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Remembering Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu ByUbanese Nwanganga
“Should Abner die as a fool dies? Your hands were not bound Nor your feet put into fetters; As a man falls before wicked men, so you fell. “…Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?”
In those words, King David mourned Abner, the son of Ner, commander of the Israeli army under King Saul, who was murdered by Joab, King David’s army commander. In similar fashion, I am tempted to mourn Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. But who am I to mourn him? Well, it is no sin to indulge ones fantasies. It is only human. Chukwuma was not my contemporary. Between us are over ten solid years. Notwithstanding, I am today[1] remembering him as a kinsman and a compatriot of outstanding leadership qualities forty-two years after his premature death. Like Abner, Chukwuma died like a rat, lured into a trap and wasted. He did not reckon with the fact that those who ran with the hare could also hunt with the hounds. He was careless about his personal security. Yes, Chukwuma took too much for granted. He did not conduct himself like someone who was trained in security consciousness.
Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu was said to have died exactly 42 years ago today at Obollo Afor on 29th July 1967 shortly after the outbreak of hostilities between Nigeria and the breakaway eastern province, which called itself the Republic of Biafra. This essay, however, is not so much about his longevity or lack of it. Instead, I want to share with the reading public the little I gleaned about the life of this remarkable young man, who, like a meteor, flashed through the Nigerian political firmament and, before we knew it, disappeared the way he came. So, who actually was Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu? Was he the villain he was portrayed to be? Or, was he a patriot, who, unfortunately, was born from the ‘wrong’ stock of Nigerians?
Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, if he had lived, would have turned 72years on February 26, 2009. He was born at Kaduna in present day northwest geopolitical zone of Nigeria on February 26, 1937 to Igbo parents from Okpanam in present day Delta State. His parents gave him the Igbo name of Sochukwuma (Only God knows), which is usually shortened to Chukwuma. However, their Hausa neighbours prophetically claimed him and named him Dan Kaduna, or son of Kaduna. Although he was baptized Patrick-his parents were Catholic faithfuls-as he grew up and became conscious of colonial Nigeria, he began to deemphasize it and eventually dropped it in preference to his given Igbo and Hausa names.
Chukwuma shot into national limelight on January 15, 1966, when in the early hours of that fateful day; together with his troops Chukwuma stormed the official residence of the premier of the north and the Saduana of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, killing him in the process. When Chukwuma and his troops struck, there was widespread rejoicing across the land. The inept leadership of the politicians of then was too glaring. Barely a few years into nominal political independence, political intolerance in the country had claimed its first major victims: the visionary Chief Obafemi Awolowo and a good number of his political associates were given long prison sentences. The Tiv riots had been ruthlessly crushed. The wuruwuru national census of 1962 had caused predictable problems. The Midwest Region was carved out of Western Region in 1963 by the NPC/NCNC coalition in order to deal with Chief Awolowo and his followers while ignoring agitations for self-determination in the east (COR) and in the north (Middle Belt). The NPC-led federal government continued to meddle in the internal politics of the Action Group Party in Western Region, which led to the exacerbation of the crisis. By 1965, the Western Region was referred to as the “wild, wild west”. Besides political instability, widespread corruption among the politicians, the 10 per centers, was rife. The Nigerian military had been infiltrated by dubious selfish politicians. Nigeria was tottering on the brinks of collapse. Something was bound to happen, to prevent or hasten it. It was only a matter of time.
Welcome to the first coup d’etat in Nigeria’s history. The coup planned and executed by radical elements in the Nigerian armed forces was led by Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna (in charge of Lagos axis) and Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, who was in charge of Kaduna axis. Major Chude Sokei was to lead the putsch in Enugu but was unexpectedly sent on an overseas training before the D-Day. The coup was executed to remove visionless politicians who, in the words of the soldiers, “caused Nigerians to feel shame being Nigerians”. Little did the coup plotters know that Nigeria of then was a paradise compared to what it would become later. From demanding 10% bribes corruption has grown wings and become institutionalized. It is now an acceptable way of our national life. Today, nobody feels any shame being associated with corruption. The CVs of our so-called leaders would be incomplete without it. I am not referring to the Generals of the north whose birthright it is to steal from our national patrimony. The Nigerian army that produced Chukwuma & Co. has become in the words of Gen. Ibrahim Salihu, onetime Chief of Army Staff, “an army of anything is possible”.
