"Obasanjo, secession and the secessionists": A response to Josh Arinze

[OKQu...@aol.com]

Subj: Re: "Obasanjo, secession and the secessionists": A response to Reuben Abati’s...
Date: 1/13/02 6:06:48 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: OKQuincy
To: j_ar...@yahoo.com

Dear Josh:

I have read and re-read your excellent detailed and thoughtful response to Reuben Abati's Abati's latest anti-Igbo article several times. Even though, I did not agree with every point in your rebuttal, I concluded that all in all you did an excellent job in exposing Reuben's glaring errors and many of the flawed theses underlying several of the arguments in his original article I like your response so much that I saved it in my permanent folder. Not many articles make it to this folder!

I initially refrained from responding in the newsgroups because of the constant abusive responses and posts that pervade these media.

My comments follow:

1) Reuben Abati, like yourself is a professional journalist. Reuben Abati does not speak for the Yoruba. He has no constituency in the Nigerian population beyond the editorial board of the Guardian Newspaper which he chairs.. Hence, I found it troubling that in your otherwise, excellent rejoinder you made several vagues references to Reuben Abati's hatred of the Igbo being symptomatic of the pervasive hatred of the Igbo amongst all non-Igbo Nigerians. I think this is a generalization that is easy to make but difficult to prove!

2) I was an avid reader of Reuben Abati's articles long before it was easy to find his articles online. In those days, I used to subscribe to hardcopies of Nigerian Newspapers so that I could read his articles. I stopped reading Reuben Abati or taking his opinions seriously about two years ago when I finally came to the conclusion that Reuben Abati's ego had finally surpassed his ability to write objectively. I concluded that he had crossed the line from being a professional journalist (who is supposed to report the news as they happen), to making himself the the subject of the news. A journalist loses his or her professionalism once he/she crosses this fine line. As a consumer, my means of protest are limited to complaining to his employers first and foremost and if I do not get a positive response to stop buying the newspaper or stop reading any of the offending journalist's articles.

3) That Reuben Abati frequently also writes venomous opinionated articles directed at the Yoruba (his own people), northern Nigerians and expatriate Nigerians is a well known fact. But this fact can never justify Abati's recent tirade against the Igbo.

4) Please refrain from generalizing your views about Abati to the Yoruba or any other group of Nigerians. I noticed how hard you tried to avoid this frequent basic flaw in the Nigerian psyche in your response to Abati. But unfortunately, such generalizations are still vaguely discernible in your response.

5) There is a tendency in Nigeria to lump apples with oranges in our thought processes. For instance, I consider my views on Nigerian politics as one that favors a unified entity, either through a confederation or a loose federation of states or zones. My "One Nigerianist" view undoubtedly collides with the idea of Biafra, Odua, Arewa or any other daughter republics that may arise following the breakup of Nigeria.
It is impossible for me to embrace the idea of a strong and unified Nigeria and at the same time remain passive or otherwise actively support the idea of Republic of New Biafra.Unfortunately my anti-New Biafran stance is frequently interpreted by many of my online Igbo compatriots, (those who do not know me in person), as anti-Igbo or to use their favorite word "Igbophobic." I have no idea about Reuben Abati's personal character beyond what I have gleaned from reading  his articles. Hence it is impossible for me to categorically confirm or deny that he suffers from Igbophobia.

6) Notwithstanding my support for "one Nigeria", the ultimate decision about the Igbo and Igboland will have to be made by the Igbo. If Biafra ever becomes the ultimate goal of the majority of the Igbo, I will have no other recourse but to support their aspirations and wish them all the best. Subsequent to that I will work actively to achieve what is best for my own people, the Yoruba, either in what remains of Nigeria (minus the Southeast) or in an independent state predominantly occupied by the Yoruba (e.g. Odua'a Republic). Regardless of the final political dispensation in Nigeria, I firmly believe that all Nigerians especially those from contiguous geographical boundaries will remain neighbours to eternity. Hence, it is important that we do not allow our dialogue during the ensuing debates to degenerate into hateful diatribes. No one wins in that scenario!

7) In conlusion, I wish to state that all decent Nigerians, (not only those of Igbo origin) should be offended by the contents of Reuben Abati's latest article concerning the Igbo and Igboland. It is the Igbo today, tomorrow it may be the Yoruba, the Edo or any other Nigerian ethnic group who will fall victim to Abati's poisonous penmanship.

