₦airaland Forum

I agree people paid with there lives but you can't blame that on the truth being told. Your blame should go to the over ambitious Igbo officers hell bent on seizing power after independence. Blame should also go to Awolowo who reneged on the promise to remove the West from the federation.  David Ejoor  recounted what he saw and witnessed but unfortunately this does not fit in with your distorted views about  events. Let it go bro.

Sleek P, I am not here to apportion blame to anyone as that will veer off the course of this topic, which is Ejoor's views.

Please read his account with a neutral mind and tell me how many holes you can find. Unlike you, I am not going to blame Awolowo or even Gowon, because they did what they felt was in their best interest during war time. Am I condoning their tactics ? Hell no, but thats another topic.

I have read many books on the war and I know enough to know what the truth looks like. My Uncle Smart was a Major who died in Nsukka sector. His younger brother, De Martin was a 2nd Lt, a real combact soldier who fought all over the place. He was among those that made it back from Ore on foot (more than 300 KM) when Banjo abandoned his men. Was among the last Biafran troops to pull out of Calabar. Was holed up at SPC Calabar for six days with a few men with his LMG to cover the retreat of other troops holding back  the Federal advance, returning fire for fire, ripping  federal troops apart and watching his men fall by their guns.

I Had many Uncles that came back from the north before Biafra was declared having lost all their wealth. How can you possibly justify the killing of hundreds of thousands of easterners just because Five eastern soldiers led a coup which had at least two Yorubas as well ?

May all those who are in agreement that innocent people deserved to be killed because of the acts  of their kinsmen, meet the same fate when someone from their ethnic group goes on a misguided adventure.

Have you ever read about what happened to Eastern officers and passengers at Kano Airport before Biafra ? Let me school you a little bit son; Men were rounded up by their colleagues and shot dead in the presence of foreigners. Eastern passengers suffered the same fate on that day. It was open season on easterners following Ironsi's overthrow and Gowon looked the other way.

You said to let it go. Face has already let go. Most Igbos have let go and moved on. Most Nigerians have not and derive pleasure in opening up old wounds just to hurt other people. This Issue is very sensitive to me and other Igbos but you guys just wont let us be.

Why do you guys act like this ? Is it because you failed to humiliate us as you planned when you declared war on us ? Is it because you are upset that your £20 could not achieve what your hunger strategy could not achieve ? Or is it because, the man you thought you'd kicked down is still standing.

You set higher standards for us in every thing and you think its fair ? All we want at this point is the right to be treated with respect just like we treat you with respect.

Though young men throw stone at frogs in sports, the frogs do not die in sports but in earnest. (Unkindness may be good fun to you, but not same for the recipient)

@ Ibime, I will suggest that you read the interview again and this time with a neutral mind; you will find that the amount of holes in his account will put a basket to shame. He was Mister Nobody and still is.

His mates like Obasanjo, Adekunle, Murtala, Danjuma and co were out there doing serious battle with indefatigable Biafran Soldiers like Ajuzie, Nzeogwu, Effiong, Nwawo, Madiebo, My Uncle De Martin and his brother De Smart while he hid in one corner drinking kai kai.

People paid with their lives and the least the man should do is to tell the truth. How can you believe a person who recounts events including what was said behind his back in secret ?

