by:Ini Ekere
It is amazing how misinformed some Nigerians are, about their national politics both past and present, such is the case of the author of Nigeria on the edge. Professor Emmanuel Ayandele, the first Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Nigeria once said, “ When it comes to my style of speaking, I call a spade a spade, not a digging spoon.” Therefore, in this short rejoinder, I will keep it real and direct.
Obviously, the maker of “Nigeria on Edge” has no respect for Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He does not have to, but let me remind him that, Odumegu Ojukwu (his hero) at Awolowo’s funeral said, “This is the best President we never had”. He alleges that some journalists are sentimental while he is over coated with Igbo-kuenuism. Every Nigerian need to know that there are more than Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani in Nigeria. In Nigeria, you also have Oron, Ibibio and Calabar to mention but a few, and they are neither Igbo, Yoruba nor Hausa/Fulani.
I am not subscribing to the killing of the Igbos or any one else. However, it is accurate that each time those barbaric Dikkos and company display their height of primitivism and ignorance, they kill anyone they can, from the southeastern part of Nigeria. Whether you are from Calabar, Ogoja, Oron, Ibibio and Delta area, makes no difference to those brutes. What I am saying here is to open your eyes wide, recognize what time it is, and let us fight a united fight. Remember that, to the feudalist, Nigeria has two parts, north and south, all these Igbo, Yorubas and southern minorities are inconsequential to them (north). They like us to disagree and disunite after all divide and conquer policy can never have any more fertile soil than this, to spread its evil effect.
This anonymous writer forgets willingly, how Enahoro under the leadership of Awolowo moved for Independence of Nigeria in which the North said they were not ready for self-rule. That even Nnamdi Azikiwe walked across and embraced Obafemi Awolowo, for the opposition party leader’s ability to move such motion under a government of a white governor-general. Moreover, when we finally attained the Independence, the egocentric Dr. Azikiwe betrayed the whole nation and gave power to Balewa, the very team which confessed that Northerners were unfit to rule (not yet ready for self rule). Dr. Azikiwe saw nothing wrong when the west was in flames due to Abubakar’s government tinkering with political machinery of that region. Constituted opposition leaders goaled on trump up charges and at the first sign of trouble, Azikiwe was number one escapee to the safe havens. The anonymous writer could not recall that Ojukwu helped suppressed Kaduna Nzeogwu's attempt to halt Nigerian decay, from a selfish stand point that a bastard Igbo is unqualified to take over power and ended up instituting General Ironsi in power. Mr. Anonymous is too righteous to remove the fat log of wood from his eyes before reaching out to remove the speck from the neighbor’s eyes. Pitiful, is it not?
He purported that Awolowo betrayed or deceived Ojukwu. Think about it for a minute, in what manner was this. Is this based on the statement that “if the east is allowed to secede, the west will too” or some other unsubstantiated rumor. Was it about the war? Tell me why would a seemingly smart soldier like Ojukwu; plan war in consultation with a destabilized politician instead of his military counterparts from the west? You can correct me, either out of bravery or cowardice, the former Lt. Col. Ojukwu has not written his side of the story on his resistance, as he likes to phrase it. Where do we fetch this criminal distortion of west betraying the east from when Ikemba of Nnewi has not sang? Listen fellow Nigerians, the then Lt. Col. Odumegu Ojukwu and today’s Ikemba of Nnewi is one and same person. If you can recall one of Odumegu’s speeches, started with this line, “ Away with the old guards….”. Is Ojukwu that we know about, such a humble man enough, to sit down with Awolowo or any western Nigerian politician in a military dispensation to make plans for war? Was he ever the best friend of the old brigades? I wonder, what Ojukwu will say if I ask him to zip it now that he of the age of the old guards. It is so naïve for a people to follow any leader without questions, as we are very popular in doing. Ojukwu needs to tell us (Nigerians) whom in the west he planned his war in conjunction with or the rest of us better be quiet until the horse speaks. Warlord may not be a welcomed title to followers of a rebel commander-in-chief of a defunct country, but you cannot compare him to a university professor whose tool of trade is mental development and freedom of expression. Whatever statement Wole Soyinka made, did not explode any gun or bomb nor kill any Nigerian. No, that does not rhyme right, to suggest the professor as warlord. The only commonality between the two might be a good dose of arrogance.
