₦airaland Forum

Neither Tofa nor MKO were from
SE or SS, so it doesn't really matter who Anambra, Rivers, Abia, Imo voted in that election.
But in the 2003 election in which Ojukwu was from your own Middle East you voted for a Yoruba man. So what stupid and senseless defense are you giving here that both Tofa’s and MKO’s not being from SS or Middle East made Igbos choose randomly? You are just daft and illogical!

You want Tonye to come fight your battles for you, while your greedy expansionism driven Edos and your Oba plot on how to chase Ijaws off their ancestral land in Gelegele?
Dude, you are pathetic.

The Gelegele land ownership issue was taken to the Supreme Court and the Binis won. So your utterance on it amounts to contempt of court and therefore betrays prejudice, unenlightenment, and Edophobia. Of course we know Igbos are lawless and have no respect for democracy institutions. If it were really an expansionist drive on Edos’ part it would not have taken the Oba a minute to overrun Gelegele prior to colonization. The Oba’s choice of approaching the court over the issue maeans he was ready to accept the court verdict either way it swung, thus can’t pass for expansionism. But Ojukwu and Igbos who, despite claiming that Edo is unrelated to them, invaded Edo and with force tried to annex it to Biafra land without any supporting court verdict or consent of the people. That was expansionism in its real definition.
Mr. Man, you stink of ignorance and Edophobia.

Your attempt of drawing Tonyebarcanista to fight your battles for you since it's obvious you are not Ijaw and your attempt to cry on their behalf is quite pathetic.
What's your game? Bring Tonye in to serve as your shield why you cry how Igbos denial of Boro secession plans affected a far away Edo man in Midwestern region?
Poor comprehension as usual! Of course I referenced Barcanista’s thread firstly to answer to your question as to how many non-Yoruba Southerners’ ambitions have ever enjoyed Yorubas’ backing, and secondly to destroy your insinuation that the anti-Igbo stance of the Ijaws is but an Edo propaganda. And you got the message, hence your high BP over the mention of Barcarnista whose submissions there were killer punches to the lies of your likes there. Go there and prove Tonye wrong with superior argument if you can.
Why not let the courts say! What is the business of an Igbo man with a land tussle within a state he himself repeatedly says are Northerners or Yorubas? Is that not hypocrisy and instability? You are manifesting the symptoms of insanity. Simple!
I know my mention of Ijaw angle always annoys you as it stands as the greatest and most unassailable evidence of Igbo greed, persecution of others Southern tribes with the Hausa-Fulanis’ support, expansionism, etc. We started this debate as Edo versus Igbo but you brought Yoruba into it to score cheap points so I too brought Ijaw in. I will continue to make reference to Ijaw and your crying of blue murder can not stop me.

Zik wasn't supporting an Igbo candidate in that NYM election. He was supporting a Yoruba candidate Samuel Akinsanya. That election wasn't about Ethnicity.
That election was really not about ethnicity to everyone except Zik. Awolowo supported an Ijaw man who won but Zik who, with his abysmal sportsmanship spirit which was to manifest again few years later in the Western Regions premiership election, later felt disgraced by his loss to a minority and in bitterness accused Awolowo and his supporters of discrimination against Akinsanya’s Ijebu sub-tribe not minding the fact that Awolowo was himself Ijebu, and then pulled out the Igbo folk from NYM. For goodness sake what was his business with Yorubas’ intra-tribal affair any more than the Igbo intra-tribal Osu Caste discrimination concerned non-Igbos?

Well, Yorubas were not contesting elections under AG in the East, if they did, only then do they stand chance of winning.
Igbos were contesting for elections in the West, because the Igbo population there was substantial and that remains same today.
My argument holds.

You had earlier argued that the Igbo population in the West as at 1979 was not sufficient enough to have been responsible for the 10% Shagari got in Oyo, but now you posit again that Igbos already substantially populated the Western Region as far back as the AG vs NCNC time which is over 25 years before 1979. Speaking from the two sides of your mouth. So which do we believe now? Can you see how inconsistent you’ve always been?

Ndi Anambra loved Ngige not ACN, moreover this your analogy is flawed. Both Ngige and Akunyili and other candidates in that election were from Anambra. Is Buhari from SS? Why then was a supposedly SS state giving him as high as 40% of its vote in an Election a SS candidate was a frontrunner?
You need help. Imagine comparing apples with oranges.

If not for short memory, my mention of Ngige and ACN was in response to your insinuation that Edo’s being in CAN for 8 years suggests a pro-Northern leaning. You are rather the one with flawed analogy. Now, just like your defence for Ngige here; was Oshiomhole not equally from Edo? Is Buhari from the SE? Why then was a supposed state of the SE where people claimed he committed genocide on them during the War even give him as high as 20% in an election also contested by a candidate from their supposed sister Region? That was pure madness?
Edo’s giving of 40% to him without any history or claim of genocide makes more sense than the 20% in a state in the Middle East where they accuse him of monumental genocide. That is just too outrageous and extremely stupid! As much as 20% for a man who, according to they themselves, killed innocent women and children in thousands? Silly!

Lol! Buhari got just 19% of the votes in Imo, he got whopping 40% in Edo. A state that is supposed to be part of SS,lol!
Imo still delivered over 70% of the votes to GEJ, despite all Okorocha efforts.

Lol! We are comparing Imo not with Edo but with other Middle East states among which Imo was a clear departure from the general trend of APC percentages as shown below:
Enugu – 2.3%
Anambra – 2.6%
Abia –3.5%
Ebonyi -5.7%
Imo – 19.4%
The Edo’s 40% could be understood on the consideration of having their son as the national chairman of APC coupled with Edo’s revulsion for PDP on account of being the SS state hardest hit by PDP governors’ misgovernance since 1999. But what can we say is responsible for Imo’s 20% which, compared with Edo’s 40%, represents 50% translating to a credit grade mark to put it on the same pass range with Edo? Again, looking at it on the ratio of Percentage
: years spent in APC as at the time of the election we get as follows
Edo: 40% after 8 years of being in APC
Imo: 20% after 4 years of being in APC
It is perfectly the same proportion which translates to mean that Imo too will give at least 40% to APC after 8 years which corresponds to 2019 when Buhari will likely recontest.

Zik is not celebrated as much. But that does not mean that we would allow Igbophobic bitter beings, whose leaders were not fit to lace Zik shoe intellectually or otherwise, to tarnish his image.
"You first save the chick from the hawk, before you start blaming the mother for carelessness".~ Igbo proverb
You best believe that no Igbo man would allow Igbophobic beings to tarnish Zik image

Did Zik have an Image? The same Zik whose burial Ojukwu, the greatest Igbo hero, deliberately refused to attend? An “intellectual” who kept on seeking unity with those busy slaughtering his own brothers right before him on a daily basis? Edo was never that cursed to have such an “intellectual”.
The fact that he is not celebrated means he is not as valued as a chick. Is there any chick which is unloved by its mother hen?
Read below the damning verdict Ojukwu, the Igbo hero, slammed on Zik
http://odili.net/news/source/2011/dec/4/601.html
Part of it reads:
At independence, he cut a rather tragic figure. He was to me the symbol of a Nigeria that might have been, but was not. He became the one Nigerian, alongside whom every other Nigerian achievement, every other success, paled in comparison. He became Governor-General, the Queen's official representative. He later became President - a ceremonial executive. Throughout the First Republic, it slowly permeated the perception of the masses that his position in terms of power was empty. He could not dissociate himself from the inequities of the First Republic. He could not intervene to halt the inequities, and from time to time we saw him justifying and rationalising actions we were sure conflicted with his better judgment. With bitterness, we began to learn that Zik, whom the British colonial administration could never incarcerate, he willingly constituted himself a prisoner of what appeared to us as northern interests. With many others, I began to feel let down. During the war, which to a certain extent was a war to free him, he rallied to the Biafran side but later switched his support when it appeared the Biafran resistance would fail.
Deriving from this act, many have questioned his commitment to the Igbo. Many have recalled that he is of Onitsha extraction and that Onitsha has with great pride claimed and continued to claim a non-Igbo lineage. The foregoing, coupled with the fact that the Igbo appear today to be marginalised and lacking in any appreciable influence within the power structure of Nigeria invariably has made the leadership of the Igbo by Zik a subject of a vast amount of discussion. In my own candid opinion, ZIK DID NOT SET OUT TO LEAD THE IGBO AND HAS NOT IN FACT LED THE IGBO. He has been first and foremost a Nigerian who aspired to a Nigerian leadership. When the British withdrew in 1960, Nigeria was left in the hands of three great men. Of the three, Zik could be said to have been the dreamer whilst the others were hard-headed realists. Zik believed, worked for and made sacrifices for a Nigeria that had not yet come into existence - the ideal Nigeria. Those who followed him worked for this ideal, and perforce had to make sacrifices for this ideal. It is only natural that finding this ideal increasingly unattainable, they found themselves deflated and deprived vis a vis the realists, who from the beginning, ensured for their groups a share of whatever was going.
I have no quarrel with Zik, I cannot quarrel with Zik. I am rather too small for that. In Igbo culture and tradition, a son cannot quarrel with his father. Zik is my father. I grew up on his lap. My father considered him his friend and testified to this fact at the Foster-Sutton tribunal. It is true that he and I have not agreed on many issues. This is more due to the generation gap than to anything else. Our ambitions are different - where he would appear to wish to lead the Igbo, I would be content to serve them. In Igbo language, we say that one does not choose one's relatives, but friends. As a father, I love and respect him. As a politician, I disagree with his policies which I believe, to a large extent, have left the Igbo naked.

