EXPRESSION of shock and incredulity were reactions from a number of persons and organisations across the world who were invited to the International Conference for the Eradication of Colonialism. The general question that followed was: “Are there still colonies in the world?” Indeed, there are 61 territories and peoples who list themselves as colonies or what the United Nations, UN, classify as Non-Self Governing Territories.

However, the UN officially recognises only 17 such territories. These are American Samoa, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, French Polynesia, Gibraltar, Guam, Montserrat, New Caledonia, Pitcairn, Saint Helena, Tokelau, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States Virgin Islands and Western Sahara.  The 17th territory is called Falkland Islands by Britain and, Malvinas, by Argentina.

The world body said these are “territories whose people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government”. It also states that since its 1945 establishment, “… more than 80 former colonies comprising some 750 million people have gained independence”, increasing its original 51 Member-States to 193. So its desire is to extricate more peoples from colonialism.

The UN does not list Puerto Rico, a territory with a 2021 population of 3.264 million people as a Non-Self Governing Territory. It however made public the June 20, 2022 decision of its 29-Member UN Special Committee on Decolonisation. The UN body stated that it reaffirmed “ the inalienable right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence and calling again upon the United States to assume its responsibility to promote a process to those ends.” It also stated that it supports “a process enabling the Puerto Rican people to take decisions in a sovereign manner, to address their urgent economic and social needs, including unemployment, marginalisation, insolvency and poverty and… urged the United States Government to complete the return of all lands occupied by its military forces in the territory to the people of Puerto Rico.”

The ever growing challenges in the world, including endless wars, dictatorship, ideological contestations, hunger, insecurity and climate change, have combined to relegate the issue of continued colonialism to the background. This has been so much that many have actually forgotten that there are still colonies and peoples who want to be free.

But the colonised have not forgotten. The countries administering them have not. So has not the UN which has a new 2030 deadline to rid the earth of this human scourge. However, the challenge of the UN is that after 64 years of fighting colonialism, it seems to have become battle-weary. Its deadlines are becoming mere dates on the calendar, and increasingly, the colonised feel abandoned and forgotten. Also, the powerful countries that run these territories do not seem to be in a hurry to change the circumstances of the territories.

But the issue will not go away and the territories erupt like active volcanoes. The latest eruption was on May 13, 2024 when mass protests and violent confrontations broke out in New Caledonia which is administered by France. Located in the Pacific, officially, ten persons were killed, more than 300 injured and over 1,520 arrested. France declared a state of emergency in the colony, blocked the social media and poured in its military. But the unrest went on for about ten weeks. In those weeks, over one billion Euro damage was incurred. Nine hundred businesses, 200 houses, 600 vehicles and 85 per cent of grocery network, were destroyed.

In order to help remake the world and end colonialism, the African Think Tank, the Society for International Relations Awareness, SIRA, decided to hold an International Conference to Eradicate Colonialism. The Conference, holding in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, from August 12-13 at the Top Rank Hotel, Utako, aims to bring all actors together, work out modalities that can assist the UN in its quest to finish the task of decolonising the earth and, making the world a liveable place for all humans irrespective of size, colour, belief or might.

SIRA said the conference, with the theme: ‘The Forgotten Peoples: International Conference to Decolonize the World’, is also in furtherance of the UN General Assembly’s “Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples”(General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) of 14th December, 1960). This Declaration acknowledges that “all peoples have an inalienable right to complete freedom, the exercise of their sovereignty and the integrity of their national territory”. It also solemnly proclaims “the necessity of bringing to a speedy and unconditional end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations”.

SIRA stated that representatives of Non-Self-Governing Territories have been invited to state their case, while countries administering and superintending these territories, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Morocco and Indonesia have been invited to make statements at the conference. Also, representatives of social organisations, human rights, peace and development movements have been invited.

The conference Chair is Ibrahim Gambari, former UNESCO President, ex-Nigeria Foreign Affairs Minister, last Chair of the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid and, erstwhile UN Special Envoy on Cyprus, Zimbabwe and Myanmar.

The Opening Address is to be delivered by Oscar Lopez Riveria, Leader of the Puerto Rico Independence Movement who spent 38 years in prison.

The Keynote Address is to be delivered by Ambassador Oubi Bachir, Representative of the POLISARIO Liberation Movement in Switzerland and to the UN and International Organisations in Geneva. He is also the former Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Nigeria.

Speakers include Alfredo Miranda, Ambassador of Mexico in Nigeria; Senator Shehu Sani and Dr Olushola John Magbadelo, the Lead Director, Centre for African and Asian Studies who speaks on ‘The Imminent Dangers Of Re-colonization Of Post-Colonial African States’. Dr Tamuno Clinton Jaja is to examine the ‘Trial and Deportation of King Jaja of Opobo by colonial Britain’.

