Obafemi Awolowo and Chinua Achebe’s tale of fantasy


Posted by: Femi Fani-Kayode Posted date: October 08, 2012

I am a historian and I have always believed that if we want to talk history, we must be dispassionate, objective and factual. We must take the emotion out of it and we must always tell the truth. The worst thing that anyone can do is to try to re-write history and indulge in historical revisionism. This is especially so when the person is a reverred figure and a literary icon. Sadly it is in the light of such historical revisionism that I view Professor Chinua Achebe’s assertion (which is reflected in his latest and highly celebrated book titled ‘’There Was A Country’) that Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late and much-loved Leader of the Yoruba, was responsible for the genocide that the igbos suffered during the civil war. This claim is not only false but it is also, frankly speaking, utterly absurd. Not only is Professor Achebe indulging in perfidy, not only is he being utterly dishonest and disengenious but he is also turning history upside down and indulging in what I would describe as ethnic chauvinism.

I am one of those that has always had tremendous sympathy for the igbo cause during the civil war. I am also an admirer of Colonel Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who stood up for his people when it mattered the most and when they were being slaughtered by rampaging mobs in the northern part of our country. At least 100,000 igbos were killed in those northern pogroms which took place before the civil war and which indeed led directly to it. This was not only an outrage but it was also a tragedy of monuemental proportions.Yet we must not allow our emotion or our sympathy for the suffering of the igbo at the hands of northern mobs before the war started to becloud our sense of reasoning as regards what actually happened during the prosecution of the war itself. It is important to set the record straight and not to be selective in our application and recollection of the facts when considering what actually led to the starvation of hundreds of thousands of igbo women, children and civilians during that war. And, unlike others, I do not deny the fact that hundreds of thousands were starved to death as a consequence of the blockade that was imposed on Biafra by the Nigerian Federal Government. To deny that this actually happened would a lie. It is a historical fact. Again I do not deny the fact that Awolowo publically defended the blockade and indeed told the world that it was perfectly legitimate for any government to impose such a blockade on the territory of their enemies in times of war. Awolowo said it, this is a matter of historical record and he was qouted in a number of British newspapers as having said so at the time. Yet he spoke nothing but the truth. And whether anyone likes to hear it or not he was absolutely right in what he said. Let me give you an example. During the Second World War a blockade was imposed on Germany, Japan and Italy by the Allied Forces and this was very effective. It weakened the Axis powers considerably and this was one of the reasons why the war ended at the time that it did. If there had been no blockade the Second World War would have gone on for considerably longer. In the case of the Nigerian civil war though the story did not stop at the fact that a blockade was imposed by the Federal Government which led to the suffering, starvation, pain, death and hardship of the civilian igbo population or that Awolowo defended it. That is only half the story.

There was a lot more to it and the fact that Achebe and most of our igbo brothers and sisters always conveniently forget to mention the other half of the story is something that causes some of us from outside igboland considerable concern and never ceases to amaze us. The bitter truth is that if anyone is to be blamed for the hundreds of thousands of igbos that died from starvation during the civil war it was not Chief Awolowo or even General Yakubu Gowon but rather it was Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu himself. I say this because it is a matter of public record and a historical fact that the Federal Government of Nigeria made a very generous offer to Ojukwu and the Biafrans to open a road corridor for food to be ferried to the igbos and to lessen the suffering of their civilian population. This was as a consequence of a deal that was brokered by the international community who were concerned about the suffering of the igbo civilian population and the death and hardship that the blockade was causing to them. Unfortunately Ojukwu turned this down flatly and instead insisted that the food should be flown into Biafra by air in the dead of the night. This was unacceptable to the Federal Government because it meant that the Biafrans could, and indeed would, have used such night flights to smuggle badly needed arms and ammunition into their country for usage by their soldiers. That was where the problem came from and that was the issue. Quite apart from that Ojukwu found it expedient and convenient to allow his people to starve to death and to broadcast it on television screens all over the world in order to attract sympathy for the igbo cause and for propaganda purposes. And this worked beautifully for him.

