Rumors have it that Alex Ekwueme is planning to announce plans to join the presidential race in BiafraNigeria. Does he deserve another opportunity to take Igbo people for a ride? What did he do with his position as Vice President? If the North wants him because he is old, does that not mean that he is too old to be useful to Igbo people? I think that man has had his chance, and he should stay retired.
[ November 15, 2002, 09:19 PM: Message edited by: Onyemaechi ]
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I couldn't care less. The man is too prepy to be in politics and too soft to lead. To lead Ndi Igbo in that goddamned lawless country, you must be compulsively an Igboman and a right winger [ [IGWE]. One can now imagine why Ohanneze has delayed their announement for a Presidential bearer. A conflict between their favorite son [Ekwueme] and thier formal candidate, equals doing business with one tribe bent on foreclosing Obasanjo for a second term. What a soap?. It doesn't get any better
Hail Biafra
[ November 15, 2002, 10:22 PM: Message edited by: Waypoint1Biafra ]
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Igbos do not need nationalists like Ekwueme. Let him rebuild Oko first, before we can attempt to listen to him. He was a total disaster in the Second Republic and a menace in the Job primaries.
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All I can say about Ekwueme is that he does not have the backbone to lead Ndi-Igbo as such he should give it up and not mess up the chance for a true Igbo leader as Presidential candidate. I was correctly stated, his performance in Jos was absolutely unforgetable. Did you speak out on the Hausas and Yorubas taking away the his spot as a PDP Presidential candidate? Did he do anything for Ndi-Igbo as the former Vice-President? The answer to those questions are NO. Therefore, he should enjoy his retirement because his time has passed.
___________________ BIAFRA MUST RISE AGAIN. LONG LIVE BIAFRA!! Posts: 1080 | From: California, USA. | Registered: Oct 2002
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Ekwueme should simply forget running for any election 'cause he lacks the strength and charisma to lead such a crazy nation like BiafraNigeria. The guy is just a wimp and I bet you Igbos and the people of the East will regret it if they ever let this man run again. We've had enough of his crap.
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I am confident that when Alex Ekwueme takes the foolish step of announcing his candidacy for president, the New Generation will take the necessary steps to put an end to it. If the North wants to make Ekwueme their president, let them do so without Igbo support. After all, the North did not need the Yoruba vote to install Obusonjo. Let the North do for Ekwueme what they did for Obusonjo.
Welcome to BNW. Here, Biafrans do not take prisoners, and the enemies of Biafra are very much around. That's why they call it, BiafraNigeriaWorld. But, I see that you can hold your own. However, I can assure you that the ride does get quite bumpy, even for the very best. So, fasten your seat-belt and get ready for the ride.
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Ekwueme has all the rights in Nigeria to run and I stand by him. Anyway, non of you will be voting unless the elections will be conducted here at BNW. Igbos on the ground will also always follow Ekwueme as they did in 1999.
___________________ Feel me? Ofu onye ana asi unu abia go. - Ednut Igbo-American . www.airamericaradio.com visit her. Posts: 2447 | From: Mother Earth | Registered: Mar 2001
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I think you have been gone for too long. Your people at home will vote for Babangida instead of Ekwueme. That is not Ekwueme's only problem. Last time he was in the US collecting money. This time people will be opposing him everywhere he goes. Obasanjo has said he gave back to Ekwueme every penny he spent on the election. Ekwueme has not denied it. He is in trouble this time.
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Who is or stands a better chance than Ekwueme? The warlord Ojukwu?
___________________ "We are where we are in large part at the moment, because our self-identified leaders of thought have put us there."----Ukpabi Asika Posts: 321 | From: Athens, Ohio USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Ugali Shaga: Who is or stands a better chance than Ekwueme? The warlord Ojukwu?
Ugali,
Yes!!!
The former Head of State and millitary ruler of the Country Biafra could be very strategic in unifying and rallying at least the five Igbo states or Biafra as a whole (like Afenifere/AD did for Yoruba States), among others like P. Effiong, E. Ukiwe, N. Kalu (not Orji Uzor)and many other civilian Icons whom I will mention at the appropriate moment.
He might even be popular in the North. Afterall he saved many a mallam from Nzeogwu. At that point you may find out that people like Gani Adams might even rally votes for him.
In fact, If Biafranigeria is to be saved by a fearless person and a truly independent nation desired, this is the man Ugali shaga and any honest One-Biafranigerianas need to campaign assiduously for.
