Dear Obi,
I followed both UPN and NPP activities in Rivers State and Imo State, 1981-84.
Everybody praises AWO's universal primary school education where his vision had jurisdiction – and Nigeria is reaping some of the benefits which we see today..
I am familiar with some of the speeches of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in Dawodu.com
So, you lodge me in something of a quandary, somewhere between your proverbial rock and a very hard place, because I'm still waiting for all the AWO materials that I ordered through Sunshine Booksellers - after reading which - and after some consultations with Ogbeni Kadiri , I should be in a better position to understand this matter further.
In the meantime, I should just like to say this : The meaning of labels such as Nazi and Nazism are very specifically clear whereas the terms " fascist " (Mussolini in mind with his ethnic fascism) and "psychopath" are all-purpose expletives specially reserved for the ethnic enemy, and tend to be inflicted more indiscriminately.
And when it comes to AWO's proposed political economy in post-colonial Africa would "fascism" be your most convenient term with which to embrace his vision?
Chinua Achebe is the second African writer that I read in this life (the first was Alan Paton). Mr. Achebe was vociferously opposed to the idea of a state funeral for Chief Obafemi Awolowo, because according to Mr. Achebe - his exact words - our great chief "was not an Igbo god" - implying of course that Igbo gods cannot be blasphemed.
The reasons for the Igbo's intense hatred ("he was/ is not an Igbo God" indeed ) is adduced to the following that was consistently drummed into my ears by my Igbo brethren and sistren during my sojourn in Nigeria :
(1) That Awo had promised to declare Oduduwa when Ojukwu declared Biafra and
(2) That he used starvation as a weapon of war against Biafra's civilian population – an issue that has fuelled enough debate and outrage in this series, the bottom line being argued by Awoists that should Nigeria have continue to feed enemy combatants then the war and suffering would have been prolonged - and most tellingly – that it was Biafra's leader who refused to allow food convoys into the besieged Biafra.
So, please bear with me.
In the meantime, I'm trying to get hold of the transcript of Chief Emeka Anyaoku's speech at UNILAG on the UN's Youth Day
Pray for us
Cornelius
On Friday, 26 August 2016 03:06:28 UTC+2, Rex Marinus wrote:...Dear Cornelius:
I'm not sure that you have read any of the writings of Mr. Obafemi Awolowo, or read his political programs. But if you have, I'm afraid, you have not borne true witness to his ideas. At this stage of our lives and awareness, it is crucial to tell ourselves some truths. The interpretation of Awo's life and work will, beyond this generation, be done based on his (a) political writings (b) the ideological basis of his foundational party the Action Group, and (c) the political program he ran as political leader. I want you to read the description below of "Fascism" and tell me whether it does not describe Awolowo's stated political philosophy. I did not call Awo a fascist without grounds. Awo himself described himself, his work, and recorded in his writings the nature of his political ideas and praxis. All you need to do is consult the political ideas that founded the Action Group. In fact, read Awo himself, and note where he himself acknowledged his ideological debt to a famous Pakistani fascist, and one of the key ideologues of the partition as well as the goals f National Socialism. One of the stated central goals of the Awolowo and his Action Group was also the protection of the monarchy, as the symbol of the volksgemeinschaft. I do not know what you call that. Meanwhile follow this link for its interesting conclusions http://www.govern
mentvs.com/en/fascism-vs- . I am not the one who called Awo a fascist. His work speaks for him. Printed words survive us all. And all these your attempts to dress Awo in a different robe comes, I daresay, from the emotionalism of a great admirer of Awo, rather than a from the rational examination of his work and his writings. It is there that you must situate him.social-democracy-history/compa rison-10-50-1 Obi Nwakanma
________________________
As an economic system, fascism is socialism with a capitalist veneer. The word derives from fasces, the Roman symbol of collectivism and power: a tied bundle of rods with a protruding ax. In its day (the 1920s and 1930s), fascism was seen as the happy medium between boom-and-bust-prone liberal capitalism, with its alleged class conflict, wasteful competition, and profit-oriented egoism, and revolutionary Marxism, with its violent and socially divisive persecution of the bourgeoisie. Fascism substituted the particularity of nationalism and racialism—"blood and soil"—for the internationalism of both classical liberalism and Marxism.
