₦airaland Forum

So what did you do. How did you resolve it. I will appreciate your information on how you resolved it.

A colleague wants to change the maiden name of his wife in her E-Passport for US Immigration purpose. By the way the passport is still valid and will expire in 2014.

So far the cost they are telling him from Owerri Passport office, Festac Passport Office to Abuja to effect the change is between N40,000 and N80,000. In addition she has to go to Abuja to effect the change.

Officially new passport is about N15,000 or thereabout. Add extra N5000 if you want to get it faster through a middleman.

Why must mere change of information on passport require cost so much money, time and stress?

This was exactly what happened in the 1960s pogroms in the north. Easterners, particularly Igbos, were massacred by the people they lived, dined and played with - who incidentally are the victims of these current killings.

He who perpetrates evil against the innocent or benefits from evil against the innocent will reap the same.

I sympathies with the current victims.

Speaking at the opening of a Nigeria-South Korea Investment Forum aimed at making Korean entrepreneurs more aware of the great investment opportunities in Nigeria, Jonathan said his administration was fully committed to ensuring that Nigeria’s huge natural endowments and resources are properly harnessed and channeled towards the goal of transforming the country into one the most industrialised nations in the world by the year 2020.

http://dailytimes.com.ng/article/well-replicate-korean-miracle-jonathan

Does he really understands what it takes to become an industrialized nation like Korea(who by the way were inferior to us four decades ago)? Or he just loves highfalutin comments that massages his presidential ego.

I think the latter is the answer. One of the most industrialized nations in the world in eight years? I dey laugh in vernacular.

Saro Wiwa, Middlebelt, Enahoro and a host of others have admitted that this was not the future they fought for. Even Gowon's kinsmen in Plateau are lamenting their civil war alliance with the Hausa-Fulani. Nigeria does not produce its own food even with its size and agricultural resources, so not being able to produce your own food is non-factor. And remember, technology changes all equation. Less than 30% of Japanese land is arable, yet from that

Lets respond to issues and not insult one another.

We may have lost the battle for Biafra, we won the war of Nigeria question.

The hot exchange between the South South and the North over 13% derivation is pointer that we won the war. The looting of Nigeria by the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy after they won control of Nigeria's political leadership at the end of the war is another pointer

Flip through the headlines, what you see is resource control, fiscal federalism, state police, true federalism. Ojukwu advocated for this far back in 1967- before Biafra came into existence or any shot was fired between Biafra and Nigeria.

Like said earlier: Compare the percentage of Nigeria's common wealth in the hands of the Hausa-Fulani Oligarchy before the war and after the war with that in the hands of the Yorubas, Middle-belters, Southern Minorities. Try as tough as it is to put a value on the money spend on a barren land in Abuja. That will tell you who actually lost the war.

Biafra would have comfortably faced the North and defeated them if all the ethnic groups making noise about the need for National Conference had done so then.

You really think you crushed Biafra? DO a rethink? You were expendable tools used and dumped against your own ethnic group to crush their future. The only group that won the war were the Hausa-Fulani North - not even Gowon and his Middlebelters.

Compare the percentage of Nigeria's common wealth in the hands of the Hausa-Fulani Oligarchy before the war and after the war with that in the hands of the Yorubas, Middle-belters, Southern Minorities. Try as tough as it is to put a value on the money spend on a barren land in Abuja. That will tell you who actually lost the war.

The Yorubas who joined the North fought against there own future!

The Southern Minorities who fought against Biafra crushed their own future! Ask Saro Wiwa who was killed by Abacha, his civil-war friend and liberator from Igbo domination.

The Middle-Belt did not crush Biafra. Instead they crused their own tribe and future.

The state of Nigeria - not the utterances of unexamined mind - has already given a verdict on who was on the right or wrong side of equity and justice!

