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Biafra : Awolowo replies Achebe from the grave


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Nigeria’s literary legend, Chinua Achebe in his latest memoir on the defunct Biafra, accused a Nigerian political legend, Obafemi Awolowo of demonstrating hatred against Igbo via the policies Awolowo initiated when he was Vice-Chairman and Finance Minister in General Yakubu Gowon’s cabinet during the Nigerian civil war.

Achebe did not make any new accusations; such dogged the Nigerian politician when he was alive and he had debunked all of them . Awo died in 1987 without fulfilling his life-long dream of presiding over Nigeria. The surprise however is that Achebe had decided to unearth the same old unfounded story 35 years after Awo’s demise.

What Achebe wrote about Awo:

"The wartime cabinet of General Gowon, the military ruler, it should also be remembered, was full of intellectuals, like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, among others, who came up with a boatload of infamous and regrettable policies. A statement credited to Awolowo and echoed by his cohorts is the most callous and unfortunate: all is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don't see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder'.

"It is my impression that Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition for power, for himself and for his Yoruba people. There is, on the surface at least, nothing wrong with those aspirations. However, Awolowo saw the dominant Igbo at the time as the obstacles to that goal, and when the opportunity arose with the Nigeria-Biafra war, his ambition drove him into a frenzy to go to every length to achieve his dreams. In the Biafran case, it meant hatching up a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations."

Thanks to www.nigeriavillagesquare.com, we bring Awo back from the grave to confront Achebe’s lies, in his own words.

When you finish reading, make your own conclusion as to whom had lied: Achebe or Obafemi Awolowo.

During the 1983 elections, Chief Awolowo was hosted to a town hall interview in Abeokuta, where in addition to other pertinent topics of the day, he spoke on his role in the civil war, the 20-pound policy, starvation as a weapon, change of currency, abandoned property etc.
CIVIL WAR

MODERATOR: Yes Mr.......Mr. Oparadike.

QUESTION: Chief Awolowo, your stand on the civil war...Your stand on the civil war, however unpopular it may have been to the Biafrans or Ibo people, helped to shorten the war. Today, you're being cast as the sole enemy of the Ibo people because of that stand, by among others, some of the people who as members of the federal military government at that time, were party to that decision and are today, in some cases, inheritors of power in one Nigeria which that decision of yours helped to save. How do you feel being cast in this role, and what steps are you taking to endear yourself once again to that large chunk of Nigerians who feels embittered.

AWOLOWO: As far as I know, the Ibo masses are friendly to me, towards me. In fact, whenever I visit Iboland, either Anambra or Imo, and there's no campaigning for elections on, the Ibo people receive me warmly and affectionately. But there are some elements in Iboland who believe that they can maintain their popularity only by denigrating me, and so they keep on telling lies against me. Ojukwu is one of them. I don't want to mention the names of the others because they are still redeemable, but ....Ojukwu is irredeemable so I mention his name, and my attitude to these lies is one of indifference, I must confess to you.

I've learnt to rely completely on the providence and vindication of Almighty God in some of these things. I've tried to explain myself in the past, but these liars persist. Ojukwu had only recently told the same lie against me. What's the point in correcting lies when people are determined to persist in telling lies against you, what's the point. I know that someday the Ibos, the masses of the Ibo people will realize who their friends are, and who their real enemies are. And the day that happens woe betide those enemies. The Ibos will deal with them very roughly, very roughly.

That has happened in my life. I have a nickname now, if you see my letterhead you'll find something on top, you'll find a fish done on the letterhead. Some people put Lion on theirs, some people put Tiger, but mine is Fish. And Fish represents my zodiac sign, those of you who read the stars and so on in the newspapers; you'll find out that there's a zodiac sign known as pisces, in Latin pisces mean Fish.

