Government House Asaba is my destination point, armed with a big jar of palm wine, keg of Sapele Water and kolanuts to say a big hello to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State. This man did what will go down in History as the beginning of real Reconciliation.

Oborevwori acted like a hero when he advised the Nigeria Army to visit the new Asagba of Asaba, Prof. Epiphany Chigbogu Azinge. The governor while hosting Maj. Gen. John Omolaja Sokoya, Head of the Nigeria Army Heritage and Future Centre, displayed pure wisdom. He was at the Nigerian Embassy, Beijing, as Defence Attache.

Sokoya deserves commendation for listening to his host. The general dashed to the Palace of the Asagba, not only to pay homage but to rub minds. Credit should also go to Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, for allowing this deep meeting to happen.

I am beginning to prepare plumes for Oberovwori. He acted like a true statesman. Usually, tribe and tongue balkanise Nigeria beyond comprehension. The governor is Urhobo but has carried Igbo cause on his head. I hereby declare him a true friend of Ndigbo.

The man who drew my attention to this gesture, Chief Chuck Nduka – Eze, spoke on Arise News. He still feels the Genocide but has also shown true Reconciliation. Having lost his mother during that attrocity, the Isama of Asaba, is married to Fatima Laraba, whose father, Joseph Nanven Garba, served as Guards Brigade Commander under Gen. Yakubu Gowon during the Civil War.

Nduka – Eze, son of a great Unionist, was born in the United Kingdom. He represents the true Nigerian. Secondary education was in the South – West ( CMS Grammar School, Lagos ) before further education in the North Central (University of Jos). The lawyer also bagged a degree from Warwick University, the same institution that admitted Gowon, in 1975.

I hate it when people who have not felt the pains of war want us to stop talking about it. The wound is deep, the scars are there. Unfortunately, the world was not a Social Media field during the Civil War. The more we talk about it, the easier for reconciliation.

Today, I am looking at the Asaba Genocide which happened in 1967, nearly sixty years ago. How does one feel, watching his family machine gunned to death? Entire families were wiped out, women became emergency undertakers, burying their husbands and children.
Who will console the Ojogwus, who lost 10 souls in minutes, the Nwosas and Mordis, families that lost eight persons each or the Isicheis and Okonjis, depopulated by 14 deaths? If we begin to attach names to the deceased, the situation becomes clearer.
Maria Okogwu stayed behind in Kaduna with her uncle, Muhammadu King.
Her father, Ogbueshi Leo Okogwu, was killed in Asaba, by a Nigerian Army major. In 1969, she married Maj. Ibrahim Babangida and became Mariam. Garba Duba, Mariam’s cousin, chose feyinwa Ogbogu, as wife.
The lot of Charles Okonkwo, who played for Nigeria’s Green Eagles and Enugu Rangers, will make you weep. His uncle, Olisa Chukwura, was one the famous UK Tourists of 1949. After featuring for Nigeria, Chukwura settled down in Ibadan, as a lawyer.

During the Genocide, his two brothers, Christian and Edwin were executed. Their father tried to intervene, he was killed.

When it all ended, six members of that family lay dead. The lawyer was in far away Ibadan. The man who led the troops, Ibrahim Taiwo, hailed from Ogbomosho.

Okonkwo is an Abagana man. His mother, who lost six blood relations, was bloodied psychologically by that trauma. She remained a living dead until at 61, she joined her creator.

It would be inhuman to ask Hurricane not to cry.

And this point must be made. Those who are igniting war between the Igbo and Yoruba, should

bury their heads in shame. Any Yoruba soul that hates the Igbo, feels inferior. Any Igbo voice that condemns the Yoruba, stinks. Fourth Republic politicians are fuelling another genocide.

Gen. Sokoya is Yoruba. His boss, Gen. Lagbaja is also Yoruba. That this move is coming through them, is remarkable. Of all the key Federal officers that prosecuted the war, only a Yoruba, Alani Akinrinade, has come out to condemn the crisis. Through them, there could be official recognition that Genocide happened.

Whatever the uninformed tell you about Benjamin Adekunle, the Asipa of Ogbomosho, he was not a butcher. All the talk about killing all living things in Biafra, was media hype. Beyond the facade, Black Scorpion, who won the war for Nigeria, had soft spot for the Igbo.

He lived in Enugu, where he found an Mbammiri wife, Comfort Akie Wilcox and spoke Igbo. For a short period, Adekunle was ADC to the governor of Eastern Region, Dr. Francis Ibiam whose wife, Olayinka ( nee Shasegbon) was Yoruba.

Some Yoruba women remained attached to the Igbo during war. The immediate past Asagba of Asaba, Prof. Chike Edozien, was supported by his wife, Modupe, Herbert Macaulay ’s granddaughter, who went on exile with him. Kofoworola, first daughter of Oba Adeyinka Oyekan, was married to Biafran naval officer, Nicholas Ohiaeri. Adebimpe, an Ijebu Igbo woman, lived with her hubby, Vincent Ike, dodging bombs and bullets.

President Bola Tinubu is Yoruba. If he really wants to bury the ghost of the Civil War, now is the time to begin the real process of Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation. Igboland needs something akin to the Marshall Plan. It is now or never.

Let me go prepare for Oborevwori. I have been watching him with ‘corner eye’ since he set up an IDP Camp under Abraham Ogbodo. Now I am convinced that the man knows more than his opponents told us. And this governor has grown from Okuama, to earn respect from the Army.