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Is Biafra the Way Forward for Ndigbo?

Vanguard (Lagos)
OPINION
November 10, 2004
Posted to the web November 10, 2004

By Joe Igbokwe

It is in the interest of Igbos that Nigeria should remain one.
CHIEF Ralph Uwazuruike, the authentic leader of Movement for the Actualisation
Sovereign State of Biafra came to the limelight in 1999 shortly after President
Obasanjo was sworn in as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Chief Uwazuruike was a bonafide and staunch member of the ruling party, the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), before he fell out with the party's leadership
and began the project of taking the lgbo out of Nigeria using MASSOB as a
platform. Since 1999 Chief Uwazuruike has been telling anybody who cares to
listen that Igbo is not getting a fair share of what is due to them in the
Project Nigeria.
Since Nigeria does not seem to be interested in addressing the lgbo question
despite repeated appeals, spanning nearly 35 years (from 1970) to its leaders
to pay attention, Uwazuruike had no option than to begin a peaceful but
consistent process to take Ndigbo out of Nigeria. Since 1999, the leadership of
MASSOB has been having a running battle with law enforcement agencies resulting
in fracas, arrests, detention and sometimes deaths of MASSOB members.
Uwazuruike himself has been guest of the Nigeria Police Force and SSS on
several occasions. For almost six years, Uwazuruike and his group have been
networking, mobilising, consulting, confronting, and consolidating. On August
26, 2004, he called Ndigbo in all nooks and crannies of Nigeria to sit at home
to protest the injustices being meted out to them in Nigeria. Without
exaggeration, the sit-at-home order worked 90 per cent in favour of MASSOB.
This at once brought to the fore the activities of the organisation and their
demands. This eloquent political statement was not ignored by Nigeria's ever
vibrant print and electronic media. MASSOB has been in the news since then.
While Chief Uwazuruike and his group are working hard to take the Igbo out of
Nigeria, the leadership of Ohaneze and other lgbo leaders of thought are
routing and scheming for an Igbo man to clinch the presidency of Nigeria in
2007. This has prompted other Nigerians and even other lgbo elements to
continue to ask whether Ndigbo really knows what they want from Nigeria. A
school of thought had said that lgbo cannot wish for Biafra and the presidency
of Nigeria at the same time. According to a source. "You cannot have your cake
and eat it. You cannot approbate and reprobate at the same time."
The purpose of this write-up is to look at the options available to Ndigbo
either to go for Biafra or to remain in Nigeria and suggest the way forward for
Ndigbo. lgbo had fought a civil war in Nigeria between 1967 and 1970 in order
to have their own dream country called Biafra but they lost the war in 1970,
losing some one million souls in the process. 1 do not know the casualty on the
Nigerian side.
And apart from this high casualty figure on the part of Biafra, what lgbo lost
in terms of property is priceless. The victorious Nigeria leadership led by the
retired General Yakubu Gowon who turned 70 recently rhetorically told the
Biafrans that there was no victor, no vanquished and went ahead to set up the
3Rs, Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction to rebuild lgboland that
was devastated by the three-year-old war. Many Biafrans thought Nigeria leaders
were genuine until they discovered to their chagrin that it was a hoax. The
victorious government began to introduce policies that reduced the already poor
Ndigbo to even more miserable situation.
All our people's holdings in Nigerian banks before the civil war were reduced
to 20 pounds each. To make matters worse, the indigenisation decree that forced
the multinational companies to be sold to Nigeria was signed into law by
General Gowon and these companies fell into the hands of Nigerians excluding
lgbos who just came out of the war with nothing. Other Nigerians therefore
stole Igbos share of the cake. These Nigerian leaders then knew what they were
doing. The idea was to permanently keep Igbos down so that they will remain
poor, down and out and therefore will never again think of secession. It worked
till 1999 when Chief Uwazuruike thought Igbo have garnered enough strength and
material wealth to ask questions again.
A shortchanged people
Now, it is true that Igbos have been shortchanged in Project Nigeria some 35
years after the civil war. It is an indisputable fact that Igbos get the least
of anything that is being shared in Nigeria today. Igbos have the least number
of states. Igbos have the least senators, members of the House of
Representatives and the serving ministers. Igbos have the least federal
allocations. Igbos have the worst roads in Nigeria. Igbos have the least
representation in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Police and other law enforcement
agencies. lgbos have the least federal presence of all the six zones in the
country. The sum total is that Igbo have been made smaller by every successive
