The other day Ijaw leaders reportedly rolled out the red carpet. The carpet and the guard of honour mounted in Port Harcourt by Ijaw elders was for a young man who wears the cap of an Israeli rabbi named Nnamdi Kanu.
Not much is known about the outcome of the talks  between Ijaw leaders and the young Ibo “rabbi” which held behind closed doors. But I have read, I think that was in the Vanguard, that the one who owns and operates Radio Biafra received a thunderous ovation.
Whilst Kanu apparently received a heroes welcome in Port Harcourt among Ijaw leaders who appear bewitched by what they still see as the support Ibos allegedly gave to their son, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Governor Nyesom Wike who is believed to have given the Biafrans more impetus than they deserve on Rivers soil emerged in Sokoto to preach the notion of one Nigeria.
But it was the gathering in Lagos of an assemblage of elder statesmen which really caught my fancy. These men who included General Ike Nwachukwu and Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, spoke of the need to secure the unity of Nigeria.
Theirs were the voices of wisdom and moderation; voices which acknowledged our shortcomings and expressed hope in a future that is to come. Those voices reminded me of an anthem long gone, which said “though tongue and tribe may differ, in brotherhood we stand.”
Dr Yakubu Gowon, Â Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Ebitu Ukiwe, Vice President Osibanjo and others recently sang unto the Lord. They sang that God may have mercy and remember the country of our birth and make it great. They sang unto the Lord that He may bless and guide our every step.
These are strange times, I must admit. Quiet strangely too, we are obviously bewildered by the nature of events that are unfolding before our very eyes.
When it is not militants in the Niger Delta taking the battle for resource control to dizzying or worrying heights, it turns out to be the turn of members of the deadly Boko Haram sect to hold us to ransom.
Now the Ibo, under the spell of a younger ideological look alike of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, are rising up to calls for separation.
Where Ojukwu who was a trained soldier declared Biafra by fiat, Â Nnamdi Kanu drives his quest for separation through an ingenious search engine that he calls IPOB.
Events before the Nigerian civil war may have come and gone but it is doubtful that many of us who survived have forgotten what the kernel of our agitation was.
Whereas the Ibo were desirous to create a country which would equally embrace the minorities and their God-given resources, the minorities were more or less interested in achieving a level of self autonomy that would see them in control of their own destiny.
In pursuit of this dream, some of the minorities dreamt the Rivers dream while others chose to support the COR region  Movement which wanted a region like the Midwest to be created from the eastern region.
Somehow, Gowon’s coup, hot on the heels of an earlier coup allegedly steam-rolled by the Ibo succeeded. The coupists abolished the regions and created states.
Rivers State was born and with it, the feeling  that we – the Ijaws and non Ijaws within the new geographic expression – were at last free as minorities to pursue our dreams and aspirations within Nigeria.
I don’t want to know what kind of ovation Ijaw leaders gave to Nnamdi Kanu. Don’t tell me please.
I Â don’t even want to know if that which was classified as a thunderous ovation came off a promise of an Eldorado in which the Ijaw people and non Ijaw in their midst would paddle their boats side by side with the Ibo in a new country that is not Nigeria.
I only have a question. I Â want to know if this crop of Ijaw leaders still remember yesterday. Do they still have close to their heart, as the Israelis do of the Holocaust, Â the very reasons which led to the agitation of our founding fathers?
Have we suddenly lost sight of the bigger picture? Has our capacity to think outside the box been unduly numbed by emotion? Is this who we trully are?
Nigeria may not have fulfilled our individual and collective aspirations. It has nonetheless turned out to be a home. A home which continues to offer shelter to all who live within its walls.
No doubt, Nigeria is like a structure in search of a stronger foundation, complete with supportive pillars, which have the requisite strength to suspend or sustain the props of an emerging building.
It is indeed like an iconic edifice which simply requires a facelift in order to enhance its aesthetic value and its place in time.
Proponents of restructuring recognise the strains which threaten the structure called Nigeria. I agree, therefore, with those who preach restructuring. Restructuring must be something we all subscribe to and the real test will come when we go to the polls to choose a government to drive the restructuring phase.
But restructuring must be total. It should not be merely political, some comic creation that masquerades like a federation. It must be economic too – that which gives me and others like me absolute control of my resources. No more, no less.
Those who think that the resources of the minorities would bear the brunt of their dream for restructuring Nigeria should think again.
As minorities, we do not believe in the idea of  Port Harcourt emerging as the capital of a new eastern configuration. Neither are we ready to jettison the idea of the South South geopolitical region which more or less captures the notion of the COR region that some of our elder statesmen dreamt of years ago.
We do not believe that we should belong to a break away nation where, Â not long after, Â there would be forms of ethnic cleansing induced by the unnecessary presence of assault riffles acquired and stockpiled by people with ulterior motives.
But we believe that the Ibo would one day realise their aspirations within Nigeria, including the aspiration to govern at the highest level.
We equally believe that the Ibo must abandon the rigmarole that is Biafra and engage their neighbours constructively as the Yorubas did until they arrived at the presidency.
Those who fell to learn from history are bound repeat mistakes which arise as a result.
The Ibos claim that in the years leading to the civil way, they received assurances from the Yoruba that the Oduduwa state would be born if Ibos went ahead to declare the state of Biafra.
That did not happen.
After a 30-month civil in which lives were lost, the Ibo lost the war and lost most of their property through what became known as the abandoned property issue.
The Ibos led by one Nnamdi Kanu are back again. Kanu orders a sit-at-home and the Ibos obey. Kanu orders young Ibos to the streets in protest and their parents watch. Kanu speaks in a despicable manner about those who live with the Ibos in Nigeria and the Ibos say nothing .
It is as if elders of the Ibo race reverred for their intelligence and prowess are at home drinking sweet palm wine while goats eat up the yam in the barn.
Chei! Aru eme!!
As Nigerians clamour for restructuring, the Ibo nation should ask itself if truly the increasing calls for restructuring really translates into separation.
They should also ask themselves if the sentiments that are coming from within the Ibo race itself actually supports rabid calls for secession and street marches called by a few hotheads in IPOB.
The Ibos must weigh their options as they engage Ijaws and other groups in discussions. All that glitters, a cliché reminds us, is not gold.
If the Ibos receive fresh assurances as they consult through Nnamdi Kanu’s generation, they should please sleep over it.
Assurances that lead to suicide; assurances that result in genocide; and assurances that encourage polgroms are not assurances at all.
They are invitations to press the self destruct button. And by the grace of God, this will not happen, now or in the future.
Igbo ekelem onu!
This article was written by a social commentator, Â veteran Journalist, politician and founder of Port Harcourt Telegraph newspaper, Chief Hon. Ogbonna Nwuke.
