OLUWOLE ROTIMI, WHAT A FRIGGING BASTARD?

Icheoku says, if the tirade attributed to the former Nigerian Ambassador to the United States of America, Oluwole Rotimi, is true, then he deserves not only to be fired but seriously reprimanded for damaging the home-country that sent him to Washington. What an insurbordination to a duly constituted authority? Possibly he is another one of Olusegun Obasanjo's hack and got the posting through Obasanjo's insistence; the result is this heart-wrecking utterance concerning the noble struggles of Biafra! Icheoku would ordinarily not have taken sides in this fight, but when this Oluwole Rotimi threw his hat in the ring against an entire people, by dragging Biafra into this melee, he definitely crossed the line and should be called to order.

How can a representative of the Nigeria government of which the former Biafran tax-payers' money is being used to partly sustain, turn around to boast against the section concerning his "heroic" strangulation of Biafrans during the civil war? What manner of a public servant would rekindle the memory of this old Nigerian/Biafran hostilities and in such a blatant public way that elicits outrage and condemnation, being an ambassador of the supposedly now "unified" country? Icheoku says, this person is the reason why Nigeria is still adrift, several years since the end of the civil-war because of a perculiar mindset that the civil war is a continuum. Icheoku recalls that Oladipo Diya once asked similar "war-victor" question when he demanded to know whether "that should be rewarding the Igbos for loosing a war", in questioning why the Igbo is so entitled to a position in Nigeria? The Igbos are now convinced beyond doubt that their really antagonists in Nigeria are not necessarily the Northerners but some very parochial people from the Yoruba, South-West.

Who is now the tribalist in Nigeria but that apostle of the Awolowo school of economic-strangulation theory who actively participated in the most vicious genocide ever, against the Igbo people of Nigeria during the Biafran war? Who is a tribalist but Rotimi Oluwole who starved over one million Igbos to death by the asphyxiating blockade which he imposed on Biafra? Who is a tribalist but this senile old mad-dog, Oluwole Rotimi, who is now boasting how he dealth with a "rag-tag Biafran army"? Unfortunately this Oluwole Rotimi was economical with the truth in not reminding himself that Biafrans had the war trust upon them and hence had no time to equip and train for the war; but only fought to remain alive? This is the same man who was once governor of the whole Yoruba Western Region of Nigeria and added to the previously known anti-Igbo disposition of Obafemi Awolowo, the Igbos are once again being reminded who their real antagonists in Nigeria are. Oluwole Rotimi and his ilks are the reason Nigeria is yet to fully stabilize as a nation. Oluwole Rotimi is a very divisive and toxic Yoruba man whose latest guffaw could be attributable to the entire race, were it not for some decent men and women of that race. First it was Obafemi Awolowo and his betrayal of Nnamdi Azikwe's mandate in Ibadan followed by his "starvation is the best instrument of warfare" weapon-of-choice against Biafra; then came Olusegun Obasanjo's eight years anti-Igbo governance between 1999 and 2007; now add the disgruntled "alzheimers-striken" Oluwole Rotimi and the cirlce is 360 degrees! What other prove does the Igbo-man need to conclude that there is no real love lost between them and Oduduwa kingdom, since three leaders of Yoruba have consecutively professed their anti-Igbo sentiments?

What an insurbodination to a duly constituted authority? Imagine the insult to the Minister and the President who appointed him and who he represents; also to the Nigerian people who the president represents; capped by the entire Biafran people who once again is being provoked by such a gutter-statement by a Nigerian government official, Oluwole Rotimi? This uncalled for outburst is a grim-reminder that the Biafran-Nigerian war is still raging on, in the minds of some of the protagonists of the war, especially those of them from across the Niger, in Yoruba Western Nigeria. Look at the torture the Igbos suffered under Olusegun Obasanjo's government when all their business interests were intentionally grounded by a government driven by vengance and an unbriddled hatred of a people - the Igbos of Nigeria? By Oluwole Rotimi's uncanny misspeak, it is now confirmed that certain quarters of the leadership in Nigeria led by Olusegun Obasanjo and Oluwole Rotimi really know "how to deal with the Igbos and their rag-tag Biafran Army"? Icheoku says, it is the same "rag-tag Biafran Army" that stood firm and squarely faced down a raging genocidal Nigerian army and for three long years! Icheoku says, but for the support of Egyptian fighter pilots led by the current Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, Russian MIGS, British Falcons as well as other hired guns and mercenaries, this "rag-tag Biafran army" would have bled the supposedly well trained and equipped Nigerian army of Oluwole Rotimi to death. What a dog of revisionism he is, Oluwole Rotimi, that is?

