₦airaland Forum

abeg who knows when the book is coming out in nigeria, its a must read.i heard schools in nigeria and abroad are already making plans to add it to their syllabus

Chimanet: this country will never move foward till we all admit our mistakes and evil deeds of the past, so pple prefare to support bad thing jst to be relevant in current nigeria in eyes of northerners?

i tire oo

bigdoo: I just ordered the last hard copy of the book from Amazon today for £10.00 and it will arrive at my house tomorrow. Meanwhile I reserve my comments. They say that "seeing is believing". However, I know that "controversy always creates cash". So I suppose that this book might even fetch Chinua Achebe more money than his ever-popular "Things Fall Apart". Let the music play on.

the book will sell more than things fall apart, especially the e version. achebe will break his own record.

Chimanet: So becouse of presidential race that wont benifit me and u, so Achebe shouldnt give an account?

that shows you the mentality of the people we have in this failed nation.

Prof Corruption: Okoro want to postphone something!

You have fled on another front to Ivory Coast! Efulefu

Spoils of war, take heart.

you want to become a soothsayer. you have made your claim and i have made mine lets see how it turns out abi you wan conduct the elction today slowpoke

Prof Corruption: You are dull, slow and not learning fast enough to keep with pace.

Achebe is Igbo, Awolowo a Yoruba. Achebe is writing what is essentially an Igbo perspective on what Yorubas did during the war. If you don't even understand what the book is all about, why are you on this thread?

so where do we place other that where mentione, like murtala, gowon , ojukwu , obasanjo etc? tribalism just runs in your blood, why are you not defending gowon and the rest

Prof Corruption: Which party do you want to use? PDP? You are not bright at all.

Or do you want to use ACN? or CPC? Even in your strong hold of APGA, we managed to get a Senator of ACN there.
May be you will run as independent. You think Nigerian politics is all about empty chest beating!

It's strategy baby!

lest postpone that till 2015.

hotwax: I salute you yoruba people in the house. You did not slack at all. I am really impressed. They though they can distort history. Who can satisfy these igbo people. Wole soyink who fought for biafra, prosecuted for biafra. Is he not yoruba? How do igbos talk about him? They still mock soyinka. Why? Because he is yoruba.
They are just bigots. Tomorrow they will open another thread highlighting the evil yorubas have perpetrated. As if we don't have their history too.
Sour haters.

shut your dirty mouth and show me where igbos mocked soyinka. if you have facts to prove achebe wrong come out and publish your own account, not even obasanjo or gowon who are stil alive have come out to prove him wrong. secondly the book is not igbos writting about yorubas its achebe writting his account og the war, mumu

akinsola118: nnhmm ...... it will be very difficult 4 d igbo side to smell d presidency again ! Anyway,9ja can split any moment frm now ! So Achebe can turn him-self to dia head of state in d fedral republic of Biafra of igbo !

says who we will see aboutnthat come 2015 , the same mouth you made in the last election. as if yorubas have had a president abi obj aslo counts .

Prof Corruption: You were the pioneer! You planned the destruction. You taught Gowon, IBB, Buhari, Abacha how to plan coup. We talk of another Igbo legacy!

why start with number 2 , who pioneered corruption and crises? was awolowo not jailed for trying to topple the govt? was it also igbo people that where rigging election, killing yorubas in the west and stealing billions of pounds mean t for the people?

Prof Corruption: Why Aburi in the first place? What led to Aburi? Con master! Your brain has come back from Ivory coast to join NPN!

corruption and crisis 1960 till 1966------->coup 1966 ------------->counter coup 1966------------>aburi----- ----->war1967 til 70--------------->corruotion and crisis 1970 til today

Prof Corruption: [b]
I can see you have smartly dropped Aburi from your arsenal of attacks. [/b]Your brain has fled to Ivory Coast. Efulefu!
It doesn't matter who is advising you, what matters is you action and ability to take the consequences that come with it.

The british advised Hausa-fulani to stay and they agreed. They are reaping that today. whether good or bad for them-they are in position to tell.
Awolowo advised your fathers to shelve war plans, they disagreed. They now come back to blame the misery he advised against on him. That's the difference between your fathers and Hausa-Fulani. You take actions but reject consequences that come with them.

