Igbo Group Lambasts Soyinka For Comparing Boko Haram’s Insurgency With Civil War

Igboezue, an Igbo socio-political organisation, has faulted a recent statement attributed to Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, that the Boko Haram insurgency is worse than Biafra-Nigeria civil war.

Soyinka had on Thursday stated that the ongoing activities of the Boko sect were worse than the civil war, noting that the development has made Nigeria’s breakup difficult.

In a controversial interview with Reuters, Soyinka said, “The bloodshed is now worse than during the 1967-1970 Biafra war, when a secessionist attempt by the Eastern Igbo people nearly tore Nigeria up into ethnic regions.

Reacting to the statement on Saturday, the group’s National President, Chekwas Okorie, described Soyinka’s comment as an “assault and shocking”.

The group said, though Soyinka’s statement, which was broadcast on Reuters and also published in most Nigerian newspapers, was advisory on the need to preserve the unity of Nigeria, it was at the same time insulting to sensibilities of the Igbo nation.

Okorie, who also described the statement as “unguarded, insensitive, reckless, irresponsible and reprehensible, however stated that someone like Soyinka, who played a historical role in that war up to the level of being suspected by the federal military government at the time of collaborating with the then Biafra leader, late General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu for the injustices and massacre of the Igbo, should not be the one to make such a statement.

“We have never been confronted with butchery on this scale, even during the civil war. There were atrocities (during Biafra), but we never had such a near predictable level of carnage and this is what is horrifying.”

The Igboezue leader also said that to correct part of the deliberate alleged “misrepresentation” as he claimed contained in Soyinka’s statement, the group “wishes to state that the mandate given to Gen. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwuto declare the Independent State of Biafra was given to him by the then Eastern Nigeria Consultative Assembly and a large part of Mid Western Region in the present South-East and South-South geopolitical zones of Nigeria.”
--DAILYPOST