₦airaland Forum

Katsumoto:
Operation Damissa (NMTC Training exercise) finished at approximately 1.30 AM on the morning of the coup. After the completion of the coup, Nzeogwu (training officer) called a meeting in the bush with the officers involved except for those in field battery NAA. Those that attended believed they were going to discuss the training exercise. Nzeogwu then informed them about the situation in the country and that they were about to be engaged in a coup. He then proceeded to tell these officers their tasks that morning of the coup. 2nd Leuitenants that were present were

Kpera
Ileabachi
Ogoegbunam Ibik
Okafor
Ezedima 
Eghagha
Waribor
Omeruah

Not everyone that participated in the coup was arrested. I believe that the Army decided to either arrest or release based on involvement. I believe that those who could prove that they were following orders or were used for mundane tasks such as setting roadbloacks, manning radio stations, etc. weren't arrested. This is why their names are included in the official special branch report but missing from the list of plotters.

Amen

Now you have stated what you feel is right and correct to suit you. There are different accounts to what you just wrote but I wont be "quoting" and "unquoting" this time. Anyways nice try.

Katsumoto:
Correction, there was one non-Igbo plotter, Ademoyega.

Dnt be a liar.

Who were these men and why were they detained?
Lt. Fola Oyewole
Capt. Ganiyu Adeleke.
Lt. Olahimefun.

Also, why do you react so fast to discredit Ademoyega when He said It's not an Igbo coup. Are you more Yoruba than him or were you involved in putting off the coup?

By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South

AN inter-state kidnap syndicate, allegedly comprising the son of a royal father, a native doctor, businessmen and political thugs, which specialized in kidnapping the rich and ripping off dollars and Naira from them, has been uncovered by security agents in Delta State.


Suspected kidnappers at their hide-out
The kidnap gang, which was connected in high places until it was exposed by the State Security Service, SSS, had, in the past few years, it was learnt, used money to buy its members out of trouble and prison custody. The gangsters used the hotel of a royal father in the state as a hideout and cover for their hideous operations.

Out of luck

Luck, however, ran out on the gang when security agents trapped an alleged member at a spot where he came to pick up ransom demanded by the syndicate from the relations of a victim at Petroleum Training Institute, PTI, Road, Effurun, near Warri.

He was arrested and, subsequently, led security agents to a hotel, owned by the royal father, which his son and other members of the gang were allegedly using as a hiding place and ‘detention camp’.

The arrest of the monarch’s son for alleged kidnapping caused a stir in Delta State, but strings were, it was learnt, already being pulled to “kill” the matter.

Found with the syndicate at the time of arrest were said to be two AK 47 rifles with 35 and 29 rounds of live 5.66 mm caliber ammunition.

Security agents alleged that the kidnappers imprisoned their victims, ranging from federal permanent secretaries to business tycoons and lawyers.

Sunday Vanguard investigations into the activities of the gang showed that it had a network of information around the country and that between November 8 – 14, 2009 , the gang sub-divided itself to kidnap at least nine persons from various locations in the country.

The operations reportedly took place in Kaduna, Niger, Kogi and Abuja while the victims were hidden in the hotel owned by the royal father in Delta.

Escapade

For instance, the syndicate allegedly kidnapped Aminu Ya’u from Ibadan, Oyo State and demanded $130,000 dollars from his family. The sub-group reportedly went to Minna, the capital of Niger State, on November 8, 2009, kidnapped one Adamu Umar, mni, a permanent secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Strategy, Minna, and brought him to the monarch’s hotel in Delta from where a ransom of N30 millon cash was made to his family with threats of killing him if their demand was not met, while it demanded N10 million cash from the families of Abubakar Tafa and Mbaume Ngodoo respectively.

They also reportedly kidnapped, on the same day, along Okene-Auchi Road, one Dr. Abdulgani Abubakar of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Abuja, and placed a ransom of N20 million cash on his head with threats to eliminate him if their demand was ignored.

Mr. Jacob Ipadeola Adeniji, believed to be the owner of Abamise Sawmill, Ijaye, Iseyin Road, Ibadan, it was learnt, was also kidnapped same day by the gang and a ransom of US130,000 dollars demanded with threats to slaughter him if the family did not play ball.

On their way back to Delta State from the escapades in the northern and south western parts of the country, the gang, Sunday Vanguard gathered, stopped at Ekpoma, Edo State and kidnapped the chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Nathaniel Inegbedion, and two of his children, while the team that went to Ekiti State returned to base with the then Secretary to the State Government, SSG.

On arrival in Delta, the kidnap gang, according to security sources, took the victims to a different hotel before they were later shepherded to the hotel, owned by the monarch, where contacts were established with their various relatives, demanding for ransom.

One of the security sources said that a brother of one of the victims, identified as Aliyu, was asked to bring $100,000 to a hotel in Benin City, Edo State, on November 12, 2009, where one of the kidnappers was waiting, while the balance of $30,000 was to be handled by another gang member.

On November 14, 2009, one of the suspected kidnappers allegedly took Aminu Ya’u and two other victims in a Honda Accord saloon car to Agofure Motor Park, on the Petroleum Training Institute, PTI, Road, Warri, to collect the $30,000.

Three of the victims were released after the money was handed over to the suspect, but he was shot while trying to escape by security agents, who acted on a tip off.

Arrest /shootout

From information gathered by Sunday Vanguard, some of the suspects went to collect 2$0,000 ransom from the family of one of the victims in Benin City, Edo State, not knowing that security men had laid trap for them. An alleged member of the gang, Charles, was arrested.

SSS, which had gotten some information, was said to have then lured some other members of the gang to Mobil Filling Station, Enerhen to collect ransom.

The suspected kidnappers, Sunday Vanguard gathered, were driving towards Deco Junction, Warri, when a combined team of the army and police, which had been placed on alert, saw them and opened fire.

One of the kingpins was hit, but he managed to call his girlfriend. He was picked up and stayed six months receiving treatment before he was arraigned.

Bail

The gang allegedly secured bail for him at the Federal High Court, Benin City, but SSS re-arrested him and flew him to Abuja and charged him and others to a magistrate court to get a remand order.