Otherwise your country is still colonized and even worse so now. In fact you dont even have a country, you may be part of Chad next year, and after a lot of hot air, what can you do.
So it does'nt matter which One-Biafranigeria president is sELECTED; Ekwueme, Nwachukwu, Obassanjo, Falae, IBB, Atiku, Buhari, If you really want freedom, vote Ojukwu, he'll show you nwinyi but he'll liberate your country for the first time.
With every due respect to all who have contributed (for and against) to this thread so far, I think one thing which is missing is that no one has been able to seperate the person of Ekwueme and his (non)understanding of Nigerian politics. Just as I argured in the thread "Nominate your Candidate," I still think Ekwueme as a person is not the problem, rather the problem with Ekwueme and by extension other so-called Igbo politicians is that they try to adopt the western brand of politicking in Nigeria without making the necessary mentality change of an average Nigerian.
I repeat it agin, if Igbos really want to make any impact in the Nigerian politics of today, they have to compete or be ahead of other Nigerians in the game of trickery, treachery and if need be apply some FORCEFUL IDEAS to achieve their aim. To this end, I do not think that Ekwueme as a person is NOT bad (infact he is too refined to be a Nigerian politician). What he and other Igbo politicians should ask themselves are: a) Do I really want to participate in Nigerian politics to win? b) Do I have the stomach to whether the storm? c) Do I have the local support(from their area of origin) to go for greater offices? and d) Who are the people (ethnically and as a group) who can make that dream come true?
Put simply, the Igbos should accept and apply the idiom that: "THERE'S NO PERMANENT FRIEND OR FOE IN POLITICS, RATHER WHAT IS (an should be) PERMANENT IS INTEREST(S)."
I do believe that if Ekwueme and other presidential candidates of Igbo extraction ask themselves the above questions and make the right contacts, while insisting on meeting their people's yearnings, I see nothing stopping an Igboman from becoming the next president of Nigeria and becoming the much needed elixir Nigerian polity needs very desperately.
With every due respect to Ekwueme's opponents (which I am one for the above reasons), I think we should remember that 1983 and 1999 is not 2003 (or whenever they decided to have the s/election) and Ekwueme and all the other Presidential candidates including Obasanjo knows this reality.
To me, Ekwueme is not the problem, instead his politics (or non of it) is.
As per Ojukwu, I still insist (most Igbos agree with this) he should not succumb to the pressure to participate in present day Nigerian partizan politics. Igbos stand to gain more from he being a MORAL LEADER as he is today than from his being seen as a partizan politician tomorrow.
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Nwaora, I respect your defense for Ekwueme but read in between the lines and trail him from Shagari to 1999. He is intellectually stimulating but weak in action. Ekwueme may not be the problem but heck, he is a victim of his demeanor. The man is too prepy and clean cut to be a politician. There is no doubt in my mind that he will make a very good President with such credentials but he has to fight for it. Unlike the felonious Obasanjo, it will not be a trophy handed to him. To be a spokesperson for the Igbos your credentials must be the combination of the tenacious Dim, the book warm of Ekwueme, the gracefulness of Mandela and the cleverness of Bill clinton. A warrior, Intellectual, Angel and a Crook, all blended together. That ought to be the modern standard of any profile for leadership.
How come since 1999, Ekwueme has not gone public about his treatment by some Igbos and his party? We had to hear it from degenerates like Atiku. He is very angelic and comfortable with his demeanor, weak. If there is any blameworthy of the special treatment in 1999, why not come out in the open and perhaps change the public perception of him as intelligent yet weak in a dog gone wild of Politics. This man is an angel and frankly, thats against the unwritten rules and regulations of doggie politics. Politics or leadership is not about college degrees, it is an edge but you gotta be a slick [Crook]. He is not.
Hail Biafra
[ November 17, 2002, 02:56 PM: Message edited by: Waypoint1Biafra ]
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"To be a spokesperson for the Igbos your credentials must be the combination of the tenacious Dim, the book warm of Ekwueme and the cleverness of Bill clinton. A warrior, intellectual and a crook. That ought to be the modern standard of any profile for leadership."---Waypoint.
Waypoint: when you compare your above (explanatory) quote above with when I said: "To me Ekwueme is not the problem, instead his politics (or non of it) is," you will agree with me that we both are while comdemning Ekwueme's POLITICS still agree that he is a fine man characterwise. Me think he's just too fine for Nigerian politics. So in effect, we are saying same thing in different ways.
