₦airaland Forum

bittyend: “I will be the first to concede that the Igbo as a group is not without its flaws. Its success can and did carry deadly penalties: the dangers of hubris, overweening pride, and thoughtlessness, which invite envy and hatred or, even worse, than can obsess the mind with material success and dispose it to all kinds of crude showiness. There is no doubt at all that there is a strand in contemporary Igbo behavior that can offend by its noisy exhibitionism and disregard for humility and quietness.” - Chinua Achebe

bittyfool,

Knowing the knack to be dubious by the unrepentant tribal jingoist such as bittyfool, I seriously question the veracity of the above post and doubt this quotation is from Achebe. I have read few ridiculous and outlandish conjectures from the trolls that inhabit certain section of Nigeria. It is most likely this junk is one of such incongruous postulations to denigrate the well-earned social idiosyncrasy of Ndigbo.

I have lived among certain ethnic group within Nigeria. I can unequivocally state Ndigbo are known for less noise and full of substantive means.

Eko Ile: Another rubbish from gran pa dundie 1 ...lmao

Eko Ole,

You are a drooling dummy.

dayokanu: ^^ Dendemoron,

Are you ready to give your own version of why other regional leaders were killed and Igbo leaders all escaped?

Dayolodo

...until you learn how to read and comprehend properly.

nuclearboy: Dude: I condemned and still condemn the pogroms and unlike most of the youngsters here, was around during the civil war though as a child! But a few things have always made this issue a 2-way blame game for me

1. How come all Biafra soldiers look well fed while d children starved? What manner of man eats leaving his child to starve?

2. Why did the war only start 10 months after the northern riots? Why only then and not spontaneously or even anytime before Gowon decided to split the country into 10 states? Why was that the "key" that started the war? Didn't Col Ojukwu know his people were being killed until Gowon decided to lessen his powers? And if any of the Igbos reading this was NOT Igbo, would he not wonder at the timing coincidence?

3. When food was offered and effectively rejected because your general insisted on being paid by such as the Red-Cross, which was more important to him? Cash to buy weapons to kill more people OR the lives of the youbg children his decisions sent to an early painful undeserved death?

4. Igbos are mostly Christians - what did Jesus say about counting costs before starting to build a house?

I feel very sad about the death of millions who were mostly innocents but this debate is asinine in trying to pin ALL the blame on your perceived enemies! Truth is your planning was shoddy, the motives suspect and selfish, the propaganda hurtful to your own people and the timing totally wrong!

What we should be doing now is trying to align so we can build a proper future not this rubbish!

Honestly, I say your questions sounded idiotic and smacked of illiteracy. Each and every single question in your post lacks the simple basic logic or intellect. I do not know how many Biafran soldiers registered in your wealth of knowledge to give you the audacious pedigree to formulate such question.

I guess you are the only walking dead who never heard about Aburi, Ghana and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia peace missions. From your postulations on the ongoing discussion, it is safe to say you are a lazy scholar because it is the only fathomable reason a human being could conjure such unintelligible questions. Eastern Regional Consultative Assembly met in Enugu on May 27, 1967 and issued resolution mandating Ojukwu to declare Eastern Region of Nigeria a free sovereign and independent state by the name Republic of Biafra. Gowon, after hearing the news of mandate on the wire, declared state of emergency in Nigeria and announced the mainstay of Decree No. 14 of 1967.

If you really have an atom of brain, you would have realized it is not wise to accept foods from any of your enemies especially the ones that wanted you annihilated.

Ndigbo and Biafra did not attack Nigeria but only expressed the need to live separately from the rest of Nigeria in an acreage they can patriotically call home. It is definitely foolhardy for goofy ninny who conjured the above irrelevant questions to refer to Nigeria as rubbish.

klax: Please for goodness I beg every Benin, Yoruba and Hausa in the House to just ignore whatever any of my kinsmen is saying as per Biafra let my fellow men go back to my statement few days ago and answer all the question I asked their. Since some of my own people refused to wake up and leave the past and moved on let whoever want to die because of Biafra die is as simple as that.

I'm getting provoked day by day if not the warning my dad warned me in relation to discussion as per Biafra I would have done the unthinkable because the anger and vexation is boiling inside me for so long against the ojukwu's this man called Ojukwu made me not to have a single uncle till today by forcefully came to my grandparent HOME IN THE THEN village and took my supposed uncleS(FIVE YOUNG MEN) away to fight war and never return and Ojukwu kids are there with plenty uncles, Aunties, large family with lot of money and wealth isnit? And someone is here wanting FOR me to Hate Yoruba or Hausa who were the not the one that took my suppose to be uncleS away, who did not send us to war in the first place?

