₦airaland Forum

What Ojukwu said...excerpts from Interview:

OJUKWU: 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 of 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. angry angry angry angry angry angry angry angryWe young men respected 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."

HypocriticalMod:
Ojukwu released Awolowo and that's 100% fact!

I see no difference between Igbo and the Moslem faith they have so much hatred for. You both are gullible. You get deceived easily, and you believe whatever they (Your Messiah) tell you. Reason Ojukwu wasted you lots and Kanu continue where he stop. Ojukwu doesn't even have power to release himself from Nigeria talk more of releasing a federal prisoner. Is you lots brain paining you?

konoplyanka:
Just as Trump is buying fighter jets from Aba.

100% fact!

Argue with your beloved ewedu..

Juliusmalema:
You called this letter( trash) a history material.......so u want our schools to educate our children that one certain man who died by rat poison (committing suicide) wrote a letter to be released.....Imagine....

Please my children will not undertake such a history and whichever curriculum that will bear such......


Teaching innocents minds what suicide means....and that awolowo drank rat poison and died....

No one will put the future of his/her child in jeopardy with such history.

Thesame way my children will not read the history of a coward that ran away from war with his dangling joystick while his men were been slaughtered. He later came back shamelessly to beg for amnesty in a country he never wanted to be part of and out of his foolishness and stupidity, he contested for the number one position of the country he said it wasn't his own and lost woefully. what a shame!

udemzyudex:
Best president we never had, same thing would have been said if Buhari didn't win the 2015 election cos many people thought he is the messiah Nigerians have been waiting for and here we are.

The difference is that baba Awo had a long history of excellence something of which can't be said of Buhari.

He is tried and tested.

Juliusmalema:
You called this letter( trash) a history material.......so u want our schools to educate our children that one certain man who died by rat poison (committing suicide) wrote a letter to be released.....Imagine....

Please my children will not undertake such a history and whichever curriculum that will bear such......


Teaching innocents minds what suicide means....and that awolowo drank rat poison and died....

No one will put the future of his/her child in jeopardy with such history.

ipob miscreant.. You are well known for your bitterness both home and abroad. Continue showing it off to the world.

great man
I see reason y yoruba never allign with d igbos
but where dis man fk
is not allowing naija to split
but wait oo
igbos are cause of Nigeria probs
very over ambitious pple
they introduced tribalism,unitary system
now they are shouting marginalization

SirToby:
Thesame way my children will not read the history of a coward that ran away from war with his dangling joystick while his men were been slaughtered. He later came back shamelessly to beg for amnesty in a country he never wanted to be part of and out of his foolishness and stupidity, he contested for the number one position of the country he said it wasn't his own and lost woefully. what a shame!

Cordinate ursef before ur case becomes like that of oshiomole.

IslamicRebel01:
APC is a jihadist party.

Muslims see Buhari as an islamic jihadist leader and not as a Nigerian. Nigeria is a British gift to Islamic North and so the muslims are scared whenever they hear anything like " breakup" or "referendum". To them, an infidel cannot rule Nigeria in peace. No muslim can support a christian. The only christian they can support is one that hates his people. The one that does not have the interest of his people at heart.

The only non muslims who support APC are RCCG members and some Southern Christians who hate themselves and hate their people. The ones that cannot speak their language and the ones that are slaves at heart. RCCG is a confirmed Islamic church....corrupt to the core. Erastus Akingbola, former intercontinental bank head, was a crook and a pastor of the church. Mallam Usman Osunbade is a crook and a pastor of the church. Hajiya Tinubu is also a crook and a pastor of the church. Not to talk of other DSS snipers and other crooks in government.

Tou can never see a southern freedom fighter who supports APC. You cannot see a proponent of resource countrol or referendum that supports APC because the party is built up for terrorist parasistes and they need Niger delta money for their islamic jihad.

Yoruba muslims.all aboard. Not one yoruba muslim has the brain to oppose APC. Once I see the name, I know I can expect zero independent reasoning.

Nigerian muslims are terrorised by the following names/words

"FREEDOM", "REFERENDUM", "BIAFRA", NNAMDI KANU",

The residue of lagatin injection in your system is already manifesting.

TooNoisy:
CONFIDENTIAL

28th March, 1966

The Supreme Commander and Head of the Federal Military Government, Lagos.

Thro: The Director of Prisons,

Prisons Headquarters Office,

Private Mail Bag 12522,

Lagos.

Sir:

PREROGATIVE OF MERCY: SECTION 101 (1) (a) OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FEDERATION ACT 1963

1. I am writing this petition for FREE PARDON under Section 101 (1) (a) of the Constitution of the Federation Act 1963, on behalf of myself and some of my colleagues whose names are set out in the Annexe hereto.

2. Before I go further, I would like to stress that the reasons which I advance in support of this petition, in my own behalf, basically hold good for my said colleagues. For they share the same political beliefs with me, and have intense and unquenchable loyalty for the ideals espoused by the Party which I have the honour to lead.

3. There are many grounds which could be submitted for your consideration in support of this petition. But I venture to think that SEVEN of them are enough and it is to these that I confine myself.

(1) In the course of my evidence during my trial, I stated that my Party favoured and was actively working for alliance with the N.C.N.C. as a means, among other things, of solving what I described as ‘the problem of Nigeria’, and strengthening the unity of the Federation. In October 1963 (that is about a month after my conviction and while my appeal to the Supreme Court was still pending), a Peace Committee headed by the Chief Justice of the Federation, Sir Adetokunbo Ademola, made overtures to me through my friend Alhaji W. A. Elias to the effect that if I abandoned my intention to enter into alliance with the N.C.N.C. which, according to the Committee, was an Ibo Organisation, and agreed to dissolve the Action Group and, in co-operation with Chief Akintola (now deceased), form an all-embracing Yoruba political party which I would lead and which would go into alliance with the N.P.C., I would be released from prison before the end of that year. I turned down these terms because I was of the considered opinion that their acceptance would further widen and exacerbate inter-tribal differences, and gravely undermine the unity of the Federation.
TODAY, THE MILITARY GOVERNMENT, OF WHICH YOU ARE THE HEAD, LEAVES NO ONE IN ANY DOUBT THAT IT STANDS FOR NIGERIAN UNITY. BUT IT MUST BE EMPHASISED, IN THIS CONNECTION, THAT IF I HAD PRIZED MY PERSONAL FREEDOM ABOVE THE UNITY OF NIGERIA, I WOULD HAVE BEEN SET FREE IN 1963. IN THAT EVENT, THIS PETITION WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN NECESSARY, AND THE WORK OF CONSOLIDATING THE UNITY OF THE COUNTRY TO WHICH YOU AND YOUR COLLEAGUES NOW SET YOUR HANDS MIGHT HAVE BEEN MADE EXTREMELY MORE INTRACTABLE AND IRKSOME.

As recently as 20th December, 1965, identical peace terms (the only variant being that the alliance with the N.C.N.C. which was now a reality should be broken) were made to me here, in Calabar Prison, by a delegation representing another Peace Committee headed by the self-same Chief Justice of the Federation and purporting to have the blessing of the Prime Minister, with the unequivocal promise that if I accepted the terms my release would follow almost immediately. I rejected the terms for the reasons which I have outlined above.

(2) One of the monsters which menaced the public life of this country up to 14th January, this year is OPPORTUNISM with its attendant evils of jobbery, venality, corruption, and unabashed self-interest. From all accounts, you are inflexibly resolved to destroy this monster. That was precisely what my colleagues and I had tried to do before we were rendered hors de combat since 29th May, 1962.
On two different occasions I was offered, first the post of Deputy Prime Minister (before May 1962), and second that of Deputy Governor-General (in August 1962), if I would agree to fold up the Opposition and join in a National Government. I declined the two offers because they were designed exclusively to gratify my self-interest, with no thought of fostering any political moral principle which could benefit the people of Nigeria. The learned Judge who presided over the Treasonable Felony Trial, commented unfavourably on my non-acceptance of one of these posts and held that my action lent weight to the case of the Prosecution against me. I must say, however, that in all conscience, I felt and still feel that a truly public-spirited person should accept public office not for what he can get for himself — such as the profit and glamour of office — but for the opportunity which it offers him of serving his people to the best of his ability, by promoting their welfare and happiness. To me, the two aforementioned posts were sinecures, and were intended to immobilise my talents and stultify the role of watch-dog which the people of Nigeria looked upon me to play on their behalf, at that juncture in our political evolution.

(3) This leads me to the third ground. From newspaper reports, it would appear that you and your colleagues — like all well-meaning Nigerians — are anxious that on the termination of the present military rule, Nigeria should become a flourishing democracy. Now, democracy is a political doctrine which is very intimately dear to my heart. It was to the end that it might be accepted as a way of life in all parts of the Federation that I campaigned most vigorously and relentlessly in the Northern Provinces of Nigeria, from 1957 to 1962, to the implacable annoyance of some of my political adversaries. It was to the end that this doctrine might survive the severe onslaught of opportunist and mercenary politics that I refused to succumb to the temptation of the National Government. Many views — some of them well-considered and respectable — have been expressed about the value or disvalue of opposition as a feature of public life in a newly emergent African State. Speaking for my party, I submit that the Opposition which I led did, to all intents and purposes, justify its existence and was acclaimed by the masses of our people as essential and indispensable to rapid- national growth. This was so, because it was unexceptionably constructive. The abrogation of the Anglo-Nigeria Defence Pact was one of the feathers in its cap. Some of the policies which the Government of the day later adopted — such as the creation of a Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the introduction of drastic measures to correct our balance of payments deficit — were among those persistently and constructively urged by the Opposition inside and outside Parliament.
The point I wish to emphasise here is that it was not out of spite or hatred for any one that I chose to remain in Opposition instead of joining the much-talked-of National Government. I did so in order to serve our people to the best of my ability in the position in which their votes had placed my Party, and to ensure that the young plant of democracy grows into a sturdy flourishing tree in Nigeria.

(4) Since the declaration of emergency in the Western Region on 29th May, 1962, political tension has existed in Western Nigeria. My conviction on 11th September, 1963, together with the surrounding bizarre circumstances, has led not only to the heightening of that tension in Western Nigeria but also to its profuse and irrepressible percolation to the other parts of the Federation. The result is that it can be said, without much fear of contradiction, that today the majority of our people are passionately concerned about and fervently solicitous for the release of myself and my colleagues.
The work of reconstruction on which you and your colleagues have embarked demands that all the citizens of Nigeria in their respective callings should give of their maximum best. A state of psychological tension, however much it may be brought under control or repressed, does not and cannot conduce to maximum efficiency. In spite of themselves, people labouring under emotions which this kind of tension automatically generates are bound to make avoidable mistakes which in their turn have adverse effects on national progress.

It is, therefore, in the national interest that this tension should be relaxed, if possible, without further delay.

(5) A petition of this kind is, by its very nature, bound to be replete with self-adulation. I hope and trust that, in the circumstances, this is excusable. It is in this hope and trust that I assert that my colleagues and I have the qualifications and capacity to render invaluable services to our people and fatherland. Every day that we spend in prison, therefore, must be regarded as TWENTY-FOUR UNFORGIVING HOURS OF TRULY VALUABLE SERVICES LOST TO OUR YOUNG COUNTRY. Even my most inveterate enemies have given the following testimony about me: ‘AWOLOWO HAS STILL A GREAT DEAL TO GIVE TO THIS COUNTRY.’
No country however advanced and civilised can afford to waste any of its talents, be they ever so small. Nigeria is too young to bury some of her talents as she was compelled to do under the old regime.

It is within your power to restore my colleagues and me to a position where our fatherland can again rejoice at the contributions which we are capable of making to its progress, welfare and happiness.

(6) Nigeria is now SIXTY-SIX MONTHS old as an independent State. The final phase in the struggle for Nigeria’s independence was initiated by my Party in the historic Self-Government motion moved by Chief Anthony Enahoro and supported by me on 31st March, 1953. IT SHOULD BE REGARDED AS MORE THAN IRONICAL, AND AS PALPABLY TRAGIC, THAT TWO OF THE ARCHITECTS OF THAT INDEPENDENCE AND, INDEED, THE PACE-SETTERS AND ACCELERATORS OF ITS FINAL PHASE SHOULD BE UNFREE IN A FREE NIGERIA.
In precise terms, I have spent FORTY-SIX out of the SIXTY-SIX MONTHS of independence in one form of confinement or another. I happened to know that the leaders of the old civilian regime, in spite of themselves, did not feel quite easy in their conscience about the plight into which they had manoeuvred me in the scheme of things; and I dare to express the hope and belief that you, personally view my present confinement with concern and disapproval.

(7) It is usual — almost invariably the case — on the accession of a revolutionary regime, for political prisoners and, indeed, other prisoners of some note, to be released as a mark of disapproval of some of the doings of the old regime, or in token of the new dawn of freedom which comes in the wake of the new regime.
It would be invidious to quote unspecific instances. But in the case of my colleagues and myself, by courageously and adamantly opposing the evils which your regime now denounces in the former civilian administration, I think we are perfectly justified if we expect you to regard us as being in tune with your yearnings and aspirations for Nigeria, and therefore entitled to our personal freedoms under your dispensation.

4. In view of the foregoing reasons which clearly demonstrate

(i) that I have always and, under trying circumstances, steadfastly and unyieldingly

(a) stood for the UNITY OF NIGERIA,

(b) been opposed to POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM with its attendant evils,

(c) fostered the growth of DEMOCRACY in Nigeria;

(ii) that my incarceration

(a) has led to the heightening of political tension among Nigerians, which tension can only be relaxed by my release,

(b) has deprived our fatherland of invaluable services such as we have rendered before, and can still render now and in future, in greater measure; and

(iii) that the evils which my colleagues and I condemned and valiantly refused to compromise with in the old civilian government are what you now quite rightly denounce, and are taking active steps to remove in order to pave the way for national and beneficial reconstruction,

I most sincerely appeal to you to be good enough to exercise, in favour of myself and my colleagues, the prerogative of mercy vested in you by Section 10 (I) (i) (a) of the Constitution of the Federation Act 1963, by granting me as well as each of my colleagues A FREE PARDON. If you do, your action will be most warmly, heartily, and popularly applauded at home and abroad, and you will go down to history as soldier, statesmen, and humanitarian.

Yours truly,

OBAFEMI AWOLOWO

A. THOSE CONVICTED FOR TREASONABLE FELONY

1. THOSE STILL SERVING THEIR TERMS

1. Chief Obafemi Awolowo

2. Chief Anthony Enahoro

3. Mr. Lateef K. Jakande

4. Mr. Dapo Omisade

5. Mr. S.A. Onitiri

6. Mr. Gabby Sasore

7. Mr. Sunday Ebietoma

8. Mr. U.I. Nwaobiala

2. THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY SERVED THEIR TERMS

1. Mr. S.A. Otubanjo

2. Mr. S.J. Umoren

3. Mr. S. Oyesile

B. THOSE WHO HAVE NOT YET BEEN TRIED

1. Mr. S.G. Ikoku

2. Mr. Ayo Adebanjo

3. Mr. James Aluko

— with Dr.Chukwuma Christopher Osaji, Taiwo Osunsanya, Bello Isiaka and 59 others.


https://ihuanedo.ning.com/m/group/discussion?id=2971192%3ATopic%3A65391

Plz post the picture of the letter. Anybody could fabricate what u be written.

SirToby:
Thesame way my children will not read the history of a coward that ran away from war with his dangling joystick while his men were been slaughtered. He later came back shamelessly to beg for amnesty in a country he never wanted to be part of and out of his foolishness and stupidity, he contested for the number one position of the country he said it wasn't his own and lost woefully. what a shame!

are you minding them.. Stop gracing them with response. Gullible people. Ojujwu is such a shameless man.. Vying for a presidential post in a country you want to tear apart. No greater shame.

I will later take time to read through, the voice of wisdom.

EazyMoh:
Chai e pain am o!
But the letter sounded like Awo was actually glad Tafawa Balewa and co were murdered he didn't make any attempt to condemn it no toppling of our young democracy. Or does it mean the first coup plotters and Ironsi were in cohorts?
Anyway I'd like to know why despite this romantic letter Ironsi never released him, till Gowon did.

that is why Gowon is still alive

Sagay212:
and all the flat headed ipod miscreants that oju iku wasted their miserable lives deserved more than death. funny enough ipod miscreants are still dying in numbers out of foolish.ness, gullibility, envy, hatred and ignorance.

I can't make out any sense of what u saying?

What is ipod?
What is oju iku.....is it an abiku spirit?

Gather urself before u story will be like that of oshiomole.

IntrovertedK:
ipob miscreant.. You are well known for your bitterness both home and abroad. Continue showing it off to the world.

I choptas not.

Juliusmalema:
Cordinate ursef before ur case becomes like that of oshiomole.

What is my business with Oshiomiole ? Does that change the fact that Ojukwu is a coward and ran away with his sterile joystick. ? Thanks to FFK that helped him with his bedroom duties. Ojukwu is useless.

IntrovertedK:
are you minding them.. Stop gracing them with response. Gullible people. Ojujwu is such a shameless man.. Vying for a presidential post in a country you want to tear apart. No greater shame.

Ojukwu is as stupid and confused as his brain washed followers. See them hailing saraki and Atiku and screaming biafra or death with other mouth. Those guys are just idiotic and i spit on them..

udemzyudex:
Best president we never had, same thing would have been said if Buhari didn't win the 2015 election cos many people thought he is the messiah Nigerians have been waiting for and here we are.

God bless you. You are very correct.

I wish the OP shared a snapshot of the original letter. What a brilliant man. Well articulated points.

SirToby:
What is my business with Oshiomiole ? Does that change the fact that Ojukwu is a coward and ran away with his sterile joystick. ? Thanks to FFK that helped him with his bedroom duties. Ojukwu is useless.

Hmmmm.......am warning u are already behaving like oshiomole....too much ranting...

After killing Akintola and other Yoruba leaders, you expect Awolowo to form alliance with you? Una dey craze. Ibos are lucky Yorubas did not slaughter them the way the North did. You una try that nonsense again, the North will child's play compared to the West

Thank you.

Ah! I’m amazed at his eloquence.

He must have been intimidating to the people in power at the time. And no wonder they would want him to join their government and not remain in opposition. No right thinking person would want such a person as a political enemy. He was way way ahead and knew where he wanted to take Nigeria.

Well that’s all but history now. We used to have leaders in Nigeria!

Ovamboland:
This man was far ahead of his time and till now Nigeria is still too generally backward to understand or deserve him.
In a different country he would have ended as a respected world leader

tyson99:
Sharap I am Yoruba and honestly this man led us to where we are today he could have allowed us to split then but greediness won't and he swindled money too so not moved




I am waiting for bashing

Which bashing? Cos you said the truth?

mightguy:
Awo the backstaber. That was y he killed himself via poison

He backstab your father?

IntrovertedK:
so after he fought hard with his blood and sweat to make sure Nigeria gainher independence and Ironsi abandoning him in the prison for no reason, you expect him to join forces with Ojukwu to split the country he sweat blood to help gain independence? And to support a certain tribe that abandoned him in prison against the one that set him free? You sure knows nothing. Why didn't Nnamdi Azikwe and Alvan Ikoku also do everything to support their kinsmen in their fight that year?

