Brother Segun:
Since I have always been a Nigerian at heart (as General Dr. Yakubu Gowon once described me at an UK function) but not a bona fide citizen of the great, oil-rich country called Nigeria, I take a brotherly issue with your posting below. By the way, Dr. Gowon, as a postgraduate student at University of Warwick, UK, and I shared Professor James O'Connor (an Irish scholar, who was previously at University of Ibadan) as Advisers: he was the head of my postdoctoral Peace Studies program at University of Bradford, UK, while also serving as Gowon's External Examiner!
As a Historian (and, also, as an ordained Baptist Minister), I wish to "sue" for peace and decorum by urging that we stop calling Elders (or past leaders) names, especially those who are not with us anymore on this "wretched" earth to defend themselves. Please, if possible and also in context, do remember the historicity of Ukpabi Asika-Nnamdi Azikiwe controversy of "I am tired of being ex-this, and ex-that" as well as Asika's "Biafra, Enough is Enough" broadcast!
For example, I lived in Nigeria before and, partly, after the unfortunate civil war broke out. When working for Nigerian newspapers and, also, the then London-based West Africa Magazine, the bitterness of the war, on both sides, was such that Journalists were either disciplined or even dismissed (fired) if they did not put quotation marks around the name of Biafra (i.e. "Biafra") in their news postings or sub-edited work. Those were part of the dark days in African Journalism!
From what I saw happening to certain ethnic groups in Nigeria, including the Igbos, it was like being pushed firmly to as well as against the wall, and still being told: "Kafiri" or "Move on": "Move on" to where? I am sure that the Igbo leaders, who decided on the war, which was embraced by their own people, regardless of how much suffering they all endured in the end, meant well for their kith and kin. For example, when Okonkwo Edem (?) of then "Radio Biafra" quoted the Biafran leader (Ojukwu) as saying that "Gowon is not my superior; academically, he is not, and militarily, he is not", it had a lot of serious implications that true historians knew at the time and still know today!
Maybe, looking today at the outcome of the recent British-Scotland voting, we can issue clarion calls that Nigeria and other nations, which once faced dismemberment (as Nigeria faced in the civil war) should learn from the voting. But, in the heat of things in the late 1960s, no Igbo leader as well as no Hausa leader looked at an electoral referendum to decide the fate of Nigeria. It was: "To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done!" The closest Nigerian and Biafran leaders came to was the "Aburi Accord", and, again, Radio Biafra did drum up their leader's scream: "On Aburi I stand."
Sadly, that was also the time that legal luminaries on the Nigerian side, including the well-respected Justice T.O. Elias, belatedly, cautioned the Nigerian leader (Gowon) that he had been sold the idea of "Confederacy" at Aburi!
So, the Nigerian side dismissed the "Aburi Accord" like a hot iron in one's hand!
At New York University (NYU), as a graduate student, my biggest fight with my German room-mate was on the day he showed me Nazi currency and, subsequently, tried to sell the idea to me that: "Hitler was a devoted German nationalist, and that without Hitler's able exploits, there won't be Germany today!" I gave him an African beating of Hogan Bassey-Roy Ankrah boxing type and, with the institution's Jewish roots, NYU housing officials sided with me, and asked the "poor" German guy to leave the apartment we were sharing in the Greenwich Village because they found him at fault, as a provocateur!
If Hitler, today, is seen or regarded by some well-educated Germans (including my former German room mate, who earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology) as a nationalist, then what should Ojukwu be to his Igbo compatriots? Please, bear in mind that the Biafran leader did not study science at Oxford but history, up to a master's degree level: as "O. Ojukwu, M.A. (Oxon)"! Therefore, he had a sense of history like all of us have today.
Maybe, if Ojukwu and other Nigerian leaders (including Gowon) were to have a second chance today, they would have invited the United Nations, as the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and Togo did in deciding the fate of the Trans-Volta Togoland, which -- by a UN plebiscite -- became Ghana's Volta Region in 1956, shortly before Ghana's independence in 1957.
Brother Segun, you certainly have a right to have your freedom of speech in democratic America but, in mediation, I feel that "name calling" will never end, if others too have to start calling those you respect names; it is like what we learned in colonial elementary school: that those living in glass houses should not start to throw stones at people outside the house!
In VC Aluko's admirable words, I will also say: There you have it!
