₦airaland Forum

It is even more sad that Igbos are not up in arms with Prof. Achebe who spoke about some mistakes made by Ojukwu just prior to and during the war in the same book. But Yorrobbers are making all the noise trying in vain todefend a baby killer and war criminal. mtsheeeeeeewwww, Yeye people!

FSU: MKO hated Awo
Akintola hated Awo
Awo hated Akintola
Oni of Ife hates Alafin of Oyo
OBJ hated Awo
MKO hated Obj
Obj hated MKO
Tinubu hates Awo and wife

Hate and betrayal is the common culture in yorubaland.

yarodin: LOL, are Yoruba manu still mad about the truth that was written by the Great Achebe? LOL, if una like all of you can go drown in a big drum of Yoruba,nothing will change. Igbo this, Igbo that, what you cowards cannot say in person you all run online to release your venoms.

The funny thing is that Achebe in Page 122-155 of the book criticized some of the decisions taken by Ojukwu during that conflict. Igbos or Ojukwu's family have not started making paid newspaper advertisement to insult Prof. Achebe for stating some hard truths. But our "shofisticated" friends in the west want to pull down the country over a book on Biafra and Awolowo's criminal role in the whole thing.

They may try to do what Mutallab did with pant.

Onlytruth: If you are smart enough, you would have deciphered that the REAL purpose of this thread is to hammer it into Igbo heads that others don't share similar mindset and worldview with us. You have just reiterated this point and bolstered my position. Thank you very much! lol
Achebe spoke the truth, BUT we should expect and get ready for any eventualities. As far as I know, the only reason why we fell into a hidden genocidal trap in 1966 and 1967 was because of our naivety in Nigeria; we never saw others as they saw us!

I was not there between 1960 and 1966 when we Ndigbo held vantage position in Nigeria; but I can guess, that there was definitely some bad blood and accusations coming our way concerning the incarceration of Awolowo for treason in Calabar; never mind that the North was largely responsible for that. We Ndigbo had no reason whatsoever to be unhappy with Nigeria (even if the west burnt to the ground); we were fine! Yet, a few idealistic young Igbo army officers felt that they could not stand by while evil threatened to destroy Yorubaland; so, they organized other Nigerians (many non-Igbo) to conduct the January 1966 coup.
You and I agree that Nzeogwu had no clue the extent to which you deified your Sarduana (no matter how un-Nigerian his political views were). The young officers only knew that he was un-Nigerian and had to go.

That is why I am here today warning other Igbo to step into others' shoes in Nigeria and view Nigeria like they do. They Igbo should always view others as they view us.
If they do that, I promise them that we shall not only survive, but THRIVE in Nigeria.

So, ndu_chucks, your hatred blinded you to the extent that you were supporting me without knowing!

Good tok broda.Yorrobers have perfected the art of setting the country on fire,then screaming for help.The naive Igboman usually steps into the traps by trying to put out the flame for the yorrober guy.Then,the same Yorrober that set the fire in the first instance will raise alarm that the Igboman has set his house on fire and get people to murder the naive innocent guy.Igbos must learn when to stay out of the fry and just let Yorrobbers deal with the fire they set intentionally. Igbos must master the yorrober man's nature of thriving in chaos and deceit.The first lesson is don't trust anything they tell you.

All the witnesses have indicted the criminal role and complicity of Awolowo in committing crimes against humanity in that conflict, except the Awoists still living in denial.

This is the funniest news this year. Abi they were angry that the boys were not sent to them to use for suicide bombing instead of just wasted like that?

