₦airaland Forum

Radicalwarrior:
You are mentally unstable, your jealousy for igbos is eating you up like disease virus or have you forgotten how you people impersonates igbos names just to give igbos bad name or should I reveal more impersonation carried out by haters of igbos.

Your head is suffering from mental break down and nothing you say now can justify your propaganda towards the igbos.

Truth is bitter.

This chart here suggest Ibos have historically led Nigerian crime by far. You can see that South South is not naturally criminally inclined.

See also as cannibalism boundary end on the River Niger divide.

No similarities between SS/SE. Ibos carry una wahala go.

1nice:
You are writing nonsense, totally trash writeup.

You need to go back to school to be educated because you are writing and talking like an illiterate person.

When you are through deceiving yourself with false information then let me know.

Uneducated Villager animalistic sabo.

For now advocate that Ibos must carry their own passports soon. A national consensus is beginning to form on this. The stench of Ibo is becoming overwhelming and unbearable to all other Nigerians.

Radicalwarrior:
You are very stupid.
You better shut up your propaganda mouth before something bad happened to you.

I put it to you that south south people are part of biafra people.

You saboteur better go back to your deception coverage.

Biafra was an unqualified evil in minority lands.

I am quite interested in your Biafran War story. Up till now, the Igbos have completely dominated that narrative…

Yes, they’ve been blessed with powerful writers like Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Adichie, Chinelo Okparanta, etc., and an army of Biafran War scholars, you know… I think, like you, most Nigerians would be interested in knowing what happened to our minorities in Biafra. I am just happy that after 50 years, I have been able to do it my way. I say my way because I am not the first minority to write about the Biafran War.

How do you think the Igbos would react to the Biafran atrocities against our minorities in your book?

Most of them think they alone suffered in the war… but, Professor Okey Ndibe, a foremost Igbo intellectual, novelist and essayist, really asked great questions at the Rain Taxi interview a day after the book came out.
Okey was really brilliant. That’s an example of someone who is listening, someone who can empathize. I sincerely believe it would be to the benefit of our Igbo brothers and sisters to listen. Knowledge is a good thing. The Igbos themselves are a people who believe in diversity. We cannot say it enough: the Igbo suffered a lot in the war—but they, too, can learn. Biafra was an unqualified evil in minority lands. They just plundered the place, raping men and women. They looked down on us. We were nothing to them. Many of them still look down on us today… otherwise, how do you explain this so-called map of the new Biafra that still includes minority lands? Who told them the Isokos want to be in Biafra? Have they asked your people?


I must tell you right away, the Annangs, Efiks, Ibibios, Orons, Ogonis, etc., who’ve read the book are quite happy to see their towns and languages and their war dilemmas and atrocities in the book. Why should we remain fringe characters or nameless “saboteurs” in these narratives? Look, [b]Biafra was no better than Nigeria in raping and torturing and killing [/b]our peoples…We’ve been erased from the war narrative for so long. As long as you keep writing about the war as a fight between the Yorubas and Hausas and Igbos (the three major ethnic groups), the Igbos remain the victims. But as soon as widen this lens to include the minorities, at least in Biafra, then the story becomes complicated. You begin to see that the Igbos might have had their knee on our neck even while being crushed by the horrible Nigeria army.

• Ajeluorou is the publisher of online art/culture platform, AnoteArtHub (www.anotearthub.com).

https://guardian.ng/art/new-york-my-village-biafra-from-another-minoritys-lens/?fbclid=IwAR2r4PM9OTAp0p_yRFQoYHWHv5-1I2T0eBMVei2F9_0XovL39FoNUamvh8E

ch214:
Your falsehood will take you nowhere.

Below is a video of ijaw people declearing their supports for Biafra exit from Nigeria and you are the only one deceiving yourself with delusional reasoning.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2s-Ngpxe3E&pp=ygUiQmlhZnJhIHdvbWVuIHNwZWFrIG9uIE5uYW1kaSBLYW51IA

Ibos are toxic I beg. Ibos must clean up their image first. It is a curse for anyone to be attached to Ibo in any thing. South South reject that curse. Ibo na OSU.

ch214:
The three of them are Biafrans but One of them ís a betrayer and traitor of biafra people and that traitor of biafra people is Omokri the mosquito 🦟 confusionist.

Eboes are suffering from Mass Formation Psychosis.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eJSwigON0k

ch214:
Stop spreading false information and take your propaganda elsewhere.

Rivers state was part of old eastern region, old eastern region is now refer to as Biafra: you can not change history and you can not speak for majority of Rivers state people who believe they are part of biafra; biafra is made up of various indigenous tribes.

Your foolishness is too much.
Spits tufiakwa

ibos are the only people hanging on to the dream of a dead region. They also want old Midwest region for whatever reason to join the ibo fraud. All these make sense only to the know-it-all ibo man, the world's sole custodian of truth.

