THE TWO GLADIATORS ARE AT IT AGAIN, OJUKWU AND GOWON SPIT FIRE!

The unfinished business that is the Nigeria-Biafra civil war got a new lease of life recently, as the two protagonists in chief of the war stoked embers of violence once again? Such personal antgonism forces the question, has the Biafran war actually ended or have this two personalities now so personalized their animosity that an ordinary harmless statement by one will attract a rabid response from the other rival? Animosity which started since their days together in the Nigerian army and which technicaly led to the Biafran war, now seems to be continuing and subsisting in their golden years; which begs the question, does old wound really heal?

Icheoku says, the answer appears to be no; and that has been buttressed by the recent exchange of fiery rhetorics between these two old foes, who have since personalised more what it was between them that first led to the Biafran war? Their bitter exchange shows that the long gone but still smothering civil war has the propensity to rekindle anytime, someday and possibly not in too distant future. Icheoku says, the only way this war could conclusively come to an end is for the issues that led to the war to be fully addressed or for the principal protagonists thereto to make their transitions out of this world and leave Nigeria alone. But until then and as long as they live, so shall little flashes like the recent war of words continue and possibly someday, it might spark off another confrontation. As always, war of words usually precedes war of fire-fight?

Icheoku asks once again, did the Biafran civil war ever conclusively end? This question has become more imperative with the spitting of fire by two old Nigerians, nay a Nigerian against his Biafran old nemesis; men who are now jostling and repositioning themselves for yet another opportunity to go at it, and somehow finish an unfinished business? A final showdown, the mother of all confrontations, may be? Ikemba Nnewi Odumegwu Chukwukwuemeka Ojukwu and Birom-man Yakubu Gowon who squared off during the last Nigeria/Biafra civil war, are once again, barking and threatening another showdown! But will Nigeria allow them? Icheoku does not think so, more-so since both men are nearing their graves and are even too old now to lift AK-47 rifle? But why are they personalising a struggle that encompassed so many millions of people including non Igbo Biafrans and none Northern Nigeria, then Nigeria? Our theory is a bloated ego run amok; which suffers both men greatly as to make them completely delusional as to their followerships and abilities?

The genesis of the spitfire was Odumegwu Ojukwu figuratively expressing the resistance that will follow, should the Nigerian cabal through the aegis of the Court of Appeal, try to forcibly foist Andy Uba as governor of Anambra State; a state in which he has so much vested interest and wherein he comes from. Ojukwu said, such action will force a civil war in Anambra State and which he will gladly lead as a commander in chief? But as dumb as Yakubu Gowon is, despite holding a supposed doctorate degree, he jumped into the affray, boisterously beating his chest on how he starved Biafrans into a scripted surrender in 1970? A genocidal maniac who sent several millions of Biafran children to their untimely graves through an earth-scorching blockade of the area then known as Biafra and who refused even very essential goods including medicine and infant formulae from reaching milions of malnutritioned mouths in Biafra? The famed Kwashiokor set in and the rest is now history.

The enveloping hardship and deaths forced the hands of leaders of Biafra to decide to end such a vicious, atrocious and heartless Yakubu Gowon's vengeful prosecution of his war against unarmed men, women and children of Biafra. For this particular ignoble line of action, Icheoku has not forgiven and will never forgive Yakubu Gowon as well as his then economic adviser and later finance minister Obafemi Awolowo, who prescribed 'starvation as the best instrument of warfare' which the scoundrel Gowon bought and gleefully implemented to a crushing bitter end? But Biafra survived and Niger Delta part thereof, is today once again proving to Nigeria that they did not actually win that war and that nobody is afraid of the north! Not then, not now and not in the future. But does Icheoku support another civil war in Nigeria; not this time as the polity has become so much fragmented that the regional bonds holding entities together no longer exists or are too distended to form any meaningful cohesive platform to achieve a given objective like secession? So why start what you cannot finish and why a war when the objective is almost non-realistic or cannot be easily realisable?

