Does your web site raise Questions? Get a BETTER WEB SITE and FASTER SOLUTIONS from the Experts. 713-270-5500

Why Obasanjo's minister Mrs. Dupe Adelaja should
apologize to the Igbo nation and Nigerians for her bigotry

By Joe Igbokwe

Special to USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
USAfricaonline.com and NigeriaCentral.com

---

During the struggle for June 12, in Nigeria, I did not hear (Mrs. Dupe Adelaja's) voice or that of her husband. I did not know what Mrs. Adelaja is capable of doing because I cannot recall any serious achievement ascribed to her name. She has no political antecedents. But this is Nigeria for you where the sick does the work of a healthy man and the blind does the work of the people with eyes. It is only in Nigeria that people can come from nowhere to become our leaders. In a proper political setting where leaders are chosen because of what they have done and what they are capable of doing in future. Mrs. Dupe Adelaja will not be near to the seat of government talkless of being a Minister. Mrs. Dupe Adelaja called the entire Igbo race "traitors "because they fought to defend their honour, dignity and integrity. We were receiving truck loads of dead bodies in Enugu and Onitsha, we were receiving refugees, we also received the dead bodies of pregnant women whose wombs were ripped open and the babies killed.

---

Monday, December 10, 2001 is a day the Igbo nation will not forget in a hurry. It was a day Igbo nation was officially provolced by somebody whose duty, is to protect and defend the territorial integrity of Nigeria, and she gets paid every month with tax payers money. It was a day Mrs. Dupe Adelaja, the Minister of State for Defence (Navy) set aside to insult the sensibility and integrity of Ndigbo. It was a day Mrs. Adelaja told the nation that the Nigeria/Biafra war has not officially ended. Mrs. Adelaja's press briefing to mark the year 2002 Armed Forces Remembrance day was set aside to ridicule and humiliate the entire Igbo race.

Mrs. Adelaja had in her address, described the pardoned ex-Biafra soldiers as traitors who did not deserve to be paid pensions. According to Mrs. Adelaja. It is a bad stigma that you are a traitor. " After this Mrs. Adelaja added the stinker, "Yes, you can be doing your buying and selling."

Now, before I go further on the implication of Mrs. Adelaja's provocative and unguarded statement. Let us first of all try to know who Mrs. Adelaja is. Mrs. Adelaja is the daughter of Senator Abraham Adesanya, NADECO leader a chietftain of Alliance for Democracy (AD), the leader of Afenifere and the Yor~ha nation. C'hicl Abraham Adesanya is fearless, outspoken and highly principled.

It was 76 years old Senator Adesanaya who served as a principal leader of other Nigerians to confront the late General Sani Abacha in the years of locusts and dictatorship. A serious attempt was made on his life by the Abacha goons and the man survived that attack. I remember one of his famous statements in those days, "I am not somebody who retire in the face of evil. If I try to change the society but the society is not willing to change, I will continue until the end of my life." He is a courageous leader who can hold his own without looking back. Senator Abrahan; Adesanya was a hero in the struggle for democracy and Justice in Nigeria. He is a great personality who is still standing tall above his contemporaries today. President Obasanjo knows it and many Nigerian leaders know it.

So when General Obasanjo (rtd) was clectecl the president of Nigeria in l 999 without the support of his kinsmen in wards, local governments, states and regional level he was not happy about it. Home support is a must for any good politician. Although Afenifere and AD opposed his candidacy those who chose him for us insisted that he should be president. The votes from the South East, South South and the North made him the President. President Obasanjo as an experienced politician needed desperately, the support of his people to run the government.

To achieve this President Obasanjo needed the support of senator Abraham Adesanya by all means. And what he did in order to win him over was to appoint his daughter Mrs. Dupe Adelaja, an unknown name in Nigeria into his cabinent as a junior minister in the Defence Ministry. Mrs. Adelaja got the post not because she merited the post but because President Obasanjo wanted to use her to get the support of her father and Afenifere. I do not know Mrs. Adelaja before. I did not know what she was and what she was doing before she was appointed a Minister.

During the struggle for June 12, I did not hear her voice or that of her husband. I did not know what Mrs. Adelaja is capable of doing because I cannot recall any serious achievement ascribed to her name. She has no political antecedents. But this is Nigeria for you where the sick does the work of a healthy man and the blind does the work of the people with eyes. It is only in Nigeria that people can come from nowhere to become our leaders. In a proper political setting where leaders are chosen because of what they have done and what they are capable of doing in future. Mrs. Dupe Adelaja will not be near to the seat of government talkless of being a Minister. Mrs. Dupe Adelaja called the entire Igbo race "traitors "because they fought to defend their honour, dignity and integrity. We were receiving truck loads of dead bodies in Enugu and Onitsha, we were receiving refugees, we also received the dead bodies of pregnant women whose wombs were ripped open and the babies killed.

