Ndigbo: Caught Betwixt And Between In Nigeria (3)

 …Wrong Decisions & Missed Opportunities 

By Ichie Tiko Okoye
According to the source document – recently declassified secret American diplomatic dispatches – “The North was minded to use the civil war as a tool to reassert its dominance of national affairs…The northern section of the Nigerian military was the best equipped in the country. To ensure the region’s continued dominance, the British assigned most of the army and air force resources to the North. It was only the Navy’s they could not transfer. 

“All the elite military schools were there. The headquarters of the infantry and artillery corps were there. Kaduna alone was home to the headquarters of the Nigerian Army’s 1st Division, Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (Army Depot), Air Force Training School and Nigerian Defence Academy. (On the other hand), the Eastern Region had seized a DC-3 and a Fokker F-27 from the Nigerian Air Force in April (1967, and) NNS Ibadan, a Nigerian Navy Seaward Defence Boat (SDB) that docked in Calabar Port, was quickly made Biafran.”

Ndigbo: Caught Between And Betwixt In Nigeria (2)

By Ichie Tiko Okoye 

The congeniality of the still morning air along the Nsukka-Gakem-Ogoja and Nsukka-Oturkpo bifurcation was shattered by the thudding sound of mortar fire and the cacophony of exiting bullets sounding as if the demons of hell were on a rampage. 

A lingering bank of smoke, thick and vile-smelling, rolled across the highway. Sleeping birds protested the intrusion by flapping angrily up from the trees and wheeling overhead. The long-anticipated war had commenced in full earnest. Time was exactly 5a.m. on Friday, July 6, 1967. 

According to a declassified American diplomatic dispatch, three days after Nigeria’s ‘First Girlfriend,’ Edith Ike had been securely ensconced in West Germany, Gowon addressed the attendees of the 3 July 1967 Supreme Military Council meeting as follows: “Gentlemen, we are going to crush the rebellion.” It was hardly a reconciliatory message, and although he added that “But note that we are going after the rebels, not the Ibos,” those the message was intended for knew fully well that the speech had two parts. 

Why Is Nigeria So Cursed?

 By DAN AMOR 

When the Union Jack (the British flag) was, at the glittering mews of the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos on October 1, 1960, lowered for a free Nigeria’s green-white-green flag, gloriously fluttered in the sky by the breezy flurry of pride and ecstasy, it was a great moment pregnant with hope and expectation. The whole world had seen a newly independent Nigeria, a potential world power, only buried in the sands of time. Endowed with immense wealth, a dynamic population and an enviable talent for political compromise, Nigeria stood out in the 1960s as the potential leader in Africa, a continent in dire need of guidance. 

                        *President Buhari 

For, it was widely thought that the country was immune from the wasting diseases of tribalism, disunity and instability which remorselessly attacked so many other new African states. But when bursts of machine gun fire shattered the predawn calm of Lagos its erstwhile capital city in January 1966, it was now clear that Nigeria was no exception to Africa’s common post-independence experience.

During the following four years (1966-1970), the giant and ‘hope’ of Africa measured its full length in the dust. Two bloody military coups, a series of appalling massacres and a protracted and savage civil war which claimed over two million lives threatened to plunge the entire country into oblivion. 

Nigeria: A Nation Of 200 Million Fools

By Dan Amor

When the Union Jack (the British flag) was, at the glittering mews of the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos on October 1, 1960, lowered for a free Nigeria’s green-white-green flag, gloriously fluttered in the sky by the breezy flurry of pride and ecstasy, it was a great moment pregnant with hope and expectation. The whole world had seen a newly independent Nigeria, a potential world power, only buried in the sands of time.

*Buhari 

Endowed with immense wealth, a dynamic population and an enviable talent for political compromise, Nigeria stood out in the 1960s as the potential leader in Africa, a continent in dire need of guidance. For, it was widely thought that the country was immune from the wasting diseases of tribalism, disunity and instability which remorselessly attacked so many other new African states. But when bursts of machine gun fire shattered the predawn calm of Lagos its erstwhile capital city in January 1966, it was now clear that Nigeria was no exception to Africa’s common post-independence experience.

