A touching nice piece.One is reminded here that not all Igbos conspired to commit the coup that took the life of these founding fathers.One is also reminded here of the false propaganda of poet Odia Ofeimun in his last interview with Sahara Reporters that the 1966 coup has to do with the withdrawal of certain political advantages from Igbo land some years before the coup.
One of the worst crime I believe, against the human community is to spread falsehood because the effects are generational,inter-generational and trans-generational.
One is also is reminded here of the massacre of thousands of the Igbos who like Zik would have wept at the sight of the bodies of these servants of the state-an event that is believed to have been influenced by some notable and respected northern political elders.
I have often critically asked myself assuming that the reverse was the case-that northerners were scattered all over Eastern Nigeria and then some group of Northern soldiers killed even if Zik only for whatever reason -what would have followed?
I argue that it is possible that it could have fanned ethnic hatred leading to some retaliatory events and even massacres but whether it would led to an organized massacre of 1966 kinds which was properly coordinated and which happened twice is totally doubtful .Many reasons support this.The first is the Christian ethics of forgiveness which would likely have moderated the course of the events in Igbo state where ninety percent of the population are Christians; the second is the atomistic nature of the Igbo state which would have limited loyalty to proposed large scale vengeance and the third is what amounts to a brisk and momentous social psychology of the Igbos.
I still in my imagination find it hard to imagine the Igbo political leader of the time who have devoted his time to campaign and instigated a coordinated massacre of other ethnic groups in Igbo land for the fact that a Zik was killed by soldiers from the nothern ethnic group.I stand to be corrected.
Up till today nobody have officially condemned and apologized for this massacre of people who have no link with Kaduna Nzeogwu and his colleagues beyond language.
But taking life for any reason any by anybody is clearly opposite of the ethics of the idea of a modern state.Interestingly it does seem that in modern Nigerian state "it is not that someone is killed but who is killed and by whom";a clear indication that life is graded and that this gradation is tolerated by the citizenship ethics.
But as I have argued elsewhere in a public forum in Nigeria "the life of a Nigerian should be seen to equal to the life all Nigerians summed together" and unless and until the idea of the Nigerian state advances the idea of life to this level, Nigeria may ever remain an experiment;a political myth than a functional/human and humane political reality.
Lawrence Ogbo Ugwuanyi,Ph.D
Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy
Department of Philosophy and Religions
Great Zimbabwe University
Zimbabwe/
University of Abuja.
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One of the worst crime I believe, against the human community is to spread falsehood because the effects are generational,inter-generational and trans-generational.
One is also is reminded here of the massacre of thousands of the Igbos who like Zik would have wept at the sight of the bodies of these servants of the state-an event that is believed to have been influenced by some notable and respected northern political elders.
I have often critically asked myself assuming that the reverse was the case-that northerners were scattered all over Eastern Nigeria and then some group of Northern soldiers killed even if Zik only for whatever reason -what would have followed?
I argue that it is possible that it could have fanned ethnic hatred leading to some retaliatory events and even massacres but whether it would led to an organized massacre of 1966 kinds which was properly coordinated and which happened twice is totally doubtful .Many reasons support this.The first is the Christian ethics of forgiveness which would likely have moderated the course of the events in Igbo state where ninety percent of the population are Christians; the second is the atomistic nature of the Igbo state which would have limited loyalty to proposed large scale vengeance and the third is what amounts to a brisk and momentous social psychology of the Igbos.
I still in my imagination find it hard to imagine the Igbo political leader of the time who have devoted his time to campaign and instigated a coordinated massacre of other ethnic groups in Igbo land for the fact that a Zik was killed by soldiers from the nothern ethnic group.I stand to be corrected.
Up till today nobody have officially condemned and apologized for this massacre of people who have no link with Kaduna Nzeogwu and his colleagues beyond language.
But taking life for any reason any by anybody is clearly opposite of the ethics of the idea of a modern state.Interestingly it does seem that in modern Nigerian state "it is not that someone is killed but who is killed and by whom";a clear indication that life is graded and that this gradation is tolerated by the citizenship ethics.
But as I have argued elsewhere in a public forum in Nigeria "the life of a Nigerian should be seen to equal to the life all Nigerians summed together" and unless and until the idea of the Nigerian state advances the idea of life to this level, Nigeria may ever remain an experiment;a political myth than a functional/human and humane political reality.
