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LiteratureRe: Get any Book you want free of charge (drop requests) by mannys(m): 7:50pm On Nov 25, 2018
1. Aravind Adiga ....White tiger

2. Ben Okri.... the famished road

3 Chigozie obioma .....the fishermen

4. Okonjo iweala's book
PoliticsRe: Get A Guranteed Spot In A Very Cheap US School By January 2017 by mannys(m): 3:35pm On Jul 05, 2016
Arcmedic@yahoo.co.uk
Crime#justice For Dr Theresa by mannys(op):
We feel obliged to inform you of a rather troubling incident which to Dr. Theresa, a Senior Registrar 1 in the department of Psychiatry of Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (Ile-Ife) and a dear friend to us all. She is a very gentle, easy going, ever smiling and hardworking resident doctor but even if she didn't possess any of the aforementioned attributes, she didn't deserve any of what occurred in the duration of this incident.

It all began on Thursday 25th February 2016 at her service apartment building located outside the hospital. It seemed like just another day- a quiet morning with the dew still on the cars parked in the compound and chirping of insects the predominant sound till it was shattered by the shrill shouts of Dr. Okpara. Dr. Okpara is a Wing Commander in the Nigerian Air Force, a resident Doctor in the Dept of Community Medicine in the same hospital where Theresa works, and also resides in that compound. So what could make this man, slightly overweight and bespectacled, irate early on a Thursday morning?

The obstruction of his car in the parking lot within the compound; that's the simple answer but as with most things in life even simple things can devolve into ugly scenarios. As is common in some buildings, the parking space is inadequate and as such tenants have to park behind other cars within the compound. This doesn't constitute the end of the world and tenants occasionally call each other- through the security guard- to move their cars in the morning so that individuals are able to drive out.

According to an eye witness (who is a doctor in the same hospital and also lives within the same compound), Dr Theresa's car was obstructing Dr. Okpara's car and he called her out to move her car. She had told him she was dressing up and would soon be out. It would seem like the problem was solved but he kept shouting and verbally abusing her. He didn't stop even when she came out to move her car. Perhaps affronted by her calm despite his torrents of abuses, he physically attacked her as she got into her car to make way for him. Truth be told, saying physically attacked is sugar coating things. Truth is- and in the manner of calling a spade a spade- he beat her, with a succession of punches, each one meted out with the intent to humiliate her and put her in her place. And when the punches weren't doing a good job of that, he reached for a metal pedal lock as a coda to the lesson he was meting out. Thankfully he was restrained by some of the co-tenants but he did leave a mark, several marks actually, on her.

Theresa has a right nasal bone fracture, cerebrospinal fluid- the liquid which keeps the brain protected within the skull- leak, a deformed face, several bruises, and that's just listing the physical injuries. As it is, she has to decide if she wants surgery to correct the facial deformity or live with a disfigured face for the rest of her life.

Life is a lot of things- different things- and sometimes we get a choice to either look the other way as though nothing has happened or stare tyranny in the face and make our voices heard. Maybe being a member of the Nigerian Air Force is a powerful intoxicant and what better way to demonstrate this than by beating up a woman- one defenseless woman, one who has overcome several odds to be who she is today, one who is your sister, daughter, friend, and companion. Maybe it is easier to look the other way but in this fight, I stand with Theresa! #justice4drtheresa.

Thank you all.
CMUL, 2008 Graduating Class of Medical Doctors & Dentists.



http://www.lindaikejisblog.com/2016/02/military-officer-pummels-female-sickler.html?m=1

Technology MarketRe: ROMOSS sense 6p 20,000mah POWER BANK, LCD FOR phone laptop via type-C #10,000 by mannys(m): 1:21pm On Nov 18, 2015
How many times will it charge iPad 3?
Battery capacity is 11560mah....guess just once
PoliticsRe: Abubakar Bayero Drags Emir Sanusi To Court by mannys(m): 8:33pm On Oct 30, 2015
Interesting.....Sanusi will come out unscathed


Also...u can make money by network marketing
http://PayTaski.com/?ref=38658

Just had to tell u
FashionRe: Miss Universe 1964 Bikini Photo And Compare Them To Today's Photos by mannys(m): 4:39pm On Oct 30, 2015
Lool...times are different ooo




Anyways...hear you can make some good money doing social media advertising@http://PayTaski.com/?ref=38658
RomanceRe: 10 Reasons To Marry A Female Doctor by mannys(m): 9:35pm On Sep 25, 2015
Nice one MrsPhyno....no yab me ooo...I just sent u a private message
SportsKano Pillars Players Attacked!(PHOTOS) by mannys(op):
Kano Pillars players were attacked in Abaji on their way to Owerri to honour the Heartland game. Gambo mohd had a gunshot injury to the left arm. Rabiu was unscathed. Contributed my little quota. They are presently in Fmc lokoja

SportsKano Pillars Players Attacked By Robbers by mannys(op): 5:36pm On Mar 05, 2015
Kano Pillars players were attacked in Abaji on their way to Owerri to honour the Heartland game. Gambo mohd had a gunshot injury to the left arm. Rabiu was unscathed. Contributed my little quota. They are presently in Fmc lokoja