A.B. Assensoh, Oregon (from my sick bed!).
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 5:36 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tribute: General Benjamin Adekunle
Sent from my iPhone
--Those who are afflicted with neurosis or character disorder will never accept responsibility for the consequence of their attacks on other people but when their attacks are countered and repelled, they will automatically blame the repellants for their defeat. We should read the history of the Nigerian Civil War as it was and not as how we wish it be.--
While many of us are still saddened by the unnecessary waste of lives of our brethrens in the Nigerian civil war the cause and the fault of that huge lost of lives should be blamed on Ojukwu and his inner circle of carbinent. It was Ojukwu who rejected Decree No. 8 of 17th March 1967 that contained all the agreements reached at Aburi except that it authorised the Supreme Military Council to declare a state of emergency anywhere in the country, if the situation demanded it, and provided three out of the four Regional Governors consented to it. At the end of March 1967, Ojukwu issued his so called *survival edicts* whereby he seized Federal Government properties in the East. The first air piracy in Africa was committed in April 1967, when a Nigerian Airways Fokker Friendship aircraft was hijacked in Benin and flown to Enugu. After treating Awolowo contemptuously on May 7, 1967, Ojukwu, on the 26th of May 1967, convened what he called Eastern Consultative Assembly to approve Eastern Region's autonomy from Nigeria. To the Consultative Assembly, Ojukwu boasted that, "there is no power in this country or in Black Africa to subdue us by force." On the 27th of May 1967, Gowon abrogated Decree No. 8, declared a State of Emergency throughout the Federation, and split the country into 12 States of which the Eastern Region became East Central State, Rivers State and South East State. On the same day, Ojukwu's Consultative Assembly mandated him to declare a Sovereign State of Biafra as early as possible. On May 30, 1967, Ojukwu declared his Republic of Biafra. It is noteworthy that the killing of Igbos in the North began in May 1966 when Ironsi was in power but Ojukwu did not secede. When his tribesman was no longer in power he wanted to secede. Ojukwu himself had joined hands with Ironsi to crush the rebellion of Isaac Adaka Boro when he declared the minority part of Eastern Region as Niger Delta Republic in February 1966. The Niger Delta People that were killed while quelling the rebellion of Isaac Adaka Boro were not Igbos but still they were human beings. So on July 6, 1967 Gowon commenced a *police Action* to arrest Ojukwu which to the views of observers all over the world was so mild in comparison with what the duos of Ironsi and Ojukwu did to Isaac Adaka Boro, a non Igbo rebellion.
Early in 1967, Peter Enahoro who had gone into exile in London in protest against the continued killings of Igbos in September 1966 long after Gowon had ascended power, wrote in the Eastern Nigerian Outlook thus, "Eastern Nigeria must not surrender. Ojukwu must not capitulate. Let us for the first time in the History of Nigeria have a force powerful enough to challenge the feudal North." Enahoro expressed the view of many Nigerians, including majority of Northerners, at that time. But Ojukwu was a damn reactionary. He grew Che Guevara's beards but acted like Moise Tshombe, the Katangese rebel leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ojukwu did not want to fight feudalism and he killed those around him who wanted to fight against feudalism, such as Victor Banjo, Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Sam Agbamuche and Philip Alale while some, like Chike Obi, Mukwugo Okoye and others were detained throughout the war.
I have previously stated in this forum that Nigerian civil war, practically, finished in September 1968 and no one has been able to challenge me. September 1968 was exactly the time when hunger and starvation began to take its toll among Igbos, forced into concentration camps by Ojukwu who never considered mass deaths in his concentration camps as genocide or war crime perpetrated either by Awolowo, Adekunle or the federal government of Nigeria. Therefore, Ojukwu addressed his Consultative Assembly at the end of September 1968 as follows, "Our real victory lies in our ability to prevent the extermination of our people by a heartless enemy. In so far as these aims are concerned, we have not failed (see Biafra: Ojukwu's Selected Speeches; Volume1. p. 353)." Until his death Ojukwu never accused anyone of genocide or war crimes, may be due to the fact that he knew that he was responsible for hunger and starvation to death in his Republic of Biafra. Further on p. 357 of the same volume of his Selected Speeches, and in the same forum, Ojukwu said, "Those governments motivated by humanitarian considerations have a responsibility to ensure that Biafrans are enabled to defend themselves by providing them the wherewithal so to do." In clear terms, Ojukwu was demanding for weapons from foreign governments and not food as humanitarian supplies for his starving citizens of his Republic.
