blueseacats:
I hate talking about this war, but with people like you feeling like conquerors we can't go anywhere, without the Yoruba elite generals even 1000,000 of Hausa armed men could not have taken down one eastern state, cause according to all records they lacked the brain power, Hausa flight leutanants tried to bomb golden guinea breweries saveral times without hiting a target until Alani akininatde came and did in one try.

According to my uncle who saw the war firsthand, he said ogbunaigwe was actually developed to kill Nigerian soldiers en mass because they come to attack like cows and so they die. You will know the difference when a Yoruba general is in charge of a battalion and an Hausa guy.

With Britain and Russia supplying you hardware 24/7 it will be a war mistery up until today if Nigeria actually lost that war.

So the enemy was charging like swarms to Biafran positions No wonder they sustained heavy casualties in excess of 3:1

Do you also know that the ogbunigwe was named so by an elderly man from the Oka(awka) area It was said that the man exclaimed in Igbo when he saw the casualties O gbuo fa n'igwe meaning that it killed them in their multitudes and that was how the name stuck!

sukkot:
its a BIG LIE. tell the truth and shame the devil. yorubas are the most accomodating tribe in nigeria. listen a white man observed nigerians for 20 years. i forget his name now. this were his words, not verbatim ' he said the hausas and igbos are extremists and very temperamental people but the yorubas are the tribe who glue the country together because they are friendly and non temperamental and not extremists ' <<< the words of a white man studying nigerians for two decades and doing research on the peoples of nigeria. point being the yorubas are not capable of hate. they are happy people. they only hate you if you hate them.

Who the Bleep is lying here. What accommodating are you talking about. We see articles of you yolobas harassment of non-indigienous in your land. Infact most tribal fights that occurred in your region between una and non yorubas have all been your people harassment of other tribes.
Hell you Nigga invade igbo traders shop almost of daily basis trying to collect illegal taxes and when they refuse, it result to fights..after they beat you up, you people come to steal from them or vandalized their shop during the middle of the night...that's accommodation right?
Heck, several Years ago you lots threw beans at hausa traders in ibadan all because of increase of food prices that was national. ...that's accommodation right.
Recently, you lots accused the ijaws lIrving within your midst of militant activities in your land and even wished death on them..when it was exposed that the militants were indeed yoloba, not once have you lots apologized, infact you still go around accusing them despite the truth surfaced...that's accommodation right.
F2k out of here.

Your accommodating yet your people are the ones that own the two most tribalistic forum or blog on the Web.
Go to bellanaija, Linda Ikeja blog, that hausa boy's blog, that ibibio chick ( I forgot the name of the blog), despite being popular and equally based in Nigeria, the amount of tribalism found in their site is BEYOND limited.... yet you claim "we, yorubas, are accommodating".

Hell in my asaba you Nigga are packed there, how many times have you read you people are harassed the same way you lots Harris non yorubas living among your midst. How many times?

Lastly, did you people on NL not rejoice whenever Igbos were killed up North? Yes or No?
In year 2011 during the election loss kill by the North, weren't you people the lots that rejoiced when you thought the victims were igbo. When exposed that you had a significant number of members in that victim list, that's when you lots found your humanity gene again.
Likewise the same thing during the Abuja bombing plus the miss world killing.

Before the existance of IPOB, Let's not forget you lots rejoice EACH time massob members were reported killed. What prompt it especially considering massob members was a group that never once spoke ill about una. Oh that's right, because they are igbo.

Hell you lots were the most outspoken in demanding for genocide of igbo during the biafra war... someone even made an NL post providing several quotes and links to prove it. Someone please post the link of that thread here so the 'most accomdating' lots can come and screech to us why they lie about igbos reaction to GEJ lose is what made them hateful

kettykin:
With all this metal scraps yet biafra still woefully lost the war, which simply makes technology not the sole means of winning a country backed by Britain and Soviet union.
If Biafra had built more of Airborne vehicles and rockets that could haul payloads and hit with precision, targets that are more than 100 km away in dodan barracks, Kano, Kaduna etc possibly the war could have been prolonged, if biafra had mastered the art and technology of building under ground tunnels with fish ponds , poultry farms, water purification plants, refined pharmaceutical plants , nuclear power stations, nuclear arsenals, nuclear powered submarines that could blow up all the naval ships of the invaders, biafra would definitely have won the war after just 6 days.


Any body promoting biafra must be a mad and insane person. Igbos should just be contented in nigeria

See ur mouth....just look at what u expect biafrans to have archived as of 1960's. Even now u that is talking can't manufacture sleepers ..... U get mouth

cheruv:

Ojukwu offered to cede the two Ijo provinces Biāfra had viz Brass(Yenegua) and Degema provinces[see map below] to Nigeria in order for the war to end and in return for Igbo territories seized in the Northern front...Gowon refused bkos his British masters wanted him to crush the Igbos
The oil was in the two provinces Ojukwu offered in exchange for cessation of hostilities, why did Gowon refuse?

My friend, every war is dogged by lies nd propaganda...so much we are still yet in the know.
Though i myt not b well historically schooled on whether Ojukwu offered to cede those provinces, but remember, those weren't d only oil rich provinces in Biafra...Gowon refused perhaps because he didn't trust Ojukwu, nd he knew that sooner Dan lata he myt still rise up stronger, so wat the Nigerian government did was total annihilation aimed at cutting biafrans from oil sources. And with the Nigerian blockade cutting off the Biafrans from their expected source of oil revenue from the Rivers province the Biafrans suffered untold hardship.

ehikwe22:
Why do some people talk like they know nothing. Ogbunigwe can destroy any number of soldiers but not in one shot. Biafra soldiers are the most intelligent and resilient soldiers I've ever seen. They were able to stand and fight the Nigerian Army with higher weapons and manpower and also supported by the whole world for 3 years. They inflicted heavy casualties on the Nigerian soldiers that the Nigerian Army has to resort to killing innocent civilians. Nigerian Army lost more soldiers than the Biafran Army. Anyone in doubt should read the books on the biafran war both by Nigerian and Biafran generals.

I'm not Igbo and I was not part of the biafran republic but some of my people fought on solidarity with Biafra and most of the commanders and generals in Biafran army were from my tribe.

Igbos are really great people when it comes to some certain things. only a fool will try to deny that.

