General Joseph Okoloagu (rtd), in this interview, insists that the pro-Biafran agitators in the South-East zone must jettison their separatist quest for a Biafran state and support the current APC-led federal government. He said for 16 years, PDP used them and dumped them. But APC government under President Muhammadu Buhari will not abandon them. Excerpts:
Many South-Easterners, especially the Igbo youths, are now agitating to have what they said is Biafran nation. How do you see their agitation?
I honestly don’t think that any serious person will be thinking of seccession now. I fought the civil war and I honestly don’t wish my worst enemy to go through my experiences in Biafra. I was a Biafran army officer, but retired as a general in the Nigerian army. So, you can imagine what I have gone through on both sides. Having said that, I believe it is an agitation to attract attention, because the situation in the South East is hopeless, extremely hopeless. Whenever l get to Enugu where I have my retirement home, I cannot access my ancestral home in Nsukka area of Enugu North. The roads are in terrible condition. They have been washed off and cut off completely by erosion. So, the absolute decay of infrastructure in the South East is glaring. I believe these youth feel they are abandoned.
So it is all about protest against official neglect and infrastructural decay?
Exactly! I look at it from a different perspective. Conceding that the situation is very bad and the infrastructure is completely hopeless. It is not proper and fair to put the blame at the doorstep of this young administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. I say this without mincing words. The total decay in infrastructure in the South-East is as a result of the 16 years of abandonment by the immediate-past administration of the PDP. After the war, there were conscious efforts by the military governments and subsequent civilian regime to rehabilitate federal roads and open up new ones in the Civil war-ravaged areas, because I have seen Nigeria through decades of experience. I saw the NPN days, the military rule, and the PDP era and now we are in APC era to which I am a member of the Board of Trustees representing Enugu State. But having said that, I must honestly call a spade a spade and that is to say that for the 16 years of the PDP rule, the South East which put all its eggs in one basket was completely abandoned. It happened due to long abandonment. Now, these Igbo youths found out that they can’t move around as a result of the infrastructural decay.
Do these agitators have anybody’s mandate?
Whose mandate are they prosecuting? If you want to have a country, you must have the mandate of the people within the territory. When we did, I have no apologies, we gave the Late General Odumegwu Ojukwu the mandate to declare the state of Biafra. I fought on the side of Biafra then because the circumstances were enough to compel me to go and fight for my people. The pogrom in 1966 and early 1967 did not have boundaries. You will recall that at the point of Biafra surrender, it was a non-Igbo man, General Philip Effiong that read the surrender communiqué and handed over to General Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria. The mere fact that Ojukwu led the uprising does not make it an exclusive Igbo affair. I never saw Biafra even when I was fighting there as Igbo project. That war has ended and those of us who fought against the Federal government later served in the Nigerian army and retired with benefits. Some of us even have our children still serving in the army. I want also to use this opportunity to plead with the government not to use a sledge-hammer to kill a fly. These boys who are protesting are simply noise-makers. But they are reasonably agitated because of that palpable fear that they are abandoned, it is very much there in view of the situation in the South East. So, I believe there is every need to address their grievances.
What do you think is the way out of this Biafran protest?
For me, I am appealing to the youth to please, and please, bring reason into their action. I want to say this thing clearly too that the present government is a victim of transferred malice and misplaced aggression. The Igbo are genuinely and visibly upset with the state of affairs in igboland. So, they are aggressive and they have to protest to government. Their misplaced aggression on the federal government that is just coming to power, that haven’t gotten its bearing completely. Forget the politics people are playing. When I hear the PDP saying that five months down the line, we still haven’t done anything, I just laugh. In 1999 and throughout the greater part of the year 2000, you wouldn’t know whether it was a military regime or a civil rule, because most state governors were giving orders/instructions using the phrase with immediate effect as if it was a military regime. The almighty PDP now in the opposition was at the learning stage of democratic governance and they did that for over one year. If there is any leader that prepared himself to lead Nigeria before coming to power, it is President Muhammadu Buhari. I am pleading with my people in Igboland, my kiths and kin to please sheath their swords. If really these boys are being sponsored by the PDP, that would be very unfortunate. Where are the children of those who are sponsoring them? I am yet to see any staunch PDP man whose son is on the streets calling for Biafra. But because of the unemployment situation and severe joblessness and hopeless in the South East and broken down infrastructure, that is why we are experiencing the wave of youth agitation. Again, the youths in South East have to take part of the blame. There have not been any free and fair election in the region. Were it not the youth who were snatching ballot boxes and doing thuggery for the PDP chieftains for the past 16 years in the South East? I came into active politics 12 years ago. I ran for Senate three good times on the mandate of my people. The first one was in 2007. I ran under the platform of the defunct Action Congress (AC). The form was bought for me by my people. What happened? They voted massively for me, but PDP in active connivance with the INEC allocated results and we were rigged out. We went to tribunal and won back the mandate. The PDP appealed. At the Court of Appeal, we lost. That is a glaring case of corruption in the electoral process and in the judiciary.
What advice do you have for those agitating Igbo youths?
I am appealing to them to search their conscience and see whether it is proper to attack the government of the day at this point in time. If they cool down and this government goes through this gestation period, because there is gestation period in everything in life, the issues of their complaints will be addressed. Secession as being advocated by the youths is not the solution to our problems. I want to tell the youths that this Nigeria was jointly built by all of us in terms of common ownership. And in terms of property ownership, the Igbo own well over 40 percent of the property in Nigeria today. So, we can’t be seen to be advocating for the abandonment of our property. So secession is not an option at this age and time when many nation states are coming together to form blocks of economic, political and social interest. It is not fair to the president and to my party APC to have this kind of distraction at this point in time. But there is an urgent need for the federal government to make a statement once more and reassure these people that they are not abandoned. It is the state of hopelessness that is making these people to agitate. They don’t have any hope. They are so scared. PDP has used them for good 16 years and dumped them. The same people who were used to snatch ballot boxes are the same people demonstrating. There is no more free money for them again. I am therefore advising the youths to make specific demands bordering on the welfare of our people and not to call for secession or a separate Biafran state from the present Federal Republic of Nigeria.
-Leadership