Conclusion Of The Whole Matter: A Historical Perspective On The Nigerian State -By Maj. Ken Obimuonso(Ret.)

1.  Nigeria is a wonderful and blessed territory, put together, not by the will of the diverse inhabitants or natives, who eventually became citizens, but by the whim and caprices of a western global power. 

2.  The original aim of this western power for Amalgamation of the Northern and Southern parts of the territory in January 1914 was not for the benefit of the inhabitants but for it’s own commercial, economic and financial gain. 

3.  Nigeria was “founded” on a tripod stool with three major ethnic groups by population; the Igbo, the Yoruba and the Hausa/Fulani.

4. The “founding” fathers of Nigeria at Independence in 1960; Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe (Igbo) – Chief Obafemi Awolowo (Yoruba) – Sir Ahmadu Bello (Hausa/Fulani); supposedly had a common Vision for the country, despite their tribal roots and glaring ethno-religious differences.

5. Within few years of Independence, these differences in thinking, reasoning, belief systems, socio-political ideology became irreconcilable and resistant movements first appeared in the Tiv land in Benue and was brutally quelled by the central government led by the Prime Minister, a Northerner, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, using the military. 

6. Subsequently, more violence erupted in Yoruba land as the people tried to resist policies and leadership style of the Federal Government in the popular Operation Wetie. The Premier of the Western Region, a loyalist of the Ruling Power, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola had engaged Pa Obafemi Awolowo in a do-or-die political supremacy battle for control of the West. He had the full support of the Prime Minister and the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello. Violence was widespread and more crackdown by the military was used to enforce law and order. 

7. The same class of military officers used to quell the Tiv Riots were the same officers used to quell the Yoruba resistance. Some of these military officers, though obeying the last order each time, were no longer happy with the manner of leadership of the central government and began to have ideas on how to put a stop to what they saw as abuse of power. They also frowned at the pervasive corruption affecting the well-being of the country at the time. 

8.  By January 1966, the first military coup occurred. The stated aim of the Coup leaders was to remove the Balewa government, release Pa Awolowo who had been jailed for treason and install him as the Prime Minister. Although this fact is now denied on social media, it is well recorded in the files of the British Intelligence and contained in the most authoritative books covering the history of this era such as; OIL, POLITICS and VIOLENCE by Max Siollun. You may Google it. Every Nigerian who desires nothing but the Truth should read this book. It is the most unbiased, most well-researched and most-authoritative account of the Military Coups of 1966 – 1976.

9. Five Army Majors including a Yoruba, the Author of a book; WHY WE STRUCK; Major Ademoyega, emerged leaders of the bloody coup. The original plan was to exterminate the key rulers of the country or the topmost political echelon. 

10.  Unfortunately, the outcome of the Coup produced a one-sided casualty pattern. Key political leaders from the East; namely, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe; First President of Nigeria and Dr Michael Okpara; Premier of the Eastern Region, were not killed. The fact that Dr Azikiwe had proceeded on Medical vacation overseas about two months before the Coup didn’t erase the suspicion of an ethnic agenda by the Igbo Majors who dominated the Coup action. Major Kaduna Chukwuma NZEOGWU, Major Chris Anuforo, Major Obienu, Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna were from the East.

11. The presence and active roles of other Officers from the North and West such as Lt Atom Kpera, a Tiv Man; Lt Olafemihan; a Yoruba man didn’t erase the belief and eventual labelling of the Coup as an “Igbo Coup”. 

12.  The original plan to free Pa Awolowo from Calabar prison and install him as Prime Minister is being denied by the western media till date, though Pa Awolowo himself never denied it all through his lifetime.

13.  Expunging history as a subject from the curriculum of Nigerian Secondary Schools for many decades prevented the youth from knowing the truth till date.

14. Any attempt by anybody to bring out the truth of the 1966 Coup; the remote and immediate causes; the full list and federal character of the participants and the true intentions of the Coup leaders, is quickly shouted down.

15. The Victors in the so-called “No Victor, No  Vanquished” Nigerian Civil War in which 3 million Igbos died; have written so many embellished books standing truth on it’s head and using their resources to promote the satanic lie of an Igbo Coup whereby the IGBOS wanted to take over the government and dominate the whole country.

16.  If you look at the National Security Council today, from May 2015 when the APC Party came to power till the time of writing this piece, November 2022, the Southeast Zone has been effectively shut out of the most sensitive and most powerful body in the country.

17.  All attempts to draw the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR, an upright man and Civil War hero, to this anomaly failed woefully. For reasons best known to him, he cannot afford to risk having an Igbo man from the Southeast sitting in his Security Council.