Ambassador Ralph Uweche, who was the Special Envoy to France for the Biafran Government during the civil war and who is the leader of Ohaeneze, the leading igbo political and socio-cultural organisation today, attested to this in his excellent book titled ‘’Reflections On The Nigerian Civil War’’. That book was factual and honest and I would urge people like Achebe to go and read it well. The self-serving role of Ojukwu and many of the Biafran intelligensia and elites and their insensitivity to the suffering of their own people during the course of the war was well enunciated in that book. The fact of the matter is that the starvation and suffering of hundreds of thousands of igbo men, women and children during the civil war was seen and used as a convenient tool of propaganda by Ojukwu and that is precisely why he rejected the offer of a food corridor by the Nigerian Government. When those that belong to the post civil war generation of the igbo are wondering who was responsible for the genocide and mass starvation of their forefathers during the war they must firstly look within themselves and point their fingers at their own past leaders and certainly not Awolowo or Gowon. The person that was solely responsible for that suffering, for that starvation and for those slow and painful deaths was none other than Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the leader of Biafra, himself.

I have written many good things about Ojukwu on many occassions in the past and I stand by every word that I have ever said or written about him. In my view he was a man of courage and immense fortitude, he stood against the mass murder of his people in the north and he brought them home and created a safe haven for them in the east. For him, and indeed the whole of Biafra, the war was an attempt to exercise their legitimate right of self-determination and leave Nigeria due to the atrocities that they had been subjected to in the north. I cannot blame him or his people for that and frankly I have always admired his stand. However he was not infallible and he also made some terrible mistakes, just as all great leaders do from time to time. The fact that he rejected the Nigerian Federal Government’s offer of a food corridor was one of those terrible mistakes and this cost him and his people dearly. Professor Chinua Achebe surely ought to have reflected that in his book as well. When it comes to the Nigerian civil war there were no villains or angels. During that brutal conflict no less than two million Nigerians and Biafrans died and the yoruba who, unlike others, did not ever discriminate or attack any non-yorubas that lived in their in their territory before the civil war or carry out any coups or attempted coups, suffered at every point as well. For example prominent yoruba sons and daughters were killed on the night of the first igbo coup of January 1966 and again in the northern ‘’revenge’’ coup of July 1966. Many of our people were also killed in the north before the outbreak of the civil war and again in the mid-west and the east during the course and prosecution of the war itself. It was indeed the predominantly yoruba Third Marine Commando, under the command of General Benjamin Adekunle (the ‘’Black Scorpion”) and later General Olusegun Obasanjo, that not only liberated the mid-west and drove the Biafrans out of there but they also marched into igboland itself, occupied it, defeated the Biafran Army in battle, captured all their major towns and forced the igbo to surrender. Third Marine Commando was made up of yoruba soldiers and I can say without any fear of contradiction that we the yoruba therefore paid a terrible and heavy price as well during the war because many of our boys were killed on the war front by the Biafrans.

The sacrifice of these proud sons of the south-west that died in battle to keep Nigeria one must not be belittled, mocked or ignored. Clearly it was not only the igbo that suffered during the civil war. Neither does it auger well for the unity of our nation for Achebe and the igbo intelligensia that are hailing his self-serving book to caste aspertions on the character, role and noble intentions of the late and reverred Leader of the Yoruba, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, during the civil war. The man may have made one or two mistakes in the past like every other great leader and of course there was a deep and bitter political division in yorubaland itself just before the civil war started and throughout the early ‘60’s. Yet by no stretch of the imagination can Awolowo be described as an igbo-hating genocidal maniac and he most certainly did not delight in the starvation of millions of igbo men, women and children as Achebe has tried to suggest. My advice to this respected author is that he should leave Chief Awolowo alone and allow him to continue to rest in peace. This subtle attempt to denigrate the yoruba and their past leaders, to place a question mark on their noble and selfless role in the war and to belittle their efforts and sacrifice to keep Nigeria together as one will always be vigorously resisted by those of us that have the good fortune of still being alive and who are aware of the facts. We will not remain silent and allow anyone, no matter how respected or reverred, to re-write history. Simply put by writing this book and making some of these baseless and nonsensical assertions, Achebe was simply indulging in the greatest mendacity of Nigerian modern history and his crude distortion of the facts has no basis in reality or rationality. We must not mistake fiction and story telling for historical fact. The two are completely different. The truth is that Professor Chinua Achebe owes the Awolowo family and the yoruba people a big apology for his tale of pure fantasy.

