Igbos, restructuring, and the expulsion

IGBO lives matter and nothing is bad in
evacuating a killing zone. By that peremptory
hate speech and expulsion order, which are
being arrogantly repeated everyday without any
bite from the authorities, except attempting to
join the expellers in blaming the victim instead
of the violent culprits, and pretending to narrow
the Igbos down to their “landlocked” Southeast
in order to blockade the central Igbos and seize
those in the Rivers, Delta, Edo and other states
as future slaves, Nigeria has already
disintegrated spiritually, only awaiting a formal
dissolution, which Southerners must ensure
should happen smoothly on or before the
October deadline.
The expellers know who the Igbos are, and
confusedly interchanging “Igbos” and
“Southeast”, serves little purpose except self-
imposed brinkmanship. They also know that the
Ohanaeze is for all Ndigbo, not “Southeast”
alone, and that an Igbo referendum will be Igbo-
wide. Most Igbos in the “Southeast”,
“SouthSouth”, and in the diaspora, greatly
appreciate the latest Northern attitude to self-
determination, and wholeheartedly welcome their
expulsion from the North.
Reactionary feudal system
They have invested a lot to develop the North,
but Igbo lives are more important than the
hundreds of trillions generated out of nothing.
Below is part of the history that Igbos, most
Southerners and Middle Belters would be
teaching their offspring: Nigeria’s basic problem
was the caliphate, a very violent and corrupt
state-within-state that averred that the IPOB/
MASSOB, OPC, Niger Deltans, Middle Belters,
etc, didn’t have any right to seek their own
states-within-state or, sovereignties-within-
sovereignty.
The caliphate had its own independent Hisbah
police, courts, laws, divers administrative set-
ups variously decoyed armies (Fulani herdsmen,
Boko Haram, etc), all, unlawfully paid for by
Nigerians. Their anger with the Igbos had been
deep-rooted from day one, stemming from the
fact that whereas each and every other Nigerian
nationality seemingly shared with them or was
part of some bits and pieces of their reactionary
feudal system, they sawthe Igbos as the only
people that had totally nothing to do with it and,
therefore, “uncultured”.
Whereas moderate Islam is a religion of peace,
the patently reactionary jihad was merely to
achieve a Fulani territorial power base, and its
tribal nature was maintained by the total
exclusion of non-Fulani from the apex leadership
of the moslem ummah in Nigeria. Thus, while
the post-jihad caliphate often perfunctorily
preached peace, it practiced violence as of
necessity. Like other Wahabbis, they did not
believe in a constitutional democratic secular
state, and for long deployed state resource to
fund private religious pilgrimages and other
escapades, compelling other sects to also seek
a cut in the pie.
The caliphate oppressed even the moslems they
purported to represent, not to talk of others. In
their homes were all sorts of Western gadgets,
but in their minds, a limitless array of atavistic
designs against progress. They built a large
following of sycophants, beneficiaries and
apologists who helped them spread violence,
but, this could have been overcome, except that
Nigerians were not courageous enough to do
so.
The caliphate was not only economically
wasteful, it was very politically and culturally
corrupt; it served the needs of some extended
families and endlessly strove to blanket the
country with a 10thcentury darkness in a 21st
century world of advanced civilisation and open
society. They had nothing to offer any modern
man other than tutelary offices and cultic
“protections”, for those sufficiently betraying
their people.
They were pathologically after military-political
power and foreign allies, never competitive
democratic discourse because, being always
afraid of enlightenment, violence was the only
means by which they could achieve or
implement their unjust objectives against all and
sundry. Chinua Achebe claimed that Nigeria’s
basic problem was leadership, but it was mostly
systemic for, there was no amount of “good
leadership” that could operate effectively in
contention with a parallel authority, or while
receiving unwritten orders from it.
Since August 1966, the caliphate started
desiring Nigeria to continue to exist, but on its
own terms. It was very clear to everyhonest
person that until it was totally abolished and
wiped away from the country, in vain were the
“lovers” of the nation labouring to have others
see the exploitative anachronism as normal and
acceptable. For the remnants that still believed
in a rescuable Nigeria, there was some idea that
a huge economic and other potential did exist
within the Hausa-Fulani and other Northern
masses, and unless and until that positive power
was unleashed to join their Southern
counterparts in a peaceful democratic context,
which could not happen paripassu with the
caliphate, Nigeria, even with a so-called Igbo
presidency, would come to nothing.
