joeyfire: "The two men were uncompromisingly incompatible to give Nigeria a workable and durable political alliance. Yet, Awolowo’s criticisms of Azikiwe were never mischievously interpreted as hatred for Igbos'
We never took it as or made noise of it as an attack on igbos, yet achebe's is seen as an assault on the entire yoruba race. Hero worship is a problem. Nuff said
In certain corners of the jungle called Nigeria, praise singing is a day job.
eGuerrilla: Dede1 Sir, as there are not many culturally monolithic Nations left in the world today, could you be kind enough to elaborate on what you mean by "distance culture and tradition".
I had been happier than present if Republic of Igbo land shall be among the few culturally monolithic nations left on earth today. At least by you admission, there are culturally monolithic nations in the world. I guess you know Nigeria is a melting pot of multi-cultured nationalities and there is no doubt some of the cultures are conspicuously difference in hue and distanced from one to another. In some cases though, there are also a close proximity in genre among few of the cultures.
I like the old Nigerian national anthem which stated clearly there is a marked difference in culture among the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.
mawojuuche: i have lived in Owerri for d past one & half years, and due to d nature of my job as a brewery man, moving frm one hotel to another, I CAN CONFIDENTLY SAY 90% OF OWERRI GALS ARE PROSTIT.UTES... Its so disgusting... i love to marry a yellow ibo gal but now i'm so scared...
I spent three years in Lagos as young affluent man with full control of my movement. Unlike you who are restricted because of pending report you have to give to your boss, it will still amount to idiocy by saying that 90% of Lagos girls are prostitute and had loved to marry dark Yoruba girl but now I am scared. I do not have to remind you that number of hotels in Ikeja, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Benin City, Abuja and Kaduan is twice the number of hotels in Owerri.
tamme: I dont know why you have to insult me when I just asked a simple question. . whats wrong if I should ask igbo people on a public forum about what I have observed, its not a secret they tell many people also not me. Off course its not all igbo fathers that do this but I know so many igbo fathers who dont send their first sons abroad for various reasons.
When your observations exude idiocy, you deserved to be insulted.
If an imbecilic dolt such Gowon did not usurp the position of Head of State of Nigeria in 1966, there should not have been a secession talk less a war.
WHISTLE BLOWER: No wonder any girl in imo state is likely to be a pr.o.st.i.tu.te..
No wonder it is suicidal to raise a family in owerre/imo..
No wonder criminality and kidnapping has taken the state hostage because there is no big economic input by the government and its people..
No wonder the state will continue to be a pauperized and beggarly state..
Okorocha should be serious for once..we didn't vote you to come and be building hotels with government money..
I am not disposed to call you a dingbat but your posts had just done it. Who taught you that hotel is complementary to prostitution? There are many places in Nigeria with less number of hotels than Owerri yet prostitution runs riots within. A person with mature intellect knows prostitution does not need a hotel to prosper.
Callotti: Have they co-habituated peacefully on NL? Who cares anyhooo. . .both have always been useful to me in the bedroom. . .for different purposes! Some have sweeeeeeeeeeeeet pehnis sha. . . I nor go lie!
Wow!!!!! I knew it despite your foolhardy social shenanigans on this forum, madam Hoha. You knew more than you have written about the bedroom matters.
The answer to the thread is capital “NO”. It is not only Igbo and Yoruba but other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria with distance culture and tradition of each other. One of the colonial blunders committed by British when Nigeria was configured remained the housing many ethnic nationalities under one roof called Nigeria.
[quote author=Mr. Globe2]What more can I say. May Gd bless Duro Onabule. People like this with raw truth and credible pasts are very rare to find. Its good to note that the intellectuals are actually dishing out the truth on this matter while frauds like fani kayode with reputation for criminal activities and Tinubu image makers on Nairaland are running their mouths. My focus now is how to question/petition the international court of justice for allowing this genocide slip. Why havent Awolowo and Gowon been tried. There are rules in war and these rules were not complied to in the Biafra war. You don't block aid. Justice must be served whether humously or posthumously.[/quote]The Nigerian protagonists, especially Yoruba, Itsekiri, Edo and Isan, of starvation as a weapon of war will leap to point at the Union blockade of Southern Confederacy but moronically forgot that the aforementioned blockade, the Union allowed food and medicine to reach the Confederacy. Yet the powerful allies of the Southern Confederacy busted the blockade more often than once.
What a fresh air from a Yoruba son. I am thrilled to witness there are humans who still occupy a section of this world. Did not even know there were Yoruba salesmen on the federal side at home and abroad selling the civil war as Nigeria’s survival. The war drumbeat was “To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done.”
UMBRELLA body of Igbo living in Lagos, the Ndigbo Lagos, has described as unnecessary the flickering controversies trailing Professor Chinua Achebe’s comments in his new book, “There was a country,” that late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was part of General Yakubu Gowon’s cabinet that initiated pogrom and genocide as a policy that killed millions of Igbos especially children during the civil war.
At a time Igbo and Yoruba leaders of the South-East and South-West as well as their counterparts in the South-South were forging an alliance and hammering out solutions to the country’s protracted socio-economic, political and developmental problems, the Professor Anya O. Anya-led group said what was needed now was sustaining the unfolding harmonious relations between the Igbo and Yoruba nations.
“Ndigbo Lagos deems the ongoing heated reactions to Elder statesman and world renowned writer, Prof Chinua Achebe’s personal chronicle of his experience during the civil war as being very unnecessary. The issue of what roles all actors on both sides played during the events leading to the unfortunate civil war and the prosecution of the war itself have for a long time been in the public space,” Ndigbo Lagos said in a statement by Chief Chuma Igwe, publicity secretary.
