₦airaland Forum

tishbite43:
University of Ibadan told you he failed any medical course?!
You Yorubas are pathological liars.

Im not Yoruba.

He was given scholarship to study medicine unfortunately he realized he was terrible at science courses so he decided to switch to English, he eventually graduated with a second degree in English and decided to punish Africa with his mediocre writings.

idahme:
You need help, what can you compare in your life compared to him?

If i was fortunate enough to be given free education at a time where 99% of the population were uneducated, i would have been a million times greater than him.

He is only popular because he was early (first movers advantage), he was mediocre in every way - nothing special about him.

CSTRR:
His book is the most translated African book of all time and the most read.

Do you know the meaning of mediocrity?

Achebe's "mediocrity" towers above the highest achievement of most Nigerians.

His book was popular because he was the first to write it, there was nothing spectacular about Things Fall Apart infact it gave whites free propaganda.

Wole Soyinka and Ngozi Adichie are far better African writers. Chinua Achebe was popular because he was the first.

Outside the federal parliament building in Lagos, troops with fixed bayonets warned a swarm of curious small boys to “Go ‘way, go ‘way, this is no place for children today.” In the lobby of the Ikoyi Hotel, scrubwomen used Dettol antiseptic to scour bloodstains off the marble floor. Throughout the capital city, telephones were mysteriously out of order. Alerting Nigeria to stay tuned for an important announcement, the government radio station canceled its regular programs, filled the time with music, 15 minutes of talking drums, a taped travelogue and a well-worn recorded sermon. The needle got stuck on the words “Charity envieth not charity envieth not charity envieth not . . .”

Finally came the announcement the nation had been waiting for. An exuberant voice proclaimed: “I, J.T.U. Aguiyi Ironsi, general officer commanding the Nigerian army, have formally been invested with authority as head of the Nigerian armed forces.” So saying, Major General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi (pronounced Agwee-yee Ironsee) abolished the constitution of Africa’s most populous nation, eliminated the offices of President and Prime Minister, fired the Premiers of Nigeria’s four semi-autonomous regions, and announced that military governors would take their places. Democracy, for the time being at least, was dead in Nigeria.

Mock Invasion. Its death was swift and violent. In a single night, a conspiracy led by five young Sandhurst-trained officers killed or neutralized their superiors and grabbed control of big units of the army. Then, in simultaneous strikes throughout the nation, they killed or kidnaped Nigeria’s most powerful feudal lord, the Sardauna of Sokoto; its two most corrupt politicians, Finance Minister Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh and Western Region Premier Chief Samuel Akintola; and its most prestigious international figure, Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.

The raids were brilliantly planned, precisely executed (murmured one resident Englishman: “Sandhurst training certainly leaves its mark”). In the dusty northern capital of Kaduna, Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu, 29, had been holding night maneuvers for six straight weeks, once even led his troops through a mock invasion of the sprawling white palace of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna (Emir) of Sokoto, religious leader of 12.5 million Nigerian Moslems, boss of the nation’s ruling political party, and the real power behind the Balewa government. So accustomed had the city become to the sound of night gunfire during the maneuvers that not even the police bothered to investigate when Nzeogwu threw a hand grenade through the palace’s front door, then, with his men, shot it out with the palace guards, dragged the Sardauna outside, propped him against a wall and shot him.

Handcuffs & Dash. A similar scene was occurring at the same time in Ibadan, capital of the Western Region, where the Sardauna’s political ally, Regional Premier Chief Samuel Akintola, was shot and his house burned down.

In the exclusive lagoon-front district of Lagos, the commander of the presidential guard led a handful of troops to the homes of Prime Minister Balewa and his Finance Minister. Sir Abubakar, summoned from prayers, told his servant that “this means there is trouble,” but submitted with dignity. He appeared fully dressed, arms above his head, wrists together, ready for handcuffs. Not so Okotie-Eboh, known throughout Nigeria as the king of “dash”—the word used throughout West Africa for the ever-present bribery. Producing a thick wad of bills, he tried to buy off his captors, then, dressed in pajamas, ran outside, screaming “Don’t kill me!” until two soldiers knocked him down and jumped on him. His body was found three days later in a ditch 30 miles from Lagos. Not far away lay Sir Abubakar, also dead.

All in all, it was the bloodiest military coup any black African nation has yet suffered. At least 40 civilians and 24 army officers were killed, and throughout the week bullet-stitched bodies kept turning up in such unlikely places as the 13th tee of a Lagos golf course. It was all the more shocking because Nigeria in its five years of independence has been held up as a showcase of stable African democracy. Unfortunately, the showcase was badly cracked long before the coup that shattered it.

Shoes & Paychecks. Like most African nations that inherited their boundaries from their former colonialist masters, Nigeria is not really one country at all. It has 250 tribes speaking 250 languages. Its vast Northern Region, in which live more than half its 55 million people, is predominantly Moslem; its three southern regions are Christian or pagan. Because of its size, the north has been able to dominate national politics from the start, a fact that the more advanced south actively resents.

