₦airaland Forum

Sonyboom765:
Mostly more Biafrans than Nigerian

*HISTORY NEVER DIES....*

*By Reno Omokri*

What Queen Elizabeth II’s Death Exposes About Biafra

First published in my column, #TheAlternative, in today’s ThisDay.

When on Thursday, September 8, 2022, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II passed on into ancestor-hood, I was not particularly moved. I like England. I schooled and worked there and those years were some of the best of my life. The English people are by far some of the most decent peoples on planet Earth.

However, I am rather indifferent about their monarch. I did not like or dislike Queen Elizabeth II. The only thing I can think of that I admire in her is her stoicism. Her ability to take pain and pleasure with equanimity. She is the epitome of duty and a stiff upper lip.

But I doubt that I bothered much about her and her goings on. I was just aloof.

So, while I was not one of those mourning, it was not because I had some grudge against the House of Windsor. No. It is just that the House of Ginuwa (the first Olu of Warri), mattered more to me than Buckingham Palace.

The above not withstanding, I was absolutely mortified by the hideous and historically inaccurate things that were said about the Queen and her family by a Nigerian woman living in America, whose name I will not dignify by mentioning.

I later got to find out that this woman has other issues, which made me understand her bitterness better, though I still vehemently reject her indecorous words.

She was one of the people who famously celebrated the death of TB Joshua and called him all sorts of unprintable names when he died. So it is no big surprise that she has turned her vitriol in the direction of the late Queen.

And so now, let me tackle what the death of Queen Elizabeth II reveals about Biafra. It shows us as a people not aware of our history, and because we are not aware of our own history, we have distorted it, such that propaganda and pseudo history has been orally passed down from one generation to the other, feeding unfounded bitterness that is destroying those who harbour it, and having no effect on those against whom they are embittered.

That is why some people believe they were just sitting down minding their business and Hausa people came to fight them (all Northerners are Hausa to some people) because they hate them. There was absolutely no provocation, or igniting events that preceded the Nigerian Civil War. Hausa people just woke up on the wrong side of the bed and for some strange reason decided to pounce on the people of Eastern Nigeria.

But of course, that is not what happened. However, because we do not write our history, and even worse, we have refused to teach it in our schools, there are millions of people who believe this version of events. In fact, they swear by it.

One fellow named Uche Nnaya even tweeted at me that the Igbos of Southeast Nigeria had a right to rail against the British monarch and the rest of Nigeria, because “you can’t push people to the wall and dictate how they react.”

Really? But do those who hold such views not know that some other persons were FIRST pushed to the wall? Uche’s response will also justify how those who were first pushed to the wall reacted.

We cannot keep holding grudges as if other people do not have their own grudges that they have let go for the peace and unity of this country called Nigeria.

My great uncle, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, was shot and killed in the street by Major Chris Anuforo on January 15, 1966. Ironically, I went to school with Anuforo’s son. Should my people carry that grudge forever?

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was shot on the street like a common criminal by Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna. Ifeajuna tried to deny it, and claimed that Alhaji Balewa died from an asthma attack, until his body was taken to LUTH and examined by the then minister for health, Dr. Moses Majekodunmi. It was established that the body was riddled with bullets in a front page story in Daily Times, written by Segun Osoba, who later became the Governor of Ogun. He is still alive.

This was an incorruptible gentleman. He lived a very ascetic life. Materialism was FAR from him. He was an author. His book, Shaihu Umar, was the first novel written in Hausa. He surrounded himself with Southerners (in hindsight, was that a mistake?). His best friend was Matthew Mbu. Should the Tafawa-Balewa family and the people of Bauchi, where he was from, hold a grudge forever?

I could go on and on and list the people killed on January 15, 1966, and the identities of their killers, but that would just be reopening old wounds. These are historical facts, which some people deny and pretend as if the Civil War happened in a vacuum.

So, please let us stop pretending as if the late Queen Elizabeth II came to Nigeria and ignited a war. The Nigerian Civil War was ignited by a series of unfortunate events that began with the cold blooded murder of 22 people from the Northern, Western, and Mid Western regions by people of mostly Eastern region origin, which led to a counter coup by Northern Nigerian military officers on July 29, 1966, and the unfortunate pogrom of 66-67.

Many people now spewing vitriol against the late Queen Elizabeth II for her alleged role in the Nigerian Civil War conveniently forget that between August 9, 1967 and September 20, 1967, Biafran forces invaded and occupied the Midwest region, and named Albert Nwazu Okonkwo, as military Governor of the Midwest. A number of non Igbo speaking Mid-Westerners lost their lives during the Biafran occupation of the Midwest.

After the Midwest was liberated by forces led by colonels Murtala Muhammed and Benjamin Adekunle, more Mid-Westerners, this time those linguistically linked to the Igbo (especially in the Asaba axis), were killed. Please research it before you insult me.

I need to add that the killings by the liberating forces were worse than the killings of the Biafrans, and should truly have been declared war crimes.

Yet, in that same Midwest, we accepted Nigerians of Southeast origin back after the war. We did not seize their properties in the abandoned property saga that occurred in the Port Harcourt area and its environs. We let bygones be bygones.

The truth of the matter is that If the January 15, 1966 coup had never happened, it is most unlikely that the Nigerian Civil War would have occurred. The perpetrators of that coup opened a Pandora’s Box that the rest of Nigeria are still suffering from today!

There was wild jubilation all over Nigeria after that coup, because Nigerians believed it was a patriotic and nationalistic coup. Then the names of those killed were announced over the radio, and it was discovered that only people from the North, West and Midwest were killed, but NOBODY from the East was killed, whereas the vast majority of those who carried out the coup were from the East.

That is the remote cause of the Nigerian Civil War. We will remember it. We will also teach it to our children, so that it does not reoccur.

So, to just keep nursing grudges and reopening old wounds will do no one any good. You can bully others into submission, but you cannot do it to Reno Omokri. I know history and I am a meticulous record keeper!

It is only those who are ignorant about how the British government works that will blame the late Queen for the actions of the British government. She was a titular and ceremonial head of state, whose actions were limited to appointing the candidate who has won election directly or indirectly as prime minister, and declaring open the parliament. She was a symbol. She was not the initiator of the policies of the British government.

And even the British government are not to blame for the Nigerian Civil War. We must learn to take responsibility for our own actions. That war was the result of the ill advised January 15, 1966 coup.

The coup itself was led by Majors Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna. It was executed by the following persons:

1. Kaduna Nzeogwu
2. Emmanuel Ifeajuna
3. Timothy Onwuatuegwu
4. Adewale Ademoyega
5. Chris Anuforo
6. Humphrey Chukwuka
7. Donatus Okafor

Of these seven people, only one, Adewale Ademoyega, was non Igbo. The rest were all Igbo, although Major Nzeogwu was what was referred to at that time as Midwest Igbo (later colloquially referred to as Bendel Igbo and now as Delta Igbo). Major Donatus Okafor’s mother was Tiv. However, his father was Igbo.

Incidentally, some Igbos unwisely try to deny that Nzeogwu was Igbo, and call him ‘your South-South’ brother. Unknown to them, the more they do this, the more they make non Igbos feel that those specific Igbos who say that have learned very little since the civil war.

22 people were killed during the coup, including

1. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
2. Ahmadu Bello
3. Ahmed Ben Musa
4. Hafsatu Bello
5. Ahmed Pategi
6. Samuel Ladoke Akintola
7. Festus Okotie-Eboh
8. Brig. Samuel Ademulegun
9. Brig. Zakariya Maimalari
10. Col. Ralph Shodeinde
11. Col. Kur Mohammed
12. Lt. Col. Abogo Largema
13. Lt. Col. James Pam
14. Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe
15. Sergeant Daramola Oyegoke
16. Mrs Latifat Ademulegun
17. Zarumi Sardauna
18. PC Yohana Garkawa
19. Lance Corporal Musa Nimzo
20. PC Akpan Anduka
21. PC Hagai Lai
22. Philip Lewande

As is clear from the list above, none of them were from the then Eastern Nigeria. . (I have since learned that Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe was Igbo. He was in charge of weaponry in Lagos, and was killed when he refused to cooperate with Major Chris Anuforo).

After the coup, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi took over. Rightly, or wrongly, the rest of the nation felt that a coup carried out by overwhelmingly Eastern officers, and of which the victims were entirely non Easterners, and which supplanted a Northern minority leader (Tafawa-Balewa), with an Igbo leader, (Aguiyi-Ironsi) was a set up.

However, Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi’s promise to try the coup plotters placated the rest of the country. Sadly, the plotters were jailed, but were never tried. And the immediate cause of the July 29, 1966 counter coup was when rumours circulated that the coup plotters had been receiving full salaries in jail and were to be promoted.

These are facts that we all should address, rather than blaming the late Queen Elizabeth II for a war she did not cause, nor had anyway of stopping. And if we do not learn from our history, there is every possibility that another war might erupt in Nigeria.