Anioma is the only part of Igboland outside Biāfra that produced most of our military leadership...
Our defense chief,Major General Efyong was from akwa ibom, our army chief Major General Maduebo was from Awka while our airforce and navy chiefs viz Ezeilo and Anuku were from Anioma(I heard Ezeilo was from Ukwuani while Anuku was from Ika)
Aside them,our brigade commanders viz Nwawo, Nzeogwu, Okwuchime etc were from Anioma

So are you Anioma?

Ikechukwu48:


Who the Bleep is lying here. What accommodating are you talking about. We see articles of you yolobas harassment of non-indigienous in your land. Infact most tribal fights that occurred in your region between una and non yorubas have all been your people harassment of other tribes.
Hell you Nigga invade igbo traders shop almost of daily basis trying to collect illegal taxes and when they refuse, it result to fights..after they beat you up, you people come to steal from them or vandalized their shop during the middle of the night...that's accommodation right?
Heck, several Years ago you lots threw beans at hausa traders in ibadan all because of increase of food prices that was national. ...that's accommodation right.
Recently, you lots accused the ijaws lIrving within your midst of militant activities in your land and even wished death on them..when it was exposed that the militants were indeed yoloba, not once have you lots apologized, infact you still go around accusing them despite the truth surfaced...that's accommodation right.
F2k out of here.

Your accommodating yet your people are the ones that own the two most tribalistic forum or blog on the Web.
Go to bellanaija, Linda Ikeja blog, that hausa boy's blog, that ibibio chick ( I forgot the name of the blog), despite being popular and equally based in Nigeria, the amount of tribalism found in their site is BEYOND limited.... yet you claim "we, yorubas, are accommodating".

Hell in my asaba you Nigga are packed there, how many times have you read you people are harassed the same way you lots Harris non yorubas living among your midst. How many times?

Lastly, did you people on NL not rejoice whenever Igbos were killed up North? Yes or No?
In year 2011 during the election loss kill by the North, weren't you people the lots that rejoiced when you thought the victims were igbo. When exposed that you had a significant number of members in that victim list, that's when you lots found your humanity gene again.
Likewise the same thing during the Abuja bombing plus the miss world killing.

Before the existance of IPOB, Let's not forget you lots rejoice EACH time massob members were reported killed. What prompt it especially considering massob members was a group that never once spoke ill about una. Oh that's right, because they are igbo.

Hell you lots were the most outspoken in demanding for genocide of igbo during the biafra war... someone even made an NL post providing several quotes and links to prove it. Someone please post the link of that thread here so the 'most accomdating' lots can come and screech to us why they lie about igbos reaction to GEJ lose is what made them hateful

hey, i admit we have some area boys amongst us, but even the area boys are despised by regular yorubas. every tribe has a criminal element. ours are owoda area boys lolzzz. but has nothing to do with yoruba people at large. these are criminals

aresa:



Common federal appointment to a federal institution means you are more educated?

ipob logic is always upside down logic...

I guess the British practiced nepotism n favored ibos ( their greatest antagonists). afterall Una papa use chain from heaven reach here. lol

sukkot:
somewhat. but not academical enough to where you are demanding for references and primary sources. i believe WORD FROM THE HORSES MOUTH should suffice for this forum. if i can provide a video of the french admitting to their culpability in the biafran war and how they supplied all the ogbunigwe, i believe that evidence should suffice

I quote Nairaland in general for information n facts not de rants of dis tasteless n tech ignorant yoruba lots arguing bout Ogbunigwe n its destructive effect.....Well dey won't knw cos d federal troops were nt smart enuff 2 harness d biafra techz cos dey were so envious n quick 2 loot

Joavid:


lmao

Sukkot is back and cracking me up.

lolzzzzz Joavid trust the weekend is nice

LordValor:




I quote Nairaland in general for information n facts not de rants of dis tasteless n tech ignorant yoruba lots arguing bout Ogbunigwe n its destructive effect.....[s]Well dey won't knw cos d federal troops were nt smart enuff 2 harness d biafra techz [/s]cos dey were so envious n quick 2 loot

bro the tech was from france not biafra

ojinuocheibi:
WE KEEP LYING TO OUR SELF IN NIGERIA SINCE 1960. IF YOU THINK BIAFRANS BUILD ALL THOSE EQUIPMENTS DURING THE WAR WHO STOP THEM NOW FROM BUILDING THEM? OJUKWU HIRED ALOT OF WHITE MEN WHO WHERE TO EXPLORE THE OIL AFTER HELPING BIAFRA TO WIN THE WAR, YES THERE WAS BLOCLADE BY NIGERIA AGAINST BIAFRA SO THIS HIRED WHITE MEN STARTED MOUNTING GUNS ON NIGERIA ABANDONED MILITARY EQUIPEMENTS. THEN USE PROPAGANDER TO FOOL THEIR SUPPORTERS TO MAKE THEM BLV THAT THEY ARE PRODUCING MILITARY EQIUPMENT LOCALLY. NOW THAT THE WAR IS OVER WHY ARE THEY NOT MANUFACTURING? OR IS IT ONLY WAR EQUIPMENT THAT THE CAN MANUFACTURE? IF THEY MANUFATURE JEEP AND TANKS DURING THE WAR WHY DONT THEY USE THOSE IDEAS TO MANUFACTURE HUMMER JEEPS OR RANGE ROVER OR EVEN CATARPILLER FOR THEY GOOD OF THE IBOS AND NIGERIA AS A WHOLE, IF YOU THINK THAT THEY IBOS MANUFACTURED ANYTHINF DURING THE WAR THEN WAKE UP BECAUSE THEY DID NOT MANUFACTURE A PIN TALK MORE OF A TYRE SO DONT BE DECIEVED. IF THEY MANUFACTURED REFINARY OR REFINED CRUDE OIL IN THE SIXTIES ANDY UBA WOULDNT BE IMPORTING REFINED PRODUCT INTO THE COUNTRY TODAY.

Trash!

cheruv:

Anioma is the only part of Igboland outside Biāfra that produced most of our military leadership...
Our defense chief,Major General Efyong was from akwa ibom, our army chief Major General Maduebo was from Awka while our airforce and navy chiefs viz Ezeilo and Anuku were from Anioma(I heard Ezeilo was from Ukwuani while Anuku was from Ika)
Aside them,our brigade commanders viz Nwawo, Nzeogwu, Okwuchime etc were from Anioma

So are you Anioma?

