Search this Site and the Web

Friday, November 27, 2015

Emir of Kano throws more light in marginalisation of Ndigbo and Biafra -|- Easy, my brother, the Biafran


Topics:

  • Emir of Kano throws more light in marginalisation of Ndigbo and Biafra.
  • Easy, my brother, the Biafran

_________________________________________

Emir of Kano throws more light in marginalisation of Ndigbo and Biafra.

From Chimazuru Oblong Nnadi 

The Paramount King of Kano, Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II, wrote-
"The Igbo people of Nigeria have made a mark in the history of this nation. They led the first successful military coup which eliminated the Military and Political leaders of other regions while letting off Igbo leaders. Nwafor Orizu, then Senate President, in consultation with President Azikiwe, subverted the constitution and handed over power to Aguiyi-Ironsi. 
Subsequent developments, including attempts at humiliating other peoples, led to the counter-coup and later the civil war. The Igbos themselves must acknowledge that they have a large part of the blame for shattering the unity of this country.

Having said that, this nation must realise that Igbos have more than paid for their foolishness. They have been defeated in war, rendered paupers by monetary policy fiat, their properties declared abandoned and confiscated, kept out of strategic public sector appointments and deprived of public services. The rest of the country forced them to remain in Nigeria and has continued to deny them equity.

The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie have conspired to keep the Igbo out of the scheme of things. In the recent transition when the Igbo solidly supported the PDP in the hope of an Ekwueme presidency, the North and South-West treated this as a Biafra agenda. Every rule set for the primaries, every gentleman´s agreement was set aside to ensure that Obasanjo, not Ekwueme emerged as the candidate. Things went as far as getting the Federal Government to hurriedly gazette a pardon. Now, with this government, the marginalistion of the Igbo is more complete than ever before. The Igbos have taken all these quietly because, they reason, they brought it upon themselves. But the nation is sitting on a time-bomb.

After the First World War, the victors treated Germany with the same contempt Nigeria is treating Igbos. Two decades later, there was a Second World War, far costlier than the first. Germany was again defeated, but this time, they won a more honourable peace. Our present political leaders have no sense of History. There is a new Igbo man, who was not born in 1966 and neither knows nor cares about Nzeogwu and Ojukwu. There are Igbo men on the street who were never Biafrans. They were born Nigerians, are Nigerians, but suffer because of actions of earlier generations. They will soon decide that it is better to fight their own war, and may be find an honourable peace, than to remain in this contemptible state in perpetuity.

The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie have exacted their pound of flesh from the Igbos. For one Sardauna, one Tafawa Balewa, one Akintola and one Okotie-Eboh, hundreds of thousands have died and suffered.
If this issue is not addressed immediately, no conference will solve Nigeria´s problems."
-------------------------------------------------------------

Easy, my brother, the Biafran
Tunde Fagbenle 
Written by Tunde Fagbenle - The Punch. 

In the last few days what has been trending (is that the “social-media compliant” word?) in the social media on the Biafran hype, particularly by those fanning its embers, is something His Royal Highness, our new Emir of Kano, AlhajiMuhammadu Sanusi II, said way back in 1999 (16 years ago!) when he was the enfant terrible Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, simply SLS – before be became the Governor of CBN, talk less the Emir. It was a period of his life when he was arguably at the zenith of his intellectual prolificity. He was young, he was bold, he was brash, he was brazen, and he delighted in challenging authority and established doctrines.
Here is the quote making the rounds, said to be excerpted from a Public Lecture titled, “Issues in Restructuring Corporate Nigeria” SLS gave on 11th September, 1999, at Arewa House Kaduna.

“The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie have conspired to keep the Igbo out of the scheme of things. They have been defeated in war, rendered paupers by monetary policy fiat, their properties declared abandoned and confiscated, kept out of strategic public sector appointments, and deprived of public services. The rest of the country forced them to remain in Nigeria and has continued to deny them equity.

“Our present political leaders have no sense of history. There is a new Igbo man who was not born in a 1966 and neither knows nor cares about Nzeogwu and Ojukwu. There are Igbo men on the streets who were never Biafrans. They were born Nigerians and are Nigerians, but suffer because of the actions of earlier generations. They would soon decide that it is better to fight their own war and maybe find an honourable peace than to remain in this contemptible state in perpetuity.

