Yes, I Will Fight Again if… - Chukwuemeka Ojukwu

  ✍ Tell Magazine, Monday, 05 December 2011 12:22 

Sent by Nevbechi Nwoye Emma Anazövba

(Excerpts of interview the Ikemba granted TELL magazine in March, 1993, over 18 years ago, after he was disqualified to contest the presidential primary election of that year)

You have said that some people, cynical of your candidacy, accused you of going to only fight for the Igbo cause…?

 Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu 

Isn’t that bunkum? It is, it is. In 1966, when General Ironsi died, I opposed Gowon because I said the next person should take over, Ogundipe fled and moved to England. I continued opposing, saying that the next person should take over, Adebayo, a Yoruba. I moved on, we fought a war.  At the end of it, I went into exile. I came back. I am accused of having worked with a Hausa man, Shehu Shagari, in the NPN, a Hausa-Fulani. In this ongoing exercise, the first person I supported totally was Dr. Olusola Saraki, Yoruba of Kwara origin, Yoruba-Fulani. I came to the Island Club, Lagos, to talk about the East, and the West finding an understanding. This is the arch tribalist that really fights for the Igbos and nothing else? When (MKO) Abola gets up and he is considered a candidate, nobody says he is Yoruba. But when Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu gets up, he is a tribalist, he is always fighting for the Igbos. I am proud to fight for the Igbos because somebody must fight for them. I am as Igbo as you accused me of being. If you forget accusing me of my Igboness, I will be forgetfully a Nigerian completely. I cannot be intimidated out of this country. I have put in so much into this country, I cannot be intimidated. 

Do some people wish you were outside?

Oh yes, of course.

Can you give an example?

Wouldn’t you even consider 13 years exile enough punishment for anything? But there were Nigerians that went round barracks trying to mobilise troops to mount a coup d'état (against my return in 1982). There are people today who refuse that I should have opinion on anything Nigeria.  

You talk of mounting a coup d'état to prevent your return?

Oh yes, yes.  

You haven’t said anything about the politics against or about your return to the country. Could you seize this opportunity to do that?

I was in exile, there was a negotiation with my host, President Felix Houphouét-Boigny. I was invited at a certain stage, we discussed and we came back. On returning, I understood that there were very many movements, individual movements against my return… The fact is that it has been said in many, many publications that General (Theophilus) Danjuma opposed my return. You can take it over from there…  

How did you feel at that moment?

How did I feel? How would you feel? It was the highest point of one’s career. Exhilaration, so many emotions all crowded in. You saw but you didn’t see, you felt but you didn’t feel. You were sort of being transported on a sea of heads. And more than that, you found yourself floating on a bed of love. People who have come in to say to you, “Onye Ije Nnoo: welcome.”  

Did you feel it was the ultimate justification for whatever cause you have led in the past?

1966 coup plotters planned to make Awolowo Head of State — Olutoye

 50 years after, Oba Olutoye, participant in Nigerian Civil War tells the world that Nzeogwu coup was meant to install Awolowo

1966 coup plotters planned to make Awolowo Head of State — Olutoye

The Owa of Ido-Ani, Oba Olufemi Olutoye, is a retired Major-General in the Nigerian Army. In this interview with PETER DADA, he shares his experiences as a soldier and his level of involvement in the 1966 military coup

Can you share your background with us?

My name is Olufemi Olutoye. I was born in Ido Ani town, Ose Local Government Area of Ondo State. I spent the early part of my childhood days in Benin City, Edo State, when my father was the headmaster at St. James’ Primary School, Benin City. From there, I went to Government College Ibadan in 1945. I completed my secondary school education in 1949. I then gained admission to the University of Ibadan in 1950 and I graduated in June 1954. I also went to Cambridge University and concluded my course there in 1955. When I returned to Nigeria, I started teaching at the Olu-Iwa College, Ijebu Ode, (now Adeola Odutola College). Later, I left teaching to join the Nigerian Army in 1957 and I retired in 1977.

What informed your decision to join the army, when you were a university graduate?

I believed then that I had attained the height of the teaching profession because teaching then was different from what we have now. I worked in a private school and I believed I had already reached the limit and that there was nothing to look forward to again. Secondly, I wanted adventure.  I taught briefly in a public school in England where there was a Cadet Corps, where young boys were given uniforms. I asked myself then that why couldn’t we have such kind of school in Nigeria? I was the acting principal for a year, so I had to leave after that. That was when I got to the army where I rose through the ranks to become Major General before I eventually retired in 1977.

You were in the army when the first coup happened in Nigeria. Can you tell us about your experience?

I hope that I will have time to write more about that coup but I am doing something on it right now. The coup was led by Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. He was a Major in rank and of course, I was a Major then too but I was his senior. So I knew about that coup. I can say that now but I could not say that then because, in the army, the mere knowledge of a coup is a problem. We were together in India. So, he informed me about it and I enquired more about how he hoped to carry out the plot. When he told me that it would involve killings,  I told him to count me out. I told him that I did not join the Nigerian Army to kill Nigerians.

Was he the one that personally approached you to inform you about the plan?

Yes, he personally came to inform me about it in 1964 when we were in India and the coup was carried out in 1966. Few other things happened which we cannot say now until the time is ripe.

Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu wrote to Lt. Col. Victor Banjo

 BACK  TO  HISTORY :

 Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu wrote to Lt. Col. Victor Banjo commanding him to invade and liberate Western Nigeria (Yorubaland) from the “Hausa/Fulani dominated Nigeria”.

