OPEN LETTER OF RESIGNATION TO ODUMEGWU OJUKWUIn his open letter of resignation to Ojukwu, published by Morning Post, Lagos, August 17, 1968, Goldstein stated:

FROM Robert S. Goldstein
Public Relations Representative of Biafra in the United States
(Published in the Morning Post, Lagos, August 17, 1968)

As your Public Relation’s Representative in the United States, it is my distasteful duty to tender my resignation based on the following points:

POINT 1 – In November of 1967 when we met in Umuahia, you and your Cabinet were very impressive. You told me of the woes of your little Republic, that thousands of people had died, were dying and more were prepared to die for freedom’s sake.

You and your Cabinet told me you believed world opinion would help your cause if you could get your story across.
You expressed the opinion that very few if any people in the United States knew of the plight of the Biafrans.

You asked me to tell the world that Britain had teamed up with Russia in a conspiracy with the Federal Government of Nigeria to murder every Ibo in Biafra. You suggested I use my talents to induce the Press to write about the Biafran side of the war, as at that time all news came out of Lagos.

You will recall I did not take the assignment that day but stayed on several days before deciding to take that job.

To help win the peace

At that time I stated to you and your cabinet that I was taking the assignment making it crystal clear I would try my best to help win the peace not the war.

POINT TWO – I immediately arranged the first world Press conference in Biafra inviting the US Press as well as journalists and television people from England, France, Switzerland, Africa and other parts of the Globe. This was the first news break through. I arranged regular trips into Biafra for the world Press, helped set up stringers, etc., so that your statements and the statements of your Cabinet would be heard.

At that time, I was absolutely positive you were right and your cause was a just one in the best interests of the free world and your countrymen.

POINT THREE – Finally the Republic of Biafra was recognized first by Tanzania, then quickly followed by Gabon, the Ivory Coast and Zambia. Our public relations work was paying off, world opinion was starting to side with us.
Peace talks were arranged at Kampala. I thought that if anyone walked away from the table it would be the Federal Government. But to my dismay it was Biafra that left the Conference. After all the fighting and killing, I knew that peace would not come easy but I could not understand leaving the Peace Conference until the last point was negotiated and the avenue explored.

POINT FOUR – Then urgent telex messages were received from ‘Biafra’ telling of tens of thousands of people starving in the refugee camps, the villages, the bush country – stating if something weren’t done in the next few months over a million women, children and aged would be starved to death. I immediately contacted the Press, urgently petitioned the State Department for action on their part. Food, medicine and milk were sent to the only available ports open for immediate shipment to ‘Biafra’ via land routes through Federal and Biafra territory, under the auspices of world organizations such as the International Red Cross among others.

Then came the incredible answer from ‘Biafra’ that land corridors could not be acceptable until there was a complete ceasefire, and that an airlift was the only solution to feed the starving.

You then appeared before the various Heads of State and representatives of the OAU at Niamey in Niger. I fully expected you to at least accept the world help that was offered your starving throngs. However, you delayed, hoping to use these unfortunates with world sympathy on their side as a tool to further your ambition to achieve war concessions at the upcoming peace talks in Addis Ababa. Thus innocent victims continue to perish needlessly of starvation, the most agonising death that can befall any living creature.

POINT FIVE – This was incredible to me. I am now convinced that I have been used by you and your cabinet to help in military adventures of your origin….using your starving hordes as hostages to negotiate a victory.
If at some later date, following the issuance of this letter, you do concede to allow a mercy land corridor…would you expect me to agree to espouse before the world Press the incredible delay of your decision. What explanation could I honestly give for the needless prolongation of this horror.

Inconceivable acts

I pray this communication may in some small way influence you to move affirmatively, allowing the mercy land corridor to be born.

It is inconceivable to me that you would stop the feeding of thousands of your countrymen (under auspicies of world organizations such as the International Red Cross, World Council of Churches and many more) via a land corridor which is the only practical way to bring in food to help at this time. It is inconceivable to me that men of good faith would try to twist world opinion in such a manner as to deceive people into believing that the starvation and hunger that is consuming ‘Biafra’ is a plot of Britain, Nigeria and others to commit genocide.

