EVI Website Future and Present Enhancement

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.

Written by: Engr. Onipe Abraham Okomanyi

Hello Andayi,

I do believe you are all doing well.

At the time the President sent out the below message alerting you to the availability of the membership registration feature on the ebiravonyainternational.org site, I was still in the process of updating the site and fixing associated bugs. One of the obvious bugs was that the image upload was not working as required. I have fixed the bugs now and I have also refreshed the database, which means that the data for those of you that have already registered will be lost. The people affected are Joseph Akomodi, Onipe Suberu and Kabir Ismail. These individuals would have to re-register again. I do apologize for any inconveniences.

I implore you to try to register only once and as the site will only catch duplicate registrations if and only if you try to use the same login name but if you use a different login name there is no way the site will know that the registration is a duplicate. So, please register only once.

Here are the currently deployed features:
1. Ability to Register by clicking the Join Us link
2. Ability to login to members' area once suucessfully registered by clicking the Login link and entering your login information
3. Once logged in, the landing page provides you with the ability to
a. View the details of your profile
b. View the profiles of other registered members
c. Pay your annual dues to EVI account through Paypal
4. Also, you can also now make donation to EVI by clicking the Make Donation link

The following are features to come in the nearest future:
1. Ability to edit your profile information
2. Birthday alert on the landing page (the dashboard) for members celebrating their birthdays in the current month
3. Ability to send e-mails to selected members through t he site once logged in
4. Ability to upload publications and articles to the site - restricted to only the admin user
5. Ability to view such articles or publications that have been uploaded
6. Ability to reset your password
7. Ability to retrieve your login information if you forget it

Please let me know if you have any other suggested features you would like to see on the site. Due to my busy schedule, I am not able to turn around changes to site as fast as desired. This time, I had to use the Thanksgiving holiday and the weekend to work on the above available features.

Thanks!

Abraham O. Okomanyi
B.Eng, M.Eng, MISM, PMP
CEO ABEConsult International Incorporated
Atlanta, U.S.A.

EVI Website Enhancement by Engr. Onipe Abraham Okomanyi

Written and Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.


Dear Brothers and Sisters:

I am delighted to bring to your notice that EVIs' website has been enhanced by our dynamic Treasurer - Engr. Onipe Abraham Okomanyi. It is available to us to join the Organization through our website, pay dues by members only, login to access information, we could also download pictures of a normal size to the website. I urge all members to have their pictures posted with their info so that we can identify each others and begin to know ourselves.

Donations can be made by members and non members. It is so easy just click on donations icon. It is self explanatory. I have tried the website by making donations to confirmed that it works. You can also print receipt of your payment. You can have account with paypal to monitor all your contributions. The annual dues for Europe and North America is $250 U.S. dollars. I urge all members to click on "Join Us" it will take you through the process as easy as ABC. When you join, to be able to view members' profile you have to login with your Users ID and password.

Remember that students' annual dues as agreed upon is 50% of $250 dollars , which is $125 dollars per year. This annual dues affects those of us leaving in Europe and North America. The amount for Nigeria members and Asia is different, contact your Regional Representative to find out how much. You should be aware that you don't have to make the whole amount of annual dues at once. You can be making installments payment month by month or week by week but by the end of the year, you most have made a total sum of $250 dollars for that year.

If you have not make payment of your dues for year the 2006, please go straight to our website: http://www.ebiravonyainternational.org/ Click on "Join Us" then after you are done with the info. go back and login with your user ID and password which you have previously entered. It is that simple. We also urge all members who can to make some contributions. Remember that at the end of the year you can use that as tax write off. Every penny counts no matter how small. Therefore, join me in your dues payment and making donations. God bless you all.

To the General Secretary, on behalf of the Organization you need to send an official thank you letter to Engr. Onipe Abraham Okomanyi for his splendid work on our Letter heading.

Thanks for your cooperation in this endeavor! "Join Now and Join All."


Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.
National President
Ebira Vonya International
New York, USA
phone: 718-484-0351
cell: 917-570-6876
e-mail: jakomod@yahoo.com
e-mail: jakomod@hotmail.com
global e-mail: ebiravonya@yahoogroups.com

15 Killed in Ebira Communal Clash

Posted by: Dr Joseph Ozigis Akomod, Ph.D.

This day/Distributed by African Global Media ( AllAfrica.com)

The Chairman of Okehi Local Government area of Kogi State, Mallam AbdulRahman Danga has put the death toll in last week's communal crisis between the Emani and Ohionwa clans in Ihima district at 15.
The council chief confessed that the figure were those that were seen and enumerated officially and added that there are reports of casualties that were not reported.
Danga who gave the official casualty figure to Governor Ibrahim Idris on Sunday who was on spot assessment visit to the crisis- prone area, lamented that the crisis has made the people of the area destitute as they abandoned their home stead to live elsewhere.
But the governor who regretted the communal crisis vowed not to spare anybody linked with the crisis no matter the status or political standing of the patrons of the crisis.
The governor's riot act was on the heels of the allegations that his deputy, Phillips Salawu who hails from the community and the embattled Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, Alhaji Ado Ibrahim might have been part of the crisis as a continuation of their struggle for the control of the area.
Idirs said that the crisis was avoidable if the people had not listened to rumour or hearsay or had embraced dialogue.
Idris who fell short of describing the act as influenced by madness said, "it is easy to destroy but hard to reconstruct. You can destroy about 100 houses but you cannot build those 100 houses in 20 years. Why then do we need to destroy our property and burn our houses?"
The governor ruled out any payment of compensation to the victims of the crisis, saying doing that would be tantamount to encouraging the perpetrators.
He lamented that the crisis was a contradiction of the peace move initiated by the state government to bring the warring clans together.
Idiris who was shocked after going through the troubled areas and listened to the explanation of Dnga burst out, "enough is enough. Government will not take kindly to these senseless and mindless destruction of lives and property in the name of pursuing a communal agenda that has no basis".
The council chief who conducted the governor round the trouble areas hinted that the names of the perpetrators from the two clans have been compiled and submitted to security agencies for appropriate action.
The council chief added that the hoodlums approached the crisis in a war manner, inscribing the name of a conqueror clan on a conquered place.
"Your Excellency Sir, it is our belief that if the perpetrators are arrested, there will be peace in Ihima and that is why we are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the perpetrators face the music."
Copyright This Day. Distributed by All Africa Global Media(AllAfrica.com)

Ebirra Peace Project: Another Clarion Call.

Forwarded to be Posted by: Miriam Ikunaiye

Written by: Ismail Oziotaiki Ikunaiye


EBIRRA PEACE PROJECT: ANOTHER CLARION CALL.

It was sometime in June, 2005, a group of young men gathered in Abuja to deliberate on issues that has to do with the security to life and properties in Ebirraland.

This, of course, has occupied main discussions among the people of this area in both seminars and privates concerns. It would be recalled that, at the close of the decade of eighties, a new dimensions entered into our lives; even though, thuggery and other sorts of violent behaviours characterised our daily lives but the introduction of negative ritual activities that surfaced left much to be desired.

So, in the nineties, the height of these menace was reached: scores of innocent souls were lost through violent and ritual activities. These has really brought to us negative pictures and required that something must be done.

These imperatives are what prompted these young men to embark on what is now known as Ebirra Peace Project (EPP). The principal actors are :-
Alh. Abubarkar Imam (Chairman)
Shaibu Chatta (National Coordinator)
Saqeed Saeed – Siasia (Secretary General).

This organization operates on a tight financial back-up. They have, nevertheless, embarked on a door to door campaign and at the same time assist the youth to subsidized their fees at schools. The body also take it upon itself to disseminate important information to through the local media known as Ebicom Newspaper and some time through personal contacts.

Recently, they met with this special correspondent in Nigeria to explain their own side of the story and as for understanding. They also promised to visit and patronize Etemeya News Magazine Website since the website has become a popular channel information among our people here and in diaspora.
Long live EPP.
Long live Ebirra People
Long Live Nigeria .
Ismail Oziotaiki Ikunaiye.

When Anti-Crime Officers Came Calling.

Forwarded to be Posted by: Miriam Ikunaiye

Written by: Ismail Oziotaiki Ikunaiye


WHEN ANTI-CRIME OFFICERS CAME CALLING.
At the beginning it was like occassional harrasment of hoodlums by the state security services (SSS). But this time around it is a different ball game entirely.

The slave master is at war with his wards and his wards lost their security, confidence and “glory”. The Anticrime officers were drafted from the mobile police, the State Security Services (SSS) and, the Directorate of Military intelligence (DMI).

On the 26th of September, the squard, known as SASS (Special Anticrime Security Services) arrived in Okene via Lokoja to embark on a total cleansing of the crime prone neigbourhoods.
The first casualty was one Momojimoh (alias Emjay) in Adavi Local Government Area. This was followed immediately by the arrest of the notorious gangstar leader who was previously an informant with the police departments in Kogi, Edo and Ondo states. He is by name Ilyasu (informant). Ofcourse he was in the police in Lokoja to rescue his gang member that was in the police net. He had collected money from the kinsmen of the boy (Emjay) for the rescue operation. Unfortunately, he met his waterloo.

A record of forty criminals, thugs and street urchins has been arrested so far as at the close of last week, the 17th of November, 2006.

Therefore, the recently concluded Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary election was peaceful due to this mass arrest. Kogi state would have been worse than any elsewhere.

However, the chieftain of these things and criminals the Chairman of Okene Local government, Alh. Salihu Ohize was caught napping as a result of wards that were arrested. This has created a serious dent on his political carreer.

Though, the SASS Operation continues and peace now reigns everywhere. The Operation cut across the entire Ebirraland. So the struggle continues.

Ismail Oziotaiki Ikunaiye.

Letter to Chief Momoh Obaro - Kogi State Gubernatorial Aspirant

Posted and written by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.

