PS.
Ogbeni Kadiri:
In the name of honesty
even in the mistaken belief (other tricks of the trade) that there is no difference between what I said and what you think is the essence of what I said, please quote me accurately the next time or don't quote me at all.
I wrote that "You yourself have provided us with the rationale behind the policy which aimed at using starvation "of Biafra's soldiers" as a weapon of war to bring the people of Biafra to their knees, through starvation"
I did not merely write as you misquoted (by omitting my centre of gravity ),"You yourself have provided us with the rationale behind the policy which aimed at using starvation... as a weapon of war to bring the people of Biafra to their knees"
Yrs,
Cornelius
On Friday, 4 December 2015 10:51:36 UTC+1, ogunlakaiye wrote:
...You seem to me, a times, to be like a bat that can neither be classified a bird nor a mouse. First you began your piece by referring to the Peoples' uprising in Iran that toppled the age long Anglo/American installed puppet King, Shar of Iran. Beset with the marrows of bat you then conflate the Iranian revolution with the Biafran hoodlums and ideological prostitutes fanning the embers of ethno-fascism in Nigeria. I am shocked!!
In your characteristic mix-up and muddle-up, you wrote, "You yourself have provided us with the rationale behind the policy which aimed at using starvation... as a weapon of war to bring the people of Biafra to their knees." I have never at any point in time and space said there was a policy, on the part of the federal government of Nigeria, which aimed at using starvation as a weapon of war to bring the people of Biafra to their knees. There was no such policy that aimed at using starvation against civilians in Biafra. This is what Achebe wrote on that issue, "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." (page 233, There Was a Country by Chinua Achebe). Any normal person reading what Achebe wrote would easily discern that he was not sure if Awolowo made the statement therefore the expression, statement credited to Chief Obafemi Awolowo." Even if it was true that Awolowo had advocated for the use of starvation as a weapon of war, it was distinctively clear in the alleged statement to whom the weapon should be deployed. Utilizing the head not only as hat shelf and applying simple gumption, one will understand that enemies which Awolowo was alleged to have cautioned against being fed fat in order for them not to fight harder were Biafran soldiers and not unarmed civilians. Barely a year after the war had started in 1968, Achebe noted, " Gowon ... decided to open up land routes for a 'supervised transport of relief. To the consternation of Gowon, Ojukwu opted out of land routes in favour of increased airlifts of food from São Tomé by international relief agencies (page 211)." But the international relief agencies derive their operating rights from governments voluntarily signing the Geneva Convention and are compelled to a strict adherence to legality no matter how pressing the humanitarian considerations might be. Therefore, Ojukwu actually committed war crime by preventing international relief agencies from transporting relief supplies to non-combatant civilians in Biafra through Nigeria's land corridor even when it was obvious that it would be cheaper and more effective than airlifting from São Tomé. No one else but Ojukwu was responsible for the wellbeing, including food security, of the people in the territory under his control and he should be blamed for those who died of starvation under his watch.It would appear as if you have problem in comprehending a simple statement that in wars, opposing combatants exchange gun shots and bombs and not bread and butter. To say one cannot sneeze and close the mouth simultaneously cannot wisely be misconstrued to mean providing a rationale for self-asphyxiators when it is self-evident that sneezing and closing the mouth at the same time would result to self-asphyxiation. You may not think it was absurd and crazy to throw parties and slaughter cows to Christen new-born babies while there was starvation in Biafra, but I do. While the self-styled Diala (Herren Folk) Igbo were feasting and partying, the Osu (expendable slaves) Igbo were starving to death. The Osu Igbo were chasing lizards to kill for meat and Diala Igbo were killing cows for meat and that is not ridiculous to you in your up-side-down world as Fela had put it. After excerpting from Ahiara Declaration where Ojukwu lamented on the effect of blockade of his rebel held territory, you poured salt on injured flesh by asking what I would say if Israel were to blockade Palestinian, as Nigeria did to Ojukwu's Biafra? To begin with, when the Berlin wall fell in 1989, the backers of Israel, Western World, rejoiced. Yet, Israel picked the blocks from Berlin and added new ones to build the longest and highest wall against the Palestinians without dissenting voice from anywhere being heard. Gaza is the biggest open prison or concentration camp in the world today. The condition of the Palestinians in Gaza strip was so horrible that a man with the heart of a snake and conscience of hyena like former Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan (now President) organized humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. The ship, named Mavi Marmara sailed towards Gaza with Crews from Western Europe, including Sweden. But on 31st of May 2010, Israel's combined naval and air force attacked the aid ship, Mavi Marmara, whereby 9 civilian crews were killed and 55 were seriously injured. Israel accused the Captain of the ship and its Crew of breaching the blockade of Gaza. When the matter was eventually taken up at the UN Security Council, it was decided that Israel has the right to inspect all cargos sailing into Gaza so as to ensure that no weapons were smuggled to the Palestinians with whom Israel is in a state of war. The UN Security Council considered the action of the sponsors of Mavi Marmara as a breach of legal blockade of Gaza by Israel. In view of the aforesaid, your question about what I would say if Israel were to blockade Palestinian as Nigeria did to Biafra is superfluous because there exists blockade of Gaza and the only condition for civilians in Gaza strip to get basic amenities of life is that all traffic by land, air or sea must first pass through Israel for inspection before going further to Gaza. If the Gaza strip's leader should object to that condition, civilians in Gaza would starve to death just as it happened in Biafra when Ojukwu stubbornly rejected pre-inspection of all traffic into Biafra by the Nigerian government in 1968.S. Kadiri
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2015 17:02:38 -0800
From: cornelius...@gmail.com
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Igbo QuestionOgbeni Kadiri,
Someone is quoted as saying that "Igbo youth are mobilising and arming for secession" - Of course it is not merely getting weapons that make such youths and effective fighting force. They have to be trained to fight. When a civilian population takes to arms (as when Imam Khomeini once said "The people are the army and the army is the people – when SAVAK was tired of gunning down their own Iranian people, then it was all over. In the case of Biafra – the Igbos were "the other people"
You yourself have provided us with the rationale behind the policy which aimed at using starvation "of Biafra's soldiers" as a weapon of war to bring the people of Biafra to their knees, through starvation. Undeniably your words:
"I have never heard or read of any war where opposing combatants bombarded each order with bread, butter and gem. In view of this, there was nothing wrong if the federal government declared that it would not allow food to be given to Biafran soldiers in order to minimize their capacity to resist defeat. Food to civilians in a war affected area is regulated under international law. Nigeria was a signatory to that international law but not Biafra and since that international law recognized the sovereignty of Nigeria over Biafra, Nigeria had the right to inspect all planes flying into Biafra with relief supplies to civilians in order to ascertain that weapons were not smuggled to the rebels. When Gowon offered to allow relief supplies through a land corridor from Port Harcourt to the rebel held territory under international Red Cross, there was no latent or obvious military advantage for his side as Biafra was effectively surrounded militarily and land locked"
In bold black letter you quote the Biafran Leader condemning some of his elite countrymen in the midst of the imposed famine:
"…. BUT HERE (Biafra) EVEN WHILE WE ARE ENGAGED IN A WAR OF 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."
It's illogical to conclude that just because some public servants were throwing huge parties to entertain their friends and killing cows to christen their babies - (your words), that
" it is absurd, if not lunatic, to talk of starvation." – the illogicality: because some peoples' stomachs were not affected by the famine means that millions were not affected by the famine/ starvation which is a historical fact and that it is therefore (your own ridiculous conclusion): "absurd, if not lunatic, to talk of starvation."
People were looking for lizards to eat as meat - are you aware of that?
What do you see HERE?
If Israel adopted such a policy towards the Palestinians what would Ogbeni Kadiri say?
Let's pay close attention to what else Gen. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu said on 01 June 1969.
"For two years we have been subjected to a total blockade. We all know how bitter, bloody and protracted the First and Second World Wars were. At no stage in those wars did the white belligerents carry out a total blockade of their fellow whites. In each case where a blockade was imposed, allowance was made for certain basic necessities of life in the interest of women, children and other non-combatants. Ours is the only example in recent history where a whole people have been so treated. What is it that makes our case different? Do we not have women, children and other non-combatants? Does the fact that they are black women, black children and black non-combatants make such a world of difference?" (Excerpted from the Ahiara Declaration)
If Israel adopted such a policy towards the Palestinians what would you say?
