₦airaland Forum

ofai:
Mumu, who said Edo is an ethnicity? I just stated that you were from that state, but I don't know your ethnicity? So I keep asking, why are you ashamed of your ethnicity? What is your ethnicity?

You are a waste of time.

You are sick upstairs. First of all you are ashamed of your state hence your refusal to even mention it at all let alone your ethnicity.
Among the Edo State ethnicities of Bini, Ishan and Afemai, which one of them is not known for excellence all over the country and beyond to warrant being ashamed of?
You smell of shameless ignorance.
At least I have mentioned my state and given you a few credentials which have scared and intimidated you so much that you will never mention yours let alone your ethnicity within it.
Mention your own state so that we now both go into ethnicity if you are sure your ethnicity is as popular as any of Edo's.
You don't want to mention your state to someone who has already mentioned his, yet you want him to go on to mention his ethnicity while you hide both your own state and ethnicity. Igbo wayo!

You Igbos are always fondest of probing people's specific ethnicities and tribes yet the same people are the quickest to label others as tribalistic. Why
You are so interested in my ethnicity but even your state you can't even disclose to start with. Very dubious thing!

Since you are so good at guessing, what now stops you from guessing my ethnicity. You could guess my state from among the six SS states, yet you can't guess my ethnicity from among just three? Shame on your intelligence.

ofai:
When did you start speaking for all the ethnicities in delta state? Who made you their mouthpiece? Are you from Delta state? Are you Urhobo, Isoko, Igbo, itshekiri or ijaw? Why not be open about your ethnicity in Edo state?

You hate Igbo, simple. Don't rope others into your biase. Unfortunately, we Igbos care less.

By the way, I rightly guessed that you are from Edo state, yet I don't know your ethnicity. Are you ashamed of telling us your ethnicity? You reek of inferiority complex.

Now I know why you have been so antagonistic against ironsi. Its a shame. Leave igbos alone. We are not your mate.

So what now qualifies an Igbo man above an Edo person in speaking for Urhobos, Ijaw, Itshekiri, Isoko, etc? I have all these tribes in my state of Edo while you don't have them in yours. So who between you and me is qualified to speak for them?

Do you even know what ethnicity means? Why not tell us your own specific ethnicity in Igbo land? Or you think we don't know that Igbos have ethnicities too?
It is exactly you that reeks of inferiority complex. Tell us which Igbo ethnicity you are if you are not ashamed of it.
Only Igbos are always so crazy about other people's ethnicities because they feel inferior, yet they easily accuse others of being tribalistic.

If you could rightly guess that I am from Edo State, then why can't you also rightly guess my ethnicity since you are so good at guessing? Why is your guessing gift failing when it comes to ethnicity?
Is your right guessing ability selective?

Yes, I am happy you now seem to understand that Edo people are the most resentful and antagonistic of Ironsi because we were actually the hardest hit by his asinine and preposterous Unification Decree.
You hate Awolowo for allegedly causing the loss of your most cherished Biafra dream, yet you want us to love Ironsi who likewise caused our loss of fulfilment of our potential greatness as a Nigerian State or independent country. Double standards.
Ironsi decided to hold others back with his useless decrees because he saw clearly the enormous developmental speed with which the other regions would overtake his own.

Okay, you have now known I am from Edo State even though you assume Edo is an ethnicity. So what next?

ofai:
You keep ridiculing yourself with all due respect. You were the one who said you were neither Yoruba nor Igbo, that you were "south-south" and then I asked, is south-south an ethnicity? Rather than correcting yourself and stating your ethnicity, you keep ignoring the obvious. This is ridiculous.

Sorry.

You must be able to tell me if your own SE is an ethnicity before answer you whether SS is an ethnicity. And by the way how many ethnicities do you even think you know about the SS?
And what exactly has your question got to do with the issue I was responding to? I don't even get it.
The SS people see themselves as one people defined as non-wazobians irrespective of their ethnic diversities. So when they call themselves SS it speaks of their commitment to their non-wazobian identity before any other thing. In the SS we don't lay unnecessary emphasis on ethnicity because we don't suspect and hate one another as it is with WAZOBIANS.

ofai:
Oga, you said you were neither Igbo nor Yoruba... But from "south-south". Is "south-south" now an ethnicity? Why not be proud of your ethnicity?

Neither is Your own South-East an ethnicity. Why are you having headache over the composition of the SS which is not your region? You just labelled Enahoro and others as tribalists for focusing on their regions which were multi-ethnic. Ironically you, supposedly a "nationalist" are now probing with severe curiosity the specific ethnicities and tribes the SS people. Have you too become a tribalist? What an interesting irony!

ofai:
Oga, you said you were neither Igbo nor Yoruba... But from "south-south". Is "south-south" now an ethnicity? Why not be proud of your ethnicity?

Neither is Your own South-East an ethnicity. Why are you having headache over the composition of the SS which is not your region? You just labelled Enahoro and others as tribalists for focusing on their regions which were multi-ethnic. Ironically you, supposedly a "nationalist" are now curious about the specific ethnicities of the SS. What an interesting irony!

ofai:
How does a change in government affect economic policy? Show me where ironsi interfered with Nigeria's economic policies.

