BREAKING: Northern War!!! The Igbos Started This Evil Madness – Angry HRH, Lamido Sanusi Releases Very Shocking Statement

post-nigeria.com Jun 10, 2017 9:07 AM

BREAKING: Northern War!!! The Igbos Started This Evil Madness – Angry HRH, Lamido Sanusi Releases Very Shocking Statement

At the heels of the controversy trailing the quit notice order given by the Arewa Youth Forum, for all Igbos to vacate Northern Nigeria within three-months, the Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi, has lent his voice to the crisis.

In a statement made available to Post-Nigeria, on Saturday, Sanusi went down memory lane, on how the Igbos carried out the first Military coup, that led to the death of top Northerners in the early 60s.

The statement reads:

The Igbo people of Nigeria have made a mark in the history of this nation. They led the first successful military coup which eliminated the Military and Political leaders of other regions while letting off Igbo leaders. Nwafor Orizu, then Senate President, in consultation with President Azikiwe, subverted the constitution and handed over power to Aguiyi-Ironsi.

Subsequent developments, including attempts at humiliating other peoples, led to the counter-coup and later the civil war. The Igbos themselves must acknowledge that they have a large part of the blame for shattering the unity of this country.

Having said that, this nation must realise that Igbos have more than paid for their foolishness. They have been defeated in war, rendered paupers by monetary policy fiat, their properties declared abandoned and confiscated, kept out of strategic public sector appointments and deprived of public services. The rest of the country forced them to remain in Nigeria and has continued to deny them equity.

The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie have conspired to keep the Igbo out of the scheme of things. In the recent transition when the Igbo solidly supported the PDP in the hope of an Ekwueme presidency, the North and South- West treated this as a Biafra agenda. Every rule set for the primaries, every gentleman´s agreement was set aside to ensure that Obasanjo, not Ekwueme emerged as the candidate. Things went as far as getting the Federal Government to hurriedly gazette a pardon. Now, with this government, the marginalistion of the Igbo is more complete than ever before. The Igbos have taken all these quietly because, they reason, they brought it upon themselves. But the nation is sitting on a time-bomb.

After the First World War, the victors treated Germany with the same contempt Nigeria is treating Igbos. Two decades later, there was a Second World War, far costlier than the first.

Germany was again defeated, but this time, they won a more honourable peace. Our present political leaders have no sense of History. There is a new Igbo man, who was not born in 1966 and neither knows nor cares about Nzeogwu and Ojukwu.

There are Igbo men on the street who were never Biafrans. They were born Nigerians, are Nigerians, but suffer because of actions of earlier generations. They will soon decide that it is better to fight their own war, and may be find an honourable peace, than to remain in this contemptible state in perpetuity.

The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie have exacted their pound of flesh from the Igbos. For one Sardauna, one Tafawa Balewa, one Akintola and one Okotie- Eboh, hundreds of thousands have died and suffered.

If this issue is not addressed immediately, no conference will solve Nigeria´s problems.

NAIJ.com

"We are sorry Igbos, Nigeria cannot survive without you"


Editor’s note: The quit notice issued to Igbos in the north stirred public outrage and elicited reactions from different groups in the country and threatened to tear the fabric of the country’s unity.

In this opinion by Femi Arbisala, he examines the role Igbos have played in the development of the country, concluding they alone have made the country what it is today.

Out of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Igbo have by far the worst politicians.

Among the different ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Igbo are without a doubt, one of the most remarkable. So remarkable, indeed, that some have even traced their ancestry to biblical Israel, as the far-flung descendants of Jacob, the Jewish patriarch.

Gad, Jacob’s seventh son, is said to have had three sons who settled in South-eastern Nigeria. These sons; Eri, Arodi and Areli, are believed to have fathered clans in Igbo-land and to have founded such Igbo towns as Aguleri, Arochukwu, Owerri and Umuleri.

Igbo genius

Even the bitterest adversaries of the Igbo cannot but admit that, as a people, they are very resourceful and ingenious. Indeed, this has often been the cause of their envy and dislike by others. However, more enlightened non-Igbo Nigerians see this as a cause for celebration. While today, the centre-point of Nigeria’s manufacturing is situated in the Lagos/Ogun axis, there is no doubt that the real locomotive of Nigeria’s indigenous industrialization lies farther afield in Aba and in the mushrooming cottage-industries of the Igbo heartland.

