Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me - Politics - Nairaland
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| Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by Nobody: 5:03am On Jan 23, 2010 |
Nigerian nationality was for me and my generation an acquired taste – like cheese. Or better still, like ballroom dancing. Not dancing per se, for that came naturally; but this titillating version of slow-slow-quick-quick-slow performed in close body contact with a female against a strange, elusive beat. I found, however, that once I had overcome my initial awkwardness I could do it pretty well. The Education of a British-Protected Child by Chinua Achebe 192pp,Allen Lane,£20Buy The Education of a British-Protected Child at the Guardian bookshopPerhaps these irreverent analogies would only occur to someone like me, born into a strongly multiethnic, multilingual, multireligious, somewhat chaotic colonial situation. The first passport I ever carried described me as a "British Protected Person", an unexciting identity embodied in a phrase that no one was likely to die for. I don't mean it was entirely devoid of emotive meaning. After all, "British" meant you were located somewhere in the flaming red portion of the world map, a quarter of the entire globe in those days and called "the British Empire, where the sun never sets". It had a good ring to it in my childhood ears – a magical fraternity, vague but vicariously glorious. My earliest awareness in the town of Ogidi did not include any of that British stuff, nor indeed the Nigerian stuff. That came with progress in school. Ogidi is one of a thousand or more "towns" that make up the Igbo nation, one of Nigeria's (indeed Africa's) largest ethnic groups. But the Igbo, numbering more than 10 million, are a curious "nation". They have been called names such as "stateless" or "acephalous" by anthropologists; "argumentative" by those sent to administer them. But what the Igbo are is not the negative suggested by such descriptions but strongly, positively, in favour of small-scale political organisation so that (as they would say) every man's eye would reach where things are happening. So every one of the thousand towns was a mini-state with complete jurisdiction over its affairs. A sense of civic attachment to their numerous towns was more real for precolonial Igbo people than any unitary pan-Igbo feeling. This made them notoriously difficult to govern centrally, as the British discovered but never appreciated nor quite forgave. Their dislike was demonstrated during the Biafran tragedy, when they accused the Igbo of threatening to break up a nation-state they had carefully and laboriously put together. The paradox of Biafra was that the Igbo themselves had originally championed the Nigerian nation more spiritedly than other Nigerians. One proof of this: the British had thrown more of them into jail for sedition than any others during the two decades or so of pre-independence agitation and troublemaking. So the Igbo were second to none on the nationalist front when Britain finally conceded independence to Nigeria in 1960, a move that, in retrospect, seems like a masterstroke of tactical withdrawal to achieve a supreme strategic advantage. At the time we were proud of what we had just achieved. True, Ghana had beaten us to it by three years, but then Ghana was a tiny affair, easy to manage, compared to the huge lumbering giant called Nigeria. We did not have to be vociferous like Ghana; just our presence was enough. Indeed, the elephant was our national emblem; our airline's was the flying elephant! Nigerian troops soon distinguished themselves in a big way in the United Nations peacekeeping efforts in the Congo. Our elephant, defying aerodynamics, was flying. Travelling as a Nigerian was exciting. People listened to us. Our money was worth more than the dollar. In 1961 when the driver of a bus in the British colony of Northern Rhodesia asked me what I was doing sitting in the front of the bus, I told him nonchalantly that I was going to Victoria Falls. In amazement he stooped lower and asked where I came from. I replied, even more casually: "Nigeria, if you must know; and, by the way, in Nigeria we sit where we like in the bus." Back home I took up the rather important position of director of external broadcasting, an entirely new radio service aimed primarily at our African neighbours. I could do it in those days, because our politicians had yet to learn the uses of information control and did not immediately attempt to regiment our output. They were learning fast, though. But before I could get enmeshed in that, something much nastier had seized hold of all of us. The six-year-old Nigerian federation was falling apart from the severe strain of regional animosity and ineffectual central authority. The transparent failure of the electoral process to translate the will of the electorate into recognisable results at the polls led to mass frustration and violence. While western Nigeria, one of the four regions, was going up literally in flames, the quiet