JOE IGBOKWE, IGBOS WILL NEVER REGRET SHUNNING AN ARMY THAT HAS SHUN THEM FIRST
Joe Igbokwe said Igbos will regret shunning the Nigerian Army in future. I want to ask Joe Igbokwe one simple question: regret helping an institution that has never seen us as its own?
Let us start from history. It was the same Nigerian Army that Igbos are being told to embrace that carried out a genocide against Ndị Igbo between 1967 and 1970. Over 3 million Biafrans, mostly children, were starved and killed in that war. That same army blockaded food, bombed markets, and turned hunger into a weapon against a whole race. Are we the ones who shunned the army, or is it the army that first shunned our humanity?
Let us come to recent times. It was soldiers of that same Nigerian Army that carried out Operation Python Dance in the South East, a military operation many Igbos still remember with pain. It was that same army linked to the Orlu Massacre, where unarmed civilians were gunned down in their own communities. Tell me, Joe Igbokwe, is it Igbos who are shunning the army, or is it the army that keeps shunning the lives of Igbo people?
Let us talk about representation. How many Igbo officers have headed the Nigerian Army since 1970? How many Service Chiefs, how many Chiefs of Army Staff, has this country given to the South East since after the civil war? If an institution has systematically shut you out of its leadership for over 50 years, what exactly are you being asked to embrace?
Let us talk about admission and recruitment. Igbo youths who apply into the Nigerian Army, Police, DSS, Customs, and Immigration are often frustrated by quota systems that favor other regions over merit. When our children are qualified but denied slots because of where they come from, is that not the country shunning us first?
Joe Igbokwe forgets that loyalty is a two-way street. You do not ask a people to defend an institution that does not defend them. You do not ask a people to trust a system that has killed their brothers, blocked their children from opportunities, and denied them leadership positions for over five decades.
If anyone should regret anything, it is Nigeria that should regret how it has treated Igbos since the civil war. It is Nigeria that should regret marginalizing a people who have never stopped contributing to its growth despite constant exclusion.
We are not shunning Nigeria. We are simply tired of a marriage where only one side is expected to sacrifice.
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Elochukwu Ohagi, Philosopher, Teacher and Activist, 2026.
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