In Memory of my father, Obong (Major General)
Philip Efiong, Akangkang Ibiono Ibom
(November 18, 1925 - November 6, 2003)
Philip Efiong, Akangkang Ibiono Ibom
(November 18, 1925 - November 6, 2003)
 |
| Major General Philip Efiong-Biafran Number two man |
In
Memory of my father, Obong (Major General)
Philip Efiong, Akangkang Ibiono Ibom
(November 18, 1925 - November 6, 2003)
Philip Efiong, Akangkang Ibiono Ibom
(November 18, 1925 - November 6, 2003)
May the soul of a great dad and
exceptional statesman
rest in perfect peace! By his son |
About Major General Philip Efiong
Obong (Major General) Philip Asuquo Efiong of
Ikot Akpan Obong in Utit Obio Clan of Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa
Ibom State was born on 18 November 1925 in Aba, present Abia State,
Nigeria. His father, the late Eté John Efiong Essien, was a businessman while
his mother, the late Elizabeth Ekandem Efiong Essien, was a trader and farmer.
(The Efiong Essien family ended up in Ikot
Ekpene after Eté John moved his household from Aba to Ikot Ekpene in
1929. This was in a bid to avoid victimisation against his wife who had
participated in the legendary Eastern Women’s Revolution of that same year.)
The young Philip began his education at Saint
Anne’s Catholic Primary School, Ifuho in Ikot Ekpene, from where he obtained
his Standard Six Certificate, which, at the time, qualified him to be a pupil
teacher. He was posted to Nto Otong Midim, Abak after which he relocated to
Saint Thomas’ Teacher Training College, Ogoja and later the Seminary at
Saint Patrick’s College, Ikot Ansa, Calabar. He left the Seminary in 1944 and
moved on to Saint Augustine’s, Urua Inyang to study for his Higher Elementary
Certificate.
In 1945, the Philip left teaching entirely and
joined the Army (the West African Frontier Force), enlisting as a private
in Enugu. At the end of the Second World War, he was converted to a regular
soldier in the renamed Royal West African Frontier Force. Private Philip
Efiong was among the first batch of educated recruits posted to Zaria,
which was then the training depot for young enlisted soldiers. Part of his
training involved clerical instruction at the Clerical Training School in
Teshi, Ghana. On his return to Nigeria, he was posted to the Lagos Garrison
Office and promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal in 1947. He was subsequently
promoted Corporal in 1948 and Sergeant in 1949. Also in 1949, Sergeant Philip
Efiong was posted to Zaria to help set up the African Non-Commissioned Officers
School (ANCO) under the supervision of a British Warrant Officer II. While in
Zaria, he studied on his own, sat for and passed the Cambridge Overseas School
Certificate examination in 1953. He was then posted to the Orderly Room as the
recruiting Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO).
It was also around 1953 that the Intelligence
Quotient (IQ) test was introduced into the Army and Sergeant Philip Efiong’s
result in the test was used as a base for evaluating the new recruits. In 1954
he was promoted Sergeant Major and in 1955 was again sent to Teshi, this time
to the Regular Officers Special Training School. On his return, he was
recommended for training in Britain and subsequently trained at the Home
Countries Brigade, Canterbury, and Eaton Hall Officers Cadet Training
School in Chester and Trawnysfyld in Wales. At the passing out parade in
Chester in 1956, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant and later that year was
promoted Lieutenant.
In 1958 Lieutenant Philip Efiong went on to
do his post commissioning training in various parts of Britain, the Kings Own
Yorkshire Light Infantry in Düsseldorf in Germany, and the British Army of the
Rhine (BAOR) in West Germany. That same year he was promoted to
Captain. He served in various capacities.
In 1959 Captain Philip Efiong served in the
Cameroons with the peacekeeping force. As a Major in 1960, he also served in
peacekeeping operations under the United Nations as a Company Commander in the
Republic of Congo. He was later recalled from the Congo in 1961 and transferred
to the Nigerian Army Ordnance Corps. As follow-up to this transfer, he
proceeded to Britain to attend an ordnance course at the Royal Army Ordnance
Corps (RAOC) School in Blackdown near Aldershot in England. This course
led to his being awarded Associate Member of the British Institute of
Management (AMBIM). On completion of his ordnance training, he became the first
Nigerian Commander of the Ordnance Depot in Yaba, Lagos in 1962, and the
first Nigerian Director of Ordnance Services of the Nigerian Army in 1963,
the year he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. This was the post and rank he
held when the first coup d'état took place on January 15 1966.
After the coup d'état of January 1966, Lieutenant
Colonel Philip Efiong was posted to Supreme Headquarters as Principal
Staff Officer to the late Major General J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi. He was Acting
Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters in May 1966 and in July 1966 was posted to
Kaduna as Deputy Brigade Commander under the late Lieutenant Colonel
Wellington Bassey. Following the countercoup of the same year, he managed to
escape from Kaduna to Lagos. In compliance with orders for all officers to
return to their regions of origin, he returned to the East where, in 1967,
the war broke out. For Obong Philip Efiong, this marked the beginning of the
end of 22 years of meritorious service in the Nigerian Army.
As a Biafran officer from 1967 to 1970, Obong
Philip Efiong served in various capacities as Chief of Logistics, Chief of
Staff, Commandant of the Militia, and Chief of General Staff.