Unfortunately, the Lagos or south axis of the coup did not succeed for a number of reasons including lack of critical armoured support. Its Kaduna counterpart was executed with precision because of the involvement and commitment of its leader, Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu.
For the Kaduna operations Chukwuma had under his command troops from the north. Gibson Jallo and Atom Kpera were some of them. They carried out instructions given by their leader without regard for his ethnic origin. According to Chukwuma, at the point he disclosed the coup to his troops, he was not armed. The boys could have shot him, if they did not believe in him.
The failure of the coup in the south and the resultant considerable casualties of Yoruba and northern politicians and soldiers utterly altered its perception, especially in the north. Interestingly, it was the Observer Newspaper of London, which in its edition of January 16, 1966, first gave the coup its ethnic coloration. The incitement, which was scarcely surprising considering the close affinity between the British, as colonial overlords of Nigeria, and the north, achieved its intended objective. After the eclipse of July 29, 1966, which restored power to the north and subsequently led to the Nigerian civil war, Britain gave Nigeria (the north) support in arms and ammunition as well as used its diplomatic and military clout to defeat Biafra’s war of independence.
Before the coup of January 15, 1966, Chukwuma was the commander of the Nigerian Military Training College, NMTC, based in Kaduna. He had joined the Nigerian Army in 1957 at the age of twenty after five years of secondary school education at St John’s College, Kaduna, where he left a solid record despite the brushes he had with the school authorities, over the application of justice. It is perhaps pertinent to note here that he was expelled from the school in his final year because he had led a rebellion against the school authorities. Convinced that his action was right, Chukwuma vehemently refused to apologize so that he could be pardoned and recalled by the school authorities. Instead, he chose to write the Cambridge School Certificate Examination as an external candidate. Notwithstanding, he still came out in flying colours.
Chukwuma appeared early in life to have taken much after both parents. In this regard, he was bold, courageous and stubborn as his mother. On the other hand, he was focused, straightforward and strict as his father. Chukwuma abhorred injustice. Once, he was accused of stealing meat from the soup pot. When confronted by his father he answered that he did not have enough. He had watched their mother serve Pa James Okafor two pieces of meat each time while he got less. To protest this, he chose to serve himself from the same pot. The father got the message and caused necessary action to be taken to address his son’s concerns.
Growing up in Kaduna among Hausa people in the forties and fifties made Chukwuma more or less a nominal Igbo man. He was more Hausa than Igbo. His Hausa name, Dan Kaduna said it all. He was more fluent in Hausa than in Igbo language. Beyond the genetic traits he acquired from both parents, his world view was shaped and conditioned by his immediate environment. He had many friends who were northerners. That explained why he was at home any day with army troops from the north.
Chukwuma’s years at St John’s College challenged his self-consciousness. He read widely and came to appreciate the plight of the black man whether in Diaspora or on the African continent. When his mother, the strong willed Elizabeth had to resist the rights of her husband assigned to him by custom and tradition, Chukwuma took sides with her, the first victim of injustice that he knew. As for the plight of the Blackman, he made up his mind to stake his life in the forests of southern Africa to defend him against racial arrogance and injustice.
Having made up his mind on his life’s ambition, the natural career choice was the military, which he joined against his parents’ wish. His father had wanted him to take up a white collar job under the British colonial administration, after his secondary education. Chukwuma would have none of it. When he made his career desire known his father tried fruitlessly to dissuade him. When it became obvious that he was determined to join the army, Pa James Okafor suggested the police force as an alternative. Chukwuma had shown an inclination to use force to achieve any objective. To his father and other relatives, joining the army was tantamount to a premature death. Again, note today how time has changed many things. In days gone by, Ndiigbo used to sing “nne muru soja gbaka nwa (the mother of a soldier has no child)”. If IBB’s mother had lived your guess would be as good as mine as to what would have been her station while her son held Nigeria by the jugular. In 1999 I was offered my ward’s counsellorship seat unopposed. I turned it down. I could not bring myself to serve as a counsellor with all my experience in life. This is no arrogance. Today, politicians, like soldiers who came after Chukwuma, have discovered a goldmine in imposing themselves over us, with the result that unless you are anointed by a political godfather, N5million cannot win you a counsellorship seat. And if you are not careful how you go about it, you may lose your life in the process.