and dignified Nigerian prime minister was hosting a Commonwealth conference to extricate Harold Wilson from a mess he had got himself into in faraway Rhodesia. But so tense was the local situation that the visiting heads of government had to be airlifted by helicopter from the Lagos airport into a secluded suburb to avoid the rampaging crowds. Nigeria's first military coup took place even as those dignitaries were flying out of Lagos again at the end of their conference. One of them, Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus, was in fact still in the country. The prime minister and two regional premiers were killed by the coup-makers. In the bitter, suspicious atmosphere of the time, a naively idealistic coup proved a terrible disaster. It was interpreted with plausibility as a plot by the ambitious Igbo of the east to take control of Nigeria. Six months later, northern officers carried out a revenge coup in which they killed Igbo officers and men in large numbers. If it had ended there, the matter might have been seen as a tragic interlude in nation building, a horrendous tit for tat. But the northerners turned on Igbo civilians living in the north and unleashed waves of brutal massacres, which Colin Legum of the Observer was the first to describe as a pogrom. It was estimated that 30,000 civilian men, women and children died in these massacres. Igbos were fleeing in hundreds of thousands from all parts of Nigeria to their homeland in the east. I was one of the last to flee from Lagos. I simply could not bring myself quickly enough to accept that I could no longer live in my nation's capital, although the facts clearly said so. One Sunday morning I was telephoned from Broadcasting House and informed that armed soldiers who appeared drunk had come looking for me to test which was stronger, my pen or their gun. The offence of my pen was that it had written a novel called A Man of the People, a bitter satire on political corruption in an African country that resembled Nigeria. I wanted the novel to be a denunciation of the kind of independence that people were experiencing in postcolonial Nigeria and many other countries in the 1960s, and I intended it to scare my countrymen into good behaviour with a frightening cautionary tale. The best monster I could come up with was a military coup d'état, which every sane Nigerian at the time knew was rather far-fetched. But life and art had got so entangled that season that the publication of the novel and Nigeria's first military coup happened within two days of each other. Critics abroad called me a prophet, but some of my countrymen saw it differently: my novel was proof of my complicity in the first coup. I was very lucky that Sunday morning. The drunken soldiers, after leaving Broadcasting House, went to a residence I had recently vacated. Meanwhile I was able to take my wife and two small children into hiding, from where I finally sent them to my ancestral home in eastern Nigeria. A week or two later, unknown callers asked for me on the telephone at my hideout. My host denied my presence. It was time then to leave Lagos. My feeling was one of profound disappointment. Not because mobs were hunting down and killing in the most savage manner innocent civilians in many parts of northern Nigeria, but because the federal government sat by and let it happen. The final consequence of this failure of the state to fulfil its primary obligation to its citizens was the secession of eastern Nigeria as the Republic of Biafra. The demise of Nigeria at that point was averted only by Britain's spirited diplomatic and military support of its model colony. It was Britain and the Soviet Union that together crushed the upstart Biafran state. At the end of the 30-month war, Biafra was a vast smouldering rubble. The cost in human lives was a staggering two million souls, making it one of the bloodiest civil wars in human history. I found it difficult to forgive Nigeria and my countrymen and women for the political nonchalance and cruelty that unleashed upon us these terrible events, which set us back a whole generation and robbed us of the chance, clearly within our grasp, to become a medium-rank developed nation in the 20th century. My immediate response was to leave Nigeria at the end of the war, having honourably, I hoped, stayed around long enough to receive whatever retribution might be due to me for renouncing Nigeria for 30 months. Fortunately the federal government proclaimed a general amnesty, and the only punishment I received was the general financial and emotional indemnity that war losers pay, and some relatively minor personal harassment. I went abroad to New England, to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and stayed four years and then another year at the University of Connecticut. It was by far my longest exile from Nigeria and it gave me time to reflect and to heal somewhat. Without setting out consciously to do so, I was redefining my relationship to Nigeria. I realised that I could not reject her, but neither could it be business as usual. What