We as a people also make a big force about tribalism and mediocrity. Here are some major contributors to both evils that you and I better recognize. When one asks which tribe is more tribalistic, most Okoros, Etes, Sules and Udos will say, Yoruba. Their logic can never stand the test of truth in the light of Nigeria’s political history. Out of the original three regions, the Hausa/Fulani had a movement for themselves that evolved into Northern People’s Congress (NPC) and the Igbos had the Ibo State Union in the early thirties and forties before Egbe Omo Oduduwa came to be in the early fifties. I may not be exact on the dates, but history will support this fact. Can we not see where the tribalism started? To me, northern Nigeria is the king of tribalism in Nigeria, Igbo is the crown queen of tribalism. Yoruba is the baby of this ill wind that has beclouded our sense of right and wrong. May be one reason is not good enough to challenge your belief, here is another untold story. Before the eve of our independence, Nigeria had three major political Parties. One was called Northern People’s Congress, as the name implies, membership was only open to northerners. What else can be more tribalistic than that? The other was NCNC, membership was open to all Nigerians and southern Cameroun when Professor Eyo Ita was in charge until Nnamdi Azikiwe returned from United States and drove the Camerouns away. The last but not the least, is the Action Group of Nigeria. The AG’s memberships and offices were open all over the country like. Are we that blind, that no one can see the cradle of tribalism even when it is flaunting us in the face?
On mediocrity, the northern bourgeois had already declared their inadequacies in the art of governance and yet Mr. Azikiwe in his Owellean brand of politics single handedly hand over power to those who admitted to their immaturity in the art of government. If that is not an official installation of mediocrity in Nigeria, then nothing I can say will make sense to you. Is it still hard to see the Owelle without visualizing a practical cock in the wheel of progress and this time halting the progress of entire African people? This is not the first time this legend has faked us out either, and I will put it out in the public domain for intellectual consumption and not for the political conduit mindlessness. Zik, an expert escape artist, began his catalytic operation of being there from the beginning all along and disappearing at end, started his practice early in Hope Waddell Institute at Calabar where his suitcase might still be there as at press time. He was also an executive member of Nigerian Youth Movement under Sir Albert Macauley’s leadership, in which they debated and reached an executive decision to support any executive member that will contest an up coming election. In that cabinet, an Ijaw man declared his intention to run and they all agreed. It does not surprise me that the Zik of Ibo nation switched and supported a candidate from Ijebu and then turn around and accused Awolowo of not wanting an Ijebu Ode man to make it. I am not baffled that Obafemi knew his friend Zik well to warn the west to be careful whom they put on top of their affairs. It makes me cringe to imagine what it would be like if God did not bless the western Nigeria with Obafemi. The old wise man knew the capability of a double edge sword, it may defend you or come back to hurt you. The Yorubas responded to the voice of reason by cross carpeting which wholesomely is legal and politically correct and did not have anything to do with Zik’s seat as a democratically elected member of the western house of assembly. Instead of taking his seat as a member of the western house, once more took off running, this time to the eastern region that was the most efficient and a pace setter for the other regions under the leadership of a seasoned administrator, Professor Eyo Ita to relinquish his seat as premier and leader of government business to him (Azikiwe). When Ita will not bulge, Zik conspired openly with the less educated Igbo members of the eastern house, whipping ethnic sentiments, a naked display of tribalism to conjure a vote of no confidence on Ita and his ministers. By this barbaric display of tribal numerical strength, the ministers resigned and Azikiwe whose primary intention even in the western region was to meet the queen at the then up coming Constitutional Conference in London, finally achieved his dreams at the cost of democracy. Now that Zik is the king of the jungle, with no meaningful opposition, had no problem whatsoever putting the semi-illiterate Igbo trader legislators in charge of government departments and agencies. Clear case of establishing mediocrity in governance of my beloved country, Nigeria with Dr. Azikiwe as the commander-in-chief. I can go on for long because of tools I have. Azikiwe’s factor brought with it embezzlement and fraud in high places. And, in consolation I whisper to myself, oh well, what do you expect from a group of warrant chiefs and courtummas? These few stated facts and some others, point to my conclusion that the people-crying wolves are themselves ‘the wolf’. The evil that men do lives after them and I may not allow the evils of Zik, Ahmadu Bello, Awolowo or Umaru Dikko and others to die. Not yet, it is too early in the day. Believe it when the old Awolowo said, “ Igbos have no better friend than I”, he was very right. Picture Azikiwe’s behavior in using Igbos to climb to power and abandon them in time of need. Alternatively, that of the northern leaders that had beef with the Igbos pouring into the north from way back. The Awo is right. He was the best friend of Igbos from that era.