You try so hard to sound intellectual but still, the incoherence of your points expose your ignorance.

Since awo and co had opportunities change the constitution in favor of seccession clause, WHY DIDNT THEY CHANGE IT? stop perambulating.

You post lengthy voids that makes no point.

If you are from Edo state I won't be surprised.

But why would Awolowo and Enahoro be the ones to help Igbos ask for what they (Igbos) had come to need more badly than others? Are you just kidding?
And moreover, were only the votes of Awolowo and Enahoro all that was needed to put secession clause in the 1979 constitution? Were Igbo delegates not in attendance in that conference? Did they themselves propose it there and Awolowo and Enahoro rejected it? Must Igbos always be spoon-fed? I thought you just claimed they were the most intelligent and progressive tribe? So why wait for "dullard" tribes to float a bill which the most intelligent tribe was supposed to champion?

The truth remains that you got all my arguments but keep playing the devil's advocate just to save face.
I thought you asked for my ethnicity? So Edo State is now an ethnicity? Wonders will never really end.
What you lots don't understand is that Edos and Deltans are the South-South's naturally most outspoken people and don't pretend to like what they hate.
These two states resent Igbos more than even the Yorubas whom you call Afonja because they have not gotten over Ojukwu's Midwest invasion which they still view as an act of foreign aggression.

Yes I am from Edo State and very proud of it. That is the state that houses the most powerful pre-colonial kingdom in black Africa. It is the state with the richest culture in Nigeria. The only state to have simultaneously produced the national chairmen of the two largest Nigerian parties in one political dispensation (SDP and NRC). The emblem of the federal ministry of culture and tourism has three icons out of which two are taken from Edo State and the third one is for all the other 35 states put together. The only state whose people's artefacts so rivalled their European counterparts in beauty and craftsmanship that the Europeans themselves fell for the temptation to loot them. The most strategically located state in the country, the only state that has a fair share of almost all the different mineral resources found in the country. The only state that hosts the two largest Nigerian companies in a particular industry - Okomu and Presco, the state that hosts the first Polytechnic in Nigeria, The State that first established LCDAs and houses the first State owned University in Nigeria, The home state of the man that first foresaw the bleak future of Nigeria and proposed secession clause to forestall it, the state of the people whose boundaries remain the only legally created entity together with Delta State in the country's history. I can go on and on. In fact had Ironsi left our federal structure intact, an eventually created Edo State would have been the California equivalent of Nigeria. Under this unproductive unitary system Edo ranks 4th in GDP per capita despite being among the bottom 10 in federal allocation receipts. Just imagine where it would be under true federalism.
That simply explains why we so much detest Ironsi, Zik and Ojukwu who deceived people with one-Nigeria in their dubious quest to impose unitary system. You can take that to the bank.

Each time you claim that Igbos are competitive, industrious and hardworking, I don't get it. How could a genuinely industrious and competition-loving people have rooted rooted for unitary system (disguised as one Nigeria) which inspires laziness, elicits redundancy, encourages the culture of over dependence on handouts from the center, kills initiative and creativity, kills industriousness, etc; at a time all other tribes were asking for federalism which really inspires healthy competition that results in rapid industrialization?
You people just make claims that diverge from logic.
Your actions and preferences in the formative years of Nigeria put you people across as not really competition loving or industrious.
Action speak louder than words.

ofai:
There is no ethnicity called south-south. State your ethnicity.

Nigeria's current regions are called geopolitical regions not geo-ethnic regions. Please can you mention any perfectly homogeneous regions ethnically among the current six? Even your SE Region has native Igalas in Anambra. So what's your point?

ofai:
So long a letter.

Structural changes had NOTHING to do with economic policies, you don't have write an epistle trying to force the lame point you are asserting. Even historians agree that Ironside didn't tamper with the economic policies being implemented.

Before 1966, jobs were on merit, even the American government referred Igbos as west African "Jews" because they were envied and hated for their collective hardwork, industry and intelligence.

Awo, the north and co had the opportunity to include the seccesion clause in the new constitution. They didn't. Q.E.D. it speaks of their actual intentions.

On boro and sarowiwa, the point you are trying to make is dead on arrival. Even wiwa apologized to ojukwu and acknowledged his naivity in dealing with Nigeria. Boro was ambushed by his Nigerian ally, I wonder where you get your information from.

I know am "myopic" and you are "foresighted", but chips on ground proves that Ironside NEVER tampered with economic policies and the free press. Your long impotent revisionism won't change that.

Yes my letter had to be long as a detailed analytical response to your false assertions.

