₦airaland Forum

Katsumoto: Did anyone suggest that Biafra did not win any battles?

If you believe that Biafra wasn't surrounded on all sides, then present your case. Hedging your position on Biafra winning some encounters doesn't mean it wasn't surrounded.

Am I missing something here? Does being surrounded stop you from fighting?

Biafra continued to fight because it had the will to do so and because it still continued to receive military equipment.

I have already given reasons why it dragged on for longer than necessary.

I am going to stop arguing this point or continue with this debate unless you come up with something else.

Here is what you stated:

But the fact remains that the war lasted that long because Gowon was a nice man.

The federal government controlled the skies and the seas. Biafra was surrounded on all sides just a few months after the war started.

I'd be OK with the withdrawal of your statement or a restatement to reflect what you truly mean. If the condition in blue above is correct, it would be impossible for the biafrans to have launched all the successful offensive battles in 1969 now, would it? It would suffice to admit that you exergerated a bit.

Katsumoto: Lets recap

1. Enugu and Nsuku in the North were captured by October 1967
2. Southern Cameroun, to the East of Biafra, was a Nigerian ally at the start of the war
3. Murtala's second division had retaken the mid-west and West of Biafra by October 1967
4. The Nigerian Navy was in control of the Bight of Biafra to the South for the duration of the war.

If Nigerian forces controlled land and sea to the North, South, East, and West of Biafra as well as controlled the skies by October 1967 and you don't think that is surrounded, then I don't know what surrounded is.

Like I stated previously, Biafra gave a good fight but Gowon didn't completely tighten the noose (for reasons mentioned earlier) and that's why Biafra held on. If he shot down every non-Nigerian plane, no military equipment would have reached Biafra, and consequently, Biafra wouldn't have had the resources to hold out.

Your chronology does not answer or offer any explanation for the question of how the biafrans were able to launch several successful offensives against the federal troops in 1969?

If the federal troops had surrounded the biafrans as you claim, you must admit that the affair was completely ineffective, as of 1969.

Katsumoto: How could I have meant January 1967, when the war started in 1967.

Did you say the Federal side did not have PH under its control until 3 years into the war? I think you need to re-visit your books. PH was captured in May 1968 (less than a year after the war started) and with federal troops controlling the air, seas, and parts of Biafra, I think the war could have ended before the end of 1968.

I had a typo as well. The war could have and should have ended by late 1969 were it not for the stubborness of the biafran troops.

The federal troops couldn't have effectively surrounded biafra shortly after the war started as you claimed. How were biafrans able to launched several successful offensives against the federal troops in 1969?

Katsumoto: So it is safe to assume that the starvation occurred in the last couple of months before surrender?

It appears that you misunderstood my point. It's my error; I assumed you knew more than you actually do.

I didn't state that Biafra only fought the war through Propaganda. By all means, Biafra gave a good account.

But the fact remains that the war lasted that long because Gowon was a nice man.

The federal government controlled the skies and the seas. Biafra was surrounded on all sides just a few months after the war started.

If Gowon shot down every single plane carrying supplies to Biafra, the war would have been over by January 1969.

But Ojukwu, by using propaganda, many citizens around the world prevailed on Harold Wilson's government, which in turn prevailed on Gowon to allow airlifts of food supplies to Biafra. As you are probably aware, Biafra used that opportunity to smuggle in arms. If arms didn't reach Biafra, how could it have fought for three years?

Katsumoto, I hope you know that the war started in 1967. You are now claiming that the war would have been over by January 1969 if Gowon had not been a nice man!! What a claim, I had assumed that you knew more than you actually do. I suppose you meant January 1967. Do you have an issue with timelines? The blockade actually started late 1968 after Port Harcourt was captured. The Federal troops may have controlled the skies, but not to the extent of completely preventing supplies from getting in by air. Most of the biafran weaponry came in through Port-Harcourt, a city which was not under the control of federal troops until 3 years into the war.

You are yet to convince me that what the OP posted is accurate.

Fhemmmy: I am not sure what the crime of the dude was . . .

Why didn't you read up before you posted such a statement? Ignorance enabled by laziness is not good, why you dey disappoint people with this kind of a statement? SMH

Katsumoto: Ojukwu won the propaganda war.

