Issue Of Biafra As Ojukwu Said

 ISSUE OF BIAFRA 

BEING AN 

IGBO AFFAIR

               ISSUE OF BIAFRA BEING AN IGBO AFFAIR

On the issue of Biafra being primarily an Igbo affair, Odumegwu Ojukwu in 2000 said during a press conference :

" There is no real distinction between the Igbo and the other ethnic groups in Biafra.
You are the one who tags them as "minorities " but I see them as brothers and fellow biafrans.
We never saw anyone during the Biafran era as minority, we were all equal biafrans and every ethnic nationality was represented in the Assembly.
Recall that the first public execution on Carter bridge in Lagos during the 1966 massacre was Major Ekandem from the present Cross River State.
I am yet to see a brilliant Hausa man who can make a clear distinction between an Igbo man and Ibibio man. It is not possible because an Hausa man sees every Easterner as an Igbo though many are ignorant of this. "

He also added :
" They said they were fighting us in order to free the other ethnic nationalities in the East from Igbo domination, then I ask
If they are honest about It, why did they reject the offer to conduct a Plebiscite during the war to determine where the allegiance of other Biafran ethnic groups lies. They said we forced our will on the minorities and I drafted a proposal requesting for a Plebiscite ( referendum) to be conducted amongst the other ethnic groups but they rejected the offer. That's to tell you that the Federal side has always rejected due processes and fair procedures "

When asked if the other Eastern minorities had a choice during the war, he replied :
" They said I declared Biafra out of my own selfish reasons but they forgot to tell you I was a core nationalist before the pogrom and even during the pogrom.
After thousands of my people fled from the Northern Nigeria and came back to the east, I personally urged them to go back to the north as a last straw of effort to promote peace and show unity but what did they do? They slaughtered my people who I sent back and that's one thing I regretted so much. I felt responsible for their death and as a leader, u know what it means seeing ur people die without acting.
I also dragged them to Aburi and we reached a conclusion for peace but they came back and abandoned all our agreements, a direct affront to a wounded people.
They also didn't tell you that I didn't declare Biafra on my own, yes! I was reluctant at first but my people through the Eastern Assembly prevailed on me as their leader to take the needed action.
To show they wanted nothing but our extermination, having already pursued us to our homeland from all corners of Nigeria, they brough war to our land by firing the first shot at Gakem after refusing every peaceful approach to settle the crisis. Then they even went as far as using part of our land " Bakassi " to sign a pact with a country which borders us to make sure we have nowhere to run to"

Me :
They said the coup of 1966 was an Igbo cuop which was led Major Kaduna Nzeogwu who was from the present day Delta state.
Yet today they said the people from the same Nzeogwu village are not Igbos, so my people were killed for someone who u now didn't consider Igbos?

Nigeria cannot be forgiven by the crime they committed against people and humanity in general.
You wonder why things never get better in that contraption?
Go and read their history of bloodshed.
They don't want you to know the truth, that's why they removed history from their curriculum. Only cowards run away from their past.
If you are defending the calamity going on in this contraption just because of sentiments or bigotry, then prepare to face the outcome of ur choice cos it will soon get to your door step.

Hail Biafra

IN DEFENSE 

OF 

CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO

They said he was a major, but more astonishingly, he was one of the few Igbo graduates before the outbreak of war. I do not think he merited his new rank, but because of his education, personality, and for the fact that it was a ploy to convince some other young men to emulate his love for the land of his fathers, he was majored. He had no military training, nor experience to be manning such position and taking the responsibility of controlling a whole platoon but because of what he envisaged about Nigeria, and the fact that Igbos were not necessarily being accommodated, yet wanted, he took up arms to defend his ideologies and philosophies of a better society – a system intended to cater for the needs of man than making such impossible.

The society he fought to give birth to, did not survive, but those who practically was against his ideas, (a society of social justice and equality), did not keep their own promise of a better one Nigeria, a system handed over to us by those who murdered to mother us, and other rest of Africa and third-world countries. A country created to serve and promote life to the creator, and destroy same to the created. As we struggle much to make it work, so do we create more problems than solving them. The economic entrapment for us to be regulated by those who sort to provide us with funds to help us improve, but at the same time give conditions on how we spend the money, what we spend the money on, and the countries we buy from, and the people whom the country was handed over to by the colonist, of which Christopher died trying to render ineffective, will agree to anything in order to remain, and retain power. Him and his likes, which fought the war saw the end to Nigeria’s calamity and woes, and decided not to witness them.

