I was down with serious malaria that I could not make my broadcast but Ojukwu went on air as soon as he got back and claimed that we agreed to a Confederation to which I had always strongly objected
http://www.odogwublog.com/2015/04/gowon-visited-anambra-and-spoke-for.html?m=1

Gowon never agreed to a confederation, that was the bone of contention between him and Ojukwu. What else is new under the sun.

This whole issue is getting pointless, no need flogging a dead horse.
The moment Biafra becomes established is the moment all these inane and pointless argument will end.

[b]I had the honour of meeting Ojukwu on 4 different occasions. A childhood friend of mine is from the Ojukwu family. Also, a friend of mine later became a bodyguard to Ojukwu. I remember Ojukwu saying that he was a captain in the Nigerian Army when Nigeria got her independence in 1960 and things started unraveling fast. Ojukwu said that it was all well and good when the British were in control of Nigeria but that when the British transferred power to Nigerians, the problem began as to who should control what,when,how and why. The divisions in Nigeria became apparent that the various ethnic nationalities could not come together under one umbrella. Personally, I have long since come to the conclusion that Nigeria is waste of time. Nigeria was like a house owner who has a Dog,Cat and Rabbit in the house as pets. As long as the House owner was around, the pets behaved themselves but when he left, the three pets fought themselves for supremacy and in the process, destroyed the entire house. When the British left Nigeria, the Yoruba/Igbo/Hausa-Fulani man began their own fight. All 3 basically do not like each other and they should never have been in one country. The result of these 3 people being together has been the death of milions and many more are still going to die. The question is, why are we Nigerians? 200 years ago, we barely knew each other but Lugard came from Britain to tell us we are one and we have killed each to remain one long after Lugard took our resources and returned to Britain a very rich man. It makes no sense. As in the 3 pets, it is time to rehouse everybody so that we may know peace. The Yorubas have their seaport, industries, Education and even oil. The Igbos have their trade and commerce,Industries and Oil. The Northerners have their agriculture,huge deposits of solid minerals and even reported deposits of Oil in the Chad basin. So why are we together killing each other for the sake of Lugard? Let us all go our different ways and admit to ourselves that the experiment called Nigeria was a colossal mistake and a monumental waste of time. Everybody has to return as they were before the White man came to make us Nigerians so that we can know peace. Let us go back to administering our selves as we know best. [/b]

kingslly:
Good to knw dat Awolowo at some point supported the Easterners but why shift grounds later?

its in a blood and dna of a yoruban to be a human chameleon!! I hope you now understand

Ioannes:
Chief Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory in his wisdom counselled Ojukwu, leader of the Biafran side not to go to war, But the over-ambition of a young hot-headed lieutenant to become leader of his people caused the death of over 3million of the same people he wanted to lead.
After the war, there were cries of genocide, and that Nigeria should apologize for winning the war against it. Propaganda was used by the Biafran side to gain pity from the international community.
And till date the same Chief Awolowo whose counsel could have saved millions is being demonized by the same people.

Fast forward, over 30yrs later, one Kanu Namdi has started spinning the webs of lies and deceit. capitalizing on the hot-headedness of people of his tribe, and the prevalent dissatisfaction of his people over the resounding loss at the polls he has started his people onto the path of anarchy, destruction and doom.

For a while he has been calling on Igbos to kill and maim and to start stock piling arms in preparedness of ethnic cleansing which he is planning on other tribes in Nigeria, But he doesn't want to look like he started things off, So he his grasping at straws to show the world that "see they started it".

What he doesn't understand is that he is as guilty as hell for every single soul that perishes in the upcoming uprising that i suspect is near, insofar as he took to the radio to call for killings.

Fast forward to some few years later:
Igbos still in Nigeria screaming and shouting marginalization, and demanding for apologies from Nigeria for their people killed under the uprising led by one Mr. Kanu. and Igbos still on nairaland screaming "yoloba this, yorober that". too bad. such hatred.

Gowon, Awolowo, Ejoor, Adebayo, Mobolaji Johnson, Katsina, Wey and all the groups that supported and advised the Federal Government of Nigeria to renege on the accords agreed upon in Aburi, Ghana were responsible for the 1967-70 Civil War, alongside their murderous kinsmen who killed innocent Easterners in revenge for an act done by a misguided group of soldiers comprising both Southerners and Northerners.

