Abstract
This chapter assesses the contributions of the distinguished Igbo constitutional scholar,1 Benjamin Obi Nwabueze,2 to African intellectual tradition. I show that whereas Nwabueze has, through a lifetime of professional activities, enormously enriched African intellectual heritage, his contributions relative to the Igbo are rather limited—and less consequential. On the surface, this position seems contradictory: how does Nwabueze contribute importantly to African intellectual tradition without benefiting his own people, the Igbo,3 a numerous and important national group in Africa? My challenge in this chapter is to reconcile this apparent contradiction. I meet this challenge by portraying intellectual tradition pluralistically, and by laying down specific yardsticks tied to Igbo values for assessment of Nwabueze’s contributions to the Igbo. There are three main parts to this chapter. First, I define African intellectual tradition and explain the location of parallel or competing traditions, such as the Igbo experience, within that tradition. Next, I discuss Nwabueze’s biography, and following that, summarize his contributions to African intellectual tradition. Finally, I analyze his contributions or lack thereof vis-à-vis the Igbo.
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Notes
Versions of this piece have been published elsewhere. See Philip C. Aka, “Professor Ben O. Nwabueze and the Struggle for Igbo Self-Determination,” Slovenian Law Review4, nos. 1 and 2 (December 2007): 9–34; and “Igbo Intellectuals and Igbo Self-Determination: The Case of Professor Ben O. Nwabueze,” in Toyin Falola and Adam Paddock, eds., Emergent Themes and Methods in African Studies: Essays in Honor of Adiele E. Afigbo(Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2009), 369–393. Although this chapter draws on these earlier works, it also departs importantly from them and incorporates updated materials that were unavailable with the earlier versions. Readers seeking the most comprehensive account of my statement on Nwabueze should read these three papers conjunctively.
Consistent with the chapter title and format, I hereinafter adopt the simpler name of Ben O. Nwabueze.
For an overview on the Igbo people and nation, see Philip C. Aka, “Prospects for Igbo Human Rights in Nigeria in the New Century,” Howard Law Journal 48, no. 1 (Fall 2004): 177–184.
See American Heritage, The American Heritage College Dictionary, 3rd edition (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1993), 706 (stitched together from the definitions of intellect, intellectual, and intellectualism).
Ibid.
See C. B. Hilliard, ed., Intellectual Traditions of Pre-Colonial Africa(Boston, MA: McGraw Hill, 1998), 3 (quoting S. Feierman, Peasant Intellectuals: Anthropology and History in Tanzania(Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1990), 18).
American Heritage College Dictionary, 1433.
In her study of intellectual traditions in precolonial Africa, Hilliard grappled with the definition of Africans. Hilliard, ed., Intellectual Traditions, 4–11. Hilliard adopted the continental definition that does not demarcate Arabs from Black Africans. The problem with a definition that demarcates Africa into Arabs and Black Africans is that it can be artificial, given that Africa is also home to a large and growing number of Asians and Whites. Although many of these non-Black, non-Arab Africans live in East and Southern Africa, they are not limited to these regions.
See, for example, Hilliard, ed., Intellectual Traditions.
See generally Kristin Waters and Carol B. Conaway, eds., Black Women’s Intellectual Traditions: Speaking Their Minds(Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2007).
The distinction between macro and micro traditions sometimes quickly breaks down. For example, Hilliard’s study set in the precolonial era, encompassed fragments of thoughts and materials from various regions and peoples, including the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba of present-day Nigeria. See Hilliard, ed., Intellectual Traditions.
See David F. Gordon, David C. Miller Jr., and Howard Wolpe, The United States and Africa: A Post-Cold War Perspective(New York: W.W. Norton&Co., 1998), 9 (showing how Africa has a land mass large enough to fit China, the United States, India, Europe, Argentina and New Zealand simultaneously with space still left).
See B. Beckman and G. Adeoti, eds., Intellectuals and African Development: Pretension and Resistance in African Politics(Dakar, Senegal: CODESRIA, 2006) (analyzing different responses to the African predicament, expressed in terms of commitment to the needs of the ordinary citizenry, from prominent African writers such as Achebe, Wole Soyinka and Ngugi waThiong’o, military-men in power, and students who defy repression).