HealthRe: Nigeria Sets Tooth-Brushing World Record by mannys(m): 11:03am On Jul 07, 2013
The world record was masterminded by Dr Lawal Bakare, a dentist from LUTH and my former classmates. The event wasn't just about setting a record. It was about promoting oral health and teaching the need to brush twice a day. It was supported by close up and Vasnet.
SportsRe: Namibia Vs Nigeria W-C Qualifier: (1 - 1) On 12th June 2013 by mannys(m): 8:27pm On Jun 12, 2013
All these streaming doesnt seem to work on my ipad
LiteratureRe: Nigerian Girl Living In The UK by mannys(m): 7:28am On May 05, 2013
I be your correct fan...I even dey for dilemma...naija don tire me...I dey save money to comot...I be dokita sha..truth is you probably appreciate naija when you are gone..but naija no easy o...even for doctors
SportsRe: Shooting Stars Of Ibadan (Oluyole Warriors) Fan Thread! by mannys(m): 6:10pm On Mar 11, 2013
Although I am an Enyimba fan, I support any Nigerian team in the continent like most of you does..Aside the Enyimba triumphs of the 2000s..no match captivated me likd the 3Sc and Zamalek match of 1996..Shooting played beautiful football...I remember Duke Udi the play maker and there was this bulky striker they had...Not forgetting Zamalek's Golden Quran..that game was d bomb!
SportsRe: Photo Of Enyeama During Nigeria's Match by mannys(m): 1:01pm On Jan 24, 2013
SEE WETIN TB JOSHUA DEY CAUSE?
LiteratureRe: Guobe De Nisa...tomorrow Is Too Far by mannys(op): 6:53pm On Jan 11, 2013
Yes na....the tory has ended
BukkyDan: The end?
LiteratureRe: Guobe De Nisa...tomorrow Is Too Far by mannys(op):
3.
He had been waiting for thirty minutes, had actually enjoyed watching other clubbers dance. One guy scratched his whole body with both hands while hopping on one leg after the other, the resemblance to an excited chimpanzee was not lost on him and he muffled a laughter. Then Caro walked in wearing a loose flowery blue gown that reached her shin. This was matched with a black belt and black leather boots. She walked straight to him, took him by the arm and led him to an official part of the building, away from the music and noise that sought comfort in each other, away from the merry makers.
The corridor was well lit, the floors were marbled mirrors and the walls had framed portraits of
  various important persons. Obama’s portrait was conspicuous with a gold emblem. His rabbit ears stood out as he smiled coyly away from them. She led him to a door marked
  ‘manager’, unlocked it and beckoned him in.
“ Please sit down, what can I offer you?” She asked and ushered him to a comfortable couch while she reclined in another. The office was tastefully furnished with thick Arabian rugs, imported mahogany desk and a glass shelf containing several awards and medals. Vases containing exotic flowers were strategically located at the corners of the room. Cold Play’s Yellow played quietly from hidden woofers as waft of cold air from split units carried fragrance from the flowers to his nostril. He liked it here.
“ Nothing, really. I have had a glass too many.”
“ You seem anxious to see me, unlike your shy self, hope no problem?” She looked into his eyes expecting him to look hurriedly away, but he held her gaze and they fought a silent war. In the seconds it lasted, their pulses raced, breaths became heavier and body temperatures increased threatening to reach a suffocating crescendo until she looked away, happy and fulfilled even in defeat, for these battles are without victors or victims.
“ I missed you, I guess” his voice now baritone, seem awakened from its slumber that was it shaky, stuttering old self.
Mike stood up, moved toward her, held her face in his hands and told her he wanted to marry her.
“ Of course you won’t marry me, you don’t even know me” she was becoming angry, angry at herself for showing weakness and for hoping he meant what he said.
“ I know enough already.” He seemed sure of himself, his chest muscles bulged every time he spoke as if corroborating
  non verbally what his mouth meant.
“ I am an epileptic! have been on meds since high school, can you handle that?
“ I can take care of your medical bills, I work with a telecom firm, so money is no problem” he added, held her hands tightly and silently hoped she would accept him.
“ Ok, we will see about that” she answered and smiled at the comical sequence of events. Yet the chemistry was real.
“ I want to meet your parents today.” He told her bluntly, not mincing words in his new found voice. She was alarmed at the suddenness of things. She was used to being in control. With him, it’s different. She seem lost for words and just nodded as she stood up.
“ Why not tomorrow?” she asked, testing his conviction.
He stood up walked towards her, brought his face to hers and they shared a long, lingering kiss and he responded “ Tomorrow is too far”
They left the comfort of the office hand-in-hand, humming the song they had kissed to and re-entered
  the dancehall. As they made their way to the exit, Mike looked up at the dancing colours of the kaleidoscope and whispered into her ears while pointing upward.
“ Isn’t that beautiful?”
She looked up, froze momentarily, fell and her limbs jerked repeatedly while thick curds of saliva escaped her mouth as she had her first fit in twelve months.
The end
LiteratureRe: Guobe De Nisa...tomorrow Is Too Far by mannys(op): 6:05pm On Jan 10, 2013
3.
He had been waiting for thirty minutes, had actually enjoyed watching other clubbers dance. One guy scratched his whole body with both hands while hopping on one leg after the other, the resemblance to an excited chimpanzee was not lost on him and he muffled a laughter. Then Caro walked in wearing a loose flowery blue gown that reached her shin. This was matched with a black belt and black leather boots. She walked straight to him, took him by the arm and led him to an official part of the building, away from the music and noise that sought comfort in each other, away from the merry makers.