Why should we vote for MKO? Would Yorubas had voted for an Igbo man?
Why should you vote for MKO being a Yoruba man? Was the OBJ you voted massively for in 1999 and 2003 an Igbo man? And that was an election contested by not just an ordinary Igbo man but a very illustrious one, Igbos ditched him for a Yoruba man and still gave more votes to a Fulani man than him.

And currently, Edos in connivance with Yorubas betrayed a Sothern president to once again pitch tent with a Northern former military dictator.
And Igbos in connivance with Hausa-Fulani betrayed the southern solidarity in 1993 to once again pitch tent with Abacha – a sitting military dictator and the worst in Nigeria’s history

No, You only ended up exposing your own hypocrisy, Igbophobia and obsession with Ndiigbo.
It's on record that Enahoro and Awolowo, both civilians formed unholy alliance with a Northern military dictator in 1967.

Self-contradiction again. It is on record too that Igbos decided to pitch tents with the Feudalist North against all against all other Southerners before other southerners. repeated it in 1979 despite the bitter lessons of the first occasion

OBJ swept the votes in SW in 2003. He also swept the votes in SS and SE in 1999. The Biafra-Arewa thing is a product of your hallucinations.

With the exception of Lagos, elections in the whole SW in 2003 results were characterized by ballot box snatching falsification of results, etc all in a bid for OBJ to prevent the humiliation he had suffered in 1999. Only in Lagos was it satisfactorily free and fair and OBJ lost it. Was Lagos a non-Yoruba state as of then?

When in 2003, it became obvious he was the only Yoruba candidate running, Yorubas voted for him massively, the slogan was " He is our son".

Yorubas were rooting for OBJ in 2003 on account of “He is our son” slogan and Igbos joined them in voting their son and preferred candidate. Can we call that a Yoruba-Igbo agenda therefore? Very funny!

Yorubas never hated OBJ. In 1999, he wasn't their prefered candidate because he was running against Another Yoruba by name olu Falae, they knew they had nothing to lose, head or tail, a Yoruba wins.

If they didn’t hate OBJ in 1999 then why could he not win a single SW state that year? You are the one hallucinating against common sense and logic.

pazienza:
If it is shameless that Edos and Yorubas are,
according to you, hiding behind Ijaws to hold
others back in Nigeria, then it was more shameless
and stupid for Igbos to have hidden under Arewa
and Britain to blackmail others with the use of
felony charges into remaining in Nigeria.
Have Edos and Yorubas ever taken up arms to stop
Ijaws from leaving Nigeria? If not for
shamelessness who are you to speak on behalf of
Ijaw on secession after once stopping them and
nearly killing their leader of it? You people are
pathetic!

Lol! Still hiding behind the Ijaws. Igbos never stopped the Edos or Yorubas from secession, that already had been established so far.

Boro issue was strictly an Eastern region affair. It had nothing to do with Edos or Yorubas.
Well, Adekunle was shooting at Anything that moved in non Igbo areas of PH.


"My grandmother Princess Okukuba
W.D.Goodhead...immediate senior sister to His
Majesty The King...was almost executed by firing
squad by the invading Nigerian Military led by her
Nephew Capt. Erasmus J.T.Princewill son of her
elder brother King J.T.Princewill,Amachree
X11....on her support for Biafra.
My grand Aunty who was nickname Madam
Biafra....grand mother of a former Foreign
Minister of Nigeria was taking through very
painful torture before execution.
My maternal uncle one of the first lawyers in the
Eastern Region never return home till his death
because of his support for Biafra.
My father was a Biafran officer in the medical
Corp.
My statement is recorded on tape....I never said
we were taught....I said we were told many stories
by our elders which we now discovered to be false"


"It is better for our Igbo brothers to learn humility
and stop this nonsense....many members of my
family were killed for their support for Biafra.My
grand uncle King Fredrick Princewill,Amachree
X111,Amanyanabo of Kalabari abdicated the
Kalabari throne because of his support for Biafra".

~ Asari Dokubo.

You are the one that brought Ijaws into an Edo- Igbo issue and you have been posturing as their spokesman, crying more than the bereaved, yet I'm supposed to be the one speaking for the Ijaw people now?

You are a stand up comedian.
Ijaw- Igbo affair as represented by Ojukwu-Boro match ups, were strictly an Eastern region affair. Many Ijaws were caught on both side of the divide then.

9. If not for poor comprehension as usual why is it taking you years to understand that Boro’s travail in Ojukwu’s hands for the “crime” of secession was a deterrent to others who had similar plans? What happened to Boro was a threat which made all other tribes discard their secession declaration plans. And that is where Edo’s Yorubas, Arewas, etc all come in, thus Isaac Boro’s issue becomes an all-Nigeria issue. The strictly Igbo-Ijaw restriction you are feeding into it does not make sense at all because it was into Nigeria Ojukwu held Boro back and not into a separate Igbo republic.
It is like arguing that other Nigerians showing concern over Fulani Herdsmen massacres of Benue people is hypocritical since they are neither Fulanis nor Benuelites, even though it remains a fact that their concern is justified against the tendency and readiness of the Fulani Herdsmen to do same to everyone else if given the opportunity.
Your argument is devoid of the commonest sense.

pazienza:

Come to think of it, the Aburi Accord proposal
made no single mention of when elections would
be conducted to return the country to democracy
which was the number one expectation in
everyone's mind, it made no specific mention of
the secession clause or even how a referendum
would be conducted for any tribe that later felt the
need to exit. It was just an agreement on how
soldiers would share power among themselves
from then on. It obviously fell short of expectation.
Who in right senses would not have asked Gowon
to renege on such a blind agreement. Can you
show me the part of the Accord which specifically
mentioned referendum and outlined how such
would be conducted for any tribe desirous of exit?

Lol! And when exactly did Gowon mention his plans to return the nation to Democracy that made Edoids and Yorubas to pinch their tents with him? Was Gowon a civilian? Was there any mention of returning the country back to civilian regime in the Decree they helped Gowon draft to stand in place of Aburi Accord?

So the Edoids and Yorubas had no issues with Gowon holding all the power alone, but had issues with the power shared amongst all the military leaders of the regions, including their own regions?

Well, atleast we all now agree that Gowon for whatever reason reneged on the Aburi agreement. I know I have had to argue with Edo and Arewa-oduanistanis on that for years on this forum. We are getting to somewhere, after all.

The Aburi accord was working with the regional template of Nigeria, just like secession clause, Aburi accord wasn't about secession, hence both had no referendum offer on the table. Ultimately, each region would have had to go home and sort out their peculiar complexities, including the Eastern region.