Eboes are suffering from Mass Formation Psychosis.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eJSwigON0k

ch214:
Shut up your dirty mouth you confusionist traitor.

Ojukwu second In command during the Nigeria civil war was from part of south south region know as akwa ibom state.

Even majority of south south people know that they are part of biafra people.

You devilish 😈 confusionist that lose your sense to soweto gibberish.

IKWERRE/ANIOMA VS IGBON/ISUOMA (DIFFERENCES)
IKWERRE/ANIOMA do not eat humans BEINGS (CANNIBALISM)
IKWERRE/ANIOMA do not have OSU caste system
IKWERRE/ANIOMA are not CRIMINALS and do not TRAFFIC DRUGS
IKWERRE/ANIOMA are not SCATTERED MIGRANTS
IKWERRE/ANIOMA are not PETTY TRADERS with slave apprenticeship
IKWERRE/ANIOMA built kingdoms and lived in cities not FOREST DWELLERS
IKWERRE/ANIOMA are not FLAT-HEADED
IKWERRE/ANIOMA do not have AKAKPU/PYGMY Congo basin ancestral gene

Please why would any sane person want to join with Ibos in anything? Carry the same criminal passport with Ibo?

Please add South South. Nobody want Ibo.

Biafra was an unqualified evil in minority lands.

I am quite interested in your Biafran War story. Up till now, the Igbos have completely dominated that narrative…

Yes, they’ve been blessed with powerful writers like Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Adichie, Chinelo Okparanta, etc., and an army of Biafran War scholars, you know… I think, like you, most Nigerians would be interested in knowing what happened to our minorities in Biafra. I am just happy that after 50 years, I have been able to do it my way. I say my way because I am not the first minority to write about the Biafran War.

How do you think the Igbos would react to the Biafran atrocities against our minorities in your book?

Most of them think they alone suffered in the war… but, Professor Okey Ndibe, a foremost Igbo intellectual, novelist and essayist, really asked great questions at the Rain Taxi interview a day after the book came out.
Okey was really brilliant. That’s an example of someone who is listening, someone who can empathize. I sincerely believe it would be to the benefit of our Igbo brothers and sisters to listen. Knowledge is a good thing. The Igbos themselves are a people who believe in diversity. We cannot say it enough: the Igbo suffered a lot in the war—but they, too, can learn. Biafra was an unqualified evil in minority lands. They just plundered the place, raping men and women. They looked down on us. We were nothing to them. Many of them still look down on us today… otherwise, how do you explain this so-called map of the new Biafra that still includes minority lands? Who told them the Isokos want to be in Biafra? Have they asked your people?


I must tell you right away, the Annangs, Efiks, Ibibios, Orons, Ogonis, etc., who’ve read the book are quite happy to see their towns and languages and their war dilemmas and atrocities in the book. Why should we remain fringe characters or nameless “saboteurs” in these narratives? Look, [b]Biafra was no better than Nigeria in raping and torturing and killing [/b]our peoples…We’ve been erased from the war narrative for so long. As long as you keep writing about the war as a fight between the Yorubas and Hausas and Igbos (the three major ethnic groups), the Igbos remain the victims. But as soon as widen this lens to include the minorities, at least in Biafra, then the story becomes complicated. You begin to see that the Igbos might have had their knee on our neck even while being crushed by the horrible Nigeria army.

• Ajeluorou is the publisher of online art/culture platform, AnoteArtHub (www.anotearthub.com).

https://guardian.ng/art/new-york-my-village-biafra-from-another-minoritys-lens/?fbclid=IwAR2r4PM9OTAp0p_yRFQoYHWHv5-1I2T0eBMVei2F9_0XovL39FoNUamvh8E

$ Still Cheap

There already are enough Ibo channels on Youtube

forgiveness:
If Oduduwa was from Benin, why did Benin send emissaries to Oduduwa to replicate the system of monarchy rule in Ile Ife?

What was his father's name in Benin?

From Ikaladerhan to Oduduwa: The Story of a Prince of Benin

Eweka I & the beginning of Oba Era {About 1200AD-1235AD} After the banishment of Owodo; the last Ogiso under the {Ogiso periods} for misrule Evain who had earlier distinguished himself as a brave man by destroying the man-eating Osogan, wasappointed as an adminstrator who ruled Benin for nearly 40 years. At his old age, Evian nominated his son Ogiamien as a successor. Unfortunately, this nomination did not go well with the Edo people who maintained that succession to the the throne is always applicable to kings and not to commoners to which class Evian belonged.

Spear headed by Oliha, there was a serious agitation to bring back the monarch.The nation was thrown into a state of internecine war and as a way out the elders {led by Oliha} went on a search party to look for Ikaladerhan {the banished son of the last Ogiso Owodo} who had for some time taken refuge at Uhe {or Ife as is now known}.

