@Negro

Nuts, I apologize for my unguarded utterances.

Dede1:

I had no intention to throw insult into the debate. I wonder why you did not remember this line from your previous post in response to my post. I had posited Asaba was part of mid-western region of Nigeria and the act of massacre in Asaba instead of Benin City or Warri or Sapele was a matter of concern to any reasonable and sensible human being.

Of course, the killing in Kaduna, Lagos and Ibadan were Nigerian issues since there was no Biafra in the equation. But this can not be said about Asaba massacre which has everything to do with dispute between Nigeria and Biafra. If you can not understand the difference and linkage, I can not help you.

Again, I did not mean to insult you but a person of average intellect such as you should not flaunt ignorance in the public.        

rotflmao!!  Well thank you for  substituting one insult with another!    I will overlook it.  

Asaba was not part of Biafra at the time of its attack by Nigerian troops.  It was part of Nigeria. . . .so because it was a domain of Nigeria Biafra had no interest in what happened in it.  I need to hear from you why Asaba should be deemed a part of Biafra and not a Nigerian domain on the day Nigerian soldiers stepped boots on its soil.

Dede1:

@Negro

Nuts, I apologize for my unguarded utterances.

no problem bro, emotions are raw and poisoned darts are flying everywhere. . . I understand.

Dayo need to stop being upset at the Ndigbo for his late uncle.

He should be mad at his own people for not mourning the death of the retrogressive Akintola whose death was CELEBRATED.

Eze, that is a stupid comment. Comments like this made by your brothers in North following the Jan66 coup is what led to massive slaughter of ndigbo. The beginning of everything downhill to where Asaba ultimately became a casualty.

The massacre of Akintola and others was bad enough. . . and it may have gone unpunished at tribal level if igbos had not flamed the fire and turned a managable problem into a catastrophic inferno on your soil. you have not learnt your lessons. . . continue to put the cart before the horse, you are gonna get it again.

EzeUche:

Dayo need to stop being upset at the Ndigbo for his late uncle.

He should be mad at his own people for not mourning the death of the retrogressive Akintola whose death was CELEBRATED.

The thing is his people didn't care so why celebrate.

My friend you think you are still living in 67??backwardness is a bad thing! you can see that Nigeria are smarter than b4 and you still believe some how in your skewed mind that if war start now,that you will get Yankee and Britain dropping arms for you   you have to kill chief of army staff first and you will never get help and no tribe will want to join you obviously on your own am from asaba and i just watch the way you people are trying so hard to twist the story about the genocide committed against my people by Nigerian army

Dudu_Negro:


rotflmao!! Well thank you for substituting one insult with another! I will overlook it.

Asaba was not part of Biafra at the time of its attack by Nigerian troops. It was part of Nigeria. . . .so because it was a domain of Nigeria Biafra had no interest in what happened in it. I need to hear from you why Asaba should be deemed a part of Biafra and not a Nigerian domain on the day Nigerian soldiers stepped boots on its soil.

As I wrote in my initial post, Asaba was not part of eastern region hence Biafra. However, Asaba is a bona fide Igbo land. Germany attacked neighboring countries because of ill treatment meted to Germanic folks in those countries. Even if Biafra had stood as country and Asaba folks are treated as we read by units of 2nd division of Nigerian army, Biafra will not stand unconcerned as Igbo people across the River Niger are slaughtered like goats.

The successes the 2nd division enjoyed in non-Igbo territories within mid-western region went through the window as the unit inched into Agbor and through Igbo lands beyond Agbor.

The frustration of the bugged down unit hoping to celebrate easy victory was climaxed at Asaba as every attempt to leap into Onitsha was furiously and methodically repelled by Biafra’s 11th division. It did not surprised me that few commanders within division thought native Igbo people in Asaba were the result of their failures instead of their tactical incompetence.

^^

Thank you i don't no why they cant accept that SS is mix with ethnicity

EzeUche:

Dayo need to stop being upset at the Ndigbo for his late uncle.

He should be mad at his own people for not mourning the death of the retrogressive Akintola whose death was CELEBRATED.

Thats why you are Igbo that statement confirms it.