was Nigeria to me? Our 1960 national anthem, given to us as a parting gift by a British housewife in England, had called Nigeria "our sovereign motherland". The current anthem, put together by a committee of Nigerian intellectuals and actually worse than the first one, invokes the father image. But it has occurred to me that Nigeria is neither my mother nor my father. Nigeria is a child. Gifted, enormously talented, prodigiously endowed and incredibly wayward. Being a Nigerian is abysmally frustrating and unbelievably exciting. I have said somewhere that in my next reincarnation I want to be a Nigerian again; but I have also, in a rather angry book called The Trouble with Nigeria, dismissed Nigerian travel advertisements with the suggestion that only a tourist with a kinky addiction to self-flagellation would pick Nigeria for a holiday. And I mean both. Nigeria needs help. Nigerians have their work cut out for them – to coax this unruly child along the path of useful creative development. We are the parents of Nigeria, not vice versa. A generation will come, if we do our work patiently and well – and given luck – a generation that will call Nigeria father or mother. But not yet. Meanwhile our present work is not entirely without its blessing and reward. This wayward child can show now and again great intimations of affection. I have seen this flow towards me at certain critical moments. When I was in America after the Biafran war, an army officer who sat on the council of my university in Nigeria as representative of the federal military government pressured the university to call me back home. This officer had fought in the field against my fellow Biafrans during the war and had been seriously wounded. He had every right to be bitter against people like me. I had never met him, but he knew my work and was himself a poet. More recently, after a motor accident in 2001 that left me with serious injuries, I have witnessed an outflow of affection from Nigerians at every level. I am still dumbfounded by it. The hard words Nigeria and I have said to each other begin to look like words of anxious love, not hate. Nigeria is a country where nobody can wake up in the morning and ask: what can I do now? There is work for all. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/23/chinua-achebe-nigeria-childhood |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by Nobody: 5:04am On Jan 23, 2010 |
Please make the effort to read before commenting |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by buffnaija: 5:57am On Jan 23, 2010 |
why did he leave out the part where igbos laid claim to niger delta oil that wasn't theres. Biafra was terrible and one can not forget that. but igbos were also fighting that war aggresively. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by WilyWily7: 10:45am On Jan 23, 2010 |
buffnaija:Why are you Stupid, |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by SEFAGO(m): 11:12am On Jan 23, 2010 |
Man beautiful - anytime I hear Chinua AAchebe speak, I am always forced to listen. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by onyengbu1(m): 1:52pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
buffnaija: Why dont you provide us with a link/proof to that part. How can people be so naive. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by Nestoville(m): 1:57pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
You do not need to be a soothsayer to understand what this man is saying. He is wants reconciliation as many Nigerians want, but we all know the few people who have held and continue to hold Nigeria to hostage. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by aloyemeka2: 3:17pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
The six-year-old Nigerian federation was falling apart from the severe strain of regional animosity and ineffectual central authority. The transparent failure of the electoral process to translate the will of the electorate into recognisable results at the polls led to mass frustration and violence. While western Nigeria, one of the four regions, was going up literally in flames, the quiet and dignified Nigerian prime minister was hosting a Commonwealth conference to extricate Harold Wilson from a mess he had got himself into in faraway Rhodesia. But so tense was the local situation that the visiting heads of government had to be airlifted by helicopter from the Lagos airport into a secluded suburb to avoid the rampaging crowds. Touching One Sunday morning I was telephoned from Broadcasting House and informed that armed soldiers who appeared drunk had come looking for me to test which was stronger, my pen or their gun.The offence of my pen was that it had written a novel called A Man of the People, a bitter satire on political corruption in an African country that resembled Nigeria. I wanted the novel to be a denunciation of the kind of independence that people were experiencing in postcolonial Nigeria and many other countries in the 1960s, and I intended it to scare my countrymen into good behaviour with a frightening cautionary tale. The best monster I could come up with was a military coup d'état, which every sane Nigerian at the time knew was rather far-fetched. But life and art had got so entangled that season that the publication of the novel and Nigeria's first military coup happened within two days of each other. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by akigbemaru: 3:26pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
