Monday 29 February 2016

Pope Francis greets huge crowd of passionate flag-waving members of the Biafran freedom movement at St Peter’s Square, the Vatican, Sunday 28 February 2016

Flag-waving Biafran freedom marchers attending Pope Francis’s Angelus prayer, St Peter’s Square, the Vatican (Sunday 28 February 2016)
Here in this week’s Angelus address, Pope Francis greets the people of Biafra  (Sunday 28 February 2016)
 Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Felix Ngole, gay marriage, Sheffield University

FWD: John Bingham, “Christian student expelled for opposing gay marriage”, The Telegraph, London, Monday 29 February 2016,

131st anniversary of end of Berlin conference on Africa subjugation

(1. infamous gathering in session)
Today, 26th February 2016, marks the 131st anniversary of the end of the infamous 15 November 1884-26 February 1885 European leaders’ Berlin conference on Africa. The gathering was chaired by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to formalise the pan-European seizure, planned occupation, and irrepressible exploitation of the gargantuan riches of the African World. The following countries attended the meeting: Britain, France, Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Ottoman “empire”, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria-Hungary, Denmark, Czarist Russia, Sweden-Norway, United States. 

The catastrophic aftermath of this Berlin-assembly still prevails across Africa particularly with the emergence of genocide-states such as Nigeria (since its 29 May 1966 launch of the Igbo genocide, this foundational genocide of post-[European]conquest Africa, with total support from hitherto conqueror-state Britain), the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in which the varied targeted peoples in these principalities must urgently rectify by freeing themselves if they have to survive. This freedom quest from the Berlin-state” is the most pressing mission in contemporary Africa.
(2. infamous gathering in sessionto formalise the pan-European seizure, planned occupation, and irrepressible exploitation of the gargantuan riches of the African World)
(Max Roach Sextet, “All Africa” [personnel: Roach, drums; Abbey Lincoln, vocals; Booker Little, trumpet; Michael Olatunji, congas, vocals; Raymond Mantilla, percussion; Tomas du Vall, percussion; recorded: Nola Penthouse Sound Studio, New York, US, 31 August/6 September 1960)
 Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Saturday 27 February 2016

93rd birthday of Dexter Gordon

(Born 27 February 1923, Los Angeles, US)
Tenor saxophonist and composer, towering jazz ambassador who stars as “Dale Turner”, a composite character of himself, fellow tenor saxophonist Lester Young and pianist Bud Powell in the 1986 movie Round Midnight directed by Bertrand Tavernier
(Dexter Gordon Quartet, “Body and soul” [Gordon, tenor saxophone; George Gruntz, piano; Guy Pederston, bass; Daniel Humair, drums; recorded: live, Jazz Prisma, Brussels, Belgium, 8 January 1964])
 Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Thursday 25 February 2016

Nomenclature galore… What’s in a name? History… Whose history? Now a jump over the pond from Jesus College, Cambridge to Harvard!

FWD: Sean Coughlan, “Harvard abolishes ‘master’ in titles...”, BBC News, London, Thursday 25 February 2016, (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35659685, accessed 25 February 2016) 

See also:

1. FWD: Africa: ‘okuku, history, conquest, history – now’s the turn of Jesus College, Cambridge”,
(http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/fwd-africa-okuko-history-conquest.html)

2.“FWD: Whose lands? Whose resources? Whose scholarship?”, 
(http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/whose-lands-whose-resources-whose.html)

3.“FWD ... History: alumni, endowment, Oriel College, Cecil Rhodes, the statue, funding, future”,
(http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/alumni-endownment-oriel-college-cecil.html)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

102nd birthday of James Cameron

(Born 25 February 1914, La Crosse, Wisconsin, US)
Indefatigable lynching-survivor in Marion, Indiana (7 August 1930), engineer, educator, founder of Milwaukee’s America’s Black Holocaust Museum dedicated to the history of African Americans from the epoch of enslavement to quest for freedom, author of A Time of Terror (1982)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Wednesday 24 February 2016

SALUTE to intellectuals who worked tirelessly in defence of the people during the beginning of this most catastrophic epoch in Igbo history – Igbo genocide phases I-III, 29 May 1966-12 January 1970

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu     Flora Nwapa     Louis Mbanefo     Chinua Achebe     Christopher Okigbo     Michael Echeruo     Ifeagwu Eke     SJ Cookey     Sam Mbakwe     Janet Mokelu   Obiora Udechukwu     Uche Chukwumerije     Kalu Ezera     Philip Efiong    Kamene Okonjo   Ignatius Kogbara     Alvan Ikoku     Celestine Okwu           Benedict Obumselu     Donatus Nwoga     NU Akpan     Adiele Afigbo     Michael Okpara     Chukwuka Okonjo     Akanu Ibiam     Bede Okigbo     Okoko Ndem     Agwu Okpanku     Tim Onwuatuegwu     Chudi Sokei     Pol Ndu     Ben Gbulie      Boniface Offokaja     Chuks Ihekaibeya     Conrad Nwawo     Dennis Osadebe     Osita Osadebe   Eme Awa    Chuba Okadigbo   Okechukwu Ikejiani       Uzo Egonu      Winifred Anuku     Anthony Modebe     Alex Nwokedi   Zeal Onyia   Chukwuedo Nwokolo   Pius Okigbo     Godian Ezekwe     Felix Oragwu    Ogbogu Kalu     Kevin Echeruo     Emmanuel Obiechina   Uche Okeke     Chukwuma Azuonye     Onuora Nzekwu     Chukuemeka Ike     Eddie Okonta     Cyprian Ekwensi   Nkem Nwankwo     John Munonye     Gabriel Okara     Kenneth Onwuka Dike     Eni Njoku   Okechukwu Mezu       William Achukwu       Agwuncha Arthur Nwankwo    Kalu Nsi    Nwafor Orizu   ZC Obi         Anyaogu Elekwachi Ukonu
(Ornette Coleman Quartet, “WRU” {or Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious  Freud} [personnel: Coleman, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet; Scott LaFaro, bass; Ed Blackwell, drums; recorded: Atlantic Studios, New York, US, 31 January 1961])
Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Tuesday 23 February 2016

