dayokanu:

So you believe a Yoruba man would write the below about his tribe?

justice11:

So Enugu, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, are no more ibo states, abi. You are the one with half education.
You remember Nzeribe liquidate his bank after taking people's money those days too. In fact the major problem of Nigeria is bringing goat and sheep together!!!
Yoruba race is never you people's equal!

afam4eva:
I also belive Tomakint is not Yoruba because he has gone from being sorta neutral and sympathizing with Igbos to being tribalistic to his supposed tribe. But never say never. Some people have a way of turning against their tribe for some reason. I've met Igbos that insult anything Igbotic.

aribisala0: where does this new found reasonableness come from Afam?? you done burnt again??

afam4eva:
What does the bolded mean?

aribisala0:
I was just wondering whether you have given your life to mohammed

tomakint: Son of Belial, this should b my last post from me to u! It seems u want to take something home to ur parents because u'v been on my neck all around this forum.Even if u are paid to deface my character u av just failed(u may b d scapegoat here).if u are sure I am Ngodigha and co prove it b4 everyone,prove to them i went to UI,what kind of a demonic human being are u? must we agree on d same thing as Yorubas?Dat Yorubas are treacherous and fearful is dat my own making?Omo ale

dayokanu:

You have been found out to be a fraud. A scam no one believes you. bastarddd. Do the honorable thing and open a new ID claiming to be ibibio this time around

Mr "I am Yoruba"

nku5: Igbos planned with northerners to jail awo? Kindly shed more light on this thanks

free_soul:

do you have a job at all
you and all your brothers that live here
you all must be full time criminals

Of Achebe, Awolowo, Gowon and Biafra
Our Reporter October 30, 2012 72 Comments »



BY PRINCE IBORO UDOM

Nigeria’s political history is a story in contradictions. This accounts for why her quest for national unity and integration has been unsuccessful, quite to the chargrin of the few genuine patriots who had dreamt of a Nigeria that would be the envy of all in the community of nations. But upon the attainment of political independence, the hope that a Nigeria nation could emerge out of a multitude of tribes and tongues has unfortunately evaporated like ash such that it seems it could never realize it’s rather cherished but unfulfilled dreams.

While we try to “understand our differences” as Sir Ahmadu Bello advised rather than to “forget our differences” there seems to be a progressive rise in the quantum and intensity of ethnic consciousness as shown by the reactions by ethnic Lords over sundry issues.

This dangerous tendency was recently manifested following the release of a book written by Prof Chinua Achebe and titled: “There was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra” In the latest book the renowned literary icon, blamed the plight of the Igbos especially following the war on the deliberate economic policies formulated by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo as Finance Minister and Deputy Chairman of the Federal Executive council which was headed by General Yakubu Gowon, the then Head of State.

These policies, according to the literary icon impoverished and economically strangulated the Igbos including other Easterners. These myriads of reactions bring to the force the contradictions, the mischief and sheer absence of love and understanding of the plight of other Nigerians by those who have arrogated national interest and welfare to themselves and see any other person as undeserving of concern. My honest contention would be that it is always very good to apportion blames if by doing so the wrongs done could be rectified or remedied.

In the case of Biafra and Nigeria, undoubtedly, great wrongs have been done with noticeable harm. Ethnic chauvinists and pretenders to the Nigerian unity project are wont to say that Biafra is past and should not be revisited, but they must be advised that we are all products of history.

It has been asserted that those who chose to ignore the lessons of history are more often than not ignored by history itself. This is true of Nigeria.

It has refused to learn from history as a guide to the future but has rather unwittingly been repeating the same mistakes all over again. The result is that it has become like a patient who after medical diagnosis throws away the reports which contained details of his ailment and the recommended treatment to be administered d. when he eventually appears before the doctor, the process is ordered to recommence once again, and chances are that before another process of medical examination is concluded, the situation has become precarious and regrettabley, beyond medical redemption.

The issues mentioned in the said book are all too familiar, but if one may ask, “what were the immediate and remote causes of the Nigeria Civil War (1967-1970)? Who should be blamed for the events that led to the declaration of independence by “Biafra”?

What was the real intention behind the war and post –war policies? The earlier we sincerely give answers to these salient questions, the better for our quest for nationhood. The moment we begin to tell ourselves the home truth even when such revelation and admission/confession is against our personal or tribal interest, the better for the healing process to commence in full swing.

