Ile-Ife:
[size=15pt]Real-Madrid lamenting why Barcelona used Messi to win a match.[/size]

pazienza:

I don't know how you derived this your analogy,considering the fact the the igbo region,south east has the the lowest rate of poverty in nigeria,while yorubaland and the north swim in poverty. Now remind me who won the war again.

Antivirus92: this is why even your fellow aboki muslims even hate you people.LIES! You believed that ojukwu travelled out of nigeria then through nigeria air way? The same nigeria that were his enermy. Cos there was no biafra airway. Childish! What was he doing in the airport? In case you don't know ojukwu moved out on a jet. You read that book of lies and believed cos it suits you but you find it extremely hard to believe what prof. Achebe wrote.

PROUD-IGBO:


^^^You sure about that?....you could have fooled me!

Antivirus92: this is why even your fellow aboki muslims even hate you people.LIES! You believed that ojukwu travelled out of nigeria then through nigeria air way? The same nigeria that were his enermy. Cos there was no biafra airway. Childish! What was he doing in the airport? In case you don't know ojukwu moved out on a jet. You read that book of lies and believed cos it suits you but you find it extremely hard to believe what prof. Achebe wrote.

PhysicsQED:



The Midwest was technically not neutral and did not have the means of achieving neutrality. However, if this idea that the Midwest was an "aggressor" is based on this Escravos stuff you've been repeating for more than a year now, then you might seriously need to have a rethink or recheck your facts. First, we both know that the force that captured Bonny in July was launched from Lagos, not Escravos as was discussed a long time ago although you seem quite convinced that they had been in Escravos prior to the Bonny invasion - probably because of your (incorrect) assumption that Boro and his group (who were gathered at and trained at Escravos) were among them. Second, we know that the training in Escravos of people like Boro took place after the Biafran invasion of the Midwest, not that he was just relaxing there or carrying out training while an invasion/occupation was going on there. So who was really trained at Escravos? Who led the training at Escravos? Some Ijaws, primarily from the Eastern region of Nigeria met up in Escravos and trained there briefly and from this you've built up all sorts of bizarre theories. And also, who authorized the training at Escravos? Midwesterners? There is not even any evidence of at least this (that is to say, there is no evidence that consultation was carried out and assent given before deciding that Escravos is where the training should occur) - and this is the only thing that could even be plausible.

"It is no use to repeat that Isaac Boro who was jailed by the Maj. Gen. Aguiyi-Ironsi government on recommendation by the supreme court of Nigeria was pardoned by Lt. Col Yakubu Gowon's government and later commissioned by the Nigerian Army as an officer to help liberate southern territories under Biafran control. He recruited Rivers men who volunteered to serve under him and gave them brief training at Escravos. According to Obasanjo on page 47 of [1], Boro's one-thousand Rivers men were "hurriedly and poorly trained with little or nothing in the way of training facilities and resources". His group was then attached to the 3 Marine Commando Division (then 3 Marine) under the command of Col. Benjamin Adekunle." - Hosiah Emmanuel, "Who Killed Adaka Boro"

http://www.onlinenigeria.com/people/ad.asp?blurb=129

http://www.adakaboro.org/resources/37-articles/56-whokilledboro?format=pdf

"First, I was among the hundreds of young and not so young Ijaw army of soldiers recruited and put under Boro's command that was sent to Bonny after some commando type training in Ogidigbe on the Escravos River. Boro left us soon after as he was sent to the Calabar theater. But before he left, he advised us not to commit atrocities nor loot from liberated towns and villages. And that was a very sobering advise and his greatest parting present to us. And it stuck with most of us." - Roy Tomo-Spiff, "Roy Tomo-Spiff' Recalls Boro's Death"

http://www.onlinenigeria.com/people/ad.asp?blurb=129


"The boys who were being trained by Boro and Owonaru on Escravos Bay when we passed through at the end of September had arrived in Bonny about October/November; though the then Commander was rather unhappy with them. . ." - Ken Saro-Wiwa, On a darkling plain: an account of the Nigerian civil war (1989), p. 159

