“They shall beat their swords into ploghshares,
And their spears into prunning -hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore” – The Holy Bible
Polemicist and dialectical logicians tend to agree that sanctimonious rantings, verbal acrobatics, sentimental effusions constitute negative building blocks in the march to nationhood and peace.
Hence, the essayist and orator Cicero (106-43 B.C.) posited that “The rabble estimate few things according to their real value, most things according to their prejudices”. This is substantiated by the English playwright William Shakespeare that “A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly are subdued and neither party loser”.
Nigeria has been befuddled and bedraggled from independence till today by a track record of monumental ineptitude, leadership crisis, psychotic malfeasance, corrupt administration and political visionlessness. In his bid to right these solecisms in his second coming, President Muhammadu Buhari has chosen to be circumspect in making his appointments. His extension of his anti-graft war to 1999 and few appointments made has generated criticisms and fears from some areas, especially amongst the Igbos.
The former Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuemeka Ezeife said that “the Igbos have not been treated fairly in terms of political positions and appointments in the President Buhari’s administration”. This innocuous statement in a democratic ambience drew the ire of second Republic lawmaker, Dr. Junaid Mohammed.
He said “I don’t believe Buhari or Nigeria owes any Igbo anything. I don’t care what Ezeife says if they (Igbo) had seceded, there would have been no Nigeria today. As people who acted outside the interest of Nigeria as a country, to expect compensation is a very odd logic. If the Igbos don’t like it, they can attempt secession again. If they do, they must be prepared to live with the consequences- nobody owes them anything and nobody is out to compensate them for anything”.
Also reacting to Junaid Mohammed’s comment and President Buhari’s appointments, Ukor, who is also the President of Igbo Youth Movement (IYM) said, “This statement confirms to the International Community that the new administration could march along very divisive path with the support to some persons in the North. That is some people have sworn that equity and justice will not reign in Nigeria. In other words, actions that lead to disenchantment among Nigerians to the extent of making secession an attractive option to certain sections is actually deliberate and encouraged by the North.
I am sure the international community has taken note of that. The man does not deserve to be replied. He is consistently working very hard to destroy Nigeria by denigrating, abusing and overtly provoking Nigerians in order to prepare the ground for another civil war. Whether it is a deliberate policy of the North we don’t know, whether he will succeed or not in his quite spirited effort to make sure Nigeria does not survive, nobody knows”.
A brief study of Nigeria political history vis-a-vis the hate and no-love-lost relationship between the Igbos and the North before independence, after independence, during and after the Nigeria Biafra Civil war (1967-1970) will show that it has graduated from cloak in the dagger furtive clandestinity to open know-holds-barred flaunting of hatred, malice, vendetta and vengeful zeitgeist in the political, socio-economic and religious landscape in Nigeria.
The political schisms, fiery verbalisations, pillaging and massacre that led to the Nigeria/Biafra Civil war is been reenacted. The same pattern and template of recriminations, hyper-propaganda and anarchical entropy set the stage for violent reprisals, the January 15, 1966 coup and subsequently the civil war. It will be recalled that the countdown to the civil war witnessed this type of parochial verbal exchanges between the Igbo and the North this took centre stage in Nigeria. Subsequently, certain writers in Northern Nigeria began to disseminate tendentious and distorted interpretations of the military takeover (notably through the medium of the now New Nigeria Newspaper), which influenced passions amongst Northerners, thereby inciting to launch that massacre of Eastern Nigerians which did, infact, occurred subsequently at the end of May, 1966 .
The vicious campaign of misrepresentation was maintained with studious and monotonous regularity after the pogrom against Easterners in Northern Nigeria in September and October 1966. In pursuit of mutual recrimination the Gowon administration published two leaflets entitled “Government statement on the current Nigerian situation and Nigeria 1966”. In it he gave a graphically vivid picture of what was going on in Northern Nigeria. A point of view which was continuously countered by Eastern intellectuals and politicians even before, during and after the January 15, 1966 coup.
Strangely enough, this last document was released a few days after the conclusion of the meeting at Aburi, Ghana, of the Supreme Military Council of Nigeria, of which it had been unanimously agreed that all the military leaders should eschew the publication by the respective ministries of information of any more materials that might further aggravate inter-sectional acrimony.
The invidious and inveterate mutual hatred and antagonisms between Easterners and Northerners through inspired hate speeches and media publications, dates back many years before independence. Sporadic out breaks in Northern towns, particularly the Jos riots of 1945, had been occurring in the past but the British Administration barely took them seriously. However, after the ruthless massacre on both sides (Easterners and Northerners) in Kano in May, 1953 the British were constrained to look into the matter by setting up a commission of inquiring on the Kano disturbances.