On Thursday, 3 December 2015 00:35:13 UTC+1, ogunlakaiye wrote:In an address at Ibadan on Graduation Day, 1st July 1966, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Dr. Kenneth O. Dike, said among other things that 'the worst pedlars of tribalism in this country are the educated Nigerians.' It is irony of fate that 49 years after Dr. Dike's observation, some Nigerian intellectuals far from being the agents of unity and progress are the greatest exploiters of parochial and ethnic sentiments. These intellectuals continue to impress upon Nigerians that the ethnic origin of the President or any official matters to the country and not the competence and ability of the office holder to produce amenities required of his/her office for all citizens. Although, Nigerian intellectuals would like us to believe that the holder of an office, appointed or elected, is doing so on behalf of his/her ethnic group, what Nigerians have experienced is that the ethnic group of any office holder, are equally denied of basic needs of life as all other ethnic groups in the country. Evidently, Nigerian intellectuals are fictional academics producing imaginary developments.
I would have associated myself with the view expressed below that there is no Igbo Question but Nigerian Question in Nigeria if it had been framed as there is no Igbo Problem but Nigerian Problem. The problem in Nigeria is that we tend to blame the incompetence of an official person on his/her ethnic group and not the officer. In situations where the Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa/Fulani, Ijaw, Ibibio, TIV, Edo etc. have at different stages been, for instance, ministers of water supply but no potable water for Nigerians to drink would amount to useless tribal competitions of which the writer below distracted. He wrote, ".... the Igbo and Yoruba are competitors not because they need to be but because the Yoruba seem to me to have an innate fear of Igbo domination even though there is little hard evidence of any desire on the part of the Igbo to do anything like that." If Yoruba have regarded Igbo as their competitors, they would have migrated to Igboland in large numbers or alternatively made it difficult for a large number of Igbo to settle, work and prosper in Yorubaland. Historically, when Nnamdi Azikiwe returned to Nigeria in 1937, he subsequently joined the Nigerian Youth Movement which had defeated the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) at the elections to the Legislative Council in Lagos, 1938. Until 1938, the NNDP led by Herbert Macaulay had won all elections to the Legislative Council since 1923. Nnamdi Azikiwe was welcomed into NYM by Dr. Akinola Maja and Dr. Kofoworola Abayomi who were the leading personalities of NYM. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe left NYM in 1943 to form the first tribal union in Nigeria called Ibo Federal Union of which he was the President. The name of the tribal union was changed later to Ibo State Union. The following year, he lured the 84 years old Herbert Macaulay into accepting the Presidentship of NCNC in which he installed himself as the Secretary. Herbert Macaulay's NNDP was still winning elections to the Legislative Council and did not need another Party. However, the NCNC was officially inaugurated in 1945. In 1945, Charles Onyeama, a member of the Legislative Council said, "Ibo domination of Nigeria is only a matter of time (see p. 204, Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria by Godfrey Mwakikagile)." That same year, 1945, Igbo were massacred in Jos. It was not until 1948 that the Yoruba formed EGBE OMO ODUDUWA and in the North JAMIYYAR Mutanen AREWA (Northern People's Congress) was formed in response to the IBO FEDERAL UNION. In his Presidential address to the Ibo Federal Union in 1949, Azikiwe's newspaper, the West African Pilot of 8 July 1949 reported, "...it would appear that the God of Africa has specifically created the Igbo nation to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of ages... The martial prowess of the Ibo nation at all stages of human history has enabled them not only to CONQUER OTHERS but also to adapt themselves to the role of preserver." That was how tribalism was introduced introduced into politics by Nnamdi Azikiwe through the Ibo Federal Union and the fear of being conquered was instilled into the mind of other tribes in Nigeria.The Yoruba have never had cause to believe that they could be dominated by Igbo. When the colonialist came, the Yoruba were at a greater level of human development than the Igbo. In their struggle to catch up with the Yoruba, they assume because of inferiority complex that they are dominant. That is why Achebe could write, "Although the Yoruba had a huge historical and geographical head start, the Igbo wiped out their handicap in one fantastic burst of energy in the twenty years between 1930 and 1950 (p.74, There Was a Country)." Earlier, on page 66, he stated that Igbo led the nation in virtually every sector - politics, education, commerce, and the arts. Finally on page 233, he declared the Igbo a dominant tribe in Nigeria before the coup of July 1966. The dominant tribe in government also led to massive corruption and when the Majors struck with the intention of stamping out corruption, the dominant tribe hijacked the coup for themselves. Just as it was then the dominant tribe in Jonathan's government are now financing youths to wave that tattered ethnic Biafra bandanna along Nigerian streets to divert attention and energy from investigating the looters of Nigeria's treasury in the past five years.As an example of Yoruba fear of Igbo domination, the writer below