I Wonder Why Genocidal Scholars Omit Biafra Genocide In Their Articles (Part 2)

I Wonder Why Genocidal Scholars Omit Biafra Genocide In Their Articles (Part 2) Jonathan Ikerionwu pictured with Bill and Audrey Cowley, ...

I Wonder Why Genocidal Scholars Omit Biafra Genocide In Their Articles (Part 2)

Jonathan Ikerionwu pictured with Bill and Audrey Cowley, who helped save his life in 1966.The Disturbances/EthicsDaily.com

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The perception of political compliance was built into Irving Louis Horowitz’s prominent description and clarity of genocide, in one of the field’s founding texts, he said that: ‘Genocide is herein defined as a structural and systematic destruction of innocent people by a state bureaucratic apparatus’.
Although many genocide scholars avoid and eschew  his point of view about the Biafra Holocaust’s ‘phenomenological uniqueness’, Steven T. Katz’s argument that ‘the concept of genocide applies only where there is an actualized intention, however successfully carried out, to physically destroy an entire group’ accurately reflected the field’s assumptions.

This can be seen in Benjamin Adekunle’s statement: "I want to see no Red Cross, no Caritas, no World Council of Churches, no Pope, no missionary and no UN delegation. I want to prevent even one Igbo from having even one piece to eat before their capitulation. We shoot at everything that moves and when our forces move into Igbo territory, we even shoot things that do not move... ",

The testimonies of Biafran returnees from Northern Nigerian towns and cities paint a picture of a systematic and calculated program of genocide planned by Northern Emirs, district deads, former politicians, top civil servants, university students, British nationales, and law enforcement officers. Enoch Ejikeme, an Igbo businessman who had lived in Katsina since 1951, recalled what happened during the pogrom of May–June 1966. He told the Atrocities Tribunal:

It was about 2 am -4 am in the early morning of 29/5/66 when a large number of Hausas started gathering in the Emir’s palace. Around 6 am, all burst out from the palace carrying sticks, matchetes, daggers, axes, etcetera and all other dangerous weapons, spread themselves all over the town, looting and burning houses and shops.

Some personnel of the Nigerian Army and Police took active parts, while others made no attempts to bring the situation under control. This attack was directed against the people of Southern Nigeria origin with the exclusion of the Yorubas. …While the attack continued, the Emir of Katsina, Usman Nagogo; the former Northern Minister of Education Isa Kaita; Musa Tafida Yar `Adua, former Federal Minister of Lagos Affairs and Magajin Gari, Emirs’s son, were parading the town up and down cheering them up (Korieh, 2012: 14).  ... READ MORE HERE