SOUTHEAST NIGERIA'S UNKNOWN GUNMEN

The #EndSARS protest last year and it's aftermath was a message to the people and government in Southeastern Nigeria that things cannot remain the same anymore. Sadly, while the Governor in Lagos moved beyond just paying lip service to working on recommendations from the panel set up to probe the activities of SARS as well as paying compensation to victims and families of victims, those set up in the Southeast and the South-South regions where no more than spectacles and theatres of the absurd, where impediments upon impediments were placed in the way of petitioners, all in the name of requirements and processes, which led to no end. Eventually the whole process, like the charade it was fashioned out to become, fizzled out. The lot of them unceremoniously, without the submission of any paper to the governors to act upon, even if it was just for the show of it.


The fact that nothing was done by the Southeastern governors to address the issues relating to police brutality and Extrajudicial Killings of young men especially, after the protests, with the names of some policemen suspected to have indulged in human rights violations mentioned, with the hope that their activities will be investigated, and thereafter prosecuted, only to find the same people walking the streets free, which is akin to rubbing insults on the raw wounds of the victims, their relatives and others this affected. When some youths decided to take up arms against the state, it was no surprise that they started with the checkpoints dotting the landscape of Southeastern Nigeria at a time when there was relative peace, and the people and their representative 👉🏽 CHECKPOINTS IN NIGERIA'S SOUTHEAST had at one time or the other spoken up about the money-spinning machine that checkpoints on the roads in that region have become for policemen, soldiers, naval ratings, customs men and officers, civil defence, as well as other uniformed security and paramilitary personnel. From there, these men now referred to as Unknown Gunmen, (a media creation, following denials by IPOB, of responsibility for the rampant destruction of lives and property by the former), expanded their operations to include police stations, correctional facilities, and other security outposts.


The insecurity in Imo State, is of a different dimension in that it appears to have political undertone, so much so that while the governor raised alarm to highlight the peculiar nature of the insecurity in his state, especially the political dimension to it, he stopped short of placing responsibility solely at the feet of his political opponents belonging to the opposition party, seeing as he is battling opposition within the rank and file of his own party as well. It was in Imo State that the erstwhile I.G. of Police, pronounced the Eastern Security Network (the armed wing of IPOB), ESN responsible for the insecurity there, off the cuff, without as much as investigating the matter, only to find that he'd been relieved of his position, while the words were hardly out of his mouth, though that was hardly as a consequence of his misguided utterance (in this particular case) than it was that his removal was overdo, and therefore predetermined for that day, unbeknownst to him.


The ESN claim their mandate is to rid Igboland of murderous fulani herdsmen, and have continually denied involvement in other activities at variance with their stated objective, but it appears the security agencies couldn't be bothered with distinctions as they rained all of their coercive might on anything aimed and poised against them in the Southeast, amidst allegations of human rights abuses against innocent citizens from Southeastern Nigeria. It didn't help that a meeting held by the hierarchy of Nigeria's military to discuss the security situation in the South East and the tackling of same, to restore peace and normalcy in the region had no one from the region present, because of the lopsided appointments especially in the security sector of Nigeria, that's been the hallmark of this administration. The tone of the president in statements credited to him, as well as in his new found love for interviews, haven't allayed the fears of Igbos that the present intifada in the Southeast by the military does not have the blessings of their principal, and Commander-in-Chief.


The video that went viral, of some residents in some town in the Southeast, hailing armed men, appeared to me very disturbing. Even the non-discerning could tell that it wouldn't be long before these Unknown Gunmen will turn their arms on the people, after successfully dismantling checkpoints in the east. I wondered then, of their intentions didn't go beyond sacking those checkpoints to relieve the people of that region of a major burden only, or was it really intended to provide a safe haven for them to continue to carry out nefarious and criminal activities, without let or hindrance. Today the activities of UGM is now looking more like a guns for hire situation, with business people, politicians (latest of which was the decapitation of a security guard to a member of the national assembly from Imo State, after the UGM met his absence), and just the everyday person, bearing the brunt. It seems that many are using the opportunity this security crisis created to settle scores, while lives are also being lost as part of collateral damage, as UGM seem to be employed to right perceived injustices and/or to perpetrate one looks to be the norm, rather than the exception these days, such that threats from one person to annihilate another are no longer taken as jokes or mere threats anymore these days.


