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1966 Coup:What is important for Nigeria at this stage is National Reconciliation and Healing-Senator  Umeh

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1 year ago

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Senator Victor Umeh, chairman, Senate C'ttee on National Population and Identity Card, representing Anambra Central.
Senator Victor Umeh, Chairman Senate committee on National Population and Identity Card, representing Anambra Central district in the Senate has stressed the need for a national reconciliation and healing.
In this interview with IGNATIUS OKOROCHA, Senator Umeh who reflected on the content of General Babangida recent book challenged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to accord a National Honour on the former INEC chairman, Prof.Humphrey Nwosu while asking him to find a way to pacify the Igbos for the huge loss they sustained during the 1966 civil war.
 He speaks on the upcoming National census, and other issues of national importance.
Excerpt:
Former Nigeria’s military dictator, in his book which he recently launched in Abuja, gave insight into the 1966 coup, clarifying that it was not Igbo coup. What is your take on his position?
Well, I believe that what is very important for Nigeria at this stage is a national reconciliation and healing. You know, Babangida’s book was a very great book that he wrote, apart from bringing out the facts even against himself in the annulment of the June 12th presidential election, which he  accepted responsibility, but also said that he was wrong in what he did. He was also able to make fundamental statements as a young military officer then about what happened in the civil war, what led to the civil war, particularly the first coup of January 15, 1966. It was able to bring out what myself had known previously because I worked with General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu when he was National Leader of APGA and I was National Chairman of APGA. I worked very closely with him for five years, and most of these things I already had them in my knowledge. That coup was not an Igbo coup. The way Babangida posited in his own book, the account he gave of the coup is something that is open even for unbiased minds to have come to terms with it a long time ago. But because of maybe the casualties of that coup, people have not averted their minds to the concrete undeniable facts that the same coup was crushed by Igbo people. Ojukwu was in Kano then and he didn’t agree with the coup. And when he spoke with Major Nzeogwu, he was a Lieutenant Colonel then; so he was a  senior officer to Nzeogwu, he disagreed with them, the same Ojukwu that later led Biafra.
From why we struck by Colonel Ben Gbulie, he said it clearly. He put down the names of these other people who were involved in the coup who were not Igbos, who were from Western Nigeria. General Babangida in his book, wrote their names and the commands they led in the coup execution. So, it was not the intention of the coupists as told by the people themselves including Col. Ben Gbulie, their intention was to bring Awolowo out of the Calabar prison because they, the revolutionarists, the officers of that time, were not happy with the government of the day. They felt that Awolowo was a more progressive person than the people in authority. So, they were planning a better society for Nigeria to make Awolowo an ideal President and head of state, but their coup failed and because their failed, what could you now say? So, I’ve seen a lot of people writing in reaction to what Babangida said. Someone who has been head of state of Nigeria for eight years, and he was chief of army staff at some point. So, he went through the army and they had knowledge both classified information about everything that happened during the war. So, he gave that statement as a patriotic Nigerian to speak the truth even though they are being punished because of that coup. We have lost so much because of that coup and it was because of misdirection and misrepresentation. There was never a time the Igbo people met and decided to organize a coup. More than anything, the coup set Eastern region backwards because at the time the coup took place Eastern region was one of the leading economies in the world. Dr. Michael Okpara was doing great work. In Western Nigeria, the Western Nigerian government was doing marvelously well. Things were going well even in the North. Agricultural produce was helping the economy of Northern Nigeria. Groundnut pyramids, cotton, all these things have all gone because of that coup that led to the the second coup that brought Gowon, and Gowon divided Nigeria into 12 states, destroyed the four regions we had. His his own coup came because even with the January 15, 1966 coup, Nigeria was still four regions. There were military administrators appointed when General Ironsi became the head of state. So, he had military people as heads of governments of the four regions until Gowon dissolved the four regions and created 12 states in 1967. So, that is what happened and that is our history. So from that Gowon dividing Nigeria into 12 states, the orgy of creating more states and local governments by the military continued that today we have 36 states and 774 local governments, with the few divisions we had under the first Republic so people should be able to know how things happened and Babangida did a great job by bringing out some of the silent truths. He fought in the army and he spoke about his own experience, a close show with death. So I commend him again for that, for putting the record straight. Those who are controverting him now cannot say that Igbo officers that took part and killed Igbo officers were killed in the coup of Nzeogwu. Igbo people were killed, Igbo officers killed Igbo officers, showing that it was a national revolution not targeted at any tribe; otherwise Chris Anuforo that I later met in my life couldn’t have killed Lieutenant Colonel Unebe. You know he’s an Igbo man. So this was young officers who want to execute their conviction and it turned out the way it did. So I pray that those who lost their lives in all this thing that God rest their souls and give Nigeria a healing spirit so that we can put our past behind. You