Deadlytruth:


1. In the first instance Ironsi was not even supposed to take over power but to simply take the honourable path of rescuing democracy by simply swearing in Dipcharima, replacing the slain premiers with their deputies and then exiting the stage as a hero.
2. Ironsi actually dissolved the regions and broke Nigeria up into 35 very weak provinces to be administered by an overwhelmingly strong centre. That was unitary system format.
3. Without prejudice to his self imposition, Ironsi's only genuine duty was to return law and order. And the chaos in question was caused by the rift between Akintola and Awo over party alliances, and with Zik and Balewa taking advantage of it to further disorganize the West leading to the Ifeajuna coup. Thus the problem Ironsi purportedly set out to solve had nothing to do with the structure on ground but was rather all about who formed alliances with who at the centre. So if Ironsi was sincere he should have just stopped at apprehending the coupists and executing them, scrapping NPC, NCNC, AG, NDC, UMBC, NEPU, etc and banning all the surviving major political players like, Zik, Aminu Kano, Joseph Tarka, Awolowo, Okpara and Akintola from further participating in politics. That would have returned peace. But he chose to dabble into the issue of structure which had nothing at all to do with the problem on ground.
4. If Ironsi did not abolish the regions with his Unification and Anti-secession Decrees then Gowon, on getting to power, would not have found it necessary to issue his own Decree 56 which reversed Ironsi's.
5. The theory that it is only through a centralized arrangement that a military man can effectively rule fails in the face of the fact that the proposals of Ojukwu, a military officer himself, at the Aburi meeting were in favour an extremely decentralized Nigeria to still be headed by Gowon, another military man, with himself, Ojukwu, controlling the Eastern part as a military man as well.
6. It does not take only an Oodua person to lay the truth bare that Ironsi pioneered the mutilation and bastardization of our constitution at a time the public did not demand a constitution review, thereby giving the moral courage to all his military successors to follow his path and further damage it to the sorry state it is in today. Any sincere Nigerian who has read up Nigeria's history from 1914 till July 1966 would not deny that Ironsi set in place a chain of reactions that eventually corrupted the enviable and working constitution we began with in 1960.
Please see below Ironsi's speech by which he abolished the regions and justified it with his belief in "national unity". In the speech he renamed Nigeria from "Federal Republic of Nigeria" to just "Republic of Nigeria"... meaning that the federating units no longer existed.

1. Well, we can also agree that Awolowo had no right trying to usurp the Balewa government. Awo insubordination inspired Nzeogwu and co, it was the origin of all insubordination in Nigerian history, little wonder Nzeogwu and crew adored Awo.

2. Ironsi never dissolved the regions. Ojukwu, Katsina and Fajuyi were the governors of the three regions, I had discussed on widely on this issue here :https://www.nairaland.com/2679915/biafran-intention-exposed/3

3. Well Ironsi was a regular ambitious and power hungry soldier. Awo's greed that set the Western region on fire set in place a cascade of events that opened up the opportunity for Ironsi to pounce on. Once again, the blame stops on Awolowo's desk.

4. Once again, Ironsi didn't abolish the regions, Gowon did. So I don't know where you are heading to with that propaganda. See this thread again:https://www.nairaland.com/2679915/biafran-intention-exposed/3

5. That was so, because Gowon claimed to not be part of the counter coup plotters, Ojukwu reasoned that if that be the case, then the highest in command who happened to be Ogundipe should take over, just as Ironsi not being part of Nzeogwu coup, took over after the coup. But if Gowon was going to take over, then the powers must be dissolved, since the tail can not be the head, unless of course it first severed the head, but Gowon already claimed not to have severed the head, so that is it.

6. Well, it takes only a sincere Igbo man to trace the genesis of Nigeria's problems to Awolowo's greed that created the wild wild west, that led to Awo trying to usurp the central government, an act that inspired Nzeogwu and the other coup plotters that came after them to also usurp the FG.

Awolowo placed Nigeria in its current comatose state, this the fact that every Arewa-Odua person living or late must make peace with.

pazienza:



1. Well, we can also agree that Awolowo had no right trying to usurp the Balewa government. Awo insubordination inspired Nzeogwu and co, it was the origin of all insubordination in Nigerian history, little wonder Nzeogwu and crew adored Awo.

2. Ironsi never dissolved the regions. Ojukwu, Katsina and Fajuyi were the governors of the three regions, I had discussed on widely on this issue here :https://www.nairaland.com/2679915/biafran-intention-exposed/3

3. Well Ironsi was a regular ambitious and power hungry soldier. Awo's greed that set the Western region on fire set in place a cascade of events that opened up the opportunity for Ironsi to pounce on. Once again, the blame stops on Awolowo's desk.

