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“Onitsha-Biafrans (or Saboteurs?)”: “Those who tried to see Zik were discreetly informed by the security men emplaced by Ojukwu that the great Zik did not wish to see them”–Uchenna Nwankwo

“Onitsha-Biafrans (or Saboteurs)”: “Those who tried to see Zik were discreetly informed by the security men emplaced by Ojukwu that the great Zik did not wish to see them”–Uchenna Nwankwo New York[RR]Onitsha–‘Security operatives were simply put in place at Azikiwe’s residence ostensibly to provide security and protect the former Nigerian Head of State from harm […]

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“Onitsha-Biafrans (or Saboteurs)”: “Those who tried to see Zik were discreetly informed by the security men emplaced by Ojukwu that the great Zik did not wish to see them”–Uchenna Nwankwo

New York[RR]Onitsha–‘Security operatives were simply put in place at Azikiwe’s residence ostensibly to provide security and protect the former Nigerian Head of State from harm but actually to keep unwanted or unauthorized visitors away. Zik’s close confidants, associates, friends, possible cohorts or likely supporters and even relatives were quietly kept at bay. Those who tried to see Zik were discreetly informed by the security men emplaced by Ojukwu that the great Zik did not wish to see them or words to that effect..”, said, Mr. Nwankwo.

According to Nwankwo, Ojukwu’s stature in Onitsha Metropolis is raising eye-brows,Republic Reporters has learned. He called on former Easterners to do more on reconciliation because onitsha folks were branded Saboteurs during and after Biafra-Nigeria civil-war, 1967 to 1970.

But, a living Biafran soldier, Peter Opara said that is misrepresentation of Biafra and Igbo history, called it,”rubbish”.

He said, “Who wrote the nonsense below about Onitsha people grumbling about Ojukwu statue in “Onitsha land”!What piece of BS is that? “Onitsha land”! Wherein situates is Onitsha, is it not in Igbo land? What am I reading here?!!

‘And there is the person giving a narrative of the time leading up to the declaration of Biafra that has no bearing practically or otherwise to reality. Declaration of Biafra was the wish of the entire population of the east then, with Igbo in the majority, as Igbo bore the brunt of the pogrom then. There was not a sane Igbo who wanted to be in Nigeria, thus separation from Nigeria in any name, Biafra or whatever else would have been just fine, as long as we Igbo had nothing to do with Nigeria.

The desire for separation from Nigeria was a moving train which Ojukwu himself could not have risked not hopping in. Zik who this fellow mentioned severally, was Zik not already in exile at the time? Even if he was in the east at the time, Zik had virtually no say, no power over anything especially Igbo sentiment to leave Nigeria. So what is this about Zik not wanting the declaration of Biafra? What did Zik in the mind of this author have for Igbo and the rest easterners directly impacted by their mass slaughter in the north and in the rest of Nigeria.?

“What rubbish is this person writing?

“Biafra’s recognition by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda, Felix Houphouet Boigny and the rest were predicated on the fact that easterners had the right to find their place of peace and solace after being chased down across Nigeria and slaughtered like rams! And Zik was at the head of some of these delegations that secured recognition for Biafra. Ojukwu and his aides were involved too sometimes, as I was personally informed by Dr. Kaunda’s staff who fondly remember Ojukwu by his first name – Emeka.

It is a piss off to read these aliens, writing what they do not know about Igbo history in a way to make them appear as authorities in Igbo history and experience, which they are not. It is indeed insulting.

Now, the bloody guy writes about Chude Sokei, as if Ojukwu had done him in. Another rather criminal take, a lie on Igbo history and experience by an alien, whoever this character is. Chudei Sokei was killed in an air raid, and on the day he died, Ojukwu cried like a baby.

