Nigeria: Averse To Facts By
Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Posted: October 11, 2012 - 16:17
Nigeria: Averse to Facts by
Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nigeria is a place where facts
mean nothing. Regarding
Professor Achebe’s not-as-yet-
released book, “There Was A
Country”, pre-release excerpts
have caused an already rumbling
active volcano re-cocking for
eruption to explode prematurely.
At the center? Chief Awolowo’s
role in Nigeria’s genocidal war
against the Igbo / Biafra during
the Nigeria-Biafra War. What are
the facts?
Here is an authoritative link to a
report of an interview conducted
with Chief Awolowo where, in
his own words, he stated what
he did during the war. And, why
he did it. It appears in “Punch” of
October 8 2012:
http://www.punchng.com/news/
for-the-record/my-role-in-the-
civil-war-awol...
After reading through this Punch
article, it will do everyone a good
service if somebody was to step
up and say, “this report is a
forgery”; “this interview never
happened;” “the publication is a
fraud”—or something to that
effect. That will probably not
happen, because the supporters
and defenders of Chief Awolowo
are using or republishing the
same document and variations
thereof in their unprecedented
lash-out at Professor Achebe for
writing that Chief Awolowo was
the architect of Nigeria’s
starvation policy against Igbo-
Biafra during the war, and that
Chief Awolowo provided
intellectual backing for the
Nigerian military government of
that time. Well, what facts boil
out of this document relevant to
these specific assertions?
1. Twenty Pounds Policy:
In the matter of the “twenty
pounds” policy, whose effect
was to cheat the Igbo, post-war,
out of their pre-war savings in
Nigeria’s banks, Chief Awolowo
says that it was he who laid
down the principle; he says that
although he was not part of the
panel raised to work out and
decide the specifics, he did
approve the panel’s
recommendations. Yes, of course,
he gave his reasons.
2. Starvation Policy:
In the matter of the starvation
policy, whose mantra was that
starvation is a legitimate weapon
of war, in defense of Nigeria’s
genocidal blockade of Igbo /
Biafraland, resulting in some of
the horrific experiences Chief
Awolowo says he witnessed
himself when he encountered
Kwashiorkor victims in
Biafraland / Igboland, Chief
Awolowo also says that he
masterminded and carried out
the policy. He also gives his
reason.
Question: Is it a fact that Chief
Awolowo was the architect of
Nigeria’s starvation policy against
the Igbo / Biafra during that
war?
Answer: Yes. Chief Awolowo
himself says so.
3. Reasons for the Starvation
(and other anti-Igbo / Biafra)
policies:
In the matter of the source of the
reasons and rationalization for
these policies, their articulations
and principles; their sustenance
and enforcement, and the
approvals necessary to carry out
and sustain these policies, Chief
Awolowo says that he is the one
responsible and he shows off the
lucidity of his thinking in these
policies. He gives at least one
example of how this worked in
the section about the Nigeria
Currency Change policy. He leaves
no doubt as to whose reasoning
subtends these policies.
Question: Is it a fact that Chief
Awolowo provided intellectual
backing for the Nigerian military
government waging a war of
aggression against Igbo / Biafra?
Answer: Yes. Chief Awolowo
himself explained how that
worked.
Chief Awolowo, without
equivocation, in his own words,
says he did these things. These
are the facts. Why would anyone
be arguing about whether he did
it or not? He says he did! What
should, however, generate
controversy and fierce challenge
are the reasons he gave for his
deadly policies and for his role in
Nigeria’s military government /
war cabinet. With a certain
coolness and lucidity, Chief
Awolowo rationalizes his acts;
with similar calculated coldness
and single-mindedness, even a
hint of pride in his work, Chief
Awolowo affirms that he is
indeed the architect of these
policies.
As such, all those lambasting
Professor Achebe need to re-
examine their motive. It is not
mere assertion that Chief
Awolowo was the architect of
the Starvation Policy; it is a fact
issuing from Chief Awolowo’s
own mouth. It is not mere
conjecture that Chief Awolowo
lent intellectual legitimacy to the
Nigerian military government
aggressing against Biafra; Chief
Awolowo himself affirms it in
talking about his policies and
gives us examples how, making
it a fact.
The real victims of Chief
Awolowo’s policies do, and
should, have a right to question
his rationalization, and to
advance their own reasons why
a person (who says he sees
himself as a friend of the Igbo
and who says that the Igbo are
his friends) can so deliberately
and so thoroughly hurt his
victims and be so proud of doing
so. Why shouldn’t an Igbo, a
Biafran, and a victim himself like
Professor Achebe challenge Chief
Awolowo?
Chief Awolowo at least deserves
credit for admitting to what he
did (thereby shaming all those
who would today deny that,
ostensibly to protect him). No
one can say the same for the
other Nigerians (and their
international friends) who
prosecuted the genocidal war
against Biafra, including, but
especially, Gowon. They are in
denial, or pretend to not know
what they did.
