Ukpabi Asika: A prominent Biafran saboteur who escaped justice

Ukpabi Asika: A prominent Biafran saboteur who escaped justice

There are a number of Biafrans who sabotaged the first attempt at restoring Biafran Republic. Some of them such as Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Philip Alale were identified, tried and punished. Others however, escaped the justice of the people, but they however, did not escape the judgement of God. Some of these prominent saboteurs include Ukpabi Asika, General Hilary Njoku, Kingsley Ozurumba Mbadiwe, and Christopher Mojekwu.

We will today focus on Ukpabi Asika. We are in this series going to explore the wasted lives of these individuals and how they were paid back by God for their misdeeds against their people, as a lesson for current and future saboteurs.

Ukpabi Asika and Genocidist Yakubu Gowon at OAU Conference 1971

Anthony Ukpabi Asika was born on 28 June 1936 in Jos, He was educated at St. Patrick’s College (SPC), Calabar, Edo College and University College Ibadan (present day University of Ibadan). He worked as Clerk of Onitsha Town Council (1953), Clerk in the Department of Marketing and Export, Lagos, Clerk at the Northern Nigeria Marketing Board, Kano. Asika proceeded to study at the University of California in the USA from 1956 to 1965 and then became a Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Ibadan between 1965 and 1967.

At the declaration of the Biafra Republic, Ukpabi Asika was among the few Biafran intellectuals who stayed back in Western Nigeria. He opposed the Biafran Republic, despite the fact that his kith and kin were being massacred all over the country. While the war was raging in his homeland, Ukpabi Asika was in close meeting with the enemy, Yakubu Gowon the then head of State of the Nigerian government.

Ukpabi Asika with Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero  1974

By the time Enugu fell into the hands of Nigerian forces, Ukpabi Asika was appointed the Administrator of East Central State, in October 1967.

After the war ended in 1970, Asika essentially became the Governor of East Central State, and was responsible for administering a large proportion of the former Biafran territories. Asika was disappointed by the Nigerian government who intentionally starved his government of necessary funds to rebuild the region. Nigerian government further disappointed him when it created new states, despite Asika’s strong opposition to it. Asika was the governor in charge when Biafrans, despite millions they had in their bank accounts were each given paltry £20 to start life, after a devastating war.

Asika escaped the justice of the people as he stayed in comfort in Lagos while the war raged and only returned to Biafran land when the war ended. But did he escape the judgement of God?

No! Asika was incapacitated by a stroke in 1996 that left him in a miserable state requiring extensive medical care till his death.

Ajie Ukpabi Asika, Mrs Betty Bamgboye, Mrs Chinyere Asika, Col. David Bamgboye, Governor of Kwara State

Undoubtedly, Ukpabi Asika’s lineage were tainted with Hausa blood. According to his son Obi Asika, in an interview with Punch in June 2013, “He [Ukpabi Asika] was born in Barkin Ladi, Jos. My grandfather was born in Zungeru. My grandmother’s father married his wife from Yola in the 1890s and moved to Onitsha. So I had people in my family who spoke Fulfude, till today. So for us, it has always been about Nigeria. That’s the abiding influence.” – Asika’s son

Asika lived in ignominy and life full of regrets after falling out with Gowon. On 14 September 2004, Asika died unsung and unmourned. Even the Nigeria government whom he served never gave him a state burial.

Ajie Ukpabi Asika, Mrs Chinyere Aaika, Mr Joseph D Gomwalk Governor of Benue-Plateau State, 1974

As captured by Obi Nwakamma in his November 14 2004 article on the Vanguard captioned “Nigeria: The Orbit: Anthony Ukpabi Asika: 1936 – 2004”

“Anthony Ukpabi Asika is dead. And history shall judge him permanently. When people of Asika’s cut of cloth die, it offers us the excuse to gauge time, weigh the great events in which they played their roles, and ruminate on the significance or insignificance of their lives. But I urge Nigerians to note the resounding silence, the inconsequentiality of the news of Asika’s death, among the Igbo people of Nigeria. For a man who bestrode the Igbo world for five years, who served for five years as the Administrator of the East Central State, Asika’s death ought to mean something to the Igbo. And yes indeed, it means something to the Igbo: Ukpabi Asika strayed away from them in life, but in his death, the body returns to the Igbo.

"Among the Igbo, the owner of the corpse is one’s kinsmen. In Ukpabi Asika’s case, there is not a Nigerian national cemetery to which his body would be committed. That empty husk, once filled with fierce spirit, returns to the Igbo, to the land of his ancestors, to be buried. The Igbo people – his kinsmen – will bury Ukpabi Asika. They will bury him with solemnity and silence. Never mind that as Ajie Onitsha, there will be those who will accord him the rites of the Ozo; the Anambra State Government might even force the markets in Onitsha to close, there may be long drums and canons to herald his final rites, but in the Igbo mind, Anthony Ukpabi Asika belongs elsewhere” – A Biafran saboteur!