₦airaland Forum

PunkyVeer:
Ewww, I just had a mental image of those boxers with skid marks all over them

hmmm... is that how your panties looking?

PunkyVeer:
Ewww, I just had a mental image of those boxers with skid marks all over them

hmmm... is that how your panties

AJCutie:
Quess you were d guy she caught sniffing her pant.....
you enjoy am?

I know what you're thinking

I caught StephanieEzeh the nairalander last week sniffing my boxers .I don't know what to do to her. help

StephanieEzeh:
and guys' boxers? Some guys don't change their boxers for weeks

it's like you are immune to sniffing guys boxers

when you talk ill of Biafra

na waah for some people's comments when I said I love her i was not mincing words. that's my feelings pls

NinaNigeria:
Honey being in a relationship wit someone u have never met has a very slim chance of working hey? Maybe u shud try to meet wit her and hang out wit her more, den u can leave for a period of time and go where u say u r, and dat way she might realy love u if she says she loves u, bt as long as u two have never met, forget ooo

thanks

Emeka Ugwuanyi the new Moon showing multiple colours like Biafra flag here in Benin republic

BALLOSKI:
Are you talking about the old eastern region or the modern day southeast? If you are talking about the southeast of today, it's a landlocked region, except if you want to grab lands from the SS like you are known for doing and make it part of biafra.

what different does it make,?

Bight of Biafra Inlet, Africa Alternative title: Bight of Bonny Written by The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica Bight of Biafra, also called Bight of Bonny, bay of the Atlantic Ocean on the western coast of Africa, extending east, then south, for 370 miles (600 km) from the Nun outlet of the Niger River ( Nigeria ) to Cape Lopez ( Gabon ). The innermost bay of the Gulf of Guinea, it is bounded by southeastern Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and northwestern Gabon and receives portions of the Niger and Ogooué river discharges and also the Cross, Sanaga, and many other rivers. Within the Bight of Biafra are several islands, the largest of which is Bioko , belonging to Equatorial Guinea. Major ports on the bay are Malabo (on Bioko), Port Harcourt and Calabar (Nigeria), Douala (Cameroon), Bata (Equatorial Guinea), and Libreville and Port-Gentil (Gabon). Between the 16th and the 19th century the Bight of Biafra was the scene of extensive slave- dealing operations, based mainly on the ports of Brass, Bonny, Opobo, and Old Calabar (now Calabar) in Nigeria. By the 1830s the palm oil trade had surpassed slave trading, and it has maintained its importance. Petroleum, discovered in the late 1950s in the Niger River delta, is a major economic resource. http://www.britannica.com/place/Bight-of-Biafra

