joeyfire:

@nulldev

Just read through it. Basically The writer Leye ige was quoting Felix Adenaike (a journalist) and gave figures that need to be reconciled though it makes for an engaging read. It however says nothing about Awo wanting to work under Zik as you posted earlier. It states that out of 80 seats the AG carried the day with 38 votes, NCNC/Independents 25, IPP-6 OIL - 2. That adds up to 81 not 80. The post doesnt give details about what transpired nor does it expressly deny that there wasnt any cross-carpeting. I'll have to look it up myself. Very intriguing reading I must say

The operative word being 'gave figures' . The tribune did a write up on this using nothing but newspaper clippings from the era a few years ago. They had a scan from I think the Daily Star with a list of candidates for that election and party affiliations (it was the edition on the day prior to the election) and there was also had scans of newspaper adverts from the Colonial office with election results and Zik congratulating the AG for winning the election!

They then added the minutes from the AG's first meeting in Owo showing attendees which correlated with the results from the elections.

Of course you can make the argument the tribune is Awo's paper and you will be right but just like Leyes article and Ganiyu Dawodu's book which I can get access to when next I get to Lagos they dealt with the facts and not conjecture, anecdotes and beer parlour gist.

Awo willing to work under Zik was from the other link I posted which I think you already read.

@nulldev

''flawed figures'' from a partisan source. Felix Adenaike (one third of the 3 musketeers of nigerian journalism as Awo christened him) was the head honcho at , you guessed it -  ''The Tribune''. Everything I've read is as I've acknowledged quite engaging but the sources are highly biased. I'm going to look up the election results you mentioned though

I had said what M.T Mbu had just said before about Chief Awolowo, that the guy never pretended to be a tribalist, who sees himself not as a nationalist but purely a Yoruba leader and there is nothing wrong with that, if that is what you believe and never pretend other wise. That is the problem I have with modern Yoruba folks both here and other places. They pretend to be Nigerians patriots more than anybody but when it come down to it, they are as tribalist anything. So why pretend? Its nothing to be ashamed of.

I have posed this question before, that people should look at the history of Nigeria and tell me any national election in Nigeria, where the Yoruba as a nation had ever in numbers voted for a non Yoruba candidate, when their folk is a candidate in the same election? It has never happened.

A good example was 2003, when everybody decided to kick OBJ out of office, and all of a sudden, the entire Yoruba race remembered that OBJ is one of them, and see it as a tribal protection of presidency including those in the AD party then. When in 1999 the same people told us that OBJ is nothing but lucifer and refuse to give even 10% of their vote to him, including his own community. AD party even decided not to field a presidential candidate of his own, just to protect a Yoruba presidency in the same OBJ they did not vote for four years earlier, only for the guy to turn around months later and rigged all of them out, except Tinubu, who resisted the idea in the first place.
That a great thinker like Bole Ige even left the opposition to join OBJ's govt and the same people had the affront to say anything when ANPP rogues joined Yar Adua's govt but forgeting that they invented it.

joeyfire:

@nulldev

''flawed figures'' from a partisan source. Felix Adenaike (one third of the 3 musketeers of nigerian journalism as Awo christened him) was the head honcho at , you guessed it -  ''The Tribune''. Everything I've read is as I've acknowledged quite engaging but the sources are highly biased. I'm going to look up the election results you mentioned though

No worries. It is refreshing to see people chase facts rather than the dem say nonsense we like to indulge in.  Like i said before you can question the Tribune as a source and I will concede that but the NCNC position that people started doing cartwheels across the aisle ON THE DAY PARLIAMENT OPENED is down right ridiculous.

Also the fact that Zik and Awos biographies (which I have read in both cases) written long after this election did not mention any peculiar circumstances  surrounding this election should also raise a red flag with any discerning individual.

The Tribune position did throw names and constituencies in there which can be easily disputed by any one with contrary claims (and obviously better evidence), this is far more scholarly than anecdotes  from party members.

