₦airaland Forum

zendy:
When Biafra was declared, Ojukwu appointed as Biafran Army Boss. However, soon after this, friction started between Ojukwu and Njoku over what Njkoku believed to be Ojukwus "high-handedness". Njoku and Ojukwu simply did not get along. Njkoku resigned, however, in the military, it can be an act of treason for a military officer to resign an appointment without authorisation. Ojukwu then ordered Njoku's house arrest where Njoku stayed until the end of the war.

Ah, thanks for the info. But why was Njoku arrested for simply not getting along with Ojukwu? Was it a crime not to get along with Ojukwu?

You mean the part of the Nigerian airway, railway, etc in Biafra does not belong to Biafra because other Nigerians contributed money to build them, Are you by any way implying that the North and the West contributed more to the FG than the East?

Cos, if we agree that all regions contributed equally, it then goes that the part of the railway and airlines in the East, represents Eastern contribution, just as that in the North and west represent the Northern and Western contribution respectively.
Gowon would have had a point, if Biafrans were in addition to claiming the part of the infrastructures in the East, were also claiming those in the North and West. But that wasn't the case, Gowon simply had no point.


On the Ogbemudia stuff,Ogbemudia had links with Anioma, he had ambitions to rule the Midwest, and Midwest contained the Edos and other Midwest minorities that were involved in the massacre of Aniomas, he wanted the whole thing buried in order not to provoke the minorities there that he was seeking their acceptance, he was only convering his own ass. Just like Nigerians would want Ndiigbo to stop talking about Biafra, so did Ogbemudia want the Aniomas to stop talking about their massacre in Midwest.

There was never any report of Biafran soldiers massacre in the Midwest. Yes, I admitted that I can't vouch for isolated individual soldiers escapades, it could have happened or it couldn't have happened I am just being realistic, whatever the case might be, they were not recorded , and so no evidence to prove that.

Ogbemudia had no damn report, if he had, let him produce it. Until then the status quo remains that there were no organized crime by Biafran soldiers against the minorities in the Mid west or East.

You claim Dimond produced raw facts.
Oh, I agree that he produced a bunch of
one-sided 'facts', that were heavily biased
and skewed. The scholars called him out
on it. But you have refused to see that.
You only see things that don't exist. Like
when you alleged I was Yoruba. I had to
laugh out loud, when I read that one.
You claim the scholars bowed to superior
argument. You like falsehood and relish in
fake assumptions, sha! The scholars I
mentioned did not publish any lie. Even
Diamond himself did NOT accuse them of
lying. If they had lied, you can be sure
that Diamond or his publishers would
have either sued them or have made
mention of that fact. You are the one
claiming they lied. How sad. Keep on
twisting the truth to suit your warped
view.


I think your " I must not lose mentality" is still playing tricks on you.

Diamond needed not to tell Sara and Norman that they lied, he merely provided facts that would have made the scenario of Biafran soldiers killing Eastern minorities that they ( Norman and Sara) painted, impossible. He needed not say more, it's called maturity. Sara and Norman obviously without your " I must not lose mentality" retreated in peace.

You should have learnt a thing or two from that.

disumusa:
when you fall, you will leave the place.

how can I fall?? #yapping

laudate:
Nah! You and your peeps are the ones rewriting history! People have said that 90% of the terms agreed at Aburi, was offered to Ojukwu in order to end the war. But he refused and stubbornly pressed on, until a lot of souls were lost. Chai!

The documents of your surrender were captured in General Philip Effiong's speech, that gallant & brave soldier.

Aburi and the war which came first?...

SOUNDKING:
Aburi and the war which came first?...

Na wah oh! You know the answer already...so why are you asking the question? Get to the point and stop wasting time!

pazienza:
I think your " I must not lose mentality" is still playing tricks on you.

Diamond needed not to tell Sara and Norman that they lied, he merely provided facts that would have made the scenario of Biafran soldiers killing Eastern minorities that they ( Norman and Sara) painted, impossible. He needed not say more, it's called maturity. Sara and Norman obviously without your " I must not lose mentality" retreated in peace.

