Arise Interview: Lest We Forget How The Southeast Situation Deteriorated To This Level -By Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh

Thursday the 10th of June, 2021 may well go down memory lane as a day of mourning for well-meaning Nigerians (and especially for the good people of southeast Nigeria) who watched their televisions that day but were shocked and utterly disappointed as their president – General Muhammadu Buhari – reiterated an earlier statement that first appeared on Twitter and, which forced the social media giant to suspend his handle on Tuesday June 2, 2021.

General Muhammadu Buhari had on June 1, 2021 tweeted about the Nigeria-Biafra civil war of 1967 to 1970 where he said that “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the field for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they will understand.” This generated a ripple that had hardly settled as at when he appeared for the interview with Arise TV.

Veteran journalist and former presidential spokesperson for the Late Umaru Yar’Adua’s adimintsration – Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi – had sought clarification over Mr. President’s comments on the southeast situation as was posted via Twitter that led to the suspension of his handle. In response, Mr. President reminded his interviewer and indeed audiences around the globe that “We have said we will talk to them in the language they understand. We will organize the police and the military to pursue them and we will do it.”

That response – for me – was the dumbest utterance to come out of the mouth of a president! Tears began to form in my eyes moments after not out of being emotionally overwhelmed or perhaps threatened but because of the fact that this administration had finally found an excuse she could capitalize upon to execute a vengeance that has long been on their sleeve. Since 2015, GMB had sought to provoke the southeast. First, his government had tried to spite them by secluding them from meaningful appointments into the economic and security spheres.

When the southeast geopolitical zone appeared unfazed, they began to enforce strict compliance on the 41 items previously listed for ban by the CBN. Meanwhile, smugglers like A.A. Rano and Dahiru Mangal continued to bring in substandard LPG and bags of foreign rice. When that also failed to provoke the Igbos, they began to manipulate the US Dollar. The USD exchanged for 175 naira before 2015 but by the end of 2016, it exchanged for over 260 naira; from where it continued to rise to infinity but now pegged at almost 500 naira, At a point, former Emir Sanusi of Kano raised his voice in condemnation.

As early as 2016, the first cases of herders attack on unarmed, innocent and defenseless persons from the southeast were reported in the news. But the government cared less. This would continue till the first four years of the GMB administration was over in 2019. Back in 2019, the Oduduwa nation from the southwest decided to create a security outfit it dubbed as Amoteku’n. The Igbos continued to maintain silence up to mid-year of 2020 when Mazi Nnamdi Kanu decided to float the eastern security network (ESN).

Unlike Amoteku’n, the harsh reactions that greeted the ESN from inception both by the southeast governors and the federal government signaled great trouble ahead. Were the Igbos marked by this administration for demolition? Many questioned. It is instructive to note that the southeast already had its forest reserves totally infiltrated and occupied by aliens that go by the name of Killer Herdsmen. Also instructive was the fact that following the federal government’s backed removal of Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha as governor of Imo state, the Southeast’s’ angst against the APC did great damage as was tactically planned by the FG.

Meanwhile, the IPOB movement has always existed in all the states of the southeast and, there was relative peace. Yes, although some governors made efforts to parley with Abuja against the IPOB, overall there was nothing to be afraid of until year 2021. Following the inarticulate and hurriedly arranged Ebubeagu Security Network; the clash between the two ESN’s (instead of collaboration) would eventually bring in the Nigeria police, the Nigeria army as well as the Unknown Gunmen into the region. To do what, I ask?

Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh

In all this, the rhetoric of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Governors Uzodinma and Umahi and, the federal government did not help matters. It only tensed up the polity. Like a fairy tale, the southeast as of today is raided on a daily basis by air bombardment and by land infantries. My concern, as expressed in my article: Ahmed Gulak’s Death & the Details That Aren’t Adding Up; is that of all the geopolitical zones in this country, the southeast is the only zone whose prosperity was 99% individual efforts and 1% federal presence and for this reason, it will be unlikely that any right thinking Igbo would embark on obliterating the meager federal presence.

To make matters worse, the media is not doing anything meaningful in trying to unravel the identity of the unknown gunmen. Not after it had sold out by creating the impression that members of the IPOB are the unknown gunmen. I expected the interviewers to get GMB’s views on the identity of the unknown gunmen. Now lest we forget, there’s a chance we could possibly guess their identities if you will but remember that in the build up to the 2019 general elections, incidences of arson and vandalization of government’s assets like the police station and the INEC offices were rife all over the federation.

Was it the IPOB that burnt down INEC’s office in Jos Plateau state back then? Lest we forget again, the security situation of the southeast like in most parts of the country is a consequence of the refusal of the zone to be RUGA compliant. Added to this is also a long history of rivalry between the two tribes. Many have observed the rivalry between the Fulani’s and the Igbos but wondered how it came about. The Nigeria of today, is hotly contested for by both ethnic groups and the history behind this is briefly stated below.

The Igbos has always been a threat to the Fulani nation but that is because both ethnic groups are conquerors by nature. The Igbos conquered territories by commerce but the Fulani conquered by Jihad. One was a capitalist conqueror and the other was a feudalist/religious conqueror. And because both are natural dominators; there’s been a secret war between them that dates back to pre-colonial times. The Igbos influenced leaders and their empires in the north through commerce.

But when the Fulani first came to the north, they met this arrangement on ground and did not like it. Using religion, they made their way to the rulers of the time; sought to influence the affairs of state by this closeness but failed to have the ears of the rulers to their side. The rulers had created and encouraged a free trade economy where their subjects were not taxed. Leadership got tributes from vassals they conquered but their citizens operated tax-free.

When the Fulani’s overthrew the arrangement many years later, they introduced a tax system that extracted from every citizen. Commodities that came into their markets were taxed and those that went out of their market were taxed. The Igbos who traveled from afar to trade in markets in the north did not enjoy this. For back in the east, they were not used to tax systems of this kind. Thus, sparking sharp differences.

A century later after the British imposed its rule and named the geographical area as Nigeria, many Igbos took to artisan jobs, clerical duties, and civil service careers as well as house chores. The Igbos were everywhere in the north even in the northern house of lords and the northern house of common. Many may have seen the video of Sir Ahmadu Bello’s interview where he pointedly declared his preference for a foreign expatriate if no northerner (and only the Igbo) was available to take the role.

This is the history behind the cold war between the Igbos and the Fulani’s in Nigeria. This explains – for instance – why a violent reprisal against the ouster of Sir. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa happened only in the North in 1966. This is why General Hassan Usman Katsina gave the suggestion for the annihilation of every Igbo male from the ages of 5 years up. This is why Dr. Alex Ekwueme – who was vice-president in 1983 – had to be jailed while his boss – Alhaji Shehu Shagari – was given a house-arrest treatment.

For those who may disagree with the above historical account; you may need to ask yourself this: if the Fulani’s were true Nigerians, how come they are without an ancestral home but are desperately scrambling for space in another man’s ancestral home? Why is there a seeming differential treatment in the manner in which the insecurity situation of the northwest was handled as against those of the southeast? Finally, by that interview GMB has put the rest of the country on alert that his most magnificent obsession remained to carve out an ancestral home for the Fulani even if it means doing so by guns.

Comrade Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh; political counselor & advocate for attitudinal change write from Abuja. 08062577718.