Why should I be mad at Igbos when Adekunle my townsman has more than compensated. It would only be a greedy man that wont be satisfied with a ratio of 100,000 Igbos for Akintola

I am not greedy. 100,000 Biafra lives were made to pay for Akintola shikena equation balanced

Maybe you need to call your people to set traps and kill those rodents who have turned Azikwes burial ground to an amusement park

Dede1:


As I wrote in my initial post, Asaba was not part of eastern region hence Biafra. However, Asaba is a bona fide Igbo land. Germany attacked neighboring countries because of ill treatment meted to Germanic folks in those countries. Even if Biafra had stood as country and Asaba folks are treated as we read by units of 2nd division of Nigerian army, Biafra will not stand unconcerned as Igbo people across the River Niger are slaughtered like goats.

The successes the 2nd division enjoyed in non-Igbo territories within mid-western region went through the window as the unit inched into Agbor and through Igbo lands beyond Agbor.

The frustration of the bugged down unit hoping to celebrate easy victory was climaxed at Asaba as every attempt to leap into Onitsha was furiously and methodically repelled by Biafra’s 11th division. It did not surprised me that few commanders within division thought native Igbo people in Asaba were the result of their failures instead of their tactical incompetence.

In explaining this situation to you, I started at ethnic turf level but you did not like that and I went to individual egotistic level, you still did not like that, I drilled up to sovereignty level. . . .it seems that is equally unacceptable to you.

Let us go into this discussions with some agreed protocols. At the beginning of te war, the following were true.

1. at the sovereign level, there was only one Nation - Nigeria. Biafra was a rebel group and not a Nation.
2. newly created Eastern Central State was part of Nigeria in dispute between Nigeria and the rebel group, Biafra.
3. The Head of Nigerian Government, Gowon, had sacked the Governor of Eastern Central State, Ojukwu.
4. Eastern Central state was bordered by newly created Bendel, Benue-Plateau , South Eastern and Rivers States. None of the bordering states was in rebellion.
5. Biafran rebels had crossed, in violation of the constitution of 1963, into territories of the Nigerian domain which by virtue of constituted power the Nigerian Army is obligated by statutory provisions of the law to defend with arms and might.
6. Asaba was a province of Bendel state and a Nigerian domain under the control of Nigerian Army, as were all other states to the East and up into Cameroon.
7. By hoisting its flag on the soil of any contingent province of the Nigerian sovereignty, Biafra had declared intent to invade and challenge the authority of the Nigerian Army.
8. By hoisting its flag and declaring a Republic of Biafra and of Benin with the Nigerian sovereignty, Biafra had grossly violated the constitution and therefore participated in treasonable acts.
9. All persons, individuals, organizations, provinces, ethnicities and bodies that aid, or ally with the rebels in acts of treason are equally and substantially in acts of rebellion and war against the Nigerian Army.
10. All of Biafran soldiers and their sympathisers, whether in principle or in practice are in war against Nigeria. Their roots and threats must be demolished and completely disbanded and eliminated untill the rebel flag is no longer flying over any sovereign domain within the jusridiction and supervision of the Nigerian government and its Army.


Is there any of these points you disagree with?

These are the parameters from which we should open the discussion on what happened in Asaba.

RIP. We have lived to outshadow those of your killers and their people.

Here. . .

Dudu_Negro:

Here. . .

That 12 State structure was hurriedly drawn at the dawn of the war obviously as a war weapon. I do not know the basis on which the division was done. Some claimed ethnicity but I believe oil played a key role.

Abagworo:


That 12 State structure was hurriedly drawn at the dawn of the war obviously as a war weapon. I do not know the basis on which the division was done. Some claimed ethnicity but I believe oil played a key role.

Abagworo, you disappoint me here.

How could it have been a weapon of war when the first region that was divided was the west unless the East aka Nnamdi Azikwe was at war with the west.

If ethnic groups feel the need to leave , then so be it.

alj harem:

Abagworo, you disappoint me here.

How could it have been a weapon of war when the first region that was divided was the west unless the East aka Nnamdi Azikwe was at war with the west.

If ethnic groups feel the need to leave , then so be it.

