https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/21/buried-50-years-britain-shamesful-role-biafran-war-frederick-forsyth

It is a good thing to be proud of one’s country, and I am – most of the time. But it would be impossible to scan the centuries of Britain’s history without coming across a few incidents that evoke not pride but shame. Among those I would list are the creation by British officialdom in South Africa of the concentration camp, to persecute the families of Boers. Add to that the Amritsar massacre of 1919 and the Hola camps set up and run during the struggle against Mau Mau.

But there is one truly disgusting policy practised by our officialdom during the lifetime of anyone over 50, and one word will suffice: Biafra.

This referred to the civil war in Nigeria that ended 50 years ago this month. It stemmed from the decision of the people of the eastern region of that already riot-racked country to strike for independence as the Republic of Biafra. As I learned when I got there as a BBC correspondent, the Biafrans, mostly of the Igbo people, had their reasons.


The federal government in Lagos was a brutal military dictatorship that came to power in 1966 in a bloodbath. During and following that coup, the northern and western regions were swept by a pogrom in which thousands of resident Igbo were slaughtered. The federal government lifted not a finger to help. It was led by an affable British-educated colonel, Yakubu Gowon. But he was a puppet. The true rulers were a group of northern Nigerian colonels. The crisis deepened, and in early 1967 eastern Nigeria, harbouring about 1.8 million refugees, sought restitution. A British-organised conference was held in Ghana and a concordat agreed. But Gowon, returning home, was flatly contradicted by the colonels, who tore up his terms and reneged on the lot. In April the Eastern Region formally seceded and on 7 July, the federal government declared war.


Biafra was led by the Eastern Region’s Oxford-educated former military governor, “Emeka” Ojukwu. London, ignoring all evidence that it was Lagos that reneged on the deal, denounced the secession, made no attempt to mediate and declared total support for Nigeria.

I arrived in the Biafra capital of Enugu on the third day of the war. In London I had been copiously briefed by Gerald Watrous, head of the BBC’s West Africa Service. What I did not know was that he was the obedient servant of the government’s Commonwealth Relations Office (CRO), which believed every word of its high commissioner in Lagos, David Hunt. It took two days in Enugu to realise that everything I had been told was utter garbage.

I had been briefed that the brilliant Nigerian army would suppress the rebellion in two weeks, four at the most. Fortunately the deputy high commissioner in Enugu, Jim Parker, told me what was really happening. It became clear that the rubbish believed by the CRO and the BBC stemmed from our high commissioner in Lagos. A racist and a snob, Hunt expected Africans to leap to attention when he entered the room – which Gowon did. At their single prewar meeting Ojukwu did not. Hunt loathed him at once.

My brief was to report the all-conquering march of the Nigerian army. It did not happen. Naively, I filed this. When my report was broadcast our high commissioner complained to the CRO in London, who passed it on to the BBC – which accused me of pro-rebel bias and recalled me to London. Six months later, in February 1968, fed up with the slavishness of the BBC to Whitehall, I walked out and flew back to west Africa. Ojukwu roared with laughter and allowed me to stay. My condition was that, having rejected British propaganda, I would not publish his either. He agreed.


But things had changed. British covert interference had become huge. Weapons and ammunition poured in quietly as Whitehall and the Harold Wilson government lied and denied it all. Much enlarged, with fresh weapons and secret advisory teams, the Nigerian army inched across Biafra as the defenders tried to fight back with a few bullets a day. Soviet Ilyushin bombers ranged overhead, dropping 1,000lb bombs on straw villages. But the transformation came in July.

Missionaries had noticed mothers emerging from the deep bush carrying children reduced to living skeletons yet with bloated bellies. Catholic priests recognised the symptoms – kwashiorkor or acute protein deficiency.

That same July the Daily Express cameraman David Cairns ran off a score of rolls of film and took them to London. Back then, the British public had never seen such heartrending images of starved and dying children. When the pictures hit the newsstands the story exploded. There were headlines, questions in the House of Commons, demonstrations, marches.

As the resident guide for foreign news teams I became somewhat overwhelmed. But at last the full secret involvement of the British government started to be exposed and the lies revealed. Wilson came under attack. The story swept Europe then the US.

Donations flooded in. The money could buy food – but how to get it there? Around year’s end the extraordinary Joint Church Aid was born.

The World Council of Churches helped to buy some clapped-out freighter aircraft and gained permission from Portugal to use the offshore island São Tomé as a base. Scandinavian pilots and crew, mostly airline pilots, offered to fly without pay. Joint Church Aid was quickly nicknamed Jesus Christ Airlines. And thus came into being the world’s only illegal mercy air bridge.