In one of the paradoxes of Nigerian history, the terrible civil war provoked homespun industrialization in the South-East. Military blockade left the Igbo with little alternative than to be inventive in a hurry. While Nigeria as a nation failed woefully to harness this profitably after the war, it has nevertheless ensured that the Igbo are at the forefront of Nigeria’s economic development today.

Indeed, the way we disregard “made in Aba” today is the same way we disregarded “made in Japan” yesterday. For those of us who believe against the odds that Nigeria is the China of tomorrow, we equally recognize that the ingenuity of the Igbo is an indelible part of the actualization of that manifest destiny.

The Igbo have been a great credit to Nigeria. They have given us a great number of our favourite sons, including international statesman Nnamdi Azikiwe; military leader Odumegwu Ojukwu; regional leader Michael Okpara; vice-president Alex Ekwueme; mathematical genius Chike Obi; literary icon Chinua Achebe; world-class economist Pius Okigbo; world boxing champion Dickson Tiger; international statesman Emeka Anyaoku; and world-class artist Ben Enwonwu. Pemit me to include in this illustrious list even some of my very good Igbo friends: Pat Utomi, Ojo Madueke, Olisa Agbakoba, Joy Ogwu, and Stanley Macebuh.

Let us get one thing straight: Nigeria would be a much poorer country without the Igbo. Indeed, Nigeria would not be Nigeria without them. Can you imagine the Super Eagles without the Igbo? Not likely! Who can forget Nwankwo Kanu, Jay Jay Okocha and our very own Emmanuel Amuneke? Can you imagine Nollywood without the Igbo?

Impossible! Just think of Stella Damascus-Aboderin; Rita Dominic and Mike Ezuruonye. And then there are the diaspora Igbo who many are unaware are of Igbo descent, including concert singer and actor Paul Robeson; Oscar award-winner Forest Whitaker; mega-pastor T.D. Jakes; Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu; and BAFTA actor award-winner Chiwetel Ejiofor.

You may well wonder why I have found it necessary to present this small litany of Igbo who-is-who. I think it is important to emphasise how the Igbo have been very vital to the Nigerian project. They have more than represented Nigeria creditably in virtually all walks of life. This makes it all the more absurd that this same people have been consistently denied the position of executive president of the country in all but six months of Nigeria’s 54 year history.

Civil-war legacy

Of course, a major reason for this was the 1967-1970 civil-war which had the Igbo on the losing side. But that was over 40 years ago. If there is really to be “no victor, no vanquished” in anything more than mere rhetoric, then the rehabilitation of the Igbo back into post civil-war Nigeria will not be complete until an Igbo man finally becomes president of the country.

That imperative should be of interest to every Nigerian nationalist, committed to the creation of one Nigeria where everyone has a deep sense of belonging. The problem, however, is that the Igbo themselves seem to be their own worst enemies in this regard. They appear to be doing their very best to ensure that this inevitable eventuality continues to be denied and delayed.

The Igbo need to forgive Nigerians. No one who lived through the horrors that precipitated the secession of Biafra and led to the civil-war cannot but admit that the Igbo were abused and mal-treated in one of the worst pogroms ever. It was not just that they were senselessly massacred in their own country; it was that they were butchered. I remember vividly gory pictures of scores and scores of the Igbo with hands chopped up and with legs amputated. And then there were the ravages of the three-year civil-war itself, resulting in the death of millions of Igbo; many through starvation and attrition.

The end of the war brought no respite, as the Igbo were pauperized by fiscal decrees that wiped out their savings and their properties were blatantly sequestered by opportunists. All this is more than enough to destroy the spirit of any group of people.

But God has been on the side of the Igbo. It is a testament to their resilience that, in spite of this terrible affliction, they have survived, bounced back and have even triumphed in Nigeria. Forty years have now gone by. The Igbo may never forget what happened to them and, indeed, should never forget. But it is past time for them to forgive.


We are sorry

This is one voice in the Nigerian wilderness saying to the Igbo from the depth of his heart: we are sorry. We are sorry for the way we mistreated you. We are sorry for the way we abused you. We are sorry for starving your children to death. We are sorry for killing your loved ones. We are sorry for stealing your properties. We are sorry for making you feel unwanted in your own country. Please forgive us. It is time to forgive us. It is way past time for the Igbo to forgive Nigerians. We beg you in the name of God.