The truth this anger is burning inside me day and night its like a nightmare in my blood. I got no deal with Awolowo or Gowon I dont bloody care who a heel they are all I care about is Ojukwu because his boys were the ones that came to my grandparent home and took my uncles away and none ever return till today so its Ojukwu I have a deal with and I need explanation from him orelse one good day someone will pay for this anger inside me for sure.

Anybody can call me any names I dont give a f u c k and damn it, what pains me is waht am saying is not Yoruba, Hausa, Gowon, Soyinka etc all these are just bloody irrelevant. So if any one want to die because of Biafra I repeat go ahead and die for a man who went to war selfishly without due consultation. Die because of a man that left Billion worth of wealth for his kids and you are here sleeping in poverty and still ranting hell, Die for 1966 long dead issue in 2012 good for you but for me I will not and never HATE Yoruba or Hausa because of Biafra never and never because they did not send us to war or asked to go to war ok.

If you are not a bloody fool, you are certainly a delusional ninny. If you think losing uncles during the war is enough for you to forget your past, it is not enough for some of us who lost father, brothers, sisters, uncles, nephews, aunts and grandparents during the pogrom in northern region and the civil war. Let me call your deduction that Ojukwu forcefully took your uncles away from your village as foolery.

The northern and western regional leaders conspired to kill innocent citizens of eastern region for no apparent reason. My aunts was killed in northern region in 1966 and none of the soldiers who allegedly precipitated the January 15, 1966 coup was even known to her talk less of being related to her.

If you think your bloody village worth anything, it is because you have an Igbo son such Ojukwu who stood before the aggressors and told them enough was enough. In addition, Ndigbo are not people without a mind. I do not need to remind you that Ojukwu flunked senatorial election in his home senatorial zone. Ndigbo have never had a human being molded into demigod because of earthly largesse.

Again, let me inform you that what you considered heavy losses were infinitesimal and pale when compared to losses accrued by certain Igbo sons and daughters. As Nigeria stands, you can choose to join Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani, Edo or ethnic group but Igbo and I am sure there is no right thinking Igbo son or daughter who will notice you have left.

sonya4all: @dede.You are a celebrated foolish fool and a half baked educated one at that.Seeking audience.And i tell uve met the wrong person because ive got no time for scumbags like you.@andre i dnt understand u anymore are u now joining these fools? Let me know.I said i dnt wanna talk abt the subject again because nothin we say here care count on the decision of the ikas.Tnks.Im out of this thread

I do not cross words with self-acclaimed fools such as you. You, as a lowlife, auctioned away your ancestry pedigree and still have audacity to talk about education or lack thereof. I simply urge you to visit the ruins of Idu mud walls and figure if a wondrous prince will make alive through the land of Isan talk less Agbo of Igbo land.

BABSIN: OPEN LETTER OF RESIGNATION TO ODUMEGWU OJUKWU
FROM Robert S. Goldstein
Public Relations Representative of Biafra in the United States
(Published in the Morning Post, Lagos, August 17, 1968)

As your Public Relation's Representative in the United States, it is my distasteful duty to tender my resignation based on the following points:

POINT 1 - In November of 1967 when we met in Umuahia, you and your Cabinet were very impressive. You told me of the woes of your little Republic, that thousands of people had died, were dying and more were prepared to die for freedom's sake.
You and your Cabinet told me you believed world opinion would help your cause if you could get your story across.
You expressed the opinion that very few if any people in the United States knew of the plight of the Biafrans.
You asked me to tell the world that Britain had teamed up with Russia in a conspiracy with the Federal Government of Nigeria to murder every Ibo in Biafra. You suggested I use my talents to induce the Press to write about the Biafran side of the war, as at that time all news came out of Lagos.
You will recall I did not take the asssignment that day but stayed on several days before deciding to take that job.
To help win the peace
At that time I stated to you and your cabinet that I was taking the assignment making it crystal clear I would try my best to help win the peace not the war.

POINT TWO - I immediately arranged the first world Press conference in Biafra inviting the US Press as well as journalists and television people from England, France, Switzerland, Africa and other parts of the Globe. This was the first news break through. I arranged regular trips into Biafra for the world Press, helped set up stringers, etc., so that your statements and the statements of your Cabinet would be heard.
At that time, I was absolutely positive you were right and your cause was a just one in the best interests of the free world and your countrymen.

