Thursday, 17 May 2012
Nigeria: The Cost And Curse Of Biafra By Okey Ndibe
Okey Ndibe
Columnist:
Okey Ndibe In his essay, “Going to the Territory,” the late novelist Ralph Ellison famously made the accusation that “Americans can be notoriously selective in the exercise of historical memory.” The Nigerian malady is of a different kind.
As I suggested earlier, as far as the Biafran War is concerned, the Nigerian state has adopted a stance of deliberate forgetfulness. And I am willing to wager that this stance accounts, in large measure, for the cyclical disaster that has become a major theme of the country’s experience.
It’s tragic enough, if you ask me, that a country that wasted more than a million lives and limbs in a civil war would turn around and choose to carry on as if everything was hunky dory – thank you. It’s worse, in my estimation, when the country’s collective intelligentsia decides to collaborate in this project of amnesia. It’s true that both Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, our two most important writers, played significantly roles in the war, and have written considerably – in a variety of genres – about it. In addition, a few of the major actors in the war – among them Philip Effiong and Olusegun Obasanjo – have written highly personal accounts of it. Still, given the scale and significance of the bloody conflict as well as the sheer enormity of the cost in lives, one is, I think, justified in bemoaning the paucity of books on the subject.
In particular, Nigeria’s professional historians – with a few exceptions – stand accused of shirking a responsibility to explore the war’s multi-dimensional aspects. When we consider that the civil war in the United States – which formally ended in 1863 – continues to generate a whole library of books each year, then we can begin to grasp how thoroughly insouciant Nigerian historians have been. The history of the Biafran War ought to be a staple in the departments of history of our various universities. Ideally, the historians engaged to teach at these universities ought to sustain our memory of the whys and what ifs of the war.
One is aware of the huge handicaps facing Nigerian scholars and researchers. Even so, it is something of an indictment of Nigerian academics that it took the effort of historians and forensic anthropologists from the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida to begin the systematic identification of the victims of the Asaba massacre, and to commence an oral history of the tragedy. Nigeria’s election to ignore the lessons of its bloodiest moment has proved extremely dangerous. On the whole, Nigerians’ understanding of their history is terribly shallow, and often shaped or inflected by handy ethnic or sectarian stereotypes.
In The Roots of African American Identity, a scintillating study of the nature and context of memory in the forging and transformation of experience, Elizabeth Rauh Bethel dwells on the modes of politicization of memory of the American War of independence. She specifically explores the systematic, racist exclusion of African Americans from the nexus of the rites of memory pertaining to that revolutionary effort. In doing so, she makes a point that – I think – connects with Nigeria’s experience. Bethel writes that “in the nation of twenty-nine million, three million African Americans had been excised from the public memory of a war in which many of their fathers and grandfathers had fought and some had died. At mid-century, neither the myth of the remembered past nor the lived reality of daily life acknowledged the vital presence of African Americans in a nation they had helped to create.”
What did African Americans do? In the face of exclusion, they did not fold their hands and bemoan their fate. Led by the inspiring William Cooper Nell, they inaugurated the Commemorative Festival in Boston and elsewhere in the northern states. Conceived as a corrective to the exclusivist strain of European American remembrance of the war, the festival sought to serve two purposes: “it celebrated a lost African-American past, and it validated the contemporary demands of African Americans for full and unconditional inclusion in the civic life of the nation they had helped create.” In other words, the festivals tried to “revise and expand the myth of the [American] nation’s beginnings in such a fashion as to include African Americans; and in so doing, the Commemorative Festival drew on a long-standing African-American celebratory tradition as it constructed an historical validation for contemporary protests against injustice and demands for full and unconditional rights as American citizens.”
In the case of Nigeria, sadly, there appear to be two contending, but not mutually exclusive, trends. One is the temptation to sum up the lessons of the Biafran War as simply a demonstration of the indestructibility of the Nigerian fabric. This posture takes several rhetorical forms. Some – politicians, pastors, even intellectuals – invoke the idea of divine design. They suggest that Nigeria’s shape and constitution were mandated by God, instead of British colonialist fiat. Subsequently, it is proposed that any effort to dismember the entity called Nigeria would be, unquestionably, an affront to God. Others suggest that, despite her past and continuing woes, Nigeria remains special – and destined for greatness – on account of its stupendous endowments in human and material resources. The other tendency appears, even if implicitly, to prescribe forgetfulness. Even though the war is recognized as a wound in the country’s psyche, this attitude goes ahead to encourage Nigerians to transcend the trauma by erasing it from their memory.