Gowon and I refused and they went on their own. But we then reported to that European officer, General Foster. I and Gowon reported to him that some people were trying to plan a coup. He called all of us -- the Nigerian Army officers -- and advised us not to organise any military coup. When Ojukwu’s father heard about this, he put a memo into House of Assembly that all Europeans should leave the army. It was that year that all the Europeans in the army were sent back to their country. Then, Ironsi, who was Number Two, took over the command of the army. While he was there, Ojukwu still had the coup plot in his mind. He told Ironsi that he should not allow Ejoor and Gowon to be in Army Headquarters, saying as long they remained in Army headquarters, they would not be able to execute the coup. So, Ironsi sent Gowon on a course in the United Kingdom but he left me alone. When Igbos were worrying him that Ejoor was still there, he told them that: “This man from that small state, minority state? You can handle him, he cannot do anything. Go away, and leave me.” So, he left me. By December when Gowon came back, it was like a small war in Ironsi’s office. Some army officers told Ironsi that: “We told you to send these two people away, now Gowon has come back. What can we do now? Ironsi was embarrassed and after Gowon came back on the 20th and on the 23rd of that month, Ironsi now sent me away from Army headquarters to Enugu, saying: “He should be hidden there.” I went there and then they tried again but the one they tried was in January 1966 after I had left the Army headquarters. But at that time, they said whatever happened, Ejoor and Gowon must die. They threatened the person who was to organise a coup on behalf of the Igbos in Lagos side.

@ Ibime, I will advise that you look before you leap. Look at a subject matter very carefully before embarking on an argument, otherwise u will appear as speaking from a fixed mindset and having a blind argument for the sake of it.
according to the interview ( look at the highlighted part), Ejoor said that Ironsi had knowledge of the coup and sanctioned it by sending Gowon to London and Ejoor to Enugu. Ironsi was even "embarrassed" that Gowon had returned from the course as if he did not know that Gowon's course would come to an end someday.

Call a dog a bad name in order to hang it; if Ironsi had sent an Igbo officer on that course, the same senile bigot would say today that Ironsi only tried to further the careers of his kinsmen.

People try to sound more important than they actually are; in his mentally deranged mind his presence foiled the original coup plans hence the need to get him out of the way. Pure yam !!! If he was ever a factor and Ironsi was part of the coup, all Ironsi could have done was to call all of them to a meeting where they would all be detained until further notice.

Useless wimp, let him go and see all his mates that took care of Ironsi i.e Murtala, Danjuma, Katsina, Yaradua and even sideliners like Gowon, Obasanjo and co, they were all top dogs in the Army and he called them Sir, oga sir, morn sir even tho he was their so called senior my foot.

When his mates were doing stuff, he cowered to the side and he is now coming to talk rubbish.

Lets face it Lucabrasi, we know that the man was not referring to the dad's entitlement or lack of, as to why he is suffering.

His dad's entitlement will not even scratch the surface of the good life he craves for when split between 18 people who will in turn share their own portions with their own immediate families. He should go and struggle like the rest of us as Kano state is not eternally indebted to the Zuwo lineage. They are not obliged to offer them more than they are entitled to.

By the way his dad was found guilty of corruption by the military tribunal at the time and neither you nor I can say that all judgements by the tribunal were reached as a result of false accusations. The tribunal said that they had proof so they jailed him, therefore it was not an unproven allegation as far as the supreme law of the land at the time was concerned.

Blatant shameless liar. "Ojukwu's father made the Brits leave Nigerian Army" See hin mouth. It is on record that Ojukwu helped foil the Jan 1966 Coup.

Igbo people were annoyed that they did not have power and wanted to grab power, but they contacted you and the man (Gowon) whose people they wanted grab power from to help them. Tell that to the birds dickhead.

Ironsi was supportive of the coup and the best he could do was send Gowon on a course to London to pave way for the plotters, when he could have have easily summoned your raw behind, detained you and relieved your stupid arse of any post you had if he felt you were a stumbling block Swine !!!

Silly old fool. The Igbo people have never wanted to seize control of Nigeria and never declared a war on Nigeria. We only declared an independent state of Biafra when your inept Nigerian govt failed to protect the people of eastern origin and your Gowon in turn declared a war on Biafra and cast the first stone of the war.

The easterners stood their ground, fought bravely, refused to hand an easy victory to Gowon, won major battles against Nigerian Army, made their own weapons, refined their own petrol (a feat peace time One Nigeria is unable to achieve) and never lacked petrol throughout the war.