Lawrence Ogbo Ugwuanyi,Ph.D
Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy
Department of Philosophy and Religions
Great Zimbabwe University
Zimbabwe/
University of Abuja.
On Friday, May 2, 2014 6:18 AM, Rex Marinus <rexmarinus@hotmail.com> wrote:
"Before you satisfy your gory lust
Spare me one moment to beseech Allah
Who gave life that animates this dust
From time of birth, through death, to Valhalla."
"I pray that should you plan to snuff my life
Because you thought my leadership has failed,
Your rash decision be not clothed with strife
That leads to your own heads to be impaled."
"If wrong was done when power was mine to wield,
Be magnanimous, since we all must err.
If death should be my fate, then I must yield,
Since you are armed, your wrath I can't incur."
Forgive these youthful sons of violence,"
He prayed: 'And let them see its uselessness.
From genocide my murder can commence,
oh God, preserve this land from sore distress."
His brutal killers, thirsting for blood,
Were not disposed to heed his plaintive plea.
Having been slain, they dumped him with a thud
inside their jeep and drove away with glee.
The gruesome deed cannot inspire praise
But condemnation of the heinous type;
The world of fault-finders we must amaze
By proving that, in fact, we are not ripe.
This sage, who paid the price of leadership,
laid down his life as ransom for our jive;
His mantle falls on sterling statesmanship:
To moor our ark of state, its life revive.
-Nsukka, February 1966
CC: igboworldforum@yahoogroups.com; igboevents@yahoogroups.com; naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com; umuahians@googlegroups.com
To: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com; OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
From: aadeboye@mac.com
Date: Thu, 1 May 2014 21:42:02 -0400
Subject: Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] "Omimi Ejo: An Acrostic": Azikiwe's Elegy for Okotie-Eboh
Hello Dr. Nwakanma,
![Yahoo! Groups]()
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Spare me one moment to beseech Allah
Who gave life that animates this dust
From time of birth, through death, to Valhalla."
"I pray that should you plan to snuff my life
Because you thought my leadership has failed,
Your rash decision be not clothed with strife
That leads to your own heads to be impaled."
"If wrong was done when power was mine to wield,
Be magnanimous, since we all must err.
If death should be my fate, then I must yield,
Since you are armed, your wrath I can't incur."
Forgive these youthful sons of violence,"
He prayed: 'And let them see its uselessness.
From genocide my murder can commence,
oh God, preserve this land from sore distress."
His brutal killers, thirsting for blood,
Were not disposed to heed his plaintive plea.
Having been slain, they dumped him with a thud
inside their jeep and drove away with glee.
The gruesome deed cannot inspire praise
But condemnation of the heinous type;
The world of fault-finders we must amaze
By proving that, in fact, we are not ripe.
This sage, who paid the price of leadership,
laid down his life as ransom for our jive;
His mantle falls on sterling statesmanship:
To moor our ark of state, its life revive.
-Nsukka, February 1966
CC: igboworldforum@yahoogroups.com; igboevents@yahoogroups.com; naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com; umuahians@googlegroups.com
To: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com; OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
From: aadeboye@mac.com
Date: Thu, 1 May 2014 21:42:02 -0400
Subject: Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] "Omimi Ejo: An Acrostic": Azikiwe's Elegy for Okotie-Eboh
Please kindly post President Azikiwe's elegy for each of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa, Premier Ladoke Akintola, Premier Ahmadu Bello, Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari and any other public servant who was killed during the January 1966 coup. The second stanza here is rather alarming:
Of all the tragic deeds on that bleak day,
Killing the portly servant of the state
On flimsy ground, to have their devilish way
Transformed our land into a den of hate,
Instilling prejudice and fear galore
Wow. One learns quite a bit from what is written here that one would want to unlearn.
On May 1, 2014, at 5:44 PM, Rex Marinus wrote:
Farewell, my bosom friend, and rest in peace,
Eager were you to serve the nation's cause,
Sincere and loyal friendship I will miss,
The forward march of freedom will now pause
Under a new order of discipline
Sceding a future from the shifting scene.
Of all the tragic deeds on that bleak day,
Killing the portly servant of the state
On flimsy ground, to have their devilish way
Transformed our land into a den of hate,
Instilling prejudice and fear galore
Enfeebled by this tragic will of fate,
Be brave, Victoria, for the sun still shines
Over the clouds, to foil evil designs.
His life endures with those of us who wait.
-Onuiyi Haven, Nsukka,
February 26, 1966
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