However, during one of the visits of the FCT chief judge to the prisons, he ordered that the suspects be transferred to Warri area since the matter is in Delta.

Escape from prisons

Seven suspected members of the gang were taken to Ogwashi-Uku Prisons, where they reportedly arranged to escape. Sunday Vanguard learnt that some prison officials declined to be part of the plan, but it was carried out after all, with a phony accident, while the suspects were being taken to court. Five of them escaped while only two were later charged to court in Warri.

The five who escaped from detention were said to have joined in more kidnap operations in Lokoja. It was their newest escapades that reportedly led to the capture of the monarch’s son, who, as learnt, assaulted a man that was kidnapped alongside his wife for allegedly daring him.

One of the other kidnappers, according to sources, gave a motor mechanic in Warri part of his loot to buy a bus for him, but, unfortunately for him (mechanic), he was named by the suspect and security agents swooped on his workshop to arrest him. The mechanic is, however, not a member of the gang from information gathered by Sunday Vanguard, but he is currently suffering with the gangsters.

Lifestyle

Before the sword of Damocles fell on the gang, the members had collected $130,000 dollars from Aminu Ya’u and N1.5 million from Inegbedion, and released them.

The kidnappers lived a very affluent life just as it was learnt that one of them, who travelled out of the country at the wake of the siege on the gang by security agents, has just returned to the country.

They drove in expensive cars and women flocked around them because they spent money lavishly.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/07/end-of-the-road-for-notorious-kidnapping-ring-2/

Two persons have been arraigned before a Bauchi Chief Magistrate’s Court for allegedly bewitching one Hafsatu Sani in the last four years.

Those charged before the court sitting in Warji Local Government Area of the state are Adamu Mamuda and Ibrahim Ganye.

According to the Prosecutor, Inspector Mato Albasu, the two accused persons conspired among themselves and held the said ‘’Hafsatu Sani by witch craft ins the last four years contrary to section 216 of the Penal Code.’’

The prosecutor stated that one of the suspects, Adamu, confessed that “she took away the spirit of Hansatu and gave it to Ibrahim and that presently the spirit is under the custody of Ibrahim. Hafsatu will not be delivered until the two of them crossed over her.”

Ibrahim also agreed that Adama gave him the ‘’spirit of Hafsatu’’, but said that he would not release it because Adamu used the ‘’spirit to pay the debt he (Adamu)’’ reportedly owed him.

However, after a long argument, the duo agreed to release the victim’s spirit after they had crossed over her in court and later gone into the bush and brought some traditional medicine which they administered on her.


http://newnigerianpolitics.com/2011/07/21/2-docked-in-bauchi-over-alleged-witchcraft/

henry101:
A 34-year old man, Effiong Edet, who touched a woman’s bosom without her consent has been sent to Kirikiri Prison Apapa, Lagos State Southwest Nigeria.
He was remanded after he was arraigned before the court for allegedly assaulting a woman, Adijatu Sanni.
Adijatu also claimed that Edet did not only touch her bosom, but also fondled her, including  her private part thereby debasing her as a woman.
The embittered woman lamented that since Edet[b] has touched her bosom and private part[/b], he has used her to satisfy his intimate desire without her consent.
She went to Trinity Police Station and reported that Edet assaulted her.
The police arrested and charged him to Apapa Magistrate’s court for assault under Sections 358 and 355 of the criminal code cap 17 Vol. 2 Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria.
When the charge was read to him, he pleaded not guilty.
The presiding Magistrate, Mrs. A K Shonubi, granted the accused bail.
He was remanded in Kirikiri Prison Apapa, pending when he will fulfil his bail conditions.
Edet was alleged to have assaulted Adijatu by touching her bosom and her private part while she was going home after work.


http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2011/06/27/man-remanded-for-touching-woman%E2%80%99s-bosom/

Wetin dey do some men, Which kain spiritual congi be dis?

A 34-year old man, Effiong Edet, who touched a woman’s breast without her consent has been sent to Kirikiri Prison Apapa, Lagos State Southwest Nigeria.
He was remanded after he was arraigned before the court for allegedly assaulting a woman, Adijatu Sanni.
Adijatu also claimed that Edet did not only touch her breast, but also fondled her, including  her private part thereby debasing her as a woman.
The embittered woman lamented that since Edet has touched her breast and private part, he has used her to satisfy his sexual desire without her consent.
She went to Trinity Police Station and reported that Edet assaulted her.
The police arrested and charged him to Apapa Magistrate’s court for assault under Sections 358 and 355 of the criminal code cap 17 Vol. 2 Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria.
When the charge was read to him, he pleaded not guilty.
The presiding Magistrate, Mrs. A K Shonubi, granted the accused bail.
He was remanded in Kirikiri Prison Apapa, pending when he will fulfil his bail conditions.
Edet was alleged to have assaulted Adijatu by touching her breast and her private part while she was going home after work.


http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2011/06/27/man-remanded-for-touching-woman%E2%80%99s-breast/

I am not saying Abia's IGR is the highest but the state got the money to pay the minimum wage and build the necessary infrastructure through the IGR, Aba, Nddc and Fed allocation.

[quote author=alj_harem link=topic=717570.msg8758027#msg8758027 date=1311217101]op

u are looking trouble [/quote]It's not trouble but it shows how foolish that Orji can be. How can a state that have a big city like Aba still complain about money?
The money coming out from Aba and the state's NDDC allocation is enough to do what is right. Imo state is doing good now because of Rochas determination to put out corruption and remember there is nothing like Aba in Imo state.
Just use the money you have and things will go on well.

[quote author=Negro_Ntns link=topic=400813.msg8749141#msg8749141 date=1311108938]To the question " Are people of onucha-ugbo of Igbo descent"!

The answer is no. The etymology of the name "Onucha", "Onuche", "Onitsha", "Onitcha" and many similarly spelt names as well as "Ugbo", "Igbo". . . .are origination of and with root meaning in Yoruba tongue.

Therefore, Onucha-Ugbo or other forms of which it is spelt is indeed an adulteration and mispell of the original; Orisha-Igbo.[/quote]You still dey use grammar when there are several Igbo towns in the west without finding any grammar to clssify it.
Dnt make me start mentioning names,

Seun:
Don't think I moved that one, but really, it's a sectarian issue and should be in the sectarian issues section.

