₦airaland Forum

Ojukwu´s War Effort

For effective results, natural resources are relied on in the prosecution of wars around the world. For example, Kuwait pays America with oil. In the Angolan war, UNITA traded in diamonds to obtain weapons, MPLA exchanged oil for weapons. See http://www.diamondfacts.org/conflict/background.html. Also, see www.worldbank.org/afr/wps/wp13.pdf. The Taliban fighters and Al Qaida in Afghanistan are handing out raw, hard drugs for weapons. Even Charles Taylor of Liberia traded raw diamonds from neighbouring Sierra Lone with weapons. See http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/video-of-naomi-campbells-blood-diamond-testimony/ Likewise, Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon are supplied with weapons by Iran and Syria. For the weapons it got, a country like Nigeria has an arrangement in which some advanced countries own and suck the oil in the country till it perhaps runs dry. Foreign countries are given the free hand on projects like the sport the Russians made of Katsina, Itape, Jos and Ajaokuta rolling mills. It was only the Ojukwu-inspired Biafran scientists and inventors, notable names among whom were, the science genius Roy Umenyi, Ben Nwosu, Godian Ezekwe, Emma Osolu, Sam Orji, Njoku Obi, and so many others who during the Nigerian civil war, continued to dazzle with invention and manufacture of their own weapons. They wouldn’t stop at pulling off weapons like surface to surface missiles, ground to air missiles, rocket launchers, rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles, but kept the world gaping with gun boats for amphibious attacks. There was also the famous Biafra Bomb popularly known in Igboland as either `Ojukwu Bucket` or ‘Ogbunaigwe,` meaning the mass killer. The Biafran Shore Battery easily devastated marine craft, like the Oguta feat masterminded by Ojukwu. In Biafra, lorries that rolled into underground warehouses rolled out as armoured vehicles. Refining crude oil wasn’t a preserve of any refinery. It got domesticated, and was plentiful. Attempts were also made to build war airplanes, they tried virtually everything they could, but the starvation policy and the economic blockage by Nigeria and their western supporters crippled the new republic. What is interesting is that all this was achieved in the midst of the chocking hold on Biafra through blockade by the advanced countries, including the neighbouring Cameroon and Nigeria. That was also the time Nigeria signed off the oil rich Bakassi Peninsula which was on Biafra territory to Cameroon for their kindness in starving infants in Biafra. In fact, the Nigerian Santa Claus did really come to town after the victory over Biafra, throwing largesse anywhere one looked.

The feats by Biafra under Ojukwu definitely were some of the reasons why Nigeria became deserving of assistance from most advanced nations in the world, especially with the Civil Rights movement in America being a front burner issue worldwide. Were these spectacular stories coming from Africa? observers wondered. According to Major Abubakar A. Atofarati, a former Student of US Marine Command & Staff College, Ojukwu’s Biafra “established Research and Production Board and they researched and manufactured rockets, mines, tanks, grenades, launchers, bombs, flame throwers, vaccines, biological and alcoholic beverages, textile factories which produced military uniforms, and so forth.” Also see http://www.africamasterweb.com/BiafranWarCauses.html. It is known that after the war the British and American military intelligence confiscated all Biafran classified research and production documents and files which the British and the Pentagon are using today to manufacture and modify both their military weapons and other technological devices, some of which military and weapon specialists confirmed they have used against the Iraqi forces and in the current Afghanistan conflict. A clear example is the cluster bomb used by the Americans for the first time in Iraq and which the Americans held up as one of their greatest inventions. Biafran agricultural engineers had a gift for their people, and the nation was going to hold out, trying to capitalize on disquiet in 1968/69 in the British parliament. It was the attempt to mass produce foods in the vast fields of the Afikpo area. But this place, including the facilities therein, thanks to sabotage, British intelligence and help, was taken out by the enemy. The splendid Biafran paper currency is of an unrivalled quality. The Biafran communications system was sustained throughout the war. Air tarmacs were being reconstructed on nightly basis in the face of intense bombardments.