 From: The Military Governor,

Republic of Biafra,Enugu,

22nd August, 1967.

My dear Victor,

 1. For some time now, you and I have been discussing the circumstances that have led to the current and inevitable disintegration of what was the Federation of Nigeria. We have been fully convinced that the aim of the Hausa/Fulani complex has ever been, and will ever remain, the total domination of every other part of what was known as the Federation of Nigeria. It is impossible to forget that the crisis which led to the army take over in January 1966, the coup of the Northern soldiers led by Gowon in July 1966, the wholesale and indiscriminate massacre of the people of what is now Biafra- and, to a less degree,the people of the Mid-West and West, including the Yorubas, were all the direct result of Hausa/Fulani attempt to subjugate and use as tools,the gallant people of Western Nigeria namely the Yorubas. We do not need to remind ourselves of the heavy losses in life and property suffered by the Yoruba people in their fight for justice and freedom during 1965.

 2. Sharing our belief that the people of Yorubaland have a right to live a life of equality and self-respect and justice free of domination and dictatorship from any quarter, you have both identified with the cause of the Biafra struggle for survival and expressed your determination to see the people of Yorubaland freed from Hausa/Fulani domination.

We, the people of Biafra, for our part are willing and have decided to give you and the people of Yorubaland every assistance to achieve your aim.

 3. After clearing the whole question with my Executive Council, I, as the Commander in Chief of the Biafran Armed Forces, have decided to place at your disposal Biafran forces, for the liberation of

Yorubaland on the following clear conditions:-

 (i)You will have nothing to do with the Military Administrator in the Mid-West Territory during your sojourn there prior to your move to the West.

 (ii)The willingness and preparedness of Biafra to assist any part of the former Federation of Nigeria wishing and willing to liberate itself from the Hausa/Fulani domination, does not in anyway whatever

PROJECT MAYROCK : A PROMISE FULFILLED.

....

In the days following the stroke which would eventually take his life, one issue weighed heavily on Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu’s mind. That ‘issue’ was the immortalization of Bruce Mayrock, the 20 year old who set himself ablaze in front of the UN Building in New York on this day (29th Of May) in 1969 to draw attention to the plight of the Biafran people (a people whom he had never met, and whom he believed were at the brink of extermination, engaged in a desperate war for survival), who died in the early hours of 30th May, on the anniversary of the declaration of Biafra.

‘There is still time’, I had assured my anxious spouse.. ‘You will get through this, and then you will do it, as you planned’.

His response destabilized me. ‘I am a soldier..’ he said, looking straight into my eyes with all the equanimity of a man whose fate already lay before him; 

‘the only modes of death  I am conditioned to anticipate, happen to be death at the battlefield or by execution...I never expected to get this far. If I don’t make it, Do what you can...our people must never forget....’

Sadly, he did not survive....And steadily I embarked, stage by stage, upon Project Mayrock which, to the Glory of God, is nearing completion and slated for commissioning by the end of the year. It is our hope that the surviving brothers of Bruce Mayrock will attend the ceremony. The Mayrock is a three story edifice including a conference hall with Projectors ,an exhibition floor that will house artistic depictions, iconic photos and historic scenes of our 30 month long heroic battle for survival. Sculptures of Bruce Mayrock will adorn the landscape and memorial hall. Pupils from various schools will have an opportunity to visit and learn more about our struggle. The buildings and some of the artworks as shown here are still in process, however since this particular anniversary marks 50 years of the end of the Biafra War - a momentous milestone- I thought it timely to share this initiative. The only input you are required to make into this project is to pass on the story of this selfless sacrifice, and that of so many others to our struggle, to your children. ‘A nation which forgets it’s defenders will itself be forgotten’(Calvin Coolidge).

Biafra anniversary: Time to heal the wounds

By Ejike Anyaduba

May 30th, 2020, made it 53 years since the defunct state of Biafra was born. 

The birth of the young state was troubled as she was immediately absorbed in an impious war of survival with Nigeria.

For 30 months, a savage internecine warfare raged between the two armies of unequal strength and fire power.  

Overwhelmed, and faced with certain defeat, Biafra surrendered unconditionally. 

Five decades on  the effects of the war still linger, resisting every effort at erasure. The mitigating postwar policy of the victorious Nigerian government led by Gowon, aimed at reconciling, reconstructing and rehabilitating the defunct Biafra failed to make good enough impact. 

Properties seized from the Igbo who constituted the bulk of what was Biafra, especially in Rivers state, remain abandoned till date while basic infrastructure in the five Igbo states of the South east  remain in decrepit condition. 

This situation is not made better with the subtle, but consistent effort in turning the Igbo out of doors of certain offices in Nigeria.

To date, certain positions have been denied the Igbo. But where such  positions are made available to them, (which has been few and far between) they are caused to assume a refrain of favour -- chorused by the state, its surrogate media and a few self-abusing Igbo. 

Constant reference is made of such appointment with the government that effected it, singled out for unmerited praise. 

Perhaps palsied by shock of the loss of the war, the intelligent among the Igbo became cagey, leaving the brash and the self-abusive compatriots to speak when silence should have sufficed. On many occasion the appointment of an Igbo to a position he is entitled to has been made to look like a favour.

Even if the appointee was most deserving or the appointment came at the verge of retirement, expressions of gratitude were still lavish. 

Inspector General of Police Ogbonnaya Onovo and Comptroller General of Customs Bernard-Shaw Nwadialor were some of those whose appointments to the headship of the two organs of the government conformed to the conditions above. Neither was undeserving of the office he was appointed. Neither had enough years on the job before the appointment.  Nonetheless, the appointments were celebrated by the brash and self abusive Igbo.