Chidi4u: For those of us who have been
falsely claiming that the 1966
first military coup was led by
Igbos to exterminate non Igbo
leaders in order take over the
country and branded it as an "Igbo coup" should go back to
history and facts to help
themselves out. This was the
reason they claimed the whole
country rallied against Igbos to
wipe them out in a genocide. This is a malicious and cheap
propaganda contrived to make
their claims stick. But the more
you try to bury facts and truth,
themore the inconsistences of
your hypocrisy and lies continues to surface. You
cannever murder history. It's
not possible!
The truth is that, those who led
the military putsh were
motivated by the injustices, prejudice, nepotism and the
lopesided nature of federal and
military appointments the
behemoths in power then were
doing to subjugate and
dominate others by force, arrogantly promote one section
over another. It was never an
Igbo affair as is being peddled
to find relevance. Now take a look at the list of
the '66 coup plotters and render
your own judgement; 1. Major Chukwuma Kaduna
Nzeogwu(Delta Igbo)
2. Major Adewale Ademoyega
(Yoruba) author of "Why we
struck"
3. Capt. G. Adeleke(Yoruba) 4. Maj. Ifeajuna(Igbo)
5. Lt. Fola Oyewole(Yoruba)
author of "The reluctant rebel"
6. Lt. R. Egbiko(Esean)
7. Lt. Tijani Katsina(Hausa/
Fulani) 8. Lt. O. Olafemiyan(Yoruba)
9. Capt. Gibson Jalo(Bali)
10. Capt. Swanton(Middle Belt)
11. Lt. Hope Harris Eghagha
(Urhobo)
12. Lt. Dag Warribor(Ijaw) 13. 2nd Lt. Saleh Dambo(Hausa)
14. 2nd Lt. John Atom Kpera
(Tiv). So, to an unbiased observer,
what evidence can one provide
to show that Igbos actually
carried out the coup in order to
exterminate other tribes and
take over the country? It is very easy to sell falshood, but it is
very difficult to provide facts to
buttress your claims. It is now clear even to a
suckling, that the imperialist
genocidists crammed up this
murderous lies against the
Igbos to find reasons to
perpetually keep them under hate.
One even wonders why the
nigerian state and perpetrators
of the gruesome genocide have
been preventing the proper
documentation of that episode for the benefits of her posterity.
Terrible!!

Another irrefutable evidence of the conspiracy against Igbos to justify their massacre in 1967. I knew Igbos didn't lead that coup. If not, why would Ironsi threaten to arrest Major Kaduna Nzeogwu after he secured Lagos, if they had been co-conspirators? Why didn't Lt. Col O.Ojukwu (GOC Commander in Kano) not know about the coup, yet Mallam Hassan Katsina had to tell him about what was going on? It all just didn't add up. Nigerians with their short memories just felt it was convenient to blame Igbos for the 1966 coup because it was led by Nzeogwu and conveniently forgot all the other major actors who were non-igbo in the group.

Those Awoists who hope to obfuscate the truth by making noise and drawing irrelevant distractions are wasting their time. Prof. Achebe is not a man known to shy away from speaking the truth. I have read this book,There was a country, a personal history of Biafra, and Prof Achebe really mentioned Awolowo in passing. He didn't make him a subject matter.So i don't understand why Awoists should be making so much noise. Except of course,they knew the man was a war criminal and just didn't want his past exposed. Too bad, it is all exposed now.

Ofcourse, Awolowo would have been hanged for crimes against humanity. Many German Nazis deserve an apology for being hanged merely for supporting the conspiracy to cleanse jews from Europe. Awolowo did much worse in his effort to exterminate Igbos from their homelands. I am only consoled that even if he escaped man's judgement, he is now languishing in the hottest part of hell with his Nazi mentors.

WHISTLE BLOWER: THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION TAKING PLACE IN SOME OTHER CITIES OF THE COUNTRY cOULD BE AS A RESULT OF ITS CITIZENS AND GOVERNMENT’s DIRECT ATTENTION TO THE PRODUCTION OF GOODS AND SERVICES THAT ENHANCE THE OVERALL DEVELOPMENT OF THE ECONOMY OF STATE WHERE THEY ARE SITED. BUT IN OWERRI, CAPITAL OF IMO STATE, HOTEL DEVELOPMENT HAS TAKEN THE UPPER HAND, WRITES AMBY UNEZE

An average Igboman is noted for his knack for self reliance and industrious ability to be a self-made person. This effort has indeed assisted to liberate him from the bondage of ‘slave’ masters or ‘begging’ all the time in order to get what he wants. It was through the interest exhibited by him in industry and commerce that made the Premier of former Eastern Nigeria, Dr. Michael Okpara to establish several industries and farm settlements, such as the former Golden Guinea Breweries, Umuahia, Adapalm in Ohaji, Palm Plantation in Obehe, Aba, Rislon Palm in Rivers, Rubber plantation in Calabar, and the rest of them.