You should have learnt a thing or two from that.

I told you before to stop jumping to conclusions. Yet, you are still doing it. What do you mean by " I must not lose mentality"? Is this supposed to be a contest of some sort, or what??!

Guy, this is the world wide web, oh! You cannot throw comments into the public domain and expect everyone to swallow it hook, line and sinker.

Like I said before, everyone had different experiences of the civil and there are several sides to the whole event. Several experiences still need to be shared, addressed and digested for future reference.

You claim that "

Diamond needed not to tell Sara and Norman that they lied, he merely provided facts that would have made the scenario of Biafran soldiers killing Eastern minorities that they ( Norman and Sara) painted, impossible."

Re-ea-ally??! How did he make the scenario impossible?

One of the things the scholars had criticised in Diamond's book was the fact that he ignored the minority tribes in Biafra such as "...the Efiks, Ijaws, Ibibios, Annangs, Kalabaris, Ogojas and other minority tribes who had asked repeatedly asked for independence from the Ibos since the 1950s....But the Biafran leadership denied them the same right it claimed for itself visàvis the rest of Nigeria, the right of self-determination and protection from victimization..."

What was Diamond's response? "However, my correspondents consider most important the position of minority peoples in Biafra, an issue which they charge me with avoiding. It is relevant to note that Julius Nyerere, the President of multiethnic Tanzania, circulated a brilliant and comprehensive memorandum analyzing the overall Nigeria-Biafra crisis at the September 1969 meeting of the O.A.U., in which he did not mention the Biafran minorities at all. One can hardly charge this humane statesman with neither ignorance or callousness. We can only conclude that Nyerere felt that their situation accorded with his brief for Biafran self-determination...!" Wow! So Diamond took his cue from Nyerere's mistake. Because Nyerere did not mention them, he too decided to ignore the fact that they existed. What a shallow excuse!!

Yet in your own view this was Diamond exhibiting "maturity." I beg to differ!

The fact that Mr. A had one kind of experience during the war, does not make Mr. B's experience invalid. Every single side lost people and relatives during that war. Read Okey Ndibe's book "MY BIAFRAN EYES: AN ACCOUNT OF THE NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR." As a child, he personally witnessed events that took place in Biafra. Yet, his own story as told in his words, is different from Elechi Amadi's memories of the war which he wrote about in his book "Sunset in Biafra."

So many books have been written about the civil war and many more are yet to be written. Taking one man's book (i.e. Diamond), as the sole authority on the war without examining other perspectives or regarding anyone's whose perspective differs from your own, as irrelevant is totally unfair. What lessons have we all learnt from the war?

Learning is a lifelong event. There is always cause and effect, action and reaction in every single occurrence. Try to learn and differentiate between propaganda and reality.

Am done.

"...the Efiks, Ijaws, Ibibios,
Annangs, Kalabaris, Ogojas and other
minority tribes who had asked repeatedly
asked for independence from the Ibos
since the 1950s....But the Biafran
leadership denied them the same right it
claimed for itself visàvis the rest of
Nigeria, the right of self-determination and
protection from victimization..."


Again you are grasping at straws here. There was never a time Ndiigbo prevented the minorities from independence, if you have evidence to prove that,Ndiigbo forcefully held the minorities in Biafra or Eastern region, bring it out, stop beating at the bush.

Bamenda successfully pulled out from the Eastern region.

What was Diamond's response? "However,
my correspondents consider most
important the position of minority peoples
in Biafra, an issue which they charge me
with avoiding. It is relevant to note that
Julius Nyerere, the President of
multiethnic Tanzania, circulated a brilliant
and comprehensive memorandum
analyzing the overall Nigeria-Biafra crisis
at the September 1969 meeting of the
O.A.U., in which he did not mention the
Biafran minorities at all. One can hardly
charge this humane statesman with
neither ignorance or callousness. We can
only conclude that Nyerere felt that their
situation accorded with his brief for
Biafran self-determination...!"


I fail to find the relevance of this your post. Biafra was an Eastern region affair.

If Gowon was at any point sure that the Eastern minorities were being forced into Biafra, he could have easily accepted the option of UN supervised plebiscite Ojukwu was offering. What exactly was he scared of.

