Ogbeni Kadiri,
Those with their hearts and minds in the right place are affronted by the most remote suggestion by any person, miscreant or urchin, that our venerated elder AWO of blessed memory - God forbid – could in any way be associated with fascism.
And there's no use in arguing with lunatics/fanatics, racists, tribalists, since they can say anything. Freedom of speech.
Sometimes, sarcasm / intended sarcasm, irony can be misinterpreted/ wilfully misinterpreted and thus backfire and cause collateral damage, therefore, thanks for the clarification. It's another case of "you know better" versus " you ought to know better", but assuming that Citizen Obi ever waded far from the ethical norms of Igbo culture, in my opinion it would still be wrong - even sarcastically speaking - to attribute / blame his perceived failings on an Igbo culture which may be a little different from Yoruba culture when it comes to the degree of respect we show towards elders and of course towards our illustrious ancestors.
I'm not the one who needs to tell you to be more careful about the factual basis for this kind of accreditation : "Obi is a pathological liar," ; "Obi must learn to be truthful and honest" ; "his own invented writing just as he normally does to invent stories, which he calls history, and credit them to people with whom he supposedly munched groundnuts and drank beer." (Beer drinkers, not palm wine drinkards, eh?) )
The silence that is likely to follow your latest clarification, especially after quoting ZIK should be less of "silence means consent " and more of the extended/ sustained silence which usually follows after having been corrected by Ogun's thunder...
A musical tribute to Chief Obafemi Awolowo
Peacefully,
Cornelius
On Thursday, 25 August 2016 23:25:14 UTC+2, ogunlakaiye wrote:...Chidi, you may wish to know that when Awolowo promulgated free primary education for all children of school age, 1954/55, in the then Western Region, that coverred the present day Benin, Asaba, Agbor, Warri and Sapele, he did not exclude the children of non-Yoruba speaking part of the Region from enjoying free primary education. In fact, the Children of Igbo from the Eastern Region who were permanently resident in the Western Region enjoyed the free primary education. Had Awolowo been a fascist, he would have excluded and prevented all non-Yoruba children from enjoying free primary education in Western Region. Calling Awolowo a fascist was part of the cause for my highlighting the cultural disparity in question.
Your justification for labelling me anti-Igbo is due to my averment that unlike the Yoruba culture in which I was brought up, Obi, the caller of Awolowo a fascist, was brought up in a culture where youths are trained to demonstrate their courage and boldness by urinating on the graves of their elders. In your reaction, you are not denying the existence and practice of that cultural absurdity. My mentioning it is to you a crime that makes me an anti-Igbo. You are judging me wrongly and that is unfair. Speaking in the Eastern House of Assembly on March 20 , 1956, while seconding the motion for the second reading of the Abolition of the Osu System Bill, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe said, "This Bill seeks to do three things: to abolish the Osu system and its allied practices including the Oru or Ohu System, to prescribe punishment for their continued practice, and to remove certain social disabilities caused by the enforcement of the Osu and its allied system. According to this Bill, the Osu system include any social way of living which implies that any person who is deemed to be an OSU, or ORU or OHU is subject to certain prescribed social disability and social stigma. Mr. Speaker, this Bill offers a challenge to the morality of the Easterners. I submit that it is not morally consistent to condone the OSU or ORU or OHU system. I submit that it is devilish and most uncharitable to brand any human being with a label of inferiority (slave)..." Although Azikiwe did not succeed to abolish the cast system of slavery known as OSU, ORU, and OHU in Igboland and the system is still in operation today, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was never labelled anti-Igbo for his attempt to abolish the cast system. Why should you, Chidi, label me anti-Igbo for referencing cultural abnormality?
S.Kadiri
Från: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> för Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com>
Skickat: den 24 augusti 2016 12:35
Till: USA African Dialogue Series
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MUST READ: The Aguiyi-Ironsi Tragedy"Unlike the Yoruba culture in which I grew up, Obi was brought up in a culture where youths are trained to demonstrate their courage and boldness by urinating on the graves of their dead elders" (Salimonu Kadiri)
When I wrote that Kadiri and Danjuma are colleagues in The Anti-Igbo Project and that while the likes of Danjuma operated from the military axis, the likes of Kadiri operates from the Intellectual axis, the moderator refused the post. Have the above not justified what I said?
CAO.
