Kathmandu:
myn*d44

That's the worst you can do. Call him on me..

Odingo1:

After shooting at the things that move and dont move,how did he end his life and how is his family,karma will continue to pursue you people.
Cowards that hide under Hausa-fulani to fight.

Just 137 of our men defeated your legion at Ore and that marks the end of your dream till date.

Adekunle was given full military honour burial, the same that was accorded the cowardly Ojukwu. Ojukwu was even buried with the Nigerian Flag that he detested so much and that means we told him till eternity you will remain a Nigeria by fire by force.

To you fighting Abraham Tanks, T74 tanks and Gunships with cassava stick is bravery and it is gross stupidity in sane clime. Only Akpu-filled brain can do such.


Why did you Ironsi quashed the dream of Niger Delta Republic of Adaka Boro; but you guys feel you have the right to secede after thwarting the dream of others?

SuperS1Panther:


SHow us where the Fulanis taught is the much talked about lesson.

Ilorin is a predominantly muslim ton and if the inhabitants prefer a a theological ruler, that is their head ache.When and how was Ilorin invaded? tell the world and show us your illiteracy the more.

You are not even ashamed. Someone erased the history of your forefathers by changing the name of your town and you are here forming ''if you eat me with 200rods, it will not pain me attitude''

Abeg change slavish Oyigbo name back to his original name before you can come here to discuss about Ilorin.

Ilorin was not a predominantly mulism town, the Fulanis conquered and force the indigenes and install emirate stool there.
Obigbo is a town with its indigenous people,no history was erased.

According to Forbes, below are the current top 11 richest Nigerians who are capable of bailing Nigeria out of its present economic quagmire, if they choose to do so.
They range from the last to the top.
11. Ihatesycophant: Ihatesycophant is the CEO of Omega group of companies and also the President and priest of IPOB kingdom. He's into real estate and has stake in Nigeria project. He's a friend to one Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB kingdom.
10. Oba Otudeko: Oba Otudeko is the Chairman and founder of the Honeywell Group.
He is also the chairman of FBN Holdings Plc. His operations spread across oil and gas, flour mining, real estate, and marine transportation.
Net Worth: $650 million.
9. Jim Oviah: Jim Oviah is the founder of Zenith Bank.
He is the chairman and the largest shareholder with a stake of almost 10%.
He also manages a mobile telecom Visafone which has over 3 million subscribers.
Net Worth: $1 billion.
8. Orji Uzor Kalu: The former governor of Abia State.
He is the founder and chairman of Slok Holding.
A conglomerate with interest in shipping, banking, oil, trading, manufacturing and the media.
He became a real business man at the age of 19 after being expelled from a Nigerian University for allegedly spearheading a series of student riots.
Net Worth: $1.1 billion.
7. Tony Elumelu: A philanthropist and founder of the Transcorp and Heirs Holdings.
He was the chairman of United Bank for Africa and was estimated to worth $1.4 billion.
6. Abdusalam Rabiu: Abdusalam is the founder of the famous BUA Group.
A conglomerate active in sugar refining, cement production, real estate and port operations.
In September 2015, his Group signed a $600 million deal with a chinese cement equipment service provider Sinoma International Engineering to construct a second production line located in Edo State Niger Delta, Nigeria.
Net Worth: $1.5 billion.
5. Theophilus Danjuma: Former Nigerian Chief of Army staff between 1975 to 1979.
He is the current chairman of Athlantic Petroleum.
Net Worth: $1.7 billion.
4. Folorunsho Alakija: Folorunsho is a business tycoon who has interest in fashion, oil and printing industries.
She is the richest Woman in Nigeria and the richest woman of the African descent in the world.
Net Worth: $2.1 billion.
3. Femi Otedola: He is the CEO of Zenon Oil and Gas and Forte Oil Plc.
He has interest in real estates amongst other sectors.
Net Worth: $2.3 billion.
2. Mike Adenuga: Mike Adenuga is the second richest man in Nigeria with interest in Oil and Gas and telecoms.
He is the owner of Globacom, Nigeria’s second biggest telecom operators and the chairman of Conoil.
Net Worth: $10.5 billion.
1. Aliko Dangote: Aliko Dangote is the richest man in Nigeria, Africa and of course the richest black man in the world.
In 2014, he ranked as the 24th richest man in the world but has since then fallen to positions below 100 due to Nigeria’s poor Naira.
Net Worth: $12.5 billion.

Odingo1:

Ilorin was not a predominantly mulism town, the Fulanis conquered and force the indigenes and install emirate stool there.
Obigbo is a town with its indigenous people,no history was erased.

