My father met my mother as a virgin; that is why I’m his exact replica - Debe Ojukwu

Chief Chukwudebe Sylvester Ojukwu is the late Biafran warlord, Ikemba Dim Odimegwu Ojukwu’s 56-year-old first son. Since his father’s death on November 26, 2011, the retired Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) has had running battles with other family members. His name was also conspicuously missing in the controversial will read on November 30, 2012. In this interview with Assistant Editors, LINUS OBOGO, GBENGA ADERANTI and SEGUN AJIBOYE, Debe insists he is the true son of his father, throwing a challenge at those who doubt the veracity of his claim. He also dismisses the will as a fraud. Excerpts: 

When Calabar comes Christmas carnivalaglow with

Written By Linus Obogo, Assistant Editor

 

 

To many tourists and fun seekers, the annual Calabar Carnival has come to represent something of a pilgrimage. They look forward to it with great eagerness. To them, it is one glorious moment in the state’s annual calendar of events. It holds so much for them- the razzmatazz, the glitz, frills and thrills.

My vission for UNILAG —New VC, Rahamon Bello

By Linus Obogo, Assistant Editor

 

Stepping into the shoes left behind by your predecessors usually comes with a measure of nervousness. The anxiety of ensuring your legs fit into them is one thing; the burden of expectation is another. Are the fresh legs big enough to fit in? Can they carry the shoes?

These were questions that hung on the lips of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) community following the appointment of Prof. Rahamon Adisa Bello as the new vice chancellor of the 50-year-old institution on November 12, 2012.

Striding into the coveted office as the 11th Vice-Chancellor of UNILAG can be quite intimidating. Yet it is a rare opportunity for Bello to prove that it is not so much about the dog in the fight but the fight in the dog. And for the ‘large shoes’, his legs are more than sizeable.

2015: Those asking for power shift to the North are self-seekers — Col Umar (rtd)

Col. Abubakar Umar is a former governor of Kaduna State from August 1985 to June 1988 during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. After his retirement from the army, Umar became Chairman and Chief Executive, Work and Worship (Gas Company) Nigeria Limited, Kaduna.
Umar was an unrepentant critic of the Abacha regime. He joined the G-18 group of politicians that publicly opposed Abacha’s plan to become president. Known for his outspokenness, Umar, who has variously dismissed the concept of a monolithic Northern region as obsolete and unnecessary, in this interview with Assistant Editor, LINUS OBOGO, condemned those asking for power to shift to the North ahead of 2015, insisting that they are not speaking for the region. He also spoke on the helplessness of the Northern leaders to deal with the menace of Boko Haram. Excerpts:

National Assembly not competent to amend constitution -Horsfall

By Linus Obogo, Assistant Editor

 

Chief Albert K. Horsfall is an administrator, author and politician. He was a Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS) and ex-Chairman of the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC). In this interview with Assistant Editor, LINUS OBOGO, he criticises the involvement of the National Assembly in the ongoing constitution review, arguing that it exposes the lawmakers to the temptation of tampering with the organic law of the land to suit their own purposes. He also speaks on Boko Haram and sundry issues. Excerpts:

Whoever is denying that starvation was used against the Igbo is living in denial – Col. Achuzia (rtd)

Col Achuzia (rtd)

Col. Joseph Achuzia was not only a participant in the Nigerian civil war (1967-1970) but one of the top Biafran war commanders and a very intimate associate of the late Biafran warlord, Dim Odimegwu Ojukwu. In this interview with Assistant Editor, LINUS OBOGO, the British-trained Aeronautic engineer and one-time Secretary-General of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, took issue with those who accused Prof. Chinua Achebe of distorting history in his book, There Was a Country, where the celebrated story teller alleged genocide and the deployment of starvation as a weapon of war against the then Federal Government. Excerpts:

Agenda for second term: ‘No more shall our people travel to our capital city to see civilisation’

By LINUS OBOGO, Assiatant Editor

The banner at the capacity-filled Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium fluttered with buoyancy and optimism. It bore such assuring declaration as “Edo is in safe hands: Welcome to the future”.
As early as 8.am, students from different primary and secondary schools, crowd of party faithful, military and Para-military personnel and cultural ensembles, in their thousands, surged and fought their way to be part of the future that was being ushered in with the swearing-in for the second term of the new light of Edo politics, Governor Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole.

It’s either Achebe twisting the facts interpreting the to serve his own —Ex-Arewa chair IBM Haruna

By Linus Obogo, Assistant Editor

IBM Haruna

 

Maj-Gen. Ibrahim Bata Malgwi (IBM) Haruna was two-time Federal Commissioner for Communication and Information during the military era. He was also the General Officer Commanding (GOC) Two Division of the Nigerian Army during the civil war. He was also Principal Officer to Gen. Yakubu Gowon. After a glittering military career, he was appointed Chairman of the Governing body of the Nigerian Institute Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru, Jos, Plateau State, from 1985 to 1993.

