However, I note that the first of Abati's sophomoric outbursts hit the newsstands several weeks ago. Yet, the Igbo ripostes have only now started to come in, and it remains uncertain which member of the Ngwati Press cluster we are going to pay money to publish those fine sallies written by the putative stars of an Igbo Publishing House. I am also a little concerned by the seeming mid-sized project nature of some of the efforts to respond to the Abati boy. For God's sake, Abati wrote at the level of an Igbo high school dropout. The responses to him should have been out the very next morning.

________
Damian

In effect, the Nigerians are continuing justify the genocide against igbos, and seem to be preparing themselves for worse atrocities...its called blame the victim, in short, no apologies for the 3 million murdered, because you deserved it anyway type of attitude.

I dont know about you, but I can speak for myself, no one should put up with this attitude.

In a most disgusting way this man has turned history around, and has put insult upon injury; as if what they have done to our people so far is not bad enough, and then to say that " if they were hated in 1966, then moreso in 2001."

Its these types of pieces of rhetoric we need to keepin our archives for submission to the UN about why we cannot possibly and will never be a part of this country.

This is the evidence we need to prove the neo nazi state of Nigeria,on the eve of her next etnic cleansing against the igbos.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear, they are coming again, and this time, I fear it will be worse and more widespread involving the west.

Somebody, tell us this is not true, I keep hoping that this is just a bad dream and I will wake up, and Nigeria, would never have been, and the 3 million victims of the genocide will be alive again.

Maybe, I am just paranoid, having fled for life from the West, once, for we had been singled out for extermination, that like the US Vets, I have post traumatic stress and keep thinking they are coming they are coming in the night, to slit oyr throats, and kill us all?

I hear the voice of my fathers two brothers, who died for Biafra, somewhere in the Bush, buried, or not buried.

I hear the voice of the five year olds who starved to death, who when they died had bodies swollen, and big heads, with limbs the size of newborns. This one would have been a teacher, and this one an engineer, and this one a farmer, but they were never given the chance, because, you see in Nigeria some are born to live, and others only to die; some are fit to live and others to satrve to death.

I see the unborn children, wha were slaughtered in their mothers wombs,
and they all cry out

JUSTICE

These people have defiled our land, killed our people, committed atrocities hithertounknown to mankind, and then they justify it?

Then, never again will we forget you! We will raise a monument for our three million brothers slaughtered and starved to death by the Nigerian neo nazis.

Yes, there by the banks of the ekulu river, we will sing our songs, our own river of Babylon, surely the Lord could not expect us to sing His songs ina strange land.

And there, we will raise our monument, a pyramid reaching to the stars, with three million reflecting crystal surfaces, for each of our martyrs in heaven. And every day the sun in Gods own country, will reflect and play upon the surface, for all the world to see, the amazing spectacle of light, the light that set us free.

Be relieved dear one, be relieved
You have spoken both in spirit and in person
Your voice has been heard both by the living and the those who passed on for the sake of Biafra. Even God the creator who never approved the misdirected revenge, the pogrom the genocide, the starvation of the young to disease and death; even He the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Israel, He has heard you.

He is the God of vengeance; can't you see that they that slayed the inocent Biafrans have been in disarray ? The Soviet Union after dying in thousands in the hands of the Afghans and the chechnians after supplying the weapons to kill Biafrans have their union disintergrated; what about the Czechoslovakians, where are they today as a nation ? Now come closer home; where are the murderers today ? Without a Biafran bullet have they not killed themselve? Even those who planned evil against Biafra when have they found peace ? They may have found stolen whealth but where is the peace and health &life to enjoy the whealth ?

Today through your spiritual and physical voice you are calling for the actualization of Biafra. So it will be. But let judgement run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream in Biafra, because that is the way of the Lord who never lost any battle and who will stand by Biafrans never to turn His back on the land of the rising sun; beloved home, land of the great heroes.

