Chief Jude Ndukwe, a former aide to Femi Fani-Kayode, has delivered a sharp rebuke to his ex-boss for his relentless criticism of the Igbos regarding the 1966 coup.
Chief Ndukwe warned the former Minister that he is biting off more than he can chew and questioned the depth of his animosity towards the Igbos, particularly given that Ndukwe, as an Igbo man, has risked his own property for FFK.
Chief Ndukwe’s response reads;
“Sir, you are biting more than you can chew. You have insulted our people enough and I have taken it in with calmness because I don’t squeal on people. But enough is enough! As your former media aide, please, don’t force me to say things. I have endured your hate for Ndigbo which you exhibit rabidly just to serve the agenda of your new sponsors. Enough!
“When you were languishing in jail and nobody, not even your own brothers, was willing to stand surety for and bail you, not anyone from the Hausa/Fulani stock did; everyone, incuding your former minister-friends, former governor-friends, your other political associates from the north and your fellow Yoruba, rich and influential, abandoned you to your fate until I, an Igbo man, staked my Abuja property for your bail and stood surety for you to be released from Kuje prison, you didn’t see us as what you describe today! That case just got dispensed with in January this year after about 10 years. I staked my property for you for ten good years just so you could enjoy your freedom. Not your brothers, not your sisterrs, not any Yoruba or Hausa/Fulani man/woman. Everyone of them denied you and abandoned you to your fate. You are aware of all our attempts and efforts to get them to come to your aid without any success.
“Today, you hate my people so much that you spew such bitter hate against them? Where is your humanity? Where is your conscience? Even if they pay you billions everyday to spew evil and untrue narratives against the Igbo, why did you forget so soon those who were there for you when you were down to nothing and being humiliated, hounded and harassed by the same people whose bidding you desperately seek to do today just for a plate of porridge?
“What IBB said in his book about the 1966 coup not being an Igbo coup was clearly written in black and white, and except you have started experiencing degraded ability to comprehend simple English, or you are just being wickedly mischievous, it is there for saner minds to absorb as appropriate.
“This is the very first time I will be responding to you in public and in this manner. It is not in my character, and you know it, which is why you think you can continue to malign our people without an appropriate response from people like me. But you have gone too far and it is time you were challenged. You do not have a monopoly of the pen. Cease from this unfounded malicious and misplaced trajectory of yours. If it was an Igbo coup to serve an Igbo agenda, why did the coupists plan to install Chief Awolowo and not Owelle Azikiwe as president?
“Read an excerpt from IBB’s book again, this time slowly and with an unbiased mind:
It should also be remembered that some non-Igbo officers, like Major Adewale Ademoyega, Captain Ganiyu Adeleke, Lts Fola Oyewole, and Olafimihan, took part in the failed coup. Another officer of Igbo extraction, Major John Obienu, crushed the coup. Those who argue that the original intention of the coup plotters was anything but ethnic refer to the fact that the initial purpose of the plotters was to release Chief Obafemi Awolowo from prison immediately after the coup and make him the executive provisional president of Nigeria.