Joker. How will you know when you have a strong anathema and apathy for knowledge.

Islam has gotten to Ilorin since 13th century and it was not the Fulanis that brought Islam to Ilorin or Yoruba land. The Fulanis arrived the Nigeria landscape in the 18th century and I repeat show us the war they fought to conquer Ilorin or give us citation of the war.]

Obigbo is made up of indigenous people and yet their history was erased into oblivion right before their eyes and they could not do anything about it. That just confirm the slavish Osu status of those indigenous people of OYIGBO!!!!!!!!!!

HungerBAD:
The Coward.

Who care's about Ojukwu's speech?history don't remember losers. He lost the War he started and ran away, dressed a like woman to Ivory Coast.

Coward.

Diepreye Alamieyeseigha learned his dressing like a woman to escape skills from Ojukwu.

That said.

Who is the DARK SKIN beautiful lady seated to the right?now that is somebody worth mentioning.

We know hunger is not good so we will try not to react until you have been fed from Buhari's left over crumbs. A full grown well educated man like you. What a pity.

First chest beating then escape like a rat

APCsupporter:


a person that dressed like a woman and left his people to die is no hero. he is a useless man and a coward as hungerbad rightly said

HE DIDNT DRINK OTA PIA PIA LIKE AWOLOWO NOW TELL ME, WHO IS THE COWARD HERE

Oladimejyy:
A

Igbos:
wolo

Ffk and fayose are greater than all the heroes in your beerfraud land.

They are friends of igbo and we pledge to keep snipper and otapiapia far from them. Any other Afonja will be given freely as Emeka did to Awolowo. We are that generous.

the war was useless.

SuperS1Panther:


Joker. How will you know when you have a strong anathema and apathy for knowledge.

Islam has gotten to Ilorin since 13th century and it was not the Fulanis that brought Islam to Ilorin or Yoruba land. The Fulanis arrived the Nigeria landscape in the 18th century an I repeat show us the war they fought to conquer Ilorin ot give us citation of the war.]

Obigbo is made up of indigenous people and yet their history was erased into oblivion right before their eyes and they could not do anything about it. That just confirm the slavish Osu status of those indigenous people of OYIGBO!!!!!!!!!!

I'VE TOLD YOU TO BE MORE CONCERNED ABOUT OSUN STATE THAT IS ABOUT TO BE MADE ISLAMIC CALIPHATE BY YOUR SO CALLED JIHADIST GOVERNOR ODENI AREGBERASCAL

IJOBA2:
I'VE TOLD YOU TO BE MORE CONCERNED ABOUT OSUN STATE THAT IS ABOUT TO BE MADE ISLAMIC CALIPHATE BY YOUR SO CALLED JIHADIST GOVERNOR ODENI AREGBERASCAL

BE MORE CONCERNED ABOUT THE LUNATIC NNAMID KUNNU WHO IS ABOUT MAKING TINY RED MUD LAND OF THE IGBOS A JUDAIC EMPIRE.

[s]

IJOBA2:
I'VE TOLD YOU TO BE MORE CONCERNED ABOUT OSUN STATE THAT IS ABOUT TO BE MADE ISLAMIC CALIPHATE BY YOUR SO CALLED JIHADIST GOVERNOR ODENI AREGBERASCAL

[/s]

SuperS1Panther:


Joker. How will you know when you have a strong anathema and apathy for knowledge.

Islam has gotten to Ilorin since 13th century and it was not the Fulanis that brought Islam to Ilorin or Yoruba land. The Fulanis arrived the Nigeria landscape in the 18th century an I repeat show us the war they fought to conquer Ilorin ot give us citation of the war.]

Obigbo is made up of indigenous people and yet their history was erased into oblivion right before their eyes and they could not do anything about it. That just confirm the slavish Osu status of those indigenous people of OYIGBO!!!!!!!!!!

Keep on deceiving yourself ,Fulani are the people that even gave you people the name Yoruba after bringing Islam to you.Usman Danfodio a fulani man brought Islam to Northern Nigeria not to talk of yorubas, a name that they gave you by fulani islamic scholars.
Oyigbo is been rule by its people without outsiders with their native king,what are you even talking about.

Dejiprince:
[s][/s]

AFONJA MUSLIM

aribisala0:
First chest beating then escape like a rat

coward, keep posting the random pictures of dying children from different wars in Africa,karma is waiting for you,those children you are posting their pictures and mocking,their blood will come for you.

welzyj2:


see this one that smokes for a hobby talking about drug

Guy u don see me smoke before u no get any thing to say u just dey talk anyhow words don finish for your mouth bah that one thing about truth it makes the lying tongue go numb idiot!!!