Also the 'flaw' in the evidence was possibly a typo which the author corrected later on the article here:

The total tally for the 1951 poll in the 80-member Western  Regional Assembly was as follows: Action Group 38; Independent/AG 15;  NCNC 24; Independent/NCNC 3. Three members of the NCNC who had been  elected to the House changed party allegiance that day ahead of the  House of Representatives vote. They were: Chief SY Kesington-Momoh, JG  Ako, and Awodi Orisaremi, from Urhobo and Kukuruku Divisions.

Azikiwe, came back from the U.S with Oyibo mentality of one nation, thinking just like Nkuruma, Kenyatta and other nationalists like himself, he will lead the new nation to set the pace but was beaten to it by the likes of Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello that understood Nigeria from day one, while Azikiwe is busy preaching one Nigeria. I am one of those that believe that, if Azikiwe's position had belonged to Okpara, Arikpo, Eyo Ita or Ibiam, things would had been different for the East.

That Awolowo, will join the North for whatever reason to decimate the East in a war, should have given Azikiwe clue of what Nigeria is all about but he was still hail bent on one Nigeria at all cost. On June 12, our Yoruba folks were calling for Southern Solidarity, although the like of Arthur Nwankwo, Ebitu Ukiwe, Ndubuisi Kanu, Sam Mbakwe responded but I had to ask them where was Southern Solidarity between 1967-1970?
As someone who was around then, our greatest shock was not just the war that had been visited upon us but the fact that Yorubas will join the North to fight the East for whatever reason but the fact that any marriage called Nigeria best serve their interest. It took our people quite sometimes to get over the shock.

And to buttress my point was the ferocity of how our Yoruba brothers military pursued the war effort compared to our so called percieved enemies- the northerners.  
The biggest nightmare of any Biafran soldier during the war will be to be captured alive by our Yoruba brother soldiers, as we actually found out that the Northern soldiers were more humane and sympathetic to our plight than the so-called southern brothers. And Adekunle/OBJ as soldiers during the war typifies that.
 
I think, young Igbos like Uwazuruike are starting to understand the politics of Nigerian Union, and that is to play one Nigeria when it suits and Nigeria is nothing but on paper and do all you can to grab as much as you can, especially, what you are grabbing doesn't belongs to you or comes from your land. I think the biggest fool like most Igbos are the Ijaws. They are still living in total ignorance of what Nigeria is all about. Their amnesty with Yar Adua just shows that.

Eziachi:

I had said what M.T Mbu had just said before about Chief Awolowo, that the guy never pretended to be a tribalist, who sees himself not as a nationalist but purely a Yoruba leader and there is nothing wrong with that, if that is what you believe and never pretend other wise.  That is the problem I have with modern Yoruba folks both here and other places. They pretend to be Nigerians patriots more than anybody but when it come down to it, they are as tribalist anything. So why pretend?  Its nothing to be ashamed of.

I have posed this question before, that people should look at the history of Nigeria and tell me any national election in Nigeria, where the Yoruba as a nation had ever in numbers voted for a non Yoruba candidate, when their folk is a candidate in the same election? It has never happened.

A good example was 2003, when everybody decided to kick OBJ out of office, and all of a sudden, the entire Yoruba race remembered that OBJ is one of them, and see it as a tribal protection of presidency including those in the AD party then.  When in 1999 the same people told us that OBJ is nothing but lucifer and refuse to give even 10% of their vote to him, including his own community. AD party even decided not to field a presidential candidate of his own, just to protect a Yoruba presidency in the same OBJ they did not vote for four years earlier, only for the guy to turn around months later and rigged all of them out, except Tinubu, who resisted the  idea in the first place.
That a great thinker like Bole Ige even left the opposition to join OBJ's govt and the same people had the affront to say anything when ANPP rogues joined Yar Adua's govt but forgeting that they invented it.

Everybody Kick Obj out? I may be wrong but didn't Obj win in most southern states in 2003? In regards to what you said about Yoruba people not voting for someone not Yoruba i will say how many times have Yoruba people being in a position where there was an obviously better candidate they did not vote for? 83? 93?  79? 2007?

Are you telling me an Alao Akala or Oyinlola will win if put up against say a Ribadu in Yoruba states?

citizenY:


quote from Babapupa


Yet, the so called leaders of tomorrow runs endlessly and ransacks the internet for fossilized, irrelevant and useless issues just to point new sets of fingers and continue the same worthless visions cycle.