4. Once again, Ironsi didn't abolish the regions, Gowon did. So I don't know where you are heading to with that propaganda. See this thread again:https://www.nairaland.com/2679915/biafran-intention-exposed/3

5. That was so, because Gowon claimed to not be part of the counter coup plotters, Ojukwu reasoned that if that be the case, then the highest in command who happened to be Ogundipe should take over, just as Ironsi not being part of Nzeogwu coup, took over after the coup. But if Gowon was going to take over, then the powers must be dissolved, since the tail can not be the head, unless of course it first severed the head, but Gowon already claimed not to have severed the head, so that is it.

6. Well, it takes only a sincere Igbo man to trace the genesis of Nigeria's problems to Awolowo's greed that created the wild wild west, that led to Awo trying to usurp the central government, an act that inspired Nzeogwu and the other coup plotters that came after them to also usurp the FG.

Awolowo placed Nigeria in its current comatose state, this the fact that every Arewa-Odua person living or late must make peace with.

In actual fact Awolowo's attempt to usurp Balewa's government was a reaction to an earlier attempt by Zik and Balewa to usurp the autonomy of the Western Region of which Awolowo was the leader. Recall that the Zik-Balewa duo refused to let the Western Region crisis take its natural course but illegally and unconstitutionally intervened by first abusing federal power to prevent the Western Region parliarment from sitting to vote in determination of whether Akintola would continue or not as premier; and secondly later re-instating Akintola without an election in clear violation of the Western Region's constitution; and thirdly by making a retroactive law with which they (Zik and Balewa) disobeying the Privy Council's (Supreme Court equivalent) ruling that Akintola should vacate the seat . It was in the face of all these acts of lawlessness and bad examples of leadership by Zik-Balewa that Awolowo had to resort to self help since such executive rascality at the top was an indication that the institutions meant to protect democracy had all failed. It was that executive rascality by Zik and Balewa that inspired Nzeogwu and co to intervene thus Zik was top in Nzeogwu's hit list.
To underscore how intolerable it could be to be a victim of executive rascality, even Zik himself later resorted to self help by his attempt to usurp Baslewa's powers by rooting for the military's assistance towards stalling Balewa's second inauguration due to Balewa's massive rigging against Zik's UPGA.
In essence Zik's lust after control of the western Region aided by Balewa's plot to perpetrate himself in power by employing extra-constitutional means was what brought in the dog-eat-dog situation which led Awo to attempt power usurpation in self defence.
What appears to you as Ironsi leaving the regions intact is the fact that, immediately he seized power in January, he had no choice than to appoint military governors into the regions first in order to furnish himself with the calm atmosphere to plot his dismantling of the regions which he did within the next three months and finally executed in the month of May which was the month that the anti-unification decree riots broke out and massacred igbos. Of course he had to first leave the regions intact while he mapped out plans to dismantle them later and also plans to create his 35 provinces. These are endeavours that require time to plan before execution, and they took him three months. So the time he left the regions intact were while he was actually plotting to finally crush them.
He could not have first crushed them before planning what to replace them with.
If Ironsi did not dismantle the regions then what was the meaning of Gowon's decree 56?
If Zik and Balewa had allowed the Western House issue to run its natural course without interference; Awo would not have resorted to self help, Nzeogwu and co would not have had any excuse to strike... thus military coup culture would not have entered Nigeria, Ironsi would not have ever smelled power and the regions would never have been tampered with, and ojukwu would never have had to demand for a restructuring thus Aburi Accord would not have ever come up, and the Biafra war would have been avoided. The whole chaos and failure of Nigeria is therefore traceable to Zik's unquencheable lust after control of the Western Region which was not even his region in the first instance.

Deadlytruth:


In actual fact Awolowo's attempt to usurp Balewa's government was a reaction to an earlier attempt by Zik and Balewa to usurp the autonomy of the Western Region of which Awolowo was the leader. Recall that the Zik-Balewa duo refused to let the Western Region crisis take its natural course but illegally and unconstitutionally intervened by first abusing federal power to prevent the Western Region parliarment from sitting to vote in determination of whether Akintola would continue or not as premier; and secondly later re-instating Akintola without an election in clear violation of the Western Region's constitution; and thirdly by making a retroactive law with which they (Zik and Balewa) disobeying the Privy Council's (Supreme Court equivalent) ruling that Akintola should vacate the seat . It was in the face of all these acts of lawlessness and bad examples of leadership by Zik-Balewa that Awolowo had to resort to self help since such executive rascality at the top was an indication that the institutions meant to protect democracy had all failed. It was that executive rascality by Zik and Balewa that inspired Nzeogwu and co to intervene thus Zik was top in Nzeogwu's hit list.
To underscore how intolerable it could be to be a victim of executive rascality, even Zik himself later resorted to self help by his attempt to usurp Baslewa's powers by rooting for the military's assistance towards stalling Balewa's second inauguration due to Balewa's massive rigging against Zik's UPGA.
In essence Zik's lust after control of the western Region aided by Balewa's plot to perpetrate himself in power by employing extra-constitutional means was what brought in the dog-eat-dog situation which led Awo to attempt power usurpation in self defence.
What appears to you as Ironsi leaving the regions intact is the fact that, immediately he seized power in January, he had no choice than to appoint military governors into the regions first in order to furnish himself with the calm atmosphere to plot his dismantling of the regions which he did within the next three months and finally executed in the month of May which was the month that the anti-unification decree riots broke out and massacred igbos. Of course he had to first leave the regions intact while he mapped out plans to dismantle them later and also plans to create his 35 provinces. These are endeavours that require time to plan before execution, and they took him three months. So the time he left the regions intact were while he was actually plotting to finally crush them.
He could not have first crushed them before planning what to replace them with.
If Ironsi did not dismantle the regions then what was the meaning of Gowon's decree 56?
If Zik and Balewa had allowed the Western House issue to run its natural course without interference; Awo would not have resorted to self help, Nzeogwu and co would not have had any excuse to strike... thus military coup culture would not have entered Nigeria, Ironsi would not have ever smelled power and the regions would never have been tampered with, and ojukwu would never have had to demand for a restructuring thus Aburi Accord would not have ever come up, and the Biafra war would have been avoided. The whole chaos and failure of Nigeria is therefore traceable to Zik's unquencheable lust after control of the Western Region which was not even his region in the first instance.

Lol! Failed try. It wasn't Zik who intervened in the Western region crisis that shouldn't have happened if Awo was not a power hungry criminal, it was the Saraduna.

He was the one who was out to pay Awo in kind for Awo alleged involvement in the UMBC-AG coalition that resulted in the middle belt threatening to leave North, a situation that polarized and nearly ruined the Northern unity.

Saraduna was out to pay Awolowo back, it was him who had "destability" score to settle with Awolowo, and he made this public, when he openly declared that he was set to conquer Yorubaland like his patriarch Dan Fodio once did.

Azikiwe having tested the bitter pill of Awolowo's power greed simply allowed the Saraduna have his way, but ultimately it was Awolowo's power greed that allowed Saraduna to set his plans in motion.

It's only you innate slavery attachment to the North that is making you to see Zik as the masterminder of the plan to install Akintola in the Western region, as against the fact that it was Northern plan, and this would be proved right as Akintola never wasted time to align his NNDP party with the NPC in the next elections.


Twist it and dice it any way you want. The first history of insubordination and attempt to usurp the FG was made by Awolowo, and like we now know, this very Awolowo's act of insubordination inspired Nzeogwu and co and set into play a cascade of insubordinations and hostile take overs of the FG, that ended up with the emergence of Obasanjo in 1999.

Awolowo was the Origin Zero, the X factor, the genesis. And since he was Yoruba and still supported by Yorubas, we can extrapolate this angle and safely conclude that YORUBAS ARE THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIA, just like Sanusi once pointed out.

Shalom.

veron007:
Mumu Thunder fire you there. Ask Gowon how market now[/size][size=8pt].

Mynd44

pazienza:



Lol! Failed try. It wasn't Zik who intervened in the Western region crisis that shouldn't have happened if Awo was not a power hungry criminal, it was the Saraduna.

He was the one who was out to pay Awo in kind for Awo alleged involvement in the UMBC-AG coalition that resulted in the middle belt threatening to leave North, a situation that polarized and nearly ruined the Northern unity.

Saraduna was out to pay Awolowo back, it was him who had "destability" score to settle with Awolowo, and he made this public, when he openly declared that he was set to conquer Yorubaland like his patriarch Dan Fodio once did.

Azikiwe having tested the bitter pill of Awolowo's power greed simply allowed the Saraduna have his way, but ultimately it was Awolowo's power greed that allowed Saraduna to set his plans in motion.