On Tue, Aug 23, 2016 at 8:33 PM, Rex Marinus <rexma...@hotmail.com> wrote:
I could choose indeed not to dignify this drivel with a response because it is casting rubies to a sow. How can a man lie to himself who says, Unegbe trained in Pakistan, therefore he is "inferior" to James Pam's Camberly for instance, and turn around to deny his own statements in the same context as he is making it? If he now denies that he holds Unegbe's death comparatively insignificant to Pam's death, why did it become an issue for him? Why does Unegbe not being a full Colonel, and a mere Quartermaster-General, (no better than a Store keeper), and therefore incomparable to Pam's death, who was the real "Adjutant General" such a landmark statement, that it became a point of such a great departure for Salimonu Kadiri? It is either this Salimonu is bi-polar or he does not understand the language with which he is engaging these discussions. But I think I've cornered him in hos own contradiction, but the problem is that h suffers from the great mental problem called "Igbophobia." It's really a waste of my time continuing to point out his inconsistencies and his prejudices. The more I do it, the more he burrows into the pit. He does not even know the meaning of the Joint Services Staff Course (JSSC). Though they were course mates at Sandhurst, Unegbe made Lt. Col. in 1963 (not 1964), ahead of Gowon by months; and Commanded the 5th Battalion before becoming the QMG. He could not have commanded the 5th Battalion as a Major. Ojukwu took over from him as Commander of the 5th Battalion in Kano, while he took over from Ojukwu as QMG. James Pam took over from Gowon as Adjutant-General in 1965, when Gowon went on his staff course. Military promotion is the gauge of seniority, and not always when you joined. Ojukwu was commissioned in 1957 after attending Eaton Hall Officers Training, with a 1956 Masters degree in History from Oxford, and after a stint as District Officer at Udi and Umuahia, a senior service position, and was promoted Lt. Colonel before Gowon. Bu they were on the same rank eventually. Ojukwu's argument against Gowon was that there was a military hierarchy which ought to be respected if the Nigerian Army was to maintain discipline, and that there was a Brigadier and a whole slew of Colonels before Gowon who should take charge after the coup. Ojukwu moved tactically to Onitsha, while Colonel Ogunewe remained in Enugu. It'd be really useful if we do not fudge these narratives. Even while he was in Onitsha, as military governor, he remained in charge of the East. As at 1 August, 1966, the East no longer took orders from Lagos. No troops could move in or out of the East without Ojukwu's express orders. Ogunewe had disarmed Northern soldiers in Enugu, and the Eastern police under P.C. Okeke was in charge of internal security. How therefore could Gowon give orders to release Awolowo who was in prison in the East, when Ojukwu had secured the East, and did not recognize the authority of Gowon? who would effect the order on behalf of Gowon?
On a different note, although Francis Nwokedi headed the commission on unification, it was an idea muted as far back as February, preceding the appointment and inauguration of the Nwokedi commission in March, and the announcement of the decree in May 1966. One of the central claims of that moment was that "regionalism" had created so much disunity in Nigeria. Among the great proponents of a "National government" and the unification of the services was Simeon Adebo, who was himself a product of that kind of the Civil service, and who had been appointed by Ironsi as head of the Commission on the Economy. Much of Salimonu Kadiri's version of Nigeria's history is taken from street lore and popular rumours. There is actual value in "drinking beer and eating peanuts" with the central figures of that history; those who actually made that history, and who often tell their own stories beyond the street lore. Again, I wish that a man like Dr. Pius Okigbo, who worked very closely both with Ironsi and Adebo had completed his own memoirs. I will leave all that question about the "culture" in which I was raised alone, and rather make one thing clear: only ignorant and unrefined folk talk about another's culture of which they know nothing about, in which they have never lived, and of which they can only conceive abstractly, with such primitive, provincial prejudice not worthy even of middle school thinking! It is the kind of straw pulled by a man gasping for air.
Obi Nwakanma
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2016 11:52 AM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MUST READ: The Aguiyi-Ironsi TragedyOne man's papa soup is another man's poison.
Is this not a case of cultural chauvinism : "Unlike the Yoruba culture in which I grew up, Obi was brought up in a culture where youths are trained to demonstrate their courage and boldness by urinating on the graves of their dead elders" (Ogbeni Kadiri) ?
