By
Bayo Ogunmupe
How and why The
Yoruba fought and lost The Biafra-Nigeria Civil War is an interpretative book
on the Nigerian Civil War. Built on facts of history, the book espouses a new
epistemological system of analytical reasoning and cognition. It is an
introspective objection to nigerian history as we know it.
The author,
Jimanze Ego-Alowes gives a chronology of the war as he believes it. First there
was the Chukwuma Nzeogwu coup and the killing of non Igbo people. Second, the
counter coup and the genocide instigated against the Igbo by the Yakubu Gowon
regime. Third, there was a suspension of barbarism. Fourth, the Aburi Accord
was instituted. Fifth, every party to the accord agreed to live together in a
civilized manner. Sixth, Gowon regime reneged
on the Aburi accord, tearing up the agreement unilaterally. As a result,
Gowon levied a genocidal war against the
Igbo.
Thus,
Ego-Alowes believes it was Gowon"s perfidy that plunged Nigeria into the
civil war. So, that was how Gowon and the North chose to give up on civilized
conduct. The author even cited instances where if it were Europeans or
Americans they could never renege as Gowon did. But nigeria isn't the only country
facing disintegration. Britain is not more secure. The difference is that
instead of the use of force, dialogue and remedy are provided for community
grievances.
The United
Nations principle of self determination applies all over the world contrary to
the bogey of sanctity of national borders with which Britain terrorized
Nigerians. When Britain was threatened with disintegration, Westminster
responded, even if in panic with a grant of substantial political autonomy to
Wales and Scotland.
According to Ego-Alowes,it is, he insists
the greatest good that befell Nigeria when Nzeogwu failed; and the greatest
evil that blighted Nigeria was that
Gowon succeeded. Accordingly, all the evils that befell Nigeria today from Boko
Haram, insurgency, Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of
Biafra (MASSOB) and Niger Delta Avengers are traceable to Gowon's repudiation
of the Aburi accord. It is however noteworthy that the Yoruba showed superhuman
tolerance over the killing of their brothers in the Nzeogwu coup. He said that
their tolerance was a supreme act of stateliness that one must salute and
emulate.
But instead of
the path of peace, Gowon, prodded by Britain declared war on Biafra. During the
war, a list of Yoruba actors was full of enthusiasm, as if the war was their
pet project. The author asserts that Obafemi Awolowo and Colonel Benjamin
Adekunle were so anti- Igbo that their speeches were filled with bile and
ethnic hatred. While it may have been the sole purpose of Gowon to ethnically
cleanse nigeria of the Igbo; it fell on Awolowo to give voice to it.
After the war,
the Yoruba gave the impression that it was for the sake of national unity that
they joined the north to fight Biafra so as to bring the Igbo back to the fold.
The truth according to Ego-Alowes is that the Igbo never opted to leave
Nigeria. They only agreed to a new living arrengement promised by the Aburi
accord.
To bolster Jimanze’s hostility theory, he related how
Olusegun Obasanjo told the former governor of
Abia state, Dr Orji Uzor kalu, an Igbo that Obasanjo told him that the Igbo should be
grateful if they produced a president of
Nigeria a hundred years after the civil war. Apparently, Jimanze said, Obasanjo
was mixing up with his poorly informed
interpretation of of American
presidential history.
However, an
aspect of Ego-Alowes’ averment is intriguing. He said president Muhammadu
Buhari released appointments the same day The Punch newspaper published an
editorial condemning Buhari’s parochial appointments. Furthermore, he said when
Yoruba muslims are allowed to lead prayers in northern mosques, that is when we
will know that true change has come. When Christians are no longer murdered in
cold blood in the north, simply for exercising their religious freedom whilst
the government turns a blind eye; that is when we will know that true change
has come.
The events marking the break up of the Yoruba and Fulani alliance was heralded by the golden jubilee remembrance ceremony of Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, which was organized by the Yoruba Think Tank. Some of its members include the literary giant, Prof Niyi Osundare, Pastor Tunde Bakare, General Alani Akinrinade, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi and the Ondo State Governor, olusegun Mimiko. They spoke with one voice in calling for the practice of true federalism in Nigeria as the pathway to prosperity for the country and her citizens.
The inference from the recommendations of the Yoruba Think Tank is that in a country they jointly own and preserved from destruction by a fratricidal civil war; they are being deceived and swindled. But to be sure, the Yoruba was inattentive and suffered loss of focus. And when we add Prof Akinyemi's : the north is the defender of the status quo, and his earlier confession in the Sun newspaper that the north cheated and exploited others with coups; then one can understand how grim the Yoruba fugue and humiliation is.
What was implied here was that the north single-handedly structured Nigeria after its own desires and self serving images. But the point is that the north did not have such powers before 1966, after which Yoruba went into coalition with the north. So, by default, Yorubas defeated themselves and handed the north its unearned super power status in Nigeria.
According to Ego-Alowes, the humanistic openness of Athenian Pericles is the heritage which made America the greatest nation on earth today. It is the absence of such openness that has rendered Nigeria impotent and backward, according to Ego-Alowes. Contrast this with what Bishop Hassan Kukah revealed and you imagine the viciousness the north are capable of. According to Kukah, tampering with the British arrangement caused the destruction of Nigeria.
Moreover, the creation of states and local governments from Gowon, Murtala Muhammed, through Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha was a planned weakening of the tribes, making them subservient to the Fulani controlled federal authority. According to Prof Akinyemi, the present system of states and federal constituencies is an imposition from a sectional elite that exploited its temporary grant of power to create an arrangement that is advantageous to it. So the current electoral architecture of Nigeria by northerners was purposed to enslave others.
All of that was perpetrated by the north under the nose of Yorubas, the co-winners of the Biafran war. How and why the Yoruba fought and lost The Biafra- Nigeria Civil War has 228 pages, three sections, 29 chapters, the Afterword and five pages of reference. It is in paperback;published this year 2016 by the Stone Press Limited, Lagos, Nigeria.
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