On a visit to London in spring 1969 I learned the efforts the British establishment will take to cover up its tracks. Every reporter, peer or parliamentarian who had visited Biafra and reported on what he had seen was smeared as a stooge of Biafra – even the utterly honourable John Hunt, leader of the Everest expedition.

Throughout 1969 the relief planes flew through the night, dodging Nigerian MiG fighters, to deliver their life-giving cargoes of reinforced milk powder to a jungle airstrip. From there trucks took the sacks to the missions, the nuns boiled up the nutriments and kept thousands of children alive.


Karl Jaggi, head of the Red Cross, estimated that up to a million children died, but that at least half a million were saved. As for me, sometimes in the wee small hours I see the stick-like children with the dull eyes and lolling heads, and hear their wails of hunger and the low moans as they died.

What is truly shameful is that this was not done by savages but aided and assisted at every stage by Oxbridge-educated British mandarins. Why? Did they love the corruption-riven, dictator-prone Nigeria? No. From start to finish, it was to cover up that the UK’s assessment of the Nigerian situation was an enormous judgmental screw-up. And, worse: with neutrality and diplomacy from London it could all have been avoided.

Biafra is little discussed in the UK these days – a conflict overshadowed geopolitically by the Vietnam war, which raged at the same time. Yet the sheer nastiness of the British establishment during those three years remains a source of deep shame that we should never forget.

• Frederick Forsyth is a former war correspondent and an author

COPIED off theguardian.com/uk

TRANSCRIPT from the tape recordings of the Aburi Meeting was published 3.5 years here on Nairaland:

https://www.nairaland.com/3163044/transcript-tape-recordings-aburi-meeting

It is quite verbatim and extensive.

Well, here was Ojukwu affirming the ON ABURI WE STAND speech, back in 1969

The actual Aburi decisions read as follows:
=========
Members agree that the legislative and executive authority of the Federal Military Government should remain in the Supreme Military Council, to which any decision affecting the whole country shall be referred for determination provided that where it is possible for a meeting to be held the matter requiring determination must be referred to military governors for their comment and concurrence. Specifically, the council agreed that appointments to senior ranks in the police, diplomatic, and consular services as well as appointment to superscale posts in the federal civil service and the equivalent posts in the statutory corporation must be approved by the Supreme Military Council.

The regional members felt that all the decrees passed since January 15, 1966, and which detracted from previous powers and positions of regional governments, should be repealed if mutual confidence is to be restored. It is difficult to understand the introduction of the word “veto” into the matter.

The Aburi Agreement was that any decision which affected the whole country must receive the concurrence of all the military governors because of their special responsibilities in their different area of authority and so to the country as a corporate whole.

On the reorganization of the army, it is for Lieutenant-Colonel Gowon to explain to the world what he means by the “army continuing to be under one command,” when in the very next sentence of his statement he also speaks of an agreement to establish area commands corresponding with the existing regional boundaries. This contradiction in itself tells the truth, and one does does not need to belabor the point.

The actual decision of the Supreme Military Council as recorded in the official minutes reads as follows: The Council decides that: (i) on reorganization of the army:

(a) Army to be governed by the Supreme Military Council under a chairman to be known Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Head of the Federal Military Government.

(b) Establishment of a military headquarters comprising equal representation from the regions and headed by a Chief of Staff.

(c) Creation of area commands corresponding to existing regions and under the charge of area commander.

(d) Matters of policy, including appointments and promotions to top executive posts in the armed forces and the police, to be dealt with by the Supreme Military Council.

(e) During the period of the military government, military governors will have control over area commands for internal security.

(f) Creation of a Lagos garrison, including Ikeja barracks.

It is clear from the Aburi decisions that what was envisaged was a loosely knit army administered by a representative military headquarters under the charge of a Chief of Staff and commanded by the Supreme Military Council, not by Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon as he claimed in his present statement to the diplomats. According to the Aburi Agreements “the following appointments must be approved by the Supreme Military Council;

(a) diplomatic and consular posts;
(b) senior posts in the armed forces and the police;
(c) superscale federal civil service and federal corporation posts.”

Everyone with even the most superficial acquaintance with the Nigerian civil service knows what those expressions mean and connote. To confuse issue, Lieutenant-Colonel Gowon gave the impression that the main difference between him and me on this particular decision was that I insisted on canceling the appointments of existing civil servants. I can think of nothing more slanderous. It is clear from Gowon’s statement in question that he is prepared to distort the verbatim reports of the Aburi meeting.

