It could be deceitful to say that with the appointment of Major General Onyeabo Azubuike Ihejirika as the new army chief, the Igbo nation has now been reintegrated back into the Nigeria since the end of the civil war.
It could be deceitful to say that with the appointment of Major General Onyeabo Azubuike Ihejirika as the new army chief, the Igbo nation has now been reintegrated back into the Nigeria since the end of the civil war.
Why the noise about the appointment? Is the Nigerian Air Force not part of the military family? Was Air Marshal Paul Dike not the Chief of Defence Staff, a position known to be higher than what Major General Ihejirika is occupying now? To me the appointment of the Army Chief from south-east zone of Nigeria required not the attention it has attracted. Again, Major General Ihejirika joined Nigerian Army many years after Nigeria civil war. An average Igbo man knows that his reintegration into the mainstream Nigeria remains unfulfilled until an Igbo is elected or made to be elected the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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If one should consider the options available towards achieving full reintegration of the Igbo people into the Nigerian nation; the only one that could do the needed justice is a situation that would ensure that come 2015, an Igbo-man emerged the elected President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Igbo learnt their lessons during the civil war which they fought gallantly to the end of it as the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon to declare at the end: “No victor no vanquished”. The leader of the Biafran government later was granted total pardon and he even at recent time contested to be Nigerian President but visited with strong apathy.
Therefore, what the Igbo should aim that one of them becomes the President in 2015 and the best way to get this achieved is to ensure that the PDP zoning system be entrenched in the Nigerian constitution in order to give every part of the country (be it major or minor tribe) sense of belonging.
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Diokpa Dike Odu,
Ozomagala Street,
ONITSHA, Anambra State
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