So I put pisces on top, that's my zodiac sign being born on the 6th of March,....er well, the year doesn't matter, it's the day that matters. And then on top of it I write Eebudola. All of you know the meaning of that. You know I don't want to tell a long story but..................Awolowo school, omo Awolowo, the started in Urhobo land, in Mid-west in those days. They were ridiculing my schools, I was building schools -brick and cement, to dpc level, block to dpc level and mud thereafter. And so the big shots in the place.."ah what kind of school is this? is this Awolowo school? Useless school" and when they saw the children.."ah these Awolowo children, they can't read and write, Awolowo children" that's how it started, with ridicule, and it became blessing, and now they say "Awolowo children, they are good people" no more ridicule about it, that's how it started, so the Eebu becomes honor, the abuse became honor.

And so when I look back to all my life, treasonable felony, jail, all the abuses that were heaped on me, to Coker Inquiry, all sorts, and I see what has happened to the people who led, who led all these denigration campaign, where are they today? Those that are alive are what I call Homo Mortuus- dead living, oku eniyan, that's what they are, those that their lives have gone.

So when I look back, I come to the conclusion that all these abuses which have been heaped on me all my life for doing nothing, for doing good, they have become honor, and so Eebudola is one of my nicknames. So I've cultivated an attitude of indifference, I've done no evil to the Ibos.

During the war I saw to it that the revenue which was due to the Iboland- South Eastern states they call it, at that time..east central state, I kept it, I saved the money for them. And when they ....was librated I handed over the money to them- millions. If I'd decided to do so, I could have kept the money away from them and then when they took over I saw to it that subvention was given to them at the rate of 990,000 pounds every month. I didn't go to the executive council to ask for support, or for approval because I knew if I went to the executive council at that time the subvention would not be approved because there were more enemies in the executive council for the Ibos than friends. And since I wasn't going to take a percentage from what I was going to give them, and I knew I was doing what was right, I wanted the state to survive, I kept on giving the subvention – 990,000 almost a million, every month, and I did that for other states of course- South eastern state, North central state, Kwara and so on.

But I did that for the Ibos, and when the war was over, I saw to it that the ACB got three and a half million pounds to start with. This was distributed immediately and I gave another sum of money. The attitude of the experts, officials at the time of the ACB was that ACB should be closed down, and I held the view you couldn't close the ACB down because that is the bank that gives finance to the Ibo traders, and if you close it down they'll find it difficult to revive or to survive. So it was given. I did the same thing for the Cooperative Bank of Eastern Nigeria, to rehabilitate all these places, and I saw to it as commissioner for finance that no obstacle was placed in the way of the ministry of economic planning in planning for rehabilitation of the war affected areas.

TWENTY POUNDS POLICY

That's what I did, and the case of the money they said was not given back to them, you know during the war all the pounds were looted, they printed Biafran currency notes, which they circulated, at the close of the war some people wanted their Biafran notes to be exchanged for them. Of course I couldn't do that, if I did that the whole country would be bankrupt. We didn't know about Biafran notes and we didn't know on what basis they have printed them, so we refused the Biafran note, but I laid down the principle that all those who had savings in the banks on the eve of the declaration of the Biafran war or Biafra, will get their money back if they could satisfy us that they had the savings there, or the money there. Unfortunately, all the banks's books had been burnt, and many of the people who had savings there didn't have their saving books or their last statement of account, so a panel had to be set up.

I didn't take part in setting up the panel, it was done by the Central bank and the pertinent officials of the ministry of finance, to look into the matter, and they went carefully into the matter, they took some months to do so, and then make some recommendation which I approved. Go to the archives, all I did was approve, I didn't write anything more than that, I don't even remember the name of any of them who took part. So I did everything in this world to assist our Ibo brothers and sisters during and after the war.

And anyone who goes back to look at my broadcast in August 1967, which dealt with post-war reconstruction would see what I said there.

STARVATION POLICY

Then, but above all, the ending of the war itself that I'm accused of, accused of starving the Ibos, I did nothing of the sort. You know, shortly after the liberation of these places, Calabar, Enugu and Port Harcort, I decided to pay a visit. There are certain things which I knew which you don't know, which I don't want to say here now, when I write my reminisces in the future I will do so. Some of the soldiers were not truthful with us, they didn't tell us correct stories and so on.