The corridor was well lit, the floors were marbled mirrors and the walls had framed portraits of
  various important persons. Obama’s
  portrait was conspicuous with a gold emblem. His rabbit ears stood out as he smiled coyly away from them. She led him to a door marked
  ‘manager’, unlocked it and beckoned him in.
“ Please sit down, what can I offer
  you?” She asked
  ushering him to a comfortable couch while she reclined in another. The office was tastefully furnished with thick Arabian rugs, imported mahogany desk and a glass shelf containing several awards and medals. Vases containing exotic flowers were strategically located at the corners of the room. Cold Play’s Yellow played quietly from hidden woofers as waft of cold air from split units carried fragrance from the flowers to his nostril. He liked it here.
“ Nothing, really. I have had a glass too many.”
“ You seem anxious to see me, unlike your shy self, hope no problem?” She looked into his eyes expecting him to look hurriedly away, but he held her gaze and they fought a silent war. In the seconds it lasted, their pulses raced, breaths became heavier and body temperatures increased threatening to reach a suffocating crescendo until she looked away, happy and fulfilled even in defeat, for these battles are without victors or victims.
“ I missed you, I guess” his voice now baritone, seem awakened from its slumber that was it shaky, stuttering old self.
Mike stood up, moved toward her, held her face in his hands and told her he wanted to marry her.
“ Of course you won’t marry me, you don’t even know me” she was becoming angry, angry at herself for showing weakness and for hoping he meant what he said.
“ I know enough already.” He seemed sure of himself, his chest muscles bulged every time he spoke as if corroborating
  non verbally what his mouth meant.
“ I am an epileptic! have been on meds since high school, can you handle that?
“ I can take care of your medical bills, I work with a telecom firm, so money is no problem” he added, held her hands tightly and silently hoped she would accept him.
“ Ok, we will see about that” she answered and smiled at the comical sequence of events. Yet the chemistry was real.
“ I want to meet your parents today.” He told her bluntly, not mincing words in his new found voice. She was alarmed at the suddenness of things. She was used to being in control. With him, it’s different. She seem lost for words and just nodded as she stood up.
“ Why not tomorrow?” she asked, testing his conviction.
He stood up walked towards her, brought his face to hers and they shared a long, lingering kiss and he responded “ Tomorrow is too far”
They left the comfort of the office hand-in-hand, humming the song they had kissed to and re-entered
  the dancehall. As they made their way to the exit, Mike looked up at the dancing colours of the kaleidoscope and whispered into her ears while pointing upward.
“ Isn’t that beautiful?”
She looked up, froze momentarily, fell and her limbs jerked repeatedly while thick curds of saliva escaped her mouth as she had her first fit in twelve months.
The end
LiteratureRe: Guobe De Nisa...tomorrow Is Too Far by mannys(op): 4:51pm On Jan 06, 2013
My bad....will make necessary corrections...thanks for the comments
LiteratureRe: Guobe De Nisa...tomorrow Is Too Far by mannys(op):
2.
He had been sitting beside her  for about thirty minutes and had only muttered a ‘hello, thanks for not being mad at me the other time’ to which she had replied “ no problem”. Her paucity of words is in itself inviting, encouraging him like a muted audience watching the frenzied dance of the village masquerade with keen interest, wanting him to do more to deserve their applause
Her phone rang , for a ringtone, came a deep throated rendition of the national anthem.
“Hello,” she said after retrieving it from her bag. Holding the phone with her
  right hand , her other hand stroked her hair repeatedly. Her hair is silky black and cascades freely down her neck only stopping on reaching the shoulders. The beam of
  sunlight
  occasionally catches it and it turns incandescent brown. This trick of reflection he had never seen and he wondered if she noticed him stealing looks at her . She must know. That has to be the reason she kept caressing it, for her hand shielded part of the hair from the rays and enhanced the contrast making him perpetually interested.
“Okay, no problem, will call as soon as I can.” She answered finally and returned the phone to her bag.
“Are you interested in something?” She interrupted his thoughts and
  he looked at her. Her brows were raised accentuating
  furrows that sat awkwardly on her forehead, which with the permanence of a smile bellied her attempt at feigning annoyance.
“Ooh,
  was just curious, your hair actually changes hue, does it?” he gabbled, his hand wiping off imaginary dirt from his jeans.
“It’s the Chameleon, a hair cream, it does this trick with sunlight.” She responded and took a closer look at
  him. He was fair complexioned, almost thin, won’t be described as handsome and had a distant look about him. He shifted uncomfortably on the seat and had even broken a sweat though the bus was air conditioned. She chuckled. She liked him. He reminded her of late uncle Amadi. Uncle Amadi, professor of English language with his huge goggles for glasses. He was fun to be with. The way he stuck his tongue at her every time, he had mastered the act of rolling his eyes at
 his feigned fits of convulsions. She laughed aloud at the thought of his Michael Jackson stunts, his parody of moon walking was actually marching backward while keeping a straight face with his
 eyes bulging.
“ Are you always this tensed?”
She was now laughing at him and even helped him clear some unseen dust from his trousers.
He smiled for the first time, relaxed and sighed.
“Was it obvious?” he enquired of her.
“ I noticed at least.”