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/politics/obafemi-awolowo-and-chinua-achebes-tale-of-fantasy/

Ovularia: Obafemi Awolowo and Chinua Achebe’s tale of fantasy


Posted by: Femi Fani-Kayode Posted date: October 08, 2012

I am a historian and I have always believed that if we want to talk history, we must be dispassionate, objective and factual. We must take the emotion out of it and we must always tell the truth. The worst thing that anyone can do is to try to re-write history and indulge in historical revisionism. This is especially so when the person is a reverred figure and a literary icon. Sadly it is in the light of such historical revisionism that I view Professor Chinua Achebe’s assertion (which is reflected in his latest and highly celebrated book titled ‘’There Was A Country’) that Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late and much-loved Leader of the Yoruba, was responsible for the genocide that the igbos suffered during the civil war. This claim is not only false but it is also, frankly speaking, utterly absurd. Not only is Professor Achebe indulging in perfidy, not only is he being utterly dishonest and disengenious but he is also turning history upside down and indulging in what I would describe as ethnic chauvinism.

I am one of those that has always had tremendous sympathy for the igbo cause during the civil war. I am also an admirer of Colonel Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who stood up for his people when it mattered the most and when they were being slaughtered by rampaging mobs in the northern part of our country. At least 100,000 igbos were killed in those northern pogroms which took place before the civil war and which indeed led directly to it. This was not only an outrage but it was also a tragedy of monuemental proportions.Yet we must not allow our emotion or our sympathy for the suffering of the igbo at the hands of northern mobs before the war started to becloud our sense of reasoning as regards what actually happened during the prosecution of the war itself. It is important to set the record straight and not to be selective in our application and recollection of the facts when considering what actually led to the starvation of hundreds of thousands of igbo women, children and civilians during that war. And, unlike others, I do not deny the fact that hundreds of thousands were starved to death as a consequence of the blockade that was imposed on Biafra by the Nigerian Federal Government. To deny that this actually happened would a lie. It is a historical fact. Again I do not deny the fact that Awolowo publically defended the blockade and indeed told the world that it was perfectly legitimate for any government to impose such a blockade on the territory of their enemies in times of war. Awolowo said it, this is a matter of historical record and he was qouted in a number of British newspapers as having said so at the time. Yet he spoke nothing but the truth. And whether anyone likes to hear it or not he was absolutely right in what he said. Let me give you an example. During the Second World War a blockade was imposed on Germany, Japan and Italy by the Allied Forces and this was very effective. It weakened the Axis powers considerably and this was one of the reasons why the war ended at the time that it did. If there had been no blockade the Second World War would have gone on for considerably longer. In the case of the Nigerian civil war though the story did not stop at the fact that a blockade was imposed by the Federal Government which led to the suffering, starvation, pain, death and hardship of the civilian igbo population or that Awolowo defended it. That is only half the story.

There was a lot more to it and the fact that Achebe and most of our igbo brothers and sisters always conveniently forget to mention the other half of the story is something that causes some of us from outside igboland considerable concern and never ceases to amaze us. The bitter truth is that if anyone is to be blamed for the hundreds of thousands of igbos that died from starvation during the civil war it was not Chief Awolowo or even General Yakubu Gowon but rather it was Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu himself. I say this because it is a matter of public record and a historical fact that the Federal Government of Nigeria made a very generous offer to Ojukwu and the Biafrans to open a road corridor for food to be ferried to the igbos and to lessen the suffering of their civilian population. This was as a consequence of a deal that was brokered by the international community who were concerned about the suffering of the igbo civilian population and the death and hardship that the blockade was causing to them. Unfortunately Ojukwu turned this down flatly and instead insisted that the food should be flown into Biafra by air in the dead of the night. This was unacceptable to the Federal Government because it meant that the Biafrans could, and indeed would, have used such night flights to smuggle badly needed arms and ammunition into their country for usage by their soldiers. That was where the problem came from and that was the issue. Quite apart from that Ojukwu found it expedient and convenient to allow his people to starve to death and to broadcast it on television screens all over the world in order to attract sympathy for the igbo cause and for propaganda purposes. And this worked beautifully for him.

