The Set Of 1966 – 1970 Must Leave -By Henry Chukwuemeka Onyema

President Buhari’s recent tweet threatening those causing mayhem in the East is a brutal reminder that Nigeria’s unity and integrity remains threatened as long as members of the generation who experienced Nigeria’s chequered history between 1966 and 1970 continue to lead this country.

From Gowon to Buhari, whether in uniform or civvies, their mantra has been that Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable; that Nigeria remains an indissoluble entity. The only exceptions were late Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan. Although the Interim National President, Ernest Shonekan, belongs to that generation he was more or less a cipher of the Babangida junta.
Superficially, it seems that these people who tasted the bitter fruits of Nigeria’s civil war are best equipped to navigate the ship of our complex and increasingly complicated heterogeneous state on its voyage of nationhood. But a closer examination indicates that they are too deeply trapped and blinkered by the ugly history of the 1960s to ascend mentally to the platform of statesmen and nation-builders.

Yakubu Gowon

A good example is our current president whose genocidal tweet attracted the justifiable wrath of Twitter. He is a man who publicly declared that he will never forget the events of the unfortunate and misguided January 15 1966 coup in which mostly Southern Nigerian military officers killed leading Northern Nigerian politicians and soldiers. Till date, to the best of my knowledge, Buhari holds the IGBO responsible for that bloody affair. Having actively participated in the even bloodier July 29 1966 coup that wiped out scores of Eastern Nigerian, especially Igbo, military officers, including the head of state, General Ironsi, one would have thought Buhari’s wrath would have been assuaged. His exploits in the Biafran heartland as an officer should have made him realize that real unity is not built on an altar of human bones and that the boat of national cohesion cannot be navigated on the sea of citizens’ blood. His actions as president indicate that Nigeria’s unity for him is based on the template of the conqueror and the conquered; citizens and subjects. Forget the rhetoric, look at the actions.

I did not set out here to bash Buhari. Let readers look at the dispositions of these gentlemen who have ruled us from 1970 to 2021. First, despite words to the contrary, the strong inclination of most of them to rein in those ‘rebels’ from across east of the River Niger has not died. Although the shooting war may be over, alternative measures are adopted to ensure that they do not threaten Nigeria. Hence, policies that relegate Eastern Nigerians to carriers of water and hewers of wood.

Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida

Second, any mention of Biafra, even in non-political context, is perceived as treason. More than fifty years after the birth and demise of Biafra, they and their acolytes refuse to accept there was and still is a Biafra. Third, historical revisionism remains their sport, though they were eyewitnesses to the harrowing history. For instance, the untrue narratives that the January 1966 coup was an Igbo plan to take over Nigeria; that Eastern Nigeria started the civil war which began on 6 July 1967. These institutionalized lies, backed by prominent actors, go a long way in demonizing Eastern Nigerians and exacerbating the tensions of our inter-group relations.

Also, due to these leaders’ ineptitude in dealing with national challenges, these generations of rulers are unable to reflect deeply on their causes. Thus it seems simplistic to blacklist the Igbo for the violence in the East.

But these mindsets in our seats of power have significantly contributed to the erosion of national cohesion. Agreed, it is inevitable that loss would accompany the East being the losing side, but if Nigeria’s rulers see national unity as integrative and not coercive, their measures to reestablish Eastern Nigeria as part of Nigeria would have been far-encompassing. Ugly truths of the war would not have been suppressed or glossed over. Memorials and acknowledgments would have been established. Apologies, even if posthumously, would have been made. The conqueror mentality would have been subdued. The 3Rs-reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction-of Gowon’s era should have been a Marshall Plan for the East. Then succeeding post-war generations of Eastern Nigerians would have recognized and embraced Nigeria as their home while respectfully assigning Biafra her hallowed place in history, not seeing her as their hope for survival.

General Olusegun Obasanjo

The men who carried out the July 1966 coup have run our affairs since then, either directly or by proxy. Their mindset was, and probably still is, to annihilate the perceived Igbo threat. Gowon owed his ascension to the coup. Murtala Muhammed led it. Babangida, Buhari and Abacha were actively involved. Though Obasanjo was not a participant, his government was strengthened by these plotters. Even civilian president Shehu Shagari came from a disposition that blessed the coup.

The earlier Nigerians refuse this generation and their younger acolytes who view Nigerian unity as a jack-boot affair that cannot be negotiated access to power, the safer our integration as nation-state will be.

Henry C. Onyema is an author and historian. Email: henrykd2009@yahoo.com