THE NEW WORLD ORDER: Why Buhari's Re-election Bid will Fail...

So where does these all lead? My suspicions are that 1. Buhari was given an option of not running for a second term, while in the White House. 2. I believe that he probably begged to run on any conditions that the US/Israel would lay out. 3. I believe that America laid out too much and Buhari agreed to way too much, just to stay in power. 

When in February of 2016, Benjamin Netanyahu declared that “Israel is Coming Back to Africa and Africa is Returning to Israel” he wasn’t joking. That is because Donald Trump must have advised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to get to work and make more friends on the continent so Israel is not constantly isolated at the United Nations whenever the need for voting arises. Israel is one of the most hated and vulnerable UN member states. If they have more allies, more countries will vote in their favor at the Security Council. This is very critical because Donald Trump will not always be there. So, Bibi Netanyahu meant business and he went to work immediately.

His first move was to attend an ECOWAS meeting in Monrovia, Liberia. That would be the first time an Israeli Prime Minister would be attending an ECOWAS meeting ever. Funny enough, the Moroccan King was also on his way to the same meeting. Bibi was earlier. The moment the Moroccan king arrived at the airport and heard that Bibi was already on ground, he immediately cancelled attendance and flew back to Morocco.

It was after this whole scenario that I heard for the first time that Morocco, a North African Islamic Nation was strongly fighting to become a member state of ECOWAS. ECOWAS stands for Economic Community of West African States. It’s meant only for countries in West Africa. So why would a North African nation want to tip the balance?

Apparently, Morocco and the rest of the Islamic world have been understandably restless over Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration about Africa returning to Israel. That obviously sent shivers down their spines hence the frantic move by Morocco to join ECOWAS and use their relationship with the most populous black nation on earth, Nigeria to hurt Israel’s new found love with African nations. Little wonder the Nigerian government quickly exited 90 international bodies and refused to disclose their names to the Nigerian public. It was not difficult to suspect that Nigeria had exited those, probably non-Islamic bodies in other to enter into new Islamic alliances and further consolidate existing ones, the reason they wouldn’t publicly declare the international bodies they were exiting. 

For instance, Nigeria ratified and consolidated its membership of the OIC - Organization of Islamic Communities; Nigeria became a member of the D8 - Organization of 8 Developing Islamic Nations. In this organization you have countries like Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia, Iran, Indonesia, Egypt, Bangladesh, & Nigeria; Also, Nigeria quickly joined the Saudi - Arabian formed IMA - Islamic Military Alliance – call it the NATO of the Islamic world. All these happened barely one year of president Buhari’s ascent to power.

FAST FORWARD

So, I’ve been tracking a set of interesting pieces of diplomatic puzzles for some months now. When the Nigerian presidency announced that a meeting had been scheduled with the US President, Donald J Trump, slated for April 30, 2018, I literally gasped with an unsettling anticipatory spontaneity. I knew it was about to go down. How did I know?

Remember, if you’ve followed me and or my postings/writings long enough, that I wrote a piece some time ago on why I was happy that Trump fired Rex Tillerson, the former US Secretary of State? Sure.

In that piece, I had explained that Tillerson’s ouster was not unconnected with his recalcitrant and insubordinate attitude of always doing what he wanted and not what his boss, the president wanted. I explained in little detail that his troubles began in Ethiopia and peaked in Kenya, where he tended to sound a little like an Obama appointee, which posed a huge National Security threat to Israel and by extension, the United States.

Israel literally runs much of East Africa in more ways than one. They are so wary of any form of regime change that will benefit Islamists in any way, shape or form in that region. They would fight tooth and nail to resist the subtle Islamization of that region and they have many reasons to. Obama did his best to neutralize Israel’s grip on the region and for some strange reason, he came out failing with every try. Tillerson’s posturing was toeing that path and he expectedly lost out.

Under the current US regime, an attack on Israel or her interest is an attack on America and vice versa. I’ve never seen these two countries so close for as long as I’ve been alive and Tillerson simply took that for granted and he paid a huge price.