But Chief Odumegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu was only being figurative with his referenced 'civil war' and here lies our beef with Yakubu Gowon for flying the kite of animosity once again? Icheoku expected all intelligent observers and watchers, including a PhD-holder like Yakubu Gowon to see it for what it is - a mere figure of speech called hyperbole; but he chose instead to play to the gallery of hatred! What did Ojukwu say to trigger such a response from this known bully of Birom, Yakubu Gowon? A man who perpetually reminds Icheoku of that everybody's most hated high school bully, who usually will not hesitate at any given opportunity to remind one how he is the head honcho here and how you are subject to his taunting and many a times, smacking? Gowon has a dog-catcher mentality and he has been short-changed for it in today's Nigeria where the real northerners, the Hausa-Fulanis are riding the rest of the minorities of the north, including Yakubu Gowon like donkeys. They have not fully forgiven him for his role in the coup that killed their Muritala Mohammed? Also the other good news however is that Yakubu Gowon is even hated more in his native Birom Jos chiefdom, which made him lose woefully to an ordinary high school teacher during Babangida's Option A4 presidential primaries? Yes, what did Ojukwu say to deserve Gowon's uncalled for acerbic response?

Yakubu Gowon, like a bird of prey waiting to strike, lost his deranged head again, (the first was during Biafra) stating that 'he was ready to rise up and defend the unity of the country if any body or group of persons threatens to cause disunity or another round of civil war in the country.' Icheoku says, shame on you Gowon as your hurtful wish can never again come to pass in today's Nigeria where your Birom people are part of the latest new minorities in Nigeria, with your Solomon Lar recently declaring that you guys might start your own version of a civil war or secession; and you wonder along which lines of geography? The configurations are so fundamentally changed now that should another unfortunate war erupt, it will surely not be the same result as was in 1967 as so many Biafrans are now in Diaspora ready to breach whatever economic or political blockade your ilks might contemplate imposing once again. But there will not be another war, no more wars Nigeria! Nigerians have too many yokes holding them together now and the Igbo of Biafra have also grown too smart now to let another group in Nigeria reap where they did not sow, as was the case with abandoned property saga of yore! All Nigerians shall tough it out together as one nation state, undivided and still hating each other with passion!

Icheoku takes strong exception to Yakubu Gowon, not because he fought against Biafran secession, no, but for the starvation of millions of Biafran women and children through a forced blockade of the region called Biafra during the civil war. This blogger was a victim and was flown to Gabon as a refugee; so he knows for a fact and first hand, what went down in a blockaded Biafra; all courtesy of the evil machination of Yakubu Gowon, who technically started the war by assuming a position which he was not rightfully entitled to being a very junior officer and could not but encouraged the genocide against the Igbo ethnicity? It was very callous of him to starve millions of unarmed and hapless women and children to death, and may God remember this for him when finally he takes his last breath on earth. Now hear this Jos man speaking, "I am ready to fight him as I did in 1967," adding that Ojukwu's statement was an empty threat from an old man. Icheoku says, look at a pot calling kettle black, a Yakubu Gowon who also is also being priced by Mr. Death, here calling Biafran war-lord and Igbo hero, Ikemba Nnewi, old? Gowon, it shall not be well with you! Also remember that your promised 3Rs of reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction has not yet been fully implemented forty years down the road since armed hostilities ended. Nigeria since 1970 has not witnessed any reconciliation but mere tolerance of and by the different tribal ethnicities therein; no rehabilitation as the people of then and still Biafra are still being treated as strangers in their supposedly native country Nigeria; and there is no meaningful reconstruction as infrastructures, especially roads and bridges, are at their most dilapidated condition in Nigeria's south east, the area formerly known as BIAFRA.

