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Dear all permit me to ask this question, I am not trying to be funny or rude or disrespectful but rather curious, going by most of the post’s on this board its obvious that the Ibo’s do not like Obasanjo, as per his role in the civil war this reaction is quite natural.
Thus this said why, why why did you vote for him in 1999? You knew in advance that he was pretty bad. You had enough warnings from his own people the Yoruba’s who completely rejected him. How many politicians in Nigeria, nay Africa, lose their own village? He did not win his village he did not win his state, he was completely rejected by his own flesh and blood yet you voted for him. Therefore, why are you mad with him?
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wale: If you provide an intelligent response to the question in this thread started by waypoint1biafra, I will come back to tell you why Igbos voted for Obasanjo in 1999.
By the way, in the future, I would prefer to see you call us Igbos, NOT "Ibos."
[ May 01, 2001: Message edited by: Vitalis ]
___________________ Biafra, by any means necessary!
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Wale, Thank you for your smart question. Ndi-Igbo did not vote for Obasanjo. The PDP was originally the the brain child of Dr Ekwueme before it was hijacked. Ndi-Igbo thought they were voting for their brilliant son Dr Ekwueme, who could have turned things around for Nigerians. Unfortunately, their votes were hijacked by IBB, OBJ and co, with our money they stole.
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Vitalis, no vex I did not know the difference between Igbo's and Ibo's I honestly thought the latter was a short version of the former , I will endeavour not to use it again , however I have provided the answer to your question as best I could rather quickly thus over to you.
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wale: Again, thanks for your responses. I think that the least that Yorubas and Hausas can do is address us properly when they refer to us. 87-years is enough time for us in BiafraNigeria to know each other's names. So thanks for taking the correction.
Chima has already answered some of your questions. After Ojukwu formed a party, which INEC refused to accredit, Igbos followed Ekwueme to the PDP because they thought they were following the presidential candidate for that party. In the end, when IBB colluded with Obasanjo to outwit Ekwueme, Ekwueme remained in the PDP and it was already too late to form a new party.
Thus, Igbos were robbed of all the conscious choices they made in 1998/99, Ojukwu/Ekwueme. What was presented for election were two Yoruba tribalists, including one Igbo hater, Olu Obasonjo and Olu Falae. It was no choice at all. But, too many of the Igbo elected officials were already in the PDP. Hence, it was not really so much a vote for Obasanjo, as it was a vote for the PDP (Ekwueme's party, and the party of the Igbo governors elect). Obasanjo was a late comer to the PDP. It was better to vote for the party that Ekwueme formed and which produced the governors of all the five core-Igbo states than to gamble with the tribalist Falae, even though Igbos already knew that Obasanjo was an Igbo hater.
___________________ Biafra, by any means necessary!
Brother thank you for the analysis.In addition after the humiliation of serious Igbo contenders in the APP using Ogbonnaya Onu by Shinkafi, and the Afenifere insesitive statements made by Ayo Adebanjo on the irrelevance of people like Ezeife, I think Falae and co could not have expected a massive defection to AD just because of Obasanjo.Even then Shinkafi said it was the turn of the west to align with the north so what would there have been in it for the Igbos to vote for Falae?
Many progressive Igbo's wanted a boycott an option which I believe was frustrated by the greedy errand boys now lining their pockets. In all I think Obasanjo had already been selected to rule by the thief Abubabakar under the instructions of IBB.The election only legitimized him in the eyes of the outside world.
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Wale, It is clear that it is not because of brotherly love that Obasanjo was voted for in the South-East. The argument has been made that people had no choice. The turn out in the elections has been put at 20% by some observers. If that is not rejection of the mess called Nigeria, tell me what is.
Ok, the mistake has been made. The onus to justify his unnecessary interruption of a much desired change following Abacha's death lies with Obasanjo. He claimed his government was ordained by God to save Nigeria. To achieve a united Nigeria he needed to do more than pay a lip service . He needed to ensure that Nigeria remained a secular state. At every turn he sabotaged the secular status of Nigeria. Starting from his much advertised born-again christian credentials to his obvious inability to persuade his fanatic moslem counterparts from implementing sharia. So much religious harmony achieved by a government supposedly installed by God! So, now that secularity is history, perhaps, Obasanjo will concentrate on the economy. Not in our life time. He reasoned that the alternative to near 100% revenue from oil was to market himself to every country that has an airport for his executive plane to land. Even he is fed up travelling. That does not mean that he is about to tackle the economy. Reading his account of his stewardship of the economy after two years, I began to cry for a sinking country. Exchange rate:
You begin to wonder if he was referring to such frivolities as executive plane for a plain thick tired old bag or a brand new stadium to celebrate our great economic miracle.
