₦airaland Forum

strangerf:
Do you care to elaborate?
He must have landed leg first, resulting in paralysis
Could that be the reason why we did not hear much about him?

No, I do not care to elaborate because I made an educated guess. You and your forbearers are the prognosticators of the foolish fairy tale about Oduduwa’s midnight escape from a jail in hell. You are so out of touch to insinuate a figure that landed head first had better surviving chance than the one that land leg first.

strangerf:
If I were you i would be asking the following questions:

How did [b]Eri and Nnamaku fall from the sky?[/b]With his head, hands, legs or mouth?
Was he pushed (by devil, God) or did he fall of his own volition?
What language did he speak when he first landed on earth?
Did he land with a wife or alone? If alone, how did he give birth to his offspring?
Did he not meet people (for e.g., Binis, Yorubas) already occupying the land when he landed?
An inquiring mind wants to know.

This same way Oduduwa escaped from jail in hell and landed head first but slightly different for Eri and Nnamaku.

[quote author=Becomrich? link=topic=574384.msg7405790#msg7405790 date=1293250975]I had a friend while young who use to tell me, PH was igboland before ijaw people steal it. But I never believe it, because I alway assume it was ijaw land. Until this Amachie and Patience Goodluck fight started. So I decided to go into history book and read about port harcourt. This is how I was shock to discover, Port harcaurt, was really an igboland.[/quote]Boy, you are a discoverer extraordinary if it took you this long to uncover such fact.

dave2:
Saving the life of Odumegwu Ojukwu(77 years old) is so crucial as compared to the lives of thousands of the children in Anambra State. Some of these children can't even afford nor survive 3 square meals daily. It's a travesty to see how our money are being WASTED on one person. UNTH in Enugu is one of the best hospital(s) in Nigeria with well equipped doctors and superb medical equipments. It's no guarantee that moving him to London will spare his life.

Umaru Yar"Ardua never survived with all the TONS and TONS of money Federal Government wasted on the late president; at last he came back CAPUT, and VEGITATED. I will expect Governor Obi to reciprocate this favour for any sick Anambrian that requires emergency attention. This prejudicial attention MUST cease immediately.  Ojukwu has more than enough money to take care of his medical bills; a billionaire of course. CASE and POINT; Just of recent Governor Oshiomhole realized that it was high time to open a Cancer Health Center for his people simply because his wife died of cancer related illness. If his wife was well and alive, he might have not thought of it; but suddenly Adams Oshiomhole realized that when it rains, the sprinkles fall on every one’s head. All these Political TERRORISTS should realize that we the people voted you in there to EASE our pains, NOT to inflict pains on us.

I guess the above literary nonsense posted by a contributor was borne out of ignorance. The poster delved into an issue that is either beyond his/her mental capacity or he/she was attempting to build a case of misplaced priority in Anambra State with misplaced political intuition.

Paul Unongo made mention of blackmailing Nigeria during the war. His political actions during the second republic speak volumes too. However during the alleged interview, he committed serious political blunders by telling the whole world he was a member of the constitutional panelists who entrenched quota system in Nigerian constitution that gave rise to zone formula. If he ever believed in merits, he should have been forefront against quota system and federal character.

He also alluded to an illogical saying that the so-called south –south produces crude oil. If Paul was actual serious, he would have suggested that all crude oils struck within Nigerian territorial waters belong to all Nigerians and Nigerian government while crude oil from on-shore reserves remains exclusive domain of state government. This formula would have removed the unfounded self-arrogation of crude oil production by certain peeps in Nigeria.

Nigeria is being haunted by the iniquities of Nigeria/Biafra civil war. The geographical area called Nigeria will not witness normal progress unless it disintegrated. All the sudden hatred for northern region of Nigeria is blatant display of idiocy and laughable self-denial. Humans can not run away from their shadows.

Andre Uweh:
It has been 2-3 years now that he fell asleep.

May his soul rest in peace. Chief Isaiah Ellah, Francis's father, was a good friend of my dad. Dr. F. Ellah was one of the founding fathers of Oha-na-eze Ndigbo.

SEFAGO:
Dede you are still speaking grammarticology

Pal, I still navigate to this forum. It has been rumored that US Immigration services had few words with you.     

omongbatib link: The fact that the Ohaneze leader is from the SS speaks volume about Igbo unity
Also the late Senator Ellah of Ellah lakes fame was Ohaneze leader amd he was from Ahoada in Rivers state.