Ambassador Ralph Uweche, who was the Special Envoy to France for the Biafran Government during the civil war and who is the leader of Ohaeneze, the leading igbo political and socio-cultural organisation today, attested to this in his excellent book titled ‘’Reflections On The Nigerian Civil War’’. That book was factual and honest and I would urge people like Achebe to go and read it well. The self-serving role of Ojukwu and many of the Biafran intelligensia and elites and their insensitivity to the suffering of their own people during the course of the war was well enunciated in that book. The fact of the matter is that the starvation and suffering of hundreds of thousands of igbo men, women and children during the civil war was seen and used as a convenient tool of propaganda by Ojukwu and that is precisely why he rejected the offer of a food corridor by the Nigerian Government. When those that belong to the post civil war generation of the igbo are wondering who was responsible for the genocide and mass starvation of their forefathers during the war they must firstly look within themselves and point their fingers at their own past leaders and certainly not Awolowo or Gowon. The person that was solely responsible for that suffering, for that starvation and for those slow and painful deaths was none other than Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the leader of Biafra, himself.

I have written many good things about Ojukwu on many occassions in the past and I stand by every word that I have ever said or written about him. In my view he was a man of courage and immense fortitude, he stood against the mass murder of his people in the north and he brought them home and created a safe haven for them in the east. For him, and indeed the whole of Biafra, the war was an attempt to exercise their legitimate right of self-determination and leave Nigeria due to the atrocities that they had been subjected to in the north. I cannot blame him or his people for that and frankly I have always admired his stand. However he was not infallible and he also made some terrible mistakes, just as all great leaders do from time to time. The fact that he rejected the Nigerian Federal Government’s offer of a food corridor was one of those terrible mistakes and this cost him and his people dearly. Professor Chinua Achebe surely ought to have reflected that in his book as well. When it comes to the Nigerian civil war there were no villains or angels. During that brutal conflict no less than two million Nigerians and Biafrans died and the yoruba who, unlike others, did not ever discriminate or attack any non-yorubas that lived in their in their territory before the civil war or carry out any coups or attempted coups, suffered at every point as well. For example prominent yoruba sons and daughters were killed on the night of the first igbo coup of January 1966 and again in the northern ‘’revenge’’ coup of July 1966. Many of our people were also killed in the north before the outbreak of the civil war and again in the mid-west and the east during the course and prosecution of the war itself. It was indeed the predominantly yoruba Third Marine Commando, under the command of General Benjamin Adekunle (the ‘’Black Scorpion”) and later General Olusegun Obasanjo, that not only liberated the mid-west and drove the Biafrans out of there but they also marched into igboland itself, occupied it, defeated the Biafran Army in battle, captured all their major towns and forced the igbo to surrender. Third Marine Commando was made up of yoruba soldiers and I can say without any fear of contradiction that we the yoruba therefore paid a terrible and heavy price as well during the war because many of our boys were killed on the war front by the Biafrans.

The sacrifice of these proud sons of the south-west that died in battle to keep Nigeria one must not be belittled, mocked or ignored. Clearly it was not only the igbo that suffered during the civil war. Neither does it auger well for the unity of our nation for Achebe and the igbo intelligensia that are hailing his self-serving book to caste aspertions on the character, role and noble intentions of the late and reverred Leader of the Yoruba, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, during the civil war. The man may have made one or two mistakes in the past like every other great leader and of course there was a deep and bitter political division in yorubaland itself just before the civil war started and throughout the early ‘60’s. Yet by no stretch of the imagination can Awolowo be described as an igbo-hating genocidal maniac and he most certainly did not delight in the starvation of millions of igbo men, women and children as Achebe has tried to suggest. My advice to this respected author is that he should leave Chief Awolowo alone and allow him to continue to rest in peace. This subtle attempt to denigrate the yoruba and their past leaders, to place a question mark on their noble and selfless role in the war and to belittle their efforts and sacrifice to keep Nigeria together as one will always be vigorously resisted by those of us that have the good fortune of still being alive and who are aware of the facts. We will not remain silent and allow anyone, no matter how respected or reverred, to re-write history. Simply put by writing this book and making some of these baseless and nonsensical assertions, Achebe was simply indulging in the greatest mendacity of Nigerian modern history and his crude distortion of the facts has no basis in reality or rationality. We must not mistake fiction and story telling for historical fact. The two are completely different. The truth is that Professor Chinua Achebe owes the Awolowo family and the yoruba people a big apology for his tale of pure fantasy.