It's only you innate slavery attachment to the North that is making you to see Zik as the masterminder of the plan to install Akintola in the Western region, as against the fact that it was Northern plan, and this would be proved right as Akintola never wasted time to align his NNDP party with the NPC in the next elections.


Twist it and dice it any way you want. The first history of insubordination and attempt to usurp the FG was made by Awolowo, and like we now know, this very Awolowo's act of insubordination inspired Nzeogwu and co and set into play a cascade of insubordinations and hostile take overs of the FG, that ended up with the emergence of Obasanjo in 1999.

Awolowo was the Origin Zero, the X factor, the genesis. And since he was Yoruba and still supported by Yorubas, we can extrapolate this angle and safely conclude that YORUBAS ARE THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIA, just like Sanusi once pointed out.

Shalom.

An argument dead on arrival!
Zik had always wanted to annex the Western Region hence his pre-independence attempt to contest to be the premier but rightly thwarted by Awolowo. It was the pursuit of the vendetta that made him use his Igbo MPs in the Western House to support disruption of the Western Region by maliciously supporting Akintola against Awolowo as a pay back for Awo's thwarting of his quest to rule Western Region.
There was nothing like UPGA-AG alliance. The UPGA was a coalition between NCNC and AG. So how can there be UPGA-AG (ie (AG-NCNC)-AG alliance again? Perhaps you meant UMBC-AG alliance. However there was nothing really wrong with aligning with any other party as long as the constitution permitted it. But if your logic still insists that Awolowo was wrong to have "split" the Middle Belt off the Core North by aligning his AG with UMBC and thus had to be haunted by Balewa, then Zik was even guiltier for aligning his NCNC with NEPU and thereby splitting even the Core North and deserved to be more haunted by Balewa. Then Balewa himself was, by your logic as well, guilty of spliting the South by aligning first with NCNC, and later splitting the Western Region by aligning his NPC with Akintola's NNDP, thus Balewa should have haunted himself too. Can you see that your theory fails flat if extended to interprete other alliances? It also means Zik was guilty again of spliting the Midwest by later aligning his NCNC with MDP. Now if Balewa was out to hunt Awo for allegedly splitting the North by the UMBC-AG alliance, then why did he also not hunt Zik too for splitting the Core North for that matter with the NCNC-NEPU alliance?
Any way you twist and cook it it can't be denied that Zik's greed and lust after Awo's Western Region instead of him concerning himself with his own Eastern Region was the ignition spark of the chain events that put Nigeria in this mess. Nzeogwu and co knew this and that is why Zik made it into their hit list while Awolowo did not.
Can you simply explain why Zik was never okay or satisfied with just minding his Eastern Region's business but always wanted to meddle in the Western Region's affairs? It was his penchant and precedent of meddling in the Western Region's affairs that gave Balewa too the moral courage to attempt same.
Did Awolowo Ever meddle in the internal affairs of Zik's Eastern Region?

Who was actually power hungry between Zik who left his own region to seek premiership of an entirely different region where he had no single stake; and Awolowo who never stepped out of his own region to seek to rule another region which was not his, but disciplined himself and limited his activities to only looking after his own region's protection from aliens? No other politician back then ever was so undisciplined greedy and lustful after power to the extent of leaving thier own region to try capturing power in another. Not even the born-to-rule- chanting Ahmadu Bello ever contemplated such in the wildest imagination. It only shows that Zik was in fact the real born-to-rule apostle because he proved it by his actions while Ahmadu Bello only said it verbally. And you know that actions speak louder than words. I think power hunger has another definition to you anyway.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi's claims about Yorubas impresses only very shallow minded Igbos. Here is a man who reconstructed events of history and concluded that Yorubas were the problem but spared no single line in that speech to condemn his Hausa-Fulani brothers who, in those circumstances, ironically always massacred Igbos while leaving unharassed the Yorubas he believes were the problem with Nigeria. Can't you see his insincerity there? A goro-chewing mallam has played on the intelligence of a chest-beating Biafran again.
Also, in the account of events he left out the part from 1914 to 1960 which was the time his own brothers sowed the remotest seeds of suspicion and unhealthy tribal rivalry by their born-to-rule philosophy in a democracy. That was an antithesis. How could a people espouse such an utterly anti-democratic slogan in a democratic environment and yet a man who came out to trace the problem with Nigeria's democracy intentionally failed to mention it and also failed to mention how his same brothers were the first to massacre igbos unprovoked just because his brothers were responsible? And yet an igbo man is taking such a very dishonest man as his oracle!
Just two months ago the same SLS delivered a speech in a book launch in which he said "......anybody still preaching that Hausa, Yoruba, Ijaw, is the problem with Nigeria does not love Nigeria.....". You can google it. You'll notice that he purposely left out Igbos in the tribes he mentioned, thus this might mean he has become freshly convinced that Igbos are actually the problem.
Jeremiah Useni, a Northerner too, gave an interview in which he placed the blame of Nigeria's woes entirely on Igbos. Even FFK recently gave an analysis by which he made it clear that Igbos have been the problem of Nigeria.