When did Dr. Francis Ellah become late?

[quote author=Ileke-IdI]I miss you too, boo.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year.[/quote]The same wishes to you too.

[quote author=Ileke-IdI link=topic=574377.msg7405464#msg7405464 date=1293244766]mu he he.  

Ibon![/quote]Are you still carrying the flame of tribal icon?  

@Post

The post is an absolute bunkum. It is a first grade irrelevant conjecture. If the author was trying to reinforce the linkage between Hausa, Fulani, Nupe and Yoruba, it could have been understandable. The whole attempt to link Igbo and Yoruba through this practical joke was a futile effort from the start.

ROSSIKE:
PhysicsQED said:

Oh of course he did get some arms together. But they were grossly insufficient for the task at hand. For goodness sakes' kids were being drafted and armed with machetes for lack of guns, and many fought barefoot for lack of boots.

I mean, how do you even start to compete in that kind of situation? Ojukwu knew this more than anyone else. Several of his top commanders warned him he was on a suicide mission. Especially Brigadier Hilary Njoku, the highest ranking Biafran officer at the time, whom he promptly placed under house arrest as a 'saboteur'.

Ojukwu, though a soldier, looked at the declaration of independence through the prism of academics. If there was any underestimation, it was the attraction of crude oil. It is completely unfounded fallacy that Biafra recruited kids whom were armed with machetes due to lack of guns and fought barefooted due to lack of boots. Most North Vietnamese soldiers fought barefooted and still defeated soldiers that wore boot.  

The defeat of Biafra was neither based on weapon sophistication nor numerical strength of the opponent but colonial master plan due to crude oil reserve in eastern region of Nigeria.  

Brig. H Njoku never warned that Ojukwu was on a suicide mission.

ROSSIKE:
It has been done multilaterally, such as in the former Soviet republics and former Yugoslavia. When you do it unilaterally you are inviting trouble especially if your region happens to be the prime source of the country's wealth. If you lack the firepower to defend that independence, rest assured, you will be crushed.

What happened in Nigeria would have happened in any other country on the earth.

My friend stop trying to deceive people. Texas declared independence from Mexico in the 1860s, but already bordered the USA which was only too happy to defend it if the Mexicans got nasty, and less than a decade later Texas came under the US fold! So stop comparing apples and oranges.

Granted that Texas was a breakaway republic of Mexico, but it did not necessitate immediate war with Mexico even though Mexico did not recognize it as a republic. However, the internal bickering between Houston and Lamar camps morphed into annexation by USA.

It is very lame idea to compare the disintegration of Soviet Union with 1966 secession of Biafra from Nigeria.

ROSSIKE:
Dede 1 said:

Hahahahaha! You call unilateral declaration of independence by a region of a sovereign country an innocuous act?

Sometimes I wonder the kind of schooling that some of you guys received.

Tell me what you think would happen if the state of California declared independence from the US tomorrow, declared itself a sovereign nation, and began preparing for war against the US federal government.

That day you go know say khaki no be leather. Ewu!

Mr. Scholar, declaration of independence has never been done bilaterally as oppose to unilaterally. When I said that history did not make a dent on you, I meant every bit of the phrase. Did you realize that Texas once declared itself a republic? The union did not declare war on Texas rather the issue was settled on a conference table.

ROSSIKE:
Oh? Is there a secret about weapons you know that we're not privy to? Please explain.



Keep writing garbage. Unforeseen by whom?

If your hero could not foresee the civil war, especially given the role HE played in bringing it about (such as the little act of declaring 'independence' with no real army in place, and his ego-driven quarrel with Gowon), then what does that say about his competence?

People carry on as if the lives of those lost meant nothing.

Many of us lost close family members in that war, none of whom had access to emergency medical flights on private jets to Germany or London.

How many of those people who perished of starvation and bombs were asked if they wanted war?

Was Ojukwu an elected leader?

Was he not a military dictator?

Abeg make we hear something jare!

