Thursday, 17 May 2012
Nigeria’s Biafran Burden By Okey Ndibe
Okey Ndibe
Columnist:
Okey Ndibe Biafra is back in the news in a big way, thanks, in large measure, to the recent death of Steve Jobs, co- founder of Apple. In a bestselling authorized biography written by Walter Isaacson, we learn that Biafra had something to do with Mr. Jobs’ renunciation of Christianity. To paraphrase the story: as a 13-year-old, the late inventor extraordinaire had confronted his Lutheran Church pastor with a photograph of two starving Biafran children on the cover of Life magazine. The young Steve asked his teacher whether God was aware of the plight of the children. Once he was assured that divine omniscience implied that God had such knowledge, Steve Jobs, there and then, announced his divorce from Christianity.
I have seen that picture that drove an impressionable teenager to sever ties with his Christian faith. It is near-impossible to look at it and remain composed or untouched. The eyes of the famished Biafran babies are particularly disconcerting. In fact, there is a certain desolate impression etched on the subjects’ faces. To view that picture – which has been widely shown on TV and circulated on the Internet in the brouhaha generated by Jobs’ death – is to gain a glimpse into the ways in which the violence of war ravages the innocence of children, terrorizes the most vulnerable, and upends humane values.
There is, I think, a paradox in the way that Steve Jobs’ death has resurrected Biafra in the imagination of the global community. That paradox lies in the fact that, as the world was once again tuning in to the bloodiest tragedy in Nigeria’s history, Nigeria seemed determined to persist with its willed amnesia. That amnesia has a long history.
At the end of the war, with the federal side’s superior firepower triumphing, then Head of State Yakubu Gowon declared that there was no victor, no vanquished. That announcement, seen by some as an uncommon act of magnanimity, earned great adulation for Mr. Gowon. He also impressed the world by proclaiming that the war-scarred country would embark on rehabilitation, reconciliation and reconstruction. Few of Gowon’s admirers were detained by the fact that his (victorious) government’s actions were often at odds with its avowed policy of nurturing healing. Two examples of this gap between precept and practice should suffice to underscore the point.
One was a policy that enabled the government to strip the erstwhile Biafrans of their wealth. At the end of the war, the Nigerian government implemented a policy that gave each Biafran adult twenty pounds as so-called ex-gratia payment. This would have been a commendable policy had the payment been designed to assist cash-strapped Biafrans to re-enter the Nigerian economy. Instead, the government decided that the paltry sum served as full redemption for any financial assets owned by individual Biafrans prior to the war. It was a self-evidently unjust policy of expropriation, and it dealt a crippling economic blow to the guts of a people who had paid a devastating price, with their blood and limbs, and who needed to be bolstered in their desperate effort to re-start their lives.
There was also the issue of abandoned property, a notion that matched – if not surpassed – the ex-gratia policy in odiousness, illogicality and patent injustice. In a move that exposed the hypocrisy of its avowed policy of reconciliation, the Nigerian government declared that Biafran citizens who owned property in parts of the country outside the formerly secessionist territory had effectively “abandoned” those assets.
What emerges, then, is a portrait of a nation caught pants down at critical moment indulged in dishonorable acts. In one breath, it was proposed that the preservation of Nigeria’s corporate unity was an idea worth spilling more than a million lives for, and the maiming of even more. Yet, in another breath, the same Nigeria demonstrated unwillingness to extend economic justice to those who had sought to leave the union. We were told that “to keep Nigeria one was a task that must be done.” But – that task accomplished – we were told that the erstwhile Biafrans, now forcibly re-“Nigerianized,” were not entitled to the ownership and enjoyment of their property and income.
A central tragedy of Nigeria is that it has continued to carry on as if it never fought a war – as if its very viability as a proposition had never been contested in a war that cost more than a million lives, limbs, and extensive wreckage of its physical space. As Dr. Louis Okonkwo stated during the session earlier in the day, Nigeria’s history is donut-shaped – with a huge hole in its middle. This hole represents all the tragedies that we repress, attempt to erase, or refuse to acknowledge. Besides, owing to the existence of this donut history, Nigeria constantly slips and falls through the gaping hole.