“That Onitsha people always differed or try to differ from the rest Igbo is historical. Till date, some Onitsha if not all of them hardly deem themselves Igbo. In fact I know an Onitsha bloke in my neck who is fond of declaring but in very quiet tone that he is not Igbo. I like the guy and respect him else, I would have made an arse of him in public. And he would feel really ashamed for he likes to assume prominent position wherever Igbo gather. So, again, Onitsha people’s dubious feeling about their Igboness is historical. Igbo in general hardly quarrel Onitsha people’s dubiousness, we accept it and live with it. Chude Sokei hailed from Onitsha, he was a personal friend of Ojukwu, he was a top ranking Biafran soldier, and so were many other Onitsha indigenes, some of who were order ranks and NCOs. I never knew them to cry that Biafra was declared or that they hated Biafra.

Now, what no man or woman can quarrel in the open, they may grudge all they want about i inside their closet, is the statue or anything Ojukwu placed anywhere in Igbo land.

“If Onitsha folks, are piqued by Ojukwu’s statue in Onitsha, what I can say to them for a start is that Peter Obi and his cohorts did a poor job, VERY POOR job of a statue befitting Eze Igbo Gburgburu. That is one. I complained about this the very first time I saw that statue. MOE are you there? Following my complaint, MOE branded the statue “chere weere” – something that was hurriedly done, not properly done, in fact POORLY DONE.

“I abused the one that runs around hereabouts oderaIGAGAL to no end, him being Peter Obi’s mouthpiece at the time; I had no qualms accusing the bloody bloke of swallowing the money meant for a finer statue and placing that poorly sculpted object there in Ontisha to represent Ikemba himself. How awful.

Then finally I would tell Onitsha people to wait, a better and finer statue of Ojukwu is coming. And that finer, and better statue of Ojukwu would be placed in a central spot befitting the Igbo Premier Son – Chukwuemeka Odumegwu- Ojukwu!

Aliens who posit Igbo history and experience can only do such in ways to suit their sentiments which is often negative even if they do not know it. That is unpardonable, and so demands harsh rebuttal that cannot be deemed extreme in any sense.So they are warned, and so must desist.”, he warned.

Obi Nwakanma, added that mistakes were made during the war.
“Dr. Adeboye, Ojukwu’s own father, Sir Louis, was against secession. Emeka Ojukwu himself argued against it. All the arguments in Eastern Nigeria prior to May 29, 1967 was for the Lagos to provide guarantee for the safety of the Easterners in the federation. In May 1966 after the first wave of killings of Easterners in the North, Ironsi had established the investigative panel comprising Prof. Eni Njoku, Dr. Russell Dikkko, and Justice Oyemade (there may have been a fourth person), to determine the roots of the massacres. If Gowon had moved quickly to use the panel to quell the September massacres and the ensuing pogrom, and if he had not reneged on the Aburi agreements later, and then gone on to create the 12 states without a referendum and without consultations with the East, the Eastern Consultative Assembly would not have mandated Ojukwu to declare secession. The East did not prepare either for secession or for an all out war.

“Truth be told, Ojukwu was also in an oedipal struggle with the two men who cast the greatest shadow on his life – one his father – Sir Louis and the other Nnamdi Azikiwe – his god father. To establish himself he had to fight them, and this had consequences. Ojukwu was a great war leader. On another occasion he might have been a great disaster. But once war was brought to the doorsteps of the East, he rose to the occasion. He and Zik certainly disagreed on methods, because Zik was a great believer in the use of diplomacy and in constitutionalism. Their final break occurred in 1968, when Azikiwe had more or less negotiated a complete truce in Addis Ababa using his old contacts; an agreement that should have returned the combatants, without preconditions, to pre-war positions and to confederation. Everything in fact that Ojukwu had asked for.The Federal side had by then come under withering international pressure. Ojukwu chose to listen to his three advisers. After a long deliberation in Addis, he went with Eni Njoku and C.C. Mojekwu who had argued that Biafra had come rather too far to go back, against Sir Louis N. Mbanefo’s argument to go with the peace proposals which Zik had helped to broker. That was where Ojukwu gave his “No black power…” speech, and Zik got thoroughly pissed, having staked his credits in the negotiations, and thereafter left the Biafran delegation, and moved into exile in London. Any critique of that war will very honestly establish and accept that this was the moment Ojukwu made his greatest mistake in the prosecution of that war.