If you recall, it was reported that he got winds of the plan to fire him while in West Africa. I don’t agree. He already knew from East Africa. He only got wind of a possible announcement of the president’s decision while in West Africa. That is why his Nigerian trip was cut short – almost as if he never came, leaving behind a diplomatic deficit. Trump and Israel knew he could no longer be trusted; they saw through his globalist posturing and unholy alliances with anti Israel elements in Europe. This was the reason they couldn’t even wait for him to wrap up the trip before making the announcement that he’s been fired.

When I saw that, the first thing I said was “the next US Secretary of State will soon visit Nigeria”. I was too sure the US was going to make up for that diplomatic deficit left behind by “globalist Tillerson”. I knew there was a strong message that the White House needed to pass across to Nigeria and since Tillerson had betrayed the trust, expectedly, Trump would still get the message across, one way or another. Interestingly, rather than send another Secretary of State, Trump and his team decided that an invite will be more appropriate and I totally agree. To me, that looks even more decent – just that when the message comes from Trump himself, it doesn’t always look as pretty. And sure enough, he lived up to expectations. But there is more.

Running up to the proposed US visit, the Nigerian presidency was unusually excited about Buhari’s meeting with Trump and they made such a big deal of it. They sure wanted that to be a Public Relations blow on “anti – Buharists” in Nigeria who believe that Buhari is only friends with Islamic nations and not in the good books of the United States. But deep down in my spirit, I knew a drama was about to unfold. I knew Trump was about to deliver the exact same message he would’ve loved Tillerson to deliver to the Nigerian president, which Tillerson would’ve possibly twisted, and I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty because Trump doesn’t know the meaning of “political correctness”, and I proudly share that trait with him.

So when president Trump eventually “dropped the bomb”, I exhaled. The warning to stop the killing of Christians in Nigeria or “we will do something” came to the Nigerian President and government as a rude shock. It was a massive spoiler to their “beautiful” PR trip to America. It was a gigantic mess. I could imagine the face of the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, who was all over CNN falsely claiming that Buhari would become the first African Head of State to meet with Trump in the oval office. No, the Egyptian president did already. CNN expectedly let him get away with it but they later admitted the truth. It was a disaster. Their social media handles went into a freeze mode. Officials went cold and you could literally just hear their hearts pounding away from a distance. Not what they expected to hear. I was surprised they didn’t see that coming. But that’s not all that came at them...

From my little back channels, I heard that there was probably so much more said to the Nigerian president than was broadcast in the news media. From what I gathered, the only way to describe the scenario is “historic change of guards”! Power of control may have just slipped from the bloody, guilty, filthy hands of England to the formidable, no nonsense invincible grip of the duo of USA/Israel - controlling the two most powerful military and intelligence outfits in the world. All of Britain’s efforts to control or court Trump have hitherto failed and all their expectations have been dashed. There’s a huge dilemma. Whatever Israel wants is what will happen now. And there’s not much anyone can do about that. You’re either in or you’re out. It’s a hot, liquid flowing nightmare to a regime that has done everything since inception to lean absolutely Islamic by every stretch of the imagination.

Remember that on their way back from the USA, the Nigeria government strangely detoured to England. That made some news. Mixed reports here and there. They initially said it was a technical stop over, and then later admitted the president saw his doctor briefly. No, I suspect it was all to brief the English architects of the current Nigerian disaster of a regime, on how much of a failure the US trip turned out to be. It was time to re strategize. So he had to head to Nigeria and return to England only a few days later. This time, the presidency said he was going to see his doctor. Well, he went to see his doctor and he returned one day earlier! That never happened before! Just saying though.

But trust me, I believe it was all a strategy session on what to do next. I believe he was advised to listen and take orders from the White House. They must have informed him that the bull in the White House has neither control nor mercy. Isn’t that why China and South Korea quickly advised North Korea to behave, because Trump wasn’t joking when he said he wasn’t going to allow a nuclear North Korea to stand? He was already amassing around the peninsular. He was and still is dead ready, not to impose sanctions but to bomb North Korea back to stone ages. It’s no joke. The US military is ferociously back to its number 1 position in the world, and they’re not smiling. Thanks to Trump. North Korea saw it and knew it was game over. Buhari was served from the same pot of soup on this April 30 trip. If North Korea were jittery, what would Nigeria do? Exactly what the president of Nigeria did – overtaken with shock and fear!