God will in his infinite majesty deliver His own, especially if in our struggle we keep our eyes on Him, from whence our help will come. Amen and Amen, Iseeeeeeeeee !

While you are at it, how about this tommyrot by nigeria’s vice-president?

Hear him: “…for the issue of women education in the North, you will be surprised if I tell you
that the rate of women education in the North is higher than the male education in the South-east,"

An Igbo nwanna called Atiku’s hogwash, a blasphemy and wondered how come he went scot-free.

And this nwanna, went on to work him off with the following:

Mathematical Wangling - Atiku Style
NO, Mr V.P. May be right mathematically, as 300/500 = 60%, while 20000/50000 = 40%. 60% for North is greater or higher than 40% for say Imo. SEE THE PICTURE. This is how they fool their folks; they use the percent faction to show them how well they have done. But the average northerner gets angry when the get to the campus and could not see themselves as dominant."

A few days ago, this Jerry Gana, fellow spewed some trash, then Igbo states were isolated and now Atikiu’s blasphemy.

My take is that they are up to something.

One good news is given that it is only the Igbo states in the East of the Niger, that are linked to Abuja, and not Rivers, Calabar states, we now know the shackling of Ndiigbo is total.

quote:

---

My take is that they are up to something.

---

I couldn't agree more. My prayer is that we(Biafrans) should smell the coffee. Something very sinister is playing out very rapidly before our very eyes. I don't know whose idea it is, but there appears to be a deliberate effort to wreck the psyche of the Igbo nation.

Did Emeka Ojukwu's statement warrant the many part revisionist "essay" Abati wrote? I very much doubt it. Methinks the aim was to tell the Biafrans they'd been vanquished, displaced from top positions in the army, had a dull Christmas and not in a position to cause any "trouble" now.

The same Guardian carried the story of an Ebonyi girl who is the first female mechanic. I shall paste Nwakanma's analysis of that story here.

Jerry Gana a Nupe guy from Niger state who has served in every regime from IBB(1985) to the present day is now "concerned" about education in Igbo land. The same wild animal has forgotten that just a few weeks ago the NASS came up with what they called Educationally disadvantaged States which did not include the core Igbo states. And Atiku is still running with the story that!

Meanwhile a Yoruba internet newspaper 'the Anchor' has gone to town with an eye catching story on the "rebirth of Biafra". The writer claims he's been listening to the voice of Biafra broadcast which to him contains the same old secessionist message.

Why are these guys bothered about Nd-Igbo and Biafra?

I think they are bothered because they know we can't really be stopped if we mean business. So they've resorted to the well worn method of using propaganda to weaken the morale of Biafrans. Woe betide the Igbo man that will offer himself to be used by the evil bunch.

I feel the time is very ripe to move from the mundane and tackle the serious issue of telling our story by ourselves. We need to dominate the BiafraNigerian info super highway. Let's pull together and do the PR job for Biafra.

God bless Biafra and all the lovers of Biafra.

