₦airaland Forum

DaLover: I am particularly shocked about your statement that other regions only saw the Igbos as a threat after the jan 1966 coup, nothing could be further from the truth, do you know there was rioting in the north as early as the 1930's or 40's, what do you think was the cause of it?
Have you heard some of the historic speeches of The popular Akintola or Saudana of sokoto about the Igbos, long before the 1966 jan coup? Go and check them out your self, just google them..

They were obviously protecting their interest and that of their people. The arrogance, attitude, selfishness and self delusions that were better than other people was (is) the main problem of the ibos. God, Gowon should have allowed this people go.

That was why you killed other people's leaders and military officers while you spared yours?

[quote author=IGBO-SON]^^^Dude....you've made your point earlier! Or you reckon that by butting in to have the last word that you'd finally convince me to believe you're making sense?

Try and grow up mate!

PS- it's Igbo not ibo. [/quote]No, its you guys who should grow up. Keep living in your self deluded land of a rising sun.

I could care less if it was igbo. The igbo I know is indian hemp. I can understand why you guys think the way you do.

[quote author=IGBO-SON]^^^Insightful post! It pretty much summarises a large chunk of Nigerian history.[/quote]No it summarises the delusional thinking of the ibos not reality.

DaLover: After killings of several Igbos in the north,Nigerian leaders sat in Aburi, where Ojukwu convinced the others that confederation was the best way to go, considering the dangerous rivalry between the major ethnic groups..

My understanding is that, on getting back to Nigeria, Gowon and other began to foot drag on the Aburi agreement and they were fully encouraged by technocrats from the SW then, remember that prior to the July 1966 coup, the Igbos and Yorubas were in serious neck and neck rivalry for opportunities, in Lagos and SW, the departure of the Igbos in droves gave the Yorubas a fresh breath of air...

Igbos who saw education almost 100 years after the first yorubas, quickly pulled themselves up and became very competitive, achieving great strides in many field of endeavor, Drastically closing the educational gap with the Yorubas and moving to all corners of Nigeria to establish them selves, nigeria very quickly saw these As a threat and thus the animosity between various Nigerians and the Igbos, most notably the core north and the SW.

As already established the blazing rapid progress of the igbos was viewed with serious suspicion by those who couldn't cope with the progress, initially, the igbos were eager to for the british to go and was ready to make any sacrifices to achieve such, Hence allowing the reluctant north more political power as a sort of assurance against perceived political domination from the more educated south, the Igbos probably calculated that the spirit of free and fair enterprise would be allowed to reign in an independent nigeria, they probably calculated that competition and industry would be the main stay of the Nigerian economy....boy were they wrong!

The unhealthy rivalry lead to the coup and counter coup and by this time it was clear that ethnic tensions and fears of domination by other groups would not allow the environment of free enterprise, industry and competitive of the Igbos to thrive in nigeria..
Hence Ojukwu's proposal of confederation, which should have made logical sense at the time, but Nigerians had already grown so afraid of the Igbos that he natural stance was to stand on the opposite side of what the Igbos were saying, weather it made sense or not

This great fear of the igbos have lead the victors of the war to configure Nigeria in such a way that the factors which will allow the igbos to thrive will be removed. hence free enterprise , industrial development, power generation, oil industry etc are all controlled by government, for many years laws were made prohibiting groups or people outside government from owning oil companies, generating power, owning major industries like telecoms, banks etc...Igbos were left with only trading...as a people who cannot be held down they took it too new heights as the environment allowed....

Only recently, after the powers that be, believed that the competitive spirit of the Igbos was no longer a threat, they began to open up various sectors of the economy...banks, telecoms, local content for oil industry, etc....this is being done very slowly...the fear of the Igbos as always remains a guiding factor

The other regions only saw the ibos as a threat after January 15, 1966. Also there were rumours of another coup to complete the January 15, 1966. ibos kindly read below;

In his book, “No Place to Hide - Crises and Conflicts inside Biafra”, Bernard Odogwu, then a Nigerian diplomat, but destined to become Chief of Biafran Intelligence, reveals that shortly after the coup of January 15, 1966 he and a fellow diplomat called Adamu Mohammed at the Nigerian mission to the United Nations in New York had a frank discussion about it. Odogwu wrote that “we were both in agreement that the so called ‘revolutionaries’ had performed very badly, in view of the one sidedness of the operation and the selectiveness of the killings.” Following this discussion Odogwu made an entry on January 23, 1966 into his personal notebook:

[b]“With all the returns in, we now seem to have a complete picture of the coup, the plotters, and the casualties. Reading through the newspapers, one gets the impression that this national catastrophe which is termed a “revolution” is being blown greatly out of proportion. It does appear to me though, that we have all gone wild with jubilation in welcoming the so-called ‘dawn of a new era’ without pausing to consider the possible chain reactions that may soon follow……….I shudder at the possible aftermath of this this folly committed by our boys in khaki.; and what has kept coming to my mind since the afternoon is the passage in Shakespeare’s MACBETH - ‘And they say blood will have blood’.

