₦airaland Forum

Nigeria’s foremost novelist Chinua Achebe
has claimed that Nigerians, especially of the
Hausa/Fulani and the Yoruba stocks, do not
like his Igbo ethnic group because of the
southeast’s cultural advantage.
He made this claim in his new book, There
was a Country, which has generated
controversy for his onslaught on the role of
Obafemi Awolowo as the federal
commissioner of finance during the Nigeria
civil war. He accused Awolowo of genocide
and imposition of food blockade on Biafra, a
claim that has drawn rebuttals and
contradictions of emotional intensity from
some southwest leaders and commentators.
“I have written in my small book entitled
The Trouble with Nigeria that Nigerians will
probably achieve consensus on no other
matter than their common resentment of
the Igbo,” he wrote under the heading, A
History of Ethnic Tension and Resentment.
He traced the origin of “the national
resentment of the Igbo” to its culture that
“gave the Igbo man an unquestioned
advantage over his compatriots in securing
credentials for advancement in Nigerian
colonial society.”
He observed that the Igbo culture’s
emphasis on change, individualism and
competitiveness gave his ethnic group an
edge over the Hausa/Fulani man who was
hindered by a “wary religion” and the Yoruba
man who was hampered by” traditional
hierarchies.”
He therefore described the Igbo, who are
predominantly Catholic, as “fearing no god
or man, was “custom-made to grasp the
opportunities, such as they were, of the
white man’s dispensations. And the Igbo did
so with both hands.”
He delved into history with his claim,
asserting that the Igbo overcame the earlier
Yoruba advantage within two decades earlier
in the twentieth century.
“Although the Yoruba had a huge historical
and geographical head start, the Igbo wiped
out their handicap in one fantastic burst of
energy in the twenty years between 1930
and 1950.”
He narrated the earlier advantage of Yoruba
as contingent on their location on the
coastline, but once the missionaries crossed
the Niger, the Igbo took advantage of the
opportunity and overtook the Yoruba.
‘The increase was so exponential in such a
short time that within three short decades
the Igbos had closed the gap and quickly
moved ahead as the group with the highest
literacy rate, the highest standard of living,
and the greatest of citizens with
postsecondary education in Nigeria,” he
contended.
He said Nigerian leadership should have
taken advantage of the gbo talent and this
failure was partly responsible for the failure
of the Nigerian state, explaining further that
competitive individualism and the
adventurous spirit of the Igbo was a boon
Nigerian leaders failed to recognize and
harness for modernization.
“Nigeria’s pathetic attempt to crush these
idiosyncrasies rather than celebrate them is
one of the fundamental reasons the country
has not developed as it should and has
emerged as a laughingstock,” he claimed.
He noted that the ousting of prominent
Igbos from top offices was a ploy to achieve
a simple and crude goal. He said what the
Nigerians wanted was to “get the achievers
out and replace them with less qualified
individuals from the desired ethnic
background so as to gain access to the
resources of the state.”
Achebe, however, saved some criticisms for
his kinsmen. He criticised them for what he
described as “hubris, overweening pride and
thoughtlessness, which invite envy and
hatred or even worse that can obsess the
mind with material success and dispose it to
all kinds of crude showiness.”

ibotjaycob:
The Ojukwu of There was a Country is not a hero; despite Achebe’s kindness to him. Whatever heroism he embodied appears to end with his decision to take the destiny of his people into his own hands and orchestrate the secession. The Ojukwu that follows the declaration of Biafra is murderously intolerant of dissent and prone to questionable judgements. Not only does he reject airlifts of food aid; even when it is clear that the war is un-winnable, he takes decisions that prolong it, and prolong the suffering of his people. His attitude causes a number of influential Igbo statesmen – most prominent of whom was Nnamdi Azikiwe – to withdraw their support for Ojukwu and the Biafran cause.

