FEATURE ARTICLE

Lucas AnuforoSaturday, October 15, 2016
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Dublin, Ireland

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THE BASELESS STEREOTYPE ABOUT THE IGBOS
AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE CIVIL WAR


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"Our critics make us strong!
Our fears make us bold!
Our haters make us wise!
Our foes make us active!
Our obstacles make us passionate!
Our losses make us wealthy!
Our disappointments make us appointed!
Our unseen treasures give us a known peace!
Whatever is designed against us will work for us!"...Israelmore Ayivor

ince the end of the Nigeria/ Biafra civil war in 1970, the Igbo political mainstream activities have consistently and gradually diminished in the country.

In Nigeria, the Igbos were being seen as a race with distinctive and dogged minded people which implies, whatever is their set objective must surely be accomplished. Even some may describe them in local language as 'people with strong mind.' This connotation might be possibly viewed in a negative or in a positive perspective. Some said that they are people with commerce oriented ideas. Some said Igbo's are lovers of money. Others even describe them as a tribe that can kill because of money. Some accused them of narcissism and self-pride. However, this invective and baseless stereotypes were just to demean the Igbo race hence there was no statistics or evidence to prove this. These have equally made the tribe more vulnerable to attack whenever there is a national unrest or sectarian violence they become the target.

The mistrust and ethnic tension that has characterized the co-existence between the Igbo and the rest of the country could perhaps be traced back by the first so-called Igbo-led coup d'état on January 15, 1966, which saw the death of some northern political bigwigs. In retaliation, another revenge coup was hatched and carried out by some young northern military officers on July 29 the same year this followed the death of over 100,000 Igbo citizens living in the north. The then military Head of State Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi- Ironsi and other army officers were also killed in the mutiny. Unfortunately, the height of the crisis was the breakout of the civil war between Nigerian government and the Igbos. The Igbo were led by Lt. Colonel Chukwuemeka Odemegu Ojukwu who declared the birth of new republic called 'Biafra.'

Ndigbo executed the war almost with bare hands. It was few countries like France, Israel, Portugal, Spain, Gabon etc that were able to help Biafra to procure some lighter arms and ammunitions and other relief materials. Despite that these supplies were in paucity but the resilience shown by the Igbos to engage the Nigerian troops in a battle for 30 months remains an enigma till present day.

Thereafter as the war ended the Igbos picked up their pieces and were able to reintegrate and re-engaged in the country both politically, economically and in other social lives. They were able to establish their businesses all around the country again. Precisely, the Igbos were highly marginalized in the administrative setting of governance; there was much restriction in federal post allocations to them. They were not allowed to occupy some certain positions especially in the judiciary and in defense. These positions were only meant for the Hausa, the Yoruba, and other minority groups.

The Igbos were much cognisance about the discrimination and their position in the country as not only those who lost the war, but those who virtually lost everything both in human and material wealth. However, more than 1 million defenceless men, women, and children of Igbo origin were got rid of by the government of Nigeria. The war was a pogrom, unfortunately, as a hard pill to swallow the Nigerian government was so intransigent to recognize this fact. Till present, none of the national school curriculum both in the tertiary and in the universities in the country that the Nigeria/Biafra civil war history is being thought. This was seen as a deliberate act by the government to obliterate the history of the war.

The Igbo race is not bad as they're being inveighed and labelled by some tribal critics but most sadly, the government of Nigeria failed to fully integrate them back as part of one big family of Nigerian nation after the civil war. This, however, was as a result of the scourge of tribal hatred, and ethnic dichotomy perpetrated and infused by past and present leaders just to ensure their own political and inordinate self-goals which have now spilled into generational odium.

The northern leaders and some of the southerners who helped perpetrate the evil genocide on the Igbos were the same people who don't like the issue of Biafra to be mention or discuss. They go about on national dailies bragging by telling the world that "as far as they are concerned Biafra is a dead issue." These men are morally bankrupted because they have no value for human life and history.

The issue of Biafra has been an impediment to the government because they were afraid to confront the ugly past that would have help shape the future of the nation. These are the modern day Hitlers who knew much about the criminalities that were involved in the war. More so they were scared not to be dragged to the Criminal Court of Justice at The Hague to face charges of war crime and crime against humanity. Many of these men are still living today; they are retired Heads of State, Ex Military-President, retired Service Chiefs, and retired Presidents. Some will even go on and say why they fought the Biafra was to keep the unity of country but all these were cheap lies and fallacies just to cover their criminalities and more so maintain their dominance over a particular tribe.

