…..and so we finally reached Benin at about 8 o’clock that evening after crossing the Onisha bridge from Ojukwu’s Biafra into Gowon’s Nigeria! My uncle’s house on Akenzua street that had become a sought of family house was the landing pad!
‘So prof you mean Ojukwu finally threw non-Igbos out”? I heard my uncle whisper to my dad. Then his sister my mum cut in.
“Baba Agba are you not happy that he let us go can you imagine being trapped in Biafra with war? “We thank God” my uncle said.
All of a sudden I saw deep sorrow in my father’s eyes. His adrenaline was subsiding as reality kicked in. Once again he was out of a job had again left good friends behind in Nsukka!
When our Lord Jesus Christ says little children usually have no sin. It is steeped in the innocence children use to approach life. For the first few days there was apprehension to step out of the house on Akenzua street in Benin city!
Days before we left Biafra the rumour was (to discourage movements out of Biafra) that upon arriving in Nigeria, you would be asked to pronounce the word “Toro”. Toro was the then hexagonal coin amounting to three pence in worth. Possibly the equivalent of the 500 Naira note today in relation to the 1000 Naira note! The “Toro” test was supposedly employed because the pronunciation of non Yorubas was usually called “Tolo” especially by Igbo in particular. The propaganda then was that upon pronouncing it “Tolo” you will be separated aside and executed summarily! With this story in mind the first few days in Benin was a cagey one. I kept practicing in secret making sure my pronunciation of Toro’ was appropriate I definitely did not want to be executed.
I believed a couple of weeks passed by still there was no official declaration of Biafra. Then we were on the move again back to where we had started started out. Ibadan! By this time plans had been perfected by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the then Ooni of Ife Oba Adesoji Aderemi and the intellectual intelligentsia of the west region to change campus location of the then called Nigerian college Ibadan to a full blown university called university of Ife! My old man had hardly rejoined Ife that we were once again on the move. The historic migration by the academic community from one town to the other, namely from Ibadan to Ile Ife!
The Ooni of Ife had ceded the largest area of land ever to be occupied by a university campus in the world. The land mass of what was now to be the modern day Obafemi Awolowo University stood at 9 miles square located predominantly on the outskirts of Ile Ife! But before this movement, fate had it that my father’s school mate, closest to my father when they were in secondary school, Christ School, Ado Ekiti was now governor of western region. An Ekiti man where we hailed from. His name was Adeyinka Adebayo, Military Governor of western region. His predecessor, Col Adekunle Fajuyi also an Ekiti man had been brutally assassinated in a coup-de-tat! The times were again about to get dangerous really dangerous. It had now become a case of “to war or not to war” Biafra had still not been officially declared so once again I tagged along when upon arriving at Ibadan the military governor invited his childhood friend now a professor for full debriefing and particularly to gain knowledge of what was going on then in the mind of his colleague, Odumegwu Ojukwu!
2. Still on this 67′ Biafra thing….
Indeed children should be protected. Their innocence is such that children can easily be manipulated. In fact children adjust fast and memories really don’t go that far at that age. Their brain is still developing but always tuned to the current times! So I began to adjust quickly. In adjusting I began to replace old memories with new real-time ones. As I began to immediately make new friends, old friends left behind in Nsukka began to fade away! We had slotted back into the university community the prof had gone straight back to the department of economics! Because our house on campus stood close to the second gate that entered directly into University of Ibadan, we often interacted on a daily basis with the University of Ibadan academic community! There were also notable Igbo academicians, now meeting up in the University of Ibadan campus. Their dilemma now was whether to return to the east as implied and pronounced by the Igbo leadership that their sons and daughters should return home with immediate effect! Since we were the latest to come out of the east, the Igbo lecturers too were eager to know what was going on in their land. So they often converged in our house.
What discussions I overheard!! Brilliant minds now a bit confused. Academic careers were at stake. Potential loss of life to war was discussed. As of then again the southwest was the safest place to be. The north was a no go area to some there were killers residing there. But the Igbo man particularly the academicians then were proud of their heritage. They were among one of the most brilliant in the world. Igbo land had a strong pull. Somehow they felt they had to get out of Nigeria. There was an unenviable one because of the weight of the decision most were about to take. Indeed war is a terrible thing! So the movement to Ile-Ife was just like the movement out of Biafra! In fact both movements were so close in time it began to appear for me As one long movement. They say practice makes perfect and because we had made the kind of movement we were about to make, we were first family in packing and once again led the movement from Ibadan to Ife. Literarily we became one of the first families to set foot on the soil of University of Ife. A brand new campus immediately reminded me of University of Nigeria Nsukka. Road 19 house 21 (Prof Wole Soyinka was to live in that very house when we moved out).