Ojukwu tried making peace, and called for peace-talk in a neutral ground hence the Aburi Accord, but Gowon and his co-travellers violated the agreement reached. If Ojukwu wanted war he wouldn't have called for peace talk in Ghana but the declaration of Biafra was inevitable as the killing of Easterners continued across the country. Ojukwu never asked for war! Ojukwu only declared Biafra when over thirty thousand corpses littered the Northern region in the aftermath of the January 15 1966 coup. Gowon and his cohorts declared the civil war! And Benjamin Adekunle, one the Nigerian soldier, later attested to the fact that Nigeria declared war because of oil in the Eastern region.

Why didn't the July 1966 counter-coup plotters just wipe out the Eastern political class and call it a day. Aguiyi Ironsi did nothing deserving death yet they killed him. Ironsi was too much of a peacemaker and he died making useless peace, appeasing the Northerners. The counter coup plotters simply wanted a war and they sure got one.
Bear in mind there was no war before the pogrom of 1966 started in the North.
So why resort to maiming and killing innocent Easterners cum civilians. Has the killings stopped till date? NO!

The February 13, 1976 Dimka-led coupists came from Benue and Plateau region. They assassinated Murtala Mohammed then Head of State, yet there was no genocide carried against the Middle-belt people. Why was same treatment not given to the ethnic groups of the Dimka-led coupists that committed same offence? It's simply hypocrisy!
It is even against the military rule to harm the innocent civilians during coup.

According to the warped logic of hypocritical Yoruba and their co-travellers anytime there is a revolution or a coup the ethnic groups of the coup plotters should be singled out for ethnic cleansing!

Bloody, treacheerous, lousy noise-maker, you think you can cover up the atrocities of you saboteurs and your god, Obafemi Awolowo, who was the chief proponent of hatred, bitterness, tribalism, nepotism, propaganda and wickedness in this country? The same power hungry and greedy Awolowo who was imprisoned for treason and coup plotting until he was released by Odumegwu Ojukwu just before the 1967-70 war?

Hypocrite, what did you and your Yoruba tribe do when Igbos where being massacred across the North in 1966? Did you and your people come to the aid of the people of Igbodo and Asaba in 1967 when genocide was being carried out on them by your wicked Yoruba tribesmen and their co-travellers? 

Just like the chameleon, the Yorubas can change the colour of their skin at will and can vacillate at random between Christian and Muslim worlds whenever the evil spirit begins to operate them. Little wonder they are descendants of a fallen demon!
The vacillation is akin to the abracadabra of a sworn homosexual who might screw a man today, a woman tomorrow, or an animal the next time. You never can tell.

The level of Yoruba treacheery and betrayal is second to none.
Finding a reliable and trustworthy Yoruba person is like searching for a pin in a haystack. Yorubas who possess these good characters are rare.
Yorubas are not only treacherous but always at the servitude of the Northerners which is very worrisome.

Ethnomusicolist Charles Keil, who was visiting
Nigeria in 1966, recounted:

"The pogroms I witnessed in Makurdi, Nigeria
(late Sept. 1966) were foreshadowed by
months of intensive anti-Ibo and anti-
Eastern conversations among Tiv, Idoma,
Hausa and other Northerners resident in
Makurdi, and, fitting a pattern replicated in
city after city, the massacres were led by the
Nigerian army. Before, during and after the
slaughter, Col. Gowan could be heard over
the radio issuing 'guarantees of safety' to all
Easterners, all citizens of Nigeria, but the
intent of the soldiers, the only power that
counts in Nigeria now or then, was painfully
clear. After counting the disemboweled
bodies along the Makurdi road I was
escorted back to the city by soldiers who
apologized for the stench and explained
politely that they were doing me and the
world a great favor by eliminating Ibos.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Civil_War

Here's actually an excerpt, albeit it was written by Emeka Esogbue but it is a direct summarization of Emma Okocha books.

"It was this battle that gave birth to Murtala, a “Local champion” called Ibrahim Haruna and Ibrahim Taiwo of the Nigerian Army. Africans first had the practical experience of the word “genocide” in Igbodo where hundreds of lives were lost in the Nigerian civil war. In Isheagu, the case was not different. It was here that the ulterior motive of the Nigerian troop clearly unfolded.

