LEARN FROM OJUKWU - THE GOVERNOR OF THE EAST.

Ojukwu's actions as governor of the East and later as Biafra head of state should be another great lesson for us as Nigeria navigates towards the same violent spot it was in the mid 60s.

One of the first things Ojukwu did immediately after becoming governor of the Eastern region in January 1966 was to arrest and detain former premier; Dr Mike Okpara and the secretary to the government; Jerome Udoji. He accused them of embezzling $93 thousand of ER government money. We all know that Okpara did not build even a single room for himself and couldn't pay his school fees after the war.

Ojukwu also removed Zik as the chancellor of UNN and made his friend,the Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero chancellor on the excuse that it was nepotism for Zik to be chancellor of a university he built. In May he asked the African Continental Bank to force Zik to pay about $162 thousands he was allegedly owing the bank. Zik founded ACB and was chairman of the bank at some point before Ojukwu's father became chairman.

Ojukwu however did not remove his father as the chairman of ACB, Nigercem and Eastern Nigeria Marketing Board. He also never accused him of corruption or nepotism despite the fact that he was almost part and parcel of government financial dealings at the time.

It leaves some us thinking what Ojukwu's tenure as governor would have been like if the revenge coup of July 1966 by Northern soldiers and the staggering Igbo pogroms in the North didn't destabilise his government.

Then again, did the shocking killings make almost all the elders forgive Ojukwu?Former premier Okpara, Zik, former governor Akanu Ibiam and all other elders Ojukwu accused of corruption or detained without trial, turned around and became Biafran ambassadors because of what had befallen their people. They rallied round the people forgetting the treatment they got from Ojukwu.

Other elders were not quite lucky. Some,like the most senior surviving Igbo army officer; Colonel Njoku, Dr Chike Obi, Margaret Ekpo et al, who did not like secession were put in jail without trial until the end of the war.

On the other hand, Gowon was releasing elders like Awolowo, Anthony Enahoro and other ex-convicts and bringing them to his government to help advise him. They did a good job for him and Nigeria, didn't they?

But the Eastern region/Biafra's best brains were either branded saboteurs and put in jail or lined up and shot, intimidated into silence or completely ignored.

Nobody knew Biafra had no weapons except Ojukwu. Nobody was asked for advice. Even those buying arms for the Biafran army in the black market were civilians who didn't know what a real gun looked like.

None of all those highly trained Biafran army officers who survived the July coup in Nigeria was trusted enough to buy weapons for the Biafran army. Even the Army Chief, Madiebo, never knew where the few Biafra arms were kept.

I am gonna leave it here before you accuse me of bias.

This is how we lost over one million of our people and had our cities, towns and villages  destroyed and taken from us, as was the case in Port Harcourt.

The same cycle is threatening to come full circle under our watch. We are still setting up Biafra National Guard and Biafra Secret Service armed with sticks and stones. We are still chasing Nigerian armoured tanks with bare hands.

We are still abusing and disrespecting our elders. We still call the likes of Mbe Nwaniga  sabo.

May God have mercy on his children!

WRITTEN BY: MBE NWANIGA