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/politics/obafemi-awolowo-and-chinua-achebes-tale-of-fantasy/

Not a fan of Fani, but I give him a billion gbosa gbosa for this insightful write up.

Eko Ile:

Not a fan of Fani, but I give him a billion gbosa gbosa for this insightful write up.

+1

FFK is a douche, but he hit the nail on the head with this

Ovularia: The sacrifice of these proud sons of the south-west that died in battle to keep Nigeria one must not be belittled, mocked or ignored. Clearly it was not only the igbo that suffered during the civil war.

O!

The response coming from some of Yoruba elite on this issue is quite frankly ludicrous.
Achebe's memoir and the exact words he chose to describe Awo are very specific and succinct. Achebe never speaks half truths, or encase words in riddles. He always speaks plainly and to the point. He did that on two occassions when he turned down national honors. He has an antecedent of being a FIERCE LOVER OF TRUTH. No amount of fake indignation from any quarters would change Achebe or tarnish his reputation. The international community know him already.

The situation some of these defenders of Awo find themselves is analogous to an animal caught in a snare made of amazing ropes and twines. Once entangled, the more the "victim" tries to disentangle, the tighter the noose on the victim.

Okay, let me ask Mr Fani Kayode one question: WHAT ABOUT THE 20 POUND POLICY? How did he forget that one?

What even baffles me is that Achebe never attacked Yoruba people; HE "ATTACKED" AWOLOWO, and unless Awolowo has become Oduduwa himself, it should be an insult to the Yoruba tribe for anyone to pretend that Awo even rises to touch the shoes of such noble Yoruba sons, as Prof Wole Soyinka, Fela Anikulapo Kutui (and his entire Ransome Kuti family), and even my spiritual mentor Dr D. K Olukoya.

So, I get personally indignant on behalf of Yoruba folks, when people raise Awo above the entire tribe.

Methinks that the more those Awo defenders try to scrub Awo's tarnished legacy, the tighter the noose on their throats!

I have one advice for them : SURRENDER TO THE SNARE OF TRUTH ELSE IT WILL LYNCH YOU!

Signed,

Onlytruth, Ndu di n'eziokwu 1 of Igboland, Eze Ndigbo Nairaland.

Lmao.

Please spare us your indignation on behalf of Yoruba folk

ekt_bear: Lmao.

Please spare us your indignation on behalf of Yoruba folk

Believe me I don't indulge. I share similar attitude with Achebe whenever truth is involved.
The fact remains that there were MANY Yoruba men/women who stood firm and refused to join the bangwagon of falsehood in the lead up to the war and after the war.
Notice that there were Yoruba folks who retained and returned Igbo assets and even paid rent on them.
Whenever I see people talk as if Awolowo is now the same as the entire Yoruba tribe, I scratch and shake my head!
Just watch, there are some Yoruba folks that won't mutter a sound throughout this latest controversy, and it won't be because they have no voice. It is rather because they cannot defend evil.

Awolowo was not a friend of Ndigbo, and some of his intentions were genocidal or downright evil.
I cannot recall any Igbo politician (at any time in the history of Nigeria) that ever habored similar high grade HATE for the Yoruba.
That is my point.

AWOLOWO IS NOT = YORUBA TRIBE.

ONLYLIES can NEVER recognize truth even if it smacks him on his nose or like a fly, flies into his mouth permanently left ajar. Now, you speak of 20 pounds policy, shall we go there? Are you ready? You may say yes but I would rather prefer this thread stay on point. Achebe is just an ordinary playwright who wrote a book and teaches English in a school. There's nothing special about him really and should be ignored as in this late stage of his life, he has offended the ones gone before him. Achebe flat out lied but it is sad that he is trying to injure the ibos even much more and start a fire like Ojuku and then run into his grave when it consumes innocent people who do not share his point of view.

