How to Prevent Another Civil War - Azuka Onwuka

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The man dies in him who keeps silent in the face of tyranny (as well as evil and injustice), says Wole Soyinka. Following the recent death of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, I have heard comments in the media, internet and at discussions that Ojukwu caused the Nigerian Civil War. I believe that such comments are made either in ignorance or out of mischief, bigotry or hatred. Ojukwu DID NOT cause the civil war. Gowon and the massacre of Igbos, especially in the North, as well as the open or tacit endorsement by other parts of Nigeria of the pogrom against the Igbos caused the war. Igbos did not leave Nigeria. Nigerians chased Igbos out by killing them in their thousands, an act that said in clear terms that they were not wanted in Nigeria.

Firstly, between 50,000 and 100,000 Igbos were massacred in cold blood in 1966 without Gowon and his lieutenants doing any serious thing to protect the Igbos or to stop the carnage. Other Nigerians, with the exception of few men like Soyinka and co, said it served the Igbos right, meaning that cockroaches, rather than human beings, were being killed.

Secondly, even though Gowon and his lieutenants, who killed Ironsi and co, said it was not a coup but a military change in leadership, yet he perpetrated the military indiscipline of assuming power above Brig Ogundipe, who was next in rank to Ironsi.

Thirdly and most importantly, after signing an agreement as soldiers, whose words were supposed to be their bond, in Aburi, before Ghana’s head of state, Gowon reneged on the accord, which was an act of bad faith.

I admit that the North, especially, had every right to be angry that mainly Igbo soldiers killed their top men in the January 1966 coup, but if they had retaliated by killing Ironsi and other Igbo men in power, Igbos would have seen it as purely a military affair and moved on with their lives. But going beyond that and moving from house to house, smoking out children, women and defenceless men, who had been their neighbours and friends, and butchering them with glee, with other parts of Nigeria keeping quiet or justifying it, was the unkindest cut of all. Soldiers don't consult civilians when planning coups. When Buka Suka Dimka or Gideon Orkar executed bloody coups against Murtala Mohammed and Ibrahim Babangida in 1976 and 1990 respectively, the North did not go from house to house to kill Middlebelters.

Ojukwu, as the son of the richest Nigerian whose investments were almost 100% outside Igboland, was accused by Igbos of delaying the declaration of the Republic of Biafra, because he seemed to be concerned about not jeopardizing his father's investments. It took almost one year of negotiations and pressure before he finally did so. If you are the son of billionaires Aliko Dangote or Mike Adenuga, you can't be eager to lead a secession in Nigeria - for one to take such an action, something grievous must push one to do so. Any other person who was the Governor of Eastern region at that time would have declared the Republic of Biafra or resigned or removed.

It was because those who murdered the defenceless visitors in their midst in 1966 were not brought to book, that is why till today such ugly incidents continue to happen almost every year in Nigeria, including the carnage that took place after the presidential elections of 2011. Such actions are usually blamed on the almajiris, as if the almajiris are ghosts that fly in the air, unseen and untouchable. Even when a Danish man made a cartoon in far-away Denmark, Igbos were killed in the North. And one wonders if the Danish are descendants of Igbos or vice versa, or if the cartoonist was Danish-Igbo. Those who murdered Jews in cold blood in Europe 70 years ago are still being tried and jailed. Those who murdered Muslim-Croats in Srebrenica 20 years ago are still being tried and jailed. But those who repeatedly murder their innocent and defenceless compatriots are treated with kid gloves and allowed to plan the next carnage.

Any time injustice is done and we keep quiet, we make ourselves accomplices and future victims. It does not matter whether the victim is our enemy. When Ken Saro-Wiwa was protesting and later hanged, some of my Igbo brethren said, “that served him right,” because he supported Nigeria against Biafra, but I said: no, the man had a right to fight against the injustice meted out to his people, and his hanging was despicable. When MKO Abiola was denied his mandate, jailed, and died in prison, some people gloated that the Yorubas were witnessing the injustice the Igbos complained about, but I said no. It is unjust and wicked to steal a man's mandate, put him in prison, kill his wife and kinsmen and watch him die under mysterious circumstances in custody. The same thing goes for the daily or weekly carnage going on in Jos. Evil is evil, no matter to whom it is meted out. Injustice is injustice anywhere in the world. If you keep quiet today because your enemy is the victim, when it will be your turn, nobody will be available to speak for you. Martin Niemöller said:
“First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Nigeria will never make any progress if we continue to see each other as enemies that should be easily butchered at the lightest disagreement, or if we continue to condone or justify injustice and discrimination. The more we murder one another because of differences in ethnicity or religion, the more we destroy the people’s belief in Nigeria and make Nigerians view each other with suspicion. The more we wallow in bigotry and hatred, the more we destroy Nigeria and continue to make it a potential giant, but never a real giant. Nigeria has bled for too long and we need to stop its wounds now.