“The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie have exacted their pound of flesh from the Igbo. For one Sardauna, one TafawaBalewa, one Akintola and one Okotie-Eboh, hundreds of thousands have died and suffered. If this issue is not addressed immediately, no Conference will solve Nigeria’s problems.”Vintage SLS.

My Igbo brethren are suddenly quoting him in the hundreds, with the quote going viral. SLS is now their darling, the same SLS they cursed and hounded out of CBN for opinions he espoused, (aside from “denying” their son another term in office) which made the Igbo see him as their enemy! Interesting. It indeed provides the metaphor for the shifting canvas of the Biafran project.

In my view, there’s nothing new or unexpected in the whole Biafran business, and business it sure is. I perceive two groups of Biafrans.
There is the Biafran to whom the concept of “Biafra” is symbolic, idealistic; something in the romantic realm, similar to how the religious perceive and look up to “heaven” as the panacea for their present earthly travails, the eventual Eldorado! This group is an admixture of the old and the new. The old ones are those who though witnessed the war, have not quite got over that it’s all over and still suffer from the effect of propaganda overdose. The young amongst this group are those who though were born after the war, are suffused with romantic tales of the great scientific leaps that the short-lived “republic” achieved; how Biafra was just about to send a rocket to the moon when the “republic” collapsed due to internal and external betrayals and no fault of Biafran leaders; of “Paradise Lost,” waiting to be regained. This group, obviously, needs psychiatric help.

The second Biafran is the mean crook. This group does not believe in any “Biafra” per se; all they believe in is self and self, alone. When and if they are in a position to corner most of the “national cake,” they are proud Nigerians; but the moment they are about to be left behind by the “gravy train”, it’s time to cry foul and conjure the Biafran ghost, claiming “marginalisation,” “unfairness,” “uneven field of play,” “non-merit,” ad nauseam. In this group are some of those who have amassed unimaginable wealth through corrupt and evil means, milking the very Nigeria they claim have not been fair to them. They lurk in the dark, hating every bit of the new change mantra, and ready to spend as much as possible to put spanner in the works of the new government. Sponsoring the Biafran resurgence is a useful stratagem.

The sad part is that these two groups are in the minority of the population of my Igbo brothers and sisters. And there cannot be a better determinant than in the fact that since the end of the Civil War in 1970, the Igbo have returned to Nigeria, all over, almost with a vengeance. These industrious and enterprising people are all over the north, all over the South-South and all over the West. There is likelihood that their population is more outside their homeland than within. But, incontrovertibly, they have far more investments outside their Southeast territories than within. In discussions, they claim they own at least 70% of Abuja. They have beaten their chest that in Lagos their investments and population are at par, if not more, with those of the native Yoruba combined.

It then becomes apropos to return to SLS’s old foreboding, uttered in September 1999, a few months into the present republic, after a prolonged period (15 years) of military rule, to see where SLS was coming from, and the objective reality of the time. Was SLS playing to the gallery? Or was he the true conscience of the time?

Whilst it is true that through what could be termed a “conspiracy” of “The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie,” a Nigerian president of the Yoruba stock (Obasanjo) finally emerged in what had hitherto been the preserve of the “Northern Bourgeoisie,” it will be specious, even fraudulent, to ignore the context of such reluctant “concession,” to the Yoruba – namely the brazen denial of the right of a Yoruba (MKO Abiola) true winner of the 1993 presidential election and the years of bitter struggle against the military to restore his popular mandate.

But there would be need to detail and tabulate all that the Igbo have attained in public and economic spheres of the nation vis-à-vis other ethnic groups going all the way back to the preceding years, decades, since the end of the Civil War to assess the merit and gravity of SLS charge that “The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie have conspired to keep the Igbo out of the scheme of things.” Unfortunately, it is an exercise this column cannot have the space to handle beyond noting that at the first instance of a democratic government (2nd Republic) after the Civil War, an Igbo, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, was Vice-President of the country. Moreover, at the 3rd Republic commencing in May 1999, the Igbo had the Senate Presidency virtually exclusive to themselves in the geographical-spread formula that the then ruling party had adopted; not to talk of the very many other topmost and visible positions (CBN, important cabinet, and kitchen cabinet) of the Obasanjo government, even at the expense of the president’s own “people.”

Unfortunately, any attempt to draw attention to what other groups, other than the dominant Hausa/Fulani, conversely enjoyed or suffered would fall into the danger of the dreaded but silly ethnic-game for which I have no stomach.

