The conveners of Ndi Igbo in Diaspora, Dr. Humphrey Ihejirikah, Dr. J.O.S. Okeke and Dr. Oguchi Nkwocha partly wrote in their invitation message, "Ndi Igbo have suffered genocide, pogrom, civil war and, continuous persecution in Nigeria. For decades, we have been exploited politically, segregated against, and humiliated spiritually."
Historically, we know that there were riots in the Northern parts of Nigeria between May 28 and October 3, 1966 resulting in the killing of persons of Igbo ethnic group. The cause of the riots was due to the coup that led to the seizure of power by Major General Johnson Thompson Aguiyi Ironsi on January 15, 1966 and which was ethnically executed as all the casualties of the coup, except one, were non-Igbo and the executors of the coup, except one, were all Igbo. Within six years of independence Achebe noted in his 'There Was Aa Country,' that Nigeria was a cesspool of corruption and misrule whereby Public servants helped themselves freely to the nation's wealth. He also stated that Igbo led the nation in virtually every sector - politics, education commerce, and the arts as the dominating tribe in Nigeria within that period. While Major Patric Chukwuma Nzeogwu in his broadcast at 12:30 pm on January 15, 1966, stressed that the intention of the army revolt was to stamp out corruption in Nigeria, the hijackers of his coup led by Major General Ironsi opted for maintenance of status quo. When the dust of the coup had settled some Nigerians, especially in the North, began to ask questions as to what political and economic offence deserving death did, Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa, and Ladoke Akintola commit that Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nwafor Orizu, and Michael Okpara did not commit? Why was it that only high ranking military officers, except one, from the North and West were killed in the coup? As those questions remained unanswered, Major General Ironsi surrounded himself with advisers in the persons of Lieutenant Colonel Hilary Njokwu, the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Brigade, Dr. Pius Okigbo (Economic Advisor), A.A. Ayida (Perm. Sec. Ministry of Economic Development), G.C.M. Onyiuke (Attorney General), Francis C. Nwokedi (One-man Commission of Enquiry into Unitary form of Government), and S.O. Wey (Secretary to the National Military Government). With the exception of Ayida and Wey, all the inner circle of Ironsi's regime were persons of ethnic Igbo. Suspicion against the regime of Ironsi was further heightened by the triumphant behaviour of Igbo in the North. In Nigeria & Biafra: My Story, Lieutenant Colonel Philip Efiong wrote, "It must be added that the attitude of the Igbos in the North, as reported in some papers at the time of the first coup, was particularly provocative and contributed to the violent eruption of emotions, giving some encouragement and reason for action (p.88)." Further on page 332 Efiong wrote, "I must also state that the attitude of the Igbos in the North after the first coup of 15 January 1966 was somewhat provocative and contributed to the hardening of the attitude of the Northern leaders when the massacres began in July 1966." A typical example of Igbo attitude in the North was the wall photograph of a smiling Major Nzeogwu standing on a picture depicting Ahmadu Bello lying on the ground on sale by Igbo traders. And by the end of March 1966, Francis Nwokedi had submitted his one-man commission of enquiry report on Unitary form of government for Nigeria to Ironsi. Based on that report, Aguiyi Ironsi promulgated Decree No. 34, of 24 May 1966, abolishing the Regions and Federalism. Since the fifties, Azikiwe and his party the NCNC, had advocated unitary form of government where power should be concentrated at the centre. Immediately after the promulgation of Decree No. 34, the West African Pilot, also Nnamdi Azikiwe's newspaper, published a cartoon titled 'The Dawn of a New Day.' It portrayed Ironsi Government as a large cock (cock was the symbol of NCNC party) crowing 'One Country, One Nationality.' On May 28, 1966 riots broke out throughout Northern Nigeria where persons of ethnic Igbo were attacked and killed because they were associated with Ironsi, an Igbo. Even after Gowon had taken over power, the killing of Igbo did not stop until October 3, 1966. Thus, the gathering in Houston should not only discuss the effects of pogrom against the Igbo in the North in 1966 but what caused it.
While it is true that there was civil war in Nigeria, there has never been evidence of genocide against Ndi Igbo. At the end of his visit to Nigeria in August 1969, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe gave a press conference in London on 28 August 1969 where he queried, "Knowing that the accusation of genocide is palpably false, but bearing in mind the widespread of killing of 1966, which must always hunt our memories, why should some people continue to fool our people to believe that they are slated for slaughter, when we know that they suffer mental anguish and physical agony as a result of their being homeless, and their places of abode having been desolated by war and their lives rendered helpless ( p. 255, Nigeria & Biafra: My Story by Lt. Colonel Philip Efiong)." Beside Azikiwe's query there are volumes of reports, written by International Team of Observers from UN, Europe and OAU (as it was then known) after treading the tails of the Federal forces in the front lines, which exonerated Nigeria from committing alleged genocide against the Igbo.
