Oduche Azih Continuing Education Series.
ISAAC ADAKA BORO AND THE IGBOS(?) OF RIVERS STATE:
I have no intention of delving back into this issue that may not be resolved in my lifetime. However, I cannot resist taking a dig at late Ikwerre writer and Nigerian Civil war army officer Elechi Amadi. For goodness sake why did he fail to fully de-Igbonise his identity by changing his name to rElechi rAmadi? I claim no originality here. All credit goes to Chuks Iloegbunam, who should need no introduction.
I have no intention of delving back into this issue that may not be resolved in my lifetime. However, I cannot resist taking a dig at late Ikwerre writer and Nigerian Civil war army officer Elechi Amadi. For goodness sake why did he fail to fully de-Igbonise his identity by changing his name to rElechi rAmadi? I claim no originality here. All credit goes to Chuks Iloegbunam, who should need no introduction.
THE ABANDONED PROPERTY HOAX
The Vanguard Newspapers has taken care of this issue, revealing how senior army officers and a few others in government helped themselves to attractive Igbo properties in then halcyon enclave of Rainbow Town among others and turned around to say that the indigenes of Rivers State were to blame! This LIE was sustained for about 30years. It is remarkable that when Vanguard fearlessly wrote it's report not one of the culprits or complicit individuals refuted it. None sued for libel. From my own vantage point my initial response to the scam was, "Who born Rivers people to seize property of Ndigbo, if it was not the policy of the victorious Gowon/Muhammed/Obasanjo federal military government?" One other way that I looked at the matter was to recognise that the leading lights of the area now known as the eastern Niger Delta, prior to the war, held top positions in the government of Eastern Nigeria. Top guns from as far afield as Degema and Brass owned properties in Enugu, Onitsha and even Nsukka, ahead of Port Harcourt then under rapid development by the regional government in Enugu. Why then would such individuals risk COVETING property of Ndigbo? I never believed the Federal Government propaganda for one day. Did it work? It sure did. The animus for Umu-Mbammiri among Ndigbo has had more to do with that perception than the individual decisions on which side of the conflict to support. Otherwise, Ndigbo would never stay in the same neighbourhood, not to say the same room, with the Yoruba. The basis for rapprochement with our Niger Delta neighbour is even stronger, despite all that happened during the war.
To help finally debunk the lie that Rivers people took over Igbo property, check out the following scholarly analysis.
Exerpt:
"The Ikwerres had no hand in the abandoned property scam of depriving people the sweet of their labour. Diobu people are by no standard backward. As early as 1927 Chief Wobo had dragged the Attorney General of Nigeria to court over the ownership of some parts of Port Harcourt. The case climbed the judicial ladder to the Privy Council. Diobu chiefs wouldn’t have remained passive while the hinterland Igbos who helped developed the city built houses without the permission of the owners of the land."
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"The Ikwerres had no hand in the abandoned property scam of depriving people the sweet of their labour. Diobu people are by no standard backward. As early as 1927 Chief Wobo had dragged the Attorney General of Nigeria to court over the ownership of some parts of Port Harcourt. The case climbed the judicial ladder to the Privy Council. Diobu chiefs wouldn’t have remained passive while the hinterland Igbos who helped developed the city built houses without the permission of the owners of the land."
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