Either Mazi Nwakanma will not dignify anybody with a response or it's just a matter of time before loose cannons and sparks start flying...ojare…
Or as Lakunle would say,
"I rise above taunts and remain unruffled "
On Sunday, 21 August 2016 14:56:13 UTC+2, ogunlakaiye wrote:Obi Nwakanma, the forces that confronted Fajuyi on the morning of 29 July 1966 were greater than him. If he had abandoned Ironsi, he would not have been killed because he was not the target of the coup makers. As a man with self esteem and self-respect, he demanded that if they took his GOC and host they should take him too. He was a courageous and loyal officer, and I would have done the same thing if I were in his position. But when Dialas, the master tribe, now consider Fajuyi as an Osu that only fulfilled his natural role as a slave worthy of dying along with Ironsi, I get pissed off.
Instead of quoting me, Obi Nwakanma engages in malicious interpretation of what I have written thus, "As for Fajuyi, he was killed only because he really wished to die with Ironsi. In other words, he had a death wish which was cavalierly granted to him as some sort of perverse favour by Ironsi's captors. These are all your statements, and I'm taking you by your words. They killed Fajuyi in other words because Colonel Fajuyi insisted on being killed." I have never written anywhere that Fajuyi had death wish, it is only very difficult for Obi Nwakanma to understand that a man like Fajuyi could decide to follow his Commander to death when he could have abandoned him to preserve his own life. Fajuyi was not the target of the coup makers of July 1966 just as the pregnant wife of Brigadier Ademulegun was not the target of Major Tim Onwuatuegwu when he burst into their bedroom in January 1966. However, Mrs Ademulegun with her eight months pregnancy, placed herself protectively in front of her husband. Major Onwuatuegwu, who did not want to risk the revolution because of a pregnant woman ripped open her abdomen with machine-gun fire before killing the Brigadier. If Mrs. Ademulegun had stood by the side wailing and begging Onwuatuegwu, just as Mrs Pam did to Major Chukwuka, she would not have been killed with her unborn child. It is a common saying in Yoruba, IKÚ YÁ JU ÈSÍN AIYÉ, which means better die than to be subjected to world's ridicule or shame. For Fajuyi and Mrs Ademulegun, they would rather die than allow an armed intruder to control their place of abode. Defending one's honour is not wishing to die but to Dialas, it is honourable for a General Officer Commanding the Armed Forces of Biafra to abandon his soldiers in the war front and to flee to safety abroad.
...your writing insists that Arthur Unegbe's was an *inferior death* compared with the deaths of other Lt. Colonels who had been killed on the same night as he - Obi Nwakanma.
... you insist that Lt. Colonel James Pam, although he was on the same rank with Unegbe was a *senior* and *superior* officer, whose death should not be equated with Unegbe's - Obi Nwakanma.
Obi is a pathological liar, since there is no where I have ever written that Unegbe's death was inferior to any other person, military or civilian, killed in January 1966. Obi is crediting me with his own invented writing just as he normally does to invent stories, which he calls history, and credit them to people with whom he supposedly munched groundnuts and drank beer.
Yes, I insisted that although Unegbe and Pam hold the same rank of Lt. Colonels, the latter is senior to the former because Pam was enlisted in 1954, commissioned in 1955, promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel in 1963 having received JSSC Staff training. Unegbe on the other hand was enlisted in 1955, commissioned in 1956 and promoted to a Lt. Colonel in 1964 after receiving Staff training, PSC, in Pakistan. Mark you that PSC training, even if it were received in London which is valued higher than Quetta, in Pakistan, is inferior to JSSC. It is the combinations of year of enlistment, year of commission date of promotion to Lt. colonel in addition to the type of Staff Training that earned Pam the appointment of Adjutant General which ranked him senior and superior to Unegbe. I am not as cynical as Obi in choosing which death is superior or inferior and there is no time I have written, directly or implied, that Unegbe's death should not be equated to that of Lt. Colonel Pam.
.... in the advise/memo to unify the services was given to Ironsi by the highly respected public servant Simeon Adebo..
