Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe
IN December 1966, prior to the historic 4-5 January 1967 African-initiated Aburi (Ghana) summit, Biafra’s General
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu turned down a British-sponsored “conference
of mediation” that would involve all surviving members of the pre-Igbo genocide Nigeria’s
supreme military council on board a British frigate, off the Bight of
Biafra, in which the British would chair. The Biafran leader could not accept
the presumption of “neutrality” or “even-handedness” inherent in London’s
invitation to host such a summit, considering Britain’s instrumental role
in the Igbo genocide since the weeks and months leading to the outbreak on
Sunday 29 May 1966, especially its work with the Yakubu Gowon-Yakubu
Danjuma-Murtala Muhammed genocidist cells in the Nigeria military, the north
region Fulani islamist/jihadist emirs and, pivotally, staff and students at
the Ahmadu Bello University, the epicentre of the planning and execution
of the genocide.
FURTHERMORE, Ojukwu, the historian, could not have ignored the lessons
of a similar event in the 19th century, 1887. Then, King Jaja of Igwe Nga (Opobo),
the Igbo nationalist monarch opposed to British territorial aggression and
expansionism along the Atlantic coast of Biafra, was kidnapped by the British
navy and exiled to the Caribbean island of St Vincent after accepting, in good
faith, a British offer of “peace talks” on board a British naval vessel berthed off
the Igwe Nga shores – Bight of Biafra.
(John Coltrane Quartet, “Slow blues” [personnel: Coltrane, tenor saxophone; McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin Jones, drums; recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US, 6 March 1963)
*****Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe is the author of Biafra Revisited (2006) and author, with Lakeson Okwuonicha, of Why Donald Trump is great for Africa (2018)
Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe
They could have poisoned him on that frigate to have a quick solution. Ojukwu's refusal to attend was well advised!
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