The Report on the Kano disturbances posited that the remote causes suggested at the time could not by any means be referred specifically to Easterners. The attacks were attributed to the clash of cultures, the disparities in economic and social development between Northerners and Southerners, the occupation of strategic posts in the administrative, technical and commercial sectors of Northern life by Southerners and the leveling impact of Western religion and political ideologies introduced into the North by Southerners.
It is on record that there were series of polemical and aggressive verbal exchanges between Northern Representatives and the Action Group Members during the Lagos Conference. But the fuse that really set off the explosion in May, 1953 was the proposed visit to Kano of an Action Group (AG) delegation led by Mr (afterward Chief) S. L. Akintola, “an Ex-Minister with all the Odium of anti-Northerner Action Group propaganda and the Lagos incidents attached to him”. (The Report on the Kano disturbances, 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th May, 1953 (Government Printer, Kaduna, 1953) Paragraph 15, page 4).
The organization and preparation of Northerners for the riots did not suggest to Easterners that they would be the main object of attack incidentally, as they have now done again in 1966, Northerners denied in 1953 that the massacres were ever organized or premeditated. But it is on record that two days before the disturbances began on Thursday, May 14, 1953, Mallam Inua Wada, then Secretary of the Kano Branch of the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) and later Federal Minister of Works, convened a meeting of the Native Administration sectional heads at the works Department in Kano during which he made “a very ill-advised and provocative speech” against the proposed visit of the Action Group delegation led by Akintola. Inua Wado said inter alia “having abused us in the south these very Southerners have decided to come over to the North to abuse us, but we have determined to retaliate the treatment given us in the South we have therefore organized about 1,000 men ready in the city to meet force with force. We are determined to show to Akintola and his group what we can do in our land when they come the Northern People’s Congress has declared a strive in all Native Administration Offices for Saturday, 16th May, 1953. We shall post sufficient number of men at the entrance of every office and business place we are prepared to face anything that, comes out of this business”
These exhaustive kaleidoscopic quotations from various journals/publications and releases by Easterners, Northerner’s propaganda machineries and the findings and report of the commission on this disturbances of 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th may, 1953 is aimed of showing to Nigerians the historically long and deep streak of hate and acrimony existing between the Northerners and the Easterners especially the Igbos in Nigeria that has given rise to intermittent macabre and bellicose carnages and decimations ultimately leading to the Nigeria/Biafra Civil War.
Although the creation of states and subsequent boundary adjustments in Nigeria has changed the confines and demographics of the East and North, but that beastial rhetoric and verbal aggression (lapsus lingua, lapsus memoriame and lapsus calami) still remains till today. Hence, Igbo and Northern scholars, intellectuals, politicians etc resort to sanguinary mantra and proclivities at the slightest provocation. This historical origin is rooted in the Igbos and the Northerners till today, hence the recourse again and again to the Biafra secessionist’s outrage.
Agreed, we have fought a civil war in Nigeria, but it seems the lessons of the civil war has not sunken into the minds, psyche and brains of the Igbos and the Northerns, Westerners and the Southerners. The aggressive verbal exchanges made by Junaid Mohammed and Uzor, Clark and Ekweme etc over so-called biased, skewed appointments and selective anti-graft war glaringly shows that nobody likes Nigeria as country. We can address the matter without using belligerent swear words, hate and anathemic expressions that takes us back to our Biafra/Nigeria gloomy death incarnadine historical references and threats of secession and a new civil war.
It is clear from these attitudinal orientation and negative utterances that the countdown to another war is on going in the minds of some Igbos and some Northerners. But can Nigeria and Nigerians survive another civil war as we still remain a mere geographical expression? Our march to Nationhood is yet to commence as we still myopically see ourselves as Igbos, Hausa/Fulanis, Urhobos, Ijaws, Itsekiris, Edos,Yorubas etc. We all still have a warped and weird view about Nigeria as a Nation and what its unity stands for.
If Nigeria must survive as one sovereign, united and indissoluble Nation the leadership and the followership must change the way we do things avoid verbalizations with disunity connotations and our perception about Nigeria must be reoriented to reflect a patriotic zeitgeist, truth, justice, altruistic commitment and apotheosization of socio-political, economic and constitutional prototypes etc that will concretize and refrigerate the bases of our national oneness, coherence and integration.
Conclusively, the philosopher Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics posited that “the high minded man does not bear grudges, for it is not the mark of a great soul to remember injuries, but to forget them”. Let us put the pains of the civil war behind us and strive towards Nation building. Hence, Ambrose Bierce in his Devil’s Dictionary observed that “man is an animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be”. We must lay down our arms, parochial prejudices, ethnocentric biases, pervasive corruption and perverted cerebral political positions to be what we ought to be as a Nation.
