Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Dr. Paul Unongo has explained why President Muhammadu Buhari’s marching order to security chiefs to crush the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is perfect.
Dr. Unongo’s concern is that if the Nnamdi Kanu-led IPOB was allowed to carry on with its activities, it would drag the nation back into another civil war.
President Buhari had earlier given the security chiefs marching orders to crush the IPOB, Boko Haram and other groups that pose threat to national unity.
The NEF chief told The Sun, “I know Buhari very well. It was in my hometown, Gboko that Buhari and Ojukwu met for the first time after the war.
“I arranged for Buhari and Ojukwu to meet in Gboko. So I could feel Buhari’s pain. You feel pain when young men that were not even born when we went and suffered so much and inflicted so much suffering on our people are using such verbiage and such type of rhetoric.
“They cannot even talk in such a sophisticated and philosophical manner like Ojukwu. They cannot match Ojukwu in any way.
“Remember all the troubles that we went through to try and say look if we make ourselves to fight a war, we are going to come back to the same basic problems that we would sit down, talk about it and sort out.
“Ojukwu said let us go to Aburi and I would stand on Aburi and everybody said take Aburi; then something changed and he said give me confederation now or give me war.
“They were young people; both Ojukwu and Gowon were colonels. They told Ojukwu take federalism, let us dialogue and Ojukwu said no, let us fight and they now said, okay, if you fight, I would respond.
“And we saw these things for two years between 1967 through 1968. Then you have young persons who did not see what happened going around and matured people making the young boy feel that he is something special.
“They are using half the idioms that Ojukwu used. They speak half the English that Ojukwu spoke and they are delivering the message less than the way Ojukwu delivered it and people are saying let us go to war.
“So, I can understand Buhari, a man who was a commander in the warfront, fought against Ojukwu and three years they never talked nor greeted, and after the war, they refused to greet, until I arranged and brought them to Gboko; Ojukwu from Nnewi and Gen. Buhari from Daura and we met at St John’s Catholic Church, Gboko. I think it is annoying.
“What kind of country is this? What sort of human beings are we to now prove that man does not learn from history?
“Shall we, Nigerians, start all over again and not move forward. After 50 years, we come back to the same rhetoric to abuse people and heat up the polity with tribal feelings right to the pitch and we fight a war. Last time, we lost 3million people. If we go with Nnamdi Kanu now, how many millions are we ready to part with?
“Maybe 15 million and we wait for another 50 years and the cycle continues. I support the position of Professor Ben Nwabueze who is one of the constitutional lawyers in the world.
“The position is, please, let us come and sit down in a Sovereign National Conference; we are all very educated; even our children have become professors.
“Nigerians can sit down and talk over their differences very coolly. They can shout and abuse themselves if they want, but I do know one thing, the state of friendship, and love that was shown during the Nigerian civil war proves that Nigerians can reach agreement on every single thing, but the insensitivity of people who do not know the trauma of those who participated in the war are going through is the problem.
“They are talking as if there was never a Biafra. We fought a war for three years, very serious and devastating that you can’t imagine. People sought for food and anything.
“In fact, it got to a stage that people could have consumed human beings. The people out there who saw this horrific suffering, how are they allowing these young children to do what they are doing?
Unongo is certainly suffering from a decaying gray matter, and it tells by the level and quality of his reasoning. Chairman of the NEF indeed! Unongo’s people have been used as tools of convenience by the core-north to push their born to rule agenda, and he stands contented being called a northerner. There is neither logic nor reasoning in his verbiage. If Ojukwu’s idioms and English were so persuasive, why did dubious Nigeria renege on the Aburi accord?
Nnamdi Kanu belongs to a different era; might not have seen the Biafran war, but the conditions that precipitated that war are playing out again. The Igbo youths are certainly not discouraged by the fact that a war had been fought before when Nigeria insists on maintaining the status quo by war mongering. However, there is something the war mongers fail to to realize – the global community is a lot different than it was in the 60s when the Biafran war was fought. Even at that, at their respective age, neither Buhari no Unongo can stand the sound of a gun, much less endure the effect of a bullet. Those who want one Nigeria have an obligation at persuasion by putting in place such conditions that will conduce to a level playing ground for all, by words and action. “One Nigeria” by force as they tend to peddle now is not practicable. Cheating by Northerners by way of resource control is so much in Nigeria that the Igbo youths whose future prospects dim by the day are now prepared to say “no” with thunder. War and threats thereof do not provide any solution. Those whose preoccupation is to crush Nnamdi Kanu and other agitators for a fairly ordered society should have to think twice.
That’s “IPOB” and not “IPOD!”
“What a crock!” Dr. Unongo, “What a crock!!”
I could not read any more lines of your garbage!
Your rhetoric shows the reasons why Nnamdi Kanu and his followers are marching forward with their agitation.
What in the hell is this junk that you’re peddling about “they could not talk like Ojukwu…?” “Or sound sophisticated or philosophical like Ojukwu or match Ojukwu’s wits?”
So why is it important that they were not born when Ojukwu and his compatriots executed the civil war? What does that point have to do with the price of tea in China?
What your concentration at this point should be is: what can the government do to tame bloodshed, anymore bloodshed. Do you really think that if Nnamdi Kanu is “crushed” by Buhari that the Biafran agitation will all of a sudden die?
By your rhetorics you have shown that you’re not dealing in good faith.
The issue is that, “does Nnamdi Kanu and his followers have a point in their agitations?” And if so, “what can the government do to address their point or issues?” If you’re advising President Buhari and his administration, that’s precisely what you should be advocating and not be using the words…”crushing.”
There are lots and lots of people in Igbo land that have not embraced IPOD ideology…your shortsightedness is not making things easy. It may change their minds to reconsider.
Most of us, whether Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Tiv, etc. believe in good governance. President Buhari’s administration has not so far given us that…Subsequent administrations may have paid little attention to it, but Buhari’s administration has totally veered 180 degrees away from those administrations. Instead, he has concentrated on “crushing” Nnamdi Kanu or anyone that raises any question on equity.
Shame unto you Dr. Unongo; you have demonstrated to be part of the problem and definitely not part of the solution.
Cash Ezimako