IGBOS BY PROF TEKENA TAMUNO

I always insist that the greatest merit for Igbos in recent times is not simply the advent of the internet on the surface! It is the social media aspect of the internet which now allows independent thinkers to challenge the lies of history. In Nigeria, our little corner of the world, through social media presentations, scholars are now debunking the false stories perpetuated by the Yoruba press (with the help of the north who has always been paranoid about Igbos). The Yorubas took advantage of their civil war take-over of the press to rewrite the history of Nigeria as it favors them..., and if you believe them, "every post independence success in Nigeria was Awolowo influenced" and every problem in Nigeria was "instigated by Azikiwe, Ojukwu and the Igbos!" "The truth is reluctantly coming out" and _Igbos are gradually being vindicated!!!_ Read this masterpiece below by Professor Tekena Tamuno, a great historian and former Vice - Chancellor University of Ibadan. By the way, he's not an Igbo man!��
===============

"IGBO ARE THE MAKERS OF MODERN NIGERIA" -- PROF TEKENA TAMUNO

The problem with writing skewered history is that it equally misinforms its target: Kayode Esho was a great jurist, but Akunne Oputa was the "Socrates" of the Supreme court. Enahoro was a young editor, but Azikiwe made him that young editor with Osita Agwuna as his assistant, at his paper, the Southern Nigerian Defender in Ibadan, where my own father incidentally started as a rookie before shortly abandoning journalism for the stable berth of the civil service. The myth of Awolowo as building the first this and that does not match the documented economic history of the period.

Between 1954 and 1964, Eastern Nigeria was described as "the fastest growing economy in the world," by the Harvard Review; faster than China, faster than Singapore, and all the so-called "Asian Tigers." Awolowo is often credited with "free education".

But no one yet has pointed out any surviving school buildings of the period built by Awo. But all over the East there were quality schools built by the various communities using the Town Development Unions from 1954, and acessing the matching grants of the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation. And this was the East with the poorest revenue resources of any of the regions. The Mbaise secondary school exists, the National High School Okigwe exists, the Ngwa High school exists, the Enyiogugu Grammar School exists, etc. These were solid schools built all over the East with matching goverment grants. But where are the buildings of the Modern schools in Western Nigeria? They do not exist. They were makeshift.

The Catholic church forced the Azikiwe government from its scholarship program, but it is also on record, that the Eastern government was the only government in the world that invested 45% of its revenues in education. The East had the highest number of schools; the highest school enrollment; the broadest penetration of medical services; and the best modern road network in west Africa.

Indeed if we look carefully, the only public hospitals and most of the schools still standing in the East today, at various stages of run down are the schools and hospitals built by Azikiwe/Okpara. Every division of the East had a Joint Hospital as part of the Eastern Medical services. So it is often claimed Awo built the first television station; the first sky scraper, and the first Sports stadium, the liberty stadium in Ibadan. Well, these are prestige or white elephant investments.

First, the Eastern Outlook, the government paper of Eastern Nigeria was the first newspaper established by any government in Nigeria, and it was of such quality and impact that the literacy level of Easterners, and the depth of public information retailed by Outlook was without compare. This is besides the fact that Western Nigerian Broadcast Services, WNBS-TV founded in 1958 only preceded the ENBC-TV founded in 1959, by only seven months. But Outlook preceded Sketch by about 15 years.

Now Azikiwe built the Onitsha Modern market, the first modern mall or trade emporium in West Africa. Onitsha was effectively Dubai before Dubai. People traveled all over Africa, from as far as the Congo and Sudan and Egypt, to come and buy and trade in Onitsha. The economic impact of this was humonguos. So, give me the vast Onitsha modern market over Cocoa House in Ibadan. Azikiwe built the first Nigerian University at Nsukka with the first School of Law, the first School of Engineering, the first Business School; the first school of journalism, and the first school of music and performance, etc. By the time its first graduates took the Nigerian civil service exams in 1963, everybody began to raise the cry of "Igbo domination" starting with Akintola and Ayo Rosiji. Give me UNN over Liberty stadium.

Azikiwe began the first modern library system in West Africa. The East had a system of city libraries starting with the very modern Ziks Library in Enugu. I Literally grew up in the Umuahia Divisional Library. These libraries were built all over the East. Schools in the East were built with libraries. Moreover the Eastern Nigerian Library Board had a sysem of rural amd mobile libraries. There was nothing like it anywhere else in Nigeria: kids having library cards and able to borrow or order books from the public library. Give me the the first library over the first TV. I do not by this mean that Awolowo did not make his contributions, but the regular skewering of the facts, and angling of contemporary national narratives often makes it seem these days like the greatest contributor to the founding of Nigeria and its development is Awolowo and the Yoruba, when the actual facts speak differently.

