The general perception of the January 1966 coup is that it was an Igbo coup. Would you say the Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeo¬gwu coup was really an Igbo one?
Niccolo Machiavelli, a keen ob¬server of Florentine politics ob¬served in his famous book, ‘The Prince’…. how politicians and the courtiers and even the Pope orga¬nized power. So he wrote a letter to the Prince of Florence, hence the title of the book, ‘The Prince’, and he passed on his observations.
As regards the January 1966 coup, if you observe very keenly, you find the first thing was that there was massive corruption in Nigeria in 1966 across board. The second thing was there was massive disaffection. The people didn’t like the situation and that’s what threw Aminu Kano up as a strong leader of NEPU; that was his rallying cry. It was Awolowo’s rallying cry.
So, everybody did not….No one can pretend that on January 15, 1966, when Abba Zoro announced on the News at 7, that there had been a coup that he was not happy about it. But it was bitter realiza¬tion that; ‘Wait a minute, this thing looks like Igbos o!’ That caused the problem and that’s why I referred to Machiavelli because Machiavelli talks about perception and reality.
The perception for a non-Igbo is that it was an Igbo coup because it was led by Igbos. The way it went, the entire execution will lead to the conclusion that this seemed to have been an Igbo coup. So, the percep¬tion is that it was an Igbo coup, but the reality, which nobody will accept, is that Nzeogwu, being a revolutionary leader, put together a number of revolutionary thinkers. Whether they were all Igbos or not is not the question. But the purpose of the coup was to cleanse the sys¬tem and it is important that peo-ple listen to his broadcast and the speech. It is important. From that you will see that it was not inspired. But I have to concede, if I was non-Igbo that is the perception that I will carry, unless I am convinced, is that this was an Igbo inspired coup.
And it was unfortunate that what Nzeogwu strove to achieve wasn’t well managed by Ironsi (Maj. Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi) because at this point where Nzeogwu was now suspected of trying to use Igbos to dominate, Ironsi, an Igbo man now created Decree No.34 of 1966 that made Nigeria a unitary nation, which the north felt was promoting the Igbo agenda because a unitary nation will mean that there was only one commander.
So, it is unfortunate that what came out as a good intent by Nzeo¬gwu was badly executed. The one-sided killing… It’s terrible, no ex¬cuse for that. The bungling of Gen. Ironsi didn’t help matters. So the Igbos now became the victims. By May 29, 1966, the pogrom started. We had to flee. We were direct vic¬tims. We had to run away from Jos and all of that.
The real intent of the coup in the eyes of Nigerians became distorted and therefore, it can be said that the coup was Igbo inspired, even though the reality won’t support it. But who cares about reality. It is per¬ception that is important.
And how do we change this per¬ception? Do you think the Igbos are doing much in trying to erase this perception?
I don’t think it is necessary. I think we’ve passed that stage. I am not go¬ing to be one to say let’s dig up that history. If I should understand you, your question is that has the coup not been misunderstood? Is it re¬ally true that Igbos led it, if not, how can we correct it? Is it not the case that the coup has made the Igbos feel second class? I don’t think so. There are some correct answers and wrong answers. Igbo are extremely hardworking people. So I would rather, you know…Most philoso¬phers say one action is more than 5,000 words.
If the Igbo are maginalised and want to return to mainstream Nige¬ria, it’s entirely in their hands to do so. I am not sure that the history of the civil war helps that process. If it helps in education, fine. But what is important is how to create an Igbo political leadership. A Hausa man is not stopping you from that. No¬body is stopping you from that. How many political leaders have we had since the end of the war?
President Buhari noted when asked about this Biafran agitation, he said “who is marginalising you?’ Under (President Goodluck) Jona¬than, who was there for a long time, Igbo had a prominent part. What exactly did Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala do in the South East, if I should re¬duce the concept of doing to put¬ting bridges and all that?
She didn’t do anything. So who are you going to blame? What stops Dr. Ekwueme from being the lead¬er of the Igbos? Nothing! So, please, don’t look outside, look inside.
Me, I will say, even if nobody wants to agree, that in the context of Nigeria, I am self-made and I can contribute very seriously. How many (Igbo) politicians come to say, what’s your view on anything? But in the North, in the South-West…..Fashola is my junior by far, when I say junior, junior (empha¬sis) by far! But look where he’s got!