To keep the public informed, the Eastern Nigerian Broadcasting Service will be playing the tape records of the proceedings live at scheduled times…. Arrangement have been completed to transform those tape recordings to long-playing gramophone records … We are also going ahead to print and publish the documents and records of Aburi meeting.

We in the East are anxious to see that our difficulties are resolved by peaceful means and that Nigeria is preserved as a unit, but it is doubtful, and the world must judge whether Lieutenant-Colonel Gowon’s attitudes and other exhibitions of his insincerity are something which can lead to a return of normalcy and confidence in the country. I must warn all Easterners once again to remain vigilant.

The East will never be intimidated, nor will she acquiesce to any form of dictation. It is not our intention to play the aggressor. Nonetheless, it is not our intention to be slaughtered in our beds, We are ready to defend our homeland. Fellow countrymen and women, on Aburi We Stand. There will be no compromise. God grant peace in our time.
===============

Ojukwu restating commitment to Aburi Accord on May 30 1969

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/11/on-aburi-we-stand-the-distortion-of-accord-by-ojukwu/

LaMujer:



Sorry no, point of correction. After Nzeogwu's coup, Ironsi was Head of State, and despite Brig Babatunde Ogundipe, a Yoruba, being CSSHQ, Awo wasn't released until Gowon came into power. it was Gowon who released Awo, not Ironsi. and if memory serves me right sef, the coup plotters were all in jail then. So, how did they being in jail, make Gowon release Awo from jail?

Here is an excerpt from Awo's diary:

----------------------------------------
"I will let my Diary for 3 August speak briefly here.
(1) Crossed the prison gate into freedom at 7.56 a.m.
(2) Plane took off from Calabar at 8.30 a.m.
(3) Arrived Ikeja airport at 9.32 a.m.
(4) Saw Gowon at his Headquarters.
(5) Returned to Ikenne alone in triumph. At this juncture, it is of interest to narrate the nature of Ironsi’s proposed release as it was disclosed to me after my actual release. The plan was to take me to Ikoyi prison until it was judged safe to set me free. A cell had been prepared for me there which contained extra facilities . If I did not like the place, I could be placed under house arrest at Ikenne. If I wanted to travel abroad, every facility would be afforded me to do so. That was why my intended release was not announced, even though a plane had been dispatched to Calabar to bring me to Lagos. Until negotiation with me on the above lines had been concluded, Ironsi’s team did not want the public to know that I had been transferred back to Ikoyi prison or to my house under house arrest, with my own consent."
------------------------------

Read more here: https://www.nairaland.com/1932621/released-awolowo-prison-ojukwu-gowon

adeoba2008:
Use Google lens to scan the picture and it will show you the name of the snake. That's more reliable than Nairaland.

Oh, I could just hug you tight and with joy for this suggestion. I really at all times use Google Lens even way back when it was called GOGGLES.
With a good android camera phone you can find out all sorts of information from the world's biggest databank, Google.

About this creepie, I know that in the animal world a lot of snakes mimic the appearance and colouring of their most potent and dangerous kin, in order to stay safe from other predators but for humans daring to ascertain whether or not a particular snake is venomous or not, is to check the bite marks or teeth patterns. A snake bite with a continuous pattern on the skin is said not to be poisonous, but one with 2 prominent or standalone marks a venomous and maybe poisonous slitherer.

I wish the photograph was clear enough to use Lens off the screen to get the proper name.

Of course, No Pressure, so button it. NO BOTTLE !!!!!

LordVoldermort:
If you read my post at all you would see that wasn't my point many people have given you proof and you nicely ignored it

Who was incharge of the Eastern region?

Let me just give you a snippet from Awolowo's diary:

Here is an excerpt from Awo's diary:

----------------------------------------
"I will let my Diary for 3 August speak briefly here.
(1) Crossed the prison gate into freedom at 7.56 a.m.
(2) Plane took off from Calabar at 8.30 a.m.
(3) Arrived Ikeja airport at 9.32 a.m.
(4) Saw Gowon at his Headquarters.
(5) Returned to Ikenne alone in triumph. At this juncture, it is of interest to narrate the nature of Ironsi’s proposed release as it was disclosed to me after my actual release. The plan was to take me to Ikoyi prison until it was judged safe to set me free. A cell had been prepared for me there which contained extra facilities . If I did not like the place, I could be placed under house arrest at Ikenne. If I wanted to travel abroad, every facility would be afforded me to do so. That was why my intended release was not announced, even though a plane had been dispatched to Calabar to bring me to Lagos. Until negotiation with me on the above lines had been concluded, Ironsi’s team did not want the public to know that I had been transferred back to Ikoyi prison or to my house under house arrest, with my own consent."
------------------------------

Please just note that that is no need to keep arguing with those who choose to rewrite history. Many have tried but will keep failing.
Heck, they will even disown this entry of their man's recollection.

