Prof. Chinua Achebe got it all wrong from the title of his latest infamous book “There Was A Country”, right down to the contents. This has expectedly generated a lot of controversies capable of dividing us more than it will unite us. If the foundation is crooked, what should we expect of the structure put atop it? Papa Achebe apparently is still getting carried away by his dream of Biafra so much that he forgot that Biafra is a country that never was.
Prof. Chinua Achebe got it all wrong from the title of his latest infamous book “There Was A Country”, right down to the contents. This has expectedly generated a lot of controversies capable of dividing us more than it will unite us. If the foundation is crooked, what should we expect of the structure put atop it? Papa Achebe apparently is still getting carried away by his dream of Biafra so much that he forgot that Biafra is a country that never was.
There was an attempt by the Eastern Region of Nigeria to secede, that attempt did not materialize, the leaders of the rebellious region surrendered, so there was never a country. If a celebrated scholar like Prof. Chinua Achebe believes in his heart that Biafra ever was, then it is easy for us to deduce the quality of the remaining content of the book. It is apparent that it is going to be nothing but Biafra-centric. Like many other writers that have weighed in on the Nigerian Civil War, we know that people will write from their own perspective and their opinion would be colored in most cases by wherever their hearts lie.
Let us examine certain areas from the book that have generated much furor in the polity.
When it comes to how Ojukwu starved his own people to death, by admission of Achebe himself, this is how Rudolf Okonkwo one of the reviewers of the book puts it “Achebe argues that some questions will be debated for generations. One of such questions has to do with the security reasons behind Ojukwu’s rejection of Nigeria’s federal government’s proposal for a road corridor for food and the federal government’s rejection of Ojukwu’s alternative”
When it comes to rejection of Ojukwu’s alternative by the Federal Government of Nigeria, Prof. Achebe was quoted as follows:
”It is my impression that Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition for power, for himself and for his Yoruba people. There is, on the surface at least, nothing wrong with those aspirations.
“However, Awolowo saw the dominant Igbos at the time as the obstacles to that goal, and when the opportunity arose–the Nigeria-Biafra war–his ambition drove him into a frenzy to go to every length to achieve his dreams. In the Biafran case it meant hatching up a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation — eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations.”
This is a wonderful peek into the Biafra centric frame of mind of a man that wrote that attack. So the federal government of Nigeria actually made a proposal for a road corridor for food to the starving women and children of Biafra and Ojukwu rejected it for “security reasons”? That does not really sound like a people with genocidal intentions to me, ask Rwandans if you care to know more on genocidal intentions. Was the Nigerian government not entitled to its own security by making sure that arms were not imported as food supplies? When it comes to Chief Obafemi Awolowo and General Gowon and their security reasons, Achebe quickly concluded that it was “genocidal” and when it comes to Ojukwu, it will only “be debated for generations.” By the way, do beggars really have a choice? You started a war and you are dictating to your opponent on how he can supply you food to sustain the war against him? Did Prof. Achebe know that economic blockade is actually a legitimate weapon of war? It is even used in peace time.
Note that this came from Achebe himself in the same book that he has accused Chief Awolowo of genocide, how more ridiculous could the accusation get? I have deliberately decided not to even look outside of the book to shoot down the deliberate and wicked lies of Prof. Achebe. Of course, there is a ton of information out there to make a lie from this assertion. The two sides according to him disagreed on how food should be supplied to the hungry children of war, but Awolowo ‘a bloody civilian’ in the midst of the Army Generals is the Grinch that stole Christmas, he must be blamed for genocide. Good try Professor, but teacher don’t teach me nonsense!
I am seriously not bothered by the latest outburst of Prof. Achebe against Chief Awolowo. Antagonizing the Yoruba and anything not Igbo has been his past time. He is one of the same persons that lent their false intellectual support to the phantom carpet crossing in the old Western Region house. He expressed dissatisfaction with Wole Soyinka’s winning the Nobel Prize and has always had contempt for anything not originating from the east side of the Niger river. I know that for a man who has been writing fiction books for over 50 years of his life, and has milked one fiction book for the better part of his life, it may have become difficult for him to differentiate between fact and fiction. But I am concerned with how his latest work would affect the already very fragile nation both in content and timing. One would have thought that a man of 81 would have grown beyond the prejudices he has carried in his heart for over 40 years.
One would have thought that such a man would also work to foster unity, bridge the gap, use the opportunity presented by writing his war memoirs more to heal the wounds, preach forgiveness and brotherhood rather than making a futile attempt at re-establishing the phantom Igbo dominance and superiority over others and further driving a wedge between Igbo people and other Nigerians. Prof. Achebe according to the review by Rudolf squarely blamed all the problems of Nigeria at the doorsteps of fear of “Igbo domination.” Rudolf may have used the words “domination” and “dominance” more than ten times in the short piece, I say really?
I am one of the people that believe that we have not told the story of the Nigerian Civil War enough, I believe there are many questions that are still left unanswered, this is why it pained me that Chief Dim Ojukwu, the number one hero of that war, failed to write his memoir, but then again, people will be more interested in a dispassionate analysis of the war, the one that told the story robustly as it was, rendering negative opinion where necessary and give positive review to the deserving. I really do not have to wait for the book to have a fair understanding of the content as is being advocated by some sympathizers of Prof. Achebe. I have read a few reviews of the book with some disturbing quotes and jejune conclusion from the Professor, especially the review done by my friend Rudolf Okonkwo, a man whose writing I follow religiously and it is always a delight to read.
