News From Nigeria
UNEASY NEIGHBOURS AND THE BIAFRA DIALOGUE PART 4 BY DR AUSTIN ORETTE
“Everyone should be called to account. Let us go door to door to ask about what we did here. If the father is gone, let us ask the sons about the sins of their fathers “Anonymous
As I research into this series of uneasy neighbors, I am astounded by what Nigerians have glossed over in order to appease the Biafrans. Private Citizens showed their fidelity by giving the Igbo people back the rent they collected from the houses they left. There is nowhere in the world where a rebel faction of a nation has been thoroughly reintegrated and rehabilitated like we have done for the Igbo people who returned from Biafra.
Nigeria gave assistance to the Igbo people. Nigeria reinstated all the Biafra soldiers who fought against the Nigeria side and paid them arrears of three years. This means while they were fighting against Nigeria, we were bankrolling their insurgency. This means Nigeria actually paid the Biafran soldiers who invaded, killed and destroyed properties in the Midwest Region. They were officially reinstated and their salaries and pensions paid.
Did Nigeria consider any payment to the family of those that were killed and maimed by the unjustified invasion of the Midwest Region by the Biafrans? What did we do to warrant the invasion and occupation of the Midwest region that led to the Biafra invasion? What did we do to the invasion that caused a lot of destruction and loss of lives and properties? All the civil servants in the East were paid their arrears. No person who organized this revolt was punished because Nigeria wanted to hold up to the spirit of No victor, no vanquished.
The Midwest understood this as the price they have to pay for Nigeria’s unity. No one compensated us and we were left to bury our own dead. We did not ask for war. Biafra brought war to our doorstep and we bled and no one helped us to tend to our wounded and we buried our dead alone.
If you ask the Igbo about their rapid re-entry, they will tell you that it is due to their hard work and Igbo ingenuity. If the opposite happened or they experienced a setback, they will say the Nigerian system is rigged against the Igbo man.
I am yet to come across any Igbo who shows gratitude for the opportunity of renewal and revaluation that Nigeria gave them. They are angry when they succeed and when they lose, they look for someone to blame. They always tell us the Nigerian factor was designed to stop the Igbo man.
Nigerians are patient people. I am beginning to see that the patience of Nigerians is running out as they are finding out that the Igbo people lack calibration of hubris and they are no longer tolerating the bully tactics of the Igbo people. Nigeria does not belong to them. They can go to Biafra and bellyache but I worry about the geography.
Great America never extended this kind of olive branch to the south that initiated and lost the American civil war. It took America about a hundred years to elect a president from the South in the name of LB. Johnson. His election was accidental after the assassination of JFK. The officers of the Confederacy were made to sign an oath of allegiance before their citizenship could be restored.
Robert Lee who was the President of the confederacy could not restore his citizenship before he died. The reason was that he misplaced his documents for the oath of allegiance and could not find the papers before he fell sick. He died in October 1870. His citizenship was restored posthumously by President Gerald Ford in 1975, almost a hundred years after he died.
What about the breakaway region of Chechnya in Russia? Did the Russians get into appeasement politics with that breakaway Republic? The answer is no. Thirty years after the genocide in Rwanda, the authors of the Rwanda genocide of 1994 are still being prosecuted. Can any Hutu person justify the genocide and start a movement for genocide?
This show of civility by Nigerians to Igbo has been misconstrued by them as signs of weakness. Instead of nurturing good neighborliness, we have inadvertently turned them into bullies in the Nigerian landscape.
Nnamdi Kanu by his actions is telling us we were wrong for the war that was started by his Igbo brother. This is the action of a bully. Nothing can placate a bully. As a Nigerian, I refuse to be bullied. Enough is enough. Gradually, he is rewriting the story of the Nigerian civil war where the Nigerian is the villain and the Igbo people are innocent victims. Ojukwu is his hero. The Igbo telling us we hate them is a psychological projection of the hate they have for Nigeria and the good people of this great country. They have no sense of history. The lack of any punishment makes the Igbo people think that the declaration of Biafra is a trivial issue.
Nothing was asked of the Igbo people after the war. They came back into Nigeria as if nothing happened and they have handed revisionist history to their children who want to carry out the same scenarios because nothing happened to the likes of Ojukwu. Is our sovereignty a joke? No person’s compass should point to Biafra when he is making his billions in Nigeria.