In the midst of all these madness, "Bakassi Boys", who held sway in the early days of the return to civil rule in 1999, notable for their extrajudicial killings of those suspected of armed robbery and the likes; staged a return with a parade somewhere in Awka a few days back, in the full glare of residence, firing gunshots at random, with loud music in the background, with no police or other government security apparati anywhere in sight. 

This time around, they claim they have come to continue in the same light, and also to battle cultists whose activities in Anambra State have 

grown worrisome in recent times. Only time will tell if they will cross paths with UGM, if they considered the latter's activities to be at cross purposes to theirs. I shudder to imagine what such a scenario will look like. 

Sadly, when the security agents descend, the arrests they carry out are arbitrary, with those who eventually managed to get released claiming they only did so, after parting with huge sums of money. Many others are said to not have been so lucky, especially in the period when judiciary workers were on strike, and none of those arrested were charged to court, and couldn't be bailed. When a truck fell into a ditch in Onitsha, with the contents (bullets) of it's container got spilt on the road, with residents moving beyond shock and bewilderment to picking them, the security agencies should have known that many more like that would've passed through successfully and without incidence, hence should've been more proactive, rather than the reactions we have now, that's resulted into the arrest of innocents, after the UGM have had a field day to themselves, and yet continue to wreak havoc in the region.


Another unfortunate angle to all these, is the attack and torching of offices of the electoral agency, INEC in the region, with elections in just a few months in Anambra, and in 2023 nationwide. It now appears like there's a plan to disenfranchise the people from exercising their franchise, and precluding them from determining who will lead them at several levels of government and governance, and through whom dividends of democracy can be passed down to the grassroots. Unfortunately, as regards dividends of democracy, the Southeast region has fared badly, with so much left to be desired, at all levels, and from all levels of government. If truth be told, it is the lack of government presence in the Southeast, that can be fingered as one of the reasons driving the agitation for secession, that personalities like Nnamdi Kanu are latching on to promote their agenda.


It is doubtful though that things will change should Biafra be handed the Igbo on a platter, because the leaders will either be today's slave masters, or new ones, who will be same as the old. Just look at the audacity with which Nnamdi Kanu issues orders to anyone listening to his rants (as most times that is what his words come through as), and you wonder how Biafra under that sort of person could be. The fact that people stayed back at home, after his so called "order", in honour of lost and dead loved ones during the civil war, doesn't necessary mean they support IPOB's ideals, many did in the spirit of "Ozoemena", while others could've just because of the atmosphere of insecurity in the east, and the fear that the government forces could be battling UGM and/or IPOB/ESN on the day, and innocents could be caught in the crossfire. Either way, Igbos could definitely do without the threats, from Nnamdi Kanu and his followers prior to May 30.


If Igbo people can be truthful about some things, even the much revered Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, in some of his statements appeared not to leave much room for compromise or considerations for an alternative path to pursue things, and how that could have negatively affected the fortunes of Biafra, in those heady days, is not difficult to imagine. How are we sure that even if the referendum that's being sought by IPOB and other secessionist groups are granted, the results won't go against their wishes? Especially, when you consider that Igbo though insular in the way their locale is set, especially post civil war, but international in outlook, would want to be boxed in, for which President Muhammadu Buhari in an unscripted response in a recent interview described Igboland as a "dot in a circle" (which Igbo youths are currently running with, as you'd take up a name defiantly, just to spite those who thought to diminish you by it).