From the inception of the civilian regime in the old Imo State, the first civilian governor, Chief Sam Onunaka Mbakwe, of blessed memory did not waste any effort in industrialising the state. The monumental projects erected by Mbakwe span all the nooks and crannies of the old Imo State. Such industrial projects included the Avutu Modern Poultry at Obowo, Aluminum Extrusion Industry, Inyishi, Resin Paint Industry in Nguru Mbaise, Ezinachi Clay Industry, Mbano, Imo Concorde Hotel, Owerri, Independent Power Plant, Amaraku, Izombe and Ohafia now in Abia State, Owerri Ebeiri Paper Industry, Orlu, Standard Shoe Industry, Owerri and so many others that cannot be mentioned here. Unfortunately, almost all these monumental projects that created huge employment to people then are no longer in existence. The subsequent military regime and other administrations could not nurture or maintain them, while others were arbitrarily sold off to the detriment of the people of the state.

Tourism promotion
All those dreams of our heroes past are now a forgotten issue. However, since the advent of the third and fourth republics the quest for industrialisation had gone and this has been replaced by hotel development for possible promotion of tourism. The administration of Chief Achike Udenwa and Chief Ikedi Ohakim made significant effort to promote tourism in the state. Most of the hotels spotting all the nooks and crannies of Owerri, the Imo State capital were actually built during these administrations.
Ohakim had wanted the state to be a stop-over destination, being the Eastern Heartland. Owerri is regarded as the epi-centre of the former Eastern region. His vision was that Owerri could have played host to the visitors and investors that were to invest both in the state and in the neighbouring states of Abia, Anambra, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Rivers States. He had also felt that due to the incessant kidnapping incidents going on in those neighbouring states then, Owerri would have been the rallying point of the visitors and investors.
Within this period, such hotels with good services include: All-Seasons Hotel and Suites, Links Hotel, De Legend Hotel and Suites, Suncity Hotel, Owerri Hotel Plaza, Optimum Hotel, Disney Hotel and Suites, Summer Suites, Evatel Hotel, Hollywood Hotel, Rapour Hotels, City Global, Protea Hotel, Landmark Hotel and others.
Already names like Imo Concorde Hotel (which is the only five-star hotel built by Mbakwe remains the best of all), the Modotel initially owned by former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, has been sold to Chisco Transport and it is under rehabilitation, while Pinewood Hotel and Bestway Hotel are the old names in hotel business in Imo State and they are still waxing strong.

Government involvement
The present regime under Chief Rochas Okorocha has also continued from where his successors stopped by taking hotel project as his main cardinal agenda. According to him, the promotion of tourism is dependent on the hotel infrastructure available in the state. To this effect, the governor has not hidden his desire to erect a five star hotel in each of the three senatorial zones of the state. His plans to build a monumental hotel in Owerri, Prince and Princes hotels in Orlu and Okigwe respectively is an area he does not want to relent on. But the question now is having spent about 18 months in office, he has barely one year and two months to work and realise those projects, bearing in mind that one year to the next election year is normally used to prepare for the re-election and definitely not to work for the people. How could he raise the money needed to complete those projects?

Supposed benefits
The thinking of government has been that the hotel developments in the city of Owerri are beneficial to both people and government. They are of the belief that since hotel develops and promotes tourism, then the more the merrier. However, these hotels provide cheap employment to the youths but there is no job security. The owners of the hotels only hire and fire at will because they believe that since there is scarcity of job, so the cheap labour which is very much available had to be manipulated. The hotels no doubt have created a kind of safe haven for guests and visitors from the eyes of kidnappers. Visitors to the state now prefer to stay in the hotel instead of staying in their houses or friends home. The incessant cases of kidnapping in the state have created a lot of insecurity and hotels have been identified as a safe place to lodge when in Imo.

Bad influence
The presence of too many hotels in Owerri, some parents say, has created bad influence, especially among the youths, mostly the girls. There is no more decorum in the state now because everybody is now wise and these hotels host ladies of easy virtue. At night girls hang out in front of these hotels probably waiting for patrons. Not only that, the cost of land in Owerri has astronomically increased since land speculators are ready to offer any amount for the purposes of potential hotel developers.