Buhari, Onnoghen Et Al And Their Common DNA

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

Except the unabashed pretenders to the throne of equity and transparency, Nigerians need not be shocked by the murkiness and ravenous appetite with which the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, has been identified. If the alleged fraud of Onnoghen centres on his not claiming what is his, a greater tragedy is the Nigerian state and its leaders claiming what is not theirs.

*Justice Onnoghen 

In that case, how could it be strange that the chief judicial officer allegedly pleaded amnesia to mitigate his culpability when the entire fabric of the Nigerian nation is steeped in fraud? It was fraud that actuated the cobbling together of Nigeria in the first place.

Liberating Nigeria Through Advocacy And Sensitization

By Chukwuka Igwegbe

As the 2019 general elections draws near, there has been a huge clamour for the populace to get their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and vote for credible leaders. The clamour, though having good intentions is not rightly placed. Information available reveals that majority of the voters from the 2015 general elections were the uneducated masses. The educated class were reluctant to come out to vote, and in actual sense, most do not even have their permanent voters card. This nonchalant attitude by the educated class during election period has been the reason for the continuous bad leadership being experienced in Nigeria.

Despite having a skewed process in political parties in Nigeria that favours the emergence of elected leaders backed by money bags, the educated class have a lot of roles to play to change the narrative.

President Buhari’s Queer Blandishment Of A Kleptocrat

By Ochereome Nnanna

 President Muhammadu Buhari gave hints of how his supporters will enter the upcoming electioneering fray when he met his Buhari support groups in the Presidential Villa on Tuesday last week: it’s going to be a gale of lies all the way. I am not referring to his allegation of $16 dollars spent on power projects “without power”. Figures that have been bandied down the years – from $3billion to $6 billion to $10 billion to $16 billion.

*President Buhari 

This reminds us of how former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor (now the Emir of Kano) Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had in February 2014 bandied figures as the amount “diverted” by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, instead of being remitted to the Federation Account. He started with $20 billion, brought it down to $10 billion and readjusted it to $12 billion. That is Nigeria for you. Others use figures to inform and educate. We use ours to confuse and promote falsehood. 

Nigeria: Gen Gowon’s Desecration Of History

By Sunny Awhefeada

Nigeria’s history has been so abused and distorted that there is hardly a consensus on what constitutes a genuine national narrative. Nigerian rulers have had to manipulate the history of their record in office to suit their whim. History ought to be sacred as the ultimate guide of a people. It is the unseen, but powerful propelling force from which a nation derives inspiration in the tortuous odyssey of national evolution. But when the history of a nation is subjected to deliberate distortions then such a nation is bound to be moored to the past with the people as captives. This has been Nigeria’s lot. 

*Gen Gowon

Nigeria hosted the 8th Commonwealth Regional Conference for Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa last week. It was at that forum that Nigeria’s former military ruler, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) did what amounted to a desecration of history. Hear him: “During our time, we did not know anything like corruption”.

He went a great length to buttress his assertion. Let us dream up an apotheosis for Gowon so that even in his lifetime he could become Saint Yakubu Gowon! What Gowon told his audience was far from the truth. The government he led from the hurly-burly of 1966 to the sedate ambience of 1975 was one of massive corruption.

The Fulanisation Of Nigeria, The Perfidy Of British (Part 1)

By Femi Fani-kayode

Mr. Gwnfor Evans MP, the great Welsh politician, lawyer and author and the leader of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, for no less than 36 years before he passed on in 2005, made the following historic and profound observation many years ago.

*President Buhari and Gov El-Rufai of Kaduna 

He said, “‘Britishness’ is a political synonym for ‘Englishness’ which extends the English culture over the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish”.

As a student of English and European history and one that was not only trained and educated by the British from the age of 7 but that is also highly conversant with their system and their ways, I can confirm that Evans is absolutely right. His words are relevant to our situation in Nigeria as well and, in many ways, has some application here.

