How MASSOB humiliated Zik's legacy –First son .
Saturday, 04 July 2009 00:00 Hope Afoke Orivri
Saturday, 04 July 2009 00:00 Hope Afoke Orivri
Chief Chukwuma Bamidele Azikiwe, a Harvard University-trained economist and the second Owelle-Osowa-Anya of Onitsha, is the eldest son of the first President ... of Nigeria, the late Dr. Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe. When EMMA-ENYINNAYA APPOLOS met him at the famous Inosi Onira residence of the late elder statesman, Bamidele spoke about abandonment of his father's mausoleum by the Federal Government and the deceased's contributions to Nigeria in general and the Igbo race in particular. Excerpts:
In 2005, there was an attack on Zik's residence here in Onitsha and his Inosi Onira home was burnt and vandalised. How did it happen?
On the 7th of November 2005, just some few days to the ninth memorial lecture of our father, there was a demonstration by MASSOB (Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra). They were marching from the bridge head along the expressway. I don't know what the problem was between them and the Police. But somehow, they started exchanging fire with the Police and the firing went on for about 45 minutes or thereabout. As the firing was going on, people were running into this compound for refuge. That was not the first time people would run in here. Anytime there is any form of uproar, they always run in here for refuge. So on that day, as they were exchanging fire, people were running in for refuge. I suspect the Police ran short of bullets. Some of them started running into the compound too for refuge. When they ran in, some of them jumped through the fence and took refuge inside the seminary. It was bloody because some of the Police men who ran in were with bullet wounds and had blood all over them. Some people who were already inside were shouting that I should order the gate to be closed. I refused to do that because I knew that if the gate was closed against some others who might want to run in, they might want to jump through the fence and in the process they could be shot. So, I decided that the fence be left open and I never suspected that anybody would pursue anybody into this compound, let alone destroy things. All of a sudden, I saw a mob of the MASSOB members running into the compound, chasing the Police men that had run in for refuge. When they came, they did not see the Policemen because some of the Policemen that ran in had jumped through the fence for safety, probably because they noticed that those coming after them were ready to do anything. So I went across to the other side of the compound, and looked at the entrance into the compound. I saw a large crowd of the MASSOB people surging into the compound, looking for the Police men that ran in. The first place they went to was the security post, where Policemen who are on duty here normally stay. When they got there and did not see any Policeman, they set the place on fire. When I saw that, I ran in and climbed upstairs in my father's main building so that I could get a better view of what was going on. From the gate, they came into the compound and may be, suspected that the Policemen were in the second building. They also set the building on fire. I was watching through the window from upstairs. One of them was about setting the main building on fire when another saw me where I was and they started pointing at me. One of them said, 'that is Owelle, he is a nice man, he is a good brother. Leave him alone' and he immediately put off the fire that the other had set on the air conditioner in the main building. As that was going on, some of them were busy breaking and vandalising all the louvre glasses and windows in the main building. It was an uncontrollable situation because I didn't know who was who. By the time the Police Commissioner was alerted and he ordered his men here, the miscreants had finished their mission and had gone away. They damaged a lot of my father's property in the compound. I lost 90 per cent of my library and documents in the fire. But I thank God that nobody was killed in the compound. But somebody with a bullet wound, either the rioters or the attackers, was arrested. We also learnt that the Police later arrested some of them at Nnewi.
Five years after the incident, the building has not been rebuilt or fixed. Why?
I don't know. The governor of Anambra State then, Chris Ngige, came down here the second day after, and saw things himself. He said then that the governors of the south-east were going to do something about it. He dropped N1 million and left but we did not hear from the governors as he said. Meanwhile, it is the responsibility of the Federal Government to fix the things because this place is a Federal Government property. But I also spent a few millions of mine to fix some of the things that were damaged and restore the electricity. Since then, we have not heard from the government and that is why the things they damaged and the buildings they burnt have neither been replaced nor rebuilt.
What about Zik's Mausoleum that was started in 1997? Why has it not been completed?
I don't know. In fact, before the incident of November 7, 2005, the government had abandoned the mausoleum for reasons I do not know and can't answer. Several governments — military and civilian — have come and gone and the mausoleum remains unfinished. General Sani Abacha started the construction of the mausoleum in 1997 after the death and burial of my father in 1996. Since then, it's been promise upon promise by different governments and the mausoleum is yet to be completed. When former President Olusegun Obasanjo was campaigning in 1999, they brought him into this compound he said that one of the things he would do if he was elected was to complete the mausoleum. When he became president his Works Minister then, Chief Tony Anenih came to Awka. That was when Chinwoke Mbadinuju was governor. He was brought down here by Mbadinuju, who was very concerned about the state of the mausoleum. Anenih also said that we would hear from the government because by that time, the contractor handling the project had been asked to stop work by the government and later they started it and also stopped along the line.
