Chief Goddy Uwazurike is the immediate past President of Aka Ikenga, the Igbo intelligentsia group. He believes that the Igbo are not being treated fairly in the country. In this interview with Vincent Kalu, he reechoed the marginalization of the South East zone and joined the cacophony of voices that condemned the recent quit notice to the Igbo by the Arewa youths.
The polity is overheated, why?
It is overheated because those who are supposed to take control have not taken control; they allowed things to get out of hand. We are in a country where we were observing June 12, no problem and nobody is accusing anybody and a couple of days ago, the Igbo observed sit-at- home and some people are shouting and screaming, including a- 65 year-old youth leader, from Kaduna. He has given the Igbo quit notice and nothing has been done. The same police and the same DSS that pounced on Igbo youth talking about Biafra have looked the other way, not withstanding the statement by the IG of Police, many things are wrong.
Definitely, we are in a rudderless situation.
Why do you say we are in a rudderless situation?
We elected somebody the president and he has handed over to the acting president, and something tells me that the acting president is not fully in charge. The Professor, Yemi Osinbajo, who is a renowned lawyer, an astute academic and a religious man will not be a party of any disloyal act. Disloyal, because anytime somebody gets up to challenge any tribe to say, “we give you quit notice”, in other words those people are telling them that you are not part of us. In the layman’s language, quit notice is given to a tenant by a landlord.
So, if a tribe made up of a 65-year-old youth leader and others, the flotsam and jetsam, could give the Igbo quit notice, then they are telling us that they own this country.
They don’t own this country, they are just rabble-rousers; they are nothing but guns sounded by those hiding in the bushes.
In a biblical language, we say that is the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau. Those people are playing games, what I will call dance macabre – who will die and who will not die, nobody knows. They are dancing at the edge of a precipice and that is something no reasonable man will wish for this country.
The IGP and even Governor El- Rufai of Kaduna State said those behind the Kaduna declaration should be arrested and nothing has been done in this direction. Not quite long, Yoruba and Hausa fought in Ife, about 53 Yoruba allegedly involved in the fight were arrested and taken to Abuja, while the other party was left, doesn’t it suggest that they are the landlord?
It means they are misusing the powers entrusted in them. Those people in power today are mere occupiers of the seat of office, and how they are handling it we are seeing.
When the IPOB boys between 18 and 25 years old, those calling for Biafra, were demonstrating peacefully, they were visited with heavy arms; even when Donald Trump won election in the US and they were jubilating in Port Harcourt, the security agencies descended on them, locked them up and took them to court.
The Ife you are talking of, they also showed the Yoruba that they could also come to the Oracle, the cradle of Yoruba civilization and do what we want, and if you talk we deal with you. That is what they have demonstrated.
Those people, some of them are youths; one that is 65 years to go to the hallowed chambers of the Arewa House, the seat of Northern power to address press conference first day, the second day even by the threat of the governor to arrest them and then on the third day, to address the press conference, we know that we are just making a lot of motion but no movement.
I don’t think that anybody believed that the order of the Kaduna State governor would be obeyed. When the IGP also came out to say a lot of things and made some claims, many of us knew that nothing would be done. In the case of Biafra agitators, and in the case of the Ife crisis including the woman who was even attacked, the police moved with unusual efficiency.
So, as nothing has been done to them including Ahmed Sule, who addressed the press today (June 12), then we know that nothing will ever be done. Let me sound this note of warning that the Igbo are watching to see what somebody will do under the area of criminal law to prosecute those people, first for hate speeches, and thirdly for inciting people. When you want to give a quit notice and somebody refuses to pack, then you find a way of ejecting him. After quit notice, what follows is ejection.
Therefore, it is threat to our lives and where the government of Nigeria fails to do what is needed, we will proceed to the International Criminal Court (ICC). It is a hate crime, and one of the things that will qualify to go there is because the government of Nigeria has failed or refused to act.
We will not be the first to go there, others are going there; I’m also aware that others have gone to the United States to challenge the Chief of Army Staff and so on over the things he is doing, but we who are the victims of this plot will not standby and watch. We will take proactive action, but first the meaningful one is ICC, and when that starts, all them will find that they have nowhere to hide.
I’m glad that some of those who are sponsoring them have come out to defend them. One is a former Vice Chancellor who has no value for human lives, who made that nefarious comment that only four students were killed during students riot, as if four students were not bad enough. The man shamelessly came out to side them. The other person is my friend, we were together at the 2014 National Conference and I’m shocked to see him talking in this way. You can’t hunt with the dog and run with the hare. As far as I know, he has stated his stand, Igbo must go and we say, no. The Igbo man will not go; the Igbo man will live anywhere he wants, and if you try to eject us, we take up a defensive action.
Is history repeating itself? In 1967 there was a crisis in the North, Igbo left North for their homes an there was a sort of truce and the Igbo were asked to return to the North, and within a short time, pogrom took place. Today, a quit notice has been issued and truce is being brokered, what is your advice to the Igbo this time?
