₦airaland Forum

Mujtahida:
Some two or three years ago when I first watched this Sardauna clip I was shocked even though I had always known that he just like Awolowo and Zik were tribalist as were almost all the leading politicians of that era

But this now is my point: The danger of a single story (thanks to Chimamanda A). When you post such a video always remember to post the following to balance the sums in the ethno tribal equation:
'the domination of Nigeria and Africa by the Igbo is only a matter of time”. Charles Dadi Onyeama member central legislative council representing Enugu spoken at the Igbo state of the union address in 1945. http://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/142477-the-bitter-truth-about-the-igbo-by-femi-fani-kayode.html

Azikiwe in a statement published by the Daily service had also said that the god of the Igbos had given them the leadership over Nigeria. http://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/164552-why-we-should-split-nigeria-now-by-damola-awoyokun.html

They were all tribalists (Nigerians generally still are) and really without justifying our founding fathers I prefer their own kind of tribalism because everyone knows what Sardauna achieved for the North then in terms of development and Awolowo too for the Southwest because their tribalism was born out of genuine love they had for their people unlike our politicians today whose tribalism is empty, devoid of love even for their own kin.

This is what irks my soul: we will all join hands and condemn my brother for his reprehensible actions but when your brother does something condemnable, you shield him, you hide him, you try to justify his actions by pointing to my brother who has already been roundly condemned by ALL.

Me I say Mbanu to such. Let us all bear responsibility for our actions. Nigeria's problem absolutely did not start with the civil war. The things that have happened in Nigeria have been caused by a confluence of factors, of attitudes, decisions and actions by the actors each one building upon the other and setting the stage for the next. Do not point your fingers at Sarduana. We are all guilty.

reality1010:
Very funny.I can't tell why some of you will ever want to rob others your flaws.If Sarduna and Awo were tribalists dat doesn't mean Zik was too.Zik was a pan Africanist even when he domesticated his efforts on Nigeria's independence. Let's be sincere for once.

laudate:
You saw how the chap you responded to, was quick to overlook the tribalism in Onyeama and Azikiwe's comments, and ascribe it to a desire to motivate their ethnic group, in the area of education. Can you see the hypocrisy? If such comments came from a member of another ethnic group, the spin he would have put on it would have been different, even if it was uttered in a similar context.

Volksfuhrer:
I'm sick and tired of it. Each ethnic group wants to be at the top solely because it's a crass opportunity to exercise dominion over the other groups. And even worse, while on top, they gloat over their vulgar accomplishment.

The Tutsis lorded it over Hutus; and when power changed hands, Hutus returned the favour, shouting 'Hutu power' up and down. It is pretty petty-minded, and it's all over the African continent: hence our underdevelopment.

It is very sad.

laudate:
You saw how the chap you responded to, was quick to overlook the tribalism in Onyeama and Azikiwe's comments, and ascribe it to a desire to motivate their ethnic group, in the area of education. Can you see the hypocrisy? If such comments came from a member of another ethnic group, the spin he would have put on it would have been different, even if it was uttered in a similar context.

Mujtahida:
Is that not the trap the Kaduna declaration put those Arewa guys into? While I do not support them I realise how difficult it is to avoid such reactionary rhetorics. But you know as does nearly everyone the sustained hate speeches that Kanu churned out on radio Biafra against them, against the Yoruba, against Nigeria like a musician waxing songs. Yet nobody from the East condemned it. But you see how even in the North and from all over Nigeria people roundly condemned the Kaduna declaration and those who sought to justify it.

ProWalker:
There is always this tendency for conspiracy of silence among Ibos in situations where they should rise up to condemn on of their.
This is one of the justifications the Arewa boys gave, silence of the Igbo majority, creating an impression of acceptance.
It' still boil down to We Vs the rest of Nigeria mentality.

