still hoped the Republi-cans would allow wiser counsel to prevail and vote their hopes and not their fears when the chips are down.Obama is putting all his emphasis on get-ting enough democrats to stand with him. The Deal goes through if the Republicans cannot muster enough votes to override his presi-dential veto. He is fully aware of the Jewish lobby on members of the US Congress on both sides of the isle but he is also aware of the wisdom and maturity of members to put the nation-al interest over and above their own per-sonal interest when they cast their votes. The Deal offers the

Americans. He can only do that by main-taining peace and be prepared for war only as a last resort. He maintained that Amer-ica under his presiden-cy is irrevocably com-mitted to the peace and security of Israel and his ultimate goal is to see the state of Israel live in peace and security with her neighbors in the region and that the younger generation in Israelis need peace more than they need war.Going to war with Iran cannot bring that peace, it can only escalate it. He argued that Natanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister is wrong to claim that more sanctions against Iran or war is the only way to go. The deal signed by America and the 4 members of the Security Council with Iran is designed to assure peace both for Iran and the rest of the world. He believed that the youths of Iran want peace as much as the youths in the State of Israel.To delay the chances of Iran having the nu-clear weapon for an-other 25 years under the strict supervision of the whole world and the IAEA is a better option than going to war. The hardliners in

costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They could not understand how the man manage to beat them in two consecutive elections and could predictably add a third because a rainbow coalition of Americans appreciate his legacies and they want those legacies to endure beyond his tenure in office.Obama’s position is that peace is far bet-ter than war and that if America must ever go to war she must do so as a last resort and after all diplomat-ic channels have been exhausted. America must first of all make effort to build world consensus against the war of the future because no nation however powerful can go it alone. Obama argued that American allies have their own strategic interest that may be quite different from that of Amer-ica. He argued that America must not go to war just because it can but because it is totally unavoidable and that the decision must be predicated on her moral principles and strategic interest as Leader of the Free World.He argued that Ameri-ca has more to lose if the whole world goes

into a war. He argued that America is better positioned to guaran-tee the peace and se-curity of the state of Israel only when Amer-ica leads by a set of values that the rest of the world can respect and appreciate. It is fine to have a power like a lion but using that power like a lion is a different ballgame.Obama argued that if the Deal is reject-ed the alternative is War with Iran and that a war with Iran may have its appeal to the Republicans but once it starts, there is no telling where such a war could lead Amer-ica. The war with Iraq was sold to America as something that would be very easy to prosecute and to win. It took more than 10 years and it has cre-ated serious instability in the most volatile region of the world. He urged the Repub-licans to learn some useful lessons from American experience in both wars and all the collateral damages the wars have caused to America and her allies and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan...He made it clear that his first duty as Pres-ident is to guarantee the peace and secu-rity and prosperity of

rich culture, respectful, welcoming , friendly, resilient, diplomatic, tolerant, accomodat-ing, industrious, well travelled; and as a matter of fact, any-where you did not see an igbo man, just know that that place is inhabitable. Shall we allow all these strongContinue on page 10

mote and sustain the rich culture and values of the blessed people of Igboland using the media. Igbo language is predominantly spo-ken in five (5) states in the eastern part of Nigeria and by exten-tion spoken in virtu-ally all the southern states. Igbo people are good people warm,

wudimma Nwokeabia. I am a bona fide Igbo man. In a nutshell, I speak igbo, sleep Igbo, eat Igbo, breath Igbo even my compa-ny name EJIAMATU GROUP is in igbo too.

Please let this talk be as interactive as ever. I want us to talk about how best we can pro-

BRIEF TALK ABOUT “ PROMOTING AND SUSTAINING THE IGBO CULTURE USING THE LOCAL MOVIES” BY HIGH CHIEF ALEXAN-DER NWOKEABIA ( EJIAMATU )Igbo kwenu! Enugu state kwenu! Anam-bra State kwenu! Imo state kwenu! Abia state kwenu! Ebonyi

state kwenu! America kwenu! virginia kwenu! Nigeria kwezuonu oooo!!!!!!I want to speak in Igbo language but I might be combining English for the inter-est of our brothers that don’t understand igbo.My names are high chief Alexander Chuk-

Communiqué on the 2nd World-Wide Igbo Festival of the Arts and Language and Culture with pictures

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Continue from page 6;virtues to diminish gradually in our gener-ation? The answer is capital NOO. Posteri-ty will judge us if we don’t do what we are supposed to do and at the right time.I thank God for this wonderful festival of Igbo culture which CISA has started and i pray it continues to flourish in leaps and bounds. The contin-uous hosting of this festival will definitely reduce the “ YO MEEN AND AMA WHOOP YA ASS” we normally hear from you people here after 20 years of not visiting home. Please I encourage parents to teach their children igbo language and cul-ture it pays. If not for anything let them have a second language so that we know our brothers even If we meet anywhere in the world. After all no knowledge is a waste.It’s so dishearten-ing to hear that for long African Magic ( a channel in the DSTV Nigeria) doesn’t not have an igbo station in their network when they had Yoruba and hausa almost from the inception of the pay TV. It was just about two (2) or three (3) months ago that they included an igbo chan-nel. When I asked, I was made to under-stand that we didnt have content. We have so many movies in the market being acted, produced and direct-ed by Igbo men and women all in English language; but very few in igbo language that could sustain and run comfortably in a channel. I accepted but when It was added it wasn’t included in the normal family bou-quet rather it is in the higher bouquet while Yoruba and Hausa are

aired in the family bouquet. This im still investigating why it should be so. Higher bouquet I meant is paying more money to watch an igbo channel.After seeing all these, I said to myself, I’m going to fill in this gap. How do I do that? We are going to achieve this by:1) Producing quality Epic, Glamour, Comedy etc movies and flood-ing same to the mar-ket.2) Supporting any Ac-tor, Actress, Producer etc that might want to do any work in igbo3) Creating Anima-tions, cartoons in igbo Language for our chil-dren in the diaspora as our parents might be too busy to teach them igbo. I believe this will go a long way in embibing the culture in our children.4) Enriching CISA with Enough content as it regards Igbo Culture. It is so unfor-tunate that my good friend Mr. Kenneth Ugochukwu (Buc-knor) could not make it to this event with his Rich Igbo movies that should have been premiered here, but I promise you by God’s grace that in subse-quent editions of CISA the organisers will be the ones telling us to chose the ones that are best for the event.BENEFITS The best way to drive an information directly into people’s sitting room is through the media of which I have chosen the movies to propagate the rich cul-ture of our great land. When this is done we all will stand a greater benefit of fraternising more, loving one an-other more and en-joying ourselves more, creating emlployment and bringing greater development to Igbo-

