₦airaland Forum

madamoringo:
Simple answer: Ibo greed and selfishness.


You can slice it and dice it anyhow but it comes down to this issues. It all started well before independence, with Zik (ibo) thinking he would rule over a large expanse of a country and had previously said that ibos were some special breed of humans whom their god (not the real God) of greed and selfishness had chosen to be rulers, would rule over the country. Zik passed on an alliance of a more intellectual, hardworking and forward looking West so as not to have to compete so hard for anything as he knew he was on a long thing and chose the North seeing he thought he could take advantage of a largely uneducated north (at that time) and they would simply hand him high office as PM! Well he lost out and ibo soldiers wanting to bring them into an advantage by force killed every leader from every other region, Ironsi took over leadership and destroyed Nigeria's federalism (regionalism) to unitary government by his infamous decree 34 against much advise to the contrary. With ibos ululating on their victory in the north, 6 months later the revenge coup put ibos on their knees with much killings in th north where ibos had been making fun of th northerners on th killings of their leaders. No do, no do, Ojukwu without good military knowledge and common sense, under the guise of protecting ibos declared Biafra taking all of today's Niger Delta (SS), marching across to the militarily neutral Mid West (Edo & Delta states) and annexing it. Then, he planned and launched his worst military offensive against the Yoruba West deploying several tens of thousands (maybe close to a hundred thousand or more) of fully armed soldiers to approach from Ore, breach the SW defences and march straight to Lagos (deep in the heart of Yorubaland), capture and destroy it and then await orders from Ojukwu on how the West will be governed. The order was a kill, no-capture and scorched earth policy all with the cover of "liberation" of the West.

Ojukwu and his ibos failed massively because less than 200 Nigerian soldiers mostly from the West set up a defence about 40 km from the borders of Ore and set up strategy to funnel them into the cold pass, at the bridge. There, waves after waves of biafran soldiers were destroyed until they fled. The NA finished the business by ensuring the total capitulation of Biafra and Ojukwu fled as a cross dressed woman to Abidjan.

Frankenstein:
It was believed? We are not here to discuss 'It was believed'.
Do you know that a Yoruba was among the plotters of the coup. If the whole idea was for Igbo domination, why did they add the release of Awolowo from detention to their plan?

pazienza:
The whole country was simply drunk on Igbophobia. That's the cause the war. Anyother reason they give you is to camouflage this fact.

Akintola death helped stabilize Yorubaland, it enabled Awo to once again unite the Yoruba speaking people. Without Akintola's death, Yorubas would have never had a United front, Awo would have rot in prison, and Awoist won't agree to bend for Akintola who was perceived as a sell out to the North, by the Yorubas. Akintola's death was beneficial to Yorubaland, if they want to be honest to themselves.


The far North claimed that they so much loved Balewa and were killing Ndiigbo for his death, but how about the Tivs and Idomas? What's their excuse for killing innocent Igbos that ran to Benue state, was Tor of Tiv/ Ochi Idoma killed by Igbos too, or was Balewa their revered leader too?

The root cause of the civil war was Igbophobia, planted by Tribal leaders of Nigerian groups and allowed to grow by the Igbo elites who did nothing to counter those lies.

madamoringo:
Simple answer: Ibo greed and selfishness.


You can slice it and dice it anyhow but it comes down to this issues. It all started well before independence, with Zik (ibo) thinking he would rule over a large expanse of a country and had previously said that ibos were some special breed of humans whom their god (not the real God) of greed and selfishness had chosen to be rulers, would rule over the country. Zik passed on an alliance of a more intellectual, hardworking and forward looking West so as not to have to compete so hard for anything as he knew he was on a long thing and chose the North seeing he thought he could take advantage of a largely uneducated north (at that time) and they would simply hand him high office as PM! Well he lost out and ibo soldiers wanting to bring them into an advantage by force killed every leader from every other region, Ironsi took over leadership and destroyed Nigeria's federalism (regionalism) to unitary government by his infamous decree 34 against much advise to the contrary. With ibos ululating on their victory in the north, 6 months later the revenge coup put ibos on their knees with much killings in th north where ibos had been making fun of th northerners on th killings of their leaders. No do, no do, Ojukwu without good military knowledge and common sense, under the guise of protecting ibos declared Biafra taking all of today's Niger Delta (SS), marching across to the militarily neutral Mid West (Edo & Delta states) and annexing it. Then, he planned and launched his worst military offensive against the Yoruba West deploying several tens of thousands (maybe close to a hundred thousand or more) of fully armed soldiers to approach from Ore, breach the SW defences and march straight to Lagos (deep in the heart of Yorubaland), capture and destroy it and then await orders from Ojukwu on how the West will be governed. The order was a kill, no-capture and scorched earth policy all with the cover of "liberation" of the West.

Ojukwu and his ibos failed massively because less than 200 Nigerian soldiers mostly from the West set up a defence about 40 km from the borders of Ore and set up strategy to funnel them into the cold pass, at the bridge. There, waves after waves of biafran soldiers were destroyed until they fled. The NA finished the business by ensuring the total capitulation of Biafra and Ojukwu fled as a cross dressed woman to Abidjan.

DiademSh07:
Who asked you? Why didn't they kill Azikwe to unite ibos?
For the umpteenth time, Awolowo release had nothing to do with the ibo/Ojukwu. Ibo should stop lieing for once.

madamoringo:
[s]Simple answer: Ibo greed and selfishness.
You can slice it and dice it anyhow but it comes down to this issues. It all started well before independence, with Zik (ibo) thinking he would rule over a large expanse of a country and had previously said that ibos were some special breed of humans whom their god (not the real God) of greed and selfishness had chosen to be rulers, would rule over the country. Zik passed on an alliance of a more intellectual, hardworking and forward looking West so as not to have to compete so hard for anything as he knew he was on a long thing and chose the North seeing he thought he could take advantage of a largely uneducated north (at that time) and they would simply hand him high office as PM! Well he lost out and ibo soldiers wanting to bring them into an advantage by force killed every leader from every other region, Ironsi took over leadership and destroyed Nigeria's federalism (regionalism) to unitary government by his infamous decree 34 against much advise to the contrary. With ibos ululating on their victory in the north, 6 months later the revenge coup put ibos on their knees with much killings in th north where ibos had been making fun of th northerners on th killings of their leaders. No do, no do, Ojukwu without good military knowledge and common sense, under the guise of protecting ibos declared Biafra taking all of today's Niger Delta (SS), marching across to the militarily neutral Mid West (Edo & Delta states) and annexing it. Then, he planned and launched his worst military offensive against the Yoruba West deploying several tens of thousands (maybe close to a hundred thousand or more) of fully armed soldiers to approach from Ore, breach the SW defences and march straight to Lagos (deep in the heart of Yorubaland), capture and destroy it and then await orders from Ojukwu on how the West will be governed. The order was a kill, no-capture and scorched earth policy all with the cover of "liberation" of the West.

Ojukwu and his ibos failed massively because less than 200 Nigerian soldiers mostly from the West set up a defence about 40 km from the borders of Ore and set up strategy to funnel them into the cold pass, at the bridge. There, waves after waves of biafran soldiers were destroyed until they fled. The NA finished the business by ensuring the total capitulation of Biafra and [size=14pt]Ojukwu fled as a cross dressed woman to Abidjan.[/size][/s]

Ojukwu fled as a cross dressed woman to Abidjan.

madamoringo:
Simple answer: Ibo greed and selfishness.


You can slice it and dice it anyhow but it comes down to this issues. It all started well before independence, with Zik (ibo) thinking he would rule over a large expanse of a country and had previously said that ibos were some special breed of humans whom their god (not the real God) of greed and selfishness had chosen to be rulers, would rule over the country. Zik passed on an alliance of a more intellectual, hardworking and forward looking West so as not to have to compete so hard for anything as he knew he was on a long thing and chose the North seeing he thought he could take advantage of a largely uneducated north (at that time) and they would simply hand him high office as PM! Well he lost out and ibo soldiers wanting to bring them into an advantage by force killed every leader from every other region, Ironsi took over leadership and destroyed Nigeria's federalism (regionalism) to unitary government by his infamous decree 34 against much advise to the contrary. With ibos ululating on their victory in the north, 6 months later the revenge coup put ibos on their knees with much killings in th north where ibos had been making fun of th northerners on th killings of their leaders. No do, no do, Ojukwu without good military knowledge and common sense, under the guise of protecting ibos declared Biafra taking all of today's Niger Delta (SS), marching across to the militarily neutral Mid West (Edo & Delta states) and annexing it. Then, he planned and launched his worst military offensive against the Yoruba West deploying several tens of thousands (maybe close to a hundred thousand or more) of fully armed soldiers to approach from Ore, breach the SW defences and march straight to Lagos (deep in the heart of Yorubaland), capture and destroy it and then await orders from Ojukwu on how the West will be governed. The order was a kill, no-capture and scorched earth policy all with the cover of "liberation" of the West.

Ojukwu and his ibos failed massively because less than 200 Nigerian soldiers mostly from the West set up a defence about 40 km from the borders of Ore and set up strategy to funnel them into the cold pass, at the bridge. There, waves after waves of biafran soldiers were destroyed until they fled. The NA finished the business by ensuring the total capitulation of Biafra and Ojukwu fled as a cross dressed woman to Abidjan.

madamoringo:
[s]Simple answer: Ibo greed and selfishness.


You can slice it and dice it anyhow but it comes down to this issues. It all started well before independence, with Zik (ibo) thinking he would rule over a large expanse of a country and had previously said that ibos were some special breed of humans whom their god (not the real God) of greed and selfishness had chosen to be rulers, would rule over the country. Zik passed on an alliance of a more intellectual, hardworking and forward looking West so as not to have to compete so hard for anything as he knew he was on a long thing and chose the North seeing he thought he could take advantage of a largely uneducated north (at that time) and they would simply hand him high office as PM! Well he lost out and ibo soldiers wanting to bring them into an advantage by force killed every leader from every other region, Ironsi took over leadership and destroyed Nigeria's federalism (regionalism) to unitary government by his infamous decree 34 against much advise to the contrary. With ibos ululating on their victory in the north, 6 months later the revenge coup put ibos on their knees with much killings in th north where ibos had been making fun of th northerners on th killings of their leaders. No do, no do, Ojukwu without good military knowledge and common sense, under the guise of protecting ibos declared Biafra taking all of today's Niger Delta (SS), marching across to the militarily neutral Mid West (Edo & Delta states) and annexing it. Then, he planned and launched his worst military offensive against the Yoruba West deploying several tens of thousands (maybe close to a hundred thousand or more) of fully armed soldiers to approach from Ore, breach the SW defences and march straight to Lagos (deep in the heart of Yorubaland), capture and destroy it and then await orders from Ojukwu on how the West will be governed. The order was a kill, no-capture and scorched earth policy all with the cover of "liberation" of the West.

Ojukwu and his ibos failed massively because less than 200 Nigerian soldiers mostly from the West set up a defence about 40 km from the borders of Ore and set up strategy to funnel them into the cold pass, at the bridge. There, waves after waves of biafran soldiers were destroyed until they fled. The NA finished the business by ensuring the total capitulation of Biafra and Ojukwu fled as a cross dressed woman to Abidjan.[/s]

OduaVanguard:
Let's assume am wrong (even though I am correct about zik's affiliation with ifeajuna), what about Michael Okpara the then premier of the Eastern Region ? He was in the country, so why did they spare him while they murdered the Northern and Western premiers?

intrepid:
Most of you guys don't read at all and just keep on ranting off ignorance.
.ifeajuna and his colleagues went to kill M I.Okpara and as they arrived there that night,it happened that a senior Church leader (bishop of Cyprus) was his guest,and to show you how patriotic those coup plotters were,they said that they left him,to come back the next day and finish up when the bishop must have left.They didn't want to kill him in the presence of a foreigner to avoid bad image for the country.

Before they could come back the next day,the coup has been foiled by Ironsi(who was also marked for elimination)

madamoringo:
Simple answer: Ibo greed and selfishness.


You can slice it and dice it anyhow but it comes down to this issues. It all started well before independence, with Zik (ibo) thinking he would rule over a large expanse of a country and had previously said that ibos were some special breed of humans whom their god (not the real God) of greed and selfishness had chosen to be rulers, would rule over the country. Zik passed on an alliance of a more intellectual, hardworking and forward looking West so as not to have to compete so hard for anything as he knew he was on a long thing and chose the North seeing he thought he could take advantage of a largely uneducated north (at that time) and they would simply hand him high office as PM! Well he lost out and ibo soldiers wanting to bring them into an advantage by force killed every leader from every other region, Ironsi took over leadership and destroyed Nigeria's federalism (regionalism) to unitary government by his infamous decree 34 against much advise to the contrary. With ibos ululating on their victory in the north, 6 months later the revenge coup put ibos on their knees with much killings in th north where ibos had been making fun of th northerners on th killings of their leaders. No do, no do, Ojukwu without good military knowledge and common sense, under the guise of protecting ibos declared Biafra taking all of today's Niger Delta (SS), marching across to the militarily neutral Mid West (Edo & Delta states) and annexing it. Then, he planned and launched his worst military offensive against the Yoruba West deploying several tens of thousands (maybe close to a hundred thousand or more) of fully armed soldiers to approach from Ore, breach the SW defences and march straight to Lagos (deep in the heart of Yorubaland), capture and destroy it and then await orders from Ojukwu on how the West will be governed. The order was a kill, no-capture and scorched earth policy all with the cover of "liberation" of the West.

Ojukwu and his ibos failed massively because less than 200 Nigerian soldiers mostly from the West set up a defence about 40 km from the borders of Ore and set up strategy to funnel them into the cold pass, at the bridge. There, waves after waves of biafran soldiers were destroyed until they fled. The NA finished the business by ensuring the total capitulation of Biafra and Ojukwu fled as a cross dressed woman to Abidjan.

intrepid:
Most of you guys don't read at all and just keep on ranting off ignorance.
.ifeajuna and his colleagues went to kill M I.Okpara and as they arrived there that night,it happened that a senior Church leader (bishop of Cyprus) was his guest,and to show you how patriotic those coup plotters were,they said that they left him,to come back the next day and finish up when the bishop must have left.They didn't want to kill him in the presence of a foreigner to avoid bad image for the country.

Before they could come back the next day,the coup has been foiled by Ironsi(who was also marked for elimination)

pazienza:
Had Akintola survived, had Nzeogwu coup not taken place,Awo would have been effectively replaced by Akintola as the leader of the Yorubas. Akintola would have Awo rot in prison to consolidate his powers. Awo would have gone the way of Abiola.

The western region was too small to contain both Awo and Akintola, the region would boil and divide into Awoists and Akintola followers.

I am not in support of Nzeogwu actions, but if Yorubas are being honest to themselves, they would admit that Akintola's death was for the greater good of Yorubaland. Awo was a better leader.

Frankenstein:
Nnamdi Azikiwe was not in the country when the coup happened. The coup failed because major Ifeajuna flopped in the south. Ironsi was singled out for elimination.

pazienza:
Had Akintola survived, had Nzeogwu coup not taken place,Awo would have been effectively replaced by Akintola as the leader of the Yorubas. Akintola would have Awo rot in prison to consolidate his powers. Awo would have gone the way of Abiola.

The western region was too small to contain both Awo and Akintola, the region would boil and divide into Awoists and Akintola followers.

I am not in support of Nzeogwu actions, but if Yorubas are being honest to themselves, they would admit that Akintola's death was for the greater good of Yorubaland. Awo was a better leader.

OduaVanguard:
That right there plus Ironsi's failure to punish the coup plotters (considering that ironsi, himself an igbo, was also beneficiary of the "failed" coup), this angered the North and triggered a vengeful counter-coup and unprecedented pogrom that in effect led to the civil war.

humilitypays:
Let's look at this topic from a neutral perspective rather than from sentiment.

Let's find out who declared war against who- Biafra led by Ojukwu or Nigeria led by Gowon?

We also want to know what really caused the Nigerian civil war also known as Biafran war.

In order for us to answer these pressing questions correctly without being bias, we will be referencing on globally recognised history articles written by foreigners who witnessed the war.

To achieve this goal, let's tackle these questions:

1. What really caused the Nigerian civil war of 1966?
2. Which region declared war against which region or territory?

Going forward, let me answer your initial question of how many Igbos living in the northern Nigeria when the pogrom of 1966 happened?

According to many books written by foreign and Nigerian war historians and according to wikipedia, between 10,000 to 30,000 Igbo people living in the northern Nigeria were massacred in the north between May 1966 - September 1966. You can read about it here>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_anti-Igbo_pogrom

Now, let's move forward with the most pressing questions:

1. What really caused the Nigerian civil war of 1966?

Immediate causes of the Nigeria civil war in 1966 included:
(A) a military coup (carried out by Maj. Nzeogwu which led to the death of Tafawa Belewa, etc)
(B) a counter-coup (led by Gowon, which led to the brutal murder of Aguiyi Ironsi, Fajuyi, etc)
(C) The 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom in the north (persecution of Igbo people living in Northern Nigeria)- this is the imminent cause of the Nigerian civil war according to local and foreign war historians.

2. Which region declared war against which region or territory?

Persecution of Igbo From June through October 1966, pogroms in the North killed tens of thousands of Igbos and caused millions to flee to the Eastern Region. September 29, 1966, was considered the worst day.


Ethnomusicolist Charles Keil, who was visiting Nigeria in 1966, recounted:

The pogroms I witnessed in Makurdi, Nigeria (late Sept. 1966) were foreshadowed by months of intensive anti-Ibo and anti-Eastern conversations among Tiv, Idoma, Hausa and other Northerners resident in Makurdi, and, fitting a pattern replicated in city after city, the massacres were led by the Nigerian army. Before, during and after the slaughter, Col. Gowan could be heard over the radio issuing 'guarantees of safety' to all Easterners, all citizens of Nigeria, but the intent of the soldiers, the only power that counts in Nigeria now or then, was painfully clear. After counting the disemboweled bodies along the Makurdi road I was escorted back to the city by soldiers who apologized for the stench and explained politely that they were doing me and the world a great favor by eliminating Ibos.

The Federal Military Government also laid the groundwork for the blockade of the Eastern Region which would go into full effect in 1967.

Breakaway of Biafra from Nigeria
On May 27, 1967, Gowon proclaimed the division of Nigeria into twelve states. This decree carved the Eastern Region in three parts: South Eastern State, Rivers State, and East Central State. Now the Igbos, concentrated in the East Central State, would lose control over most of the petroleum, located in the other two areas.

On May 30, 1967, Ojukwu declared independence of the Republic of Biafra.

The Federal Military Government immediately placed an embargo on all shipping to and from Biafra—but not on oil tankers. Biafra quickly moved to collect oil royalties from oil companies doing business within its borders. When Shell-BP acquiesced to this request at the end of June, the Federal Government extended its blockade to include oil. The blockade, which most foreign actors accepted, played a decisive role in putting Biafra at a disadvantage from the beginning of the war.

Although the very young nation had a chronic shortage of weapons to go to war, it was determined to defend itself. Although there was much sympathy in Europe and elsewhere, only five countries (Tanzania, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire, Zambia and Haiti) officially recognised the new republic. Britain supplied amounts of heavy weapons and ammunition to the Nigerian side because of its desire to preserve the country it created. The Biafra side on the other hand found it difficult to purchase arms as the countries who supported it did not provide arms and ammunition. The heavy supply of weapons by Britain was the biggest factor in determining the outcome of the war.

Several peace accords, especially the one held at Aburi, Ghana (the Aburi Accord), collapsed and the shooting war soon followed. Ojukwu managed at Aburi to get agreement to a confederation for Nigeria, rather than a federation. He was warned by his advisers that this reflected a failure of Gowon to understand the difference and, that being the case, predicted that it would be reneged upon. When this happened, Ojukwu regarded it as both a failure by Gowon to keep to the spirit of the Aburi agreement, and lack of integrity on the side of the Nigerian Military Government in the negotiations toward a united Nigeria. Gowon's advisers, to the contrary, felt that he had enacted as much as was politically feasible in fulfillment of the spirit of Aburi.[59] The Eastern Region was very ill equipped for war, outmanned and outgunned by the Nigerians. Their advantages included fighting in their homeland, support of most Easterners, determination, and use of limited resources.

The UK-which still maintained the highest level of influence over Nigeria's highly valued oil industry through Shell-BP-[60] and the Soviet Union supported (especially militarily) the Nigerian government.- This was the main reason Nigeria won the war.

The Civil War
Shortly after extending its blockade to include oil, the Nigerian government launched a "police action" to retake the secessionist territory. The war began on 6 July 1967 when Nigerian Federal troops advanced in two columns into Biafra. The Nigerian army offensive was through the north of Biafra led by Colonel Shuwa and the local military units were formed as the 1st Infantry Division. The division was led mostly by northern officers. After facing unexpectedly fierce resistance and high casualties, the right-hand Nigerian column advanced on the town of Nsukka which fell on 14 July, while the left-hand column made for Garkem, which was captured on 12 July. At this stage of the war, the other regions of Nigeria (the West and Mid-West) still considered the war as a confrontation between the north (mainly Hausas) against the east (mainly Igbos). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Civil_War#War

OduaVanguard:
That casualty was Col. Arthur Unegbe, but his death was more or less circumstantial and happened as a result of his closeness to Brig. Maimalari (one of the victims of that unfortunate coup) -- he was shot and killed to avoid him raising the alarm after Maimalari's was killed.

Now, you can't compare Unegbe's death to Ahmadu Bello (Northern Region Premiere), Balewa (Prime Minister), Akintola (Western Region Premier) and Okotie-Eboh's (Finance Minister) coz Unegbe wasn't an original target of the coupists, unlike the aforementioned high-profile ones.

In my honest opinion and based on my understanding of the events surrounding that coup, it wasn't originally planned to exclusively target non-igbo leaders, but along the line ethnic sentiments creeped in as some of the plotters decided to exclude and spare the igbo targets. That explains why Zik (the President) and Michael Okpara (the Eastern Region Premier) were spared while the others were butchered.