₦airaland Forum

Ya may have a point

9jakohai:
On-air personality or to put it simply 'radio presenter'.

Ok

What is OAP?

Ojiofor:
Aburi became necessary due to inability of Gowon to stop the progroms against Igbos all over Nigeria except Eastern region and may I remind you that before Aburi the military junta in Lagos haven't officially declared the then head of state Gen Ironsi dead,It was in Aburi that Gowon for the first time announced that then head of state was killed in the july 66 coup because Ojukwu was constantly asking them,where is the 'supreme commander' so why should Ojukwu be loyal to Gowon when the supreme commander's where about was yet unknown?Yet Ojukwu went ahead and negotiated a way forward for his people and Nigeria as contained in Aburi agreement which the two leaders signed only for Gowon to come back to Nigeria and dumped the same agreement he signed.

How can u say with a straight face that Aburi was about the pogroms? The pogroms ended in
'66. Almost all Igbos were already back in the East. If Ojukwu had accepted Gowon's leadership, the next move would have been to start restoring normalcy as was done after the war. As for asking where Ironsi was, that's basically Ojukwu saying openly he rejected Gowon. It's like someone asking where "supreme commander" Gowon was after the Murutala coup. It was just being mischievous. There was a new C-in-C and Ojukwu's job as a soldier was to obey him, not worry about where the retired one was.

See, if Gowon was a stronger person, a wiser person, if he wasn't busy being a good boy, the first thing he should have done as soon as he became HOS was relieve Ojukwu of command. That singular act would have saved millions of lives.

Sprumbabafather:
Soyinka, Ffk and fayose are not cowards, but what is 3 men in a tribe of millions of cowards?

And name their Igbo counterparts if Igbos are so brave. Who is the Igbo counterpart of Fela who was insulting military to their face WHILE THEY WERE IN POWER. Despite their guns, he sang a popular song calling them zombie. He sang another one insulting people in uniform and another one insulting the military dictator personally and directly. So u see , no tribe has a monopoly on bravery or cawardice.

Ojiofor:
Gowon's refusal to honour Aburi agreement was the reason Ojukwu declared Biafra and Gowon declared war on Biafra.

See how u just defeated your argument. U just admitted the war could have been avoided despite the pogroms. U just said yourself Ojukwu declared the war because of Aburi. And why was there a need to have Aburi? Why couldn't Gowon, as a military dictator, have ordered his underling, Ojukwu, as to what to do (which is military law). BECAUSE OJUKWU WOULD NOT ACCEPT HIS COMMAND AND LEADERSHIP. And that, my friend, is what's at the root cause of the war.

aniomafirstson:
Try it and see

touch any igbo man on oct 1st and see

There will be nothing to see. Soldiers and police will be used to contain the Arewa fools. Which is what would have happened in '66 if Ojukwu had accepted Gowon as HOS.

Good for him!

tifany89:
So much Ignorance on display

So you concede the point: If Igbos were to start being killed in the north today, there won't be any secession and war because there won't be an Ojukwu to goad Igbos into it. It would be resolved within the system.

tifany89:
It's you dat is sounding foolish, how does Boko haram a terrorist group relate to the issue on ground? So because someone you respected is the Head of state/ president so then you will be willing to trade the lives of your kinsmen? Shows how ignorantly daft you are. Not everybody would be as idiotic as you. If you had been more reasonable and matured in your comments, I would have taken time to school you with examples but as it is I will allow you wallow in your ignorance. Douchebag

I find your name-calling funny. That's what happens when one has no argument. Just as Buhari can't prevent BH, Ironsi can't sit in Lagos and prevent an Hausa man killing his Igbo neighbor in North. The point is that Ojukwu would have worked with him to stem it, just as he could have chosen to work with Gowon, a devout christian

DocHMD:
^^^^ And this is one of the yorubas who claim to be 'sophiaticated and intelligent". Don't be suprised if he also claims to live in America when he is actual typing off from the underneath of one brown muddy hut in oshogbo.

There are, what, 400 tribes in Nigeria. You have no way of knowing mine. Secondly I don't think Yorubas are any more "sophiaticated and intelligent" than Igbos. You have genuses and dummies on both sides. I have to admit Igbos SEEM to have a better instinct for business but I think it is mainly due t their apprenticeship system

Sprumbabafather:
The only difference between Igbos and yorubas is bravery and cowardice.

I know many cowardly Igbo people and many brave Yoruba people. Do u think Soyinka is a coward? Do you think Rochas is braver than Fayose or FFK?

tifany89:
How will there be progrom in the first place with Ironsi as Head of State? How is that even remotely possible? When he is in control of the armed forces? Except he has losses control of his men and office. Are you even aware that the army joined in the killings of unarmed innocent civilians for no just cause? If you are the president, will you allow your kinsmen to be killed senselessly for whatever reasons? You see why your analogy isn't rational and is best discarded

You sound foolish. Why is there Boko Haram while Buhari is predident? I wasn't making an anology. It was a hypothetical question. Ironsi' tribe was not important to the question. If anybody was there that Ojukwu respected and was willing to take command from, there would have been no war. You don't have to be a genius to see that.