NwaObinkita:

Ojukwu the great..
Same boldness as Chinua Achebe
Same boldness as Nnamdi KANU.

The Igbos are naturally brave, intelligent and open to taking risks.

Unlike some people.
Who are cowards.

Their Jagaban did not even show up for a novelty boxing match with Holyfield
-Just like he locked himself up in his house upon hearing Dino was in town after threatening fire and brimstone if Dino Melaye ever stepped foot at Bourdillon

You are celebrating your Ipob losers say? Which of those you call brave won any battle they started and believe in. But Jagaban you downgraded never lost a battle. Not even an election since return of democracy. He installed a sitting president. BAT the great!

SuperS1Panther:


BE MORE CONCERNED ABOUT THE LUNATIC NNAMID KUNNU WHO IS ABOUT MAKING TINY RED MUD LAND OF THE IGBOS A JUDAIC EMPIRE.

Date: 2000-10-22
THE rivalry between the Fulani and Afonja descendants over the throne of Ilorin is rooted in history.
While the Fulani rest the case of their claim to the kingship of the ancient town on the fact that the monarch had from the time immemorial been produced by them, the Afonja descendants, who like majority of the people of the town are Yoruba, say since their ancestor founded Ilorin, their claim to the throne ought not to be disputed.
History appears in support of the former's position although the progenitor of the Fulani indigenes of Ilorin, Alimi, was actually a tenant to Afonja.
The death of Afonja and Alimi, however, saw the eldest son of the latter emerging as the first monarch of what was then known as Ilorin.
Historical sources, tracing the story to the 19th Century, said Ilorin of today was founded by Afonja, the then Aare Ona Kakanfo (Generalisimo) to Alaafin of old Oyo (Oyo Ile), who used the town as his military outpost. It was this outpost that he carried out his war expeditions for the Alaafin. In the usual nomadic wandering, Alimi arrived Ilorin and was hosted by Afonja. Soon after Alimi took Ilorin as his place of abode, a rift broke out between Alaafin and Afonja. When the disagreement reached the climax and the two had to take up arms, Afonja, out of regard for Alimi's spiritual and military prowess, sought his support. Alimi helped in mobilising an army in support of Afonja leading to victory over Alaafin. The defeat led the then Alaafin migrating from old Oyo to the site now called Oyo.
After the war, Alimi became a teacher to Afonja's children as the latter wanted his offsprings to learn the secret of power. When both died, Alimi's son, Abdulsalami, inherited his father's duty of teaching Afonja's children.
When the idea of appointing somebody to head the village came, the eldest child of Afonja wanted to have the position but met opposition from Abdulsalami who had military support from his fellow Fulani kinsmen. Abdulsalami ultimately became the ruler of what is now called Ilorin around 1831.
The issue now is that Afonja's descendants believe that their forefathers were cheated and want a redress. But the Alimi people are claiming that the Afonja people never ruled Ilorin and, as such, no precedent exists to back their position.
Penultimate week's incident was not the first time the Afonja and the Yoruba would attempt to assert their right to Ilorin kingship.
Historical sources said in 1895, the Yoruba rose against the then emir, burnt his palace and killed him. But the revolt did not result in enthronement of a Yoruba king. In 1913, when Lord Lugard administered the northern and southern Nigeria, Yoruba were said to have spearheaded a riot over tax to bring the rulership of the then emir to ridicule. In 1936, the Yoruba, according to sources, also moved to oust Emir Abdulkadir who was banished to Kaduna but got reinstated by the colonial administration.
In 1978, the George Innih administration of Kwara State raised a judicial panel of inquiry to look into the Yoruba agitation.
The Yoruba people reportedly made a case for the merging of Kwara State with the Southwest before the commission while also laying claim to the Ilorin throne. It was said they even claimed antecedent to the throne as they allegedly said Yoruba had produced four obas in Ilorin before the advent of the Fulani. But the Alimi people, in a counter position, claimed there was no known Yoruba king in the town before their forefather mounted the throne.
The report of the panel never saw the light of day while there was also no white paper from government.
A twist to the tussle was the recent petition by three of the six Yoruba chiefs (mogajis) in Ilorin to the State House of Assembly complaining that they had been classified as ungraded by government allegedly at the behest of the emir. Their non-grading, according to the chiefs, suited the emir, so that there would be no rivalry of any sort from the Yoruba to his authority. Ilorin Descendants Progressive Union (IDPU), formed to protect the interest Ilorin indigenes who are of Fulani extraction, once in its opposition to the upgrading of the chiefs, said dong so would bring them at par with Gambari. But the Afonja Descendants Union (ADU) which came on stream in 1978 to advance the cause of the Yoruba in the town and with Kasumu as its leader would hear none of that. The group is allegedly pressuring the legislature to grade the chiefs.
Another angle to the agitation is the demand for Oya State that will comprise the Yoruba speaking areas of Kwara and Kogi States. The move, it was said, is to pull the rug from under the feet of the emir and end the Fulani rulership of Ilorin.
The Yoruba people of Ilorin are not alone in the struggle. The pan-Yoruba meeting which took place in Ibadan last year demanded restructuring of Kwara State such that Ilorin would be grouped with the Southwest. Analysts interpreted this to mean that the parley did not believe that any emir had any business on Ilorin throne.