ELTON123:
blame gowon here and stop talking crap

ibotjaycob:
[s]What did the Igbos expect when they killed the Prime Minister of Nigeria, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Premier of Northern Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello and the Premier of Western Nigeria, Samuel Akintola and did not kill a single Igbo leader, such as Nnamdi Azikwe (Nwafor Orizu) and Michael Okpara? May I add here that the following military officers were also killed in the 15th January 1966 coup d’état: Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari (North), Colonel Kuru Mohamed (North), Lt. Colonel Abogo Largema (North), Lt. Colonel James Yakubu Pam (North), Brigadier Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun and his civilian pregnant wife (West), Colonel Robert A. Shodeinde (West)[/s]

ibotjaycob:
What did the Igbos expect when they killed the Prime Minister of Nigeria, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Premier of Northern Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello and the Premier of Western Nigeria, Samuel Akintola and did not kill a single Igbo leader, such as Nnamdi Azikwe (Nwafor Orizu) and Michael Okpara? May I add here that the following military officers were also killed in the 15th January 1966 coup d’état: Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari (North), Colonel Kuru Mohamed (North), Lt. Colonel Abogo Largema (North), Lt. Colonel James Yakubu Pam (North), Brigadier Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun and his civilian pregnant wife (West), Colonel Robert A. Shodeinde (West)

SOUNDKING:
No sinner no hatter will go unpunished.God bless Biafra.

ibotjaycob:
What did the Igbos expect when they killed the Prime Minister of Nigeria, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Premier of Northern Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello and the Premier of Western Nigeria, Samuel Akintola and did not kill a single Igbo leader, such as Nnamdi Azikwe (Nwafor Orizu) and Michael Okpara? May I add here that the following military officers were also killed in the 15th January 1966 coup d’état: Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari (North), Colonel Kuru Mohamed (North), Lt. Colonel Abogo Largema (North), Lt. Colonel James Yakubu Pam (North), Brigadier Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun and his civilian pregnant wife (West), Colonel Robert A. Shodeinde (West)

omonnakoda:
So they hate Eboes so much they don't bother recording their killings

IgboGoat:
I am Igbo Goat.
My father is Eboe goat,My mother is Eboe goat. Guess what happens when two Eboe goats mate.

ibotjaycob:
What did the Igbos expect when they killed the Prime Minister of Nigeria, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Premier of Northern Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello and the Premier of Western Nigeria, Samuel Akintola and did not kill a single Igbo leader, such as Nnamdi Azikwe (Nwafor Orizu) and Michael Okpara? May I add here that the following military officers were also killed in the 15th January 1966 coup d’état: Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari (North), Colonel Kuru Mohamed (North), Lt. Colonel Abogo Largema (North), Lt. Colonel James Yakubu Pam (North), Brigadier Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun and his civilian pregnant wife (West), Colonel Robert A. Shodeinde (West)

omonnakoda:
So they hate Eboes so much they don't bother recording their killings

ARIZONA123:
. My father the FLATheaded EBOEbastard! He will die coughing blood

omonnakoda:
who want marathon sex I get A1 for that side cus I inherited it from my dead mother

ELTON123:
I am a bastard. I have taken my bastardd life style to a new level. I now fuuuck my own mother. It is not my fault. She was the one who called me to come and fuuuuck her. In fact, sh behaves like a dog each time I fuuucked her. And to tell you the truth, I enjoy bleeping her. I don't think I can ever stop. Though her womanliness is old and scrunny, yet I cannot stop. She moans and scream like a dog in heat each time I fuuuuck her.
I learnt my mother was a prostitute during the civil war. I learnt she was fuccked and banged by almanjiri soldiers during the war and that this had turned her to a rel dog. At times I cannot satisfy her and I have to call my younger brothers to help me fuuuck her dirty, smelly, scrunny and shrinking pusssy. It is not my fault o, name my prostitute mama cause am

omonnakoda:
So they hate Eboes so much they don't bother recording their killings

freez2ryme:
another Cone head
Another Masturbator

Na until u use aboniki balm masturbate

U no go learn anytyn

omonnakoda:
Your father will die masturbating

freez2ryme:
Just as ur grand father, great grandfather, father and even u

I heard dre is good wifi reception in hell

LeOstrich:
Yoruba jealousy of Ibos is why they voted a goat herder as president in the 21st century.

[color=#000000]zoedew[/color]
What manner of reasoning! Pray, how does one refer to another human created by God derogatorily as "goat herder". It discloses a major reason Ndi'gbo generally speaking arrived at her present location. How I wish this was not so!