Dear Chief Momoh Obaro, Gubernatorial Aspirant of Kogi State:

Thanks for your e-mail and words of advise to EVI in general. Regarding the recent e-mail between me and the National Chairman, I do not considered it as a quarrel. Mr Chairman raised some issues which I think needs to be addressed. My e-mail is to clarify his worries. The organization of this magnitude needs check and balances. What has happened, I considered it to be healthy conversation between the National Chairman and I. May be we should not have brought it to the open. That is looking at it at another dimension.

The EVI is up and running all for the benefit of Anebiras. We have reached the point of no return. The EVI strongly support the National Chairman to be the Chair of the Organization. No one can dispute it. His silence for a while is best know to him. He was aware in all of the meetings. He was informed on several occasions to join us at the meeting which is web based. He can attend the meeting at the comfort of his home. We have more vibrant members than ever. I am getting calls from the diaspora on a daily basis. As soon as any sons and daughters of our land discovered the existence of this body they called for more information and how to become a member.

We the Executives, since the start of the monthly meetings, had had meaningful discussions. For any organization to function there must be transparency and that is what EVI have showed and continued to demonstrate to all and its' ability to unite all Anebiras. We are not at all divided thinking of how to bring us together. We respect our National Chairman, and the contribution he has to offer to the Organization. We urge him to attend all of our meetings and he will earn all the respect of our members. His refusal to attend meetings, is seen by many of us as being immature. What had happened in the past is forgotten by all members. We do not think it is to the interest of anyone to revisit the issues we have resolved and moved on. His views are his views and his pride are his pride. We have to put all that aside to govern and serve for the interest of all Anebiras. So that in years to come, our children's' children will be able to carry the touch that will continue to illuminate for ever and ever (Amen).

The monthly Executive meetings which takes place on a monthly basis, is not just North America alone but all the five Regions. Region one, two three and five have always participated. I duff my hat for them. EVI is a global organization, therefore the idea of decentralization without check and balances will not be appropriate. As we move on, I will expect to see branches in big Cities such as New York, Los Angele's, Boston, Florida Toronto, London Moscow, Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Kano etc to emerge. This will further facilitate the raising of funds and bringing more innovative programs to our land, Kogi State, Nigeria and the world at large. The vision is there and we will make it work. For example, EVI Region 5 New York Branch, EVI Region 5 Toronto Branch etc. That will lean towards decentralization with check and balances, which make it even more global with unified body.

EVI is a benevolent organization for the generality of Anebira, it is not an Institution set up to be governed by an individual. While it exists to serve the interest of all Anebira or while our plight is to unite everyone, EVI will not hestitate to weed out any individual including the National President and National Chairman that attempts to use it in his or her own interest and exert or vest personnal opinions on others. The greater mass of Anebira we serve is far more greater than just loosing a member. EVI will stick to its own constitution and will not tolerate an attempt to circumvent its effort to bring peace to Anebira. We urge all members to demonstrate respect, maturity, intelligence and flexibility in dealing with each other. These attributes are the very things that are missing in our society and since these things are EVI's traits, we will use them to determine who is part of the organization.

The aspect of face to face meeting can happen not on a monthly basis but annually. Which we feel at this point all the Regions should be encouraged to have annual meeting at their respective Regions. The western Europe started this which we considered to be very effective under the leadership of Mathew Raji Andah.

My special advise to those of you who are Politicians back at home to come together as one voice, one body, one Ebirans regardless of your background, the party you belong to or the clan you belong to, put all these aside and unite as one front to have any headway during 2007 Gubernatorial race in Kogi State.

I wish all our members in North America and in the diaspora HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

God Bless EVI! God Bless Ebiraland!! God Bless Nigeria and the World at large!!!




Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D. National President Ebira Vonya International New York, USA phone: 718-484-0351 cell: 917-570-6876 e-mail: jakomod@yahoo.com e-mail: jakomod@hotmail.comglobal e-mail: ebiravonya@yahoogroups.com

A Letter From Chief Momoh Obaro - Kogi State Gubernatorial Candidate

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi

My dear President,

I have not visited this site for quite sometime now because as you know politics is heating up and that is taking a good chunk of my time. I came to the site yesterday and started reading the exchanges between you and the Mr. Chairman: Alfred Salami. As you will predict i am awfully disappointed. I was disappointed on several grounds. When EVI announced its debut some two years ago, the hopes of those of us at home were raised thinking that our sons and daughters in diaspora have risen to the occasion of intervening in our intractable problem. our hope was raised because we believed that our sons and daughters have overcome this jinx that Anebira cannot work or do somethings together. we believe that you have overcome the jinx because of your exposure and having left our land for such a long time you must have acquired new skill to hand human relationship.
So that when you invited us to London last year for the first EVI conference our hope was more heightened. one of the people who indicated the desire to participate liken the conference to the Nigerian conference of the 60s at the commomwealth office when Nigerian problem was discussed and resolved. The fellow said that was how the Ebira problem would be resolved at that conference. Needless to say that though the turnout was below expectation, a big progress was made. what we expect from the EVI was for the decision at the conference to be implemented but instead we are seeing some petty quarrels between the chairman and Mr. President. We must not allow this to happen.

what needs to be done now?
1. You need to spare us of these quarrels. Ebira nation is too traumatized to be given the gift of these quarrels. If you cannot help us do not add to our pains. whatever the differences between you please sort it out.
2. Make it your goal to make EVI a strong and virile body that can bring in all the Ebiras in diaspora. the organization first should meet the needs of its members in diaspora before delving into the problem at home. if i must mentioned it to you, the other groups in Kogi are having very functional group meetings that have annual conference. Please i beg you in the name of Ohiku anebira make EVI that kind of body
3. to run a global body is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. the key to make the organization effective is decentralization. the group in NEW YORK has been functioning by your monthly meeting but other areas must be made to function too. we should be concerned with what happens to EVI in Europe, Asia and Africa too. Even America is too big for just one group. because the cost of transportation to attend meeting will soon be too overbearing for people to be able to bear them. I still think while the power of on-line communication is very important, there is still an aspect of face to face meeting that cannot be replaced by the power of Internet. we need socialization too.
4. finally I offer to mediate between the President and the Chairman so that this matter can be laid to rest once and for all. if this is acceptable to members lets me know.
I thank everybody who has shown one concern or the other for our fatherland. I thank EVI for the $2000 you raised to solve a problem at home. Everybody contribution matters. If you send a dollar to your old parents at home it is contribution. If you pay a school fees for your cousins and brothers and sisters it is a contribution. Even when you offer to own a property at home you are contributing to development. if you help a relative to establish a business at home it is a contribution. this contribution from a wide perspective must be acknowledged. I thank all of you on behalf of our land who have even spare a thought for our father land.
May the good Lord bless you all. Amen.

Chief Momoh Obaro

A Letter from the National Chairman - Mr. Alfred Salami

Dear Colleagues,



For a long time now I have kept a low profile to let the sleeping dog lie in order to allow the "experts" to carry on running the organisation in their own ways. However, I have continued to follow developments very closely. Whilst it is not my intention to wake up the sleeping dog now, I could not but air my view on what I think is double standard on the current development regarding the article by the National President "Your Move Mr. President. Why we went to war in Iraq".



Whilst I do not quarrel with his commentary but only a year ago I was trying to do the right thing by extending invitations to our brothers and sisters from Ebira community to invite them to a meeting to discuss the political crisis in Ebira land and on that occasion there was a concerted efforts by some group of people in the organisation who did their very best to castigate and crucified me because it was seen by them as talking to politicians which I was told was against our constitution.



If we take that scenario and compare it to the President's article which has been put across under the auspices of EVI,

I just wonder whether our constitution has changed since then OR is it the case that what is good for the goose is not good for the gander OR could it be that the whole efforts by the group then was pure hypocrisy or pure hatred. How can we run an organisation with rules to suit when it is convenient for some?. If the rules apply then I just wonder why not now.



I have always believed that if EVI is ever going to make any impact on the problems of our community we must talk to all concerned be they politicians or anyone else as long as we do not get engaged in party politics. I leave you to decide for yourself what you think.

Thanks

Alfred Salami

National Chairman.

Response to the National Chairman of EVI's letter - Mr. Alfred Salami

Dear National Chairman, Mr. Alfred A. Salami:

After series of e-mails I have sent to you to join us in our monthly meeting. You have decided at this point to come out an voice your opinion. If I had known that my reaction to an article which was placed on our secondary website will get your attention, I will have done that long time ago. I just want you to remember that I have not violated the constitution by commenting to an article which was published in www.frontpagemag. com Our Secondary website is not our permanent website. This is a web to store information until our main website is enhanced. If you read the heading of the website it indicated that Ebirans and the world - By EVI. The article you complained about "Your Move, Mr. President." My comment is a reaction to an article in the United States and it has nothing to do with politics either in the United States or Nigeria. I hope I have clarified some of your worries.

I am very open to constructive critics and EVI as whole is open to constructive suggestions on helping our ailing land. I thank you for your contribution at this time, We hope in the near future, you will join us in deliberating on some of the important issues facing our land. By the way we are still waiting for the annual dues from Ebira Vonya International Region 2 members. Please follow the information that the General Secretary have put forward to all members. The details about our account is included in that document. You can also get the account information from our secondary website: www.jakomodebiravon yainternational. blogspot. com

If I may recollect exactly, during our initial formation of EVI, we indicated that we, the Executives have to meet first before inviting our Politicians for a meeting. I do not think any of our members said we must not talk with Politicians. Ebira Politicians are sons and daughters of our land. We therefore, cannot do anything in Ebiraland without them. Our goal is to Unite all Anebiras including Politicians. Our Constitution clearly indicated that we are non profit organization and have no political motives to side one political entity than the other. We must threat and respect each political party that exists in our land. Therefore, we must not side one particular party if our organization want to prosper to bring everlasting change to our land.