Icheoku says the mindset that wrote the offending letter is not deserving of the office of a Nigerian ambassador to anywhere, USA inclusive, except the so "conceited" Nigeria excludes the Biafran-area of Nigeria? And this man is 71 years old? Could his be a case of demetia or early stages of alzheimers that made him to vomit such very offensive thoughts? As a Nigerian ambassador to the USA, what did this man achieve? Who in the USA knew that there was an ambassador called Oluwole Rotimi? Who has ever heard about this senility called Oluwole Rotimi? Oluwole Rotimi is simply a disgrace to the race that reared him; being the parochial bitter old-hag he is. Icheoku says, Oluwole Rotimi, SHAME ON YOU! Who has ever heard of this man within the diplomatic circle? What statement is attributable to Oluwole Rotimi that sticks to memory? What position has this man ever taken to quell or at least correct all the misgivings or objectionable commentaries in the USA media especially CNN, concerning Nigeria and/or Nigerians living in the USA? And he lives in Florida and commutes to Washington DC thrice a week for his duties? Is it possible that DC is rather too cold for his sorry wrinkly old arse? Icheoku asks, what is a country like Nigeria doing by sending a diplomat as old as 71 years to a country with a 47 year old president? What is the retirement age for civil servants in Nigeria or is the diplomatic corp different? An uncouth and colorless fellow who is not even cyber-savvy and who does not speak or understand nuanced diplomatic lingo, who is still trapped in the 1970s mindset, was Nigerian ambassador to the USA? Thankfully this blunder has saved Nigeria much further embarassment, as who knows what he could have been capable of getting Nigeria into. Nigeria, it would seem, never gets its acts right as this disgraced now former ambassador, has yet proved to be another proverbial square peg in a round hole!

"I know how to deal with your people, I have dealt with people like you in the past. I was the Adjutant General of the Nigerian army that thoroughly defeated your ragtag Biafran army.” With these written-words, Oluwole Rotimi has gone into historical infamy as one of those who do not mean well for a continous Nigerian unity. Such unwarranted outburst is highly provocative and a threat to the shaky cohension which is the Nigerian political structure. Now you understand the reason for the continous restiveness in Nigeria and why Igbo-owned businesses were specifically targeted for extinction by Olusegun Obasanjo and the likes of Oluwole Rotimi during his infamous rule. Ibeto cement, Slok Airlines, Savannah Bank, importation and exportation, just to mention a few; all fell victim of Olusegun Obasanjo evil machination against a people - the Igbos of Nigeria? According to a complaint memo filed by the Foriegn Affairs Minister Ojo Maduekwe to President Umaru Yar'Adua, in response, "this man, Oluwole Rotimi, has no temperament to be an ambassador of Nigeria in our most important mission. This is a strategic assessment of the situation. Anyone who has such a disposition may not be able to handle the Nigerian embassy in Washington", to which Icheoku adds, or any other embassy or thing which represents the entire country, Nigeria or Nigerians for that matter.

Icheoku commends President Umaru Yar’Adua for timeously approving the immediate recall of this disgraced Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States, retired Brigadier-General Oluwole Rotimi! His utterance was a gross insubordination for which additional punishment should be meted out, if only to serve as a deterent and to prove to these Nigerian ex-generals that there is now a duly constituted authority in Nigeria, outside the baracks. And it is instructive to note that this vermin was kicked out of the Nigerian army, yet he brags about his "prowess" in dealing with the "rag-tag Ojo Maduekwe's Biafran army"? This altercation left the confines of Ojo Maduekwe when Oluwole Rotimi called into question the gallant resistance put forward by the brave men and women of Biafra, in a war to put to an end a terrible genocide against them, that time, which unfortuantely continues till today, though in somewhat subtle and subversive fashion but sometimes very overt.

Icheoku in researching this commentary, read an interview granted by this Oluwole Rotimi in 2007 wherein he was quoted as saying, "Whether you call it Northern Forum, Arewa Forum, South-South Forum, Yoruba Forum, these are all ethnic fora and I would have thought that in this day and age we should be talking more of Nigerian forum, Nigerian agenda". Icheoku says, this man Oluwole Rotimi must be the greatest living pretender to Nigeria's unity, otherwise how does one reconcile this his answer to a question bordering on Nigerian unity to his present outburst haranguing "Ojo Maduekwe's rag-tag Biafran Army"? The disparaging reference is inexplicable under any circumstance whatsoever. In the referenced interview, Oluwole Rotimi also explained that "those who perpetrated the counter-coup of 1966 said they would not have a southern officer to head the army or to head the country. That was how Gowon became the Head of State. Not on merit, not on seniority but purely because he came from the North". Yet this man knowing all he knew about the forced birth of Biafra, had the raw guts to make such a disparaging remark about Biafran army? Were he the statesman he would like to claim, Icheoku dares him to explain why his likes did not stand up to the northern army boys when they turned things upside down on its head in Nigeria? Why did his likes permit a junior officer like Gowon to take over the leadership of Nigeria when there were senior officers above Gowon, including Odumegwu Ojukwu? Yet he banters on his "brave-defeat" of the "rag-tag Biafran army"? Or was he too cowardly then to raise his voice only to feel comfortable now to harpoon on Biafran army? What a sacrificial offal, Oluwole Rotimi is!