“ Well, then I am Mike on my way to work. What should I call you?”
“ What should you call me?” she repeated as she looked away, her eyes fixated at a no smoking sign at the glass barrier behind the driver.
“ Do you smoke?” she asked abruptly.
The non-sequitur so unexpected unnerved him, he wondered if she shared a name with any of the cigarette brands or whether he should lie that he smoked.
“ Well, actually I do…..”
  and added “ not” as an afterthought.
“ I am Caro and I smoke, is that going to be a problem?” she asked matter-of-factly.
“ Not at all, my mum even smokes” he lied and hoped it sounded convincing.
Her lips were full, crimson coloured with a mole just above the left angle of her mouth. She wore a silver necklace with a basket pattern so delicately woven. His eyes followed it as it slopes gently down her neck like a twin river and confluence at the depths of a rift that was her cleavage. He looked away, shouldn’t be caught lingering. He wondered what became of the confluence sandwiched between two mounds of flesh. Of course it will survive, if the Niger river could survive all the mountain ranges of Guinea, this pendant, whatever it is will definitely survive.
“ Well , I am almost at my bus stop, do you want my number or not?”
That was actually why he seemed enchanted by her. Her confidence and untamed bluntness. In another life she must have been an Amazon. He quickly took her number and as if that act was a cue, the bus screeched to a stop and she alighted.
He watched as she walked past the bus stop to a taxi park while his bus collected more passengers. She entered a cab which snaked slowly out of the congested park and drove off.
It was Leventis and he looked lazily around. Traders of assorted items lined the walkway, haggled prices with commuters that couldn’t seem to make up their mind which was more important; their destinations or those over priced items. A long queue of would be passengers had been formed with associated bickering common to folks not used to queuing for anything. A man dressed in a neat suit and carrying an important looking bag walked over to the window and asked Mike for a hundred naira to enable him reach his destination.
Haba! He had actually given this particular man same amount of money just three days ago for same purpose. He is one the famous Lagos
executive beggars. They are everywhere, from Ojuelegba to Marina, Lekki to Ikeja. And there were the ubiquitous
Area boys , self acclaimed lords of Lagos with the roads as their fiefdoms. He caught sight of a shirtless man who sat at the roadside pavement. His face was bloodied and eyes puffy from heavy beatings while two
area boys hovered in front of him probably debating what next to do with him. Beggars are everywhere , Nigerian, Arabian and others of obscure descent with various shades of handicap. He saw a beggar raised his right hand and showed everyone his missing fifth finger. His only passport to begging!
Above all these flurry of activities were the skyscrapers, magnificently imposing in their daily contest to reach the sky, yet seemingly absurd in contrast with the beggars and shanties a stroll away. That is the Lagos he had come to know and love.
Two weeks has since passed, he called her severally and a meeting was finally arranged.
And here he was in an unfamiliar place and in an even more unfamiliar part of Lagos. He scanned every female face in the dim lit the club could provide, yet non bore semblance to her. He walked to the bar, ordered some punch and waited.
3.
LiteratureRe: Guobe De Nisa...tomorrow Is Too Far by mannys(op): 1:53pm On Jan 05, 2013
Thanks....
LiteratureGuobe De Nisa...tomorrow Is Too Far by mannys(op):
1.
He walked briskly into the club, aware of the questioning looks of the two stern-faced guards. These men, their huge muscled arms folded across their chest watched him, waiting for him to make an unsure move. Their eyes followed him till he was swallowed by the partying crowd. The club was full to the brim. Clouds of cigarette smoke mixed unrestrained with the sharp smell of alcohol like newlyweds in warm embrace. The hall was dim, only lit up occasionally by rains of coloured lights from the sole kaleidoscope in full gyre at the centre. The DJ played a song by terry G that got everyone in a frenzy. A lady pirouetted frenetically to the song like a Sango priestess in full trance. The club was The Heavens, somewhere in Festac, a suburb of Lagos. Mike wondered why she had chosen this rendezvous, this place of all the romantic places in Lagos.
 Mike remembered  her vividly, her ebony looks, dreamy eyes, lips that wore a permanent smile. He had bumped into her in the queue at ojuelegba while waiting for the BRT bus. She had turned, in slow motion it seemed. Time stood still. He was half expecting a poignant vituperation and had a ready plea in his eyes. “it’s okay ,” she had said instead and smiled at him. She is about his height( 5,cool, pretty faced and had a dark shiny skin that glossed in sunlight. She looked smart in a navy blue two piece suit. The skirt, barely below the knees was tight revealing curves that made him swallow.
It was a hot Monday morning. The sun was naked, unclothed by the absent clouds. The sky itself was plain and pale, unsure of itself. Lagos was a cacophony of sounds; the revving of car engines, hissing of motor breaks, hooting of motorcycles, patronizing calls of go-slow hawkers advertising their wares and curses of despondent drivers all sewn seamlessly to give that repetitive annoying noise that was the Lagos traffic jam. Mike sat close to the window pretended to be distracted by the howling voice of a bus conductor that hung precariously at the back of a molue. The words painted on the bus, just above the conductor pricked him. It read in green illiterate Hausa writing ‘Guobe de nisa’ translated as ‘Tomorrow is far’.
2.
1 Like
PoliticsAwo Vs Achebe...we Saw Differently By Adichie by mannys(op): 8:55am On Nov 25, 2012