The tripartite Ndi Igbo doctors from Houston claim that there is continuous persecution of Ndi Igbo in Nigeria and one wonders what they mean by persecution. Writing in the online Sahara Reporters in July 2013, Tochukwu Ezukanma asserted in an article titled, Blind Leading the Blind, that "Since those nightmare days when the Igbo, defeated, battred and tattered, stumbled out of the last vestiges of Biafra, we have made progress across the whole spectrum of the Nigerian social life and gained the respect of other Nigerians. Igboland is landlocked with large tracts of infertile land and a population density three times that of Yorubaland..... Our boundless resourceful energies and effervescent entrepreneur spirit are unyieldingly spilling beyond the confines of our regional borders, and have thus, driven us to every nook and cranny of Nigeria. Operating within an expanded frontier - one Nigeria - is to our advantage." In the same vein an excerpt from the Nigerian Guardian Online of July 9, 2013, read, "We have the population and the Igbo are the only people with over a 25 per cent spread in any part of this country. We are not underdogs under any circumstances, we have the capacity to decide who can be president or who cannot be because we have the numbers - President General, Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Gary Enwo Igariwey." When Igbo are in every nook and cranny of Nigeria and constitute a 25% spread in any part of Nigeria, it can never be true that Ndi Igbo are persecuted, exploited economically, dominated politically, segregated against, and humiliated spiritually as asserted by the tripartite Doctors in Houston. The conveners of Ndi Igbo in Diaspora would appear to be ignorant about the political situation in Nigeria since the National Publicity Secretary of Ohaneze Ndi Igbo in Nigeria, Osita Oganah, declared in the Nigerian Punch Online of December 14, 2014 thus, "I have to let you know that at moment, our support goes to President Jonathan. Jonathan has been doing well for the Igbos." And when, according to the Nigerian Guardian Online in November 2015, the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) ordered all Igbo in other parts of Nigeria to return to Igboland, one Dr. Chris Eluomunoh, who claimed to be Chairman of what he termed, Forum of State Presidents of Ohaneze in the seven Igbo speaking states, said, "Igbo people have contributed much to the development of Nigeria and we cannot allow some people to jeopardize the lives and efforts of millions of Igbo residing in all parts of Nigeria." President Jonathan under whose regime the Igbo claimed to be having it good left office only seven months ago, therefore, the conveners of Ndi Igbo in Diaspora must explain how the economic exploitation, political domination, segregation, and spiritual humiliation of Ndi Igbo for decades could have occurred. Of course, Igbo in other parts of Nigeria have not heeded MASSOB order.
Political development in Nigeria has now reached a stage where the tribe of any public and civil servant is no longer important and is of no significance. It is now realize that an individual in office is not representing his/her tribe there but employed/appointed/elected/selected and remunerated to produce specific goods and services for the entire citizens of our nation. It is encouraging to note nowadays that even if the name of the current Nigeria's President is Mohammadu Buhari, it cannot be said that ethnic Hausa/Fulani are being tried for stealing money appropriated to buy weapons for our soldiers to fight Boko Haram, but a person named Sambo Dasuki. By the time the Houston meeting of Ndi Igbo in Diaspora would have taken place, perhaps Nigerians would have been told the names of Nigerians, who stole billions of dollars appropriated to buy transformers to generate electricity for the nation, who were stealing and diverting 445,000 barrels per day of crude oil allocated to our national refineries for domestic consumption, who collected billions of naira fuel subsidy without supplying any fuel, who are stealing crude oil, who are owning oil blocks that constitutionally belong to all Nigerians, who make Ajaokuta Steel Company unproductive and those who regularly steal about 350 billion naira annual budget appropriation for the Federal Ministry of Works to dualist six federal roads in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria: Lagos - Benin Highway; Ikeja - Ota Road expansion; Ibadan - Ilorin dualism; and Onitsha - Owerri dualism. When the names of national thieves are made known to Nigerians, the congregations of Houston's Ndi Igbo in Diaspora will realize that the thieves which have made Nigeria headquarter of failure in Africa and capital of hell on earth, cut across all ethnic boundaries in Nigeria.
S. Kadiri
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 2015 17:32:56 +0000
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
To: nigerianworldforum@yahoogroups.com; igboworldforum@yahoogroups.com; naijaobserver@yahoogroups.com; nigerianid@yahoogroups.com; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - News Release: Ndi'Igbo In Diaspora To Debate Their Fate In Nigeria January 29 to 30, 2016 In Houston Texas
Ndi'Igbo in Diaspora have decided to meet in Houston on the 29th – 30th of January 2016, to debate their fate in Nigeria. The move is necessitated by our past experiences and recent events in the country........................
 | |||||||
From chidi opara reports
chidi opara reports is published as a social service by PublicInformationProjects
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
No comments:
Post a Comment