POINT THREE - Finally the Republic of Biafra was recognized first by Tanzania, then quickly followed by Gabon, the Ivory Coast and Zambia. Our public relations work was paying off, world opnion was starting to side with us.
Peace talks were arranged at Kampala. I thought that if anyone walked away from the table it would be the Federal Government. But to my dismay it was Biafra that left the Conference. After all the fighting and killing, I knew that peace would not come easy but I could not understand leaving the Peace Conference until the last point was negotiated and the avenue explored.

POINT FOUR - Then urgent telex messages were received from 'Biafra' telling of tens of thousands of people starving in the refugee camps, the villages, the bush country - stating if something werent done in the next few months over a million women, children and aged would be starved to death. I immediately contacted the Press, urgently petitioned the State Department for action on their part. Food, medicine and milk were sent to the only available ports open for immediate shipment to 'Biafra' via land routes through Federal and Biafra territory, under the auspices of world organizations such as the International Red Cross among others.
Then came the incredible answer from 'Biafra' that land corridors could not be acceptable until there was a complete ceasefire, and that an airlift was the only solution to feed the starving.
You then appeared before the various Heads of State and representatives of the OAU at Niamey in Niger. I fully expected you to at least accept the world help that was offered your starving throngs. However, you delayed, hoping to use these unfortunates with world sympathy on their side as a tool to further your ambition to achieve war concessions at the upcoming peace talks in Addis Ababa. Thus innocent victims continue to perish needlessly of starvation, the most agonising death that can befall any living creature.

POINT FIVE - This was incredible to me. I am now convinced that I have been used by you and your cabinet to help in military adventures of your origin....using your starving hordes as hostages to negotiate a victory.
If at some later date, following the isuance of this letter, you do concede to allow a mercy land corridor...would you expect me to agree to espouse before the world Press the incredible delay of your decision. What explanation could I honestly give for the needless prolongation of this horror.
Inconceivable acts
I pray this communication may in some small way influence you to move affirmatively, allowing the mercy land corridor to be born.
It is inconceivable to me that you would stop the feeding of thousands of your countrymen (under auspicies of world organizations such as the International Red Cross, World Council of Churches and many more) via a land corridor which is the only practical way to bring in food to help at this time. It is inconcivable to me that men of good faith would try to twist world opinion in such a manner as to deceive people into believing that the starvation and hunger that is consuming 'Biafra' is a plot of Britian, Nigeria and others to commit genocide.

POINT SIX - I cannot in all conscience serve you any longer. Nor can I be a party to suppressing the fact that your starving thousands have the food, medicine and milk available to them.....it can and is ready to be delivered through international organizations to you. Only your constant refusal has stopped its delivery.
I am this date, tendering my resignation and am returning to Mr. Collins Obih of the African Continental Bank all the fees you have given me (Letter of Credit No. 354 $400,000 US.)
I have sent your representative in New York a Bond in the amount of 800.000 pounds that I was holding in your behalf. I have also this date, sent the Bond of 200,000 pounds issues by the Central Bankl of Nigeria back to them for disposal.

POINT SEVEN - I am now convinced that one Nigeria is the only solution to peace. I also call upon you Mr. Ojukwu to allow your starving people to be fed. Their well-being is of deep concern to me as well as other right thinking people of the world. Your acting in the utmost haste in this matter is in my opinion the first step toward any lasting peace in your country."

THE POINT IS THIS, IT IS TIME WE MOVED ON AND STOPPED DRAGGING OURSELVES BACK TO AN ERA IN OUR HISTORY WHERE NO SIDE CAN CLAIM COMPLETE INNOCENCE OR COMPLETE GUILT. WE HAVE BIGGER PROBLEMS IN NIGERIA.

This another series of arrant nonsense propagated by those on the payroll of Nigeria and its friendly foreign governments who supported Nigeria during the war.

I guess the detractors of Biafra and Ojukwu will stop at nothing to register insignificant point. Anybody with atom of human brain will check out the dates when the so-called Public Relation's Representative named Robert S. Goldstein visited Umuahia and when the letter was published.

Let us intelligently and humanly examine the date of November of 1967 when the scallywag named Robert S. Goldstein visited Umuahia and date August 17, 1968 when the so-called letter was published in the Morning Post, Lagos. I can say without equivocation that between these dates, Biafra had enough foods for children until certain areas of Biafra became war torn in late parts of 1968 when the effects of total blockade started to bite harder than at beginning of the war.

I can not understand the headache of Robert S. Goldstein as Public Relation's Representative because at the scheme of things Biafra did not need such an operator. There were many journalists, government sponsored or freelance, who were jostling to report the carnage generated by the war to the world.

Biafra did not and never sought for the goofy expertise of Robert S. Goldstein whose government of the USA leaned toward Nigeria due to undue political pressures from Britain.