"By the end of September a substantial part of the Mid-West had been cleared of rebels. What next? Col. Adekunle once again visited Lagos and secured permission to change the designation of his formation from 3 Infantry Division to 3 Marine Commando Division because of the particularly riverine and creek operations already carried out in the Mid-West, the Rivers State and a similar one impending in the South-Eastern State. From Warri, 3 Marine Commando Division moved once again to Bonny where the planning and preparation for Operation Tiger Claw, the Calabar landing operation started in earnest early in October 1967. At Bonny, Col. Adekunle got his men and materials together once again less those officers and men who had been absorbed into 2 Infantry Division in the Mid-West. He also gained some officers and men like Majors Afiegbe and Alabi from the Mid-West operation. Maj. Phillip Afiegbe was appointed General Staff Officer I for Operation Tiger Claw. Also at this time, Boro and his one thousand ill-disciplined, hurriedly and poorly trained Rivers men had joined the 3 Marine at Bonny. They were trained at Escravos with little or nothing in the way of training facilities and resources. Half of them were left in Bonny where such patriotic Rivers men as George Amangala, B.A. (History), Bodman Nyanayo, M.A. (Maths.) and Notthingham D1ck died. The remaining half with Boro himself went with the main body of the Division on the Calabar landing operation. With the planning, preparation and briefing for Operation Tiger Claw completed, a force of some one thousand men with poor logistics backing was left in Bonny with Lt. Bello as commanding officer while Maj. Abubakar joined the main force for Calabar." - Olusegun Obasanjo, My Command


Which comes first? August (the time of the Biafran invasion of the Midwest). . .or September (the time of the training of Boro's group in Escravos)? Which comes first, August. . .or October (the time the Ijaws trained in Escravos joined the 3 Marine Commando Division in Bonny)? I think the answers to these questions are obvious.

We have somebody who was actually trained in Escravos (Roy Tomo-Spiff) stating that the group trained in Escravos which later joined the 3rd Marine Commando in Bonny were of Ijaw extraction. The reason for this and the implications of this as far as their going to Bonny (a city with heavy Ijaw connections) should be quite clear.

Why have you repeatedly attempted to spin this Rivers state (primarily) Ijaw force that was briefly trained at Escravos into some fictitious Urhobo-Edo-Esan-Itsekiri-Isoko (you have mentioned all of these (non-Igbo) peoples before when making the claim about the training at Escravos) Midwestern force recruited to launch an attack on Bonny in Escravos along with Boro when it is easily verifiable that they were Ijaws and also mostly Rivers Ijaws (i.e. Easterners) that joined up with the parts of the (pre-existing) Nigerian army that were already in Bonny after having captured it? I asked you to give an explanation in a previous thread for your statements and instead you told me to go and ask the Nigerian army to confirm your claims.

Katsumoto:

If you believe that Ojukwu left on a jet, then please read the article below.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XIBWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DeUDAAAAIBAJ&dq=biafra&pg=3117%2C8754148


If you agree that Ojukwu left in an airplane, then what airways would a jet have used? Do jets use different mediums for transport?

Ile-Ife:


how many of you igbos live in your "successful" region? igbos are part of the poor population in other parts of Nigeria, go up north and see your people living in life threatening poverty. Look, your leaders foolishly and greedily went to war, and you lost. Now, deal with it. If, you can't..................look don't make insult dead people this afternoon.

pazienza:

Igbos in the north or other parts of nigeria usually have a higher standard of living than the locals who are lazy and wallow in poverty,and die of envy and jealousy over the igbo man's success. Igbos owe more than half of the buildings and land in abuja,even though north central is a poverty stricken zone.

Is it not a shame to the lazy yorubas and northerners that 42yrs after the war, their regions are poverty stricken,why igboland that was devastated by the war is fairing better even when no reconstruction was done in the east?

How do we begin to explain this,if i were a northerner or yoruba,i would hide my head in shame,but these people have no shame,TUFIAKWA!

Dede1:


I am not fazed by the posting of articles heavily influenced by malice and inducement from sense of denial. There are unbiased essays and eye witness accounts that helped built my social order on events that led to British\Biafra civil war. No amount of attempts by desperate revisionists will change a thing. I knew many peeps of Urhobo-Edo-Esan-Itsekiri-Isoko-Efik extractions that were trained at Escravos, Mid-western region training depot that fought at Bonny on July 1967.