The search party reached Uhe to meet Ikaladerhan already enjoying the status of a king. The Edo people could not persuade him to return home. Nevertheless he Ikaladerhan now known as Oduduwa agreed to send his son if only the Benin could take care of him. This is how Oduduwa sent his Grandson Oranmiyan to Benin.

To test whether the Edo people would care for their king, Oduduwa gave the Edo people three years to nurse the common louse. On their success, the great Oduduwa was convinced that the people really would care for their king.

Oranmiyan was thereafter sent to Benin in 1170AD. He came into Benin amidst the serious opposition of Ogiamien who refused him entry into the city which was still under the firm grip of his administration. Oranmiyan was therefore forced to settle at Usama which was an outskirt of the city State . There he remained under the political support of the elders {Edion} headed by chief Oliha. Oranmiyan had both language and cultural handicaps because of his Yoruba backgrounds.

Although he had a Benin father {Ikaladerhan} yet he was really born and bred in yoruba land which was then the adopted kingdom, a refugee prince who had now found a new home at Ife. When Oranmiyan could neither speak nor understand the Benin custom, Unable to bear the animosity for very long renounced his position and labeled Edo land [Benin kingdom] lle Ibinu meaning land of annoyance and vexation and declared that only a child of the soil educated in the culture and tradition of the land could rule the kingdom. He thereafter returned to Uhe{IIe Ife}

On his way back home he stopped briefly at Ego where he impregnated princess Erimwinde the daughter of the Enogie of
Ego who bear him a son. In his early years couldn’t talk when his father who by now established the Alafin dynasty in Oyo had of his son
predicament, sent his son’s mother Ehendiwo seven marbles. While playing this marbles with other children one of his throws hit the target in excitement screamed Owomika {I have succeeded} which was Corrupted into Eweka.

For a period of over 30 years, the administration of Benin City was virtually in the hands of Ogiamien family until1200 AD when the "Boy-King" Eweka I as a young king ruled the kingdom with the assistance of his maternal grandfather Ogiegor. Oba Eweka I started the reign of the Obas. Hitherto, the kings were known as Ogiso but when Eweka I came as a king, he was referred to as Oba. The word Oba meaning is probably from an abbreviation of the original name of the first Ogiso {Obagodo {Oba godo}-Oba king; godo-high : High King}. The word came into use as connoting kingship during Oba Eweka I in 1200 AD. Oba Eweka reigned for 35 years at his demise , his rival children ruled in succession.

Fejoku:
The Edo people of Ondo State.

From Ikaladerhan to Oduduwa: The Story of a Prince of Benin

Eweka I & the beginning of Oba Era {About 1200AD-1235AD} After the banishment of Owodo; the last Ogiso under the {Ogiso periods} for misrule Evain who had earlier distinguished himself as a brave man by destroying the man-eating Osogan, wasappointed as an adminstrator who ruled Benin for nearly 40 years. At his old age, Evian nominated his son Ogiamien as a successor. Unfortunately, this nomination did not go well with the Edo people who maintained that succession to the the throne is always applicable to kings and not to commoners to which class Evian belonged.

Spear headed by Oliha, there was a serious agitation to bring back the monarch.The nation was thrown into a state of internecine war and as a way out the elders {led by Oliha} went on a search party to look for Ikaladerhan {the banished son of the last Ogiso Owodo} who had for some time taken refuge at Uhe {or Ife as is now known}.

The search party reached Uhe to meet Ikaladerhan already enjoying the status of a king. The Edo people could not persuade him to return home. Nevertheless he Ikaladerhan now known as Oduduwa agreed to send his son if only the Benin could take care of him. This is how Oduduwa sent his Grandson Oranmiyan to Benin.

To test whether the Edo people would care for their king, Oduduwa gave the Edo people three years to nurse the common louse. On their success, the great Oduduwa was convinced that the people really would care for their king.

Oranmiyan was thereafter sent to Benin in 1170AD. He came into Benin amidst the serious opposition of Ogiamien who refused him entry into the city which was still under the firm grip of his administration. Oranmiyan was therefore forced to settle at Usama which was an outskirt of the city State . There he remained under the political support of the elders {Edion} headed by chief Oliha. Oranmiyan had both language and cultural handicaps because of his Yoruba backgrounds.

Although he had a Benin father {Ikaladerhan} yet he was really born and bred in yoruba land which was then the adopted kingdom, a refugee prince who had now found a new home at Ife. When Oranmiyan could neither speak nor understand the Benin custom, Unable to bear the animosity for very long renounced his position and labeled Edo land [Benin kingdom] lle Ibinu meaning land of annoyance and vexation and declared that only a child of the soil educated in the culture and tradition of the land could rule the kingdom. He thereafter returned to Uhe{IIe Ife}

On his way back home he stopped briefly at Ego where he impregnated princess Erimwinde the daughter of the Enogie of
Ego who bear him a son. In his early years couldn’t talk when his father who by now established the Alafin dynasty in Oyo had of his son
predicament, sent his son’s mother Ehendiwo seven marbles. While playing this marbles with other children one of his throws hit the target in excitement screamed Owomika {I have succeeded} which was Corrupted into Eweka.