We call MASSOB, IGBO YOUTH CONGRESS (IYC), INDIGINEOUS PEOPLE OF BIAFRA (IPOB), RADIO BIAFRA, AREWA CONSULTATIVE FORUM (ACF), NORTHERN YOUTH CONGRESS (NYC), CONCERNED NORTHERNERS (CN) etc to do implosive surgeonization on the nuts and bolts of making Nigeria Great. The appointment of officials is statutorily obligatory and constitutionally imperative and Buhari is still on it. Let us avoid political rancor’s that will precipitate our national apocalypse. God Bless Nigeria.
Mr. Bobson Gbinije, a social critc, wrote from Warri, Delta State. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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I think something seriou is missing in this writeup. You did not mention if any pogrom started or has taken place in south east. Again after the civil war when Nigeria opted for Reconstruction Reintegration and R which of these took place in the south east? Reconstruction took place in Lagos and south west, the Ibos were given £20 by Awolowo no matter how much you had in bank and they called it reintegration and the third R is not worthy of mention here... Right now Buhari won election and the only crime commited by Ibos was to vote for their choice candidate. If GEJ had won did you expect his appointment to have reflected the opposite of what you see today? If you want Ibos to accept their position as it is in Nigeria today that means you dont want any peace for Nigeria because you want the Ibos accept that they are cowards which is not possible. If there should be another war to correct the injustice so be it.
ReplyDeleteOh cmon Nigeria repaired the Niger bridge that biafra army destroyed now.
DeletePlease tell me the no of roads in the east that are pre-civil war today . Lets be telling the truth o.
After the war did the igbos not come back to Lagos to meet their properties? Or how come ojukwu still had his father's houses in ikoyi even though he went on exile?
You people should tell the truth O. God is seeing all of us o
"The east feed them"? Last time I checked, trailers and 911s of cattle, sheep, even donkeys; grains, cereals, fruits and tubres suc as yams and potatoes are hauled from the'north' to the east on daily bases. And, if your care to find out, you'll see Igbos all over the 'north' - in villages as well as towns - what are they looking for? Food and wealth, if you ask me. Gone are the days when Igbos will calim, and get attention, that they are being marginalized. In a democracy, you get what you voted for. Chief Ezeife and his ilk raped Nigeria and forced its economy into the doldrums; now, a Fulani man is working hard to steer the sinking sheep of our nation back onto safe and buoyant waters. No amount of hate-filled comments will change the destiny of Nigeria; and I agree with Junaid mohammed, if the Igbos really want to secede, please let them go ahead - just remember that you will need visas to come into our country; it will no longer be a free zone for you.
DeleteThanks for these challenging questions. The Ibos are their own problems. It seems they have this persecution complex. They constantly attack the Yorubas as well. The minorities around them (Rivers,etc.) do not want to be part of an Ibo Republic - recall how Ibos who returned to Port Harcourt to reclaim their properties after the Civil War were attacked, some of them killed? (But the Ibos would not acknowledge that their properties in the South West were intact and remained theirs after the war.) So, who exactly do the Ibos see as their friends in Nigeria?
DeleteThis issue of Awolowo giving Ibos 20 pounds or whatever after the war is a jaundiced story. When Ibos declared the Republic of Biafra, they replaced the Nigerian currency with the Biafran currency. Did Ibos expect the Federal Government to recognise and exchange Biafran money for Nigerian money after the war? Ibos who had money in Nigerian banks and left the money there still had their money after the war. It was those that exchanged their Nigerian Money for Biafran money that got snookered. And can you blame the Federal Government for that?
Ibos need to learn to make friends if they want to be happy in Nigeria. They need to shed the persecution complex. The mistakes that led to the war were on most sides, but there is no point trying to apportion blames now. The older Ibos (65+) should stop propagating bitterness and poisoning the minds of the younger ones. Everyone should seek to be friends to everyone.
Anonymous 5:55 PM: It is people like you who conceals the truth and distorts facts and misinform the younger generations that are still complicating things in relation to the events before, during and after the civil war. You said and I quote "Ibos were given £20 by Awolowo no matter how much you had in bank" It is a known fact and the records are there that the Igbos looted the all Banks including the Central Banks in Eastern Nigeria and burnt all documents and records in the banks during the periods of the civil war. Thereafter the end of the civil war there were no verifiable means of asserting the veracity of bogus claims by people who were all demanding hundreds and thousands of pounds as claims for their money deposits in the banks. However, a handful of those who still had money deposited in banks in Western Nigeria and had not withdrawn them were returned back to them. Many Yoruba's who acted as Caretakers of houses owned by Igbos returned back the rentage they collected on their behalf during the time they fled. Properties and many other valuable possessions were accounted for and returned back to the Igbos in Western Nigeria, but unfortunately this brotherly act of honesty has never been acknowledged but instead the claim of the igbos being cheated by only being paid £20 by the Awolowo has been rife and continuously drummed in the ears of subsequent young Igbo generations. Enough of this rhetoric and let us all move on.