The war was fought and lost as mortal enemies were made along the path of battles. It is arrant nonsense for any right thinking fellow to insinuate that only Ijo peeps, who did not number up to brigade strength, made up of the two brigades of the Nigeria armed forces which assaulted southern flank of eastern region of Nigeria, captured Bonny by July 26, 1967 and were mostly trained at Escravos, Mid-western region.

Katsumoto:

So Ojukwu was a genius because he wanted to secede, whether rightly or wrongly, in 1967 after the pogroms in 1966!!!!!

But was he a genius when he stated openly that the Igbo would export civil servants to the rest of Nigeria after Ironsi promulgated decree 34, 'blessing' Nigeria with a unitary system of government and after Ironsi simultaneously cancelled tests in Hausa to give Igbo civil servants an advantage?

Why did Ojukwu not caution Ironsi against that like Gowon, Ekpo, and Katsina did? Why didn't Ojukwu say, 'my General, this unitary system of government will lead to chaos'? But no, they all saw the opportunities in front of them after benefiting from a coup executed by Igbo sons.

Katsumoto:

You can read Soyinka's "You Must Set Forth At Dawn".


Here is the true account of what took place as taken from scripts of the discussion between Papa and Chief Ojukwu (the Ikemba). The discussion was taped by the Ikemba and the recorder was captured after Enugu fell.

On Saturday, May 6, 1967, at 5.15 pm, a meeting began to take place, at the State House, Enugu, between the then Excellency, Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu (the Ikemba) and a delegation of the National Conciliation Committee (Committee) led by the most Honorable Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The Committee was represented by Professor Samuel Aluko, Chief Mariere, Chief J.I. Onyia, while the Eastern Region was represented by Lt. Col Imo, Lt. Col Effiong, Lt. Col. Kurubo, Mr. C.O Mojekwu, Mr. N.U. Akpan, Professor Eni Njoku, Dr. Nwakanma Okoro, Dr. P.N.C. Okigbo, Mr. C.A. Onyegbale and Mr. Ndem with the Ikemba presiding over the meeting. The names are listed for the purpose of verification of facts presented herein below with those of them who may still be alive,

Papa: The main concern of these delegates is to ensure that Nigeria does not disintegrate, and I would like to see Nigeria bound together by any bond because it is better than breaking the whole place up because each unit will be the loser for it. Th[b]e economy of the country is so integrated that it is too late in the day to try and sever them without risking the death of one or both of them. So we have come, therefore, to appeal to you to let Eastern representatives attend the meeting of the Committee (ON-GOING NATIONAL CONCILIATION MEETING) I do not want to put myself in a position where I will be treated as an advocate of the Eastern cause. Let the Eastern delegates go there, make their case and then as a member of the Committee I will get up and say I support this entirely. If at the meeting the East and West present what they want for a new Nigeria whether temporarily or permanently, and the North says "no, we are not going to have it", I will go out and address a World Press Conference and send our case to that body and say this is what we have done and the North has turned it down.[/b] I will then take any step that is necessary to bring into effect what we want. The North needed to be in a position of being presented with the United front of the South.

Ikemba: I started off this struggle in July with 120 rifles to defend the entirety of the East. I took my stand knowing fully well that by doing so, whilst carving my name in history,[size=16pt][/size] I was signing also my death warrant. But I took it because I believe that this stand is vital to the survival of the South. I appealed for settlement quietly because I understood that this was a unclothed struggle for power and that the only time we can sit down and decide the future of Nigeria on basis of equality will always be equality of arms[b]. Quietly, I built up. If you do not know it, I am proud, and my officers are proud, that here in the East we possess the biggest army in Black Africa.[/b] I am no longer speaking as an underdog, I am speaking from a position of power. [SEE NOTE 3a] The only way for the South to present a united front is for the South to meet and hammer out that united front. It is a point which must be cleared first before proceeding to make a statement of whatever it is. That is why to my mind, at the present stage of the crisis the ideal thing is for the Southern people to meet in any platform and discuss and hammer out any difference they might have because I will have nothing to do with the North. Then going further, it would then mean that to do this the South to meet; because if we wait for their permission, we will wait for ever. On the specific question of whether there is a possibility of contact with the North, the answer is at the battle field.[size=26pt][/size]

