“There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight”. Woodrow Wilson,1856-1924,  28th President of the US. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 60).

Woodrow Wilson was an academic, President of Princeton University before he became President of the United States and he was the originator of the League of Nations – the precursor to the current United Nations and a man of peace. He was not a soldier; so he could not possibly understand certain things about soldiers. One of them is, no soldier, especially a General, retired or not, would ignore being called “a coward” and “a liar” – two words which General Alabi-Isama (rtd) had used recently while promoting his book THE TRAGEDY OF VICTORY, against General Obasanjo (rtd). In the past, such an open insult called for a duel. Military honour demanded that the disgraced party must challenge his attacker to a duel to settle the matter.

Unless duels have been outlawed in Nigeria, this is one case that should revive the military tradition.

And, should the idea be accepted, I want to be the promoter. The venue is already chosen; it is the National Stadium, Surulere. Gate fees will be announced later. The duel might provide us with one opportunity of ridding the nation of a big PEST.

On a more serious note, I remain one of the few Nigerians who have read the book from page to page. General Alabi-Isama invited me to help edit the book last year and get it ready for publication. I was ready. But there was a problem. The General wanted the book published in four months from the date of receipt of manuscript. Even if that was all the work I had on hand, it would have been either impossible or dangerous to rush the assignment.

As it turned out, I was at the last stage of getting an autobiography DOCTOR ON BICYCLE published; then I was discussing with General Ogbemudia about revising his book about the Civil War (which I was also reading page by page at the time) and I was working on an original biography to be published this year. General Alabi-Isama’s book was fourth in line. So when he issued the ultimatum, “Four months or nothing”, I answered, “With due respect General “nothing””. The reason was simple.

Apart from time constraint, the book is a lengthy rejoinder to Obasanjo’s book, MY COMMAND. And, it was full of accusations against the former President. Although I don’t like Obasanjo, I believed that it would amount to intellectual dishonesty and injustice to edit Alabi-Isama’s book without reading Obasanjo’s book page by page and without placing side by side the maps and facts adduced by the two Generals. But, Alabi-Isama was in a hurry to get the book published. I live and die by my own principles and we parted ways.

While I wish the General all the best with the book, he had at least discovered that I was right that nobody can get the book to the stand in four months. I only hope the people who worked on the book later on took the trouble to read MY COMMAND also. Even Obasanjo, detested as he is by his military colleagues, deserves fair hearing before being condemned. From the gang-up at the book launch, it would appear that Baba Iyabo is on his own. For once, OBJ has my sympathies and if there is going to be a duel, I wish him good luck. No soldier wants to be called a “coward” for God’s sake.

On the other hand he can abide by Woodrow Wilson’s dictum and consider himself “too proud to fight”. After all, unlike Alabi-Isama, who was a combatant soldier, Obasanjo had never fired a shot in anger. He ran for cover when Murtala Mohammed was shot.

POWER AND NIGERIAN POLITICIANS — 1

“Having power destroys the sanity of the powerful. It allows their irrationalities to leave the sphere of dream and come into the real world”. Saul Bellow. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 195).

“You are a dictator”, Rivers State Commissioner of Police, referring to Governor Amaechi.

Rivers State Commissioner of Police was reported to have made that remark a few weeks ago. I waited for several weeks to read a disclaimer from the Police Chief. There was none. So, it can be safely assumed that he was correctly reported. If so, the CP Rivers State should receive a gold medal for speaking the truth. It is a fact; not only about Amaechi, but, about all the governors of Nigeria. What we have in all the government mansions and offices, from Abia to Zamfara, are people wielding powers that would make Attila the Hun or Alexander the Great grin with envy. Unless checkmated by the Federal might, a state government has power over everything living and inanimate in his state. He can do and undo – limited only by his own conscience or lack of it. And when the Commissioner of Police is complaisant, the death grip on the people is almost total.

State Houses of Assembly are totally useless; they provide no checks and balances against the excesses of the Executive branch. The judiciary is worse. It is virtually impossible for a state government to lose a case in its own court. Let me start with an example from the 1999-2003 set and Kogi State.

Journalists, especially state correspondents in Kogi, during those evil days, could only write and get published, stories that were favourable to the government. A state correspondent who deviated, was, first, ostracized by being declared persona non grata, in State’s News Centre; then he was threatened. His paper was asked to remove him, and if, like GUARDIAN that request was not granted unpleasant consequences followed. Even today, it requires a stone-hearted correspondent, in any state, to write unfavourable, even if true stories about the government which hosts him. That explains why virtually all the unfavourable comments about a governor come from outside or political opposition. Let me provide another example.

When in 2009 to 2010, Imo, Abia and Akwa Ibom became the arch of evil in terms of political killings and kidnapping, no single correspondent in those states dared to write the reports I did and got published.

Their lives were in danger and the danger was the state government, each and every time, irrespective of political affiliation. Adedibu’s vice grip over Oyo state was effective only because it served the purposes of the governors and Obasanjo. Today, the thugs engaged then are still mostly alive in Ibadan. But, the change of governor has

rendered them ineffective. Return their former sponsors to power and all hell will break loose again. State governors are all dictators and the first group of people governors capture is the legislators in their states who become glorified errand boys. There is no state in Nigeria where the House of Assembly is truly independent of the Governor; not one. I challenge any member of any House to dispute it.

We should thank the CP-Rivers State for telling the truth about one of the 36 dictators we “elected” to subjugate us. How else do you explain former Governor Ohakim of Imo State publicly assaulting a Catholic priest? No American governor will try it without being impeached by all the members of the State House of Assembly; even if they belong to the same political party. That is the difference between the rule of law and men….

PDP RECONCILIATION COMMITTEE

“If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends; you talk to your enemies”. General Moshe Dayan, hero of Israel’s six-day war victory over the Arabs, in 1967.(VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 183).

The announcement of a PDP Reconciliation Committee, headed by Governor Dickson of Bayelsa State is symptomatic of all that is wrong with the leadership of the party today. With the President (Bayelsa), Chairman of BOT (Edo), Chairman of PDP Governors Forum (Akwa Ibom) and now Dickson, the question anybody sensible should ask is: has PDP become a South-South party only? Why are the leaders of the PDP making the same mistakes all the time.