The Ajaokuta Steel Company was what the Gowon led government promised the Russian government for their support against Biafra, so Ajaokuta was a settlement contract, and never was a contract. The Bakassi peninsula was handed over to Cameroon, as promised to the Cameroonian government to help blockade the infant Biafra from feeding, as Kwashiorkor later became the phenomenon for a new national anthem: “O missis Mgboagafor, O missis Ugbogoanya, O missis Mkparu, unu erisigo okporo, unu eri si go corn flower, welu akwukwo akpu sieranyi nri; ejelu m Aba bute garri sie nri kwashiorkor, Gowon gbakpuo na bunke, nwunye ya turu ime kwashiorkor, ife oga amu fighter & bumber – o bumber, o bumber, o bumber, o bumber:” while France who pretended to be supporting Biafra, never forced the Cameroonian government to do otherwise. In fact, the French used the Nigeria/Biafra war to squeeze the oil rich peninsula out of the British. France was the devil behind Bakassi lost to the FRANCOPHONE African. The indigenization policy that allowed Nigerians to take over the companies formerly controlled by foreigners, immediately after the war, when the Igbos were still battling with the 20 pounds, was nothing but a ploy, as those who bought the companies then determine the work force. That is why Yorubas occupy the work force, and many normally conclude that it is because they are educated more than the others – but I will say, they buy more of those companies than any other, as Lagos was the centre of commerce then, and it became part of their war spoils. The corruption that was openly characterized the system run by the military, of which those who were part of the power bargain to allow Gowon to head the government after the assassination of General Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi Ironsi, seen themselves as been above government, as it was evident that Major General Hassan Katsina commanded the real power - and that was why it was easy for General Murtala Mohammed to take over.

The Murtala Government was seen as a government that has the heart to make things work, but lack the agility and resourcefulness to make his plan work - his failure to cross over to Onitsha from Asaba during the war, where he failed three times, and the calamity of his lost, both in men and materials, pushed him to order the massacre of all the male members of the Anioma people, while the center government couldn’t do anything. Murtala tried to purge the civil service, and he retired all the military governors and other top ranking officers involved in corruption. Murtala was one of those whose elevation in the military was of blood line connection than tact, so did he fell within a short period of about six months while in power. Obasanjo took power hesitantly. Obasanjo feared more for his life, than performing his function, but he managed to give birth to OTA FARM, while he gave away power to Shagari. There is this rumor we normally carry about when we were still growing, that Idi Amin of Uganda forced General Obasanjo, who was carrying about two billion dollars on an aircraft, down and collected all the money from him. It clearly defines the nature of corrupt practices that characterized his government.

President Shelu usman Aliyu Shagari was under the influence of the compromise of the military to have allowed those who were part of the bargain to carry on with their activities without interferences. The Umaru Dikko, and the importation of rice. The ITT (International Thief Thief) Saga, against Alhaji Bashoru M K O Abiola. Even though Shagari administration lunched an ethical revolution and went ahead to create a ministry of National guidance, corruption assumed the status of national monument. Corruption was doomed pervasive during the administration of Shehu Shagari. A few federal buildings mysteriously went on fire after investigations started probe on the finances of the officials working in the building. There was the story about the defunct Johnson Mathey Bank of London that acted as a conduit to transfer hard currency for some party members in Nigeria. And also the rice shortage in 1981, of which the NPN government was accused of corruption – there was the allegation of protectionism on some individuals by government, after limitations on importation was placed by government to protect local rice farmers from imported commodity. The overthrow of Shagari was super headed by Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha.

Muhammadu Buhari, a lieutenant was favoured by the coup. A cross section of political heavyweights were convicted of different corrupt practices, of which many were sentenced up to 100 years imprison by the military junta, though there few instances of lapsed ethical judgment, of which the disposed president was put under house arrest while his governors and other officials were in prison. There was the issue of the suitcases scandal which also coincidentally involved then customs boss Atiku Abubakar. The 53 suitcases saga became a national catastrophe during the currency exchange exercise ordered by the Buhari Junta that every case arriving the country should go through inspection irrespective of the status of the individual behind such. The suitcases were ferried through Murtala airport without the routine customs check by soldiers at the behest of Major Mustapha Jokolo, the then aide-de camp, ADC to General Buhari. Atiku Abubakar happened to be the Area Comptroller of customs in charge of the Murtala Muhammed Airport at the time.