….Then the dispatch rider came bearing a note from the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, General Yakubu Gowon. As the bike pulled in, I heard the roar .The rider all cladded up side arms included had come straight from Dordan Barracks bearing a note addressed to Professor Sam Aluko, marked top secret! His attention was urgently needed in Lagos immediately! Unknown to him he was about to undertake a mission fraught with potential danger. Once again husband and wife went down on their knees in prayer. What possibly could the head of state be asking for?
3.They were all young. In their early thirties and forties! They did not have old sit tight leaders in front of them luckily. The lot of shaping Nigeria had fallen on their class and age group. Fast forward and compare it with these days in Nigeria. If not for the occasional death of some, they have perpetually sat on the leadership of this country. The youths too have perpetually refused to make any meaningful challenge to their perpetual rule in the real sense. I guess ours is basically a society that respect elders! This can only be a kind of legitimate excuse to justify our youths sitting on the fence. Until very recently it seems the Arewa youths in reality have drawn ‘first blood’ seizing a portion of power in the north and now an attempt to be proactive all be it under questionable reaction! General Yakubu Gowon head of state was just 32 years old or there about when Sam Aluko stepped in to Dordan Barracks to honour the invitation by the head of state. He was also a young man then!
Apparently Chief Obafemi Awolowo just released from prison had been made both the Vice-Chairman of the Supreme Military Council and Minister of Finance. This had effectively made him deputy head of state in real terms, the vice president. So you can see there is a precedence to Obasanjo going from prisoner to Prince.
So apparently the decision was taken to reach out to Ojukwu and his people! A peace delegation headed by Chief Awolowo was to go and offer Ojukwu a deal! Chief Awolowo had in turn mentioned it to Gowon that my father had to be on that peace delegation. Due to his closeness with Ojukwu and the added fact that the delegation will be safe once the prof was part of it!
“Sam why were you part of this delegation? The two men sat quietly on the veranda!
Earlier a slight disagreement had broken out between some in the delegation and the team Ojukwu brought to confront them at a guest chalet at the gov’t house in Enugu! The first meeting in a series of short meetings had ended in disagreement. Ojukwu was being belligerent. Not wanting to shift ground. He was already on autopilot as regards fighting the war! My dad looked at Ojukwu strangely thinking why he was asking the question.
Ojukwu had gone to school in Lagos His father a rich man also resided in Lagos. He could speak Yoruba fluently. He had studied Yoruba people. He knew the could be filled with deception and surprised. He was particularly uneasy with Chief Awolowo. He stared at him with suspicion throughout!
“Emeka why are you asking the question?
“Sam to be honest it has crossed my mind to detain your delegation to send a signal to Dodan Barracks. But how can I detain you along with them. What will your wife Joyce say? And I can’t detain all and let you go back alone!! My dad took one frightful look at his now fully bearded rebel friend and kept quiet realizing how potentially dangerous the trip could be. It was good he and his wife said prayers before all this!
Emeka, why don’t you take the autonomy deal? “Gowon is even prepared to cede more barrels of oil!.
“Sam we need Biafra, we don’t need their oil in a deal! Both men fell silent for a few seconds! They could hear the heartbeats of each other as there became apprehension in the air!
4. The next morning the Prof rose up to have breakfast with the governor. He had a restless night. Apprehensive but quietly assured that the Igbos were highly civilised people and that his friend will not suddenly decide to detain the delegation. Of course he had not mentioned this to the delegation. I personally learnt of this after he came back and was discussing with my mum on the dining table as my mum listened with rapt attention. I was listening too! So as he was about to enter into the main building he spotted Nzeogwu the master coup plotter who was responsible for the 66 coup alight from a military vehicle in full combat camouflage complete with leafs on his head. He was looking disheveled with blood shot eyes. So he stopped. Apparently when Nzeogwu was incarcerated by Ironsi my dad had pleaded with with Ironsi for their release arguing that if not for their coup Ironsi would not have gained power. The mode the way the coup plotters had been arrested was to trick them to come to Lagos for a pally. Upon Nzeogwu reaching the airport. They were met with hand cuffs and chains and taken straight to incarceration. So Nzeogwu had maintained a friendship with the prof.
“Chukwuma so you people actually want to fight this war where are you coming from? He said they had gone to conduct some military maneuvers in the Abakaliki area. And with a smile said I’m still in the army!