After wasting millions of human lives, Ojukwu with his inner cabinet fled from Biafra into asylum in the Ivory Coast. But in 1979 when Nigeria was on the verge to civilian rule, Ojukwu submitted his nomination papers, duly signed from Ivory Coast, to Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) on form E. C. 4D in which Ojukwu declared that he was a citizen of Nigeria and therefore qualified for election to the Nigerian House of Representatives on the ticket of the Great Nigeria People's Party (GNPP), led by Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim and in Nnewi Federal Constituency. FEDECO rejected his application on the ground that he was dismissed from the Nigerian Army and in accordance with section 73 sub-section (1), (9) (ii) of the Electoral Decree, a dismissed official was not qualified to contest elections. Ojukwu's lawyers took FEDECO to court in vain. Ojukwu, who denigerianized himself and imposed the same on all Igbos in 1967 because of his hatred for Northerners was now seeking election into the Nigerian House of Representatives on the platform of a party led by a Northerner. What a shameless villain?
Ojukwu returned to Nigeria in 1982, having been pardoned by President Shehu Shagari and Ojukwu quickly joined the ruling NPN whose power was terminated by a military coup in 1983. However, in 1993 the properties of his father in Lagos, Ojukwu Transport Limited, was released to him together with accumulated rents of twelve million Naira collected and saved by each succeeding governments since 1967. The collection of that huge amount was not made public until one of his half-brothers, Lotanna Ojukwu, filed a lawsuit against him in 1998 to demand his part of their father's heritage. Contrary to propaganda, the N 12 million was not reduced to £20!!
If the Igbos have voted massively for Ojukwu when he contested the Presidential Election of 2007, under the platform of APGA, he could justifiably be referred to as a hero for the Igbo. In that election, Presidential Candidate Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, got only 155, 947 votes in the whole country. While Buhari and Atiku challenged the result of the election in court, Ojukwu and his APGA rushed to submit names of likely ministers to Umaru Musa Yar'Adua who had promised to form a national government of all political parties. Ojukwu was not a Hero for the Igbos not to talk of the whole Nigeria. It is a hidden fact to many Nigerians that while Ojukwu's Biafra war veterans, under the scorch of the sun and pouring rain, beg for alms to make a living, Ojukwu crawled at the feet of those he had sworn not to touch even with a pincet to beg for pension as a Lieutenant Colonel, the rank he held before the war in the Nigerian Army. He was granted the pension which he was receiving every month until his last breath on this earth. A hero or an opportunist, I leave that to all normal people to judge.
From: rexmarinus@hotmail.com
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tribute: General Benjamin Adekunle
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 19:09:22 +0000
The simple truth is that Benjamin Adekunle should have been brought before a civilized court, and charged under the Geneva convention for war crimes, and he should have spent the rest of his wretched life in a prison. Chief Awolowo also abetted the use of hunger in the blockade that starved civilian populations in a war which the federal government declared and waged against the East. He too stands guilty of war crimes. Achebe merely pointed out the facts. Those invested in erasing and revising the truths of that war are wrestling with time and the long memory of a violated people. It is impossible to silence people who can still point to mass graves that hold the bleached bones of their women, their children and young men who were victims of the war tactics of Benjamin Adekunle, and the policies that backed him. One or two conferences may not resolve these questions, but it will open up the pus-filled wound of history covered with bandaid, and allow the different sides of the narrative to confront the other, and perhaps ultimately find peace.
Obi Nwakanma
From: ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tribute: General Benjamin Adekunle
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 13:45:20 +0200
I doubt if such a conference would ever achieve anything good because some Nigerians have been narcotized with false ethnic love. Those ethnic warriors dwell in social environment where gossips and ordinary speculations work better than deep-rooted thinking and ideological philosophy. In their narcotized condition, the ethnic fascists are addicted to interpreting speeches of their opponents in the Nigerian civil war to convey meanings that were not intended by the speakers. I will corroborate my assertion with some examples.
