She was living in the neighborhood of a house I rented an apartment in last year. I only used to see her around the house. We didn’t talk much except for the occasional small talk. Stuff like, “Hello, how are you?” Or “Hi, where have you been? I haven’t seen you in so long.
Did you travel?” Our conversations only stayed on the surface but she always had a warm and bubbly demeanor. Whether I talked to her on a rainy day or on a sunny day, she spoke with the freeness of a two-year-old. Her energy was so pure and innocent. That’s why I was concerned when I saw her looking sad one day. The first time it happened I didn’t make much of it…Click Here To Continue Reading>> …Click Here To Continue Reading>>
I thought, “People’s moods change sometimes. Maybe she is having one of those days.” The second time I saw her clothed in melancholy, I asked her; “You don’t seem to be yourself lately. What’s the problem?” That day she told me she was having some financial challenges. I cheered her up and told her to hang in there. As the days passed, I noticed that she was constantly down.
She no longer had the cheerful smile I had gotten used to. So I started engaging her more and more. This is how we became friends. I invited her to my home. Sometimes she would spend days with me before returning to her place. My landlord didn’t like the fact that I was having her over but I didn’t care. She needed help and I was there for her.
That was all that mattered to me. I felt I was doing the right thing taking care of her financial and emotional needs, although we were just friends. When things got too complex between my landlord and me, I moved out and rented a new apartment. I asked Ama to move in with me and she did. It was as if I had adopted her. Everything she needed was on me. I provided her with food. I bought her clothes and also made sure she had internet access.
Outside these things, I still took care of all the other things she needed to live comfortably. It took me a while before I developed romantic feelings for her and asked her to be my girlfriend. She said yes without a second’s thought. Things flowed naturally between us. But when we got to the part where we had to do what lovers do she would tell me, “No.
I am not ready.” I didn’t want it to seem like I was taking advantage of her so I never even tried to persuade her. The moment she turns me away, I let her be. She has been living with me for about a year now and we still haven’t done it, but that’s not my problem. My problem has to do with her attitude. When she is going out, and I ask her, “Where are you going?” She would start shouting at me. She would ask me, “What is it? Is it because I am living with you that I must report my every move to you? You are not my husband, so you can’t tell me what to do.” READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
After her rants, she would go and come back anytime she liked.
Her lifestyle is frustrating me. I have sat her down several times and told her, “If you are not ready for a relationship, tell me so I look for someone else. I am getting older and I need a woman who is serious and ready to settle down.”
She tells me she is ready to start a family, but first, I have to give her money to start a business. “If you set up a business for me I will know that you love me. Then I will give you shuperu.” I gave her part of the money to prove my commitment to her but nothing has changed yet. Some Myths About Adoption In Ghana You Need To Stop Believing
She wants me to give her the full amount before she accepts that I am serious about her. Because I haven’t done that, she looks for the slightest opportunity to shout at me. I am a calm person with a dash of madness. But when it comes to her I am always calm. Even when she drives me crazy, I am not able to face her with my anger. I just watch her do her things.
She has turned me into a dog who cannot bite. I was planning to start a family with her but I don’t think I can put up with her behavior for the rest of my life. A voice in my head is telling me that maybe if I marry her she will change.
But another voice says she won’t change so I should leave her. I don’t want to make the wrong choice. That’s why I have brought my story to you. Please advise me on what to do. —Tommy This story you just read was sent to us by someone just like you.
Gen. Diya was crossed examined at the Human Rights Violation Commission (HRVIC) on the coup plan 1997 to overthrow Gen. Sanni Abacha, He bluntly denied the fact that he was part of the plan but he admitted he knew about the plan. He further explained that he was afraid of being killed by the Coup Master Planner if he revealed the plan.
Gen. Diya Oladipo then was appointed as Chief of Defense Staff. He was appointed Chief of General Staff in 1993 and Vice Chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council in 1994. In 1997 Diya and dissident soldiers in the military allegedly planned to overthrow the regime of Sani Abacha. The alleged coup was uncovered by forces loyal to Abacha, and Diya and his cohorts were jailed. Diya was tried in a military tribunal, and was given the death penalty. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
Nigeria has seen the rise and fall of many military regimes since she became a sovereign state in 1960 and this, at every turn, has altered the direction of the country.
A second coup since independence which happened on July 29, 1966, would see to the brutal death of Nigeria’s Supreme Commander, General J.T.C Aguiyi-Ironsi (the nation’s 1st military head of state) and his friend, Lieutenant Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, who was the sitting and 1st Military Governor of the Western Region…Click Here To Continue Reading>> …Click Here To Continue Reading>>
Aguiyi-Ironsi was a guest at the Government House, Ibadan, as he came to hold a meeting with traditional rulers in the Western region. Ironsi arrived Ibadan the previous day and unknowingly, he met his death during the counter-coup which is generally believed to be a retaliation to the January 15th 1966 coup in which prominent Northerners in power were killed.
The Northerners were believed to hold a grudge since the first coup as they lost leaders including Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (Nigerian Prime Minister) and Sir Ahmadu Bello (Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of the Northern Region). They tagged it an ‘Igbo Coup’ as no Eastern casualty was recorded in both the military and public service as even the West lost Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola in the coup. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
This counter-coup of July 29, 1966, led by General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma was tagged the bloodiest coup by many in the history of Nigeria. Ironsi and Fajuyi’s death which still remains a controversial debate among historians because how they were killed isn’t clear but both bodies were found in a bush in outskirts of Ibadan. Read a comprehensive account of how Aguiyi-Ironsi was killed here.