One man was surrounded at table by his technocrats. According to Frederick Forsyth, this man, Ojukwu, who has never been given the credit for risking his life against Nzeogwu, Ifeajuna, Okafo, Ademoyega, Onwuatuegwu and co, and foiling their coup, was involved in the training of the Biafra military intelligence, which then rated second only to the Israeli Mossad. Again, as the Biafran forces mobilised to retake Owerri, the UK government and the Russians doubled their military aid and direct involvement, which enabled Nigeria to unleash over 120,000 troops against Biafra, thus leading to the final fall of Owerri, which was regarded as the Igbo heartland. What Ojukwu told the London Times correspondent James Wilde, can best explain the reason for the Nigerian-Biafran war. He said, "What you are seeing now is the end of a long, long journey. It began in the far north of Nigeria and moved steadily southward as we were driven out of place after place. Now this path has become the road to the slaughterhouse here in the Ibo heartland.”

Ojukwu is a highly talented man who can strike it out with you in various Nigerian languages. The English author Frederick Forsyth recollects that Ojukwu made the atmosphere in the flight that brought him back to Nigeria from exile very cordial, as Ojukwu freely cracked jokes and interacted with all the delegations sent to receive him in their original languages of Yoruba, Hausa and, of course, Igbo. He also interacted in French with the Ivorian delegation sent by his host president late Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Ivory Coast.

Also, unbeknownst to many people, Ojukwu learnt how to speak Yoruba language first before his own native Igbo language. The early sign that Ojukwu would not grow up to become a weakling but the defender of people against injustice and oppression started when he was only 11 years old. He was briefly imprisoned by the colonialists for assaulting a white British colonial teacher, who had humiliated a black woman at King's College, Lagos. The incident generated widespread coverage in local newspapers. The second incident was at the age of 13 at Epsom College in Surrey, United Kingdom, where a naughty white boy caused Ojukwu’s African accent to make his colleagues shake with laughter. One day, at the hallway to the chapel, he heard one of them call him `monkey` and another tripped him and his books were all scattered on the floor. The boy had no idea he and his colleagues had been provoking a sleeping lion by always intentionally and contemptuously stepping on its tail, hence the boy got the beating of his life and a three-day admission in the hospital to go with. Ojukwu would be among those who would eventually be at the boy’s bedside, and they became friends thereafter. These incidents serve to prove the Igbo adage which says that “the sign of a pear that would darken to maturity starts with a dark spot at the head.”

As one of the detribalized leaders in Nigeria Ojukwu played an outstanding role in neutralising the first coup in Nigeria, even though he had to confront the coup leader and a fellow Igbo officer, Major Chukwuma Nzeokwu and other officers from mainly southern and, especially eastern Nigeria. It weakens the argument of people determined to justify an assault on a people by claiming it was an all-Igbo coup. The coup was largely seen as successful in the North and partly in Lagos as Lagos was then the seat of power, and both the prime minister of the country and the premier of the North had been killed. But it lost momentum as Ojukwu refused to cooperate with the coup plotters in the North and pitched loyalty with Gen. Aguyi-Ironsi, the legitimate commander of the Nigerian army, who ensured the coup plotters wouldn’t accomplish their aims in Lagos. Then, came the unrestrained killings of Igbos in the North led by mainly northern military officers among whom were, Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, Lts ADS Wya, Ibrahim Babangida, Garba Duba, Lt. Col. Murtala Muhammed, Lt Col. Shehu Musa Yar`Adua, Capt. Ahmadu Yakubu, Capt. Daramola, Lts. Buka Sukar Dimka, Lts. Shelleng, Hannaniya, Muhammadu Jega, Sani Abacha, Saleh Dambo and many others.For instance, over 20 Igbo officers were executed at the Brigade HQ on 29 and 30 July 1966. Some of the eastern and southern officers killed during the first batch include Major O.U. Isong, Major Ogunro, Lt. Col. I.C. Okoro, Capt L.C. Dilibe, Major C.C. Emelifonwu, Capt. I.U. Idika, and Major A. Drummond. In accordance with the spirit goading the killers, Lt. Col Mohammed Shuwa, the commandant of the 5th battalion would preside over the massacres of Igbos at both the Kano airport and the main railway station in Kano.