Yes I'm Anioma but sorry, I don't see myself as Igbo. but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate good thing but being Igbo is an innate thing and I don't have that feeling of being Igbo in me.

Ekaka1:


It was actually first launched in a town called Gakem....Ogoja now in Bekwarra Local govt. This is a border town to Kastina Ala in Benue state.

It is actually believed that the first major sound of declaration war by the vbiafran troops was in this little Ogoja town. The federal troops had planned to surprise Ojukwu's Army from Benue state by moving Quickly in a two pronged attack into Abakaliki through Ogoja and also on the other side via the border towns to Nsukka but I heard the Ogbunigwe wrecked so much havoc that they could not mobilize through both flanks for months.
Which is why Mallam Murtala tried severally to cross the Niger River leaving several casualties and eventually got hammered at Abagana by Hannibal and His boys.

As a young high school student in the mid 80s I used to travel through that town, oji river and via the old Enugu road (very dangerous curvy small road with deep coal mines beneath) to Lagos and back when schools were on break. In those days when you arrive Abagana I knew we were getting close to Onitsha because it still had the relics of war with bullet holes in most buildings on the road side 15 years after the war

It is my belief that , if the Igbo nation had survived the scourge of that war a little longer and Assuming Red Cross food and medical supplies were not shutoff (and this act by the Nigerian govt was contrary to the Geneva convention agreement signed after the 2nd WW) Biafra would have become a reality.
By the way tribalists on this thread...I no be Igbo oh but I have researched the civil war so well form my Dad's memoirs and other decent materials so I can tell most of the key stories well

Can you imagine a military shutting out medical supplies, seriously Nigeria is finished militarily. How on earth can such face a real military . This country is really useless and false. Made up of useless ex military officers who committed genocide on innocent children, not even ISIS shuts out medical supplies to their victims.

I'm not in support of ipob or their mission but for a military to shut out medical supplies to a war ravaged region is the worst type of satanism not even Isis or Boko Haram does that.

READ ABUT SOME LIES OF IGBOS THAT WERE BUSTED WITH REFERENCES.IGBOS ALWAYS LIE AND BELIEVE THEIR LIES

P.M. NEWS Nigeria > News > National > BIAFRA: The Facts, The Fiction
BIAFRA: The Facts, The Fiction
Published on March 5, 2013 by · 34 Comments

Placed side by side independent accounts of the Nigerian Civil War, Professor Chinua Achebe’s There Was A Country is a pot-pourri of deliberate misrepresentations, outright inventions and a one-eyed view of events

A writer should not be an accomplice to lies. Even when thorns infect the land, a writer must embody and defend the perennial destiny of high values and principles. It is not the business of a writer to side with the powerless against the powerful; the powerless can be thoughtless and wrong. The Nazi party was once a powerless group. A writer should not prefer falsehood to reality just because it serves patriotic ends. In times of great upheavals in a multi-ethnic society, a writer should get out and warn the society that the more perfect the answer, the more terrifying its consequences. Pride in one’s ethnic identity is good, patriotism is fantastic but when they are not properly moderated by higher considerations, they can prove more destructive than nuclear weapons. Four months after America dropped nuclear bombs on Japan, the dead eventually totalled 240,000. In the ethnic rivalry between Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda, within two months 500,000 were murdered with ordinary machetes.

Patriotism, when deployed, must always be simultaneously governed by something higher and lower than itself, like the arms of a democratic government. These provide checks and balances so that patriotism does not become a false conception of greatness at the expense of other tribes or nations. It is for this reason that we proceed to discuss Chinua Achebe’s patriotic autobiography, There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, in the light of something higher than it: 21,000 pages of Confidential, Secret, Top Secret US State Department Central Files on Nigeria-Biafra 1967-1969 and something lower: The Education of a British Protected Child by Chinua Achebe himself.

There Was A Country is written for the modern day Igbo to know why they are suffering in the Nigerian federation and who should be fingered for the cause. Achebe’s logic is neat, but too simple: Africa began to suffer 500 years ago when Europe discovered it (that is, there was no suffering or inter-tribal wars before then in Africa). Nigeria began to suffer when Lord Lugard amalgamated it. And the Igbo began to suffer because of the events surrounding the Biafran secession. To Achebe, there should have been more countries in the behemoth Lord Lugard cobbled together. What Achebe does not take into account is the role rabid tribalism plays in doing violence to social cohesion, which makes every region counter-productively seek a perfect answer in demanding its own nation state. There are over 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria and there cannot be over 250 countries in Nigeria. There are officially 645 distinctive ethnic groups in India and only one country. All over the world there are tens of thousands of ethnic nationalities and there are only 206 countries. What the ethnic nationalities that constitute Nigeria need to learn for the unity of the country is the democratisation of their tribal loyalties. And that inevitably leads to gradual detribalisation of consciousness, which makes it possible to treat a person as an individual and not basically a member of another tribe. That is the first error of Achebe.
• Ojukwu reviewing a parade of Biafran soldiers

• Ojukwu reviewing a parade of Biafran soldiers

Instead of writing the book as a writer who is Igbo, Achebe wrote the book as an Igbo writer, working himself into a Zugzwang bind, a position in chess that ensures the continuous weakening of your position with every step you make. All the places that should alarm the moral consciousness of any writer, Achebe is either indifferent to or dismisses them outright because the victims are not his people. But in every encounter that shows the Igbo being killed or resented by Nigerians, or by the Yoruba in particular, Achebe intensifies the spotlight, deploying stratospheric rhetoric, including quotes from foreign authors with further elaborations in end notes to show he is not partial. Achebe calls upon powerfully coercive emotive words and phrasings to dignify what is clearly repugnant to reason. Furthermore, not only does he take pride in ignoring the findings of common sense, he allocates primetime attention to fact-free rants just because they say his people are the most superior tribe in Nigeria. The book, to say the least, is a masterpiece of propaganda and sycophancy. It is not a writer’s business to be an accomplice to lies.

