This is the summary of a letter to Ag. Pres. Osinbajo from five Northerners on why the Igbo should go:
Summary – We can’t live with the Igbos and the Igbos can’t live with us due to the conflicts before and after the Civil War and the ongoing threat of another conflict. As a result, the Igbos should be allowed to leave Nigeria.
Read the full letter here:
June, 19th 2017
His Excellency,
Professor Yemi Osinbajo,
Acting President,
Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Aso Rock Presidential Villa
Abuja
OPEN LETTER
Your Excellency,
APPRECIATION
On behalf of this coalition and all the peace-loving people of Northern Nigeria, we begin this letter by commending your efforts towards finding a lasting solution to the lingering Igbo-induced crisis that is undoubtedly overheating the polity.
We sincerely believe Your Excellency’s good intentions as shown by your prompt and genuine actions towards ensuring peace and stability in holding talks with leaders of the North and the South-East.
Though we do not doubt Your Excellency’s bona fide concerns for the peaceful resolution of the crises, we nevertheless have reservations as to the efficacy of this approach in ensuring lasting solutions.
Our doubts are informed by the following historical antecedents that have characterized the behaviour and conduct of the Igbo in Nigeria and previous efforts at containing them.
PAST EXPERIENCES
- The Igbo of Eastern Nigeria manifested their hatred for Nigeria’s unity barely five years after we gained our independence from the British when on January 15, 1966, their army officers carried out the first-ever mutiny that marked the beginning of a series of crisis which has profoundly altered the course of Nigeria’s history.
- By that ill motivated, cowardly and deliberate action, the Igbo killed many northern officers from the rank of lieutenant colonel upwards and also decapitated the Prime Minister and the political leadership of the Northern and Western regions but left the zenith of Igbo leadership at the Federal level and the Eastern region intact.
- In line with the Igbo plan, General Aguiyi-Ironsi took advantage of the vacuum and, instead of returning power to the remnants of the First Republic government, he appropriated the coup and attempted to consolidate it for his people.
- Army officers of the Northern Region were eventually compelled to execute a counter coup on July 29, 1966 following a coordinated series of brazen provocations from the Igbo who taunted northerners on northern streets by mocking the way leaders of the region were slain by the Igbo. This unfortunately resulted in mob action which resulted in the death of many Igbos.
- And when Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, from the North took over as Head of State following the counter coup, the Igbo through Lt. Col. Ojukwu, characteristically refused to recognize Gowon.
- Ojukwu declared the secession of the Igbo people from Nigeria and the formation of the republic of Biafra on May 30, 1967 resulting in a civil war that led to the tragic deaths of more than 2 million Nigerians.
- It is important to note here that the Igbo eventually capitulated and conceded defeat in an unconditional surrender, not an armistice, on January 15, 1970 which renders any talk about Biafra at any other time, a repudiation of the terms of that surrender signed by Phillip Effiong and other Biafran leaders.
BIAFRA REINCARNATED
- In a shot out of the blues, the Igbo have over the last 2 years regrouped and fiercely and openly started discussing Biafra again under Ralph Uwazuruike of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State Of Biafra MASSOB.
- This was given greater impetus by a more furious Igbo rogue group called the Indigenous People Of Biafra IPOB under Nnamdi Kanu who even operates an illegal radio station spreading hate and war messages across the nation, calling other ethnic groups all sorts of names and threatening them with violent extermination.
- The activities of the Igbo under Kanu’s IPOB has grown exponentially ranging from ordering people of other regions out of the South East – particularly the Yorubas and Hausa /Fulani from the South West and the North respectively, to open declaration of the amassing of arms and forceful total shutdown of the entire South-East.
- KANU and IPOB have declared full allegiance to a “Republic of Biafra” and continue to preach hatred and war virtually every day, and not for once did any Igbo leader call them to order. Instead, many of the leaders including Mr Ike Ekweremadu, the deputy senate president, the most senior elected Igbo, pay Kanu courtesy calls to prove that he is speaking for the entire Igbo. It is glaring to all that Kanu has serially breached all the terms of his stringent jail conditions in total disregard to the sanctity of our justice system.
- Even the latest statement by the South-East Governors Forum signed by Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State in a response to the Northern reaction, did not condemn Kanu and Uwazuruike but characterised their action as “peaceful”.
- While all this is going on, neither the Igbo political and cultural leaders nor other regional leaders of the North or West nor the international community or any religious body ever found it necessary to call these renegade groups to order or in the very least admonish their leaders to do so. More: http://www.premiumtimesng.com
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I want to tell you why this Northern group’s approach won’t solve the real issue, which is lack of a proper system of government.
1. Biafra wanting to leave Nigeria is not a new phenomenon. Our fore forefathers grew up, married and died among their tribes. Commingling with other tribes was very little and only in the area of business. So we are very tribal.
2. We have always fought and conquered other tribes. In fact, slave trade thrived because tribes conquered and sold their enemy tribes. Tribal conflicts began since time immemorial and will continue if we keep emphasizing tribal affiliation over individual rights as a way of organizing a government.
3. Biafra therefore, is a weakness in our ability to figure out how to live with other tribes peacefully, a method advanced countries like the United States and Canada figured out (still experimenting) and is working out good for them.
4. If Biafra go today, tomorrow would be another group until every tribe has its own country.
Therefore, we have three options in my opinion:
1. Continue killing each other
2. Let every tribe form their own country, if there’s any one of us left
3. Adopt a proven method of organizing a country that actually works
Let me tell you a little about option 3.
The ultimate question is, for example – can an Igbo man live peacefully with a Hausa man and vice versa, while each one of them pursues his own life’s goals?
1. Yes. The United States has more tribal groups than Nigeria. 800 languages spoken in New York City alone yet New Yorkers aren’t waging war against each other. These 800 languages include a sizable number Igbos, Hausas, Yorubas and many more. French and English speaking people of Canada is another example. The list goes on.
2. The system under which these different people live in Canada and the United States is what I call True Federalism and we have never lived together in such a system in my opinion (Yes, the regional system of 1963 is better than the 1999 Constitution but not close to True Federalism).
3. Our best and only viable option is to create an environment that promotes freedom in which people are allowed to determine their own future in their respective states according to individual rights. This is what I called True Federalism.
So what is True Federalism?
1. It is a system that allows individuals the freedom to live their lives in any manner they like for as long as they do not attack the freedom of others. This means an Igbo man can freely live with other Igbo people or any other tribe; have rights to his or her land and its mineral resources; participate in his religion of choice; own his life and fruits of his labor and the government protects his rights to do those things.
2. To install True Federalism, the magic trick is to limit the powers of government to only those that protect your freedom – defense, police, courts, providing substitute for market failures and laws protecting children and the disabled. The bulk of these limited functions must be assign to the federating units (states, regions etc) while the federal retains just a few.
To conclude:
1. The problem isn’t that we cannot live with each other but because we have a system of government that is preventing people from using their God givenpotential to their own ends and as such we blame one another for our failures.
2. I call on the Igbos, Hausa/Fulani and any other tribal group in Nigeria to not go the way of advocating separation based on tribe as it would not solve the actual problem. South Sudan is an example.
3. The actual problem is lack of a system that promotes freedom. Learn more here https://amdankore.wordpress.com/2017/06/03/what-is-wrong-with-the-1999-constitution/
Adamu Muhammad Dankore
adamu.dankore@gmail.com
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