Lawrence, beware of the neo Third Reich revenger, Obi Nwakanma, whose sole aim is to reverse the outcome of the Nigerian civil war that ended, 15 January 1970. First, an understanding of how Adolf Hitler began the World War II would shed light on the political goal of Nwakanma to start another civil war he hopes to win.
World War II, ended with the defeat of Germany and her allies, which led to the treaty of Versailles in 1919. Adolf Hitler did not accept the Treaty and planned to repeal it. The German Nazi Bible, authored by Adolf Hitler, called MEIN KAMPF was published in two volumes. The first volume was published on July 19, 1925 with the subtitle, EINE ABRECHNUNG (A Reckoning) and the second volume, DIE NATIONALSOZIALISTISCHE BEWEGUNG (The Nazi Movement), was published on December 11, 1926. Hitler promised the Germans that if he was voted into power he would deal with the Jews and every German would eat buttered bread pasted with gem. By 1933 Hitler became German Chancellor and he cleaned the Jews from German soil but the promised bread for Germans did exist not to talk of pasting it with butter and gem. Germany knew in advance that the extermination of the Jews would not bring bread pasted with butter and gem to the hungry Germans and that was why he wrote on p.3 of Mein Kampf thus, "One blood demands one Reich. Never will the German Nation possess the moral right to engage in colonial politics until, at least, it embraces its own sons within a single state. Only when the Reich borders include the very last German, but can no longer guarantee his daily bread, will the moral right to acquire foreign soil arise from the distress of our people. Their sword will become our plough, and from the tears of war the daily bread of future generations will grow." Those were Hitler's words in 1925. The practical application of getting daily bread for the Germans was expressed by the German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, in the German Reichstag on February 20, 1938 thus, "Our economic situation is a difficult one, not because National-Socialism is at the helm, but because 140 people must live on a square kilometre; because we are not in possession of those great, natural resources enjoyed by other people, because, above all, we have a scarcity of fertile soil. If Great Britain should suddenly dissolve today and England become dependent solely on her own territory, then the people there would perhaps have more understanding of the seriousness of economic tasks which confront us. ...//... No matter what we may achieve by increasing the German production, all this cannot remove the impossible nature of the space allotted to Germany. The claim for German colonial possessions will, therefore, be voiced from year to year with increasing vigour, possessions which Germany did not take away from other countries and which today are virtually of no value to these Powers but appear indispensable for our own people (p. 63, Peace With Dictators By Sir Norman Angell)."
Just like Hitler did not agree that the Germans were defeated in the World War 1 and prepared for World War II, Obi Nwakanma does not believe that Biafrans were defeated and surrendered on January 15, 1970. To him one Colonel Achuzia who was electric bulb hawker in Port Harcourt when the war broke out in 1967 was superior to Philip Effiong who was already a Lieutenant Colonel in 1965 in the Nigerian Army. Obi Nwakanma does not believe that the Second in Command to Ojukwu, Philip Effiong signed any surrender document even though Effiong and Obasanjo admitted in their books that Philip Effiong surrendered on behalf of Biafra. He has maintained that Awolowo committed genocide against the Igbo for having said that opposing soldiers should not be fed because feeding them would make them fight harder.
In Obi Nwakanma's world, books authored by Adewale Ademoyega and Ben Gbulie, two participants in the coup of January 15, 1966, should be discountenanced while unpublished work of Emmanuel Ifeajuna he had access to should be taken as the bible of the coup. According to Obi Nwakanma, Major Chude Sokei was not in Nigeria during the coup. Since Nwakanma was not in the Nigerian army and he was not among the coup plotters, how then could he have known that Chudi Sokei was in India on a course? The simpleton said Chudi Sokei was on course, but he did not tell readers what course. The false impression Nwakanma is trying to give readers is that the Premier of the East, Michael Okpara, was not killed because Major Chude Sokei, who was given that assignment, was not in Nigeria at the time of the coup. If it was so, Captain Ben Gbulie would have known and would have shared this important information with the readers of his NIgeria's Five Majors. Rather, Ben Gbulie wrote, "Moreover, both Major Chude Sokei and Lieutenant Jerome Oguchi of the 1st Infantry Battalion, Enugu, HAD RANKED VERY HIGH ON THE LIST OF THE STRONG ADVOCATES OF A BLOODLESS COUP. And these were none other than the two young men upon whose shoulders squarely rested the onerous task of prosecuting the coup in the hill-clad coal city. Actually they had taken the whole thing quite philosophically. There was no earthly reason why anyone should engage in blood-letting if one could avoid it. And no earthly reason why any politician should be killed unless it was absolutely necessary. They (Sokei and Oguchi) had been so dogmatic in their stand that they could scarcely hide the fact that they totally abhorred bloodshed - BLOODSHED IN ANY SHAPE OR FORM (p.136, Nigeria's Five Majors: Coup D'état Of 15th January 1966 First Inside Account)."