“Nwabueze Hits 76,” Daily Independent (Lagos) (December 20, 2008), available at http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200812220902.html (last visited July 7, 2010). The Igbo have their home in what is today the southeast of Nigeria. It is one of the six so-called geopolitical zones into which Nigeria is divided (the others are the southwest, south-south, north-central or Middle Belt, northeast and northwest). Created during the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha (1993–1998), “the zones have not been the locus of any power other than a more manageable device for regrouping the country’s thirty-six states.” Aka, “Prospects for Igbo Human Rights,” 180. Anambra is one of the five Igbo states that form the southeast. Igbo constitute the majority or a substantial minority in two states in the south-south and they live in large numbers in each of the four other zones where they typically form the most numerous group after the native residents. See generallyAka, “Prospects for Igbo Human Rights,” 180–181 (reflecting on the changing political organization since 1954 of the territory that forms Igboland).
“Nwabueze Hits 76.”
U. U. Uche, “Citation on Professor B. O. Nwabueze, S.A.N., 1985 Ahiajoku Lecturer,” available at http://ahiajoku.igbonet.com/1985 (last visited June 29, 2010). Nwabueze appends “LL.D. London” to his name. It is not clear whether this is the same qualification as the one Professor Uche, in his citation on Nwabueze, as part of the Ahiajoku Lecture, indicated Nwabueze received in 1978 by examination based on a series of works on constitutionalism in Africa that he published during the 1970s. Uche recounted that Nwabueze is the second Nigerian, after Taslim O. Elias, sometime Chief Justice of Nigeria and member of the World Court at the Hague, to be bestowed with this honor.
“Nwabueze Hits 76.”
Ibid. This is an organization charged with admitting or “calling” law graduates to the bar.
He was a member of the ill-fated constitutional committee for Nigeria in 1966; a member of the constitutional drafting committee for Zambia in 1973; a member of the constitutional drafting committee for Nigeria between -1975 and 1977, including the Constituent Assembly, which reviewed what became the country’s 1979 Constitution; and a member of the United Nations Study Group on Constitutional Processes for Namibia. Uche, “Citation on Professor B. O. Nwabueze.”
Uche, “Citation on Professor B. O. Nwabueze.”
“Nwabueze Hits 76.” One account of his stewardship revolved around an assessment of his handling of a paralyzing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), see Kayode Komolafe, “Our Latter-Day Revolutionaries,” This Day(Lagos), April 9, 2008, available at http://www.allafrica.com/stories/ printable/200804090299.htm (last visited April 24, 2008).
Ibid.
Ibid.This source provides no information on the dates Nwabueze worked at First Finance and Trust Company.
This is not to suggest that formal membership in the academic world per se is a requirement for this lecture. However, as indicated below, the lecture series was designed as an “intellectual harvest” during which erudite scholars address issues regarding the Igbo and their world.
Ibid.
See Corporate Press Services, Inc., “About Us,” available at http://corporatepressserv. com/aboutus.htm (last visited June 29, 2010).
Corporate Press Services, Inc., “Award,” available at http://corporatepressserv.com/ awards.html (last visited June 29, 2010). Objectives of the award include “to promote leadership and business enterprises and encourage men and women of industry” as well as to “service as a motivating factor for positive values.” Ibid. Criteria for the award include success in business, and “significant contribution to society and the nation’s economy.”
Ademola Adewale, “Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Inc., and Other Matters,” Squib Guest(February 25, 2009), available at http://squibguest.blogspot.com/ 2009/02/re-body-of-senior-advocates-of-nigeria.html (last visited June 29, 2010).
Ibid. To put the matter in some perspective, only about 300 Nigerian attorneys out of about 75,000 forming the corpus of the Nigerian bar have been admitted to the rank of SAN.
See Nigerian National Merit Award, “About NNMA,” available at http://www. nnma.gov.ng/AboutUs..html (last visited July 2, 2010).
Uche, “Citation on Professor B. O. Nwabueze.” Uche goes so far as to liken Nwabueze to the English jurist William Blackstone (1723–1780) and the American jurist James Kent (1763–1847).