know they don’t teach history in the colleges now, in the secondary schools in the curriculum. But Babangida brought out his book that has become almost an encyclopedia of history, that nobody can throw away. It was written by a man who was involved and who was the head of state of Nigeria who has played so great roles in shaping the future of Nigeria the way it is whether good or bad. So my soul is uplifted reading from Babangida, that the 1966 was not a coup by the Igbo people for selfish interests of the Igbo nation of Nigeria. These were people who were in the army, who had their own ideas of how things would be. They weren’t carrying out the coup to go and make an Igbo man the head of state. So if the coup had gone through and Awolowo was brought out and put as head of state of Nigeria, maybe the Igbos would have been spared the onslaught and the ethnic cleansing would have been subjected both in public and military life in this country. So, what I am asking for now is that with this account and the truth revealed conscience is an open wound and only the truth can heal it. If they know all those things they denied the Igbo people because of that coup, they should begin to make adjustments and know that the Igbos did not organise any coup to make the Igbo people in Nigeria dominate over others. What the Igbos have had as part of them is their hard work; their adventurous spirit of commerce and business. Since the war ended despite all the discriminations put on our way and the marginalization that followed the structural imbalance in Nigeria, occasioned by the military creation of states and local governments, the Igbos have continued to move on despite the privileges they are denied as citizens of Nigeria.
So, there is need for reunion and reintegration of the Igbos into Nigeria particularly in the area of Science. The Biafran engineers and scientists developed weapons of mass destruction. But because that these were done by the Igbo people, that ingenuity and  inventions were allowed to relax and waste when the war ended. So the scientists that built these weapons of mass destruction were rather put under watch. They have all died and I know that Nigeria lost because necessity is the mother of all inventions. As soon as the war ended and Gowon made a historic speech of no victor no vanquished, he would have gone for those Biafran scientists. He would have sent them abroad, if he was thinking properly, though most of them trained abroad in good universities and became Biafran engineers. He would have sent them on advanced courses and now Nigeria would have had nuclear weapons. They died poor because most of the things they would have done because of their education, they were denied all those things. They were placed under watch by the successive regimes in Nigeria until they died. So that is a loss the nation has suffered.
The present government is proposing to conduct a census and now you are the Chairman of the Senate Committee on population. How is your Committee working in liaison with the appropriate agency?
No, I just took over as Chairman of that Committee on the 4th of February, when the Senate President made the changes. The process is on. To get brief and all that, the Chairman of the National Population Commission has come here on a courtesy visit to familiarise himself with the new leadership. And step by step, we’ll be able to discuss, to know what their programs are. I intend to call him again to meet the committee. Even though he has met with the Committee, under the previous Chairman, the Senior Senator Abdul Mingi, we are yet to meet as a Committee. So, when he gets ready with his programs, he’ll come back. Remember, they just did their budget defense before these changes were made. So we’re working with that budget, which has been approved. But in that budget, there is no provision for census in 2025. But I know that the President, if he wants the census to be conducted, he has the opportunity to bring a supplementary budget, to accommodate the census Or he has a service-wide vote from where he can dip his hands and fund the census, if need be. So, but everything will depend on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria accepting that the census shall take place. And he will make a declaration. The law, the Constitution requires that you should make a declaration that there shall be census. So, we went to him. His programs will determine what happens next. But the preparations will continue to go on until a formal declaration is made by the President.
Nigeria has not conducted a census for decades. What is Nigeria going to gain by conducting it now, and what has the country lost for not conducting it all these years?
Census is very important for planning. A nation that does not know the number of human beings living inside that nation cannot make adequate provisions for the needs of the people; so census will give you the demographic data: age brackets of each part of the population, people between one day and maybe 10 years and so on and so forth. You graduate it over and you have a data with which you can now make specific provision to look after those people. You now know the number of old men and women living in Nigeria who require special care people who have become vulnerable as a result of old age. Then the children who are of school age how to provide for their educational needs. So, it’s not sufficient for you to continue to say Nigeria is above 200 million people and they continue to budget for above 200 million people you may be under providing because the critical segments in the population may not be adequately because you don’t know how many there are you understand so population census is a very important thing to do in any country and you know you keep updating it the law we have is that you do census every 10 years every 10 years you update your population you do another census to know how many people who have died, how many people have moved from this age bracket to another. You continue to do that, and it will help government in its planning. So that’s why census is very important. Some people have tended to say that census is also needed for election purposes. Well, that you know the number of people in Nigeria is one thing, but not everybody who is a Nigerian or who is captured in the population on the census exercise can want to vote or register to be a voter. So, the electoral register maintained by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is different from the number of people living in Nigeria. So, you may have people eligible to vote. There may be about, say, 100 million people, and only about 80 million people register to get their voter’s card to be able to participate in the election. So, these things are distinguishable, and census can take place at any time. The one that will be used to conduct the election will be the one INEC has in its register of voters.