At the meeting of Western Leaders of Thought in Ibadan, May 1, 1967, Obafemi Awolowo said, "If the Eastern Region is allowed, by acts of omission, or commission, to secede from or opt out of Nigeria, then the Federation should be considered to be at an end and the Western Region should also opt out of it." Not only did that statement indicate clear opposition to disintegration of Nigeria, Awolowo took anti-secession step when on the 7th of May 1967, he led a four-man reconciliation delegation to Enugu to meet Lieutenant Colonel Ojukwu and to persuade him not to cut the head as a solution to migraine. Ojukwu disdainfully treated Awolowo and his National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) and told them that their mission was an ill-conceived child. In spite of the self-explained statement of Awolowo on the 1st of May 1967, the grand Mandarin of ethno-fascism went on to interpret his statement as having agreed with Ojukwu that the Western Region would simultaneously secede from Nigeria and that Awolowo betrayed Ojukwu by not making West to secede.
In Chinua Achebe's There was a Country (p. 233), he wrote, "A statement credited to Chief Obafemi Awolowo and echoed by his cohorts is the most callous and unfortunate: All is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don't see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder." Since Igbo civilians were unarmed and not fighting against the Federal forces, the objection to *feeding our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder* as credited to Awolowo could reasonably not have implied Igbo civilians but Biafran soldiers. However, the cause of Awolowo remarks in that regard was completely detached and expunged from public knowledge. Indeed Awolowo was reacting to reports that relief supplies sent to Biafra for civilians were being hijacked by the Biafran soldiers and did not reach the needy. Clearly, Awolowo did not object to sending food to civilian Biafrans but their soldiers. Yet, narcotized ethnic fascists continue till date to accuse Awolowo of refusing food to civilians in Biafra and thereby had committed genocide when Igbos starved to death in Ojukwu's concentration camps. These ethnic fascists should have read page 22 of Ojukwu's Ahiara Declaration of June 1, 1969, where he stated thus, "....even while we are engaged in a war of a national survival, even while the life of our nation hangs in the balance, we see some public servants, who throw huge parties to entertain their friends; who kill cows to christen their babies. We have members of the Armed Forces who carry on attack trade instead of fighting the enemy. We have traders who hoard essential goods and inflate prices thereby increasing the people's hardship." That was the situation in Biafra as observed By Ojukwu himself, 1 June 1969 when his country was afflicted with mass starvation.
As for Adekunle's reaction to the international humanitarian organisations at that time, one must bear in mind that those organisations violated the international rules that regulated their activities. Nigeria had insisted according to international law that all humanitarian flights to Biafra should first land in Nigeria (Port-Harcourt) for inspection so as to guarantee that weapons were not being ferried to the rebels, but the humanitarian organisations ignored Federal government's request by flying direct to the rebel enclave. A month after Adekunle was relieved of his Command of the third Marine, a Red Cross marked aircraft that refused to land at Port-Harcourt for inspection on the order of the Nigerian Air Force was shot down and exposed for carrying arms and ammunitions and not civilian relief supplies in June 1969. Thus Adekunle was vindicated. The war finished 44 years ago and war propaganda must have ended then as well. That is what ethno-fascists have to understand!!
From: rexmarinus@hotmail.com
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tribute: General Benjamin Adekunle
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 19:56:51 +0000
God thinking Abdul Salau. Its long overdue.
Obi Nwakanma
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 14:30:15 -0500
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tribute: General Benjamin Adekunle
From: salauabdul@gmail.com
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Igbo Studies Conference and Historical Society of Nigeria, and Professor Falola can organize such a conference. Professor Falola has experience organizing conferences in Africa this conference is needed. It must be open and must include scholars and writers with different point of view.
On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 12:21 PM, John Mbaku <jmbaku@weber.edu> wrote:
Perhaps, some university in Nigeria or other academic institution, can organize an academic conference on either the civil war (1967-1970) generally and provide a panel to rigorously look into the matters raised here, or actually have the entire conference devoted to an examination of the man and the role he played in the civil war, in particular, and the political economy of Nigeria, in general. I doubt that all this name-calling would sufficiently advance the discuss on General Benjamin Adesanya Maja Adekunle or any other Nigerian from history.--
On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 1:37 PM, Anunoby, Ogugua <AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu> wrote:
If verifiable evidence is available and the request is for “authentic” evidence, the suspicion, respectfully, must be that the seeker of the latter evidence might be in some state of self-denial which by the way is the free available choice of the denier.
Many people all over the world do not believe that all is fair, proper, and right in war. There are also many who do. Everyone is free to believe as they please or choose. International law however is clear on the subject hence “war crimes” and war crime trials that follow.