What I am saying is that it is not only Ekwueme who needs to make this much-needed rebirth. All Igbo politicians and I must venture to say the Igbos as a race have to learn to beat Nigerians in their game of being crookish even in religion. Some like Nzeribe have this insticts but unfortunately they use it against their own and for destroying the larger society, thereby earning the silly title of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.
Let Igbos be rebel, but before that, they should FIRST define the cause/s they want to fight for and with whom. As far as Nigeria is concerned and from past experience, I advice every Igbo going into politics to make sure that that WHOM should not be the treacherous Yorubas and definately not the confused southern minorities.
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In the essay below, the writer captured my thesis of what Igbo politician wishing to grab national office should look like; COURAGEOUS, SLIPPERY, BULLISH aND CROOKISH. Though it may not be Anyim as a person, so far the Senate President has exhibited those thraits:
Dateline: 16/11/2002
Anyim: The Real Cat With Nine Lives By Desmond Momoh
Were he a citizen of the United States of America, he will easily rank among those referred to as "real Americans". Were he from Italy, he will readily qualify as a member of the Sicilian clan, the street-wise and intelligent Mafia clan of Italy.
But Anyim Pius Anyim, the President of the Senate, is a Nigerian from the sleepy, dusty community of Ishiagu in Ivo local government area of Ebonyi State. Unobtrusive, unassuming and self-effacing despite his huge frame, Anyim has continued to claw deeper and deeper into the febrile political fabric of the nation.
As head of the legislature and the longest serving Senate President in this 4th Republic, chalking up two years and three months, Anyim can safely be regarded as the real cat with nine lives. A real survivalist, Anyim has manifested a rare trait among politicians - the ability to habituate to the dictates of the times.
Cutting the image of a successful Sumo wrestler in black skin, with a dour and demure fa‡ade, Anyim has, buried deep in his veins and marrow, a rich dashboard of political strategies, each serving the peculiar needs of every occasion. Once written off by everybody including his kinsmen as not possessing the nerves and gumption needed to coast through the turbulent waters of Nigerian politics, this lawyer-turned politician has stunned even the most ardent critic that he is nobody's meat, and therefore cannot be anybody's fool.
The Anyim political odyssey, so far brief but highly eventful, will make a good case-study for students of political engineering and strategies. How can a man once thought by many to be one of the also-rans breast the tape in record time? How again can a man with no known political pedigree manipulate through the maze of banana peels which the Senate Presidency has come to be associated with? Yet this is the same seat that proved too hot for political sages in the mould of the erudite scholar and Harvard graduate, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo and veteran politician Chief Evan Enwerem.
As the third Senate President in a rather vitriolic 4th Republic, Anyim has survived no fewer that four impeachment assaults and has held the mantle of leadership of the Senate for 26 months, far more than the cumulative 16 months shared between his predecessors.
But beyond the blaze of impeachments, Anyim has had to contend with the fiery darts both from his colleagues and from the army of fire-spitting politicians including those in his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
What therefore accounts for the Anyim mystique? One of the pillars in the Senate, himself a man of no mean parliamentary malleability, Senator Jonathan Silas Zwingina gave insight into the character and strength of Anyim. The setting was the Assemblies of God Church, Wuse, Abuja where Anyim worships. The occasion was a thanksgiving service to mark Anyim's two years anniversary as President of the Senate. An overtly elated Zwingina grabbed the microphone and everybody waited with bathed breath to hear details of Anyim's survival strategies.
But what did Zwingina say? "Anyim is succeeding because of three things - his belief in God, his humility and his transparency". Just that? Perhaps, there could be more to the Anyim phenomenon. Today, it is evident that the best of Anyim is yet to come. For a man who has for nearly two years operated from the shadows of President Olusegun Obasanjo, a man said to have avuncular attachment to Anyim, there is reason to believe that the Ishiagu-born politician is one talent too many especially as regards his uncommon ability to take on the opposition headlong and come out unmarked.
No doubt, Anyim has been through the fire of Nigerian politics and emerged unsinged; he has been through the flood but was not drowned; he has been in its valley but refused to be swallowed. Now he is riding on the crest of political wave while looking mockingly across his shoulder at the rest of us who did not give him a chance.