Adeniran Adeboye, thanked Prof Solarin, for posting the article.
“Thanks for the posting. This is the clearest evidence that Nnamidi Azikiwe courageously argued against secession, just like Obafemi Awolowo had done. Ojukwu must have been under unbearable pressure for him to ignore those two elders who had not established any track record of agreeing on anything much.”, he said.

Mr. Opara didn’t go away, though.
He said:”Uchenna Nwankwo – whose piece I commented on wrote like an alien. He is neither thoroughly informed about Igbo history and experience of the time he wrote nor is he properly informed of Igbo history and experience of the time he wrote.

“You cannot stop people from writing, yet the danger inherent in people writing or speaking as they wish or perceive is that wrong tales are told sometimes, and some people are bound to run with wrong tales, retell it, and wrong tale becomes a people’s history.

Adding, that, “Nothing can be more dangerous than that. I want my wards to know and have correct history of anything that interests them, and so the wards of others. If a Yoruba had written as this Uche Nwankwo man wrote, I’d pardon him or her, move on or give them a dose of my mind as I am wont to.

“But an Igbo person so-called who sits and listens to some Onitsha person grumble about Ojukwu’s statue on “Ontisha land” that is in Igbo land and says nothing, is simply not Igbo. I will tell the Onitsha perosn to pack his or her bag and baggage back to whence they came. And they know it.” he said.

Read full text beneath:

IN my last article captioned Zik, Ojukwu and Ndi-Igbo’ published Monday, 25th August 2014 by The Guardian, I averred that Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s speech at the Consultative Assembly in Enugu opposing Lt Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’s intentions to pull the Eastern Region out of Nigeria in 1967 earned him the ire of the latter.

In order to gag and prevent Azikiwe from doing anything further to openly or covertly frustrate his desires or organize effective opposition to his resolve to pull the Eastern Region out of Nigeria, Ojukwu took the pre-emptive action of tactically placing Azikiwe under house arrest without letting the general public and even most government insiders know he had done so.

Security operatives were simply put in place at Azikiwe’s residence ostensibly to provide security and protect the former Nigerian Head of State from harm but actually to keep unwanted or unauthorized visitors away. Zik’s close confidants, associates, friends, possible cohorts or likely supporters and even relatives were quietly kept at bay. Those who tried to see Zik were discreetly informed by the security men emplaced by Ojukwu that the great Zik did not wish to see them or words to that effect.

