History teaches in haste. The thoughts of history are understood in haste. It takes a sharp mind to understand her, solve her riddles, correct her mistakes, adhere and practice her thoughts. The result may be devastating if one fails in her tutelage. This history, itself, is each of these passing, little days. That of man is accentuated with war. Man’s fallibility, said N. Mandella, is always a part of war, and the price for it is always high.

“Why did Sir James Robertson not go home, like other people who are leaving?” Azikiwe made light of the question, “well, when he told me that he was going to stay on, I said to him, go on, stay as long as you like,” (Chinua Achebe). Robertson’s reluctance to go was in order to perpetuate the regional system of government proffered by his predecessors.

The regionalism was in favour of Lugard’s beloved North. The Nigerian Nationalists, after about four decades, persuaded Arthur Richard to change the political structure of the country but he declined it. He rather formulated the Richard’s constitution which is mere change of morphemes and syntaxes of Lugard’s. This led to the formation of the defunct National Council of Nigeria and Cameroun by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1944.

The conservative North, not satisfied with the Igbo-led NCNC and fear of domination, formed the Nothern People’s Congress in the late 40’s. These would later lead the legal luminary of the West, Obafemi Awolowo, to form the Action Group A.G. by 1951. The three parties would comprise the regional parties as contained in the act of “federation” of Lyttleton constitution of Regional Autonomy of 1954 in view of the 1957 federal election – the first in Nigeria.

The manipulation of the 1957 election by the British mercenaries saw the NPC leader, Tafawa Balewa – the son of their beloved region, as the Prime Minister. The seed of aggression was sown in the victims, the leaders, especially the Igbo, of the NCNC – their son is double-crossed! The Hausa were happy; their son was “elected”, the Yoruba were happy; the Igbo domination instinct is checked. Our “happiness” would be our doom when James Robertson stepped down and Nnamdi Azikiwe was appointed the “Ceremonial Governor-General” in 1960.

Immediately the Union Jack was lowered for the Green-White-Green to be hoisted, Nigeria’s problems began. The NPC accepted a coalition government with the NCNC and AG as the official opposition party in the first republic which would be a Trojan horse. The NPC had their brother, the Northern Party, “Nigerian” National Alliance that won the insolent and ill victory during the 1963 election, as contained in the Republican Constitution of 1963, through the instrumentality of the suspected British ally, Harold Smith. The Southerners were relieved of their posts and replaced by the Northerners. A civil war was caught by the tail.

The preaching of the NCNC: The rejection of the Regionalism of Richard’s constitution of 1944 for a united nation in 1946 and the NCNC Trade Union’s 44-day strike in 1945 (the first in the country) would earn the Southerners the enmity and hostility of the British High Commission. The myopic North that couldn’t read the handwriting on the wall (the parasitic intent of the British Regionalism) would gain through feudalism, the allocation of the two-third of the Nigeria’s land mass and the British “imperialism makes its victims its defenders, the famous divide and rule principle” –oligarchy.

 The unjust domination of the Northerners in the key positions of the country, their corrupt leadership and lack of transparency and accountability of their government led the right-wing Marxists and radicals, Kaduna Nzeogwu and Emmanuel Ifeajuna, plot the coup d’état of 15th January, 1966. This marked the end of the first republic which swallowed Tafawa Balewa’s head, the illustrious Northerner. This alleged “Igbo Coup” infuriated the Northerners and the victims, The Igbo; they were innocent of the allegation.

Aguiyi Ironsi dug his grave on 24th May, 1966 at the unification page of Decree 34. The Northerners dread that word. Like Azikiwe, Ironsi advocated for One Nigeria, Peace and Unity in the Decree 34 of 1966. This would be suicidal! He was murdered, in cold blood, together with the Western Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi during the Retaliation Coup of 28th July, 1966. What could have happened if the Yoruba reacted with a counter coup as the Northerners since Fajuyi was assassinated? A sharp knife has been put across the thin thread that held us together. The Nation’s unity would meet at cross-roads with disaster.

Yakubu Gowon, through the aid of the Northerners and the British High Commission, usurped the throne suppressing Brigadier Ogundipe, the next in Rank to Ironsi on 29th July, 1966. Emeka Ojukwu, the Ironsi-appointed Governor of the Eastern Region, objected Gowon’s leadership on practical and legal bases. Practically, Gowon cannot command the army; legally, he was not the next in Rank to Ironsi. Gowon disliked Ojukwu for this.