Aside from the Head of State and Western Military governor, many other casualties were recorded in the army and most killed or maimed were Easterners, particularly Igbos. This will be one of the many reasons the country would go into a civil war the following year as the Eastern region tried seceding.
54 years after, we remember this gruesome act done in the Brown Roof City and how much has happened or changed since then.
General Sani Abacha is perhaps Nigeria’s most enigmatic head of state. He reigned from 1993 until his death in 1998. General Abacha was born in Kano state, northern Nigeria on September 20, 1943. He hails from Kanuri in Borno state.
He passed out of the Nigerian Military Training Centre in Kaduna where he proceeded to Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, England before being commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in 1963.
He is held by some as Nigeria’s most successful coup plotter. When he was still a Second Lieutenant with the 3rd Battalion in Kaduna, he took part in the July 1966 Nigerian counter-coup from the conceptual stage. He could well have been a participant in the Lagos or Abeokuta phases of the coup the previous January as well…Click Here To Continue Reading>> …Click Here To Continue Reading>>
Abacha fought for Nigeria in the country’s civil war against Biafran secessionists continuing to rise through the army ranks.
He was instrumental in the 1983 Nigerian coup d’état which brought General Muhammadu Buhari to power as well as the August 1985 coup which removed him from power. He announced the coup which removed the government of Shehu Shagari.
When General Ibrahim Babangida was named President of Nigeria in 1985, Abacha was named Chief of Army Staff. He was appointed Minister of Defence in 1990. With Babangida’s resignation, an interim government headed by civilian President, Ernest Shonekan was formed.
Sani Abacha became the first Nigerian soldier to attain the rank of a full General without skipping a single rank in 1993. In the same year, he moved for the ultimate.
Shonekan resigned and transferred power to Sani Abacha in a move widely believed to be another bloodless coup. In September 1994, he issued a decree that placed his government above the jurisdiction of the courts, effectively giving him absolute power. Another decree gave him the right to detain anyone for up to three months without trial.
Abacha is noted for helping restore peace and democracy to Sierra Leone and Liberia after the civil wars.
On his administration of the Nigerian state proper, he established The Petroleum Trust Fund aimed to address major economic issues facing the country at the time. Between 25-100km of urban road in major cities such as Kano, Gusau, Benin, Funtua, Zaria, Enugu, Kaduna, Aba, Lagos, Lokoja, and Port Harcourt was planned to be constructed each. A N27.3bn contract was awarded for road rehabilitation in the first quarter of 1996.
There was a restructuring of major insurance companies that supported SMEs across the entire country.
Abacha mandated the PTF to publicise its accounts as it was the second-largest public corporation at the time. In 1997, the account of PTF showed that it disbursed N24.3bn on roads, N21.2bn on security, N7.8bn on health, and N3bn on other projects. Other disbursements include N2.2bn on water supply, N936m on food supply and N476m on education. It realized a total of N1.049bn from various investment activities.
It’s curious the sums which emerged after his death that he stashed in overseas accounts as the Abacha administration became the first to record unprecedented economic achievements overseeing an increase in the country’s foreign exchange reserves from $494 million in 1993 to $9.6 billion by the middle of 1997. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
He also reduced the external debt of Nigeria from $36 billion in 1993 to $27 billion by 1997. His Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund is also hailed for infrastructural projects and interventionist programmes in education, water and health.
His wife is credited with setting up the National Hospital in Abuja viewed as Nigeria’s foremost national hospital, which was initially set up as a hospital for women and children before its upgrade.
Nonetheless, Abacha was ruthless with groups he considered hostile to his administration between 1993 and 1998. There was a crackdown on the civil rights groups, media and pro-democracy groups.
It was also under him that Nigeria became a perpetual importer of petroleum products as the refineries packed up. The emergence of the ‘foul fuel’ which damaged car engines and released a repugnant smell was in his time.
General Sani Abacha earned the title ‘Thug of the Year’ from Time magazine in 1995 after the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa. Abacha developed the habit of working only at night. Availing himself to be seen publicly rarely while being averse to granting interviews.
The events of his death on June 8, 1998, at the presidential villa in Abuja are murky and while the official account is that he suffered a heart attack, other accounts say he was in the company of two Indian sex workers flown in from Dubai when he died. He was buried on the same day, according to Muslim tradition, without an autopsy. This fueled speculation that he may have been murdered by political rivals via poison.
Foreign diplomats, including United States Intelligence analysts, believed that his drink or fruit (apple) was laced with a poisonous substance while in the company of prostitutes.
Abacha was married to Maryam Abacha with whom he had had seven sons and three daughters.
In March 2014, the United States Department of Justice revealed that it had frozen more than $458 million believed to have been illegally obtained by Abacha and other corrupt officials.
On 7 August 2014, the United States Department of Justice announced the largest forfeiture in its history: the return of $480 million to the Nigerian government.
Stashed sums in other accounts have been discovered with the Nigerian government working to have the funds returned.