Spoils of war, take heart.

are you this dumb? why didnt gowon implement aburi when he returned, nobody till today have answered that question.

as per the spoils of war, we see how the north indeed is enjoying spoils of war and also all the oil well in the igboland where bought by igbos so your comment about spoils of war will only fraustrte the ogoni, itshekiris and co whos oil wels are in the hands of the northerners and the yorubas who have lost their several leaders and of course the igbos who want presidency , i say your case is a typical case of slave mentality ,as far as my slave master is happy anything goes.

Prof Corruption: What a fraudulent con master? It now depends on how we view life? Right?

So you now understand that Achebe is not entitled to create his facts but to his opinions! You are learning.
If you continue this way, you may even spit on Ojukwu one day for the avoidable misery he brought upon your fathers. Efulefu!

you made no sense , achebe have given his account of the war , wh not publish your own account. how come none of the people that participated in the war have come out to prove him wrong ,not even obasanjo or gowon that is still alive.

Dudu_Negro: Bashr,

Do you know how many times here in nl i have stressed the point of healing for ibo as part of a recipe for full reintegration? I am not unaware of the point you made here. I am however dissapointed that the primary and fundamental grievances you have against Awo remain vague and at most outright lies. No ibo here has answer to my question in the twenty pound but everyine of you are hollering around the name of Awo as the primary reasin you lost savings that the twenty pounds was served to substitute.


I have also raised numerous questions about the fact that in an interview in Kaduna, when asked about Ironsi's leadershio, Nzeogwu responded amiably admitting Ironsi as his boss and that he reains under his command.
Really I thought Ironsi was on the hit list in Lagos? Nzeogwu's response gave away a connecting tie to what everyone has claimed was an ethnic cleansing of non-igbos.

There are many challenges facing you ibos....you all dodge the obvious.

Can you bashr, as a balanced ibo here in nl....can you help explain these gaps?

first get to the root of the current arguement, was achebes allegation against gowon and awo right or wrong. then we can start going back to what happened before then. i watched the whole video myself if there was no massive coruption and killings in the south west the coup would not have happened to start with.

Prof Corruption: Did I hear you mention Aburi Accord? What brought Aburi Accord?

If you had not killed Western and Northern Leaders sparing yours, there would have been no counter coup, no pogrom and of course no need for Aburi Accord. You brought tribal coup to Nigeria, you destroyed federalism. Typical Igbo logic, discuss Aburi Accord but not the road leading to Aburi Accord.

You are not bright.

you can shout all you like , after the counter coup the north dissociated themselves from nigeria but were advised by britain about the value of oil. shout from today till tomorrow fact remains that achebe wrote what we all already know

Prof Corruption: Thank you, Yorubas were killing themselves but not killing northerners or Igbos. Wetin come be your own?

The security issue in Maiduguri is clearly not secession. We have responsible citizens in the midst of fanatics so we have to separate the apples from oranges. But even at that a few innocent citizens would still suffer not as a deliberate policy but as an avoidable mistake. That's the real life not theoretical permutations.

Nigeria-Biafra case does not fit into your fraudulent comparison. It was a war, simple and clear. The policy to even send food to Biafra in the first place was not well thought out. You don't feed your enemy whose plan was to defeat you. How con you use your own money, resources to buy food only to send it to your enemy? That's is what they call starvation policy! Efulefu

so in essence there was a policy by gowon and awo so why are we still arguing , whether it was right(according to you, awoowo , gowon britain and co)or wrong (according to me, achebe , biafrans and international organisations )depends on how we view life.

ndu_chucks: Are you a pretender or a fool? Red Cross was getting enough food to the region while the blockade policy was in effect.This was not a starvation policy, Ojukwu and his officers were solely responsible for these starvations. Sadly, he ended up running away after he had caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of biafrans. You can continue to bury your head in the sand, in denial if you wish. I pity you sha.

na you be fool even red cross planes where being shot down , hospitals and red cross where being bombed , slowpoke. why did gowon not implement the aburi accord to start with.ewu nama

Prof Corruption: Okoro will not kill me with laughter oooooooooo! You want to separate Ojukwu from the war he brought upon your fathers!
Why are you folks such an illogical thinkers?