The recent drama that happened on February 20, 2025, on the floor of the Senate between Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan over change of sitting position, has  brought a serious embarrassment to the Senate and Nigeria at large. How do you feel about the whole scenario?
The Nigerian media can never, both social media and the conventional media, they have refused to focus on positive things happening in Nigeria. The only thing they draw up is something they think they can use to do sensational headlines. It doesn’t help. The Senate has a Standing rule, and it was read out. I wasn’t in the plenary on that day. I was away on duty in Lagos. I went to attend a major stakeholders meeting organized by the Federal Ministry of Works. People in the building material manufacturing sector. So myself and my Chairman, we all went there with our colleague in the House of Representatives to be part of the dialogue and conversation to see what we can do to help to bring down the prices of building materials in Nigeria, to be able to enhance production of affordable housing for Nigerians. But the costs have gone all out of reach. Both cement, sand and even labor. So, we went for that exercise, and this thing happened on Thursday the 20th of February.
I’ve seen the clips, and it’s something, as an elder person now, I will tell you that that outburst was unnecessary. The Senate Standing Rule is another book that is there. It gives the power for allocation of seats to members to the President of the Senate. And it empowers him to also change the seats at different times. And this one was the case of two members of the left side of the aisle, that is the opposition side, defecting to that side. And the Senate abhors open seats. In any side. So, once somebody moves, there must be closing of gaps. It has happened before. So, I think for some reason I could not understand, our sister decided to make case out of it. But our rule is also that you don’t speak when you are not on your seat assigned to you. If you’re not on your seat, the President of the Senate will not recognize you to speak. And when she refused to go to the seat allocated to her and wanted to speak, the Senate President rightly ignored her and said you cannot speak because you’re not on your seat. Go to your seat and then address me. He was quoting Order 10 which deals with  outside your seat. So, if she had gone to the seat given to her and then shout Order 10,  privileges, the Senate President would have listened to her. So, it was a case of not observing the rules and decided to make a case out of actually something I didn’t consider necessary. And that was the attack and the whole media picked it and gave it all kinds of colorations and so on and so forth. The Senate President did not ask them to move Natasha to a particular seat. It was the agreement done by the Sergeant-at-Arms with the Senate Services Committee. It has happened to me. I was in the U.S last year in Houston attending OTC, Oil and Technological Conference, and the Senate President called me by himself. And I answered. He said, please, that he would like to swap my seat with that of Senator Fadaunsi. I was sitting at the edge of the aisle. Fadaunsi was sitting inside. And he told me, for medical reasons, that they would like me to go inside and Fadaunsi would go to the aisle to enable him to move out anytime he wanted to move out urgently. I told him, with all pleasure, do that. What is in it where you sit? So, I now sit inside, away from where I was located. I didn’t make any fuse out of it because he told me in advance. Later on, some people started arranging it again, and I was amazed. I don’t struggle for such things because if you are there, that chamber, there’s no place to sit that you cannot be sighted by the presiding officer. If you have anything to do, if the Senate President is not catching you when you want to make a major contribution, you can now rely on Order 10 privileges which require that every Senator shall be heard. On matters of debate. So, that’s it. I would like you to help to diffuse the tension. Now, what happened, the Senate President was absolutely right in the way he conducted the proceedings of the Senate on that day. And our sister, we’ve also tried to counsel her. People have talked to her, myself, I’ve also sent her a message, you know, to calm down. And in the Parliament, you have to follow the rules of the parliament. If there are things that you do not like, there are alternative ways of addressing them. You can go and seek private audience with the Senate President after the day’s session, and go and tell him things that you didn’t like that happened. I know Senator Akpabio, you cover our proceedings. He is a very jovial person. He can make joke out of anything, even when you think that he will come out strong hitting you, he will laugh and make joke against you and move on. He’s not somebody who carries such things to extreme level. Now, the Senate has suspended her based on the investigation, findings and recommendations of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions. It came to that point because of her later actions and unwillingness to show remorse. However, I believe she will learn a big lesson from the development and come out stronger as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It’s also a lesson for all of us Senators and indeed Nigerians. As I said earlier, we have a rule book which provides guidelines for our conduct. We cannot be making laws for Nigerians and refuse to adhere to our own internal rules. That’s all I can say about that.
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Politics