land.CONCLUSION The best stars in the movies, music and all entertainment indus-tries are from Igbo extraction. Igbos are too talented, “IGBO NWERE MMADU” What else can I say. I don’t want to mention names you all know them. Finally, plans have reached ad-vanced stage to bring down film / Nollywood village to igboland Ug-wuoba in Enugu state to be precised. It is now time we work together to make all these dreams a reality. LONGLIVE CISA! LONG LIVE IGBO! LONG LIVE AMERICA! LONG LIVE NIGERIA!High Chief Prince Al-exander Chukwudinm Nwokeabia.EJIAMATU GROUP OF COMPANY LTD.On Aug 9, 2015 7:36 AM, “Council of Ig-boStates North Ameri-ca” <presidentofcisa@gmail.com> wrote:

Communique on the 2nd World-Wide Igbo Festival of the Arts and Language and Culture 09-08-15 The logistics on the 2nd World-Wide Igbo Festival of the Arts and Language and Culture held on the 23 through the 25th of July 2015 at the Frontier Igbo Village Museum in Staunton, Virginia, USA has just concluded and on be-half of Council of Igbo States in Americas representing all the Igbo States from Nige-ria in Americas (CISA) constituting of Abia, Anambra, Anioma-Del-ta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, and Rivers States, I am pleased to declare the 2015 2nd World-wide Igbo Festival of the Arts and Culture a success and an expe-

rience for the ages”. To use baseball analo-gy; the organizers and the participants“hit the ball out of the park”; meaning strik-ing a ball “well” and delivering it success-fully on target. However, every ac-tivity require a “post mortem” an investiga-tion of the facts of a situation, particularly one that had an unde-sired outcome general-ly referred to as les-son learned and a look at better ways of uti-lizing resources mov-ing forward. It includes future collaboration, recommendations and actions plans that may mean review of our current approaches to business, our relation-ship with the Museum and the corresponding viabilities for “Sustain-ing” future CISA com-munity development initiatives. One clear positive out of the “post mortem” was the reaffirmation of the increasing im-portance of CISA in articulating the frame-work for “Igbo Agen-da” and the needs for investing in Igbo language, culture and traditions as a way of achieving and or en-hancing regional eco-nomic equilibrium. Another thing to keep in mind as we collec-tively work towards leaving our imprints on the landscape is that, irrespective of the cor-responding “ups and down” along the way, history would always remind us that “the measure of the size of one’s accomplishment is by the obstacles he/she had to over-come to reach his or her goal”- Booker T. Washington. What was also, pro-

found on the review of the recently con-cluded 2nd Igbo World Festival of the Arts and Culture was the need to set standards in the ways we oper-ate and as we up the “antes” on our efforts at being on the spot-light in our collabora-tion with the United States government, sponsors, funders, world-wide audience, especially, given that we now operate under a 501c (3) designate, the need to set pri-orities and to height-en our standards has become more apparent in keeping with ac-countability and trans-parency required of organization that op-erates under the 501c (3) scheme. Standards after all, are proven driver of growth and development. The review of 2nd World-Wide Igbo Fes-tival of the Arts and Language and Culture also, recognized that building CISA of to-morrow will require new priorities and co-ordinated efforts that are based on stream-lining and twitching certain portfolios and aligning and realigning the respective roles to work much more effectively together and in concert with the Executive Council of CISA who in turn is accountable to the President Council (the state representatives) who invariably reports to the respective States that they rep-resent at Council of Igbo States in Ameri-cas (CISA). Recommendations for review of our standard operating methods should include:A look at principles on why and what types of standards are need-ed moving forwardidentification of the

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6. Nkwa umu Agbog-ho or Maiden Dance of Afikpo led Ms. Uchechukwu OgbuaguA thrilling and gyrating great dance filled with fun – a reminiscence of the old Afikpo women’s dance.7. Egwu umu Agbogho of the Youth Wing of Nwannedinamba led by Ms. Nneka Ikpeama A wonderful perfor-mance8. War Dance led by Jerry Uka and Chief Okorie Mbah of MaliA real War Dance9. Ms Igbo Queen and childrenMs. Erica Akpuaka10. Ms Africa Queen and childrenMs. Frances Udukwu11. Emeka NwosuTransportation – did a Herculean job of pick-ing guests from the entire airports - near and far. Deserves a golden Award!12. Dr. Edward Nwachi --- (Ebonyi)Co-MC during naming ceremony

Of course,Dr. Stephen Uche (Aririeri)Vice-Chair, Planning Committee DSG CultureOrganized all the festi-val performing groups Organized all the hotel reservations Coordinated the Ohanaeze S/A, Camer-oon, and Mali.Part MC

Chudi Asidianya, BA, MA, LSC, IEOPresident, Council of Igbo States in Ameri-cas Useful Links below to see highlight events at the festival: www.cisandiigbo.org/2015_igbo_world_festival/cultural-performanc-es-at-the-2015-ci-sa-event.html

mention in this com-munique. CISA (Council of Igbo States in Americas) without any doubt owes a debt of grati-tude to Dr. Nwachuk-wu Anakwenze the lone Igbo man that represents the inter-est of Ndi-Igbo at the Commonwealth of Virginia Frontier Muse-um Igbo Village, the Chairman of the Board of President at CISA, former President of CISA, the unabashed, unapologetic Igbocen-tic, “okala madu, okola muo and the unsung hero of NdiIgbo. You brought a financial , morale and cultural height to what we do. Thank you! Our unabashed grat-itude goes to the names and groups below for their contri-butions: GroupRole1. Chief OnonakaBrought all the arti-facts that beautified the scene and all the masquerades; in fact more than we could use.2. Anambra State Association, Women’s WingTen women in uniform led by their President, madam Vicky Agba and Dr. (Mrs.) Ujunne Akpuaka. Danced Ege-dege music.3. Enugu State Associ-ation, Women’s WingLed by Odibeze4. PILA Performance - Umu Oma Igbo Nile led by Oriaku Kanayoifu-nanya Ntukogu.One of the greatest performers of the weekend. The children/Youth sang the nation-al anthems; the adults and youth performed the African Line dance.5. Boston Igbo School led by Dr. Ben AdubaAnother wonderful per-formance

gathering, the event was with the presence of our royalties that reads like the who is who: His Royal Highness;Eze Obidiegwu Onyeso , Eze NriEze Uzu, Gibson Nwo-su, Eze AwkaEze Cletus Ilomuanya, Chairman, Council of Igbo rulersEze Daniel EmereonyeIgwe Ejiamatu Nwoke-abiaIgwe JN Gguye, Ora-nyelugo11, Odenigbo 1, Okpuno Agude of Ugwu ObaIgwe Cyril Anochili An-ayo and;Chief Gary Igariway, the overall Chairman of Ohaneze Ndigbo Also notable at the event were Chief Uge-zu O Ugezu and many Nollywood actors. Our gratitude to you all for making time out of your busy schedule to grace us with your presence. A heartfelt gratitude also goes to the incomparable Governor Peter Obi, Former Governor of Anambra State , Chair-man designate of the 2015 2nd Festival of the Arts and Culture, who although was not able to attend the event due to unfore-seen circumstance, endeavored to send his Senior Special Assistant, Chief Val Obienyem in his place, with a message. Other notables that added real cultural val-ue to our community development initiatives, visible at the event were representatives from the Nigeria Con-sulate General, Consul. Kate Igbodike, Consul Culture and Consul Ifeoma Dibia, Consul, Immigration. Dr Ignatus Ukbabia the unsung hero behind CISA suc-cess at the 2014 and our 2015 gains de-serves an honourable

different types of activities that are needed to present full cultural activities at our annual Igbo World-Wide Festival of the Arts, Language and Cultureroles and capabilities of the DSGs, Com-mittees and Chairs in relation to project implementation, adjust-ments and improve-ments It is my hope that a developed comprehen-sive framework for the necessary standards on our method of operation moving for-ward, can contribute to a needed improve-ment and sustainable development of CISA. I look forward to a General Council meet-ing that will unveil in greater detail, some of the positive dis-cussions and areas of improvement that will include action plans for future growth and de-velopment of CISA and a “Synergic Relation-ship” with the Frontier Igbo Village. I will be remiss in my duty if I do not ac-knowledge our gains over the years. To be clear, our gains at this year’s Festival was not an “overnight sen-sation”, but rather a compendium of ex-haustive efforts from all members, well wish-ers, our partners in services organizations and reviews of the les-son learned from our 2014 1st Igbo Festival of the Arts and Cul-ture. We will contin-ue to streamline our structure for our pro-fessional growth and sustainability of CISA. Our destiny demands it, our children require us, and our future mandates us. After all, a hundred years from now, it will not matter what our bank accounts was, the sort

of houses we lived in, or the kind of cars we drove, but the world may be different be-cause we were import-ant in the lives of our children – Forest E. Witcraft (paraphrased). In other words, today’s “World-Wide Igbo Fes-tival of the Arts and Language and Culture” may be tomorrows Annual Pilgrimage” to the Frontier Village on a historical inquires on how the 16st centu-ry Ndi-Igbo of Nigeria lived. A heartfelt gratitude goes to the Planning Committee of the 2015 2nd Igbo World-wide Festival of the Arts and Culture under the leadership of Dr. Paul Okechukwu Oran-ika, CISA Executive Council, membership, Volunteers organiza-tions below must be recognized for their contributions in making this grandeurs occa-sion a success on all accounts. Thanks you all for your “virulent show of support” in our community de-velopment initiatives. Special gratitude goes to our South African connection under the leadership of Amadi O. Amadi and Chief Okorie Mba from Tim-buktu, Mali, Mr. Joseph Eze, our Igbo Union from Toronto and Chief Okwuchi Nnani President Igbo Cultural Association of Edmon-ton Canada respec-tively and their re-spective members for coming out in number to grace the event and to make it a true worldwide event. Spe-cial shout out to Chief Chris Nwakoby, Pres-ident of the Anam-bra State Progressive Association in Toronto, Canada for his master-ful job at moderating the Symposium /Panel Discussion.In a vintage cultural

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retired priest, the seminary program in Saint John xxiii was designed exclusively for mature adults. He said they had other seminarians of the same age bracket with him, some of whom were married too. The youngest in their group, according to him, was about fif-ty two years of age. That motivated him a lot.RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS CHILDREN:For Fr. McHale, his children were sup-portive of his decision to be priest. He not-ed that his first son provided him with the link to the diocese of Scranton which is the hometown of Fr. McHale’s daughter in-law. His last son, he said, was a bit reluctant and won-dered why he should become priest the same year that their mother died. But he maintains a wonderful relationship with them till date. In terms of what they call him, Fr. McHale said his daughter would call him “Father Father” while others called him dad.He described his pos-ture before them as that of both pastor and dad. Interestingly, he does a lot of spir-itual programs with his first son. Togeth-er, they are able to package retreats in Pennsylvania using information system to support retreat groups. According to him, as a computer specialist, the son explores information from data base to support retreat with his priest-father. He said he has been privileged to baptize some of his grand-children and as well confirmed one of his granddaughters.

