Ishaq Kunle Sanni and his warped view about Aregbesola/Oyetola feud

By Ismail Omipidan

I have just finished reading Alhaji Ishaq Kunle Sanni’s beautiful piece titled “Wanted: A Jubril Aminu in Tinubu’s Government.” From the title, one would think that the piece is merely an advocacy or a call for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration to treat South-West Muslims with some modicum of respect and dignity by placing them in some strategic positions that would enable them serve both the government and humanity.

Like many Muslims from the South-West, I too believe that Tinubu’s administration has not treated the Ummah from this region fairly or justly, especially considering the significant role we played in the political battle that led to his emergence as president.

However, while the marginalisation of the South-West Muslims by the Tinubu’s administration remains very glaring, we must also acknowledge our own shortcomings. We have not helped our cause through our persistent lack of organisation. Too often, we pursue personal interests rather than a collective agenda. Until we shift from agonising to organising, and from fragmentation to unity, we will continue to face this challenge.

I recall when the appointment of Dr. Charles Akinola was announced as the MD of South-West Development Commission, President Tinubu and my former principal, H. E Oyetola, was taken to task by some of the South-West muslims. None, however, remembered that Dr. Akinola, who had served Oyetola as Chief of Staff, played a leading role in the establishment of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission for regional integration.

I am aware that he chaired the Technical Committee of the South-West Development Commission, under the South-West Governors’ Forum. He led the review of the SWDC Bill and coordinated regional consensus on development priorities. Therefore, as I argued then, and still maintain now, it is only natural that he should be given the opportunity to drive the project, now that it has materialised.

Not many agreed with me at the time. Some saw my position as a mere defense of President Tinubu and my former principal. That’s fine. However, it will not stop me from addressing the issues raised by my elder, Alhaji Ishaq Kunle Sanni, particularly his claim that President Tinubu was the architect of the feud between Aregbesola and Oyetola.

Egbon, I know that you are usually emotional and sentimental when it comes to matters concerning Aregbesola. That’s human and you can be forgiven for that, but please, let us always be guided by the dictum: opinion is free, but facts are sacred. You were in the delegation of the Muslim Ummah South West Nigeria (MUSWEN) that visited Oyetola all in attempt to resolve the rift. Given what you heard during that solemn and sincere engagement, how can you, in good conscience, come out in public to assert that Tinubu was the architect of the rift between Oyetola and Aregbesola? Fear Allah. Let us be truthful, even when it’s difficult.

As a journalist and later as an insider, here are the things I know: One, from day one, Aregbesola’s agenda the moment he became Osun State Governor was to see how he would emerge the defacto South-West political leader. This was the reason he embarked on so many ambitious programmes and projects including attempting to re-construct a road from Orile-Owu, in Osun State to Ogun State.

Two, Aregbesola had openly declared to all who cared to listen that Oyetola’s tenure would be his ‘third term,’ confidently assuring outgoing cabinet members that the majority of them would return. In line with this assertion, he went ahead to appoint a Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and a Chief of Staff (CoS) for Oyetola. Whether deliberate or coincidental, both nominees were Muslims from the Osun West Senatorial District of Osun State, a state where Aregbesola himself had previously recognised the rights of traditional worshippers, a gesture you, Alhaji Sanni, justified and applauded to high heavens at the time.

While Oyetola rejected the choice of CoS because according to him, such a critical position must be filled by someone he personally knew well and trusted for competence and capacity, he had little choice over that of the SSG. Ironically, the SSG-designate, who was the serving Speaker of the State Assembly at the time, could not resign his position to accept the appointment. Instead, he nominated a placeholder, Wole Oyebamiji, a respected broadcaster and committed progressive. As fate would have it, the placeholder ended up serving out the full term, while the former Speaker eventually secured a lucrative federal appointment.