Nwakanma's response to the Ebonyi girl story follows:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a very intricate method or politics of "placing". The story is not
about the Ebonyi female mechanic. It is about the first females of any
achievement. The use of Anthonia is actually to tell the story of Yoruba
achievement in medicine, in Law and in a driving a car. Note the deliberate
misspelling of Chinyere Onyemauche is the first female pilot. It is
deliberate. It immediately obscures the identity. What this kinds of
strories do is to subtly plant a notion of inferiority in the minds of those
who read it. While Ebonyi-in Igbo land has just produced its first female
mechanic, a long civilized society has been having doctors, Engineers,
lawyers. That is the thrust of that story. It is left-handed compliment.
Now, it is another game of the Lagos media. This very obscuring of
achievements everywhere else to position the Yoruba as "the most enlightened
and the most educated people in Nigeria." It is all falsehood. It is a means
of perpetuating a moral, economic and cultural domination of Nigeria. Even
today, many Igbos believe that the Yoruba are the most educated people in
Nigeria!. Hogwash. But it has often been promoted by the Lagos-Ibadan media.
Because all the name you see are Yoruba. But as I have always pointed out:
any look at the admission list of the University College Ibadan from
1948-1967 shows that the Igbo always presented the highest number of
candidates, far in excess of any other group. In other words, the Igbo have
dominated University Education in Nigeria since 1948. Except in the
interveing years between 1967/70 when the Igbo were in war-torn Biafra,
tehy'ce consistently presented candidates for admission to Nigerian and
International Universities far in excess of any other group in Nigeria. The
Igbo even today have the highest number of students both registered in
Primary school, secondary school and in the University. Imo State alone
accounts for more than 10%the total of candidates seeking admission into
Nigerian Universities. Followed by Delta state and then by Anambra and the
Edo state. If you add the fact that the Igbo part of Delta state accounts
for more than 65% of the Delta application to the University, you'd come to
the startling fact, that Igbo students account for over 60% of people
seeking admissions to Nigeria's tertiary institutions. Yet every year when
these figures arrive from JAMB, it is tucked into a very obscure corner of
the newspaper. If the facts were different, like if the wset had such
dominating numbers, it would be an in-thy-face issue. Yet, every day
Newspapers in Lagos talk about Igbos as Traders and scam artists, since
every young man has abandaoned school for these ventuers. It is not true. It
isa very familiar form of dissembling. It institutes the Yoruba as the
ordained rulers of the country. Simple. Why did't they talk about the female
DG of the Nigerian stock exchange?. Or the fisrt internationally acclaimed
Nigerian female writer. Or such things. Anthonia was only a peg for the
story.
Obi Nwakanma

BY OBI NWAKANMA

IN a two-part essay titled: "Obasanjo, Secession and the Secessionists," Dr. Reuben Abati took us through the whorl of his own version of modern Nigerian history. His narration in The Guardian (December 16 and 23, 2001) was replete with too many untruths and distortions. I wish to draw attention to the numerous ahistoricalities prevalent in Abati's two part exhortation - which ended up being a threat to Ndi Igbo.

Abati knows, although he deliberately refuses to acknowledge this fact, that the Igbo people have suffered the burden of Nigerian history in a proportion that makes it legitimate for all conscious Igbo to rethink their relationship with Nigeria. The Igbo have also suffered ethnic victimisation in public policies; they have suffered a terrible form of apartheid in post-war Nigeria in terms of employment, in terms of political representation; to the point that the exclusion of the Igbo from the public sphere is the beginning of orthodox wisdom in Nigeria. The Igbos have also suffered ethnic violence disproportionately around Nigeria, and it is now taken for granted that the Federal government of Nigeria cannot protect the Igbo anywhere in Nigeria. Very often, when the Igbo and their leaders make know their grief publicly, the response from the rest of Nigeria has always been very familiar: it resonates in the kind of ministerial idiocy that a Dupe Adelaja could muster, or in the imponderable hagiography that is immediately inscribed in Abati's essay. It is often a form of puerile animadversion.

The latest form of these kinds of response was recently directed at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, whose warning to General Olusegun Obasanjo was simply to girdle up. Ojukwu took a close look at Nigerian history and uttered the obvious: if the current caretakers of this sad entity called Nigeria do not accede to the Igbo quest for equity within the federation of Nigeria, the Igbos would once again seek secession. Rather than taking a disinterested look at the general ineptitude of the Obasanjo administration, Abati sallied forth, his breath hot with aporetic fallacies, as he descended on the Igbo.

It is true that the Igbo have become the mule that anybody who could muster enough attitude kicks, just to make a point of it. But I suggest that Abati should look a bit more carefully and see that Ojukwu in fact may not be making an empty threat. Recent event indicates that Nigeria has willingly stepped into the Blakean cycle of Orc: the seasons have turned full circle. History is once again being enacted on the same scale that authored our original eruption.

