—Who Will Apologize for the Millions of Igbo, Yoruba and Middle Belt Christians the Fulani have Killed from 1945 till Date?
By Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe
The Igbo quisling socio-political organization under the leadership of one of the most morally discredited Igbo politicians in modern history met recently in Enugu, the Capital City of Enugu State under the aegis of Ohaneze-Ndigbo Peace and Reconciliation Committee and declared among other obnoxious decisions that the Igbo will apologize to the murderous Fulani oligarchy for the assassination of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the late Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of defunct Northern Region by an Igbo man called Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu in the course of the January 15, 1966 coup.
But the most ridiculous aspect of the said meeting was that it was chaired by Admiral Alison Madueke (rtd), one of the few remaining respected post-civil war Igbo military politicians who fought the civil war on the side of Biafra as a junior officer and thus should have known better and consequently advised them better. As absurd as the meeting turned out to be, none of the five Governors of the five Southeast States invited, attended. However, for the courtesy of the said kangaroo meeting being held in his State, the Enugu State Governor had to send a junior level representative. Yet Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu has the political impudence to present himself and his Ohaneze Ndigbo as representing collective Igbo interests.
To Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu’s infantile imagination, decrepit sense of history, moral indignity, and corrupted political mind-set, Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu’s assassination of Sir Ahmadu Bello, whom he claimed to be a direct descendant of Prophet Muhammad, during the January 15, 1966, coup d’état is the reason for Nigeria’s present political predicament, economic woes, state of insecurity and the inability for the Igbo to produce Nigeria’s President. What a monumental pity for a man who claims to be the leader of one of the most intelligent ethnic groups in Africa. As King David lamented over the death of King Saul and his son Jonathan:
“Thy glory, O Israel, is slain upon thy high places! How are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ash′kelon lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult. Ye mountains of Gilbo′a, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor upsurging of the deep! For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil. From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty.”
Is this not a clear case of political pettiness, moral imbecility, homunculus political carriage and chronic saboteur syndrome on the part of Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and his Ohaneze political contractors to think that the Igbo as a group can be easily sold off at the price of 100 billion naira to their eternal Fulani adversaries the same way Judas Iscariot sold his master Jesus Christ?
By the way who informed Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and his cronies that Ahmadu Bello was related to Prophet Muhammad to the point of even being his direct descendant? Where is it written in Islamic or Arab history that the Fulani are a branch of the Arab? Does the Sultan of Sokoto look like an Arab? Does Fulfulde language relate to Arabic in any form? History is explicit on how the Fulani who remain mostly traditional African religious worshippers till date became Islamized. These are members of an ordinary ethnic group indigenous to the present Republics of Guinea-Conakry and Senegal like other African ethnic groups.
African historians are aware of Shehu Usman dan Fodio’s attempt to construct a spurious genealogical link to Prophet Muhammad’s family through a spurious claim of descent to Uqba ibn Nafi who is believed to descend from Prophet Muhammad’s Quraish tribe of Arab Mecca. This is indeed one of the institutionalized Fulani lies peddled among the non-Fulani Muslims of Nigeria including Yoruba Muslims, to legitimize the political and spiritual dominance of Sokoto Caliphate.
But this claim is historically faulted by its absence among earlier Muslim scholars as well as early Islamic traditions, given the closeness of Uqba ibn Nafi to the period of Hejira. Furthermore, Ibn Nafi’s adventure in North Africa was brief and tragic with no record of descendants settling formally in North Africa before subsequent Arab conquests which culminated to the fall of Carthage in 698 AD.
For Nigerians to fully comprehend the root causes of the present resurgence of Fulani jihad in their midst they must first understand the historical and ideological mindset of Shehu Usman dan Fodio spiced in mystical Islamic religious fundamentalism called Mahdism. It is only the clearer understanding this mystico-political construction through the historical prism of Shehu Usman dan Fodio’s identity and mindset that will afford the teaming Christian population of the country the proper approach for confronting the hydra-headed Islamic-inspired violence currently plaguing them.
It should be recalled that in 682 AD, this Arab General called Uqba ibn Nāfiʿ ibn ʿAbd al-Qays al-Fihrī (Uqba ibn Nafi), who is popularly known in Arab tradition as the “conqueror of Africa”, moved west from Egypt in a stream of conquests, and subsequently reached the shores of the Atlantic Ocean at Morocco. As part of his victory celebration, he dipped his Quran into the Atlantic Ocean; stating in his excitement: “Great God, if my advance were not stopped by this sea, I will still go on, to the unknown kingdoms of the West, preaching the unity of the holy name, and putting to the sword the unbelieving nations who worship other Gods than thee.”