Nigeria elected an Igbo to the vice presidency in the person of Dr Alex Ekwueme in 1979, just ten years after the Nigerian civil war. Four years later, the leader of the rebellion was pardoned and immediately ran for the senate. If he was not defeated by his own people, he would have become a senator in a country he was dismembering less than 15 years prior. Nothing was asked of him. He never spent a day in jail. A writer spent more than three years in jail, but the architect of the blood bath paraded Nigeria as a hero. This is abnormal and the Igbo people think that this abnormal situation warrants the concept of abnormal citizenship by having double allegiance, one to Biafra and another to Nigeria.
His main antagonist in his campaign was Chief Christian Cukwuma Onoh, a renowned Enugu lawyer. He promised to bury Ojukwu because he knew where all the skeletons were buried. There is nothing greater that can stand between two antagonists than a beautiful woman. Bianca Ojukwu is CC Onoh’s daughter. Both men buried the hatchet and Bianca Ojukwu is a celebrated Nigerian ambassador today. She has represented Nigeria very well.
The Igbo people were re-assimilated so quickly that we all heaved a sigh of relief that we as a people, we are healing and we are on the move with our usual aches and pains. Nothing was asked of them. No one asked them about rededication of their allegiance to Nigeria. This is why they think their crime against Nigeria is trivial. Due to lack of strict entry rules such as Nigeria citizenship, the Biafrans have taken Nigerians’ generosity as weakness and folly. They will not let the wounds of war heal. They are always picking at the scab. They took advantage of the Biafran propaganda machine that was not dismantled after the war. Gradually, subterranean complaints of marginalization were being murmured. We were under the military and there was strife everywhere.
Just after four years of that civilian dispensation, the civilian government was overthrown and we were back to square one, listening to guttural orders from semi illiterate soldiers whose only claim to fame is the ability to shoot a gun. Nigerians recoiled back into their dark room to witness another decade of military misrule. When the Nation reverted back to representative democracy, we had another military general with no clue at the helm. We did not know we had a constitution. He wanted a third term and made any one who opposed disappear. People like Okadigbo were victims. Okadigbo dared to challenge Mr. Obasanjo for killing anything that moves in the village of Odi in the Niger Delta. An Igbo man shed tears for those of us in the Niger Delta who have always borne the brutality of Caesar’s whip and oppression.
What happened to the Okadigbos of Igbo land ? Our agitation continued and Yar’Adua became president. For the first time, someone looked into the plight of our communities in the Niger Delta and started a process that will rehabilitate the youths and curb the environmental degradation. There was amnesty and the youth laid down their arms to participate in finding solutions to the perennial neglect of the Niger Delta. I thought my nation would eventually heal if dialogue is pursued and adhoc military solutions are jettisoned. I can say there is progress in the Niger Delta today but we have a long way to go. Unfortunately Mr YarAdua died and Jonathan became the inheritor of the throne. He paid attention to the amnesty but since it wasn’t his original design, a lot of funds were frittered away. The administration of Goodluck Jonathan was different in one regard. About 75 % of the cabinet of Goodluck Jonathan was Igbo people. They were eminently qualified and he was good to the South-East. They even renamed him Azikiwe. At this time, we thought our neighbors were our brothers. There was no agitation for Biafra and there was no revisionist history of Biafra. There was an individual running a Biafra money raising stint at the time. His grift was paying off very well and he had no need to increase his amplitude and become confrontational as he was making enough for his keep. Then Buhari came and suddenly those of us in the Niger Delta became the frontal states that prevented Biafra.
We have seen signs of this before but the kaleidoscopic mirage of the Sani Abacha years did not give us the room to analyze the insults that were poured on Ken Saro Wiwa . We thought we all agreed to “no victor, no vanquished “. An individual who was pardoned for heading a rebellion openly derided the relatives of Ken Saro Wiwa that they made their bed and they should lay on it. This was a bridge too far and the hate is real. From then on, there was a catalogue of scenarios in which new proponents of Biafra started using our position during the war as a barometer of their cooperation with us. If there is a pipeline fire accident that incinerates a village in the Niger Delta, there is schadenfreude in Biafra.