The quest to look for those Jews of Nigeria that an Ashkenazi Kew described as part of the lost Diaspora of Israel has led me to the modern synagogues of the Igbos, in Igbo-land, and in other parts of Nigeria. The setting up of modern Jewish communities/synagogues by the Igbos deserve a story. According to my friend who is a Christian pastor; “if the compelling evidence which exists and shows that the Igbos are Jews, is not enough, the starting of modern Jewish synagogues by the Igbos in fundamentally and semi-officially Christian and Muslim Nigeria , is still a marker/evidence that even the reckless skeptic should not treat with levity”. Because, to use his words, “why would a people who have nothing to do with Judaism chose to become Jewish in a semi- officially and very vibrant Christian and Muslim country in Africa?”. In Nigeria Islam and Christianity, and their adherents receive support, patronage and recognition from the government. Also worthy of mention is what I call “Igbo Christianity”: the Sabbatharian Movement, because unlike the other brands of Christianity that predominate among the Igbos, it is Igbo inspired, and in it could be found some evidence of the Igbos’ Israelitishness. It has some distinctive features that are remarkably Jewish. Igbo Sabbatharians observe all the feasts that are in the Old Testament. And they rest, shun work, and pray on the seventh day of the week. This is in sharp contrast with its equivalents which were founded by the neighboring Yorubas, Binis, Ishans, and other Nigerians. My discovery is that the Christianized Igbos who founded this movement threw off “Christianity”, sought to return to what they thought was the Igbo religion, and stopped midway. They came up with a distinct and new religion which has elements of Judaism and Christianity. At least one million Igbos belong to this religion. I have also traveled extensively in Igbo-land while looking for the Igbos who are still keeping to the core religious tenets of Omenana. As I have mentioned previously the Igbo culture is called Ome na ana, and is pronounced Omenana; which literarily means- (“things that will be done in the land/country”). The members of this group are called ndi ogo Mmuo (worshippers of the Spirit). To the Igbos the Supreme Being (Chi-ukwu), “Great God”, is a Spirit. In 2008/9 I visited some communities in the west of Anambra State, close to the eri clans. There the elders who are mainly those still at home as the rural-urban migration trends affect the Igbos quite adversely, are still full-time adherents of Omenana. Their territory has not been materially developed. The houses are primitive. The roads are unpaved. The area reminds visitors of how Igbo-land looked like hundreds of years ago. But the people live long, and healthy lives. I saw men and women that had became centenarians walking stiffly erect. When I asked them the secret of their longevity, in a few words they summed up what is central in the Igbo culture; they live lives based on avoidance of sinfulness, and they try their best to keep themselves nso (holy). A few of the people are aware that the religion that they are practicing is akin to the religion of the ancient Israelites. I will recommend the area as a good location to archeologists, anthropologists, historians, rabbinic students, other religious studies students, and other scholars who are interested in studying how ancient Israelite communities lived. Because I had time I also looked at the Igbos that became Christians. These Igbos are more than the Igbos who are not Christians, because the British colonial administration all but made acquisition of Western education and Christianity the only tools that could be used to gain upward mobility in their administration. Thousands became Christians when the British ruled. Today millions of Igbos are Christians. These Christian Igbos try to live as Christians, and as Igbos. At events, you will see these Christians starting by reciting Christian prayers, and the Igbo prayers which they call igo oji , because they conduct it with a meal offering, which is standard Jewish practice. When they want to get married they get an Igbo marriage which is a far cry from the authentic Igbo inu nwanyi , which still has some of the rituals that a Jewish marriage has, including the huppah (canopy). And they then get a Christian marriage. And when they die, they get a watered down version of the Igbo mourning, which is still very much similar to the Jewish mourning, and their pastors come to give them a Christian burial. In addition to the University of Basel Social Anthropologist Dr. Daniel Lis, some other Jews have joined the effort to see the Jews of Nigeria . To mention a few: Rabbis Howard Gorin, Brant Rosen, Shlomo Oriel; Dr. Jeffrey Davidson, Evan Green, Hartley Springman, Karen Hudes, J.Helz. Jeff Lieberman who spent a considerable time among them has released his film: “Re Emerging: The Jews of Nigeria ” a few months ago. And some Jews have joined the effort to know more about the Igbos. A very powerful team of Jewish scholars led by Professor Isaac Mozeson, and Avraham Phil Van Riper is leading the effort to compare the Igbo and Hebrew languages because many parallels and similarities have been found to exist between the two. The University of London scholar who published “The Black Jews of Africa” is presently raising support that she wants to use to sponsor a DNA study of the Igbos and the Jews. In the month of September 2012 a Northeastern University historian published “The Jews of Nigeria : An Afro-Jewish Odyssey”. An Israeli musician, Irene Orleansky is visiting Nigeria in the first or second month of 2013 to begin an important and fundamental work on Igbo Jewish (religious) and secular music, with Igbo musicians. I like to think of her as following in the footsteps of Paul Simon who released ‘Graceland’, a collaboration between him, and notable South African musicians like Hugh Masekela, and Miriam Makeba. The writer is the author of “The Igbos And Israel : An Inter-cultural Study of The Oldest And Largest Jewish Diaspora”- http://www.amazon.com/The- Igbos- Israel -Inter-cultural- ebook/ dp/B008N2VHBI