We lost but not in shame . We are as proud to have fought the war as the Brits are proud of defeating Hitler only that we lost. That the Ashanties lost to the Brits does not mean that the Brits do not acknowledge their bravery and that the Ashanties shouldn't have fought for their land. We have taken our defeat straight on the chin like men and have moved on.

I do not blame Gowon for declaring war on Biafra. He did what he did as a head of state who did not want the country to fall apart under his watch. I do blame him for not taking actions that would have averted the civil war i.e guaranteeing the safety of easterners in the north, just like Ojukwu guaranteed the safe passage of Northerners in the east.

Lives were lost during the war, but the war had to be fought. Igbos lost short term, but are winners in the long run as they have picked themselves up and forged ahead with their lives.

Easterners earned their respect (fear ?) against all odds and both sides will think twice before fighting another war . Although northerners still go on a bloodfest rampage from time to time, they never will they attempt it in the scale as seen in 1966 in connivance with the govt.

in case you r not getting it,the point here is that the man was honest enough not to steal the state blind and to accept ghana must go s and the result is his children living in abject poverty,that should be the issue any  objective individual will and should be concerned about and not how many wives or children he left behind, sucessive governors after him who stole the state blind and sucessive senators dont need to go on newspapers asking for help because they have stolen enough to last them,their multiple wives and children,so whats yur point

@Lucabrasi, I do not think that you knew Sabo Barkin Zuwo at all. He won the state election after Rimi decamped from PRP to NPP. He was Kano state governor for 3 months between 0ct 83 and Dec 83 when Buhari struck.

He made a name  for being illiterate and not being able to distinguish between Fanta and solid mineral. "We hab flenti minaral por Kano, we hab za mirinda, za panta and za Kwoka kwola" Yeah that was him.

About the highlighted part of you statement, will you have a change of opinion if you found that (according to Buhari and co) he was caught with cartons of money totalling about 3.6 million Naira (when naira was naira) when Buhari stuck. Not bad for a guy who'd only been in town for three months huh ? Buhari went on to Jail him to serve millions of years in jail to run "concurrently" alongside many other govs.

I cannot vouch for the man's innocence or otherwise, but you cannot vouch either way too.

Back to the point, people are not entitled to better lives than others just because their parents held important political offices !!! They are not different from the children of everyday civil servants. I will tell you the only exceptions; those whose parents surrendered their lives while serving the people. Frontline soldiers, officials murdered in the line of duty etc.

Even so, the children of those people are not entitled to a life of luxury funded the government, but a good lifestyle to ensure they continue to maintain the same living standard before the death of their parent/spouse in addition to help with their education.

dayokanu,
during the time of Christ, the highest means of transportation was horse. Christ himself rode on a horse and if by commission or omission here we call these men, men of God, i do not see anything wrong in owing or using aircrafts in their missionnary works.

these are men who through the works of God have changed lives and give hope to the hopeless. living good life will even encourage people to serve living God.

i for once enjoin these men of God to even own yatches as long as they are to the glory of God.

@ Chdichris,

Christ did not ride on any horse. As a matter of fact, his means of transport on the day of triumphal entry displayed his humility which your flamboyant, vain preachers conveniently chose to ignore.

Christ could have opted to ride on a golden chariot of horses, given his entourage and status among his followers, but what did he do ? He chose to ride on a DONKEY. That was his highest display of luxury in his lifetime.

Nobody is saying that preachers should live as paupers, but for goodness sake 4 vehicles at any one time are more than sufficient for any pastor. One for himself, one for the wife ,one for the children and one spare. I am being very generous here given that we are spending other people's money here and not their money .

Private jet is a luxury that people should enjoy with their own money and not with money that was handed over in good faith for ministry.

Don't even tell me that private jet makes his life easier because it doesn't. He can't just take off and land as he pleases as he needs to obtain clearance for both. He will buy aviation fuel, pay taxes for landing, pay parking fees, pay pilot, pay engineers for maintenance etc. He may as well book himself a first class ticket for the trouble and that works out to be a lot cheaper.

