EASTERNERS ARE UNDER MANIPULATION
At times we might not understand it if we don't think deeply and ask some crucial questions.
We are being manipulated. I mean we in the East. We are all being manipulated. Are you Igbo, Ijaw, Efik, Ibibio, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Ogoni or whatever you call yourself, know it that you have been under manipulation for the past 51 years. You are not from South East, South South or Niger Delta. You are from the East. You are only being manipulated to think otherwise.
The Manipulation
Whatever is happening today is Britain using the Fulani to manipulate you. Far it be from me that I am blaming others for our woes, but the truth is that if you don't know of this manipulation, you cannot gain freedom.
This manipulation started during the genocide they called the Nigeria Biafra civil war.
The East has been under manipulation till this very day. No doubt, the East has been great in themselves. Whatever they touch turns to gold. In conquering the black man Britain found a stumbling block from the East. From the time of slave trade to the colonization era, the East never gave Britain a breathing space. Britain knows that for them to hold the East down they have to find a way to manipulate them.
Opportunity came with the war. Don't forget that the war of 1967 wouldn't have taken place if not for Britain. Britain wanted the war. The war is so much needed for the manipulation to work. They are so much in need of the resources in the East.
When Yakubu Gowon and Odumegwu Ojukwu met at Aburi Ghana and agreed to set aside every hostilities and become a confederate state, it didn't go down well with Britain who desperately needed the war.
Using British Broadcasting Cooperation (BBC) Britain mounted a campaign against the Aburi agreement, stating that at last Gowon has bowed down to Ojukwu. The implication of this statement is that Northern Nigeria has bowed down to Biafra. For Gowon represented Nigeria while Ojukwu stands for Biafra. This hurted the ego of the North (Nigeria) and infuriated them. The North in a meeting refused to adhere to the agreement. Rather they instructed Yakubu Gowon to divide Nigeria into 12 states. On 27 May 1967, Gowon proclaimed the division of Nigeria into twelve states. This decree carved the Eastern Region in three parts: South Eastern State, Rivers State, and East Central State. It was Gowon on the stage, but Britain in the background. With this division Gowon destroyed the regional government.
To this effect, the Eastern Consultative Assembly made up of elders from every part of the East voted for the East to secede from Nigeria. They demanded that Odumegwu Ojukwu declare Biafra a Republic. In obedience to the wishes of the people, on 30 May 1967, Ojukwu declared independence of the Republic of Biafra. As expected, Biafra came under attack by Nigeria Army. The war began on the early hours of 6 July 1967 when Nigerian Federal troops advanced in two columns into Biafra. With this Britain staged the decimation of the Igbo and their other cousins. It is worthy to note that the East prior to the war has been in charge of lots of offices in Nigeria. This was made possible due to their early embrace of education.
With the help of Britain and other world powers, Nigeria inflicted heavy causality on Biafra. Millions of Biafrans mostly women and children died. It was estimated that about 3.5million Biafrans died in that senseless war of Nigeria unity.
The war ended in 1970 with the Biafrans led by Philip Effiong surrendering to Nigeria. After the physical war, another unseen war started. And that is the manipulation of the Eastern people.
During the the war, Nigeria government perfected a successful plan that divided the East. Nigeria military started attacking the coastal Regions wearing Biafran Army Uniform and speaking Igbo during those attacks. Lots of Coastal Biafrans that survived the attack heard the attackers speak Igbo and till this very day, they still tell stories on how Igbo people wanted to wipe them out during the war. This is a high profile manipulation.
No one asked how a people suffering extermination will have time to wipe off their own brothers. No one asked if there has ever been any attempt previously by the Igbo to attack or expel their neighbours from their lands. No one asked how possible it will be for a people that lack weapons to waste it on their fellow brothers. No one cared to think deep and ask how Philip Effiong will be a second in command and his people will be wiped out by the same Army he commands. And to cap it all, he didn't speak about it. Are coastal brothers not in the Biafra Army? These are the necessary questions that will neutralize these lies that have been told over the last 51 years.
The seed of discord sown by the Nigeria government during the Civil War made it possible for the East to be fragmented. The Igbo became the worse enemies of most Ijaw, Efik, Ogoni etc. They see the Igbo as rivals. Some of them out of deep ignorance have proclaimed how it is better to live with the Fulani than the Igbo. With this mentality, the Fulani won. They took advantage, owned the oil, controls it and left the people with nothing, other than polluted environment, not good for agriculture.
The Fulani also divided the Igbo into many parts. They included Igbo people into the North and South South. They manipulated people into thinking that Igbo people are only in South East, while the Igbo people that fell into other regions started denying being Igbo. The Fulani frustrated anyone bold enough to answer Igbo after the war, which necessitated the denial. Asaba, Ikwere, Onitsha, Etche, Ogwashiukwu, Ika man will tell you how he is not Igbo. Those singing this shameful songs of denial will always be favored by the Fulani.
Betrayal Become A Lucrative Business In The East.
Those that led Biafra during the time of the war was the most trusted men the Easterners respects so much. They are men of integrity and patriots who will rather die than betray their own people. Men like Chinua Achebe, Akanu Ibiam, Odumegwu Ojukwu etc.
Nigeria government removed these men from office and started employing men that are ready to betray their own people.
Gradually, it became an act of foolishness and stupidity to stand for the people in the East. If you are not a puppet of the Fulani, you will not be appointed into any office in Nigeria. They encouraged these men to openly stand against their own people. They made them rich, influential and powerful that ordinary people started worshiping them. Remember the Igbo saying that says 'onye bu igu ka Ewu n'eso?' This is how almost everyone in the corridors of power in the East started becoming sycophants and hypocrites in other to make it. This is exactly how we got the leaders we have today. Leaders who will bring Pythons to kill their own youths. Leaders who will refuse to constitute security group for their own people, just to please the Fulani. Men who is so afraid of the Fulani to the extent that they will support the massacre of their own youths for protesting in a country Fulani herdsmen terrorists are pampered and Boko Haram terrorists recruited into the Army.
These manipulations made the Igbo, Ijaw Efik etc to loose focus. All the leaders in the East needed is to be loyal to the Fulani and they can loot and squander our collective resources the way they want. If you complain about the lack of federal government presence in the East, Northerners will remind you of your governors and how they are squandering the resources. It is just manipulation. They use them and yet blame them for your woes.
Since after the war, never a time have the East worked together to develop the East. There is zero plan by the Eastern leaders of today to liaise with each others to develop the entire East. It is just squandering and obedience to the Fulani as to escape persecution and prosecution. The Fulani only goes after anyone against them and standing for the people. The Fulani have the power to remove an elected Governor and replace him with their puppet. This is exactly why Emeka Ihedioha is not governor today.
This manipulation has effected every aspect of our lives in the East. Today, police men will love to be posted to the East because they make more illegal monies in the East than any other part of Nigeria. They know that the East is a police state. They are the marginalised part and got no right. So once you are arrested or confronted, you pay them and go with your goods. This has made life difficult in the East.
An Igbo in government will do everything possible to safeguard his position through loyalty to the Fulani. He will rather employ unqualified HausaFulani into the government, than employ his qualified Eastern brothers. Those that are ignorant of the manipulation going on will never understand. They will rather say WE DON'T LOVE OURSELVES. You are just under manipulation.
Any Eastern Leader speaking against the marginalisation of the East in Nigeria will be witch haunted. Almost all the federal roads in the East are bad, yet no governor will ever complain. Parts of the East are polluted due to oil spillage, yet non of them is speaking for their own people. Some that fights for the people will be given contracts to shut them up.
If you speak up, a case will be opened for you in the court and you will surely be disgraced out of office.
You are from the East in Nigeria, you are not free. You are manipulated to hate yourselves and work against each other. It is only when you realise this, that you can work towards your freedom.
If you ask me, I will say that only the restoration of Biafra will break the stronghold of the Fulani on our people.
Elochukwu Ohagi, Philosopher, Teacher And Activist, 2021.
Family Writers Press International
No comments:
Post a Comment