On the other hand, however, one might even agree that Yorubas are Nigeria's problem on the strength of the fact that of all the tribes in Nigeria they and they alone, all in the name of being the sophisticated tribe that accommodates everyone else, have always tolerated Igbos' expansionist drive and have always given them the room and freedom to perpetrate their lawlessness, greed and overbearing intents. Imagine that Yorubas already knew that if Igbos are given an inch they take a mile and a yard in no time afterwards, yet Yorubas still blindly voted Igbo MPs into the Western Regional Assembly. I honestly don't know what Yorubas were calculating to achieve with such a blunder. What sort of sophistication would make a people vote very lawless and expansionist aliens into their own law making assembly? And when Zik started taking a yard and a mile by using those Igbo MPs to fight Awolowo with the view of taking control of the West Yorubas began to complain and started Operation Wetie. Had Yorubas discarded that their sophisticated tribe assumption and thus earlier on placed Western-Region-resident Igbos were they belonged by making it clear to them that they could not vie for political offices in the West just as Igbos and Northerners too were at that time not favourably disposed to outsiders nursing political aspirations within their Regions; all that rubbish Akintola did to Awolowo with the invaluable support he got from those Igbo MPs would not have ever happened and Nigeria would have been spared of the first republic tragedy.
I have always told Yorubas that their sophisticated and accommodating tribe philosophy has not helped Nigeria but has emboldened Igbos to always cause chaos first on a sectional scale within Yorubaland and then later escalate to national dimensions to affect everyone negatively. And as if the lessons of the First Republic are not enough for Yorubas, they have started repeating the nonsense of voting Igbos to the House of Reps from Lagos constituencies through PDP/Jimi Agbaje. Yorubas are too impervious to lessons and have very short memory.
In my own place Igbos don't try any rubbish because immediately on arrival we make them understand that they are in a foreign land and that there is nothing like "one-Nigeria" invented by their fraudulent Zik, so they either just face their buying and selling or go elsewhere to live. In fact an Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba man (i.e. the Wazobian) dares not contemplate nursing a political ambition in my community given the intimidating and protective approach to it by us the natives.

Volksfuhrer:


Perhaps Ojukwu's "intellectual superiority" was his undoing. Ojukwu didn't listen to good advice because he felt "superior" to good advisers. Gowon didn't pretend to being a genius, but he was smart enough to recruit intellectual giants as advisers.

In fact, "One Nigeria" would have been "toast" had Gowon led Biafra. Gowon would not have attacked the Midwest. Gowon would never have taken hostage oil "expats." Gowon would never have bombed Kaduna or Lagos. Gowon was too smart for such inanities, he wasn't egotistic. Gowon would have listened to Njoku, Biafra's Army commander. Thank heavens, Nigeria didn't have an Ojukwu for a c-in-c!

A leader need not be a philosopher a la Plato, he only needs foresight with an excellent moral compass to guide him, a trait that would eventually endear him to great allies which Ojukwu didn't have. Yes, Ojukwu was smart, but he lacked foresight: hence his defeat. In any case, Ojukwu's leadership skill was a midget compared to Gowon's!

Kindest regards

Ojukwu did not lose the war because of any of the reasons you mentioned. Ojukwu lost because of British involvement in the war. It was British Warships that blockaded Biafra and stopped At Ojukwu from exporting Oil and importing adequate armaments. Where it not for this, Ojukwu would have won hands down

Propropro:
The man that single handedly ensured biafra was dead and buried in 1970 while Ojukwu fled to ivory coast with his tail behind his legs. God bless Gowon for keeping this great nation one. We are forever grateful

Dear sir,

On a scale of 1-10, how much do you love the Igbo nation?

elsomm:


Dear sir,

On a scale of 1-10, how much do you love the Igbo nation?

0/10

Get this straight.

General JT Aguiyi Ironsi was the first to restructure Nigeria from regional governments to unitary one through Decree 34 of 1966 immediately the Ibos got power.

The northerners tasted it and saw how sweet it was and wouldn't let go.

That's one of the things we have to deal with. Those past decrees should discarded or voted on in the National Assembly individually. Military rule is over.