ACM10:

Must you apply your diversionary tactics on every thread? This is getting old and tired. I will meet you on any thread for Decree 34 which enshrined unitary system of government. Whose sole aim was to eliminate tribalism, nepotism which was associated with regionalism. Mind you that every succeeding government embraced the much taunted decree

reporter?:


This issue has been trashed out many times over here on NL. You can dig up the threads if you have the time.

Didn't Ojuwku boast about having the largest army in black Africa? Didn't he satate that the only plcace he would meet Nigeria was
at the war front? Do those statements not sound like a man who wanted war?

About Awo warning him, you should read the transcript of the meeting b/w Awo and Ojukwu.

War is war; and bad things happen during war.

ACM10:

Pls don't bore me with another propaganda material. Do you still remember Ojukwu's letter to Col. Banjo? Or Ojukwu's letter to Awolowo? You know that I wont believe any document that is not proven to be authentic. This bullshyt does not go far enough. I'm still waiting for your evidence of Awolowo's advice to Ojukwu.

Katsumoto: Yes, Gowon created states to undermine ojukwu but that was after ojukwu refused to accept decree 8 because it would have meant that ojukwu could be replaced by Gowon.


Is ojukwu a Hero or a Villain? by Max Siollun

January is a key month in Nigeria’s history. This January marks the 41st anniversary of the end of the Nigerian civil war, and the 44th anniversary of the Aburi accords – the debate in Aburi in Ghana which nearly pre-empted the war. The pivotal figure in both events is Chukwuemeka Odumegwu ojukwu.

ojukwu is a man that evokes conflicting emotions. To some he is a born leader and a hero. To others he is an ambitious man that tried to break up his country. Where ojukwu is concerned, no one is a neutral. The conflicting opinions on him are emblematic of his inconsistent personality and history. ojukwu is an educated man that entered a profession that many Nigerians regarded at the time as a profession for the uneducated. He is a southerner born in the north who fought a three year long war against the north. He is a man who once led an attempt to secede from Nigeria, but later ran for President of Nigeria.

A leader must be judged by what benefits or misfortune he has brought to his people. Has ojukwu brought anything positive to his people? His record is grim. The “accomplishments” ojukwu has brought his people include:

• Leading them in a brutal civil war they had no chance of winning, and which resulted in a million of them dying.
• Even when it became clear that his people were starving to death in massive numbers, he continued the war which was doomed from the start.
• He fled and left his people after the war.
• The civil war caused his people to be stereotyped as disloyal and led to an unwritten discrimination against them.


Yet he is still revered. ojukwu’s first official involvement in politics came after a group of young army Majors overthrew the democratic government in January 1966. Contrary to what has been written in some quarters, ojukwu refused to cooperate with the Majors – including Major Nzeogwu. ojukwu was appointed the Military Governor of the Eastern Region after the coup. This appointment was ironic as he had spent very little of his life in the east. ojukwu was the most politically active of the four military governors. By mid-1966 the army was imploding and another army coup was staged by northern soldiers during which hundreds of Igbo soldiers (including Ironsi) were killed. A central plank of this coup was the elimination of ojukwu. The ‘pointman’ who was to execute the coup in the eastern region was a young Lieutenant named Shehu Musa Yar’Adua (the older brother of Nigeria’s former President).

Aburi – ojukwu’s Finest Hour

After being dragged to the brink of an abyss by two military coups in 1966, and pogroms which followed them, ojukwu had refused to attend any meetings of the Supreme Military Council until the Ghanaian leader Lt-General Joseph Ankrah brokered a meeting in the neutral territory of Aburi in Ghana in January 1967. This was ojukwu’s finest hour. ojukwu prepared thoroughly and came armed with notes and secretaries. He managed to secure an agreement to devolve power from the federal government to the regions. This turned Nigeria into a confederation. In the words of one writer ojukwu “secured the signatures of the SMC to documents which would have had the effect of turning Nigeria into little more than a customs union".