There is no question that federal troops massacred hundreds of innocent, unarmed civilians in Asaba in the heady early days of the Biafran War in October, 1967. Many other nations have witnessed similar callous, shocking events in their history – and often on a larger scale. We have Pol Pot’s murderous reign in Cambodia, a pogrom in which approximately twenty percent of the Cambodian population perished; Hitler’s campaign to exterminate the Jews; the My Lai massacre of some 500 Vietnamese perpetrated by American soldiers, and less than a year after the Asaba massacres; the hundreds of thousands who perished in Joseph Stalin’s Great Purge in the late 1930s; and the huge socio-economic disruptions as well as human rights abuses that accompanied – or marked – China’s cultural revolution in the 1960s.
Africa has been both stage and victim of great acts of genocide. For more some three centuries, a consortium of European nations laid siege on Africa and carried out the capture, sale and enslavement of Africans, as well as the appropriation of Africans’ land and other resources. Adam Hochschild, in his book titled King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, offers us a grimly fascinating exploration of the savage violence that accompanied and was authorized by imperialist incursions into the Congo.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Africans and the world were horrified by the use – in, among other places, the Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Sudan, and Rwanda – of rape, enslavement, and the amputation of limbs as modes of war.
It is not widely recognized that those shocking acts were virtually lifted from the bloody manual of King Leopold 11’s gruesome and sickening pillaging of the Congo’s human and natural resources. If this fact is not general knowledge, it is in part because, both among Africans as well as Europeans, some of the horrendous depredatory practices fomented and fertilized by Euro-imperialism remain unknown or unspoken. In an effort to maximize the harvesting of wild rubber that fed King Leopold’s depraved appetite for profit, the Belgian potentate’s operatives were authorized to kidnap children and women, who were then ransomed back to their disconsolate fathers and husbands in exchange for ever increasing amounts of rubber. Hochschild writes that, “Like the hostage-taking, the severing of hands was deliberate policy…If a village refused to submit to the rubber regime, state or company troops or their allies sometimes shot everyone in sight, so that nearby villages would get the message.” Hochschild then makes the point that “As the rubber terror spread throughout the rain forest, it branded people with memories that remained raw for the rest of their lives.”
It is important to underline, then, that the massacre in Asaba was far from exceptional. The critical difference between Asaba and, say, My Lai, is that there was some gesture to investigate what happened in Vietnam. Ultimately, the outcome of the My Lai investigations fell terribly short of expectations. Still bogged down in a war that baffled the best of its military tacticians, the United States’ was far from prepared to fully expose its unattractive underbelly. There was no doubt that the American public was horrified by the mowing down of defenseless Vietnamese men, women and children, even if the soldiers who wielded the guns were spared any sanctions.
In the case of the massacre in Asaba, the Nigerian state’s recourse to silence is indefensible. At minimum, the government should admit that its soldiers committed a gruesome act. And there may be a glimmer of hope. A few days ago, Champion newspaper quoted Emma Okocha, whose book, Blood on the Niger, offers the fullest chronicle of the massacre in Asaba and elsewhere, as disclosing that the federal government had actually approved (but never effected) financial compensation for the families of victims of the massacre. If that is true, then President Goodluck Jonathan would do well to order that such compensation be paid immediately.
Even so, we must state that no amount of cash can redeem a life, or fully atone for the torment faced by survivors of casualties – those whose lives were unjustly taken. A deeper act of restitution is called for. And that is why the project to erect a permanent monument to the victims of the massacre is of utmost importance. Until and unless we provide a space to honor the memory of the innocents executed in cold blood, for no just cause, we condemn ourselves to the fury and bitterness of the unappeased.
(This column is the first part of Ndibe’s keynote at the Asaba Memorial Park Symposium in Tampa, Florida last Saturday. The second will be published next week)
Comments
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RESPECT for one another
Submitted by VINAE (not verified) on November 5, 2011 - 12:39.
The author of that excelent piece is Married to a yoruba laday( Prof.Fafuwa's daughter). Dr.Okey is a distribalised Nigerian. Our problem in Nigeria is not where we come from but we have not beeen fortunate to be ruled by leaders whose brains are still functional. This specie of leaders are well represented in every tribe.How do u know a failure? Any man that wears ethnic garb in time of serious thinking is worse than everyone that helped in demolishing this building called Nigeria. His or her age is irrelevant.
