Journalists around the world pride themselves as members of the Fourth Estate of Realm. Of course they are, truly so, especially those operating in thriving democracies. One would want to believe that for a journalist to qualify to remain so, he has to operate within the realm of truth. This is important for his credibility and that of the news media he represents. Like in most other trades, to remain within the realm of truth is very tasking. It is indeed a challenge in infectious 'thieving' democracies like BiafraNigeria, where unfortunately the practice of journalism is infested with 'brown envelope' syndrome. Therefore, any journalist/correspondent seeking to maintain his integrity and that of his news organization needs to be very knowledgeable, sensitive and truthful, particularly if the issue in question draws from notorious facts. The heads of such organizations need to be as much concerned as their correspondents in the field. A failure to adhere to such honorable indices certainly would create room for a wide interpretation of what motivated a correspondent to file a report laced with obvious lies, partisanship and stereotyping. It would put in the front burner what interests a news organization is seeking to protect by using such a report on an issue the facts surrounding it are notorious as already noted. It is even more so when such an organization, in this case BBC, is said to be helping BiafraNigerian media to conduct seminars in political reporting and election issues in a democracy.

The report the BBC correspondent in Lagos, Mallam Souleimanu Habuba filed on the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, selection of General Ojukwu as its presidential candidate entitled "Ex-rebel contests Nigerian poll" and used by BBC Online on Friday, December 27, 2002 falls within the ambit of such reports that create room for wide interpretation of what motivated the correspondent to lace his report with lies, partisanship, and stereotypes. It questions the interests the BBC wants to protect in the coming BiafraNigeria elections, especially the presidential election.

Understandably, the entry of General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the former Biafran leader, who was endorsed as the consensus candidate in APGA's convention is sending waves beyond the waters of BiafraNigeria. That endorsement was reached without the acrimony and confusion that attended the convention of All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, which produced General Mohammadu Buhari as its flag bearer, after Southern contestants were schemed out of the race. General Buhari was a military dictator (1983-85) and now better known as a religious dichotomist weighted on puritanical Sharia. The APGA convention came after ANPP convention. The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had earlier nominated former military dictator and incumbent President, retired General Olusegun Obasanjo through an electoral process described as a 'charade' by one of his fellow contestants, former Second Republic Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme. It was an electoral process strongly believed to have been riddled with intrigues and in which 'Ghana Must Go', a euphemism for physical cash, changed hands.

The entry of Ojukwu, considered a hero even in military circles for checkmating military indiscipline in the Nigerian Armed Forces at some points in his career, will have its impact. Surely, this will be, regardless of such imputed lies and partisanship that 'APGA is a regional party with tribal allegiance�In 1999, only three parties were allowed and they had to prove that they had support from across the country in order to avoid regional or ethnically-based parties' as reported by Habuba. Habuba by the above line of reporting imputed that APGA did not meet requirements for registration. However, the truth is that APGA was duly registered even before the relaxation of stringent conditions that saw the emergence of more parties bringing the total number of registered parties in BiafraNigeria now to 30. It met the requirements of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Except if the BBC and their man in Lagos want to impugn on the integrity of the INEC and those that manage its affairs. Stereotyping the reports on Ojukwu and the Republic of Biafra he bravely led between 1967-70 and shortchanging the wider world by withholding the truths about the Biafran Revolution will not diminish the profundity of his impact. It would be untypical if BBC reporters and BBC see the inseparable institutions, Ojukwu and Biafra, through a more objective prism than the said report considering where their allegiance was during the Nigeria-Biafra war and where it possibly remains.

I do not know whether Mallam Habuba was there in Lagos in 1999 doing the BBC job. Even if he was not, as a journalist, he is expected to thoroughly review the past if he has to use it for the present. Without going into the details that led to the emergence of the three parties, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, All Peoples Party, APP, now known as ANPP, and Alliance forDemocracy, AD, in 1999, I make bold to state that AD did not meet the so-called national spread in order to be registered then. They left no one in doubt that they are a tribal party, out to protect the interest of their tribe, Yoruba. The military administration of retied General Abdusalami Abubakar registered it to meet the perceived exigencies of the time. General Abubakar's Chief of General Staff retired Rear Admiral Mike Akhigbe had since publicly acknowledged that AD was indeed registered without proving it had support across the country. It remains a tribal party, unashamedly so, with a reluctance to produce a Presidential Candidate now, so that they can vote en-block for their tribesman, retired General Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo is currently seeking a re-election under the disintegrating PDP, peopled by late dictator Sani Abacha's henchmen.

The ANPP showed itself to be a Hausa-Fulani party after the elections in 1999. It won elections in the feudal north using the promise of the institution and enforcement of a fundamentalist brand of the Islamic legal code, Sharia, to gain power in nine states in that region. They kept their promise, with all its known costs to a corporate BiafraNigeria. There is no doubt that they will repeat the same feat in the coming elections with a staunch exponent of the strict Islamic legal code, Buhari, as their presidential candidate. Nominating a political saboteur and former Senate President, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo from the Southeast as his running mate, is only a ploy that will not cleanse the image of the party as a platform for promoting fundamentalist brand of Sharia in Nigeria. It is an image that will hurt the ANPP fortunes beyond the boundaries of BiafraNigeria.

BiafraNigeria seems to be headed to a sweet stalemate. It is one that will defy the lies, partisanship and stereotyping of the BBC's correspondent in Lagos and the prominence BBC gives to such image-damaging story line not befitting its 70-year existence. In the interesting unfolding scenario in BiafraNigeria, the presidential election come April, will be a fight between three generals, Ojukwu, Obasanjo, and Buhari in which each will rely on ethnic support from their regions. Obasanjo's palpable hatred for the South-South and Southeast would deny him support in those regions. In particular, the political consequences for his flattening of Odi and his games with the Offshore/Onshore issue await him on D-day. The electorate is wiser than those misguided politicians that picked him in Abuja. His brutality to the Zaki Biam people is sure to haunt him in the Middle Belt.

Buhari, blinded by religion and known to have used the special account, Petroleum Trust Fund, created by late dictator, General Sani Abacha to develop his own region to the detriment of other regions, will be denied support in those regions that were excluded in his (mis) management of the fund. He will also have to face his discriminatory handling of national issues like letting 53 cases belonging to the father of his then aide camp, Major Jokolo, to pass through the Airport Security during the changing of old Naira to new one while he was Head of State. And followers of those he threw into detention and sent them to their untimely deaths, like Professor Ambrose Ali (former Governor of old Bendel state), Barkin Zuwo (former Governor of Kano State) and Bisi Onabanjo (former Governor of Ogun State) are sure to mobilize against his election. The pressmen he hurt through his draconian decree 2, won't find it funny supporting the election of such a man as a democratic president of BiafraNigeria.

Ojukwu's misunderstood role in the Nigeria-Biafra war may hurt him in some areas, but his near cult following in his sphere of influence will pay him dividends in spite of the presidential pretenders from his region. The expectation is that no one will be able to meet the 25% of 2/3 of the states in BiafraNigeria as demanded by BiafraNigerian constitution. A constitutional patch-patch through Electoral College may not work. Baring any dramatic political re-alignments of forces and the traditional violence from the 'Wild West' that truncated other Republics, this is the most likely outlook. And if this happens, it would be a straight road to the Sovereign National Conference, SNC, which is receiving new converts by day, the latest being former Commonwealth Secretary General, Emeka Anyaoku. This to me is the safety valve in that pressurized polity of BiafraNigeria. We just have to wait and see and not rely on jaundiced journalism as being practiced by Mallam Habuba of BBC.