Without any fear of contradiction, let me state clearly that the mindless and senseless massacre and destruction of Igbo lives and properties following the counter coup by the reactionaries led by Lt Col. T. Y. Dnjuma more than anything else caused the attempted secession bid by Colonel Udumegwu Emeka Ojukwu, then Military Governor of the then Eastern Region.

The macabre that attended the well-organized and superbly supervised genocide perpetrated against the Igbos in the north and supported by the northern leaders, albeit as a ‘retaliation’ against the murder of their leaders in the first coup de’tat could have been nipped in the bud if the beneficiaries of the “unitary” government for which General Aguyi Ironsi was sacrificed had taken any sincere step to dissuade their people from the course they had taken against the innocent Igbos who had to pay a great price for their belief in one Nigeria and their spirit of enterprise.

Let the facts be stated the umpteenth time for the mischievous and peddlers of falsehood who distort clear undeniable facts of history for their selfish and tribal interests.

Agreeably, the northerners were never known and have never been know to be pro-Nigerian in their thoughts, inclinations and pronouncements, and for the records, they never wanted independence for Nigeria and neither did they embrace the idea of one Nigeria Resolutions of the Northern Regional House of Assembly regarding the “strangers” on their soil, the various pronouncements of Sir Ahmadu Bello, Premier of the Northern Region, and the aborted speech by General Gowon announcing the division of Nigeria are all in the public domain for Nigerians to see.

Another fact of history is that Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe left the Eastern Region, contested and won election into the Western Regional House of Assembly and was in the process of forming the government in the Region, his party, the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens, NCNC, having won the majority of seats at the Election, but the late sage Awolowo sensing disgrace and obvious loss of relevance, orchestrated through blackmail and recourse to primordial ethnic sentiments and emotions, the “cross-carpeting of the NCNC members of the House to the Action Group, AG,. This singular act killed the spirit of national unity and accommodation that was becoming visible by the wider acceptance of NCNC by the Westerners.

The result of this political ‘master-stroke’ by Awolowo forced Azikiwe unceremoniously back to the Eastern Region where he, out of frustration; having failed to also go the central Legislature in Lagos equally orchestrated a fresh election to the Eastern Region House of Assembly. This singular act again affected the brotherly love in the region and the nationalist spirit as the Efiks, Ibibios and the Annangs etc who were the major victims began to lose hope in the federation, nay the Eastern Region.

This perhaps explains why the Igbos were denied their support during the course of the war. Agreed also that in war, just like Awolowo rationalized, that “everything is fair and starvation is one of the weapons of war, could it rightly be said that post-war anti-people and anti-development policies are accepted especially were it was declared,”no victor, no vanquished”? It is not true that humanitarian service provided by international voluntary organization to Nigerian held territories were denied the civilian populace in Biafra, not the soldiers?

Was this not a clear case of genocide alongside the earlier pogrom in the north targeted at Igbos? And if, as the Awolowo and Gowon apologists are arguing, that they don’t deserve any blame for the suffering of the Igbos nay Easterners during and after the war, can any truly sensible person rationalize the policy conceived and implemented by the said otherwise great Awolowo to the effect that every Easterner (mostly Igbos) that had whatever amount of money in the bank was only given “20 pounds”

Not only this, property belonging to Igbos across the country were seized by the Federal Government and were classified as “abandoned” properties even when the owners had survived the war and needed a means of sustenance.

The late Ikemba (Ojukwu) had to fight for many years to repossess his father’s property in Lagos State. The result of this deliberate and mischievous economic policy was despite deceitful programme of Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction. And when public enterprises were nationalized, no Igbo man/woman was in a position to purchase any shares in those companies. This was against the backdrop of the fact that the Eastern Region, up to the late 1960s was rated as the fastest growing economy in the world.

The literary Icon, Prof Chinua Achebe has not committed any crime by writing his memoirs while alive. Others are enjoined to also tell Nigerians what they know about the war, the pogrom and proffer a way out. We have lied for too long, we have pretended for too long. Time for admission of wrong and confession of sins is now. The Igbos deserve our sympathy and off course, apologies. Iboro Udom writes from Akwa Ibom state

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/opinion/of-achebe-awolowo-gowon-and-biafra/

There was a country, there was starvation (1)


On October 30, 2012 · In Pini Jason

8:35 am

By Pini Jason




THIS is not a defence of Chinua Achebe. He does not need one. No amount of abuse can dent his global standing. Ban or burn all his books, as someone suggested, he would only feel sorry for you, not angry.

Achebe has since outgrown certain sentiments. On the other hand, if Chief Awolowo were alive, he would have cautioned people against some of the vituperative effusions, especially by people craving relevance with Awo’s name and who cried more than the bereaved.