For a period of over 30 years, the administration of Benin City was virtually in the hands of Ogiamien family until1200 AD when the "Boy-King" Eweka I as a young king ruled the kingdom with the assistance of his maternal grandfather Ogiegor. Oba Eweka I started the reign of the Obas. Hitherto, the kings were known as Ogiso but when Eweka I came as a king, he was referred to as Oba. The word Oba meaning is probably from an abbreviation of the original name of the first Ogiso {Obagodo {Oba godo}-Oba king; godo-high : High King}. The word came into use as connoting kingship during Oba Eweka I in 1200 AD. Oba Eweka reigned for 35 years at his demise , his rival children ruled in succession.

Neckpresser101:
Another lie



Have you heard of Agbede and it's neighboring communities in northern edo ?


They're conquered Muslims


Lamba people

Edo are overhyped no cap


Igbos were ahead of them



Igbos are way more ancient than any tribe in Nigeria


My reasons are based on archeological facts


1. Nsude pyramids Udi Enugu State dated 2630-2610 BC



2. Igbo potteries they're distinct with Uli design which is an igbo artistic style Results indicate that pottery making has been in existence in the Igbo culture region since before 2000 B.C. The earliest evidence to date comes from Afikpo.


3. Igbo ukwu bronze works almost all dates back to the 9th century AD
The arts where first ever bronze work done in not just Nigeria but west Africa as a whole at that time using a lost wax casting method to make the surface well detailed.
The composition of the metal alloys used in the production of the bronze is unique, with an unusually high silver content and is distinct from alloys used in Europe, the Mediterranean or other African bronze centers
The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art describes them as being "among the most inventive and technically accomplished bronzes ever made cool

4. Nsịbịdị writting have been dated to 400 AD and even earlier

Igbos are very ancient people like my grandad use to say

Igbo is a compressed igbo word for "ndi gbo" literally means "old people" in my dialect


Igbo civilization outdates even the nok civilization in Nigeria

So how did Ibos end up like this just in the last 20th century? Ibos are bush (igbo) people only rescued by the coming of the white man.

The only time this boy make sense.
Criminalize wealth and you spread poverty.

bjdon:
Mention anything about tribe and see low intelligence Africans get all excited and emotional. Who cares where who originated from? What should be of importance is what's going on now. No Nigerian state has pipe borne water across the whole state, dilapidated schools and hospitals, universities that are no better than secondary schools in the west. Crashing currency, insecurity... so many issues that should focus the mind, but no, all low intelligence people want to discuss is tribe this, tribe that.
Africans are a cursed lot!

We are going to divide and that is why it is important we all understand who we are now so we know where we will end up.
The problem is your Ibos don't want to stand on their own.

Obi Lamba

mabea:
His name is Edozien like in Edo indeed. Edozien is an Igbo word

The people of Onitsha are from the Benin Empire (Edo Kingdom). Obi of Onitsha.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrxQKyPh7I8

Ogochuks101:
Op you must be very stupid and I'm sure you're not from Ndokwa and you are from Edo state. Always looking for lands to grab.

We Ndokwa/ukwuani people are pure igbos or Anioma people if e pain you go commit suicide.

Whenever you see the "We", know it is ibo masquerading as some other tribe. Only Ibos have that speech pattern.

Neckpresser101:
Eze Chima was an Aro native doctor. In pursuance of the role of the Aros in the Atlantic Slave Trade quoted…from Michael Crowder’s story of Nigeria, Chima left Arochukwu to Benin to set up as an agent of the Aro Long Juju, for the usual purpose of collecting slaves from Benin.