Spot on, where are the Goebbels of Biafra? Big ups , still in the archives of Fleet Street?  Digging up? Even Fleet street journalists have moved to the countryside.

And the reason Nigeria is in a gutter or a laughing butt of a nation today and forever recyclers of useless leaders is because the likes of you that don't have obsession for history.
Only nations that have the sense of history prevents history repeating itself. Every election in the U.S, your so-called fleet street journalism will go deeper to dig up the the chararters and past lives of those trying to get their mandate, so that their people will know whom they will be casting their vote for in order to make an informed decision. But in Nigeria, they hated history because it makes them uncomfortable.
That is why a junta guy is today your senate president making democratic laws. Your president is there because his big brother was once a beneficiary of military coups, your immediate past president was a party to that suspended a democratic constitution and ruled by decree. And 90% of your present rulers are either part of the past junta or their apolpogists and servants. Just because you don't have fleet street mentality to dig out the past, in order to avoid repeating the past.

brooknam99:

Didn't the ibos open pandora's box by plannin and executing that senseless coup,the first in the nation's history,in 1966?

You mean Igbos like Ademoyega and Atom Kpera?

nulldev:

Everybody Kick Obj out? I may be wrong but didn't Obj win in most southern states in 2003? In regards to what you said about Yoruba people not voting for someone not Yoruba i will say how many times have Yoruba people being in a position where there was an obviously better candidate they did not vote for? 83? 93?  79? 2007?

Are you telling me an Alao Akala or Oyinlola will win if put up against say a Ribadu in Yoruba states?

So you think that OBJ is better than Buhari in 2003 and that why you changed from not voting for him in 1999 to just giving him almost 100% support 4 years later and sacrificing AD in the process?
Yes, if you pitch Akala against Ribadu tomorrow, you find excuse to reject Ribadu or even boycott it instead. When everything was 100% UPN in 1979, the late Prof Awojobi joked that "If a goat is a UPN candidate, his people will vote for the goat than to vote for another party that doesn't reflect Yorubaness.

Eziachi:

So you think that OBJ is better than Buhari in 2003 and that why you changed from not voting for him in 1999 to just giving him almost 100% support 4 years later and sacrificing AD in the process?
Yes, if you pitch Akala against Ribadu tomorrow, you find excuse to reject Ribadu or even boycott it instead. When everything was 100% UPN in 1979, the late Prof Awojobi joked that "If a goat is a UPN candidate, his people will vote for the goat than to vote for another party that doesn't reflect Yorubaness.

Buhari and Obj primarily represent the same constituency so no he was no better than Obj. The UPN reference buttresses my point, vote for who? A dimwit like Shagari or maybe Tofa in 93? I believe the reception Ribadu got when he came to Lagos for Gani's burial runs contrary to this belief of yours.

@nulldev

Before immerse myself in the archives kindly take a look at this link.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/columnists/onabule/today-24-apr-2009.htm

Duro Onabule lays it all bare and states it as it was. Zik's party won the election, Awo used ethnic sentiment and voila!!! many NCNC members of yoruba extraction cross-carpet and the rest is history. I remember an interview i read given by the Late TOS Benson where he gave reasons why he didnt join the bandwagon and cross carpet. I'm still digging for facts bruv dont run away

nulldev:

Buhari and Obj primarily represent the same constituency so no he was no better than Obj. The UPN reference buttresses my point, vote for who? A dimwit like Shagari or maybe Tofa in 93? I believe the reception Ribadu got when he came to Lagos for Gani's burial runs contrary to this belief of yours.

You have just confirmed what I am trying to say to you. Now you are talking big grammar "same constituency" to defend the usual character of not voting a non Yoruba in an election, you son/daughter is a candidate, that is why AD did not field a candidate in 2003 to help OBJ, in order to prevent a non Yoruba (Buhari) against OBJ they rejected 4 years earlier because the alternative then was also Yoruba in Olu Falea, all of a sudden OBJ is worth sacrificing AD for. Even a blind man can see the hypocrisy.