This amnesia-centered creed is Nigeria’s bane. When a people cultivate denial of an event, even a deeply traumatic one, they – at the very least – risk blundering into the same mistakes over and over. Nigeria continues to pay a price for its adamant refusal to take a proper inventory of its errors – in fact, what one might call its monumental sins. Any country that pretends that its past does not count – or holds itself blameless – condemns itself, ultimately, to a repetition of its tragic missteps. By contrast, a country that consciously seeks to grasp the fault lines of its history – especially its worst mistakes – prepares itself to make amends, atone for its transgressions, transcend its pitfalls, and rise to its promise and potential.
There is no question in my mind – the evidence being overwhelming – that Nigeria is a besieged space. One is aware, of course, that many Nigerians are quick to deny it. Some of them actually invoke God in their futile act of renunciation – they profess to “bind” all principalities and powers that have destructive designs on Nigeria. But all that puerile avowal does not – cannot – change the fact that our country is today caught in a state of war. Let me rephrase that: Nigeria is mired, not in one war but in several wars at once. The only thing that’s missing from the portrait is, again, our characteristic reluctance to acknowledge the stark reality: that it’s a war – or wars – going on. If we quit playing ostrich for a second, we should admit that the ever-volatile Niger Delta is a war zone – and is susceptible to combustion at a moment’s notice. And then there’s Boko Haram, an amorphous group that has coalesced around a broad slate of causes: hostility towards Western education and its values, a suspicion of adherents of moderate Islam, and the rejection of the Nigerian state and its instruments. This group’s ability to strike at will at targets in the northern part of Nigeria bespeaks a country that – to put it mildly – is in a state of implosion.
We don’t have the space or time to delve into the matter at length, but I am convinced that Nigeria’s intractable travails have much – if not everything – to do with the country’s unfortunate policy of erasing the Biafran War from its memory chip. Trapped in its self-contrived historical vacuum, Nigeria has condemned itself to staggering, willy nilly, from one tragedy to another.
Saddled by the burden of self-designed ignorance, the country remains incapable of apprehending the ways in which its past is exacting a harsh penalty on its present – and dooming its future.
Having experienced the horrors of the Holocaust, the Jews are bent on ensuring, one, that the world never forgets for one moment what happened to their fellows and, two, that no man or nation would ever attempt again the mass extermination of Jews. After 800,000 Rwandans, most of them Tutsis, perished within four weeks in one of the world’s most horrific recent acts of genocide, the people of Rwanda did not dig a grave to bury what happened. No, they opened themselves to the brutal truth, and gleaned from it abiding lessons for transformation. Today, Rwanda is earning global applause for its steady evolution and progress from a moment of unspeakable horror to one of admirable reconciliation. There are few, if any, guarantees in history, but Rwandans are working hard to exorcise the ghost of their bloody history – and to guard against the prospect of recurrence.
Nigeria had every opportunity to set the example that a Rwanda would have been inspired by, but chose a different path. And Nigeria has paid, and continues to pay, the price. Let us illustrate.
In the eight years that Mr. Obasanjo occupied Aso Rock, presidential orders were given twice to the Nigerian army to attack communities of civilians. The first attack targeted the people of Odi, Bayelsa State, in November, 1999. Sent on the trail of alleged criminals, soldiers razed the Odi community, killing more than 2000 unarmed civilians. In 2001, a similar mission was sent against the people of Zaki Biam, in Benue State. Following the murder of soldiers engaged in peace keeping mission in the community, a contingent of the army was dispatched on a reprisal mission. Arriving in armored cars, they cordoned off the town and commenced a bombardment from land and air. In the end, more than three hundred people – men, women and children – lay dead, with near total destruction of homes in the community. Nobody was ever held responsible for this wholesale assault on civilians. My conjecture is that, had Nigerians acknowledged and atoned for the massacre in Asaba, the attacks on Odi and Zaki Biam would have been harder to contemplate and execute.
I insist that the provocations that precipitated the Biafran War have since been serially reproduced, compounded and intensified since the end of the war. Had Nigerians allowed themselves to learn from the Biafran War, then it is unlikely that the country would today be saddled with the separatist rhetoric and violence that often emanates from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, and Boko Haram.