A resident in Owerri, Chief Rufus Eke told THISDAY that with the rate hotels are being developed in Owerri, very soon there would be no space for people to build residential houses. He suggested that a law should be put in place to segment areas for development of commercial and residential buildings so that people could be able to acquire land at the designated area to build their residential houses.
One recalls with nostalgia the feelings of the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Benjamin Njemanze at the heat of the land dispute between the government and the indigenes of Owerri in one of the Town Hall meetings where he braced up, not minding any persecution resultant from his position in Government and told government that “Owerri people and Owerri land have enough Hotels” and therefore suggested that “Owerri will only welcome and accept meaningful industrial development”.

Government tariff
The present administration in the state has imposed a high tariff on hotels and entertainment industries in the state as a way of raising internally generated review by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. The same tariff is also being demanded by the Ministry of Commerce. According to government sources, these entertainment industries need to pay extra tariff for investing in the state as a way of promoting tourism. But these tariffs are being kicked against by the operators of the sector because they have argued that government had not been able to provide conducive environment for them to operate.


Reacting to government directive, a proprietor of one of the hotels, who pleaded anonymity told THISDAY that they provide their own power, water even work on their roads, there is nothing government had done to enable them demand extra tariff from them. They however have been charging customers and guest extra fees to be able to meet government demand.


There have not been any indices to evaluate that the existence of many hotels in Owerri has brought the needed development in the state, other than the vices associated with hotel business. The general view of the people of Imo State is that enough is enough of hotel business, as they want promoters to divert into small scale industries and other areas that could create manageable employment to the youths.


http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/hotels-new-emerging-industry-in-imo-state/127583/

Your title is very sickening.The original article is about the growth of the hotel industry in Owerri , NOT COMMERCIAL SEX HAWKING as you mischievously added.

As far as Nigeria is concerned, statistics is all about quoting any number you like to justify your claim.If i want the FG to build a psychiatric hospital in my village,i will just go on national TV and say the amount of mad people roaming the streets there is 20 million. The Nigerian press would sheepishly circulate that figure regardless of the fact that the state's population might be 3 million,while a single village in the state has 15 million (mad men alone!)

Fashola ki ni? Godswill Akpabia is the undisputed best Governor in Nigeria.
If being in government is about development, none can be compared to Godswill Akpabio

YES!!!

But the leaders in the north must determine to forget about stealing oil and invest massively in agriculture and solid minerals development.Agriculture and manufacturing are what made the USA the richest country in the world.

It is very unfortunate that Nigerians think of agriculture as a poor man's profession,just because we have insisted on farming with hoe & cutlass used in 1700s instead of embracing mechanized modern agriculture.

They neva manage one successfully, na four dem wan introduce at the same time. Yeye tok.

Msheeeeeew! Now they know mob lynching is bad.Where were they when more than 10 southern NYSC corpers were murdered in a worse way by their boko Boys, simply for being INEC adhoc staff? Suddenly it isn't "ba turenchi!" anymore, they now know how to speak English and condemn "Acts of barbarism" Yeye people!

I believe some powerful northern forces are using OUK to scuttle GEJ's votes in the southeast. He knows in his heart that Igbos will choose a better candidate if and when the desire to win the presidency becomes an igbo priority.

Nigerians and their contempt for statistics.So who carried out this research and what were his methods?

I do think Nigeria needs a fresh war if that is what it takes to end the charade. At least this time, no region will be unfairly backed by two world powers.Lets see who is better at making weapons this time.

Rossikk: But why is GOWON not the object of blame?

HE was the one in power who actually directed what should happen. He could easily have rejected what Awo said. Why is HE let off?

Why are the BRITISH not the subject of Igbo hate? THEY actually supplied the weapons used by Nigeria to kill Igbos.

Why single out Awolowo when they were so many other pivotal players?

Gowon had no choice but to fight and reunite his country.Gowon did fight a clean war.He was convinced about military victory by sheer number of the Nigerian troops and superior weaponry as compared to the Biafrans.
Awolowo on the other hand didn't really care much about military conquest.He focused all his attention on impoverishing the Igbos and committing genocide to substantially wipe out his enemies for ever.

Thank Almighty Allah that you have seen the light.