Of course, there were progressive-minded
elements within the caliphate, but the system
overwhelmed them and, partly because of fear,
hardly made their voices heard. Fear of change,
of a truly democratic secular political revolution
in an egalitarian society, was the major
obstacle. In the alternative, almost everyone
accepted with joy a renewed Northern offer for
people to go their separate ways. End of history.
To Igbo elite and all: Igbos in various places
and positions must be seriously mindful of their
use of words and phrases, otherwise they would
be suspected of colluding to destroy the Igbo
peoples. The expulsion order is served on the
Igbos, not “Southeast Region”, and Igbos have
accepted it wholeheartedly, and the coming
referendum (if it does), will also be Igbo-wide, in
Abia, Anambra, parts of Delta and Edo, Ebonyi,
Enugu, Imo, Rivers, and other parts of Igboland,
and not restricted to Gowon’s ethnic-cleansing,
designer “Southeast”, intended to divide the
Igbos and minoritise those in the Rivers, Delta,
Edo and other states that are still being
persuaded and pressured to abandon their kith
and kin and become slaves to the caliphate or
their agents, even as they have never been
spared in any Northern killings.
Igbos must speak now with one clear and
unmistakable voice: if anyone is in any doubt
about who the Igbos and Igboland are, which
pre-existed Nigeria, let him consult ethnological
and historical texts and round it up with what
everybody agrees was the most important
document in Nigerian history, left to us by Her
Majesty’s Government: the page 51 of the
Willinks Report of 1957/58. Igbos remain happy
that they were the only people so clearly and
precisely defined by various explorers and Great
Britain before their departure. The Ohanaeze
Ndigbo, not Ohanaeze of “Southeast”, should
know better.
A word also to Eastern minority brothers and
sisters: Igbos would continue to love and need
them as brothers, sisters and neighbours and,
given the unprintable crimes committed against
them in Nigeria, fully support the rights of the
Ijaw, Efik-Annang-central Ibibio-Ogoja, Ogoni,
Andoni, for self-determination, to the level of
their desire in or out of the country. As
Easterners, Southerners, and mostly christians,
we need unity now, more than ever before.
Statements suggesting an ambition to isolate
the hinterland Igbos and carve out Opobo, Port
Harcourt or the Rivers/Mbamiri, Delta/Anioma,
Edo and other Igbos into an Eastern minority
coastal republic or “Region”, whatever its other
aims, might be seen as a continuing effort to
divide, weaken, “landlock”,and hamstrung the
Igbo nation and transform her from the
victimised of Nigeria to the victimised of the
Eastern minorities.
Anyone who likes or needs any Igbos should try
and like and need all of them, and not spite any
part or seek to pick and choose which Igbo
species to treat in what manner. Igbos are a
coastal nation, and their centuries-long coastal
history generally served the East very well,
sowing the seeds of the global civil rights
movement.
Igbo priority is the consensual restoration of an
enlarged Eastern Region and, if not possible,
every Eastern/Southern nationality being on her
united own, down to the coast, as was the case
before, during and after colonial rule. Any Igbo
agitator “unilaterally” drawing maps to embrace
any non-Igbo in anything, might have meant
well, but “forcing” anyone into liking or
associating with any other group, is in no way
part of Igbo enlightened thought process.
Igbos seek mutually beneficial relations of
equality and justice with everybody, not the
harm or oppression of any, whether inside or
outside Nigeria. Whichever Easterner continues
to attempt to tear the Igbos apart, or join in an
anti “other Igbo” alliance, would raise the
question of motive for such designs.
For the avoidance of doubt, it was through the
Southern Igbos that modern Igbo maritime
traditions developed; it was through them that
Western civilisation entered Igbo hinterland,
including the rise of the Union Igbo Bible Nso,
which is essentially of Bonny, Ikwerre, Etche,
Opobo, and other origin. On the one hand, it was
also through them that the Igbos with Jaja,
pioneered the struggle for African emancipation.
On the other hand, it was mostly through the
Ika/Anioma Igbos, led by Nnamdi Azikwe of
Anioma/Eze Chima origins that the Igbos were
mobilised to fight for Nigerian independence,
and their Nzeogwu in the botched attempt to
usher in an egalitarian and modern Nigeria.
Therefore, if modern Igbos needed a hierarchy,
these two peoples would be on top. Those
attempting to cut off the head and leave the
rump as “Igboland” in the guise of “Southeast”
or “South-South” region or republic should,
please, leave the Igbos alone. We are not
unmindful of some individuals making a career
out of a suicidal “Southeast” instead of Igbo-
wide advocacies, since their selfish material
objectives and hidden paymasters would one
day be unmasked.
