₦airaland Forum

No, the persons below are not Haitians. They are Nigerians.

And there is more from where these came.

And I respectfully take my leave of the thread!
Peace!

~Sauron~:
It is the TRUTH. . . . .

Awolowo couldn't stand back and watch Biafran troops turn Lagos into a battle ground.
Yoruba woulda suffered the carnage extensively and what we know of Lagos today woulda been no more.
Awolowo did what i woulda done in that circumstance and for that he remains my HERO.

And I rest my case! Speeches apart, morality apart, principles apart, what matters always is the preservation of Yorubaland. So what is this governor Lam Adesina talking about? Who will fight with him in his fictitious war?
I know my people have already learned from such speeches in the past.

Katsumoto:
What changed the landscape between when he made that speech and when acted against Biafra? The West and Mid-west were neutral and that was why Gowon attempted to fight Biafra from the North through Benue. The West and the Mid-west became involved when Ojukwu sent the Biafran Expeditionary Force to the West. Gowon immediately formed the 2nd Division under Murtala with the aim of pursuing the Biafrans through the mid-west. Gowon then formed the 3rd Division with the Brigades from Lagos. So in essence, Ojukwu assisted Gowon to enlist the support of those that were opposed to the war.

While I understand why Ojukwu sent BAF to Lagos under Ayo Banjo, it was done without the agreement of Western and Mid-western leaders. Fearing that the West may soon become embroiled in the war, Awo acted in the manner in which he did. So to Biafrans, his actions appeared duplicitous. This is only my interpretation and opinion.

Biafran troops were only headed to the government house in Lagos to stop the possibility of a wide spread war. Lagos happened to be in Yorubaland. If it was in Calabar (like before) the Biafran troops wouldn't have ventured into Yoruba land or mid-west. But, you and I know that Awo and other Yorubas couldn't have assumed that Biafra was attacking the West. The quarrel was between the East and the North. If the seat of Power was in Abuja, Biafrans would have headed to Abuja straight. So, stop this line of argument cos you know better.

There is only one reason why Biafra went into Midwest and West - to get to Lagos the Capital.
There is an Igbo proverb that says that someone was already standing near a soothing fire when suddenly the harmattan began. It means that for Awo and other westerners to take sides so fast at the onset of conflict, they already were angling towards that. Whatever happened to his Aburi stance? Why didn't they swing to Biafran support instead?

Like I said earlier, the minimum any rational Easterner would have expected from Awo after that speech was that he ensured that the West stayed out of the war efforts. He not only failed to do that, he and elements like Adekunle played critical roles in Biafran deaths and ultimate loss of the war.

So first Awo acknowledged that a war can only happen at the behest of the North and recommended that Aburi should forestall war. But, when the war started, he shifted and became a chief war strategist against the same East.

What do you make of such duplicity?

"Second, if the true purpose of such a war is to preserve the unity and integrity of the Federation, then these ends can be achieved by the very simple devices of implementing the recommendations of the committee which met on August 9 1966,as affirmed by a decision of the limitary leaders at Aburi on January 5 1967 as well as by accepting such of the demands of the East, West, Mid-West and Lagos as are manifestly reasonable, and essential for assuring harmonious relationships and peaceful co-existence between them and their brothers and sisters in the North."

-Obafemi Awolowo

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/for-the-records/speech-by-chief-obafemi-awolowo-made-to-the-western-leaders-of-thought-in-ibadan-1-may.html

Katsumoto:
I agree with the text in bold on the basis that him and other Yoruba leaders should have acted differently but not on the basis of the quote that we are analysing. The quote in question can only be construed as meaning that Nigeria should remain one; a nation including the East. On that basis, I think his subsequents actions were inline with the quote. I assume that he wanted to be in a nation that included Easterners; he did not want to be in a nation with just Northerners. That is my interpretation.

Okay here is part of the speech:

"It is claimed that an attack on the East is going to be launched by the Federal Government and not by the north as such and that it is designed to ensure the unity and integrity of the Federation, two other insuperable points also become obvious. First, if a war against the East becomes a necessity it must be agreed to unanimously by the remaining units of the Federation. In this connection, the West, Mid-West and Lagos have declared their implacable opposition to the use of force in solving the present problem. In the face of such declarations by three out of the remaining four territories of Nigeria, a war against the East could only be a war favoured by the North alone."
-Obafemi Awolowo

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/for-the-records/speech-by-chief-obafemi-awolowo-made-to-the-western-leaders-of-thought-in-ibadan-1-may.html

SapeleGuy:
Onlytruth.
In the same vein Mid West declared neutrality but this was not respected by either party.