At a time, it appeared as if Anyim has traded off the independence of the legislature especially the Senate by practically pandering lock stock and barrel to the whims and caprices of the Presidency. And expectedly, Anyim got the bashings from a section of Nigerians. But he had reasons to do this, he once said in an interview.
"Let me put my story straight because many people have different opinions about me and how I have conducted myself in the past two years. My commitment is for the sustenance of democracy and the unity of this country. This is my underlying interest. In pursuing this interest, when it is necessary for me to crawl, I'll crawl; when it is necessary for me to keep quiet, I'll keep quiet. And when it is necessary for me to stand up, I'll do that", Anyim told a team of editors.
Not a few analysts took exception to this, describing it as unabashed arrogance on the part of the Senate President. But, perhaps there is the need to look at the same side of the coin differently. Has Anyim crawled for nothing? Did he keep quiet for nothing? And now that he appears to stand, is he standing in vain? These are the salient questions inherent in the Anyim political metamorphosis.
Senator Paul Simon, a two-term Senator in the US Congress and five-term member of the US House of Representatives, captured this trait among politicians recently during his visit to Nigeria. "One of the greatest hallmarks of a great politician is flexibility. He should know when to talk and when to keep quiet. He should know when to debate and when to persuade", Simon said. Anyim best fits into this mould. He has persuaded. He has debated. He has cajoled. He has coerced. All these he did at various times in different circumstances.
An insight into the Anyim political trajectory would reveal a man adequately cut out for the fireworks of politics. His ascension to the top hierarchy of the nation's legislature did not come on the cheap. Again, it took him sheer grit and doggedness to keep his seat from being swept away by the roaring wind of impeachment.
Consciously and unconsciously, Anyim must have drawn significant inspiration from America's Reverend Jesse Jackson, the black American who once had his eyes on the White House. Jackson is clearly a man of very humble background, "born into poverty, raised in the slum but poverty was not born in him". Those were his words of hope when he took his campaign to the American under-class in the slum of Harlem.
In more ways than one, Anyim fits into the picture of Jackson. Born and bred in the under-class milieu of Ishiagu to poor peasant parents, Anyim by sheer will power and of course divine guidance confronted and subdued the excruciating circumstances of his immediate environment. Like Jackson, he has refused to allow poverty and the stigmatizing under-class complex to dim his potentials.
Now, Anyim is wearing a crown, but it is a crown of thorns. Indeed every path of his political expedition has been paved with thorns. If it is not from his colleagues in the Senate, it is from his party and more recently from the Executive. On each occasion and for each assault, Anyim has to dip deep into his survival kit for a strategy. The last two attempts to unseat him from both the Presidency and from his now suspended colleague, Senator Arthur Nzeribe saw Anyim apply the masterstroke in the manner only the master of the game could.
But there is yet the other side of Anyim which he has of late began to manifest - Anyim is an intellectually gifted political animal. In the past three months, Anyim has been up and about delivering lectures, most times extempore with the finesse and panache of a dutiful don.
In June this year, he was Guest Speaker at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kaduna State Council. In his espousal of the challenges of democratisation, Anyim said: "The heart of man no matter how kind, no matter how intelligent, no matter how good is wicked. If you allow men the latitude to assume that he has become God, he will become devil". That was vintage Anyim warning against the danger of enthroning the rule of individual over the rule of law in a democracy.
Recently in Benin, at a conference on the challenges of democratic consolidation, Anyim mounted the podium and spoke extempore drawing substantial applause from the likes of Professor Wole Soyinka. At the end, he contended that for Nigeria to have a meaningful democracy, "we must de-emphasise the rule of man or individual and we must give preference to the rule of law... because in a democracy, it is the law that rules and not the person or the occupant of the office".
Only last month, Anyim abandoned the gavel and took his lecture note to the Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, near Jos where for four hours he took members of the 2002 Senior Executive Course through the labyrinth of democracy and nation-building in Nigeria contending that "Nigeria is not a nation-state but an independent sovereign state with all the essential attributes of statehood".
Anyim no doubt has come of age. The once despised and neglected stone has turned out to become the chief cornerstone of the 4th Republic politics displaying rare confidence, mastery and political suppleness in an otherwise tempestuous political water. With age generously on his side, Anyim looks set to entrench himself as the undisputed matador of Nigerian politics. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posts: 997 | From: Germany | Registered: Mar 2001
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While Igbo people are being slaughtered by muslim hoodlums, Alex Ekwueme has maintained a cowardly silence. He chose the moment of Igbo persecution in the north to announce his personal ambition to reign in BiafraNigeria. To make sure that his masters up north remain pleased, Ekwueme has already picked a hausa man as his running mate. I hope that Alex Ekwueme's image launderers are paying attention.