Gordon Brown travels on BA.

In fact those guys are thieves and will burn in hell, even more than Abacha and co because, these other people did not steal in God's name.

Tensor777, you need good education to get top dog jobs.

Now, you guys talk about experience as if people are born with experience. Most of the top dog people without university education did not just become top dogs. A lot of them rose through the ranks and files of organisations and learned valuable lessons in addition to attending multiple courses and seminars.

Regarding the legislation of a country, you need good quality education and sound analytical mind or experience with age and proven track record of personal achievement in a tough terrain. I am not referring to wealth derived from govt contracts that never get executed; as the main requirement for govt contract is "man know man" and not smartness.

A 22 year old fresh graduate will have a lot more to offer than a 22 year old SSCE holder who could not get into university and had no visible means of income, but had the benevolence of a political godfather, who sponsored him/her to the house, whereas a 22 year old who started a business straight after SSCE may be at par with the graduate or even smarter than the graduate and may go on to become a CEO and employ the graduate.

What you do immediately after secondary school shows your character. If you cast uni aside and go into business, community service or specialist training, it demonstrates maturity, focus and ability to make decisions and same can be said for those that go to uni.

Those that sit around after sec sch and do nothing but praise sing and wait for crumbs from big boys and ogas have no clue about self determination, how much more the determination of the fate of others. These are mainly the type of people that resort to thuggery and thievery to achieve their aims and most times they are heavily under the influence of those with vested interests in them. Those type of people have no business in the house.

And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

If to say sheep dey sweet like goat, believe me, e go join goat for left hand quick time. Only their young ones fit dey right awaiting transfer to the left.

@ Bawo, bet you thought grease came from solidified kunuzaki !!!

Anyways, I cannot say whether the poster is telling lies or not and I am not in a position to do so since I do not stay with him.

In as much as I will like to know more about the engineering, I do expect him to be vague about that because this is a public forum and if he has achieved what he claimed, it will not be in his interest to do so. Having said that, he needs to be very clear about the little information he provides.

@ Ibime, don't even go there with the size of tyre argument. Did u ever see vespa ? I have seen kids playground bikes that can do up to 70 miles per hour ( I am talking about those bikes you can chuck into the boot of your car)  

There should be a bulge, it should be rough cut, blah, blah, blah are all a result of limited individual perception. Can't understand it, so it can't be true.

@Debosky, the oil well is only one of many in Imo State. On a dry night, you could see the reflection of the flames (very wasteful and harmful exploration technique) at Izombe , Oguta and co all the way from Owerri.

Imo State had 163 oil wells and counting as at the last time they updated this site :

http://www.imostate.gov.ng/oil%20&%20gas.html

Ifygurl,

You actually have some good points.

The origin of Igbos is one of the things that we will have to wait and find out at the end of time unfortunately. Same with most cultures in the world because only a few cultures kept written trace to the culture.

The oldest cultures cannot be traced beyond 10 to 15000 years and that does not mean that those cultures were non existent beyond those years.

Archeological evidence can begin to reveal how those that occupied the present day Igboland lived their lives many years ago but cannot prove their origin.

The weather of the present day Igboland means that archeological investigations will most certainly start from the scratch. Why ? In the days of mud houses, they were most certainly rebuilt every few years because of heavy rains. I do not think that you can find any mud house in Igbo land that goes beyond 100 years and you are most likely to find it in Enugu, Nsukka axis because of their semi arid weather.

Now, our fore fathers made markings on the walls of their homes to remind them of important days and other things. (My grandma told me so and her dad from the 1800s wrote on the wall too) All the writings were most certainly destroyed when heavy rains destroyed the mud houses.