During the brutal years of Abacha when everyone west of Niger was in danger, the proponents of Biafra were ensconced in Abacha’s regime. It was the best time for them. There was no Biafra agitation and no one envied them of their new fame and opportunity to be Abacha’s court jesters. They made a lot of money from their gig. Old ties and military camaraderie brought Ojukwu to the front and center of policy making. This is the time a lot of people like Peter Obi made their money by running Abacha’s errands. Most people west of Niger have gone into exile due to the June 12 agitation. We had Radio Kudirat. Tinubu, Wole Soyinka, Pa Enahoro and a host of prominent politicians were in exile and were actively looking for solutions to the Nigerian military usurpation of power. Tinubu was one of the financiers who used his money to finance the struggle against military dictatorship in Nigeria. Kudirat died, Abacha died, Abiola and host other prominent politicians in Nigeria were assassinated. Rewane was murdered. Attempts were made on Alex Ibru’s life. He was seriously wounded. This was Nigeria at that time where an ex-rebel who was pardoned used his old military ties to settle scores with Ken Saro Wiwa. When the Ogoni people complained about this, the Igbo people told them it was Abacha who murdered Ken Saro Wiwa and they should complain to Abacha. Pontius Pilate may have signed the death warrant but the high priests can never wash away the stains.
Buhari became president and the cry for Biafra became more ferocious. Nnamdi Kanu ascended the helm and he needed to crank up the decibel and he did. He poured his vitriol on those neighbors who did not support Biafra. He reorganized and made money beyond his wildest dreams. He started a brigade of people de-marketing Nigeria in the Western countries. According to him, nothing good can come out of Nigeria. The more vitriol he made against Nigeria, the more money he made. His outrageous claims against Nigeria and neighboring minorities became monumental. Nigeria became a zoo. The people of Niger Delta who did not support Biafra secession caught the brunt of his eyes. More money poured in and nothing could exceed the bounds of decency. Sooner than later, his revisionist history became the substantive history of the Biafra secession. Nigerians became villains that perpetrated genocide against the innocent people who were minding their business. They became very successful and Nigerians in their jealous rage rounded them up for genocide. He roused up the Igbo youths, who were unborn then, and they became filled with anger and resentment and they enlisted in his Biafran army which is terrorizing the East today. He turned every political disagreement to the hatred of the Igbo people. Wary Nigerians did know how to reply to this new threat because they have forgotten the history that brought us to our present Palouse position, where we have become pariahs everywhere. There was no push back. Before we knew it, Nnamdi Kanu had raised an army that punishes anyone in Igbo land who will say anything contrary to his phantom stories. He formed Biafra chapters all over the World. He actually told his followers to influence the politics of world powers. He told his people to donate and vote for the racist president of America, Donald Trump. The M15 and Mossad started aping up their activities in Nigeria. Suddenly Israel originally denied that the Igbo people are not the lost tribe of Israel tried to reverse their tune in order to use these Biafrans as their foot hold in Nigeria and Africa when they were denied admission to the AU. He created more unrest in the South East. He was arrested. The rest of the story is still unfolding. Throughout his activities, his main theme is that the Igbo man is oppressed in Nigeria. There was no singular Igbo leader that opposed his ridiculous assertions. Even Senators from the South East started quoting him. When you ask them why they think the Igbo man is oppressed, they will tell you, it is because no Igbo man has been made president. If this were not true, it would be laughable. Prominent Igbo politicians will mount the rostrum and say that only Igbo people can unite Nigeria. What arrant nonsense. These are people who could not unite with their minority neighbours for common values of coexistence telling us they have the elixir of unity. When was the last time you saw an Igbo people unite with anyone who is not Igbo? Wherever they are, there is no peace? They tell us Nigerians who are wary of them are Igbophobic. Are South Africans Igbophobic? Are Ghanaians Igbophobic? What about the American in Dallas who threw out an Igbo organization from his hotel and perpetually banned them from doing business with his hotel? Is the man Igbophobic? For three years, the hotel has hosted them. There is no year where those meetings didn’t end without a fight and the police called. He had had enough and told them never again. Not all money is good money. You be the judge.
My nation Nigeria is gradually succumbing to the emotional blackmail of the Igbo people by making them think that there is a scenario where their uncouth behavior can force us to make an Igbo man the president. The only scenario I can see for any Igbo to be president is to be a patriotic Nigerian.
