Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - First, There Was A Country; Then There Wasn’t: Reflections On Achebe’s New Book (2)

Toyin,

I actually agree with the point you made in your response to my retort, namely, that it is not necessary to "enter into the game of counting dead bodies in terms of number and rank according to tribe." But that is exactly what you did when you wrote that the "[ coup plotters] killed one Igbo person- an officer who was not of high rank." And you now make it to sound that I started the counting? 

I only reminded you that if you had to count (as you actually did), you had to do it right.

The correction I made matters because that claim (and variations of it) is the cornerstone of the argument that the January 1966 coup was an Igbo coup, and you deployed that argument precisely to drive home that point.

If you had not "counted the dead", I would not even have written anything. As usually happens, those who are quick to accuse people of tribalism should examine themselves first.

If you made your argument out of 'tribal" sentiment, you have no reason to put the same to me. You made a mistake that somebody who is spending much of his time on this matter should not make and which is convenient to your argument, and you were corrected. What does it tell you and anybody else reading that up to now, you are still waiting for "other members ... to collaborate" that Arthur Unegbe was the Quartermaster General of the Nigerian army? There was only one!

This goes to show the level of misinformation about the events of 1966 and ready willingness to ignore basic facts.

Your assertion that the correction "does not modify" the very point you made it to support just reveals how too willing you are to not let the facts get in your way.

Ethnic sentiment had no place in that correction. If I may add, the killing of Arthur Unegbe is personal to me; my mother never mentioned him (she called him Chinyelu) without tears in her eyes, but I don't let that color my analysis of the motives of the coup plotters. His colleagues who targeted him knew he was Igbo, but they claimed they killed him because of his political affiliations, which is identical to what they claimed about other victims from other ethnic group. The misrepresentation of his true identity by others -- which was deliberate at the beginning -- is an ever-present reminder to me how these facts are distorted.

Ugo

On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 5:16 AM, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tvade3@gmail.com> wrote:

Get real.

Death is horrible.

Even more gruesome is cold blooded murder of defenceless people. 

The cold blooded murders that characterised   the January 15, 1966 coup and the counter coup and pogroms are most regrettable.

One does not wish there were more deaths.

 I can appreciate correcting a historical fact, but, in  the name of decency, is bringing up this point with this associated fanfare and combative taunts  necessary at this time since your point does not alter the configuration of the historical reality being discussed?

Are we to now lapse into further counting of dead bodies tribe by tribe? 

Lay them side by side and weigh the rank of one against the other to further evaluate the social scope of the massacres? 

Has that not been sufficiently done and the point made?

Even if you are correct on the gentleman's rank, your point does not tell us anything new about the character of the January 15,1966 coup and does not  modify the point I was making.

Since you have  brought that effort at correction to our attention, I will leave it for members and myself  to corroborate but I will not expound on why that point does not change the configuration of the coup because I am tired of the sheer morbidity of this debate, based as it is on resurrecting ancient sufferings and struggling to project them into the future,  in arguments where positions do not shift.

 I will not let myself enter into the game of counting dead bodies in terms of number and rank according to tribe.

I am adding nothing more to my response because I am convinced that much of the  capacity for illumination on these issues at this time has been exhausted.

I want to return to emphasising humanistic bonds, not dwelling on events of more than 40 years ago on which we have jaw jawed endlessly while positions hardly shift.

If you have something substantial, however, that throws new light on the issues or is capable of doing so,  I am prepared to respond to it.

thanks

toyin. 

On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 1:22 AM, G. Ugo Nwokeji <ugo@berkeley.edu> wrote:

Toyin Adepoju, you wrote:

"[The coup plotters] killed one Igbo person- an officer who was not of high rank."

I don't know if it is blind bias or pure ignorance or both that is driving your usual vitriol on the coup/civil war issue. 

The officer killed was Lt. Colonial Arthur Unegbe, regarded as one of the most senior and most high-profile officers of then Nigerian army of one major-general, two brigadiers and a handful of full colonels. 

At the time he was killed, Unegbe held a general staff position as Quartermaster-General, a position held these days by generals. Is it that you don't know the meaning of quartermaster-general?

He was as senior as Ojukwu and Gowon (unless they too were junior officers!), was I think the first indigenous Commanding Officer of the 5th Infantry and swapped positions with Ojukwu when the latter was posted the 5th. 

You can keep all your biases, but you have no right to make up facts to support them. If it is ignorance, shouldn't you first educate yourself on the elementary facts first?

G. Ugo Nwokeji

Twitter: @UgoNwokeji

Facebook: facebook.com/ugo.nwokeji

On Sat, Dec 29, 2012 at 8:58 PM, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tvade3@gmail.com> wrote:

They killed one Igbo person- an officer who was not of high rank.

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