Less than a year later, precisely in 683 AD, Uqba ibn Nafi was defeated and killed during his return by a group of Christian soldiers led by a Berber militant named Kusaila, thus subsequently blunting his ambition, although temporarily. However, the electrifying tale of his conquest of North Africa soon became one of most inspiring episodes of Jihad in Africa for jihadists, in the same way his proclamation has remained the clarion call for every Jihadist in Africa both past and present; hence the doctrine of dipping the Quran into the Atlantic Ocean.
This was this basis of Shehu Usman dan Fodio’s thesis of dipping the Quran into the Atlantic Ocean from Sokoto Caliphate, which was subsequently adopted and still remains the standard revolutionary creed of Fulani Jihad in Nigeria applied by the likes of his younger brother Abdullahi—first Emir of Gwandu, his second son and successor Muhammad Bello, his great-grandson Ahmadu Bello, and the present Sultan of Sokoto Sai’d Abubakar.
Thus like their Futa Jallon Fulani kinsmen who proclaimed the same objective in obedience to Uqba ibn Nafi during their 1725 AD Jihad against their Mandingo (Jalonke)] indigenous hosts of the present Republic of Guinea, dipping the Quran into the Atlantic Ocean at Lagos, Warri, Port Harcourt and Calabar has remained the fundamental objective of Usman dan Fodio’s descendants till date. And to achieve this feat, Usman dan Fodio needed a strong mystical eternalized Islamic ideology called Mahdism which is founded on immutable holy war against those Quran describes as unbelievers.
However, the truth about Usman dan Fodio’s origin is that he was never truly a Fulani by ethnic identity but rather a Tukolor of Futa Toro kingdom located in the present Republic of Senegal, whose people later adopted Fulbe (Fulani language) as their lingua franca, which subsequently developed into their mother tongue. It is therefore right to state that both ethnically, body form and complexion, and even culturally, Shehu Usman dan Fodio and his descendants, including all the members of the Fulani ruling class—Sultan of Sokoto, original Emirs except the Emir of Bauchi who is Hausa by descent, and all those in high government positions who parade themselves as Fulani in Nigeria today, are not truly Fulani in the right sense of ethnic identity as they claim, but ethnic Tukolor.
The point is that because of their close association with the main Fulani group who are known as the Bororo (The real Fulani herdsmen), the Tukolor have always been erroneously associated with the former as one and the same group, particularly because of common Fulbe language. But to their close neighbors like the Hausa, the distinction between the two ethnic groups is well marked. This explains why they are widely known among the Hausa variously as the Torodbe, Torodo and Toronkawa—meaning variously Toro and Tukolor people, while the original Fulani are known as the Bororo.
In fact Bororo is the general term for the Fulani in Republic of Cameroon. As B. G. Martin in reference to Shehu Usman dan Fodio, his brother Abdullahi, and his son Muhammad Bello aptly noted: “All three men had been educated in the traditional Torodbe—Fulani manner of the time. The Torodbe lived lives in many ways indistinguishable from those of the surrounding Fulani normads. The Torodbe teaching clans were mostly settled, but they occasionally lived among their cattle during periods of good pastorage. To the surrounding Hausa population, then, the words Torodbe, Toronkawa and Torode were virtually identical with Fula.”
Ethnically the Tukolor are a distinct Negroid ethnic group related more to the Serer and Wolof ethnic groups of Senegal and Gambia than to the Fulani. Indeed, this could be observed in the wide physiognomic differences between the Fulani herdsmen and those described as town Fulani but who are in actual sense of Tukolor ethnic group, like the Sultan of Sokoto. As Encyclopaedia Britannica aptly noted: “Tukulor, also spelled Tukolor or Toucouleur, a Muslim people who mainly inhabit Senegal, with smaller numbers in western Mali. Their origins are complex: they seem basically akin to the Serer and Wolof peoples, and contacts with the Fulani have greatly influenced their development. They speak the Fulani language, called Fula, which belongs to the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo language family.”