Gen Yakubu Gowon Should Think Again

By Amanze Obi

It does appear that General Yakubu Gowon, the man who became Nigeria’s Head of State under very controversial circumstances, is weighed down by a certain hangover. He still thinks that the only way a country can be ruled is by diktat. He is yet to come to terms with the fact that power, in a democratic setting such as ours, must flow through popular consent. More than 40 years after he was booted out of office, Gowon still wishes for a static Nigeria, where the old order must continue to hold sway.

*Gowon

When, the other time, some secessionist groups gave Nigeria cause to worry about its unity, Gowon clearly went livid. He made nostalgic references to the Nigeria he fought to keep together. He was afraid that the trophy he took home some four decades ago was about to be snatched away from him. Many clearly understand the passions of the likes of Gowon over one Nigeria. He considers Nigeria’s unity as his life-time legacy. He does not want it to be toyed or tinkered with.

50 Years After Biafra: Reflections And Hopes

By John Nnia Nwodo

1. I am grateful to Shehu Musa Yar Adua Foundation, Ford Foundation and OSIWA – the co-sponsors of this event for your kind invitation. I commend your foresight in convening this conference, the first major conference discussing Biafra outside of Igboland. Nigeria. In hosting this conference the Yar’Adua Centre, which is best known for promoting national cohesion, honours the legacy of a great patriot: Shehu Musa Yar Adua. He died building bridges of understanding across our nation. I salute his family and associates for sustaining the legacy of Shehu through the works of this Foundation.

*New Biafran Leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, taking the oath of  office as the Head of State of the Republic of Biafra (May 1967)

2. It is significant that you have chosen to harvest sober memories of Biafra. By so doing, you help us to wisely situate today’s talks of Biafra in the proper context: namely, as an opportunity for nation building; and not – as an invitation for invectives or recrimination.

3. 50 years ago, Nigeria faced disintegration by the declaration of the Republic of Biafra. Biafra was born out of the political crisis which engulfed Nigeria at that time. The crisis began with the struggle for leadership in the Western Region of Nigeria, the declaration of state of emergency in the West, the coup of January 1966, the counter coup of July 1966, the pogroms, the declaration of Biafra and the commencement of a police action that turned into a three years civil war.

4. I hope that our gathering today may contribute to the body of knowledge or body of lessons from the war. Lest we forget, there is wisdom in the words of George Santayana that: those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. That is why I thank you for the chance for us to collectively remember, reflect, hope and seek ways to build anew.

5.My most heartfelt reflection is that in the Nigeria-Biafra conflict, we can and should acknowledge the sacrifice – in blood, suffering and toil – by millions of citizens on both sides of that divide. They shared a common hope for their sacrifice: namely, that out of that war, we shall build a nation where no man is oppressed. The only difference was that for one side, Nigeria was that nation. For the other it was Biafra.

6. Let us spare a thought for every victim of that conflict and the crises before that: the leaders and the soldiers, ordinary men, women and children. Each one loved life; had hopes and dreamt dreams. They died prematurely and often, painfully.

7. For those of us that survived the war and others who came afterwards, we are both heirs to the sacrifices of fallen brethren. Let us commit ourselves today and always to their hopes for peace and justice. Anytime that we are violent, anytime that we are unjust in the exercise of our public trust, anytime we lower the ideals of this nation, we betray them; and we act as if they died in vain. As we honour their memory, today my worry is not only about the rising feeling of marginalization of Igbos or any other group but that our nation may emerge from this conflict a more united and prosperous country.

Ndi-Igbo And The Biafran Question

By Okafor Judith

I have heard so many people ask, "Why won't Ndi-Igbo forget the memories of the 1967-70 civil war and move on?" Or "Why is it that Ndi-Igbo cannot forget the bitterness of the civil war and move on?"

Odumegwu-Ojukwu taking oath of office as
Biafra Head of State in 1967

But I have these for those who have been asking the aforementioned questions:

The countries of Europe still discuss about the 30 year war that brought about the Westphalia treaty of 1648.

The Jews have not forgotten the holocaust of 1940s.

Alexander the Great wars of over 2000 years ago are still being talked about.

Ndi-Igbo have every right to discuss about the war because Warsaw still discuss the attack on her by Germany in 1939 in their history classrooms. Learning one or two things from it.

