[s]

komando.:

Quote from Tks9

In the face of glaring facts to debunk their fallacious tales they resort to derisions but like i stated in another post of mine, am not here for that but am glad that the ilk of [/b]bk & aigboifa[b] are up to the task.

Look at you taking sides, later you say you are not a tribalist. I can see your camouflage is beggining to each you. Its just a matter of time before you throw it off and adorn tribalistic uniform of bkhomo and aigbofag. Then you shall be treated like the tribalist you are.

[/s]You must really be enjoying this your lonely war.

Komando,

Am yoruba and proud to be a yoruba man, i make no apology to any1 4 that. if ur ilk see me as a tribalist, so be it. i look after my own and you can do whatever u like with urs.

If you want to treat me as a tribalist, pls do, no shaking!

Back to the topic, Pa Awo will always remain a great man to us, yorubas whilst you igbos are welcome to perceive the ilk of Ojukwu, Zik, Ironsi as your heroes. Before you cast any aspersion on Awo be reminded that two can play that game.

When bk and aigbofa came out with facts, you guys responded with name-callings and before long it turned into rofo-rofo fights. I guess you have no facts of your own to debunk their claims, huh? so naturally, you had to resort to infantile strategy of verbal abuses which am glad that bk and aigboifa were able to respond to, in kind.

none of you guys have still not been able to reply to the simple question- "would you entrust the affairs of your wife, children, house and resources to your friend, no matter how much u trust that friend- when you 're quite capable of doing it yourself?"

T9ksy:

Komando,

Am yoruba and proud to be a yoruba man, i make no apology to any1 4 that. if your ilk see me as a tribalist, so be it. i look after my own and you can do whatever u like with urs.

If you want to treat me as a tribalist, pls do, no shaking!

Back to the topic, Pa Awo will always remain a great man to us, yorubas whilst you igbos are welcome to perceive the ilk of Ojukwu, Zik, Ironsi as your heroes. Before you cast any aspersion on Awo be reminded that two can play that game.

When bk and aigbofa came out with facts, you guys responded with name-callings and before long it turned into rofo-rofo fights. I guess you have no facts of your own to debunk their claims, huh? so naturally, you had to resort to infantile strategy of verbal abuses which am glad that bk and aigboifa were able to respond to, in kind.

none of you guys have still not been able to reply to the simple question- "would you entrust the affairs of your wife, children, house and resources to your friend, no matter how much u trust that friend- when you 're quite capable of doing it yourself?"

Alaseju ni e. . .why are you wasting your time with that boy.check through all his posts and see if he has any sense at all

@ blackfaggtooth sucker

Your manliness don dey itch for tksy's nyansh abi?

Oya tksy move small make bluetooth so wetin him wan do. na una way, no be so?

@ blackooth

Keep trying to add another guy to your gang of faggotts. Spermguzzling bitchazz nigga.

I heared now that bk aint in town you do it with the hens in your compound. I'll talk to the health authorities so people don't go buying eggs from your compound. Chipmunk.

Awo is a great man who did his best for Western Nigeria and the entire entity called Nigeria.Suffice to say that the entire civil war budget was funded on cocoa and rubber procceeds because the oil in the East was at the time un-accessible.

Aigbofa and T9ksy have both done great job in enlightening uninformed minds about events pre and post the civil war as it relates to Awolowo's ingenuity.
The onus is on anybody to use confirmable facts to prove otherwise.

Igbos animosity to the Yorubas dates back to the 1920s  and Zki didnt help matters by using Pilot to spread embers of tribal propaganda.
Ndigbo should be greatful for Yorubas tolerance otherwise tribal rift popular in North will definitely be a monumental disaster when allowed in West.

komando.:

"Starvation is a legitimate weapon of war, and we have every intention of using it against the rebels, " Was it Gowon? No. Who made it?

Cornelius "Scorpion" Adebayo on his plan for the war also said "When we get close to Biafra border,we will shoot everything moving.If we advance into the Biafra territorry,we will shoot everything in sight-both moving and non-moving"

Posted by: olafolarin

Quote from: komando. on September 14, 2010, 10:26 PM
"Starvation is a legitimate weapon of war, and we have every intention of using it against the rebels, " Was it Gowon? No. Who made it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSqhqP3U-t4

I remember how emotional it was wAtching this Video.
Ojukwu should have been castrated for instigating the senseless war.

olafolarin:

I remember how emotional it was wAtching this Video.
Ojukwu should have been castrated for instigating the senseless war.

Thats the reason I told you to seek help. . . . . . . . Imagine, calling a traitor,an ex-con, a debauched rogue like Awolowo your hero.

Metalgong.:

Thats the reason I told you to seek help. . . . . . . . Imagine, calling a traitor ,an ex-con, a debauched rogue like Awolowo your hero.

wow. . . . . .and your hero is being tossed around by jonathan.shame ojuwku

~Bluetooth:

wow. . . . . .and your hero is being tossed around by jonathan.shame ojuwku

Ojukwu is not Awolowo who committed suicide . . . . There is a difference between Ojuwku the Legend and Awo the monkey. . . .

Metalgong.:

Ojukwu is not[b] Awolowo who committed suicide[/b] . . . . There is a difference between Ojuwku the Legend and[b] Awo the monkey. . . . [/b]

hehehe!


Ogene dike! Ana m ekene! Ezigbo nwa afor!

  Bid for the presidency (1978-79)

To finance free education, we are going to block wastages like the N350million allocated to be spent on chocolate in the Third National Development Plan. For

the four years of my administration, there will be no dinner, no banquet, no luncheon. Nobody will drink anything but water in the office, including my office if I

am elected president. Nigeria needs a shock treatment! – Awolowo, in an interview with the New Nigerian in 1979.

CHIEF Awolowo had bided his time since 1971 when he resigned from the post-war cabinet of

General Yakubu Gowon and resumed his legal career. He said he had an ‘enduring longing for

the Bar‘ and he took part in several celebrated court cases in many parts of the country once he donned his wig and gown again. His law chambers in Lagos

had a former university research fellow, Mr. Abayomi Sogbesan, SAN, as a partner. His daughter, Ayodele, was also an active lawyer in the practice. Awolowo,

himself became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) on January 12, 1978, one of the first lawyers in the country to be so honoured.

But politics was never far from his mind. During the prolonged period of military rule, he had told a gathering at the Mainland Hotel, Lagos, in 1975 that he was

in the game for the rest of his life when asked by reporters when he would make a comeback to the political arena.

“You do not make a comeback to a vocation that you never left,” he quipped. Law might be his profession but politics was his life-long vocation.

He did not believe in sitting tight in government without an electoral mandate. He had told General Gowon in plain language in

his well-publicised letter of resignation on June 13, 1971 that: ”I certainly cannot be tempted or induced to participate or head an unelected or electoral-college

elected civil administration in any setting.” If Gowon was inclined to draft him and install him as president after he had had his fill (Major C. Nzeogwu and

company wanted to conscript him as executive president in January 1966), the answer was ‘no‘. Gowon, of course, had no such intention, as he was busy

enjoying the lavish perks of office. In reply to this letter, he was effusive in his praise of Awolowo‘s distinguished contributions to the government‘s successful

war effort. Gowon truly admired his minister‘s talents in the treasury   Major General Hassan Usman Katsina, former

military governor of the North, also acknowledged the expertise of Awolowo as finance minister in the war cabinet and praised the chief as ”the best manager

of a national economy Africa has ever produced.”


Victor Banjo and Major E. Ifeajuna (one of the five majors who staged the 1966 coup now fighting for Biafra) had also planned to install Awolowo as head of

government in Lagos if they succeeded in dethroning both Gowon and Ojukwu. But would Awo have acquiesced and allowed himself to become an unelected

president and a sitting duck for otThere were speculations at the height of the civil war, in September 1967, that Brigadier her potential coup plotters? It was

unlikely. Clearly, his participation in Gowon‘s military government was due to the national emergency and as soon as that emergency was over, he withdrew

his services. A democrat at heart, he could not condone or be seen to be part of an unelected government at peacetime.

During the 30-month civil war, Awolowo managed the economy so adroitly that not one kobo was borrowed as an external loan to prosecute the war in spite

of the fact that the federal government had no access to the oil fields in the rebel-held areas which severely curtailed its export earnings. General Adeyinka

Adebayo, governor of the Western Region, has attributed this success to the foreign exchange earnings from cocoa exports from his Region among others

[b] But dexterity in macro-economics management apart, Awo‘s astuteness, firmness of purpose and dedication to the task at hand

at Mosaic House, Lagos, as finance minister was praised by many people outside government circles. His dramatic change of the Nigerian currency during the

war in 1968 cut the ground from under the secessionists‘ feet by rendering millions of Nigerian pounds in their bank vaults worthless in procuring arms and

munitions. Biafra‘s leaders were upset and their high command bemoaned Awo‘s ‘collaboration‘ with Gowon in 1967. The Ibo war machine had dreaded Awo‘s

adroitness in managing the war economy more as a stumbling block than Gowon and his federalists‘ fire-power. He continued to manage the treasury in this

adroit way even after the cessation of hostilities in January 1970.

In 1971, when he was still in charge of the economy, he pursued vigorous fiscal and monetary policies and chided his friend, British Prime Minister, Harold

Wilson, for devaluing the British pound sterling without forewarning Nigeria and he refused to follow in tow by devaluing our currency which was then tied to

the sterling standard saying Nigeria was a sovereign nation not tied to British economic coattails. The Nigerian pound was thus stronger than the British

pound. Awolowo, a first-class economist, exuded confidence in his country and himself because he knew his onions and how to fine-tune the engine of the

nation‘s dynamic oil-rich economy.

Gowon expressed his regrets about Awolowo‘s departure from the cabinet. It is true that the elder statesman had pushed many controversial pet schemes

dear to his heart there after the war when the second 5-year National Development Plan was being produced. For example, Awolowo pushed hard for the

introduction of free education at all levels throughout the federation in the post-war era. He countered the figures supplied by the Department of Federal

Statistics in buttressing his point that the nation could afford the free education of its citizens if the political will was there. But he was defeated in the cabinet

on this crucial agenda when it was put to a vote because the will among other ministers to embark on free education was not there.

The chief had demonstrated clearly that the free-education- at-all-levels campaign was not a game to be played only to catch votes at an election by asking a

federal executive council of which he was the second-in-command to embark on its implementation. Awolowo deposed:

As Commissioner for Finance in the federal military government, I was a one-man army in the Federal Executive Council fighting for the inclusion of free

education at all levels in our second National Development Plan. I fought relentlessly for three long days, even though I knew the military would be the

beneficiaries of public applause if my proposal was accepted but I lost.

He lost because there were few who had the foresight to back him up in the cabinet debates. Gowon was indecisive on this matter as in many others. In any

case, Awolowo had tried his best to help him keep Nigeria in one piece. That was enough and he had to move on.
[/b] 

In a 1985 interview, Awo reminisced: ”I could have been in Gowon‘s government until we were all thrown out. But I resigned. I advocated for free education at

all levels. The money was there in plenty but I lost. And I said to myself, what am I doing here? The war is over. The national emergency is over. I have made

my contribution. Why should I sit down here when there is nothing more for me to do?”
 
In his response to Awolowo‘s resignation letter from the government, Gowon said:


I respect your maturity, objectivity, and sagacity, all of which you placed at my disposal. Your outstanding performance as this government‘s Commissioner for

Finance during one of the most critical and turbulent periods of our history will always be remembered. You displayed consistency, great courage,

forthrightness, leadership and a spirit of understanding which helped us to get out of our financial disaster.


This was a worthy testimonial for any ambitious politician. Awolowo was eager to submit these credentials to the electorate at future elections. He quit the

second most powerful job in the federal government at the appropriate time so that the electorate would exonerate him and remember that he was not part of

the rot setting in. As noted earlier, Gowon was beginning to enjoy the trappings of power and the pleasures of dictatorship after the war and was no longer

eager to quit the stage. He made excuses to delay the return to civil rule which he had promised to bring about by 1976 when he would have been sitting in

the saddle for ten years. Corruption was rife in the Gowon years (post-civil war) and Awolowo was not the kind of statesman to be disgraced out of power by a

putsch.

(On July 29, 1975, Gowon was overthrown, as expected, by Brigadier-General Murtala Muhammed in a palace coup which was staged when he was abroad.

General Murtala promised to run a brisk administration and set the return to elective government for October 1979. Before long, another set of ambitious coup

plotters led by Brigadier-General I.D. Bissalla and Lt.-Colonel Dimka staged a bloody coup attempt which killed Muhammed. His deputy, Brigadier-General

Olusegun Obasanjo assumed power on February 14, 1976. He promised to hand over power to elected civilians as scheduled in October 1979.)

Awolowo began his meticulous plans to become the nation‘s first elected executive president in 1979 once he became convinced that this set of military rulers

meant to keep their words and were not taking the people on a roller-coaster ride. He had been sceptical that soldiers-in-government could honour their words

in terms of giving up power voluntarily if Gowon‘s conduct in trying to stay put in power in 1974 was anything to go by. But this Murtala/Obasanjo regime

appeared to be different.

On October 4, 1975, he was invited in an informal manner to be a member of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) under the chairmanship of his

erstwhile Attorney-General in the West, Chief Rotimi Williams and 48 others. Williams had, meanwhile, disavowed further interest in partisan politics. Awolowo

turned down this invitation. First, he felt it was degrading for a man of his stature to be asked to perform a major national assignment by a radio

announcement without the courtesy of being consulted in advance.

Those who included his name in that purely technical assignment must have been deliberately mischievous or ignorant of the nation‘s recent history. His

associates felt it was gratuitously infra dig for the most senior nationalist in the country, in the absence of Zik, to serve under his former appointee. It could be

that the soldiers who drafted him to the CDC without his consent were too young to know this fact. Rotimi Williams himself had pointedly declined to serve

under Akintola when he succeeded Awolowo as premier in 1959 preferring instead to resign from the cabinet and practice law. The country had not reached

the level of political maturity where a former premier and a potential president would now serve under his political junior even on an ad hoc level.
 

Metalgong.:

Ojukwu is not Awolowo who committed suicide . . . .  There is a difference between  Ojuwku the Legend  and Awo the monkey. . . . 

You may now spot the difference between a real hero and a coward . . .

AWOS SPEECH DAT CONFUSED D IBOS,



Chief Awolowo's Speech to Western leaders of thought
IN IBADAN , MAY 1 1967





The aim of a leader should be the welfare of the people whom he leads. I
have used 'welfare' to denote the physical, mental and spiritual
well-being of the people. With this aim fixed unflinchingly and
unchangeably before my eyes I consider it my duty to Yoruba people in
particular and to Nigerians in general, to place four imperatives before
you this morning. Two of them are categorical and two are conditional.
Only a peaceful solution must be found to arrest the present worsening
stalemate and restore normalcy. The Eastern Region must be encouraged to
remain part of the Federation. If the Eastern Region is allowed by acts
of omission or commission to secede from or opt out of Nigeria, then the
Western Region and Lagos must also stay out of the Federation. The people
of Western Nigeria and Lagos should participate in the ad hoc committee or
any similar body only on the basis of absolute equality with the other
regions of the Federation.

I would like to comment briefly on these four imperatives. There
has, of late, been a good deal of sabre rattling in some parts of the
country. Those who advocate the use force for the settlement of our
present problems should stop a little and reflect. I can see no vital and
abiding principle involved in any war between the North and the East. If
the East attacked the North, it would be for purpose of revenge pure and
simple. Any claim to the contrary would be untenable. If it is claimed
that such a war is being waged for the purpose of recovering the real and
personal properties left behind in the North by Easterners two insuperable
points are obvious. Firstly, the personal effects left behind by
Easterners have been wholly looted or destroyed, and can no longer be
physically recovered. Secondly, since the real properties are immovable in
case of recovery of them can only be by means of forcible military
occupation of those parts of the North in which these properties are
situated. On the other hand, if the North attacked the East, it could only
be for the purpose of further strengthening and entrenching its position
of dominance in the country.

If it is claimed that an attack on the East is going to be
launched by the Federal Government and not by the North as such and that
it is designed to ensure the unity and integrity of the Federation, two
other insuperable points also become obvious. First, if a war against the
East becomes a necessity it must be agreed to unanimously by the remaining
units of the Federation. In this connection, the West, Mid- West and Lagos
have declared their implacable opposition to the use of force in solving
the present problem. In the face of such declarations by three out of
remaining four territories of Nigeria, a war against the East could only
be a war favoured by the North alone. Second, if the true purpose of such
a war is to preserve the unity and integrity of the Federation, then these
ends can be achieved by the very simple devices of implementing the
recommendation of the committee which met on August 9 1966, as reaffirmed
by a decision of the military leaders at Aburi on January 5 1967 as well
as by accepting such of the demands of the East, West, Mid-West and Lagos
as are manifestly reasonable, and essential for assuring harmonious
relationships and peaceful co-existence between them and their brothers
and sisters in the North.

Some knowledgeable persons have likened an attack on the East to
Lincoln's war against the southern states in America. Two vital factors
distinguish Lincoln's campaign from the one now being contemplated in
Nigeria. The first is that the American civil war was aimed at the
abolition of slavery - that is the liberation of millions of Negroes who
were then still being used as chattels and worse than domestic animals.
The second factor is that Lincoln and others in the northern states were
English-speaking people waging a war of good conscience and humanity
against their fellow nationals who were also English speaking. A war
against the East in which Northern soldiers are predominant, will only
unite the Easterners or the Ibos against their attackers, strengthen them
in their belief that they are not wanted by the majority of their
fellow-Nigerians, and finally push them out of the Federation.

We have been told that an act of secession on the part of the East
would be a signal, in the first instance, for the creation of the COR
state by decree, which would be backed, if need be, by the use of force.
With great respect, I have some dissenting observations to make on this
declaration. There are 11 national or linguistic groups in the COR areas
with a total population of 5.3 millions. These national groups are as
distinct from one another as the Ibos are distinct from them or from the
Yorubas or Hausas. Of the 11, the Efik/Ibibio/Annang national group are
3.2 million strong as against the Ijaws who are only about 700,000 strong.
Ostensibly, the remaining nine national group number 1.4 millions. But
when you have subtracted the Ibo inhabitants from among them, what is left
ranges from the Ngennis who number only 8,000 to the Ogonis who are
220,000 strong. A decree creating a COR state without a plebiscite to
ascertain the wishes of the peoples in the area, would only amount to
subordinating the minority national groups in the state to the dominance
of the Efik/Ibibio/Annang national group. It would be perfectly in order
to create a Calabar state or a Rivers state by decree, and without a
plebiscite. Each is a homogeneous national unit. But before you lump
distinct and diverse national units together in one state, the consent of
each of them is indispensable. Otherwise, the seed of social disquilibrium
in the new state would have been sown.

On the other hand, if the COR State is created by decree after the
Eastern Region shall have made its severance from Nigeria effective, we
should then be waging an unjust war against a foreign state. It would be
an unjust war, because the purpose of it would be to remove 10 minorities
in the East from the dominance of the Ibos only to subordinate them to the
dominance of the Efik/Ibibio/Annang national group. I think I have said
enough to demonstrate that any war against the East, or vice versa, on any
count whatsoever, would be an unholy crusade, for which it would be most
unjustifiable to shed a drop of Nigerian blood. Therefore, only a peaceful
solution must be found, and quickly too to arrest the present rapidly
deteriorating stalemate and restore normalcy.

With regard to the second categorical imperative, it is my
considered view that whilst some of the demands of the East are excessive
within the context of a Nigerian union, most of such demands are not only
wellfounded, but are designed for smooth and steady association amongst
the various national units of Nigeria.

The dependence of the Federal Government on financial
contributions from the regions? These and other such like demands I do not
support. Demands such as these, if accepted, will lead surely to the
complete disintegration of the Federation which is not in the interest of
our people. But I wholeheartedly support the following demands among
others, which we consider reasonable and most of which are already
embodied in our memoranda to the Ad Hoc Committee,

That revenue should be allocated strictly on the basis of
derivation; that is to say after the Federal Government has deducted its
own share for its own services the rest should be allocated to the regions
to which they are attributable.

That the existing public debt of the Federation should become the
responsibility of the regions on the basis of the location of the projects
in respect of each debt whether internal or external.

That each region should have and control its own
militia and police force.

That, with immediate effect, all military personnel should be
posted to their regions of origin,

If we are to live in harmony one with another as Nigerians it is
imperative that these demands and others which are not related, should be
met without further delay by those who have hitherto resisted them. To
those who may argue that the acceptance of these demands will amount to
transforming Nigeria into a federation with a weak central government, my
comment is that any link however tenuous, which keeps the East in the
Nigerian union, is better in my view than no link at all.

Before the Western delegates went to Lagos to attend the meetings
of the ad hoc committee, they were given a clear mandate that if any
region should opt out of the Federation of Nigeria, then the Federation
should be considered to be at an end, and that the Western Region and
Lagos should also opt out of it. It would then be up to Western Nigeria
and Lagos as an independent sovereign state to enter into association with
any of the Nigerian units of its own choosing, and on terms mutually
acceptable to them. I see no reason for departing from this mandate. If
any region in Nigeria considers itself strong enough to compel us to enter
into association with it on its own terms, I would only wish such a region
luck. But such luck, I must warn, will, in the long run be no better than
that which has attended the doings of all colonial powers down the ages.
This much I must say in addition, on this point. We have neither military
might nor the overwhelming advantage of numbers here in Western Nigeria
and Lagos. But we have justice of a noble and imperishable cause on our
side, namely: the right of a people to unfettered self-determination. If
this is so, then God is on our side, and if God is with us then we have
nothing whatsoever in this world to fear.

The fourth imperative, and the second conditional one has been
fully dealt with in my recent letter to the Military Governor of Western
Nigeria, Col. Robert Adebayo, and in the representation which your
deputation made last year to the head of the Federal Military Government,
Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon. As a matter of fact, as far back as November last
year a smaller meeting of leaders of thought in this Region decided that
unless certain things were done, we would no longer participate in the
meeting of the ad hoc committee. But since then, not even one of our
legitimate requests has been granted. I will, therefore, take no more of
your time in making further comments on a point with which you are well
familiar. As soon as our humble and earnest requests are met, I shall be
ready to take my place on the ad hoc committee. But certainly, not before.

In closing, I have this piece of advice to give. In order to resolve
amiably and in the best interests of all Nigerians certain attributes are
required on the part of Nigerian leaders, military as well as non-military
leaders alike, namely: vision, realism and unselfishness. But above all ,
what will keep Nigerian leaders in the North and East unwaveringly in the
path of wisdom, realism and moderation is courage and steadfastness on the
part of Yoruba people in the course of what they sincerely believe to be
right, equitable and just. In the past five years we in the West and Lagos
have shown that we possess these qualities in a large measure. If we
demonstrate them again as we did in the past, calmly and heroically, we
will save Nigeria from further bloodshed and imminent wreck and, at the
same time, preserve our freedom and self-respect into the bargain.

May God rule and guide our deliberations here, and endow all the
Nigerian leaders with the vision, realism, and unselfishness as well as
courage and steadfastness in the course of truth, which the present
circumstances demand. "


(Culled from Daily Times, 2 May 1967) and quoted in "Crisis and Conflict in Nigeria (Volume 1), January 1966-July 1971" by A.H. M. Kirk-Greene)





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