The starvation policy as claimed by ibos is a lie for the secessionist ibo leaders were well fed when they showed up to surrender to the victorious Nigerian nation:

https://www.nairaland.com/1068271/new-biafra-surrenders-nigeria-starvation

This only people that idolise a devil are Yoruba people.
Germans disowned Hitler, Park Geun-hye apologised for her father's atrocities despite the fact her father actually built South Korea.

Yoruba

Evil loveth evil.

I pray the time I'll throw Yoruba out of Nigeria.

One man's devil is another man's angel.

There is no need for all of us to view him in the same way

That he was great to his people does not make it right that Yorubas should blatantly deny his evil deeds.
The two are not the same.

You view his deeds as evil, others do not.

For some, Ataturk was a hero and savior, for others he was a bully and villain. Such is life...for some individuals in history, there shall be no universal agreement about their legacy.

Onlytruth: The response coming from some of Yoruba elite on this issue is quite frankly ludicrous.
Achebe's memoir and the exact words he chose to describe Awo are very specific and succinct. Achebe never speaks half truths, or encase words in riddles. He always speaks plainly and to the point. He did that on two occassions when he turned down national honors. He has an antecedent of being a FIERCE LOVER OF TRUTH. No amount of fake indignation from any quarters would change Achebe or tarnish his reputation. The international community know him already.

The situation some of these defenders of Awo find themselves is analogous to an animal caught in a snare made of amazing ropes and twines. Once entangled, the more the "victim" tries to disentangle, the tighter the noose on the victim.

Okay, let me ask Mr Fani Kayode one question: WHAT ABOUT THE 20 POUND POLICY? How did he forget that one?

What even baffles me is that Achebe never attacked Yoruba people; HE "ATTACKED" AWOLOWO, and unless Awolowo has become Oduduwa himself, it should be an insult to the Yoruba tribe for anyone to pretend that Awo even rises to touch the shoes of such noble Yoruba sons, as Prof Wole Soyinka, Fela Anikulapo Kutui (and his entire Ransome Kuti family), and even my spiritual mentor Dr D. K Olukoya.

So, I get personally indignant on behalf of Yoruba folks, when people raise Awo above the entire tribe.

Methinks that the more those Awo defenders try to scrub Awo's tarnished legacy, the tighter the noose on their throats!

I have one advice for them : SURRENDER TO THE SNARE OF TRUTH ELSE IT WILL LYNCH YOU!

Signed,

Onlytruth, Ndu di n'eziokwu 1 of Igboland, Eze Ndigbo Nairaland.

The 20 pounds policy was a pure act of charity. No one was under any obligation to give the secessionists even a dime.

Obiagu1: This only people that idolise a devil are Yoruba people.
Germans disowned Hitler, Park Geun-hye apologised for her father's atrocities despite the fact her father actually built South Korea.

Yoruba

Evil loveth evil.

I pray the time I'll throw Yoruba out of Nigeria.

I honestly can't fathom why a whole tribe should be reduced to a very devious man.

Even Ojukwu has FIERCE critics in Igboland and Eastern Nigeria.
Even some of us his greatest admirers often lament his failures and short sight during the war.
I can't even hate Awo enough because I always remember the Soyinkas and the like.

Honestly I have a very mixed feeling about Yoruba people because of this. Part of me want to get them out of Nigeria by all means, and another part wants to even import them to the East. That is the confusion created by those defending evil in Nigeria.

I suspect that if these defenders of evil continue to do so, it will cement in my mind that a whole tribe is actually evil.

Onlytruth:

I honestly can't fathom why a whole tribe should be reduced to a very devious man.

Even Ojukwu has FIERCE critics in Igboland and Eastern Nigeria.
Even some of us his greatest admirers often lament his failures and short sight during the war.
I can't even hate Awo enough because I always remember the Soyinkas and the like.

Honestly I have a very mixed feeling about Yoruba people because of this. Part of me want to get them out of Nigeria by all means, and another part wants to even import them to the East. That is the confusion created by those defending evil in Nigeria.

I suspect that if these defenders of evil continue to do so, it will cement in my mind that a whole tribe is actually evil.

