February 2, 2010
Frederick Forsyth, in his controversial book The Making of an African Legend: The Biafra Story, writes: “Victors write history, and the Biafrans lost.” It should be recalled that at the end of the civil war in 1970 General Yakubu Gowon famously declared that there were no victors and no vanquished, even though it is clear to all that the civil war established the military power clique that superintends over the country to this day. At independence in 1960 Nigeria was said to stand on a tripod of East, West and North. The civil war ensured that the North in alliance with the West defeated the East. The oppressed minorities of course took sides with the victors. That is a simple historical fact, and any other embellishments only exist to serve expedience.
Samuel Johnson in his History of the Yorubas writes: “Light and civilization with the Yorubas come from the North.” According to Michael Crowder in The Story of Nigeria, “When the British occupied Nigeria they had almost no contact with the large Ibo and Ibibio population of the East, whilst already many Yoruba had received English education and provided a small intellectual elite in Lagos. Population pressures and land hunger in the East forced many Ibo and Ibibio to migrate to the cities of the West and North, where they proved remarkably successful as clerks, railway workers and storekeepers.”
In The Trouble with Nigeria Chinua Achebe writes: “Nigerians of all other ethnic groups will probably achieve consensus on no other matter than their common resentment of the Igbo… The origin of the national resentment of the Igbo is as old as Nigeria and quite as complicated. But it can be summarized thus: The Igbo culture being receptive to change, individualistic and highly competitive, gave the Igbo man an unquestioned advantage over his compatriots in securing credentials for advancement in Nigerian colonial society. Unlike the Hausa/Fulani, he was unhindered by a wary religion and unlike the Yoruba unhampered by traditional hierarchies. This kind of creature, fearing neither god nor man, was custom-made to grasp the opportunities, such as they were, of the white man’s dispensation. And the Igbo did so with both hands. Although the Yoruba had a huge historical and geographical head-start the Igbo wiped out their handicap in one fantastic burst of energy in the twenty years between 1930 and 1950.”
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The fear of the other tribes could not have been assuaged by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s statement, to wit: “It would appear that the God of Africa has created the Ibo nation to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of the ages…” When Majors Emmanuel Ifeajuna and Patrick Nzeogwu struck to end the wobbling First Republic, the coup was tagged an “Igbo Coup” even though the plotters had planned according to them to release Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison and compel him to rule the country. On why the coup-makers wanted Awolowo as the leader of the country, Major Ifeajuna wrote in his unpublished manuscript: “Chief Awolowo launched forth his party on a platform of tribalism, and for his parochial and partisan approach to national issues, he got deserving blame. But probably in the later Awolowo of after the 1959 Federal election that began the fiasco, our people saw for a second time an image of honesty, courage and discipline… In time he came to win the respect and admiration of even his greatest detractors, and what was more, he came to represent a rallying point for the young and the intellectual, for all that sought progress and nationhood for our country.”
Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi who took over after the failed coup announced the Unification Decree, which took the fear of Igbo domination to a fever pitch. Thousands of hapless Igbo were massacred in the North during the pogroms of 1966 until Ironsi himself was killed and toppled in the revenge coup of the Northern officers. After taking over power, Gowon had prepared a speech to announce the dissolution of the Nigerian Federation on August 1, 1966 and the secession (araba) of the North until he was prevailed upon to change his mind by the British High Commissioner in Lagos, Sir Francis Cumming-Bruce.
As the British did not want Nigeria dissolved, enormous support was given to the Federal forces, with the help of then Soviet Union, to defeat secessionist Biafra. Historically, the British had faith in the government of the feudal emirs of the North and the highly organized if decadent kings of the West as opposed to the rebellious and almost ungovernable Igbo and minority republics of the East. Crucially, the British had no stomach for the radical progressivism of Awolowo. This way, the legendary Awo was pressed into service to play second fiddle to the happy-go-lucky bachelor called Gowon in the civil war Federal cabinet, a clear case of a clueless neophyte lording over a guru.
The military power clique with the backing of Britain ensured that Awo never got ultimate power even after helping to incapacitate the troublesome Igbo through wartime starvation and peacetime banking schemes. The decadent wing of Yoruba politics as represented by Ladoke Akintola had always been promoted by the feudal North. Of course this feudal alliance had earlier jailed Awo. It is against this background that Chief MKO Abiola who won the popular June 12, 19993 presidential elections was denied and killed. The feudal North would eventually choose General Olusegun Obasanjo as the only leader it could trust in the entire South. Obasanjo as the trusted ace of the feudalists has now chosen a leader for the country in the person of the invalid President Yar’adua, and all hell is let loose because of the power vacuum that beckons. The presidency of Dr Goodluck Jonathan is somewhat being crudely sabotaged by all makes of subterfuge. Violence has taken over the land. When before it used to be “Kill Igbo” the pogrom has somewhat boomeranged with the Eden of Jos being turned into a bloodbath of sectarian orgies. As Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka would put it, “I am right; you are dead!” Nobody is safe again in this country in any septal enclave.