I wanted to be there and see things for myself, bear in mind that Gowon himself did not go there at that time, it was after the war was over that he dorn himself up in various military dresses- Air force dress, Army dress and so on, and went to the war torn areas. But I went and some people tried to frighten me out of my goal by saying that Adekunle was my enemy and he was going to see to it that I never return from the place, so I went.

But when I went what did I see? I saw the kwashiorkor victims. If you see a kwashiorkor victim you'll never like war to be waged. Terrible sight, in Enugu, in Port Harcourt, not many in Calabar, but mainly in Enugu and Port Harcourt. Then I enquired what happened to the food we are sending to the civilians. We were sending food through the Red cross, and CARITAS to them, but what happen was that the vehicles carrying the food were always ambushed by the soldiers. That's what I discovered, and the food would then be taken to the soldiers to feed them, and so they were able to continue to fight. And I said that was a very dangerous policy, we didn't intend the food for soldiers. But who will go behind the line to stop the soldiers from ambushing the vehicles that were carrying the food? And as long as soldiers were fed, the war will continue, and who'll continue to suffer? and those who didn't go to the place to see things as I did, you remember that all the big guns, all the soldiers in the Biafran army looked all well fed after the war, its only the mass of the people that suffered kwashiorkor.

You won’t hear of a single lawyer, a single doctor, a single architect, who suffered from kwashiorkor? None of their children either, so they waylaid the foods, they ambushed the vehicles and took the foods to their friends and to their collaborators and to their children and the masses were suffering. So I decided to stop sending the food there. In the process the civilians would suffer, but the soldiers will suffer most.

CHANGE OF CURRENCY

And it is on record that Ojukwu admitted that two things defeated him in this war, that's as at the day he left Biafra. He said one, the change of currency, he said that was the first thing that defeated him, and we did that to prevent Ojukwu taking the money which his soldiers has stolen from our Central bank for sale abroad to buy arms. We discovered he looted our Central bank in Benin, he looted the one in Port Harcourt, looted the one in Calabar and he was taking the currency notes abroad to sell to earn foreign exchange to buy arms.

So I decided to change the currency, and for your benefit, it can now be told the whole world, only Gowon knew the day before, the day before the change took place. I decided, only three of us knew before then- Isong now governor of Cross River, Attah and myself. It was a closely guarded secret, if any commissioner at the time say that he knew about it, he's only boosting his own ego. Because once you tell someone, he'll tell another person. So we refused to tell them and we changed the currency notes. So Ojukwu said the change in currency defeated him, and starvation of his soldiers also defeated him.

These were the two things that defeated Ojukwu. And, he reminds me, when you saw Ojukwu's picture after the war, did he look like someone who's not well fed? But he has been taking the food which we send to civilians, and so we stopped the food.

ABANDONED PROPERTY

And then finally, I saw to it that the houses owned by the Ibos in Lagos and on this side, were kept for them. I had an estate agent friend who told me that one of them collected half a million pounds rent which has been kept for him. All his rent were collected, but since we didn't seize their houses, he came back and collected half a million pounds.

So that is the position. I'm a friend of the Ibos and the mass of the Ibos are my friends, but there are certain elements who want to continue to deceive the Ibos by telling lies against me, and one day, they'll discover and then that day will be terrible for those who have been telling the lies.

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/newsflash/exclusive-chief-obafemi-awolowo-on-biafra-in-his-own

I only laugh at Yorubas who view Igbos as human.

Onlytruth: Any Igbo war with Yoruba will not stop until we chase you Yoruba to Benin and Ghana or wipe you out, because we cannot afford to live with your mouths for another 40 years.
I don't see it any other way.

You know what I say to that? Bring it the fuccck on !!! Hopefully this time we wont be hearing cries of Genocide even after 50yrs.

There was an Adekunle in 1967, there would be several Adekunles this time around, People who would shoot what moves and what doesnt move

Onlytruth: My friend go and pick up a book on the war and read. Go to school!
The January 15 1966 coup had NOTHING to do with the war. 30,000 people paid for the mistake of January 15 1966.
There was a counter coup still in July 1966 during which about 30 -50% of top Igbo military officers were murdered.
Still your fathers launched a war against the East in July 1967 - almost ONE FULL YEAR AFTER THE COUNTER COUP of 1966.