Earlier, on July 29, 1966 in this on-going northern counter-coup, Theophilus Danjuma, Sani Bello, Martin Adamu and other Northern military officers had taken General T. Aguiyi-Ironsi the military head of State of Nigeria and his host Col. Francis Fajuyi to a location outside Ibadan and shot them to death. In the face of the madness, Ojukwu pursued a peaceful course. He had held onto the concept of one Nigeria. It caused him to make the tactical mistake of asking Igbos to return, after the first killings, to their former stations in other parts of Nigeria, following assurances by various individuals and groups. But the northern and other counter-coupists couldn’t resist a second round of bloodletting. Igbos killed in the two waves of attacks had totalled about 50,000. This is coupled with the fact that Ojukwu and Lt. Col. David Ogunewe for days had been pushing back against Igbos who wanted to go into and cut down northern soldiers at the barracks in Enugu. According to Nowa Omoigui, quoting Lt-General JS Jalo, the same “Northern soldiers who left Enugu unmolested got themselves involved in molesting departing Igbo refugees and looting their property in Ikeja barrack. The Igbo were going away and looting set in and some senior officers, I must confess, encouraged this to happen.” In fact, 90% of officers from the East and some from the West were massacred in the North. Just a handful escaped to their home regions.

Regrettably these killings in the North are still continuing nearly 50 years on, though modified as religious riots. It is unfortunate that the Nigerian youth today would need special education to remove the image of death associated with the North, a place where petrol is poured on homes, fire lobbed in and the occupants consumed by raging fire. Where innocent people, including infants, are hunted and hacked to death with flimsy excuses. If it is not Zango-Kataf massacres, it would be Kano Maitatsine, numerous other Kano, Kaduna riots, Gombe Riots, Tafawa Balewa Riots, Kafanchan Riots, Bauchi Riots, Bulumkutu Maiduguri Riots, renewed Maiduguri Riots aka Boko Haram, Abuja Bombings, then the festering Jos Riots and Bombings. The list is endless, killing, killing and killing, every now and then! Interestingly, the culture is to keep your mouth shut and not openly frown at these silly acts, otherwise you would be seen as fanning the embers of disunity in a nascent democracy. Long live One Nigeria! May Allah and God help us all. Hey, what set off these two names simultaneously from my mouth? I digressed.
Following the slaughters in the North before the war, steps were taken to revert to normalcy. However, after series of meetings, including the one in Aburi, Ghana, some northern elites and Britain instigated the Gowon government to renege on the Aburi Accord. Gowon unilaterally split Eastern Nigeria into three states contrary to the federal structure agreed upon in Aburi, while Ojukwu, after consultations with leaders in the East, responded after three days by declaring the whole Eastern Nigeria as a sovereign state called the Republic of Biafra on 30th July 1967.

Ironically, he found himself being the centre of intrigue by the NPN, which had a capacity to trivialize even the most serious issues. Concerned about Ojukwu`s enigmatic influence, they did not only abandon him, but rigged him out of a senate seat to a little known state commissioner called Dr. Edwin Onwudiwe, who was in then Governor Jim Nwobodo’s cabinet. Ojukwu would later jokingly refer to himself as Onwudiwe’s ID, meaning the man’s only way of identifying himself was to say, “Am the man who won Ojukwu in an election.” The path home for Ojukwu was laced with treachery, as he was, for instance, restrained by successive military governments from laying down his head in his father’s house at 25 Queens Drive Ikoyi, Lagos. The government had used the excuse of rebellion against the state of Nigeria to confiscate the property. Nigerians stood by him out in the open, and with the awkward walls within which he had anything being an old rickety bus, all that in the rainy season. It was from there that he fought to reverse an eviction. According to him, as an old soldier, he could adapt to any condition. The military government’s arm was eventually forced by public anger it couldn’t stand any longer, to let go of the man’s property, but not after series of court rulings. Also, Ojukwu’s military pension which was also one of the conditions for the state pardon didn’t start coming until 41 years after the end of the civil war.