Awo’s daughter, Ambassador Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu, made one of the most mature reactions. She simply said if what was said to have been written was true, she was disappointed but would not say more than that until she read the book!

Awo was an accomplished and fulfilled man before he died. Nothing said now by ethnic jingoists and fake Awoists can add any value to his eminent standing.

What the nation has witnessed since the publication of an excerpt of a review of Achebe’s There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra by Guardian of London is a classic decline of intellectual discourse in Nigeria.

At the time the needless controversy ensued, not more than 10 people would say they had read the book. The first few copies available in Nigeria at the material time were review copies sent to some journalists by Dr. Chidi Achebe.

Others were those who travelled to countries where the book had been published and were able to buy a copy, or were sent a copy by friends abroad. Therefore all those who plunged into attack and counter-attack based on excerpts of a review simply embarrassed themselves. It really did not mean that the outcome would have been radically different if more Nigerians read the book.

I say so because Nigerians read with two brains. While one is reading what was written, the other is busy formulating what the reader believes you wrote! It is therefore not surprising that, in this kind of situation, the combatants in the futile but emotionally charged controversy quickly took cover behind ethnic parapets!

Last week I finished reading a copy sent me by Chidi and I felt more disappointed with the entire hullabaloo about the book and the abuses that went all round. In the first place, the duty a writer of Achebe’s status owes humanity is to shock it with the truth whenever it develops amnesia.

Achebe did just that with his book, 42 years after the civil war. He seems to have succeeded in rousing us from our amnesia, except that the intellectual debate is yet to ensue, and except also that, in Nigeria, my truth is a lie, and your lie is the truth! Secondly, it was wrong to make it seem as if Awo was the subject of the book. He was not even the important point in the book.

The controversial reference to Awolowo did not appear until page 233 of a 333-page book, including appendices, notes and index! Nevertheless, those who have been reading will tell you that Achebe did not say anything new about Awolowo nor has he ever hidden his views about the Yoruba leader!

Nature of Nigerian debate

It is the nature of Nigerian debate that those who insistently make Awo an ethnic champion often turn round to accuse others of diminishing Awo’s status, making me wonder if those who swear in Awo’s name really knew him. For example, Femi Fani-Kayode who effusively described Awo as “much loved leader of the Yoruba” easily turned round, tongue in cheek, to accuse Achebe of “ethnic chauvinism”.

There are not many Yoruba who locate Awo beyond the ethnic enclave to a national stage, unless you tell me that Nigeria begins at Mokola and ends at Dugbe! It took Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu to posthumously elevate Awo to “the best President Nigeria never had”.

One thing any reader of Achebe would confess is that the man tries his best to choose his words carefully. The controversial portion of the book came under the subheading, The Case Against the Nigerian Government. There he took not only Awolowo, but also, Allison Ayida and Anthony Enahoro to task.

And he prefaced his criticism of Awo’s motive for employing starvation as a weapon of war with the words, “it is my impression that…” We can debate whether Achebe’s impression was wrong without name calling, ethnic baiting or profiling.

And that is, if we have any intellectually honest reason to read that portion in isolation of everything else he wrote elsewhere in the book about Awolowo and Yoruba nation!

A few hard questions can be asked: Did Awo have ambition for power for himself and for the advancement of his Yoruba people? Yes he did.

That was an ambition he spent all his political life pursuing. Did Awo see the dominant Igbo as obstacle to that desire? You may argue that Awo was not the only one who saw the Igbo as obstacle but you cannot deny what happened to Zik in Ibadan in 1951.

Hear my friend Ayo Opadokun: “What he (Achebe) expected was that Awo should fold his arms to allow the Igbo race led by Zik to preside over the affairs of the Yoruba nation” (The Nation 5 October 2012). Further, he admitted that “it was clear that the East and West were in contest for socio-economic and political power”. Tell me, could Achebe have put the matter any clearer than Opadokun did?

Just as Achebe conceded that there was nothing wrong with Awo’s aspirations, there was nothing wrong with contest between the East and West for socio-economic and political power, except that no ethnic group in Nigeria wants to contest with Igbo on equal terms or compete on a level playing field. Nigeria obviously felt happy that it has removed the Igbo obstacle by inscribing the Federal Character in the constitution.

And we cannot deny that there was a sing-song of “Igbo domination” in the years leading to the crises that led to the coup and the war. Unfortunately, the fear of “Igbo domination” not only created an enduring conspiracy to cripple the Igbo but also left an unsettled issue of citizenship that has created the dichotomy of “settler” and “indigene” for which blood flows in the Plateau today.