So who moved it?
abi you wan talk say na your backroom mods?

Haters go die a fast or slow one,


My Life As Secretary to Zik of Africa - Mrs. Morenike Sawyerr Hutchfull

2 July 2011


She was a super secretary and had the rare privilege of serving a famous President as well as a colonial Governor-General. Mrs. Edith Morenike Sawyerr Hutchfull was at various times the secretary to Nigeria's first president, the legendary Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (The Great Zik of Africa), and his predecessor, the colonial Governor-General James Robertson. Now 87, Mama Saro, as she is popularly known around her Yaba residence, recalls the good old days in a rare conversation with Agatha Emeadi.


Read more,

http://allafrica.com/stories/201107080867.html

Zik, the most detribalised Nigerian,

Haters can die a slow or fast death. The choice is always yours,
Zik is mentioned on the african continent whenever great africans are mentioned
Zik the African,


The continent of Africa makes up over 14 percent of the world’s population, second only to Asia’s 60 percent. With close to a billion inhabitants and 54 sovereign countries, there’s no denying the magnitude of her global importance.

She is home to Egypt, the first, and to date, the greatest civilization the world has ever known – her great pyramids built by incredible ingenuity and mental prowess, which still to date elude and confound the brightest archaeological minds. To add, Africa hails as the richest continent in the world, not only in natural resources, but also in her production of intellectual capital.

However, isn’t it curious to note that with all her potential, she is resident with the highest percentage of poor peoples and curiously the most underprivileged? It is even more soberly to find she’s ridden with the highest levels of illiteracy the world over, and is ranked the least developed of all the earth’s continents.

Has anyone ever stop to really ask the question, “why?” How can a continent be this rich, and yet so poor?

… I once came across this great quote that read, “The answer to Africa’s problems is not ‘aid in Africa’, ‘but made in Africa’”. This is the statement that encapsulates this spirit of the new Africans referred to as “the cheetahs” by Economist George Ayittey.

Consider this, not only is she naturally endowed with self-sustaining resources such as oil, diamonds, gold, iron, cobalt, uranium, copper, bauxite, silver, petroleum, but also the best of woods and tropical fruits. If this is true, why are none of these noted as “made in Africa”?

Africa is home to some of the world’s greatest minds. On the list are names like Dennis Brutus, Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Arthur Nortie, Kofi Awoonor, Lenrie Peters, Jared Angira, John Pepper Clark, Chinua Achebe, Glynn Burridge, Susan Kiguli? These are poets and authors that have left indelible marks in world history during the course of their life and work.

What about influencers like: Nelson Mandela, a living legend. Kwame Nkrumah, former president of Ghana? What about the great Julius Nyerere, former president of Tanzania? Shaka Zulu, the Zulu king and military genius? Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first president of independent Nigeria, who popularly was dubbed ‘Zik of Africa’? These are a few of those who have honorably lived and or laid their lives down for our continent – the ones who understood that ‘it is better to die free than to live in bondage’.

I find myself constantly bombarding my heart with questions like, “how can I forward this sacred movement?” “What one thing can I do today to ensure that their life and death were not in vain?” “How do I restore honor to this great land of mine?”

My friends, if we’ve learned anything from history, it is that we, as a people, must choose to forget the horrid memories that has, in the past, haunted and disempowered us. We must, instead, view them as a mirror, and see only the shadow that reflects the light of this generation’s awakening. It is incumbent on Africa’s youth to take this baton that is being passed on by those who have gone before us. We must rise to the occasion and accept our responsibility.

… This is our inheritance!
… It is our destiny!!
… This is our time!!!


http://www.theafropolitanexperience.com/2011/04/06/why-africa-now/

Yes You all want stories,
Zik the African


The NCNC Political Training School was set up at Yaba in Lagos and apart from our youths who were trained in the school, Zik extended his hand of fellowship to contemporaries like Kaunda, Nyerere, and Banda to send their youths for training. Many of the youths who passed through this school at Yaba were to become Ministers and Leaders in various fields in their countries. I remember such names as Tom Mboya, Odinga Oginga and Sam Nujoma who later became the President of South West Africa.

He came to us as leader of his party, South West Peoples Organization (SWAPO). Among the teachers in the school may be mentioned, Ogoegbunam Dafe, Chudi Akunyili, Kola Balogun, Mokwugwo Okoye, my humble self and Fred. Mc Ewen.

ZIK and Mandela
In 1961, the racist government of South Africa and British Intelligence were furiously looking for Nelson Mandela. He was obliged to take refuge in Nigeria, and Zik, the Governor_General, assigned him to live with me at Ikoyi. I was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Information.

Mandela lived with me at No.5 Okotie –Eboh Street, Ikoyi for more than four months. About the fifth month, Mandela soliloquized openly to my hearing, “for how long must I continue in this hide and seek game. I’d better go back to South Africa to give leadership to the people; if they kill me, my death will inspire the other nationalists to continue the struggle until total victory is won”.

Haters can continue to hate,
Zik the Pan African, Speech in Washington 1949,


(1949) Nnamdi Azikiwe Addresses Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity at its 35th Annual Convention in Washington, D.C


Here Nnamdi Azikiwe, future first President of Nigeria, delivers an address to his fellow fraternity members at the Banneker High School Auditorium, Washington, D.C., on December 27, 1949, at the 35th Anniversary of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity.

I have travelled 8,500 miles in order to be present on this momentous occasion. It took me less than 40 hours to make the trip by aeroplane, in two stages, thanks to modern scientific knowledge. I bring you greetings from Sigma men who are scattered over the continent of Africa. In concert with their comrades-in-arms they are playing their part in the great awakening which has gripped that continent of everlasting spring, having been imbued with the idea of ‘Culture for service and service for humanity’.

What is the nature of the struggle for national freedom in contemporary Africa? What are the forces at work to intensify that struggle? What is the reaction of the African people towards national realization? What is the role of the United States in this attempt of the African towards national self-determination? These are some of the issues I shall attempt to clarify within the limited time at my disposal. Throughout Black Africa, a struggle for national freedom is in the offing, because factors of imperialism have stultified the normal growth of Africans in the community of nations. Consequently, our indigenous people present a sorry spectacle of degraded humanity. Politically, they are dominated by alien races and are denied the basic human rights. Socially, the African has been made to witness discrimination of different kinds against him in his own native land. Economically, the African has been subjected to exploitation of a most heinous type, whilst he vegetates below the minimum subsistence level of existence. Yet, in spite of his plight he has become self-assertive and he is demanding a place in the sun.

