Re: Why Igbos won’t forget Biafra

BY ROBERT OBIOHA

Please enjoy readers’ comments on the above topic and others. Mazi Robert Obioha, You are Mazi because you are not a coward. We Igbos have developed, but one thing is lacking and that is respect. However, Biafra—that is a country to be if Nigeria cannot balance all that you have mentioned in your piece on or before 2020.

Then there will be need that all sons and daughters of Igbo must come home to the call to take our destiny in our hands and call upon the world bodies to support us in totality for a referendum to quit from Nigeria in peace. That is the only way out of slavery. For Igbos are no slaves to any group in their country, Nigeria.

If we fail to use the highest number six to free ourselves—until then our technological attainment will remain a total illusion. Until then our generation yet unborn will not forgive us. A word is enough for the wise as Chinua Achebe has wisely pointed out. Mazi Ikemegbunam J. Nwafor, 08036925729.

Thank God for sparing Chinua Achebe’s life to document and tell the Igbo story, otherwise the Biafran true story would have been lost to posterity. Let those telling the Igbos and other Easterners to forget the Biafran war to, first of all, enthrone justice and equity in the country through the current constitutional amendment.

The South-East zone should have equal number of states and councils with other zones. Other imbalances in the polity should also be addressed. Thank God, once again, for allowing Chinua Achebe to live long enough to tell the Igbo story in a way, perhaps, no other person could have done.

God bless him. Mazi Alex Ekubo Okwaraeke, 080931145856. Brother, I quiet agreed with you about the Biafra. To be honest, I was unhappy when I heard about the new book from Professor Chinua Achebe. However, the truth must be told. The Government of General Yakubu Gowon should come out and publicly apologize to the entire Ibo nation. He should leave pride and arrogance aside and do exactly what the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, did in his recent visit to India, where he publicly condemned the (1919) massacre of unarmed civilians in the city of Amritsar. In Nigeria, we fail to accept responsibility for our shortcomings either at home or in Govt. About the Ibo presidency, let the Ibo come together as one, and support someone like Chief Orji Uzor Kalu. He is tested and trusted, rather than singing discordant tunes.

I truly sympathize with the Ibo people, and on behalf of young Nigerians that only read about the genocide, we are very sorry, please forgive us. Oyebanji Ganiyu, <oyebanjo.ganiyu@airtelng.blackberry.com> Robert, Much as you are positive in your writings in recent times, maybe you have seen it all about President Goodluck Jonathan’s inept government. I wish you know that Igbo may not be president even in the near future because they play politics of the stomach. You have forgotten 2011 so soon? Zik Jonathan was Igbo man before my face at Onitsha. Today, you want Igbo President.

What of Zik Jonathan? Not Igbo again? What do you take other zones for? 2015 is near; Jonathan is planning to renege again. Other zones are merging to fight the monster but Igbo APGA is split. Before you know it, Jonathan will be adopted as usual only for you to cry that Igbo is marginalized. Talk to them. 08034282719. Response: President Goodluck Jonathan is an Ijaw from the South-South of Nigeria. The demand for a Nigerian president from the South-East is legitimate. Jonathan’s middle name, Azikiwe, cannot overshadow it. Igbos voted for him in the same way they voted other Nigerian presidents. RO. Your piece on Biafra is thought-provoking.

The bourgeois civil war is over. What is not over is the intra-bourgeois class struggle for power and wealth. What is the way out? The exploited all over Nigeria should organize and wrest state power from the exploiters so that the exploited can erect a new society sans capitalists.

Thanks, Amos Ejimonye, Isuikwuato, Abia State, 08039727512. Dear Mr. Obioha, Thank you for your article, “Why Igbos won’t forget Biafra.” I have a few questions to ask you. Do you really mean all Nigerians prevent Igbos from having an extra state? Who prevented Dr. Alex Ekwueme from a good contest against Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in PDP Jos primaries in 1999? Do you really mean that all Nigerians prevent Igbos from producing a president?

Do you agree that not only Igbos make up Biafra? I tell you frankly, Achebe is playing the ostrich. Igbos made Ojukwu to lose the war. Omoweh Calabar. Response: My answer is in the affirmative and I stand by my essay. RO. Rob, your write-up in the Daily Sun of February 22, 2013, was wonderful. You spoke our mind. You are Obioha indeed. Mazi Chike Okoli, Enugu. I read your beautiful write-up.