During a recent visit to Nigeria, I had an enlightening telephone conversation with a female politician. She suggested that Nigeria’s deepening woes are rooted in the country’s insouciant attitude towards those who had died in the struggle to uphold the country’s territorial oneness. She stipulated that the nation needed to engage in a rite of expiation, a formal recognition of the sacrifice made by those who died on all sides, and the enactment of acts of atonement. There were aspects of her stricture that I found unpalatable. Even so, hers was an intriguing recommendation, and I found myself persuaded by its broad outline. Like her, I believe that Nigerians owe a debt of acknowledgement to the dead of the war on both sides of the conflict.
At different times and in different contexts, both Soyinka and Achebe have expressed a pessimistic stance on Nigeria’s claim to a settled national identity. In 1995, Soyinka stated that Nigeria was very much in the process of searching for its “nation-being.” Achebe’s accent was even more dour; as he told me in an interview some twenty years ago, “Nigeria as a nation has not been founded up to now.” I doubt that either writer has seen cause to revise his position, or even to now be confident that Nigeria is making steady, irreversible progress towards national-actualization.
If Nigeria is to realize its promise as a cohesive community, then it behooves her to recognize that it is the blood of those who died in the Biafran War that stands as down payment on the project called Nigeria. The casualties of the war, properly speaking, are the ancestral founders of Nigeria. In spurning, dishonoring or belittling them, we doom the prospect of Nigeria amounting to anything as a nation.
Nigeria fought a war where one of the central questions, on the surface at least, was whether the preservation of its unity ought to be held sacred. . Ultimately, that question was settled (if we use the logic of the outcome of the war) by the answer that any effort to fracture Nigeria was unacceptable, even heretical. That resolution then begs the question: If, forty years after the end of that war, Nigeria has not been founded (and I doubt there is any serious-minded person who denies that the country remains an inchoate idea, its viability constantly cast into question), then what was the point of the war? In his highly polemical Discourse on Colonialism, the late Martinican scholar Aime Cesaire opens with a few declamations aimed at Europe: “A civilization that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization. A civilization that closes its eyes to its most crucial problems is a stricken civilization. A civilization that uses its principles for trickery and deceit is a dying civilization.” Replace civilization with country, and Cesaire could have been speaking about Nigeria.
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(okeyndibe@gmail.com)
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Biafra
Submitted by Oya isi (not verified) on December 4, 2011 - 17:27.
Republic of Biafra ịs coming soon
The Real Target To Hit 4
Submitted by tonsoyo (not verified) on November 11, 2011 - 02:35.
Bottomline, we carry on like we never fought any war, the issues that led to the war are still very much alive and with us, many are still dying based on the same premises of the war. Only one cleansing is needed and that is addressing the basis for our continued existence as a country. On the ruins of the present day injustice called Nigeria we will build the monuments of the Civil war, right now the evil called Nigeria is still standing, let us get rid of the evil empire first, and every other things will be added unto it.
The Real Target To Hit 3
Submitted by tonsoyo (not verified) on November 11, 2011 - 02:34.
From the second perspective, I cannot really fathom what Prof. Ndibe wanted from Nigeria, raising monuments in commemoration of Biafra or addressing the issue that led to Biafra. If the former is the case, I would say sorry o, that would be misplaced, if the latter is the case, then I will totally agree with him. No monuments are needed because Nigeria is still at war forty years after, we have moved from military to political battle. Whereas people died wholesale during the war, we have been dying installmentally since the pretentious end of the military phase of the war
The Real Target To Hit 2
Submitted by tonsoyo (not verified) on November 11, 2011 - 02:33.
His first perspective is the failure of our intellectuals to properly document the war. But I personally believe that charity should begin at home. How can Prof. Ndibe conveniently forget that the man at the center of this war, the man that declared the secession is not just a University graduate but he is an Oxford University trained historian! He has refused to write his memoir of the war over 40 years after! His writing will most likely encourage more writings or may lead to more rejoinders and reactions that will reveal more about the war. He owes Nigerians more in this regards than any Nigerian. Now he is lying sick in a UK hospital, the chances of hearing from him DIMS by the day.
The Real Target To Hit 1
Submitted by tonsoyo (not verified) on November 11, 2011 - 02:32.