@ newakata and Sis_kill

You probably resembled the predators that snatched away the boyfriends or husbands of the scrawling Nigerian ladies. The effects of being left without a loving boyfriend or husband are very contagious and can breed paranoia.

somalia6: my skin color isnt black. am not racially black. am ethnically somali.

i dont share dna with u bantus.


whats ur definition of black? cause genetically i am closer to north africans than you bantus.

You are one of the regrettable functional illiterates to walk the surface of earth. There is nothing such as black or white in human. It is a pure display of idiocy of the highest order to describe human beings with hue. I saw the highest number of people from Somalia in Burlington, Minnesota. Of course, they trooped to USA government establishments seeking for daily bread as refugees. Some of them can not pass as human beings because they were full of dirty teeth.

Yoruba, as we know them today, do not belong to the areas they currently occupy. If the testimonies of Oyo Empire and the debacle it had with Nupe and Fulani Caliphate, Yoruba retreated from the northern region to southwestern region of what is known as Nigeria.

jidestar: This people are deluded. How can Biafra be a country wen dey were all running for dear life. Me no tink there was a country as Achebe imagined.

I am sure those who bore arms in a firefight with Biafrans will be beg to disagree with your goofy postulation.

The evil that men do leaves after them and visited upon their children. The idea to perpetrate a war on group of people who wanted nothing but a country they can call home is the worst case of inhumanness act of hatred.

The statement accredited to Alhaji Bello Kirfi is spot on. Any rightful and meaningful thinking Nigerian must consider the idea of disintegration of cesspit called Nigeria. I am not surprise that a person in mold of T.Y. Danjuma will oppose such idea floated by Kirfi. The reason people like T.Y. Danjuma believes in the status quo of Nigeria is because of the block of crude oil allocated to them. At the instance block of crude oil is removed from the clutches of moronic dullards such T.Y. Danjuma, he will lead the chorus singing the disintegration of Nigeria.

MAYOWAAK: Professor Chinua Achebe got it all wrong from the title of his latest infamous book, There Was A Country, downright to the contents and this has expectedly generated a lot of controversies capable of dividing us more than unite us. If the foundation is crooked, what should we expect of the structure put on it? Papa Achebe apparently is still getting carried away by his dream of Biafra so much that he forgot that Biafra is a country that never was. There was an attempt by the Eastern Region of Nigeria to secede. That attempt did not materialise. Leaders of the rebellious region surrendered. So, there was never a country. If a celebrated scholar like Prof. Achebe believes that Biafra ever was, then, it is easy for us to deduce the quality of the remaining content of the book. It is apparent that it is going to be nothing but Biafracentric — a country that never was. Like many other writers that have weighed in on the Nigeria Civil War, we know that people will write from their own perspective and their opinion would be coloured, in most cases, by whereever their hearts lie.

Let us examine certain area from the book that has generated so much furor in the polity:

When it comes to how Ojukwu starved his own people to death, by admission of Achebe himself, this is how Rudolf Okonkwo, one of the reviewers of the book, puts it; “Achebe argues that some questions will be debated for generations. One of such questions has to do with the security reasons behind Ojukwu’s rejection of Nigeria’s Federal Government’s proposal for a road corridor for food and the Federal Government’s rejection of Ojukwu’s alternative.”

When it comes to rejection of Ojukwu’s alternative by the Federal Government of Nigeria, Prof. Achebe was quoted as follows:

”It is my impression that Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition for power, for himself and for his Yoruba people. There is, on the surface at least, nothing wrong with those aspirations.

“However, Awolowo saw the dominant Igbos at the time as the obstacles to that goal, and when the opportunity arose — the Nigeria-Biafra war — his ambition drove him into a frenzy to go to every length to achieve his dreams. In the Biafran case, it meant hatching up a diabolical policy to reduce the numbers of his enemies significantly through starvation — eliminating over two million people, mainly members of future generations.”