So what were those other things that may have been said to Buhari behind closed doors? Well I don’t really know but I’ll try to connect a few more dots for you. Now, remember that Nigeria has stood against Israel since Buhari came into power and ratified Nigeria’s membership of those hard-core Islamic organizations? Even on the floor of the UN, you could hear President Buhari openly defending Palestine and so on. But what happened after the US trip? What changed so much that Nigeria would dare to secretly send its ambassador to the opening ceremony of the US embassy in Jerusalem – an occasion that has infuriated the Muslim world so much that Nigeria’s strong Islamic ally, Turkey had to recall its ambassadors from both the US and Israel? The Nigerian government knew exactly how badly the Islamic world would react to this flagrant violation, so they didn’t want the world to know they had sent an ambassador to the event. But the media broke the news and had the Nigerian government running for cover, denying that they sent the ambassador there, even claiming that they were querying the ambassador for his actions, just to assuage the Islamic block they already sold out to on multiple fronts. But the truth would later come out on the senate floor. 

So shortly after all that show of shame and double standard, a Northern Muslim senator, Hon. Aliyu Madaki exploded on the floor of the senate lambasting the Nigerian government for sending an ambassador to legitimize Israel’s claim over Jerusalem at the embassy opening ceremony. He must have been so frustrated because strangely, Nigeria was attending an event that England had boycotted. Unprecedented! The poor guy didn’t know that power has smoothly changed hands. Now, the truth is out and words are flying high and low. “What happened”? Why the sudden change”? Everybody asks.

In very plain terms, I think Buhari must have been told that his new bosses are now Israel and no longer England, under the circumstance. And America is standing right behind to ensure he plays the good boy whether he likes it or not. That is why he would send an ambassador in breaking with all the Islamic treaties that Nigeria is signatory to. That’s why that senator freaked out because they all knew how deep Buhari had fallen into his subtle Islamization program. Unfortunately, there’s a new sheriff in town and it’s not the kind of sheriff you’d ordinarily see over a country that had almost been sold out completely to Islam. Israel is now in charge and you either take what they say or you’re out. Trump will do whatever it takes to ensure you obey Israel. He broke ranks with European allies to ensure the Iran deal was evacuated. And Secretary Pompeo just announced that US will unload on Iran the harshest sanctions they’ve ever seen, and that European multinational companies who fail to comply with US orders, no matter how big they are will be severely punished! This is unprecedented. Never before seen. Everyone is scared in Europe. The North Korean leadership is shivering them to stupor. China had to quickly make a deal closing the annual trade deficit gap with the US by a staggering $380 billion out of $500 billion. What an amazing dealmaker Trump is!

So where does these all lead? My suspicions are that 1. Buhari was given an option of not running for a second term, while in the White House. 2. I believe that he probably begged to run on any conditions that the US/Israel would lay out. 3. I believe that America laid out too much and Buhari agreed to way too much, just to stay in power. 4. I believe that based on that agreement, which is not cast on stone, Buhari sent the Nigerian ambassador to the embassy opening event in Jerusalem, which means that Nigeria must have be compelled to confess that they agree to Israel’s ownership of Jerusalem. 5. I believe that Nigeria will begin to scale back the Fulani herdsmen crisis as soon as possible. 6. I believe that even after the gentlemanly agreement to allow Buhari to prove himself, that Israel may still be bent on showing him the door. 7. I suspect that on sensing a renewed effort to remove Buhari from office, that England and their Islamic allies may pull a surprise by telling Buhari to ignore Trump, and I suspect that this will spell doom for Nigeria.

A fully Islamized Nigeria is an incredible security risk to Israel. If Israel would bomb Syria just for hosting an enemy nation like Iran, they will annihilate Nigeria for entertaining more than just one enemy - Turkey, Iran, etc.

It almost appears as if Donald Trump came to power because of Israel. Whichever way you look at it, the game has changed and power has changed hands. Trust me, England is at a crossroads right now because they can’t control Trump. The only way they get anything significant done again in Nigeria, in terms of policy is if Donald Trump is impeached or if he’s killed. Unfortunately, as much as these two horrifying possibilities hang in the air, Trump’s popularity has continued to soar out of proportion, even amongst liberals. Besides, he seems to have mastered the game so much he now has near formidable team of diehard loyalists – that’s all it takes to assert yourself, and he has! That’s basically why there is fire on the mountain, the world over. The days and weeks and months ahead will unfold in such dramatic fashion that our socio political landscape in Africa, especially Nigeria may never be the same again.