Read more here: https://www.nairaland.com/1932621/released-awolowo-prison-ojukwu-gowon

Omenaukor:
How can I get Umi A3pro battery?

Go online to Jumia Nigeria.

Damn. You mean he forgot to also ban mixed sitting or sharing in airplanes too

Good Morning to the great Nation of Tinubuland.

Jakpon:
All these horrible news emanating from Igbo land recently is scary and disturbing. In the other news it was about two wicked old men that were caught burying deadly charms inside peoples compound in anambra, and now this one again. person no go wan go do Christmas for village be dat o

What a warped world you exist in or come from. Still after reading what had happened, you still couldn't even genuflect or at least show slight concordance with this smoky conveyance of justice.

They served it hot and ready and hopefully the message goes out that Igboland abhors aruru-ala. And no matter how grave the situation is, our natural justice for the preservation of innocent human life will always come to the fore.

I thank you for your vacuous vigilance and vain vexations.

WIKE, The DIKE OHA
WIKE, The OHA DIKE.

kan-ka. mam-ma.

Patrioticman007:
Na dem, dem want to pose with Benz this Christmas for village. This pigs will always give Nigeria a very bad name, for the victims family & country will forever hate Nigeria. When will Nigeria allow these pigs to go.

Most interestingly now is, how are you feeling knowing that the PIGS are most likely from your own homestead?
Yeah, Nigeria must never allow these PIGS plus all their relatives and friends to ever breathe again. Please say Amen with me now.

......

And please enlighten me more about the COR agitation of minorities in the old Eastern region.

Middlebelt minorities also submitted their request to the Willinks Comission in 1959 for an independent region from the north, but it was heavily ignored. So I am really interested in that of the Eastern minorities. Thanks.

I am sorry if I am intruding here, but I hope you really can read through it all with an open mind.

WILLINK REPORT 1958 EXCERPTS.:

THE HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL BACKGROUND.

1. “More than 98% of people who inhabit this area (the ‘Ibo Plateau’ of the Eastern region) are Ibo and speak one language, though of course with certain differences of dialect. There are nearly five million of them and they are too many for the soil to support: they are vigorous and intelligent and have pushed outward in every direction, seeking a livelihood by trade or in service in the surrounding areas of the Eastern Region, in the Western Region, in the North and outside Nigeria. They are no more popular with their neighbours than is usual in the case of an energetic and expanding people whose neighbours have a more leisurely outlook on life.”

2. “Though there has been no great kingdom or indigenous culture in the Eastern Region, the coastal chiefs grew on their trade with the (European merchant) ships and they adopted customs, clothing and housing more advanced than those of the peoples of the interior on whom they had at first preyed for slaves. They came during the 19th Century to regard the people of the interior as backward and ignorant, and it was therefore a blow to their pride, as well as to their pockets, when the Ibos began to push outwards into the surrounding fringe of the country and particularly into the Calabar area, to take up land, to grow rich, to own houses and lorries and occupy posts in public services and in the services of large trading firms.”

“It was among the Ibos, formerly despised by the people of Calabar as source of slaves and as a backward people of the interior, now feared and disliked as energetic and educated, that the first political party formed.”

3. “It is important to remember that of this (Ogoja) Province’s 1,082,000 inhabitants, 723,000 are Ibos, almost entirely in Abakaliki and Afikpo (Divisions), while the census classifies 350,000 as “Other Nigerian Tribes.”

4. The Rivers Province …includes the two divisions of Brass and Degema, both overwhelmingly Ijaw, and the Ogoni Division. The former Rivers Division also includes over 300,000 Ibos of whom 250,000 are in Ahoada Division and 45,000 in Port Harcourt. Port Harcourt is a town of recent growth and of rapidly increasing importance; it is built on land that blonged originally to an outlying branch of the Ibo tribe, the Diobus, but is largely inhabited by the Ibos from the interior who have come to trade or seek employment….Of the total 747,000 in the Rivers province, 305,000 are Ibos, 240,000 are Ijaws and 156,000 are Ogonis.”