In defence of Awo

I think it was futile to defend Awo on the matter of starvation as a weapon of war after he proffered his own personal defence. In his well publicised 1983 interview, Awo did not deny the charges levied against him by Biafrans.

He simply rationalised his actions. Respected elder statesman and one of the living authentic Awoists, Chief Ayo Adebanjo apparently based his defence of Awo on this interview (Thisday 13 Oct 2012). We can appreciate Awo’s rationalisation or disagree with them. I disagree with some.

Awo said he went to Calabar, Enugu and Port Harcourt shortly after their liberation. “I saw kwashiorkor victims…Then I enquired what happened to the food we are sending to the victims…but what happened was that the vehicles carrying the food were always ambushed by the soldiers…and the food would then be taken to the soldiers to feed them, and so they were able to continue the fight”.

The flaw in this rationalisation is that people may conclude that Awo stopped food supply because Biafran soldiers were hijacking them. In the first place, Nigerian NEVER supplied food to Biafra.

Whatever food Nigeria supplied was to those “liberated” areas behind Biafran lines. Those areas were under the control of the Nigerian army.

Therefore if the vehicles conveying the food were ambushed by soldiers, it could only be by Nigerian soldiers! Food that came into Biafra were direct from World Council of Churches, Caritas, International Red Cross and French NGOs.

These supplies were directly administered by the churches, priests and Red Cross through their feeding centres.

The humanitarian disaster in Biafra was exacerbated when Nigeria closed the air corridors by shooting down some of the relief planes. The argument about using land corridors approved by Nigeria to supply food to Biafra was still on till the war dramatically ended.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/10/there-was-a-country-there-was-starvation-1/

elombah.com/index.php/special-reports/13104-blame-gowon-and-awolowo-for-biafra-genocide-general-madiebo

nationalmirroronline.net/new/interviews/gowon-ceded-bakassi-to-cameroun-to-win-the-civil-war-madiebo/

Many people have been commenting on

Professor Chinua Achebe’s comment on Chief

Obafemi Awolowo in his book, There was a

Country. What Achebe said, as I told some

people, in all aspects, is correct. In fact, I went

further to say that if I am to give my own

account of the war and Awolowo’s role, I

would even have said more.

But that is as far as I can go. I do not want to

draw attention on Achebe’s book to myself.

This is because I haven’t written any book

and I do not want to steal the show or act for

Achebe. Achebe is well qualified to defend

himself but one thing you notice is that, of all

the people who have been criticising Achebe,

no one had said what he said was wrong. If

there is anybody who has said that, then I

have not been able to read or hear it. Nobody

is saying that Awolowo did not give the Igbo

£20 at the end of the war; that he did not

starve the Igbo during the war, and all that

Achebe had to say. This is because what he

(Achebe) said are true. Awolowo’s people

agreed that he had to do them to win the

war. So, what is the bone of contention?

There is no basis for controversy because

one person has given the facts, and the other

person is trying to justify the facts. They are

all entitled to that. Now, I have more. I keep a

lot of documents and materials on the war

and the participants. If I had to write my own,

I might not even mention any of the things

that Achebe said. I mean, he has written as a

civilian and I will write as a soldier. What he

said are all correct and everybody agrees, I

mean all the tribes.

The question now is, is he justified to do

those things just to win a war. That is for

anybody to answer.

One of his followers, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, said

that food supply was stopped because the

soldiers hijacked the food being sent to the

East and didn’t allow it to get to the people.

Obviously, that is a talk of an idle civilian. How

can you be giving food to soldiers? I was

commanding the Army throughout the war.

For the first two months, we had no problem

of food. As far as I know, throughout the war,

Nigeria did not give food to any warfront or

any part under the control of Biafra. This is

common sense. The only thing was that we

had the support from the Caritas (it is a

church organisation) and the Red Cross. I

think Caritas is based in Rome. It is a very big

relief organisation. To get food from them,

their flight only came in the night and

completely under bombardment by the

Nigerian command to prevent the food from

coming in. He said he was giving Biafrans

food. If I were a Nigerian, I won’t give

Biafrans food. We did not have the means to

hijack food coming, with the sophisticated

planes from Nigeria. How could we have

hijacked them with helicopters? The point is

that, officially, unofficially or in any way,

Biafra got no food from Nigeria at all.