Chukwuma’s parents and relatives however were prophetic. However, to satisfy Chukwuma’s love for force, Pa James Okafor thought that the young man could still find satisfaction in the police force. It did not work. Chukwuma went ahead and joined the army and was trained at Sandhurst in England. There, he declared interest in military intelligence but was frustrated although he still became the first Nigerian army officer to get involved in that area of military training after he returned from the peace mission to the Congo.
Chukwuma’s determination to challenge injustice and racial arrogance was reinforced by his exposure during the military training in Britain. It was there that he probably first came face to face with racial discrimination. He had begun to read leftist books and literature right from his days at college in Kaduna. While at Sandhurst he visited Eastern Europe. By the time he returned to Nigeria after completion of his military training he had an irrevocable commitment to tackle injustice and racism by whatever means at his disposal.
Chukwuma served briefly in the Nigerian contingent that was sent to keep peace among the warring factions in the Congo between November 1960 and April 1961. This outing convinced him that Europeans were no friends of Africans. In every city where the Nigerian troops served Chukwuma saw first hand how Europeans subjected Africans to subhuman conditions.
Before Chukwuma left for India in 1964 for further military training, he was already disillusioned with the quality of political leadership in Nigeria after independence. Things did not get better while he was away; instead they got worse. He wrote off the political leaders as a bunch of self-seeking buccaneers who would stop at nothing in order to remain in power. He detested their exploitation of tribal feelings in order to remain relevant.
Therefore, at this point in time Chukwuma’s attention was focused on both national and pan African problems. He seemed to have attached more importance to the transnational problems of racism in southern Africa than to national problems. Accordingly, he made up his mind to go after the latter first before the former. But by a strange quirk of fate, he was forced to change plans-he decided to address the national problems before the larger racial problems in southern Africa.
Although we are told that Chukwuma was not among those who conceived the idea of a coup d’etat in Nigeria, all the same, it appealed to him because he thought that it would provide him a platform to halt the national drift and to chart a new course for the country. It made sense to fix up Nigeria before addressing external problems. With over 50 million people and by far then the most populous country on the continent, Nigeria had failed to provide the critical leadership and direction expected of her. To Chukwuma this was unacceptable and had to be challenged with a view to correcting it. If force was required to achieve it, so be it.
Chukwuma did not discriminate between politicians and soldiers. Every hand that had been soiled and had contributed to our national malaise was to be cut off. Soldiers who had allowed themselves to be used or misled by corrupt politicians deserved to die as much as the politicians.
When the coup was crushed in Lagos, Chukwuma was disappointed. He had been too much in a hurry, and in the process trusted people who were not as committed to their declared cause of cleansing the Augean stable. He was therefore let down. But being convinced about the genuineness of their nationalistic intentions, he refused to wallow in self pity. Although the end had come sooner than he had expected, he refused, for instance, to commandeer an aeroplane, to fly away to safety. No, that would be cowardly and would have portrayed him as a man without convictions. He refused to take on Ironsi and his band of deluded Igbo army officers in Lagos for the obvious reasons that it would have led to more bloodshed and unnecessary waste. Instead, he stayed in Kaduna and was ready to be roasted alive. He had wanted to carry out a surgical operation to save Nigeria. He actually achieved it in Kaduna but Nigeria was more than Kaduna or the north. Unfortunately, the faceless enemy of Nigeria rose up against him. Thus, his revolution, his vision was defeated by fellow Igbo officers. All the same, he had no regrets for what he had done. As events would later show, all of us lost out in that debacle.
Ironsi was not part of the coup and would not have been the choice of the coup plotters for national leadership. Although Phillip Effiong tried to package Ironsi as an officer who was underrated, he was a monumental failure as a national leader, who unfortunately was thrown up by forces beyond Chukwuma’s comprehension. The unseen hand of fate was at work. Nobody, including Chukwuma, knew then that the consequences of Ironsi’s emergence as a national leader would set the clock of national renewal backwards monumentally and, unfortunately, as it appears now, permanently. Ndiigbo paid with their blood as Nigeria lost direction and would later begin to score first in all negative indices of human development.
