₦airaland Forum

Youngadvocate:
1. On the Paragraph, I think it safe to say, with all due respect, that you seem not to be abreast with the nature of leadership. Circumstances make Leaders. Leadership isn't basically a position or a role. It is the function of a personality in a circumstances. Leaders are born out of the circumstance of either solving a problem or creating one.
2. I would perhaps, give you the benefit of the doubt by putting out the question of Azikiwe and Ojukwu who is a better leader to Ndi Igbo and graciously, I would share the responses with you and so, I believe, you take back that line comparing Ojukwu /Azikiwe when the Biafra war is given a mention.

3.From all accounts by international writers, safe Pro-Nigerian-history-distorting-writers, there is consensus underpinned in strong facts that Ojukwu left the shores of Biafra Land under unwavering persuasion from the Leaders and right thinking persons of Biafra because if he had been captured, it would have meant that one, Nigeria won the war, two, that there would never be the mention of Biafra, there could have been conviction and possible imprisonment or execution of the Biafra armies that fought the alongside Ojukwu which Nigerian Government was ever matching forward to.
4. Biafra, in the account of the war, from the side of truth, out-tpowered Nigeria, having captured her territory as far a past Ore and over the banks of kogi and Benue. Nigeria could only rely on external assistance and the of course, the Historic sabotage from a Yoruba man, Banjo and his Igbo counterpart, Ifeajunna.
5. The facts are out there that Ojukwu made all moves possible to prevent the war but the cabal that dictated for Gown never wanted that to happen because the world, influenced by the British government was yet behind Nigeria.
Please, Bro, make your research before setting out your hypothesis.

At the end of it all when I saw they (Biafran soldiers) could no longer continue and Ojukwu had fled, I did what was ideal after wide consultation.... http://www.africamasterweb.com/EffiongTheMan.html

At Niamey here was Ojukwu. I was on his side. Gowon wasn’t there but Haile Sellassie, Hamani Diori, Tubman and General Akran were there representing OAU. So, I told Ojukwu, I said now you have an upper hand. These respected leaders of the OAU were there. I had briefed Ojukwu. I said ‘look your line of approach is to express appreciation for what the OAU was doing in order to maintain peace in Africa but you were prepared to co-operate and you are leaving the whole matter in the hands of the OAU to see what could be done to bring an earlier cessation of hostilities. I said just say that and thank them and sit down.

Now Gowon didn’t attend. He sent a junior man, I think Alhaji Femi Okunnu or so, to represent him. And they didn’t even attend this conference at which the four heads of state presided. It was only the Biafran side. So Ojukwu won a diplomatic victory and you know Ojukwu is a very good speaker if you give him all the facts. He was a good public relations expert and he won. He said, ‘well if Gowon was sincere why did he spite such great men and didn’t attend?’ That worked.

They agreed that Nigeria could be contacted so that we have a peace conference in Addis Ababa. It was a diplomatic victory for Biafra and so we returned to Biafra highly elated. And Ojukwu insisted that I should accompany him to Addis Ababa. Then something happened.

Some of his advisers felt that I was becoming a victim of compromise and that I was a bad influence. That all I was trying to do was to make Biafra impotent. They told Ojukwu that Biafra was holding its own militarily. And why should we want a peace conference? That he should be very, very careful with me, especially as an Onitsha man because they thought that I was using him as a means to give publicity for myself internationally and that time will come when people will look more to me than to himself.

Well, as a young man, human, he fell for such flattery. I don’t want to mention all the names, but particularly influential in swinging his opinion at that material time was Mr. C. C. Mojekwu, who was based in Lisbon. Then Mr. Matthew Mbu was our Commissioner for External Affairs and he himself did as much as possible, but then he realized that he was having someone who has power of life and death over everybody. So, we went to Addis Ababa and on the night before the conference, Matthew came to my bedroom at about 10 in the night. He said, “Do you know that all we have done, this man is going to undo them tomorrow?’ I said ‘No’. Then he brought out a printed version of a long speech. The world press said it lasted for 90 minutes.

He [Ojukwu] went back on everything we discussed. He attacked the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union - all the nations of the world and the OAU, and said that they were misleading us and that the sovereignty of ‘Biafra’ was not negotiable. We went to the conference. I sat next to him. I thought that he was going to speak in accordance with the spirit of Niamey. But he spoke for 90 minutes and he just got the whole place upside down.

