A few months ago I talked about the Asaba massacre of 1967. While he may not have been directly involved, the troops that perpetrated the massacre were under the overall command of Murtala Mohammed. A few years later, he went on the become Nigeria's Head of State, and his actions caused loads of misery.
I think it is one of those cases of historical irony that someone who did so much harm is so celebrated. But then again, history is full of such cases. Moses was a war criminal but is celebrated by Jews and Christians. Montgomery was a blunderbus but his statue occupies pride of place opposite Downing Street. Dzhugashvili, though a monster, brought his country from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, and was denounced soon after he died. Bush should be facing trial in the Hague...
In this article for NEXT, I tell the tale of Mr. Obimgbo who died thirty four years ago. He was the victim of what is in my opinion the most monumental mistake in Nigeria's history. One that we may never ever recover from...
5 comments:
Moses is equally celebrated by Muslims. Moses was never a war criminal and it is a blasphemy to sat that
http://chxta.blogspot.com/2009/04/was-moses-war-criminal.html
Mr. Abdulkadri,
Mr. Chxta simply stated his opinion that Moses was a war criminal and you dare accuse him of blaspheming. Blasphemy under whose law?
Of course by today's civilized standard Moses can be viewed as nothing but an ethnic cleanser and a war criminal of the highest order. We must not put up with the nonsense of history we have been taught from childhood but learn to think for ourselves.
A Nigerian, Mr. Chxta writes that a Hebrew historical figure, Moses, was a war criminal and you accuse him of blasphemy without providing any argument to buttress you case.
I support Mr. Chxta's assertion and not just Moses but a lot of the Christian/Jewish/Islamic Old Testament prophets can be viewed as ethnic cleansers and war criminals by today's standards.
Regards,
Okaka
Chxta,
Can we pls leave Moses out of this 'jaw-jaw' and talk a little about Murtala?
I agree with you that Murtala Muhammed's oversight of the massacre in Asaba was most henious, and as far as I'm aware, he neither showed contrition nor did he offer an apology.
But I disagree with your opinion that his large scale depletion of the civil service was "the most monumental mistake in Nigeria's history".
Yes, that action might qualify as the worst mistake in the history of the Nigerian Civil Service, but definitely not in Nigeria's history as a whole.
Buhari's indecision with Babangida b4 Aug 1985 and the conduct of Gowon and Ojukwu (and their lieutenants) between 1966 & 1967 are just 2 examples of more monumental mistakes in the wider scheme of things for Nigeria.
Dade, the reason I rate Murtala's mistake with the civil service higher than either Ojukuwu's or Buhari's is very simple. Murtala's mistake is one of those mistakes that live on and on and on and on...
That makes it bigger.
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