Apologize for what? If anybody deserves to apologize to Nigerians it is the corrupt politicians. Who cares what EU and US observers think about Nigerian election? Perhaps This Day and/or whoever is perpetuating this neo-colonial story forgot that the same Europeans that has turned Zimbabweans into paupers via their economic sanctions in order to get Mugabe to say "Yessir" to the "Master", also killed a democratically elected Lumumba in favor of Mobutu thus causing the Congo to become a failed state we see today due to its un-ending civil wars for most part of its 50-year history. What about Slavery and Jim Crow practices in a democratic US until the advent of Obama Presidency. Please stop these colonial mentality and show more pride in your roots. Obama is not elected President of Nigeria. My interest is how we improve Nigeria's future elections and infrastructure so as to make life better for the common man - even a benevolent dictatorship would be preferred than these Rouge Politicians. The past is gone; even though it may be prologue, let's move forward instead of wasting time rehashing old but dead issues. As far as I am concerned, Iwu and his staff conducted a credible election based on the parameters of election laws allowed INEC. If there is any deficiency, let our do-nothing NASS pass legislations that will make INEC more effective in conducting better election in the future. I just read that our national association of students has elected Mr. Iwu as their Man of the Year - go figure.

Iwu,Thank you and all of your Friends for the history lesson.The truth will set us Free. Is Obama White? God Bless Africa and America. Oweij Liebo-USA,Peace and Love.

Sir, would you tell us who SPECIFICALLY killed Lumuba? Name names please; no abstract generalities, devoid of content, such as "Europeans."

I am calling you to the mat on this one; never mind the myopic professor, an alienated African intellectual, trying so get his fifteen minutes: name who killed Lumumba, the naive commie!

Regards.

Jallowlaw, It is obvious that you have limited knowledge of African history that you have to be educated as such via the medium: Let me start with Exhibit 1. The report of 2001 by the Belgian Commission mentions that there had been previous U.S. and Belgian plots to kill Lumumba. Among them was a CIA-sponsored attempt to poison him, which may have come on orders from U.S. President Eisenhower. CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb was a key person in this by devising a poison resembling toothpaste. However, the plan is said to have failed because the local CIA Station Chief, Larry Devlin, had a conscience issue and did not go forward. In February 2002, the Belgian government apologized to the Congolese people, and admitted to a "moral responsibility" and "an irrefutable portion of responsibility in the events that led to the death of Lumumba." In July, documents released by the United States government revealed that while the CIA had been kept informed of Belgium's plans, it had no direct role in Lumumba's eventual death. This same disclosure showed that U.S. perception at the time was that Lumumba was a communist. Eisenhower's reported call, at a meeting of his national security advisers, for Lumumba's elimination must have been brought on by this perception. Both Belgium and the US were clearly influenced in their unfavourable stance towards Lumumba by the Cold War. He seemed to gravitate around the Soviet Union, although it was the only place he could find support in his country's effort to rid itself of colonial rule, not because he was a communist.(Ironically, the US was the first country Lumumba requested help from). — Lumumba, for his part, not only denied being a Communist, but said he found colonialism and Communism to be equally deplorable, and professed his personal preference for neutrality between the East and West. You can read the rest of the story at its source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba www.africawithin.com/lumumba/who_killed_lumumba.htm