Naturally Tony Enahoro - he led the Nigerian delegation - replied in kind and so we were back to square one. So, when we returned, I advised him. I told him that I was surprised at what he did but it was not late.

He said, ‘The sovereignty of Biafra is not negotiable and if anybody should try to compromise that sovereignty, then it will be an act of subversion.’ Well, that was quite clear to me so I said, ‘Your Excellency, you still have Port Harcourt and you can still bargain from position of strength - after all, the main issue in the civil war is oil and they say that in international politics, oil is combustible and as you have a combustible situation you can begin from the position of strength’. He said, ‘No, Port Harcourt is impregnable.’ ‘Very well, Your Excellency,’ I said. I went back to Nekede where I had been in protective custody since February, 1968. Two weeks later, Port Harcourt fell.

He sent for me. I said, ‘Well, Your Excellency, I did warn you. You cannot now negotiate from a position of strength but having received recognition from four states, we can still use them to see what we can do to appeal to the outside world.’ He said, ‘Very well, I think you should go to the United Nations to seek for recognition.’

I said, ‘Your Excellency, let us wait until after OAU summit in Algiers and find out what Africa thinks.’ In the meantime, I went to Tunisia to see my friend Habeeb Bourguiba of Tunisia. He wasn’t quite well, so we moved from Carthage to Hermit where he stayed. Ojukwu had always said the civil war would be won on the battlefield and not on the conference table, and Bourguiba didn’t take kindly to that. He said don’t you people advise this young man? I explained to him that I have done everything I could to advise him, but he insists on going to the battle field.

So we crossed our fingers awaiting the verdict of Algiers. You know it was decided by 33 to 4 in favour of Nigeria. I advised Ojukwu that to go to the United Nations to seek recognition would be unrealistic since Africa had decided by 33 to 4 in favour of Nigeria. I said Nigerian envoys, the Nigerian delegations, would just percolate the membership of the United Nations and they would frown at the whole thing. He insisted.

I was then in Paris. I wrote him a letter. I said, ‘Since you refuse to go to the conference table to negotiate for peace, since you prefer that the civil war should end on the battle field and not on the conference table; since you said that the sovereignty of Biafra is not negotiable, I am afraid I cannot continue as a peace envoy because you have destroyed all the vestiges of any optimism for peace. Therefore I am relieving myself of my services as a peace envoy.

I cannot continue as a peace envoy. I cannot continue as a peace envoy because you have let me down. You left me under the impression that if I succeeded in getting recognition you will go to the conference table. You got four recognitions; you did not go to the conference table. I am therefore going to London on exile.’ http://igbobia.com/?q=igbo-fact-fileread-the-1979-interview-dr-nnamdi-azikiwe-had-with-mohammed-haruna-on-biafra.html-0

Nalikedis:
What is so difficult about ending a war? why solicot for the help of OAU to stop a war? wait...When the war finally ended did we need the help of any OAU or president to end it? abeg...Ojukwu should have just called gowon and declare the war over... and that's the end... abi? Zik met with his friend to push Biafra issue to the fore in O.A.U... Awo led Nigeria delegation to the meeting to upturn Zik pro Biafra moves.. so wetin dey there? abeg...

ItsMeAboki:
I do not want to believe you actually read decree 34 because if you did then you must have read it blindly without comprehension.
As already mentioned, he replaced the old regions with provinces as per para 2 subsection 1c of the decree as follows:

the provinces, including Kaduna capital territory, in schedule 1 of this Decree which immediately before the appointed day were respectively comprised in Northern Nigeria, Eastern Nigeria, Western Nigeria and Mid-Western Nigeria shall be known respectively as the Northern group of Provinces, the Eastern group of Provinces, the Western group of Provinces and the Mid-Western group of Provinces;
https://dawodu.com/decree34.htm

Pls stop lying in the face of clear cut evidence.

I am glad to note you at least conceded to the fact that decree 34 centralised the government; pls then tell me what this effect would have had with regards to the autonomy of the the formers regions - who hitherto didn't have to take orders from the central government?

Deny as much as you like; however, your views alone cannot rewrite history and the fact that Ironsi abolished the regions and was responsible for the unitary system of government we have inherited till today along with all its ills.

Michael707:
I have never been stranded since I started Using my Union Bank Debit card because there has never been a network issue each time I make withdrawals. Choose Union Bank today and I can assure you, you can never be stranded.
No network issue
No service downtime

Union Bank
Simple and Smarter Banking Services.

