christistruth01:



What happened to the Western Region's UK Embassy on Great Portland St in London after Gen Ironsi's Unification decree

Didn't it have to be Closed down because of Ironsi's decree and their building taken over by the Federal Government later

An Embassy which had been deliberately set up by Awolowo himself on behalf of his People
that was completely responsible for looking after the Welfare of Western Region Scholarship Students in the UK and bringing new Economic Oppotunities and Advances to the Region

gidgiddy:


That means you dont know Nigerian history. Regions are groups of provinces same as states are nothing but groups of Local governments.

The question is if Ironsi was the one who removed Regionalism, not if he was the one who removed democracy. Ghana had several military coups and military rulers, but Ghana still practices Regionalism today because none of the military rulers ever abolished the Regions and created states, like Gowon.

Had Gowon never abolished the 4 Regions and created states, we would still have Regionalism today. May be more Regions would have been created, may be we would have 6 or 7 Regions by now. Today we have 36 states all because Gowon embarked on state creation

Gowon was the one who removed Regionalism and created states

HedwigesMaduro:


You really have high expectations that a Igbo will have sense? Having sense is a taboo to them.

Deadlytruth:
I have read an account of how they assigned the targeted figures to one another at the planning stage and I didn't see where they assigned anyone to Adegoyega to kill. I have always said it that Adegoyega was the biggest fool in the whole plot. As if that was not enough he went about writing the book "Why we struck" to mitigate his fall for such cheap play on his intelligence.

Deadlytruth:

He will tell you that Gowon was the one who closed down that Embassy. Just watch him reply.

Deadlytruth:

Then you have finally opened up that you don't really know what what differentiates regionalism (i.e. in the context of federalism) from Unitary system.
Federalism is not the mere existence of subnational units but it is about the degree to which they have autonomy. UK has subnational units but it is like a confederacy because England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland enjoy very large autonomy. But within England, for example, the subnational units don't enjoy much autonomy hence it is a unitary system.
In Nigeria currently, we have regions namely NE, NW, NC, SE, SW and SS in existence but does that automatically translate to us practicing regionalism in Nigeria currently? Capital NO! So it is very possible to have regions or a semblance of regions in existence and yet not practise regionalism. Such was the case with Ironsi. He first broke down the regions to provinces, and on a second thought regrouped the provinces but not back to regions because he actually never wanted the regions to be exactly as they were before. He found the forner regions too powerful and he didn't like it so he regrouped the his provinces into groups of provinces so that they would still look like regions in appearance even though he had stripped them of their powers. That was nothing but divide and rule tactics. Ironsi was just a clever thief. If he knew he would later regroup the provinces to coincidence with the boundaries of the regions to feign the existence of regions, then why did he ever break the regions to provinces in the first instance?
Please answer this question in bold.


What Ironsi did was to weaken the regions by reducing them to provinces which he made totally powerless by not creating any leadership office for the individual provinces but appointing a general ruler over them. Then why create the provinces? It is like not allowing the present 774 LGAs have chairmen but just appointing a general head for them in their state capitals. Does that make any sense in true federalism?

We're the premiers reporting to Balewa when the regions were still actually regions?
It is like asking the present governors in the NW geopolitical region to all vacate their seats and then appointing a sole administrator for all of them with his office in Kaduna and then order that sole administrator to always take instructions from Buhari before he does anything about governance of the NW. Is that how federalism or regionalism works?
Iron's also gave order that all civil servants had become national civil servants meaning that the civil servants previously collecting taxes, generating revenues and remitting it to their regional premiers were now to remit such revenues to the national government at the center hence the groups of provinces (fake regions) no longer in charge of their revenue sources thus the killing of resource control. Is that regionalism in practice?

The mere fact that the boundaries of the groups of provinces still coincided with those of the former regions doesn't still cut it.
We all know that when taken together, the present boundaries of Edo and Delta States coincide exactly with the boundaries of the defunct Bendel State but does that mean that Bendel State is still in existence right now and still being governed as one entity? A big NO. So forget about this theory of boundary coincidence. It makes no meaning at all.

Deadlytruth:


If Ironsi actually left the regions 100% the way he met them, i.e. without tampering with them at all? Then why did Northerners kill him only after he made the Unification Decree which was directed at the regional structure? Why didn't Northern soldiers consider toppling and killing him ever before he promulgated Decree 34?

Deadlytruth:


If Ironsi actually left the regions 100% the way he met them, i.e. without tampering with them at all? Then why did Northerners kill him only after he made the Unification Decree which was directed at the regional structure? Why didn't Northern soldiers consider toppling and killing him ever before he promulgated Decree 34?

nku5:


Why have northerners been murdering southerners in the north since before independence?

