Ndigbo and the Nigerian Nation

Ndigbo and the Nigerian Nation...

It has been quite interesting to watch events as they unfold at the Oputa Hearings in Ndigbo land. The piece below, written by a resident of Lagos State (who prefers to write under the pseudonym of his initials for now), serves to bring needed attention to the level of idiocy, to which the Enugu hearings have descended. Once again, we are all subject to the benevolent (or malevolent?) inclinations of the Igbo leadership machinery, who have become the masters at the game of "water power." I will delve further into the issue of the Igbo nations hypocrisy at another time. But for now, please journey along with me on this ride of discovery... the discovery of how a group of people to date, remain their own worst enemies. My name is Soboyejo Alaba Akinboyede Awosika-Coker (it should be quite clear by now that I have no qualms about telling you who I am) and I bring you the insightful article by A.A. of Lagos State.

Here goes...

By A.A.

The Oputa Panel is regarded by most Nigerians as a very important panel designed to heal both individual and group wounds inflicted on Nigeria’s polity from the first establishment of military rule in the country. The Panel has done veritably well in its sittings in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano where, by my judgement it has satisfied its billing. If Nigerians have thought it would become the charade that the Ndigbo has almost turned it into in Enugu , each ethnic group would have prepared and orchestrated an iron-clad case against one another. Ndigbo has spent more than half of all the sittings there making a self-righteous case against Nigeria. Ndigbo is claiming that she is sinned against but has not sinned. The earlier she realises, (but would she ever realise?) that a reaction against her first sin of the first coup by Igbo junior officers led by Chukwuma Nzeogwu is what has led to all she is howling about, even if she is howling about were true, the better it would be for everybody. Ndigbo is making everyone remember what is best forgotten. Now that the can of worms is open, the worms have to seek the light.

In January 1966, there were the Federal Government located in Lagos and headed by Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a Northerner, and four regional governments located in Kaduna and headed by Sir Ahmadu Bello, a Northerner, one located in Ibadan and headed by Chief S.L. Akintola, a Yoruba, another located in Benin headed by Chief Dennis Osadebay, an Igbo and the last one located in Enugu, headed by Dr. Michael Okpara, an Igbo. When Nzeogwu and his men struck, the Head of the Governments in Lagos, Kaduna and Ibadan, all non-Igbos were killed. The Heads of Governments in Benin and Enugu, both Igbos, were not even arrested. I suppose these slain Heads of Governments belong to tribal or sectional groups that could have made cases against the Ndigbo on their behalf. They have not because discretion, they say, is the better part of valour.

And the army officers killed, some ensconced in their hotel rooms at Ikoyi far removed from any scene of the putsch? These included Brigadier Z. Maimalari, a Northerner, a disciplined and highly detribalised officer who was highly regarded as more qualified than Ironsi to head the Nigerian Army, if he had pulled any political strings, Lt. Cols. J.Y. Pam, a Northerner and A. Largema, also a Northerner. In Kaduna, Nzeogwu killed Brigadier S.A. Ademulegun, Commander 1st Brigade and contender with Ironsi for the leadership of the Army; Cols R.A. Shodeinde, another Yoruba and Kur Mohammed, a Northerner. Worst still, Mrs. Ademulegun, a housewife and not a soldier, was killed cold bloodedly in bed. People regard military people as officers and gentlemen. Gentlemen do not kill ladies. Only cowards do.

Of course, Ndigbo would give us the shop-worn excuse that Nzeogwu and his murderous coup plotters were fired with nationalistic zeal, such zeal as is being demonstrated now in their wanting to have their fingers in every pie. Would Ndigbo tell us that the North was devoid of nationalists then? I find more of them up North today than I find in the East, it is just that unlike empty barrels, they do not make that much noise.

Tafawa Balewa, then Nigeria’s Prime Minister, could have in 1966 run his government with only members of the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC). In the interest of national unity, Tafawa allied with the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) which later stabbed him in the back. One shocker that is yet to come out is that Nnamdi Azikiwe (Zik), then the Igbo ceremonial President of this country was briefed of the impending coup d’etat and that was why he extended his stay abroad on medical grounds. It is customary for Presidents to be around and give an address and some party to the meeting of the Commonwealth Heads of States, which held in Nigeria till the morning of the coup. Zik, Nigeria’s ceremonial President, was conspicuously absent on health grounds, yet, he lived almost 30 years after. Could he have passed his foreknowledge of Nzeogwu’s coup to his Igbo Premiers, and could that be why they were spared? See what happens when you open a can of worms? Many people are still wondering whether Osadebay and Okpara were not even part of the coup plan.

And who were the beneficiaries of Nzeogwu’s coup? Of course, Ndigbo is silent on this. A benumbed nation was foisted the rumour that Ironsi was to have been killed in Lagos. A disoriented population was sold this to justify the massacre of her high ranking officers of non-Igbo origin. Brigadier Ironsi, an Ndigbo surrogate, if there was one, became Head of State and he was tolerated for as long as it took Nigerians to understand the situation. Up to this time, all Nigerians lived in peace wherever they were in this country. Can Ndigbo contradict this? Of course not. But the Ndigbo were either insensitive or had no foresight. Unwittingly in Kano in 1966, the Igbos displayed a photograph of the venerated late Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, late by Nzeogwu’s hand, premier of Northern Nigeria ‘in a prone position with his head under the boot of Major Nzeogwu’. It was the same insensitivity that General Ironsi showed by his Unification Decree 34 of 1966 declaring a constitutionally agreed federation of Nigeria ‘a unitary state’. In furtherance of this was his imbalanced promotions in the Army which favoured mostly members of his clan who were then appointed to key political posts and commands as prefects.

After this, the country’s reaction was not long in coming. The storms had ominously been gathering since the January 15 coup people were known and nothing was done to them. The July coup was indeed a reaction to the January coup that was now seen and confirmed to be tribally motivated. The killings were shocking to most people of conscience.

But those who carried it out did it with a vengeance. It was unconscionable but then taking human life earlier and after is also unconscionable. I suppose it is the scale of this one that Ndigbo is lamenting. Remember the wind and the whirlwind?

Then came the war, which I supported on Biafran side. A country is not worth its while if it cannot protect the life of its citizens and indeed it did appear to me that it was those paid to protect lives that were taking the life of the Igbos. But two things bothered me. One was that in declaring the defunct Republic of Biafra, Ndigbo did not bother that it was immoral to yoke the unwilling peoples of Rivers State, the Efiks, the Ijaws and the Ibibios along. This is one of the reasons adduced that the Civil War has to do with resources control. Without the oil from Rivers State, would Biafra have survived? The other is the scorched earth policy meted by the Biafran on Edo and Ondos in Biafra’s blitzkrieg across these territories.

What is Ndigbo now asking for? Reparations. This is logic turned upside down. Ndigbo, please stop embarrassing the Oputa Panel. Only losers in wars are made to pay reparations. Gowon was magnanimous enough to declare even though Biafra lost the war that there was ‘no victor, no vanquished’! The rest of us cannot be made to pay reparations.

As to abandoned properties, there cannot be anything so called. Fortunately such ludicrous concept is restricted to a small section of this country. Those who seized other’s property must not only be made to return them but also be made to pay not only the rent accruable since their seizure but some penalty for such a crime.

...The Author lives in Lagos and prefers to write under the pseudonym of his initials

Reply to Mr Awosika Jerry Okaha

Jerry Okaha on Awosika Coker Soboyejo Awosika Coker