Were Iwuanyanwu and his mentally stinking band of Ohaneze Ndigbo cronies not aware that the Kanuri embraced Islam five hundred years before the first Fulani man was converted to the religion, yet they have not claimed to be related to the Arabs in racial terms? Even the Sefawa dynasty that claims origin from Yemen did not claim any lineage to Prophet Muhammad.
We are even informed that one Ohaneze-Ndigbo kingpin called Harford has even been commissioned by Iwuanyanwu to publish this obnoxious hypothesis of the need for Igbo apology to the Fulani for the killing of Ahmadu Bello by Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu in a book form for wild circulation and by extension serve his objective of Islamizing Igboland on behalf of Fulani jihadists. Igboland is the only ethnic nation in Nigeria where there are no trained and professional historians to consult in very serious matters of political history and strategy; every political minion and intellectual Lilliput claims to be a historian unto himself in service of his selfish end. Unfortunately, the quisling Iwuanyanwu and his Ohaneze Ndigbo hirelings cannot claim to know the facts of Fulani history as pointed out above, yet they feel they are intellectually cerebral enough to present a false narrative of Fulani history to the world on behalf of their Igbo kinsmen.
What a mournful exhibition of political brigandage, cerebral insanity, moral decadence, and morbidity of rational sense of historical reasoning for a man who claims to be at the head of a people celebrated by others for their instinctive cerebral carriage and high sense of creativity. If this act is not laughable, it stands out as the most insulting malicious political machination undertaken by any Igbo man against Ndigbo in the name of Ndigbo. The Muslim Fulani and current APC leaders fully understand that an average Igbo politician cannot be trusted except as a political tool to destroy his people for the sake of money. Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and his Ohaneze-Ndigbo are at it again.
The fundamental question every morally conscious and historically discerning Igbo should ask himself is: does Ohaneze Ndigbo represent collective Igbo political aspirations and general interest? The answer is no. The second fundamental question is: who elected Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and his Fulani lackeys as leaders of Ohaneze Ndigbo and spokespersons of Ndigbo? The answer is nobody. The third fundamental question is: do Iwuanyanwu and his Ohaneze Ndigbo cronies have the powers and authority to apologize on behalf of Ndigbo to the murderous Fulani for a legitimate act of killing under military political tradition? The answer is no.
In the first place, in a normal civilized society where reason and sense of moral judgment prevail, a man like Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu who was once mentioned as an accomplice in such a heinous crime of ritual-killing as the Otokoto saga in 1996 should not have reared up his ugly head for leadership of any kind in Igboland. But this is Igboland where chronic loss of sense of history is endemic among the people.
Secondly, Iwuanyanwu was never legally elected President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo. We were all witnesses to how he was singularly manipulated into the office by the Fulani lackey Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State after the death of Prof George Obiozor. Thus, in terms of illegality and unconstitutionality of Chief Iwuanyanwu’s election, he is on the same criminal page with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Hope Uzodinma, whose elections were predicated on INEC criminality and judicial coup d’état perpetrated by both the Appeal and Supreme Courts of Nigeria.
If we may ask, whose interest is Governor Hope Uzodinma currently representing and serving as Governor of Imo State, and whose interest do we expect Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, his stooge and political errand-boy to represent, other than that of the Muslim Fulani oppressors of Ndigbo? Chief Iwuanyanwu and his Ohaneze quislings therefore cannot legally and morally represent collective Igbo interest and opinion.
It is therefore important at this point to inform Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and his Ohaneze cronies that they are morally incompetent to apologize in any form to the murderous Fulani on behalf of Ndigbo for what crime they think Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu committed. As far as modern Nigerian political history goes, Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu remains a shining star, an inspiration to progressive youths of the Nigerian nation, and a symbol of impeccable patriotism.
Indeed, even the mere mention of their intention of engaging in this treacherous mission, Iwuanyanwu and his Ohaneze Ndigbo hirelings have proven that they are not only deficient in sense of history but ignorant of the political trends that midwifed the 1962 to 1965 political crisis, which subsequently made the January 15, 1966 coup inevitable.
In the first place, Major Nzeogwu did not kill Sir Ahmadu Bello because he was an Igbo man and Ahmadu Bello was a Fulani man. He killed Ahmadu Bello because he deserved to be politically killed just as Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and the hosts of current political criminals in Nigeria today deserve to be politically killed.