Whenever, in the olden days, a native doctor travelled to a place, he by custom would, on arrival, report himself to the local chief or to the head of the society of native doctors of the land. He is either the guest of the head chief of the clan or puts up with head of the local society of native doctors. Accordingly, when Chima arrived Benin he reported himself to the Oba of Benin who accepted him as his guest. In time Chima settled down and set up practice as a native doctor and agent of Aro Oracle. He impressed the Oba of Benin so much with his magical art that he became very influential over the Oba. In consequence, the Oba installed Chima a chief in the palace of Benin. Thus the plain blunt and ordinary native doctor who left Arochukwu to establish an agency of the Long Juju, earned a chieftaincy title and became Chief Chima or Eze Chima.
Having found his feet firm in Benin, Eze Chima sent for his brother Ekensu and other relatives from Arochukwu, and also set up an Aro settlement in Benin similar to those Aros had set up within the description of Michael Crowder, in other areas throughout former Eastern Nigeria.
With the march of time, Chima’s practice in Benin expanded down to Niger Delta. Among the Urhobos and Itshekiris also the fame of the Aro Oracle spread and clients from those areas trooped to him to consult the Oracle. The greatest index of Chima’s influence on culture in Benin Kingdom is found in the fact that Benin people adopted the Igbo days of the week – Eke, Orie, Afo and Nkwo – on which Chima made one sacrifice or the other or observed his abstinences and spiritual disciplines, as names also of Benin week days. And till today the Binis have, as the Igbo, Eke, Orie, Afo, Nkwo – as names of their week days.
According to Mr Wellington Igunbor a Benin historian, who on the mother side, belongs to one of Benin’s traditional chieftaincy families (Chief Gaius Obaseki’s family – Gaius Obaseki who was the Iyase or Prime Minister of Benin in 1947) – the settlement of Eze Chima in Old Benin was established in the area through which Siliku Street runs in the present-day Benin city. As Eze Chima’s influence increased so did population of his settlement expand. So influential was Eze Chima and so completely absorbed in the society was he and his clan that there was hardly a thing he and his people could not do on the basis of equality with Benin indigenes.
How Chima left Benin:
At the time Eze Chima lived in Benin, the mother of Oba of Benin was Asije. The Oba’s brother who also was the Oba’s War Lord was called Gbunwala. One day, Asije the mother of both the Oba and Gbunwala, the Benin War Lord went into a farm belonging to Eze Chima’s people and collected firewood. Eze Chima’s people then caught Asije the Oba’s mother, and beat her thoroughly for taking wood from their farm without permission. Back home, Asije reported to her children – the Oba of Benin and Gbunwala, the Benin War Lord, her bitter experience with Eze Chima’s people. Red with anger, Gbunwala, the Oba’s brother and War Lord, took some of his soldiers, went to Chima’s settlement, set upon Chima’s people – beat them thoroughly and killed some of them.

From that day, Gbunwala began to harass Eze Chima and his people. In the circumstance, Eze Chima decided to quit Benin with his people and return to the East whence he came to rejoin his Igbo kith and kin – or, in the alternative to find new settlements for himself and his people in places far and safe beyond the reach of Oba of Benin.

This story was told in Igbo Primer popularly known as “Azu Ndu”, approved by Government Education Department for infant classes of primary schools in the Igbo Provinces of then Eastern Nigeria, now Biafra, since the beginning of the 20th century.



On their way out of Benin, some of the Eze Chima’s people settled at Agbo (Agbor), 44 miles away from Benin City which they considered far, and out of reach, molestations and influence of the Oba of Benin and his brother, Gbunwala. Others went beyond this distance and settled at Isele-Uku, Onicha-Olona, Onicha-Ugbo and Obio. When they reached the West bank of the Niger, some took a canoe and paddled down the River to Abo and settled. Led by Oreze, the eldest son of Eze Chima, the balance of Eze Chima clan crossed the River Niger to the eastern bank and settled among Oze people – the original inhabitants of what is today the big and prosperous commercial and education centre in Biafra – Onicha (Onitsha). On page 73 of his story of Nigeria, Mr Michael Crowder believed that the migration of Onicha (Onitsha) people – this is of Umu Eze Chima clans – from Benin took place in the 17th century.

Copied

The people of Onitsha are from the Benin Empire (Edo Kingdom). Obi of Onitsha.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrxQKyPh7I8

Bendeco2020:
That's not about Onitsha People.

Zik was just whining them maybe for political favor.

Current Obi of Onitsha ( His Roy. Highness Nnaemeka Afred Achebe) already debunked that fake story.

I myself, am from Onitsha

You lie. Hear it from the Obi himself.
The people of Onitsha are from the Benin Empire (Edo Kingdom).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrxQKyPh7I8

Bendeco2020:
Don't mind the funny guys.

They keep hyping Benin

No mind that funny Azikiwe.
He kept hyping Benin.
Onitsha people sef.

Christistruth03:
But why didn’t they just Civilise them

like the Yorubas Civilised those around them and integrated with them

They tried and and tried forever but many back then as they are today were hardened in their ways. It wasn't only the Binis that were involved. It was everyone collectively. It was the Yoruba, the Izons, all the way to the Volta. An edict was passed abolishing cannibalism from all lands. Many who bluntly refused to adhere to the edict were expelled. Most went into the Congos but a few remained trapped around here. It then fell upon the Binis to banish those few remnants of the cannibal tribes into the forest of isolation. They are the Ibos of today.

[quote author=Neckpresser101 post=126359426][/quote]
So Onitsha hate and look down on Ibos? This Zik self. Na champion of wvaulence and neck-pressing. Hear him:

"One day I asked her (grandmother) the meaning of the word 'Onitsha'. She explained that it had historical significance. The terminology meant one who despised another. It is a contraction of two words, Onini to despise, and Ncha meaning others. So that the two words when joined together mean one who despises others. Then I asked her why we despised others. She patted me on the back and told me that it was due to our aristocratic background and tradition. I insisted that she should explain to me the basis of this supercilious social attitude. She told me that we despised others because we descended from the Royal House of Benin and so regarded ourselves as the superiors of other tribes who had no royal blood in their veins, "

Topic for another day.

Mrfeel:
I ask the question again, who is a igbo man, who are the Igbos, define who the Igbos are?

Long long ago, Ibos lived West of the Niger river with everyone else. Spearheaded by the Binis who have had an insane abhorrence for cannibalism, a proclamation was made prohibiting the practice i.e. cannibalism. Many tribes refused to give up the practice of cannibalism and so were chased out with ferocity. Most of these tribes were chase into the Congo region but a few of them did not go as far. They were banished to the empty forest East of the Niger. These are the Ibos of today and that is why they remained isolated in that forest for most of their existence.

Dem no trust am

Abagworo:
Being from "Bini" doesn't mean you are not Igbo. That is the point you need to understand beyond Zik's book. Inside Bini there were Igbos and Beyond Bini into today's Ondo State and Northern Edo there were Igbos but the truth is that there was no collective tribal identity yet the Igbo language was widely used all through. In present day Nigeria when an Omuma man says he's from Rivers you cannot dispute him about it but it doesn't mean he's a Riverine tribe like Kalabari or Okrika. What most of you arguing are doing is on assumption that the Benin empire had only Benin tribe or Edo tribes under the Oba but reality is that Igbos, Urhobos, Ijaws and other tribes at one time or the order came under Benin rule and became part of the Empire led by Bini people and some of them were equally given appointments as part of the ruling class or as representative of Oba in their respective localities. Once you understand this fact your brain becomes free from the confusions.

You are a reasonable man even if I disagree with some of your assertions. This story as told by Zik many of us also heard from our parents and great grand parents.

creativehubb:
If they could they would, even today the fulanis are trying to encroach south, between the start of the jihad of Usman Dan fodio and when the British came to Benin was 80 years, 80 years is enough for the Fulani jihadist to take the south if they could, they tried but we're chased back by the military of the Benin empire. The fulanis didn't go back by themselves they were chases back, their plan was to force us all to become Muslims. When you people were bush men, Benin empire had civilized states, and an army that can raise 10,000 men within days. If not for Benin empire you would be a Muslim today. Show respect to the gods of the earth. Have you seen Benin city walls, longer than the walls of China, have you seen the Benin moat, a defense mechanism built by the empire thousands of years ago, when your progenitors were bush men. You are a slave, we are gods and kings.

Benin moat was built with Ibo slave labor. No great civilization builds monuments with the labor of their own free born citizens.

Mrfeel:
So zik and his grandmother knows the history of the Igbos more than the Igbos? First who are the Igbos? Can you define who the Igbos are?

Why don't you write your own book first like Zik of Africa? We know, we know; Ibo man knows it all. The sole custodian of all things true.
I Before Others

Neckpresser101:
You're the clown here 🤡🤡

where is eze China originally from?

Do you know eze actually means ' PRIEST ' in ìgbo language before it was corrupted to mean

Argue with Azikiwe: he must be the clown as these are his words.

"One day I asked her (grandmother)"

So you know his own history better than him - the great Zik of Africa and you know their history better than the grandmother, Who do Ibo people this thing?

Neckpresser101:
What's the point of this ?

https://www.nairaland.com/7874491/eze-chima-nnamdi-azikiwe-writes

This one choke you. Make I repeat am make you hear wella.

The Benin Origin Of Onitsha: By Late President Nnamdi Azikiwe- The first President of Nigeria.

The Benin Origin Of Onitsha: By Late President Nnamdi Azikiwe-

The first President of Nigeria. Nnamdi Azikiwe: My Genealogy and Nativity
"Thus, in tracing my paternal lineage, I could say that both parents of my father are direct descendants of Eze Chima. As for me, I can trace my paternal ancestry in this wise: I am the first son of Chukwuemeka, who was the third child and first son of Azikiwe, who was the second son of Molokwu, who was the third son of Ozomaocha, who was the second son of Inosi Onira, who was the fourth son of Dei, the second son of Eze Chima, the founder of Onitsha."

SOURCE - Nnamdi A zikiwe: My Odyssey, Chapter I (Spectrum Books, 1970) "My Genealogy and Nativity" P4
"I can trace my maternal ancestry thus: I am the first son of Nwanonaku Rachel Chinwe Ogbenyeanu (Aghadiuno)Azikiwe, who was third daughter of Aghadiuno Ajie, the fifth son of Onowu Agbani, first daughter of Obi Udokwu, the son who descended from five Kings of Onitsha. Five of these rulers of Onitsha were direct lineal descendants of Eze Chima (PRINCE OHIME), who led his warrior adventurers when they left Benin to establish the Onitsha city state in about 1748 AD.