In January 1970, Major General Philip
Efiong called for an end to the hostilities and voluntarily led a
delegation of surrender to General Gowon in Lagos.
Obong Philip Efiong received many honours in
his lifetime, most of them expressing tribute to his courage. It was for this
reason that the Ibiono Ibom Traditional Council of Chiefs conferred him with
the title of Akangkang Ibiono Ibom (the Sword of Ibiono Ibom) in 1995.
After battling occasional health problems, Obong Philip Efiong passed away on 6 November 2003, 12 days to his 78th birthday. He is survived by a wife, eight children, several grandchildren and a host of relatives.
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| 1969, at parade to celebrate the Second Independence Anniversary of Biafra; General Efiong is fourth from left; General Ojukwu, Head of State, is fifth from left |
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1970, initial meeting between both sides atthe end of the War; from left to right: General Efiong,Prof. Eni Njoku, Colonel Obasanjo |
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1969, Major General Philip Efiong returning
from a visit to a refugee camp at Nto Edino in present Akwa Ibom State |
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| End of the War; In the true spirit of African reconciliation, kola nut is shared; General Efiong, extreme right, takes a piece |
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| Right, Lagos, 15 January 1970, General Efiong shakes hand with General Gowon after surrender |
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| January 1970, preparing for meeting in Lagos at the end of the Civil War; second from left is General Efiong, third is Colonel O. Obasanjo |
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About
Biafra
Several sociopolitical factors led to
the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War (1967-1970), including upheavals in Nigeria’s
Western Region and Middle Belt in the mid-1960s; the first military coup
carried out on January 15, 1966 to allegedly curb the deteriorating state of
corruption and conflict; a countercoup mostly led by northern officers who
perceived the first coup as ethnically biased; and the subsequent massacre of
eastern (mostly Ibo) officers, men, and women primarily in Lagos and northern
Nigeria. The ensuing forced relocation of thousands of easterners to the East
engendered tensions between the Governor of the Eastern Region,
Lieutenant-Colonel C. Odumegwu-Ojukwu and the new Head-of-State enthroned by
the countercoup, Lieutenant-Colonel Y. Gowon. The inability of both leaders to
reach an agreement on future administrative and military issues resulted in a
decision by the Eastern Region to secede from the rest of the country. In
response, the Nigerian military government launched a "police action"
to retake the secessionist territory and this escalated to a 31-month civil war
that officially began on July 6, 1967.
Aside from the huge advantage that the
federal side enjoyed in terms of regional size, it received tremendous support
in arms and other military supplies from the likes of Russia, Egypt, and
Britain, and also utilized tactics like the bombardment of civilian facilities,
the shooting down of relief planes, economic blockade, and the deliberate
destruction of agricultural land, which caused mass refugee problems and
starvation of the populace. It is estimated that two to three million people
died in the conflict, mostly through starvation and illness.
When the collapse of Biafra's
military was imminent, General Ojukwu fled to Côte d'Ivoire, after which his
Second-in-Command and Chief of General Staff, General Effiong, assumed
leadership of the young ailing nation on 8 January, 1970. On 12 January,
Effiong called for a ceasefire and an end to hostilities. Three days later, on
January 15, he led a Biafran delegation comprising civilian and military
officials to Lagos, then Nigeria’s capital, where, in a ceremony at Dodan
Barracks, he officially delivered the instrument of Biafra’s surrender to
General Y. Gowon.
For my family, the war began in Lagos after
the countercoup of July 1966. For security reasons, we relocated to another
section of Lagos where we were accommodated by the family of Colonel R.
Trimnell. We eventually escaped to Enugu where we were when the war commenced
in full. With each incursion of the enemy, we relocated to different towns.
From Enugu we moved to Ikot Ekpene and then to Umuahia. We fled Umuahia when it
was on the verge of falling into the hands of the enemy and ended up in
Ifakala, a rural town, where family friends accommodated us for several weeks
because we were homeless. From Ifakala we relocated to Owerri after Biafra
recaptured the town from the enemy. We were still in Owerri when the enemy’s
final onslaught took place, forcing us out of the town. About three days before
Biafra’s final collapse; me, my mother, two brothers and a cousin fled Biafra
in a seat-less cargo plane while my father stayed back to handle the young
nation’s final surrender.
Why we were sold to the
British for £865k in 1899
About
Biafra
Several sociopolitical factors led to
the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War (1967-1970), including upheavals in Nigeria’s
Western Region and Middle Belt in the mid-1960s; the first military coup
carried out on January 15, 1966 to allegedly curb the deteriorating state of
corruption and conflict; a countercoup mostly led by northern officers who
perceived the first coup as ethnically biased; and the subsequent massacre of
eastern (mostly Ibo) officers, men, and women primarily in Lagos and northern
Nigeria. The ensuing forced relocation of thousands of easterners to the East
engendered tensions between the Governor of the Eastern Region,
Lieutenant-Colonel C. Odumegwu-Ojukwu and the new Head-of-State enthroned by
the countercoup, Lieutenant-Colonel Y. Gowon. The inability of both leaders to
reach an agreement on future administrative and military issues resulted in a
decision by the Eastern Region to secede from the rest of the country. In
response, the Nigerian military government launched a "police action"
to retake the secessionist territory and this escalated to a 31-month civil war
that officially began on July 6, 1967.
