Providence and altruistic ethical and moralistic personal responsibilities have once more thrust the truthful captainship of Nigeria’s axiological path and apophthegm on a person of Igbo extraction to act as the conscience of the sinking Nigerian nation. In a country where loyalty to oil blocks and licenses, kick-backs, quid pro quo, and brazen embezzlement are the norm, it did not surprise a handful of us when the brave and courageous Dora Nkem Akunyili stood-up for the “truth”. Courage is not lacking in Igboland, and Nigeria’s history is replete with courageous acts by sons and daughters of Ndi-Igbo. From the Nwanyeruwa instigated 1929 Aba women’s revolt, to the winning of Nigeria’s independence by Nnamdi  Azikiwe with pure and natural intelligence from the British without a single gun shot being fired, to the actual prediction of the events of today’s Nigeria by a 33 year old Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. Even when two super powers, Britain and the Soviet Union, with all their weapons of mass destruction like napalm and other sophisticated military weaponry, expertise, and intelligence network, economic blockade and starvation of innocent old men, women and children; Ndi-Igbo stood truthfully firm and fought all the Nigerian ethnic nationalities with their two murderous collaborating super powers for three years. At the end, notwithstanding that the Igboland of Port Harcourt, Calabar and other sea ports were criminally stolen from Ndi-Igbo; the hard work, ingenuity, good sportsmanship, individual and collective commitment to the Nigerian nation have neither diminished nor withered away. Ndi-Igbo have continued and will continue to serve and act as the conscience of a morally depraved, ethically felonious and crime prone Nigeria, a country that is truly accursed by the spirits of Biafra’s dead.

Nigeria’s Information and Communications Minister, Dora Nkem Akunyili, has been in the news lately. Her prominence is not predicated on the subversion and inversion of the Constitution – à la Michael Aondoakaa, or for taking a Supplementary budget to Saudi Arabia to be assented to by a biologically dead president - à la David Edevbie, or for paying exorbitant attorney fees for the joint criminal defense of a wife and a mistress – à la James Ibori. Her recent adulation is for a cause that every parent, husband, sons and daughters, kit and kin and all lovers of decency, probity, truthfulness, honesty, accountability and reverence toward God would take a joyous delight in. Prof. Akunyili has redeemed herself and made her nation very proud. At the end of a dark and corruption infested tunnel, there always is a light, no matter how dim and how weak. A ray of hope gives Nigerians a very shaky believe that all hopes are not lost.  And Prof. Akunyili today is that ray of hope.

Our dear country is a country manifestly rich in evil and devious scheming. A country where the light of truth is easily and ruthlessly extinguished without remorse. A country where evil triumphs with a thunderous applause by professional leeches. A country where callousness is the order of the day. A country where good men and women are abundant but are dominated by rotten, amoral, dishonorable, vice-laden, unconscienced and intellectually defective and villainous goons, scummy, tainted, yecchy, wormy, reechy, mephitic, scurfy and nidorous bunch that reign and dictate the affairs of the nation. But as in all things with a beginning and an end, the end of mass deception, unmitigated lies and personal ambition over country will surely end.

Nigeria’s God has neither forsaken nor forgotten Nigeria. In times like this, it behooves every Nigerian to make an introspective assessment to ascertain why we are in this situation and how to prevent a bunch of profiteers in the future from committing treasonable acts in the name of a biologically dead or an invalid president, as Obasanjo rightly observed. The attention of the profiteers is now directed at Prof. Akunyili – how to intimidate her, make a fool of her, use the EFCC to harass, hound and molest her family, friends and associates. They definitely would start manufacturing evidence of wrongdoing and narratives of dereliction of duty, including but not limited to, high school and college days (non-existent and false) sexual escapades. These should not and ought not deter Prof. Akunyili from sticking to her truthful gun. Enemies of progress would stop at nothing to circumvent national progress on the selfish altar of greed, petroleum license allocation and oil blocks. The smell of (back door) money to most of these lost souls is stronger than the prevention of infant mortality, good health care delivery for the young and old, good access roads, steady power supply and service to nation before and above self.