“Sam I’m getting signals that we may have to have a formal meeting in Aburi, Ghana”; Ojukwu said to the prof as they sat down quietly eating breakfast!
By now my father said he could see Ojukwu he knew changing before his very eyes. He was getting more quiet speaking more of Igbo language than the impeccable English he usually spoke! He was no longer paying attention to himself. He had gone into the ‘Che Guv era mode! What just remained was to express this mode in battle!.
Somehow the prof still believed the situation could be rescued.
“Sam we did not sleep last night. We have drawn up what will be our final position of bargain”. It was a take it or leave it document. He passed the document across the table. My dad opened it and read it. As he quickly glanced through it he knew even if Gowon accepted. The chief will rule against it. Chief Obafemi Awolowo was a thorough man he would question him on the economic implication of the document. Ojukwu was being extremely clever he thought but not clever enough to deceive the great chief.
“Pass it on to your team so you can discuss. I’m afraid Sam I’m busy with so many preparations”. My dad said wisdom informed him not to argue with Ojukwu by now he had changed in mindset from his Excellency Governor of Eastern Region to President of Biafra the land of the rising sun. It was then the prof noticed the insignia firmly glued to the shoulder part of the army uniform Ojukwu was wearing. My father said it appeared Ojukwu was now sleeping with his Biafran uniform on! Further wisdom informed my dad to tell the delegation not to seek further audience with Ojukwu and his team. Ojukwu though quiet had become edgy suspicious and extremely loyal to the cause. So the best was for the delegation to get out of town fast. They waited till they crossed the Niger bridge on their way to Lagos before they started discussing the details in the document. Apprehensive of the fact that their convoy could be stopped at any time up to that point and made to turn back to the Biafran capital. Ojukwu was a Man of honour he had kept his personal word not to detain the delegation.
Fast forward to present times there is a saying in Warri that “na big name dey kill small dog” if you have a dog and you keep on calling it lion. The day you call the name of a real lion when you see one and the dog is there the dog will think they are mates. Now Kanu is being referred to as the supreme leader a name given to people like the Ayatollahs in Iran. The name alone is ego filled and enough to blackmail Kanu into a position of complete intransigence. Possibly it is my childhood Freudian experience that is making me see early a potential dangerous situation we may be approaching if we are not proactive in this situation! Indeed two rams cannot drink from the same pot. The pot will tear. For now Kanu may be enjoying dominance in his area. I don’t believe those that say it is only 10 percent of Igbos that believe in secession. I believe Kanu is increasing in stature everyday that passes as he continues to psychologically terrorise south east governors with his increasing folds of supporters.
As in all universities back in the day, the campus had a telephone exchange! So precisely about 7 o’clock in the evening I followed my dad to the university telephone exchange. The meeting in Aburi that Ojukwu had cleverly roped Gowon into a so what devil’s deal had been renounced by Gowon upon review by the SMC and other bodies. So there had been a stalemate.
Hello Hello Emeka it’s me, Sam. Apparently Ojukwu was in a party mood my dad could tell from the distant laughter of people surrounding Ojukwu at the state house.
Hello Sam how is your family? “Fine I even have one of them here with me, the troublesome one, Olu”, my dad laughed. The next statement made my dad almost drop the phone in shock despite the fact that all signs pointed to that direction.
“Sam I’m sorry you may not like what I have to say but I am declaring the State of Biafra tomorrow in a live broadcast to my people. We are celebrating already. You know Sam you are our friend and you are welcomed to come back to Biafra any day!
When I say the Igbos after the war have changed. What happened to Joe Igbokwe in Lagos had been offered decades ago by Ojukwu to a non-Yoruba man, my dad. Ojukwu had offered my dad to become his finance commissioner when he was governor of eastern region. He did not care whether he was a Yoruba man all he cared about was that he was recruiting one of the best in the region that will add value to the area. He was about to make the announcement when my dad refused bluntly the appointment saying he was not ready to leave the university environment! With a sad face and demeanor my dad hung on to the phone. He had lost out trying to convince his friend not to fight a bloody civil war. He turned to me and said expectedly in Yoruba, “oga Lou he ka lo le” (let’s go home)
“How did your phone call go with Ojukwu”? My mum asked excitedly as we got back home. In a low and dejected tone my dad replied. Emeka is going to announce Biafra tomorrow! You could hear the “silence of the lambs” descend! Both husband and wife headed to their bedroom to now discuss how to protect the family and indeed how to move. It appeared in the rest of Nigeria, my Dad was one of the first if not the first to know, Biafra would be among to know that the declaration of Biafra was only hours away!!
