Email: ubochit@hotmail.de
Bonn, Germany
We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility (Rabindranath Tagore)The parents eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge'? (Ezekiel 18:2)
The thought that really crushes us is the thought of the futility of life of which death is the visible manifestation (Giacomo Leopardi)Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing (William Shakespeare)
After reading Azuka Onwuka's heart-rending masterpiece on the Asaba massacre (link below), I started soliloquizing, wondering why Lt. Col. Muritala Mohammed, assisted by Major Ibrahim Taiwo, and their men of the Second Division of the Nigerian Army, during the genocide called civil war, were so callous and evil to massacre unarmed Asaba civilians even when they declared they were for peace; pledged their allegiance to Nigeria; and renounced any support for Biafra?
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| The government that took over Nigeria after the failed first coup, but was sacked by the northern counter coup led by Muritala Mohammed, TY Danjuma et al: Head-of-State and Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Major-General Johnson Thomas Umunakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi (centre) with his Regional Military Governors from left to right; Lieutenant-Colonels, Hassan Usman Katsina (North), Francis Adekunle Fajuyi (West), Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (East) and David Akpode Ejoor (Mid-West), 1966 (Courtesy: Alex Otti) |
Then, I started looking for answers why the second battalion of the Nigerian army, under the leadership of Muritala Mohammed, isolated Asaba town, and why the Asaba people were marked out for elimination, afterall, Asaba is not inside the Igbo mainland? It then occurred to me that the calculated effort to massacre Asaba people was vindictive.
A year before the massacre, some junior army officers sacked the First Republic government of Nigeria through a failed bloody coup. One thing leading to another, few prominent Northern leaders were killed, and a military government was enthroned - the then Nigeria's Prime Minister, two Premiers, politicians and top ranking soldiers were killed, and that coup later led to that civil war of 1967-1970. The northerners termed that coup an Igbo one, despite the fact that the officers who carried it out came from all parts of Nigeria. The leader of that coup was Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, and was from Asaba. The massacre was a payback for Asaba for producing Nzeogwu who led the coup that killed some northern leaders.
In 2013, I wrote: The five majors, and their co-conspirators, decided to overthrow the civilian government of Tafawa Balewa because of corruption. Although the coup plotters had good intentions for Nigeria, but, this writer sees no justification for that coup or the other ones after it anyway, so the putsch shouldn't have happened, as it set Nigeria back, and it was misconstrued to be an Igbo coup, when it was meant to release Awolowo from Calabar prison and install him as the prime minister.
On Saturday, August 15, 2015, I wrote: The five majors, and their co-conspirators, who carried out the first coup knew then that the foundation of Nigeria was shaky and decided to strike in order to stop the country from going off the cliff, but, things failed to work out as planned for them. In an interview, granted to Dennis Ejindu in May 1967, which took place just before the start of the civil war, Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu said "As you know there is too much bitterness at present in the country, and in the past people had imagined that they could conveniently do without one another".The 1966 coup had good intentions, but, along the line things went wrong with
That January 15, 1966 coup, unfortunately set Nigeria into the downward spiral into the abyss it has continued to gyrate into uncontrollably. With the benefit of hindsight; if the 5 majors and co. knew that the coup would fail, they shouldn't have carried it out, because, it caused more problems than it intended to solve. Infact, most of Nigeria's problems now can be traced to that coup. The collateral damages from that coup might still lead to the collapse of Nigeria; if care is not taken (the signs are already there). But one thing that was clear is that the coup was never a tribally organized or a tribally oriented one, whether anybody believes that or not. Nzeogwu, during the interview quoted above, said: "… initially we knew quite clearly what we wanted to do. We had a short list of people who were either undesirable for the future progress of the country or who by their positions at the time had to be sacrificed for peace and stability. Tribal considerations were completely out of our minds at this stage.
But we had a set-back in the execution. Both of us in the North did our best. But the other three who were stationed in the South failed because of incompetence and misguided considerations in the eleventh hour. The most senior among them (Emmanuel Ifeajuna) was in charge of a whole brigade and had all the excuse and opportunity in the world to mobilize his troops anywhere, anyhow and any time. He did it badly. In Lagos, even allowing for one or two genuine mistakes, the job was badly done. The Mid-West was never a big problem. But in the East, our major target, nothing practically was done. He and the others let us down".