My take on the entire matter is that now provides the right opportunity for progressive elements in the selfsame North and West, allied with like-minds in the East and the minorities, to break the boundaries of region and tribe and sect to give Nigeria the leadership and commonwealth it deserves.
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Samuel Johnson in his History of the Yorubas writes: “Light and civilization with the Yorubas come from the North.” According to Michael Crowder in The Story of Nigeria, “When the British occupied Nigeria they had almost no contact with the large Ibo and Ibibio population of the East, whilst already many Yoruba had received English education and provided a small intellectual elite in Lagos. Population pressures and land hunger in the East forced many Ibo and Ibibio to migrate to the cities of the West and North, where they proved remarkably successful as clerks, railway workers and storekeepers.”
In The Trouble with Nigeria Chinua Achebe writes: “Nigerians of all other ethnic groups will probably achieve consensus on no other matter than their common resentment of the Igbo… The origin of the national resentment of the Igbo is as old as Nigeria and quite as complicated. But it can be summarized thus: The Igbo culture being receptive to change, individualistic and highly competitive, gave the Igbo man an unquestioned advantage over his compatriots in securing credentials for advancement in Nigerian colonial society. Unlike the Hausa/Fulani, he was unhindered by a wary religion and unlike the Yoruba unhampered by traditional hierarchies. This kind of creature, fearing neither god nor man, was custom-made to grasp the opportunities, such as they were, of the white man’s dispensation. And the Igbo did so with both hands. Although the Yoruba had a huge historical and geographical head-start the Igbo wiped out their handicap in one fantastic burst of energy in the twenty years between 1930 and 1950.”
articleadslinks
The fear of the other tribes could not have been assuaged by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s statement, to wit: “It would appear that the God of Africa has created the Ibo nation to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of the ages…” When Majors Emmanuel Ifeajuna and Patrick Nzeogwu struck to end the wobbling First Republic, the coup was tagged an “Igbo Coup” even though the plotters had planned according to them to release Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison and compel him to rule the country. On why the coup-makers wanted Awolowo as the leader of the country, Major Ifeajuna wrote in his unpublished manuscript: “Chief Awolowo launched forth his party on a platform of tribalism, and for his parochial and partisan approach to national issues, he got deserving blame. But probably in the later Awolowo of after the 1959 Federal election that began the fiasco, our people saw for a second time an image of honesty, courage and discipline… In time he came to win the respect and admiration of even his greatest detractors, and what was more, he came to represent a rallying point for the young and the intellectual, for all that sought progress and nationhood for our country.”
Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi who took over after the failed coup announced the Unification Decree, which took the fear of Igbo domination to a fever pitch. Thousands of hapless Igbo were massacred in the North during the pogroms of 1966 until Ironsi himself was killed and toppled in the revenge coup of the Northern officers. After taking over power, Gowon had prepared a speech to announce the dissolution of the Nigerian Federation on August 1, 1966 and the secession (araba) of the North until he was prevailed upon to change his mind by the British High Commissioner in Lagos, Sir Francis Cumming-Bruce.
As the British did not want Nigeria dissolved, enormous support was given to the Federal forces, with the help of then Soviet Union, to defeat secessionist Biafra. Historically, the British had faith in the government of the feudal emirs of the North and the highly organized if decadent kings of the West as opposed to the rebellious and almost ungovernable Igbo and minority republics of the East. Crucially, the British had no stomach for the radical progressivism of Awolowo. This way, the legendary Awo was pressed into service to play second fiddle to the happy-go-lucky bachelor called Gowon in the civil war Federal cabinet, a clear case of a clueless neophyte lording over a guru.
The military power clique with the backing of Britain ensured that Awo never got ultimate power even after helping to incapacitate the troublesome Igbo through wartime starvation and peacetime banking schemes. The decadent wing of Yoruba politics as represented by Ladoke Akintola had always been promoted by the feudal North. Of course this feudal alliance had earlier jailed Awo. It is against this background that Chief MKO Abiola who won the popular June 12, 19993 presidential elections was denied and killed. The feudal North would eventually choose General Olusegun Obasanjo as the only leader it could trust in the entire South. Obasanjo as the trusted ace of the feudalists has now chosen a leader for the country in the person of the invalid President Yar’adua, and all hell is let loose because of the power vacuum that beckons. The presidency of Dr Goodluck Jonathan is somewhat being crudely sabotaged by all makes of subterfuge. Violence has taken over the land. When before it used to be “Kill Igbo” the pogrom has somewhat boomeranged with the Eden of Jos being turned into a bloodbath of sectarian orgies. As Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka would put it, “I am right; you are dead!” Nobody is safe again in this country in any septal enclave.
My take on the entire matter is that now provides the right opportunity for progressive elements in the selfsame North and West, allied with like-minds in the East and the minorities, to break the boundaries of region and tribe and sect to give Nigeria the leadership and commonwealth it deserves.
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