Well Obi must learn to be truthful and honest. Even if he was not born or too young to remember what happened in 1966, he should not assume what happened because a lot of books have been written both by actors in the crisis and outsiders. On 12 February 1966, Ironsi appointed Francis C. Nwokedi as a one-man commissioner to study and report on the unification of Nigeria's administrative machinery and public and judicial services. John de St Jorre noted in his, The Nigerian Civil War thus, "The key man was now Francis Nwokedi. Since February he had been travelling widely in the Federation studying the question of unifying the regional and federal civil services. .... However, it was becoming clear that Nwokedi, a clever and strong-willed person who was one of Ironsi's most influential advisers, had firm idea of his own. When a group of leading Nsukka University professors presented a detailed paper arguing against swift administrative unification Nwokedi ignored it." Before the end of March !966 Nwokedi had submitted his one-man report on unitary form of government to Ironsi. Thus on the occasion of annual budget on the 31st of March 1966, Ironsi in a national broadcast told Nigerians, "For the first time, fiscal, economic and industrial projects are being considered and being directed by one central authority. I am convinced that the bulk of our people want a united Nigeria and that they want in future one government and not a multitude of governments." When the Supreme Military Council met on 22-23 of May 1966, Ironsi confronted his governors with the unification Decree that would abolish the Regions with stiff opposition from Fajuyi and Hassan Katsina. Ruth First in The Barrel of the Gun wrote, "The Supreme Military Council had been divided, with most of its members opposed. At the meeting immediately before the Decree promulgated, Ironsi heard the governors out, after they had lodged their objections in writing, and then said, 'I'm committed." On page 310 of Ruth First's book, a special note was given, "Lieutenant Colonel Fajuyi had written a five-page memorandum setting out the difficulties and problems he envisaged. He added a concluding paragraph stating that if these objections were taken into account he agreed with the tenor of the document. The governor of the North telephoned Fajuyi. ' Why the last paragraph?' he asked. 'Out of Courtesy,' was Fajuyi's reply."
On Tuesday, 24 May 1966, Ironsi to the chagrins of Fajuyi and Hassan Katsina announced in a national broadcast, Decree No.34 abolishing the Regions which were to be ruled from Lagos. Nigeria was no longer a Federation but simply Republic of Nigeria ruled by National Military Government and not Federal Military Government. Except in the brain of an ethnic Mandarin, the architect of unitary government as promulgated by Ironsi in 1966 was Francis Nwokedi and not Simeon Adebo. Following the promulgation of Unitary form of government, Decree No. 34 of 24 May 1966, Azikiwe's Newspaper, West African Pilot, published a cartoon titled, The Dawn of a New Era, portraying Ironsi government as a large cock (Cock is the symbol of Azikiwe's NCNC political party that had had unitary form of Government in its party programmes since 1950s) crowing 'One Country, One Nationality.' May I add that Azikiwe returned to Nigeria after the coup on 25 February 1966, barely two weeks after Ironsi had appointed Francis Nwokedi to implement Azikiwe's long time dream of unitary government for Nigeria.
You lie against the dead when you wrote that Ironsi refused to release Awolowo, especially given the fact that the minutes of the Supreme Military Council indicate that a decision had been reached to that effect which was part of the announcement that Ironsi was billed to make that evening at the planned dinner with peoples and Chiefs of the Western region - Obi Nwakanma.
I was in Lagos in the evening of 28 July 1966 and I saw Ironsi on TV addressing a congregation of Western Region Obas in the House of Chiefs in the day-time, with Oba of Lagos, Adeyinka Oyekan, in attendance. At the dinner in the evening I saw on the TV how Yoruba Talking Drum musicians were singing in Yoruba in praise of Ironsi thus: ÀKÀNO ÒJÌ, KÓROBÓTÓ BI OKÁ, AGÙN T'ASÓ LÒ, OLÚWA KÒ NI JÉOKÚ. The musicians had renamed Ironsi in Yoruba to Àkàno. A straight translation is as follows: ÀKÀNO THE STORM, ROBUST LIKE A CONSCRIPTOR (A type of snake in Yoruba) TALL TO FIT CLOTHES, MAY GOD NOT ALLOW YOU TO DIE. That was what Nigerians saw on the TV and there was no announcement by Ironsi that evening of 28 July 1966 that Awolowo was to be released. Ironsi took power on January 16, 1966 and Obi claimed that he was to announce the release of Awolowo at Ibadan on July 28, 1966, which did not happen. May be, Obi can tell us what Ironsi was waiting for, between January and July, to release Awolowo, if that was his plan.
In Government Notice No. 1507/1966 titled Instrument of Pardon - Chief Awolowo, 2 August 1966, it was recorded: By His Excellency Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon, Head of the National Military Government, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Nigeria.
WHEREAS Chief Obafemi Awolowo, having been duly convicted........ AND WHEREAS the Supreme Military Council after reviewing his case, is pleased to remit the sentence and to grant a full pardon:
NOW THEREFORE, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 101 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic and of all other powers enabling it in that behalf, the Supreme Military Council do hereby remit the unexpired portion of the sentence imposed on the aforesaid Chief Obafemi Awolowo and grant him ful pardon.
