4 distinguished Yoruba icons who risked their lives to broker peace between Biafra and Nigeria during the Civil War from 1967 to 1970.
It is often rumored by a cross section of Nigerians that most Igbos and most Yorubas don’t get along, Not so in my own family circles and In Akure my home town where not a single Igbo man or woman had lost any of the properties they left behind during the very costly and very painful Civil War.
Many Akure people risked their lives to protect their Igbo tenants and friends and laborers in their farms and they went to great length to persuade many Igbos not to leave Akure.
I grew up with many Igbos in my town and I dated a few and could easily have married one or two of them but for the Civil War which separated us.
I don’t care about some of the unfair comments you hear today about the Igbos of Nigeria, the Igbos as a tribe are some of the finest people in Nigeria left to me alone.
My
personal physician for more than 20 years now is an Ibo doctor named Obiora Anyaoku.
I strongly believe I am still alive today because of God’s divine grace first and foremost followed by the watchful eyes and nurturing care of Dr. Anyaoku who fondly calls me “Omo Oba” “the Prince” as he takes some uncanny interest in my wellness and my personal history beyond the call of duty.
There is an old Ibo lady in her 90s in New York named Fanny Obi who is the mother of a good friend of mine who I look upon and relate to as my surrogate mother because she treats me like one of her own 6 or 7 amazing children.
I feel at home in her presence and I miss her every time I am out of New York spending time with my children and grand children scattered all over America because she makes me feel welcome and respected.
I present below the pictures of 4 eminent Yoruba icons namely late Major Victor Banjo, one of the Majors that carried out the first Military Coup in Nigeria led by Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu and Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna on January 15, 1966.
Victor Banjo, a Yoruba man had fought on the side of Biafra out of conviction but he eventually lost his life as the Rebel Leader Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu had accused him of disloyalty for speaking in Yoruba to some of his people when he had led a Biafran Squadron to capture Ore in Ondo State for Biafra.
He had lost his life defending the Igbos on principle.
The Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka who has always stood out as the conscience of the Nation was one Yoruba icon who had risked his life defending the Igbos while accusing the Nigerian troops of Pogrom and calling for a peaceful resolution to the War because he felt the Igbos were justified to defend themselves and homeland against the unprovoked attacks of northerners in the Northern half of the country.
There was Chief Obafemi Awolowo the first Premier of Wester Region who had volunteered to go meet with the rebel leader on more than two occasions and who had taken the position that the Biafran side had won the Aburi Summit held in Ghana and moderated by General Ankrah.
The highly respected sage had argued that the Nigerian side led by Yakubu Gowon had given up too much in the Aburi Summit and ought to have stuck to the content and the spirit of what was agreed to in Ghana and that if by any error of omission or commission the Igbos were allowed to get the concessions agreed to in Aburi, the Yorubas of the Southwest would have had no other choice than to demand the same concessions in the interest of equity and justice because the stability of Nigeria rested on the tripod provided by the three dominant tribes in Nigeria and that the country could not stand if one of the tripod is missing.
The last and not the least among the 4 leaders profiled in this article was my Uncle the first educated Deji of Akure who was the classmate of Odumegwu Ojukwu at Kings College, Lagos and who had taken liberty of that closeness to visit Ojukwu at Enugu to sue for peace and to appeal to the Biafran side to broker peace for the two warring factions
The Igbos and the Yorubas are not irreconcilable enemies as we are being made to believe.
If the two major tribes have come together to form a coalition government in 1959 when Obafemi Awolowo as leader of the Action Group had offered to serve as Finance Minister in a Government led by Ogbuefi Nnamdi Azikiwe as Prime Minister, Nigeria’s trajectory would have been changed forever and the country would have made a tremendous progress and the country would have been far better off than it is today.
That is an argument one could make and sustain.
I rest my case.