HungerBAD:


Mynd44

Only? You insulted the leader of a people and you have the effrontery to call a mod.

My guy stew in your juice and enjoy your likes. Hope its worth more in real life.

I greet you eepa.

oam4j

Kathmandu:
Relax, you are generalising, you told a bared faced lie and now you are throwing spittle like a girl that just missed her period.



Is that how you decipher things?

"throwing spittle"

"decipher things"



You're a joke!

Hear are voice of hypocrisy Biafrans ;
1) Nigeria must be restructured!
Igbos are marginalised!
2)We want Nigeria president of Igbo extraction!
3)This government is short changing the Igbos!
4)They are Islamizing Nigeria!
5)We want Biafra!
6)We are one Nigeria!
7)We a Jew in Nigeria!
.We are PDP states
9) Hausa and Yoruba are cheating us
10)Release our brother or els.......
Bla! Blaa! Blaaa! Blaaaaaa!!!
Even God himself is not happy with people that doesn't have or know their directions. If at fifty (after civil war) Igbos are yet to discover Igbo land , is a pity we might end up being an erosion in Nigeria.
Only fools that learn from experience. Wise nation and it's people learn from history
Let we Igbos first and foremost restructure our mentalities, our philosophy and our greediness; that's the genuine medication for us, Biafra or no Biafra.
Written by Paul Ihendu

Odingo1:

coward, keep posting the random pictures of dying children from different wars in Africa,karma is waiting for you,those children you are posting their pictures and mocking,their blood will come for you.

They are all Eboes confirmed, don't kid yourself.

HungerBAD:
The Coward.

Who care's about Ojukwu's speech?history don't remember losers. He lost the War he started and ran away, dressed a like woman to Ivory Coast.

Coward.

Diepreye Alamieyeseigha learned his dressing like a woman to escape skills from Ojukwu.

That said.

Who is the DARK SKIN beautiful lady seated to the right?now that is somebody worth mentioning.

stop talking crap, he didn't start any civil war.

I'm new here though. But I would like to state clearly that before I registered as a member,I've been reading as a guest and I've equally noticed that the bulk of the traffic in this site is mostly derived from posting tribal/ethnic topics capable of triggering 'hates' in the hearts of the unsuspecting readers.

well,whatever reason might be given as justification for this,I do not know. what amazes me the most is the fact that those concerned here (the members) are always ready to jump on any post which concerns topics like this.

But anyways,I must categorically state that the mods are really really trying in making sure nairaland break even at the end of the month even if their actions are tantamount to causing national disintegration.

well, I just hope we all rise up together to curb this kind of attitude though coz at the end of the day,it adds no value to our lives

nb: I'm not from any of 08185379916 3 major tribes at the forefront of this ethnic war though. Just wanted to speak my mind. *I'm* *out*

IJOBA2:


Date: 2000-10-22
THE rivalry between the Fulani and Afonja descendants over the throne of Ilorin is rooted in history.
While the Fulani rest the case of their claim to the kingship of the ancient town on the fact that the monarch had from the time immemorial been produced by them, the Afonja descendants, who like majority of the people of the town are Yoruba, say since their ancestor founded Ilorin, their claim to the throne ought not to be disputed.
History appears in support of the former's position although the progenitor of the Fulani indigenes of Ilorin, Alimi, was actually a tenant to Afonja.
The death of Afonja and Alimi, however, saw the eldest son of the latter emerging as the first monarch of what was then known as Ilorin.
Historical sources, tracing the story to the 19th Century, said Ilorin of today was founded by Afonja, the then Aare Ona Kakanfo (Generalisimo) to Alaafin of old Oyo (Oyo Ile), who used the town as his military outpost. It was this outpost that he carried out his war expeditions for the Alaafin. In the usual nomadic wandering, Alimi arrived Ilorin and was hosted by Afonja. Soon after Alimi took Ilorin as his place of abode, a rift broke out between Alaafin and Afonja. When the disagreement reached the climax and the two had to take up arms, Afonja, out of regard for Alimi's spiritual and military prowess, sought his support. Alimi helped in mobilising an army in support of Afonja leading to victory over Alaafin. The defeat led the then Alaafin migrating from old Oyo to the site now called Oyo.
After the war, Alimi became a teacher to Afonja's children as the latter wanted his offsprings to learn the secret of power. When both died, Alimi's son, Abdulsalami, inherited his father's duty of teaching Afonja's children.
When the idea of appointing somebody to head the village came, the eldest child of Afonja wanted to have the position but met opposition from Abdulsalami who had military support from his fellow Fulani kinsmen. Abdulsalami ultimately became the ruler of what is now called Ilorin around 1831.
The issue now is that Afonja's descendants believe that their forefathers were cheated and want a redress. But the Alimi people are claiming that the Afonja people never ruled Ilorin and, as such, no precedent exists to back their position.
Penultimate week's incident was not the first time the Afonja and the Yoruba would attempt to assert their right to Ilorin kingship.
Historical sources said in 1895, the Yoruba rose against the then emir, burnt his palace and killed him. But the revolt did not result in enthronement of a Yoruba king. In 1913, when Lord Lugard administered the northern and southern Nigeria, Yoruba were said to have spearheaded a riot over tax to bring the rulership of the then emir to ridicule. In 1936, the Yoruba, according to sources, also moved to oust Emir Abdulkadir who was banished to Kaduna but got reinstated by the colonial administration.
In 1978, the George Innih administration of Kwara State raised a judicial panel of inquiry to look into the Yoruba agitation.
The Yoruba people reportedly made a case for the merging of Kwara State with the Southwest before the commission while also laying claim to the Ilorin throne. It was said they even claimed antecedent to the throne as they allegedly said Yoruba had produced four obas in Ilorin before the advent of the Fulani. But the Alimi people, in a counter position, claimed there was no known Yoruba king in the town before their forefather mounted the throne.
The report of the panel never saw the light of day while there was also no white paper from government.
A twist to the tussle was the recent petition by three of the six Yoruba chiefs (mogajis) in Ilorin to the State House of Assembly complaining that they had been classified as ungraded by government allegedly at the behest of the emir. Their non-grading, according to the chiefs, suited the emir, so that there would be no rivalry of any sort from the Yoruba to his authority. Ilorin Descendants Progressive Union (IDPU), formed to protect the interest Ilorin indigenes who are of Fulani extraction, once in its opposition to the upgrading of the chiefs, said dong so would bring them at par with Gambari. But the Afonja Descendants Union (ADU) which came on stream in 1978 to advance the cause of the Yoruba in the town and with Kasumu as its leader would hear none of that. The group is allegedly pressuring the legislature to grade the chiefs.
Another angle to the agitation is the demand for Oya State that will comprise the Yoruba speaking areas of Kwara and Kogi States. The move, it was said, is to pull the rug from under the feet of the emir and end the Fulani rulership of Ilorin.
The Yoruba people of Ilorin are not alone in the struggle. The pan-Yoruba meeting which took place in Ibadan last year demanded restructuring of Kwara State such that Ilorin would be grouped with the Southwest. Analysts interpreted this to mean that the parley did not believe that any emir had any business on Ilorin throne.

How has the showed us the war that was fought?

Try harder

HungerBAD:
The Coward.

Who care's about Ojukwu's speech?history don't remember losers. He lost the War he started and ran away, dressed a like woman to Ivory Coast.

Coward.

Diepreye Alamieyeseigha learned his dressing like a woman to escape skills from Ojukwu.

That said.

Who is the DARK SKIN beautiful lady seated to the right?now that is somebody worth mentioning.

#Copied
Please read the speech below given by a Prof. Nwala at the just-concluded 50-year Biafra May 30 commemoration attended by Pres. Obasanjo, VP Osinbanjo, Ohaneze PG Nina Nwodo and others.


Biafra 50 Years After -
Reconciliation: What have we learned?
Paper presented at The Conference -
MEMORY AND NATION BUILDING: BIAFRA 50 YEARS AFTER:
A SOBER REFLECTION.
By
PROF. T. UZODIMA NWALA
President
Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF).

