Babangida’s book has caused a stir in many circles in Nigeria. It needs to be so for the book only states what some of us have been saying since 1966.
First, we have said it a million times that the Jan. 1966 coup d’état in Nigeria was not an Ibo coup. It was not an event in which Ibos sat down and planned to affect a domination of Nigeria.
It was a revolution of young, pathetic officers of the Nigerian army from different tribes, unsatisfied with the squandermania, competition and bad government of the Balewa- led government, decided to overthrow that government and bring sanity to the polity. This was one point Babangida made. Babangida did not hold back. He mentioned names, he mentioned situations, he talked of the discussion he had with the coup participants after the event. He provided enough facts to validate what we have been saying for half a century.
Those who do not agree with Babangida are the mischievous crew who feed flippant propaganda to the ignorant and gullible Nigerians who they deliberately make ignorant to satisfy their selfish ends and unyielding ambition to degenerate the Ibos and hold Nigeria to ransom forever.
The second point which Babandiga hammered on is the fact that the immediate cause of the Nigeria-Biafra was the massacre of Ibos in the North in 1966. Once again, this is a point that we have always mentioned, every crisis; every war has two causes -remote and immediate. The remote causes of the war were the weak foundation of the Nigerian state as established by Britain; the flawed arrangement of regions where one region is geographically differed than the other two regions combined. The constitutional arrangement of power being virtually donated to the north to the chagrin of the south, the divide and rule policy of the British which pitched sections of Nigeria against other sections thereby solidifying tribalism and other factors.
But Nigerians trudged on from 1914 to 1966, despite all of these inadequacies. But after the coup of Jan. 1966 the northern establishment -political, religious, military -ganged up and labeled that coup an Ibo one, in order to place another northerner “(according to Gowon)” in power, from May through October 1966. There was a systematic genocidal programme of Ibos in the north. And this included the Mohammed -Gowon coup of July 29 to August 1, 1966; this programme was what led Ibos to feeling that they were no longer wanted in Nigeria, and under Ojukwu, they seceded.
This was what Babangida testified to. The apologists of northernisation of Nigeria can rave and rant, but what Babangida said is correct reading of history. And what he said, we have repeatedly said for so long years: What else did he say?
He told us about Abiola and Abacha and how Abacha outsmarted Abiola, deceived, and led him and himself (Abacha) to sedation. The Dele Giwa story he narrated was not too convincing, so we hope that one day the question; who killed Dele Giwa? Will get an answer.
Whatever anyone says therefore about Babangida’s book therefore cannot renege from the fact that this man is a man of courage. From the days of his confrontation with Dimka, he has often been seen as a courageous man who is ready to take a decision and abide by it. His courage is not limited to the physical. He also has moral courage and outstanding integrity.
Fault him as you may, you cannot fault his honesty!!!!!
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