If a goat is better than Shagari or Tofa in your bright mind, well what is there to say anymore? That just buttressed my point further

Ribadu can get any reception he wanted in Lagos, until he said he running for an office against a Yoruba person, then they will give him the reception he never will expect, vote for a goat.  
You have to understand that I am not against Yorubas over their attitude because I believe they understood Nigeria more than other myopic Southerners, especially the Abuja based Igbos and the Ijaws and Yorubas knows how to play Nigerian tribal politics better than anybody.
But my problem is when some like you is try to pull a wool over our eyes about your love of Nigeria when it suits and then play tribal game when it best suits.

Just before June 12, the then Yoruba dominated press was hailing IBB for cancelling free and fair primaries won by Shehu Yar Adua and Umaru Shikafi and subsequently banned them but few months later the same IBB annulled a free and and fair election, but this time he become a lucifer to the same press. Why? This time M.K.O Abiola, your son is the victim. Did you see the hypocrisy?

Sefago

I did not know that Erastus Akingbola (the biggest wrecker of the banks) as well as Olusola Saraka, is Igbo. Hhahaha. Awon omo ole.

Which of the original banks (b4 consolidation) owned by Yoruba did an Igbo take over and ruined? You built your ten ten kobo family banks (just like some Igbos did too), Soludo helped you to expand them and then you turn around and stole Igbo people's deposits in the expanded banks and ruined the banks. An average Yoruba is so poor that he does not have a bank deposit while a mere Alaba trader deposits tens of millions. Most bank depositors are Igbos

@ joeyfire

Still here M8, Duro Onabule did not lay any specifics on the table regarding the 51 REGIONAL elections he was referring to the process of SELECTING representatives to the federal legislature. Only members of the regional legislatures  are allowed into the Federal legislature so how could Zik have won the previous regional elections which would put him as leader of the regional government and then subsequently loose out on being sent to Lagos as representing the western region? That one's a non starter

You mention TOS BENSON, if the Benson article I think you are going to pull out is what it is then you will know he admitted in the same article to collaborating with Akintola to scuttle he's impeachment by arranging for NCNC members to grab the parliamentary mace and stop the process. He's justification? yep you guessed it the same election in 1951 where the NCNC was apparently cheated. He also mentions Ganiyu Dawodu's book in that article and how it was a 'total fabrication'  he's response to the evidence? Not unlike our man Mbu here 'He was an AG man and was distorting history'

I am not saying we should dismiss all evidence before us here but one side comes with a detailed list of who represented what party at said election and all I here in response is 'BIASED' and then numbers without actual names being put to them. I will expect a reasoned rebuttal to include evidence that actually invalidates the data put forward like say 'so and so was a card carrying member of the NCNC that jumped ship' and was wrongly listed as AG or independent rather than little anecdotes about people walking into parliament as members of one party and then running across the aisle which to say the least is far fetched.  The Tribune article i referred to earlier while possibly biased in terms of arriving at a possible predetermined conclusion included

1. Candidate names and constituencies for the actual election as published BEFORE parliament opened
2. Colonial office version the results BEFORE parliament opened
3. Zik congratulating the winning party BEFORE parliament opened

All of this is in the Dawodu book. Now I'd expect any response to either invalidate this as fabricated OR present compelling arguments on how the evidence is out of context. I still stand by my statement that the notion that a bunch of grown men scampering across the floor of parliament on the day of swearing in could not possibly be true

Eziachi:



That Awolowo, will join the North for whatever reason to decimate the East in a war, should have given Azikiwe clue of what Nigeria is all about but he was still hail bent on one Nigeria at all cost. On June 12, our Yoruba folks were calling for Southern Solidarity, although the like of Arthur Nwankwo, Ebitu Ukiwe, Ndubuisi Kanu, Sam Mbakwe responded but I had to ask them where was Southern Solidarity between 1967-1970?
As someone who was around then, our greatest shock was not just the war that had been visited upon us but the fact that Yorubas will join the North to fight the East for whatever reason but the fact that any marriage called Nigeria best serve their interest. It took our people quite sometimes to get over the shock.