If our generation is neck-deep in name calling and finger pointing...our deliverance as a nation is far .
from sokoto to Oyo, Abia to calabar... Poverty is the passwod for many house holds. Ask yourself: What is happening in my state where the Governor and commissioner are almost from my village...Power is not the issue. it is what you do with power. Tribalism in 21st century(with globalisation) is an unmistakable sign of insanity.
Biafra Republic
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 4, 2011 - 20:34.
Iam ashamed of the utterances of all these commentators. All aspects of our precious life in Nigeria have been mismanaged, politicised and polluted with an inward flow of irreverent intrigues, stereotypes, aparthy and wicked utterances not synonymous with our so called national anthem. In the absence of a Sovereign conference to jawjaw, let us break up and save our children and the future generation.To be forewarned is to forearmed. SR, you are my witness!!.
Biafra Republic
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 4, 2011 - 20:26.
Frankly speaking, judging the tone and severity of the ongoing commentaries above, there is now sufficient facts to confirm that the prediction by the US on the disintegration of this failed stste called Nigeria is imminient. I can prove it beyond reasonable doubt that the situation in Nigeria today have reached a point whereby the Arab Reawakening will be a child's play in comparison with what is about to take place. The so-called leaders, past and present have thwarted and raped the collective psyche of all Nigerians in their bid to protect their self centred and ignoble interests, such that what is left is for us to break up and seek our salvation in our own hands.
Africa will forever remain free from colonism of the west.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 4, 2011 - 20:05.
Thank you mr. O. Ndibe for this wonderful column.
I urge everyone of you out there to read the history of violence nigeria starting from 1960 to 2011.
Violence in Nigeria are always organized and sponsored by few countries in europe who claim that africa is their vegetable garden, one of these country was responsible for 1963 election fraud and the same country sent bullets, bombs and other heavy artilleries on Biafra as they christmas gift during the Nigeria and biafra war, they even staged coup in guinea and other africa countries.
ojokwu mifia you worshiper of
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 4, 2011 - 15:22.
ojokwu mifia you worshiper of the devil mohammed to suggest that ibos eat human flesh is laughable. Is it not consumption of human blood that your hausa-fulani is known. after knocking your heads five times a day, you look for human blood to consume. how many humans have your ilk send to early graves. my only wish is that our people engage in tit for tat with you smeely animals.go have sex with a goat which is your tribes pasttime. ass wipe
I WEEP BY THE COMMENTS I HAVE
Submitted by adeyemi tobias ndudi (not verified) on November 4, 2011 - 13:51.
I WEEP BY THE COMMENTS I HAVE READ ON THIS TOPIC. SECTIONAL MYOPIC THOUGHTS. WHAT DO YOU SAY OF SOMEONE LIKE ME THAT HAVE HERITAGE FROM THE EAST AND WEST BY BIRTH AND MARRIED A FANTASTIC WOMAN FROM THE NORTH? WHAT DO YOU SAY OF SOMEONE LIKE RET. GEN. OMAR SANDA IKE NWACHUKWU, THE MOST SENIOR MALE (?) IN KATSINA ROYAL HOUSE.
I THINK THE ONLY THING THAT UNITES US IS SOCCER / FOOTBAL........SO, SHOULD WE CONTINUE TO PLAY MATCHES 24/7 SO THAT AT LEAST THERE WILL BE SOME SANITY?
Igbo People The Human Eaters. Ayan Miri Mai Chi Mutum
Submitted by Ojokwu Mifia (not verified) on November 4, 2011 - 00:30.