5. The innocence of a child is like a blank canvass! A lot depends on the painter. And for sure we have good and bad painters! But there is one thing that is common with both the good and bad in this instance; that is impressions and influence! As a child just coming out of Biafra, the last physical impression I had was the guns, pistol and rifles I had seen both at the state house and as we were exiting. The east had become highly militarized! There were guns everywhere! Meanwhile what I had seen had crept into my subconsciousness!
Now we had settled down in Ife. The great Professor Oluwasanmi, the the Vice Chancellor and silent leader of the Awolowo intelligentsia was busy building and expanding the campus. Momentarily we did not avert our mind to the war. We were on sanctified grounds! So I thought until one evening the inhabitants of Ondo heard a distance boom! Within an our of that booming sound word had reached. Biafran troops were pushing for Ore! The border town of the western region with the Midwest Nigeria. Possibly one of the greatest war operation carried out by the Biafra army was the lightening speed in which Midwest was captured. The mid-west woke up in the morning to find Biafran troops everywhere!
The mid-west was vulnerable because of the politics they played. The military governor then, David Ejoor for a while had sat on the fence stating that he did not want Midwest to be a theater of war! The federal troops had initially respected that and started the police action from the Nsukka axis the gate way to the north! There was now a rapid advance towards the west. The objective to take the war to Lagos! Then I saw once again a flock of lecturers gathering in our house. The rumour was Ondo town barely 40 minutes away from Ife had fallen in battle to Biafran troops. As the rumour thickened the university authorities began sending signals to their contacts on the outside the feeling was the campus must be defended at all cost!! It did not get to that the Biafran troops had been halted in a fierce battle in Ore. O le ku ija Ore!!
Apparently the rumour came in that the Biafran troops had deployed a home made bomb contained in a bucket like contraption with shrapnels. It was called ‘ogbunigbue” (hope I spelt it right) mass killer. As soon as I heard the story I turned to my dad and said. My friend’s father also your friend made that bomb! Chukwuka. Emeka, Prof Nwosu’s son had told me his father could make bombs!!
Now on campus we had Leventis Stores. The supermarket chain had set up shop and one of the favourite items being sold in the store were toy guns! They had it in all specifications and the guns looked real! Staff school Ife was liberal in some aspects. We did not wear school uniforms we went to school in our personal cloths and our headmistress was a white woman. Mrs Davis, her husband was a professor. Since it was a climate of war our favourite sport initially became cow boys and Indians gradually we started chasing imaginary Biafran soldiers giving our selves ranks. This was me that had started out being a Biafran sympathizer now gave my self the rank of a ‘genera’l in the federal army in our mock battles chasing the enemy. So you can see how a child’s mind can adapt quickly to circumstances that is why there are protest against outfits like the Lord’s resistance army in Central Africa that uses children as soldiers. Also other outfits all over Africa! The child’s mind can be fickle just like wet clay it can be moulded easily. It’s the moulder that is important in a child’s life! Later on in the war, Biafra in desperation was to use children as soldiers! Indeed war is a terrible thing!
6. As the stories of the war exploits reached our ears we as children got more excited. We had our favourite federal troops commander. Our favourite was black scorpion, Benjamin Adekunle of Third Marine Commando! The stories were of mythical proportion. How he was prone to disappearing and ‘reappearing. How he could become invisible. How bullets never touched him. We got so engrossed in the stories heard from our parents, house-helps shoe makers, barbers carpenters…all! I now decided I was no longer going to carry a toy pistol. I had earned the rank of General by jumping off the roof of a building. All other children in my gang did not jump higher and further so they remained in the rank from brigadier down! So as a child General it was time to carry the machine gun! I had spotted a new collection at the Leventis store. So I began to pester my father to buy the toy gun for me. I was relentless at this. Finally he gave-in on that! Give a child an inch and he will take a mile! So I moved on to the toy battle helmet. He also gave-in. By the time I stepped out fully kitted in front of my pistol carrying friends, they knew indeed a child General was standing in front of them. This outfit was to get me into serious trouble with the guards of the governor of western region. General Adeyinka Adebayo at his residence in Iyin-Ekiti.
7. Now, I’m the second born in the family of my father. The older one now also a professor. But then he was two years plus ahead of me. He had always showed academic brilliance, first among his equals most of the time. His brilliance in primary school had made him pass the common entrance to secondary school at record age. Possibly the youngest ever up till that time to pass the common entrance. So off he went to Christ’s School even before the war started. So I had become the child-generalisimo in the house. Not as if he would have contested it with me anyway. He had other academic interest. My interest now was primarily in the civil war. After watching Vic morrows combat. And Bonanza I could not wait to engage in mock battles! Now to encourage me to also follow in my brother’s footsteps, my dad took me along anytime he was visiting my brother at Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti. Those days parents planned properly. They lived by the calendar! So the day to visit Bolaji my older brother was already marked down!