These works from the earliest to recent are: B. O. Nwabueze, The Machinery of Justice in Nigeria, African Law Series No. 8 (London: Buttersworths, 1963); Constitutional Law of the Nigerian Republic(London: Buttersworths, 1964); Nigerian Land Law(Enugu, Nigeria: Nwamife Publishers, 1972); Constitutionalism in the Emergent States(Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1973); Presidentialism in Commonwealth Africa(New York: St. Martin’s, 1974); Judicialism in Commonwealth Africa: The Role of the Courts in Government(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1977); “The Individual and the State under the New Constitution: Government Powers in Relation to Economic Affairs and the Economy under the Constitution” (public lecture delivered at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs on February 19, 1979); The Presidential Constitution of Nigeria(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982); Nigeria’s Second Model of Constitutional Democracy(Enugu, Nigeria: Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria, 1982); A Constitutional History of Nigeria(New York: Longman, 1982); Federalism in Nigeria under the Presidential Constitution(London: Sweet&Maxwell, 1983); Nigeria’s Presidential Constitution: The Second Experiment in Constitutional Democracy(New York: Longman, 1984); Transition from Military Rule to Constitutional Democracy(Benin, Nigeria: University of Benin Press, 1988); Social Security in Nigeria(Lagos, Nigeria: Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 1989); Military Rule and Constitutionalism in Nigeria(Ibadan, Nigeria: Spectrum Law Pub., 1992); Ideas and Facts in Constitution Making(Ibadan, Nigeria: Spectrum Books, 1993); Democratization(Ibadan, Nigeria: Spectrum Law Pub., 1993); Military Rule and Social Justice in Nigeria(Ibadan, Nigeria: Spectrum Law Pub., 1993); Nigeria ’93: The Political Crisis and Solutions(Ibadan, Nigeria: Spectrum Books, 1994); and Crises and Problems in Education in Nigeria(Ibadan, Nigeria: Spectrum Books, 1995). Others are a five-volume on democracy in Africa (Spectrum Books) that Nwabueze published in 2005; and a three-volume on the Obasanjo presidency (1999–2007) published in 2007 by Gold Press Ltd.
The reader will notice that I have based my analysis of Nwabueze’s scholarship mainly on his books and public lecture monographs, to the exclusion of other creative materials like conference proceedings, book chapters, journal articles, and so forth. This approach has its advantage in that, for the researcher in the era of Amazon.com and Google, books and monographs are more easily accessible, compared to the other forms of creative activities. This is especially so for a scholar like Nwabueze resident in Nigeria, rather than in Europe or North America. But analysis based solely on his published books has its downside; even if the books and public lectures as a category comprise a larger segment of his works, given his enormous talents and longevity in the academic business, Nwabueze could have achieved other important creative contributions outside the pigeonhole of books and public lectures that an assessment limited merely to the book category will miss out. See, for example, “Nwabueze Hits 76,” (commenting on Nwabueze’s scholarly achievements, that “[t]here are also several seminar papers, conference papers, contributions[,] and journal articles”).
The works, all of them published by Spectrum Press based in Ibadan, are B. O. Nwabueze, Structures, Powers and Organizing Principles of Government, vol. 1, 2005; Constitutionalism, Authoritarianism and Statism, vol. 2, 2005; The Pillars Supporting Constitutional Democracy, vol. 3, 2005; Forms of Government, vol. 4, 2005; and The Return of Africa to Constitutional Democracy, vol. 5, 2005.
Established in 1979, the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa is open to African writers and scholars whose works are published in Africa. See “The Noma Award for Publishing in Africa,” available at http://www.nomaaward.org/about.shtml (last visited August 7, 2007).
Ibid.
Ibid.
The three volumes published by Gold Press Limited in 2007 are B. O. Nwabueze, How President Obasanjo Subverted the Rule of Law and Democracy; How President Obasanjo Subverted Nigeria’s Federal System; and The Judiciary as the Third Estate of the Realm.
Testimony to the negative impacts of the conflicts in Nigeria, including the bloody Biafra–Nigeria War of 1967–1970, on the productivity of Nwabueze and other Igbo scholars, Professor Uche, in his citation on Nwabueze as part of Nwabueze’s Ahiajoku Lecture (more below), recounted on how, during the war, Nwabueze “labor[ed] ...in-between air raids and t[ook] cover in bunkers,” while working on his Nigerian Land Law, “clutch[ing] tenaciously on to the manuscripts as he ran from location to location ...” Uche, “Citation on Professor B. O. Nwabueze.”
Aka, “Igbo Intellectuals and Igbo Self-Determination,” 373.
Nwabueze, Constitutionalism in the Emergent States, 139.
Nwabueze, Presidentialism in Commonwealth Africa, 106.
Ibid., 110.