Why do you think the war lasted 3 years?

There is nothing to suggest the report could be fake.

The story fits in perfectly with Ojukwu collecting landing fees from charities.

Similarly, a senior Biafran officer uttered the following words to John St Jorre, “If you gave us the choice of 1000 rifles or milk for 50,000 starving children, we’d take the guns.”

There was a systemic and callous disregard for lives, particularly women and children, by the Biafran high command. You have also argued on this forum many a time that the Biafrans should have surrendered when they no longer had food.

So you believe that the biafrans fought the federal troops for 3 years with propaganda, kwo? This is ridiculous and dishonest on your part. No amount of propaganda is strong enough to keep the federal troops at bay unless it is supported by fierce fights, good strategies, and outright strong headedness. The biafrans fought a good fight, and I actually admire the bravity of many biafran soldiers and even more so, of the federal troops.

My anger remains with the leadership which refused to surrender after determining that the war was no longer winable, thus sacrifising hundreds of thousands of innocent biafran women and children. These leaders ended up running away in the most cowardly act one can describe.

If you want me to believe this story by the OP, you will have to provide more credible corroboration than what you've provided so far.

tosank: ;DWho sang this song for the great Ikemba
Igba towo te Ojugkwu
Igba towo te Emeka
Ojugkwu lo bebe
Emeka lo bebe
Boya Gowon a gba o

WTF?

It is quite obvious that many of you people are ignorant of tha fact that the Federal troops used both millitary superiority and a far advanced propaganda machinery to defeat the weak biafran troops.

The story posted by the OP may very well be propaganda engineered by the federal troops. I don't believe the story and I wonder why we have not read of the events described in the story elsewhere.

@OP, How in the world did you dig this article up? I bow for you sha.

I hope this man is prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Enough is enough.

Some of you people are confusing healthy tribalism or competition with gross bigotry supported by narrow minded fanaticism. Eziachi did not imply that you people are bigots.

The thread's topic is much more than tribalism. You people need to think with your brains for a change.

Ogetogeo: What has Angel Gabriel got to do with this?
Nigeria is now naira in your deluded brain abi?
What did Prof. Barth Nnaji steal from you?





Daft!

I believe you may be the daft one here. If you've ever tasted any kind of significant power, you'd know that no one gives such up abruptly and unceremoniously if all is well. I can bet my last N1 million that Mazi Nnaji's hands were caught in the cookie jar.

What a shame, what a disgrace!!! The man had started to make believers out of many of us until the Union started exposing him recently. I feel very ashamed on behalf of his fans.

As usual my people will continue to bury their heads in the sand, in a customary act of denial.



www.nairaland.com/attachments/648223_rak_jpg3be10a689dcae3eda0158a90666e866e

Nna if dem make Angel Gabriel minister or DG for naira, himself go steal sooner or later.

^^^ I pity the fool. (resp Mr. T)

You go just gi yourself heart ailment for nothing, while me I go full for ground dey chop ya money and women. olodo

This should not hurt Romney. I understand that he has less than 1% of black votes - this is good to energize his base and republicans such as Ekt_bear.

Yoruba Vs Igbo Cat Fights Have Become Embarassments To The Rest Of Us

If is is not an Awo thread opened to bad mouth Yorubas, it is an Ojukwu thread designed to do the same to the Igbos.
If it is not a thread about armed robbers and kidnappers in Igboland, it is a thread about a Yoruba man who has killed his wife in a horific manner.

Enough of the crap, you people have become an embarassment to the rest of us. The funny thing is that I do not know a single Igbo man in real life who habours so much hatred for Yorubas or a Yoruba person with similar amount of hatred for Igbos. The Igbos I know want the same out of life and Nigeria as the Yorubas i.e. the betterment of Nigeria and a brighter future for their children.

The childishness is getting old and I appeal to you all to cut the crap.

A hefty border control contract should keep Shekau & brothers busy and happy. A billion here and there would help them keep the real Al Quaeda from entering Nigeria from Chad, our former territory Cameroon, and Niger.

Start the boys up with 1billion naira and the will protect our interests even if they annihilate themselves in the process.

