Like most of my generation, I was peeved to read that ex BiafraNigerian General, Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu has lately been parading himself as a BiafraNigerian Presidential candidate for the “Igbo quota”. A sense of disgust and deep revulsion was triggered in me by this development in which Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu, a man who scandalously aided the genocidal Nigerian army in decimating his father’s people could have the nerve to announce himself as the Igbo champion. In as much as it is too early to determine how many “brown envelopes” have changed hands, it is, however, not in doubt that the branding process of Omar Sanda’s “sexy Igboness” is in full swing.

The general himself is taking full charge of the Sexy Igboness media blitz. I suspect he must have driven many sensible people beyond the erotic barrier when he blurted without provocation in his very first interview since announcing his presidential aspiration: “I want to place on record that I am proud of my roots as an Igbo man..,” (Vanguard 22/07/02) . Nwachukwu’s outburst was unprovoked for the simple reason that his interviewer NEVER asked his opinion and emotional attitude towards his Igboness.   Nwachukwu has since picked up the refrain of the post war “Obasanjo hates the Igbo” song. Obasanjo is anti-Igbo because he prosecuted a genocidal war against the Igbo and has carried on putting the Igbo down at every turn.  In the same vein, Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu is anti-Igbo because he fought a genocidal war against the Igbo and I’ll soon show that his post-war conduct has aided the hausa-fulani containment agenda for the Igbo. That is the simple and ageless Aristotle logic at the very beginning of this write-up.  Nwachukwu does not cease to be anti Igbo just because he said he is proud to be born by his father.

Every homo sapien has the filial right Nwachukwu has expressed in his out-burst. But the question Nwachukwu and his band of incoherent supporters should be grappling with is the one so aptly advanced by Kalu Ezera, a PDP chieftain in Abia State published in ThisDay 23/05/2002: “on whose side was Nwachukwu during the war” and even after?”  Regardless of the fact that Chief Ezera was pandering to the incumbent, Obasanjo, his rhetorical question chips at the very crux of the Nwachukwu discourse viz.; his conduct during and after the war. 

DURING THE WAR:

Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu fought alongside the heartless beast called Murtala Mohammed, one of the arrow heads of the premeditated pre-war massacre of Army officers of Igbo descent.  Murtala’s command was also responsible for the Asaba genocide where every soul that pissed against the wall was put to the sword.   Yes, Omar Sanda Nwachukwu was right there when unarmed Igbo men were gathered in village squares and shot.   Rev. Chukwuma who testified at the Oputa panel only survived to tell the story because falling corpses shielded his young body from the fiery bullets of the genocidal Nigerian mob.  In Emma Okocha’s “blood on the Niger”, we read that Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu an erstwhile Journalist dismissed this monumentally tragic event with a wave of the hand as in his own words:,  “they were too busy exploring ways of entering Onitsha and could not have come into contact with civilians”.    Yakubu Gowon has since apologised for the Asaba massacre which the author Fredrick Forsyth in his Biafran story agrees was enough ground to prosecute those soldiers for Genocide.    Ike Omar Sanda would have the world believe the Atrocities (apologies to Wole Soyinka: “The man died”) committed against the Igbo never happened.  Listen to the very inspiring music that drove Omar Sanda “the explorer” as wafted from the Radio Nigeria Kaduna and Lagos in those dark days:

 

“Let us go and crush them.

We will pillage their property,

Ravish their womenfolk,

Murder their menfolk

And complete the

Pogrom of 1966″.

It is possible that since the song was in Hausa, some Igbo without a good grasp of Hausa language wrongly translated “explore” in Hausa to “murder” in English language.  Give me a break!  