Awo vs Achebe: “We Remember Differently”, By Chimamanda Adichie



November 24, 2012 | 9:39 pm

For the record

Chinua Achebe turns 82  this week;  in this article Chimamanda Adichie  celebrates the renown author and puts her voice to the raging controversy on Achebe’s book ” There Was A Country”

I have met Chinua Achebe only three times. The first, at the National Arts Club in Manhattan, I joined the admiring circle around him. A gentle-faced man in a wheelchair.

“Good evening, sir. I’m Chimamanda Adichie,” I said, and he replied, mildly,  “I thought you were running away from me.”

I mumbled, nervous, grateful for the crush of people around us. I had been running away from him. After my first novel was published, I received an email from his son. My dad has just read your novel and liked it very much. He wants you to call him at this number. I read it over and over, breathless with excitement. But I never called. A few years later, my editor sent Achebe a manuscript of my second novel. She did not tell me, because she wanted to shield me from the possibility of disappointment. One afternoon, she called.  “Chimamanda, are you sitting down? I have wonderful news.” She read me the blurb Achebe had just sent her. We do not usually associate wisdom with beginners, but here is a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers. Adichie knows what is at stake, and what to do about it. She is fearless or she would not have taken on the intimidating horror of Nigeria’s civil war. Adichie came almost fully made. Afterwards, I held on to the phone and wept. I have memorized those words. In my mind, they glimmer still, the validation of a writer whose work had validated me.

I grew up writing imitative stories. Of characters eating food I had never seen and having conversations I had never heard. They might have been good or bad, those stories, but they were emotionally false, they were not mine. Then came a glorious awakening: Chinua Achebe’s fiction. Here were familiar characters who felt true; here was language that captured my two worlds; here was a writer writing not what he felt he should write but what he wanted to write. His work was free of anxiety, wore its own skin effortlessly. It emboldened me, not to find my voice, but to speak in the voice I already had. And so, when that e-mail came from his son, I knew, overly-thrilled as I was, that I would not call. His work had done more than enough. In an odd way, I was so awed, so grateful, that I did not want to meet him. I wanted some distance between my literary hero and me.

Chinua Achebe and I have never had a proper conversation. The second time I saw him, at a luncheon in his honor hosted by the British House of Lords, I sat across from him and avoided his eye. (“Chinua Achebe is the only person I have seen you shy with,” a friend said). The third, at a New York event celebrating fifty years of THINGS FALL APART, we crowded around him backstage, Edwidge Danticat and I, Ha Jin and Toni Morrison, Colum McCann and Chris Abani. We seemed, magically, bound together in a warm web, all of us affected by his work. Achebe looked pleased, but also vaguely puzzled by all the attention. He spoke softly, the volume of his entire being turned to ‘low.’ I wanted to tell him how much I admired his integrity, his speaking out about the disastrous leadership in my home state of Anambra, but I did not. Before I went on stage, he told me, “Jisie ike.” I wondered if he fully grasped, if indeed it was possible to, how much his work meant to so many.

History and civics, as school subjects, function not merely to teach facts but to transmit more subtle things, like pride and dignity. My Nigerian education taught me much, but left gaping holes. I had not been taught to imagine my pre-colonial past with any accuracy, or pride, or complexity. And so Achebe’s work, for me, transcended literature. It became personal. ARROW OF GOD, my favorite, was not just about the British government’s creation of warrant chiefs and the linked destinies of two men, it became the life my grandfather might have lived. THINGS FALL APART is the African novel most read – and arguably most loved – by Africans, a novel published when ‘African novel’ meant European accounts of ‘native’ life. Achebe was an unapologetic member of the generation of African writers who were ‘writing back,’ challenging the stock Western images of their homeland, but his work was not burdened by its intent. It is much-loved not because Achebe wrote back, but because he wrote back well. His work was wise, humorous, human. For many Africans, THINGS FALL APART remains a gesture of returned dignity, a literary and an emotional experience; Mandela called Achebe the writer in whose presence the prison walls came down.

Achebe’s latest work: There was a country

Achebe’s most recent book, his long-awaited memoir of the Nigerian-Biafra war, is both sad and angry, a book by a writer looking back and mourning Nigeria’s failures. I wish THERE WAS A COUNTRY had been better edited and more rigorously detailed in its account of the war. But these flaws do not make it any less seminal: an account of the most important event in Nigeria’s history by Nigeria’s most important storyteller.

An excerpt from the book has ignited great controversy among Nigerians. In it, Achebe, indignant about the millions of people who starved to death in Biafra, holds Obafemi Awolowo, Nigerian Finance Minister during the war, responsible for the policy of blockading Biafra. He quote’s Awolowo’s own words on the blockade – ‘all is fair in war and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don’t see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder’ and then argues that Awolowo’s support of the blockade was ‘driven by an overriding ambition for power for himself in particular and for the advancement of his Yoruba people in general.’

I have been startled and saddened by the responses to this excerpt. Many are blindingly ethnic, lacking in empathy and, most disturbing of all, lacking in knowledge. We can argue about how we interpret the facts of our shared history, but we cannot, surely, argue about the facts themselves. Awolowo, as de facto ‘number two man’ on the Nigerian side, was a central architect of the blockade on Biafra. During and after the war, Awolowo publicly defended the blockade. Without the blockade, the massive starvation in Biafra would not have occurred. These are the facts.

Some Nigerians, in responding to Achebe, have argued that the blockade was fair, as all is fair in war. The blockade was, in my opinion, inhumane and immoral. And it was unnecessary – Nigeria would have won anyway, it was the much-better-armed side in a war that Wole Soyinka called a shabby unequal conflict. The policy of starving a civilian population into surrender does not merely go against the Geneva conventions, but in this case, a war between siblings, people who were formerly fellow country men and women now suddenly on opposite sides, it seems more chilling. All is not fair in war. Especially not in a fratricidal war. But I do not believe the blockade was a calculated power grab by Awolowo for himself and his ethnic group; I think of it, instead, as one of the many dehumanizing acts that war, by its nature, brings about.