The great Ibadan historian, Tekena Tamuno, was unambiguous in stating once at NIPPS, Jos, that " the Igbos are the makers of moderm Nigeria. When they abandoned their project, Nigeria collapsed." We must remind Nigerians, particularly Igbo children, daily of these fact, to achieve what Achebe called " a balance of stories." And that also means we must read beyond the surface of things. Babarinsa's Guardian essay is angled carefully to maintain a revisionist narrative. And that is to be always challenged, however innocent it might seem.

Even today, most Yoruba think that Awolowo founded the Universities of Ibadan and Lagos. No one has reminded them that it took Azikiwe's pressures for a university for Nigeria, in his meeting with Arthur Richards in 1946, that led to the constitution of the Eliot commision and subsequently the founding of the University College, Ibadan. This fact is even clearly conveyed in Michael Crowder's eponymous book, The Story of Nigeria. Nsukka was Azikiwe's critique of what he felt to be the conceptual limitations of Ibadan. The University of Lagos was the result of NCNC's ideological contributions to the federal policy during the ill fated coalition government with the NPC. UNILAG was an NCNC project, shepherded by Aja Wachukwu as minister for education. Even the great UNILAG in her 50th anniversary failed to mention Prof Eni Njoku as the pioneer Vice Chancellor of the university, a man that layed the solid foundation of what made Unilag is today.

These facts must be made known and put as forcefully accross as possible. Again, until the lion tells his own story, the story of the hunt will belong to the hunter.

Williams3093:
IGBOS BY PROF TEKENA TAMUNO

I always insist that the greatest merit for Igbos in recent times is not simply the advent of the internet on the surface! It is the social media aspect of the internet which now allows independent thinkers to challenge the lies of history. In Nigeria, our little corner of the world, through social media presentations, scholars are now debunking the false stories perpetuated by the Yoruba press (with the help of the north who has always been paranoid about Igbos). The Yorubas took advantage of their civil war take-over of the press to rewrite the history of Nigeria as it favors them..., and if you believe them, "every post independence success in Nigeria was Awolowo influenced" and every problem in Nigeria was "instigated by Azikiwe, Ojukwu and the Igbos!" "The truth is reluctantly coming out" and _Igbos are gradually being vindicated!!!_ Read this masterpiece below by Professor Tekena Tamuno, a great historian and former Vice - Chancellor University of Ibadan. By the way, he's not an Igbo man!��
===============

"IGBO ARE THE MAKERS OF MODERN NIGERIA" -- PROF TEKENA TAMUNO

The problem with writing skewered history is that it equally misinforms its target: Kayode Esho was a great jurist, but Akunne Oputa was the "Socrates" of the Supreme court. Enahoro was a young editor, but Azikiwe made him that young editor with Osita Agwuna as his assistant, at his paper, the Southern Nigerian Defender in Ibadan, where my own father incidentally started as a rookie before shortly abandoning journalism for the stable berth of the civil service. The myth of Awolowo as building the first this and that does not match the documented economic history of the period.

Between 1954 and 1964, Eastern Nigeria was described as "the fastest growing economy in the world," by the Harvard Review; faster than China, faster than Singapore, and all the so-called "Asian Tigers." Awolowo is often credited with "free education".

But no one yet has pointed out any surviving school buildings of the period built by Awo. But all over the East there were quality schools built by the various communities using the Town Development Unions from 1954, and acessing the matching grants of the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation. And this was the East with the poorest revenue resources of any of the regions. The Mbaise secondary school exists, the National High School Okigwe exists, the Ngwa High school exists, the Enyiogugu Grammar School exists, etc. These were solid schools built all over the East with matching goverment grants. But where are the buildings of the Modern schools in Western Nigeria? They do not exist. They were makeshift.

The Catholic church forced the Azikiwe government from its scholarship program, but it is also on record, that the Eastern government was the only government in the world that invested 45% of its revenues in education. The East had the highest number of schools; the highest school enrollment; the broadest penetration of medical services; and the best modern road network in west Africa.

Indeed if we look carefully, the only public hospitals and most of the schools still standing in the East today, at various stages of run down are the schools and hospitals built by Azikiwe/Okpara. Every division of the East had a Joint Hospital as part of the Eastern Medical services. So it is often claimed Awo built the first television station; the first sky scraper, and the first Sports stadium, the liberty stadium in Ibadan. Well, these are prestige or white elephant investments.