There was a civil war in the United States, but the defeated South rose from the ashes. Five of the last nine presidents of the United States have been from the South, including Jimmy Carter from Georgia, George Bush from Texas and Bill Clinton from Arkansas. The time is overdue for an Igbo president of Nigeria, but it is not going to happen as long as the Igbo continue to hold a grudge against Nigeria and Nigerians.

There is no question about it: the Ibos cannot elect a president of Nigeria on their own. To do so, they have to join forces with others. They have to form alliances with people from other parts of Nigeria. That is not going to happen as long as the Igbo continue to bear a grudge against practically everybody else.

The Igbo have a gripe against virtually all the people they need. They have this tendency to antagonise their possible alliance partners. They keep dredging up the past, refusing to let sleeping dogs lie. Until they drop these gripes, they are not likely to realise their dreams.

Demonising Yorubas.

For example, the Igbo have this tendency to demonise the Yorubas. It is alarming when reading the Vanguard blogs today to see the animosity often expressed between Igbo and Yoruba contributors. The hatred is most unhealthy. Insults are traded with abandon. What is the point of this? For how long will the Igbo demand emotional retribution from every Yoruba for the betrayal of Awolowo? Most of the contributors were not even born when the civil-war took place more than a generation ago.

There is now even transferred aggression against Babatunde Fashola, who made the blunder of repatriating some destitute Igbo from Lagos back to their home-states. The man has apologised for the infraction. He should be forgiven. Blunders are not the exclusive preserve of the non-Igbo. The Igbo have made more than a few themselves and will yet make others.

Paradoxically, the redemption of the Igbos to prominent national office moved apace under President Obasanjo; a Yoruba man. Recognising that Igbos are some of the most seasoned, competent and experienced public-servants, Obasanjo relied heavily on their expertise.

Thanks to him, we got Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at Finance, Charles Soludo at Central Bank, Obiageli Ezekwesili at Education, Ndidi Okereke at the Stock Exchange, and Dora Akunyili at NAFDAC. Indeed, Igbo statesmen came into more prominence under Obasanjo than did Yoruba statesmen. But for some strange reason, this does not seem to have succeeded in assuaging the ill-feeling of the Igbos toward the Yorubas.


Bad politicians

Within the framework of Nigerian politics, the Igbo also have a fundamental problem. Out of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Igbo have by far the worst politicians. They have no recognizable leaders, and have no discernible strategy as to how to negotiate power at the centre. As a result, the Igbo have tended to be short-changed at the federal level. Traditionally, the inconsequential ministries, such as the Ministry of Information, have been zoned to them.


The Igbo need to work out a plan that will take them to Aso Rock. First, they need to choose and groom a de-tribalised leader of the Azikiwe mould who can be sold to non-Igbos. Then, they need to give him undiluted support. At the moment the internal politics of the Igbo militates against this.

The Igbo seem to hate themselves as much as they hate others. They seem to fight themselves with as much venom as they fight others. Every potential Igbo leader seems to have more enemies within than without. This must not be allowed to continue.

The Igbo need to help themselves in order that their friends can help them. In this centenary of Nigeria’s amalgamation, as we embark on the arduous process of crafting our future through a National Conference, we salute the Igbo for their fortitude and implore them to stake their claim in Nigeria. Nigeria cannot survive without the Igbo.

This opinion first appeared in Vanguard and was written by Femi Aribisala

I just received this on WhatsApp:

*OPEN LETTER TO THE AREWA YOUTHS.*

*By Charles Ogbu*

Brethren from the North,I bring you greetings from the Southern part of Nigeria. On behalf of the peace-loving people of the south in general and millions of Igbo youths in particular, I start this letter by commending you for your recent open letter to the acting president, professor Yemi Osinbajo, where you called on the pastor-turned politician to organise a Referendum for the Igbos to enable them determine their future in line with international law on self determination.
By that letter, you proved to be better versed and more sophisticated in legal matters and ways of international laws with regards to the right of Indigenous People on Self Determination than the acting President who ironically is a law professor but who happen to think that quest for self determination is a crime simply because the fraudulent document known as the 1999 constitution imposed on us by military thugs did not recognise it.
Having said these, let me come to the main reason why I'm here. In your letter to the Ag. President, I noticed what I've been trying to figure out whether to classify as an innocent amnesia-induced oversight or a calculated attempt to re-write history on your path.
You cited the January 15th coup which you mischievously tagged Igbo coup and claimed was the Igbos manifestating their hatred for Nigeria. Quite frankly, when I read that path, I was left wondering whether to pause and die laughing or die crying.
You and your kind invented the word "hatred" and even went further to prove that indeed, it is not just a word. You started manifesting hatred for other Nigerians as far back as 1945 when your kind butchered hundreds of innocent southerners mostly Igbos in North central Nigerian city of Jos in an anti-Igbo pogrom, 15 years before Nigeria even got her independence from Britain. And of course, your Vampiric spirit would later rise again in search of more Igbo blood in 1953 when your people carried out another anti-Igbo pogrom in Kano which resulted in another hundreds of Igbo lives being wasted once again. This time, all you needed to start doing what you know how best to do was a minor legislative disagreement at the Lagos parliament where your lawmakers were booed for trying to delay a motion for Nigeria's independence by claiming the North wasn't yet ready for self rule.
Isn't it a classic definition of irony that a people who started doing exceptionally well in the business of killing and maiming their fellow Nigerians as far back as 1945 when Nigeria had not even dreamt of gaining independence would now open their mouth and accuse of manifesting "hatred for Nigeria unity"? If you ever believed in the so called Nigeria's unity, why kill and maim your fellow Nigerians for the flimsiest of excuses??
Secondly, the January 1966 coup was not an Igbo coup. It was a coup carried out by mostly junior army officers led by Major Kaduna Chukwuma Nzeogwu and it had soldiers from Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa/fulani, Tiv, Esan, Ijaw, Urhobo, Bali etc on board. Hassan Usman Katsina, an hausa/fulani, who was later made military governor of Northern region, was Nzeogwu's right hand man and a major participant all through the period of the coup. Major Adewale Ademoyega, the author of "Why We Struck" was of the same rank as Nzeogwu. He was an active participant in the coup. There were major Ifeajuna, Lt. Fola Oyewole of "The Reluctant Rebel", Lt. Tijani Katsina and Saleh Dambo who were both hausa/fulani, there was Lt. Hope Harris Egheagha among other Igbos.
And that same coup was foiled by two brave Igbo men, Aguyi Ironsi in Lagos (West) and Ojukwu in Kano (North).
Now, assuming WITHOUT CONCEDING that the January 15th coup was organized and executed by only Igbo army officers, does it not still amount to conscientious idiocy for you guys to blame the whole Igbo nation for a coup carried out by few military men from the region?? How can anyone seek to justify the savagery visited on defenceless Igbo men, women and children residing in the North in the aftermath of that coup?? Did Nzeogwu who was from Delta state consult the indigens of the state before leading that coup?
How come we don't blame Dimka's coup on his ethnic group neither do we blame IBB and Buhari's coup on the whole hausa/Fulanis?
Let me quickly remind you that in the evening of the January 15th coup, a Boeing 707 belonging to the Nigerian Airways arrived Kano with almost the whole Northern establishment back from Lagos where they had gone to attend Commonwealth Prime Ministers' conference. Ojukwu, it was, who received them at the airport and even when orders from the coup plotters were to shot all Politicians, Ojukwu gifted them with protection. I don't suppose you would like this kind of history, seeing as it seem to contradict the adulterated version you were groomed with.
In the said letter, you correctly stated that Ojukwu refused to recognize Gowon but you mischievously failed to state that Ojukwu's refusal to recognise Gowon was in protest over the refusal of the hausa/fulani military officers who killed the head of state, Aguyi Ironsi, to allow Brigadier Ogundipe to take over as the next in rank according to military tradition.
Still in that same letter, you stated that Ojukwu declared Biafra but you conveniently failed to tell the public that Ojukwu didn't just wake up in the morning, smoke his Benson cigarette and rushed to declare Biafra. He (Ojukwu) did his best to de-escalate tension and even succeeded in reaching a landmark accord with Gowon in Aburi, Ghana, which if implemented, would have put an end to the Igbo genocide going on in the North and averted the moral tragedy that was the Biafra war. But, Gowon, unilaterally chose to defy the terms of this last minute Aburi Accord, leaving the Oxford product, Ojukwu, with no choice but to pull his people out of a country that was and still is, deaf, dumb and blind to the sanctity of the lives of the same people it exists mainly to protect.
Let me quickly say this not just to you, The Arewa Youths but to all Nigerians and foreigners alike:
This current Biafra agitation IS NOT a bait for Igbo presidency, Restructuring or appointments. Any Igbo man thinking it is should simply go for a DNA test to ascertain not just his paternity but his ancestry, too. We are simply sick and tired of sharing the same country with people who derive enormous pleasure from killing their fellow human beings over the flimsiest of excuses like the burning of the Koran in a far away Afghanistan, the shooting of a Palestinian boy by a murderous Israeli soldier in Gaza, the drawing of the cartoon of Prophet Muhammad in far away Denmark by a cartoonist who is neither Igbo nor Nigerian.
Igbo youths are not aggrieved with Nigeria solely because their parents were massacred in the Biafra war. We are aggrieved because almost 50 years after the war, the same people who killed our parents are still killing us even in our homes using fulani herdsmen, in our churches and cities using hausa/fulani soldiers who kill us and bath us with acid, and our places of business using almajiris who slaughter us and burn our shops with state-sponsored impunity for no just cause other than the insatiable urge to spill blood.
My fellow youths, we have lied to ourselves for far too long. How about a little honesty here? All these killings points to one thing which is that our world views are world apart. While you delight in resorting to violence as solution to almost every disagreement, we, the Igbos and indeed, all southerners have serious aversion to bloodshed. It is our belief that our God fight for us, not the other way round.
I love the concluding part of your letter where you rightly asserted that the Biafra agitation is not an issue over which a single drop of blood should be shed. We agree completely. We have all advanced beyond the primitive era of war. We are not asking for war. We are only asking for a YES or NO vote known as Referendum. Now, my dear brethren, add a little work to your faith by prevailing on your leaders who control every facet of the Nigerian govt to allow for a Plebiscite for the Igbos. After they have voted and the YES vote carries the day, you can then give Igbos living in your region whatever condition under which you want them to live.
Dishing out quit notice to Igbos residing in your region when they are yet to be officially granted their referendum and Biafra is only tantamount to putting the cart before the horse. Until the Igbos officially get their Biafra, they remain Nigerians with all the right and privileges of Nigerian citizens including the right of living and doing business anywhere in Nigeria.
Lastly, let me conclude by reminding you that even in the event of a successful referendum for Biafra, all property legally acquired by the Igbos anywhere in Nigeria remain theirs and are protected by international law. Nigerians did not loose their property in Britain when the latter granted her independence in 1960, did they?? The world has progressed considerably. I would remind you that the 'abandoned property' era is over but I'm sure you know that, don't you??
Instead of killing ourselves and creating IDPs everywhere, let us peacefully do "To Your Tent, Oh, Israel!". That way, we will still do things together but as good neighbours under a mutually agreed terms.