What efforts have you made to draw the attention of the government to the abandoned project?
There have been several attempts to draw government's attention. You know that I am not in Abuja and I only go there when I have anything to do there. The government, for reasons best known to them, has refused to listen to us. When Anyim Pius Anyim was the Senate President, he came here. We discussed the matter and I asked him to take the matter up in Abuja since he was there with them, because he was also very concerned about the project. One day, I was here and the people here with me came and told me that there was an expatriate at the mausoleum knocking on some of the pillars. I went to see the people and later discovered that they were sent from the Federal Ministry of Works. The expatriate said that the structure was not well done. Later, the contractor was asked to also stop work. We heard later that the contractors dragged the government to court and the project was abandoned. We then heard that the case was decided in favour of the Federal Government and the government also showed interest in the project. When the present administration of Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, came, they also showed interest in the project. I was here. They came and informed me that people were coming from the Federal Ministry of Works to inspect the project. They came and after their inspections, they told me that they would be back in two weeks. I read their minds and understood that what they had in mind of coming to see was not what they saw. I read pity in the faces. Last year, they brought in new contractors and work resumed on the site. After a while, the contractor said they needed more money. Since then, they also stopped work. That is all I can say about the mausoleum. You can see it yourself that it has been abandoned.
What is the plan of the family and what are your father's friends saying?
Some of my father's friends and well-wishers both within and outside the country who feel concerned about the abandoned mausoleum have said to me that we can't continue waiting for the government; they asked me to tell the Federal Government to hands off from the project and assured me that funds would be raised to complete the project. Well, I told them that we have to wait a little and give the government the benefit of doubt. As members of the Zik family, we are, and will remain grateful to the Federal Government and people of Nigeria for the unprecedented state funeral they gave to our late father. But we don't understand why it is taking them decades to complete the project. If they are not willing to continue, they should tell us and hands off so that we can continue with the project as a personal property. On the building that was razed, it is still the responsibility of the Federal Government because it was the government's police that we were trying to protect when they burnt the buildings and destroyed property here. We are still looking at the Federal Government. Until now, we don't know those that destroyed and burnt Zik's property and desecrated the compound. We only heard that some people were arrested; whether they were prosecuted or not, we don't know.
Some Igbo leaders argue that Zik was never interested in the ethnic nationality's affairs and did not support the civil war...
First of all, you must understand that the late father of the country was a Pan-Africanist and a Nigerian nationalist, and the Igbo are part of Nigeria and Africa. Zik did not neglect the Igbo race. How could he have done that? He was an Igbo man to core. He identified himself with every Igbo worthy cause all through his life. He gave his life to Igbo and the Nigerian struggle more than those who are accusing him of not being interested in Igbo affairs. He was working for the whole and making sure the Igbo was brought into the mainstream in the scheme of things in Nigeria, and the Igbo benefited until things went bad. Some people say Zik did not support the Biafra war? That is not true. During the crisis of 1966 and the killings were terrible, as a leader, he felt deeply concerned for our people and the country at large. He was aware of how Igbos were being killed.
Were you in the country at that time?
Yes I was in Lagos, Ikeja precisely, getting ready to go back to the States to conclude the remaining part of my post-graduate studies. Before I left, I came home here in Onitsha to see my father and mother and I told them what was going on in the country. I remember I told them that the country was not safe for them to continue staying in because there was likely to be a war. But my father told me that whether there was going to be a war or not, he would stay back in the country to see how it would go. He asked me where I wanted him to go. He also told me that they fought for Nigeria's independence, and how could I expect him to run away because there was a problem. He told me that he was going to stay in the country and face the music and see if he could be in a position to broker peace and pull the country back. As at the time this was happening, the University of Michigan had invited him to come down to America to stay there and write his autobiography, but he refused. I told him that I was worried about his ability to halt the situation especially our Igbo people that had been traumatized by the killings. He thanked me for my concern, and told me and my mother that we should pray. After he had finished praying, he told me to leave for my studies in the States. He also told me that if it took him risking his life to save our people, that he would do so. He was concerned about what was done to the Igbos.
What can you say was your father's role in the war?
