Saturday, March 4, 2017

SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - THE HISTORY OF THE NIERIAN CIVIL WAR SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN OUR SCHOOLS

Obi Nwakanma is inventing his own history of the Nigerian Civil war to suit his ethnic biased mind. He wrote, "But the declaration of 'No victor, no vanquished' was not made as an act of charity, .... It came from pragmatic politics, and the result of the series of back channel negotiations from late 1969 leading to strategic collapse of the fronts in 1970 to allow for end of conflicts. The Biafrans were not defeated in war..." The Nigerian civil war should have ended in 1968 but for political intrigues in Lagos, against the Commander of Third Marine, Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Adekunle. The second in command to Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Lieutenant Colonel Philip Effiong, recorded thus, "With the fall of Calabar (17 October 1967), Itu, Uyo, and Ikot Ekpene (29 March 1968) the rest of the mainland (Igbo part of Biafra) was militarily threatened. Before this threat became imminent, I had strongly suggested to Ojukwu that as Ikot Ekpene was vital junction town, it should be strongly defended. All he did was to sarcastically remind me that in fact we should also put a battalion at Nnewi. After I received his sarcastic message, I did not mention the subject again. As it eventually turned out, the fall of Ikot Ekpene hastened the collapse of the Biafran 12th Division and, consequently, of Biafra. By September 1968, all the coastal towns in Ojukwu's Biafra were firmly in the hands of Federal forces through the military prowess of Benjamin Adekunle and in the Igbo mainland, Enugu, the capital of Biafra had been captured on October 4, 1967, Onitsha in March 1968, Aba and Owerri in September 1968. Although, Owerri was recaptured by the Biafrans on the 23rd of April 1969, the Federal forces had captured Umuahia, the new capital of Biafra after the fall of Enugu, a day earlier. Essentially, the enclave around Owerri, remained in the hands of the Biafrans as at the end of April 1969. When the final military push by the federal forces that cleaved the remaining Biafra into two in December 1969, there was no other alternative for the rebels than to surrender. A case of pure military defeat. The victorious Federal Government led by Gowon declared "No victor, no vanquished,'' which internationally was considered overgenerous to the rebel leaders who should have been tried for treason and war crimes.


In his manufactured history of the Nigerian civil war, Obi Nwakanma asserted that the real leader of the delegate that surrendered to the Federal government in Lagos, on 15 January 1970, was Sir Louis Nwachukwu Mbanefo. The document of the surrender, however, reads, "I, Major General Philip Efiong, Officer Administering the Government of the Republic of Biafra, now wish to make the following declaration: (a) that we affirm we are loyal Nigerian citizens and accept the authority of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria. (b) that we accept the existing administrative and political structure of Nigeria. (c) that any future constitutional arrangement will be worked out by representatives of the people of Nigeria. (d) that the Republic of Biafra hereby ceases to exist." It was signed, 15 January 1970, by Philip Effiong and was witnessed by Colonel David Ogunewe (military adviser to General Ojukwu), Brigadier Patrick Amadi (Commander Biafran Army), Colonel Patrick Anwunah (Staff Officer, Biafran Army) and Chief Patrick Okeke (Inspector General of Police, Biafra). This is not a case of commonsense but real sense to know that if Sir Louis Mbanefo had led the delegation of surrender to Lagos, he would have signed the surrender document. Mbanefo and Mathew Mbu were members of the Biafran delegate that surrendered in Lagos but they never signed the document.


Obi Nwakanma blamed the cause of the war on what he termed Gowon's renege on Aburi's accord, yet Decree No. 8 of March 1967 fulfilled all that were agreed upon in Aburi, except an additional clause that empowered the federal Military Government to declare emergency in any region of the country provided it was supported by, at least, two of the four military governors in the country. It is remarkable that three of the four  regions were in the South. Ojukwu rejected Decree No.8 and began seizure of Federal Government properties in the then Eastern Region. On May 26, 1967, Ojukwu summoned his so-called Eastern Region  Consultative Assembly urging them to grant him power to declare Eastern Region a Sovereign State after assuring them that no power in Africa could subdue the East militarily. On May 27, 1967, Gowon sliced the country into 12 states whereby, Eastern Region that contained other minority ethnic groups than the Igbo became three states. Before then Ojukwu had started recruiting only Igbo into his army because he could not trust the minority ethnic groups in his region. (see p.170, Nigeria and Biafra My Story by Philip Effiong).