What forces have been at work to intensify this struggle of the African for self-determination? Let me take the liberty of referring to comments made by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt during the World War II, when it appeared that certain sections of American society were diffident in participating wholeheartedly in the war. She said: ‘We are fighting a war today so that individuals all over the world may have freedom. This means an equal chance for every man to have food and shelter and a minimum of such things as spell happiness to that particular human personality. If we believe firmly that peace cannot come to the world unless this is true for men all over the world, then we must know in our nation that every man, regardless of race and religion, has this chance. Otherwise we fight for nothing of real value. . . . If the future holds only a repetition of the past, if in each nation there are to be real slaves, even though they do not exist in name, then the boys who say they do not know why they fight have a right to say so. There would be no world worth fighting for and the only men who would have any reason for fighting would be the professional soldiers who fight for the love of fighting.’

That was precisely what happened to the African. He was persuaded to fight in order to free European nations. His reward was denial of freedom and the tightening of the chains of servitude. Due to the forces of intolerance, prejudice, ignorance, pride, and superstition, those whose homes were bombed by the V1 and V2 bombs, those who had suffered the humiliation of the concentration camp—refugees, displaced persons, kings without kingdoms, ‘Governments’ without countries—these ungrateful Europeans continued the enslavement of their former comrades-in-arms, after winning the war. Thus they have failed to win the peace. Today, man is still a wolf to man, and the teeming millions of Africans have been denied the heritage of democracy, despite their sacrifices in two world wars for its attainment.

I think that the Government and the people of the United States can play a creditable role in the attempt of the African to achieve freedom in his life-time. Emerging from World War II not only as an arsenal but a bastion of democracy, the United States has been presented by history with an opportunity for constructive statesmanship on the continent of Africa. Having been educated in the United States, I could be expected to be steeped in the traditions of Jeffersonian democracy. But that cannot make me blind to any situation which might stunt the natural development of my people towards an independent national existence. At times, I am perplexed at the role of the United States on the African continent. Is this great nation buttressing the forces of European reaction so as to manacle the people of Africa and thwart their legitimate aspirations towards nationhood?

It is obvious that the United States Government is assuming some responsibility for the development of the under-developed areas of the world. We who live in some of these under-developed areas are profoundly gratified that such a great nation should realize the urgent need for this economic step. The proposal of the Point Four Programme by President Harry S. Truman is indicative that this part of the world feels that its economic life is affected by the conditions which have caused stagnation in underdeveloped areas, comprising more than half the people of the world. Perhaps it is fitting at this moment to interject an old adage familiar to all of you, that no economic chain can be stronger than its weakest link. From the fact that more than half the chain is weak, it follows that the economic mooring of the world is not too secure.

It is commendable that at this moment in the course of world history, when cold war propaganda has such an unnerving effect on the more highly developed nations, President Truman should propose something that should lighten the tension of this ideological warfare. Such a project is ripe with possibilities that may save the world from a war more devastating than the two struggles that most of us have witnessed in our life-time. The crux of this programme seems to me in a large measure to be the solution of the problem with which we are confronted in West Africa. Moreover, it is a denunciation of the old imperialistic policies based on exploitation of less fortunate people that has heretofore set the world asunder. It means that the people of the western world may look forward to a more bountiful life; that they may feel that they can enter more freely in the competitive struggle to satisfy their human wants. The effect on the people of Africa can be better imagined.

But is there a deeper economic significance to the Point Four Programme? Is it possible that the under-developed areas contain raw materials which the United States must have because the stock-pile reserves are getting dangerously low? To an African who has been conditioned to expect many strange behaviour patterns in international relations, in so far as these patterns have affected Africa, the questions seem to cast the twin shadows of doubt and fear. I am optimistic enough to believe that President Truman must have fully realized that in spite of the urgent need for replenishing the stock-pile of priority materials, such as cocoa, tin, columbite, bauxite, palm products, uranium and so on, which abound in my country, all under-developed areas must be invited to participate in a programme that has the potential ingredient for establishing more firmly the four freedoms so essential to a free world.

One feels that the President had rightly put the aims and objectives of his country first. It follows that all advantages for that country must be considered. That, again, is as it should be for the best interest of this country. But we who live on the other side of the world could derive many benefits from these co-operative efforts. Naturally, our aim would be to work vigorously for the success of such a programme. In it we can visualize a turn of events which can lead ultimately to our independence.

However, the general nature of the President’s Point Four Programme has elicited different interpretations from various interests. Big business in America, for instance, sees it as a new avenue for private ventures and from all appearances suggests that the Government guarantees security of operation against risk. While, on the other hand, the British authorities have interpreted the Point Four Programme as a new device for bridging Britain’s dollar gap. in the light of this latter interpretation, which is very vital to the struggle we are making for freedom, it is heartening to know that the United States is not necessarily in accord with Britain on this score. This may suggest the reason for the Kennan Report’s recommendation of an on-the-spot study of the African situation. It may hasten the day when the United States and Britain must re-orient their policies in respect of future relations with Africa as an under-developed area.

Sources:

Nnamdi Azikiwe, Zik: A Selection from the Speeches of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Governor-General of the Federation of Nigeria formerly President of the Nigerian Senate formerly Premier of the Eastern Region of Nigeria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961).

http://www.blackpast.org/?q=1949-nnamdi-azikiwe-addresses-phi-beta-sigma-fraternity-its-35th-annual-convention-washington-d-c

[quote author=Jenifa_ link=topic=716755.msg8750601#msg8750601 date=1311132773]Ken Saro Wiwa must be rolling in his grave
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-700671.0.html[/quote]Hahaha, that thread starter was either becomrich or Alh Harem,
Thats what they do creating hate threads.

jason123:
I mean an Ogoni man. Basically, you expect an Ijaw to speak for an Ogoni or what?? And, even if he wanted Biafra, what was the average Ogoni man thinking?? Those are, to me, the right questions . . .
@ First highlighted
This is subjective. If we dabble into that, we will never end the argument.