You are not even bright. I ignore an obvious fool and move on.

this thread is about whether there was a starvation policy by gowon and awolowo controlled federal govt or not . and the answer is yes so why are yorubas mad that awolowo was named.open another thread lets discus who started the war, why ,w hen and whatever.

ndu_chucks: The above is really the only issue I have against Ojukwu. I lost some relatives due to the said starvation - I actually lost relatives on both sides.

The blockade was designed to put a quick end to the war, but instead of Ojukwu calling it off, he used the food supplies which were coming to biafra through the red cross for troops, while women and children died in vain.

Instead of surrendering when it became obvious that the war had been lost, Ojukwu and his officers ambushed the Red Cross vehicles and took the foods to their friends and to their collaborators and to their children , while the e masses were suffering. It was these attacks on Red Cross food supplies which resulted in the complete termination of Red Cross activities in biafra. It was after the food supplies were completely cut off because of the activities of the biafran army that most of the starvation we read about took place. If there was genocide, it was perpetrated by Ojukwu and his officers for the reasons I've stated.

Its a shame that Achebe is now using these unfortunate events to make money. SMH

in essence there was a starvation polic by the federal govt headed by gowon and awolowo so why are some people mad at achebe for writting it in his memoir and insulting igbos ?

why would any sane person want to be in a country that uses starvation policy to solve its problem , send soldiers to maidugri and odi to massacres innocent women and children? i think most of us are still blind , today while bokohrem is killing innocent peole the army is also doing their own killing the same yorubas shouting all over the place have forgotten operation wettie where yorubas where killing themselves, over 2 thoudand yorubas dead just because one faction wants to protect the interest of the then northern controled govt.smh

Dudu_Negro: _chucks,

This is not Achebe the Professor, this is Achebe the victim in this book. He has not healed from the wounds of a " no victor, no vanquished" war. May God give him healing.

exactly and he is publishing his own account of the event so why are you mad at him and all igbo people for that?

why should he heal when nothing have changed in nigeria

Dudu_Negro: ........i should add, that Ojukwu had three options he could have invoked and he did not. Instead he choosed to starve his people so their death could be weapons for more propaganda and ultimately force international support and recognition for Biafra.

At the point where people were starvung here are options he knew but abandoned

1. call for a halt and suspension of attacks and return to negotiation table
2. call for a truce and immediate return of Biafra to the Nigerian sovereingty
3. surrender himself and the Biafran Army.

yes we can argue about ojukwus in another thread like we have done a million times.

shymexx: And subsquently left the country before the war ended... He didn't even fight during the war, so why is he heating up the polity for no reason??

Have you checked all Nigerian blogs, forums, online news outlets etc...??

It's just only a matter of time before shyte will hit the fan, and all the online drama will get transfered into real life...

You guys need to defuse this madness before it consumes you...

However, Achebe will be wherever he's, writing another memoir in the next 20 years(if he's still alive)..

if shit gets real means finally ending the false one nigeria and disintegretion then we will be very happy. why are the so called online forums not attacking achebe for writting about gowon too? why is their anger directed at igbos and swearing rather than countering achebes fact like matured people? that is because this is an opportunity for them all to say what have been on their mind but have been pretending and shouting one nigeria.

remember a nigerian yoruba chief justice or something like that once made a public statement sometime last year that if igbos dare try to leave nigeria again the govt will use starvation and wipe them out , maybe you were not a member when it was disccussed here last year, now who hates who? lets stop deceiving ourselves.

tuasefemi: Honestly,I never knew this old man is this so useless. Where was he when Papa Awo was alive? Why did he keep mute all this while when he had something of such "importance" in his dirty mind? Cowardice I suppose!
Achebe's supposed to be an elder state man to this country especially at this critical time not to put petrol into already burning fire
Let me advise these kids that are clamouring for inter-tribal war,I bet u know nothing Ơ̴̴͡f what u are talking about-ask ur parents(the reasonable ones though).The old man will soon drop,be wise!

unfortunately awo was in the federal cabinet when the war occured, achebe cannot include everyone that participated in the war on both sides and exclude awolowo because yorubas love him , that will be a dumb thing to do.