If anybody is spewing garbage on this discuss, it is certainly you. How many wars have you foreseen, Mr. Olodo? It is only in your barbaric world that innocuous act such as declaration of independence engenders a war. History most be ashamed of you.

babapupa:
Delusions no dey taya you people ni? Wetin igbo people have wey go make anybody jealous them? Abeg stop smoking indian hemp.

Maybe your people are, but we are not sucking collectively.

There is no amount of intellectual bathing that will rescue a prodigal son such as you. You seemed not to be performing better than your forbearers.

Onlytruth:
Bros I would not have that argument with you. His father died of heart break.

I did not remotely insinuate that Emeka’s father died because he (Emeka) joined Nigerian armed forces. I tried to point out that Sir Odumegwu Ojukwu was visibly upset because Emeka joined the army against his wish. By the way, do not forget that eastern region of Nigeria has substantial liquid assets overseas.

Onlytruth:
I wouldn't be so quick to say that. Remember that his father owned shares in major blue chip companies, and had CASH in hand bank in Nigeria and UK. Of course he could not have liquidated the houses and other fixed assets. What do you think happened to all those money in bank? His brothers never matched him when it came to accessing his fathers properties. He had the power and backing of government -Eastern region and Biafra to access them. Have you forgotten that even the buildings were only handed back to HIM in the 80s? Why weren't they handed to his brothers before he returned from exile?

There is always some level of truth to most political rumors.

To the best of my knowledge, Ojukwu was not even a signatory to his father's bank accounts. Ojukwju joined Nigerian armed force much to the chagrin of his father.

ROSSIKE:
Can someone remind me once again why this man went to war with no real army or weapons?

Why did he expect to defeat the Nigerian military without modern fighting equipment?

Using malnourished child soldiers with pop guns and machetes?

The result?

2 million lives destroyed.

Some 'hero'.

Please shut your mouth for a change. What do you know about military weapons especially during the era when the civil war started? The Nigaria/Biafra civil war was an unforeseen circumstance. My people say nobody requests water to be boiled because he/she anticipates falling from a palm tree.

Onlytruth:
What strikes me most in this whole thing is that Ojukwu cannot even afford to travel overseas for his health situation. I have always suspected that he liquidated much of his father's wealth defending Biafra. A true leader gives to his people instead of taking.

I remember when he once said that he survives on goodwill of Igbo sons and daughters.

The picture is now abundantly clear. I thank my governor Peter Obi for doing the right thing for our leader.

Still praying for the Ikemba's recovery.  

Bros, you should know better than some of us herein that Ojukwu is not even the first and certainly not the only son of his father. The talk of Ojukwu spending his father’s money during the Nigeria/Biafra civil war was unfounded feel-happy-win- the-war propaganda.

@POST


Cowards die many times before their death.

I am in support of the planks raised by wirinet and SepeleGuy. I am wondering what the reactions of these peeps would be if GEJ is found kneeling down before a priest of one Ekpeye's deities while ritual incantations are in progress.

With the draconian manner the presidents and governors are using the federal police force today in Nigeria, the looters and ritual operatives, masquerading as governors, requesting for the formation of State Police will send chill to the spine of any Nigerian. A police force under the control of these masquerading imbeciles as governors would give rise to socio-political armed robbery and official government kidnapping.

Katsumoto: Did Gowon not issue orders to Easterners such as Brig Ekpo, Ike Nwachukwu, Brig Ikwue, Adaka Boro, and a host of others? Does that imply that the Eastern region was fighting against Biafra? At the end of the day, the soldiers who fought against Biafra were professional soldiers and they swore an oath to defend Nigeria from enemies both external and internal. Just as one cannot begrudge Eastern soldiers for fighting for Biafra, one cannot begrudge other Nigerian soldiers (Igbo soldiers included) for fighting against Biafra. Afterall, were Nigerian soldiers and policemen (including Yoruba sons) not used in the various campaigns to quash dissent in the West in the early sixties?

At the end of the day, you analyse all issues from an ethnic perspective. If a Yoruba judge jails an Igbo criminal, then the Yoruba judge must have an ethnic agenda.