The First World War that was fought in 1914 which disrupted the relative peace in Europe for over 100 years is still being discussed.

The US attack on Japanese two cities - Hiroshima and Nagasaki that led to the subsequent end of the Second World War is still being discussed till date.

The aforementioned Wars and among others were fought during the 17th century and early 20th century. While the Biafra-Nigeria war that was fought in the mid 20th century is the one that Ndi-Igbo should not talk about, but rather forget and move on.

Buhari: Going Aborrowing On A Market Day!

By Dare Babarinsa  

President Muhammadu Buhari may have been persuaded that the best way to kick-start our economy again is to go to the world with the begging bowl. The austere Buhari, with his simple lifestyle, represents the mood of the nation which is in need of new kind of leadership. He is unbundling the presidential fleet and removing the fat from more conspicuous muscle of the government. He has been trying. But so far, his effort has not yielded the quick fix that Nigerians expect. After all, we are a nation where the danfo driver, in order to see more clearly, consumes more and more paraga. So is this new loan our paraga?

*Buhari 

Borrowing is sweet; it is the repayment that is bitter. The President is looking for $29.9 billion from the European, the Asian and the African markets. He explained, in his letter to the National Assembly, that the money is needed for infrastructure development. With this jumbo loan, all federal roads would be reconstructed to last forever after. We would have electricity and our universities would be first class. Of course, members of the National Assembly too want their own part of the action. They believe the good time would soon be here again once we can borrow money. After all by the time our grandchildren would be paying, most of the members of the National Assembly would have already changed addresses to God’s own headquarters. Now they want the party to begin.

For us, however, it is a familiar road. During the First Republic, our leaders inherited the tradition from the British of trying to balance the budget. There was no need to spend more than you have earned. The leaders who led us to independence were great men who had great vision and tried their best to pursue their dreams. To understand the value of their service, you need to go to the universities they built. I do not know of any university in the South-West of Nigeria, and there are few in the world, that is better built than the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife. It was a product of the government of Western Region during the First Republic. Ditto could be said about Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, built by the regime of Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of the defunct Northern Region during the First Republic.

Biafra Not Nigeria's Problem

By Chuks Iloegbunam

Biafra is not one of the problems besetting Nigeria. Those un­able to appreciate this fact may require a dose of creative thinking. Nigeria's stubborn thorn in the flesh is its adamant repudiation of the self-evident concept of the changelessness of change, upon which sits a crippling unwillingness to engage that same constancy of change. There are two random but famous declarations – one little remembered today, the other something of a mantra – that neatly wrap up the na­tional antiparty to inexorable change and its management.

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu taking
 the oath of office as the Head of State of the Republic  of Biafra in 1967 

On January 15, 1970, there was a ceremony at Dodan Barracks, Lagos, the then seat of political power. Biafran acting Head of State, General Philip Effiong, Colonel David Ogunewe, Colonel Patrick Anwunah, Colonel Patrick Amadi and Police Commis­sioner Patrick Okeke had gone to submit Biafra's docu­ment of surrender, which of­ficially marked the end of the civil war. "The so-called rising sun of Biafra has set forever," declared Head of State Gen­eral Yakubu Gowon, on that occasion. In the leaps and dips of Nigeria's turbulence, it is common to hear politicians of varying persuasions de­claring, as a way of "helping" to stabilize the listing ship of state, that "Nigeria's unity is not negotiable."

Between Gowon's pre­sumption of Biafra's finality, which rode on the crest of tri­umphalism and was hailed as prescient by many, including Gowon's biographer Profes­sor Isawa Elaigwu, and the incessantly voiced exclusion of terms on Nigeria's one­ness, lies the country's prob­lematic. General Gowon is alive and bouncing. Were he to honestly comment on his 45-year old declaration today, he would readily admit to not having thoroughly considered all sides of everything. For it is clearly outside the bounds of political authority to decree the irreversible amputation of human predilection and proclivity. The current hoopla around Biafra lends credence to the assertion.