The North and October ultimatum: No Igboman
should be used to rescue the caliphate from
their internal contradictions. Their next move in
this self-imposed quandary is likely to be an
attempt to achieve a Yoruba support or a
Fulani-Yoruba alliance against the Igbos, by
hiring some fools or criminals to stage an
altercation between the two civilised groups, and
concocting a non-existent “war” or “conflict”
between the Igbos and Yorubas.
Threat to civilisation
This could be in Lagos, Port Harcourt, or any
other part of the West or East. They might also
try to create an altercation in the East between
any paid agent. Leaders of all the groups
concerned should be alert to attempts to divert
attention from the Northern threat to civilisation.
Except when used against the Igbos, they have
absolutely nothing other than love against the
talakawas, almajiris , and the host of other
innocent Hausa-Fulani, peaceful muslims,
christians, and so on being oppressed by the
Fulani caliphate and their hirelingsthat present
themselves as, and hereinafter called the
“North” and, to whom the Igbo nation have for
long been persevering to bring some light and
development, and take some of their own back
home, so that we could all join to build a great
African society called Nigeria. This was the
dream imposed by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, a
contiuator of Olaudah Equiano, Africanus
Horton, King Jaja and several other Igbos, and
through whom they became the only African
nation that was 100% mobilised and
comprehensively united without exception for
the struggle against colonial rule. The caliphate
never liked that independence, delayed it as long
as possible, until a “victory” was forged for
them, which they never had even in the Middle
Belt, let alone any corner of the South, but which
nevertheless enabled them form a tortuous
federal government with a declared aim of
completing the atrocities of Othman dan Fodio
and murderous wickedness of Alimi.
The chosen prince to continue that jihad was
Ahmadu Bello who, using his servant, Tafawa
Balawa, were responsible for thousands of
deaths in the Middle Belt, killed and burnt others
in the Western Region, and were planning to
resume against the Igbos from where they
stopped in 1945 and early 50s, come January
17, 1966. “No facts, no arguments, nothing
under the sun can ever make these jihadists
stop labelling January 15,1966, “Igbo coup”, and
nothing would ever make them forgive the Igbos
for preventing Ahmadu Bello completing his
divine task of forcing the whole of Nigeria into
the loving arms of Mohammed (PBUH).
To them, it was that 1966 coup d’état that
justified the mass killings of the Igbo in 1945; it
was also that 1966 coup that led to their
massacring thousands of other Igbos and
Southerners over a statement made by a non-
Igboman in Lagos in the early 50’s. It was also
that 1966 coup d’état that led to the eradication
of the Tiv/Middle Belt and the killing and
humiliation of the Yoruba in the 60’s. It was of
course the killing of Ahmadu Bello that has
warranted the systematic elimination of the
Bakassi people in their own homeland, via a
treacherous Maroua Declaration; the murder of
Saro-Wiva and complete destruction of
Ogoniland; the present total occupation of the
Ijaw Niger Delta and other corners of the South
in pursuit of a righteous “degrading” of the Ijaw
etc youths and communities; the ongoing
genocide in Southern Kaduna whereof
sophisticated weapons are dropped to the Fulani
advance army through official channels, with
villagers complaining that the army and police
are ready for “action” only after the deed has
been done and the natives need be prevented
from defending themselves. It was also the
unfortunate assassination of Ahmadu Bello that
warranted the murder of Abiola, a presumably
fellow moslem, his beloved wife, and several
others, mainly Yoruba, over a simple matter of
an election lost and won. Agents of the violent
caliphate authored the Boko Haram, and only
started washing their hands off it, if they are
indeed doing so, only when it seemingly turned
a Frankenstein’s monster.
Nothing is meant to be said here about the
murder of General Ironsi, Colonel Fajuyi and
hundreds of Igbo officers and men, the series of
pogroms that preceded the genocide, the
genocide itself, the “post”-war ethnic cleansing
in southern Igboland, all of which have
consumed at least 4.5 million Igbo lives. Added
to possibly 2 million lives of other Nigerians
eradicated by the caliphate since independence,
and presumably other 2 million since they set
their feet on Nigerian soil early 19th century, it
means that some people have in their red hands
the blood of almost 9 to 10 million innocent
human beings since the last 200 years, most of
whom are of course, Igbo. With simple
arithmetic means, if youcalculate that a country
of 4 to 10 million people 200 years ago could be
between 50 and 100 million people today, one
may come a little closer to the understanding of
what some feudal-minded people have done to
the fraction of the black race called Nigeria.
