[size=14pt]Mbu apologises over comment on Balewa’s death[/size]


One month after his reported comments that Nigeria’s first and only Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa died from an asthmatic attack and not gunshots, former High Commissioner to London, Chief Matthew Mbu, yesterday, tendered an unreserved apology to the Balewa family.

Mbu, who described Sir Balewa as his mentor and political godfather, said in a two-page, eight-paragraph and 740-word letter entitled: “My Apology to the family of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa,” said he was saddened by the controversies that his interview with The Nation Newspaper had generated. He offered and hoped that what he described as his “sincerest apologies” would be accepted by the late Prime Minister’s family.

Apology

The letter read in part: “I am truly saddened that my interview with The Nation Newspaper of August 5, 2010, about Nigeria at 50 and what I said immediately afterwards has generated so much controversy and caused such unnecessary anguish to the family of my mentor and political godfather, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.

I hope Mukhtar Balewa will accept my sincerest apologies on behalf of the family for inadvertently causing so much pain.

The unfortunate reference to the death of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was made to The Nation Newspaper reporter after the completion of a marathon interview about ‘Nigeria at 50.’ “It was not meant to be in any way inflammatory and has obviously been taken completely out of context. As it happened, after the lengthy interview I made the statement that there were numerous facts and rumours about this great nation that I would prefer to take with me to my grave.

However, rather accepting the statement as it is, the reporter proceeded to press me for an example and after several minutes of being cajoled to speak I finally relented and gave him the example of what my friend Chris Okigbo told me about how my political father died.

Statement taken out of context

Anyone who actually read the article in The Nation of August 5, 2010, would have known that the statement must have been taken out of context, as it did not relate to anything discussed in the interview.

“Furthermore, I never for one minute said or even alluded to the fact that I knew exactly how Sir Abubakar died and, besides, at the time of the coup I was en-route to India as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to attend the funeral of late Prime Minister Shastri. In fact, it was only upon landing at Delhi Airport and being met by then Nigerian High Commissioner, Mr. Ade Haastrup that I learned of the coup in Nigeria. I instantly enquired as to the fate of Sir Abubakar, the Prime Minister and the High Commissioner told me that both the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister Chief Okotie Eboh had been kidnapped and their whereabouts were unknown. You can then imagine what my concern was about the sad events in Nigeria.

“Upon my return from India, I met Chris Okigbo and was given his account of the events that took place. As I said to The Nation Newspaper reporter, this was Okigbo’s account. I have never said that what Chris Okigbo told me was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, neither have I said that I know better than anyone else the circumstances surrounding the painful death of Sir Abubakar.

“It is, therefore extremely unfortunate and heart wrenching that the family of my late mentor should be subjected to such anguish after so many years. Not only is this furthest from my hear and mind but also the continued preponderance of the issue by some parties, presumably in a quest to attract some attention to themselves, has further exacerbated the matter.

No ulterior motive
“Comments such as my having an ulterior motive for mentioning the circumstances of Sir Abubakar’s death and “Mbu, Osoba’s agenda remains unknown” are both careless and slanderous and further confirm the unlikelihood that the comments were made by those who had actually read my full interview published in The Nation Newspaper of August 5, 2010.

Nevertheless, and despite receiving numerous invitations to engage with some of these individuals in a public confrontation over the matter, I chose to remain silent and ignore all provocation and I would have continued to do so until I read the statement from Mukhtar Balewa. His statement made it clearly obvious that things had gone too far and that the articles appearing in the various newspapers were adversely affecting the peace and happiness of the family of Sir Abubakar.

“As such, I felt it necessary to break my silence and make a formal and heartfelt apology to the family of one of Nigeria’s greatest heroes for inadvertently providing the platform for some mischievous individuals to open up old wounds. I can only hope and pray that with this apology I succeed in putting an end to such unwarranted ‘debate’ which at times has often been reduced to baseless mudslinging. I therefore appeal to all the good people of Nigeria to allow this unfortunate issue to rest and spare the family and the nation any further anguish.”

http://www.pointblanknews.com/News/os4027.html

Katsumoto:

I guess Independence celebrations are over and[b] every old politician has collected his/her share of the budget allocated to telling lies about Nigeria's history.[/b] Now they can start with the rebuttals.

ayinba1:

If OP was hoping to exonerate Mbu with this, FAIL.

Personally, I never heard of the initial interview however, saying the first Prime Minister died of an asthma attack is in very poor taste. Even an Elementary pupil with a Social studies class knows the story about the first Coup.

Sadly too, coming from an IGBO. What you get when you insist on recycling 50 yr old trash bags

ayinba1:

If OP was hoping to exonerate Mbu with this, FAIL.