148th birthday of WEB Du Bois

(Born 23 February 1868, Great Barrington, Mass, US)
Sociologist, historian, African-centred scholar and freedom activisttowering public intellectual – decades before “public intellectual” becomes in vogue

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe


Monday 22 February 2016

FWD: Concluding part of open letter by 10 human rights organisations in Biafra to the Nigerian regime and representatives of world powers on the ongoing massacres of Biafrans by genocidist Nigeria (Sunday 21 February 2016)

Ceaseless Killing Of Unarmed Citizens:
Before Security Chiefs Turn Nigeria Into Syria (Concluding part)  (first installment of letter was published earlier on here: http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/fwd-open-letter-by-10-human-rights.html)

Onitsha Nigeria, 21st of February 2016 This is third and concluding part of the 10-page letter written by the leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law, supported by the leaderships of the Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (SBCHROs). The letter was addressed to Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Abayomi Gabrial Olonisakin and Minister of Interior, Retired Gen Abdulrahman Dambazzau, PhD and dated 16th of February 2016. It was referenced: Ceaseless Killing Of Unarmed Citizens In Nigeria: Why Security Chiefs Must Desist From Provoking More Insurgencies Capable Of Plunging Nigeria Into Syrian Style Violence and copied to the UN Secretary General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, among others.


We had in the 10-page letter authoritatively informed the duo of Chief of Defence Staff and Minister of Interior; members of the international community and international rights and media community as well as all Nigerians that  the Federal Government of Nigeria is provoking or instigating more insurgencies in the country by unleashing its State violence on unarmed and peaceful members of the Indigenous People of Biafra and their teeming supporters by killing and maiming them in ways and manners suggestive of ethnic cleansing; that by so doing, Federal Government has unpardonably violated its sacred constitutional and international treaty obligations; that its army, police and navy had since 30th of August 2015 killed at least 80 IPOB members and their supporters; deadly maimed and lacerated at least 170; and arrested, detained, charged or kept in captivity without trial of at least 400; that its army, police and navy specifically killed 22 IPOB members on 9th of February 2016 in the compound of the National High School in Aba, Abia State; deadly maimed over 30 others and further murdered gruesomely 13 of them and dumped them inside a Borrow Pit located along Aba-Port Harcourt Road in Abia State, Southeast Nigeria; and that in the security forces killing index, army was responsible for 60% of the butcheries, police 30% and others including the navy 10%. Full video clips of the Aba National High School massacre and the Aba-Port Hartcourt Road Borrow Pit dumping of 13 murdered IPOB members are available on request.

Shot & Critically Injured Victims: Out of over 170 citizens that were shot and critically injured by Nigerian security forces particularly the Army, Police and Navy between 30th of August 2015 and 9th of February 2016, most of  them are found in Delta, Rivers, Anambra, Abia and Enugu States. Of these, over 40 citizens were critically shot and injured in Anambra (30th August, 2nd and 17th December 2015); 80 in Abia State ( particularly on18th of January 2016, 29th of January 2016 and 9th of February 2016), 21 in Rivers State (30th August 2015); 10 in Delta State (30thAugust 2015) and 6 in Enugu State. These exclude scores of others critically shot and injured in related nonviolent protests in those States as well as Bayelsa State that went unreported or unaccounted for.

Among those shot and critically injured in Rivers by Nigerian Army and the Police on 30th of August 2015 are Citizens Sunday Udegbe, Nwabunne Udo, Agwasi Anthony, Meshach Emmanuel, Chinwendu Ogbonna, Amanda Onyekachi, Emmanuel Arinze, Okwudiri Ojah, Chibuike David, Uzochi Ugwojialili, Chukwuma Igwe, Kingsley Okere, Chinedu Solomon Iwu, Okon Emmanuel Udo, Kelechi Uwaeze, Dominic Uwalaka, Solomon Chikwe,  Ikenna Ezekwem, Thomas Ubani, Amarachi Onyemachi and Chukwudi Ofoegbuliwe. In Enugu State, the following were shot and critically injured: Mr. Godswill Ojikeme, Mrs.  Chinyere Godswill Ojikeme, Monday Ogbodo, Jonah Kelechi, Onuigbo Paul and Obiorah Innocent.

Those deadly shot and wounded in Delta State are: Chinedu Abel, Onovo Michael, Kingsley Anuife, Amechi Ojieh, Ogbonna Kanayo, David Ogbu, Charles Chukwuka, Elochukwu Uzor, Chinedu Chukwuma and Onyekanna Ifechukwudebelu. Those shot and critically injured on 30th August 2015 in Anambra State are: Sampson Kalu, Chidiebere Nnaji, Onyekwelu Ovute, Felix Ndianaefo, Ikechukwu Okafor, Chimaobi Okafor, Christopher Oforah, Sunday Nwazugbo, Stanley Eze, Mrs. Eucharia and Mrs. Patricia. Among those shot and critically injured by soldiers, Police and Navy in Onitsha on 2nd of December 2015 are: Citizens Jonah Kelechi, Nwode Friday, Ogodo Monday, Nwankwo Ejike, Onuigbo Paul, Mbonu Izunna and Obiora Innocent. Among those shot and critically injured by security forces in Onitsha on 17th of December 2015 peaceful and nonviolent protest are: Amadi Chinonso, Chukwudi Dabelechi, Alo Amechi, Nwaele Chigozie, Okonkwo Felix,  Eneje Emeka, Uchechukwu Kingsley, Igwebuike Chinonso, Onyemaechi Ikeagu, Nwaoba Emeka, Nwajioha Chinonso, Nwaele Chinonso, Ijeoma Chukwu, Francis Ikechukwu, Ejike Jideoffor, Makuochukwu Ozobi and Okechukwu Okonkwo. 

