The Nigerian civil war
[blog theme: nationalism]
The Nigerian civil war (the rest of Nigeria against the present Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Abia, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa States – previously known as Eastern Nigeria but which became Biafra at the time) in the years 1967-1970, is the GREATEST EVIL ever done by the government of Nigeria against the people – killing people in the name of keeping Nigeria one! MUST NIGERIA BE ONE?
Not only were they killed; they were SHAMED and HUMILIATED – thoroughly so. Civilian population suffered terrible damage, degradation, killings (in millions), humiliation, starvation – all because Gowon (who is now considered a ‘national elder’) and his Northern-controlled Federal Government of Nigeria wouldn’t let the Easterners go away from Nigeria when they declared the separate State (nation) of Biafra. They did that because of the humiliations they had experienced in the hands of Northerners (and, in particular Hausa muslims and their cohorts) who killed Igbos in the North in tens of thousands: May 29, July 29, and September 29, 1966 (all Fridays) were the days of the Pogroms in the North when the Igbos were slaughtered like chickens in the North. They got tired of it all; they were forced to return from all over the country to their homeland and to take hold of their own destiny they decided to form their own sovereign State (country) of Biafra. But, still, Nigeria (effectively the North) wouldn’t let them be. Agreed that the Biafrans went beyond their territory to invade the present Edo and Delta (then known as the Mid-West) up till Ore in the present Ondo State (and with the intention of capturing Lagos and overrunning the entire West (which they were stopped from doing) so as to force the place out of Nigeria too (a common failing of the Igbo in thinking that if they want something for themselves the rest of the South and Northern minorities must want it too – and, in this case, secession); but, nevertheless, couldn’t Nigeria just beat them back to their own Region (the declared State of Biafra) instead of declaring War on them – killing, bombing and TRAUMATISING an entire region of fellow-humans with indiscriminate air-raids, leading to separation of families, death (traumatic death) in millions, starvation etc.
You may wonder why am I visiting this? BECAUSE IT’s AN EVIL DONE BY NIGERIA (the North-controlled Nigeria) and for which NO REPENTANCE has taken place up till today! No apologies to the erstwhile Biafrans! No shame for what we (Nigeria) did to fellow human beings! And you think God forgets? I know the pseudo-spiritual ones, the religious ones, and the acolytes of the North/Fulani agenda will say let’s forget that and move on! You killed people unjustly and you say we should FORGET IT and MOVE ON? What kind of conscience do you have?
Why should Nigeria have peace? What right has Nigeria to have peace? when they didn’t allow the people of the East to go in peace when they wanted to? Why should Nigeria’s economy not be on its knees when you crumbled the entire economy of the East over a period of three years and that Region has never really recovered since then? Why shouldn’t armed robbers, kidnappers, Boko Haram, assassins and Fulani herdsmen be killing all of us now, when you killed the Igbos and other Easterners for no just cause?
The Northerners, in killing the Igbos in 1966, said that it was because the “Igbos” killed their (Northern) leaders – Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa Balewa, in particular. Their reason for saying that is that the military coup of 1966 in which these leaders (and others in the West and Mid-West) were killed, was led by an Igbo man – Chukwuma Nzeogwu. But, truth is, Chukwuma Nzeogwu (as much as he was WRONG in leading a coup and killing people) did NOT take that action as an “IGBO” man – he was more “Northern” than Igbo even though he was ETHNICALLY an Igbo man. He was just a hot-headed “idealistic” Army Major who thought that the way to ‘heal’ Nigeria of its troubles (political/social troubles) at the time was to KILL all those he felt were personally responsible for fomenting those troubles and injustices and in-equalities – the Northern leaders and some in the South as well (after all, Okotie-Eboh, an Itshekiri man was killed; Samuel Ladoke Akintola, a Yoruba man was killed; my own Brigadier Ademulegun from Ondo was killed; and a lot of other collateral-damage killings.) I don’t support what Nzeogwu did. But the fact that no Igbo man was killed in that coup was NOT because Nzeogwu was an Igbo man. I was old enough at that time to know what was happening. In fact I underwent Civil Defence training during the time of the war! Truth is that the TROUBLERS of Nigeria at that time were known and easily identifiable – they were mostly the Fulani leaders or Fulani-collaborators (Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa and others) who want the North to dominate the rest of Nigeria forever) as well as some of their “collaborators” in the West, especially Akintola. That’s the truth. At that time, the Eastern leaders (Azikiwe, Michael Okpara, Francis Ibiam, and others, were NOT visibly among the TROUBLE-MAKERS in Nigeria! So, when Nzeogwu acted, he did it presumably from that “idealistic” mind of his and NOT from an ethnic mind-set. He even claimed that he actually sent some people to kill leaders in the East (despite what I’ve said that the Eastern leaders were NOT really the trouble-makers of Nigeria at the time) but that those people developed cold feet at the last minute. I DON’T SUPPORT NZEOGWU’s action. It’s condemnable. But how many Igbo lives would now go for how many Northern lives?
The Igbos decided they had had enough in Nigeria, and from Nigeria, and decided to SECEDE. Why can’t you just let them go in PEACE?
God has NOT forgotten.