Where socialism sought totalitarian control of a society's economic processes through direct state operation of the means of production, fascism sought that control indirectly, through domination of nominally private owners. Where socialism nationalized property explicitly, fascism did so implicitly, by requiring owners to use their property in the "national interest"—that is, as the autocratic authority conceived it. (Nevertheless, a few industries were operated by the state.) Where socialism abolished all market relations outright, fascism left the appearance of market relations while planning all economic activities. Where socialism abolished money and prices, fascism controlled the monetary system and set all prices and wages politically. In doing all this, fascism denatured the marketplace. Entrepreneurship was abolished. State ministries, rather than consumers, determined what was produced and under what conditions.
Fascism is to be distinguished from interventionism, or the mixed economy. Interventionism seeks to guide the market process, not eliminate it, as fascism did. Minimum-wage and antitrust laws, though they regulate the free market, are a far cry from multiyear plans from the Ministry of Economics.
Under fascism, the state, through official cartels, controlled all aspects of manufacturing, commerce, finance, and agriculture. Planning boards set product lines, production levels, prices, wages, working conditions, and the size of firms. Licensing was ubiquitous; no economic activity could be undertaken without government permission. Levels of consumption were dictated by the state, and "excess" incomes had to be surrendered as taxes or "loans." The consequent burdening of manufacturers gave advantages to foreign firms wishing to export. But since government policy aimed at autarky, or national self-sufficiency, protectionism was necessary: imports were barred or strictly controlled, leaving foreign conquest as the only avenue for access to resources unavailable domestically. Fascism was thus incompatible with peace and the international division of labor—hallmarks of liberalism.
Fascism embodied corporatism, in which political representation was based on trade and industry rather than on geography. In this, fascism revealed its roots in syndicalism, a form of socialism originating on the left. The government cartelized firms of the same industry, with representatives of labor and management serving on myriad local, regional, and national boards—subject always to the final authority of the dictator's economic plan. Corporatism was intended to avert unsettling divisions within the nation, such as lockouts and union strikes. The price of such forced "harmony" was the loss of the ability to bargain and move about freely.
To maintain high employment and minimize popular discontent, fascist governments also undertook massive public-works projects financed by steep taxes, borrowing, and fiat money creation. While many of these projects were domestic—roads, buildings, stadiums—the largest project of all was militarism, with huge armies and arms production.
The fascist leaders' antagonism to communism has been misinterpreted as an affinity for capitalism. In fact, fascists' anticommunism was motivated by a belief that in the collectivist milieu of early-twentieth-century Europe, communism was its closest rival for people's allegiance. As with communism, under fascism, every citizen was regarded as an employee and tenant of the totalitarian, party-dominated state. Consequently, it was the state's prerogative to use force, or the threat of it, to suppress even peaceful opposition.
If a formal architect of fascism can be identified, it is Benito Mussolini, the onetime Marxist editor who, caught up in nationalist fervor, broke with the left as World War I approached and became Italy's leader in 1922. Mussolini distinguished fascism from liberal capitalism in his 1928 autobiography:
The citizen in the Fascist State is no longer a selfish individual who has the anti-social right of rebelling against any law of the Collectivity. The Fascist State with its corporative conception puts men and their possibilities into productive work and interprets for them the duties they have to fulfill. (p. 280)
Before his foray into imperialism in 1935, Mussolini was often praised by prominent Americans and Britons, including Winston Churchill, for his economic program.