Unfortunately, the Igbos did not write on papers and had to rely on oral tradition which was lost or diluted with time. Aros have somehow managed to maintain a historical account that goes some distance.

Contrast that to the Housas, who can trace their history to more than a thousand years and also have written documentation as well (Yes, there have been Hausa/Fulani scholars from long ago). The arid condition of places like Kano has ensured that evidence of their culture are not hard to find, because they still have structures that are more than 1000 years old.

As per DNA, it can always go as far as you want it to go starting from; you are related to your parents and all the way to the whole world is related . At what point do you cut it off and say "ok, here starts the Igbo DNA"?

As per Olaudah Equiano, he wrote his stuff when there was no Igbo way of writing and he spelt his names and other stuff as best as they sounded to him. He was Igbo to the core.

The most important thing is to change your oil regularly (every 3 months or use mileage) and make sure you change your oil filter too, otherwise the purpose is defeated!

@ Midas 02.

Try once a year or every 10,000 miles, whichever comes first. That's the instruction on my car manual and that is what the garages say as well following each service.

My car even tells you when service is due based on those two criteria and will also let you know whether it is the "A" service or "B" service that you need. The manual also spells out the meaning of A and B services.

As written by others, oil specs are written in the user manuals and should be followed. However, people need to be wary of adultrated products.

@ poster, someone suggested that you service your car again to avoid wahala. I will agree with that person, but make sure you buy the oil and filter you witness the service if possible.

Most road maintenance in the UK and US are done at night.

Floodlights are employed, as bright as day

Sienna, you must be living in a wonderful part of the UK. In London, they dig up the roads just before bank holiday and do not return to work until after the bank holiday.

Sections of roads are closed when necessary for long periods and people have to find alternative routes. Junction 25 of M25 was out of action for 72 weeks because of ventilation works at the tunnel. If you think no one was affected, ask those that live in Enfield and environs.

The point is that people must choose between falling into the lagoon with the bridge because of impatience or endure a little bit of hardship in order to have safe ride on the bridge. Afterall the bridge was made by man and man was surviving before the bridge.

Before the advent of beans, men were not eating rabbit poo.

If the bridge needs to be repaired, it needs to be repaired. No two ways about it.

I wonder why some people are moaning, would they rather go down with the bridge ? Please try Carter or Eko bridge as what needs to be done has got to be done !!!

But why does a bridge of such size and importance need repairs of such magnitude after a meagre 18 years in service ? I hope they get it right this time around.

Who told you that Hero is not a playa on the side ?

Ivvie and Midas,

I think you fellas have slightly similar views but very divergent on practicalities. I will lean towards Midas line of argument though. I am not a Mech Eng, my background is in industrial chemistry but I do understand quantum mechanics and thermodynamics.

Ivvie when you relate heat exchanges/build ups to wear and tear and assume that a 6 cyl engine will wear faster than a four cyl eng, you are negating the fact that a 6 cyl eng will do less work that a 4 cyl engine on the same car over the same distance and conditions. The same applies to gear ratios as well. You also forget that materials change with each design.

This discussion, I believe can also be related to the varying engine sizes of the same car make of same amount of cylinders. The smaller the size of engine the more work it does, especially at take off. I.e. a 1.8L 4 cyl Honda will do more work over all than a 2.3L same type of Honda under the same conditions. The price to pay is more fuel consumption especially at very low speeds.

My dad had a Volvo 240 of 2.3L engine capacity back in the days and there was a time that the engine block needed grinding by about 0.10 (whatever the measurement was). My brother and I took the car to the mechanic and there was a disused 2.1 engine block lying around and after examining the block, we found that although the block was useless to a 2.1 piston, the holes could be ground to 2.3. We discovered that the thickness of the 2.1 block was more than the thickness of the 2.3 block and that boring the 2.1 to 2.3 would be the equivalent of having a 2.3 from the onset. We went ahead with our plan and I can tell you that the old war horse was back on the block like in the old days and gave at least 8 more years of active service of dusting other cars,

My point ; a 2.1 engine became useless in a 2.1 setting, but found a more active life in a 2.3 setting and out gunning other 2.1 engines and with little effort. Generally speaking, bigger engines last longer than smaller engines on the same car.