And to buttress my point was the ferocity of how our Yoruba brothers military pursued the war effort compared to our so called percieved enemies- the northerners.  
The biggest nightmare of any Biafran soldier during the war will be to be captured alive by our Yoruba brother soldiers, as we actually found out that the Northern soldiers were more humane and sympathetic to our plight than the so-called southern brothers. And Adekunle/OBJ as soldiers during the war typifies that.
 

What are you on about? Why are you unable to to analyse issues objectively? The yoruba soldiers who fought the war fought as soldiers and not as yoruba soldiers. Do you think that all the American soldiers who fought and died in Iraq agree with the ideology sold to them by Bush? That Adekunle and Obasanjo were the most skilled commanders during the war does not make them brutal. If you have any evidence of their brutality, then please share it.

Besides, the war was primarily a North against East war until the advance to Lagos of Biafran soldiers that stopped at Ore. Gowon used that opportunity to form the 3rd Division (remaned 3rd Marine Commando by Adekunle). The war was regrettable but stop trying to lump Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani together for what happened. If you want to start blaming Yoruba, I will easily remind you of January 1966.

^^^^^^
So Yoruba soldiers were not fighting in the war prior to the advance towards Ore?

mekusxxx:

^^^^^^
So Yoruba soldiers were not fighting in the war prior to the advance towards Ore?

Because of your easily established disposition, I am not going to debate with you. I am only replying now so that others would not think I couln't answer your question.

Katsumoto:

What are you on about? Why are you unable to to analyse issues objectively? The yoruba soldiers who fought the war fought as soldiers and not as yoruba soldiers. Do you think that all the American soldiers who fought and died in Iraq agree with the ideology sold to them by Bush? That Adekunle and Obasanjo were the most skilled commanders during the war does not make them brutal. If you have any evidence of their brutality, then please share it.

Besides, the war was primarily a North against East war until the advance to Lagos of Biafran soldiers that stopped at Ore. Gowon used that opportunity to form the 3rd Division (remaned 3rd Marine Commando by Adekunle). The war was regrettable but stop trying to lump Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani together for what happened. If you want to start blaming Yoruba, I will easily remind you of January 1966.

For a start, I was there, you weren't, neither your parents even born then. I don't think you can even debate event of 1993, let alone something that happened when you're not even an egg or a sperm. Concentrate on your exams, it will be more beneficial to you than joining issue over this with me.

Eziachi:

For a start, I was there, you weren't, neither your parents even born then. I don't think you can even debate event of 1993, let alone something that happened when you're not even an egg or a spermatozoa. Concentrate on your exams, it will be more beneficial to you than joining issue over this with me.

How is it possible for anyone who claims to be as old as you are to be so ignorant? How can you tell my years?
By your easily flawed argument, it is only when one is present at an event that one can can be credible? By such a conclusion, we should ignore all historians because they did not witness all events in history. Also, the fact that you were there does not make you a credible expert; from the manner in which you wrote, i can easily conclude that you may just be a victim of Biafran prpanganda.

Why not debate/discuss the issues which you raised yourself instead of displaying such parochial thoughts.

Katsumoto:

Because of your easily established disposition, I am not going to debate with you. I am only replying now so that others would not think I couln't answer your question.

This is a straightforward question that needs just an answer and has nothing to do with any perceived established disposition. Did Yoruba soldiers fight against the Igbos before the invasion of Ore? Simple.

Awo lost The presidential election because he was never seen as a nationalist.That's what he was,& he enshrined,insttutionalized &legalized tribalism in d west.To Awo & the Yorubas,there's nothing like 'Nigeria'.Nigeria is only a geographical expression.

1luvkipsus:

Awo lost The presidential election because he was never seen as a nationalist.That's what he was,& he enshrined,inst�tutionalized &legalized tribalism in d west.To Awo & the Yorubas,there's nothing like 'Nigeria'.Nigeria is only a geographical expression.

If I may ask, where is Papa Awo now, Heaven or Hell?.

Katsumoto:

What are you on about? Why are you unable to to analyse issues objectively? The yoruba soldiers who fought the war fought as soldiers and not as yoruba soldiers. Do you think that all the American soldiers who fought and died in Iraq agree with the ideology sold to them by Bush? That Adekunle and Obasanjo were the most skilled commanders during the war does not make them brutal. If you have any evidence of their brutality, then please share it.