There was a brief period when we benefitted

from Nigerian food by accident. It was when

Biafran troops cleared Owerri and cut off a lot

of Nigerian soldiers. The Nigerian Army

started dropping food for their soldiers inside

Owerri. Obviously, we discovered that what

they were doing was that they asked their

soldiers to spread white clothes in the areas

where they were and they would drop food

for them. The Biafran soldiers cleared other

areas and spread white clothes and they

were dropping food for them mistakenly.

They soon found out. They didn’t at any time

during the war give Biafrans food. If they

captured any part of the original Biafra, they

had to feed the people there, but not Biafrans.
(Quote) (Report) (Like)
Re: Blame Gowon And Awolowo For Biafra Genocide - General Madiebo by ACM10: 11:54pm On Oct 30
The agitation for a Biafran nation is still

ongoing in some quarters. Frankly, if one

wants to be realistic, you cannot achieve

Biafra again as we used to know it. First of all,

the old Biafra presently consists of eight or

nine states. There are five in Igboland and

four in the South-South. I am just saying this

off hand. There are about eight states now

made up of the old Biafra. How on earth are

you going to start reuniting all these people

who have enjoyed a lot of progress and have

seen the fruit of local independence? How can

you join them again under one state? It is not

possible. It is not necessarily the political

independence of about eight or nine states.

They cannot lump themselves together again.

Biafra stands for justice. People who are

agitating for Biafra are, in fact, agitating for

justice. They are agitating for an end to the

marginalisation of a certain part of Nigeria.

Chief Uwazuruike who is pursuing the

project in a way, is useful to the Igbo. It is not

useful to the extent of getting independence

for the Igbo. He is the only pressure group

now the Igbo have to let the rest of Nigeria

know what our problems are. In fact, there

was a time that I would say he achieved more

than all the South-East (Nigerian)

governments put together. Under these

governments everybody is trying to get

maximum benefit for himself and his family

and not for the Igbo really. After the war, the

Igbo who joined political parties were just the

second fiddle, not hoping to achieve more

than satisfying their families. Under Abacha,

an Igbo man, Kalu, formed ‘ Youths Earnestly

Ask for Abacha, to have Abacha there

permanently, not an Igbo man. Abacha was

not an Igbo man. Nobody has the ambition of

reuniting the Igbo. They just became

nuisance in a way, individually.

But now, people are beginning to realise that

you don’t achieve much by trying to shine in

the midst of poverty. The Igbo are uniting

again.
(Quote) (Report) (Like)
Re: Blame Gowon And Awolowo For Biafra Genocide - General Madiebo by ACM10: 11:58pm On Oct 30
Why was I not promoted when Gowon and

Unegbu were promoted? I don’t know.

People are asking why Professor Achebe is

reliving the civil war issues after over 40

years. They believe we should not be looking

at what divided us in the past but for

something that will unite us.

That is the point. The issue of the civil war or

Biafra is not coming back. One single person

wrote a book. I haven’t read the book. All I

know about the book is what I have read in

the newspapers or from different journalists.

I am not aware that the issue of Biafra is

coming up again except that Achebe wrote

his memoirs. Nobody talked about many

other things he wrote but only about

Awolowo. As if he wrote about only

Awolowo. Maybe, he did, I don’t know. But I

understand that he wrote a book called ‘There

was a country, Biafra’. Which is true. When

Ojukwu died, he was buried as a General and

Head of State. His coffin was carried by

Generals. In fact, it was the first burial that

looked like a Head of State’s in the history of

Nigeria. Ex-Heads of State came, those who

recognised Biafra. Nigeria was, indeed, trying

to recognise that there was a country.

What are we arguing about? If somebody

says it, he gets into trouble. If he went

beyond it and said that Awolowo did this or

that, he gets into trouble. He just said the

truth but it is left for people to justify if

Awolowo did it because he wanted to win the

war. In fact, there were other things

Awolowo may have done which are part of

his job. This is the way I look at it. I don’t

think there is any need for controversy over

it. If somebody had said that Awolowo never

gave the Igbo £20 after the war or that he

didn’t change currency during the war, then I

would start wondering whether I had

forgotten. But nobody has said that. All they

are saying is that he did this purely to

succeed in his job. He was given a job.

Whether he did it in order to punish the Igbo,

I don’t know. After all, he never consulted the

Yoruba for any decision he took. He was

acting as an individual, not as a Yorubaman,

but as a Minister or Commissioner of Finance.