Aside from the huge advantage that the
federal side enjoyed in terms of regional size, it received tremendous support
in arms and other military supplies from the likes of Russia, Egypt, and
Britain, and also utilized tactics like the bombardment of civilian facilities,
the shooting down of relief planes, economic blockade, and the deliberate
destruction of agricultural land, which caused mass refugee problems and
starvation of the populace. It is estimated that two to three million people
died in the conflict, mostly through starvation and illness.
When the collapse of Biafra's
military was imminent, General Ojukwu fled to Côte d'Ivoire, after which his
Second-in-Command and Chief of General Staff, General Effiong, assumed
leadership of the young ailing nation on 8 January, 1970. On 12 January,
Effiong called for a ceasefire and an end to hostilities. Three days later, on
January 15, he led a Biafran delegation comprising civilian and military
officials to Lagos, then Nigeria’s capital, where, in a ceremony at Dodan
Barracks, he officially delivered the instrument of Biafra’s surrender to
General Y. Gowon.
For my family, the war began in Lagos after
the countercoup of July 1966. For security reasons, we relocated to another
section of Lagos where we were accommodated by the family of Colonel R.
Trimnell. We eventually escaped to Enugu where we were when the war commenced
in full. With each incursion of the enemy, we relocated to different towns.
From Enugu we moved to Ikot Ekpene and then to Umuahia. We fled Umuahia when it
was on the verge of falling into the hands of the enemy and ended up in
Ifakala, a rural town, where family friends accommodated us for several weeks
because we were homeless. From Ifakala we relocated to Owerri after Biafra
recaptured the town from the enemy. We were still in Owerri when the enemy’s
final onslaught took place, forcing us out of the town. About three days before
Biafra’s final collapse; me, my mother, two brothers and a cousin fled Biafra
in a seat-less cargo plane while my father stayed back to handle the young
nation’s final surrender.
Why we were sold to the British for £865k in 1899
Why we were sold to the British for £865k in 1899
Who sold (what became) Nigeria to the British for £865k in 1899?
Today we will be discussing the first oil war, which was fought in the 19th century, in the area that became Nigeria.
All through the 19th century, palm oil was highly sought-after by the British, for use as an industrial lubricant for machinery. Remember that Britain was the world’s first industrialised nation, so they needed resources such as palm oil to maintain that.
Palm oil of course, is a tropical plant, which is native to the Niger Delta. Malaysia’s dominance came a century later.
By 1870, palm oil had replaced slaves as the main export of the Niger Delta, the area which was once known as the Slave Coast. At first, most of the trade in the oil palm was uncoordinated, with natives selling to those who gave them the best deals. Native chiefs such as former slave, Jaja of Opobo became immensely wealthy because of oil palm. With wealth comes influence.
However, among the Europeans, there was competition for who would get preferential access to the lucrative oil palm trade. In 1879, George Goldie (1846 – 1925, pictured below) formed the United African Company, which was modeled on the former East India Company. Goldie effectively took control of the Lower Niger River. By 1884, his company had 30 trading posts along the Lower Niger. This monopoly gave the British a strong hand against the French and Germans in the 1884 Berlin Conference. The British got the area that the UAC operated in, included in their sphere of influence after the Berlin Conference.
When the Brits got the terms they wanted from other Europeans, they began to deal with the African chiefs. Within two years of 1886, Goldie had signed treaties with tribal chiefs along the Benue and Niger Rivers whilst also penetrating inland. This move inland was against the spirit of verbal agreements that had been made to restrict the organisation’s activities to coastal regions.
By 1886, the company name changed to “The National Africa Company” and was granted a royal charter (incorporated). The charter authorized the company to administer the Niger Delta and all lands around the banks of the Benue and Niger Rivers. Soon after, the company was again renamed. The new name was “Royal Niger Company”, which survives, as Unilever, till this day.
To local chiefs, the Royal Niger Company negotiators had pledged free trade in the region. Behind, they entered private contracts on their terms. Because the (deceitful) private contracts were often written in English and signed by the local chiefs, the British government enforced them. So for example, Jaja of Opobo, when he tried to export palm oil on his own, was forced into exile for “obstructing commerce”. As an aside, Jaja was “forgiven” in 1891 and allowed to return home, but he died on the way back, poisoned with a cup of tea.
Seeing what happened to Jaja, some other native rulers began to look more closely at the deals they were getting from the the Royal Nigeria Company. One of such kingdoms was Nembe, who’s king, Koko Mingi VIII, ascended the throne in 1889 after being a Christian schoolteacher. Koko Mingi VIII, King Koko for short, and like most rulers in the yard, was faced with the Royal Nigeria Company encroachment. He also resented the monopoly enjoyed by the the Royal Nigeria Company, and tried to seek out favourable trading terms, with particularly the Germans in Kamerun.
By 1894 the the Royal Nigeria Company increasingly dictated
whom the natives could trade with, and denied them direct access to their
former markets.
In late 1894, King Koko renounced Christianity, and tried to form an alliance
with Bonny and Okpoma against the the Royal Nigeria Company to take back the
trade. This is significant because while Okpoma joined up, Bonny refused. A
harbinger of the successful “divide and rule” tactic.