This is a wonderful peek into the Biafracentric frame of mind of a man that wrote that attack. So, the Federal Government actually made a proposal for a road corridor for food to the starving women and children of Biafra and Ojukwu rejected it for “security reasons?” That does not really sound like a people with genocidal intentions to me; ask Rwandans if you care to know. Was the Nigerian government not entitled to its own security by making sure that arms were not imported as food supplies? When it comes to Chief Obafemi Awolowo and General Gowon and their security reasons; Achebe quickly concluded that it was “genocidal” and when it comes to Ojukwu, it will only “be debated for generation.” By the way, are beggars really choosers? You started a war and you are dictating to your opponent on how he can supply you food to sustain the war against him. Did Prof. Achebe know that economic blockade is actually a legitimate weapon of war? It is even used in peace time. Note that this came from Achebe himself in the same book that he has accused Chief Awolowo of genocide; how more ridiculous could the accusation get? I have deliberately decided not to even look outside of the book to shoot down the deliberate and wicked lies of Prof. Achebe. Of course, there is a ton of information out there to put a lie to this assertion. The two sides, according to him, disagreed on how food should be supplied to the hungry children of war, but Awolowo ‘a bloody civilian,’ in the midst of the Army generals is the Grinch that stole Christmas, must be blamed for genocide. Good try professor, but teacher, don’t teach me nonsense!

I am seriously not bothered by the latest outburst of Prof. Achebe against Chief Awolowo. Antagonising the Yoruba and anything not Igbo has been his pastime. He is one of the same persons that lent their false intellectual support to the phantom carpet-crossing in the old Western Region House. He expressed dissatisfaction with Wole Soyinka’s winning the Nobel Prize and has always had contempt for anything not originating from the East side of River Niger. I know that for a man who has been writing fiction for over 50 years of his life, and has milked one fiction book for the better part of his life, it may have become difficult for him to differentiate between fiction and facts. But I am concerned with how his latest work would affect the already very fragile nation, both in content and timing. One would have thought that a man of 81 years would have grown beyond the prejudices he has carried in his heart for over 40 years. One would have thought that an 81-year-old man would work to foster unity, bridge gap, use the opportunity presented by writing his war memoirs more to heal wounds and preach forgiveness and brotherhood, rather than making a futile attempt at re-establishing the phantom Igbo dominance and superiority over others and further driving a wedge between Igbo people and other Nigerians.

I am one of the people that believe that we have not told the story of the Nigerian Civil War enough. I believe there are many questions that are still left unanswered. This is why it pained me to bone marrow that Chief Ojukwu, the number one hero of that war, failed to write his memoir. But then, people will be more interested in a dispassionate analysis of the war; the one that tells the story robustly, as it was. I really do not have to wait for the book to have a fair understanding of the content as is being advocated by some sympathisers of Prof. Achebe. I have read a few reviews of the book with some disturbing quotes and jejune conclusion from the professor, especially the review done by my friend Rudolf, a man whose writing I follow religiously and it is always a delight to read Rudolf.

The wicked lies that have been told against the Yoruba people under the mango trees of the East have persisted for ages even when many Igbo have come and saw for themselves; how they have thrived unmolested everywhere in Yorubaland, the lies persist because people like Achebe, an icon of Igbo people, are always there to lend their intellectual falsehood to the tales by the moonlight. I think it is about time to fight back and set the records straight.

The name Awolowo represents one of the brightest spots in the history of Yoruba people. This latest attack on him is an attack on Yoruba history and its people and it has raised this pertinent question for Yoruba people ‘What do they really want from us?’

It is on record that a party later came to be known as Zik’s party, the NCNC, was actually led at inception by a Yoruba man, Sir Herbert Macaulay, and Dr. Azikiwe served as his secretary, it is on record that many Yoruba people were members and moved out en masse when Zik made an infamous statement to Ibo Union that God had sent Igbo race to liberate Nigeria and he started using his West African Pilot newspaper to drive Igbo agenda. It was Zik that turned NCNC from national party to Igbo party. Despite the insultive utterances, the party was still popular in the West, until Zik insisted on ruling the Western Region against common sense and the people gave their votes to Action Group to form the government. People like Achebe came up with tribalism theory against Awolowo. In their selective ignorance they forgot that Azikiwe went back to the East to drive away Eyo Ita who was the Prime Minister because he was from the minority tribe. Nobody talks about that. What do they really want from us?

It is on record that Chief Awolowo approached Dr. Azikiwe during the 1959 elections when no clear leader emerged to give Action Group votes to him so that Azikiwe could become the Prime Minister and he Awolowo, the Finance Minister, but Zik turned him down and traded Prime Ministership for ceremonial presidency with Tafawa Balewa. What do they really want from us?

It is on record that NPC/NCNC alliance was used for maximum effect to oppress the Yoruba and other minorities of the South with Igbo people taking about 97 per cent of whatever was due to the South in a country that understood only North/South dichotomy; that the so-called Igbo dominance (at the federal level) is traceable to this evil and oppressive alliance. With federal might, they installed Igbo vice-chancellors in universities in Yorubaland, which was and is still not practicable in their own clime. We did not bulge neither did the Yoruba people complain. What do they really want from us?