Anioma v Igbo

Written by Cheta Nwanze, a researcher, lives in Lagos

VANGUARD Nigeria, Saturday, May 2, 2020.

Last year I took my friend and partner, Tunde Leye to my homestead. In going to that area, we did not cross the Niger River (Oshimmiri in my native dialect) the way most people cross it these days. Rather, we went the old way. We took a boat from Cable Point (Ikpele Nmili) in Asaba, and 12 minutes later, we were sharing a beer with some of my acquaintances at Onicha Marine. You see, for those who know the history, Asaba and Onitsha, prior to the building of the bridge, both communities were quite closeknit, something we'll discuss later on today.

Tunde preparing to cross the Niger River at Cable Point, Asaba.

The third point in the dictionary definition of a mongrel is "any cross between different things, especially if inharmonious or indiscriminate."

As an aside, I think it's time for me to do my first social media appeal. Is anyone willing to finance me to go and sit with her in New Zealand once this pandemic is over? She lives there now, and she is such a repository of Igbo history. She was born in 1939 which means that at 81, the window for a comprehensive debrief of the stuff which didn't make any of her three books that focused on the Igbo people is closing...

Let me go back to topic.

In the last few days there has been a lot of argument on Twitter about whether the Igbo speaking people of Delta State in Nigeria are Igbo, or something called Anioma. Some people from this area have pointed out that they have been victims of taunts by some Igbos from the East of the Niger, who have themselves said that Delta Igbos are not Igbo.

Both sides of this argument are right, but one tweet I saw was an outright lie. There is no one from the East who will call a native Anioma person "Onye ofe mman. That particular slur is reserved for Yoruba people as the thinking behind that stereotype is that the Yoruba people cannot cook, but rather drown their soups in oil and pepper to cover the lack of culinary skills. My pot belly can tell you that that stereotype is way off, but that is another topic for another day...

The words used for the various peoples of the former Bendel are as follows - Nd‹ Ika to describe the Igbo speaking peoples of the Midwest; Nd‹ Idu to describe the Bini people; Nd‹ ohu (a slur) to describe the Esan people (and the history of this is actually linked to Benin); Nd‹ Usobo to describe those in the "proper Delta", that is the Ijaw, Ijekiri, Isoko and Urhobo.

Now, the problem with most of Nigeria, is that we do not know where we are coming from. Generally, if you do not know where you're coming from, it's kinda hard to know where you're going to.

Too many Igbo people both East and West of the Niger, do not know where they are coming from. Referring back to the piece I highlighted earlier, I pointed out that, " The Anioma sub-group is divided into two, Enuani and Ukwuani. Enuani and Onitsha people migrated from Igala along with Ishan." This is incomplete.

In the intervening years, I've had discussions with older men in Onitsha, Idumuje-Ogboko, Onicha Ugbo, Atani, Obosi, Issele Azagba and Ibusa, and built a more complete profile. Yes, some Onitsha people indeed came from the Igala area, but most claim their ancestry from around Benin (possibly from what is now called Igbanke), who fled East sometime in the 16th Century to escape the wrath of Oba Esigie. These people, under their leader, Eze Chima, founded a number of towns along the way - Œnicha Ugbo, Œnicha Œlna, Issele Uku, Issele Azagba, and then one of their number crossed the great river, and settled at Œnicha Mmiri, which is today known simply as Œnicha, or as the British colonists three centuries later transcribed it, Onitsha.

The current Igbo are "inferior Igbo." - Obi Nwakanma.

By  Professor Obi Nwakanma

INTERESTING
The current Igbo are "inferior Igbo." - Obi Nwakanma.

Nwanna, Many years ago, the General, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu spoke about the "Biafra of the mind." Only a few, I think, understood him. Well, they say, only the deep speak to the deep.

But let me attempt here to tease out Dim Ojukwu's prescription: the greatest proof of Igbo survival and aspiration must be to model, wherever Onye-Igbo stands, the ethos of innovation, excellence, ingenuity, and ability that marked the Igbo endeavor in Biafra. We must also use Biafra as the stepping stone to a higher vision of the Igbo place in the world.

There is no single proof or evidence today that the Igbo of this generation are capable of transforming any nation to which they lay claim. I have looked; I have studied the Igbo situation, and I have listened to my Igbo kinsmen, and I think something is fundamentally wrong: the Igbo are trapped in a deadening hate, self-pity and nostalgia. It is the kind of nostalgia that is both defeatist and deadly because it continues to romanticize the past while the future speeds away.

The Igbo cannot wait until they achieve Biafra or a separate nation in order to build and secure Igbo land. Soon after the end of the war, Igbo survivors of the war, girded their loins and embarked on the work of restoration. With singular grit, they revived the economy of the East, and by 1979, just nine years after the end of the war, were ready to take on the rest of the nation again. We their children are a disgrace to the spirit of those men and women.

The Igbo are today a beggarly nation of impotent, lachrymal people now weeping about "marginalization" and waiting for Nigeria to collapse or let them go, so that they will go and make something of themselves. This is an over-indulged generation. The last of the Igbo are old and dying; the current Igbo are "inferior Igbo." They are just waiting for Godot.

Now, you say, the only time the Igbo will work is if power remains in the South. I think this is too simple. Take a look around you, where are those Igbo men and women? Which Igbo today have the sagacity of Zik, or the courage of Okpara, Mbakwe, or Ojukwu, the capacity of Ojike or Okigbo, the fierce pride and stabilizing force of the old Igbo women, the organizational acumen of an RBK Okafor, the selfless pride of those Igbo of the last generation, who always rose to the occasion when the Igbo summoned them to great causes, including giving their widows mite without question, for as long as "they Igbo have said..."