You don't do research before you post and it shows. Ironsi's Decree 34 created groups of provinces from each of the regions. The decree even retained the old constitutions of each region for the group of provinces. He did not touch the sharing formula either. See a link to download the pdf and learn the truth if you are interested https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://gazettes.africa/archive/ng/1966/ng-government-gazette-supplement-dated-1966-05-24-no-51-part-a.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiC9pnXuYT1AhUB3BoKHSBhD9kQFnoECDkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2Fb7Ajtfusl2QzqbJ_P0As

But see how your sacred cow Gowon disfigured and tore everything apart. After breaking up the regions and creating states he erased resource control and then opened an account to cater for the costs of running the state government. This is what has continued until today (feeding bottle federalism) Decree 14 & 15

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://gazettes.africa/archive/ng/1967/ng-government-gazette-supplement-dated-1967-05-27-no-37-part-a.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiF0ISHvoT1AhXK0qQKHS_JCzsQFnoECAYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1UOu7lupdTsumTDlGpSIMb

Deadlytruth:


Southerners were being killed in the North by civilian mobs before independence and not by army officers. So your question doesn't really address mine which is about why Northern army officers killed Ironsi.

Unfortunately, I have opened your link and saw nothing on revenues in any of the schedules. Would you mind being specific about the page it is located? I searched the entire 14 pages line by line and found nothing on your claim that revenue sharing formula was left intact. Please be reminded that we were practising federalism and resource control hence we can't be talking of sharing formula in respect to that period. If sharing formula later came into the picture through Ironsi's decree, then it is a proof that he introduced unitary system that goes with sharing as we currently have it in Nigeria today.
Still expecting the specific mention of the page in question anyway.

Sunday2021:
simple Google to the 1999 election result will tell you.

gidgiddy:


Ironsi was killed for being an Igbo man. Gowons Decree 14 of 1967 was 50 times worse than Ironsi's Decree 34. But nobody touched Gowon because he was a Northerner

ebufa:





As we do not have sense maybe you savages will leave our precious skulls alone, bloody skull miners! dem treacherous savages........and ugly as hell!

gidgiddy:


Ironsi was killed for being an Igbo man. Gowons Decree 14 of 1967 was 50 times worse than Ironsi's Decree 34. But nobody touched Gowon because he was a Northerner

Malawian:

Oga, you may have a point for 1999, what about 2003? Who was the Yoruba candidate to replace OBJ? The whole world saw how you yoruba clanishly refused having anyone contest against OBJ from your region and unanimously queued behind OBJ for his second term.

OBJ was a Yoruba president and candidate.

Sunday2021:
if he wasn't elected in 1999 ,would he had won the 2003 election. The yorubas know that it is not easy to win an incubent president. They had no other choice than to support him.
Let me also tell you that if Umahi is elected president in 2023 even without the igbos support, by 2027 the igbos will have no choice than to support him for his second tenure.

nku5:


Go and read the correct document. The 14 page one is Ironsi's Decree and I'm glad you have admitted unwittingly that there is no reference to revenue. I'm also glad you aren't disputing that Ironsi left the regions untouched. Now check Gowon's own abi na dodge you dey dodge as per sacred cow

I'm done tutoring you

nku5:


Go and read the correct document. The 14 page one is Ironsi's Decree and I'm glad you have admitted unwittingly that there is no reference to revenue. I'm also glad you aren't disputing that Ironsi left the regions untouched. Now check Gowon's own abi na dodge you dey dodge as per sacred cow

I'm done tutoring you

HedwigesMaduro:


We will leave your skulls alone the day you bonobos stop feasting on human flesh.

louqas:


Revisionism of the highest order

The main reason for ironsi death was in revenge for the perceived ibo coup of January 15th....a coup that saw the killings of only leaders of other tribes....no single ibo leader was killed which led to enmity between ibos and other tribes (ibos would act the same way if they were in the shoes of other tribes.

Ironsi was killed also because of the perceived soft spot he has for the ibo coup plotters as he refused to the needful by killing the coup plotters which further enraged the other tribes.

If ibo leaders were so gruesomely murdered and hausa fulani leaders were left untouched....wont ibos seek revenge like the northern millitary officers?

ebufa:




Bonobos are renowned for their amorous and sexual prowess, afonja chimpanzees are known for eating the faces and skulls of their owners! I wonder what will happen to afonja the day an igbo man becomes president of the zoo...........mass suicide abi? get ready for 2023..........your nightmare is about to begin!

