The pan-Igbo socio-political organisation Ohanaeze Ndigbo has called on the Federal Government to pay N10trn in reparation to the South East for wrongly insinuating over the years that the 1966 coup was an Igbo coup.
Ohanaeze said it was extending its profound appreciation to the former military president, Gen Ibrahim Babangida for his remarkable courage in officially declaring in his memoire that the January 1966 coup was unequivocally not an Igbo coup.
In a statement issued on Saturday by its Deputy President-General, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, Ohanaeze Ndigbo noted that the pivotal acknowledgment was not merely a correction of historical nomenclature, but an embodiment of a significant moment in our collective pursuit of justice and reconciliation. The group also sees the memoire as signaling a potential end to the historical vindictiveness, profiling and cruelty of everyone of Igbo extraction.
The statement reads, “General Babangida’s assertion, articulated during the Abuja launch of his book, “A Journey in Service,” serves to lift the unjust stigma that has systematically vilified the Igbo people as the purported antagonists in Nigeria’s political upheaval of the 1960s.
“His forthright exemption of the Igbo from the egregious classification as enemies of the Northern region in the aftermath of the coup is both timely and necessary, even if it arrives decades later.
“The mislabeling of the 1966 January coup has unleashed disastrous repercussions upon the Igbo people, most tragically culminating in the July 1966 counter-coup, which decimated a Military Head of State of Igbo descent and instigated widespread violence against the Igbo population- actions that sowed seeds of discord which ultimately bloomed into the cataclysmic horrors of the Biafra War.
“The staggering loss of life, with approximately three million Igbos—predominantly innocent women and children—slaughtered during this conflict, continues to reverberate through our collective consciousness.
“Furthermore, even in the post-Biafra era, the Igbo Nation continues to grapple with systemic injustices, evidenced by an acute marginalization that leaves us with the most miniature representation of states within the Nigerian federation.
“The political conspiracies designed to deny the Igbo the rights of ascending to the highest office in the land-Nigeria’s Presidency, the chronic economic neglect symbolized by the closure of the Calabar seaport, the inoperative state of several ports in Igbo land, the implementation of a discriminatory quota system, and the conspicuous absence of functional international airports in the Southeast starkly illustrate the Federal Government’s longstanding policy of exclusion.
“In light of these egregious injustices and the deliberate neglect exhibited by successive administrations, Ohanaeze Ndigbo hereby restates its demands articulated previously during the Justice Oputa-led Judicial Commission for the Investigation of Human Rights Violation Panel in 1999.
“We assert that the Nigerian Federal Government under General Yakubu Gowon conducted indiscriminate and unjustified bombardments in Igbo territory during the Nigeria-Biafra War, which resulted in the overwhelming loss of life. These historical realities establish an irrefutable case for the reparations we seek.
“The revelations presented in General Babangida’s book compel Nigerians to confront the stark, harrowing realities of the injustices perpetrated against the Igbo people. The present Federal Government, led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, must recognize this moment as an opportunity to extend a public and unequivocal apology on behalf of previous military regimes, particularly General Yakubu Gowon’s administration.
“Such an apology is long overdue for the myriad wrongdoings inflicted upon the Igbo nation, which continue, even decades after the conclusion of the Biafra War.
“Additionally, our demand for N10trn in reparations remains steadfast. This figure is not arbitrary but a symbolic recognition of the indelible losses the Igbo people have endured. The time has come for truly acknowledging these historical wrongs, which can only be rectified through reparations and sincere apologies.”
Biafran warlord, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu called the attention of the world to the original intent of the coup, sadly, nobody took him seriously.
Read also:
‘Why 1966 Military Intervention Was Not an Igbo Coup’ – Babangida
Babangida Memoire: Ohanaeze Ndigbo Demands FG Reparation to Igbos
