In human affairs, the major affliction of man is how to tolerate and respect opposite views. Everyone of us behaves as if it is possible to have just a single position on any issue. Society may be monolithic. People may be diverse. Humanity may be one. Reasoning may be processed in the brain by everybody. But when it comes to perceptions, different shades of opinions evolve. When we acknowledge the right of others to think differently from us, we are simply saying to ourselves, he or she is entitled to his or her own opinion. When you start fighting because you hold different views on an issue, you are simply acknowledging your weakness to respect other people's positions. It is an affliction. It is a problem that we need to get rid of. When you disagree with someone 's view , just try and come up with superior arguments instead of resorting to vulgarity. When you adopt aggression and insolence towards an individual because of his views you are simply exhibiting a high degree of intolerance. What does it take you to engage the individual in an intellectual discourse and convince him with your arguments? That means that in everyone that has this inclination and propensity for abusive condemnation, there is a lurking pride . I have read so many articles written by Dapo Thomas right from the time he was in journalism till he went into the academia. He taught me in Lasu both as an undergraduate and a postgraduate student. I have always enjoyed his style and the way he teaches. When I read his piece titled: Before the Fall of Lagos and the controversies it has generated in the social media since last week when it started trending, I decided to go into the archives to read some of his past articles in order for me to be able to put his thoughts in proper perspective. I was excited when I saw two academic articles that he wrote last year on the Civil war. Instead of doing a review of the papers , I decided to bring out some salient quotes from the two papers for the public to peruse and see if he is guilty of bigotry as charged by some people. From all the quotes, what I can see is a man who defends the Igbo cause with scintillating erudition and enterprising intellectualism. His arguments on the need for the federal government to address the Igbo Question as a matter of urgency are top notch. His submissions are powerful and thought-provoking. An Igbo intellectual could not have done better. Now to his piece on Lagos. He is openly mobilizing his fellow Lagosians to vote for his Party, the APC. The Dapo Thomas I know has always belonged to the progressive camp since I knew him. I can't see any difference in what he has done for the Igbo in his two papers and his clarion call to his fellow Lagosians to vote for APC. Is it a crime to mobilize for one's Party? If he is preaching national integration and accommodationism for the Igbo at the federal level and he is advocating for social and cultural securitization for his people at the sub-unit level , is there anything wrong with that? The Igbo are more interested in the power at the centre, Dapo Thomas is more interested in the consolidation of the local power in Lagos which is his state. Why can't we accept the fact that Dapo Thomas's fear that the Igbo may be looking for a consolation in Lagos state having failed to win the Presidency. Who doesn't know that the Governor of Lagos State is a mini President of Nigeria. Ijafara léwu.



DAPO THOMAS' QUOTES ON NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR (1967-1970)



"Those who think the spirit of Biafra is dead and buried need to learn more about the world of the spirits. Spirits don't die. Therefore, the Biafran spirit is actively alive....... What does the country lose if it opens a dialogue channel with the Igbo as a way of commencing a process that is aimed at total and constructive integration of a large section of the country 's populace? Foreclosing dialogue with the Igbo does not augur well for the unity of the country. The Igbo should be integrated into the mainstream agenda instead of being encouraged and motivated to pursue an agenda that can only lead to the disintegration of the nation. What the Igbo want is simple: a sense of belonging."


Dapo Thomas
The Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970): New Theories, Old Problem, Fresh Crisis.
Published in International Relations and Diplomacy, May-June 2022. Vol.10, No.3, 131-139.



"Convinced that the principle of federal character and quota system enshrined in the constitution would eventually give the Igbo a sense of belonging, and invariably, a feeling of accommodation, the federal government moved on as if nothing had happened...... Agreed that the principles of federal character and quota system are enshrined in the federal constitution, to ensure a structural balance in the demographics of federal appointments, the application of these principles has been politicized. Appointments into federal parastatals, agencies and federal institutions have never been fairly distributed among the various ethnic groups in the country, including the minorities".

Dapo Thomas
The Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970): A Theoretical Resurrection
Published in The Journal of Humanities & Social Studies. Vol.10. Issue 9.




"We have a complex challenge at hand. It looks simple to our leaders because everything to them is drama. But the "Vanquished" are not in the mood for any drama. They feel suffocated by what they consider conspiratorial persecution by the North and the South West. The structure of the nation humours them as one of the three dominant tribes in Nigeria but in reality, they see themselves as a persecuted tribe that needs an elbow room......So, when they declared war on the Nigerian State in 1967, it was to express their displeasure with an arrangement that tends to confer a status of outcast on them in a country that belongs to all the citizens of the nation."


Dapo Thomas
The Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970): New Theories, Old Problem, Fresh Crisis.
Published in International Relations and Diplomacy May-June 2022. Vol.10, Not, 131-139.



"It is pestilential on the part of the federal government that no single post-war confab was organized to discuss the Biafran war......Rather than focus on proper integration and rehabilitation of the Igbo after the war, the federal government allowed them to keep feeling alienated by not convoking a national confab to address the Igbo question vis-a-vis their future in the federation."

Dapo Thomas
The Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970): A Theoretical Resurrection.
Published in The Journal of Humanities & Social Studies. Vol.10 . Issue 9.



"Ensconced in the euphoria of a victory over an adversary, the federal government abandoned the underlying issues of the war, believing that victory over Biafra signposted the death of their agitation. This is a fallacious assumption.....That the Biafrans surrendered was not sufficient to conclude that they had abandoned their demand for a separate State. In any war, the warring parties should endeavour to resolve the causes of the war, discuss them, address them, agree on them, append their signatures to the agreement and move on from there. If the victorious party discountenances this process, keeps celebrating the defeat of its enemy , ignores the demands of the defeated side, and fails to correct the pre-war anomalies by concentrating and expending its energy on post-war jubilation, a deja vu is very likely to happen."


Dapo Thomas
The Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970): A Theoretical Resurrection.
Published in The Journal of Humanities & Social Studies. Vol.10. Issue 9.



"Bewildered by the attempt of the Igbo to cause the disintegration of the country, the governments, past and present, have systematically been frustrating them by not entrusting them with sensitive and strategic positions , mostly in the Forces. It appears they have been sidelined when it comes to sharing top positions in the various hierarchies of the Forces. Before the War, the Igbos were snubbed in federal appointments. After the war, things got worse for them..... This kind of arrangement which sees the North and the South West rotating strategic and sensitive positions between the two of them is capable of generating bad blood in the various components of the populace."

Dapo Thomas
The Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970): New Theories, Old Problem, Fresh Crisis.
Published in International Relations and Diplomacy, May-June 2022. Vol. 10, No. 131-139.


"The Igbo question cannot be put in suspended animation forever. It must be discussed, debated, and decided once and for all. If for whatever reason, a part of the country feels its interest was not being protected adequately within the federation, a plebiscite to determine the popularity of their disenchantment and secession bid could be held......Must we then allow another outbreak of War and lose millions of lives , disrupt social and economic activities, displace innocent citizens and destabilize a system that is just being nurtured before we act on the wish of the Igbo?"


Dapo Thomas
The Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970): New Theories, Old Problem, Fresh Crisis.
Published in International Relations and Diplomacy, May-June 2022. Vol.10, No. 131-139.