First, let’s take Achebe’s Christopher Okigbo. Throughout the book, Achebe presents Okigbo in loving moments complete with tender details: Okigbo attending to Achebe’s wife during labour, Okigbo ordering opulent room service dishes for Achebe’s wife in a swanky hotel, while millions were allegedly dying of starvation and Achebe was out of the country, Okigbo being a dearly beloved uncle to Achebe’s children and Okigbo opening a publishing house in the middle of the war. Out of the blue, he writes that he hears on Radio Nigeria the death of Major Christopher Okigbo. Major? The reader is completely shocked and feels revulsion for the side that killed him and sympathy for the side that lost him. Unlike other accounts, like Obi Nwankama’s definitive biography of Okigbo, Achebe skips details of Okigbo running arms and ammunition from Birmingham to Biafra and also from place to place in Biafra; he omits the fact that Okigbo was an active-duty guerrilla fighter, killing the other side before he himself got killed. Like many other episodes recounted in the book, Achebe photoshops the true picture so that readers would allocate early enough which side should merit their sympathy, which side should be slated for revulsion. Pity, cheap sympathy, sloppy sentimentalism, one-sided victimhood are what is on sale throughout the book. Achebe, of course, is preparing the reader for his agenda at the end of the book.

ehikwe22:
Yes I'm Anioma but sorry, I don't see myself as Igbo. but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate good thing but being Igbo is an innate thing and I don't have that feeling of being Igbo in me.

Is Anioma a tribe? Tell us your tribe? What does Anioma mean in your language?

as I northern man I can't bear the hate the igboa have for Yoruba despite hosting you in large number in different west state.somethings you do for them if it where in North we would hv send all of you back home and slaughter some.during the regional system of government the west was the best in terns of development and north took second.you cam here to lie about technology in war, wont be surprise if Naija delta millitant tomorrow deceive people they build there gun boat themselves.some remarkable project during awolowo period till today your government can't boast of such.if you igbos are contented with what you have why your huge number in west and north running for your mouldy land.I pity the igbo that will be sent home soon Nigeria going back to regionalism soon

Ritchiee:

Nigeria's ICT is very primitive and dominated by expatriates you see why I said you are an illiterate...pls,go and learn.THX.

even though you obviously mistook me for another,I refuse to engage you in an exchange of insults.I hate it when guys instead of stating facts to prove a point resort to fallacy of argumentum ad hominem (attack against the author). By the way,an illiterate is one found wanting in the basic socio-human skills of reading and writing hence, by virtue of this post (which shows I can read and type a reply to your post) am not illiterate.A better adjective would be misinformed.Back to the theme of the issue,until Nigeria has it version of the silicon valley(pls don't mention computer village) our ICT is insignificant.Yes we expect a prodigious growth in 5 years time but ,its still basic in structure. At best brother,you are an irrelevant authority on the issue of naijas ICT.

jiinxed:



Begging with style?

tahh,..if i have to beg you to be reasonable,,,,then,,,,sooo,be it!!!...

P.M. NEWS Nigeria > News > National > BIAFRA: The Facts, The Fiction
BIAFRA: The Facts, The Fiction
Published on March 5, 2013 by · 34 Comments

Placed side by side independent accounts of the Nigerian Civil War, Professor Chinua Achebe’s There Was A Country is a pot-pourri of deliberate misrepresentations, outright inventions and a one-eyed view of events

A writer should not be an accomplice to lies. Even when thorns infect the land, a writer must embody and defend the perennial destiny of high values and principles. It is not the business of a writer to side with the powerless against the powerful; the powerless can be thoughtless and wrong. The Nazi party was once a powerless group. A writer should not prefer falsehood to reality just because it serves patriotic ends. In times of great upheavals in a multi-ethnic society, a writer should get out and warn the society that the more perfect the answer, the more terrifying its consequences. Pride in one’s ethnic identity is good, patriotism is fantastic but when they are not properly moderated by higher considerations, they can prove more destructive than nuclear weapons. Four months after America dropped nuclear bombs on Japan, the dead eventually totalled 240,000. In the ethnic rivalry between Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda, within two months 500,000 were murdered with ordinary machetes.

Patriotism, when deployed, must always be simultaneously governed by something higher and lower than itself, like the arms of a democratic government. These provide checks and balances so that patriotism does not become a false conception of greatness at the expense of other tribes or nations. It is for this reason that we proceed to discuss Chinua Achebe’s patriotic autobiography, There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, in the light of something higher than it: 21,000 pages of Confidential, Secret, Top Secret US State Department Central Files on Nigeria-Biafra 1967-1969 and something lower: The Education of a British Protected Child by Chinua Achebe himself.

There Was A Country is written for the modern day Igbo to know why they are suffering in the Nigerian federation and who should be fingered for the cause. Achebe’s logic is neat, but too simple: Africa began to suffer 500 years ago when Europe discovered it (that is, there was no suffering or inter-tribal wars before then in Africa). Nigeria began to suffer when Lord Lugard amalgamated it. And the Igbo began to suffer because of the events surrounding the Biafran secession. To Achebe, there should have been more countries in the behemoth Lord Lugard cobbled together. What Achebe does not take into account is the role rabid tribalism plays in doing violence to social cohesion, which makes every region counter-productively seek a perfect answer in demanding its own nation state. There are over 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria and there cannot be over 250 countries in Nigeria. There are officially 645 distinctive ethnic groups in India and only one country. All over the world there are tens of thousands of ethnic nationalities and there are only 206 countries. What the ethnic nationalities that constitute Nigeria need to learn for the unity of the country is the democratisation of their tribal loyalties. And that inevitably leads to gradual detribalisation of consciousness, which makes it possible to treat a person as an individual and not basically a member of another tribe. That is the first error of Achebe.
• Ojukwu reviewing a parade of Biafran soldiers

• Ojukwu reviewing a parade of Biafran soldiers

Instead of writing the book as a writer who is Igbo, Achebe wrote the book as an Igbo writer, working himself into a Zugzwang bind, a position in chess that ensures the continuous weakening of your position with every step you make. All the places that should alarm the moral consciousness of any writer, Achebe is either indifferent to or dismisses them outright because the victims are not his people. But in every encounter that shows the Igbo being killed or resented by Nigerians, or by the Yoruba in particular, Achebe intensifies the spotlight, deploying stratospheric rhetoric, including quotes from foreign authors with further elaborations in end notes to show he is not partial. Achebe calls upon powerfully coercive emotive words and phrasings to dignify what is clearly repugnant to reason. Furthermore, not only does he take pride in ignoring the findings of common sense, he allocates primetime attention to fact-free rants just because they say his people are the most superior tribe in Nigeria. The book, to say the least, is a masterpiece of propaganda and sycophancy. It is not a writer’s business to be an accomplice to lies.