First I ask myself this question; ‘What will be the position as soon as the present mass euphoria in welcoming the ‘revolution’ in the country fades away?’ There is already some rumour here within diplomatic circles that January 15 was a grand Igbo design to liquidate all opposition in order to make way for Igbo domination of the whole country. What then is the Igbo man’s defence to this allegation in light of the sectional and selective method adopted by the coup plotters?

Although, sitting here alone as I write this, I am tempted to say that there was no such Igbo grand design, yet the inescapable fact is that the Igbos are already as a group being condemned by the rest for the activities of a handful of ambitious Igbo army officers; for here I am, with the rest of my Igbo colleagues, some thousands of miles away from home, yet being put on the defensive for such actions that we were neither consulted about, nor approved of. Our Northern colleagues and friends now look on us Igbos here as strangers and potential enemies. They are now more isolated than ever before. Their pride is hurt; and who would blame them?

Secondly, I ask myself the questions posed to me this afternoon by my colleague; What would I do if I were placed in the position of the Northerner? What do I do? How do I react to the situation? Do I just deplore and condemn those atrocities or do I plan a revenge? I do not blame the Northern chaps for feeling so sore since the events of the last few days. They definitely have my sympathy, for it must have been shocking to say the least, for one to wake up one fine morning to find nearly all one’s revered leaders gone overnight. But they were not only Northern leaders as such, and I am as much aggrieved at their loss as any other Nigerian, Northern or otherwise. I am particularly shocked at the news that Major Ifeajuna personally shot and killed his mentor, Brigadier Maimalari. My God! That must have been Caesar and Brutus come alive, with the Brigadier definitely saying ‘Et tu Emma’ before collapsing………”

“…….As for the new man at the helm of affairs, Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi, he too like the majority of the Majors is an Igbo, and that has not helped matters either. …..”

“…….Granted that he is such a good soldier as he is reputed to be, the question is: ‘Are all good soldiers necessarily good statesmen? Again how well prepared is he for the task he has just inherited?’ I do hope that he is also as wise as he is reputed to be bold, because if you ask me, I think the General is sitting on a time bomb, with the fuse almost burnt out. We shall wait and see what happens next, but from my observations, I know the present state of affairs will not last long. A northern counter-action is definitely around the corner, and God save us all when it explodes.”
[/b]

DaLover: After killings of several Igbos in the north,Nigerian leaders sat in Aburi, where Ojukwu convinced the others that confederation was the best way to go, considering the dangerous rivalry between the major ethnic groups..

My understanding is that, on getting back to Nigeria, Gowon and other began to foot drag on the Aburi agreement and they were fully encouraged by technocrats from the SW then, remember that prior to the July 1966 coup, the Igbos and Yorubas were in serious neck and neck rivalry for opportunities, in Lagos and SW, the departure of the Igbos in droves gave the Yorubas a fresh breath of air...

Igbos who saw education almost 100 years after the first yorubas, quickly pulled themselves up and became very competitive, achieving great strides in many field of endeavor, Drastically closing the educational gap with the Yorubas and moving to all corners of Nigeria to establish them selves, nigeria very quickly saw these As a threat and thus the animosity between various Nigerians and the Igbos, most notably the core north and the SW.

As already established the blazing rapid progress of the igbos was viewed with serious suspicion by those who couldn't cope with the progress, initially, the igbos were eager to for the british to go and was ready to make any sacrifices to achieve such, Hence allowing the reluctant north more political power as a sort of assurance against perceived political domination from the more educated south, the Igbos probably calculated that the spirit of free and fair enterprise would be allowed to reign in an independent nigeria, they probably calculated that competition and industry would be the main stay of the Nigerian economy....boy were they wrong!

The unhealthy rivalry lead to the coup and counter coup and by this time it was clear that ethnic tensions and fears of domination by other groups would not allow the environment of free enterprise, industry and competitive of the Igbos to thrive in nigeria..
Hence Ojukwu's proposal of confederation, which should have made logical sense at the time, but Nigerians had already grown so afraid of the Igbos that he natural stance was to stand on the opposite side of what the Igbos were saying, weather it made sense or not

This great fear of the igbos have lead the victors of the war to configure Nigeria in such a way that the factors which will allow the igbos to thrive will be removed. hence free enterprise , industrial development, power generation, oil industry etc are all controlled by government, for many years laws were made prohibiting groups or people outside government from owning oil companies, generating power, owning major industries like telecoms, banks etc...Igbos were left with only trading...as a people who cannot be held down they took it too new heights as the environment allowed....