The creation of the Mid-West was constitutional and followed due process. That 0f 1967 was clearly a war weapon as it was hurriedly done.

Abagworo:


The creation of the Mid-West was constitutional and followed due process. That 0f 1967 was clearly a war weapon as it was hurriedly done.

Nope, it followed the military constitution to safe guard the minorities of the east. If they did not support it, they would not have had it

State creation is just an imaginary boundary and if you believe we are all one, then the imaginary boundry should not matter.

Alj Harem read this link  http://www.dawodu.net/midwest.htm

Abagworo,

I said the state of things when the war began!  I was not concerned about the debate of why the 12 states were formed.  But since you brought up the reason behind this creations then I will gladly entertain your inquiry.

The first constitution we had was the Independence Constitution of 1960, which went into effect on October 1st 1960.  This was superseded by the constitution of October 1st 1963 promulgated by Azikiwe as the First Republic Constitution.  This was when Zik carved Mid West out of West.  All the regions knew there was oil in the Niger Delta but the Hausas did not have full appreciation and value of the possibilities and were not privvy to the full assessment or extent of the oil resources and wealth in the offshore Delta area but the Yorubas and the Igbos knew and had this information.

There was a academic outfit from University of Ibadan that acted as a ad-hoc strategic policy team for Western Region. They write proposals formulated from research and analytical outputs to advance the policies and politics of the West.  So Awo knew about the oil reserves.  Akintola had some issues with this group because they were too loyal to Awo, instead of the government of the region.  West was very liberal in its politics but also very volatile in its demand for allegiance. . . . people get killed for falling out of favor with political ideologies and party principles.  From 1962/63, the West was ablaze with political wars and up until 1966.  Strong allegiances in different party factions and turfs weakened the erstwhile strong and unified political frontier.

Western region was also the only region in the entire country where education was free. (proposed in 1952 but started in January 1955).  Western house in Ibadan was the secretariat for the following provinces included in the region - Abeokuta, Bini, Lagos (minus Federal Capital), Delta, Ibadan, Ijebu, Ondo and Oyo.  These were the Western provinces.  Whatever obtains in Ibadan is uniformly deployed and implemented in all the provinces.  Every person born and of school age in any of these provinces, if they attended school between January 1955 and Jan 1966 (coup), did so on the platform of Western region's socio-political programme.  There were other programmes in tandem with the free education programme; free health being one of them.  East did not have this and North did not. 

Awo wanted confederacy, Zik wanted nationalism.   Awo wanted each region to rule and determine its own future, Zik wanted all the regions to be ruled and directed from a unified center.  Zik, in collaboration with Eastern elements, devised a means by which the growth in the West could be stunted.  Awo had to be eliminated! Killing Awo will set the country on fire.  So he was set up, along with others. . . . including Anthony Enahoro.  They were tried in front of Justice Sowemimo, a Yoruba, and convicted and sentenced to imprisonment. This was on September 11, 1963.  19 days later my friend, Zik changed the constitution and carved Mid West out of Western region.  lol!  Following that rapid action the West protested, but in the wake of its turbulent political wars and chaos, its handicapped voice had no effect. 

Akintola was very savvy in his understanding of local politics, he lacked backing of the UnIbadan academic corps that had supported Awo as Premier.  He therefore was not informed in the broad policies with which to manipulate national politics successfully.  Awo and Akintola had different styles of governing; Awo was tactful, Akintola was tenacious.  If Awo did not succeed in one approach, he employs a different approach for the same goal until he gets what he wants.  Akintola did not believe in changing tactics. . . .if there are barriers in his way, he believes in knocking them over to get through to his goal.  His energy and focus were greatly consumed by events on the ground in West and therefore distracted from the rapidly changing events at national level. 