My worry however is that Abati has evinced a clear propensity to evacuate history or has simply chosen to ignore its solemn truths. Nothing can be made more horrendous than a deliberate effacement of the fact of history - especially the whole history of a particular people. As an act, it equals intellectual genocide. Abati's take on Ojukwu very deliberately distorts Igbo history. But it points to a clear problem: other Nigerians have been nurtured in their hatred and suspicion of the Igbo around the lies that have often been spouted from the intellectual perch, by people, so many of whom are ignorant of Nigerian history even down to his more elementary detail. Abati for instance took a first class degree from the University of Calabar and a Doctorate from the University of Ibadan. He is a leading commentator on public issues in the Nigerian media. Only two possible interpretations can explain his treatment of historical verities in his essay - one is that he certainly does not have his facts in which case he succumbs to damaging inaccuracies, or the second is that he may be just too reckless with truth, with the intent of mischief. Both in my mind have consequences that utterly frame the significance of his place in the Nigerian media.

First is that Colonel Nwobosi may have led the operations in Ibadan on January 15, 1966 but he did not kill Akintola. Another fact is that the carpet-crossing episode in the Western house took place in 1951-52, not in 1964. But more to the core issues he raised: there are more facts out there now to show that the so-called "Igbo Coup" was by no means an Igbo coup, not if one of its objectives was to install Obafemi Awolowo as president. I would refer Abati to Ifeajuna's unpublished manuscripts, but in the Oputa Commission, Colonel Ben Gbulie made that fact very clear. In actual fact, if the truth must be told, the government that was overthrown in January 1966 was the government of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. Given the Republican Constitution of 1963, which made Azikiwe President of the Republic and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the authority that was usurped was the authority of the state as it devolved around the person of the Commander-in-Chief of the Republic. In other words, only the President could reconvene parliament and appoint the Head of government. Once that authority was ceded, Nigeria went on break. It must be an act of supreme patriotism and idealism for Igbo officers to overthrow the government ran by their kinsmen in order to install Awolowo. It is an act that deserves more than the backhanded analysis that Abati makes of it. Besides, the January 15, 1966 was certainly a coup executed by mostly Igbo officers as Abati pointed out, but I do not think that names like Ademoyega and Oyewole are Igbo names. In the North, such officers like Atom Kpera and the late Anthony Ochefu, among others crop up as participating in the Nzeogwu operations.

It is one of the greatest fallacies of Nigerian history that Ironsi "surrounded himself with his Igbo kinsmen." This again, in Abati's article rekindles one of those unique ways in which the Igbo dog was called a bad name, in order to hang it.

Ojukwu and Ironsi were the two Igbo in Ironsi's SMC. The other Easterner was George Kurubo, an Ijaw. The West had Ogundipe, Fajuyi and Wey. While the North had Kastina and Gowon. The minorities had two - Kurubo and Ejoor. This was the highest law making body of the land and it had only two Igbos out of nine. Of the 21 permanent secretaries who worked with Ironsi, there were only three from the East (Tim Eneli, S. S. Waniko and B. N. Okagbue), one of whom was an Eastern minority. Philip Asiodu (Mid-West) was the only other Igbo. So of the 21 federal permanent secretaries that Ironsi appointed only three were actually Igbo. Five from the North and four from the West. I do not want to extend this further. Ironside, Chuks Iloegbunam's important biography of Ironsi surrounded himself with his Igbo kinsmen, including the headstrong Francis Nwokedi. In case Abati does not know, Nwokedi was the highest ranked Nigerian civil servant appointed by the British, long before Nigerian independence. He was a sort of "fair-haired boy" for the Brits. But more importantly was that he had already retired as Permanent Secretary for Labour, where among his other numerous accomplishments was that he established the National Provident Fund. He had been seconded to the UN, and like Simeon Adebo was one of those whom Ironsi invited to help stabilise Nigeria. It is patently false to dress those men in the garb that Abati has done. One of the greatest challenges before the Nigerian administration today is that it must release the classified transcripts of the SMC meetings held under Ironsi and the truth will be further revealed.

