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Ibori! Betrayed and abandoned
Chris Obiemenyego
Posted Sat Jan 14,2012
Ibori
“Fear not your enemies, for they can only kill you. Fear your
friends, for they can betray and kill you”. If ever you have
been betrayed by a close friend especially by someone you
trusted and with whom you shared happy times, you will
understand what runs in the mind of a man that feels put down or
abandoned by his friends. It's natural to be betrayed by someone
who doesn't like you, but to be betrayed by a person you thought
was a loyal friend is very hard to handle. The pain and grief is
even magnified when a friend or close family member turns
against you and proves to be untrustworthy or unfaithful.
Negative friends are not always that easy to spot because
most friends only turn into betrayers because of your life
changing circumstances. Indeed, there is no crystal ball to
predict that a particular friend or sibling will turn out to be
unreliable. The man in this picture is James Onanefe Ibori, for
emphasis, ’original’ James Ibori and not the one involved in the
infamous Abuja High court trial of roofing sheets theft. This
James Ibori has been incarcerated in a British gulag for many
months on charges related to money laundering.
Recently, a close ally of James Ibori who visited him in prison
in London confided in ZN by stating that the former governor is
not only broken hearted but mentally slaughtered for being so
naive and trustworthy to his friends.
According to his acquaintance, you could feel the pains
inside him because everything has changed for the worst. Ibori
is beginning to believe that he was emotionally duped by friends
and benefactors.
About three years, he was so powerful being a very close
associate of Nigeria’s late President Yar’adua and mentor of
many politicians in Delta State including the present Delta
State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan. As a former Governor of
Delta State for eight years, Ibori amassed tremendous wealth and
stole the State treasury dry. Ibori did not only steal our
money, he stole the mandate of the Delta State people with
impunity, shared political positions to his friends, made his
cousin, State Governor and his friends top political office
holders. Many people claim he won President Yar’adua’s heart by
using his loot to finance the Presidential elections that
ushered in Yar’adua and Goodluck Jonathan as President and Vice
President respectively. Ibori was generous with almost
everything, his wealth, manhood, emotions etc. He was worshiped
by many because he was good at dividing his loot.
Suddenly, his army of twisty friends became uncountable because
he was bighearted to a fault. Even a gross section of the
corrupt media that have abandoned
him today celebrated him while in power not because he
was doing a good job as Governor of Delta state but the pressmen
were beneficiaries of his stolen wealth. Everything seemed okay
until the death of President Yar’adua and the imposition of
Emmanuel Uduaghan as Governor. As they say; the rest is now
history. Ibori was not an enemy of ZN but his friends made him
believe that ZN was carrying out a mercenary motive that was
sponsored by his political opponents. ZN in its many
publications called Ibori a thief, yet, Ibori never tampered
with ZN’s liberty of speech but his cronies like Peter Nwaoboshi,
the distressed Delta State PDP Chairman, wanted ZN publisher
dead. With the use of the State’s instrument of brutality,
Nwaoboshi connived with the State police and a rotten egg in the
Delta State Judiciary, a then Magistrate at Ibusa court,
Magistrate Dike to get ZN detained at Ogwashi-Ukwu prisons for
months without end.
Today, Ibori is languishing in a British Jail with little hope
of early release; his many friends including infamous Nwaboshi
who became an overnight billionaire at the instance of Ibori
political compromise have disappeared into thin air.
Ibori was a magnanimous
man and he remains Ali Baba of our times but his betrayal by
friends and associates will stay with him for a long time. In
prison, Ibori must be thinking to himself and asking why he was
so blind about friendship. He may even
question his many bad
judgements including bad governance, his support to Peter
Nwaoboshi as State PDP Chairman, his quarrel with Chief E.K
Clark over the imposition of his cousin, Emmanuel Uduaghan as
State governor. Also, he may even question his life and all the
people in it. The betrayal by his friends will haunt him in his
dreams and mind.