Awolowo was undoubtedly a great political leader.  He was also – rare for Nigerian leaders – a great intellectual. No Nigerian leader has, arguably, articulated a political vision as people-centered as Awolowo’s. For Nigerians from the west, he was the architect of free primary education, of progressive ideas. But for Nigerians from the east, he was a different man. I grew up hearing, from adults, versions of Achebe’s words about Awolowo. He was the man who prevented an Igbo man from leading the Western House of Assembly in the famous ‘carpet crossing’ incident of 1952. He was the man who betrayed Igbo people when he failed on his alleged promise to follow Biafra’s lead and pull the Western region out of Nigeria. He was the man who, in the words of my uncle, “made Igbo people poor because he never liked us.”

At the end of the war, every Igbo person who had a bank account in Nigeria was given twenty pounds, no matter how much they had in their accounts before the war. I have always thought this a livid injustice. I know a man who worked in a multinational company in 1965. He was, like Achebe, one of the many Igbo who just could not believe that their lives were in danger in Lagos and so he fled in a hurry, at the last minute, leaving thousands of pounds in his account. After the war, his account had twenty pounds. To many Igbo, this policy was uncommonly punitive, and went against the idea of ‘no victor, no vanquished.’ Then came the indigenization decree, which moved industrial and corporate power from foreign to Nigerian hands. It made many Nigerians wealthy; much of the great wealth in Nigeria today has its roots in this decree. But the Igbo could not participate; they were broke.

I do not agree, as Achebe writes, that one of the main reasons for Nigeria’s present backwardness is the failure to fully reintegrate the Igbo. I think Nigeria would be just as backward even if the Igbo had been fully integrated – institutional and leadership failures run across all ethnic lines. But the larger point Achebe makes is true, which is that the Igbo presence in Nigerian positions of power has been much reduced since the war. Before the war, many of Nigeria’s positions of power were occupied by Igbo people, in the military, politics, academia, business. Perhaps because the Igbo were very receptive to Western education, often at the expense of their own traditions, and had both a striving individualism and a communal ethic. This led to what, in history books, is often called a ‘fear of Igbo domination’ in the rest of Nigeria. The Igbo themselves were insensitive to this resentment, the bombast and brashness that is part of Igbo culture only exacerbated it. And so leading Igbo families entered the war as Nigeria’s privileged elite but emerged from it penniless, stripped and bitter.

Today, ‘marginalization’ is a popular word in Igboland. Many Igbo feel marginalized in Nigeria, a feeling based partly on experience and partly on the psychology of a defeated people. (Another consequence of this psychology, perhaps, is the loss of the communal ethic of the Igbo, much resented sixty years ago. It is almost non-existent today, or as my cousin eloquently put it: Igbo people don’t even send each other.)

Some responses to Achebe have had a ‘blame the victim’ undertone, suggesting that Biafrians started the war and therefore deserved what they got. But Biafrians did not ‘start the war.’ Nobody with a basic knowledge of the facts can make that case.

Biafrian secession was inevitable, after the federal government’s failure to implement the agreements reached at Aburi, itself prompted by the massacre of Igbo in the North.  The cause of the massacres was arguably the first coup of 1966. Many believed it to be an ‘Igbo’ coup, which was not an unreasonable belief, Nigeria was already mired in ethnic resentments, the premiers of the West and North were murdered while the Eastern premier was not, and the coup plotters were Igbo. Except for Adewale Ademoyega, a Yoruba, who has argued that it was not an ethnic coup. I don’t believe it was. It seems, from most accounts, to have been an idealistic and poorly-planned nationalist exercise aimed at ridding Nigeria of a corrupt government. It was, also, horrendously, inexcusably violent. I wish the coup had never happened. I wish the premiers and other casualties had been arrested and imprisoned, rather than murdered. But the truth that glares above all else is that the thousands of Igbo people murdered in their homes and in the streets had nothing to do with the coup.

Some have blamed the Biafrian starvation on Ojukwu, Biafra’s leader, because he rejected an offer from the Nigerian government to bring in food through a land corridor. It was an ungenerous offer, one easy to refuse. A land corridor could also mean advancement of Nigerian troops. Ojukwu preferred airlifts, they were tactically safer, more strategic, and he could bring in much-needed arms as well. Ojukwu should have accepted the land offer, shabby as it was. Innocent lives would have been saved. I wish he had not insisted on a ceasefire, a condition which the Nigerian side would never have agreed to. But it is disingenuous to claim that Ojukwu’s rejection of this offer caused the starvation. Many Biafrians had already starved to death. And, more crucially, the Nigerian government had shown little regard for Biafra’s civilian population; it had, for a while, banned international relief agencies from importing food. Nigerian planes bombed markets and targeted hospitals in Biafra, and had even shot down an International Red Cross plane.

Ordinary Biafrians were steeped in distrust of the Nigerian side. They felt safe eating food flown in from Sao Tome, but many believed that food brought from Nigeria would be poisoned, just as they believed that, if the war ended in defeat, there would be mass killings of Igbo people. The Biafrian propaganda machine further drummed this in. But, before the propaganda, something else had sown the seed of hateful fear: the 1966 mass murders of Igbo in the North. The scars left were deep and abiding. Had the federal government not been unwilling or incapable of protecting their lives and property, Igbo people would not have so massively supported secession and intellectuals, like Achebe, would not have joined in the war effort.

I have always admired Ojukwu, especially for his early idealism, the choices he made as a young man to escape the shadow of his father’s great wealth, to serve his country. In Biafra, he was a flawed leader, his paranoia and inability to trust those close to him clouded his judgments about the execution of the war, but he was also a man of principle who spoke up forcefully about the preservation of the lives of Igbo people when the federal government seemed indifferent. He was, for many Igbo, a Churchillian figure, a hero who inspired them, whose oratory moved them to action and made them feel valued, especially in the early months of the war.

Other responses to Achebe have dismissed the war as something that happened ‘long ago.’ But some of the people who played major roles are alive today. We must confront our history, if only to begin to understand how we came to be where we are today. The Americans are still hashing out details of their civil war that ended in 1865; the Spanish have only just started, seventy years after theirs ended. Of course, discussing a history as contested and contentious as the Nigeria-Biafra war will not always be pleasant. But it is necessary. An Igbo saying goes: If a child does not ask what killed his father, that same thing will kill him.

What many of the responses to Achebe make clear, above all else, is that we remember differently. For some, Biafra is history, a series of events in a book, fodder for argument and analysis. For others, it is a loved one killed in a market bombing, it is hunger as a near-constant companion, it is the death of certainty. The war was fought on Biafrian soil. There are buildings in my hometown with bullet holes; as a child, playing outside, I would sometimes come across bits of rusty ammunition left behind from the war. My generation was born after 1970, but we know of property lost, of relatives who never ‘returned’ from the North, of shadows that hung heavily over family stories. We inherited memory. And we have the privilege of distance that Achebe does not have.

Achebe is a war survivor. He was a member of the generation of Nigerians who were supposed to lead a new nation, inchoate but full of optimism. It shocked him, how quickly Nigerian fell apart. In THERE WAS A COUNTRY he sounds unbelieving, still, about the federal government’s indifference while Igbo people were being massacred in Northern Nigeria in 1966. But shock-worthy events did not only happen in the North. Achebe himself was forced to leave Lagos, a place he had called home for many years, because his life was no longer safe. His crime was being Igbo. A Yoruba acquaintance once told me a story of how he was nearly lynched in Lagos at the height of the tensions before the war; he was light-skinned, and a small mob in a market assumed him to be ‘Igbo Yellow’ and attacked him. The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos was forced to leave. So was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan. Because they were Igbo.  For Achebe, all this was deeply personal, deeply painful. His house was bombed, his office was destroyed. He escaped death a few times. His best friend died in battle. To expect a dispassionate account from him is a remarkable failure of empathy. I wish more of the responses had acknowledged, a real acknowledgement and not merely a dismissive preface, the deep scars that experiences like Achebe’s must have left behind.

Ethnicity has become, in Nigeria, more political than cultural, less about philosophy and customs and values and more about which bank is a Yoruba or Hausa or Igbo bank, which political office is held by which ethnicity, which revered leader must be turned into a flawless saint. We cannot deny ethnicity. It matters. But our ethnic and national identities should not be spoken of as though they were mutually exclusive; I am as much Igbo as I am Nigerian. I have hope in the future of Nigeria, mostly because we have not yet made a real, conscious effort to begin creating a nation (We could start, for example, by not merely teaching Maths and English in primary schools, but also teaching idealism and citizenship.)

For some non-Igbo, confronting facts of the war is uncomfortable, even inconvenient. But we must hear one another’s stories. It is even more imperative for a subject like Biafra which, because of our different experiences, we remember differently. Biafrian minorities were distrusted by the Igbo majority, and some were unfairly attacked, blamed for being saboteurs. Nigerian minorities, particularly in the midwest, suffered at the hands of both Biafrian and Nigerian soldiers. ‘Abandoned property’ cases remain unresolved today in Port Harcourt, a city whose Igbo names were changed after the war, creating “Rumu” from “Umu.” Nigerian soldiers carried out a horrendous massacre in Asaba, murdering the males in a town which is today still alive with painful memories. Some Igbo families are still waiting, half-hoping, that a lost son, a lost daughter, will come home. All of these stories can sit alongside one another. The Nigerian stage is big enough. Chinua Achebe has told his story. This week, he turns 82. Long may he live.
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PoliticsDid Patience Goodluck Prevent Dana Airplane From Making Emmergency Landing? by mannys(op):
STELLA'S*GOSSIP*GROOVE.

''Gossip....News Running Ahead Of Itself In A Red Satin Dress''

⁠June 5, 2012⁠

Did Presidential Jet Conveying Mrs Goodluck Prevent Faulty Dana Plane From Landing Before Crash?

I just received this -


"Is there any way of getting confirmation about news I'm just getting that the Dana plane was distressed for a while but could not make an emergency landing because the airspace was closed for 2 hours for  the Presidential Jet carrying Dame Patience Goodluck Jonathan.

Private jet owners who had to hover in the air same time leaked this. This was apparently the reason local news didn't report the crash for so long till CNN and foreign news stations started reporting it.

Local news was 'blacked out' trying to kill the story of the airspace being closed while a distressed plane couldn't land.

It would be shocking if so. Though there was engine failure there was still time for the plane to have landed apparently.

You do know anyway that the airspace is closed for up to 2hours each time the Presidential Jet needs to go into the air? 2 hours for a 15minute take off or landing!

And this jet is used by President, VP, President's wife and if I recall David Mark.