5. “The strip to the south of the Ibo block, is physically, divided by a block of Ibo territory, tipped by the important Ibo town of Port Harcourt and tribally divided between the Ijaws and the Ogonis.”

6. “In the whole of this non-Ibo area there is present in varying degree some fear of being over-run, commercially and politically, by the Ibos….. if Ahoada and Port Harcourt, which are really Ibo, are considered with the solid centre of Ibo population, there are 54 seats for the Ibo area and 30 for COR (Calabar, Ogoja and Rivers) in (Eastern Regional House of Assembly).”

THE FEARS AND GRIEVANCES OF MINORITIES

7. “It was suggested (by non-Ibo petitioners) that it was the deliberate object of the Ibo majority in the Region to fill every post with Ibos (in public post and services).….when, however we came to consider specific complaints about the composition of public bodies, we found them in many cases exaggerated or unreasonable.”

8. “The allegation was put forward by counsel (to petitioners) that the Judiciary (when not European) was predominantly Ibo, with the implication that this caused fear among those who are not Ibos. But it was clearly stated in evidence by Dr. Udoma, the leader of UNIP, that no occasion could be adduced of the judiciary acting with partiality. The fact is that the legal profession is largely Ibos and the reasons for this do not seem to be Government action. It is therefore inevitable that there should be an Ibo preponderance among Judges and Magistrates. Further, it is the declared policy of Government that the Judiciary should be federal and this does not indicate a desire to control it. Again, the operation and composition of Public Service Commission here, as in the West, appeared to us in no way open to reproach.”

9. “In the Police, which in this region alone is wholly Federal, the number of Ibos in the higher appointments is not out of proportion to the Ibos in the region. The force is now federally controlled and although there are a large number of Ibos in the lower ranks, this is due to the fact that it has for long been a tradition among the Ibos to offer themselves for recruitment in this force in far greater numbers than any other tribe.”

10. “we noted that in five years, 1952 – 1957, from a total of 412 secondary scholarships, 216 were awarded to persons living in the COR areas, while the figures for post-secondary scholarships were 211 out of 623. The latter is about the right proportion of one-third, the former considerably in excess. It was suggested that scholarships awarded to non-Ibos were of an inferior kind and that the best scholarships went to Ibos, but we were, unable to see that this claim held any validity. On the evidence before us, we conclude that the allegations of discriminations in the matter of scholarships are unjustified.”

11. “It was further suggested that loans by the Eastern Regional Finance Corporation, the Eastern Region Development Board, and the Eastern Region Development Corporation were made with some degree of preference to Ibos. It did appear that most of the loans made by these bodies were to Ibos, but that is not to say that this was necessarily improper. Ibos constitute two thirds of the population of the region and have a bigger share of financial and commercial responsibility than their numbers warrant.”

12. “That there should be modern streetlight in Onitsha, and not Calabar, was also quoted as example of discrimination; it proved however that Onitsha Urban District Council had financed this measure from their own resources.”

13. “The question of land was repeatedly raised, it being resented by the Efiks and Ibibios that the Ibos should acquire land at all in their territory while the methods by which it was obtained were also questioned. There is no doubt that on the Ibo Plateau there is insufficient land for the people and the Ibos ate thrusting outwards where possible they acquire land and use it either for cultivation or building…..This is a matter which will require legislation sooner or later and it will be delicate to handle, but the economic process is in itself healthy and we had little sympathy with a witness who remarked that there is much undeveloped land in district and he was anxious that it should not fall into the hand of the Ibos….We believe that Governments in Nigeria should be careful not to try to protect minorities by introducing measures that would restrict development.”

14. “A group of miscellaneous grievances and charges against the Ibos from Calabar may be treated together; we were told that the Ibos did not observe local customs in the markets….We formed the impression that jealousy of the Ibos successes in the markets was the main factor.”

THE PROPOSAL FOR NEW STATES

15. “The Ogoja state proposed to us would include former Ogoja province, whose population of slightly more than One million include more than 700,000 Ibos…the main intention would be separation from the central body of Ibo population, but in which they will still be linked together with as a minority with their Ibo neighbours in Abakaliki and Afikpo…A majority of evidence we heard from Ogoja was direct that they preferred the present situation to any association with Calabar and that they were at least as much afraid of domination by Efiks and Ibibios as by Ibos.”