With Awo in prison, that left Zik with Ahmadu Bello as contender for National politics and power,  Okpara, the premier of Eastern region, was in status quo mode and in concordance with Zik's ambition and leadership.  The West is successfully broken and isolated from oil welath, the North had no oil and so the East remained the only region with oil wealth.  Therefore, if Igbo can retain nationalism at all cost and did not loose any of the other regions, then it will sit on an empire of massive wealth from groundnut and cotton in North, cocoa, palm oil and rubber in West, cocoa, palm oil, rubber and oil in MidWest, coal, palm oil, rubber and oil in East.  All these will be in the hand and domination of Ndigbo.  This plot is what fed Zik's insistence for nationalism.  To implement it successfully, he criss-crossed Army personnell from their home states into different tribal lands.  The ethnic balance in civil service was rapidly been manipulated as well the Army officer corp.  Ahmadu Bello grew dissatisfied with the arrangements and changes and his loss of regional power to a central government.  Economies and regional authority of the natives was invaded and subordinated to the market forces and statutory administration of government headed by Ndigbo.  This dissatisfaction is vented in a public interview that is now widely distributed online.  Ahmadu Bello then began a series of move to seceed the Northern people out of Nigeria. In West, Akintola had locked down with his opponents and defiant elements of AG. . . . the turmoil boiled over and had the appearance of triggering restlessness in other areas, particularly Niger Delta Volunteer Force led by Isaac Boro.  Boro was leading a grassroot movement that defied and despised the Eastern region's monopoly and abuse of power against minorities in the Delta area,  An urgent solution was needed to bring Boro, Bello and Akintola under check before "nationalism", Zik's darling baby was prematurely killed.  This was what led to the Igbo coup of Jan66.

Ndigbo must be the king of Nigeria and to do that successfully, the top echelon of other ethnicities in military and civil power must be disabled and all oppositions to this schemed domination demolished and removed.   Zik knew about the coup, Okpara knew about the coup and Ironsi knew about the coup.   I dont need to recap that story it has been talked about many times, so I will skip it.  So, what happened after the coup?

In violation of the constitution of the First Republic promulgated October 1st 1963, Orizu (Igbo man), Senate President, installed Ironsi in power.  Ironsi immediately issued decree 34 and suspended the constitution.   As an emphasis, he also committed to nationalism. In other words, Zik's vision of Ndigbo dominating and monopolizing power in Nigeria continues and will be implemented with boots and guns if necessary. The Hausas were now more than ever adamant on getting out of Nigeria. To placate and stall their demands. . . . he promoted Igbo and Hausas military personnell only but not Yorubas. He left the military criss-crossed postings in place and rapidly elevated Igbo civil servants and began relocating them to North. The aim being to begin the plan of direct rule of Hausaland. . . take Sharia courts and native authority out and install and effect civil and statutory laws and central governance accountable only to the Head of State. . . . or as they called him SUPREME COMMANDER! Doesn't that title alone say it all?

After Coup of July66, pushed out of power and the reins of control for "nationalism" in the hand of a Northerner, Ndigbo suddenly realized that nationalism is not a good plan for the country and sought confederacy. This is one of reasons for Aburi. Gowon implemented Aburi in the best way he could fit it into a national agenda. . , Ojukwu then raged that the agreements of the accord was violated and he will take his people out of Nigeria before he would submit to a national power in which the regions had no control of their own destiny and management. Gowon declared a decree and state of emergency in East and created 12 states, breaking Easten region and isolating Igbo land, thereby freeing Isaac Boro land and Ibibioland. Igbo lost its access to the oil wealth. This is exact same policy employed by Ndigbo to eliminate and isolate West. The Northerner followed that precedence and Ojukwu, dissatisfied declared secession. When Biafran army started out. . . .the first places they went and planted their Biafra flag was oil producing states. . . . South Eastern state, Rivers State and Bendel state. The Biafran war strategy was aimed at capturing and subordinating the entire country. . . .starting from oil lands, then West and then up North. What it could not accomplish politically, it sought, with boots, guns and bullets, to execute militarily. Both approaches failed. The nationalism that Ndigbo wished and planted forcefully on others, is today a heavy yoke around its neck.

Do not do unto others that which if done to you will distress your heart and burden your spirit, . . . law of "cause and effect" (Karma).


Anyway, Abagworo. . . if you have any more question or if you want to open another can of worms. . . .please feel free to.

Dudu_Negro:

In explaining this situation to you, I started at ethnic turf level but you did not like that and I went to individual egotistic level, you still did not like that, I drilled up to sovereignty level. . . .it seems that is equally unacceptable to you.