APC withdraws petition challenging Gov.Adeleke’s Victory

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22 hours ago

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September 8, 2026

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Gov Ademola Adeleke of Osun state

By Our Correspondent

In dramatic twice the All Progressives Congress (APC) has filed an application seeking to withdraw the petition challenging the victory of Governor Ademola Adeleke.

The withdrawal came amid conflicting positions within the party’s legal team over whether the
APC had authorised the petition challenging the outcome of the August 15 governorship election.

Daily Champion reports that the APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, challenged the outcome of the August 15, 2026, Osun Gubernatorial elections.

The APC’s petition, marked EPT/OS/GOV/01/2026, which was filed by its governorship candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, listed Adeleke, the Accord, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as respondents in the petition challenging the election outcome.

Meanwhile, a Notice of Motion to Withdraw Petition dated September 8, 2026, filed by a counsel for APC, Barrister Oluseyi Oyagbile, before the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, indicated the petitioners’ decision to discontinue the case.

The document seeks an order of the tribunal permitting the petitioners to withdraw the election petition.

However, an APC legal team led by Abiodun Layonu, SAN, had earlier disowned the petition, insisting that the party and its candidate had decided not to challenge Adeleke’s victory at the tribunal.

Also, the APC campaign council distanced itself from reports claiming that its governorship candidate, Oyebamiji (AMBO), filed a petition challenging the outcome of the August 15, 2026 governorship election at the Election Petition Tribunal.

A statement made available by the campaign spokesperson, said, “We state categorically that neither the All Progressives Congress ( APC) nor its governorship candidate, Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji (AMBO) filed any petition at the tribunal challenging the outcome of the August 15 governorship election.

“The purported claim is therefore completely untrue and should be regarded as nothing more than a rumour being circulated by individuals seeking to mislead members of the public and create unnecessary tension.

“We urge members of the public, supporters of our great party and the media to discountenance the claim and refrain from giving credibility to unverified information designed to cause confusion.

“The APC and Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji remain committed to lawful and democratic processes and will continue to act responsibly in the interest of peace, stability and the good people of Osun State.

“We urge the public to rely only on official statements from the APC and the Campaign Council on matters concerning the party, its candidate and the outcome of the August 15 governorship election.”

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Politics

APC chieftain demands probe, prosecution of Atiku over $40M, SIEMENS, SPV allegations

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23 hours ago

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September 8, 2026

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By Our Correspondent

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ntufam Hilliard Eta, has called on the nation’s anti-corruption agencies to fully investigate allegations and petitions against former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and prosecute him if evidence establishes any criminal offence.
Addressing journalists in Abuja on Tuesday at the APC National Secretariat, Eta said the call was driven by the principle of accountability, not political considerations.
He stressed that public office must never become a shield against scrutiny and that political ambition should not stop institutions from acting on credible allegations.
The APC chieftain said he was not asking for a conviction in the court of public opinion, but that the evidence be subjected to the process of court of law. “That distinction is fundamental,” he stated.
Eta referenced a petition reportedly received by the EFCC on September 1, 2026, calling for the reopening of financial-crime allegations against Atiku dating back to investigations conducted around 2005-2006.
He also cited renewed discussions around a 2010 United States Senate report on suspicious financial transactions.
Eta noted that while the report was not a criminal conviction, the allegations contained in it were serious enough to warrant examination by Nigerian authorities.
According to him, the first set of allegations concern the movement of more than US$40 million in suspect funds into the United States between 2000 and 2008 through offshore corporations linked to Jennifer Douglas, Atiku’s wife. The Senate report said about US$25 million was transferred into U.S. accounts opened by Douglas.
The second allegation concerns payments connected to Siemens AG. Eta said the Senate report stated that Douglas received at least US$1.7 million in alleged bribe payments, while an SEC civil complaint alleged US$2.8 million in bribe payments from Siemens.
He stressed that these were allegations contained in historical records, not convictions.
Third, Eta mentioned questions over approximately US$14 million transferred by offshore corporations to American University for consulting services related to the university’s establishment in Nigeria, as examined in the Senate report.
He also listed allegations of the use of Special Purpose Vehicles, SPVs, to divert public funds during Atiku’s tenure as Vice-President from 1999 to 2007. These resurfaced in 2023 following claims by Michael Achimugu and a petition by Festus Keyamo to the EFCC, ICPC and CCB.
Other allegations, he said, border on money laundering, criminal breach of trust, criminal misappropriation, conspiracy and possible violations of the Code of Conduct, as well as questions concerning accounts associated with Marine Float and other companies.
Eta argued that allowing allegations of this magnitude to become mere political ammunition during an election season is dangerous and he said the same standard of accountability must apply to government and opposition figures alike.
He therefore called on the EFCC and other competent authorities to examine every credible petition, obtain relevant records, invite appropriate persons and “follow the money” without fear or favour.
“A serious democracy asks: Was a crime committed? Is there admissible evidence? If yes, prosecution should follow. If no, the matter should be closed,” Eta said, adding, “No sacred cows. No political immunity. No selective justice. Just evidence, due process and the law.”

