The Biafra War-a Case Of Genocide Or Not?

Dominate ogini? . . . . na by force? We always dominated Southern Nigeria before the creation of Nigeria in 1914. If I lie, go and ask them. We used to keep Ibo's as slaves and sell them to the whiteman. My great great grandfather was a slave to an Okrika man - that is how we came to be Ijaw. If you go and look at Jamaica and Haiti, you will find that a lot of them are Ibo and upland tribes that the Ijaws sold to the Oyinbo. Infact, we were THE slavetraders of Nigeria. Every Ibo and upland tribe along the Imo river had to pay tribute to the King of Bonny and later to the King of Opobo. Infact, they were barred from trading directly with the whiteman and could only sell their goods through the people of Opobo. I am not being tribalist, this is HISTORICAL FACT. A lion will always be a lion. If we did not allow the British to dominate us and we do not allow Nigeria to oppress us now, do you think we would allow the Ibo?. . . . tufiakwa. . . . make I spit for ground first.

You used to keep ibos as slaves? How come these slaves outnumbered their masters and overcame them economically and  academically even after selling nearly half  of them to the white man? They still outnumber  you even after selling them short to the hausas during the civil war for a piece of bread?. That suggests to me that the generation of Ijaws today are then cursed because it's an abomination for a master to serve his slave(go and check it out in the bible).

DeepZone, I wouldn't be surprised if people are offended with some of your comments about their tribe. 

Tone it down or excuse yourself because majority of us here are just having a banter not trying to put a tribe down. 

Why not talk to Ibime that has been yapping bullshit about the Yorubas all along?

Back to the main issue;

Was there any reported case of Pogrom before the Nzeogwu coup?

If not we can say the coup caused it because How can you kill the Prime Minister and the Premier of the northern region (Hausa), Premier of the western region (Yoruba), Minister of Finance(Edo) and omit(deliberately) the premier of the East and the President if you are truly revolutionary?

The Sardauna was the most reverred man in the North and he was killed but They missed Azikwe and Mbakwe?

That is the root cause of the Biafra problem because. Look at it you eliminated the top Hausa, Edo and Yoruba and left the Ibo and you expect peace? You replaced them with an Ibo man and you expect peace?

You call Yoruba's coward and betrayers? Compare the act of Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna with that of Adekunle Fajuyi. While Ifeajuna and Nzeogwu ommitted their Clansmen from elimination, Fajuyi opted to die with Ironsi in Ibadan It was reported the the coup plotters told Fajuyi to release Ironsi for them but he calimed Ironsi was his guest and they should kill him with Ironsi.

Its Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna that are the cowards and two faced hypocrites.

Moreover during the war can you tell me why Biafra army entered into part of Nigeria the midwest till they were stopped at Ore? Or the mid west were part of Biafra?

A Yoruba man Victor banjo led parts of the Biafra Army yet you accuse Yorubas of Back stabbing.

What was Azikwe's role during the Biafra war? Did he support the idea? You are blaming Yorubas for not joining the secession when the biggest Ibo man

at that time did not join the rebbelion you are now asking Yorubas to join in Your rebellion.

If Biafra was genocide what do you call the flattening of the mid west by Biafran soldiers of you mean Biafran soldiers did not kill civilians in the mid west?

Sensible responses that would address these questions are needed.

I just dont like it when people come here to whine and feed us with half truths.

You declare a republic within a republic that is treason.  Punishable by death.

When Biafra were passing throught the mid west were they just marching in a straight line and patting the indegenes of the mid west on the back?

What were they looking for in the mid west cos I heard the battle at Ore was bloddy!!!! What were they looking for.

They are claiming Yorubas didnt secede I think they agressed Yoruba And Midwest territory, (Ore) and Yorubas and midwesterners have to hit back which they did in conjunction with Hausa's. 

Ojukwu just drove innocents people into a needless war because he was schemed out of the power struggle after the Gowon coup.

He felt he was senior to Gowon and he should have been head of state. The civilians too were suckered into beleiving him.