The problems with the Igbos are with the Igbos. Though Nigeria is a wicked country, Igbos are their own enemies. 08035410176. Thanks Robert for that write-up, “Why Igbos won’t forget Biafra.” I publish a magazine called Igbolife and my driving spirit is the Biafran spirit. Look, Obasanjo and his likes are wasting their bloody time because at the appropriate time what is hidden will come to light. Collins Onyeulo, Publisher Igbolife magazine.07060487931. Mr. Obioha, the Igbos should stop playing the victim. We are all victims and that is what happens in wars.

It will be the turn of the Igbos to attain leadership position in the institutions you mentioned in future. Is the position of the COAS for three years mere tokenism? In 1965 all the Federal parastatals in Kaduna were headed by Igbos. Then 1966, they struck. Why? We remember our leaders who were slaughtered in cold blood. The pain is for all of us. We remember differently, it is the same in all the wars you referred to. Col. Idris Danjuma (rtd), Kaduna, 08054377696. I have just gone through your article, “Why Igbos won’t forget Biafra.” I will tell any Igbo man that cares to admit the truth that you people do not deserve another state. Igbos are scattered all over Nigeria making money and enjoying the infrastructure in other states.

The land mass in Igbo land is small; hence no need to divide it further. You people are lucky to have five states, so do not push your luck too far. After all, you had only one state out of twelve in 1975.

As for the presidency of Nigeria, you cannot be trusted as long as you people are singing Biafran tunes. Thank you. Ahiaba S.J. 08059672163. Response: You have only confirmed the hate siege I talked about. But you should not play God. RO. My attitude to your last column is to say that your people will not get to where you want if you continue to point accusing fingers at others over the plight of the Igbos.

Can you truly say your people don’t have issues that need addressing? Didn’t the Igbos do something that brought about the war or at least its continuation? Other tribes to some degree suffered during the war but the Igbos till today continue to make political capital out of the war. I think you should please use your column to educate us that the way forward is not to remain attached to yesterday.

Other nations you mentioned have gotten over great afflictions and are doing well. The Igbos can do the same. 07036161140. On Ihejirika and his traducers I salute you my brother, Obioha, for your piece on the above subject. Those rumour mongers should first get the list of officers of the Nigerian Army, Air Force and Navy, Police, Prisons and Immigration. They should include the list of staff of the NNPC, and other MDAs so that we compare the region that is marginalized. Whenever it involves an Igbo person, the Hausas and the other tribes will start shouting like what happened to the erstwhile Immigration boss, Mrs. Rose Uzoma. Anopueme Bruno, Lagos, 07082674935. Thank you for your piece on “Ihejirika and his traducers.”

I support your suggestion of making public statistics of serving members from every state in the public service. Also if investigations proved the allegations to be false, the petition writers should be prosecuted. Uzo Mba Kanu J. Calabar, 08032910874. God bless you, Robert Obioha. May God keep our country as one united entity. First, forget the faceless idiots. Barn Nzekwe, Jos. I thank you for your defence of Ihejirika, the COAS. He needs to be celebrated. Jonathan Charles Umunnakwe, President South-East Youth Patriotic Movement. God bless you for your write-up of February 8, 2013. Please don’t stop. God bless Nigeria. 08124072794.

Thank you for your piece on Ihejirika and his traducers. 07025414980. You have done well to have exposed the antics and evil manipulations of those who have held Nigerian to a stand still and made the country sterile since 1960 with all sorts of policies and the propaganda of divide and rule. Mike, Jos. On Okorocha: A tentative assessment Thank you for your candid views on the achievements of His Excellency, Owelle Rochas Okorocha of Imo State. God bless you. Chinedu, Owerri. Thank you for your piece on Gov Rochas Okorocha.

We love what Governor Okorocha is doing in Orlu and other parts of the state. He should extend it to other towns in the zone like my own town, Amagu in Oru East LGA. We are yet to see any sign of good government in that area. Ifeanyi, Lagos, 080881559995.