Obi Nwakanma wrote, "By September 1966, in its own counter measure, Enugu 'captured' the Midwest, and was on its way to capturing Lagos and Ibadan..." He concluded that "Brigadier Banjo subverted the campaigns in Midwest." Lieutenant Colonel Victor Adebukunola Banjo was an Army Director of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers that had its workshop at Herbert Macaulay Street Yaba, as at 15 January 1966. On Monday, 17 January 1966, he summoned a meeting of officers at his workshop in Yaba to brief them about the military  casualties from the Saturday coup and openly declared that all officers from Lieutenant Colonels and above should step aside so that the Majors could complete their revolution. While he was addressing them, Lieutenant Colonel Philip Effiong confirmed that telephone rang and after Banjo had answered the phone, he told them that Ironsi wanted to see him at the Police headquarters, his temporary office. While Banjo was waiting to see Ironsi on January 17, 1966, he was arrested by Lieutenant Colonel George T. Kurubo and Major Patrick A. Anwuna. He was detained in prison by Ironsi without trial. On the 1st of June 1966 and shortly before the second coup, he was transferred to Ikot Ekpene prison in the then Eastern Region. After the July 29, 1966 coup, Ojukwu released all the Majors that were involved in the January 1966 coup as well as Lt. Colonel Banjo. Ideologically, Majors Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna as well as Lt. Colonel Banjo saw the Eastern situation as a great opportunity to fight against feudalism in Nigeria. They were all along  against secession.


Truly and factually, Banjo led the invasion of Midwest on August 9, 1967 and not September 1966 as asserted by Obi Nwakanma. In his radio broadcast from Benin, Banjo described himself as the head of the revolutionary forces of the liberation army. He said that his next objective was to liberate Lagos and the West from the Northern feudalistic control. He declared, "I am a Nigerian. I believe in the Nigerian nation and I am fighting for a Nigeria in which no people will be dominated by the other." He mentioned that he was unjustly detained by Ironsi after the Majors' coup of January 1966. Banjo was recalled from the Midwest by Ojukwu who handed him instruction to obtain clearance from Enugu before any future public broadcast or statement. Before Banjo was sent back to Benin, Ojukwu had appointed Major Albert Nwazu Okonkwo, an Igbo, as the Military Governor of the Midwest to replace Lieutenant Colonel David Ejoor, an Uhrobo . However, Banjo continued his military advancement towards Lagos and Ibadan until he was militarily defeated by the Federal forces at Òrè. As the Biafran forces retreated in disarray, the federal army retook Benin City on September 22, 1967.


About the end of the war, Obi Nwakanma wrote, "The formal collapse of the 'war fronts" was preludes to asymmetrical warfare had the agreements in Lagos brokered largely by Nnamdi Azikiwe's forceful backdoor diplomacy internationally from 1969 failed in Lagos which involved something of 'a palace coup' in Biafra that quietly eased Ojukwu 'out of the scene' in 1970." This is how Obi Nwakanma wants the end of the civil war to be but historical facts had it the other way. On the 7th of  September 1968, Ojukwu had sent a delegation led by Nnamdi Azikiwe to France to solicit for increased weapon supplies. The French realised that no amount of weapon could change the military misfortune of Biafra and therefore decided to retain the level of support. The Biafran delegate comprising of Azikiwe, Michael Okpara, Kenneth Dike, Francis Nwokedi and joined by the Biafran envoy in Paris, Ralph Uwechue, decided to cable Ojukwu that time was ripe to find a peaceful negotiation and to stop the suffering of the masses in Biafra. Ojukwu branded their request treason and stressed that Biafra's sovereignty was not negotiable. While Nnamdi Azikiwe absconded from the Biafran delegation to Paris and sought asylum in London, the Biafran envoy in Paris resigned with immediate effect. On August 17, 1969, Nnamdi Azikiwe visited Nigeria and when it became known to the Biafrans, there were demonstrations throughout the enclave of Biafra with Azikiwe's effigy being burnt and his mock funeral held. And on his return to London, he told the press on the 28th of August 1969 that Biafrans were being fooled to believe that they would be slaughtered if they surrendered. By December 23, 1969, the federal forces had cleaved the remaining enclave of Biafra into two and by 9 January 1970 the federal forces had liberated Owerri, one of the few remaining towns held by Biafra since April 25, 1969. With Orlu being bombarded by the federal troops from two directions on the 10th of January 1970, Ojukwu hurried to Ulli Ihiala air-strip and was evacuated by the French Red Cross Plane and landed at a military airport in Abidjan at 6 o'clock in the morning of Sunday, 11 January 1970. The war should have ended in 1968, but for intrigues in Lagos against Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Adekunle. Obi's imaginary 'war fronts' were concentrated around Owerri from April 25, 1969 and if Azikiwe's invented backdoor diplomacy were real, his effigy would not have been burnt in Owerri enclave on August 17, 1969 and mock funeral of him would not have been performed throughout Owerri enclave. The Biafran Army was defeated militarily and their military leaders signed a surrender document. That secret negotiations preceded Biafra's surrender is a wishful meny fit only for public consumption on the 1st of April.