On April 3, 2008, Lagos State Governor, Babantunde Raji Fashola, himself, like Nwabueze, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, gave a speech at the launching of the three-volume work Nwabueze released on the Obasanjo presidency. See Babatunde Raji Fashola, “Public Presentation of Three Books by Professor Ben Nwabueze” (April 3, 2008), available at http://www.tundefashola.com/archives/ news/2008/04/03/20080403N21A.html (last visited July 7, 2010). After observing that Nwabueze’s “passion, ability, and diligence” regarding the “evolution and development” of constitutional law in Nigeria and Africa are “[un]equaled,” he added, “[Nwabueze] is often quoted in judgments in the Supreme Court and the other lower courts in the land.”
See, generally, Nwabueze, Democratization.
For the sake of analysis, we assume conveniently that the Igbo have one intellectual tradition, which Igbo scholars contribute to. Such conclusion is not true in real life. Instead, Igbo are a numerous national group whose lives are characterized by free-wheeling pluralism and therefore hardly speak with one pan-Igbo voice, except moments when their corporate existence is threatened, like that during the Biafra– Nigeria War. In Achebe’s apt phrase, “[b]eyond town or village[,] the Igbo have no compelling traditional loyalty.” Chinua Achebe, The Trouble with Nigeria(Ibadan, Nigeria: Heinemann, 1983), 47.
See Aka, “Prospects for Igbo Human Rights,” 168, 177–179. The Igbo drive for education is cited as illustrative of Igbo adaptability and depicted as a phenomenon that came with colonial rule, particularly the missionary education that rule brought. See Achebe, The Trouble with Nigeria, 47. However, this is only correct with respect to formal education. Long before the advent of that education, the Igbo, like many African cultures, developed an educational system based on oral tradition among themselves and exported some of the fruits of that system to neighbors. Igbo receptivity to Western education during the colonial period and after was facilitated immensely by an underlying strength in educational achievement that long predated the colonial period.
See Aka, “Prospects for Igbo Human Rights,” 177–178. The orientation toward republicanism and self-determination is captured by the Igbo axiom of Igbo enweeze, or “Igbo have no King.” Achebe has commented on the attitude of suspicion for power and wealth in Igbo communities. To countermand the possible abuse that could come from these influences, he said, the Igbo created a system of titles to keep wealthy people harmless. If you want a big title, you can pay for it; but then you must take responsibility for feeding the whole village for a number of days. So in the end, the powerful, the titled, go bankrupt. Hence they are respected in the community, but broke, and, therefore, no longer a threat. Roger Bowen, “Speaking Truth to Power: An Interview with Chinua Achebe,” Academe Online (January-February, 2005), available at http://www.aaup.org/ AAUP/pubsres/academe/2005/JF/Feat/ache.htm (last visited July 1, 2007). There is another way, again from Achebe, of looking at this matter. Among the Igbo, he recounts, illustrating with the fictional village of Umuaro, in his novel, C. Achebe, Arrow of God(Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1964), there is a title of king that tops the pile in a hierarchy of titles. “But the conditions for its attainment had been so severe that no man had ever taken it, one of the conditions being that the man aspiring to be king must first pay the debts of every man and every woman in Umuaro.” Ibid., 209.
E. Isichei, A History of the Igbo People(London: Macmillan, 1976), 3 (“[M]en have been living in Igboland for at least [5,000] years. One of the most notable facts of Igbo history is its length and continuity.”).
See Aka, “Prospects for Igbo Human Rights,” 181.
Ibid. Equiano’s autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Written by Himself, appeared in 1789.
Isichei, A History of the Igbo People, 119.
See Andrew Maykuth, “Biafra’s Independence Dream Rekindles,” Philadelphia Inquirer (May 2, 2005).
See Ben O. Nwabueze, “The Igbo in the Context of Modern Government and Politics in Nigeria: A Call for Self-Examination and Self-Correction,” Ahiajoku Lecture Delivered at Owerri, 1985, available at http://ahiajoku.igbonet.com/1985 (last visited June 28, 2007).
James N. Danziger, Understanding the Political World: A Comparative Introduction to Political Science, 9th edition (New York: Pearson Longman, 2009), 19.
See Aka, “Prospects for Igbo Human Rights,” 234, note 403.
Ibid.
See Ise-Oluwa Ige, “Court Stops INEC Screening,” Vanguard (Nigeria), January 23, 2007, available at http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/headline/ f123012007.html (last visited July 22, 2007).
Aka, “Prospects for Igbo Human Rights,” 232–233.