HOW MUCH IGBO BLOOD WOULD QUENCH YOUR THIRST FOR THE MISTAKE OF 1966?

Let me tell you. What all these tells us young Igbo is that if any war starts again in Nigeria, WE WILL NOT STOP until either you or we are wiped out.
Just remember this.

If you start an action you dont tell the other party when to stop. Its the foolishness of Igbos that would make them think you can kill some peoples leaders and escape the wrath.

If you kill my brother I can either leave you, kill your own brother or wipe out your whole village.

When Archduke Ferdinand was killed the whole world paid for it not just those Bosnian rogues

Report yourself to the police for aiding traffiking

pazienza: What does what happened in the military have to do with innocent poor citizens? I can't believe am sharing the same country with you people.

I didnt know Akintola, Balewa, Okotie Eboh, Bello were military guys. Have you considered getting yourself educated?

Dede1: I guess it is only in your myopic world that an illegal entity is deemed fit to protect a legally constituted document. Who made Gowon head of state after he personally denied having a hand in the coup that saw off Ironsi? No wonder mediocrity ran riot in Nigeria after all when virtues gave way to stupidity, chaos took the place of sanity.

If Gowon was an illegal entity being a military head of State, what was Ojuku a military Governor? I guess an illegal entity too?

So you mean a Bastardd who also happens to be an illegal entity drove you to war and you followed him like mumus?

[quote author=Efemena_xy] [/quote]Get The Fork Outta Here

PointB: Let me let you into one secret. Each time I see your name, I actually read it as DayoOponu . That account for why I rarely respond to your idiocy. I hope that is settled now/

Coming from someone like you I wasnt expecting much from. Who cares what a lunatic thinks about him except another lunatic

Theres Love in the air, Coogar found tpia his soulmate, Debo found a Boyfriend

Where is my darling Kobojunkie, I am feeling left out

PointB: There has not been any real effort at reconciliation, let alone justice. Rather attempts were made to sweep the death of over 3 million people (mostly women and children) under the carpet. Nigeria murdered sleep, and will never know peace, until proper reconciliation is done.

Achebe has eloquently placed the burden on the conscience of Nigerians. Let the debate/unraveling continue!

3m people died as a result of the war Ojuku plunged his people in. If you must blame someone blame Ike-eba the daft guy who took y'all to war

PointB: Those pictures posted by Eko Atlantic are spot on. They are a sad reminder of children who survived Awolowo's calculated genocide. Many of them luckily are still walking the length and breadth of Nigeria today, thriving.

So when next you see a picture of starving Biafran children, just remember that Awolowo intended to kill them all. As in his warped mind, 'all is fair in war!' Perhaps Ojukwu was too trusting, he should have left the mass murderer die in Calabar prison!

Yeah those pictures are evidence of the evil the reside in Ojuku that made him ridiculed all his life. Lost every election even Senate in his home town and died dead dumb and lonely

Lucifer would surely be pummeling Ojuku right now

ACN collected 16billion for 60% votes Abeg how much Igbos collect for 98% votes? zilch

No wonder Shagari called them harlots No one care about APGA they are inconsequential . The APGA founder even lost all elections he even contested even in his own household

^^ Lol. Jesus died for his people

Ojuku fled from his people.

Hmm na wa o

This thing do reach Lagos?

[quote author=Mr. Globe]the deepest part exactly. I dont know any greater sin than wickedly starving innocent children and pregnant women to death and also committing suicide[/quote]The greater sin is leadind innocent people to war and fleeing in the middle to save yourself while others are left to die. That in addition to being a paedophile.

Im certain Ojuku is getting rimmed by Lucifer himself right now

Achebe is senile No surprises there

Eko Atlantic

Can you add the biafra Sopulu bokoHaram picture?

Dede1: If you were a consummate retard.ed, you would have realized that not all attempts to secede from union result into war. It will serve you good if you rehearse your half-baked historical facts before opening your putrid mouth.

