₦airaland Forum

dejavski:
Lol... are you people still on this issue

olawalepopoola:
To us young folks in Nigeria, tribalism is our major problems. I took out time to read a comprehensive book on the Civil war also known as the Biafra war chronicled on a day to day basis from December 31, 1964 when the election crisis that almost tore Nigeria apart started. The book is titled "The Untold Story of the Nigeria - Biafra War: A chronological reconstruction of the events and circumstances of the Nigerian Civil War by Dr. Luke Nnaemeka Aneke, which was forwarded by Gen. Philip Effiong (Rtd).
July 29, 1966: Ironsi was kidnapped and overthrown and heavy fighting was recorded in Abeokuta.
July 30, 1966: Brig. Ogundipe attempts to palliate northern rebels
July 31, 1966: Northern rebels reject Brig. Ogundipe's (the Deputy to Ironsi) leadership
This problem started when Ironsi announced the formation of the Republic of Nigeria jettisoning the existing regionalism! The Northerners saw it as attempt to etched them out of power by an Easterner.
August 1, 1966: Gowon siezes power
August 2, 1966: Ojukwu challenges Northern-led army against their mutiny against Ironsi. Gowon releases prominent six westerner and easterner politicians from detention ( the AG was divided, when Akintola as the premier of western Nigeria, aligned with the north, Awo aligned with the east). The mutiny led to the killings of easterners by northerners not WESTERNERS
August 3, 1966: Killing of Igbo officers continues. North plans secession (Igbos were not the first to plan secession in the country). Secession was abandoned by Gowon cos of pressure from Britian, US and some other Africa countries. Awo was released.
August 3, 1966: Gowon appoints civilian advisers
August 5, 1966: Northern rulers confer
August 8, 1966: Gowon abolishes unitary system set by Ironsi
Sep 11, 1966: National conference commences in Lagos to determine if Nigeria would continue to exist. 26 prominent Nigerians were selected by the four different regions (North, West, Mid-West and East) to deliberate. Let see why Gowon must apologise:
1. During the deliberation, the east and north reach a compromise to have a loose center and a very strong region where everyone would developed at its own pace
2. The west accepted the offer but suggested that minorities ethnic group must also be given regions so that they can develop at their own pace
3. The east agreed with the west, but said the minorities like the Efik and Ibibios must report to Enugu.
4. All was set for the referendum to take place! Gowon called his northerner brothers and told them to shelve the plan for confederation! He said it will never work!
5. The northern delegates succumbed and the dream confederation failed.
6. The east and the west stood on confedralism.
7. The reason why Gowon pressurised them was that he saw that the north was lagging in education, and reason of accepting the idea of confedralism will spell a doom to the north.
8. He also found out that the oil and gas in the eastern region would affect their economy.
9. Another major reason why the confedralism plans failed was because the north was not ready to release the Lagos port to the west!
(Source: "The Untold Story of the Nigeria - Biafra War: A chronological reconstruction of the events and circumstances of the Nigerian Civil War by Dr. Luke Nnaemeka Aneke, which was forwarded by Gen. Philip Effiong (Rtd).)
So our dear Ibo brothers and Sisters, blame Gowon for Nigeria problems and not Awolowo or the westerners!

laudate:
Why is your chronology starting from July 1966?

Why didn't it start with the killing of the politicians prior to that date?

There are over 200 books and articles written on the civil war and its aftermath. Over 2,100 secret American diplomatic dispatches/documents have also been de-classified. Read all those ones too, before forming a conclusion. Don't base your submission on just one book that is heavily skewed in one direction.

cheruv:
Skewed to which direction

laudate:
Are you the OP?

kingslly:
Good to knw dat Awolowo at some point supported the Easterners but why shift grounds later?

Cope1:
northerners may b daft academically but when it comes to politics dey will always outsmart other regions

OPCNAIRALAND:
Awolowo did not support anyone. Whats wrong with you Ibos always afraid to stand on principle and justifying issues along the balance of friend/enemy.

Awolowo stood on principle, simple! The principle is for everyone, majority or minority to have the right to determine their own destiny. Ojukwu agreed that majority should have independence but not the minorities under Eastern region.

Where and How did Awo support such a demented desire to suppress minorities like East wanted?

kingslly:
Awo obviously took sides and from what i've read about him i came to conclude that Awolowo was simply supporting any team he thinks is fit to win,he first miscalculated and supported the East and when he realised the east was loosing he did what every Yoruba man will do in dat Scenario. So dont tell me that crap about principles. Ojukwu wanted Unity in the South-East like u have in d North and West so dont make it look as if he was trying to supress the Minorities in the Old South East Region. Eastern Nigeria is not the only area in Nigeria that has Minority tribes in it,there are minor tribes in d west and north so why are u all bent on creating dis-unity in the east by pretending to Empower the minor tribes, why is no one talking about liberating the Nupes,the bwaris and other minor tribes in other regions?

Classicool:
Minorities in the West... Like Itsekiri,Edo,Igala,Ebira and co are somehow well represented and most of them like Edo and Itsekiri has a cultural ties with Yoruba...
But Bruh that shouldn't be the bone of contention in south for now... What should be our target is Unity here down south so as to bring down the north and lest I forget if we are united here in the south we will able to influence most of the north central states like Kwara,Kogi,Benue,Plateau.
So my Brother let drop our tribal hates and let's forge ahead in other to appreciate the move of Lower Niger Republic and Southern Nigeria People Assembly please... So we will have our dream country and later countries(Biafra,Oduduwa,United Niger Delta.Republics.)
Let's forget the past and move forward.

kingslly:
I also want Unity in d south and I believe the first step towards Unity is by dealing with the truth and not hiding or sweeping it under the Carpet.

Classicool:
Everybody knew(know) about the truth and the way each persons portrays the truth will determine how things is going to move that's why we must first shield ourselves from the north....not to change the story(history) in-order to hate ourselves here in the south... Not to allow them to explore us anymore...
I can bet it on any thing if Yoruba and Igbo put the hate behind them and work hand in hand we will have our dream nation and with this the North will try to play with Yoruba again like the one of Buhari and Oshinbajo...
So all SS and SE needs to do is to pitch us(SW) against the north... Then you take my life if Nigeria does not collapse.... And the North we go drastically backward...

kingslly:
I cant wait for the day we'll all see a United South

kingslly:
I cant wait for the day we'll all see a United South

Classicool:
Me too... That's why I'm going to work on that soonest before 2019 election... If God willing...
Will do it such a way that North won't know what exactly is the plan... So they will be fool.
GOD will help me

olawalepopoola:
Before you can do this, a credible candidate is needed! Southern leaders are really not responsible!

Classicool:
I know but there are still responsible one...
Like Mimiko,Fayose and Cross River state Governor,Obiano...
But won't stay on that but in west I've been eyeing some few p.ple... From all states but will need a help in the east and south.... Even in Kwara state I have a person I believe he will surely support us though I haven't meet them both I've chatted with few of them...
One of my plans is to first unite all our traditional rulers from Kwara,Kogi,the six SW states,Edo,Itsekiri and Warri... So I'll be needing help in the east also to do the same and other SS states... Then after that's is successful we will bring them together under one umbrella and we will make sure they stay off politics but to able to influence the govt in right direction... But this will exclude Emir of Ilorin because he's a invader ruler... That will be dispose after achieving a aims.

Classicool:
Everybody knew(know) about the truth and the way each persons portrays the truth will determine how things is going to move that's why we must first shield ourselves from the north....not to change the story(history) in-order to hate ourselves here in the south... Not to allow them to explore us anymore...
I can bet it on any thing if Yoruba and Igbo put the hate behind them and work hand in hand we will have our dream nation and with this the North will try to play with Yoruba again like the one of Buhari and Oshinbajo...
So all SS and SE needs to do is to pitch us(SW) against the north... Then you take my life if Nigeria does not collapse.... And the North we go drastically backward...

olawalepopoola:
Take out Mimiko and Fayose! They aren't sellable not even in Ondo state anymore! Breed young minds!

olawalepopoola:
Can we have some private discussions please! BBM: 29C7FBF7; Watsapp: 08149238032

kennynelcon:
With tribalism, Nigeria has no future.

The cleansing must start with the president.

Chimamanda Adiche: Ethnicity has become, in Nigeria, more political than cultural, less about philosophy and customs and values, and more about which bank is a Yoruba or Hausa or Igbo bank, which political office is held by which ethnicity, which revered leader must be turned into a flawless saint. We cannot deny ethnicity. It matters. But our ethnic and national identities should not be spoken of as though they were mutually exclusive; I am as much Igbo as I am Nigerian. I have hope in the future of Nigeria, mostly because we have not yet made a real, conscious effort to begin creating a nation (We could start, for example, by not merely teaching Maths and English in primary schools, but also teaching idealism and citizenship.)

For some non-Igbo, confronting facts of the war is uncomfortable, even inconvenient. But we must hear one another’s stories. It is even more imperative for a subject like Biafra which, because of our different experiences, we remember differently. Biafrian minorities were distrusted by the Igbo majority, and some were unfairly attacked, blamed for being saboteurs. Nigerian minorities, particularly in the midwest, suffered at the hands of both Biafrian and Nigerian soldiers.

‘Abandoned property’ cases remain unresolved today in Port Harcourt, a city whose Igbo names were changed after the war, creating “Rumu” from “Umu.” Nigerian soldiers carried out a horrendous massacre in Asaba, murdering the males in a town which is today still alive with painful memories. Some Igbo families are still waiting, half-hoping, that a lost son, a lost daughter, will come home.

All of these stories can sit alongside one another. The Nigerian stage is big enough. Chinua Achebe has told his story. This week, he turns 82. Long may he live. http://www.premiumtimesng.com/arts-entertainment/108378-chinua-achebe-at-82-we-remember-differently-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie.html

OPCNAIRALAND:
Awolowo did not support anyone. Whats wrong with you Ibos always afraid to stand on principle and justifying issues along the balance of friend/enemy.

Awolowo stood on principle, simple! The principle is for everyone, majority or minority to have the right to determine their own destiny. Ojukwu agreed that majority should have independence but not the minorities under Eastern region.

Where and How did Awo support such a demented desire to suppress minorities like East wanted?

In an interview in Boston on July 9th 2001, Ojukwu told a questioner: “We've said this over and over again, so many times, and people don't understand: they don't want to actually. If you remember, I released Awolowo from jail. Even that, some people are beginning to contest as well. Awo was in jail in Calabar. Gowon knows and the whole of the federal establishment knows that at no point was Gowon in charge of the East. The East took orders from me. Now, how could Gowon have released Awolowo who was in Calabar?

Because the fact that I released him, it created quite a lot of rapport between Awo and myself, and I know that before he went back to Ikenne, I set up a hotline between Ikenne and my bedroom in Enugu. He tried, like an elder statesman to find a solution. Awolowo is a funny one. Don't forget that the political purpose of the coup, the Ifeajuna coup that began all this, was to hand power over to Awo. We young men respect him a great deal. He was a hero. I thought he was a hero and certainly I received him when I was governor.

We talked and he was very vehement when he saw our complaints and he said that if the Igbos were forced out by Nigeria that he would take the Yorubas out also. I don't know what anybody makes of that statement but it is simple. Whether he did or didn't, it is too late. There is nothing you can do about it. So, he said this and I must have made some appropriate responses too. But it didn't quite work out the way that we both thought. Awolowo, evidently, had a constant review of the Yoruba situation and took different path. That's it. I don't blame him for it. I have never done”.

This was quoted in Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo's article, reporting the Okigbo International Conference, on page 102 of The GUARDIAN, Monday, October 1, 2007. Quite an interesting one for anyone who wishes to appreciate the folkloric dimensions that mis-led many who listened to Radio Biafra, or have followed the post-war attempts to win the war in retrospect instead of preparing the survivors, on both sides of the war, to confront the reality that mauled them and could maul them again unless they shape up.

Against Ojukwu's self-expiatory remarks, it is of interest to read Hilary Njoku, the head of the Biafran army at the start of the war. In his war memoirs, A tragedy without heroes, he declares that the meeting between Obafemi Awolowo and Ojukwu had nothing to do with the decision to announce secession.

Njoku writes that: “…most progressive Nigerians, even before him, saw 'Biafra' as a movement, an egalitarian philosophy to put Nigeria in order, a Nigeria where no tribe is considered superior to the others forever…….It was the same Biafran spirit which led Chief Awolowo to declare publicly that if the Eastern Region was pushed out of Nigeria, then the Western Region would follow suit.

When Ojukwu moved too fast recklessly in his ostrich strategy, the same Chief Awolowo led a delegation of Western and some Midwestern leaders to Enugu on 6th May, 1967 and pleaded with Ojukwu not to secede, reminding him that the Western Region was not militarily ready to follow suit in view of the weaknesses of the Western Command of the Nigerian Army and the dominant position of the Northern troops in the West. Ojukwu turned a deaf ear to this advice maybe because of his wrong concept”.(p.141)

Read the rest here: http://saharareporters.com/2012/10/21/forgotten-documents-nigerian-civil-war-odia-ofeimun

The Forgotten Documents Of The Nigerian Civil War
By Odia Ofeimun | Sahara Reporters | Nigeria

_{The most comprehensive and almost cover-all organization of the documents of the Nigerian Civil War remains AHM Kirk-Greene's CRISIS AND CONFLICT IN NIGERIA, A Documentary Sourcebook 1966-1970 Volume 1, and Volume 2, published by Oxford University Press London, New York and Ibadan in 1971. Volume One, according to the blurb, “describes the prelude to the war and the succession of coups from that of 15 January1966 which initially brought a military regime to power in Nigeria”.}

The volume takes the story up to July 1967 when the war began. Volume Two covers July 1967 to January 1970, that is, between the beginning of hostilities, and when, as testified by the last entry in the volume, General Yakubu Gowon made a Victory broadcast, The Dawn of National Reconciliation, on January 15, 1970. No other collection of civil war documents, to my knowledge, exists that compares with these two volumes. And none, as far as I know, has attempted to update or complement the publications so as to include or make public, other documents that are absent from Kirk-Greene's yeoman's job. Yet, as my title pointedly insists, there have been some truly 'forgotten' documents of the Nigerian Civil War which ought to be added and without which much of the history being narrated will continue to suffer gaps that empower enormous misinterpretations, if not falsehoods.

In my view, the most forgotten documents of the Nigerian civil war, which deserved to be, but were not included in the original compilation by Kirk-Greene - are two. The first is the much talked-about, but never seen, Ifeajuna Manuscript. It was written by Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna, the leader of the January 15 1966 Coup that opened the floodgates to other untoward events leading to the civil war. The author poured it all down in the “white hot heat” of the first few weeks after the failed adventure that ushered in the era of military regimes in Nigeria's history. Not, as many would have wished, the story of how the five majors carried out the coup.

It is more of an apologia, a statement of why they carried out the coup, and what they meant to achieve by it. It is still unpublished so many decades after it was written. The Manuscript had begun to circulate, very early, in what may now be seen as samizdat editions. They passed from hand to hand in photocopies, in an underground career that seemed fated to last forever until 1985 when retired General Olusegun Obasanjo, after his first coming as Head of State, quoted generously from it in his biography of his friend, Major Chukuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, the man who, although not the leader of the coup, became its historical avatar and spokesperson. Indeed, Nzeogwu's media interviews in the first 48 hours after the coup have remained the benchmark for praising or damning it. Ifeajuna's testimony fell into the hands of the military authorities quite early and has been in limbo. Few Nigerians know about its existence. So many who know about it have been wondering why the manuscript has not seen the light of day.

The other document, the second most forgotten of the Nigerian Civil War, has had more luck than the Ifeajuna Manuscript.

It happens to be the transcript of the famous meeting of May 6th and 7th 1967, held at Enugu, between Lt. Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Military Governor of Eastern Region, and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Leader of the Yoruba and an old political opponent of the leaders of the Eastern Region. Awolowo attended the meeting at the head of a delegation of peace hunters in a bid to avert a shooting war after the pogrom against Easterners which presaged the counter-coup of July 29, 1966.

The transcripts of the meeting, never publicly known to have existed, entered public discourse formally when a speech by Chief Obafemi Awolowo delivered on the first day of the meeting was published in a book, Path to Nigerian Greatness, edited by MCK Ajuluchuku, the Director for Research and Publicity of the Unity Party of Nigeria, in 1980. The speech seemed too much of a teaser. So it remained, until it was followed by Awo on the Nigerian Civil War, edited by Bari Adedeji Salau in 1981, with a Foreword by the same MCK Ajuluchuku.

The book went beyond the bit and snippet allowed in the earlier publication by accommodating the full transcripts of the two-day meeting. Not much was made of it by the media until it went out of print. Partly for this reason and because of the limited number in circulation, the transcripts never entered recurrent discussions of the Nigerian civil war. The good thing is that, if only for the benefit of those who missed it before, the book has been reprinted. It was among twelve other books by Obafemi Awolowo re-launched by the African Press Ltd of Ibadan at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos, in March 2007. Important to note is that among other speeches made by Awolowo, before during and after, on the Nigerian Civil War, the transcripts are intact.

They reveal who said what between Chief Obafemi Awolowo, his Excellency Lt. Col. Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Sir Francis Ibiam, Chiefs Jereton Mariere, C.C. Mojekwu, JIG Onyia, Professors Eni Njoku, Samuel Aluko and Dr. Anezi Okoro, who attended the meeting. Unlike the Ifeajuna Manuscript, still in limbo, the transcripts are in respectable print and may be treated as public property or at least addressed as a feature of the public space.

I regard both documents as the most forgotten documents of the civil war because they have hardly been mentioned in public discourses in ways that recognize the gravity of their actual contents. Or better to say, they have been mentioned, only in passing, in articles written for major Nigerian newspapers and magazines since the 70s, or parried on television, but only in figurative understatements by people who, for being able to do so, have appeared highly privileged.

The privilege, grounded in the fact that they remained unpublished, may have been partially debunked by the publications I have mentioned, but their impact on the discussions have not gone beyond the hyped references to them, and the innuendos and insinuations arising from secessionist propaganda during the civil war.

.....Forty years after the civil war, you would expect that some formal, academic decorum would be brought into play to sift mere folklore and propaganda from genuine history. But not so for those who do not care about the consequences of the falsehoods that they trade. They continue to pump myths that treat their own people as cannon fodder in their elite search for visibility, meal tickets and upward mobility in the Nigerian spoils system. Rather than lower the frenzy of war-time 'huge lies' that were crafted for the purpose of shoring up combat morale, they increase the tempo.

I mean: postwar reconstruction should normally forge the necessity for returnees from the war to accede to normal life, rather than lose their everyday good sense, in contemplation of events that never happened or pursuing enemies who were never there. Better, it ought to be expected, for those who must apportion blame and exact responsibility, to work at a dogged sifting of fact from fiction, relieving the innocent of life-threatening charges, in the manner of the Jews who, after the Second World War sought to establish who were responsible for the pogroms before they pressed implacable charges.

