Excerpt...

The final decision to resort to fierce and uncompromisingly brutal means of preventing easterners from
breaking free, forces a set of endless questions that address the convoluted nature of this
unforeseen turnaround. After the federal side went back on its promise to honor the Aburi
agreement, thanks to tactical reassessments by Federal Permanent Secretaries (and most
likely the influence of foreign interests like the British), it was clear that its motive was more
economically and politically based than it was for the sake of national unity.4 On this
inconsistency, many have cited the presence of huge and yet-to-be-tapped deposits of crude
oil in the southeast as a foremost reason. But there were other reasons for this sudden change
of heart and eagerness to “unite” with an apparently despised people.

To secure the autocratic powers of the Federal Military Government and clip some of the powers of the states, Gowon’s shrewd
decision to create 12 states on May 27, 1967 resulted in the equivalent of an ethnic divide and
rule maneuver. Aside from weakening overall minority support for the dominant “Igbo”5 east,
this decision also eliminated the notion that a natural resource belonged to a single region or
ethnic group. Now the property of a number of states, the Federal Government could validate
its declaration of the resource as national property and gradually inch its way into
appropriating it.

After Gowon created 12 states from the former four regions, he appointed military
governors to all of them, except East Central State to which he appointed a civilian
administrator, Ukpabi Asika. His message was clear in his refusal to give any Igbo military
officer such recognition or legitimacy. Of course not all Igbo officers had prior knowledge of
the first coup, or even sanctioned or took part in it. It was an Igbo officer, the late Major
General J.T.U. Ironsi, after all, that had foiled it. Surely Gowon could have found a loyal,
worthy Igbo officer to fill the position, but he deliberately refused to appoint one. Up until
that point, southerners in general had dominated the officer cadre of the Nigerian army. They
did so through a fervent pursuit of educational and vocational training; they were not
recipients of political gifts.

Ironsi would inadvertently augment the
emergence and rise of northern officers in his attempts to appease them after the first coup.
Among the beneficiaries of his gesture were Captains Ibrahim Haruna, Murtala Muhammed,
and Mohammed Shuwa who were all promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (even
though they were Acting Majors). Usman Katsina was also promoted to the rank of
Lieutenant Colonel and he, like Murtala Muhammed, would become a key player in the
ousting and murder of the Commander-in-Chief. But perhaps the biggest beneficiary was
Gowon who Ironsi appointed Chief of Army Staff over and above his superiors. He, too,
would be instrumental in the overthrow and murder of the General.

I have observed, and have been somewhat
baffled by the fact that most of the Ikwerre people I have met from Rivers State bear Igbo
names and speak Igbo in addition to their indigenous language. I remember while taking part
in the NYSC15 and an Igbo participant snidely asked a young Ikwerre man whose name was
“Amadi,” “why don’t you change your name to ‘Ramadi’ so that you will no longer bear an
Igbo name?” Without all the proof I need, I suspect that Ikwerres and Igbos have a historical,
cultural, and linguistic connection that runs deep. How ironic if this were true. But, then
again, I have also listened with much interest to Ikwerre nationalists who assert that their
sociolinguistic connection to Igbos is similar to the connection between the Dutch and
Germans, or between Italians and the Spanish. If no one is saying that these groups of people
are “similar,” then people ought to stop claiming that Igbos and Ikwerres are “similar.” This
argument seems to carry some validity.
The bottom line, however, is that it is much easier to control people in conflict with
each other; they can’t fight back because resistance demands unity. Meanwhile, the north, in
spite of its ethnic diversity, remains substantially united and continues to wax strong
politically and militarily, courtesy of the Hausa language widely spoken in that region, the
prevalent practice of Islam and its civil war victory