Noting that Chief Awolowo had spoken for himself in response to similar issue in 1983, Ndigbo Lagos said Awolowo’s response was enough to close the matter.
It said: “At this point in time the South-East, SouthSouth and South-West are in consultations working together for a better Nigeria to ensure that such a situation does not arise again. Ndigbo Lagos believes that the commendable quality of interpersonal relationship between Ndigbo and the Yoruba Nation should be sustained and translated into mutually beneficial political, social and cultural relationship for the progress of our country.
“The ongoing demand of the South-East for the creation of additional one state, the serious infrastructure deficit subsisting in our geopolitical zone and the Igbo Presidency project are areas Ndìgbo Lagos believes the South-West should come out with unequivocal support for the Ndigbo position.
“We should focus on how the two nations and indeed the entire South can cooperate to enthrone fairness, equity and justice in the Nigerian polity. That is the legacy we should aim at, moving forward.”
The above trolling is a machination of idiocy. Consultations to bring hope in the cesspit called Nigeria must involve all geopolitical zones, if any. I am totally against any south-eastern consultation chat with either southwest or the so-called south-south. Any such nonsensical endeavor is a political machination designed in hell. These good-for-thing Igbo sojourners in Lagos should check their heads before making idiotic public statements. Real men of Igbo extraction are extrapolating socio-politico-economic-military variables that will move Republic of Igbo land full steam ahead and these jackasses are talking about consultation to better a colonial accident called Nigeria.
It is even sadder and more folly to read conjectural nonsense of certain so-called journey-just-come ethic groups in Nigeria claiming to have originated from a backwater village or village Empire led by one local champion called Oba.
Sometimes I tend to imagine the nonsensical narrations that engulfed the so-called migration of people when what stood before the migrants was impenetrable forest filled with wild creatures.
If someone’s parents are of missed ethnicity, the offspring is entitled to claim either ethnic group. However, the paternal lineage seems to dominate in most African settings due to cultural and traditional demands.
Freiburger: He has got his point. Sometime last year, a friend asked me to pick him up after from an Igbo meeting, i decided to wait outside in the first place, so after waiting for about an hour, i thought it was time for me to go inside so he can understand i 've been waiting for him outside, so i took a sit at the extreem end of the hall not even paying any attention to what they were discussing, i was so surprised seeing even some other close friends angrily asking me to go out immediately because i'm not allowed to have a clue of what they were discussing, these are guys i 've had a minimung of ten years of friendship with. This has always been my experience with them. You 're never permited to mix into whatever they are doing most especially when it comes to money. Meanwhile when they are having problems, they are ready to tell you everything abaout them. No hating pls.
You behaved like an Olodo. Unfortunately, you showed no manners for sitting in a gathering where the majority of people were strangers to you even if you were of the same ethnicity with them.
ballabriggs: Dede anuohia, na this kind forum them go see your ugly face cursing people. Relax before you get stroke.
I pity the twosome that labored during their free times to beget a piece of lamb dung such as you. You sure know the biological makeup of a creature that desecrates the place of feeding.
ChinenyeN: Dede, if this is the response you are giving, then I have to politely say that I don't believe you read my post well.
ChinenyeN: Europeans created Igbo identity; south easterners perpetuate it. That is what makes an Igbo. If you come from that south eastern region of Nigeria where Igboness is perpetuated, then you are Igbo (as far as the "history books" go).
I respectfully submitted that Europeans did not create Igbo identity as you have ascribed in the above write-up. In the recorded events mostly by Europeans, Igbo has been written as Eboe, Ibo, Ibuo etc by the European based on the explanation given to them by the natives. Besides general term for group of people who have the same culture and tradition, there were many terms in-use within a particular group that yielded instances such as Ohuhu, Ngwa, Ipu, Urratta, Ikwerri, Wawa, Isuoma etc. As time goes on, people have tried to latch onto names of places to define ethnicity for political gains within the useless acreage known as Nigeria.
ChinenyeN: Europeans created Igbo identity; south easterners perpetuate it. That is what makes an Igbo. If you come from that south eastern region of Nigeria where Igboness is perpetuated, then you are Igbo (as far as the "history books" go).
Sometimes, your utterances on this forum get me thinking. Even when the first Europeans berthed at the coast known as Bight of Biafra, they either tried to name a place as pivotal point of direction or found out the identity of the people. It is unfortunate in your wildest imagination, you fathomed the Europeans came up with the word-Igbo. Maybe, the Europeans came up with the word-Ngwa. It appears your detest for collective entity known as Igbo is driving you nuts.
Katsumoto: So because you question when a bridge was blown, the rest of the news should be disregarded?
In any case, your rebuttal to a newspaper article is the data in your brain? Are we supposed to accept that you as an embodiment of knowledge when you get simple things wrong. Just yesterday, i had to correct and educate you when you stated that there was no blockade of the south in the US by the union navy during the American civil war.
You have to do better than that; i have exposed you far too many times to accept your word over a newspaper.
I am not surprise at the plank of your argument especially from a person who termed wrestling matches over tubers of yam such as Kiriji as wars. Any busted blockade is not a blockade as in the case of the so-called Union blockade of Southern Confederacy during USA civil war of 1861-65. My beef with the assessment was the moronic analogy the clueless poster such as you tried to establish between Nigeria\Biafra and Union\Confederacy civil wars with respect to blockade. The battle of Ironclad and cases of blockade runners instigated by powerful nations spoke volume or underscored effectiveness of the so-called Union blockade.