Ibid.
Nwabueze, “Call for Self-Examination.” The third lecture on which Nwabueze drew ideas from was the 1981 lecture by Adiele E. Afigbo, The Age of Innocence: The Igbo and Their Neighbors in Pre-Colonial Times(Owerri, Nigeria: Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth and Sport, 1981).
Nwabueze, “Call for Self-Examination,” 16.
Nwabueze, “Call for Self-Examination.”
Ibid., 1.
The 1918 boundary adjustment exercise extended the boundary of Northern Nigeria southeastwards to include a good portion of the territory that previously lay in the Eastern Province of Southern Nigeria. One analyst, contemplating the magnitude of the exercise, described it as “one of the greatest acts of gerrymandering in history.” Nwabueze, “Call for Self-Examination.” The second exercise that took place, during the Muhammed-Obasanjo administration (1975–1979), carved out mineral-rich areas of Imo State and merged them to neighboring non-Igbo states.
Nwabueze, “Call for Self-Examination,” 2.
Ibid.
Ibid., 3.
Ibid., 4.
Ibid., 4 and 17.
Ibid., 5. For accord, see Achebe, Trouble with Nigeria, 49 (indicating, “ ...the competitive individualism and the adventurous spirit of the Igbo are necessary ingredients in the modernization and development of Nigerian society. It is neither necessary, nor indeed possible, to suppress them. Nigeria without the inventiveness and the dynamism of the Igbo would be a less hopeful place than it is.”). Talking about “grasping and greedy,” charges laid against Igbo, Achebe stated that the events since the civil war suggest the “prize for greed” should go to other groups—such as the Yoruba. Ibid., 45.
The term “clannish” actually comes from Chinua Achebe; see Achebe, Trouble with Nigeria, 45. Nwabueze is familiar with this work and cited it in his Ahiajoku lecture.
Nwabueze, “Call for Self-Examination,” 5.
See Achebe, Trouble with Nigeria, 45. This is how Nwabueze vocalized the problem: In his relationship with others, especially people in authority, the Igbo is incapable of displaying anything of the fawning obsequiousness of the Yoruba or the submissive humility of the Hausa/Fulani, which is all part of the techniques of social diplomacy that has enabled them to get along so well in Nigeria. Nwabueze, “Call for Self-Examination,” 6.
Nwabueze, “Call for Self-Examination,” 6.
Ibid., 7.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid., 7–8.
Ibid., 8–17.
Ibid., 8.
Ibid., 11.
Ibid., 12.
Ibid.
Ibid., 12–14.
Ibid., 12 (emphasis added).
Ibid., 12–13.
Ibid., 13.
Ibid.(discussing so-called Abandoned Properties Decree, 1979).
Ibid., 14 (analyzing the so-called Banking Obligation (Eastern States) Decree, 1970).
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid., 14–16.
Ibid., 15.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid. Nwabueze held “the view that the war was needlessly forced upon the country by” the “selfish and intransigent” military leaders of the period.
Ibid., 16.
Aka, “Prospects for Igbo Human Rights,” 207.
Just why would Nwabueze harbor this hardline position on the Biafra–Nigeria War? One plausible explanation is the intra-ethnic conflict within Biafra that lingered even after the war. Many West Niger Igbo detested their mainland Igbo relatives for the latter’s involvement in the war. Coming from Atani, in the West Niger area, it is possible that Nwabueze’s negative view of the Igbo was informed by this general detest that many Igbo on the Western side of the River Niger share. See, for example, Raph Uwechue, Reflections on the Nigerian Civil War: Facing the Future(Victoria, Canada: Trafford Publishing, 2007) (contending that General Ojukwu paid more attention to the politics of the war than to the basic question of Igbo security, that Ojukwu sacrificed Igbo survival to the survival of his leadership. I am indebted to Gloria Chuku for this insight.