I believe that the longevity we are referring to here is the longevity of the engine components like engine blocks, crank shafts, top cylinders, valves and the head gaskets.

My lay man point of view though.

E be like say dem take telephone kill the man for him fisrt life. The other time na ITT. Na waa sha. Leopard and im spots.

@ Davidylan,

So you are a first generation immigrant then? Pot calling kettle names. Those people you look at with so much disdain went to USA to seek better life like you did. Until you go back home , zip it.

It took you two years to become legal. So what were you doing during those two years?

Face has never been in a situation where he had to look for a resident permit in any country, but I am very much in touch with my roots and I sympathise with those that deserve sympathy.

Like I said before you responded off pointedly, some of those illegal are responsible for the sustenance of other lives back home (where ever home may be).

Pray that the people who were gracious enough to legalise your stay should also do same for other people who are in need of their permanent stay. Your 2 year suffering should not be a yard stick for dealing with others.

@Seun. When a man is earning his living, you cannot say that he is enjoying what does not belong to him.

lol how naive. The reason why visas are now very difficult is because of the attitude of those who have used and abused the system. There were no visa queues in 1988, 20 years later we have queues as long as the river Niger. Because those who lied earlier that they were only going to spend 2months ended up cheating the system and living there forever. Of course who pays the price? Me and you who will show up at the embassy tomorrow for a visa while the culprits are busy enjoying the fruits of their illegality.

@ Davidylan,

In summary, you are saying that all those that have overstayed their visa or had no visa in the first place should be kicked out just so that Face and Davidylan could obtain visa without joining long queues. How selfish. There is no price being paid by us as we do not have to live in or visit USA.

There were no queues in 1988 because Nigerians were not in the same situation as they now find themselves.

Which fruit of illegality are you referring to ? Please come off your holier than thou attitude.

You never spiced up your CV ? You never broke speed limit ? You never gave some silly excuses for the times you were late to work or wanted to knock off early. I am still looking for the birds you are trying to tell those cock and bull stories.

I dont know why I am bothering, but the good news is that it's not up to you.

The only way , I can reason with you is if you were born in the USA and not by first generation immigrants.

To each person with his own belief though.

It is financially impossible at this stage, however i do not support a process of legalisation as that will be unfair to the many who have spent donkey years on the official queues.
Make it harder for illegals to get jobs, health insurance and other government benefits . . . deport those who are caught. . . that might do the trick.

@ Davidylan,

Must everyone have an equal measure of suffering to achieve the same result?

Your mindset is at best hitlerian. Pray, how does the legal status granted to one affect the legal status granted to another based on their varying degree of suffering before acquiring such status?

People like you refuse to acknowledge that change is necessary and believe in eye for an eye in all situations.

Some of those illegal immigrants that you are calling for their deportation are solely responsible in ensuring that at least 10 other human lives are sustained elsewhere in Asia, Africa, and Europe etc.

Some of those you gleefully look down on as the scum of the earth are more educated than you, smatter than you and will probably become more successful than you.

So you are legal and probably born in the US, but are you an employer of labour or do you wake up just like most people to go make a living in another man's establishment?

Do you demand wage increases and support minimum wage? If so, what right do you have to do so since you did not suffer as much as the business owner in setting up his business.

Life is give and take. I have seen people like you and I deal with such people all the time. You want to be here and there at the same time. You probably want to have a heart attack just because your neighbour bought a new car. You constantly want to be in a position where you will look down on others. You refuse to offer basic help to people and expect the world from others.

Face is not in the habit of laying into people, but some people do make me sick.

