Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko
53 There are far too many underlying facts that cannot be made public. Some of them, responsible for most of the actions and inactions of both the authorities, and the agitators. Some of these facts hidden from the public, are also responsible for the behaviour of regional leaders today. It is very tricky to hint at them, without offending or denigrating certain prominent individuals. For these and other reasons, I have kept silent for years now. The determination to monitor the orient aggressively, soon after the civil war, threw up a culture, hidden from the general public, of certain “friends” of the authorities, who report and inform on the activities of any group or individual, that bother on mobilising Ndigbo, especially the youth, for whatever purpose. These individuals, who range from active politicos, to ex this and ex that, in the society, do not see themselves as informants. They see themselves rather, as contributors in safeguarding and protection of the political space, from what they term possible subversive activities of trouble makers. You will never know about their discreet activities, unless you are sincerely and uprightly mobilising the masses, especially the youths. Then, will you inevitably come in conflict with them. They are everywhere armed with powerful binoculars, searching and prying over every meeting.
54 They first draw close to you, pretending they are impressed and interested in your activities, then move to earn your trust and confidence while dutifully reporting back to certain quarters, all they think about you and your group. They don’t bother themselves with mercantile organizations, singing the praises of politicians, strewn all over the place, a penny a dozen, angling for any one who will foot their bills and they do or say whatever you want. Such groups, without vision, honour and integrity, who are actually in the majority, and constitute the bulk of Igbo groups and organisations, making noise all over place, are seen as harmless. These “agents” have no interest in them. They believe such hustling groups are no threat, and could also be easily used, as long as the pay is right, as they don’t believe in anything. They only closely monitor Ideology-driven committed to uplifting the people, or any group or individual, that has shown both commitment and consistency over many years. Such groups and individuals, become subject of interest. The damage the activities of these agents, did to the psyche of the country, and their advise and suggestions that set the stage for the misdiagnoses of the agitation, is huge. They embedded and sandwiched their interests and pecuniary needs in all information they passed on. Even though they remain dislocated and very distant from the agitators, yet they claim they are in charge of the political space and the only ones qualified to give opinion. They actually messed up and frustrated every opportunity to resolve the problem, earlier than now.
55 Because they have traditionally given useful and credible information in the past, especially during the military era, their opinion, seem to carry some weight. Their error, will complicate and muddle up, what could have been quite easily resolved by inviting and listening to the agitators, quickly attending to their grievances and rolling out massive skill acquisition programmes for the youths, initiating youth-friendly proposals and and reassuring the aggrieved youngsters, that their complaints will be looked into, one by one. But no, these fellows chose, out of hubris, to offer wrong and uninformed advice to the authorities, over time. There aren’t as many such similar friends of the authorities and informants in other regions, because they didn’t fight and loose a war. Moreover, when you maltreat a region, you’d expect voices of complaints to rise from the oppressed region, therefore the need to rigorously monitor them arises. In my region, they are legion. You get to know about their existence, only if you are a committed activist and as such, subject of interest. They pretend they are committed Igbo men, who truly care about the interest of Ndigbo. They even struggle for leadership position. But their hearts and loyalty elsewhere. Their stomach is the main thing, and anyone with power and cash, their God. My silence over their activities is predicated on two points. One, I have no interest in rocking the boat or shaking the table, and I don’t want to rubbish any individual or frighten the people, especially rookies in activism.
These unofficial advisers, clearly misled the authorities. They were only interested in identifying what they thought was the likely preferred strategy of the central government, and merely provided information along that line, just to remain in the good books of the powers that be. They never altruistically studied the situation, never tried to earn the confidence and trust of the agitators, didn’t even want to be seen or meet with them, yet they claimed they knew everything about the agitation. Sad.
56 The meddlesomeness and interference of these guys, really shaped the attitude and response of the central government to the agitation. Non of the people saddled with the responsibility of handling the issue knew, that the strategy they were applying, would only lead to the present situation. Again, the leaders bluntly refused to face reality and modify or adapt to fluid situations. For instance, after the huge frightening mammoth crowds that protested in the East, between late 2015 and early 2016, one would have expected our leaders to note that the storm this time was unique, peculiar and very different from anything seen before then, and therefore demanded a totally different approache. Did they?
Look at this. When Nnamdi visited me in Enugu, just days after his release from Kuje prison in May 2017, I took him straight to the residence of Ohanaeze President General, Chief Nnia Nwodo. He wasn’t home, I called him and he said he was in the US, I told him I brought Nnamdi to him. He and Nnamdi spoke for the very first time with my phone, while Nnamdi and I were standing right in front of his house. When he returned, again I took Nnamdi to him. They had a fruitful and productive meeting, exchanged numbers and even had one on one alone.
Few weeks later, Nnamdi ordered what is now recorded in history as the most successful sit-at-home on 30th May 2017, a development that shook the country to her foundations. And precipitated a strange response seven days later. A quit notice for Ndigbo to vacate the North, Nnamdi called me late one night to lament what he termed betrayal by Igbo elders and leaders. He said he ordered the sit-at-home that inspired the quit notice that is quaking the land. He said he just saw on TV, Igbo leaders meeting with acting President Osinbajo and they were talking about appointments into Buhari’s government. He complained bitterly about being treated with contempt and disdain by Igbo leaders. He argued that since his sit-at-home order, spurred the quit notice that made the invitation and meeting in the presidential villa possible, that he would have thought Igbo leaders would have informed him about the meeting and sought his views and grievances of his group. He believed therefore, they were only interested in hijacking his struggle to seek for accommodation in Buhari’s government. I calmed him down and promised to speak with Chief Nwodo.
57 Early next morning, I called and narrated to Ohanaeze President all Nnamdi complained about. He told me it was Senator Ken Nnamani, who called him and asked him to bring Ohanaeze representatives from each of the Igbo states for the meeting. I relayed his explanation to Nnamdi, who clearly wasn’t satisfied. He believed they would have asked for his contribution and the grievances driving the agitation, if they were sincere about seeking resolution. He concluded they were vicious opportunists, hustling to use his agitation to feather their nests. That is where the gulf between Nnamdi and Igbo leaders widened. Another one, was during operation Python dance that destroyed the peace process of 30th August 2017, with the military assault at his home a fortnight after the meeting, and on the eve of the concluding meeting. Again, he believed the authorities and the leaders had no interest whatsoever in engaging the agitators. He believed they were only interested in militarily crushing the agitation and nothing else. These loss of confidence and lack of trust, coupled with the activities of unofficial advisers, more than anything else, created the misdiagnoses that deepened and convoluted the crisis. Finally, another, was the insistence that only denigrating and disparaging the agitators and the agitation, would silence them. The refusal to ever listen to and draw up their grievances, gave the agitators the impression that there are no plans whatsoever to ever grant them justice. And that frightened them, thereby deepening the agitation. Again, barefaced lies, that people only obey the sit-at-home order, out of fear of being attacked by enforcers of the sit-at-home. Truth is: The most successful sit-at-home on 30th May 2017, four and half years ago, happened before ESN or any enforcers whatsoever, became part of the arrangement. It was obeyed and complied with one hundred percent, without any enforcers. The percentage of those obeying out of fear, are insignificant. That narrative of people only complying and obeying out of fear, is designed to ridicule and degrade the popularity of the agitators in the region. That is unhelpful in the search for resolution.
These were some of the underlying factors, that grew the agitation. Mistakes, if you will, by folks who don’t have history of ever acknowledging they made mistakes.
To be CONTINUED.