Igbo the human eaters. It took place in Bukuru then Northern Region when an Igbo boy friend was killed by his Igbo father for meat; the Igbo child went out shouting baba na ya ke shi aboki na. This Igbo child was weeping uncontrolable that his Igbo's father has killed his friend. The people that were gathered at the scene of the incident asked him how did it happened? he told the crowd that his father cut the neck with a knife and when the people entered the young boy's house to investage what was going on they found the boys father hidding behind a big drum where he deposited the child's body. He was arrested and taken to court and he was judged and hang for his crime. That is Igbo for you.
omo itohan you are a fool.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 21:43.
omo itohan you are a fool. for someone whose sisters(bini prostitutes in europe) introduced AIDS in nigeria, you should bury your head in the sand or better yet commit suicide. We IBOs believe in hard work to earn a living not by lying and pretending to be serving JESUS. JESUS did not charge people to hear his sermons. He offered them freely unlike your AIDS Deceased brother idahosa. Ass Wipe. Go buy AIDS coctail for your infected sister.
@ Ahmadu & Philip Tilvary
Submitted by Koboko-Dem! (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 19:31.
Ahmadu,
Honestly speaking, who did you buy the computer that you used to write that trash from? Almost certainly an Igbo man.
Rather than making arguments on how manufacturing and productivity can be increased in the North, you are busy wasting your precious time criticising your more productive Eastern brethren. And you, presumably, would claim to be enlightened, right? Have you ever lost a family member to religious violence, like a lot of Igbos? I think not.
Me? I am for one Nigeria- there is a lot to be gained from our diversity, all we need is capable, good governance.
@Philip Tilvary: God bless you and your family. If Nigerians can just rid themselves of the bigotry plaguing us, believe me, no nation in Africa will be greater!
@Justin Opara
Submitted by Wähala (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 18:48.
Calm Down! It was a song written by Warrior not Wähala, and it's not my wahala that Ibos are careful with your likes. But, don't make me open my book on Mbaise in public, it will arm Ibo-haters to the teeth. Make we keep am hush-hush, bro!
I'm a very proud son of the soil, alright. I was born the day that pogrom was declared so I have reason to be polemic about Biafra issue. Get some sleep, don't wake up. Mbaise bara na akuko way before w.w.Wahala was born, fool!
I love the igbos.
Submitted by Philip Tilvary (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 15:25.
I will continue to say it that Yorubas are naturally stupid.This useless cowards would have been living in caves like Koma people if not for Awo. Among all the tribes in Nigeria no tribe like Igbos.Their enterprising spirit should be emulated by all, I will be the first to apologize on behalf of northern Chritians for fighting against our brothers. Since after the war we are the worst hit,and yet the igbos always fight to defend us on the basis of religion here in the north.There is no difference between the yorubas and the hausas/fulani,Yorubas are being enslaved by hausa/fulani using religion having been conquered by fulanis.I have followed my igbo friend to Nnewi during chritmas period I was surprised that everywhere was launching for, either hall,electricity,road etc.then nnewi have many industries, i could not believe my eyes.
@Ahmadu
Submitted by johnudoh (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 13:38.
@Ahmadu, Have you heard of the saying, he that holds one on the ground is equally holding himself. Your myopic and power mongering tribe thinks that by holding Igbos down from making progress politically that you people can make progress, but alas your wrong, look who are dying of large scale poverty and diseases today, it is your myopic and corrupt tasty people ofcourse. For forty years, your people ruled this country and left her in this backward state. non of you tribal bigots has the right to open your corrupt and greed infested mouth to speak against the Igbos, you blind idiots that left the country in comatose
@Omo Itohan, look who is
Submitted by johnudoh (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 13:15.
@Omo Itohan, look who is talking, your people are known for prostitution, your men are lazy ocultic bastards. your boys will rather wait at Lagos-Benin express Road to rob Igbos returning to the East of their hard earned money, you wonder where Monday Osunbor and Anini came from? Go to Italy and see where your people are hawking sex for money. Before you open your stinking bastard mouth, you should remember the son of whom you are, a harlot ofcourse
@Omo Ita & Omoaholo (0+0)
Submitted by Wähala (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 11:43.
"Omo Ita" means "street urching" in Yoruba language. Agbero! You two hollow minds can gather all the O's in Edo state, a million zeroes is still equal to zero! You have absolutely nothing to offer in Nigeria as usual, so what's your beef with Ibos? At least Yorubas are educated and reasonable, in average Edo household are witches for parents, prostitutes for daughters and armed robbers for sons. House of Horror! If fake pastors and juju men are your heroes, Catholics don't need them. One blind Ibo is worth a million of your types in Edo state!