Ngodigha1: Though he has died long time ago, but his rotten bones should be exhumed and tried at the int court of justice.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to exhume his skeleton and grind it to dust. Awo was that wicked a man to have a marked grave.

I must say i duff my hat for the erudite Prof. Achebe. While many so called men of integrity were running to Abuja to beg election riggers for national honors and contracts, he told those rogue leaders to keep their "dishonest honor".Indeed, the erudite Prof is highly revered around the globe. His more than 60 years old book "Things fall apart" is still being used around the globe to teach English and literature.

I am glad the Prof. did Nigeria a favor by writing an account of the civil war.Awolowo himself knew he was a war criminal and would be arrested if he ventured outside Nigeria.That was why he remained in Ikenne pretending to be a communist for the rest of his life. Upon his death in 1987, N150 million naira was discovered to be owned by him. How did a communist acquire such an amount of money? Truth is that he was just as filthy corrupt as any other rogue Nigerian leader. He was only given favorable press coverage by his yoruba kinsmen in the press to give him an unmerited honor.That didn't fool Nigerians into forgetting he was indeed a hideous demon.

Ebenezer Babatope of all people? This shows the type of crooks leading people in Yorubaland.

hardywaltz: Why can't Nairalanders just leave these dead people alone for God's sake, most of u guyz weren't even born when all theze happened....
Can't the time & energy used in debating these topics all the time be used for meaningful endevours.

These dead people's mistakes are very relevant in charting a new course for Nigeria. Awolowo was released by Ojukwu after the second pogrom of 1966. He was driven in a mercedes benz car to Enugu and had "fruitful" discussions with Ojukwu. It is believed that Ojukwu and Awo agreed to force a constitutional conference to discuss the future of Nigeria by threatening to secede Western and Eastern regions if their demands are declined.

Awolowo suddenly accepted to become a finance minister and became a most rabid anti-Igbo. This sudden change in character shocked Igbo people to their bones and has severely made an Igbo/Yoruba unity in Nigeria to become wishful thinking.

Awolowo didn't stop there, Gowon advocated a "police action" to clear Enugu of the rebels and invited the former OAU to discuss Nigeria's crisis, but Awolowo pushed for an escalation of military hostilities, which made the war last longer and bloodier. In the course of the war, he became the champion of starvation as a veritable instrument of war.Which led to the death of 1 million Biafran infants and children.(Which constitutes a war crime and crimes against humanity).

After the same war, Gowon advocated the restoration of the bank accounts of surviving Biafrans to whatever amount they had left in the account prior to the war, but
Awolowo as Nigerian finance minister decided to pay only 20 (Nigerian) pounds into such bank accounts and instructed the Nigerian soldiers stationed inside Biafra to buy their provisions in Lagos before leaving for Biafra.In his desperate attempt to make sure he impoverished the Igbos for ever.
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/6779049/Frederick-Forsyth-Biafra-Story )

Regardless of the insults from urchins,Prof. Achebe had the courage to speak the bitter truth, and all men who love the truth will listen to him.

Awo was described as a "Hawk" in Gowon's government by many accounts of the civil war.
(http://www.africamasterweb.com/CounterCoup.html )

He advocated a complete annihilation of Biafra,whereas the Head of State Gowon,actually wanted a situation where he would take measured actions against Biafra to make reconciliation and peaceful co-existence of all the major tribes would be possible after the conflict.Put differently, Gowon wanted to give Biafra a soft landing that would enable it surrender without being humiliated, while Awolowo out of some unexplained hatred pushed for a total military escalation of the conflict in order to bring Biafra to its knees no matter the cost in human lives.
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/6779049/Frederick-Forsyth-Biafra-Story )

Unfortunately, the voice of people like Awolowo prevailed and became official policy of total war of annihilation against Biafra.This hardened Biafra's resolve to fight to the finish and unfortunately led to colossal loss of lives on both sides.As Gen. Gowon had predicted, that policy of all out war had continued to haunt Nigeria and make reconciliation almost impossible from all the hatred bred by the wicked things that had happened from Awolowo's all out war stance that has ruined our country.

Isn't Babatope the baker of some cabin biscuits?
How did he gain such historical knowledge or privileged information to challenge an erudite Prof.Achebe who had actually met Awolowo several times before and during the civil war on the way forward for Nigeria? Some senseless noise makers men!