Gowon had already started a process of returning Nigeria to democracy by his gestures of reversal of almost all Ironsi’s decrees back to status quo ante before Aburi issue came. But the Aburi summit show was practically stolen by Ojukwu with his anti-democratic but pro-military establishment proposals which expectedly got endorsement of his co-military men.Which civilian therefore, in his right senses, would prefer such over the possibility that Gowon could just come back and continue from where he had stopped in reversal to the democratic pre-Ironsi era?
Power was meant to be shared among civilians alone and not among the military whether Gowon alone or all of the soldiers from every region. Gowon might not have mentioned any date for elections but had already started the re-democratization process by his repealing of Ironsi’s decrees. Actions speak louder than words.
Aburi Accord only mirrored the Nigerian Regional System but was to be run perpetually by soldiers who could have with time got over their pains and shed differences and then transformed into a new power Oligarchy composed of soldiers from all tribes harmoniously united by the quest to plunder our collective wealth as we later saw in Nigeria’s subsequent military regimes. That was the danger Aburi Accord portended. Only fools lacked the foresight to see it.

pazienza:
However on a more serious note Aburi Accord was
in principle aimed at returning Nigeria to the status
quo ante of Federalism before Ironsi appeared on
stage and started disruption. But on return, the rest
Nigerians discovered that Ojukwu had infiltrated
the proposals with elements of confederalism to an
extent that even featured regional army which was
going to create room for violent secession as such
would have no regard for referendum. That was
why it was rejected by every other Nigerian. So
there is no contradiction there.

Aburi Accord meant so much more than returning the control to status quo before the Nzeogwu coup.

It was the only thing that could have saved Nigeria and kept it a progressive society and more, it made future secession for each region easier, whether peaceful or violent.

Ojukwu didn't insert anything into the accord that wasn't discussed and agreed by both parties at Aburi.

Nigerians like Edoids and Yorubas rejected Aburi not because of any "Violent" secession in the future, after all their rejection of it meant exactly that. They rejected it because they discovered on careful analysis that it made the secession of any part of Nigeria too easy.
If we are to take Akenzua serious, below was why Nigerians( Edo and Yorubas inclusive) rejected Aburi accord:

"He said in the memo that Gowon had given too
much away in Aburi and that it would lead to the
destruction of the country. He further added that
Gowon had “legalised” total regionalism which
“will make the centre very weak.” Akenzua alluded
in his memo that a weak centre would lead to
confederation and total disintegration of the
country".

In the light of the above, one begins to imagine what exactly Enahoro and Awolowo wanted to achieve with their secession clause, and exactly what Enahoro was campaigning for post civil war.

8. And I have asked you to show me just one of the Aburi agreements which could pass for a well thought-out plan to preserve Nigeria as a democracy or at least guaranty a peaceful secession by referendum.
The structure which existed in pre-Ironsi was a product of a democratic process which received the participation of representatives from all parts of the country. It therefore stands to reason that any return to the pre-Ironsi era or anything even better and more progressive should have equally come through a democratic process by civilians and civilians alone, not some hurriedly assembled agreements by soldiers who in real terms had no knowledge about constitution drafting.
If Ojukwu and Gowon were really sincere about furnishing Nigeria and Nigerians with an improved and more progressive constitution through the Aburi summit, why then did they refuse to invite the politicians who had hitherto been the only elected thus genuine representatives of the masses? Even the few civilians invited were all members of the establishment. That the Aburi summit proceedings were frequently punctuated by insults and derisive remarks on the politicians by all the military men, including the supposedly enlightened Ojukwu, was a testimonial to the anti-democratic character and intention of the outcome of the accord. So it was rightly rejected by the notable politicians of Edo, Yoruba, Hausa and even Igbo.
Akenzua was neither the Enahoro nor Awolwo who had been asking for secession and secession clause. So your attempt to use Akenzua’s speech on Aburi Accord as premise to establish contradiction between Awolowo or Enahoro’s positions pre- and post-civil war is at best dishonest and terribly demonic. And as long as Akenzua never took up arms to force Igbos from seceding he can’t be guilty of opposing secession. We are still relying on your logic. Remember?

pazienza:
Secession clause translates to secession for those
who felt they were not at military advantage to
take the violent option if the country failed and
which was sure to be. Igbos rejected it because
they were already very many in the military thus
they believed they were duly empowered to go
about it violently in case the non-inclusion of it in
the constitution ended up to their disadvantage.
Funny enough Ojukwu's Aburi imput revolved
majorly around regional army which itself was as
well not a declaration of secession. So the
rejection of Aburi Accord was not a prevention of
secession. Remember we are still following your
logic?

No secession clause is not secession. It's a means to future secession which can only take place when secession is declared.

No, Zik rejected it because he had genuine albeit misguided belief in Nigerian unity, he was pan African after all, he probably erroneously felt like some still do toady that the bigger the country the more chance of making global impact and liberating the continent from the grip of the neo colonialist.
However,non of us was in Zik mind, we can only guess, but looking at the reasons he gave Northerners on why Nigerian unity was better, I'm convinced that I am not far from figuring out his mind.

Now we can agree that Aburi accord just like secession clause was not secession, they were both things that could make future secession easier.
So, yes rejection of Aburi was not prevention of secession as Ojukwu wasn't out for secession as of then, and he had yet to declare it, just as Awolowo proposition of secession clause can never amount to declaration of secession or demand for secession.

Zik read Anthropology and therefore could not deny knowledge of the fact there is no correlation between the size of a country and her capacity to make global impact. Was UK not already an example of a very small but globally very impactful country? Was Japan not a tiny country making thunderous global impact? Zik also knew deep down in his heart that Nigeria’s foundation needed to be built on a very loose constitution if it was to ever work. So cut this crap of defence you’ve building around his selfish motive- inspired belief in Nigeria’s preservation under a powerful centre.
Was the USA whose global impact supposedly inspired his belief in size/impact correlation operating a strong centre which he wanted Nigeria to operate and yet make impact like the USA? Zik was simply a monumental fraud!

pazienza:
The goalpost has shifted again from "Awolowo did
not demand secession" to "Awolowo demanded
secession for his treacherous game". IBB's cousin!
What could ever be treacherous in a demand to be
allowed to go solo? Treachery is a thing that
involves a plot between at least two persons or
entities. How does treachery come in here? would
you mind explaining?

Lol! I maintain that Awolowo never demanded for secession, never did I change my view on that. I only question the sincerity of his demand for Secession clause.

Yes! Awolowo was a treacherous being, only him
and his colleagues knew what they were up
to with their secession clause demand. Seeing as secession clause was supposed to help ease secession in the future if they should declare secession. It is not recorded in the annals of Nigerian history that Awolowo or Yorubas declared secession even when such opportunities presented in the future. Hehe!

You have been shown a reference where a Rivers man wrote that Awolowo-led AG presented a demand for secession on several constitutional conferences as is expected of a democrat. That Awolowo did not blindly join Ojukwu in the war does not make him treacherous. Treachery has nothing to do with seeking a constitutional provision which is hoped to forestall being trapped in an obviously unworkable union. Only you would see proactiveness and call it treachery.
It is an act of turning logic on its head for you to insinuate that Awolowo had an evil motive behind his secession clause demand made at a time when the massacre of southerners, particularly Igbos, in the North signaled that all was not going to be well with Nigeria. It was even Zik that could be accused of ulterior motive as he saw the massacre of thousands of his own brothers yet deprecated the secession clause which would have extricated his brothers from the bloodbath.
The “opportunity” which, according to you, later came for Awolowo to declare secession was a poisoned chalice. Awolowo never at any time subscribed to secession by violence hence the opportunity for violent secession which later came was not really an opportunity for him. Was Awolowo at that moment having a standing army under his command, like Ojukwu, to have enabled him take the violent option represented by the opportunity you claim later came for him? And who are you to dictate for him as to what constitutes an opportunity?

pazienza:
As for the bolded: funny enough Buhari whom the
devil (OBJ in this case) would easily defeat in Igbo
land could not be defeated in the same election in
the same Igboland by the supreme angel and Hero
of Igbos in the person of Ojukwu. Then what does
that say of you people? You could not for the sake
of an angel of yours disgrace a man worse than
the devil. A very unfortunate tribe!
A man so bad that any devil would defeat in Igbo
land ended up undefeated by an angel of Igbo land.

You mean Buhari got more SE votes than Ojukwu in 2003? Lol! You wish!
How many votes did Katsina give Ojukwu? Our votes are ours, we give to whom we please, you are inconsequential to question our rationality.