The Biafrans inflicted a very harsh occupation on present day Rivers, Cross Rivers and Akwa-Ibom, as well as present day Delta and Edo before they were flushed out by federal forces. The Bayelsa area escaped the brunt of Biafran occupation due to the fight back from Isaac Adaka Boro. They invaded Ore and hundreds of soldiers and civilians died. There is still a Yoruba proverb about the amount of people that died in Ore. Ask a Yoruba person to tell you the meaning of ‘o le ku ija Ore.

We have all forgiven and moved on. Yet, you want to reopen these old wounds and make them cancerous by blaming Queen Elizabeth II 50 years after the war?

And when you point this out, the very same people castigating the late Queen will accuse you of creating ethnic tension? Do you want to be victims and victors at the same time? Leave the woman and her family to grieve in peace. By celebrating the Queen’s death, you are giving Nigeria a very nasty reputation that will affect all of us and not only you. We cannot afford to be seen as a nation with anti British and American sentiments, when we are not able to get a better deal from China and Russia.

Shetemi12:
Just mention their names... We know the region they are from... Dot in a circle region..lol..
Mazi Ebuka

Just wait for them...they will start abusing Abike now. People with entitlement mentality. They threw us into this mess by perpetrating the first coup and killing the leaders of other tribes. They caused all these mess. But they will be the first to shout blue murder.

Imagine wanting to be president of z.oo!!!! And feeling entitled to it.

Awon dot nation...land-locked region..the developers.

Awon were jatijati.

They claimed they have never been president before...what about nnamdi azikiwe...what about aguiyi ironsi??

Jestin:
See stupid Zack Orji with white beard. I used to think people with white beard have wisdom but this man is foolish. Tinubu should host Sango but he is going to where

*HISTORY NEVER DIES....*

*By Reno Omokri*

What Queen Elizabeth II’s Death Exposes About Biafra

First published in my column, #TheAlternative, in today’s ThisDay.

When on Thursday, September 8, 2022, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II passed on into ancestor-hood, I was not particularly moved. I like England. I schooled and worked there and those years were some of the best of my life. The English people are by far some of the most decent peoples on planet Earth.

However, I am rather indifferent about their monarch. I did not like or dislike Queen Elizabeth II. The only thing I can think of that I admire in her is her stoicism. Her ability to take pain and pleasure with equanimity. She is the epitome of duty and a stiff upper lip.

But I doubt that I bothered much about her and her goings on. I was just aloof.

So, while I was not one of those mourning, it was not because I had some grudge against the House of Windsor. No. It is just that the House of Ginuwa (the first Olu of Warri), mattered more to me than Buckingham Palace.

The above not withstanding, I was absolutely mortified by the hideous and historically inaccurate things that were said about the Queen and her family by a Nigerian woman living in America, whose name I will not dignify by mentioning.

I later got to find out that this woman has other issues, which made me understand her bitterness better, though I still vehemently reject her indecorous words.

She was one of the people who famously celebrated the death of TB Joshua and called him all sorts of unprintable names when he died. So it is no big surprise that she has turned her vitriol in the direction of the late Queen.

And so now, let me tackle what the death of Queen Elizabeth II reveals about Biafra. It shows us as a people not aware of our history, and because we are not aware of our own history, we have distorted it, such that propaganda and pseudo history has been orally passed down from one generation to the other, feeding unfounded bitterness that is destroying those who harbour it, and having no effect on those against whom they are embittered.

That is why some people believe they were just sitting down minding their business and Hausa people came to fight them (all Northerners are Hausa to some people) because they hate them. There was absolutely no provocation, or igniting events that preceded the Nigerian Civil War. Hausa people just woke up on the wrong side of the bed and for some strange reason decided to pounce on the people of Eastern Nigeria.

But of course, that is not what happened. However, because we do not write our history, and even worse, we have refused to teach it in our schools, there are millions of people who believe this version of events. In fact, they swear by it.

One fellow named Uche Nnaya even tweeted at me that the Igbos of Southeast Nigeria had a right to rail against the British monarch and the rest of Nigeria, because “you can’t push people to the wall and dictate how they react.”

Really? But do those who hold such views not know that some other persons were FIRST pushed to the wall? Uche’s response will also justify how those who were first pushed to the wall reacted.

We cannot keep holding grudges as if other people do not have their own grudges that they have let go for the peace and unity of this country called Nigeria.

My great uncle, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, was shot and killed in the street by Major Chris Anuforo on January 15, 1966. Ironically, I went to school with Anuforo’s son. Should my people carry that grudge forever?

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was shot on the street like a common criminal by Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna. Ifeajuna tried to deny it, and claimed that Alhaji Balewa died from an asthma attack, until his body was taken to LUTH and examined by the then minister for health, Dr. Moses Majekodunmi. It was established that the body was riddled with bullets in a front page story in Daily Times, written by Segun Osoba, who later became the Governor of Ogun. He is still alive.

This was an incorruptible gentleman. He lived a very ascetic life. Materialism was FAR from him. He was an author. His book, Shaihu Umar, was the first novel written in Hausa. He surrounded himself with Southerners (in hindsight, was that a mistake?). His best friend was Matthew Mbu. Should the Tafawa-Balewa family and the people of Bauchi, where he was from, hold a grudge forever?

I could go on and on and list the people killed on January 15, 1966, and the identities of their killers, but that would just be reopening old wounds. These are historical facts, which some people deny and pretend as if the Civil War happened in a vacuum.

So, please let us stop pretending as if the late Queen Elizabeth II came to Nigeria and ignited a war. The Nigerian Civil War was ignited by a series of unfortunate events that began with the cold blooded murder of 22 people from the Northern, Western, and Mid Western regions by people of mostly Eastern region origin, which led to a counter coup by Northern Nigerian military officers on July 29, 1966, and the unfortunate pogrom of 66-67.

Many people now spewing vitriol against the late Queen Elizabeth II for her alleged role in the Nigerian Civil War conveniently forget that between August 9, 1967 and September 20, 1967, Biafran forces invaded and occupied the Midwest region, and named Albert Nwazu Okonkwo, as military Governor of the Midwest. A number of non Igbo speaking Mid-Westerners lost their lives during the Biafran occupation of the Midwest.

After the Midwest was liberated by forces led by colonels Murtala Muhammed and Benjamin Adekunle, more Mid-Westerners, this time those linguistically linked to the Igbo (especially in the Asaba axis), were killed. Please research it before you insult me.

I need to add that the killings by the liberating forces were worse than the killings of the Biafrans, and should truly have been declared war crimes.

Yet, in that same Midwest, we accepted Nigerians of Southeast origin back after the war. We did not seize their properties in the abandoned property saga that occurred in the Port Harcourt area and its environs. We let bygones be bygones.

The truth of the matter is that If the January 15, 1966 coup had never happened, it is most unlikely that the Nigerian Civil War would have occurred. The perpetrators of that coup opened a Pandora’s Box that the rest of Nigeria are still suffering from today!

There was wild jubilation all over Nigeria after that coup, because Nigerians believed it was a patriotic and nationalistic coup. Then the names of those killed were announced over the radio, and it was discovered that only people from the North, West and Midwest were killed, but NOBODY from the East was killed, whereas the vast majority of those who carried out the coup were from the East.

That is the remote cause of the Nigerian Civil War. We will remember it. We will also teach it to our children, so that it does not reoccur.

So, to just keep nursing grudges and reopening old wounds will do no one any good. You can bully others into submission, but you cannot do it to Reno Omokri. I know history and I am a meticulous record keeper!

It is only those who are ignorant about how the British government works that will blame the late Queen for the actions of the British government. She was a titular and ceremonial head of state, whose actions were limited to appointing the candidate who has won election directly or indirectly as prime minister, and declaring open the parliament. She was a symbol. She was not the initiator of the policies of the British government.

And even the British government are not to blame for the Nigerian Civil War. We must learn to take responsibility for our own actions. That war was the result of the ill advised January 15, 1966 coup.

The coup itself was led by Majors Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna. It was executed by the following persons:

1. Kaduna Nzeogwu
2. Emmanuel Ifeajuna
3. Timothy Onwuatuegwu
4. Adewale Ademoyega
5. Chris Anuforo
6. Humphrey Chukwuka
7. Donatus Okafor

Of these seven people, only one, Adewale Ademoyega, was non Igbo. The rest were all Igbo, although Major Nzeogwu was what was referred to at that time as Midwest Igbo (later colloquially referred to as Bendel Igbo and now as Delta Igbo). Major Donatus Okafor’s mother was Tiv. However, his father was Igbo.

Incidentally, some Igbos unwisely try to deny that Nzeogwu was Igbo, and call him ‘your South-South’ brother. Unknown to them, the more they do this, the more they make non Igbos feel that those specific Igbos who say that have learned very little since the civil war.