Telling readers why Okpara was not killed, Ben Gbulie stated, "IT WAS THEREFORE AGAINST THIS BACKGROUND THAT THE ENUGU OPERATION HAD FAILED TO TAKE PLACE AS PLANNED (p.136)." Although Major Chudi Sokei and Lieutenant Jerome Oguchi were among the coup plotters, they were not arrested and detained by General Aguiyi Ironsi as he did to other plotters (p.158-159). It is obvious that Major Sokei and Lieutenant Oguchi turned pacifists when the target to be eliminate, Michael Okpara, was an Igbo like themselves. Otherwise, they could have declined to be part of the coup if all other plotters did not assure them that the coup was not going to be bloodless.
Just like Hitler, Obi Nwakanma's Biafra consists not only the Igbo ancestral home but extends to parts of Kogi, Benue, Edo States, and the entire South-South. One can see Obi Nwakanma's either arrested mental development or refusal to understand history and realty as they are and not as he wants them to be. This ignorant scoundrel who is allergic to commonsense and lessons of history want another civil war in Nigeria and when he is told that war is not the solution to our problems, he gets angry and resort to grammatical diarrhoea which he thinks is a sign of erudition but which normal people see as a symptom of lunacy. He has invented history to justify his intended war on Nigeria but only the gullible will believe him.
S. Kadiri.
Skickat: den 25 september 2017 15:09
Till: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Ämne: Re: SV: SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - News Release: Military Invasion Of Igboland
Lawrence, you're wasting very precious time responding to the rantings of an ignoramus who does not know the meaning of the word "Diala" and its circulation in Igbo land, yet makes really, really laughable claims about the Igbo of whom he knows absolutely nothing about. Igbo sociology is beyond his ken, but he talks of the "Osu" whose meaning and provenance, or even circulation in Igbo society he knows nothing about. It is difficult to teach an individual with the mind of a concrete. All you do is waste your time, and when it hits you that you're talking to a robot, you then sit down and laugh as he makes a jest of himself. I do not know if you have ever read Salimonu Kadiri in any decent, not to talk about distinguished peer-reviewed journal, except on this forum, where he has the right to piss fallacies like an incontinent diabetic. He does not exist. He is a hybrid invention.
His take on Nigeria's military history, especially of the coup of 1966, is automatic; cut and paste, from all kinds of collage and patch-work of conspiracy theories, elaborate fiction, and popular myth, the sort that you pick from shebeens and mama-puts, with which he insults the intelligence of serious scholars of this period, many of whom prefer to stay quiet and watch him dance the "surugede." If you challenge him on one fact, he repeats his fiction ad nauseam, in this circumlocutory fashion that makes any engagement with him a waste of time as you'd soon find out if you continue. There is no point to it, except to measure his small ethnic phallus. He has never read Ifeajuna's unpublished memoir; he never sat down with any of the surviving key participants in that event to talk, or debrief them, nor does he have the capacity for contextual interpretation of the data that has emerged since the use of the drafts of his version of those events to justify a war. Now the Chude Sokei that he talks about was not in Nigeria on January 15, for instance. He was in India. This mishmash of fallacies makes Kadiri's claims absolutely laughable. It is not rooted in fact. All he has done is to tease out useful, appliable narrative from just two published sources, Gbulie's The Five Majors and Ademoyega's Why We struck, and a few popular assertions in the popular press. If you have read any of these two books, you'd see how Kadiri slants his sources, and beyond that he has very little facts.
As Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Foreign Ministry in charge of International intelligence in 1966, for instance, Leslie Harriman had access to copies of the debriefing of the soldiers involved in the coup; so did Stanley Wey as Chief Secretary; and somewhere still in the GCM Onyiuke papers, are original copies of these debriefs that outline the structure, operational aims, and backgrounds to the 1966 coup. In other words, there were various civilians too who could have deepened Kadiri's awareness of the facts of that history if he sought them out like all true scholars do of participants and close observers of events before they arrive at possible conclusions. But Kadiri did not, he just picks up Gbulie and Ademoyega, and then cuts-and-pastes, and makes repetitive, sophomoric, ignorant and perverse assertions that he makes with singular, often mindless consistency, and often to the applause of his fellow-travelers whose singular contributions to this forum is to cheer-lead, with the same kind of unoriginality and mindless consistency, any hokum that tickles them. As you'd soon find out, you cannot debate with Kadiri. He will "Kadiri" you to death! It is a waste of time Lawrence. There is nothing in that hole.
Obi Nwakanma
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2017 10:35 AM
To: Usaafricadialogue
Subject: Re: SV: SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - News Release: Military Invasion Of Igboland
I got a number of follow-ups to my comments on a clear case of prejudice and bias wearing the gown of truth was published here some days ago but work and duty have affected my desire for some comments on the comments. I am glad I now can.
First, let me acknowledge the fact that Kadiri collaborated with one my principal claims that an Igbo army officer was also killed in the coup with your submission that "Major Anuforo killed Lieutenant Colonels Arthur Chinyelu Unegbe". To other claims made let me provide some response.
Kadiri:"Traditionally and culturally, the Southeast is composed of the minority Diala (Slave Masters) and majority, Osu (Slaves)".
Ugwuanyi: Diala in Igbo is interpreted to mean Son of the soil. The Igbo term for what Kadirir in his uniformed imagination calls Slave master is Nwa Amu literary meaning "free born". What is held to be slaves in Igbo context is miles away from this articulation of the idea. Many of the Osu are those dedicated to deities for falling short of one demand or the other from the deity. The predominant feature of the slavery in Igbo context, at least judging from the Igbo world I very well know is discrimination in matters of leadership and marriage.
Kadiri: "Now, let me respond to your diversionary comment. Contrary to your claim, I did not assert that the Majors staged Igbo coup, rather, I stated that their coup was stolen by the Dialas and I did not mention the Igbo".
Ugwuanyi: Except you are merely figurative here- this is a fearful ignorant assertion. A good number of those who have held political power and influence in Igbo land are believed to have come from the Osu world. Many of them were believed to have sent to school earlier as a form of punishment but it ruined out a blessing in disguise!
Kadiri : "Although Dialas are Igbo, just like Osu, stealing of the Majors' coup by Dialas would not make the coup theft of 1966 a theft by all Igbo".
Ugwuanyi :Refer to my earlier reply above.
Kadiri : "You wrote that the young officers that staged the coup were beyond one ethnic group. Personally, I am not interested in the ethnic composition of the planners of the coup but their political ideology.
Ugwuanyi: How do I know except my reading your ideas. It does not suggest otherwise at least with the effort to misuse Igbo words to your favour! You might, if you wish do a study of majority of your claims in this forum to see or elect someone else to do and see how far it can be seen to be something different from ethnic sentiments!
Kadiri : "Since you are interested in the ethnic composition of the coup planners of January 15, 1966,Major Patrick Chukwuma Nzeogwu led the coup in the then capital of Northern Region, Kaduna. He was assisted by Major Timothy Onwuatuegwu and Captains Ben Gbulie and Goddy Ude. Major Nzeogwu killed the Premier of the North Ahmadu Bello and two of his wives, while Major Onwuatuegwu killed Brigadier Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun as well as his eight months pregnant wife in their bedroom. He also killed Colonel Ralph Shodeinde and wounded his wife fatally in their bedroom. Captain Gbulie led troops to take command of strategic buildings in Kaduna. Thursday night, 13 January 1966, Captain Goddy Ude was issued with a .38-calibre pistol and ample live ammunition in Kaduna with instruction to proceed by road to Kano. He was to kill the commander of the 5th Battalion Kano, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu but on getting there, Goddy Ude turned pacifist and did not want bloodshed, understandable, of a fellow Igbo man.
