The recent launch of a book by a former Head of State of Nigeria, Ibrahim Babangida, has left a trail of reactions across the country owing to two major admissions made by the author, Babangida. The first was about the true winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election which was annulled midway through the announcement of results.
Babangida finally said the election was won by the late Moshood Kashimawo Abiola. The second revelation was Babangida’s admission that the January 1966 Coup was not an Igbo Coup as generally believed in many quarters. These two revelations have since set tongues wagging but we shall dwell on the one about the coup as it concerns us, the people of the Southeast, here.
For long, despite glaring evidence and many books by some actors in the coup, explaining that the January 1966 Coup was nationalistic, rather than sectional in its aim, some people have been bent on sticking to the narrative that it was a coup planned and executed by the Igbo People of the Southeast against Hausa Leaders in order to establish total dominance of the affairs of the country.
It was clearly a narrative spun by those who were looking for justifications on their killing of hundreds of Igbos during the two pogroms of 1966 in which the leadership of then Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, did little to stop, until the bloodletting had been thoroughly accomplished.
That had been followed by a civil war that further claimed millions of Igbo lives, as well as those of minority tribes of the then Eastern Nigeria who fought on the Biafran side. After that war, despite pretences as to there being neither victor nor vanquished, the now people of the Southeast have never been given any chance to be part of the country – be it by way of federal appointments, infrastructure or having a shot at the presidency; even when they are the only zone never to have produced a president since the end of the First Republic.
There has always seemed what is like an unwritten agreement that no Igbo person can aspire beyond a certain point – no thanks to their being labelled a rebellious group.
But Babangida in his recent book acknowledged that the country’s first coup was anything but an Igbo coup, thus, vindicating the claims of those who have always insisted that it was not an Igbo coup, being that other army officers from other parts of the country also took part in it.
Expectedly, all the attention seems to focus on the first revelation about what happened on June 12, 1993 for which many are calling for the head of Babangida and regrettably, many from the Southeast are part of it rather than dwelling on the vindication of their innocence in what has been a 59-year old hidden truth. In effect, the people of the Southeast are joining their brothers from the West in pushing their agenda, while forgetting their very own.
Granted that it was callous to have denied Abiola his victory, it is also callous, even more so, to gloss over what had led to the deaths of millions of innocents, just because of a lie manufactured by those who never wished them well.
It is also regrettable that the only people talking about the vindication of the Igbos on the January 1966 Coup are only the Igbos, while many other Nigerians, including many Igbos too, are talking about June 12.
For us, even as we condemn Babangida for his role in the annulment of Abiola’s victory, we wish to draw attention to the import of his revelation about the nature of the January 1966 Coup. Admitting mistakes, no matter how long it may take, is always a good thing and shows a penitent heart.
After all, many of Babangida’s peers are still living in their falsehood while some have died with theirs. This is why we choose to hail Babangida for at last, coming out with the truth as it concerns the maligned People of the Southeast.
In a saner society, the country would not only apologize to the Igbos but pay reparation for the injustices done to them. But knowing the kind of country we live in, even the admission of a top player in the nation’s affairs that Ndigbo are blameless in that coup is like a victory of sorts. Perhaps those who lost their lives owing to that lie may finally rest easy in their graves. It may be nothing, but it is still something, especially in a country where admission of guilt is so rare.
May the souls of those who died as a result of that lie continue to rest in peace.