Among innocent and unarmed citizens shot and critically injured in Aba on 9th of February by security forces under reference are: Mrs. Charity Ahuruonye (40yrs), from Ugwunabo in Abia State; Chibuzor Akabueze (29yrs), from Mbano in Imo State, Chukwuemeka Iwuoha (Nwangele in Imo State), Chibuzor Chukwu (Oshiri in Ebonyi State), Innocent Chinedu Okoro (52yrs), from Akuma Ihechiowa in Abia State, Obinna Emmanuel Alaribe (26yrs), from Umuobasi in Abia State, Uchenna Ihuoma (28yrs), from Njaba in Imo State, Ekene Uzor (29yrs), from Ojoto in Anambra State, Sunday Kalu (63yrs), from Ihechiowa in Abia State; Mrs. Nnenna Okebe (55yrs), from Abiriba in Abia State; Mrs. Comfort Kingsley (32yrs); Mrs. Ngozi Paul (34yrs), from Amumara Mbaise in Imo State; and Ifiok Alexandra Ibanga (Ubon Akwa-Obot Akara in Akwa Ibom State; all totaling 85 shot and critically wounded citizens..

Some of the gunshot victims mentioned above in Delta, Anambra, Rivers, Enugu and Abia States have died following the gravity of their gunshot injuries and lack of funds needed for their proper medical treatments. Most, if not all of them were shot at close range by the murderous security forces under reference. Some have been crippled and can never walk again while others have their limbs or arms amputated; yet others have their body parts badly lacerated. Among these innocent victims are fathers, breadwinners, tax payers, mothers, pregnant women, the elderly, sons and daughters and they have used or advocated violence.

Condemnation: The worst crime against humanity by the State is killing and maiming of its citizens in peacetime. In wartime, killing of civilians not taking part in the war by State and non State actors unambiguously constitutes war crimes and it is a fundamental breach of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, particularly their Protocol 11 (protection of civilians and other noncombatants in internal conflicts); how much more killing and maiming of innocent, nonviolent and unarmed citizens in peacetime. It saddens our heart that Nigeria, which claims to be a respected member of the international community including AU and UN, can mindlessly and rapaciously turn its instrument of State violence against its unarmed, nonviolent and peaceful citizens.

Under the ten basic standards (Ten Commandments) of international law and humanitarian principles,their 4th commandment forbids Nigeria and other member-States of the UN from “using force when policing unlawful but non-violent assemblies”.

Our extensive investigations also showed that the killing and maiming of IPOB members under reference is inescapably a hate killing and presidentially sanctioned and condoned. It is also an ethnic cleansing. Our recent field observations, observed at various military checkpoints in Aba and Onitsha clearly indicated the flooding of the Southeast Zone with carefully selected and posted soldiers mostly dominated by Muslim northerners as young as 22-25 years. These elements are incurably ethnic cleansers and hate killers, once opportunities occur. They are also under the commands of Muslim officers from core north with possible matching orders from above to shoot, maim and kill at sight members of Igbo Ethnic Nationality.

For instance, the Onitsha Field Artillery Cantonment is headed by Col Isa Abdullahi, a Muslim officer from core north; likewise the 144 Battalion in Abia State, headed by Lt Col Kasim Umar Sidi, another killer northern officer. The 82nd Division of the same Nigerian Army that coordinates the entire army formations in the Southeast Zone is also headed by Major Gen Ibrahim Attahiru, a Muslim officer from the core north.

Further condemned is the unconstitutional roles of the Army in intervening in peaceful and nonviolent protests under reference. Taking vengeance of its causalities in the Boko Haram insurgency on innocent and unarmed citizens is recipe for anarchy and breeding of another insurgency in Nigeria. We are aware that till date, Mr. Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo), a Niger Delta oil militant, has continued to defy several court orders and court orders given to security forces in Nigeria to bring him to court have not been executed till date thereby suggesting that once armed in Nigeria, a citizen is feared and respected by security forces. In other words, Nigerian security forces under your administrative midwifery appear to be encouraging citizens to take up arms and become lawless while discouraging others from being law abiding and ventilating their social angers within the ambit of the law such as through democratic free speeches, peaceful and nonviolent processions, picketing and protesting assemblies. If Nigerian security forces under your administrative midwifery can be so heartless to direct State violence against innocent and unarmed citizens exercising their democratic free speeches, then there is unquenchable danger ahead. Saddening, too, is total abandonment of codes of conduct guiding the use of force and modern crowd control handling styles, which includes the proportionality of use of force. The handling styles of the Nigerian security forces in the named butcheries are gravely in violation of the Chapter Four of the 1999 Constitution and various international human rights treaties, signed, ratified or domesticated by Nigeria.

The consequences of unleashing State violence on unarmed citizens are unquenchably calamitous. Going by modern theory of violence, no State or any group or individual has monopoly of it. As a matter of fact, violence is very much around and more menacing in the hands of non State actors and its forms and applications have no limits. Our recent study of modern intra State or internal violent conflicts, which are very active in 64 countries around the world; clearly showed that most of them started as peaceful and nonviolent agitations or protests, but became violent and devastating following violent responses or crackdowns and other poor handling styles by host territorial governments. Today, there are a total of 64 active and devastating internal armed conflicts raging in 64 countries around the world as at 2015, involving 591 militia-guerrillas and other armed separatist groups; out of which, 27 internal violent conflicts are ongoing in Africa, involving 167 militia-guerrillas and other armed separatist groups. The Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire) presently parades the highest number of armed opposition groups in Africa with 36 (warsintheworld.com 2015).  We totally concur with a saying that “the worst peace is better than the best war”.