The man died a frustrated and disillusioned man - a victim of his inhuman support for injustice and inequity. The same man who supported Gowon and the North against Aburi later become an advocate of the Aburi Accord which his government reneged through his belated Movement for National Reformation,MNR

A year or two before he died, he was calling for Sovereign National Conference and that Nigeria be restructured into about 8 regions.

He was advocating in 90s and 2000s in his seventies what Ojukwu advocated for in 1967 in his thirties. He is advocating for the same solutions for which he rejected and caused millions of death through starvation.

He wants us to forget his wicked role in Gowon's government and see him as an elderstatesman.

Its been 45 years after[b] Aburi Accord[/b] which would have given Nigeria the political foundation and structure for its regions to develop at it own pace and ability.

Enahoro and his ilks who joined hands with the North (even when it was clear that the North was not fighting for their own interest) will never escape the guilty judgement of history.

Whatever he achieved in moving the motion of independence, his role in Gowon's government which is the precursor of all the problems in Nigeria has consigned into the dustbin of history.

Is it not interesting and symbol of "the hand of God" that Nigeria has technically collapsed, degenerated into the pre-civil war hopelessness and would never be the same (regardless of the outcome of the protest) around the time of Ojukwu's death and pre-burial

But this time the whole country and ethnic groups are saying no more and to hell with the sham structure and systems.

Ojukwu will buried with the all the issues and dangers he warned about raging like a bush fire.

What a way to depart the world being the cynosure of all eyes!

The greatest loser: Nigeria. We lost 45 years of regional development and prosperity that would have made Nigeria the greatest country in Africa- if  not the world.

Emany 01: You said it very well.

He fought for the Hausa-Fulani domination. Having used him, they dumped his ass in his compulsorily retirement in 1974. The Nigeria which he blindly fought for is now a toxic environment for him and his future generation.


Who is loser after all.?

Interesting! Civil war partners now rabid enemies. The chicken has come to roost

Southern officers dominated the Supreme Military Council (SMC) yet the North usurped power with little or no challenge. Here is the list:

[list]
[li]Lt Col Adekunle Fajuyi, Military Governor of the Western Region[/li]

[li]Lt Col David Akopde Ejoor, Military Governor of Mid Western Region[/li]

[li]Brigadier B.A.O. Ogundipe, Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters[/li]

[li]Commodore JEA Akinwale Wey, head of the Navy[/li]

[li]Lt Col George Kurubo, head of the Air Force[/li]

[li]Lt. Col Yakubu Gowon, Chief of Staff, Army Headquarters[/li]

[li]Lt. Col Hassan Usman Katsina, Military Governor of the Northern Region[/li]

[li]Lt.Col Odumegwu Ojukwu, Military Governor of the Eastern Region[/li]

[list]

Unfortunately,  only two of them (Fajuyi and Ojukwu) resisted Gowon and his blood-thirsty brothers. The rest chickened out and played safe and allowed a semi-illiterate Northerner to ascend power and entrench the northernisation of the Nigerian Army and the perpetuation of the North as Nigeria’s political overlords in the place of the former British colonialists.

Imagine if Ojukwu's counterparts had insisted that the order of succession be followed? Imagine if the three  southern officers ( particularly the military administrators) had displayed uncommon courage and boldness?
Nigeria's histroy would have been rewritten.

Their action(or inaction) reminds me of Diya(a whole General) - another southern soldier - grovelling before Mustapha(an ordinary Major) - another Northern soldier - during the alleged coup against a Abacha.

I give it to muslim Northern soldiers. They undestand the violent concept of power.

(See Ojukwu was sent to expose Nigeria (1)/By Ochereome Nnanna/Vanguard/Dec. 1, 2011)


Lesson: You either pay the cheaper price of courage now and liberate your unborn generation or pay a steeper price of cowardice in future

Ojukwu's death is really opening a lot of things about Nigeria!

Example:

The economic and political conditions that gave birth to the ideals encapsulated in the ethos of the struggle for the liberation of the Biafra Republic are still prevalent in the country, the death of Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the propounder of the Biafran idealism, notwithstanding.