Have a nice weekend!

Bye,

Quincy


Subj: "Obasanjo, secession and the secessionists": A response to Reuben Abati’s Igbophobia
Date: 1/13/02 4:11:44 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: j_ar...@yahoo.com
To: OKQu...@aol.com
Sent from the Internet (Details)



"Obasanjo, secession and the secessionists": A
response to Reuben Abati’s Igbophobia

By Josh Arinze


Reuben,

You know who I am, so I’ll cut out the niceties and go
straight to the point.  I tend to stick to civility,
however controversial the issue.  But since small
minds have trouble understanding the language of
enlightened discourse, I will make an exception and
try to speak to you in a language you can understand.

I’m aware that The (Lagos) Guardian has been on the
Web for a while.  I follow events in Nigeria very
closely, but I don’t usually read your column.  There
are two reasons for that.  One: the few articles of
yours I’ve read in the past were rather heavy on
polemics, and offered very little by way of
clear-headed analysis. Two: your prose is quite
pedestrian, although I’m sure your friends and
relatives wouldn’t tell you that. 

Pardon me for hurting your feelings, Reuben, but
you’re not exactly the 1960s generation’s equivalent
of Ray Ekpu or Dan Agbese.  And with so many excellent
works to read and so little time, I pay very little
attention to second-rate columnists.

However, on December 23, I got an e-mail about a
write-up of yours that appeared in that day’s edition
of The Guardian. If you were craving attention with
that hatchet job you put together, you sure found it,
boy.  Congratulations.

Well, at first I thought the stuff that appeared on
December 23 was the second of a two-part piece, so I
sought out and read the first one too, which ran on
December 16.  Then just as I was preparing a response,
the third part of your thesis appeared on December 30.
You said that was the concluding part, but who knows;
maybe you’re already at work on Parts 4, 5 and 6.
We’ll see. 

Anyway here, in a nutshell, is what I think of your
series, "Obasanjo, secession and the secessionists":
it’s a pathetic piece of hack writing, brimming with
bigotry and hate.  You have my permission to print
that out in bold letters, and use it as a blurb in
selling your expertise in demagoguery to the world.
You can also mention that I’m saving the entire
write-up, so I can use it in seminars here in the
United States as examples of how not to write.

It’s ridiculous enough that the whole article is
loaded with errors of fact from top to bottom.  (I
will come to those shortly.)  But what places it
beyond the realm of common sense – to say nothing of
redemption – is that it’s infected with ugly old
bigotry and Igbophobia.  The stink is too repulsive.


In 1996/97, when you were at the University of
Maryland at College Park, doing the same Humphrey
Fellowship I did the year before, we met and talked a
number of times.  Although you managed to keep the
worst features of your anti-Igbo sentiments in check,
you came across as rather conniving and narrow-minded.
That didn’t surprise me at all.  I lived in Ibadan
for one year, and in Lagos for almost 11, and got to
know lots and lots of people like you – laughable
pseudo-intellectuals who thought they were the most
brilliant literary minds since Christopher Okigbo.
You have a right to be as blind to reason as you wish,
Reuben, but only up to a point.  As I hope you know,
your rights stop where someone else’s begins.

What I find shocking is not that you harbor such venom
against the Igbo.  As my people say, any offspring of
a viper is bound to be slithery and poisonous.  To
dislike the Igbo is one thing: in Nigeria, that’s a
malady more common than malaria.  But to use your
column to distort history and wage a campaign of
hatred against the Igbo – that’s a different ball game
altogether.  It’s a thin line, Reuben, and you’ve
crossed it.  It’s not the first time you’ve done that.
As the Igbo would say, the thief has taken too much
for the owner not to notice. 

Many of your fellow Oduduwa and Arewa hack writers
have been peddling animosity against the Igbo for
decades.  Quite a number of them made lucrative their
careers out of it, and ran their course even before
you were born.  Trying to destroy the Igbo with words
and weapons is nothing new in Nigeria.  So much energy
has been wasted on that effort, it’s no wonder Nigeria
remains what many of us hate to admit it is: a
backward country, a giant embarrassment to the black
race. 