So, we don’t promote our own; that is the issue. The problem is the structure. Our challenge is that we have no structure and I think on hindsight, I wish my father did not accept the offer made to him
by Brigadier-General John Atom Kpera, who was then the governor.
When he was the governor of Anambra State and there was so much agitation…and you know how the Igbos can agitate… So he then said: You know what? Let me appoint Justice G.C Agbakoba to look into the chieftaincy questions because as you know, of all the three major tribes, only the Igbo didn’t have chieftaincy hierarchy.
The colonial powers created the warrant chiefs, who were not ac¬cepted. I think that Atom Kpera Commission is a big disaster on the Igbo tribe because it foisted on Igbo an alien culture of Igwes, completely alien. We now missed the structural identity of the Igbos, which was to work through the Igbo unions.
The way Zik became leader of the Igbos was to identify the strong men…. I remember in Jos, at Igbo union…if you go there on Sunday, you will see the movers and shakers because Igbo’s don’t believe in any king but they believe in the Nwanne concept. So, they will come togeth¬er and they will rally and they will build roads, hospitals and schools, but not to be dictated.
So, I think that switch in our struc¬tural organization is unfortunate. So we have Igwes, half of whom are il¬literates or criminals. Who is going to listen to them? There is no build¬ing block unlike in the West and the North. So, please, if you want me to endorse the view that the civil war mistreated the Igbo, then, I say, yes in part because we were targeted. But if that is the cause of our present predicament, then I will remind you that at the end of the war, we all got 20 quid (20 pounds).
Being the son of a former Chief Justice, I was privileged to be the only person in the school (College of Immaculate Conception) that had a stool/chair in the whole school. Ev¬erybody sat on blocks. This is 1970. The driver will bring me in ECSG 61, a Volkswagon van and I will pull my stool out of the van and go to the class. I was the only person!
That was how disadvantaged we were. But look at what we have done! So, in the field of commerce, we didn’t need to be patted on the back to close the gap. Igbo are per¬haps the richest crop of Nigerians. Nnewi, where my daughter is mar¬ried, can boast about N12 trillion, almost twice the national budget. The guys with cash are sitting out there but nobody invites them, in-cluding the governor of the state, to a discussion on how can we use your resources on a public private partnership program to develop the state.
Why should a wealthy billionaire in Nnewi, for instance, build the road to his factory? He will find the hardest way to get there. He will say it is not my responsibility. Why should I build the road to my office when it’s government road. But if the government were to draw a pro¬posal with him about how he can participate in the public economy, having fully occupied the private economy, then there will be that agreement.
So, part of the failure of the Igbo, because I have identified the first one - that structural shift from the Igbo union hall to the chieftaincy - that was a mistake. Second is the dislocation of Igbo billionaires and entrepreneurs from political dis¬course. And these two are connect¬ed!
So we have what is left after the wheat has been taken - the politi¬cal chaff. If you look at the quality of Igbo that go into politics with the rest, with the greatest respect, these are not the calbire they ought to be...
Why then are great Igbo minds like you shying away from politics?
No, because, the obstacles that have been placed in what I have de¬scribed makes it very difficult. Did Fashola have a dime? He didn’t have anything but his talent was recog¬nized. Now Fashola’s talent was rec¬ognized by K.O Tinubu. K.O Tinubu was my good friend, my big egbon. If he had been alive, he would have been about 80, very nice man.
He retired as Commissioner of Police and somehow, he loved the law practice because in the cause of his police work, he became a lawyer. So when he retired, he set up a law firm called K.O Tinubu & Co. But he also understood his own limita¬tions. But he goes to court. And one day in court, there was Fashola ar¬guing a case. He said, young man, I love you, come and manage my law firm. And so Fashola came to man¬age it.
And so, when his younger brother who saw him as a father, that is now Bola Tinunbu, came to say, ‘now I am going to politics, KO said, look o, I have one boy in my office, he will be your planner. That is the link.