Introduction.
Before I thank the organisers of this Conference and pay my tribute to the Memory of my friend, late Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, in whose Foundation Center this historic event is being organised, let me quickly dismiss certain lingering pernicious fallacies that have dominated all discussion about the coup of January 15, 1966 and the Biafra War.

First, the Chairman of the occasion, Alhaji Ahmed Joda, has alluded to the January 15, 1966 coup as an Igbo coup that, according to him, was replied by a Northern coup of July 29 1966.

Let it be said loud and clear that that coup, namely January 15, 1966 coup, was not an Igbo coup. It was a coup led by certain Igbo and Yoruba Officers, involving the active participation of soldiers from the North. The aim, as has been stated again and again, by the leaders of the coup was to release Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was in detention at the time and install him the Prime Minister of Nigeria.

That coup was foiled by Igbo military officers. Igbo political leaders and activists knew nothing about the coup.
Again the Incursion into the Mid-West by the Biafran troops was not a quest for territorial grabbing by the Igbos. Ojukwu sent troops under the Command of Col, banjo in response to Chief Awolowo’s request for troops to help liberate Yoruba land from the occupation of soldiers from the North. By the time Col Banjo got to Ore, the British had gotten Gowon to offer Chief Awolowo Vice Chairmanship of the Nigerian Government. Awolowo, therefore, asked Banjo not to proceed on his mission.

General Yakubu Gowon knows the truth of all these things. And that is why the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) had written him and asked him to tell Nigerians and the whole world the truth about the January 15, 1966 coup and the Biafra incursion into the Mid-West.to stop all the lies against Ndigbo, which have been the basis of the burden they carry as a nation within the Nigerian Federation.

Secondly, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the former Head of State and a frontline commander on the Federal side during the war, said that they (the Federal military leaders) conducted the war without any hate or vengeance because it was a quarrel between brothers.

To this one is constrained to ask a few pertinent questions
How did the world come to describe the conduct of the war as POGROM?
What about the policy that hunger was a legitimate weapon of war and so was justified in its application against the Biafrans?
What about bombing of refugee camps, market places, churches, etc?

Again, when Chief Obasanjo said that they, the victorious side, have been more magnanimous than the victors in the American civil war, where, according to him, those who lost the war never had a chance to be President of America until several decades if not a century later, I would ask him WHAT ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA? WHAT ABOUT NELSON MANDELLA?

Such assertions rather than heal the wounds of the war, keep the wounds aglow, rather than reconcile pour raw paper of unjustified arrogance on the wounded hearts of the Biafrans. How can you genuinely talk about reconciliation with that kind o mind-set. The truth is that for General Obasanjo, the Biafrans are defeated people. Period!

Indeed, before we can talk about reconciliation, we must accept that grave wrongs were done to the Biafrans, Before, During and Since the end of the war.

Tribute to General Yar’Adua.
NOW, Mr Chairman, Ladies and \Gentlemen, let me go on to thank the organisers of this Conference - the Yar’Adua Foundation and the six Nigerian Universities partnering with the Foundation; the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa who have provided support for this Conference - Biafra: 50 Years After.

What is more, I would like to pay tribute to the memory of my late friend, General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. I met him for the first time during the 1994-5 National Constitutional Conference. There we struck a friendship that would have born great fruits but for his untimely death. I personally escaped being arrested with him.

General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, became a great democrat after the war despite his aristocratic background. He genuinely believed that this wobbly Federation could be given a dependable foundation. Consequently, he set out to recruit gifted compatriots to work with him for that purpose. What a great hunter of talent Shehu was!

I remember two memorable moments in our interaction. One afternoon, after lunch in his house, we sat down on the sofa. I asked him

“General why is it that when you are not smoking cigar (cigarette), you are chewing kola nut?

He answered me. I will not tell you his answer today. Wait for my Memoire that should be ready by my next birthday.

At another moment, also after lunch with him and late Prof. Aborisade, we sat down on the sofa. Shehu said to me “Dr Nwala, let me show you why we Northerners are reluctant to relinquish political power”.

He brought out two volumes of strategic studies which he had commissioned some intellectuals to produce in preparation for the Constitutional Conference of 1994-5. I glanced through volume 1 which deals with the indices of power in Nigeria. I read the discussion, looked at the statistics and the graph, and shook my head, and said to myself this guy is a great political actor. I also reserve the details of what I read in that volume as well as our discussion for the sake of my forthcoming memoire.

I saw those two volumes of strategic studies at the Library of the Yar’Adua Center when I visited there about two week ago.

What is important in this narrative is that General Yar’Adua was avery sincere leader, he always spoke to me and to anyone in his political company from the bottom of his heart. He was sincerely in search of a genuine way forward. He was a man who knew that all is not well with the Nigerian Federation and genuinely sough the correct path to its healing!

The point of the story is to reveal a bit of the life of this great political strategist, who if he had lived after that Conference, he and the powerful circle of comrades he had built at the Conference would have helped to see to a more liberal accommodating political order in Nigeria. Shehu was the darling of a liberal democratic movement that was emerging in Nigeria before he died. He was equally hated by what many of us call the hegemonist who have consistently aborted every opportunity to create a democratic political culture. It is the later who have consistently made it difficult to achieve a genuine reconciliation in Nigeria. It is these forces that have insisted on a Federation founded on the peace of the grave yard.
Yes, General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua along with the compatriots he had worked to put together would have constitute an authentic force for reconciliation and national integration. He was a victim of the forces of hegemony.

Post –Biafra Reconciliation – What Lessons?

During the trial of Adolf Hitler after Germany and her allies lost the war to the Allied Forces, the following exchange took place between Hitler and his interlocutor –

Interlocutor to Hitler: You were responsible for the Second World War?
Hitler: No! The Versailles Treaties was.

I believe this Conference has been provoked by the renewed agitation for Biafra. In that case, a similar question can be posed to the Biafra Self-determination Agitators in Nigeria today as to whether they are responsible for the renewed Agitation for Biafra.

I imagine that the Biafra Freedom Agitators, just like Adolf Hitler, would emphatically respond NO! They would rather blame the present upsurge for Self-determination and Biafra and all its fallouts on all those leaders on the victorious side who, rather than pursuing the path of genuine Reconciliation, pursued the path of punitive retributions against those who lost the war.

Unfortunately, as it was in the case of the defeated Germany that was neither pacified nor conciliated, nor was it permanently weakened, so do we find in the case of Biafra, that despite all the retributive measures against her people, Biafra and the Biafrans, have neither been pacified, nor conciliated, nor have they been permanently weakened.
Unlike the Treaty of Versailles that exerted bloody pound of flesh on the side that lost the First World War, the victorious side in the Second World War padded their retributive actions with the Marshall Plan. And thus unlike the intended Carthagenian peace of the Versailles Treaty of 28 June 1919, the Marshall Plan brought a relatively permanent peace to Europe that withstood the shock waves of the cold war including the Cuban Missile crises.

In pursuing the lessons of the retributive post-war treatment of the Biafrans, I would ask the leaders on the victorious side –

When you took all their financial deposits in the banks and paid them only £20 (twenty pounds), what did you expect the result to be – pacification, conciliation or to have them permanently weakened?

When you allowed massacre of unarmed soldiers and leaders even when they had declared their return to Nigeria, what did you expect? I mean when you murdered Prof. Kalu Ezera or when you killed unarmed Col Onwuatuegwu in cold blood, what did you expect?

When you killed and also buried alive thousands of innocent civilians in Asaba, was that a circus show?

I escaped being killed at the end of the war through the mysterious intervention of my college mate, Mr Nwogugbe from Asa in Abia State who was a member of the Nigerian battalion that overran my area on that fateful day of January 8, 1970. The solders had sent for me and when I arrived at Nkwo Mbaise their base, Nwoguegbe instantly recognised me and shouted Nkume! I responded Nwoguegbe! Despite being introduced to his commander, Captain Jibowu, the later took him to one corner, asking to be convinced why I should not be treated in accordance with the official instructions, namely to waste any such able-bodied young-man who may have been an actual or potential Biafra soldier. I was lucky. Nwoguegbe saved me, but several of my mates from my community were not. Cornellius Oguikpe, Michael Osuagwu, Efriam Chukwunoyerem, Echewodo Onwunali, all were murdered at the end of the war by the Nigerian soldiers.

Yes, post-Biafra was not attended by any genuine efforts to seek reconciliation nor even to find out what led to the war. Rather, what we have witnessed is decades of vengeance, arrogance and conspiracy against Alaigbo and Ndigbo –
Yes these are on record -
Immediate post-war punitive massacre,
Dismissal of some officers on the losing side, reduction in rank of others
Dismissal of civil servants.
Secret Execution of some officers (Col. Onwuatuegwu, Prof, Kalu Ezera)
Abandoned property seizure of Igbo property.
Punitive boundary adjustment.
Closure of the Eastern Sea Port and Railway lines.
Deliberate policy of encirclement of Alaigbo, inciting Igbo outside Igbo heartland to reject their Igbo identity.
Deliberate policy of exclusion from the governance and power equation i Nigeria..
Deliberate policy of destroying Igbo businesses.
Continued massacre, lynching of Igbos in many places in the North
Insensitivity to the plight of the IDPs of Igbo extraction who were initially the major targets of Boko Harm bombings and killings.
No serious effort at post-war reconstruction and reconciliation

I strongly recommend to all those who care to understand how the Igbos view their predicament in the Federation to read the Petition of Ohanaeze ndigbo to the Human Rights Violations Investigating Committee of 1999. It is captioned
The Violations of the Human and Civil Rights of Ndigbo in the Federation of Nigeria (1966-1999).