I like Achebe's Style of writing but Igbos clamoring or crying about Biafran war everyday has become a platitude. Experience is the best teacher, you have learned reason not to be greedy in hard way. I am glad that he never mentioned Yoruba in this article, he was just been coward. And those of you who say Awolowo gave you 20 pounds. You cannot eat your cake and still have it. You made more than half of money to build east from west. Your situation is analogous to Iya pure, who lost $50 and found $150, but still claiming she could have had $200 rightnow. My advice to you Mr. Achebe, let Biafran talks be clandestinely Ibo discourse, if you bring it to the public, you are only constituting a nuisance of yourself, because people will view you with such compartic derision. They know you IBos are not sincere about biafran motive. If you blame you today, Niger Deltans tomorrow, British and Soviet Union next tomorrow fir your throes. It seems you are the real cause of your problem. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by beneli(m): 3:33pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
mikeansy: mikeansy: |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by aloyemeka2: 3:34pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
akigbemaru: Yet the igbo hatred continues. It's pathetic; what is behind the massacre of over 30,000 igbos in the North before the Biafra war?. Is it also Igbo greed?. Your inability to read should be blamed here because your response shows you didn't understand the article. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by Nobody: 3:41pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
This is the Biafran/Nigeria tale from the perspective of an everyday day guy who was not at politcal or military circles. He was not in the baracks nor in the government house. He was not among the officers who decided that a coup was the "only" way out. He was not among the class that was killed, in their bid to "sanitize" Nigeria. He was not at Aburi let alone reaching or signing any accord (or mabye discord). He did not choose Biafra, Biafra was chosen for him by those who held the political/military power. Yet and much more, he did not choose Nigeria rather Nigeria was choosen for him by the colonialists. The coup and its counter, the genocide and the subsequent civil war had all come and gone (or have they indeed gone?) Yet, one fact is still here, Nigeria is not yet one Nation. If the intent and attitude of the external colonialists was anything near a "oneness", then its unfortunate that the attitude of the internal colonialist of today is so far away from any oneness. The internal colonialists are disintegrating Nigeria more and more. Coming from another state of Nigeria into Anambra State to impose a governor is a serious infringement on our rights of existence as a people. Such oppression only reminds us that we lost a war and have no right to choose our leaders. Yet, we are shouting that we have the right, but our voice is muffled by the sound of their "federal might". Its a pity and a shame, but let the truth be told: is there hope for healing? Is there a room for trust among us? The more we live in Nigeria, the more this hope deems! Biafra is nothing but a cry for freedom! Provided that the Jihardists will continue their blood letting at will and provided that the internal colonislists will continue their oppression, Biafra will never die. Biafra as in Goegraphy is presently sleeping, but her life as a Nation is getting stronger and stronger by the day; drawing strenght from no other source than from the oppressors tools of oppression. Those who doubt these facts are either living in self denial or deluded by the sound of their guns. For example, in the eighties when some of us where in Secondary Schools, Biafra was only a passing phrase but today, its a "consciouness". To Chinua Achebe, all I can say is "God bless you Sir". |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by presido1: 3:55pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
aloy-emeka:He did understood the article but the hatred in him did not allow him to put up a good responce hence his Iya pure water analogy(what ever that means). |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by MrCartha: 4:12pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
buffnaija: A fool will always blame the brave for his failure  |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by bebrief(m): 4:37pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