Now, there is something baffling in the oft-repeated statement on Nigeria's unity not being negotiable. The statement does not mean that Nigeria's unity is a fait ac­compli. It simply insists on a spiteful denunciation of any thought of mapping out a sus­tainable road on which the assumed or anticipated na­tional unity must travel, free from iniquity and cataclysms; a method for mastering the imperatives of national unity which is, anywhere in the world, a particularly daunt­ing proposition. It is because Nigeria has kept its back ob­durately turned to change that even the littlest molehill on its uncharted road invariably becomes a precipitous moun­tain. 

Aguiyi-Ironsi: Danjuma's Terrible Act Of Treason

By Obi Nwakanma

Fifty years ago, on a Friday night at the Western Nigerian Governor’s lodge in Ibadan, a group of soldiers led by Major Theophilus Danjuma committed a terrible act of treason. They accosted their Commander-in-chief, Major-General Johnson Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and Military Head of State of Nigeria only six months in the making, stripped him of his epaulettes and his swagger stick shaped in the form of the Crocodile, and proceeded to arrest him and his host, the Military Governor of the West, Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi.

*Major-General Johnson Thomas
Aguiyi-Ironsi

These soldiers, some of them far too drug-addled, did not stop there. They proceeded to administer brutal beatings and a careless torture of the General, and the Governor, Colonel Fajuyi, supervised by T.Y. Danjuma, and Ironsi’s ADC, William Walbe. They did not stop there: bruised and much bloodied, these two men were later bound hand and feet, as legends would have it, and tied to a military truck driven by Jeremiah Useni, through the streets of Ibadan, and taken to that quiet spot on Iwo road, where they were murdered and buried in mean and shallow graves.

Fajuyi was by then, nearly dead in any case, far too brutalized to endure any further humiliation. But Ironsi stood tall to the very end – the image of a great elephant enduring the beatings that accompanied him finally to the dug-spot. Accounts of Ironsi’s stolid, dignified and courageous handling of his brutal end come to us by a number of eye witnesses. He was travelling with then Colonel Hillary Njoku, Commander of the Lagos Garrison, in his entourage. They were upstairs in the Governor’s lodge when they sensed the change in the air, by the rustle of the mainly Northern troop that had been arranged for his guard detail.

As soon as they noticed the mutiny afoot on the grounds of the Governor’s lodge in Ibadan, they quickly knew that they had only one shot at getting out there alive. Ironsi ordered Hillary Njoku to find his way out of the grounds and make contacts with his headquarters in Lagos to send some reinforcement. Meanwhile, he got through to Yakubu Gowon on the phone which were still working, to send a Helicopter for him. The Helicopter did not come. Gowon, Ironsi’s Chief of Staff, was busy issuing different orders to Danjuma in Ibadan, and apparently to Murtala Muhammed and Martin Adamu in Lagos, the arrowheads of that July mutiny. Neither did any reinforcement come. Just as he was attempting to sneak out of the Governor’s lodge, the mutineers saw Colonel Hillary Njoku, and fired shots at him. He escaped by scaling the fence of the Government House, but was so seriously injured he had to find his way to the University College Hospital, where he was treated.

I Reject President Buhari’s ‘One Nigeria’

By Ochereome Nnanna

We are now concentrating on the militants to know how many they are, especially in terms of groupings, leadership and to plead with them to try and give Nigeria a chance.

“I assure them that the saying by Gen. Yakubu Gowon that ‘to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done’ still stands. In those days we never thought of oil all we were concerned about was one Nigeria. “So please pass this message to the militants, that one Nigeria is not negotiable and they had better accept it. The Nigerian Constitution is clear as to what they should get and I assure them, there will be justice.” – President Muhammadu Buhari, to some residents of Abuja who paid him Sallah homage recently.

*Buhari 

President Buhari President Buhari’s off-the-cuff statement above provides an opportunity for us to pick the mindsets of Nigerians on what they really mean by the concept of “One Nigeria”. It is obvious that “One Nigeria” does not have a single meaning for all of us; going by the way we carry on, especially when we find ourselves in positions of power as Buhari currently does.