Are the South-East patriotic Nigerians? Anyone who will agitate for the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu is not a patriotic Nigerian. His loyalty is to Biafra and is not qualified to be president of Nigeria. No one who aspires to lead Nigeria should have double loyalty. In the last election, almost 99% of the Igbos voted for Obi. This means they voted because of one criterion only. Obi is Igbo. That is all they needed to know, nothing more, nothing less. An Igbo leader will mount a rostrum and tell us that only Ndigbo can unite Nigeria. Can you imagine if a Yoruba or Fulani man mounts the podium and says only a Yoruba or Fulani person can rule Nigeria. When Tinubu said it was my turn, they wanted to crucify him. Tinubu did not say it was the turn of Yoruba. He said it was his turn considering what he has achieved, sacrificed and his personal preparation for the office he is seeking. The Igbo people will go gaga. They have no history of peaceful coexistence with any one, even with themselves.
I am an Isoko man. Can I say I am being deprived because an Isoko man has not become the president of Nigeria? Why do Igbo people think the Presidency is a right of any particular ethnic group? This is what we are fighting, to disabuse the Fulani people of this arrogant thought process .The presidency is a privilege accorded a few people in any federation. The last time an Igbo was president; the Igbo people overthrew that government and threw the country into a state of confusion, consternation and war.
It took America almost a hundred years to get to a civil war. The Igbo people pushed Nigeria into civil war in less than six years after independence. At the rate the Biafra agitators are going, we may end up with another war before Nigeria’s one hundred years of independence. It is very unhealthy for any group of people to have this view of leadership. This is the reason why Nigeria should be restructured. If the Igbo people think this way, this gives them the angst and impetus to disorganize our polity. No one should succumb to this kind of ethnic chauvinism and emotional blackmail.
We should restructure Nigeria. This should be our priority. The Igbo people are going to continue to be unruly neighbors since they have misinformed their people about the history that brought Nigeria to this precipice. Their actions are beginning to tear at the seams of civilized conduct. They want to resolve every misunderstanding with subterfuge that tears down the glue of fellowship.
The Niger Delta is very capable of being on our own. No one should blackmail us into surrendering leadership to those whose actions have betrayed the very nation they want to lead. This is very confusing. Nigerians are no fools. We cannot surrender the leadership of Nigeria to any group of people who are ambivalent about their citizenship of this great country. I want these agitations to stop so we can continue the work of nation building which is being made very difficult by these hostile neighbors called Biafra. I don’t want a war. Sooner or later, we may be forced to push Biafra out. You cannot be Biafran and aspire to lead Nigeria in any capacity. This emotional blackmail and revisionist history must stop. No group of people has the right to predicate their Nigerian citizenship to the president being a member of their tribe. We must punish people who commit treason against Nigeria. The failure to punish Ojukwu and other leaders of the Biafran Rebellion is what has given the impetus to people like Nnamdi Kanu to imitate Ojukwu and carry out another rebellion. Lack of enforcement of our laws shows we are not serious with our sovereignty.
Let us restructure Nigeria as a matter of urgency so that those who want to exit the federation like the Igbo people can leave. Our building of a nation must go beyond infantile tantrums.
Take the case of the Republic of Texas. Texas gained independence from Mexico in 1836. It was a country of its own until 1845 when it joined the Union as the 28th state of the United States. Due to its peculiar history, Texas is actually run like a country and a lot of Texans have nostalgia for their old country. They have their anthems and their coins and other memorabilia they are very proud of. The annual budget of Texas is about 340 billion. They have their own flag and they have a bicameral legislature which comprises a Senate and a House of Representatives. Due to this wealth, a lot of Texas feels it will be better to secede from the US instead of remaining in the union and continue subsidizing nonproductive states. This is their running joke until 1995 when Mr. McLaren with his separatist group declared the Republic of Texas in 1995 , in Rural west Texas and started collecting Taxes and extorting the citizens in those areas.
Just like Nnamdi was doing in Igbo land. Mr. McLaren and his accomplice were arrested and tried. They were sentenced to 99 years in jail without parole. This is how serious other societies deal with the subject of treason. There are no tribal people going to plead on behalf of McLaren. Those pleading leniency for Nnamdi Kanu because of his tribal affiliations have violated the sacred duty of a citizen. They have no loyalty to Nigeria. This is how I see the Biafran Agitation. For the people agitating for another country to think they can at the same time run for the highest office in Nigeria is beyond pardon. Give them their Biafra and they can all go to Biafra and become president. We are Nigerians.
