~Bluetooth:

I keep bringing Awolowo because there was no ojuku until after the military took over and he was made the eastern governor.The scores would have been settled even before independence !

udezue:

@ bluetooth, Zik did not support nor lead Biafra. Ojukwu had nothing to do with whatever issue Awo had with Zik. Both men disagreed sharply. While Zik was still stuck in selfish idea of One Nigeria Ojukwu was fighting secession. If Awolowo had any common sense and was not filled with hate he would have pulled the West alongside with Biafra instead of looking for opportunities to do the same thing we are accusing Zik of doing. Awo fought for One Nigeria for his own selfish reasons. He even ran for election and lost.

udezue:

EkoIle, foools like u should leave certain topics alone for mature minds. Zik represented himself and presented his own opinions about Nigeria and it has nothing to do with Igbo ppl. U are mor0nic u can't even see the clear difference. Awolowo had his chance just like Zik had to separate from the violent North but instead he chose to fight against the one thing he supported. Both Zik and Awolowo were clueless and lacked moral conviction.

Lagos was in the Western Region and Gowon and his Northern Army were situated in the Federal Capital Lagos so what makes u think Biafran army couldn't invade the West in order to capture the Federal Capital and Gowon to end the war and guarantee all of us freedom. Awolowo and Zik both screwed us up when they had the opportunities to do us justice and no amount of ethnic chest-beating can change those facts.

I am not a dense tribal simpleton like you who can't see any fault in someone just because of ethnic affiliation.

Zik wanted to control a vast territory @ the detriment of the South.

Awolowo wanted the opportunity to control a vast territory as well @ our detriment.

Both men were clueless losers.

nku5:

The truth is I am sorry for zik ,he had the misfortune of wanting to unite people he felt had a lot to gain from things that united them than things that made them different. Unfortunately nigerians are full of shite. I can't stand weak, poorly exposed twits who blame everything on the "forced marriage"

udezue:

@ bluetooth, Zik did not support nor lead Biafra. Ojukwu had nothing to do with whatever issue Awo had with Zik. Both men disagreed sharply. While Zik was still stuck in selfish idea of One Nigeria Ojukwu was fighting secession. If Awolowo had any common sense and was not filled with hate he would have pulled the West alongside with Biafra instead of looking for opportunities to do the same thing we are accusing Zik of doing. Awo fought for One Nigeria for his own selfish reasons. He even ran for election and lost.

udezue:
@ bluetooth, Zik did not support nor lead Biafra. Ojukwu had nothing to do with whatever issue Awo had with Zik. Both men disagreed sharply. While Zik was still stuck in selfish idea of One Nigeria Ojukwu was fighting secession. If Awolowo had any common sense and was not filled with hate he would have pulled the West alongside with Biafra instead of looking for opportunities to do the same thing we are accusing Zik of doing. Awo fought for One Nigeria for his own selfish reasons. He even ran for election and lost.

RoadStar:

This is exactly what i've been trying to say for ages.
It is characteristic of uncivilised people to restrict their existance and politics to "Tribe", an outdated political structure even before independence.

This is a man who spent all his life in the North and is Igbo from the south. How do u expect him not to believe in Nigeria.
Even though this thread is not about Awo, this is a man who could not keep it together even within his own party AG, not to talk of western Nigeria.
This is a man who shifted his position and sided with the federal military junta and fought against succession of any type. How can you tell me he was pro succession.
Instead you are cooking up reasons to justify his shift in position.
First it was because he was trying to repay Zik, when it was pointed that zik did not support Biafra, you have shifted it to the biafran army incursion into western Nigeria on route to lagos the the seat of government.

Most of the ethnic strife we are seeing in Nigeria, Jos crisis, warri crisis etc are all intra regional issues.
Put on your thinking hats for once.

Deadlytruth:

Awolowo could not have trusted Ojukwu as per sincerity in fighting for secession because just 15 months before he declared his own secession he had thwarted and nearly killed Isaac Adaka Boro for the same "offence" of attempting to secede from Nigeria. And guess what! Ojukwu's sabotage of the Niger Delta Republic's secession was born out of his earlier belief in Zik's fraudulent One-Nigeria philosophy. Awolowo obviously reasoned that Ojukwu's crushing of Isaac Boro's NDR made him a disciple of Zik so his overnight metamorphosis into a secessionist was too sudden to be trusted as coming from a genuine conviction than a mere ego trip.

kingzizzy:



Ojukwu never hid the fact that he once believed in 'one Nigeria', as did Zik. Both men later realised that there was no such thing as 'one Nigeria' except in the mind of a fool.

Ojukwu was still a believer when Adaka Boro tried to get his fellow Ijaws to secede.

Its so unfortunate for Zik. If Zik had access to a time machine and could go into the future to see what 'one Nigeria' was going to cost his fellow Igbos, not only would he have supported the North to secede, he would have declared Biafra before Ojukwu

Olabestonic001:


That Time Machine was what Awo probably had that made him kicked against a Singular Nigeria. He was agitating for a Nigeria that is Plural in nature. But by 1967, he knew he had to chose between secession and protecting his people (who were recovering from 'Wetie'). The truth is; it was foolish for Ojukwu to think a region with very little weapons in her arsenal will seek to ropp herself in a bloody war.
Its even foolish till date that some people tot its justifiable for Biafran army to encroach Yoruba land but its not justifiable for Yoruba's to defend her land! Honestly, Awo was simply protecting his people and Ojukwu was 'exposing' his (forgive him, he was such young and inexperience. He thought sheer brute and show of power wins war while Awo was warning him of a likely consequence).
Honestly, its better to forget the war and move on otherwise, by emotions we'll always blame Awo whereas by logic, Zik planted it while Ojukwu reaped it.

kingzizzy:



Ojukwu never hid the fact that he once believed in 'one Nigeria', as did Zik. Both men later realised that there was no such thing as 'one Nigeria' except in the mind of a fool.

Ojukwu was still a believer when Adaka Boro tried to get his fellow Ijaws to secede.

Its so unfortunate for Zik. If Zik had access to a time machine and could go into the future to see what 'one Nigeria' was going to cost his fellow Igbos, not only would he have supported the North to secede, he would have declared Biafra before Ojukwu

kingzizzy:



You are just another misguided Yoruba man. Why is it that many people think Ojukwu went to war? All Ojukwu did was declare the independence of the Eastern Region. Many Nigerians have come to erroniously take this as a declaration of war, but it wasnt. Gowon could have approached Biafra in many ways, but he rushed to war as if that was the only choice.

It was Gowons duty as head of state was to avoid war and death even more than Ojukwu. It was still this same Gowon who forced Ojukwu to secede by breaking the Aburi agreement.

Gowon broke the Aburi agreement
Gowon declared war
Gowon fired first on the Eastern Region

Yet many people blame Ojukwu for the war, Why?

Gowon caused all the problem or most of it anyway.

Ojukwu could have done what Awolowo did, pledge alligiance to Gowon and the North, accept the breaking of the Aburi agreement, watch the balkanisation of the Eastern Region and accept Northern domination.

But that the difference between Igbos and Yorubas. Igbos will not accept domination without a fight. Ojukwu as an Igbo man was not going to allow himself or his people to be bullied into submission by no one. Ojukwu owed it to his people to fight for their freedom. He failed in the fight but he gave it his best shot, his people do not blame him, he did what we wanted.

As for the encroachment on Yorubaland, it was the Nigerian/Biafran war. Yoruba land was part of Nigeria so Ojukwu was well within his rights to attack anywhere in Yoruba land or Nigeria.

Deadlytruth:


Zik actually had access to different the machines and really saw that the unity he sought was actually baseless and imaginary but he chose to continue dreaming in his quest to achieve the 'Zik of Africa' title. These were the time machines he had:
1. As far back as 1945 and 1953 his own Igbo brothers had already been slaughtered by Hausas in large numbers in Jos and Kano respectively. That was more than a time machine to help him realize the futility of his dream.
2. Zik read Anthropology from the US. One of the fundamental principles of Anthropology upholds that a people with conflicting cultures and values must not be forcefully held together against their wishes or else such a society will become a theatre of daily bloodshed. This means that the course he read and bagged a degree in told him clearly that Nigeria would not work but he chose to believe the contrary. Was such a person a reasonable individual? If he did not believe in the core principle of the very course he studied, then whose fault other than his? Are university courses not meant to be read and the knowledge gained therein applied to solve societal problems? That Zik read a course from the US and returned home to propagate a philosophy which that course discredits means he was just being dishonest and not really interested in the peace of Nigeria's tribes but was in pursuit of a hidden agenda.

Deadlytruth:

Awolowo wanted secession but, as a pure civilian who had no military training of any kind, he did not believe in seeking secession through violent means which Ojukwu resorted to. Secondaly Awolowo, as a civilian and democrat, demonstrated his belief in non-violent approach to secession by repeatedly making a case for the inclusion of the secession clause in the constitution at every opportunity but he kept on being resisted by Zik.

Zik was no detrabalized person as you would have us believe. A truly detribalized person would not have handed the NCNC to his Igbo brother Michael Okpara given the fact that the said party was handed over to him by the Yoruba founder named Herbert Macaulay. At the expiration of his tenure as its chairman he should have followed the detribalized example set for him by Herbert Macualay thus handing it over to any tribe other than the Igbo and Yoruba who had already had a taste of it. A truly detribalized person would not have, after failing to get Western Region's premiership, gone back to the Eastern Region to, with the Igbos supportive catchphrase of "Igbos vote your own", displace the Efik man who was already statutorily bound for the position. If he lived all his life in the North and was Igbo by birth, why then did he, as a detribalized man, initially refuse to contest for premiership in his own home region or even in that Northern Region where he grew up and was therefore very popular but chose to go and contest for same in the very region where he was neither from nor grew up? If he was truly detribalized and genuinely was seeking a trulty united Nigeria why did he not support a non-Easterner for Eastern Region premier before going to the Western region to seek the same office for himself? I thought they say chariry begins from home?

Deadlytruth:
That Ojukwu and Ironsi declared war on Isaac Boro and attacked him first for declaring secession of the Niger Delta Republic meant that Ojukwu himself knew that declaration of secession was a declaration of war on Nigeria for the fact that our constitution did not provide for secession. It was the same unconstitutionality of secession Ojukwu relied on to attack Boro that Gowon too relied on to attack Ojukwu.
Aburi Accord rejection by Gowon was not on his own accord. He was asked to renege on it by the majority of Nigerians who were not consulted in preparing it. Mind you that the accord was a proposal for Confederacy which was totally different from the Federalism the majority of Nigerians were already used to and believed the Aburi meeting would restore after Ironsi's dismantling of it. But they were shocked to see Confederacy and a list of agreements on how soldiers were going to share power henceforth without any single mention of when and how the country would be returned to democracy. So why would such a document be accepted by a majority who were expecting their democracy back after being taken from them by soldiers?

aljharem11:


perfect answer, and now i am sure Nnamdi will be regretting his so called speech. because it is better for us northerner now

Ibime:
Speaking big grammar with little knowledge.

Ibime:
Speaking big grammar with little knowledge.

kingzizzy:


Dont make me laugh. What do you think secession is? An announcement? If it was that easy, Nnamdi Kanu would have gone to his village and gathered a few men, armed them and announced the secession of Biafra.

Pointless.

Adaka Borro never seceded, he merely made an announcement. But I have to give him his due, he laid the foundation of the Niger Delta militants same as Ojukwu laid the foundation of the Biafran struggle. Both struggles are about self determination. The only difference is that Ojukwu was a later convert than Boro and between them, only Ojukwu was in a position to secede.

Even Asari Dokubo had more men, more firepower and more clout than Boro but even he could not secede.

Interms of secession, anyone who puts the argument foward that Nigeria has no laws that recognises secession must also put foward the law that created Nigeria. What constitution created Nigeria? What constitution prescribes Nigeria ends? None

Which means that Nigeria is still just a British colonial product that was created by the authority of only Lord Lugard.

Since it is that way, either of Hausa/Yoruba/Igbo can at any time seek their independence from what Lugard created since all 3 never sat down and agreed to be one country.

As for Gowon following the wishes of the majority, if Gowon really cared about following the wishes of the majority, he would have held a referendum, found out what the majority wanted, he would have conducted elections, before he rushed to declare war. Majority is about voting.


Even Ojukwu asked the Eastern Nigeria consultative forum to vote on if he should declare Biafra or not and they voted for Biafra

Who has ever voted for Nigeria?

On what vote did Gowon go to war on?

aljharem11:
so when the north wanted to secede, why didn't Nnamdi allow that, it was when they realised oil was good for an economy they want to secede, ""hisses"" or is it because the system does not work for them now

all i have to say to my igbo brother is that,,,,, "as you lay your bed, so you shall lay on it"

FSBoperator:


First off you didn't get Zik's message.

Secondly, the clamour to secede from Nigeria by the north was inspired by the partitioning of India after that country's independence from the British Crown.

Pakistan as you know is overwhelmingly Muslim and declares itself as an Islamic State.

Zik stated in this very speech on the impending plight which the minority members from the "pagan provinces " of Northern Nigeria will face.

Zik also warned that a separate state of Northern Nigeria will lead to the seccession of both Eastern and western Nigeria.

Zik also stated that northern seccession will motivate the same north to continue their jihadist match towards the Atlantic and stated in the inevitable that the East will not be conquered (as direct warning to the yorubas)

The political structure at the time Zik made this speech with regional autonomous govts gave Zik the confidence that under one nigeria, the northern caliphate could be checked.

Note also that the NCNC was vigorously pushing for the creation of Middle-Belt region and mid West region as well.

Zik did the minority groups in the north a huge favour by opposing northern seccesion because if it had come to pass, the Sokoto caliphate would have wiped out all the minority groups.

See Gowon and Domkat Bali's reasons for opposing Biafra. These two northern minority men held fears of their people being wiped out of existence if Murtarla had succeeded in secceding from Nigeria

Olabestonic001:


That Time Machine was what Awo probably had that made him kicked against a Singular Nigeria. He was agitating for a Nigeria that is Plural in nature. But by 1967, he knew he had to chose between secession and protecting his people (who were recovering from 'Wetie'). The truth is; it was foolish for Ojukwu to think a region with very little weapons in her arsenal will seek to ropp herself in a bloody war.
Its even foolish till date that some people tot its justifiable for Biafran army to encroach Yoruba land but its not justifiable for Yoruba's to defend her land! Honestly, Awo was simply protecting his people and Ojukwu was 'exposing' his (forgive him, he was such young and inexperience. He thought sheer brute and show of power wins war while Awo was warning him of a likely consequence).
Honestly, its better to forget the war and move on otherwise, by emotions we'll always blame Awo whereas by logic, Zik planted it while Ojukwu reaped it.

Deadlytruth:

Of all the things Zik feared would happen with the North's secession, which one has eventually not happened now with the North remaining with back with us? Are the Fulani herdsmen from the Core North not almost wiping out the Northern minorities? When the North dominated federal forces swooped on the Eastern region during the war was suchas the Eastern Region really able to defend herself as Zik had boasted? All Zik's predictions failed.