22 people were killed during the coup, including

1. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
2. Ahmadu Bello
3. Ahmed Ben Musa
4. Hafsatu Bello
5. Ahmed Pategi
6. Samuel Ladoke Akintola
7. Festus Okotie-Eboh
8. Brig. Samuel Ademulegun
9. Brig. Zakariya Maimalari
10. Col. Ralph Shodeinde
11. Col. Kur Mohammed
12. Lt. Col. Abogo Largema
13. Lt. Col. James Pam
14. Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe
15. Sergeant Daramola Oyegoke
16. Mrs Latifat Ademulegun
17. Zarumi Sardauna
18. PC Yohana Garkawa
19. Lance Corporal Musa Nimzo
20. PC Akpan Anduka
21. PC Hagai Lai
22. Philip Lewande

As is clear from the list above, none of them were from the then Eastern Nigeria. . (I have since learned that Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe was Igbo. He was in charge of weaponry in Lagos, and was killed when he refused to cooperate with Major Chris Anuforo).

After the coup, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi took over. Rightly, or wrongly, the rest of the nation felt that a coup carried out by overwhelmingly Eastern officers, and of which the victims were entirely non Easterners, and which supplanted a Northern minority leader (Tafawa-Balewa), with an Igbo leader, (Aguiyi-Ironsi) was a set up.

However, Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi’s promise to try the coup plotters placated the rest of the country. Sadly, the plotters were jailed, but were never tried. And the immediate cause of the July 29, 1966 counter coup was when rumours circulated that the coup plotters had been receiving full salaries in jail and were to be promoted.

These are facts that we all should address, rather than blaming the late Queen Elizabeth II for a war she did not cause, nor had anyway of stopping. And if we do not learn from our history, there is every possibility that another war might erupt in Nigeria.

The Biafrans inflicted a very harsh occupation on present day Rivers, Cross Rivers and Akwa-Ibom, as well as present day Delta and Edo before they were flushed out by federal forces. The Bayelsa area escaped the brunt of Biafran occupation due to the fight back from Isaac Adaka Boro. They invaded Ore and hundreds of soldiers and civilians died. There is still a Yoruba proverb about the amount of people that died in Ore. Ask a Yoruba person to tell you the meaning of ‘o le ku ija Ore.

We have all forgiven and moved on. Yet, you want to reopen these old wounds and make them cancerous by blaming Queen Elizabeth II 50 years after the war?

And when you point this out, the very same people castigating the late Queen will accuse you of creating ethnic tension? Do you want to be victims and victors at the same time? Leave the woman and her family to grieve in peace. By celebrating the Queen’s death, you are giving Nigeria a very nasty reputation that will affect all of us and not only you. We cannot afford to be seen as a nation with anti British and American sentiments, when we are not able to get a better deal from China and Russia.

Reno’s Nuggets

Dear men,

As long as a river is dry, fish won’t come. Stop looking for women in your poverty. The first thing that a dry river needs is water, not fish. Look for water for your river and fish will come naturally. Look for prosperity and the right woman will come naturally. Eve came as soon as Adam secured the job of tending the garden. And until you have a salary or income, you should learn to control your libido. Much of the world’s challenges is caused by adult males who increase the population when they have no remuneration. Be productive in the boardroom before being reproductive in the bedroom!

#RenosNuggets #FreeLeahSharibu

*©Reno Omokri*

Corridon:
Good gesture if indeed true but Peter Obi did more than this. He donated money to hospitals, schools and even to communities outside Anambra state.

*HISTORY NEVER DIES....*

*By Reno Omokri*

What Queen Elizabeth II’s Death Exposes About Biafra

First published in my column, #TheAlternative, in today’s ThisDay.

When on Thursday, September 8, 2022, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II passed on into ancestor-hood, I was not particularly moved. I like England. I schooled and worked there and those years were some of the best of my life. The English people are by far some of the most decent peoples on planet Earth.

However, I am rather indifferent about their monarch. I did not like or dislike Queen Elizabeth II. The only thing I can think of that I admire in her is her stoicism. Her ability to take pain and pleasure with equanimity. She is the epitome of duty and a stiff upper lip.

But I doubt that I bothered much about her and her goings on. I was just aloof.

So, while I was not one of those mourning, it was not because I had some grudge against the House of Windsor. No. It is just that the House of Ginuwa (the first Olu of Warri), mattered more to me than Buckingham Palace.

The above not withstanding, I was absolutely mortified by the hideous and historically inaccurate things that were said about the Queen and her family by a Nigerian woman living in America, whose name I will not dignify by mentioning.

I later got to find out that this woman has other issues, which made me understand her bitterness better, though I still vehemently reject her indecorous words.

She was one of the people who famously celebrated the death of TB Joshua and called him all sorts of unprintable names when he died. So it is no big surprise that she has turned her vitriol in the direction of the late Queen.

And so now, let me tackle what the death of Queen Elizabeth II reveals about Biafra. It shows us as a people not aware of our history, and because we are not aware of our own history, we have distorted it, such that propaganda and pseudo history has been orally passed down from one generation to the other, feeding unfounded bitterness that is destroying those who harbour it, and having no effect on those against whom they are embittered.

That is why some people believe they were just sitting down minding their business and Hausa people came to fight them (all Northerners are Hausa to some people) because they hate them. There was absolutely no provocation, or igniting events that preceded the Nigerian Civil War. Hausa people just woke up on the wrong side of the bed and for some strange reason decided to pounce on the people of Eastern Nigeria.

But of course, that is not what happened. However, because we do not write our history, and even worse, we have refused to teach it in our schools, there are millions of people who believe this version of events. In fact, they swear by it.

One fellow named Uche Nnaya even tweeted at me that the Igbos of Southeast Nigeria had a right to rail against the British monarch and the rest of Nigeria, because “you can’t push people to the wall and dictate how they react.”

Really? But do those who hold such views not know that some other persons were FIRST pushed to the wall? Uche’s response will also justify how those who were first pushed to the wall reacted.

We cannot keep holding grudges as if other people do not have their own grudges that they have let go for the peace and unity of this country called Nigeria.

My great uncle, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, was shot and killed in the street by Major Chris Anuforo on January 15, 1966. Ironically, I went to school with Anuforo’s son. Should my people carry that grudge forever?

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was shot on the street like a common criminal by Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna. Ifeajuna tried to deny it, and claimed that Alhaji Balewa died from an asthma attack, until his body was taken to LUTH and examined by the then minister for health, Dr. Moses Majekodunmi. It was established that the body was riddled with bullets in a front page story in Daily Times, written by Segun Osoba, who later became the Governor of Ogun. He is still alive.

This was an incorruptible gentleman. He lived a very ascetic life. Materialism was FAR from him. He was an author. His book, Shaihu Umar, was the first novel written in Hausa. He surrounded himself with Southerners (in hindsight, was that a mistake?). His best friend was Matthew Mbu. Should the Tafawa-Balewa family and the people of Bauchi, where he was from, hold a grudge forever?

I could go on and on and list the people killed on January 15, 1966, and the identities of their killers, but that would just be reopening old wounds. These are historical facts, which some people deny and pretend as if the Civil War happened in a vacuum.

So, please let us stop pretending as if the late Queen Elizabeth II came to Nigeria and ignited a war. The Nigerian Civil War was ignited by a series of unfortunate events that began with the cold blooded murder of 22 people from the Northern, Western, and Mid Western regions by people of mostly Eastern region origin, which led to a counter coup by Northern Nigerian military officers on July 29, 1966, and the unfortunate pogrom of 66-67.

Many people now spewing vitriol against the late Queen Elizabeth II for her alleged role in the Nigerian Civil War conveniently forget that between August 9, 1967 and September 20, 1967, Biafran forces invaded and occupied the Midwest region, and named Albert Nwazu Okonkwo, as military Governor of the Midwest. A number of non Igbo speaking Mid-Westerners lost their lives during the Biafran occupation of the Midwest.

After the Midwest was liberated by forces led by colonels Murtala Muhammed and Benjamin Adekunle, more Mid-Westerners, this time those linguistically linked to the Igbo (especially in the Asaba axis), were killed. Please research it before you insult me.

I need to add that the killings by the liberating forces were worse than the killings of the Biafrans, and should truly have been declared war crimes.

Yet, in that same Midwest, we accepted Nigerians of Southeast origin back after the war. We did not seize their properties in the abandoned property saga that occurred in the Port Harcourt area and its environs. We let bygones be bygones.

The truth of the matter is that If the January 15, 1966 coup had never happened, it is most unlikely that the Nigerian Civil War would have occurred. The perpetrators of that coup opened a Pandora’s Box that the rest of Nigeria are still suffering from today!

There was wild jubilation all over Nigeria after that coup, because Nigerians believed it was a patriotic and nationalistic coup. Then the names of those killed were announced over the radio, and it was discovered that only people from the North, West and Midwest were killed, but NOBODY from the East was killed, whereas the vast majority of those who carried out the coup were from the East.

That is the remote cause of the Nigerian Civil War. We will remember it. We will also teach it to our children, so that it does not reoccur.

So, to just keep nursing grudges and reopening old wounds will do no one any good. You can bully others into submission, but you cannot do it to Reno Omokri. I know history and I am a meticulous record keeper!

It is only those who are ignorant about how the British government works that will blame the late Queen for the actions of the British government. She was a titular and ceremonial head of state, whose actions were limited to appointing the candidate who has won election directly or indirectly as prime minister, and declaring open the parliament. She was a symbol. She was not the initiator of the policies of the British government.

