Public affairs analyst, Barrister Darlington Agomuo, has tied the political exclusion of the Igbo from Nigeria’s presidency to both the aftermath of the civil war and a statement attributed to Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa before his death.
In a video from 28:00, When asked if he had heard about the claim that the 1970 armistice signed between Biafra’s General Philip Effiong and Colonel Olusegun Obasanjo of the federal forces included an understanding that no Igbo man would be allowed to be president for sixty years, Agomuo pointed to history and said the problem was also linked to Tafawa Balewa’s dying words.
“When Tafawa Balewa was dying, he said something like that in Hausa, and they have taken it up. Meanwhile, it was a misconception because the only problem the Igbo man had was because he was alleged to have been the arrowhead of the 1966 coup. But today it has been debunked,” Agomuo stated.
He explained that this combination of narratives — Balewa’s last words and the post-war political settlement — has kept the Southeast outside Nigeria’s presidential structure for decades.
The analyst insisted that correcting these historical injustices remains vital for Nigeria’s unity and democratic future.
