Cornelius, In the real sense no coup in Nigeria has ever been bloodless if you count the number of Police men and civilians that get killed by soldiers during the operations in the night which are never reported. However, I don't want to be dragged into your perception of the Buhari coup as to whether it was a 'liberation' or not. This is because of the simple reason that theories abound on whether or not the Military are transformers or otherwise. So if you perceive the Buhari coup of December 31, 1983 as 'liberation', it is up to you. More so, whether or not the 'liberation' mission was fulfilled, with all the falterings of that administration, before the Babangida counter coup is also up to you. Anyway,thanks for accepting the correction on political party activities.
GSM
--------------------------------------------
On Fri, 8/26/16, Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> wrote:
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MUST READ: The Aguiyi-Ironsi Tragedy
To: "USA Africa Dialogue Series" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Friday, August 26, 2016, 3:39 PM
#yiv7918788573 p
{margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%;}#yiv7918788573
a:link {}
I would not characterise the bloodless coup of 31/12/1983
as
conducted by "Buhari and his gang " A great many people
saw the
coup leaders as liberators, purifiers (yes, I understand
that the guy
( a family friend) who volunteered to break the early
morning news
to Shagari came to a bad end...
An act of submission:
I submit to the first part of your correction that all
political
party activities ceased forthwith, by decree - after which
the
biggest losers in the
officially rigged 1983 elections , the UPN and the NPP
of course
could only grumble and whine clandestinely at home, at the
market
place, in the office, at the drinking parlours whilst the
old NPN
magicians, in the hope of some kind of retributive justice
are
probably still fuming "God dae !" or what Nigerians in
that part
of Nigeria usually say when they are angry or believe
themselves to
have been unfairly treated or cheated : "God punish
you!"
As you can imagine that's what Shagari's corrupt
elite wanted for
Brothers Buhari and Idiagbon : divine chastisement ! After
all, V-P
Alex Ekwueme had previously brought his friend, His
Holiness the
Pope to Nigeria to pray for the government ) and now the
long-shuffering civil servants, workers, teachers were
showering
blessings on Brothers Muhammadu and Tunde - especially
after we all
got paid something like five months arrears in salary -
also by
decree , within three weeks !
Why do I call them NPN magicians? Well, I observed the
1983
elections first hand and at close range, in Bakana.
I knew everybody on the island - was introduced to Royalty
by Mr.
Sogules the pharmacist) and I can tell you this : on the
morning of
the election, the NPP contestant was dragged from his abode
and at
the bottom of the stairs, was given the hiding of his life.
You must understand that Bakana's Levy Braide was the
minister of
agriculture at the time ( he was a resident) and that some
of his
followers must have thought that it was an affront for an
NPP man to
oppose him (Mind you many Kalabari men in Buguma for
example, have
Igbo mothers)
The voting was over by two O'clock that afternoon and
the people
erupted into a spontaneous victory celebration, dancing and
singing "
NPN Magic!" - We are made to understand that when the
counting was
over (and there were more votes cast that there are people
on that
island) the extra ballots were thrown into the river…
On Friday, 26 August 2016 15:34:06 UTC+2, Godwin Okeke
wrote:Point of Correction, Cornelius!
There was no political party activities in Nigeria from the
night of 31st December, 1983, even beyond the period
you're referring to (1984) when Buhari and his gang
overthrew the Shagari administration.
Please take note.
GSM
------------------------------ --------------
On Fri, 8/26/16, Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - MUST READ: The
Aguiyi-Ironsi Tragedy
To: "USA Africa Dialogue Series" <usaafric...@ googlegroups.com>
Date: Friday, August 26, 2016, 6:11 AM
Amended:
#yiv8933096479 p
{margin-bottom:0.25cm;line- height:120%;}#yiv8933096479
a:link {}
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 continued 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.
governmentvs.com/en/fascism-
vs-social-democracy-history/
comparison-10-50-1.
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.
Obi Nwakanma
Fascism
vs Social Democracy History
www.governmentvs.com
Differentiate Fascism vs Social Democracy history
________________________
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
1.
"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 Tragedy
One 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 t
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