We want to unite not divide. Mr. Chairman trust me, we all agreed that you should be fully involved in every activities that goes on in our organization. Thus, all meetings agenda were sent to you by National Secretary. and the minutes of the meetings were always made public. We have nothing to hide. EVI is as transparent as it could be. We have been able to have meaningful discussions amongst the Executives who attends our monthly meetings.

Once again I am grateful for voicing out your mind. Do not go back in the closet for another year.

I would like to thank those of you that have responded to the Chairman's e-mail thus far. We have demonstrated our abilities to unite not divide through the activities going on at home that we exist to serve our people. We will continue to expand our horizon to get everyone with good intention for our motherland on board. We should unite and work hard to prevent our selves from being side tracked from our course. I would therefore, ask everyone of you to move pass this incident without fueling it further. We must demonstrate maturity and intelligence at all times.

God bless EVI! God bless Ebiraland!! and God bless Nigeria and the World at large!!!



Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.
National President
Ebira Vonya International
New York, USA
phone: 718-484-0351
cell: 917-570-6876
e-mail: jakomod@yahoo. com
e-mail: jakomod@hotmail. com
global e-mail: ebiravonya@yahoogro ups.com

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"Your Move Mr. President."

"Your Move, Mr. President."
By Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi



I must not failed to comment on the article of Mr. Kenneth R. Timmerman titled, "Your Move, Mr. President." Yes our President have the option to make the move either in the right or in the wrong direction. The choice is his. Just as he made a wrong choice to attack Iraq. I remember vividly when our President made a statement about taken the war to them. Yes he would have taken the war to them if he had remained in Afghanistan not Iraq. Mr. President, we are winning the war in Iraq as you said. Where is Osama Bin Laden? You gave the terrorist the chance to regrouped and forcefully come to Irag to fight our young men and women in uniform. You gave Osama Bin Laden the chance to come out of his cave and his men to fight us at a distance. What about taken the war to them. You forgot that Iraq is not Afghanistan?

Dont make mistake of going to fight another war in Iran. Tony Blair will not support you this time. The best choice you have right now, is to work through the UN to initiate dialogue between the UN and Iran. Under your watch we have Koreans and Iran went "NUKE." These are due to your stuborness, for your refusal to dialoque with them. President Regan did dialoque with the so called Evil Empire-Russians during his tennure of Office. A good President chew their pride and work for the benefit of the masses. You have failed to do just that. What will you be remembered of Mr. President? History will tell. You are the worst President ever in the making of the History of the United States of America.

Mr President, your six years in Presidency, what are your accomplishments? Hummmm....Yes I remembered trillions of dollars spent in Iraq. Approximately 3000 men and women in uniform Dead in Iraq. Many more wooded, many more disabled for life. What are your plan for those who sacrifice their lives for us. What plan do you have in place for them?

What will your remaing two years be like Mr. President? You still have the chance to set the record straight if you play your card well. I am afraid that you will not learn from the past....I hope you will learn so that the Legancy of the President Bush have some positives in the future. As you make your bed so you will lie on it. My special thanks goes to the Author of this article.

Why We Went to War

Why We Went to War

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.

By Robert Kagan and William Kristol
The Weekly Standard | October 13, 2003

"When I left office, there was a substantial amount of biological and chemical material unaccounted for. That is, at the end of the first Gulf War, we knew what he had. We knew what was destroyed in all the inspection processes and that was a lot. And then we bombed with the British for four days in 1998. We might have gotten it all; we might have gotten half of it; we might have gotten none of it. But we didn't know. So I thought it was prudent for the president to go to the UN and for the UN to say you got to let these inspectors in, and this time if you don't cooperate the penalty could be regime change, not just continued sanctions."
--Bill Clinton, July 22, 2003


FORMER PRESIDENT CLINTON is right about what he and the whole world knew about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction programs. And most of what everyone knew about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction had nothing to do with this or any other government's intelligence collection and analysis. Had there never been a Central Intelligence Agency--an idea we admit sounds more attractive all the time--the case for war against Iraq would have been rock solid. Almost everything we knew about Saddam's weapons programs and stockpiles, we knew because the Iraqis themselves admitted it.

Here's a little history that seems to have been completely forgotten in the frenzy of the past few months. Shortly after the first Gulf War in 1991, U.N. inspectors discovered the existence of a surprisingly advanced Iraqi nuclear weapons program. In addition, by Iraq's own admission and UN inspection efforts, Saddam's regime possessed thousands of chemical weapons and tons of chemical weapon agents. Were it not for the 1995 defection of senior Iraqi officials, the UN would never have made the further discovery that Iraq had manufactured and equipped weapons with the deadly chemical nerve agent VX and had an extensive biological warfare program.

Here is what was known by 1998 based on Iraq's own admissions:

* That in the years immediately prior to the first Gulf War, Iraq produced at least 3.9 tons of VX, a deadly nerve gas, and acquired 805 tons of precursor ingredients for the production of more VX.

* That Iraq had produced or imported some 4,000 tons of ingredients to produce other types of poison gas.

* That Iraq had produced 8,500 liters of anthrax.

* That Iraq had produced 500 bombs fitted with parachutes for the purpose of delivering poison gas or germ payloads.

* That Iraq had produced 550 artillery shells filled with mustard gas.

* That Iraq had produced or imported 107,500 casings for chemical weapons.

* That Iraq had produced at least 157 aerial bombs filled with germ agents.

* That Iraq had produced 25 missile warheads containing germ agents (anthrax, aflatoxin, and botulinum).

Again, this list of weapons of mass destruction is not what the Iraqi government was suspected of producing. (That would be a longer list, including an Iraqi nuclear program that the German intelligence service had concluded in 2001 might produce a bomb within three years.) It was what the Iraqis admitted producing. And it is this list of weapons--not any CIA analysis under either the Clinton or Bush administrations--that has been at the heart of the Iraq crisis.

For in all the years after those admissions, the Iraqi government never explained, or even tried to explain, to anyone's satisfaction, including most recently, that of Hans Blix, what had become of the huge quantities of deadly weapons it had produced. The Iraqi government repeatedly insisted that most of the weapons had been "secretly" destroyed. When asked to produce credible evidence of the destruction--the location of destruction sites, fragments of destroyed weapons, some documentation of the destruction, anything at all--the Iraqis refused. After 1995, the UN weapons inspection process became a lengthy cat-and-mouse game, as inspectors tried to cajole Iraqis to divulge information about the fate of these admitted stockpiles of weapons. The inspectors fanned out across the country looking for weapons caches, stashes of documents, and people willing to talk. And sometimes, the inspectors uncovered evidence. Both American and French testers found traces of nerve gas on remnants of warheads, for instance. The Iraqis claimed the evidence had been planted.

After 1996, and partly as a consequence of the documents they had discovered and of Iraqi admissions, weapons inspectors must have started getting closer to uncovering what the Iraqis were hiding. For at about that time, inspectors' demands to visit certain facilities began to be systematically blocked by Saddam. There was the famous confrontation over the so-called "presidential palaces," actually vast complexes of buildings and warehouses, that Saddam simply declared off-limits to inspectors.

At the end of 1997, this limitation on the inspectors' freedom of movement precipitated an international crisis. The Clinton administration demanded that the inspectors be given full access to the "palaces." The Iraqis refused. Instead, Saddam demanded the removal of all Americans from the UN inspection team and an end to all U-2 flights over Iraq, and even threatened to shoot the planes down. In case there was any doubt that his aim was to conceal weapons programs that the inspectors were getting close to discovering, Iraq at this time also began moving equipment that could be used to manufacture weapons out of the range of video cameras that had been installed by the UN inspection team.

The New York Times reported at the time that the UN weapons inspectors (not American intelligence) believed that Iraq possessed "the elements of a deadly germ warfare arsenal and perhaps poison gases, as well as the rudiments of a missile system" that could launch the warheads. But because of Saddam's action at the end of 1997, the Times reported, the UN inspection team could "no longer verify that Iraq is not making weapons of mass destruction" and specifically could not monitor "equipment that could grow seed stocks of biological agents in a matter of hours." Saddam's precipitating of this crisis was a bold move, aimed at splitting the UN Security Council and isolating the Clinton administration. And it worked. The Clinton administration tried but failed to get French and Russian support at the Security Council either for military action or for a tightening of sanctions to force Saddam to cease these activities and comply with his commitment to disarm. The French and Russian position by 1997 was that the "books" should be closed on Iraq's WMD programs, sanctions should be lifted, and relations with Saddam should be normalized. That remained the French position for the next five years.

It was in response to this crisis that we at this magazine began calling for Saddam Hussein's ouster by means of a ground invasion. And in a letter sent to President Clinton on January 26, 1998, we and a number of other former government officials urged military action against Saddam on the grounds that the situation had become untenable and perilous. As a result of recent events, we wrote, the United States could


no longer depend on our partners in the Gulf War coalition to continue to uphold the sanctions or to punish Saddam when he blocks or evades UN inspections. Our ability to ensure that Saddam Hussein is not producing weapons of mass destruction, therefore, has substantially diminished. Even if full inspections were eventually to resume, which now seems highly unlikely, experience has shown that it is difficult if not impossible to monitor Iraq's chemical and biological weapons production. The lengthy period during which the inspectors will have been unable to enter many Iraqi facilities has made it even less likely that they will be able to uncover all of Saddam's secrets. As a result, in the not-too-distant future we will be unable to determine with any reasonable level of confidence whether Iraq does or does not possess such weapons. Such uncertainty will, by itself, have a seriously destabilizing effect on the entire Middle East.

IN EARLY 1998, the Clinton administration, following this same logic, prepared for war against Iraq. On February 17, President Clinton spoke on the steps of the Pentagon to explain to the American people why war was necessary. The speech is worth excerpting at length, because it was then and remains today the fundamental case for the invasion of Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein from power.

