“The power of a bold idea uttered publicly in defiance of dominant
opinion cannot be easily measured. Those special people who speak out in such a
way as to shake up not only the self-assurance of their enemies, but the
complacency of their friends, are precious catalysts for change.” ― Howard Zinn.
This is
one of the most profound assertions that I have ever heard. We must all learn
from it regardless of the challenges that we may be facing in our country
today.
In a
special message to the Congress on the Internal Security of the United States
on August 8, 1950, President Harry S. Truman said,
“Once a
government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition,
it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive
measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a
country where everyone lives in fear.”
Permit me
to begin this essay with an aside. I do not intend to incite anyone against the
government or the Nigerian state by making this contribution and neither do I
believe in an armed struggle.
If there
was ever an elephant in the Nigerian room then it is Biafra. Given that, let us
explore it together in this two part discourse and let us bare our minds.
The Buhari
administration cannot tolerate or brook any form of dissent and neither are
they comfortable with criticism or free speech.
They are desperately trying to
establish a culture of silence in our country. They are particularly uncomfortable
with the subject matter of this essay.
Their
double standards are made all the more manifest by the fact that they have
acknowledged and recognised the right of self-determination for the people of
the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in their quest for independence from the
Kingdom of Morocco whilst at the same time they have denied those that believe
in the establishment of Biafra and the exercise of that very same right of
self-determination here in Nigeria.
As if that
were not bad enough, they went even further by describing Biafra as a matter
that is “dead and buried” which must not be discussed under ANY circumstances.
The Buhari
administration appears to have forgotten the fact that charity begins at home.
You cannot give those from outside your shores what you are not prepared to
offer your own people.
If the
quest for independence is good enough for the people of Sahrawi Arab Republic,
then surely it is good enough for the people of Biafra or any other ethnic
nationality in Nigeria, if that is what they really want.
The suggestion that we should not
even mention let alone discuss the idea of Biafra is simply absurd. Those that
subscribe to that view often argue that three million people were killed in
order to ensure that Nigeria was kept together and consequently there can be no
going back.
This is a
specious, self-serving and intellectually lazy argument. And this is especially
so given the fact that those that have put it overlook the fact that the root
causes of the civil war appear to be back with us today.
If you
don’t cure the ailment and get rid of its root cause then you cannot complain
about the consequences of its continued existence or its symptoms. If you don’t
clean up the mess you cannot complain about its stench. Air freshener alone
cannot do it: forgive my crudity but if you don’t flush the toilet after using
it a terrible smell is bound to linger.
The matter
is simple and clear: as long as the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria feel
marginalised, persecuted, cheated, vilified and wronged, the spirit of Biafra
will continue to flourish.
As long as
Igbos are targeted and slaughtered like flies at the drop of the hat in the
Northern part of our country, or indeed in any other part, Biafra will continue
to thrive and burn in the hearts of every Igbo man, woman and child. Whether we
like it or not that is a reality and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
Quite apart from that I deeply
resent the fact that our government has got the nerve and has cultivated the
temerity to venture to tell us what we should and what we should not mention or
discuss. Surely even the madness of tyranny has its limits.
Those that
are at the helm of affairs in our country today may have the power to kill,
torture, detain indefinitely or jail those that do not share their views but
they do not have the power to kill an idea. And an idea whose time has come
cannot be wished away or stopped by any force from hell or on earth.
In this
essay, we shall defy the government, ignore the critics, shed the fear and
share some inconvenient truths.
100 years
ago, on what is known as the Easter Rising Day, the Republic of Ireland began
their struggle for independence from Great Britain when a handful of brave men
went to the centre of Dublin, raised the new Irish flag and openly declared the
establishment of the Irish Republic.
The
rebellion was crushed but it signaled the beginning of a prolonged armed
struggle.
During the course of that struggle
approximately thousands of Irish men, women and children were killed by the
British occupation forces over the years but eventually the Republic of Ireland
won their freedom and became an independent sovereign state.