It's almost a daily occurrence I've been told by airline staff when it caught me out on a trip


The truth remains that the President's wife was actually in Lagos to attend the christening of their personal assistant's child at the Oriental hotel.. Lekki. Anyone living on the Lekki axis saw first hand the horrendous traffic caused by the president's wife's visit..and confirmed reports from airport staff who volunteered information, collaborated this fact, that the Lagos airport was actually shut for 2 hours, about the same time the ill fated Dana Plane crashed. This also strongly explains the reason why Aero contractor airplane could not depart Abuja for Lagos at 3:40pm because of the closure of the Lagos airport. This is criminal and one can only imagine the deep sorrow ad-in-finitum (without limit) that the families of these unfortunate Nigerians and other nationals are currently plagued into. Grief that is so thick in the air, that one can cut through with a knife...rooted soul searching. Yes we have to and yes we can; beginning from our immediate homes and While we pray for the repose of the souls of the departed, we need as a nation to thoroughly do some deep ommunities.. with time this will snowball into our National consciousness. For how long are we going to sacrifice the lives of our dear brothers and sisters and by extension mortgage the future of their/our children, just for the comfort of our leaders? For a 15 minutes ritual of plane take-off, an airport was shut for 2 hours because our "DEAR FIRST LADY" was scheduled to return to Abuja.. OH merciful God, help Nigeria in Distress!''

NIgerians need to know what happened?who closed the a
HealthCenter Of Trees By Ifeanyi Odigwe by mannys(op): 8:28am On May 16, 2012
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By Ifeanyi Odigwe iphyoo@yahoo.com

For non-doctors, the alarming news of the last few days has been that Lagos state government (LSG) sacked 788 doctors from state hospitals.

 

Firstly, how did we go from a winnable position (LSG not adhering to a signed agreement) to this lopsided loss in the court of public opinion? I thought we were supposed to be the smart ones.  Surely we didn't spend all those years just learning anatomy, at least I remember playstation, beer and some lessons in street smart.
 
We live in a tribal society: ethnic tribes, religious tribes and in this case professional tribe, so I understand why non-doctors would find the fact that doctors should ever have a reason to go on strike repulsive and why doctors would find the lack of understanding from the general populace unbelievable.
 
Like all polarized debates, people are leaning towards their gut instincts, which is hardly objective, but emotionally driven. The doctors association needs to get off the emotional debate because trust me statements such as "oh, I work too hard and earn so little" is never going to come out tops against sentiments like "my dad died yesterday because doctors were on strike."  Looking at it in this manner, it becomes easier to understand why we are losing what Dr. Filani calls the "PR war" and why we are likely to lose future ones.
 
As a doctor, I know first hand what it is like to treat patients without light, giving injection drugs in the dark, putting myself at the risk of needlestick injuries far from the watching eyes of the public. I do it because, like the public, I care about your dad not dying even though I know you would never ask if a needle pricked me last night.

 

I remember a particular incidence. We had an emergency, an unconscious pregnant woman with a blood pressure 280/220mmhg (severe hypertension) who was almost at term. She was unbooked and my call was almost over but I was available. Her husband had just 200 Naira on him. We had to operate on her within the next hour with no blood, no money and no drugs. But guess what? We did! That was the first time I had a needle stick injury because NEPA/PHCN was at their norm. Minutes later the air was filled with the cry of a pretty baby girl in the arms of a doting grandmother and father. In the background were the moans of a slowly rousing mother and then there was me with a pensive look on my face while awaiting the results of my HIV test. I was okay.

 

Even though, I had worked overtime and had to be up to make work in the morning which was now 2 hours away, there was no complain, no feeling of accomplishment because in my "tribe" I was not unique. It is the story of 788 and thousands of other people I share a proud profession with. I got a gracious thank you from the family, a thankful smile from the now recuperating mother and a smiling appreciation from my parents when I narrated it to them.
 
So to the "court of public opinion" we don't just measure remunerations in cash only, we do in kind as well. I am sure I am a thousand "thank you" richer and a million "smiles" wealthier because of the job I do. Now all we are asking is that the LASG should match our generosity with trustworthiness and our patience with understanding.
 
Doctors need to make strike about more than just a salary because frankly that is the way it seems. We let government at all level off too easy with their lip service to befitting hospitals. Hopefully the next battle after this should be about medical equipment, services and training and every other thing but salary because we lose when we fail to educate the public about true state (Hint: Afghanistan) of health care in our hospitals.
 
Lastly, I have always felt that studying medicine was too cheap in Nigeria. If we are to raise standards we need to start in the medical colleges and not in the hospitals years later. Besides, the million-dollar question is, if the government trains us, shouldn't they dictate our salaries? The answer is yes and that is why we demand that the LSG should pay the onsolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) as dictated and signed by the government. The LSG should focus on saving our dads, rather than planting about 788 trees around Lagos in the name of beautification, after all, last I checked Lagos state was not the "Centre of trees".

 Ifeanyi Odigwe- iphyoo@yahoo.com
European Football (EPL, UEFA, La Liga)Re: Manchester City Vs QPR (3- 2) On Sunday 13th May 2012 by mannys(m): 8:04am On May 15, 2012
scenario: Harry told fulham's coach that Man U are champs at the end of their game, by the time he got to the dressing room Martin O Neil called to tell him Man city won
Question 1: how long did it take fulham's manager to get to the dressing room?
Question 2: was the result at Man city connected to his pace?
Question 3: if the distance btw both point is 60m, what is his speed?

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