The Igbo, says SLS, “have been defeated in war, rendered paupers by monetary policy fiat, their properties declared abandoned and confiscated, kept out of strategic public sector appointments, and deprived of public services. The rest of the country forced them to remain in Nigeria and has continued to deny them equity.”

If this were true of 1999 when the statement was made, how true has it been of the period since, and how true is it today? Beyond that, the Igbo have returned to Kano, they have returned to Kaduna, Jos, Ibadan, Osogbo, Benin-City, Warri, name it; and they are indeed the livewire of commerce and trade in these places, unmolested and undisturbed, save in times of unfortunate religious or errant group disturbances from which all ethnic groups suffer. Could this position of strength be consistent with that of being “denied” and “deprived”? Could it be consistent with the desire to yet abandon all and flee to some “Eldorado native enclave”?

But having said all that, Nigeria is far from the country many of us dreamt of and struggled for. Inequity abounds, corruption is rife, insecurity to life and property pervasive. The structural imbalance in the polity guarantees that we dream but in vain of becoming a developed nation for as long as those foundational mal-structures are not rectified.
Whatever those smitten by the Buhari charm may believe of the prospect his time offers Nigeria, they must remember that over 12 million Nigerians also voted against him. Those have a right to see the “prospect” of Buhari differently. Every people must have a right to self-determination. But such a right cannot be one of a minority over the majority of their people. And, more importantly, it cannot be exercised by annexing other people’s territories thereby denying them their own right to self-determination.

And that’s saying it the way it is!

No comments:

THE IGBO RANT

I am an Igbo, I was born an Igbo, I live the life of an Igbo, I come from Igbo, I speak Igbo, I like to be Igbo, I like to dress in Igbo, I eat Igbo food, my heritage, culture and tradition is Igbo, my parents are Igbo.

Am sorry I cannot help it if you hate my lineage. Am sorry I cannot help it if you detest Igbo, am sorry I cannot help it if you hate me because am Igbo. Igbo is who I am, my name is Igbo and I must die an Igbo.

You see Igbo as a threat, why? You call Igbo rapist, criminals, ritualist, prostitutes, kidnappers. You attribute all negative vices to represent Igbo? Why do you do that? You do because you feel threatened that Igbo might outrun the rest of the tribes. Why do you hate Igbo and despise us? You do that because we are creative, enlightened, hardworking, industrious, genius, intelligent, smart, rich, beautiful and amazing. But its difficult for you to admit it because you feel jealous of my race.

Igbo do not own politics, Igbo do not control the economy neither do we control the natural resources and the common wealth of the nation. You do, we don't and yet, despite the fact that you own everything, we still remain one indispensable race that has outshined the other race in all ramifications.

You fear us because you want to exterminate and annihilate our race, you deny us many things and yet we are stronger, richer and mightier. You fear us because we are everywhere. You fear us because no matter how rural a place might be, when Igbo steps in, they turn it into a Paradise. We have our own resources, which lies in resourcefulness, we do not bother you and your control over the polity, but yet when we cough you and the other race begin to shiver.

Am proud being an Igbo, am proud of my heritage and culture. Igbo means high class, Igbo means independence, Igbo means hard work and strength, Igbo means riches, Igbo means resourcefulness, Igbo means self belonging, Igbo means self esteem, Igbo means pride, Igbo means swag.

Udo diri unu umunnem.
# IgboAmaka
# AnyiBuNdiMmeri

Michael Ezeaka
------------------------------

This is beautiful poetry ...

In response to Alaba Ajibola, the Babcock Lecturer Hate Speech against Igbos.

BIBLICAL TRADITIONS OF NDI IGBO BEFORE THE MISSIONARIES CAME TO AFRICA* IGBO 101.

1. NSÓ NWANYĮ
In Igboland women live apart from their husbands and neither cook for them nor enter their husband's quarters when they are in their period. They are seen as unclean. Even up till today such practice is still applicable in some parts of Igboland especially by the traditionalists. Before a woman can enter the palace of Obi of Onitsha, she will be asked if she is in her period, if yes, she will be asked to stay out.

Leviticus 15: 19-20
When a woman has her monthly period, she remains unclean, anyone who touches her or anything she has sat on becomes unclean.

2. ANA OBI
An Igbo man's ancestral heritage, called “Ana Obi” is not sellable, elders will not permit this. If this is somehow done due to the influence of the West the person is considered a fool and is ostracized by the community.

1 Kings 21:3
I inherited this vineyard from my ancestors, and the Lord forbid that I should sell it, said Naboth.

3. IKUCHI NWANYĮ
Igbos have practiced the taking of a late brother's wife into marriage after she had been widowed until the white men came. Now it is rarely done but except in very rural villages.

Deuteronomy 25:5
A widow of a dead man is not to be married outside the family; it is the duty of the dead man's brother to marry her.

4. ĮGBA ODIBO
In Igboland, there is a unique form of apprenticeship in which either a male family member or a community member will spend six (6) years (usually in their teens to their adulthood) working for another family. And on the seventh year, the head of the host household, who is usually the older man who brought the apprentice into his household, will establish (Igbo: idu uno) the apprentice
by either setting up a business for him or giving money or tools by which to make a living.

Exodus 21:2
If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve you for six years. In the seventh year he is to be set free without having to pay you anything.

5. IRI JI OFŲŲ
In Igboland , the yam is very important as it is their staple crop. There are celebrations such as the New yam festival (Igbo: Iri Ji) which are held for the harvesting of the yam. New Yam festival (Igbo: Iri ji) is celebrated annually to secure a good harvest of the staple crop. In the olden days it is an abomination for one to eat a new harvest before the festival. It's a tradition that you give the gods of the land first as a thanksgiving.

Deuteronomy 16:9
Count 7 weeks from the time that you begin to harvest the crops, and celebrate the harvest festival to honor the lord your God, by bringing him a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing he has given you. Celebrate in the Lord's presence together with your children, servants, foreigners. Be sure that you obey my command, said the Lord.

6. IBE UGWU
In Igboland it's a tradition that the male children are circumcised on the 8th day. This tradition is still practiced till date.

Leviticus 12:3
On the eighth day, the child shall be circumcised.

7. ÓMŲGWÓ
In Igboland, there is a practice known as "ile omugwo ". After a woman has given birth to a child, a very close and experienced relative of hers, in most cases her mother is required by tradition to come spend time with her and her husband. During which she is to do all the work of the wife, while the new mom's only assignment to the baby will be to breastfeed. This goes on for a month or more. In the Igbo old tradition, at this time, the new mom lives apart from her husband, would not cook or enter his quarters.

Leviticus 12:1-4
For seven days after a woman gives birth, she is ritually unclean as she is during her monthly period. It will be 33 days until she is ritually clean from the loss of blood; she is not to touch anything that is holy.

THE IGBO TRIBE AND ITS FEAR OF EXTINCTION

The Igbo tribe is in a serious problem and danger of extinction for the following reasons:

50% of Igbos are born outside Igbo land. Meaning that those children are not likely to live and work in Igbo land and cannot speak Igbo language but foreign language (Yoruba, Hausa, French, English).

40% of Igbos girls between the age of 25 & 45 are single with no hope of marriage because 35% of Igbo boys live overseas and they have all married white ladies.

75% of Igbo youths leave Igbo land every year in search of opportunities in Yoruba, Hausa land or overseas.

85 % of Igbos have family houses and own investments outside Igbo land. They strongly believe in one Nigeria but failed to know that NO Yoruba or Hausa man has a family house or investment in Igbo land.

Igbos are the only people who believe that living outside their land is an achievement.

Igbos are the only tribe that celebrate their tradition outside their land e.g. Eze Ndi Igbo, Igbo Village in America and this is because they have family homes in foreign lands.

Igbos have failed to know that the children you have outside Igbo land especially overseas will never think of living in Igbo land. So what happens to the properties you are building for them when you are gone?

Igbos are the only tribe who see their land as a place to visit or a tourist site than a place to work and live.

Igbos are the only tribe who instead of promoting and appreciating their culture through movies and documentaries they have sought to ridicule it by portraying rituals, killings, wickedness, love for money and other social vices which were not originally inherent in our culture thereby cursing more harm than actually promoting their culture.

Igbos are the only people who without hesitation believe their history and description when it is told or written by an enemy or a foreigner. E.g. that you do not love yourselves or that you love money.

Igbos are the ONLY largest tribe on earth who fought for their independence and failed to achieve their freedom after 40 years.

Igbos are the only tribe who fails to honour their brave heroes and heroines especially the innocent children starved to death during the Biafran war.

Igbos are the only tribe who embraced their enemy after a bloody civil war and subsequently become slaves.