On 29 January 1895, King Koko led an attack on the Royal Niger Company’s headquarters,
which was in Akassa in today’s Bayelsa state. The pre-dawn raid had more than a
thousand men involved. King Koko’s attack succeeded in capturing the base.
Losing 40 of his men, King Koko captured 60 white men as hostages, as well as a
lot of goods, ammunition and a Maxim gun. Koko then attempted to negotiate a
release of the hostages in exchange for being allowed to chose his trading
partners. The British refused to negotiate with Koko, and he had forty of the
hostages killed. A British report claimed that the Nembe people ate them. On 20
February 1895, Britain’s Royal Navy, under Admiral Beford attacked Brass, and
burned it to the ground. Many Nembe people died and smallpox finished off a lot
of others.
By April 1895, business had returned to “normal”, normal being the conditions
that the British wanted, and King Koko was on the run. Brass was fined £500 by
the British, £26,825 in today’s money, and the looted weapons were returned as
well as the surviving prisoners. After a British Parliamentary Commission sat,
King Koko was offered terms of settlement by the British, which he rejected and
disappeared. The British promptly declared him an outlaw and offered a reward
of £200 (£10,730 today) for him. He committed suicide in exile in 1898.
About that time, another “recalcitrant King”, the Oba of Benin, was run out of
town. The pacification of the Lower Niger was well and truly under way.
The immediate effect of the Brass Oil War was that public opinion in Britain
turned against the the Royal Nigeria Company, so its charter was revoked in
1899. Following the revoking of its charter, the the Royal Niger Company sold
its holdings to the British government for £865,000 (£46,407,250 today). That
amount, £46,407,250 (NGN12,550,427,783.81 at today’s exchange rate) was
effectively the price Britain paid, to buy the territory which was to become
known as Nigeria.
* Try to be committed to doing a #HistoryClass once a week as a response to
Nigeria’s removal of history from its school curriculum. He tweets @william Omumukeze.
This is the document from the British People in Cameroon (1968) telling the British government that Biafra needs to be defeated.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @
Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the
first prime minister of Nigeria, was assassinated during the January 1966
military coup.
1/16/1966-Dorking, England- Nigerian President Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe tells the press here on January 16 that he will return to his troubled country as soon as arrangements can be made. Dr. Azikiwe, convalescing in this country following an illness, said that on his return he would appeal for law and order to be restored in Nigeria, which has been the scene of a revolt against the government of Prime Minister Balewa January 15.
General Yakubu Gowon commanded the Nigerian troops that defeated the Biafran army. He is a genocidist, who killed 6,000,000 Biafrans during the war -1967-70. Yet the world closed their ears as if nothing happen. He is parading himself as an elder statesman in Nigeria. A killer
 |
Who sold (what became) Nigeria to the British for £865k in 1899?
Today we will be discussing the first oil war, which was fought in the 19th century, in the area that became Nigeria. All through the 19th century, palm oil was highly sought-after by the British, for use as an industrial lubricant for machinery. Remember that Britain was the world’s first industrialised nation, so they needed resources such as palm oil to maintain that. Palm oil of course, is a tropical plant, which is native to the Niger Delta. Malaysia’s dominance came a century later. By 1870, palm oil had replaced slaves as the main export of the Niger Delta, the area which was once known as the Slave Coast. At first, most of the trade in the oil palm was uncoordinated, with natives selling to those who gave them the best deals. Native chiefs such as former slave, Jaja of Opobo became immensely wealthy because of oil palm. With wealth comes influence. However, among the Europeans, there was competition for who would get preferential access to the lucrative oil palm trade. In 1879, George Goldie (1846 – 1925, pictured below) formed the United African Company, which was modeled on the former East India Company. Goldie effectively took control of the Lower Niger River. By 1884, his company had 30 trading posts along the Lower Niger. This monopoly gave the British a strong hand against the French and Germans in the 1884 Berlin Conference. The British got the area that the UAC operated in, included in their sphere of influence after the Berlin Conference. When the Brits got the terms they wanted from other Europeans, they began to deal with the African chiefs. Within two years of 1886, Goldie had signed treaties with tribal chiefs along the Benue and Niger Rivers whilst also penetrating inland. This move inland was against the spirit of verbal agreements that had been made to restrict the organisation’s activities to coastal regions. By 1886, the company name changed to “The National Africa Company” and was granted a royal charter (incorporated). The charter authorized the company to administer the Niger Delta and all lands around the banks of the Benue and Niger Rivers. Soon after, the company was again renamed. The new name was “Royal Niger Company”, which survives, as Unilever, till this day. To local chiefs, the Royal Niger Company negotiators had pledged free trade in the region. Behind, they entered private contracts on their terms. Because the (deceitful) private contracts were often written in English and signed by the local chiefs, the British government enforced them. So for example, Jaja of Opobo, when he tried to export palm oil on his own, was forced into exile for “obstructing commerce”. As an aside, Jaja was “forgiven” in 1891 and allowed to return home, but he died on the way back, poisoned with a cup of tea. Seeing what happened to Jaja, some other native rulers began to look more closely at the deals they were getting from the the Royal Nigeria Company. One of such kingdoms was Nembe, who’s king, Koko Mingi VIII, ascended the throne in 1889 after being a Christian schoolteacher. Koko Mingi VIII, King Koko for short, and like most rulers in the yard, was faced with the Royal Nigeria Company encroachment. He also resented the monopoly enjoyed by the the Royal Nigeria Company, and tried to seek out favourable trading terms, with particularly the Germans in Kamerun.