Look, in some other countries leaders of failed rebellions are captured and shot. Which means people like Achebe and this Madiebo running his mouth would have been long dead. Instead of getting 20 pounds many of them would have gotten firing squads.

Obiagu1: This only people that idolise a devil are Yoruba people.
Germans disowned Hitler, Park Geun-hye apologised for her father's atrocities despite the fact her father actually built South Korea.

Yoruba

Evil loveth evil.

I pray the time I'll throw Yoruba out of Nigeria.

NO, you are wrong! As wrong as Hitler was, there are still nazi groups who still support and revere hi, Read more, go out more and you will learn that life exists outside the rock you have been living. You are running your mouth about throwing a people who do not even have your time, something even ojuku the best iboman could not wait to look them in the eye! Col. Obasanjo captured ibo secessionists but even ojuku could not look, he legged it to Abidjan dressed like a woman! LOL

Onlytruth:

I honestly can't fathom why a whole tribe should be reduced to a very devious man.

Even Ojukwu has FIERCE critics in Igboland and Eastern Nigeria.
Even some of us his greatest admirers often lament his failures and short sight during the war.
I can't even hate Awo enough because I always remember the Soyinkas and the like.

Honestly I have a very mixed feeling about Yoruba people because of this. Part of me want to get them out of Nigeria by all means, and another part wants to even import them to the East. That is the confusion created by those defending evil in Nigeria.

I suspect that if these defenders of evil continue to do so, it will cement in my mind that a whole tribe is actually evil.

... and they wonder why we despise them. Northerners do not run around singing hymns for Gowon. They may love him but kept it to themselves.
For Yoruba? They will tell a little girl whose mother was violated by their father that he was next to god.

You haven't judged the whole tribe yet because you have "really" dealt with a bunch of them.

Aigbofa:

Look, in some other countries leaders of failed rebellions are captured and shot. Which means people like Achebe and this Madiebo running his mouth would have been long dead. Instead of getting 20 pounds many of them would have gotten firing squads.

A matter of perspective. You forget that the war could still have dragged on (as attested by Achuzia). Gowon's "No victor, no vanquished" carrot was not all altruistic. It was a ploy to end the war and give victory to the federal side.
Also, A WHOLE LOT OF IGBO OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS WERE EXECUTED after they surrendered. So, your wish actually happened.

So, we got BOTH -firing squads and evil monetary policy.

The Achebe's were not near to be caught by it all.
The Madiebo's were the ones who could have continued the war. He (Madiebo) is not apologizing to anyone.

Aigbofa:

Look, in some other countries leaders of failed rebellions are captured and shot. Which means people like Achebe and this Madiebo running his mouth would have been long dead. Instead of getting 20 pounds many of them would have gotten firing squads.

We wouldn't have shed any tears if they were captured and killed. They were fighters and killing of fighters is a fair game.

But for your "god" to do all he could to wipe out children and you are here singing hymns for him, your lot do not belong to this world, maybe you might fit in in the dark ages.

Bunch of devils!

Onlytruth:

A matter of perspective. You forget that the war could still have dragged on (as attested by Achuzia). Gowon's "No victor, no vanquished" carrot was not all altruistic. It was a ploy to end the war and give victory to the federal side.
Also, A WHOLE LOT OF IGBO OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS WERE EXECUTED after they surrendered. So, your wish actually happened.

So, we got BOTH -firing squads and evil monetary policy.

The Achebe's were not near to be caught by it all.
The Madiebo's were the ones who could have continued the war. He (Madiebo) is not apologizing to anyone.

If this is true why is Madiebo still alive? Why was Effiong not executed? Remember that Biafra was indeed vanquished, completely defeated to surrender.

Obiagu1:

We wouldn't have shed any tears if they were captured and killed. They were fighters and killing of fighters is a fair game.

But for your "god" to do all he could to wipe out children and you are here singing hymns for him, your lot do not belong to this world, maybe you might fit in in the dark ages.

Bunch of devils!

If I promise to take Yorubas out of Nigeria with only machettes as weapons, I cannot turn around and blame some civilian somewhere for my defeat. It is absolutely ridiculous.

Aigbofa:


If this is true why is Madiebo still alive? Why was Effiong not executed? Remember that Biafra was indeed vanquished, completely defeated to surrender.