As for the Igbos not being able to deal "with their new pre-eminence... they even had a song, Celestine Ukwu's "Ewu Ne Ba Akwa" (meaning "Goats Are Crying"). To quote Abati, I must say that nothing can be further from the truth. First, is that "Ewu N'ebe Akwa" was not Celestine Ukwu's song, it was Cardinal Jim Rex Lawson's, an Ijaw man, which had been released to popular appeal as far back as 1964. To denote a triumphalist strain in that song is to generally justify the massacre of the Igbo as Abati has done, because, as he apparently grew up to learn, the Igbos are the demons of Nigerian history. Abati's consistent distortion of the history of that event resonates even in his conclusion that Ojukwu "fled" to the East with the July 29, 1966 coup. The truth is truly different: Ojukwu simply prevented the coup from succeeding in the East. He was governor of the Eastern region. The Northern coupists had murdered General Ironsi and Lt. Colonel Fajuyi in Ibadan, secured Lagos with the help of the British and carried out a systematic pogrom of Igbo officers in the Army. But Ojukwu held firmly to his command in Enugu. His face-off with Gowon was on the principle that since General Ironsi was dead; the next officer to take command of the Armed forces was Brigadier Ogundipe. Ojukwu, like any well-trained professional soldier refused to cede his command to mutineers, and remains the only Nigerian officer who has refused to serve under his junior. Besides, when the genocide against the Igbo and other Easterners in the rest of Nigeria ensued, he secured the East as haven for them, and led them valiantly to a defence of their humanity and their rights to live. That was the real story of Igbo resistance.

Adaka Boro was not any idealist: he was given money by the NNPC government of Tafawa Balewa in 1966 to subvert the government of the Eastern Region under Okpara. The ploy was to instigate a condition of anomie, which would necessitate the federal government declaring a state of emergency in the East. He too is one of the great products of the utter revisionism, which has generally being the hallmark of modern Nigerian history. But enough of this: I just want Abati to understand that there is no amount of alteration that would change certain basic facts of Nigerian history. The one truth is that the Hausa-Fulani North alone did not fight the Igbo. The Yoruba West was always complicit in the political oppression of the Igbo, and especially since the end of the war has been in the alliance that justifies its deeds by distorting the true story of the events that led to war. The laws that have been written to subvert Igbo ascension had always come from the willing pen of the Yoruba, and fortified by the fear and hatred of the North and the suspicion of the rest of Nigerians against this group. But the truth is, the Igbo is a master race. The rest of Nigeria may fight it, clobber it, and even levy war against it, but its fate if determined: God has kept the Igbo to lead the black races of the world. Those who hold Igbo on the ground are simply wrestling with their chi.