Before the handful of Igbo jobbers and Hausa –fulani working for Nwachukwu accuse me of calling Murtala a wild beast, let me make it clear that I have only used a description which had been used by his friends.  It is a matter of public record that his erstwhile compatriot B.S Dimka is on record as having told a presenter at Radio Nigeria Lagos that he (Dimka) had just killed a wild beast(Murtala) that escaped from the barracks and was causing a lot of trouble to the peoples of BiafraNigeria.  There you have it, Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu walked and worked with a wild beast during the war.     Other commentators on BiafraNigeria issue are agreed that tyrant Murtala’s temperament was consistent with manifestations of chemical imbalance.  The guy was a psychopath and one might make some funny deductions on the Nwachukwu link from the maxim; “show me who you go out with and I could tell the sort of person you are”.   I have nothing but pity for all the areas of BiafraNigeria Nwachukwu claims to have marital ties with.  In the Guardian of July 28 2002, he gave a list of about ten different parts of BiafraNigeria where his brothers, sisters and nieces are married, not forgetting that his wife counts for two like his.  If the inhabitants of any of those places are tempted to think there is a gain that will accrue from their marital ties with Omar Sanda, they should take a good look at the ruins of Igbo land

It is a shame that Sigmund Freud did not live through the Biafran war, he would have given us the psychoanalytical insight into the mind of a man who would gang up with his mum’s kinsmen to wipe out his Dad’s kinsmen.  I suspect that this state of mind betrays a personality disorder worse than Oedipus Rex complex, which fuels a boy to do his dad in so as to have his mum.   I am only a humble engineer, not a psychologist, but, even the underground grammarian of New Jersey United States, agrees with my logika reversus in the caution that a man need not go mad for the simple reason that there is a war:

 

“And what a strange thing war is, too, most hideous of all human enterprises.
A mad monster, in whose service, however, a man need not go mad.”

~~ The Underground Grammarian

 

Let me quickly add on a very joyous note, that I have NOT come across any member of the new generation of Igbo who will not rather die than take up arms against his own blood.    I have written this because a shameless commentator would have the whole world believe that Omar Sanda’s hands were tied and that he towed the path of honour.  Nonsense!

What Ike Omar Sanda did during the war of genocide against the Igbo is Nso ala (abomination).  In ala Igbo the sanctity of human life is upheld so much so that a man who kills his brother by accident is banished from the clan for a season.   Therefore, a man must be plagued by acute identity crises to claim to be proud of his Igbo heritage and participate in the gruesome murder of his fellow Igbo.   A man who has no respect for virtuous Igbo norms and ethos should have no business championing Igbo causes.  It is very unfortunate that the handful of Igbo jobbers currently overseeing the NwachukwuIgboness project have failed woefully to grasp the enormity of Nwachukwu’s abominable conduct.  One of them is on record as alleging that the Igbo are being vindictive by referring to Nwachukwu’s war activities.  Nothing could be more wrong.  The Biafran war defined Igbo and BiafraNigeria and all the key participants in the war.  Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu chose to fight against Biafra, i.e., kill his fellow Igbo and we can easily enumerate the benefits he derived from doing so. 

If at the twilight of his existence in this transient plane he has suddenly realised the need to be “rooted,” the onus of repentance, penitence, public confession, acknowledgement and renunciation of his evil deeds is on him.   Then and only then should the Igbo talk about forgiveness and reconciliation.     When the reconciliation process has been accomplished, may I humbly suggest that Mr Nwachukwu retire to Ovim where he will be taught Igbo norms and Ethos. 

Mr. Ezera was right on the money when he stated that Nwachukwu’s allegiance during the war mattered if he is to be considered a champion of Igbo causes.  In Igbo there is a saying that:  “okuko anaghi echefu onye fere ya odu n’udu mmiri”.   Or as Emma Okocha of Ohaneze put it in English:  “If we knew that he fought on the other side, it’s a major negative on the backs of whomever that will come to seek an Igbo vote. Knowing that at the crucial time that Igbo needed sympathy and solidarity he went to the other side”(see BNW magazine; face2face with Emma okocha).  I rest my case.

AFTER THE WAR:

The first major post war glimpse the Igbo had of Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu was when the jihadistic despot called Muhammadu Buhari dispatched him to Owerri to signal the end of the Mbakwe era.  He was introduced as Brigadier Ike O S Nwachukwu and it didn’t take long before the older Igbo told the younger generation what “O S” stood for.  Even the toddlers in ala Igbo knew that the ultimate conqueror and feudal lord was in town.