Besides, the war was primarily a North against East war until the advance to Lagos of Biafran soldiers that stopped at Ore. Gowon used that opportunity to form the 3rd Division (remaned 3rd Marine Commando by Adekunle). The war was regrettable but stop trying to lump Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani together for what happened. If you want to start blaming Yoruba, I will easily remind you of January 1966.

Please if you do not know your facts, I suggest you decease from making emphatic statements on issues you are clearly a novice. It is clearly a sin for person claiming Nigerian citizenship to insinuate that war between Nigeria and Biafra was primarily between northern region and eastern region. Maybe the soldiers of western and mid- western indigenes fought on the Nigerian side as hired mercenaries. What an empty-headed punk?

During the era that you have flippantly cited in the skewed and baseless point, Lagos was the capital of Nigeria and Gowon was in the city issuing orders to 1st Area Command to launch attack on Biafra. At the time, Gowon ordered the 2nd Area Command to move the elements of Lagos Garrison Organization to Escravos for intended amphibious attack on Port Harcourt and Onitsha. The thrust of 101 Division into Ore came four months after Nigerian troops invaded Biafra.

Dede1:



Please if you do not know your facts, I suggest you decease from making emphatic statements on issues you are clearly a novice. It is clearly a sin for person claiming Nigerian citizenship to insinuate that war between Nigeria and Biafra was primarily between northern region and eastern region. Maybe the soldiers of western and mid- western indigenes fought on the Nigerian side as hired mercenaries. What an empty-headed punk?

During the era that you have flippantly cited in the skewed and baseless point, Lagos was the capital of Nigeria and Gowon was in the city issuing orders to 1st Area Command to launch attack on Biafra. At the time, Gowon ordered the 2nd Area Command to move the elements of Lagos Garrison Organization to Escravos for intended amphibious attack on Port Harcourt and Onitsha. The exert of 101 Division into Ore came four months after Nigerian troops invaded Biafra. 

It is often your style to insult rather than debate. I will never sink to your level of throwing insults. It is only those who have things wrong with their lives that throw cheap insults. What really is wrong with you? Must you throw insults? Is it not enough to just debate, dispute accounts, and provide correct information.

Since you are such an expert why not share the link with us. An 'expert' who did not even know that Ogundipe was not Ironsi's second in command before January 1966. So because Gowon was giving orders from Lagos, that implicates everyone in the west? Did Nigerian troops under Shuwa not invade Biafra through Benue? Was it through Ore? I have often said that you do not even know how to debate. You use insults to hide your rather weak grasp of history. You are more content with sounding knowledgeable and condescsending rather than discussing issues at hand.

See below from wikipedia (not always reliable but if you have a better source to refute, then please provide it).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Civil_War

The Nigerian army offensive was through the north of Biafra led by Colonel Shuwa and the local military units were formed as the 1st Infantry Division. The division was led mostly by northern officers. The right-hand Nigerian column advanced on the town of Nsukka which fell on 14 July, while the left-hand column made for Garkem, which was captured on 12 July. At this stage of the war, the other regions of Nigeria (the West and Mid-West) still considered the war as a confrontation between the north (mainly Hausas) against the east (mainly Igbos)[citation needed]. But the Biafrans responded with an offensive of their own when, on 9 July, the Biafran forces moved west into the Mid-Western Nigerian region across the Niger river, passing through Benin City, till they were stopped at Ore(in present day Ondo State) just over the state boundary on 21 August, just 130 miles east of the Nigerian capital of Lagos. The Biafran attack was led by Lt. Col. Banjo with the Biafran rank of brigadier. The attack met little resistance and the Mid-West was easily taken over. This was due to the pre-secession arrangement that all soldiers should return to their regions to stop the spate of killings, in which Igbo soldiers had been major victims[2][6].The Nigerian soldiers that were supposed to defend the Mid-West state were mostly Mid-West Igbo and were in touch with their eastern counterpart. General Gowon responded by asking Colonel Murtala Mohammed to form another division (the 2nd Infantry Division) to expel the Biafrans from the Mid-West, as well as defend the West side and attack Biafra from the West as well. Colonel Murtala later became military head of state. As Nigerian forces retook the Mid-West, the Biafran military administrator declared the Republic of Benin on 19 September.
Flag of the Republic of Benin.