Now, what I'm trying to say, people, before I lose you, is that the Igbo have left the land, and the land has left the Igbo. There is incoherence. And an Incoherent people cannot run an independent nation, simple.

BIAFRA IS THE NEMESIS OF NIGERIA -LNC 06/02/17

By Tony Nnadi
Secretary-General, Lower Niger Congress.

 Biafra is the nemesis of Nigeria. Both are now mutually exclusive. For one to live, the other must die. In 1970, Nigeria got a Pyrrhic Victory over Biafra. The then French President, Pompidou (next from Charles De Gaulle), whose Country played more than a casual role in the entire imbroglio and who knew what most people did not know about that Biafra War and the People against whom the genocide was directed, had warned the bloody, murderous aggressors, marauding as One-Nigeria, led by willing-tool Yakubu Gowon and his collaborator-in-chief, Awolowo, to immediately address the issues that led to that War with Biafra (1967-1970), otherwise in no more than 30 years, the generation that did not wield guns in the Battlefields of Biafra, would rise up to conclude that War on their own terms. 

Obdurate Nigeria did the opposite, by deploying several punitive policies to put down the East, compounding the woes and devastation already imposed by that War on the East and its Peoples and environment. Shuttering of the Eastern Economic Corridor which was a carry-over of the Land, Air and Sea Wartime blocade of Biafra, Mass expropriation by way of Abandoned Property,  £20-per-pre-war-account heist. Indigenization Decrees. Thick Glass ceilings for Public Office, Civil Service, Military, Police against the East.

Caliphate-propped  Head-Slave, Olusegun Obasanjo whose heinous roles in that War, especially towards the tail-end, remains a subject of genocidal Inquisition, went about gloating and boasting about the death and burial of Biafra, for many years, in absolute folly.

By 1999, so bad had things gone that Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, (former CBN Governor, now Emir of Kano), whose grandfather was the Emir of Kano, deposed by Premier Ahmadu Bello,  raised an urgent alarm and admonition to the Alliance of the Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie, along the same lines as the 1970 Pompidou's premonition, concerning the impending Biafra Exit Hurricane that would be driven by a younger generation of terribly oppressed Biafrans, who neither know or care about Ojukwu or Nzeogwu, for their own reasons, emanating from the scorching of Nigeria.
Sanusi had warned that when that day comes, no Conference would solve the problem of Nigeria. Here are the words of Sanusi:

"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 public services. The rest of Nigeria 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 not born in 1966 and knows nor cares about Nzeogwu or 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 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" (Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, at a Public Lecture Titled: "Issues in Restructuring Corporate Nigeria" 11th September, 1999, at Areas House, Kaduna, cited at page 167 of Ezeani Emefiena's book, "IN BIAFRA AFRICA DIED").

As actors in the field of play, the LNC can say with a measure of certainty, that that day spoken about by Sanusi in 1999 is here. That day Nigeria was warned about in 1970 by France has come. 

As the defunct Nigerian Federation is being taken to its interment,  the Biafra that went into hibernation mode since 1970 is sprouting back to life, unstoppably. The 1967 War is about to end. A Referendum already being processed, will decide the future of the Territory.

3Million Volunteers are currently being Registered by the LNC for training and deployment towards various Referendum Tasks.

Tony Nnadi
Secretary-General,
Lower Niger Congress.
06/02/17

It is Israel’s responsibility to ensure Biafra stands –Kanu

~Punch Nigeria. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2018

The leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has stated that Isreal has a
responsibility to ensure that Biafra stands as an independent nation in Africa.
He said this in an interview moderatedby one Adam Rotbardon an unidentified Israeli television station and shared on the interviewer’s Facebook page.

He said, “Israel has to live up to their obligation to defend Judaism and Jewish faith all over the world. We are being persecuted. We are suffering as a people and I believe it is the responsibility of Israel to make sure that Biafra stands as an independent entity in Africa.”

Kanu claims that over 50 million Igbo people practice Judaism. He said,“Biafra has over 70 million people scattered all over the world. They have called us the wandering Jews of Africa. Those that identify themselves with their Jewish heritage are about 50 million people.”

When asked if this number of people practised Judaism, he said, “Yes, in terms of their prayers, in terms of the Torah that they read. Asignificant number of the population practise Judaism as we do in IPOB.

“When Christianity came with colonialism, a lot of our Jewish practices were suppressed. We were made to feel ashamed of our Jewishness.

“We want to go back to the way we were before the British came. Most of our problems were basically made by the British.

“We want an independent Jewish State, a Biafra that is absolutely independent of anything that has to do with Nigeria, for the simple reason that we were independent before the British came.

“There is a paranoia that, should Biafra get closer to Israel, 70 million people would somehow flock to the land of Israel, but that is not the case. We are seeking Biafra, so we can get and return to Biafra.

Kanu also alleged that the Nigerian Army tried to kill him. He said, “Nigerian Army came to my house to kill me. They killed 28 people in the process.”

When asked why he wasn’t killed, he said, “My people evacuated me before they could get to me. And they smuggled me out of Nigeria.

“I would say, I’m relieved that I managed to make it to the only place that I feel safe in the whole world (Israel). I could have gone back to England, but I still don’t feel safe enough to go back to England.”

