I picked interest in Minister of Education, Maruf Tunji Alausa right from his appointment as minister of Education by president Bola Tinubu. His Chicago background bought me over when it is highlighted that he spent time at Cook County Hospital (now known as The John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County).
Over three decades ago, there was a Dr. Ejikeme Obasi at Cook County. That was around the time Dr. Alausa was adding finishing touches to his Medical tutorials at the University of Lagos. The former trained at the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus.It is a thing of pride that Nigerian bred medical practitioners are as good as their colleagues from any part of the globe.
The minister made my day when he swiftly distanced himself and the Federal Ministry of Education from the garbage titled ‘Living History For Junior Secondary School 1 Students In the Country,’ authored by one genocidal operative taking refuge in Ibadan.
My concern however, is that the jaundiced work, published in 2018, found its way into classrooms across the nation. That a book on Nigerian History could be published without according the Igbo their deserved place, calls for what the military tag court martial. Simply put, the book is a coup against the Igbo.
To add salt to injury, the author chose to publish the book in Ibadan, of all places. That ancient town is so dear to me. I will repeat the story all the days of my life. Dr. Nathaniel Obasi, the father of Dr. Ejike Obasi lived in Ibadan, where he bought a piece of land just before independence in 1960.
The civil war made it look like the spirit of unity and love disappeared. The senior Obasi had forgotten he invested in Ibadan until God called him in 1999. A few years after his demise, the land was discovered to be intact, kept by the family that sold it to the Igbo man. To cut the story short, the Dr. Obasi family took possession, once again.
Nothing will make me go against Oluyole. It is a blessed land. I will fight any published junk that tries to desecrate that beautiful city of love. The author should take his condemned book to his village. It is not fit for intellectual assimilation.
And that brings me to those who claim to be Igbo leaders. That this kind of Gestapo work was pushed into the system without any one of them condemning it says so much about the place of power. Influence is not determined by siren blasting convoys of police outriders. Defending the people you represent is part of leadership.
It would not come to me as a surprise that some schools in the Igbo speaking parts of Nigeria are already using this Dead History, authored by a killer writer. It is criminal to try to erase a Nation of over 50 million people from Nigerian History, in the 21st Century.
A nation that produced the Professor Kenneth Onwuka Dike, the First Nigerian Professor of History, cannot be rubbished by pseudo Historians, apparently commissioned by modern day tribalists and politicians. It will not happen.
I am a Comparative Historian and will not allow such people to turn events upside down. There was one Bandit Historian who lived in Sokoto and tried to ignite another Genocide in Kano by blaming the Igbo for their contributions to the economy of the state. Until that roadside professor’s last minutes, peace will continue to run away from his space.
This same narrative has claimed the lives of millions of Igbo since July 29 1966. In the bid to destroy everything Igbo, the January 15, 1966 is blamed for all the evil visiting Nigeria, since amalgamation in 1914. Many do not talk about the Ozubulu officer, Lt. Col Arthur Chinyelu Unegbe, who was killed in the presence of his wife in Lagos.
That the January 1966 coup failed because senior Igbo military officers pushed hard, is intentionally not mentioned. General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi turned the tide in Lagos. Col. Emeka Ojukwu stood firm in Kano. Col Alex Madiebo calmed Chukwuma Nzeogwu in Kaduna while Col Conrad Nwawo flew in from London to move Nzeogwu to Lagos.
While Nzeogwu who led Northern Operations in the first coup was honoured, Brig. Samuel Ademulegun, killed with his pregnant wife, has remained unaccounted for. Yes, we know he was killed but what has not been revealed is what happened to the bodies of the Ademuleguns.
The Ademulegun children are still pained that after they lost their parents and unborn sibling, those who blamed their killers have been unable to show them the unmarked graves. On January 15, 2026, the family marked fifty years of anguish. That part of History, will continue to be hidden.
There must be National Healing and Reconciliation. As an Igbo man, I will continue to condemn the January 15 coup. It was planned by exuberant young majors who thought Nigeria was a normal creation. We have since discovered that those who made Nigeria, created crisis as our national logo.
Back to Alausa. I advise him to commission Real Historians to paint a true picture of the History of Nigeria. Without sounding boastful, I offer myself to do the bit, from January 15, 1966 to January 15, 1970. That is the deepest part of the Nigerian story.
I believe Alausa meant well when he spoke through an aide. “The book was never submitted to the National Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), the statutory body responsible for the review, evaluation and approval of instructional materials, for assessment under the national curriculum.
That means the satanic book was not recommended. If the author were to be human kidney, Alausa, a Nephrologist, would have handled him properly. My take is that writers whose works are capable of igniting genocide, should be punished. Those who cook up stories should be taken to Cook County Hospital, for Blood Pressure evaluation.