Prof. Ndibe explored two different perspectives where Nigeria has fallen short of giving due recognition to the fallen heroes of Biafran war ( I would rather it is addressed as the Nigeria Civil War) There are responsibilities due to both sides of the war. I am deeply concerned about one-sided appraisals of the war by many as also espoused in this write-up and it implications.
As brilliant as Prof. Ndibe is, by the way, he is also who one the coolest personality one would ever meet, he seems to be incapable of divorcing his personal feelings from his intellectual works, this greatly robs him of objectivity
@ Esquire, keep spreading
Submitted by Johnudoh (not verified) on November 10, 2011 - 12:04.
@ Esquire, keep spreading your fallacy, wallowing in your self delusion, you can call Nzeogwu coup Igbo coup for all I care. I only blamed my brother Gen. Ironsi for believing in one Nigeria, which informed why he appointed Northerners as his security aides, which he paid with his life, if he had practiced Nigeria sectional politics, the counter coup wouldn't have been possible. Nevertheless, those that betrayed Ironsi killed the spirit of one Nigeria, the one Nigeria slogan of Gowon and co preached during the war was one of deception which has backfired today. It is true Igbos are dying in the North, same also the kith and kins of Danjuma and Gowon, they are paying the price for believing in one North, the Hausa/Fulani Muslim doesn't want them anymore, they have been used and dumped. The Hausa/Fulani Jihadist are showing their true colours, Boko Haram is not existing in isolation, they have strong backing of the Hausa/Fulani Political/religious class
The Enduring Impact of the First Coup 2
Submitted by Esquire (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 23:50.
“Nzeogwu's destruction of the Premier's lodge using an anti-tank weapon and killing of his wife offended the sensibilities of many officers and gentlemen including some Igbo speaking officers I have spoken to who shared Nzeogwu's Sandhurst background. For example, in a telephone conversation, Lt. Col. Alphonsus Keshi (rtd) then Brigade Major of the 1st Brigade, described late Major Nzeogwu to me as a "murderer". Onwatuegwu on the other hand, not only shot Brigadier Ademulegun but killed his pregnant wife - an abomination in african tradition. For some weeks after the coup one could get a guided tour of Ademulegun's blood spattered bedroom in Kaduna with the right connections at 1 Brigade HQ. Those who went for the tour did not emerge from it with any feelings that mercy should be shown if the perpetrator was ever caught.” http://www.africamasterweb.com/CounterCoup.html
The Enduring Legacy of the First Coup 1
Submitted by Esquire (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 23:35.
“In his biography titled "Power with Civility" by Oleka and Ofondu (Neskon 1998), Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, an Igbo easterner who later fought in the Biafran Navy, states: "That Igbos, including soldiers in the barracks, teased their Northern counterparts about what they regarded as swapping of fortune, served to fray tempers. It was not long before Northerners vented their spleen on their Igbo guests. An orgy of killing of Igbos throughout all nooks and crannies of the Northern Region kicked off." In his book, "Revolution in Nigeria, Another View" late General Garba describes how his soldiers in the Federal Guard broke down in tears in Jankara market in Lagos when they heard the album "Machine Gun" . General Danjuma (rtd) says even the wives of Igbo soldiers were taunting the wives of Northern soldiers.” http://www.africamasterweb.com/CounterCoup.html
I WANT MY GRADFATHER'S PROPERTIES BACK OR .........
Submitted by osita DIOKA (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 22:31.
I will never stop asking for my grandfather's landed properties in PH,for many of us whose hard work and sweat was siezed in a fit of greediness and wickedness, our war is still on.When I die my children will continue to fight because I have those properties in my will.For us the vanquished,the inhuame act of stripping our properties makes a mokery of "ONE NIGERIA".I cannot claim the amounts my grand father had in the banks because he lost the bank documents during the war, any way he rejected his £20 and latter died of a broken heart,but in my veins flows the resilient Biafran blood,I will not forget.NEVER!! NEVER!!
@Esquire: You and your lot ought cry: see wetin we do ourselves.
Submitted by Emeka (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 22:20.
Esquire,
I do not need to search deep to know from where you hail. My meassage to you is: You and yours ought to cry "see wetin we do ourselves", and not the Igbo. Why? It would have paid you better if you had supported the cause of Biafra in 1967. It is easier for you tp extract 50% for derivation in oil resources from Biafra than the pitance you now receive from Abuja, coupled with environmemntal degredation to contend. The Effiong soldierman who fought till the last day and surrendered was more brilliant than you.