Igbos do not find it necessary to teach their own version of history to their children.

Igbos fight for marginalisation in Nigeria but has no collective strength or teeth to bite.

Igbos how long are you going to fight for your relevance in Nigeria?

How long are you going to fight for a functional airport, rail networks and other structural establishments that underpin sustainable development?

How long are you prepared to wait for your enemy to guide you to your destiny?

Oh Igbos!
Where are your leaders?

Unfortunately, none of them live and work in Igbo land. If you wish to save the future of your children, your identity, your generation and your race then you need freedom and that freedom is Biafra.

Ukpana Okpoko gburu bu nti chiri ya!

By Chime Eze
#COPIED

The Igbo: We die for causes, not for personalities

Written by Emeka Maduewesi

~on fb. 28th September, 2016.


The Igbo will never die for anyone. We will not even riot for anyone. But the Igbo will die for any cause they believe in because the Igbo have a true sense of justice and a determination to obtain it.


The Igbo will not riot because one of their own lost an election. Operation Wetie was the Western response to a massively rigged 1965 election. The Yoruba doused fellow Yorubas in petrol and burnt them alife. Properties were burnt with occupants. The Igbo will never do this.


In 1983, the Yoruba went on a rampage again over the massive rigging by NPN. Lifes were lost and properties destroyed. The riots were over personalities.


Contrast that with Anambra State where Chief Emeka Ojukwu was rigged out by his own NPN, who also rigged out Chief Jim Nwobodo. The Igbo did not protest because the goat's head is still in the goat's bag.


In the North, ba muso was the battle cry when Sultan Dasuki was imposed on the Sokoto Caliphate. The riot and protest lasted for days and crippled economic activities.


The Igbo will riot over issues and causes. The Aba Women Riot was over Tax. The Enugu coal mine riot was about conditions of service. The Ekumeku Uprising was over British colonialization.


Those of "Ekumeku" ancestry - Umu Eze Chima and Umu Nri - were at the forefront of the struggles for Nigerian independence, with people like Dr. A A Nwafor Orizu and Chief Osita Agwuna serving prison terms. Any struggles the parents could not conclude is continued by the children by other means.


The Biafran war was a response to the genocide. The war in fact was brought upon us. The battlefield was Eastern Region. The war ended in 1970 but the issues and causes were not resolved. That is where we are today.


The Igbo will also jointly rise to fight evil in their midst. They did it in Onitsha in the 1980's, Owerri in the 90's, and with Bakkassi in the 2000.


The Igbo will not die for any man. But the Igbo will stand by any man who symbolizes their cause and their pursuit of justice. Even if the man dies, the struggle continues, and like the Ekumeku warriors, the children will pick up the baton from their parents.


This is the Igbo I know, the Igbo I am, and the Igbo we are. This is my story. Feel free to tell yours.

RT. HON. DR. NNAMDI AZIKIWE TO DR. CHUBA OKADIGBO (1981)

"My boy, may you live to your full potential, ascend to a dizzy height as is possible for anyone of your political description in your era to rise. May you be acknowledged world-wide as you rise as an eagle atop trees, float among the clouds, preside over the affairs of fellow men.... as leaders of all countries pour into Nigeria to breathe into her ear.

But then, Chuba, if it is not the tradition of our people that elders are roundly insulted by young men of the world, as you have unjustly done to me, may your reign come to an abrupt and shattering close. As you look ahead, Chuba, as you see the horizon, dedicating a great marble palace that is the envy of the world, toasted by the most powerful men in the land, may the great big hand snatch it away from you. Just as you look forward to hosting the world’s most powerful leader and shaking his hands, as you begin to smell the recognition and leadership of the Igbo people, may the crown fall off your head and your political head fall off your shoulders.

None of my words will come to pass, Chuba, until you have risen to the very height of your power and glory and health, but then you will be hounded and humiliated and disgraced out of office, your credibility and your name in tatters forever...”
THE REST IS HISTORY AS EVERY WORD OF THE CURSE ON CHUBA CAME TO PASS.

LET'S BE AS PASSIONATE AS WE WANT TO AND BE MODERATE IN OUR CONTRIBUTIONS IN PUBLIC DISCUSSION TO ISSUES AS WORDS OF OUR ELDERS ARE WORDS OF WISDOM

Biafra Videos: Explosive secret about Biafra...

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Biafra