Which brings up the context of
this horrible drama... Nigeria is a
place where facts mean exactly
nothing. It is only in Nigeria that
people are numb, or pretend to
be insensitive to obvious
grievous wrongs perpetrated
against others and against
humanity. It is only Nigerians that
refuse to accept the fact that
ethnic cleansing is genocide—
good luck! if you expect that they
would acknowledge and accept
the fact of the occurrence of
ethnic cleansing itself at all. It is
only Nigerians that refuse to
acknowledge that completely
blockading a race of people for
the purpose of maliciously and
deliberately starving them to
submission and death is
genocide, a crime against God
and against humanity. Check out
Chief Awolowo’s rationalization
for his life-sapping starvation
policy directed against the Igbo
and Biafra—after he actually saw
Kwashiorkor-ridden Igbo and
Biafran children? Did you actually,
really, really read and understand
it? Yes, he was so moved, he tells
us, by that ungodly, inhumane
and haunting sight—a parent
with children of his own—that
he decided that the best course
of action was to go for total
starvation, and by his own words
and in his own calculations,
many more of such Igbo /
Biafran children would die so
horribly, “but the [most
important thing to him was that
Biafran] soldiers will suffer the
most.” Go back and re-read Chief
Awolowo, “in his own words”.
Of course, not every single
Nigerian is completely
desensitized to pricks of
conscience. Chief Enahoro was
one of Chief Awolowo’s disciples
during the war, travelling the
world over to sell Chief
Awolowo’s Nigeria’s starve-
Biafra-to-death policy; he, Chief
Enahoro, must have at one time
shared the same rationalization
with his mentor. But, one day,
well after the war, Chief Enahoro
officially apologized to the Igbo
for his role in propagating such a
genocidal policy, at last, showing
remorse. That’s a human being
for you! And even now, here and
there, above the din of sheeple
falling over themselves to defend
the indefensible are a few cases
of Nigerian commentators
breaking ranks to essentially
state that Chief Awolowo’s
Starvation of the Igbo / Biafrans
policy was wrong, is Genocide,
and that an apology is the
correct response at this time.
Amen!
In the final analysis, it all comes
down to what is wrong with
Nigeria, and why Nigeria can
never rise from its comatose
position but must in fact
eventually dissolve. As we speak,
forceful defenders of Chief
Awolowo proffer the document
above as proof that Chief
Awolowo’s war legacy makes
him a hero to Nigeria and a
benevolent to the Igbo and
Biafrans; a functionary whose
war actions must not be
challenged. After all, in Chief
Awolowo’s mind, by this
document and his account, he
was a friend of the Igbo who
executed a “quick kill” of the
Igbo using his starvation policy
in the Biafra war, thereby
sparing the Igbo an agonizing
death, so as to deserve being
hailed “the savior of the Igbo”?
And, at the same time, the Igbo /
Biafrans, on their part, are not
expected to or supposed to
protest, else, all Hell will be
brought down on them—again.
This is friendship?! How can such
completely antagonist, mutually
exclusive collective views exist in
a relationship called one country,
if not by force and by cynical
pretense? Such a feat defies even
Schizophrenia.
What is happening in response
to Professor Achebe’s new book
here is only a variation and just
one instance of what is common
all over Nigeria: different cultures
with starkly different senses of
what is wrong and what is right,
what is acceptable and what is
not, what is a good relationship
or what is not, what is fair or
what is not; different value-
systems, different world views,
and for that matter, different
concepts of what the other’s
human life is worth—if at all
another’s life is worth anything
to some cultures. In short, these
cultures do not agree and will
never agree on what is humanity
and what constitutes a human
being. These cultures are
constantly grinding on one
another and pounding one
another with their respective
alien pestles, in a hideous mortar
called one-Nigeria, now
completely devoid of goodwill,
the more aggressive the culture,
the more successful and
domineering they are at it. These
cultures have no business being
thrown and forced together as
one country.
Professor Achebe’s book is not
quite in public circulation yet. The
excerpt about Chief Awolowo
contains facts which Chief
Awolowo himself established as
facts in the areas noted above.
The typical Nigerian tradition of
fighting against obvious facts is
heating up the polity at this time,
when moral humanity demands
a recognition of hideous wrong
done and a healing apology be
tendered to Humanity. Chief
Enahoro did just that. Yet, all this
will add nothing if Professor
Achebe’s conclusion in his book
is that Nigeria should remain
one, as he has been wont to
state in the past. Facts—yes, facts
—do not support one-Nigeria.
The root of all evil and
wickedness in Nigeria is one-
Nigeria. The ultimate source and
enabling medium of genocide
and ethnic cleansing in Nigeria is
one-Nigeria. The destroyer of the
peoples living in Nigeria and the
squanderer of their resources is
one-Nigeria. There is a sense that
in fact, “There Was A Country” is
not the epitaph for Biafra that
Professor Achebe implies in the
title of his new book. “there was
a country” is most apt as a
description of Nigeria: a system
which so thoroughly corrupts
and wastes the peoples and their
aspirations should not be
allowed to exist. It will not.
Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen
oguchi@comcast.net

Another 'crippled' topic!