What makes your case of Igbophobia a special one is
that you actually want to be considered a respectable
journalist, a voice for a supposedly serious-minded
newspaper. You’ve held a fellowship named for Hubert
Humphrey, a man who devoted much of his career to
promoting understanding across ethnic and racial
lines, and across international borders.  I assume you
would like to retain the respect of other Humphrey
Fellows around the world.

A conscientious journalist would not destroy his
reputation by championing ethnic hatred.  I assume you
recognize the implication of what you’re doing.
You’re an educated man.  At least you hold degrees
that say you are.  Maybe you feel comfortable enough
in your position to believe you can get away with
anything (after all, your employers recently promoted
you from deputy chairman to the chairman of Guardian’s
editorial board).  Or maybe you lack the skills to
express your opinions without resorting to bigotry.
Or, worse, maybe you’re deliberately trying to provoke
yet another pogrom against the Igbo.

Whatever the problem is, Reuben, I’d like to remind
you that using the media to propagate hate can cause
unspeakable tragedy; and contrived tragedy can
boomerang on its instigators.  In Germany under
Hitler, Jews were demonized in the media, as a prelude
to an all-out effort to destroy them (I want to think
you’ve read about that).  Less than eight years ago,
in Rwanda, hate radio was used to prepare grounds for
and sustain the momentum of genocide against Tutsis.
You know the rest of that story.

In Nigeria, the pogroms that have been inflicted on
the Igbo were always preceded and backed up by hate
speech on radio, in newspapers and in mosques.  And
I’m not just talking about the pogroms of 1966 and
after, but also the several that happened before that,
including the ones Jos in 1945 and Kano in 1953.
Obviously, you’re very familiar with that story as
well – your article mentioned Jos in 1945 and Kano in
1953, and made repeated and gloating references to
“taking off the heads of Ibos.”

The errors, deliberate distortions and hate-infested
remarks in your series are legion.   I will focus only
on the most egregious ones, pointing them out in the
order in which they appear, from the first part of
your write-up to the third.  In each instance, I will
quote you directly, then offer my comments. 

Here we go:

1. “On January 15, 1966, the first coup codenamed
"Operation Damisa" (Operation Leopard) was enacted
under the leadership of six majors and a captain - six
of whom were Ibos. Only one Major was Yoruba -
Ademoyega Ademulegun, author of Why We Struck.”

It’s not Ademoyega Ademulegun; it’s Wale Ademoyega.
Ademulegun was the surname of one of the officers who
died in that coup.  Maybe you’ve never met Wale
Ademoyega.  Maybe you’ve never even tried to interview
him.  If you had, you would have gotten his name
right.  I and Segun Adeleke, one of my colleagues in
Quality magazine at the time, interviewed Wale
Ademoyega in 1988 or 1989.  Just so you know, among
other key points Ademoyega made in that interview, he
said it’s a fraud to interpret the coup of January 15,
1966 as an Igbo conspiracy. 

It was a nationalist coup, he said, motivated by
idealism and a desire to tackle corruption and end the
anarchy and mindless violence that was raging in the
then Western Region.  That’s your home area. 

I’m sure you know all about “Operation Wetie,” in
which supporters of Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo and
Samuel Ladoke Akintola began burning one another alive
in 1962.  As you know, by 1965, the Western Region had
become ungovernable, and the Tafawa Balewa government
was not interested in doing anything about that.  It
was the coup of January 15, 1966 that ended the
bloodshed.  That coup saved your butt and those of
your kinsmen.  If that coup had not happened, your
sinister godfather Obafemi Awolowo could have rotted
away in a jailhouse.  Just a thought.

2. “...the coup was popular in Southern Nigeria, whose
press offended the North eternally by declaring in one
notable headline- "Bribe? E Done Die O, Chop-Chop-E No
Dey" (Morning Post, Jan. 27, 1966), but the problem
was that the Jan. 1966 revolution, more than the 1964
carpet-crossing in the Western House, had ethnicised
Nigerian politics forever and irretrievably.”

To begin with, the original carpet crossing in
Nigerian political history, in which Obafemi Awolowo,
Adisa Akinloye and others double-crossed Nnamdi
Azikiwe and the NCNC (robbing them of the victory they
had won in elections for the Western House of
Assembly) happened in the early 1950s; probably as
early as 1951 or 1952.  That betrayal was what
“ethnicised” Nigerian politics, to Gowon created the
12 states on May 27, 1967 and Ojukwu declared the
Republic of Biafra three days later – on May 30, 1967.