The truth is, if the utopia the Igbo dream of cannot be perceived today in the slightest, it will not be realised wholesale in Biafra tomorrow. Any change Igbos desire, must begin today and must be required and demanded of the leaders/rulers today by the people, against waiting until Biafra comes. For now, the Igbo must learn to negotiate to their advantage, within the present framework, beyond merely getting political power at the centre, but unto other items that will make life and the conduct of their business and enterprise flourish, and easier to manage. That the Igbo are disadvantaged today, doesn't mean they will remain so tomorrow, for only if the Igbo exist, will they live to see a government tomorrow that will be less discriminatory, either led by an Igbo son, or not.


'kovich

BIAFRA: FIFTY YEARS AFTER

I think it's disrespectful not only to the memory of the dead, but also an insult to the living, when the Igbo are asked to simply forget about Biafra, especially because those talking about it, moreso agitating for a sovereign state of Biafra weren't born fifty years ago when more than a million Igbo died from the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War (1967 - 1970). Was it not our literary hero, the late Professor Chinua Achebe (of THINGS FALL APART fame) who admonished that those who do not know where the rain started beating them, won't know where it stopped, which was reechoed by the late Reggae icon, Robert Nester Marley who sang that if one must know his destination, he must know where he's coming from in BUFFALO SOLDIER. How far has the denigration of history taken Nigeria as a nation? Jews worldwide never forget the holocaust, even though the number of those who actually witnessed those sad days continue to dwindle exponentially. No Armenian alive saw what their forebears experienced at the hands of Ottoman Turks, yet they continue to relive the events in literature, arts, music and so on, but in Nigeria, the Igbo must forget Biafra to move on, just fifty years after it was declared, and forty-seven after it became defunct? Just like that? Even if it's for peace to reign in Nigeria, can there really be peace without justice?


Rather than berate the Igbo for not forgetting the horrors of their past, other Nigerians must encourage them, and take a cue from us. I received with joy the news that the Shehu Musa Yar'Adua foundation deemed it fit to hold a Biafra themed forum days back, seeing that years back it was unfathomable that a Northern Nigerian group could mention Biafra, for all it connotes, much less organize a symposium seeking a way forward from that ugly past, when in fact a son of theirs totally unimpressed with anything Biafra is in power. Even if that program wasn't meant to coincide with the anniversary of the declaration of Biafra, as an independent state, the coincidence a few days to the day cannot be overlooked. In a Nigeria where justice is not only delayed, but denied the best victims of state orchestrated violence and impunity, including inactions (and the list is exhaustive) can do is remember, and never forget peradventure a Pharaoh "which knew not Joseph" will come in future and right the wrongs of the past, even if by making a symbolic apology, or something in the likes, far beyond any form of physical rehabilitation of and for the Southeast for instance. Therefore, for me anything that's done to keep memories of Biafra alive works for me, from sitting at home, to organizing symposia and talk shops, to peaceful demonstrations, amongst many other avenues that can be explored to bring the issue to the fore, not just locally but internationally.


When a friend called me some minutes ago, from Obigbo area of Rivers State in the Niger Delta, that she couldn't go to work today because of the sit-at-home instruction by pro-Biafra groups, I was not in the least surprised, because I hadn't figured that there'd be solidarity beyond the core Igbo states, though during several visits to Rivers State in recent times, I'd found that RADIO BIAFRA signals were clearer with more faithful listeners there than even in the heart of Igbo land, regardless of the fact that a few of the listeners aren't Igbo but of any of the tribes in Nigeria's South-Southern region. Prior to today, most Niger Deltans have gone on social media to denounce Biafra, and dissociating themselves from the planned "strike", if I may borrow that word. Pictures that have been streaming in online, as well as from some news outlets, show compliance especially in the Southeastern states, with scant to no traffic on major federal as well as state roads in the region, including of the ever busy Head Bridge connecting the

EMPTY HEAD BRIDGE INTO ONITSHA FROM ASABA, AS A RESULT OF "SIT-AT-HOME" COMPLIED WITH BY IGBOS IN THE SOUTH EAST.