DR AUSTIN ORETTE WRITES FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS
Top-tier engineering and construction company, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, on Friday, October 03, 2025, held its annual Cultural Day celebration across its corporate offices, regional headquarters, and project sites nationwide. The event once again highlighted the company’s commitment to promoting Nigeria’s rich cultural diversity as a vital tool for fostering unity, peaceful coexistence, and socio-economic development.
This year’s Cultural Day was marked by colourful displays of tradition, as staff turned out in vibrant attires representing Nigeria’s diverse ethnic groups. The celebration featured traditional music, dance performances, cultural exhibitions, and a showcase of indigenous cuisines, all reflecting the depth and richness of Nigeria’s heritage.
In Abuja, the Head of Human Resources, Olorunfemi Ojomo, welcomed everyone and spoke about the importance of unity in diversity. He said that the company values the strength found in different cultures and will continue to promote it.
Ojomo said, “I can see some beautiful dresses this evening. I’m really impressed. Thank you very much for the effort. Definitely it is going to be a beautiful outing. Like I always say every year in year out, it’s one of those moments where we get to celebrate our diversity. Yes, it’s a period for some bit of having fun. However, most important thing here is we try as much to recognise that we’re from different part of the world, different part of the country because we are as a company and that’s our strength. It’s very very important to appreciate ourselves. So little things like this do matters a lot. So, to each and every one of you, I say welcome. Please do have a fantastic time here this evening. Thank you very much.”
Across the regions, staff brought creativity and pride to the occasion. In Lagos, employees showcased the vibrancy of Yoruba culture through dance, drumming, and traditional cuisine. In Abuja, staff highlighted the richness of Northern traditions with displays of Hausa-Fulani heritage, while Port Harcourt teams brought the colourful essence of the Niger Delta to life. From the East to the West, the company’s project sites reflected the same energy celebrating Nigeria’s cultural tapestry in a truly nationwide event.
The Cultural Day celebration has over the years grown into a Julius Berger tradition that not only fosters friendship among employees but also reflects the company’s long-standing commitment to values that strengthen communities.
This year’s edition once again underscored Julius Berger’s belief that culture remains a vital driver of national identity and a catalyst for peace, harmony, and sustainable development.
UNEASY NEIGHBOURS AND THE BIAFRA DIALOGUE PART 3 BY DR AUSTIN ORETTE
When I write about Fulani, Igbo and their negative activities against Nigeria, I am flooded with acidic comments. The replies are so juvenile and emotional, devoid of substance and laden with ethnic gobbledygook.
Some say I am Islamophobic while others say I am Igbo phobic. These replies are lame and devoid of any scholarship.
Debate the key points and spare me the emotional drivels that lack clarity and common sense. My interest is to make the amalgam called Nigeria to work because ultimately Africa will unite as a single or semi-autonomous entity in the future. I believe in “E pluribus Unum “Out of many we are one). How can we unite Africa if we cannot unite a little place like Nigeria because of ethnocentrism and religious bigotry?
My discussion is to make those who are inside to see how those outside see them and vice versa. Self-examination is a very difficult thing for those whose perimeter is a unit. We are all black people in this continent and our present relationship and views have been shaped by those who conquered and colonized us. This colonization brought linguistic and religious differences which have created a lot of cognitive dissonance amongst us.
The Fulani man thinks he is superior because he is a Muslim and the Igbo man thinks he is superior because he has western education. I hate to burst their bubble. Their claim to fame and arrogance are what has rendered Africa impotent in the greater scheme of things. The education and the religions zealotry only made them mental hostages of their colonial masters. This is why they cannot love and see themselves in each other as fellow Africans who can develop and share common values. The education and the religions are products of foreign culture that undermine African civilization and freedom. The education and the religions that hold Africa hostage were brought with the sword and are still being defended with the sword to this day.
No where can you see the battle between these religions other than the opposing positions between the Igbo and Fulani. The Fulani people used Islam to perpetuate their Suzerainty over Northern Nigeria. Igbo people are predominantly Catholics. The schism between these two groups can be seen as a subterranean religious war fuel by the headquarters of the religions. The Igbo people will attack the Fulani with phrases that the Fulani people are trying to Islamize Nigeria, while the Fulani people will say no infidel will rule over them. What they really mean is that no non Fulani can rule over them. They use religion as a ploy. If you can see this in a broader context, you will find that the Fulani people telescope the problems of Nigeria to the Arab and Islamic world as problems with infidels, while the Igbo people telescope their problems to the Vatican as Islamic invasion and Sharia.