wrote, "You may recall the shameful role played by the Oba of Lagos during the 04/2015 gubernatorial election in Lagos State." From the video of what transpired at the palace of Oba of Lagos, everybody could see that those present at the occasion were less than two hundred men, and who were supposed to be the Oba's friends. In spite of what he said, they were pouring libation, and sharing kola nut in a jovial atmosphere. None of the attendees opposed or objected to the statements of the Oba directed to them and not to the entire Igbo residents in Lagos. No sensible outside person would take offence in the statement of the Oba to his close associates who did not in any way feel offended. Many Igbo personalities reacted to people trying to inflate the frog to the size of an elephant. In hosting an Aka Ikenga meeting, Professor Pat Utomi wrote, "I had the duty to break cola. Speaking in Igbo as was the tradition, I call on the gods; Onye na chu anyi ada. Onye anyi nachu, ada. Which translates to those chasing after us will trip and fall, and those we chase after, will stumble and fall. There was rapturous applause. All it really says is , may we prevail in the storms of life and in our pursuits. But it could be taken out of context to mean a prayer to dominate other people." (www.nigeriasquare.com/pat-utomi/unreason-in-a-season-of- )." Human head should not be used only as hat shelf but also to think wisely.emotion The Hausa/Fulani are generally Muslims. The Igbo are mostly Christians and will not convert to Islam as many Yorubas have done, says the writer below. Islam and Christianity are Caucasian religions that originated in the Middle East where they share the same deities. Thus, the same person called Joseph by Christians is called Yousef by the Muslims, the same woman called Maryam (Miriam) by Muslims is called Mary (Maria) by the Christians, the same person called Jesus by the Christians is called Isa by the Muslims, the same person called Ibrahim by the Muslims is called Abraham by the Christians etc. The word Church contains 6 alphabets just like the word Mosque and the word Quran contains five alphabets just like the word Bible. Quran was originally written in Arabic while Bible was written in Hebrew. Whatever religion any Nigerian may adopt, the country is not governed by the contents of Bible or Quran but by a Constitution. Who is a Christian and who is a Muslim has never mattered in Nigerian Politics. After December 1959 Federal Elections in which none of the political parties had absolute majority to form a government, Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo opted to serve in a national government led by Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe. If religious affinity was important, Azikiwe who was a Christian just like Awolowo would have accepted the offer to lead a national government. But the Christian Azikiwe rejected his Christian brother, Awolowo, to not only form a Federal coalition government with a Muslim northerner but also conceded the executive post of Prime Minister to Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. The Christian Azikiwe had gone into coalition government with the Muslim North with the calculation that the Igbo would however control and dominate all government's institution and parastatals because of their superior education and business talents over the backward north. Mary Ndidi Okogwu was not a Yoruba, but he converted to Muslim and changed her Christian name to Miriam when she married to Major Ibrahim Babangida in 1969. Ohaneze Ndigbo subsequently conferred the Ibo traditional title of Ogugua Ndi Igbo (consoler of the Igbo people) on Babangida.The writer below said, "Igbo intellectuals have developed a 'coherent marginalization thesis.' It is based on facts and experience. While some Nigerians may choose to deny the thesis, they cannot deny the facts - the injustices of the state creation and targeted economic policies of the immediate after war years for example." The most unintelligent slogan ever created by the Igbo intellectuals is the complaint of Igbo's marginalization in Nigeria after the war. Nigeria has badly been governed after the war and persons of ethnic Igbo, as well as other major ethnic groups in Nigeria, have played major roles in the miss-governance of the country. In that way, all Nigerians are marginalized and there is nothing stopping the Igbo from talking about self-marginalization if they want. What intellectual reasoning is behind the demand that Southeast should contain six states because all other geo-political zones contain six or more states? Of all the geo-political zones in the country Southeast with 29, 388 sq.km land mass and 16, 431, 555 in population, according to 2006 population census, is the smallest. The South-South that contains six states has a land mass of 94,924 sq.km and a population of 21, 044, 081. It will be unjust to create equal number of states in the Southeast and South-south when the landmass of the former is only one-third of the latter and the population of the latter is almost five million more. The number of states in Nigeria at moment is economically wasteful and in order to allow every house-hold to get its share of national patrimony, it is better to make a family a state. Each head of the family will be able to go to Abuja to collect their revenue allocation instead of a rogue governor collecting it on behalf of families but not delivering it to them.The civil war ended over 45 years ago, but it seems the war propaganda is still on. It is a well known fact in psychiatry that persons afflicted with neurosis or cha
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