Although Benin City was retaken by the Nigerians on 22 September, the Biafrans succeeded in their primary objective by tying down as many Nigerian Federal troops as much as they could. Gen. Gowon also launched an offensive into Biafra south from the Niger Delta to the riverine area using the bulk of the Lagos Garrison command under Colonel Benjamin Adekunle (called the Black Scorpion) to form the 3rd Infantry Division (which was later renamed as the 3rd Marine Commando which was made up of the Nigerian marines). As the war continued, the Nigerian Army recruited amongst a wider area, including the Yoruba and Edo. Four battalions of the Nigerian 2nd Infantry Division were needed to drive the Biafrans back and eliminate their territorial gains made during the offensive.

Katsumoto:

It is often your style to insult rather than debate. I will never sink to your level of throwing insults. It is only those who have things wrong with their lives that throw cheap insults. What really is wrong with you? Must you throw insults? Is it not enough to just debate, dispute accounts, and provide correct information.

Since you are such an expert why not share the link with us. An 'expert' who did not even know that Ogundipe was not Ironsi's second in command before January 1966. So because Gowon was giving orders from Lagos, that implicates everyone in the west? Did Nigerian troops under Shuwa not invade Biafra through Benue? Was it through Ore? I have often said that you do not even know how to debate. You use insults to hide your rather weak grasp of history. You are more content with sounding knowledgeable and condescsending rather than discussing issues at hand.

See below from wikipedia (not always reliable but if you have a better source to refute, then please provide it).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Civil_War

The Nigerian army offensive was through the north of Biafra led by Colonel Shuwa and the local military units were formed as the 1st Infantry Division. The division was led mostly by northern officers. The right-hand Nigerian column advanced on the town of Nsukka which fell on 14 July, while the left-hand column made for Garkem, which was captured on 12 July. At this stage of the war, the other regions of Nigeria (the West and Mid-West) still considered the war as a confrontation between the north (mainly Hausas) against the east (mainly Igbos)[citation needed]. But the Biafrans responded with an offensive of their own when, on 9 July, the Biafran forces moved west into the Mid-Western Nigerian region across the Niger river, passing through Benin City, till they were stopped at Ore(in present day Ondo State) just over the state boundary on 21 August, just 130 miles east of the Nigerian capital of Lagos. The Biafran attack was led by Lt. Col. Banjo with the Biafran rank of brigadier. The attack met little resistance and the Mid-West was easily taken over. This was due to the pre-secession arrangement that all soldiers should return to their regions to stop the spate of killings, in which Igbo soldiers had been major victims[2][6].The Nigerian soldiers that were supposed to defend the Mid-West state were mostly Mid-West Igbo and were in touch with their eastern counterpart. General Gowon responded by asking Colonel Murtala Mohammed to form another division (the 2nd Infantry Division) to expel the Biafrans from the Mid-West, as well as defend the West side and attack Biafra from the West as well. Colonel Murtala later became military head of state. As Nigerian forces retook the Mid-West, the Biafran military administrator declared the Republic of Benin on 19 September.
Flag of the Republic of Benin.

Although Benin City was retaken by the Nigerians on 22 September, the Biafrans succeeded in their primary objective by tying down as many Nigerian Federal troops as much as they could. Gen. Gowon also launched an offensive into Biafra south from the Niger Delta to the riverine area using the bulk of the Lagos Garrison command under Colonel Benjamin Adekunle (called the Black Scorpion) to form the 3rd Infantry Division (which was later renamed as the 3rd Marine Commando which was made up of the Nigerian marines). As the war continued, the Nigerian Army recruited amongst a wider area, including the Yoruba and Edo. Four battalions of the Nigerian 2nd Infantry Division were needed to drive the Biafrans back and eliminate their territorial gains made during the offensive.