@Esquire: What you call "arrogance", we call "self-esteem". You can't expect highly intelligent and educated people to "mix & mingle" with rifrats because illitracy is an infectious disease! When Ibos went to school, you thugs went armed robbing.
Ibos do not need Nigerian presidency, the Nigerian president crawls and begs to employ just one Ibo, the only "Double Minister". Knowledge is Power, my people keep reading!!!
To Supid Mypoc Mr Wahala
Submitted by Justin Opara (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 11:26.
@Wahala, u are very stupid and a fucking monkey.I am sure thats why u call yourself Wahala, am proud mbaise man and am sure they are many mbaise men better than u, what is bad in preaching unity, u are very stupid and myopic, ur education is waste, i wonder what part of Nigeria u come from and i dont think u are a real Igboman, u just come here and insult people they way u feel, u are the most foolish man out here, stupid arrogant man, am sure u have a mental problem, thats why people like u will continue top be a disappointment's to the Igbo race, look at ur ugly face, i am sure u are a drunkard, only a drunkard like you will write and insult people. anuofia.
Foolish Wahala
Submitted by Justin Opara (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 11:20.
@Wahala, u are very stupid and a fucking monkey.I am sure thats why u call yourself Wahala, am proud mbaise man and am sure they are many mbaise men better than u, what is bad in preaching unity, u are very stupid and myopic, ur education is waste, i wonder what part of Nigeria u come from and i dont think u are a real Igboman, u just come here and insult people they way u feel, u are the most foolish man out here, stupid arrogant man, am sure u have a mental problem, thats why people like u will continue top be a disappointment's to the Igbo race, look at ur ugly face, i am sure u are a drunkard, only a drunkard like you will write and insult people. anuofia.
SR columnists, please keep up with the times
Submitted by AU Citizen (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 10:24.
The arguments on this site are approx 40 years old, when Africa's newly emergent states had to grapple with colonial legacies and ethnic competition for resources and dominance. Right now, the world's economy is in the state it was in during the 1920s, preceding the 2nd world war & Hitler's exploitation of people's suffering. Therefore, can SR please discuss these issues. These affect many more people who comment on this site as they live in the west which is literally collapsing as a pack of cards. When USA & the west collapses in the next couple of years, what do you do? Do you stay with your kids in a foreign land in a war scenario or do you go home? More relevant than Biafra or Nigeria's history before 1999.
MY WORD!
Submitted by Koboko-Dem! (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 09:54.
Lord have mercy....
Nigeria is finished. That we cannot come on SR and make comments without raining abuses on each other fathers and mothers, after 51 years, indicates as much.
And the level of ignorance amongst some of my brothers?... Disgraceful and embarrassing.
The Yanks might yet be proven right on their prediction for 2015, that would be a shame.
@Omo Itohan I expected a good come back.....YAWN !!!
Submitted by That Igbo Boy From Northern California (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 09:49.
Why are you catching feelings? Please don't be that sensitive I thought you said you are a "bOrN aGaiN" christian,why cursing others instead of asking God to forgive them?You went from being cool and having your little IGNORANT fantasy to defending your dumb and Naive kinsman(Omoaholo) without reading his hateful comments.Go watch a documentary called "NIGERIAN CONNECTION" on youtube,and then come back to tell us which members of a certain region in old Bendel state of Nigeria are selling their houses for the love of money to send their daughters Abroad for Prostitution.My arguments are based on fact but yours are based on Fallacy.Miss Piggy, I will leave you alone before you blow a blood vessel from typing so damn hard.I doubt If you have come across the verse in the Holy Bible that says;"Love your neighbor as yourself"?Your so called south south region produced GEJ the clueless president....lol
A Gift........Igbo
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 05:23.
We have been given a gift. That Gift is Igbo. We can do whatever we wish with the gift. Keep it or destroy it. What do you do with a gift you do not need? Just throw it away or burn it. You can also trashed it. That is what we will do with Igbo gift. The economy is bad all over the world we cannot afford to keep and feed the gift so let it go and starve. Oh send it to Biafara stste in Somalia camp.