LET WISDOM AND REASON GUIDE ON NIGERIA AND BIAFRA

By E O Eke.
Email: eoeke@aol.com

A PLEA TO MY PEOPLE

I have decided to continue to make my case for a future for Igbos within a restructured Nigeria under the rule of law. Hence, the article below, which I first argued in an Igbo forum last year, shortly before the government moved against IPOB.

The issues Igbos face in Nigeria is not peculiar to us. However, we seem bent on approaching it in the way that will ensure the worst outcome.

We seen to ignore the very first thing we need to do, which is organising our politics in Nigeria around the problems we face in Nigeria.

This will be the foundation of our success. Without it, the federal government will rightly see those agitating for Biafra as trouble makers and will with time, harden attitude towards them.

The Biafran struggle needs to metamorphose into struggle against, corruption, bad government and injustices against Igbos and others in Nigeria.

The support it enjoys amongst Igbos should be converted into political currency to enlighten our society and elect honest and informed people, who share the passion for civil, better and fairer society, ending discrimination against Igbos and believe in accountable government. Such leaders would be in the best position to demand for restructure of the country into a true federation and make informed choices about our future.

It would be difficult to actualise Biafra, when those, who seek her actualisation are not part of mainstream politics, disregard constituted authorities and are interested in exploiting the franchise for personal gains.

These and more are the facts, which those agitating for Biafra have chosen to ignore as they take advantage of the people. This is part of what I argued long before Radio Biafra.

The way forward.
For more than six years I have warned about the danger of the type of ethnic nationalism that is fuelling the agitation for Biafra. I have said and continue to say that it is an ill wind.

SIT-AT-HOME: Do Igbo really want to leave Nigeria?

Written by Clifford Ndujihe, Deputy Political Editor

~vanguard Nigeria. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

• Igbo will be comfortable in a restructured Nigeria - Agbakoba
  
  
• 98% of Igbo will say no to Nigeria in a referendum -Elliot Ukoh

Today's largely successful compliance, for the third time, with the sit-at-home order of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, in most cities of the South-East geo-political zone; parts of Port-Harcourt, Rivers State; and Asaba, Delta State, has many implications for the polity.

It shows the ground and support that the IPOB and other pro-Biafra groups are gaining in the South-East. It has also raised the question of whether or not the Igbo really want to leave Nigeria. Arguably, the Igbo are the most dispersed and travelled people in Nigeria. They are found in virtually all villages in the country and reputed to have huge investments in terms of buildings and businesses outside Igbo land. Put in another way, they have invested more in other parts of the country than any other ethnic group. Hence they stand to lose more if anything untoward happened to Nigeria as an entity.

However, in spite of these massive investments that could be endangered, a host of Igbo are deep in the struggle for the actualization of the Republic of Biafra. The first battle for Biafra ended 48 years ago after claiming an estimated three million lives in a 30-month civil war. Since 1999, various struggles for Biafra have claimed thousands of lives.

Yesterday's sit-at-home by IPOB was to protest the killings of unarmed IPOB and Igbo youths during peaceful protests by soldiers; the maltreatment, arrest, detention, and humiliation of 127 Igbo women, who protested in Owerri, recently; and Operation Python Dance III in the South-East among others.


Igbo will be comfortable in a restructured Nigeria- Agbakoba

Asked his take on the success of the sit-at-home order in many parts of Igbo land, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA and human rights lawyer, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, said the development has worrying implications for the country.

His words: "I think the reality is that the nation has gone out of control. The rudiments of governmental authority have been seriously eroded. In the latest ranking of the failed states index, Nigeria is listed as a distressed state. This means Nigeria has ceased to be in control of its territorial environment as a result of insecurity, breakdown of law and order, ethnic insurrections and a host of other actions.

"What this shows is that Nigeria is in a very parlous state. It is questionable how far the Federal Government is exercising its territorial authority over the sovereign regions of Nigeria. IPOB is a rebel government whether we like it or not. The extent the rebel government can generate enthusiasm among the people is another question that will be answered by the success of the sit-at-home order. There are many rebel governments in Nigeria. Boko Haram is a rebel government. Niger-Delta militants are rebel governments, etc. There is a crack in the sovereign control of the Nigerian government.

"It is very worrying that within Nigerian territorial environment, an ethnic group can generate enthusiasm and recognition from the people. It has great implications because if they can do it successfully now, they can do it at the 2019 general elections and that is not good for the peace and good governance of Nigeria."

Femi Fani-Kayode: THE TRUTH ABOUT WHY NIGERIA REMAINED ONE NATION

Topics:

• 
  
• Mindset of the enemy.
• Yoruba were in world's best universities when Usman dan fodio was still learning to ride a horse
• The angel of death that stalks the corridors of power by Fani-Kayode
• The Lion of the East - By Femi Fani-Kayode 
• The killer midget and the stunted dwarf -Femi Fani-Kayode
• The Fulani Republic of Nigeria - by Fani-Kayode
• They Love the Blood by Femi Fani-Kayode
• Araba, Biafra and ‘your land or your blood’ (Part 1,2), By Femi Fani-Kayode
• Plane crashes in Nigeria man- made, says Fani-Kayode
• The Road to Kigali, By Femi Fani-Kayode
• 'My word for northern minorities' -Femi Fani-Kayode in Jos

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THE TRUTH ABOUT WHY NIGERIA REMAINED ONE NATION
By Femi Fani-Kayode

IF YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT WHY NIGERIA REMAINED ONE NATION, WHO WAS BEHIND IT AND WHY, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING.

I HAVE DONE MY RESERACH AND I CAN CONFIRM THAT EVERYTHING THAT THE WRITER HAS WRITTEN IS FACTUAL AND HISTORICALLY ACCURATE. PLEASE READ, COPY AND SHARE:

"If you thought oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1959, you could pass your high school economics with that information. It was actually discovered 50 years earlier.

Did you know that Oil from the Territory was sold for almost 50 years before the approach of Independence in 1960 forced the disclosure of Oloibiri by Britain? Even at that, the quantities were concealed from the newly Independent Nigerian Governments, until the Counter Coup of July, 1966, when the North packed their baggage to head back North in the famous ARABA putsch.

The then British High Commissioner to Nigeria, of course on the promptings and direction of his home Government, zoomed in upon Gowon halfway, and prevailed on him to reverse the decision of moving the North out of Nigeria, at a time Gowon already hoisted the Arewa Flag in a temporary Capital, Ilorin.

In the hurry to announce this reversal, the Gowon’s speech that was originally designed to take out the North, was poorly edited, leaving a portion that should have been expunged and so distorting the concluding part from the body of the speech.

That unexpunged portion is the celebrated Gowonian faux pas in which he in one breathe declared that "Everything considered, the basis of Nigeria's Unity was no more", yet going ahead in the next breathe to proclaim that "To keep Nigeria One is a task that must be done".

Civil War: Why Nigerian Army wasn’t hard on Biafrans – Buhari

Written by Johnbosco Agbakwuru
~Vanguard Nigeria. Monday, June 4, 2018.

ABUJA – PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari on Monday gave reasons why the Nigerian Army was not hard on the separatist agitation of Biafrans during the 30 months civil war.

President Buhari explained that they had strict and formal instructions to exercise restraint against Biafrans during the three-year civil war which took place between1967-1970.

The President recalled that every military commander was issued the instructions in dispatches handed to them from the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, that the Biafrans, were not enemies but brothers and sisters of the rest of Nigerians.

President Buhari stated this at the Presidential Villa, Abuja during his investiture as Grand Patron of the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS).

The President who promised to assist the organisation secure permanent office accommodation in Abuja, showered praises on the former Head of State, Gen. Gowon, retd, for that gesture and also the role of the Red Cross in bringing succour to victims of the war even in dangerous circumstances.


He went memory lane over the horrible consequence of the civil war, noting that the pathetic pictures of war-ravaged Biafrans were always heartrending.

According to him, “Earlier in my profession, during the civil war, I know how much sacrifice members of the Nigerian Red Cross and their international counterparts did both in the real front of operations and at the rear, on both sides. I think it is a lot of sacrifices because anything can happen to you in the operational areas.

“The risks they faced were real and I admire their courage and commitment to helping people who were in distress and were virtually in millions. Those photographs of people from the Biafra enclave spoke a lot.

“I remember with nostalgia the performance of the Commander-in-Chief, General Gowon. Every commander was given a copy of the Commander-in-Chief’s instructions that we were not fighting enemies but that we were fighting our brothers. And thus, people were constrained to show a lot of restraint.

“The international observer teams were allowed to go as far as possible within and outside the front and I think this was generous and very considerate of General Gowon. He is a highly committed Nigerian.”

On his promise to assist the organisation secure permanent office accommodation in Abuja, Buhari said, "I have taken note of your logistics especially your(request for) office here.

"I assure you that the government will do its best when you decide to build such facilities in terms of securing an area here within the Federal Capital Territory and we hope you will not do the Nigerian ways of doing things.


"To use the words of famous Nigerian Minister `I hope you will not build an elephantine headquarters' which is going to be functional because we have seen your activities throughout the country," he said.

In his remarks, the head of delegation and National President of the NRCS, Chief Bolaji Anani, said the organization has over 800,000 trained volunteers based in communities across the 774 local government areas of the federation.


Anani pleaded with the President to assent to the Bill amending the Red Cross Act of 1960, whenever the National Assembly, which was currently debating on it, eventually passes it, noting that the Act has not been reviewed since it was passe in 1960.

Full Video: What Southern, Middle Belt Leaders told Saraki

~Oak Tv

The President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, John Nwodo, has suggested that too much powers in the hands of the executive is the reason for the disregard of the legislative arm of government by some public officials...

Watch the entire video:

 

Colonel Achuzia ejebego the way of the Rest by Mazi Odera 27/02/2018

~culled from: www.factreporters.com

Late Col Achuzia

He was an Engineer minding his business in Ugwuocha now called Port Harcourt in his Electrical Power Engineering Nigerian Ltd .

He was placed  in charge of  Militia in Port Harcourt in 1966 and when Lt. Col Ojukwu abolished it because of Political setting behind it ,he simply went back to his Electrical business until late in May 1967 when Port Harcourt provincial Secretary Mr Nwokeke called him and ordered him to reassemble the Militia again in case there is need for them to be handy if the threat oozing out from Nigerian side become real and there is need for defending Igwe Ocha.

He set up the militia again with help of Lt Colonel Ogbugu Kalu of Army Eight Battalion ,he listed his former colleagues Dr Kalu a Medical Doctor ,Dr Anwuamegbu a Lawyer ,Mr Odiwe an Engineer ,Mr Opurum a Businessman ,Mr Ohieri Businessman ,Mr Chimaraoke Principal of Etching College ,Dr Aguluefo medical Doctor .

They started training youths with sole aim of defending Port Harcourt but nature has a way of itughari mmadu ,..the Militia under his command proved efficient and important when they crippled the ferocious blood letting Soldiers of Third Marine Division of Nigerian Army led by Dare Devil ,Lt Col Benjamin Adekunle known as Black Scorpion for his Ferociousness toward Easterners .

