Elliott Ugochukwu-Uko
Dim Ojukwu identified with the agitators, drew them close, gave them his ears and tirelessly guided them, in order to avoid the unpleasant situation where they’d distrust all the leaders and choose to do their thing, their own way.
Ojukwu travelled to the United states 20 years ago to open the Agitators office in DC with Ralph, Uche Okwukwu, Longinus Orjiakor, and others, because Ojukwu understood that the agitation was inevitable and that the best any one could do, is guide them away from the path of violence by drawing them close.
Political leaders of today, do not understand that.
They think the agitators can be crushed and silenced through military might, hence they distanced themselves from them and preferred looking up to Abuja to solve the problem.
They have not come to the point where knowledge, reality and understanding will guide them.
Stuck with fear of Abuja, the need to protect their individual political careers, and what they say is the attitude of the agitators, Eastern leaders, including our Governors, Igbo organisations and elders, find it difficult to confront the mindset of the villa in Abuja, which is, that the agitators must be crippled and paralyzed at all costs. This Abuja mindset is in conflict with the truth.
The truth that the issues that inspired the agitation should be addressed in order to resolve the crisis, seems unattractive to Aso rock villa. Afraid that pushing the truth, could offend the villa, our leaders prefer to tread carefully and cautiously.
Ojukwu knew that the villa would be reluctant and unwilling to address the issues that fuel and drive the agitation. He made Ralph check with him, before he and his boys ever embarked on whatever activity.
The misconceptions deliberately weaved by certain interest groups that the agitators are miscreants who should be ignored, and the fear of offending the powers that be in Abuja, coupled with the desire not to jeopardize one’s political future, dragged the agitation to the present state.
Some people simply refused to admit that treating every section right and running an all-inclusive government, remains the only way to live together in peace and harmony with every one.
They refuse to learn that the post world war two Marshall plan to genuinely rebuild broken Europe ( a sharp departure from taxing and punishing Germany to pay reparations to France after world war one, which built up the frustrations that inspired world war two ) more than anything else, restored harmony and peace, which in turn engendered mutual respect, stability and progress.
Dealing Ndigbo a rough hand was wrong. The war of attrition by other means, the economic and political isolation and the scorched earth policy visited on the region, is unhelpful. The continuous denial of the region it’s dues, only creates discontent and dissent.
Fair play and equity unites brethren, not injustice and oppression. The mistaken assumption that the military defeat of January 1970, had permanently sentenced every generation of Ndigbo to an eternal second class status, effectively placing a ceiling on their aspiration to certain offices and established a lasting culture of denying them all their rights and privileges as equal citizens, simply made the agitation inevitable.
The conclusion that Ndigbo will forever remain our footmat for losing the war informed the consistent maltreatment of the region. They are helpless now. We should continuously urinate on their heads without pity. We’ll teach them a bitter lesson. Boy, these needless rough treatment sowed the seeds of the anger that drives the agitation.
The post civil war mindset, assumption, and narrative that encircling Igbo land for 3 years, ceding Bakasi peninsula to the Cameroon in order to effectively enforce total blockade of Igbo land, mercilessly pounding civilian populations, including even lines of refugees queueing for rations in school premises, ruthlessly testing the new Russian MIGs by callous Egyptian pilots on the marooned populace, deploying hired gwodo gwodo from neighbouring countries and the total destruction of infrastructure, that overwhelmed the people into submission in January 1970, translated to subduing EVERY Igbo generation to a position of eternal servitude, was a terribly wrong policy to adopt.
It is not true that every generation will accept the injustices, humiliation, denial, ill treatment and oppression meted to Ndigbo since January 1970.
Truth is, the children and grandchildren of the Biafran soldiers who fought a bitter, unkind, unequal war in the trenches, on barefoot, starving and with only six bullets and his low capacity rifle, are unhappy and bitter with the treatment Nigeria metes to them.
They are unhappy that the issues that led their parents to fight a war of survival over 5 decades ago, are still with us.
They are unhappy over fake census figures, on which the country is run, they saw Justice Mamman Nasir committee snatch their ancestral lands and gift same to their brothers during the boundary adjustment exercise, they grieve over their parents hard earned properties confiscated and declared abandoned property, they weep over the humiliating format of state and local government creation and constituency delineation format, that were all deliberately designed to reduce them to a minority.
They wonder why headship of military, police, other paramilitary, security and intelligence agencies, seem the birth right of a certain region alone, while they, Ndigbo remain dutifully excluded therefrom.
They watch in disappointment as their leaders behave as if they, the leaders are loyal to external forces.
As their frustrations grew, the Nigerian state seemed to care less.
What finally broke the camel’s back, is the utter refusal by the owners of Nigeria to restructure the polity by enthroning true federalism and devolution of powers. Meaning that life is intended to remain this way till infinitum. God forbid.
The erroneous belief that the young and future Igbo generations will ultimately accept and condone this state of affairs till eternity, and the false assurance that any complaint or noise from them will be mercilessly and violently crushed, brought us to where we are today.
Well, the younger generation of Ndigbo, do not wish to hand the humiliating situation they find themselves in, to their own children. They want a life of honour and dignity for their own children. Period.
The angry younger generation, convinced that no one is ever going to come to their aid, organised themselves, and began to search for justice. They see the silence of their leaders as acquiescence.
They want to change the uncomfortable situation they find themselves in, any way they can.
Disagreement with their style won’t resolve the crisis, abusing them, won’t stop the agitation, deliberately delaying engaging them, only strengthens them, as can be seen in the last six years.
Dim Ojukwu Ojukwu told me severally, that the agitators would continue to be deliberately ignored and misunderstood by the state, until things get really bad, because the state finds it inconvenient to do the right thing.
I believe him.
In my 39 years of activism, I never imagined that a situation, simply applying justice and equity would resolve, would drag on endlessly, just because some people would do every thing to avoid enthroning fair play and a level playing field for all.
Those afraid of true federalism and devolution of powers, who seem deeply in love with the suffocating unitary structure, should ask themselves if they truly believe that the agitation would die off without the root causes addressed by the state and the people of Nigeria.
I humbly restate my position, that the agitators should be engaged, Nnamdi should be visited and Igbo leaders should quit running away from their responsibilities.
Given the realities on ground, I am yet to see a superior strategy to that of Dim Ojukwu. To keep them close, because you can’t wish them away.
TO BE CONTINUED.