Chidi wrote in Nairaland: "For those of us who have been falsely claiming that the 1966 first military coup was led by Igbos to exterminate non Igbo leaders in order take over the country and branded it as an "Igbo coup" should go back to history and facts to help themselves out. This was the reason the whole country rallied against Igbos to wipe them out in a genocide. This is a malicious and cheap propaganda contrived to make their claims stick. But the more you try to bury facts and truth, the more the inconsistencies of your hypocrisy and lies continues to surface. You can never murder history. It's not possible! The truth is that, those who led the military putsch were motivated by the injustices, prejudice, nepotism and the lopsided nature of federal and military appointments the behemoths in power then were doing to subjugate and dominate others by force, arrogantly promoting one section over another. It was never an Igbo affair to find relevance as is being peddled. Now take a look at the list of the '66 coup plotters and render your own judgment;
Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu (Delta Igbo)
Major Adewale Ademoyega (Yoruba) author of "Why we struck"
Capt. G. Adeleke (Yoruba)
Maj. Ifeajuna (Igbo)
Lt. Fola Oyewole (Yoruba) author of "The reluctant rebel"
Lt. R. Egbiko (Esan)
Lt. Tijani Katsina (Hausa/Fulani)
Lt. O. Olafemiyan (Yoruba)
Capt. Gibson Jalo (Bali)
Capt. Swanton (Middle Belt)
Lt. Hope Harris Eghagha (Urhobo)
Lt. Dag Warribor (Ijaw)
2nd Lt. Saleh Dambo (Hausa)
2nd Lt. John Atom Kpera (Tiv)
So, to an unbiased observer, what evidence can one provide to show that Igbos actually carried out the coup in order to exterminate other tribes and take over the country? It is very easy to sell falsehood, but it is very difficult to provide facts to buttress your claims. It is now clear even to a suckling, that the imperialist genocidists crammed up this murderous lies against the Igbos to find reasons to perpetually keep them down. One even wonders why the Nigerian state and perpetrators of the gruesome genocide have been preventing the proper documentation of that episode for the benefits of her posterity. Terrible!!"Revenge, against Major Nzeogwu, was the only reason for the massacre perpetrated against the Asaba people. But how can a whole town pay for the "sin" of one man? I have maintained it that one must be careful of what he or she does in life, because "no sin goes unpunished", and "Karma's a bitch".
The three commanders of the Nigerian Army, during civil war, ordered their men to perpetrate genocide against the Igbos: They killed, maimed, starved and raped Igbo people, as the case may be. They also plundered Igbo land. But how did they end up? I have noted it, so many times, that there's nothing in life, and that power is futile. So, no matter how highly placed we're at any particular point in time, it shouldn't get into our head, rather we should show humility in all we do, because of "tomorrow". I agree with Joshua Becker that humility always begins in our heart. As a result, it offers significant control over attitude, outlook, and actions. It has nothing to prove, but everything to offer. The Bible, in Matthew 23:12, says that "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted", and, Saint Augustine warned that "It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels".
The three war commanders, who took pleasure in committing genocide against the Igbos, didn't end up well. Mohammed Shuwa, who commanded the First Infantry Division of the Nigerian Army, during the war, was killed, some years ago, in his own house in Maiduguri, by unknown gunmen, despite all the security in place to guard him; Muritala Mohammed, who commanded the Second Division of the Nigerian Army, during the genocide and who oversaw the massacre in Asaba, was dismembered with bullets (bullets were pumped into him), on February 13, 1976, in an abortive coup attempt, when his car was ambushed in traffic in Lagos; Benjamin Adekunle, black Scorpion, who commanded the Third Marine Division of the Nigerian Army, during the war, was ignominiously pushed out from the army, and he died as a wretched miserable man, few years ago.
Still on Muritala Mohammed: I noted in 2007 that as a head of state, his regime was one of the worst ever, although people who didn't really know what went on during that time erroneously saw it as one of the best. That he didn't last that long might have masked his real intentions. He had no reason to overthrow Gowon other than that Gowon was his junior when he became the Head of State in 1966. Mohammed was not the saint people thought he was; he was corrupt, he privatized a lot of multi-national corporations and the gains went to him and his friends. There wasn't much infrastructural development during his era. There was a lot of money then and he initiated the move to remove the capital from Lagos to Abuja. He set the stage for the corruption that is ravaging the Nigerian civil service, as he showed, by his actions of retiring people then without reason, that hardwork and honesty do not pay.
Someone, old2boy, wrote this: "He was a young military man who planned a counter coup with the aim of avenging the death of Northerners. He was bent on separating Northern Nigeria from the Republic. On being advised on the fact that the north would be the worse for it, he left in anger. Some years later, this same man lost most of Nigeria's armour to a band of men at Abagana. He abandoned the warfront, went to quarrel with his C-in-C and again left the stage in anger.
As Nigeria was developing, this same man came and destroyed the civil service. By sacking arbitrarily, he laid the foundation for others like him to seize power and for the workers to no longer believe in working for future gains. Because of his anger, his boys could not talk to him. They waited for him to simmer and sprayed him in their anger. MM was a man without foresight or understanding. Apart from coups, there is nothing else I know he planned and executed that marked him as a good man".