He then goes on to assess how much of his self-imposed target has been achieved:
It is possible from the above statements to make out that the naira has depreciated significantly under his watchful eyes. The rest of the above may not make much sense to most who are not used to speaking in tongues so typical of our born-again general.
What then for the starving people the mesiah has been sent to save? Nobody really expected General Obasanjo to feed 100 million people with a loaf of bread no matter how passionately he wishes to be called God. But it is so disappointing to hear the president's solution to hunger in his enclave:
quote:On the soaring prices of food commodities, the President said the government would its utmost to make staple foods are available to the populace at affordable prices.
I did not from the above statement understand what he said he was going to do. Wale, please translate to the rest of us what Obasanjo said in onenigeriaspeak code.
Far from taking responsibility for the deplorable state of the sinking ship, the president has started dreaming about dictatorial powers he had as head of state from 1976-1979:
quote:"We have to play the game according to the rules. This places a limit on us. However, if things get worse, we may be forced to take an action. "Usually, in a free economy, there are things you cannot do. That is why we are appealing to peoples' conscience, but if this does not work, there are other measures we can take to reverse the trends he said."
What measures has he got in mind? Obasanjo's overall assessment of his performance:
I am left wondering what was achieved. I have read the whole interview, I didn't even learn from his account what the interest rate was when he assumed office, and what it has become two years after. Did you, Wale?
You can see why even the most stupid of people who voted for Obasanjo are fed up. His vision of one Nigeria is not based on real benefits to participants, willing or not. It is not possible to speak to Obasanjo directly, but he is not alone in advocating one Nigeria. Maybe you and others who share his dream should tell us what we stand to gain from this project.
To keep it simple, I will stop here, for now. I, therefore, summarise that there is no real basis for unity. There is no brotherly love, there is no food for the poor, there is no desire or even ability to build an economy. The dream of a secular state has died. What is the basis for unity? Tell me, please.
I believe that Chima has adequately touched on why the Igbos voted the way they did in 1999. The truth was that they were supporting a honest and forthright man (Ekwueme) after his brilliant display at the 1995 constitutional conference (advocating rotational presidency, revenue allocation based on derivation principle, six regional zone structure for the country amidst other fine propositions which were fraudulently discarded by Abubakar in his infamous 1999 constitution). Igbos therefore supported PDP due to Ekwueme and even their minority south-south brothers did the same. Unfortunately our corrupt and tribalistic civilian class as usual allowd the military rogues to use money and their stinking influence to hijack the party at the last minute thereby imposing the jester called Obasanjo in power.
Since Igbos heve often criticised the carpet crossing of the early first republic which costed Zik his victory in the west they had no choice but abide by and support whomever the PDP produced as a candidate; moreover Obasanjo had just been released from Abacha's gulag and there were hopes that prison life may have transformed (unfortunately we now know that you may take an animal out of the Zoo but you cannot take the Zoo out of the animal!).
Finally, Olu Falae would have probably become the PDP candidate from the South West but for the intrigues of Ige and his Afenifere supporters who held Falae back. On retrospect given what is happening today who do you blame?
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Vitalis Thanks for your response, undoubtedly the Igbo's were robbed when Alex Ekwueme was defeated by Obasanjo in Jos and I understand there was a lot of buying and selling of votes if my memory serves me right.
This said though in my view this should have served as a precursor of things to come.
Obasanjo came from nowhere and won /rigged the election to lead the party. It would have been better to boycott the election entirely or voted for Olu Falae, I am not that familiar with his view on the various tribes at home, but I doubt if he would have been as bad as Obasanjo, and with Obasanjo's history I personally would not trust him to lead anything talk less of Nigeria again, the unfortunate thing here is that he is going to hand over to a Northerner again and in the short term this is going to be nothing short of disastrous.
CSE, there is a saying that better the devil you know, I presume this analogy was used with regards to Obasanjo and Olu Falae, but as per you first paragraph the 20% of Igbo’s who may have voted placed him there and here we all are suffering for this. His presence there does not rest solely on the Igbo’s nor am I saying it’s the Igbo’s sole fault he is there, this lies with everyone who voted for him but this was a bad and foreseeable mistake.