CyberG: The Nigerian army allowed the war to last for 2 year 6 months and 9 days so STOP all this ibo BS of 3 years. In fact, there were several spells in which the Nigerian army decided to let you get rested and see if ojuku would realize he was a loser before he killed more people but no way; the devil had charmed his big flat head. Waiting spells in a war is not new because even during WW 2, there were spells in which nothing was really happening militarily and that is why you hear phraseologies like the "Phoney War", "Bore War", etc. So out of the actual period of the war, biafra didn't have anything to do but wait until the Nigerian gallant military commanders were ready to engage again with flanking manoeuvres, pincers, double pincers, forks, pin downs, punch throughs or the Nigerian blitzkrieg for which the biafrans were caught like deers in the headlights.
The waiting periods also allowed the innocent kids and stupi.d warmongering secessionists to eat something for if not, starvation would be killing iboz as they just drop dead on the road. This is harsh truth and I know iboz cannot stand naked truth. iboz are so ungracious because there's nothing that makes it impossible for biafra to capitulate in 2 weeks. All that is required is 1,000 sorties of heavy bombers, dive bombers, rockets, etc carpet bombing and pounding like yam the whole land for 1 week, day and night! This is really NOT new either because in WW 2, British forces pounded every square km of Germany they could reach during the day, while the Americans flew in their heavy bombers to pound Germany's industrial centers where they could make weapons. But when the Nigerian leadership took it easy by not following that route, here are iboz still making mouth! Delusional dede and ibo secessionists losers.
(To REAL Igbos who are NOT secessionists, war-mongers and trouble makers, who would not sacrifice 3 M+ for < 100 trouble makers, your pain is OUR PAIN. I wouldn't want any hurt to you myself BUT to those who are evil and support evil, there can be nothing else but swift judgement).
Okay, in orderd to keep a nincompoop such as you conspicuously joyous, I had to say the Britain-Nigeria\Biafra war ended in two (2) years. Again, Ojukwu remains smack on top of the fact about springing surprises on Britain-Nigeria when goofy British masters of Nigeria had predicted Biafra will capitulate at the sound of automatic rifles. I bet you Britain will not waste its cultured time on the side of idiotic Nigeria if there shall be a rerun of the civil war.
If I say you are delusional, it must be regarded as compliment because most of the junks you spew on this forum come from a person who allegedly allowed an imbecilic toddler such as you to touch a 1911. Please do not tell me you have a retired Field Marshall in your family who resides in guarded neighborhood, should I say infamous GRA, olodo. What a Parkham dirty rat.
bittyend: NORTHERN NIGERIAN MUSLIMS AND THE NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR: BETWEEN ACHEBE AND OTHER IGBO INTELLECTUALS By Ibraheem A. Waziri iawaziri@yahoo.com
It’s just that ignorance reign in Nigeria or our public intellectuals do not have passion for details and deep philosophical enquiry into the nature and realities of our socio-cultural formation and its history for the best of their opinions. These can be the only open and not so stretched explanations to Chinua Achebe’s blatant, below status and insincere depiction of the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 - 70 in the light of a so called jihadist expansionist goal of Muslims of northern Nigeria. The excerpts of his latest book, There Was a Country, as published by the UK Guardian, Tuesday, 2nd 2012, make bold this meaningless assertion:
“But if the diabolical disregard for human life seen during the war was not due to the northern military elite's jihadist or genocidal obsession, then why were there more small arms used on Biafran soil than during the entire second world war? Why were there 100,000 casualties on the much larger Nigerian side compared with more than 2 million – mainly children – Biafrans killed?”
Needless to mention that Achebe is not alone in this kind of portrayal that is typical of recent Igbo ‘intellectuals’ when it comes to discussing the civil war. The task of re-educating them and the crop of their students is therefore necessary if the dream of a greater Nigeria in fair neighbourliness is to be realized.
Yes, northern Nigerians are mainly and majorly proud and faithful Muslims with unique culture and a record of close interactions with other world civilizations since time. They have for long known and understood that not everybody must look like them or believe in what they believed in, before peace, social cohesion and fair neighbourliness are justifiably established. In fact it can be authoritatively said that northern Nigeria of the 1960s, formed one the most cosmopolitan and accommodating social spaces in the whole world. When the Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah wanted to initiate and draft Nigeria’s prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and the premier of the northern region Ahmadu Bello into his Pan-Africanism they clearly told him that they were not racists and believed in the universal nature of truth, justice, fairness and equality of humankind regardless of race or ethnicity and that reflected the way they managed northern Nigeria and the country in general.
It was this world-view with its values and norms guiding intra and inter-pinning of human relations that saw a northern Nigeria of the 1960s as a home to many Igbos. In modern history the top one percent of the most literate and influential Igbo personalities once lived in northern Nigeria or spoke Hausa, the dominant language in the North. It was here that Major Chukuma Kaduna Nzeogwu’s parents settled and gave birth to him in 1937. He grew up with all opportunities unhindered and got the award of love, justice and trust of the then premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello until he finally, easily and safely got access to him, in the night, in his house, in the privacy of his bedroom and killed him in front of his wife with no struggle, no any suspecting guard to check him or even ask him hard questions. It is finished. Brutus killed his Caesar in cold blood of treachery, hatred and breach of trust. Describing a similar situation in the same operation kill, where Major Ifeajuna an Igbo soldier and Major Nzeagwu’s co-kill planner ad partner, shot Brigadier Maimalari, Bernard Odogwu, an Igbo Nigerian Diplomat at the times of the events, in his book, No Place to Hide - Crises and Conflicts inside Biafra, clearly put it, “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...”