Igbo leaders use the masses of their people to seek personal aggrandizement. For all the cement and coal from Nkalagu and Udi, what do the people have to show for it? Out of the three old regions, western region was the smallest, land wise and population. COR state, was the first ever to be agitated for, in eastern region vis-à-vis the whole Nigeria. Why was mid western region the first and only one to be created in spite of the fact that western region was the smallest of the three? The answer comes from the chairs of the three infamous political parties concerning states Creation. The premier of the north, Ahmadu Bello said, “I did not become the Emperor of my father’s empire to sit over its liquidation”. Azikiwe said, “ The East will never be partitioned under his watch”. Finally, Awolowo had this to say, “ I do not oppose creation of states for any group that seeks one, but I am opposed to creation of mid western region as a way of punishing the west and silencing opposition”. Bingo, there it is. Not quite long ago, when money from oil sales from the southern minorities became over whelming foreign exchange earner for Nigeria. This led us to national cake syndrome. The indivisible northern empire exploded into more States than the rest of the country so that greater portion of the cake can go there. Why are nice things happening to those who do not need and deserving of good things getting them? At the end, a wretched college tutor like Umaru Dikko became men of enormous wealth magically. Sorry thieves, time will catch up with them one after another.
Another thing I am fed up to here about is, hearing and reading about the notion that Yorubas are cowards. Is it bravery when an arrogant non-tactical soldier declares a separate sovereignty and consequently declaring war against the Republic of Nigeria? What bravery is it, when the Editor of defunct Nigerian Pilot ran away from the country while other who worked under him served prison terms, for what the editor published? Who is brave, when AG negotiated with NCNC for forty-eight hours about forming a coalition and when Ahmadu Bello announced that he would break the southern alliance by force, Azikiwe switched for NCNC/NPC to get into coalition in about two hours? How brave are the Igbos when two of their boys that took part in the very first coup de tat failed to carry out the plan at Lagos and Enugu while a Yoruba man carried out his duties in Ibadan? I like to remind all that whether it is NPC cum NCNC or NPN and NPP, it is the same old wine in a similar bottle. Nothing is changed, both accords, whatever they were styled, “ Accord Concordia or some other fanciful name” they all broke down within six months due to non-implementation of accord conditionalities. Yet, some individuals want us to agree that foolhardiness constitutes brevity. No way, Hosea. On the other hand can you readily mention any other group of Nigerians who speak out against injustice and mal-governing as the Yorubas, in the likes of Fela Kuti, Pa Awolowo, Chief Ajasin and a host of others with no disrespect for the contributions of others like Anthony Enahoro. Some of us are well informed, let us put a hold on misinformation to the youths and the public in general.
