Pegasus Reporters Issues on the Wing
“Every family in former Biafra owes a debt of gratitude to the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. But sadly, many parents who should have taught their children this documented history have instead filled them with hatred by regaling them with wartime propaganda.”
* Social Media Influencer, Reno Omokri
PEGASUS REPORTERS, LAGOS | JUNE 20, 2023
This piece is a response by iconoclastic social media influencer, Reno Omokri to a responder named @chibuzor, who in a response to one of his (Reno) “Table Shaker” series on Twitter took umbrage on the late Yoruba sage and the Yoruba for deceiving the Igbo during the civil war from 1967 to 1970. ,,, Editor
Dear Chibuzor,
Thank you for your feedback. Actually, this story is false, and I appeal to you and others like you to stop telling these lies to your children, which is what perpetuates the hatred for Nigeria that a lot of people have.
As minister of finance, Chief Awolowo’s ministry paid £20 only to those former Biafrans whose account records were lost, and to those who held their bank balances in Biafran Pounds.
Since they could not prove how much they had in their accounts, they got a blanket £20. That money was a gift from Nigeria. Those former Biafrans who could prove their account balances received all their monies.
The late Senator Arthur Nzeribe is an example of an Igbo who could prove his account balances. All former Biafrans who had accounts in banks outside the Eastern Region got access to all their funds after the war. The late Chief Alex Ekwueme is an example of this.
In every part of Nigeria, Igbos got their abandoned property back, except in Rivers, where their own fellow Igbo-speaking peoples, who somehow say they are not Igbos, seized their property.
Also, there were cases of seized abandoned property in modern-day Benue. But it did not happen elsewhere.
Chief Alex Ekwueme is again an example of this. Although he was not really friends, per se, with the recently departed Otunba Subomi Balogun, they lived close to each other. Just before the outbreak of the civil war, Alex Ekwueme left Lagos for the Eastern Region, like most prudent Igbos.
After the war, he returned to Lagos and, surprisingly, met his house in a renovated condition. While he was wondering what happened, his neighbour, Mr. Subomi Balogun, approached him and gave him his back rent in cash. Chief Ekwueme’s children are still alive and can attest to this.
Put yourself in Awolowo’s shoes. Many of the banks in the then Eastern Region had been destroyed. The accounts were in Biafran pounds. Records were lost. And even the banks deliberately destroyed records for fear of being punished for holding Biafran currencies, which had been declared a crime of economic sabotage against Nigeria by General Gowon’s government.
Furthermore, after the war, Awolowo paid the Eastern states all their monies from the Federation Account from 1967-1970. He invested it and returned it to them, for which he was acknowledged by SG Ikoku, the Commissioner for Economic Development in East Central State, in the Daily Times of May 22, 1971.
Every family in former Biafra owes a debt of gratitude to the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. But sadly, many parents who should have taught their children this documented history have instead filled them with hatred by regaling them with wartime propaganda.
These records are still available. Why do you still fail to read your history and feed yourself on bile from bitter people who do not rely on facts?
This is 2023. Please let us rely on facts, not gossip.
#TableShaker
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