Mujtahida:
And it is dangerous. It brings out the beast in all of us. If only we are strong and mature enough to deal with our own Bleep ups. But we don't. Hausa man will never condemn boko harm because of the Igbo man. Igbo man will never condemn evil in their midst because of the Hausa man. By the time either party reacts to the conspiracy of silence of the other it evokes so much bad blood and the rift continues to widen.
Let me give an example: at the risk of being misunderstood as justifying the mayhem and butchering of the Igbos (which I ought not to do and cannot not do and I am not doing) let me say this as one who understands what in law is called 'chain of causation'. If for whatever it was, Ironsi had swiftly executed Ifeajuna, Nzeogwu, Ademilegun, Okafor and all the plotters of the 1966 coup then I can safely say that there would not have been a counter coup and possibly the massacre of the Igbos would have been obviated.

Our parents understood this principle when we were growing up. If you disrespected a Neighbour or family friend and that person comes to report you, they usually will discipline you right there in front of the person hurt by your behaviour so much sometimes it would be that person who will plead for your absolution. By an instinctive understand our parents knew that this kind of action satisfied and placated the god of vengeance that lives in every human heart. But today we twist things and try to justify evil just so to spite others who are affected by our evil acts. The results has been consistent:violence, hatred, animosity and endless conflict.
Forgive me, I tend to write too much

ProWalker:
Not at all, I enjoy reading from you.
Let me tell you one honest truth here (I know it's not right but I do it often), you are one of the few members here that I click the LIKE button on their comment, even without reading the comment yet, I only go back to read after then.
Even though as a Yoruba tribalist (I'm not ashamed to say I'm one), I don't usually agree with some of your neutral stand, nevertheless I still enjoy your sense of comportment in the face of provocation.

pazienza:
So a pupil who seek to top his class and be the numero uno is wrong and shouldn't dream and talk about that, as it might belittle his class mates if he comes top?

No one should strive to be top even if by hardwork, Everyone should just remain mediocre to avoid dominating the others?
Wow! Nice logic. What a good way to build a highly competitive top class nation.

Weaponize education? How so? What sort of twisted logic is that?

How exactly you can relate that to a man who seeks to dominate others, not by out working them, but by use of violence is a wonder.

Obviously, your world view is different from Igbo world view. The Igbo society is built on competition, where all seek to dominate and out do each other through hardwork, and in the end, all end up raising the standard of each other and bettering the entire community.
How exactly we can relate this to the North that seek to dominate via violence and coercion is beyond me.

What you seek to do is to keep the eagle walking, in other for it not to dominate the chickens who have wings but decided not to fly. And this is exactly why the Igbo would continue to resist your one Nigeria of mediocrity.

Mujtahida:
I am curious about this Igbo world view to compete, dominate and outdo each other and others(when you guys step outsides the boundaries of the East). Could this need to compete, to dominate and outdo be borne out of the need to compensate for the lack of an empire in your history so much so that you guys have sought to subconsciously build material empires(representing conquest and mirroring the socio-political empires of other ethnic groups) in other people's lands. Is that why you guys are quick to tag a place 'no man's land'?


Could this be why Azikiwe earnestly sought for a united Nigeria when at various times Sardauna and Awolowo had respectively sought to take their people and go their way?

Could this be why among the coup plotters soldiers of Igbo extraction were more in number and this need to dominate (empire drive) unconsciously predisposed them to killing other top politicians (this politicians one could say represented the extension of empire of their people in Nigeria who had to die for yours to be birthed)?

Could this be the reason why you guys hate the Yorubas (they call their patience sophistication and it infuriates you guys but they've had their empires so they can afford to be patient with the Nigerian project) because you perceive them as betrayers of that empire building ambition you nurse and also hate the Hausa and Fulani(they wrongly consider Nigeria to be an extension of the Caliphate) whom you perceive as preventing you guys from achieving that aim?You guys seem to have been frustrated and thwarted from having your moment in the sun where you can wear laurels and say 'here is Nigeria, we built it, of all the Ethnic groups we did it, we did it' Is that why you guys want Biafra just so that that need can be satisfied?
I just want to understand it. I ask this questions in all sincerity.
Laudate
Prowalker
Volksfuhrer
Ngozi123 make we discuss ooo.