Ojukwu has held many important positions in the country. His first job was to oversee colonial affairs as a district officer in the town of Udi. He had also worn the UN helmet as a peace keeper in the Congo Crisis of the 1960s. Ojukwu was to hold forth as the first Quarter-Master-General of the Nigerian Army, and later discharged himself satisfactorily as the commander of the 5th battalion of the Nigerian Army in Kano. His next posting was as the Military Governor of the old Eastern Region in Nigeria. He moved with the circumstance in Biafra to become a four-star general and head of state of that country. He threw his heart into the political arena once again in 2003, founding the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and contesting the Nigeria presidential elections as the party’s flag bearer.

At no time in his public service has Ojukwu been swayed by corruption, something to which his contemporaries look kindly. This is an excellent record in a country like Nigeria. It is believed that part of his father’s wealth was channelled into the Biafra war effort. Ojukwu is guided by the principle of contentment. You don’t look any further for a true and astute leader. When he was once addressed as a chief by an interviewer, he replied, saying, “I am not a chief; it rhymes with thief.”

Intellectually, and among his contemporaries, Ojukwu is one of the brightest. Not surprising, Ojukwu’s father was Sir. Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, a Hope Waddell Institute educated-parliamentarian in Nigeria’s first republic. Ojukwu senior was a business mogul and said to be one of the richest men in Nigeria in his time. He was also founding president of the Nigeria Stock Exchange, as well as president of the African Continental Bank (ACB), and was in the boards of most of the powerful companies in Nigeria at the time. The senior Ojukwu made no mistake of what he wanted his son to be, sending his son to the elite Kings College in Lagos. At 13, Ojukwu was on his way to Europe to enrol at the elite Epsom College. Ojukwu proceeded to the famous Oxford University, where he obtained a Bachelor’s as well as a Master`s Degree in History. But Ojukwu will downplay these academic acquisitions, and tell you that “Education is not elitism, education actually, to me, is more a question of sharpening one’s choices and consciousness. The value in it is the effect one has on one’s people.”

February 17, 2011
More from this author
Ojukwu, the People’s General Lives On

While reflecting on why Biafra lost the war of survival against Nigeria, in which about 3 million Igbos died, some non-Igbo critics of Ojukwu are of the view that he led his own people tactlessly into what was clearly a foreseeable disaster. Others claim that due to his passion for power, he paid more attention to the politics of the war than to the one basic question of security. Yet, there are others who blame him for not securing the support of any of the world super powers before going to war with Nigeria, etc. Though, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who, like every human being, may have his weaknesses, obviously must have made some mistakes in life, given a lot of reasons.

Unlike the typical corrupt African politicians averse to steadfastness, Odumegwu, for instance, did not betray communist East Germany educated Chuba Okadigbo, who engineered his return back to Nigeria from exile in the Ivory Coast. As a one-time special adviser on political affairs to the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) Dr. Okadigbo advised the Shehu Shagari government that granting Ojukwu a state pardon would ensure appreciable level of Igbo support for NPN, which prior to that time was seen by Igbos as a `Hausa party` and therefore had feeble presence in Igboland. How people connected with Ojukwu was evident in the hero’s welcome he got when he set his foot in Nigeria after 13 years of exile. Prominent politicians from various political parties in the land wanted to tap into the NPN investment, holding out before him some goodies, promising to add the heavens to the earth being dangled by the NPN, if he could throw the NPN pact into the nearest dustbin. Indeed, he was tongue-lashed by some of his Igbo people, who felt he had broken ranks, and might cut into the Nnamdi Azikiwe-led Nigeria Peoples Party’s (NPP) electoral advantage in the East. At that time, NPP controlled the only two Igbo states in Nigeria - Anambra and Imo, and Plateau state, which is outside Igbo land. Therefore, NPP was where much of Igbo loyalty lay. But Ojukwu firmly stood his ground, as he dutifully maintained the political pact with the second republic government.