International Human Rights Lawyer and former President of the West Africa Bar Association, Mr Femi Falana, will be speaking on the legal implications of continued colonialism in the world.

SIRA states that its objectives are to build consensus around a Programme of Action: “Apart from making declarations, how far and how well has the UN itself been undertaking its assignment to ensure that the territories reach the stage of full independence? What concrete steps would the administering powers be required to take to ensure that these territories become fully and truly independent? What must the rest of the international community do to ensure and assist the attainment of full independence for these non-self-governing territories?”

Humanity needs to move forward by eradicating colonialism. If the quite complex decolonisation process in Apartheid South Africa could be negotiated, so can the processes in other colonies. As the President of SIRA, I welcome lovers of freedom to the Abuja 2024 Conference.

The title of this piece should not be strange to those who avidly follow my reflections on religion, African theology and its role in my spiritual maturation. In my estimation, Dr Stephen Lawani plays a significant role—as one of the many critical interlocutors on matters religious and spiritual in Nigeria and beyond. I am very pleased to be able to keep paying homage to someone whose spiritual commitment has never been in doubt; someone who embodies the purity of the search for spiritual enlightenment. It is also delightful to celebrate Dr Lawani’s octogenarian arrival. Being eighty only tells me that I now have to contend with the spiritual and existential wisdom of a man who never stops learning, and who never stops searching for meaning. 

The trajectory of Dr Lawani’s unraveling is beautiful. It is that of a man who Providence gave a hint of the path to enlightenment, and he caught the break and flowed with it. Being a librarian is not considered to be lucrative in Nigeria. A fortuitous appointment to library services as a secondary school boy at Christ School, Ekiti led to not only the abandonment of a future as a theoretical chemist, but a “lukewarm” choice in librarianship after a first degree in Chemistry. Dr. Lawani most likely would not have known that deciding to be a librarian would eventually open up a purposeful pathway through life in ways that opened several fundamental portals that humans get to peep through when they are as blessed as Dr Lawani. From librarianship to a doctorate in library and information science to a distinguished career at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the World Bank, Washington D.C., and then on to a lifetime recognition as a foundational bibliometrician and an author of significant renown. And then on to many other great things. 

When retirement happened in 2006, Dr Lawani was ready, but definitely not tired, to take up things he considered of “lasting value.” And what could be more of value than spirituality and the search for meaning about God and existence, especially existence in a deeply divided and deeply dysfunctional country like Nigeria? It takes fundamental courage to write about God; indeed, to set out to articulate conceptions and debunk misconceptions about God comes from a place of earnest spiritual boldness. This is because “God” is a concept that excites paradoxical effects and emotions. On the one hand, it is a loaded word that is buried under multiple layers of philosophical assumptions, theological reinventions, eschatological anxieties, religious differentiation and socio-cultural interpretations. And yet, the idea is all the more complicated because it references the mysterious, the unknown, the mystical or the ineffable. Second, history is littered with the tales and horrors of many battles fought in the name of God, or many who have died defending the integrity of the idea of the Almighty. 

There is no other author I know in Nigeria who has invested time, energies, emotion and conviction in the urgency of articulating the critical intersection between spirituality, enlightenment and God. All the religions that speak about God as the supreme being also considers God to be a mystery, “an eternal mystery” as Stephen Lampe (Dr Lawani’s pseudonym) says in his 2014 brilliant book, Thinking about God. And he was courageous enough to plunge into this mystery of God with a determination that is meant to unravel pathways for humans to live meaningful and purposeful lives that will not only help them come to a deeper sense of who they are and why they are alive, but would also impact their relationship with others according to the spiritual laws of justice. Lampe is right, as he argues in the book, that misconceptions about God in a plural society like Nigeria has grave consequences. And we need not look farther than the very divisive role religion has played in deepening the postcolonial predicaments in Nigeria. But Stephen Lampe is theoretically and theologically relentless; there is a further conclusion that follows correcting the misconceptions about God. If there are wrong conceptions about God, it implies that there must be a right one. And it is that right conception that is the focus of Lampe. Since he is coming from the Grail Message theological perspective, we need not look further for where that right conception could be found. And in his latest theological offering—The Spirit of Truth brings the Everlasting Testament—Stephen Lampe presses home his most fundamental conclusion: the right conception of God presented by the Grail Message is encoded in an “everlasting testament” that encompasses and ultimately transcends Christianity, Judaism and Islam. 

This everlasting testament is the result of a “progressive revelation” of the Spirit of Truth, mentioned in the Bible, that is now emerging as the third phase of a spiritual chronology. The first phase he calls the age of the Father (corresponding to the Old Testament). The second phase is the age of the Son (the New Testament). The last and final age is that of the Spirit of Truth that clarifies, sums and transcends the other ages. And this new revelation conjoins the divine justice of the old testament and the divine love of the new testament with the divine purity of the Spirit of truth into a final blueprint of divine perfection.   