At the build-up of the war, in some of the meetings that my father was invited, he advised, cautioned but he was shouted down by people that were prompting for the war. It was my father who also led the delegation to those countries that recognised us after we declared independence to correct the diplomatic imbalance. As the war progressed, we lost everything including some brave soldiers that had almost nothing to fight the war with. Not only that, hunger became another enemy that we had to fight because it was killing our people due to inadequate preparation for our people when the war started, kwashiorkor was spreading and coupled with the fact that there was limited ammunition for our soldiers. At this point, it was advised that we negotiate a confederation, which my father tried to let the Biafran leadership see reasons with, but what he got in return was being called a traitor and saboteur. As at then I was a Biafran Ambassador. At this time, he told us in London that where we were going now, that the remaining people who had not died of kwashiorkor would be killed and it would then mean that the Igbo race would have been wiped out on the earth. When we tried to object to what he was saying, because most of the discussion then was within our family circle, he told us that what an old man could see while sitting, a young person who climbed the iroko tree could not see it. He said that he was not going to fold his arms and allow the Igbo race to be wiped away. He told us that Nigeria was getting every support from the outside world to continue the war. He insisted that that was the time to talk, otherwise, it would take us decades upon decades to recover from the war after it had ended. He reminded us that we were in Africa not Europe.
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Filthy rest place for Zik as nation marks 50th anniversary
Adimike George 01/08/2010 00:00:00
Adimike George 01/08/2010 00:00:00
Barely 50 years after Nigeria's independence from British rule, the grave of one of the country's most outstanding heroes of the independence struggle, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, lay in ruins. Adimike George who visited the site reports
FEW weeks ago, a visitor to the graveyard of the late Zik of Africa, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and the Owelle of Onitsha would have been dazed by the ruin. Reptiles had a field day. The main concrete structure was cracking. One part of the fence that enveloped the graveyard had fallen into pieces. There was no aura of grandeur associated with the man's final rest place.
In his lifetime, the late Nnamdi Azikiwe was a giant in the field of art and politics. He was also a polyglot, having learnt to speak at least eight of the world's most famous languages. He lived an exemplary life and made immense political contributions to the struggle for the country's independence. His exit from the world was as glorious as the flamboyant political life he lived.
However, when The Nation visited his burial ground penultimate week, there were no indications that a country he served so well really appreciate his worth, at least, not in the manner his graveyard had been left to depreciate.
It would be recalled that the demise of Azikiwe in1996 shook the entire world as condolence messages and encomiums came from world leaders. There was also a string of spiritualism associated with his death. His relations and political associates who witnessed his struggle with death went to town with the information that he was praying for Nigeria at the hour of his death.
The then Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) had decorated his remains with in a Military regalia bearing the rank of a Field Marshall on November 16, 1996 before he was lowered into the grave, a mark of respect and an indication that Zik had attained the status of Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.
Before his demise, Zik was always spotted by his allies praying for and wishing the Nigerian nation success both politically, economically and otherwise. But his adversaries, even among his kinsmen in the Igbo nation saw him as opposing Igbo interest. This spurred some irate youths that torched his grave in 2005. When The Nation visited the burial ground recently, more worrisome was the dilapidated nature of the frontage of Zik's building, while the Police have turned the frontage and the mausoleum to extortion centres where they extort money from motorists.
The mausoleum, apart from serving the police patrol teams as shelter and ad hoc resting place, one source claimed the police 'stash their loot in the graveyard.' The source added 'there is the believe that if the police monitoring team visits the police men on duty, Zik's graveyard was an unlikely place to search for the booty.' His grave was dug inside the 'Inosi Onira' Retreat where Zik himself had mapped out during his life time as his final resting place.
Few months after his death, the then Federal Military Government directed the General Muhammadu Buhari-led Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) to initiate the Mausoleum project at the Inosi Onira Retreat and execute it as part of the federal government's immortalization scheme.
The directive was announced by Lt.Gen. Oladipo Diya, Abacha's second-in-command who led the federal government's delegation to the burial ceremony. The multi-million naira Mausoleum project kicked off with immediate effect and progressed until 1999 when the military handed over power to civilians'.
Unfortunately, when President Olusegun Obasanjo came into power, he immediately scrapped the PTF and transferred the project to the Federal Ministry of Works for completion. The ministry, in turn, re-awarded the contract to a local firm, at an unspecified amount. In December 2007, the Obasanjo administration, re-awarded the Mausoleum contract.
Work which was expected to have resumed at the site as soon as possible as the contractor had already posted a bond for 30 per cent of the sum and had collected mobilization fee. Since then, the project has been slowed down. Few years ago, work on the project came to an abrupt end.
