Former Biafran war commander and Ikemba of Asaba, Delta State, Chief Joseph Achuzia, has berated former President Olusegun Obasanjo, for describing pro-Biafra agitators as miscreants, saying he is a kettle calling the pot black.
In an interview in Asaba, Achuzia said: “This is a question of the kettle calling pot black. The ex- President, Olusegun Obasanjo, is a friend and I have the greatest respect for him, but unfortunately, half or most of the times, he, out of arrogance becomes careless in the words he uses.
“They say that those living in glass houses should not throw stones. By virtue of his being a former President, the presidential aura should always remain with him. Consequently, we try to shy away from comments that will affect him, but when he descends outside that cocoon of presidential aura, then we use the law of level playing ground in addressing the issue.
“Obasanjo is not in a position to call people still talking about Biafra miscreants. Miscreants, being that we were parading the road, barricading Government Houses, destroying property and other places, is that the reportage from the toxic media? If that is the reportage, it means that the media has misrepresented what they saw or what they heard.
“For Obasanjo to call my people miscreants, I will say that he should look homewards, hence I say it is an issue of kettle calling the pot black. The issue of Biafra is something we can never forget, neither our children nor our great, great, grand children after our time because it is part of history. The problem Nigeria is facing now is the inability to come to terms with the reality.
“If they wanted to come to terms with reality, they should have looked into the lopsided constitution, which they are trying to use. The war ended, how many years ago and yet, we are still using a military composed and authored constitution, the constitution was not composed or authored by civilians; if it was, what we are seeing today will not be the issues.
“Where in the world would you see that in a democratic set up, when they are changing batons after elections, they still have a military composition where a president or person elected will run the country by himself for almost six months as a military dictator and nobody is questioning it? But like I said, I like the present leader’s style because it is what the people asked for that they got,” he said.
On the renewed agitation for Biafra, he said it was because nobody has addressed the issues that led to the war.
“I am still glad that the people who were present when the war ended are still in the saddle today because people like the present President was around; they were party to the so-called civil war. I say so –called because Biafra did not declare war, it was Nigeria that imposed war on them and they had to defend themselves.
“Ask him (Obasanjo) or any of the commanders if Biafra at any time tried to carry the war outside their territory, except the situation that happened in the defunct Midwest and it was not Biafra’s making. There was no time Biafra entered the Midwest because they wanted to invade the place. What happened was that our media capitalized on the situation of some ambitious officers within the operation that went beyond the terms and bounds of their operational order.
“And for that, they paid a penalty, nobody asked why the penalty, we all know why the penalty, because they carried the war beyond Biafra territory, stepping into the Midwest. Midwest was created by the Eastern region; it was part of the Igbo speaking area, both linguistically and otherwise. Until date, there is no Urhobo man that will say that his father did not understand Igbo language, no Ijaw person within the South Eastern area that will say that they do not speak Igbo, King Jaja of Opobo, all of them,” he said. (Vanguard)