PFRB:
Ejoor was not a major character in that coup.

Mujtahida:
That your first paragraph. I know it's an analogy so let me bring my own reality into it. Me I no know which school you go ooo but mehn my own school then Airforce Primary and Secondary Schools were the best of the best with red hot guys yet I can't remember that they went about boasting and bragging and seeking to dominate. In fact they were the most unassuming guys. They were just like the rest, no airs, only their results spoke for them and they were really respected. Who born you make you no respect them. It was ther due. They freely evoked from others respect, admiration, and the desire to do same. Had they sought to be 'dominant' I have no doubt that they would have continued to top charts but they would have failed in human relations. I think this is why the Yorubas are said to be sophisticated.

But seriously to frame this discourse in this way, as in as if I am saying that the best should wallow in the mud of mediocrity just so the cult of mediocrity can be feted (and I always envisaged you'd tow this path) is to miss my point. Remove that word 'dominate'. That is my simple point.
It makes you and the born to rule the same. By all means be your best. Let us have the best. Not to dominate our fellow country men but rather to inspire, to enlighten, to serve and push everybody towards prosperity.

pazienza:
My very apt and sublime reply to this your post got mistakenly deleted by me, before I could post it. It's frustrating. I'd try to reply this your post later.

PFRB:
Ejoor was not a major character in that coup.

Nigeria’s first coup, Biafra: British Secret files (Part Two)| The NEWS | Jun 19 2016 -|

To the political establishment in Enugu, the capital of Eastern Region, the first omen of the coup was at the airport. In the afternoon of 14th January, the President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios arrived for a visit in the Prime Minister’s plane to great pomp and pageantry. He had come to Lagos to attend the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference and intended to use the opportunity to visit all the regions in Nigeria. Enugu became his first and last point of call....

But this time around while awaiting the plane of the Archbishop Makarios, there was no guard of honour in place even though Okonweze was there representing Ejoor. Okpara was so angry that he summoned Okonweze and berated him publicly. “You say Lagos put a ban on guard of honour. What are they afraid of? That Enugu will be mistaken for the capital of Nigeria?” This was according to Charles James Treadwell, the Deputy British High Commissioner who witnessed the incident at the airport. Okonweze did not tell Okpara that he was keeping the troops ready for the confirmation of the H-hour.

Okpara then compensated for the humiliation at the airport with a sumptuous party in the evening the same time in Lagos, a cocktail party was starting at Brigadier Maimalari’s residence. Treadwell was there too. He wrote his report on 16th January a day after the mutiny:

“The gathering was the largest I ever witness at the Premier’s Lodge and included the Governor, Sir Francis Ibiam, most of the Ministers and Ministers of State, the senior civil servants and a host of political leaders summoned from all parts of the region. As a social occasion it was a grand affair.

Just before dawn the next morning, – Saturday 15th January – after the first shot had been fired in Lagos, Kaduna, Ibadan, troops of the 1st battalion moved into Independence Layout, Enugu, and took up positions outside the imposing residencies of the Premier and his Ministers. A barricade was set up across the access road into the area.

Other troops sealed off all the road connecting Enugu with the rest of the Region; others still closed down the transmitter of the Eastern Nigeria Broadcasting Service(ENBS) and a guard was mounted at the entrance to the studio building in one of the main streets of the town. In carrying out this operation, the Army achieved complete surprise.

“At seven o’clock, following a telephone call from Chief Justice of Eastern Nigeria, Sir Louis Mbanefo – who apart from the Ministers is the only Nigerian living in Independence Layout – I was in his house discussing strange turn of events with him. Independence Layout was already teeming with troops, (the Chief Justice did not know it but there was even one soldier standing behind a bush in his own garden), and the barricade, past which I had readily been permitted to drive, was protected by a strong army contingent carrying automatic weapons.

The Chief Justice was understandably puzzled. He had been told on telephone that the Army had seized power in Lagos and elsewhere in the country. He himself had been awakened at six o’clock by a rumbling of heavy lorries on the road outside and had seen troops spilling out into the Ministers’ houses. After we had spent some time in fruitless speculation, Sir Louis Mbanefo telephoned the premier and asked if he knew what was happening. No, answered the premier, it was all a mystery to him. He could see troops moving about his garden but he could not guess their purpose....

Seeing so many soldiers around the city, Treadwell and the American consul in Enugu Mr. R.J. Barnard decided to go the barracks to find out what was happening and if British and American citizens in the East needed to start getting worried. This was around 11 o’clock, 30 minutes before Ejoor arrived. Treadwell wrote:

“We were admitted without difficulty into the office of the acting commanding officer of the battalion, Major G. Okonweze, an Igbo from the mid-west, and spent a quarter of an hour with him and his adjutant, 2/Lt A.B. Umaru, a Hausa. In answer to our questions, Major Okonweze confessed that he was completely in the dark about the wider implications of the army move. He had received a single message during the night from Lagos instructing him to intensify internal security measures in the town and to restrict the movements of the ministers....

Ejoor had arrived and had taken charge. To annul the designs of the mutineers and to alleviate the anxieties of Enugu peoples, he ordered all soldiers back into the barracks.

Political leaders of NPC and NNDP persuasion had been assassinated in Lagos, Ibadan, Kaduna. Northern army officers had been put to death in these places. It was an Igbo plot, people whispered, and innocent Igbos would pay for it with their lives. The absence of any reference to the events in news broadcasts from Lagos heightened anxieties. During the afternoon, the ENBS relayed a BBC announcement, still tentative, about the coup; this was the first radio report heard by medium-wave listeners in Enugu. Ministers had meanwhile panicked badly.

Under restraints no longer, they poured out of their houses and headed for the countryside. Dr Okpara [abandoned his official limousine and] slid out of the town in a Volkswagen and went to Umuahia. He spent the next fortnight there moving from house to house each day in a bid to go to the ground completely. Chief J.U. Nwodo, the minister of local government, drove to his house at Ukehe, on Nsukka road, where he changed clothes with his gardener and made for the bush. ...

Indeed a company commanded by Captain Joseph Ihedigbo was heading towards Enugu. But they were the ones which Okonweze had dispatched to Benin to achieve the mutineers Midwest objectives. Since Ejoor had ordered their immediate return, they were travelling back to Apankwa barracks. But the top government functionaries mistakenly thought the feared reprisals from the barracks was about to begin.

The following day – Sunday 16th January – around 10am, Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu called. He was surprised Gabriel Okonweze was not the one who answered the phone but David Ejoor. According to the coup script, at that time, hungry worms supposed to be convening over the decomposing carcass of Ejoor and feast as they were doing to the others dead.

Nzeogwu then asked Ejoor to confirm whether he was loyal to the Revolution or against it. Ejoor answered he was loyal to Ironsi and the government of Nigeria. He then asked Ejoor if he wanted to go on air to that effect. Ejoor banged the phone on him. He did not feel the least answerable to a Major even as reports confirmed that they had killed Brigadier Ademulegun and his deputy Col Shodeinde, and Nzeogwu had become the de facto Brigadier and King of North. Ejoor then tried to update Ironsi in Lagos. It was Gowon the centripetal force behind stamping down the mutiny who came on line...

According to Ejoor, all the places he asked troops to be placed, his 2ice Okonweze negated them all. His suggestions were places that were strategically meaningless and tactically useless in defence against Nzeogwu’s aggression. It was then Ejoor said he concluded his 2ice was certainly with the mutineers. Okonweze even suggested that they disarm all the soldiers and publicly destroy the ammunition so that civilians would feel safe...

There had been rumours that since the death of Sardauna was announced, that Northern soldiers in the barracks will break loose and avenge his death. But Ejoor frustrated all Okonweze’s efforts to aid the Revolution’s agenda while Okonweze kept on denying he had anything to do with them. To Okonweze, Ejoor had become eligible for fresh death. He was too much in the way. http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2016/06/nigerias-first-coup-biafra-british-secret-files-part-two/6/

Diademk07:
Lmao..

A prison man was masterminding a coup? Yet he was still in the prison after the coup? Yet his no. 1 enemy which is Zik was still alive after the coup? LOL!

Bunch of manipulative weasels!

...... Ifeajuna fled to see Okigbo in Ibadan and then Ghana to see Brigadier Hasan Ghana’s Director of Military Intelligence and Lt Col David Zanlerigu, commander of Nkrumah’s Soviet-trained-and-equipped presidential bodyguards. (He was Ghana’s equivalent to Major Donatus Okafor, Commander of Federal Guards). Ifeajuna was intent on raising a specialised expeditionary force of 100 troops to finish the job while Okafor remained in the East until his arrest by Ojukwu two weeks later and subsequently transferred to Kirikiri.

It must not be ruled out that Ifeajuna was already suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and acute stress disorder so his sanity was no longer steady. For instance, from January 14 – 18, he did not sleep at all.

Even before that, being the chief engineer of the Revolution, he worked harder than anyone plotting the moves, recruiting and mobilising resources, planning cocktail, organising brigade conference and other cover-ups, yet still fulfilling his duties as Maimalari’s chief of staff to give the appearance that nothing unusual was going on. The accumulated stress must have prevented him from being normal and ensured he continued to make relentlessly irrational decisions.

Ifeajuna could have gone to team up with Nzeogwu in Kaduna where the Revolution was fruitful; he would not only have had a battalion to himself but the whole 1st Brigade which was the most powerful in the Army. But he and Nzeogwu had diverging egoistic agendas. The master plan was:

Phase 1: kill all senior military officers, abduct the Prime Minister, Finance Minister and the regional premiers;
Phase 2: the abducted would be forced to willingly sign and transfer power to the new highest ruling body in the country, Supreme Military Revolutionary Council which would then unite all the four regions under its dictatorship. Make a national broadcast to this effect and suspend the Parliament.
Phase 3: Free Obafemi Awolowo who had been unjustly stored in jail; manufacture their long-awaited Revolutionary Prime Minister out of him. Their ally S.G. Ikoku was there to persuade him if he disagreed.

But Nzeogwu went on air with a pre-recorded broadcast announcing his takeover of the Northern government and listed the public offences punishable by death (corruption, peddling rumours, homosexuality, etc)...

The unbridled clash of egos compelled Ifeajuna to disdain seeking support from Nzeogwu whom he thought was flawed and blindsided by the zeal for glory.

Ifeajuna absurdly chose to go to Ghana for help. Spending a day in Dahomey, he was picked up by David Zanlerigu and SG Ikoku one of Awolowo’s henchmen, after being driven there by Okigbo dressed as a young and stressed lady.

He quickly sat down to write a book as a ferocious critique of Nzeogwu who had gone on air and into the limelight to claim leadership of the North and the Revolution. (Achebe ignorant of the context later described the manuscript as self-serving; he did not know it was written against the self-almightyfication of Nzeogwu who was claiming what was not his. Only an ego roar could achieve that ferocious critique). The coup plotters wanted to manage Nigeria better than the politicians; they could not even manage themselves first.http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2016/06/nigerias-first-coup-biafra-british-secret-files-part-two/7/

SonofDevil:
who need narrative here when it is obvious igbos pull the triggers first on others

Kaduna nzeogwu killed ahmadu bello

Ifeajuna Killed Tafa balewa

Nwaobosi killed. SL akintola

You igbos murdered prime minister ,northern and western leaders [b]because of your greed and quest to rule ,[/b]igbos will continue to pay for their sins till Jesus come back

ProWalker:
A Zik of Africa that eventually turned to Owelle of Onitsha is not a tribalist? When then did he chase Eyo Ettah ?
You Ibos are just impossible

pazienza:
It also happened in my university days, that we did have some group of extremely brilliant students in my class .
These guys were good and they knew it and flaunted it. They were very boisterous about it. They would tell whoever that cared to listen how high their JAMB scores were, how excellent their WAEC were. These guys stay in the front row of the class, where they intimidate the rest of us with their vast knowledge, for while a lecturer will be teaching, these guys would be asking questions on topics the rest of us haven't even heard about, probably because those topics were at the end part of the course outline, but these guys had finished reading it all during the semester break, when the rest of us were busy resting from the stress of the previous semester.
They compete for the lecturers attention amongst themselves, while the rest of us watch in bewilderment, it was so unreal.
They all walk around the faculty like they were the owners of the block and look down on the rest of us. They don't mind teaching you, if you ask nicely, for they revere in showing off how good they were. They rob their success on everyone else face.

They told everyone around how they intended going to prestigious schools abroad for their postgraduate studies, they sing about it every day that it almost seemed like they were trying to convince and encourage themselves that they were capable of such feats, like they had deep seated inferiority complex and have a constant need to remind themselves not to give up.

When result comes out, these guys were never satisfied with distinction, they want to be the at the top of the class, and to them that's all that mattered , they want to be the one giving that valedictory speech on the D day and no one else.
They push each other to the limit, so much that the three of them end up giving the rest of the class a long score gap on all the quizzes and exams.

Do we hate them for working hard? Do we hate them for rubbing their success and future aspiration on our face, Do we kill them for seeking to remain on top of the class perpetually, gathering all the lecturers accolades and approval at our own detriment? Swaggering around the faculty like they were going to be the next Einsteins? Do we seek to destroy them for making the rest of us look like Dunces in class?

There were always temptation to want to harm them.
But we realized that the best way to beat them was at their own game.

So when the school went on break, many of us refused to go on break, we had had enough of their haughty behavior, we were going to beat them at their own game. We were going to clip their wings.

So we all stayed behind in school, and read like exam was tommorow, when school resumed, they and the lecturers were surprised that they were no longer shinning as bright as they did, most of all they knew, we knew too, they were still ahead, but only just! They were no longer shining as bright as they used to, not because we dimmed their light, but because we increased our own lights, that it was hard for theirs to stand out. The energy level of the class increased exponentially. Of course, not all of my coursemates took up the challenge.

From then henceforth, It became a rat race to the valedictory post, they found out that they were not as special as they thought they were, they were no longer coming top on all the quizzes and exams, they still had an edge, but it shook the very foundation of their grandiosity, they were forced to sweat hard just to stay ahead, we earned their respect and they cut down on their haughty behavior.
One of them ended up being the valedictorian, but only just! We couldn't surmount the upper hand the early years of their hard work gave them.

I look back today and smile, those guy's haughty success driven nature was a catalyst that many of us latched unto to improve ourselves. We have our respectable grades today, thanks to them, they dared us, and we responded in a positive way.

The problem was never them, the problem was us. Nothing is wrong with need and desire to dominate, as long as it's built on hardwork and merit.

Dumaknesset:
Cos it is only the first coup that led to war.

SuperS1Panther:
Osus are the most despicable and deceptive human beings on planet earth.

They wanted power at all cost, what they could not achieve at the ballot box, they wanted to achieve by shooting their way to it. They failed the same way they have always been failing in everything.

Thank you Pa Ejoor for giving us better insight into the dark and wicked hearts of the Osus.

PrecisionFx:
Nope. The 10 month Pogrom led to the war.

pazienza:
It also happened in my university days, that we did have some group of extremely brilliant students in my class .
These guys were good and they knew it and flaunted it. They were very boisterous about it. They would tell whoever that cared to listen how high their JAMB scores were, how excellent their WAEC were. These guys stay in the front row of the class, where they intimidate the rest of us with their vast knowledge, for while a lecturer will be teaching, these guys would be asking questions on topics the rest of us haven't even heard about, probably because those topics were at the end part of the course outline, but these guys had finished reading it all during the semester break, when the rest of us were busy resting from the stress of the previous semester.
They compete for the lecturers attention amongst themselves, while the rest of us watch in bewilderment, it was so unreal.
They all walk around the faculty like they were the owners of the block and look down on the rest of us. They don't mind teaching you, if you ask nicely, for they revere in showing off how good they were. They rob their success on everyone else face.

They told everyone around how they intended going to prestigious schools abroad for their postgraduate studies, they sing about it every day that it almost seemed like they were trying to convince and encourage themselves that they were capable of such feats, like they had deep seated inferiority complex and have a constant need to remind themselves not to give up.

When result comes out, these guys were never satisfied with distinction, they want to be the at the top of the class, and to them that's all that mattered , they want to be the one giving that valedictory speech on the D day and no one else.
They push each other to the limit, so much that the three of them end up giving the rest of the class a long score gap on all the quizzes and exams.

Do we hate them for working hard? Do we hate them for rubbing their success and future aspiration on our face, Do we kill them for seeking to remain on top of the class perpetually, gathering all the lecturers accolades and approval at our own detriment? Swaggering around the faculty like they were going to be the next Einsteins? Do we seek to destroy them for making the rest of us look like Dunces in class?

There were always temptation to want to harm them.
But we realized that the best way to beat them was at their own game.

So when the school went on break, many of us refused to go on break, we had had enough of their haughty behavior, we were going to beat them at their own game. We were going to clip their wings.

So we all stayed behind in school, and read like exam was tommorow, when school resumed, they and the lecturers were surprised that they were no longer shinning as bright as they did, most of all they knew, we knew too, they were still ahead, but only just! They were no longer shining as bright as they used to, not because we dimmed their light, but because we increased our own lights, that it was hard for theirs to stand out. The energy level of the class increased exponentially. Of course, not all of my coursemates took up the challenge.

From then henceforth, It became a rat race to the valedictory post, they found out that they were not as special as they thought they were, they were no longer coming top on all the quizzes and exams, they still had an edge, but it shook the very foundation of their grandiosity, they were forced to sweat hard just to stay ahead, we earned their respect and they cut down on their haughty behavior.
One of them ended up being the valedictorian, but only just! We couldn't surmount the upper hand the early years of their hard work gave them.

I look back today and smile, those guy's haughty success driven nature was a catalyst that many of us latched unto to improve ourselves. We have our respectable grades today, thanks to them, they dared us, and we responded in a positive way.

The problem was never them, the problem was us. Nothing is wrong with need and desire to dominate, as long as it's built on hardwork and merit.

Mujtahida:
Empty drums make the loudest noise. How terrible it must have been to go through school with Donald Trumps-brash, uncouth, insensitive and pig headed. You are holed up in your enclave. Step out and see how intelligent guys in other parts of Nigeria and outside Nigeria behave- they are just like everyone else only their grades distinguish them, nothing else. Not like the arrogant blowbags, even extremely stupid loudmouths (yes, cos being brilliant has not made them immune to stupidity) you have described above. I have schooled with a mix of the Ethnic groups right from childhood to postgraduate levels. None behaves that way. Maybe in the East that's how they behave.

pazienza:
Lol! I guess you have no rebuttal for my post.