The facts that we have so far are
1. Nigerian soldiers including Igbo, Ibibio, Ijo, Hausa-Fulani, Tiv, Kanuri fought against Biafra
2. Biafran soldiers including Igbo, Ibibio, Yoruba fought against Nigeria
3. Yoruba sons either lost their lives or were jailed for protesting the Biafran cause
4. Yoruba sons did resign their commission rather than fight against Biafra
5. Lagos was the capital before the start of the war. Is Dede1 suggesting that Gowon move the capital to the North just because he wants to prosecute a war against Biafra?
6. There was no military campaign through the mid-west to attack Biafra until after the Biafran incursion
7. The governor of the mid-west announced that his region was neutral
8. Consciption of Western and mid-western sons into the military began after the incursion of the Biafrans
9. Biafra had every right to attack Lagos; Yoruba and mid-western sons equally then had the right to join the military and fight against Biafra after their lands were attacked

You can reach your own conclusions about neutrality; I have reached mine.

In the annals of crisis and conflict, the concept of neutrality does not flow from individuals or insignificant group of people. Instead it comes from the political actions of a seating government. I am amused when I read the first sentence of your post. During the midterm of 1966, the circumstances in Nigeria had forced the army headquarters to issue orders for all personals to return to their region of origin. Few easterners who chose not return to the eastern region have ulterior motives to either stay back in northern region or western region due to personal linkage with the regions.

Of course, Ike Nwachukwu and Emma Ekpo received orders from Gowon. Does that imply that eastern region was neutral too? By the way, Adake Boro was a criminal languishing in jail when the crisis started while Ikwue was from Benue, northern region.

If the governments of western and Midwestern regions were ever interested to stay on the side of neutrality, there would not have been civil war in the first place. This is one of the reasons Fajuyi was targeted because the northern soldiers and politicians including their British advisers knew they could not handle two progressive military governors in southern Nigeria at that period.

Ejoor had publicly supported Gowon and his delusional One-Nigeria slogan. Ejoor was among the Nigerian delegates to Aburi, Ghana. Ejoor was signatories to all Nigerian proposals in Aburi, Ghana. Ejoor was a participant in all the nocturnal meetings held by Nigerian delegation in Aburi, Ghana. I must opine that the essence of the alleged silly announcement of neutrality by David Ejoor, during or after the summit in Aburi, Ghana, tantamount to deceitful cowardice. 

By the way, the crux of my argument does not anchor on the fact that few individuals fought on the either side of Nigeria/Biafra war but on the silly claim of neutrality. During Nigeria/Biafra war, I had to say unequivocally that a person was either for Nigeria/Biafra or againist Nigeria/Biafra. There was no apparent fence sitter which is the worst scenario.

[quote author=ndu_chucks link=topic=568982.msg7375987#msg7375987 date=1292869294]Withe due respect, it is not enough to call any forumite's post garbage, without at least giving us your reason for making such a statement. If you are capable, you could offer counter points that would enrich the rest of us. You are the one who appears st.upid, buddy!

Take a cue from my posts, olodo. [/quote]Do not waste your precious time responding to a certified walking-dead such as seanet02. You could get a better response from a domesticated monkey than from the jackass called seanet02.

Katsumoto:
You are the fountain of all knowledge; you have been known to dispute all write-ups including those from Time magazine as long as they do not align with your version of history. You continue to dispute without EVER supplying facts to back your own argument. Are we supposed to take your versions as gospel just because you want it so? Understand this, your opinions means nothing to me if they are divergent to fact-backed positions i hold.

What we know is that when the civil war started, Gowon attacked Biafra using two columns through Nsukka and Garkem. At the same time, the Navy was positioned in the Bight of Biafra to support amphibious landings by the 3rd Marine Commando. At that point in time, Gowon could have used the 2nd Division to attack Biafra through Asaba-Onitsha axis but he didn't. Was Gen Ejoor not sleeping when Biafran forces sneaked in through Asaba with the assistance of Delta Igbos? The first shots that were fired were by the Biafrans when advancing towards other parts of the mid-west. Did the recruitment drive in the West and mid-west not start after the Biafran incursion? You can believe what you want and let the rest of us believe what we want.

Of course, in your mind, anybody that does not support you must be against you.

Pal, take it easy on me. What fountain of knowledge if I may ask? I write to pure cold facts on hot irrelevant conjectures.   

