aribisala0:
Betrayed?

So Ojukwu betrayed Nigeria by starting Biafra?

aribisala0:


Sure there were Igbos in the Nigerian Army too

The issue here is of numbers.


Numbers my friend.


It was an Igbo Army and an Igbo enterprise

Logan23:


What a hopelessly stupid reaction from me.

BlackAdam55:
I wonder what logan23 was thinking when he typed that, too many unstable people running loose here.

BlackAdam55:
Igbos didn't found Bonny, maybe opobo but never Bonny.

Logan23:
Are u agreeing that Igbos founded bonny n opobo but they didnt found okrika?

BlackAdam55:
No!

Logan23:
Are u agreeing that Igbos founded bonny n opobo but they didnt found okrika?

pazienza:



You are talking nonsense again to appear unbiased and woke!

Sabo war was not specifically targeted at minorities.
It was done all over Igbo land. Heck, Ifeajuna was killed for being a Sabo. Many people found harbouring or aiding Nigerian soldiers in Igbo land were also killed and in many cases their family houses bunt.
Ifeajuna family members became endangered species in Igboland, their family houses were burnt.
The Igbos simply don't cry about sabos killed in their hometowns and the Sabos themselves are so ashamed of themselves to speak up.

There was nothing that happened in minority areas that didn't happen in Igbo areas.
My mum told me of how some unruly Biafran soldiers invaded where they were staying as refugees in another town and forced the man hosting them to give up his goats, when the man refused, he was beaten to pulp and suffered injuries.

If this happened in minority area, it would be exaggerated as Igbos maltreating them and the man would poison the heart of his children against Igbos rather than see it as soldiers indiscipline.

Towns were relocated steadily in Biafra during combats with Nigerian army to reduce civilian casualties.
No Igbo town cried foul when they were asked to vacate town for Biafran soldiers to build ambush for FG forces.
But every case of such relocation in minorities areas, the parents went and told their children stories of how they were forced out of their homes at gun point by Igbo soldiers who wanted to repopulate their towns with Igbos after the war and rename the town.

Igbos like you who go about trying to sound unbiased by misrepresenting facts are dangerous, and are a problem and not a solution.

pazienza:
HarryDuce



All I submitted were are the reality.



This is not about what is the business of a fishermen and what isn't, no Igbo man gives a damn about your business.
The point of my post is to dispel the notion that whatever perceived sabo war that happened in Minority area was isolated case, when in truth this happened everywhere in Biafra, Igboland inclusive.
When we acknowledge the above fact, then we can all accept that the "they vs us" narrative the minorities created in their mind was only but an illusion born out of innate Igbophobia.

What your people think is immaterial, what matters is that we acknowledge that that sabo campaign cut across all ethnicities in Biafra and not targeted at minorities.





My people in Ogidi were asked to leave the village when it was obvious Onitsha was going to fall, Biafran soldiers laid many mines in the villages that we kept discovering after the war. Abagana people had to be relocated for the Biafran soldiers to set up their ambush.
This was the theme throughout the war. The idea was to protect the civilian population from casualties.



Igbos constituted 2/3 of Eastern region population, and of course the Biafran army was always going to have majority Igbo soldiers. Its simple common sense. Biafran soldiers had minorities soldiers as well. Trying to pin any indiscipline of the Biafran soldiers on Ndiigbo alone is mischievous and would be resisted by any sensible Igbo.
We were all aware of how some of your minority brothers who were in Biafra army tried to use the Biafra army to fight their local enemies in your land, they were using it to abuse and kill each. I have once heard a sincere minority admit to the above point.
You cannot hide behind Biafra and pin your internal strife on Ndiigbo. It will not happen.It was that same internal strife within the minorities where you have sharp division between the pro Biafrans and pro Nigeria that resulted in Saro wiwa killing those Ogoni elders who were pro Biafra by inciting his own faction to murder them.



Of course, the minorities stock in trade has always been to lay false accusations against Ndiigbo.
Lying against Ndiigbo is your main thing, that was why Willink report was set up and all your lies against Ndiigbo then were all shown to all lack any iota of Truth. You didn't start today.