All the interviewees who were very old men said that the Igbos were Hebrews. Importantly, they were not lettered in Western education, and they had never been Christians, so their testimonies are very valuable, because some non Igbo persons have suggested that because there are no records (that they know of) that mentioned Jews migrating to the rain-forests of West Africa, that the Igbos might have learnt about Judaism from the Bibles that the missionaries brought, when they colonized the Igbos. This of course ignores the salient evidence which is that many important Jewish customs which are Igbo customs are not only not in the Tanach, but also that many which are, are not discussed at length in the Tanakh. A topical example is celebration of marriage under a huppah. This is not prescribed in the Tanakh, but it is a long-standing Jewish practice. Igbo marriages only take place under an okpukpu (canopy). I recorded some of the sessions with the priests and elders on DVD. During one of the sessions they enacted some Igbo practices which observers have noted that they are Israelitic. Satisfied with what we found in the inter-cultural study of Ome na ana (Igbo culture) and Judaism, and inspired by the evidence that the Igbos more than likely moved into the forests from a drought prone area I decided to try to trace the migration routes. To find out if there are surviving evidences of Jewish presence in the possible routes that the Igbos used on their march down from Israel to the forests of what has become West Africa, I traveled to the north of Nigeria , crossed into Chad, moved up into the desert, and surveyed some of the ethnic groups and cultures that live in the desert country. From Chad I veered west to the Niger Republic, journeyed into Mali, and stopped at the border between Mali and Morocco. In all the countries that I surveyed I met interesting ‘tribes’. I met ‘Muslims’ who do not go to mosques at all. I met Fulani, Tuaregs, Berbers, Arabs, Hausas, Moors, many other desert peoples, and a people who might well be the intriguing and mysterious Iddao Ishaak whom a possible Jewish origin has been ascribed to. Remember that old Jewish, Arab and other writings mention that there were Jewish communities in the Sahara many centuries ago. Scholars generally agree that there were well established Jewish communities in the four great empires that rose and blossomed in the Sahel Sahara region: Ghana, Mali, Songhai, and Kanem Borno. And, interviewing some knowledgeable Hausa and Fulani people in 2008, I was informed that they heard from their fathers and mothers that there were Yehudawa in places like Kano, Katsina, Rano, Gobir, and other important Hausa cities, in olden times. Yehudawa is the Hausa word for Jew. Asked where those Yehudawa are now, they responded that they heard that they were asked to leave after the society experienced some changes. We know that Askia Mohammed’s edict that all non Muslims should convert to Islam or to leave resulted in the emigration of some Jews from Songhai. History has not revealed that a similar ploy was employed in the Hausa States and Borno which had both come under Islamic influence more than 1250 years ago. We are not also speculating that it was strictly those Jews of the Sahelian empires and kingdoms that were expelled that became the Igbos, but we are bold enough to say that more likely than not, that some of them ended up in what is today Igbo-land, to join other Hebrew émigrés already there. People are drawn to water. Certainly the rivers in what is Southern Nigeria today would surely magnet a people who are looking for a place to settle, especially if there are disturbances where they lived. Our objective is to show that Jews existed in the Sahel, and that there were conditions that made them to emigrate. Ismail Haidara who is a Malian and lives in Mali presently is a living testimony to this assertion that there were Jewish communities in Mali. Haidara is a descendant of the Sahelian Jews. Another great story is that of Yehuda (Judah) Pasha, the man that led the Moroccan army that sacked the Songhai Empire. As I have mentioned on several occasions; in one of my earlier books, and in a recently released film about the Jews of Nigeria ; only a Jew would have borne the name “Judah” in the Maghreb, and in the Sahara many centuries ago. The Arab variant of Judah is “Yahuza”. So Judah Pasha could not have been an Arab, a Moor, or a Muslim. We can say with some reasonable degree of certainty that Judah Pasha was Jewish. A Jew in the service of the Moroccan sultan in power then. Hopefully one day there will be academic interest in this Jew who led an army into the southern recesses of the Sahara, as there is growing interest in Christopher Columbus, that other possible Jew, or New Christian who discovered the Americas for the Europeans. And it must be noted that if there was one Judah Pasha, there must have been countless other unnamed ones. Also very important to mention is that in old Arab writings there were Jewish communities in Kokia which was in the Kanem Borno Empire, and which is presently called Kukawa. Kukawa is in the present day Yobe State of Nigeria. In some of the places that I visited I saw recognizable survivals of Jewish culture. But because what I primarily went to do was to confirm if there was actually Jewish presence in the Sahara, as pointed out in some old records, and not to conduct intensive studies on the peoples that I found in the areas I did not spend enough time studying them in order to determine their ethnic origins definitively. But in some places such as Kukawa, Maiduguri, and other areas of Borno and Yobe, which were in the old Kanem Borno Empire; the identity is still very clear. There I met the Shuwa, who are ethnically what? Good old Arabs! They cannot remember when they immigrated into the Sahel, and what is today Northern Nigeria . They are known as Shuwa Arabs in Nigeria . In the same area I also met the Kanuri, the (Beri- beri), those descendants of astute warriors whom Berber ancestry has been ascribed to. When I met them, interviewed them, and heard their stories what came to my mind was; if the Arabs whose entry into Africa is relatively recent have reached Northern Nigeria , why couldn’t the Jew whose period of entry is so ancient, have reached nearly to the sea? The period of Jewish penetration of Africa is so ancient and lost in antiquity that the best that scholars have managed to say is that the ‘Jews entered in an unknown time’, Next I began to look at the experiences of the Igbos, and to compare them with those of the Jews. After-all I was advised to look at everything, and everywhere. The unique experiences of the Jews have been seen by many scholars in many experiences of the Igbos. Some Jews have even opined that they hear echoes of the Holocaust in the Igbo experiences between 1966 and 1970. Indeed the Igbos have been addressed as “Jews” by their Nigerian neighbours, and by many foreigners before, and especially during the anti-Igbo Pogroms in Nigeria, and the Nigerian Civil War which occurred in 1966, and 1967-1970 respectively, and in which millions of Igbos died from bullets, strafing and starvation. I surveyed the Lost Tribes of Israel , and I published the book in 2004, and updated and revised it two years after. In 2007 I revised it again. The revisions were primers for what I like to see as my most definitive work so far: my latest book; “The Igbos And Israel : An Inter-cultural Study of The Oldest And Largest Jewish Diaspora” which was released as an eBook on the 1st of June 2012. In this I decided to just concentrate on the similarities between the Igbo, and the Jewish cultures, because I realized that all the topics that I have been dealing with deserved separate books. The book was reviewed by many authorities on Afro-Jewish studies including a professor emeritus of the Harvard University, a professor of the University of Basel who earned his doctorate with his groundbreaking work on the contemporary relationship between the Igbos and the Jews. In this book I looked at and compared Igbo culture and Jewish culture comprehensively. As the University of Basel anthropologist put it in his review of the book; ‘In his book, Ilona focuses on Igbo rituals during life cycle events (chapter one). Those include the rituals surrounding the birth of children, eight-day circumcision of males, seclusion of newly delivered mother, marriage, levirate marriage and so on. Remy also enters the long debate about the Igbo conception of a supreme God, (chapter two); Igbo rituals surrounding death (chapter three); feast and festivals (chapter four); Igbo social organization (chapter five); Igbo understanding of clean/ unclean (chapter six); Igbo sacrifices and offerings (chapter seven); Igbo classes (chapter eight); socio-religious customs (chapter nine); Code of moral behavior (chapter ten); Igbo code for crime and other offenses (chapter eleven); sexual behavior (chapter twelve); the Igbo connection to the land (thirteen); the importance of ritual cleanliness (chapter fourteen); the distinction between clean and unclean food and ritual slaughter (chapter fifteen); similarities between Igbo and Semitic manners of dress, (chapter sixteen); parallels between the Igbo and the Hebrew reckoning of time (chapter seventeen); joining the Igbo and Jewish peoples and leaving them (chapter eighteen), a detailed study of the organization of the Igbo society (chapter nineteen), and concludes (chapter twenty) with an Igbo rhyme that actually resembles the Jewish had gadya sung during the Passover; the section that relates what the Igbos and non Igbos have said and written about the Igbos Israelite origins; and finally using Igbo agricultural practices and lores he makes a case that the Igbos actually migrated into what is called Igbo-land presently, from somewhere drier’. By the time that I finished writing the inter-cultural study I was sure that I had found what numerous Igbo scholars had discovered; which was that the Igbos are the Jews of Nigeria. Reinforcing this conviction is the fact that no Igbo has been able to prove convincingly that the Igbos came from somewhere else. In the words of two United States based Igbos; Gavriel Ogugua, and ………..to