Love From A Biafran,
Charles Ogbu

Misterme,
All you posted here is junk! It should be taught in Biafran schools to Biafran children. Nigerian children are entitled to know the outcome of the coup. The outcome is straightfoward truth....when the guns silenced, Yorubas, Hausas, Kanuri and a Midwesterner were dead; Igbos were exempted! Simple and honest! This is what we teach to Nigerians. Feel free to teach all that mumbo jumbo you posted to Biafrans.

OAUTemitayo:
You call Chibok girls Scam but want us to believe that Biafra massacre was real?
See their head,

Is this the best you can come up with?

SYLLABUS OF DECEIT! (THE TRUTH ABOUT THE FIRST COUP) BY OLISA AKUKWE


The broadcast on Biafra by Al-Jazeera must have hit home. I know this for sure with the rush by apologists of the Military-North Complex to indulge in their favourite revisionism. The first Nigeria coup is always their takeoff point.

However, we Ndi Igbo will never stop telling our story. The first couple that they keep labeling the Igbo coup because some of its leaders were Igbo, was never an Igbo coup. If the Military-North Complex that ruled and ruined Nigeria is willing to defend their assertions, let the Federal government of Nigeria muster the will to set up a Commission that will interrogate the first and second coups, since they always claim ALL our problems started then. This may help to bring a final closure to the claims and counter claims!