And even the British government are not to blame for the Nigerian Civil War. We must learn to take responsibility for our own actions. That war was the result of the ill advised January 15, 1966 coup.

The coup itself was led by Majors Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna. It was executed by the following persons:

1. Kaduna Nzeogwu
2. Emmanuel Ifeajuna
3. Timothy Onwuatuegwu
4. Adewale Ademoyega
5. Chris Anuforo
6. Humphrey Chukwuka
7. Donatus Okafor

Of these seven people, only one, Adewale Ademoyega, was non Igbo. The rest were all Igbo, although Major Nzeogwu was what was referred to at that time as Midwest Igbo (later colloquially referred to as Bendel Igbo and now as Delta Igbo). Major Donatus Okafor’s mother was Tiv. However, his father was Igbo.

Incidentally, some Igbos unwisely try to deny that Nzeogwu was Igbo, and call him ‘your South-South’ brother. Unknown to them, the more they do this, the more they make non Igbos feel that those specific Igbos who say that have learned very little since the civil war.

22 people were killed during the coup, including

1. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
2. Ahmadu Bello
3. Ahmed Ben Musa
4. Hafsatu Bello
5. Ahmed Pategi
6. Samuel Ladoke Akintola
7. Festus Okotie-Eboh
8. Brig. Samuel Ademulegun
9. Brig. Zakariya Maimalari
10. Col. Ralph Shodeinde
11. Col. Kur Mohammed
12. Lt. Col. Abogo Largema
13. Lt. Col. James Pam
14. Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe
15. Sergeant Daramola Oyegoke
16. Mrs Latifat Ademulegun
17. Zarumi Sardauna
18. PC Yohana Garkawa
19. Lance Corporal Musa Nimzo
20. PC Akpan Anduka
21. PC Hagai Lai
22. Philip Lewande

As is clear from the list above, none of them were from the then Eastern Nigeria. . (I have since learned that Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe was Igbo. He was in charge of weaponry in Lagos, and was killed when he refused to cooperate with Major Chris Anuforo).

After the coup, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi took over. Rightly, or wrongly, the rest of the nation felt that a coup carried out by overwhelmingly Eastern officers, and of which the victims were entirely non Easterners, and which supplanted a Northern minority leader (Tafawa-Balewa), with an Igbo leader, (Aguiyi-Ironsi) was a set up.

However, Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi’s promise to try the coup plotters placated the rest of the country. Sadly, the plotters were jailed, but were never tried. And the immediate cause of the July 29, 1966 counter coup was when rumours circulated that the coup plotters had been receiving full salaries in jail and were to be promoted.

These are facts that we all should address, rather than blaming the late Queen Elizabeth II for a war she did not cause, nor had anyway of stopping. And if we do not learn from our history, there is every possibility that another war might erupt in Nigeria.

The Biafrans inflicted a very harsh occupation on present day Rivers, Cross Rivers and Akwa-Ibom, as well as present day Delta and Edo before they were flushed out by federal forces. The Bayelsa area escaped the brunt of Biafran occupation due to the fight back from Isaac Adaka Boro. They invaded Ore and hundreds of soldiers and civilians died. There is still a Yoruba proverb about the amount of people that died in Ore. Ask a Yoruba person to tell you the meaning of ‘o le ku ija Ore.

We have all forgiven and moved on. Yet, you want to reopen these old wounds and make them cancerous by blaming Queen Elizabeth II 50 years after the war?

And when you point this out, the very same people castigating the late Queen will accuse you of creating ethnic tension? Do you want to be victims and victors at the same time? Leave the woman and her family to grieve in peace. By celebrating the Queen’s death, you are giving Nigeria a very nasty reputation that will affect all of us and not only you. We cannot afford to be seen as a nation with anti British and American sentiments, when we are not able to get a better deal from China and Russia.

Reno’s Nuggets

Dear men,

As long as a river is dry, fish won’t come. Stop looking for women in your poverty. The first thing that a dry river needs is water, not fish. Look for water for your river and fish will come naturally. Look for prosperity and the right woman will come naturally. Eve came as soon as Adam secured the job of tending the garden. And until you have a salary or income, you should learn to control your libido. Much of the world’s challenges is caused by adult males who increase the population when they have no remuneration. Be productive in the boardroom before being reproductive in the bedroom!

#RenosNuggets #FreeLeahSharibu

*©Reno Omokri*

naptu2:
See previous thread here: Obi And Tinubu Supporters Plan Rival Rallies At Lekki Tollgate On October 1st


Jubril A. Gawat @Mr_JAGs



https://twitter.com/Mr_JAGs/status/1570130524416638976


Dr Great Oracle @AbdulMahmud01



https://twitter.com/AbdulMahmud01/status/1570362761070407680

*HISTORY NEVER DIES....*

*By Reno Omokri*

What Queen Elizabeth II’s Death Exposes About Biafra

First published in my column, #TheAlternative, in today’s ThisDay.

When on Thursday, September 8, 2022, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II passed on into ancestor-hood, I was not particularly moved. I like England. I schooled and worked there and those years were some of the best of my life. The English people are by far some of the most decent peoples on planet Earth.

However, I am rather indifferent about their monarch. I did not like or dislike Queen Elizabeth II. The only thing I can think of that I admire in her is her stoicism. Her ability to take pain and pleasure with equanimity. She is the epitome of duty and a stiff upper lip.

But I doubt that I bothered much about her and her goings on. I was just aloof.

So, while I was not one of those mourning, it was not because I had some grudge against the House of Windsor. No. It is just that the House of Ginuwa (the first Olu of Warri), mattered more to me than Buckingham Palace.

The above not withstanding, I was absolutely mortified by the hideous and historically inaccurate things that were said about the Queen and her family by a Nigerian woman living in America, whose name I will not dignify by mentioning.

I later got to find out that this woman has other issues, which made me understand her bitterness better, though I still vehemently reject her indecorous words.

She was one of the people who famously celebrated the death of TB Joshua and called him all sorts of unprintable names when he died. So it is no big surprise that she has turned her vitriol in the direction of the late Queen.

And so now, let me tackle what the death of Queen Elizabeth II reveals about Biafra. It shows us as a people not aware of our history, and because we are not aware of our own history, we have distorted it, such that propaganda and pseudo history has been orally passed down from one generation to the other, feeding unfounded bitterness that is destroying those who harbour it, and having no effect on those against whom they are embittered.

That is why some people believe they were just sitting down minding their business and Hausa people came to fight them (all Northerners are Hausa to some people) because they hate them. There was absolutely no provocation, or igniting events that preceded the Nigerian Civil War. Hausa people just woke up on the wrong side of the bed and for some strange reason decided to pounce on the people of Eastern Nigeria.

But of course, that is not what happened. However, because we do not write our history, and even worse, we have refused to teach it in our schools, there are millions of people who believe this version of events. In fact, they swear by it.

One fellow named Uche Nnaya even tweeted at me that the Igbos of Southeast Nigeria had a right to rail against the British monarch and the rest of Nigeria, because “you can’t push people to the wall and dictate how they react.”

Really? But do those who hold such views not know that some other persons were FIRST pushed to the wall? Uche’s response will also justify how those who were first pushed to the wall reacted.

We cannot keep holding grudges as if other people do not have their own grudges that they have let go for the peace and unity of this country called Nigeria.

My great uncle, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, was shot and killed in the street by Major Chris Anuforo on January 15, 1966. Ironically, I went to school with Anuforo’s son. Should my people carry that grudge forever?

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was shot on the street like a common criminal by Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna. Ifeajuna tried to deny it, and claimed that Alhaji Balewa died from an asthma attack, until his body was taken to LUTH and examined by the then minister for health, Dr. Moses Majekodunmi. It was established that the body was riddled with bullets in a front page story in Daily Times, written by Segun Osoba, who later became the Governor of Ogun. He is still alive.

This was an incorruptible gentleman. He lived a very ascetic life. Materialism was FAR from him. He was an author. His book, Shaihu Umar, was the first novel written in Hausa. He surrounded himself with Southerners (in hindsight, was that a mistake?). His best friend was Matthew Mbu. Should the Tafawa-Balewa family and the people of Bauchi, where he was from, hold a grudge forever?

I could go on and on and list the people killed on January 15, 1966, and the identities of their killers, but that would just be reopening old wounds. These are historical facts, which some people deny and pretend as if the Civil War happened in a vacuum.

So, please let us stop pretending as if the late Queen Elizabeth II came to Nigeria and ignited a war. The Nigerian Civil War was ignited by a series of unfortunate events that began with the cold blooded murder of 22 people from the Northern, Western, and Mid Western regions by people of mostly Eastern region origin, which led to a counter coup by Northern Nigerian military officers on July 29, 1966, and the unfortunate pogrom of 66-67.

Many people now spewing vitriol against the late Queen Elizabeth II for her alleged role in the Nigerian Civil War conveniently forget that between August 9, 1967 and September 20, 1967, Biafran forces invaded and occupied the Midwest region, and named Albert Nwazu Okonkwo, as military Governor of the Midwest. A number of non Igbo speaking Mid-Westerners lost their lives during the Biafran occupation of the Midwest.