The Fulani, although have the right to protest the killing of their kinsman Sir Ahmadu Bello, but not as of moral rights, but only by the balance of equity; since Iwuanyanwu’s kinsmen who were charged with the duty of killing their kinsmen, namely, the Premier of Eastern Region Michael Okpara, the Premier of Midwest Region Dennis Osadebe, and the Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Army Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, failed to do so, thereby turning Major Nzeogwu’s noble mission into an Igbo ethnic debacle. This is the only acceptable basis of Fulani agitation, and not the fact that Ahmadu Bello was killed by Major Nzeogwu.
So Major Nzeogwu cannot be held culpable for diligently fulfilling the duty assigned to him. If Okpara, Osadebe , and Aguiyi-Ironsi were killed as originally planned, one does not think the Fulani would have any basis to complain or even engage in the heinous crime of pogrom against the Igbo. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and his ideologically bankrupt hirelings should be properly educated in this light.
Instead directing their accusations to those who failed in their assigned duties, Iwuanyanwu thinks he can get away by trying to construct treacherous political scam around the revered personality of Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu. Does Iwuanyanwu think in his figment of imagination that Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu is a historical orphan? That men of worth from Midwest Igboland have refused to associate with Iwuanyanwu’s pariah Ohaneze Ndigbo does grant him the license to demonize their illustrious son. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu should be properly informed that Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu belongs to a people with time-honored customs and tradition on matters of life and death, and an outsider like him cannot demonize their illustrious son for the sake of ill-gotten money.
Secondly, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and his Ohaneze Ndigbo saboteurs should tell Ndigbo why Ahmadu Bello’s death should stand out as his major concern while the same Fulani are engaged in unrestricted kidnapping and killing of defenseless Igbo in their home-States, if not for the 100 billion naira he was paid to undertake the unholy mission. Otherwise, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu should be asked if Ahmadu Bello was the only victim of the January 15, 1966. In other words, is Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu telling Nigerians that Ahmadu Bello’s life was more precious than the lives of the following victims of January 15, 1966?
1. Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa— Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
2. Chief Festus S. Okotie-Eboh— Finance Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
3. Brigadier Z. Mai-Malari— Commander of the 2nd Brigade NA
4. Colonel K. Mohammed— Chief of Staff Nigerian Army
5. Lt Colonel A. C. Unegbe— Quartermaster General
6. Lt Colonel J.T. Pam— Adjutant General, Nigerian Army
7. Lt Colonel A. Largema— Commanding Officer 4th Battalion Ibadan
8. Chief Samuel Ladoke. Akintola— Premier of Western Nigeria
10. Brigadier Samuel. Ademulegun— Commander of the 1st Brigade Nigerian Army
11. Colonel R. A. Shodeinde— Deputy Commandant, Nigerian Defence Academy
12. Ahmed Dan Musa— Senior Assistant Secretary (Security) to the Northern Regional Government
13. Sergeant Duromola Oyegoke— NCO
14. The senior wife of Sir Ahmadu Bello
15. The wife of Brigadier Ademulegun, and
16. Major Sam Adegoke (shot unintentionally at Ibadan on 17th January, 1966).
In fact, if Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and his Ohaneze Ndigbo are not political jokers with small brains being propelled by 100 billion naira, then they should equally consider apologizing to other ethnic groups whose members were among the victims mentioned above.
Thirdly, it is ridiculous that Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu with his acute amnesia should shamelessly state that Sir Ahmadu Bello committed no crime to warrant his assassination by Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu. What a moral disaster in the garb of Igbo leadership! Agreed that Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu is acting at the behest of chronic amnesia driven by a homunculus sense of judgment, then let him be properly educated historically that: In 1945, the Fulani attacked the Igbo in Jos in which hundreds of Igbo victims were killed. Was Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu the reason for the attack against the Igbo, and have the Fulani apologized to the Igbo for that heinous crime which the British Colonial administration chose to underplay for security reasons?
In 1953, when the Deputy Leader of Action Group Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola moved his campaign train to Kano against the opposition of the Fulani ruling class, it was the innocent Igbo and not the Yoruba instigators that were attacked, with many killed and their property destroyed. Was Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu the reason for that attack against the Igbo in Kano, leaving the Yoruba whose leader brought the termite-infested political wood untouched? Have the Fulani apologized to the Igbo for that heinous act?