By Remy Ilona How did I discover that the Igbo people who are up to 30% of the Nigerian population are of Jewish descent? In 2002 I began to seriously investigate the origins of the Igbo people of Nigeria who have also been known as the “Ibos”, and during the Nigerian Civil War as the “Biafrans”. I began by studying the lore of the Igbo people. Their lore is intriguing. Most of them talk about droughts, famines, hunger, and relief when the rains began to fall, in ancient times. This is abnormal and unusual for a people who are thought to have ‘always lived in the rain forests of Nigeria ‘, where the real worry is about flooding and erosion. Most parts of Igbo-land have heavy rainfall for up to ten months every year, and irregular rainfall for the remaining two months. Presently (at the time that I am writing this story) large parts of Igbo-land are submerged by flood water. Accordingly, that droughts and famines have become ingrained in the collective memory of the Igbo people certainly raises questions. And careful examination of the stories of droughts and famines lead a researcher to observe that the stories are intended to teach a lesson. One can safely surmise that the Igbo people must have passed through experiences that were remarkable and compelling enough to make them to save stories of droughts, and famines in their lore. Based on the foregoing, and other issues which I will bring up soon, we can say with a certain degree of certainty that those experiences that made such an impact on the Igbos were not experienced in the Igbos present location, but in a place where droughts and famines occur. After making this observation I decided to take a closer look at the oral traditions of the Igbos. Taking a closer look I saw what could be seen as an Igbo version of the “had gadya”; a rhyme sung by Jews on the Passover Night. Every Igbo child learns the nursery rhyme which begins with ‘o gini mere nwa aniga, nwa aniga o nwa aniga….’. At this stage I began to think that perhaps the Igbo claim of an Israelite origin might have some substance. A prominent group of Igbos who inhabit the Ubulu/Uburu clans believe that they are descended from Jacob’s son Zebulun. A principal Ubulu clan is Ozubulu in the Nigerian Igbo state called Anambra. The Uburu Clan in Ebonyi State is in this group. Another large group believe that they descended from Jacob’s grandson Menashe (Manasseh). Several clans that belong to this group have the word ‘ichi’ or ‘chi’ in their names. Examples are the Nnewi Ichi Sub- Clan, the Ichi-da Clan, and the Ichi Clan in Anambra. The Ame-chi Awkunanaw clan in the Enugu area. And the Am nna –chi Clan in the Igbo state called Imo. We also have some group of clans that are said to have Judahite origins. The Uda clan in the Enugu area belongs to this group. A large section of the Igbo population that live in the western part of the Nigerian Igbo state of Anambra believe that they are descendants of Eri, one of the sons of Gad, who was a son of the Biblical Jacob. Interestingly the names of some of the families/clans of the claimants have the prefix eri. Prominent examples are Umuleri, and Aguleri (Umu-eri, and Agu- Eri). There is talk that the later were their names, and that the l’s were added by the colonizing British who could not pronounce the Igbo names. And the Nri clan which traditionally provides a certain class of priests for the Igbos very interestingly bears an attribute that was allotted to Levi; the priestly tribe of Israel . Every knowledgeable Igbo agrees that the Nri priests take precedence in certain ritual matters among the Igbos. Reflecting on these actually spurred me to begin a systematic study of the Igbo people. With American Jewish and Ethiopian Jewish support I began to compare the Igbo, and the Jewish cultures. I can recall a great Ashkenazi Jew saying that the research is worthwhile, and that the ‘differences’ between the Igbo and the Jewish cultures will disappear if subjected to the searchlight of real research, if the Igbos actually came from Israel , because according to him; ‘the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jewish) culture which was not influenced by Rabbinical Judaism has been found to be incredibly similar to Rabbinical Jewish culture’. What he was saying, put another way, was that if Igbo culture is Israelite, even though the Igbos were not influenced by Rabbinical Judaism, that the similarities to Israelite culture would still be manifest. One of the Ethiopian Jews recommended that we look seriously at the agricultural, food storage, and religious practices of the Igbos, because, according to him, they would yield evidence of Judaism if the Igbos actually came from Israel. And one of my associates, an Afro- American Israeli suggested that we should look at everything, and explore every cultural practice, because according to him, overwhelming evidence is necessary to be found for the Igbos to be believed to be descendants of Israel . In other-words that the cultural similarities have to be found to be so many and significant that they could not be said to be merely coincidental. I like to think that what he meant was that the Igbo culture should be proved to be more similar to Judaism than Arab culture. The Arab peoples, the Edomites and some other peoples are believed to be ethnically close to the Jews, and it is thus believed that their cultures are similar to Jewish culture. We began to work in earnest. The first fruit of our labor was entitled “Uri’s Travels”. The book is a compilation of many Igbo traditions centered around a legendary Israelite soldier called Uri who migrated to what is now Igbo-land, and produced the Igbo people. This book will be published soon, and a screen play of it is been written by an American Igbo- Israel activist. Encouraged we began to look at the cultural similarities. The results came out, and are still coming out. While working on my second book “The Igbos: Jews in Africa”, I visited Nri, the premier religious clan of the Igbos which I had mentioned before. I interviewed many of the priests and elders. I asked them questions about the origins, history and culture of the Igbos. Their answers were very enlightening.