The Babangida regime refused to give account of the gulf war windfall, which has been estimated to be 12.4 billion - in fact, there was no account. Before the oil wind fall, there was the Austerity Measure, the devaluation of Naira by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that affected the naira against other international currencies like the dollar, pounds. In mid seventies, One dollar was around 60 kobo, while pounds was 75 kobo. The MAMSA headed by Prof. Jerry Gana. Ibrahim Babangida used vehicles to settle the military rank and file in order to earn their loyalty. The IBB boys were notorious with transacting illegal and dirty deals from drugs to money laundering. The story of Gloria Okon, of which later led to the assassination of Dele Giwa of the Newswatch through letter Bomb. The privatization by Babangida favoured certain individuals close to him, and the issue of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer became evident through the bad policies of the Babangida regime.

Though the economy was stable during Abacha regime, but there was massive corruption and starching away of funds in foreign banks by the Abacha government. Abacha’s death revealed much of European collaboration in putting away government funds into their banks, whilst they fight the economic policy of the regime. There were series of accounts linked to Abacha that contain as much as a billion dollar in one of the accounts. New accounts are still been discovered till this day, and there is this statement credited to the son of Abacha, Muhammed Abacha, that his family can never be as poor as Dangote, the richest African. Nigeria is a bleeding ground for corruption, not just in government, but in every sector of the social, economic and political life of this country. Nigeria has been bathed in corruption, and the worst is yet to come.

The Abdulsalami regime was short because it was centered on transition government to civil rule - to democracy - but the Halliburton scandal implicated the government as corrupt. The Democracy the government was planning to establish was marred in the first instance as Obasanjo, a former military dictator, and a convict was chosen by the power broker to head the new dispensation, and instead, corruption took a new turn. The cold hard cash that was starched in freezer with a U.S. congress man as a cohort that involved the Vice President. The Transcorp shares scandal that violated the code of conduct standards for public offers. The indictment of a Japanese firm for offering bribe to officials of Nigeria government to facilitate the award of the 1 billion liquefied natural Gas contract in Bonny. The electricity contract that cost a huge sum, but never was executed, and of which involved one House of Representative member, Ndudu Elumelu, was a huge setback for the country, as many were expecting a steady electricity generation and distribution by the administration wind up. The third term agenda that saw Ghana must go bags litter the floor of the Senate of which would have scaled through if not for the dogged fight by the then Senate President, Ken Nnamani.

The Yar’Adua administration would have given light to the nation if not for his ill health and many corrupt practices went unchecked because of that; even president Yar’Adua openly confessed that the process that saw his emergency as the president was marred with corruption. And the power play that played out after his death, that prevented Jonathan from becoming the number one if not for people like the late Amazon, Prof. Dora Nkemdilim Akunyili and co, Jonathan would have been frustrated back to Otuoke. Jonathan struggled much to retain his seat as the president of Nigeria than doing the work of governance, and because of such, many corrupt practices went unchecked. The corruption in the country became a football league that involved every sector of the economy, political institutions, social work service departments, agencies of government in all levels, the military, etc - it was a blast that affected everybody and every organized labour in the country. I was very angry to begin to marshal many corrupt scandals of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, but will crown it with the oil subsidy that provoked the country into a national protest in 2012, and the new 2.1 billion dollar arms deal.

The second coming of Buhari saw day to day massacre of Nigerians, especially in the Middle Belt by the Fulani herdsmen, taking over the communities they sacked, and renamed those areas to bear their names. The fall of the Naira, through IMF devaluation, against other currencies and the economic indices showing slow growth. The operation Python Dance 1&2 in the East by the Nigerian military against the Biafra agitators, that saw many young Igbos been mowed down in their prime. The crash between the Shites Moslems and the Military that saw many of the Shites been gunned down. Political witch hunt against the opposition, using EFCC to intimidate and incarcerate them without trials. Non compliance to court orders by the Buhari administration. The Edo, Ekiti and Osun election rigging and manipulations.The issue of the man from Sudan in Aso Rock as claimed by Nnamdi Kanu - an imposter ruling a country of 200 million people. Nigeria is on a reverse trend - it is better we disintegrate to integrate before it crashed.

Major Christopher Okigbo and the people that fought on the side of Biafra refused to witness this, like in Okonkwo in “Things fall Apart,” hanged himself instead, but Christopher was felled by enemy bullet when he tried to stop the armored vehicle that pull the attack, while defending NSUKKA.