Obi Nwakanma wrote about marginalized Igbo in Nigeria and chose 1984 to 1999 as the worst period. Ibrahim Babangida overthrew Mohammadu Buhari in 1985 and he ruled until he stepped aside over June 12, 1993 election controversy. It was not without reason that Ohaneze Ndigbo awarded General Ibrahim Babangida the Igbo traditional title of Ogugua Ndigbo. When Abacha slaughtered Saro Wiwa and the eight Ogoni activists, his Attorney General was an Igbo and the multimillion dollars major contractor for Nigeria's oil refineries was Emeka Offor. When Obasanjo took over in 1999, Emeka Offor continued to play similar role. I checked through all official positions in Nigeria at Federal level after the civil war, the only position a person of an Igbo ethnic group has never held is the President. Each of the five states in the Southeast - Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo states - have received Revenue Allocations from the Federal Government just like all other states in Nigeria. The governors in the Igbo ruled states are millionaires just like their counterparts in other parts of Nigeria, while ordinary people they rule over are living in abject poverty and wants. At this early 21st century, I think it is time to look into the competence of officials  and their abilities to deliver on what is expected of their respective offices instead of being concerned with the ethnic origin of the officials. Practically, potable water, constant electricity, modern housing, functional hospitals, good roads and standard schools have no tribal marks. Nigeria is said to have up to 300 ethnic languages and if federal offices and appointments are to be shared on ethnic basis, I think, the Yoruba, the Igbo and Hausa/Fulani have had and are still having more than their ethnic share of the Federal appointments.

S.Kadiri  
 




Från: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> för Rex Marinus <rexmarinus@hotmail.com>
Skickat: den 3 mars 2017 14:25
Till: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - THE HISTORY OF THE NIERIAN CIVIL WAR SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN OUR SCHOOLS
 

Here we go again. I do not know what Kayode J. Fakindele knows about the issue, but the declaration of "No victor, no Vanquished" was not made as an act of political charity, in as much as that fiction has been routinely retailed. It came from pragmatic politics, and the result of the series of back channel negotiations from late 1969 leading to the strategic collapse of the fronts in 1970 to allow for the end of conflicts. The Biafrans were not defeated in war, and did not go to Lagos to surrender without precondition as was made clear by the real leader of its delegation, Sir Louis Nwachukwu Mbanefo. The Biafrans had established the mechanism to enter the second stage of the war - the guerrilla phase- should the agreements fail. I should leave the details alone for the moment, but it is important that folks like Fakindele, who may not have all the facts, or may not have taken into account that the narrative of the civil war - the Biafra War - from my own end, is not a single story, to know in truth that the greatest blunder of the post civil war era was to break all the guarantees that assured the former Biafrans of full, unconditional re-integration. No sooner had they dismantled their defences than the Federal government carry out a triumphalist sweeping purge of the Igbo from the top of the civil and military service; impose a quiet containment policy that aimed at the economic strangulation of the Igbo areas of the old East, and create conditions that progressed, and by 1984, with the rise of the alliance of the young field officers of that war from mostly the North and West, led by Buhari, who took over power by a coup, further alienated the Igbo, wiping off whatever political gains they made in the four year break of civilian rule between 1979 and the end of 1983.


The roots of the current agitation for the restoration f Biafra can be traced to the military coup of 1984. From 1984 to 1999, the Igbo were in a political wilderness in Nigeria, and far more than any other era, saw themselves increasingly "marginalized" from nation. When Chuba Okadigbo first used that term in 1990 to describe the Igbo condition in Nigeria, that reality had become routine, and a new generation was paying attention, and living the reality of political and economic exclusion. They could see it all around: they would graduate top of their classes in the universities, and see their classmates get safe corridors to the cushiest jobs, while they either made do with the crumbs or had no crumbs at all. Of all parts of Nigeria, only the East, particularly the Igbo, had what may actually be the presence of "citizen soldiers" in good number: that is a large army of civilians with military training and with combat experience, who had circulated into civil life as teachers, doctors, university professors, traders, and so on. As they were aging out, they were also teaching their children, not only the art of war, but also the story of the last war. So, although the story of the Nigerian/Biafran civil war is not taught in Nigerian schools, Igbo children know their story. Igbo writers have documented the war very elaborately. Igbo have documents of their last meetings about that war. And because that war is, quite remarkably, the first war covered in the modern era on TV, footages exist; documents and accounts by international observers and reporters exist, and it is futile to revise it, or teach lies  as history, and I hope J. Fakindele would not teach his children historical lies because that would be terrible.