Let us go into this discussions with some agreed protocols. At the beginning of te war, the following were true.

1. at the sovereign level, there was only one Nation - Nigeria. Biafra was a rebel group and not a Nation.
2. newly created Eastern Central State was part of Nigeria in dispute between Nigeria and the rebel group, Biafra.
3. The Head of Nigerian Government, Gowon, had sacked the Governor of Eastern Central State, Ojukwu.
4. Eastern Central state was bordered by newly created Bendel, Benue-Plateau , South Eastern and Rivers States. None of the bordering states was in rebellion.
5. Biafran rebels had crossed, in violation of the constitution of 1963, into territories of the Nigerian domain which by virtue of constituted power the Nigerian Army is obligated by statutory provisions of the law to defend with arms and might.
6. Asaba was a province of Bendel state and a Nigerian domain under the control of Nigerian Army, as were all other states to the East and up into Cameroon.
7. By hoisting its flag on the soil of any contingent province of the Nigerian sovereignty, Biafra had declared intent to invade and challenge the authority of the Nigerian Army.
8. By hoisting its flag and declaring a Republic of Biafra and of Benin with the Nigerian sovereignty, Biafra had grossly violated the constitution and therefore participated in treasonable acts.
9. All persons, individuals, organizations, provinces, ethnicities and bodies that aid, or ally with the rebels in acts of treason are equally and substantially in acts of rebellion and war against the Nigerian Army.
10. All of Biafran soldiers and their sympathisers, whether in principle or in practice are in war against Nigeria. Their roots and threats must be demolished and completely disbanded and eliminated untill the rebel flag is no longer flying over any sovereign domain within the jusridiction and supervision of the Nigerian government and its Army.


Is there any of these points you disagree with?

These are the parameters from which we should open the discussion on what happened in Asaba.

Nuts, this is how you look for my trouble. Anybody who sincerely knew the chronicle order of the events which led to Police Action in 1967 can easily discern you as either politically myopic or ludicrously disingenuous or brazenly bent out of human form by tribal sentiments.

There was unsuccessful coup in Nigeria where the coup plotters did not have control of entire regions in the federation. The action of the coup leader who usurped the position of Head of State and Commander in Chief was challenged by the military governor of eastern region based traditionally on the dictates of military parlance which states on the absence of Head of State, the second in command must assume the position of commander in chief. You should bear in mind that Gowon had already denied being a co-conspirator of July 29, 1966 coup. Since the whereabouts of Head of State is not known, Ojukwu adamantly stuck to the calling of military parlance and insisted that Ogundipe should be commander in chief. 

Since the July 1967 coup was partially successful and a region in the federation was under the control of another military commander who was not a conspirator, Aburi, Ghana was born. Before and during the conference in Aburi, Ghana, group of idiotic lappers, imbecilic dingbats and slimy cowards gathered around Gowon as representatives of Nigeria while Ojukwu appeared as a representative of eastern region of Nigeria.
At Aburi, Ghana, Ojukwu singlehandedly horded the ninnies to agree on principles the issues that will keep Nigeria intact. However, when the trolls on Nigerian delegate touched down in Lagos, they reneged on the agreements reached in Ghana and decided to act like bullies and resorted to use of guns and decrees to achieve their ends. As a son of his father, Ojukwu refused to be bullied.

For posterity sake, Gowon and Nigeria commenced the war of attrition against eastern region on June 6, 1967 and by June 26, 1967 Ubani, Garkem, Enugu Ezike and Obollo Afor were occupied by Nigerian forces. Ndigbo have not be known as cowards and at the face of insurmountable odds and imminent military annihilation by Gowon and Nigeria decided to standup and fight at least scratched the faces of already culturally mutilated faces of some of aggressors. 

Again whether Gowon decided to divide Nigeria into bits and pieces through draconian decrees, eastern region of Nigeria did not give a rat arse. Since mid-western and western regions were part of Nigeria that had attacked eastern region at places such Eungu Ezike and Obollo Afor as well as military amphibious activities in Ubani (Bonny), eastern region or Biafra regarded these regions as open season and had every audacious pedigree to launch attack on Nigeria through those corridors.