@ The rest
He is not as much as the Igbos or the Ijaws. The think the population of the Ogonis was 500 000 back then compared to the millions of Igbos and Ijaws.

There were ogonis who fought for Biafra, It's left for you as usual to find on google who they were,

jason123:
Let's learn to respect neighbouring ethnic groups by first of all, stopping the "minority" statement. It is demeaning. Again, this is not about Igbos . . .

That is very true!!!

He did not want his people in Biafra. Is it too much to respect his people's wishes??

There are people who are Igbo who never wanted or supported Biafra?
When you guys say minorities were never involved, I wonder where you get the stories from.
Who provided the name Biafra? Who was the second in command to Ojukwu. Their alliance was divided and never full. Do you know otueke in bayelsa fought for Biafra? Same for other minorities too.
Igbo this and Igbo that will choke some or more people one day.


[quote author=Ileke-IdI link=topic=716755.msg8750529#msg8750529 date=1311131679]Aww so Nneka did not remember Ojukwu?

Once the dude is dead, he wont be remembered outside of Igboland, that's how its looking o. Atleast Awolowo is still feared outside of SW NIgeria.[/quote]Hahaha, thank God you watched an Igbo girl's video.
She even sees herself as a warri/ niger delta girl in her videos.
Did you not see her mention Biafra? When Biafra comes up why do you need Ojukwu's name to be mentioned. It's like tautology, lol,

jason123:
Bliss4lyfe . .
The NATIONAL capital was in Lagos then. That was not Awo's idea. In fact, Awo always wanted federalism not the current structure we practise today. Check Awoism.

@ You first line
[b] This is knew to me . . . [/b] .

@the rest
Don't make this about Igbo . . .
These are the "owners" of Nigeria . . .

It is new because you dig up threads that say all the negatives about the igbo to suit your lifestyle as a confused tribalist.

jason123:
Who is this born idi.ot called jason?? Can you please point out a tribalist thread I have put out, of recent Are you a foo.l Jason is a  Bloody basta.rd.

Hahaha see this confused tribalist/mad man.

His death is regrettable,
Didnt He beg the Igbos later? He attended one of the Igbo functions and pleaded the igbo should support his cause for the Ogoni people. That was the famous talk of "good morning" by Ojukwu, I dnt knw if I am right about this.


Umu oma please watch Nneka in her new music video (July 2011) singing about the Niger Delta especially Isaac Boro and kan Saro Wiwa,


[flash=400,400]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkDgnVJa7SU[/flash]

[quote author=ekt_bear link=topic=488326.msg8750373#msg8750373 date=1311129430]Coker Commission report on Awolowo appears to have been a shammockery:

http://books.google.com/books?id=3FHvvW1TclIC&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=coker+commission+of+inquiry&source=bl&ots=RiC1pRYU4O&sig=Lfrj1L6o8h1l-q2nxVBtu76n1FU&hl=en&ei=QT4mTtm4NaTiiAKDzJneCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=coker%20commission%20of%20inquiry&f=false[/quote]Now was it proven that Awo was corrupt or not in the reference you posted?
I didnt want to turn this thread to a Zik vs Awo thread but Eko ile in his usual rascal and toutist adedibuist character derailed this thread.
If anyone was tried and found guilty, then He's culpable to the crime he committed.
If Awo had felt he was not guilty then show me where He appealed.
Awo had the best for the west, which was better but Zik had the best for Nigeria which was the best wrt the black movement and the cry for African independence.
People can argue about their philosophy and their life style which is also a good discourse but turning it to a tribal cyber warfare like Eko Igbe has done is crazy and uncalled for.

[quote author=alj_harem link=topic=716693.msg8749975#msg8749975 date=1311119793]Senu if that is so, then you can see that freedom of speech thing on the INTERNET is destroying Nigeria and also not all Speech is meant to be free. Take a look at You tube, not all comments are allowed to stay, they get deleted,  why can't the same be used on Nairaland but instead delete topic that is meant to incite tribal hatred.

Once it is not political then delete it or move it to tribalism section.

Misuwa has been talking of secession all this while, you have not ban him. WHY ?

Once the poster is not intelligent enough to discuss intelligently without adding igbo, yoruba, hausa/fulani, SW, SE, north are this and that etc then they should be banned[/quote]Just shut the hell up,
Should I bring up the countless threads you with your other IDs and your other confused tribalist, Jason, have been putting up about the Igbo?
You spend so much time on every Igbo thread and also trying to put up your dirty antics on a P-square thread you created.
You are so evil.
As for Seun and whoever his deputy is, have repeatedly failed to do the right thing.
NL politics is the number one hate site in the world after youtube.

Eko Ile:
A sad reflection of your own lack of anything about the history of Nigeria.



Btw,

You be proper opuno and a real confirmed arse licking ode,

Now answer the question I asked, was Awolowo a corrupt public official?

The collaboration of other parts of Nigeria would be understandable, seeing that by 1964, the Eastern region was already touted as the fastest growing economy in the world by research reports commissioned by the World Bank and by Harvard University in the United States.

The Eastern Nigerian Economic reconstruction plan (1954-1964) - the ten year plan - drawn by the visionary Zik, and the eminently brilliant Mbonu Ojike, the most acute economic mind of that generation of argonauts, and later fully implemented by the inimitable Michael Okpara, had placed the East on a development route, [b]that by the 1960s all the talk of "Igbo domination" was merely a metaphor of the progress in the East.

The institutions like the African Continental Bank,
Eastern Nigerian Development Corporation,
University of Nigeria ,
Nigercem,
Nigergas,
Nigersteel,
Factory,glass industries,
hotels,
farm settlements,
Aba Textile company,
Golden Guinea Breweries in Umuahia,
Standard Shoe Factory in Owerri,
Industrial which is still in existence and in good use today, etc.
The products and services of these institutions and businesses were first class. Thus, people had full employment. With the economy growing annually at between 10 and 12%, the Eastern Nigerian economy was one of the fastest growing worldwide.