Three, in the heat of the crisis, a crucial meeting was convened in Ila, which was attended by Tinubu, Oyetola, Aregbesola, and Baba Bisi Akande. Aregbesola was the custodian of that meeting’s proceedings. He prepared the clean copy of the major decisions reached at that meeting and forwarded it to Baba Akande. But the question remains: did Aregbesola ever abide by any of those resolutions? Let him answer that truthfully.

Four, in 2020 when Aregbesola and Senator Ajibola Basiru, the current APC National Secretary were planning to celebrate what they referred to as “10 years of unbroken progressive rule in Osun,” as Oyetola’s spokesperson at the time, I was advised by him to steer clear of the matter. However, as a political communication strategist, I understood the implications. I knew that allowing that to happen would rub off on his image as a sitting governor, considering that what they were planning coincided with our own second year in office. We were billed to travel. I feigned ill, and pleaded with my then principal that I wouldn’t be available. Once he left the state, I went to work to expose the hypocrisy and inconsistencies in the planned 10th year anniversary.

For instance, when Aregbesola’s spokesperson, Sola Fasure was first asked about the proposed celebration, he had said: “Yes, he (Aregbesola) is planning to cel­ebrate ( 10th year anniversary) it. This is the 10th an­niversary of bringing in pro­gressive government to Osun. That includes eight years of his own tenure and two years of the (Oyetola) current administra­tion. Is there anything wrong with that? Sincerely, I don’t even think we should be de­bating that.”

But following my intervention, he tried to modify his position the next day, saying “The Minister is coming principally to carry out the presidential directive that all cabinet members should go back to their respective states and engage the governor, youths and other critical stakeholders on the issue of security challenges we face in the country, especially on #EndSARS.

“He has written to the Governor to inform him that he will be in Osun and that his coming coincides with the 10th anniversary of the return of the All Progressives Congress administration in Osun.”

As we can see, in one breath, Fasure said his principal was coming to celebrate the 10th anniversary of bringing of progressive government to Osun. In another breath, he said his boss was coming to carry out presidential directive on #EndSARS matter. Haba!

By the way, was progressive government really 10 years old in Osun at the time? Were they saying Baba Akande’s four years’ administration was not part of progressive government in the state?

At any rate, the letter being referenced by Fasure was sent the same day he rushed to press to make his first claim, which was a clear case of an afterthought.

Anyway, in the end, I understood that Tinubu had impressed it on Aregbesola to hold his anniversary, but it should not be when Oyetola was marking his second year anniversary. So, how in all of these, can any sane mind claim that Tinubu was the architect of Oyetola/ Aregbesola feud?. Egbon Sanni, I want to believe you are one of those who were in a vantage position to pull Aregbesola back, when he was heading in the wrong direction. Now, I know why Aregbesola strayed. May Allah lead us all to the right path and not the path of those that have gone astray.

While I agree with Egbon Sanni that we need a Jubril Aminu in Tinubu’s government, the point I am making is, if we must deal with the case of marginalisation of the South-West Muslims, let’s deal with it squarely and not hide under one finger to attempt to paint Aregbesola as a hero, while presenting Oyetola and Tinubu as villains. Ko le work, sir.

Ishaq Kunle Sanni and his warped view about Aregbesola/Oyetola feud

THE IMPERIALISM OF FOREIGN RELIGIONS BY AUSTIN ORETTE

By: Austin Orette

While Africans opine about imperialism of the west and others, the least talked about and the most lethal of all the isms, is the imperialism of religion in African society.

We can criticize our tribes; we can criticize our politicians and politics but the moment we try to examine the role of religion in our backwardness we are considered pariahs. Soon or later a death decree or fatua is issued. Why is it so? What is so special about religion that cannot be criticized?

All over the world, religion has led to the death of many. Any comment on religion that is not in good light is considered blasphemy and the penalty is death. Why this and why Africans should kill each other because of foreign religions. How did these religions enter our society with so many disregards for the life of the African? I have thought about this and came to the conclusion that the fear that religions impose on its adherents in Africa is not only the fear of hell fire but also the fear of physical harm and social ostracism.