You are demented, there is nobody who 'terrorized' the british government for independence like Igboa like Dr Zik with his pen. Educated in the USA, he was a non-conformist to british colonial ideals.

It's the reason the British ensured the Igbos never got to the crux of political power when they finally handed over. Which Awo fought for independence? You yoromuslimz and your funny revisionism are dead on arrival.

SirToby:
Ojukwu is as stupid and confused as his brain washed followers. See them hailing saraki and Atiku and screaming biafra or death with other mouth. Those guys are just idiotic and i spit on them..

my brother, their matter is out of this world. To even think they are now the major region supporting PDP is just too funny. Same PDP they hate with passion and left for SW for long. Really really confused. They are campaigning more for Atiku even more than his own kinsmen yet they'd always shout some people are slave bla bla. It's a shame my brother. Big shame on them. They'd forever remain underdog in Nigeria.

This Demoracy which some fought for is now what many that were not part of the struggle are messing up.

[s]

thatigboman:
my friend, behave. It was Ojukwu that released the treasonous war criminal awolowo

[/s]Ojukwu ko, imukwu ni, or enuknwu.

isnovic:
.....By the very decree establishing the National Military Government under Ironsi, the Governor of the Eastern Group of provinces was a member of the Supreme Military Council, and the Chief agent of the federal government in the East. All federal institutions, including the Federal Prison Services, were under his jurisdiction and authority. That is one. As at August 3 1966, with a coup in evolution which had not succeeded in the East, the laws of the federation ceased to exist in the East. The only laws that existed in areas under Ojukwu's command were the emergency laws that he assumed. No tributes, declarations or orders by any other authority outside of the East under any guise of law could be enforced in the East. Basically, Nigeria temporarily ceased to exist. That is two.

Finally, Awo was not in a position to refuse his own release. In fact, he was not in any position to discuss the terms of his own release. As at July 1966 Awo was politically, perhaps not irrelevant, but inconsequential. He had begged to be released, and out of pure humanitarian consideration, and following the fervent advocacy of Francis Adekunle Fajuyi at the SMC, the highest body in the land voted to release him, and had set Awo's release in motion. It was no longer a question of when or how to release him. It was a question of what time and by what means he'd get to Lagos on July 29. Fajuyi's persistence earned him the perjorative, "Action Grouper" by Hassan Kastina, and in fact as George Kurubo who was Secretary of the Supreme Military Council once confirmed to me, when the votes to release Awo were taken, only Hassan Usman Kastina, of the four governors declined. Awo was certainly to be placed in transitional housing. So what? Mandela was kept in transitional housing before his full debriefing took place. It does not remove the facts of his release." - Obi Nwakanma

Bookmarked!

[s]

phase1:
You are demented, there is nobody who 'terrorized' the british government for independence like Igboa like Dr Zik with his pen. Educated in the USA, he was a non-conformist to british colonial ideals.

It's the reason the British ensured the Igbos never got to the crux of political power when they finally handed over. Which Awo fought for independence. You yoromuslimz and your revisionism are dead on arrival.

[/s]Zik fight my foot. Are you talking of that aboki willing slave?

phase1:
You are demented, there is nobody who 'terrorized' the british government for independence like Igboa like Dr Zik with his pen. Educated in the USA, he was a non-conformist to british colonial ideals.

It's the reason the British ensured the Igbos never got to the crux of political power when they finally handed over. Which Awo fought for independence. You yoromuslimz and your revisionism are dead on arrival.

are you sure the most important part of your brain is not on strike? Brits don't want your people to get to whatever you called it in Nigeria politics buh still, Nigeria was handed over to the combination of Hausa/Igbo. So how was that possible? Blame your forefathers that has always bn filled with bitterness and hatred, if not Igbos would never be an underdog like they are now. I know you people will forever remain like that till the second coming anyway. Well, maybe someday the coming generations might be blessed with brain on that their flat heads. Cuz the past and the presents lacks that major part of the head.