Please find below an extraction from Ironsi's speech made on May 24 1966:


THE FEDERAL MILITARY GOVERNMENT hereby decrees as follows:
Subject to the provisions of this Decree, Nigeria shall on 24th May 1966 (in this decree referred to as ‘the appointed day’) cease to be a Federation and shall accordingly as from that day be a Republic, by the name of the Republic of Nigeria, consisting of the whole of the territory which immediately before that day was comprised in the Federation
2.
As from the appointed day—
the Federal Military Government and the Federal Executive Council shall be known respectively as the National Military Government and The Executive Council;
the Federal territory shall be known as the Capital territory;
the provinces, including Kaduna capital territory, in schedule 1 of this Decree which immediately before the appointed day were respectively comprised in Northern Nigeria, Eastern Nigeria, Western Nigeria and Mid-Western Nigeria shall be known respectively as the Northern group of Provinces, the Eastern group of Provinces, the Western group of Provinces and the Mid-Western group of Provinces;
for the purpose of administration each group of provinces shall subject to the authority of the Head of the National Military Government, be under the general direction and control of a Military Governor appointed by the Head of the National Military Government;.
Act No. 20 of 1963 (that is to say the Constitution of the Federation) may be cited as the Constitution of the Republic.
- https://dawodu.com/decree34.htm

Your reference to Americans' description of Igbos as whatever does not answer my question as to why No Northerners or Westerners got any jobs in the Eastern Region back then. Were their applicants all dunces?

If Enahoro, Awolowo, Balewa and Bello could, based on foresight, push for secession clause, then how was it their fault that Igbos now blessed with hindsight in 1979 could not? In 1979 in had become clear to all and sundry that Igbos needed it more than anyone else. Or was it that after the war Igbos totally "forgave" One Nigeria and swore never to demand secession again? If that was the case, then why are they falling for Kanu's moves again?
On the part of Enahoro and Awolowo, Zik's frustration of their first attempts got them into the mood of once beaten twice shy. Moreover Ironsi's Anti-secession Decree made with Ojukwu's moral support and the later irony of the same Ojukwu's demand for secession just 15 months later painted Igbos as inconsistent enough to im 1979 constitutional conference repeat what Zik did when the secession was first proposed.

Please can you post links of where Saro Wiwa apologized to Ojukwu?
This is the biggest joke of the century. Did Saro Wiwa and Ojukwu ever meet again after he was arrested by Abacha's government and his travails started? If he so apologized, then how come the average Ogoni man still remains strongly anti-Biafra in orientation?

santricedupas:
aguiyi ironsi and kadunaa ezeugo are the true hero of one nigeria, although am a yoruba and an afonja. if the sardauna of kaduna late sir ahmadu bello was not killed we will all be slaves in the southern nigeria. ahmadu bello made a statement after independence that nigeria is a conquered estate of usmanu dan fodio, that southerners will never rule over the north, southerners will never have control over there future and they will not stop until they throw quran into atlaantic oceaan and install emirs around.

Well, I am neither Yoruba nor Igbo but from the SS.
You seem to have a good argument. However there is a weakness somewhere in it.
Before independence, the North had already began chanting born-to-rule and were killing Southerners, mostly Igbos, in large numbers at the slightest provocations. Their quest to dip the Quran into the Atlantic Ocean was already being rightly or wrongly perceived.
At the end of the 1959 federal elections the southern parties together with their Middle Belt allies had more votes than Ahmadu Bello's party and could therefore have thrown up a Southerner as prime minister thereby crushing the North's born-to-rule and Atlantic Ocean agenda in the mud. But unfortunately, a Southerner known as Nnamdi Azikiwe broke the proposed all-Southern parties coalition aimed at achieving just that, and rather aligned with Ahmadu Bello's party thereby giving power to the North to entrench achieve those two agenda. The same Zik once again sold out in the attempt by UPGA (another all-South alliance with same objectives as the initial one).
Don't you therefore think that any Southern soldier who genuinely wanted to address the issue as a hero should have by all means first killed that habitual Southern sell out before touching any Northerner if at all it was necessary? Why did these "heros" go ahead with the coup despite being fully aware that the main cause of the problem they were trying to address had escaped?
I don't share the sentiment that it was a genuine concern about the Atlantic Ocean agenda that inspired the coup because a lot of things don't add up to it.

ofai:
Ironsi's government did not interfere with the economic policies already laid out by the regional governments, so he should be credited for his economic non-interference. Those after him tampered with the regional economic policies.

Nation building is usually experimental particularly for emerging countries, no country in the world jump-passed this stage. If enahoro, awolowo ahmadu bello and co put the secession clause before independence, why didn't they include it in their reviewed constitution after the war knowing fully well that it was in their view in Nigeria's best interest? Were they not among the constitutional drafting committee? Trying to blame zik or Igbos by extension is always a futile attempt.

All the plum jobs before 1966 was gotten mainly by merit and hard work. It was only the clannish nature of awo and Ahmad bello that disfavoured it because the Igbo were excelling in every facet of Nigeria.

Killing adaka boro wouldn't have solved the issue, after all the same adaka was killed by the same Nigerian troop he was fighting for and his people are still agitating till today. Thank God Ironside didn't kill boro, I respect ironsi for that. ... Just as the same hypocritical Nigerian government used and killed boro, that was how they killed sarowiwa too.

In what better way can a regional government's economy be interfered with than striping it of its civil service commission as Ironsi did?
Consider yourself the governor of your state with your civil service suddenly no longer answerable to you but to Abuja, thus all taxes and revenues generated in your domain get redirected to Abuja leaving you with practically no funds or man power to implement your economic policies or prepare budgets. In what way better than that can an economy be interfered with and destroyed? By centralizing the civil service Ironsi left dummies as regions.
What defined the regionalism then was not the regions' physical boundaries but the extent of their autonomy which Ironsi's civil service restructuring eroded 100℅. That they have regions in the UK does not automatically translate to federalism. We know they practice unitary system because those regions are not autonomous.
The assumption that it was Gowon's creation of states that killed federalism is a very lame one because the creation of new the regions had already started under the civilians with the Midwest coming first and having the regional autonomy in place trickling down to it automatically. So it would have been with all the other new regions or states to be created after the Midwest.
Did the creation of the Midwest from the West take away the latter's autonomy when the constitution was yet intact? So how could Gowon's breakdown of the regions have taken autonomy away if Ironsi had left the constitution intact?

The US, which stands tall as the best example of nation building, did not ever experiment with unitary system because critical and honest reasoning intuitively inspired in them the understanding that unitary system would be antithetical to their diversity. The likes of Awolowo, Enahoro, Ahmadu Bello and Balewa who had the gift of critical reasoning and intuition cautioned against unitary system in Nigeria but got mocked and labelled as tribalists by Zik and his myopic admirers.
It is the same myopic mindset you too have just demonstrated here by accusing Awolowo, Enahoro and Ahmadu Bello of tribalistic leanings for their unwavering belief in federalism.
It is very easy to confuse federalism with tribalism since the former seeks, in principle, to allow for self assertion by each tribe. This explains why Zik and his Igbo cheerleaders misinterpreted Awo's and Bello's pro-federalist stance as tribalistic leanings while living in the illusional assumption that they were nationalists just because they were selfishly rooting for an unworkable centrist arrangement within a diversity.
As for the secession clause: When Enahoro first initiated the idea and got the support of Ahmadu Bello, it was Zik that instigated the colonial masters into threatening them with treasonable felony charges if they refused to back down. Ironically, in less than ten years afterwards, the same Zik began to ask for "separation in peace and not in pieces". He would later lead his kinsmen in the quest for secession in another three years thereafter.
Common sense therefore dictated that when constitutional conference opportunity popped up in 1979, the first time after the war, the burden of fighting for the inclusion of the secession clause was that of Igbos who's earlier rejection of it later cost them 3 million lives. Ironically, they refused to champion that cause during the said constitution review. Then who exactly were they expecting to carry their own cross for them?

Hmmm! So you really believe that before 1966, all the plum jobs were being gotten by merit? Then how come no Northerner or Westerner was brilliant enough to get a plum job in the Eastern Region? I laugh in Swahili. Even Ahmadu Bello, in the currently trending online video, rhetorically asked whether any Northerner was employed in the Southern Civil Service, and the journalist could not answer him. I guess all Northerners who applied for jobs in the South back then were dullards, right? In actual fact what we had then was a strictly regional arrangement where each regional government was by law mandated to give priority to the natives over aliens. That is one of the hallmarks of true federalism which you erroneously take as tribalism. If you are now demanding a return to true federalism/resource control and you are not prepared for tribalism, then you don't yet know what you are asking for. No wonder the confused Zik, despite all his degrees and certificates, kept on seeking "One-Nigeria" and an end to "tribalism" under a strictly federal structure.

On Adaka Boro: Only revisionists try to implicate the Nigerian side. Common sense dictates that he was killed by Biafran soldiers for "betraying" Ojukwu. However, whoever eventually killed him is not as guilty as Ironsi and Ojukwu who frustrated his Niger Delta Republic dream which if they had allowed him realize, he would have been in his own separate country at the time Nigeria and Biafra fought, hence would not have been involved at all let alone being killed by either side. Moreover, he alone, and not his tribe, was killed for defending "One-Nigeria" unlike Ojukwu whose over 3 million kinsmen were later killed right before his eyes by the very "One-Nigeria" in whose interest he had earlier on crushed Isaac Boro's Niger Delta Republic. Who lost more to One-Nigeria between Boro and Saro Wiwa on one hand, and Ojukwu and Ironsi on the other?
No doubt, Ojukwu, like any sane person, would have preferred to, like Adaka Boro, be killed so that his kinsmen might be spared than how it happened the other way round in reality. So give and take Ojukwu, Ironsi and Igbos lost far more for ever defending "One-Nigeria" than Isaac Boro and Saro Wiwa lost for doing same.

DerideGull:
Only a class of dumbass goons in your kind can rest in hell. When he was power, the four regional government were functional. However, when the idiotic Gowon and his clown mates took over the central government, he replaced the regional form of government with the states. Please read the correct history of Nigeria.

As per the bolded; Ironsi centralized the civil service immediately he got to power. Now, could you kindly explain how the regions remained functional with their civil service structures taken away from them to the center?
Recall that the civil service is the engine of any government and the only legal institution through which the government exercises all its governing powers.
Waiting for your response.

ofai:
A responsible government should never tske a onesided percerption seriously. What the north perceives isnt necessarily what nigeria perceives.

Blaming Ironside for the country's 52 years of misfortune shows a serious lack of reason

The fear of Igbo domination was not a one-sided perception. Ahmadu Bello had begun to express it on behalf of the Northern Region as far back as 1952 as recorded in the currently trending online video. Akintola too had on behalf of the Western Region made it clear that his rivalry against Awolowo was built on the latter's indifference to Igbos' increasing presence and gradual taking over of the Western Region civil service and Assembly. That was contained in his "Yoruba e ronu" message delivered in the thick of the Western Region internal power struggle between AG and it's breakaway faction.
So where did you get the one-sidedness notion from?

Well, can we also employ your logic that Igbos are devoid of reason for their 51 year old blaming of Awolowo, Enahoro, Philip Chukwuemeka Asiodu, Azikiwe, etc for the loss of Biafra Eldorado?
Blame game doesn't just end on its own. It only ends when the government makes genuine efforts to address all the injustices of the past be it 1 million years ago.

ofai:
By economic indices he was one the best.

Nigeria's politics was still very young so even all the leaders after him were inexperienced at that time in military government.

No military leader was BETTER than Ironside. He didn't want to execute the 5 majors because the western press and Nigerians were sympathetic to them.

Adaka boro's life was spared because of the eastern sentiments ironsi had for boro, this made non Easterners feel he was too tribalistic. Ironside was in a tight corner, any leader too would have been.

The economic indeces that defined his regime were actually inherited from the superlative performance of the regional premiers pre-independence and the not too bad governance of Balewa in the first six years post independence.

As per the bolded; we were not actually the first people on earth to embark on nation building. Other nations' experiences were already there for us to learn from, thus we did not need to reinvent the wheel. So I don't buy into your theory that it was an experimentation stage. All we needed were knowledgeable and sincere leaders who could have brought their knowledge of other nations' experiences to bear on the business of governance.
People like Enahoro, Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa and Awolowo already knew from studying that unitary system was dangerous to a heterogeneous society hence they gave several warnings, wrote books, made proposals, etc to that effect. While Awolowo described Nigeria as a mere geographical expression where progress can only be made if true federalism is adhered to, Enahoro proposed secession clause for the constitution with the purview to instill in all the future leaders the fear of the consequences of misgovernance, and while Ahmadu Bello warned against unmoderated cross cultural interferences, Tafawa Balewa described Nigeria as a British Enterprise which will take time to become a truly Nigerians' project. Only Zik and his admirers like Ironsi refused to acknowledge the reality but continued chanting and believing in "One Nigeria" and unitary system despite the preponderance of evidences to the contrary.

As for the execution of the five majors, of what help was the assumed Western press and Nigerians' sympathy to him when the counter coupists from the north came calling? Is justice based on sentiments or established guilt versus innocence?
Were Nigerians and the Southern press not sympathetic to Okar and Vatsa? Did that stop IBB from executing them according to military laws? Did that prevent IBB from being loved by even a lot of Southerners till tomorrow?
It is believed that Murtala Mohammed's regime is the best of all military dictatorship despite the fact that it was shorter than Ironsi's.

If Ironsi truly had the Eastern sympathy for Adaka Boro, then why jail him at all while he was releasing Northerners?

ofai:
You didn't address anything, you just excused yourself by bringing narratives based on the perceptions of the northerners towards "an Igbo agenda".

But then those perceptions inspired the revenge through which Ironsi lost his life and Nigeria veered off its rapid development track for the past 52 years. As long as the conscience of man is invisible to the external world, then perception is everything.
Therefore a serious government must take perception very seriously. This perception is called public opinion in formal language.

gidgiddy:
Military rule never operates as democratic rule. So definitely, no matter eho took over, wether Ironsi or another officer, they would have had to jettison the constitution and rule by decree. However, Ironsi deserves his credits. He was only in power for 6 months but in that time, he :-

1) maintained the 4 Regions he met
2) Maintained the revenue sharing formular he met, Regions still got 50%
3) Refused to use military might to crush Northerners that were killing Igbos in.the North
4) Tried to promote national unity by touring different parts of the country at great risk to his life.

Every other Military head of state did far much worse than Ironsi

Gowon abolished the four constitutional Regions and replaced them with 12 unconstitutional and illegal states, which led to the declaration of Biafra by Ojukwu and the war to followed. Gowon then went on to use several other military decrees to to strip the provinces of the 50% derivation they enjoyed under Ironsi as well as resource control.

Murtala Mohammed came in and increased the states from 12 to 19. He the used one horrific decree or the other to sack tbousands of civil servants and placed the petroleum industry under military supervision.

Obasunjo came in and promulgated the Land Use Act which futher stripped people of control of their ancestral lands. Obasunjo also over saw the adoption of Americas style of democrasy with the federalism as against Regionalism.

By the time Nigeria went through Babangida and Abacha, we had 36 states and Abubakar completed the fraud called the 1999 constitution.


Ironsi's short military regime was by far the best of all the military regimes tbat came after him. Ironsi's government was the closest to the 1963 constitution. His regime was the only one that respected the existence of the 4 constitutionally created Regions, their revenue sharing formular, resouce control and fiscal federalism.

Well, if military rule can't operate a decentralized system as you suppose, then how come Ojukwu, a military man took to Aburi Summit proposals for an extremely decentralized structure to be supervised by the military far into the future? Recall that there was no single case made for election back to democracy in that document?
I have already addressed in another thread most of the arguments you have raised above, and I don't want to repeat myself. But I will only repeat that all who came after Ironsi sustained and deepened Ironsi's unitary system as a veritable tool in eradication of the perceived Igbo domination agenda which had been foreshadowed by Zik's criss crossing of regions seeking premiership, Nzeogwu and co's announcement of their quest to strengthen the centre and weaken the regions after the coup, which Ironsi's final Unification, Anti-seccession and Anti-tribal Associations Decrees finally confirmed.
You therefore can't really blame them.
The person who opens the eyes of others to the sweetness of evil remains guiltiest of moral perversion in the land.

For introducing military rule at all into a perfectly working democracy, Ironsi deserves no credit except you are of the belief that the worst military regime is better than the best civilian regime.

ofai:
Ironsi's military experiment was an unitary experiment that led some (NOY ALL) pundits into concluding that unitary system is meant only for a homogeneous group. Not every pundit share the same view anyway.

By the way, Nigeria was just too fragmented, so for an apolitical military man like Ironside, unitary system was the way to go. That was indeed naive. Got it?

No genuinely educated person shares the perception that unitary system will ever succeed in a heterogeneous society. As at that point in time all heterogeneous societies which had experimented unitary system had failed woefully. What convinced Ironsi that Nigeria could miraculously be an exception?

ofai:
If ironsi had leaned towards nepotism, that would have further justified and solidified the perception of igbo domination to the rest of the world, and if he had died in the course of nepotism, even posterity will be harsh on him. Have you read his biography "Ironside" written by a foreign journalist?

Ironside was just a sacrificial lamb. His naivity cost him his life.

Unfortunately, posterity has not absolved him of nepotism. People logically believe that he would not have enacted the Unification and Civil service harmonization Decrees, and many other Igbo-favoured centripetal decrees had he actually not surrounded himself with only Igbos as advisers.
Put in another way;
none of those perceived Igbo-centric decrees would have successfully scaled through a composition of advisers defined by a fair balance of Igbos, Western and Northern Region politicians.

What we can see is that he surrounded himself with Igbo advisers while his personal security details were almost 100℅ non-Igbo. That was pure suicide.
It would have made more senses for him to have made his security 100℅ Igbos and made the composition of his advisers have a national spread.

horsepower101:
So after 50 years, some idiots are still blaming Ironsi for their misfortunes.

This is the reason I really want igbos to leave this useless country.

Igbos think differently from most Nigerians. They try to shape their own destiny no matter the situation.


The rest just accept everything by default. Spineless idiots

You had over 50 years to makes Nigeria a better country without igbo leadership. what happened? What's the excuse?

Just like the Igbos have continued blaming Britain for their loss of Biafra war after 50 and refusing to shape their destiny by simply asking their legislative arrow head kinsmen Enwerem, Okadigbo, Anyim Pius Anyim, Wabara, Nnamaani and Ekweremadu to simply sponsor a pro-secession referendum bill on the floor of the National Assembly towards legalizing the demand for Biafra and it's eventual easy realization.

ofai:
You are still begging the question. Why wasn't the unitary system changed IN PRACTICE for good?

Ironsi inherited a country deeply divided, so as a military man, the first experiment one would use to checkmate this division is unitary system. No more regional embassies, every thing comes together. Ironsi meant well but other heads of state learnt from his naivity of adopting the unitary system.

By the way, the north wanted to remain dominant at all cost, that was why despite efforts made by ironsi to make them well represented in the supreme military council, they still weren't satisfied.

I answered you clearly. The Core North led by Murtala Mohammed overthrew Ironsi not necessarily because they wanted to correct Ironsi's blunders but to secceed from Nigeria. But then the British Government Educated them on the benefit of oil, hence they decided to stay back but still not to correct Ironsi's blunders but to rather capitalize on them to completely weaken Igbos. They first chose Gowon, a Middle Belter who, as a minority man, did not share their revenge domination agenda hence actually took steps to reverse Ironsi's blunders until he found a genuine excuse to back down temporarily. But the core North through the person of Murtala Mohammed sacked Gowon when it became crystal clear that he was not genuinely committed to the revenge domination agenda when he declared the 'no victor no vanquished" philosophy.

ofai:
You are still begging the question. Why wasn't the unitary system changed IN PRACTICE for good?

Ironsi inherited a country deeply divided, so as a military man, the first experiment one would use to checkmate this division is unitary system. No more regional embassies, every thing comes together. Ironsi meant well but other heads of state learnt from his naivity of adopting the unitary system.

By the way, the north wanted to remain dominant at all cost, that was why despite efforts made by ironsi to make them well represented in the supreme military council, they still weren't satisfied.

I answered you clearly. .

ofai:
Think again.

As the new military head of state (the first of its kind in nigeria) Other ethnicities are accusing you of being too "closed up" in tribalism, while your brothers on the other hand are accusing you of being too open to "enemies", I don't think you would have done any better.

The philosophy of "Self preservation first" comes into play.
If you fail to preserve yourself first, then all else is lost.
Buhari has surrounded himself with his kinsmen to the embitterment of the other tribes who have been accusing him of unprecedented nepotism. Has he died? Has that stopped the same Nigerians from acknowledging hid genuine positive achievements like Boko Haram decimation and some slight agricultural revolution?

ofai:
Story story..... Story. Still blaming ironsi for your 60 years of political misfortune? Your leaders who had the chance to change the unitary system, why didn't they stop it?

The 50% resource derivative for each region was still intact during ironsi regime, why did Gowon and other change it?

Keep deluding yourself. Ironsi unitary system was much better than of other heads of state and even todays so called democracy.

Rest in peace the great Ironside!

You don't get it.
The January coupists claimed they wanted to entrench national unity through the establishment of a unitary government. However, in the Hausa-Fulanis' perception, their quest for unitary system was informed by an Igbo domination agenda which they had earlier on seen Zik demonstrate in his quest to rule the Western Region.
Ironsi confirmed these fears by really imposing the unitary system being favoured by only Igbos back then.
Consequently, it appeared to them that the only way to keep Igbo domination agenda in the cooler perpetually was for themselves to take power and weaken Igbos both economically and politically by retaining that same unitary system till Igbos suffer enough under it to make them hate it completely. And it has worked for them today as Igbos are now the loudest advocates of restructuring and true federalism.

ofai:
Story story..... Story. Still blaming ironsi for your 60 years of political misfortune? Your leaders who had the chance to change the unitary system, why didn't they stop it?

The 50% resource derivative for each region was still intact during ironsi regime, why did Gowon and other change it?

Keep deluding yourself. Ironsi unitary system was much better than of other heads of state and even todays so called democracy.

Rest in peace the great Ironside!

You don't get it.

ofai:
Enough of this lame narrative. The brotherhood in the military was not as compromised as it is today.

Ironsi was too believing that his men would remain loyal. This was his NAIVITY not stupidity. This was the first time the military was running an ethnically divided country. So other head of states learnt from ironsi's naivity.

Ojukwu wasn't even near ironsi in terms of bravery and leadership experience. Ironsi was NAIVE, not stupid.

The fact that the pattern of killings that defined the first coup had already created the perception that it was the execution of a long planned ethnic cleansing agenda by Igbos was enough to tell any sensible Igbo man that the army had become divided against the Igbo at that moment.
I can't wake up one day to see my brothers slaughter their neighbors and while trying to appease them I don't take precautions. That will not be naivete but sheer stupidity.

gidgiddy:
Ironsi was a good man

His only problem was that he was stupid enough to believe in "one Nigeria"

You seem to paint him as naive thus innocent of his actions. But I disagree.
He was really not naive. As someone who attended secondary school and read it in form four Government Textbooks that unitary system is only workable for a homogeneous society and that only federalism and confederalism suit a heterogeneous country, he was fully aware that all his Decrees would end up in catastrophe for the country on the long run. However, he went ahead still because he believed that his tribe would always be in charge thus would not feel the catastrophic consequences.

oyetpel:
What are you saying? They wanted to kill Ironsi too na, but they didn't succeed

Could you please kindly explain how come they succeeded in the killing of all non-Igbo leaders but could not succeed in killing at least just one among the four Igbo leading figures of Azikiwe, Ironsi, Okpara and Osadebe?

madjune:
Danjuma personally supervised this great man's killing and till today, he's still busy supervising the sharing of our national wealth.

Nigeria get serious problem.

The man had himself was responsible for the action that redirected all wealth to the center to be shared. Initially there was even nothing like national wealth otherwise called national cake. All wealth was domiciled at the regions and provinces. And the kinsmen of Danjuma and their likes warned Ironsi never to nationalize wealth but he refused. So whose fault is it that the Danjumas now share national wealth?

Ironsi remains the worst leader Nigeria ever had because his administration gave birth to all the very issues central to the arguments around which Nigeria's failure in the past 52 years revolve. Here they are:
1. Ironsi introduced to Nigeria the aberration called military rule. This would later militarize our democracy as IBB recently confessed to his creation of a military wing in PDP. Even from 1999 till the present the military has actually been in charge of our democracy both directly and indirectly. Parties totally devoid of military membership content don't usually grow beyond their respective local constituencies because Nigerians generally are no longer used to purely civilian affairs.
2. He met a perfectly working constitution which no one was complaining against but ironically he decided to start amending it.
if at all necessary, the amendment should have been towards further weakening the center since the very crisis on ground was a direct fall out of abuse of power at the centre by way of its illegal interference in the Western Region's internal affairs. But against logic and common sense, Ironsi did the exact opposite by concentrating more powers at the centre.
3. He made the three most offensive Decrees in the history of Nigeria, namely: Unification, Anti-seccession and Anti-tribal Associations Decrees, all of which were aimed at imposing on Nigerians the task of pretending that they were a homogeneous tribe with the same culture and value system. That was tantamount to tearing down all the barriers that separated rats, cats, snakes, crocodiles, pigs, chicken, etc in a farm stead and expecting these animals to thereafter coexist peacefully without predation and blood letting. Ironsi simply lacked an understanding of the characteristics of a complex society required of good leaders.

4. He centralized the regional civil service institutions, thereby also centralizing the source of the revenues from which their salaries were being generated thus striping the future states of the power to control their resources and lands. This would later give birth to marginalization of every other tribes by the tribe lucky to perpetually hold power at the centre. As an evidence the Niger Delta which ended up separated farthest from the center would be the first to take to open armed struggle against the centre for resource control restoration.

5. It took Ironsi less than three months to get Isaac Adaka Boro (a non-Igbo) sentenced to death for mutiny but was talking him eternity to do same for the January coupists (mostly Igbos) whose mutiny was not only by far deadlier and bloodier but recorded victims whose innocence were all too glaring. And he did not bother about how such selectiveness in justice administration would impact on the public's perception of his detachment from the long suspected Igbo domination agenda.

6. He arrogantly turned down all pleas from the public to leave the constitution intact, and then stubbornly went ahead with his pioneership of its mutilation. This alone would later give birth to a constitutional crisis for which the Aburi Summit was convened albeit improperly, leading to a set of resolutions hurriedly done by men unskilled in the art of legislation hence its consequent rejection by the populace which triggered the tragic war that ended up casting inter-tribal resentments and hatred in stone till today.

Dwizeone:
Bros People still dey read am o, some won’t some will. Na so life be, different tales for different folks but we need all of them.

If I enter supermarket I no fit pick everything, na wetin I need I go buy .

Me read everything sharp sharp as per say person no dey know the particular broom stick wey go kill fly.
After all most of us here do read and digest all the over 100 pages of some annual and quarterly reports that form our bases for analyses here.

In fact despite how endlessly long the Oando forensic audit report was, some people here read it from Genesis to Revelations and came back here to dissect the contents. Na that day I begin fear some NSEMPA members like winch!

pazienza:
Haven't you tried that already and failed?

Your words are meaningless, and nothing more than what Ndiigbo hear on daily basis, what made you think we have time to mark such words that get repeated like a million times on daily basis?

An example of those you call the Eastern Minorities has called you out and spoken to you clearly. I guess I am the one who threw him up here as you have always hoodwinked yourself to believe?
What you keep failing to realize is that Southern non-Wazobians, otherwise called Southern minorities, have come to share the common identity of the oppressed status by WAZOBIANS, and this identity has permanently inspired solidarity among them across the Niger which no force or propaganda can undo until their economic oppression by the WAZOBIA ruling establishment is eradicated.

pazienza:
Again, when cornered, he throws up unrelated matters to the present argument, just to prolong things and create a diversion.
Notice how you had been throwing the eastern minorities issue around hoping to create a diversion. But I totally ignored you.

Gowon government lacked legitimacy, it was a dictatorship that ruled by decrees.

A dictatorship is a dictatorship and can never have any semblance to Democracy

Ironsi was duty bound to return power to Dipcharima and re establish the constitution you say, well if that be so,then Gowon, who unlike Ironsi, had 7years plus to do this, but never even gave it a try was more duty bound to do same.

If Ironsi committed sin by not handing over to Dipcharima in 6months, Gowon committed 7times that, by not doing same in 7yearsplus.

So my mention of the representative status of Enahoro, Awolowo, Azikiw and their likes to their respective regions and tribes in response to your own "who are these people" question is now an unrelated issue? You are indeed terribly inconsistent. I have never seen anyone as dubious as you. Who cornered who in actual fact?

When have I specifically mentioned "Eastern Minorities" here now to warrant the bolded? You are such a shameless liar. You are rather the one cornered and throwing up Eastern Minorities to divert attention from that.

According to dictionaries' definition of the term, Gowon's government had several trappings of legitimacy while Ironsi's did not have any.
It is therefore your burden to rewrite the dictionary.

The sovereign public specifically asked Ironsi to hand over power to Dipcharima and he declined.
Same can't be said of Gowon as during his regime the public no longer deemed it fit let alone ask him to do same.
The duration of his tenure is immaterial. If duration matters, then where and how exactly do you place the dividing line between 'too long" and "too short"?
There lies the difference. Governance is about the people's will expressed through the constitution, or through public consensus where the constitution has lost authenticity as the people's will.