I am more concerned with what Prof. Achebe did not write, or maybe it was the reviewers of the book that failed him by not doing proper justice to the content, but I doubt it as Prof. Achebe has a pattern. The wicked lies that have been told against the Yoruba people under the mango trees of the East have persisted for ages, even when many Igbo have come and seen how they have thrived unmolested everywhere in Yoruba land. The lies persist because people like Achebe, an icon of Igbo people, are always there to lend their intellectual falsehood to the tales by the moonlight. I think it is about time to fight back and set the records straight.
The name Awolowo represents one of the brightest spots in the history of theYoruba people. This latest attack on him is an attack on Yoruba history and its people and it has raised this pertinent question for Yoruba people, ‘What do they really want from us?’
It is on record that a party, later known as Zik’s party, the NCNC, was actually led at inception by a Yoruba man Sir Herbert Macaulay and Dr. Azikiwe served as his secretary. It is on record that many Yoruba people were members and moved out en masse when Zik made an infamous statement to his fellow Ibo Union that God has sent Igbo race to liberate Nigeria and he started using his West African Pilot newspaper to drive the Igbo agenda. It was Zik that turned NCNC from national party to Igbo party. That despite the insultive utterances, the party was still popular in the West until Zik insisted on ruling the Western Region against common sense and Ibadan People’s Party gave their votes to Action Group to form the government. People like Achebe came up with the tribalism theory against Awolowo, and in their selective ignorance, they forgot that Azikiwe went back to the East to drive away Eyo Ita who was the Prime Minister because he was from the minority tribe. But nobody talks about that, so what do they really want from us?
It is on record that Chief Awolowo approached Dr. Azikiwe during the 1959 elections when no clear leader emerged to give Action Group votes to him so that Azikiwe can become the Prime Minister and he, Awolowo, the Finance Minister, but Zik turned him down and traded the Prime Ministership for a ceremonial presidency with Tafawa Balewa. Thereby relegated himself to commissioning federal toilets and primary schools.
It is on record that NPC/NCNC alliance was used for maximum effect to oppress the Yoruba and other minorities of the South with Igbo people taking about 97% of whatever is due to the South in a country that understood only North/South dichotomy. The so called Igbo dominance (at the federal level) is traceable to this evil and oppressive alliance, which with federal might, they installed Igbo Vice-Chancellors in Universities in Yorubaland, which was and is still not practicable in their own clime. We did not bulge neither did the Yoruba people complain, so what do they really want from us?
It is on record that Dr. Azikiwe’s alliance with Northern People Congress railroaded Chief Awolowo to prison and he never lifted a finger to support him. Also, Tafawa Balewa offered Chief Obafemi Awolowo Deputy Prime Ministership, while he was in prison, if he would support him but great Awo turned it down. When Aguiyi-Ironsi seized power, he freed all political prisoners and that despite Chief Awolowo passionate plea for his case to be considered, Aguiyi-Ironsi ignored him.
The coup carried out by mostly Igbo soldiers in 1966 killed most of the leadership of the North and West, we do not know if Awolowo would have survived if he was not in prison, no matter what some revisionists are writing about wanting to hand over to Awolowo, they killed almost all the most senior Yoruba military officers and even callously murdered Brigadier Ademulegun and his pregnant wife, and Col Ralph Shodeinde for no apparent reason in a coup supposedly directed at corrupt civilians. The only high ranking member of NCNC that was killed, Chief Okotie-Eboh was not Igbo and had problem with Mbadiwe on the finance portfolio that he held. The latter wanted the ‘juicy’ portfolio but Tafa Balewa rebuffed him, yet we did not start pogrom against Igbo residing in the West.
It is on record that Adekunle Fajuyi a Yorubaman chose to die with Aguiyi-Ironsi; it is on record that Prof. Wole Soyinka and Dr. Tai Solarin went to jail for the Biafran cause, so what do they really want from us?
It is on record that, in despite of everything, Chief Obafemi Awolowo went to Enugu in company of Prof. Sam Aluko and Mariere to persuade Ojukwu not to start the war yet, that he should give him the opportunity to mediate. Ojukwu gave him his words to tarry, but declared a war immediately Awo stepped out of Enugu.
It is on record that many of Awolowo’s Yoruba community shielded their Igbo guests during the war, that there was not a single incident of abandoned property, rather instead the ever accommodating and generous Yoruba people collected and saved rents for Igbo landlords and the money was handed over to them after the war, yet they keep blaming Yoruba people as traitors, so what do they really want from us?
I am not surprised, Prof. Achebe did not disappoint in his latest work, I believe therefore that Prof. Achebe is entitled to his selective senility and convenient amnesia. It is only left for us people of good will to put the record straight for posterity’s sake. Igbo intellectuals of good conscience should help to re-orientate their youths that have been grossly educated, mislead and misinformed by people like Achebe, it is in their interest to do so.
Ayo Turton Esq. is the National Legal Counsel to Egbe Omo Yoruba USA & Canada.
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