How did foreign religions become so powerful to supplant our cultures and assume primacy of place that we are willing to torture and fillet our neighbors because he does not agree with our concept of God? The two religions tearing Nigeria apart are Islam and Christianity. The homeland of these religions has no respect for the humanity of black people. These religions were the tools used to enslave black people and still use to this day to discriminate against black people in the Western and Islamic world.

The practitioners of Islam and Christianity in Africa will form a common cause to kill on behalf of the religion of these invaders. We see all these anomalies in these religions, but our people have been severely and thoroughly mentally enslaved that they are blind to these realities. They are blind to these abominations and continue to revere these foreign gods whose goodness is bestowed on Caucasians or Arabs only. They ravaged and desecrated Africa and the African people and we stupidly believe that their god that told them the African was inferior, and worthy of slavery is also our God. Until we abolish the imperialism of religion in Africa and Nigeria in particular, we are going nowhere with our so-called independence. The reason we cannot criticize these religions is a carryover from their homelands. When the religions were practiced by the villagers and so-called primitive people, it was okay to throw these primitive people into the lion’s den. When the kings adopted these religions for their political survival, it became sacrosanct to criticize these religions because doing so became equivalent to criticizing the king. The king was the church, and the church was the king. These religions became tools of conquest. The penalty for criticizing the king was death. This is how religion became sacrosanct. The king could do no wrong because the king was God. The adoption of any religion by the reigning monarch was the quickest way to spread any religion in early times. The Monarch is converted, and all his subjects are decreed to follow suit.

In Africa, attempts to convert kings were rebuffed and the king was overthrown, killed or exiled. The Western societies dug themselves out of this conundrum. They fought many wars, and Europe became scattered all over the World. A nation called America was born. America looked to the ills of Europe and distilled a blueprint of a society that is not beholden to religion. In America you are free to practice your religion, but the state cannot establish or practice a religion or impose any religion on you. Their constitution has stood them well and the old countries of Europe have gradually ceded their monarchies and religion to the personal realm. In fashioning the American constitution, the good Christians there still considered the African an inferior being that was only three fifths human. This is how far the western religion went in denigrating the African. Islam did worse. The only difference is that the Arab world has done so much to hide their brutality against the African. The Arab world is still under various monarchies and Islam is the religion of the Monarchs. Like their western counterparts, the Monarch is Islam, and any criticism of the king is the criticism of Islam. This is the reason why the crown prince of Saudi Arabia sent murderers to kill Khashoggi, who criticized him in Turkey. Since the King is Islam and Islam is the king, why has the Arab world not issued any decree that prohibits discrimination against Africans.

A stroll through any Arab city will tell the African he is not wanted. This is why I will prefer the west any day. They have made attempts to enact laws against discrimination. No such laws in the Arab world. In the Western world the people may be racist, but the system is being refined not to be. In the Islamic world, the people and their system are racist. It has been observed that during the hajj, punitive conditions are rolled out for those attending from black Africa. It is obvious that they only want the money. Don’t pay attention to the feigned nicety of their big cities.

As I observed earlier, in the Arab world, there is no difference between Islam and the state because the monarch is Islam. So, the concept of separation of the state and religion is still in the horizon (and the future when the church or the state will become so corrupted that people will cry and fight for reformation). It is already happening in Yemen. It is this system that is called Sharia that Muslims in Nigeria want to impose on Nigeria. They forget that Nigeria, unlike the Arab world, is a plural society.

Inspite of all these clear observations, Nigerians are at war with each other to prove the superiority of their imported religions. This is not a religion that originated in Africa. Why are we the ones to keep alive the religions that are dying in their homelands? The imperialism of religion has forced the African, who is a loving being to become the blood thirsty and bloodletting tool of western and Arab imperialism.