Three significant points keep bringing me back to Stephen Lampe. The first is his commitment to a rational understanding of spirituality. This derives essentially from the core method by which the writer of In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message, Abd-ru-shin, offers the message to the world—via a rational acceptance rather than a proselytizing compulsion; its theological claims must be reflected upon and logically accepted. The second is his insistence that Nigeria’s problems are essentially spiritual. From this perspective, it is therefore easy to see what religious fundamentalism, mobilization and ignorance have done to further fragment Nigeria, and still be able to argue, as Stephen Lampe does, that the religious is different from the spiritual. And that as humans, we are first spiritual beings whose attempt at creating a good tradition of governance can become successful only if we reject wrong theologies and spiritualities, and focus on what he calls “the primordial laws of creation.” There is a lot for me to accept in this understanding of the relationship between religion, spirituality and the predicament of, say, the Nigerian state and its citizens. I am a Christian and I hold strongly the claim that God rules in the affairs of humans.  

And this brings me to the third reason that Stephen Lampe keeps drawing me back to his theological arguments. This reason draws on the two previous ones: it is the intellectual undercurrent of my own commitment to Christianity. When I started my journey into Christianity, it was more intellectual than emotional. In other words, I am more of an intellectually-minded Christian whose faith is rooted more in the knowledge and experience of the faithfulness of God. My experiences in secondary school reinforces the basis of my intellectual inquiry into Christianity, especially in relations to human mystical experiences. And this is centered around the questions: How can we know Christ outside of his historical manifestations? How can Christians come into an intimate union with Christ? How does knowing Christ mediate my life and temporality as a Nigerian living in a postcolonial context of underdevelopment, fear and poverty? 

My response to Christianity as a source of spiritual enlightenment therefore parallels Stephen Lampe’s continual probing of spiritualities for the right understanding of God. In my search for spiritual enlightenment, I was forced to confront the dilemma opened up by a sense of spiritual puritanism that Christianity preaches and the open-mindedness that derives from the spiritual possibilities inherent in non-Christian practices, like the Ifa corpus. And this is why I find Stephen Lampe even more intriguing. In both Thinking About God and The Spirit of Truth brings the Everlasting Testament, the thesis that Stephen Lampe builds ultimately inserts the Grail Message itself into the absolutist and binary thinking of other Abrahamic religions. It is this same absolutism that I struggled against while keeping agnosticism at bay in my search for spiritual understanding and enlightenment. And the unseemly solution I found to resolve my spiritual puritanism and intellectual open-mindedness, what I am certain will fall short of Dr Lawani’s enlightenment framework, is to hold on to my faith in Christianity while deeply and respectfully relating with other religious and spiritual formations without undermining their validity as established conceptions about God and belief systems. 

This “solution” certainly requires serious theological finetuning. I have always been suspicious of theological absolutism on the basis that God cannot be summed by just one religious’ framework. And my suspicion of such absolutism is even more enhanced given the entanglement of religions in Nigeria’s national project. How can Nigeria achieve a civic nationalist space if religions eschew open-minded and ecumenical relationship with one another? How can the Grail Message step into the breach as a spiritual panacea to Nigeria’s myriad postcolonial predicaments if it excludes other religious and spiritual forms as “false”? I know I am posing formidable queries to an even more formidable octogenarian whose many more years in search of spiritual enlightenment I can always count on to sharpen my own understanding of the place and role of God in human affairs.

It appears that Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election, has finally overstepped his bounds. He has been going around the country creating problems for the government, causing food scarcity and making Nigerians not to appreciate all the good work President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is doing.

So far, the liberal, people-oriented government of Tinubu has looked away from Obi’s many mischiefs. All that may be coming to an end now, as Obi’s offenses are becoming insufferable, and big brother can no longer watch him lead millions of innocent Nigerians into temptation.

The warning late last week, by Bayo Onanuga, the incredible, anti-government-yesterday,pro-government-today veteran and adviser on information and strategy to President Tinubu, that Obi should be held responsible for any protest against escalating hunger and economic hardship by Nigerians, confirms what many people have always suspected,that Obi is responsible for their empty barns and pantries.

The case against Obi is indeed multiple and compelling. He has been sowing seeds of discord all over the country. Among other crimes, Obi has single-handedly caused the value of naira to be in free fall since mid-2023, just because the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] refused to declare him winner of the presidential election earlier that year. 

Usually reliable sources, which served Onanuga quite well during his days of pro-democracy confrontation with military regimes, reportedly confirmed to the government he now serves with his full chest, as Nigerians will put it, that Obi is manipulating the exchange rate. Any

day the former governor wakes up from the wrong side of the bed and remembers that somebody else was declared President instead of him, he normally meets with leaders of bureau de change operators, after which the value of the naira will take a tumble.

