Political Dynamics: Another View.

 By

T

Ojukwu’s No-show Act

 On Saturday, November 18, 1995, I was honored with an invitation to participate at a private meeting between the Ikemba of Nnewi, Chief Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and the Igbo leaders of thought in the New York tri-state area. The invitation came at very short notice indeed. But because of all the disturbing things I had heard in recent times regarding the Ikemba’s new line of thought in Nigerian politics, I dropped everything else in order to be present at that meeting. I need ed to hear it from the horse’s mouth, and I went to that meeting to agree or disagree with the Ikemba.

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen scheduling conflicts, the Ikemba did not show up. But one of our group who was present at a similar meeting between the Ikemba and Igbo leaders in Houston, Texas volunteered to brief us on what the Ikemba had said were his reasons for singing a new tune in the politics of Nigeria. However, besides the usual (and historical) litany of grievances the Igbo are wont to recite against the Yoruba, the only new things I heard that night were about Abacha’s agreement to contracts for road in the East and the issue of

 creation of new states. But any person of average intelligence can easily surmise that these two new items were simply brought in by the Ikemba as a sop to those present so as to mitigate their opposition to his new friends. For o ne thing, when did the northern oligarchy ever agree to the creation of one state in the south without simultaneously creating a counterbalancing state in the north ? Will this time be different? Therefore the important issue I want to address in this le tter to my Igbo brethren is our litany of grievances against the Yorubas and how it is affecting our ability to move forward as a people.

Igbo Grievances & the Round Robin of Mutual Destruction.

At the risk of this letter becoming longer than intended, I wish to put in historical perspective the Igbo litany of grievances against the Yoruba.

The 1954 Western Elections - which was won by the NCNC under Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe ("Zik.’). But after a meeting of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, several Yoruba NCNC legislators suddenly "crossed carpet" to the Action Group (AG) under Chief Obafemi Awolowo, thereby effectively preventing Zik from becoming the first premier of Western Nigeria. Hurt and dejected, Zik returned to the East, where he promptly displaced Prof. Eyo Ita from the premiership of the region. This helped fuel the anger and disloyalty of the eastern minority elements, who soon organized to demand the creation of a COR state. This was the beginning of tribalism in Nigerian politics.

The 1959 Federal Elections - in which none of the three major parties (NPC, NCNC and AG) won a clear majority, but the NPC had the most seats, followed by the NCNC. To prevent the northerners (a.k.a. the NPC) from having the first shot at the prime Ministership of Nigeria with so much executive power concentrated there, Awo proposed that the NCNC (i.e. the Igbos) and the AG (i.e. the Yorubas) should form a coalition so as to have the first shot at ruling at the center. But Zik, still pe eved at what happened to him in 1954, would not have anything to do with Awo. Instead he teamed up with the NPC to form the first Federal government of an independent Nigeria on October 1 1960. Thus, the Igbos became the junior partner in a Federal govern ment where they would have been the senior partner had Zik agreed to a coalition with the Yorubas.

By the time the republican constitution came into force on October 1, 1963, it had become obvious that the coalition between the NCNC and NPC was a tactical blunder on the part of Igbo leaders. The northerners were playing for keeps! We had underrated their intelligence ! They were grabbing power and gobbling up Nigerian resources at an astonishing rate. They had even rigged the 1963 census figures to assure for themselves a permanent majority at the Federal level. In other words, by re fusing a coalition with the West in 1959, we had cut our noses to spite our face !

By the time the 1964 Federal Elections rolled around, the East under Dr. M.I. Okpara had learned its lesson and chose to align under the UPGA in alliance against the NNA, which comprised the NPC and the NNDP. But our lesson had been learned too  late. The northern oligarchy who had delayed Nigerian independence by four years because they didn’t have the skilled manpower to run even a regional government had tasted the power that came with independence and were loath to give it up ! They had consolidated their hold on Nigeria far too strongly to be dislodged, what with three governments under their control: the Northern and Western governments under Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello and Ladoke Akintola respectively. This NPC/NNDP alliance (alias NNA) used the instruments of government to effect massive rigging of the elections. The UPGA, which had called for boycott of the election in some parts of the country, rejected the results and called upon Zik, the ceremonial president, to do the same. He ultimately refused, claiming that he had been advised by the Attorney-General, Dr. Taslim Elias, (who was appointed by, and answerable to the NPC) not to reject the results ! Thus, we could not utilize even that which we had thought to be our trump card - the ceremonial presidents power to say who should form the next government !

Western Elections & The First Coup

When the 1965 Western elections came, it was the UPGA pitted against the NNA, with the NNA as the alliance in power. This time around, massive rigging gave rise to street riots and bloodshed throughout Western Ni geria, which soon became known as the "Wild West". The notorious slogan of "weh-tieh" in that region became the mob sentence for any known supporters of the opposing party. Human bodies were strewn in the streets throughout the region. But when challenged to do something to stop the killings, Chief Akintola, the Western premier, retorted that even if all the citizens of the region completely wiped out each other, he would be content to rule the trees. Similarly, when the Federal authorities were called up on to declare a state of emergency in the west, the NNA refused - even though they had been only too glad to declare a state of emergency in that region in 1963 when the AG was in control and when only the Speaker's mace and a few chairs were broken during a fracas among members of the State Assembly ! That is no street riots, no series of arsons, and no lives lost before 1963’s state of emergency was declared !