In ever sense of the word, i strongly believe the war was a big mistake. Regardless of the circumstances, it was a mixed result of greed and short-sight by the supposed Igbo leaders at that time. And i reserve no apologies. What still baffles me about the Igbo race, of which i am a part, is that after all she has been through, there's still no end in sight to her multiplicity of divided interests and lack of direction as a people, yet her people continues to thrive against all odds. I however still believe in Achebe's vision of a generation, which will call Nigeria father or mother. A generation that will restore our lost dignity - if nothing rash is done now. This has nothing to do with Biafra or the Igbos alone, but a new breed of intellectuals, uncorrupted by the bizarre politics of today. A breed of sound minds governed by good conscience who are mindful of the people. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by aloyemeka2: 5:04pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
bebrief: And you think the continual massacre of Southerners is the way to go?. I'll tell you this: You are either a Northerner[you look like one honestly] or you are a selfish coward who will rather live in this present fear endlessly and leave your children to inherit it. I do not wish or hope my generation will live in this present condition in Nigeria. You never fail until you stop trying. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by bebrief(m): 5:13pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
aloy-emeka: If only you can tell me the solution, who has a plan, what is planned and what is the desired result, then I can talk with you. But for now I don't think you have a point. It's only a fool that goes to war without a plan. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by Nobody: 5:20pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
Most Nigerians are politically immature To continue to assume the actions of Kaduna Nzeogwu and co at the time can be passed as an Igbo policy and such condone the massacre of defenseless civillians is shameful. Just like it is unfair to conclude that the current refusal by a few group of criminals arround the corridor of power to allow the transmission of power to Jonathan is a Northern policy. People who claim to be educated and have access to the computer just come up here translate the ignorant tales their illiterate parents told them and then post it on the internet without rationalizing it. How can any civilised person continue to justify the massacre of civilians because a group of soldiers plotted a coup? There was a counter coup by the North . . . . why did it not stop at that? Why attack civillians? Thats the point Chinua Achebe was making. He neither supported the first coup nor the second one. It is like calling for the Massacre of all Hausas in NigerDelta because Tanimu Yakubu, Abba Ruma, Serki Mukhtar and Turai Yar'adua are perpetrating illegality in Government and refusing the transfer of power to an Ijaw man. It is shameful, babaric and am sorry to say it folks who continue to make this kind of argument should go and asked for their school fees to be returned by those who educated them. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by aloyemeka2: 5:21pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
bebrief: The simple solution is to divide Nigeria into North and South and there must be a price to pay in terms of human lives and economy. Biafra albeit premature was a good foresight and it's failure was the genesis of this suffering in Nigeria today. There is no need pretending we don't have a problem when ours is hydra headed. The south for sure may have bad government, corruption yada yada but there will not be any indiscriminate massacre of citizens by another tribe. There is a wide gap between the southern and Northern psyche. Had Lord Lugard did his home work well, He should have known that Niger republic, Chad and Northerners together would have been a more prosperous trouble free nation while Southern Nigeria, Cameroun, Ghana and Benin Republic would have faired better. The marriage of Northh and South is akin to the marriage of Arabs and Jews in one nation. Your people [b/c I know you are a Northerner claiming Igbo here, it's written all over your face] should seek their destiny elsewhere and stop killing Southerners. There is no honor in killing. The igbos in the South East can as well kill your people out of the blues, but they chose not to so that because they are not barbaric like the Northerners. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by aloyemeka2: 5:24pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
mikeansy: It's very clear to them but tribal bigotry will forever blind them. If Igbos should be massacred because of Kaduna Nzeogwu, why haven't the Yoruba massacred the Hausa/Fulanis in Lagos since their late brother, Abacha dealt with prominent Yorubas?. Should the middle belt massacre the hausa/Fulanis because of Orkar and vice versa?. It's the igbo envy that drives the likes of Akingbemaru to choose living in fear and penury in place of freedom. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by bebrief(m): 5:40pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