SanMinato:
It's something awes me tbh. Union Bank has prigenin recent time to be a bank with a difference. Services too notch, new look branches, asthetics on point.

Like Osofia would say, "come and see the wonderment of harpic". In this case substitute harpic for Union Bank. lol

felicitywe:
Honestly yorubas r deadly ppl.I noticed it long ago.They r slicky.Using diff monikers 2 create thread&comment.They r behind Tuface protest.The moment they discovered dat PMB is alife,they began 2 expose his illness,sayn d man is incapacitated,asking dat he should talk 2 Nigerians bla bla bla.We v seen governors go on medical vacation for 3 to 4mnths&come back so why d noise.GEJ never envcisage dat Yardua will die in office but Yorubas envisaged PMB 2 die so dat Osinbajo will b president.Yorubas more harmful than a cobra snake.

Wassce:
Our son is moving the country forward.
That's our focus now

shukuokukobambi:


Your pain is visible but if it kills you, i won't say sorry.

Only Buhari had the stature and reputation to unseat a sitting president from the mamoth called the PDP and APC gave him the ticket. Every nigerian bar you, a chronic corruption lover, wanted a change in the way the country was being run. Of courses promises are easier to make than actions as GEJ found out and as Buhari too has found out. That is the point of departure between Buhari and some in the SW and this divorce started in 2015 after he assumed office. You on the other hand supports saraki(a yoruba) till today simply because you see him as a spite on Tinubu.

are you the only ibo man? if you don't support biafra, how many other millions are trekking in the name of biafra under the hot sun?

Yoruba are the most principled of people that's why we produced folks like Fela, Gani, Funmi Kuti etc who speak the truth and fight for justice irrespective of who's in power. name one person from your enckave that can measure up to? Buhari's greatest traducers have been Yoruba. Even your juggernauts whom we expected to be opposition to Buhari are falling over themselves to join Buhari's APC yet you have the nerve to accuse me? warn yourself o

No ibo man has any integrity and none has the stamina to fight for causes higher than themselves

ndoeyopbennet:
If your brothers had express themselves as civil as you did, this thread wouldn't have spilled over to the number of pages it now has. Sometimes, your fellow Biafrans are the cause of the so-called Igbophobia.

Eddygourdo:
again, noise noise noise, chest beating, bragging etc. I blame the federal government for wasting resources feeding kanu and his ilk. They woulda done the noble thing. Leave him to attempt to form biafra. Quote me and remember this staatement. Even before its formation biafra will fail. What ignoramuses like you fail to grasp is that the conditions and lies toldd in 1968 cannot and doesn't hold sway in 2017 . Because people can reason now. The biafran initiative will become a laughing stock like the pdp when they wanna start sef not to talk of a future in it. You haven't been able to answer the questions I asked and rather ran ignorantly to a producing nation. Mtcheeew many prodducing nations are currently @ the brink of a recession and ur here talking crap. Who do you sell what u produce to ? Can ur products compete favourably in a forign market ? Are there any precedence to support that ? Yet all you all make are noise noise noise. Real igbo people aren't ipob members, that is left for the gutter folk in igboland which many of you online here belong to.

Zirah:
Join who? As long as you're Ipob you're beneath me already. You all are slaves. It's why you're agitating freedom. I'm in support because, seriously, your refugee and opportunistic lives ( in every state of the country) is tiring already. You need help.

omenkaLives:
Idoma/Igede, biafra? Devil punish these people.

ShootToKill:
IPOB-induced pains is like the grace of God, anyone can share in it, including you. So lament on brother... we IPOBs are generous pain-inducers when it comes to dealing with deluded zombigerians.

softMarket:
All i know is that Nnamdi kanu won't/cant't be killed in prison!

There's something u guys(afonja and abokis) don't understand about Nnamdi Kanu.

He doesnt want money!
If he had wanted money,the Federal govt would have gave him bilions in dollars!

But he's a commited young man that has one target/goal!

No matter how long it takes, Nnamdi kanu will come out victorious!!

Nothing good come easy!

I can give u an example, NELSON MANDELA!

ShootToKill:
I didn't add 'yoruba muslim itshekiris' I only added 'Itshekiris' who are by historical records are 'Biafrans'. Is your muslim skull pained by that fact?