So, Fashola, who was a lawyer but with a massive brain joined politics. What about El-rufai? Same thing and I can tell you on an on. But there is not a single, as far as I can recall, Igbo person… But Obasanjo recognized the tal¬ent of (Osita) Chidoka. Chidoka had access to Obasanjo, because Obasanjo likes bright people. So Obasanjo said, you, you are a bright guy. He brought him, made him…appointed him chairman of Federal Road Safety Corps. The rest is history.
If we had 20, 30 Chidokas, it will make a difference. These are not the guys who will come to meet¬ings and be looking for kola nut. These are the guys who will come to meetings to say how can we ad¬vance, not only Nigeria, but the South-East. But they are too few. That’s the problem.
You once told us in an interview that you were a child-soldier; could you throw more light on that aspect of your life, how it all started and your experiences?
Simple! I was in school at Christ the King College (CKC). I was born in the North, my parents were in the North. With this po¬grom, we ran away; we came to the East and soon things deteriorated. We said, ah, we can’t go to the North again o! In fact, my uncle who was brave enough to go, was slaughtered like nama (cow): My late uncle, my very favourite uncle called Uncle Ambrose. He was chopped to pieces and he looked like a Fulani.
That was how bad things were….things were done in a massive flash. So Aburi and finally, Ojuk¬wu’s declaration, wrongly of the Independent Republic of Biafra. Then we were fired up, and then I was only eleven and half. So, one day in school, the principal an¬nounced…ah, Ojukwu give us guns and we shall fight!
At 11?
Yes, because they came to school with sticks! So, the first thing we saw was, rather than do the nor¬mal PE (Physical Education) and football, they began to train us in arms, giving us sticks to mime as guns. So that was the first experi¬ence. And then we were in Onit¬sha, and Onitsha fell on October 6, 1967, so we ran off to this, that and that. Eventually, my old man got tired of jumping around the whole place. So he stayed in Uzuakoli and Uzuakoli was captured by the late Major Bako, whose father was my father’s client.
But at this time, I had been con¬scripted and off to where I went.
I went to train at Ohafia Grammar School. I was now twelve and half going to 13. So, my first engagement in war, I was 13, and because we were small we were given the small guns. It’s called the ‘She’ because it had no butt. It is light to carry, it’s a she gun. They gave us numbers and assigned us. I was assigned to Im¬mortal Battalion under the Strike Force Division led by Col. Uwakwe, number 338411. So, that was it.
And off, we went to fight until…not knowing that at this time, my father had now gone to Enugu. Re¬member I said he wasn’t going to run again at Uzuakoli. So he was now seen as a major capture for the Nigerians. So it was announced and he was appointed the first Solicitor General of East Central States gov¬ernment and the first Judge….but they said is that not the son of ….?
So, I was now declared as State Security Risk and I was detained at the infamous Ntueke Prison in Orlu for about 13 months as a child with Chike Obi. Dan Ibekwe was there. Also, Nigerians, captured were also there like Commissioner of Police, Fiberissima, who was captured from Mid-West, was there.
I was there till the end of the war. I came out, I think, either on 13, 14, 15 or 16 of 1967.
So how would you describe this experience, what were you guys be¬ing fed with?
It was horrible. We were fed noth¬ing. We were eating all kind of things. We were generally locked up, but they will bring what they called the Ikpakpa, corns that were boiled; it was brought in cups. Those who were in the food gang would go into the drums, you know like the drums you cut into two? So you fill it up with cups and they go and stamp on it and the corn comes off the cup and they remove the cups and they serve us the corn. That was our main meal.
Yes, I ate lizards, I ate rats, but the only meal that we loved was what was called abulie elie, literarily translated, you pluck and eat. It is a type of cassava. Cassava is deadly because it contains (acid), most of them, the white. But there is their rare species that is red. So, if you cut it, you see the red skin. It’s exactly like the sweet potato. So that Abulie elie, if you see it, you say wow! This is great meal, plus aku (palm ker¬nel), ikpakpa, rat, lizards, those were our meals.
Having passed through this hor¬rible experience, what can you say of Nigeria today?
Yeah, that is the reason why I feel disappointed; that despite all the suffering - nothing to show for it. Some of the roads back then….I re-member the road I went on in Igbere in the East, it’s still the same way. So why should I feel happy? There has been nothing to justify the suf¬ferings. Nothing, apart from stolen money and of course, high rises and all that. But that for me is not what it ought to be...