If the Rivers people have not learned that their professed wartime friend was never
really their friend, they should revisit their abandonment to the environmental hazards caused
by oil exploration on their lands. Ken Saro Wiwa, onetime outspoken opponent of Biafra,would eventually find himself in an intense and bitter postwar struggle with former “federal”
friends over the degradation of Ogoniland and waterways by oil companies. He finally lost
his life as a result of this faceoff

there is an underlining indication of ongoing anger and dissatisfaction over the manner in
which the Nigeria-Biafra War was waged, and the fact that many people still grieve over
what they consider a major miscarriage of justice during and after the conflict. Especially
poignant is that many of the people revisiting, condemning and grieving this macabre
experience are young people who were either not born during the conflict or who were very
young at the time. They include writers like Chimamanda Adichie who was born seven years
after the war but whose Half of a Yellow Sun does a remarkable job of recapturing some of
the social and familial traumas engendered by the war and its consequences. They include
young musicians who have re-evoked the ordeal through songs that celebrate Biafra even as
they lament, accuse and threaten.20
The fury and acrimony will continue to be provoked by lies and distortions of the
truth

At the book lunch of The Untold Story of the Nigeria-Biafra War by Luke Nnaemeka
Aneke in Abuja in 2008, Gowon who like me was in attendance, claimed that he had great
admiration and respect for the Igbos, which is why he didn’t want to let them go. (Through
all the war crimes that were committed against Biafra, he certainly had a unique way of
expressing love and respect.) Gowon also claimed, with seeming remorse, that when he
acquired military warplanes and other armaments from Russia, he didn’t anticipate that they
would cause such vast destruction. I couldn’t help but wonder at the ludicrousness of the latter statement. How does a General not know the potential destructive magnitude of specific
weapons? Like I said, lies and distortions of the truth will ensure that the war lives on in the
anger and bitterness of those most affected by it.

The Nigeria-Biafra Civil War will continue
to rage, even if just in the hearts and minds of those who endure the impact of its aftermath. Philip U. Effiong, PhD

So many to read and assimilate from my old eastern brothers.. One of our own has spoken. Download pdf below

Fine man.

Hot FIYAH!

After Gowon created 12 states from the former four regions, he appointed military
governors to all of them, except East Central State to which he appointed a civilian
administrator, Ukpabi Asika. His message was clear in his refusal to give any Igbo military
officer such recognition or legitimacy. Of course not all Igbo officers had prior knowledge of
the first coup, or even sanctioned or took part in it. It was an Igbo officer, the late Major
General J.T.U. Ironsi, after all, that had foiled it. Surely Gowon could have found a loyal,
worthy Igbo officer to fill the position, but he deliberately refused to appoint one. Up until
that point, southerners in general had dominated the officer cadre of the Nigerian army. They
did so through a fervent pursuit of educational and vocational training; they were not
recipients of political gifts.

Igbo are the cause of Nigeria problem

They should tell Nigerians why they destroyed a regional government that Nigeria was practicing then.

They killed leaders from other regions but allow their Igbo leaders to escape

Ironsi came in, refuses to execute his murderous brothers but instead choose to entertained them in one ikoyi prison

these is what led to the counter coup

comos:
Igbo are the cause of Nigeria problem

They should tell Nigerians why they destroyed a regional government that Nigeria was practicing then.

They killed leaders from other regions but allow their Igbo leaders to escape

Ironsi came in, refuses to execute his murderous brothers but instead choose to entertained them in one ikoyi prison

these is what led to the counter coup

read the PDF AND EDUCATE YA SELF

comos:
Igbo are the cause of Nigeria problem

They should tell Nigerians why they destroyed a regional government that Nigeria was practicing then.

They killed leaders from other regions but allow their Igbo leaders to escape

Ironsi came in, refuses to execute his murderous brothers but instead choose to entertained them in one ikoyi prison

these is what led to the counter coup

Here's the revelation by Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the current Emir of Kano, a Fulani:
"YORUBAS ARE THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIA"?
http://www.nigerianbulletin.com/threads/yorubas-are-the-problem-with-nigeria-by-sanusi-lamido-sanusi-elombah-com.111348/

In sum, the Yoruba political leadership, as mentioned by Balarabe Musa, has shown itself over the years to be incapable of rising above narrow tribal interests and reciprocating goodwill from other sections of the country by treating other groups with respect. Practically every crisis in Nigeria since independence has its roots in this attitude. 

