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Igbo Resentment By Ever since the Igbo claim for compensation for victims of the 1966 pogroms before the Oputa panel, certain Nigerians have been getting somewhat hot under the collar. The general gist of the utterances from non-Igbos is that the Igbos' claim for compensation is unmerited. We have had to endure "articles" on nigeriaworld, gamji.com and other publications criticising Igbos for seeking to address their grievances at the Oputa panel. The argument goes that; because some Igbo army officers killed politicians and other military officers 35 years ago, ALL Igbos are undeserving of sympathy, condolence or compensation. The nation seems able to tolerate the plea for compensation made by men such as Lt-Gen Diya who complained about mistreatment by a regime he was part of, a regime he helped to sustain and the excesses of which he ignored when he was in a position to stop them. So the mysterious "AA" and Sanusi L Sanusi will deceive the world by falsely claiming that Igbos deserve no sympathy because of the "Igbo coup" of Jan 15th 1966. They seem to believe that resentment of Igbos began on this date: wrong. Chinua Achebe's "The Trouble With Nigeria" correctly states that most (non Igbo) Nigerians can agree on nothing other than their common dislike of Igbos. This has been part and parcel of Nigerian life since pre-colonial days. As an example, witness the pathetic events in Kano in 1953. Obafemi Awolowo had (against the wishes of northern leaders) held a series of rallies that offended northerners. Angry northerners vented their frustration by murdering scores of Igbos as "revenge" for the utterances of a Yoruba politician! Resentment of Igbos has ALWAYS existed; it did not begin in Jan 1966. Some Igbo characteristics have played a part to create this atmosphere of resentment. Igbos claim they are entrepreneurial, progressive and innovative. Other races interpret these characteristics as commercial aggression, arrogance and sneakiness. It is obvious that certain individuals like to talk utter nonsense about subjects they have not read around or researched. The Jan 1966 coup being a case in point. We have AA and SL Sanusi telling us that Igbo soldiers killed northerners and did not harm any Igbos. Yet they totally ignore the fact that officers called Ademoyega, Oyewole, Adeleke, and Banjo took part in, and were among the coup's conspiratorial group. Are these Igbo names? They also forget that an Igbo officer (Lt-Col Unegbe) was killed by the conspirators, that Major Nzeogwu was (an officer who considered himself a "northerner") spoke hausa "like a native" and who when he attacked the Sardauna's lodge on the night of Jan 15th 1966, was accompanied by several northern soldiers. Nzeogwu later pointed out that these northern soldiers were in possession of live ammunition and that "they could have shot me" had they disagreed with the plan to storm the Sardauna's lodge. No one has ever disputed his version of events. So let us get this straight, Igbos as a race, are undeserving of sympathy because officers from all four regions (Nzeogwu was from the mid-west) of the country killed politicians and soldiers (Okotie-Eboh: Mid-West, Akintola: West, Balewa: north, Unegbe: East) from all four regions of the country 35 years ago? How logical. Let me ask a question: even if I am wrong and the Jan 1966 coup, really was carried out exclusively by Igbo officers, did the innocent women and children who were murdered in grisly circumstances by northern mobs in 1966 ask Ifeajuna and co to stage a coup? Why should innocent Igbos who were murdered for no reason other than their ethnic origin pay for the actions of a few army officers? When Abacha was busy killing and driving his fellow citizens into exile, did Igbo mobs kill northerners just because Abacha happened to be from the north? No - because they realised that Abacha's sins were personal and were not acquiesced to by all northerners. We are also told that Igbos were killed because of the Unification Decree of May 1966 which was intended to foist "Igbo domination" on the country. What the ignorant disciples of this argument either do not know, or choose to ignore is that at the time the Decree was passed by the Supreme Military Council (SMC), the SMC had more northern than Igbo members. If the north really was so vehemently opposed to that Decree, why did the northern members of the SMC not veto it? If the Decree so angered northerners, why have successive northern led governments operated a system of administration far more unitary than anything Ironsi envisaged? If the Decree was the source of the northerners’ anger, why did the murder of Igbos carry on with such ferocity for months after Gowon had replaced Ironsi, and the Decree repealed? The argument that the Decree was intended to create "Igbo domination" is a fallacy designed to justify the murder of innocent Igbos for no reason other than their ethnic origin. Igbos are quite simply not wanted as equal partners in Nigeria. Their presence in this country is bitterly resented by other ethnic groups. We in this country are too obsessed with ethnicity and we wish ill of those from ethnic groups other than our own. The popularity of Gen Murtala Muhammed among southerners shows that Nigerians will love a good leader, no matter what part of the country he comes from. When Murtala was killed, Nigerians north and south, mourned his passing. Perhaps this shows that after all, we Nigerians (whether we be Isoko, Kanuri, Igbo, Hausa, Edo, Efik, Birom or Ijaw) are not that different from each other. -MAX SIOLLUN September, 2001
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