By JOSEPH OKECHUKWU

THE PDP NATIONAL ELECTIVE CONVENTION, 2017: The game changer role by Wike & Fayose

The PDP National Convention, 2017 came and went with its publicity stunt, commentaries, hue and cry. Prince Uche Secondus, as the National Chairman, and other members in the "Unity List" emerged victorious.

In the build-up to the Congress, a lot of commentaries and permutations were rife in the social and other media. Paradoxically, the APC apologists took the center stage in making sarcastic and uncomplimentary comments and remarks about the Convention.

It is laughable that they have kept quiet in the face of their Party’s failure to successfully organise a simple National Convention since assuming power in 2015, but have seen something to write about the PDP Convention. I will advise them to deal with the internal squabbles in their Party and allow PDP to be.

As I said earlier, Prince Uche Secondus, a former Deputy National Chairman, has emerged as the new National Chairman of the PDP. He defeated all the other aspirants who contested for the coveted position with him.

To be able to win the election, Secondus received the strong backing of the eleven (11) Governors elected on the platform of the PDP as they all stood in solidarity with him throughout the exercise.

Out of these eleven (11) Governors, two clearly (2) stood out: Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State. These two actively mobilized support openly for Secondus.

Wike and Fayose have been heavily attacked and criticised within and outside the Party as having hijacked and pocketed the Party to their advantage; and for the roles they both played in the emergence of Secondus as the National Chairman of the Party.

I hereby volunteer to be their Advocate in the court of public opinion even at the risk of being the Devil's Advocate.

When PDP lost the general elections, especially at the central level, to APC in 2015, a lot of the PDP bigwigs abandoned the Party and took cover fearing arrest and prosecution. They felt that the more the associated themselves with the PDP, the more they exposed themselves; and hence the risk of being arrested and prosecuted. They became timid, cold and frightened. Some brazenly said they had finished with politics.

At that time, PDP was like a virus that nobody wanted to be infested with. The Party went blank and almost dead. Those that were outspoken were arrested and leveled with corruption allegations against them. The Party had no voice to speak. Everybody in the Party was afraid. The Party simply went on radio silence.

Wike and Fayose refused to be cowed down. They became the loudest voice and strongest supporters of the Party. They dared where all the other bigwigs in the Party feared. They attacked and criticised every unpopular decisions and policies of the APC-led Government.

They took up the fallen Party, nurtured it through hurdles, thick and thin and brought it to its present state of reckoning. Even when the made the political blunder of bringing Ali Modu Sheriff as the National Party Chairman, they took it upon themselves to ensure that he was shown the way out. They stood with Ahmed Makarfi throughout the period of the legal battles from the High Courts, to the Court of Appeal, and up to the Supreme Court.

In those trying times of the Party, a lot of the bigwigs were nowhere close to identify them in the struggle. Some stood with Ali Modu Sheriff to scuttle the recovery process of the Party. Some even floated a new political party in the event that the Party never recovered from its quagmire.

Politics is a game with express and implied rules. Political scheming and brinkmanship are the implied parts of the rules of engagement. It is also a game of wits where the smarter politician carries the day. Wike and Fayose understand this game very well.

Wike and Fayose have invested their time and other resources into the Party when the bigwigs were not ready to do so for fear of being arrested. Therefore, it is a fair political game for them to reap and enjoy the benefits of their investments.

It would be politically foolish of Wike and Fasoye to fold their hands and watch those that abandoned the Party in times of its need to shamelessly resurface and attempt to hijack the Party from them.

They have to consolidate all the struggles and efforts that they had put into the Party by ensuring that they make a statement at the Convention. And, they sure did with the emergence of Secondus and his team of "Unity List".

Let those bigwigs that abandoned the Party when it needed them most know thus: political game favours the vigilant and not the indolent.

I wish the newly elected National Executive Committee of the PDP the best of all in its pursuit to regain and give power to the people.

To Wike and Fayose: my thumbs up!

James KANYIP

10/12/2017.