16. “The (Calabar, Ogoja and Rivers or COR) state proposed would consist of Calabar, Rivers and Ogoja provinces excluding the two Ibo Divisions of Abakaliki and Afikpo. The population of this area is 2,649,000 and the following would be the five largest tribes:

Ibibio 717,000
Annang 435,000
Ibo 428,000
Ijaw 251,000
Ogoni 156,000

As already explained, the small but important Efik tribe of 71,000…The (COR) area is far from homogenous , and many of the other tribes expressed at least as much fear of the Efiks and Ibibios as of the Ibo. It would leave the Ibos of the Ibo Plateau surrounded by a state whose reason for existence was hostility to themselves: the Ibos are an expanding people…”

17. “The area claimed for Rivers state consists of the whole of the Rivers province, that is: The Division of Brass, Degema, Ogoni, Port Harcourt and Ahoada, together with the Western Ijaw Division from the western region, and two small sections in the Eastern Region from outside the Rivers Province, Opodo and Andoni being one, Ndoki the other.”

18. “Port Harcourt is an Ibo town and it is growing rapidly and the indigenous branch of the Ibos who are original inhabitants are already out-numbered by Ibos from the hinterland.”

19. “The people of Ahoada, a Division of which a pan runs down to meet Port Harcourt, appear at one time to have favoured the idea of a Rivers state, but have changed their views and before us expressed themselves as strongly against it. Comparatively few of them live in the low-lying swampy country of the coastal strip and they have voted for the NCNC consistently, they said themselves that a main factor in their change of front had been the inclusion if the Western Ijaws in the proposed state. So long, they said, as the Rivers state was to consist of the River Province only, the Ibos would have been the most numerous tribe within it: but the inclusion of the Western Ijaw Division put them at a numerical disadvantage beside the Ijaws and they therefore preferred to stay out. Whether or not this was a line of reasoning that really had a wide appeal, the fact remain that before us they were opposed to the idea of the state. This is not surprising because their problems are different from those of the ijaws.”

20. “To include within a River state Ahoada and Port Harcourt, would, we believe, create a problem as acute as that with which we were asked to deal at present and and would be sharply resented by the Ibos of the central plateau.”

***"Copied from Elsewhere"***

Youngmaster0:


You don't even know Rivers state politics.. Do you think Ikwerres can elect there's elves as governor, they are minority tribe to compare to ogoni and kalabari.. Yet the past four governors of rivers state are from Ikwerres, why? Bcus the rely on the vote on igbos for SE to keep occupying that position..

Igbo's in rivers will rather vote for ikwere man than ogoni and kalabari people..

Also note the past four governors of rivers state from Ikwerre extraction married from south eastern states, not even one married from other tribes in rivers or so called south south or niger delta

Sir, you're giving out too much information. At times, it may be best gleaning all what your enemies are using and planning against your interest.

What the heck is going on here with this false headline ?
Where is the condemnation in the press release of the US State Dept.,

All the US State Dept did was to EXPRESS CONCERN, nothing else.
THERE WAS NO CONDEMNATION.

Danmaiduguri:


Mathew10:34-36" Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring PEACE, but a SWORD"

A sword for seeking Knowledge
A sword for seeking Understanding
A sword for seeking Enlightenment
A sword for seeking Truth
A sword for seeking Justice
A sword for seeking Righteousness

Never a SWORD for forcing or killing people.

Jesus Christ as the redeemer, always taught non-violence. And who can beat that ?

The picture shown depicts a brute and a beast both rolled up in that wally of man called Kabaka.

Mundane matters to Mecca and Medina.

I have watched the video clip 3 times, and it actually strikes me, as most undignified for the President of the Federal Republic not to know and fully acknowledge a serving senator and also wife of the national leader of his political party. No excuses at all.

For those who read wide, here is what I guess he is latching unto, from yesterday's UK Guardian.

From Lanre Bakare Arts and culture correspondent of the UK Guardian Newspaper

Wed 27 Nov 2019 16.13 GMT on Wed 27 Nov 2019 19.35 GMT

A bronze cockerel taken by British colonial forces and donated to Jesus College Cambridge is to be returned to Nigeria in an unprecedented step that adds momentum to the growing repatriations movement.

The Okukor, described by the college as a “royal ancestral heirloom”, will be one of the first Benin bronzes to be returned to Nigeria by a major British institution since the punitive expedition in 1897 when thousands of bronzes were stolen from Benin City by British forces.