President Clinton declared that the great threat confronting the United States and its allies was a lethal and "unholy axis" of international terrorists and outlaw states. "They will be all the more lethal if we allow them to build arsenals of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them." There was, Clinton declared, "no more clear example of this threat than Saddam Hussein's Iraq. His regime threatens the safety of his people, the stability of his region and the security of all the rest of us." Before the Gulf War of 1991, Clinton noted, "Saddam had built up a terrible arsenal, and he had used it. Not once, but many times in a decade-long war with Iran, he used chemical weapons against combatants, against civilians, against a foreign adversary and even against his own people." At the end of the Gulf War, Saddam had promised to reveal all his programs and disarm within 15 days. But instead, he had spent "the better part of the past decade trying to cheat on this solemn commitment." As Clinton explained:


Iraq repeatedly made false declarations about the weapons that it had left in its possession after the Gulf War. When UNSCOM would then uncover evidence that gave the lie to those declarations, Iraq would simply amend the reports. For example, Iraq revised its nuclear declarations four times within just 14 months, and it has submitted six different biological warfare declarations, each of which has been rejected by UNSCOM.
In 1995 Hussein Kamal, Saddam's son-in-law and the chief organizer of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program, defected to Jordan. He revealed that Iraq was continuing to conceal weapons and missiles and the capacity to build many more. Then and only then did Iraq admit to developing numbers of weapons in significant quantities--and weapons stocks. Previously it had vehemently denied the very thing it just simply admitted once Saddam's son-in-law defected to Jordan and told the truth.

Now listen to this: What did it admit? It admitted, among other things, an offensive biological warfare capability, notably, 5,000 gallons of botulinum, which causes botulism; 2,000 gallons of anthrax; 25 biological-filled Scud warheads; and 157 aerial bombs. And I might say UNSCOM inspectors believe that Iraq has actually greatly understated its production. . . .

Next, throughout this entire process, Iraqi agents have undermined and undercut UNSCOM. They've harassed the inspectors, lied to them, disabled monitoring cameras, literally spirited evidence out of the back doors of suspect facilities as inspectors walked through the front door, and our people were there observing it and had the pictures to prove it. . . .

Over the past few months, as [the weapons inspectors] have come closer and closer to rooting out Iraq's remaining nuclear capacity, Saddam has undertaken yet another gambit to thwart their ambitions by imposing debilitating conditions on the inspectors and declaring key sites which have still not been inspected off limits, including, I might add, one palace in Baghdad more than 2,600 acres large. . . .

One of these presidential sites is about the size of Washington, D.C. . . .

It is obvious that there is an attempt here, based on the whole history of this operation since 1991, to protect whatever remains of his capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction, the missiles to deliver them, and the feed stocks necessary to produce them. The UNSCOM inspectors believe that Iraq still has stockpiles of chemical and biological munitions, a small force of Scud-type missiles, and the capacity to restart quickly its production program and build many, many more weapons. . . .

Now, let's imagine the future. What if he fails to comply and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route, which gives him yet more opportunities to develop this program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to press for the release of the sanctions and continue to ignore the solemn commitments that he made? Well, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction.

And some day, some way, I guarantee you he'll use the arsenal. . . . In the next century, the community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now--a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists, drug traffickers, or organized criminals who travel the world among us unnoticed.

If we fail to respond today, Saddam, and all those who would follow in his footsteps, will be emboldened tomorrow by the knowledge that they can act with impunity, even in the face of a clear message from the United Nations Security Council, and clear evidence of a weapons of mass destruction program.

The Clinton administration did not in fact respond. War was averted by a lame compromise worked out by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. But within a few months, Saddam was again obstructing UN inspectors, driving a deeper wedge into the UN Security Council and attempting to put a final end to the inspections process. He succeeded. At the end of 1998, the Clinton administration launched Operation Desert Fox, a four-day missile and bombing attack on Iraq that was aimed principally at known and suspected facilities for producing weapons of mass destruction and missiles. The effect of the bombings on Iraq's programs and stockpiles, however, was unknown, as Clinton acknowledges. But one effect of Operation Desert Fox was that Saddam expelled the UN inspectors altogether. Beginning in December 1998 and for the next four years, there were no UN inspectors in Iraq.

What did Saddam Hussein do during those four years of relative freedom? To this day, no one knows for sure. The only means of learning Iraqi activities during those years were intelligence, satellite photography, electronic eavesdropping, and human sources. The last of these was in short supply. And, as we now know, the ability to determine the extent of Saddam's programs only by so-called technical means was severely limited. American and foreign intelligence services pieced together what little information they could, but they were trying to illuminate a dark cave with a Bic lighter. Without a vast inspection team on the ground, operating unfettered and over a long period of time, it was clear that the great unanswered questions regarding Iraq--what happened to the old stockpiles of weapons and what new programs Saddam was working on--could never be answered.

The rest of the story, we assume, most people remember. The Bush administration's threat of war beginning last summer led France and Russia to reverse themselves and to start taking the Iraq weapons issue seriously again. In UN Security Council Resolution 1441, the Security Council agreed on a new round of inspections, during which Saddam was to do finally what he had promised to do back in 1991 and ever since: make a clean breast of all his programs, answer all the unanswered questions about his admitted stockpiles of weapons, and fully disarm. Resolution 1441 demanded that, within 30 days, Iraq provide "a currently accurate, full, and complete declaration of all aspects of its programmes to develop chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and other delivery systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles and dispersal systems designed for use on aircraft, including any holdings and precise locations of such weapons, components, sub-components, stocks of agents, and related material and equipment, the locations and work of its research, development and production facilities, as well as all other chemical, biological, and nuclear programmes, including any which it claims are for purposes not related to weapon production or material."

Iraq did not comply with this demand within 30 days--or, for that matter, within 90. In his March 6, 2003, report to the UN Security Council, Hans Blix reported that the declared stocks of anthrax and VX remained unaccounted for. In the last chance given to Iraq by Resolution 1441, Iraq had failed to provide answers. As Blix reported again in May 2003, "little progress was made in the solution of outstanding issues....the long list of proscribed items unaccounted for and as such resulting in unresolved disarmament issues was not shortened either by the inspections or by Iraqi declarations and documentation."

We have retold this long story for one simple reason: This is why George W. Bush and Tony Blair and Jose Maria Aznar led their governments and a host of others to war to remove the Saddam Hussein regime in March 2003. It was not, in the first instance, to democratize the Middle East, although we have always believed and still believe that the building of a democratic Iraq, if the United States succeeds in doing so, will have a positive impact on the Arab world. It was not to increase the chances of an Arab-Israeli peace, although we still believe that the removal of a dangerous radical tyrant like Saddam Hussein may make that difficult task somewhat easier. It was not because we believed Saddam Hussein had ordered the September 11 attack, although we believe the links between Saddam and al-Qaeda are becoming clearer every day (see Stephen F. Hayes's article on page 33 of this issue). Nor did the United States and its allies go to war because we believed that some quantity of "yellowcake" was making its way from Niger to Iraq, or that Saddam was minutes away from launching a nuclear weapon against Chicago. We never believed the threat from Saddam was "imminent" in that sense.

The reason for war, in the first instance, was always the strategic threat posed by Saddam because of his proven record of aggression and barbarity, his admitted possession of weapons of mass destruction, and the certain knowledge of his programs to build more. It was the threat he posed to his region, to our allies, and to core U.S. interests that justified going to war this past spring, just as it also would have justified a Clinton administration decision to go to war in 1998. It was why Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, William Cohen, and many other top officials had concluded in the late 1990s that Saddam Hussein was an intolerable menace to his neighbors, to American allies, and ultimately to the United States itself, and therefore had eventually to be removed. It was also why a large number of Democrats, including John Kerry and General Wesley Clark, expressed support for the war last year, before Howard Dean and his roaring left wing of the Democratic party made support for "Bush's war" untenable for Democratic candidates.


NOTHING THAT HAS or has not been discovered in Iraq since the end of the war changes this fundamental judgment. Those who always objected to the rationale for the war want to use the failure so far to discover large caches of weapons to re-litigate the question. Democrats fearful of their party's left wing are using it to jump off the positions they held last year. That's politics. But back in the real world, the fact that David Kay's inspections teams have not yet found out what happened to Saddam's admitted stockpiles is not surprising. UN weapons inspectors did not find those caches of weapons in 12 years; Kay and his team have had about four months. Yes, we wish Saddam had left his chemical munitions and biological weapons neatly stacked up in a warehouse somewhere marked on the outside with a big, yellow skull and crossbones. We wish he had published his scientists' nuclear designs in the daily paper. Or we wish we could find the "Dear Diary" entry where he explains exactly what happened to all the weapons he built. But he did not leave these helpful hints behind.

After Operation Iraqi Freedom, the U.S. military was led by an Iraqi to a part of the desert where, lo and behold, a number of MiG fighter jets had been buried under the sand. Note that the Americans did not discover the jets themselves. Discovering chemical and biological munitions will be somewhat harder. Kay recently reported to Congress that there are approximately 130 Ammunition Storage Points scattered across Iraq, a country the size of France. Many of the ammunition depots take up more than 50 square miles. Together they hold 600,000 tons of artillery shells, rockets, aviation bombs, and other ordinance. Under Saddam, UN inspectors learned, the Iraqi military stored chemical ordnance at the same ammunition depots where the conventional rounds were stored. Do you know how many of the 130 Iraqi ammunition depots have been searched since the end of the war? Ten. Only 120 to go.

Saddam Hussein had four years of unfettered activity in which to hide and reconfigure his weapons programs. Our intelligence on this, as we noted earlier, may have been lousy. David Kay's task has essentially been to reconstruct a story we don't know. In fact, he's learned quite a bit in a very short time. For instance, as Kay reported to Congress, his team has uncovered "dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the UN during the inspections that began in late 2002" (emphasis added). In addition, based on admissions by Iraqi scientists and government officials, Kay and his team have discovered:

* A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses within the Iraqi Intelligence Service that contained equipment suitable for research in the production of chemical and biological weapons. This kind of equipment was explicitly mentioned in Hans Blix's requests for information, but was instead concealed from Blix throughout his investigations.