By 1894 the the Royal Nigeria Company increasingly dictated
whom the natives could trade with, and denied them direct access to their
former markets.
In late 1894, King Koko renounced Christianity, and tried to form an alliance with Bonny and Okpoma against the the Royal Nigeria Company to take back the trade. This is significant because while Okpoma joined up, Bonny refused. A harbinger of the successful “divide and rule” tactic. On 29 January 1895, King Koko led an attack on the Royal Niger Company’s headquarters, which was in Akassa in today’s Bayelsa state. The pre-dawn raid had more than a thousand men involved. King Koko’s attack succeeded in capturing the base. Losing 40 of his men, King Koko captured 60 white men as hostages, as well as a lot of goods, ammunition and a Maxim gun. Koko then attempted to negotiate a release of the hostages in exchange for being allowed to chose his trading partners. The British refused to negotiate with Koko, and he had forty of the hostages killed. A British report claimed that the Nembe people ate them. On 20 February 1895, Britain’s Royal Navy, under Admiral Beford attacked Brass, and burned it to the ground. Many Nembe people died and smallpox finished off a lot of others. By April 1895, business had returned to “normal”, normal being the conditions that the British wanted, and King Koko was on the run. Brass was fined £500 by the British, £26,825 in today’s money, and the looted weapons were returned as well as the surviving prisoners. After a British Parliamentary Commission sat, King Koko was offered terms of settlement by the British, which he rejected and disappeared. The British promptly declared him an outlaw and offered a reward of £200 (£10,730 today) for him. He committed suicide in exile in 1898. About that time, another “recalcitrant King”, the Oba of Benin, was run out of town. The pacification of the Lower Niger was well and truly under way. The immediate effect of the Brass Oil War was that public opinion in Britain turned against the the Royal Nigeria Company, so its charter was revoked in 1899. Following the revoking of its charter, the the Royal Niger Company sold its holdings to the British government for £865,000 (£46,407,250 today). That amount, £46,407,250 (NGN12,550,427,783.81 at today’s exchange rate) was effectively the price Britain paid, to buy the territory which was to become known as Nigeria. * Try to be committed to doing a #HistoryClass once a week as a response to Nigeria’s removal of history from its school curriculum. He tweets @william Omumukeze. |
 |
This is the document from the British People in Cameroon (1968) telling the British government that Biafra needs to be defeated.
Nigerian could not have defeated Biafra. Biafra cannot be defeated. Britain fought and defeated Biafra.
We are wiser now and we know Nigeria has no power. They have not been able to defeat a rag tag imbecilic group like Boko Haram talk less of a developed and civilized Biafra.
"The British, after rigging the 1961 Plebiscite, had continued to lie that the Western Cameroonians hated the Igbos. When war Nigerian civil war broke out, the Cameroonian government supported Nigeria while Western Cameroon supported Biafra. The problem was so much that they were considered as Nigeria's 13th State provided the Igbos are kept very far from them. That was how Bakassi happened.
Did you notice that the idea was to confine the Igbos to the interior "landlocked" and tell those other Igbos outside the land-lock that they are not real Igbos. Well, those in the East coastal area agreed while those across the Niger jumped over to fight with their kith and kin in Biafra.
They have been supervising our local economy since 1970.''
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Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the
first prime minister of Nigeria, was assassinated during the January 1966
military coup.
|
 |
1/16/1966-Dorking, England- Nigerian President Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe tells the press here on January 16 that he will return to his troubled country as soon as arrangements can be made. Dr. Azikiwe, convalescing in this country following an illness, said that on his return he would appeal for law and order to be restored in Nigeria, which has been the scene of a revolt against the government of Prime Minister Balewa January 15.
|
 |
General Yakubu Gowon commanded the Nigerian troops that defeated the Biafran army. He is a genocidist, who killed 6,000,000 Biafrans during the war -1967-70. Yet the world closed their ears as if nothing happen. He is parading himself as an elder statesman in Nigeria. A killer
|
In the following address given eleven years before Nigerian independence, Nnamdi
Azikiwe calls for self-determination for the Ibo as they along with other
ethnic groups march toward an inevitably free Nigeria. This address was
delivered at the Ibo State Assembly held at Aba, Nigeria, on Saturday,
June 25, 1949.
It would appear that God has
specially created the Ibo people to suffer persecution and be victimized
because of their resolute will to live. Since suffering is the label of our
tribe, we can afford to be sacrificed for the ultimate redemption of the
children of Africa. Is it not fortunate that the Ibo are among the few remnants
of indigenous African nations who are still not spoliated by the artificial
niceties of Western materialism? Is it not historically significant that
throughout the glorious history of Africa, the Ibo is one of the select few to
have escaped the humiliation of a conqueror’s sword or to be a victim of a
Carthaginian treaty? Search through the records of African history and you will
fail to find an occasion when, in any pitched battle, any African nation has
either marched across Ibo territory or subjected the Ibo nation to a
humiliating conquest. Instead, there is record to show that the martial prowess
of the Ibo, at all stages of human history, has rivaled them not only to
survive persecution, but also to adapt themselves to the role thus thrust upon
them by history, of preserving all that is best and most noble in African
culture and tradition. Placed in this high estate, the Ibo cannot shirk the
responsibility conferred on it by its manifest destiny. Having undergone a
course of suffering the Ibo must therefore enter into its heritage by asserting
its birthright, without apologies.