That is to say that Nigeria’s present political leaders must learn from recent histories and have a total change of attitude. At a point in the history of Ethiopia of the 80s, for instance, fourteen violent conflicts were simultaneously going on in its entire 14 regions, forcing the country to embark on compulsory recruitment of every Tom, Dick and Harry including child-soldiers into its standing army. The country later became the Africa’s largest army with over 500,000 soldiers. The escalated conflicts in Ethiopia initially started between it and its Eritrean region, but got escalated and they were principally as a result of Col Mengistu Haile Mariam’s sit tight and iron fisted leadership and gross political intolerance including violent crackdowns on unarmed opposition groups. He was the country’s brutal dictator from 1974-1991.

In Ivory Coast, it was similar political and violent crackdown against current President Alassane Dramane Quattara and his Dimbokro tribe; paternal descendants of former Muslim rulers of Burkina Faso in mid 90s that plunged the country into violent conflicts (2002-2007 & November 2010-April 2011). In Syria, the internal violent conflict that began in March 2011 has led to killing of over 260,000 citizens and displacement of over half of the population. The conflict is also traced to iron fisted leadership of the Assad family (Hafez Al-Assad, 1971-2000 (died in office) and Bashar al-Assad (son) 2000-date) and violent crackdown on political and sectional opponents. In Somalia, the country is one of the most homogenous and mono-religious (Muslims) countries in the world, yet it was political intolerance and violent crackdown on opposition voices; propelled by political sit-tight of Gen Mohamed Said Bare (1969-1991) that plunged the country into endless internal violent conflict that led to balkanization of the country and lawlessness till date.

For the fact that modern violence knows no border or boundaries and have given birth to “wars-without-borders”, the Federal Government of Nigeria, under Gen Muhammadu Buhari must be extremely careful and refrain from breeding or provoking more insurgencies in Nigeria. The population size of Nigeria (estimated at 174 million) defies any form of humanitarian emergencies and responses in the event of eruption of another or escalated ethno-religious inspired violent insurgency or insurgencies. And it is a common knowledge among modern conflict theorists that value and identity based violent reactions or conflicts are usually endless and devastating than violent conflicts over economic needs and interests. Nigerian security chiefs and political leaders must stop provoking and breeding more insurgencies and in the event of eruption of more insurgencies in the country; their weapons of mass murder of today, will become den guns only capable of shepherding their escape routes to refugee camps.

Demands: We firmly demanded from the duo of Chief of Defence Staff and Minister of Interior that their two important public offices must speak and advise President Muhammadu Buhari in Arabic and Hausa Languages that he understands very well and correctly that Nigeria under his presidency must not be plunged into another insurgency on account of the militant and hostile approaches adopted by his administration in responding to peaceful and nonviolent agitations of pro Biafra activists. IPOB issue is a time bomb on account of its members and supporters scattering in the darkest and brightest parts of the world where access to modern types and forms of violence is at beck and call and limitless. This is in addition to the modern global culture of borderlessness powered by information technology or ICT. Other potential insurgencies may also abound in the country waiting to be provoked or exploded.

President Muhammadu Buhari must also be advised and made to understand in his native Hausa and Arabic Languages that a lot has changed between when he held sway in the military as a coup leader and as civil war participant and present times. Warfare methodologies have since undergone a series of metamorphoses.

We further demanded that those involved in the butcheries under reference, that is to say the Commanding Officer of 144 Battalion of the Nigerian Army in Abia State, Lt Col Kasim Umar Sidi, the Abia State Commissioner of Police, Habila Hosea, the Aba Area Commander, Peter Nwagbara, the Commanding Officer of the Nigerian Navy (Finance & Logistics Command), Owerre-Nta, Abia State, the Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Hosea Karma, the Commanding Officer of the Onitsha Military Cantonment, Col Isa Abdullahi, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Turkur Buratai and Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, should be thoroughly investigated and be made to account for atrocities under reference.

Specifically the Aba massacre and dumping of 13 murdered bodies inside the Aba-Port Harcourt Road Borrow Pit should be thoroughly and conclusively investigated. The two Army Commanding officers under reference (Col Abdullahi and Lt Col Umar Sidi) should be withdrawn from the Southeast. The present practice whereby the Zone is flooded with and dominated by young and murderous soldiers of core northern Muslim origin should reversed. Soldiers to be posted in the Southeast Zone should comprise those of other geopolitical zones; likewise their commanding officers. Soldiers should also be barred from involvement in handling peaceful and non-violent protests and processions in Nigeria; whether such are organized by IPOB or members of other social groups in the country. To be thoroughly investigated also is the military status of those young and murderous soldiers of core northern Muslim origin as young as 22-25 years, who are flooded in the Southeast to engage in ethnic cleansing. When were they recruited into the Nigerian Army? If it was months ago, was the recruitment restricted to core northern part of Nigeria alone?

 Nigerian security forces should also be barred from using live bullets and assault rifles in handling or controlling peaceful and nonviolent assemblies; and nonlethal crowd control gadgets with minimum force (if extremely necessary) should be used. Bearing in mind the international law and UN’s principle of complementarity, which is also enshrined in the ICC Statute of 1998, ratified by Nigeria on 27th of September 2001, this letter of ours was directed to the two important offices under reference in the hope that they would be “willing and able” to frontally address the issues under complaint.

Yours faithfully

For: International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Onitsha, Southeast Nigeria)

Emeka Umeagbalasi, B.Sc., Criminology & Security Studies; M.Sc. (Candidate), Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution
Board Chairman
Mobile Line: +2348174090052

Obianuju Joy Igboeli, LLB, BL; LLM (Candidate)
Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Program
Mobile Line: +2348034186332


Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe




Asymmetrical matrix: genocidist Nigeria, force, Igbo survival, collapse of the Soviet Union

“On a personal note, the phased end of the USSR was a turning point for me. It convinced me that change can be brought about without firing a single shot” (Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerian commander, north/northcentral Biafra during phase-III of the Igbo genocide, 6 July 1966-12 January 1970, addressing a meeting at Chatham House, London, England, 1000-1030 Hours GMT, Thursday 26 February 2015)
Very much interpellated in this thought process in Muhammadu Buhari’s mind of not-force and the fall of the Soviet Union must be his realisation, even if belated, that despite the staggering pulverising force his genocidist military deployed to destroy Igbo people during the genocide of 29 May 1966-12 January 1970, the Igbo survived whilst contemporary Nigeria is a withering wretch.