His handling of the Nation as you have pointed out with regards to Religion and Sharia, the Economy and he has had the benefit of high fuel prices in the west, has been nothing short of a pure disaster thus as with nearly everyone here and a considerable number on the other board I am fed up, fed up when there is nothing but pure poverty at home, poverty that is so tangible people are literally walking skeletons, the place is probably the land of the living dead.
I do not as per your second to last paragraph share the dream of one Nigeria especially with regards to how the country is run right now, if it were to break up then at least we will be able to focus on our problems without the charges of tribalism or federal character which places incompetent ill educated and ill prepared individuals in positions they would never in a properly run society ever have a chance of leading Thanks
quote: ….the unfortunate thing here is that he is going to hand over to a Northerner again and in the short term this is going to be nothing short of disastrous. – wale
While your assertion above as to Obasanjo’s deal with his Hausa/Fulani masters is true, the truth is it can never happen.
No Hausa/Fulani can ever rule a Nigeria that contains the Niger Deltains and indeed the Igbos again. NEVER! EVER!
The only reason we now have relative calm in Nigeria is because the Hausa/Fulani were wise enough to use a Southern Nigerian puppet like Obasanjo to achieve indirect rule knowing fully well that his presence will dampen the voice of turn-coat traitors like Bola Ige in the true Yoruba fashion of “Omo wa ni, e je o’ se”.(He is our son, let him do it).
However, like you predicted above, the greedy Hausa/Fulani oligarchy will once more want to make a move on absolute consolidation of power. But men! Will Nigeria burn? There will be fire, brimstone, and all the other nice little things described in the Book of Revelation.
Bottom line: Rwanda might look like a High school scuffle.
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Since MeBiafran is bent on anything Ibo is good and anything Yoruba is bad, how come the Ibos overwhelmingly voted for Obasanjo's reelection. I'm stll looking for a better answer to a question that was posed over three years ago.
MeBiafran, over to you.
___________________ No Man is an Island Posts: 60 | From: New Haven, Conn. USA | Registered: Jan 2004
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Jimoh, Your assertion was not only wrong but laughable.For any man in his sane mind to say that Igbos voted for Obasanjo`s re election instead of Ojukwu after all Obasanjo`s punitive policies to destroy ndigbo economically is simply crazy. It is no news that the PDP hijacked the 2003 elections in the east and south.In places like Rivers state and Enugu state the results written by PDP gave the impression that not even one registered voter failed to vote in those states. Even Jerry Gana started to pick quarells with the foreign observers for reporting that the elections were not just flawed but were merely s-elections as voting didn`t take place in so many local governments but results were written for those localities.Lagos state is a case in file where the INEC as usual had already declared on it`s web site that PDP won but had to retrieve that information after threat of violence by AD supporters in Lagos. The reason why all the problems in Nigeria persist is that Obasanjo have raped the peoples` verdict at the polls over and over.Nigerians apathy for the electoral process as recently seen in the local government elections were as a result of this broad day light rape of what the peoples` verdict say. Me think that Obasanjo is simply test running his crude strategy of manipulating the voters verdict in preparation for his secret but known pact of handing over to Babangida in 2007.Jimoh would still come back after that election to naively ask why did Igbos vote so massively for Babangida?Until the sanctity of the voters verdict is respected in Nigeria by incumbent regimes,we are still under military dictatorship disguised for international acceptability by the conduct of elections whose actual result are discarded.
quote: Since MeBiafran is bent on anything Ibo is good and anything Yoruba is bad, how come the Ibos overwhelmingly voted for Obasanjo's reelection. I'm stll looking for a better answer to a question that was posed over three years ago.
MeBiafran, over to you.
This could be one of those silly questions one is tempted to ignore but doing that, to Jimoh is like admitting this obvious fallacies.
Listen real good, had we supported a northerner assuming your claim to be true, Jimoh and gang would today scream their usual noise. It's like the entire yoroba nation display characteristics only found in womenfolk... INSATIABLE! Now you tell my fellow BIAFRANS and me what precisely would satisfy you guys other than mass suicide? You support a yoroba, wahala, you don’t ebelebe/trouble, so which one?
BTW, looks like you're waking up to your sensory organs again by appropriately writing without a word of insult to your ELDER. Better, son!
___________________ BIAFRA: The land of my ancestors now, yesterday and always. So it will be! Posts: 2482 | From: Ala Igbo | Registered: Apr 2004
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In taking time to read through the responses to the thread starter's question above,one could not help but laugh. Seems to me that you guys will go to any length in order to justify a terrible error of judgement and in so doing, attempt to re-write history to your favor. Not so this time. The raison detre for OBJ's election with a large number of Ibo votes in 1999 is deeply rooted in history.