The result in recent months has been organized anarchy. Corruption of all kinds was rampant on all levels of government. Congressmen saw their mandates as springboards to instant wealth. Ministers wheeled and dealed: Okotie Eboh almost openly accepted dash from large corporations in return for favored treatment, and used his position as Finance Minister to drive through prohibitive tariffs to protect his own private shoe factory. In the Western Region, all but one of the government party’s 54 regional assemblymen drew fat extra paychecks for doubling as Ministers or parliamentary officials—a feat that President Nnamdi Azikiwe (who sat out the revolt in England, recuperating from a recent illness) once described in disgust as “a world record.”

Sir Abubakar himself was widely respected as a man who sought to bring the feuding regions together. He was also one of the continent’s leading moderate statesmen, opposed equally to colonialism and to Kwame Nkrumah’s brash brand of African nationalism. But many of the men in his government, especially the northerners, ran roughshod. The government was widely suspected of tampering with the 1963 census figures to ensure northern control in the federal parliament. In 1962, it jailed Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the anti-north Premier of the Western Region, and installed its own man, Chief Akintola, in his place. So blatantly did it rig the 1964 national elections that the leading Western Region party boycotted them and the Eastern Region threatened to secede.

What brought things to a head were elections last October in the Western Region. Chief Akintola had labels switched on ballot boxes, prevented opposition candidates from running, even reversed local vote counts to give his party a lopsided victory despite a hostile electorate. A wave of violence immediately broke out, and the wave became a flood. Political riots and assassinations have taken more than 150 lives in the past three months. Gunmen of the opposition Action Group ranged the roads, stopping cars and trucks and demanding money for the party. Police, unable to control them, warned motorists to stay off the roads, and truck drivers demanded hazard pay.

Fortnight ago, Akintola and the Sardauna of Sokoto met secretly in Ibadan, decided to call in the army to crush the growing rebellion. As far as the junior officers were concerned, that was the last straw. They launched their long-planned coup. “Our enemies,” said Nzeogwu, “are the political profiteers, the men that seek bribes, those that seek to keep the country divided permanently so they can remain in office as Ministers, tribalists and nepotists, those that have corrupted our society and put the political calendar back.”

Coffin & Banner. It is probable that the conspirators, who believe with Nzeogwu that “only in the army do you get true Nigerianism,” intended to follow the coup with a Nasser-style revolution based on a permanent military regime. But they quickly lost their control of the army to the remaining senior officers under Army Commander Aguiyi Ironsi. A tough and respected soldier who served as commander of the United Nations forces in the Congo, “Johnny Ironsides,” as Ironsi is known, had other ideas. He recalled Nzeogwu from the north, replaced him with a moderate northern officer, appointed other moderates as regional military governors, and announced that his military regime would step down eventually —whenever a new constitution can be drawn up and approved. “Our only purpose is to maintain law and order,” he told his countrymen.

Not surprisingly, Nigerians fell in immediately behind their new regime. Businessmen and labor unions cheered, university students paraded through the streets of Lagos bearing a coffin and a banner proclaiming “Tyranny Has Died.” All political parties—including the deposed Northern People’s Congress—swore their allegiance. Editorialized the West African Pilot: “This great country has every reason to be proud of the military, which has taken over the fumbling feudal and neocolonialist regime. Today, independence is really won.”

That still remained to be seen. For while the joy was obviously genuine in the south, it was just as obviously mixed in the north. Any new constitutional convention is almost bound to slice up the north into several regions to cut it down to size. And the assassination of the Sardauna of Sokoto raised a possibility that southerners have long feared: a Moslem holy war of reprisal. Besides, it was far from clear that the power struggle within the army itself had been fully resolved.

https://time.com/archive/6889072/nigeria-the-men-of-sandhurst/

Chinua Achebe, failed doctor-turned-writer, well we celebrate mediocrity in this country too much.

Education isnt just about schools

Ojukwu was the son of the richest Igbo man with very good education yet he wasn't smart enough to study law and end up switching to a more easy course - history while Gowon was a Sandhurst military graduate.

Chinua Achebe was highly educated but failed his doctorate exams and ended up switching to english, Wole Soyinka on the other hand went to university specifically to study English literature and not as a second choice.

The only educated prominent Igbo man was Nnamdi Azikiwe and he schooled in Lagos.

The simple truth is that the vast majority of Doctors and Engineers were Yorubas, Igbos tended to go for more easier jobs.

Yorubas were more sophisticated even back then.

We all know it is their own people.

Explain how a bunch of uneducated minority who have no knowledge of the terrain can wreck havoc on their community, with lots of able bodied men.

But banning WAEC examination for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu probably made sense.

Nigeria will be a one party state like China and Singapore.