Members of Biafra Zionist Movement during a procession shortly before the re-declaration of independence of Biafra Republic by the group in Enugu, yesterday.
Of course, some of Zik’s relations or kinsmen were not convinced or were distrustful of the farcical reports of Zik’s disinclination to be reached. Soon, highly informed sources say, some prominent Onitsha indigenes, Azikiwe’s kinsmen, especially those of themwho knew and agreed with Azikiwe’s position and nonsupport for secession began to meet to address the unfolding ugly situation. Apparently, they imagined that the traditional freedom of association and free speech everybody took for granted still existed.
Of course, Ojukwu got wind of what was going on and promptly arrested the supposed ringleaders of the group and clamped them into detention on charges of sabotage and illegal assembly.
Those arrested included such Onitsha prominent citizens as Barrister Dan Ibekwe, Solicitor-General of Eastern Nigeria;Mr. Michael Ibekwe, who later became the Police Chief in the East Central State; Mr. Edwin Nzegwu, a very successful lawyer; Justice Araka, who later became the Chief Justice of East Central State; and a host of others. It is not for me to talk about what became of the Araka family or wife! It is equally remarkable that many of those arrested or detained were not even remotely associated with the said meetings of concerned Onitsha indigenes.
There was no doubt that many Onitsha people, Azikiwe’s kinsmen, were going to rally behind Zik and his idea that it was premature, risky and rash to declare the secession of Eastern Nigeria at least at that point in time. Many of them agreed with Azikiwe’s pragmatic viewpoint that the action could lead to the annihilation and humiliation of Easterners by Nigeria’s Federal troops given the fact that the East was at that point ill-equipped for war.
The said meetings and possible rally against secession were of course actions which under normal circumstances could have passed as an inherent democratic expression of a group’s preferences, enacted to moderate government policy. But from the way the matter was handled, Onitsha people became a byword for saboteurs in the region. Many suffered various degrees of discrimination and persecution as a result of the smear campaign that followed both in the region and later in Biafra.
No doubt, this matter created intra-ethnic disharmony between Onitsha people and the hinterland Igbo during and after the Nigeria-Biafra war. Indeed, the faceoff and mistrust between Ojukwu and Onitsha people got so bad that Colonel Chude Sokei, an Onitsha indigene, is even up to dateequated to or regarded by Onitsha people as the “Uriah” of the Biafran State; to say nothing about the attitude of ndi-Onitsha to the condemnation and execution of their son, Lt Colonel Emmanuel Ifeajuna, by the Biafran authorities.
It is against this backdrop that one might begin to rationalize or understand the nuances, undercurrents and simmering tension in Onitsha today over some of Peter Obi’s actions towards the end of his tenure as governor of Anambra State.
Indigenous population
When Peter Obi erected Ojukwu’s statues in Onitsha metropolis, the indigenous population of the town gasped. They would rather prefer that Governor Peter Obi took the statue away from Onitsha land!

Somehow, it appears, some Onitsha elders and influential citizens have so far managed to check the palpable anger of the people over the issue. But the people’s anger is not by any means extinguished. It is seething. The place is restive. The embers are in fact smouldering, and my reading of the situation is that sooner than later there will be an explosion. Onitsha people regard Peter Obi’s action in this regard as an affront on the indigenous population of Onitsha.

The situation calls for the immediate attention or intervention of Dr. Willie Obiano, the State’s new governor. There is need to nip the gathering storm in the bud; to forestall an impending civil commotion in the town over the matter.
Over the weekend, I overheard an Onitsha man grumble to his mates in a restaurant in the city that the planting of Ojukwu’s statue in Onitsha land is as insensitive and provocative as erecting the statue in Calabar, Uyo, Port Harcourt or Yenegoa. It is unacceptable, he lamented. Come to that, it is doubtful whether any Igbo town for that matter would accept to have Ojukwu’s statue in its town square if the people have an inkling of how Ojukwu actually handled the crisis leading up to secession and Biafra, and the war that followed.

It is my considered opinion that governments in the Southeast should always take steps that would not exacerbate tensions arising from the war. If anything, they must adopt policies that will help mitigate the injustices, real and imagined, perpetrated by the Biafran government as well as join hands with other groupings in and outside the old Eastern Region for the achievement of reasonable reconciliation; to bury the hatchet and provide psychological and material relief to those who were scorched by the violence of war and the attendant discriminatory enactments and inflammatory and adverse propaganda orchestrated before and during the entire crisis period on all sides.

There is need for understanding and empathy. In the case of ndi-Onitsha and their travails in Biafra, such empathy has not been forthcoming from the rest of ndi-Igbo, not out of wickedness and lack of care but simply because most people are still ignorant of what really happened; why ndi-Onitsha were erroneously branded saboteurs based on the cover-ups and lies peddled by the powers that be at the material time.

Indeed, governments in the Southeast must also continually adopt ideas and policies to recreate cherished Igbo values and society that were destroyed by the Nigeria-Biafra war. To borrow a refrain of Mrs. Rose Adaure Njoku, the long suffering wife of Brigadier Hilary Njoku, we must endeavour to “withstand the storm”.

Update later..

Credit: Uchenna Nwankwo, author of the book: Zik, Ndi-Igbo and their Southern Neighbours

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