THE GENOCIDE AGAINST IGBO NATION STILL HAUNTS NIGERIA

Topics:
- THE GENOCIDE AGAINST IGBO NATION STILL HAUNTS NIGERIA
- Achebe returns with long-awaited 'Biafra' memoir
- Literaryworld: My role in Biafran war, by Prof. Chinua Achebe
- Furore over Achebe's Biafran memoir
- Achebe's new book controversy: Civil war hasn't ended -Okorie
- Attack on Awo: Has Achebe gone too far?
- Gowon, Awo behind genocide -Col Achuzia
- My role in the civil war - Awolowo
- Genocide, 'Biafran' culpability and Achebe's impressions

An article by CHINUA ACHEBE 

 It is my impression that Awolowo was driven by an overriding ambition for power, for himself and for his Yoruba people - and he's being criticized for it.

..Almost 30 years before Rwanda, before Darfur, more than 2 million people – mothers, children, babies, civilians – lost their lives as a result of the blatantly callous and unnecessary policies enacted by the leaders of the federal government of Nigeria.

As a writer I believe that it is fundamentally important, indeed essential to our humanity, to ask the hard questions, in order to better understand ourselves and our neighbours. Where there is justification for further investigation, justice should be served.
In the case of the Nigeria-Biafra war there is precious little relevant literature that helps answer these questions.

Nnamdi Kanu and The Cry For Biafra: ‘Nnamdi Kanu most frightening product of our…’

Topics:

• Nnamdi Kanu and the Biafran zoo
• ‘Nnamdi Kanu most frightening product of our…’
• Biafra restoration priority to all and sundry – Nnamdi Kanu
• Court strikes out six charges against IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu
• Kanu, IPOB supporters are fraudsters, says Ralph Uwazuruike, leader and founder of MASSOB
• I'm waiting for Ralph Uwazuruike to disguise himself with mask to testify against me in court today, Nnamdi Kanu Thundered. MUST WATCH
• Kanu: IPOB members protest in Japan, Cote d'Ivoire
• THE ARREST AND DETENTION OF NNAMDI KANU
• Pro-Biafra agitators are miscreants – Obasanjo
• Obasanjo, ‘kettle calling pot black’, says Achuzia
• Nnamdi Kanu, the Biafra course and Vision 2023!
• Nnamdi Kanu has no criminal charge hanging on his neck – lawyer
• Obasanjo warns Nigerians of second Biafra war
• Biafra: FG charges Kanu, 2 others with treasonable felony
• Biafra Agitation Is Dead, Hopeless, Says Obasanjo

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Nnamdi Kanu and the Biafran zoo
~TheGuardian Nigeria. Wednesday, January 17, 2018.

Politics in Nigeria is largely transactional. Nigerians who want to hold political positions look for and invest millions of naira in purchasing the endorsements of godfathers and distributing rice, bread, and cash to fellow citizens to vote for them.

Nnamdi Kanu

The process is extremely expensive and attracts mostly those who see politics as a very good way of dramatically multiplying investments, much like drug smuggling.

Nigerian politics rarely attracts people who have the intention to use political control of state institutions to transform the lives of fellow citizens. Building a base of political power in Nigeria is similar to establishing 100 per cent ownership of a bank.

You acquire control of a political office and convert all levels and institution of government that fall under the control of this office into something like bank branches.

You select all the "managers" of the institutions and agencies - local governments, tax authorities, ministries, broadcasting services, state-owned enterprises, land management bureaux etc. - who deliver a chunk of their budgets to you in addition to using their resources and responsibilities to generate funds and opportunities for you.

The objective of generating funds for the political machinery of the "political lord" becomes the significant if not primary aim and consistently erodes their statutory roles (delivering quality education or healthcare services or durable roads).

First, this intensely anti-democratic process concentrates power permanently in the hands of a very few people. Anyone seeking to enter Nigerian politics must be ready to divert public resources to these political godfathers.

It also weakens the ability of state institutions to deliver services that are essential to fostering investment, creating wealth and lifting people out of poverty - durable infrastructure, high quality public school and health system, etc.

The process locks out Nigerian youths and professionals from politics. In the first 20 years of independence, people between 28 and 40 years of age were governors, federal legislators and ministers, and even President. Now, a 50 year old is considered a very young person in Nigerian politics.

It's wrong to blame Igbo for January 1966 coup - Iwuanyanwu

Written by Emmanuel Elebeke
~vanguard Nigeria. Monday, November 6, 2017.

…Says Ojukwu never supported secession.

 Iwuanyanwu

abuja-Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, stalwart and publisher of Champion newspaper, Dr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu has debunked the belief that Igbo policial leaders instigated the January 1966 coup that ended the first republic.

Chief Iwunyanwu made the assertion at the weekend during the celebration of his 75th birthday in Abuja.

He said it was wrong for anybody to insult Igbo by claiming that political leaders from the region masterminded the coup, when in the real sense, the same Igbo leaders stopped the coup from actualising its main objectives.

"Before I die, I want to correct the erroneous belief being fed to Nigerian youths that the January 1966 coup was instigated by Igbo leaders. It is not true. Yes, the person who led it was an Igbo from Delta State but he had with him people from other tribes: Yoruba, Niger Delta and other places.It was a purely military coup. It was not Igbo coup. There was no time Igbo leaders told the military to carry out the coup.