I can tell you that in 1966, Sam Okeke, on the field of Christ the Kings College, equaled the World’s School Boy Record. It has never been done. Peter Odili, won the Victor Ludorum, which is the prize given to the best sportsman in three events.
So what am I saying? Back then, there was a whole myriad of ac¬tivities in the East. Now, l all of that sports coming together produced international class athletes so that by 1962, one of the best long distance runners in the world was the guy called Reginald Fashanu, who inci¬dentally, died of kidney failure. But today, the entire school sports sys¬tem has collapsed. So they are not feeding the national team.
So when you say Nigeria is not doing well, where are they going to come from? Because all the school systems have collapsed! So when you tell about whether….I feel hap¬pier back in the 60s than today be¬cause there was a structure. That structure is gone. What we have is stolen money, that’s all. But the real structure of Nigeria, the tranquil¬ity, the peace, the order, in spite of all the stealing and all the loot, there was structure, but it’s gone!
In the 50 years, there is nothing to show for it! The Apapa bridge now in state of near collapse, was built by Yakubu Gowon and we say we are making progress! If Gen. Gowon drives round Lagos, he will say ‘what’s wrong with everybody, I don’t see anything new. ‘All I see new is the toll gate by Fashola and the Third Mainland Bridge and the Lekki Ikoyi Bridge, that’s all.
I am using Gowon, who was in power in 1966 to 1970 to reflect back to whether we have come any¬where. So, go and ask Gowon. I can answer for him, even though I am not Gowon. If I were asked a ques¬tion: ‘Gowon, what do you think about these 50 years? I will say well, when I went to Lagos, all I saw was what I did with exception of a few things. That is a sorry statement on the country, that we would have had bridges….
When I went to New York, they had 281 tunnels and when I went to Hong Kong for a conference, it turned out that the city tunnel engi¬neer is an Igbo man and he was tell¬ing me that how won’t we have traf¬fic when we don’t make use of our underground, the skies and even the hills?
So, that shows you that we have failed to use the natural talents God endowed us with. So 50 years on, Ni¬geria is in a very sorry state, techni-cally insolvent, hoping to come out of its morass, cannot pay its trade bills. In fact, it’s like you can’t pay electricity bills. That is the equivalent of we can’t pay our trade bills. So, right now, airlines cannot take out their money, it’s piling in the banks. I can’t even send $200 through a banks to pay for subscriptions to magazines and my international bar association.
The president has opened up that window now….
Well, it’s good he has done so but it shows you where we are. We are disconnected.
A comparism is often made be¬tween Nzeogwu and Buhari, that they share the same ideology. Do you agree with that?
Yes, there is something in com¬mon. They have this fervor about where Nigeria should go but I think what is important is to be very clear how the methodology will unfold. Fervor is good. It is the fervor Nzeo¬gwu had that overthrew the decayed system of the time. But because it wasn’t clear where he wanted to go, it was hijacked and derailed.
So that’s the….If I was Buhari’s adviser, I will say, Oga, in terms of your passion for Nigeria, but in terms of the direction, I will be urg¬ing you to do ABCD very quickly. That’s why in my first letter to him, I urged him to quickly collaborate with the National Assembly just like Franklin Delano Roosevelt did when he came to power in the Unit¬ed States. He said to the Congress, we need a new deal, America has been destroyed.
So President Buhari needs a new deal. His own is change. He can’t do it alone, so he needs to partner with the National Assembly. You’ve got to say it to the National Assem¬bly; we need to reconstruct a new Nigeria. The only way to do this is to say, what’s wrong with us? And what’s wrong with us is the lack of a national order.
So, let us produce a Constitution that Nigerians accept. You will be very shocked at what this new Con¬stitution will do. It will galvanise the people. That is the message. But the story is one of sadness and…..at 62, going to 63, I cannot say that Nige¬ria is what I pride myself in there.
Olisa Agbakoba opens up on Biafra and first military coup where he fought as a kid soldier
![Olisa Agbakoba opens up on Biafra and first military coup where he fought as a kid soldier]()
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Sunday, January 17, 2016
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