In Lagos, the capital and seat of government at that time, Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna led the coup in the South. He was assisted by Majors Adewale Ademoyega, Humprey Chukwuka, Don Okafor, Chris Anuforo, John Obienu, Chude Sokei as well as Captains Emmanuel Nwora Nwobosi, Ogbo Oji, and G.S. Adeleke.
Major Ifeajuna captured Prime Minister Balewa and Finance Minister Okotie-Eboh. While he killed Balewa, Major Anuforo killed Okotie-Eboh. Major Don Okafor was assigned to kill Brigadier Maimalari but exchange of fire between Okafor's men and the guards around Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari's house provided him the opportunity to escape through the backdoor. While Maimalari was walking towards Doddan Barracks, he saw Major Ifeajuna and beckoned to him to stop. Ifeajuna stepped out of his car and gunned him dead. Major Anuforo killed Lieutenant Colonels Arthur Chinyelu Unegbe and Arbogo Largema. Major Humphrey Chukwuka killed Lieutenant Colonel James Yakubu Palm and Colonel Kuru Mohammed. Major John Obienu was assigned the duty of coming to Lagos with armoured cars to neutralise the 2nd Battalion, Ikeja. He reneged and linked up with Ironsi who had infiltrated the coup plotters with his men and had monitored their movements all along. Captain Emmanuel Nwora Nwobosi killed the Premier of Western Region Samuel Ladoke Akintola. Major Adewale Ademoyega was to lead and assign troops to occupy and control all strategic locations in the Federal Capital, such as Police Headquarters, Post and Telecomunication, Telephone Exchange, Parliament Building and Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He was to be assisted by Captain Ogbo Oji. Captain G.S. Adeleke was to provide arms and ammunition.
In Enugu, Major Chude Sokei was assigned the duty to kill Premier of the East, Michael Okpara, and Premier of the Midwest, Dennis Osadebay. He was to be assisted by Lieutenant Jerome Oguchi. Both Sokei and Oguchi turned pacifists that did not want bloodshed."
Ugwuanyi: This is perhaps the most informative effort you supplied. However I am not sure you are aware that the story about the coup and the war is believed to have been summarily burnt after the war as volunteered by an eminent historian a year ago at a lecture in a Nigerian University. Since this position became a public knowledge, it has become clear to me why any story can make round about the coup and the war. Hopefully historians will further probe this issue and institute intellectual criminal proceedings against this historical evil. Now this does not mean that we should dismiss all available stories about the war but perhaps be curious and scholarly is seeking and sifting the truth about what happened-by at least citing our sources and the collaborations about the sources. In the light of this one would have expected to supply all your sources on this matter. To point an illustration: Compare these two positions you provided:
"In Lagos, the capital and seat of government at that time, Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna led the coup in the South. He was assisted by Majors Adewale Ademoyega, Humprey Chukwuka, Don Okafor, Chris Anuforo, John Obienu, Chude Sokei as well as Captains Emmanuel Nwora Nwobosi, Ogbo Oji, and G.S. Adeleke."
"In Enugu, Major Chude Sokei was assigned the duty to kill Premier of the East, Michael Okpara, and Premier of the Midwest, Dennis Osadebay. He was to be assisted by Lieutenant Jerome Oguchi. Both Sokei and Oguchi turned pacifists that did not want bloodshed."
Kadiri:The revolutionary Majors did not plan Igbo coup but Ironsi infiltrators that consented only to killing non-Igbo soldiers and civilians and the way Ironsi stole the coup of the Majors turned it to an ethnic coup.
Ugwuanyi: Who could this Ironsi's infiltrators be except perhaps the one that is reported aginst his death- as supplied by you. Is it Chukwuka who went to kill him or the one who was in Kano to kill Ojukwu. If they were against the lives of Igbos why would they agree to go for these mission in the first place. How do you balance this with your claim that "Major Anuforo killed Lieutenant Colonels Arthur Chinyelu Unegbe", both of whom are supposed to be Igbos!