What then could have been the fate of other Igbos in many parts of the North who enjoyed the same love, trust and protection of the other northerners who began to see a new streak of arrogance, condescension in the behavior of the Igbo who were illussioned in the new leadership of General Ironsi to the extent that , as told by our parents, they used to mock the northerners, imitating the cries and squeaks of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa before he died in the hands of Major Ifeajuna. Still Igbo intellectuals engage in this mockery as the Nigerian military historian Max Siollun, recently re-told the story of Nzeogwu’s kill which clearly portrayed Ahmadu Bello as a coward and a simpleton who hide behind his wife when he saw that Nzeagwu was certain to get him. These provocations and the details of stories such as captured by David Muffett, a British colonial officer who wrote the account of the 1966 coup in a book titled, Let Truth Be Told, outlining the Igbo elite’s detailed plan to take control of not only the political structures but even the social structures of the North by killing all the then northern emirs in the final.
Some including Achebe are still contesting that the kill was not an Igbo carefully planned affair but rather a coup plotted against all Nigerian leaders of then. Yet all Igbos in prominent positions were missed in the fire and it was said the president, Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe was missed because he was out of the country for a medical checkup. The question is could they have missed Sir Ahmadu Bello or Abubakar Tafawa Balewa if any was on a medical trip or they would have postponed the plans for more appropriate date that would guarantee and ensure an all inclusive kill?
Yet, the pogroms that followed the events and the civil war were unfortunate (more objective details of which were written by Elechi Amadi in Sunset at Biafra). But the characterization of Northerners as Muslim jihadists who were already prepared and ready to stage a ‘holy jihad’ against Igbo, as a reason for the war is very untrue and intellectually insincere. Just because Igbo intellectuals have to find reasons then it doesn’t mean every reason must be dashed out. Just because they need someone to blame doesn’t mean the 21st century image of fundamentalist Islam must be projected backward into the story of Nigeria to justify a perspective.
Besides what religion did the major actors of the war on the federal side professed? General Yakubu Gowon, General Theopilus Danjuma and General Joseph Garba, were Christians. Chief Awolowo, the intellectual architect of the War was a Christian. General Olusegun Obasanjo and General Adekunle were all not Northerners. The prominent name in the commands that is a core Muslim northerner was only General Murtala Muhammed. Even if all the others were Muslims what sense could it have made for the Muslims to have fought the Igbos only to establish the leadership of General Yakubu Gowan who was a Christian, the same and only reason they supposedly could have fought the Igbos? Gowon enjoyed the support of all Muslim northerners as my good friend Alhaji Yakubu Musa, currently a media assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan who is from a devout Muslim family, once mentioned how he was named Yakubu in celebration of Gowon’s visit to Kano on a day that coincided with his birthday.
No. The truth of the matter is Igbo betrayed the trust given to them in the then northern Nigeria by the singular act of betrayal of Nzeagwu on Ahmadu Bello and the subsequent poor management of their relationship with their hosts that bred suspicion of complicity in the plans of the kill and a thought of greater conspiracy.
The way forward is not to employ a wider and more efficient propaganda machinery to score cheap sympathy and sponsor the production of a sensationalist movie in the Holly Wood, Secret of the Sun, starring Bruce Willis and displaying that northern Nigerian Muslim Hausa will attempt to do the same in the present Nigeria and in the recent future and can be stopped only by the Americans.
The way forward is to always tell the truth, accept faults, take responsibilities for errors and constantly preach the gospel of keeping trust, commitments and fair neighbourliness. Let’s make the younger generation and the entire world know that we are one in Nigeria and the top one percent of Igbo most informed political and public intellectuals lived in the North or even spoke Hausa. This ranging from Chinua Achebe himself, Cyprian Ekwensi, Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeagwu, General Emeka Ojukwu or Dr. Nmandi Azikwe. Cyprian Ekwensi even copied and translated the literary work of my uncle, John Tafida Umaru titled, Jiki Magayi, from Hausa to English, titled it African Nights Entertainments, and dubbed it his own without acknowledgement, adding to his literary stock, achievement and fame. The world must know the good contribution their living in the North and speaking its language brought into their skills and perspectives that which won them the accolades they so celebrate and rejoice in, today, a fact which they and their friends always want to hide!
Any thread that originates from bittyfunkyend and hailed by the dumbasses such Cyberfool and Buffoonery exudes ignorance. The above post is typical example of such conjectural nonsense devoid of any human intelligence. I shall call the attention of goofy Ibraheem A. Waziri to two specific dates with respect to the acreage that later became Nigeria. The dates are 1945 and 1953 which dated the events that happened in Jos and Kano respectively. Also, I would want the debilitating numskull to tell the part played by the British colonial officers with regard to 1945 Jos riot. In fact, it is an insult to ninnies if this moronic author is classified as a fool instead of intellectual from northern region of Nigeria.
Katsumoto: You got tired of posting as Ngodigha, Mr Uweh?
I wasn't born during the war. In any case, read the excerpt below for more information.
I say shame onto you for reposting this conjectural crap. Which bridge was blown? There was only one bridge blown up at Owerrenta and it was not on Christmas day which should be December 25 even though you disingenuously omitted the year in the clip you posted. I guess you remember we have debated this nonsense in a previous thread.