Exhibit 2: The CIA, Belgium and the Assassination of an African Hero. By Kevin Whitelaw. "The day will come when history will speak... Africa will write its own history... it will be a history of glory and dignity." - Patrice Lumumba. It was the height of the Cold War when Sidney Gottlieb arrived in Congo in September 1960. The CIA man was toting a vial of poison. His target: the toothbrush of Patrice Lumumba, Congo's charismatic first prime minister, who was also feared to be a rabid Communist. As it happened, Lumumba was toppled in a military coup just days before Gottlieb turned up with his poison. The plot was abandoned, the lethal potion dumped in the Congo River. When Lumumba finally was killed, in January 1961, no one was surprised when fingers started pointing at the CIA. A Senate investigation of CIA assassinations 14 years later found no proof that the agency was behind the hit, but suspicions linger. Today, new evidence suggests Belgium, Congo's former colonialist ruler, was the mastermind. According to The Assassination of Lumumba, a book published recently in Belgium by sociologist Ludo de Witte, Belgian operatives directed and carried out the murder, and even helped dispose of the body. Belgian authorities are investigating, but officials admit de Witte's account appears accurate. Does that mean the CIA didn't play a role? Declassified U.S. cables from the year preceding the assassination bristle with paranoia about a Lumumba-led Soviet Communist takeover. The CIA was hatching plots against Cuban leader Fidel Castro and was accused of fomenting coups and planning assassinations worldwide. And Lumumba clearly scared the daylights out of the Eisenhower administration. "In high quarters here, it is the clear-cut conclusion that if [Lumumba] continues to hold high office, the inevitable result will [have] disastrous consequences . . . for the interests of the free world generally," CIA Director Allen Dulles wrote. "Consequently, we conclude that his removal must be an urgent and prime objective." Even out of office, Lumumba remained under the microscope of Western spy services. His ties to Moscow frightened Washington. His fierce anti-colonialism unnerved Brussels. Belgium finally got its chance at Lumumba after Congolese authorities arrested him in December 1960. Belgian officials engineered his transfer to the breakaway province of Katanga, which was under Belgian control. De Witte reveals a telegram from Belgium's African-affairs minister, Harold d'Aspremont Lynden, essentially ordering that Lumumba be sent to Katanga. Anyone who knew the place knew that was a death sentence. Firing squad. When Lumumba arrived in Katanga, on January 17, accompanied by several Belgians, he was bleeding from a severe beating. Later that evening, Lumumba was killed by a firing squad commanded by a Belgian officer. A week earlier, he had written to his wife, "I prefer to die with my head unbowed, my faith unshakable, and with profound trust in the destiny of my country." Lumumba was 35. The next step was to destroy the evidence. Four days later, Belgian Police Commissioner Gerard Soete and his brother cut up the body with a hacksaw and dissolved it in sulfuric acid. In an interview on Belgian television last year, Soete displayed a bullet and two teeth he claimed to have saved from Lumumba's body. What remains unclear is the extent, if any, of Washington's involvement in the final plot. A Belgian official who helped engineer Lumumba's transfer to Katanga told de Witte that he kept CIA station chief Lawrence Devlin fully informed of the plan. "The Americans were informed of the transfer because they actively discussed this thing for weeks," says de Witte. But Devlin, now retired, denies any previous knowledge of the transfer. Either way, Lumumba's death served its purpose: It bolstered the shaky regime of a formerly obscure colonel named Joseph Mobutu. During his three-decade rule, Mobutu would run his country, bursting with natural resources, into the depths of poverty. It took a civil war to oust him, and Congo has seen little peace since. Today, at least five countries are fighting in Congo and Lumumba's son, an opposition leader, spent several weeks in a Kinshasa jail cell on politically motivated charges. Source: www.thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=598. Other sources that you can research include: blogcritics.org/archives/2004/09/24/053112. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/974745.stm www.raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/Lumumbascript.html www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/patrice.htm www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-8666563.html.

Sir, respectfully, I have learned nada from your long and boring attempt to determine the killer of Lumumba.

Bottom line: you still have to tell the readers who killed Lumumba. Your attempt to escape this proof exercise cannot be concealed by your uncritical cites to sources that you have not fontologically vetted, at least, not in your posting.

Give it another shot, if you don't mind: answer the question!

Who specifically killed Lumumba?

Calling me an ignoramus of African history is not going to absolve you of that intellectual task. Accordingly, cut the name calling obfuscationism: just answer the question.

Kindest Felicitations.