Kadiri :First of April Nigerian intellectuals continue till date to claim that Ironsi quelled the Major's coup. He stole the coup of the Majors and supplanted them.
Ugwuanyi: This is merely re-enforcing a position that is not founded. It is wrong to believe that anyone who got power in Nigeria wanted it! You might refer to the famous phrase "not my will" by then young Gen.Obasanjo with reference to assuming the Head of State in 1976! Without a good knowledge of the antecedents of Gen. Ironsi it is significantly wrong to hold this position. You need to provide more solid facts on Ironsi e.g his personal love for power to hold this view. For example if you had Ironsi's biography Ironside written by Chuks Iloegbunam and have grounds to support your view from any psycho-analytic narrative on this matter it will make more sense. For now these views are groundless hypothesis!
Kadiri : I had expected a Professor like you to correct me if the Igbo led NCNC had not advocated unitary form of government for Nigeria since inception in 1943. You should have contradicted me that Major General Aguiyi Ironsi did not promulgate Decree No. 34 of 24 May 1966, in accordance with the recommendation of his one-man commission of enquiry on unitary form of government headed by Francis Nwokedi, that abolished regions.
Ugwuanyi:I am afraid that you are aligning Zik's NCNC with Ironsi .This is may mean that you don't share the view that the military have a different disposition with Civilians and that even if both are Igbo these are different institutions capable of shaping thought differently.
Kadiri: Instead, you responded that I am not properly educated because of my asserted views.
Ugwuanyi: I had cause to question the education that leads to a thinking that subverts truth and abhors the rigour and pains involved in searching it. The simple answer to this would have been to outline the schools attended in which case you might not be at fault as much as formation received. Assuming that one's education is heavily ideological-chances are that faults with views canvassed can easily be located-in which case understanding where the person is coming from (interpreted to mean knowledge, ideas and ideals availed) becomes a way of understanding how and why he could hold some views.
Kadiri :In Nigerian daily experiences, properly educated Nigerian Professors are not able, to generate and distribute electricity (they generate and distribute darkness), to refine crude oil (they export crude oil and import fuel and even get money for fuel subsidy without importing fuel), to mine iron ores at Ajaokuta and work them into metals, to construct and maintain motor-able roads etc. With those demonstrated popular qualities of properly educated Nigerian Professors, I cannot but thank my Creator for not being properly educated and for not being a Professor.
Professor Lawrence Ugwuanyi,
Pardon me for belated response to your diatribe beneath.
You quoted me correctly but your comments diverged completely from the contents of what you excerpted. You wrote, "... THE YOUNG OFFICERS THAT STAGED THE COUP (AND WHO WERE PEOPLE BEYOND ONE ETHNIC GROUP - A COUP THAT ALSO TOOK THE LIFE OF A HIGH RANKING MILITARY IGBO OFFICER) HAD NO CONNECTION WHATSOEVER WITH GENERAL IRONSI AND THAT THE 1966 COUP CANNOT BE BRANDED IGBO COUP - DEFINED AS COUP DONE BY IGBO FOR THE IGBO."
If I were not shy, I would have said that you, a whole Professor, did not understand what you read in my post. Respectfully yours, what you have done is called ignoratio elenchi in Latin which in English means an ignorance of proof, defined as a deliberate act of evading the real issues and drawing conclusions that are irrelevant and completely at variance with the subject matter. In order to illuminate your ignorance of proof, I hereby reproduce what I wrote that you pretended to be commenting about : Then in 1966, Dialas stole the coup of the revolutionary Majors to gain power at the centre. The first priority of the Dialas was to impose unitary form of government on Nigerians through Decree No. 34 of 24 May 1966 which abolished regionalism. Later the Dialas lost government power at the centre, and they somersaulted, not into regionalism but, disintegration of Nigeria as a country.
There is no smoke without fire. The fire was ignited by your pal, Chidi Anthony Opara, when he branded those he 'termed Southwest Nigeria intelligentsia' he disagreed with as fascists. My response to him was to demonstrate that Dialas of the Southeast are the real fascists and you, as an Igbo, should know that all South-Easterners are not Dialas. Traditionally and culturally, the Southeast is composed of the minority Diala (Slave Masters) and majority, Osu (Slaves).