If General Gowon refused to implement the Aburi Accord. Revenue due to the Eastern region was confisticated. Again, what General Gowon called police Action was full scale declaration of war on Ndigbo. Now, did Mrs. Adelaja know all this? Did she know anything about the Nigeria-Biafra war? How old is Mrs. Adelaja when the war started? Has she been born then? Did Mrs. Adelaja understand the meaning of the word, traitor? Do you force people to live together in any nation where there is no justice and fair play.?

I was modestly but deeply involved in the election of Chief Moshood Abiola as president in 1993 and when that free and fair election was annulled by IBB, I felt that a grave injustice had been done to the Yoruba nation. I am one of those who put their lives on the line to ensure that IBB never got away with the annulment. IBB was disgraced out and so was Chief Ernest Shonekan. General Abacha had to die i n office. General Abubakar ruled for only nine months before President Obasanjo took over in 1999. Now, if the June 12 struggle had degenerated into a full-scale war between the rest of Nigeria and the Yoruba nation and consequently, the Yoruba were defeated, will I call the Yoruba soldiers who fought the rest of Nigeria traitors? No, I cannot. I saw what happened. I saw how leaders of the Yoruba nation were being hunted by Abacha and his cohorts. At a time their first class leaders were either killed, jailed or sent to exile. When Senator Abraham was nearly killed at Sampson Street Lagos, I remember I issued a statement, warning other Nigerians not to pretend that they do not know what was happening in the South West. I remember said that tidal waves from the Atlantic Ocean may hit Lagos first but there is no guarantee that Abuja and Nnewi will not feel the impact. This warning was reported . in most of Nigeria's leading newspapers including an international magazine based in London (Africa Today). Many Igbos including Ndubuisi Kanu, Ebitu Ukiwe, Pini Jason and my humble self said in our silent moments that it will be dangerous to allow the rampaging oligarchy that defeated Ndigbo, defeated the Ogoni and humiliated the Middle Belt to defeat the Yoruba nation. Those who came to the launching of my book. Heroes of Democracy would have noticed that almost all the eminent leaders of the Yoruba nation were physically present at NTIA Lagos. It was a . pay day for me. Senator Abraham Adesanya the father of Mrs. Dupe Adelaja was there. Governor Tinubu was there with all his commissioners. Governor Segun Osoba was there. Chief Bola Ige was the presenter. Morin Babalola was the master of Ceremony. Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Ayo Opadokun the late pa Onasanya and many others were there. The point is that l am at peace with the Yoruba nation. We have been throwing as many bridges as possible between the East and the West in order to make the iron curtain of dichotomy irrelevant. Mrs. Adelaja's nonsensical effusions may put spanner in the works, If she is not called to order.

When Mrs. Adelaja told the ex-Biafran soldiers to go and continue with their . buying and selling business, I needed no English master to know that she was referring to the Igbo nation as traders. Mrs. Adelaja's scurrilous drivel had been the mindset of other Nigerians especially in the South West. Today every Dick and Harry including, baby politicians from other parts of the country use the baseless assertion to ridicule the Igba nation. But the truth of the matter is that Igbo run the engines of Nigeria. I have been privileged to read Lee Iacocca's book to learn that real wealth is under the engines where hands are made dirty and not in banks or insurance companies where round tripping is the in-thing.

Dr. Philip Emeagwali, a bright Igbo son from Onitsha developed a complex computer that solved 3.1 billion problems in one second. The point is that one Philip Emegwali is worth more to the world than 20 million good-for-nothing fellows who steal people's money in millions to earn a living. Some people in Lagos, Ibadan and Abuja sit down in their mansions to make certain comments that are not in any way, the true position of things. Some people who have not left their domain to other places to earn a living and try to understand other people. They sit in their domain to say what they do not know. A silent revolution has been going on in Nnewi in the past 10 years and some people are not paying attention. Very soon, emphasis will not be on oil but technology and like Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore the Igbo nation will prove themselves.

The history of what led Ndigbo to buying and selling business in Nigeria and . beyond is well-known to all and sundry. The conspirators conspired after the civil war to give any Igbo account holder in Nigeria before the civil war just 20 pounds simply to make sure that Igbo will not rise again. Again, Nigeria was sold mainly to a section of the country during the indegenization programme in 1973 when our peoole were just coming out of the war. We know those who bought almost all the companies.

There was no 'Marshall' plan for the reconstruction of Igbo land as practised in civilized countries of the world. Mrs. Adelaja knows also that the Igbo nation is the only nation in Africa that fought a civil war of self determination, lost the war, lost all her belongings, lost almost one million souls and yet the people were able to work themselves back into the system through dint of hardwork. If other Nigerians should work as the Igbo, move and live in other places like the Igbo, Nigeria would have been a better place now.