the mods can ban or remove it.who cares

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=506634972838447&id=100004758463167&refid=17&_ft_=og_action_id.506634979505113%3Atop_level_post_id.506634972838447%3Atl_objid.506634972838447%3Athid.100004758463167%3A306061129499414%3A2%3A0%3A1443682799%3A-6973337740921325821&__tn__=%2As

Nnamdi Kanu traveling to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from Kuala Lumpur International Airport
From eternity to eternity I will praise you Elohim. I join the angels of heaven in saying Nma! Nma!! diri gi Chineke, Onye kere elu-igwe na uwa. This is the highest praise that can be rendered unto you even as the angels circling your throne of grace in heaven will say. Your ways O'Lord is not that of man because you are immortal, invisible and the only wise. This morning, before the commencement of our Atonement unto thee here in the Far Eastern part of this earth that only you made; you decreed through your deeds that we must come to this place where this great journey started, in this land of Malaysia, to preach your word to your children that they may be healed and restored to the land which you gave to their ancestors in your Kingdom on this earth which is Biafra for their habitation. Accept every praise, glory and honour for journey mercy granted unto us from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur. We pray for your divine protection and everlasting love amongst we your chosen children IPOB scattered all over the world that we may be found worthy in thy sight. Renew and sustain us in this effort to bring adoration to your holy name through the restoration of the Republic of Biafra in our time......Iseee!
Kuala Lumpur International Airport

FTC . BIAFRA THE GREAT

iseeeeeeeeeeeee!

