THE TRUTH ABOUT AWOLOWO

ON BIAFRA
I will be the first to say that Awolowo's position on Biafra was wrong and opportunistic. The Biafran secession was a legitimate act of self defense against the genocide perpetrated against innocent Ibo men, women and children in the north in one of the most shameful episodes IN Nigerian history. The reactionary counter coup of July 1966, in reality the wholesale slaughter of scores of Ibo soldiers and officers prompted the progroms in the north and raised to power the military class of conservative Northern or northern sponsored military officers who would rule Nigeria for the next 3 decades and bring it to the brink of ruin.


BUT...

The most progressive Nigerians of Yoruba extraction of the age - like Wole Soyinka supported the just Biafran rebellion and the great musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti was unstinting in his condemnation of Awolowo for his betrayal of the Ibo's during the war. But politics is not a simple game and while he made his mistakes Awolowo was still the most progressive Nigerian leader of his time.

It should also not be forgotten that the yoruba people whose fierce suport gave Awolow his power did not initially support the Nigerian attack on Biafra. The yoruba masses had actually predated the Ibo's in their struggle against the Hausa Fulani aristocracy and its conservative allies when they fought back against the imposition on their region on the most hated and reviled leader in Nigrian history - The degenerate Ladoke Akintola. The Yoruba's could actually lay first claim to betrayal by the Ibo political leadership who remained in power with Ahmadu Bello in Lagos, while the west, regarded as the greatest threat to their power by the Northern Oligarchy struggled against its trepidations. It was the foolish invasion by Biafran soldiers of the west that swung popular sentiment in the west against Biafra and led to the yoruba people swinging behind what before then had been a largely Northern effort. Read Obasanjo's My Command if you doubt this as he reflected the mood of the time with most people in the west either ambivalent or hostile to the federal cause before Ore.

If Biafran soldeirs had reached Lagos, the Yoruba people would have traded one occupation for another. The domination of a stronger enemy (the north) for that of a rival (the east). Nobody likes loosing a wife to another man, but most would prefer loosing her to a richer man than a peer at least with the former you would have a consolation or excuse, you would be denied if she ran off with an equal - she loved me more, but he was richer. If Ojukwu had seized Lagos, would he have left it voluntarily ? How many Tigers voluntarily concede control of their kill. A trained soldier voluntarily relinquishing control of a conquest ?

The Biafran invasion of the mid west might have made military sense, but it was politically stupidity of the most peverse kind. War must always serve political ends. It was the invasion of the mid west and attempted invasion of the west that lost Biafra the war, betraying no doubt the physical courage of the Ibo leadership but also their extreme political naivete, a recurring theme of the Ibo leadership from Azikiwe through Ironsi to Ekueme for the last 60 years. A major flaw not mitigated by their undoubted physical courage.

It was for exampleo the alliance between the Ibo led NCNC and the feudal NPC that propelled the Northern elite to power (talk of feeding the tiger that would ultimately devour your children) in an independent Nigeria the Northern leaders had done all in their power, in collaboration with the British to prevent, when the natural alliance should have been between the countries 2 most progressive parties - Awolowo's AG and Zik's NCNC who had for years fought and agitated for independence while the sultans and emirs in the North had entertained and regaled public school educated colonial adminsitrators with Polo games and clavary Durbars in Kano and Sokoto.

Without Zik's opportunistic alliance with Ahmadu Bello and his part, an organisation that stood agaunst every principle Azikiwe had spent his entire political life fighting against the North would not have taken power at the centre after independence, there would have been no need for Nzeogwu's coup and no need for Biafra. Those who rush to judge Awolowo on his treachery should not forget the years of betrayal by the NCNC leadership that preceeded it.

