Sir: As usual, your reader Mr Angus Buchanan in his
letter (15 November) substituted crude anti-Ibo sentiments for logic and truthfulness.
Such unprovoked coarseness is probably an overt manifestation of a long-standing private rancour against the Ibos. Ignoring its basic rudeness, the letter boils down to a short cata- logue of deliberate misrepresentations and fabrications, such as one can expect from any pseudo-expert. How nice if every commenta- tor on the Nigeria-Biafra war could honestly declare their personal stakes beforehand. When people with vested interests in a Nigerian vic- tory, or people with a private axe to grind, make a lot of ugly anti-Biafran noises they cannot claim objectivity.
Mr Buchanan must surely know that 'con- summate arrogance and deviousness,' whether in the Ibos or any other people, are not crimes punishable by death. Perhaps he should worry more about the huge beam in his own eye and less about the mote in his neighbour's. The question is whether British participation in a destructive and futile war against the Ibos. pursuit of an .unattainable. Nigerian unity. justifiable; whether her financial interests are an excuse for Britain's involvement in what no looks like a conspiracy to commit genocide?
- The statement that the Ibos are 'the mu-.: hated tribe in West Africa,' though shocking, in fact makes a very strong case for Biafran independence. It destroys the myth that the Nigerians will welcome the Ibos back with open arms in a 'united Nigeria,' and expose, the sinister purpose of the recent Nigerian in- vasion of lboland.
We can afford to ignore Mr Buchanan's per- sistent hallucination about an Ibo plot to seize power in Nigeria in 1966. This for him ha- become an idie Are. The facts, no matter what 'official sources' say, are that during Ironsi's regime, the army remained predominantly northern. The police, the judiciary and the civil service were controlled by non-Ibos. Prominent Ibo politicans were placed under detention. Their northern counterparts roamed the coun- tryside free to sow the seeds of treason. Ironsi's alleged co-conspirators in the January coup were put in prison. The allegation that they were promoted and paid their full salaries while in jail is absurd and immaterial. Why should he have imprisoned his friends and sur- rounded himself with his armed enemies? These inexplicable actions .of the Ironsi regime give no credence to the idea of a general Ibo plot. The story is expedient but patently untrue. Some people's preoccupation seems to be to establish Ibo guilt. This is diabolical. It amounts to a morbid desire to plead justifiable genocide for Nigeria.
The British government's reaction to Biafran
secession vis-à-vis its reaction to Rhodesian UDI has definite racial implications. It is there- fore up to the British people to rectify this unfavourable image, by ensuring that Britain's natural sense of justice prevails over the callousness of the neurotic Ibo-hatred so apparent in certain quarters at this time.
N. I. Ogbuehi
77 Embleton Road, London SE 15
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