The Soviet Union supported the genocide by sending in the squadrons of MiGs to Nigeria flown by loaned Egyptian pilots (not Nigerian pilots as the country no longer had such prized personnel since the genocidists murdered outstanding Igbo pilots who made up the then Nigeria air force service during phase-I of the genocide and slaughter-survivors escaped to Biafra to begin the construction of the Biafra air force), specialists in the carpet bombing of Igbo homes, offices, markets, churches, shrines, schools, childrens playgrounds, hospitals, railway stations, trains, cars, car parks, refugee centres… This same Soviet Union, this seemingly redoubtable state, soon, beginning January 1990, collapses “without (sic) a single shot fired” (!) but its constituent peoples survive – a reminder, if ever there was one, that the state, including the one that calls itself Nigeria, is transient; peoples endure (http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/state-is-transient-peoples-endure.html).

It should now be evident to Buhari (and others) that those reptilian epaulettes for “majors” and “sergeants” and “corporals” and “generals” and lieutenants” and “colonels” decked by genocidists who streamed to Biafra during those 44 dreadful months to murder 3.1 million Igbo children and women and men are nothing else but signifiers for perpetrating this heinous crime against humanity.
(Sam Rivers Trio, “Afflatus” [personnel: Rivers, tenor saxophone; Cecil McBee, bass; Steve Ellington, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood, NJ, US, 17 March 1967])
Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe


78th birthday of Ishmael Reed

(Born 22 February 1938, Chattanooga, Tenn, US)
Prolific poet, essayist, novelist, pianist, composer, academic

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Sunday 21 February 2016

FWD Africa: “okuku”, history, conquest, history – now’s the turn of Jesus College, Cambridge

Lucy Clarke-Billings, “Cambridge students call for African bronze cockerel statue to fall in latest colonial row”, The Telegraph, London, Sunday 21 February 2016,
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12167156/Cambridge-students-call-for-African-bronze-cockerel-statue-to-fall-in-latest-colonial-row.html, accessed 21 February 2016)

See also:

1.“FWD: Whose lands? Whose resources? Whose scholarship?”, 
(http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/whose-lands-whose-resources-whose.html)

2.“FWD ... History: alumni, endowment, Oriel College, Cecil Rhodes, the statue, funding, future”,
(http://re-thinkingafrica.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/alumni-endownment-oriel-college-cecil.html)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

83rd birthday of Nina Simone

(Born 21 February 1933, Tryon, NC, US)
Pianist, composer, singer, freedom activist
(Nina Simone, “Don’t let me be misunderstood”, Broadway-Blues-Ballads [personnel: Simone, piano, vocals; Horace Ott, arranger, conductor; other members of orchestra, unlisted; recorded Phillips Records, New York, US, {day?month?} 1964])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Saturday 20 February 2016

A comment on Claudia Moscovici, “The siege of Leningrad: Genocide by starvation”, HYPOCRISA, 16 February 2015


Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe

TWENTY-SIX years later, beginning on 31 March 1967, genocidist Nigeria, very similar to Claudia Moscovici’s reviewed Germany’s strategy in Leningrad, the Soviet Union (http://176.223.121.197/content/siege-leningrad-genocide-starvation, accessed 17 February 2015), embarks on the comprehensive land, naval and aerial blockade of Biafra in phase-II of the Igbo genocide which it enforces through phase III (beginning 6 July 1967) till 12 January 1970 with devastating consequences in Africa’s most densely populated region outside the Nile Delta

Nigeria employs starvation as one of its critical weapons to prosecute the genocide, this foundational genocide of post-(European)conquest Africa formally launched earlier on 29 May 1966 (phase-I). Obafemi Awolowo (lawyer and senior advocate of the Nigerian bar), Nigeria’s chief genocidist “theorist”, deputy head of the prosecuting regime in Lagos and head of the powerful finance ministry publicly states, right from the outset, that starvation of the Igbo is a “legitimate instrument” of the campaign, a policy voiced openly and variously throughout the period by several other senior regime officials including, especially, Anthony Enaharo (head of information ministry), Allison Ayida (regime special advisor), and field commanders Benjamin Adekunle and Olusegun Obasanjo.

Adekunle-Obusonjoist amalgam

Benjamin Adekunle, one of the most notorious of the genocidist commanders in south Biafra, reminds the world of his regime’s starvation strategy in an August 1968 press conference which includes foreign correspondents: “I want to prevent even one I[g]bo having even one piece to eat before their capitulation. We shoot at everything that moves, and when our forces march into the centre of I[g]bo territory, we shoot at everything, even at things that don’t move” (The Economist, London, 24 August 1968).
 
