The famous Ahiara Declaration drew quite some flak from not a few quarters, in Biafra. Depending on the angle of the various spectra, from which each war-weary Biafran viewed the document (and on who exactly did the critique) the Ahiara Declaration was as controversial, as it was mystifying. All kinds of rumours flew around, all over the place and a number of people even speculated that this document, deeply rooted in socialistic principles, as they erroneously thought, was going to be part of Biafra’s undoing, in the end.

How? The rumour peddlers had it that Ojukwu would brook no kind of sharing formula for Biafra’s oil and so the Ahiara Declaration bore out the suspicion of the Western powers and their allies, as regards what they had always suspected. But then, as an Igbo saying goes, is it not when one has actually shot down a hawk and has its meat ready that one decides whether women should partake of the meal of hawk meat?

How could any leader busy prosecuting a war of survival, be more concerned with who would finally own what oil well, even whilst the war still raged? Speaking with great passion during his enunciation of the Ahiara Declaration, Ojukwu had told the enthusiastic crowd to simply call him Emeka, as he tried to illustrate to one and all that everybody was equal in the struggle. And it was out of this portion of his speech that the mother of all hilarity was finally delivered by this one interpretation of the document. Of course, cigarettes, like food, itself, were very essential and scarce commodities in Biafra. So, sometime after the Ahiara Declaration, this audacious army recruit cornered Ojukwu at one of his numerous flying stopovers, all over Biafra. Marching up to His Excellency, (H.E. for short) as Ojukwu was fondly called, the young soldier, in that induced falsetto voice, with which shell-shocked Biafran soldiers, popularly known as ‘Atimgbo’, always spoke, he demanded for cigarettes from the leader:

“Emeka, give me some jot!” Taken aback, completely, everyone looked in total shock, in the direction of the young soldier but unruffled, he continued, in pidgin-English: “Okay, no be you say make we no de call you, Excellency again, make we de call you Emeka. I beg, give me some jot.” That was his own interpretation of the ‘equality’ enunciated by His Excellency, during the historic Ahiara Declaration. But, in reality, the document was to form a basis for a welfarist state, should Biafra win the war; one that should address the issues of equity, corruption and their likes. As Ojukwu himself points out here, the Ahiara Declaration was, if anything at all, more welfarist, than it was socialistic…

The Ahiara Declaration, deeply rooted in socialist principles, as it were, was hugely popular amongst the masses of the people, but it was also rumoured that it was resisted by some of the top military brass. Yet, when you returned from exile, you joined the NPN (National Party of Nigeria) a Rightist party. Indeed, nobody expected you to join either the Unity Party of Nigeria, (UPN) or the Nigerian People’s Party, (NPP) which were both generally regarded as tribal parties.

So, why didn’t you simply take a break and allow the parties themselves to woo you, given your popularity on your return? During the war, we had tremendous difficulties and it occurred to me that material deprivation was beginning to affect morale. I decided to enunciate my own concept of what we were really fighting for and the result of that was the Ahiara Declaration, take away the propaganda first part of it…(chuckles)…the main bulk of Ahiara Declaration are my thoughts. And these thoughts were based on a number of meetings I held regularly with what was fondly called, my Kitchen Cabinet. These were people from all walks of life that I met every Thursday and when they arrived, most informally, somebody would take the Chair and I would be just a floor-member, just like everybody else.

We would discuss points, analyse and synthesise them and finally, I came up with what I considered the concensus of the aspirations of our people, in this life or death struggle. Those army officers did not accept it? That is news to me. I don’t like to separate. I think we were fighting, at that time, a people’s war and mostly everybody supported. There must have been a few that didn’t support and within the army, perhaps one or two, but they did not really come to the fore. No. The Ahiara Declaration, a number of people had given socialistic connotations to. I don’t think it came out as such. I did not go out to be socialist in that declaration.

No, what I did was to get a mass of ideas together and try to harmonise and evolve an ideology that would have sustaining effect towards what we were engaged in. Yes, there are certain aspects of it that are Pubitan socialistic. I personally feel, actually, that it is more welfarist, than socialistic and I know a lot of things have been said about ideology in Nigeria. I think our people are not quite clear what they’re after and how to get about it. I personally do not believe you can install a socialist ideology in a society that is not yet industrial. I don’t think so. The nearest to socialism you would find in a rural type of society – we have to admit, Nigeria is essentially rural – is a welfare state, where the government helps and does more things.

The Ahiara Declaration – I still read it, from time to time – and I’m amazed, in fact, that the problems highlighted and the solutions advocated, to a large extent, apply today. I believe in a number of those things and, in fact, I’m working on bringing the document up to date. Now, about the practice in Nigeria, the problem is this: we have not yet moved into the politics of issues. We are still involved in personality politics. There is really no political party that is truly issue orientated.

