By Law Mefor Once more, posterity beckons on Senator Ken Nnamani, the man who stood firm and strong for Nigeria when 3rd Term reared its ugly head in 2007. Then, Senator Ken Nnamani was Senate President when the 3rd Term was smuggled into the constitutional amendment process and made it a precondition for success of that exercise. As at that time, the nation’s mood was that power should shift North; just like today’s national sentiment favours the South. If the 3rd Term agenda had succeeded, President Olusegun Obasanjo (as he then was) would have been the first beneficiary. That…
Author: Law Mefor
Suddenly, the much awaited 2023 General Election in Nigeria is upon us. Months ago, it was as if the nation awaited a whole decade. Yet, in five months or thereabout, the political parties will be presenting their candidates to Nigerians for the purpose of choosing President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor. In the build up all the while, two recurring decimals have been zoning and the insistence of the South East to clinch the presidential tickets of the two leading political parties, namely, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). The push has been on even before the…
The National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) is fast degenerating to cesspool of corruption and mismanagement due to the brash and reckless manner the place has been run by the new Federal Commissioner, Mrs. Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, according to media reports. It is impunity and disregards for due process that breed corruption, not just in the Commission, but in Nigeria as a whole. Signs emerged quite early showing that the new Commissioner was going to run a one-woman show when, without waiting for handover, she threw out the picture and personal belongings of her predecessor, Senator Bashir…
Within 24 hours, two statements were issued from the camp of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Andy Uba, one claiming the camp had rejected the Anambra governorship election results. The other stated that no such decision had been taken. The vacillation is not good for anybody. The one rejecting the result gave some reasons in an attempt to justify the rejection, which need some attention. It is surprising that the candidate of the APC is yet to see the grand illusion on which he erected his hope for victory. The grounds he advanced for rejecting the results…
It was William Shakespeare who wrote these eternal lines: “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.” Professor Chukwuma Soludo’s journey to the government house of Anambra State has been a long and winding one, marked by obstacles, complicated calculations and aligning of stars. He made his first bid for Anambra governorship in 2010. Soludo made efforts to contest in one or two other election circles but was denied the chance by the All Progressives Grand…
After a Joint Emergency meeting of Pro-Biafran Groups on the forthcoming Anambra State Governorship Election scheduled for November 6, 2021, we resolved as follows: 1) The Anambra State governorship Election scheduled for November 6, MUST HOLD UNHINDERED in the overall interest of Ndigbo and long term benefits of the Biafran struggle. 2) As Biafra agitation groups, the Meeting further resolved never to lose sight of the ideals of the father of the Biafran nation, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, which are “Biafra of the Mind” and nonviolent struggle for the rights of Ndigbo in Nigeria in particular and Biafrans in general,…
The threat of disruption of Anambra guber election is real. The attempt to disrupt Anambra election by a section of Biafra agitators first came in 2017 when a group demanded the Federal Government to fix a date for a Biafra referendum before the November 18 set for the guber election in the State in that year. Somehow, reason eventually prevailed and the election successfully held. Four years later, the sad refrain is sounding again. This time around, the situation is different. Eastern Unknown Gunmen (E-UGM) is now introduced into the mix. As if these potent threats are not enough, the…
Two days ago, Friday, the ace Nollywood actor, Chiwetalu Agu, was arrested by the Nigerian Army at Upper Iweka, Onitsha, where he was sharing bread to his fans and admirers decked in Biafra colours. Following the intervention of the Nigeria Actors Guild, the day after, he was released by the army but rearrested by the Department of State Service (DSS) Enugu office, where he is still being held for the same reason. The question is: what offence did Chiwetalu Agu commit? Is the problem sharing bread to his fans or wearing the Biafra colours or what exactly? The press statement…
Barring any dramatic turn of events, which includes security challenges truncating the guber election altogether, one of these four is most likely to succeed Chief Willie Obiano as the governor of Anambra state. The big four candidates, in the order of their surnames are: Chief Valentine Ozigbo, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, Senator Andy Uba and Senator Ifeanyi Ubah. Since the return of the country to democratic dispensation in 1999, election to the office of governor of Anambra state has been largely predictable. Only two political parties have produced the governor of the state since 1999. The political parties are: the Peoples…
One contentious issue confronting the National Assembly (NASS) today is the passing of the bill for electronic transfer of election results. From all indications, the generality of Nigerians want electronic voting and transfer/collation of results and worry that the National Assembly is not fully disposed to that desire of Nigerians to have such a law in place just yet. Both sides have advanced some plausible reasons supporting their positions. From experience, elections in Nigeria are often trailed by allegations of rigging, many of which have been proved in the election tribunals. A professor was recently convicted for alteration results in…