The people were now scampering for the safety of their lives having experienced what happened in Igbodo and some other places. In the Midwestern region, able bodied men went into hiding leaving women and children at the mercy of advancing soldiers. The people of Benin went identifying their Ibo-speaking neighbours from house to house for executions."

BLOOD ON THE NIGER: THE FIRST BLACK ON BLACK OCTOBER 1967 GENOCIDE OF ASABA PEOPLE BY MURTALA, GOWON  AND AWOLOWO

...Like my father and elder brother that were part of the over 1000 youths that were killed on October 7, 1967, in Asaba, most of them were members of the Action Group (AG). The people that believed in the NCNC at that time left for the east. My father who worked in Enugu, Nsukka, Uzuakoli and Kafanchan as a civil servant could have gone to the east. But he believed in that war. He was an apostle of the Awo ideas-free education and free medical services. In fact, the Asaba General Hospital that is now a Specialist Hospital was brought to us by the AG led by Nduka Eze, another AG hardliner who left the Zikist Movement to join Awolowo. But Nduka Eze's wife was killed by the federal troop under the command of Murtala Mohammed because she refused to be touched because they were defiling women at random when they came in.

The genocide against the Igbos has been proved beyond reasonable doubt by the apology made to Asaba people by General Gowon when he came there after the release of the Blood On The Niger. The genocide against the Igbos was proved beyond reasonable doubt at the Oputa panel which the federal government has up till now refused to publish the findings. Bishop Desmond Tutu chaired the Truth and Justice tribunal in South Africa to find out what happened in South Africa during the apartheid period. It was accepted by both sides and just look at the peace that has prevailed there since then. Why would Nigeria not publish the findings of the Oputa Panel where it has been proved beyond reasonable doubt that pilots were throwing bombs at random into market places in Uzuakoli, Uzuitem and Nsukka, where bottles and implements were also used against women during the war.

History is an account of the actions of actors in a community or in a state recorded that made impacts during their time. Awolowo was a great leader; great politician and great performer in government but his activities during the civil war were negative. If you are a writer, you cannot defend his position that starvation is an instrument of warfare. Starvation cannot be an instrument of warfare when you are fighting a civil war. 

Nigeria was being supplied arms from all countries. For the first time there was an unholy alliance between the Soviet Union and the West. It had never happened before. Any place that there was a war of revolution, the USSR is always taking the place of the revolutionary. How come that the USSR for the first time allied with the West against Biafra? So, let somebody go and disprove Achebe; that is what we want to see not that somebody did not commit genocide. Genocide has been proved to be committed. If there were no genocide, the World Council of Churches, the Caritas wouldn't have come in droves. If genocide was not committed, why did Biafra lose two million casualties, most of them civilians and children? And if people are not apologising to Igbos, why should they now come out to talk because one man has been put to where he belongs in history. He was the principal protagonist of using starvation as an instrument of warfare against his fellow citizens. Remember that Nigeria was fighting a war of unity. They were not as desperate as the other camp that was fighting a war of secession. So, in international convention Geneva included, you don't use starvation against civilians, you don't use firearms against civilians and you don't use bombs. Are they saying they didn't bomb civilians during the war? The Nigerian Air Force was very pronounced in its use of bombs on civilians and their targets were churches, market places and hospitals. These were recorded by missionaries and foreign journalists. 

Awolowo was the Minister of Finance under Gowon. He was the de facto prime minister of Nigeria during the war and he performed. I don't grudge him for winning the war for Nigeria; for changing the currency. He can win the war by all means but the fact that he prevented massive aid from coming is genocidal.

There was an inhuman instance. There was an incident where a Red Cross plane coming with medication and food was blown off the sky for the beleaguered people of Biafra. Even after the war, what was the purpose of denying Igbos their primary source of protein-stockfish? How can you defend the policy of giving people who have lost everything only 20 Pounds? If there is anybody that should have been given more, the returning war battered people of Biafra should have received more.