First, let’s take Achebe’s Christopher Okigbo. Throughout the book, Achebe presents Okigbo in loving moments complete with tender details: Okigbo attending to Achebe’s wife during labour, Okigbo ordering opulent room service dishes for Achebe’s wife in a swanky hotel, while millions were allegedly dying of starvation and Achebe was out of the country, Okigbo being a dearly beloved uncle to Achebe’s children and Okigbo opening a publishing house in the middle of the war. Out of the blue, he writes that he hears on Radio Nigeria the death of Major Christopher Okigbo. Major? The reader is completely shocked and feels revulsion for the side that killed him and sympathy for the side that lost him. Unlike other accounts, like Obi Nwankama’s definitive biography of Okigbo, Achebe skips details of Okigbo running arms and ammunition from Birmingham to Biafra and also from place to place in Biafra; he omits the fact that Okigbo was an active-duty guerrilla fighter, killing the other side before he himself got killed. Like many other episodes recounted in the book, Achebe photoshops the true picture so that readers would allocate early enough which side should merit their sympathy, which side should be slated for revulsion. Pity, cheap sympathy, sloppy sentimentalism, one-sided victimhood are what is on sale throughout the book. Achebe, of course, is preparing the reader for his agenda at the end of the book.

Real Reasons For The Pogroms

To Achebe, the final straw that led to secession was the alleged 30,000 Igbos killed in the North. He carefully structures the narrative to locate the reason for this systematic killing/pogrom/ethnic-cleansing in the so-called usual resentment of the Igbo and not from the fallout of the first coup in the history of Nigeria. Achebe dismisses the targeted assassinations as not an Igbo coup. The two reasons he gives are because there was a Yoruba officer among the coup plotters and that the alleged leader of the coup, Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, was Igbo in name only. “Not only was he born in Kaduna, the capital of the Muslim North, he was widely known as someone who saw himself as a Northerner, spoke fluent Hausa and little Igbo and wore the Northern traditional dress when not in uniform (p79).”

Really? First, it was not mysterious that Azikiwe left the country in October 1965 on an endless medical cruise to Britain and the Caribbean. Dr. Idehen, his personal doctor, abandoned him when he got tired of the endless medical trip. Not even the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference, never held outside London, but hosted in Lagos for the first time in early January, was enough incentive for Azikiwe to return, yet he was the president of the nation. In a revelation contained in the American secret documents, it was Azikiwe’s presidential bodyguards that Major Ifeajuna, the coup’s mastermind, used to capture the Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.

Once Ifeajuna and Major Okafor, Commanding Officer of the Federal Guards, tipped off Azikiwe about the planned bloodshed, Okafor, Ezedigbo and other guards became freer to meet 12 kilometres away in Ifeajuna’s house in Apapa to take the plan to the next level. The recruitment for the ringleaders was done between August and October 1965. Immediately Azikiwe left, planning and training for the execution began.

Second, the eastern leadership was spared when others were murdered. Third, the head of state, Major-General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Igbo, did not try to execute the coup plotters as was the practice in a purely military affair. Ojukwu told Suzanne Cronje, the British-South African author, that he asked Aguiyi-Ironsi to take over and told him how to unite the army behind him. That was the reason he made him the governor of Eastern Region. Four, when Awolowo, Bola Ige, Anthony Enahoro, Lateef Jakande were imprisoned for sedition, they served their terms in Calabar, away from their regions as it was the normal practice. When Wole Soyinka was imprisoned at the beginning of the civil war, he was sent to Kaduna and Jos prisons, but the ring leaders of the coup were moved from Lagos back to the Eastern Region, among their people on the advice of Ojukwu. Five, during the Aburi negotiations, why was full reprieve for the coup plotters put on the table? Six, a freed Nzeogwu by April 1967, before the secession, joined in training recruits in Abakaliki for the inevitable war with Nigeria. He later died on the Nsukka front, fighting for Biafra. That was Achebe’s Hausa-speaking, kaftan-wearing Kaduna man, who was Igbo in name only. It was an Igbo coup. The same repackaging was attempted for the invasion and occupation of the Midwest. It was called liberation of Midwest from Hausa-Fulani domination when it was simply another Igbo coup for Igbo ends, planned in Enugu and headed by a Yoruba man.

However, the January coup did not foment a much more visceral response in the Western Region since their assassinated political leader was viewed as part of the corrupt, troublesome, election-rigging class. To Westerners, the coup was good riddance to bad rubbish. But to the Northerners, who were feudal in their social organisation, it was a different matter. Sardauna was their all in all; he was the heir to the powerful Sokoto Caliphate and descendant of Usman dan Fodio. More than Azikiwe and Awolowo, Sardauna was the most powerful politician in Nigeria (pg 46). Murdering him was murdering the pride of a people. Achebe chooses to ignore this perspective and more importantly the fact that the Igbo in the North were widely taunting their hosts on the loss of their leaders. Celestine Ukwu, a popular Igbo musician, released songs titled Ewu Ne Ba Akwa (Goats Are Crying) and others celebrating “Igbo power”, the “January Victory.” Posters, stickers, postcards, cartoons displaying the murdered Sardauna begging Major Nzeogwu at the gates of heaven or Balewa burning outright in pits of hell or Nzeogwu standing St. George-like on Sardauna, the defeated dragon, began to show up across Northern towns and cities. These provocations were so pervasive that they warranted the promulgation of Decree 44 of 1966 banning them. The Igbo did not stop. Azikiwe is more honest than Achebe. In his pamphlet, The Origins of the Civil War, he writes: “Some Ibo elements, who were domiciled in Northern Nigeria taunted northerners by defaming their leaders through means of records or songs or pictures. They also published pamphlets and postcards, which displayed a peculiar representation of certain northerners, living or dead, in a manner likely to provoke disaffection.” These images and songs eventually led to the so-called pogroms/ethnic-cleansing/genocide, not the coup. The coup was in January, the pogroms started late in May and the provocations were in between.

However, the Igbo in the East did not sit idly by. They started the massacre of innocent Northerners in their midst. Achebe chose to ignore this account since it does not serve his agenda so we return to Azikiwe: “Between August and September 1966, either by chance or by design, hundreds of Hausa, Fulani, Nupe and Igala-speaking peoples of Northern Nigeria origin residing in the Eastern Nigeria were abducted and massacred in Aba, Abakaliki, Enugu, Onitsha and Port Harcourt.” It is worthy to note that these Northerners never published nor circulated irreverent or taunting pictures of Eastern leaders unlike the Igbo of the North; they were just massacred for being Northerners. The government of Eastern Region did not stand up to stop these massacres. Neither did the Igbo intellectuals. Ojukwu, the military administrator, even made a radio broadcast, saying he could no longer guarantee the security of non-Eastern Nigerians in the East and that Easterners, who did not return to Igboland, would be considered traitors. This was the time Professor Sam Aluko, who was the head of Economics department at University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and personal friend of Ojukwu, fled back to the West. Azikiwe continues in his book: “Eyewitnesses gave on-the-spot accounts of corpses floating in the Imo River and River Niger. Radio Cotonou broadcast this macabre news, which was suppressed by Enugu Radio. Then Radio Kaduna relayed it and this sparked off the massacres of September – October 1966 [in the North].”

SaffronSpice:

Do so.

I'll ever do better.

Here's a thread in year 2012 discussing what started tribalism on NL. Peep the lots that were actually rejoicing about the tribalism
https://www.nairaland.com/897201/tribalism-nairaland-affected-negatively/5

Lastly, here's a screenshot of a yoloba that wished the genocide of igbo during GEJ election.

The last two after the election.

As I've told una before provide ONE igbo that EVER did that, just one

I Above Others

Achebe, like Enugu Radio, suppressed this information and goes on to pivot the “pogrom” on the fact that the Igbo were resented because they were the most superior, most successful nationality in the country. He claims (on pg 233) that they were “the dominant tribe,” “led the nation in virtually every sector – politics, education, commerce, and the arts (pg 66),” which included having two vice-chancellors in Yorubaland; they the Igbo are the folkloric “leopard, the wise and peaceful king of the animals (pg177),” they “spearheaded (pg 97) the struggle to free Nigeria from colonial rule.” “This group, the Igbo, that gave the colonising British so many headaches and then literally drove them out of Nigeria was now an open target, scapegoats for the failings and grievances of colonial and post-independent Nigeria (pg 67).” An Igboman, Achebe writes, has “an unquestioned advantage over his compatriots…Unlike the Hausa/Fulani he was unhindered by a wary religion, and unlike the Yoruba he was unhampered by traditional hierarchies…Although the Yoruba had a huge historical headstart, the Igbo wiped out their handicap in one fantastic burst of energy in the twenty years between 1930 and 1950 (pg74).” Besides the fact that this has a language consistent with white supremacist literature, Achebe, to demonstrate he is not partial or a chauvinist, based himself on a 17-page report in Journal of Modern African Studies, titled Modernisation and Political Disintegration: Nigeria and the Ibos by Paul Anber.

I looked up the 1967 journal. Curiously this “scholar” was designated as “a member of staff of one of the Nigerian universities.” Why would a scholar hide his place of work in a journal? I checked the essays and book reviews in all the 196 issues of Journal of Modern African Studies, from Volume 1 Issue 1 of January 1963 to the last issue Volume 49 November 2011, there was nowhere a piece was published and the designation of the scholar vague or hidden. Also, this Anber never published any piece before and after this article in this or any other journal. I wanted to start checking the academic staff list of the five universities in Nigeria then until I realised again that it says “he is a staff of a Nigerian university.” The truth is: Paul Anber is a fake name under which someone else or a group of people, possibly Igbo, is masquerading. And he/they never used this name again for any other piece or books. So that this ruse would not be found out was the reason he/they hid his/their university. And this piece, like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, has been the cornerstone of books and widely quoted by other journals over a period of 45 years. It is the cornerstone of the chapter, A History Of Ethnic Tension And Resentment, which Achebe used to skew the motive for Igbo people’s maltreatment from the fallout of January1966 coup and the inflammatory provocations they published to resentment for being allegedly the most successful and dominant tribe in Nigeria.

Had Achebe not overdosed on Igbo nationalism, he would have had his chest-beating ethnic bombasts inflected with a deeper and more sober analysis of the Nigerian situation in the next essay in the journal: The Inevitability of Instability by a real and existing Professor James O’Connell, an Irish priest and professor of Government, in a real and existing institution: Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. O’Connell argues that the lack of constitutionalism and disregard for rule of law fuelled psychology of insecurities in all ethnic groups. He fingers as an inevitable cause of our national instability, Nigerians’ “failure to find an identity and loyalty beyond their primordial communities that lead them constantly to choose their fellow workers, political and administrative, from the same community, ignoring considerations of merit.”

The symbolism of the Igbo heading University of Ibadan and University of Lagos, both in Yorubaland, was a positive image to assist Tiv, Hausa, Ijaw, Urhobo, Yoruba, Ibibio, Igbo, Efik etc students shed their over-loyalty to their respective primordial communities and to fashion a higher sense of identity that is national in character and federal in outlook. To Achebe, the symbolism was an example of the dominance and superiority of the Igbo. “It would appear that the God of Africa has created the Ibo nation to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of ages,” Paul Anber quotes Azikiwe saying in his West African Pilot: “History has enabled them not only to conquer others but also to adapt themselves to the role of preserver… The Ibo nation cannot shirk its responsibility.” Anber says in his/their essay: “The Ibo reaction to the British was not typically one of complete rejection and resistance, though Ibos were militantly anti-colonial. Since modernisation is in many respects basically a process of imitation, the Ibos modelled themselves after their masters, seeing, as Simon Ottenberg put it, that ‘the task was not merely to control the British influence but to capture it.’