Of course in any war, enemies are marked and possibly hunted down. I do not see any other evidence that suggested otherwise in case of Asaba and Benin City or Warri except Asaba is Igbo land. In addition, enmity created during a war is meant to last forever. I guess you could catch my drift about disintegration of cesspit called Nigeria.

My last response, answering Abagworo's inquiry superseded this position and answers most of your questions, I suggest you read into that and then comment with what you disagree with. Let me also warn that if you come back with insults I will respond in kind. Restrain yourself as best you can, what I write will more likely than not infuriate Biafrans. . . . . just as what you write turn my stomach. . . . there is no tribalism on Nairaland, it is insults that we need to get away from.

Dudu_Negro:

Abagworo,

I said the state of things when the war began!  I was not concerned about the debate of why the 12 states were formed.  But since you brought up the reason behind this creations then I will gladly entertain your inquiry.

The first constitution we had was the Independence Constitution of 1960, which went into effect on October 1st 1960.  This was superseded by the constitution of October 1st 1963 promulgated by Azikiwe as the First Republic Constitution.  This was when Zik carved Mid West out of West.  All the regions knew there was oil in the Niger Delta but the Hausas did not have full appreciation and value of the possibilities and were not privvy to the full assessment or extent of the oil resources and wealth in the offshore Delta area but the Yorubas and the Igbos knew and had this information.

There was a academic outfit from University of Ibadan that acted as a ad-hoc strategic policy team for Western Region. They write proposals formulated from research and analytical outputs to advance the policies and politics of the West.  So Awo knew about the oil reserves.  Akintola had some issues with this group because they were too loyal to Awo, instead of the government of the region.  West was very liberal in its politics but also very volatile in its demand for allegiance. . . . people get killed for falling out of favor with political ideologies and party principles.  From 1962/63, the West was ablaze with political wars and up until 1966.  Strong allegiances in different party factions and turfs weakened the erstwhile strong and unified political frontier.

Western region was also the only region in the entire country where education was free. (proposed in 1952 but started in January 1955).  Western house in Ibadan was the secretariat for the following provinces included in the region - Abeokuta, Bini, Lagos (minus Federal Capital), Delta, Ibadan, Ijebu, Ondo and Oyo.  These were the Western provinces.  Whatever obtains in Ibadan is uniformly deployed and implemented in all the provinces.  Every person born and of school age in any of these provinces, if they attended school between January 1955 and Jan 1966 (coup), did so on the platform of Western region's socio-political programme.  There were other programmes in tandem with the free education programme; free health being one of them.  East did not have this and North did not. 

Awo wanted confederacy, Zik wanted nationalism.   Awo wanted each region to rule and determine its own future, Zik wanted all the regions to be ruled and directed from a unified center.  Zik, in collaboration with Eastern elements, devised a means by which the growth in the West could be stunted.  Awo had to be eliminated! Killing Awo will set the country on fire.  So he was set up, along with others. . . . including Anthony Enahoro.  They were tried in front of Justice Sowemimo, a Yoruba, and convicted and sentenced to imprisonment. This was on September 11, 1963.  19 days later my friend, Zik changed the constitution and carved Mid West out of Western region.  lol!  Following that rapid action the West protested, but in the wake of its turbulent political wars and chaos, its handicapped voice had no effect. 

Akintola was very savvy in his understanding of local politics, he lacked backing of the UnIbadan academic corps that had supported Awo as Premier.  He therefore was not informed in the broad policies with which to manipulate national politics successfully.  Awo and Akintola had different styles of governing; Awo was tactful, Akintola was tenacious.  If Awo did not succeed in one approach, he employs a different approach for the same goal until he gets what he wants.  Akintola did not believe in changing tactics. . . .if there are barriers in his way, he believes in knocking them over to get through to his goal.  His energy and focus were greatly consumed by events on the ground in West and therefore distracted from the rapidly changing events at national level. 