Only recently, after the powers that be, believed that the competitive spirit of the Igbos was no longer a threat, they began to open up various sectors of the economy...banks, telecoms, local content for oil industry, etc....this is being done very slowly...the fear of the Igbos as always remains a guiding factor

The other regions only saw the ibos as a threat after January 15, 1966. Also there were rumours of another coup to complete the January 15, 1966. ibos kindly read below;

In his book, “No Place to Hide - Crises and Conflicts inside Biafra”, Bernard Odogwu, then a Nigerian diplomat, but destined to become Chief of Biafran Intelligence, reveals that shortly after the coup of January 15, 1966 he and a fellow diplomat called Adamu Mohammed at the Nigerian mission to the United Nations in New York had a frank discussion about it. Odogwu wrote that “we were both in agreement that the so called ‘revolutionaries’ had performed very badly, in view of the one sidedness of the operation and the selectiveness of the killings.” Following this discussion Odogwu made an entry on January 23, 1966 into his personal notebook:

[b]“With all the returns in, we now seem to have a complete picture of the coup, the plotters, and the casualties. Reading through the newspapers, one gets the impression that this national catastrophe which is termed a “revolution” is being blown greatly out of proportion. It does appear to me though, that we have all gone wild with jubilation in welcoming the so-called ‘dawn of a new era’ without pausing to consider the possible chain reactions that may soon follow……….I shudder at the possible aftermath of this this folly committed by our boys in khaki.; and what has kept coming to my mind since the afternoon is the passage in Shakespeare’s MACBETH - ‘And they say blood will have blood’.

First I ask myself this question; ‘What will be the position as soon as the present mass euphoria in welcoming the ‘revolution’ in the country fades away?’ There is already some rumour here within diplomatic circles that January 15 was a grand Igbo design to liquidate all opposition in order to make way for Igbo domination of the whole country. What then is the Igbo man’s defence to this allegation in light of the sectional and selective method adopted by the coup plotters?

Although, sitting here alone as I write this, I am tempted to say that there was no such Igbo grand design, yet the inescapable fact is that the Igbos are already as a group being condemned by the rest for the activities of a handful of ambitious Igbo army officers; for here I am, with the rest of my Igbo colleagues, some thousands of miles away from home, yet being put on the defensive for such actions that we were neither consulted about, nor approved of. Our Northern colleagues and friends now look on us Igbos here as strangers and potential enemies. They are now more isolated than ever before. Their pride is hurt; and who would blame them?

Secondly, I ask myself the questions posed to me this afternoon by my colleague; What would I do if I were placed in the position of the Northerner? What do I do? How do I react to the situation? Do I just deplore and condemn those atrocities or do I plan a revenge? I do not blame the Northern chaps for feeling so sore since the events of the last few days. They definitely have my sympathy, for it must have been shocking to say the least, for one to wake up one fine morning to find nearly all one’s revered leaders gone overnight. But they were not only Northern leaders as such, and I am as much aggrieved at their loss as any other Nigerian, Northern or otherwise. I am particularly shocked at the news that Major Ifeajuna personally shot and killed his mentor, Brigadier Maimalari. My God! That must have been Caesar and Brutus come alive, with the Brigadier definitely saying ‘Et tu Emma’ before collapsing………”

“…….As for the new man at the helm of affairs, Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi, he too like the majority of the Majors is an Igbo, and that has not helped matters either. …..”

“…….Granted that he is such a good soldier as he is reputed to be, the question is: ‘Are all good soldiers necessarily good statesmen? Again how well prepared is he for the task he has just inherited?’ I do hope that he is also as wise as he is reputed to be bold, because if you ask me, I think the General is sitting on a time bomb, with the fuse almost burnt out. We shall wait and see what happens next, but from my observations, I know the present state of affairs will not last long. A northern counter-action is definitely around the corner, and God save us all when it explodes.”
[/b]

quid: God also knows that the Hausa-Fulanis will end up wiping out the real owners of Plateau state in the name of One-Nigeria.

Keeping wallowing in your biafran delusions.

quid: Once they begin to mention "God", you know that there is BIG LIE behind what they are saying

God and every one except the gullible ibos knws Gowon was (is) definitely a better man than ojukwu

[quote author=IGBO-SON]^^^You're being emotional and allowing your hatred of Igbos make you irrational. Up until the first coup and the gov't of Ironsi, there was the Eastern Region, which was doing well for itself and on an upward trajectory. Ndigbo had no reason at the time to yearn for a unitary system of gov't in order to do well; if anything, a unitary system of gov't would have disrupted and hindered their progress.