* A prison laboratory complex, which may have been used in human testing of biological weapons agents. Iraqi officials working to prepare for UN inspections in 2002 and 2003 were explicitly ordered not to acknowledge the existence of the prison complex.

* So-called "reference strains" of biological organisms, which can be used to produce biological weapons. The strains were found in a scientist's home.

* New research on agents applicable to biological weapons, including Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever, and continuing research on ricin and aflatoxin--all of which was, again, concealed from Hans Blix despite his specific request for any such information.

* Plans and advanced design work on new long-range missiles with ranges up to at least 1,000 kilometers--well beyond the 150-kilometer limit imposed on Iraq by the U.N. Security Council. These missiles would have allowed Saddam to threaten targets from Ankara to Cairo.

In addition to these banned activities, which were occurring right under the noses of the UN inspectors this past year, Kay and his team also discovered a massive effort to destroy evidence of weapons programs, an effort that began before the war and continued during it and even after the war. In the "looting" that followed the fall of Baghdad, computer hard drives were destroyed in government buildings--thus making the computers of no monetary value to actual looters. Kay also found documents burned or shredded. And people whom the Kay team tried to interview were in some cases threatened with retaliation by Saddam loyalists. Indeed, two of the scientists were subsequently shot. Others involved in the weapons programs have refused to talk for fear of eventual prosecution for war crimes.

Nevertheless, Kay has begun piecing together the story of what happened to Saddam's weapons and how he may have shifted direction in the years after 1998. It is possible that instead of building up large stockpiles of weapons, Saddam decided the safer thing would be to advance his covert programs for producing weapons but wait until the pressure was off to produce the weapons themselves. By the time inspectors returned to Iraq in 2002, Saddam was ready to be a little more forthcoming, because he had rejiggered his program to withstand somewhat greater scrutiny. Nevertheless, even then he could not let the inspectors see everything. Undoubtedly he hoped that if he could get through that last round, he would be home free, eventually without sanctions or further inspections.

There are no doubt some Americans who believe that this would have been an acceptable outcome. Or who believe that another six months of inspections would have uncovered all that Saddam was hiding. Or that a policy of "containment"--which included 200,000 troops on Iraq's borders as an inducement to permit inspections--could have been sustained indefinitely both at the UN Security Council and in Washington. We believe the overwhelming lesson of our history with Saddam is that none of these options would have succeeded. Had Saddam Hussein not been removed this year, it would have been only a matter of time before this president or some future president was compelled to take action against him, and in more dangerous circumstances.

There are people who will never accept this logic, who prefer to believe, or claim to believe, that the whole Iraq affair was, in the words of Ted Kennedy, a "fraud" "made up in Texas" for political gain, or who believe that it was the product of a vast conspiracy orchestrated by a tiny little band of "neoconservatives." Some of the people propagating this conspiratorial view of the Iraq war are now running for the Democratic nomination for president; one of them is even a former general who led the war against Slobodan Milosevic in 1999. We wish them the best of luck selling their conspiracy theories to the American people. But we trust Bill Clinton won't be stumping for them on this particular issue.


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Robert Kagan is author of Of Paradise and Power and a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard. William Kristol is editor of The Weekly Standard.

"Bush's Irag Legacy" - By Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi

“Bush’s Irag Legacy”

Written by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi


I am delighted to respond to an article titled “Bush’s Irag Legacy” authored by Robert Kagan and William Kristol dated November 13, 2006. I supported the article in many ways. I commended the Authors of the article for such analysis. However, it is imperative to bear in mind that Bush administration failed to do a comprehensive research before jumping the gun.

In the first place, we have no business in Irag that is point blank. The aftermath of 9/11 the whole world was behind Bush to go and get Osama Bin Laden and destroy all terrorist cells operative in Afghanistan. Bush administration decided to quickly use that opportunity to throw some shots on Afghanistan and then rushed out to fight Sadam. Sadam did not have any hand in 9/11. Just because we felt, that he had a different ideology from us we decided to get him out of power. Bush deceived the American people that we are liberating the people of Irag. How many world leaders have done carnage to the people they governed? How many African leaders killed and continued to kill their innocent citizens? How many of those Countries we’ve gone to rescue? The response is simple “NONE.” A two year old understand, that the only reason we went to Irag is because of their oil. The majority of those who attacked us on 9/11 were Saudi Arabians. What actions we took against the Saudi? The answer is “NONE.” No way… the Saudis, are our strong allies in the war with terrorists. “Kid Me Not.” If they have the opportunity to reduce the United States to dust they will.

President Bush also claimed that we are more saver than we were before 9/11. He lied. What efforts have this administration made to protect American people? One will argued that after 9/11, it is impossible for any plane to fly and crash in New York. A private jet just did few weeks ago. Where is the protection for the American People that he so claimed? We are still vulnerable just as were before 9/11. The budget he should have used simultaneously fighting the terrorist in Afghanistan and protecting our borders, improve quality lives and healthcare. He decided to use our tax payer money to fight special interest war in Irag. How many of our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, uncles, nieces, nephews, sons and daughters died in Irag because of special interest war? There were so many of our youths died beyond my imagination. Then my question to President Bush is, when are we going to protect American People? Hummmm…may be after eight years in Office.

Our Soldiers could not win Gorilla war. What our Soldiers are doing right now in Irag is nothing but gorilla war. Our soldiers were not trained for that kind of fight. That is why we had problem in Vietnam. Please Bush do not let History repeats it self. We sent our children to the war front without adequate training for the kind of war they are now facing. We did not provide for them any protection at all. We limited the number of troops so that those who are there fighting special interest war are at risk. How many of our soldiers are disabled? How many are dead? If you think that American blood worth the sacrifice then you are mistaking Mr. President.

Therefore, I called on both the Democrats and Republicans to come to the table and find a lasting solution in getting our troops out of Irag. We should accept defeat bring our soldiers home until we adequately trained them to fight that kind of gorilla war. Our Soldiers are vulnerable because they do not know their enemies. Fighting a war you do not know who you are fighting is no war. Some of the insurgents killing our soldiers are trained by our soldiers. Please Congress Men and Women do not sleep until all of our troops are back to the United States. God Bless and in God we Trust.

EPA Kano - Engineering Paper Delivered by Dr. Aaze Tom Adaba

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi

Written by: Dr. Aaze Tom Adaba

“BACK TO BASICS” A PAPER DELIVERED ON ENGINEERING THE REBIRTH OF EBIRA NATION TOWARDS THE 21ST CENTURY AT THE 10TH CORONATION ANNIVERSARY OF THE OHINOYI OF EBIRA COMMUNITY IN KANO AND JIGAWA, ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER, 3RD 2005, IN KANO BY OHI DR AAZE TOM ADABA – OHI ETOHUEYI OF EBIRALAND

PROTOCOLS

BACK TO BASICS
Introduction

In addressing the issue of engineering the rebirth of Ebira nation towards moving on to any heights in the 21st century, perhaps it may be necessary to X-ray ourselves, diagnose our problems, accept the diagnosis and be willing and prepared for treatment. The Socratic philosophical dictum, “Man Know Thyself” is our starting point.

I will not bore you with our glorious past which was an embodiment of our culture – our enviable culture which was the toast of anyone who ever came in contact with it. But a diagnosis will be impossible without a call at a few of such glorious and proud moments of our life as Ebira people.

Culture
I have heard from uniformed sources many times, an advocacy for the removal of many aspects of our culture. I, without any equivocation or apology, say that such advocates are either unwilling to know or are simply unaccommodating of other viewpoints.

To buttress my assertion, permit me to clearly define what Websters New Collegiate Dictionary says culture is:

•“The integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behaviour that depends upon man’s capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations.

The customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious or social groups”

In other words, culture is the sum total of the person – his miens, language, religion, educational level, relationship, self carriage, arts, crafts, even science etc.

Names
Let us first of all take language. The greatest index to the determination or extermination of a culture is in the language. Language is used for names, communication, education, religious and social practices etc.

As we enter the 21st century, I regret to report that our Ebira names which attached such nobility to them are about extinct. A look at lists of Nigerians published in the newspapers for scholarship, admission, appointment etc attests to my assertion. It is ever so difficult for an Ebira person reading this list to know who is Ebira in the list because the names are alien to Ebira language even though they belong to one of our resident foreign religions or the other. The combination of John Samuel or James Sumonu, or Elizabeth Stephen, or Abdullahi Yesuf or Sefiya Mohammed is a very clear distance from Eneji Anataku or Asuku Eneyamire, or John Itopa, or Peter Ozovehe, or Mary Adinoyi or Aisha Onimisi, or Onyinoyi Mohammed. In the latter, there is a very clear identity of an Ebira name each of which has a very rich historical, philosophical, sociological, literary or even religious meaning that we should proudly display. This important element is dying either in the name of religion or so called civilization. I respectfully posit that as far as I know, no religion except Hare Krishna, forbids one from bearing an indigenous name.

We can take a cue from some of the major ethnic groups in the country especially the Yoruba and the Igbo. There is today a renaissance in their resolve to return to base. Irrespective of their religious inclination, their names are original and traditional. At the worst, their names could be mixed. But one can appreciate the pride they take in identifying with their local names. In spite of their population, they value their indigenous names as an integral part of their culture. They are also aware that a neglect of this is a neglect of their identity culturally, socially and otherwise. They realize that ignoring their local names is one of the fastest ways of losing their identity and ultimately, their culture. We may have to take a cue from them if we are to revive the Ebira identity and survive as a people called Ebira.