Now, let me respond to your diversionary comment. Contrary to your claim, I did not assert that the Majors staged Igbo coup, rather, I stated that their coup was stolen by the Dialas and I did not mention the Igbo. Although Dialas are Igbo, just like Osu, stealing of the Majors' coup by Dialas would not make the coup theft of 1966 a theft by all Igbo. You wrote that the young officers that staged the coup were beyond one ethnic group. Personally, I am not interested in the ethnic composition of the planners of the coup but their political ideology. Since you are interested in the ethnic composition of the coup planners of January 15, 1966, I hereby provide you a list of their names and the roll that each of them played in the coup.
Major Patrick Chukwuma Nzeogwu led the coup in the then capital of Northern Region, Kaduna. He was assisted by Major Timothy Onwuatuegwu and Captains Ben Gbulie and Goddy Ude. Major Nzeogwu killed the Premier of the North Ahmadu Bello and two of his wives, while Major Onwuatuegwu killed Brigadier Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun as well as his eight months pregnant wife in their bedroom. He also killed Colonel Ralph Shodeinde and wounded his wife fatally in their bedroom. Captain Gbulie led troops to take command of strategic buildings in Kaduna. Thursday night, 13 January 1966, Captain Goddy Ude was issued with a .38-calibre pistol and ample live ammunition in Kaduna with instruction to proceed by road to Kano. He was to kill the commander of the 5th Battalion Kano, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu but on getting there, Goddy Ude turned pacifist and did not want bloodshed, understandable, of a fellow Igbo man.
In Lagos, the capital and seat of government at that time, Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna led the coup in the South. He was assisted by Majors Adewale Ademoyega, Humprey Chukwuka, Don Okafor, Chris Anuforo, John Obienu, Chude Sokei as well as Captains Emmanuel Nwora Nwobosi, Ogbo Oji, and G.S. Adeleke.
Major Ifeajuna captured Prime Minister Balewa and Finance Minister Okotie-Eboh. While he killed Balewa, Major Anuforo killed Okotie-Eboh. Major Don Okafor was assigned to kill Brigadier Maimalari but exchange of fire between Okafor's men and the guards around Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari's house provided him the opportunity to escape through the backdoor. While Maimalari was walking towards Doddan Barracks, he saw Major Ifeajuna and beckoned to him to stop. Ifeajuna stepped out of his car and gunned him dead. Major Anuforo killed Lieutenant Colonels Arthur Chinyelu Unegbe and Arbogo Largema. Major Humphrey Chukwuka killed Lieutenant Colonel James Yakubu Palm and Colonel Kuru Mohammed. Major John Obienu was assigned the duty of coming to Lagos with armoured cars to neutralise the 2nd Battalion, Ikeja. He reneged and linked up with Ironsi who had infiltrated the coup plotters with his men and had monitored their movements all along. Captain Emmanuel Nwora Nwobosi killed the Premier of Western Region Samuel Ladoke Akintola. Major Adewale Ademoyega was to lead and assign troops to occupy and control all strategic locations in the Federal Capital, such as Police Headquarters, Post and Telecomunication, Telephone Exchange, Parliament Building and Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He was to be assisted by Captain Ogbo Oji. Captain G.S. Adeleke was to provide arms and ammunition.
In Enugu, Major Chude Sokei was assigned the duty to kill Premier of the East, Michael Okpara, and Premier of the Midwest, Dennis Osadebay. He was to be assisted by Lieutenant Jerome Oguchi. Both Sokei and Oguchi turned pacifists that did not want bloodshed.