SAVE Svadiq Dabah's LIFE,

If we are looking for 20 Senators, Governors, or multi-billionaires to donate 1million each to save Svadiq Dabah's life, we are simply wasting precious time.. If 20,000 people come out and transfer just N1,000 or it us dollar equivalent each into that account as we speak, we would have raised 20million in less than a day. There was hardly a teenager in the 70s and 80s (who are now bigger boys and girls) who didn't know Bitrus on TV.. Quite a jolly good fellow and a friend to all That guy should not die I beg...!

Now, let's do this....If you ever watched COCKCROW AT DAWN those years, let's start representing here by donating 1k into that account, or it us dollar equivalent via the volunteered online platform, God willing, by tomorrow morning we would have made a magnanimous impact... I've just done mine! ABUBAKAR SADIQ DABAH 1005382276 UBA — with Sadiq Daba.

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WHY THE BIAFRA AGITATION MUST STAND: Azikiwe's opinion of ojukwu

According to Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe in his words, "while I was trying to get the OAU to settle the dispute so they could go to the conference table, Chief Obafemi Awolowo led Federal Government of Nigeria were thinking of legalism".

More so they left the impression, you see, that Nigeria wanted to annihilate the Igbo's. Due to the diplomatic blunder by the then Commissioner for External Affairs Dr. Okoi Arikpo.

 "Yes. I played a prominent role in Biafra for the unity of the country in order to restore peace and bring about unity of the country. That’s the role I played. I advised Ojukwu. I said well look, you have declared secession. What we should do is to get the elder statesmen and women of the nation to reconcile you and Gowon. I said by declaring secession, you get so many people who do not believe you to remain there. You see all of us were interned. As we were interned then, we couldn’t express our own views as we see it because, he made Decree Number 5 which vested absolute powers in himself and if you were against his views, it then constituted an act of subversion and the penalty was death by shooting. Well, it was a war-time measure and that is understandable. So, I advised him. I said go to the conference table and iron out your differences. Allow elder statesmen and elder stateswomen to bring the two of you to the conference table and settle this matter so that there will no more be civil war and the country may be united. He agreed. But Gowon was advised by the Ministry of External Affairs to insist on pre-conditions. That is that before he could negotiate with the secessionists, that they must accept certain terms; accept the 12-state structure and all. So, it was quite obvious that the Federal Government wanted Biafra to come to the conference table with their hands tied and their feet tied. But they won’t be free agents. That was the diplomatic mistake on the part of the Federal Government. So, when they did that, then Lt- Col. Ojukwu told me, “How can I go to the conference table based on these ultimatums?”

Still I advised Ojukwu to go to the OAU and ask them to use their good offices to settle the dispute and that we should avoid loss of lives. He accepted my advice in good faith. Then he said, ‘Now, you have some heads of state in Africa who are your friends, would you mind going to appeal to them to use their good offices so that the Nigerian civil war could be an item on the agenda for OAU summit in Kinshasa?’ I said I would gladly go. So he sent me to Monrovia as a peace envoy. I went there and met my friend, President Tubman. Tubman expressed his willingness to use his good offices. He told me he would see another mutual friend, the late Haile Sellassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, and both of them would see that the civil war was placed as first item on the agenda of the OAU Summit in Kinshasa.

I returned and broke the news to Ojukwu. He was very pleased. Then, when the OAU summit opened, Chief Awolowo, as Vice-Chairman of the Federal Executive Council and Commissioner for Finance, led a strong Nigerian delegation to Kinshasa and raised a very strong objective on the Nigerian civil war being placed as an item on the agenda on the grounds that according to the OAU Charter, this was a domestic affairs and member states were precluded from interfering in the domestic affairs of each other, which was really sound according to international law. But we wanted to solve it in the African way, to use mediation and conciliation to bring two warring brothers together.

The OAU accepted the submission of Chief Awolowo and so it was not put into the agenda. Well, history will show now between Chief Awolowo and myself, who actually accentuated the war. I was trying to get the OAU to settle the dispute so they could go to the conference table and he was thinking of legalism, that it would amount to interference in the domestic affairs of a member-state. But meanwhile here you have two brothers killing each other.

Well, Ojukwu told me, I have done my best. You see, Nigeria was relying on law and we are relying on humanity. What’s next? I said why not try other heads of states and see what could be done to bring about peace? He then said he left the initiative with me. I suggested going to some heads of state and see what can be done. But his advisers led by Dr. Nwakama Okoro suggested recognition. That if we can get other states to recognize Biafra, maybe the hands of Nigeria may be forced to go to the conference table.