Nwachukwu immediately consigned the more than twenty VERY IMPORTANT industrial projects the Mbakwe regime had invested heavily on to the trash can.  He was not concerned that the teeming population of Igbo youth stood to be gainfully employed in those industries, some of which were at advanced stages of completion.  Some on-lookers thought Nwachukwu’s actions was for very personal reasons, and since as they say, there are no smoke without fire, some of us decided to look closely.  We found that Mbakwe was NOT in the good books of the hausa-fulani oligarchy for the aggressive and assiduous manner with which he set about rebuilding the post war ala Igbo.  They were particularly peeved that Mbakwe had changed the name of the Specialist hospital in Umuahia which some soldier had named after the dead genocidal tyrant Murtala Ramat Mohammed back to the post war name: Queen Elizabeth Specialist hospital!   I challenge my readers to tell me of any record where Nwachukwu has said any kind word on Dee Sam Mbakwe and his remarkable feat in governance in the space of four years.

Nwachukwu brought with him an air of repressive and depressive despondency and the gloom was so thick you could touch it!  How he taxed the Igbo!  He imposed a so-called “survival levy” on ALL Imonites.  Men and women, boys and girls, from Primary Schools through to the tertiary institutions.  Having called time on all the laudable industries his civilian predecessor had initiated, Brigadier Nwachukwu decided to move the ImoStateUniversity from the multi campuses in the five senatorial Zones to a virgin site in Uturu.  He turned a blind eye to the Environmental Impact Assessment report from the site recommendation panel and said it must be at Uturu and completed within months.  Today people go to Uturu the University town for two reasons: To see the university and/or the gully erosion.  Some day it is hoped some smart Igbo among Nwachukwu’s handful of supporters will name the place: Omar Sanda’s grand Kenyon!   As one commentator in one of the free yahoo forum rightly said, maybe we should be thankful that Nwachukwu did not scrap the idea of ImoUniversity all together.

Retrenchments and forced unplanned early retirements were the order of the day.  I recall an occasion when Omar Sanda gathered a section of civil servants at the so called multi-purpose hall in Owerri and ordered those who had served for more than twenty-five years to stand on their feet.  The frail ageing Igbo obeyed the red beret army Brigadier and after a very brief lecture what became of their job status is anybody’s guess.

Innocent Nwigwe was the golden voiced senior news anchor of the BNTA channel 6 Aba who lost his job for writing/saying something the feudal conqueror did not agree with.  Today Nwigwe is a pastor in a new generation church in Aba.   I am not entirely surprised that some Igbo are rooting for Omar Sanda Nwachukwu today; for, even in those gloomy days some traditional rulers awarded him Chieftancy titles.  Who knows if those “trado” rulers who use titles as a begging tool are related to the individuals who are today giving awusa-fulani men awards for “exemplary leadership” after the wastage their leadership has visited on BiafraNigeria. 

Nothing is new under the sun.  Omar Sanda Nwachukwu thought Imo airport was a luxury project in 1984 and nearly twenty years later a Kema Chikwe thinks upgrading Enugu airport to a proper international status is an elitist project.   There is nothing wrong with Nwachukwu’s perception; then, he is entitled to his opinion of who the Igbo are and what they deserve.  However, it is wrong for Nwachukwu to claim in his Vanguard interview of 22/08/02 that “we built ImoAirport.”  That is a blatant lie. 

Alison Amaechina Madueke, then a navy captain, and Nwachukwu’s successor at the Owerri Government house initiated the Imo airport project.   Madueke himself an Igbo Biafran, did not see an airport as being beyond the enlightened people of Imo while being available for the largely uneducated and less travelled peoples of Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto etc.,  etc.

As the military governor of ImoState, Omar Sanda Nwachukwu continued with his disdain for Igbo life already well noted during the war.  He gave Imo people his kind of sadistic recreation, which was the sporty killing of hapless young Igbo male convicted by his judicial Bakassi, headed by a guy called Oyiudo.   The routine public shootings at the open field along Egbu Road in owerri drew jam-packing crowds.  You could hear the screams, shrieks and cheers from a long distance as the armed and uniformed BiafraNigerian soldiers (usually between four to six in number) took aim and fired at the unarmed emaciated frame tied to a long oil barrel filled with sand.  Omar Sanda being the genius he is, decided to encourage the development of his barbaric sport in the rural areas.