Christistruth00:




Gen Ironsi was the head of the Army but the most Senior Officer was supposed to be a Calabar man called Wellington Duke Umoh Bassey who had been parked by Gen Ironsi’s kinsman Governor General Azikiwe and NCNC into a Captains posting in Zaria depot in order to make way for Gen Ironsi to emerge as head of the Nigerian Army

All Wellington Basseys Promotions were delayed until after Gen Ironsi had emerged as head of the Army and Ojukwu head of the Eastern Region


Wellington. Umoh Bassey was already a Major in 1954 when Gowon joined the Army Ojukwu joined in 1955

In 1960 when the British left it was Wellington Umoh Bassey who had also lead the Independence Day is Parade that they were preparing to take over leadership of the Nigerian Army

Wellington Umoh Bassey whose nickname was Duke of Wellington was Gen Ironsi’s Senior Officer in the Army by more than 3 years

Can you believe that the same Wellington Bassey who was Ironsi’s Senior in the Army was almost assassinated during the Jan 1966 in the Zaria depot where he and his Army Career had been frustrated and dumped by Azikiwe and NCNC for Gen Ironsi’s sake but had just managed to escape at the last minute


Wellington Umoh Bassey’s only offence was that he was from Calabar and was Ironsi’s Senior Officer in the Army

Because of that Azikiwe took it upon himself to destroy Bassey’s Career

Wellington Bassey had joined the Army 7 years before Ironsi in 1936 and was an Officer three and a half years before Gen Ironsi

T9ksy:




Please, don't be too harsh on Maj. Ademoyega who, at the time, was a well-know Awoist hence his ibo coupists later propagated the same scam they sold him, I.e the coupists are going to release Awo and make him the PM. Meanwhile nothing concrete was put in place to effect such possibility.


This was why Adegoyega got into a fist-fight with ifeajuna when he later came face-to-face with him in calabar prison, as he now realised he had been scamed by ifeajuna. The coupists, in retrospect, had no intention of releasing Awo from prison.
.

christistruth01:
.


Don't you find it annoying how Wellington Duke Umoh Bassey Of Calabar And his Army Career were almost destroyed to make way for his junior Officer Gen Ironsi to Emerge as the Head of Army

Azikiwe was supposed to have been fighting for all of Bassey's delayed Promotions since Bassey was from Calabar in Azikiwe's Eastern Region
To add insult to injury they tried to eliminate Bassey during the Jan 1966 Coup

Ironsi Got to Power again only to make Ojukwu who was 11 years Basseys Junior Officer the Governor of the Eastern Region

But to be honest Azikiwe complained to Ironsi about that one


Just look at what Azikiwe wrote in his book
" Origins of the Nigerian Civil War " on pages 1 and 2 admitting that Gen Ironsi had played the Tribalism Card on Wellington Bassey to make Ojukwu who was 11 years his Junior Officer the Governor of the Eastern Region


Cc gidgiddy,nku5

flokii:


They are masters of deception.. that's why they don't like Yorubas cos we see through their shenanigans easily.

Deadlytruth:


If their intention of killing Ironsi was the mere fact of his Igboness, they wouldn't have ever first sent two different delegations to plead with him to jettison his plan to tamper with the truly federal constitution. They also wouldn't have pledged to support his government for as long as he wanted to stay provided he punished the coup plotters. Northerners are not really as unreasonable as you Igbos paint them to be. They definitely have their excess but only exhibit these excesses when provoked except in the area of religion where they may not necessarily need provocation to attack other religions' adherents. But politically if you see Notherners attack a person, just know that that person is guilty of first provocation. I lived with them for long and I understand them well.

gidgiddy:


So the Northerners were pleading with Ironsi not to tamper with a federal constitution but the same Northerners had no problems when their fellow Northerner, Yakubu Gowon, abolished all 4 Regions, creating 12 states, allocated half of those states to the North, removed resource control and fiscal federalism and put it in the hands of the federal government which meant that the North would have the Lion share of political and economical control of Nigeria

Who is fooling who here?

Deadlytruth:


First of all, what Gowon tampered with wasn't the Independence/1963 constitution but the unitary constitution which he inherited from Ironsi. Northerners couldn't have sent delegates to Gowon as they did to Ironsi because Gowon was actually in the process of reversing the mutilated Ironsi constitution back to the status quo ante which they pleaded with Ironsi for.
One of your brothers here has sharec a link which proves clearly that Gowon abolished Ironsi's groups of provinces and restored the regions with their autonomous fiscal and administrative structures but only had to redefine the distributable pool revenue allocation in the wake of the 12 states which however still retained the main 50% retention and 30% remittance. You can look up that link.

gidgiddy:


Thats what Im saying. The North were so alarmed that Ironsi was tampering with the Regional structure that was in place, but the same North had absolutely no problems when a fellow Northerner like Yakubu Gowon came along and abolished the 4 Regions all together, and created 12 new states?