President Obasanjo should speak to the nation now about why and how that initiative of his was aborted. A Truth and Reconciliation was a great idea, but just like all National Conference decisions meant to deal with the resolution of the injustices of the system. It was arrogantly dismissed and nothing happened.

Biafra : A Collective Guilt
Have we forgotten that Biafra was a collective guilt and that those who created the Nigerian Federation did so to satisfy their own agenda They designed a local a local agenda for the same purpose?
Have we forgotten the cause of Biafra and the war? Have we ever come together to examine why Biafra?
Obasanjo’s Truth Commission and the Justice Oputa Commission were arrogantly dismissed and nothing happened.
Who was the aggressor in that war?

Aborted Efforts to Solve the Nigerian Problem
What about several efforts to sit down and dispassionately examine the fate of the Federation and how to heal the wounds of the past. Several aborted historical opportunities for peace and stability, or a genuine democratic system include -
Ibadan Conference of Sept/Oct 1966
Aburi Accord.
Abiola’s election that wuld have set a precedent.
1994-5 Constitutional Conference and the 1995 Draft Constitution, the best Constitutional Draft in the history of Nigeria.
Conferences organised by Obasanjos regime.
President Jonathan’s 2014 Conference.
Current Ferocious opposition to restructuring.

Laying the Foundations for Genuine Reconciliation – The Biafra Initiative
The Birth of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) – A child of the post-war East Central State Youth Volunteer Services Corps (ECSYVSC) whose memo to General Gowon led to the establishment of the NYSC by the Federal Government.
I led the delegation, as Chairman of the ECSYVSC, that delivered the Memoradum to the Federal Government on the eve of the first post-war independence anniversary, precisely on30th September, 1970.
In response General Gowon had given Dr Ukpabi Asika’s Government £75,000 (Seventy-five thousand pounds) in appreciation of that historical initiative of the youth of Alaigbo.

The great objective of that historical initiative as conceived by us, the youth of Alaigbo, was to forge a genuine instrument of national reconciliation and national integration.

What has happened to the NYSC? Any credit to the initiators? Several attempts have been made by the chaps in the NYSC Foundation in Abuja to interview me in order to draw inspiration from the original mind that conceived the NYSC; each time they were discouraged from a follow-up.

It was the same way that a former Governor had advised the Federal Government to create an institution to house the Biafra scientist. The answer was no!, because doing so would give credit to the Biafrans.

The Road to Reconciliation.
Not Restructuring but Renegotiation of the basis of the Nigerian Federation.
Nigeria is a multi-national Federation. The task is to agree on the terms for a form of political union among these nations and mini-nations.

Unless this is done, there would never be any stable Federation uniting all these peoples who are culturally, religiously and philosophically separate nations and mini-nations.

Prof. Uzodinma Nwala
President
Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF)

seunmsg:
The despicable villain who started an unnecessary war that led to the death of over 2 million Igbo people. I just hope the current agitators of Biafra will learn from his ignoble misadventure. Don't start what you can't finish.

We know cowards by their comments,after the civil war are Afonjas better than Igbos?

SuperS1Panther:



How has the showed us the war that was fought?

Try harder

Coward,can you fight any war, somebody came and took over your land and impose emir on it and as perpetual coward and slave you are gloating about shouting that you did not fight any war when your land was taking and are mocking the brave Igbos for fighting for what they believe in.

Odingo1:

Keep on deceiving yourself ,Fulani are the people that even gave you people the name Yoruba after bringing Islam to you.Usman Danfodio a fulani man brought Islam to Northern Nigeria not to talk of yorubas, a name that they gave you by fulani islamic scholars.
Oyigbo is been rule by its people without outsiders with their native king,what are you even talking about.

How will you know when you will never read.

Islam has been in Northern Nigeria and Northern part of Yorubaland before Uthman Dan Fodio arrived Sokoto. Read up.

You have a native King that his town was renamed under his nose and the history of his forefathers were erased over night and you are here dancing Skelewu to that. SMH.