It must also be emphasized that the Nigerian Army didn't consider any part of Biafra more than the other. They shot at everything that moved in PH area, just as they did in Onitsha and Okigwe.

[b] 17. “The area claimed for Rivers state consists of the whole of the Rivers province, that is: The Division of Brass, Degema, Ogoni, Port Harcourt and Ahoada, together with the Western Ijaw Division from the western region, and two small sections in the Eastern Region from outside the Rivers Province, Opodo and Andoni being one, Ndoki the other.” 18. “Port Harcourt is an Ibo town and it is growing rapidly and the indigenous branch of the Ibos who are original inhabitants are already out-numbered by Ibos from the hinterland.” 19. “The people of Ahoada, a Division of which a pan runs down to meet Port Harcourt, appear at one time to have favoured the idea of a Rivers state, but have changed their views and before us expressed themselves as strongly against it. Comparatively few of them live in the low-lying swampy country of the coastal strip and they have voted for the NCNC consistently, they said themselves that a main factor in their change of front had been the inclusion if the Western Ijaws in the proposed state. So long, they said, as the Rivers state was to consist of the River Province only, the Ibos would have been the most numerous tribe within it: but the inclusion of the Western Ijaw Division put them at a numerical disadvantage beside the Ijaws and they therefore preferred to stay out. Whether or not this was a line of reasoning that really had a wide appeal, the fact remain that before us they were opposed to the idea of the state. This is not surprising because their problems are different from those of the ijaws.” [/b]

pazienza:
I fail to find the relevance of this your post. Biafra was an Eastern region affair.

If Gowon was at any point sure that the Eastern minorities were being forced into Biafra, he could have easily accepted the option of UN supervised plebiscite Ojukwu was offering. What exactly was he scared of.

It must also be emphasized that the Nigerian Army didn't consider any part of Biafra more than the other. They shot at everything that moved in PH area, just as they did in Onitsha and Okigwe.

Read my post with with an open mind, very slowly. Remove the blinkers first, so that you can see the relevance.

The relevance is that Diamond's response to the scholars critique, was at best shallow and defensive. It was pointed out that he did not mention the fact that other minority tribes existed in Biafra. His response was to say Nyerere of Tanzania overlooked them too in his speech as if that was a valid reason to ignore the existence of the minorities.

Gowon did not go through a plebiscite, instead he carved out states for everyone including the minorities. It satisfied their request to be free from being lumped under the Igbo-dominated Eastern regional government.

The demand for independence from the Igbos by the Minorities in the East is quite different from that of the Mid western minorities in the Western region.

The difference being that while the Marginalization of the minorities in the Western region was real, that of the East was a matter of perception and not real.

Hence the Eastern minorities unlike their mid western counterparts had no consensus. While the Ijaw and the Ibibio-Annang-Efik pushed for the COR state, the other smaller ethnic groups were both scared of them( Ijaw and the Ibibio-Annang-Efik) just as they were scared of the Igbo, in the end the status quo remained because there was equity the Eastern region as proven by the willink report i posted part of it here.

laudate:
Read my post with with an open mind, very slowly. Remove the blinkers first, so that you can see the relevance.
The relevance is that Diamond's response to the scholars critique, was at best shallow and defensive. It was pointed out that he did not mention the fact that other minority tribes existed in Biafra. His response was to say Nyerere of Tanzania overlooked them too in his speech as if that was a valid reason to ignore the existence of the minorities.
Gowon did not go through a plebiscite, instead he carved out states for everyone including the minorities. It satisfied their request to be free from being lumped under the Igbo-dominated Eastern regional government.

"In an authoritative and detailed
memorandum on the background, cause
and consequences of the Nigerian civil
war issued in November 1968 by more
than sixty British subjects, including Sir
Robert Stapleton, the last British governor
of the Eastern region( 1959-60), it was
concluded that of the 37 percent of the
population which they estimated that
minority group represented in Biafra, only
10% would favour continued association
with the federal government". The. New
York review of Books, Volume 14,Number
8. April 23, 1970


Diamond clearly acknowledged the fact that the minorities consisted 37% of Biafran population, so I don't know what you are on about.


Gowon simply had no right whatsoever to divide the East, he lost that right the moment he failed to protect the East from massacre in the North.

What's more, his division showed no recognition of smaller ethnic groups in the East, he simply, failed to address the position of Ahoada, Ogoja, and other smaller division fears of Ijaw and Ibibio-Annang-Efik domination. He simply lacked the moral and political power to divide the East.

pazienza:
Again you are grasping at straws here. There was never a time Ndiigbo prevented the minorities from independence, if you have evidence to prove that,Ndiigbo forcefully held the minorities in Biafra or Eastern region, bring it out, stop beating at the bush.

Bamenda successfully pulled out from the Eastern region.

No, you are the one grasping at straws and beating about the bush. I had made reference in one of my previous posts to show that the minorities agitated for their own independence. Another report puts it better.

At the Ibadan General Conference in 1950, the only delegates to object to three powerful regions within a federal system were officers of the NCNC — Eyo Ita and Mbonu Ojike...

.....The minority movements arose because of the ethnic composition of the three regions. Each region, as we have seen before, had a large ethnic majority — the Yoruba in the West, the Ibo in the East and the Islamic peoples, particularly the Fulani and the Hausa, in the North. In each region some minorities became fearful of domination by the ethnic majority....

.....Until the nationalist movement had colonialism on the run, the minorities were not fearful, because under indirect rule each ethnic group was given a large measure of autonomy and the British rulers were in principle neutral between ethnic groups. But the shield of indirect rule was bound to crumble, and the minorities were not so sure about the neutrality of their fellow Nigerians.

....The relationship between regionalization and the emergence of minority movements is shown most clearly in the Eastern Region. Minority movements demanding a separate state did not develop there until (1) Azikiwe had returned to the Region from Lagos to become its Premier after a ministerial crisis forced the ouster of Eyo Ita, himself a leader of the Efik minority, and (2) the NCNC had abandoned the stand taken at its Kano Conference in 1951 favoring a unitary government and instead had agreed to accept three powerful regions, though at the same time promising to work for more regions .
http://www.nigerianmuse.com/projects/SNCProject/?u=Schwarz_minority_politics_ch_4_excerpt.htm

While the Yoruba-dominated Action Group Party of the fifties, allowed the ethnic minorities of Benin-Edo-itsekiri etc, to have their own Mid-Western region carved out of the old Western region, the Igbo-dominated NCNC political party did not support the eastern minorities in their quest for a region of their own.

Btw, I think it's time you come clean with where exactly you are from. I don't fancy arguing with anonymous entities/ those ashamed of their ethnic nationalities.

pazienza:
The demand for independence from the Igbos by the Minorities in the East is quite different from that of the Mid western minorities in the Western region.

The difference being that while the Marginalization of the minorities in the Western region was real, that of the East was a matter of perception and not real.

Hence the Eastern minorities unlike their mid western counterparts had no consensus. While the Ijaw and the Ibibio-Annang-Efik pushed for the COR state, the other smaller ethnic groups were both scared of them( Ijaw and the Ibibio-Annang-Efik) just as they were scared of the Igbo, in the end the status quo remained because there was equity the Eastern region as proven by the willink report i posted part of it here.

Very funny. Maybe you were resident in the Eastern region in the mid-fifties, to know that the case of the minorities in the East 'was a matter of perception and not real'. Perception, indeed!!

You are always so quick to dismiss the perspective and encounters other people have had no matter how real it is, because it does not fit into your own view.

There is a word for this kind of mentality. Kindly grow up.

laudate:
No, you are the one grasping at straws and beating about the bush. I had made reference in one of my previous posts to show that the minorities agitated for their own independence. Another report puts it better.



While the Yoruba-dominated Action Group Party of the fifties, allowed the ethnic minorities of Benin-Edo-itsekiri etc, to have their own Mid-Western region carved out of the old Western region, the Igbo-dominated NCNC political party did not support the eastern minorities in their quest for a region of their own.

You are building an argument from a false premise, so ultimately you are ending with a false conclusion.


To start with, AG didn't allow the Western minorities to leave the region, their hands were forced by the mid westerners, similar to how Bamenda forced the Eastern region, because the Marginalization of the mid westerners under the Western region was real.
The Mid western minorities were united in the quest to leave the Western region, the Oba of Bini was championing the cause.

Such wasn't the same in the East. Eyo ita lost out in a power game with Zik, In a typical African manner, Eyo ita tried to gain back political relevance by stoking ethnic sentiment, it backfired, cos there were no real marginalization of the minorities by Ndiigbo, Eyo ita will later return back to NCNC and apologized.

You see, no problem.

laudate:
Very funny. Maybe you were resident in the Eastern region in the mid-fifties, to know that the case of the minorities in the East 'was a matter of perception and not real'. Perception, indeed!!

You are always so quick to dismiss the perspective and encounters other people have had no matter how real it is, because it does not fit into your own view.

There is a word for this kind of mentality. Kindly grow up.

It was a matter of perception, because we have this report from a neutral party. All the accusation against Ndiigbo was investigated and found to be false.
http://scannewsnigeria.com/news/willink-report-1958-the-following-are-excerpts-from-a-the-report-of-the-commission-appointed-to-enquire-into-the-fears-of-minorities-and-the-means-of-allaying-them-otherwise-known-a/

[b] 19. “The people of Ahoada, a Division of
which a pan runs down to meet Port
Harcourt, appear at one time to have
favoured the idea of a Rivers state, but
have changed their views and before us
expressed themselves as strongly against
it. Comparatively few of them live in the
low-lying swampy country of the coastal
strip and they have voted for the NCNC
consistently, they said themselves that a
main factor in their change of front had
been the inclusion if the Western Ijaws in
the proposed state. So long, they said, as
the Rivers state was to consist of the
River Province only, the Ibos would have
been the most numerous tribe within it:
but the inclusion of the Western Ijaw
Division put them at a numerical
disadvantage beside the Ijaws and they
therefore preferred to stay out. Whether
or not this was a line of reasoning that
really had a wide appeal, the fact remain
that before us they were opposed to the
idea of the state. This is not surprising
because their problems are different from
those of the ijaws.” [/b]


Look at the above! The Eastern minorities couldn't leave the Eastern region because they had no consensus, because there was no real marginalization, just a matter of perception. The above branch of the minorities will vote against COR, in favour of staying with Ndiigbo, cos they feared Ijaw domination, just as much as they feared Igbo domination.

There was no domination anywhere, just paranoia. A matter of perception. The COR wouldn't have passed through a plebiscite and succeed, the Eastern minorities feared each other just as they feared Ndiigbo.

Gowon knew this, and had to resort to illegal military fiat.

pazienza:
"In an authoritative and detailed
memorandum on the background, cause
and consequences of the Nigerian civil
war issued in November 1968 by more
than sixty British subjects, including Sir
Robert Stapleton, the last British governor
of the Eastern region( 1959-60), it was
concluded that of the 37 percent of the
population which they estimated that
minority group represented in Biafra, only
10% would favour continued association
with the federal government". The. New
York review of Books, Volume 14,Number
8. April 23, 1970


Diamond clearly acknowledged the fact that the minorities consisted 37% of Biafran population, so I don't know what you are on about.


Gowon simply had no right whatsoever to divide the East, he lost that right the moment he failed to protect the East from massacre in the North.

What's more, his division showed no recognition of smaller ethnic groups in the East, he simply, failed to address the position of Ahoada, Ogoja, and other smaller division fears of Ijaw and Ibibio-Annang-Efik domination. He simply lacked the moral and political power to divide the East.

What were the constituents of this 37% that he referred to? Did he mention ethnic groups that made up this 37% by name?? Did he make reference to their roles, personal encounters, experiences and loss during the civil war?? They could have been Tanzanians, for all we know! Why did he find it so difficult to put in these details? Wasn't he a scholar carrying out an analysis on the civil war? That was part of the crux of the issues that the 3 scholars took up with him!

Yet, you are still quoting this Diamond guy and his wishy-washy defensive statements as if his book is the "Bible" of all events that took place during the war! Read works by other scholars, and compare them with what he has written. You would see a lot of shortcomings in Diamond's book.

You claim Gowon had no right to divide the East. According to who? You claim he failed to protect the Easterners from the massacre in the North. Oh, I agree that more could have been done to protect the Easterners in the North. But don't forget that in deciding to pull out the Eastern region from the rest of the country, Ojukwu precipitated a chain reaction, which led Gowon to create the states.

The issue of rights does not exist in this case.

Read this article:

In the South East, the minorities expressed fear that the Igbos would over-run them commercially and politically (Ojiako 1981:41). For this reason, they demanded for the creation of a separate region to comprise of Calabar, Ogoja and Rivers States. http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ijah/article/viewFile/107562/97415

As already explained, the small but
important Efik tribe of 71,000…The (COR)
area is far from homogenous , and many
of the other tribes expressed at least as
much fear of the Efiks and Ibibios as of
the Ibo. It would leave the Ibos of the Ibo
Plateau surrounded by a state whose
reason for existence was hostility to
themselves: the Ibos are an expanding
people…”

Look at this again. The minorities of the Northern Cross Rivers feared the Ibibio-Annang-Efik as much as they feared Ndiigbo.

They wanted a region of their own or to have the status quo.
The COR was never going to pass successfully through a referendum.

laudate:
What were the constituents of this 37% that he referred to? Did he mention ethnic groups that made up this 37% by name?? Did he make reference to their roles, personal encounters, experiences and loss during the civil war?? They could have been Tanzanians, for all we know! Why did he find it so difficult to put in these details? Wasn't he a scholar carrying out an analysis on the civil war? That was part of the crux of the issues that the 3 scholars took up with him!

Yet, you are still quoting this Diamond guy and his wishy-washy defensive statements as if his book is the "Bible" of all events that took place during the war! Read works by other scholars, and compare them with what he has written. You would see a lot of shortcomings in Diamond's book.

You claim Gowon had no right to divide the East. According to who? You claim he failed to protect the Easterners from the massacre in the North. Oh, I agree that more could have been done to protect the Easterners in the North. But don't forget that in deciding to pull out the Eastern region from the rest of the country, Ojukwu precipitated a chain reaction, which led Gowon to create the states.

The issue of rights does not exist in this case.

Do you expect Diamond to start naming all the Ethnic minorities in the East, do you know how many minorities we already had in Northern Cross Rivers? You are not serious.
An Eastern minority by the name Effiong was the second in command in Biafra, the Attorney General, the commissioners for Education, Agriculture, Health etc were all minorities. Their role in Biafra was unambiguous. Kogbara an Ogoni was Biafra representative in London. How many Eastern minorities were high ranked in Gowon's one Nigerian government that had the best interest of Eastern minorities at heart more than the Biafran government?

Gowon and his people were shouting "Araba" ( division/secession) when they were killing Easterners in the North, they wanted to secede from
the country, you mind explaining to me how and why they changed from Araba to One Nigeria, in a matter of days?

Gowon was the one one who failed to protect Easterners in the North, he feigned weaknesses while his people attacked and killed innocent citizens.

He was the one who broke all the agreements reached in Aburi, deciding to pick and choose which one to implement. Agreement is the end product of negotiation, it's either kept or broken, no inbetween.

He Gowon was the one who declared war on Biafra, not Ojukwu.

I saw several hundred of Zombie-like creatures -
men, women and children, lying, sitting or
squatting in the midst of others who were dead.
The living ones were completely reduced to
skeletons and could not talk. I was seeing for the
first time, kwashiorkor, Frankly, I took fright, I
believe that any foreign troops from anywhere in
the world occupying Ikot Ekpene or any other town
in Biafra would have shown much more sympathy,
"(Gen. Alex Madiebo, Ikot Ekpene, July 1968)

Did Enahoro and Awolowo starvation policy spare any part of Biafra? Were not all Biafrans both Igbo and non Igbo targeted.

laudate:
Ah, thanks for the info. But why was Njoku arrested for simply not getting along with Ojukwu? Was it a crime not to get along with Ojukwu?