Unfortunately, 40 years does not seem to have been enough in the Nigerian case. Those who organized the pogrom are lionized as patriots by champions of the Biafran cause. Those who sought lasting answers away from blind rampage are demonized as villains. The rest of us are all left mired in the ghastly incomprehension that led to the war. Those for whom the civil war was not a lived, but a narrated experience, are made to re-experience it as nightmare, showing how much of an effort of mind needs to be made to strip the past of sheer mush.

As it happens, every such effort continues to be waylaid by the sheerness of war propaganda that has been turned into post-war authoritative history. http://saharareporters.com/2012/10/21/forgotten-documents-nigerian-civil-war-odia-ofeimun

olawalepopoola:
To us young folks in Nigeria, tribalism is our major problems. I took out time to read a comprehensive book on the Civil war also known as the Biafra war chronicled on a day to day basis from December 31, 1964 when the election crisis that almost tore Nigeria apart started. The book is titled "The Untold Story of the Nigeria - Biafra War: A chronological reconstruction of the events and circumstances of the Nigerian Civil War by Dr. Luke Nnaemeka Aneke, which was forwarded by Gen. Philip Effiong (Rtd).
July 29, 1966: Ironsi was kidnapped and overthrown and heavy fighting was recorded in Abeokuta.
July 30, 1966: Brig. Ogundipe attempts to palliate northern rebels
July 31, 1966: Northern rebels reject Brig. Ogundipe's (the Deputy to Ironsi) leadership
This problem started when Ironsi announced the formation of the Republic of Nigeria jettisoning the existing regionalism! The Northerners saw it as attempt to etched them out of power by an Easterner.
August 1, 1966: Gowon siezes power
August 2, 1966: Ojukwu challenges Northern-led army against their mutiny against Ironsi. Gowon releases prominent six westerner and easterner politicians from detention ( the AG was divided, when Akintola as the premier of western Nigeria, aligned with the north, Awo aligned with the east). The mutiny led to the killings of easterners by northerners not WESTERNERS
August 3, 1966: Killing of Igbo officers continues. North plans secession (Igbos were not the first to plan secession in the country). Secession was abandoned by Gowon cos of pressure from Britian, US and some other Africa countries. Awo was released.
August 3, 1966: Gowon appoints civilian advisers
August 5, 1966: Northern rulers confer
August 8, 1966: Gowon abolishes unitary system set by Ironsi
Sep 11, 1966: National conference commences in Lagos to determine if Nigeria would continue to exist. 26 prominent Nigerians were selected by the four different regions (North, West, Mid-West and East) to deliberate. Let see why Gowon must apologise:
1. During the deliberation, the east and north reach a compromise to have a loose center and a very strong region where everyone would developed at its own pace
2. The west accepted the offer but suggested that minorities ethnic group must also be given regions so that they can develop at their own pace
3. The east agreed with the west, but said the minorities like the Efik and Ibibios must report to Enugu.
4. All was set for the referendum to take place! Gowon called his northerner brothers and told them to shelve the plan for confederation! He said it will never work!
5. The northern delegates succumbed and the dream confederation failed.
6. The east and the west stood on confedralism.
7. The reason why Gowon pressurised them was that he saw that the north was lagging in education, and reason of accepting the idea of confedralism will spell a doom to the north.
8. He also found out that the oil and gas in the eastern region would affect their economy.
9. Another major reason why the confedralism plans failed was because the north was not ready to release the Lagos port to the west!
(Source: "The Untold Story of the Nigeria - Biafra War: A chronological reconstruction of the events and circumstances of the Nigerian Civil War by Dr. Luke Nnaemeka Aneke, which was forwarded by Gen. Philip Effiong (Rtd).)
So our dear Ibo brothers and Sisters, blame Gowon for Nigeria problems and not Awolowo or the westerners!

cybertyrant:
Its way tooo late he will go to ICC and die in prison