The federal government attempted to implement the Aburi agreement in diluted form by enacting a modified Constitution (Suspension and Modification) decree (decree cool which turned Nigeria into a de facto confederation, but which did not incorporate ALL of the agreements reached at Aburi. Federal civil servants argued that to implement all of the Aburi agreements would lead to the dissolution of the federation. ojukwu declined to accept the initial draft of the decree and insisted on a full and complete implementation of the Aburi accords.

As the weaker party, could ojukwu still have showed greater pragmatism to spare further suffering for his people? Even with its flaws, decree 8 gave him 90% of what he wanted. The U.S. State Department was “impressed by extent to which decree 8 appears to meet many of East's fundamental demands for much greater regional autonomy. While recognizing that it stops short of granting everything ojukwu wants, Dept. considers decree represents genuine effort by FMG and other Mil Govs to implement Aburi agreements and to retain Nigerian unity in form which least objectionable to East…..Consulate Enugu has reported that some prominent and moderate Easterners may incline toward above view".

WINNER TAKES ALL – NIGERIA’S MALAISE

In the “winner takes all” mentality that is so symptomatic of Nigerian politics, ojukwu unrealistically held out for 100% of his demands and in the end, received 0%. His refusal to be tactically flexible by considering options other than secession, placed him and his people in a worse position than they started in. Rather than turning Nigeria into a confederation (which is what decree 8 did), ojukwu’s give no inch stance gave the federal government an opportunity to overrun the Eastern Region, carve the country into several states and concentrate massive powers in the central government. Forty years later many Nigerians now call for the restructuring of Nigeria, and for devolution of power to its regions. The opportunity to achieve this was squandered 45 years ago at Aburi.

Could ojukwu have achieved his objectives – albeit at a later date, had he been more patient? The old adage is that “the best comes to those who wait”. Could he have accepted confederation in the short-term, then waited patiently until such time that the Eastern Region had enough weapons and infrastructure to sustain a fully independent state in the future?

http://www.pointblanknews.com/Special_Reports/os4390.html

Ile-Ife:
[size=15pt]Real-Madrid lamenting why Barcelona used Messi to win a match.[/size]

Katsumoto: Ojukwu went to war because Gowon refused to implement the only provision from Aburi which would removed the power to appoint the Eastern governor from the head of state. Basically, Gowon wouldn't have been able to replace Ojukwu and Ojukwu knew that as soon as agreements are in place, he would have been replaced.

Did the East need to secede to safeguard Eastern lives? They just needed to remain in their region. The war wasn't prosecuted to rescue Easterners that were trapped outside the East.

ACM10:

I hate lazy debaters. Can you present a credible evidence or shut up?

Katsumoto:

Quit being an annoying pedant. You were expecting a Northerner to go to Enugu? ? ? If Ojukwu couldn't go to Lagos, let alone Kano/Kaduna, why are you expecting a Northerner to go to Enugu? Please use your brain.

T9ksy:


Yeah like you have produce a credible evidence of the 1951 election result which you and your fellow ibo revisionist still

insist that the NCNC, won. We are still waiting for you to visit the library in your grandmother's village which you claimed house the evidence.

Until then, i think it's you who should just STFU!

Talk about a POT calling a KETTLE, black!!

Katsumoto:

Mr Achebe

Why did you conveniently forget that Biafra charged landing fees in foreign currency to charities who were bringing in free food for starving children? Linda Polman's The Crisis Caravan: What’s wrong with humanitarian aid, laid bare into this. If you refuse to believe a foreigner, what about Ntieyong Akpan, secretary to the Eastern government, who wrote in his book, "The Struggle For Succession", that they were unaware that Biafra was charging charities landing fees.

Why did you forget that Gowon insisted on searching food supplies because Biafra was smuggling weapons in with food?

Why did Biafra insist on receiving food supplies at night because it wanted to smuggle weapons in?

Can you tell us of a conflict in which a side which couldn't feed itself wanted to fight an enemy that has you surrounded on all sides?