If according to your insinuation, the coup of January 15, 1966 was not an Igbo coup mainly because one high ranking Igbo military officer was among the eight non-Igbo military officer killed in the coup, what then is your insinuation that no single Igbo politician was among the politicians killed? What motivated the killings of Balewa (An Hausa and Federal Prime Minister), Okotie-Eboh (an Uhrobo and Federal Minister of Finance), Ahmadu Bello (Premier of the North), Samuel Akintola (Premier of the West) but not the Igbo Federal Acting President - Nwafor Orizu, the Igbo Premier of the East - Michael Okpara and the Igbo Premier of Midwest - Dennis Osadebay? Taken into consideration that the Igbo led NCNC party had been in a coalition government at the federal level with the Hausa led NPC party since 1960 up till January 15, 1966, what political crime did Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, Akintola and Okotie-Eboh (all non-Igbo) commit that warranted their being killed but not Okpara, Osadebay and Nwafor Orizu (all Igbo)? The December 1964 federal elections were contested by two main opposing political alliances, NNA - comprising of NPC and NNDP, and UPGA - comprising of NCNC, AG, NEPU and UMBC. NNA was declared the winner of the elections which UPGA dominated Igbo NCNC refused to accept. After many noises, the NCNC abandoned its allies, AG, NEPU and UMBC, in UPGA to join the federal national government led by Balewa's NNA in 1965. If the Igbo led NCNC had stayed in opposition with its allies in UPGA after the December 1964 federal elections one would, probably, have understood why they were exonerated from the political and economic crimes that warranted the coup and killings of January 1966.
Your claim that the young officers that staged the coup of 15 January 1966 had no connection whatsoever with General Ironsi is half true. Ironsi had foreknowledge of the coup through Majors Don Okafor, John Obienu and Captain Ogbo Oji. Ironsi himself was among the officers listed to be killed by the revolutionary Majors. Why he escaped being killed was revealed, in Ben Gbulie's Book, Nigeria's Five Majors thus, "But by far the thickest wedge cast between the coup executors and success was the ugly element of treachery that manifested itself in the course of the nocturnal operation. To begin with, both Major Don Okafor and captain Ogbo Oji*had taken a stand against any step that might embody the killing of Ironsi. Ben Gbulie noted in asterisk that Ogbo Oji was a native of Umuahia in the Eastern Region, and a kinsman of Ironsi's (p. 125-126)." That explained why General Ironsi was not at home when Major Humphrey Chukwuka arrived there with his troop to kill him. Ironsi was already at Ikeja 2nd Battalion, the only infantry in Lagos at that time, where he linked up with Major John Obienu who was entrusted with the task of supporting the revolutionary Majors with armoured cars from Abeokuta Garrison. Ben Gbulie noted, "Moreover, it turned out that at that very crucial stage of the operation, .... Major John Obienu had, for some insane reason, turned traitor; and that he was, in fact, a down-right insincere coward. His failure to honour his pledge and turn up that night with his armoured cars was the one deciding act that led ultimately to the collapse of the Lagos operation - a calamitous act of sabotage that by depriving our colleagues of the much-needed fire-power WITH WHICH TO CRUSH IRONSI'S COUNTER-REVOLUTION, FINALLY DROVE A NAIL INTO THE COFFIN OF OUR OBJECTIVE (p. 126)." Captain Ben Gbulie lamented over the fact that Major John Obienu who had attended all meetings of the planned coup with the revolutionary Majors had joined forces with the enemies of the revolution and was actively aiding and abetting them.