This is one of the most criticized portions of Nwabueze’s Ahiajoku lecture. One critic pointed out that there could be no justification for atrocities directed against the Igbo by northerners and other Nigerians and properly reminded Nwabueze that appeasement of Hausa-Fulani group has never worked in Nigeria. For example, those previous attempts to appease northerners did not prevent them from perpetrating unprovoked deadly attacks against the Igbo and their property. See James Ekechukwu, “New Igbo and Obasanjo: Of Signatures and Sour Grapes, Part II,” Biafra Nigeria (April 26, 2003), available at http://magazine. biafranigeriaworld.com/jekechukwu/2003apr26.html (last visited July 22, 2007). See also Aka, “Prospects for Igbo Human Rights,” 195–196 (commenting on various factors that made the pogrom unjustifiable). Especially valid here would be the unfaltering logic of President Julius K. Nyerere of Tanzania, in recognizing Biafra. Nyerere indicated that “unity by conquest” is neither possible nor practicable. He stated that the principle Tanzania applied in recognizing Israel was that “every people must have some place in the world where they are not liable to be rejected by their fellow citizens.” But the Biafrans have now suffered the same kind of rejection within their state that the Jews of Germany experienced. Fortunately they already had a homeland. They have retreated to it for their own protection and for the same reason—after all other efforts had failed—they have declared it to be an independent state. How could Tanzania accord recognition to Israel without extending the same recognition to the Biafrans? Nyerere reasoned. The Tanzanian leader took the view that “the purpose of society and of all political organization is the service of man.” See “Statement by the Minister of State (Foreign Affairs) on Tanzania’s Recognition of Biafra” (Dar-es-Salaam) (April 13, 1968), available at http://www.biafraland.com/ biafra_recognized_by_tanzania.htm (last visited August 12, 2007). Nyerere’s statement, recognizing Biafra is deservedly praised as “one of the most striking state documents of our time.” Aka, “Prospects for Igbo Human Rights,” 241 (quoting late Stanley Diamond).
Another rebuttal to this position, besides institutions like governments, constitutions, and laws being made for people, is that, as I indicated elsewhere, “it is morally unjustified to use coercion to suppress a campaign for self-determination, as the Nigerian government did, especially one like the Biafrans’ that was driven by an overwhelming desire for independence.” Aka, “Prospects for Igbo Human Rights,” 208.
Nwabueze, “Call for Self-Examination,” 7 (emphasis added).
Achebe, Trouble with Nigeria, 48.
See generally Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart(New York: Fawcett Crest, 1959) (work of fiction embodying a classic statement of the enormously devastating impact of British colonialism on Igbo traditional society).
Nwabueze, “Call for Self-Examination,” 7–8.
Ibid., 15–16. During his address, General Babangida had affirmed, no different from previous Nigerian administrations, his government’s determination “to leave behind us the legacy of bitterness,” and “the negation of our sense of justice.”
While I do not hold brief for Nigerian soldiers, the cancellation of the Ahiajoku lecture in 1983 could have been for a reason other than military repressiveness. Keep in mind that Nwabueze was billed to present that year, but he could not do so due to ill health. It is possible that notice of his ill health came so late to afford the organizers of the program enough opportunity to make alternative plans and they decided to postpone the talk. The series resumed without break from 1984 to 1993 within which period the country remained firmly under an unbroken succession of military leadership, from Buhari to Babangida, and to Abacha.
Nkem Ekeopara, “Ahiajoku Lecture Series: An Enduring Heritage,” IgboNet (March 26, 2003), available at http://essays.igbonet.com/nekeopara/2003mar26. html (last visited August 5, 2007).
Nwabueze, “Call for Self-Examination,” 6.
See Oha-na-Eze Ndi-Igbo, The Violations of Human and Civil Rights of Ndi Igbo in the Federation of Nigeria (1966–1999): A Call for Reparations and Appropriate Restitution(1999), available at http://www.asabamemorial.org/data/ ohaneze-petition.pdf. (last visited August 5, 2007). The name Oputa refers to Chukwudifu Oputa, a retired Nigerian Supreme Court Justice, who chaired the seven-person commission. The panel did not have the power to compel witnesses. As a result, three of the country’s former military rulers subpoenaed to appear before the commission refused to do so without any fear of any citation for contempt of court. The Nigerian central government under former president Olusegun Obasanjo set up the commission to investigate past human rights abuses in the country and make recommendations to it, but refused to publish, let alone, accept those recommendations.
See PanAfrican News Agency, “Igbos Insist on Confederation” (March 15, 2000), available at http://www.umunna.org/igboconfab.htm (last visited July 25, 2007).
See generally Ohaneze Petition.
Ibid.
Ibid.
PanAfrican News Agency.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Nwabueze, “Call for Self-Examination,” 12.
Ibid., 15.
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Aka, P. (2013). Ben Nwabueze and African Intellectual Tradition. In: Chuku, G. (eds) The Igbo Intellectual Tradition. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137311290_9
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