Their execution would have been noticed by the Biafrans, and they would have returned to their trenches and the war restarted. You still don't get it do you?
They executed the ones they knew they could get away with. Go and read what happened after Biafra surrendered.

A lot of people praise Gowon for the "masterful way" he ended the war. What they meant is the extreme deception used by Gowon to have the Biafrans lay down their arms.
Your Awolowo only did the civilian part using the 20 Pound policy. There was a lot of military ones much earlier. Achuzia was kept in detention for 7 years after the war ended.

Onlytruth:

Their execution would have been noticed by the Biafrans, and they would have returned to their trenches and the war restarted. You still don't get it do you?
They executed the ones they knew they could get away with. Go and read what happened after Biafra surrendered.

A lot of people praise Gowon for the "masterful way" he ended the war. What they meant is the extreme deception used by Gowon to have the Biafrans lay down their arms.
Your Awolowo only did the civilian part using the 20 Pound policy. There was a lot of military ones much earlier. Achuzia was kept in detention for 7 years after the war ended.

LMAO Biafra at that point was no longer in a position to fight even the Boy Scouts. Return to their trenches! That's got to be a joke.

Onlytruth:

Their execution would have been noticed by the Biafrans, and they would have returned to their trenches and the war restarted. You still don't get it do you?
They executed the ones they knew they could get away with. Go and read what happened after Biafra surrendered.

A lot of people praise Gowon for the "masterful way" he ended the war. What they meant is the extreme deception used by Gowon to have the Biafrans lay down their arms.
Your Awolowo only did the civilian part using the 20 Pound policy. There was a lot of military ones much earlier. Achuzia was kept in detention for 7 years after the war ended.

OnlyLIES can never speak the truth. So you are a biafranist, why are you still alive? You are one of the people who hijacked and ate the food meant for ibo civilians while they died of kwashiokor but here you are still defending the indefensible. That you are alive is a testament and evidence that you stole or were in a position to benefit at the expense of little kids who died so you can live. You do their memories no favours. For all your strange stories, present some evidence not heresies, your stock in trade!

And how will ibo return to the trenches? If you had returned, the Nigerian state would have been far justified to kill ALL of YOU without mercy. Reference the Japanese who did the same thing after losing and told to surrender, they would rather jump to their death, blow themselves up, etc. Soon, the allies did not bother asking them to surrender, they JUST shot them to death - good riddance to useless rubbish!

By the way, I just ordered a copy of the book.

Aigbofa:

LMAO Biafra at that point was no longer in a position to fight even the Boy Scouts. Return to their trenches! That's got to be a joike.

I have studied a lot of civil wars in different parts of the world, and I can tell you that Biafra could have continued that war. Not in the same RIGID FIXED PLACES tactics of course, but in guerilla tactic, and could have done that for at least 20 more years. The only thing is that the East and other parts of Nigeria were the rebels move to will turn to Southern Sudan. Madiebo was one of the people who advocated that, but Ojukwu rejected it, because Ojukwu could not operate such a war strategy; too many risks to command and structure of government (in Biafra of course). That is why Achuzia said that they could have continued the war.
Believe me, " no victor, no vanquished" may go down in Nigeria's history as the most ingenious political trick ever played on a people.
You can see that in Igbo laments till this day.

Obiagu1: By the way, I just ordered a copy of the book.

For once in my life, I will be burning some books- Achebe's

CyberG, I don't respond to childish rants.

Aigbofa:

For once in my life, I will be burning some books- Achebe's

As long as you pay for them first.
The prof will chuckle and smile to the bank.
It always feels good to make money the right way.

Obiagu1: That he was great to his people does not make it right that Yorubas should blatantly deny his evil deeds.
The two are not the same.

Have you accepted Ojukwu's evil deeds in not surrendering when he couldn't feed his people or for charging charities landing fees for food and medicine being taken into Biafra?

Hold your leaders responsible.

Aigbofa:

For once in my life, I will be burning some books- Achebe's

You better do but don't worry, I'll send you books written by Satan.
You need more of them on your shelf.

Obiagu1: By the way, I just ordered a copy of the book.

I'm ordering mine tomorrow. For sure.