Due to good politicking and good cultural awareness, the Western region tends not to get involved in politics of extremism. The Fulani and Igbo consider this position to be too good for comfort. In search of allies in this region, both groups will try to plant seeds of dominance. The Fulani people will tell the Westerners that Islam is superior to the culture and the Igbo people will take the bait. The Fulani people will instigate actions in the West that are inimical to Igbo. The Igbo people not knowing this will lash out in their characteristic bravado. They will claim they developed Lagos. A new schism and war front is opened. No one looks further to ascertain the voice from the hand of Esau. This is where we are today. The rush to judgement is one of the drawbacks of group thinking and there are proxies that make these fictional absurdities the realities that fuel more hate.
I want all the components of Nigeria to come together for restructuring. Restructuring will give us the pace to run the affairs of our various regions or zones without the interference and manipulation from an overwhelming center with overwhelming powers.
The Igbo people who are complaining so much about the present system are the ones who destroyed our regional system. The regions we had were semi-autonomous. What the Igbo people are asking for today is what they destroyed yesterday .They have a strong proposition for Biafra but a lukewarm attitude towards anything that will restructure our present polity to be akin to what we had in the First Republic. Of all the candidates that come from Igboland, none of them have vociferously challenged or worked to evolve a system that takes the federal government from the centrality of our existence. This is one quality they share with the Fulani. The Fulani people openly oppose restructuring; the Igbo people are strategically silent in this regard.
I take this to be acquiescence. The campaign of Peter Obi was that of a man trying to paint a dilapidated building where a structural engineer is needed. A lot of people were carried away by the flowery prose. I wasn’t. This house has fallen and needs builders not painters. They will rather declare Biafra and scuttle debates on restructuring. None of their politicians have shown any consideration in this regard. It can be assumed they are threading both sides. It is like the case of the politicians who will defend a bill by saying they voted for it before they opposed it. It is a gross attempt to attach a meaning to opposites.
The Igbo people in their usual polemics will say that the British handed over Nigeria to Fulani. I beg to differ. The British handed Nigeria to Nigerians and the Igbo people handed Nigeria to Fulani. This is our history. Nigeria became chaotic and the Fulani people took advantage of chaotic Nigeria to manipulate the levers of power. Since they discovered that chaos is beneficial to them, they have adopted it as one of their tools of diplomacy and statecraft and they are using it to achieve the results they want.
Today it is Boko Haram, tomorrow Fulani Herdsmen. A chaotic Nigeria will find it difficult to restructure. In the old order, they would have resorted to coups by some illiterate military upstart who would cry corruption and empty the treasury in the same breath.
The western world has also seen that a chaotic Nigeria will work to their advantage too and they are joining the bandwagon and developing policies of chaotic interference by supporting the terrorists and also positioning themselves as the diplomats with solutions in Nigerian affairs. They have the coin. Head, they win and tail, we lose. Nigeria will never know peace again until we understand that inviting them to settle inter-tribal wars and skirmishes will be the new diplomatic order and diplomatic relations of the western World in Nigeria. They will distill a solution that will perpetually put Nigeria in purgatory. They are not our friends. They are strategic partners whose only goal is exploitation and degradation of Africans.
Boko Haram has paid them so much through the precious metals they are smuggling from the conflict zones of Nigeria. This is why I worry. After Boko Haram, Biafra will become another conflagration. The tone of most Biafrans is anti-Nigeria and Western intelligence will be stupid not to water the seeds of this brewing chaos.
If the Igbo people want peace and progress, they would join the campaign for restructuring. I am an Isoko man from the Niger Delta. There is no right that I am enjoying in Nigeria that is denied to the Igbo people. Nigeria at present is based on the plunder of the resources of the Niger Delta. It is intellectually dishonest for anyone to accuse Nigerians of hating Igbo people when the South-East people have very strong negative feelings against other Nigerians especially the minority in the east.
There is schadenfreude in Biafra land when an unfortunate event happens to the minorities in the Niger Delta. This was very palpable when Ken Saro Wiwa was murdered. To the Igbo people, his death was the price paid for not supporting Biafra. This attitude is pervasive all over. They tell Benue people that the crisis in Benue is a punishment for not supporting Biafra. What is the punishment for other Nigerians like us in the Midwest who pushed back the invasion of Biafra? This is a question we should ask since we were not in support of Biafra? Are they suggesting that Biafra was going to usher in an Eldorado?