With Awo in prison, that left Zik with Ahmadu Bello as contender for National politics and power,  Okpara, the premier of Eastern region, was in status quo mode and in concordance with Zik's ambition and leadership.  The West is successfully broken and isolated from oil welath, the North had no oil and so the East remained the only region with oil wealth.  Therefore, if Igbo can retain nationalism at all cost and did not loose any of the other regions, then it will sit on an empire of massive wealth from groundnut and cotton in North, cocoa, palm oil and rubber in West, cocoa, palm oil, rubber and oil in MidWest, coal, palm oil, rubber and oil in East.  All these will be in the hand and domination of Ndigbo.  This plot is what fed Zik's insistence for nationalism.  To implement it successfully, he criss-crossed Army personnell from their home states into different tribal lands.  The ethnic balance in civil service was rapidly been manipulated as well the Army officer corp.  Ahmadu Bello grew dissatisfied with the arrangements and changes and his loss of regional power to a central government.  Economies and regional authority of the natives was invaded and subordinated to the market forces and statutory administration of government headed by Ndigbo.  This dissatisfaction is vented in a public interview that is now widely distributed online.  Ahmadu Bello then began a series of move to seceed the Northern people out of Nigeria. In West, Akintola had locked down with his opponents and defiant elements of AG. . . . the turmoil boiled over and had the appearance of triggering restlessness in other areas, particularly Niger Delta Volunteer Force led by Isaac Boro.  Boro was leading a grassroot movement that defied and despised the Eastern region's monopoly and abuse of power against minorities in the Delta area,  An urgent solution was needed to bring Boro, Bello and Akintola under check before "nationalism", Zik's darling baby was prematurely killed.  This was what led to the Igbo coup of Jan66.

Ndigbo must be the king of Nigeria and to do that successfully, the top echelon of other ethnicities in military and civil power must be disabled and all oppositions to this schemed domination demolished and removed.   Zik knew about the coup, Okpara knew about the coup and Ironsi knew about the coup.   I dont need to recap that story it has been talked about many times, so I will skip it.  So, what happened after the coup?

In violation of the constitution of the First Republic promulgated October 1st 1963, Orizu (Igbo man), Senate President, installed Ironsi in power.  Ironsi immediately issued decree 34 and suspended the constitution.   As an emphasis, he also committed to nationalism. In other words, Zik's vision of Ndigbo dominating and monopolizing power in Nigeria continues and will be implemented with boots and guns if necessary. The Hausas were now more than ever adamant on getting out of Nigeria. To placate and stall their demands. . . . he promoted Igbo and Hausas military personnell only but not Yorubas. He left the military criss-crossed postings in place and rapidly elevated Igbo civil servants and began relocating them to North. The aim being to begin the plan of direct rule of Hausaland. . . take Sharia courts and native authority out and install and effect civil and statutory laws and central governance accountable only to the Head of State. . . . or as they called him SUPREME COMMANDER! Doesn't that title alone say it all?

After Coup of July66, pushed out of power and the reins of control for "nationalism" in the hand of a Northerner, Ndigbo suddenly realized that nationalism is not a good plan for the country and sought confederacy. This is one of reasons for Aburi. Gowon implemented Aburi in the best way he could fit it into a national agenda. . , Ojukwu then raged that the agreements of the accord was violated and he will take his people out of Nigeria before he would submit to a national power in which the regions had no control of their own destiny and management. Gowon declared a decree and state of emergency in East and created 12 states, breaking Easten region and isolating Igbo land, thereby freeing Isaac Boro land and Ibibioland. Igbo lost its access to the oil wealth. This is exact same policy employed by Ndigbo to eliminate and isolate West. The Northerner followed that precedence and Ojukwu, dissatisfied declared secession. When Biafran army started out. . . .the first places they went and planted their Biafra flag was oil producing states. . . . South Eastern state, Rivers State and Bendel state. The Biafran war strategy was aimed at capturing and subordinating the entire country. . . .starting from oil lands, then West and then up North. What it could not accomplish politically, it sought, with boots, guns and bullets, to execute militarily. Both approaches failed. The nationalism that Ndigbo wished and planted forcefully on others, is today a heavy yoke around its neck.

Do not do unto others that which if done to you will distress your heart and burden your spirit, . . . law of "cause and effect" (Karma).


Anyway, Abagworo. . . if you have any more question or if you want to open another can of worms. . . .please feel free to.