I wouldn't make any assumptions one way or the other until every appeal process has been exhausted.

Euroclydon: hey dont come and spoil my thread with your drunk english o!

The chap's IQ is most likely higher than yours. Assuming that because you write a foreign language better than other people means you are more intelligent, implies that you are not. olodo

@Emperor Katz, I for come wound you with facts and logic if no be say Gbawe bail you out.

Gbawe: USA will know that Tinubu is one of the "lesser Devils" to be entertained and even empowered.

^^^ u be wise man. This is one of the reasons why I wouldn't be surprised if Tinubu was issued a diplomatic visa and he may have even traveled with a diplomatic passport.

People should underrate Tinubu at their own peril, like it or not, that man is becoming quite large.

Katsumoto: You can't be serious.

I know anything is possible in Nigeria but Tinubu will not travel illegally, using a diplomatic passport or his friends passport, and then proceed to give a speech in Washington DC.

You guys read too much into these 'US interests' in Nigeria. What is in Nigeria that isn't unobtainable elsewhere? The US may care about its interests in Saudi Arabia because of its deep reserves but Nigeria doesn't have too large reserves and at a time when the US is reducing its oil imports, it wouldn't give too hoots about Nigeria.

If Tinubu arrived in the US illegally, he would be arrested.

Your reaction is quite understandable - you are probably ignorant of these things. Trust me, there is nothing illegal about using a diplomatic passport or visa. Where did I say that Tinubu used any illegal means to enter the US? You are the one reading too much into what I've written.

I can assure you that government officials including former governors routinely travel abroad with diplomatic passports or diplomatic visas, if you know what that means.

emperor Katzumoto: The US may care about its interests in Saudi Arabia because of its deep reserves but Nigeria doesn't have too large reserves and at a time when the US is reducing its oil imports, it wouldn't give too hoots about Nigeria.

^^^ The understatement of the month.

Let him clean up Aba and the pollution and health hazards there before building housing estates for the elite.

https://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm290/VUchendu/photo_0006-1.jpg

It is now clear that you are a paid goon. I remember you from the Aba post. olodo

This man Oritsejafor, whose Itsekiri name literally means "God did not allow us to speak" (we'll let God speak for us), is not living up to his name at all. He has become a rabble rouser.

Many of our leaders are in-bed with each other and take care of each other unless the US, UK, and others pressure them into dissociating from particular individuals, such as Ibori who stepped on the wrong toes. These people travel with diplomatic passports. I will not attempt to prove this here for obvious reasons.

That is not to say that Tinubu is a wanted criminal in the US. Even if Tinubu is a wanted man, he has become so large that his embarassment and/or arrest in the US would have a very negative impact on certain US interests in Nigeria.

btw: why can't you people come up with a formula for dinking ogogoro like gin & lime, or whiskey & coke; why must man pikin throat need to heat up in a nice way with each sip of ogogoro.

I've tried mixing that drink with all kinds of beverages, nothing works. na real bush drink.

In a wweak attempt to appear holier than thou, Madam President reveals her nepotism.

eni a le mu ni'an le idi mo. (na person wey we strong pass we dey take prick rub her yansh when she tanda in front of us - while fully clothed i.e.)

make dem try am with fuel subbsidy rougues na

I don't see the wisdom of itemizing, what should otherwise be, the regular job of the President, as major achievements. Major achievements should be acts which go beyond the call of duty and which are performed with great distinction.

Sir, to date, this President is worse than a mediocre President. I'm afraid he is too dumb to rule Nigeria successfully - I hope I am wrong.

@emindu, if you were impressed with the current state of affairs in Aba, I'm afraid you have become accustomed with filth and mediocrity, or you are a paid government goon.

Go to Ariara market today and see for yourself, stop the deceit. Olodo

SMH

gboss4sure: @ndu_chucks. Guy talk true when you took those pictures, is like 4 or 5 yrs ago cause i recognize the 2nd or 3rd pics very well

Those pics are a couple of years old, but I'm afraid Ariara is in worse shape today. Frankly the Gov deserves more blame than Aba residents

Yet there is hope.

https://www.ksl.com/emedia/slc/1383/138386/13838611.jpg