You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A - Politics (2) - Nairaland
Nairaland Forum › Nairaland General › Politics › You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A (3188 Views)
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by kettykin: 4:42am On Mar 09 |
Even the 5 are in minor ministry except Dave Umahi 1 Like |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by lawani(m): 4:12pm On Mar 09 |
IGBOSON1:How many slots are you ready to give the millions of other ethnicities residing in the East out of the five that you truly deserve if the SW has 14? I am not saying Igbos should not be given SW slots but are you ready to give Yoruba SE slots? The Yoruba in a place like Anambra have numbers to hold a rep seat and some local government chairmen. Not to talk of Rivers and other places. Leave Lagos, Oyo and Ogun combined are more than 150 percent of the SE in landmass and they have a higher population than the zone. Do you agree Oyo and Ogun should be five states? The only way out or way forward is to split the country because the injustice is just too much |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by IGBOSON1: 1:40am On Mar 10*. Modified: 3:07am On Mar 10 |
lawani:Dude, on what basis are you asking for appointive slots for the Yoruba in the south-east? Or is this just you trying to be annoying and clutching at more straws to try and keep your drowning 'argument' afloat? In my last reply, i specifically mentioned Lagos as being that one state that has not only substantially increased the overall population of the south-west region, but has also substantially helped catalyse and galvanise the regions economy! Lagos being what it is today owes largely to the national political-economy and status-quo in place and sustained from the late 60s to date! As a consequence, i was limiting my argument to just Lagos and asking why you see nothing wrong in all its appointive positions at the national level being filled by just your own ethnic stock when the city is a cosmopolitan melting-pot consisting of ALL ethnic groups and whose economy and infrastructure was built and sustained by the human and natural resources of ALL Nigerians and ALL regions of the country....especially the Niger-Delta where i'm from (ONELGA in Rivers state)! Since the 70s to date, a large part of the proceeds of oil and gas exploitation from Alaigbo has gone into building infrastructure in Lagos and sustaining its predominant socio-economic position in Nigeria! Now can you point to any similar scenario in the Eastern-Region/south-east in which a city or component part of the region owes its economic emergence and dominance to human and/or natural resources of the Western-Region/south-west? If you can't, why then do you think any Yoruba deserves, as a matter of right or justice, to get one of the few appointive slots of the south-east remaining for us? Now don't get me wrong! In a fair, just and inclusive situation, i wouldn't mind a Yoruba, or anyone from any other ethnicity for that matter, that has lived and integrated themselves into the south-east region taking one of the appointive slots for the region at national level. But the scenario would have to be one based on equality and justice for all component parts of the country, or a scenario in which a city or state in the south-east (say Enugu for instance) owes its socio-economic development in large part to the human and natural resources of the other ethnicity in question and has a significant demographic of said ethnicity domiciled in Enugu, doing business there and contributing to its economy as is the case with the Igbo in Lagos and their hydrocarbon resources being used to develop the city. You're starting to muddle up issues. No one stopped any Yoruba or anyone from any other ethnicity living in the south-east from going for elective positions either at the sate or national level. If they believe their candidacy is sellable to the electorate, they should come out, stand for election and canvass for votes. No one will stop them. Rather, what we're talking about here is NUMBERS OF SLOTS FOR APPOINTIVE POSITIONS FROM EACH REGION AT NATIONAL LEVEL, and why one region should claim to be 'superior' to another then go on to grab more slots at national level based on such a spurious claim! Just why TF should any region in Nigeria accept to be subservient to another.....especially when that other is only leveraging on the benefits derived by virtue of them and their hegemonic allies fashioning a political-economy and status-quo primarily favourable to said hegemonic partnership to the relegation of everyone else? Because this is exactly what's playing out in Nigeria today....more so when your 'argument' on the distribution of appointive slots for each of the 6 region at national level is taken into consideration. You see what i mean when i say you pick and choose to promote only parts of the argument that favours your ethnic agenda. You claim the south-west is more than two times the size of the south-east in landmass and as a consequence would be justified in getting more slots and benefits at national level that reflects said difference. Now lemme ask you....if we're to go along with your logic of landmass, pray tell, why is a state like Lagos producing the same number of senators and house or reps members with a much larger states like say Borno or Niger? Based on your 'argument', shouldn't Borno and Niger produce more senators and house of reps members? You see how easy it is to trip over your own arguments when you're not on the side of truth and justice? If you as a Yoruba man is screaming injustice in a 'one Nigeria' currently operating a political-economy and status-quo fashioned by YOUR OWN FOREBEARS together with their northern allies, wetin you wan make me as Igbo man do? Between you and me who should really be screaming injustice? Check between both ethnicities, who has produced the most presidents/heads-of-state, vice-presidents, chief justices of the federation, chiefs of army staff, heads of customs, minister of FCT....positions that matter in the country! You could argue that Igbo have also produced presidents of the senate, and you'd be right. But a nuanced assessment would reveal those positions were filled at the time by Ndigbo (note this was before APC arrived the scene in 2015) owing to power-sharing arrangements of the political elite of the time! That was a time Ndigbo were still given a little modicum of respect, consideration and inclusion in national politics and governance, which is a far cry from what is the case today under your Buhari/Tinubu/APC gov't. So given all that's transpired in Nigeria from the late 60s to date, Yoruba and Fulani hegemonic acolytes and sympathisers like you should be the last people to be shouting injustice! 1 Like |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by gabbytabby: 2:13am On Mar 10 |
Now Una want quota. While you keep hounding those from the Southeast who accept the position. dominic17: |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by EDGEof2MORO: 4:20am On Mar 10 |
They have slot for appointment in Nigeria army |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by Ibadanfarmroad: 4:32am On Mar 10 |
IGBOSON1:where was fairness when Jonathan gave every juicy position to igbos ? 1 Like |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by lawani(m): 7:34am On Mar 10 |
IGBOSON1:Only less than five percent of Lagos was FCT and that should never be forgotten. Then the resources of Ala Igbo is not being used to develop Yoruba land or Lagos. Do your calculations. The SW collects oil money less than the oil and gas it produces. So the rest of Nigeria is taking oil money from Yoruba land and port revenue too as well as CIT and VAT. I am saying if you think non Yoruba living in Lagos should be given Lagos slots then the same should apply to your own place because non indigenes live there too. Then like you say nobody is stopping the Yoruba from contesting elections in the East, nobody is stopping Igbos in the west or in Lagos in particular. They have been contesting and should continue contesting I did not say the SW should be given anything just because of landmass but that there should be equity and if you are treating less than twenty million the same as over 50 million people then that is not equity or is it? The SW should have like three times the number of states in the SE to start with but they have almost equal. The Yoruba are being shortchanged in Nigeria and the only advantage we have in Nigeria is that Lagos is number one but without Nigeria, Lagos or Ibadan would still have been number one in subsahara Africa. So there is nothing to point to as gain for the Yoruba in Nigeria unlike Igbos who have disproportionately high representation at the center that they are enjoying |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by IGBOSON1: 2:42pm On Mar 10 |
Ibadanfarmroad:In a dispensation in which the Igbo was not Vice-President; was not Senate president; was not Speaker of the House of Represenratives; was not Chief Justice of Nigeria, was not head of NNPC, was not head of Customs; was not Chief of Staff to the President; was not head of INEC.....i could go on and on dude! Pray tell, what 'every juicy position was given to Igbos' are you talking of exactly? Juxtapose that dispensation in which you accuse GEJ of 'giving every juicy position to Ndigbo' to the present dispensation under your godfather and tribal bigot-in-chief Tinubu.....compare both and tell us what you discover! In any case, assuming, without conceeding, that GEJ was 'guilty' of sidelining your own Yoruba ethnicity, are you now 'justifying' Tinubus' obvious expression of deepseated hatred towards Ndigbo and his sidelining and relegating them in a presidency you lot claim is 'southern turn'....are you 'justifying' this because of what you claim GEJ (who last i checked is Ijaw and not Igbo) did to the Yoruba?...Basically, visiting punishment for the 'sins' of GEJ on the Igbo! Methinks owing to your unfavourable sentiments towards Ndigbo, you viewed any and every position they got during the GEJ tenure through the prism of hate, envy and bitterness! This now led you to erroneously believe they need to be dealt with and punished when next a Yoruba becomes president! 1 Like |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by IGBOSON1: 1:44am On Mar 11 |
lawani:Honestly, the way you engage in revisionism and selective amnesia just to give life to a already dead narrative is something that needs to be studied! You claim only 5% of present day Lagos was FCT! You mean up until when the federal capital moved to Abuja in the early 90s, that only 5% of present day Lagos state was FCT? Ok, let's assume for the sake of argument that you're 'right'.....that 5% you're referring to WAS developed by the federal gov't from the 60s right up to when the FCT moved, and the commonwealth of ALL Nigerians, of which a large part was sourced from Alaigbo, was used to develop it! When we talk of federal gov't developing Lagos (whether 5% or everything), it came in two forms: physical projects; and federal gov't policies and actions. *Some of the physical projects are: Apapa and Tincan Island ports; National Stadium; National Arts Theatre, Iganmu; Tafawa Balewa Square; Murtala Moh'd Airport; the many flyovers; 3rd Minland Bridge, Carter Bridge, etc; the many federal gov't owned buildings that helped service and maintain Lagos' dominance in national politics and economy, like the CBN building, Stock Exchange building, National Assembly, 1004 flats, federal secretariate, NECOM House...initially known as NET building, Dodan Barracks, etc. *The federal gov't policies and actions that brought disproportionate socio-economic benefits to Lagos and led to its becoming the economic and (then) political capital of Nigeria are: the obvious one of keeping Lagos as the capital after independence; promoting and funding Apapa and Tincan Island ports over others in other coastal cities of the country; promoting and funding Murtala Moh'd Airport over other major airports in other regions of the country; siting financial institutions (public and gov't owned) headquarters and nation building institutions in Lagos while relegating major cities in other regions to the back burner (perhaps only Kaduna got a near level of favoured status and attention as Lagos...for obvious reasons); causing ALL foreign Embassies and High Commissions to be sited in Lagos and as a consequence forcing Nigerians from other parts of the country to head to Lagos for visa application and issuance (and this one had a complimentary relationship with the then only international airport in the country, making Lagos indispensable for any Nigerian seeking to travel abroad or coming back into the country); etc! So you see, ignoring the aforementioned benefits and preferred status Lagos got over and above cities in other regions, and claiming that Lagos is what it is today owing mainly to the sophistication and ingenuity of the Yoruba, is at best a misleading narrative! If we're to have a frank assessment of what the south-west as a region has benefitted from Nigeria both financially and by way of policies and actions of the federal gov't, vis-à-vis what the rest of Nigeria (with particular reference to the south-east and south-south) have benefitted in return from the south-west, you'd find that the rest of Nigeria has been left holding the short end of the stick! Just my local gov't alone, ONELGA IN Rivers state, is known for having one of the highest yielding onshore deposits of oyel and gas, and has given Nigeria billions of dollars in revenue from the 70s to date! Pray, can you mention any significant social or economic contribution the Yoruba ethnicity has made to any town or state in the south-east....or any notable Yoruba demographic in the region wrthy of mention to warrant Ndigbo giving them one of the 5 appointive slots you've deigned to throw our way? We're all here to learn so maybe there's something we're missing that you could enlighten us on! You say 'no one is stopping the Igbo from voting or being voted for in the south-west'! Please tell me you're joking!  I can provide conclusive proof to the contrary if you want me to, but for now i think i'll hod my fire on this one!  You're idea of what constitutes 'equity' is warped, laughable and only serves to further your own ethnic agenda! According to you and your northern co-travellers, states and regions with more population should derive more political and economic benefits over those with less! You also have a similar 'argument' for landmass! But when it comes to the oyel and gas in my land, all of a sudden the rules change and you now declare that it belongs to the hegemonic controlled federal gov't for them to divvy up as they see fit. The demands of the oil producing communities and states for resource ownership and control, that they've been making for decades now (even way before the time of Ken Saro-Wiwa), have fallen on deaf ears because, unlike useless landmass and useless population, resource ownership and control doesn't disproportionately favour the hegemonic establishment so it's only fit for the dustbin! When representatives of the three regions were going to Lancaster House in London pre-independence to discuss the kind of structure and constitution to adopt at independence, were they going as equals or did those with larger landmass and population have more of a say and a higher status over regions with less? Fact of the matter is, this reference to yeye landmass and population (population figures that have been doctored and cooked every census since the 60s to date) as a means of determining allocation of national resources and political appointments to regions/states is a hallmark of the present political-economy and was invented by the hegemonic alliance to grab more benefits from the centre for themselves! 1 Like |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by lawani(m): 4:45am On Mar 11 |
IGBOSON1:Well the SW has more oil than the SE so the argument of SE oil being used to sponsor SW ought to stop as SW oil is also being used to sponsor the SE. Stop that argument please. I am talking of SW versus SE in particular and not SW versus Ala Igbo or the former Eastern region. I have been here saying Lagos should shut down or disrupt port operations till they start paying them a percentage of port revenue like they pay oil states because until they do that before they are respected. This should happen if only a month before Nigeria breaks up. They took from Lagos without giving back and you are here claiming they spent money on Lagos? It is because of one Nigeria. Is it only Lagis that receives federal attention and allocations? You have federal projects in the SE. I know and have heard of Yoruba building stadiums and schools in the SE, sponsoring football competitions and etc. I am surprised you have never heard of such. They are there only they are not loud. If you are not giving them and others anything, why should you expect anything from other places? What kind of entitlement mentality is that?. I don't support that kind of mentality. However on the overall, contest wherever you want to contest since the constitution allows it. That should be the conclusion. In your view less than twenty million people in the SE should be entitled to the same number of slots of political posts and projects as over 55 million people in the SW and more than that in the NW and that to you is equity? I see it as injustice and if you are pursuing such vigorously it would be bullying. As it is now the SE has more than it's fair share of everything including allocations then institutions like schools and etc but all you can see is that the FG has spent too much money on Lagos when the FG has seized Lagos ports without paying them a dime from port revenue when there are countries where port revenue is a major revenue source just like oil is for some On the overall, support the breakup of Nigeria as I am doing so that everybody can have full control over their own affairs |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by IGBOSON1: 4:57am On Mar 12 |
lawani:I really don't know if you're deliberately just being evasive or you genuinely confused and don't know WTF you're supposed to be 'arguing' anymore! We kicked things off with me telling you your thinking of what constitutes a 'fair' allocation of appointments and funds amongst the regions was not only wicked, but also bore the hallmarks of one having a misplaced sense of entitlement and superiority over others! Can't say i'm surprised at your 'arguments' on the issue thus far! The surprise would have been if you argued on the side of justice and fairness, because that would run counter to all your hegemonic and anti-Igbo instincts. The structure and political-economy you and your northern partners enthroned in Nigeria after the counter-coup of 1966 was the beginning of the daylight robbery and display of avarice, as it was during this period a decision was made to appropriate ownership and control of the regional hydrocarbon deposits to the centre....and allocations to the regions would henceforth be determined by the centre and based on useless landmass and ojoro population! Now, at no point, not even with all the unitary constitutions you subsequently churned out, was there a understanding that the component parts (then regions and now states) would have the number of their representatives and appointees to the centre determined based on population or landmass! We are all now working with a structure, political-economy and constitution that YOU fashioned for the rest of us! You can't just wake up one morning and feel the urge to change the same 'rules' YOU initially set for the rest of us.....which we've all now been operating for decades! You can't tweak the rules decades later just because you want to grab a bit more resources and opportunities to your region and just because you want to cheat Ndigbo and show them a bit more pepper! And why should we limit the discussion to 'south-west and south-east' when there are proud Igbo like me from the south-south whose resources you have equally used to fix up your region and yet shown me nothing but ingratitude and hatred in return!? Dude, we're talking about the resources of Ndigbo, not just the south-east, being used to develop your region FROM THE 60S TO DATE! Where did you think all that money Gowon and subsequent military despots used to fix up your region (with particular emphasis on Lagos) came from?.....The money that caused Gowon to declare that 'Nigerias' problem wasn't money, but what to do with it'!.....The money that helped build all those structures in Lagos that i referenced in my last post and helped finance the cement armada!? You think it was cocoa mony that did all that!? What jumps out from all this back-and-forth i'm having with you is just how ungrateful and hateful Nigerians with a hegemonic mindset can be! They feel they own the country, and that the rest of us exist just for their pleasure! We all saw this type of mindset with Buhari, and we're seeing it subsist with the present emilokan mob that took over from him! This talk about you threatening to shut down port operations in Lagos is hilarious! Whatever is annoying you over Lagos ports is the result of your being clever-by-half and scheming over the past decades to ensure almost everything that makes a nation and generates wealth is sited in Lagos! You're in no position to complain about anything because it's all of your making! In any case, you can't equate whatever 'inconveniences' brought about by the man-made problem of siting Apapa and Tincan Island ports in Lagos......you can't compare that with the real and life-threatening problems faced by oil bearing communities in the Nigeri-Delta! There's is caused by the Nigerian state, and for decades they've been telling this same greedy Nigerian state to hands off and leave their oyel and gas for them, but their protestations continue to fall on deaf ears! Can you mention some of the federal projects in the south-east?....Projects commensurate with or close to what's been done in and for your own region? I'll tell you hear and now that the Yoruba are generally not interested in leaving 'one Nigeria', so just quit with the pretence! Your brother Igboho, who was once the poster child for secession and the realisation of Oduduwa Republic, is now singing 'on your mandate we shall stand' with gusto, and is too busy chopping from the high table of to care anymore about anything secession or Oduduwa! Probably after Tinubu has left the scene, he'll pick up the 'agitation' from where he left off! 1 Like |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by Fejoku: 6:29am On Mar 12 |
IGBOSON1:You've presented your points exhaustively and convincingly but he will never agree to them owing to his peculiar bias about the SE and Ndigbo in general. This guy really believes Yorubas are more than twice the population of Ndigbo. Is this the type of person to continue dragging fairness and equitable or proportional sharing of ministerial appointments with? You'll be wasting your time. From my experience with him, the only point of agreement with him is the need for the division of Nigeria irrespective of how we got to that point. 1 Like |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by lawani(m): 7:06am On Mar 12 |
IGBOSON1:How am I anti Igbo? Did I ever say the injustice was caused by Igbos? There is injustice and I am happy you now see it and pointing it out is not anti Igbo. If oil dependence did not interrupt our nation building the injustice would have been apparent because I can't bring half the revenue and you ask me to take one third of appointments, the country would rather split. What enabled it is the dependence on oil and that is not the fault of any group. The SW is producing oil and it is not correct to be saying oil from the East is being used to sponsor the SW. IF Nigeria is no more oil revenue of Yoruba land will still be more or less constant. The old western region comprising of SW and Edo and Delta too has oil almost as much as the old Eastern region. So your argument on oil does not hold water. You say what FG projects in the East? What about federal schools? What about the huge salaries being paid to politicians? Whatever the SE is collecting in that regards, Oyo and Ogun together should have been taking more than that for equity not to talk of Lagos. On oil, my opinion is actually that it does not belong to anybody. It is not a result of the hard work of anybody especially the fields offshore. Does it really make sense for a small littoral state to be claiming the contents of the whole oceans which is over seventy percent of Earth's surface to be theirs? I don't believe so. It should belong to all of humanity. The average Yoruba wants a Yoruba nation. Sunday Igboho is only saying he is supporting Tinubu for now in the same way Kanu was not fighting for Biafra during Jonathan's era. The people that are neither here nor there are the people like Igbo Union and IPOB who are against state police. Oil money did not help Yoruba land because we were doing better when we were without oil and around only twenty million people and we are also contributing oil to Nigeria |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by IGBOSON1: 3:56pm On Mar 12 |
lawani:Dude, give it a rest.....i know your sort! Your type are the sort Igbo ought to be wary of because your own negative sentiments towards us are subtle, latent and/or couched in language that could lull us into having a false sense of safety around you! Ndigbo encountered and listened to your sort in the months leading up to the uncivil war, and wrongly made decisions and calculations based on preconceived notions they had about you! The discerning will know what i'm on about! I say you're anti-Igbo based on your hegemonic mind-set, and cunning proposals on how appointments and funds should be allocated amongst the component parts WHICH ALL JOINED A 'INDEPENDENT' NIGERIA AS EQUALS ON 1ST OCT' 1960! The independence constitution agreed upon by the regions that heralded a 'independent' Nigeria DID NOT say one region would receive less appointive positions and funds from the centre because they're smaller in landmass or less populated than the other two! It was YOU (whether by omission or comission) and your northern allies that enthroned the present structure and political-economy we're saddled with....a status-quo that has choked Nigeria from 1970 to date! Dude, you CAN'T say the injustice was caused by Ndigbo even if you wanted to because it's YOU and your northern allies that fashioned the senseless, uneven, unitary feeding-bottle political-economy and structure Nigeria has been operating from the late 60s to date! You joined the north from 1967-70 to fight Ndigbo/Biafra, sustain 'one Nigeria', and enthrone the same status-quo you're presently moaning about! If you're looking for where to start the blame game start with The Man In The Mirror (apologies to MJ)! Yes, you're right in saying the south-west produces oil! Yes, you're equally right in saying the old Western Region (that includes present day Edo and Delta states) produced oil that equally contributed in developing the Western Region (specifically Lagos)! At no point did i argue otherwise, though i'm sure those conversant with oil production levels between the Eastern and Western Regions at the time would tell you you're wrong implying both regions were equal in production or that the latter produced more than the former! It's a known fact that fields with the most prolific onshore production levels at the time, pre uncivil war, were located in present day Rivers, Imo, Abia, Bayelsa and Akwa-Ibom states. Let me remind you that my argument isn't that oil production didn't happen in the then Western Region or didn't contribute to the development of the region (specifically Lagos). Rather, my argument is that oil fields located in Igboland at the time contributed, in large part, to providing funds the federal gov't used in developing your Western Region of the time (specifically Lagos)! That is the knob of my argument and the koko of the matter! Dude, so when i ask you to list out federal gov't funded projects and policy interventions targeted at any city or state in the south-east commensurate or close to what they have done for Lagos (the Lagos you're now claiming today), all you can mention are a few miserable and underfunded federal schools and a couple of pot-hole ridden roads!? Are you kidding me!? In the list of benefits i mentioned earlier that Lagos got courtesy of our commonwealth, i even forgot to add FESTAC TOWN and TRADE FAIR COMPLEX.....you can add that to the list as well! This is what i'm asking you to equally list for any city or state in the south-east, yet all you can come up with are federal schools and bloated salaries of a few greedy and self-centred south-east politicians!? Your ungrateful, self-centred and uncompromising stance is a common trait amongst the Nigerian hegemonic class and a huge part of what's bedevilling Nigeria today! Pray, on what basis should Oyo and Ogun be 'receiving more for the sake of equity'!? Equity based on what exactly? It's funny yet pathetic at the same time that you, a Yoruba man, want more for your Oyo and Ogun based on 'equity', yet you want the onshore and offshore oil and gas of the Niger-Delta to be owned by the federal gov't just so you can use all sorts of innovative, clever-by-half and cunning schemes like landmass and population to grab a nice large cut for yourselves! As we speak, the Niger-Delta is the most polluted region on earth! But that doesn't concern you enjoying your 'one Nigeria' in Banana Island, Lekki or VI in Lagos.....those problems are detached and far away from you and could be happening in another planet for all you care! Your argument that littoral states should not be be allowed to own and control the hydrocarbon deposits in their waters is exactly the type of argument i've come to expect from your type! Dude, in a federation, such as the one Nigeria presently purports to operate, IT IS THE COMPONENT PARTS THAT AGREE TO COME TOGETHER TO MAKE THE WHOLE....THE COUNTRY EXISTS ONLY BECAUSE OF THE COMPONENT PARTS THAT CONSTITUTE IT! Arguing otherwise would amount to the tail wagging the dog! Can't believe you're sitting there telling bold-faced lies about how Mazi Kanu wasn't fighting for Biafra during the GEJ years, and that IPOB haven't taken a definitive stand on secession! ****** ****** ****** Link: https://thesun.ng/nnamdi-kanu-bombs-jonathan/ |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by lawani(m): 4:17pm On Mar 12 |
IGBOSON1:Nigeria is based on fraudulent census. What would have exposed it is if taxation were being used to fund government. I am not anti Igbo at all but if Biafra is declared again and there is an attempt by Biafra to invade the west to colonize it then I will join those fighting back as did my forebears, I am sure you will do the same for Biafra if Yoruba were to invade Biafra. It is strange that anyone would see such a reaction as wrong in any form. Outside that you should have a sense of safety around me. Why not? What I am telling you that you don't want to accept is that whether the constitution supports it or not, it is still wrong to give 19 million people and 55 million people the same representation. Wrong is wrong and it is only the military constitution that supports it. At independence the North for instance insisted on half of representation at least. I don't know how the remainder was shared by the South Forget about oil. It only destroyed the country and that is why Ghana or CotedIvoire is better than Nigeria today. Then before the war, the country was not dependent on oil. Oil income was not significant. Don't you agree that it is strange that an organization that is fighting for secession is also fighting against state police? If not strange to you it is strange to me. The ideology of IPOB is strange to me. My opinion about mineral resources in the oceans which is the majority of Earth remains the same. It should belong to the whole of humanity. The majority of resources on this Earth lies in the oceans. Does it make sense it should belong to only littoral states? It is only my opinion though |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by lawani(m): 4:30pm On Mar 12 |
Fejoku:Yoruba are indeed more than double the population of Igbo. The SW is 2.8 times the SE in population and I have real data to show a typical state in the SW like Osun apart from Lagos is less than five percent non Yoruba and these non Yoruba come from all over the country. I am talking of real data o. Not imaginations. I am certain that a typical state in the North has much less than five percent of the population not coming from the same zone. If so in Osun why not other states? So tell me where the Igbo population will come from when Igbo land itself contains around 25 million people including non Igbos and millions of non indigenes? I am willing to bet that if there are 4 million people in Abuja up to one million will be Yoruba. Yoruba have almost three times the number of Igbo Professors. Hausa now have more Profs than Igbos all according to data published on the NUC site. What do you want to count that Yoruba is not more than double Igbo? Is it billionaires, millionaires or poor people? Nigerians in the USA, Uk, Australia or Canada, Ghana or CotedIvoire? Grammy award winners or captains of industries? Anything you count Yoruba have double. So where is the evidence outside obviously fraudulent census figures of decades ago? On Nigerian Yoruba land are living around 70 million people while Ala Igbo is not more than 25 million. Just that fact alone is enough but you will still argue |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by IGBOSON1: 2:53am On Mar 13 |
lawani:Sure 'you're not anti-Igbo'! I'm also sure the Yoruba soldier that supervised the Asaba massacre told his soldier colleagues he's not anti-Igbo.....i'm also sure the Yoruba soldier that blithely spoke of 'shooting anything that moves in Igboland' told his soldier colleagues he's not anti-Igbo.....i'm also sure the Yoruba politician that came up with the idea to mount a food blockade during the uncivil war to target non-combatants for starvation and try to force Biafras' hand to capitulate would have told Igbo around him he's not anti-Igbo! Talk is cheap dude, let me leave that at that! You talk of Biafra 'invading Yorubaland during the war to colonise it'! Just listen to yourself! Let me see if i'm getting you right: you're saying that during the uncivil war, as the Nigerian side, that had their war room headquartered in Dodan Barracks in Lagos, were indiscriminately lobbing bombs over the Niger to target and kill both combatant and non-combatant Biafrans....you're saying Biafra should have sat back, absorbed wave after wave of attack, and not gone on the offensive to take the war to the enemy! Is this what you're saying!? A big part of your problem is you've allowed your negative sentiments (lemme not say hatred) towards the Igbo to muddle your thought process and sense of good judgement and justice to the point of saying anything in a bid to further a dead narrative! As we speak, your hegemonic allies, the Fulani, have invaded Yorubaland and are murdering, kidnapping and terrorising innocent Yoruba and other Nigerians with reckless abandon and without let or hindrance! You're yet to rediscover the same mojo and gusto you had 1967-70 that enabled you go after the 'Igbo invaders', and use same to save Yorubaland today against these modern day invaders! Why's that!? Fact of the matter is, but for your irrational fear and sentiments towards the Igbo in the late 60s, the ENTIRE SOUTHERN PEOPLES by now could have freed themselves from having anything to do with these medieval-minded thugs! As i'm typing this, i'm watching a recording of yesterdays AristTV morning show, and Ojy Okpe just featured a report showing a Yoruba man pleading for help in paying the 100 million naira ransome some filthy sahelian vermin that kidnapped him on his way to Sokoto are askinf for before releasing him! This is the Nigeria you and your kinsfolk wanted that made you think it was a 'brilliant' idea to ally with the Fulani-led north to fight Biafra and sustain the 'one Nigeria' we're all 'enjoying' today! Way to go mate!  Your 'argument' in the second paragraph is based on a faulty premise ab-initio, and so you can't build anything on it! Let me reiterate yet again: on the morning of our 'independence', the Northern, Western and Eastern Regions joined as equals, with not distinction or preferential treatment given to any based on the population or landmass 'argument' you're now trying to make! Yes the Northen Region got half of the representaion in Parliament, but this could be explained or even 'justified' based on the 1914 amalgamation which joined the Northern and Southern Protectorates into one country! But a bigger issue arising from the point you were trying to make is that at 'independence', representation and allocation of federal resources was done on a equal basis between the north and south! However, almost 7 decades later, and after a few sneaky manoeuvres, machinations and manipulations by the northern military (remember the role you played in sustaining and empowering the northern hegemony in 1967-70), we're now confronted with a situation in which the north, that was once equal to the south at 'independence', all of a sudden now becoming the superior partner in the arrangement! They now have more states, more senators, more reps members, and as a consequence, more appointive positions at national level than the south! Try and figure that one out because i can't!  Could you post a link to help corroborate your claim on IPOBs position regarding state police? For the very fact they are a secessionist organisation, it stands to reason that what they're interested in would be more than state police! It's just like expecting IPOB to be obsessed with the murky waters of Nigerian partisan-politics and be campaigning vigorously for a specific candidate! |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by lawani(m): 7:19am On Mar 13 |
IGBOSON1:I am speaking for myself and not others. I am not anti Igbo but if Igbos want to colonise Yoruba land I will join those fighting back. Bad things happen in war and that is why non violent means to solve problems should be the modern approach. Do you know Biafran forces also carried out at least one massacre? Somewhere in the Northcentral. They got there and rounded up civilians and massacred them. It is just that the Asaba massacre is more talked about. Prior to invasion of the Midwest and west by Biafra, attack on Biafra was only coming from the North. The Nigerian army was mainly stationed in the North and anything gotten from the west or Midwest was more like something bought from a foreign country. Why didn't Biafra go to attack all foreign countries selling arms to Nigeria? If Biafra was right to invade then those that defended their land were also right to defend because it was the natural thing to expect. Better to stick with a Gowon led Nigeria than to be colonized by Biafra. The regions at independence did not join as equals. The North took half of the federal parliament and I am not sure how the rest was shared. It certainly would not have been equally. So the regions were not equals back then. There should be data about their revenue which is also another metric with which to compare them. If the North were led by the AG they would have more revenue than the south and today they would be as educated as the south. Many Muslim countries are well educated. The ideal federal state is one where representation is determined by tax contribution and tax contribution will be directly proportional to population other things being equal. If you check the VAT and CIT being collected presently by Tinubu you will see that my position is correct. The NW is generating almost three times what the SE is generating corresponding with the population difference. If agric is taxed via produce boards, then the output will obviously be around the same on a per Capita basis Bandits are all over the country and they are doing far more havoc in Hausa land and the Northern territories than in Yoruba land or anywhere else. It will certainly be contained. It will come to a head at one point and I believe soon. Fulani are also Igbo allies. Why are you saying they are only Yoruba allies? We have to somehow work together for as long as Nigeria remains one. The Igbo have allied with the Fulani far more than the Yoruba allied with them only that because of their population they can only be junior partners |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by Ibadanfarmroad: 9:56am On Mar 13 |
IGBOSON1:you never even start to Dey cry 😢 , you go cry tire. How on earth does yoruba dominated govt translate to Igbo marginalization, are igbos the only southern Nigeria? Why are edo, Ijaw, Ikwere, and others not crying ? |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by Fejoku: 10:38am On Mar 13 |
IGBOSON1:I told you not to waste your time on him. He has convinced himself so much on his own assumptions based on both envy, prejudice and fear such that he has the effrontery to say Yorubas have more than double the population of Igbos. Is this the type of person you want to further waste your time on? 1 Like |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by IGBOSON1: 4:12pm On Mar 13 |
lawani:Sure 'you're speaking for yourself not others'....just like your kinsfolk i referred to earlier, and many others like them who eventually showed their true feelings towards Ndigbo, would have at one time or the other been speaking for themselves! You're part of a collective aren't you!? You're quick to claim the collectives glory, so you equally claim their collective foibles and misdeeds! Why do you think nations sometimes apologise to parties or other countries whose forebears suffered injustice at the hands of the forbears of the apologising nation!? That you feel you share no blame for what your parents or grandparents did to innocent Igbo non-combatants (men, women, children and babies) says all that needs to be said about you! I don't engage you on here in the unrealistic hope of trying to make you change your ways or opinion of Ndigbo, rather i engage you in the hope that all the naive and trusting 'one Nigerianist' Igbo out there (and they are legion The negativity towards Igbo shown by you and a lot of your kinsfolk is senseless, irrational and has no basis or historical justification! Of course you will NEVER admit it, but your negativity towards us has everything to do with competing for political and economic opportunities whether in Nigeria in general or Lagos in particular.....you see Ndigbo as the major 'competition' that needs to be subdued, held down, sabotaged, and in some extreme cases, even murdered! The Fulani have similar negative or murderous sentiments towards us, but theirs is driven more by a quest for cultural and religious gains....with economic and political gains being a off-shoot or fringe benefit of the former! Sure, 'bad things happen in war' (see the way to dismissively address war crimes which ordinarily should make you shudder in disgust and remorse....quite telling), but there are lines that shouldn't be crossed even in war and this is why the Geneva Convention exists and why some are tried and condemned for war crimes! To show how pathetic and uncivilised Nigeria is, can you point to ONE....JUST ONE player (Whether Yoruba, Fulani or Igbo) in events preceding and including the uncivil war that was tried and convicted for war crimes by the Nigeria state!? Because you didn't address injustices visited on Easterners/Igbo/Biafrans when the war was over, you are now having to face injustice on a wider and national scale today! Some may call it karma, while others may say you're just getting your just desserts! Can you provide links to independent asessments or int'l news reports AT THE TIME to corroborate your assertion that Biafra forces carried out a massacre 'somewhere in the northcentral'! You need to provide at least one or two links to buttress your claim! You do have a knack for making wild and baseless accusations! I mean, assuming you're correct that the Nigerian side were targeting Biafra with bombs and aircraft coming from the north, on whose orders were the criminal soldiers doing what they were doing!? Who would Biafra be going to meet in the north when the entire war against them was being organised, directed and commanded from Dodan Barracks in Lagos! It's just like saying you want to sit there and host murderers from another house targeting my house with wave after wave of attacks, and when i get up to head to your house to confront the murderers you're hosting, you get furious and tell me to fck off...that i have to go to the house of the murderer where only those obeying orders are staying! Dude, you can't host the command-and-control centre of murderers attacking me and equally decide how i go about trying to neutralise the threat! You can't talk of 'Yoruba being right to defend their land' without situating said 'defence' in the wider context that brought it about! That's being deceitful, evasive and starting the story from the mid-point! On what historical basis are you accusing Biafra/Ndigbo of wanting to 'colonise' una!? You just pluck baseless accusations out of thin air just to try and win a dead argument! Did the Igbo have any history of having empires or going on conquering quests in pre-colonial or colonial times like we could say of some Yoruba groups or the Fulani!? How come we didn't go out to conquer and colonise our neigbours like the Ogoni, Ijaw, Efik/Ibibio/Annag and others west of the Niger? Stop making baseless claims you can' defend! Are you suffering from short attention span or what! I have already addressed the point of why the north joined a 'independent' Nigeria with half of the representation in parliament while the south had the other half! It was based on the amalgamation of northern and southern protectorates in 1914! In fairness to the northern region of the time, i can see the sense in this arrangement. But the key thing is that the north and south joined as EQUALS! Miraculously though, today the same north has increased their representation at the centre and gained more states than the south! You wouldn't comment or see any injustice in this....it's only when it comes to the Igbo that you will be looking at the fineprint with a maginifying glass....trying to see how you can shortchange them of any benefits you think they're 'enjoying'! You want representation at the centre to be determined based on tax abi!? Nice try mate....i see where you're going with this! You structure and enthrone a political-economy (from the late 60s to date) that shortchanges other regions and disproportionately favours Lagos that's in your region! Then when Lagos inevitably returns the highest tax/VAT receipts in the country, you turn around and declare to everyone how it would be a wonderful idea if representation at the centre and allocation of revenue from the centre is based on tax/VAT receipts presented by the regions/states! Add that to your earlier 'suggestion' of having representation at the centre and allocation of revenue from the centre based on population and landmass, and you and your northern allies would be coining it in! Meanwhile, when it comes to resource ownership and control by hydrocarbon producing states, you say it should be owned by the hegemonic controlled federal gov't and only they should determine who gets what! Spoken like a true 'champ'! I and many Igbo believe a huge mistake was made by the likes of Zik in agreeing to share a country with the Fulani! I cut him some slack owing to the pan-Nigerian nature of his upbringing......he could speak Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa owing to this. But he should have seen the signs even back then and read the handwriting on the wall pointing that said these were not people you share the same country with! Igbo had started being murdered in the north from as far back as the 50s! Then much later, there was that BBC interview of the Sarduana in which he spoke in no unmistakable terms of how he viewed the Igbo! With the benefit of hindsight, i'd say Ndigbo allying with the north pre-independence and in the 60s, though undesirable, was understandable and even forgivable owing to Ziks pan-Nigeria outlook and naivete! I feel he was also blinded and driven by his desire to be Nigerian Prime Minister! However, Ndigbo allying with the north after the uncivil war....after we were forced at gunpoint to remain Nigerians, was not done by free will, but was forced on us by virtue of our position! Today, we have made it known in no unmistakable terms that we want out...even to the point of being murdered in cold blood for our troubles! Any Igbo you see still doing 'one Nigeria' with una and still allying with the north or anyone else is not expressing the sentiments of majority of Ndigbo! They are either doing it for selfish reasons and trying to ingratiate themselves with the ruling Yoruba/Fulani hegemony, or they're just being naive in thinking they stand a chance of being seen as equals and compatriots by the same hegemonic alliance sworn to their subjugation! The story is still unfolding and, God willing, we will see how it will end! |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by IGBOSON1: 4:15pm On Mar 13 |
Fejoku:That's ok bros! I'm engaging him not in the hopes of trying to change his opinion! I'd stand a better chance escaping from a black hole! 1 Like |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by lawani(m): 5:58pm On Mar 13*. Modified: 6:36pm On Mar 13 |
IGBOSON1:There is no need to ask Yoruba to apologize for violence committed during war. Igbos too should apologize first for all the wrongs done by them before and during the war. I am a student of history and I think the Biafran massacre was in Okene or so by Biafran soldiers under the command of Colonel Mike Ivenso. They rounded up Hausas and massacred them. Horrible things happen in war. I will search for the details and post it later. There is no gentleman in any war. If people are being prosecuted for war crimes, there are some Biafran leaders that will be prosecuted as well!. I have come across many accusations against them. I agree with you that it is all about competition and dominance and if you are slack as a people you will definitely be treaded upon. The Yoruba are definitely being treaded upon in Nigeria. Awo was wrong not to have accepted a government of national unity that was proposed by PM Balewa. In a government of national unity involving the AG, the west would not have been so vulnerable that non Yorubas will come in and assassinate the governor or Premier on two occasions. Awo would not have agreed that all the military infrastructure be concentrated in the North too and political positions, appointments and etc would have been fair to everyone. All that is now in the past. Among Yoruba there is competition, inside a family there is competition and if Ibadan does not respect the boundaries of Ijesa there will naturally be issues. If Yoruba does not respect the boundaries of Igbos there will be issues but we have hometowns and comfort zones for a reason. You have somewhere to retreat to if you feel impeded or restricted in any other place. Territory is always guarded anywhere in the world. The Yoruba say Alejo to wolu ti o te, iwon Ara e lo mo. A stranger that prospers in a city is one that did not pass his boundaries. It is wrong to have a home town or territory and be complaining of marginalization in another place. Blend in with them, don't antagonize them, help them and if you can't, then move back home or to another place that favors you but in actual fact, Igbos just started living among other people in the twentieth century and that is something to be considered. Igbos were not known to the Yoruba or Hausa before the twentieth century. Though DNA and linguistics clearly shows they are long lost relatives of the Yoruba You say on what historical basis do I say Biafra invaded to colonize the west and Midwest? There is a well circulated letter signed by Colonel Ojukwu where he said he will choose the governor of Lagos who of course might end up being an Igbo and Colonel Banjo as governor of the west must not do anything without his clearly written and signed permission. It is colonisation or how else do you define that? You would join those fighting back if you were from the west or Midwest too. Why escape British colonisation only to fall under Biafran colonisation? Whether you use population or tax to determine representation in a federal state, you will arrive at the same results so far the country is run uniformly and the revenue drive is the same. It is better to use revenue though because it will put everybody on their toes. I spent a long time campaigning for resource control believing any way to wean the FG of oil income will change the country but I changed course when it was pointed out to me, it does not guarantee change automatically especially for the states that will gain control of the oil. Now I believe the offshore oil at least should be owned by all of humanity. Yes, Nigeria should be divided without any group being hounded or disturbed. Let each ethnic group take their land and align it as they wish. If we get enough people in west Africa to align with the Yoruba maybe we can still have the giant of Africa. You need at least 150 million population to be that and if not, we take whatever we end up with. It is better than the short end of the stick we have in Nigeria currently. I believe that is the best way forward for the Hausa, Igbo and others too. |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by IGBOSON1: 3:02am On Mar 14 |
lawani:Unlike you, i'm not dismissive of accusations of war crimes.....no matter where they occured and no matter who is accused! I would like to see independent findings or news reports OF THE TIME detailing this 'Okene massacre by Biafra troops'! Like i said, let everyone (whether Biafran or Nigerian commander) answer for any crimes they're accused of! It's this dismissive approach to issues of individual or state-sponsored criminality that eventually led to Nigeria being the cesspool of terrorism and criminality it is today! South-Africa had a truth and reconciliation hearing in the immediate aftermath of the fall of apartheid, and they're the better for it as a people! Here in Nigeria, after the Yoruba/Fulani hegemonic alliance took over in the late 60s, and for decades aferwards, they never bothered to investigate accusations of war crimes levelled against some of their political and military actors during the war.....as well as any crimes levelled against any Biafran commanders, like the one you made mention of! Could it be that they were less concerned because a preponderance of the victims were Igbo? If not, what then was the reason? My theory on why i think you and your Fulani allies display this negative attitude towards Ndigbo was not meant as a compliment! Some of us actually think there are noble and selfless reasons for going into politics and governance, but from the looks of things it appears we're in the minority in Nigeria! In a civilised society...one based on the principles of equity, justice and rule of law as enshrined in the constitution, there wouldn't be the need to fear 'being threaded upon' and hence resort to extra-judicial means, threats and criminality to protect ones ethnic/regional interests against those one sees as 'the competition'! You're trying to dress Awo in garbs he didn't merit! He had the potential to be a great detribalised NATIONAL leader, but for whatever reason his potential was truncated by short-sighted actions and decisions as a consequence of viewing things through the prism of competition and tribalism. He probably thought he was 'protecting the interests of his Yoruba people', but in the end, and with the benefit of hindsight, we can see he was just too smart for his own good and for the good of his people! TODAY THE YORUBA ARE LIVING THE NIGERIA BEQUEATHED THEM BY THE CHOICES AWO MADE IN THE LATE 60S! Had he chosen the path of either sticking to his earlier threat of pulling the Yoruba out of Nigeria if the Easterners were allowed to secede....or had he put his negative sentiments and irrational fear of the Igbo to one side and allied with Biafra to pull Southern Nigeria out of the 'mere geographical expression' called Nigeria, can you, hand on heart, say the Yoruba nation wouldn't have been the better for it today either as a independent Oduduwa country or as part of a southern confederal arrangement? Look at all embarrassing statistics, poverty rankings, insecurity and bad press attached to the name Nigeria today and tell me if any southern Nigerian ethnicity (not just the Yoruba or Igbo) deserves to be linked with this level of failure! So you're cheering Awos' decision to form a 'gov't of national unity' with his Fulani allies in order to forstall another situation where 'a non-Yoruba will come in and assasinate a Yoruba governor or premier'! I know you had the murder of Akintola by a Igbo soldiier in mind when you made this assertion, but fair enough!....No wahala!! Going by that Awos' decision, you now have a safe and secure Yorubaland today abi?....No murder of any high-profile political figure in Lagos; no murder of Fasorantis' daughter by sahelian toerags; no murder of MKO Abiola and his wife Kudirat; no murder of Dele Giwa; no murder of any Yoruba chiefs; no murder of innocent Yoruba citizens! Awo allied to form a 'gov't of national unity' with the Fulani and the 'murderous Igbo' have been kept in check, while your Yorubaland is now safe and secure today abi? With all due respect, i disagree with all that you put down in your 3rd paragraph! You and your Fulani allies went to war and spilled blood to force Ndigbo back to continue doing 'one Nigeria' with una! Today, we are living the Nigeria YOU sustained, and we all are guided by the constitution penned for all of us by the hegemonic establishment of which Ndigbo were and still are not part of. Nowhere in said constitution was mention made of all that Yoruba cultural stuff you put down. What you're doing is trying to change the rules in the middle of the game....rules we all were forced to accept at the beginning of the game! Who does that!? Someone avails himself of the priviledges and liberties accorded him by the constitution, and you get angray and accuse him of 'disrespect'! Pray tell, can you mention specific instances of this 'disrespect' by the Igbo towards the Yoruba and the 'crossing boundaries' by the Igbo in any part of Nigeria? It would be interesting to see how the 'disrespect' by the Igbo towards the Yoruba compares with the disprespect you're collecting from the Fulani....your allies! You're now gifted with the unique 'gift' of knowing what Ojukwu was going to do even when he never got round to doing it! You say there's a letter making the rounds in which Ojukwu talked of appointing a governor for Lagos! Honestly eh...the kind of irrational fear, bordering on obsession and hatred, that you display towards the Igbo can really be perplexing!  Assuming such a letter exists and is genuine....and so what!? Assuming Biafra liberated the Western Region from the control of the Fulani/Northern hegemony and appointed a governor for Lagos (who we have no reason to believe would not be Yoruba), and so what? You've been living with Fulani/Northern hegemonic control for decades, and at a time they were appointing military administrators from other ethnicities to govern Lagos! Did that make the Yoruba disappear from the state or limit their cultural influence in the state in any way? It seems to me you have such disdain for....and fear of the Igbo that you don't mind any military/hegemonic dispensation governing your Nigeria just so long as it's not the Igbo! Why do you feel comfortable with the Fulani, but at the mere mention of Igbo you loose it!? In the purported letter, you say Ojukwu told Banjo he shouldn't do anything without Ojukwus' express permission. Assuming this were true, is that not the nature of military dispensations everywhere...especially during a heightened state of security alert brought about by what at the time would have been a war with the north?At the end of the day, all this talk of the benefits or otherwise of using taxation, population or landmass as a major determinants for allocation of appointive positions and allocation of federal resources, as well as all this talk of resouce ownership and control.....all that would be academic if Nigeria adheres to the principles of true federalism and every region/state takes charge of their own resources, taxation and destiny, while remitting a specified percentage to the centre for national governance and administration! |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by lawani(m): 10:47am On Mar 14 |
IGBOSON1:I am not really dismissive of accusations of war crimes, I am just saying it is not one way and there are no wars where there are no accusations of war crimes. Then most people being accused are dead. Then Awo did not have troops under his control at any time and he did what he could by insisting Northern soldiers must leave the west and they did. Yea he was in Gowon's government but he did all that from inside. Could he have done anything from outside? He was working for Biafra from inside with the resources he had that did not include arms. He had no arms and no troops under his command. True to his stand that Nigeria must dissolve if the East leaves, Nigeria would or may have broken up if Biafra had not invaded the west and Midwest. That is what I believe and I believe the right thing for the Yoruba to do was to stick with Gowon rather than take the Greek Gift from Biafra and that was what they did. Ironsi was begged by Awo for pardon but no show and Ironsi had six months to show up. Gowon released Awo immediately he came in. If you were Awo, who between the middle belt and the Igbos would you align with? Gowon removed non Yoruba troops from the west and Ojukwu invaded. Awo did not ally with the Fulani at anytime. He allied with the middle belt. He did not believe in aligning with the Fulani and he never did. I wonder why you call Awo a tribalist. Can you explain why?. He never became President and when he was Premier he did not patronize only his town people. When he was vice to Gowon too, nobody accused him of tribalism. Reread me again. I said Awo did not agree to a government of national unity. I never said he joined it. Even while in prison, PM Balewa was begging him to join the government and be released and he still refused. Awo never allied with the leadership of the core North until death and I believe that was an error. After the civil war ended, Nigeria got worse as a result of military rule, dependence on oil and unhealthy competition among the ethnic groups. If Biafra had occupied the west and Midwest, explain to me how things would have turned out better or differently?. A main rival of Awo was Zik and a main competition of the Yoruba are the Igbos The Yoruba are being trampled upon in Nigeria, being given four when they merit ten. No security on their land. The NSA is sending non Yoruba to Yoruba forests as vigilantes even when those communities are being attacked and killed by unidentified non Yoruba bandits. Why shouldn't I as a Yoruba man complain? If there are no Yoruba complaining then the injustice will continue indefinitely. Nobody should be in support of injustice. I won't be in support of it even if I am benefitting from it. I would still speak out against it I am not in support of any group taking over Yoruba land and changing the identity. I don't want any other group to assert themselves over any part of Yoruba land. I want every culture on Earth to be preserved as much as possible as they are. People coming in should assimilate and help us build. Would you want Igbo land to change it's identity? What you want is what other people want too. I don't want non Yorubas ganging up to attack and kill Yoruba in Yoruba land during elections. I don't want non Yorubas ganging up to attack Yorubas anywhere in Yoruba land. These things now happen frequently. There used to be non Yoruba living here before Nigeria but they behaved themselves |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by IGBOSON1: 3:07pm On Mar 14 |
lawani:At what point did i make a definitive statement that 'only the Nigerian side carried out war crimes during the uncivil war'!? I spoke of the ones i knew....carried out by the Nigerian side, and went on to say that 'one Nigeria', fought for and sustained by the Yoruba/Fulani hegemonic alliance, never bothered investigating those accusations of war crimes even after the war ended. It's convenient for you, decades later, to pretend you and your ethnicity as a collective had nothing to do with it, but no frank assessment of the situation would support your claims of 'innocence' or 'sitting on the fence' and not taking sides! Fact of the matter is....there are independent observations AT THE TIME (and not some anti-Igbo state sponsored propaganda churned out decades later) which pointed to the involvement and culpability of Yoruba actors in war crimes that occured from 1967-70! If you didn't do it, then who did!? I suppose you want to shift all the blame for war crimes on the north, while your own ethnicity emerges all innocent and smelling of roses!? Yes, the chance to try and convict most of those monsters has passed owing to them being dead, but even at that, there's still no sign of remorse or genuine efforts at reconciliation! The Nigerian state is yet to apologise and admit it failed in its duties for allowing the pogrom/ethnic-cleansing of easterners (specifically Igbo) in 1966 and for bringing no one to book....ditto war crimes carried out during the uncivil war of 1967-70! As we speak, the Nigeria your ethnicity played a part in sustaining has its major airport named after a mass murderer and war criminal, and has a bank note with his face on it! Gowon spoke glibly of the three 3Rs and 'no victor no vanquished', but i dare you to mention any federal gov't projects sited in the then East Central State after the war....even as we can mention loads of multi-million and multi-billion dollar projects sited in western and northern states! The Nigerian state carries on till this day as if the Igbo are a 'conquered' people, but besides a handful of honest Yoruba who have spoken out against this injustice, the majority of una and your northern allies carry on with life normally...you're either shouting 'one Nigeria' or you're singing 'on your mandate we shall stand...gbola'! Dude, quit trying to cover up for Awo! For what he did or neglected to do during the uncivil war, the man is two-faced, hypocritical and is evil personified! You claim he he 'insisted' northern soldiers leave the Western Region...and they did, as you say! What's that supposed to mean!? Is that supposed to absolve him of having anything to do with helping the wicked northern controlled gov't of the time to execute their war of vengeance, attrition and hate against the Igbo? Oh, so he had the powers to order federal troops out of the Western Region, and they left according to you, but he didn't have the power or strength of conviction pull his people out of the 'mere geographical expression' even as the wicked north had their hands full facing Biafra!? That statement he made that if by omission or commission the East was allowed to leave and that the Western Region would not stay behind to continue doing 'one Nigeria' with the north....that unfortunate statement was a coded signal to the north to do whatever it took, legal or illegal, to try and prevent Biafra from leaving! But it then begs the question: Does it mean the Yoruba cannot stay in a Nigeria without the Igbo/East!?.....Does it mean Awo, who you claim had no troops or arms under his command, believed he had the power to pull the Yoruba out of Nigeria whether the north liked it or not!?.....If so, why didn't he!?......Why was the Yoruba remaining in Nigeria dependent on the Igbo/East remaining in Nigeria as well!? There you go banging on again about Biafra 'invading the Midwest'! I have already addressed this issue in a previous post! Was the command-and-control centre of the federal side that was excuting the war in the then Western Region or not!? What exactly is your point.....that Biafra shouldn't be proactive and take the war to the enemy, but should have sat their ass down in Biafra to be taking wave after wave of attacks....which included the straffing of Biafra towns and villages by evil arab/Egyptian pilots contracted by the Gowon gov't!? Is that what you're saying? One would have thought, decades on and with the benefit of hindsight, that you can now see and admit the mistake the likes of Awo made in allying with the north against Ndigbo/Biafra! But no, your disdain (lemme not say hatred ) for the Igbo, your pride, and your misplaced feelings of ethnic superiority over the Igbo wouldn't allow you admit mistakes made by Awo and the Yoruba intelligensia in the late 60s! You'd sooner take a bullet to the brain! Just imagine where southern ethnicities would be today if we managed to offload the burden of the retrogressive and feudalist north in the late 60s!.....Just imagine!The way i heard it, it was Ikemba Ojukwu that released Awo from prison! But i'm sure you'll beg to differ on that one! But assuming, without conceding, that it was Gowon that released Awo, and Awo was angry with the Igbo for this and hence refused seeing the bigger picture and went on to ally with the feudal/hegemonic north against fellow southerners who were fighting for survival....assuming this was the case, what does it say say about Awo, his judgement and him allowing his emotions and desire for retribution get in the way of ensuring the wider, longterm good for his people! I've said it before and i'll say it again, the likes of Awo and Zik, for all their intelligence and wordly exposure, were quite naive and allowed their emotions and sentiments get in the way of exercising their better judgement on issues! And Southern Nigeria is the worse for it today!Dude, even Political History 101 will tell you the major power-brokers behind the throne....who had hegemonic control of the north were the Fulani! I know you're trying to find inventive ways to lessen Awos' culpability, but let's not engage in revisionism while at it! Gowon was conveniently chosen by the military arm of the hegemony as the face of their 'fight-back' against the Igbo/East, and when they were done with him and he had served the purpose for which he was chosen, they kicked him to the curb in 1976 (i think it was '76) and regained control of what they believed to be their birthright! There was a brief period when they lost control of power after Murtala was assassinated, but they quickly regained their 'property' when Obasanjo handed over to Shagari in 1979. They were grateful to Obasanjo for this and years later, in 1999, the opportunity presented itself for them to show their appreciation when the plucked him out from prison and coronated him president! The story of what led to the hegemonic north being forced to hand the presidency to the Yoruba in 1999 is a story detailing injustice against the winner of a presidential election, his eventual murder in prison, and the wider arrogance of a brutal hegemony! You don't have to have a crystal ball to know that the south, in whatever strucutural configuration it took, would have been way better than is presently the case had they managed to get rid of the north in the late 60s! When the Yoruba assisted the northern hegemony in the late 60s to sustain 'one Nigeria' and northern hegemonic control over it, the country was to go on to suffer a decades long downward spiral in governance and national cohesion. Nigeria became a unitary governed country in all but name, and governance was hijacked by a young, inexperienced, ill-bred, uncivilised and semi-illiterate military elite. Decisions at the centre were determined based on primordal ethno-religious considerations and the leadership recruitment process became corrupted by nepotism and based mainly on ones ethnicity or religion! One didn't need to have the intelligence of Einstein or the crystal ball of Nostradamus to know where the country was headed! But the way you see it, Awo made the 'right decision' in allying with the north instead of the East because the Fulani are a 'nicer more trustworthy people' to the Yoruba than the Igbo ever could be! Nice one! All you said in your last paragraph is all well and good, and i understand where you're coming from! But Ndigbo are only living the Nigeria you and your northern allies fought for, sustained and handed to the rest of us! Whatever misgivings you may have about how things are, don't look at me as a Igbo....rather, blame your forebears who chose to ally with the wrong side! Ndigbo have not done anything wrong or taken advantage of anything the constitution doesn't give them the right to. If you know of such, feel free to tell us! If you're not happy with the status-quo, then go out there and fight for the dissolution of Nigeria so you can have a Oduduwa country in which you can dtermine the rules, who to let in, and who to deny visa to! |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by lawani(m): 6:12pm On Mar 14 |
IGBOSON1:I understand you but if there is going to be apologies then why can't it be initiated by Igbos? They also have a number of things to apologize for including war crimes. Nothing wrong with apologies in itself but any group can initiate it. It is obvious the problem is that Biafra lost the war but always remember Biafra could have succeeded if they were more cautious. If they had won, none of them would be asking for apologies. You believe Biafra was right to invade Midwest and put a Governor there and they are also right to invade the west and do the same. It is ok but why don't you recognize the right of the landowners as full humans to try their luck and resist? If they fail, the records will say they tried and that they did not lie down to be raped. Which projects were sited in the former western region? No refineries despite that half of pms consumed in the country was consumed there. How do you rationalize that? I have not taken an inventory of projects but in representation at the center and siting of federal institutions and etc the SE is tops on a per Capita basis. They have around three times what SW has on that basis. Is that not a huge gain? If the Yoruba of almost 70 million people are given the same or almost equal representation as Igbos of around 30 million then the Yoruba are in Nigeria like a conquered people When I say Awo compelled not ordered Northern soldiers to leave the west, I was pointing out to you how he was working for Biafra from inside Gowon's government. He did not hide anything from Gowon and it was an open secret that unless the issue with the East was resolved the west will not continue with the union. What upended everything was the invasion of the west and Midwest by Biafra. If that had not happened then Nigeria may not have survived. I think that is quite apparent. I asked you what exactly did Awo do for you to label him as an ethnic jingoist or tribalist but you have not said anything concrete. Awo was not prepared for war. The west was not prepared for war and that was because the East and the North jointly controlled everything before all hell broke loose. He was only doing his best. He had friends in the North but he never aligned with the leaders of the core North. His allies were people like Aminu Kano, J S Tarka and etc. Awo never aligned at anytime during his life with elements of the NPC. I have repeated that many times. The support for the push back against the invading Biafrans was because he was left with no other choice. He himself during his lifetime did not explain this thing very well. Only around 200 soldiers faced the thousands of invaders at a bridge around Ore. Why did Awo say the west will stay only if the East stays? Because that was what was agreed upon at independence. What else do you expect him to say? With that scenario the North itself would have disintegrated if the East successfully seceded. The East might have gained land in the Northern direction I asked you to explain how the west and Midwest would have benefitted from a Biafran led military government more than a Middle belt led military government? A military government is still a military government and the first coup d'etat was not led by the middle belt. An acceptance of Ojukwu would be a return to Ironsi and the unification decree and etc. I agree that the leadership provided by the military was mediocre at best moreso because they naturally shy away from taxation since they are not legitimate. They also have no experience. The first error was the inexperienced youthful officers trying to seize government. The military whether led by Igbos or Northerners was not equipped to save the country but the Northerners from the middle belt were still the lesser of the two evils because they were not pursuing a unification decree. If Britain never pursued a unification decree why should Nigeria? Can you turn a Scotsman into an English man? Or a Welsh into a Scots? Yet they are all British. So you are among those saying Colonel Ojukwu released Awo? What you really want to say is that he could have refused to let him leave Calabar since the coup of Gowon and co didn't succeed in the East. That is what is true and not that he released him. The problem however would have risen of how to defend the action. It would have led to people believing that Awo was the real target of the Igbo and that he only survived the Nzeogwu coup because he was in prison. You know Awo and Zik were rivals?. Ojukwu didn't release Awo but he could have refused Gowon's pardon for him which of course would have made onlookers laugh because Awo offended Nigeria and not Biafra. I have no objections to Igbos living the Nigeria that was created and I have said severally that there is nothing wrong in any Nigerian contesting elections anywhere in the country as allowed by the constitution and that has been happening across board and it will continue to happen even when Nigeria is no more. What I am against are the issues I highlighted. If I hear of Yoruba doing such in any part of the country, I will also condemn it. The Yoruba also have numbers enough to do such in many non Yoruba cities of the country. |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by IGBOSON1: 3:05am On Mar 15 |
lawani:Care to point out EXACTLY where i asked for the Yoruba to apologise for the war crimes of some of their sons during the uncivil war? Refer back to my previous post....it was the Nigerian state i said ought to have apologised by now to the Easterners/Igbo. They failed in their basic duty of providing protection for Easterners/Igbo living in the north who in 1966 were subjected to weeks of a pogrom in which TENS OF THOUSANDS of their men, women, children, babies and even unborn foetuses were targeted for elimination! The Gowon gov't never bothered to stop the mass killings, and TILL THIS DAY no one has been prosecuted and sentenced for said heinous crimes! Following on from the pogrom came the uncivil war which witnessed war crimes carried out by the Nigerian side which even you with all your bias and revisionism can't deny! The federal gov't hasn't apologised for this as well and made restitution to the wronged parties. I should also add that if it turns out, as you alledge, that any Biafran soldier was tried and found guilty of war crimes, then the actors on the Biafra side still alive today should equally be called to apologise and where none are available then it should fall on Ohaneze to issue said apology and the states that at the time made up Biafra should be saddled with rising funds to pay restitution to the familiesof the victims or to the town where said war crimes were said to have been carried out! Fair is fair, and i demand the same standards in morality and civility from everyone, no matter their ethnicty....that's how a society addresses old wounds and grievances and moves forward! I'm still waiting for a link to a independent source at the time that would help corroborate your claim on Biafra soldiers 'war crimes' in the middle-belt. At no point did i say the Yoruba or whoever was not within their rights to fend of a 'invasion' by Biafra forces who were only going after the serpent in Lagos to cut off its head! Why would Biafra have designs on 'colonising' the Western or Midwestern Regions when they had their hands full with Biafra? Even though there were Igbo in the Midwestern Region, at no point was any part of their territory included in Biafra territory....and if you have evidence to the contrary, you could provide it here! The point i was making was that, with the benefit of hindsight today, we can now look back at events and decisions made during the period in question and conclude Awo and the Yoruba intelligensia that supported him allied with the wrong side! You say otherwise of course, that Awo was right in allying with the north because the Igbo were....how did you put in now?....'colonisers' intent on 'colonising' Yorubaland and hence were not to be trusted! I have explained exhaustively that there's no historical antecedents portraying Ndigbo as 'imperialists, 'expansionists' or 'colonisers' to warrant you taking such a position and placing your trust in the North instead...specifically, the Fulani! Even today, with all you know about the Fulani, you still won't change your position on the matter, probably because your dislike and mistrust for the Igbo is greater than your fear of the Fulani! And if i were to ask you what informs such a position, you'd yet again start to waffle and beat about the bush! I just chuckled on reading your 3rd paragraph!  You sit there and posit with a straight face that the south-west hasn't benefited disproportionately in the siting of federally enabled projects, institutions and policiesn in relation to the south-east! I read that part of your post and said to myself that some things never change! This was what i said in one of my previous replies to you:When we talk of federal gov't developing Lagos (whether 5% or everything), it came in two forms: physical projects; and federal gov't policies and actions.And in addition to what i just quoted, we can also add to the physical projects: TRADE FAIR COMPLEX and FESTAC TOWN. The offshoot or consequence of the disproportionate attention Lagos is getting (that is besides making Tinubu criminally wealthier) is that the socio-economic traction it generates would equally be felt in neigbouring south-west states like Ogun! You see how the uneven playing field and political-economy in Nigeria has disproportionately benefitted the south-west over and above other regions? Now, when we turn our attention to the south-east, we'd notice that not only has the hegemony controlled federal gov't marginalised and cheated the region, but they've also gone ahead to sabotage south-east territorial interests by slicing off large swathes of hydrocarbon rich territory and placing same in Rivers state. My own LGA in Rivers state, ONELGA, had a entire community, Egbema, cut in two....with the part richer in hydrocarbons removed from the then East Central state and placed in Rivers! These are irrefutable facts, yet you sit there and 'argue' that the south-east should be futher cheated and deprived of federal allocations and appointments owing to how their boundaries were delineated by YOU (by YOU i mean the hegemonic alliance of course)! You see the part in your 5th paragraph that i bolded! I read that part and shook my head in disbelief at how inventive you are in propaganda disemination and revisionism! you're waffling in your 6th paragraph, and what's left of your 'arguement' is all over the place! Awo and the west were not prepared for war, you say! Fair enough! So they now had the option of allying with either the Biafra/Igbo or the North/Fulani, and they chose the latter! Awo didn't have to have been friends with any core northerners before deciding to work for them in 'defeating' the Biafra secession effort. I think in this case, it was more a question of being driven by his emotions and chosing to side with the people he hated or mistrusted the least. As i pointed out earlier, we can now see with the benefit of hindsight how right or wrong his choice was! Besides his political issues with Zik, what other 'excuse' did he have to I notice you say Awo said what he said about pulling the Yoruba out of Nigeria if the East/Igbo are allowed to secede....i notice you claim he made that threat only because 'that's what was agreed on independence'! I see Awo was such a stickler for rules! Pray, was it also agreed on independence that tens of thousands of Nigerians from one region would be targeted for weeks on end for mass murder in another region, with no intervention from the central gov't in Lagos!? Dude, please....we're not kids here! We only have prior actions and socio-cultural attitudes to values like equity, justice, sanctity of life, education, etc, to determine who between a middle-belt or Biafra led military invasion the Western and Midwestern Regions should have chosen! Like i have asked in the past, on what basis would you assert that the Igbo/Biafra were posed a existential threat to the Yoruba in 1966-70? You'd probably answer back...because a Igbo officer killed Akintola, abi? The unification decree by Ironsi should have been viewed by those with calm heads as a military thing. It arose from the heirachical and command-and-control nature of the military which called for all commanders to be answerable to a central high command! Only those with preconceived negativity towards the Igbo would have seen it otherwise as they looked for a 'justification' for their later actions! Besides, the unification decree only made the military administrators report to Dodan-Barracks. The fiscal and federal structure of the country like number of regions, percentage of taxes remitted to the centre from the regions, resource ownership, etc, most if not all of that was not touched or altered by the decree. If you have evidence to the contrary, you can help educate us by providing links to corroborate. Do you have definitive proof of Awo saying in his own words that Gowon released him from Calabar prison? Links to a memoir or autobiography pointing to such a claim being made would be helpful? My own source of information is based on what i gathered from 2nd hand sources...not from Ojukwu and not from Awo. It seems the Gowon gov't issued the pardon and gazetted it, while Ojukwu effected the release! It's clear to any discerning observer what the driving force for Gowon pardoning Awo was....he did it for self interest (ie, interest of the north/Nigerian side) to try and get Awo and Yoruba onside against the Igbo/east! Remember, we're talking of a man who was jailed, for whatever reason, by the northern controlled gov't of Balewa and Sardauna! |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by Akungitit: 5:02am On Mar 15 |
You're lucky to have even 1, continue playing emotional politics. |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by kunle4toyeyaho: 6:27am On Mar 15 |
dominic17:...but you didn't shout nepotism when Igbos got 3 out of 11 slots of judges promoted to supreme court.With this development alone,we can have a chief Justice Nigeria of Igbo extraction in the nearest future.Remember, Igbos had no representation in supreme court after the death of Justice Nweze until Tinubu became president. You didn't shout nepotism when only South east development commission benefitted from N150billion grant for SEDC investment company. The last time an Igbo man held the position of service chief was under GEJ. Tinubu has ensured Igbo man is picked as a service chief. Initially,It was chief of naval staff and now chief of Air staff of Igbo extraction. |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by lawani(m): 9:50am On Mar 15 |
IGBOSON1:My point about this apology you are talking about is that the leadership of the Igbos too can initiate it. I am not against apologies. Awo preferred to ally with the Igbo throughout his life but not to the extent that Ojukwu wanted to take it. Not to the extent of Igbos taking over and calling the shots in Yoruba land. You love your friend but not to the extent he should take your wife. On the overall Awo just wasted his time trying to ally with the Igbo. You are here calling him an evil man without being able to point to a single thing he did wrong. Not a single one! You can't blame only Awo for the blockade and if you were the federal side sending food to Biafran children while the trucks are being hijacked by Biafran troops to feed themselves, what will be your solution? What the federal side did was stop the supply of free food hoping Biafra will immediately surrender. If Biafra now waited until 500k people including children died, who will you now blame for those deaths? It is easy to apportion blames without saying what you would have done differently. Biafra was not surrounded so if they had money, they could have gotten food from another source. How reasonable is it to expect those you are firing upon to be responsible for feeding your troops? There is no way Nigeria would not have won as the Biafrans were already reduced to running from city to city and town to town. The blockade only shortened the war You say Igbos have no history of empire building. Yes but it can start at anytime. Many groups that built empires started at one point. I am happy you concede that the westerners and Midwesterners have the right to resist Biafran invasion meaning they should not be blamed for that. An attempt to reach Lagos even when the west and the Midwest did not allow their territories to be used to assault Biafra was turning the secession into an expansion and I believe the resistance should have been envisaged by Biafra. Both regions till today support Biafra but not Biafra trying to control their destinies. The unification decree simply means whoever is head of state runs everything with a unified civil service. Yoruba people can dominate the Anambra civil service while the people of Anambra roam about looking for work. They can dominate the leadership posts. That was the fear and till today it remains an unpopular idea. All states employ non indigenes but their civil service is under their control. It is not a good idea especially under a military governor and military governments are known to be sit tight governments The only thing the SW benefits in Nigeria is Lagos leading the economy while the SE benefits a disproportionately huge representation at the center. Know what you benefit. Then ask yourself which city would have been the number one in west Africa if Nigeria had not existed? Then all groups in Nigeria are arbitrarily divided and not only Igbos. Yoruba are as divided if not more divided than Igbos. Ebiras are in up to three states instead of having their own state. Bariba is in Kwara, Niger and Benin republic. These issues affect all groups in west Africa and not only Igbos Awo was jailed by the NPC/NCNC government and not only by Northerners. An Igbo led government of General Ironsi installed by a coup d'etat refused to pardon him despite his passionate plea but a middle belt government pardoned him immediately it took over. That was what happened. Igbos had their chance to pardon Awo but chose not to. The credit goes to Gowon and not to Ojukwu at all. Though the Eastern region government was supportive of Awo while in prison according to the stories I heard. |
| Re: You’ve Appointed 10 Yorubas As Ministers But Only 5 Ministers From South East- A by IGBOSON1: 2:55pm On Mar 15 |
lawani:Igbos' should apologise for what exactly....and to whom!? Aren't you placing the cart before the horse on this one? You're yet to buttress your assertion regarding 'Biafra carrying out war crimes in the middle-belt', and you're talking of 'Igbo apologising first'! This only shows the level of your 'concern' regarding what Ndigbo were put through in the north in 1966, and what we were subjected to during the uncivil war of 1967-70! Can't say i'm surprised at your position though! At this point, i think i need to restate my own position on this apologise thing: I never asked for or expect the Yoruba nation to apologise to Ndigbo for anything, as they never sent anyone to do or say anything to anyone; i expect the Nigerian state to apologise to Easterners/Ndigbo not only for their unwillingness or inability to protect us during the pogrom in the north in 1967, and for the subsequent war crimes carried out against us during the uncivil war, but also because they DID NOT bring anyone to justice for those crimes; i expect Northern ethnicities to apologise, either collectively as a region or individually, for the pogrom of Easterners/Ndigbo in the north in 1967, and my reason for having a different position with the north compared to my position with the Yoruba is that THE POGROM IN THE NORTH WAS A MASS-PARTICIPATION EVENT THAT WENT ON FOR WEEKS IN THE TOWNS AND CITIES OF THE NORTH AND WHICH WAS EXECUTED BY THOUSANDS OF NORTHERN SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS.....IT WENT ON FOR WEEKS UNTIL THEY FELT ENOUGH EASTERNERS/IGBO HAD BEEN MURDERED TO SATIATE THEIR LUST FOR BLOOD AND VENGEANCE! You keep asking a question to which i have repeatedly given you a answer to! I branded Awo EVIL because he was the architect of the Gowon gov'ts economic/food blockade of Biafra/Igbos' during the uncivil war. The useless Nigerian army couldn't defeat the plucky Biafra army on the battlefield so Awo, being the diabolical fella he was, dreamt up the 'brilliant' idea of murdering non-combatant Biafra men, women, children and foetuses as a way of forcing the capitulation of the Biafra army! When he was asked about it, he reportedly said 'all is fair in love and war'....kinda similar to your stand on the matter innit!? He owned that murderous policy with his full chest, so he should equally own the label of evil fella that comes with it! This is the same man you now want us to believe 'was working for the Igbo within the Gowon gov't'! Abeg, no make me laugh! With 'friends' like him, who needs enemies! There you go waffling on again! A northerner dreaming up and being part of the war crime of economic/food blockade of Biafra wouldn't have come as a surprise to me...they hate Igbos' and have shown as much right from the 50s to date! But for a fellow southerner and christian to have been the one to have dreamt up and helped impliment that devilish policy against Biafra/Igbos'.....a man who never believed in 'one Nigeria' to begin with, that went beyond the pale and showed his true character as a person. To be honest, i really want to take a forgiving/let-bygones-be-bygones regarding Awo and the events of the late 60s, as it's not in our character as Igbos' to bear such a long grudge on anything, but Yoruba like you are really not helping matters with the mocking, bragging and dismissive attitude towards our losses! For avoidance of doubt, this is what Google AI had to say on the question of whether food blockade was a war crime: Yes, intentionally using the starvation of civilians—including by blockading food and essential supplies—is considered a war crime under international law, specifically prohibited by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Such actions are illegal in both international and non-international armed conflicts when targeting civilians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation_(crime) So in a war you brag your 'Nigerian side was poised to win', you had to go down the route of war crimes which targeted non-combatants...a non-battlefield and criminal tactic, in order to 'win'!? You assert you're comfortable sacrificing the lives of millions of non-combatants to 'shorten a war' you claim could have been won by your Nigerian side on the battlefield!? You think you're talking to kids here!? I notice how you puff out your chest with the claim of your murderous Nigerian army being capable of 'winning the war', yet at no point did you mention the massive logistical and military support they got from the British gov't and their murderous Arab allies! That war was, to all intents and purposes, a jihad by a fundamentalist muslim north against a christian south, and Awo played his own part in helping the former to 'win'! You're now delving into the realms of fantasy and conjecture! A people who for centuries never had a history or the inclination to invade their neigbours territories and build a empire, would all of a sudden have a taste for empire building in 1967-70 when they had their hands full fighting off invading murderous jihadist vermin from the north!? C'mon mate.....try and be reasonable! I will always support a group of people fighting for what they may think at the time was their best interests. I may not agree with their reasons for doing so, but i'll always support their righty to do it! My point here is to analyse the situation decades later to see if the right choices were made and who was on the right side of history. If we don't learn from history or our mistakes, we're bound to repeat them! And from what's going on in Nigeria today, and seeing how well dug in and entrenched in our positions some of us are, it's apparent some are yet to learn lessons from the mistakes of the past! I've said my piece on that unification decree thing, and it doesn't bear repeating myself! Dude, it was a military dispensation which meant there had to be a command-and-control administrative structure answerable to Dodan-Barracks! Simplicita! Even after you got rid of Ironsi, and had the chance to change what you accused him of trying to do to make Igbo 'dominate' everyone else, you not only kept that same command-and-control arrangement, but went further to change the fiscal/federal arrangement and created more states! Yet according to how you and your northern allies tell it, Ironsi was the problem! Go figure! Which city would have been number one in West Africa had Nigeria not existed!? Well i'll hold my hands up and admit i can't give a definitive answer on that one, but i sure as hell know it wouldn't have been Lagos! Lagos is what it is today not on it's own steam but owing to the commonwealth and efforts of ALL Nigerians and ALL Nigerian states/regions! Looking back on the Awo imprisonment saga, i equally feel Ironsi should have released Awo when he took over after the coup! For all his brilliance, any Igbo will tell you the man was a bit naive and didn't have a knack for reading the room or seeing the bigger picture! He had his flaws, but that's on him and not the entire Igbo ethnicity! Yes, there was a NPC/NCNC gov't at the time, but a fair assessment would tell you the NCNC were the junior partners in the relationship and wouldn't have had the final say on issues of the day. Here are names of the last batch of ministers of the Balewa gov't before the coup occured: Third Ministers & cabinet: 1964–1966 Minister of External Affairs Tafawa Balewa Minister of Defense Muhammadu Ribadu Inua Ribadu Minister of Attorney Gen/Justice Taslim Olawale Elias Minister of Finance Festus Okotie-Eboh Minister of Transport Zanna Bukar Dipcharima Minister of Aviation Jaja Wachuku Minister of Trade K. O. Mbadiwe Minister of Industries Augustus Akinloye Minister of Works Inuwa Wada Minister of Housing & Surveys Adeniran Ogunsanya Minister of Labor Adeleke Adedoyin Minister of Education Richard Akinjide Minister of Mines & Power Maitama Sule gggg Minister of State Mapeo Minister of Economic Development Waziri Ibrahim Minister of Natural Resources & Research Alade Lamuye Minister of Communications Raymond Njoku Minister of Internal Affairs Shehu Shagari Minister of Information Ayo Rosiji Minister of Health Moses Majekodunmi Minister of Establishment Jacob Obande |
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