Humanity smells sweeter when one great mind takes an extraordinary step aimed at expanding bridges through destruction of walls. Plateau State governor, Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang did something which many Nigerians continue to avoid.
Mutfwang looked up to Heaven and said : ‘I am sorry’. He spoke while receiving the Igbo community in Plateau State. I had condemned the governor in my column sometime in April through the headline, ‘Mutfwang’s Armoured Vehicle’, after he addressed grieving families who lost loved ones in yet another terrorist attack.
Mutfwang was blunt when the Igbos visited Rayfield, Jos. “I apologise to the Igbo so that we can put the past behind us and continue to foster unity. We have become one family… because our people were deceived into going to war and we regret it. We must close that chapter and move forward,” he said.
This is something that should be celebrated by all lovers of peace. The governor was referring to the Civil War. A Plateau son, Lt. Col Yakubu Gowon was Head of State when the Eastern Region led by Lt Col Emeka Ojukwu broke away from the Federation and chose Biafra.
During the pogrom that preceded the genocidal war, many Easterners escaping from the Far North, faced gruesome attention in the Middle Belt. Jos had a large concentration of Igbo settlers. Apart from trade, the tin mines were attractive.
The January 15 1966 coup distressed the North. For the Berom, they lost a shining star in Lt. Col James Yakubu Gyang Pam. When a counter coup followed on July 29, officers and men from the Plateau were actively involved. Names like Bukar Dimka, Jerry Useni, Joe Garba, Pam Mwadkon, MacDonald Gotibp, Clement Dabang and John Shagaya filled the space.
Beyond the killings in Jos in the 1950s and 1966, there is something between the Igbo and Plateau. They have continued to flow together.
This showed in the Second Republic when the people joined Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) and the 2023 Presidential elections which favoured the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi.
Gowon and Ojukwu were the best of friends. They frequented Samaritan Club up North as bachelors. When the former found love in Edith Ike, the latter was deeply involved in the wooing. Today, Gowon’s first son, Musa, has Igbo blood and his middle name is Ngonadi.
Dimka, the man who terrorised Igbo officers in Kaduna during the July 1966 coup, had Igbo attachment. When the February 13, 1976 coup failed, he escaped to Abatete in Anambra State in an Eugenco Motors truck owned by Chief Anene.
Dimka had an Igbo wife, Maria, daughter of an Abatete Big Man, Chief Chukwura. He used his in – law’s Renault car to flee to Friendship Hotel, Afikpo on his way to Cameroon before he was caught at Abomega, in Ebonyi State. As a trainee at the Army Cadet School, Portsea, Australia, his course mate was Boniface Ikejiofor. That school also produced Aloy Akpuaka and Yohana Kure.
After the Civil War, the Igbo founded Enugu Rangers Football Club. Some of the pioneer members of the team lived in Jos before the crisis. Chukwuma Igweonu, Nwabueze Nwankwo and Kenneth Abana played soccer in the Tin City.
After them came Godwin Ogbueze, Ogidi Ibeabuchi, Sam Onyeaka and Stanley Okoronkwo. Mathew and Aloy Atuegbu joined much. All Famous Five Atuegbu Brothers, Mathew, Nicholas, Andrew, Aloysius and Fidelis attended schools there.
All but one of the Atuegbu Brothers featured for Mighty Jets of Jos. Fidelis chose Standard, the Pen Pushers. After fighting as Biafran combatants, Mathew and Fidelis moved back to Jos. They were in the Army. Andy was an Airman.
Mutfwang deserves more than a bouquet of flowers. I have already crowned him as my Man Of The Year (MOTY). So anywhere you see him, anytime you sight him, when you want to address him, do not forget to add MOTY.
Funnily enough, some of us are not celebrating Mutfwang enough. Former Sports minister, Solomon Dalung faulted the apology, claiming that the governor had no right to speak on behalf of the people of Plateau. Well, opinion is free.
Dalung’s position reminded me of former governor Joshua Dariye and ex- Sports minister, Damishi Sango. Politics tore them apart in the early years of the Fourth Republic.
It got to the level of chasing convoy.
In all, we must learn from the Pam family. Mrs Elizabeth Pam travelled to Enugu in 2001 to forgive Maj. Humphrey Chukwuma who promised to bring back her husband in 1966 but failed.
Chukwuka who was Pam’s deputy as Adjutant – General of the Nigeria Army, was pushed aside by Maj. Chris Anuforo. Today, the Pams look up to GOD and one of them, Ibrahim, chose a wife with Igbo identity. Forgiveness, is divine and it beautifies humanity.
Mutfwang was born in Wusasa, where Gowon grew up. He was barely one year old in 1966 but has done what many who were adults during that dark period of Nigerian History have refused to do. Those who bear grudges cannot build bridges.
Henceforth, I have adopted Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang, LLB. BL, MOTY. as a Worthy Statesman. Any Igbo man traveling to Jos must carry 100 tubers of yam, 10 kegs of palm wine, one bundle of Akwete and a box of Ishiagu traditional wears to honour him. Soon, there will be Igbankwu ( traditional wedding ) in Mangu.
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