do if I died?” was a strong vocational call for him. He stated clearly that he would not have been priest if he hadn’t married his wife. As a teenag-er though, he point-ed out that he was involved in church activities and became an altar server. His mother also incited him to be priest, a push he completely dismissed till he mar-ried his wife.MAJOR CHALLENGE:Fr. McHale described his greatest challenge to be priest as his age. At fifty eight years of age, most of those he consulted regarding his ambition thought it was impos-sible. He said he was discouraged by lots of decision makers. He gave instance with vocations directors of archdioceses of Bal-timore and Cincinnati who told him then that he was too old to join their dioceses.However, it was his oldest son that linked him up with bishop Timlin who was then bishop of Scranton di-ocese in Pennsylvania. He was accepted by the diocese in 1999, the same year of his wife’s death. He was absorbed by Saint John xxiii seminary in Massachusetts in Sep-tember 2000. He did his summer session in Omaha, Nebraska. Having completed his seminary training in May, 2004, he was ordained priest in June by bishop Jo-seph Martins for the diocese of Scranton in Pennsylvania, USA at the age of sixty three.MOTIVATIONS:According to the

the two already in his academic kit. He ac-knowledged that his wife’s reaction to his answer was a tonic to his desire to be priest. BECOMING PRIEST:Few weeks after hav-ing lost his wife, Fr. McHale made con-tact with a friend, Fr. Charles McCarthy of the Melkite rite. Ac-cording to him, Fr. McCarthy was also married and had thir-teen children with his wife. The couple had been on retreat when their youngest daugh-ter Teresa Benedicta swallowed excess pills of Tylenol in the guise of candy. That had a devastating effect on her liver. The couple received this message which was distracting. But while Fr. McCar-thy prayed, he heard the voice of St. Tere-sa mandating him to concentrate on the retreat and allow God to take care of his family needs. At the end of their retreat in Dakota, the daughter received a miraculous healing which became one of the miracles needed to confirm the canonization of Edith Stein. This sto-ry linked Fr. McHale and Fr. McCarthy up when he was taking care of his sick wife. He became a devotee of Saint Teresa Bene-dicta and Saint Teresa Lisieux (of the Little Flower) in praying for divine healing for his wife.POINT OF DECISION:Fr. McHale described the discussion with her wife as a very important point in his life and vocation. He said that the ques-tion, “What will you

By Father Vincent Ezeo-ma ArisukwuBelow is a recap of a two hour interview with Reverend Father John McHale, a retired priest of the diocese of Scranton, Pennsyl-vania, United States of America, who was married for thirty four years before joining the catholic priest-hood. The question which prospective readers of this inter-view would ask can be predicted; “Is that real/possible?” That was same curiosi-ty I had, and which prompted me to re-questing him to share his story witha the larger society. The issue here is, “Who determines one’s vo-cation?”BACKGROUND: Fr. John McHale and I concelebrated the holy Eucharist at the chapel of Saint Ag-nes hospital, Caton Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland. I was filled with admiration at the sanctimonious manner in which he approached the sacra-ment. When the mass was over, I cornered this retired but active priest for a few ques-tions about his priest-hood. Fr.McHale was born in Melrose Bos-ton in Massachusetts, USA. He attended Boston College and graduated in phys-ics. He worked in the public health service, joined International Business Machines (IBM Cooporation) as a computer specialist where he met his wife in Buffalo, New York. The couple wedded in church in 1965 and was happily married for thirty four years before the wife died.

He described himself as very fortunate to have married a wom-an from a very strong catholic culture. Their marriage was bless-ed with four children; three boys and one girl, the oldest son is 49 while the last daughter is 43. His career was around computers. MARRIAGE:John McHale was happily married with his wife from 1965 to 1999. The wife took ill and eventually died in 1999, precisely the twenty fifth year of their marriage. He described his wife as a blessing to their family as she was the caretaker and spiritual beacon for him and the children. He stated that while his career took him to places, his wife kept the home. He felt that his wife’s sickness brought him close to his family. He was the wife’s primary care-giver throughout the period of illness. As the wife’s condi-tion grew worse, Fr. John recalled a ques-tion she asked him, “What would you do if I passed away?” He said the question took him by surprise, but that the wife’s sick-ness didn’t allow him to pay close atten-tion to the answer he gave. He told the wife that he would join re-ligious vocation if she passed away, a re-sponse which baffled her too. The wife was glad at such answer. She tweaked him and said that meant he was going for another degree against their decision that he would not acquire any more Degrees on top of

MARRIED FOR THIRTY FOUR YEARS, RETIRED AS CATHOLIC PRIEST

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his family. He stated that priesthood has helped him to provide enough spiritual foun-dation for his family. He noted that in the absence of his wife who was the spiritual pillar of their home, his priesthood drew him close to his chil-dren. In response to whether he was or-dained priest for his family, Fr. McHale explained that he was ordained for the peo-ple of God in general. Meanwhile, he re-called that one of the teachings he received during formation was that as a father of children, his first commitment was to his immediate family. He narrated how his family had visited him in his parish a few times. He said it was excitement for both himself and his parish-ioners to meet and interact with his chil-dren. Such visits add-ed great boost to his ministry to the parish-ioners. He maintained that the challenge could be in drawing a line between the par-ish and the family as a married person. Fr. McHale concluded that his priesthood has been an interesting and inspiring journey.

“For better for worse, for richer for poor-er, in sickness and in health” as words of commitment which couples make to each other. He likened that to the commitment which priests make on the altar. He regret-ted the dysfunction which marriage suffers in today’s society. He stressed that the high level of divorce has devastated fam-ilies and the society at large. He attributed incessant divorce to lack of commitments from couples. He advised couples not to be quick in seek-ing divorce and not to see it as solution to marriage problems. He suggested cou-ples to adopt what he called the FOCUS process which enables intending couples to stay focused and committed; to realize that they cannot go into the sacrament of marriage with reserva-tions. He advised cou-ples to stay engaged with each other and eschew the mentality of “If it doesn’t work, I quit” which has given negative conno-tation to marriage in modern society.DID HE ENJOY HIS PRIESTHOOD?Fr. McHale described his priesthood as blessing especially for

narrated how he felt isolated from other priests of the diocese. The priests of Scran-ton diocese didn’t know him before his ordination and that made the process of integration a major challenge for him.ON CELIBACY:Fr. McHale explained that prior to marriage celibacy didn’t mean much to him. He said his major concern then was to find the right marriage partner. Celibacy didn’t make much sense to him still as a married man. As a priest however, he noted that he had more challenges with obedience than he did with celibacy. The septuagenarian admit-ted that his fidelity and commitment to his wife in their mar-riage prepared him for the celibate life. Obe-dience on the other hand, bothered him because he felt he was single-minded and self-willed. He main-tained that one of his prayers was not to enter into argument about serious matters with his bishop as that would constitute real struggle for him.ON MARRIAGE:Fr. McHale values the church’s tradition-al teaching on mar-riage seriously. He described the words,