If he did not beleive in the Nigerian project , why did he contest to be Nigeria's president much later.

OK Deep Zone, you are overstepping your boundaries now. This one done pass joke. Oya, I gotta defend my peeps.

What are you talking about getting degrees in fishing and cleaning white mans shoes?



You need to stop smoking seaweed. Now I know for sure that you have never been further South than Edo state. We have never served the Ibo man and never will. Why hasn't any Ibo man come here to deny my statements that we kept Ibos as slaves? Ibos outnumber us more than 3 to 1 and you are here talking about dominate this and dominate that. Never in their history have they dominated us. They have never raided our lands - we have raided theirs.  Any Ibo kept as a slave was always treated as a son and only judged on his level of competency, not his genes. Slaves were often promoted over sons if they performed better. Hence, JaJa could rise to be King of Opobo. Hence my ancestor could become a part of the family and was beqeauthed land upon his masters death. Maybe you should ask yourself why JaJa never chose to go back home. The Ibos are excellent traders, and I think you will agree that they dominate any part of Nigeria they go to when it comes to buying and selling, even Yorubaland - but what people do not know is that they also top Nigeria in education and Ijaws are also very educated.

Do not for one second assume that Yorubas are the most educated group in Nigeria. Igbos usually have the top percentage of JAMB entrants year in, year out. Other tribes are well educated per capita but lacking numbers to make any significant dent. Even little Imo state constantly top the list of JAMB entrants, more than any Yoruba state. Never assume that Igbos or Ijaws (or any tribe you have never visited)  are less educated just because they are under represented in the federal bureaucracy. Yorubas do not hold a monopoly on education - far from it, we are equal competitors. Never argue with imperfect information. The only ethnic group that we can confidently say are uneducated are the Hausa/Fulani.

Oya, look at the JAMB results of 2002: Firstly, these are the highest no of entrants (by state):

http://nigeriaworld.com/letters/2003/mar/112ltr.html  


FIRST SIX

 

STATES               TOTAL NO OF APPLICANTS    PERCENTAGE

1. Imo                                      95,984                               9.84

2. Delta                                    80,448                               8.25

3. Anambra                              64,296                               6.59

4. Edo                                    61,897                                 6.37

5. Ogun                                  54,272                                 5.60

6. Ondo                                  46,592                                4.70



And these are the top six states (in terms of pass marks)


STATE OF ORIGIN          NO. OF SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES         PERCENTAGE

1. Imo                                                 11,264                                     12.00

2. Anambra                                          9,320                                       10.00

3. Enugu                                              5,917                                        6.22

4.Delta                                                                                                                                  

5. Rivers

6. Abia                                                 5,088                                        5.34
 

* Ebonyi                                               1,793                                       1.88


Those statistics do not show the figures for Delta and Rivers state because the author of the work was concentrating on the Igbo states. But there we are in 4th and 5th place.

As you can see there, Igbo and Ijaw states are the top six states - no Yoruba state.

Quote:

It should be noted that Edo, Ogun and Ondo States which were among the first six states in terms of number of applicants (by states of origin) gave way to Enugu, Rivers and Abia States in terms of successful candidates (by states of origin). Is it not a wonder that the “buyers and sellers” from the South_East got 35.44 percent of the overall successful candidates? Such falsehoods as peddled in some Nigeria news media flies in the face of the facts. I make bold to say that Igbos would have performed better than they did if there is free secondary education in the South East, as obtains in some parts of the country.

So DeepZone,

If you wish to do your own calculations on which ethnic groups of Nigeria are really educated as opposed to engaging in baseless tribal posturing, I suggest you go to jambng.com, click on statistics, do your statistical calculations, then come back and tell me that Ijaws are not educated . . . . .degrees in fishing?. . . .  nama shobiri! . . . . even our militants get degree!

^^^ No, the Yorubas ARE highly educated. Remember they also have a lot of people abroad. But we are also highly educated - although certain miscreants amongst them keep claiming otherwise.

