The Global Initiatives for Anambra Needs (GIAN), a pressure group that operates in Anambra has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to engage Ndigbo to estimate the losses they suffered during the 1966 military coup which was not an Igbo coup as it was tagged by the Western media, and find ways to assuage Ndigbo by ensuring equitable distribution of national common wealth and resources, offices, appointments, political structures like States and LGAs.
The GIAN External Affairs Engager/ Director of Publicity, Onochie Okafor, who made the request in a press statement said on their part, Ndigbo should commence a renaissance of mainstreaming for full reintegration so that current agitations will become a thing of the past.
According to him, the pressure group came to this resolve after taking time to analyze the content of the autobiography recently released by Nigeria’s first military president General Ibrahim Gbadamosi Babangida .
He said the group’s attention was particularly drawn to the confession of the former junta leader that the 1966 coup was not an Igbo coup as it is not like many Nigerians have not come to the realization, understanding and agreement that the 1966 military coup was not an Igbo coup as tagged by the Western media, but for the confession to come from a man who had participated in many successful coups, truncated a couple of coup attempts and also occupied the highest position in the land, it speaks volumes.
Okafor pointed that the main Igbos that participated in the 1966 coup were from a part of Igboland that many of their indigenes presently deny their Igbo identities.He said most regions and major ethnic groups in Nigeria were well represented in the coup that started because of problems in Southwestern Nigeria.
He stated that Igbos have suffered unprecedented losses, especially millions of lives, properties and finances and there is need for Nigeria to show remorse for all the injustice, marginalization, hatred and exclusion Igbos are suffering in Nigeria.
“We took time to sieve the contents of the book with very specific emphasis on the concerns of the Igbos, of which we are intrinsic part as Anambrarians.
“Those who were still doubtful and those who are still deliberately deceiving other compatriots that the coup was an Igbo coup should not only stop and desist from this ignoble manipulation but should also hide their heads in shame.
“Much as General Babangida has now made a public, open and written honest opinion, the questions are: why did it take so long for him to come clear? What happens to Igbos, who have been sustaining huge avoidable collateral damages over the years as a result of these campaigns of calumny and conspiracy against innocent people? What is the genesis of the entire imbroglio and subsequent pogrom of the Igbos that followed?
“Political conflict in the southwestern part of Nigeria led to intense violent destructions and unabating social unrest that painted civil rule in negative light and was threatening the entire Nigerian polity. In the circumstance, young military officers, who saw their move as nationalistic opted to take the bull by the horns to salvage the situation. All accounts had shown that their plan was to release Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was then in Calabar prison and hand over power to him. The young officers were selfless enough to reasonably believe that they could risk their lives for Nigeria and enthrone a government that would work.
“Instead of their actions to be interpreted from objective point of view, it was projected to malign a whole tribe may be for another to gain advantage; and it is said it was a campaign by the Western media. Who are the western media? Who are the sponsors of the wicked and evil machinations to wipe out and end an entire race? These people could be lurking around in the dark and committing the heinous dastardly acts that not only estranged Igbos from other ethnic groups in Nigeria, but it also made Igbos endangered species; so much so that even some Igbo could deny their identities so as to survive the intimidation, injustice and harassments.It is obvious that the enemies of Nigeria and Igbos, who are envious of their success, came together to orchestrate the destructive, heinous and evil plan.
“Attempts to expose the main actors in the unwarranted and unprovoked plot to decimate the Igbo race took one back to the account of Rear Admiral Alison Amaechina Madueke in his 2019 Autobiography, “Riding the Storms with God in My Sails.” The report had it that he was due for a course at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, UK, when the Ironsi regime was overthrown in the counter coup of July, 1966.
“His travel to the UK was not only truncated, but he narrowly escaped the massacres that occurred during the 1966 counter coup; reason being that he was Igbo. He went on to become the second in command in military rule in Nigeria. So many other Igbos were not as lucky, as they were consumed in the obvious ethnic cleansing that ensued.
“What should capture attention in Madueke’s account is that after himself and another officer were taken to the Ikeja Airport to catch their flight for London having being cleared to travel for the course, he accessed the manifest to confirm his name, only to observe that his name, that of his colleague, George Obianwu and a certain Mrs. Ike, all Igbos were asterisked.
“As if that was not bad enough, Madueke recounted that a Police officer he accosted to find out what was going on just simply told him that soldiers were in control there and they were killing Igbo officers. Madueke had heaved a sigh of relief when he boarded the flight and it started taxiing in readiness for takeoff.
“The young Igbo naval officer’s mood could only be imagined when the take-off was suddenly aborted as the aircraft was picking up speed. It came to a standstill and back to the boarding point and the pilot’s voice came calling through the intercom for the three naval officers flying to London to alight.
“Alas! Ibrahim Mohammed was on the course too and first on the gangway and Madueke behind him. When the naval officers got down to behold two armored vehicles and over 20 soldiers in full battle gear and order afoot awaiting them, Ibrahim boldly alighted, pulled out his passport and asked the soldiers, “me, too?” but the soldier told him “no, you go back!” On the other hand, when Madueke alighted, he was seized and ordered to enter a waiting jeep.
“With Obianwu, another Igbo man, they were whisked away like common criminals; their crime was that they were Igbos. Even when Madueke asked about his luggage, for an answer, he got terrible blows twice on his shoulder with the butt of a gun.
“The interesting, though provocative part of the unfolding wickedness was that when the soldiers drove the young Igbo officers to a building at the fringe of the airport, the command post and coordination centre for the military operations, a white man, right here in Nigeria, was sitting inside, behind an executive office desk. He was later to be identified as Mr. Boyd, a lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and he was the one that took charge to ignobly, unjustly and with desperate bias interrogate the officers whose only crime was being Igbos.
“The white man, Boyd for reasons that should be further studied was thirsty for Igbo blood. The nature of Mr. Boyd’s obviously internationally scripted interrogation was obviously staged to condemn the two Igbo officers instantly and execute them on the spot. The national of Mr. Boyd might reveal some facts about who have been manipulating Nigerians, Africans and the whole world to see Igbos as enemies and to wipe them out of the face of the earth.
“For a coup that the plotters confirmed that the main beneficiary would have been Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a south-westerner, who would have been installed president of Nigeria; stopped by then Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu in Kano and Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi in Lagos, should it have been tagged Igbo coup if not for wicked machinations of evil local and foreign collaborators that sought to exterminate Igbos?
“Igbos must advance politically to be part of the central government. This is achievable at this time when Nigeria has a liberal and experienced president. The Commander in Chief can make these changes and positive difference and write his name in gold.”, Okafor said.
