BETWEEN CELESTINE OMOKPO, VIENNA FUGAR, AND STEVE OVIRIH. THE DANGER OF A ONE-SIDED STORY! Weppa Wanno Vanguard: In the evening of yesterday, I got a call from one of my longtime friends who is now a lieutenant with the Nigerian Army and one of the foreign trained counter terrorism officers in the Nigerian Army. Nonso(not his real name) has always been a lively and fearless young man right from our days as up-comers. Nonso has always been daring and completely committed to any course he believes in. He was in Somalia on a peace keeping mission, and he returned with his heads high. He believes in Nigeria. And on one occasion when he called from Somalia to tell me about his impending return to Nigeria. These were his exact words: Nwannem, we cannot be keeping peace in another mans land, while our own country is in pieces. We are coming to restore peace to the Northeastern part of our country. He returned like he promised, and the call of duty certainly reduced the calls we shared. Most times his number will be switched off, and I was always afraid for his life. I kept praying for him. He just got married last year and his firstborn arrived earlier this year. Whenever I hear of another officer fallen, I silently prayed it isnt my beloved brother, Nonso. But the silence was torturous. Yesterday he called from Maidugri. And I was happy to hear his his voice, but he wasnt his lively self. After the half-hearted courtesies of asking out about family and work, he switched to vernacular. He was not in a safe place, and he needed to pass this vital information: I heard that this Party of the violent oligarchs is making inroads into our part of the country. You people should resist them. They are our enemies. They are enemies to anything Christian, Igbo or South-South. I am in the war front and I can tell you that it hasnt been a good experience. Our divisions as a nation is so glaring here. You are marked out for death as long as you do not speak Hausa, or you do not pray like they do. We are betrayed by our own comrades. They are so desperate to take over power, and they do not care a hoot how they succeed at it. They only want to succeed, and they are united by that goal, as illicit as it may be. I sympathize with any Christian, Igbo or South-South man who supports them, because we will all live to regret it if these people should find their way back into power. I am here and I can tell you what they think, I can feel their animosity towards us. Do you know that eighty percent of soldiers who are killed in this war are mostly Christians, Igbos or those from the Southern divide? Our strategies are revealed to the terrorists shortly after it is marshaled out, and our biggest secrets are always in the hands of the insurgents. We are ambushed on routes that are hardly known. How did they get to know that we are taking such routes? Fellow soldiers and officers inform them on everything we do. Let me tell you this; we shall be worst than tissue papers if we make the mistake of allowing these people back into power. Tell whomever you can tell, mobilize our people against this Muslim agenda, against this Northern agenda. This has gone beyond a war between the Nigerian State and some scattered insurgents, this is a war between Christians, Southerners and the Arab world. Do you know that most of the terrorist fighters are Arabians? Their drivers are also Arabians. Who sponsors them, if not these politicians? This is not just a religious war, it is a political cum religious war. However, it is more political than religious, because their primary aim is to take over political power as a surer way of imposing their religion on us. For the first time my friend of so many years talked about surrendering. He told me that he will leave the Army if nothing changes. He told me that he has escaped death by the whiskers many times, most of the times he was set up by fellow soldiers, some of the times he was being shot at by his fellow soldiers. He was certainly disillusioned. He still had things to tell me, but I heard him barking orders to someone driving a motorcycle by that time of the night. His voice betrayed his fears and I got a distant picture of the level of mistrust within the Army. The line was on for a while, but he wasnt talking to me. What I kept hearing were orders and fearful altercations of anger. I tried calling his number after then, but it has been switched off till this time. PRAY FOR MY FRIEND, PRAY FOR ALL OUR SOLDIERS, PRAY FOR NIGERIA. MAY OUR ENEMIES NEVER OVERRUN US. NIGERIA MUST PREVAIL! Ezeugbor Francismary Izuchukwu: I feel your pain. It shall be well. Mohammed Yamah: Rubbish.... You are on your own. Omokpo Celestine Odior: Well said, Weppa Wanno Vanguard. But you must listen to the other side of the story which I hope to give a glimpse into. There are two sides to every coin: the side you see and the hidden other. We pretend to be christians, followers of Christ. Yet, we do not love ourselves as northerners do. A worshipper with Redeem does not believe Prophet TB Joshua is of God and a Christ Embassy member sees nothing good in a Catholic. Did the north create this division for us so they can take over power? If anything you claimed was true, I bet it was because we opened ourselves up for exploit. I was at a Barbers last week, and the young man said: If not for the fighting, northerners are far better than us. As a dude, born in Kano, I could relate to that truth much. My father once told me: These people used to live like angels, but we have spoilt them like this. The scripture is clear: Whatever seed you sow is what you shall reap. Then, the big question: Who sowed the seed from which the so-called northern agenda has germinated? How much we have disappointed Christ, we so-called christians, southerners, or whatever we are. Truth is, nemesis is a law of nature that none shall escape from. Peace! Sule Beeti Snow Audu likes this. Vienna Fugar: @ Odion, why are you writing this Rubbish here when you are at the same time Campaigning for Buhari which is their Leader... Omokpo Celestine Odior: You failed again, but this time around, woefully! Wanted to see whether you have developed the brains to know what is rubbish and what is not. Clearly, you failed the test for not even knowing how to choose your words properly. Steve Ovirih: odion......which in ur opinion is d way 4ward? clearly, d gallant soldier is disillusioned coz of d ways of d so called violent oligarchs and d ways of d elites up north. dont u fink he is being ironically specific about d troubles and challenges ahead should a northerner emerge as d countrys president? do u fink we re safe wif a buhari presidency in d light of d revelation of ur soldeir frnd? Steve Ovirih: it is d danger of a onesided narrative indeeeeed! Omokpo Celestine Odior: Thanks, Steve, for your conclusion: It is d danger of a onesided narrative indeeeeed! A balanced story helps us to bury sentiments and face the facts. In 2011, I stood in the heat under the sun of Lagos to vote Jonathan. I do not have a favourite but progress. I know the forces I fight daily to be able to do the right thing as a lecturer. There are always too many interests who would force you to say that a student who blatantly refused to take your classes and participate in practicals has passed your course. Because he/she has an HOD uncle, then they can get away with disobeying the rules of the game. I always tell those bosses that it is my responsibility to prove to such students that they can pass my course without begging and that God has not given them a weak brain, only the character needs to change. I discovered that if you are not this dogged and rugged as a president, your intentions, however good they may be, would easily be overridden. That is exactly what has happened to president Jonathan. Then, I started scouting for a personality for my next voting, who, at least, possesses a semblance of my kind of discipline. After my review of the antecedents of Mohammedu Buhari, I could see he had once thought about discipline as the greatest asset for general progress by establishing War Against Indiscipline (WAI) in his day as Head of State. I do not have Buhari as a friend or foe, I only seek decency for all public offices because it is the only reason for the nations commonwealth to get to the orphans I take care of back home in my secondary school. Ovirih, if we christians stop discriminating against ourselves via the denominations we identify with, and saying: He worships with Redeem while I worship with Christ Embassy so he is no christian enough to join us, but decide today to carry the light of Christ with us to our offices, the whole country would be illuminated and Boko Haram would hardly find a dark spot to hide and carry out their nefarious activities, even though I realize there are different versions of it: those that kill with the bomb up north and those that kill even many more ordinary Nigerians through the pen like the ousted Stella Oduah and the sitting Diziani Maduekwe.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 06:45:25 +0000
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