“The truth is that Major Chude Sokei and Lieutenant Oguchi became pacifists only because the person they were supposed to kill, Dr Michael Ihenokura Okpara, was their tribesman.”
Why anyone based on only blunt supposition will be categorically sure that what they claim to be the truth is, and nothing but the truth is beyond me.
It is a historical fact that Archbishop Makarios, Primate of the autocephalous Church of Cyprus and the first President of the Republic of Cyprus was officially visiting Premier Okpara in Enugu after the January 1966 Commonwealth Leaders Conference in Lagos that had just ended. The coup plotters broke into the Premier’s Lodge (Okpara’s official residence as premier) in Enugu as planned on the night of the coup. They found Okpara and Makarios at a meeting. The coup plotters’ break-in at that time of the night in full military assault gear struck terror into Okpara and his honored guest. They left without Okpara because they knew that the Archbishop and President would be a credible witness to Okpara’s abduction and planned assassination except of course they assassinated the Archbishop and President too. This is the late Archbishop and President’s account of the event, at a formal, public, press conference that he addressed in Lagos, before his departure home.
One needs neither inspiration nor education to recognize that the above Sokei and Oguchi claim is most likely an invented narrative that falsely explains Okpara’s escape from Igbo coup plotters given the assassinations in Ibadan, Kaduna and Lagos on the same night. It was most likely masterfully invented to justify the brutal murders of innocent Eastern Nigerians in military barracks, and in homes and streets of the then Northern and western Regions, in the months and years that followed
The events that led to the Nigeria-Biafra war were tragic but avoidable. The war was even more so. Dispassionate and honest conversations must continue to take place so that the events’ lessons are learned and the events are not repeated.
oa
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Salimonu Kadiri
Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2014 8:42 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tribute: General Benjamin Adekunle
I have requested the traducers of General Adekunle to provide authentic evidence to prove their claims that General Adekunle committed war crimes or genocide during the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970). Instead of acceding to my request, General Adekunle's traducers have been engaged in publishing innuendoes, outright lies and even forgeries just to smear the image of the revered General who advocated that the best way to stop unnecessary sufferings and deaths of our Igbo brethrens was a quick defeat of the rebel forces. Nigeria is a country where ineptitude and mediocrity are always rewarded while the truly talented, honest and patriots, like General Adekunle, are always disdained and disesteemed. Nevertheless, it is indecent and indecorum to fabricate stories out of ones imagination just because of the desire to discredit General Adekunle. General Adekunle did not cause or declare the civil war but as fate would have it he happened to one the three Divisional Commanders. In a war you have to kill and maim or be killed or be maimed. In war there is nothing like equilibrium where reactions is equal to action. This is best illustrated with what Okonkwo tells us in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart that if a man comes and defecates in your compound, the only manly thing to do is to take a stick and break his head. Breaking the head of a compound defecator is out of proportion with defecating. That is how it is in war. I hate war(s) and that is why I can never be a sympathiser of war crimes.
A times, I have to choose words to describe what I see and experience. Therefore, my deployment of the word hallucination was just a description of the charge of genocide being levelled against General Adekunle. It is never in my character to insult anyone. In fact the most appropriate word I should have used was *Schizophrenia*. As it is known, hallucination - hearing or seeing things that do not exist, and delusion - believing in things that are untrue are subsets of schizophrenia. Hallucination and delusion are often referred to as symptom of psychosis which is defined as when somebody is unable to distinguish between reality and his/her imagination. Simply expressed, I am tired of hearing and reading about Adekunle's imaginary war crimes and genocide.
When an individual Nigerian wants to emotionalize issues or escape from moral predicaments and burdens, he/she mischievously turns to religion or tribe. By embellishing any issue with religious or tribal flavour, at least, two or more people might care to taste. For instance, an individual Nigerian who is arrested for stealing billions of Naira appropriated for Universal Primary Education throughout Nigeria would claim that his arrest is due his tribe and give the impression that he is representing his/her tribe in office. Yet, both his/her legitimate and illegitimate incomes in office are for his/her family alone and are never shared amongst the tribal group. A criticism of an individual bad behaviour is not a criticism of his/her entire tribe. In the same vein, my criticism of General Adekunle's traducers is not a criticism of the whole Ndi Igbo and does not amount to a dislike of all Igbos.