Logan23:


Anti igbo sentiments started before the sabo era...Adaka boro n SaroWiwa betrayed biafra by taking up arms long before the sabo era and the sabo era was largely towards the end of the war

Yujin:
Well OP, I've studied for long to identify this Igbo/Ijaw palavar specifically than the entire Eastern minority vs Igbo issue. I started right from the slave trade era down to the post war time to really understand the problem and my discovery was these.
The Igbo/Ijaw interaction was more pronounced in the Bonny area and the impression the Ijaws had about the Igbos as at the time wasn't wholistic. With a good number of Ijaws being the middlemen in the trade of slaves(where Igbos were more than 70%), they were satisfied with the relationship and wanted it to stay that way. Trouble started when slave trade ended and palm oil became the new business. The Ijaws still remained the middle men but now the Igbos working with them we're the ones handling the running of the business and some how distinguished themselves in the business perhaps because they know more about the source of the product. Remember Jaja and how he later left Bonny to Opobo. After he went to Opobo, palm oil scarcity hit Bonny and drastically affected here economy coupled with that, the Europeans had by this time developed the steam engine and could navigate upstream to buy the palm oil and other products directly from those that produce it in the hinterland. It was a blow to the economy of most Ijaw communities at the coast and they disliked it greatly eg Brass people use to buy palm oil from Igbos of Aboh make a lot of money from it but with this, they lost all as the British went directly to Aboh to buy at a cheaper rate. This was one of the first times the anger for the Igbos started.
Another episode was during the opening up of PH and the early politics that happened then. A lot of Igbos from the hinterland (Onitsha and Owerri) came down to PH to participate and the numbers was just too overwhelming that a lot of Ijaws became scared. Unfortunately, some of these Igbos didn't manage the situation well such that the Ijaws felt left out. You know, as at the time(1916-1950), crude oil was not in the picture as the whole Eastern region survived mostly on palm oil(Igbo and Akwa/Cross area) and coal (Enugu). This discontent of the Ijaws who had dealt earlier with fewer Igbos and at a more dignified position became so high now that they are dealing with a bigger population than they thought saw the call for a commission of inquiry into their perceived unfair treatment. The commission was called the Willinks Commission and you can read up it's findings online. Oil was discovered in different parts of the hinterland in the late 30s but the British only opened up when they discovered the one at Oloibiri(Bayelsa) in 1956. With this announcement came a lot of pressure for the creation of states for the minorities. Like I said earlier, the Igbos from the hinterland who controlled the politics of the Eastern region although tried to balance things, they made some mistakes perhaps of oversight that didn't go down well with the Ijaws and co and especially in the Port Harcourt area that the ill-feelings lingered. The Willink's Commission confirmed the fairness of the Igbos in the various areas of complain yet the minorities weren't satisfied and still wanted their own state possibly because of Oloibiri. It was after this time that Adaka Boro came up.
One of the major complains of Boro was that the PH refinery was to have been built in Oloibiri and not PH (remember I mentioned PH as one of the major source of concern) and he formed his NDVF for the Ijaw people which PH wasn't part of it. As the situation will be, the federal government under Ironsi stopped it and he was arrested. Note the condition of Nigeria under Ironsi was tensed and unstable. When the war started, Boro was released and commissioned into the Nigerian Army to organize other Ijaw youths to fight Biafra starting from the Bonny area to PH. Meanwhile, other Ijaws were fighting for Biafra too. To cut long story short, after the capture of PH, Boro was killed by those that released him and Biafra lost with many Igbos of the hinterland leaving their properties in the same PH which was seized by the newly created Rivers State under an Ijawman with the blessing of the Gowon led FG. This became the notorious ' abandoned property' we hear today.
To worsen the problem, many Rivers State Igbos were forced to deny their identity to fit into the expectation of Old Rivers State with Ijaws inside hence the renaming of communities and creation of ethnic nationalities in almost every local government. That Rivers State was the type of relationship the Ijaws wanted to have with the Igbos(this is my personal understanding of the matter). Soon afterwards came the cry for marginalisation once again but this time against the Ijaws by both the Igbos of Rivers State and the Ogonis which led to the creation of Bayelsa state in 1996.
In conclusion, I believe the problem between both groups is that of who controls the territory and possibly is in charge of the wealth of the land. The Ijaws prefer to deal with a manageble population of Igbos so they can be in charge as it was in pre 1900 whereas the Igbos failed to grant the Ijaws the level of autonomy and control that would shake off the fear of Igbo domination. I believe that if we discuss these things properly, we can work together and salvage the leftovers of what the current thieves are stealing from our lands. Opobo was a success and we can create an even better success today.
Note: I skipped the 'sabo era' because I'm yet to read of any disproportionate treatment of communities who were accused of sabotaging the Biafran struggle because the Biafran army was made up of all tribes of the old Eastern region.

Sinistami:


Nothing like Igbophobia ...It's natural for Minorities to think that way when a majority filled army starts recking havoc in their communities. You make yourselves feel too special.

Sinistami:



If a lot of saboteurs were actually from the Igbo hinterland then why do you people always pin the minorities as being the main saboteurs. The way I'm seeing you too also have a problem.

You talked about some unruly Biafran soldiers attacking a man who refused to give up his goats. Now think of it, If those soldiers were Yoruba wouldn't that man think of Yorubas as scum? It's not Igbophobia it happens everywhere.
I can even accuse you Igbos of having Hausa/fulani phobia

Logan23:




Go back and read ur previous post to me

BlackAdam55:
You are a dullard aren't you? You need to focus on your education more!

pazienza:


No its not natural to be manufacturing lies against Ndiigbo.
How exactly is asking civilian population to vacate a town that is about to be a theater of war between Biafran soldiers and Nigerian army wrecking havoc?

You obviously were fed same Igbophobic lies by your parents.

pazienza:


Because the saboteurs in minority areas have become elevated to heroes with narratives twisted to portray them as people who defended their land against Igbos who wanted to conquer and possess their lands.
It took Igbo support for GEJ for Asari Dokubo to come out plain on how the saboteurs in Buguma after the town fell to FG forced his grandfather the then Amanyanabo to abdicate his throne, because the king was pro Biafra.

pazienza:
HarryDuce



All I submitted were are the reality.



This is not about what is the business of a fishermen and what isn't, no Igbo man gives a damn about your business.
The point of my post is to dispel the notion that whatever perceived sabo war that happened in Minority area was isolated case, when in truth this happened everywhere in Biafra, Igboland inclusive.
When we acknowledge the above fact, then we can all accept that the "they vs us" narrative the minorities created in their mind was only but an illusion born out of innate Igbophobia.

What your people think is immaterial, what matters is that we acknowledge that that sabo campaign cut across all ethnicities in Biafra and not targeted at minorities.





My people in Ogidi were asked to leave the village when it was obvious Onitsha was going to fall, Biafran soldiers laid many mines in the villages that we kept discovering after the war. Abagana people had to be relocated for the Biafran soldiers to set up their ambush.
This was the theme throughout the war. The idea was to protect the civilian population from casualties.



Igbos constituted 2/3 of Eastern region population, and of course the Biafran army was always going to have majority Igbo soldiers. Its simple common sense. Biafran soldiers had minorities soldiers as well. Trying to pin any indiscipline of the Biafran soldiers on Ndiigbo alone is mischievous and would be resisted by any sensible Igbo.
We were all aware of how some of your minority brothers who were in Biafra army tried to use the Biafra army to fight their local enemies in your land, they were using it to abuse and kill each. I have once heard a sincere minority admit to the above point.
You cannot hide behind Biafra and pin your internal strife on Ndiigbo. It will not happen.It was that same internal strife within the minorities where you have sharp division between the pro Biafrans and pro Nigeria that resulted in Saro wiwa killing those Ogoni elders who were pro Biafra by inciting his own faction to murder them.



Of course, the minorities stock in trade has always been to lay false accusations against Ndiigbo.
Lying against Ndiigbo is your main thing, that was why Willink report was set up and all your lies against Ndiigbo then were all shown to all lack any iota of Truth. You didn't start today.

Sinistami:



How many of the saboteurs were hailed as heroes because of being a sabo?

Is it Isaac Boro? Isaac Boro isn't praised for being a saboteur. He's only praised for being the first Ijaw man to challenge the Federal and Eastern Govt , trying to liberate the Ijaws from Nigeria by creating a Niger Delta republic. After then he was captured by your Ojukwu who your people claim only quenched an uprising in the Niger Delta. The main reason Adaka Boro fought Biafra was because Ojukwu never gave him an apology and also added Ijaw land that Boro had fought for, to Biafra without consultation. His role in the civil war still leaves educated Ijaws splitted on wether he did wrong or good.

As for Sarowiwa, I know people don't celeberate him for sabotaging the Biafra struggle but for purely different reasons.

Sinistami:


You don't get it. You don't understand the difference between a lie and what you feel is the truth but isn't.

The Minorities felt that way because that was what it felt like. Most of them at that time were uneducated and really saw the whole Biafra thing as an Igbo war with the federal government. There's nobody sitting any where manufacturing lies. It's just a product of Minority being afraid of Majority. Stop making your self look too special.

soldiers --made of mostly Igbos might I add-- invaded and evacuated minority communities, FACT.

Nobody is lying against you. Or do you support the actions of the soldiers? Why are you trying so hard to gloss over their attrocities? Is it because they were mostly Igbo? You're trying to save face anyway so It's your business and your business alone.

The victimised "Biafrans leaders" who were 90% Igbos did not make provision for food or shelter. They just chased people off the place they've known for most of their lives because they feared the minorities were saboteurs or potential saboteurs -- a useless notion right from the onset. Thanks to the Nigerian army, a lot of those communities would've suffered starvation and would've been ghost towns by now.

If you choose to wallow in ignorance because of your pride or victimhood, it's entirely your business.

The minorities did not hold a secret meeting with each other to fabricate lies that they'll tell the world once the issue of Biafra is brought up. If you don't see the ridiculousness in this I'm afraid you can't see sense in anything except what you've been hardwired to believe.

History is what your lies cannot change though

BIAFRA’S PROVINCES & ADMINISTRATORS
Aba
Mr. Moses Onwuma*
Abakaliki
Mr. Samuel Mgbada
Annang
Chief Ekukinam Bassey
Awka
Mr. Paul Nwokedi
Calabar
Prof. Eyo Bassey Ndem
Degema
Mr. S. N. Dikibo
Eket
Mr. S. J. Edoho
Enugu
Mr. Christian Chukwuma Onoh
Nsukka
Mr. Frank Onyeke
Ogoja
Mr. Frank Ugbut
Oji River
Dr. Godwin A. Odenigwe
Okigwe
Mr. Sam I. Mbakwe
Onitsha
Mr. R. I. Iweka
Opobo
Dr. S. J. Cookey
Orlu
Mr. R. I. Uzoma
Owerri
Mr. Duke Njiribeakor
Port Harcourt
Mr. Emmanuel Aguma
Umuahia
Mr. Simeon Ojukwu
Uyo
Chief J. Udo-Affiah
Yenegoa
Chief Frank Opigo

Non-Igbo speaking Biafrans who were Top Officials during the war of genocide waged on Biafrans by Nigeria and British Government
Major General Philip Effiong – Biafra’s Chief of General Staff and Head of State.
Brigadier Willie Archibong – Commander Biafra’s 58 Brigade – Major Battle – Ikot Ekpene
Colonel Nsudoh – Commander 18th Battalion and 53rd brigade Major Battle – Onitsha with Col. Achuzia.
Lt. Col. Frank Okilo – Commander 14th Battalion and 63rd Brigade – Major Battle – Igrita, 15 miles to Port Harcourt till war’s end.
Col. Adigio – Commander Biafra’s 7th Battalion. – Major Battle – Calabar with Lt. Col Okafor.
Mr. N.U. Akpan – Secretary to the Eastern Region and Biafran Government.
Mr. Okon Okon Ndem – Communications officer and Broadcaster with Voice of Biafra.
Mr. Frank Opigo – Introduced the name “Biafra”. Former principal of Okrika Grammar School; Commissioner for Rural Development and Biafra’s administrator of Yenegoa Province.
Mr. Ekukinam Bassey – Annang Province Administrator
Mr. Ignatius Kogbara – Biafra’s representative in London
Dr. Gary Leyton – Deputy Head of the Research and Production Department
Mr. Sam Inyang – Communications expert with Biafra’s Directorate of Military Intelligence.
Mr. S.E. Imoke – Chairman Rehabilitation Commission.
Dr. S.E. Cookey – Biafra’s Relief Coordinator.
Prof. Eyo Bassey Ndem – Biafra’s Calabar Province Administrator.
Mr. S. N. Dikibo – Biafra’s Degema Province Administrator.
Mr. S. J. Edoho – Province Adminstrator, Eket.
Mr. Frank Ugbut – Province Administrator, Ogoja.
Dr. S. J. Cookey – Province Administrator, Opobo.
Chief J. Udo-Affiah – Province Administrator, Uyo.

When minorities say that they suffered during and within Biafra, Igbo nationalists will come and shout that everyone suffered. When minorities then express how this sort of gaslighting and outright dismissal makes them feel (and how it contributes to anti-Igbo sentiment), Igbo nationalists then act as though they cannot comprehend how their dismissive actions have contributed to minorities dislike of them

Yet, if we draw the same picture with the Igbo context, they will magically understand it. Igbo nationalists say they are suffering in Nigeria due to the stigma of the Biafran war and anti-Igbo sentiment. However, anyone who looks at Nigeria as a country will see that the entire country is in shambles and everyone is suffering. The SE is actually not that unique in its own suffering. We can then dismissively say to Igbo nationalists that everyone is suffering. At this point, Igbo nationalists will understand that they’ve been dismissed. They will understand that their growing anti-Nigeria sentiment is due to the dismissive actions on Nigeria’s part.

This is obviously a one-sided sense of comprehension, and after a certain point, you just have to ask yourself if people just simply choose to be this way.

“Do unto others as Nigeria has done unto me” only breeds a vicious, never ending cycle with no room for actual honest discourse. The acknowledgment of the trauma induced by way of Gowon’s propaganda and Ojukwu’s tactical errors is never addressed. The wound continues to fester and be exacerbated by ongoing insults being hurled left and right. Generation after generation consumes internet bandwidth simply arguing to the point of forgetting who the real targets of their discontent should be; FG. Are you people not tired by now? All of you? Seriously. It’s utter nonsense