The revolutionary Majors did not plan Igbo coup but Ironsi infiltrators that consented only to killing non-Igbo soldiers and civilians and the way Ironsi stole the coup of the Majors turned it to an ethnic coup. It is a fact that, at 12:30 PM, on January 15, 1966, in a broadcast in the name of the Supreme Council of the Revolution of Nigerian Armed Forces, on Radio Kaduna, Major Patrick Chukwuma Nzeogwu declared the suspension of the Constitution and dissolution of the regional government and elected assembly. He listed embezzlement, bribery and corruption among offences that qualified one for death sentence. At 14:30:00 hours, Lagos Radio under the control of Ironsi soldiers announced that dissident soldiers had mutinied and kidnapped the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister. The radio announcement stated further that the General Officer Commanding (GOC), Ironsi, and a vast majority of the Nigerian Army were loyal to the federal government and assured the nation that the mutiny would soon be brought to an end. Next day, at 23:50:00 hours the acting President announced that power had been transferred to the Army and called upon Ironsi to address the nation. It has since been revealed that document for the transfer of power to Ironsi was signed by Zanar Bukar Dipcharima of the NNA/NPC, while Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe signed on behalf of NCNC. The Republican Constitution of 1964 did not permit anyone to transfer power to the Armed Forces. The President could only dissolve Parliament on the advice of the Prime Minister. In case of death or incapacitation of the Prime Minister, Parliament should meet to elect a new Prime Minister among the Party that controlled majority members in the House. Knowing that if the Parliament was allowed to meet under the security of the Army that had claimed to be loyal to the constitution, Dipcharima would certainly be elected the new Prime Minister to replace Balewa that was presumed killed, the Acting President, Nwafor Orizu, vowed not to assent to the election of a new Prime Minister, a refusal which the constitution did not grant him. Despite the fact that Ironsi seized power by tacitly telling Dipcharima that he could not guarantee the loyalty of the Army to his government unless power was handed over to him, First of April Nigerian intellectuals continue till date to claim that Ironsi quelled the Major's coup. He stole the coup of the Majors and supplanted them. It is just like an Inspector of Police claiming to have quelled robbers' attempt to seize a house from a Landlord and the Inspector of Police, after declaring to the Landlord that he could not guarantee the safety of the house from robbers coming back, eventually obtains a signed document from the Landlord transferring the ownership of the house to him. Everyday is First of April for some Nigerian Intellectuals in which they are either being fooled or fooling others.
I had expected a Professor like you to correct me if the Igbo led NCNC had not advocated unitary form of government for Nigeria since inception in 1943. You should have contradicted me that Major General Aguiyi Ironsi did not promulgate Decree No. 34 of 24 May 1966, in accordance with the recommendation of his one-man commission of enquiry on unitary form of government headed by Francis Nwokedi, that abolished regions. You should have contradicted me that Decree No. 34 of 24 May 1966 did not constitute the implementation of the NCNC quest, since 1943, for centralisation of power in Nigeria. Instead, you responded that I am not properly educated because of my asserted views. In Nigerian daily experiences, properly educated Nigerian Professors are not able, to generate and distribute electricity (they generate and distribute darkness), to refine crude oil (they export crude oil and import fuel and even get money for fuel subsidy without importing fuel), to mine iron ores at Ajaokuta and work them into metals, to construct and maintain motor-able roads etc. With those demonstrated popular qualities of properly educated Nigerian Professors, I cannot but thank my Creator for not being properly educated and for not being a Professor.
S. Kadiri
Skickat: den 15 september 2017 10:15
Till: Usaafricadialogue
Ämne: Re: SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - News Release: Military Invasion Of Igboland
ONYE KWUSI IKE - IF ANYBODY TALKS TOO MUCH
ANYI ACHARA YA AMU - WE CUT OFF HIS PENIS
WERE YA GWORO OGWU - AND USE IT TO MAKE JUJU
OBUGHI ARURU ALA - IT IS NOT AN ABOMINATION
OBU OTU ANYI N'EME - IT IS OUR TRADITION
The above is a song Dialas, the ethnic supremacists who consider themselves as herren-folk (slave masters) in the Southeast Nigeria teach their children to sing every morning.
Intellectual vampires and scoundrels ruining Nigeria want to sustain politics of ethnic division that has kept our nation swooning. They delight in holding the back of the mirror before patriotic Nigerians and yet accuse patriots of inability to see their faces. For decades Dialas advocated for unitary central government in Nigeria and those who opposed concentration of powers at the centre, but opted for regionalism so that each ethnic region in the federation could develop at its own pace were branded fascists advocating the Pakistanisation of Nigeria. Then in 1966, Dialas stole the coup of the revolutionary Majors to gain power at the centre. The first priority of the Dialas was to impose unitary form of government on Nigerians through Decree No.34 of 24 May 1966 which abolished regionalism. Later, the Dialas lost government power at the centre and they somersaulted, not into regionalism but, disintegration of Nigeria as a country. Now, Dialas want to extrapolate their own fascism on the people of the Southwest of Nigeria, but it is like pouring water on the back of the duck which will never stay.
S. Kadiri
Skickat: den 11 september 2017 08:15
Till: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - News Release: Military Invasion Of Igboland
The fascist wing of South-West Nigeria Intelligentsia(apology to Obi Nwakamma)!
CAO.
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