A 90-MINUTE DIALOGUE WITH THE QUINTESSENTIAL GENERAL IKE NWACHUKWU AT 85 ON THE IGBO QUESTION
Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD September 11, 2015
From July 1st to 3rd 1863, the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by General George G. Meade fought a decisive battle in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States of America, against the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by the better known General Robert Edward Lee. It was a decisive battle according to historical permutations, which defined the course and subsequent victory of the Union forces in the American Civil War.
President Abraham Lincoln in his famous Gettysburg speech of November 19, 1863 commemorating the victory of the Army of the Potomac in the battleE had this to say:
“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”
The above indelible poetic lines of political existentialism clearly surmised my approximately ninety-minute interactive discourse with Major General Ike Nwachukwu (rtd) today September 11, 2025.
Surprisingly, when the call came and I saw General Ike Nwachukwu on the screen, I was not sure it was him because of the frequent incidents of hacking. That was why I decided to confirm his identity by asking who was calling, and he responded much smartly in the manner of a General which he is, “I am General Ike Nwachukwu, how are you Tony.” That eventually resolved my doubts, having confirmed his voice.
General Nwachukwu’s call was basically to inform me of a misrepresentation about him in my up-coming book on Igbo-Fulani relations. But before going into the subject of the dialogue, we may be tempted to ask, who is Major General Ike Nwachukwu?
For those who have not had the opportunity of interacting with this man at close range, General Ike Nwachukwu is one of the finest gentleman-officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces, of rare unquestionable Igbo patriotism, but often misunderstood from afar.
A celebrated diplomat and unsung Igbo patriot, General Ike Nwachukwu was a former Military Secretary; former Adjutant at Nigerian Defence Academy; former Provost Marshall of Nigerian Army; Member, Armed Forces Ruling Council and; former Military Governor of the defunct Imo State, comprising the present Imo and Abia States and part of the present Ebonyi State.
He was a two-time Minister of Foreign Affairs and, former Minister of Labour and Productivity. As Minister of Labor and Productivity, he initiated the ground-breaking National Directorate of Employment (NDE) with the aim of alleviating acute youth unemployment in the Federation.
A former Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; he was the Leader of the Southeast Delegation to the 2014 National Conference at Abuja. In 2016 he was elected the coordinating Chairman of World Igbo Summit Group. Exceptionally humble and, cerebral with composite versatility woven in distinctive military carriage, General Ike Nwachukwu stands out as the symbolic tripod of Nigerian unity—born of an Igbo father and a Fulani mother, with a Yoruba spouse born of Ijaw mother.
In the olden days, the Igbo would have used his kind to make peace with their habitual enemies like his maternal Fulani kinsmen, by placing him at the command of their army in any war with them. Similarly, his children would have played the same part by being in the forefront of any military campaign against the Yoruba or Ijaw. Because seeing them at the head of an opposing army would signify a serious intention and readiness for peace. That was one of the modi operandi of traditional Igbo war-time diplomacy in pre-colonial days.
The question is how much have the Igbo used such filial diversity in General Ike Nwachukwu as a political tool to approach some of their intractable national questions connected severally with the Fulani, Yoruba and Ijaw?
The late chieftain of the Igbo elitist socio-cultural group Aka-Ikenga, Mr. Oscar Onwudiwe, once stated in respect of General Ike Nwachukwu’s widely misunderstood place in Igbo political equation, “Nwachukwu’s identity was a double-edged sword. It gave him access but denied him belonging. He was too Igbo for the North, too Fulani for the East, and too military for civilians.”
The above opinion was as hypothetical as it was inconceivable in respect of General Ike Nwachukwu, because except for the 2014 Constitutional where he was elected the leader of Southeast Delegation where he proved his mettle in that regard; there was no stated occasion where Gen Ike Nwachukwu’s connections were wholly utilized by his Igbo kinsmen for the collective advancement of Igbo national interests.
However such portrayal as dished out by Oscar Onwudiwe only proves the irony of modern Nigerian nation; a nation where inter-ethnic linkages become instruments of alienation rather than the means of bonding together. That was the status quo ante of Gen Ike Nwachukwu’s political ante quem in the context of the Igbo question in Nigeria before our dialogue.
The General began by commending my unsung positive contributions to the knowledge of Igbo history in relation to other ethnic groups in Nigeria, particularly the Edo and Yoruba to the west. He was of the unequivocal opinion that such historical connections should serve as tools for further inter-ethnic understandings between the Igbo and their neighbors rather than being used as instruments of ethnic misunderstandings.