The Eastern Nigerian government was the pacesetter in development and the regional governments in the West and the North responded almost like copycats. For instance, when the University of Nigeria was established in 1960 with campuses at Nsukka and Calabar, the Akintola government responded in 1962 by building the University of Ife now named Obafemi Awolowo University and the Northern Regional government replied by building Ahmadu Bello University at Zaria. Also when Zik built the African Continental Bank to help in the formation of indigenous capital and the empowerment of our people who could not obtain bank facilities from the foreign owned banks of those years, Awolowo quickly built the National Bank and the Sardauna established Bank of the North. When Okpara employed the services of the Israelis to build Nigeria's first farm settlements, the Western Nigerian government quickly followed suit.


Now you can see it all,

Seun:
Actually, I'm the one who moved that thread. I have heard you and I'll think about it.

But first, let me ask you a question. Who is the number 1 Igbo tribalist on Nairaland?

And who's the number one queen of a tribalist on NL that have continued to post and curse people?

You didnt ask further about your sycophants who have turned every Igbo thread to an Igbo bashing award ceremony?

You have left Eko ile alias babapupa to bash a group of people because someone brought up a thread about lagos or his gay lover Tinubu,

Dnt be a hypocrite, You act and behave like one,

Eko Ile:
@henry101


Stop posting these ridiculous and laughable nonsense, millions of Nigerians went the the US and the UK to learn and the same millions achieved way way more than ZIK.

lol,
It is now riduculous and laughable nonsense but you posted too,
But dnt dodge my question. Was Awolowo convicted as a corrupt public official?

[quote author=alj_harem link=topic=488326.msg8750231#msg8750231 date=1311126489]how is this relevant to the question asked

ok don't worry, forget about the question[/quote]yeah when you dont want to read and understand what the content says then you are a fool,
you act like an eediottt all day, digging up stoppoid threads and making fun of Igbo people,
Gowon, muritala, and your demi-gods put together tried in the past with guns and bombs but they didnt succeed. What makes you think you can?
I know you and know exactly what you do. You live a stoopooid fake life.
You ungrateful son of a mallam,
I am waiting for the next igbo topic, if you dnt you will choke and have nightmares about Igbo,
You retarded tribalist,

Eko Ile:
This is why ignorant illiterates like you need to stay out of intellectual conversations.

It's very hard to participate without adequate and basic knowledge of your own history and the history of Nigeria hence the ignorant assertions by many ibo olodos on NL.

The father of Nationalism was Herbert Macaulay and Herbert and others fought for our independence.


The quote below shows Ziks corrupt and sad history as a public official.

Hahahaha, You so much a fool,
Now get it, Was Awolowo corrupt? Yes or No?

In Praise of  “Zik of Africa” On His 100th Birthday (Posthumously)

By

Mobolaji E. Aluko
alukome@comcast.net



November 16,  2004



INTRODUCTION

If Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe had been alive today, he would have turned 100 on this blessed day of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  

Posthumous birthday felicitations to him!

So I use the occasion to rise to toast Zik  and once again reflect on him – on his contribution to Nigeria, but particularly to the Igbos, right from when Zik allegedly stowed away to the United States in 1925, returned to Africa in 1934 and to Nigeria in 1937,  and became Nigeria’s first indigenous Governor-General in 1960, and its first (non-executive) President in 1963.

I fully assert that next to God Almighty himself, Zik gave the Igbos the self-esteem that they rightly have today, for without Zik's personal assertiveness and inspiration in education, I fear that the Igbos would not be where they were today!  God may have raised some body else up for the Igbos, but He chose to raise Zik up, and Zik did a darn good job of it.


THE EARLY YEARS

I will begin by "cutting and pasting" a little.   While reading, please recall that Zik was born in 1904 and Obafemi Awolowo in 1909, to give context to the chronological and cultural milieu into which they were both born:  they are both inextricably tied up with each other in the context of Nigeria’s history.


QUOTE

J.S. Coleman:  Nigeria: Background to Nationalism" (1985)  Broburg and Wistrom, Benin City, Katriheneholm

Iboland is one of the most densely populated rural areas in the world.  In some places the density is more than 1,000 persons to the square mile.  Moreover, the soil is comparatively poor.  As a result, in the past the Ibo expanded territorially and exported to other areas large numbers of seasonal laborers and even semi-permanent residents.  In fact, the Ibo were expanding territorially in many directions at the time of the British intrusion.  Since then this outward thrust has continued and has been the source of anti-Ibo feeling among the tribes bordering Iboland (for example, the Igala, the Idoma, the Tiv, and even the Ibibio.)  The Nigerian historian Dike argues that "perhaps the most important factor conditioning Ibo history in the nineteenth century and in our own time is land hunger,  The Ibos pressing against limited land resources had, of necessity, to seek other avenues of livelihood outside the tribal boundaries."  British policy has been, in effect, one of containment, mainly by supporting the peripheral tribes through land regulations designed to halt Ibo expansion.  But this policy did not prevent Ibos from migrating to other areas, particularly Yorubaland, to work as farm laborers or as servants and unskilled workers.

UNQUOTE


The above are the facts in history, despite some of their jarring nature.  Part of the angst between the Igbos and other ethnic groups in Nigeria, particularly the Yoruba, is the early perception of the Igbos as originally "farm laborers or as servants and unskilled workers", but who, as time has gone by, have transcended such lowly occupations and have gone on to greater things in the life of both their new residences as well as the country.  There is residual resentment on all sides - and still defensiveness on all sides.


QUOTE

Ibid

After British pacification, individual Ibo colonizers steadily drifted to other areas.  During the forty-year period 1911-1951, the number of Ibos in Lagos increased from 264 to 26,000.  In the Northern Provinces there were less than 3,000 Ibos in 1921, and nearly 12,000 in 1931;  by 1951 the number had increased to more than 120,000, excluding settled Ibo minorities along the boundary between Eastern and Western regions.  These figures become more meaningful when it is realized that most of the Ibo immigrants gravitated to the urban centers where wage employment could be obtained.  By the end of World War II Ibo clerks, artisans, traders, and laborers constitution a sizable minority group in every urban center of Nigeria and the Cameroons,
Table 9



UNQUOTE


Note that a hundred times increase in  population in Lagos alone and forty times increase in the Northern provinces of the Igbos within a 40-year period  cannot but  have brought its social problems both to the immigrants and the original "settlers."  It also must be recalled that Nigeria was still a "colony" ruled by the British, and not a "country" ruled by Nigerians yet as we know it today - that was to wait till 1960 - so a feeling of "Nigerianism" was not really as rampant as a feeling of "Anti-Colonialism" - or even of "African-ness".


