7lives:


Even the whole world knew that it was the era of the cocoa wealth.
The wealth and the advancement of the West was the reason your fathers cornived with the North to have the minorities cut out as the mid west.
Thank God Abacha complete the job by carving out the mid East out of the dubious Eastern Nigeria

Deadlytruth:


First and foremost, your reply above deviates totally from the content of the post of mine which you quoted.
I asked how a set of coupists desirous of unitary government could have rooted for a federalist to head it. You left this and went into Ironsi controversy.

However, if you insist Ironsi did not abolish the regions, then could you kindly explain what exactly the man meant with each of the bolded in his May 24 1966 national broadcast which goes verbatim as follows:

"Fellow Nigerians:
During the past two weeks I presided over meetings of the Supreme
Military council and the Central Executive Council at which many
important state matters were considered. . .
It is now three months since the Government of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria was handed over to the Armed Forces. Now that peace has
been restored in the troubled areas it is time that the Military
Government indicates clearly what it proposes to accomplish before
relinquishing power. The removal of one of the obstacles on the way
is provided for in the Constitution (Suspension and Modification)
Decree (No. 5) 1966 which was promulgated by me today and comes into
effect at once.
The provisions of the Decree are intended to remove the last vestiges of the intense regionalism of the recent past, and to produce that cohesion in the governmental structure which is so
necessary in achieving, and maintaining the paramount objective of
the National Military government, and indeed of every true Nigerian,
namely, national unity.
The highlights of this Decree are as follows:
The former regions are abolished, and Nigeria grouped into a number of territorial areas called provinces. . . .
Nigeria ceases to be what has been described as a federation. It now becomes simply the Republic of Nigeria.
The former Federal Military government and the Central Executive
Council become respectively the National Military Government and the
executive Council. All the Military Governors are members of the
Executive Council.
A Military Governor is assigned to a group of provinces over which
and subject to the direction and control of the Head of the National
Military Government, he shall exercise executive power".

As for resource control; recall that he also centralized the civil service which is the institution the regional governments used as tool to generated their revenues from the resources within their respective domains. How could a region whose civil servants were now answerable to the centralized national government be said to have still remained in control of her resources and revenues generation from those resources?

PrecisionFx:



"" I asked how a set of coupists desirous of unitary government could have rooted for a federalist to head it.""

And who told u the Hausa, Yoruba n Igbos that exacted the january 1966 coup were desiring a unity government


Key points.


""The former regions are abolished[/b], and Nigeria grouped into a number of territorial areas called provinces. . . .
""

This is a mere change of name. Provincial governance is same as regional governance. It is simply a type of regional government.





""The provisions of the Decree are intended to remove the last vestiges of the intense regionalism of the recent past""

""
he shall exercise executive power".
""

"" Government indicates clearly what it proposes to accomplish before
relinquishing power. ""

This is simple English, Remove the last vestiges of INTENSE regionalism, Not just regionalism....That is reducing the power of the regions n move the nation closer to the centre in order to maintain peace n prevent the bloody happenings that brought about a military takeover at the time.

Executive Power is still allowed for each military provincial governor or leader.

Nigeria back then had very strong regions, In fact it was even closer to confederation of states n such extended powers helped the first coup greatly, back then each regions armed forces were controlled by the region.

He also stated clearly that there were things the supreme military council have set aside to achieve before power goes back to civilian government.





"" As for resource control; recall that he also centralized the civil service ""

Centralizing the civil service does not in anyway mean that each region stopped controlling their resources. Besides back then even before 1966 coup, there was still federal civil servants n regional civil servants.





Eastern Nigeria was by far richer than Yoruba n Hausa regions back in the days so there was absolutely no need for aguiyi to end resource control n thus leading to a situation where eastern nigeria would be sharing 100% of their resources wit other regions.

Back in the olden days before 1960, Palm oil was making around 1.8 million pounds annually for Nigeria n cocoa was making a mere 157,000 pounds annually for Nigeria. just Palm oil alone from the east generates much more money than the whole Western n northern regions combined together.

Deadlytruth:


As recorded by Adegboyega in his "Why we struck" the real architects of the coup plot were just five in number without any Hausa among them. Nzeogwu and Adegboyega were recruited by the original three in about three months to the day of action.
All the others that participated in the execution were junior officers who were merely carrying out orders in an attack they had no prior knowledge of.

For the first bolded, if Ironsi's idea of provincial government was exactly the same as the extant regional system, then the following questions beg for answers:
1. why did he find it necessary to change the name?
2. why did it generate disapproval from every region except his own home Eastern Region?
3. why did Katsina and David Ejoor, who were Ironsi's own appointed Governors of the Northern and Midwestern Regions respectively, kick against it openly?
4. why did it elicit deadly riots targeted at Ironsi's kinsmen in the North?
5. why did Ironsi refuse to revert the nomenclature to 'regions' in defiance to the demand by the public to do so?
6. Did the public complain of the regional system let alone demand a review of the constitution to that end to be championed by an unelected military man in place of the legislators whom they had elected through the 1959 and 1964/65 elections to represent them in all legislative businesses?

For the second bolded; the constitution in place did not describe the structure as "intense regionalism". Ironsi smuggled the word "intense" into the description as a basis to justify his illegal unilateral alteration of a key provision of a genuinely people's constitution. Intensity is a relative term, so how exactly did he determine the dividing line between the 'intense' and 'non-intense' realms? In other words, what convinced him that the extent to which he reduced the so called intensity was not still too intense for the phantom national unity he was seeking?
Your claim that Ironsi's centripetal adjustments were aimed at preventing a repeat of the bloody happenings that brought about a military coup is at best an attempt by you to stand logic on its head. As I had earlier explained, the bloody happenings in question were brought about by gross abuses of power by the central government in the forms of unconstitutional interference in the purely internal affairs of the Western Region, disobedience of the Privy Council's order that Akintola be removed, the use and abuse of federal police to disrupt an impeachment process in the Western Assembly, the central government's reinstatement of Akintola without election hence in open violation of the Western Region constitution, the central government's decision to hurriedly sponsor a bill and get it signed into law to be applied retroactively against the Privy Council's order, the rigging of censuses and re-rigging of the rerun and the creation of more legislative seats in the North based on the false figures gotten from the rigged exercise, the rigging of elections in broad daylight, etc.
So why should anyone who sincerely wanted to prevent a repeat of all these make constitutional adjustments that would move the nation closer to the center? Does that make commonsense at all?

Your claim also that the higly decentralized structure back then helped the Ifeajuna coup greatly is another dishonest one. Did Ironsi's centralization of power not eventually lead to a succession of coups that kept Nigeria in military rule for another 33 years?
The only way to discourage coups is not to illegally tamper with a people's sovereign constitution but for the Supreme Commander of the Army to swiftly charge the culprits for treason and execute them according to courtmartial laws. That was what Ironsi failed to do and all other potential coup plotters were emboldened.

Unfortunately you couldn't explain how the civil service centralization did not automatically strip the regions of their powers over their resources. Imagine you as the governor of Anambra State with all your state's civil servants answerable to and reporting not to you but to Abuja. How do you collect taxes, and generate other revenues? In fact what kind of government would you even be able to run? If there was federal civil service along the regional ones as you mentioned, then why wasn't Ironsi satisfied with just using the federal one to carry out his business as HoS till the end of his purpotedly short tenure hence not requiring a broad based and gigantic bureaucratic assistance?

Your stories on the wealth of Eastern Region unfortunately stands in contradiction to the mass migration of Igbos to all other regions in search of greener pastures back then and till today. Mind you that the newly discovered oil wealth in the Eastern Region was located in the parts seeking the COR region which was sure to exclude Ironsi's Umuahia home town and residual region if granted. So why wouldn't Ironsi seek to pre-empt that by further doing away with any constitutional provisions which made the creation of new regions easy?

Chemcrown:


Honestly, you took the latter part of your explanation sharply from me.
In addition, while the West was developing structurally, economically, economically, technically... in fact, in all areas, the East were busy drinking their palmoil and cracking the palm kernel to soak garri.
Don't forget that some of their fore fathers even run to the West to enjoy free education the cocoa money fetched.

TooNoisy:
This really shows who this great man was. The best president Nigeria never had, a man that spent his life pursuing the development of our nation and yes he paid a hefty price.

Deadlytruth:


You know that these folks just make bogus claims without any logical restraint.
It is a principle in Biology that migration naturally happens towards the area where the chances of survival and prosperity are higher.
It is on record that Igbos so much flocked to the Western Region that they alone were the only non-native tribe prominent in enough numbers to be given elective seats in Western Assembly by Yorubas. Meanwhile migrations from the West and North to the East were hardly heard of.
A school of thought is of the opinion that Ironsi's attack on the strictly federal constitution was actually informed by the fact that sustenance of regionalism constituted an obstacle to a full blown Igbo infiltration of the other three regions in search of livelihood which was relatively difficult in their own Eastern Region. It was so bad that even Zik, the overall Igbo leader who owed them the moral obligation to provide their much needed visionary and exemplary leadership, was not as thrilled by the prospect of governing his own Eastern Region as he was with the prospect of governing the Western Region.

lilytender:
Aguyi Ironsi's reply was FUUUK YOU . By now Aguyi Ironsi knows better. After Gowon finally released Awolowo, Aguyi's brethren wanted Awolowo to support them against Gowon's forces. Nah! impossible.

Ioannes:
They don't make them like this anymore.

This man called Awolowo was a great personality who lived before his time.

The best President Nigeria never had. Just compare his thoughts and ideology with that of present day politicians like Saraki, Dino and Obasanjo.

Lalasticlala this is history material for front page.

Deadlytruth:


As recorded by Adegboyega in his "Why we struck" the real architects of the coup plot were just five in number without any Hausa among them. Nzeogwu and Adegboyega were recruited by the original three in about three months to the day of action.
All the others that participated in the execution were junior officers who were merely carrying out orders in an attack they had no prior knowledge of.

For the first bolded, if Ironsi's idea of provincial government was exactly the same as the extant regional system, then the following questions beg for answers:
1. why did he find it necessary to change the name?
2. why did it generate disapproval from every region except his own home Eastern Region?
3. why did Katsina and David Ejoor, who were Ironsi's own appointed Governors of the Northern and Midwestern Regions respectively, kick against it openly?
4. why did it elicit deadly riots targeted at Ironsi's kinsmen in the North?
5. why did Ironsi refuse to revert the nomenclature to 'regions' in defiance to the demand by the public to do so?
6. Did the public complain of the regional system let alone demand a review of the constitution to that end to be championed by an unelected military man in place of the legislators whom they had elected through the 1959 and 1964/65 elections to represent them in all legislative businesses?

For the second bolded; the constitution in place did not describe the structure as "intense regionalism". Ironsi smuggled the word "intense" into the description as a basis to justify his illegal unilateral alteration of a key provision of a genuinely people's constitution. Intensity is a relative term, so how exactly did he determine the dividing line between the 'intense' and 'non-intense' realms? In other words, what convinced him that the extent to which he reduced the so called intensity was not still too intense for the phantom national unity he was seeking?
Your claim that Ironsi's centripetal adjustments were aimed at preventing a repeat of the bloody happenings that brought about a military coup is at best an attempt by you to stand logic on its head. As I had earlier explained, the bloody happenings in question were brought about by gross abuses of power by the central government in the forms of unconstitutional interference in the purely internal affairs of the Western Region, disobedience of the Privy Council's order that Akintola be removed, the use and abuse of federal police to disrupt an impeachment process in the Western Assembly, the central government's reinstatement of Akintola without election hence in open violation of the Western Region constitution, the central government's decision to hurriedly sponsor a bill and get it signed into law to be applied retroactively against the Privy Council's order, the rigging of censuses and re-rigging of the rerun and the creation of more legislative seats in the North based on the false figures gotten from the rigged exercise, the rigging of elections in broad daylight, etc.
So why should anyone who sincerely wanted to prevent a repeat of all these make constitutional adjustments that would move the nation closer to the center? Does that make commonsense at all?

Your claim also that the higly decentralized structure back then helped the Ifeajuna coup greatly is another dishonest one. Did Ironsi's centralization of power not eventually lead to a succession of coups that kept Nigeria in military rule for another 33 years?
The only way to discourage coups is not to illegally tamper with a people's sovereign constitution but for the Supreme Commander of the Army to swiftly charge the culprits for treason and execute them according to courtmartial laws. That was what Ironsi failed to do and all other potential coup plotters were emboldened.

Unfortunately you couldn't explain how the civil service centralization did not automatically strip the regions of their powers over their resources. Imagine you as the governor of Anambra State with all your state's civil servants answerable to and reporting not to you but to Abuja. How do you collect taxes, and generate other revenues? In fact what kind of government would you even be able to run? If there was federal civil service along the regional ones as you mentioned, then why wasn't Ironsi satisfied with just using the federal one to carry out his business as HoS till the end of his purpotedly short tenure hence not requiring a broad based and gigantic bureaucratic assistance?

Your stories on the wealth of Eastern Region unfortunately stands in contradiction to the mass migration of Igbos to all other regions in search of greener pastures back then and till today. Mind you that the newly discovered oil wealth in the Eastern Region was located in the parts seeking the COR region which was sure to exclude Ironsi's Umuahia home town and residual region if granted. So why wouldn't Ironsi seek to pre-empt that by further doing away with any constitutional provisions which made the creation of new regions easy?

OnyeOGA:
at times i keep wondering why Yorubas like telling lies. A great man who looted people's resources? Mind you, great men don't commit suicide.

T9ksy:





Yes o..............from your neck of the wood rather they run away with their manhood firmly tucked between their legs after sacrificing mollions of their kinsfolk on an ego trip!

OnyeOGA:
You mean Wole Soyinka? Or Tinubu? Or Ajayi?

PrecisionFx:







https://www.nairaland.com/3340447/annual-report-1914-palm-oil


Back in the olden days, Palm oil alone from eastern nigeria was making 10 times what cocoa was making.

Palm oil is still so fruitful today to the extent that there are Palm oil dollar billionaires on earth. one barrel of Palm oil is presently about 90 dollars, more expensive than crude oil.

At 1.8 million pounds a year, Only Palm oil made more money than the total money made by Yoruba land and Hausa land.

OnyeOGA:
You mean Wole Soyinka? Or Tinubu? Or Ajayi?

T9ksy:



If you don't know then i guess you should ask the elders in your hamlet.

diadem10:

Ipob and stupidity, very synonymous.

Palm oil had greater revenue acquired because the revenue was the cummulative from all federation. Palm oil Revenues from Ilaje palm oil which is still one of the largest today, from Ogun, from Benin and Delta (which were also part of the west) were added to that of Abia, Imo and Cross river. Hence, the cumulative revenue from palmoil proceeds was higher than that of Cocoa, cotton, Kola which were also found in the west.

PrecisionFx:


Ur post is filled wit the usual blatantly false information flying around the Nigerian space for decades.

"" 4. why did it elicit deadly riots targeted at Ironsi's kinsmen in the North? ""

There was no deadly riots targeted at Ironsi's kinsmen in the north because of the provincial government.



"" Your stories on the wealth of Eastern Region unfortunately stands in contradiction to the mass migration of Igbos to all other regions in search of greener pastures back then and till today""

The Jews are known to travel to every part of the world, does that mean they are poor and searching for greener pastures?

The Chinese are presently found in every part of the world, does that mean that they poor n searching for greener pastures?

Igbos left Enugu n migrated to Chad n Niger n Zamfara n gombe n etc which are very poor places, far poorer than the SE, does it mean that they went to poor countries to look for greener pastures? Pls how old are u?




Igbos were known to be travellers from time immemorial. Ojukwus father who was at a point the richest man in Nigeria lived in Niger state n thus Ojukwu was born there. Anyone sighting migration as being caused by poverty needs to get his head checked.

Attached to this post is a chart of earnings of each region of Nigeria in the past, Eastern Nigeria generates 10 times of what Yoruba land generates n yet igbos kept travelling in the midst of that unprecedented wealth.

Deadlytruth:



There were deadly riots targeted at Igbos sequel to Ironsi's blunders. The book link below authored by an Igbo man chronicles it vividly in page 91. I guess the Igbo author too is guilty of the spread of blatant falsehood for decades, right?
https://books.google.com.ng/books?id=Zm7sWUbDWakC&pg=PA114&lpg=PA114&dq=What+did+Western+Region+export+in+the+Sixties&source=bl&ots=rWxj8KJa41&sig=WzBeOKEJ45TYeU2IXDIV7dVDi84&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjh1o3U0tHeAhVLy6QKHWtSAPoQ6AEwEHoECAMQAQ#v=onepage&q=What%20did%20Western%20Region%20export%20in%20the%20Sixties&f=false

The case of Igbos is not really comparable with that of the Jews because the high number of Jews in the diaspora is as a result of their forceful eviction from their fatherland in 70 AD by Arabian Invaders as prophesied to them by Jesus.
Now, who ever invaded Igbo land and forcefully evicted them into the diaspora they find themselves in today? None! Rather, their exit to other regions was spontaneous hence in serach of greener pastures.

Igbos' migration to remote parts of Chad, Zamfara and other Northern states is borne out of the search for markets less saturated hence holding out better patronage for their trades than those back home. This is still a form seeking of higher chances of survival and prosperity.

The Chinese in the diaspora are a negligible fraction of the home based population and are mostly on special technical expertise contract invitation by the government of the host countries. They didn't leave China spontaneously to go and search for greener pastures outside. Same with the nationals of other wealthy countries like the USA, UK, Germany, Canada, France, Russia, etc.
The Nigerians resident in these countries left home due to the lower chances of survival and prosperity which Nigeria held out for them.

It has now become a matter of how old I am? What are books written for if only age confers knowledge of the past on people? You believe Lord Luggard Amalgamated Nigeria in 1914 as you are told. How old are you to have believed that 'tale'? How old are you to have seen with your eyes that the Eastern Region was the richest as you claim here?

You obviously are the one who needs medical check for reasoning against a biological truism. Only a cursed people would entirely on their own free will abandon their homeland supposedly flowing with milk and honey and migrate in droves for other people's lands believed to be ravaged by poverty, squalor, relative barrenness and famine, hunger, filth, etc. Why do you Igbos reason against commonsense and simple logic? No wonder Ironsi decided to further donate more powers to the center in trying to solve a problem caused by the center's abuse of power. What an anomalous people!
It is like Donald Trump trying to reduce incidents of Americans' gun abuse by making a policy which speeds up the process of gun license acquisition.

As you have been told by Diadem, the statistics you posted is not specific on which region produced which commodity and in what amount. It is a lumping up of all the quantity produced by all the regions involved. If your Eastern Region produced most of the palm oil then, then how come the current largest exporter of the commodity is not an Eastern state?

Deadlytruth:



There were deadly riots targeted at Igbos sequel to Ironsi's blunders. The book link below authored by an Igbo man chronicles it vividly in page 91. I guess the Igbo author too is guilty of the spread of blatant falsehood for decades, right?
https://books.google.com.ng/books?id=Zm7sWUbDWakC&pg=PA114&lpg=PA114&dq=What+did+Western+Region+export+in+the+Sixties&source=bl&ots=rWxj8KJa41&sig=WzBeOKEJ45TYeU2IXDIV7dVDi84&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjh1o3U0tHeAhVLy6QKHWtSAPoQ6AEwEHoECAMQAQ#v=onepage&q=What%20did%20Western%20Region%20export%20in%20the%20Sixties&f=false

The case of Igbos is not really comparable with that of the Jews because the high number of Jews in the diaspora is as a result of their forceful eviction from their fatherland in 70 AD by Arabian Invaders as prophesied to them by Jesus.
Now, who ever invaded Igbo land and forcefully evicted them into the diaspora they find themselves in today? None! Rather, their exit to other regions was spontaneous hence in serach of greener pastures.

Igbos' migration to remote parts of Chad, Zamfara and other Northern states is borne out of the search for markets less saturated hence holding out better patronage for their trades than those back home. This is still a form seeking of higher chances of survival and prosperity.

The Chinese in the diaspora are a negligible fraction of the home based population and are mostly on special technical expertise contract invitation by the government of the host countries. They didn't leave China spontaneously to go and search for greener pastures outside. Same with the nationals of other wealthy countries like the USA, UK, Germany, Canada, France, Russia, etc.
The Nigerians resident in these countries left home due to the lower chances of survival and prosperity which Nigeria held out for them.

It has now become a matter of how old I am? What are books written for if only age confers knowledge of the past on people? You believe Lord Luggard Amalgamated Nigeria in 1914 as you are told. How old are you to have believed that 'tale'? How old are you to have seen with your eyes that the Eastern Region was the richest as you claim here?

You obviously are the one who needs medical check for reasoning against a biological truism. Only a cursed people would entirely on their own free will abandon their homeland supposedly flowing with milk and honey and migrate in droves for other people's lands believed to be ravaged by poverty, squalor, relative barrenness and famine, hunger, filth, etc. Why do you Igbos reason against commonsense and simple logic? No wonder Ironsi decided to further donate more powers to the center in trying to solve a problem caused by the center's abuse of power. What an anomalous people!
It is like Donald Trump trying to reduce incidents of Americans' gun abuse by making a policy which speeds up the process of gun license acquisition.

As you have been told by Diadem, the statistics you posted is not specific on which region produced which commodity and in what amount. It is a lumping up of all the quantity produced by all the regions involved. If your Eastern Region produced most of the palm oil then, then how come the current largest exporter of the commodity is not an Eastern state?

PrecisionFx:



Ur useless link only shows one page about how the 3 regions shared the money they saved.

Every other thing u wrote is as meaningless as the previous ones

diadem10:

Ipob and stupidity, very synonymous.

Palm oil had greater revenue acquired because the revenue was the cummulative from all federation. Palm oil Revenues from Ilaje palm oil which is still one of the largest today, from Ogun, from Benin and Delta (which were also part of the west) were added to that of Abia, Imo and Cross river. Hence, the cumulative revenue from palmoil proceeds was higher than that of Cocoa, cotton, Kola which were also found in the west.

Deadlytruth:


That is page 114. I asked you to check page 91. Which school did you attend?
Of course every other thing I wrote is useless because they put paid to your attempted revisionism.

PrecisionFx:

only page 114 shows on the link. goat

Deadlytruth:

Neither am I Yoruba. But what exactly would have been Ojukwu's reson to kill Awolowo at that point in time? Or do people just kill people for the fun of it?
And you think Ojukwu would have been foolish enough to kill Awolowo in Calabar prison for no reason hence reinforcing the public hatred Igbos were already exposed to courtesy of the cold blooded killings of leaders of all other regions by Igbo majors in the Army just shortly before then?
You think the killing of Awolowo by Ojukwu wouldn't have generated deadly reprisals against Igbos living in the West?
That the killing of Akintola went down well with Yorubas did not mean Awolowo's murder by Ojukwu would have been taken lightly by Yorubas as Akintola was more or less an outcast in their eyes. Ojukwu knew quite well that the killing of Awolowo would have generated anti-Igbo backlash among Yorubas to the same or greater magnitude than that which the killing of Ahmadu Bello generated against Igbos in the North.

As at when Awolowo was released, Ojukwu was not yet antagonistic to Gowon to warrant the argument that he could have resisted Gowon's order.
The same order which released Awolowo also released Enahoro and the rest who were not in Eastern prisons. So who could have given such an order between Gowon and Ojukwu?

emmanuelex1:
I am not ready ready to argue with you but I know Ojukwu would have killed Awol if he wanted to. I guess if Awol was a northern as at then he would have been killed. Well this is 2019 so I free history for you.

OnyeOGA:
Until the day you Yorubas stop twisting history you will never know how to solve national problem. It was Ojukwu and not Gowon that released you Hero.

tyson99:

Sharap I am Yoruba and honestly this man led us to where we are today he could have allowed us to split then but greediness won't and he swindled money too so not moved

I am waiting for bashing

Deadlytruth:

I am not disagreeing with you on the bolded at all. But my questions are
1. "Why would Ojukwu have wanted to?"
2. "Would doing such not have equally angered Yorubas into retaliation of killing all the Western Region resident Igbos thus being counterproductive to Ojukwu's very most important task of defending the lives of Igbos at that moment in time?"

Or you think Yorubas were like us Midwest whom the Igbos killed their prominent son Okotie-Eboh but accepted it calmly?

0monnak0da:
Thank God for Gowon.

Gowon released Awolowo
A true statesman and patriot