The campaign for Nigerian President of South East/Igbo extraction has been raging for about two years now. At least five pan-Igbo groups have been up and about, organizing programmes on the theme and engaging Nigerians. But something seems to be seriously missing: viable aspirants from the zone are not stepping up to the plate and staking their right to the coveted office, as their counterparts from the northern side have been aggressively doing of late. One or two of these presidential hopefuls from the East have even publicly denied involvement each time their posters adorn the streets. Ostensibly, they…
Anambra State is fast becoming the home of the good, the bad and the ugly. Recently, the state has been in the news mostly for the wrong reasons and many unsettling issues surrounding the coming governorship election scheduled for November have only served to heighten it. Political party primaries for the governorship election have come and gone but have equally created very wide latitude for confusion and conflict. The three leading political parties capable of producing the next governor for the state, namely, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) are now riddled…
Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, better known as IBB, is a retired army general and a former military President of Nigeria (1983 to 1993). IBB means different things to different people. The soft-spoken general invokes extreme emotions in people but generally, he is a very likeable person. Largely unpredictable, he once said that deception was a great attribute of a general and lived off it. During his days in the army and as military president, he elevated deception to an art and used it as a main facade to build his career and survival in the heavily mined Nigeria’s military and military…
Permit me to take the liberty of addressing you on a matter, which I consider quite crucial. I am of a well-considered view that the indigenous peoples of Nigeria are big and staunch enough to fix Nigeria for common good. Yet, you chose the questionable and inglorious path to getting your rights in the country. All that the indigenous peoples of Nigeria need to do is: come together and restructure the country to ensure equity, social justice, fairness and development for all, or simply keep quiet and remain the slaves you believe they are. How can you rightly say you…
Democracy ought to be the rule of the majority, a system of Government where the will of the voting masses ultimately prevail. In a democracy too, the will of the people finds expression in their ability to choose their leaders and representatives without interference or circumvention. This is what makes a free and fair election and those who superintend it, the most important components of a democracy and democratic governance. Where votes do not count democracy is existing in such a place, only in name and not indeed. This foundation of democracy is standing trial at the moment in the…
Whether Nigerians like it or not, what he nation is passing through today are self-inflicted injuries, what football rules call ‘Own goal’. Take for instance the issue of insecurity. The current state of insecurity in Nigeria has become a worsening concern to all reasonable citizens. Abduction by gunmen has become an industry in the country to the point of many governors paying ransom to kidnappers. This is an aberration as it is embarrassing. The way the government is going about the solutions to insecurity, there seems not to be an end in sight. Government has been rewarding perpetrators of insecurity…
The Igbo Leadership Development Foundation (ILDF), promoters of Project Nigerian President of South East Extraction (Project –NIPSEE) has hailed the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF), for their call for zoning of president’s position to South Nigeria at their meeting held in Abuja on 30th May, 2021. In a statement jointly signed by the Chairman Dr. Godwin Udibe and Director Public Affairs Dr. Law Mefor respectively, the Foundation said it was aware that SMBLF exhaustively discussed various issues about the State of Affairs in the country, particularly, bordering on the Security, National Dialogue, Restructuring, and the preparations for the…
James Freeman Clarke was certainly thinking of Nigeria when he made this statement – “A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman of the next generation. A politician looks for the success of his party; a statesman, for that of his country. The statesman wishes to steer, while the politician is satisfied to drift”. The Nigerian nation is adrift and this calls for the intervention of statesmen if they are still to be found in the country. This is the time for patriots to stand to be counted. It is in this perspective that one could understand the intervention…
A maxim of justice states: “He who comes into equity must come with clean hands.” This maxim bars relief for anyone guilty of improper conduct in a matter at hand. It operates to prevent any affirmative recovery for the person with “unclean hands,” no matter how unfairly the person’s adversary has treated him or her. This applies completely to the quest for the Nigerian President of South East extraction. The South East States that repudiate zoning and rotation have no moral or legal reasons to urge or compel any political party to zone its presidential ticket to the zone. Anambra…
– A KEYNOTE SPEECH BY LAW MEFOR, Chancellor, Igbo Bu Igbo & Director Public Affairs, Igbo Leadership Development Foundation AT THE NATIONAL FORUM ORGANIZED BY PAN NIGERIA PRESIDENCY OF IGBO EXTRACTION COALITION (PANPIEC) AT AIR FORCE BASE ABUJA ON THE 29TH APRIL, 2021 Protocol. The Background/Introduction May I begin by thanking the organizers of this crucial national forum, which aims to continue the search for a common ground and understanding of the great need for having an Igbo man or woman as Nigeria’s President in 2023. A certain philosopher by name, Victor Hugo once said that you can stop every…