.


I think you should remember that in July 1966 when the the major TY Danjuma sorrunded Government House in Ibadan, the 3 senior officers in Government house were Lt Colonel Njoku,Lt Colonel Fajuyi and Major General Ironsi. Njoku had to shoot his way out of Government House and escaped with bullet wounds. Soldiers even went searching for him in Hospitals but he was hidden by friends until he managed to escape back to Enugu. In Enugu, Ojukwu rehabilitated Njoku gave him a house, even sent him abroad to get proper treatment for his bullet wounds. When Biafra was declared, Ojukwu promoted Njoku to Brigadier-General and made Army Boss.My personal opinion is that Ojukwu felt that Njoku was an ingrate. In Philip Effiongs book "Biafra: My story" he said that because Njoku had always been senior to Ojukwu, he (Njoku) wasn't happy to be taking orders from his junior. Njoku sent a strongly worded letter to Ojukwu tendering his resignation as Biafran Army Boss and accusing Ojukwu of being to highanded. At that time, people like Lt Colonel Banjo and Major Ifeajuna were plotting to topple Ojukwu and others like Kurubo were defecting. Ojukwu accepted Njoku's resignation but had to keep him under house arrest in incase Njkoku sabotaged Biafra. Unfortunately for Njoku, the war came soon after there were more pressing issues.

pazienza:
You mean the part of the Nigerian airway, railway, etc in Biafra does not belong to Biafra because other Nigerians contributed money to build them, Are you by any way implying that the North and the West contributed more to the FG than the East?

Cos, if we agree that all regions contributed equally, it then goes that the part of the railway and airlines in the East, represents Eastern contribution, just as that in the North and west represent the Northern and Western contribution respectively.
Gowon would have had a point, if Biafrans were in addition to claiming the part of the infrastructures in the East, were also claiming those in the North and West. But that wasn't the case, Gowon simply had no point.

On the Ogbemudia stuff,Ogbemudia had links with Anioma, he had ambitions to rule the Midwest, and Midwest contained the Edos and other Midwest minorities that were involved in the massacre of Aniomas, he wanted the whole thing buried in order not to provoke the minorities there that he was seeking their acceptance, he was only convering his own ass. Just like Nigerians would want Ndiigbo to stop talking about Biafra, so did Ogbemudia want the Aniomas to stop talking about their massacre in Midwest.

There was never any report of Biafran soldiers massacre in the Midwest. Yes, I admitted that I can't vouch for isolated individual soldiers escapades, it could have happened or it couldn't have happened I am just being realistic, whatever the case might be, they were not recorded , and so no evidence to prove that.

Ogbemudia had no damn report, if he had, let him produce it. Until then the status quo remains that there were no organized crime by Biafran soldiers against the minorities in the Mid west or East.

Were you present during the establishment of the Nigeria Railways and Nigeria Airways, for you to know that each region contributed equally to these establishment?? So why do you keep jumping to conclusions??

If 3 people contributed to the successful operation of an establishment and 1 of them decides to unilaterally grab the equipment and revenue accruing from that establishment for himself, without consulting others, what would you call it?? Why are you so prejudiced to support this warped action of the eastern regional govt? Na wah oh.

With respect to Ogbemudia, please get your facts right. He was already the Military Governor of the old Mid-West when the ‘Rebel Atrocities Tribunal of Inquiry’ was established on October 26, 1967. Justice Omo-Eboh chaired it. The tribunal met from December 4, 1967 until September 28, 1968, by which time most people had cooled down. In a move to prevent resentment among the local populace, Ogbemudia decided not to publish the report of the tribunal, which was a grave mistake as it would have checked the propaganda now being circulated by people like you. So what do you mean by saying he aspired to rule the mid-west, when he was already governor at the time the panel was set up??

