Celebrating My Father’s £20 (ii).

15th of January 2020 is exactly 50-years from the day that the BIAFRA GENOCIDE supposedly ended in 1970.

But today, I choose NOT to mourn but to look at where the Igbo arrived 50-years after our fathers wept bitterly as the Nigerian government handed each of them a MISERABLE £20; Not caring whatsoever that Ndị Igbo lost EVERYTHING they had, including their property that were brazenly seized in many locations across Nigeria.

A bit of a reminder from 1966 to 1969…

● While Igbo women & children were being starved through the “starvation policy” unfortunately spearheaded by a Southerner known as Chief Obafemi Awolowo, many of those women including the pregnant ones being raped by Nigerian soldiers or their wombs cut open by Hausa/Fulani savages, many of the Biafran children developing kwashiorkor and dying in countless numbers over an epidemic… Their own women & children in the Northern and Western parts of Nigeria had the best treatments in their cozy homes and only watched the BIAFRA GENOCIDE on TV like an Action Movie.

● While Igbo youths were busy using ordinary sticks and stones to fight the well-trained, Internationally aided and equipped Nigerian Army, their own youths were busy with their education both at home and in the diaspora, and gaining employment afterwards.

● While their people were busy with their normal lives, making money, having establishments and “enjoying progress summarily, Ndị Igbo were dying in their thousands daily, suffering losses and their property being seized.

Now…

After the BIAFRA GENOCIDE that lasted for 3-years, the Nigerian government, led by the genocidist-in-chief known as Yakubu Gowon, tried to DECEIVE Ndị Igbo by declaring a ‘period of rehabilitation, reconstruction, and reconciliation’ that did not see the light of the day! All they did was MOCK Ndị Igbo with Gowon’s “No Victor, No Vanquished” post-war save-face-slogan and gave only £20 each to the Igbo for …………… WHAT? Really?! £20 for what? Knowing what Ndi-Igbo had before the pogrom?

In all of what the Igbo suffered and lost during the BIAFRA GENOCIDE, one thing stood out which is……..

The “enemies” were able to destroy Igbo-land, they killed over 3.6million Igbo people, destroyed and seized their property across Nigeria, especially Port-Harcourt; BUT…. They could NOT kill the Resilience, the Ingenuity & ‘Never Say Die’ spirit of NDỊ-IGBO.

With just £20 each, look at where Ndị Igbo are today!

Aside the FACT that Igbo people have the highest number of multi billionaires and millionaires in Nigeria now…. In education, science, technology, trade & commerce, and every sphere of human endeavour in the ‘Nigerian set-up’, the Igbo always stand-out or set very high standards others can only wish for; Including the Igbo in the diaspora.

To outline all the outstandingly tremendous successes of the Igbo since 1970 will make an unending read on this essay. It’s not even a debate.

Whether the Igbo traducers of today believe it or not, there’s something EXTRAORDINARY about Ndị Igbo. Little wonder, majority of other ethnic groups in Nigeria do NOT want ‘Igbo secession’ because naturally NOBODY WOULD WISH TO LET GO OF SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY, and they know what they’ll lose if the Igbo secedes.

For others who might be subjective, as usual, and try to call this “IGBO COCKINESS”, “IGBO PRIDE”, “IGBO EGO” or whatever term they deem best, this is undeniable REALITY about Ndi-Igbo.

50 years on, and from the ashes of an unwarranted GENOCIDE, the Land Of The Rising Sun is still producing THE BEST OF ANYTHING that can ever come out of the union known as Nigeria.

Now you know why on a day like this, i’m celebrating my father’s £20 again.