Barely a week after northern state governors toured Southeast and Southsouth states calming nerves in the wake of unrest, Igbo leaders have returned the gesture, VINCENT OHONBAMU reports from Gombe
After members of Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) clashed with the military in Abia State, and with some northern residents of Rivers State, northern state governors did their best to head off reprisals and save the country a possible second civil war. In Jos, Plateau State, where a clash reportedly claimed two lives, Governor Simon Lalong declared a curfew. His counterparts in other states of the region also mounted a spirited peace campaign. Not done, they headed southwards where they addressed northern residents of Abia and Rivers states, stressing that they were safe where they were and that no war was afoot.
It worked. Tension eased, helped in part by the proscription of the secessionist group, and the Southeast governors’ constant appeal to their people.
To bolster what the northern governors did, Ohaneze Ndigbo, the apex socio-cultural organisation of the Igbo, headed north with peace on their mind.
In Gombe, the Gombe State capital, President-General of Ohaneze, Chief John Nnia Nwodo went down memory lane to remind everyone of the ugliness of war.
He said, “I have come here because we are in unusual times in our country. The times we are in remind those of us who were old enough of 1966. In 1966, when our military leaders were unable to resolve [issues] on governance in Nigeria, there were frayed passions; the coup had happened, the counter-coup had happened, both characterised by the press as sectional.
“And the Army which was supposed to make a unifying call for the defence of our country became divided along ethnic lines. Rhetoric became so heated and war broke out.
“Where I come from in the Southeast, we lost over three million people during the war – 1.5million died in combat or air raids, one million people died of starvation and one million children who were sick of kwashiorkor and were flown out to neighbouring African countries without documentation never returned. Nigeria lost one million children she cannot reclaim anymore.
“Statesmen of our age who had witnessed such catastrophe will have questions to answer before God if at this point in time we allow differences of opinion as to how Nigeria will be governed to arouse tempers to the point where we become so uncivilised as to plunge ourselves into another catastrophe.”
The former Minister of Information and his team who had been on tour of northern Nigeria said the organisation conceived the idea of the visit before Operation Python Dance II and the visit of the Nigerian Northern Governors’ Forum to the Southeast.
But the fact that the northern governors were in the East before Ohaneze’s visit indicates that both parties were “two people sleeping in the same bed, dreaming the same dream,” said Nwodo who flew into Gombe from Kano on Friday to see the governor and residents of the state, including the Igbo community.
His mission was simple: to deliver a message of assurance from the chief executives, traditional rulers and leaders of Southeast states that “all non-Igbos who live in the Southeast of Nigeria will be protected with every available protective tool” and that “the South-easterners will be their brothers’ keeper.”
The mission was also to seek the same assurances from the governor and people of the state as well as cooperation in dousing tempers across the country and achieving a more united and indivisible country.
The elder statesmen in pursuance of their peace mission are visiting one state in each of the three geopolitical zones of the North. They were in Sokoto and Kano in the northwest because of the high density of Igbo population in Kano, and would be proceeding to Jos from Gombe
He said they chose Gombe because it is the hub of the Northeast, the understanding and national exposure of its leadership and the belief that he has the ability, the sagacity and the patriotism to carry the peace message throughout the Northeast Nigeria.
He said, “As long as this political impasse lasts, which we think will not be long; we (South-easterners) will emulate what the Sultan of Sokoto said a few weeks ago, that, any northerner who wants to kill an Igbo man should first kill the Sultan.
“Our governors have told me say the same to the North that any Igbo man who wants to kill a northerner in Igbo land should first kill them as governors of the Southeast and I may well add as the leader of Igbo cultural organisation that they should also kill me first.”
The President-General of the Ohaneze Ndigbo’s visit is not just about dousing tensions but also spreading the message of an ideal Nigeria which projects unity, such as he witnessed as a youth.
Speaking further, Chief Nwodo said, “I am an example of what Nigeria could make in an individual. I grew up as a child seeing national unity dramatised in Enugu where I grew up. My father was a legislator in the Eastern House of Assembly, he was Minister under Dr. Azikiwe and Dr. Okpara with portfolios of commerce and industry and of local government. His party was the NCNC.
“At that time, Enugu Municipality was governed by a Mayor who was elected in Adult Suffrage by the residents of Enugu City. My father’s party, the NCNC, sponsored a Katsina man, Alhaji Umaru Altini to vie for the Mayor of Enugu. We sang NCNC song for Umaru Altini, he beat other contestants flat and became Mayor of Enugu.
“The Accountant-General then was a Yoruba man; the Private Secretary to the Government of Eastern Nigeria was Mr. John Umolu from Agenebode in what is now Edo State.
“People really didn’t care where you came from. That is the Nigeria that I was brought up in. We could still go back there.”
The Igbo leader also appreciated the northern governors for soaking up the tension so far, saying: “Your Excellency, I have come to thank your government because we’ve had flashpoints on the basis of hate speeches, on the basis of stories that are either truthful or very, very untruthful and exaggerated of lynches here and there.
People have taken the law into their hands and attempted to retaliate and kill innocent people, who had no relationship to whatever conflagration. The military’s abuse of their position that happened in various parts of Nigeria, innocent Nigerians are being shot – no godly person will take up arms against someone that has done nothing to you and the rest.
“Quite often, these situations have degenerated to chaos when elder statesmen have not had the courage to say enough is enough. We have come here Your Excellency to say enough is enough.
He said, “We (Nigerians) are the envy of West Africa, we are the envy of Africa, we are a shining star for Africa to the rest of the world.
“This country is gifted with diversity of so many cultures, so many gifts, so many enterprising characteristics, so much population; it is the envy of our adversaries that perhaps if we get our acts together, we could indeed be a pride to the whole world and there can be no question that no nation can grow without peace, without unity, without cohesion, without fear of God.
“We bring this plea at Gombe state government to help us to attain this perfection and in the meantime, to arrest this boiling temper all over the country, so that we do not degenerate into a catastrophe.
Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo was not around to receive the entourage. His deputy, Dr. Charles Iliya who did, said his principal, a few days earlier, called a meeting of traditional rulers, all security operatives in Gombe State, all religious bodies and gave them a message similar to Chief Nwodo’s
He appreciated the former Minister of Information for broadening the understanding of the younger people around by going historical “because it is only when you know history that you will avoid it if it is not a good one or if it is a bad one.”
“When people sometimes speak about the reasons why it seems Nigeria is not progressing, they do not include the devastating effects of the civil war.
“Quite a number of people feel that a repeat of [the civil war] will destroy Nigeria.”
Iliya said Governor Dankwambo was busy with other national assignments during the visit, but conveyed the governor’s message.
“The governor has told me to tell you in clear terms that he would do his best to make sure that Gombe State stay peacefully, and we will make sure that we will continue to do what we have been doing to make the state peaceful.
“In the history of Gombe State, we have never had a situation where a binding remark and a binding relationship has taken place as we are witnessing this afternoon
“He said in Gombe state, you are safe. If anything is to touch any non-indigene of Gombe state, let it start with the indigenes of Gombe state because we are together.
You have helped the economy of this state, you have helped the growth of this state, you have been a part and parcel of this state, we will never abandon you now. We are together with you
After listening to responses from Sokoto, Kano and Gombe Chief Nwodo quoted Shakespeare: There is no art to finding the mind’s construction in the face.
“But my interaction this time disputes Shakespeare because the mind’s construction on the faces of those I have visited have been so convincing, so persuasive and I would want to believe them rather than disbelieve them,” he said.