It will never be right, but the Igbos baffles me, when the Hausas kill most of them amongst others. Remember the alliance (political) between Northern People’s Congress and NCNC or that of NPN cum NPP. The Igbo leaders always support the Northerner to be number one and logically they have to settle for something else, not number one. The Igbo have suffered, yes, not more than the so-call minorities, but theirs sometimes is self-inflicted. Recall the civil war, the Nigerian air force bombed markets, hospitals and schools and when biafran radio denounce the genocide by Gowon’s troops, was it not another Igboman, the same grandiose Azikiwe who said Ojukwu was crying crocodile tears that no shelter or orphanage was bombed? Still the writer cannot see how an Igbo man is the worst enemy of the Igbos. Again after Ojukwu led an unprepared ill-equipped people to a war that he could never win, with more than or about two million people dead, he absconded with his family, left behind his second in command Col. Philip Effiong with us without remorse, even on his return. “We will fight until the last man and until the grass will rise up and fight” sounds like Jonestown to me.
The northerners and the Igbos are always political bed fellows, but the Igbos never seem to learn anything because of their rivalry with the more politically advanced Yorubas. Azikiwe, dying to undo Awolowo took the presidency of Nigeria, delivered the prime minister-ship to Abubakar, and mortgages our future until God knows when.
To state the fact, Igbos being killed in the north and Sharia is interwoven. In 1948, Abubakar Tafewa Balewa attended Nigeria Executive Council meeting for the first time northern Nigeria was represented, he (Abubakar) had this message from Ahmadu Bello, “ I come to warn southern Nigeria who behave as though they want to dominate Nigeria’s politics, especially the Igbos, who pour into the north as invaders and not as visitors. If the Igbos continue to pour into the north as invaders, we (north) shall be compelled to dip the Quran into the sea”. The Igbos have forgotten this statement, and the Hausas have not. Igbos are too complaisant, even Ojukwu came back from exile and joined the very enemies he fought against. A case of standing for nothing and fall for anything and everything. The Igbos should learn to questions their leaders in place of donkey-like follower-ship.
Therefore, in my mind Sharia is nothing new, but a recurrent issue with a change in magnitude. Way back in the fifties, Awolowo criticized northern Nigeria for attending Islamic Nations Conference as though it was sovereignty. The north continued with this behavior until now, in spite of the Igbo born northern loving Dr. Azikiwe and army General Ironsi at the head of government. If we run a secular state, why do we subsidize religious trips to Mecca? Whenever the nation subsidize trips to Mecca, free education for northern Nigerian children and nothing to the children from the south, whenever we make concession to the north for the sake of so-called peace, we are advancing the course of Sharia. On this subject, why do most of us see the northern religious palaver as something new? Are we that intellectually myopic, that no one recognized the warning signs? Wake up compatriots, smell the coffee and check what time it is.
I have not written anything here to pick on or fight anyone but I believe the truth be told. What all well-meaning Nigerians should work for is Nigeria that has equity, justice and equal citizenship to mention but a few. I will also suggest that the Igbo leadership should initiate mending fences in the former eastern region as brothers or fellow citizens and not as husband and wife as some may think. I know how some of you treat your wives. Who wants to marry you, when they know your style is not good for them?
Another appeal I make here is that, the Igbos and Yorubas should stand up at least once in this life and defend the rights of the so-called minorities in their mist that produces the largest portion of the nation’s wealth but take home the greatest burden of Nigerian nation.
For upward of twenty years plus, the minorities are deprived of free education, health and infrastructures while those from the north enjoy the bulk of money that comes from our soil and waters. I am from Oron first and Nigeria second, if Oron children can not enjoy what comes from their waters or land, then Nigeria should not enjoy same not to mention of northern, western and eastern Nigeria.
Oh, before I check out, I support a national dialogue, by whatever name that can address the problems of Nigeria as a nation. Thank you for your patience. God bless all of you.
Ini Ekere
Atlanta Ga.
Atlanta Ga.
This article is published courtesy of Oron Development Union