Between 1960 and 1964, Ahmadu Bello sent repressive Nigerian armed forces and anti-riot Police squads into Tiv land maiming, and slaughtering hundreds of people in non-stop waves; incarcerating many in prison, and destroying property worth of million pounds with unimaginable cruelty. Ironically, that same jihad rampage has continued till date with thousands of Tiv people slaughtered in cold-blood by Ahmadu Bello’s Fulani jihad protégés, destroying property and rendering millions homeless and refugees in their ancestral lands on daily basis. Was Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu the reason for these past and present crimes against humanity in Tiv land and adjoining Middle Belt communities by the Fulani? Yet Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu is telling Ndigbo that Ahmadu Bello did not commit any crime that made his assassination inevitable.
In 1962, Ahmadu Bello instigated the Western Regional Crisis that metamorphosed into the bloody Operation Weti, in which thousands of innocent Yoruba people lost their lives and property worth millions of pounds were destroyed. It was indeed this crisis that prompted the intervention of Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu and his patriotic colleagues in order to save the nation from collapse, and which they did, even though some of his colleagues put ethnic considerations above their nationalistic intentions, thereby messing up their noble objectives to his discredit.
In his infamous 1960 interview with a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Reporter who had observed in the followings: “One thing I have noticed while I have been here is that northerners seem to have the worst form of obsession about the Igbos. Could you please explain that?”
Sir Ahmadu Bello then went ahead to answer without any sense of equivocation:
“Well the Ibos are more or less a type of people whose desire is mainly to dominate everybody. If you put them in a labour camp as labourer, within a year they will try to emerge as the headman of that camp and so on. Well in the past our people were not alive to their responsibilities, because as you can see from our northernization policy that in 1952 when I came here, there were ten northerners in our civil service.”
Again, to Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and his band of Ohaneze quislings, was Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu the reason for the above hate-filled anti-Igbo policy statement by Ahmadu Bello?
This obsession and hatred of the Igbo were further expressed by the Northern Regional House of Assembly during the 1964 debate on Igbo position on the controversial 1962/63 National Census. The following excerpts of anti-Igbo speeches made on the floor of Northern House of Assembly, Kaduna between February and March, 1964.
During the said anti-Igbo debate, Mallam Muhammadu Mustapha Maude Gyari had stated: “On the allocation of plots to Ibos, or allocation of stalls I would like to advise the Minister that these people know how to make money and we do not know the way and manner of getting about this business…. We do not want Ibos to be allocated with plots, I do not want them to be given plots….”
in his contribution, Mallam Bashari Umaru submitted: “I would want you, as the Minister of Land and Survey, to revoke forthwith all Certificates of Occupancy from the hands of the Ibos resident in the Region.”
In his submission, Mallam Muktar Bello stated: “I would like to say something very important, that the Minister should take my appeal to the Federal Government about the Ibos in the Post Office. I wish the numbers of these Ibos be reduced…. There are too many of them in the North. They were just like sardines, and I think they were just too dangerous to the region.”
Further submitting, Alhaji Usman Liman (Sarkin Musawa) stated: “What brought the Ibos into this region? They were here since Colonial days. Had it not been for Colonial Rule there would hardly have been any Ibo in this Region. Now that there is no Colonial Rule the Ibos should go back to their region. There should be no hesitation about this matter. Mr. Chairman, North is for Northerners, East for Easterners, West for Westerners and the Federation for us all.”
Wrapping up the Debate on the Igbo, the Minister of Land and Survey Alhaji the Honourable Ibrahim Musa Gashash stated: “Mr. Chairman, Sir, I do not like to take up much of the time of this House in making explanations, but I would like to assure Members that having heard their demands about Ibos holding land in Northern Nigeria my Ministry will do all it can to see that the demands of Members are met. How to do this, when to do it, all this should not be disclosed. In due course, you will all see what will happen.”
To Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and his co-Fulani slaves, was Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu equally the reason for the above anti-Igbo legislative proceedings in Northern Regional House of Assembly? Baring the heinous pogroms against the Igbo and the sad events of the Nigerian civil war, the Fulani have continued in their unrelenting murderous rampage against not just Ndigbo but other Nigerian ethnic groups. Are Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and his band of Ohaneze Ndigbo Fulani hirelings saying that all these killings across Nigeria being perpetrated by the Fulani are taking place because Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu killed Ahmadu Bello on January 15, 1966?
