₦airaland Forum

simplycarro:
God bless you!!!
Someone need to tell all these useless over-sabi Yorubas to keep their useless mouth shut out of this abokki and Ndi-monkey coming fight

VcStunner:
And the ranting continues..
Dude said he's been celebrated in the North, well I for one honestly don't know him, but look how he was "visibly" shaken by the persona of Nnamdi Kanu. He seems to be trembling on behalf of all northern youths. The govt won't tell you, but u see in our time, the Nnamdi Kanu movement (though isn't refined enough to attract sympathy yet) will eventually get to a point where restructuring will not stop the agitation anymore but referendum. The window is closing fast on Nigeria, and war won't be an option either because the world is watching.
I wish we could restructure and still be one Nigeria, but everyone minding his own business. If u have oil, use it. If u have grandnut use. Just stop being lazy and foolish. Barka da Eid Mubarak

While he’s busy pursuing personal interests, I am defending my people against the insults and blackmail of one Igbo called Nnamdi Kanu and his co-travellers. What has Falana done about the insults IPOB heaped on the Yoruba? He is seeking cheap publicity.

“And, when did it become a crime that a northerner cannot issue a statement in the North though he stays in Lagos? I am a Nigerian. Shouldn’t Falana be castigating the man who said he hates Nigerians and doesn’t want his people to remain a part of Nigeria?

seunmsg:
Nonsense talk like this and the one spewed by Yerima is why I have always advocated that Yoruba's should sit out the ongoing controversy and not take side. Ipobs are not reasonable people that we can side with, they will turn against us when the heat comes. Soyinka supported them in the 60's and today, they can't do without insulting him.

Falana brought this upon himself and I won't pity him. Let ipobs and the north settle their mess like they did in the 60's, it's none of your fuvcking business.

EvilMetahuman:
he has too.

The igbo people lie a lot and they tend to be delusional in believing their own lies.

You have to debunk the lies before they start passing it around like the truth.

caracas:
I wish it was so
But we all know your hatred n jealousy for ndigbos wud not allow u guies stay aloof.
U claimed u were aloof in the 60s but history have it that u fought the war alongside hausas, against the igbos .
Admit it ,yorubas are slaves to the hausas .

ibkgab001:
In my life.... In my soul ... I shall not have rest of mind again ... Now the war has started with me

ibkgab001:
In my life.... In my soul ... I shall not have rest of mind again ... Now the war has started with me

chibuzorAbia:
So what the ffk are you doing here?

Truflame:
The unity of the country as one indivisible entity is not the problem but leadership.

bayulll011:
Let them lie deep down they know the truth,and don't expect them to stop d lie,cos they love to love on denial,for me I wish they actualize their biafra am just too tired of living in d same country with insane pple

salford1:
Olodo. Gowon released Awolowo from prison not ojukwu.

1st August 1966 Gowon Takes over as head of State.
Awolowo released from Prison 3rd August 1966.

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/191679-why-i-released-awolowo-from-prison-gowon.html

seunmsg:
Soyinka supported them in the 60's and today, they can't do without insulting him.

Dancos:
The yorubas are cowards. If awolowo had declared oduduwa when ojukwu reeased him from calabar prison everything would have been history today. If obasanjo who knows the truth can speak the same truth sith his mouth in yhe few days he has left. But no, dont trust a yoruba man

GworoChewinMaga:
I support the ab0ki on this.

Falana is a very silly idiot who doesn't know when to shutup

Dancos:
The yorubas are cowards. If awolowo had declared oduduwa when ojukwu reeased him from calabar prison everything would have been history today. If obasanjo who knows the truth can speak the same truth sith his mouth in yhe few days he has left. But no, dont trust a yoruba man

DogsOut:
You're a fool. A man just released from Prison should declare oduduwa republic without planning. You're a goat. Your akpu infested brain is turned upside down. No wonder your flat heads couldn't save the asses of those 3 million idiots who died.

It is a sad but instructive irony that Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwn, one of Africa’s one-time most brilliant political promises, was the man who led his own people with such a lack of ingenuity into what was clearly a foreseeable disaster. This agonizing paradox is resolved only by an understanding of the man.

There are scholars who hold the view that the personality of Adolf Hitler was the factor, which, more than any other, determined the destiny of Second World War Germany, as much indeed, as they argue that Winston Churchill’s determined that of Great Britain. Leaning a little on the basic hypothesis of this school of thought, it can be said for the Nigerian Civil War that the personality of Odumegwu Ojukwu, more than any other single factor, determined much of the course and certainly the character of the end of the Biafran adventure.

Avid for power, he paid more attention to the politics of the war than to the one basic question of security. Biafra’s efforts were trimmed to his size and through much of the conflict reflected his own strength as well as his own weaknesses. This personification of the struggle and the lethal cloud of illusion, which it created around him, were to persist until the end. Thus on the same day as his more down-to-earth successor, General (Phillip) Effiong, signed the formal act of Biafra’s surrender, General Ojukwu was still declaring: “While I live, Biafra lives. If I am no more, it would be only a matter of time for the noble concept to be swept into oblivion.”

Ojukwu’s political genius was, therefore, at once, his making and his undoing. Because he was an extremely able politician and knew this fact too well, he tended to trust only his own judgment. This fact, coupled with an exaggerated personal ambition blinded him to the sickening realities of Biafra’s last days. In Biafra, two wars were fought simultaneously. The first was for the survival of the Ibos as a race. The second was for the survival of Ojukwu’s leadership.

Ojukwu’s error, which proved fatal for millions of Ibos, was that he put the latter first. A good deal of the war effort was diverted into promoting Ojukwu and his leadership. Be it the question of starvation and relief or other vital matters affecting the population at large, propaganda considerations took precedence over cold realities. Calculation as a method was replaced by hopeful interpretations of ambitious wishes. Personal ambition thus adroitly grafted onto the genuine grievances of an injured people produced a mixture, which lacked the purity and sanity that the Ibos needed badly in so unequal a fight. The result was that in the end Biafrans secured an undisputed head but not the body of their state.

Right from the start the problem that faced the Ibos in Nigeria was one of security. Sovereignty was only a means to attain this end. As the struggle progressed, it became evident that the chosen means was obstructing progress towards the desired end-security. When this fact became clear, many friends inside and outside Biafra began to urge a compromise solution that would recognize Nigeria’s territorial integrity but at the same time grant to the Biafrans adequate local autonomy and security. The failure of Biafra’s leadership to acknowledge the absolute necessity for a compromise, even in the face of overwhelming odds, not only prolonged the war but also ensured that it ended the way it did.

At the beginning of the struggle, the Ibos had a very good chance, if not of winning against the authorities in Lagos, certainly of avoiding a humiliating defeat. Politically, Ojukwu inherited considerable assets. The political alignment in Nigeria just before the introduction of military rule was by no means unfavourable. Up until the eve of the civil war, Nigerian politics were dominated by the three big tribes: the Hausa-Fulani of the North, the Ibos of the East and the Yorubas of the West. In this triangular fight, the key to victory was the combination of any two sides. It did not matter which two.

Only the then Northern Region, led by the NPC (Northern People’s Congress) appeared to have fully appreciated and exploited this golden rule. After the inconclusive results of the 1959 eve-of-independence federal elections, the NPC brilliantly out-manoeuvered its two Southern rival, the NCNC (National Council for Nigerian Citizens) then led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and the AG (Action Group) under the leadership of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Thwarting a coalition of the two Southern progressive parties, the NPC tinkered out an incongruous alliance with the NCNC in a lop-sided federal coalition government. This move allowed it to rule the country riding on the back of a docile NCNC when, two years later, the strain of the burden began to tell on the latter the sensitive rider sought to change horses. The only alternative was the AG. But strong-willed Awolowo was an obstacle.

An attempt to circumvent his rigid political hostility to the NPC led to the vigorous wooing of his deputy, Chief S. L. Akintola, and in turn to the split in the AG. Backed by the NPC controlled Federal Government, Akintola succeeded in installing himself and his faction in power in Western Nigeria. Soon, Chief Awolowo and his ablest aides, including Chief Anthony Enahoro, were politically liquidated – incarcerated allegedly for treason. But as events were soon to prove, the people of the West did not want Chief Akintola. Thus, despite an impressive sleight of hand, the NPC succeeded in pulling with it the headship but not the populace of Western Nigeria.

The less sensitive NCNC dominated by undisciplined, individualistic and greedy federal ministers woke up too late to appreciate the full political import of the battle for Western Nigeria. Nevertheless, the struggle itself revealed to it the risk of isolation involved in its passivity. It set to work for an East-West alliance to fight the federal elections scheduled for 1964.

The result was the UPGA (United Progressive Grand Alliance), uniting the two powerful Southern parties – the NCNC now led by the dynamic Dr. Michael Okpara and Chief Awolowo’s Action Group, led, in his absence, by Alhaji Dauda Adegbenro. UPGA represented by far the bulk of the population in Eastern, Western, and Mid-Western Nigeria, as well as articulate minority elements in the North, all of whom found common cause in opposing the domination of the conservative and feudal NPC.

The military coup of January 1966 swept civilians out of power and dissolved political parties but the undercurrent of East-West solidarity represented by UPGA remained. Chief Obafemi Awolowo was still serving his 10-year prison sentence. The majority of the Yorubas supported him and his Action Group continued to enjoy abundant popularity in Western Nigeria. His friendship with Dr. Michael Okpara, the Ibo leader of the NCNC, continued to sustain the Southern solidarity. When the counter-coup of July 1966, which brought General (Yakubu) Gowon to power occurred, the spirit of that solidarity was still high. The coup itself not only killed the Eastern Ibo leader, General (Johnson Thomas) Ironsi, but also the popular Yoruba military governor of Western Nigeria, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi. In this setting, it was clear that the Yorubas of the West were potentially more inclined to ally with the Ibos of the East against the power of the North from which both had suffered so recently.

General Gowon sensed this mood and acted swiftly. Not only did he release Chief Awolowo immediately from prison, he wooed him with the unprecedented flattery of welcoming him, with a guard of honour, at Ikeja airport. Gowon’s clever release of Chief Awolowo had the effect of reducing but not eliminating Yoruba dislike for the North. This fact soon became evident. In March 1967, Chief Awolowo, now free and still the undisputed leader of the Yorubas, made a public statement, which reflected very clearly his sympathy for Col. Ojukwu’s Eastern Region. In an open letter to the government, he demanded that the two battalions of northern troops stationed in the West should be withdrawn from that region which, according to him, was being treated by the northerners as an occupied territory.

He went further to threaten that if “the Eastern Region was pushed out of the federation, Western Nigeria would quit the federation as well.” Faced with this threat of an alliance between the Yoruba West and the Ibo East, the Northern controlled Federal Military Government became visibly alarmed.

The seeds of Biafra’s failure took root from this point. Eastern Nigeria’s leadership failed to appreciate what Gowon saw so clearly – the vital necessity of securing the alliance of Chief Awolowo and the Western Region. Was General Ojukwu simply and innocently overconfident? Or, too anxious for his own position, did he feel that an alliance with Chief Awolowo, already a towering national figure, would dwarf his own fledgling personality and jeopardize his chances for supreme leadership? The fact remains that too little or nothing was done to woo Chief Awolowo. When on 7th May 1967 the Yoruba leader came to Enugu at the head of a reconciliation committee, Ojukwu had a handsome opportunity to play his card. He missed. Dr. Michael Okpara who still enjoyed popular support in Eastern Nigeria and whose friendship with Chief Awolowo had sustained the UPGA alliance was not even invited to meet Chief Awolowo. After a hurried reception, Chief Awolowo’s delegation left Eastern Nigeria. Ojukwu saw fit to describe the mission as an “ill-conceived child.”