The point I want to make here is that we should be careful how we live our lives, no matter the position we find ourselves in, as those "who kill with sword will die through the sword; and those who kill with gun will die through the gun". The Christians do remember how Jesus Christ, in Matthew 26:52, admonished Peter by saying: "Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword". The saying "live by the sword, die by the sword" means that "what goes around comes around." More to the point, "if you use violent, forceful, or underhanded methods against other people, you can expect those same methods to be used against you." A person who lives violently will probably at some point be killed in a violent manner. Violence begets violence. Those who practice violence will come to violent ends.
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There is no respect for others without humility in one's self (Henri Frederic Amiel)Pride and vanity, the opposites of humility, can destroy our spiritual health as surely as a debilitating disease can destroy our physical health (Joseph B. Wirthlin)Our attitudes control our lives. Attitudes are a secret power working twenty-four hours a day, for good or bad. It is of paramount importance that we know how to harness and control this great force (Irving Berlin)
As noted in the preceding part of this article; the three Divisions of the Nigerian Army, during the war, were commanded by ruthless and merciless human beings; infact, those
commanders were sub-humans judging from their actions during that war, they had genocide tendencies. Out of the three, Muritala Muhammed had the worst genocide instinct, and he used it during his military onslaught. Dr. Luke Nnaemeka Aneke reminded us that apart from the Asaba Massacre, it was this same Muritala Muhammed and Theophilus Danjuma that oversaw the killing of over 300 Igbo Army officers and men from July 29 to August 1, 1966 (prior to the war).
Muritala Muhammed was not a war success story. Cols M. Shuwa of the 1st Infantry and Adekunle ("Black Scorpion") of 3rd Marine Commando respectively were more successful commanders. Suffice it to say that Muritala Muhammed, unlike the other two Commanders, was a failure at the battlefront. His act in Asaba was unimaginable; he massacred Igbo males there, and he wanted to wipe out the entire Asaba people. In Onitsha he met his match. He tried, at least twice, to take Onitsha, but was beaten back, and he took in heavy casualties. He then assembled the greatest motorized army at the time, and tried again to take Onitsha from the northeast. The result was even more crushing: The famous "Abagana Ambush". The devastation was so intense that many wondered if there was more to it than just fighting a war. Biafrans were determined to make him pay for what he did to their Asaba brothers and sisters. But he miraculously escaped and was later airlifted away from the complete carnage.
I will tell you what happened to Muritala Muhammed in Abagana: When Muritala was cornered there, he was almost killed there. He ran, and one man from Abagana took Muritala in and hid him in his house. When the Biafran soldiers pursuing Muritala came to the house and asked the man whether he saw a Nigerian soldier around, this man lied, swore never to have seen anybody. Muritala was saved and was later airlifted out of Abagana by the re-enforcement that came to rescue him.
Now look at how nemesis works. I narrated this story in one of my articles in 2007, but for those who missed it then, let me narrated it again here: When Muritala Muhammed became the Head of State; he repaid this Abagana man who saved his life, during the war, with a job at the Nigerian office at the United Nations in New York. There in New York, the man and his wife had their children who were American citizens by birth. The first son of this man was a friend but much younger than me. Unfortunately, he died many years ago in New York; may his soul continue to rest in peace, Amen!
I came to know him through one of his maternal uncles, a Veterinary Doctor, who is also my friend since our UNN days, and was also in Germany before he left for California, USA.
I still mourn the death of a friend. This is a person that read English at UNICAL, in the mid 1990s, and after his Youth Service, he came to Germany to hustle, because his maternal uncle - my friend - was also here then. He stayed briefly at my place. Unfortunately, the German Police accosted him on the street, and not believing that his American Passport was genuine, took him in. It took the personal intervention of the then United States Ambassador to Germany to effect his release (I doffed my hat). With this sad experience, he decided to go over to New York, where he was born and where his mother was still living.
Then, two years later, I heard he died. The vehicle he was travelling in, with four of his friends, had an accident and caught fire, and they got burnt beyond recognition. This young man, more than two meters (more than 6ft) tall, handsome and a quiet, reserved person, went away, just like that, without even enjoying the fruits of his labour at UNICAL. What a loss!
What I am saying in effect is that Muritala Muhammed and his men were killing the Igbos, but, one Igbo man, from Abagana, had the gut to save his life, when the death of Muritala Muhammed would have changed the whole war game. If Muritala Muhammed was captured and killed in Abagana, Biafra would have succeeded, because the entire Nigerian forces would have been demoralized, and Biafran Forces would have capitalized on that to achieve the emancipation of their people.