There appears to be resentments over my expression,*Ojukwu and his gangs* and some countered me by referring to him as a hero. Although, no one has bordered to ask me why I used the expression, *Ojukwu and his gang* I hereby endeavour to give you my reasons. At 12:30 pm on 15 January 1966, Major Patrick Chukwuma Nzeogwu, had a broadcast in the name of the Supreme Council of the Revolution of the Nigerian Armed Forces, on Radio Nigeria, Kaduna. He said among others, "The constitution is suspended and the regional government and elected assembly are hereby dissolved. The aim of the Revolutionary Council is to establish a strong, united and prosperous nation free from corruption and internal strife... Our enemies are the political profiteers, the swindlers, the men in high and low places that seek bribes and demand ten per cent, those that seek to keep the country divided permanently.... the tribalists, the nepotists.." Among the offences he listed that carried death sentence were embezzlement, bribery and corruption. By 2:30 PM the Nigerian Radio Broadcasting Corporation, Lagos, announced "In the early hours of this morning, 15th January 1966, a dissident section of the Nigerian Army kidnapped the Prime minister and the minister of finance and took them to unknown destination. The General Officer Commanding (Aguiyi Ironsi) and the vast majority of the army remained completely loyal to the Federal government and are already taking appropriate measures to bring the situation under control." Immediately after that the Commander of the 5th Battalion in Kano, Lt. Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, promptly invited the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, to broadcast a message of appeal for peace and calm on Radio Kano. Ojukwu connived with Ironsi and others to ambush the Majors and hijack their revolution. Captain Ben Gbulie in his book, Nigeria's Five Majors,revealed the infiltration and betrayal of the Majors thus, "... both Major Don Okafor and Captain Ogbo Oji had taken a stand against any step that might embody the killing of Ironsi. ... while the would be assassins were pointedly making for his (Irosi) residence, hoping to capture him, he was at the same time heading towards Ikeja to enlist the support of ... 2nd Battalion. Major John Obienu had for some insane reason turned traitor; and that he was in fact a downright insincere cowards. His failure to honour his pledge and turn up that night with his armoured cars was the one deciding factors that led ultimately to the collapse of the Lagos operation - a calamitous act of sabotage that, by depriving our colleagues of the much-needed fire-power with which to crush Ironsi's counter revolution, finally drove a nail into the coffin of our objective (p. 125 - 126)." Further on page 136, Captain Gbulie wrote, "...Major Chude Sokei and Lieutenant Oguchi of the first Infantry Battalion, Enugu, had ranked very high on the list of the strong advocates of a bloodless coup. And these were none other than the two young men upon whose shoulders squarely rested the onerous task of prosecuting the coup in the hill-clad coal city. They had indeed been so dogmatic in their stand that they could scarcely hide that they totally abhorred bloodshed - bloodshed in any shape or form." The truth is that Major Chude Sokei and Lieutenant Oguchi became pacifists only because the person they were supposed to kill, Dr Michael Ihenokura Okpara, was their tribesman. Because, of tribal infiltrators, the killings in the January 15, 1966 coup, except one, only affected non Igbos. However, on Sunday night at 23:50 hours, 16 January 1966, Ironsi reneged on his loyalty to the Federal government and announced on Lagos radio that he had taken over power.
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 15:17:37 -0700
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tribute: General Benjamin Adekunle
From: okeyiheduru@gmail.com
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.comThanks, OA for taking words out of my mouth, so to speak, regarding Salimonu Kadri's unfortunate sympathies for war crimes. I did not accuse General Adekunle; he did it himself and his eternal words have convicted him. Kadri and many others on this forum and elsewhere are so blinded by his/their distaste for Ndi Igbo (cf. his "Ojukwu and his gang", etc.) that they are willing to rationalize and express sympathies for war crimes. The Nigerian Armed Forces have a serious problem with war crimes and other human rights violations, but we've always rationalized these crimes because they inflicted them on "them", not "us." Guess what? That nightmarish film is now showing--or will soon show-- in a village near almost all of us.
Finally, despite my being really nice to Salimonu, he still went ahead to insult me by saying I was "hallucinated." When he's tired of reading his one-sided history, he should try and lay his hands on the submissions of Ohaneze to the Oputa Truth Commission to get an idea of the genocide and war crimes committed by the likes of the late General Adekunle.