Obi’s negative impact on the value of the naira has been a source of concern to the Tinubu government, which has been watching him closely.

There is even a report that Obi is responsible for doctors and nurses in Nigeria abandoning their lucrative jobs at home, to relocate abroad in droves. According to information available to the government and its master strategist, Bayo Onanuga, the LP presidential candidate works in deceptive and mysterious ways to lure doctors away from their high-paying jobs in Nigerian hospitals. 

As the government investigation found out, any time Obi donates his personal money to health and social development institutions, such as he did recently in Kogi State, where he gave N10 million to the Grimard College of Nursing Sciences at Anyigba, or when he gave N20 million to Faith Foundation Mission Hospital in Nsukka, Enugu State, or when he donated N2 million to an Abuja Primary Healthcare Centre, or with the N10 million he donated to the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations [FOMWAN], etc, it is always a ploy to induce otherwise well-remunerated doctors and nurses in Nigerian hospitals to flee the country. In fact, it has been reliably gathered that Obi uses such visits to healthcare institutions to collect the names of doctors and nurses for subsequent placement in hospitals in Europe and America.

As if Peter Obi’s negative activities in the area of healthcare were not grievous enough, he turned his attention to the agricultural sector a few months back, succeeding within a short time in driving up the prices of garri, yam, beans, rice, potato, onions and even pepper, all of which are now beyond the reach of ordinary and not-so-ordinary Nigerians.

In markets across the land, from the produce markets of Ketu, Mile 12 and Oyingbo in Lagos, over to Dugbe in Ibadan, and from Ochanja in Onitsha, Ogbete in Enugu and Diobu in Port Harcourt, Peter Obi has held market women and men in his palms, deploying his uncommon capacity to influence them to arbitrarily increase the prices of food items, in spite of the Tinubu government’s lauded agricultural policy. To imagine that Obi is causing all this food scarcity and hunger in the land just because he was not declared President. The good thing though is that President Tinubu is aware of the pains of Nigerians. He is barely restraining himself from confronting Obi, the evil genius causing food scarcity in Nigeria.

It is obvious that Onanuga was being very matured and circumspect with sensitive information available to his high office, if not he would have released more details to Nigerians last week,of the many treasonable offenses of Peter Obi. For instance, the last time Obi was seen in the northern part of the country, not many people knew that he traversed Kano, Kaduna, Plateau, Benue, Taraba and Kebbi,just to convince farmers to abandon their farms and stop supplying yam, beans, potato, onion and whatever they produce, to markets across Nigeria, just because he was not declared President in 2023. This much was established by the government’s strategist.

Fortunately, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu understands the suffering Nigerians are going through. 

The government has allowed Obi to be,simply because it is respecting his fundamental human rights, seeing that the Tinubu government subscribes to key international treaties, including the recent Samoa Agreement. Yet, for all the magnanimity of the government, this same Peter Obi went about prompting the Muslim ummah and Christian faithful, alongside civil society organisations (CSOs) to rise against the Samoa Agreement, an agreement that has potential of attracting over $500 million or thereabouts, to Nigeria. If Obi is not bitter because he was not declared President in 2023, why should he influence Christians, Muslims and CSOs, to oppose a harmless treaty, just because the Agreement latently promotes the right of men to answer women and vice versa? If not for Obi, would the religious bodies have opposed the treaty? 

The patience of the Tinubu government is, however, running out on the LP presidential candidate, especially with the concrete evidence available to Onanuga’s government,that Obi recently incited Senator Ali Ndume, a staunch member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Chief Whip of the senate, until recently, to declare publicly, that there is hunger in Nigeria. How could Senator Ndume have made such a critical comment, if he was not under the influence of Peter Obi? Ndume must have met Obi before he spoke out about hunger in the land. Only Obi can convince Nigerians that they are hungry, when indeed, the government has made life abundant for them.

Yet, for all of Peter Obi’s pervasive influence and activities, Nigerians do not seem to understand how dangerously impactful he is. That is what worries the government. The decision last week, by the special adviser on Information and Strategy to the president, to alert Nigerians that Obi is capable of causing more rainfall in the days ahead, is a very sane and patriotic duty. Nigerians need to know. Now they know! So, parents should properly advise their children. Any time they cry out that there is no food in the house, all patriotic parents have a duty to inform their children that Peter Obi is the name of the man responsible for scarcity of food in the land.

By the same token, manufacturers and sundry consumers of foreign exchange, should always remember, when they are confronted with shortage of foreign exchange, occasioned by the sluggish gyration of the value of the Naira, that Peter Obi is said to be responsible for their woes. He is the man government has identified as responsible for the collapse of the local currency. It is also important to note that Obi is causing all these problems because he was not declared winner of the presidential election in 2023.There is no need to ask what the declared winner of the said election is doing in the face of Obi’s protestant activities.