Biafra was a project of Igbo nationalism in a new nation called Nigeria that was just barely six years old. The Igbo people overthrew the government they were in charge of. This is the nihilism that could also have come to the fore if Biafra had succeeded. Those of us in the Midwest were not interested in the substitution of tyrants. We just wanted to be left alone.
Igbo people must ask themselves some tough questions. Why do they think there is antipathy towards them? No one hates anyone because they are successful. I like successful neighbors because they can solve problems. It is lazy thinking to always point the fingers at others. Telling us that Nigerians hate you and in another breath you tell us you own 80% of houses in Abuja is confusing. This is like a black American saying he is the victim of racism and on the other hand the racist whites gave him the opportunities to own the majority wealth of America. They must correct the impression they have created around the world that Nigeria is oppressing them as ethnic minorities. This lie has been used by a lot of Igbo people to obtain asylum in foreign lands. They have a duty to correct this. Nation building is not for timid souls. Igbo people in Nigeria are not a minority. The relationship with their minorities has always been frothed with distrust. This is why the minorities did not lend their support for Biafra and remains a sore point to this day. This has given rise to uneasy neighborhoods.
In 1961, Western Cameroon was part of Nigeria. It was north and Southern of this western Cameroon. Due to several complaints of oppression by the Igbo people who were in charge of the region, there was a plebiscite. The Southern part chose to avoid the Igbo oppression by joining the French speaking part of Cameroon. The North which in today’s Nigeria, Adamawa state chose to remain. Atiku Abubakar could have been president of Cameroon or cattle farmer minding his business and wondering about the beauty of the Mambilla Plateau. The South took the painful decision to leave Nigeria because of the Igbo people. Today those people who were Nigerians are suffering because the power of that country is controlled by the French speaking Cameroonians. From their archives, the other minority probably would have voted to join Equatorial Guinea or some neighboring entity if they were given the choice.
Were these folks born to hate their neighbors? Leadership demands responsibility. It is the duty of the majority to protect the rights of minorities in a democratic society. Did the Igbo people protect the rights of their minorities in the First Republic? Bakassi and beyond belong to Nigeria irrespective of the Abracadabra of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo who hurriedly surrendered Nigeria real estate to Cameroon. Those people are Nigerians who were seriously traumatized.
It is the duty of the majority to protect the rights of the minorities in a democracy. Did the Igbo people protect the rights of the minorities in the South East? If the answer is yes, why did they leave? You cannot accuse every one of hating Igbo people without looking inward to see the source of the negative actions towards others. Some people left Nigeria because they could not tolerate Igbo oppression. Is that hatred or self-preservation?
DR AUSTIN ORETTE WRITES FROM HOUSTON TEXAS
IGBO, THORNY SITUATIONS AND ARROGANCE AS STATE FLAG BY DR AUSTIN ORETTE
Two sets of people settled in the Anambra-Imo River Basin. The dominant empire in the region at that time was the Benin Empire whose influence spread from present day Edo state to Republic of Benin in the West and Onitsha in the East.
The Nris were the first group of Igbo people that moved into the Imo River Basin. They are known to be highly spiritual and were involved in mathematics and astronomy. It is reported they are from the Nile valley civilization. They were peaceful.
Later on, the Aros arrived and invaded the Region. The Aros were warlike and had no time for finesse of royal courts. Their ethics were situational. They are described as coming from Northern Benin. This could mean castaway from the Benin kingdom and others from the Tiv area of present-day Nigeria. They were mainly involved in catching slaves for the Portuguese in the Niger Delta area. They conquered Nris and sold a lot of them to the Portuguese. They had no official rule of conduct. Their incessant incursion into the Benin Empire on behalf of the Portuguese led to the Benin Empire invading them twice. They created a lot of havoc in the present-day Niger Delta because they played the role of slave catchers for the Portuguese. Their activities and other internal factors led to the weakness of the Benin kingdom that was exploited by the British for colonization.
From the aforesaid, our great grandparents never had any cordial relations with Igbo because any dealings with the Aros led to enslavement. In Isoko language, the name for a slave is Origbo. This means someone who has been captured by the Igbo people.