The patriarch of the Aladura Communion and founder of the National Action Council (NAC), Dr Olapade Agoro, stated this while reacting to the demise of Chief Odumegwu-Ojukwu in Ibadan, on Tuesday.

Dr Agoro said the current poor socio-economic condition of most Nigerians and the “horror living” in the country made the realisation of the Biafran idealism a necessity so as to rescue the nation from the path of self-annihilation it is treading. (Ojukwu’s Biafran idealism still imperative in Nigeria - Agoro/ Tribue/Wednesday, 07 December 2011)

“Not many of us saw Odumegwu-Ojukwu as anything better than a devil, one loathed to be seen and associated with then, when he declared his Biafra secession bid out of Nigeria in 1967. He was hated and derided as evil by almost all living Nigerians for leading Nigeria to war then.

“Unfortunately, however, is the fact that death often gives people the unusual opportunity of opening up the library of knowledge to know and appreciate the real life worth of the dead.

"The statement that Nigeria is a Geographical expression is not an anti-Nigerian statement, it is just a recognition that the centre needs to be loose and all peoples should have some degree of autonomy".

You are absolutely right by the by the above statement. But he had the chance to establish a loose centre where all Nigerians would have some degree of autonomy, yet he joined the visionless forces that entrenched a distorted federation which have stunted the growth of the every section of Nigerian. Is it not a contradiction of the highest order?

"Ojukwu Was Unbelievably Selfish, Greedy, And Self-centered"according to Chief Uwechue


These horrible traits aptly describes Uwechue, post-civil Ibo leaders and 99% of Nigerian rulers -  not Ojukwu.

That explains why Nigeria is a failed state and an embarrassment to the black race.

By the way who is Chief Uwechue? What's his pedegree? Who among the Ibo dealers (not leaders) can stand at par with Ojukwu? What has Ohaneze whom he heads done to uplift the post-civil war Ibo nation? Absolutely nothing. They all aspire to dwell in the corridors of power to become ministers, governors, special assistant -  to feather their rotten nest.

If Nigeria had become an economically developed and industrialized country like Korea, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, then Uwechue's (and anti-Ojukwu) comments would hold water?  We would have declared that Ojukwu "was a rebel,  who was interested in breaking up the country,according to the latest military coward from MiddleBelt, Lt. Gen. Domkat Bali.( See Punch Sat, Dec. 3, 2011)

2011 Nigeria is a basket case and worse than 1967 Nigeria of Ojukwu's time. 2100 Nigeria would even  be unimaginable;and majority  of the living actors (particularly non-Hausas') who fought against Ojukwu are today disillusioned or died dejected about their civil war stance.

By the way all anti-Ojukwu/Biafra critics are daily victims of the tragic collapse of Nigeria. And the greatest tragedy is that their children and great-grand children are condemned to suffer from the same issues and questions Biafra and Ojukwu unleased in 1967 -  over 100 years before their birth.

Olusegun Adeniyi of This Day offers the best motivation behind Chief Uwechies comment:

At this period, every prominent Igbo man (including those who never really liked him) would want a piece of Ojukwu because it is a politically correct thing to do and many will be ready to pay any price for that cause.
(Because he is involved/This Day/ Dec 1, 2011)

My advice to anti-Ojukwu and anti-Biafra bandwagon: Get off the derailed train. De-intoxicate yourself from Ojukwu drunkenness. Separate the person from the issue ( I don't like Saro Wiwa but l support  the cause he died for). Take a unbiased scholarship on the crisis - particularly the pre-Biafra era . Go through Ojukwu's speeches and insights.