Of course your own link confirms it that Buhari got more SE votes than Ojukwu. And by the way, your poser on how many Katsina votes Ojukwu got is off the mark because Katsinans love their own unlike Igbos who hate themselves. Is our bone of contention here about whether your votes are your rights? We are rather dissecting your hypothesis on Igbo preference of a devil over Buhari which is obviously flawed on account of Buhari’s better performance than Ojukwu in the Middle East in 2003 and his outshining of all other Igbo candidates in subsequent elections in the Same Middle East? Your penchant for derailment is astonishing.

pazienza:
Igbos were used to endorse OBJ in 1999 in the
sense that it was a clique of Igbo men that started
the crusade against Ekweme's candidature in
favour of Obasanjo's before IBB came and used
money to buy off the recalcitrant ones.
Igbos obviously preferred OBJ because he looked
more Anti-Awolowo than Falae - though a very
poor judgement which haunts them till today as
OBJ regime ended up being a nightmare for
Ndigbo. If you truly had no choice you would have
simply boycotted the election.
As UPGA members, Igbos boycotted the 1965
elections when they really had no choice.

Lol! Didn't GEJ in 2010 PDP primaries buy off all Northern oppositions who turned against Atiku during the primaries?
What's New?

Falae came from AD that was for all intents and purposes a Regional party with next to nothing structures in the East. How are Igbos supposed to vote for him? PDP had presence nationally including Igboland, their money bags in Igboland were allowed to rig mercilessly for them, since Igbo commoners could care less about a supposedly presidential election where the two front runners were Yorubas.

Why should you be the one to tell us when to and when not to boycott elections? Have you taken your meds?
Why should we boycott the elections? For who?

OBJ regime wasn't too bad for Ndiigbo. Igbo intellectuals showed their capabilities and why an Igbo nation will be successful. From
Akunyili,Ndukwe, Soludo, Okonjo, Ezekwesili, everything good about that regime intellectually had a touch of Igbo. It reminded us why we wanted and want Biafra so bad.

However, Northerners don’t beat their chests claiming they are too principled to be bought off unlike Igbos who hide behind a finger in most of their self adulating claims.
It is in an extremely corrupt and failed country like Nigeria that a party’s national outlook is judged by geographical spread rather than considerations of the nationalistic impact its manifesto appears to have in stall. The election that brought Abraham Lincoln as the first Republican Party candidate into office was a landslide despite the party was far from having a geographically defined national spread as of then. AD was ideologically based unlike PDP whose national spread was enhanced by the presence in every state of the federation of at least one old NPN rogue from the second republic who became the founding members. If Igbo commoners actually cared less about an all-Yoruba candidacy election, then the logical fallout should have been a boycott. But we know OBJ got block votes. However, if you credit it to massive rigging by Igbo money bags then it stands to reason that OBJ’s loss in Yoruba land indicated a principled resistance to Yoruba money bags there in contrast to the Igbos.
You are still suffering from your chronic comprehension deficiency. Are we talking of whether I am to dictate how you vote or that we are analyzing how you’ve always voted? Why do you easily get off track?
And ironically enough all the Akunyilis, Ndukwes, Soludos, Okonjos, Ezekwesilis, are unrepentant One-Nigerianists as gleaned from their utterances on the Biafara project.
One would expect that out of power now, thus a no-moral-allegiance status to the government, they should have publicly identified with Kanu or Uwazurike. But, alas! Haha!

pazienza:
How would Northerners pay Awo back for ganging
up against Biafra? Was Biafra a Northerner thing?
It is just like how you people wanted Yorubas to
reward Zik for a favour Igbos did to Fulanis. So
you people still have that mentality of reward
expectation misplacement even till now, 2017?
Even before the war Igbos had always hated not
only Awo but every other Southerner hence their
collusion with the North in 1959. So that theory on
how the hatred Igbo developed against Awolowo as
a result of the war stopped him from getting Igbo
votes is pure rubbish. Did he ever get Igbo votes
before the war? can you just name one non-Igbo
Southerner whose Ambition was supported by
Igbos before the war?


Payback in that context connotes rewarding him for his support to their war efforts between 1967-70.

Lol! And how many Yoruba or Edo supported Ndiigbo before the war?

Did Awolowo ever run for the presidency before the war? How else was he going to get Igbo votes? Lol! AG won seats in the East before the war.

Can you name one Igbo whose ambition was supported by Awolowo and Enahoro before the war? Hehe!

Well, I asked you for a non-Igbo Southerner supported by Igbos before the war but you have reduced it to Awolowo and Enahoro. However, far before the war Zik had enjoyed a lot of Yorubas’ support as NCNC leader. Enahoro first worked under Zik and was very loyal to his ambitions until Zik betrayed him. The Yoruba founder of NCNC, Herbert Macaulay handed Zik the party, despite being Igbo.

The AG members who won seats in the East were Igbo members od AG over there. But the NCNC seats won in the West were mostly by Igbos. One even broke the mace in the Parliament in one of the proceedings. So your arguement does not hold water.
It is on record that Zik was angered by the victory of Ernest Ikoli- a non-Igbo Southerner – in the NYM elections, and in reaction he pulled out of the movement. Tonye Barcanista treated that issue in details on NL which irationally drew the ire of Middle Easterners here. Below is the thread:
https://www.nairaland.com/2807867/ikoli-awolowo-relationship-ijaw-yoruba-political-relationship

pazienza:
[b] Funny enough the remaining 25% Igbo votes still
made the difference by which the Shagari-Ekweme
coalition won. Why even go into coalition with NPN
when you knew it was not supposed to be voted for
in the first instance?
If Shagari's 10% in Oyo was indicative of
friendship with the North, then what did Anambra's
13% for the same Shagari indicate?
If Bendel's 36% (far less than 50%) was an
abomination then what can we call the 72.65%
(landslide victory) of Rivers where the Igboid you
call your brothers had always held sway in
population even before the state was split? Does
that not suggest that the 36% Shagari got in
Bendel was also more likely to have come from the
Igboid part now called Anioma?
Also, what do we say of the 64% (another landslide
victory) Shagari got from Cross River where you
claim Igboids are many?
On the other hand no single Yoruba state gave as
much to Shagari as the 13.5 given him by
Anambra.
So from all these who between Edo and Igbo have
always be the slaves of Arewa? [/b]

Lol! Why go into coalition with NPN? Is that supposed to be a question? Maybe we should start by asking why Awolowo and Enahoro were in coalition with a military Northern government until then.

After the relationship between Awolowo and the North ran foul, Ndiigbo simply had no interest siding with Awolowo or the North, we were only interested in "congratulating" the winner between them former bedfellows. Lol!

Ekwueme was the VP of Shagari and is from Anambra, so the 13% is justified,he must have campaigned for their votes.
Now the question should been, why did Shagari get as high as 10% in a Yoruba state? Nether Shagari nor his VP were Yoruba, Awolowo a Yoruba was a major candidate. Hehe!

Anyway, the result was an antidote to your phantom Arewa-Igbo union in 1979. The election results showed that Shagari had more fellowership in the Eastern minorities areas than even Igboland.

Not our fault that we had to pick between the winner between Awolowo or the North to form the central government. I reckon that if Awolowo won, we would have still formed central government with him, seeing as his VP was already Igbo. And if Zik won? Lol well...

2. Awolowo and Enahoro went into coalition with a Northern government as an opportunity to avenge Igbos’ earlier collusion with the North to persecute them. What goes around comes around.
North-South bedfellow status in Nigeria has been more a thing of Arewa-Biafra.
The nearness of Shagari’s Oyo figure to that of Anambra was obviously from the votes he got in Ibadan from the Igbo and Hausa populations in Diaspora there. Recall it was the state with the largest non-yoruba population in the West back then courtesy of being home to Ibadan the largest West African city as of then.
The Bifra-Arewa union was not Phantom but even doubly evidenced in the sense that while Shagari choose an Igbo running mate Zik chose a Hausa running mate from Kaduna to play up the probability of victory of an Arewa-Biafra government once again as was in the First Republic.
You had to pick the winner to form a coalition with when the election had not been held?

pazienza:
Sorry if you are pained that I won't accept your lies put in a book as the truth. Anyone can write anything and put in book, that still doesn't make them truth if they fail to provide irrefutable evidence.

Zik maintained that beyond Diplomacy, he was not interested in keeping any of West or North in Nigeria. If you have any direct quote from Zik to prove otherwise, post it here and stop wasting my time.