 It was in the face of all this that Exercise Damissa II - the first military attempt in Nigeria occurred on East on January 15,1966. That coup attempt failed, having been suppressed in its final stages by forces loyal to the Feder al government, forces led by Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, the G.O.C., Nigerian Army. But because the entire civilian leadership of the NNA governments had been decimated before the coup was put down, the remaining elements of the civilian administration volunteered to hand over power to the army to restore peace throughout the country. The head of that army was Major-General J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi, who simply happened to be Igbo.

Exercise Damissa II was planned and executed by the now-famous "Five Majors", first and foremost, to stop the bloodshed in Western Nigeria, and, only secondarily, to sweep out the corrupt political class and restore peace and progress throughout Nigeria. In other words, the first military coup attempt, if it has to be ascribed to any group at all, was a Yoruba coup. (The leader of the group, Major Chukuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, was an Igbo in name only, having been born and bred in the North; he could barely speak Igbo, and he would have been hard put to it to find his way to his own father’s house in his hometown, Okpanam) Unfortunately, until today, Igbo detractors in Nigeria and abroad have persisted in referring to that putsch as an "Igbo coup". But it was not. For if it were an Igbo coup, and if Aguiyi-Ironsi was a part of it, why were the plotters arrested and locked up in various prisons across the country without trial for more than six months until Ironsi was himself overthrown in th e counter coup of July 29, 1966? Indeed, after the July counter coup, some of the January coup plotters such as Major Don Okafor and Major Chris Anuforo were abducted from their prison cells in Western Nigeria and killed by their northern colleagues. (Okafor was buried alive outside Abeokuta prison while Anuforo was shot at Ilesha prison.) It is also conveniently forgotten by Igbo detracctors, that the loyal troops who put down the January coup had a preponderance of Igbo officers! This is because the pre-w ar Nigerian army simply had an overwhelming preponderance of Igbo officers.

The July counter coup and its aftermath principally, the series of anti-Igbo pogroms in other parts of Nigeria and the failure of the Federal government to stop the massacres - ultimately led to the en masse return of Igbos to the East and the Masada complex that sustained the ensuing Biafran War for so long. Many Igbo detractors, thanks mostly to Nigeria’s wartime propaganda, have persisted in the claim that it was the presence of crude oil in the East that made the Igbos decide to sec ede from Nigeria. To the contrary, however, it was the presence of oil in the East that made the Northern oligarchy insist on keeping the East as part of Nigeria even when the ordinary northerner (including the northern soldiers on 7/29/66) had expressed in word and deed his desire that the East should go or they themselves would declare the Republic of Songhay !

Rancid Populism Versus Rational Leadership

In Part I of this letter, we discussed those aspects of Igbo grievances that are rooted in Nigeria’s pre-war history. While this part will touch on some of the post-war grievances, it will be devoted largely in f avor of reconciliation and the search for solutions to the present impasse in Nigeria.

Increasingly, our so-called leaders have learned to warm themselves to our hearts by telling us what we want to hear, even if it is to our long-term detriment, rather than face the possibility of rejection by telling us the bitter truth and leading us in the direction which best serves our long-term interests. Like the advertising moguls on New York’s Madison Avenue, they have learned consumer emotions are a more reliable basis for selling a product than the rational benefits of the pro duct itself. For whereas rational benefits are readily vulnerable, emotional bonds to yesterday’s myths are hard to break! They exploit that knowledge and in so doing, us. This is rancid  populism. What we need is rational leadership. But who will te ll the people?

More Grievances? Yes!

In addition to the Igbo grievances listed in Part of this letter, I am aware of the following grievances. Like those in Part I, I bring them up now, not to arouse our passions, but to clear the air, to separate f act from fiction, so that we can move on as a people. It is also incumbent upon us Igbo leaders of today to ensure that younger generation of Igbos is not led blindly into another futile war based on propaganda claims of the previous war.

• During the Biafran war, Chief Awolowo, the highest ranking civilian in Gowon’s government, declared that hunger and starvation were legitimate weapons of war. And they used this weapon against us viciously!
• During the war, Awolowo used his Yoruba brothers to replace the highly-skilled Igbo technocrats in the Federal government who had left out of fear for their lives. But after the war, he would not return these positions to their Igbo holders. This greatly slowed down the political recovery of Ndi Igbo in the Nigerian polity
• At the end or the war, Awolowo "decreed" that any Biafran who so much as deposited one penny into his bank account during the war would be entitled only to twenty Nigerian pounds (#20), no matter how many millions of Biafran pounds he or she had in the bank. This policy played a significant role in slowing down the pace of economic recovery of Igbos after the war. The ban on stockfish and second-hand clothes were addition anti-Igbo measures and a continuation of the economic war aga inst us.

