BEYOND PROPAGANDA: THE NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR WAS NEVER ABOUT UNITY
BEYOND PROPAGANDA: THE NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR WAS NEVER ABOUT UNITY
For 3 years, Gowon drummed one slogan into our heads until we lost our minds:
“TO KEEP NIGERIA ONE IS A TASK THAT MUST BE DONE.”
After the war, he tightened the rope. He forced our graduates into NYSC uniforms and scattered them across ethnic boundaries like seeds. By force, by decree.
Today, many worship Gowon as a deity. The savior of Nigeria. Without Gowon, they say, there would be no Nigeria! We owe our very existence to him!
It’s a lie. A dangerous, expensive lie.
Because we have refused to ask one simple question: If the Igbos were the ONLY consistent defenders of Nigeria’s unity from 1953 to 1967 – for 14 solid years – why did they suddenly do a U-turn and declare Biafra?
People who loved unity don’t wake up one morning to love disunity. Something broke them. Something violated them.
Let me explain what your history textbooks hid from you.
UNITY WITHOUT FOUNDATION IS DEVILISH.
Jesus Christ said it plainly: There is UNITY even among devils in hell. Satan’s kingdom is united!
So when any politician stands up and shouts “UNITY! UNITY! UNITY!” he is doing nothing great. He may be another devil using a sweet word to cover a wicked act.
Azikiwe spoke beautifully for unity in 1953 and stopped the North from seceding, but fine speeches don’t fix root problems.
In 1967, Gowon made the most powerful affirmation of non-negotiable unity. That affirmation led us into 3 years of civil war and 3 million dead.
Forget the unity mantra. The question is never IF we should be united. The question is: ON WHAT SHOULD OUR UNITY BE BASED?
And that is where Ironsi, Balewa, and Gowon all failed woefully.
THE REAL FOUNDATION WAS LAID IN 1953, NOT 1960.
After the bloody Kano riots of 1953, the British knew Nigeria would explode if they didn’t act. So on 21 May 1953, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Oliver Lyttelton, stood in the House of Commons and announced:
“The Nigerian Constitution would have to be redrawn so as to provide GREATER REGIONAL AUTONOMY and for the removal of powers of intervention by the centre in matters which could, without detriment to other regions, be placed entirely within regional competence.”
That was the Lyttelton Constitution of 1954. The Federal Constitution. The ONLY constitution that understood Nigeria.
Its landmark was clear: REGIONAL SECURITY. Each region controls its own region without interference from the center.
As Yoruba proverb says: “The fatted sky gives wide scope for birds to fly without one getting in the way of another.”
That was the plan. Let the regions breathe. Respect the regional fence.
THEN BALEWA JUMPED THE FENCE.
At mid-day on 29 May 1962 – just 1 year and 8 months after Independence – Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa committed the original sin.
He violated GREATER REGIONAL AUTONOMY by invading the Western Region. The West had a constitutional right, within its own competence, to change its Premier – to remove Akintola and replace him with Adegbenro.
It was an internal Western affair. But Balewa leapt over the fence.
If he had respected the fence, there would have been NO Action Group crisis. The Privy Council in London later VALIDATED the removal of Akintola. Adegbenro was the legal Premier.
If that had stood:
No Awolowo going to jail.
No Operation Wetie burning the West.
No January 1966 coup.
No July 1966 counter-coup.
No Araba secession threat from the North.
No Biafra counter-secession.
No Civil War.
No NYSC.
No Gowon being overthrown.
One violation in 1962 opened the floodgate of hell.
Most Nigerians at the time said, “Let us hope for the best.” Things never got better. It went from bad to total collapse.
GOWON DID NOT LEARN. HE REPEATED THE SAME SIN.
On May 27, 1967, Gowon went on nationwide radio and – without respecting regional autonomy – broke the 4 existing regions into 12 states by military decree.
He shattered the fence completely.
Three days later, on May 30, 1967, Ojukwu responded with the Independence of Biafra.
Who ignited the war? The man who first broke the regions.
After winning the war, did Gowon return to the principle of GREATER REGIONAL AUTONOMY?
NO!
He brought NYSC Decree. Forced migration of children of the regions to erase regional boundaries. To mix us by force into uniformity. To create a false unity.
Has it solved our problem?
Look around you today!
We have millions of unemployed graduates roaming the streets while factories collapse.
We import everything, including toothpicks.
We are economically prostrate, borrowing to pay salaries.
Bandits and terrorists prey on citizens in their own homes.
Forced unity has failed. Ironsi’s Unification Decree failed. Gowon’s NYSC failed. Balewa’s invasion failed.
THE ONLY SOLUTION IS THE 1953 SOLUTION.
Return to GREATER REGIONAL AUTONOMY. Respect the regional fence. Let each region control its resources, its security, its development at its own pace.
And right now, only President Tinubu is sensible enough to look in that direction. His reforms, his regional push, his tax and devolution moves – he understands what Balewa, Ironsi and Gowon never understood.
And the FOOLS are the ones fighting him, trying to oust him, calling him names, because they profit from this fake, forced, devilish unity!
Nigeria does not need more NYSC. Nigeria needs its regions back.
Share this until every Nigerian understands: The war was never about unity. It was about the violation of autonomy.
The truth must go viral.