For Biafrans, the midwest was never really a war theater and you know it. The whole Biafran war strategy (which was really very docile if you think about it), was to rush to Lagos and to capture the seat of power in Lagos which would have enabled people like Awolowo and others who may want to secede to do. I suspect that if Biafra really wanted to make the midwest a war theater, Biafran troops wouldn't have rushed off to Ore. They would have even stopped at Benin and continue sending reinforcements there using Igbo elements in midwest. There was a sizable Biafra sympathizers in the Igbo areas of Midwest to enable Biafra have a foothold for a long military campaign there. If anyone turned the midwest into a war zone proper, it was people like Ejoor and Ogbemudia, Murtala Muhammed and others. Biafra simply rushed past midwest and headed for Lagos but turned back at Ore.
If there were other ways of getting to Lagos faster, the Biafran troops would have simply bypassed midwest.

sjeezy8:
guy war is not the answer - so I think you should stop spending time tryin to have one between north and south.

shut up please you this gal, whether there is southern unity or disunity among yoruba people or igbo people , I dont care.

What happend 40 years ago is gone and i dont give a shiot Awo, Zik or Ojukwu
so stop running your mouth

I'll leave your sissy a's's to your brother Katsu to rein in. If he doesn't, I'll unleash my quartet of Eastern nuclear missiles - Mekus, Wily*Wily, Metalgong and Sunnybobo.

Afoanu!

Katsumoto:
Just like I thought, a generation given information without the ability to analyse issues themselves.
Awo said IF the eastern region is allowed ,    Is that not a conditional statement? A statement of declaration was made but Gowon did not allow the East to Leave Nigeria.

In a nutshell let me break it down for you. If Biafra succeeded in becoming a nation, then Awo would equally have set in motion actions designed to take the West out of Nigeria. Since Biafra did not succeed, we will never know what Awo would have done. This is a lesson in simple English grammer.

@Katsumoto

I know you mean well. That is why I will take your statement in good faith.

About Awo's statement, you could have been right if Awo ensured that the Yoruba stayed out of the war efforts, including himself. I am taking this issue from a minimalist perspective. Awo knew that the East was not happy with Nigeria and was aware of the Aburi accord. He knew, some say he was privy, to the abandonment of the Aburi accord.

So, it was immoral of him to make the statement and then follow through with actions denying the East the ability to secede. If he expressly said that the west would never leave Nigeria, or that the West would join any efforts to keep Nigeria one, then his accusers would have been wrong. He spoke of the "rightness" of Eastern agitations and the immorality of waging war against the East for wanting to leave the federation.

I can post his speech and the exact quotes if you doubt me.
Let us be careful to enable us quench this useless southern disunity.
Here I stand.

ndu_chucks:
@Onlytruth, your tribalism appears to be pathological. I can't help you with that problem. You tribalism and c.ockyness will not let you see reason in Abagworo's post. When you are prepared to discuss issues rather than personalities and egos, I'll be here. Ogbanje, onye ocha.

roflmao !

Why you dey run nah?
Abi no be yarn we dey yarn? You still haven't addressed the issues I raised. rago.

ndu_chucks:
Onlytruth and the other ignoramuses attacking me without making any point, please read the following voice of reason by a sensible Igboman:

Your tribalism has made you blind - what a pity!

You will never change. Always trying to incite division within peoples of homogeneous tribe and political interest in order to conquer and pillage. Divide and rule, divide and exploit, divide and r'ape', divide and quench, divide and . . . .
Only a fo''o'l will listen to you. Tomorrow, you will incite Abagworo against another easterner or southerner.
By the way where are all your northern brothers? I thought the north is more populated than the south? Why do northerners make up about 2% of nairaland? Unrepentant liars!

Show your intelligence by focusing on issues rather than personalities, tribes, or anonymous user names. apo'da, as opposed to olodo. (meaning painter    )

Like I asked you earlier, what if I create a username like balla, or usman or bayero and embark on agitation for Nigeria's disintegration? Would you then think that it doesn't matter? You people are simply shameless in your desperation to continue ruling and cheating and destroying Nigeria. Na wa. Atulu awusa.

@revolt, you need a refresher course in US history.  Find out why they had a civil war, who lost/won, and how the country was recomposed after the war. Find out how the most marginalized group of people in the USA fought their way to occupy the position of the President of the USA.  You'll note that no one gave them the position, just like no one will give an Igbo man the Presidency in Nigeria - the interested Igbo man will have to fight for the job. He'll have to negotiate with the rest of the southerners and convince them that Fashola, or some other Ijaw man will not make a better President come 2015.

You think Igbos really care about Nigeria's presidency? That tells me where your values lie. It tells me things you value most -political power and ruling. Hausa man will never change.
It is also immoral of you (not that your people are scrupulous anyway ) to even make reference to the US when you know that Nigeria is everything the US is not. Civil war or not, each state in the US has its own constitution, police forces (from state to utilities level police formations), a state national guard under the governors command, there is no national electoral commissions, all elections are conducted at local government levels, states control education and a whole lot more. In Nigeria, states are nothing. Federal government is EVERYTHING, because your brothers are too lazy and cowardly to take your destiny in your own hands. You must depend on others.

If you have a history lesson to teach, teach that of Nigeria, and why Lugard decided to amalgamate the north and south of Nigeria. Leave lessons you don't even know alone.

@Onlytruth, why are you obsessed with revealing my name here? What if you found out that your compound, if you have one, is right next door to mine?   

I seriously doubt that, except if you are the maiguard guarding the house next  to mine in Anambra state. In that case, you sneak in to use your oga internet in his absence. 
I don't remember any northerner with a house within a 10 mile radius of mine.

ndu_chuks shame on you. Stop confusing people with fake Igbo name here.
What is wrong with Musa, or Ango, or Dikko,  

or Mutallab

revolt:
Ndu chuk sorry but your an idealist. Don't forget the united states is a country that different nations AGREED on certain terms to come together thats not whats happenin here. First of all the system is designed to cheat. could help why your people have the highest cutoff points to beat to get into schools as designed by federal character. So stop attacking your kins men. History cannot be put under the carpet we cannot move forward without addressin this unholy contraption. Even germany officially came out to apologise to the jews and not trying to justify actions then. Whether you like it or not tribalism will thrive. If you're truly igbo go to any other part of nigeria and mistakenly suggest an igbo presidency. You'd virtually see the hatred and dread in their eyes. We've been black spotted in our supposed country.abeg f nigeria its holdn us back

@revolt

Please take note that Ndu_chuks is Hausa. He uses Igbo name here to enable him create maximum deception and confusion.
You can check all his past postings to confirm this. I confronted him about his fake Igbo name and he retorted that he can use any name he chooses. He claims it is fair. If I were the moderator, I would ban people using fake tribal names. Nigeria is already a mess and confusion is part of that mess. And for now, tribe is part of our problem. It can change in the future but not yet. To allow people use fake tribal names devalues and mocks this political section.
Well, my name is not Kosovo or Seun.

^^^
So, Biafra didn't need forever to secede. You secede when your conscience tells you. Ideally of course you hope for the best, but I don't think there is an ideal time to secede. It is an act of faith because no amount of weapons or security plans can save a young nation. When Israel was founded in 1948, arabs attacked almost immediately. Somehow Israel survived the attack and have been fighting those who oppose its right to exist even till today. So every nation's story is different. That Nigeria became independent without war doesn't mean that every other nation must walk that path. The greatest ones got their freedom by war.

Biafra fought and lost. That is life. We weren't wrong. 40 years has proven that.

eyesonyou:
What is your point?

If you are alluding that Awolowo statement equates an accord between Ojukwu and Awo, then you have ignored the facts of events.

Do you realize that Awo made that statement on  May 1, 67?  And Ojukwu declared secession on the 30th of May.
Or are you implying by any means that Ojukwu considers that statement an accord with Awo?  And 29 days later he declared secession because of Awo's statement?
Please ascribe some intelligence to Okujwu.

Do you know that the Aburi accord was in Jan 67? And that Ojukwu had already made up his mind even before the accord,  five full months before Awo
addressed the Western parliament and made that speech. Did you read the entire speech? I guess not.

You are not making sense at all. So, Aburi Accord concluded in JANUARY 1967 and the East seceded on May 30th 1967. Don't you notice that both Aburi and Awo's statement happened 5 months, and 29 days respectively, before eastern secession? At least Biafra did not secede BEFORE Awo's speech or Aburi.
You sounded like Biafra seceded before both events.

So, how much time do you need to secede? If I have my way, I would secede even today. Nigeria wastes time and opportunities daily. The world is not waiting for us. In fact they have been fed up with us.
There is what President Obama and Dr Martin Luther King Jr call "the fierce urgency of now".

^^^

Sounds so much like the 1950s and 60s and 70s and 80s and 90s 

When would you address these ndu_chuks instead of fears of disintegration?

ndu_chucks:
With your attitude, if Nigeria does not collapse, you stand to gain nothing for yourself and your people. You'd be well adviced to assume that Nigeria will not collapse and do everything in your power to make a positive contribution for coming generations. That is what Ojukwu is doing by participating fully in politics. I don't hear him and the rest of your leaders like Soludo, Kalu, and others sharing your doomsday views.

The communal harmony and peace which the mining town used to have has broken down following several inter-ethnic clashes over the years. Security agencies have identified disagreement over indigeneship, ownership of Jos, politics, ignorance and unemployment as the major causes of the mayhem.

Hundreds of lives and property worth millions of naira were lost in the last major riots in the town, on November 28, 2008 which occurred over a local election. Both state and federal government set up parallel committees to investigate this. The state panel, headed by Bola Ajibola completed its work last year and had submitted its recommendation to the state government. The presidential panel is still conducting its sitting into the crisis.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5513294-146/jos_crisis_reignites_again__.csp

So, ndu_chuks, you can't even begin to imagine how I or my people feel. To have stood up and fought against something and yet you ended up in it 40 years after.
And your type is still not showing any signs of change of mindset.
You will have yourself to blame when Nigeria finally collapses.

My brother didn't attempt to bring down a plane filled with innocent people just because he thinks he would go to heaven and inherit seven virgins. Yours did. And now every Nigerian is paying for it.

I am a soldier for the voiceless. You may not believe it but I am not affected by much of these things. But my heart lies with my family and peoples who fought in the past to avoid being in a failed state 40 years ago!

Last week, a friend from another African country narrated an ordeal he went through somewhere abroad. He says they thought he was a Nigerian. All his attempts to deny didn't help. Now imagine what real Nigerians are going through!
Any one with senses would be tired of this bulls' hit.

ndu_chucks:
Onlytruth, when are you going to get it in your skull that the [b]cabal responsible for the demise of Nigeria [/b]come from North, East, West, and South?

Let me refer you to a thoughtful post by a thoughtful Igbo, abagworo. Try to see what this reasonable and detribalized nairalander is saying, olodo.

You mean the cabal that refused the vice president his constitutional right to power?
The last time I checked, the cabal is purely northern.
So, try another lie.

The thread was opened for malicious reasons but we should use it as a vehicle to achieve the progress of Nigeria or its disintegration.

We may pretend all we want, but the fact remains that our president is MIA and the vice can't take over because he is from certain areas. While we are at it, Nigerians are paying for it.

Everything else is lies lies and more lies.

So, ndu_chuks, tell me and the whole world why Nigeria is a terrorist state today?
Tell me why our vice president can't stand in as acting president until our president returns?
Tell me the education statistics of northern Nigeria today after 40 years rule?

I want to be dominated by a culture more progressive than mine. Maybe I'd get steady electricity for once in my life!
I as an Igboman I don't care who rules me forever, provided I get those things in life that are easy to get elsewhere, electricity, good roads, health care, education, security of life and property,e tc.

The north FAILED to deliver in 40 years of rule!
They CAN'T deliver even for another 40 years.

So how can a country nursing such fears of domination develop?
The great United States is dominated by certain ethnic groups. The key word here is that certain cultures are progressive and should be copied, while others are retrogressive and should be shunned. If my culture happens to be progressive, why should Nigeria try to force me to accept retrogression in the name of national unity?
One culture produced about 90% literacy rate, while another produced the opposite.
Why should the former be stifled for the benefit of the latter.

from ndu_chuks

Don't expect a straight answer from Onlytruth. The minority Igbo people who share his mindset (they are the loudest in internet forums such as this),   tend to feel inordinately inferior to other people and, like most neurotics, seek to seem superior to other people - hence the insinuations he made in his post.

The Igbos like him, do not like their felt[b] inferiority[/b] and compensate with desire for superiority. They feel an obsessive-compulsive desire to seem superior to their environment and acts as if they are superior to other people. They tell other people lie about themselves; they tells tall tales that would seem to make them seem superior in other people’s eyes. They hope that they have deceived those they are lying to and that they have accepted their make belief stories of success.

You will find the traits I've described in one form or the other in forumites like OnlyTruth, Professor dede1 (his posts read like extracts from PhD thesis),  Eziachi (He is the only one that fought in the civil war and single handedly killed 5 lions and 4 turtles), and many others.  But not to worry, Ndu_Chucks is here to keep them honest Smiley

No one is talking about superiority or inferiority, you rago! Atulu awusa.
This is the lies you and your brothers have been telling since 1960 and today you've turned us into a terrorists state.
Why is Nigeria a mess today After your 40 years of unbroken rule. (Obasanjo was your puppet).

This is not sports section. Thank you!

Please folks should stop derailing this thread!

Katsumoto:
Are you insinuating that the Igbo man will turn out to be the most qualified in most spheres of society?

I am saying that things like quota system and federal character was put in place to check mate fears of domination. Nigeria's history is replete with hate and that hate is based on jealousy.

It is a fact that Igbos are amongst the most qualified Nigerians. If you doubt me, try hiring purely by merit and do so for 5 years, then come back to take stock. I don't have to convince you about that. It is self evident.
Mind you, most southerners are highly skilled as well. But, when the riots starts in the north, they would be looking for Igbos, even if the real persons concerned are from Edo, or any southern state. It is the Igbo shops and businesses (the most visible and often soft target) bears the wrath.