Ironsi instituted a unitary system of gov't for military command and control reasons; to be able to oversee the country better. Can you point out specific examples of how at the time this system of gov't benefited Igbos better than other ethnicities?[/quote]Did ojukwu not support unitary system when Aguiyi Ironsi was in government? Only for him to turn around to ask for confederacy when Gowon took over power

Awolowo was a selfless leader,a Diplomat,a lawyer and a Politician also a Yoruba Man (Bo laso bi agba,oo le lakisa bi agba ) -----!!![/quote]

ojukwu had utmost respect for the person of Awolowo and am sure his views on issues. History knows ojukwu was only acting on his ego (agidi ibo) and may be his personal ambition

T8ksy: Ojukwu didn't see confederacy when his home boy, Ironsi was in power. In fact, he supported his unitary

decree and he Ojukwu was estactic bragging the following day about how he intends to export his kith and kins to the north

to take up civil service posts, therein.


Ojukwu only changed his tune when his homie lost out on power and then viola, he had a dream, "Confederacy" is the answer!

God bless you. The same way the northerners abandoned Araba when their brother, Gowon took over power.

[quote author=IGBO-SON]^^^It's obvious what Ojukwu saw that Awo and Zik didn't see.......i tell a lie; in all fairness, Awo saw it too, but was too busy and consumed with his 'battle' to see the unique opportunity presented to help reconfigure the political structure of the country.



So you see, unlike Zik, Awo -like Ojuwku- had a better understanding of what the countrys problem was, but for whatever reason, he decided to 'chase a rat when his house was on fire'![/quote]The bitter truth was that ojukwu never saw you, Who he saw was Gowon. Let anybody me prove wrong. He was fighting a personal war, using gullible people who thought they were fighting a cause for the land of the rising sun.

Do you think Awolowo would have wasted the lives of 3million Yorubas?

I can only say goodmorning to my brothers from the South west. Anyway, what an adult sees sitting down, a child wouldn't see even while on a tree.[/quote]You are a lost soul. What did Ojukwu see that Awolowo or Azikwe not see? keep living in your deluded grandiose of the land of the rising sun

BekeeBuAgbara: The same people that pushed MKO to declear himself president but later betrayed him,(Some even did Usain Bolt through the Cotonou border) are also The same people that vowed not to allow Unilag to be renamed after the man.

Today, they are declaring public holiday left and right, they should stop deceiving themselves.
Abiola's family knows better.

Nobody is saying they should not rename any other school after Abiola, definitely not Unilag. Its an institution of 51years. Its a matter of principle not a personal issue

nedu2000: brother ur very right,but maybe d op meant elected governors

Was Michael Otedola not elected?

Eziachi: You meant those at one time was threatening of a war if June 12 annulled election wasn't reversed? Can I call it poor or selective memory bank? How time changes things.

That is the difference between yoruba and ibo people. We made noise & shakara and Obasanjo was made president. Ojukwu went to fight a needless war and what happened? 3million ibo died, yet you keep whingeing, whining and crying after 43 years. What do have to show for the biafran war? Achebe's there is a country. Bunch of bitter people

noblezone: Are you by any means suggesting that arresting the social menace called Buhari will start the civil war?

Read between the lines. I was only making a point. It could be me or anybody but Buhari

Garri the 1st: Ibos are still weeping from the effects of the Biafra war.... While Ojukwu, Achebe and other Ibo elites came out unscathed, millions of Ibo kids and women who weren't there when the war was declared lost their lives.

Ojukwu's wives, children ad family members fed fat while biafran children starved to death to be used as bargaining chips and propaganda tools. The children who died weren't the ones who beat the war drums...were they??

Ojukwu, Achebe and other big men got their properties and money after the war, but the ordinary people got only 20pounds..

May God bless you and your generation.

The CAN president is telling the GEJ to arrest Buhari. Need I remember people that he has a private jet. When it happens he will be the first to run into exile
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.
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Asari, Boyloaf, Ateke, Tompolo etc are enjoying dividends of their militancy. Juicy contracts, political patronage etc, but the people of Odi, innocent men, women and children who lost their lives are gone for good, while the region remains in abject poverty and neglect. Thousands of Niger Deltans lost their lives, but those who beat the drums of war survived to tell the story and even enjoy a better life for self and cronies afterwards..

Those who beat the war drums aren't the ones who suffer when it starts!!

I have spoken!!!

A Wise word is all the fool deserves to hear!!

Hon. Garri (Rtd)

Ofrickilokoto II of Orhuwhorun....

God bless you and your generation.

Need I remind people supporting CAN president to arrest Buhari that Oritsejafor has a private jet. When it happens now, he will abandon his flock and run into exile like someone we know