DocHMD:
The reason why you yorubas would have not reacted if 30,000 of you were killed is because we all know yoruba lives are worthless. If I walk to Jankara market right now, I will get a severed yoruba human head for N1,500 ($4.30), enough for baba Jimoh the seller to purchase Ogogoro Elder's schnapp. It's common knowledge.

Shame no dey catch una.

If u were not so blinded by small-minded tribalism, what's the big difference between Yoruba and Igbo? If u meet a Yoruba man in a foreign country you'd be happy u have a brother around. Many Igbos are happily married to Yorubas, etc

tifany89:
So are you saying Igbos weren't slaughtered before the war or there were no senseless progroms in the north? Fear God

If Igbos were to start being killed in the North today, do u think there would be secession and war? No. It would be resolved within the system. There would be war only if an Ojukwu were there to goad Igbos onto it.

tifany89:
So are you saying Igbos weren't slaughtered before the war or there were no senseless progroms in the north? Fear God

If Igbos started being killed in the North today, do u think there would be secession and war? No. It would be resolved within the system. There would be war only if an Ojukwu were there to goad Igbos onto it.

Sprumbabafather:
Sit down and let me educate you. Look at how it happened.

There was a counter coup to deal with those army officers who executed a coup on January 1966, this counter coup was in July 1966. Aguiyi Ironsi was head of state. The people who did the counter coup killed Aguiyi Ironsi, Fajuyi and a few others, they took over power and announced Yakubu Gowon as the head of government. Ojukwu never said anything, he was not a coupist and he was sitting in Enugu as the eastern governor. Then the pogroms started, stories upon stories of thousands of southerners, mostly igbos being killed, raped, beheaded and their heads paraded on the streets of Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and Lagos was all in the news. Trains laden with Igbos were stopped and hundreds of civilians were brought down and killed, some corpses were returned to the east without the head.

Ojukwu tried a lot to intervene, he called on the country's leadership to save the life of Igbos, nobody did anything to stop the killings, more riots broke out, even the Igbos sheltered at barracks and emir of Katsina palace were brought out and killed in the second round. The emir begged but the brainwashed mobs refused. The new president stood and watched from Dodan barracks. Ojukwu called for arrest and punishment of the offenders, nothing happened. Igbos has been chased away from all their positions in the North and Lagos. Our people returned home. Ojukwu was still in charge in the east. He never asked about Gowon.

Then negotiations started, Ojukwu told the country leadership that the Igbos no longer felt safe in Nigeria. He advocated for confedracy. Negotiations took everyone to Aburi, because Ojukwu no longer felt safe going to Lagos, African nations tried to broker peace in the talks. In the end, they all signed to have a confederation in Aburi. Gowon signed and Ojukwu signed, everyone left for Nigeria.

Gowon came back to Nigeria and decided to withdraw from his agreement in Aburi. Ojukwu now consulted with Igbo chiefs, they have the go ahead in a lot of meeting which culminated in the Ahiara declaration in Mbaise, current Imo state. Then Ojukwu declared Biafra. All igbos were inside Igboland when Ojukwu declared Biafra.

The federal government of Gowon was not happy about this and they swore to bring back Biafra to Nigeria. They attacked the Igbos first.

Now back to your question, where does Gowon seniority or Aguiyi Ironsi being the head of state after the pogroms come in? Aguiyi Ironsi who was killed even before the pogroms? Or Ojukwu who negotiated and got an agreement from Nigeria, only to be disappointed?

Try to read history, emancipate yourself from mental slavery.

Thanks for reharshing a history we all know by heart very well. Can't u see everything was in Ojukwu's hands. He could have chosen to work within the system. He chose war. And forget Igbo chiefs. That was a gimmick
Ojukwu was the dictator. This was the military. You don't negotiate a command unless u r ready for war. Also Ojukwu was fairly certain he would win that war.

cumbak60:
So, you killed Ironsi, (quenched more than 30,000 lives ) on purpose, so that you can bring war to Biafraland. Because, according to you, Ojukwu will not accept Gowon leadership, even though history stated otherwise. Now clap for yourself. You played a brilliant chess game that consumed more than 3 million souls. Posterity will judge you...

Bros, it was all.in Ojukwu's hands. He could have chosen to work within the system and eventually suplant Gowon. Like today, Obiano can easily join ipob and goad Igbos into secession and war

Sprumbabafather:
You contain terrorists? Buratay has been ordered back to contain the terrorists who he defeated in 2015

The people who carried out the pogroms were not terrorists, they are normal residents of the city of Kano and Kaduna. Nothing like terrorism.