After the Midwest was liberated by forces led by colonels Murtala Muhammed and Benjamin Adekunle, more Mid-Westerners, this time those linguistically linked to the Igbo (especially in the Asaba axis), were killed. Please research it before you insult me.

I need to add that the killings by the liberating forces were worse than the killings of the Biafrans, and should truly have been declared war crimes.

Yet, in that same Midwest, we accepted Nigerians of Southeast origin back after the war. We did not seize their properties in the abandoned property saga that occurred in the Port Harcourt area and its environs. We let bygones be bygones.

The truth of the matter is that If the January 15, 1966 coup had never happened, it is most unlikely that the Nigerian Civil War would have occurred. The perpetrators of that coup opened a Pandora’s Box that the rest of Nigeria are still suffering from today!

There was wild jubilation all over Nigeria after that coup, because Nigerians believed it was a patriotic and nationalistic coup. Then the names of those killed were announced over the radio, and it was discovered that only people from the North, West and Midwest were killed, but NOBODY from the East was killed, whereas the vast majority of those who carried out the coup were from the East.

That is the remote cause of the Nigerian Civil War. We will remember it. We will also teach it to our children, so that it does not reoccur.

So, to just keep nursing grudges and reopening old wounds will do no one any good. You can bully others into submission, but you cannot do it to Reno Omokri. I know history and I am a meticulous record keeper!

It is only those who are ignorant about how the British government works that will blame the late Queen for the actions of the British government. She was a titular and ceremonial head of state, whose actions were limited to appointing the candidate who has won election directly or indirectly as prime minister, and declaring open the parliament. She was a symbol. She was not the initiator of the policies of the British government.

And even the British government are not to blame for the Nigerian Civil War. We must learn to take responsibility for our own actions. That war was the result of the ill advised January 15, 1966 coup.

The coup itself was led by Majors Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna. It was executed by the following persons:

1. Kaduna Nzeogwu
2. Emmanuel Ifeajuna
3. Timothy Onwuatuegwu
4. Adewale Ademoyega
5. Chris Anuforo
6. Humphrey Chukwuka
7. Donatus Okafor

Of these seven people, only one, Adewale Ademoyega, was non Igbo. The rest were all Igbo, although Major Nzeogwu was what was referred to at that time as Midwest Igbo (later colloquially referred to as Bendel Igbo and now as Delta Igbo). Major Donatus Okafor’s mother was Tiv. However, his father was Igbo.

Incidentally, some Igbos unwisely try to deny that Nzeogwu was Igbo, and call him ‘your South-South’ brother. Unknown to them, the more they do this, the more they make non Igbos feel that those specific Igbos who say that have learned very little since the civil war.

22 people were killed during the coup, including

1. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
2. Ahmadu Bello
3. Ahmed Ben Musa
4. Hafsatu Bello
5. Ahmed Pategi
6. Samuel Ladoke Akintola
7. Festus Okotie-Eboh
8. Brig. Samuel Ademulegun
9. Brig. Zakariya Maimalari
10. Col. Ralph Shodeinde
11. Col. Kur Mohammed
12. Lt. Col. Abogo Largema
13. Lt. Col. James Pam
14. Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe
15. Sergeant Daramola Oyegoke
16. Mrs Latifat Ademulegun
17. Zarumi Sardauna
18. PC Yohana Garkawa
19. Lance Corporal Musa Nimzo
20. PC Akpan Anduka
21. PC Hagai Lai
22. Philip Lewande

As is clear from the list above, none of them were from the then Eastern Nigeria. . (I have since learned that Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe was Igbo. He was in charge of weaponry in Lagos, and was killed when he refused to cooperate with Major Chris Anuforo).

After the coup, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi took over. Rightly, or wrongly, the rest of the nation felt that a coup carried out by overwhelmingly Eastern officers, and of which the victims were entirely non Easterners, and which supplanted a Northern minority leader (Tafawa-Balewa), with an Igbo leader, (Aguiyi-Ironsi) was a set up.

However, Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi’s promise to try the coup plotters placated the rest of the country. Sadly, the plotters were jailed, but were never tried. And the immediate cause of the July 29, 1966 counter coup was when rumours circulated that the coup plotters had been receiving full salaries in jail and were to be promoted.

These are facts that we all should address, rather than blaming the late Queen Elizabeth II for a war she did not cause, nor had anyway of stopping. And if we do not learn from our history, there is every possibility that another war might erupt in Nigeria.

The Biafrans inflicted a very harsh occupation on present day Rivers, Cross Rivers and Akwa-Ibom, as well as present day Delta and Edo before they were flushed out by federal forces. The Bayelsa area escaped the brunt of Biafran occupation due to the fight back from Isaac Adaka Boro. They invaded Ore and hundreds of soldiers and civilians died. There is still a Yoruba proverb about the amount of people that died in Ore. Ask a Yoruba person to tell you the meaning of ‘o le ku ija Ore.

We have all forgiven and moved on. Yet, you want to reopen these old wounds and make them cancerous by blaming Queen Elizabeth II 50 years after the war?

And when you point this out, the very same people castigating the late Queen will accuse you of creating ethnic tension? Do you want to be victims and victors at the same time? Leave the woman and her family to grieve in peace. By celebrating the Queen’s death, you are giving Nigeria a very nasty reputation that will affect all of us and not only you. We cannot afford to be seen as a nation with anti British and American sentiments, when we are not able to get a better deal from China and Russia.

Reno’s Nuggets

Dear men,

As long as a river is dry, fish won’t come. Stop looking for women in your poverty. The first thing that a dry river needs is water, not fish. Look for water for your river and fish will come naturally. Look for prosperity and the right woman will come naturally. Eve came as soon as Adam secured the job of tending the garden. And until you have a salary or income, you should learn to control your libido. Much of the world’s challenges is caused by adult males who increase the population when they have no remuneration. Be productive in the boardroom before being reproductive in the bedroom!

#RenosNuggets #FreeLeahSharibu

*©Reno Omokri*

ijustdey:
https://www.thecable.ng/fact-check-did-people-die-in-anambra-after-receiving-calls-from-strange-number/amp

*HISTORY NEVER DIES....*

*By Reno Omokri*

What Queen Elizabeth II’s Death Exposes About Biafra

First published in my column, #TheAlternative, in today’s ThisDay.

When on Thursday, September 8, 2022, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II passed on into ancestor-hood, I was not particularly moved. I like England. I schooled and worked there and those years were some of the best of my life. The English people are by far some of the most decent peoples on planet Earth.

However, I am rather indifferent about their monarch. I did not like or dislike Queen Elizabeth II. The only thing I can think of that I admire in her is her stoicism. Her ability to take pain and pleasure with equanimity. She is the epitome of duty and a stiff upper lip.

But I doubt that I bothered much about her and her goings on. I was just aloof.

So, while I was not one of those mourning, it was not because I had some grudge against the House of Windsor. No. It is just that the House of Ginuwa (the first Olu of Warri), mattered more to me than Buckingham Palace.

The above not withstanding, I was absolutely mortified by the hideous and historically inaccurate things that were said about the Queen and her family by a Nigerian woman living in America, whose name I will not dignify by mentioning.

I later got to find out that this woman has other issues, which made me understand her bitterness better, though I still vehemently reject her indecorous words.

She was one of the people who famously celebrated the death of TB Joshua and called him all sorts of unprintable names when he died. So it is no big surprise that she has turned her vitriol in the direction of the late Queen.

And so now, let me tackle what the death of Queen Elizabeth II reveals about Biafra. It shows us as a people not aware of our history, and because we are not aware of our own history, we have distorted it, such that propaganda and pseudo history has been orally passed down from one generation to the other, feeding unfounded bitterness that is destroying those who harbour it, and having no effect on those against whom they are embittered.

That is why some people believe they were just sitting down minding their business and Hausa people came to fight them (all Northerners are Hausa to some people) because they hate them. There was absolutely no provocation, or igniting events that preceded the Nigerian Civil War. Hausa people just woke up on the wrong side of the bed and for some strange reason decided to pounce on the people of Eastern Nigeria.

But of course, that is not what happened. However, because we do not write our history, and even worse, we have refused to teach it in our schools, there are millions of people who believe this version of events. In fact, they swear by it.

One fellow named Uche Nnaya even tweeted at me that the Igbos of Southeast Nigeria had a right to rail against the British monarch and the rest of Nigeria, because “you can’t push people to the wall and dictate how they react.”

Really? But do those who hold such views not know that some other persons were FIRST pushed to the wall? Uche’s response will also justify how those who were first pushed to the wall reacted.

We cannot keep holding grudges as if other people do not have their own grudges that they have let go for the peace and unity of this country called Nigeria.

My great uncle, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, was shot and killed in the street by Major Chris Anuforo on January 15, 1966. Ironically, I went to school with Anuforo’s son. Should my people carry that grudge forever?

