- Senator Ben Murray Bruce said Igbos are demanding for Biafra because of deficiency in Nigeria's educational system
- Ben Bruce has disclosed that they claimed to be the richest Nigerians in the Nigeria today
- The young Igbos are clamouring for Biafra because they were not taught history of Civil War in school, Senator Bruce said
Ben Murray Bruce, the senator representing Bayelsa west constituency said in video clip that the reason why Igbos are demanding for Biafra is as a result of deficiency in Nigeria's educational system.
Ben Bruce has however highlighted the major causes of Nigerian Civil war in 1967.
According to Ben Bruce: ''Let’s go back to history to understand why there was civil war in the first place and fifty years later, same people are agitating for independence.''
Sen. Ben Murray Bruce has said in video clip the reason why Igbos are demanding for Biafra because of deficiency in Nigeria's educational system
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Senator Bruce said the negligence of the federal government over what he called non inclusion of the ‘bight of Biafrans’ on the Nigeria map was the cause of agitation.
He said: ''In 1966 we had the first coup which Igbo were alleged to have wiped out the Northern leaders in the military.
“Second coup Gowon took over and there was lots of bloodshed and killings of ndIgbo.
“Igbo were killed in the north and they moved back to the Eastern Nigeria were Ojukwu became head of state and declared a nation called ‘Biafra’.
“War started, we fought for three years, the war was over and the South eastern Nigeria was integrated into Nigeria; that is the background.’’
“When the war was over, I asked the vice president of Nigeria two fundamental questions which are: Why did you erase the bight of Biafrans from the map of Nigeria? He answered that ‘at the supreme military council meeting they thought Biafra would rise again.
“And so the federal government at the time did everything possible not to talk about the war in Nigeria.
“So from 1970 to the present generation of Nigerians who were born did not know we had a civil war.
“And I know a lot of young people who do not know Nigeria fought a civil war, he uninterruptedly said.
Proffering solutions to the non inclusion of Biafrans bight on the Nigeria map, Sen Bruce said: “This policy of being an ostrich and not addressing issues is counterproductive.
“If you live in America you will know they have Vietnam war which happened at the same time as Nigerian civil war, we have the Korean war, we have the first and Second world war and we have all kinds of war.
“If you go to the discovering China you will see all their wars on the wall. And the reason they televise these wars is so that you can learn from the mistakes of others so that you will not become a fool to make the same mistakes and fight again.
“Here we are fifty years later talking about something we could have avoided if the federal government at the time understood the value of history.
“We erase the civil war from our consciousness and so many generations do not know we fought a war and why we fought a war.
He further said: “They said they were marginalized, while they fought the war, lost and today they are the most industrious people in the country today.
They are the richest Nigerians in the country today. They are the most educated people in Nigeria today yet they feel marginalized.
''If you compare the Igboman to other sections of the society, you will say the Igbo are very privileged because of what they have.
''Yet generations of Igbo say they are marginalized, they want to secede and they want a nation. Yes a young generation of people who have never seen bloodshed, people being killed, amputated and families being divided.
''Sure they can think like that but what have we done as a nation to educate them about the destruction of war absolutely nothing.
''We do not teach this in our history books, we do not tell our children what war is all about.
“If the federal government could not recognize a fundamental problem in our educational system, a fundamental problem in how television is viewed across the country, then we have a fundamental problem.
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“We most address the problem from the source. What is the problem? We are the problem. It could be Biafra today, it could be south- south tomorrow, it could be north-east the other day, it doesn’t matter. “The problem is: we are not addressing the problem that unite or divide us and this must be addressed.
''He did an editorial three to four days before the military coup, front page, back page and inside front page.
''No one has the right to erase a name, bight of Biafra from the map and if it is the bight of Biafrans put it back. You have no right to take the bight of Biafrans from the map let’s fix our problem.''
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com earlier reported that Senator Ben Murray-Bruce representing Bayelsa Central has condemned the killing of IPOB members celebrating the inauguration of 45th American president Donal Trump by policemen on Friday, January 20.
In a statement he released on his social media accounts, Ben Bruce urged Nigerian government to have respect for the lives of Nigerians.
See the wideo below:
Watch this NAIJ.com TV Video of Major Mark Okoro, a veteran soldier who fought operated the Heavy Machine Gun used by the Biafra troops narrating his experience during the war in 1967:
