₦airaland Forum

Shame on buhari, shame on APC.

when chibok girls were abducted, didn't YOU politicise it? Wrote lengthy columns about on it to attack good luck? none of you hypocrites were willing or sincere to support goodluck into bringing the girls back, rather you used it to score political points.

Shame on you zombies.

Deadlytruth:
The economic indeces that defined his regime were actually inherited from the superlative performance of the regional premiers pre-independence and the not too bad governance of Balewa in the first six years post independence.

As per the bolded; we were not actually the first people on earth to embark on nation building. Other nations' experiences were already there for us to learn from, thus we did not need to reinvent the wheel. So I don't buy into your theory that it was an experimentation stage. All we needed were knowledgeable and sincere leaders who could have brought their knowledge of other nations' experiences to bear on the business of governance.
People like Enahoro, Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa and Awolowo already knew from studying that unitary system was dangerous to a heterogeneous society hence they gave several warnings, wrote books, made proposals, etc to that effect. While Awolowo described Nigeria as a mere geographical expression where progress can only be made if true federalism is adhered to, Enahoro proposed secession clause for the constitution with the purview to instill in all the future leaders the fear of the consequences of misgovernance, and while Ahmadu Bello warned against unmoderated cross cultural interferences, Tafawa Balewa described Nigeria as a British Enterprise which will take time to become a truly Nigerians' project. Only Zik and his admirers like Ironsi refused to acknowledge the reality but continued chanting and believing in "One Nigeria" and unitary system despite the preponderance of evidences to the contrary.

As for the execution of the five majors, of what help was the assumed Western press and Nigerians' sympathy to him when the counter coupists from the north came calling? Is justice based on sentiments or established guilt versus innocence?
Were Nigerians and the Southern press not sympathetic to Okar and Vatsa? Did that stop IBB from executing them according to military laws? Did that prevent IBB from being loved by even a lot of Southerners till tomorrow?
It is believed that Murtala Mohammed's regime is the best of all military dictatorship despite the fact that it was shorter than Ironsi's.

If Ironsi truly had the Eastern sympathy for Adaka Boro, then why jail him at all while he was releasing Northerners?

Ironsi's government did not interfere with the economic policies already laid out by the regional governments, so he should be credited for his economic non-interference. Those after him tampered with the regional economic policies.

Nation building is usually experimental particularly for emerging countries, no country in the world jump-passed this stage. If enahoro, awolowo ahmadu bello and co put the secession clause before independence, why didn't they include it in their reviewed constitution after the war knowing fully well that it was in their view in Nigeria's best interest? Were they not among the constitutional drafting committee? Trying to blame zik or Igbos by extension is always a futile attempt.

All the plum jobs before 1966 was gotten mainly by merit and hard work. It was only the clannish nature of awo and Ahmad bello that disfavoured it because the Igbo were excelling in every facet of Nigeria.

Killing adaka boro wouldn't have solved the issue, after all the same adaka was killed by the same Nigerian troop he was fighting for and his people are still agitating till today. Thank God Ironside didn't kill boro, I respect ironsi for that. ... Just as the same hypocritical Nigerian government used and killed boro, that was how they killed sarowiwa too.

Deadlytruth:
But then those perceptions inspired the revenge through which Ironsi lost his life and Nigeria veered off its rapid development track for the past 52 years. As long as the conscience of man is invisible to the external world, then perception is everything.
Therefore a serious government must take perception very seriously. This perception is called public opinion in formal language.

A responsible government should never tske a onesided percerption seriously. What the north perceives isnt necessarily what nigeria perceives.

Blaming Ironside for the country's 52 years of misfortune shows a serious lack of reason

T9ksy:
Be ni o!!! That kind of STUPIDITY should be and was rightly punishable by death. As a matter of fact, Ironsi was simply a

pawn in the hands of the extant ibo political elite at the time. They just "used his head to break the coconut pod". He was their (ibo's) sacrificial

lamb to facilitate their (long-awaited and prophesied) eventual domination of the new nation. Unfortunately, things didn't work out as their

childish pranks intended and consequently they lost everything as their HUNTER suddenly morph into the HUNTED hence the cry of biafra

afterwards. They believed in One Nigeria when their homeboy had forced himself on us as HOS albeit through the back door and without much

ado, embarked on enacting decrees that can only benefit his fellow ibo people.

He surrounded himself with fellow ibo advisers who convinced him that he' doing the right thing and nigeria as a whole will eventually appreciate

him. Meanwhile he STUPIDLY chose to ignore opposition voices from the other regions, especially the most affected- the northern region.


In fact, Ironsi's level of STUPIDITY ought to be criminalised...............omo go, eni ko ma ku, ko ma run, kini otete pa omo bi ago?

Some afonja and envy is like shit and maggot.

Cowards.

Barren points. Just rants borne out of hate and envy.

Deadlytruth:
I have already addressed in another thread most of the arguments you have raised above, and I don't want to repeat myself. But I will only repeat that all who came after Ironsi sustained and deepened Ironsi's unitary system as a veritable tool in eradication of the perceived Igbo domination agenda which had been foreshadowed by Zik's criss crossing of regions seeking premiership, Nzeogwu and co's announcement of their quest to strengthen the centre and weaken the regions after the coup, which Ironsi's final Unification, Anti-seccession and Anti-tribal Associations Decrees finally confirmed.

For introducing military rule at all into a perfectly working democracy, Ironsi deserves no credit except you are of the belief that the worst military regime is better than the best civilian regime.

You didn't address anything, you just excused yourself by bringing narratives based on the perceptions of the northerners towards "an Igbo agenda".

gidgiddy:
Military rule never operates as democratic rule. So definitely, no matter eho took over, wether Ironsi or another officer, they would have had to jettison the constitution and rule by decree. However, Ironsi deserves his credits. He was only in power for 6 months but in that time, he :-

1) maintained the 4 Regions he met
2) Maintained the revenue sharing formular he met, Regions still got 50%
3) Refused to use military might to crush Northerners that were killing Igbos in.the North
4) Tried to promote national unity by touring different parts of the country at great risk to his life.

Every other Military head of state did far much worse than Ironsi

Gowon abolished the four constitutional Regions and replaced them with 12 unconstitutional and illegal states, which led to the declaration of Biafra by Ojukwu and the war to followed. Gowon then went on to use several other military decrees to to strip the provinces of the 50% derivation they enjoyed under Ironsi as well as resource control.

Murtala Mohammed came in and increased the states from 12 to 19. He the used one horrific decree or the other to sack tbousands of civil servants and placed the petroleum industry under military supervision.

Obasunjo came in and promulgated the Land Use Act which futher stripped people of control of their ancestral lands. Obasunjo also over saw the adoption of Americas style of democrasy with the federalism as against Regionalism.

By the time Nigeria went through Babangida and Abacha, we had 36 states and Abubakar completed the fraud called the 1999 constitution.


Ironsi's short military regime was by far the best of all the military regimes tbat came after him. Ironsi's government was the closest to the 1963 constitution. His regime was the only one that respected the existence of the 4 constitutionally created Regions, their revenue sharing formular, resouce control and fiscal federalism.

Thank you sir. Some people just want to give a dog a bad name. Thank God posterity judges him well.

Deadlytruth:
No genuinely educated person shares the perception that unitary system will ever succeed in a heterogeneous society. As at that point in time all heterogeneous societies which had experimented unitary system had failed woefully. What convinced Ironsi that Nigeria could miraculously be an exception?

Good question:

1. Nigeria as a country was still an infant with a largely docile and servile population.

2. Even ironsi himself knew the military government is only temporary and thus, only comes in to unite a deeply fractured country with whatever means necessary.

3. Many nations were still experimenting systems of governance even if it meant on a temporary basis e.g communism, military dictatorship, confederalism, constitutional monarchy, etc.

Deadlytruth:
Unfortunately, posterity has not absolved him of nepotism. People logically believe that he would not have enacted the Unification and Civil service harmonization Decrees, and many other Igbo-favoured centripetal decrees had he actually not surrounded himself with only Igbos as advisers.
Put in another way;
none of those perceived Igbo-centric decrees would have successfully scaled through a composition of advisers defined by a fair balance of Igbos, Western and Northern Region politicians.

What we can see is that he surrounded himself with Igbo advisers while his personal security details were almost 100℅ non-Igbo. That was pure suicide.
It would have made more senses for him to have made his security 100℅ Igbos and made the composition of his advisers have a national spread.

It depends on who is telling the story. Who are this pundits? Read the book IRONSIDE and see it from another perspective.

Ironsi's security details had northerners there, his military council had northerners as well. As military men (not civilian), Nigeria's unity had to be "forced" at the centre if necessary. Every military leader learnt from ironsi's naivity.

Deadlytruth:
You seem to paint him as naive thus innocent of his actions. But I disagree.
He was really not naive. As someone who attended secondary school and read it in form four Government Textbooks that unitary system is only workable for a homogeneous society and that only federalism and confederalism suit a heterogeneous country, he was fully aware that all his Decrees would end up in catastrophe for the country on the long run. However, he went ahead still because he believed that his tribe would always be in charge thus would not feel the catastrophic consequences.

Ironsi's military experiment was an unitary experiment that led some (NOT ALL) pundits into concluding that unitary system is meant only for a homogeneous group. Not every pundit share the same view anyway.

By the way, Nigeria was just too fragmented, so for an apolitical military man like Ironside, unitary system was the way to go. That was indeed naive. Got it?

Deadlytruth:
Ironsi remains the worst leader Nigeria ever had because his administration gave birth to all the very issues central to the arguments around which Nigeria's failure in the past 52 years revolve. Here they are:
1. Ironsi introduced to Nigeria the aberration called military rule. This would later militarize our democracy as IBB recently confessed to his creation of a military wing in PDP. Even from 1999 till the present the military has actually been in charge of our democracy both directly and indirectly. Parties totally devoid of military membership content don't usually grow beyond their respective local constituencies because Nigerians generally are no longer used to purely civilian affairs.
2. He met a perfectly working constitution which no one was complaining against but ironically he decided to start amending it.
if at all necessary, the amendment should have been towards further weakening the center since the very crisis on ground was a direct fall out of abuse of power at the centre by way of its illegal interference in the Western Region's internal affairs. But against logic and common sense, Ironsi did the exact opposite by concentrating more powers at the centre.
3. He made the three most offensive Decrees in the history of Nigeria, namely: Unification, Anti-seccession and Anti-tribal Associations Decrees, all of which were aimed at imposing on Nigerians the task of pretending that they were a homogeneous tribe with the same culture and value system. That was tantamount to tearing down all the barriers that separated rats, cats, snakes, crocodiles, pigs, chicken, etc in a farm stead and expecting these animals to thereafter coexist peacefully without predation and blood letting. Ironsi simply lacked an understanding of the characteristics of a complex society required of good leaders.

4. He centralized the regional civil service institutions, thereby also centralizing the source of the revenues from which their salaries were being generated thus striping the future states of the power to control their resources and lands. This would later give birth to marginalization of every other tribes by the tribe lucky to perpetually hold power at the centre. As an evidence the Niger Delta which ended up separated farthest from the center would be the first to take to open armed struggle against the centre for resource control restoration.

5. It took Ironsi less than three months to get Isaac Adaka Boro (a non-Igbo) sentenced to death for mutiny but was talking him eternity to do same for the January coupists (mostly Igbos) whose mutiny was not only by far deadlier and bloodier but recorded victims whose innocence were all too glaring. And he did not bother about how such selectiveness in justice administration would impact on the public's perception of his detachment from the long suspected Igbo domination agenda.

6. He arrogantly turned down all pleas from the public to leave the constitution intact, and then stubbornly went ahead with his pioneership of its mutilation. This alone would later give birth to a constitutional crisis for which the Aburi Summit was convened albeit improperly, leading to a set of resolutions hurriedly done by men unskilled in the art of legislation hence its consequent rejection by the populace which triggered the tragic war that ended up casting inter-tribal resentments and hatred in stone till today.

By economic indices he was one the best.

Nigeria's politics was still very young so even all the leaders after him were inexperienced at that time in military government.

No military leader was BETTER than Ironside. He didn't want to execute the 5 majors because the western press and Nigerians were sympathetic to them.

Adaka boro's life was spared because of the eastern sentiments ironsi had for boro, this made non Easterners feel he was too tribalistic. Ironside was in a tight corner, any leader too would have been.

Deadlytruth:
The philosophy of "Self preservation first" comes into play.
If you fail to preserve yourself first, then all else is lost.
Buhari has surrounded himself with his kinsmen to the embitterment of the other tribes who have been accusing him of unprecedented nepotism. Has he died? Has that stopped the same Nigerians from acknowledging hid genuine positive achievements like Boko Haram decimation and some slight agricultural revolution?

If ironsi had leaned towards nepotism, that would have further justified and solidified the perception of igbo domination to the rest of the world, and if he had died in the course of nepotism, even posterity will be harsh on him. Have you read his biography "Ironside" written by a foreign journalist?

Ironside was just a sacrificial lamb. His naivity cost him his life.

Deadlytruth:
You don't get it.
The January coupists claimed they wanted to entrench national unity through the establishment of a unitary government. However, in the Hausa-Fulanis' perception, their quest for unitary system was informed by an Igbo domination agenda which they had earlier on seen Zik demonstrate in his quest to rule the Western Region.
Ironsi confirmed these fears by really imposing the unitary system being favoured by only Igbos back then.
Consequently, it appeared to them that the only way to keep Igbo domination agenda in the cooler perpetually was for themselves to take power and weaken Igbos both economically and politically by retaining that same unitary system till Igbos suffer enough under it to make them hate it completely.

You are still begging the question. Why wasn't the unitary system changed IN PRACTICE for good?

Ironsi inherited a country deeply divided, so as a military man, the first experiment one would use to checkmate this division is unitary system. No more regional embassies, every thing comes together. Ironsi meant well but other heads of state learnt from his naivity of adopting the unitary system.

By the way, the north wanted to remain dominant at all cost, that was why despite efforts made by ironsi to make them well represented in the supreme military council, they still weren't satisfied.

Deadlytruth:
The fact that the pattern of killings that defined the first coup had already created the perception that it was the execution of a long planned ethnic cleansing agenda by Igbos was enough to tell any sensible Igbo man that the army had become divided against the Igbo at that moment.
I can't wake up one day to see my brothers slaughter their neighbors and while trying to appease them I don't take precautions. That will not be naivete but sheer stupidity.

Think again.

As the new military head of state (the first of its kind in nigeria) Other ethnicities are accusing you of being too "closed up" in tribalism, while your brothers on the other hand are accusing you of being too open to "enemies", I don't think you would have done any better.

donfemo:
I'm yoruba to start with so I don't even do tribal things. Maj Chukwuma Kaduna's reason for a couple was because the civilians were using the nation's wealth for themselves and in a documentary I watched he said if things continued that way there would be nothing left for the country and there will be no development. That is what we are experiencing today. Brave minds like chukwuma wanted to prevent this with his coup but Ironsi made sure the coup was not successful and the schemed his way to power knowing he was the most senior man in the military.

Chukwuma who you are denying today fought for the Biafra Army and he died in active duty to Biafra. However, because of his outstanding contributions to the Nigerian military, Gen Gowon ensured he was buried in Nigeria with full military honors. We don't know our history hence we don't know who the hero's are.

Nobody is denying chukuma, it you revisionist that invoke his name when you want badmouth igbos in the 1966 coup. But when it comes to oil, he is now "south-south".

Look for another propaganda.

wink2015:
The Unitary System that Late General brought in by virtue of the Army system of CENTRALIZATION has remained with us over 50 years since his death from the crisis that followed the 1966 military coup. Infact, he was killed alongside Fajuyi in Ibadan, Oyo state during a visit he made there.

The Hausa/Fulani leadership ( Northerners in general ) have refused to throw away this FEDERAL UNITARY SYSTEM.

They forced it on Nigerian who are tired of UNITARISM and desire RESTRUCTURING of the FEDERATION.

Ironsi was an hero and leader on one aspect, but on the second aspect his tenureship brought in UNITARY SYSTEM of government that is very difficult to abolish because of the lack of co-operation of the Northerners who throw the suggestion of restructuring away.

Ironsi, the GODFATHER OF UNITARISM, Happy posthumous birthday.

Story story..... Story. Still blaming ironsi for your 60 years of political misfortune? Your leaders who had the chance to change the unitary system, why didn't they stop it?

The 50% resource derivative for each region was still intact during ironsi regime, why did Gowon and other change it?

Keep deluding yourself. Ironsi unitary system was much better than of other heads of state and even todays so called democracy.

Rest in peace the great Ironside!

NwaAmaikpe:


There's a huge difference between bravery and stupidity.
Aguiyi Ironsi died because he was stupid.
He was warned against his trip, but he was foolish enough to go ahead with it.

Muhamadu Buhari was to flag off the Ogoni oil spillage clean-up exercise, but he was threatened by militants not to step foot on their soul or be prepared for the worst.
The Presidency and Security Council insisted the president will visit despite the threats.

What happened?
Osinbanjo was the one who we saw flagging off the imaginary project. Baba feigned an excuse and didn't show up.

Baba was a coward, but he is still alive.
Ironsi was a brave, fearless hero... He died like a villain and not even his crocodile staff could save him .

Like the famous Igbo proverb goes;
"Ijiji na-anaghi e ge ndumodu, na-eso ozu a ba n'ili."

Enough of this lame narrative. The brotherhood in the military was not as compromised as it is today.

Ironsi was too believing that his men would remain loyal. This was his NAIVITY not stupidity. This was the first time the military was running an ethnically divided country. So other head of states learnt from ironsi's naivity.

Ojukwu wasn't even near ironsi in terms of bravery and leadership experience. Ironsi was NAIVE, not stupid.

deomelo:
Stop overreaching. Anambra and Abia states are not Delta states regardless what parts of their bothers touches Delta states.

Delta states including Delta State are all in the SS zone and Abia and anambra are not part of that zone.

I know this thread increases your blood pressure. You didnt expect igbos to rise this high. Lol..... Pls dont die just yet. You will be alive to see your kinsmen begging igbos to come and rule them.

Goderlist:
Are u talking about ''late'' Nnamdi Cownu?

You mean the man who made you zombies and your masters shit on your pants?

Abia state is NOT a coward state. We have made it clear to all and sundry. In fact in umuahia alone, the piggery business has since commenced to chase those northern residents and to also downplay their beef business. Other businesses includes poultry, goat, and fish business. To hell with Fulani cattle.

Is it ohafia they want to mess with? Or Arochukwu? Or Umuahia? Abiriba? Isiukwuato? Or the Ngwa/ukwa communities? Fulani agenda is dead on arrival in abia state.

IPOB I love you.

Nnamdi KANU you are a prophet!

GoroTango:
No amount of radio Biafra propaganda will change the northern perception about Biafra. Thanks for providing employment for a few jobless hausa boys

Speak for yourself.... The radio Biafra Hausa is already making waves in the north central states....

Great IPOB, Great Nnamdi KANU.

LionDeLeo:
Before nko.

Were you expecting peace from ipob pigs?

The moment you free yourself from zombiesm, you shall truly receive mental freedom.

LionDeLeo:
OP, what you are asking for is a future impossible tense.

Have you ever wondered why other tribes rarely talk about doing business in the east?

The reason is because you guys are lazy and myopic. Asides the few sane ones amongst you who isnt afraid of competition, the rest of you are sore sickos.

alobright17:
If you know and understand the meaning of birds of same feather , then you'll then sit back and answer yourself.

Stupidity is when you don't know that even Bokoharam have supporters from other countries ,answer your mumu self if they're stupid or not.

Aturu eventually it is Nnamdi Coward KANU that bowed to the fulanis especially the fake Fulani man because he lied to you that the real one is dead and can never return , by running away. Someone that promised you Buharis head as if na the head will eventually give you Biafra.

At least I'm happy all your noise is now restricted to the social media level by the same fake Fulani man not the usual walking from one state to another , mtweeeeeee coward like you.

4 paragraphs of trash. I salute you.

alobright17:
Listen not every Abian is ready for that late Nnamdi Kanu stupidity. most of his fans are from abakaliki and Anambra.

So his followers in other countries are also stupid? Who is the stupid one here?

Shame will not allow accept your stupidity. So you eventually bowed for the Fulani skunk? Coward. Sabo.