Okay. So if they are highly educated why haven't they brought their skills home to drive the country on the part to industrialisation. Having so many people abroad is nonsense when their towns and villages have not moved past 4th century BC.  I went to the "fountain of knowledge" (Ekiti state) recently and i must tell you that i was gravely dissapointed. So tell me of what use is education when you cannot use to move your community or the country but only to use to brag about and make nonsensical noise. The Europeans can afford to be noisy on thier educational attainment because they have used to moved their countries to its' present zenith.

Of course I read and spoke to a Biafra soldier in the east and he confirmed.

But you are not answering the questions asked I can see your tone in earlier pages you and eziachi were defending the Biafra genocide theory thing. Now question are being asked and you are being dodgy.

Here's what an Igbo man has to say


IGBO PROVOCATION

There is no disagreement between Siollun and myself in this section. I commend Mr. Siollun for agreeing with me on one point. He wrote: “I agree with Mr. Unegbe that the anti-Igbo pogroms of mid to late 1966 were in part motivated by the insensitive jubilating of some southerners following the January coup. Most Nigerians have a selective memory and only remember events in isolation. So that only those events in which they were the victims, rather than the aggressor, are recollected.“

 

Excellent. That pretty much explains why I felt from the beginning that events must always be placed in context. In addition to the events of January, and the fears raised by the unification decree, promulgated without adequate consultation, the June 1966 edition of Drum magazine, which hit news stands in late May, contained an insensitive article by Nelson Ottah on “Why Nigeria exploded”. The most provocative article, however, was written by one Coz Idapo titled “Sir Ahmadu rose in his shrouds and spoke from the dead.” The article had a fake picture of the late Sardauna placed on a bier before Idapo. It illustrated Sardauna ‘confessing’ his ‘foolish’ misdeeds to Idapo with a crowd watching. The caption read that Sardauna was asking Idapo for ‘forgiveness’. The arrival of the magazine on May 28 in several northern cities turned what began as a peaceful protest by northern civil servants against civil service unification into a violent anti-Igbo riot.

http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/oarticles/orizu_ironsi_and_1966.htm





The whole article make for a nice read anyway

I am not involved in this Biafra discussion. We Ijaws supported the Biafrans until the last minute. When we saw the war could not be won, we grudgingly switched our allegiance to Nigeria - the Ibo's wanted us to sacrifice our civilians on the back of the independence struggle when they had already long retreated from their own land. We refused to be their blood sacrifice and they accuse us of treason. Apart from that, we supported the whole Biafra movement. Anyway, all I am saying is that regardless of what happened in 1966, I think all the Southern tribes are fed up and if any tribe rises up again, all the other tribes will use it as an opportunity to stake their claim. The only tribe who are still divided on this issue is the Yoruba because they at least eat the crumbs off Fulani's table. But the rest of the Southern tribes are not eating shishi.

WHAT!That is a compliment. They are ass lickers. Ever shifting stance. Infact i will rather invite a Ku Klux Kan for a dinnner that allow yorubas to trhow away my trash. Because the former is more predictable.

Okay.

Texazzpete,

I gave you a link to a book to that you can educate yourself more, but you called it "obscure". What else do you want me to do for you? 

All these we and them, we are right and they're wrong, we are educated, they are bunch of lliterates all stems from the fact that Biafrans want self determination and others says no we won't let you. AND WHAT WAS YOUR REASON? We just wont let you, and that is that.  In other words, we can't function without you.

If that is not the case how come Nigeria is so eager to push off the Bakassi to Cameroon, even when they are desperate to  be Nigerians? I just wonder if one of the governors or senators are from Bakasi what would have happened now?  As Yar Adua has just announced the official date of the hand over of a people against  their wishes. That is not an evidence of indivisible Nigeria to me.  All this argument who is good, educated and superior a`re all baseless as long as the people are afraid to live by themselves, which would have given them, the opportunity to showcase all the intellectual and academic prowess.

It's all down to big talk and no action to me.