“It’s been 47 years since the war ended and many of the people who should benefit from this pension are dead already. That goes to show you how the South-East region has been marginalised and that is why we are harping on it”.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday approved pension to 162 retired police officers and about 52 next of kins of officers who fought during the civil war. And a lot of people disproved the action and see it as a shameful act and inhumane side of the Nigerian Government and the marginalization of the southeast, hence led to the re-orn of Biafra.
Let’s break it down. why will the Federal Government choose to pay the benefits of those who are almost all dead? Why now? The news revealed how the United States dragged Buhari and General Buratai for their actions against the Biafra agitation. It is hard for one to doubt the action of pension payment as an appease or a ‘tension-calmer’ to save a face either for their next campaign or plea against civil war.
Before The Pension Payment
Certain events happened before the pension payment this week. IPOB’s agitation was on the high side as Nnamdi Kanu goes all around preaching to southerners to ask to separate from the nation. He became too successful with that course that the Presidency threatened. President Buhari also threatened on live TV after his return from London. Discussions were going under ground by southern leaders to find an easy way of getting what they want without having to pay the price with young men’s lives.
This went on for a while and we saw little or no action from Nnamdi Kanu. The Buhari administration got impatient with the group and an order was given to go raid Nnamdi Kanu’s house which led to his arrest and his fleeing the country till today. No one can show his location, at least the IPOB members feel abandoned and an existing Biafra group has taken up the saddle to continue the fight by involving the United States President to approve of the Biafra Republic.
Southern elders called the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, headed by Chief John Nnia Nwodo met President Buhari behind closed doors. I bet the pension benefit is the outcome of the meeting. There must have been a resolution between the presidency and the southern elders to wisely cool the whole tension once and for all as Nnamdi Kanu goes AWOL .
The Implication of Pension Benefit
As much as one can consider this as a wise thought, it is rather too obvious and mischievous to hand people what they deserve after 47 years. The police officers, now retired served this country against their southern counterparts and they got an unjust treatment for 47 years for just being southerners.
The civil war was and is not President Buhari’s crimes but this particular action seem rather suspicious. The basic point is that, it was not an harmful one neither is it totally wrong to correct past mistakes and move on from there, but it will seem to the northerners now that, if not for the intensity of the agitation, the Buhari Administration may never have the mindset of paying the benefits.
It also opens the entire nation to see how citizens are not being treated fairly under the law. The government decides who is to receive pension benefits and when even after stipulated measures are written in the law? The southern marginalization cry has once again been justified through President Buhari’s actions and if the southerners look deep into the meaning of the pension benefit payment, it will breed more agitation than quenching it.
Chief Nwodo had this to say “It’s been 47 years since the war ended and many of the people who should benefit from this pension are dead already. That goes to show you how the South-East region has been marginalised and that is why we are harping on it.
“It’s not good to be treated like a second class citizen in a country you are supposed to belong. We thank Buhari for this approval but he must tackle the issue of Igbo marginalisation headlong. Buhari must understand that justice delayed is justice denied.”
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