ORDINATION PROCESS:Fr. McHale said he received some con-cession in his training since he already had some background in philosophy. Having attended Boston Col-lege, he was trained by the Jesuits which gave him some advan-tage in his formation. He admitted that he didn’t go through any special canonical pro-cess other than the four years of train-ing in theology in St. John xxiii. Although they were about twenty three in class, he was particular about one of his fel-low seminarians that was ordained priest at the age of seventy. The said priest worked as a physician- anes-thesiologist and had ten children already. His wife passed away before his entry into the seminary too. He wanted to be priest in the diocese of Harrisburg in Pennsyl-vania but the bishop wouldn’t accept him initially because of his age. So he applied in Birmingham Alabama where he was accept-ed with delight, but the physicians in Har-risburg went after the bishop of Harrisburg and he changed his mind. But the old man had already commit-ted to Alabama and

was ordained for Ala-bama diocese.BETWEEN MARRIAGE AND PRIESTHOOD:Fr. McHale reiterat-ed that marriage was a good preparation for his ordination. He referred to Pope Benedict xvi (then Cardinal Ratzinger) who stated in an interview that there are as many ways to salvation as there are people. He maintained that there could be different ways to the priesthood, whereas it depends on the individual. He said he wouldn’t restrict any person to any partic-ular way. Regarding age of ordination, he remarked that where-as some diocese may prefer young people to be ordained to the priesthood, oth-ers may accept older candidates for var-ied reasons including financial support for the person’s training. In his opinion, how and when a person answers the call de-pends on how and when he feels the call. It is for the individual to discern.CHALLENGES AS A PRIEST:Fr. McHale singled loneliness out as his primary challenge in the parish. Having not come from Penn-sylvania originally, he

AfricaWorldnewspaper |August 16-31- 2015 Culture14

Admiral Akin Aduwo (rtd); former Minister of Water Resources, Alhaji Bashir Awotore-bo; President, IDB, Prof. Muheeb Opeloye; Senator Baju Bamg-betan; Prince Rasaki Adele Adewole; Prince Adegoke Sijuwade; Prince Adebayo Siju-wade; Prince Adeda-mola Aderemi; Revd. Mrs Omotola Oyediran; Ambassador Tokunbo Awolowo Dosunmu; former Deputy Gover-nor of the state Sen-ator Iyiola Omisore: Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi; Chief Dele Momodu; Mr. Yemi Omisore; and Prof. Tale Omole.

OONI’S RESTING PLACE

Oba Okunade Siju-wade would be buried beside the immedi-ate past Ooni, Oba Adesoji Aderemi.This is because the ceme-tery inside the palace where other Oonis were buried, was full, and this informed the decision to build a mausoleum inside the palace for Oba Ader-emi. The mausoleum is said to be located at the rear end of the palace, and it is ex-pected to be the final resting place of Oba Okunade Sijuwade.

11:12am, Governor Olusegun Mimiko, all Christian and Islamic clerics all left leaving families and friends behind.

Nigeria’s VP Prof. Yemi Osinbajo in his tribute said, “Ooni as a title does not die. We are celebrating a happy end. Our Papa lived a wealthy life. If our father could steer the ship of Yoruba race successfully, he did well.” Governor Aregbesola who was represented by the Secretary to the state Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, de-scribed the monarch as a man who “ex-celled in social life, commerce, royalty and industry. He was a successful business-man. His life is worthy of celebration for the service to his com-munity, the state and the nation at large in the last three decades

ROLL CALLVice President Yemi Osinbajo; Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Oluse-gun Mimiko; Secretary to Osun State Govern-ment, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti; former Military Governor of the de-funct Western Region, General Adeyinka Adebayo (rtd); former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Alani Akin-rinade (ertd); Rear

represented by the Secretary to the State Government). What caused friction was the seating arrange-ment. The VP’s aides insisted that there was no way their principal would have sat at the back of the governor. The issue was later settled and expectedly the VP sat in front.

3-FAITH SERMONSSermons were deliv-ered by heads of 3 religions. First was the Bishop of Ife Dio-cese(Anglican Commu-nion), Rt. Rev. Ranti Odubogun whose sermon was titled, “How are the mighty fallen. Odubogun took the Bible reading from II Sam. 1:19 and said the late Ooni brought fame and popularity during his days. In the Islamic exaltation, Alhaji Mufutau Yussuf, Mufashir of Ibadan-land, highlighted the immeasurable contri-butions of the mon-arch to Islam and Ife, Yorubaland, and Nige-ria as a whole. Before, Ifaloba, the represen-tative of traditionalists spoke, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who came with a retinue of his aides at exactly

The palace used by the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade Olubuse is shut and will not be opened until a replacement has been named and decorated,

kingmakers to list the possible succes-sors to Oba Sijuwade Olubuse proved fu-tile as they said they could not reveal such information.Below is the picture of ‘Ile Oodua’ the pal-ace of the next Ooni of Ife

First-class monarch Ooni of Ife, His Im-perial Majesty Oba Okunade Sijuwade was interred in Ile-Ife on Friday, 14th Au-gust 2015. Eminent personalities stormed Ile-Ife for the burial. Below is a blow-by-blow account of how the highly-revered king was buried:

WIVES & CHILDREN NOT TO ENTER OONI’S ROOM/SEE HIS CORPSEAs his the tradition in Ile-Ife, once the Ooni dies his wives and children are not allowed into his room. Also they must not set their eyes on his

corpse before inter-ment. If they did, such children and wives may die pre-maturely.According to the leader of the priests, Chief Apena Ogboni, Iledi Ooni, “As the corpse will be brought, it must be brought straight to us. Not all people can see it. As we are, we are not the ones to bury the remains , but they must bring the corpse to us so that all necessary rites would be done. Even, no child or wife of the monarch must see the corpse. Any child that sets his eyes on the remains could die suddenly. Only Lokore can see the corpse. It is not their property, it is the property of Ife people. If they do not bring the corpse to us, the corpse will not be buried.”