In director;s voice, we're live and direct

By Henry Umoru
ABUJA- FORMER Director of Publicity,
Peoples Democratic Presidential
Campaign Organisation, PDPPCO,
Chief Femi Fani- Kayode Monday
lampooned the Convener of the
Coalition of Northern Politicians,
Academics, Professionals and
Businessmen, Dr. Junaid
Mohammed, describing his
comments that President
Muhammadu Buhari owes Igbos
nothing as most
most insensitive, cruel and Puerile.
Responding to comments credited to
Junaid, Fani- Kayode in a message
to Vanguard noted that his
statements that If the igbo feel
marginalised they should attempt to
break away again, was most
uncharitable and careless, warning
that if there was any attempt to
butcher the Ibos or a repeat of what
happened in 1966, it would be
resisted by not only the Ibos, but by
all Nigerians, with attempt to secede,
which according to him, would be
successful.
According to him, the like of Junaid
must learn from history, our
mistakes, preach peace and peaceful
coexistence, rather that boast and
beat our chests for yet another round
of war.
Fani- Kayode reacting to a statement
titled, ” If the igbo feel marginalised
they should attempt to break away
again”- Dr. Junaid Mohammed, The
Punch Newspaper, 17th August 2015,
said, “Given the immense suffering
that the igbo were subjected to both
before, during and after the civil war
this is one of most insensitive, cruel
and puerile comments that I have
heard in recent times.
“I daresay that if Junaid
Mohammed’s Nigeria ever butchers
over 100,000 innocent igbo civilians
again, as they did in the north in 1966
just before the civil war, there will
indeed be another attempt to secede,
but this time it will not only be
successful, but they will also take
many others with them.
“Rather than boast and beat our
chests, we must learn from our
history and we must never repeat its
mistakes.”
Dr. Junaid Mohammed, had in an
interview in one of the national
dailies( not Vanguard) , dismissed the
sentiments shared by a former
Governor of Anambra State that the
Igbo have not been treated fairly in
the governance of Nigeria.
Junaid who noted that people of the
Igbo nation have enjoyed favourable
treatment, said it was wrong to
reward the Igbo simply on the basis
of the Nigerian Civil War, which lasted
between 1967 and 1970.
Mohammed had said, “If it is about
Buhari making the appointments
based on merit, I have no problems
with it. I don’t believe Buhari or
Nigeria owes any Igbo anything. I
don’t care what Ezeife says; if they
had seceded, there would have been
no Nigeria today. As people who
acted outside the interest of Nigeria
as a country, to expect compensation
is a very odd logic.
“If the Igbo don’t like it, they can
attempt secession again. If they do,
they must be prepared to live with the
consequences. Nobody owes them
anything and nobody is out to
compensate them for anything.”
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/08/if-igbos-are-butchered-again-nigeria-will-break-fani-kayode-warns/

First and foremost, to take over Owerri was impossible. Owerri is the heartland of the Igbo nation. The heart land of our domain. Enugu is our foremost town which was prepared by the colonial masters as an administrative headquarters. Just as Lagos is to the West, even though Ibadan was the heartland of the Yoruba. So, also in the North, they have Kaduna State, which now they have Abuja, even though they have Sokoto, Maiduguiri and those other places. Nigeria is centered on a tripod, whichever way you push it, all that come to the surface are the Hausa nation, the Yoruba nation and the Igbo nation. Each of these nations has minorities. Today, all that people talk about are the minorities within the East, within the Igbo nation because of economic interest. If oil has not been the main source of income for the totality of Nigerians, nobody would care how the Ijaws, how the Itsekiris, the Ibibios, Kalabairis, the Efiks and so on, are faring. This is so because they’ve been in existence before the arrival of the Europeans. http://thenationonlineng.net/biafra-did-not-surrender-achuzia/