It has nothing to do with his tribe. Why

should his tribe be angry if he took wrong

decisions or if he showed any

overzealousness in anything he did? After all,

there were other things credited to him. To

start revealing those things now would

obviously try to draw blood. I know that if at

any time that there was anything necessary

to say, that would be in my own memoirs. I

am not going to support somebody else’s

book. Supporting a book that you have not

read, one must be carefully moderated. What I

am saying is that, as far as I am concerned,

everything already credited to him by Achebe

are absolutely correct.
(Quote) (Report) (Like)
Re: Blame Gowon And Awolowo For Biafra Genocide - General Madiebo by Ngodigha1(m): 12:02am
This is interesting. Please can you give us a clickable link.
If I see a yorugbaman and a snake, which one do you think I will kill first?.
(Quote) (Report) 1 Like (Like)
Re: Blame Gowon And Awolowo For Biafra Genocide - General Madiebo by ACM10: 12:03am
I'm posting with my phone. Can someone edit the interview to appear reader friendly?
(Quote) (Report) (Like)
Re: Blame Gowon And Awolowo For Biafra Genocide - General Madiebo by ACM10: 12:06am
As a commander during the war, you were

familiar with every section of Biafra and,

perhaps, Nigeria. Was Bakassi within the

geographical zone of Nigeria?
Bakassi is an

example of the evils of inter-tribal politics, evil

of colonialism and of North-South dichotomy.

If I tell the story of Bakassi, it may take too

long but we started losing Bakassi in 1959.

That was when we lost South -West

Cameroun. You know South-West Cameroun is

Adamawa in the North and Barmanda in the

South. They were part of Nigeria because the

League of Nations after the Second World War

shared Cameroun into two. It belonged to

Germany. It gave the East to France and the

West to Britain. Britain then shared its own

into two, administered the North as Adamawa

Province with the Northern Nigeria and the

South with Eastern Nigeria. In 1959, most

colonies were to get independence and the

British thought of what to do with this

Western Cameroun being administered by

Britain under Nigeria. Britain decided to give

the Southern Cameroun back to France and

the Northern one, Adamawa to Nigeria. Do

you know why? Britain was adjusting

population so that the North should have

overall majority in Lagos. I took part in the

United Nations plebiscite which was to decide

who goes where. I was the only Nigerian

indigenous officer that took part in that

exercise. The British realised that South-West

Cameroun under Hendeley was NCNC. That

was why they called it National Council for

Nigeria and Cameroun (NCNC). They had 14

seats in Nigeria in the Eastern Region and one

seat at the centre. That seat at the centre was

won by Hendeley and he became Minister of

Labour. Hendeley won 13 of the14 seats in

Enugu. Funcher was being used by the British

to remove Cameroun from Nigeria. Funcher

won only one seat, yet when the plebiscite

came, he defeated Hendeley who had 13

seats. It was possible because Sardauna and

Awolowo saw it as an opportunity to reduce

the representation of the NCNC both in Lagos

and in the East. You know this is

shortsightedness. I won’t dwell much on that,

so eventually we lost that. Having lost that

part of Cameroun, Britain and Nigeria were

rejoicing that NCNC’s wing had been clipped.

They didn’t realise that after losing it they had

given the North over 52 per cent

representation over the South. They didn’t

need anybody in the South to rule Nigeria.

That was the beginning of the end. When the

civil war came, having taken that part of the

Cameroun, they were too happy to bother

about demarcating the area. We decided to

bring all our weapons from the Cameroun.

Ahidjo, the president of Cameroun said he

didn’t know where the boundary was, so we

should carry on. He was blackmailing Nigeria.

If that place had remained open, Nigeria

would have defeated Biafra, but it would

have taken about 10 to 15 years.

Gowon told Ahidjo to select the boundary and

close it after the war, ‘we shall discuss’. Ahidjo

said, okay thank you sir. Ahidjo then went

and told Biafra enough is enough. He marked

the boundary and policed it. Eventually, we

lost the war. At the end, Nigeria went back

and said that was not the boundary. Ahidjo

reminded Gowon that he told them to mark

the boundary. ‘‘We marked the boundary, you

won the war forget it’’. Ahidjo, being a Fulani,

each time he wanted to discuss the Nigerian

border with Cameroun, he might even go to

Sokoto and speak in vernacular. Journalists

wouldn’t even know what they were saying.

That was how they took Bakassi. We tried

from 1972, they started enforcing it with

soldiers. People would say you can’t eat your

cake and have it; you sacrificed Bakassi for

Biafra. If you say take what you want, we

want Biafra, you have got Biafra, so you have

lost Bakassi. It is unfortunate that they are

our brothers. My troops were there and, if we

are to be truthful, that place is Nigeria. But if

you have in anyway given it to them, let

them have it.
(Quote) (Report) (Like)
Re: Blame Gowon And Awolowo For Biafra Genocide - General Madiebo by ACM10: 12:07am
It is now over 40 years since the civil war
ended, have the Igbo have been reintegrated
into the polity?
I'd say reintegration of the
Igbo has been a slow process. You can never
reintegrate the Igbo fully as it used to be
before the war. Now the Army was
completely against the reintegration of the
Igbo into the Nigerian society because of
selfishness. The soldiers thought that if Igbo
officers came back, they (Nigerian soldiers)
would be relegated to the background
because Igbo officers were, on the whole,
senior to all of them. This is because after
independence, most of the senior officers
were Igbo. So, reintegration did not start at all
until the military regime stopped, probably
with the exit of Obasanjo. Now, since then,
we have had some progress. For instance, for
the first time, we are having Chief of Army
Staff as an Igbo man. The Igbo are getting
attention in various senses, both in politics
and in other ways, but there is a long way to
go. There are people who are determined that
the more you draw the Igbo into the society,
the more they are threatened. I have the
details of the reintegration of the Igbo but I
can’t give you all. What I am merely trying to
tell you as briefly as possible is that the Igbo
have not been fully reintegrated into Nigeria.


Major General Alexander Madiebo was a war
commander of the Biafran Army during the
civil war otherwise known as the Biafran War.

Excerpts from his interview with National
Mirror

quid: This is the way forward

MandingoII:
That book is in all the Bookstores in America. Actually, the book greets you when you walk through the door.

quid:

Very good. Now, let Gowon go and write his own memoirs. He was commander-in-chief and he has a PhD in Political Science. He should stop ranting.

tomakint:
Write his own book? Wetin Aboki wan write? Forget that his PdD, guilty conscience will never give him the composure to write.He has been regurgitating the same old school fabricated tales about the war nothing new!

Dede1:


If you want to live your entire miserable life on blatant falsehood, I do not give a ratazz. You can even insinuate Nzeribe owns southwestern Nigeria.

T9ksy:


Was it not NPC and their coalition partner NCNC who had awo jailed on thrumped up charges? NPC could not have done it on their own volition

with the active support of zik and his party who were in govt with them (NPC).

Only zik and his ibo people needed to destroy awo and the AG thinking that will open the way for them to take over yorubaland but as usual, they underestimated

the yorubas. As long as the sardunna have overall power which zik and his people already conceded to him, he didn't care about destroying awo's party.

tomakint: @9javoice, you will live long for digging this up, My God shall make your enemies your footstool in Jesus Name (Amen)! Indeed, just like my signature, “truth is a mystery; it takes time to unravel itself” I have always believed in that principle all my life and it’s really helping me. The first, second and third excerpts are well orchestrated and reliable. Prince Iboro Udom version’s was excellent and succinctly captured the whole episode the way he ended his piece with, “Others are enjoined to also tell Nigerians what they know about the war, the pogrom and proffer a way out. We have lied for too long, we have pretended for too long. Time for admission of wrong and confession of sins is now. The Igbos deserve our sympathy and off course, apologies.” Pini Jason’s version where he said, “…in Nigeria, my truth is a lie, and your lie is the truth!” is a common dessert in the country. The Major General Alexander Madiebo accounts was very direct and unbiased, I remember coming across something related (although not as loaded as this) in his book, “The Nigerian Revolution and the Biafran War.” I cannot agree less, you really made my day, I must confess that after the book, ‘The Fall of Biafra’ by Ben Gbulie this excerpt comes next as one of the expository and revealing accounts on the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War. I am impressed by this noble truth, I have always believed the Igbos deserve REPARATION, I have a short post to that on this forum. Imagine how we just lost the oil-rich Bakassi like that, indeed once an Aboki, always an Aboki. The problem with so many of us is that, the bitterness some of our fathers nursed against the Igbos have been transferred down to some of us, hence the truth about the Biafra genocide claim has been beclouded by prejudiced-driven hatred for a progressive tribe especially from deluded clowns in the house (chief among them is one thing that calls himself ‘Ogbomosho Goat’ aka dayokano)! The Bakassi episode really catch my fancy, a pay back time for greed, and this is the same man going about shouting, ‘praise the Lord’, indeed, the heart is deceitful and terribly wicked! I hope the respected literary Icon (Professor Chinua Achebe) and others involved can move quickly and see how the Pretender-In-Command, Gowon, will be made to face International Court of Justice for his government crimes against defenseless nursing mothers, pregnant women and children before he commits [b]suicide! [/b]Wole Soyinka will always be an adored Personality to me till I breathe my last! The tribalistic tendencies of Nairaland discussants always end up watering down sensitive topics that we ought to have benefitted maximally from, most times some ‘smart clowns’ on Nairaland even have a way of bungling debates and shifting them to their ‘Comfort Zones’ by asking for evidences each time you make your points. Some are fond of derailing sensitive topics and at the end defeat the purpose that topic would have generated if well discussed. Indeed, many Nairalanders have dumped this forum for ‘Nigerian Village Square’ because of the childish and wayward antecedents of some goons here who just want to be heard at all cost even though they are making a fool of themselves.