Igbos Are Begging For Sympathy, Sorry, And Apologies.
Submitted by Augustine Okoro (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 04:15.
How do you please an Igbo person? If you are on their sides trouble; if you try to please them trouble; if you die for them trouble; there is nothing under the sun that you do to apeased the Igbo is trouble. If Chineke God come down to help them is trouble with God. Give an Igbo man your house is trouble. You cannot reason with them. They will sell their people to Hausa for money. They cry fowl of the Hausas yet they sell their souls to them. The boko haram is after them in the north yet they stay put. Greed will not allow Igbo man to reason well within himself. There is no place under the earth you will not find an Igbo man. Desprado. Arthur Nziregbe want to convert to islam to make it to the presidency of Nigeria why? Igbo man will tell you that they are more christian than other but that's a lie from hell.
A Gift
Submitted by Toldyou (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 03:59.
Ndigbo is a gift to Nigeria. The nation will continue to head into steady decline until Igbos are emancipated. All these Igbo haters should cover their heads in shame. In the States and across Europe, Yourubas, Hausas and the so-called South-South student came in the seventies/eighties with double and tripple scholarships. Igbo students had none but where is the difference today? We will out work, out produce and out smart all of you. Sorry, it is God given and you can't change it.
You Igbos Have Shown How Ignorants You People Are: Bus Boys
Submitted by Omo Itohan (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 03:44.
I am amazed at the way Igbos behave and react. This is the very reason why you people will never taste the presidency of Nigeria. This is the reason why you are all Hausa bus boys. You will always be second class citizens in Nigeria. It seems you people are cursed. Why are you all leaving your areas to other peoples' place. You have nothing to offer to people in your land. You go to the north to look for land, you go to Ekwere to steal their land, infact, you have no land of your own. Why can't Igbo people stay put in their dense land? All evil follow you guys. 419, Kidnapping, drug pusher, human eaters, all sorts of vices name them Igbo man is involved. You called yourselves christians but you all behave like the devils. The church, I belong you Igbo people are also members. Is Umuahia not Igbo land some of the churches that are in that ares is in my place and througout Nigeria. A fool when he is quiet is considered wise.
@Squire
Submitted by A School at 3.00pm (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 03:25.
I guessed that the only way for people like you to justify the massacre of Igbos in the north and west is to compare it with the 1965 military coup lead by major Nzu-ogwu???
One thing you do not get is that the 1965 coup was staged by a group of military guys acting on whatever they believed then. Also, remember that when Ironsi was killed in another military coup, Ojukwo suggested the use of seniority in replacing Ironsi. The general, randomly killing of all Igbo civilians in northern Nigeria and western part of Nigeria in the name of 1965 coup is nonsensical.
The USA went after Osama B. and not the ordinary people of Saudi, Afghanistan or where ever he claimed to have come from.
@Ahmadu, you vomitted..........
Submitted by A School at 3.00pm (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 02:20.
"Knowing what we know now, others would have gladly let Igbo people go. Now Igbo criminals have infested every other parts of the country.
They should have allowed the Criminal Republic of Biafra to succeed.
That monkey pikin no fine is not a wahala for him mama and him mama is not looking for a plastic surgery for him pikin. Biafra is our choice period.
We do not care what you think of the Biafra country. We the Igbos signed the Biafra country cheque with our blood for three years. Which kind of Igbo’s seriousness you do not understand? Who killed Ken Sarawiwa in your beloved one Nigeria? Igbo hands no de there ooo.
BIAFRA: A SELF INFLICTED WOUND 3
Submitted by Esquire (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 01:21.
@ At School at 3pm: Self definition is to be encouraged. However, this is not the point. The allusion to ‘arrogance, myopia and superiority complex’ is an Igbo self analysis by the revered Achebe in his premier novel THINGS FALL APART. Vexatious as it may be it is primarily an Igbo assessment by an Igbo, albeit in a literary context which does not negate truism or relevance. The rationale for the assertion that Biafra is a self inflicted wound is purely based on historical antecedents. In other words, had Igbo officers not murdered selectively and had Ironsi not appeared to collude through inaction, the basis for the retaliatory counter coup and consequent break away would not have occurred. The notion of Igbo’s as victims defies logic. When Igbos apologise to Balewa family etc , then Nigerians, the real victims of 1966 coup may apologise for resisting Okonkwoism. To cure an illness one must understand the ailment.
http://www.africamasterweb.com/CounterCoup.html
Nigeria & Biafra (3)
Submitted by Wähala (not verified) on November 3, 2011 - 00:27.