Sometimes you need to consider what your friend is really like
within the contexts of all the behaviours. Some of Ibori’s then
friends like Nwaoboshi, the on the run accused murderer not only
abandoned him but may have moved ahead to provide information
that would worsen his case. The story of Ibori are life lessons
because all his friends have suddenly gone mute over his
incarceration, even the State Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan was
recently petitioned by an Ibori support group for allegedly
instructing the Delta State police command to refuse them
permission to hold a public gathering in Warri.
The likes of Amori, Emma Ogidi, Ifeanyi Okowa, Nkem
Okwuofu, Adaora Giwa Amu, Ovie Omo Agege, Funkekeme Solomon,
Festus Agas, Enakugharugha, Chief Akpobi, Festus Okobor, Love
Ojakovo. Dr Alex Ideh, Victor Ochei, Uche Okpuno, Willy Oki, Nat
Okechukwu, Uzoma Idabor, Tony Nwaka,
Grace Ekpewhrwre, Pius Ewerido, Champion Kpategie, Terry
Naoh, Chief Bozimo, David Edevie, Elue Benjamin, Pius Senebe,
Solomon Ogba, Magnus Onyeibe, Macualy Ovuozere, James manager.
Patrick Osakwe, Prof BIC Ijeoma, Evo Gardner and other
uncountable number of politicians and traditional rulers who fed
fat on Ibori have not spoken a word. ZN believes that this is
more of cowardice and betrayal because even in less civilized
societies, men of good conscience and strong character sustain
their support to friends in difficult times. Indeed, all over
the world even people that commit heinous crimes draw large
sympathetic support from the public whether or not they feel
that justice is being upturned on its head.
On Ibori, ZN forewarned him over his excesses and impunity but
he refused to be forearmed. Despite many insinuations that ZN
has personal grudges against Ibori and Uduaghan, we make bold to
state that these are mere figments of people’s imagination. ZN
will always be ruled by the aspirations of the people of Delta
state in their quest for good governance. As a demonstration of
our focused principle on truth and objectivity, we use this
narrative on James Ibori and twisty friendship to join the few
voices like Faith Majemite and company, Ibori’s associates that
recently broke the ice on Ibori’s situation by discovering
courage and boldness in calling for Ibori’s deportation to
Nigeria for trial. For avoidance of doubt, ZN is not and does
not intend to hold any brief for Ibori but we query the
conscience of his many friends he enriched or empowered with our
stolen wealth. ZN’s position is that the accounting books
of Delta State must be thoroughly examined by officials of the
EFFC that would not compromise to bribery.
It is only when the extent of stolen fund from Delta State
treasury is ascertained that the British trial will make sense
because in the present situation, it makes no sense putting a
man on trial in a foreign court whereas the evidence on source
of theft is lacking. The era of British colonization is over and
the colonization of the Nigerian Judiciary is unacceptable.
Ibori stole our commonwealth not the British, as such he
should serve his jail term in Nigeria. It is only when a prima
facie case of theft has been duly established against Ibori that
Deltans can demand for the return of their stolen wealth in
Britain in a very transparent manner for the development of
specific projects under the purview of the Federal Government.
Perhaps, if Ibori serves in Warri or Ogwashi ukwu prisons, he
would use part of his loot to rehabilitate the prisons for his
comfort and that of other prisoners.
The present administration of Uduaghan must draw lessons
from Ibori’s saga rather than complain over ZN’s objective
criticisms that would have helped him improve his government. ZN
has forewarned Governor Uduaghan in his lack of transparency in
running the affairs of the state, perhaps when the chips are
down, it may just be one or two persons that will stand by him
as they have all done to Ibori. Presently, James Ibori will
remain a big and
practical lesson for the nature of modern day friendship in
Nigeria. Indeed, whenever, the history of James Ibori is
written, what will be most prominent will be the chapters of
deceit & deception & trust on friendship. It is very certain
that Ibori through the years will cry his tears and it is
natural that without help from his friends he will face fears of
loneliness in prison but the simple lesson is that through his
tears and likely years in prison he would know the meaning of
true friendship. Real men stand by their man whether in good or
bad times. ZN will continue to stand by the truth no matter
whose ox is gored.
Comrade Chris Obiemenyego, Editor in Chief
ZION Nationale newspapers, Abuja
Znationalenews2000@yahoo.com
The article was originally published in ZN newspapers
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