Indeed Major Kaduna Nzeogwu was reputed to have led the coup. The revisionists never fail to recollect how he invaded the home of Sir Ahmadu Bello and murdered him. They however always fail to mention that Nzeogwu didn’t act alone. Nzeogwu shot his way into Sir Bello’s home, with Lt Atom Kpela, a Tiv man, amongst others shooting with him.

Nzeogwu was murdered by northern troops at Nsukka sector, and his eyes plucked out before burial, during the war. What of Atom Kpela? He ended up as Military Governor of East Central state I.e Igbo land! And you will never hear members of the Military north Complex mention Atom Kpela when they describe the horrors of that fateful night in Sir Ahmadu Bellows home.

The Military-North Complex will always breeze through the fact that Lt College Unegbe contributed most immensely in the failure of the coup in Lagos. Not only because he paid with his life, the ultimate sacrifice by an Igbo man
against an “Igbo coup”. His refusal to grant any access to the ammunition store, for which he was in charge, as the Quarter-Master General,
singularly ruined the coup in Nigeria’s capital
then.

We acknowledge the horrors of that first coup. It is also on record that the fatalities of that coup was 15 persons. A very sad outcome! However you will never hear the revisionists mention that the counter-coup had fatalities of 214 persons, mainly Igbo officers. About 17 times the
fatalities of the first coup. A clear case of Crime against Humanity, under current UN charter! No other coup in Nigeria has ever had up to 20%
of that level of fatality. Even the violent. attempted Orkar coup.

The revisionists will never mention that the coup failed in the north because the coup failed woefully in Kano. The failure of the coup in Kano
was because Lt.Col Ojukwu refused to mobilise the 5th battalion to join the coup. Gen Olusegun Obasanjo in his book “NZEOGWU” wrote that a Lt Ude was sent by the coup plotters to kill Ojukwu. Luckily he was arrested.

The Kano Airport which the coup plotters had hoped to secure was secured for Nigeria by Lt Ike Nwachukwu, whom Ojukwu detailed to do that duty.
All these players that played pivotal and patriotic roles in debilitating the coup were Igbos.

You will also hear them saying that M.I. Okpala, the Premier of Eastern Region was not murdered because the Igbo coup executors in Enugu refused to touch him. However in the biography of Shehu Musa Yaradua, Yaradua
narrated the events of that night. Yaradua was a Lieutenant and he stated that he was practically in charge of the Enugu battalion that night. He
narrated that his commanding officer, Lt.Col Fajuyi was in Lagos. The 2nd in command, who was Major Akonobi, was according to Yaradua’floundering’.
He, Yaradua, was the one that received the signal from the Brigade command in Lagos. And he REFUSED to obey it. He said he refused to obey because he wanted to hear from the Brigade Commander directly, but they could not put him on.

He also narrated that it was him that secured the Archbishop of Cyprus and his entourage, as well as the Premier of Eastern Region. Otherwise the Premier would have been murdered. So much for

He also narrated that it was him that secured the Archbishop of Cyprus and his entourage, as well as the Premier of Eastern Region. Otherwise the Premier would have been murdered. So much for the conspiracy theories that Igbo officers & men refused to murder M.I. Okpala because they are same tribe. Or is distinguished Major Gen. Shehu Musa Yaradua, of blessed memory a liar?

Meanwhile the coup failed not only in Enugu, but also Kano and Benin. Of course Kano and Benin are Igbo land.

You will never hear members of the Military-North Complex that ruined Nigeria mention the IFEAJUNA MANUSCRIPT, which detailed their true plans and intentions. The document detailed clearly their intention to hand over
power to Chief Obafaemi Awolowo. No less a person than Odia Ofeimun, Chief Awolowo’s private secretary for a long time, and renowned poetry revealed this. Obasanjo had also referred to this document, most likely in a Freudian slip.

All other coups in Nigeria, led by different tribal elements, non bears a tribal moniker. Only the first coup. An institutional attempt to justify
all the genocides and official discriminations against Ndi Igbo. All these continue to fuel the burning quest for Ndi Igbo to leave this vindictive union.

It’s time Nigeria officially stops the revisionism. If the Military north Complex thinks their version is the right one, let them have the courage
to open an official truth inquest, into the events of that cold January night.

Let us see if it can help us get an acceptable closure to that painful and fatal epoch.