Yes, young Igbo male were to be executed at the village squares in their local government of origin once Oyiudo and Omar Sanda were agreed on their hurried bakassi style death sentence.    The innocent parents and relations of the condemned man were charged with digging the grave for their son before his execution.  Suffice it to say that it was a very traumatic experience for the Igbo who were old enough to know what transpired during the war where some Igbo were made to dig their own grave before they were shot.  Omar Sanda Nwachukwu violated and abused the Igbo’s sanctity for human life and he displayed a disregard for Igbo traditions, cultures and festivals.   Transport minister Ojo Maduekwe will bear me witness on this one.  The occasion of the New Yam Festival and “Igba – ekpe” in Maduekwe’s village in 1984 was the moment Omar Sanda Nwachukwu chose to publicly execute a son of Asaga, Ohafia.  The ill-fated young man was called Awa Idika Awa a.k.a “enyi-ebi”.  His pensioner father Mr. Idika Awa who had served the BiafraNigerian government faithfully for about thirty years was commanded to go and dig a grave for his healthy son.  Tufiakwa!

It is doubtful any Ohafia will ever forget that on the day their young men paint their bodies with Nzu (white chalk) signifying a peaceful celebration a man called Omar Sanda Nwachukwu decided to inject a crimson hue to their land-scape. The day the reassuring and nostalgic sound of the ikoro was drowned by the bullet of the agents of a man who has no regard for Igbo norms and ethos. It was a day celebration and jubilation was turned to mourning at the whim of a feudal lord who is “very proud of his Igbo heritage”.   Mr Idika Awa lived just long enough to conclude his son’s funeral.  Today, an Igbo has described Omar Sanda Nwachukwu as refined and cultured.  If this is how a refined person acts, then may I suggest that Jack the Ripper, the infamous serial killer of Yorkshire, is a cuddly bloke.  

Furthermore, if we must accept that Omar Sanda Nwachukwu is cultured, then we will have to ask which culture?  Methinks 7^th century Arabian feudal jihadistic bloodletting culture.  Read my lips, Nwachukwu’s post-war conduct should not inspire confidence in any true Igbo.  It was a happy day in ImoState when Omar Sanda Nwachukwu shifted his bulky frame to Lagos.

The next time we saw Nwachukwu in Lagos was as the head of IBB’s bakassi tribunal when he handed down death sentences to Gideon Orkar and other progressive Southern and middle belt soldiers. Their sin was plotting to check the well documented excesses of the Hausa-Fulani in BiafraNigeria. I still remember the events of April 22 1990 as if it were yesterday. Orkar and friends had come so close that IBB’s aide de campe (ADC) was shot dead and the BiafraNigerian radio was captured and forced to air Orkar’s speeches. Students were already pouring out in the streets to herald the end of an evil era. But their joy was short-lived as the oligarchy had bounced back and by late that Sunday afternoon it was obvious to all that Orkar’s ship had grounded! The intriguing aspect of the whole saga is that it was old Hassan Katsina that summoned and accompanied the army GOC in Kaduna and the state Governor to the Radio station in Kaduna. It was from Kaduna radio that the first announcement was made that IBB was “alive and well”. The second announcement was from one General Iwueze in Calabar.

Iwueze was another Igbo who participated in the massacre of the Igbo, and Katsina was one of the arrow heads of the pre-meditated pre war massacre of Igbo/Eastern officers. You can check up more on Katsina at Biafraland.com under genocide papers. Katsina is Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu’s first cousin and he was the one that put Nwachukwu and Buhari in the army and steered their military careers right to the top. Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu was programmed from his youth to see himself as Hausa-Fulani. He has never been known to express any “conflict of interest” in the execution of the Hausa-Fulani agenda even when it means killing Igbo or other Southerners. His present introduction as a presidential candidate is part of the suave strategy of a waning oligarchy to re-invent itself.

THE IGBO AND THE PRESIDENCY: