₦airaland Forum

Soldiers easily identified Igbo who couldn’t pronounce Obalende during civil war – 80-year-old retiree, Ope
Alexander Okere

12 December 2021
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Eighty-year-old Mrs Christiana Ope, who retired as confidential secretary from Wema Bank, takes ALEXANDER OKERE through her life’s story

Please briefly tell us about yourself?

My name is Lady Christiana Ope. I was born on December 16, 1941. I am from Ijebu in Ogun State and I retired as a confidential secretary at Wema Bank.

Having been born in the late 1940s, was your birth registered?

My father wrote it down. He had a register where he wrote down children’s dates of birth. So, when we went to school and were asked for our dates of birth, he gave us the register to check our names and copy out our dates.

What kind of parents did you have?

My father was a baale (traditional ruler). He could write a bit.
As a baale, how many wives did he have?

Ah, they (wives) were many. He had seven and my mother was the second wife.

How many children did he have?

In the olden days, one could not tell. We just lived by a stroke of good luck.

What kind of childhood did you have in a polygamous home?

My father was very strict but nice. In those days, when he flogged any of us to correct us, he also flogged our mothers. So, his children tried not to offend him so their mothers would not be flogged. We feared him more than our mothers.

Was your mother a trader?

She was a trader and a serious one. She used to sell cocoa, palm kernels and God blessed her. She used to sell to people on credit to enable them to raise money for their children’s upkeep. She later extended her business to Lagos and used to take her goods to Lagos in a lorry. I used to ride a bicycle to the house of the lorry driver to call him and my mother had centres where her goods were taken to.

What did you mean when you said you were lucky to have survived as a child?

I said so because of the kind of water we drank from the river in those days. But we were lucky because there was native medicine.

Did you have any near-death experience?

I remember one day I was sick at night with a stomach upset. My mother went out to call one man, Baba Watchman. He was a native doctor and a good man. Everybody approached him for medicine. When my mother met him, he gave us a black substance and told her to mix it with palm oil and give it to me. The next day, I could not go to school because I passed out live worms in my feaces. However, for a long time, I did not have any issues with worms in my stomach. It was when I grew older that I realised that baba was deforming people as of that time.

You just mentioned that you were a pupil. Were children, especially the girl child, encouraged to go to school?

In our house, my father allowed us to go to school but I did not start early. It was when I saw my younger sister writing that I insisted that I wanted to go to school. I attended a secondary school now called Adeola Odutola Comprehensive High School. We used to go to a farm to cultivate as pupils.

What did you do with your first salary?

I worked with the Federal Ministry of Health on Broad Street, Lagos, as a clerk, and got my first salary there. I gave it to my parents to share with my elder ones who prayed for me. I used the remaining money for my transportation to work.

How did you join Wema Bank?

I attended secretarial training. It was when I passed my examination that I applied to join Wema Bank (then known as Agbonmagbe Bank Limited) as a secretary. Working at Wema Bank was tedious. The salary was not big when I started but things improved over the years. I used to resume work at 7:30am and when I started working there we had a two-hour break from 12 to 2pm and didn’t finish working until 5pm.

As a secretary in a bank, did you go for further training?

I attended local training for a week or two until the bank started an academy.

Why did you leave the civil service for a banking job?

https://punchng.com/soldiers-easily-identified-igbo-who-couldnt-pronounce-obalende-during-civil-war-80-year-old-retiree-ope

Dem say Nigeria army killed 2million biafrans

But Islamic Terrorists have killed over 300,000 northern children alone.

Men not included, women not included, soldiers not included

Talk of karma

That was what Nigerian cowards were doing during the war.
Their fellow soldiers in the Biafran military were dealing with them and Britain at the war front while they were moving around lagos looking for unarmed Civilians that can't pronounce Obalende correctly to kill.

Shameless Cowards.

OK


Those soldiers went on to kill themselves in Coups and Counter Coups.

Is God not wonderful?

How Igbos went from being penniless in 1970 to owning 70% of Lagos houses in 2021 should be studied in Harvard.


If you are Afonja & paying rent in Lagos, look into a mirror & tell yourself that you are a failure.

Backstabbing Afonjers and their envious characters led them to sabotage other southerners so that they will steal their assets in Lagos and other western cities. Very wicked creatures

Peharps the evil of targeting one tribe by an organized institution has continued to hunt Nigeria till date

Let's move forward

God punish them they couldn't pronounce obalende and Toro... Our mother"s tongue


Why did they have to bomb Lagos State in the first place...by using petrol bomb



Was Lagos State part of the North?

As it happened and still happening now.. any attack from the north against the ibos the south west takes the blame

Anyone praying peace in Nigeria is wasting his time.

Genocide. Nigeria is a country stained with innocent blood. That's why it is the way it is

It was stories like this that brought yugoslavia (europe's 4th largest army) to its knee and final burial.

Nice one by the soldiers