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was shot on the street like a common criminal by Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna. Ifeajuna tried to deny it, and claimed that Alhaji Balewa died from an asthma attack, until his body was taken to LUTH and examined by the then minister for health, Dr. Moses Majekodunmi. It was established that the body was riddled with bullets in a front page story in Daily Times, written by Segun Osoba, who later became the Governor of Ogun. He is still alive.

This was an incorruptible gentleman. He lived a very ascetic life. Materialism was FAR from him. He was an author. His book, Shaihu Umar, was the first novel written in Hausa. He surrounded himself with Southerners (in hindsight, was that a mistake?). His best friend was Matthew Mbu. Should the Tafawa-Balewa family and the people of Bauchi, where he was from, hold a grudge forever?

I could go on and on and list the people killed on January 15, 1966, and the identities of their killers, but that would just be reopening old wounds. These are historical facts, which some people deny and pretend as if the Civil War happened in a vacuum.

So, please let us stop pretending as if the late Queen Elizabeth II came to Nigeria and ignited a war. The Nigerian Civil War was ignited by a series of unfortunate events that began with the cold blooded murder of 22 people from the Northern, Western, and Mid Western regions by people of mostly Eastern region origin, which led to a counter coup by Northern Nigerian military officers on July 29, 1966, and the unfortunate pogrom of 66-67.

Many people now spewing vitriol against the late Queen Elizabeth II for her alleged role in the Nigerian Civil War conveniently forget that between August 9, 1967 and September 20, 1967, Biafran forces invaded and occupied the Midwest region, and named Albert Nwazu Okonkwo, as military Governor of the Midwest. A number of non Igbo speaking Mid-Westerners lost their lives during the Biafran occupation of the Midwest.

After the Midwest was liberated by forces led by colonels Murtala Muhammed and Benjamin Adekunle, more Mid-Westerners, this time those linguistically linked to the Igbo (especially in the Asaba axis), were killed. Please research it before you insult me.

I need to add that the killings by the liberating forces were worse than the killings of the Biafrans, and should truly have been declared war crimes.

Yet, in that same Midwest, we accepted Nigerians of Southeast origin back after the war. We did not seize their properties in the abandoned property saga that occurred in the Port Harcourt area and its environs. We let bygones be bygones.

The truth of the matter is that If the January 15, 1966 coup had never happened, it is most unlikely that the Nigerian Civil War would have occurred. The perpetrators of that coup opened a Pandora’s Box that the rest of Nigeria are still suffering from today!

There was wild jubilation all over Nigeria after that coup, because Nigerians believed it was a patriotic and nationalistic coup. Then the names of those killed were announced over the radio, and it was discovered that only people from the North, West and Midwest were killed, but NOBODY from the East was killed, whereas the vast majority of those who carried out the coup were from the East.

That is the remote cause of the Nigerian Civil War. We will remember it. We will also teach it to our children, so that it does not reoccur.

So, to just keep nursing grudges and reopening old wounds will do no one any good. You can bully others into submission, but you cannot do it to Reno Omokri. I know history and I am a meticulous record keeper!

It is only those who are ignorant about how the British government works that will blame the late Queen for the actions of the British government. She was a titular and ceremonial head of state, whose actions were limited to appointing the candidate who has won election directly or indirectly as prime minister, and declaring open the parliament. She was a symbol. She was not the initiator of the policies of the British government.

And even the British government are not to blame for the Nigerian Civil War. We must learn to take responsibility for our own actions. That war was the result of the ill advised January 15, 1966 coup.

The coup itself was led by Majors Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna. It was executed by the following persons:

1. Kaduna Nzeogwu
2. Emmanuel Ifeajuna
3. Timothy Onwuatuegwu
4. Adewale Ademoyega
5. Chris Anuforo
6. Humphrey Chukwuka
7. Donatus Okafor

Of these seven people, only one, Adewale Ademoyega, was non Igbo. The rest were all Igbo, although Major Nzeogwu was what was referred to at that time as Midwest Igbo (later colloquially referred to as Bendel Igbo and now as Delta Igbo). Major Donatus Okafor’s mother was Tiv. However, his father was Igbo.

Incidentally, some Igbos unwisely try to deny that Nzeogwu was Igbo, and call him ‘your South-South’ brother. Unknown to them, the more they do this, the more they make non Igbos feel that those specific Igbos who say that have learned very little since the civil war.

22 people were killed during the coup, including

1. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
2. Ahmadu Bello
3. Ahmed Ben Musa
4. Hafsatu Bello
5. Ahmed Pategi
6. Samuel Ladoke Akintola
7. Festus Okotie-Eboh
8. Brig. Samuel Ademulegun
9. Brig. Zakariya Maimalari
10. Col. Ralph Shodeinde
11. Col. Kur Mohammed
12. Lt. Col. Abogo Largema
13. Lt. Col. James Pam
14. Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe
15. Sergeant Daramola Oyegoke
16. Mrs Latifat Ademulegun
17. Zarumi Sardauna
18. PC Yohana Garkawa
19. Lance Corporal Musa Nimzo
20. PC Akpan Anduka
21. PC Hagai Lai
22. Philip Lewande

As is clear from the list above, none of them were from the then Eastern Nigeria. . (I have since learned that Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe was Igbo. He was in charge of weaponry in Lagos, and was killed when he refused to cooperate with Major Chris Anuforo).

After the coup, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi took over. Rightly, or wrongly, the rest of the nation felt that a coup carried out by overwhelmingly Eastern officers, and of which the victims were entirely non Easterners, and which supplanted a Northern minority leader (Tafawa-Balewa), with an Igbo leader, (Aguiyi-Ironsi) was a set up.

However, Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi’s promise to try the coup plotters placated the rest of the country. Sadly, the plotters were jailed, but were never tried. And the immediate cause of the July 29, 1966 counter coup was when rumours circulated that the coup plotters had been receiving full salaries in jail and were to be promoted.

These are facts that we all should address, rather than blaming the late Queen Elizabeth II for a war she did not cause, nor had anyway of stopping. And if we do not learn from our history, there is every possibility that another war might erupt in Nigeria.

The Biafrans inflicted a very harsh occupation on present day Rivers, Cross Rivers and Akwa-Ibom, as well as present day Delta and Edo before they were flushed out by federal forces. The Bayelsa area escaped the brunt of Biafran occupation due to the fight back from Isaac Adaka Boro. They invaded Ore and hundreds of soldiers and civilians died. There is still a Yoruba proverb about the amount of people that died in Ore. Ask a Yoruba person to tell you the meaning of ‘o le ku ija Ore.

We have all forgiven and moved on. Yet, you want to reopen these old wounds and make them cancerous by blaming Queen Elizabeth II 50 years after the war?

And when you point this out, the very same people castigating the late Queen will accuse you of creating ethnic tension? Do you want to be victims and victors at the same time? Leave the woman and her family to grieve in peace. By celebrating the Queen’s death, you are giving Nigeria a very nasty reputation that will affect all of us and not only you. We cannot afford to be seen as a nation with anti British and American sentiments, when we are not able to get a better deal from China and Russia.

Reno’s Nuggets

Dear men,

As long as a river is dry, fish won’t come. Stop looking for women in your poverty. The first thing that a dry river needs is water, not fish. Look for water for your river and fish will come naturally. Look for prosperity and the right woman will come naturally. Eve came as soon as Adam secured the job of tending the garden. And until you have a salary or income, you should learn to control your libido. Much of the world’s challenges is caused by adult males who increase the population when they have no remuneration. Be productive in the boardroom before being reproductive in the bedroom!

#RenosNuggets #FreeLeahSharibu

*©Reno Omokri*

naptu2:
Chief Oseloka H. Obaze was the secretary to the Anambra State Government in the administration of Governor Peter Obi. He was also the Peoples Democratic Party candidate in the 2016 Anambra State governorship election. He is now a key figure in Peter Obi's Presidential Election Campaign Council.

Tonye Barcanista is a Nairalander and a supporter of the PDP.



Tonye Barcanista @TonyeBarcanista



https://twitter.com/TonyeBarcanista/status/1569618598477307905



Oseloka H. Obaze @OselokaHObaze

Replying to @TonyeBarcanista



https://twitter.com/OselokaHObaze/status/1569644553010876418

*HISTORY NEVER DIES....*

*By Reno Omokri*

What Queen Elizabeth II’s Death Exposes About Biafra

First published in my column, #TheAlternative, in today’s ThisDay.

When on Thursday, September 8, 2022, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II passed on into ancestor-hood, I was not particularly moved. I like England. I schooled and worked there and those years were some of the best of my life. The English people are by far some of the most decent peoples on planet Earth.

However, I am rather indifferent about their monarch. I did not like or dislike Queen Elizabeth II. The only thing I can think of that I admire in her is her stoicism. Her ability to take pain and pleasure with equanimity. She is the epitome of duty and a stiff upper lip.

But I doubt that I bothered much about her and her goings on. I was just aloof.

So, while I was not one of those mourning, it was not because I had some grudge against the House of Windsor. No. It is just that the House of Ginuwa (the first Olu of Warri), mattered more to me than Buckingham Palace.