If Peter Obi has not been a confirmed rain maker and a certified magician, the curious allegations against him, as being responsible for everything that the government should be responsible for, would have been dismissed as vacuous. But Obi is who he is and it does not appear that he intends to change. 

What last week’s pathetic statement by Bayo Onanuga, shows, sadly, is that the Tinubu government is not even ready to realistically face the problems at hand.

The public alert by Onanuga that Obi should be held responsible for all failings of the Tinubu government and also, for any public protest against hunger and government policies, should be received in one of two ways; either it is dismissed as gross, or it is taken as an acknowledgement by the government itself, that Peter Obi is now the barometer for gauging the predominant feeling of Nigerians. He has become, by government’s concession, more or less, the conscience of a beleaguered country.

It is with a deep shock and sorrow that Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide received the sad news of the passing of one of the most outstanding Igbo Leader, Chief Engr. Dr. Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Iwuanyanwu, CFR, OFR, MFR, GCSI, FNSE, FNIST, FNICE, KSC. (Ahaejiagamba Ndigbo), the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide. The sad news was broken by Mr. Jude Iwuanyanwu, the son of the legend. According to the son, Chief Iwuanyanwu passed on Thursday, July 25, 2024 after a brief illness at the age of 82.

Chief Iwuanyanwu assumed office as the president general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo on April 30, 2023. He was the Ninth leader of the Igbo group since its inception in 1976. Evidently, each leader or President General has one remarkable or distinctive characteristic for which he is often remembered. While other past leaders had limited their perspectives on Nigerian contemporary issues, Ahaejiagamba introduced strategic and visionary dimension to the modus operandi of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

In the first place, Ahaejiagamba had a towering personality with an impressive record as one of the most successful business men in Nigeria. He deployed his prodigious intellect, political, administrative and political acumen, vast knowledge and invaluable contacts in the selfless service of Ndigbo. The transformative leader lifted Ohanaeze Ndigbo far from its familiar habitat and provenance to an enviable pedestal.

As members of the NEC, we were always amazed by the brilliant initiatives, elephantine memory, oratory, including the frequency with which the Igbo Leader enunciated robust ideas. Looking back, Ndigbo all over the world were delighted that a jinx-breaker, business icon, moral edifice, mobilizer, harmonizer of diverse interests and an accomplished achiever in the person of Chief Engr. Dr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, was at the helm of affairs as the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide. It is therefore very painful that Chief Iwuanyanwu has passed on with all the ideas that were at his disposal.

It is indeed a sad denouement for the Igbo that both Professor George Obiozor and Chief Iwuanyanwu died in office. We are also worried at the rate we are losing the brightest of the brightest among the Igbo in a close sequence at a time their wise counsels are mostly needed. It was Prof Ben Nwabueze, and later,His Majesty, Igwe Joseph Chike Edozien, Dr. Sylvester Ebiwei, Professor Joe Irukwu, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, amongst others.

Before he Iwuanyanwu was a philanthropist par excellence, focused creative thinker, brave soldier, accomplished engineer, astute business mogul, industrialist and a sagacious politician, and the former highest employer of labour at least in the entire East of the Niger.

Iwuanyanwu was the Chairman of the Iwuanyanwu Foundation which offered scholarships to over ten thousand indigent students across the country. He donated to universities to create conducive environments for learning; built Churches and other community facilities.

Over forty years ago, Chief Sam Mbakwe, the former governor of Old Imo State conceived the idea of an International Cargo Airport at Owerri, it was Iwuanyanwu who made the highest donation of Two million Dollars (2M US Dollars), among others.

In politics, Ahaejiagamba produced several Chairmen of Local Governments, Commissioners, Senators, Ministers and Governors most of whom are still alive.

The Iwuanyanwu trajectory is an admonition to the present day selfish and mundane leaders who perceive legacy as leaving enormous wealth behind for one’s offsprings; rather, it’s about laying invaluable foundation among the populace, especially for younger generations. 

 Iwuanyanwu’s life mission transcended self; rather he was devoted to charity, humanity and service to God.

Nigerians across board had viewed with immense delight and awe the various courageous successful adventures Ahaejiagamba had made in diverse fields of endeavour. He was a man who used his ingenuity and talent to found over twenty limited liability companies that employed thousands of Nigerians. Some of the companies include: Chairman, Hardel & Enic Construction Ltd; Champion Newspapers; Oriental Airlines; Oriental Shipping Lines Ltd; Iwuanyanwu Nationale Football Club of Owerri, which won several national and international championships (now Heartland F.C of Owerri); Enic Advertising and Marketing; Sunrise Insurance Brokers; Benhol Farms Limited; Magil Agricultural & Animal Health Products Limited, among many others.