It is very crude, but remember that what we are trying to do is to explain very, very, complicated issues to a rural population. Did you join the NPN, sir, because it was part of a package deal to grant you amnesty? No, no way. First of all I’m not the type of person that does package deals. I was granted amnesty and it was totally without any strings. No, I spent some time, I analysed the situation and decided what was best. I think I’m right. But then I don’t rule out the possibility that I might be wrong, but again, even now, I am absolutely convinced that I was right.

Then, Ahiara was a rural community tucked almost equidistant between two sleepy, little towns: Owerri and Umuahia. The presence of a military hospital, a detachment of Army Supply and Transport, a nearby Army Engineer encampment and many… \We’ll mobilise Yoruba people to exit Nigeria if…, says Yoruba Ko’ya Disclaimer Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of nairaland or any employee thereof.

But then, as an Igbo saying goes, is it not when one has actually shot down a hawk and has its meat ready that one decides whether women should partake of the meal of hawk meat? How could any leader busy prosecuting a war of survival, be more concerned with who would finally own what oil well, even whilst the war still raged? Speaking with great passion during his enunciation of the Ahiara Declaration, Ojukwu had told the enthusiastic crowd to simply call him Emeka, as he tried to illustrate to one and all that everybody was equal in the struggle.

And it was out of this portion of his speech that the mother of all hilarity was finally delivered by this one interpretation of the document. Of course, cigarettes, like food, itself, were very essential and scarce commodities in Biafra. So, sometime after the Ahiara Declaration, this audacious army recruit cornered Ojukwu at one of his numerous flying stopovers, all over Biafra.

Marching up to His Excellency, (H.E. for short) as Ojukwu was fondly called, the young soldier, in that induced falsetto voice, with which shell-shocked Biafran soldiers, popularly known as ‘Atimgbo’, always spoke, he demanded for cigarettes from the leader: He warns jambite against 2020 jamb runz, “Emeka, give me some jot!” Taken aback, completely, everyone looked in total shock, in the direction of the young soldier but unruffled, he continued, in pidgin-English: “Okay, no be you say make we no de call you, Excellency again, make we de call you Emeka. I beg, give me some jot.” That was his own interpretation of the ‘equality’ enunciated by His Excellency, during the historic Ahiara Declaration. But, in reality, the document was to form a basis for a welfarist state, should Biafra win the war; one that should address the issues of equity, corruption and their likes.

As Ojukwu himself points out here, the Ahiara Declaration was, if anything at all, more welfarist, than it was socialistic… The Ahiara Declaration, deeply rooted in socialist principles, as it were, was hugely popular amongst the masses of the people, but it was also rumoured that it was resisted by some of the top military brass. Yet, when you returned from exile, you joined the NPN (National Party of Nigeria) a Rightist party. Indeed, nobody expected you to join either the Unity Party of Nigeria, (UPN) or the Nigerian People’s Party, (NPP) which were both generally regarded as tribal parties. So, why didn’t you simply take a break and allow the parties themselves to woo you, given your popularity on your return? During the war, we had tremendous difficulties and it occurred to me that material deprivation was beginning to affect morale.

I decided to enunciate my own concept of what we were really fighting for and the result of that was the Ahiara Declaration, take away the propaganda first part of it…(chuckles)…the main bulk of Ahiara Declaration are my thoughts. And these thoughts were based on a number of meetings I held regularly with what was fondly called, my Kitchen Cabinet. These were people from all walks of life that I met every Thursday and when they arrived, most informally, somebody would take the Chair and I would be just a floor-member, just like everybody else. We would discuss points, analyse and synthesise them and finally, I came up with what I considered the concensus of the aspirations of our people, in this life or death struggle. Those army officers did not accept it? That is news to me. I don’t like to separate.

I think we were fighting, at that time, a people’s war and mostly everybody supported. There must have been a few that didn’t support and within the army, perhaps one or two, but they did not really come to the fore. No. The Ahiara Declaration, a number of people had given socialistic connotations to. I don’t think it came out as such. I did not go out to be socialist in that declaration. No, what I did was to get a mass of ideas together and try to harmonise and evolve an ideology that would have sustaining effect towards what we were engaged in. Yes, there are certain aspects of it that are Pubitan socialistic. I personally feel, actually, that it is more welfarist, than socialistic and I know a lot of things have been said about ideology in Nigeria. I think our people are not quite clear what they’re after and how to get about it.

I personally do not believe you can install a socialist ideology in a society that is not yet industrial. I don’t think so. The nearest to socialism you would find in a rural type of society – we have to admit, Nigeria is essentially rural – is a welfare state, where the government helps and does more things. The Ahiara Declaration – I still read it, from time to time – and I’m amazed, in fact, that the problems highlighted and the solutions advocated, to a large extent, apply today. I believe in a number of those things and, in fact, I’m working on bringing the document up to date.

Nonsense