Revival of the for resuscitation of the defeated Republic of Biafra by a Lawyer Activist, Ralph Uwazuruike, in 1999 was a rough challenge that made political observers in Nigeria wonder whether the Igbo would ever be satisfied to live in the country as Nigerians. The Fourth Republic came and Ralph Nwazurike threw the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) on the political space of Nigeria. Those who facilitated the birth of the Fourth Republic, the Northern Military leaders, were taken aback.
They expressed reservation that the Igbo were not satisfied despite that the presidency was thrown open to the South, instead of the Yoruba South-West that suffered political loss, due to the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by the late Bashorun MKO Abiola. The Uwazuruike movement thus became a timely warning for the Northerners that they should be wary of placing the leadership of Nigeria in the hands of Igbos.
Uwazurike, who was educated in India, adopted non-violent stance of Mahatma Gandhi in prosecuting the cause of actualising a sovereign state of Biafra. The intensification of the strguggle was nothing, but opening afresh a healed wound.
By the time Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigeneous People of Biafra (IPOB), stepped into the fray with a touch of violence, confrontation and unsettling propaganda on Radio Biafra, the federal government and most people in Nigeria knew that they must look over their shoulders and be wary of the new political threat.
As the mythical bird, phoenix, that usually rises anew from its ashes, the carcas of Biafra has risen from death to torment Nigeria, giving people sleep-less nights. Kalu is now in detention for different charges that border on threat to existence of Nigeria. Would Nigerians, other than Igbos, be wrong not to thrust the presidential seat to the Igbo? With one eye in Nigeria and the other one on craving the return of Biafra, Northerners became circumspect that it would not be politically prudent to trust the Igbo if the leadership of Nigeria is the subject matter.
Observers asserted that with the ‘no victor, no vanquished’ slogan of Gen. Yakubu Gowon after the civil war ended in 1970 and the introduction of a three-prong Reconciliation, Reconstruction, and Rehabilitation policy of the federal military government that took care of the fears of victimisation, oppression, and persecution of Igbos for confronting the Nigerian state in a rebellion, the crave for a rebirth of Biafra should not be allowed to cross the conscious lines of thought of people of the East.
The amnesty that the former President Shehu Shagari granted the leader of the defunct Republic of Biafra, the Ikemba Nnewi, Emeka Ojukwu, was supposed to be a healing balm. Besides, Ojukwu was even allowed to contest a senatorial seat, which he won. The re-admission of the rebel leader into the political leadership of Nigeria should have put a final stop on the nostalgia for Biafra. But IPOB said ‘no’.
If the unwritten political pact, rotational presidency, adopted by stakeholders at the inception of the present democratic dispensation, is followed to the letter, a southerner is expected to take over the presidency from President Muhammadu Buhari next year after his eight years in office. The rotational presidency was put in place by players and stakeholders to prevent monopolization of the top-most political office by a section in the country. Besides, it is to foster a sense of belonging among both major and minority ethnic groups in Nigeria. That is why those who insisted on fairness and equity in politics frowned on Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s contest of the presidential election that is due to hold in February 2023 on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
How could any person, who has sense of fairness consent to Rabiu Kwakwanso of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNIPP) and Abubakar’s participation in the presidential election when the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari is a Fulani as Alhaji Kwakwanso and Abubakar. Last year, in order to give teeth to the political leaders’ resolve to implement the rotational presidency, all Southern states governors held meetings in Asaba Delta State, Alawusa in Keja, Lagos State and in Enugu, the capital of Enugu State, where they formally declared that all political parties that would participate in the 2023 presidential election should pick their candidates from the South. That, perhaps, is why many political observers regard Kwakwanso and Abubakar’s participation in the 2023 presidential election a direct and vicious stab on the back of the gentle man agreement on rotational presidency. Some have already declared it an attempt to usurp the turn of the South, which they say would be resisted democratically.
That is how the 2023 presidential election has been literally reduced to a contest between the two major ethnic groups in the South, the Yoruba and the Igbo. At this point, many people are saying that most Northerners, who would not vote for Atiku Abubakar or Kwakwanso, would not cast their votes for an Igbo candidate either. This would not sounds strange in ears of those who look at the past political relationship between the northerners and their Igbo counterparts.
The distrust among the northerners and Igbo started in 1953 when Nigerian delegates were travelling to London for the constitutional conference that gave birth to regionalism. While aboard the ship that conveyed them to Britain, the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe drafted a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), requesting that the delegates should demand immediate independence at the conference. All the southern delegates signed the memo in agreement with the request of Azikiwe. It was only Abubakar Imam, an editor of a Hausa language newspaper, who opposed and rejected the memo. Imam, who was the leader of the Northern delegates, said that the North was not ready for independence. He expressed fear that the North did not have enough educated persons to take over the jobs that would inevitably be left by the exiting Britons.
This, he said, would provide opportunities for the Southerners especially Igbo to take over the positions left by the colonial master officials. He said the Northerners could not trust the Igbo with such a sensitive issue that was crucial to their future. This was a direct fear of internal colonialism. He was quick to recall how Azikiwe tried, but failed to become the first leader of government business in the defunct Western region. Imam insited that if Azikwe could attempt to take over political power in the South-West that boasted of a large number of the educated, what the Igbo would do if they succeeded in taking over of all the sensitive offices in the North after the exit of the whites was left to imagination.
In the 1959 House of Representatives election that prepared Nigeria for independenc, the Northerners accepted offer of Igbo as a junior partner in a coalition government. The National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) led by Azikiwe’s support was not a bland offer. It was induced by the colonial masters, who threatened to prosecute Azikiwe over running of African Continental Bank (ACB) into near bankruptcy over much borrowing to fund campaign. The coalition government of the Northerners and the Igbo did not, however, last as it quickly collapsed. The January 15, 1966 coup did raise the mutual suspicion between the Igbo and the north to a higher level of bitterness. The coup claimed lives of many political and military leaders from the north. The Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa; the premier of the defunct northern region, Sir. Ahmadu Bello Colonel Largema and Maimalari among many Northern political and military leaders were killed. The premier of the Western region, Chief Ladoke Akintola, and Brigadier Ademulegun were killed, while the Minister of Finance, Chief Festus Okotiebor, a Mid-Western indigene, was also killed, while no senior poltical or Military Officers of Eastern extraction was killed.
That coup lent credence to the wide belief in the North that the Igbo were out to politically cripple the North to pave way for their emergence as the new Nigerian political leaders, dominating Nigeria as it were in internal colonialism. The emergence of the late Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi as the military head of state after the coup, the refusal of Ironsi to prosecute the coup planners and the abortion of federalism by a decree that transferred most government powers to the centre from the component regions, in a unitary system of government completed the provocative scheme that instigated the counter coup of July 1966.
As the contest for the 2023 presidential election hosts up, the tripod shape of the election contest has reared its head. The All Progressives Congress (APC) has Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu as its standard bearer, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presents Atiku Abubakar for the coveted office of the President, while Peter Obi is the choice of Labour Party (LP) to engage the candidates from other parties. This is, however, not leaving Rabiu Kwakwanso and 14 other standard bearers out of the race to Aso Rock. Survey has, however, shown that most Northerners would not vote for an Igbo candidate because of their loyalty to the Biafra cause.
– Tajudeen Adigun
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