GIVEN UNDER my hand and the Public Seal of the Republic of Nigeria at Lagos this second day of August, one thousand nine hundred and sixty-six.
Awolowo was pardoned and released on the 2nd of August 1966 and he was flown from Calabar to Ikeja airport the following day. The Nigerian Daily Times of August 4, 1966 featured Gowon greeting Awolowo at the airport with the remark, '' We need you for the wealth of your experience.''
At the time Awolowo was released, Lieutenant Colonel Ojukwu had fled from Enugu and was hiding at Police Headquarter, Onitsha, because 85% of riffle carriers at Enugu Battalion were Northerners and his chance of survival was small if fighting should break out there. Ojukwu did not return to Enugu until after August 6, when Lieutenant Colonel David Ogunewe succeeded in negotiating with Northern soldiers who agreed to return to the North and armed with their guns. So, Ojukwu played no role in the release of Awolowo.
Obi wrote that Awolowo was a fascist for advocating true federalism where each ethnic group could develop at their own pace. Unlike the Yoruba culture in which I grew up, Obi was brought up in a culture where youths are trained to demonstrate their courage and boldness by urinating on the graves of their dead elders. If Awolowo was a fascist, all those who are now clamouring for restructuring of Nigeria into true federalism based on the current six geo-political zones (North-Central, North-East, North-West, South-East, South-South and South-West) must be fascists. As Obi has admitted in writing, he is a great consumer of groundnuts and beer resulting to his constant emission of historical farting that smells rot.
S.Kadiri
Från: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> för Rex Marinus <rexma...@hotmail.com>
Skickat: den 19 augusti 2016 23:47
Till: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MUST READ: The Aguiyi-Ironsi TragedySalimonu Kadiri, you may choose to believe Ahmadu Kurfi over Andrew Nwankwo who was Ironsi's ADC, and whose colleague, Sani Bello, another of Ironsi's ADC, though not part of the coup plot, was a Northern officer on the spot. More discerning and thoughtful people would choose a direct witness of the event, but you understandably prefer the general, more convenient picture painted by Kurfi, rather than Andrew Nwankwo's witness account. You in fact go so far as to dismiss Nwankwo's experience as possibly made up, in spite of Sani Bello's validation of their experience of the 29th of July 1966. Because you are the great purveyor of suitable Nigerian truth, Nwankwo is a "liar" in not so many words. That's just fine. It is also just fine that the Secretary to the Federal Government, the most powerful bureaucrat in the nation, repository of Nigeria National security secrets, foreign and domestic, and Chief administrator of state was not killed because he did not express the wish to be taken with Ironsi, and all he needed to do was to request his own death, and that wish would have been granted. As for Fajuyi, he was killed only because he really wished to die with Ironsi. In other words, he had a death wish which was cavalierly granted to him as some sort of perverse favour by Ironsi's captors. These are all your statements, and I'm taking you by your words. They killed Fajuyi, in other words because Colonel Fajuyi insisted on being killed.
And all these in order to reduce the significance of Unegbe's death? Though you keep denying it, your writing insists that Arthur Unegbe's was an "inferior death" compared to the deaths of other Lt. Colonels who had been killed on the same night as he. Bear in mind the thrust of these whole argument: that I had tried to equate Unegbe to Yakubu Pam. I had even gone so far as calling him a Colonel while he was a mere "Lt. Colonel." Never mind that, just as a Brigadier-General is a "General" so is a "Lt. Colonel" a "Colonel." But going past such minor detail, you insist that Lt. Colonel James Pam, although he was on the same rank with Unegbe was a "senior" and "superior" officer whose death should not be equated with Unegbe's. Above all, Pam was "Adjutant-General" while Unegbe was a "mere" Quarter-master General. In your terrifying ignorance you failed to understand that both service positions were in fact of equal rank in the Army. As a mater of fact, the AdjutantGeneral is more a personnel officer, whose key function is to deal with personnel services and postings. He is more a desk-bound officer, than the QMG whose job is strategic in combat operations. The QMG is not a "mere store keeper" as you insist, and you can verify this from Oluwole Rotimi, who served as QMG of the Federal Forces during the war, just to be clear. But because it is Unegbe, it has to be a "glorified stores keeper." It would have been amusing were it not for your tragic impulsion to reduce the significance of Unegbe as a means of retailing your own toxic and ignorant conspiracies full of terrible ignorance.