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check rita out here - the remix


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_E3gIJXbeA&feature=related

.

^^^ cast ur vote and protect it is the solution.

~Bluetooth:
confession ko,baptism ni. . .awon oloshi

lol

mehn! what a woman!. A woman called KOBOJUNKIE. she is engaging a room, a forum, in a heated debated, she is attacking,in well structured replies, in an equally well written English, not conceding any block , even the smallest piece of land. She has been cornered, called out, boxed in and pinned down, yet she is not giving in. she is fighting back, responding to every stroke and strike on her person, flaking off every single one of her adversaries,
yet she is running to Moderators !!


could she be the true meaning of enigma ??

fstranger3:
Are you done stalking Odunnu's profile?


Is that why you are happy?

lol, obviously u were stalking me as well.

i like u dude, i think we re of like mind. u dig kobo, o God, i dig her real gud as well.   

get over to sexuality, a new tori is coming on board.

#Afanna:
ijebu and witchcraft,

i really admire dagrin, he was a real metaphor, a true symbol of creativity and good sound, but if the confession is true then it brings up the argument ; "how far and wide wud a man venture to acquire ill suited success."

what is the true cause of his death. (forget d accident report ooh )

was his creativity from the spirit world?

if true, to the innocent man listening to his cd's , is there going to be a spiritual adverse effect to his ears, if nt his mind and soul ?

i have heard people say , "juju is real. .  . "

^^ yeah right , but u have nothing to say about sanusi's crooked, vitiated and depraved actions

What do you get when a witch is on Youtube (a video sharing website where users can share, upload and watch videos)? She confesses about many things especially about late rapper, Dagrin. You also get mixed reactions in the form of “authoritative” analysis, illogical explanations, denials etc.
Lately, twitter was awash with info from Nigerians about “a witch” who claimed to be helping some Nigerians in climbing the ladder of success .

The “witch” (Esther Falodun) mentioned many notable Nigerians from Obasanjo to Babaginda but what caught many people’s attention was that Dagrin’s name is on her list as well as Fathia’s and Saidi Balogun in the video titled Asiri Nla.
Sources said the alleged “witch” died immediately after her confession in which she claimed to belong to the same group as Fathia Balogun and that she helped Dagrin to attain fame and popularity. Falodun said she had to cut him “short” when he did not honor his part of the deal.

Dagrin’s name in her list of beneficiaries surprised quite some people, because the deceased rapper died within six months of his rise to stardom. It’s indisputable that the late rapper became famous by featuring in YQ’s album in 2009. He established himself as an artist of note with lyrical rhythms and many collabos . His second album was a classic hit and many predicted he would rule 2010, but just when the fame and money started rolling in, Dagrin, whose real name is Olaitan Olaonipekun died few days after a ghastly motor accident at a Lagos hospital.

Falodun’s confession which is on CD is selling in Lagos and has resulted in a controversy about the authenticity of her confessions. Many believe her confessions were stage-managed.
Tunde, Dagrin’s manager, said the woman lied. “The whole thing was cooked-up . We don’t have time for people like that. The young woman also alleged she helped Obasanjo and Babaginda. How old was she to have helped these people? Secondly, she confessed in a room privately. A confession is not done in a room, it is done publicly. They are looking for what to eat” he concluded.

Ope Banwo said the video and confession CD is “riddled with inaccuracies, production and factual flaws” . “To be honest with you, the whole thing is fake. I have watched the video and I’m sure the whole thing is fake. The video depicted a woman who had been beaten . A chicken was beside the woman and it didn’t move for one hour. Does that look real to you…?

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/showpiece/2011/feb/20/showpiece-20-02-2011-001.htm

Now you tell us, what kind of two-faced, corruption-bedeviled, dumb-arse Saviour is this mallam, Mr mallam sanusi?

FORMER Group Managing Director and Chief Executive of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Dr. Erastus Akingbola, yesterday called on the federal government to probe what he described as reckless destruction of the banking industry by a handful of men who are still pretending that they are working in the nation's interest.