Follow me in a kaleidoscopic study of the Ibo. Four million strong in
man-power! Our agricultural resources include economic and food crops which are
the bases of modern civilization, not to mention fruits and vegetables which
flourish in the tropics! Our mineral resources include coal, lignite, lead,
antimony, iron, diatomite, clay, oil, tin! Our forest products include timber
of economic value, including iroko and mahogany! Our fauna and flora are
marvels of the world! Our land is blessed by waterways of world renown,
including the River Niger, Imo River, Cross River! Our ports are among the best
known in the continent of Africa. Yet in spite of these natural advantages,
which illustrate without doubt the potential wealth of the Ibo, we are among
the least developed in Nigeria, economically, and we are so ostracized
socially, that we have become extraneous in the political institutions of
Nigeria.
I have not come here today in order to catalogue the disabilities which the Ibo
suffer, in spite of our potential wealth, in spite of our teeming man-power, in
spite of our vitality as an indigenous African people; suffice it to say that
it would enable you to appreciate the manifest destiny of the Ibo if I
enumerated some of the acts of discrimination against us as a people. Socially,
the British Press has not been sparing in describing us as ‘the most hated in
Nigeria’. In this unholy crusade, the Daily Mirror, The Times, The Economist, News
Review and the Daily Mail have been in the forefront. In the Nigerian Press,
you are living witnesses of what has happened in the last eighteen months, when
Lagos, Zaria and Calabar sections of the Nigerian Press were virtually
encouraged to provoke us to tendentious propaganda. It is needless for me to
tell you that today, both in England and in West Africa, the expression ‘Ibo’
has become a word of opprobrium.
Politically, you have seen with your own eyes how four million people were
disenfranchized by the British, for decades, because of our alleged
backwardness. We have never been represented on the Executive Council, and not
one Ibo town has had the franchise, despite the fact that our native political
institutions are essentially democratic—in fact, more democratic than any other
nation in Africa, in spite of our extreme individualism.
Economically, we have laboured under onerous taxation measures, without
receiving sufficient social amenities to justify them. We have been taxed
without representation, and our contributions in taxes have been used to
develop other areas, Out of proportion to the incidence of taxation in those
areas. It would seem that we are becoming a victim of economic annihilation
through a gradual but studied process. What are my reasons for cataloguing
these disabilities and interpreting them as calculated to emasculate us, and so
render us impotent to assert our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness?
I shall now
state the facts which should be well known to any honest student of Nigerian
history. On the social plane, it will be found that outside of Government
College at Umauhia, there is no other secondary school run by the British
Government in Nigeria in Ibo-land. There is not one secondary school for girls
run by the British Government in our part of the country. In the Northern and
Western Provinces, the contrary is the case. If a survey of the hospital
facilities in Ibo-land were made, embarrassing results might show some sort of
discrimination. Outside of Port Harcourt, fire protection is not provided in
any Ibo town. And yet we have been under the protection of Great Britain for
many decades!
On the economic plane, I cannot
sufficiently impress you because you are too familiar with the victimization
which is our fate. Look at our roads; how many of them are tarred, compared,
for example, with the roads in other parts of the country? Those of you who
have travelled to this assembly by road are witnesses of the corrugated and
utterly unworthy state of the roads which traverse Ibo-land, in spite of the
fact that four million Ibo people pay taxes in order, among others, to have
good roads. With roads must be considered the system of communications, water
and electricity supplies. How many of our towns, for example, have complete
postal, telegraph, telephone and wireless services, compared to towns in other
areas of Nigeria? How many have pipe-borne water supplies? How many have
electricity undertakings? Does not the Ibo tax-payer fulfill his civic duty?
Why, then, must he be a victim of studied official victimization?
Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Phillip pictured with Nigeria's first head of state Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and HRH Obi Okosi, the Obi of Onitsha in the
The keynote in this address is self-determination for the Ibo. Let us establish
an Ibo State, based on linguistic and ethnic factors, enabling us to take our
place side by side with the other linguistic and ethnic groups which make up
Nigeria and the Cameroons. With the Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri, Yoruba, Ibibio
(Iboku), Angus (Bi-Rom), Tiv, Ijaw, Edo, Urhobo, ltsekiri, Nupe, Igalla, Ogaja,
Gwari, Duala, Bali and other nationalities asserting their right to
self-determination each as separate as the fingers, but united with others as a
part of the same hand, we can reclaim Nigeria and the Cameroons from this
degradation which it has pleased the forces of European imperialism to impose
upon us. Therefore, our meeting today is of momentous importance in the history
of the Ibo, in that opportunity has been presented to us to heed the call of a
despoiled race, to answer the summons to redeem a ravished continent, to rally
forces to the defence of a humiliated country, and to arouse national
consciousness in a demoralized but dynamic nation.
Sources:
Nnamdi Azikiwe, Zik: A Selection from the Speeches of Nnamdi Azikiwe,
Governor-General of the Federation of Nigeria formerly President of the
Nigerian Senate formerly Premier of the Eastern Region of Nigeria (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1961).
n
In the following address given eleven years before Nigerian independence, Nnamdi
Azikiwe calls for self-determination for the Ibo as they along with other
ethnic groups march toward an inevitably free Nigeria. This address was
delivered at the Ibo State Assembly held at Aba, Nigeria, on Saturday,
June 25, 1949.