_____________________________
The fallacy of Reuben Abati: Igbo and secession

The three-part piece by Reuben Abati titled 'Obasanjo, secession and the secessionists' was not originally read by this writer. I got series of e-mails asking for my opinion but since I did not read them I had none until some concerned people sent the articles to me. My first reaction after reading them was that of confusion as to what actually Rueben was up to. However, what was apparent was that there was a motive, as no objective writer could have written in the light of his three-piece. I didn't see Rueben defending Obasanjo, as what Obasanjo said as bad as it was, was a child's play compared with the venom coming from him. Did he have a personal ax to grand with the Igbo? I don't really think so since there was nothing in his write-up that indicated that directly or indirectly, except there was an undisguised hatred for a whole race. Was he acting for the Yoruba race of which I just realize he is one? No, as Yoruba myself, I found nothing in his write-up that represented my interest or that of the entire Yoruba Race. Instead, I saw apparent disservice, so he must be working alone for some selfish parochial interests. The only reason I think propelled Rueben to write with so much hatred for Igbo was his unhidden love for the northern establishment, which has not over the years hidden its hatred for the Igbo. So Rueben Abati's love for the northern oligarchy makes him an enemy of Igbo. Then the question is why? I have no idea but can risk a guess. He may be eyeing a political appointment or office, which might need the northern endorsement.
As an experience writer himself, I think Rueben will take this critique of his work in good faith especially as his work contained some historical as well as political fallacies, which should not be left uncorrected. This is besides his language, which is quite unbecoming of a person occupying an exalted position of Chairman of the Editorial Board of a national newspaper of the status and stature of The Guardian Newspaper.
Right from his page one I started feeling uneasy with Rueben's instigation against freedom of speech when he said that if Obasanjo turns on Ojukwu personally 'with the SSS and NIA etc. on his side' he (Ojukwu) would be afraid to talk again. He made a similar incitement that Professor and Dr. (Mrs.) Aluko 'would by now, be cooling their heels in a detention camp' if they had made their comments in the days of Abacha, as they did on Obasanjo. I know he might want to say that he did not mean what he wrote, but how many of his readers including Obasanjo himself took courses in journalism as to know that his comments were satiric if they were actually. That is dangerous.
Rueben's report on the January 15, 1966 attempted coup contained so much inaccuracies that brings to question his knowledge of the events and his research ability as a journalist. It was only the northern execution of the process of the plot that was code-named 'Operation Damisa' under the command of Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. In the south it was code-named 'Operation New Wash' and commanded by Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna. I am surprised that Rueben Abati a Yoruba did not know the name of the Yoruba member of the Five Majors' group. He is Major Adewale Ademoyega and NOT Ademoyega Ademulegun as written by Rueben (Brigadier Ademulegun was a victim). Five and not six Majors planned the coup. They were Majors Nzeogwu, Ifeajuna, Ademoyega, Okafor and Anuforo. Major T. Onwuatuegwu was co-opted by Nzeogwu in its execution in Kaduna and was not part of the planning. How did the southern press 'eternally' offended the north when they wrote, 'Bribe? E Done Die O, Chop-Chop-E No Dey'. For God's sake Rueben, what is eternally offensive in this? Or are you just making a case for your friends where there is none?
Was there a carpet crossing in the Western House Assembly in 1964? No not at all! The politics in the West in 1964 did not give room for carpet crossing. That was when Yoruba's AG and Igbo's NCNC for the first time saw the need to work together with the formation of United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) which boycotted the 1964 Federal elections that was blatantly rigged. Chief Obafemi Awolowo was already in Calabar prison then and Chief Ladoke Akintola had formed his UPP, which was in alliance with NPC to form NNA. It was an attempt by the NNA to rig the October 1965 western region election that brought Nigeria to where it is today. Carpet crossing was in 1954 when the NCNC led by Dr. Azikwe won the western regional elections by 22 seats to AG led by Awolowo 18 seats. Azikwe was on his way to making history by becoming the Premier of the Yoruba west. Overnight four members of the NCNC moved their party's allegiance to AG, which gave Awolowo the Premiership. I agree this truly 'ethnicized Nigerian politics' but not irretrievably except with people like Rueben and not singularly as the earlier regionalization of political parties was a factor also. Some of us are working hard to get this type of our ugly past behind us and bring amity and harmony within the people of the south and especially between the Igbo and Yoruba.