On Thu, Sep 18, 2014 at 10:40 AM, Anunoby, Ogugua <AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu> wrote:
Our conversation is on Adekunle, the military commander in the Nigeria-Biafra war. It is not on anyone else. No one should confuse chicken for beef.
Adekunle’s war crimes are still not justifiable. There was no need for them. That other military commanders did the same do not redeem him. One war crime does not justify another in the same or different war. Wrong is wrong even in war.
Adekunle testified against himself on many occasions. He convicted himself in the public square. He was triumphalist as he did so. Those must be some measures of the arrogance, indiscipline, thoughtlessness, perhaps unsoundness of mind, and entitlement sense of the man.
War is mostly evil. War brings out the worst in evil people. War has its imperatives. Mistakes are made in war. Adekunle’s crimes against children, women, the innocent, and many soldiers under his command, are not and should be any of them. Adekunle never came round to acknowledging that he should have fought the war differently if he knew then, what he knew later. He seemed incapable of a judicious audit of his merciless command role in the war. That alone is a sad testament to the spirit of bitterness, hatred, and rancor in which he participated as a commander in the war. He rejected every opportunity to redeem himself.
Should it surprise anyone that he was for most of his post military life, shunned by his military peers? He became a virtual outcast in public affairs? Is there any more to say? There is no more to say. May he have the mercy that he did not have on others.
oa
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Salimonu Kadiri
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2014 4:53 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tribute: General Benjamin Adekunle
--
Just as Adolf Hitler was against the Treaty of Versailles the outcome of World War 1 and therefore planned World War II to reverse the Versailles' Treaty, some Nigerians are planning to reverse the outcome of the Nigerian civil war that officially ended in January 1970. Therefore, these elements still talk about their presumed genocide during the Nigerian civil war that occurred between July 6, 1967, and January 15 1970. I don't know which GENOCIDE these elements are talking about.
In the history of warfare, the Federal Military Government led by General Yakubu Gowon at the time in question has been highly commended for inviting International Observer Team to the war fronts to follow and report on the conducts of the Federal troops. The International Observer Team were from the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity (present day African Union), Britain, Canada, Sweden and Poland. The International Observer Team issued its first interim report on October 3, 1968, in which it established that there was "no evidence of any intent by the Federal troops to destroy the Ibo people (as they were then known) or their property, and the use of the term genocide is in no way justified." The Polish representative in the Observer Team, Colonel Alfons Olkiewiez, at a press conference said that the Team had spoken to 'thousands and thousands of Ibos, soldiers, missionaries and relief workers but had found no trace of mass-killings of Ibos.' The Swedish member of the Observer Team, Major-General Arthur Raab, was quoted by Carl Gustav von Rosen, a Biafran sympathiser as having said that after seven months of observations, 'we have still not seen any signs of the mass anihilation which Ojukwu claims is threatened by the Federal side. Ojukwu is deliberately transferring military headquarters to schools, hospitals, churches and so on. In which case, can one call these civilian targets?' Conversion of civilian establishments into military base was confirmed by Chinua Achebe in his Swan song - There Was a Country - when he wrote on page 172 that his ancestral house was forcibly converted into a military base by the Biafran Army and the residents woke up in the middle of the night by artillery exchanges between the Biafran and Nigerian forces.
General Benjamin Adesanya Maja Adekunle was tremendously a hard-working, deligent and proud professional soldier. He understood that the best way to end the suffering of the people in Biafra was a quick military defeat of Ojukwu and his gang. Thus, on the 25th of July 1967, he captured Bonny Island, the only sea terminal for crude oil then, in a sea-borne assault. When the Biafrans invaded the then Mid-West State in August 1967, General Adekunle was recalled from Bonny Island to flush out the Biafrans from the Delta area of the State. The indefatigble General Adekunle soon returned to launch amphibious attack on Calabar and capturing it on October 18, 1967 and from there his troops linked up with the first Division at Ikom near the Cameroon border, thereby surrounding Biafra. In a quick succession after the fall of Calabar, he captured Itu, Uyo and Ikot Ekpene which according to Phillip Effiong hastened the collapse of the Biafran 12th Division and consequently of Biafra. In February 1968 General Adekunle led his troops to capture Afikpo, Ugep, Ediba, Itigidi and Obubra. On May 18, 1968, he demonstrated his military prowess by capturing Port-Harcourt. Thus, he singlehandedly liberated the entire, Rivers State and South East State, thereby paving way for the appointment of Governors with administative headquarters in Uyo and Port-Harcourt. In September 1968 he captured Aba and in defiance of order from Lagos, he attacked and captured Owerri. When the British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson visited Nigeria in March 1969 he requested for a visit to Adekunle's headquarter in PortHarcourt. True to his nature, General Adekunle asked Harold Wilson why he was pokenosing in Nigeria when he should have sent British troops to crush Ian Smith's rebellion in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)? General Adekunle was regarded as Malcolm X or Black power advocate who should not be allowed to finish the war. Barely, two months after Wilson's visit, Adekunle was replaced by Obasanjo in May 1969.