…daddy daddy daddy news! news! I will run up to my dad’s bedroom to call him to come and listen to the news downstairs! Immediately, he usually followed me. In seconds we are crowded round the grundig big radio just beside the black and white TV. Then we will both decide which station to listen to. Radio Nigeria or Radio Biafra! Then we heard, General Shuwa has captured Enugu. Then we switched to radio Biafra and heard that the gallant Biafran air force had bombed Lagos. “Haa” my dad will turn to me with all seriousness, “Lagos ke, where Awolowo is! ‘iro ni won pa’ (The Biafrans are lying they can’t win this war); we have just captured Enugu”! He will exclaim. Then with all innocence I will ask “daddy what about my friends in Nsukka”? The answer was always the same “we should pray God protects them!!
So the visiting day to see my brother had come. We were going to Ado Ekiti. Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti; a school with history of academic feats. To get to Ado you had to pass through Iyin-Ekiti. Now the current governor of western region, then Major-General Robert Adeyinka Adebayo was an Ekiti man from Iyin-Ekiti. On this fateful day, he happened to have taken leave of the capital Ibadan then and retired to his country home. Before we left the campus I had insisted on putting on my military looking outfit complete with my Machine gun. I was out now to impress bystanders, my imagination! My last stance before the teenage years! So our driver parked the car on the road. As we got to Iyin, luckily the governor was in. I knew we were going to see the governor and I was determined to show him my toy machine gun. After all he is a soldier! As I exited the car walking behind my father holding my toy machine Gun we had just taken a few paces when I heard the shout “halt”! Two fierce looking darned near hideous looking fully battle ready soldiers emerged from a hidden bunker across the road. I had watched so many war movies to know you put your hands up. In those days we use to accompany the raising of hands with the wordings “hands up”! I had guns pointing at me.
So the soldiers said without taking his eyes off me “Haba oga why you let your pikin bring gun come oga house”? My dad turned back and gave me a stern look. “Olu will you go and return that gun to the car! Are you now a soldier”? Then the soldiers went on to explain how children were now involved in the Biafran war. How it was a child of my age that killed a whole captain in a fierce battle somewhere in Biafra. How children threw grenades at them. I listened to their stories. For the first time I realised I was a fake General. In fact a fake soldier using toy Guns when boys my age were actually shooting the real thing. from that day I refused to carry any toy gun again. After hearing the story I’ll look stupid trying to carry a toy gun. What’s the point. I grew a year older that very minute. It was time to look for another sport.
8. Epilogue!
I have been a bit hard in recent postings on the Biafran agitation and some traits I noticed that was either not there or latent to the fact that it did not stand out for most had similar traits anyway! My experience before the war as a child and now as an adult has shaped what I believe the Igbo man should be today. The east started out so well. Highly civilised, law abiding, hard working, kind compassionate hospitable everything. It is my strong belief that the civil war changed some of these attributes. It has put the Igbo man in constant survival mode! I believed that this mode had arisen because of the conditions that obtained at some point during the war.
The aftermath of the civil war was witnessed by me all be it from a distance but at the same time part of that aftermath. I explain.
After the war friends we had made as a family had lost everything to the war. These were solid families then. But as they came trickling in to our house in Ife to sought assistance I began to see how terrible in fact war could be!…..and one of my childhood friends came into our house with his parents. The harrowing stories told was better imagined, all in all, they came out with only the shirts on their body. They did not need to ask before we knew we had to share.
I took my friend upstairs looking so lean and hungry, I opened my drawer of cloths for him and told him to pick some. He was so overwhelmed with joy he became emotional.This was my friend that we wore similar clothes when I was in the east. He even told me his family split during the war with the other half evacuated to Gabon! Gabon ke? Ki lo fe fa yen!!
I feel bad decisions and timing is key to any agitation. If things are not done properly at the appropriate time you will find children bearing the main brunt of the ensuing problem! It is now very pertinent that Kanu and his IPOB should shift ground and veer towards restructuring. This I believe would do justice to the aspirations of Igbo people within the union. For now going the full nine yards with Biafra is not a realistic prospect! If the IPOB raises the ante, the government may be forced to react. Again the outcome of the fracas will not pay the Igbo man for now. We remain in all this together!
Credit: Olu Aluko, Ekiti Forum