Izuogu: Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa are victims

Chief Ezekiel Izuogu is an engineer, an inventor and a politician. He is readily remembered for producing the Izugo Z-600, the first indigenous car in Nigeria. He was useful to the Igbo during the civil war especially in the area of inventions.

In this interview, Izuogu speaks on the 1966 counter-coup that claimed the life of then-Head of State, General Thomas Aguyi Ironsi, but absolves him of blame for the January 1966 coup, saying he only assumed office as Nigeria’s leader after the January 1966 coup because he was the highest-ranking Army officer as General Officer Commanding (GOC). He is also of the opinion that the issues that led to the civil war remain with us today and lists them to include ethnic domination and imposition of religion.

Izeogu expresses disappointment over the way things are going in the country, citing banditry, kidnappings and killings in different parts of Nigeria. According to him, the Nigeria of today is not same Nigeria that he and his contemporaries celebrated in 1960 at independence. Excerpts:

Many views have been expressed over the civil war. Some blamed Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi for the January 15, 1966 coup. What do you think about the July 1966 counter-coup and subsequent events?

It is simply suspicion. General Aguiyi Ironsi did not conspire to stage a coup. He was only a beneficiary of the coup staged by Major Nzeogwu and his colleagues. He was only asked to lead the military government and he obeyed. He was a good Nigerian. He loved Nigeria. He went to the West on a visit and then a counter-coup was staged and he was sacrificed.

Ironsi has not been honoured by Nigeria. It is very unfortunate. I like what was done for MKO Abiola. I worked for Abiola in Igboland and I was among those he consulted before coming to Igboland to sell himself to our people ahead of the June 12, 1993 election and it paid off. Abiola announced in Lagos that I was the only politician who supported him with my own money. When you talk of the Yorubas not liking the Igbos, I don’t see it that way. As I am talking to you, I made an invention: The self-propelling machine which burnishes the law of conservation of energy. My greatest supporter on the project is a Yoruba man, Dr Olusegun Mimiko. When he was governor of Ondo State, he organized a fund-raising that fetched me $65 million, that was equivalent of N130 million. No Igbo man, no Igbo governor did anything like that. He did it by organizing some businessmen who contributed the money and it was given to me. I wanted to give him (Mimiko) a receipt but he said to me (Izuogu), “no, we know you and we love you and we trust you in politics.

You don’t need to write a receipt”. That is Dr Mimiko, can I forget him? I cannot. There are so many Igbos who are in a position of authority to give me more money but a Yoruba man, a medical doctor, decided to do this to an Igbo man three years ago.

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Did the July 1996 event change Nigeria, positively or negatively?

It changed Nigeria very negatively. It was what eventually led to the civil war. It was a terrible thing that happened. It changed Nigeria very negatively and we have not recovered from it up till today. Ironsi was not among those who conspired to kill

Ahmadu Bello (Premier of Northern Region) or Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, he was never in the conspiracy; so why kill an innocent man?

Was it just the in-fighting within the leadership of the Nigeria Army that led to the civil war?

You know that there was a personality clash between then-Colonel Ojukwu and Head of State, General Gowon, which they had before even before the crisis started and it led to the war and innocent people had to be killed which was unfortunate. We should not expose the people to war, anything could happen.

Innocent girls will be raped, women will be killed and children will be slaughtered.

Do you think that those issues that led to the January 1966 coup, the counter-coup and the civil war have been resolved today?

Some of the people that were involved in these events were soldiers and some civilians; they have had a change of heart. They were misled by their superior officers. They now have a change of heart. But the problems have not been solved. We are not a peaceful nation. There is a terrible insecurity problem in Nigeria. People are being killed on the road; vehicles are stopped and kidnappers operate with reckless abandoned. Women are raped; there is no sense of liberty in the country. This is not the Nigeria which independence I joined to celebrate in 1960. I joined to celebrate the independence of a great nation where citizens are free and the government does everything to ensure the welfare of the people. And everybody is happy. I did not envisage a nation where people are killed in the streets; where people are taken into the bush and slaughtered. It is not the nation we celebrated in 1960. If you ask me, I feel disappointed.

What do you think is the way out of the insecurity problem facing the country today?

The cause of the insecurity is because Nigeria is a multi-ethnic nation; let no ethnic group dominate the other by imposing its religion on other people. If we elected you, we have simply asked you to rule Nigeria well. You don’t impose your religion on other people because religion is a very sensitive matter. If you try to impose your religion on the people, they will revolt, they will be ready to die for what they believe, and that is what leads to civil wars.   We should always try to avoid things like that. Religion is a spiritual thing; no matter what anybody does, the Lord will convert those people He wants to convert. In religion, you try to convince someone, to convert him to your religion, not by force. It is not by threat or by waging a war. It will never work.

Having mentioned that, another problem is one ethnic group trying to claim superiority over others.

Do you think we have leadership problem in this country?

Leadership has been a major problem in this country. Nigeria has the population. Nigeria has everything going well for her but choosing the right person to lead is the problem. What type of leadership is suitable for this country? Leadership is the makeup of the individual. Anybody you elect into the leadership of this country, you are elevating what is made up of inside him. You don’t know him, you only see his face but you don’t know the construction of his mind. When he becomes the President of Nigeria, the entire will flow out. Nigeria will either benefit or get worse under him.   Everything lies with the make-up of the individual. If the individual is a genuine person; a man who loves God, loves peace and loves his fellow-men, he will not like any citizen to be killed. Whether the person is a Yoruba man, Igbo man, Fulani, Hausa or a Tiv, he will see everyone as somebody he has been charged to protect. He will be ready to die rather than a citizen of this country being killed; that leader will lay down his life for the people he is leading. He must also be a creative leader. He must be a leader who will create things, restore industries that will create jobs so that nobody is idle. With this, people will be happy and the leader will be happy. But if that leader is not made of all these good things, he will produce the negative things that he is made up of and the people will suffer it and the people will be killed, millions will be killed because of the negative principles of a leader.

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