Elliott Ugochukwu-Uko
At the turn of the century, about two decades ago, I finally relocated to Enugu from Lagos and got myself a small office within Ekulu, GRA. Most weekdays, as I go through some paper works, I’d receive a call either from Ben Okofu or Chris Agu informing me that “Oga” wants me to come over as soon as I could.
When I arrived the Independence layout, Isiuzo street residence/office of my leader expecting to hear of a fresh development, I will usually meet him all alone, listening to music. He’d begin with the latest political developments and then the usual lecture on the future of our people. We’d spend hours talking about the usual stuff: The Igbo question within the Nigerian project.
I soon got used to the phone calls and realized he probably needed good company and I thought myself lucky and privileged that he found me worthy of stimulating conversation, enough to invite me over often.
These long hours of attempting to dissect, analyse, understand and appreciate the Igbo question while carefully searching for and articulating viable solutions towards resolution, comparing alternative suggestions while discarding unviable and unrealistic suggestions, formed the foundation of my convictions.
This leader, who passed on a decade ago, was an Oxford trained historian, administrator, soldier, head of state, war General, Presidential candidate and leader of his people. He was controversial in life, dominated his environment, loved and hated, feared and admired, stood by his convictions.
He believed only justice and equity ensures peace and harmony. He understood the Nigerian imbroglio better than most of his contemporaries, he was largely misunderstood and even blackmailed in his time.
Ten years after his demise and over half a century after he brilliantly presented facts on the reality of our multicultural and heterogeneous complications at Aburi, Ghana, the very points he advised on, which were rejected and thrown away in preference for military conquest, are still haunting the land, till date.
Everything he said about my country plays out every day before my eyes. The actions of the people he said had a feudal mindset and paranoia at the same time, keep confirming his words, even long after he’s gone. Reasons he suggested power devolution at Aburi, becoming obvious for all to see.
As he analysed the possible scenarios that may play out in the land, 15 to 20 years ago, they seemed improbable, stranger than fiction, but the feeling of de javu, that gives you goosebumps, makes you so uncomfortable, at the near perfect predictions, only confirm that he understood the country so well, no wonder, everything was done to blackmail him, mercilessly.
His words sounded improbable, his suggestions, unrealistic, but time has vindicated him. He graciously answered all my probing questions. Kindly shared the probable behaviour of future leaders. And patiently explained why it had to be so.
He prophetically shredded the mystery of power and greed. He explained the meeting point between paranoia and tyranny. Why despots usually act out of paranoia and feeling of inadequacy. Why insecure folks should not hold power, and why allowing a level playing field for all, makes some people feel insecure.
As the things he said may happen, are unfolding daily, even though they sounded stranger than fiction when he spoke those words years ago, I am forced to believe that even his worst fears on the nature of restructuring the country may eventually happen on, may yet actually come to pass. He said the very people whose nepotistic actions will heat up the polity and divide the land, will use the powers of their office to shift the blame to the actual victims of their actions, even as they present themselves as angels.
He truly predicted today. He said that some rulers will interestingly, fully depend on and trust Tucano jets and military operations to hold the land together instead of using justice and equity to cement mutual trust and camaraderie needed to grow patriotism and love for the nation needed to unify and prosper the land.
He said some people simply do not seem to believe that a fair and just people’s constitution, justice, equity, true federalism, devolution of power, fairplay, level playing field and granting every section a sense of belonging, are necessary ingredients for peace, unity, harmony and progress.
They will continue, he said, to trust in their ancient formula of conquest and domination;
That they will be struggling to hold the country together in the midst of offensive nepotism, impunity, dichotomy and oppression, trusting in the efficacy of multiple military operations, while muzzling free speech, using fear and intimidation.
He said it doesn’t prick their conscience that concentrating the headship of all military and security organisations to one section of the country and denying one particular region any of such offices, encourages loss of faith in the system and inspires discontent and agitation.
He knew their world view, that they do not agree that their insistence on ostracizing one particular region from the leadership of any arm of the security architecture, fuels bitterness and lack of interest from the people of that zone.
He said General Abacha tried to hold the country together without prioritising justice and equity and the country simmered until change came. He insisted the panacea remained equity and justice.
He knew the younger generation of his region would never accept any arrangement of permanent subjugation. He knew they would resist it. That wasn’t all he said.
He actually clarified why the political class from our region seem scared to present their case in order to seek true resolution of the crisis and will even do everything to avoid being drawn into the intrigues surrounding the agitation rocking the land.
He understood the weak position of our political class. He knew more than anyone dead or alive the underlying causes of the agitation. He knew that though it was bound to be, that the central government and the political elite of the region would certainly misdiagnose the situation.
I saw it all play out. I saw the leadership of the region erroneously assuming they fully understoid the dynamics of the agitation, while it was obvious they didn’t.
I saw them reject and shun every sincere advice to engage the agitators earlier in the day. I saw the mistaken belief that the agitation would be crushed in weeks. I saw them mock every suggestion to invite and engage the agitators in order to identify and address their grievances.
I was particularly blackmailed for insisting that listening to their grievances instead of shooting them was the way to go. I was tagged their mentor and their supporter.
The same people who believed four years ago that operation python dance was the answer, have now suddenly woken up to the stark reality that engagement would have healed the land six years ago.
They stubbornly refused wise counsel just like my leader said they would, until they saw that they couldn’t even stop the Monday sit-at-home shutdowns and that the nation’s economy beginning with the currency exchange rate, will soon become a direct casualty of the agitation, despite pretences to the contrary.
They obstinately refused to do the right thing for years, until it became impossible to live in denial anymore.
And just like my leader said they would do, they are now hustling to find who to blame for their costly error of judgement.
When they ought to collate the grievances driving the agitation and act on them, they were busy with nocturnal meetings on 2023 elections and decamping to the ruling party and calling agitators miscreants and turning the security on activists crying they engage the agitators.
The truth is usually inconvenient and uncomfortable.
Sometimes stranger than fiction.
Now I know that the complexity of the situation is truly intricate and probably beyond the capacity of some to grasp.
The reality is truly stranger than fiction.
The leader who understood the DNA of his people, knew clearly that the younger generation of the people he led through a war of survival, would never accept a permanent humiliating condition of existence. He knew they would agitate for justice and equity.
He knew they would demand to restore their lost dignity and that the political class would not understand.
He said consistently that only justice and equity guarantees peace, harmony and progress.
Reminiscences of the long hours of analysis of the precarious Igbo question within the Nigerian project and some people’s arrogance of power that hopes to continue to resist the cries for justice and the demands for equity, only points me to one fact: There was a leader who knew what will play out, no wonder he drew Ralph close.
As I watch knowledge barrier and hubris inhibit and hinder wise counsel for too long, I can only lament, that the sad reality, is truly stranger than fiction.