No specific date for return has been released but the college stated that the bronze cockerel “belongs with the current Oba at the Court of Benin”. The return was recommended by Jesus College’s Legacy of Slavery Working Party (LSWP), a group dedicated to looking at the institution’s connections to slavery, which confirmed the piece was donated in 1905 by the father of a student.

Sonita Alleyne, the master of Jesus College, said the decision was not taken to “erase history” but came after “diligent and careful” work that looked into the wider legacy of slavery at Jesus College. “We are an honest community, and after thorough investigation into the provenance of the Benin bronze … our job is to seek the best way forward,” she said.

The cockerel had been removed from its public display following calls from students for it to be sent back in 2016, with the college pledging to begin discussions about its future, including a possible return to Nigeria. In the three years since, the college says it has been in discussion with the Benin Dialogue Group, a collective of artists and museum representatives who meet to discuss the future of the bronzes.

Victor Ehikhamenor, a Nigerian artist and member of the Benin Dialogue Group, said: “No matter how small the gesture may look, it is a huge step towards the realisation of restitution of the works from the Benin Kingdom that were looted by the British. This is very important example, which I hope other Europeans, especially British institutions, will follow without any excuses or delays.”

Dan Hicks, a professor of archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and a representative of the Benin Dialogue Group, said: “We have reached a tipping point in our national dialogues about the cultural restitution of objects looted under British colonialism.

“In the past, our attention on this matter was focused on national collections like the British Museum and the V&A – but in reality such loot is held in dozens of institutions across the regions: city museums, art galleries and the collections of universities.”

The move follows Manchester Museum becoming the first UK institution to return ceremonial items to Aboriginal groups nearly a century after they were stolen by British forces. The repatriation of the artefacts, which include a traditional headdress made from emu feathers, could be the beginning of the return of tens of thousands of similar items from institutions across the UK.

The Jesus College announcement comes almost exactly 12 months after the release of a report commissioned by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, which recommended the return of colonial-era artefacts by France.

The report’s authors, the Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr and the French art historian Bénédicte Savoy, told the Guardian that the British Museum, which houses a huge collection of the Benin bronzes, was acting like “an ostrich with its head in the sand” by not acting faster on repatriations.

“There’s an expression in French, la politique de l’autruche, which means something is in front of you and you say you can’t see it, like an ostrich with its head in the sand,” Sarr told the Guardian. “They will have to respond and they can’t hide themselves any longer on the issue.”

The British Museum agreed with the report’s call for the establishment of “new and more equitable relationships between Europe and Africa”, and is represented in the Benin Dialogue Group.

Since the release of the report, Ivory Coast, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have made formal requests for the return of artefacts. European countries including France and Germany have committed to handing back objects, with the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam opening talks with Sri Lanka and Indonesia and describing the Netherlands’ failure to return stolen artefacts as a “disgrace”.
The news comes a week after Open Society Foundations (OSF) announced a $15m initiative aimed at strengthening efforts to “restore cultural objects looted from the African continent”. It also follows the return of a colonial-era artefact by France, with Senegal receiving a sabre that belonged to a 19th-century Islamic scholar and ruler earlier in November.

h t t ps://w w w . theguardian.com/education/2019/nov/27/bronze-cockerel-to-be-returned-to-nigeria-by-cambridge-college

coolitempa:
Do ibos have kings?

Oh yes, we have them two to a penny. And that is why kings or EZES cannot make too much shakara or iyanga unlike some other places.

They are however regarded as first amongst equals in our gatherings, and most of all, as the spokesman for the kinship after all harmonious or acrimonious discussions involving his chiefs or council of elders, as the case may be.

We have way evolved to full titular rulership of domain or community.

With kind permission from BISHOPMAGIC of Nairaland, permit me to sneeze... but to take Warri and leave out Benin is sinful.

Finally Tanko wants his fellow justices to stop driving his planes.

NO GOOD FOUNDATION for ANYTHING GOOD

SalamRushdie:
That's Black label

Don't mind the OP. He sees one thing, but calls it another.

And by the way, can anyone even prove that, that is whisky that they are clinking to ?

And if it were to be the whisky, I wonder for the life of me; why use flutes ?

If you know, you know !!!

nelsonoba:


And if you think it's very easy to start a church and be successful, then why don't you start one yourself and show us an example? Do you know there are over 200,000 registered churches in Nigeria, both real and fake combined? How come out of over 200,000 there are not up to 100 churches that have become so successful that so many people know of them like Dunamis, Winners, Dominion City, Redeemed, etc??

But your brain will not allow you do the maths to see reality. Please go and start one church let us see how easy it is!