First, the Eastern Outlook, the government paper of Eastern Nigeria was the first newspaper established by any government in Nigeria, and it was of such quality and impact that the literacy level of Easterners, and the depth of public information retailed by Outlook was without compare. This is besides the fact that Western Nigerian Broadcast Services, WNBS-TV founded in 1958 only preceded the ENBC-TV founded in 1959, by only seven months. But Outlook preceded Sketch by about 15 years.

Now Azikiwe built the Onitsha Modern market, the first modern mall or trade emporium in West Africa. Onitsha was effectively Dubai before Dubai. People traveled all over Africa, from as far as the Congo and Sudan and Egypt, to come and buy and trade in Onitsha. The economic impact of this was humonguos. So, give me the vast Onitsha modern market over Cocoa House in Ibadan. Azikiwe built the first Nigerian University at Nsukka with the first School of Law, the first School of Engineering, the first Business School; the first school of journalism, and the first school of music and performance, etc. By the time its first graduates took the Nigerian civil service exams in 1963, everybody began to raise the cry of "Igbo domination" starting with Akintola and Ayo Rosiji. Give me UNN over Liberty stadium.

Azikiwe began the first modern library system in West Africa. The East had a system of city libraries starting with the very modern Ziks Library in Enugu. I Literally grew up in the Umuahia Divisional Library. These libraries were built all over the East. Schools in the East were built with libraries. Moreover the Eastern Nigerian Library Board had a sysem of rural amd mobile libraries. There was nothing like it anywhere else in Nigeria: kids having library cards and able to borrow or order books from the public library. Give me the the first library over the first TV. I do not by this mean that Awolowo did not make his contributions, but the regular skewering of the facts, and angling of contemporary national narratives often makes it seem these days like the greatest contributor to the founding of Nigeria and its development is Awolowo and the Yoruba, when the actual facts speak differently.

The great Ibadan historian, Tekena Tamuno, was unambiguous in stating once at NIPPS, Jos, that " the Igbos are the makers of moderm Nigeria. When they abandoned their project, Nigeria collapsed." We must remind Nigerians, particularly Igbo children, daily of these fact, to achieve what Achebe called " a balance of stories." And that also means we must read beyond the surface of things. Babarinsa's Guardian essay is angled carefully to maintain a revisionist narrative. And that is to be always challenged, however innocent it might seem.

Even today, most Yoruba think that Awolowo founded the Universities of Ibadan and Lagos. No one has reminded them that it took Azikiwe's pressures for a university for Nigeria, in his meeting with Arthur Richards in 1946, that led to the constitution of the Eliot commision and subsequently the founding of the University College, Ibadan. This fact is even clearly conveyed in Michael Crowder's eponymous book, The Story of Nigeria. Nsukka was Azikiwe's critique of what he felt to be the conceptual limitations of Ibadan. The University of Lagos was the result of NCNC's ideological contributions to the federal policy during the ill fated coalition government with the NPC. UNILAG was an NCNC project, shepherded by Aja Wachukwu as minister for education. Even the great UNILAG in her 50th anniversary failed to mention Prof Eni Njoku as the pioneer Vice Chancellor of the university, a man that layed the solid foundation of what made Unilag is today.

These facts must be made known and put as forcefully accross as possible. Again, until the lion tells his own story, the story of the hunt will belong to the hunter.

Truth shines brighter than stars and the children of hate run from it or else the evil in their hearts become revealed!

If this idiots don't compare themselves to Yoruba they don't feel complete


Bunch of foolish morons..

Today Awolowo, tomorrow Abiola, Next tomorrow Tinubu, next week Osinbajo even MC Oluomo isn't spared in their inferiority complex

Everyone is focusing on 2023 and how to elect someone to properly represent them, these imbecilicc dunce are still whining about 1954 like bunch of sissies

No wonder Akwa Cross .. Akpabio , Udom . Rivers Wike and Ameachi and Delta Omo Agege have left the foolish bitter ones behind and are now shining on the National stage



.

How many times will you people repeat this lie? An igbo person wrote this crap and falsely attributed it to the late UI professor (whose family has come out to debunk the lie that he wrote anything of such). Why are Igbos liars like this for goodness sake

Some folk have lying in their DNA

Yes

And all the other Tribes of Nigeria were mere Spectators while they did everything themselves

Na why Nigeria jaga jaga laik this?