To some degree, it may be said that this is precisely what they proceeded to do. Faced with internal problems of land, hunger, impoverished soil, and population pressure, the Igbo migrated in large numbers to urban areas, both in their own region and in the North and West…”

The spirit of inclusive humanism, the Martin Luther King Ideal, the Mandela Example, the conscience of a writer should necessitate that if a child in Sokoto goes to bed hungry, someone in Umuahia should get angry. If a pregnant woman in Kontagora needs justice, someone in Patani should be able to stand up and fight for her. If an Osu group is being maltreated in Igboland, someone in Zaria should stand up and defend them. But to Achebe, there should be no mercy for the weak in so far as he or she is unfortunate enough to belong to the other side. Take for instance the butchering of the lone shell-shocked “Mali-Chad mercenary” wandering around “dazed and aimless” in the bush Achebe witnessed. To show the fight-to-finish courage of his people in the face of overwhelming force, he describes how Major Jonathan Uchendu’s Abagana Ambush succeeded in destroying Colonel Murtala Muhammed’s convoy of 96 vehicles, four armoured vehicles, killing 500 Nigerians in one and a half hours. “There were widespread reports of atrocities perpetrated by angry Igbo villagers, who captured wandering soldiers. I was an eyewitness to one such angry bloody frenzy of retaliation after a particularly tall and lanky soldier–clearly a mercenary from Chad or Mali–wandered into an ambush of young men with machetes. His lifeless body was found mutilated on the roadside in a matter of seconds (pg 173).”

Achebe does not tell us if he tried to prevent this cold-blooded butchering, though there was an episode where he intervened to save the life and chastity of a Biafran woman, arguing with some wandering Nigerian soldiers who wanted to requisition her goat for food (pg 201). If Achebe could not intervene in the butchering, what did he think of the killing then or now that he is writing the book with the benefit of hindsight? Should the man not have been handed over as a prisoner of war? Was his killing not a violation of Geneva Convention, which he so much accused the Nigerian side of disrespecting (pg 212)? Did villagers behaving this way not blur the lines between soldiers and civilians hence making themselves fair game in war? Also notice how Achebe starts the narration with an active first person voice: “I was an eye witness to…” and how he quickly switches to a passive third person voice in the next sentence: “His body was found…”Achebe quickly goes AWOL “in a matter of seconds”, leaving a moral vacuum for the Igbo writer to emerge and the conscientious writer to go under.

When atrocities are being committed against Biafrans, Achebe deploys strong active voice (subject + verb), isolates the aggressive phrases of military bravado with italics or quotation marks. But when Biafra is caught committing the atrocity, he employs passive sentence structures, euphemisms and never isolates pledges of murder in italics or quotation marks. Take the “Kwale Incident (pg 218)” that eventually became an international embarrassment for Biafra. Based on an unsubstantiated source, he writes: “Biafran military intelligence allegedly obtained information that foreign oilmen…were allegedly providing sensitive military information to federal forces – about Biafran troop positions, strategic military manoeuvres, and training.” So they decided to invade. “At the end of the ‘exercise’,” Achebe writes: “Eleven workers had been killed.”

Also compare these two accounts: the background is Biafran invasion of Midwest. Despite Ojukwu’s assurance to them before the secession that he would absolutely respect their choice of belonging to neither side, he invaded them, occupied their land, foisted his government on them, took charge of their resources, looted the Central Bank of Nigeria in Benin, set up military checkpoints in many places to regulate the flow of goods and human beings, imposed dawn-to-dusk curfews, flooded the airwaves with pro-Ojukwu propaganda, imprisoned and executed dissidents on a daily basis, according to accounts of Nowa Omoigui and the recollections of Sam Ogbemudia. In fact, “The Hausa community in the Lagos Street area of Benin and other parts of the state were targeted for particularly savage treatment, in part a reprisal for the pogroms of 1966, but also out of security concerns that they would naturally harbour sympathies for the regime in Lagos,” Omoigui writes. The Midwesterners regarded Biafrans as traitors. And the Nigerian Army came to the rescue.

Achebe writes: “The retreating Biafran forces, according to several accounts, allegedly beat up a number of Midwesterners, who they believed had served as saboteurs. Nigerian radio reports claimed that the Biafrans shot a number of innocent civilians, as they fled the advancing federal forces. As disturbing as these allegations are, I have found no credible corroboration of them (pg 133).” Yes, he cannot find it; they were not his people. Also note his euphemisms: “allegedly beat up”… “shot a number of innocent civilians” (shot not killed). He writes: “a number of innocents” to disguise the fact that massacres took place. He also writes: “saboteurs.” Midwesterners collaborated with federal forces to liberate their lands from Biafra, Achebe calls them “saboteurs.” Now, note in the next paragraph how he describes what happened to his people, when the federal army in hot pursuit of the Biafran soldiers, reached the Igbo side of the Midwest. It is noisily headlined: The Asaba Massacre (pg 133).

“Armed with direct orders to retake the occupied areas at all costs, this division rounded up and shot as many defenceless Igbo men as they could find. Some reports place the death toll at five hundred, others as high as one thousand. The Asaba Massacre, as it would be known, was only one of many such post-pogrom atrocities committed by Nigerian soldiers during the war. It became particular abomination for Asaba residents, as many of those killed were titled Igbo chiefs and common folk alike, and their bodies were disposed of with reckless abandon in mass graves, without regard to the wishes of the families of the victims or the town’s ancient traditions.” Then he goes on to quote lengthily from books and what the Pope’s emissary said about it in a French newspaper, what Gowon said, what was said at Oputa Panel e.t.c. He found time to research. They were his people unlike other Midwestern tribes’ sufferings he could not find “credible corroboration of.”

Am humbly waiting for biafra drone, then i will start developing cold feet

Ritchiee:
lol.....illiterate

oh my bad my bad have a cookie there,now run along

I'm not in support of ipob or their mission but for a military to shut out medical supplies to a war ravaged region is the worst type of satanism not even Isis or Boko Haram does that, this is the worst type of war crime ever to be committed on mankind.

Stingman:


Is Anioma a tribe? Tell us your tribe? What does Anioma mean in your language?

Well, you're right. Anioma is not a tribe but a Nation that has many tribes and ethnic groups. My ethnic group is Ika and there is nothing like Anioma. Anioma was adopted as a generic name for all the ethnic groups living in the geographical area.

Tundeobama:
as I northern man I can't bear the hate the igboa have for Yoruba despite hosting you in large number in different west state.somethings you do for them if it where in North we would hv send all of you back home and slaughter some.during the regional system of government the west was the best in terns of development and north took second.you cam here to lie about technology in war, wont be surprise if Naija delta millitant tomorrow deceive people they build there gun boat themselves.some remarkable project during awolowo period till today your government can't boast of such.if you igbos are contented with what you have why your huge number in west and north running for your mouldy land.I pity the igbo that will be sent home soon Nigeria going back to regionalism soon

SEE>>>>

British officials feared that if Biafra were to secede many other regions in Africa would too, threatening ‘stability’ across the whole of the continent. Most of the great powers, including the US and Soviet Union, shared this view largely for the same reason.