“Great was the man that offered hope, help and shelter to those in need and unknown to him" ----- FACE
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" ---- JESUS

There is an UBA family in every section across Nigeria. Just read your newspapers properly and dont be selective in your condemnation as to which sections the bad guys come from.

IGbos were the only tribe to rotate a single post in the government amongst all their states in the name of impeachment

Face is not in the habit of wasting his time responding to rubbish, but the above statement by OW11 is absolute codswallop.

Contrary to the popular past time of Igbo haters of throwing that rubbish about just to make Igbos look incompetent, Igbos should be commended for holding sway and retaining that office against all odds. Yes, I said so !

There are 15 senators from the eastern block as opposed to 93 senators from the other regions combined. Is someone trying to tell me that 93 senators sat back and the Igbo senators kept changing themselves without any input from other senators?

When a lie is told very often, it starts sounding like the truth . That is the tactics of all those that love to ridicule Igbos.

Enwerem’s removal was because other senators saw him as Obasanjo’s stooge and pulled him down during the Evan or Evans saga.

Chuba took over and was vibrant for a while and Obasanjo was not comfortable with him and he lost out on a toe to toe with Obasanjo. Be it known that he was out schemed by Obasanjo and not by the minority Igbo senators.

In both cases nearly 100 senators schemed, out schemed and voted. Were they all Igbo senators?

Anyim came and held sway, did his thing and refused to sing from Obasanjo’s hymn book. He knew he was going no where in the next term and he did not bother to vie for the post again.

Wabara came and was ousted by nearly 100 senators . Nnamani came and stopped Obasanjo in his tracks and refused to be a part of all the political chicanery and left with his head above his shoulders.

Someone made a point that Housa/ Fulani and Yorubas have presented more than one candidate at various points and the powers that be have always selected one of those candidates and backed that candidate. Why should it be different with the Igbos?

Juxtaposition of various events will debunk all the nonsense that some people would want us to believe.

I do not care who presides over the affairs of the country as long as things get done, but there is no need to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

Alpha calling to Zebra , Alpha calling to Zebra.

I like the way you trust and believe what your friend has told you. I also trust and believe my friend who is a Wing Commander ( your friend's bosses' boss) at the same base as your friend .

What a coincidence. Your friend flies one of the last two alpha jets, and my friend also happens to fly an Alpha jet ( the other one), which means that the onus will be on my friend and your friend to defend us should the need arise. The rest of the Airforce should join the army as combat soldiers !

Alpha calling to Zebra , Alpha calling to Zebra. You don win . Over and out.


Regards.

@Zebra.
Your friend is under the command of people who are under the command of my friend at the same base but I am not going to give you my friend's name. Your friend informed you that we have just two Alfa jets and he flies one of them? Big lie!!

We have over 100 combat aircrafts. Our combat aircrafts are MIGs, SEPECAT jaguars and most recently the Chinese Chengdu fighters. My friend says that the air force is considering whether to ground the MIGs or upgrade them. We have numerous trainers and transport aircrafts and a few bombers. We also have dozens of attack and transport helicopters. We need a radar-jamming device.

Mind you, I never said that we will defeat all air force in Africa. I said that we are equipped to deal with most forces in Africa both within and outside our territory and I stand by the statement.

@ Denex. Short Service Commission is a route throgh which graduates can join the Nigeria Armed Forces as commissioned officers without going through NDA. After the SS courses, they are commissioned as 2nd Lt in the army or its equivalent in the Navy and Airforce. Initially, SS Commissioned officers could not rise above a certain level, but i think that has now been reviewed. NDA soldiers do not see them as real soldiers anyway, but they are not reservists.

My friend is a frontline fighter pilot in NAF and he told me that the Airforce is equiped to deal with most forces in Africa, both within and outside our territory.

Nigerian army is generally known to be among the best organised in Africa and have proved themselves time and time.