MILD DRAMA BE-TWEEN VICE PRESI-DENT & AREGBESO-LA’S AIDESThe intervention of some Ife elders stopped what could have been a big dra-ma when the aides of Nigeria’s VP, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and those of the Osun governor(who was

HOW YORUBA FOREMOST MONACH WAS BURIED

AfricaWorldnewspaper August 16-31- 2015|Culture 15

Late Ooni of ifeOba Okunade Sijuade

AfricaWorldnewspaper |August 16-31- 2015 News16

President Uhuru met with Kenyans living in Uganda during the Diaspora meeting in Kam-pala, Uganda

PRESIDENT UHURU KENYATTA IN UGANDA

AfricaWorldnewspaper August 16-31- 2015|Pride of Africa 17

Seniorita

Michelle T Hlongwane

AfricaWorldnewspaper |August 16-31- 2015 Interview18

That’s the point I was trying to make.Obasanjo: Yes. That’s true. They actually spearheaded the…PT: So how did it get to that?Obasanjo: (Cuts in) Well, you should ask them.PT: That’s what I’m asking you.Obasanjo: I don’t know. What I saw is what I’ve told you. But why they did it, I don’t know.PT: Because you were pretty close. You gave him one of the biggest cabinet posi-tions.Obasanjo: Come off it. You are behaving like a child and a bro-ken bottle. You have friends today. You may not be friends tomorrow. I believe there are things that probably Tony Anenih wanted which he didn’t get. What it is, I don’t know.PT: I remember that meeting in 2007 when Tony Anenih and you were to meet at Transcorp Hotel in Abuja, shortly be-fore you took over as Board of Trust-ees chairman, after you stepped down as President. I was there when Tony Anenih, stormed out. Is it in protest against you becoming Board of Trustees chairman and him stepping down or something?Obasanjo: Not at all. Because the Consti-tution of the party is clear. I didn’t make the Constitution.PT: So why has it been difficult to make up with him since then?Obasanjo: Well, he comes here…. You see… Look, I will

unless I have evi-dence. People make allegation. Anybody can call you and say ‘hey, Mojeed, you are a rogue’. But for what reason should I join him to call you a rogue if he doesn’t show me evidence.PT: But how did you two fall apart? To the extent, you nar-rated in your book, he teamed up with Yar’Adua and Ibori to plot your downfall.Obasanjo: I wouldn’t have put it that way. Because my memory is not that short, I wouldn’t have put it that way.PT: When Yar’Ad-ua wanted to move against you. That’s what the book says.Obasanjo: No. Show me where the book said that.PT: (Reaches for the book) I’m going to read the full para-graph: “There was also an attack on me from the party front. The amendment to the Peoples’ Demo-cratic Party’s Con-stitution which put a former president who is is a product of PDP as the chair-man of the party’s Board of Trustees was spearheaded by then Governor James Ibori, Makarfi, and Chief Tony Anenih. Whatever their rea-son for that constitu-tional amendment, I was the one available to occupy the post. But when Umaru and members of his ca-bal, along with their associates, set about pulling down Obasanjo, they pursued it to the Board of Trustees. Chief Tony Anenih and James Ibori were fellow travellers.”

PT: Sir, let’s talk about your rela-tionship with Tony Anenih, who is known as one of your closest political allies. In fact, he was said to be fix-ing a lot of things for you. We don’t know what he was fixing and they kept calling him Mr. Fix-it. Obasanjo: (Cuts in) Fix for whom?PT: Well, we don’t know. They call him Mr. Fix-it, and you know you seemed to have underlined the perception that he was fixing things for you when you asked him to step down from his post as Min-ister of Works to go anchor your campaign for second term. It was as if he was the only one who could fix that election for you.Obasanjo: No no no. I took (Ahmadu) Ali as Chairman (of the PDP). Who is more important as far as the party is con-cerned?PT: And most of the money you gave him to build roads, people say he didn’t build the roads. And you didn’t get him to ren-der account.Obasanjo: No, no. If he didn’t build roads and there is evidence that he didn’t build roads, I will deal with him. You see, you people you just start your imagination to run riot. You make up your mind. I don’t say Tony Anenih is the best human be-ing on earth. I will also not say he’s the worst. He’s probably in between, like most of us. But I will not chastise anybody or condemn anybody

In this concluding part of the interview with Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president speaks about the Boko Haram insurgen-cy, his relationship with Tony Anenih, and his grouse with the Nigerian media, and people like Reuben Abati.PT: You may not know about it, you may not have a hand in it, but it does ap-pear, especially from reports from US in-vestigators that some officials of your ad-ministration perhaps took bribe from Halli-burton.Obasanjo: No no no. I don’t deny that. But not me. I don’t deny their reports about Halliburton but not me. I don’t even know what Halliburton was doing here. So what’s your problem? And EFCC looked into it, you read the report of EFCC bordering on Halliburton.PT: The only gap is that people are won-dering why you didn’t take steps to bring those officials of your regime to book.Obasanjo: (Cuts in) There’s no gap. You can make any allega-tion. Now EFCC you can count number of people who are taken to court. I don’t take anybody to court, Mojeed. And don’t annoy me. Now you have the system that takes them to court. I don’t take anybody to court. Because if I have to be the one to say ‘take this one to court,’ that will be witch hunting. That’s not my job. My job is, set up the system and if anybody in that system is not per-

forming, then look for somebody to perform. So it doesn’t matter what allegation, if you read that report of EFCC, one man was hired, and he went out with all sorts of spurious allegations and EFCC took it one by one.Even Ribadu told me that when he gave that report, because he didn’t give the report to me…I said, look, carry out a critical investigation. I thought that was good. Then when he wrote his report, he gave it to Yar’Adua. And he said Yar’Adua asked him, ‘You can’t find anything at all?’ He brought Metropol-itan Police here and he said whenever they are doing investiga-tion in the past, when they get somewhere they will say ‘oh, yes, some people are inter-ested.’ But this is the first time they had free hand to carry out investigation. So what more do you want? And what I put there is what I believe in. Has anybody working under me said to you that ‘oh, he asked me to take bribe’PT: I don’t know if you saw the reports of the investigation that said Hallibur-ton passed a lot of money to your party, the PDP, during that time….Obasanjo: (Cuts in) Well, I don’t know about that.PT: …Including using even bullion van to deliver money to the party through Gaius Obaseki.Obasanjo: I won’t know about that. I don’t deal with the money in the party. I don’t deal with that.