This proposal for inclusion of right of secession by the regions in independent Nigeria by the AG was rejected and resisted by NCNC which vehemently argued for a tightly bound united/unitary structured nation because it viewed the provision of a secession clause as detrimental to the formation of a Unitary Nigerian state. In the face of sustained opposition by the NCNC delegates, later joined by the NPC and backed by threats to view maintenance of the inclusion of secession by the AG as treasonable by the British, the AG was forced to renounce its position of inclusion of the right of secession a part of the Nigerian constitution……. Tekena N. Tamuno 1970.


Note that the bolded words are all synonyms of coercion. Now, If Zik really stood by his promise to maintain the use of only diplomacy in holding Nigeria together, then why did he allow himself to enjoy being backed by the British’s threat which eventually forced AG to renounce her position? You say you won’t use force to achieve an objective, but another person backed you up with force to achieve that very objective and you did not object to it. Then that translates perfectly to having used force yourself. Why not at least say to the British “no no no no…..I don’t subscribe to your approach in getting AG to renounce her position, let’s rather convince them with reasons”. With that Zik would have been absolved of complicity. All secular and religious laws uphold that an evil you don’t condemn at least verbally, receives your approval. There is no neutrality between good and evil.
I did not write the book. It was written in 1970 by someone who was a witness to the events. As long as he is of a neutral tribe to the two tribes contending over this clause issue then his account is reliable. Yourself has referenced non-verbal accounts here to substantiate your claims.
However below is a verbal utterance made by Zik in 1948 while speaking of his desire to use force to achieve his objectives in Nigeria.
“It would appear that the God of Africa has specially created the Ibo nation to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of ages. … The martial prowess of the Ibo nation at all stages of human history has enabled them not only to conquer others but also to adapt themselves to the role of preserver. … The Ibo nation cannot shirk its responsibility.”
Find the references below most of which are written by Igbo men. No. 4 is by a non-Nigerian.
Happy reading:
https://books.google.com.ng/books?isbn=1847011446
allafrica.com/stories/200008140154.html
https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/.../impacts-of-religo-tribal-consideration-in-nigeria...
http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol17-issue5/I01755358.pdf?id=8404 - page 55
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/soc.culture.nigeria/PY6hK0fGje8/.
dialogueseriesnew..com/2015/12/re-usa-africa-dialogue-series-igbo_48.html
https://books.google.com.ng/books?id=HoviDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA157&lpg=PA157&dq

pazienza:
To a very large extent Jonathan’s presidency was
accidental. We SS people accept it. We don’t lie
and beat our chests like Igbos. Unfortunately GEJ
was not the best the SS could offer as he too on
adopting the name “Azikiwe” became a
misadventuring “One-Nigerianist” struggling to
please the Feudalist North to the detriment of the
entire South and Middle belt which gave him bloc
votes in 2011. We would have preferred Donald
Duke.
Do Igbos even have any politics for anyone to know
let alone understand? A people who termed APC a
party of the devil and in just less than 15 months
all their frontline politicians (Nwobodo, Nnamani,
Andy Uba, Kalu, Ekwunife, etc) later began trooping
into it thus leaving the SS in the lurch? What
politics do such people have? I know you’ll soon
come and disown these guys as Yorubas and
Fulanis whose ancestors migrated into Alaigbo and
intermarried as far back as 1500 AD.

Which one come be "We SS people accept it"? Lol!

See this attach by force. SS people are talking, an appendage like Edo is talking too? Haha!

What did GEJ presidency had to do with Edo people? Lol! Comedian!

GEJ presidency was Ijaw settlement for their oil contribution, it was aimed at soothing the pains in the creeks!
People like Edwin Clark insisted that only people of the Creek are the real SSners,even a real Niger deltan like Peter Odili was sidelined. And a far flung Edo man is saying we SS accept it, like Edo opinion mattered.

What politics do Edos have? What stopped Igbo expired politicians running away from Buhari EFCC prosecution from running into APC like their mates all over Nigeria had done? Were men like Amaechi, Emani Ayiri, Nge Abe, real SS people not already in APC.

Has APC not been controlling Edo for 8 years plus now?

How can Edo that gave nearly half of its vote to Buhari in 2015, and left GEJ in the lurch question the direction of SE politics.
Incase you have forgotten, this is the result sheet of 2015 presidential election:

http://naijagists.com/final-inec-results-of-2015-nigerian-presidential-election-by-state-buhari-wins-21-states-gej-picks-16/

Let's see who left who in the lurch.
Apart from Edo, where else in the real south did Buhari get such high percentage of the total casted votes?

When I say that Edo is only but an appendage to SS, I kid not.

So the fact that Buhari's votes in Imo Is far above the General Eastern States' average coupled with five year-old control by APC makes Imo just an appendage in the SE?
And the over 50% votes Ngige once got as ACN candidate in Anambra North makes the Senatorial district just an appendage in Anambra?
Is there a chronic disease affecting your brain?

So the victory of Tofa in Rivers, Anambra, Enugu, Abia and Imo as against the victory of MKO in all other Southern states meant that mainland Igbos and Rivers Igboids were just an appendage of the South?
And Osun too was an appendage of the SW for voting Ribadu while GEJ won in all others SW states?
You are a complete washout and a disgrace to those who wasted hard earned money to sponsor your education.
What you fail to understand is that it was even Jonathan's candidacy (being of the SS) that made Edo vote for PDP in 2011 as against the level of hatred for the party due to Lucky Igbinedion's 8 catastrophic years. Same explains why Imolites did not vote out Rochas in 2015 despite having defected to APC. And Oshiomhole's sterling performance was always a factor in Edo just as Rochas' in Imo.
Did GEJ still not win in Edo State after all? Did he not also get over 80% of Edo Votes in 2011 despite ACN's sterling performance which should ordinarily have made us vote against PDP thus GEJ? Are you normal at all? Is the overriding essence of governance not good performance?
No wonder you people discarded the obviously more promising AG-NCNC-NDC coalition for the ideologically defective and manifesto-deficient NPC-NCNC coalition for mundane reasons thereby making Nigeria a failed state from the beginning.
You are just latching onto every straw you find around.

Even though Edo PDP members never termed APC the devil's party there hasn't been any defection of a high profile PDP member to APC in the State since Buhari won? That is principled politicking. There have been PDP to APC defections in Delta, in Rivers, In Cross Rivers, In Bayelsa but not really in Edo. Two Akwa Ibom mandate holders have defected to APC on the floor of NASS, not to talk of the five recent Igbo political heavyweights.
Sullivan Chime Of Enugu has just joined the fray. Is Nnamani too having EFCC issues?



I sympathize with you. But sorry to inform you that your dream to have your miserable state included in the SS will forever remain a dream. Is it not an irony that you are so envious of Edo being in the SS while Edo herself does not really see anything special about it. Someone pray tell me what is so special about an artificial creation that a person is having high BP about.
You call it an artificial creation yet you regret not being in it. Is that not a manifestation of cognitive dissonance also called "sour grapes" syndrome? Okay come and take Edo out of SS then. If you were more related to SS than Edo, then why is Edo in it and you are not? Why cry more than the bereaved? Your own Igbo blood brothers have been trapped in Benue and Kogi but you are here crying over SS composed of people you believe are unconnected by blood. That is pure madness! Ok we agree that Edo is far flung, it is an appendage, it is a yoruba-Hausa State, it is 100% muslems and so not not fit to be in the SS, it is not even a Nigerian State, it is a state inside the Sahara Desert, etc. Does that satisfy you? Can you then leave us the SS alone now?
Yes we SS people acknowledge it. You can cry me a river. SS is not a geocultural region but a geopolitical one. I hope you know the difference. it is highly silly to expect an ultra-high level of cultural homogeneity among a people so diverse.
The SS unity has come to Stay. It is like Christianity where brotherhood, even though is not defined by any cultural ties, is very strong on account of a shared spiritual identity. The ethnic interrelationships in the SS are yet to be fully studied. Edo does not need boundaries with any Igbo land to belong to the SS. the Epie, Egenni and a lot of other Bayelsa and Rivers tribes are migrants from the Benin Kingdom. Some very minute Edo North tribes speak mutually intelligible languages with some others in cross River State. However, all these are insignificant to the shared ideology of extrication from WAZOBIA. The first ever SS summit titled "A Handshake Across the Niger" was specifically decided to be held in Edo State as a mark of respect and recognition of it as the ancestral home of many South-South ethnic groups.
The Ijaws alone could not have made GEJ's presidency possible. And who are Biafrauds who are non-SSners to speak about GEJ's presidency? At another time the SS presidency will be the turn of the Edoids specifically from Edo or Delta and the other four SS states will identify with the project irrespective of the party pushing it.
No regions own any party permanently. parties are fluid political platforms and APC, the so-called devil's party, is gradually taking over the Middle East.

pazienza:
OBJ was never truly representative of Yoruba
interest. In fact his anti-Yoruba disposition
endeared him to Northerners. Whichever Southerner
hates his own people and is always ready to
displease them, such the North falls in love with.
Examples are Azikiwe, OBJ, Anenih, etc.
You claim PDP was a national party yet through
its 16 year reign Igbos were sidelined all through
as per the presidential or VP ticket. Is that a
suggestion that Igbos are not part of the nation?
After accepting 16 year discrimination as a
nationalistic trend tomorrow you’ll complain of
marginalization and expect anyone to take you
seriously. Ride on!
Enahoro and Akenzua protected us during the war,
and till today we honour them.
Okorocha’s political career tumbled on identifying
with APC yet he won re-election post merger of his
APGA faction with APC. Chai! Chai!


