Yoruba Forum blasts Obasanjo as puppet of "Hausa-Fulani sponsors" for arresting OPC's leader, others Special to USAfricaonline.com and NigeriaCentral.com The effort by the government of retired Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo (in pix) to solidify his personal acceptance and electoral value among his fellow Yorubas may be running into some snag with his challenge to maintain law and order in that part of Nigeria. This time, his government's arrest of the controversial leader of the militant Oodua People's Congress (OPC), Dr. Fredrick Faseun, has caused the New York-based Yoruba People's Forum to call "on civilized nations to condemn it in the strongest terms." The Yoruba Forum classified "their seizure as political vendetta and a smokescreen designed to punish and silence vocal critics of General Obasanjo's extremely corrupt administration, and its Hausa-Fulani sponsors." They argued that Faseun and other OPC members who were involved in the conflicts which led to the latest death in October of almost 100 Nigerians, mostly Hausas/northerners in Yorubaland and Ilorin, and later arrested "are political prisoners of the Obasanjo regime." The statement sent to USAfricaonline.com and NigeriaCentral.com, was signed by Dipo Akinsiku and Banji Ayiloge. According to the organization, "charging Dr. Faseun, in particular, with murder, is designed to silence the Yoruba nationalist and prevent him from continuing to raise the consciousness of the people of Yorubaland." The Forum argued that the October 2000 motion passed by the Nigeria Senate authorizing the declaration of state of emergency in Lagos is "sectional, and wholly inspired by the agents of Arewa Consultative Forum, a group of Northern former power brokers who have dedicated themselves to the destruction of Yoruba people." Meanhwile, President Obasanjo who, spoke in Abuja on October 25, at a meeting with members of the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) underlined his resolve to engage decisive actions on acts such as those which led to the arrest of Fasheun and others "so that such mindless violence does not repeat itself again." He added the violence in Lagos is being investigated and that all those found to be culpable "will face the full wrath of the law." The President repeated that the Oodua People's Congress (OPC), the group identified by Nigeria's local media and police as "responsible for the violence in Lagos," has been outlawed. Should President Obasanjo enforce a state of emergency in Lagos, the politics of the new republic will take an interesting and complicated twist. First, for Obasanjo who has been doing a lot to endear himself to his own ethnic community - the area he had his least support and barely won the local ward votes in his own local government area during his election as president in 1998. Second, it will send a strong message that he will fight for Nigeria's unity and against ethnic militancy and unbriddled violence no matter where it occurs. Although, on Obasanjo's government's orders, the community of Odi in Bayelsa State was dealt a massive blow, and major sections of the town sacked and levelled for earlier conflicts with the local police; in fact not as significant as the killings in Lagos and Kaduna's Sharia-related slaughter of Igbos, Christians and innocent northerners early this year. To be sure, the last of the rumblings in Lagos, the squabble in the historic city of Ilorin where the OPC retreated from an earlier threat to install a "Yoruba Emir/Oba", and Obasanjo's tangle with the OPC and other Yoruba nationalists are yet to be heard and seen. Apparently, all politics are truly local. (October 26, 2000) Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of the Houston-based USAfricaonline.com, USAfrica The Newspaper, The Black Business Journal, BBJonline.com, and NigeriaCentral.com, is the recipient of the Journalism Excellence Award, 1997. He serves as an adviser to the Mayor of Houston on international business (Africa). Nwangwu is writing a book on the experiences of recent African immigrants in the U.S. He covered U.S President Bill Clinton's visit to parts of Africa, March-April, 1998, and the August 26-28, 2000 visit to Nigeria.

USAfricaonline Index (4) NIGERIA, NO LONGER AT EASE? Federalism and Ethnic Relations. By Dr. Ibiyinka Solarin, USAfricaonline contributing editor Even the late dictator General Sani Abacha deemed it fair to appoint an Igbo into Nigeria's security council; why not President Obasanjo? By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, in Lagos Ethnic clashes between Yorubas and Hausa-Fulanis in the Southwest section of Nigeria kill 122 in conflicts in the Ketu district of Lagos. Meanwhile Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has criticized President Obasanjo's order "to shoot" the hoodlums "on sight." AHUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY How far, how deep will Nigeria's Human Rights Commission go? 12 killed, 25 injured, 60 arrested as Nigerian Army and Navy troops exchange gunfire with militant Ijaw youths. Rtd. Gen. Babangida trip as emissary for Nigeria's Obasanjo to Sudan raises curiosity, questions about what next in power play? Clinton promises support for democratic process in Nigeria ODUMEGWU EMEKA OJUKWU: "It was simply a choice between Biafra and enslavement! And, here's why we chose Biafra" Biafra-Nigeria war and history to get fresh, critical look from a survivor  'Biafra: History Without Mercy' - a preliminary note USAfricaonline EXCLUSIVE 20 Pounds to Igbos, Biafrans; where's the rest? By Ejike Okpa in Dallas Who want's to be a Millionaire?-Nigerian edition. By Rudolf Okonkwo, USAfricaonline.com correspondent in Boston PHOTO ESSAY: The More you Look, the Less you see

Is Obasanjo really up to Nigeria's challenge and crises? By Ken Kemnagum Okorie, columnist and member, editorial board of USAfrica The Newspaper Nigeria at 40: punish financial thuggery, build domestic infrastructure. By Chido Nwangwu A trial of two cities and struggle for justice. By Jack E. White, Time magazine columnist for USAfricaonline.com Johnnie Cochran will soon learn that defending Abacha's loot is not as simple as his O.J Simpson's case. By Chido Nwangwu ARTS FELA: 3 years since the death of Afrobeat superstar and activist Nigerians still face dishonest stereotypes such as Buckley's, and other self-inflicted wounds. Nnamdi Azikiwe: Statesman, Intellectual and Titan of African politics by Chido Nwangwu   IF NOAH HAD BEEN A NIGERIAN The Economics of Elections in Nigeria

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COMMUNITY INTEREST Achebe turns 70; to celebrate with Mandela, Morrison, Soyinka, Thelwell, world's leading arts scholars in New York in November at Bard College. 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   Martin Luther King's legacy, Jews and Black History Month ELECTIONS Gigolos on the Campaign Trail. By Prof. Walt Brasch

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