Harbingers of a new day for the Ibo
nation, having selected me to preside over the deliberations of this assembly
of the Ibo nation, I am conscious of the fact that you have not done so because
of any extraordinary attributes in me. I realize that I am not the oldest among
you, nor the wisest, nor the wealthiest, nor the most experienced, nor the most
learned. I am therefore grateful to you for elevating me to this high pedestal.
The Ibo people have reached a
cross-road and it is for us to decide which is the right course to follow. We
are confronted with routes leading to diverse goals, but as I see it, there is
only one road that I can safely recommend for us to tread, and it is the road
to self-determination for the Ibo within the framework of a federated
commonwealth of Nigeria and the Cameroons, leading to a United States of
Africa. Other roads, in my opinion, are calculated to lead us astray from the
path of national self-realization.
Follow me in a kaleidoscopic study of the Ibo. Four million strong in man-power! Our agricultural resources include economic and food crops which are the bases of modern civilization, not to mention fruits and vegetables which flourish in the tropics! Our mineral resources include coal, lignite, lead, antimony, iron, diatomite, clay, oil, tin! Our forest products include timber of economic value, including iroko and mahogany! Our fauna and flora are marvels of the world! Our land is blessed by waterways of world renown, including the River Niger, Imo River, Cross River! Our ports are among the best known in the continent of Africa. Yet in spite of these natural advantages, which illustrate without doubt the potential wealth of the Ibo, we are among the least developed in Nigeria, economically, and we are so ostracized socially, that we have become extraneous in the political institutions of Nigeria.
I have not come here today in order to catalogue the disabilities which the Ibo suffer, in spite of our potential wealth, in spite of our teeming man-power, in spite of our vitality as an indigenous African people; suffice it to say that it would enable you to appreciate the manifest destiny of the Ibo if I enumerated some of the acts of discrimination against us as a people. Socially, the British Press has not been sparing in describing us as ‘the most hated in Nigeria’. In this unholy crusade, the Daily Mirror, The Times, The Economist, News Review and the Daily Mail have been in the forefront. In the Nigerian Press, you are living witnesses of what has happened in the last eighteen months, when Lagos, Zaria and Calabar sections of the Nigerian Press were virtually encouraged to provoke us to tendentious propaganda. It is needless for me to tell you that today, both in England and in West Africa, the expression ‘Ibo’ has become a word of opprobrium.
Politically, you have seen with your own eyes how four million people were disenfranchized by the British, for decades, because of our alleged backwardness. We have never been represented on the Executive Council, and not one Ibo town has had the franchise, despite the fact that our native political institutions are essentially democratic—in fact, more democratic than any other nation in Africa, in spite of our extreme individualism.
Economically, we have laboured under onerous taxation measures, without receiving sufficient social amenities to justify them. We have been taxed without representation, and our contributions in taxes have been used to develop other areas, Out of proportion to the incidence of taxation in those areas. It would seem that we are becoming a victim of economic annihilation through a gradual but studied process. What are my reasons for cataloguing these disabilities and interpreting them as calculated to emasculate us, and so render us impotent to assert our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
I shall now
state the facts which should be well known to any honest student of Nigerian
history. On the social plane, it will be found that outside of Government
College at Umauhia, there is no other secondary school run by the British
Government in Nigeria in Ibo-land. There is not one secondary school for girls
run by the British Government in our part of the country. In the Northern and
Western Provinces, the contrary is the case. If a survey of the hospital
facilities in Ibo-land were made, embarrassing results might show some sort of
discrimination. Outside of Port Harcourt, fire protection is not provided in
any Ibo town. And yet we have been under the protection of Great Britain for
many decades!
On the economic plane, I cannot
sufficiently impress you because you are too familiar with the victimization
which is our fate. Look at our roads; how many of them are tarred, compared,
for example, with the roads in other parts of the country? Those of you who
have travelled to this assembly by road are witnesses of the corrugated and
utterly unworthy state of the roads which traverse Ibo-land, in spite of the
fact that four million Ibo people pay taxes in order, among others, to have
good roads. With roads must be considered the system of communications, water
and electricity supplies. How many of our towns, for example, have complete
postal, telegraph, telephone and wireless services, compared to towns in other
areas of Nigeria? How many have pipe-borne water supplies? How many have
electricity undertakings? Does not the Ibo tax-payer fulfill his civic duty?
Why, then, must he be a victim of studied official victimization?
Today, these disabilities have been
intensified. There is a movement to disregard traditional organization in the
Ibo nation by the introduction of a specious system of a form of local
government. The placing of the Ibo nation in an artificial regionalization
scheme has left an unfair impression of attempted domination by minorities of
the Ibo people. In the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council the
electoral college system has aided in the complete disenfranchisement of the
Ibo. As a climax, spurious leadership is being foisted upon us—a mis-leadership
which receives official recognition, thus stultifying the legitimate
aspirations of the Ibo. This leadership shows a palpable disloyalty to the Ibo
and loyalty to an alien protecting power.