My father always told me that when a man constantly has to state how great he is or was, constantly has to huff and puff, constantly has to beat his chest like some retarrded ape, constantly has to put down others to elevate himself and over estimate his little wins, always hungry for praises and validation of fellow men and never shy or embarrassed about displaying his little fortunes.....my father said such man is probably trying to make up for his insecurities......and probably has a 1inch dvck.

Mooh247:




If this idiots don't compare themselves to Yoruba they don't feel complete


Bunch of foolish morons..

Today Awolowo, tomorrow Abiola, Next tomorrow Tinubu, next week Osinbajo even MC Oluomo isn't spared in their inferiority complex

Everyone is focusing on 2023 and how to elect someone to properly represent them, these imbecilicc dunce are still whining about 1954 like bunch of sissies

No wonder Akwa Cross .. Akpabio , Udom . Rivers Wike and Ameachi and Delta Omo Agege have left the foolish bitter ones behind and are now shining on the National stage



.

weakling speaking out of point

MikeBetty:
weakling speaking out of point

Only stupid people would qoute comment of a supposed weakling looking for attention

That's an ijaw man talking.
Please remember that ijaws are The bravest,richest, strongest and most blessed black tribe on Earth.
We practically feed nigeria.
If not the way Nigeria an average person from SS/se are supposed to living like a king expecially the blessed ijaws.
But the bane of ss/se afon that are backstabbetrs, betrayass,cowords, theivesss,uglee ritualisst and derty pigggs.
God purnishh every ritualisst and skull minner.
Killing your fellow human for money that you won't enjoy up to a hundred years.

Mooh247:




If this idiots don't compare themselves to Yoruba they don't feel complete


Bunch of foolish morons..

Today Awolowo, tomorrow Abiola, Next tomorrow Tinubu, next week Osinbajo even MC Oluomo isn't spared in their inferiority complex

Everyone is focusing on 2023 and how to elect someone to properly represent them, these imbecilicc dunce are still whining about 1954 like bunch of sissies

No wonder Akwa Cross .. Akpabio , Udom . Rivers Wike and Ameachi and Delta Omo Agege have left the foolish bitter ones behind and are now shining on the National stage



.

The bitter truth remains that Yoruba are minions compared to the lofty pioneering credentials and achievements of Igbos.

Much as your people would want to obfuscate history, and revise its outcome, those who will keep it alive through the anals of time will continue to do so for posterity's sake.

Yoruba it is who totally revised the true events behind the British-Biafra civil war. They drilled into every Yoruba kid, the lie that Igbos are a greedy bunch that will sell their mothers for a plate of porridge, and must never be trusted at all times.

That Igbo intent was to seize Nigeria's oil for themselves, therefore start a war. But of course, their god Awolowo saved the day for the Yoruba race and other long-suffering Nigerians.

This is akin to the same lies used in propping up another thief and underperformer named Tinubu today. And most churches in Nigeria belong to this band of liars and Tithe seekers. Y'all need to finally embrace the truth.

Ok, let's read your usual expletives.

The first thing to keep in mind about this OP article is that it was written by an Ijaw man from Okrika.
It simply means that some Ijaw are really appreciative of the Eastern Nigeria government and its accomplishments despite latter day denials instigated by enemies to divide and conquer the East.
Honest persons from non-Igbo parts of the East know that the best thing that happened to ALL OF US in the East was the Eastern Nigeria regional government. The achievements of that government remain unbeaten till date!
We may bicker all we like, but facts are facts.
No "state government" in the East has matched the achievements of the Eastern Nigeria regional governments led by Okpara, Ita, and Zik.

onumadu:
The first thing to keep in mind about this OP article is that it was written by an Ijaw man from Okrika.
It simply means that some Ijaw are really appreciative of the Eastern Nigeria government and its accomplishments despite latter day denials instigated by enemies to divide and conquer the East.
Honest persons from non-Igbo parts of the East know that the best thing that happened to ALL OF US in the East was the Eastern Nigeria regional government. The achievements of that government remain unbeaten till date!
We may bicker all we like, but facts are facts.
No "state government" in the East has matched the achievements of the Eastern Nigeria regional governments led by Okpara, Ita, and Zik.

When it suits your narrative or favours you clowns Okrika people are ijaws ,when it does not there are no ijaws in River's state stupid people. Anyway,late Tamuno tekena never said anything like this, his family came out to clear out this lie.

I need writers who can write african fiction stories, don't use African names, it shouldn't be violence or sexual, meaning it should have something that kids can learn from. Should be more than 5000 words with questions and answers. For kids. 08169615417 text me on whatsapp