ShootToKill:
Yes... Activist Kanu (as International media call him) does not represent 'Ibos' like Goshu Enwereji (Never even heard about him till today) but he REPRESENT IGBOS, ANNANG, EFIKS, OGONI, EKAJUKS, IBILS, ITSHEKIRIS, URHOBOS and EVERY BIAFRAN TRIBE.

Even efulefu cowards more popular than the Goshi abi na Gomshu have made greater noise but have failed.

rusher14:
You can mention every tribe of Israel but never you put Itshekiri in that list of yours.

Thanks in advance.

superior1:
Constituted Banker and Constituted Authority

olaoreawofele:
op, please explain how she runs firstbank or is the brain behind firstbank?

belzabull:
chronic Igbo hater that only comes alive on any Igbo related matter.

The greatest form of cowardice is for a full grown man to kill himself. Awolo -awo is the greatest coward in human history... chew on it

uboma:
three months after the deposit, the Account Officer could not trace the origin of the funds.

What a dumb Account Officer!

What bank did this transaction take place please?

Elkay3:
Some might call him foolish. But I believe it's the sane thing to do.

seguno2:
I am not sure that Daura has steady electricity despite all the decades of Buhari in power.
Moreover the issue of electricity should be treated and resolved nationwide and not piecemeal due to someone's influence or not.
That is also corruption aka influence peddling.

baddosky1:
Zombies...you people have taken the job of wailing to yourselves now. Okonjo Iweala is originally from Umuahia, Abia State but is married to a Deltan. Secondly, is it her job to supply electricity to the community or the job of that flat faced fowlshola?

gartamanta:
Still not her job to eletrify the place.

gists:
I am one of the biggest critics of this woman having supervised the economy during which time some of the biggest theft occurred in this country. But COMMON this is cheap blackmail. It was not her job - period!
I will continue to criticise her for failing to develop our infrastructure when we had the biggest earning in our history but this topic is just senseless.

KOBOJO:
AWO. LO. WO was a tyrant and a mass murderer. ,a known and confirmed psychopath who committed suicide to end his miserable life!!

telltimes:
See what I saw at the Moremi Ojudu's Brooks lounge in Lagos with price list looking cheaper than that of the street sellers popularly referred to as "mama put" Moremi has been known for her stand against Hunger in Nigeria, even as a daughter of Buhari's aide she called this government into action against Hunger at many times

DupsonProperty:
Mr/ Mrs Laudate,gratitude for your interest in reading and informative criticisms. However,in academic,once you quote a name in a sentence,it's reference to the quote,thus,it's not your word as you put down the words of others. That said,history is what you write, I presented my facts based on what I read and so did You,if you feel mine doesnt tally with what you know,by all means, Make a constructive criticisms and not insult or ruin the work of others.

Ergo,endeavour you have a piece of ibeju Lekki history now before another writer gives you another version of it in next 5years.

Nevertheless, gratitude for your observation,informations,And anticipated purchase to be part of this momentous sales of the new phase of LAGOS....thanks

Best Regards

CallmeGlad:
Anyone who doesnt agree with you on Biafra is an Afonja?The way most of you reason is legendary.

Yet on a daily basis the igbos are trooping in enmass to an Afonja party.

Brain washed mofos.

When is Trump coming to release Mazi kanu?

gawu1:
The Albino chewing watery beans in Kuje is trailing the same path with the bearded coward. After achieving in sacrificing millions of them, he would turn back and pray for pardon and re-integration. Ipods are the must gullible human sets in Nigeria today. You can see why radio Biafra has turned them with ease to revisionists. Where the claim victims today, tomorrow they would claim victory. They would claim marginalization, but would at the time claim the country would hardly survive without them.
In short, if one is looking for cry baby, ipods are perfect examples.

OreMI22:
The exact strategy of the Fulani hardliners under Buhari is to create such conditions to make Igbos declare Biafra prematurely and then they can use the opportunity to cut them to size using Nigerian army.
How vain and hollow they reason. In any case, even if Biafra is declared a second time, it will be impossible to conclude it on the terms of the first encounter, but that is discussion for another day.

Igbos should resist attempt to declare Biafra or at least not to declare prematurely. If IPOB wanted, it could adopt the ANC strategy of training guerillas somewhere and they come in for special missions. I would hope Nigeria stops toying with fire in the hope they can burn their own house and come out unscathed.