heartland of the Igbo nation with the rest of Nigeria, between Asaba and Onitsha. Even banks, schools and businesses were closed down in those states, while outside of the

OTHER PARTS OF NIGERIA'S SOUTHEAST WHERE COMPLIANCE RECORDED ALMOST A HUNDRED PERCENT TODAY.

states, markets where Igbo traders form the majority were deserted by Igbo traders. That for me is enough, including the fact that despite all of the flexing of muscles, and show of strength exhibited by the security agencies, notorious for mowing down pro-Biafran activists and peaceful demonstrators in the past with impunity, there hasn't been any record yet of any casualty.


As an advocate of a BIAFRA OF THE MIND, I'd made my views clear in https://madukovich.wordpress.com/2015/07/16/biafra/ two years ago, and I do not hold a contrary opinion to those yet, despite all the noise and clamour surrounding Nnamdi Kanu whose incarceration by the Muhammadu Buhari government, against court decisions granting him bail severally, made him a cult hero amongst many a Igbo people, even though much of his views aren't exactly supported by mainstream Igbo. Since his release on bail on health grounds, no day has passed without the social media especially, and other mass media outlets highlighting one activity or the other he'd gotten himself engaged in, some flagrantly flouting his bail conditions, which I think was intentionally set to trap him in the first place, though it seems his prosecutors and government of the day don't seem keen to pursue that matter for now, for obvious reasons that might pertain to unnecessarily heating up of the polity.


What I think the Igbo should do right now is an introspection. It's true that the conditions that led to the civil war hasn't until recently changed so much, maybe there'd have even been no war had some voices been heard in the first place, and people not headily gone into an unwinnable war sake of an injustice they felt couldn't be righted by meaningful dialogue. In recent days, some have even mentioned the fact that there was more pride than commonsense at play in the decision to secede from Nigeria, and by extension go to war, but really who am I to judge, and what do I know. The mistake of taking one man's view only, as sacred should be discountenanced this time around. We are Igbo. We are consensus builders. Today we made a point, that the Biafran issue cannot continue to be ignored, but we must move ahead from there, and if truly the majority of Igbo people want out of this contraption called Nigeria, there are peaceful means of going about it (even the case for a referendum can be politically driven by representatives of the Igbo at Nigeria's National Assembly), as confrontation will only earn us the ire and  non cooperation of our neighbors, whose understanding we need to drive that agenda. However, if the opposite is the case, then we should also be willing to pursue agendas, politically, diplomatically and otherwise, to ensure a better deal for the Igbo, as with other ethnic nationalities in the Nigerian project, but all voices must be heard while we are at it.


'kovich

A SECTIONAL BUHARI AND A DIVIDED NIGERIA

I have been saddened since President  Muhammadu Buhari made his Democracy Day speech last Sunday, the 29th of May. I had felt that I was the only one who noticed that he made no mention of Fulani Herdsmen amongst groups he declared security threats to the nation, despite the fact that the group, his kinsmen may have killed more people, who hadn't the opportunity to fight back, than the official enemy of the state with whom his government now seem set to dialogue, the fundamentalist Islamic group, Boko Haram.


Interestingly, the next day security forces clashed with unarmed pro-Biafra activists during a peaceful protest in Asaba, Onitsha and Nkpor, amongst several locations in the southeast, where according to the latest report forty of the protesters are said to have died, while two policemen lost their lives, in what seems to have become a recurring decimal each time protests like this takes place in the East of Nigeria. In fact, during an interview,  which President Buhari granted Al-Jazeera months back, he refused to watch footage of security operatives swooping in on unarmed pro-Biafra activists during a prayer session, in an open field and shooting some of them in cold blood.