Well, I thought that was a sound idea and I placed my services at their disposal so as to meet my friends. We had in mind President Senghor of Senegal, President Houphouet Boigny of Ivory Coast, President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, President Milton Obote of Uganda, President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia and of course Francois Bongo, he is now Omar. He now has become a Muslim. He was then a Christian. The long and short of it all was that I and these great African statesmen agreed that if Gowon persisted with pre-conditions, then they would accord recognition to force the hands of Gowon to go to the conference table and bring about peace. That was one.

Two, Gowon had already predicted that the war would end on March 31 and as far as these African statesmen were concerned, these killings and atrocities did not do any credit to the image of Africa and as such what should be done was to stop it as soon as possible. Therefore, if the war didn’t end by March 31, then the propaganda of ‘Biafra’ that it was an act of genocide would be justified. And they didn’t want to accept that.

I went on this mission and succeeded in persuading these heads of state to agree to give recognition just to force the hands of Nigeria, diplomatically speaking, to the conference table.

President Senghor said he couldn’t because the majority of his supporters were Muslims and rightly or wrongly they felt it was a religious war. And he said well, if he granted recognition, then his government would fall. But he supported the idea of forcing the hands of Nigeria to the conference table. Houphouet Boigny was prepared, provided his people backed him. Ditto for the others except Milton Obote who told us that Prince Mutesa and the Bagandans wanted to secede and he couldn’t support secession when his own state was confronted with similar problems. It left four of them. That is, President Nyerere, Houphouet Boigny, Kaunda and Bongo. They agreed on the understanding that the war did not end by March 31, 1968 and pre-conditions would be removed to make it easy for both Ojukwu and Gowon to go to conference table.

So they granted recognition and it worked like magic because immediately after this, Dr. Okoi Arikpo, who must be presumed to be responsible for this diplomatic blunder (he was the Commissioner for External Affairs]---a good man no doubt, but he is a very poor diplomat in my own humble opinion - announced to the outside world that Nigeria would no longer insist on pre-conditions and that he was prepared for conference table but the war did not end on March 31 and so, they left the impression, you see, that Nigeria wanted to annihilate the Ibos. You noticed the Soviets gave Nigeria more arms and Nigeria used those arms to destroy the secessionists. Here, I came in again and I advised Ojukwu. I said look since Gowon has withdrawn the pre-conditions, go to the conference table and argue the points so as to pave way for a peace conference. It was agreed that they should meet in Niamey. I advised Ojukwu to go. Again Gowon was ill-advised so he couldn’t come.

At Niamey here was Ojukwu. I was on his side. Gowon wasn’t there but Haile Sellassie, Hamani Diori, Tubman and General Akran were there representing OAU. So, I told Ojukwu, I said now you have an upper hand. These respected leaders of the OAU were there. I had briefed Ojukwu. I said ‘look your line of approach is to express appreciation for what the OAU was doing in order to maintain peace in Africa but you were prepared to co-operate and you are leaving the whole matter in the hands of the OAU to see what could be done to bring an earlier cessation of hostilities. I said just say that and thank them and sit down.

Now Gowon didn’t attend. He sent a junior man, I think Alhaji Femi Okunnu or so, to represent him. And they didn’t even attend this conference at which the four heads of state presided. It was only the Biafran side. So Ojukwu won a diplomatic victory and you know Ojukwu is a very good speaker if you give him all the facts. He was a good public relations expert and he won. He said, ‘well if Gowon was sincere why did he spite such great men and didn’t attend?’ That worked.

They agreed that Nigeria could be contacted so that we have a peace conference in Addis Ababa. It was a diplomatic victory for Biafra and so we returned to Biafra highly elated. And Ojukwu insisted that I should accompany him to Addis Ababa. Then something happened. Some of his advisers felt that I was becoming a victim of compromise and that I was a bad influence. That all I was trying to do was to make Biafra impotent. They told Ojukwu that Biafra was holding its own militarily. And why should we want a peace conference? That he should be very, very careful with me, especially as an Onitsha man because they thought that I was using him as a means to give publicity for myself internationally and that time will come when people will look more to me than to himself.