To add to that, most of the political solutions to Nigeria that Biafrans articulated more than forty years ago for a better Nigeria are what many who feel shortchanged after fighting against Biafra are praying for today.
@Esquire, you can not be serious, hear yourself...3
Submitted by Jude Morah (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 20:43.
South Africa case was worse than civil war. Today, SA is forging ahead. US fought cold war with USSR, today, most of those countries are allies to the US and Russia and the US are working together sharing information in the space. It took Angola less than ten years to get there, but it has taken Nigeria forty-one years and counting to get to nowhere and that is the difference. Guess what? The main reason for success or failure in aftermath of any crises is leadership. If you are honest with yourself, 1970, the end of the civil war would have been a rebirth of a new Nigeria. Today, it civil war all over again.
@Esquire, you can not be serious, hear yourself...2
Submitted by Jude Morah (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 20:41.
Third, If the only way that you and your people can hide your visionless in leadership roles and your mismanagement of huge oil money from the Niger delta since 1970 is to blame it on 1965 military coup and the Biafra civil war, I got this gist for you. Nigeria is not the only country that had military coup and regrouped, made peace and forged on. Nigeria is not the only country that fought civil war and made peace, regrouped and forged on. USA fought civil war, Angola fought civil war. There used to be east and West Germany, today they are one and their head of state Angela is from East Germany.
@Esquire, you can not be serious, hear yourself...
Submitted by Jude Morah (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 20:39.
“The consequence is MISTRUST that continues to endure and explains why Igbos have so far not held real power at Federal level.”
First, thank you very much for exonerating the Igbo people from those other tribes that mismanaged the Niger Delta oil money since 1970. We Igbos knew that but coming from people like you gives it some real “teeth”. Remember, once up a time we were told by a Nigerian leader that “our only problem is how to spend money”. Today, we are living in total darkness.
Too, if you want to be taken serious, please disclose the name of your tribe so that we can compare apples and oranges. Please tell us the name of your tribe in Nigeria that is the pinnacle of human progress, the bastion of temperance and reason, that bulwark against savagery of innocent civilians, religion bigotry etc. Until then, your post is just propaganda and will go the way of the toilet i.e. flush.
All those who knew the atrocities of Nigeria shall soon die.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 18:17.
The calculations of the victors of the war have been that in the nearest future, all those who knew of their atrocities against the Igbo shall all die off. But they are mistaken. The advent of Information technology has made their atrocities pass from generation to generation.
Another calculation of the victors has been that new generation of Nigerians shall grow up never to question the political structure and system the victors imposed on Nigeria to the benefit of the war's victors. But it is fast unfolding their Nigeria is living on borrowed time unless the structure and system are remade.
CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME 3
Submitted by Esquire (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 15:44.
Contradictions indeed! Okey asked us to remember and since memory depends on perspective, it is unlikely to be uniform as perspective differs. In the same vein views cannot be homogenous but how we react to dissent is personal choice. Thus ‘rants’, ‘hate’ and ‘rage’ misapply here though it would seem to work well as a propaganda tool. But while self delusion is individual choice its imposition on the collective is a different matter. Prior to the maudlin ‘see wetin Nigeria do me’, genuine self reflection must start with ‘see wetin we do our selves’. Branding Biafra as the curse of Nigeria is an over generalisation at best and at worst, a flawed premise. In purely objective terms, choices were made and with them came consequences. Were they the best choices? What were the leadership errors and to what extent is it perpetrated today. Why did it take an Ibibio man to end the self destructive cycle? Ponder!
NIGERIA - AN ENDURING FRAUD
Submitted by Ossai (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 11:23.
Nigeria is a huge fraud perpetuated by the british colonialists from inception, which, for the last fifty-years; has been sustained and oiled by the free-flowing black gold from the Niger Delta.
This monumental fraud has only endured due to wide spread corruption/greed, ethnicity, religious bigotry and lack of common goal by the citizenry
All the violence/blood-letting are mere tools/strategies of the contending warlords to entrench their strongholds.
Things can only change for the better when the citizens are ready to break these shackles of oppression. Not apologies/Nor Commemorations.
The tragedy is that we have a very docile citizenry where every one is waiting for his/her turn to dip his/her hand into our common wealth. Shikena!
