14012020 - 50 years after: Let's revisit issues that caused Civil War

Vanguard, TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2020 — 41
50 years after: Let's revisit
issues that caused Civil War
Continues from page 8
learn from other countries
that have survived the
horror of war.
“Germany fought a war
and lost, the same as
Japan. But 30 years after,
Germany became one of
the best economies in the
world, the same and
Japan, until the advent of
China. Losing a war does
not make you a failure.
“We as a country must
eschew violence, as it will
not provide the answer to
our current situation.
There is a saying which
goes like this: “Those who
live by the sword, die by
the sword.” This is a new
year and a new
opportunity for Nigeria to
make things right once
again.”
War is horrible
— Utomi
While highlighting the
collapse of culture as one
of the major problems of
the country, Professor
Utomi called for urgent
attention and a joint effort
to fix the problem.
Utomi noted that if the
Biafran war was fought
today, Nigeria may not
exist due to the selfdetermination
recognition
by the international
community.
He said: “War is a
horrible experience. I
have read about it, I have
experienced it and I have
watched it in the movies.
We must address the
issues that led to the Civil
War. I can tell you that if
the Biafran war is fought
today, there will be no
Nigeria because the
international community
now recognizes selfdetermination.”
He urged the
government to create an
enabling environment to
help businesses.
He said: “Why does it
matter to reflect on that
experience and 50 years
since?
I think this initiative has
value because war is
horrible and anything that
enables people to learn
enough from its
experience to make them
seek not to repeat it, does
humanity great favour.
Allied to this is that
managing the cessation
of hostility will
determine how people
heal and whether it is
easy to capitalize on old
wounds. Some doubt that
the nature of the peace
treaty that ended World
War I paved the way for
Hitler to emerge and
made a more terrible
World War II happen.
“War creates its
psychosis and that can
affect culture in a way
that people may not
become immediately
aware of but this may
affect fundamentally a
peoples’ way. Why, for
example, were Ndigbo
typically considered
modest,
even
stereotyped as stingy,
before the war, and in the
post-war era have
become more voluble,
extravagant and showy,
with significant
consequences for
Emotional Intelligence?
“Nigeria’s inability to
have learned and
institutionalized lessons
from the civil war is
perhaps one of the
greatest cases of
leadership failure in
modern human history.
Even that is a paradox.
The end of the civil war
was marked by some
great
initiatives”.
leadership
We must
address the
fundamentals
— Akintoye
Also speaking, eminent
historian, Professor Banji
Akintoye said there is a
need for Nigerians to
find a rational solution to
problems affecting the
country.
He warned that the
country is in a mood
similar to the pre-Civil
War mood, noting: “We,
who are here assembled
and the rest of our whole
country owe a great debt
of gratitude to our men
and women who thought
that Nigeria must
celebrate this important
day in our country’s
history and who put the
arrangements together to
Naira appreciates to
N362.48 /$ in I&E window
By Elizabeth Adegbesan
The naira yesterday appreciated to N362.48 per
dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E)
window.
Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative
exchange rate for the window dropped to N362.48
per dollar yesterday from N362.60 per dollar last
week Friday, translating to 12 kobo appreciation of
the naira.
The volume of dollars (turnover) traded on the
window yesterday dropped by 61 percent to $300.54
million from $766 million last week Friday.
However, the naira yesterday was stable at N361
per dollar in the parallel market.
enable us to assemble
here now.
“This day, 50 years
ago, we Nigerians saw
the end of a bitter and
sanguinary Civil War in
which two sides of our
country had been pitched
against each other for
fully 30 months. A war
which had directly and
indirectly taken the lives
of millions of our citizens
and had left the lives of
more millions shattered.
“I assess that we are
assembled to mark this
day for two important
reasons. First, we have
assembled in gratitude to
God that our Civil War
came to an end when it
did and that it did not
continue beyond that day
to inflict more deaths and
more wounds upon us
citizens and peoples of
Nigeria and upon our
country as a corporate
entity.
“We elders, leaders,
rulers and citizens of
Nigeria are assembled
here today before the
world, and before the
ruler of all peoples and
nations, to assert that We
the people of this country
of Nigeria will Never
Again manage the affairs
of our country in such a
way as to lead to war
among us.
“It is hugely
providential that we are
registering this resolve
today before the world
and before the Creator
and Ruler of the World. I
say providential because,
as an elderly citizen of this
country and as a citizen
who was already a young
university teacher in the
time of our Civil War, I
have good reasons to fear
today that the character of
the affairs of our country
these days and the
prevailing mood among
us Nigerians, are
chillingly similar to the
character of the affairs of
our country in the months
leading to our Civil War.
“The government of our
country is being managed
in ways that make it look
like an exclusive preserve
of a particular minority.
There seems to be an
agenda being pursued to
establish this minority in
all positions of command
in the executive,
administrative, judicial
and security services of
our country. The voices of
the majority register
protests continually and
are continually
disrespected and ignored.
