By Chuks Eke
A social critic, Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor Esq. has stated categorically that the Nigeria/Biafra war actually ended in 1970 but the stark reality is that it ended on paper, while it’s consequences still bleed into the fabric of Nigeria’s governance and power distribution.
He insisted that the marginalization of the people of Igbo extraction did not begin yesterday but anchored on deliberate policies designed after the ill-fated civil war to weaken and deminish a people who dared to assert their right of self-determination.
In a press statement issued on Tuesday, titled: “The civil war never ended – Dr. Reuben Abati spoke the truth Nigeria must confront”, Ejiofor, a leading counsel to the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPoB, mentioned some of the deliberate policies designed to weaken and deminish the people that dared to assert their right to self-determination to include the infamous 20 Pounds policy, swiftly followed by the indigenization Decree of 1972 which opened the door for Nigerians to buy shares in foreign companies, while Ndigbo were economically stranded, dispossessed and stripped of resources.
According to the legal guru, “When Dr. Reuben Abati, a respected journalist and former presidential aide, recently declared that โthe Civil War in this country has never ended,โ as such the North will not buy into the one-term idea being proposed by Peter Obi, he echoed a sentiment that resonates deeply with the lived experiences of millions of Nigerians, especially the Igbo people”.
“This is not a mere metaphor; it is a historical truth that continues to manifest in the political, economic, and social architecture of Nigeria”.
“Those who dismiss this assertion should pause and reflect on the trajectory of Nigeriaโs post-war history and the structural marginalization that the Igbo nation has endured for over five decades since the guns supposedly went silent in January 1970”.
“The marginalization of the Igbo people did not begin yesterday. It is anchored in deliberate policies designed after the Civil War to weaken and diminish a people who dared to assert their right to self-determination”.
“The infamous โ20 Pounds Policy,โ where Igbo families, regardless of the millions they had in Nigerian banks before the war, were reduced to a mere ยฃ20 after the war, was the first open declaration that reconciliation was a farce”.
“This was swiftly followed by the Indigenization Decree of 1972, which opened the door for Nigerians to buy shares in foreign companies. But for the Igbos, who were economically strangled, dispossessed, and stripped of resources, this meant permanent exclusion from the commanding heights of Nigeriaโs economy. These policies were not coincidental; they were calculated to perpetuate the consequences of defeat long after the battlefield was quiet”.
“Fast forward to today, the evidence of structural bias remains overwhelming. Key political positions at the national level are deliberately skewed away from the South-East. In over 63 years of Nigeriaโs independence, the presidency has rotated between the North and the South-West, leaving the South-East permanently on the margins of national leadership”.
“The Igbo manโs aspiration for the presidency has become a mirage. It is indeed easier for an elephant to pass through the eye of a needle than for an Igbo man or woman to become president under the present political structure. This is the hard reality, which may sound strange to those who choose to live in illusion”.
Citing the case of DCG, B. U. Nwafor as a contemporary example, Ejiofor further echoed:
“For those who doubt Dr. Abatiโs assertion, let us examine a recent example that illustrates this age-old pattern of exclusion. Deputy Comptroller-General, DCG, B.U. Nwafor, an accomplished officer of Anambra extraction, stood next in line to succeed the current Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi”.
“Agreed that her track record was impeccable, marked by discipline, diligence, and distinction. Yet, in a move that reeks of systemic injustice, the presidency extended Adeniyiโs tenure by one year, effectively blocking Nwafor from ever reaching the pinnacle of her career. She will retire next year without attaining the office she merited, not because of incompetence or corruption, but because the civil war has never ended in Nigeria”.
“The Igbos are not politically irrelevant because they lack competence or capacity. On the contrary, the Igbo nation boasts some of the most brilliant minds in governance, industry, technology, and academia. Yet, in the calculus of Nigeriaโs power politics, competence is not the currency, ethnic arithmetic is”.
“The Civil War may have ended militarily, but politically, economically, and psychologically, its embers still burn. The Igbo man is systematically denied access to the center of power, not by accident, but because the Civil War in Nigeria has never truly ended”.
Also in another coinage he mentioned as community in denial, Ejiofor further asserted: “What makes this reality even more tragic is that many Igbo politicians continue to live in self-denial, chasing shadows, believing that one day the political heavens will open for them”.
“They scramble for crumbs instead of building a united front, failing to appreciate that the Civil War never truly ended, just as posited by Dr. Reuben Abati. This internal disunity has compounded their vulnerability, making them easy pawns in the chess game of Nigeriaโs politics”.
He however warned against the consequences of a region being in crisis, saying that the insecurity ravaging Ala-Igbo today, the rise of armed groups, criminality, and the breakdown of law and order is not happening in a vacuum but rather a direct consequence of decades of political ostracism, economic strangulation, and internal misgovernance”.
“When a people are excluded for too long, the center cannot hold. Unfortunately, the alternatives resorted to by our restive, frustrated, disenchanted, and disillusioned youths have taken extreme and criminal dimensions, undermining every measure of civility”.
On the path forward in redefining the Igbo agenda, the social crusader opined that If the Igbo nation must break free from this vicious cycle, it begins with self-redefinition.
“Thinking Igbo First: A coordinated political and economic strategy that prioritizes regional integration and self-reliance. Learning from Visionaries: Embracing developmental models championed by leaders like Dr. Alex Otti, Ndubuisi Mba, etc., who are proving that good governance can transform our narrative”.
“Ending Illusions: Accepting the hard truth that the Nigerian state, as currently structured, will not willingly hand over power to the South-East. Igbos must therefore innovate, negotiate from a position of strength, and stop living in the fantasy of political benevolence”.
“Until these steps are taken, the Civil War will continue, not with bullets and bombs, but with policies, appointments, and the quiet violence of exclusion. Dr. Abati was right. The war never ended. It simply changed its weapons”.