POINT SIX – I cannot in all conscience serve you any longer. Nor can I be a party to suppressing the fact that your starving thousands have the food, medicine and milk available to them…..it can and is ready to be delivered through international organizations to you. Only your constant refusal has stopped its delivery.

I am this date, tendering my resignation and am returning to Mr. Collins Obih of the African Continental Bank all the fees you have given me (Letter of Credit No. 354 $400,000 US.)

I have sent your representative in New York a Bond in the amount of 800.000 pounds that I was holding in your behalf. I have also this date, sent the Bond of 200,000 pounds issues by the Central Bankl of Nigeria back to them for disposal.

POINT SEVEN – I am now convinced that one Nigeria is the only solution to peace. I also call upon you Mr. Ojukwu to allow your starving people to be fed. Their well-being is of deep concern to me as well as other right thinking people of the world.

Your acting in the utmost haste in this matter is in my opinion the first step toward any lasting peace in your country.”
Robert S. Goldstein.

And they still employed Chinua Achebe as their paid median propaganda machine ,


In the end , they lost , people , resources , investments


these set of people have chosen not to learn

So this idiot killed his people then, the same stupid ego is what the current idiot still using. This time around casualty will be closed to 10m. Mouth no deydo am

I never liked Ojukwu.

He's an Idiot. He had chances and advices to finish the war quick & fast but instead, he wasted lot of time and made the wrong decisions.

Btw... I'm staunchly​ Biafra.

POINT SIX – I cannot in all conscience serve you
any longer. Nor can I be a party to suppressing
the fact that your starving thousands have the
food, medicine and milk available to them…..it
can and is ready to be delivered through
international organizations to you. Only your
constant refusal has stopped its delivery.
I am this date, tendering my resignation and am
returning to Mr. Collins Obih of the African
Continental Bank all the fees you have given me
(Letter of Credit No. 354 $400,000 US.)
I have sent your representative in New York a
Bond in the amount of 800.000 pounds that I
was holding in your behalf. I have also this date,
sent the Bond of 200,000 pounds issues by the
Central Bankl of Nigeria back to them for
disposal.


POINT SEVEN – I am now convinced that one
Nigeria is the only solution to peace. I also call
upon you Mr. Ojukwu to allow your starving
people to be fed. Their well-being is of deep
concern to me as well as other right thinking
people of the world.
Your acting in the utmost haste in this matter is
in my opinion the first step toward any lasting
peace in your country.”
Robert S. Goldstein.

Ngwakwa, osetigo!

Na wah for afonja oh

Where are the Igbo on this thread now, animal people

Good morning

Iamwrath:
And they still employed Chinua Achebe as their paid median propaganda machine ,


In the end , they lost , people , resources , investments


these set of people have chosen not to learn

That was when I realized that chinua achebe is emotional and intellectually weak.

Ojukwu successfully suyanised his own people.

But the Children of Hatred will rather blame Awolowo.

This is an eye opener. Ojukwu fought the war for selfish reasons and used his people as bait. May God forgive him for the lives he wasted and abandoned. Zik revealed that he, Ojukwu was an illegimate child and suffered rejection as a child and battled with it for a long time. The Father being Catholic couldn't recognize him officially. It was learnt that friends had to prevail on the Father to bring him home. The Father had to send him abroad to avoid embarrassment because of his position in the society. He was said to have been so badly affected by the rejection that he hated father and once pulled a gun on him, it took the intervention of Zik to stop him from carrying out the act. During the civil war Any differing opinion threatened him because he was still dealing with the rejection issue and we saw the way he eliminated people he merely perceived as enemies because they have different approach to issues. Zik said Ojukwu also hated him and punished Zik by removing him as the Chancellor of one university and instructed ACB bank to make all Zik's loans immediately payable regardless of the previous structure. He felt so rejected and appropriated most of his Father's wealth for himself as a result of his siblings having enjoyed their Father more than he did. The case was in court for a long time. NB:
I am expecting the avalanche of insults ranging from Ewedu to those famous pictures with tribal marked men and women plus children, but the truth is the most important.

Posterity remains d Judge, of all history, we can lie, against people but the truth remains eternal.

Whichever way we see it, Ojukwu wanted safety for his people not after the pogrom in the north in 1966. However, the Igbos too have to be partly blamed for the crisis as they openly displayed joy after the Sardauna's murder by Nzeogwu's team (read operation sure and the tragedy of victory by Alabi Isama).
Sincerely, the war was needless if only Ojukwu had chosen other means of peace.
Let the present generation also learn from history.
Igbo Kwenu!

leofab:
Na wah for afonja oh

If anyone is looking for bimbo, the person does not need to go far. You are a perfect one. You see now that your hero was the one that starved your ancestors to death. God has vindicated awolowo.

mightykay:
Where are the Igbo on this thread now, animal people

They are nowhere to be found. More revelation is coming. We all know they starved themselves to lie against Nigeria and awolowo, but God is not foolish. Mods, move this to front page.

Michael004:
If anyone is looking for bimbo, the person does not need to go far. You are a perfect one. You see now that your hero was the one that starved your ancestors to death. God has vindicated awolowo.

keep quiet who told you I have a hero other than Gej

aycorporat:
Whichever way we see it, Ojukwu wanted safety for his people not after the pogrom in the north in 1966. However, the Igbos too have to be partly blamed for the crisis as they openly displayed joy after the Sardauna's murder by Nzeogwu's team (read operation sure and the tragedy of victory by Alabi Isama).
Sincerely, the war was needless if only Ojukwu had chosen other means of peace.
Let the present generation also learn from history.
Igbo Kwenu!

Ojukwu did everything humanly possible to avoid war. When Igbos were first massacred in the North and they started running back home, Ojukwu asked them to go back in the spirit of 'one Nigeria' only for them to killed in larger numbers later.

While many Igbos were being killed in the North, Ojukwu ensured the safe return of all Northerners in the Eastern Region.

Ojukwu went Aburi Ghana and signed a peace agreement with Gowon. Gowon broke the agreement.


Ojukwu did all he could for peace but Nigeria did not want peace

Nigeria used starvation as a weapon of war and this policy is highly condemnable. It is today regarded as a war crime to do this.

victorDanladi:
That was when I realized that chinua achebe is emotional and intellectually weak.

It's on International journals , prints and media , it's on Wiki even though they have edited over and over again, that has remained a fact


I even found it on ciafactbook , can you imagine ? that's the same method / approach they are using till today



I guess some people don't learn from history

leofab:
keep quiet who told you I have a hero other than Gej

Lol, your God kanu, that folks women.

This people must be stupid from inside, u declared somebody as your enemy and you still expect the person to feed you, so ojukwu didn't plan how to feed you people before declaring war and you are blaming your enemy for stopping to feed you instead of directing your anger to the animal that do things before thinking. He also rejected foreign food again cos of ego, this ojukwu must be perfect definition of dementiality and current baboons is following the same thread. This time around ibo region will be history

There are always two sides of a story. This man was accused of receiving bribes in order to switch allegiance to the Nigerian side.

Sweetguy25:
There are always two sides of a story. This man was accused of receiving bribes in order to switch allegiance to the Nigerian side.

so somebody that returned ojukwu money for charges of his duty for the one has he done and the one he is yet to do, he also returned 700k pounds ojukwu kept in his custody, why are you people like this,do you think everybody behave like you, how much was he bribed, did you read the write up at all, is it not enough reason for a sane person to cut tie with a deluded chimpanzee. Did ojukwu reject the food or not, you can't answer that but you know the May have been bribed, I'm sorry for your generation and region

kingzizzy:


Ojukwu did everything humanly possible to avoid war. When Igbos were first massacred in the North and they started running back home, Ojukwu asked them to go back in the spirit of 'one Nigeria' only for them to killed in larger numbers later.

While many Igbos were being killed in the North, Ojukwu ensured the safe return of all Northerners in the Eastern Region.

Ojukwu went Aburi Ghana and signed a peace agreement with Gowon. Gowon broke the agreement.


Ojukwu did all he could for peace but Nigeria did not want peace

Nigeria used starvation as a weapon of war and this policy is highly condemnable. It is today regarded as a war crime to do this.

Nobody buys these lies anymore. Find a new propaganda, "we are victim" story abeg.

mightykay:
so somebody that returned ojukwu money for charges of his duty for the one has he done and the one he is yet to do, he also returned 700k pounds ojukwu kept in his custody, why are you people like do you think everybody behave like you, how much was he bribed, did you read the write up at all, is it not enough reason for a sane person to cut tie with a deluded chimpanzee.

I just told you what the Biafrans accused him of back then.

Sweetguy25:


I just told you what the Biafrans accused him of back then.

oh sorry, that is how they do shifting blame when they are obviously wrong

rosebowl01:


Nobody buys these lies anymore. Find a new propaganda, "we are victim" story abeg.

don't mind him did ojukwu look like a peaceful man, what part of the accord did Nigeria brake. I'm very sure anti Christ will come from this region

mightykay:
don't mind him did ojukwu look like a peaceful man, what part of the accord did Nigeria brake. I'm very sure anti Christ will come from this region

Both of you are pathetic. You people are trying to smear the reputation of the greatest hero of the Igbos, the Eze ndigbo gburu gburu .

You people didnt even bother to do a research on Nigerian history to know what the Aburi agreement was and how the war started.

You people dont even know that Nigeria commited genocide by using starvation as an instrument of war, something that is now regarded as an international war crime.

The letter of resignation blames Ojukwu for not allowing the Nigeria method of distributing relief supplies without taking into consideration that Ojukwu was fighting a war and could not accept what Nigeria offered because of the undue military advantage it gave them.

You guys make me laugh. Ojukwu is the greatest hero of his people because, against all odds, he fought to liberate them from Hausa/Fulani controlled Nigeria.

I dont expect those Lord Lugard named after a common River ti understand what freedom is or its importance

kingzizzy:


Ojukwu did everything humanly possible to avoid war. When Igbos were first massacred in the North and they started running back home, Ojukwu asked them to go back in the spirit of 'one Nigeria' only for them to killed in larger numbers later.

While many Igbos were being killed in the North, Ojukwu ensured the safe return of all Northerners in the Eastern Region.

Ojukwu went Aburi Ghana and signed a peace agreement with Gowon. Gowon broke the agreement.


Ojukwu did all he could for peace but Nigeria did not want peace

Nigeria used starvation as a weapon of war and this policy is highly condemnable. It is today regarded as a war crime to do this.

Thanks kingzizzy
However from brigadier Alabi Isama's book, I got it from there that the propaganda machine of the Biafran government made the people flee into the bushes when in actual fact the third marine commando was trying to liberate them that was after Ojukwu rejected the Federal Government's proposal for food to pass through its corridor for proper checks.
What will you say about that kingzizzy?

RE: NigerianID | Re:Robert S. Goldstein (Biafra
Public Relations Rep in the USA) - Letter of
Resignation to Odumegwu Ojukwu (1968)
Dr. Aluko:
It is obfuscation at its most blatant to read
Goldstein letter outside of the rationale for action
taken by Ojukwu and the Biafran leadership.
I'll attempt to answer your earlier questions posed
to me alonsgide this, because they are related.
- The first question was why Ojukwu did not, given
that Biafra had shrunk dramatically, not surrender
to save starving Biafrans.


- The second is, to link it to the substance of
Goldstein's letter, why Ojukwu insisted on ceasefire
and the airlift of relief to Biafrans as the only
grounds or conditions for accepting relief.
First, Ojukwu knew that an internationally observed
ceasefire was the only guarantee for the security
and safety of the Biafran. Second, the atrocities
recorded wherever the federal forces liberated lent
credence to that demand. In fact, it made it
imperative, particularly because the Lagos regime
was not prepared to negotiate in true faith for the
amicable end of the conflict.


The war strategy of the Gowon administration was
hell-bent on Biafra's complete surrender without
guarantees. No political and military leader will
agree to that kind of suicide. I'll return to this
point. But let me quote from Susan Cronje's quite
illuminating book, The World and Nigeria: The
Diplomatic History of the Biafran war 1967-1970
( I'd also recommend that you read the other,
Biafra: Britain's Shame). Cronje writes this about
the meeting in Niamey referenced by Goldstein:
"The Nigerian delegation was led by Chief
Awolowo, but General Gowon arrived in Niamey on
16 July and addressed the meeting as an
'observer.'


The main theme of his speech was a
warning that if the 'rebels persist in their
contemptuous attitude to the conference table the
federal government will have no choice but to take
over the remaining rebel-held areas...In military
terms the rebellion is virtually suppressed already.'
But the atmosphere had suibtly changed. hamani
diori had altrady suggested that the committee's
consultative role should be changed to a mediatory
one, and after Gowon's address the committee
went into closed session. Eventually it was
announced that that Ojukwu had been asked to
attend, and Gowon who had already returned to
Lagos flew back to Niamey the following day,
cancelling all engagements. His presence in
Niamey was required not for a meeting with
Ojukwu but to reply to a truce proposal put forward
among others by General Ankrah. This called for a
ten-mile wide demilitarized zone patrolled by
neutral troops to allow relief supplies to pass to
Biafran refugees. According to one account of the
debate, Gowon is said to have turned to General
Ankrah, saying, 'You are a military man: you know
what it is with commanders.'


The suggestion that
he might be unable to restrain his army was
reinforced when he warned the committee that if it
did not see things his way they would have to have
'a Nigeria without me.' According to a Niamey
radio report the following day, General Gowon
rejected the resolution put to him by the O.A.U.
committee; the main points of this resolution were
the establishment of a demilitarized zone and 'an
international force which would include neutral
observers acceptable to both sides.' Ghana and
Cameroun, the broadcast said, had offered
shipping facilities for moving relief supplies.
Ojukwu arrived in Niamey on 19 July in President
Houphet-Boigny's private jet.


The Biafran
delegation, when it was fully assembled, included
Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the former Nigerian president,
Dr. Okpara, former Eastern Nigerian premier, Sir
Louis Mbanefo, Dr. Eni Njoku and several other
notables; Lagos was not far off in suggesting that
the 'entire rebel leadership' had assembled in
Niger. At the end of the meeting between Ojukwu
and the consltative committee - Gowon had
returned to Lagos two days previously - a
communique was issued. Two versions appear to
be in existence; the one broadcast by Niamey radio
read:


(1) the Nigerian Federal Military Government
and Colonel Ojukwu have agreed to meet
immediately in Niamey under the chairmanship of
President Diori Hamani in order to begin
preliminary talks on a speedy resumption of
Nigerian peace negotiations;


(2) the Nigerian
Federal Military Government and Colonel Ojukwu
have agreed to resume as soon as possible peace
negotiations in Addis Ababa under the auspices of
the O.A.U Consultative Committee on Nigeria.' The
version as broadcast by Lagos - and which does
not pretend to be a verbatim report - said that the
committee had called on both parties to resume
peace talks as soon as possible, '... with the
objecvtive of preserving Nigeria's territiorial
integrity and guaranteeing the security of all its
inhabitants.' The committee said, according to this
broadcast, that 'it will be in contact with the federal
military government, and Ojukwu or his
representativs may at any time contact any
member government of the committee.' The Lagos
version went on to cite two further point of which
ther was no mention in the Niamey version, both
dealing with relief, and appealing to the two sides
to undertake various mesures to alleviate the
suffering among war victims.