And for your information, there are churches like Winners, Dominion city and others that I know of where their G.O.s don't collect any salary. They are entitled to salary, but they have refused to be collecting it for many years till date just as a sign to show that their faith is in God, and God blesses them through other sources including from members and non-members. Some of these GOs have businesses that generate money for them. Some of them have hundreds of people on scholarships.

But people like you and Daddy freeze will not open your eyes to see the truth. All you know and talk about are the fake pastors who are not there for God. Why don't you ever talk about people like Apostle Suleiman who has hundreds on scholarships and provides direct employment to many people from his businesses outside of his church?? The earlier you stop deceiving yourself to think all pastors are fake, the better for you and your daddy freeze

There was this late radical preacher in America called David Wilkerson who once wrote:

That is the great idolatry of our day. There is a great host of preachers who have literally cast aside the message of the cross of Jesus Christ!

Be warned: It doesn't matter what anyone tells you about a great "revival" or moving of the Spirit taking place; it doesn't matter how many multitudes are involved, or how loud their praises are; it doesn't matter how "successful" a particular ministry may appear to be. If the cross of Jesus Christ is not the door through which people come, you can rest assured -- it is not a work of God!

The cross -- including its demands and hope -- are the very heart of the gospel. And any worship -- any fellowship, anything calling itself church -- is blatant idolatry if the cross is not at its center. Such worship is of another spirit entirely -- and God will have nothing to do with it. Without the cross, all that is left is chaff -- a perverted gospel, something from the pits of hell. It is an idolatry more insulting to the Lord than the idolatry of Israel!

Yet, in most churches where this "other gospel" is preached, the pews are packed. All the right words are sung and spoken. The theological terms, such as holiness, Holy Spirit and the cross, are mentioned. Everything looks good and sounds right. But the reality of the cross is not presented! The crisis of the cross, the confrontational aspects, are completely avoided. And if a sermon about the cross does not include confrontation of sin -- if it does not bring you to the crisis of the cross -- it is not the true preaching of the cross!

If I were to preach about the demands of the cross in many churches today -- with its death to all lusts and worldly pleasures -- the crowds would flee, just as they did when Jesus told them of the cost of following him. If I were to say to the comfortable multitudes, "God demands that you face your sins, kneel at the cross, deal with your wickedness" -- two-thirds of the congregation would leave offended and never come back.

Such churches never even mention the cross. Instead, they pour their energies into clever meetings full of showmanship, dramatic illustrations, sermons on how to cope with life's problems. Right now we're seeing a whole new generation of smart, young ministers -- bright, diligent, capable men -- who build huge complexes offering people everything from daycare to spas to body-building classes. Parishioners can now center their church involvement around recreation, entertainment, family events, musicals. It is all high tech, contemporary and non-threatening.

I believe God must wink at many of these frail attempts to attract souls with modern enticements. He seems to have much patience with such well-intentioned, fleshly efforts to promote the gospel. But God help the ministers of these churches if they refuse to warn their people to forsake their sins!

Jeremiah lamented,

"...they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness..." (Jeremiah 23:14).

"But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their doings" (verse 22).

I say to such ministers, "Bring back the cross -- or the people's blood will be upon your hands!"

Lexusgs430:


Umidigi Power 3........

Umidigi Power 4ALL


I win sum-in, init !!!!

The Obudu Clown dons ekpe and ekpo for keeps.

Anambralstson, good afternoon. How come you managed to beat MetaPhysical to this Front Page news ? Is he out of data ?

mansakhalifa:


If you think or believe that you have read Nigerian history and this episode of it is new to you, then you have to start all over again.
I have the book somewhere on my shelf at home. It was actually written by a British author and academic. In that book, the author stated the British authorities believed that the miners were being encouraged to strike by a radical group known as the "Zikist Movement" thereby, heightening their fears that the strike could metamorphose into something else. That group was later proscribed.


Those officers had zero chill.

I will forever be grateful to the killed miners for such an act of sacrifice in the East. And like it has been mentioned, the Zikist Movement was then considered impudent and ungrateful by the powers that be then. This of course, was in sync with Nnamdi Azikiwe°s American education and inferences dovetailed into his and Nkrumah°s version of Pan-Africanism.

My late Dad, who was a Zikist said an important input from the movement was the emphasis on/of using only his eastern name. Many members even outdid Zik, whose English name was Benjamin, by totally dropping or removing all their English/Christian names through affidavits. As a result, many of us from then onward have our own clan names only.

Thank you again.