Olisa Akukwe.

http://pointblanknews.com/pbn/articles-opinions/syllabus-deceit-truth-first-coup-olisa-akukwe/

OBASANJO'S BBC HARDTALK: WHY IGBOS ARE ANGRY WITH NIGERIA: Response

My friends who are not from the East of Nigeria where Igbos come from often ask me why there is so much anger in the East and among Igbos. Some wonder why, despite the famed Igbo” wealth’ and enterprise all over Nigeria, the people still complain that Nigeria is unfair to them. Some insinuate that the anger comes from the loss of the 2015 election by Jonathan who the Igbos heavily backed.


And why is it that the current generation of Igbos are so angry as to contemplate carrying arms against the country? With lots following Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB with his secessionist message. Those not following Kanu may despise his antics and rhetoric but are sympathetic to his underlying message. And what is that message? That Igbos don’t feel wanted in Nigeria. That decades of official marginalization and discrimination should be stopped or they should be allowed to take their chances in a new nation.

First, for those who think this is all about Jonathan and Buhari. It is not. Igbos were disappointed that Jonathan did not win. But those whose candidates lose elections lick their wounds. It is allowed. It happens when your candidate loses election. Why did the Igbos invest so much emotions in Jonathan, a non-Igbo from Ijaw? It was more because of the fear of their experience in the past 50 years. Nigeria has placed an embargo on any Igbo man becoming Nigerian president and Igbos understand this.


Jonathan was the next best thing. Other parts of Nigeria have supported their sons to the presidency. Some have bombed Nigeria into submission to get their sons to Aso Rock. Igbos have little capacity to blackmail Nigeria to the presidency. They chose Jonathan as their “Igbo”. But that’s not to say that they are angry enough because he lost to contemplate going to war on his behalf. Jonathan was not really the model of a President the Igbo would go to war for. And even his Ijaw people have accepted his loss. So?

Igbo anger has been building up in Nigeria since the 70s. As kids, people made choices in other parts of Nigeria school years based on the narrative of the Igbo place in Nigeria. They knew about the glass ceiling against Igbos.


After the civil war, despite the “No winner, no vanquished” program, Nigeria placed glass ceilings and no-go areas for Igbos. The war reconstruction program was observed more in the breach. There was the “abandoned” property program that was introduced to drive a wedge between components of the former South-East Nigeria. While the country was too embarrassed to put the discrimination program down in an official gazette, it was there for anyone who cared to look. It was evident in the Igbo police officer who stayed in one position while less qualifies juniors progressed to become his bosses. It was evident when no Igbo qualified to become the Inspector General of Police, or lead any division in the armed forces. It was there when "sensitive" or "lucrative" positions were shared in Nigeria and Igbos were conspicuously absent.


It was there when Igbos were only fit enough to be made Minister of Information until Obasanjo administration came to power. And even recently, it was there when Buhari appointed 47 people to man the critical roles in his government and no one from the South east was there.


Any time there is a federal appointment in Nigeria, its usually the east that is left to shout. It was there from Buhari first term as a Military Junta to his second coming and any other time in-between.

The Igbo elite called it marginalization. Other Nigerians countered by saying no part of Nigeria was getting enough. Marginalization was universal. But they forgot something. The Igbo cry of marginalization was official policy. It was expected. It was programmed. And occasionally, key government officials let it slip that Igbos should not complain. After all, they fought a war with Nigeria. Talk about No Victor, No Vanquished. There was a Victor alright. And they were reminded of that at every turn. Every appointment. Every national project was propagated with the glass ceiling in mind to contain the Igbos.


How can any nation grow when the leaders are mandated to keep a viable component of her resources subjugated and useless because of fear and insecurity? Nigeria was only pretending. Igbos were licking their wounds and complaining and the rest of Nigeria were too busy to notice.

Go to the South-East today. Since the 70s and the oil boom. Nigeria has invested in commercial industries across the country. None has been sited in the South east. None. Refineries, Steel Plants, Cement Firms. Any Industry.


The South East was systematically de-industrialized. Even when it was the best location for any industry, there was always a reason why it should not be sited there. What this means was that any Igbo man that wanted to work in a commercial federal establishment had to leave the east. Add this to the indigenization policy of the early 70s that pushed the Igbos out of private companies. It meant that international companies also avoided expansion into the south east. The Nigerian Breweries, the Dunlop and other such firms sited their plants outside the East and only set up distribution centers to sell in the region.