In carrying out such large scale national purge, as Chukwuma and his boys did, it was only natural that it was kept away from those who would try to stop it to their advantage. It is therefore not difficult to understand why Chukwuma did not work with officers of his rank (his peers) from the north to change the Balewa government by force. Tribal feelings were on the rise in the Nigerian armed forces especially in the officers corps. Therefore, Chukwuma and co. would have committed political suicide if they had tried to recruit, for instance, a Murtala Mohammed, T.Y. Danjuma, I. B.M. Haruna, Muhammad Shuwa, Sule Apollo, etc., to join in the putsch. Besides, Chukwuma et al did not open up to every Igbo officer in the name of ethnic solidarity. Their vision was to free Nigeria from the vice-like grip of the buccaneers of power. Because it was an important (though dangerous) national assignment, only those with solid patriotic credentials were involved. Unfortunately, they were not conscious of the Nigeria of then, and of course now, which was, and still is, a hostage to primordial interests. Chukwuma and his boys thought that to serve the larger interests of the Blackman, Nigeria had to be fixed up. But fixing up Nigeria was not a child’s play. It was a tough assignment and they had to invest all their energy into it.
The perception of Brig. Gen. Sam Ademolugun and Col. Ralph Sodeinde as lackeys of the premier of the north in uniform informed the decision to include them in the hit list. This had no tribal undertone, after all Yoruba officers such as Major Adegboyega, Lt. Oyewole (the reluctant rebel), etc, participated actively in the coup.
Chukwuma was truly a Nigerian. His background and upbringing could not have allowed him to behave otherwise. Yes, he set out to carry out fundamental changes in our national body politic. His motive was not selfish; otherwise, what stopped him from emptying the treasury of the north after overthrowing Ahmadu Bello government and making away with it? Obviously, he was not corrupt.
Nor was he an ethnic jingoist. The problem here is that he did not in the name of federal character (the catch phrase coined by the north to entrench and seal its dominance of the country after its victory over Igbo land in 1970) recruit officers from the north in order to execute the coup. As earlier indicated, recruiting senior officers from the north into the coup would have amounted to committing suicide. Chukwuma would have been betrayed. In the counter-coup of July 29, 1966, the coup plotters, all northerners did not recruit Igbo officers, or better still, officers of Yoruba origin. It is arguable that theirs was a revenge coup and as such could not have made sense in recruiting from outside the north. But if July 29, 1966 was a counter offensive, what of subsequent coups? In July 1975, Gen Gowon, then Head of state and a northerner, was ousted in a palace coup, carried out by officers and men from the north. This was to repeat itself over and over again when the north discovered a goldmine in the oil wealth of the Niger Delta and proceeded to institutionalize corruption in the country. In all such coups, they were planned and executed by the north for the north and then presented as national. It must be admitted here that coup-making is a dangerous business, which does not accommodate considerations such as federal character, notwithstanding that federal character has now become part of our supreme law. The secrecy coup-making entails is the point at issue. To the coup-planners, the overriding consideration is its success. While Chukwuma and co. were regarded by the north as ethnic champions, because their coup did not succeed, Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed, Mohammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Abacha and other officers of the north who successfully carried out coups-bloody or otherwise- on behalf of the north are our national heroes.
Chukwuma was a hard thinking young man. He was adventurous as he was patriotic. His vision for Nigeria was not a product of chance. He was reported to have read and digested great minds of the Left. He talked about revolution after the take-over of the north in the early hours of January 15, 1966. Although he was not among the original authors of the January coup, the moment he got involved things began to move at breakneck speed. He became a member by personal choice. He could have sat on the fence and watched developments before deciding on where to pitch his tent. That was not him. He was a decisive man who had an appointment with history. To him, the freedom of any Blackman was incomplete so long as there were other blacks who were not enjoying the same freedom or who were held in bondage by whatever colour.
Obasanjo was probably Chukwuma’s best friend in the Nigerian armed forces. I do not know why this had to be so because friendship brings together like-minded people. Any cursory look at the lives of Chukwuma and Segun would show that they did not belong to the same class. Segun was lucky in life. All his achievements were almost the results of acts of God. I have not come across any account of his achievements which could be attributable to his clear vision. Instead, he was chosen by fate to play critical roles in our national life, which even the best of Yoruba minds, had been denied of.
While Segun made it a point to marry over and over-his number of wives is staggering-I have not come across any credible account that Chukwuma maintained a regular relationship with any lady. I was deeply touched when I read that he flatly rejected suggestions from his relatives that he should get married. His reason was that he did not want to leave a widow and orphans. The conclusion therefore was that he knew he would die young. There was no point creating problems for others especially an innocent woman and children because of his love for Nigeria.