In a pattern of behavior that can only be described as self-destructive, the “liberation” force went molesting, raping, kidnapping, torturing, detaining and even killing local figures whose support they badly needed (14, 17). For example, Mr. J. O Adeola (Commissioner of Police), Mr. Olu Akpata (Permanent Secretary), Mr. Sam Umweni (of Radio Nigeria, Benin) and Mr. J Imoukhuede (Head of the civil service), were abducted from Benin and taken back to Biafra. They remained in prison (without trial) until the end of the war (17). In his memoirs, Ademoyega acknowledges: “The 18th battalion stationed in that port (Warri) was a ragged, ill-equipped and ill-controlled unit. Reports of their lawlessness in town had been scandalous.” Such actions (among others) did not endear them to the people they came to liberate from “the north”. Ademoyega summarized it thus: “Biafran entry into the Midwest was seen by the people, especially the non-Ibos of the State, as an act of foreign aggression.” (9)

The decision to occupy and then terrorize a proud and ancient cultural region should not have been made so lightly (18).

Read more: http://newsrescue.com/nigeria-history-biafra-midwest-invasion-1967-lessons-todays-geopolitics/#ixzz3iP47wKOi

zendy:
.


I think you should remember that in July 1966 when the the major TY Danjuma sorrunded Government House in Ibadan, the 3 senior officers in Government house were Lt Colonel Njoku,Lt Colonel Fajuyi and Major General Ironsi. Njoku had to shoot his way out of Government House and escaped with bullet wounds. Soldiers even went searching for him in Hospitals but he was hidden by friends until he managed to escape back to Enugu. In Enugu, Ojukwu rehabilitated Njoku gave him a house, even sent him abroad to get proper treatment for his bullet wounds. When Biafra was declared, Ojukwu promoted Njoku to Brigadier-General and made Army Boss.My personal opinion is that Ojukwu felt that Njoku was an ingrate. In Philip Effiongs book "Biafra: My story" he said that because Njoku had always been senior to Ojukwu, he (Njoku) wasn't happy to be taking orders from his junior. Njoku sent a strongly worded letter to Ojukwu tendering his resignation as Biafran Army Boss and accusing Ojukwu of being to highanded. At that time, people like Lt Colonel Banjo and Major Ifeajuna were plotting to topple Ojukwu and others like Kurubo were defecting. Ojukwu accepted Njoku's resignation but had to keep him under house arrest in incase Njkoku sabotaged Biafra. Unfortunately for Njoku, the war came soon after there were more pressing issues.

Thanks for the info. This means Ojukwu did not tolerate dissent or other perspectives that were different from his own. This corroborates an earlier post that stated that all who disagreed with him were thrown into jail for their views.

pazienza:
As already explained, the small but
important Efik tribe of 71,000…The (COR)
area is far from homogenous , and many
of the other tribes expressed at least as
much fear of the Efiks and Ibibios as of
the Ibo. It would leave the Ibos of the Ibo
Plateau surrounded by a state whose
reason for existence was hostility to
themselves: the Ibos are an expanding
people…”

Look at this again. The minorities of the Northern Cross Rivers feared the Ibibio-Annang-Efik as much as they feared Ndiigbo.

They wanted a region of their own or to have the status quo.
The COR was never going to pass successfully through a referendum.

Yeah.... jumping to conclusions again. You have a remarkable knack for failing to learn from the mistakes of others and yourself.

How did you know that "the Northern Cross Rivers feared the Ibibio-Annang-Efik as much as they feared Ndiigbo", as you claim? Were you in their mind? Ok, let us assume they feared Ndi'Igbo. Why did the Igbo simply not let them be, by letting them have their own COR Region which they had agitated for?

How do you know that the COR was never going to pass successfully through a referendum?? Were you the govt in power or were you God at that period in time?

When the minorities of the old Mid-West started requesting for the creation of their own region from the old Western region in the fifties, did any of them or even the larger public give them any chance of success? Did they not keep pressing on with their demands until it finally became a reality??

laudate:
Thanks for the info. This means Ojukwu did not tolerate dissent or other perspectives that were different from his own. This corroborates an earlier post that stated that all who disagreed with him were thrown into jail for their views.

Don't forget that Ojukwu was a Military ruler, he may well have been highanded but I have seen a Military dictator who wasn't.