At the end ask yourself: In the light of Nigeria's current state; and of all actors in the war, whose insight and position would have unlocked the potentials  of this different ethnic groups imprisoned in this "geographical expression" called Nigeria? according to Awolowo

Whatever conclusions you arrive will determine Nigeria's future and that of your future generations because Nigeria's is definitely galloping into another crisis where every tribe and region will have to decide the fate of this "geographical expression"

As much as l have written him off for his complicity in Yar' Adua's misgovernance, Olusegun gave the best response to Chief Uwechue's viewpoint:

"So much has been written about Ojukwu’s competence (or lack of one) as a war leader but going through his speeches and the insights provided in the diary, there can be no doubt about the fact that he would have made a very good peace-time leader given his oratory and capacity to rouse his people to action. That perhaps explained the ingenuity of the Biafran scientists which the Nigerian authorities unfortunately failed to nurture after the war".

"All said, I find Ojukwu a very fascinating character worth studying and I intend to read more about him with the collections from Chukwumerije. I will also seek out my long-lost brother, Kanayo Esinulo, who was with Ojukwu throughout his exile years in Cote D’voire as his personal secretary and must have interesting recollections".

"But whatever anybody may say about Ojukwu, what was never in doubt was that he had a strong conviction that Nigeria can never be sustained by the current structure that neither takes into account our diversity nor the potentials of what each can bring to (not take from) the table under a more equitable union. Can we in all honesty say he was wrong?" (Because He is Involved/ ThisDay/Dec. 1, 2011)

Who is greedy, selfish. self-centered, after all?

Off course other tribes will also be affected by Jos crisis or every crises in Nigeria as along as they sojourn in those areas. It is the price they have to pay for being a part of a dysfunctional and "geographical expression" called Nigeria.

If you don't see the hand of Karma in the massacres in Plateau, no problem! The hand of justice seeks does  not seek anyone's permission to re-tribute justice. Whether Gowon is Berom or Angas is besides the matter.

The central issue is that Gowon's state has become a theatre of massacre much to his rude awakening.

Dranoel: the actions ojukwu took before their going to ghana were actions against the state and as such a declarationo f war befor verbally declaring seccession or can you explain to me what they were doing at aburi?

At this age and time, you need to be explained to what Aburi was all about. And that going to Ghana to seek a peaceful resolution to the crisis and avoid war was a declaration against a state - the same state that Gowon and his Northern brothers carried out a coup against which made him a coup plotter?

You don't need an explanation. If you cannot educate yourself diligently on the [b]Aburi Accord [/b]and reach unbiased conclusion whether the accord would have addressed Nigeria's problem or not - had it been implemented by Gowon - then you can't be helped.

KDULAR: To resolve the present so as to attain the future. We have to address the mistakes of the past. If we refuse to face the mistakes and sweep it under the carpet. We will continue to make the same mistakes and allow some greedy elites to feed on the mistakes.

And even if we fail to address it, history and Karman will punish us as they are doing now.

Who would have told Gowon that he will someday regret state creation?

Who would have told him that his beloved Jos will become a theatre of war like Biafra and his Beron tribe will become pogrom victims in 2010 like the Ibos in 1966 - 44 years after.

When the gods are angry, only confession and acknowledgment of your sins will solve. We need a national day of reconciliation.

Ok if we blame Ojukwu for those who died during the war, who are we to blame for those who died before the war - those massacred in the North before the war started?


Please educate me as l want to know. Thanks

Please help me. If l want to bracket a posting before reply to it, how do l do it. Thanks

Gowon has not started regretting. For him to confess his regret now shows that he has harboured this regret for long. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

You will regret usurping power and destroying the espirit-de-corps and army seniority rule which would have allowed Ogundipe, Adebayo, Ejoor etc to take power after the muder of Ironsi.

You will regret the massacre of Ibos in the North before the outcome of civil war without anybody brought to punished or victims punished.

You will regret the Aburi Accord betrayal which will have given us the framework to address out multi-ethnic problems and establish the foundation of Nigeria economic growth

You will regret your myyopic economic policies of your 9-year rule which encouraged wasteful importation and elephant projects which appeared to be developmental projects because of the oil boom.