CyberG: I think you should let the Yoruba people talk for themselves here and NOT rope me into your insecurity, your fear of THEM.
Now back to the issue, the tantrum of 1967 was avoidable for ojuku and ibo false and inflated ego of suffer-headedness. I am not insulting you but calling a spade a spade, okay? Do you not know that ojuku pretentiously goaded Nigerian leadership and governors (SMC) during negotiation that further arm importation be stopped and information about the location and quantity of arms be circulated? Well, guess what? He believed he would be outsmarting the more capable tacticians and military strategists on the Nigerian side for while doing that, he had intensified efforts to ship arms into biafra through Port Harcourt. Shortly after all this posturing, 2 ship loads of arms was secretly berthed in PH and ojuku, personally went to supervise the shipment of the arms to biafra. Do you know this story or you were not there? Some of us have been quiet for long but now, we will put iboz to the screws so badly they will cry till eternity.
The Nigerian army allowed the war to last for 2 year 6 months and 9 days so STOP all this ibo BS of 3 years. In fact, there were several spells in which the Nigerian army decided to let you get rested and see if ojuku would realize he was a loser before he killed more people but no way; the devil had charmed his big flat head. Waiting spells in a war is not new because even during WW 2, there were spells in which nothing was really happening and that is why you hear phraseologies like the "Phoney War", "Bore War", etc. So out of the actual period of the war, biafra didn't have anything to do but wait until the Nigerian gallant military commanders were ready to engage again with flanking manoeuvres, pincers, double pincers, forks, pin downs, punch throughs or the Nigerian blitzkrieg for which the biafrans were caught like deers in the headlights. The waiting periods also allowed the innocent kids and stupi.d warmongering secessionists to eat something for if not, starvation would be killing iboz as they just drop dead on the road. This is harsh truth and I know iboz cannot stand naked truth. iboz are so ungracious because there's nothing that makes it impossible for biafra to capitulate in 1 week. All that is required is 1,000 sorties of heavy bombers, dive bombers, rockets, etc carper bombing the whole land for 1 week, day and night! But even when the Nigerian leadership took it easy by not following that route, here are iboz still making mouth! Delusional dede and ibo losers.
Do you expect me to believe any crap from you after you shamelessly gave account about you playful gig with 1911 when you were uninformed toddler? Anyway, I am not surprised this conjectural nonsense came from your dilapidated social order.
LocalChamp: Achebe needs cure from Awophobia – Adebanjo On October 9, 2012 · In Interview 7:17 pm
BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE
FIRST generation Awoist and elder statesmen, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, yesterday picked holes in Professor Chinua Achebe’s accusation that Chief Obafemi Awolowo was part of General Yakubu Gowon’s cabinet that initiated pogrom and genocide as a policy against the Igbo during the civil war.
In a 16-paragraph, 2109-word rejoinder to Professor Achebe’s book, “There was a country,” yesterday, Adebanjo said instead of vilification, the late sage should be commended for his efforts in minimizing the damage that could have arisen from the war.
He said the civil war could have been avoided if Biafran Leader, Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu had not reneged on his promise to Awolowo to negotiate with the Federal Government and kick-started the war by attacking the Mid-West.
Claiming that Awolowo did not hate the Igbo and made efforts to rehabilitate the Igbo after the war, he said Professor Achebe had displayed his deep-rooted hatred for Awolowo and the Yoruba race with his comments.
He said: “If it is true that Chief Awolowo was such an architect of pogrom and genocide against the Igbos, how would Professor Achebe explain the fact that there were no incidents of pogrom or genocide against the Igbos in any part of the then Western Region composed mainly of the Yorubas, and Chief Awolowo’s primary sphere of influence.
Rather, the Igbos who fled the West on the clarion call of Ojukwu for them to return to the East had their properties kept safe for them, with the rents collected on the properties duly accounted for at the end of the civil war and paid to such Igbo owners.
It should be noted that no incidents of “abandoned property” occurred in the Western region – Chief Awolowo’s zone, rather the controversy around such property were restricted to areas such as Port Harcourt and the Northern region.”
Wondering what Achebe wanted to achieve by exhuming the dark years of the nation’s history at a time a host of Yoruba and Igbo leaders were collaborating to find a lasting solution to Nigeria’s problems, Adebanjo said he was distressed that Achebe be could be credited with the comments.
The rejoinder read: “I am sad and distressed that a literary giant and an elder statesman such as Professor Chinua Achebe should be credited with the statement attributed to him in his latest book on the Nigerian Civil War at this time in Nigeria’s political history, over 40 years after the end of the Nigeria Civil War.
“His statements however, are not unfamiliar to those of us who were around during the civil war, and who knew what falsehood and half-truths were bandied around then especially from “Biafra Radio” and supporters of the Biafra cause, notable amongst whom was Professor Chinua Achebe.
Some thought they were effusions from supporters of Biafra in order to enlist international support for Ojukwu but many on the other hand attributed Professor Achebe’s position to his pathological hatred for Chief Awolowo and the Yoruba race.
“Professor Achebe has accused Chief Awolowo of being part of General Gowon’s cabinet that initiated pogrom and genocide as a policy against the Igbos. Yet, Professor Achebe cannot claim ignorance of the fact that specific recorded instances of pogrom and genocide were a consequence of the 2nd military coup of July 1966 in which the Northern Soldiers and Northerners committed series of atrocities against the Igbos in the North.
At this time Chief Awolowo was still in Calabar prison serving his jail term of treasonable felony, it was after his release from prison that Gen. Gowon invited him to join his cabinet as vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council and Minister of Finance.