In order to know who actually committed genocide during the Nigerian Civil War, let us consider the millitary situation as at the time General Adekunle was removed in May 1969. Ogoja was liberated on July 11, 1967, followed by the fall of Nsukka on the 15th of July 1967. Enugu the capital of Biafra was captured on October 4, 1967 and by April 1969 all the major towns in Biafra were under the control of Federal forces. But all the Igbo towns captured by the Federal forces were forcibly evacuated so that Ojukwu had a large concentration camps of men, women and children he could not feed. When Aba, Owerri and Okigwi fell in the summer of 1968, the military situation demanded that Ojukwu and his gang should capitulate and surrender. Instead, Ojukwu sent a delegate of Biafrans to France to solicit for more arms and econocic aid. Since the French refused to increase their military and economic support for Biafra, the delegate led by Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe contacted Ojukwu that time was ripe for negotiated settlement with Nigeria. Angry Ojukwu asked the delegates to return to Biafra immediately and the leader of the delegate, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, absconded to London. At the same time pictures of starving and dying Biafrans began to emerge in the outside world. Yet, while addresing the so called Consultative Assembly at the end of September 1968, Ojukwu said,"Our real victory lies in our ability to prevent the extermination of our people by a heraless enemy. In so far as these aims are concerned, we have not failed (Biafra: Ojukwu's selected Speeches; Vol. 1, p. 353)." General Benjamin Adekunle did not commit any genocide against the Igbo people rather he tried to prevent Ojukwu's suicidal war against the Igbo.
S. Kadiri
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 22:40:30 -0700
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tribute: General Benjamin Adekunle
From: okeyiheduru@gmail.com
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
"A no nonsense warrior of his time. A man of great honor to the Black race."---PROFESSOR Segun Ogungbemi, 15 September 2014.
Yes, indeed! What better way to honor the Black race than genocide, including shooting at the corpses of dead children and women and proudly admitting it? As long as it's my co-ethnic who did it, it's o.k..
On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 7:40 PM, Segun Ogungbemi <seguno2013@gmail.com> wrote:
Benjamin Adesanya Maja Adekunle, a hero, a man who loved his country and gave his life for unity and peace of Nigeria. The "Black Scorpion" as he was popularly called who put smiles on our faces at the end of the civil war. A no nonsense warrior of his time. A man of great honor to the Black race.
A man who stood to challenge racists because he believed in equality of all races because all human beings are created equal by God.The country owes him a great honor and it should be given to immortalize him.
May his soul rest in perfect peace as he has joined his ancestors and may the family and friends receive the most generous hands of comfort from the ancestors and that Olodumare grants them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss of this great hero. Aase.
Segun Ogungbemi Ph.D
Professor of Philosophy
Adekunle Ajasin University
Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State
Nigeria
Cellphone: 08033041371
08024670952
On Sep 16, 2014, at 3:15 AM, Mail Delivery Subsystem <mailer-daemon@google.com> wrote:
Benjamin Adesanya Maja Adekunle, a hero, a man who loved his country and gave his life for unity and peace of Nigeria. The "Black Scorpion" as he was popularly called who put smiles on our faces at the end of the civil war. A no nonsense warrior of his time.
A man who stood to challenge racists because he believed in equality of all races because all human beings are created equal by God.The country owes him a great honor and it should be given to immortalize him.
May his soul rest in perfect peace as he has joined his ancestors and may the family and friends receive the most generous hands of comfort from the ancestors and that Olodumare grants them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss of this great hero. Aase.
Segun Ogungbemi Ph.D
Professor of Philosophy
Adekunle Ajasin University
Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State
Nigeria
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