Deadlytruth:

You make me giggle wildly.
If Isaac Boro's act was a mere declaration with some few unserious armed men in a village square, then why did Ojukwu and Ironsi not just ignore him for him to continue with his Nollywood show? An act so unserious and meaningless (according to you) got Ojukwu so enraged that he nearly killed the doer if not for divine intervention? What does that say of Ojukwu's character?
Your claim on Asari Dokubo is misleading because Asari Dokubo and his Niger Delta Volunteer Force have always made it clear that what they are asking for is not secession but a return to true federalism/resource control which Ironsi steered us away from.
Countries are not created by laws but by agreements. It is not lost on anyone that the amalgamation was a British intent, but as long as Nigerians later accepted it, held constitutional conferences pre- and post- independence to make laws to govern themselves in that amalgamation with someone like Zik and all Igbos back then even swearing to pay the ultimate price for the sustenance of the amalgamtion, then it can be correctly said that Nigeria was created by the consent of the various people in it. Recall that the independence constitution was produced by Nigerians themselves drawn from every part of the country through their membership of the first republic parties. Why we've all come to erroneously believe today that Nigeria was not created by our consent is the fact that Ironsi's Unification Decree violated and disrupted all the terms of co-existence we all mutually agreed to. Between independence day and the day Ironsi came with his Unification Degree no one complained of our constitution because the federalism we were practising protected and guaranteed everyone's interest and rights.
Gowon did not need to conduct a referendum because through the independence constitutional conference held in 1957 Nigerians had already made it clear that they preferred regionalism and federalism and we really adopted on independence. Why waste money to condudct a referendum when Nigerians were not divided as to the fact that wanted back the federalism Ironsi dismantled? If Gowon was supposed to conduct a referendum to decide, then which referendum did Ironsi conduct to determine that we no longer wanted federalism but unitary system?
On the issue of secession, as long as we all eventually ended up not having it in our constitution then anyone who declared it declared war on Nigeria and so he had to face the music. Moreover before declaring Biafra the same Ojukwu had already colluded with Ironsi to promulgate the anti-secession clause sequel to the crushing of Boro's declaration. So why could Ojukwu not simply obey his own Anti-secession decree? Hypocrisy?
s
Your justification of Ojukwu's secession with the Eastern Region Assembly's approval is quite interestingly funny for the following reasons.
1. Was Ojukwu ignorant of the need for Eastern Assembly's approval as the only supposed condition for secession when he was assisting Ironsi in making the Anti-secession Decree?
2. If Eastern Region Assembly's approval justified him, then why was he expecting Awolowo's supportive declaration of Oodua Republic when he knew that the Western Region Assembly had not given and was not likely to give him any official approval to declare secession of Oodua Republic?
3. Why did he also fail to wait for the Midwestern Region Assembly to give legislative approval to the Midwestern soldiers loyal to him before he invaded the Midwest?
4. Was Victor Banjo given any approval by his own home Western Region's Assembly before Ojukwu sent him to the Western Region to take "liberate" the region?
Obviously from the belief that a war decision should be subject to the direct approval of the people themselves and not through representation you argue that Gowon should have conducted a referendum before "declaring" war on Ojukwu. Beautiful argument no doubt! But you don't see anything wrong with Ojukwu's reliance on Eastern Assembly representatives when he too should have conducted a referendum to seek the people's direct approval before declaring Biafra war. Is what is good for the goose no longer also good for the gander? Double standards?
For you info, violent secession is not recognized by the UN and therefore has no set code of approach. So Ojukwu was not different from Isaac Boro irrespective of who got his people's support or not. And if Isaac Boro's secession was with his people's disapproval, then how come the same people have haboured resentments against Ojukwu and Igbos generally ever since then, held the anniversary of his declaration every year till today, printed the currency of the Niger Delta Republic recently with Isaac Boro's image alone in it, have immortalized him in so many other ways, etc?

FSBoperator:


That's because of the unfortunate events of Jan 15 coup that ushered in a powerful central govt which the north has controlled since July 1966.