“The state of the law is
patently being subsumed
to the needs of that
agenda with seriously
damaging effects on
human rights. These
situations are inevitably
fostering among the
peoples of the Middle
Belt and South of our
country, the feeling that
they are being reduced to
the status of conquered
peoples in Nigeria.
“But in the spirit of
INAUGURATION—From left: Commandant, Nigerian Defence Academy
(NDA), Maj.-Gen. Jamil Sarham; General Officer Commanding, 1 Div.,
Nigerian Army, Maj.-Gen. Faruk Yahaya; Chief of Military Intelligence, Maj.-
Gen. Samuel Adebayo; and Air Officer Commanding Air Training Command,
AVM. Musa Mukhtar, during the inauguration of newly renovated blocks of
flats by the Nigerian Army at 81 Barraks, Ribadu Cantonment in Kaduna,
yesterday. Photo: NAN
today, in the spirit of
Never Again plunging
our country into Civil
War, we can, and we
must terminate all this
descent towards horrific
war. We can and we must
speedily move our
country into the state of
law, the state of mutual
respect among our
hundreds of nations and
the state of order and
peace in our country.”
Throwing his weight
behind the restructuring
of the country, Akintoye
said: “To make
restructuring produce a
full and abiding good for
our country, we must now
for the first time, correct
a serious mistake which
we have been making
from the beginning
especially from the
beginning
of
independent Nigeria.
That mistake is that we
have been ignoring the
fundamental fact that
underlies our country. The
fundamental fact is that
Nigeria is a country of
many different nations, of
nations that are in some
respects radically different
in their cultures, their
political traditions, their
perceptions of acceptable
reality, their expectations,
and their desires and
goals. Ignoring these
fundamentals, we have
almost continuously let our
country wobble and teeter
on the brink of violent
implosion and we have
continually inflicted
serious pains upon
ourselves. We fought and
ended a Civil War but we
have never really moved
measurably away from the
brinks of the Civil War.”
Roll call
Notable personalities
present include Prof Wole
Soyinka, Prof Anya O.
Anya, Prof Pat Utomi,
Prof. Adebanji Akintoye,
Professor George
Obiozor, Admiral Alison
Madueke (retd), former
Group Managing
Director of Diamond Bank
Plc, Mr. Alex Oti; Onyeka
Onwenu, former
Information Minister, Mr.
Frank Nweke, Jnr; Eze
Chukwuemeka-Eri,
Senate Minority Whip,
Senator Eyinnaya
Abaribe; Political Adviser
to former President
Olusegun Obasanjo, Akin
Osuntokun; Maj. Gen.
Obi Umahi (retd) and
Guy Ikokwu.
Why OBJ, Sultan, Ukiwe, others were absent
By Ochereome
Nnanna
LAGOS — The Never
Again conference,
which held yesterday at
the Agip Recital Hall of
the MUSON Centre,
Onikan Lagos, has been
described as a successful
outing by one of its
principal organisers,
retired Major General
Obi Umahi, the
President-General of
Ndi-Igbo Lagos, despite
the absence of a number
of key guests advertised
to attend.
Umahi said the quality
and number of guests
were satisfactory, given
the time of year when
most people are still
adjusting to work and
business after the
Christmas and New Year
holidays.
Among those who did
not turn up were former
President, General
Olusegun Obasanjo and
Nigeria’s first Chief of
General Staff, retired
Commodore Okoh Ebitu
Ukiwe, both of who, we
gathered, complained of
not being “properly
approached.”
The Sultan of Sokoto,
Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar,
could not make it because
he was reportedly out of
the country. He had
promised to send
representation if he could
not come in person, but no
one showed up on his
behalf. Also the Emir of
Kano,
Alhaji
Muhammadu Sanusi II,
gave no reason for his
absence.
General Yakubu Gowon,
the Head of State during
the Biafra-Nigeria Civil
War, sent a 40-minute
video message to the
gathering in which he
described the events that
led to the war and its end,
appealing to Nigerians to
unite and avoid future
conflicts
The total absence of core
Northern leaders from the
event sent the message
that the Northern and the
Southern parts of the
country may no longer
share a common
perspectives on certain
narratives about the
historic conflict;
particularly how the
lessons could have been
used to build a greater,
more united country.
In terms of quality of
attendance, however, the
South East, South West,
South-South and North
Central geopolitical
zones were adequately
represented, with
Professor Yima Sen from
Benue State and Director
General of the Northern
Elders Forum fully
participating in the panel
discussions.
The Ooni of Ife, Oba
Adeyeye Enitan
Ogunwusi, Ojaja II,
according to General
Umahi, arrived the venue
after the event had been
concluded. However, he
signed the register and
explained that the
invitation came to him
very late on January 12,
2020.
The strong participation
of South East and South
West intellectuals such as
Prof Wole Soyinka, Prof.
Anya O. Anya, Admiral
Allison Madueke, Prof.
Banji Akintoye, South-
South’s Prof. Pat Utomi and
Chief Akin Osuntokunn
and others show that the
ethnic nationalities of the
zones share common
aspirations for a new
Nigeria.
The “Never Again”
commemoration is a yearlong
event that has started
in Lagos and will shift to
the East as the year wears
on.