It is the considered opinion of an average Ibo man that the Yorubas were complicit in the pogrom of the 60s which unfortunately claimed the lives of many Nigerians, with a disproportionate number of Ibos as casualties. Recall Awo's use of food as instrumentality of warfare; also recall Banjo's phantom turnaround at Ore?.
The Yorubas have been resolute in denouncing the label of Judas and have refused to even apologize for the war giving as reason that it was a reckless war hijacked by Ojukwu and other elites of Ibo origin for self aggrandizement, also noting that in going to war, a self-proclaimed intelligent,superior-intellect,super race will at least plan for an exit strategy. The rest is, as they say, now history.
Inspite of the average Iboman's misgivings towards his Yoruba counterpart, the Yorubas remain deeply entrenched in the country's economic, academia, diplomatic corps, social services, and other fringe services. To the Iboman, this hardly is a price to pay for treachery. So when an average Iboman, writing on the internet, lays the blames for Nigeria's wobbling economy and other vices on the doorsteps of the Yorubaman, he is only sowing winds, a bad case of bad apples so to say. To say that the Iboman would make Nigeria an Eldorado is plain wrong and fallacious, no wonder the people of Eastern states daily plot ways to check out of their own paradise to other territories in search of bread and butter. Enugu is not more developed than Gombe, even after years of Ibo ingenious leadership.
To come back to the main, Olusegun Obasanjo is widely perceived as a black sheep capable of inflicting damage upon his own people whom he detests a lot (what with the Abiola-is-not-the-messiah speech and other sundry activities aimed at derobing the omoye of the Yorubas in the marketplace) therefore, a vote cast for OBJ is seen as a cane in the hands of the Ibo to flog the ungrateful Yorubas(whatever that means, i'll leave it for MeBiafran to explain). Hardly a bad strategy except that in dealing with the apparently inferior Yorubas (oops i nearly forgot that the first and only nobel prize winner from Nigeria to date is from that much-maligned bunch of no goods!; (Things fall Apart still remain my best novel of all time anyway)), you need to exhibit the wisdom of Solomon and the foresight of Nostradamus. Well, in dealing with the Yorubas, the Ibos always forget their thinking red-cap in the marketplace, or so it would seem. The Yorubas apparently used the wisdom of the superior Ibos to kill two birds with one stone. They have their man(who has apparently taken to heart the biblical story of the repentant spendthrift child and has under the cover of night dobale for his elders) ensconced in Aso Rock and what's more infuriating, the Ibo nation has to find a decent way to engage its arch enemy for the 2007 Presidency Project, (Methinks it will be once more suicidal to leave this all-important affair to Ohaneze). Hardly a bad position to find oneself in, uhn?
___________________ This war of attrition on the Igbo must end now! Posts: 441 | From: california, US | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:…ungrateful Yorubas(whatever that means, i'll leave it for MeBiafran to explain). - addy
The dictionary is there to do the honor so I yield to Merriam-Webster.
quote:The Yorubas have been resolute in denouncing the label of Judas and have refused to even apologize for the war giving as reason that it was a reckless war hijacked by Ojukwu and other elites of Ibo origin for self aggrandizement, also noting that in going to war, a self-proclaimed intelligent,superior-intellect,super race will at least plan for an exit strategy. – addy
My friend addy, do you truly believe a war between a yoroba/awusa nation and the Igbo without help from Britian, Russia, Saudi, China etc would end in your favor? As we debate I believe it’s more important to keep it real without the unnecessary embellishments. And for your information the intellectual prowess of the Igbo/BIAFRANs are not “self-proclaimed” rather it is world acknowledged. It’s not a secret that the Igbos are the brainpower of that qua-qua nation of yours. If this is not true we keep wondering why your people of the past, 1966 to present squirms each time the idea of parting ways from you guys are raised.
Now read this and please tell us whom the warmonger was.
“The consequence of these illegal sets has been the increasing deterioration of the Nigerian economy. It has also produced uncertainty and insecurity generally and pushed the country with increasing tempo towards total disintegration and possible civil war and bloodshed on massive scale.” - Gowon's broadcast to his nigerians - May 27, 1967.
“Lt.-Col. Ojukwu proposed that if the meeting was to make any progress, all the members must at the outset adopt a resolution to renounce the use of force in the settlement of Nigerian dispute.” - Minutes of ABURI Conference - January 1967.