Well, as a young man, human, he fell for such flattery. I don’t want to mention all the names, but particularly influential in swinging his opinion at that material time was Mr. C. C. Mojekwu, who was based in Lisbon. Then Mr. Matthew Mbu was our Commissioner for External Affairs and he himself did as much as possible, but then he realized that he was having someone who has power of life and death over everybody. So, we went to Addis Ababa and on the night before the conference, Matthew came to my bedroom at about 10 in the night. He said, “Do you know that all we have done, this man is going to undo them tomorrow?’ I said ‘No’. Then he brought out a printed version of a long speech. The world press said it lasted for 90 minutes.

He [Ojukwu] went back on everything we discussed. He attacked the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union - all the nations of the world and the OAU, and said that they were misleading us and that the sovereignty of ‘Biafra’ was not negotiable. We went to the conference. I sat next to him. I thought that he was going to speak in accordance with the spirit of Niamey. But he spoke for 90 minutes and he just got the whole place upside down.

Naturally Tony Enahoro - he led the Nigerian delegation - replied in kind and so we were back to square one. So, when we returned, I advised him. I told him that I was surprised at what he did but it was not late. He said, ‘The sovereignty of Biafra is not negotiable and if anybody should try to compromise that sovereignty, then it will be an act of subversion.’ Well, that was quite clear to me so I said, ‘Your Excellency, you still have Port Harcourt and you can still bargain from position of strength - after all, the main issue in the civil war is oil and they say that in international politics, oil is combustible and as you have a combustible situation you can begin from the position of strength’. He said, ‘No, Port Harcourt is impregnable.’ ‘Very well, Your Excellency,’ I said. I went back to Nekede where I had been in protective custody since February, 1968. Two weeks later, Port Harcourt fell.

He sent for me. I said, ‘Well, Your Excellency, I did warn you. You cannot now negotiate from a position of strength but having received recognition from four states, we can still use them to see what we can do to appeal to the outside world.’ He said, ‘Very well, I think you should go to the United Nations to seek for recognition.’ I said, ‘Your Excellency, let us wait until after OAU summit in Algiers and find out what Africa thinks.’ In the meantime, I went to Tunisia to see my friend Habeeb Bourguiba of Tunisia. He wasn’t quite well, so we moved from Carthage to Hermit where he stayed. Ojukwu had always said the civil war would be won on the battlefield and not on the conference table, and Bourguiba didn’t take kindly to that. He said don’t you people advise this young man? I explained to him that I have done everything I could to advise him, but he insists on going to the battle field.

So we crossed our fingers awaiting the verdict of Algiers. You know it was decided by 33 to 4 in favour of Nigeria. I advised Ojukwu that to go to the United Nations to seek recognition would be unrealistic since Africa had decided by 33 to 4 in favour of Nigeria. I said Nigerian envoys, the Nigerian delegations, would just percolate the membership of the United Nations and they would frown at the whole thing. He insisted. I was then in Paris. I wrote him a letter. I said, ‘Since you refuse to go to the conference table to negotiate for peace, since you prefer that the civil war should end on the battle field and not on the conference table; since you said that the sovereignty of Biafra is not negotiable, I am afraid I cannot continue as a peace envoy because you have destroyed all the vestiges of any optimism for peace. Therefore I am relieving myself of my services as a peace envoy. I cannot continue as a peace envoy. I cannot continue as a peace envoy because you have let me down. You left me under the impression that if I succeeded in getting recognition you will go to the conference table. You got four recognitions; you did not go to the conference table. I am therefore going to London on exile.’

I went to London in voluntary exile and the British government granted me asylum. I do not see how anybody could say that I ran away from my country. I crossed the Atlantic 46 times, trying to negotiate with various heads of state so that they could grant recognition or make OAU to settle the dispute. How could the head of state turn round now and accuse all those who were politicians in pre-1966 and post-1966 as being responsible for the downfall of the republic? I did my best to preserve the unity of Nigeria and also to preserve the lives of old men, able-bodied men and women and children but I failed. What could I do? I went on free exile and they keep saying that I was among those responsible for the downfall of the republic. I plead not guilty".

Excerpts from the interview he granted to New Nigerian Newspapers, 1979, as Presidential aspirant under the platform of Nigerian People's Party.