The rumour has been around for some years now like a highly odoriferous fart, that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wants to zone the 2023 presidential ticket to the North in clear breach of its Constitution, Manifesto, and convention. In my article entitled “PDP, Ndigbo, and 2023 Presidency Zoning” published in July 2020, I had the cause to take on the former Governor of Benue State, Senator Gabriel Suswan when he told a national newspaper that the PDP would still zone the office of the President to the North in 2023. He said: “Of course, the PDP will maintain zoning.…
Recently, when Doyin Okupe feebly declared he would contest for the office of the President in 2023, most Nigerians didn’t take note or take him seriously. To draw sufficient attention he challenged Nigerians to shoot him if he failed to end insincerity in 2 years as President of Nigeria, and also touted his closeness to two past great Nigerian Presidents as aide. He presented that intimacy as his ultimate political exposure and his main credential. Yes, Doyin Okupe, a medical doctor turned politician, served Olusegun Obasanjo as Special Assistant on Media. He was also about the first aide to be…
Since the return of the country to democracy in 1999, the Legislature has been at the receiving end, taking all the heat from Nigerians who have been anxiously waiting for the dividends of democracy. This is understandable for the reason that the Legislators are the closest to the people and deliverables of government or lack of them are often gauged through the lawmakers by the citizens. The same thing goes for public perception of the malfeasances in governance, which are also held against the Legislature by the people in most cases. Yet, the role of the Legislature in the nation’s…
The canons of public service and statecraft have been constantly assailed by those entrusted with the custody and the nation can only be the worse for it. It is this culture of impunity that is breeding corruption and insecurity in the land. Some public officials have become law unto themselves everywhere you turn, precisely the reason institutions are not firming up and cannot withstand turbulent times. Rules and laws are meant to ensure proper conduct and a civilized nation. Countries making progress and those adjudged as uncivilized are divided by just one thing: Law and its applications. Put differently, a…
From all indications and barring any surprise last minute entry, here are the aspirants seeking the seat of Chief John Nnia Nwodo, the incumbent President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide. The General Election of the apex pan-Igbo organization comes up in January, 2021. So far, the Ohanaeze presidential hopefuls are: Dr. Joe Nwaorgu, Prof George Obiozor, Prof Chidi Osuagwu, Chief Goddy Uwazurike and Dr. Chris Asoluka. These men are eminently qualified and will each bring something substantial to the table to justify the high premium. Each of them also has his unique selling point, making it rather difficult for the…
The family of the Late David Chigbogu Okafor-Mefor of Umudunu Agbaja Abatete, Idemili North LGA, Anambra State, has announced in a statement by Dr. Law Mefor for the family and released in Abuja, the passing of their matriarch, wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, mother-in-law and aunt, Mrs. Celina Ifesinachi Okafor-Mefor (aka Nneokwukwe, London, Ononaenyi). She died a few weeks to her centenary celebration, aged 99 years. A devout Catholic, Mrs. Celina Okafor-Mefor lived a remarkable practical Christian life and was conferred with the title of ‘Nneokwukwe’ i.e. Mother of Faith, by St. Dominic’s Catholic Parish, Abatete, Onitsha Archdiocese. A humanitarian…
A political thinker posited that politics is a concentric circle of conspiracies. It is such a conspiratorial game that while statesmen worry about development to cater for the present and coming generations, politicians are busy scheming how to retain power, return to power, or gain power. Nigerian politicians could pass as the worst hue to be found anywhere. They bend the rules and violate the laws with impunity just to attain this stated private objectives. For about a year now, the name of the former President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has been popping up here and there whenever…
My people, The urgent need for Ndigbo of voting age to all register and be ready to vote if indeed we are serious about producing the Nigerian President in 2023 provided the motivation for writing you this letter. This is now an idea whose time has come. After the end of the Nigeria-Biafra Civil war in January 1970, political apathy soon made its bed in the South East Nigeria. Despondency fueled by escalating political marginalization and deliberate and even constitutional exclusion of Ndigbo from the nation’s power politics all combined to keep the morale ebbing in the South East. We…
This Tuesday, Engr. Dave Nweze Umahi, the PDP governor of Ebonyi State, told his party leadership that paid him a courtesy visit that he was heading to the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, APC. That ended the speculation that the Chairman of the South-East Governors Forum was defecting from his party to another. Governor Umahi told the PDP leadership his reason… “I am heading to the APC where the South East 2023 interest would be (better) served.” This is a deft political move requiring political courage and conviction but nonetheless controversial. The South East has been a traditional stronghold…
The 4th day of October, 2020, will go down in the history of University of Nigeria Nsukka, as a day the apex citadel of learning witnessed a major intervention in addressing its infrastructure deficits. It was the day the groundbreaking for the building of an ultramodern International Research Centre donated by the Marcel Ofomata Foundation to the university took place. The epochal event was overseen by the Institution’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Charles A. Igwe. Speaking at the ceremony, the Founder of the Marcel Ofomata Foundation, Dr. Amaechi Marcel Ofomata said; “Today, the Marcel Ofomata Foundation is laying a foundation for the…
