By Chioma Obidozie, Reporting
THE 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, is under fire by his followers from the Eastern part of Nigeria for celebrating Nigeria’s former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon clocked 90 on October 19, 2024.
Obi, in his post on his official X handle, addressed General Gowon as “an elder statesman who stood for peace, at a time of division.”
He also went ahead to state that the General’s steadfast commitment to preserving peace during a challenging period in Nigeria’s history will forever be remembered and revered.
His followers, however, didn’t take the message in good faith, as they considered it an insult to the five million Igbos who lost their lives during the Nigerian Civil War between 1967-1970.
They believe it was insensitive for Obi, a former governor of Anambra State where Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, who spearheaded by Biafran soldiers, hails from, to use such eulogies in describing General Gowon when he was the one in power during the war.
They wondered if Obi was any different from the average Nigerian politician, such that he’s desperate for political power at the expense of his own people.
Stonix News reports that following the outrage, Obi made a follow-up tweet explaining his reasons for the birthday wish.
According to him, it is time for Nigeria to forgive each other and find healing for everyone.
He said that there would be no future if Nigerians continued to hold on to the past, rather than toeing the path of healing the land and the people.
Why I Congratulated Gen. Gowon at 90 – Peter Obi
My felicitation with Nigeria’s former military Head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, on his 90th birthday anniversary, which was celebrated by a cross-section of Nigerians, has been received with mixed feelings by some Nigerians, and some have expressed their sentiments publicly, and privately to me.
I share in some of them, and I feel that as a leader in the vanguard of providing direction for our country to shift base away from all our shortcomings, including the issues that caused our avoidable cruel civil war, I needed to show to the World that the ultimate heroism is forgiving the enemy and moving forward.
Indisputably, the darkest part of our 64-year journey as a nation is the 30 months of civil war from 1967 to 1970 and God almighty whose way is not our way must have a reason why he kept the Chief Prosecutor of the war who is General Gowon alive to be 90 years today and the man who saw the end of the war, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to be there at 87 years super-heading all the moves to see a reconciled and just Nigeria.
There was also a developing new spirit why the same country, Nigeria, gave the Biafra leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, a heroic national burial on 2 March 2012, when he joined his ancestors, coincidentally under my tenure as Governor of Anambra state.
The status of the burial given to Dim Ojukwu remains the boldest indication to the World that Nigeria as a country is disposed to moving forward in the spirit of reconciliation.
There are various ways human beings can respond to acts of evil, especially one that claimed millions of lives.
One is the tragedy of revenge, and another offers the hope of forgiveness in an attempt to forget. The latter conforms neatly with the template I adopted in greeting Gen Gowon at 90 years old.
In all my dealings with human beings, I try to be guided by my faith as a Christian in a strong message preached by Jesus Christ himself and underscored in reflections in St Paul’s letter to the Colossians 3:13: “Bear with each other and forgive one another: if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” And to Ephesians 4: 31-32 “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice”
Whatever reason I will give for joining the rest of Nigerians to greet General Gowon, May never truly conform with some persons, especially direct victims of the war, but anger, hurt, and bitterness are the commonest responses to cruelty.
It fuels sectarianism, it leads to resistance and avoidable blood feuds that we are witnessing across the globe, and even in our country and it does not abate.
There is something about forgiveness, it sets the person doing it free. Forgiveness is more a process than an instinct.
It’s hate that has put our society, blessed by God to be the greatest land in the black World, down, but this hate has to stop.
I was under ten years old when the Nigeria/Biafra war started in 1967. Most of my supporters across the country joining me get a new Nigeria were born after the war, and I didn’t feel I should drag them back to the dark side of our history by being unforgiving.
I feel such an act will derail the message of a New Nigeria that we insist is POssible.
‘Must you greet him? Why didn’t you keep quiet?’ some angrily say to me, but that will still be injurious to our journey to a new Nigeria where all political vices, including but not limited to ethnic, religious, bitterness, and regional segregation, are eliminated.
Various personal experiences of victims of injustice across the globe who have chosen to put ugly things behind them visibly demonstrate the transformative power of forgiveness in healing personal and collective wounds.
With these explanations, I like to admonish all those angered by my greetings to the elder statesman to bear with me and join me in this mission to create a country where hate, unforgiving spirit, and other vices will give way for justice.
What Nigeria needs badly and urgently to survive going forward is good governance, which can only germinate and grow in true peace and the presence of justice. Thanks and God bless. -PO
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