I have given you notable instance in history where secession led to war. Seceding is against the consitution as Zik wanted it and Gowon being the head of State swore to protect the constitution and he did by crushing Ojuku and his rebels He crushed them fiercely under the boot of Adekunle. Sorry about that but a war has to be won

thelastPope: See this funny chap oh! You guys make a false claim, I debunk it and you are ranting! You claimed that you are contributing monies to Nigeria and you posted $9 billion et all. I have just showed you that its false, you come dey vex. Haba! Which one be your own nah!

How did you debunk it?

Dont you see that the joke is on you? Business proceeds from export and import are not done through Western union but through Letter of credits from banks. Google it.

Money laudering people bringing money through Western union? you must be kidding me. Since you dont know money sent through Western Union has a limit. Try sending ordinary $5000 through Western union and see the scrutiny you would be subjected to. Western union amounts are usually less than $2000 per transaction. So you think Atiku or IBB that laundered 5billion would be sending it in $1000, per money transfer? You must be really deluded

Which services are rendered by Nigerians that require Western union payments. Kindly give examples of such services.

Who are these diasporan paying back debt to? they are paying back debt to who? When most diasporans are the highest earners in the extended family?

^^ Exactly the same way others too feel when they remember the blood of their leaders spilled on the bed by useless Ibo soldiers.

Omo Alata: But I can go to both on Sundays. MFM ends at 12 noon. Ghana church begins at 2p.m. It only means that I leave home around 8:45am. on Sundays and won't return home until 6p.m. C'est la vie

If its convenient for you. But spending the whole Sunday in church leaving home at 8 getting out of Ghanaian church by 5pm?

Dede1: When I said you are a loudmouthed and empty-headed dullard, I guess it was a fully deserved compliment of the season. Seriously, I do not think all Yoruba peeps are dumbass stiffs such as you. The few of the Yoruba peeps who thought the actions of Gowon in ordering Nigerian soldiers to attack eastern region were wrong let their voices heard.

When any part of a country secede what follows? When the confederate attempted to secede from US what happened? When Slovenia, Croatia, etc seceded from yugoslavia what happened? Tell us how secession are treated?

If you are expecting Gowon to clap for you them you are a full blown retardd

The truth is that you have to go to your husbands church and possibly learn twi

You cant make a whole church change because of you. I dont think its good for Husband and wife to attend different churches

You can do MFM weekdays and Ghanaian church weekends

Dede1: At this stage of your miserable life, even if you were killed, I think you can not understand the simple fact that western and mid-western regions were integral part of Nigeria led by one moronic Gowon. When Gowon, who sat in Lagos and leader of Nigeria, ordered Nigerians troops to attack eastern region, any part of Nigeria became an open session.

Excellent. So when Part of Nigeria (Yorubaland) was attacked, You were expecting the same people from that part of Nigeria not to respond? Thats outright stupidity if thats your line of thought

You attacked our part of Nigeria and we responded in kind. Its not our fault that our hand was stronger than your or Adekunle, Awolowo, and Obasanjo understood what wa was about while that bearded bastard thought it was another beer drinking contest.

Kill our leaders we are supposed to take it and not respond.

Attack our lands, we are supposed to take it and not respond. Are you guys serious? Not everyone is Daft like Ojuku

^^ Na so dem dey start and when the real war start the flee to Abidjan and later scream genocide

Elueme: Good that you know that ACN is famous for imposing candidates against the will of the people .. Thanks for admitting
Britain practise parliamentary system where parliaments elect prime ministers. Their system of electing prime minister doesn't allow popular participation by the generality of the population unlike our system which allows .. DAYOKANU , THE NO 1 NURTW FROM OYO STATE HAS SAID THAT THE IMPOSITION OF CANDIDATES BY ACN IS IN LINE WITH THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE PARTY TO ENTRENCH GOOD GOVERNANCE.. WHAT AN OXYMORON.

The people of the SW have no issues with the imposition Infact WE LOVE THE IMPOSITION. as evidenced by our voting pattern recently.