The above and subsequent points are the reasons that led to Gowon’s bitter hatred for Ojukwu. Between 1963 and 1964 when Ojukwu was the Quartermaster General of Nigerian Army, he conducted a meeting of soldiers under him in which the favour-seeking Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon ran to Gen. Welby Everard with a tale that Ojukwu was holding a political meeting. Gen. Everard rounded him for spreading alarmist rumour after an open discourse with Ojukwu. (Frederick Forsyth).

The 70 minutes speech of 29th July 1968 at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that earned him a standing ovation of the World Diplomats to the humiliation of Gowon’s delegate, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Ojukwu’s appearance on the front Page of the Times Magazine and the global recognition of Biafra would add two genocidal and blood thirsty battalion of Gowon’s army against the dying millions of Easterners.  

Ojukwu wanted to release Awolowo, the Leader of the Action Group, through the Partisan politics decree of Aguiyi Ironsi from Calabar Prison. Gowon who was the then Army Chief of Staff of Ironsi’s regime rejected the offer but Ojukwu won Ironsi’s approval for the release. Ojukwu released him immediately after the death of Ironsi. This hatred would cause the early death of about five million easterners. (Frederick Forsyth).

Ojukwu would not succumb to the demands of his Consultative Assembly to secede. Ojukwu would love a One-Nigeria. Ojukwu should have rendered his secessionist speech on these reasons: At the peak of the massacre, Emeka sent back the Northern soldiers residing in the east to their homelands. They were all armed escorted by the Eastern army in a train as agreed in the communiqué of 9th Aug. 1966 on Nov. 1966. But the eastern soldiers in the North were either sent away without arms or released from the prison and shot dead.

During the 2-month unjust, horrific and inhuman murder and massacre of the Easterners in the months of July and August, 1966, Gowon never uttered a phrase of sympathy. He rather proposed a national conference.

The Ad Hoc Constitutional Conference of 12th September, 1966 at Lagos would have created a path in the evil forest but would not scratch a blade. Within 18th and 24th September, there was random killing of the Easterners in the Northern Sabon Gari. Gowon dismissed the conference on this ground and sued for a unilateral rather than the proposed multilateral constitution thus becoming a baptized Dictator overnight. Of all these pogroms, carnage and butchery of the Easterners in the North by the Northerners and all over the countryside, Ojukwu was still optimistic about Nigeria’s unity.

The promulgation and execution of the Decree 8 of the March of 1967 would be the last straw. The four major communiqués of the 4th-5th January 1967 at Aburi Ghana: collegiate leadership now dictatorship, continuation of the dismissed conference now adjourned indefinitely, confronting the problems of the Eastern refugees, now illegal and paying the salary of the refugees of the Eastern Government employ up to 31st March 1967, now annulled, were all declared null and void by Gen. Yakubu. Ojukwu was stung. The opportunity for unity was once again shattered: the last chance? (Forsyth)

Ojukwu only made the Revenue Edict of 31st March. The Federal government should reconsider its decision. He still shoved the temptation to secession, as advised by his consultative assembly, away. Unless there is a blockade from the Federal Government on the revenue, Ojukwu will not secede.

Early in May, 1967, the deed was done. An open invitation to secession was delivered: All official communication with Lagos was frozen, The Eastern Regional Government’s Revenue and administration was disconnected from that of the Federal Republic. What next? The unconditional Surrender or nothing! The Republic of Biafra was declared on 30th May, 1967 -Eastern Region Secedes. The war began 37 days after the declaration on 6th July, 1967 and ended after horrible 859 days on 10th January, 1970. One would always imagine why Gowon and the entire nation didn’t descend on the Yoruba who threatened to follow the Igbo by the heel if they secede. May be his sheer hatred and envy for Ojukwu’s personality would be the base of his attack. Let me tell Ojukwu that he is no man!    

Coups d’état after Coups d’état saw through the three Republics. The dictates of 1979 and 1983 constitutions and constitutional conferences played a giant role here. The latter was the modification of the former. The 1979 constitution was costly to manage and made the then head of state, Shehu Shagari, a sort of a Dictator. The emergence of the 1999 constitution, which is still in use today, is a rehearsal of that same faulty, expensive and Dictatorial tenets of the 1979 constitution. Now, Goodluck Jonathan has called for a confab for a constitutional conference.