18. He has only about 6 months of his tenure left to redress this glaring marginalisation and injustice which is clearly against the content of the 1999 Constitution which specified Federal Character in all appointments. May God give him the wisdom not to allow the history books document him as the only Nigerian leader that shut out an entire zone from the National Security Council.

19.  The entire Igbo population in Nigeria, over 45 million people, and their unborn children have been unjustly held responsible for the actions of four Igbo Army Majors who consulted nobody in Igbo land before they took laws into their own hands. 

20. Over 100,000 IGBOS were killed in cold blood in Northern Nigeria, including women and children, during the Pogrom of 1966. My Uncle, Chief Joseph Okonkwo of Umuoba Anam, Anambra River Basin, barely escaped because a good Samaritan hid him under a rock from where he had to listen to the cries of whole Igbo families being slain by angry mobs. 

21. Today, the cold-blooded murder of citizens of Nigeria, from all parts of the country is going on in the North, East, West and South. General Yakubu Gowon, Head of State of Nigeria, during the Civil War, has lived long enough to watch the indigenous people of his hometown in Plateau State butchered by foreign invaders masquerading as Bandits. He has gone silent for many years now, refusing to issue any statement.

22. A former Chief of Army Staff from the North, former Minister of Defence, and the very Army Officer who arrested an Igbo Head of State, General JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi at Ibadan during the Counter-Coup of July 1966, has refused to keep quiet like General Gowon. Twice, on national television, he has called on all Nigerian citizens to get arms by all means and defend themselves from the “Occupation Army” that has invaded our country.

23.  If not for his status in Nigeria and the enormous wealth and loyalties he commands in Nigeria, he could’ve been arrested by now.

24. Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, Mr Obadiah Mailafiya, stated boldly on national television, twice, that one of the current Governors in the Northwest is a Commander of Boko Haram. He was invited by the DSS and stood his ground. He even said he knew he would be eliminated for saying the truth. Is it not amazing that within a year he was announced dead ? Dr Junaid Mohammed, one of the very few Northerners, who spoke Truth to Power, is also gone. Yinka Odumakin, spokesperson of the Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, whose leader, Pa Fasoranti, lost his daughter to marauding bandits on a highway, is also gone.

25.  Today,  prominent citizens in Nigeria, but a few, are afraid to speak the truth. This is the major reason for the on-going attempt to foist a man indicted by a US Court for partnership with drug dealers as the next President of Nigeria on a Muslim-Muslim ticket at a period of an open terrorist attack and massacre of Christians at a Church in Owo, Ondo State.

26. Many gullible Nigerian youth on social media, dazed by the warped version of history they’ve been brainwashed with, are passionately clamouring for this candidate, whose running mate allegedly caused the kidnap of Chibok girls as a sitting Governor by ignoring a warning letter from the Minister of State Education, Nyesom Wike. The letter is available on the internet.

27.  INEC is busy denying allegations of a planned rigging of the election but I have more confidence in the promise of the Civil War hero, President Buhari, whose firm and unbending character is well known, as far as sticking to his own decisions is concerned. PMB has promised on AIT yesterday, 11/11/22, that he would NOT allow anybody to use illicit funds to mobilize thugs towards intimidating voters. He urged all Nigerians to vote their choice and made no attempt to encourage anybody to vote for his party. I really thank God for this and immensely thank PMB for his courage in being firm with his decisions.

28. This is the CONCLUSION of the whole matter; if you look at the 3 major candidates in the 2023 Presidential Election;  their educational background, character, track record over corruption, appetite for endless acquisition of material wealth; then you look at the current state of the economy, the continued killings in Benue, Tiv land, as it occurred before the 1966 Coup; the kidnapping along Abuja-Kaduna and Lagos-Ibadan expressways and killings of victims for ransom; the increasing spate of military takeovers in our own West African sub-region; the anger in the East, among Igbo youth, over the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu at a period of open negotiation with terrorists by the Nigerian State;  and alleged release of terrorists from both Kuje and Kirikiri prisons; if you sit down and weigh all the above, yet collect money, to vote against your own conscience, then know thou, that the blood of millions of Nigerian citizens killed since the Civil War; those killed in the past 20 unbroken years of democracy and those being killed at various Banditry and Kidnapping Camps would eventually locate you and your descendants.

If not now, definitely later, God is watching and has a date to judge every wicked action, especially those who deliberately fry their own conscience for selfish reasons. The Word of God says in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, “This is the conclusion of the whole matter;  Fear God and obey his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, and every SECRET thing, whether it be good or bad.”

PASTOR (MAJ.) KEN OBIMUONSO (Ret.)

(Senior Pastor, CHM Worldwide) 

 December, 2022