 

• Awolowo’s promise to Ojukwu, which he did not keep, to the effect that the West would secede from Nigeria if the East did so. As the story goes, this left the Igbos alone to face the full fury of Nigeria’s war machine.

 

• Abiola’s statement that he could win the 1993 elections without the Igbo people !

The Awo Promise

Furthermore, in my lifetime, bearing in mind how the Northern oligarchy has consistently manipulated every census exercise in Nigeria to assure a permanent majority for themselves, it should have been clear to every right-thinking person that Abiola was the only southerner who stood any real chance of wrestling power from the oligarchy in a free and fair election. This is so because before joining politics, he had used his immense personal wealth to make friends all over the country and acquired IOUs from various communities throughout Nigeria. His generosity, however he acquired the wealth, transcended ethnic boundaries, thus making him more elect able than most. Which other southerner can boast of similar credentials in the foreseeable future? If Abiola’s mandate is not actualized today, what is the guarantee that the Yoruba will accept the result of the next presidential election if the winner is not Yoruba? Or should we rely on the force of arms to bring them into line when that time comes ? Of course not. Therefore the least we should have done, as used and abused southerners, was to insist that  Abiola’s mandate be actualized. In not doing so because of our past grievances, we have simply cut our nose to spite our face!

The Saro-Wiwa Tragedy

Kenule Saro-Wiwa and I were together for three years at Government College, Umuahia (He was three years ahead of me.) He was a School Prefect and a House Captain, meaning that he had leadership qualities. He was s elf-assured, strong-willed and fair-minded. And his command of the English language was phenomenal! Hence it came as no surprise to me that he would play a leadership role among the Ogonis.

When news came, first of his death sentence and, second, of his hanging, I tried to talk other Nigerians in the New York area into holding protest marches. But the response I got among my fellow Igbos was lukewarm at best. One grievance against him was his anti-Igbo rhetoric on the Abandoned Property issue immediately after the war, the other being his call for a separate Ogoni nation.

As one who knew Saro-Wiwa, I wish to acknowledge that I too was deeply hurt by his anti-Igbo stance on the Abandoned Property issue. And I told him so during a Nigeria Airways flight from Lagos to London in late 1985. My sense or his response was that, based on his reading of the Nigerian situation during the previous ten years, were the end-of-the-war situation to repeat itself, he would be a lot more circumspect in his utterances. As for his call for an Ogoni nation, I heard of it only in recent years and have not met him since. But knowing him, I would like to suggest that the threat of secession was a two-pronged negotiation ploy: (A) Do something to clean up our environment and give us more of what is due to us, or suffer the consequence of another attempted secession; (B) Even though we can be quite happy with 50%, and knowing that our opponent will never agree to give us 100 %, we go ahead and ask for 100 % in hopes that our opponent will offer 60%!

Therefore, based on all the above, the tepid response of the Igbo people to Saro-Wiwa’s trial, conviction and eventual hanging is a matter of great regret. By this tepid response, the Igbo people in particular, and other Nigerians in general, have sent a message to any future tyrant, in uniform on in mufti, that if any opponent proves to difficult to handle, all you have to do is charge him with something, set up a tribunal of your friends to try and convict him, and hang him the next day. And Nigerians will do nothing !

The hanging of Saro-Wiwa was a national tragedy; but our tepid response is an even greater tragedy, for Nigeria’s sake. He was not on trial for his anti-Igbo rhetoric. He was not on trial for calling for Ogoni secession. No! He was on trial for inciting murder. Even if he was guilty of that, and I believe he was partly guilty of it, where in the world has the penalty for such a crime exceeded 5- 10 years imprisonment? As a civilian, why was he tried by a military tribunal ? Without the right to appeal ? Who of us will be next? Why must we, Ndi Igbo, continue to allow yesterday’s grievances to be cloud our judgment and sense of justice today? If the same thing happens to Ojukwu or to Mbakwe tomorrow, will we have the right to blame the Yorubas or the Ibibios, or even the Ogonis, for not sticking with us ? Do two wrongs make a right ?

The Solution

I call upon all our people, at home and abroad, to be mindful of the level of hunger in Nigeria today. Many industrial enterprises in the country have closed down, including my own synthetic marble factory in Aba ; most others are on the skids. The only two flourishing business in Nigeria today are the business of Government and the business of smuggling. Smuggling is not for self-respecting individuals, however lucrative it may be. Therefore the only avenue open for our leaders of yesterday to maintaning their known lifestyle is the business of government: pen based robbery and signature abuse by those inside, and fraudulent contracts for those outside, the government ! And for them to get any of these fraudulent contracts, state or federal, they must sing Abacha’s tune.

  I call upon Ndi Igbo to put aside our grievances and close ranks with Yorubas, the southern minorities, and all the progressive elements of the north to put the army in its place. We must insist that the mandate of June 12, 1993 be respected and actualized, no matter how long it takes.