(Adekunle: “I want to prevent even one I[g]bo having even one piece to eat ... We shoot at everything that moves in ... I[g]bo territory ... even at things that don’t move”)
IT IS ALSO in pursuit of this starvation strategy that Olusegun Obasanjo, who takes over this sector’s command from Adekunle later in 1968, orders his air force, in May 1969, to shoot down any Red Cross planes flying in urgently-needed relief supplies to the millions of surviving but encircled, blockaded and bombarded Igbo. Within a week of his infamous order, 5 June 1969, Obasanjo recalls, nostalgically, in his memoirs, unambiguously titled My Command (London: Heinemann, 1981), genocidist air force pilot Gbadomosi King “redeem[s] his promise”, as Obasanjo clinically asserts (Obasanjo, 1981: 79) – the “promiseGbadomosi King shoots down a clearly marked, incoming relief-bearing International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) DC-7 aircraft near Eket, south Biafra, with the loss of its 3-person crew.  Obasanjo’s perverse satisfaction over the aftermath of this crime is fiendish, grotesquely revolting. He writes: “The effect of [this] singular achievement of the Air Force especially on 3 Marine Commando Division [name of the death squad Obasanjo, who subsequently becomes head of Nigeria regime for 11 years, commands] was profound. It raised morale of all service personnel, especially of the Air Force detachment concerned and the troops they supported in [my] 3 Marine Commando Division” (79).
(Obusonjo: “The effect of [this] singular achievement of the Air Force [shooting down of  Red Cross relief aircraft] especially on 3 Marine Commando Division was profound. It raised morale of all service personnel...”)
Harold Wilson’s “... a half million dead Biafrans ...” 

The British government under Prime Minister Harold Wilson is Nigeria’s strategic ally in this campaign – militarily, politically, diplomatically. Britain had since been riled by the Igbo vanguard role, begun in the 1930s, to terminate its conquest and occupation of Nigeria (one of the very prized lands of the British conquest of Africa). By supporting the genocide, Britain seeks to “punish” the Igbo for the latter’s historic role in the liberation of Nigeria. During the course of the 1968/69 gruesomely catastrophic apogee of the campaign when thousands of Igbo are dying daily from starvation, disease and enhanced land and aerial bombardment of survivors in ever-shrinking territory encapsulated by the siege, Harold Wilson is totally unfazed when he informs C. Clyde Ferguson, the US state department special coordinator for relief to Biafra, that he, Harold Wilson, “would accept a half million dead Biafrans if that was what it took” Nigeria to destroy the Igbo resistance to the genocide (Roger MorrisUncertain Greatness: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy [London and New York: Quartet Books, 1977]: 122). 

For the record, Wilson’s “a half a million dead Biafrans” represents 4.2 per cent of the Igbo population at this time; by the time that this third phase of the genocide comes to an end, 6-9 months after Wilson’s wish-declaration, 25 per cent of this nation’s population or 3.1 million Igbo people are murdered by the genocidists. Undoubtedly, the Nigerian toady “boys”  have handsomely obliged their “massa” Harold Wilson’s wish...
 (Wilson: “would accept a half million dead Biafrans if that was what it took...”)
IT MUST be stressed that Harold Wilson’s “[W]ould accept a half a million dead Biafrans”-wish is not a declaration made by some dictator, some leader of a loony party, a fascist party or anything of that ilk; on the contrary, this is a declaration made by an elected politician, a politician in an advanced western representative democracy, the leader of the British Labour party, one of Europes leading social democratic parties. “[W]ould accept a half million dead Biafrans if that was what it took”-declaration is made by the prime minister of Britain; not the prime minister of some “peripheral”, seemingly inconsequential country but the prime minister of a “centre” state and power that was part of the victorious alliance that defeated a fascist global amalgam in a global war that ended barely 23 years earlier. This is a prime minister of a “centre” state and power (sixth to occupy this exalted position since the end of the war) that was one of the key countries that worked on the panel that drafted the historic 1948 United Nations “Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide” – in the wake of the 1930s-1940s deplorable perpetration of the Jewish genocide and other genocides in Europe. 6 million Jews were murdered then by Germany. It is to ensure that no human beings are ever subjected to what the Jews and others went through in central Europe and elsewhere that this genocide convention is rated as one of the key international documents of the new age. Britain is a signatory to the convention. Surely, Harold Wilson’s “[W]ould accept a half million dead Biafrans if that was what it took”-declaration cannot fit into the hallowed pages of the UN “Convention on the prevention of the Crime of Genocide”.

“[L]etting the little buggers starve out”, Defoliant

FINALLY, a senior British foreign office official, who echoes Harold Wilson’s disposition to the Igbo slaughter, is no less chilling in their own characterisation of Britain’s strategic goal. Describing the British response to the concerted international humanitarian effort to dispatch urgently needed relief material to the blockaded and bombarded Igbo, this official notes that the British government position is designed to “show conspicuous zeal in relief while in fact letting the little buggers starve out” (Morris: 122). In a courageous and admirable public admission he makes in 1970, Colonel Robert Scott breaks ranks with his employer, the British diplomatic mission in Lagos where he works as military advisor, to acknowledge, gravely, that as the Nigerian genocidists unleash their Adekunleist campaigns across Igbo cities, towns and villages, they are the “best defoliant agent known” (Sunday Telegraph, London, 11 January 1970).
(John Coltrane Quartet, “Wise One” [Coltrane, tenor saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 27 April 1964])
Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

89th birthday of Sidney Poitier

(Born 20 February 1927, Miami, US)
Celebrated actor, director, diplomat
 Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

Friday 19 February 2016

56th anniversary of 1st French nuclear bomb “test” in Sahara Desert

(13 February 1960, explodes bomb at Regganne, west Algeria)
In flagrant disregard for the lives of African peoples and their environment, and those of future generations, France carries out an atomic bomb “test” over the Sahara Desert, the first in the year (later blasts would be be carried out in April and December) – exploded bomb has plutonium with yield of 70 kilotons, equivalent to about four times the power of the atomic bomb the United States air force dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945

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97th anniversary of the start of the 1st Pan-African Congress, Paris, France, 19 February 1919

(Working session of the congress with WEB Du Bois, the versatile intellectual, in the middle of the picture)
The February 1919 Pan-African Congress in Paris, France, convened by WEB Du Bois and Ida Gibbs Hunt, is the first of five high-profile international congresses after World War I (1914-1918) that demands the restoration of African independence in continental Africa/the Caribbean/Americas and enhanced cooperation among African peoples globally after 400 years of the enslavement and conquest and occupation and underdevelopment of African peoples and Africa by the European World