14. “There is substantial literature on the whys and
wheretofores of the civil war, and it may not be
necessary to rehash that which is already familiar
here. Except to restate that one, the slaughter of
Ibos by the Hausa-Fulanis and the general hatred of
Ibos all over the country was one major causative
factor. It was as if nobody wanted the Ibos anymore
inside Nigeria.”

If there was indeed a “general hatred of Ibos all
over” Nigeria, it was because ethnic bigots like you
have always been eager to stoke it, because they hated
the Igbo work ethic.  Demagogues like Obafemi Awolowo,
Ahmadu Bello, and many of their counterparts in other
parts of the country did everything they could to
convince their followers that all their problems and
frustrations could be blamed on the Igbo.  It’s an
age-old fraud.  It’s been used against the Jews for
thousands of years.  But the Jews are still around,
and always will be.  The Igbo are still around, and
always will be. 

This can bear a repeat: If all the energy that has
been wasted all these years on plotting endless
Igbo-containment strategies had been devoted to
nation-building, Nigeria would not be the basket case
it is today.

Think about this for one moment, if you can: If indeed
“nobody wanted the Ibos anymore inside Nigeria,” what
moral right did the rest of Nigeria have to try to
force the Igbo to stay in the country that didn’t want
them?  None.  If it is true that nobody wanted the
Igbo in Nigeria, it means Yakubu Gowon and his fellow
war criminals had no business attacking Biafra in the
first place.  That in itself would be enough to
nullify the hateful propaganda you are pushing in this
column.

15. “After the civil war, and with power in the hands
of the North and its allies, one of the first things
that the Northern power elite did was to make sure
that the Ibos would never again be in a position where
they would be able to talk of secession again. They
were kept out of every sensitive position in
government and consigned to the role of second fiddle.
The North was not
willing to share its advantages with its enemy.”

“The North and its allies.”  Who were those allies?
Remember Obafemi Awolowo and his infamous statement
that “starvation is a legitimate weapon of war.”?
Remember Brigadier Benjamin Adekunle’s boast about
leading his murderous troops into Biafra and shooting
everyone and everything, “even the things that don’t
move”?  Oh, maybe you’ve never heard of that.
Remember your own gloating reference to how Obasanjo
“made his career by helping to finish off the Ibos.”?
(See number 18).

Remember how your granddaddy Awolowo used his position
as vice president of the federal executive council and
Gowon’s minister of finance to craft a policy designed
to keep the Igbo in perpetual penury?  Remember the
rule Awolowo and Gowon imposed after the war, that all
Biafrans, no matter how much money they had before the
war, would get only 20 pounds worth of Nigerian
currency?  Guess what, as mean-spirited as that policy
was, it was a smokescreen for an even more sinister
plan: millions of Igbos got absolutely nothing.  The
majority did not get up to 10 pounds, let alone 20.
My own father got 10 shillings.  And this was after he
had gone out at sunrise every single day for nearly
two weeks, standing all day in endless lines under the
hot sun in the handful of places where the money
exchange was supposed to be taking place! 

You see, I can understand why people like you still
can’t get over the fact that the Igbo have not
vanished from the face of the earth.  The evils
visited on Biafrans were done, not just by northerners
but also by Yorubas, along with a whole bunch of other
Nigerians.  In other words, the evils were done by
hate-mongers like you.

[Josh Arinze]

Hi Quincy,

Your comments are well taken. I welcome them in good
faith. Thanks for taking the time to respond. Best
wishes for a great year.

Josh

--- OKQu...@aol.com wrote:
>
> Subj: Re: "Obasanjo, secession and the
> secessionists": A response to Reuben

> Abati’s...

> Date: 1/13/02 6:06:48 PM Eastern Standard Time

> From: <A HREF="mailto:OKQuincy">OKQuincy</A>
> To: <A
>
HREF="mailto:j_ar...@yahoo.com">j_ar...@yahoo.com</A>

>
>
> Dear Josh:
>
> I have read and re-read your excellent detailed and
> thoughtful response to
> Reuben Abati's Abati's latest anti-Igbo article
> several times. Even though, I
> did not agree with every point in your rebuttal, I
> concluded that all in all
> you did an excellent job in exposing Reuben's
> glaring errors and many of the
> flawed theses underlying several of the arguments in

> his original article. I

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