ESQUIRE AND HIS ANTI BIAFRA RAGE AGAIN!!!!
Submitted by okonkwo kenneddy (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 07:20.
The opinion expressed by esquire contradicts basic human rights expectations..let me really understand your drift mr. esquire..that the massacre of millions of defenseless igbos can be justified by the actions of few military guys of igbo origin?..if that is what you think,then the killing of murtala muhhamed should have provoked a justified massacre of middle belters wherever they were found....you see that your rabid hatred of igbos disrupt your ability reason coherently....but in all these,i see and understand your frustrations in an atmosphere where the people you hate so much suprisingly refuse to die...like i have always held,people only hate you when you are doing well..keep hating esquire.
East/West
Submitted by Toldyou (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 07:04.
The day Igbos and Yorubas understand that what unites them is more than what divides them is the day we are liberated from the mallams period. Boko Haram please force this. I want to believe that the leaders from these two zones have begun to talk because it might not be too long.
The truth about Biafra may be a saving grace for world peace.
Submitted by Pastor Commander Samyoung Onwuzulike (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 04:49.
My question is this: Was Biafra another Christ in Africa who came as a nation and was killed by the world leaders. Biafra war happened in the era of Cold War but how come West and East who were at cold war joined hands together to kill the young republic?
Please Nigerians Don't Kill Okey Ndibe
Submitted by Pastor Commander Samyoung Onwuzulike (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 04:37.
The reason I asked you not to kill Okey Ndibe is because Biafra is off short of Jan 15 1966 and July 29 66 coup and counter coup but the foundation is Jan 15, 66 coup. The question any good researcher must ask is this: Why were coups in Africa which began with Nigeria 1966, followed by Ghana, Liberia, Guinea,Egypt to Ethiopia etc. After Chief Awolowo was sent to jail his group ran to Ghana but their military wing were under ground which Sir obasanjo knows of it.I can not talk now until when nigerians are ready for truth and peace. Nigerians do you forgot that Col Unegbe from Anambra state was killed in the coup.
Okey Ndibe, please take your Propanganda elsewhere!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 03:55.
The only point that I concur with Okey Ndibe is that we, Nigerians must not forget our history and we must revisit it daily to make corrective steps where necessary so that evil perpetrators will not have a place to give us bad history to write about in the future when we want to write about our history!
Secondly Okey, with subtle innuendos, everything else you wrote is nothing but propaganda. If most of the Igbos that I have met in my life are anything to go by, taken as a subset of the pre-civil war, then I will have to say no wonder the Nigerian Civil/Biafran War, had to happen. What follows next is a natural progression given the mind set of most Igbo people today that I have met till now. Don't get me wrong, there are some Igbos who knows the truth and tell it as it is and they will be the first to tell you that, that Biafran war was uncalled for, unlike what some progandists like you, Okey will have us believe that the warring Biafrans were innocent victims of the WAR!
Well said, I agree 100% with
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 03:43.
Well said, I agree 100% with you, let this tribes go separate ways! But the Igbos, the back door kickers and entrants will not allow it, If not for them, this country would have long been divided and done with. The Igbos want to eat their cakes and have it. Look around Nigeria today, they are everywhere in the Nigeria's Federal Character and are still crying wolf! Igbos are no longer the poor victims of the Biafran war but they are now the grand orchestrator of the mess, Nigeria is in today. During Baba Iyabo's Presidency, although they will say en-mass that Baba Iyabo is NOT their President but when it comes to enjoying the fruit of the hard labours of our heroes past, the Igbos, second to the Hausa/Fulanis benefited from OBJ's presidency than any other tribe in Nigeria. Therefore, OBJ was an Igbo President. Infact, there has been indications that OBJ is actually an Igbo man parading himself as Yoruba man.
@Esquire and his market woman rhetoric
Submitted by That Igbo Boy From Northern California (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 02:31.
Been eloquent in spoken English is not a waiver for common sense in the Real World.BBC and Hausa/Fulani's packaged dummies to sell to you and you accepted it without asking questions?As educated as you claimed to be, you could not create an objective opinion based on your research? Where you home schooled or did you hit your head on the floor as a child? From your comments,You have made DERI look normal. Major Adewale Ademoyega who was part of the 1966 coup, was he an Igbo man? Did the mini angel in your small brain tell you that Major Kaduna and his group were planning to release Awolowo from Prison and then make him Nigeria's Prime Minister? Didn't Aguiyi Ironsi and Igbo man help thwart the coup? The war is still on, the only changes are the name and the players.