Of all the past Constitutional reviews and National conferences, which have been anchored on the discussions on power-sharing and authority dispensation, this present conference and that of 12th to 24th September, 1966 seem different; they discuss on the situation of the country. They were convoked in the same circumstance: there was a ruthless massacre of the Easterners in the North in 1966 by the Northern Political Tugs now there are the mindless attacks and bombings in the North by the Northern Religious fanatics like the bombing of St. Theresa Church of Madalla on 25th December 2012 –you know whom I mean. In 1966, there was a clamour for Secession by the wounded Igbo; in 2014, there are deafening shouts for the adoption of a Confederal System of Government. (Daily Sun, 28/2/2014)

 In 1966, the Eastern delegates argued for an egalitarian system of Government, that every tribe and region should be equal or secession power granted each region; in 2014 the Igbo propaganda of Prof. Ben Nwabueze led Ohaneze Ndiigbo insists that secession must be discussed in the confab. In 1966, precisely 24th September, Gowon unilaterally postponed the confab indefinitely due to the height of the massacre; in 2014 will Goodluck suspend the confab as the sect that bombed the UN secretariat in Abuja –you know whom I mean, is still refilling their weaponry and arsenal like the recent attack of Wednesday, February 26, 2014 that left 25 dead and 3 banks ablaze? (Daily Sun.) In 1967, Gowon nullified the agreements of Aburi: the last chance of a united nation; what would Goodluck’s decision after the confab be? There may be a possibility of a second Aburi since the first came at the indefinite postponement of the 1966 confab, who knows?

The only difference and perhaps the seed of hope is that Goodluck is a civilian and Gowon was a soldier.The successful track out of this confab is if these 3 major issues are discussed: 1. the quality of leadership: not based on academic qualifications only but also character-wise, independence of the judiciary and legislature. 2. Economic shift from only petroleum to other sectors like agriculture. 3. Checking and curbing of unemployment among the youth: the best way to tackle it. The Ojukwu’s Ahiara Declaration of 31st May, 1969 may be a better teacher to this end.(Chris Ekpenyong)

The next track is the option of the necessity of paradigm shift. The power shift of the response of the pan-Yoruba cultural-political establishment to the annulment of the June 12, 1993 victory of M.K.O. Abiola had led Nigeria through a tumultuous sea. The power shift of the 15 years of democracy has been a thorn in the flesh of unity. The paradigm shift will not only get the well educated elected but a person of proven character no matter the ethnic group. If this paradigm shift worked in Mexico (which transformed the Asian Tiger to a world market today) and other countries, I think it would work in Nigeria considering similar factors. (Chris Okotie) But if the confab was convoked for mere cozy fireside talks, seeking for political affiliation and seeking votes, posts and positions in the 2015 elections, then we are on the brink of imminent peril and doom.

The lesson from Arab Spring of violent revolution in the Middle Eastern countries like Egypt and Libya must be an extremist strategy and should be shunned. In a country where we have such a diplomat as Olusegun Obasanjo, who was the leader of the team of the Seven-Member Eminent Persons Group of the British Commonwealth in Nassau in October 1985, to South Africa for the peace talks between the government of South Africa and the citizens on the abolishment of aparthied which was a huge success. Let us consult the silent oracle; I think he has something to say.

Leaders of different ethnic groups, the quest for secession is a side of the same coin; one side is ethnic sovereignty the other  may be what? Igbo leaders seeking for confederation and secession, don’t you think it is a betrayal of our past heroes: Nnamdi Azikiwe’s NCNC prospects, Aguiyi Ironsi’s Decree 34 of national unity and abolishment of Federal for a unitary system of Government, Emeka Ojukwu’s refusal to kill the Northern Leaders when they alighted from the Boing 707 air plane at Kaduna after the commonwealth ministers’ conference on 15th February, 1966, his appointment of the Emir of Kano, at the peak of the massacre, the Chancellor of the would-be prestigious University Of Nigeria, Nsukka in June 1966 (this was the “retaliation” of the illegal dismissal of Professor E     ni Njoku from the University of Lagos as ger Vice Chancellor in 1964) and sending back the Northern soldiers residing in the east to their homelands in November, 1966.

Let’s look at our neighbour, South Sudan, the youngest country in the world that seceded from Sudan, the power rivalry between the president and the deputy exploded into a full blown civil war. Shall we fight again? God forbid! Let’s forgive the North their fathers did the deed not they, a sincere forgiveness will summon this unity we seek in a military dispatch.

One will always ask: why do seeds break up and decay before it germinates? We have broken and this is time to reunite. We have fought and now we want peace. Let’s borrow Gowon’s immortal words, though it is not of positive intent, don’t secede: you have got it all now, why settle for half? We have come too far for a farewell; the road needs our company, it’s lonely and the road ahead is too far for parting words.

Nonso Oha.