aloy-emeka: You've barely answered the "what is planned?". How about "who leads this plan?" and "what is the desired result?". Had we been in the 60's, this solution could still make sense. But i doubt if you could sell this agenda to the entire south: Yoruba, Igbo, Delta, Edo, Calabar and Niger Deltans alike without having a fight. Who will lead in the south? The Igbo man? Yoruba? etc? We MUST realize that our problems will never get solved by division. I weep when I see young Nigerians still discuss the same issues that led us to the civil war. We have to move ahead as a people. Killing of any sort and for any reason is too barbaric and can never be justified. I hate to hear that argument. By the way, who are you to dispute my identity? Or why do you think i should want to 'claim' being Igbo?  |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by aloyemeka2: 5:43pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
bebrief: Break away first before talking of democracy, leadership and restructuring. You can't write jamb exams without first getting your high school diploma. It's preposterous to claim that the south will be a dismal failure when we haven't tried it first. Nigeria is a failure already so why are we scared of another failure?. We can't go down again because we are already at the bottom of the pit, the remaining two options we have now is go upwards or continue to stay down[like we are now]. It's time we weed out all these cowards who find every reason on the planet to scare us into remaining in this deadly marriage called Nigeria. I tell it to your face again, you are a damn Northerner and are afraid what will become of your people if Southerners break away. I know Northerners want to keep Southerners in the union by every possible means and that's why I know that breaking away won't be easy and we will forever live on our toes like the Palestines throw stones continuously at Israelis. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by bebrief(m): 6:04pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
What stops the south from breaking away? I guess you can as well lead the march. If you know what you can do right, then go ahead doing it and stop ranting all about like a coward. But please don't lead some innocent people into the battlefield and escape to Ivory coast. Unless you really don't have a plan afterall. By the way, who are you to dispute my identity? Or why do you think i should want to 'claim' being Igbo? |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by asha80(m): 6:07pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
bebrief: how do you think nigeria as it is now can be better? |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by prankster(m): 6:15pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
The Igbos weren't being greedy for pursuing Biafra, the main reason was because they were just tired of the Northerners Oppression and corruption. Even the Yoruba's were all for the separation of Nigeria, but backed out, and that’s why till today the Igbos see the Yoruba’s as cowards and back stabbers. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by aloyemeka2: 6:40pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
bebrief: Watch out babe; The revolution will happen before you know it and stop claiming to be igbo. I know who you are. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by Onlytruth(m): 6:44pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
aloy-emeka: The [b]Akingbemaru[/b]s of the south is what makes southern Nigeria impossible, believe me I diligently explored that possibility and came up with the same Yoruba attitudes displayed by the likes of Awo in 1967. There was a time I believed a southern Nigeria was possible, but after carefully examining perspectives from the west, I found out that they are only interested in a breakaway that ensures no dangers to Yorubaland. That alone kills any possibility of partnership with the rest of the south. The formation of any new nation involves risks. The west is not interested in risks. But come to think of it, isn't it clear that Nigeria is a very vulnerable country because western Nigerians are cowards? Supposing an enemy invades Nigeria from the west, who will fight there? I know Igbos won't, and northerners may not want to fight there because there is no oil. Hmm, this country makes me laugh. Nigeria has been only preparing for a war against the East which allows the Yorubas to hide behind Hausas in attacking the East again. Problem is that this scenario will NEVER happen again. Funny country indeed!  |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by aloyemeka2: 7:03pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
