As President Bola Tinubu begins his state visit to Enugu, it is perhaps pertinent to let the cat out of the bag on the historical reason I support the President, especially as Enugu plays a part in this narrative.
Nigeria, as it is presently constituted, is not what we agreed with the British. It was forced on us by a General named Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi after a coup staged by mostly Igbo officers, which wiped out the best of our post-independent leaders.
For the first six years of our existence as an independent nation, Nigeria had regions with full powers of resource control and who were free to do pretty much as they pleased, except secede.
For example, two of the three regions (the West and East) had diplomatic relations with Israel, while the North rejected it.
Economic competition spurred growth. At that time, the Southwest was so advanced that the Saudi Royal Family used to have their medicals at the University College Hospital, Ibadan.
Western Nigeria had universal free basic education before many European countries and was the pacesetter for progressive policies in Nigeria.
The immediate post-independence Nigeria was not a British construct. Our leaders sat down and agreed to form a loose union.
We would have even gotten our independence before Ghana, but the North were not ready, and there were quarrels between Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Mr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo mooted the idea of a secession clause in 1954 during the Lagos Constitutional Conference, but Nnamdi Azikiwe rejected it, galvanising a majority of the conference attendees to kill the idea.
After this was rejected, Chief Awolowo again wrote to the then Governor General of Nigeria, who rejected the clause on the grounds that the majority, led by Nnamdi Azikiwe, did not support it.
Because of Nnamdi Azikiwe, section 86 was inserted into our constitution with the proviso that if any region should secede, it would be an act of treason.
We eventually gained Independence on October 1, 1960, and, almost like in a fairytale, lived happily ever after in an idyllic union.
Until the coup of January 15, 1966, in which several of our best leaders were killed, including my great uncle, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh. He was my auntie, Mrs. Dere Awosika’s father, and was killed on her birthday by Major Chris Anuforo, the most bloodthirsty of the plotters.
There were initial nationwide celebrations until the dust had settled and the rest of the nation realised that the Igbo coup plotters did not kill their own leaders.
And when an elected Northern Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa, was killed by Igbo soldiers and replaced by an Igbo General, instated of the next ranking member of parliament from the ruling Northern Peoples Congress (which would have been Zanna Bukar Dipcharima), protests broke out.
When the new ruler, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, broadcasted a message and assured the nation that the plotters would be tried, things calmed down.
But Ironsi surrounded himself with only Igbo advisers, including Chief Francis Nwokedi, Dr. Pius Okigbo, and Colonel Patrick Anwunah. Calls for him to appoint at least one token non-Igbo were brushed aside.
And then, rather unwisely, Mr. Ironsi promulgated Decree Number 34 on May 24, 1966, which effectively ended regionalism, took control of all resources, including oil (all resources, including oil used to belong to the regions before Ironsi’s decree), which had hitherto belonged to the regions, and domiciled them in his military government.
Other members of the Supreme Military Council alleged that Ironsi did not consult them before promulgating the decree. It is not known if their allegation is true. However, Ironsi’s Attorney General, Chief Gabriel Chike Michael Onyiuke, later said Ironsi did not need to consult them.
If Ironsi had not sacked Taslim Olawale Elias as Attorney General and replaced him with a fellow Igbo, Chike Onyiuke, he might have gotten a different counsel, but we will never know.
That decree ignited the counter-coup of July 29, 1966, during which Ironsi was killed and replaced with Lt. Colonel Yakubu Gowon, who did not participate in the coup but was a compromise candidate since he was a Northerner, to appease the North and a Christian, to soothe the South.
All Military Governors accepted him except Ojukwu. Eventually, the then Ghanaian military leader, General Ankrah, invited Gowon and Ojukwu for a peace meeting in Aburi, Ghana, between January 4-5, 1967. Agreements were reached, including that Gowon would broadcast first, AFTER CONSULTATIONS, followed by Ojukwu.
However, upon return, Ojukwu made his broadcast first, which shocked other regions and jeopardised Gowon, who was almost removed by those who made him Head of State.
Please note that Gowon had no control of troops. He was, at that time, just a titular Head of State. The real power was domiciled with Colonel Murtala Muhammed until Murtala was militarily humiliated by the Biafrans at Abagana on March 31, 1968, after which Gowon relieved him of his command, and Colonel Obasanjo later became the darling of Gowon due to his military effectiveness against Biafra.
If Ojukwu had been patient and waited for Gowon to make his broadcast first, it is almost certain that there would not have been a civil war. The bulk of Northern soldiers, led by Murtala Muhammed, wanted outright division and if they could not get that, then a return to the status quo ante bellum.
The fragile Gowon government has been working on Decree Number 8, which, when you look at that decree in hindsight, could have solved much of Nigeria’s current challenges.
But after Ojukwu preempted Gowon by his March 1967 broadcast, the decree had to be reworked. Below are excerpts from a declassified cable by the U.S. State Department in Washington to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, sent on March 3, 1967, at 5:13 PM. Read it and judge for yourself how some foreign governments perceived Ojukwu’s broadcast:
“1. Ojukwu’s provocative broadcast, release of Aburi documents in Lagos and broadcast of Aburi tape recording in Enugu have heightened Department’s concern.
2. Re Gowon’s appeal of March 1, Dept. concurs in UK view that our response should be in general terms. We would prefer, however, that US response be oral and informal (Lagos 6714)3 particularly since we unwilling respond affirmatively to all Gowon’s requests and he apparently prepared accept oral response (Lagos 6586 para 3 A). Believe Ambassador Mathews’ expected meeting with Gowon on March 4 appropriate occasion and consequently we would wish to give him urgent instructions.”
If you are interested in the entire cable, you can read it on the Office of the Historian of the United States website.
In fact, if Ojukwu had proclaimed Biafra with only territories belonging to the Igbos, then it might have still been possible to avoid war. But by seceding with the entire Eastern Region, including minorities like the Ijaw, Efik, Ibibio, Ikwere and others who were not consulted as equals before the May 30, 1967 declaration of the Republic of Biafra, Ojukwu knowingly or unknowingly made war inevitable.
My support for President Bola Tinubu today is because he is the first Nigerian President to try to bring Nigeria to that utopian state we were before the January 15, 1966 coup.
One of the cardinal principles of President Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda, which was prominently featured during the campaigns, was his promise to reform Nigeria by devolving power to the lower levels of government.
We have seen the first fruition of that promise with Local Government autonomy achieved via a judicial victory at the Supreme Court on Thursday, July 11, 2024.
Next month, Local Governments will receive their funding directly without having to go through state Governors.
And by the time the Tax Reform Bill passes into law, Nigeria will begin to look more like the idyllic pre January 15, 1966 paradise that it was before the serpents, Majors Ifeajuna and Nzeogwu, cast us out of the Garden of Eden.
Now, for the first time since Ironsi’s Unification of Assets decree, we are gradually seeing a return to true Federalism. This leads me to see President Tinubu as our own George Washington, the father of modern Nigeria.
This is beginning to look like the Nigeria we agreed with the British to have as a country.