QUOTE

Ibid

As a consequence of the comparative lack of opportunity in their homeland, and other factors to be noted subsequently, the Ibos embraced Western education with great enthusiasm and determination.  Christian missions were welcomed, and encouraged to set up schools in Iboland.  Village improvement unions sponsored scholarships, and Ibo students flocked to secondary schools in what is now the Western Region.  By the late 1930's the Ibo were more heavily represented than any other tribe or nationality in Yaba Higher College and in most Nigerian secondary schools.  Thenceforward the number of Ibos appointed to the African civil service and as clerks in business firms increased at a faster rate than that of any other group.  By 1945 the gap between Yorubas and Ibos was virtually closed.  Increasing numbers of Ibo barristers and doctors began to arrive from England.  By 1952 the number of Ibos (115) enrolled at University College, Ibadan, was nearly equal to the number of Yorubas (118).  The influx of Ibos into the towns of the west and the north and their rapid educational development, which made them competitors for jobs and professional positions, were two indicators of their emergence as an active group in Nigerian affairs.

UNQUOTE

Let us reflect a little here:  The Igbo Union was established in 1937, and Zik became its president in 1946; the Nigerian Youth Movement was established 1937 and broke up effectively in 1941 after some altercations between Zik and Awolowo over Akinsanya and Ernest Okoli.  The National Council of Nigerian and the Cameroons (NCNC) was established in 1944 as a counterpoise to NYM (first president was Herbert Macaulay, with Zik becoming president when HM died in 1946) and the Egbe Omo Yoruba was formed (by Obafemi Awolowo and co.) in London in 1945 , and imported to Nigeria in 1948.  The Action Group was formed in 1951, discussions of which began secretly in 1950; this was quickly followed by a re-organization of the NCNC,  and the formation of NPC as political parties.  All of this was happening within the time period of the expansion of the Igbo population in Nigeria and particularly in the heartland of the Yoruba.

Zik was clearly at this time in the thick of engaging the Igbos to be major national players.


ZIK AND EARLY EDUCATIONAL IGBO INSPIRATION - AND THE AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION CONNECTION


Before Zik came onto the scene in Nigeria between 1934-37, there was absolutely no Igbo person of note who impacted on ANYTHING going on in Nigeria.  NONE, I mean no one with a clearly identifiable Igbo name!  None.

Then in 1934, Zik, barely  30 years old, started pulling his weight, along with Herbert Macaulay, a Yoruba, who by that time was 74 years old!  There were of course other Yoruba (Sapara Williams, Adeniyi-Jones, Solanke, Alakija, Jibowu, Samuel Akinsanya, HO Davies, etc.) like Macaulay, but Zik was the only Igbo around to begin to pull his weight!

So Zik was the psychological break-through for Igbos among the educated elites  in Nigeria that had to begin to see the Igbos as intellectual equals.  That was a BIG AND HUGE contribution of Zik to the Igbos which is lasting and nobody can take that away from him.

What else did Zik do for the Igbos early on?  He began for Nigeria, but also particularly for Igbos, an AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCE as a counterweight to the neo-colonial BRITISH education which permeated Nigerian - and particularly Yoruba western education.

Let me "cut and paste" again, again recalling that Zik returned from the US to Ghana (then Gold Coast) in 1934, and settled back in Nigeria in 1937:


QUOTE

ibid  p 242 ff

Until 1938 only twenty Nigerians, including Eyo Ita and Nnamdi Azikiwe,had gone to the United States to study.  Most of these pioneers had been sent by missionary societies for religious studies; none of these religious students, except Ita, had returned as active nationalists.  In 1938 twelve Nigerians sailed for America, and not until 1945 did others join them.  Of these twelve, three men were Ibibios sent for higher studies by the Ibibio State Union, and eight were Ibos who had been under the influence of Azikiwe.  Eleven of the twelve went to Lincoln University, Azikiwe's Alma Mater.  The Nigerian students were joined at Lincoln by three Gold Coastians, also inspired by Azikiwe, and a few students from Sierra Leone.  These Africans, educated in America during the war, have been leading figures in postwar nationalism on the West Coast,
Three of the NIgerian students (Mbonu Ojike, Nwafor Orizu, and Ozuomba Mbadiwe - all Ibos) made lecture tours of the United States, and published one or more books each.  Their writings were the first contribution to Nigerian nationalist literature since Azikiwe's "Renascent Africa."  Upon their returne to Nigeria these three became crusaders for American practical - or what Orizu called "horizontal" - education, as contrasted to British literary ("vertical" tradition.  Their agitation in behalf of American education, couple with Azikiwe's great success, was one of the principal reasons for the post-war migration of hundreds of Nigerians to America.  Their propagation of the American educational ideal and their positive nationalism contributed to the antipathy of both the British and the British-educated Nigerians towards American education and American-educated Nigerians.
UNQUOTE

So those of us who are enjoying the US higher education TODAY have Zik, Ojike (who unfortunately died in 1957), Orizu (who was Senate President when the 1966 coup occurred) and Mbadiwe (the colorful Mbadiwe, man of “timber and caliber”) for early acceptance of our American education.  Of course, recognizing that Awo had a British education (going for further “adult” studies in 1944, at the ripe age of 35), the "antipathy" between them might also have this educational dichotomy element in it.

But there was to be more,


ZIK IN INDIGENOUS HIGHER EDUCATION

QUOTE

p. 245ff.

Analysis of the ethnic origins of Nigerians who have studied in the United States during the past three decades reveals a striking predominance of Ibos.  Although the Ibo peoples constitute no more than 17 percent of the total population of Nigeria, until the late 1940s more than two-thirds of the Nigerian students in the United States were Ibos.  As the figures in Table 19 shows, the Ibos were still in the majority as late as 1954

---------------------

Table 19  Ethnic Origin of Nigerian Students in the United States*



*Because numbers have been calculated from lists of names, they are only approximations.  "Others and unknowns" may possibly include several Yoruba who retained their Anglicized names.  The Efiks and Ibibios are counted togehter because it is difficult in most instances for a non-Efik or a non-Ibibio to distinguish between Efik and Ibibio names.

