Nigeria, Oct. 29 -- Any less-than-avid student of history would easily understand the active role played by the people of the South-East, particularly the Igbos, in the government and politics of Nigeria, from the pre-independence and post-independence eras up until the civil war of 1967 to 1970. Although the Igbos were not the first to encounter Western education, they quickly caught up with and, as many would argue, even overtook their South-West counterparts in it. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, who would later become Nigeria's first president, albeit in a ceremonial capacity, gave a fillip to the quest for Western education in the South-East following his peregrinations across the Atlantic to acquire the proverbial golden fleece at Lincoln Univer...