Don Tim: Wherever there is an igbo person, trouble lurks ,dia arrogance is ubiquitous,only good at evil deeds,rituals et al, always looking for means to outsmart unsuspecting ones.

I have a question however,shouldn't d ibos knw nw dat they r short of neighbors n avoid uneccesary enemies?

Like som1 said,d yorubas have moved past u,accept n follow.

Same reason they r so far from presidency!

bla bla bla bla, typical yoruba , you didnt cry when obj published his own. go and drink one pack of rat poison for all i care, product of a failed nation.

shymexx: Nigeria people - what is the end game after over 200,000 comments in the last three days??

The back and forth is boring now, shvt the fvck up!!!

Awolowo is dead - and Achebe wasn't in Nigeria during the war...

he was in lagos when the war started before moving back to the east.

olivertwist: In as much as we all regret the events that happened during the avoidable 1967 civil war, let's imagine for a second that reverse is the case during the civil war, in other words, the power to starve Nigerians lies in the hand of Biafrans. Would Ojukwu and his other Biafra warlords have been kind enough not to use starvation against Nigeria as a weapon of war? Would they have continued to feed their perceived enemy (Nigeria) to be strong so as to continue fighting Biafra and thereby prolonging the war?

some people can claim that what happened was right(Like you claim) while some can claim that is was wrong but what achebe did is just state what happened. if the case were reversed, they war would not have continued cus igbos will have seen it as an opportunity to finally leave nigeria from the dominance of the north.

hotwax: Which igbo state is friendly to visitors as yoruba states.
Critize your leaders who having selling you since. You will leave the truth and blame other people for your downfall.

non igbos live in every corner of igboland , you should travel more often rather than wallow in ignorance . i have never heard of non igbos in igboland complaining since i was born. the same cannot be said about hausaland and yorubaland where inter ethnic clashes have been occuring.

dealslip: Some of d comments here are S̶̲̥̅Ơ̴̴̴̴̴̴͡ childish and lacks substance.

First, would want †̥ revere Mr. Achebe as d foremost writer he was. No doubt things fall apart was a classic and even brought recognition †̥ this country.

Secondly, I̶̲̥̅̊t̶̲̥̅̊ appears Mr. Achebe has lost d attention he once enjoyed and has found a means †̥ get I̶̲̥̅̊t̶̲̥̅̊ back via d book he wrote. Controversies would definately buy d necessary attention needed.

Thirdly, why wait for S̶̲̥̅Ơ̴̴̴̴̴̴͡ many years †̥ release such statements, especially when d main actors H̲̣̣̣̥ɑ̤̥̈̊vє̲̣̥ gone. In as much as d book was not written when d actors would H̲̣̣̣̥ɑ̤̥̈̊vє̲̣̥ refuted or confirmed his "revelation", its just pure nonsense.

Also, our Ibo brothers need not view everything with emotions first. Ojukwu and Gowon were at logger head not Awo. Everyone has a right †̥ choose which side, he wants †̥ be. Its not by force †̥ support if u ve seen clearly, I̶̲̥̅̊t̶̲̥̅̊ wasn't a battle that can be won. Ojukwu should H̲̣̣̣̥ɑ̤̥̈̊vє̲̣̥ thought I̶̲̥̅̊t̶̲̥̅̊ better before embarking on that Journey. If food was used as a tool of frustration by *NG*. He could H̲̣̣̣̥ɑ̤̥̈̊vє̲̣̥ easily gotten food from other countries.