Language

I appreciate the fact that the more exposed we are to other cultures, the more the tendency to lose our own. Realizing that Ebira people are a minority within a minority, it is therefore imperative that we, at all costs, work relentlessly to retain our language. This is what we bequeath to our children if the transmission must be passed on to succeeding generations.

At this point, permit me to ask, what is our language of communication at home? In other words, what is the official language in our homes? Situations are where you go to a home where the husband and wife are Ebira, yet they speak English, Hausa, Yoruba etc. to each other. My question is, what then do the children speak? If the children do not learn from the parents, their own mother tongue, who else will teach them and where else will they learn it – in School, in the church or mosque, or from peer groups who speak different languages? Educationists and Psychologists tell us that children have an immense capacity for assimilating and understanding languages. Therefore, we need not be afraid to speak Ebira language at home to our wives, husbands and children. If we speak to them, we develop in them the pride in identifying with this special gift Ebira that God has given them. After all, how many major ethnic groups can or care to speak Ebira language.

From my personal experience, I dare proudly claim that all my children including those who are outside this country today speak Ebira language fluently. The family developed the philosophy of “Ebira at home, other languages outside”. This has paid off tremendously. I again state here that by the grace of God, not one of the children is lacking in the effective control of English, and Hausa languages for academic or communication purposes today. I have cited this personal example not for any self aggrandizement but to prove that we can teach our children our language and at the end of the day, they will still turn out to be very fluent in other languages. I challenge us to try it and we will be surprised at the result.

Marriage

Resulting from the failure to instill in our children a sense of pride in their language, there is the apathy in choosing a life partner from home. Please do not take me for being parochial or un-nationalistic; I only mean that in spite of all the odds at home, we have an array of beautiful and sweet-hearted girls and boys in Ebira land that our youngsters can choose from. In marrying people of other cultures, there is bound to be a compromise. You compromise the language of communication in the home, you compromise values, tradition and sometimes, even religion. For a small ethnic group like ours, it is a costly adventure because through this, our identity is gradually being lost, and I dare say, if we are not careful, Ebira language will be extinct in the next 50-years. There will be generations of our children who will only learn from history that there ever was such a people and a language called Ebira. The immediate reaction to this is “God forbid” but that is not enough. We must do something about it not by way of forced marriages but by early indoctrination and persuasion of our children to appreciate our values, and through frequent exposure to our people and places. I appreciate that there is a limit to which we, as parents, can go in this direction but the first step is to try and let the children know, appreciate and imbibe the value of our values as a people of a very proud heritage. After all, we are told “Love is blind”. Besides, we, as parents are not going to live the lives of our children for them. But we could advise and influence their choice.


A New Dimension

The present situation back home does not help matters in this direction. The upbringing of our home-grown children gives cause for serious concern. A situation where the parents and elders can no longer talk to, or check the excesses of their children, is one of profound sadness and concern.

Due to unemployment and consequent poverty, our young ones have become the ready instruments in the hands of politicians for purposes of thuggery, maiming and killing their own brothers and sisters. We thank God that these monsters that the politicians have created are beginning to swallow them. I hope and pray that they do so to the fullest in order to drive home a lesson for us all to stop exploiting the disadvantaged people in our society for devious purposes from our privileged positions.

Our land and our people have been desecrated. The human blood of our own brothers and sisters spilled by our own people in recent times cries to high heavens for vengeance. We are in absolute disarray politically, socially, religiously and even culturally. We have no control over our situation. We have no respect for elders. We have no accommodation for one another. We resort to violence at the slightest provocation. We refuse to help one another up the ladder; instead, we pull one another down. If we are all down, who will lift the other up? In summary, we are fast self-destructing. We are eating one another up at so fast a rate that the elimination process of Ebira is very imminent.

My questions are: Is this what we inherited from our ancestors? Are we justified to destroy the noble heritage left to us by our ancestors? If not, how can we return to our proud past? The answer is simple: Return to God.

Since 1980’s, we seem to have been placed under a curse. And we are behaving typically so. We fought for the creation of Kogi. Today, we are the whipping boys or the slaves of our effort. When others are enjoying the milk of the State, we are at war with one another. Crisis, gang warfare, killings and maiming have become synonymous with Ebira. Certainly, this development is novel to us especially the older ones who have seen the political development in Ebira land.

Prayers

For all these fratricidal murderous crimes that have made us lose direction and vision, we must turn to God for forgiveness and the removal of whatever curses have been laid on us.

It is my very firm belief and unalloyed conviction that this is a spiritual battle that must be fought spiritually. The Holy Bible tells us in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians

“For we are not fighting against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high place” Ephesians 6:12

We know that God abhors injustice. The killing of a human being made on to God’s image and likeness is a heinous crime against God and against man. We are guilty of this many times over. But we should take consolation in the fact that God has called us to humble ourselves, repent and call on Him for forgiveness and He will listen.



In the Holy Book I know which is the Bible, God tells us in 2 Chronicles Chapter 7 verse 14:

“If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves, pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land”.

In this vein and on behalf of all Ebira people of good conscience, I, without any authorization from anybody but in my personal capacity and as the Ohi Etohueyi or the Beacon of Light of Ebiraland, do publicly apologise to and seek the forgiveness of the good people of Ilorin for our people’s misadventure in Ilorin in 1982.

If this apology is acceptable, then permit me to request that we as a people, and through our leaders, humble ourselves and organize a formal apology to the good people of Ilorin for our mistakes of the past.

Secondly in concert with the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland and with his approval, three days should be set aside for all Ebira people at home and in the diaspora to go into fasting and supplication for God’s forgiveness of our past heinous sins and the removal of any curses laid on us as a people.

On the first day which is Friday, the Muslims take on intense prayers and all religious activities in all mosques that would appease the Almighty Allah. The following day which is Saturday will be taken up by our traditional practitioners in supplication. On Sunday, the Christians present their prayer petition to God in all Churches.

In the evening of that Sunday, all the people converge in a common area for an inter-religious final prayer session, after which the third day’s fast is broken.

With effective publicity and communication of the dates, all Ebira people at home and in the diaspora should be involved. Those who cannot go home should faithfully organize theirs in their local environments for the sake of our land and our people.

I assure you that by the grace of God, this project will usher in a new era in the land and among the people, if faithfully carried out.


CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I wish to draw our attention to the 1991 National Census which gave the population of Ebira-land as 753,000. This figure is less than 1% (precisely 0.8%) of the entire National population. We are a minority within a minority. What we call ourselves is what we shall be known by. We can either salvage our battered image by going back to basics as enumerated above or sit helplessly as we sink into extinction.

I pray we take the former and save ourselves and generations to come.

Avo nini. Ohomorihi an’ Ebira o vayi ve d’ ovayibe. Amin.




Ohi Dr Aaze Tom Adaba
Ohi Etohueyi of Ebiraland &
Chairman/Chief Executive Officer
Trim Communications, Travels & Tours Ltd
Wuse II Abuja

EPA Kano Adress by Dr. Adeiza Musa Abdulraham, President

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi


AN ADDRESS BY DR. ADEIZA MUSA ABDULRAHMAN, THE PRESIDENT OF EBIRA PEOPLES ASSOCIATION, KANO STATE BRANCH,
ON THE OCCASION OF ITS MAIDEN EBIRA DAY AND 10TH YEAR
POST-CORONATION ANNIVERSARY OF OHINOYI OF EBIRA COMMUNITY
IN KANO AND JIGAWA STATES, ALHAJI ALIYU ABDULMALIK
ON 3RD OF SEPTEMBER, 2005

The Executive Governor of Kano State
His Excellency Malam Ibrahim Shekarau
The Executive Governor of Jigawa State
His Excellency Alhaji Saminu Turaki
The Executive Governor of Kogi State
His Excellency Alhaji Ibrahim Idris
The Emir of Kano
His Royal Highness Alhaji (Dr.) Ado Bayero
The Ohinoyi of Ebiraland
His Royal Majesty Alhaji (Dr.) Ado Ibrahim
The Ohinoyi of Ebira Community in Kano and Jigawa States, His Highness Alhaji Aliyu Abdulmalik
Other Distinguished Guests of Honour
Special Guests of Honour
Guests of Honour
Gentlemen of the Press
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen


A gathering or crowd that seeks to discuss the progress and welfare of a people is rated next to the crowd communing to sing the praise of God according to a scholar. Mindful of the above, we are gathered here today resplendent in our beautiful regalia to celebrate the virtues, values, welfare and heritage of our people on this day we designated as Ebira Day for our people in Kano and Jigawa States. It is also to mark the tenth year post-coronation anniversary of the Ohinoyi of our community, His Highness, Alhaji Aliyu Abdulmalik.
To our esteemed guests both Ebiras and non-Ebiras, I want to on behalf of Ebira people, welcome you to this maiden celebration.
As we gather here today beaming with smiles, exchanging banters and swooping chemistry, one question that may agitate the mind of any Ebira is whether we should be celebrating or commiserating our political losses as a tribe or out-rightly mourning the death of our noble virtues and values. The answers to these questions are best left for another day. However, I must remark that beyond the superficial camouflage of the celebration toga of this occasion, is the subtle desire of EPA Kano Branch to use it as an intellectual discourse forum to chart the way forward for our people as we are not totally unmindful of the impropriety of any celebration at this time of our near political extinction and economic strangulation as a tribe. More so at a time when the cord of our unity is being severed on the altar of mischief, impetuous selfishness and clannish rancor. At a time when we have lost the political sophistry and astuteness of our forebears to have a visible presence at the federal and state levels.
Let us pause a bit and ask ourselves the following questions:
• Where are the elders of our tribe?
• Where are the leaders?
• Where are the men, the real men?
Let us ask:
• Where are the leaders that have the courage, the intellect, the wisdom to lead our people?
• The leaders that have faith in the values, ethos and mission of our people.
• Leaders that can lead with fortitude, patience, and perseverance.
• Leaders who have the humility of restraining themselves from using their God-given wealth and power to terrorize and divide our people.
• Where are the leaders that will not negotiate away our common fortune and future to an outsider on the altar of their selfish consideration?
• Where is that true leader that can articulate our common aspiration, marry our vision with his mission, and carry the banner of our tribe over and above clannish and religious interests?
• Where is that true leader that will never go to sleep until his people do?
• A leader that can translate our dreams and aspiration to realities.
• A leader that will stand tall in Nigeria beyond just being a terror agent or local champion, famous only within our land.
• A leader that can truly re-incarnate the great spirits of our forebears like Ibrahim Atta, George Ohikere, AbdulMalik Atta, AbdulAziz Atta, Mohammed Sani Omolori, Raji Abdallah, and a host of others who straddled this nation as colossus.
This forum of today, no doubt, is an attempt to add our voice to the search for the desired unity that will engender the emergence of such great leaders.
Basically, there are certain steps we must take to facilitate this process.
We must start making detour from the hollowness of our national life where mediocrity is celebrated as excellence, oddity as norms, and travesties as orders.
We must detract from the part of demolition to building, from destruction to construction, and from the part of conflict to peace.
We must end the reoccurring fratricidal conflicts that lack definition and objectivity, I mean, the conflict that has the potential of taking our cherished land to the inglorious era of infamy and backwardness.
We must learn to seek power on a just platform and for a just end as we must remember that those who foolishly sought power in the past by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside it.
We must justify the huge expenditure our forebears invested in our education by excelling them in life.
We must give much to our land to deserve sitting on the high-table in our functions otherwise our youths will question our sincerity, essence and commitment.
Let us remind ourselves of the vanity of sponsoring our children to carry arms against their kinsmen in the name of power game and remind such sponsors that the Law of Kamar may return the pains they cause on others upon their children.
Let us remind ourselves that the inescapable battle of the moment is the battle of wits and intellect and not brawl and bravado.
Let us ask of what we have done to our community first, before we ask of other peoples’ services unto us.
Let us learn to negotiate our common cause with civility and sincerity having in mind that though we may not negotiate out of fear but we must not fear to negotiate.
Let all the politicians who seek to lead resolve to lead above the negative attributes of selfishness, greed, and shortcut.
Let us collectively pledge to break the bond of mass misery of our people remembering that divided we fall, as we shall be too weak to confront our common adversaries.
Today, I place this challenge of renewal and reawakening before you. While calling on all to participate, I must emphasize that EPA Kano Branch is prepared to lead this renaissance to elevate the status of our people in the comity of tribes. We are aware of the enormity of this process, that it may not end in 100 days, nor will it finish in 1,000 days, or even our lifetime, but it is important for us to begin. It is the view of EPA Kano Branch that though Ebira people may not have the power, we have the brain; we may not have the statistics, we have the scholarship; we may not have the armory, but we have the resolve, dexterity, and valor.
Therefore, let the words go forth from here that we are determined to speak with one voice and make our adversaries realize that ours is an emerging generation tempered by adversities, motivated by will and propelled by patriotism.
In spite of the aforementioned problems, EPA Kano Branch finds it expedient to celebrate today with the Ohinoyi of Ebira Community in Kano and Jigawa States on this his 10th year on the throne. He is a man who has demonstrated so much tact, perseverance, patience, and dynamism in leadership in the last ten years. The man whose royal conduct and carriage, aura and magnanimity has remained a pride to us. His grandfather was a king; his father a noble prince, His Highness Alhaji Aliyu Abdulmalik, the Ohinoyi of Ebira Community epitomizes the true attributes of a leader, the nobility and frankness of our ancestors and above all the humane conduct of a true father. Sir, as this crowd celebrate with you today, I on behalf of EPA Kano Branch say ‘Ranka ya dade’, May you reign long. Amen.
My tribute goes to our good fathers behind whom we all flocked to Kano. They include Alhaji Isa Abdullahi, Joseph Onimisi, Baba Obori, Mark Ojiah, Zubair Abdullahi, Usman Bello, etc. We are grateful to you all. Worthy of mentioning also are Alhaji Jim Opotu and Mike Ogirima for their consistent support to EPA, Kano Branch. To the esteemed members of the Executive Council of this Association, members of the Planning Committee, the Youth Club, this occasion is another testimony of your services to our land. May Allah continue to guide you all. Amen.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I will like to end this address by offering a passionate prayer for my people.
O Allah, the beginner and the end.
O Allah, the Alamin, the Lord of Mankind and jinns.
The almighty Allah, the God of Adams; of Ibrahim, of Ismail the son of Ibrahim. O Allah, the God of Moses and Aaron, the God of Isa, the Son of Mariam, the God of Muhammad (SAW). Save us from the sins of our forebears, protect us from the hands of Satan that seek to destroy our land and let Ebiraland flow with milk and honey so that my generation and those after us may dwell in peace and ease, and sing thy praise.
O Allah, multiply your blessings on the people of Kano and above all the people of Nigeria. Amen.
To our non-Ebiras, thank you so much. To my people, I have faith and confidence in your ability and I believe your best is yet to come, but it is very near. God bless you all. Amen.

Ebira People Association Kano

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi

Visit EPA Kano's Website: www.ebira.org

Letter To My People



Dear Noble One,



Welcome dear Noble Sons and Gracious Daughters of Ebira Nation. Are you of EBIRA TAO (The Heartland, The Pacesetter) stock? Or perhaps you found your base in EBIRA KOTO (The Homeland). Come O ye descendant of EBIRA ETUNO (The dignified Entity), EBIRA OKPETE (The Source) I salute you, Lovely ones of EBIRA PANDA (The Cradle) and the EBIRA TOTO (The Regal One). To you all I humbly say: “May Our Nobility transcends our times”. “Did I hear you say AMEN?” Splendid.



Wherever you may be, arise and sound the trumpet, the era of lamentation is gone. Divisive tendencies are being buried. The Achievements of ASIAN TIGERS must be replicated in our Fatherland (EBIRA NATION). What is it? Pardon me please, someone; sitting by my side kept whispering EGBURA, IGBIRA etc. My Dear, be it EBIRA, EGBURA, IGBIRA or something else, we know who we are: The Noble offspring of OHIKU. Back to something tangible. As earlier said, the era of wailings and lamentations is gone for good. Endless seminars on matters that yield no growth shall no longer engage our productive time. We shall fight no one. We shall hurt no tribe. We shall not trudge on others. But we shall engineer our growth.



The Europeans placed their destiny on their hands, and they moved mountains. The Americans did likewise they conquered even other planets, The Asians woke from their slumber and the world is currently reckoning with them. My Noble people, our forefather left nobility, dignity, decency, peace and hope for us, what are we leaving for coming generations? Decay: hopelessness: backbiting: self-destruction: in-fighting: bickering: squabbling: wrangling: power struggle: the 5 Passions of Mind and lamentation to graveyard? (I heard you said God forbid). It is not in the saying; it is embedded in the ACTS of yours and mine.



Move the mouse pointer to the beginning of this page, study the content and digest it. Prove your worth by living up to your inherited attachments. Print this page on paper. Read it, study it, sleep it, dream it, and act on it! It is SERVICE time. Service to your kindred, service to Mankind, Service to Ohiku, and above all Service to the Creator. Simply remember, “What you met of History pale into insignificance when scaled with what History met of you.



Do you have questions or Clarifications? Can you write or have you written on some of the boxed items above? Do you have connections we could explore to realise our set goals or perhaps ideas to improve on what you have seen on this website? Don’t wait; procrastination is the Eldest Child of Self-Destruct. Write to the WEBMASTER, your partner in progress. We wont be encumbered by our Entrapment (Nigeria). We would rather rescue her from estrangement and obscurity. Do not worry about the “hows?” We are not intimidated by the magnitude of our challenges (Never say problems).



All items listed inside the boxes would be meticulously packaged, designed and presented. Send your views or sit back and assimilate our presentations.



This Site is under development: Greater stuffs are coming. Contribute your quota. Tell others about this site. Manage this site.

This is Your Voice, Your Heritage, YOURS only!



Your Obedient and Noble Ones







SERVICE TEAM (EPA-KANO)



All Enquiries concerning this website and related matters should be addressed to the WEBMASTER. Expect response within 24hrs



E-Mail Addresses: webmaster@ebira.org

For On-line talk: Call: 0803-3593740 or 0803-5943293

God bless the children of Ebira, God bless EBIRA NATION, God bless OHIKU, and God bless NIGERIA.

Diversity Visa Program 2008

Dear Friends, Brothers and Sisters:

DV-2008 Diversity Visa lottery is out. Entries must be submitted electronically b/w Oct. 4th 2006 & sunday Dec. 3rd 2006.
You may access the electronic Diversity Visa entry form at www.dvlottery.state.gov
You can check the website for the requirements for entry.
You have to fill for your wife & any unmarried children under the age of 21years.
A successfully registered entry will result in the display of a confirmation screen containing your name, date of birth, country of birth and a date/time stamp.
Make sure you print this confirmation screen for your record.
Also check the web site for the requirement of photograph composition. You can either scan or take a new digital image.
Note: The DV-2008 lottery is free, just log on to the web site & fill out the forms.


Regards

Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, Ph.D.
National President
Ebira Vonya International
New York, USA
phone: 718-484-0351
cell: 917-570-6876
e-mail: jakomod@yahoo.com
e-mail: jakomod@hotmail.com
global e-mail: ebiravonya@yahoogroups.co

What G8 is Supposedly About

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi


What G8 is Supposedly About

As the Group of 8 nations prepare for the annual July 2005 Summit in Scotland, the dire development needs of Africa will again come into sharp focus. A recent report on development issues worldwide by the United Nations concludes that Africa is neither on course to meet goals of halving poverty rates by 2015 nor moving significantly to improve access to portable water and basic sanitation. Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain will host the annual meeting and his government will assume the presidency of the Group of 8 nations until the next annual meeting. The British government is already off the gates with a major report on development assistance in Africa.