WE ARE GOING TO CRUSH ALEX EKWUEME'S CAMPAIGN, even though it has been reported that his so-called bid for the presidency is only a sub-plot of one of his masters in the North who is the real candidate. It is better to have a hausa murderer in Aso Rock than to have an Igbo coward who is in bed with the murderer.
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Ekwueme is running. Now, the ball is in the court of Ndigbo people to make sure that Obasanjo does not win. Obasanjo is big trouble politically. He is not going to get any support from the Southwest and he knows it.
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THE HELL WITH EKWUEME. The fool does not understand how pathetic he's made us seem (educated Igbos) to the fools of Nigeria. Ojukwu is only to be called on if AND when we have to pull out of Niggerhoea once again. This is not just an Igbo thing, it's a black thing because as Ojukwu put it in 1968, "We Biafrans are the closest blackmen to true freedom...." We're resourceful, intelligent and can lead the backward west and north to liberation from their oppressive obas and sultans. We just need to rid us of the turbulent Nwobodos, Nzeribes and other trash corrupt BAS**RDS that would sell us all for a bag of KOBO!
BY ALL MEANS NECCESSARY!!!
Posts: 42 | From: Europe | Registered: Jan 2002
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Fellow Biafrans, I'm a new member to the forum and I'm glad to be here. Biafra kwenu!. On the Ekwueme issue, we all know who his sponsors are...just like obusonjo. All, I have to say is that his presidency if he wins will only divert the focus away from the real issues. Biafranigeria needs to be restructured so that the great potential of Biafrans trapped in the current set up can be utilized. The current dispensation can be likened to a blind man clutching a primed bomb and insisting on leading those who could see. He threatens everybody with disaster if he doesn't have his way. That's the current Biafranigeria in a nutshell. Biafranigeria will continue to drift aimlessly and dangerously because it's already beyond redemption. If the present leaders of biafra had more vision...they should be developing our basic institutions especially the agricultural and power supply sector which is very crucial to survival in the case of any eventuality. For instance, the oji river power station needs to be reactivated. The economic impact of a steady power supply in Biafra cannot be over emphasized. Anyway, there is no doubt that Ekwueme is another efulefu and doesn't represent most of Biafra. Ogbunigwe!
Posts: 136 | From: Massachusssets | Registered: Dec 2002
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Fellows, I saw it coming. My source has it that as soon as the powers that be (as long as the country is as it is today, they will continue to determine who governs it) realized that Obasanjo has failed both their personal interest and that of their region, they started looking for someone who will give the incumbent President the SOFT-LANDING which Obasanjo has been secretly angling for. My source has it that despite his public pronouncements, that Obasanjo was concerned of his security after he leaves office (which he was told long ago that he MUST leave).
My source also has it that what was actually discussed at the "close door" meeting between Obasanjo and Ekwueme yesterday was how the PDP primaries will be held in such a way that Obasanjo will lose with little margin so as to make the Nigerian public believe that the contest was "close" and "real."
What you are going to see after January when the PDP convention will be held has been DECIDED. What will happen is that just like Babangida did after June 12, Obasanjo will simply "STEP ASIDE" and Ekwueme will continue from where the former left from.
THE MORE YOU LOOK... Dont believe EVERYTHING you see about Nigerian politics. ITS MAGIC!
Posts: 997 | From: Germany | Registered: Mar 2001
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Your 'source' must be right. Great board! Nice to be amongst you guys.
Ekwueme may not be the best candidate hardliner Igbos like most on board would have prefered but he is the best Igbos generally can present to win the Presidency at the present. Those of you who want an Igboman in Aso Rock 2003 should do well to support or at best allow those who support Ekwueme's adventure give it their best.
Like Obasanjo, I wish him good luck.
Posts: 1 | From: Germany | Registered: Jun 2002
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Every human association, if it is to persist and attain its purposes in the face of adversity, depends on individuals capable of maintaining their commitments under duress...
----------------Yoram Hazony
Ekwueme is caught in that line of fire which means he should not allow his political opponents destroy his political ambition in addressing the plight of the South_Eastern Igbos.
___________________ Yara Wasa Bature Posts: 502 | From: Owasso, Oklahoma USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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