If the Ibo leadership were as principled in their opposition to the North as many on this board make out, why did the NPP leadership enter into another alliance with the NPC's predecessors the NPN in the second republic, less than a decade after the civil war and aliance sealed over the still fresh graves of a milion ibos who died in the war launched by the same NPN ministers who Azikiwe and the ibo leadership wined and dined in the state house and lets not hear the clap trap about an enlightened desire reconciliation, how many roads did the NPN government build in the east, how many ex Biafran soldeirs were given their pension. What did the NPP aliance with the north yield for those Ibo's who had lost their properties their when they fled the massacres in the northern cities just over a decade before Azikiwe jumped back into bed with the emirs and Sultans

Awolowo was by no means perfect, but if we are to judge leaders on what they did for the ordinary person, the common man, the biggest tribe in Nigeria the millions of impoverished ordinary people, he stands head and shoulders above ALL his contemporaries. His free education policy in the 50's 60's and 70's benefited all poor Nigerians RESIDENT IN THE AREAS IT WAS ESTABLISHED REGARDLESS OF THEIR TRIBES. I am not aware of any Nigerian who could not afford the exhorbitant price of education being rejected by Awo;s free education policy because they bore the name Emeka or Shehu. The low cost houses built in Lagos for ordinary working class people, the first of its kind accomodated ibos and hausa's too. Was any eastern labourer or hausa street trader ever refused free treatment in any hospital in the west. In Lagos in the 70's Awolow's UPN government abolished the disgraceful two tier morning and afternoon session. The biggest beneficiaries were many Young Ibo trading apprentices who were formerly condemned to starting school when others were leaving it because they were forced to work in the shops in the morning and only go to school for a few hours in the evening with the new compulsory morning only system

And lest have enough of this nonesense about all the Ibo's being self sufficient well to do business men with no need of state support or public services. The Ibo's definitely excel in business. But there are far more Ibo labourers than business men, just like any other tribe, there are hundreds of thoueands of Ibo teachers, civil servants, factory workers, administrattive staff and other low paid workers who need and will really appreciate the kind of welfare services s which Awolow's party provided in their time in power and who benefited from it if they lived in the areas it was introduced. And even amongst the Ibo small traders and entrpreneurs, not all are swimming in money, many of honest and hard working ones are like most other Nigerians are just getting by and need as much public services as the next man.

The issue is whose social programmes were the most progressive, whose policies catered for the ordinary Nigerian the most - the poor man struggling to feed his family, not the rich Hausa Aristocrat, the elite Yoruba Banker or the pompouse Ibo merchant. Lets cut to the quick here.

You might scoff at his free education policy or 'Yoruba' bookishness. But great socities are built by engineers, architects, Doctors and engineers not just traders. Biafra was not made great by its street traders, it was its engineers, trained in universities, not spare parts dealers apprenticed in locsl shops who won the admiration of the world by building bombs and shore batteries from discarded Ovaltine tins, who forged refineries from Bamboo stciks and built one of the safest air ports in Uli Ihiala, illuminated by lanterns.

The Biafran army which fought galantly against overwhelming odds was led in the main by university undergraduates not local traders, its leader was the most educated Nigerian of the day with degrees from Oxford. Awolow opened the doors of such learning for all

He opened the doors of learning to people who would never have had the oportunity to enjoy it because life had condemned them to poverty. He allowed the children of labourers to aspire to become civil engineers (regardless of their tribe), the offspring of court messengers to become Judges (regardless of their tribe) the sons of hospital cleaners to become surgeons (regardless of their tribe)

He opened the doors of Oxford to talented children of paupers, he gave hope to the poor who had none, he helped put food on the table and dignity in the bearing of the forgotten, the impoverished and the downtrodden.

YES HE WAS A TRIBALIST - BUT OF THE TWO GREATEST TRIBES IN NIGERIA - THE RICH AND THE POOR, HE WAS DEFINTELY ON THE SIDE OF THE POOR FAR MORE THAN ANY OTHER POLITICAL LEADER OF HIS DAY INCLUDING AZIKIWE, BALEWA AND YES EMEKA OJUKWU.

I stand to be challenged.

No one is going to challenge you. Outside of Nairaland, most people accept these mistakes of the past as fact, and are moving on. I havent been on NL for a minute, but unless something has changed, you can wait for the kids to fight another civil war on your thread

Btw, there is no need to defend Awo's legacy - a man's true legacy is firstly what he does for his people, and secondly how he treats others. Given his fairhandedness, it is forever safe.