Mr. Kadiri, you must step back a little and learn before you go to town to dance new dance steps of which you have only elementary clue. You insult the intelligence of serious-minded folk here with you shebeen-house rumours which you retail for fact. You lie against Fajuyi's memory when you wrote that Fajuyi "opposed" the decree unifying the services of the federation. There is no memo, letter, or interview, extant or classified in which Francis Fajuyi expressed such opposition. The minutes of the Supreme Military Council meetings, never recorded Fajuyi expressing such an opposition, especially in fact given that the advise/memo to unify the services was given to Ironsi by the highly respected public servant Simeon Adebo, one of Ironsi's key advisers, who was at the time Executive Director of UNCTAD. You lie against the dead when you wrote that Ironsi refused to release Awolowo, especially given the fact that the minutes of the Supreme Military Council indicate that a decision had been reached to that effect which was part of the announcement that Ironsi was billed to make that evening at the planned dinner with the peoples and chiefs of the Western region. It was not accidental that Ojukwu who was privy to that decision took steps to release Awolowo from the Calabar prison as already agreed. By the way, there is nothing wrong with Ironsi's decree unifying the services. There is also nothing wrong with a unitary constitution and a unitary state either. It is not the system that has upended Nigeria. It is that Nigeria was hijacked by those who had no idea how to build a nation. Nation-building demands certain visionary leaps of which those who hijacked Nigeria from those who ACTUALLY fought to have an independent nation, have proved themselves incapable. Obafemi Awolowo was wrong in his statement excerpted by you: it is the very kernel of his fascist ideology supported by fascist politicians and intellectuals which again, helped to dismantle the idea of Nigeria as a single, coherent, and self-willed nation. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with a unitary system, nor is there anything absolutely right with a federal system. By the way, here's what James Y. Pam's daughter remembers of that night: " , my father dressed up and got out of the room and started following them down the stairs. Before then, he made some few calls while he was with our mother and I think it was at that time they cut the phone lines. The first was to Maimalari. Our mother who saw the numbers told us that she could recognise the numbers because, then, it was four digits. I think it was that call that alerted Maimalari that made him to escape. The second call was to General (Aguiyi) Ironsi. Ironsi appeared not to have shown any surprise as he kept saying, 'I see! I see!! Okay!!!' He dropped the phone and went down the first stairs. We were all following him as well." Her father had called Ironsi before the phones were cut. Not long after, the mutinous soldiers drove to his house and abducted him. He did exactly what a well-trained soldier would do: Call his G.O.C. and his Garrison commander. So, your question about how Pam could have called Ironsi should be clear. That call saved Ironsi's life not Don Okafor, who had detailed an Hausa marksman to take out Ironsi, but who lost his nerve when he met Ironsi on Carter bridge and the General had roared, "Get out of my way!" Not Lt. Ogbo Oji, who had been sent quickly to Enugu that night to go and arrest Okpara, because Chude Sokei, who would have handled the Eastern operations was suddenly sent on a course a week earlier. Your attempts to criminalize Ironsi and justify his death is shameful. By the way, the Republican constitution granted the President the power to either recall or dismiss parliament sin die, and assume wide emergency powers until a new government was established. Given the fluid situation, with Nzeogwu still out in Kaduna at the time threatening to launch a civil war, and the rump of the cabinet in hiding and the ones present in disarray and unable to reach a consensus, the acting President was right in vacating his own privileges and handing the military emergency power to restore the republic which had been sacked, and which seemed then at the verge ofa civil war.
Finally, I do not know which book taught you Nigeria's military history, but this much is clear: Gowon, not Kur Muhammed, was the first Nigerian Adjutant-General of the Nigerian Army, appointed in 1963 on his return from Congo where he had been Brigade Major. It was about the same time , just shortly, after Ojukwu and Unegbe were appointed QMG and Battalion Commander respectively. As a matter of fact, Unegbe made Lt. Col before Gowon, and was about the same time as Ojukwu. Ojukwu was the first Nigerian officer to go to the Joint Services course, after which he was appointed QMG, and was replaced in the same period by Unegbe at the 5th Battalion. Unegbe had to be a Lt. Colonel to Command that Battalion in Kano in 1963. He was ahead of his peers - Gowon, Okwechime, Madiebo, and Anwunah - who was GS1 - the Chief of Military Intelligence. Gowon made Lt. Colonel before his other course mates Anwunah and Madiebo and Okwechime, who all were promoted, yes, after the coup. So, you're absolutely wrong on that score, and on the other score that Unegbe was an "inferior" Lt. Colonel. He was a very senior, capable, highly talented soldier, and had risen rapidly as a result. James Pam took over from Gowon as Adjutant-General when Gowon went for the Joint Services course from which he returned on the eve of the coup, ready to assume the command of the Lagos Garrison. I suggest you get a proper handle of this history which you distort so much with bile and caprice.Obi Nwakanma..