Aguiyi Ironsi cannot be head of state to stop the pogroms because he was dead before the pogroms started.

Don't act dumb: IF Ironsi or anybody Ojukwu respected... Ojukwu knew Gowon well and could not fathom taking command from him

cumbak60:
What a dumb question. So why did you guys killed him in the first place?

Answer: if Ironsi was HOS there'd have been no war because Ojukwu would respect and obey him. Mind u I don't blame Ojukwu. He was older, more educated, and longer in the army than Gowon. I too would not be under him

honourhim:
Nzeogwu coup was branded Igbo coup and i ve never seen igbos denying it despite the fact that he is from Delta. I ve also not seen Nzeogwu`s kinsmen coming out to tell Nigerians that the coup was not an Igbo coup rather a Delta coup.
Such display of hypocrisy by the monarch is quite a shame.
When it is for bad they won't tell the world that they are Delta or Ikwerre and not Igbo but when it is for good they quickly deny being Igbo. Shame.
Meanwhile i am not an ipob member and i dont care about Biafra or Nnamdi Kanu. I prefer a United southern Nigeria.

Any half-brained person knows "Igbo" was the last thing on those young soldiers' minds. Having said that, Nzeogwu was an Igbo boy.

chimeee:
why do u think they remove history, it's just to feed u with information like this outside the school, if hundred of igbo is killed in the north there will repraisal in the south that's is the know fact, have u heard that igbo started fighting because thay have not being allowed to rule even though they are very competent and qualified for the job, we are rational human being, how can u kill more than 50,000 igbos and their so country could not protect them, and you expect ojukwu to keep calm and congratulate u, it's Nigeria that brought war to biafra land after biafra sovereign state was declare that is the truth

U don't secede because of terrorists. You contain terrorists. The pogroms did not cause the war. There would have been no war if Aguiyi was HOS no matter how bad the pogroms

Sprumbabafather:
Where has 30,000 person's of a single tribe been killed in Nigeria in a few days now? Tell us.

Ojukwu wanted the pogroms? Can you imagine?

#Products of a failed educational system in a failed country#

Answer this question honestly:
Would there have been a war if Aguiyi Ironsi was head of state regardless of pogroms?

0nyedikachukwu:
well, he is entitled to his own opinion and I think he should stick to it. since he believes kanu's pursuit won't do his kingdom any good, he should get ready to join the Hausa's when Biafra stands.

Do u realize that most Igbo people and virtually no Igbo leader is with this your Biafra. Ipob is not mainstream Igbo at all. It's just that they make a LOT of noise.

Sprumbabafather:
Can you imagine what is coming out of your mouth?

30,000 Igbos slaughtered in a few days and it's not enough to cause a leader to order a secession?

So Gowon is worth 30,000 Souls?



Are you a little child?

Many people are also being killed today? Who has declared secession? There were terrorists but there were also decent people who shielded their Igbo neighbors. Ojukwu wanted the pogroms because it aligned with his aim. Example, if Ojukwu was made Head of state there would have been no war, even if the pogrom was 20 times bigger.

Brooklynsouth:
don't get me wrong here in nairaland when Igbo's lay claim to asaba Yoruba ll be screaming land grabbers but when the first coup is mentioned they ll be fast to say its an Igbo coup .now if nzeogwu from who is from delta state is not Igbo but will be remembered as Igbo whenever the coup is remembered my friend what's the rationale?

Only mischievous people say that "Igbo coup" nonsense. Tribe was the last thing on those youngsters' minds.

Sprumbabafather:
And making his senior the head of state would have just made us all forget the over 30, 000 men, women and children murdered in cold blood in Kano, Katsina and Lagos states?

You can twist history as much as you want, but the Igbo man is not power hungry like the rest of the country. The war was fought for only one reason, the pogroms and Nigerians refusal to keep to the Aburi accord agreement which they signed.

The pogroms did no cause the war. The immediate cause of the war was that Ojukwu would not accept Gowon as his commander. The pogroms could have been contained just like today or Igbos could have left without there being a war

Brooklynsouth:
but he is right nzeogwu is not Igbo or is delta state now Igbo land?

What language is "Chukwuma" or "Nzeogwu". Enlighten us.

Sprumbabafather:
This man should be flogged, the Igbos stuck their necks out and saved the country from Nzeogwu's maniacal coup and got a bad name for it. The war was fought just because the Igbos stood with Nzeogwu. Now someone from that side will open their dirty mouth to speak rubbish about Nnamdi Kanu?

Get your facts right and use common sense. A big reason (not the only reason) Ojukwu went to war was because it made him mad that a much less educated Gowon could be above him in rank yet he entered the army before Gowon. If Ojukwu's senior was made Head of State the war could possibly have been avoided.