DeleteThe east feeds them. Do you think that would happen if the other way round? One side is clearly a liability to the other. What does the north contribute to Nigeria's ability to feed itself? They are regressive too.
ReplyDelete"The east feeds them" lool you must be outta your mind. How does the east feed the north? Is it with the beef in your cattle or the farms that you produce enough food to feed the nation.
DeleteOh I forgot you think we don't know you don't own 90% of the oil you claim you have. By the way the days of oil as the economic product of Nigeria are over, forever, you hia.
How much oil do the Ibos have? Most of the oil in the Niger Delta are in minority areas and offshore (Federal territory) - not the would-be Biafra areas.
DeleteAbsolutely amazing that someone can say that the East feeds the North. 80% of all yams produced in Nigeria comes from only 3 states in the north. Where does beef come from? Tomatoes? Onions? etc. Even dried fish that ought to be oozing out of our coastal areas comes largely from the North! (Lokoja area). Someone needs serious education.
This writer is not sincere to himself. Man is naturally self preservatives. What he is alluding is that Ignore should behave like a tree which life is being treatened refused to defend himself. Buhari apologists said he employed merit in appointment. I wonder what merit an Igbo man lacks. Time without number the Igbo has been told in all manner of ways they are not wanted in Nigeria but they can't be allowed to go. What Gboniji is positing is that Igbo should not talk or complain. It has become the norm. that any person who wants appointment from Buhari must indulge in Igbo bashing. There's God
ReplyDeleteLet us try another civil war since a 72 year old executioner of the first one and his cohorts are trying to enslave the silent majority.
ReplyDeleteApparently you think war is like a Hollywood movie right? Something you just try.
DeleteYou think the world can afford a war in Nigeria?
Imagine 50million refugees from Nigeria in Africa alone. Bros tink am well o
Apparently you think war is like a Hollywood movie right? Something you just try.
DeleteYou think the world can afford a war in Nigeria?
Imagine 50million refugees from Nigeria in Africa alone. Bros tink am well o
There is too much hatred in Nigeria. The major tribal groups hate each other and have nothing but bile things to say about each other. Our national leaders behave more like tribal chiefs than like national presidents. We are quick to draw machetes and swords and start slaughtering people on the streets like a bunch of savages. God has given us so many chances to learn, but if we don't learn, we shall all end up in hell.
ReplyDeleteNigeria will never be a nation but an imposition of a country. If oil was in the north there would be no nigeria today. Divide and stop the hatred. The North cannot just be producing ingratitude and innocent blood whilst the south gives it trillions of dollars in oil revenue. I wish there was no oil in Nigeria and the north went thier own way. We are so very different in our outlook on life and progressive whilst the north is regressive that is why despite decades of northern rule thier people are the worst off. They give themselves all the advantages but still fail.
ReplyDeleteYou are on point!
DeleteIgbos hate yoruba and hausa infact the Goodluck Jonathan election loss brought out the level of hate they have for these two tribes, not only have they threatened to attack innocent Nigerians of hausa and Yoruba descent, their radio Biafra word-lord has also threatened to kill Igbos that are preaching peace. Every word that has been uttered by these war-mongers have been taken into record and the necessary steps have been put into place should in-case an outbreak of attacks occur.
ReplyDeleteNo sensible group can make political progress by hating the two most populous tribes in a state, and as long as the Igbo elite still have a stake in the Nigerian contraption the riff-raffs screaming war are only plotting their own doom. War cost money, if you want a war convince the wealthy ibgos who have business concerns all over Nigeria to forgo their lifes work and support your cause, only then can your war dreams come alive, but remember all is fair in love and war.
Hmmmmm......
ReplyDeleteIf you follow the comments so far you would realize Igbo are not serious.
ReplyDeleteDo you know war at all?
Ask dokubo asari why did he kept mute after Jonathan was defeated?
Foolish ppl
hmmm... This is interesting, I have just learnt a new thing today. Igbos hate Yorubas and Hausas. But during the June 12,crisis the so called yorubas were slaughtering the abokis in Lagos openly in the street of Lagos. Simply because buhari and osibajo are now the no one and two citizens respectively, the north and south west are now inseparable brothers. You people will not cease to amuse me.
ReplyDeleteAll d things most of u guys are saying here is rubbish. All must die one days and what matters is where one spends life after death. The message is that Nigeria needs prayer to be saved in this month of september. Stay here and be arguing unnecessarily. U think u are exempted when crises will start. U can't even leave d country if u want to.
ReplyDelete