We have been through this lane before now and I guess we must have picked up one or two indelible facts about the situation then. Gowon may have been silly not foolish. He sat comfortable in western region of Nigeria while prosecuting what was initially termed “Police Action” against eastern region of Nigeria latter called Biafra. Gowon had dissolved Lagos Garrison Organization into 3rd Division under the command of western region born commander and moved them to Escavros in mid-western region for amphibious attack on Port Harcourt and other eastern regional territories. Gowon, still at home in western region of Nigeria, had total control of the 2nd and 4th area commands which he created into 2nd Division.

The Nigerian Naval headquarter and command were situated in Lagos, western region and Gowon and his naval chief of staff, who was a Yoruba, had given orders to chase down an Igbo naval officer who left port on training mission with one of the Nigerian frigates simple because the officer was from eastern region. It was not a coincident that the naval officers who gave chase were a Briton, Yoruba, Hausa and Ijo. Talk about neutrality.

You have always written numerously about military strategy but still could not recognize one when you see it. Gowon’s sitting in western region and issuing attack on Biafra from the boundary points between northern region and eastern region was a smoke screen to protect southern part of northern region while making sure the western and mid-western regions remains as part of northern region as he would want. Any attack on Biafra from soldiers that took orders from Gowon while in Lagos was open invitation to Biafra to launch any preemptive attack on Nigeria period.

It is ridiculously pathetic and a display of cowardly disingenuous act to claim neutrality when Gowon was issuing orders to the combatants drawn from the regions claiming to be neutral in the saga.

Katsumoto:
QUESTION:  WHAT CAN YOU RECALL ABOUT THE MID-WEST INCURSION OF 1967?

RESPONSE:  I was completely out of the loop.  As stated above, we were taken unawares, facilitated by some black legs amongst us.  I was busy organizing and rehearsing the Civil Defence Operations in Benin and doing the write-up and training.  I was, as it were, detached from conventional Army duties. I did not believe that the Biafrans would enter Mid-West for it had been agreed by the Federal, Eastern and Mid-West Governments that Mid-West should remain neutral.

In fact a company of Federal troops that entered Mid-West (led by Lt. Igbinosa) was ordered out of the Mid-West by Col. Conrad Nwawo, the 4th Area Commander, Benin.  So one expected that Ojukwu who was aware of this should be gentleman enough to abide by the agreement.  He did not and those of us who were not involved in the betrayal were taken completely unawares.

http://www.dawodu.com/omoigui52.htm

In May Gowon issued a decree implementing the Aburi Agreement. Even the Northern Region leaders, who had been the first to threaten secession, now favored the formation of a multistate federation. Meanwhile, the military governor of the Midwestern Region announced that his region must be considered neutral in the event of civil war.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/biafra.htm

To oversimplify, a lull of several months occured after the declaration, to be interrupted when the Biafrans invaded the de facto neutral terrain of the Midwest Region. As Biafra was now perceived as expansionist, this provoked a violent response from the federal military government who retook the Midwest with ease, escalating the conflict into a full-scale war which resulted in between 1 to 3 million deaths and the reincorporation of Biafran territory into the republic after a victory for the federation.

http://www.nigeria-planet.com/

But two flukes of pre-war politics gave the Biafrans a chance. The first fluke was geography. The Yorubas (largest group in the western region, where the capital of Lagos was) weren't very enthusiastic about the war. They'd spent the decade paralyzed by in-fighting, so they hadn't been
able to get into the blood feuds that the rest of the country did with the Biafrans. Also, their region was separated from Biafra by the Mid-West region. The Mid-West was an ethnic quilt, with Igbos, Yorubas, and dozens of other groups. The governor was afraid that if he supported the
Federals or Biafrans, the Mid-West would be torn apart -- so he declared it to be neutral. It shielded both the Yorubas and Biafrans from each
other. Not experiencing the war, many Yorubas decided they didn't have a dog in the fight. Yoruba writers, poets, and artists began to
protest the war. The Federal troops in Lagos -- mostly from other parts of the country -- and the Lagosians began to snarl at each other, and everybody was afraid of a riot.

http://www.historykb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/what-if/13441/Biafra-s-First-Gamble-long

At this stage of the war, the other regions of Nigeria (the West and Mid-West) still considered the war as a confrontation between the north (mainly Hausas) against the east (mainly Igbos). But the Biafrans responded with an offensive of their own when, on 9 August, the Biafran forces moved west into the Mid-Western Nigerian region across the Niger river, passing through Benin City, until they were stopped at Ore (in present day Ondo State) just over the state boundary on 21 August, just 130 miles east of the Nigerian capital of Lagos.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Civil_War

The Western and Mid-western regions were parts of Nigeria but they were neutral until the invasion by the Biafrans.