A post laden with fallacies as exemplified by the above constituted one of the reasons Nigeria needs to be disintegrated. I doubt in if you wrote this piece. The author did not show one iota of intellectual pedigree. Let me just write on three things about this drivel.

Firstly, most of the serving ministers under the Tafawa Balewa were physically present and even urged Orizu to hand power to Ironsi. In fact the piece of paper which the constituted authority was written on behelf of the executive council was provided a minister from northern region of Nigeria.

Secondly, it is a display of acute sense of naivety to accuse Ndigbo of anti-nationalism when Ojukwu insisted that Ogundipe or Wey or Adebayo not Njoku or Imo or Eze or Ojukwu should be commander in chief as traditionally demanded by the military parlance.

Owaza and Afam oil fields were equal in volume of crude oil pumped in 1964 as Olobiri even before oil were struck in any part of Bendel State. Biafra did not fight the war because of crude oil and this can not be said about Nigeria. Often heard nonsensical crap such as crude oil presence here or there is what gives people like me the audacity to seek the disintegration of Nigeria with Republic of Igbo land as a major option.

. . . only one thing I have for you, Igbo will never actualize Biafra or whatever name you want to call it unless you have a President sympathetic to your cause. Let us pray that you get an Igbo president in 2015 so that your wishes for self rule can become real. Along that thought, you all need to start searching for a candidate capable of delivering such promise when voted in. . . .and not a sellout as is typical of your leaders.

Anyway, a reminder also,. . . . .when you do get an Igbo president, do not go back to Zik's vision, stay focused and do just what you want - a dissolution out of Nigeria. You hear?

Lastly, truth is truth, it does not have to be intelligent! When you squeeze truth into the parameters of intelligence, it may very well become a propaganda.

^dude u are a very talented propagandist. I'm not kidding you'll go far in this biz

Dudu_Negro:

. . . only one thing I have for you, Igbo will never actualize Biafra or whatever name you want to call it unless you have a President sympathetic to your cause. Let us pray that you get an Igbo president in 2015 so that your wishes for self rule can become real. Along that thought, you all need to start searching for a candidate capable of delivering such promise when voted in. . . .and not a sellout as is typical of your leaders.

Anyway, a reminder also,. . . . .when you do get an Igbo president, do not go back to Zik's vision, stay focused and do just what you want - a dissolution out of Nigeria. You hear?

Lastly, truth is truth, it does not have to be intelligent! When you squeeze truth into the parameters of intelligence, it may very well become a propaganda.

Biafran war was a war of survival and not oil as you erroneously assume. Maybe the Federals were killing Igbos then because they wanted to take control of oil but Igbos on their part were fighting to live.

Igbos as a people are very democratic and hardworking and cannot therefore exhibit the level of dominance you portrayed in your post. The Ogoja and Rivers people were only scared of domination based on trade, hardwork and maybe land acquisition. Igbos have still not been stopped from that be it in Abuja or Lagos because it is their way of life.

Thirdly the coup plotters were Mid-Westerners and should be looked at from the regional point and not ethnic. They are Igbos that belong to SS region and not SE. There are Ikwerres, Ikas, Ukwuanis and other Igbos outside the SE. Their actions are taken for the interest of their region and not the East. A Yoruba man from Benin will be loyal to Benin and not Nigeria even though ethnically same with the Nigerian Yoruba. An Igboman from Imo will be loyal to Imo and not Abia or Rivers State.

a yoruba man from benin?

any such person is a bini man, not yoruba.

tpia@:

a yoruba man from benin?

any such person is a bini man, not yoruba.

Not Benin city. Republique du Benin.

oh, ok.


benin republic.

Abagworo, did I hear you say a war of survival? Is that what you said Survival from what if you don't mind me asking.

Dudu_Negro:

Abagworo, did I hear you say a war of survival? Is that what you said Survival from what if you don't mind me asking.

Ethnic cleansing

How come many Ibo commentators always choose to forget the January 15 coup when discussing the civil war

When Ibo soldiers selected other regional leaders for cleansing

Wihout January 15, there wont be a pogrom, counter coup and civil war

Blame the civil war on Ifeajuna, Nwobosi and co