There arejust too many war criminals hovering
around, and too many war crimes and crimes
against humanity and against peace hanging
over many people’s heads that it is clear that
thecivilized world, including in Nigeria, have
been taken for a ride for far too long. And, those
that they are committing these atrocities against
are people spoon-feeding them with trade, love,
marriage, development and friendship, so that
there could be a certain One Nigeria, forged
from Lugard’s astral auguries.
Now, why is the caliphate North, with this
history, suddenly expelling the Igbos? Answer:
there is a very angry ritual which they enact
every 15th January, since 1966. Not a single
modest Igboman from 1966 till date wished Sir
Ahmadu Bello dead, despite the murder of many
in the West and Middle Belt associated with him,
but that ritual is targeted at the Igbos, primarily
as a means of issuing veiled threats and
mobilizing bias against the Igbo nation. January
15 is a date set aside by the North for hate
speech-making. Hirelings that present various
papers deliver one hate speech after another
hate speech in commemoration of the “Gamji”.
You will wait for a single apology or at least
sign of remorse over the atrocities associated
with the great man, the many in the West and
Middle Belt orphaned through him, and millions
in Igboland and elsewhere by his followers, but
in vain!
The Nigerian state, a euphemism for the
caliphate, cannot after 50years, even think of
erecting a memorial for the lives of 4.5 million
innocent Igbos they have destroyed (think not
about property). So, because of this and other
cruelties by caliphate Nigeria, the Igbos for the
first time declared a sit-at- home to
commemorated their dead by themselves (and
to some, if necessary, also achieve a Biafra by
peaceful means). What the Northmeans by the
expulsion order is that while they annually
commemorate someoneassociated with the
murder of so many, openly making hate
speeches and inciting statements on each and
every 15th January occasion, the Igbos have no
right to sit quietly in their homes to honour the
4.5 millions murdered by them. Of course,
whatever becomes of Nigeria, there is going to
be a more general lockdown nationwide for the
Igbo to commemorate those murdered by the
caliphate and their agents, not only during the
Biafran war but since 1945; the Yoruba, Ogoni,
Bakassi, Ijaw, Tiv/Middle Belt, Southern Kaduna,
etc would either join or separately conduct their
own, and the possibility cannot be totally
discounted that at some point in the future, even
the almajiri and talakawa that the jihadist
extremists dare educate may in remorse also
join to commemorate the killingsof the Igbos and
others. Therefore, as the caliphate, their caliphs
and agents are numberingthe days of the Igbos
and calculating the millions they will kill, throw
into the Benue riveror seize their properties,
they should also be numbering their own days.
Restructuring now overtaken: No one should
take us back to restructuring, for that has been
swept aside by events. All peace-loving people,
above all, Igbos, must welcome the ultimatum to
leave the North.But, this is also boom time for
fifth columnists. Hence, there is a particular
warning to Igbo, Yoruba and other Southern
leaders : the caliphate and their officials would
before or after October 1st, try to buy over some
Igbo, Yoruba or other Southerners to try to help
them maintain “one Nigeria”. Those Igbos in
Yorubaland and elsewhere that love crime
instead of honest business are specifically
warned that they are on their own, and not
welcome by the Igbos. It is roughly estimated
that Igboland can effectively accommodate up to
100 million hardworking men and women; it will
not be easy in the beginning, but after initial
adjustments, Igbos will find their way in the
world. It will constitute a crime for any Igboman
to plead to stay in the North; in accommodating
the returnees, in everything, this is the time to
once again implement Onye Aghala Nwanne Ya!
Every Igbo family in every Igbo town and village
should prepare one or two rooms to temporarily
accommodate 5 to 10 returnees from the North
that have no home of their own in Igboland.
Other immediate practical steps should be taken
to reduce the adjustment period of these
innocent returnees. Igboland alone is going to
become a big market for thriving investment,
and prosperous import-export trade.
Appeal to the western powers: Igbos continue to
appeal to foreign governments, especially the
United States, Great Britain, France, Germany,
Israel and other world powers and international
community, not to continue to allow Igbos to be
slaughtered. Igbos pose no threat to the West; if
anything, Igbos are in all aspects more Western
than those sponsoring terrorism and
religiousextremism. The Igbos are very lucky
that the British had before their departure clearly
and precisely delimitated the boundaries of
Igboland. The Igbo nation whole heartedly
welcomes the expulsion order, and plead to the
West to do nothing else than assist its peaceful
implementation. Nigeria being divided according
to the wishes of the North, which also coincides
with the aspirations of others, will create more,
not less friends for the West. Therefore, Igbos
plead that Western governments do not dispatch
“experts” and officials to advice Nigerians on the
advantages of One Nigeria, or on matters of
peace that leads to pieces, pogroms and
genocides. The West should kindly help the Igbo
nation now.