Now you answer my questions. Were you expecting all Western and mid-western officers to resign their commissions instead of fighting against Biafra? Did they swear oaths of allegiance to Nigeria or Biafra? Having said that, there were Yoruba officers who did resign their commissions; one of such was Lt Col Ayo Ariyo.

These illogical conjectures are giving Nigerians intellectual bad-name. In fact, insinuating Western and Mid-western regions of Nigeria were neutral in the saga between Nigeria and Biafra is akin to saying that fish is neutral to water.  Apart from eastern region which had declared independence, all other regions were integral part of Nigeria as of July 6, 1967.

If the military formations in western and mid-western regions were still referred as 2nd area command and 4th area command respectively as these skewed write-ups would want us to believe, which were still the Nigerian military formations under the leadership of Gowon, I had expected these revisionists to inform us why eastern region military formation was termed Biafran army instead of 3rd area command so as to be inline with other regions of Nigeria. As of July 6, 1967, there were two countries-Nigeria and Biafra in what used to be the colonial contraption called Nigeria period.

It is either the people who wrote these craps were delusional or do not understand the concept of neutrality. During the conferences that preceded the spiral of arms between Nigeria and Biafra, the representatives from these so-called neutral regions were integral part of Nigerian delegation. They collectively spoke in favor of Nigeria and were signatories to Nigerian presentations. Some of us with social order above our shoulders wonder when the neutrality started.

Katsumoto:
I have said it before and Ill say it again, if anyone attempts to revise history or debate using stories handed down from relatives without sticking to facts, I will CORRECT the factual inaccuracies with facts at my disposal. If I have the time, I will post on any thread I please. That reverse psychology will not work on me. That I post on many Civil war threads just simply highlights the sheer volume of lies being peddled about the Civil War.

Nothing could be more disingenuous than these off-the-wall and unfounded comments lacking characteristics of self-discipline from you. I think it is foolhardiness on your metal capacity by giving credence to idiotic philosophical approaches of certain qualified morons on this forum.

I guess this is a form of exercise dictated by your inalienable privileges. I say stick with it. Did you insinuate to “CORRECT factual inaccuracies with facts at your disposal”? Pal, you are funny as hell.

@ndu_chucks



I shall not disappoint you on this flame-throwing endeavor. You are right about “Araba” as many contributors only know about pogrom of 1966 and did know the Hausa vernacular name of the heinous act.

If you are true son of your father, you should have implied that Dede1 has unceremoniously started there were many northerners in the south of Nigeria masquerading as southerners. I can not say the number of southerners of non-Igbo, non-Ibibio, non-Annang, non-Ogoni, non-Ekoi and even non-Kalabari that joined the northerners in the orgy of murderous insanity in 1966. However, I can correctly speak about one Major Daramola, a Yoruba, who fully participated in the Araba.

Katsumoto:
Dude,

Go and read Contemporary Strategy Analysis by Robert Grant; Grant analyses the war between Vietnam and the US from a strategy point of view and draws several conclusions. I am bound to go with the opinion of a respected Business School Professor. 

You are free to ignore the rest of my post which I clearly stated as my opinion.

Dude, I had rather sit at home with facts from the books on "Vietnam War" written by stalwarts such as retired US army officer and military historian Harry G Summers Jr. and political strategist and diplomatic icon Henry Kissinger than believe a business school professor struggling to make the ends meet such as Robert Grant.

The most ridiculous nonsense that has populated this discuss is the insinuation Yoruba had no capable sons in the Nigerian armed forces to standup against the aggressors from the northern region of Nigeria. I try not to delve into this illogical argument about the number of Yoruba under the arms in Nigerian armed forces and their lack of intestinal fortitude to spite in the face of a bully. Like Ndigbo, Yoruba had considerable amount of Sandhusrt- trained combatants in the officer’s cadre of Nigerian armed forces as of 1966. Unlike Ndigbo, good number of officers of Yoruba extraction held more command positions than any other ethnic group in Nigeria as of 1966.