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2016 3:12 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MUST READ: The Aguiyi-Ironsi Tragedy1. Obi Nwakanma wrote, "For instance, Salimonu Kadiri's reality is that Arthur Unegbe, because he was Igbo officer was inferior to James Yakubu Pam, with whom he was on the the same rank of 'Lt. Colonel." What I wrote was that in determining seniority in the ranking of Army officers, the date of enlistment, date of Commission, date of promotion and even the type of staff training are very essential. I stated further that James Yakubu Pam was enlisted as a Sandhurst cadet in 1954 and commissioned in 1955; and seven years and nine months after commissioning, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, having received Staff Training at Joint Services Staff College, UK. The JSSC training actually prepared Yakubu Pam as Adjutant General. On the other hand Arthur Unegbe was enlisted as a Sandhurst cadet in 1955 and commissioned in 1956; and eight years and seven months after commissioning, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel having attended Staff College in Quetta, Pakistan, designated in the Nigerian Army as PSC (P) to differentiate it from Staff College, Camberley, (PSC). Judging from the year of enlistment, commission and date of promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, James Yakubu Pam was senior to Arthur Unegbe. This is the same logic applied by Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu when he refused to accept Yakubu Gowon as his Commander in Chief because he, Ojukwu, was promoted to a Lt. Colonel seven months before Gowon. Despite this explanation, the professional word twister would read me as having written that Arthur Unegbe was inferior to Yakubu Pam because the former was Igbo.
2. The QMG is one of the most senior military positions on the General Staff, and is a position normally held by a General in the Army - Obi Nwakanma.The question Obi must answer is: What abnormal condition made Unegbe to be QMG if the position should normally be held by a General?
3. I've kept mixing up James Yakubu Pam with Jacob Yakubu Gowon for some odd reasons of association -----//.... perhaps because they were both Lt. Colonels, or even because Yakubu Gowon had been Adjutant General of the Army in 1963, before Yakubu Pam, before they were both appointed Battalion Commanders - Obi Nwakanma.
Out of mischief, Obi is mixing up many things. Pam had been Lt. Colonel in 1962 a year before Gowon was promoted to the same rank. Gowon could not have been Adjutant General before Pam since he was yet to go for JSSC training which was absolutely necessary to be Adjutant General. Gowon returned to Nigeria from JSSC training a night before the coup and he was scheduled to take over from Hilary Njoku as Commander of 2nd Battalion, Ikeja. Worth repeating here is that Pam was enlisted in 1954 and Commissioned in 1955 while Gowon was enlisted in 1955 and commissioned in 1956. Colonel Kuru Mohammed was the first Nigerian Adjutant General, from whom Pam took over after the former was promoted to Chief of Staff to replace Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari who was made Commander Southern Command while Brigadier Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun was Commander, Northern Command.4. Even the fact that it was James Y. Pam himself, one of the victims of the coup, who had first called and alerted Ironsi, who was being sought for execution in Lagos about the coup, and gave him the chance to escape, and begin to mobilize his troops by establishing himself at the Police HQ where, contacting Patrick Anwunah first, he began to direct the degradation of the coup in progress fails to register for Salimonu Kadiri - Obi Nwakanma.The 15 January 1966 coup commenced at 2:00 am and the then Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Amadu Kurfi, narrated how he was woken up at about 3 a.m. through a visit by the then Commissioner of Police, Lagos Federal Territory, Malam Hamman Maiduguri, who was accompanied by the Acting Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Kam Salem. They informed him that the Prime Minister had been kidnapped at gun point by some soldiers. Amadu Kurfi wrote, "The police chief further informed me that the Lagos telephone was apparently tampered with by the coup makers as the ordinary telephone could not be used to make contacts. I checked my telephone there and then found it dead. ....