UNARMED PRO-BIAFRA ACTIVISTS HOLDING A PEACEFUL PROTEST BEFORE THINGS WENT AWRY 

It pained me to note that a President of a multiethnic nation like Nigeria could be so sectional to ignore in that speech, the genocidal activity of his Fulani kinsmen,  to focus on groups especially in the South by whose hands no life has yet been lost, and who after much criticisms for his silence over the continued menace of his kinsmen on the lives and livelihood of other Nigerians, simply claimed that the marauding Fulani were none other than strangers from Libya, despite mounting evidence in text and video that these were armed Fulani militia from Nigeria, ranked fourth on the global index of terrorist groups, whose activities aren't even covert but carried out with impunity, sometimes with the security agencies conveniently staying out of their way when and while they strike.


It is therefore with much sadness that I heard the Inspector General of Police, instructing his men to disarm unarmed pro-Biafra activists and protesters while he has never said anything close to that concerning Fulani Herdsmen who have replaced bows and arrows and sticks with AK-47's. The only group besides security forces, armed robbers and terrorists who travel with such light weapons, discharging bullets with reckless abandon, when simple citizens could spend the night or more (to be bailed only after parting with huge sums of money, and physical and mental torture) in the police cell for having a pen knife in their person during the usual illegal police "stop and search".


To compound my sadness, is the deafening silence amongst so called Igbo  leaders, political or not, who haven't deemed it fit to confront the government for the wanton killings of their own for engaging in what is seen to be very legal in democracies worldwide, even going to the extent of calling their own hoodlums, at a time accused terrorists are been released in droves on the instance or prodding of the northern political, traditional and religious oligarchy. Even a former governor and now senator Kwankwaso from Kano came to Lagos to bail out Hausa youths arrested for complicity in the recent clashes between the Yoruba and Hausa in the Mile 12 Area of Lagos. It had to take an Ekiti governor,  Ayo Fayose from the Southwest to stand with the Igbo youth for daring to mark the anniversary of the day in 1967 when the Late Dim Odumegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, then a colonel, declared the Sovereign State of Biafra, separate from Nigeria, to which Nigeria responded with a war of attrition for three years, after the Igbo safety couldn't be guaranteed any longer within the geographical space called Nigeria, a situation that seems not to have changed much,  not just in the North where many of them reside, but now even in their own land.


Nigeria may have survived the prophecy that it was doomed for disintegration in 2015, but it doesn't mean that it can't still happen in the immediate or remote future, especially with a sectional president who feels that the so called oneness of Nigeria is non-negotiable, and would die rather than see the day, than submit like former Vice President Abubakar Atiku did at a book launch recently on the subject of Biafra, that Nigeria needs to be restructured such that the constituent parts can have a sense of belonging. Unfortunately, President Buhari has chosen to waste this golden opportunity to become a statesman, even stating that the document from what is viewed by some, as a flawed National Conference held while former President Goodluck Jonathan was in power isn't worth even as much as a skimming through for some of its merits. Of course, with that attitude, it isn't surprising that vistas of hotspots are opening up in different places all over Nigeria with each passing day, chief of which is the Niger Delta Avengers who have managed to half Nigeria's crude oil production capacity with their precision attacks on oil drilling platforms and pipelines, while the economy seems to be trying to drill into the earth's core at the rate at which it's falling, just months after he came into power, and Nigeria's economy was adjudged the biggest and fastest growing in Africa, and third in the world. He forgets easily, that the trouble we brew today, we drink tomorrow!


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.nigerianeye.com

NAIJA TOUR (9)

So it came to pass, that after about an hour of trekking from where the bus I was travelling in had to stop due to traffic somewhere in Asaba, Delta State, I reached the Asaba end of the bridge over the River Niger, connecting the Niger Delta/South-South Nigeria with the Southeast popularly called HEAD BRIDGE (or is it Bridge Head now?). At this point traffic seemed to be slowly moving as a few men of the mobile police force were on hand to control the traffic, sometimes conducting a search especially of some private vehicles.