It is on record that Dr. Azikiwe’s alliance with Northern People Congress railroaded Chief Awolowo to the prison and he never lifted a finger to support him. It is also on record that Tafawa Balewa offered Chief Obafemi Awolowo Deputy Prime Ministership in prison, if he would support him, but great Awo turned it down. When Aguiyi-Ironsi seized power, he freed all political prisoners and despite Chief Awolowo’s passionate plea for his case to be considered, Aguiyi-Ironsi ignored him. What do they really want from us?

It is on record that the coup carried out by mostly Igbo soldiers in 1966 killed mostly the leadership of the North and West. We do not know if Awolowo would have survived, if he was not in prison. They killed almost all the most senior Yoruba military officers and even callously murdered Brigadier Ademulegun, his pregnant wife and Col. Ralph Shodeinde for no apparent reason in a coup supposedly directed at corrupt civilians. The only high-ranking member of NCNC that was killed, Chief Okotie-Eboh, was not Igbo and had problem with Mbadiwe on the Finance portfolio that he held. The latter wanted the ‘juicy’ portfolio, but Tafa Balewa rebuffed him. Yet, we did not start pogrom against Igbo residing in the West. What do they really want from us?

It is on record that Adekunle Fajuyi, a Yoruba man, chose to die with Aguiyi-Ironsi; it is on record that Prof. Soyinka and Dr. Tai Solarin went to jail for the Biafran cause. What do they really want from us?

It is on record that despite everything, Chief Obafemi Awolowo went to Enugu in company of Prof. Sam Aluko and Mariere to persuade Ojukwu not to start the war yet; that he should give him the opportunity to mediate; that Ojukwu gave him his words to tarry a little bit but declared a war immediately Awo stepped out of Enugu. What do they really want from us?

I am not surprised; Prof. Achebe did not disappoint in his latest work. I believe, therefore, that Prof. Achebe is entitled to his selective senility and convenient amnesia; it is only left for us, people of goodwill, to put the record straight for posterity’s sake. Igbo intellectuals of good conscience should help to re-orientate their youths that have been grossly miseducated, misinformed and disinformed by people like Achebe. It is in their interest to do so.

Ayo Turton Esq. is the National Legal Counsel to Egbe Omo Yoruba USA and Canada.

I have every impetus pedigree to declare the author of the above crap should be investigated for any academic laurel he\she flashes. Even a third grader knew there was country known as Biafra. It is on record the country known as Biafra received diplomatic recognitions from four (4) African countries and another from the American.

I thought the moronic extrovert had intelligent scoop until the section he\she introduced the fallacy of the century by stating “It is on record that Adekunle Fajuyi, a Yoruba man, chose to die with Aguiyi-Ironsi”. It is only in the world of fools that coup plotters grant principal targets the option to choose how to die. What a foolery and waste of bandwidth.

duni04: Don't have your time a-sshole! Go look for one of your tribesmen to argue with.Have nothing against igbo people, we're aLl black for pete's sake! My problem is with really stupid truth twisters like your very s-tupid self. Please don't quote any of my comments again or reply me, I serriously don't havve your time. A-S-S-HOLE!!!

Please take a good look of your idiotic self. If there is an azzhole on this forum, you deserved the honor. You singlehandedly injected elements of falsehood to this discussion by publicly stating “The fact that it was led by an igbo man and the fact that no senior igbo military officers were killed is enough evidence, no need for any argument again”.

If there is no need to set the record straight, I certainly will not cross words with dumbass such as you, olodo.

I guess the only way this moronic ninny called Gowon will regret the civil war is disintegration of Nigeria. The disintegration of the cesspit called Nigeria will leave Gowon’s people to perpetually fight war of survival with Islamic numbskulls in the northern region of Nigeria.

duni04: Verý typical igbo person, plenty of lines in your reply and plenty of mouth but saying nothing or mostly rubbish. I lost you at functional illiterate, the very first sentence. If all you do is troll round topics and look for people to insult, I'm sure you'll find a willing ally in one of your loud and foul mouth kinsmen, certainly not me. Go suck on something your own size or do us all a favour and go hang your igbotic self somewhere.

Judging from your previous post, I am not surprised you showed the knack for laziness and selective reading. It is safe to call you a bushman from moronic ethnic group.

presfedrep: NO
u can as well complete the list. If only its authentic.

It is on you who have attempted to give names and knew the authenticity of the list.

presfedrep: NO

I salute you for the honesty.

Aigbofa: An excerpt from Awos biography.