Various Igbo figures must respectfully know that
they are on the watch list of everybody. We all
have been reduced and humiliated, and no one
is any longer afraid of anything. There is not a
single square meter now available for mistake,
treachery or betrayal. If anyone continues to
spread the Gowonic ethnic-cleansing evil of
“Southeast”,instead of Igbo and Igboland, all
Igbos would start re-examining the god that he
is serving. It is too late to accept double speak.
It is Igbos that have been served the ultimatum,
not “Southeast” alone, and postwar Igbo public
figures must, please, respect the unity and
integrity of the Igbo peoples and their ancestral
homeland, and henceforth STOP pretending lack
of knowledge of the difference between the two,
and the catastrophic implications of any wrong
direction. Igbo public figures should for a start,
simply remind Igbos in the North of the need to
carefully return with papers of their landed and
other properties, preparatory to an eventual
reconciliation of accounts. Above all, every Igbo
criminal must be warned not to harm any
Northerner, especially since they too have been
ordered home by their people and, even if not,
are human beings created by God.
Why the north will certainly strike: They pretend
to be reacting against the agitations of IPOB and
MASSOB, and that there should be no other
sovereign state inside a sovereign Nigeria, when
they themselves have been unilaterally and
impudently operating a caliphate state-within-
state, with the officialNigerian army and security
agencies, deployed, controlled and teleguided by
them. They will also strike because there is a
pride that the capture of all military and security
institutions of government is the highest point of
their achievement under “another Northerner”,
and need to make the fullest use of it before it
slips never to return – because, this time,
except there is a castrated Southerner in Aso
Rock (and, they could be in millions), it may not
return. They also need to strike now before
anything happens that could permit a Yoruba
professor to emerge a constitutional president
of Nigeria, with the prospect of contesting and
winning in 2019. There is also an internal
ideological crisis within the caliphate. They
know that their goal of turning Nigeria into a
religious fiefdom and others as a milk-cow of
parasitism is speedily coming to a close, with
the Middle Belters getting wiser, and they need
something dramatic to precipitate a reversal.
There is also the calculation that the Igbos love
property so much so that they could be
blackmailed,insulted, killed and abused as they
have been doing with no serious consequence.
What ofthe simple annoyance over calls for
restructuring, which would drag the entire edifice
of caliphate economic, political, cultural and
financial corruption down to pieces! Their
operatives, leaders and ideologues are well-
educated, and aware that centuries of
feudalgovernance is not getting them anywhere;
they cannot go on in that way in modern times
and cannot come off it; it is a terrible negative
contradiction, so, the only way they can
“resolve” it is to provoke a major crisis, even if
of a suicidal nature. The caliphate has passed
the line and staked their honour by that quit
order; they have imposed upon themselves an
obligation to vindicate their manhood, and the
fear that if the threat is not carried out they
would lose all credibility before their slaves, will
definitely pressure them to strike, even if the
hour is uncertain. Indeed, right now, what is
holding them against the Igbos is the lack of
assurance from the Yoruba, the Eastern
minorities and Middle Belters, to join in the
annihilation of their enemy and confiscation of
their properties. The gradual unity of the South
is also complicating their calculationsAll Igbos
should know that what these expellers need
most is love, understanding, and yet more love
and, while doing so, hasten home before
October 1st. If this crime against peace and
against humanity doesn’t re-unite Igbos,
nothing again might. Igbos, from Igbo Akiri to
Aba Omeghe, inland to the coast, would re-
embrace each other; by themselves modernize
Port Harcourt, etc., through which we trade with
other nations, correct our past mistakes against
each other, and move on, hopefully along with
the Ijaw, Ogoni, Efik-Annang-centrral Ibibio-
Ogoja, Andoni and the many willing others.
Hundreds of trillions of naira investment to
develop the North is not worth the blood of any
other Igbo child. We created that wealth out of
nothing, and there is greater prosperity
elsewhere! Igbos coming home may not seem
the best option in terms of preserving Igbo
properties, but in the circumstance the best
option for preserving Igbos lives.