governments in Nigeria since 1970.
Therefore, no lgbo man wish his heart in the past and his eyes on the future
will fail to raise eyebrows and ask questions in the face of these
provocations. No serious-minded element will close his eyes and insist that all
is well with the country when a vital section of the country is not happy. No
person who understands the power of critical thinking and that of strategic
visioning will continue to accept these humiliations and oppressions without
fighting back. lgbos have the right to protest because they have proved their
case beyond reasonable doubt with facts and figures. My teacher told me that
once you can support your argument with facts and figures there is nothing more
to add. But I do not think that moving out of Nigeria is the best option for
Ndigbo. I have my reasons:
Nigeria is made up of the three major ethnic groups namely Hausa-Fulani, lgbo
and Yoruba. From Niger to Sudan and up to Saudi Arabia, there are Hausa-Fulani
people and they speak the same language. There are three million Yorubas in
Togo. There are Yorubas in Liberia, Sierra Leone and up to Brazil. If there is
serious crisis in Nigeria the Yorubas and Hausa-Fulanis will run to these
places to meet their kinsmen and settle there. In case of Igbo, there is
nowhere the language is spoken in the world except in Nigeria. Therefore,
Ndigbo should see themselves as the original indigenes of Nigeria. It is
therefore the duty of the lgbos to fight for the soul of Nigeria. It is in the
interest of the lgbos to continue to struggle to keep Nigeria one. No other
ethnic group in Nigeria can claim to have more stake than the lgbos in the
project of building Nigeria. lgbos should therefore work for the enthronement
of good governance, equity, justice and fairness in Nigeria. A study some Igbos
elements did some time ago came out with the report that lgbos can only get
better in Nigeria when Nigeria is better. It behoves on the Igbos than any
other ethnic group to make Nigeria work.
Igbos fought a war with other Nigerians between 1967-1970 to tear themselves
away from the big family called Nigeria but the war ended in favour of other
Nigerians. Igbos lost one million souls in that war. Therefore, Igbos
sacrificed one million souls to water the tree of unity of this country. And if
Igbos paid such supreme price to return to Nigeria, it behoves on Ndigbo to see
that all of us stay together in this country to make it work. If those millions
who died on the Nigerian side and the Biafra side did not die in vain,
Nigerians must be in a hurry to make things work and make sure that no one
section of this country is being cheated in the big family. Igbos must not wish
what happened to them for any ethnic group in Nigeria. There are certain things
you do not wish even on your worst enemies.
35 years of achievements
And this takes me straight to the findings of The Fathers of the Second Vatican
Council that "all acts of indignity against human life and against human
person, debase the perpetrators more than the victims." It is true that
Nigeria's multinationals were sold to others immediately after the war when
Ndigbo had nothing even to eat. It is also true that Ndigbo were given 20
pounds each in exchange for millions of pounds they had in Nigerian banks
before the war started. But 35 years after the war, what is the result? When an
honest assessment is made on the progress recorded by each of the three major
ethnic groups, it will be discovered that Igbo are not the worst in Nigeria. A
renowned historian, the late Professor Biobaku said Igbos have made a serious
and defeaning in-road into the economy of Lagos State.
Prof. Biobaku came short of saying that Igbos now control the economy of Lagos
State to a reasonable extent. Ten to fifteen years ago, Abuja was named the new
capital, Nigerians started developing the new capital equally. Today, 70
percent of all the buildings apart from public buildings, are owned by the
lgbo. Seventy percent of the engineers we have in the Ministry of Works and
NEPA are lgbo elements. In the oil industry Igbos make up 50 percent of the
engineers in the field. In fact, Igbos run the engines of Nigeria because of
their flair for science and technology. In every major city in the world, lgbo
people are found contributing their own quota to the progress of that society.
Igbos have also made major in-road in the areas of banking and finance formerly
controlled by the Yoruba nation, same in the media industry and other areas.
Igbos control 80 percent of all the imported goods in Nigeria. Now, do we need
to sacrifice all these again in the name of Biafra? We lost all in 1970 and
were able to rebuild after 35 years and I do not think we need to try our luck
again by abandoning all these achievements to go and start on a new slate. It
is in the interest of Igbos that Nigeria should remain one. In fact, Igbos
should fight to keep Nigeria one.
Unless a miracle happens, Igbos cannot get out of Nigeria without a fight. And
having lost one million people before, I do not think we need to allow our
children to die again.

   

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