by Agbonmagbe Kazeem
I am 66 years old. The younger generation and people that are too busy in business making money but no time to visit libraries and study, and also people who studied pure sciences and other subjects that have nothing to do with Nigerian history, but rely on hearsay, have always attacked my posts as stupid postings!
I won’t abuse you in return, but to counsel you to study history. The past is important, that’s why God gives us a brain and faculty of memory. If that memory is lost, we would even forget Genesis and the entire Bible because they all happened thousands of years ago! Yet when Nigeria’s history is discussed, they say, forget the past and move on! Repeating past mistakes and learning nothing!
So, what started the pogrom against Igbos?
Azikiwe, Ojukwu and Chukwuma were all born and bred in Northern Nigeria. Many Igbos — millions of them — were comfortably living in the North, buildings, businesses, school, churches, and homes. The North welcomed them and in 1959, both North and Igbos went into joint coalition of NPC/NCNC. So what was amiss that the North sent Igbos packing?
No it wasn’t January 15, 1966 coup, which assassinated the Northern politicians and military officers. The North dried their tears and Islamic doctrine of PREDESTINATION made them believe the deaths were the will of Allah. They acquiesced into God’s will.
They hoped Aguiyi-Ironsi would do well and assuage the wounds. Unfortunately, Igbos were mocking the Northerners! They taunt them in market places and in print — just as they do with social media today! Let me quote verbatim:
“In the Sabongaris of the North, bizarre pictures of the end of the Sardauna were being printed, sold and distributed. There was one very unsavory one — a picture of Nzeogwu putting his foot on the neck of the slain Sardauna.”
(Source: Bola Ige, People, Politics, and Politicians of Nigeria, p. 312).
This is very bad. If you print such pictures on social media today, you will be banned! But Igbos did it in 1966. Aguiyi-Ironsi even made Defamation Decree to arrest the ugly situation, but it gained no traction.
It was at this point that the Northerners said in effect, “If it was bad enough that you slain our leaders, to mock them is unbearable insult.”
Then came the last straw — the Unification Decree. Ironsi promulgated Decree No. 34 of 1966, abolishing the regions and unifying the civil service. The North saw it as the final agenda to dominate them.
The reaction? They started killing Igbos, sending them packing and looting their shops, in revenge for the killing of their leaders — leaders whose deaths they had already forgiven as the will of Allah. That mockery is what sparked the pogroms! Igbos caused it. That’s the bitter truth.
Go to social media today, they are still trolling and abusing. Just wait for my comment section, they will confirm it by abusing me instead of disputing my article!