[blog theme: nationalism]
The Nigerian civil war (the rest of Nigeria against the present Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Abia, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa States – previously known as Eastern Nigeria but which became Biafra at the time) in the years 1967-1970, is the GREATEST EVIL ever done by the government of Nigeria against the people – killing people in the name of keeping Nigeria one! MUST NIGERIA BE ONE?
Not only were they killed; they were SHAMED and HUMILIATED – thoroughly so. Civilian population suffered terrible damage, degradation, killings (in millions), humiliation, starvation – all because Gowon (who is now considered a ‘national elder’) and his Northern-controlled Federal Government of Nigeria wouldn’t let the Easterners go away from Nigeria when they declared the separate State (nation) of Biafra. They did that because of the humiliations they had experienced in the hands of Northerners (and, in particular Hausa muslims and their cohorts) who killed Igbos in the North in tens of thousands: May 29, July 29, and September 29, 1966 (all Fridays) were the days of the Pogroms in the North when the Igbos were slaughtered like chickens in the North. They got tired of it all; they were forced to return from all over the country to their homeland and to take hold of their own destiny they decided to form their own sovereign State (country) of Biafra. But, still, Nigeria (effectively the North) wouldn’t let them be. Agreed that the Biafrans went beyond their territory to invade the present Edo and Delta (then known as the Mid-West) up till Ore in the present Ondo State (and with the intention of capturing Lagos and overrunning the entire West (which they were stopped from doing) so as to force the place out of Nigeria too (a common failing of the Igbo in thinking that if they want something for themselves the rest of the South and Northern minorities must want it too – and, in this case, secession); but, nevertheless, couldn’t Nigeria just beat them back to their own Region (the declared State of Biafra) instead of declaring War on them – killing, bombing and TRAUMATISING an entire region of fellow-humans with indiscriminate air-raids, leading to separation of families, death (traumatic death) in millions, starvation etc.
You may wonder why am I visiting this? BECAUSE IT’s AN EVIL DONE BY NIGERIA (the North-controlled Nigeria) and for which NO REPENTANCE has taken place up till today! No apologies to the erstwhile Biafrans! No shame for what we (Nigeria) did to fellow human beings! And you think God forgets? I know the pseudo-spiritual ones, the religious ones, and the acolytes of the North/Fulani agenda will say let’s forget that and move on! You killed people unjustly and you say we should FORGET IT and MOVE ON? What kind of conscience do you have?
Why should Nigeria have peace? What right has Nigeria to have peace? when they didn’t allow the people of the East to go in peace when they wanted to? Why should Nigeria’s economy not be on its knees when you crumbled the entire economy of the East over a period of three years and that Region has never really recovered since then? Why shouldn’t armed robbers, kidnappers, Boko Haram, assassins and Fulani herdsmen be killing all of us now, when you killed the Igbos and other Easterners for no just cause?
The Northerners, in killing the Igbos in 1966, said that it was because the “Igbos” killed their (Northern) leaders – Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa Balewa, in particular. Their reason for saying that is that the military coup of 1966 in which these leaders (and others in the West and Mid-West) were killed, was led by an Igbo man – Chukwuma Nzeogwu. But, truth is, Chukwuma Nzeogwu (as much as he was WRONG in leading a coup and killing people) did NOT take that action as an “IGBO” man – he was more “Northern” than Igbo even though he was ETHNICALLY an Igbo man. He was just a hot-headed “idealistic” Army Major who thought that the way to ‘heal’ Nigeria of its troubles (political/social troubles) at the time was to KILL all those he felt were personally responsible for fomenting those troubles and injustices and in-equalities – the Northern leaders and some in the South as well (after all, Okotie-Eboh, an Itshekiri man was killed; Samuel Ladoke Akintola, a Yoruba man was killed; my own Brigadier Ademulegun from Ondo was killed; and a lot of other collateral-damage killings.) I don’t support what Nzeogwu did. But the fact that no Igbo man was killed in that coup was NOT because Nzeogwu was an Igbo man. I was old enough at that time to know what was happening. In fact I underwent Civil Defence training during the time of the war! Truth is that the TROUBLERS of Nigeria at that time were known and easily identifiable – they were mostly the Fulani leaders or Fulani-collaborators (Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa and others) who want the North to dominate the rest of Nigeria forever) as well as some of their “collaborators” in the West, especially Akintola. That’s the truth. At that time, the Eastern leaders (Azikiwe, Michael Okpara, Francis Ibiam, and others, were NOT visibly among the TROUBLE-MAKERS in Nigeria! So, when Nzeogwu acted, he did it presumably from that “idealistic” mind of his and NOT from an ethnic mind-set. He even claimed that he actually sent some people to kill leaders in the East (despite what I’ve said that the Eastern leaders were NOT really the trouble-makers of Nigeria at the time) but that those people developed cold feet at the last minute. I DON’T SUPPORT NZEOGWU’s action. It’s condemnable. But how many Igbo lives would now go for how many Northern lives?
The Igbos decided they had had enough in Nigeria, and from Nigeria, and decided to SECEDE. Why can’t you just let them go in PEACE?
God has NOT forgotten.
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