Update: Awo replies Achebe from the grave

Awolowo and Achebe

Although Chief Obafemi Awolowo is not alive to respond to allegations levelled against him by renown novelist, Chinua Achebe, an interview he  granted  during  a town hall meeting in Abeokuta, Ogun State  in 1983 could as well pass for a defence.

Fielding questions from members of a panel and the audience, Awolowo explained his  policies as the Federal Commissioner of Finance  during the Nigerian  civil war.

The town hall meeting which was  part of his electioneering as the Unity Party of Nigeria presidential candidate in  1983,  lasted for 90 minutes. It was aired live  by   some radio stations.

 Awolowo, who was then 74 years old, spoke on his roles in the civil war, especially  the 20-pound policy, the alleged use of starvation against the Igbo  and the change of the national currency.

He said those castigating him on the basis of his roles in the civil war which began in  1967 and ended  in 1970 were those who felt the only way to remain popular was by peddling lies against him.

  Achebe, in his wartime memoirs entitled, There Was A Country, accused members of the Gen. Yakubu Gowon cabinet, particularly Awolowo, of making “regrettable policies” aimed at deliberately reducing the number of Igbos.

The novelist, whose most popular work, Things Fall Apart, has been published in more than  50 languages, said Awolowo came up with the starvation,  20-pound  and currency policies with a view to exterminating the Igbo.

According to Achebe,  the late sage and former premier of the defunct Western Region, perceived the Igbo as his enemies.

However, Awolowo, in the interview said contrary to the claim that he used starvation as a weapon against the Igbo, the then Federal Government was actually sending food to  civilians in the war region.

He added that  government stopped sending food to the region when it was discovered that it ( food)  was being  hijacked by Biafran soldiers, who in turn gave the food to their “friends and collaborators”.

Awolowo said, “We were sending food through the Red Cross, and CARITAS to them, but what happened was that the vehicles carrying the food were always ambushed by  soldiers.

“That’s what I discovered and the food would then be taken to the soldiers to feed them, and so they were able to continue to fight. And I said that was a very dangerous policy, we didn’t intend the food for soldiers. But who will go behind the line to stop the soldiers from ambushing the vehicles that were carrying the food? And as long as soldiers were fed, the war will continue, and who’ll continue to suffer?

“So I decided to stop sending the food there. In the process, the civilians would suffer, but the soldiers will suffer most.

“When you saw Ojukwu’s picture after the war, did he look like someone who’s not well fed? But he was taking the food which we sent to civilians, and so we stopped the food.”

On his reasons for changing currency, Awolowo said it was to prevent Ojukwu, who is now late,  from taking the money allegedly stolen from the Central Bank of Nigeria by his soldiers to buy arms abroad.

“We did that to prevent Ojukwu from taking the money which his soldiers had stolen from our central bank to  take abroad to buy arms. We discovered he looted our Central bank in Benin, he looted the one in Port Harcourt, looted the one in Calabar and he was taking the currency notes abroad to sell to earn foreign exchange to buy arms.

“So, I decided to change the currency, and for your benefit, it can now be told the whole world,that  only Gowon knew the day before the change took place. I decided, only three of us knew before then- Clement Isong, who was the CBN  governor, Attah and myself.”

Achebe had written in one of the chapters of the memoirs published in the UK Guardian on Tuesday that the policy  was orchestrated “to stunt or even obliterate the economy of a people.”

But Awolowo  said the policy was what government resorted to when depositors could not show proof  of what they  had as deposits.

“All the banks’ books had been burnt, and many of the people who had savings didn’t have their saving books or their last statements of account,” he said.

Awolowo, who reiterated  during the town hall meeting  that he was “a friend of the Igbo,” said he saved the accrued revenue for the Eastern state during the period the war lasted and gave it  back to them at the rate of 990,000 pounds as  monthly subventions.

He said, “I didn’t go to the Executive Council to ask for support, or for approval because I knew if I went to the  council at that time, the subvention would not be approved because there were more enemies in the executive council for the Igbo than friends.

“And since I wasn’t going to take a percentage from what I was going to give them, and I knew I was doing what was right, I wanted the Eastern  state to survive. I kept on giving the subvention of  990,000, almost a million, every month.”

He said he also ensured that the houses owned by the Igbo in Lagos and on the other parts of the country not affected by the war were kept for them.

He said, “I had an estate agent friend who told me that one of them collected half a million pounds rent which has been kept for him. All his rent were collected, but since we didn’t seize their houses, he came back and collected half a million pounds.”