The Igbos have always accepted Awolowo as a great leader but his activities during the civil war shocked them. BY THE OBJECTIVE OF THE JANUARY 15 COUP, as quoted by Odia Ofeimun, the poet, the boys believed he was the greatest leader. 

THE LEADERS OF THE COUP, WERE TO MAKE CHIEF AWOLOWO THE PRIME MINISTER OF NIGERIA. These coup leaders didn't go for Azikiwe or Balewa. They wanted Chief Awolowo as quoted by Odia in a 1999 edition of The Guardian. Awolowo was supposed to be released by the Nzeogwu coup, which didn't have its assumed ending; it was aborted half way. It was Nzeogwu's colleague, Major Nzegwu that was supposed to pick him from Calabar prison and release him. So, I'm proving to you that the Igbo literality have always accepted Awo as one of the best and great leaders the country has ever produced but his activities during the war did not only shock them but betrayed the trust they had in.

During the whole peace conferences from Niamey to Kinshasha, Awolowo, Enahoro and Alison Ayida, who was a permanent secretary, always took a hawkish stand. That was why in the Niamey conference of 1968 Alison Ayida quoted Awo exactly that starvation is an instrument of warfare. This was at a time when millions of Biafran children were dying off. And death by starvation is not an ordinary death. It is for you to experience it. It was horror and the photographs are there but Awolowo and his henchmen never batted an eyelid even after the war. That is why we glorify other great literality like Wole Soyinka who told us in his book A Man Died that extermination was committed in Asaba. He was the first courageous soul in Nigeria that told the world about the Asaba massacre.

http://nigeriavillagesquare.com/forum/main-square/73341-most-those-murdered-asaba-muritala-gowon-awo-were-action-group-members-emma-okocha-author-blood-niger.html

OPCNAIRALAND:


Awolowo did not support anyone. Whats wrong with you Ibos always afraid to stand on principle and justifying issues along the balance of friend/enemy.

Awolowo stood on principle, simple! The principle is for everyone, majority or minority to have the right to determine their own destiny. Ojukwu agreed that majority should have independence but not the minorities under Eastern region.

Where and How did Awo support such a demented desire to suppress minorities like East wanted?

he didn't want the east "to supress minorities" abi but he wanted the minorities in the midwest to become supressed by the Southwest. See sense.

Kestolovee95:

he didn't want the east "to supress minorities" abi but he wanted the minorities in the midwest to become supressed by the Southwest. See sense.

In what way did he make the minorities in the Midwest to become suppressed by the Southwest?

Are you aware that the midwest region was carved out of the Southwest long before Gowon became Head of State?

THE CREATION OF MIDWEST STATE

After more than two decades of selfless struggles by the representatives of the peoples of the region, the Midwest State was created on August 9, 1963. The creation of the Midwest State is significant for the following reasons:

1). It was the first state to be created in Nigeria.

2). It remains the only Nigerian state to be created by constitutional means, and not by a military fiat.

3). Its creation facilitated a stronger voice for the articulation of minority rights in Nigerian Politics.

But the journey to August 9, 1963 was not an easy one. Midwesterners, must remain eternally grateful to those who fought for the creation of the state. Prominent among those was the Oba of Benin, Akenzua II, without whose personal intervention and guidance the state may not have been created in 1963. The others whose names must be recognized were Dennis Osadebay, Jereton Marierie, and James Otobo.

It is instructive to note that Otobo was the only prominent member of the Action Group (AG) from the region who fought publicly for the creation of the Midwest State. As we celebrate the 33rd anniversary of the Midwest State, I am sad to declare that we have not done anything to immortalize the lives of those four freedom fighters.

In constitutional debates, many may argue that Midwest State was a product of the series of commissions of inquiries that called for the creation of states for Nigerian minority groups. It would be a gross oversimplification to do so, because the inquiries by themselves did not create the Midwest State. http://www.dawodu.net/igho.htm

Even though several proposals were submitted by various groups requesting for their regions to be demarcated along ethnic boundaries, only the plan put forward by the Edo and western Igbo to create the Midwestern Region by separating the whole tract adjacent to the Niger River from the Western Region was successful. The Midwestern Region achieved formal approval, and the creation of the region was confirmed by plebiscite in 1963. http://www.country-studies.com/nigeria/politics-in-the-crisis-years.html