A few days
ago on Easter day, the Irish Government and people celebrated the 100th
anniversary of Easter Rising Day with great pride, joy, pomp and style. The
celebrations were attended by delegations from the Basque separatist movement
and officials of the Catalan regional government of Spain.
Both of these courageous political
movements have been attempting to exercise their right of self-determination,
break off from Spain and establish their own independent nations for many years
and as each year passes they are getting closer to achieving their objective.
Those that
believe in the right of self-determination of the ethnic nationalities in
Nigeria and particularly those that are fighting for the creation of the
sovereign state of Biafra have so much to learn from the history and struggles
of the people of Ireland.
The Irish
suffered immeasurably under British occupation for hundreds of years and
literally millions of them were enslaved and killed over that period of time.
Yet in the
end they managed to break the yoke and secure their liberation and triumph over
the cruel subjugation and tyranny of British rule.
It is my
belief that by God’s grace those that are being oppressed, butchered and
murdered by the Nigerian state today in an attempt to forcefully keep our
country one and those that wish to break off to form their own country on the
basis of the principle of self-determination shall also eventually prevail.
This is
particularly so for the Igbo people of the South-Eastern region of our country
who have suffered more than any other ethnic group in Nigeria. Permit me to
remind those that doubt this assertion that it was the Igbo that were
slaughtered in their hundreds of thousands in the core North during the pogroms
of 1966.
Igbo men,
women and children were butchered on sight all over the North simply because
they were Igbo and for no other reason. Even pregnant women were not spared.
This led directly to our civil war in which no less than three million Igbos
were killed, including one million Igbo children who were starved to death.
After the
war they were deprived of all their properties outside Igbo land except for in
Lagos and the South-West where they were treated with some level of decency and
allowed to have their properties back.
Everywhere else in the country
they could not reclaim the properties that they owned before the war and such
properties were declared “abandoned property”, confiscated by the various
regional and state governments and handed over to the local indigenous people.
As if that
were not bad enough, after the civil war every Igbo man and woman, no matter
how much they had in the bank before the war, was given only twenty pounds from
their respective banks to begin a new life. Millions of pounds and many
fortunes were lost in this way and the truth is that the Igbo suffered immeasurably
as a consequence of this unjust policy.
It is a
testimony to their resilience and nothing else that they were able to get back
on their feet and within a period of ten years after the civil war an Igbo man
was elected Vice President of our country. They also thrived in the private
sector due to their diligence and hard work.
Yet in
spite of that the systemic persecution and marginalisation of the Igbo people
did not stop within the federal government, the public sector, the civil
service, the security and intelligence agencies and the Armed Forces.
They were
prevented from reaching the top in virtually all these sectors right up until
President Olusegun Obasanjo was elected in 1999.
It was
President Olusegun Obasanjo that began the effective post-war rehabilitation of
the Igbo in the public sector when he started to appoint them into sensitive
and strategic positions within his government and within the security agencies
and Armed Forces.
A good
example of that is Lt.-General Chidabikia Isaac Obiokor, who was the first Igbo
man to he appointed as GOC in the Nigerian Army since the civil war. Another is
Mr. Ogbonna Okechukwu Onovo who was the first Igbo man to be appointed Deputy
Inspector General of Police since the civil war and who was later appointed Inspector
General of Police two years after Obasanjo left office.
Then came
the Ojo Maduekwes, the Andy Ubas, the Ngozie Okonjo-Iwealas, the Charles
Soludos, the Emeka Chikelus, the Frank Nwekes, the George Obiozors and so many
other bright and promising stars from the East who all wielded far more
influence and power than their political offices had to offer in President
Obasanjo’s government and who were all his protégées and appointees.
Without
Obasanjo’s premeditated and conscious policy of wanting to rehabilitate the
Igbo and bring them back into the mainstream, none of these people would have
achieved the great success that they have achieved today and none would have
been brought into the national limelight.
Yet, despite Obasanjo’s efforts
the truth is that, between 1970 when the war ended right up until today,
whenever there are attacks against people in the Northern part of Nigeria, the
Igbo are singled out for more slaughter, more ethnic cleansing and more mass
murder than anyone else. (TO BE CONTINUED).
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