Akingbola, who is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged misappropriation of N364 billion belonging to the bank faulted the ongoing banking reform by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), saying it was aimed at hijacking other people's businesses by a cabal.

In a statement at the weekend, Akingbola, who blamed his ordeal on Kwara State governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki; CBN governor Lamido Sanusi and the CBN-appointed incumbent Managing Director/CEO of Intercontinental Bank Mahmoud Lai Alabi, also called for the return of the bank to its shareholders.
Akingbola, it would be recalled recently returned to the country to face charges of fraud levelled against him by the EFCC. But describing the allegations against him as "absurd," the former Intercontinental Bank boss said: "I am happy that I am now in the law courts where the truth, by the grace of God, will surface. I repeat that I did not steal or misappropriate one kobo from Intercontinental Bank Plc throughout my 21 years service to the bank."


He accused the Alabi-led management of sinister motive, saying: the numerous pointers to the sinister motive behind the take-over of Intercontinental Bank by the trio was that Mr. Alabi, barely few days after assumption of office as MD/CEO, fraudulently wrote off N7.5 billion out of the N8.5 billion loan Bukola Saraki and his companies took from the bank.


Describing the write-off as a cash gift, Akingbola questioned if the action was in the interest of the depositors that the CBN governor claims that he is protecting, adding that the Alabi management has been busy spending money he left in the bank.
Part of the statement read: Just like any other bank trading in the industry, Intercontinental Bank had Interbank takings of N73 billion which is more than acceptable for a N1.6 trillion bank. However, today, under the Mahmoud Lai Alabi management, the bank owes the CBN over N100 billion and owing the Interbank market over N300 billion, showing a massive exposure of N400 billion in less than one year of the take-over; and Sanusi is not calling for Lai Alabi's head for obvious reasons.


Even if the bank was in trouble, as alleged by Lamido Sanusi, why were its shareholders and Management not given the same opportunity Unity Bank and Wema Bank was given to recapitalise their banks? I think it is now clear that the motive behind this so-called Banking Reform was simply to hijack other people's businesses. It is clear that Alabi has been sent to the bank to loot it for his mentors and destroy the Akingbola Legacy.


Alabi is paying himself N7 million per month (N84 million per year), yet he is still using the Bank's money to fuel his car and generators. I never earned up to N5 million per month throughout my 21 years of building the bank.


Lai Alabi has bought for himself and each executive director 3 bulletproof jeeps each. I only used two official cars at any one time throughout my 21 years stay in the bank. Lai Alabi and his Executive Directors had granted themselves Housing loans of N100 million each having worked for just a few months.


�Before I left the Bank, we had 350 branches in Nigeria, 40 branches in Ghana, one UK office and ten stand-alone subsidiaries. Now Mahmoud Lai Alabi is selling off the Branches and other assets of the bank with impunity and diverting the proceeds.



�Before I left the Bank, we had 12,000 members of staff. Now Mahmoud Lai Alabi has retrenched over 3,000 of them (and he is set to sack more). I think employment provision should be a major measure of an economy that is doing well.


�Before I left the Bank, Intercontinental was an international bank that every Nigerian, and indeed lovers of the Black race, that arrived at London Heathrow Airport, Terminal 5 was proud of. Now Lai Alabi wants to turn the Bank into a Regional Bank restricted to the south-west of Nigeria alone. These are the same people who are appealing to banks from other nations to come and buy over Nigerian banks but are busy trying to shrink Nigerian banks.


http://www.champion.com.ng/displaycontent.asp?pid=695

Wat a loss, such a Gud man. Anyway time for real trado-politicking to commerce (no fighting oh)

^^^ u have got no point, shut up.

Mehn, SEE MIND! on the woman's path. but hold on, what was on her mind? to save her lover boy at the expense of her marriage?

she shud thank her gods that she is Yoruba, she cud still find a man to marry her. i bet if she was igbo. . . . nobody marries a divorcee in igbo culture, right?

i luv yoruba language , so much drama in the speech. hard to differentiate shouting, anger and mere talking. luv it

:p :p :p