Calls by some Nigerians including the erudite Prof. Pat Utomi that Prof. Akunyili should resign her ministerial appointment are impolitic and misinstructed. She should and must not resign. If Yar’Adua signs her dismissal letter, Yar’Ardua would then be exposed for what he is: a renegade power hungry tyrant who neither understands nor believes in the true meaning of “servant leader” or “rule of law.” Questions would then be asked as to which letter is more important to the nation – the letter transferring power to Dr. Goodluck Jonathan or the letter dismissing a truthful minister. In October, 1973, then US president Richard Nixon instructed his Attorney General, Elliot L. Richardson, to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox who was investigating the Watergate scandal. Mr. Richardson refused to carryout Nixon’s order. For refusing to obey unlawful orders from a president under siege, Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus both resigned. Robert H. Bork who was the Solicitor General then and who by law automatically becomes the acting Attorney General when the Attorney General and deputy attorney general are unavailable executed President Nixon’s order and fired Cox. These events led to a cascade of other events that eventually resulted to the disgraceful resignation of Richard Nixon on August 9, 1974 and the denial of Robert Bork a US Supreme court seat on October 23, 1987 when 58 US Senators voted against his nomination while 42 senators voted in favor of his nomination. History has a way of repeating itself.

If Prof. Akunyili resigns, she would be shedding unprecedented responsibility and affirmatively lose a courageous fight to enemies of progress. She is better equipped to fight from the inside than from the outside. Ribadu cannot fight corruption better in exile than when he was the chairman of the EFCC. So, as a member of the Executive Council of the Federation, Prof. Akunyili has the same rights and privileges, including voting on resolutions and having her contributions and input in all the decisions by the council. Also, she has the right as a Nigerian to express her disagreements on decisions and deliberations, and to address the contributions of each council member during deliberations to the Nigerian and world press. Her mere presence in the council meetings would put the cabal on their toes. She has every right to be truthful, forthright and sensible as a person and as someone paid by the Nigerian tax payers. Relinquishing a position for being truthful and for disassociating herself from the smorgasbord of lies and gallimaufry of deception neither serves the public good nor a good way to advance Nigeria’s national interest. Moreover, if she resigns who would defend the Nigerian masses and who would serve as the voice of the people distinct from the corrupters of our national ethics and the vitiators, adulterators and debasers of our moral fabric during their council meetings?  Retrogressive elements will become triumphant should Prof. Akunyili resign. Victory in this saga must not be for the retrogressive minority. Victory is for God and Nigeria’s progressive majority. Therefore, Prof. Akunyili must never, never resign. Retrogressive elements deserve sleepless and nightmarish nights and days.

Fight on Prof. Akunyili. Fight on. When the history of this saga will be written and told, you will stand among the icons of truth, the fighters of usurpers of political mandates and the indefatigable nationalists whose personal gains were sacrificed for the common good and courageous citizens whose lives were threatened but who stood with the Nigerian masses for God and country. Prof. Akunyili has asked and tasked Nigerians to pray for President Yar’Ardua. My take on that request is simple. Based on the 8th and 9th Commandments namely, thou shall not steal and thou shall not lie. And based on the scriptures relative to Romans chapter 6:23 which states that the wages of sin is death. Well, there are political, biological, economic, mystical/psychological and spiritual deaths. If President Yar’Ardua benefitted from the sinful electoral fraud that catapulted him to Nigeria’s presidency, which in essence effectively makes him a contravener of God’s 8th and evidently 9th commandments, and if the wages of sin is death, then let God’s wish be done. That is my prayer for Yar’Ardua – let God’s wish be done.

The curse of Biafra on Nigeria continues.      
   

Obinna O. Obinna
USA