Obasanjo may have known about the counter coup of July 29, 1966 and cleverly sat on the fence. When eventually the north decapitated the visionless Ironsi government and in the process dealt Ndiigbo a mortal political blow, Segun suddenly emerged a senior member of the ruling northern junta. Sometime last year, elder statesman, Gen. Robert Adeyinka Adebayo tried unsuccessfully to pollute our national history. The north wanted him dead; yet the next second he had become appointed military governor of the old west. I am not saying that the Yoruba loved Ndiigbo considering that S.L.Akintola, Sam Ademolugun, and Ralph Sodeinde, all prominent Yoruba sons, lost their lives in the January 15, 1966 coup. Their anger was understandable. That they took sides with the north against Ndiigbo was only natural. But to tell us that Adebayo did not fly in on invitation or in anticipation of the likely violent change of guard on July 29, 19666 is unconvincing.
Therefore, it is not surprising that today, forty-three years after Chukwuma and co. tried unsuccessfully to change Nigeria for the better, the north does not want Chukwuma’s name mentioned. He was a villain and not a national hero. All the Igbo and Yoruba officers who joined him in the coup were demons whose names should be expunged from our history books. Emmanuel Ifeajuna, for instance, cannot be admitted into the national sports hall of fame. As an undergraduate of the University of Ibadan, he won medal for Nigeria at the Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada in 1954. Yet, scoundrels and men without conscience such as IBB, Sani Abacha, Al-Mustapha, Jerry Useni, Ishaya Bamaiyi, Ismaila Gwarzo, Mohammed Biu, etc, are celebrated national heroes because they are northerners. Even Abacha has a boulevard named after him in Abuja. Incredible! This is like naming a street after Pol Pot in Phnom Penh!! Yes, those who ripped open pregnant Igbo women and killed them with their foetus in Kaduna in 1966 are our heroes. Those who threw innocent, defenseless civilians into the River Benue at Makurdi to drown are our heroes. Those who massacred defenseless civilians at Asaba in the early stages of the civil war are our heroes.
But the truth remains that the Nigeria of Chukwuma’s dream was a progressive country, which would have been the pride of every Blackman. With abundant natural and human resources, Chukwuma’s Nigeria would have had no business belonging to the club of wretched and disease ravaged countries of the world. After nearly forty-nine years of nominal independence, she is now ranked 15th among the failed states of the world. Chukwuma’s vision was a Nigeria where elections would be held without acrimony and the mandate of the people would not be stolen. It was a Nigeria where justice and fair play would count as our national ethos. It was not a Nigeria of big time treasury looters, who can impose themselves on us and dare us to do our worst. In the Nigeria of Chukwuma’s dream, IBB, Abacha, OBJ, Abdulsalami Abubakar, James Ibori, Jolly Nyame, Saminu Turaki, Peter Odili, Sam Egwu, Lucky Igbinedion, Chimaraoke Nnamani, Achike Udenwa, Tony Anenih and sundry treasury looters, as phenomena, would not have prospered. US$16 billion would not have gone down the power sector drain while darkness multiplied across the country. A 419 anti- corruption crusader like Ndudi Elumelu would not have walked our land.
Yes, Chukwuma struck to put Nigeria on the path to greatness. In doing so, he did not discriminate against the north or favour the south or better still his kinsmen of Igbo extraction. The failure of the coup in the south had nothing to do with its objectives. Chukwuma’s idea of Nigeria was a country where everybody would have a stake in its future. It was not a Nigeria whose security is the exclusive preserve of a section of its people.
Unfortunately, the north and indeed other Nigerians have failed to realize that Chukwuma’s coup was a coup by Igbo officers against Ndiigbo. Although education came to Igbo land late compared to Yoruba land, by 1966 Ndiigbo were seriously poised to take the lead in education. Politically, Ndiigbo were flexible. Their participation in the coalition government at the centre had its rewards. Despite uncalled for hostility against them, Ndiigbo were making giant strides in commerce in and outside Igbo land. In the bureaucracies, they were a force to reckon with.