The only worthwhile stand we can
make as a nation is to assert our right to self-determination, as a unit of a
prospective Federal Commonwealth of Nigeria and the Cameroons, where our rights
will be respected and safeguarded. Roughly speaking, there are twenty main
dialectal regions in the Ibo nation, which can be conveniently departmentalized
as Provinces of an Ibo State, to wit: Mbamili in the northwest, Aniocha in the
west, Anidinma and Ukwuani in the southeast, Nsukka and Udi in the north, Awgu,
Awka and Onitsha in the centre, Ogbaru in the south, Abakaliki and Afikpo in
the northwest, Okigwi, Orlu, Owerri and Mbaise in the east, Ngwa, Bende,
Abiriba Ohafia and Etche in the southwest. These Provinces can have their territorial
boundaries delimited, they can select their capitals, and then can conveniently
develop their resources both for their common benefit and for those of the
other nationalities who make up this great country called Nigeria and the
Cameroons.
 |
| Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Phillip pictured with Nigeria's first head of state Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and HRH Obi Okosi, the Obi of Onitsha in the |
The keynote in this address is self-determination for the Ibo. Let us establish
an Ibo State, based on linguistic and ethnic factors, enabling us to take our
place side by side with the other linguistic and ethnic groups which make up
Nigeria and the Cameroons. With the Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri, Yoruba, Ibibio
(Iboku), Angus (Bi-Rom), Tiv, Ijaw, Edo, Urhobo, ltsekiri, Nupe, Igalla, Ogaja,
Gwari, Duala, Bali and other nationalities asserting their right to
self-determination each as separate as the fingers, but united with others as a
part of the same hand, we can reclaim Nigeria and the Cameroons from this
degradation which it has pleased the forces of European imperialism to impose
upon us. Therefore, our meeting today is of momentous importance in the history
of the Ibo, in that opportunity has been presented to us to heed the call of a
despoiled race, to answer the summons to redeem a ravished continent, to rally
forces to the defence of a humiliated country, and to arouse national
consciousness in a demoralized but dynamic nation.
|
Sources:
Nnamdi Azikiwe, Zik: A Selection from the Speeches of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Governor-General of the Federation of Nigeria formerly President of the Nigerian Senate formerly Premier of the Eastern Region of Nigeria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961).
Nnamdi Azikiwe, Zik: A Selection from the Speeches of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Governor-General of the Federation of Nigeria formerly President of the Nigerian Senate formerly Premier of the Eastern Region of Nigeria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961).
n
Biafran Colt of Arm
Biafra (old eastern Nigeria) adopted
a new flag, national anthem and Odumegwu Ojukwu was promoted to a General and
Head of State.
Biafran Gunner Wings
Biafra On Her 2nd Anniversary 1969
Biafran Rank Insignia
Biafran Scarf for officers
Biafrans Stamp
After independence, the Post Office in Biafra continued to use Nigerian stamps until they ran out when a "postage paid" cachet was applied instead until the first stamps were issued.
The first stamps of Biafra were issued on 5 February 1968 and consisted of three values to mark Biafran "independence
Biafran tie over 40 years old, testimony of ingenuity of its designers
The Hat Philip Efiong wore as a Major General in Biafra Army- Biafran number 2nd man.
Biafran Gunner wing
Biafran Pilot Gunner Wing
Biafra Air Force Wing
General C. O. Ojukwu Lauching Biafran stamp and pounds
The Burial of Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, August 1967
@ @ @ @ @ @ @
The children of the Most High Aba will never forget 30 May 2015 the heroes day
0 Archives, Articles 03:14
Who said it was only 3 million that came out? The children of the Most High from all corners of Biafraland and beyond. Aba will never forget 30 May 2015. Our departed heroes today are proud of their children because Biafra is here. We get Biafra or we die getting Biafra. One of the two MUST happen.
 |
| Biafran Colt of Arm |
 |
Biafra (old eastern Nigeria) adopted
a new flag, national anthem and Odumegwu Ojukwu was promoted to a General and
Head of State.
|
Biafran Gunner Wings
 |
| Biafra On Her 2nd Anniversary 1969 |
 |
| Biafran Rank Insignia |
 |
| Biafran Scarf for officers |
 |
| Biafrans Stamp |
  |
After independence, the Post Office in Biafra continued to use Nigerian stamps until they ran out when a "postage paid" cachet was applied instead until the first stamps were issued.
The first stamps of Biafra were issued on 5 February 1968 and consisted of three values to mark Biafran "independence
|
 |
| Biafran tie over 40 years old, testimony of ingenuity of its designers |
 |
| The Hat Philip Efiong wore as a Major General in Biafra Army- Biafran number 2nd man. |
 |
| Biafran Gunner wing |
 |
| Biafran Pilot Gunner Wing |
 |
| Biafra Air Force Wing |
 |
| General C. O. Ojukwu Lauching Biafran stamp and pounds |
 |
| The Burial of Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, August 1967 |
@ @ @ @ @ @ @
The children of the Most High Aba will never forget 30 May 2015 the heroes day
0 Archives, Articles 03:14
Who said it was only 3 million that came out? The children of the Most High from all corners of Biafraland and beyond. Aba will never forget 30 May 2015. Our departed heroes today are proud of their children because Biafra is here. We get Biafra or we die getting Biafra. One of the two MUST happen.
0 Archives, Articles 03:14
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