The above not withstanding, I was absolutely mortified by the hideous and historically inaccurate things that were said about the Queen and her family by a Nigerian woman living in America, whose name I will not dignify by mentioning.

I later got to find out that this woman has other issues, which made me understand her bitterness better, though I still vehemently reject her indecorous words.

She was one of the people who famously celebrated the death of TB Joshua and called him all sorts of unprintable names when he died. So it is no big surprise that she has turned her vitriol in the direction of the late Queen.

And so now, let me tackle what the death of Queen Elizabeth II reveals about Biafra. It shows us as a people not aware of our history, and because we are not aware of our own history, we have distorted it, such that propaganda and pseudo history has been orally passed down from one generation to the other, feeding unfounded bitterness that is destroying those who harbour it, and having no effect on those against whom they are embittered.

That is why some people believe they were just sitting down minding their business and Hausa people came to fight them (all Northerners are Hausa to some people) because they hate them. There was absolutely no provocation, or igniting events that preceded the Nigerian Civil War. Hausa people just woke up on the wrong side of the bed and for some strange reason decided to pounce on the people of Eastern Nigeria.

But of course, that is not what happened. However, because we do not write our history, and even worse, we have refused to teach it in our schools, there are millions of people who believe this version of events. In fact, they swear by it.

One fellow named Uche Nnaya even tweeted at me that the Igbos of Southeast Nigeria had a right to rail against the British monarch and the rest of Nigeria, because “you can’t push people to the wall and dictate how they react.”

Really? But do those who hold such views not know that some other persons were FIRST pushed to the wall? Uche’s response will also justify how those who were first pushed to the wall reacted.

We cannot keep holding grudges as if other people do not have their own grudges that they have let go for the peace and unity of this country called Nigeria.

My great uncle, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, was shot and killed in the street by Major Chris Anuforo on January 15, 1966. Ironically, I went to school with Anuforo’s son. Should my people carry that grudge forever?

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was shot on the street like a common criminal by Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna. Ifeajuna tried to deny it, and claimed that Alhaji Balewa died from an asthma attack, until his body was taken to LUTH and examined by the then minister for health, Dr. Moses Majekodunmi. It was established that the body was riddled with bullets in a front page story in Daily Times, written by Segun Osoba, who later became the Governor of Ogun. He is still alive.

This was an incorruptible gentleman. He lived a very ascetic life. Materialism was FAR from him. He was an author. His book, Shaihu Umar, was the first novel written in Hausa. He surrounded himself with Southerners (in hindsight, was that a mistake?). His best friend was Matthew Mbu. Should the Tafawa-Balewa family and the people of Bauchi, where he was from, hold a grudge forever?

I could go on and on and list the people killed on January 15, 1966, and the identities of their killers, but that would just be reopening old wounds. These are historical facts, which some people deny and pretend as if the Civil War happened in a vacuum.

So, please let us stop pretending as if the late Queen Elizabeth II came to Nigeria and ignited a war. The Nigerian Civil War was ignited by a series of unfortunate events that began with the cold blooded murder of 22 people from the Northern, Western, and Mid Western regions by people of mostly Eastern region origin, which led to a counter coup by Northern Nigerian military officers on July 29, 1966, and the unfortunate pogrom of 66-67.

Many people now spewing vitriol against the late Queen Elizabeth II for her alleged role in the Nigerian Civil War conveniently forget that between August 9, 1967 and September 20, 1967, Biafran forces invaded and occupied the Midwest region, and named Albert Nwazu Okonkwo, as military Governor of the Midwest. A number of non Igbo speaking Mid-Westerners lost their lives during the Biafran occupation of the Midwest.

After the Midwest was liberated by forces led by colonels Murtala Muhammed and Benjamin Adekunle, more Mid-Westerners, this time those linguistically linked to the Igbo (especially in the Asaba axis), were killed. Please research it before you insult me.

I need to add that the killings by the liberating forces were worse than the killings of the Biafrans, and should truly have been declared war crimes.

Yet, in that same Midwest, we accepted Nigerians of Southeast origin back after the war. We did not seize their properties in the abandoned property saga that occurred in the Port Harcourt area and its environs. We let bygones be bygones.

The truth of the matter is that If the January 15, 1966 coup had never happened, it is most unlikely that the Nigerian Civil War would have occurred. The perpetrators of that coup opened a Pandora’s Box that the rest of Nigeria are still suffering from today!

There was wild jubilation all over Nigeria after that coup, because Nigerians believed it was a patriotic and nationalistic coup. Then the names of those killed were announced over the radio, and it was discovered that only people from the North, West and Midwest were killed, but NOBODY from the East was killed, whereas the vast majority of those who carried out the coup were from the East.

That is the remote cause of the Nigerian Civil War. We will remember it. We will also teach it to our children, so that it does not reoccur.

So, to just keep nursing grudges and reopening old wounds will do no one any good. You can bully others into submission, but you cannot do it to Reno Omokri. I know history and I am a meticulous record keeper!

It is only those who are ignorant about how the British government works that will blame the late Queen for the actions of the British government. She was a titular and ceremonial head of state, whose actions were limited to appointing the candidate who has won election directly or indirectly as prime minister, and declaring open the parliament. She was a symbol. She was not the initiator of the policies of the British government.

And even the British government are not to blame for the Nigerian Civil War. We must learn to take responsibility for our own actions. That war was the result of the ill advised January 15, 1966 coup.

The coup itself was led by Majors Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna. It was executed by the following persons:

1. Kaduna Nzeogwu
2. Emmanuel Ifeajuna
3. Timothy Onwuatuegwu
4. Adewale Ademoyega
5. Chris Anuforo
6. Humphrey Chukwuka
7. Donatus Okafor

Of these seven people, only one, Adewale Ademoyega, was non Igbo. The rest were all Igbo, although Major Nzeogwu was what was referred to at that time as Midwest Igbo (later colloquially referred to as Bendel Igbo and now as Delta Igbo). Major Donatus Okafor’s mother was Tiv. However, his father was Igbo.

Incidentally, some Igbos unwisely try to deny that Nzeogwu was Igbo, and call him ‘your South-South’ brother. Unknown to them, the more they do this, the more they make non Igbos feel that those specific Igbos who say that have learned very little since the civil war.

22 people were killed during the coup, including

1. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
2. Ahmadu Bello
3. Ahmed Ben Musa
4. Hafsatu Bello
5. Ahmed Pategi
6. Samuel Ladoke Akintola
7. Festus Okotie-Eboh
8. Brig. Samuel Ademulegun
9. Brig. Zakariya Maimalari
10. Col. Ralph Shodeinde
11. Col. Kur Mohammed
12. Lt. Col. Abogo Largema
13. Lt. Col. James Pam
14. Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe
15. Sergeant Daramola Oyegoke
16. Mrs Latifat Ademulegun
17. Zarumi Sardauna
18. PC Yohana Garkawa
19. Lance Corporal Musa Nimzo
20. PC Akpan Anduka
21. PC Hagai Lai
22. Philip Lewande

As is clear from the list above, none of them were from the then Eastern Nigeria. . (I have since learned that Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe was Igbo. He was in charge of weaponry in Lagos, and was killed when he refused to cooperate with Major Chris Anuforo).

After the coup, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi took over. Rightly, or wrongly, the rest of the nation felt that a coup carried out by overwhelmingly Eastern officers, and of which the victims were entirely non Easterners, and which supplanted a Northern minority leader (Tafawa-Balewa), with an Igbo leader, (Aguiyi-Ironsi) was a set up.

However, Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi’s promise to try the coup plotters placated the rest of the country. Sadly, the plotters were jailed, but were never tried. And the immediate cause of the July 29, 1966 counter coup was when rumours circulated that the coup plotters had been receiving full salaries in jail and were to be promoted.

These are facts that we all should address, rather than blaming the late Queen Elizabeth II for a war she did not cause, nor had anyway of stopping. And if we do not learn from our history, there is every possibility that another war might erupt in Nigeria.

The Biafrans inflicted a very harsh occupation on present day Rivers, Cross Rivers and Akwa-Ibom, as well as present day Delta and Edo before they were flushed out by federal forces. The Bayelsa area escaped the brunt of Biafran occupation due to the fight back from Isaac Adaka Boro. They invaded Ore and hundreds of soldiers and civilians died. There is still a Yoruba proverb about the amount of people that died in Ore. Ask a Yoruba person to tell you the meaning of ‘o le ku ija Ore.

We have all forgiven and moved on. Yet, you want to reopen these old wounds and make them cancerous by blaming Queen Elizabeth II 50 years after the war?

And when you point this out, the very same people castigating the late Queen will accuse you of creating ethnic tension? Do you want to be victims and victors at the same time? Leave the woman and her family to grieve in peace. By celebrating the Queen’s death, you are giving Nigeria a very nasty reputation that will affect all of us and not only you. We cannot afford to be seen as a nation with anti British and American sentiments, when we are not able to get a better deal from China and Russia.