This is one of the main reasons the exodus of Igbos from the zone accelerated after the war and continues to this day despite the hostility they face in certain parts of Nigeria. And why most Igbos became traders and commercial business men. Access to organized work either in the government, government commercial institutions and even commercial institutions were limited. This concerted government plan worked so well that the even Igbos began to hate themselves and hate to invest in their zone till this day.


The only industrial enterprise in the east are built by easterners; Nnewi, Aba, Onitsha. These are Igbo indigenous industrial cities. The plan was to frustrate them from investing in their zone or force them to move the industry to North or West where it can be taken from them after getting them to transfer the technology.


This has been the practice since the end of the war.
In addition to this, the Federal Government has systematically made it difficult for Easterners to do commercial business even in the East. The Federal Roads in the East are some of the worst in Nigeria. The Eastern Sea ports have been made ineffective. It was a war to get the Enugu Airport upgraded to an International Airport. The former Finance Minister shed tears on the day the first International Flight landed in Enugu. Yes, Okonjo Iwealla cried! Recently, it was only the South East that was conspicuously missing in the New Railway Plan of the Federal Government. Nigeria has 6 regions and one was missing in a national railway plan while nobody cares.


Incidentally, Igbos who reside in the east are the most itinerant in the country and would benefit most from a national transport plan. Even our President Buhari changed the plan to include his village but a major zone of the country was not included.


When you go to the east, despite the lack of federal presence, the presence of police all over the east tells a story. They mount road blocks and make it difficult to have commercial activities to run smoothly. Recently, Customs has joined. And lastly the army. It is an occupied territory. They extort money. They intimidate them by all means. They have recently started shooting and killing them.


Nigeria has made the east unlivable. They sponsor dubious governors, senators, and political leaders that take orders from the caliphate - Purposely, Carefully.

In conversations, people often accuse the east of being clannish or tribalistic. That is far from the truth. No group assimilate or blend in more than the Igbos. They claim Igbos are welcome in all parts of Nigeria, but outsiders cannot come to the East. The question is: why would anyone come to the east? To do what? There is no business to do in the east. Nigeria has ensured that. Why would someone from the South West of Nigeria go to the East to invest? No one would prevent them. But it hardly makes commercial sense. Nigeria has ensured that.


Those from the North are there in droves. Igbos love to celebrate with cows. And the cattlemen go there to sell their cattle. No one molests them. In the villages in the East, these northerners live unmolested. But those are the only people who can find commercial reason to be there!


So those who wonder why Igbos are angry, wonder no more. While most would not dare carry arms against Nigeria, don’t under estimate the level of disconnection and anger especially among the younger generation who feel hopeless and in prisoned for something they did not do.


Nigeria is made of nations that came together to form the country. No nation will like to remain in perpetual servitude or slavery. Igbos were at the forefront in the fight for Nigerian independence against Britain. If they did not allow Britain to subjugate them, they surely will not allow any local power or they may strike at the slightest opportunity at other pseudo dominating power over them.


That Nnamdi Kanu’s supporters starred down army tanks with sticks is a sign that the next generation will be ready to fight bare hands if necessary to stop Nigeria treating the Igbo nation as second-class citizens. There will be fiercer and angrier Kanus in the immediate future if Nigeria does not officially stop the “vanquished “program against the Igbos who fought the civil war.


You cannot preach *unity* and *indivisibility* of the country on TV and all your actions point to discrimination against the components of the country. It is hypocrisy. It is as dangerous as it is foolhardy.


Let those who preach unity walk the talk and stop open discrimination of their countrymen.


History has shown that you cannot decree peace. You cannot decree unity. You cannot force any group to belong to a country by force, it may work for a time. But never sustainable.



Nigeria has a lot to look forward to as a united country. It also has enough for the regions and nations that make up the country. Our diversity is a blessing. Our failure to reach our potential is caused mostly by the internal contradictions and the inability to build a fair country that can bring out the best out of her component regions.



Those who shout most about loving Nigeria today are mostly those its current unfair structure favor. But Nigeria will continue being as strong as its weakest link. And the weak links are all there to see. The East is one of the weakest links. Until it stops being a weak link, Nigeria cannot truly make progress.


The Republican News
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Forwarded as Received.