** Nnamdi Azikiwe

---------------------


There are several reasons for the Ibo predominance.  One was the strong influence of Azikiwe, Ojike Mbadiwe, and Orizu, who were among the first-university-educated Ibos and who consciously sought to popularize the virtues of American education.  Indeed, Mbadiwe and Orizu fostered scholarship schemes designed to send Nigerian students to America, and most of the successful candidates were Ibos.  In contrast, most of the older-generation Yorubas had been educated in the United Kingdom, and the later generation tended to adhere to that tradition.  In addition, by 1945, the Ibos were the upcoming group, and the number of Ibos in British universities may well have equaled or exceeded the number of Yorubas.  For by the late 1940s the number of Ibos with a secondary school education, a prerequisite for university training, actually exceeded the number of Yorubas with a similar qualification.  In any event, the preference of Yorubas for British education and of Ibos for American education, coupled with militant Ibo claims of the superiority of American education and of the easier-to-get America degrees, has exacerbated Yoruba-Ibo tension.  As table  19 indicates, however, the differential is rapidly changing.

UNQUOTE

So the influence of Zik in Igbo education in Nigeria was phenomenal, and the competition it engendered with the Yoruba too was helpful to the Yoruba.

It was most likely that Awolowo, thorough man that he was, seeing all of these numbers and developments, with the rampaging quartet of Zik, Orizu, Ojike and Mbadiwe, decided that something drastic had to be done in and for Yorubaland if the Yoruba were not to be completely overwhelmed in the country.  This was not to stop Zik and his cohorts, but rather to ensure that the Yoruba began more consciously and systematically to pull their own weight.

Finally, as one of the many "quid quo pros" to becoming Governor-General of Nigeria in alliance with the NPC, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe negotiated the establishment of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka to start October 1960, with the help of Michigan State University, East Lansing as the first "indigenous" university in Nigeria (UI established in January 1948 started as a college of the University of London)

QUOTE

University Development in Africa - The Nigerian Experience
by Chukwuemeka Ike, OUP, 1976,pp 9 ff


Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who founded Nsukka almost as an antidote to Ibadan, appears also to have been influenced by the Ibadan pattern of development, The University of Nigeria was ceremonially opened on October 7, 1960, as part of the week-long celebrations marking the attainment of political independence by Nigeria on October 1, 1960.  The university was fully autonomous, with the power to grant its own degrees.Technically speaking, therefore, it became the first fully-fledged university in Nigeria, since Ibadan was still at that time a university college granting London degrees.  It also became the first university established by a Nigerian Regional Government,

In the same year, the Report of the Commission on Post-School Certificate and Higher Education in Nigeria (popularly known as the Ashby report) was released.  The commission recommended, inter alia, the establishment of three universities in addition to Ibadan - one in Lagos, one at Zaria in Northern Nigeria (on the site of the Northern branch of the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology) and the third the University of Nigeria which had already been planned by the Eastern Nigeria Government.  Each of the three existing Regions would thus have located in it one centre of higher education, with a fourth university in Lagos,

, Ahmadu Bello University was officially opened in October 1962.  The Western Nigeria Government pressed ahead with its plans to build its own regional university, even though such a university was not among those proposed by the Ashby Commission.  The Federal Governement yielded to the pressure and made available to the Western Nigeria Government the site and assets of the Ibadan branch of the Nigerian College (which were to have been turned over to the University College, Ibadan.)  The University of Ife began to offer classes in October 1962, though the political misfortunes which beset Western Nigeria in the same year prevented the university from making any significant impact until a change of leadership in 1966 provided rays of hope.

Following the Report of the Unesco Advisory Commission for the Establishment of the University of Lagos (Paris, Unesco, 1961), the University of Lagos came into being in 1962 as the second Federal university institution, Ahmadu Bello and Ife being, like Nsukka, regional universities receiving part of their support from the Federal Government. The Enugu branch of the Nigerian College was turned over to Nsukka as a second campus instead of being converted into a full-scale university.

Thus within a space of two years from the date the country attained independence, four brand new universities were established, each empowered to grant degrees.  Ibadan, the oldest university institution, cut its umbilical ord with London in October 1962, becoming the University of Ibadan.  In July 1965, it turned out the first graduates holding Ibadan (rather than London) degrees, by which time Nsukka had produced two crops of graduates and taken all the publicity for turning out the first graduates of an autonomous Nigerian university,

Nsukka has been the most controversial university in Nigeria.  Many within and outside Ibadan were infuriated by its immodest choice of the name : University of Nigeria, a name which Mellamby (then VC of Ibadan) claimed in his "Birth of Nigeria's University" he had tried unsuccessfully to give to Ibadan in its early years,


UNQUOTE

All of the above was due to Zik - Nsukka's pride, the country's pride.  It also served as the motivation for Awolowo in the Western Region  to INSIST on setting up the University of Ife for the Western Region, despite the presence of Ibadan and Lagos FEDERAL universities.


EPILOGUE

In conclusion, it is not a stretch to conclude from all the above that the Igbos OWE a lot of their self-esteem in Nigeria to Zik.  Nigerian higher education also owes a lot to Zik.  I also firmly believe that iron sharpened iron when it came to Zik and Awo:  Awolowo respected Zik FULLY for that visionary aspect of this contemporary of his, despite the mutual distrust that they had for each other throughout their lives.

I have deliberately played down Zik’s contribution to Nigeria’s independence in 1960, because he had a lot of fellow contributors.  I have also played down his contributions from 1960 till he died on May 11, 1996,  because he does come in for a lot of criticisms for those later years – and we don’t wish to talk ill of the dead, certainly not on his birthday.

So on this his 100th birthday, let us all rise to toast Zik of Africa, of Nigeria, of Ndigbo and of Owelle!

Best wishes all.


This is the site you all quote all the time when it is time to bash Igbo,
http://www.dawodu.com/aluko101.htm