//... I proceeded to visit another military officer's house, Lt. Colonel Yakubu Pam, .... Again the house situated at Ikoyi Crescent was dark and there was no sign of life. .... I reversed the car to return to my house ...... As I was doing so, Colonel Pam's wife Elizabeth, spotted the car and shouted my name: 'Malam Amadu! Malam Amadu!!' in a very agitated voice. I switched off the engine, came out and spoke to Mrs. Pam who was still standing on the terrace and weeping hysterically. She told me tearfully that an army Major, whom she named , came with others and led away her husband who was in pyjamas." (From the book: The Nigerian General Elections 1959 and 1979 and the aftermath by Amadu Kurfi). Could the coup makers have allowed Yakubu Pam, who was ferried away at gun point in pyjamas, to make telephone call to Ironsi or any other person on that fateful morning at 2 a.m.? Which telephone did Yakubu Pam use in calling Ironsi, when Amadu Kurfi himself confirmed that the telephone lines had been put out of order? The fact is that Ironsi and many of the coup executors attended a party in the house of Brigadier Maimalari for his newly wedded wife in the evening of Friday, 14 January 1966, from which Ironsi and the coup executors in Lagos parted around 22:30 P.M. While the coup executors regrouped at Apapa, Ironsi left for another Naval event at Elder Dempster mailboat Auerol, then in the harbour at Apapa. When Ironsi left Apapa in the morning of 15 January 1966, he did not go home but went straight to link up with Lt. Colonel Hilary Njoku, the Commander of 2nd Infantry Battalion at Ikeja, and one of his moles among the coup plotters, Major John Obienu. Captain Ben Gbulie stated categorically in his book that Major Don Okafor and Captain Ogbo Oji, among the coup plotters had taken a stand against any step that might embody the killing of Ironsi. It is a tale by the moonlight that Ironsi was alerted by Yakubu Pam, which enabled him to contact Patrick Anwuna who was only promoted a Lt. Colonel after the successful coup of Ironsi. If the 15 January 1966 had failed as some pseudo historians would like us to believe, then the civilian government would have remained. It is a quasi history to assert that Ironsi saved a child from drowning by beheading the child!!5. Yet I do not get any hint in the excerpts that Salimonu Kadiri quotes here of General Effiong's memoirs (who was in far away Kaduna and was relaying second-hand narrative) - Obi Nwakanma.Lt. Colonels Bassey, Imo, Kurobo, Effiong, and Njoku were senior, by dates of promotion in descending order , to Ojukwu. Under Ironsi, Effiong was a Principal Staff Officer at the Supreme Head Quarter (SHQ) before he was posted to the North in June 1966. Being a Deputy to Ojukwu in Biafra, Effiong must have had access to classified information and, in fact, must have had direct access to 2nd Lieutenant Andrew Nwankwo in Biafra. Thus the narrative of Effiong cannot be dismissed as second-hand even though the credibility of Nwankwo's history of escape is doubtful. It was against military pattern of behaviour, even against commonsense, that Danjuma would have co-opted 2nd Lieutenant Bello, one of Ironsi's ADC into his rebellious troop and even entrusted him with the responsibility of executing Ironsi and Fajuyi. Let's read what Amadu Kurfi wrote on this issue, "Major Danjuma and a number of other officers from Mokola now went to Government House and called on the Guards to line up. They selected the best soldiers and marksmen who were from the North among them and asked all other including a number of Igbo soldiers to go. They neither harmed them nor detained them. ....//.... The soldiers then entered a small family lounge where they found Major-General Ironsi and Lt. Col. Fajuyi." From this account, it is probable that ADC, 2nd Lt. Andrew Nwankwo never experienced the treatment he claimed that he was subjected to. 6. On the strength of Danjuma's guarantee, Fajuyi leads him and some of his men up to Ironsi, whose own small guard of his ADCs including Andrew Nwankwo and Sani Bello, who were urged to stand down - Obi NwakanmaThat is a plain lie, Fajuyi never led Danjuma to Ironsi. Fajuyi had talked to Danjuma and returned alone to the lounge to join Ironsi.
7. If Fajuyi were not a target, he would just simply have been tied up and secured inspite of his protestations, and Ironsi killed alone. That was exactly what they did to Stanley Wey, Chief Secretary to the Federal Government, who was on Ironsi's entourage to Ibadan..... - Obi Nwakanma.Having surrounded the government house in Ib--
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