I cannot explain the relief I
felt on October 4, 2017, when it finally dawned on me that Nigeria’s
independence celebrations had actually come and gone across the world and the
country was still all intact. The celebrations by individual and institutions across
the world were beautiful, all the doomsday prophet were silent and locked away
in their shameful caves.
In all of my
adult life, I have not seen a year as dramatic and precarious for Nigeria as
2017 has been. I really thought 2015 strained the cords of our unity, but
2017 came with more threats for Nigeria’s harmony. Arewa Youths had promised
doomsday for October 1. The Nigeria Delta militants assured us retaliation and
reprisal attacks. To aggravate the issues at hand, the Independent Peoples of
Biafra (IPOB) took a pledge to rain brimstone and fire on the Nigerian state.
In my
opinion, the federal government did not handle it well. As all these regional
tensions raged on, President Muhammadu Buhari sent a voice note to Nigerians,
celebrating the end of the Ramadan season in Hausa language. The president’s
speech — rather than douse tensions — added some heat to the polity. The large portion of
the rest of Nigeria felt left out by the president’s deliberate segregation.
Upon return
to the country, the president made another address, where he said Nigeria’s unity was not
negotiable. This time around, the president went beyond
words to show his leadership as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Three weeks to the October 1 “doomsday” we had operation python dance II in
place; and in no time, the military was already clashing with civillians in a
democratic state like Nigeria.
As October 1
drew nearer, the tensions got more palpable, and the uncertainty of a country’s
unity was playing out in the southeast more than in any other part of the
nation.
THE MEN WHO AVERTED DOOMSDAY CRISIS
In all of
these, very few politicians stood out for me; Yemi Osinbajo, the acting
president of the nation at turbulent times and Okezie Ikpeazu, the governor of
Abia state, who I see as the man who kept peace in the midst of a raging storm
of disunity.
Ikpeazu
particularly vied for peace, despite every incentive to let violence reign. At
a time when Arewa Youths were busy giving ultimatums and IPOB was keen to match
violence-for-violence, the governor maintained the message our founding fathers
held dear; unity and faith, peace and progress.
For him,
there was pressure from the federal authority to handle the Abia crisis like
the military was doing, leading to avoidable deaths. There surely was pressure
from IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu, who had gained so many foot soldiers in the last two
years. There was also pressure from the anti-IPOB camp within the
same state he governs. In the midst of all that, Ikpeazu still hosted northern
governors and said the nation is one and “we won’t allow an
infinitesimal few to separate us”.
Calling for
conversations around marginalisation and infrastructural deficiencies in the
southeast, the governor still placed necessary attention on Nigeria’s fragile
peace.
“I want to
announce that the population of Igbo outside the Igbo enclave is about 11.6
million; you don’t play with the lives of 11.6 million people,” he had said.
“We all have
to be careful, the press, the leadership at the state level and at the federal
level, everybody. We are still working on stabilising and sustaining the
fragile peace that we enjoy now.
“I swore with
the Bible to protect lives and property; because I take such oath very
seriously, I will continue to protect the lives and property of our brothers
and sisters irrespective of where they come from.”
In an
interview with Osasu Igbinedion on The Osasu Show while
the potential crisis of October 1 had been averted, Ikpeazu revealed that
despite his position as the governor and chief security officer of Abia state,
he was not privy to the incursion of the army in Abia state.
He said he
had a letter that the military were coming for operation python dance on
Friday, “but they decided to test their pieces of equipment on Sunday,” earlier
than the agreed date. He added that he had discussions with high-profiled
military officers who assured him that themilitary will withdraw
troops from Abia state, only
to be countered by the same military, less
than 24 hours after.
Despite all
the miscommunication and political underlining of the python’s dance, the
governor knew he had only one job which he said
“is to secure life and property of not only Abians but everybody that is doing
business within the geographical space called Abia”.
“So at that
time, I should protect even those agitating for an independent country called
Biafra. I come from a part of the country where the lives and property of
visitors within your gate is perhaps more important than your own life.
“My duty and
my responsibility as at that day was to make sure that I avert bloodshed of
monumental proportions.”
Nigeria’s
recent political history teaches that as a governor in the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) — a party at variance with the party at the federal level — Ikpeazu
was expected to politicise the crisis in favour of his political ambitions or
that of his party. But rather than do that, he supported the proscription of
IPOB, that peace may reign.
In all, I’m
delighted that the October 1 doomsday prophecy is now behind us, but we all
must work together towards a peaceful and united Nigeria.
Source: thecable.ng
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