If we are not complaining, INEC is not complaining then wetin "consain" you h-inside

rhymz: Thesame nonsense from the usual suspects. After all said and done, innocent lives were lost. Chinua Achebe captured my thoughts exactly, how can a leader with moral decency suggest a starvation policy that will largely affect innocent by-standers of the war on the other side of the divide as a means to winning the war. After all, it was a civil war, a war to keep the country intact, or was it just a mere assumption to hide the real intents of the war?
If it was to stop the eastern region from seceeding then why the starvation policy? Was the Nigerian side under any serious threat of annihilation from Biafra to resort to extreme measures to stop the eastern region or was it just a case of pure inherent hate, opportunism, and sheer callousness on the side of the Nigerian government and her collaborators ganging up against a region whose dominant tribe they tacitly loathe in silence.
It is even more unfortunate that the collaborators instead of showing remorse and regrets for their bias and opportunistic involvment to further their own cause, have continued to be in denial, they will lie, revise history and even spin suggestive statements as facts just to cover up their hypocrisy and backstabbing antics.
I don't have a problem with Awolowo making statements like "all is fair in war" or "why feed our enemies fat to fight harder", in fact, he revealed his true feelings through the latter statement, when he called the Biafran side, "enemies" even though he hypocritically put up appearance as a neutral mediator trying to talk sense into the actors of the war, my grouse is the open denial from these collaborators posing as some mediators. This same inherent hatred from many past Yoruba leaders is seen even in present day Yoruba people, they are so quick to downplay the severity of the pogrom that had Hausa men and women having a feel time killing innocent Igbo people living in the north en mass all because some of their leaders were killed by an igbo dominated coup plot. Instead of condemnation by these hypocrits, all they do is try to rationalize such actions. It is like rationalizing Igbos resorting to killing every hausa person in the east because BH boys continue to kill their kiths and kins in senseless attacks.
Achebe was even being diplomatic with words in the way he described Awolowo, the fact is that he was fully aware of the fall out of his policies towards the igbos, he saw the war as an opportunity to deal a big blow on the Igbos' influence and their interest all over Nigeria. His 20 nigeria pounds policy was deliberate, only a dishonest Yoruba person will expect the Igbos to be full of praise of Awolowo, a man that continued to churn out policies to undermine them even after their utter loss of the war. Awolowo no doubt was a hero to the Yoruba people but to others, especially the Igbos, his sense of moral decency had tribalistic colours and shades, he was good no doubt to the Yoruba race but animalistic to other Nigerians that were not Yoruba. Don't blame them if they point out to these streaks.

Can you tell us what Biafran soldiers were doing attacking Midwest and SouthWest if they are not enemies?

The attack on the SW was the turning point in the war and Yes in wars you crush your enemies You crush them like Black Scorpion did.

Its funny that Ibos expect others to be moral towards them but throw out their own moralty when it comes to killing other leaders and sparing theirs, I am sure you have an explanation for that already. In time of peace, Ibo soldiers killed other leaders and spared their yet they expect the other side to be moral to the in times of war? Delusion at its best

You kill my father or uncle, attack my land yet expect me to be moral when dealing with you. Well sorry the sun doesnt shine from your arse. I would crush you like Adekunle did

Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Nigerians abroad send at least $10 billion in remittances to their loved ones at home. This amount makes Nigeria the 6th highest destination for remittances according to the World Bank. That also makes Nigeria the top remittance destination on the African continent.


WHY ARE REMITTANCES IMPORTANT?
Many immigrants abroad send a portion of their earnings to family members in their home country. In some cases, these remittances are the only income that those families have to live on. In a country like Nigeria with anywhere between 8 to 15 million Nigerians living abroad, remittances are a way to provide financial assistance. This is crucial on a personal level because of Nigeria's high unemployment rate. And, it is reported that the money sent to Nigeria through unconventional means is actually 4 times the amount reported

http://www.nigeriancuriosity.com/2009/11/nigerias-10-bn-in-remittances.html

You mean they contribute nothing?

But monetary remittance from them annually is in excess of $10b

How can people who contribute $10bn a yr be classed as not contributing anything?

This show of love between coogar and tpia sha.

The envy of all Our 21st century Romeo and Juliet