Similarly, Adolf Hitler, whose National Socialist (Nazi) Party adapted fascism to Germany beginning in 1933, said:
The state should retain supervision and each property owner should consider himself appointed by the state. It is his duty not to use his property against the interests of others among his own people. This is the crucial matter. The Third Reich will always retain its right to control the owners of property. (Barkai 1990, pp. 26–27)
Both nations exhibited elaborate planning schemes for their economies in order to carry out the state's objectives. Mussolini's corporate state "consider[ed] private initiative in production the most effective instrument to protect national interests" (Basch 1937, p. 97). But the meaning of "initiative" differed significantly from its meaning in a market economy. Labor and management were organized into twenty-two industry and trade "corporations," each with Fascist Party members as senior participants. The corporations were consolidated into a National Council of Corporations; however, the real decisions were made by state agencies such as the Instituto per la Ricosstruzione Industriale, which held shares in industrial, agricultural, and real estate enterprises, and the Instituto Mobiliare, which controlled the nation's credit.
Hitler's regime eliminated small corporations and made membership in cartels mandatory.1 The Reich Economic Chamber was at the top of a complicated bureaucracy comprising nearly two hundred organizations organized along industry, commercial, and craft lines, as well as several national councils. The Labor Front, an extension of the Nazi Party, directed all labor matters, including wages and assignment of workers to particular jobs. Labor conscription was inaugurated in 1938. Two years earlier, Hitler had imposed a four-year plan to shift the nation's economy to a war footing. In Europe during this era, Spain, Portugal, and Greece also instituted fascist economies.
In the United States, beginning in 1933, the constellation of government interventions known as the New Deal had features suggestive of the corporate state. The National Industrial Recovery Act created code authorities and codes of practice that governed all aspects of manufacturing and commerce. The National Labor Relations Act made the federal government the final arbiter in labor issues. The Agricultural Adjustment Act introduced central planning to farming. The object was to reduce competition and output in order to keep prices and incomes of particular groups from falling during the Great Depression.
It is a matter of controversy whether President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal was directly influenced by fascist economic policies. Mussolini praised the New Deal as "boldly . . . interventionist in the field of economics," and Roosevelt complimented Mussolini for his "honest purpose of restoring Italy" and acknowledged that he kept "in fairly close touch with that admirable Italian gentleman." Also, Hugh Johnson, head of the National Recovery Administration, was known to carry a copy of Raffaello Viglione's pro-Mussolini book, The Corporate State, with him, presented a copy to Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, and, on retirement, paid tribute to the Italian dictator.
About the Author
Sheldon Richman is the editor of The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty at the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvingtonon-Hudson, N.Y.
Further Reading
Barkai, Avraham. Nazi Economics: Ideology, Theory, and Policy. Trans. Ruth Hadass-Vashitz. Oxford: Berg Publishers Ltd., 1990.Basch, Ernst. The Fascist: His State and His Mind. New York: Morrow, 1937.Diggins, John P. Mussolini and Fascism: The View from America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.Flynn, John T. As We Go Marching. 1944. Reprint. New York: Free Life Editions, 1973.Flynn, John T. The Roosevelt Myth. New York: Devin-Adair, 1948.Laqueur, Walter, ed. Fascism: A Reader's Guide. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.Mises, Ludwig von. Omnipotent Government. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1944.Mussolini, Benito. Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions. Firenze: Vallecchi, 1935.Mussolini, Benito. My Autobiography. New York: Scribner's, 1928.Pitigliani, Fauto. The Italian Corporative State. New York: Macmillan, 1934.Powell, Jim. FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression. New York: Crown Forum, 2003.Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960.Twight, Charlotte. America's Emerging Fascist Economy. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1975.
Footnotes
"Laws decreed in October 1937 simply dissolved all corporations with a capital under $40,000 and forbade the establishment of new ones with a capital less than $20,000" (Shirer 1959, p. 262).
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2016 10:56 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MUST READ: The Aguiyi-Ironsi Tragedy
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
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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 e--
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