WHERE ARE THE ELDERS?

                                      WHERE ARE THE ELDERS?

"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. "

(James Madison, Jr.1751 – 1836) political theorist, American statesman,served as the fourth President of the United States (1809–17).)


The article titled "Where are the Elders" and written by Muyiwa Adetiba under his column "MY WORLD" in the Vanguard of Saturday, 17th June 2017 is riddled with misinformation. Looks more like a Jihad of Deception from a Northern Nigeria oligarch.
1. On 29th May the whole of South-East was occupied by Police, Army, Navy and Air Force re-Enforcement of a level I have in my several decades of my life never seen except in 1967-70. I live in Enugu and on that day military surveillance helicopters hovered over my roof more than ten times. I went out to a meeting around 4 pm and the police and soldiers were all over the place. I saw no IPOB boys forcing anybody home. They were well advised to stay at home for  the Army and Police would have happily made mince meat of all of them. Nigerians like Mr. Adetiba who have not experienced the brutality of Nigerian security agencies do not know what is happening in the conflict zones outside their home states. Conjecture takes over,
2. 90 % Igbo people support a Remembrance Day for over 3 million Igbos slaughtered 1966-70. On June 12, 2017 SouthWest remembered MKO, of blessed memory, with street matches, symposia, demonstrations. No one was killed or questioned. Why should Igbo sit-at home like conquered people they are, anger the oligarchy, if it is not out of any intention to display their suzerainty over the Igbos and the rest of Nigeria.
3. Igbos wanted street Marches on 29th May as remembrance for their dead. Police and Army threatened hell and brimstone. The program was changed to Church services. Yet the Police and Army branded it Security threat. They decided on sit-at home to reminisce; yet people like Mr. Adetiba invented all kinds of falsehoods to introduce violence into a most pacifist venture.
4. He  asked about Igbo elders' control. IPOB is a rebellion of Igbo Youths against Igbo Elders' docility. Nigeria has fed excrement to Igbos since 1970 and the elders swallowed all of it without complaining.
5. 3,000 Igbos were killed in the May warning riots of 1966 in the North. In October/Nov. 1966 another 30,000 were slaughtered by soldiers, police men and thugs. 1.129 million fled Nigeria for their lives and requested a loose federation so that each region would control its security. The North refused and compelled occupied Western Region to join them in a war the North forced on the Igbos. Let's forget that the West, using its intellectual power maneuvered Biafra into a defeat.  The North alone, with its reliance on brute force had no capacity to defeat Biafra. Thereafter the real oppression commenced.
6. Today Igbos are killed anyhow in the North without question. In 2016 alone over five were slaughtered in Abuja including a young man who urinated near a make-shift Mosque. He was beheaded and it took more than two weeks to recover the head for proper burial. 74-year old Mrs Bridget Agbahime was killed in Kano earlier this year by zealots and the Kano Governor entered nolli prose qui (plea of no prosecution) in court and the five zealot/ murderers of elder, Mrs. Agbahime were let to go.
Enough of Igbo story of woes in Nigeria. For mor information visit my blog: emekaonyesoh.blogspot.com.ng.
6. The question is why should northern youths, get angry if they do not regard Igbos as slaves, which is what the 1999 Enslavement Ordinance called "Constitution" makes all Nigerians outside the oligarchy and their collaborators. Unknown to Yorubas this attitude unfortunately includes them in a way. Chief Olu Falae's repeated encounters with Cattle Fulani herdsmen Islamic militants is a bye-product of this attitude.
7. Gani Adams and OPC have pledged support for Biafra self determination agitation but also want their own Oduduwa independent State forYorubas. Kayode,Soyinka and even Afenifere understand the essence of the struggle.

Mr Adetiba wrote like an apologist of northern oligarchy's enslavement of other Nigerians. The difference between us  is that I know and want to be free. Mr. Adetiba does not know that he is enslaved and therefore might never aspire to be free.

It was Mahatma Gandhi (1869 -1948) who said and I quote "The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall. He frees himself and shows the way to others. Freedom and slavery are mental states."

The Igbos probably have forgiven the Yoruba for defeating Biafra in a  war they took over from the North. Igbos know they can do business with Yoruba; disagree, argue and agree & nobody gets killed. The North will always kill fo no cause and the security agencies would ask no questions.

I stand on Aburi. It is either Nigeria is re-structured into six confederal states, each controlling its security or separation without violence. Or time will resolve Nigeria by disintegration.

Agitating for the right to self determination is allowed by Nigerian law which ratified the African Charter on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR); ACHPR Article 20 and United Nation's International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. Nigeria even domesticated ACHPR into a Nigerian domestic Law.

Britain and Canada did not threaten Scotland and Quebec province respectively with war when they demanded independence. Like civilized people they deregulated powers to the provinces, guaranteed minority rights in their Constitutions and then allowed the Scots and Quebeckers to decide to stay or go in referenda. None left their federation. Federations is no longer fashionable by force. Quebecans constitute merely 8.5% of Canadian population. Yet to reassure Quebecans stay in the Federation of Canada, French, Quebecans official language was accepted as official language of Canada in parallel with English, the language of the other 94.5% Canadians.

The North should imbibe 21st Century best practices of the world and stop behaving like 7th Century AD Islamic fundamentalist who are today terrorizing the world and causing 90 % of the wars/unrest and terrorism in the world.

 General Alani Akinrinade interviews, lecture and book contain good reference points on civilized behavior in a federation . So also is Elder Fasaronti's recent press interview on restructuring.

God bless.

Emeka onyesoh (Prince)