Rueben's love for the Hausa-Fulani was so much that he did not recognize his fellow Yoruba men and women, military and civilians who lost their lives in the early morning of January 15, 1966. To him mainly northerners were killed. He should be reminded that Yoruba also lost notable leaders among who were: Commander of the 1st Brigade Brigadier Samuel Adesoji Ademulegun and his wife, the Deputy Commander, Nigerian Defense Academy Colonel Raph Adetunji Shodeinde, Major Samuel Adekoge, deputy Adjutant and Quarter-Master-General 1st Brigade all in Kaduna. The west also lost its Premier Chief Samuel Lagoke Akintola. The Mid-West lost Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, the Minister of Finance.
Did the coup succeed? NO. All the principal actors were later arrested and put in prisons scattered all over the country awaiting trial. Was Major General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi part of the plot? NO. Was it an Igbo affair as alluded to by Rueben and many like him with limited knowledge of the Nigeria political history? NO. Let me shed more lights on the contentious issues surrounding the events of the January 15, 1966.
Those responsible for the attempted coup were Nigerians who were no strangers to the signposts of doom of the first republic. Some of them were university graduates who joined the army with a view to correcting the ills that bedeviled the society even from their student days. Are they heroes or villains, traitors or patriots, revolutionaries or reactionaries and tribalists or nationalists? It is only posterity that will judge them as I am not competent to do that here.
Since they were Nigerians living in Nigeria, they were not insulated from the rot that Nigeria had become before the putsch. If they could tolerated every other mess, the military was very much at odd with the civilian leaders using the army to further their political interests, as seen during the Tiv riots and the riots in the west. But it was the Federal elections of 1964 that broke the loyalty of the army to the civil governance.
Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu one of the most detribalized fine officers in the Nigerian army conceived the putsch as early as 1964 during a Shooting competition organized by the army and recruited Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna. Nzeogwu as the Chief Instructor of the Military School in Kaduna and Ifeajuna as a Brigade Major in Lagos perfected the logistics needed for the operation, so each went about recruiting loyalists for their course in their respective theater of operations.
The Operational Order of the coup plot were as follows:
a. To take or strike simultaneously in ALL the regional capitals at the agreed 'H-Hour'.
b. To arrest ALL leading politicians at the regional capitals and kill those who might resist arrest
c. To take over all key and vulnerable installations such as Radio and Television stations, telephone exchange, power stations and police headquarters, etc.
d. Blocking the Niger and Benue bridges at Jebba and Makurdi by troops and armored personnel carriers to prevent north or south counter movement of troops
e. Killing of senior military officers who in their opinion were in a position to raise any counter troops against the plot (this included Maj.-Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi).
f. The taking over of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and forming a new government.
g. All the top military and civil leaders were put under strict surveillance with their movements and contacts tagged till the zero hour.
h. Officers and men were allocated to each regional capital including the East for the execution on the D-Day.
From the Operational Orders can an objective observer see the coup as tribal or Igboish? Not really. That the plot was not bloody in execution in the east could not have been the making of the plotters who though originally did not want a bloody coup. Let it be known that the D-Day was shifted at least ones to avoid shedding too much blood especially of their fellow officers and men. Also Officers were given specific instructions to kill ONLY where there was a resistance to arrest. It would be recalled that Sir Kashim Ibrahim as Governor of the North and Chief Fani-Kayode deputy Premier in the West were not killed when they did not resist arrest. So what happened in the East?
As part of the insensitivity of the Nigerian government to the killing and looting (WETI E) in the West that time, and pretending as if nothing was going on, went ahead to host the meeting of the Commonwealth Leaders in Lagos on January 12, 1966. In the wee hours of January 15, 1966, Lt. Oguchi led team was at Enugu to arrest Dr. Michael Okpara or kill him if he resisted arrest. But with him, was Archbishop Makarios, the President of Cyprus who after the Commonwealth Leaders' conference on January 12, had arrived in Enugu for a visit. The officers as gentlemen, politely waited for the departure of the visiting president before they arrested Okpara without any resistance.