We were also mindful of the fact that during the pogrom in the North, the majority of the soldiers as far as the North was concerned, Midwest was an Igbo land. It was in fact an afterthought when they tried to woo the Benins, the Urhobo’s and so on, forgetting that the Benins and Urhobos were some of those they killed during the pogrom. So, ranging them against us by pacifying them as they did when they created Cross-River and Rivers States, it was not done to appease the North. No. it was done to range them against the Igbo people by telling them that they were sufficient to be on their own as states. And that they should not be an appendage of the Igbos. They even forgot that we could have done the same by moving into the North, bringing the Middlebelt against the Fulanis. But we didn’t do that. So, that was what it was like. Okay, were all these part of the blunders that prolonged the war? Of course, yes. If we had played the game the way Nigeria played it, we would still be in the battle field today. But our people have a saying that the hen with so many chicks doesn’t know how to run in a battle situation. At what point did the Biafran high command begin to consider some of the officers as saboteurs and what did it take one to be so considered? In many war situations, the word sabotage is a constant and recurrent decimal. This is so because not all believe in the cause that brought about the war situation. People have different ideas and ideals. And some people, according to their belief, put themselves in the position where they were either the loyalists or considered anti-war efforts. This was what gave rise to the word saboteur. So it happens everywhere and it occurs everywhere. You have nicknamed the Air Raid. How did this name come about? Oh, no, no. I can’t continue to dwell on this. But you’ve not told it to us before? Okay, why I say so is that soldiers, especially in a conflict situation have the tendency for giving one name or the other to their officers, depending on the situation they find themselves. So, they did that when they wanted. You didn’t start out as a commissioned officer, but rose to be a force to reckon with. How did it happen? No, no. you see, people don’t seem to understand that soldiering is an art. Just like engineering or medicine, when a doctor is made to be so. You cannot just go into an operating room, pick up your instruments and begin to work, if you haven’t been trained. So also in a war situation. You cannot go into battle field and carry out all the norms necessary for an officer who had been trained over the years. A civilian cannot plan war and execute war. It requires a trained military officer to confuse and configure the situation and operate. That is why many a time people say what they like and I don’t care. It doesn’t affect people like me; I am not interested. The situation occured within the purview of my duty and I operated just to show what I was trained for. After that I retired into a civilian life. What really happened – did you actually kill Haliday, the owner of Silver Valley Hotel in the presence of his wife and daughter as alleged by General Alani Akinrinade? That’s a lie. You see, when the war ended, Nigerian officers didn’t know what to do about me. First, they couldn’t reach me. Every effort made to kill me did not succeed. Haliday was a friend. My house, before the war started, was a stone’s throw from Chief Haliday’s house. If such a thing happened, why was it only at the end of the war that we started hearing that I was the one that killed him? I commanded; I took over in Port Harcourt, when Port Harcourt was falling. And all that participated there will give testimony that I never picked a gun and shot him. I never picked my gun and shot at somebody. Why should I? I had soldiers who could do that. But instead, they tried to foist the death of Haliday on me. That exactly was what they’ve been saying; that I had been killing people indiscriminately while the war lasted. That also is not true. It took the way the war ended for most Biafrans to realise that it was really a lie that whenever I saw somebody I’d shoot. Shoot for what? For what purpose? And if that was the case, would I lay my life on the line to bring the war to an end? After all, the people who asked that the war be brought to an end are still alive. People like P.K. Nwokedi, a former justice of Enugu. Louis Mbanefo too. These were the people who came to my house and pleaded that I should try to stop the war. Normally, I would have called for their arrest, because they were members of Biafran Exco. They were party to the last meeting we held with Ojukwu to ask Ojukwu to go to the conference that was to hold in Monrovia, Liberia. That conference was engineered by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. It was this meeting that we arranged laboriously for where Ojukwu could stay so that there won’t be any sabotage against us. Hence, Felix Houphet- Boigny was one of those that recognised Biafran efforts. And the French were also partially assisting us. So, from Liberia, it was planned to move Ojukwu to Gabon and then to Ivory Coast. But we hadn’t settled down in Ivory Coast in readiness for the meeting when members of the EXco came requesting that I should bring the war to an end. How come then you were the man everybody wanted to see to end the war? I was the person in charge of operations. I was also visible. Yes, I was. Do you think because the Yoruba officers were the ones that saw to the end of the war, it has caused any friction between them and the Igbo people? No, because a day after my declaration, I started the announcement from 9a.m. Every 15 minutes, my broadcast was on. Sir Louis Mbanefo crafted the statement that we gave Philip Effiong to read. After it was read, it became necessary because in my broadcast, we said we had sent emissaries to various Nigerian military formations to inform them that we had decided to end the war. It is only people with authority who could do that. Any army on the run will not make such statement. So, we did it on a friendly basis. Today Akin is still my friend. We meet from time to time. He visits me here too. No, it has not caused any friction at all. Why was it possible for the Owerri battle front to be inclusive as it were?