An article written by Zik himself, published on the front page of the Pilot, and entitled: "'Football Iliad, 1940 Edition'", shocked many people. It was a big step forward in an insidious campaign which had gone on for more than two years on the pages of the Pilot. A football team composed of students of the Christ the King's College, Onitsha, came to Lagos to play a 'Win the War' football match against St Gregory's College. The CKC team from Onitsha defeated St Gregory's team by 5 goals to 4. To the ordinary man in the street, let alone the highly sophisticated elements, there was nothing extraordinary or unusual in one school or college defeating another in a game of soccer. But not so with Dr Azikiwe. He saw in the sporting exploits and triumph of the team from Onitsha the inherent superiority of the easterners over their opponents, and he went to very great pains to establish this fact, by means of careful choice of words and emphasis. These extracts from the article are relevant: And then to think of the great combination of the Spartan heroes who crossed the lordly Niger, journeyed through the good earth of Benin, hurried across the domains of the Oshemawe of Ondo, of the Atanla of Owo, of the Owa of Ilesha, of the Oni of Ife, of the Alake of Abeokuta in their invasion of these islands!
Who, but heroes of mighty brawn and exceptionally developed brain would have dared to make this invasion and to succeed in carrying to their River Niger home, the Golden Fleece of InterCollegiate Soccer Championship of the Eastern and Western Provinces?
Yet they came to Lagos, they saw the irresistible defence put up by their opponents, and they conquered impressively, convincingly, and were graceful even in victory!
Could their achievement be paralleled?
Would it not be better for me to leave the answer to the laps of the gods?

On 24 August 1940, however, the same CKC team played in Ibadan against the Olubadan XI in another 'Win the War' match. The CKC were beaten 3-2 by the Olubadan XI which were an undiluted Yoruba team. Apart from sending the news to the Daily service myself, I also saw to it that it was wired to the Pilot. It was after there had been clamours in the Daily service, in form of letters to the editor, that the news of this Ibadan match was published some two weeks later in the Pilot. Even then, it was a small item on the back page, and it was explained in it that the CKC team were already tired and that some of them were in fact limping, before they went into the field against Olubadan XI. This was of course untrue.
I said before that the CKC episode was a big step forward in an insidious campaign which had gone on for more than two years on the pages of the Pilot. One or two more instances will be given. By the time the Pilot had published for a year, an important feature of the paper had become manifest. The Igbos in particular were given inordinate publicity on the pages of the paper. Perhaps this was as it should be. The Igbo had never had a share in newspaper publicity before the advent of the Pilot. But equally so, no Yoruba man of the class of the Igbos publicised in the Pilot ever had a share of publicity in any paper either. In those days one had to be an outstanding politician, a big shot in society, or a well-connected person, for one's name to appear in the Nigerian Daily Times, Nigerian Daily Telegraph andLagos Daily News. Of course if you had a friend working in the news or composing section of a paper, no matter who you were, you might be slipped in. Names of people like myself appeared in the papers simply because we were agitators or free-lance journalists. [b]All the same, it was generally agreed that the Igbos needed all the boosting they could get.But Dr Azikiwe went about it in a manner which disgusted those of us who were used to describing citizens of Nigeria as Nigerians or Africans, and regarding their achievements as reflecting credit on Nigeria, indeed Africa, as a whole. The following are typical of the titles of front page news items and of editorial articles in the Pilot.


1. ' Ibo Young Man to Sail to U.K.' is the heading of a frontpage story and picture on September 23, 1938. The young man is Mr Jaja Wachuku, now Speaker of Nigeria's House of Representatives.
2. '14th West African Student, 10th Nigerian, 8th Ibo in U.S.A.' Another front-page story on January 28, 1939. The 8th Ibo is Mr Nwafor Orizu, now Senator in Nigeria's Upper House.
3. 'Ibo Medical Student Passes Exam In First Class Honours.' Yet another front page story, on June 26, 1940, of the brilliant success of Dr S. O. Egwuatu.
4. Editorials:
i. ' A Model Union' ( August 8, 1938) in praise of the Ibibio State Union.
ii. 'One Year Ago' ( August 18, 1938) celebrating the first anniversary of the call to the Bar of the first Ibo lawyer, in the person of Mr Justice Louis Mbanefo, now Chief Justice of the Eastern Region High Court.
iii. 'The Ibo Are Coming' ( December 31, 1938) -- The very title is sufficiently indicative of the contents.

