[allAfrica.com] [Africa_2004] Ojukwu: a Word of Caution (1) Vanguard (Lagos) OPINION September 16, 2004 Posted to the web September 16, 2004 By Ochereome Nnanna On Thursday, August 29, 2004, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra MASSOB) called on the Igbo people to observe a sit- at-home protest. To the surprise of many, the call was massively heeded, and economic activities in the South East and all over Nigeria where Igbos are in large numbers, were paralysed. At last, a group succeeded in reaching the hearts of the Igbo in a way unprecedented since the end of the Nigerian Civil war. It was an excellent gauge of the current mood of these people who were involved in a civil war with the rest of Nigeria 34 years before. Many Igbo activists celebrated a rare achievement. However, it was clear to any sensible person that the Federal Government was bound to react, one way or the other. We did not have to wait long for that. Exactly one week ago, the Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Akin Olujimi, pronounced MASSOB a "rebel" group. At about the same time, the State Security Services (SSS) sent one of its operatives simply called "Mr. Duru" to deliver a letter of "invitation" to Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (the leader of the defunct Republic of Biafra, who declared his support for MASSOB's agenda) to visit their office at Abuja. Ojukwu at first, promised to honour the invitation. But on studying the situation more closely, he spotted danger signals. The flight ticket brought to him indicated a one-way trip. He interpreted this to mean he was being targeted for elimination. His grounds for this conclusion were that prominent Nigerians arrested on political grounds in the past, such as Major General Shehu Yar' Adua and Chief Moshood Abiola, were murdered by state agents while in detention. He also pointed to the unsolved assassination of prominent politicians under the Obasanjo regime (such as Chief Bola Ige, Chief Marshall Harry, Chief A. K. Dikibo, among others) as factors that made him hesitate about going to Abuja. In any case, his would-be guests never informed him on whose specific instruction he was being invited and for what purpose, as there was no legal warrant. Ojukwu, therefore decided he would only go to Abuja when a proper warrant is issued, but at the same time expressed his willingness to entertain his inviters in his home and to answer any question they might wish to ask. Any sensible person who knows the history of the Nigerian State will immediately be agitated by these questions: why is it that, thirty-four years after the Nigerian State and Ojukwu clashed in the war front over the latter's bid to establish a separate republic known as Biafra, another clash is imminent over the same issue? Why is it that in spite of the rhapsodic declaration of "No Victor, No Vanquished", along with rehabilitation, reconciliation and reconstruction programmes adopted immediately after the war, Biafra's ghost has been successfully exhumed by a young separatist grouch known as Barrister Ralph Uwazuruike? It is either that the separatists are possessed with their idea of "breaking up Nigeria" for the fun of it, or those policies evolved to heal the wounds of the war failed to achieve their publicly stated ends. Let us examine the two possibilities. Are the Igbo people possessed with the idea of separatism or breaking up Nigeria? If we examine the indices they would suggest ideas contrary to this notion. Biafra, to the Igbo man, simply means "the Land of Freedom". If the Igbo people are living in Nigeria and yet are looking forward to "the Land of Freedom", it simply means that Nigeria has failed woefully to offer them freedom. This feeling of looking forward to "a promised land" among the Igbo was not there before July 29, 1966. The only Promised Land before then was an Independent, Democratic, Federal Republic of Nigeria where no man was to be oppressed despite the difference of tribes and tongue. The Igbo nation was at the forefront of the fight for Nigeria's freedom, but within six years after independence, they found themselves being hounded all over Nigeria after the 1966 military coups. The pogroms forced most Igbos resident outside the East homeward. Biafra was, therefore a last stand fight for survival. It was never an idea the Igbo political class sat down to plot before the coups of 1966. If anything, it was the Hausa, Yoruba and the Ijaw people that had, at one time or the other, clamoured either for separation or to stay aloof from the centre of Nigerian affairs. For instance, the north did not occupy their legislative seats in Lagos until the three regions were formalized under the Richards Constitution. They only attended the budget sessions to collect their own allocation and go back. What eventually became the Yoruba political mainstream (the Awoists) had a fundamental regional agenda. The Egbe Omo Oduduwa and the Action Group that spawned out of it were both dubious about the workability of Nigeria and its prospects to create a place of pride for the Yoruba nation. That was why they created a political platform that was strong regionally, from where it could cast its influence over the nation if the occasion arose. The Ijaw, through Isaac Adaka Boro, became the first ethnic nationality to declare a war of secession upon Nigeria because they already felt marginalized and were looking for their freedom from Nigeria. The Igbo were the only major ethnic group whose mainstream political agenda was fashioned on the nationalist platform. The National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) was led by Africa's foremost nationalist, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, whose concern for nation-building was that Nigerians should "forget their differences". But his colleagues, Awolowo and Sardauna Ahmadu Bello, emphasized their respective regions. Bello insisted Nigerians must keep their differences in mind in order to build a nation where people understood one another. The Igbo were sincere about Nigerian and African nationalism. They spread to all parts of the country, where they made their living without the slightest consciousness of being in alien land. In fact, Dr. K. O. K. Onyioha founded the African National Church (The Godian Religion) and upheld Zik as Africa's own Jesus Christ! My grandmother was an enthusisastic member of this sect, which believed in practicing African culture. And when the war ended on a note of "No Victor, No Vanquished" (though there were victors and the vanquished) the Igbo burst back into Nigeria and lived their lives as if the war never happened. The Igbo man was in a hurry to put the war behind and push ahead, but unknown to him, those who ganged up and prevented him from seceding had other ideas. The end-of-war's terms of settlement was never honoured by the ruling establishment that emerged over Nigeria at the end of the war. Thirty four years after the civil war, the Igbo nation does not seem an inch closer to the mainstream of Nigerian affairs as they were in January, 1970. Young people have come up. They have repeatedly wondered aloud why the Igbo man seems kept away from most things other Nigerians take for granted. With no reprieve coming from anywhere, the idea of "the Land of Freedom" became current again. In trying to understand renewed clash between Ojukwu and the Federal Government of Nigeria, we wondered above whether the clash is resuming because Ojukwu and his Igbo people are possessed with secession or the Nigerian state has not fulfilled its promise to reconcile and reconstruct with the former secessionists. We have seen how history does not justify the Igbo as a people who want to leave Nigeria, except to have their freedom. On Monday we will look at what Nigeria hasn't done to assure the Igbo of their rightful place in their own country.   =============================================================================   Copyright © 2004 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). =============================================================================