" SOURCE - Nnamdi Azikiwe: My Odyssey, Chapter I (Spectrum Books, 1970) "My Genealogy and Nativity" P5 "One day I asked her (grandmother) the meaning of the word 'Onitsha'. She explained that it had historical significance. The terminology meant one who despised another. It is a contraction of two words, Onini to despise, and Ncha meaning others. So that the two words when joined together mean one who despises others. Then I asked her why we despised others. She patted me on the back and told me that it was due to our aristocratic background and tradition. I insisted that she should explain to me the basis of this supercilious social attitude. She told me that we despised others because we descended from the Royal House of Benin and so regarded ourselves as the superiors of other tribes who had no royal blood in their veins, "

"I continued to belabor my grandmother to tell me more of the history and origins of the Onitsha people. She narrated that many many years ago, there lived at Idu (Benin) a great Oba who had many children. Due to a power struggle regarding the right of precedence among princes of the blood and other altercations, there was a civil war in Benin. One day, the supporters of one of the princes insulted and assaulted Queen Asije, the mother of of the Oba of Benin, who was accused of having trespassed on their farmland. Enraged at this evidence of indiscipline and lawlessness, the Oba ordered his war chief and brother, Gbunwala Asije to apprehend and punish the insurgents.

In the attempt to penalize them, Chima (OHIME), the ultimate founder of the Onitsha City-State, a Prince of the blood in his own right, led the recalcitrants against his Uncle, Gbunwala. This intensified the civil war which rent the kingdom of Benin in two and led to the founding of Onitsha Ado N'Idu, "As the great trek from Benin progressed, some did not have the stout heart of the pioneer-warrior, and decided to settle at different places, known today as Onitsha -Ugbo, Onitsha-Olona, Onitsha-Mili, Obior, Issele Ukwu, Ossomari, Aboh, etc.

" SOURCE - Nnamdi Azikiwe: My Odyssey, I (Spectrum Books, 1970) "My Genealogy and Nativity" P 11 - 12.

Revealed! Ijaw father, Onitsha/Benin mother; Azikiwe had not a single drop of Ibo blood in him.

Was Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe Truly an Ijaw Man?
THE UNTOLD TRUTH.
The First Nigerian President Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe ( 1904- 1996) was indeed an enigma of no less order. His towering personality makes him to be the greatest Nigerian ever in history.

But Who was Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe? Who was his true biological father? What if all that the public knows about him was the untold truth? Then there is the raging question of who truly owns a child? Is it the Mother or the Father? Some traditions require that the man has to fulfill his marital obligations to lay claim to a child! But others are lenient in such issues.
In considering the aforementioned posers about one's Fatherhood, let's concede the fact that fatherhood is not just blood, but a responsibility. No one can reasonably lay claim to a child one abandoned only to return years later for the same child, cared for by a single mother. That would be insensitive! That is not morally right.

But the question here is, what if the man was not allowed access to his son because tradition says he should not? What about the culture that says it is not the man but the woman that owns a child if the man failed to perform his marital vows?
In which case, she left with the child and got married to another man who fostered him and trained him to achieve his educational dreams, only for the child to find out the truth that his biological father is somewhere. What would be his reactions? How could he tell that the man whom he thought all his life to be his father was not his biological father? And that his father was somewhere else!

The heart of a woman is truly a deep blue sea of secrets!

That for Zik's Mother to tell him the truth about his origin, the boy had to wait until the time was right. He must know his roots, for that was his spiritual freedom, but he must be trained to accept the fact he had gone too far in the journey of life to return home to his father.
She had told him, the story of her youth, and the love of her life, about that handsome dark tall Ijaw fellow whom she met at Agbere in some decades ago during when both of them were working at the Royal Niger Company. She was a staff, and he was a carpenter. They met and fell in love, and one thing led to another. Then she was naive about her culture and tradition, thinking love was all that mattered in the whole world. She became pregnant but the man was struggling to make it in life and was not ready for a child. A misunderstanding ensued and she left with the pregnancy.

Years after, their paths crossed again at Onitsha where he was a fisherman. But this time she was carrying his baby, and when he saw the baby, he saw a reflection of himself; from the dark colour to his facial features. He apologized and promised to marry her, but she was already married. He came too late.

She had already named him Benjamin, but that was later changed by the boy when he realized the truth about his paternity to ' Nnamdi' meaning ' My father is somewhere'. And that was how Pa Lewis Apam lost the battle of life and his love to an Onitsha man. And so, she left and returned no more. Sadly, that was the last time he set his eyes on his biological son until the boy grew up and became the president of Nigeria.
But God is dynamic in answering the prayers of men. According to the story made available by the family, Chief Ezonbodo in his political journey came across Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, and when he introduced himself as an Ijaw man from Agbere town, immediately their blood bond was rekindled. They were brothers from the same bloodline. Dr Zik sent for his father Chief Lewis Apam, and when Hon. Ezonbodo Ninetry brought the two together, they were indeed identical. Dr Zik saw himself in a mirror as his biological father stood before him.