You will regret that you will pass on to meet your God in frustration and pain from the knowledge that Nigeria is a failed state ( and may never attain its potential) and your future generatio and (your tibe) will be pay for your visionless and mediocrity.

Bababassey: "After all, Awo had said, if by omission or commission, the east was allowed to go, the west would have to join. But at that time, the Western region was already militarised by the northern troops and rebellion was well-nigh impossible." according to Sam Omatseye in They Let Him Down.

The answered question is this: Why did Awo not reject Gowon's appointment and remain neutral when he knew that the war was an attempt by the North to dominate Yorubas and the rest of the country - which by the way has been the reality of post-Biafra Nigeria?

So Awo fought for a Nigeria where the Hausas will dominate political power and distoted federation?

Nairalanders. Please address issues and stop name-calling and insults. History has rendered the verdict about who was on the side of equity and justice and who was not. By educating ourselves, we will not repeat the mistakes we made years ago when the chance presents itself again.

But if after 41 years after Biafra, we can't agree on the basic facts in the light of the tragic conditions of Nigeria but insult and trash our  tribes, then there is no hope for Nigeria. If we can't agree to disagree, even with the benefit of hindsight of the war, it is obvious why the actors - particularly southern actors - did not forge a common front.

Lets be civil and issue-driven. It will enrich our discourse.

In principle everyone that fought for Nigeria were patriotic and everyone that fought against Nigeria were anti-patriots.

So Gowon, Murtala and all the Northern military elites were patriots.

Off all the people that fought for Nigeria, Awo was the most intelligent, smartest and abreast with the Nigeria history.

But am curious, did Awo "really, really" believe that Gowon and his northern brothers fought for one Nigeria where justice, equity and merit will be enthroned and were every region and tribe will be the driver of their collective destiny?

Did he "really, really" believe that the North shared his ideals and beliefs for Nigeria?

I am "really really" curious.

The interview is medicine after death.  History will judge Awo for what he did before the war than after the war

Awo said over 10 years before Biafra that Nigeria was a "mere geographical expression"

Awo knew that the counter-coup by Gowon and his Northern brothers was not for a united Nigeria where justice and inequity will reign, but for the domination of the rest of Nigeria.

Awo saw the pogrom and massacre that was the Easterners (mostly Ibos) suffered in the hands of the North

Awo saw that  federal government under the control of the North never punished anybody, stopped the killing or compensated the victims.

Awo saw all this things yet joined hands with Gowon to perpetrate this evils and enthrone Hausa hegemony.

He who sees evil and inequity and keeps quiet and much more join hands to perpetrate  it is guilty of evil.

Awo had the chance to say NO to Gowon and his blood-thirty brothers. His rejection of Gowon's appointment would have have altered the pre-civil war event. The North ( and the rest of Nigeria would have forced to deal with the terms of our unity as a NIgerian.

This is the crux of the matter.

Bayooooooo: That's a good interpretation. But did Gowon really win the war? Is the present Nigeria worthy of victory celebration? Will the widows and widowers of Jos masaccre - his people - agree with Gowon that he won the civil war?

Are you also happy that your people are being massacred in Jos as a Nigerian?

Is their death worthy of this geographical expression called Nigeria?

Jason123: It is not because of him that Nigeria is like this.

He never ruled Nigeria so he is not part of the political and military class that looted and pillaged Nigeria.

He never planted coup or usurped federal power or used access to Nigeria resources to enrich himself and his cronies like IBB, Abacha, Obasanjos, Dangumas, etc.

He did not fight against Nigeria. He fought against the issues which Nigeria is facing today. Example is the massacre and killing going on in Jos, Gowons hometown.

History - not our comments on Nairaland or dailies has rendered verdict on Ojukwu.

Alloy/Emeka: Good posting. Can you do a comparison and contrast posting on the comments and statements Ojukwu made pre-civil and post-civil Biafra on several issues - Hausa-Fulani, black race, future of Nigeria, Nigeria's economic development etc - and how those pre-warnings have all come to pass.