Were the three Yoruba traditional rulers murdered in cold–blood some few months ago by the Fulani jihadists because Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu killed Ahmadu Bello? Does Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu in his big size and moronic brain believe that the spate of insecurity in Nigeria today is the consequence of Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu’s assassination of Ahmadu Bello? Lord Frederick D. Lugard, in his assessment of the treacherous political entity called Sokoto Caliphate in his book The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa, page 198, stated emphatically:
“We are dealing with the same generation and in many cases with identical rulers, who were responsible for the misrule and tyranny which we found in 1902. The subject races near the capital were serfs, and the victims of constant extortion. Those dwelling in the distance were raided for slaves, and could not count their women, their cattle, or their crops their own. Punishments were most barbarous, and included impalement, mutilation, and burying alive.”
Lord Lugard’s assertion when juxtaposed with the current episode of Fulani-inspired killings, kidnappings and misrule of the Nigerian Federation clearly sums up to a repetition of the same history which most of us were taught about Fulani jihad in our secondary schools and universities. It is therefore obvious that Nigerians have indeed become victims of the popular statement by George Santayana that “Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it.”
It is instructive at this point to remind Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and his rag-tag Ohaneze Ndigbo that Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu was not from Imo State, and the people of Delta State where he hailed from will not tolerate any form of demonization by political criminals like him. There was Otokoto in which Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu was mentioned. Was Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu the reason for the Otokoto? Imo State more than any State in the Southeast has recorded the highest number of killings perpetrated variously by Fulani-led Gwodogwodo soldiers, IPOB-led Eastern Security Network (ESN), and Unknown Gunmen. Was Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu’s killing of Ahmadu Bello the reason for such heinous crimes in Imo State?
In his golden coup speech of January 15, 1966, the indefatigable son of Midwest Igboland, the amiable Major Patrick Kaduna Nzeogwu stated:
“Our enemies are the political profiteers, the swindlers, the men in high and low places that seek bribes and demand 10 per cent; those that seek to keep the country divided permanently so that they can remain in office as ministers or VIPs at least, the tribalists, the nepotists, those that make the country look big for nothing before international circles, those that have corrupted our society and put the Nigerian political calendar back by their words and deeds.” Arising from the foregoing excerpt, the pertinent question reasonable Nigerians should ask Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu and his political carpet-baggers is what is the difference between the political climate of Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu’s time and the present political climate in Nigeria?
Although there is always the danger of stigmatizing a group for the evil acts of few, but as in Igbo parlance, a family of thieves does not mean every member of that family is a thief, rather it signifies its dominant characters. This is the case of the people of Imo State in the comity of Igbo nation. As the American Civil Rights icon Malcolm X rightly put it: “To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal.”
To say the Igbo are in serious trouble with Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu an Imo State man posing as President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo is a truism founded on the moral cacophony of past Imo State indigenes masquerading as Igbo leaders of different sorts. Beyond his current State Governor the quisling Hope Uzodinma who appointed him, and who was in turn appointed by the Muslim political caucus in Nigeria, we have had the likes of Chief Arthur Nzeribe of Association of Better Nigeria fame and Daniel Kanu, who shamelessly collaborated with the Fulani oligarchy to undermine the June 12, 1993 democratic principles.
There was a Rochas Okorocha who appears to have gone into political oblivion after his shameless political debacle in the hands of the same Fulani he labored to serve as a political slave by pushing many indigenes of Imo State to convert to Islam, all in his bid to become President of Nigeria. Prof George Obiozor assumed the Ohaneze-Ndigbo leadership with the promise to crush IPOB and its militant Eastern Security Network. His major achievement in this regard was to use his Imo State kinsman who was the IPOB Kenya Coordinate to lure Nnamdi Kanu into the hands of Federal Government Fulani kidnappers who eventually kidnapped him to face their kangaroo trial in Nigeria.
This characteristic saboteur syndrome of Imo people further explains why the current leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) led by another native of Imo State Mr. Joe Ajaero, will never produce positive results in its struggles for better conditions of service and justice for Nigerian workers. One is however not trying to insinuate that Ndigbo Imo State are susceptible to sabotage against collective Igbo interests, but one becomes even more worried when it is discovered that the number of Ndigbo of Imo State origin converting to Islam on the offer of petite cash and bogus promises of better life is increasing with geometric progression. It is therefore in the best interest of the people of Imo State to call Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu to order before he is declared a customary enemy of Ndigbo.
- Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD, DD, the Odogwu of Ibusa, Delta State and President, International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria (ICAC-GEN). Email: Nwaezeigwe.genocideafrica@gmail.com visit us at: https://icac-gen.org for more information and your support, May 3, 2024.