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

61st birthday of David Murray

(Born 19 February 1955, Oakland, California, US)
Tenor saxophonist, bass clarinettist, composer, who has, since 1976, been one of the most prolifically recorded jazz artists
(David Murray & Black Saint Quartet, “Murray’s steps” [personnel: Murray, tenor saxophone; Lafayette Gilchrist, piano; Jaribu Shahid, bass; Hamid Drake, drums; recorded: live, Radialsystem V, Berlin, Germany, 17 November 2007])

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Thursday 18 February 2016

FWD: Open letter by 10 human rights organisations in Biafra to the Nigerian regime and representatives of world powers on the ongoing massacres of Biafrans by genocidist Nigeria (Tuesday 16 February 2016)


Ref: InterSoc/002/02/016/Security/Chiefs/ABJ/NG

(a) Abdulrahman Bello Dambazzzau, PhD
Honourable Minister of Interior, Federal Ministry of Interior
Old Secretariat, Area 1, Garki, FCT, Abuja, Nigeria

(b) Major General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin
Chief of Defense Staff, the Defense Headquarters
FCT, Abuja, Nigeria

Sirs

Ceaseless Killing Of Unarmed Citizens In Nigeria: Why Security Chiefs Must Desist From Provoking More Insurgencies Capable Of Plunging Nigeria Into Syrian Styled Violence (Part One)

Onitsha, Nigeria, 16th February 2016 – The leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) writes your two important public offices concerning the above named subject. This letter is also adopted and supported by other nine group-members of the Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (SBCHROs) comprising: Anambra State Branch of the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO), Center for Human Rights & Peace Advocacy (CHRPA), Human Rights Club (a project of LRRDC)(HRC), Forum for Justice, Equity & Defense of Human Rights (FJEDHR), Society Advocacy Watch Project (SPAW), Anambra Human Rights Forum (AHRF), Southeast Good Governance Forum (SGGF), International Solidarity for Peace & Human Rights Initiative (ITERSOLIDARITY) and Igbo Ekunie Initiative (pan Igbo rights advocacy group).

Government Announcement of Violent Crackdown On Pro-Biafran Agitators

We wish to recall, Sirs, that the Nigerian Army had on November 16, 2015 announced a violent crackdown on those who are peacefully and nonviolently agitating for their constitutional and treaty rights to self determination, development, existence, peaceful assembly, association, personal liberty, movement, life, dignity of human person, expression and fair hearing. These rights are fully guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution in its Chapter Four (Fundamental Human Rights) as well as by various international human rights treaties particularly the African Charter on Human & Peoples Rights of 1981, ratified and domesticated by Nigeria in 1983 and the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights of 1976, ratified by Nigeria in 1993. These rights are constitutionally and conventionally exercisable by all citizens provided they are exercised peacefully and nonviolently.

They are also mandatorily protected and safeguarded by the State, African Union and the United Nations. The leading group in this context is the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and millions of its supporters in Nigeria and overseas. The Army’s announcement, which was restated by your office (CDS) on behalf of the Nigerian Military, is contained in the following link: http://www.informationng.com/2015/11/pro-biafra-protests-army-warns-ipob-massob-others-against-secession.html (On 1st December 2015).

As if that was not enough, Sirs, the Inspector General of Police, IGP Solomon Arase, on 2nd December 2015 issued a stern warning and directed his subordinate officers in the Southeast and the South-south zones to apply maximum (deadly violence) force against the pro Biafran self determination agitators particularly the IPOB and its teaming supporters. The said order of 2nd December 2015 is contained in the following link: http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/194275-nigeria-police-chief-orders-anti-riot-force-to-maximally-restrain-pro-biafra-protesters. The IGP had earlier threatened to use deadly violence to crack down the peaceful and nonviolent protests under reference. The threat was issued during his live program on Channels Television in Lagos State 8th of November 2015. Below is the link to the threat under reference: htmlhttp://www.nairaland.com/2722903/arase-issues-final-warning-pro-biafra

Reasons For Pro-Biafran Peaceful Protests: It is further recall, Sirs, that tens of thousands of members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and millions of their supporters had since July 2015 involved in peaceful and non violent street protests in 10 States of the Southeast and the South-south zones except Edo State. They also protested in Lagos, Abuja and dozens of foreign countries in Europe, North America and Asia. The protests peaked between October and December 2015 following the arrest and long and unconstitutional detention without fair charge and trial of the leader of IPOB, Prince Nnamdi Kanu. Citizen Nnamdi Kanu was arrested on 14th October 2015 and had never been released on bail till date despite several court orders either ordering for his conditional release or unconditional release. The causes of these peaceful and non violent protests, Sirs are fundamentally founded on escalation and entrenchment of individual (personal insecurity) and group (structural insecurity) violence against the Igbo Ethnic Nationality in Nigeria.

In other words, Sirs, their peaceful and non violent protests were geared towards drawing the attentions of the Nigerian authorities and members of the international community over escalated and unaddressed threats to personal security and safety and other unsafe conditions (personal violence) as well as gross geopolitical imbalances and lopsidedness against the Igbo Ethnic Nationality particularly the Southeast Zone in matters of federal distribution of material and human resources (collective violence). Totality of the foregoing is seen by them as constituting a dangerous threat to their existence, development and enjoyment of inalienable and statute rights provided by the Constitution and the international rights conventions. Deprivation of these inalienable rights has made members of the Igbo Ethnic Nationality and other Southern Ethnic Nationalities endangered species in Nigeria. The peaceful and nonviolent protests gained currency following the Buhari administration’s soft spot for politics of exclusion and socio-ethnic divisiveness. The grand purpose of these peaceful and non violent protests under reference is for the Nigerian authorities to address the social anomalies complained of, non-violently, competently and satisfactorily.