Let me describe my own idea of One Nigeria. It is a crossbreed between the Zikist and Awoist visions of the unity of Nigeria. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the father of African Nationalism and foremost exponent of Nigeria’s independence, believed in a Nigeria where all citizens would share one vision and national aspiration, irrespective of their tribes, tongues, regions, religions, majority or minority status. That is the kind of nationalism practised in Ghana, a country whose foremost independence proponent and Pan-Africanist, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, was inspired by the Great Zik.

In Ghana, tribe, region and religion are no impediments to national unity. That is why the longest-ruling head of state, John Jerry Rawlings (a minority), was able to seize power and sanitise Ghana. He laid a solid foundation for today’s success story. Contrast this with Nigeria, where an earlier attempt by Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and his colleagues ended up being given an ethno-religious and regional toga. It resulted in a civil war at the end of which Nigeria became a colonial booty of Arewa (the Muslim North). The Awoist version of One Nigeria recognised the differences between the various groups and sought to establish a structure in which all these groups could live within their geopolitical enclaves and aspire competitively for the greatness of a united nation. Nobody’s ethnic, religious or cultural hang-ups would slow down the progress of others who do not share these hang-ups, and yet all would belong equally and equitably to one nation in spite of their complex diversity. This arrangement is often described as “true federalism”.

So, in this Nigeria of my dreams, those who want to practice Islamic Sharia in their home zone can go ahead. Those who want to cut off the hands of their thieves and overpopulate their home zones with illiterate citizens will not be an impediment to my section which wants to exercise population control, give good education to the young people and offer them a modern, civilised lifestyle comparable to the best in the world. You use what you produce to cater for your people but pay rents to the Federal Government to maintain the common services that bind us together as people of One Nigeria. But you do not use your landmass and population to parasite upon and terrorise others and suck their resources dry in the name of “One Nigeria” which, you insist, is “non-negotiable”.

Biafra Haram And The Rest Of Us

Onuoha Ukeh

In the last couple of months, what could pass for President Muhammadu Buhari’s phobia for Biafra has been apparent. These days, he seems to always use every opportunity to talk about the failed republic. The vehemence with which he talks about it sometimes leaves one wondering what it is that makes him mad about Biafra. Is it the fact that the thought of Nigeria breaking up frightens him? Or that he thinks that if the agitators are left, they could actualise their dream? Or that he feels insulted that some people will have the audacity or effrontery to talk about a separate country when he is in charge?

*Buhari

Indeed, President Buhari may have talked about Biafra more than any other single thing. Three days ago, he took up the Biafra issue, yet again. Speaking at the breaking of fast for members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, he had stated: “We need to reflect very seriously on what happened between 1967 and 1970, where about two million Nigerians lost their lives. At that time, as young military officers, you hardly heard of anything about petroleum or whatever money you got from it.

“Look at what Gen. Yakubu Gowon said: ‘To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done’ and every soldier, whether he had been to school or not, knew what the General meant. But we were quarreling with our brothers; we were not fighting an enemy, and somebody is saying that once again he wants Biafra.

“I think this is because he was not born when there was Biafra. We have to reflect on the historical antecedents to appreciate what is before us now and what we intend to leave for our children and our grandchildren.”

Last May, President Buhari also talked about Biafra. Speaking at the palace of Emir of Katsina, during his official visit to his home state, he referred to the promoters of the Biafra agitation as “kids” who were not born during the civil war.  According to Buhari, “today, Nigeria is a strong and united sovereign entity because some people laid down their lives for the country…At least, two million people died during the civil war, but, today, some people who were not born during the civil war are agitating for the division of the country. We will not let that happen.

“For Nigeria to divide now, it is better for all of us to jump into the sea and get drowned.”

On many other occasions, President Buhari had talked about Biafra. Each time he did, his impatience and anger were always betrayed. This, for instance, showed during one of his presidential media chats when he was asked about the detention of Director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, even after he was first granted bail by the court. He had lost his cool and made pronouncements that directedly “convicted” the accused of the charges he was facing. He had said that what Kanu did was treason, even when trial was still on and verdict not delivered by the court.  As it stands, it is obvious that in Buhari’s world, Biafra, in thought, dream and action, is haram (taboo). In fact, sometimes I suspect that he wishes he could, with a stroke of the pen or brute force, erase Biafra from the consciousness of those who talk passionately about it.