A civil war veteran and the man who commanded the Biafran army, General Alexander Madiebo, who also worked as a battalion commander in Kaduna in 1966, has revealed that so far as the government of the day had refused to solve the problems that gave birth to Biafra and its recent renewed agitation, so far as the country cannot work.
In an interview in a published report, recently, Madiebo noted that, “It was not Ojukwu’s intention to cecede from Nigeria, but it was the circumstance of the time. It was pubic knowledge. In fact, the entire world was aware of the pogrom against Ndigbo in the north. Our people were being killed, pregnant women, children, etc, none was spared in the killing. All genuine diplomatic efforts made hit the wall. Remember the Aburi Accord and when we came back it was not honoured by General Yakubu Gowon -led federal government. Since the Igbo were being killed and faced with genocide there was no other alternative, but to seek resistance through secession”.
He explained in details, “The Biafran breeze is now is now dangerously turning into a major storm that may constitute an existential threat to Igbo. No war ever got won by emotions, preparations and strategy do. We should not attract avoidable conflict to our region hoping that the international community will intervene. Why we are suffering today is a British agendum as they did it so that the North would permanently be on the advantage as far as the leadership of Nigeria is concerned. The British skilfully did it in such a way that they (North) see power with birth right mentality. The problem is marginalization…and it is bad”.
Madiebo noted that Nigeria’s problem was beyond Igbo president. He argued that things were going wrongly in various degrees in Nigeria that any Igbo who becomes the president of Nigeria would have difficulty because the country was wrongly structured. He made it clear that the wrong structuring was at the root of the reason Nigeria had not been working and would not work.