Iwuanyanwu held many public offices: they include: Board Chairman, Federal Road Maintenance Agency; Board Chairman, Nigerian Investment Promotion; Founding Chairman, Raw Materials Research and Development Council of Nigeria; Chairman, National Productivity Merit Award; Chairman, Nigerian Sports Development Council; Founding Chairman, Nigerian National Lottery; Chairman, National Orthopedic Hospital Igbobi, Lagos; Pro-Chancellor, the University of Calabar, Cross River State.

What has kept the cynics gaping was the extra-ordinary brain power and the exceptional grace of God to coordinate the above activities without weary, taint, tarnish or blemish.

In spite of his amazing height in society and busy schedules, he devoted quality time in service to Ndigbo. He served as Chairman in the following Ohanaeze Committees: State Creation Committee, Planning and Strategy Committee, Political Committee, Constitution Drafting Committee and currently, the President General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide.

The Iwuanyanwu persona is a veritable and inspiring tribute to virtues of hard work, sincerity, heroism, sacrifice, ingenuity, philanthropy and mentorship to the people. For instance, when his people needed his services most, he volunteered to serve as a Biafran soldier, rising to the rank of a Captain at a very young age.

Apart from his gallantry and exploits in the theatre of war, he was among the engineers that invented the multi-purpose Biafran bomb, called the Ogbunigwe. His prodigious intellect, character comeliness, generosity, frontier spirit, perseverance and tenacity portray the infinite capacity of human beings to shape their own destinies; and a caution to the dangers of self-delusion, arrogance and get-rich-quick syndrome which have become the contemporary social variables amongst today youths.

Ahaejiagamba was an unassailable trail blazer who was honoured with Chief Executive of the Year, Business Education Executive Council in 1985 and the Business Person of the Year Award in 1999; Member Federal Republic of Nigeria (MFR), Officer Federal Republic of Nigeria(OFR) and Commander Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFR); and a Knight of the Order of St. Christopher.

Several communities across Igbo land and beyond have conferred chieftaincy titles on Iwuanyanwu. Numerous corporate bodies have also honoured the philanthropist of our time.

Some universities decorated Iwuanyanwu with doctorate degrees, honoris causa. They include: D.Sc. Morgan State University Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Doctor of Laws, LLD, Shaw University Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Doctor of Business Administration, DBA, University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Doctor of Science, D.Sc, University of Jos; Doctor of Science, D.Sc, University of Calabar; Doctor of Technology, D.Tech, Federal University of Technology Owerri; Doctor of Business Administration, DBA, Edo State University and a Doctor of Science, D.Sc, Imo State University, Owerri.

Several other bodies also added to his garlands: He was a Fellow, Nigerian Institute of Science & Technology; Fellow, Nigerian Society of Engineers; Fellow, Institute of Management Consultants; Fellow, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations; Fellow, Nigerian Association of Agricultural Students; Fellow, Chartered Institute of Transport of Great Britain; Fellow, Solar Energy Society of Nigeria; Fellow, Nigerian Institute of Sales Management (FNISM); Fellow, Institute of Corporate Administration of Nigeria; Fellow Institute of Purchasing and Marketing Administration; Fellow, Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Unwana (FAIFPU); Fellow, The Nigerian Academy of Education; Fellow, Nigerian Entrepreneurs Association; Fellow Institute of African Studies, UNN. “Iwuanyanwu is cited in Who is Who in Nigeria; Who is Who in Africa; Who is Who in Commonwealth and Who is Who in the World.

He was indeed larger than life; and the best President Ohanaeze Ndigbo ever had. We have lost a gem.

While we send a heartfelt condolence to the amiable wife, the Children, the people of Umuohiri Attah community and the Imo State government, we ask the Almighty to grant the soul of Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, an eternal rest in his bosom.  

Dr. Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, the National Publicity Secretary, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide.

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The Department of State Services (DSS) has followed the discourse on planned protests in parts of the country in the coming weeks by persons and groups yet to identify themselves in the public as leaders of the plot. While peaceful protest is a democratic right of citizens, the Service has confirmed a sinister plan by some elements to infiltrate the protest and use it to cause chaos and extreme violence in the land. It has also identified the reason behind the protest to be political. The plotters desire to use the intended violent outcome to smear the federal and sub-national governments; make them unpopular and pit them against the masses. The long term objective is to achieve a regime change especially at the Centre.

The Service has also identified, among others, the funding lines, sponsors and collaborators of the plot. However, it does not think that aggression should be the first line action in the instance, in handling the emerging scenario. It has instead, variously applied non kinetic and conflict resolution strategies, including moral suasion, stakeholder engagement and other multi-track diplomatic shuttles, to dissuade the planners from actualising their undesirable objective. 