It is time we begin to jettison these foreign religions and rely on the culture that saw Africans through the travails of foreign invaders who introduced their gods to us without recognizing our humanity. Nobody should tell us about our divinity except us. Any explanation of our divinity by non-African (the so-called pastors and Imams) will always be fraudulent. This is why they don’t respect us. They cannot believe we worship their gods’ inspite of what they did to us in the name of their gods. Call it Christianity or Islam, they cannot talk more about God and love more than Orissa. This is a call for Africans to remove themselves from the worship of these foreign gods whose holy books were used to enslave the people of God that live in Africa. Until we take this drastic step, the African will always be a creature of pity and contempt. He will always be seen as a slave by the west and a kaffir by the Arabs.

Austin Orette, a physician, lives in Texas, USA

THE IMPERIALISM OF FOREIGN RELIGIONS BY AUSTIN ORETTE

WALL OF HATRED, EMBELLISHED BIAFRA STORIES AND LIES

BY AUSTIN ORETTE

I don’t enjoy replying to these incendiary and caustic postings of Biafrans. For us to move forward, someone has to do it. All the blame for Biafra must go to those who started Biafra and are still in denial to this day and blames everyone who has any observation to the contrary.

Today, we are witnessing another bellicose nation deny its responsibility in drawing destruction unto itself. Israel started a war and it is blaming Iran for its destruction. This is the corollary of the Biafra separatist. They declared a war on Nigeria and since they lost, they blame everyone but themselves. The generation that declared Biafra is dying away. Soon most of those who were the actors in Biafra will be gone. Instead of the bitterness ebbing away, a thick wall of hatred is being erected because that generation that fought, are handing over embellished stories and lies to their children who are not interested in reexamining their positions and reappraising their stagnant thinking about the war and the issues that led to the war. We are familiar with the fact that truth is the first casualty of war. The Nigerian civil war is not an exception in this regard. For some reasons, the proponents of Biafra will want us to believe that they have the monopoly of the truth. This gentleman saying Gowon lied should revisit Biafra without his acidic temperament. His remarks against Gowon should not go unchallenged. His remarks are wrong, self-serving and crude and devoid of historical accuracy.

Nigeria did not declare war on Biafra. It was Biafra that declared war on Nigeria. Gowon was a very reluctant warrior. He didn’t want brothers to spill brothers’ blood. He tried everything including granting a lot of concessions to Ojukwu in order to avoid the war. He was a man of peace. The proponents of Biafra always hang on to Aburi as if there was nothing happening in Nigeria before Aburi. It is very disturbing to see people so clear eyed about Aburi but they are amnestic about what led to Aburi. If the Igbos had declared Biafra and stayed in their enclave, the story of Nigeria would have been different. After they declared Biafra, they invaded the Midwest Region and deposed Gov David Ejoor and appointed a Biafran as the governor. The people of the Midwest region saw hell and mayhem during the three months that the Biafrans occupied the Midwest Region. They conscripted people into the Biafran Army, raided Banks and killed those who refused to join Biafra. It was on their way to Ore that they were pushed back by federal troops that were hurriedly assembled. The three months of the occupation of the Midwest region by the Biafrans was hell on earth for the citizens of the Midwest region who were under the Biafran military occupation.

Since the Proponents of Biafra always take Aburi as the beginning and end of everything, I will try to examine this Aburi for all to see. The Biafrans to this day have never accepted that they were the aggressors. They have handed erroneous history to their children. This is the deliberate ploy to hide their gross negligence. They have used their propaganda machine to populate the whole s system with lies and innuendos. In a twist unknown to them, these lies have become a prison to their uninformed generations. This is the reason why the generation that was not alive during that war always speaks with anger and crudity. Nnamdi Kanu actually used Aburi to justify his aggression towards the Nigerian state. It is time we point them to the accurate history and pull away the blanket of lies that have given them comfort in their infamy. When a sitting senator can mount a podium and malign an elder statesman, like Gowon, then nothing is sacrosanct. It is time Nigerians tell the Biafrans that their whole existence is a big lie generated by those who led them into the wrong alley. The sooner they jettison these lies and form a common course with other Nigerians, the better it will be for them. Their perpetual cry for Biafra is fraudulent and based on lies. They should be made to understand that they brought Nigeria to this nadir.