Okey, the advise for Nigeria came too late.
Submitted by Armed Khali (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 02:08.
Okey, the advise for Nigeria came too late. Most Nigerians want a decentralized federation but the less than 1000 elite has managed to besiege 167m people with unitary system predicated on lies about "keeping Nigeria ONE".
The Boko Haram has chosen to liberate their own portion of the country and did start the Northern revolution which is to first, neutralize the security agencies, followed by the military establishment before random executions of the criminals called "leaders".
The middle-belt must quickly decide which republic to join wholesomely else they would forcibly be balkanized like Kosovo.
All 4 republics would convene SNC by 2014.
Where Are The Musilms The Defenders Of Islam /Religion Of Peace?
Submitted by Bala Maigari Musa (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 01:46.
Where are the musilms the defenders of islam or the religion of peace? Did the founder of islam prophet muhammad understood the definition of peace? How came he killed millions of people for the sake of this religion called islam? The curse on prophet muhammad is what is leading to these unrest and killings of fellow musilms. It would have been nice if they just concentrate on killing themselves and leave others out of their senseless killings. The moment the sultan of sokoto opened his evil mouth and declared the Quran as the constitution of Nigeria, we knew he is behind these killings of his followers. Who in his right mind will call a book of hisor her faith a constutition of a country. That is absolute Deviant Behavior. That means musilms are deviants.
The Truth...
Submitted by Damocles (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 00:55.
Dr Ndibe stated that "it behooves her to recognize that it is the blood of those who died in the Biafran War that stands as down payment on the project called Nigeria." And I would add the blood of those that fought for Nigerian independence, and the ehtnic pogroms(middle belt & S. Easterners) that occurred in the sixties. All these tangible sacrifices constitutes what hopefully WE will all come to realise is the sacred HONOR of our country(what makes it worth it). God save the Federal Republic of Nigeria and bless Her with WISDOM.
CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME 2
Submitted by Esquire (not verified) on November 9, 2011 - 00:02.
Being no Solomon, I concede my “lack of knowledge and ignorance on (sic) public forum”. However, decency would suggest dissenting views are presented with a measure of decorum. But your tag “That Igbo BOY from California” is self explanatory ! The critical point is causality–cause and effect. Remembrance, one must insist, cannot be selective and partial where conflict and restitution is concerned. You mention Fajuyi as a victim of the counter coup –an effect following a cause in a context. Yes, even from my back seat in primary school history class I learnt though ending corruption was allegedly one of the motives of the predominantly IGBO COUP, no Igbo politician was killed. Even the ‘beautiful bride’ of Nigerian politics, depending on perspective and preference, was fortuitously absent while his boss was murdered. The consequence is MISTRUST that continues to endure and explains why Igbos have so far not held real power at Federal level.
@Sober Soul, what part of the
Submitted by nebuchadnezzar (not verified) on November 8, 2011 - 21:08.
Sober Soul is a dimwit as simple as that. The unfortinate thing is that there are quite many like him in that country. He has blown hot and cold and all out of point, like tape rewounded to replay. He saw the word 'Biafra' and that tickled him and failed to understand what Ndibe was trying to articulate
@Esquire take your Ignorant Propaganda elsewhere
Submitted by That Igbo Boy From Northern california (not verified) on November 8, 2011 - 20:04.
Must you display your lack of knowledge and Ignorance on public forum?I bet you,during history class in primary school you were one of those that sits in the back sit of your classroom eating worms while your teacher is giving history lessons?Why? I could tell from your ignorant comment.Col Effiong, Ojukwu second in command, was he Igbo? Fajuyi that was killed along side his boss is he not Yoruba? Keep drinking on the Hausa Fulani/BBC kool-Aid,Fulani errand boy. A typical Nigerian educated illiterate,big grammar no substance.
This is the time for those
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 8, 2011 - 19:17.
This is the time for those key actors still alive today to speak up or die and roast in hell with their guilty conscience. The rise of Islamic Hausa Fulani Boko Haram in the North has made it imperative for those key actors like Gowon and Danjuma whose people are being killed by the Hausa-Fulani Jihadists. If they do not speak up now and seek for atonement of their sins, their people may end up being swallowed up by the blood thirsty Islamic Jihadist.