A lot of the tribes in the Niger Delta have this history when they talk of their relationship with Igbo. So, it is very confusing when an Igbo person says Isoko is Igbo. We have history. Our people got along very well with Nris. As times moved on, we could not differentiate those Aros who occupied the Anambra basin and the Nris who occupied Mbaise and other parts of Imo State today. Our great grandparents believed that all the atrocities in Igboland today are caused by the remnants of the Aros who have no respect for civilized conduct. This is as far as they could define the essential Igbo person of today.
With the risk of running afoul of historical folklore, most of the scholars in Igboland tend to be from the Imo axis. Those who tend to go into politics and non-intellectual pursuits tend to be from the Anambra basin. This is a subject that should need further studies.
If we assume that the majority of those who participate in politics and business are not Nris, then you can see that the Igbo people have achieved more in scholarship than in politics. So, it can be seen that a lot of decisions that have resulted in shortchanging Igbo people were made without scholarly input.
From the outside, you will wonder why people who credit themselves with so much wisdom always choose the worst options in times of crisis. The scenario is that there is a crisis, and the loudest person gets his way and disaster ensues. At the end, the Igbo people blame the onlooker for the bad outcome. Due to the lack of options, their politics is insular and excommunicates anyone with a contrary view. They find it difficult to work with others who are not Igbo because of their siege mentality. This has led to the retardation of their politics and business ventures.
The present cry for Biafra is actually a symptom of a disorganized polity. I have never seen a situation where a businessman will fight to decrease his market size. That is what Igbo people are doing when they orchestrate Biafra. They are willing to leave a market of 200 million people to ensconce themselves in a market of about forty million people. The corollary is when Joseph Kennedy tried to tolerate Hitler. He lost favor with the American people. To be fair to him, he was thinking like a businessman. He felt Hitler will see reason and as such there should not be war so businesses can go on and let the diplomats straighten the rough edges. That is the way most businessmen tend to think. They don’t want to rock the boat, because violence is not good for business.
When this corollary is applied to the Igbo people, they fall short. They always ask for war before negotiations. This should be the opposite because when you lose a war, you no longer have leverage. This is Nnamdi Kanu’s story and a lot of Igbo people are willing to hook their wagon to his fate. There is no day that goes without someone on YouTube tying the fortunes of the Igbo people to that of Nnamdi Kanu. We have seen this movie before and the Igbo people are rewriting the sequel which makes them the villains and us the victims.
Can Nnamdi Kanu win an election in Igboland? The answer is No. Why are they making him a martyr? It is possible they need someone as a unifying factor. For someone to be a unifying factor, his story must be sympathetic to people outside the group. It is a failure to seek collaboration with others that always make Igbo politics difficult. The few times I have seen Nnamdi Kanu in court did not endear him to me. He was imperious and abusive towards his lawyers. His actions in court made me question the sanity of those who take instruction from him as a leader.
Before anyone will say he is being persecuted, they should also know that Mr Orkah who was vandalizing pipelines in Niger Delta is serving his jail term in South Africa. No one in Niger delta or Ijaw land considers him a martyr. We understand he broke the law and he was tried and convicted. The only thing we can do is render help to him and rehabilitate him when he is released. This is what is expected.
Instead of doing this, the Igbo people will make him a cause to celebrate. This is the problem. We have been here before and it led us to a civil war. The civil war could have been avoided. The actors like Nnamdi were young and thought that war was a predictable event. If negotiations had continued, those who caused the pogrom could have been brought to justice and those affected could have been massively compensated. Those who were in charge then thought they knew it all and also were being goaded by emotional subterfuge of the aggrieved. No one challenged those who were beating the drums of war. The first salvo was Nnamdi telling us he is going to Abuja with a million Biafra and he will return to Igboland with the head of Buhari. This amateur is making enlightened citizens in Igboland to grovel before him and have become emotionally suffused.
They should remember that this sequel will play out to their disadvantage if they don’t manage it well. I say this to make history come to life.
The Nigeria of today is the creation of the Igbo people. They drew the first blood. All other actions that ensued were a reaction to the initial injury. It was Ojukwu who arrested Isaac Boro for seceding. Why was Niger Delta secession not good and Biafra secession good?
We must calibrate our hubris. A perusal of the history we share should give us the humility to engage each other to unravel thorny situations that are created by those who use arrogance as a state flag.
DR AUSTIN ORETTE WRITES FROM HOUSTON TEXAS