In view of the strong criticism that has been
levelled at the Biafran leadership for its
intrasigence, and the high praise heaped o General
Gowon and his Government for humanitarian
concern and magnanimity, it should be stressed
that in Niamey Gowon rejected the O.A.U
proposals for a partial truce and international
policing of relief routes, while Ojukwu was
prepared to accept both these proposals. When
Ojukwu returned to Biafra, he gave a press
conference at which he was asked whether his
invitation to the OAU had meant any form of
recognition of him. For once Ojukwu was cautious
in his reply: 'Let's put it this way. My presence in
Niamey for once represents the O.A.U's acceptance
that there are two sides to a conflict.' He would not
reveal any further details about the forthcoming
Addis Ababa peace talk, but said, 'I find myself in
a rather simillar situation as after Aburi.' He did
not want to say anything in case Lagos started
'interpreting it, and go back to square
one..." (302-303)


The foregoing provides the clear context of the
situation, that it was not Ojukwu, but Gowon who
rejected the proposals by which Ojukwu and the
Biafran leadership was prepared to abide.The
context is clearly established and makes nonsense
of Golsdstein's ground for resignation.


While the Biafran government was prepared to act
without precondition, the Nigerian authorities
persistenly insisted on Biafran surrender. It was a
deliberate and determined argument made to make
certain that the only solution was by a military
solution because Lagos knew that the basic
grounds on which it made its offer of relief was
conditional and unconscionable.


It was to disavow
the very basic reason why Biafra defended itself in
the first place: its sovereignty as a means to the
safety, security and dignity of its population. Now,
were the Gowon administration acting in good
faith, that would be a differet matter. What
guaratees could Biafrans have, had Ojukwu
surrendered as a condition for food? None.
Here is the evidence narrated by John Stremlau in
his The International Politics of the Nigerian Civil
War how Gowon's cable upturned the agreements
reached in May 1968 in kampala between Eni
Njoku and Enahoro in which Eni Njoku had in fact
"conceded the evntuality of one-Nigeria."


As Stremalau notes, "Whereas Enahoro had left
acceptance of the twelve-state structure implicit
in his propsals, Gowon insisted that before any
agreement was reached the rebels must explictly
embrace the twelve states. In addition, Gowon
stipulated that there would be no question of an
interim commission for the rebel-held areas, there
would be no recruitment and formation of Ibo
units into the federal armed forces, and no
elements of the rebel troops or police would be
allowed to retain their arms. Gowon's instruction,
which did not reach Kampala until shortly after
Enahoro had made his presentation, clearly
reflected the views of the more hawkish elements
in the federal government" (172-173).


To put these in summary:
(a) Ojukwu did not reject relief, he wanted the
security and guarantee of safety for Biafrans. He
was in fact willing to accept the O.A.U's proposals


(b) Gowon and the Lagos administration
manipulated international propaganda, as testified
in the versions of the broadcasts of the Niamey
agreement to further its own goals of the
liquidation of Biafra


(c) The federal government was not, in spite of all
the efforts made by the Biafrans willing to
negotiate peace, they were hell-bent on
"surrender" as the only condition for the survival
of the Biafran population.


If anybody must bear responsbility, it must be
those who kept using the talks to elongate the
suffering of the civilian population, and clearly this
are the 'hawks" who placed the only condition for
peace on Biafra's surrender and liquidation. And
there, you have it.

Obi Nwakanma

“Its (mass starvation) is a legitimate aspect of war (Anthony Enahoro, Nigerian Commissioner for Information at a press conference in New York, July 1968)

“Starvation is a weapon of war, and we have every intention of using it against the rebels” (Mr Alison Ayida, Head of Nigerian delegation, Niamey Peace talks, July 1968.)

“The Igbos must be considerably reduced in number”, Lagos Policeman quoted in New York Review 21 December, 1967)


“Until now efforts to relieve the Biafran people have been thwarted by the desire of the central government to pursue total and unconditional victory and by the fear of the Ibo people that surrender means wholsesale atrocities and genocide. But genocide is what is taking place right now- and starvation is the grim reaper. This is not the time to stand on ceremony, or go through channels or to observe diplomatic niceties. The destruction of an entire people is immoral objective, even in the most moral of wars. It can never be condoned”, (Richard Nixon, during the presidential campaign, September 9, 1968)

“All is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don’t see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder”, (Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Nigerian Minister of Finance, July 28, 1969)