The war was already brewing at such time. At the risk of his life, and against the advice of his cabinet colleagues Chief Awolowo made contact with Ojukwu and met him in Enugu to dissuade him from going to war. In his one-on-one meeting with Ojukwu, Chief Awolowo tried to persuade Ojukwu to come to a round table conference with the Federal Government to iron out his differences with the government.
But despite the assurances then Colonel Ojukwu gave to Chief Awolowo that he had accepted to dialogue, Ojukwu reneged and a few weeks later attacked the Midwest and thus declared war against the Federal government, which is how the civil war became inevitable.
“The above facts are verifiable. Fair minded persons cannot accuse Chief Awolowo of being part of the intellectual arm of a cabinet that intentionally initiated the pogrom of the Igbos, when in fact the record shows he took positive steps to persuade Ojukwu to avoid the conflict.
Whilst the war was raging after the liberation of part of the then South East which then included Port Harcourt and Calabar, Chief Awolowo visited Enugu and Port Harcourt where he saw Kwashiorkor (malnourished) victims for the first time.
He wondered how this could happen in view of the quantity of food items sent through international agencies to the civilians in these areas. He was then informed that the food never got to the civilians, the food items were cornered by the soldiers who were feeding to the detriment of the civilians. One can imagine such a report being provided to a cabinet filled with military officers conducting a war.
It should not be surprising that to avoid feeding enemy soldiers, the Federal Government at the time put a stop to the delivery of food meant for the civilians population that was being hijacked by Biafran soldiers.
This is what Achebe mischievously called the deliberate starvation of the Igbos. “I would like Professor Achebe, if he can; to make reference to any publication where Awolowo made the statement that starvation was a legitimate tool of war. Furthermore, if such starvation ended with the end of the war, Professor Achebe should explain why if the specific objective of the policy was to reduce Chief Awolowo’s enemies, why did he not influence the continuation or doubling up on such policy when Nigerian troops had control of Biafran territory at the end of the war.
One would have thought the charge of genocide should have been better directed at the leaders of Biafra who had first hand knowledge of the starvation in the area they controlled, and yet did not as they could, bring an end to the war sooner before two million people, mainly members of future generations had died of starvation as professor Achebe claimed.
“Also, during the war it became known that the Nigerian currency, which Biafran soldiers had looted from Central Bank locations in Biafra occupied areas were being exchanged to buy arms for the Biafran army.
To put a stop to this Chief Awolowo, as the federal commissioner for finance, suddenly changed the Nigerian currency without the prior knowledge of members of the cabinet. Even General Gowon, who was the head of state, was informed only a day before the announcement.
These two major policies of stopping food meant for civilians which was being ambushed by the Biafrans soldiers and the sudden change of Nigerian currency were two factors that quickly brought the misery of the civil war to an end.
“It should be noted that Chief Awolowo’s prudent management of the Nigerian economy made it possible for the Federal Government to prosecute the civil war without borrowing a kobo from the outside world. This achievement was acclaimed globally. It is this policy that quickly put an end to the insurgence that Professor Achebe has interpreted as punitive measure against the Igbos.
“At the end of the civil war, a problem did arise with respect as to how to verify the amounts creditable to Biafrans who made claims to money held in Nigerian banks before the declaration of war. Unfortunately there were no records to confirm the amount in savings or current accounts held by a good number of such Biafran claimants. As a result, a committee was set up by the Central Bank, the members of which were unknown to Chief Awolowo. Such committee recommended an across the board payment of 20 pounds to every claimant.
It is therefore most uncharitable for Professor Achebe to put the blame of the payment of this amount on Chief Awolowo. Furthermore, to extrapolate from this policy a deliberate policy to stunt or obliterate the economy of the Igbos does not stand up to critical review and is rather far fetched. Firstly, what is an administrator to do in the face of such unverifiable claims? Pay every all and sundry claim? As Chief Awolowo has stated, doing so would have bankrupted Nigeria at the time.
Secondly, common sense would suggest that claims that such sums as were left behind were very substantial needed to be substantiated. It should be noted that the percentage of all Nigerians in general with substantial amounts in banks during that period was limited. In addition, with the advent of impending war, the natural reaction is a run on banks to withdraw all such sums or as much as possible, particularly for Igbos then deemed to be fleeing to a new country Biafra.
Under such context, the payment of 20 pounds (a substantial sum at the time) to all claimants without proof of specific amounts due to them was not altogether an unreasonable policy. More to the point, this was not a policy recommendation that can be specifically attributable to Chief Awolowo, but rather the recommendation of a committee of the Central Bank set up at the time,
“It is noteworthy that after the division of the country to 12 states by General Gowon in 1968, the East central state composed mainly of Igbos emerged. Chief Awolowo then diligently saved the monthly allocation due to Igbos during the war and released same to them at the end of the war.
The African Continental Bank (ACB) and the Cooperative Bank for Eastern Nigeria the two main Financial Institutions of the Igbos at the time and which had become moribund during the civil war were rejuvenated by Chief Awolowo by his releasing substantial funds to them for active operation. Professor Achebe would have to explain how these actions beneficial to the Igbo emanate from somebody whom he claims has hatred for the Igbos or harboured intent to deliberately and systematically exterminate the Igbos or deny their right of existence as a group.
Furthermore, after the civil war, Professor Achebe can not claim ignorance of the fact that Chief Awolowo personally wrote to prominent Igbos (including Professor Achebe himself) who had fled the country during the war to come back home.
