–By SKC Ogbonnia
October 18, 2017
Nnamdi Kanu of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has been declared wanted
for not showing up in court. That is normal. But if the truth is told, the
main culprit for the Biafran crisis are the politicians—not Kanu. The
authorities should be knocking at the doors of the seven Nigerian
governors of Igbo extraction, namely: Nyesom Ezenwo Wike (Rivers); Ifeanyi
Okowa (Delta); Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu); Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia); Rochas
Okorocha (Imo); Willie Obiano (Anambra); and David Umahi (Ebonyi). These
governors, one after the other, openly inflamed and fueled the Biafran
crisis to a sadistic state. Given that Nigerian governors are immune from
prosecution, it is incumbent upon the masses to send them packing.
For sure, the history will not forgive President Muhammadu Buhari for his
mulish leadership in the current Biafran crisis. But the role of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is obviously worse. Then in fervent fear of
the probable consequences for their corrupt deeds post-Jonathan regime,
the leaders of PDP from the East unleashed a montage of separatist
propaganda against the incoming Buhari government. The following innuendo
from Nyesom Wike in the waning days of his governorship campaign in 2015
says it all:
“I will lead a war against them (Nigeria) like Ojukwu. Am not joking, I
know am on air, and I am warning them now. Any attempt to rob us the way
they rob our brother (GEJ) the battle will start from Rivers State. We
will remain opposition state like Lagos. In fact, we from the South-South
and South-East we remain in PDP. We leave the South-West and North to run
APC. That is how they tactically shared the Country. And we will not
allow them use our resources to develop their States…I want all
South-South and South-East to remember this…”
The youth from the area have since answered Wike’s call, and that is your
Biafra. Today, after gaining power and obviously still panting, thanks to
the Buhari anti-corruption phobia, Mr. Wike is interestingly grandstanding
as an arrow-head of Biafran opposition. Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta
State is, of course, guilty of similar shenanigans, but the shaming detail
does not need to be retold here. Instead, see my piece: “Biafra and
Corruption: When a Judas Becomes a Muhammad”.
But the most shameless yet is the activity of the five stooges who operate
under the aegis of South-East Governors Forum. From the time President
Buhari polluted the Nigerian electoral history with his infamous gaffe to
marginalize the states that did not vote for him in 2015 elections, these
governors wasted no time to inundate the polity with harrowing tales of
injustice towards the Igbo. The propaganda was widely insurgent. Even
Governor Rochas Okorocha, a fellow member of Buhari’s party, had the moxie
to make the statement that follows: The Igbo “have nothing to show that
we are part of the Nigerian project; neither do we have any sense of
belonging in the present government at the national level.”
This perceived marginalization, not surprisingly, escalated the Biafran
agitation to a global proportion. More poignantly, the situation drove
President Buhari to naively join a group of Igbo governors to declare
millions of innocent Nigerians agitating for Biafra worldwide as
terrorists, thereby further damaging the image of the country worldwide.
The quagmire above is nothing compared to what you are about to read below.
With the damage already done, Buhari decided to do what he had refused to
do from the start: Dialogue. The date was Friday October 13, 2017. The
venue was the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The attendees were the president
himself and South-East politicians, controlled by their governors. And the
world waited anxiously.
The ‘wise men’ from the East finally emerged from the meeting. To the
chagrin of a mopping society, the South-East governors had done a complete
U-turn, saluting General Buhari as the fairest and most equitable leader.
For avoidance of doubt, here are the exact words of David Umahi–the
spokesperson for Southeast Governors Forum–to President Buhari: “You have
no hatred for any state. You have treated all states with equality. What
one state gets in the north, the other gets in the south.”
So, what changed before the face-to-face meeting with President Buhari?
What of the well-chronicled lopsided appointments? What about the fact
there is no Igbo man or woman in the leadership of the nation’s security
apparatus? What of the recent postings in NNPC that drew the attention of
an elder statesman like Edwin Clarke to write Mr. Buhari to reverse for
the simple reason that the Igbo are marginalized? What about the hoopla
that Buhari treated the Fulani herdsmen and the Arewa Youth of the Quit
Notice jazz with kid gloves while blowing the Biafran agitators with iron
hand? What changed?
The simplest answer is that we, the Nigerian masses, are not fools. These
Igbo governors, all of whom are the ground goons of the Nigeria’s corrupt
oligarchy, have been exploiting the Biafran crisis to a selfish end. The
aftereffect of this mass deceit has been grave. Many lives as well as
businesses were lost, nationhood questioned, and democracy betrayed. More,
with Boko Haram terrorism in the North, and the Biafran terrorism now
being promoted in the South, Nigeria might have inadvertently acclaimed
herself as a terrorist nation. But there must be consequences for bad
behaviour. Thusly, instead of the teetering threat of election boycott by
IPOB, the masses must rise to ensure that none of these Igbo governors
returns to power, starting from the forthcoming Anambra election in
November. Please.
SKC Ogbonnia can be reached through SKCOgbonnia1@aol.com