These are but a few examples of the publicity given to Igbos as a group. But as against these, the achievements of Yorubas and, in particular, the academic laurels of their scholars received, if at all, inconspicuous notice in the Pilot. When an Igbo did or was about to do something praiseworthy, he was invariably given a two-column headline and report in the Pilot, and was always described by his ethnic origin in the headlines. But when the Ph.D. degree of London University, indeed of any university for that matter, was conferred on the first Nigerian ever, the historic news was given a small singlecolumn space in the Pilot, and the headline read: 'Nigerian Economist Passes Ph.D. London.' The scholar concerned was Dr Fadipe, a Yoruba. As late as 1945, two Nigerian law students of Cambridge University, one Yoruba and one Igbo, passed the Law Tripos Examination. The Yoruba passed with second class honours (upper division), and the Igbo also passed with second class honours but in the lower division. The latter got front page publicity in the Pilot, but the former got a small space given to him on the back page a few days after the report of his Igbo colleague had appeared. As for outstanding Yoruba public men, they were all of them daubed as 'imperialist stooges' and ' Uncle Toms'.[/b]


Now, who started tribalism? The said article was written by Zik in 1940, over a decade before the carpet crossing you mentioned! As far back as 1938, Zik had already started his malicious campaign against Yorubas and suddenly he wanted to become their premier! Awo was a nice man, instead of carpet crossing, I would have had him flogged.

I knew the inherently loudmouthed sons and daughters of tribal icons in Nigeria will pull out this write-up. It is unfortunate that these tribal jingoists were oblivious that when the aforementioned article was written, there was no entity known as Nigeria. During the period in discuss, people in the provinces of southern and northern protectorates were identified either by their ethnicity or province. One can begin to decipher the conjectural crap imbedded in this rubbish.

As for the drubbing the Christ the King's College, Onitsha handed to St Gregory's College, Lagos, there is no better way to express the duel than the manner used by Zik to elucidate the outcome of the football match. Before the soccer match commenced, some deluded juju musicians have gathered at the Palace of Olu of Ibadan singing how the boys from Onicha will disgraced on the field of soccer by the boys from Lagos because Europeans first handed them (Lagos boys) the knowledge of kicking the round object.

In order to salvage silly and tribal ego of the Yoruba, not as ordinary man on the street, Olu of Ibadan sent SOS to all nooks and carnies of Yoruba land and secured a match between CKC kids and semi-professional team called the Olubadan XI. Despite playing a tough match the previous two days, the kids from CKC humbled the semi-pro Olubadan XI side.

Degis: This is the zinger!. The ever domineering attitude of the Igbos led to their decimation. All these Genocidal rants amounts to nothing because Awolowo reportedly said that Ojukwu was offered to open food corridor where food will be delivered to Women and Children but He declined, only to offer to have Aircraft deliver food in the dead of the night whilst FG will be paying him Landing rights for the Aircraft. What impudence!.

Duro Onabule and Chinua Achebe can choose their Opinion but have no rights to choose the Facts!. Facts are really scared!.

The above post is ranting of ant. I guess you and Awo thought Biafrans were fools. A thing Nigeria could not accomplished through air-tight blockade of Biafra, Awo and Nigerians would have accomplished in one swoop of poisoned foods, milks, medicine and water from Nigeria. I do not think you have the human intellect to recognize a fact when you see one.

duni04: Don't understand why the igbo's are trying to deny involvement in the coup when it was led by an Igbo man. The fact that it was led by an igbo man and the fact that no senior igbo military officers were killed is enough evidence, no need for any argument again.
If we're still on this Achebe thing bby proxy, then I must say that it's no point joining issues with an 80 something year old man who has never hidden his sympathies for Biafra.The most painful observation I've made however is that Awolowo, a one time federal commissioner and federal minister was denied a state burial and ojukwu, who masterminded the deaths of hunderds of thousands of Nigerians was accorded a state burial. And the Igbo's still feel they are the oppressed ones?

It is either you are irredeemably dumb or a pathetic functional illiterate. Unlike Yoruba, Ndigbo have never denied that Igbo son was involved in the coup Nigerian soldiers precipitated on January 15, 1966. However, Ndigbo have bravely maintained that Igbo officers led the military putsch but the idea it was an Igbo coup is simply moronic. If no Igbo senior military officer was killed during coup according to dumbass such as you, then Lt Col A. Unegbe must be a Yoruba or army recruit.

Achebe does not need to hide or have sympathies for Biafra because he is a Biafran like most Igbo people. If your expressed knowledge of events of January 15, 1966 in Nigeria granted you the impetus to spew crap, I pity your idiosyncrasy.

presfedrep: why is Major ifeajuana and Major David okafor not on your list. Rubbish from a myopic fellow! So obsess with your tribe that you can't see harm in it and goodness in other tribe

Are the two majors the only missing names or were you being pushed into irrationality by tribalism?