Deadlytruth:


Assume you were a Northerner under those circumstances back then which were as follows:

1. Due to mutual suspicion and fears of domination of one another between Northerners and Southerners, everyone agreed to a decentralized structure anchored on the regions as the federating units which would be autonomous and independent of the center. This agreement was made in London and one of its core provisions was that should the need ever arise, the agreement could only be ammended only by exactly the kind of elected pan-Nigerian representatives that gathered in London to make it. Everyone including Ironsi's kinsmen's representatives signed it.

2. This document was brought back home and everyone's fear and mutual suspicion disappeared because the provisions of the agreement clearly put in place checks and balances enough to prevent domination of one tribe or region by another. So the sovereign people of Nigeria welcomed it wholeheartedly and joyfully. A great nation and possible world power was now being looked up to courtesy of the aura of sacrosanctness around that agreement.
The agreement also clearly spelt out how to replace any elected office holder who may die while in office.



3. On his day of inauguration as Army GOC, Ironsi stood before the whole world and solemnly swore never to tamper with that agreement but to defend and protect that it at all times and in all circumstances, and he was applauded. Northerners took him for his words in good faith.
This further heightened the people's belief in their new country.

4. Three years later, i.e. in 1963, a need actually arose for ammendment of the agreement and it was done by all the people's duly elected representatives exactly as spelt out in that document. This further reinforced the people's belief that the rule of law was in action as against the rule of man or rule by an Oligarchy.

5. That same year, some politicians were accused of trying to topple the democratically elected government, convicted, though under questionable circumstances, and were punished as prescribed by that agreement.... meaning that the agreement was still being adhered to.

6. Now, six years into that agreement, some army officers under Ironsis headship mutinied and murdered so many political leaders in cold blood creating vacumm in the seats of power here and there.
The duly elected political leaders who survived that carnage consulted the documented agreement and came up with names to to fill in the vacumms in accordance with the provisions of that agreement. But Ironsi who had solemnly sworn to protect and defend that agreement kicked against them and threatened them into surrendering power to him thereby reneging on his sacred oath taken on his inauguration day. Then he never tried the coupists who tried to topple a democratically elected government despite there was already a precedent to that which he should have just followed. That was his second violation of the sacred agreement he swore on oath to defend.

7. After forcing himself into office, he now proceeded to pick up that very agreement document, read through it and began to unilaterally rewrite it without being an elected representative of any of the people that made up Nigeria.
Then he lied that he had consulted all Nigerians and was told by them that the agreement made in London was no longer in their interstate thus giving him the go ahead to draft an entirely new one on their behalf.
Please when exactly did he conduct a referendum or public hearing to this effect?
Meanwhile the Nigerians he was talking about were in the streets protesting that their original mutual agreement made in London and signed by everyone should never be done away with.

8. Against genuine public outcry to the contrary, Ironsi went ahead and tampered heavily with that document thereby violating and making total nonsense of the sacrosanctness which all citizens had always accorded it.
It was indeed a national embarrassment to Nigerians that a barely educated army officer who became GOC not even by merit could within seconds shatter the sovereign will of the people expressed painstakingly through their representatives in London just because he had a gun in his hands which he should rather be using to fight enemies and intruders across the country's borders.

Like I said, assume you were a Northerner of from any other region different from the Eastern Region, would you be of the thought that Ironsi had any good intention behind his action hence deserved to live a minute longer given how he was flagrantly violating agreements that had been diligently abided by through six years by all and sundry?

gidgiddy:


And all of this can be summarised as

"The North were so alarmed that Ironsi was tampering with the Regional structure that was in place, but the same North had absolutely no problems that a fellow Northerner like Yakubu Gowon came after Ironsi and abolished the 4 Regions all together, and created 12 new states"

Deadlytruth:


Gowon consulted widely before he made his policies and that is why not only the North but even the Yorubas and Southern minorities supported his administration. For example Gowon's states creation wasn't a unilateral military decision. He consulted widely and was advised that the minorities of both North and South wanted subnational units of their own to extricate them from the stranglehold of the big three ..Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo. Did anyone stage any public protest against his decision to create states unlike how they did when Ironsi created provinces without consulting anyone? There the difference laid.