General Gowon, on the contrary, studiously drew Chief Awolowo closer to himself. He offered him the highest civilian post in the Federal Military Government – the vice-presidency of the Federal Executive Council – with the unspoken understanding that Nigeria was his as soon as the war was over and the army withdrew.
By this act, the East-West alliance foreshadowed by UPGA was destroyed and a new North-West axis was born. From this moment on, Ojukwu’s Eastern Nigeria was isolated and when war broke out she had to fight it alone. Eastern Nigeria’s political choice of secession completed the region’s isolation. The struggle was no longer between the so-called Christian East and Moslem North. That decision united all shades of opinion in Nigeria, giving to them a sense of oneness – and to the Northern-dominated Federal Government an invaluable instrument-in the common fight to defend Nigeria’s unity.

Within Eastern Nigeria (Biafra), General Ojukwu’s tactics led to a quick alienation of many talented Ibos. From the very beginning, he set out to establish his authority with a heavy hand. Under his orders Dr. Michael Okpara, the popular former civilian Premier of Eastern Nigeria, was clamped in jail. So were a number of his ministers. The only notable exception was the former Attorney General, Mr. C. C. Mojekwu, Ojukwu’s kinsman, whom he retained and made Biafra’s Minister of Interior. Inspired insinuations went round accusing Dr. Azikiwe, Nigeria’s former President, of mismanaging the affairs of the University of Nsukka of which he was the founder-chancellor. These political figures were to remain out of favour and far from the corridors of power, except for their occasional utility as window dressing, such as posing for photographs with General Ojukwu or flanking him on ceremonial occasions. Their rich political experience was practically unused and they were called in to participate in the Biafran government in any effective way only when the first signs of collapse had appeared. This was late in September 1967, when Biafra experienced its first military reverses, which led rapidly to the fall of Enugu.

Within the army, General Ojukwu adopted the same tactics of eliminating his opponents. I have already related in the chapter on secession the trend of the struggle for power between Ojukwu and the Biafran army leadership. The result of his success was a timid army tamed to unquestioned obedience. Thus, only two days after General Ojukwu’s escape from Biafra, his Chief of Staff, regaining his freedom, was able to declare: “We have always believed that our differences with Nigeria should be settled by peaceful negotiations.”
On the diplomatic plane, events were not different. General Ojukwu rejected advice time and again on the need for timely compromise.

ZKOSOSO:
All I know is that we are heading somewhere. It's obvious that we either come out of this stronger or we go our separate ways.

Restructuring will weaken the Northern Cabal.

Division will favour the South.

Keeping the Status quo ante will keep everyone down except the Cabals.

ZKOSOSO:
All I know is that we are heading somewhere. It's obvious that we either come out of this stronger or we go our separate ways.

Restructuring will weaken the Northern Cabal.

Division will favour the South.

Keeping the Status quo ante will keep everyone down except the Cabals.

seunmsg:
Nonsense talk like this and the one spewed by Yerima is why I have always advocated that Yoruba's should sit out the ongoing controversy and not take side. Ipobs are not reasonable people that we can side with, they will turn against us when the heat comes. Soyinka supported them in the 60's and today, they can't do without insulting him.

Falana brought this upon himself and I won't pity him. Let ipobs and the north settle their mess like they did in the 60's, it's none of your fuvcking business.

Karlman:
...funny thing is that NNAMDI KANU is not even aware of the existence of shettima or yerima and his fellow almajiris...

...so let the almajiris do what they know how to do best, looting stealing killing, as no price is too much for BIAFRA.

...ANY IGBO MAN OR WOMAN WHO IS NOT TIRED WITH THE MANNER NIGERIA IS RUN&RUIN BY THE HAUSAFULANI FOR THE PAST 50YEARS CAN DIE WITH NIGERIA.

pythonkid:
u hope ur mother dies for biafra, only then you can say no price is too much to pay for ur dick ass biafra

nototribalist:
cos na you buy phone and Data for am abi? It's like you don drink that toilet soup this morning

pythonkid:
u hope ur mother dies for biafra, only then you can say no price is too much to pay for ur dick ass biafra