Igbo group chides Gowon, Obasanjo over comments on Ojukwu


World Igbo Youth Council Chairman and member of Ohanaeze, Mr. Chuks Ibegbu, has criticised two former Nigerian leaders, Gen. Yakubu Gowon and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, for their comments on the late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.



He described as “insulting and unpardonable”, a statement by Gowon that his happiness was that Ojukwu died a Nigerian, not a Biafran, and the one by Obasanjo that he regretted that the deceased did not apologise for the Nigerian/Biafran war.

Ibegbu, who is also the Leader of the Movement for Equity and Justice in Nigeria, told our correspondent on Thursday that Gowon should rather be the one to apologise to Nigerians for waging “an unjust” war against the Easterners.

He said, “In what way is Gowon more Nigerian than Ojukwu? Has Gowon forgotten his history books and how Igbo forebears fought to create Nigeria?

“Does Gowon think that by collaborating with the British, Russian, and Arab opportunists to wage a war against the old Eastern region, he is now more Nigerian than those that founded Nigeria in the first place?”

“If he (Ojukwu) was not more Nigerian than Gowon, he would not have told Easterners to go back to the North after the May 1966 massacre, a situation he regretted till his death,” Ibegbu said.

He added, “Ojukwu was a Nigerian to the core and fought to prevent injustice in Nigeria. Gowon and his ilk only pretended to love Nigeria just for what they wanted to benefit from Nigeria. Why did he and his ilk want to pull out of Nigeria after the July 1966 coup until their British masters and slavish federal permanent secretary then advised them against it?”

He expressed disappointment with Obasanjo, saying, “It is a pity that he (Obasanjo) is still deluded to think Ojukwu would apologise to a decadent nation that waged an unjustified war against the old Eastern region.”

He said, “What the Igbo and other Easterners expect from Obasanjo and Gowon is unreserved apology and not insults, else the blood of victims of the unjustified war would continue to hunt them, their children and generation unborn.”

He, however, thanked John Shagaya for admitting that Nigeria fought against Biafra unjustifiably.

“We expect more of those confessions,” Ibegbu said.

Meanwhile, Ibeagbu said on Thursday that the group would ensure that the burial of Odumegwu-Ojukwu on February 2, 2012 went smoothly.

Ibegbu told our correspondent that barring any change in the burial date, the group would accord the late Odumegwu Ojukwu the honour befitting a political leader.



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