I am still at a loss why Mrs. Adelaja chose the Christmas period a period of peace to do this damage to the psyche of Ndigbo. Is she speaking the minds of those in power? On whose benefit did Mrs. Adelaja engage in this exercise that was meant to belittle a dynamic race like the Igbo? I take solace in Isaiah 5:20-23, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!"

I am therefore challenging every Igbo son or daughter who knows how to put words on paper to throw more stones or missels to Mrs. Dupe Adelaja's glass house until she deems it necessary to go to the National Television to tender an unreserved apology to the Igbo nation.

Her inglorious remarks have been an object of discussion anywhere two or more Igbo people gather and what I hear them saying is that Mrs. Dupe Adelaja has turned out to be the number one enemy of Ndigbo. If she were the Minister of State in the army, Igbos would have been calling for her removal because her hatred for Ndigbo can cause her to deploy soldiers to clear the people from the surface of the earth.

Finally, let me share with Mrs. Adelaja what a famous school of thought says: When you get to the top too quickly you find out that there is no other place to go except to go down .
Igbokwe, a commentator on public events and policies in Nigeria is based in Lagos and Abuja.
Reaction to Adelaja's comments will be published at USAfricaonline.com and USAfrica The Newspaper

USAfricaonline FEEDBACK: Will the rash of Ethnic and Religious Violence disrupt Nigeria's latest effort at Democracy? PRESIDENCY In a special report, USAfricaonline.com Founder and Publisher Chido Nwangwu places Powell within the trajectory of history and into his unfolding clout and relevance in an essay titled' Why Colin Powell brings gravitas, credibility and star power to Bush presidency.' AFRICA AND THE U.S. ELECTIONS Beyond U.S. electoral shenanigans, rewards and dynamics of a democratic republic hold lessons for African politics. The U.S. Elections, Political System and Africa. By Profs. Cassandra R. Veney and Paul Tiyambe Zeleza Africa suffers the scourge of the virus Kgomotso Mahlangu, a five-month-old AIDS patient in a hospital in the Kalafong township near Pretoria, South Africa, captures the more painful profile of the catastrophic and sweeping impact of the virus in the continent. USAfricaonline special report is titled AIDS, Africa and Kgomotso. USAfricaonline LITERATURE As Chinua Achebe turned 70, Africa's preeeminent statesman Nelson Mandela, Toni Morrison, Wole Soyinka, Ali Mazrui, Leon Botstein (president of Bard College), Ojo Maduekwe, Emmanuel Obiechina, Ngugi wa Thinong'o, Micere Mugo, Michael Thelwell, Niyi Osundare, and an army of some of the world's leading writers, arts scholars and others joined to pay tribute to him at Bard College in New York. Literary giant Chinua Achebe returns "home" from U.S., to love and adulation of community Should Africa debates begin and end at The New York Times and The Washington Post? Nelson Mandela, Tribute to the world's political superstar and Lion of Africa

CONTINENTAL AGENDA Bush's position on Africa is "ill-advised." The position stated by Republican presidential aspirant and Governor of Texas, George Bush where he said that "Africa will not be an area of priority" in his presidency has been questioned by USAfricaonline.com Publisher Chido Nwangwu. He added that Bush's "pre-election position was neither validated by the economic exchanges nor geo-strategic interests of our two continents." These views were stated during an interview CNN's anchor Bernard Shaw and senior analyst Jeff Greenfield had with Mr. Nwangwu on Saturday November 18, 2000 during a special edition of 'Inside Politics 2000.' Nwangwu, adviser to the Mayor of Houston (the 4th largest city in the U.S., and immigrant home to thousands of Africans) argued further that "the issues of the heritage interests of 35 million African-Americans in Africa, the volume and value of oil business between between the U.S and Nigeria and the horrendous AIDS crisis in Africa do not lend any basis for Governor Bush's ill-advised position which removes Africa from fair consideration" were he to be elected president. By Alverna Johnson RELIGION AND ETHNIC CONFLICT Sharia-related killings and carnage in Kaduna reenact deadly prologue to Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967. Is Obasanjo really up to Nigeria's challenge and crises? By Ken Kemnagum Okorie. Commentary appears from NigeriaCentral.com MUSIC The sultry and smoking voice of Nigerian-born international singer Sade Adu, simply known as Sade, is already rocking the world, again, with her latest album. ODUMEGWU EMEKA OJUKWU: "It was simply a choice between Biafra and enslavement! And, here's why we chose Biafra" A nation of Polls and Predictions By Prof. Walt Brasch, columnist for USAfricaonline.com COMMUNITY INTEREST Why the revisionist forces of racist oppression in South Africa should not be allowed to intimidate Ron and Charlayne Gault.