On the contrary, Yorubas respect OBJ and brag about him. In 2003 when Atiku threatened his return ticket, Yorubas backed him, and when he won the PDP ticket, Yorubas also backed him against Buhari, a situation which nearly killed AD in SW, barring the cunning Tinubu who held his Lagos forte.

So, you can spare us the talk of OBJ not being Yoruba representative.

Well, PDP is a national party. It produced 2 Southern
and 1 Northern president.
Since when do you care about Igbos? Igbos produced Senate presidents many times under PDP.
Of course,PDP is a microcosm of Nigeria and it reflected on how the Igbo presidential project therewas put on infinity.

What difference would it make? Atleast Igbos can never be accused of not trying to build fenses with other Nigerians. We did that in PDP for 16 years!

Zik is not celebrated in Igboland today, but it doesn't mean we will allow Igbophobic Nigerian hawks make a villain out of him. Ojukwu is Celebrated in Igboland, go figure!

Agreed that Yorubas now brag about OBJ today and venerate him obviously because he took some anti-North stand unlike in his previous stint. However that doesn't change the fact that as at that moment of elections in 1999 OBJ was hated, reviled and ostracized by the Yorubas so much that he lost his own pollen booth, hence he was far from being the Yorubas' candidate then. He was more of the Biafra-Arewa candidate and that explains why Igbos gave him bloc votes.

I did not necessarily speak about Igbos out of care, No! I aimed at exposing their hypocrisy which involves crying of marginalization after shooting themselves in the foot.
Igbos are more interested in building fences with the North than any other part of the South. It has always been so from the beginning. It was in Jonathan's time that they, for the very first time identified with a Southern candidate who did not represent the face of the Northern Oligarchy. During MKO's election all Igbo states voted for Tofa as against most Southern States voting for MKO.
Zik is actually celebrated in Igboland. The way Igbos including you rise to his defense of the havoc his political choices wrecked on you say it all.

pazienza:
[b] Now, if Edos or Yorubas are scared of standing on
their own, then why did they ever ask for secession
or its clause? And if Igbos were not scared of
staying on their own, then why did they initially
reject secession and secession clause?
Neither are Edos interested in holding Igbos back
in Nigeria. What Edos want is a peaceful
democratic means of secession whatever it would
take as regards time and resources. Awolwo's
direct demand for it failed, Enahoro chose t
plo
approach it systematically by proposal of the
clause which still failed courtesy of the Zik-led
NCNC's collusion with Britain. And in tandem with
the Edo philosophy of non-violent approach to the
issue of secession, Enahoro resurfaced many years
later to champion the SNC movement aimed at
restructuring the constitution towards re-inserting
the clause among others.

As long as Igbos prevented others from having
secession through a means they believed was best
for them, Igbos can't suddenly wake up now to
define for us what constitutes secession. That
would be absurd. We knew secession before them.
We knew before Igbos that Nigeria would never
irwork. We had woken up to reality of Nigeria while
Igbos were still sleeping and dreaming.
Through the crushing of Boro's movement theij
Igbos will continue to owe all other tribes a moral
leverage because that chaotic moment created by
the Jan 15 coup had inspired nearly all of them to
call it a day with the union, and would have
therefore each followed suit had Ojukwu let Boro
be. But Boro's brutal experience in Ojukwu's hands
made everyone withdraw.
For what Ijaws later suffered and still suffer till
today courtesy of being stopped from exiting the
union, the blame remains on Ojukwu and Ironsi so
the Igbos continue to owe Ijaws moral leverage till
eternity. [/b]

Secession clause does not translate to secession. Why did Awolowo demand for it? I don't know, but my guess is that it was part of his treacherous game, cos the Aburi accord was scuttled by Yorubas and Edos because they felt it would make non violent secession of any part of Nigeria easier in the future.
One begins to wonder the purpose of secession clause if not to ease future secession plans. Hope you see the contradiction there which brings to question the sincerity of the the secession clause demand by Awolowo and Enahoro and if they actually ever wanted or want secession in the future or past.

How can Enahoro emerge years later to start seeking for what he campaigned against in 1966? What sort of instability is that?

Igbos were never in position to grant anyone secession clause and so couldn't have prevented anyone from getting it. The decision for secession clause grant laid with the British( Littleton) who vetoed it. Even though the West and North wanted it.

You can't know secession when you never declared one and when you scuttled the document( Aburi accord) that could have allowed you have one in the future, even though we know deep down that you never wanted and do not want secession.

Boro crushing is strictly between Igbos and Ijaws, it was an Eastern region affair and was , and I refuse to see how a far flung Edo or Yoruba had anything to do with it. Your attempt at attaching your self to it as well as crying more than the bereaved is childish.

Ijaws like Aniko Briggs are even seeking of Ijaw( Niger delta) referendum while unscrupulous shameless elements in Edo and Yoruba are looking to hide behind Ijaws to blackmail others into staying in one Nigeria with themselves, since they are scared of standing alone.

Edo man, Ndiigbo owe you nothing, your emotional blackmail and tantrum is irrational.

The goalpost has shifted again from "Awolowo did not demand secession" to "Awolowo demanded secession for his treacherous game". IBB's cousin! What could ever be treacherous in a demand to be allowed to go solo? Treachery is a thing that involves a plot between at least two persons or entities. How does treachery come in here? would you mind explaining?
Secession clause translates to secession for those who felt they were not at military advantage to take the violent option if the country failed and which was sure to be. Igbos rejected it because they were already very many in the military thus they believed they were duly empowered to go about it violently in case the non-inclusion of it in the constitution ended up to their disadvantage.
Funny enough Ojukwu's Aburi imput revolved majorly around regional army which itself was as well not a declaration of secession. So the rejection of Aburi Accord was not a prevention of secession. Remember we are still following your logic?

However on a more serious note Aburi Accord was in principle aimed at returning Nigeria to the status quo ante of Federalism before Ironsi appeared on stage and started disruption. But on return, the rest Nigerians discovered that Ojukwu had infiltrated the proposals with elements of confederalism to an extent that even featured regional army which was going to create room for violent secession as such would have no regard for referendum. That was why it was rejected by every other Nigerian. So there is no contradiction there.
Come to think of it, the Aburi Accord proposal made no single mention of when elections would be conducted to return the country to democracy which was the number one expectation in everyone's mind, it made no specific mention of the secession clause or even how a referendum would be conducted for any tribe that later felt the need to exit. It was just an agreement on how soldiers would share power among themselves from then on. It obviously fell short of expectation. Who in right senses would not have asked Gowon to renege on such a blind agreement. Can you show me the part of the Accord which specifically mentioned referendum and outlined how such would be conducted for any tribe desirous of exit?

Enahoro was a democrat averse to violence. He believed in doing in doing things democratically. The fact that he moved motion for independence without forcefully declaring it can never translate to mean that he never really wanted independence. He kicked against Aburi Accord because it was fraught with dangerous errors. What he rejected in 1966 was totally different from what he later came to agitate for in the 90s through NADECO.

I have made it clear to you that if Ojukwu had let Boro be, other tribes would have followed suit. But I am happy you have confessed that you "refuse' to see how Boro's issue concerns others. The use of "refuse" exposes your intention never to accept superior opinion if there be. But your refusal does not change the fact that Igbos have lost all moral grounds to goad others into seeking secession violently.