So, when Chukwuma & co. struck in January 1966 it could not have been to promote Igbo interests because they did not need it. Politically, economically, militarily, etc Ndiigbo had established a presence that was the envy of other ethnic groups. When the coup failed, foiled by officers of Igbo origin, the seeds of their national irrelevance were sown. Expectedly, Ironsi disappointed and the removal of power from the hands of feudalists, which was the only tangible result of the coup even though it fell short of its broad objectives, was reversed when he handed power back to the north.
Unfortunately, the north has refused to accord Chukwuma, Ifeajuna and Ironsi a status befitting of men who worked so hard, inadvertently though, to advance its interests more than any other person. If Chukwuma had not struck, Ironsi as a national leader would not have emerged. And if Ironsi did not lead Nigeria; the north would not have overrun Igbo land so easily. Federal character, quota, etc would not have been smuggled into the supreme law of the land. Akaluka would not have been beheaded inside a Kano police station and his head spiked and paraded on the streets of Kano. He was the only Nigerian who was so cruelly treated. Ndiigbo would not have been killed in Kaduna, Maiduguri and other parts of the north over the cartoon of Prophet Mohammed in Denmark. The number of Igbo-speaking states would not have been the least among the six geo-political zones in the country. IBB, Abacha and Domkat Bali could not have disgraced Ukiwe out of office and terminated his military career prematurely. Economically, Ndiigbo would not have become the traders of Nigeria, as it is today. Remember Obasanjo’s jibe at Ndiigbo at the commissioning of Dangote’s cement factory in Kogi state? Nigeria needs industrialists and not traders!!
Today, the Igbo man has been so intimidated by the north and Yoruba land that he has almost lost confidence in his identity. When Oby Ezekwesili was appointed minister of education by Obasanjo, it was alleged that she sternly warned officers of Igbo origin in the ministry not to make the mistake of addressing her in Igbo language, even in private conversations. There are several other high profile Igbo figures too numerous to mention here who are ill at ease with their Igboness. Rochas Okorocha took a title from the Caliphate, the very architect of Igbo marginalization and irrelevance in Nigeria. He wanted to enhance his chances of clinching the PDP coveted presidential ticket in 2007. In the end he got 300 votes out of more than 2000. Even our indefatigable socialist, Edwin Madunagu, has since distanced himself from his roots. At a party to mark his 60th birthday in 2005, Eddy told his well wishers who had gathered to share in his moment of joy that from that day on he was renouncing all ethnic affiliations. In other words, he would not identify with anything Igbo. As a social crusader, Eddy’s peers (living or dead) from other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria probably include Tai Solarin, Wole Soyinka, Ola Oni, Eskor Toyo, Gani Fawehinmi, Bala Usman, Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, Mohammed Dikko Yusuf, etc. Tai Solarin built Mayflower College at Ikenne, his hometown. He did not establish it at Maiduguri or Afikpo in the name of crusading for the masses. Gani Fawehinmi is based in Lagos. Bala Usman remained at ABU till the end. He did not migrate to Nsukka or Ife. He knew he was a northerner, that is, a socialist northerner. Besides, it is alleged that he authored a paper, which posited that the oil wealth of the Niger Delta was formed by silts deposited there by rivers which originated in the north. In other words, he justified the north’s stranglehold on the Niger Delta and its oil resources. From time to time, Balarabe Musa defends the interest of the north without qualms. M.D Yusuf, Abubakar Umar, etc, are all based in Kaduna. Eskor Toyo returned to Calabar. These socialists and several others did not renounce their origins in their crusade for social justice. It is only the Igbo man who thinks that to be identified with his roots would diminish his socialist credentials.
Yes, socialists do not fall down from heaven; they are born like any other human beings. They have parents. They have kinsmen and women. The pain of their people, arising from, say, official marginalization, is their pain. Accordingly, the socialists do not live in a world of make believe, devoid of reality. It is therefore illusory for a socialist to think that he would live a normal life when his kit and kin are victims of official victimization. In the traditional Igbo belief system, every adult who dies reincarnates, even if he/she is s socialist. He would only reincarnate among his people, not among some strangers in the name of an imaginary unity, which may remain so in the next century to come. Even in the new generation churches, otherwise known as Pentecostals, great men and women of God know where they come from in Nigeria. They speak their mother tongues. That is why in each one of them, the founder surrounds himself with his kit and kin. Check this out with the Archbishop Benson Idahosa’s Word of Faith Church, Deeper Life Bible Church, Redeemed Christian Church of God as well as Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry. Ditto for Bishop Oyedipo’s Winners Chapel.