One of those who responded to the call and whose home coming was facilitated personally by Chief Awolowo was the late Chief M.C.K Ajuluchukwu the former editor of Dr. Azikiwe’s Newspaper “The West African Pilot” and his wife a medical doctor who were then based in Germany. Chief Awolowo facilitated the employment of the wife at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and also latter employed Chief Ajuluchukwu himself as the director of research and publicity of his party – The Unity Party of Nigeria.
“If it is true that Chief Awolowo was such an architect of pogrom and genocide against the Igbos, how would Professor Achebe explain the fact that there were no incidents of pogrom or genocide against the Igbos in any part of the then Western Region composed mainly of the Yorubas, and Chief Awolowo’s primary sphere of influence. Rather, the Igbos who fled the West on the clarion call of Ojukwu for them to return to the East had their properties kept safe for them, with the rents collected on the properties duly accounted for at the end of the civil war and paid to such Igbo owners.
It should be noted that no incidents of “abandoned property” occurred in the western region – Chief Awolowo’s zone, rather the controversy around such property were restricted to areas such as Port Harcourt and the Northern region.
“Whilst it is true to say Chief Awolowo had the ambition to rule the country, it is unkind to say he wanted to achieve this by wiping out the Igbos whom he considered an impediment. On the contrary, Chief Awolowo’s position has always been to rule the country with other progressive elements from all parts of the country including the Igbos.
This he demonstrated in 1959 after the pre independence general election when he offered to serve under the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe as prime minister, with him as minister of finance. The NCNC (the party lead by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe) turned the offer down and preferred an alliance with the NPC under the late Saudana of Sokoto Sir Ahmadu Bello. This incident was referred to by the late Dr. M.I Okpara (former premier of the former Eastern Region in an interview in the New Nation Magazine published in 1977 by the veteran journalist Chief Gbolabo Ogunsanwo.
In the interview Dr. Okpara said he will regret to the last day of his life that he did not support the alliance between the Action Group and the NCNC which could have made Dr. Azikiwe the prime minister and Chief Awolowo the minister of finance. Even before the general election of 1983 there were attempts to form an alliance between the UPN led by Chief Awolowo and NPP led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe all in an attempt to have progressive forces form an alliance against the conservative NPC. Again this attempt did not materialise due to the opposition by the Yoruba leaders in the NPP at the time. It is also interesting to recollect that at the demise of Chief Awolowo Chief Ojukwu himself remarked that “Awolowo was the best president Nigeria never had”. None of the foregoing suggests a man with hatred for the Igbos.
“Yoruba leaders led by the late senator Abraham Adesanya have been working in close political collaboration with prominent Igbo leaders like Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu a former Governor of Lagos State and Admiral Ebitu Ukiwe a former Chief of general Staff and Professor Ben Nwabueze in an honest attempt to find equitable solutions to the problems of the Country.
The leaders of both ethnic groups have been putting their heads together for the emergence of a progressive Nigeria in peace and unity. It is sad that instead of Professor Achebe joining in this progressive movement he has chosen to bring into the front burner the dark period of Nigeria’s history.
What he stands to gain by repeating such falsehood, I cannot honestly comprehend. I believe how ever it is clear from the historical record that Awo had no Igbophobia, it is Professor Achebe that has to be cured of his Awophobia.”
Read through the above crap and a person will conclude no Yoruba was killed during and after July 29, 1966 coup in Nigeria. Even the murder of a Yoruba son in Ibadan was turned into a cacophonic fiery tale by the government publication of western region
It is apparent the Achebe’s book, There Was A Country, has brought the real pathological haters to the surface of Nigerian polity. If Achebe has pathological hatred for Yoruba, would he have allowed his daughter to marry a Yoruba man?
CyberG: The debate is not about his uniform, don't change the topic. This is just to show the empty and arrogant posturing of ojuku before the civil war and how he planned to do the worst to Nigeria. He said Nigerians will be surprised at what they would get. That is a threat, which could mean anything including using nuclear weapons, if he had it then. The point is ojuku and the ibo secessionists were ready and it makes no sense for a ready combatant to cry out when his enemy pummels him to oblivion. If it was another people, ibos will cry coward, all mouthed, no action. I guess ojuku showed iboz as exactly that: all-mouthed, no action cowards.
It is really funny most Nigerians are lost on the chronicle order of events leading to and during the civil war. Eastern region, like any other region in Nigeria, did not import or have power to import its weapon. The Nigeria government, like present, controls importation of weapon. Only a fool does not discern the rhetoric involved before the civil war started. Eastern region declared independent on May 29, 1967 and seven (7) days later, Nigeria led by idiotic Gowon attacked eastern region from both northern and southern flanks.
Of course, Ojukwu was spot on the subject of Nigeria would be surprised because eastern region which was numerically and militarily inferior to Nigeria and its allies were able to bloody the noises of the aggressors for three years. I guess a nutcase such as you should remember that Britain, the major ally of Nigeria, had predicted Biarfra’s capitulation in two weeks. Was Ojukwu entertaining the journalists from Nigeria in the video clip you posted, olodo? Did you expect Ojukwu to tell Britain that Ndigbo were cowards and weaklings like Yoruba?
It is not only “too late for Nigeria” but at the point of no return. Nigeria is akin to a house built on sandy foundation. Any house built on sandy soil must crumble. The so-called founding fathers of the cesspit called Nigeria never believed in the unity of the country as evidenced from the videos and speeches accredited to some of them. There is no doubt the actions of some of the so-called founding fathers led the civil war that seemed to have no end in sight.
