WHY WE ARE NOT ONE

In October 1960 a Nation was finally born and became an independent Nation in Africa. Nigeria was officially handed over to Nigerian by its British colonial master. The hope was high and the aspiration was great as the founding father of the new great nation was full of hope of a great future for Nigeria but this dream never came to be. It was beclouded with acrimony, selfishness, sentiments, complexity and tribal egotism. Unnecessary rivalry between once united tribes who united to fight their common enemy(colonial master), started by waging cold war which eventually led to the first military coup in 1966 that permanently created division and lack of trust between all the tribes that made up Nigeria. In 1967 a counter coup was launched by the aggrieved sections of the country who believed that the coup of 1966 was sectional and aimed at killing their political leaders. The mutual trust was lost, revenge was in the mind of every aggrieved tribes against one another. Hausa hate Igbo, Igbo hate Hausa, Yoruba hate Hausa vice versa. The mistrust grew and hatred spread and the cat and rat race started.

Unfortunately, we went into an unavoidable and unnecessary secession war of ego, millions of Nigerians were killed from both sides, things fell apart and the center never hold again. After the 3 years of bloodshed the crocodile peace was reached but the wound is yet to heal, mistrust is still there after 52 years. Though, we live together but the mutual suspicion is in the heart of every tribes against one another.
The young Igbos who were not born during the war but read or heard the history of civil war rekindled the call for secession because of the persevered injustice and the neglect of igbo from political scheme. Since independent the dream of Igbo to rule Nigeria after the failure of poorly packaged and executed 1966 coup and the counter coup that removed (killed) the last Igbo military head of state Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi was a mirage. Then Igbo resulted to if we cannot rule Nigeria we should be allowed to rule ourselves. The new call for secession in the recent time is another reaction due to lack of trust between Nigeria tribes, the Igbo youths are becoming aggressive against all other tribes and becoming isolated. Is like nobody want to trust Igbo nor wanted to gamble with power game with them, other tribes believe Igbo cannot be trusted with a country they once went into war with. The fear of Igbo as become beginning of wisdom for entire Nigeria tribes. Who is afraid of Igbo?. And why should we be afraid of Igbo. If Igbo are our neighbors our friends, our co-tenants, our classmate, our school mates, our co -workers, our business partners, wives and husbands then why should we be afraid of Igbo.
We can relate peacefully, forget the past, apologize for the wrong of the past injustice, stop bad mouthing each other, create mutual respect and stop secession agitating. We cannot avoid another civil war and error of the past. We can hug each other trust each other and Igbo can one day lead our great nation without any mistrust.

By Oladimeji M Idowu

The writer have taken us back memory lane and think my brother from the other tribe should read ;properly and digest well for them to really know the history of this nation of ours and it will guide them on how to live happily with other tribes of the country...