@'Holo Imogirie: I said Ibos are Catholics, the only church directly traceable to Jesus Christ and the voice of Christianity worldwide! Those fake churches you mentioned are criminal organizations if you don't know. Apart from Nigerians, name any pastors that have private jets. You're a mugu for life!
@Siddonlook: Rudulf Hess and other senior NS officers were tried there. You mean you've never heard of Nuremberg Trials? Shameful, your level of education! Charles Taylor is facing trial for chopping-off limbs, so wars do have rules, sucker.
@Daoud Akano: Ibos do NOT need any friends in Nigeria. Aboki, the only recorded success your Nigeria ever had was during the time of the Fantastic Five: Prof. Dora Akuyinli, Dr. Oby Ezkwesil, Dr. Ngozi Iweala, Prof. Soludo and Dr. Ndukwe at telecom. (notice their qualifications?) You need us more than we need your almagiris! Your Aboki thieves ruined Nigeria not Ibos, idiot.
@Esquire: Aschloch, it means "primitive" people like you!
@Omoaholo and Omo Itohan.....continue
Submitted by That Igbo Boy From Northern california (not verified) on November 2, 2011 - 23:31.
FYI Nigeria has the highest amount of Churches on earth yet nothing good to show of it and that is why you and I are on SR,reading post. Bad leaders,Drug dealers,kidnappers,corruption,dishonesty,bad health system,No power supply,HIV and AIDS, thieves on Benin Lagos Road,Greed,secret Cult and ritualistic. Is Tony Anenih,the Iyamus,and Raymond Dokpesi not head of dysfunctional house holds?Reason,they paid pea nuts for bride prices,and that is why all their kids have step brothers(money's worth).OMO Itohan,I am yet to hear your Mega Church Pastors preach against the high rate of prostitution amongst their kinsmen in Italy and else where in Europe.Do me a favor Religious bigots, ask your Mega Pastors to make their congregates weekly contribution or tight available online for all members to see their account summary,If they are truly Men of God or Men of Wealth.The Catholic church I attend in California does it because they are honest.
@Omoaholo and Omo Itohan....The worst come back ever.....lol
Submitted by That Igbo Boy From Northern California (not verified) on November 2, 2011 - 23:22.
I was kinda surprise you guys brought religion into our conversation.I have to go down your level to respond to your childish comment.Do you think owning a Church brings about development?Your responses are laughable and equipped with mediocre and Ignorance.How has owning a Mega-Church been beneficial to a common man in Edo state or help reduce kidnapping in Edo state?Your people are that religious yet almost every house in Benin city has shrine and witchcraft.You guys are so United yet Cult members of same "UN"ited ethnic groups are killing themselves in Edo state?How many political assassination do you hear of in Igbo land if compared to mid-western and western region of Nigeria? Steve Job was an Icon, he touched life without owning a MEGA CHURCH.You guys must be very myopic to reason like unexposed people.
ITOHAN
Submitted by okonkwo kenneddy (not verified) on November 2, 2011 - 23:02.
your comment represents the highest level of ignorance and myopia..why do you people have too much passion for anything that has to do with igbos?..you constantly castigate nigeria but igbos are not allowed to do same..am sorry for you really..we are mostly catholics and protestants,we are not interested in your fraudulent organisations you call churches..igbos are way too smart for your prosperity pastors..its understandable that you need those promises coming out from those oyakilome and others,we are realists and dont need to rely on pastors for survival.if want to talk about achievements,think of chioma ajunwa,nwankwo kanu,chinua achebe,okonjo iweala,oby ezekwesili,philip emeagwali,chukwuma soludo,barth nnaji,mikel obi,chimamanda adichi.think of nollywood..the igbos operate on global scale my brother..we are too much...wait till they buy your father`s house.