As usual with our interactions, we soon veered into issues of common concern relating to Igbo problem in Nigeria and abroad. One of his concerns is the increasing spate of Igbo stigmatization in foreign countries as the symbol of Nigerian criminality abroad. To him travelling abroad as Igbo man has become discouraging because of the possibility of embarrassments by immigration officials at foreign Airports. This is because once you are identified as Nigerian and Igbo your status no longer matters to them.
This is a problem both of us agreed, is a question of value orientation and re-orientation. The question then is, how do we resolve it and where do we start from? This is because, wherever Nigerians abroad have problems, the majority of those involved are often the Igbo. Many might see it as infinitesimal to collective Igbo personality; but until you are singled out among the many just because you are identified as a Nigerian and an Igbo, you will not understand the depth of its social impact at the international arena.
Look at the case of the Eze-Igbo of Ghana. It is not taken as a Nigerian affair but specifically defined as an Igbo problem. This explains why the Nigerian Government did not see any reason to intervene in the matter. We need not go into the on-going South African hostility against foreigners, but the fact remains that majority of those affected are Igbo. Similar instances abound in many Asian countries.
The second issue we delved into is the on-going systematic divestment of the Igbo in Lagos State with none of the present Igbo political leaders coming out to boldly intervene. In this respect, I reminded him that such nonsense should not have taken place were the likes of Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu who was a former Military Governor of Lagos State and Chairman of NADECO till his death and, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, former Governor of Anambra State, alive.
These were the sought of men who could call the Governor of Lagos State to order, or call President Tinubu to call him to order. Which Igbo leader or politician can stand before President Tinubu and boldly tell him that what’s taking place in Lagos State against the Igbo is not right? Which of the five Igbo Governors of Southeast has the boldness to call fellow Governor of Lagos State and protest what’s taking place in Lagos State against the Igbo?
When I suggested to him (General Ike Nwachukwu) that he should convene select Igbo leaders to intervene in the matter, his opinion is that there is Ohaneze Ndigbo headed by Senator Mbata and such move should be initiated by him. I concurred, but then the question is why has Ohaneze not responded to the problem with all the support it enjoys from the Southeast State Governors?
Then came the issue of separatism defined by Biafra agitation; and we both agreed that one indivisible Nigeria is better for the Igbo than the agitation of a Biafran Republic which is not practicable within the present geo-political demography of present Nigeria. The Igbo are better secured politically and economically within a united Nigeria provided their leaders and people apply with logical sense of judgment the lessons of their history.
The activities of unknown gun-men in the southeast are not only condemnable but sacrilegious, especially when considered that the majority of the victims of such unknown gun-men were military and police officers of Igbo extraction. How can the same people fighting because of assumed marginalization of their people delight in eliminating the few people they have in the military and police establishments?
As I pointed out to him, as far as the people of Anioma in Delta State are concerned, the question of Biafra is anathema to any relationship between them and the Southeast. We were never part of defunct Biafra and will never be part of the neo-Biafra. In the same vein, the idea of an Anioma State in Southeast geo-political zone is a political fantasy constructed as a political lifeline for somebody who found his grip on power threatened by emerging political forces within his constituency.
Historically and politically, Anioma has been part of the larger Western Nigeria and will remain there. While Anioma people appreciate their broader linguistic affinity with the Igbo of Southeast geo-political zone, they wish the latter to equally appreciate and respect their historical and cultural affinity with their Edo and Yoruba-speaking neighbors in the west. Any attempt to think or act otherwise is explosively insulting and a recipe to uninviting cleavage.
The fundamental respite to Igbo political question in Nigeria presently is not the on-going campaign of calumny directed against Igbo-speaking groups outside the Southeast geo-political zone especially Anioma people, in the bid to coerce them into an unwilling Igbo unity project, but a policy of inter-ethnic bridge-building using the same peripheral Igbo-speaking groups who are majorly multi-ethnic in origin, as the immediate agents of such ethnic bridges. The question is how many southeasterners understand this logic of ethnic bridge-building outside their untenable conquest mentality?
With this ethnic bridge-building comes political investment. The Igbo should learn how to support political aspirants, especially governorship candidates in States outside the Southeast geo-political zone. There is no greater political cum ethnic bridge-building than this. But how far the habitual Igbo self-centeredness can advance this noble course is another question.
Dr. Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe is the Odogwu (Traditional Generalissimo) of Ibusa, Delta Sate & President, International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria (ICAC-GEN). He was formerly Director, Centre for Igbo Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He lives in exile in Manila, Republic of the Philippines.
Email: Nwaezeigwe.Genocideafrica@gmail.com
Visit our: https://icac-gen.org to understand the core reason of my struggles and exile in Republic of the Philippines.