Consequences Of Government Violent Crackdown: From our recent extensive investigations, Sirs, at least 80 innocent Nigerian citizens and mostly, members of the Igbo Ethnic Nationality in Nigeria who are sympathetic to pro Biafran self determination agitation, have been killed by Nigerian security forces since 30th August 2015. The victims of the referenced butcheries have never used or advocated violence. The leading killer-security force is the Nigerian Army, followed by the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Navy.

Over 170 other innocent and unarmed citizens have also been shot and critically injured while about 400 others or more have been arrested, charged or detained without trial. Hundreds of them are currently facing charges contrary to democratic free speech in various magistrate courts in Southern Nigeria. Scores are also being detained without trial amidst torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments or punishment in the hands of the personnel of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). There are also reported cases of disappearances, abductions and pretrial killing of members of IPOB particularly in Southern Nigeria. In the context of security forces atrocity index, the Nigerian Army accounts for 60% of the atrocities while the Nigeria Police is responsible for 30%; leaving the remaining 10% to other security forces including the Nigerian Navy. The Nigeria Police Force is solely responsible for indiscriminate arrests and disappearances of citizens, whom it labels “IPOB/MASSOB” members.

Detailed Statistics: For the avoidance of doubt, Sirs, among the 80 murdered citizens are 4 killed in Awka and Onitsha on 30th August 2015; 13 killed in Onitsha on 2nd December 2015; 12 killed in Onitsha on 17th December 2015 (eight were killed on the spot and four others died in hospital following gunshot wounds); eight killed in Aba on 18th January 2016; six killed in Aba on 29th January 2016 and 22 killed in Aba on 9th February 2016. There were other killings that went unreported or unaccounted for till date.

We further inform, Sirs, that 60% of the murdered citizens were shot and killed on the spot by soldiers. Their corpses were picked up by the same soldiers, taken to secret destinations and buried or dumped in secret graves or borrow pits. In most cases, if not in all cases, Sirs, the said murdered citizens have their hands tied behind their backs, poured raw acid or other defacing and decimating chemical substances and laid face down to avoid easy identification and to erase traces. Those critically shot and injured by soldiers who are at the point of death are routinely shot dead and buried or dumped in a like manner.

Dead Victims: Among the four citizens killed in Onitsha and Awka on 30th August 2015 are Ebuka Nnolum of Enuguabo-Ufuma in Anambra State and Obasi Maduka of Oshiri in Ebonyi State. Among 13 citizens killed in Onitsha on 2nd December 2015 are: Miss Anthonia Nkiruka Ikeanyionwu (Anambra State), Kenneth Ogadinma (Abia State), Chima Onoh (Enugu State), Angus Chikwado (Anambra State) and Miss Felicia Egwuatu (Anambra State). The remaining eight citizens shot and killed by soldiers of the Onitsha Military Cantonment commanded by Col Isa Abdullahi were taken away and secretly buried or dumped in undisclosed locations till date.

Also, out of 12 citizens killed in Onitsha on 17th December 2015, only four who died in the hospital were identified. One of them is Citizen Okwu Friday. The identities of three others cannot be disclosed here as pleaded by their families. The corpses of the remaining eight citizens shot and killed on the 17th of December 2015 were taken away by soldiers of the Onitsha Military Cantonment. Among the 22 murdered citizens in the Aba Prayer/Meeting session of IPOB on 9th of February 2016 are: Uche Friday (30yrs), from Asa in Abia State; Emeka Ekpemandu (35yrs), from Owerre Nkwoji in Imo State; Chiavoghi Chibuikem (Obingwa in Abia State); Nzubechi Onwumere (Orlu in Imo State); Peter Chinemerem Ukasoanya (27yrs), from Isialangwa North in Abia State, Chigozie Cyril Nwoye (23yrs), from Umuna in Ezeagu, Enugu State; Chukwudi Onyekwere (26yrs), from Aboh Mbaise in Imo State; and Chibuzor Maduagwu (28yrs), from Amauzari in Mbano, Imo State.

The remaining 12 dead bodies of murdered IPOB members were taken away by soldiers of 144 Battalion of the Nigerian Army, located at Asa in Ukwa West LGA of Abia. The 144 Battalion is commanded by Lt Col Kasim Umar Sidi. The Abia State Police Command had earlier admitted publicly of shooting and killing two IPOB members (“for disturbing students of the National High School in Aba”). The Command is presently and officially in possession of the two dead IPOB members it shot and killed.

Yours Faithfully


For: International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Onitsha, Southeast Nigeria)


Emeka Umeagbalasi, B.Sc., Criminology & Security Studies; M.Sc. (Candidate), Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution
Board Chairman
Mobile Line: +2348174090052
Email: info@intersociety-ng.org, emekaumeagbalasi@yahoo.co.uk
Website: www.intersociety-ng.org

Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Esq., LLB, BL; LLM (Candidate)
Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Program
Mobile Line: +2348034186332

Attachments: (1) video CD containing images of the IPOB peaceful prayers/meeting at the National High School and mass shooting & killing of their members by soldiers, police & Navy personnel in Abia State. (2) Photos of 11 murdered IPOB members dumped inside Aba-Port Harcourt Road Borrow Pit by soldiers of the 144 Battalion of the Nigerian Army, near Aba.

CC:
1. National Security Adviser, Retired Gen Babagana Mungono

2. Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon Justice Mahmud Mohammed

3. Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase

4. Attorney General of the Federation & Minister for Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN)

5. United Nations Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki Moon

6. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein

7. United Nations Chief Repertoire on Extra Judicial Killings, Prof Christof Heyns

8. European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, Ms Federica Morgherini

9. Head/African Research Group & Deputy Head/Research Analyst, UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Dr. Clare Thomas

10. Head, Political Section of the US Embassy in Nigeria

11. Head, Political Section of the UK High Commission in Nigeria

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