The Igbos have passed through a difficult time in history but were pertinacious to overcome all odds to survive as a nation. Unfortunately, some of the so-called leaders who took part in the genocide against the tribe are the ones that would be quick to judge and remind Ndigbo their painful past they've journeyed for almost past 50 years. They should always be reminded that the blood of over 1 million innocent Igbo men, women, and children slaughtered in the war are still crying for the avenger. The rancour of the war will continue to resonate in the minds of millions of Igbos. The story of the civil war will not fade. It will continue to be a well-documented story that will be handover to the generations of Igbos that are yet unborn. No individual or group can kill the Biafran history!

No country in the world downgrades its past history but Nigeria has been guilty of this. The American great revolution of 1776-1783 and the Civil War of 1861-1865 created a new chapter and also a central event in America's historical consciousness. The Civil war fought was able to resolve two fundamental questions left unsolved by the revolution whether United State was to be a dissolvable confederation of sovereign states or an indivisible nation with an independent national government. And more so whether the nation that was born of a declaration that all men were created with an equal right to liberty, would continue to exist as the largest slaveholding nation in the world. The United State was able to resolve these two fundamental issues and moved on to become the greatest country in the world.

The period of the 70s after the civil war was the best moment for the country to rewrite it past but depressingly, it was golden years of opportunities wasted for not forging new chapter as one nation with an indivisible entity. Instead what the post civil war era saw was the hegemony of northern political Czars and oligarchs as they were more intoxicated and was driven by endless power to feast on the buoyant economy. They deem it inconsequential to address the issue of marginalization so as to hold onto power. This inveterate power grip was extended to the country's commonwealth which was seen as patrimony. Invariably it created invidiousness in the mindset of other ethnic groups especially the Igbos who were cowed and treated as the vanquishers of the civil war. The result was the demand of equal right and equal opportunities for both interest groups and ethnic minorities. Unfortunately, their demands and expectations remain unattainable.

The Igbo race are being condescended today was as a result of some of its leaders who have been for a long time playing political shenanigan and lip service on the tribe claiming to be good representatives but they are wolves in sheep clothing. Both old and new breed Igbo politicians are being driven by greed, the governors, state legislators and the local government Chairmen have many at times rendered the state's coffers insolvent. This group of men are the enemies of Ndigbo who will one day face penal servitude.

Recently, one of the national dailies in its publication named a governor of a state in the southeast who ordered every taxable adult in the state to pay three thousand naira as development levy. These were jobless individuals who cannot fend for themselves due to the scourge of acute unemployment ravaging the State.

Then the question an irrational mind would ask is what happens to billions of state revenue and federal allocation funds being giving to the state? What happens to the state's coffer to be in such state of insolvent to the magnitude that jobless people are now being taxed?

In a country where the future of youth are being neglected, where education is not prioritized and where poverty is at its peak the development of such State is doomed. The Igbo leaders would have learned their lessons by now if not for any reason but to the fact that Igbos are been marginalized that alone, would have helped them to work harder and uplift the living standard of the people.

The leaders have failed to represent the interest of Igbo nation. Severally, when you talk to people from other tribes and complain about marginalization many will tell you that the Igbo leaders constitute about 65% problem of the Igbos. The lack of sincerity, transparency, and honesty which exist within the leaders are terrible. The underdevelopment of the south-east today was as a result of corrupt leaders who use the State treasury to run their private businesses. In a State where contracts are being assigned to companies owned by a State governor could be regarded as a mafia state. Unless the south-east governors change their mindset and attitudes towards public funds by judiciously spend the money for the purpose of the budget if not, the south-east states will continue to be perpetually underdeveloped.

Today, Lagos State is a mega city in the south- west; Abuja is also becoming a mega city in the north but south- east has none! It is time for Ndigbo to unite and fight for a common course. The Igbos that are leaving both within the country and in Diasporas should come back home and invest in developing the south-east zone. They have the capacity, the potentials, the resources, the intellects and the manpower that can transform the fortune of the zone to be among the best in the African continent. Many will say that the Igbo cannot survive outside the Nigeria context but I refute it that they will survive if they want to. Nothing is impossible to achieve! If the State of Israel can survive in 1948 with sub-arid desert lands which today were transformed into among the best agricultural producing nation. Equally, the Igbos can achieve the same feat if they set their mind to it. The Igbo people are not lazy neither are they cowards they've done it before they can do it again. God bless Ndigbo the Land of the Rising Sun!

TITBITS:

https://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-overview/overview.html?referrer=https://search.yahoo.com/

https://odili.net/news/source/2016/sep/26/6.html

https://biafran.org/biafrannigerian-war-photos/

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