Personally, I never heard of the initial interview however, saying the first Prime Minister died of an asthma attack is in very poor taste. Even an Elementary pupil with a Social studies class knows the story about the first Coup.

[b]Sadly too, coming from an Ibo. [/b]What you get when you insist on recycling 50 yr old trash bags

Andre Uweh:

I do not know what sort of elementary school you are talking about or social studies class. Some aspects of Nigerian history are not thought in schools. Even professors of Nigeria political history do not know all about the first coup.
Only recently, the true aspect of that coup is manifesting from eye-witnesse(s) such as Segun Osoba.

ayinba1:

@MrPrsdent

I stand corrected. Pray then, tell me what part of the country he hails from, thanks !

ayinba1:

@MrPrsdent

I stand corrected. Pray then, tell me what part of the country he hails from, thanks !

bk.babe97y:

Surprise, Another Ibo caught lying. . . . . . .lol

Andre Uweh:

Mbu is not Igbo but Ekoi.

TewMuch:

But Mbu was fiercely defended by Igbo's when he came up with his lies. Because it fit an Igbo agenda to distance themselves away from the casualties caused by the Igbo coup, so history will not judge them. Now they say he is not Igbo when they found out he was lying abi? Funny stuff. . Nothing to be ashamed of about the coup, what happened, happened and it is in the past. We should just learn from the past and move on, not try to deny it. It is our history and going to be our history till the world ends, nothing can ever change that.

4K Belewa

Too late. Ifeajunna/biafrans already did!!!

T9ksy:

Posted by: udezue
Too late. Ifeajunna/biafrans already did!!!

udezue:


The guy is EKOI not Igbo.

bk.babe97y:

Why didnt yall fucxk faces say so b4? Now, he's been caught in lie, as usual the ibo man wants to leave Mbu to his fate! That what u get for fuxcking with them two-faced human flesh eaters!

Dr. Mbu, who was a close confidant of the late Prime Minister, recounted a momentous encounter 44 years ago, with the late poet Christopher Okigbo, one of the last people to see the late Prime Minister alive before he was arrested by the coup plotters.

He said Christopher Okigbo, who was also a close friend of Major Ifeajuna, who led the coupists in Lagos, recounted the arrest of the Prime Minister to him first hand. Okigbo and Ifeajuna themselves were killed in action during the Nigerian civil war.

Mbu, who many also regarded as Tafawa Balewa’s de-facto foreign minister, was ironically sent out to India for a State funeral by the Prime Minister, only hours before the coup. He had warned the late Prime Minister of an impending coup just days earlier.

He said he was reliably informed that Prime Minister Balewa had been accosted by the soldiers who first gave him the salute due to a Commander-in-Chief before informing him that they were effecting a change of government. They allowed him to say his Islamic prayers before taking him in a car.

The plans of the putschists according to Mbu’s account, did not include killing the Prime Minister. He was to be taken to Calabar and forced to release and handover power to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, then in prison for treasonable felony.

Balewa unfortunately did not make it out of Lagos. He reportedly suffered an asthmatic attack and died in the car. The announcement by the Army chief, General Aguiyi Ironsi of a failed coup, led to the dumping of the late Prime Minister’s body in the forest off the road to Abeokuta.

From this thread, it has become apparent that many cannot read and if they do they cannot comprehend. What a waste of resources by your parents to send you to school

Mbu NEVER retracted his statement or changed the source of his story, he only regretted the pain it caused Balewa’s family for bringing up the story of the late Prime Minister and that’s it.

udezue:

Freaking retard. Eat a d i c k.

No! Mbu, like every other lying Ibo scoundrel out there is the one eating a d ick! An ,11 inch, Big-black-mandingo-diyyck ful of lies is being shoved down his throat as we speak right now!

T9ksy:

So what's your point? Mbu is a silly old man with a big mouth and a miniature brain. He ought to have retracted his phocking statement as its falsehood. we are not concerned about the source so he need not alter that. Its axiomatic that Mbu's statement was fallacious and can only have been made by an impishly persona to cause mischief as we all know that Ifeajunna killed TB. So what did the senile old man expected when he decided to regurgitate unsubstantiated 2nd hand information about someelse's loved one, 44yrs after the event? So ifeajunna told Okigbo who told him (chief Mbu) and he thought this is the right time after all these years to reiterate the information. But he regretted the pain caused TB's family. I wonder how he thought TB's family are going to react when he decided to repeat this errorneous info about their long-departed family member? Maybe, he never thought about it as he was to engrossed with the mischief he's about to unleash into the polity.

The old man should make an unreserved apology to TB's family and then go and hide his ugly head in shame. If he has nothing constructive to say, he should keep his BIG mouth shut. And i do not care whether he is Igbo, yoruba , hausa or whatever. His statement was made in bad taste and gratuitous, to boot.