The Pretender-In-Command will never cease to amaze me, he coined the sly catchphrase, ‘no victor, no vanquished’ for conscience sake, he went further by promising to integrate the Igbos back into the political mainstream of the country. Till date, the Igbos are yet to be integrated and he is going about forming, ‘I am a Christian, let’s pray for a Peaceful Nigeria’ thank God no one can mock God, his own home State is still on fire and exactly what Biafrans felt then is being replicated across the whole North – that is why he is GOD! This same man, Gowon, was privileged to be at the helms of affairs at a time oil was booming and contributing well to the revenue of the young country, little wonder he said then, “the problem with Nigeria is not money, but how to spend it.” He left the Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (the 3Rs) bogus promise he made to the Biafrans shortly after the war and chose to establish an agreement with Eric M. Gairy, then Prime Minister of Grenada, on May 1975 to pay the salaries of the small Caribbean country’s civil servants ($2.5 million was loaned out by the Gowon led government) during the Commonwealth summit held in Jamaica (you can read this up on page 71, “Troubled Journey: Nigeria since the Civil War”, eds LN Nwachukwu and GN Uzoigwe, 2004 also “Nigerian Foreign Policy Under Military Rule 1966-1999″ by O Abegunrin, 2003, page 63). He did this at a time Nigeria was burning and riddled with uncontrolled corruption. The Pretender-In-Command was even found out to have built a five-star hotel overlooking the beach in Togo. Agreed, we all know Gowon was not in command, he was a mere puppet in the hands of the Kaduna Mafia Group and the British Secret Agents but because he had an “ambition to rule at all cost” he chose to play the puppet and one would expect that at 78 years old, he ought to have taken the path of honour by making his way right with his God and apologizing particularly to the Igbos sincerely for his role in the genocidal colouration of the civil war and the pogroms that took place before the civil war. Unfortunately, he is still blaming Ojukwu (who has since been vindicated) and trying to mask the FACTS of what actually transpired then.

When he was eventually kicked out by the Barbarian, Murtala Mohammed, we thought a reasonable one had taken control, but we were all wrong. Murtala laid the foundation for the indebtedness and mass unemployment in the country till date. He sacked about 10,000 civil servants from the polity in the name of reform and systematically infiltrated the balanced Civil Service Commission with his fellow “Mallams” and indirectly opens up the country to the emergence of “Ghost Workers.” Not done yet, he with his Supreme Military Council gangs, without due consultation from a wider scope carved out Abuja as the ‘New Capital Territory’ in view, hence, resorting to heavy borrowing and extravagance spending at a time we need to establish more industries and carve out better standard of living for the teeming populace then, thereby plundering the young country into more miseries. Abuja Master Plan was laid in 1975 and up to now it is still undergoing developments (imagine the huge funds that would have been wasted and misappropriated) while the 3Rs promise to the Biafrans have since been neglected, tell me what kind of leaders do we have in this country? Abuja was penciled down at a time Lagos was yet to be saturated with meaningful developments expected of a city. I may not consider Abuja as a location for capital territory as a bad idea but rushing into such a project that requires huge capital at a time the country needs restructuring and meaningful developments was fraudulent and ill-timed! Nigeria must continue to thank God that a ruler in the mould of Murtala didn’t last 6 months!

justice11:

And he fail, as his descendant will keep failing at that!

haka_nai:
^^^^ Another Achebe quoting from another biafra propaganda rubbish without facts or knowledge.Facts please on your claims and source that all you said about there action and reactions were true with statistics of then and now?

tomakint:
You got me discombobulated there; can u please supply ur own manufactured FACTS? Or try to refute my quoted post......I am waiting!