In this no holds-barred interview, Gen. Haruna lamented the gruesome murder of Gen. Muhammadu Shuwa, whom he described as his bosom friend and contemporary in the Army, insisting that the only way for his memory to be preserved is for the Federal Government to fish out his killers and bring them to justice. He also admonished those he said are still parochially clinging on to the concept of North as a political entity to wake up to the reality that it is long dead as a political grouping. He speaks more on sundry issues with the ASSISTANT EDITOR, LINUS OBOGO. Excerpts:

It’s a shame that I ensured peace in Liberia, Angola, Sierra Leone, yet no peace in my home state – Sen. John Shagaya

After a glittering military career spanning over 30 years, Gen. John Shagaya (rtd) made his foray into politics as a senator representing Plateau Central Senatorial District of Plateau State from 2007 to 2011. A one-time ECOMOG Commander, and variously head of peace keeping operations in troubled parts of Africa and Asia, Gen. Shagaya ensured that peace was restored in war-torn Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, among others. An emblematic trouble-shooter that he was in his days as a soldier, his home state of Plateau is encased in intractable crises of bleeding proportion with none able to guarantee peace. Senator Shagaya speaks about the trouble in Plateau, the collapse of the ‘monolithic North, his botched attempt to return to the Senate, among other issues, in an interview with the Assistant Editor, LINUS OBOGO. Excerpts:

Why NYSC should not be scrapped- Ex-Governing Board Chair, Chief Linus Okom

 

A few months away from now, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) will be 40 years. Established by Decree 24 of May 22, 1973, the scheme has gone through a purple patch, socially and culturally. In this interview with Assistant Editor, Linus Obogo, immediate-past Chairman of the Governing Board, Chief Linus Emonse Okom (OON), lauds the idea behind the scheme, just as he flays those calling for its scrapping. Excerpts:

FESTAC: Town in need of moral salvation -Written By Linus Obogo, Assistant Editor

Welcome to FESTAC Town. This was the landmark at the First Gate that clearly offered a hint of where Nigeria’s Festival of Arts and Culture village was situated. That was 35 years ago.

Today, the landmark has not only disappeared, but the very gate that once welcomed its residents and visitors alike has been ripped bare of any directional compass, having progressively transformed into a garage for commercial motorcyclists, popularly called ‘Okada’. 

The once posh and highbrow estate was built by the government in 1977, during the country’s first oil boom, to quarter tens of thousands of participants in the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture. After the festival, it was to later serve as a satellite for the country’s middle class. This was so until the late 1980s.

With the death or rather, the disappearance of Nigeria’s middle class, FESTAC Town also suffered vicariously and in turn, lost its plum and upscale status. Like a similar fate that has befallen the country, FESTAC has weathered corresponding socio-economic vagaries and sadly, morphed into a juvenile, ramshackle colony of social and economic vermin.

Why I couldn’t make it back to the Senate –Folashade Bent

By Linus Obogo, Assistant Editor

Doctor Folashade Grace-Bent is a politician and former senator who represented Adamawa South Senatorial Constituency of Adamawa State from 2007 to 2011. In this interview with Linus Obogo, the former Senate Committee Chairman on Environment opens up on the forces that conspired against her return to the senate, the overbearing influence of the governors on parties’ affairs, as well as her regrets in bringing about the current leadership in the state. Excerpts:

Flooding: Lagos, Ogun residents count losses

 

By Linus Obogo, Segun Ajiboye, Miriam Ndikanwu and Oziegbe Okoeki

30/06/2012

Call it a day of rage and bedlam and you may not be wrong. It was a day the heavens’ violent and relentless yawning left residents of Lagos and Ogun States at the mercy of nature’s cruel hands.

All across the two states, the story bear a familiar refrain. Flood, flood and flood everywhere. While the rains came as a welcome relief from the baking heat that endured between January to April this year, its present offering has come, rather as a pill too lethal to swallow.

With residents displaced from their homes and roads taken over by flood waters, this is one gift nature has unleashed with a tinge of vengeance. And since Thursday, from Lagos to Ogun State, virtually everyone has been counting his loses and lamenting his anguish, just as every home has equally been counting its misery.

Azazi’s troubled tenure By Linus Obogo, Assistant Editor

 

 When he was appointed On October 4, 2010 as the new National Security Adviser by President Goodluck Jonathan, succeeding retired Colonel Kayode Are, there was so much expectation from Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi (rtd).

Azazi, a former Chief of Army Staff and later Chief of Defence Staff, took over from the acting NSA, Colonel Kayode Are (rtd), who held the position temporarily following the resignation of Gen. Aliyu Mohammed Gusau.

His appointment was in keeping to Jonathan’s promise to overhaul the nation’s security apparatus following the October 1 Independence Day bomb blasts in Abuja.