MXrep:
Adekunle has no victory. Niger Delta creek boys betrayed Biafra struggle and Biafra soldiers pulled out to Igbo territories. Attempts by Adekunle to go beyond minority tribes territory was complete failure

Then why is he hated so much? According to you he didn't do anything to Biafra

ScamHunter:
What amazes me is how a man could know billionaires like Obasanjo and Danjuma and still end up a pauper. Doesn't that get to you?

Obasanjo actually stole Adekunle's victory, Gowon saw that if Adekunle ended the war it would turn him to a deity, so Gowon reshuffled him and put Obasanjo in charge of his unit, hating someone who took credit for your hardwork is nothing new, been happening since Crassus vs Pompey.

As someone pointed out, Danjuma was a politically ambitious snake, he betrayed Aguiyi Ironsi then turned around and betrayed Gowon, then he used the death of Murtala as an excuse to purge his military rivals like Illiya Bisalla, Danjuma wealth was mostly from the brazillian contract that Sani Abacha gave him in exchange for his support - but once Abacha died, he quickly switched to democracy, supporting the very Obasanjo that Abacha tried to kill and in return he became the minister of defense.

Adekunle wasn't as flexible, dishonourable and ambitious as Danjuma, that's why he wasn't as rich as them.

See all the fraudsters upstairs condemning EFCC for disturbing their trade.

Stayingalive:
which one?

The name is 'The Social Network'

Ignore them, that's women for you, they'll use you to fix their broken relationship.

Mute all their calls. Deny! Deny!! Deny!!!

What kind of irony is this?

I do not really follow the Fubara-Wike beef but advising a politician to accept Supreme Court Order after your Client proudly jumped bail and proceeded to throw insults at the Supreme Court is quality irony.

mrvitalis:
If Biafra got 1% of the support Ukrainian got

That war won't last 3 months... Even you know it

The fact that Biafra didnt get that support shows just how terrible Ojukwu was at politics and diplomacy. He was so foolish that he managed to unite USA, Britain and Soviet Union (three rivals) on the same team for Nigeria. He even miraculously managed to turn the neutral midwest against Biafra.

War isnt just about fighting, it is also about Diplomacy.

If Biafrans were Ukrainians, nobody would have supported Ukraine to begin with.

He should just kuku marry her. The child might even be his.

But why are they trying to put the blame on the man.

You just described middle girls in general.

That Social Network movie really destroyed how i see Mark Zuckerberg.

Everything he does now seem calculated and unnatural.

GanagiBitrus:
Mourinho is well known for his affinity towards African players & has no history of racism towards them, but his choice of words is quite inappropriate.

Racism has different shades.

Someone who is racist towards black people might believe blacks are stupid and incapable of making good long term decisions but he might also believe blacks are strong and have high endurance hence - blacks make good slaves.

Yabatech very corrupt polytechnic, i hope it would be better as a university.

South Korea, North Korea - same people, two mad countries

After the British left, it caused a power vacuum.

There became a question over who will take the throne now that the king is dead.

In the end the Northerners were better organized and more strategic, so they ended up winning the power struggle.

Igbos refused to accept their loss and their place in the pecking order and this is what led to the civil war.

What are they still doing in South Africa? its their cup of tea, attention seekers.

British politics just be like beer parlour

Like play like play, APC would win Anambra.

They had to do their meeting on Sunday, the fear of IPOB Unknown Gunmen is the beginning of wisdom, he cannot liberate his own state but wants to free Nigeria.

Mokwugwo1975:
The declaration formed part of the eight point Communique issued at the end of strategic stakeholders meeting held on Sunday in Awka, Anambra State.



*Signed:*
Comrade (Chief) Obiora Charles Anieyiagu
Lead Coordinator
Obidient Movement, Anambra State
Mr. Edwin Utazi
General Secretary,
Obidient Movement, Anambra State

Date: February 23, 2025

It makes no sense to me, if I was Igbo I would be proud of it especially seeing that lots of innocent Igbos were killed because of it.

It's like if someone accuses you of stealing then punishes you very severely, what is the point of saying you didn't steal? You might as well take pride in the fact that you were courageous enough to steal (stealing takes audacity), you could also take pride in the fact that you did the community a big favour by being used as a deterrence to other thieves.

Igbos should embrace the coup and celebrate it, instead of historical revisionism. All this constant back and forth denials is very degrading and insulting to Igbos.

Been thinking about this too.

All I can say is that according to Chinua Achebe, Ifeajuna was unapologetic, he was proud of his role in the coup and didn't bother with the cowardly denials.

Achebe refused to publish it because it gave more credence to the counter coup and Achebe saw that it wasn't good for propaganda (painting Igbos as innocent sheep).

I think Achebe was probably behind the manuscript destruction.

Why wasn't he released in the 6 months when Aguiyi Ironsi was in charge?

Softmirror:
Not in Nigeria. Nigerian men are in a hurry to unclothe and make them naked to satisfy their perversion.

So men don't get stripped naked before being burnt alive?

Women might be stripped or beaten but they would survive 99% of the time.