Based on the foregoing, the Service wishes to warn all the protest groups to eschew any form of proposed rage, anarchy and spoliation. While the different levels of Government have routinely explained their agenda to ameliorate alleged harsh economic conditions, the Service urges the prospective protesters to listen to the voice of reason, good conscience and patiently engage with the authorities, in the interest of peace. This has become important given that violence begets destruction of lives and property as well as serve as a distraction to governance. The agitators are encouraged to use ample ways available to them to channel their grievances without resorting to violence.

The Service calls on people of goodwill, Leaders of Thought, Captains of Industry, Labour Unions, Student Associations, Youth Leaders, the Civil Society, Clergy, NGOs, Women groups, Civil Servants and Politicians to shun any invitation to participate in any orchestrated violence, deliberately designed to cause disaffection in the country. Similarly, Parents, Guardians, Heads of traditional and academic institutions are respectively urged to advise their children, wards, subjects and students not to take part in the planned protest. Let us all join hands to build a Nation without rancour, bitterness or stained banner.

The Service will work with other sister Security and law enforcement agencies to maintain peace. It will, where necessary, apply all legitimate methods to achieve this. Meanwhile, the website, dss.gov.ng; email address - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and Telephone lines +2349153391309; +2349088373514 will remain available to the members of the public who may wish to contact the Service.

Peter Afunanya, PhD, fsi, mnipr

Director PR & Stratcoms

Department of State Services 

National Headquarters Abuja 

25th July, 2024

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) National President, Festus Osifo, has clarified that organized labour has no hand in the planned national protest.

Festus Osifo said the planners of the August national protest tagged “EndbadgovenanceinNingeria” did not contact organized labour.

Osifo said organized labour has its way of challenging government policies, and has advised President Bola Tinubu-led federal government to address the economic challenges affecting the county.

Comrade Festus Osifo made the clarification on Thursday while addressing the media on State of the Nation.

TUC president, however, added that Nigerians have right to protest as enshrined in the country’s constitution. He warned against using security agencies to intimidate Nigerians from exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights.

According to Daily Independent, Osifo said, “Nobody has contacted the union to secure partnership in a protest, hence that was not supposed to mean that Nigerians cannot protest if they wish to do so. So it is the duty of the police and all security personnel to protect them.”

Recall that NLC President, Joe Ajaero, has, also in a statement, warned the federal government against using security agencies to intimidate Nigerians planning to protest on August 1.

Ajaero said Nigerians who are hurt by hardship have right to express themselves.

He said while jaw jaw is better than war war, governments must listen to the demands of the protesters.

“It is very difficult to tell a Nigerian who has lost his or her job due to the current economic downturn to maintain their cool. It is very tough to advise a nursing mother who is unsure where the next meal for her suckling child to be at ease.

“It is a herculean task to demand patience from a youth who has been out of school for the past six years without a job and is burdened with aged parents to cater for.

“During these very difficult times, the right of Nigerians to complain must be fully respected,” he said.

[NaijaNews]

Following the Supreme Court’s verdict on financial autonomy for local government councils in the country, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, on Thursday declared that the electoral body has the capacity to conduct elections for the third tier of government if provided with necessary resources.

Yakubu, who spoke when he appeared before the National Assembly Joint Committee on INEC and Electoral Committees in Abuja, maintained that the electoral umpire, under his leadership, has the capacity, competence, human resources and adequate experience to conduct local government elections across the 774 councils of the country.

He justified his position with the successes already recorded by the commission in the six Federal Capital Territory Area Councils, including frequent off-season and bye-elections conducted by the INEC.

The Chairman said the fact that the commission had been conducting elections at the federal and state levels over the years successfully was an indication that it has all it takes to conduct council polls.

He said: “So if this responsibility for the conduct of local government elections is transferred to INEC, can INEC cope? The answer is yes, INEC can cope. What are we? By definition, INEC is the Independent National Electoral Commission.

“Right now, we do national elections, we do state elections, we do local government elections.

“A national electoral commission may be expected to implement only the presidential and National Assembly. We also do governorship elections, we do state assembly elections, and we do area council elections in the Federal Capital Territory.

“Our track report actually proves that we can do it. Take the case of the Federal Capital Territory. I would like to say one or two things about the FTC local government elections.

“There are six area councils of the FCT. So there are six chairmen of area councils, and there are 62 wards in the FCT. Each ward has a councillor for the election of councils.

“This is one part of the country where INEC has conducted local government elections and it has resulted in the following.

“First, it is perhaps the only part of the country where local government elections are held regularly.

“Second, there has never been a caretaker committee for any Area Council in the FCT. INEC has been conducting the elections regularly.

“Thirdly, there is stability of tenure or security of tenure. It used to be three years, but in 2022, the National Assembly amended the Electoral Act to provide for a four-year tenure for area councils in the FCT. So, they enjoy the security of tenure.

“No single political party has ever won elections in all the constituencies in the FCT, not one.