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Politics

Nigerian Politics Becoming Less Violent, Says Gov Diri As CBM Holds Bayelsa Retreat

Published

23 hours ago

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September 8, 2026

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By David Owei

Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, has observed that the political arena in Nigeria was shifting from violence and intimidation to knowledge-based politics.

Speaking during the State Working Committee Retreat of the City Boy Movement (CBM) in Yenagoa, Governor Diri lauded the socio-political group for leading the paradigm shift, insisting that politics should never be about violence.

He noted that while the CBM had been vocal about the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in next year’s election, he urged its members to work with the structures of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state and at the national level.

The Bayelsa governor described the movement as strategic and advised it to go beyond social media advocacy to grassroots mobilisation.

Explaining why he pitched tents with the APC, Diri recalled how President Tinubu supported the state’s development by approving the construction of the second phase of the Nembe-Brass road and that he also granted waivers for the state’s imported gas turbines, stressing that the President deserved the support of the people of Bayelsa.

He also restated his position on a restructured Nigeria, saying democracy thrives only when there was justice and fairness, and that given his antecedence, Tinubu was the right man to restructure Nigeria.

His words: “The use of guns and intimidation is giving way to knowledge-based electoral process and I commend the City Boy Movement for this. We are not animals and we do not need to be flogged before we move. I am happy that gradually our politics is changing for the better.

“All of the various support groups must know that the party structure is the number one structure and I am happy that the City Boy Movement is working with the party.

“In this state, APC is a no-go area. Our chances of winning the 2027 election is very high.

“This is one good thing I have seen that a youth group coming together to strategise for an election. We all want our President to come back but it wild not happen by chance. We all have to play our roles not just on social media but at the grassroots. It is our duty to go from door to door.

“President Tinubu has supported the development of Bayelsa State and deserves the support of the people. He responded swiftly to the request for the second phase of the Nembe-Brass road and also gave us waivers for the gas turbines.

“I am an advocate of restructuring and President Tinubu is doing things that people had not succeeded in doing such as state policing. For us in Bayelsa, we want to control our resources and pay tax to the centre and I believe that if we must acheive that, this President is one we must follow. We have seen a President who is stable and capable. Let us allow him to complete his second term.”

In his remarks, Bayelsa State APC chairman, Hon. Warman Ogoriba, thanked Governor Diri for his support to the party, saying the APC decided to be strategic rather than joining issues with people or other parties.

Ogoriba said the APC parades the best candidates and that the party will mobilise to ensure victory for them in the 2027 elections.

In a welcome address, Bayelsa State Director of the City Boy Movement, High Chief Osomkime Blankson, said the retreat was to strategise for the re-election of President Tinubu as he deserved a second term by reason of his performance and achievements.

He expressed appreciation to the governor for his supportive leadership and commitment to peace and development of the state.

Also, the Director-General of the City Boy Movement, Mr. Francis Shoga, described Tinubu as a courageous leader who has taken painful but beneficial decisions and that the movement would take the achievements of his administration to the grassroots.

He thanked the people of Bayelsa for their support, expressing optimism that the state would contribute significantly to the potential 10 million youth votes of the movement for Tinubu.

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