From CHARLES ONYEKWERE
Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has commended former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida.,retd, for his courage to officially declare that the January 1966 coup was not spearhead by the Igbo.
Ohanaeze said this pivotal acknowledgment was not merely a correction of historical nomenclature, but embodied a significant moment in the collective pursuit of justice and reconciliation.
According to the organisation, it signaled a potential end to the historical vindictiveness and cruelty that have been pervasive in federal government policies towards the Ndigbo.
It noted that General Babangida’s revelation, articulated in his autobiography, ‘A Journey in Service,’ launched in Abuja last Thursday, served to lift the unjust stigma that had systematically vilified the Igbo people as the purported antagonists in Nigeria’s political upheaval of the 1960s.
In a statement issued on Sunday by its factional deputy president-general, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, Ohanaeze noted that his forthright exemption of the Igbo from the egregious classification as enemies of the Northern region in the aftermath of the coup was both timely and necessary.
The Igbo body stated that the mislabeling of the 1966 January coup had unleashed disastrous repercussions upon the Igbo people, most tragically culminating in the July 1966 counter-coup, which decimated a military head of state of Igbo descent and instigated widespread violence against the Igbo population—actions that sowed seeds of discord which ultimately bloomed into the cataclysmic horrors of the Biafra War.
“The staggering loss of lives, with approximately three million Igbos predominantly innocent women and children slaughtered during this conflict, continues to reverberate through our collective consciousness.
“Furthermore, even in the post-Biafra era, the Igbo nation continues to grapple with systemic injustices, evidenced by an acute marginalisation that leaves us with the smallest representation of states within the Nigerian federation.
“The political conspiracies designed to deny the Igbo the rights of ascending to the highest office in the land Nigeria’s presidency the chronic economic neglect symbolised by the closure of the Calabar seaport, the inoperative state of several ports in Igbo land, the implementation of a discriminatory quota system, and the conspicuous absence of functional international airports in the South-East, starkly illustrate the federal government’s long-standing policy of exclusion.
“In light of these egregious injustices and the deliberate neglect exhibited by successive administrations, Ohanaeze Ndigbo hereby restates its demands articulated previously during the Justice Oputa-led judicial commission for the investigation of human rights violation Panel in 1999.
“We assert that the Nigerian federal government under General Yakubu Gowon conducted indiscriminate and unjustified bombardments in Igbo territory during the Nigeria-Biafra War, which resulted in overwhelming loss of lives. These historical realities establish an irrefutable case for the reparations we seek”, Isiguzoro said.
Ohanaeze added that Ndigbo looked forward towards a future that embraces reconciliation and unity, urging President Bola Tinubu to facilitate a dialogue that would not only restore dignity to the Igbo nation but also foster a Nigerian society characterised by inclusiveness and justice for all.