Onlytruth: I do not buy that Yoruba is a coward line because the likes of Wole Soyinka, Tai Solarin, Gani, Falana, Tinubu, etc are Yorubas and for sure they will match in front of any war. Wole Soyinka went to jail because he supported Biafra and I guess the Akingbemarus will also call Soyinka greedy for staying in jail for 3 years in support of Biafra. We are so self centered in Nigeria that we can agree to stay in shackles as long as the other tribe is in pains. I strive for freedom for all and the only way out is for everybody to go its way. Of course, the Union of the South will not come easy but for sure there will not be any discriminate blood bath. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by Onlytruth(m): 7:24pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
aloy-emeka: There are different types of bravery. Much as I respect people like Soyinka and Solarin, I cannot remember them in military fatigues in battlefields. I'm sorry. Take a close look at Nigeria's history, you will find that the closest a Yoruba got to true bravery was when Fajuyi stood by Ironsi and died for it. He stood for something higher than himself. It was risky, but he stood nevertheless. Taking a position despite real and imminent risk is what I call bravery. I would want to recall a coup in Nigeria led by a Yoruba officer. None. I would also want to recall a principled position taken by the Yoruba which could have led to war. It never happened even after Abiola died in jail. The only military campaign by a Yoruba officer was when Adenkule, leading a largely northern and gwodo gwodo soldiers invaded Calabar in 1967. Obasanjo inherited that same force, and when Murtala Muhammed died in Dimka's coup of 1976, he ran and hid under the bed! He came out only after he was assured of safety by the Babangidas and Yar aduas. If Ojukwu was actually fighting for oil as liars like Obasanjo alluded to, he would have sent the best Biafran forces south into the delta at the onset of war. But he sent them westwards trying to boost Yoruba guts to rise up and fight. What we got was a stab in the back. So, until I see the Yorubas lead a true military campaign which is really risky, I beg to keep my beliefs.  |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by Str8talk: 7:52pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
@aloy-emeka So for your project to even start you need to deal with the following: 1. the mutual suspicion and contempt in your territories - Onlytruth and Akigbemaru are give foretastes 2. Do you have a united south or do you want to divide them up further - Ibo, Yoruba, Ijaw, Ibibio etc There will be fear of domination or that I am too small to stand alone 3. You are swimming against the tide. People are constituting themselves into blocs and now you are thinking of division. Small countries are vulnerable and are easily trampled upon. Even within the EU, the small countries are easily overlooked. The likes of Singapore have huge challenges in the future. Israel depends significantly on America. I am talking here about countries that are progressing, not the mushroom pretenders that Africa is littered with 4. You assume that dividing will be easy and better. Suppose it turns out to be an error! You cannot easily divide up a country and put it back at will. Remember that Nigeria's situtation is not acceptable to us but it is better than Somalia, Afgahanistan, war time Sierra Leone Let us be careful |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by aloyemeka2: 7:58pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
Str8talk: I don't know what you understand by a small country. Southern Nigeria will still be more populated than England and France, so what are you talking about?. There is no need having a big car that doesn't work, instead you can buy a smaller one that works. Like I said before, the South needs to sort out the tribal juggernauts among themselves and the hypocrites who are capable of being Fulani or Yoruba at any given time. That will be the first step because the North did not only win the Biafran war but they won the very thing that help their agenda last for long which is distrust among Southerners. Do you know that calling IBB or Abacha Hausa men is like calling Obasanjo an Igbo man?. Yet they all hide under that same umbrella because they know it's their source of power. United they stand. |
| Re: Chinua Achebe - What Nigeria Means To Me by aloyemeka2: 8:05pm On Jan 23, 2010 |
Onlytruth: I am not here to do brave analysis. Wole Soyinka risked his life and could have died in jail during the Biafran war, what is more brave than that?. The Ekiti man that died with Aguiyi Ironsi nko? What is more brave than that?. The three decider in any war in Nigeria will be Igbo, hausa and Yoruba. So, one camp leaving will mean 1/3 fighting against 2/3. Yoruba will not do that because they suspect the igbos are waiting to get their pound of flesh. I will not be surprised if Igbos join the Hausas if the Yorubas start war today. So, that distrust is the problem and that is the part of Biafran war won by the Hausas so much. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that the Yorubas will stick to plan if Igbos decides to start another war again. Their council of crooks may attend owambe in Sokoto while you guys are dying in the jungle. Betrayal is a bi/tch. |
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