If it is shameless that Edos and Yorubas are, according to you, hiding behind Ijaws to hold others back in Nigeria, then it was more shameless and stupid for Igbos to have hidden under Arewa and Britain to blackmail others with the use of felony charges into remaining in Nigeria.
Have Edos and Yorubas ever taken up arms to stop Ijaws from leaving Nigeria? If not for shamelessness who are you to speak on behalf of Ijaw on secession after once stopping them and nearly killing their leader of it? You people are pathetic!

pazienza:
Poor comprehension again. Being an Arewa-Biafra
party does not obliterate the fact that the Igbos
were always the junior slave partners used to do
dirty jobs and later dumped. It happened in the first
Republic. It was almost happening in the second
republic before Buhari swept all that away. It
happened again in PDP when Igbos were dumped
after being used by Arewa to endorse OBJ their
trusted lackey. Remember OBJ later described as
“gentleman’s agreement” the promise to give Igbos
the 2003 PDP ticket?
Yes Igbo sons were VPs for both Awo and Shagari
while Zik ran for presidency, but Igbos voted for the
Arewa-Biafra combination which the Shagari-
Ekweme ticket represented.

You are as always misfiring. A look at the 1979 presidential result which Zik came 3rd would show that atleast 75% of the Imo/ Anambra vote was casted for Zik and not Shagari/Ekwueme.

As a matter of fact, Shagari didn't get up to 15% of vote in Imo/ Anambra despite featuring an Igbo VP,, but he got 36% of the votes in Bendel, which Edo was part of. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_presidential_election,_1979

Shagari even got more than 10% of the votes in Oyo, lol! No be today Yoruba Muslims started their alliance.

The only person who was dumped in 1979 was Awolowo. It was supposed to be a year the Northern Elites paid him back for his role in ganging up against Biafra and policies aimed at Emasculating Igbos post civil war by backing him for the president.
Instead the North played on the hatred the Igbos had rightfully developed against him to hold unto power.
Even Awo selection of an Igbo VP could not gather Igbo votes for him.
The North ensured that Awo couldn't get the Igbos votes by picking an Igbo VP too, and then watched the Igbo votes cancel each other out as Zik mopped up the bulk of the Igbo votes.
The North would further rub it in later by going into coalition with Zik, leaving Awolowo in the lurch again.

Awolowo was simply used in 1967-70 dumped in 1979 and left to dry between 1979-83. Ndiigbo could only laugh!

It's all a matter of perspective.

How exactly were Igbos used to endorse OBJ? In 1999, there were only OBJ and Olu falae, it wasn't like we had much choice.

In 2003, it was a choice between OBJ and Buhari. And let's face it, for obvious reasons, the devil would win an election in Igboland, if he is competing against Buhari. Ojukwu came third in that election.

Funny enough the remaining 25% Igbo votes still made the difference by which the Shagari-Ekweme coalition won. Why even go into coalition with NPN when you knew it was not supposed to be voted for in the first instance?

If Shagari's 10% in Oyo was indicative of friendship with the North, then what did Anambra's 13% for the same Shagari indicate?
If Bendel's 36% (far less than 50%) was an abomination then what can we call the 72.65% (landslide victory) of Rivers where the Igboid you call your brothers had always held sway in population even before the state was split? Does that not suggest that the 36% Shagari got in Bendel was also more likely to have come from the Igboid part now called Anioma?
Also, what do we say of the 64% (another landslide victory) Shagari got from Cross River where you claim Igboids are many?
On the other hand no single Yoruba state gave as much to Shagari as the 13.5 given him by Anambra.
So from all these who between Edo and Igbo have always be the slaves of Arewa?

How would Northerners pay Awo back for ganging up against Biafra? Was Biafra a Northerner thing? It is just like how you people wanted Yorubas to reward Zik for a favour Igbos did to Fulanis. So you people still have that mentality of reward expectation misplacement even till now, 2017?
Even before the war Igbos had always hated not only Awo but every other Southerner hence their collusion with the North in 1959. So that theory on how the hatred Igbo developed against Awolowo as a result of the war stopped him from getting Igbo votes is pure rubbish. Did he ever get Igbo votes before the war? can you just name one non-Igbo Southerner whose Ambition was supported by Igbos before the war?
Igbos were used to endorse OBJ in 1999 in the sense that it was a clique of Igbo men that started the crusade against Ekweme's candidature in favour of Obasanjo's before IBB came and used money to buy off the recalcitrant ones.
Igbos obviously preferred OBJ because he looked more Anti-Awolowo than Falae - though a very poor judgement which haunts them till today as OBJ regime ended up being a nightmare for Ndigbo. If you truly had no choice you would have simply boycotted the election.
As UPGA members, Igbos boycotted the 1965 elections when they really had no choice.

As for the bolded: funny enough Buhari whom the devil (OBJ in this case) would easily defeat in Igbo land could not be defeated in the same election in the same Igboland by the supreme angel and Hero of Igbos in the person of Ojukwu. Then what does that say of you people? You could not for the sake of an angel of yours disgrace a man worse than the devil. A very unfortunate tribe!
A man so bad that any devil would defeat in Igbo land ended up undefeated by an angel of Igbo land.

pazienza:
[b] t states thus:
The AG insisted that Lagos, a Yoruba city which
was situated in Western Nigeria must be
completely recognised as a Yoruba town without
any loss of identity, control or autonomy by the
Yoruba. Contrary to this position, the NCNC was
anxious to declare Lagos, by virtue of it being the
"Federal Capital Territory" as "no man's land" - a
declaration which as could be expected angered the
AG which offered to help fund the development of
other territory in Nigeria as "Federal Capital
Territory" and then threatened secession from
Nigeria if it didn't get its way. The threat of
secession by the AG was tabled, documented and
recorded in numerous constitutional conferences,
including the constitutional conference held in
London in 1954 with the demand that a right of
secession be enshrined in the constitution of the
emerging Nigerian nation to allow any part of the
emergent nation to opt out of Nigeria, should the
need arise.(Author(s): Tekena N. TamunoSource:
The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 8, No.
4 (Dec., 1970), pp. 563–584 [42] ) [/b]

I'd like to see a non Nigerian quote backing these outrageous statements by Tamuno, who by the way is entitled to his own opinions but not facts.

Either way,Yorubas in AG never declared secession and independence of the Western region, and Zik who by the way had many Yorubas in NCNC then, used force to bring them back into the union.
Zik clearly stated that he had no intentions of using any means other than diplomacy in keeping any part of Nigeria in the union.

This remains my bone of contention!

If you give him a logical analysis, he calls it a conjecture and demands it be substantiated with a reference. But when you do he dismisses it as mere opinion and not facts. Now he has shifted the goalpost to seeing a non-Nigerian backing the statement. If you show him an example he will ask what concerns a non-Nigerian with Nigeria's issue. You must be related to IBB.

So what was the diplomacy in Ziks collusion with the British to threaten the AG leaders with treasonable felony charge if they did not drop their pursuit of the secession clause? Diplomacy indeed!

You have no bone of contention because only a bloodthirsty person would declare a violent secession where a peaceful approach is supposed to be possible.

pazienza:
[b] Yes it is undeniable that any people have the right
to seek secession from any union whether such
right is canonnized or not. However my contention
has more to do with morality than legalism. In UK
the other parts did not oppose Scotland’s demand
for legislative autonomy in 1707 or term it a
demand inimical to national unity as Zik and Igbos
did to others in Nigeria. Not even David Cameroon,
whose England was in power as at the time of
Scotland's demand, refused to entertain
arguements for the canonization of the Edinburg
Act unlike Igbos who, against public opinion,
promulgated an Anti-Secession Decree at a time
they were in power. But here we are with Igbos
who criticized and resisted all corresponding
moves in Nigeria now goading everyone else to go
violent about a reversal. That is the absurdity and
afterthought others are refusing to tolerate from
them. Had the power equation in Nigeria been to
the favour of Igbos they would not have been
seeing any injustice about Nigeria by now.
If Ojukwu really had regards for referendum, then
why could he not at least advise Ironsi to do same
to test Boro’s people’s opinion before he (Ojukwu)
attacked Boro? Which plebiscite did Ojukwu and
ironsi conduct before they promulgated the Anti-
secession Decree? That makes nonsense of the
accusation that Gowon rejected plebiscite. What
goes around comes around. [/b]

At what time in point did Ironsi, Ojukwu or Azikiwe used military force to stop Edoids, Yorubas or Arewas from secession?