To avoid the rhetorical flair of past annual meetings and achieve concrete, verifiable consensus on how best rich nations can assist Africa overcome widespread poverty, I discuss the critical, essential elements of a re-invigorated partnership for development between the Group of 8 and Africa.

Background
Africa through its New Partnership for Africa’s Development (N.E.P.A.D.) had articulated major areas of specific development assistance. These areas include urgent debt relief; significant resources for infrastructure development; sustained financial outlays so that Africa can meet the United Nations millennium development goals of halving poverty rates by 2015; and, the end of trade distortions and agricultural subsidies by rich nations so that Africa can trade its way out of poverty through better access to lucrative Western markets.

The Group of 8 in the last few annual meetings have emphasized the need for assistance in the areas of communicable diseases control, especially H.I.V./AIDS, the need for verifiable progress in governance and evidence of government-wide crackdown on corruption. As part of Britain’s plan for its presidency of the European Union and presidency of the Group of 8, the Tony Blair Commission on Africa produced a recent report on what the rich nations can do to assist Africa. The British government followed up the report with a four point proposal for Africa’s development by rich nations including 100 percent debt relief for the poorest African nations, with savings set aside for health and education programs; doubling official aid by rich nations by 2015; phased withdrawal of agricultural subsidies and end of trade distortions that make it more difficult for Africa’s goods and services to reach the West; and, the creation of a new global economic program known as the international financing facility that will initially raise funds for age-appropriate immunizations for all children in Africa.

What are the critical elements of a renewed partnership between the Group of 8 and Africa?

Frank, Honest Relationship
First, Group of 8 and African leaders must be very frank and honest with each other regarding what each partner can bring to the table. For example, Group of 8 nations must be very specific regarding their program for debt relief, including specific timelines for the completion of 100 percent debt relief for specific countries. African governments must state clear specific, verifiable outcome measures of its governance and anti-corruption programs. Without significant progress on debt relief and governance reforms, it would be difficult to envisage a robust, fruitful Group of 8 / Africa partnership in the near future.

Ancillary to frankness and honesty in the partnership is the need to manage undue expectations. It is unwise to expect political leaders in the West with an eye on the next competitive domestic election to dramatically increase financial outlays for overseas development assistance when domestic needs deserve urgent attention. It is also unrealistic to expect African governments to wipe out deep-rooted corruption in short order without a resort to undemocratic practices and tendencies. However, to provide assistance to more than 300 million Africans who live on extreme poverty, surviving on less than one dollar a day, Group of 8 nations at the July 2005 Summit have an urgent obligation to provide immediate, 100 percent debt relief for the poorest nations in Africa. Poor African nations should not have to choose between debt servicing and saving the lives of its citizens.

Bleeding Heart: Bahamas

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi

Bleeding Heart: Bahamas
By Paul I. Adujie
New York, United States

There is always this feeling that hits me every time I meet peoples of
African descent. These rather unique feelings of mine wells-up, each
time that I meet Africans, other than, continental Africans. I think it
is an indescribable feeling of loss and nostalgia. And yet it is a
feeling that I cannot quite describe precisely. These are very strong
feelings all the same.

When I look into the eyes of people of African descent, when I gaze at
the complexions of people who are clearly Africans, but for, the brutal
history of slave trade and slavery, I feel a mixture of reacquainting
and loss.

I often cry quiet, painful tears when I meet African Americans. I sob
equally as when I traveled through Jamaica’s different Parishes. What I
saw in Kingston was not different from what I had seen in Negril, Ocho
Rios and Montego Bay etc.

When I visit the West Indies or the Island Nations of the Caribbean, I
meet people who are clearly my long-lost cousins, brothers, sisters,
uncles, aunts and all other members of my extended African family of
yesteryears. Africans inside and outside of the African continent possess
unmistakable gaits about them. There are these seen and unseen indelible
African-ness about people of African descent wherever they are located
on God’s good earth. Despite the forced-dispersal from the continent
almost a millennium ago, our African siblings remain authentically and
genuinely replicas and representatives our collective forbears.

Here I am in Bahamas and every person I meet, gives me the soulful
embrace and reminder of the fact that they are the blood of my blood, the
bone of my bone and that we are kit and kin. Our collective origins are
unmistakable. It is always so obvious!

This was made clear starting from the moment that I arrived at airport
in Nassau Bahamas and unto stations of the immigration officials and
their customs counterparts, to the taxi operators and the hotel
concierge. The lady who delivered Domino Pizza to my Wyndham Hotels lobby with
her right-hand-steered car, during one of the afternoons, when I felt an
urge for pizza. Different shades of chocolate skins. Africans, all!

Everyone, of them had an attribute, a quality and a manner that
established them as one of my own. My eyes conducted instant DNA analyses per
second and they were all perfect match each and every time.

It is as if a bolt of lightening hits me with joy! Joy, for the
opportunity to meet these, long lost family members again. My family members
long-lost lost to the twin-evils, of slavery and colonialism. Then
almost simultaneously, I am hit with a ferocious sadness, in the realization
that the presence of people of African descent outside of Africa had
not been of their own free-will. African descendants’ presences outside
of Africa were the outcomes of man’s inhumanity to man of the worst
type. Africans in the West Indies or Caribbean which Bahamas is part, did
not emigrate here! They were bundled here, they were herded here,
literarily, kicking and screaming! The forced migrations of Africans during
slavery were without the benefits of Chaucer like pilgrims’ tale or the
Mayflower Pilgrims in the Americas. African slaves were before the
Mayflower and before all others

The evils, the brutalities and the gores of slavery and the
colonialism, that followed in all of Africa are not spoken of or written of
enough. And equally, our African descendants that were dispersed to all the
continents and corners of the world through the same process are not
spoken of or written of enough. There is a common thread, a common causal
connection between the plights and predicaments of peoples of African
descent.

Revisionists are quick to minimize the effects and after effects, of
the evils, horrors, brutalities and gores of slavery. We must never
forget! How can we forget the far reaching consequences and ramifications of
slavery? Slavery as a phenomenon had a process that entailed
unimaginable and unfathomable horrors, so many unknowns and unknowable. Including
the sudden shocks of uprooting Africans from their families and friends
and all familiar of their lives before the snatchings, kidnappings,
branding and sale in manners reserved for animals with less dignity
compared with farm animals. Africans were hauled to strange-lands and to
strangers of the unknowns.

Africa is certainly not under-peopled. The current challenges on the
African continent, therefore does not have depopulation as a factor. But
we must remember or restate and emphasize that humans are a part of the
resources of any society. The snatchings, kidnappings and mass
exportations of Africa’s human resources were gross deprivations.

Additionally, there were other profound adverse effects on peoples of
African descent which were and still remain consequences of slavery.
Africans were on the continent and off, deprived of languages, culture,
religion, foods, songs and dance and lives and loves.

Peoples of African descent are found in Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados,
Belize, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Dominica, Jamaica, Haiti, St
Kitts & Nieves, Panama, Puerto Rico, New Guinea, Guyana, Trinidad &
Tobago, Australia’s Aborigines etc. Even now, the economies are similarly
plagued by the lopsidedness of globalization, pretentious free-trade and
all tenets of capitalism.

I saw a movie titled “Life & Debt” a tale about the economic ravages of
Jamaica caused primarily by the preachments of free market, which in
effect is a one way benefits in favor of America and Europe who are too
willing to subsidize their farmers and industrial producers, who are
then able to dump their products in developing nations, at the expense of
local aspiring entrepreneurs and their enterprises or business
endeavors. Depressed markets now abound in Africa and the Caribbean. Devalued
currencies are now our lot.

While here at the Wyndham Hotels Resorts, the Prime Minister of Bahamas
and the Governor General attended an event which I attended as well,
the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarian Association. The Prime of Bahamas
touched on the dramatic effects of economic decisions by Europeans. In
particular, he referred to how the mainstay of St. Kitts and Dominica,
Sugar Cane, were sent tumbling down as Europeans continue to subsidize
their farmers.

He described what happened to these Caribbean economies, as a drop into
the abyss. He recounted how only Trinidad & Tobago which relies on
petroleum oil production as major income earner, and some other Island
nations with heavy traffic of tourist, earned enough to retain and maintain
good quality of life. African peoples in the continent and in the
Diaspora continue to be affected immensely by external factors and actions
by Americans and Europe.

A delegate from Guyana made the point succinctly. African peoples are
connected in every way and we essentially face the same challenges. She
made that point as she presented a pendant to a South African delegate.
She made reference to struggles by peoples of African descent and the
recent struggles by South Africans against apartheid. We are all
connected in good times and in not so good times.

There were, there are, for the Africans therefore, a multifaceted
series of losses. Tangible and intangible losses; Physical and psychological
injuries and wounds that remains.

Here in Bahamas, as I look into every eye of every person of African
descent that I meet, I see myself, my family that are 500 years plus
removed and all, and I ask myself repeatedly, how can any human do this to
another human, for profit or whatever excuse?

Our peoples were snatched, kidnapped and dispersed. Our peoples were
yanked and taken thousands of miles across the earth and now, we are part
of the gorgeous mosaic of the earth, pervasive economic travails and
all, in all the seven continents of the earth!

My one week of business, politics and recreation in the Bahamas is
almost at an end, and I rededicate my passion and love for all Nigerians,
all Africans and all peoples of African descent, wherever they are
located on earth! We are one people eternally linked.

As my one week stay here in the Bahamas Islands comes to an end, I sob
silently, I bleed quietly. I am in a sense, crying a millennium of
tears for the hardships and sufferings that peoples of African descent have
endured our lot on earth. I am elated that I have met all these
long-lost family members from our continent and I wonder what they feel when
they see me. In their eyes, I see me.

And now, as I set to leave this gorgeous Island nation, I am
ambivalently joyous and saddened.