It helps to manufacture your own arms, but that is not necessarily the be it all in weapon acquisition. Isreal is more or less equiped by the USA, i.e their most important weapons come from the US. America had to supply them with more arms, even against ordinary hezbollah.

It is very important to have allies and Nigeria has "brown nosed" enough to have allies that would readily sell her arms with no questions asked, but what we have now will surfice for our needs.

quote]leave your property and run away, we will still claim it.[quote][/quote]@ Maki. Do you really believe without feeling guilty that the Igbo's deserved to have their assets seized by your parents following their loss of the civil war?

I am also sure that you believe that they deserved to be robbed by the Federal government who gave them only 20 pounds regardless of how much they had in the banks before the war.

No problem. Where you sow is where you will reap. May you continue to find properties to seize, if your actions were justified before God and man. If not, may all those who participated in the sex-attack r-a-p--e of the defenceless be repaid many times in their own coins.

Regarding the state of affairs in PH. The gang lords have neighbours and people know who they are and what their activities are. The problem is that the police cannot be relied on not to sell out informers, so people do not bother with giving useful information to the police. The police have shown time after time that their guns are not for the protection of the average Nigerian, but  for extorting innocent Nigerians and cannot offer any meaningful challenge to the gang lords.

It is not entirely correct to assume that the bandits carry superior weapons to police weapons. The bandits only look fearsome because they carry bandoliers around their chests. The Nigeria Police use assault rifles like AK47 as well. Even the guns that we see most of them use (G3) are also automatic assault rifles with effective range nearing 500 meters. They also use Thompson, Uzi and other SMGs. So what is the problem? Proper training, good pay and discipline may be a good motivation to fight these people.

In the time being, it is a good thing that the army are trying to restore normalcy, but I believe that they should go a step further by carrying out dawn raids at known hideouts.

Galadriel, Galadriel. I see a very smart person in you. I must say that I have enjoyed the way you have presented your case and I think its classic. Majority of the people that have been duped have been victims of their own greed. Most of them should be tried as accomplices to fraud, since they only became victims in their quest to defraud "stupid Africans". As for America's double standards, "leave matter for Matthias

Well said Afam.

Who amongst you, except cowards would not fight back when pushed to the wall?

People deliberately try to turn history upside down. What happened to people of eastern extraction in the North after their northern counterparts had been given a safe passage back to the north? The easterners were slaughtered in their thousands in their homes and train stations.

Have you guys conveniently forgotten about the massacre of Igbo officers and passengers at Kano airport? Did Gowon do enough to protect the Igbos? No, Hell No!

Yes, the war was avoidable if the ABURI accord was followed and if the one sided ethnic cleansing was nipped in the bud.

Some of you guys come under the guise that no politician of Igbo extraction was killed in the 1966 coup carried out by majority Igbo officers, therefore Igbo civilians deserved to be killed by the northerners. Was any northern civilian killed in the east? Hell No! It is the penchant to blame Igbos for everything under the sun that makes people slaughter innocent Igbos at the slightest provocation, if not why would a normal human being kill innocent Igbos over a cartoon in Denmark ?  Stop making Igbos your scapegoats.

The war was avoidable, but if the situation should play out exactly the same, Igbos will fight the war again. The war was the outcome of self defence. We lost a lot during and after the war, but freedom comes at a price.

We lost the war but not in shame. We have taken our defeat on the chin and have since moved on with our lives despite the marginalisation orchestrated against the Igbos in all aspects of life in Nigeria. The rest of Nigeria should also move on from the war and avoid reopening already healed wounds. We have provided our selves with basic amenities where neither the state nor fed govts provided any. Today, through the joint efforts of Igbos at home and Diaspora, almost all villages in Igbo land have electric poles and transformers (now inherited by Power Holding) and have electricity as much as NEPA allows.

Igbos have displayed that they eager to participate in nation building. Others should regard Igbos as equal partners in nation building. There is strength in diversity as long as there is equity. Let the sleeping dog lie.