INTERVIEW: My disagreement with Tony Anenih, and why I have no regard for Reuben Abati — Obasanjo

AfricaWorldnewspaper August 16-31- 2015|Interview 19

walk out on you‎. You see, these are not is-sues. You are making issues out of nothing. I go on principle, I don’t go on persons. And I will walk out on you. Look, Tony Anenih, whatever he has done he has done that. That’s not an issue to me. It’s not a personal issue…PT: (Cuts in) It’s just the way…

Obasanjo: (Cuts in) No no no. Yes. You can see the way I put it. It’s not a person-al issue. Tony Anenih has come here. And if he comes here tomor-row…. Jonathan has sent message to me and if he comes here tomorrow I will receive him. It’s not anything personal. In the in-terest of Nigeria, and that’s all. So what is making up? Making up to do what? Be-cause he will give me

a wife or I will give him a wife? Making up for what? It’s not a personal issue. So you are not getting it right and that’s part of the problem of Nigeria. Look, I stood for what I believe is in the best interest of Nigeria. So wheth-er you agree with me on that or not is your own issue. What is personal? What is

making up about?PT: You wrote a full chapter about the me-dia in your book…Obasanjo: (Cuts in) Yes. That’s part of you now.PT: You wrote exten-sively about bad jour-nalism, although you also agreed that there are a few good jour-nalists…Obasanjo: (Cuts in) And I mentioned some of them. I don’t know whether you will fall into that group.

(Laughter).‎‎‎PT: But you said the media found you too cold‎, too unappetis-ing, and not enam-oured with dramatic and sensational news. You were very critical. And, you said some-times they printed interviews they never had with you.Obasanjo: That was true. And I sent it to

the (Nigerian Press Council).PT: Do you want to give us examples of those interviews?Obasanjo: That’s what I’m telling you now. I even reported it to the Nigerian Press Council. Now what is your problem with that? But that’s true.PT: This is a critical assessment, which is good. We all need to read it and learn.Obasanjo: You ask Taye (his aide), Taye

can fish it out. I wrote… The man wrote interview… Look, you see what I hate about the me-dia? Look, you don’t ‎want any criticism about you. You are not perfect. No.PT: As far as I’m con-cerned, the criticisms you offered are my own criticisms of the media.Obasanjo: Ok. So

what is your problem? Now if a media… and I have a case against one. You can ask Tun-ji Abayomi. A paper wrote (a libel against me) since 1983. I criticise the judiciary as well. And that case has been there since 1983. Since that time I have gone to prison and back. I’ve been president and out. Tunji Abayomi is the one who’s handling it, since 1983. When I mentioned it to

(Muhammadu) Uwais, Uwais said he would look into it. Look, we are not going to make progress unless we admit and accept what we are doing wrong, either individu-ally or collectively.PT: I think your criti-cism of the media is something we should print and distribute to all…Obasanjo: (Cuts in)

You saw what I wrote about…no, not Tola Adeniyi. I think I wrote about Tola Ad-eniyi in my book. But in this one, it’s Segun Adeniyi. And he told somebody that what I wrote is true. Or Reuben Abati, the one who said “ehhnn‎, he too wants to build a house”. Can anybody say that to me and you then think I will have regard for him? Or for the profession he claims he belongs?

AfricaWorldnewspaper |August 16-31- 2015 Interview20

insurgents. That’s why it’s not a set war. Because in a set war, you know where the enemy is, you know how to approach it. This one, it might even be someone on a motorcycle who has a gun in his pocket. That’s a different thing. And they say there’s no motivation.

How can there be motivation? When the upper echelon of the military was riddled with corruption. The political leadership, riddled with corrup-tion. The soldiers are no fool.PT: Reading about internal conflict in the book, I think that’s in the Volume 2, you listed cases that were

said.” I said what did Badeh say? So he sent it to me‎. I said Badeh is looking for excuses. Badeh must be looking for excus-es. Anybody who is a trained officer knows that the military is trained to fight a war, not insurgency. You may have a course of training on insurgency

or counter-insurgency and all of that. But when you have to deal with insurgency, that’s a different ball game altogether. You have to be trained for it, you have to be equipped for it. And then to say you don’t have… Look, the people you are dealing are among the people, that’s why they are

house in Ibadan, in ‎ Bodija, while attending a course. But a paper wrote that I dislodged a family from their apartment, leaving them stranded. It was front page, with a photograph of the purportedly stranded family. My cousin, who was catering for me was shocked by the

falsehood. That was when my cousin said “Nigeria media, never again.”PT: These issues you raised are part of the reforms‎ we seek.Obasanjo: The point is you should ac-cept these things. I won’t say the mili-tary is perfect. And today somebody told me “oh, what Badeh

And you know it. You know it. That you can write anything in any paper and if the price is right, it will be pub-lished. Do you know that?(CONTEXT: Mr. Obasanjo had, with-out mentioning name, written on Page 107, Volume 2 of his book: “A close young col-

league of mine within the civil society had a friend in the media who rose to become media adviser to a Nigerian President. In the early days of this media man, who, by virtue of his friendship with my colleague be-came close to me as well, he was, or so I assumed by his utter-ances, a paragon of

uprightness and integ-rity. When I received definite information of his falling prey to a governor who allo-cated to him a plot of land and who regularly fuelled him with cash, I asked his friend to find out the reason for the sudden change in his disposition. I was told his reply

was, ‘I want to build a house and live well.’ What a pity! All his integrity, morality and ethics were sacrificed. It got me thinking not only about media practitioners and the media, but also about humanity in general.”)And let me give you an example. When I left government in 1979, I lived in my