Now share with Icheoku, a very intelligent piece on the ongoing maelstrom, generated by the lack of understanding of what Ojukwu actually said. According to the piece, "War is not only when you carry arms. War comes in different forms. Ojukwu was only speaking in hyperbole. How can these dullards and buffoons think that Ojukwu can engage in lethal war with the federal government when he does not command any battalion of armed soldiers? These so called PDP members should examine their knowledge of English. I deeply sympathize with them for their ignorance. What is wrong on what Ojukwu said? Anambra people will never change. The bad name we the Igbos have today is because of the people of Anambra. Anambra people don't have conscience. They don't have respect for any authority except worshipping ill-gotten money. Andy Uba is going nowhere. This man and his brother made Anambra ungovernable for eight years, now he wants to be the governor of the state. Yet people are supporting him. I wonder the kind of children you people have and their future. (Armed robbers, Kidnappers, drug barons, assassins, etc.). Ojukwu seems to be misunderstood by ex Biafran warlords and PDP. He didn't call for a civil war. He was only envisioning the implication of a court of appeal ruling against the highest court of the land- Supreme Court. What Ojukwu saw 40 years ago is what is being addressed today. Ojukwu is a visionary. We should stop castigating our very best. We should not equate the issues of the civil war with that of the Niger delta. Finally, let us pray that the Enugu appeal court will deliver good judgement". Icheoku doffs our heart to men and women who know how to correctly and properly string the words of the English language together; and this writer wrote well.

Finally Icheoku advises all those pontificating in Nigeria, who are now playing the devil's advocate, being both umpire and judge over the statement credited to Biafran warlord and Igbo hero, Dim Odumegwu Chukwuemeka Ojukwu and Ikemba Nnewi, 'to just back off!' If they have nothing else to do, they should go back to school to get more conversant with the English language; and get used to the art of nuanced contextual speaking, which literature still accommodates. They should also be aware that they are differing rules of interpretation and that literally rule is not the only one; and that figures of speech include hyperbole. For example, that someone said he/she saw hell does that mean that the person paid a visit to Lucifer and came back to earth? If someone said he/she will kill you, it does not mean that the person have suddenly metamorphosed into a serial killer like the nidget of Kano, Sani Abacha? It is just a figure of speech and it would appear that this Eton College scholar, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu has again fooled his arch enemy, Yakubu Gowon, into making a fool of himself once more. Gowon literally assumed what was not contemplated and prematuredly challenged his old nemesis to another duel, based on his erroneous understanding of the purport and intent of what Ojukwu really meant with his statement. Icheoku will like to assure Gowon that Ojukwu is not the enemy and the earleir he gets out of his head this phobia, the better his sanity will be. Ojukwu has since moved on with his life, away from the distractions of a Yakubu Gowon that Gowon should look for something to dot or hate but definitely not a Ojukwu!

Now to the vampire, Yakubu Gowon, Icheoku advises you to take a course in the English language literature so that you may be better and more properly grounded in the art of a more nuanced speaking. It will help you appreciate communications better and not take everything literally on its surface. Look for another foe to pick your fight with but please know that the Ojukwu of 1967 has for long accepted his membership of Nigeria when he vowed to fight the next time only to keep Nigeria as one. If you remember correctly, no one from Biafra wanted the war then which was forcibly trust upon them by your misteps as juvenile head of state and they only defended what was dealth to them?

Be that as it may, Icheoku posits that Nigeria will not fight another civil war because circumstances are now completely different than it was in 1967 when regional bases existed; also that Nigeria will never break up because there is no clearly defined fault-lines along which it could properly break and achieve its objectives? Imagine even your Plateau State now contemplating the idea of a civil war and secession and you wonder what was Solomon Lar thinking? Admitted, Nigeria will not forever remain as it is now, something must be done to address the apparent inequities and injustices militating against a more cohesive Nigeria where all the tribal ethnicities will feel wanted and very desirous of its membership! But until that el-dorado comes to fruition, Icheoku says, Yakubu Gowon should just hush or die off; but must stop reminding Biafrans of the millions of their women and children he starved to death! What a callous blood-sucking beast of burden he is, one not deserving of any meaningful high place in today's Nigeria! This is a man who maitained studied silence when the war of foreigners and natives between the Fulanis and his Birom people broke out and was raging in Plateau State not too long ago? He was probably too afraid to speak lest the lords of the manor, Fulani/Hausa, will revoke his pardon for his alleged role in the coup against Muritala Mohammed; all of a sudden this mogrel now jumped at an innocent speak of Ojukwu? What a bastard son of a desolate mother and despondent father!