The Nigerian civil war began thus: the counter coup of July 1966 had started a pogrom from the military barracks that targeted the Igbo, and spilled unto the streets with the killings of Igbo civilians in the North and the West; the Igbo fled Eastwards for protection, and sought guarantees for their own safety from the Nigerian government which was not forthcoming. Odumegwu-Ojukwu sought political solutions, and this culminated in the meetings and the agreements at Aburi to create a confederal union as a means of easing the pressures. The agreements which were reached at Aburi were quickly reneged as soon as Gowon arrived Lagos, and a new set of policies imposed, which isolated the East. The last straw was the break up of the East with no input at all from the leadership of the East, and the subsequent mandate given by the Eastern Consultative Assembly to Ojukwu to declare an independent and sovereign state of Biafra. The result was that on July 6, with a two-pronged attack, Lagos began the war by attacking the East in what the Federal administration termed "a police action." By September 1966, in its own counter measure, Enugu "captured" the Midwest, and was on its way to capturing Lagos and Ibadan, and decisively ending the war, when Brigadier Banjo, the Commander of the Biafran forces leading the campaign subverted the campaign in the Midwest, and the Biafrans thereafter, lost the initiative, and from then engaged in defensive warfare given the limitations of arms. The formal collapse of the "war fronts" was preludes to asymmetrical warfare had the agreements in Lagos brokered largely by Nnamdi Azikiwe's forceful backdoor diplomacy internationally from 1969 failed in Lagos which involved something of a "palace coup" in Biafra that quietly eased Ojukwu "out of the scene" in 1970. It would have moved the Biafran strategy from the Montgomerry methods of formal fronts to Mao's method of shifting frontiers. BOFF and the S Brigade were already prepared, and were the lynchpins of that phase of the war. So, the Biafrans were still at the trigger in 1970, and the mistake of Nigeria was to think that it defeated the Igbo in war, and therefore could isolate and marginalize them as second-lass citizens in Nigeria. One generation could take it, but the next would not. It would be  wise for the likes of J. Fakindele to look a bit more closely before they make wild leaps about "No victor, No Vanquished."

Obi Nwakanma





From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kayode J. Fakinlede <jfakinlede@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, March 3, 2017 2:25 AM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - THE HISTORY OF THE NIERIAN CIVIL WAR SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN OUR SCHOOLS
 

'No victor, no vanquished."

This pronuncement, to me, is the greatest blunder of our civil war. I can almost say that it is at the bottom of the continued aspiration by a segment of our society for secession.

Of course, one could not have blamed the government of young Ganeral Gowon. It was reasoned then that in declaring that neither side won or lost the war, everyone would have learned his lesson and our nation would be at peace forever more.

What we see now is a blantant misplacement of historical facts and grotesque caricatures being made of those whose intentions were noble. But more importantly, we are seeing agitations where none should have arisen and from the side that was vanqished in the war. The factual victors, having remained silent for so long, are now being painted as carnivores and murderers.  

Anyone who was an adult during the civil war will definitely not wish another one on Nigeria. Lessons have been learned and honestly, not too many of these people agitate for secession or any form of upheaval, regardless of his tribal origin. It is those who were yet unborn or too young to experience the realities of war that would think it is child's play.

But the truth is that they do not know better. They receive information, not history, from their parents. In most instances, while the intenions of the older ones may not be for agitation, a vanquished people will always tell a story of their mistreatment and their heroism in the face of all odds.

A factual history of the civil war must be taught in all our schools to all our children. This is not to put any segment of our nation down. It is reasonable because this event marks the singular greatest period when, but for providence sake, Nigeria would have disintegrated. Moreover, people badly informed of the mistreatment of their forebears are bound to react negatively to their perceived malefactors.   

This subject needs not be given a name that would be derogatory to any side. It can just be called 'The Nigerian Civil War'. Therein all our young ones will learn as a subject matter: the events that led to the war; attempts to resolve the issues so war could be averted; who were the initial aggressors; who took part militarily in the war; who were the heroes; the parts played by our own leaders either in preventing or agitating for war; the parts played by others in trying to prevent war; how the war was prosecuted; how the war was brought to an end; life after the war; attempts to rebuild; the lingering issues arising from the war; the effects of the war on our present political life; important dates in the process; etc.

There is so much to teach our children and they should be properly and factually taught. Some smart person once said that whoever forgets the past is bound to repeat it, or something of that nature.

I rest my case

Fakinlede K

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