Reno’s Nuggets

Dear men,

As long as a river is dry, fish won’t come. Stop looking for women in your poverty. The first thing that a dry river needs is water, not fish. Look for water for your river and fish will come naturally. Look for prosperity and the right woman will come naturally. Eve came as soon as Adam secured the job of tending the garden. And until you have a salary or income, you should learn to control your libido. Much of the world’s challenges is caused by adult males who increase the population when they have no remuneration. Be productive in the boardroom before being reproductive in the bedroom!

#RenosNuggets #FreeLeahSharibu

*©Reno Omokri*

skinnyzsam:
its a shame they give us our fundamental rights which is delayed, looted and relooted, but then we shamelessly celebrate over it, what an irony.

Is there any infrastructure we can even celebrate that bitter obi dirty left behind

Brainmytool:
Am i the only one noticing that there is no notable project construction ongoing in the South East and South South.

South South should not worry. But south east should wait for cownu regime

dre11:
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/551733-pandora-papers-new-uk-law-to-end-secret-property-investments-by-nigerians-others.html

Thank God. Obidora don cast.

omenka:
This is rather farfetched egbon Wike, the slayer of IPOBidients.

Meanwhile, I'm kinda curious, has the word zoo been expunged from the English lexicon? This word which used to feature prominently around every thread here just months ago has suddenly vanished into thin air.

IPOB, what happened?

I.pob too wan be president nao...

domchike:
How people think is worrisome, you don't want Peter Obi to be president because he is IPOB yet you don't want IPOB to get their referedum

So bitter obi is ipo.b?

Yoruba1stson:
Zombiedent, keep wailing, your wailing go enter another level next year when the worthless piter Obidient you are supporting don lule .... Nothing you and other zombiedents can do to stop BAT, Jagaban is an unstoppable train, he is the man for the job and come 2023 he will become our president

Zombiedient
Zombiediot
Bitterobi
Obidirty
Obituar.y
I.pob
Biafrau.d

Chijeep:
Yorubas and betrayal are like 5 and 6.
It's runs in their blood.
THEY'VE ABANDONED IGBOHO AND CLINCHED TO TINUBU BECAUSE IGBOHO NO GET MONEY TO GIVE THEM
Igbos were seeking for Biafra while they also seek for Oduduwa nation all against Hausas.
But now that they are shouting Emilokan upandan they are now acting as if it's only Igbos who're seeking for referendum.

And you are betra-der for abandoning Cownu and shouting obi-dirty up and down. What happens to biafr.aud. Why supporting bitter obi to be president of Nigeria?

Akagas:
Tinubu can never on this earth be them president of Nigeria till his death.

You mean over your dead body.. be careful so you don't curse yourself.

Nyamiri:
No wonder Obi referred to you people as "One Youth"

I no fit laugh.

It's been long i hear the i.pob statistician-general, bitter obi-dirty, roll out his statistics. What happened. Is he tired. The i.pob love him for giving them his fake statistics.

Even i miss him for the way he makes himself look stupid �

Hussein035:
If I see any Biafra after election I will EMBARRAS their father

That's what will happen..on the day of the election, when their eyes don clear, dey will start singing Biafra.

Dont be surprised if they start abusing dangote now, just wait for it.

Bitter Obi-dirty turned anambla to dubai, but has to be staying and living in Jagaban's Lagos! Is he not batified already?

chichima67791:
He simply went to beg and prostrate for Femi Kuti while they were hailing him that he was humble. His untrained supporters almost ruined him during the day but baba went to beg at night.He simply went to beg and prostrate for Femi Kuti while they were hailing him that he was humble. His untrained supporters almost ruined him during the day but baba went to beg at night....

Femi kuti just dey use bitter obi-dirty catch cruise. If you see how happy charlie boy was for taking pix with Femi, you will think his laif depends on it.

Suddenly, i.pob and f.latinos have forgotten nnamdi cownu for prison. Na obi-dirty song dey for their mouth now. Just imagine, suddenly dey want one of them i.pob to become the zoo president. They blalme everyone for their misfortune. But they sing the praises of UGM. What a people!!!

The north they used to call cow are now the same people they are stylishly courting for votes. The chest beaters.

God1000:
Overconfidence will destroy Tinubu, he's ignoring too many germane issues

Modified
Why the paroxysm and unnecessary meltdowns over my innocuous comment? Please don't go haywire over this because going berserk won't stop me from doing what I need to do.

I am a political scientist, a pundit in election matters, take me for granted at your own peril.

Focus on Bitter Obi-dirty and your monday sit at home.

How i wish the election is done on Monday �

loosecanon50:
This sit at home has brought business to it's knees in the south east. It's just sad that this keeps on happening with no end in sight.

All this will end next year, that's why we need to vote wisely this time.

Vote LP for your sanity and rest of mind

Please let the sit at home continue. Dont forget to Blame Tinubu for it sha.

Even nnamdi kanu is batified.

benjackugo:
https://igberetvnews.com/1426452/obidient-youths-erect-free-massive-billboard-advert-peter-obi-ibadan-photo-video/

Youth or i.pob. mention there name make hear.

warripekin:
Peter Obi is the man to beat. E still dey shock them. #Obidatti

Bitter Obi and ObiDirty

BlackPantherxXx:


Lagos is in 21st Century while Peter Obi's Anambra and the 4 other states are still in the 16th Century.

Please we don't want a coward failure as President.

President Tinubu.... come and work your magic at national level.

He's the only one amongst the candidates capable of solving the electricity problems of Nigeria.

Tinubu already has a reputation of solving complex problems. OBJ starved Lagos of Federal allocations and Lagos didn't collapse.

A Vote for Bitter Obi is a wasted vote

PresidObi:
What will APC campaign with in the South east?

Nothing.

They should just apologise to the south east and kneel down and beg.

Apart from insecurity and destabization, the south east got nothing because of the 5% policy.


Thank you Obasanjo for building the Onitsha - Owerri dual carriage road without any long stories. Buhari has been on the only project he's doing in the south east for 7 years and still never completed it.

Does south east exist? What is south. East?

iiifedimma:
Please let's support his excellency Mr Peter obi for the president of federal Republic of Nigeria, we are tired of those thief's now,

Without a tribalism and nepotism any sane Nigerian know it's only someone like Peter obi that can now rescue Nigeria from total collapsing, but seriously some ethnic bigot people will just still prefer to hav their own man at the affairs of the country either he is capable or not than to go for what could have been the best solution to all nigerian's current problems, #ObiDatti2023 is certain

Please ke? Begging? I thought obi is willing with landslide.

treesun:
Drive round Obalende from Kings college and see how terrible all the roads and legacies of Lagos has become and dont ask you to go to Isale Eko area and see slum!

What are u doing in lagos to have known this i thought anambla is dubai, why not stay there...

Sarsaproko:
You want Nigeria that look and feels like Anambra..Vote Peter Obi.. You want Nigeria that look and feels like Lagos..Vote Tinubu.

But Anambla is like dubai now...i laff in obi feminine voice...even obi no d ey stay for Anambla...na lagos he dey stay

GardenOfGod:
Awesome... Lagos, Rivers and Akwa Ibom are the only states currently working at the moment, the rest are on fly mode; especially Cross River State.

What about i.pob states?you know na d em developed everywhere.

PresidObi:
I will agree that Peter Obi partnering directly with Wike to work against PDP in the forthcoming elections will deliver so many votes to the LP, but there's something else we shouldn't forget.

Peter Obi is not a stranger in Rivers state, with the number of businesses he owns there, the infrastructure he has built there and the number of persons he knows there, Rivers state, and the entire south south will vote for Peter Obi without much persuasion.

Is it not in Port Harcourt where Peter Obi build a new road even before becoming governor of Anambra state?

Is it not the same Rivers state where Peter Obi owns warehouses, and a shopping mall with so many employees?

Is it not the same south south (Akwa Ibom) where Peter Obi has married their daughter and has kept her as only wife for so many years?

Is it not the same south south with a sizeable population of Ijaws who witnessed how Igbos stood behind Goodluck Jonathan their son till the end?

The south south are definitely voting Peter Obi in a landslide, we are voting individuals now, party structure hasn't helped us as a nation.

Clap for yourself. I dont want to hear give us biafla after the loss in 2023 oooo.

Weasonokhh:
Ok

You should be arrested for promoting this n.onsense of forging id cards. You need to be arrested.

OKOATA:

I have been seeing this rubbish on facebook too, this is why urchins are happy, its obvious OBi isnt conversant with basketball, what OBi said is what we call an innocent lie moreover what has this rubbish gat to do with his ambition.
So because peter Obi goofed on this I should vote Tinubu or Atiku abi? If Obi lied so be it, who has never lied amongst your candidate should come out, even the rubbish urchin that pushed this to front page has your darling BAT come out for any Interview?

We are talking about National politics these dumbos are talking about NBA, what has this rubbish stats help solve Nigerians problem, is it NBA that will change our nation Nigeria?
If e sure for urchins urge your Tinubu make e come interview if e sure for am? Awon omo ase.

Rubbish news.

Thank God you agree on this one that peter obi is a liar