One of the best things that will happen to Nigerians is disintegration of colonial contraption called Nigeria which will usher new country and beginning to citizens of nation states that will emerge.
CyberG: History can never be changed! Like truth, NO matter how hard you try to hide it, it ALWAYS catches up to you. Nigerians ought to know Ojukwu and his band of secessionist Ibos who lead Nigeria to a war that consumed 3 M+ lives, mostly the Iboz he claimed to lead. You be the judge as he speaks in his own words. Let us have an intellectual debate on this issue Nigerians and not sentimental arguments from which there is no benefit. I will be back!
I know you are intellectually bankrupted but did not know you were starkly blind and confused too. Even in the video you stupidly posted and disingenuously written on, you could not discern that Ojukwu was wearing Biafran military uniform. Most Nigerians are indeed moronic. Anything Ojukwu said in the video, he did so as besieged Biafran.
pcicero: Recently, one of Africa's literary giants, Chinua Achebe started his journey into infamy when he published the excerpts of his memoir on the Nigerian Civil War. The excerpts was a scathing criticism of not only Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a man regarded as one of if not the most visionary leader Nigeria nay Africa has ever produced, but the entire Yoruba race.
He referred to the Late Chief Awolowo as a man blinded by ambition and largely promoted a genocidal policy against the Igbo people during the Civil War of 1967-70. It was in Achebe's opinion that Chief Awolowo supported the action against Igbo in order to get not only himself but the Yoruba nation ahead of others in Nigeria's socio-economic space.
It is pertinent to note that Achebe was a war time propagandist for Biafra. He was a cultural ambassador whose sole role was to project his Igbo people in good light to gain worldwide support for their seccesionist bid. Part of the gains for Achebe was his ability to convince some friendly African countries to recommend his book 'Things Fall Apart', which was relatively unknown then, as a major text in schools. The proceeds were to fund the war since the Biafrans had no other economic venture.
From a writer who was relatively unknown before the civil war to become one of Africa's most successful novelists just after the war meant that Achebe profitted from the War.
Unfortunately, Achebe still sees himself as the same war time propagandist that he was in the 60s. He has not reconciled with the Nigerian state which explains why he rejected the national award twice. For those of us who felt he was just taking a principled stand as a nationalist, it is shocking to see that the once revered Achebe is a lonely depressed man, rabid tribalist and irredentist bigot!
It is even needless to even attempt to defend Chief Awolowo because I know many people have been doing that already.
But would Achebe had expected Nigeria to feed Biafra? Was Biafra not up in arms against Nigeria during the said period? What was the relationship between Biafra and Nigeria during the Civil war? Friends or Foes
Having said that, there were many prominent Yoruba sons and daughters in enviable positions before the January 66 coup. Late Majekodunmi was Health Minister while Adetokunbo Ademola was Nigeria's Chief Judge etc. This was in spite of Azikwe's attempt to grab everything for his Igbo clan when he joined forces with Balewa and Sardauna.
Apart from Jaja Wachukwu, who were the other prominent Igbos during the First republic? So when were the Igbos dominant in Nigeria? Answer is during the Ironsi regime.
The Igbos in their usual selfish way promulgated a unification decree which placed so many powers in their hands. Having killed the leaders of other major tribes in the January 66 coup, their leaders were the only people around.
It is therefore denigrating and condescending for Achebe to insinuate that Chief Awolowo masterminded the extermination of the Igbos to get himself and his tribe ahead.
It clearly shows that Achebe deliberately chose to be selective in his historical recollection.
The problem with Achebe is that he is a bare-faced liar, a conspiracy theorist and a man who never sees anything good in others.
What an arrant nonsense. Who regarded Awolowo as even half visionary? Only an imbecilic dullard will regard an unrepentant tribal icon such as late Obafemi Awolowo as the "most visionary leader Nigeria nay Africa has ever produced".
Katsumoto: You keep shouting military parlance up and down the forum like it is a code of conduct that keeps soldiers in line.
Even if there is such a thing, Nigerian soldiers have demonstrated, repeatedly, that they do not believe in such. What they believe in is what helps them achieve their objectives. Many are some of the most uncouth, brainless, and daft men to have worn the uniform. Expecting Abacha to behave like Maimalari just because they are both soldiers is, frankly, moronic. You are not Ojukwu and you don't know what message (coded) Ojukwu was trying to convey when he wrote that letter. All we can do is analyze its literal contents.
Are the following part of military parlance
1. Organizing coups 2. Killing superior officers 3. Killing other soldiers because they are from different ethnic groups 4. Appropriating public funds 5. Beating and killing unharmed civilians 6. Throwing a 79 year old woman from the top of a building knowing she is not superwoman nor her son superman 7. Organizing and rigging elections.
I could go and on.
Let me remind you that OBJ, IBB, Abacha, Ifeajuna, military governors, coupists, etc. were all rotten to the core and certainly didn't follow any parlance be it military, societal, or civil.
From the purported date ascribed as the day the letter was written, it is safe to conclude that Bamjo was at Benin City or Ore vicinity. Ojukwu taught military code of conduct at British Military Academy in Teshire, Ghana. There is no way under the sun Ojukwu will write a personal letter to a field commander instead of OPORD.
It is even more moronic to ask that the body of conjectural crap be analyzed when the letter is a forgery than looking at date when said letter was written. I can not meet you half way on the wrong road.
Politics › Re: Genocide: More Knocks For Awolowo By Respected Yoruba Elder Statesman. Must Read by Dede1(m): 4:33pm On Oct 13, 2012