Today we hear of Egbema, Ikah, Ikwerre, Ndoni, Ndokwa ethnic nationalities. These are subsets of the Igbo nation, who are ashamed to be associated with anything Igbo. Unfortunately, this is a delusion. In his book, “Nigeria: The Truth”, Daniel Oritseeje Agbowu, an Itsekiri, classified all these so-called ethnic nationalities as part of the Igbo nation. Agbowu is not the only non-Igbo Nigerian who thinks this way. On the other hand, I have not heard of Ijebu, Ijesha, Egba, Okun ethnic nationalities. They are Yoruba and see themselves as such.
Let me tread a minefield here. Professor Dora Akunyili, high priestess of re-branding, is a household name in the country who has won international acclaim. The BBC once described her as “this remarkable woman” because of her relentless and untiring crusade against counterfeit and fake drugs. But has anybody ever stopped to look at those Dora’s wars had been waged against? Over 70% of them are Ndiigbo. Put differently, Dora’s remarkable achievements in office, as the DG of NAFDAC, was helped considerably because those she waged the war against were men with little or no political backbone. I take this position because when Dora sealed up Chief Lamidi Adedibu’s warehouse in Ibadan, the strongman of Ibadan politics, the father of PDP and the garrison commander ordered his thugs to breach the seal and throw open the warehouse. Dora got the message and backed off. Chief Adedibu was not an Igbo man. Therefore, show me any successful Igbo public officeholder at the centre since the end of the civil war and I will show you the skulls of his kinsmen that he crushed in order to remain relevant to his paymasters in the north and Yoruba land. Was Soludo, as the Governor of the Central Bank, different? Ask Igbo officers in the Bank.
That Chukwuma is not celebrated today is not because he refused to marry and in consequence failed to leave the world any copy of himself. It is because the Nigeria, which emerged from our national travails of 1966 to 1970 was everything but national. If a true nation with all the consciousness it would have engendered had emerged after 1970, Chukwuma would have been a national hero. He would have been celebrated beyond our borders. Those who had wanted “araba” would not have hijacked the nation and are now the loudest proponents of one united, indivisible and indissoluble Nigeria.
I have heard it said that Zik once suggested to the Saduana that they should bury their differences, that is, the differences between the north and south of Nigeria, which, in response, the Saduana said that it was better to understand them than to sweep them under the carpet. Today, the situation has been reversed. Every member of the northern ruling class would want us to forget about our differences, instead of understanding them, which Ahmadu Bello had rightly advocated. That explains why those who shout the loudest about the indissolubility of Nigeria are mostly northerners. To them, Nigeria is the north and vice versa. Dissolving Nigeria is therefore unacceptable to them. Yes, Nigeria of today is Nigeria of the north. Before independence, Nigeria was Nigeria of the north. But this was not as pronounced and perverse as it is today. Northernization of national institutions since the end of the war has been total. It has been carried to ridiculous, insensitive extent. Sample this: Since the Petroleum Development Trust Fund, PTDF was established its headship has been like a relay race between Muslim northerners. Alhaji Muttaqha Rabe Darma (current executive secretary, from Katsina state) took over from Alhaji Kabir Mohammed who in turn took over from Alhaji Yusuf Mairago (from Kaduna state) who also took over from Alhaji Mohammed Hussaini Jallo, who took over from Alhaji Maina Waziri (please, see “N’Delta Protests NNPC, PTDF Appointments”, Thisday Newspaper, Wednesday, April 1, 2009, front page). As if that was not enough display of arrogance of power, it was announced early this month that a Petroleum Training Institute is to be established by the PTDF in Kaduna at the cost of N14 billion Naira. This was at the height of the crisis in the Niger Delta. Can anything be more insensitive? Yet, Ijaw youths who are agitating for the control of their God-given resources are being offered amnesty for saying enough is enough of Muslim Hausa/Fulani arrogance! Is it not incredible that the Muslim Hausa/Fulani who should offer unreserved apology to the people of Niger Delta for looting their resources and despoiling their environment are granting them amnesty instead? A case of the millipede crushed under foot being asked to apologize to the foot that crushed it? Poor Levi Ajuonuma! He laboured hard albeit unsuccessfully on Radio Link programme of Radio Nigeria (Saturday, July 25, 2009) to sell his masters’ selfish interest to the listening public as national. Yes, the Muslim Hausa/Fulani leadership will site the National Research Institute on Desert Encroachment at Calabar or Sapele!