"If for anything, Nnamdi Azikiwe was very sad at the death of Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello and others. I want the younger generation of Nigerians to know that they are being told lies.”

On why the coup failed, he said: "I want them also to know why the coup failed. It failed because an Igbo man, General Aguiyi Ironsitook up arms and arrested the coup plotters and put them in prison.

”Ironsi was the one controlling the army then. If he had supported the coup, it could have succeeded. So,it was Igbo that stopped the coup. Ironsi was eventually killed because all of us said we do not want unitary government. We wanted political restructuring. We are very serious about it and many Nigerians have said it."

ASABA MASSACRE: SEEKING HEALING 50 YEARS AFTER (AN ADDENDUM)

Written by Temple Chima Ubochi
Email: ubochit@hotmail.de
Bonn, Germany

We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility (Rabindranath Tagore)The parents eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge'? (Ezekiel 18:2)
The thought that really crushes us is the thought of the futility of life of which death is the visible manifestation (Giacomo Leopardi)Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing (William Shakespeare)

After reading Azuka Onwuka's heart-rending masterpiece on the Asaba massacre (link below), I started soliloquizing, wondering why Lt. Col. Muritala Mohammed, assisted by Major Ibrahim Taiwo, and their men of the Second Division of the Nigerian Army, during the genocide called civil war, were so callous and evil to massacre unarmed Asaba civilians even when they declared they were for peace; pledged their allegiance to Nigeria; and renounced any support for Biafra?

The government that took over Nigeria after the failed first coup, but was sacked by the northern counter coup led by Muritala Mohammed, TY Danjuma et al: Head-of-State and Supreme Commander of the Nigerian Armed Forces, Major-General Johnson Thomas Umunakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi (centre) with his Regional Military Governors from left to right; Lieutenant-Colonels, Hassan Usman Katsina (North), Francis Adekunle Fajuyi (West), Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (East) and David Akpode Ejoor (Mid-West), 1966 (Courtesy: Alex Otti)

Then, I started looking for answers why the second battalion of the Nigerian army, under the leadership of Muritala Mohammed, isolated Asaba town, and why the Asaba people were marked out for elimination, afterall, Asaba is not inside the Igbo mainland? It then occurred to me that the calculated effort to massacre Asaba people was vindictive.

A year before the massacre, some junior army officers sacked the First Republic government of Nigeria through a failed bloody coup. One thing leading to another, few prominent Northern leaders were killed, and a military government was enthroned - the then Nigeria's Prime Minister, two Premiers, politicians and top ranking soldiers were killed, and that coup later led to that civil war of 1967-1970. The northerners termed that coup an Igbo one, despite the fact that the officers who carried it out came from all parts of Nigeria. The leader of that coup was Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, and was from Asaba. The massacre was a payback for Asaba for producing Nzeogwu who led the coup that killed some northern leaders.

Muritala Mohammed; as a military officer; civil war commander; and head of state was a fiend incarnate; unfortunately, people didn't know or see how devilish he was, before he went the way of those he sent to their early graves. Tell me why Asaba people should be singled out for elimination, because Kaduna Nzeogwu was from there? Afterall, Dimka or Orka's respective towns or people were not sequestered for elimination after their own failed coups.

BIAFRAEXIT: 16 northern groups give Igbo October 1 to vacate region /With Biafra, Igbo'll remain in Nigeria, says Nnamdi Kanu

Topics:

• With Biafra, Igbo'll remain in Nigeria, says Nnamdi Kanu
• 16 northern groups give Igbo October 1 to vacate region
• Arewa Youths Write Osinbajo
• Presidency replies Arewa youths letter to Osinbajo on Biafra secession
• Igbo youths to Northern group: We're not afraid of war
• Open letter to Prof Ango Abdullahi
• OPEN LETTER TO THE AREWA YOUTHS.
• Igbo dare Arewa: We won't leave North …demand Ango Abdullahi's arrest
• The quit notice to Igbo in the North
• Southern leaders demand Arewa youths to withdraw ultimatum.
• Igbo quit notice: Pan Yoruba group calls for Oodua Republic
• PRESS RELEASE BY THE MIDDLE BELT YOUTH COUNCIL.
• The Igbos Have Paid For Their Sins- Emir Sanusi
• THE YOUTHS OF ODUDUWA REPUBLIC LAGOS DECLARATION – 10TH JUNE 2017

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With Biafra, Igbo'll remain in Nigeria, says Nnamdi Kanu
Written by Ihuoma Chiedozie and Tony Okafor

~PUNCH Nigeria.  Tuesday, July 25, 2017.

Nnamdi Kanu

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, on Monday, said Igbo must not vacate the North, or any other part of the country, as a condition for the actualisation of the agitation for Biafra.

The IPOB leader spoke in an interview with some journalists in Enugu, where he received awards from a number of pan-Igbo groups, including the Igbo Women Assembly, the Eastern Consultative Assembly and the Igbo Students Union.

Reacting to the 'quit notice' issued to Igbo in the North by a coalition of Arewa youths, Kanu noted that secession from Nigeria did not imply that Igbo must leave the North, or other part of the country as suggested by the ultimatum issued by the northern youths.

He said, "You are aware that Scotland is seeking to leave the United Kingdom? Are you remotely implying that every person from Scotland, who lives in England, should now return to Scotland?

"Britain just left the EU. Are you now implying that every British citizen in the EU should come back to Britain in order to finalise that process of extraction of Britain from the EU?"

Kanu noted that what he described as "poor education" was responsible for the impression that Igbo must leave other parts of Nigeria in the event of the actualisation of Biafra.