We (band of trekkers) soon learnt that there had been a protest by members of the Indigenous People Of Biafra, IPOB the day before with intention to hold a mega demonstration (demanding the release of their leader Nnamdi Kanu, presently in detention on charges of treason, terrorism, amongst others, for demanding a sovereign state of Biafra) same day I made to enter Onitsha en route Port Harcourt. I wasn't perturbed by the presence of heavily armed members of the security services since I had nothing to hide, though I suspected that my huge backpack may arouse some suspicion within them about me, so rather than walk away from them, I walked towards them.

I was glad to find that moped taxis were allowed through the bridge, and though crossing the bridge didn't appear longer than the distance I had already covered trekking, I was already tired and my legs now too heavy to lift, so I did the next best thing by getting one of the bikes to ferry me across the "Head Bridge" from the Asaba end, to the Onitsha end, a journey which took less than five minutes to navigate as we left stranded vehicles behind in the hold-up till we got to the Onitsha end where I had to alight, raise my hands (because I saw others doing same) as we passed by the stern-faced,  gun totting military and mobile police men. I had experienced this sometime in 2007 in the heady days of militancy in the Niger Delta, when I visited Port Harcourt from Bonny on my way to a friends'. I noticed to the left of the road, where most of the vehicles of the different arm of the security services present were parked, a man lying facedown into the sand and watched over by about three soldiers, wondering what crime he must have committed to have found himself in such a position. I meant to walk up to the soldiers to ask them what the man had done to deserve such a cruel treatment, but I thought better to walk away as it didn't seem the armed men had any intention to be civil that morning.

I soon walked by the statue of DIM CHUKWUEMEKA ODUMEGWU OJUKWU, the late Igbo Icon, who remains to many a demigod (even a god to some others), and I stood awhile, to not only stare at the harmattan-dustied work of art (a shadow of what it was at its unveiling, which I thought should've been better sculpted), but also to take in the legacy of what the man stood for while he lived. It was for the actions of this man, for his beloved people, when Nigeria turned it's back on the Igbos, seeing in them objects for target practice and game only, especially in Nigeria's North, that the then Colonel Ojukwu on the 6th of July, 1967 after due consultations with relevant stakeholders, in what was then Eastern (Now part of South-South/Niger Delta and all of Southeast) Nigeria,  agreed to pull out of Nigeria.

STATUE OF DIM CHUKWUEMEKA ODUMEGWU OJUKWU IN ONITSHA, ANAMBRA STATE JUST AS YOU ALIGHT FROM THE HEAD BRIDGE

For the three years Biafra fought to free itself off the clutches of Nigeria, to which it had been joined/amalgamated by the colonialists since 1914, the dream of a utopian land of the free was nurtured, birthed but never weaned, due to the war. Igbos never forgot, much like the Jews never forget the Holocaust, and despite what others may say about Ojukwu, he remained the Hero of the Igbo, up till his death four years ago.  

A few Igbo sons have played upon this sentiments (that has remained an idea and ideal for the Igbo, as I elucidated in my treatise on BIAFRA | madukovich's cogitations https://madukovich.wordpress.com/2015/07/16/biafra/) to once a while attempt to recreate or force into being conditions (not necessarily with the bloodshed that birthed the call for secession the first time) under which Biafra can once again be actualized, and because most of these weren't properly thought through, their actions ended up dead on arrival. Some of the agitations for Biafra in recent times have been of and from youths, many of which weren't born ay the time the war was fought (and lost on the Biafran side). This one by the Indigenous People (The Igbo lay claim to being one of the aboriginal groups in Nigeria, unlike some other tribes whose geneology link them to other regions of Africa, even of the world) Of Biafra, IPOB led by Nnamdi Kanu who used to head the media arm of the Movement For The Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB (led by Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, who has since denounced Kanu's activity and gone ahead to float another pro-Biafra group) via RADIO BIAFRA based in the United Kingdom, is different in the manner in which it has been able to galvanize in so short a time Igbo youth mainly to protest, even in the face of intimidation, arrests, even deaths; and also managing  to grind to a halt, activities in major towns in the Southeast (notable for commercial activities, where traders find it difficult to lock their shops even for late siblings or in respect of later close relatives, and rush to open same shops minutes after Catholic morning mass on Sundays) and a few towns in the South-South/Niger Delta region (where the reception, unlike in the former was lukewarm to slightly antagonistic, especially by state governors of the region).

