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His forgiveness, however, was withheld from one Biafran. Referring to Ojukwu during an interview with Britain's Independent Television News, Gowon fairly gloated: "How are the mighty fallen and in such a cowardly way." He added: "I hope his conscience will allow him to rest. God knows! Will those who have supported Ojukwu allow him to get away with what he's done—to his people, to Nigeria, to Africa?"
What Ojukwu's secession has done to Nigeria and the continent at large may not be immediately apparent. But its impact on his people is already clear. The Ibos, who once predominated in Biafra, may never completely regain the elite position in Nigeria they held before war. Astute, aggressive and generally well educated, the Ibos were called the "Jews of Africa" by envious neighbors long before independence, though most are in fact Catholics.
The Ibos are bright, industrious and crafty. Ojukwu's father, for example, parlayed one battered truck into a transportation empire, a knighthood from Britain and enough money to send his son to preparatory school at Epsom and college at Oxford. Other Ibos, spreading out from their homeland in the Eastern Region of Nigeria, became tradesmen, technicians, professionals and civil servants. Like the Jews of Central Europe, the Chinese in a host of Asian countries, and the Indians in East Africa, they tended to dominate commerce and culture while living among strangers. They infuriated other tribes by their drive and arrogance, and by passing along jobs and other plums to fellow Ibos.
In January 1966, Ibo officers, restive under the North's domination of the army and government, precipitated a crisis. In a military coup, they took over the government and assassinated Sir
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria's Moslem Prime Minister. They also killed the Sardauna of Sokoto, the most respected emir in the North, and a score of Northern officers. Seven months later, avenging Northern officers staged a countercoup, killing some hundreds of high-ranking Ibo army men. Emboldened, the Moslem Hausas of the North launched a pogrom against Ibos. Crowds descended on the sabon garris (strangers' quarters), where the Ibos lived. In a frenzy of murder and rape, they killed as many as 30,000. Frightened Ibos by the millions retreated hastily into the sanctuary of their homeland.