I shall not even going to attempt to educate you on this issue. I have no use for facts lifted off Wikipidia because most of them were personal opinions that are far from facts. To put a crap such as Nigerian-Biafra civil war as primarily between northern and eastern region on paper speaks volume about veracity of wikipidia. I honestly suggest that you dig deep for more and accurate facts about Nigeria/Biafra civil war.

One wonders why the military governors of northern, western, mid-western regions as well as Lagos capital territory had acknowledged the rogue commander as their commander-in-chief. If the issue was between northern and eastern regions, what the hell were Ejoor, Adebayo, Wey and Johnson doing in Aburi, Ghana? Why Ejoor did not mobilized troops against Gowon’s decision to move Lagos Garrison Organization to Escravos in preparation for amphibious attack on eastern Nigeria? I thought that Yoruba people would have demonstrated in masse against Gowon’s decision to sit in Lagos while making war proclamations against eastern Nigeria.

Eziachi:

And the reason Nigeria is in a gutter or a laughing butt of a nation today and forever recyclers of useless leaders is because the likes of you that don't have obsession for history.
Only nations that have the sense of history prevents history repeating itself. Every election in the U.S, your so-called fleet street journalism will go deeper to dig up the the chararters and past lives of those trying to get their mandate, so that their people will know whom they will be casting their vote for in order to make an informed decision. But in Nigeria, they hated history because it makes them uncomfortable.
That is why a junta guy is today your senate president making democratic laws. Your president is there because his big brother was once a beneficiary of military coups, your immediate past president was a party to that suspended a democratic constitution and ruled by decree. And 90% of your present rulers are either part of the past junta or their apolpogists and servants. Just because you don't have fleet street mentality to dig out the past, in order to avoid repeating the past.

You're of course free to bury your head a million miles deep in your so called history and spend your days immersed in the past while others troops along, take giant strides and significantly progress. It's your choice, you guys are used to it.

Btw, that was the lousiest analogy ever,

just like Awo, i honestly think Nigeria is an illusion, a mere geographical expression.

Dede1:

I shall not even going to attempt to educate you on this issue. I have no use for facts lifted off Wikipidia because most of them were personal opinions that are far from facts. To put a crap such as Nigerian-Biafra civil war as primarily between northern and eastern region on paper speaks volume about veracity of wikipidia. I honestly suggest that you dig deep for more and accurate facts about Nigeria/Biafra civil war.

One wonders why the military governors of northern, western, mid-western regions as well as Lagos capital territory had acknowledged the rogue commander as their commander-in-chief. If the issue was between northern and eastern regions, what the hell were Ejoor, Adebayo, Wey and Johnson doing in Aburi, Ghana? Why Ejoor did not mobilized troops against Gowon’s decision to move Lagos Garrison Organization to Escravos in preparation for amphibious attack on eastern Nigeria? I thought that Yoruba people would have demonstrated in masse against Gowon’s decision to sit in Lagos while making war proclamations against eastern Nigeria.

You are going off-point as usual. If wikipedia is not reliable, why not provide a more reliable link that refutes what I provided? or better still, why not give the title of a book and post the relevant sections here.

^{A dimwit like Shagari or maybe Tofa in 93? I believe the reception Ribadu got when he came to Lagos for Gani's burial runs contrary to this belief of yours}
Maybe you could wake Gani up and ask him about the treatment he got when he was pursuing a case against Bola Tinubu. University of Chicago and Chicago Sate University saga.

adconline:

^{A dimwit like Shagari or maybe Tofa in 93? I believe the reception Ribadu got when he came to Lagos for Gani's burial runs contrary to this belief of yours}
Maybe you could wake Gani up and ask him about the treatment he got when he was pursuing a case against Bola Tinubu. University of Chicago and Chicago Sate University saga.

Does this even make any sense? How does that tie-in to the topic of discussion?

Does this even make any sense?
How does that tie-in to the topic of discussion
Warm reception does not denote political acceptance in Nigeria

Katsumoto:

You are going off-point as usual. If wikipedia is not reliable, why not provide a more reliable link that refutes what I provided? or better still, why not give the title of a book and post the relevant sections here.

I should have to reiterate rather unequivocally that any person who insinuated at any time that the Nigeria-Biafra civil war was a tangle primarily between northern and eastern regions is a distrusted wood-stock pervert.