CHIEF RALPH UWAZURUIKE (LEFT) OF MASSOB AND NNAMDI KANU  (RIGHT) OF IPOB

Unlike in the period MASSOB held sway and Radio Biafra broadcasted via shortwave with their message available only to a few who could tune in using transistor radios, IPOB has managed to move to FM and also online, with several efforts by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, NBC to block its signals hitting the brick wall, and even when they were able to block one, floated signals elsewhere on the FM bandwidth with ease much to the discomfort and disgrace of the government agency charged with the responsibility of tracking and ending signals from the renegade station. The messages from Radio Biafra has being largely responsible for the way some youths who have been inundated with the messages have gone on, not only to show support but also to be involved in demonstrations, initially asking for a separate state, and much later (as when I passed through) asking for the release of their detained leader.

But all I wanted to do once in Onitsha, was get to a bank and afterwards eat something. I was fortunate to find a bike/Okada rider to carry me to the nearest bank branch whose debit card I carry, so that if it turned out that I still have ATM issues I could walk into the bank and sort it out, of course not without throwing some insult, the way of any bank staff within reach, for the trouble I passed through with the debit card their bank issued me. Fortunately, I was able to withdraw the much I needed, and with another Okada rider made my way through traffic, past military checkpoints with arms raised, away from the main Onitsha road to the motor park on Owerri Road, with intention to make for Port Harcourt, as it was looking like the day will be quite rough, with the impending demonstrations by IPOB youths with the force at Head Bridge looking ready to thwart any attempt at disturbing the peace for that day.

I jumped into the first bus to Port Harcourt I met on ground, once I got to the park on Onitsha-Owerri Road. At which point the rumble in my stomach reminded me of my sorry state of hunger, but that wasn't because I hadn't attempted to get something to eat. I had in fact approached a lady at a stall while trekking from Asaba towards the Niger Bridge, and asked her if she had bread. From the nook where she was eating bread and stew, she asked if I could see bread as part of the things she displayed for sale, I responded in the negative, and she turned back to her food, while I walked away feeling like an ass.

I was the second passenger in the bus. The only thing I could find to buy for food that I was sure won't cause me any trouble was AKI N'UKWA (coconut and fried breadfruit seeds) snack, which I

AKI N'UKWA

bought and feasted upon while waiting for the bus to load for Port Harcourt. Time was of the essence for me, not because I had an appointment particularly fixed for that day in Port Harcourt, but rather because I wanted to be out of Onitsha as soon as possible, as what I saw at the Head Bridge earlier that morning at Onitsha could possibly not mean well for anybody who remained to see how things will unravel.

Only one other passenger joined us after about an hour since I boarded the bus. I had by now become very impatient, and began to wonder what was in Port Harcourt that I wasn't meant to see or meet that everything since I started the journey to that destination conspired to delay me. I alighted from the bus, trekked further to the next opening from where the bus I had earlier boarded was, only to discover the "real" park, and that where I'd been was no park, but just a space where unregistered buses stayed to "hustle" passengers, and may be there for a whole day without getting filled, compared to the real park, where three buses headed for Port Harcourt where at different levels of being filled, in fact one needed just one passenger. That was how I went to the "fake" park to appeal to the sensibility of the so called "park manager" to kindly refund my transport fare, or at most give a part of it back. 

'kovich
PHOTO CREDIT
- http://www.nigeriamasterweb.com
- http://www.nigerianmonitor.com
- http://www.naijatreks.com