“In fact, what is interesting now is that out of the six chairmen of the FCT, actually the council and the constituencies are evenly split between the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party which won three councils each.”

Yakubu also noted that FCT councils are made up of urban and rural communities, an indication that it has adequate experience to do so in any part of the country.

“So, in terms of capacity to do it, we can do it, we have been doing it in the Federal Capital Territory.

“However, if the decision of the National Assembly is to amend the constitution. I need to put that responsibility back to you (that) we need an engagement with the National Assembly.

“There are certain special amendments that are to be done for us to be able to handle those additional responsibilities.

“For instance, will the Federal Government continue to fund the elections for the states and the local government will fund this?

“The second proposition we have had is that there should be a new federal electoral commission for local government elections.

“Sadly, there is another argument that does not want the state electoral commissions to conduct local government elections in the spirit of federalism, but they should find a way of ensuring that they improve on the conduct.

“Right now, the law has not been amended. The same constitution that creates INEC also creates the State Independent Electoral Commissions.

“So, it is up to the National Assembly to amend the law to transfer that responsibility to INEC. If that is done, the question is can INEC cope? Yes, we can.

“We have said that we should not be unbundled beyond the conduct of electoral activities rather than elections. There are two activities we handle. That is what is called electoral activities, not necessarily related to elections.

“We believe that some of these responsibilities can be handled by other agencies. And this point has been made consistently since 2008 by committees established to reform our electoral processes beginning with the Justice Mohammed Uwais Commission in 2008, that some responsibilities should be removed from the Independent National Electoral Commission.”

The chairman, while assuring the joint panel that INEC had made adequate arrangements to conduct the two off-cycle elections in Edo and Ondo States, also said the commission had prepared budgets for the outstanding by-elections in about seven federal and state legislative constituencies.

Yakubu also explained to the federal lawmakers that the agency’s 2024 budget is currently being adequately funded by the Ministry of Finance.

In terms of the performance of the N40 billion appropriated for the commission in the 2024 budget, he said the Ministry of Finance broke the INEC budget into 12 tranches.

“Every month they give us one-twelfth of the budget for the year. And for the last seven months, since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Finance has been releasing the sum of N23.3 billion to the Commission, which is one-twelfth of the 40 billion as of yesterday (July 24)

“The monthly releases to the Commission, this year, is now N23.3 billion out of 40 billion. That is 58.3%. What is outstanding is N16.6 billion amounted to 41.67% not released,” he stressed.

The operatives of the Department of the State Services (DSS) in Katsina State Command, have recovered 2,000 bags of rice out of the 20 trucks donated to the state by the Federal Government.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the recovered rice was allegedly diverted by some government officials.

NAN also reports that the gesture by the Federal Government was to cushion the effects of the current economic hardships in the country.

The DSS officials in the state, who confirmed the negative development, however, declined further comments on the issue and preferred to be anonymous.

An investigation conducted revealed that the 25kg bags of rice were deposited in a store at the Central market, Katsina.

It was some people who alerted the DSS on Wednesday night, who immediately swung into action.

The Chairman, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the state, Mr Abdulrahman Abdullahi, expressed shock over the issue.

Abdullahi lamented how the Federal Government donated the palliatives to the vulnerable but were allegedly diverted by some unpatriotic people.

The chairman vowed that they would continue to follow the case up to its logical conclusion.

He, therefore, advised the government to investigate the matter with a view of punishing those behind the diversion.

Also commenting on the matter, a resident of Katsina, Suleiman Kofar-Durbi, said that was an unfortunate development.

“It is unfortunate that I received the information yesterday night that the President provided relief to the vulnerables and some people diverted it.

“People are experiencing hardship due to the current economic situation in the country, the government should investigate the matter thoroughly and bring culprits to book,” he said.

The Chairman, Market Traders Association, Alhaji Shehu Usman, said that the rice was brought into the market by someone who was not a trader.

“Someone asked his brother to keep the rice for him in his stores in the market.

“We are calling on our members to be careful in receiving such items from people outside for keeping in the market,” he said.

Responding to the matter, the Principal Private Secretary (PPS) to Gov. Dikko Radda, Mr Aliyu Abdullahi, said the rice was allocated to the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, by the Federal Government.

‘He said, ‘The minister directed the Special Adviser to the Governor on Infrastructure Development, Alhaji Nasiru Lawal to keep it and he decided to take the rice to the market for safe keeping.

‘The rice allocated to the minister  were 1, 200 bags.” 

(NAN)

The lineup for the highly anticipated match between Nigeria’s Super Falcons and Brazil has been announced.

The Super Falcons will face Brazil in their first Women’s Olympic Football Tournament game at 6 pm Nigerian time at the Stade de Bordeaux in Bordeaux, France.

Rasheedat Ajibade is leading the team as captain while Asisat Oshoala is on the bench.