So let me ask again? Do you plan to kill such self confident brilliant students because they are proud of their academic merit driven heights and blame them for attracting your demonic laziness and incompetence driven hate on them and justify your murder by turning logic on its head, or do you counter them by picking up your own books and outscoring them in tests and exams and at the end, bettering your own standard and theirs , elevating the societal competence level in the process?

pazienza:
It also happened in my university days, that we did have some group of extremely brilliant students in my class .
These guys were good and they knew it and flaunted it. They were very boisterous about it. They would tell whoever that cared to listen how high their JAMB scores were, how excellent their WAEC were. These guys stay in the front row of the class, where they intimidate the rest of us with their vast knowledge, for while a lecturer will be teaching, these guys would be asking questions on topics the rest of us haven't even heard about, probably because those topics were at the end part of the course outline, but these guys had finished reading it all during the semester break, when the rest of us were busy resting from the stress of the previous semester.
They compete for the lecturers attention amongst themselves, while the rest of us watch in bewilderment, it was so unreal.
They all walk around the faculty like they were the owners of the block and look down on the rest of us. They don't mind teaching you, if you ask nicely, for they revere in showing off how good they were. They rob their success on everyone else face.

They told everyone around how they intended going to prestigious schools abroad for their postgraduate studies, [/b]they sing about it every day that it almost seemed like they were trying to convince and encourage themselves that they were capable of such feats, like they had deep seated inferiority complex and have a constant need to remind themselves not to give up.[b]

When result comes out, these guys were never satisfied with distinction, they want to be the at the top of the class, and to them that's all that mattered , they want to be the one giving that valedictory speech on the D day and no one else.
They push each other to the limit, so much that the three of them end up giving the rest of the class a long score gap on all the quizzes and exams.

Do we hate them for working hard? Do we hate them for rubbing their success and future aspiration on our face, Do we kill them for seeking to remain on top of the class perpetually, gathering all the lecturers accolades and approval at our own detriment? Swaggering around the faculty like they were going to be the next Einsteins? Do we seek to destroy them for making the rest of us look like Dunces in class?

There were always temptation to want to harm them.
[/b]But we realized that the best way to beat them was at their own game[b].

So when the school went on break, many of us refused to go on break, we had had enough of their haughty behavior, we were going to beat them at their own game. We were going to clip their wings.

So we all stayed behind in school, and read like exam was tommorow, when school resumed, they and the lecturers were surprised that they were no longer shinning as bright as they did, most of all they knew, we knew too, they were still ahead, but only just! They were no longer shining as bright as they used to, not because we dimmed their light, but because we increased our own lights, that it was hard for theirs to stand out. The energy level of the class increased exponentially. Of course, not all of my coursemates took up the challenge.

From then henceforth, It became a rat race to the valedictory post, they found out that they were not as special as they thought they were, they were no longer coming top on all the quizzes and exams, they still had an edge, but it shook the very foundation of their grandiosity, they were forced to sweat hard just to stay ahead, we earned their respect and they cut down on their haughty behavior.
One of them ended up being the valedictorian, but only just! We couldn't surmount the upper hand the early years of their hard work gave them.

I look back today and smile, those guy's haughty success driven nature was a catalyst that many of us latched unto to improve ourselves. We have our respectable grades today, thanks to them, they dared us, and we responded in a positive way.

The problem was never them, the problem was us. Nothing is wrong with need and desire to dominate, as long as it's built on hardwork and merit.

Mujtahida:
Thanks for the highly revealing Freudian slip @the first bolded. So inferiority complex is at the base of all the noise, the posturings, the swagger and like so many say here the chest beating? What are you guys compensating for, what ethno-historic lack do you want to mask with the facade of supposed intelligence and know how? Lack of empire?

@the second bolded you surely was beaten at your own game in the reprisals for the first coup. Blood for blood but since you needed to be beaten at your own game you got more dead than you gave. Revenge will never be revenge unless it is more than the first injury. Sorry you were bloodied but that's human nature especially as it was in 1966.

pazienza:
What inferiority complex do you speak of?

Inferiority complex is when you seek to pull another down rather than build up yourself to stand taller. That is inferiority complex.

For your second paragraph. The coup remains an Awolowo coup, so I don't know the game you speak of.

Kagawa10:
Lol. It's documented that it's an Ibo coup, even Nzeogwu confirmed it, there's nothing a useless revisionist as yourself can do about it.