Ironsi stopped Boro from secession, could he have asked for referendum in Ijaw areas then before squashing the Boro revolution? Maybe, but considering the chaotic state of things then, who knows.
But nevertheless, that is left between Ndiigbo and Ijaws to settle. I see no reason why Edoids and Yorubas are crying more than the bereaved!

Ijaws like kings of Buguma, Bacana, Opobo, etc were all in support of Ojukwu Biafra, the kings of Buguma and Bacana both relinquished their thrones rather than turn against Ojukwu and Biafra when their regions fell to the federal forces, so it's obvious they forgave Ojukwu, if at all they were in support of Boro actions to start with.
Boro obviously never forgot and sought for vendetta that ended up taking his life.

Bottomline is that neither Zik, Ironsi, Ojukwu or Ndiigbo ever stood on the path of Edoids and Yorubas secession, because never in the history of Nigeria had these groups ever publicly declared secession!

Why exactly are Edo and Yorubas crying more than the bereaved?

What you fail to realize is that if Ojukwu and Ironsi had let Boro be, that would have signaled a peaceful way of secession for which not a few other tribes; Edos, Yorubas, Araba, etc inclusive; would have followed suit. Or were you expecting that after seeing what happened to Boro each and every other tribe should have taken turns to experiment with a declaration to see if Ojukwu/Ironsi would treat them differently?
Or were you expecting any other intending tribe to actually attempt it when the Ironsi/Ojukwu's Anti-secession Decree had been promulgated? No one would be that foolhardy in the name of boldness.
You are simply devoid of deep thinking but living on emotions.



If the extant tension during Ironsi's reign did not permit him to conduct a referendum for Boro's people, then how come you expect the greater tension which greeted Gowon's reign to permit him conduct a referendum before attacking Ojukwu? Double standards!

pazienza:
Awolowo and Enahoro never demanded for secession. They wanted Secession clause inserted, incase they needed it in the future.
But as we have seen from Singapore situation, and from Scotland, absence of Secession clause never stopped a people from secession. At no point did Awolowo or Enahoro demanded for referendum from the Western regional parliament which they controlled and there after, sought for Nigeria to recognize the referendum and Zik used Force to stop Enahoro or Awolowo.

Enahoro or Awolowo never made any move towards secession, secession clause is not secession!

Boro was stopped violently from secession by Ojukwu! Granted, but he is Ijaw, and not Edo or Yoruba. So Ijaws can morally claim that Igbos stopped them from secession, but since Boro himself had exerted his pound of flesh by preventing Ojukwu and Ndiigbo from secession violently, by siding with the FG, even though we still had Ijaws in Biafra, it stands to reason that Ijaws as represented by Boro settled their scores with Ndiigbo and currently have no moral high ground to stand against Igbo demand for Secession.

The funny thing is that the average Ijaw is not interested in holding the Igbos back in Nigeria, since Ijaws are comfortable to know that they too can have a prosperous nation of their own, they had once attempted secession on their own under Boro and then under Ojukwu.

And even though I questioned if Boro really had the backing of most Ijaws then, cos he currently does, I also admitted that Ojukwu atleast owed him a referendum, and in my book, it is recorded that an Ijaw man once wanted secession but an Igbo man held him back, but whatever moral leverage Ijaws might have had against Igbos independence today was lost when Boro teamed up with FG to stop Biafra. Igbos currently owe Ijaws no moral debt.

Its Yorubas and Edos who are scared of standing on their own, who never declared secession for once in their lives,but want Nigeria to continue so as to hide their own incapability of building a nation of their own, that always want to use Boro and Ijaw issue as a tool of blackmail against Igbos.

Igbos had only declared demand for referendum and the Nigerian state with active support from Arewa-oduanistanis and Edos had taken up arms against them, shooting them at Will during their peaceful protests, and arresting their leader, Amnesty international report on Nigeria state violation of basic human rights of Biafrans for seeking referendum is there.

A demand for referendum is ultimately a demand for secession, ithat was how Bamenda left Nigeria, that was how Scotland nearly left UK, and that's how Catalonia intends to leave Spain, only that Spain had refused to accept their referendum. Awolowo never demanded for a referendum nor did he demand for secession.

Your blackmail is cheap and won't stand, Awolowo never demanded for secession from Nigeria, it's as simple as that.

You have changed tune again. I thought you earlier said only a declaration qualifies as secession? You are never stable. Anyway, to prove you wrong again, Awolowo's demand for secession clause was a concession he made when his outright demand before the parliament for Oodua Republic secession failed courtesy of Zik's frustration of it in collusion with the British officers who threatened to treat him as a felon. Find below a link to that in a book written by an Igbo man. I have other references written by Edos and Yorubas but I have decided not to use them so as to avoid accusation of revisionism for self-vindication. Check it here:
https://books.google.com.ng/books?id=vTN_u7JJHDQC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=Awolowo+demanded+for+secession+of+Odua+Republic&source=bl&ots=Ga5xGFxUeK&sig=6RUQh6cHUt7J1NHh1JWgNEqE4cY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiMzuS8wfHSAhUInRoKHWTmBNgQ6AEINjAE#v=onepage&q=Awolowo%20demanded%20for%20secession%20of%20Odua%20Republic&f=false


Now, if Edos or Yorubas are scared of standing on their own, then why did they ever ask for secession or its clause? And if Igbos were not scared of staying on their own, then why did they initially reject secession and secession clause?
Neither are Edos interested in holding Igbos back in Nigeria. What Edos want is a peaceful democratic means of secession whatever it would take as regards time and resources. Awolwo's direct demand for it failed, Enahoro chose to approach it systematically by proposal of the clause which still failed courtesy of the Zik-led NCNC's collusion with Britain. And in tandem with the Edo philosophy of non-violent approach to the issue of secession, Enahoro resurfaced many years later to champion the SNC movement aimed at restructuring the constitution towards re-inserting the clause among others.
As long as Igbos prevented others from having secession through a means they believed was best for them, Igbos can't suddenly wake up now to define for us what constitutes secession. That would be absurd. We knew secession before them. We knew before Igbos that Nigeria would never work. We had woken up to reality of Nigeria while Igbos were still sleeping and dreaming.
Through the crushing of Boro's movement the Igbos will continue to owe all other tribes a moral leverage because that chaotic moment created by the Jan 15 coup had inspired nearly all of them to call it a day with the union, and would have therefore each followed suit had Ojukwu let Boro be. But Boro's brutal experience in Ojukwu's hands made everyone withdraw.
For what Ijaws later suffered and still suffer till today courtesy of being stopped from exiting the union, the blame remains on Ojukwu and Ironsi so the Igbos continue to owe Ijaws moral leverage till eternity.

pazienza:
The post is a suitable response to the one you posted.

Again I maintain that at no point did Awolowo Enahoro or any one declare secession and Zik used Force to bring them back.
Secession clause is not and cannot be equivalent to secession.
Therefore, Zik cannot be responsible for preventing Awolowo and Enahoro from secession, since they never declared secession. One cannot be guilty of a crime he never committed.

If you have link of where Awolowo and Enahoro declared Western region independent and Zik used Force or threatened to use force to bring to bring them back, post them here.

This remain the bone of contention!

There are two ways to seek secession, namely peacefully through a request for constitutional amendment as Scotland did, or through a violent approach. If you prevent either of them then you've prevented secession.
Enahoro and Awolowo wanted secession in a peaceful and non violent manner against the future and therefore wanted the clause in the constitution but Zik prevented them from having their way.
Isaac Boro took the violent option but Ojukwu prevented him.
If we are however to rely on your once more preposterous logic then all the cry by Igbos that other Nigerians are currently holding Igbos from seceding is false and baseless since it is not as if Igbos have really declared secession and then other Nigerians took up guns, cutlasses and swords to stop them. All that Kanu is asking for is a referendum ( the non violent approach) which does not translate to declaring secession already let alone Buhari using force to hold him back. The mere demand for referendum too is not and can never translate to secession.
And neither has any other Igbo man declared secession and Buhari held him back. So Igbos should therefore stop accusing the FG of holding them back in Nigeria. Thank God we've now agreed that secession is established only when someone declares it with or without referendum or his people's approval. This new definition of yours also renders invalid your previous argument that Isaac Boro's declaration fell short of the standard on account of not being backed by his kinsmen.