Muritala Muhammed was saved by the father of this my late friend for whatever reason(s) I still can't fathom. Muritala Muhammed had nothing with him when he ran into hiding in this man's house. From there he was able to call for reinforcement and was airlifted to safety to re-arm and to continue his quest to wipe the Igbos out. Nemesis comes to those who asked for it. I remember what I went through during the war as a child. The ugly memories are still haunting me uptill date, but a family in Abagana deemed it right to be the "savior" of one of the main protagonists of that genocide.
I will not name names here to avoid reopening old wounds. What I am saying is that we all have to be careful with our attitudes, because the repercussions might not come up immediately. My people say "it's not the time that a tree was cut (down), that it withers". Nobody should, for any reason, sacrifice the emancipation or safety of his people on the altar of greed or pity or selfish aggrandizement. The man with a gun advancing towards you is not coming for a picnic.
While we blame the Nigerian Army for the genocide against the Biafrans, we should also condemn the attitude of this Abagana man who saved Muritala Mohammed who oversaw the Asaba massacre, and was one of the commanders of the Nigerian Army that carried out the genocide against the Igbos. Also, we should condemn the Igbo saboteurs, who betrayed the cause then by sabotaging the efforts made to win the war. Those saboteurs helped in derailing the actualization of Biafra; some of them were those given money to buy weapons for the Biafran army then, but, they absconded with the money or supplied guns without the magazines (ammunition cases). Some other saboteurs were those who torpedoed the Biafran effort by crossing over to the other side or by passing sensitive information to the Nigerian side for pecuniary gain. These saboteurs never said why they betrayed their kith and kin at that critical juncture in their history. If all those who betrayed Biafra, in any way, didn't do it, many of the more than three million Ndiigbo who were slaughtered, in one way or the other, by the Nigerian forces, would have survived. Who knows?
May I also condemn the attitude of the governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha; he's a modern day saboteur. He has bought up Owerri for himself, his family and his friends. His family now owns Imo State. I heard that you can drive more than 20 kilometers within his private residence in Owerri. The worst is that he has just unveiled a statue of Jacob Zuma, the estranged president of South Africa, at a price of about N500 million, when he owes civil servants in his state for about eight months, and haven't paid pensioners there for almost a year also. What was the sense behind that Zuma's statue? What the governor did was a first class stupidity.
Azuka Onwuka ended his piece by noting that those who murdered defenceless civilians in Asaba have never been reprimanded in life or in death, neither has Nigerian government acknowledged that its troops massacred its citizens without provocation is a dent on Nigeria's image. It is never late to do a good thing.
Apologizing for the massacre in Asaba and the genocide against the Igbos will be the start of the healing process, just as David Petraeus (1962) said that "There is nothing I can do to undo what I did. I can only say again how sorry I am to those I let down and then strive to go forward with a greater sense of humility and purpose". I concur with Onwuka and Petraeus, and in one of my article, I wrote that although the genocide "ended" in 1970, but still, Ndiigbo are living through psychological and political genocide till today. Some Nigerians, from other tribes, still see the ascendancy of an Igbo man as the president of Nigeria, as a dream that will fizzle when the morning comes.
Imagine a northern bigot, who was a Second Republic lawmaker, Dr Junaid Mohammed, alleging that Igbos are using the agitation for Biafra to blackmail the North into conceding the 2019 presidency to them. Speaking with THE SUN recently, Mohammed said Nigerians will not vote for Igbo because they "are being irresponsible." He said, "Now, the Igbo are clamouring for an additional state, one of the reasons they are now talking about Biafra, even though the real reason is that they want to blackmail the North, to concede presidency to them. By this means, they will never get any hope for presidency because democracy is a game of numbers. You cannot tell people to vote for you because you are being irresponsible. You caused the civil war that claimed over one million people, you will now come back and demand as a right that you must have a president.
Let me make it clear to Dr Junaid Mohammed, and all those thinking like him, that Igbos are not interested in Nigeria's presidency any more. All we want is the restructuring of the country, so that we can revert to the regional system of government, where each region will develop at its own pace, and will contribute to the centre based on its ability. If restructuring becomes impossible, the Igbos will have no other option than to support the call for the peaceful dissolution of the entity called Nigeria, as a last resort
Finally, Nigeria should apologize and atone for the atrocities its forces committed in Asaba, and in the whole of Igbo land. Just as I wrote before: monuments should be erected to the slaughtered Ndiigbo, in all major Igbo cities, with the inscription "tomb of the unknown". Then, every year, churches should hold commemorative services in honour of the dead Igbos. All these will put the spirit of the dead, whether from Asaba or from the Igbo mainland, at rest. This atonement coupled with the eradication of injustices and inequalities from the landscape, through the restructuring of the entity, would then bring positive changes, and Nigeria will then be the great country it's supposed to be. Until the dead are appeased, Nigeria will continue to fail.
TIT BITS
https://thewhistler.ng/story/asaba-massacre-seeking-healing-50-years/
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