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Why Obasanjo will regret his anti-Igbo instigations

By Cornelius Akubueze
Special to USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
USAfricaonline.com and NigeriaCentral.com

"Do not forget that the civil war that almost divided this country was caused by resource control. If Biafra had won, I would have been dead, your governor would not have been in the position he is today." Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo, March 2001

Those were part of his keynote speech at the 2 days "funeral visit" to Bayelesa State of Nigeria, mid-March 2001. To say that most Nigerians were disappointed for such divisive and inflammatory talk by the head of state of today's Nigeria would be an understatement. This was one of the reckless comments by Obasanjo, a retired Yoruba army general whose colleagues foisted upon Nigerian in May 1999 in a hurriedly arranged and bought election.

Increasingly, many Nigerians, including myself, are convinced that these are severe strains of sycophancy and crass appeal to narrow interests in the person of Olusegun Obasanjo. Who in his right mind would be making comments and behaving in the manner in which this loose canon has been acting as if he had been ordained by God to carry out judgment on the Nigerian peoples of the earth.

Nigeria's president, retired General Olusegun Obasanjo, needs to be reminded that he and his cronies are now dealing with the children of that Biafra war era whose aspirations and resolve are entirely different from those he fought. His anti-Igbo instigations can become his eternal liability if the next conflagration his actions are building come to pass. When he makes these crude outbursts, he not only makes himself appear ill-equipped to lead a country like Nigeria or any Third World country, for that matter, but also rekindles in our minds the fact that the Biafra/Igbo children of the 1967-1970 war lost everything, peaceful childhood, a year or two of organized academic peace and now a part of our future. But we'll not let Obasanjo do that, again. No way! He is underestimating our will against anti-Igbo hatred, at any quarters.
One may wonder why I classified his visit to Bayelsa state as a "funeral visit," It wasn't long ago that the same Obasanjo sent a brutal team of Nigerian armed forces to destroy and, in fact, physically level the town of Odi (in Nigeria's Bayelsa state), killing citizens of Nigeria, whom he had sworn to protect and defend.

Going by Obasanjo's actions and statements, one can easily deduce that he has lost it all, initially, he had bloated belief that he was the messiah come back, that God has sent him to rescue the nation he and his Northern oligarchy bastardized many years ago.

His election, one of questionable happenstance; it was indeed not an election of a democrat but a choreographed cajoling of a despot by his military cronies, Abdulsalam, Danjuma and IBB, a conspiracy of sorts. After two years in office, one would have expected this second timer to be articulate and sensitive in dealing not only with the hydra headed economic chaos, youth unemployment, illiteracy, dilapidated national infrastructure and national debt but a drastic efforts in healing the damaged psych of the polity.

Unfortunately, after his first two years of globe trotting, he has found a nitch in recreating his self fixating perception of heroism in participating in genocide of Igbos, killing of innocent Biafran children whose only crimes were gathering at relief centers for refugee food supplies from red cross and caritas. On several occasions Obasanjo has gloated by reminding Igbos, they were a "defeated" people in the Nigerian Biafran war. This not only runs contrary to the no victor, no vanquished position of the federal government of Nigeria but is unfortunate for a presdient of any country which survived a civil war. Also, it exposes his ulterior motives and long-held malice against the Igbos.

During his Bayelsa "funeral" visit this March 2001, Obasanjo reminded us that he fought the war to defend the oil sector that has created multimillionaires among most of Obasanjo's kinsmen of the Yoruba southwest and the Northern elite. But he left the south-south minorities and south eastern states where the oil wells are dug, and their environments are in ruins.

General Obasanjo needs to be reminded that he and his cronies are now dealing with the children of that Biafra war era whose aspirations and resolve are entirely different from those he fought. His anti-Igbo instigations can become his eternal liability if the next conflagration his actions are building come to pass. When he makes these crude outbursts, he not only makes himself appear ill-equipped to lead a country like Nigeria or any Third World country, for that matter, but also rekindles in our minds the fact that the Biafra/Igbo children of the 1967-1970 war lost everything, peaceful childhood, a year or two of organized academic peace and now a part of our future. But we'll not let Obasanjo do that. No way!

Because his words certainly manipulate and fuel hate and and malice against the 32 million strong Igbos, Obasanjo makes it difficult to forgive and forget that it was his Yoruba cohorts and other Northerners, notably his fellow Ogun State kinsman, the late Yoruba leader Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who engineered and rationalized his policy of "starvation is a legitimate instrument of war" (1967-1970). It was this position that made it Nigerian government policy to watch and cause the daily deaths of other Nigerians children of Igbo and riverine minority descent; they were forced and starved to die because their parents sought to form the republic of Biafra. It remains painful, dehumanizing and agonizing; the death by malnutrition and Kwashiokor, as parents watched in mortal anguish while the Obasanjo and other army officers fed fat on Nigeria's resources.

Obasanjo's continuing hostility against the Igbos remind us that even after his Northern colleague and leader of the Nigerian armed forces at the time, Gen. Yakubu Gowon declared a false "No victory no vanquished" it was Obasanjo's kinsman Awolowo, who with Anthony Enahoro served as the principal architects and promoters of the starvation policy, declared that for all Igbos and Biafrans, regardless of how much they had in the banks prior to the escalation of hostility (1967-1970), only 20 Nigerian pounds will be exchanged.

It's like having $100,000 dollars and you're given $20 only! Many died of pressures and heart attack. No people have been subjected to such cruel atrocities and still remained a part of the polity. Igbos endured and still strive for Nigeria's progress (a chronicle of the endurance and x-ray of aspects of the policies aimed at emasculating the Igbos form a chapter in Chido Nwangwu's forthcoming book, BIAFRA: History has No Mercy!) Obasanjo should be reminded that we the children of Igbo have forgiven those cruel and unjust policies but cannot forget such hostilities amidst continuing hateful acts and statements.

As Obasanjo continues to instigate anti-Igbo sentiments and creates a hostile atmosphere in the country, we'll hold him personally and officially responsible for any actions which place Igbos in danger, again. This time, we'll not defend ourselves mildly.

Finally, if he has forgotten, retired Gen. Obasanjo needs to know that even after the Nigerian armed forces were backed from 1967-70 by almost 70% of the rest of Nigeria and offered technical and operational support in by Russia, Britain, Egypt, and, in part ,by some major United States corporations, they are still no match to Igbo (Biafra) ingenuity - then and now!
Akubueze, based in New Jersey, will serve as a special correspondent for NigeriaCentral.com and USAfrica The Newspaper.

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