Thereafter, they became close. The lost relationship between Father and son was restored. Dr Zik in the name of politics visited his Father's place Agbere more than twice and spent a night or two. He took his father to Lagos in his house, most of the time until the man died. He knows his siblings and half brothers, like the great footballer Onyekachi Justice Apam's father who was equally married to an Igbo woman from Abia state. Today, many has mistaken the great Nigerian footballer as an Igbo man, but he is Ijaw by origin, paternally. In his case, his father fortunately had paid the marital vows of his wife, so the children were free to announce their father's name Mr Apam proudly anywhere, even though his name Onyekachi could be misleading as the public most times thought he is an Igbo man.

But that was not the case of the Great Zik of Africa. His case was different. He had to consider his society, the Igbo society he had come to be associated with to make his political name and fame. Again, he had to consider the good man who married his mother and adopted him as his son. Again, the larger world that looked upon him as a man with a perfect childhood and upbringing. No, he couldn't handle the controversies. After all, what is life without dignity, without power, without honour?
And he was not a Moses to have traded all these things for merely an origin of birth. No way, let history set the records straight, when I am gone, he must have thought. But to a large extent, it was not a secret. The entire Ijaw leadership knew the story, both home and abroad. He sponsored his brother Chief Ezonbodo Ninetry politically as a first generation politician that he was seen as a demi-god in the whole of Western Ijaw Division.
The Ijaws celebrated their son Dr Nnamdi when he was alive until the day he died. Interestingly that was the lost Ijaw son who became an Igbo man by tradition.

To many, it is no longer relevant, after all, some truths are better left unsaid, especially when it has lost its relevance and time. But what is life anyway, if not to relive the memories we share with our loved ones. Apart from that, like every tribe with their own traditions and cultures, so is the Ijaw man's culture, forbidden him to be part of a secret, merely for the sake of the living who lives in secrecy all our lives. According to the tradition of the Ijaw man, it is a taboo for one to bury a man with his secret. Such secret could be kept, but not when the man has died. For in death, the spirit of man is pure before his Creator, and every other worldly desires are purged, including his many covered up secrets.
Ironically, tradition holds the living responsible for not saying it, for by saying it, you are freeing the soul of the dead from eternal destruction, if you don't the spirit in the life beyond suffers in damnation. Reasons being, that it is only in life that greed, lust of power, envy, and all material things are needed. But in the spirit, when the flesh has given up its grip on the soul of a man, he becomes free. As such, all that's needed is the truth, nothing but the truth- which is Ijo in meaning.

Hence, it is our obligation to honour our blood brother, father, uncle, who in life had taken the effort to be identified with his people the best he could as a human being. He may not be perfect by not changing his foster name, but he was a good man to the Ijaws, and there is no way one can make good and enemy of perfection.

And when he died, the Ijaws in London equally saw a reason to celebrate him as their own in grand style.
Though his silence on the matter was understandable. But think about it, how could the President of Nigeria, the greatest personality with the self appellation ' Zik of Africa' be a man of double origin? That his true full-blooded biological father was an Ijaw man? Of course, that could bring some considerable shame to his public image and ego. Therefore he hoped to carry the secret to the grave. But ironically it was not a secret to his brothers of Agbere town.

Sadly that is the world in which we live, and has been raised, a cruel tradition that denies a father from his son simply because one could not meet up the rites demanded of him. Strangely the life of a man is policed daily by traditions- they over rule our actions and stories.
Strange enough, for one to know that Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was a son of his mother who later identified his roots with the great ijaw tribe as his paternal home, one could see it through his actions.

The Owele of Onitsha built his University at Nsuka instead of Onitsha. He equally built his beautiful home, the Onuye Haven in his mother's place instead of Onitsha, place of his fostered father. All things point to one direction, he was truly a son of his mother, and in all his life, he knew his father was somewhere. He secretly worshiped him and held that memory dearly to his heart. It pained him to know all these things yet he could not say it, and that made him sad, and such, was holding those grudges against the world.
Interestingly, family sources further confirmed that before the demise of Lewis Apam (his father), Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe directed his father with financial provisions to build a house for him in his home town of Agbere. This was a registration of undeniable acceptability of his kinsmen. As a man of uncommon intellectual stamina and moral fervidness or audacity, the Great Zik of Africa realized that mother's love is Supreme but father's love is a bowel of strength and courage. But unfortunately the house project was overtaken by events.
Culled from the book: 'Heroes of the Ijaw Nation' Author, Gesikeme Akparakata