They should read the book, “ The Man Died” by Prof Wole Soyinka, if they can find any copy of the book. I know the court ordered the book out of circulation, but if they can get any. It detailed how the pogrom of 1966 and 1967 took place.
The chant then was, “Araba, Araba”, the moment that chant went up, all your former neighbours became bloodhounds. I’m afraid it is the same thing that may happen because some of these people have the penchant for looking for people, who I will say are ready to kill human beings moving all about. Some of them don’t have jobs, and most are actually looking for what to steal and what to covet and what to convert.
Some of them have come out to denounce what has been done, but the core group is there, and 65-year-old Ahmed Sule is sounding tough and confident because he knows those who are going to defend him. When you see a child who has been sent by his father to go and steal, he breaks into the place. That is what is going to happen.
I can also assure them that it is only the tree that you tell that you want to cut it down and it stays one place. We will defend ourselves with the best of our abilities; we will not run. We will never attack anybody. The hallmark of an Igbo man is being at peace with his neighbours; if the neigbhours will betray him, so be it, but we will not fold our hands and watch by.
Do you see this thing as a power play?
I know power play is there at the seat of power. There is power play going on between the Northwest and the Northeast.
There is also another possibility that Prof Osinbajo being an acting president is to the utmost distaste of some people and those ones are bent on causing troubles, and they are not causing troubles between the Southwest and the Northwest or the Northeast, but they want to bring the Igbo into their midst as usual.
Igbo do not have a stake in his government. We are not in the seat of power, we are not in the kitchen cabinet; we are not in the Security Council. So, where the security of this nation is discussed, the Igbo man is not there even as a cook.
Now, instead of facing issues squarely, number one is the President (Northwest), number two is the vice president (Southwest), so any struggle for power is between them, they should leave us out. Igbo will never attack anybody, we will never carryout a coup. It is neither in our nature nor in our blood. We are not going to threaten this government, so they should leave us alone in their fight.
You talked about power play between the Northwest and the Northeast, are they not the same north?
You know the Northeast dominates the military today, and the Northwest dominates the seat of power. By training and birth, the Fulani that dominate the Northeast are very intelligent. Never underestimate them. The way Utman Danfodio was able to conquer the rest of the North was remarkable and that hold on power is still there.
I respect them as the most intelligent people in Nigeria. But when it comes to military service, the Kanuri that dominate the Northeast is there. The Tivs and the Plateau people used to be there, but for one reason or the other, they have fallen back.
As it is today, I want you to go to those who made the Kaduna declaration, I can’t see anyone who is from Plateau State coming there to jubilate and say they want Igbo to leave. He will ask you if the Igbo man goes, who stays. If you go to Benue State, it is the same answer, and the same with the man in Taraba. North Central has no part in this. It is strictly between Northwest and core Northeast. They control the arms, we don’t control the arms.
So, if there is any threat to this government definitely, it is not the Igbo man. I could understand how Ahmed Sule labored and labored to bring Igbo to say that if you sit at home, it is a threat to them. Many people sat at home for June 12, is it a threat also. He was just laboring to bring the Igbo into them, we are not interested in them.
Igbo have not asked anybody to leave the Southeast, and nobody has been threatened there. The direct consequence of this threat is: the oil installations are owned by Federal Government and those appointed, and when you cause an unrest somewhere near oil installations, the Federal Government loses revenues and the owners of oil blocks also lose revenue.
Those who can call Ahmed Sule to order should get up and do that now. Igbo will not threaten anyone; we are not in that direction. Leave us alone; leave me alone is not a threat. Let me be, means do not disturb me. Igbo have not given anyone quit notice. In Igbo land, we still have Hausa Elele, Hausa Asaba, in parts of Uturu, Enugu, we have them. We call them Hausa, but most of them are Fulani, and nobody has threatened them because it is not in our nature.
All we are saying is do not bring your cattle to come and destroy our farmlands, for which we are being threatened. People can’t go to their farms anymore and nobody has come out to arrest anybody for trampling on people’s farms, even for killing. Everybody is angry and as a way out, some have suggested restructuring, some argued that implementation of 2014 Confab report is the solution but some northerners say there is nothing like restructuring and the Confab can’t see the light of the day.
What is your suggestion on the way out?
People are disillusioned, and many people what they thought would happen if Buhari came to power has not happened.
The reason why I love scientists a lot is that they never closed their minds to any solution. The National Conference of which I’m proud to be a member did a wonderful work for nearly four months and those of us who were serious were there day and night working on how this country would be handled.
In my inaugural speech, I insisted on restructuring, but the person who spoke after me, a Professor of Law, because we were in alphabetical order said there is no restructuring; that the North is not here to restructure and would oppose anything about restructuring.
We did a wonderful work and the day Mr. President said he wanted to find solutions to the problems of the country, all he needs to do is to open the pages of the report. And since he cannot do everything, he should authorise different arms of people to look at what is causing the disruption of social activities, and what is causing this insurrection and agitations; he would see the solutions staring him in the face.