At the moment, the entire project site has been over-grown by weeds. Rather than becoming a tourism centre, as envisaged by then military government, the project site, from the look of things, is like a center for reptiles.
Work on the Mausoleum which was the first phase of reconstruction work in the vast Zik's compound initially had a duration of nine months. The second phase was expected to cover the rehabilitation of the entire compound which was set ablaze in 2005 when an irate mob said to be members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) allegedly invaded the entire compound and set the whole building ablaze.
Azikiwe first son, Chief Chukwuma Bamidele said that during the discussion, a director in the Ministry of World Alhaji Aliyu regretted that the abandoned Mausoleum has remained a "national shame and a black spot on the conscience of the nation and that to him he will make sure nothing wrong will be done to tarnish the memory of the great Zik, the father of the nation."
He said that Aliyu had given assurances that the government would execute the project quickly and properly. He, however, warned that all the bad fate shown in the past must be removed.
According to Azikiwe, "in the past, previous administrations after giving assurances that the federal ministry of works and the president asked them to look for a good multinational contractor but they still went ahead to get a local contractor that was not good. The same local contractor has failed and the Federal Ministry of Works had to sack them".
The managing director of the construction firm, Mr. Joseph Dueni, also gave the assurance that all things being equal, the work would be delivered on schedule.
Dueni disclosed that he was going to collect the mobilization and commence work as soon as possible, finish the work and hand it over in nine months.
He also gave insight into the technical details that would be entailed in executing the job.
But almost three years after these assurances, there is yet no end in sight to the project.
The caterpillars meant for the project has been grounded with no worker on sight except the last week's visit from a team from Abuja.
At one time Anambra state government officials said they would take over the project as the embarrassment was getting out of hand.
The Director of the Anambra State Environmental Protection Agency, Dr. Emma Udeakpe told The Nation that the highway from Bridge Head to the toll gate will wear a new look. The highway leads to the Zik Mausoleum.
He pointed out that the beautification exercise going on in the State will also include the Inosi Onira Park which is right in front of Nnamdi Azikiwe's compound.
"We believe if the FG for whatever reason could abandon the edifice they promised to build more than 15 years ago in memory of the Great Zik of Africa, that Anambra state will do its best. Barely two weeks ago after a visit by The Nation newspaper, hope for a befitting rest place seems on the rise. The Nation visited the residence of the late Zik of Africa to ascertain the level of abandonment and neglect of a the mausoleum project. Some field workers from the Federal Ministry of Works who were also on an assessment tour of the same project were seen.
One official disclosed that he was miffed by the Anambra State government's claim that it had taken over the project, saying there was no truth in that claim since the ministry was still in control.
Chukwuma Azikiwe had told newsmen in Onitsha that officials from the Federal Ministry of Works led by, Alhaji Aliyu, in company of the controller of works, Federal Ministry of Works in Anambra State and the State Head of Service Mrs. Ngozi Melifonwu held discussions with him at the Inosi Onira, Zik's country home and resting place.
The meeting, according to Zik's son, was also attended by the principal consultant of the project, Chief Frank Mbanefo, Okey Azikiwe, an engineer, and a few family members.
Azikiwe said it was during that meeting that the new contractor was introduced and both the ministry and the contractor got his blessing to proceed with the work.
One Anambra State top official told The Nation that if the Federal Government continues to play politics 'we will move in there and complete that building and give him a befitting resting place because it will be a tourist centre. Zik is the best to come out from this part of the world at least within the political circle. He is the best known name in Nigeria for the FG to have been treating him the way they are doing, there is something else."
Locals who spoke on the abandonment of the project expressed shock and disbelieve that the project was not completed 14 years after it was started, yet they claimed, Zik's penchant for one (united) Nigeria was never in doubt. Leader of the new team told The Nation in confidence that in two months time there would be a lot of difference from what was on the ground.
He said the abandonment of the project was an embarrassment to the country in particular and Africa in general.
However, though a new team has started working on the project, there are concerns that the new enthusiasm may give way to lull in the weeks ahead. The greatest fear is that the project is unlikely to be completed before October 1 this year, when the country marks her 50th independence anniversary, observers are worried that Nigeria is planning the celebrations in great style without giving a thought for people like Zik who was one of the pillars of the struggle for the country's independence.
A local Onitisha woman in her 90s who does not wish to be named said she was not surprised. According to her, the neglect is a graphic reflection of the character of people in power.
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