Whether any one likes I̶̲̥̅̊t̶̲̥̅̊ or not Pa Awo was d only true nationalist leader *NG* ever had. He led his people †̥ d heights of civilization any other region can't match. Also if our Ibo brothers are still S̶̲̥̅Ơ̴̴̴̴̴̴͡ angry. Why do we still find them in d North, West still hustling for money and biz. Thought they are self sufficient and angry at d pogrom and Awo's action. Upon everything, Ojukwu still tried †̥ rule d country he once tried †̥ destroy when he was over 70. Talk about two sides of d mouth. He I̶̲̥̅̊S̤̥̈̊ not different from our regular born †̥ rule leaders.
♍Ɣ mind honestly.

this book is about achebe writting about the war and all the people involved and not igbos writting about yorubas, how hard is it to comprehend, igbos dont hate anybody cus hate is bad for buisness. if what we see in oyo, osun ,ogun and co are civilization to you then am sory for this country but thats off topic. the question remains for those that have actually read the book ,is achebe account of the war accurate or not?

krispycash: my friend... if i can be permitted to call u that... like u said, his personal experience. .. so apparently not directed to d general igbo populace... only God knows what grudge lay between them then... i mean between awo n achebe. ... no need for all this hostility... if a few would be different and stand out, people would follow suit.... there is no use for d tribal insults... we can state our views and leave it at that leaving out d insults and d curses....

the tribal insults came from useless e warriors like dayokanu, rhino and co turning it into igbo/yoruba bashing like every other thread. yes a lot of igbos hate awolowo and they should after all he was part of the federal executive during the war but then we all love fela, soyinka and fashola even though sometimes nut they commot for fashola head)secondly awolowo is not the only person igbos hate we also hate poeople like T.A orji , ibb, elechi amadi etc whther they are igbo or not.

hotwax: We hate all the tribes in Nigeria, we always find faults of other tribes. Other tribes offended us. Ijaw, calabar, yoruba, hausa, fulanis all offended us.

We are saints, we have never offended anyone.

Igbos are just like arabs/muslims. The whole world offended arabs. Arabs are currently fighting the whole planet because the whole planet offended them. They keep avenging the death of their brothers killed by xtian/west.
Are all these excuses to kill and hate genuine? No. It just what we called "bigot", "racism" and tribalism. Its too much for these igbos. No other trribe is as friendly as yorubas, yet, igbo hate them.
Its just all about hating other tribes.

igbos dont hate anybody , we live all over nigeria ,employ people from all over nigeria , marry from all the tribes. achebe criticizing awolowo and gowon who where heading the federal government during the war does not mean igbos hate yorubas, use your brain for once.

madridsta007: Hitler, the head Nazi was a German. All Germans were not Nazi. Same with the Yoruba Nation. All Yoruba's are not Awoists even though all Awoists are Yorubas.

There are still Yoruba's, non-Awoists that know and have known that all that Achebe wrote in his book is true and the seeming defence of Awo is an insult to Ndi Igbos and Nigerians and a vain attempt to distort history. These Yorubas have a conscience and many have apologised to the Igbos for the genocidal misdeeds of their patriarch Awo and want to move on to greater heights with them to build Nigeria.

On behalf of the non-Awoists and Yorubas with consciences we apologise to the Igbos.

achebe is not trying to insult the yorubas, he criticize gowon, obasanjo, ojukwu, awolowo etc he just wrote it as he saw it.

krispycash: its sad how the words of one man, can cause so much raucous amongst friends... please if you're bitter about what they say awo did when he was alive, why don't u wait till u die then lodge a formal complaint against him anywhere u land... cool H" or hot h". which ever way, your hatred for your fellow man will only make u like the person u claim is evil... im a proud yoruba boy... my best friend was igbo, he's late and i still shed tears when i think of him... i love the igbo tribe... so why hate d Yoruba? u might just age on time cos of d grudge you carry... so my igbo brothers n sisters. . love your neighbor as yourself... heaven and hell are for real...

the book is not complaint against awo, it is his personal account of the civil war, several nigerians published theirs including obasanjo . gowon ,ojukwu and co where all mentioned in achebes book but trust yorubas to tribalize it not only insulting achebe but the whole igbo race. since this started yorubas have finally been showing their true colour ,writting about how they support what happened and how they wish igbos will be cleansed from lagos and your telling me we should move on? better stop deceiving yourself.