I would have been a Biafran if the war had succeeded. My father was in the army during the war and I have read and heard, and seen evidences of the atrocities committed against the Southerners just before the Civil War in what is now called "Igbo Pogroms". My father told me everything that happened.
But what I still do not understand is why Igbos still went back to the same North after the War. Some of them still live there even after all the atrocities that are regularly committed against them! Why can they not live in the East and develop it? I just do not get it.
Two possible answers -(1) 'hubris' or the belief that you are so special and above all others that you will soon pull the wool over their eyes and have one on them (obviously not working on the Hausa north) (2) as I said earlier, a masochistic streak that wants to be hit again and again by the same person.
So somewhere in your pithy little brains you think the answer to all of your home-made problems is the creation of Biafra and the installation of 1 man so long as he originates from what you call Igbo nation. You know I would have even given your postulation a 5 second thought if not that I remember that all Igbo states are led by an Igbo governor and all their cabinet would also typically be all Igbo; yet not one Igbo state now or in the past has been any more distinguished than any other state in Nigeria.
Let me tell you a little more you need to know about OJUKWU, BIAFRA and the WAR. It may interest you to know the history, origin and events that sprung up that declaration "Republic of Biafra. This was not because of the love Ojukwu had for the igbo people, rather than his love for power and embitterment that power eluded him. Ojukwu wasted so many promising and prominent young Nigerians. These Youths were brainwashed by Ojukwu just what Nnamdi is doing. Immediate causes of the war included a military coup, a counter-coup, and persecution of Igbo living in Northern Nigeria. Control over oil production in the Niger Delta played a vital strategic role.
It may also interest you to know that the first Nigerian coup d’etat that resulted in the assassination of 11 senior Nigerian politicians and two soldiers as well as kidnapping three others was led by Kaduna Nzeogwu (an igbo) and General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi (another igbo)then used the coup as a pretext to annex power, ending Nigeria's nascent democracy. Then along came a counter coup led by Lt. Col. Murtala Mohammed which resulted to murder of Gen Aguiyi Ironsi as a reaction to the killings of Northern politicians and Officers by mostly Igbo soldiers.
Ojukwu felt Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe was the highest in the hierarchy of power and should be made head of state. But when the coup plotters insisted and made Gowon the head of state, Ojukwu got pissed and this led to the civil war. Brigadier Ogundipe opted out peacefully, but pride did not allow Ojukwu to let go. Apart from the Aburi Accord in Ghana, there were a lot of other accords to settle issues amicably, but Ojukwu was bent on ruling his own oil rich country “Baifra”.
There was nothing like the "REPUBLIC OF BIAFRA " it's an illusion. That assertion was made on 30th may 1967, and was just for a selfish purpose (leadership ) Why did you think Ojukwu fought?, Who was he fighting for. Now another self-centered Nnamdi Kanu wants to take advantage of your sentiments . Ojukwu fought because he could not allow Gowon who was in the same rank as he was be head of state. Taking advantage of his father's wealth, he arrogated himself to a god of war without minding how many lives he would destroy.
Did you think Biafrans rebels combated openly with the Nigerian army? Apart from some cheap ambushes like the Abagana, where could they have confronted the Nigerian armies. Biafrans dealt with Biafrans. The rebels captured Igbo cities and tormented innocent lives. Raping young women and forcefully taking wives from their husbands. Recruiting boys between the ages of 13-15 and above into their army. Killed any person suspected of sabotage. The saboteurs were worn the Nigerian army uniform, killed and termed Nigerian soldiers. Igbos suffered, but Nigerian armies rescued the captured cities one after the other, until all was rescued.
Benin City was captured by the Biafran soldiers alongside Auchi, Agenebode, Okene, Asaba, Agbor , Iloshi and Atani while indiscriminately shooting and killing armless civilians in the process. Unbeknownst to General Banjo (the leader of this mobilization who was a Yoruba) a unit of Biafran soldiers under Lt. Col. Oechi attacked the government residence of Mid-Western Region governor David Ejoor at the behest of President Odumegwu Ojukwu to capture Ejoor dead or alive. Not wanting to appoint an Igbo over non-Igbo citizens General Banjo suggested that either David Ejoor, Sam Ogbemudia, or Col. Trimnell be made governor but Ojukwu refused and ultimately placed the Igbo medical-officer Albert Okonkwo governor.
Ojukwu would finally execute Vitor Banju, Emmanuel Ifeanjuna (The first black African to ever win an international gold medal) and one Alale following a plot to agree a ceasefire with Nigeria. Let me try to make it short. I think some of these so called pro-Biafrans should know that the only solution is to try to accept a modus vivendi and let’s live in peace and unity, and stop living in cloud cuckoo land with the stupendous misbegotten idea of Biafra. Nnamdi Kanu is an illiterate who sat in some classrooms, but it did not have any positive impact on him, and he has succeeded in brainwashing some gullible and incredulous igbo group to joining his selfish cause.
Now he has been lionized, praised, reverend and worshiped. That is exactly what he wants. Can anyone remember the names the igbos who have died for this Nnamdi madness? No! Only Nnamdi Kanu is the cynosure.
The truth is that Biafra was an Ojukwu Scxx
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