The Yoruba elite were the first, in 1962, to attempt a violent overthrow of an elected government in this country. In 1966, it was the violence in the West which provided an avenue for the putsch of 15th January. After Chief Awolowo lost to Shagari in 1983 elections, it was the discontent and bad publicity in the South-West which led to the Buhari intervention...


Battle Between Awolowo, Akintola Led To 1966 Coup - Yakassai 
https://www.nairaland.com/2867045/battle-between-awolowo-akintola-led


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S0F_5ma4lM

law.ani post:
"'Revolutionary justice is not based on legal precedence but on moral conviction, we are not executing thieves or political opponents, we are executing murderers'- Fidel Casto to critics of executions by the Cuban socialist government in the 1950s.

If General Babangida had led the 1966 coup, it would have been devoid of sentiments and it would have been a success. He planned a coup, the one that removed the inept and corrupt General Buhari government in 1985 and no life was lost. He consolidated the army, convinced his juniors as well as his colleagues then deployed armoured tanks to the police headquarters to hem them in for the moment. No life was lost, the regime heads that defiantly returned to Nigeria were arrested and merely placed under house arrest despite that they approved the death by firing squad of drug smugglers with a retroactive decree, a judicial murder of people better than them. One of the young men thus killed said he does not steal and if he had known he would be killed, he would not have smuggled drugs. Despite this, General Buhari was spared. So a person of General Babangida's temperament, who sees life as sacred would have carried through the 1966 coup properly. You kill ruthlessly those that deserve it and take caution not to kill any innocent. If you engineered rigged elections in the West and deployed police to kill thousands of protesters during the wetie riots, you deserve to be killed, you do not deserve to die peacefully in your sleep, since you are not a higher specie of human than those people you ordered killed even after you cheated them. So someone like President Babangida would have singled out those that will be killed execution style and those to be arrested. If I were PM Balewa, I would have resigned rather than dance to Sir Ahmadu Bello's tunes, that way, he would have survived.  Sir Bello had already made his stand known in several interviews, so as the PM, you had to hold your ground or you fall with him. PM Balewa fell with him. You dont kill thousands of innocents protesting against you for brazenly cheating them and expect to go free. Something would have happened one way or the other. If not this coup then the other. Egypt, Ghana had already fallen.

In thesame way, if the AG leaders hounded to jail for treasonable felony had really planned a coup and got it up to the stage of firing a single gunshot, then it surely would have been successful and neatly done with people slain ruthlessly that deserve to be so slain, any dead innocent would be the victim of an accident not of an assassination. Those people were Ogboni who do things with common sense and people older than them back then would caution them.

However, after all said and done, the advise still holds 'If you are working for a government or an entity, killing people without remorse, you are working as a politician for such a government, you better resign, that is in your best interest because you are culpable as well, if you are urging people on as they kill thousands of innocents, then you are culpable, because your life is not more important than that of those people you see as cannon fodder. To a real empathetic human being, human life is sacred, otherwise you are a beast. So if you are a member of such an entity, the best course of action is to resign in solidarity with the people unjusly slain, because your life is in no way more important than that of those people being killed.

When you complain of Igbo soldiers killing your leaders in an Igbo coup, remember the thousands of Yoruba farmers, traders and etc, innocent people, mowed down by the then FG under the orders of PM Balewa's government. It would be wrong to discount those people while blaming some people for killing your leaders.

So, resignation remains your best bet or line of action when you find yourself suddenly camped on the wrong side of history. The best bet to save your own heads."

Loosen up the federation.
Nigeria must practice federalism in the best form suitable for it. The Centre must be made less attractive than it is now... It will save us all these needless fights and adversaries. Nigeria can only have peace and progress when it is better structured or in our separate ways.

Restructure Nigeria and we in the south might just agree to stay.