Yet there appears to be no reason why Biafra, with its 15 million people, could not have established a viable, independent state. Biafrans argued that they were a people with a distinctive language and culture, that they were Christian as opposed to the Muslim communities lumped into the Nigeria federal state, which had, after all, been a colonial creation. In fact, Biafra was also one of the most developed regions in Africa with a high density of roads, schools, hospitals and factories. The struggle for an independent state certainly appeared to have the support of the majority of Biafrans, whose sense of nationhood deepened throughout the war as enormous sacrifices were made to contribute to the war effort. (Marck Curtis...Nigeria’s war over Biafra, 1967-70)

Ikechukwu48:


Will you shut that your misrable lying mouth I've v been on NL some 2012 and the hate started from YOLOBA. Hell both website ran by yolobas, aka naijapals and nairaland, are both tribalistic den. Ironically enough the same can't be said on any site ran by any other tribes in Nigeria including hilariously enough a North aka that hausa boy's blog.


You mofos have displayed hatred towards igbo since the creation of NL, infact MAJORITY of Igbos that hate you lots, myself inclided, we're turned tribalists because of you animals and all that happened before GEJ lose. And I can back up Everything I just said with quotes dating all the way back to 2012.


Hell even the Nnamdi Kanu's that you misenable rats masterbate over was equally made a tribalists by you lots, not the other way around. After all, in year 2011 he was video taped fighting for all Nigerian...fast forward to year 2015 and he Hayes una with passion. What changed? Oh I don't know maybe the fact your worthless tribe rejoiced each time massob Myers were killed by the security force. Who the f2k that claims to "love you" applauds your death.

Do not come here and spread some Bullshit lie because theory are some of us that's been a member on NL and seen who started the tribalism on this forum.

Slow your role, I was here too and it was the other way around.

1. Tribalism on NL was started by ibo on NL and Yoruba people used to ignore your tribal insults till like 2-3 years ago when they stopped turning the other cheek for you to insult.


2. Tribalism in Nigeria is strictly an ibo thing and it started way way before independence when hatred for Yoruba people made Zik/ibo man teamed up with the North against wisdom for such action by the rest of the South.

3. The first coup, bloodshed and National violence was introduce by ibo man when they tribally slaughtered military and political readers from from the North and SW.

4. Yoruba and Hausa people after the coup and loss did not do anything and in fact they gave power to an ibo man as the new head of state, but what did he do, he played the same ibo tribalism by refusing to punish the coup plotters and sadistic killers, he dd not even slap them on the wrist because they were ibo and this is what led to the violence against ibo people in the North

5. Our regional autonomy and system of government was terminated by ibo man when he abolished regional system of government and finally put us all in the same basket with power moved to the center instead of the states and regions.

6. Achebe spewed hatred and tribalism till his last breath and straight into his grave with his hate book...


Nigeria is what it is today because of hatred and ibo tribalism and tribal ways and their tribal was is still on full display till this very second hence still languishing in the wilderness with zero social, political and economic power and alliance..


You are basically reaping what you sow and have been sowing since way before independence...

Ikechukwu48:


I'll ever do better.

Here's a thread in year 2012 discussing what started tribalism on NL. Peep the lots that were actually rejoicing about the tribalism
https://www.nairaland.com/897201/tribalism-nairaland-affected-negatively/5

Lastly, here's a screenshot of a yoloba that wished the genocide of igbo during GEJ election.

The last two after the election.

As I've told una before provide ONE igbo that EVER did that, just one

how can you know,if it was really a yoruba guy??...

yoruba spit fire when they are angry,but they never do what they say......i would be very carefull with the yorubas...

you think hausas/fulanis are the worst.....you never really experiencend a angry yoruba....

Stingman:


Is Anioma a tribe? Tell us your tribe? What does Anioma mean in your language?

He's ika most likely.

You guys should allow some people choose what they want

I'm Anioma and I classify myself as igbo. He's an anioma and classify himself non igbo. Accept it and move on.

eduj:

even though you obviously mistook me for another,I refuse to engage you in an exchange of insults.I hate it when guys instead of stating facts to prove a point resort to fallacy of argumentum ad hominem (attack against the author). By the way,an illiterate is one found wanting in the basic socio-human skills of reading and writing hence, by virtue of this post (which shows I can read and type a reply to your post) am not illiterate.A better adjective would be misinformed.Back to the theme of the issue,until Nigeria has it version of the silicon valley(pls don't mention computer village) our ICT is insignificant.Yes we expect a prodigious growth in 5 years time but ,its still basic in structure. At best brother,you are an irrelevant authority on the issue of naijas ICT.

I am young man but I know,with what I have seen here...more than you do.What I and some ICT savvy people know is that Yorubas control ICT HOME AND ABROAD if you talk about NIGERIANS.....

Go to these links.One opened by somebody in the ICT sector.
The other one capturing some ICT savvy Yorubas home and abroad......you have to read from start to end to enjoy yourself

https://www.nairaland.com/2674858/yorubas-cornered-nigerias-ict-sector

https://www.nairaland.com/2684014/yoruba-commonwealth-politics/14

ehikwe22:
Well, you're right. Anioma is not a tribe but a Nation that has many tribes and ethnic groups. My ethnic group is Ika and there is nothing like Anioma. Anioma was adopted as a generic name for all the ethnic groups living in the geographical area.

So IKA is a tribe? What language do you speak in IKA ethnic group? What does Anioma, your generic name mean? I can assure you, your mother could be from Anioma and your father would be a Yoruba or Benin man or vice a verse...

Reyginus:
Yes, you can if you really want peace. It's all about peace. You think all barchelors want to do is to have fun? No. Some times is peace. I don't understand your logic. Igbo's, Yoruba's and Hausas have been living independently without modern tools before Lord Lugard forced us together why then do you think we can't live independently now with modern tools?

There are things we do that irritate our parents. To help them from being irritated we remove whatever is responsible for that irritation if we can. If you live with a dad who doesn't understand you are grown up enough to have female visitors, why stay in the same house if you can make them happier by not diluting their happiness with those visits?

pahhh..you are going no where...i lovey you tooo much,to let you risk south-sudan.... ..i am my brothers-keeper....