I read with disgust a few days ago in the papers that self-promoted four-star Biafran Army General Ezegburugburu Odimegwu Ojukwu was at the Millitary Pensions Board to collect his gratuity.
I was appalled because that to me represents a sell-out of the struggle that led to the secession of the Igbo race from the rest of Nigeria.
I remembered a discussion I had with my political mentor, Amb. Raph Uwechue a few years back on his book, 'Reflections on the Nigerian civil war: Facing the future', the circumstances that led to the secession who found a collective voice in Emeka are still present today albeit cloaked.
I wouldn't know if Dim Emeka reflects on happenings in the country presently on the 15th of January every year as a day that Biafra, a child of necessity then and now was killed with the formal surrender of Phillip Effiong at Dodan Barracks in Lagos.
Biafra was an ideal child of necessity against the blood-sucking elements who were thirsting for Igbo blood in the northern part of the country. If only He, Ojukwu had been humble enough to enjoy the goodwill of the Igbo people and seek not to entrench himself in apparent power,
my country, The United States of Nigeria would have been doing the black race proud.
38 years after, I wouldn't know if Ojukwu has been misled to think now that all is well with Nigeria. The problems of Nigeria are legion which could have been settled if Ojukwu had not gotten carried away with the power he could have wielded as an independent ruler of the Biafran Republic without answering to anybody at Dodan Barracks. Erstwhile, he was the military Governor of the Eastern Region.
I daresay that the ideals of Biafra were noble and present-day Nigeria lost out in properly constituting itself into a true United States of Nigeria because Ojukwu got himself misled about his military strength when the Federal Government reneged on the Aburi accord and stuck to his guns when it was eventually ready for it.
Its so bad that villains like Brig-General Benajamin Adekunle are the silent heroes of the Nigerian Civil war and the Obasanjos openly gloat about their being able to bring an end to the civil war.
In light of Ojukwu's recent action, what can be said to be the value of the lives of eminent people like Aguiyi Ironsi, Brig. Victor Banjo, Major Sam Agbamuche, Major Phillip Alale and the rest of those who lost their lives in the struggle?
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5 comments:
I have done a little study of the war, and I am anti-baiafran war. Regardless, I still respect the struggles of those who fought in the war. In Nigeria, it's so hard to find that charismatic and genuine leader who is trying to make positive changes and revolutionize the way things are done. Look at Ojukwu or the self-proclaimed saviour of his people Asari Dokubo. What is in our culture that doesn't invoke that true revolutionary spirit, some of us have?
@Afolabi: The war was needless in the first place, no doubt about that. It would have been averted if both sides had approached the different dialogues with reconciliatory intentions..alas(sigh), so many lives had to be wasted in a man's bid for supremacy over another.
There are a countless number of people who are ready to revolutionize the way things are done, but the problem they have in my own estimation is the followership.
Is the followership ready to accept changes?
I don't even know how far they've gone with the Biafra Bit
Well said!
Its nice to know that there are people who follow past and present events related to the Biafran war in an objective manner. True the Biafran war could have been averted, but under the prevailing conditions of that era, including the assasination of Aguiyi Ironsi after the Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu led coup and the increased targeting of Igbo citizens and interests in other states of Nigeria especially in the north; The war was a matter of sooner or later. Now in the post war era,Igbo lives and interests still remain a target for destruction, in every kind of crises in the northern part of Nigeria.Despite this fact we have the likes of Ojukwu who made the Biafran concept not just a dream in the hearts of the igbo people but taught them to believe it is their birth right,On whose command brave men laid down their lives; now going to recieve his pension as a retired Nigerian Soldier or as a retired Biafran Soldier? I will leave it to the assumption that its in the spirit of reconciliation and the declaration of "No Victor No Vanquished"
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