Alhaji Rilwanu Lukeman is the Minister of Petroleum Resources. At the NNPC, Alhaji Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo took over from the younger brother of President Yar’Adua, Alhaji Abubakar Yar’Adua. Barkindo is a graduate of political science.
Since Abuja was decreed into existence by the Muslim Hausa/Fulani, its headship has moved from one state of the north to another. We were made to believe that Abuja was not a state in the north. The opposite holds true since its inception. Therefore, its position as our national capital must be squarely addressed. It is unacceptable to the entire people of the south for the resources of the Niger Delta to be used to develop our supposed national capital for the exclusive used of the north. It defies any logical explanation that the north with its manpower deficiency can mount the saddle at the University of Abuja since it was established. One state in the south, Ekiti, for example, has more university teachers than the entire north. Yet, the north has held on to the Abuja University as if the University is located somewhere in Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto or Katsina.
Now listen to this: A northerner was in the midst of some friends from the south. They discussed generally. Then one of the friends mentioned a job opening which he was interested in. The northerner also said that he was interested in the job. They began to argue about their relative chances when the northerner threw in the joker. He said that he had three qualifications as compared to his friend’s only one. One, he was a degree holder. Two, he was a northerner. Three and most importantly, he was a Muslim! This explains why after the ‘mistake’ of August 2, 1966, when Gowon was appointed Head of state, all the coups that took place in Nigeria produced only Muslim leaders. And that is why Muslim fundamentalists are on the rampage from time to time in the north.
We must not sweep our differences under the carpet. Let us educate the younger generation of Nigerians who were fortunate not to witness the madness that gripped our dear country in the mid-sixties. Many readers would be surprised to discover that even university graduates from the north do not know what caused the Nigerian civil war. As beneficiaries of a skewed federation, which came into existence as from 1970, they are simply not interested. They snap up jobs, which are the envy of their counterparts from elsewhere in the country. Under Buhari’s PTF, a young unemployed northerner could get connected and in consequence land a mouth watering contract. Whether or not he executed the job was irrelevant; he would smile all the way to his bank. Heaven would not fall. What of those who were empowered by el Rufai? A baby got a plot allocation valued at hundreds of millions of naira! So, if the oil wealth of the Niger Delta belongs to you; if you can claim our centre of unity as yours and pass the baton from one Musa to another Musa and yet to another Musa at the helm of affairs of our supposed national capital; if you can maim and kill Ndiigbo as well as plunder their wealth with impunity and still enjoy the protection of the state (the Apo Six, Gideon Akaluka, the countless violence against Ndiigbo in the north); if you can allocate population, states, local governments areas, House of Reps seats to yourself without consideration for other members of the commonwealth, etc, why bother about yesterday? Therefore, yesterday does not count as much as today, which is what matters. But therein lays the folly, the danger: power is very slippery. Over confidence can create its own problems not only for the Muslim north but also for all of us. One civil war is enough.
No condition is ever permanent.
As for Brother Chukwuma, I say rest in perfect peace. That your robust vision for Nigeria did not materialize is not because you lacked commitment. You were a rare gem; a patriot of incomparable foresight, zeal and pride in the identity of the Blackman. Unfortunately, you are like a beast of no nation. To the north, the owners of Nigeria, you are a demon. To your Igbo people you have long been forgotten. There is no single monument named after you, not even in your home state of Delta because of the fear of the Muslim Hausa/Fulani. Do not be bothered, for even Ojukwu has not been better treated. But what do you expect, when thieves and impostors masquerade as the leaders of the disadvantaged? Those who take instructions from Owu, Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, etc, are not leaders of the Igbo people. Otherwise, how come that Obasanjo came all the way from Abuja to Owerri and before a packed crowd of imposters said that Senator Ifeanyi Ararume would not be governor of Imo state and it came to pass? It is sad indeed. So, whether or not Ohaneze House is named after you, you are written in my heart and many others who see you as one of the greatest gifts of the Igbo nation to the contraption called Nigeria. Once more, rest in peace.
Ubanese Nwanganga Friday, July 29, 2009
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