Col. Joe Achuzia was one of the major figures that held Biafra together while the Nigerian Civil war lasted. He commanded almost all the major sectors in the Biafran Army and also ensured that discipline was enforced throughout the duration of the war. Before the war ended, he was in charge of operations in the whole enclave called Biafra. This position made it possible for him to begin the necessary overtures to end the war. While Ojukwu was away, he took over control of the forces and then made the appropriate contacts to bring the war to an end. In this interview with Edozie Udeze, he debunks some of the claims made by Gen. Alabi Isama and Gen. Alani Akinrinade in their recent interviews. Gen. Alabi Isama in his latest book on the war alleged that Mid- western officers were alienated. Is it really true that as the Commander-in-Chief of the Biafran Armed Forces, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, did not trust some of the Midwestern Igbo officers while the war lasted? It is not true. Why I say it is not true is that for Biafra to have lasted so long, it was as a result of the efforts of the Mid-western officers. This was because Biafra was really being hard pushed until the mid-west operation began. And the Midwest officers that were supposed to go across, Alabi-Isama was one of them. Even then my own journey into the mid west when Banjo crossed into Mid west, Alabi too was one of those that I contacted. But somewhere along the line, after our meeting, after we gave him some instructions to follow across, Alabi defected. And he didn’t come back. So, for him to say that Ojukwu didn’t like some Mid west officers couldn’t be true. This was so because it was the Mid-west officers, all the way to the lower ranks, that really held Murtala from crossing over the bridge thereby entering Biafra. This was when Murtala started his so-called operation to cross the Niger. It was mid western officers who fought and sustained the momentum. These were the 52 and 57 brigades that are also manned by the Mid west officers. It is unfortunate that many people from hindsight now after over 40 years of the war are writing books on the war. This is an after- thought after having read over other people’s works on the war, reading newspaper comments and other people’s statements and interviewing people. Now, they have got themselves in the position as being authority on the war. I wouldn’t take Alabi’s document as a serious one. The only aspect of his statement that really deserves comment and which shows his inability to appreciate the war situation and reporting it as it were, was his reporting what did not happen in his presence. He talked about the end of the war, mentioning the participants. He is not in the position to say what he said about the end of the war. He wasn’t there. The first person who was there was General Alani Akinrinade. Also Tomoye. Then Tomoye was not a substantive colonel. The command that reached Orlu was Tomoye’s command. And it was Tomoye’s officer that my men and in a night operation and captured them that made it possible for me to take the step I took by declaring that everybody should lay down their arms. Then I said we could be announcing it until I was able to bring Akinrinade into my headquarters. The narrative by Alabi shows ignorance of what happened that day. That’s what I can say about that. The only person that many a time I look at and say let sleeping dogs lie is General Akinrinade. This was because of his behaviour from the moment we met was officer-like. And he conducted himself in a way that endeared him to me that up till date, we are still friends. Alabi, however, was right in one thing that the war had already ended before General Obasanjo came into the picture. And he came on the scene after I allowed General Akinrinade to make a call to him. And he told him that if he didn’t come, he might stand to lose his officers who were under my control then. When Akinrinade came, he came with only a few soldiers. We met at Orlu, I didn’t go to Owerri to look for any of them. Now, we told Tomoye to phone him because Tomoye stood to lose all his officers and in Brigade they ventured into our territory near Orlu. We assured Tomoye that we had already started to take steps to bring the war to an end. His officers that were collected were already deposited near my office in Igbo-ukwu. As a result, it wasn’t proper for me to claim that I went to Owerri looking for who to surrender to. Surrender who or what to who? After all, it was in my house while discussing with Akinrinade that we decided that in that instance we were bringing the war to an end. There was indeed no winner, no vanquished. The war had deteriorated into a state of stalemate, whereby we were trading one bullet for another. By this time our men were crisis- crossing the war front because both the Nigerian soldiers and our soldiers were tired of the whole thing; the whole episode. Could you please elaborate more on the last days of the war? Let me also elaborate more on the events of the last days… I read in the internet Akinrinade’s rejoinder. So I asked for it to be printed out. Akinrinade is the last person I expected to sanction what Alabi-Isama wrote or said about the end of the war. Isama wasn’t there. Akinrinade was there. Tomoye was there. The rest were just junior officers. Those collected that night of 11th were junior officers and they were in charge of a battalion which made it possible for us to move. It was almost a disaster. We could have capitalised on it but we were on the quest to bring the war to an end. Hence, we detained them at the DMI office in Igbo-ukwu, got them to send a message to their commander, Tomoye. Tomoye replied that he would contact Owerri. The officer at Owerri tactical headquarters, Col. Oni who replied that Obasanjo said he would send his chief-of-staff, Akinrinade, to come and negotiate with us.