I guess a yoroba in ojukwu’s position would bail and allow the extermination of his people?
quote:So when an average Iboman, writing on the internet, lays the blames for Nigeria's wobbling economy and other vices on the doorsteps of the Yorubaman, he is only sowing winds, a bad case of bad apples so to say. – addy
And we wonder why a yoroba led Central Bank went the abyss way. The appointment of an Igbo as always is for the singular purpose of rescuing a wobbling nation. Without appreciation from an average yoroba MAN. It is only a yoroba who would not realize that the Igbo are builders naturally, they developed eighty or more percent of the nations cities without a doubt yet addy would paint us as failures typical of their way of life. It is only a yoroba man that would not realize what the dictatorial (yoroba & awusa) governments of nigeria has done to the Igbo cities and educational facilities. A yoroba man/addy would like his readers to believe that the Igbo cities are in squalor while he also failed to acknowledge that a NEPA transmitter meant for an Eastern state was diverted to abeokuta, the home of the wicked thief known as obusunjo. That dam projects meant for Igbo cities are diverted to vandal and diseased infested cities in the west and north and addy and his people see nothing wrong in this arrangement. Great!
It is opinions such as addy’s that supports the Igbo belief that the yoroba would forever remain ungrateful, lazy and conniving.
quote:They have their man(who has apparently taken to heart the biblical story of the repentant spendthrift child and has under the cover of night dobale for his elders) ensconced in Aso Rock and what's more infuriating, the Ibo nation has to find a decent way to engage its arch enemy for the 2007 Presidency Project,… - addy
This little speech by addy buttressed our view of the yoroba as “ungrateful” bunch. He equally reinforced my claim that they’re conniving by the above and immediate quote. Of course!
“They” – yoroba “Man” – obasanjo cover of night dobale for his elders – A traitor always uses the "cover of night" to perpetrate his evil deeds.
I have every confidence that the eventual division of that monkey nation would come and when it came to pass, the yoroba would constantly be in a dogfight with the awusa feudal conquerors. Allow me to simplify, the border would remain the greatest headache for the yoroba because the awusa can never be without a war, it’s their way of life. They would invade the yoroba nation in less than five years of its sovereignty. I hope addy and his yoroba folks are listening and would be ready.
It is important at this point to remind the yoroba/awusa that anything that have a beginning equally have an ending. Nothing lasts forever!
___________________ BIAFRA: The land of my ancestors now, yesterday and always. So it will be! Posts: 2482 | From: Ala Igbo | Registered: Apr 2004
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The Yorubas have been resolute in denouncing the label of Judas and have refused to even apologize for the war giving as reason that it was a reckless war hijacked by Ojukwu and other elites of Ibo origin for self aggrandizement, also noting that in going to war, a self-proclaimed intelligent,superior-intellect,super race will at least plan for an exit strategy. The rest is, as they say, now history.
This is the most unfair assesment of the genocide that was unleashed on NdiIgbo by a compilations of unethical interests-es from someone that joined this forum pretending to hold the olive leaf by the right hand. However, a judgment of biased swines that hold the most treacherous Awolowo as it's hero; one will not stop to wonder the kind of nation that was intended to be build with hypocrites on this mind set.
It's not surprising that the addys of this world will accuse Dim Ojukwu and Igbo leaders of self aggrandizement on their attempt to save NdiIgbo from a deliberate executed plan of extermination, for them, the resistance was a terrible setback that shouln't be.
Voting obasanjo in 1999 and the unfolding events afterwords is the vindication of the Igbo stand that not even a single Yorobaman can be trusted on any matter of interest, who say that it's wrong to give benefit of doubts when faced with the choice of two misfits considering the fact that age sometimes provides an enabling choice of nobility to a soul that is capable of distinguishing between good and evil, Yoroba, as represented in obasanjo is yet no centimeter distant from the Yoroba of dubious Awolowo that invented the killing of children as a war game and the best strategy to win a war; since the logic today is that if Falae was made President, Biafranigerians would have been living on a paradise earth(what an idle talk!), maybe, Gani Adams will make a better choice for Nigeria.
___________________ He likened the second coming of Christ to the realisation of the Biafran dream, stating that at a time people least expect, the much sought Biafra would be a reality..Rev. Fr. Cornelius Ezeiloaku Posts: 622 | From: santiago, chile | Registered: Jan 2002
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