In this discourse, we may be forced to delve into their uncivilized behavior that made them to cripple the Nigerian state through murder and mayhem. The Igbo man in Nigeria is not a victim. He is a perpetrator. They owe Nigeria apology for the disruption they caused the Nigerian state.

Aburi was a place for cessation of hostilities. No one sent Gowon to Aburi to rewrite the Nigerian constitution that was overthrown by the Igbo officers. For the Igbos to always try to convince everyone that Aburi was the beginning and the end of their bellicosity is a big lie. They have told this lie over and over that they are beginning to see it as the truth and they have wrapped this lie with all kinds of mythology. Why Aburi? This place was chosen because Ojukwu said he was not safe in any place in Nigeria. Fair enough. If Ojukwu had insisted on return to the status quo ante, maybe things would’ve been different. If you look at the body language of Ojukwu and Gowon during those meetings, you can see that Gowon was very pliant. He was ready to do anything to avoid that war. It was Ojukwu who came with cautery of lawyers and made impossible demands. The Igbos forgot that we had a constitution that guaranteed regional autonomy that was abrogated by Aguyi Ironsi who also abolished the regions and introduced the unitary system that started Nigeria on this perilous path. I am always amazed when the South-East people refuse to acknowledge the role they played in ushering Nigeria to our present hell. Ojukwu studied history at Oxford. He must have known what befall a people who lose wars. Instead of negotiating for ceasefire in Aburi, he came with a team of lawyers to rewrite a constitution of Nigeria in another land. We had a constitution which was overthrown in a coup by Igbo officers. Why is it difficult for the Igbos to understand that Ojukwu had no means to enforce any agreement? This is the core issues that the Biafrans have refused to understand to this day. I have always said these actors were very young. It is not out of place to ascribe some of their actions to youthful exuberance. The more I read about Aburi, the more I find out that Ojukwu was more interested in headlines and his Oxford credentials which were impressive and were highly blown in foreign newspapers. The foreigners were not going to fight his war. What Ojukwu and his lawyers demanded at Aburi were not anything within the power of Gowon. All the things Ojukwu asked for can only be addressed in a parliament of the Nigerian people. There was no parliament. Those who were in the know when Gowon returned made it clear to Gowon that what he negotiated with Ojukwu were not within his powers. Any attempt to make the Igbos to understand that what Ojukwu got from Aburi is not tenable and will not be accepted by the rest of Nigeria fell on deaf ears. Since then they developed the Mantra, “On Aburi We stand “. I will repeat, no one sent two soldiers to another country to rewrite the Nigerian constitution. Nigerians refused to succumb to this blackmail by the Igbos.

There were other negotiations. There was Arusha and there was Kampala. Biafra had no legitimacy and wherewithal to enforce their one-sided accord. The rest is history. In the overall scheme of things, Aburi is a non-issue. Did Ojukwu have any negotiations with Adaka Boro who declared Niger Delta Republic? Boro was captured and sentenced to death. Why was this so? It was so because Ojukwu and Ironsi had the power to nullify Boro’s Niger Delta Republic, and they did. If you juxtapose this, we can say Gowon had the power to nullify Biafra and he did. The myopia of the Biafrans is a deliberate affliction. Let us move forward.

DR AUSTIN A. ORETTE IS A FAMIL MEDICINE DOCTOR IN HOUSTON, TEXAS. HE RECEIVED HIS MEDICAL DEGREE FROM UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA

WALL OF HATRED, EMBELLISHED BIAFRA STORIES AND LIES