AfricaWorldnewspaper August 16-31- 2015|Interview 21

brought to your at-tention and efforts made by the federal government to re-solve them. From the Ife-Modakeke crisis to the Sharia riot in Kaduna to Osama bin Laden protest in Kano, Miss World protest, Jos crisis, to Borno riots. But strikingly there is no mention, even in the index, of the budding activities of Boko Ha-ram…‎Obasanjo: Because there was no Boko Haram then‎. Oh! Come off it. You are mad!. There was no Boko Haram then. No!PT‎: Just let me finish.Obasanjo: Ok. Finish. There was no Boko Haram then. There was no Boko Haram when I was in office.PT: (Cuts in) The reason I’m asking you this is because there are suggestions that the sect started build-ing up even before you left office.Obasanjo: No. What happened was this, they were part of… You know (Ahmad) Yerima went and started this thing. That was when they also became their own thing‎. I went to them. You heard the other day, they said they would have killed me but when I was there they were doing their Sharia and I was doing my own thing.PT: They said they had no problem with you?Obasanjo: They had no problem with me. And they said that af-ter I left, they started killing their people and hunting them.PT: You wrote a letter to Mr. Jonathan ad-vising him to form a committee of former Heads of State, to be coordinated by Gener-al Gowon. If that were

done at that time, do you think ‎we’ll still be where we are today?‎Obasanjo: They were turning Boko Haram to a religious issue, it is not a religious issue. He was see-ing it as a northern plan, it wasn’t. It was a menace waiting to happen, and he didn’t see it that way, which was unfortunate…PT: You even point-ed out that if Gowon were allowed to head the group, it would assuage the feelings of Christians‎ who believed that Boko Haram was a religious issue…‎Obasanjo: I did every-thing I could to help him.‎ Look, mine is to give what I believe is genuine advice from the position that I see things and I under-stand. Now any leader can then decide what to do. You see, the thing is that no leader can say he is short of advice in Nigeria. Un-less he doesn’t want to listen. But then, when you get the ad-vice, you do whatever you like with it.PT: Do you think that can still be done?Obasanjo: You know, there is always time for a thing. The time that I went to Maidu-guri, and it was after that time. Actually, my advice to Jona-than, if he had acted then, I don’t believe that Boko Haram would have gone against him. Jonathan had a problem. He believed that Boko Haram was a device of the north to pre-vent him from having a second term. That’s all. That is what… any other thing, for-get it. How is it that Jonathan was told by 8 o’clock in the morn-ing after the night that Chibok girls were

abducted, and there was no reaction. As I said in my book, I called one Philip Madu to come and brief me on what happened. And if there had been reaction within 72 hours, they would have got, if not all, most of those girls. At what stage did Jonathan and the Governor of Borno speak about Chibok?Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, playing Ayo with friendFormer pres-ident, Olusegun Obasanjo, playing Ayo with friendLet me tell you some-thing that happened during my time. I heard on a Friday‎, I think we were to have an election on the Saturday. I can’t remember which elec-tion, and in Kano, one man was lead-ing his sect in the mosque, 5:30 a.m., he was shot dead. IGP (Inspector General of Police) told me. I phoned the governor immediately, and said ‘what are you doing? Have you heard this?’ He said ‘yes, when the day breaks.’ I said ‘when day breaks? You? Out now.’Now, on a Friday, a Muslim cleric leading his own flock being shot? It’s incendiary for anything in Kano. And you know, they would have gone into Sabon Gari. That is the way reactions to incidents should take place. And because of that reaction, we didn’t have any inci-dent.There wasn’t Boko Haram as Boko Ha-ram. It was after I left‎ that Muhammadu Yu-suf actually called… and that’s how they got the name Boko Haram. He called some of his followers. Because he had fol-

lowing. Some of them graduates. And then he said, ‘Look, bring your certificates. When did you leave university?’ He himself he’s not an illiterate. He had college ed-ucation. ‘When did you finish university? ‘Three years ago.’ ‘What are you do-ing?’ ‘Nothing.’ ‘Your education is useless, tear your certificate.’ Some of them did, some didn’t. That’s how the name Boko Haram came, they don’t call themselves Boko Haram.PT: Is that not gull-ibility on the part of those he invited to tear their certificates?Obasanjo: Gullibility? Is it true that you left university for years? Is it true that you don’t have a job? Is it true that you went to university so that you could have education, and have a job? And if that is what to‎ok you to university and four years after you have left university you haven’t got a job, what is gullibility?PT: Sir, it came out in your book that your leaked December 2013 letter was not your first letter to Jonathan. You wrote like three or four. You published the letters here…Obasanjo: (Cuts in)‎ They are more.PT: How many letters did you write to Presi-dent Jonathan?Obasanjo: I don’t know. I don’t count.PT: You published a few. So is that the way you write to Ni-gerian leaders before and after you?Obasanjo: If I think there is something I should point out to them, yes I do. I do.PT: Maybe your let-ters can even form a book at a point.Obasanjo: That’s

entirely up to you. (Laughter). But did you read the letter I wrote to Margaret Thatcher?PT: No, I haven’t read that.PT: Months back, you said bye bye to politics. Are you still maintaining that stance?Obasanjo: Partisan politics. Now if poli-tics is welfare of the people, in a way, then you cannot say poli-tics no way until you die. But partisan poli-tics? No.PT: So no more parti-san politics for you?Obasanjo: Oh yes. I won’t belong to any political party. ‎I won’t.PT: Even if they de-cide to woo you?Obasanjo: What non-sense? Any fool that comes here… be-haves like a fool, I ‎will walk him out.PT: As one of the fathers of our nation, what do you think of the direction our country is heading now?Obasanjo: Well, we are better than where we were. We are not where we should be, but we are better than where we were.PT: Thank you so much, Baba.Obasanjo: Thank you

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