How then did the attempted coup qualify as an Igbo affair? Nzeogwu the prime mover was not Igbo in the true sense of the word. He was from Okpanam then Mid-West, born and bred in Kaduna hence his name Kaduna, and spoke Hausa with a flawless and impeccable native accent. His best friend was a Yoruba Major Olusegun Obasanjo. I am not sure he could speak his own mother tongue. Ademoyega is Yoruba and three others were Igbo. General Ironsi (Igbo) assisted by Lt.Cols. Njoku another Igbo and Yakubu Gowon was at the head of the loyalist troops against the so-called Igbo coup plotters. Lt.Col. Njoku was the Commander of the Ikeja Cantonment where there was the largest concentration of combatant soldiers. But for the counter offensive by Ironsi and Njoku, the five Majors would have succeeded. How then did these events qualify as 'Igbo Conspiracy'? Come to think of it. The President and the Senate President were Igbo, and many other names I grew up to know in my civic class as Jaja and Aja Nwachukwus and the Mbadiwes. General Ironsi the head of the army, was Igbo and Police Inspector General Louis Edet was from the East. So by every standard the Igbo were not marginalized in the first republic. It is therefore preposterous to talk of Igbo conspiracy in view of the above facts except the conspiracy was against themselves which sounds unreasonable. Let us admit it, nationalism and not tribalism fired the five Majors. Otherwise, what then did the Igbo want from the Coup if actually it was an Igbo affair. Nothing, this is what makes the case for the so-called Igbo coup a nullity. May be it is the predominance of Igbo officers and men who participated in the coup that brings the notion. This is where we have to be very objective. Coup making does not require the use of quota system or any form of ethnic balancing unless the planners are signing their death warrant. It requires faultless courage, confidentiality and commitment to the mission. It does not matter therefore who and who and what ethnic group is represented.
Rueben again lied when he said that 1966 was the first time the idea of secession crept into Nigeria politics. No it was in 1953. This was shortly after the northern parliamentarians had walked out of the Lagos parliament in protest against the motion for self-rule moved by Honorable Anthony Enahoro then of AG. Because the north felt that such pace of political development was too fast for them they decided to walk of parliament and out of Nigeria. It took the persuasion of the other Nigeria political leaders to bring them back to Nigeria after they issued their ten-point demands.
Rueben was also untrue when he listed Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon as one of the 'key executors' of the July 1966 coup. Rather the leader of the coup was Lt.Col. Murtala Mohammed. As the Chief of Army Staff Gowon was left out of it. In fact when the execution of the coup started, he alerted all the commanding officers to counter it. He tried to reach General Ironsi at Ibadan by phone but it was another Yakubu, this time Major Danjuma who picked up the phone, having took over control of the government house Ibadan. He it was as a loyal northern army officer that commanded the brutal, cruel and inhuman torture and killing of General J.T.U. Ironsi and Col. Adekunle Fajuyi.
Rueben was terribly lying again to say that Lt.Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu (spelled Odimegwu by him) had fled to the East during the July 1966 coup when in fact the Lt.Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu I know had been appointed Governor of the Eastern Region since January 18, 1966 more than six clear months before his alleged flight. This assertion portrays Rueben more not as a journalist who lives by the pen but as a mercenary who lives by mischief. Facts are sacred and should be so treated to avoid destroying our credibility. I expected Rueben to have learnt this in Journalism 101.
It is also untrue that Airplanes manned by northern soldiers were already airlifting northerners to Kano. No! It was only part of the Operational plans which had not started because all flights within, out and into the country were still banned as part of the execution of the coup. It was eventually not implemented since the north was persuaded not to secede from the rest of the Nigeria. Rueben's language was unethical when he wrote, "The Igbo had lost out; they licked their wounds and returned to the East, where they all had a dull Christmas in 1966." What else do we expect from one of the northern coup plotters? Rueben's characterization of the civil war and its end are inhuman but also evil, atrocious, vicious and outrageous. To him, it was the might of the Hausa-Fulani that 'completed the second phase of their offensive against the Ibos'. Was Rueben Abati too young to know and too lazy to find out about the exploits of the Benjamin Adekunles, the Alani Akinrinades, the Ayo Ariyos and his mentor Olusegun Obasanjos all Yoruba during the civil war. How can any right thinking person think the Hausa-Fulani could have fought let alone won the civil war without the Yoruba.
Now to the hard issues of secession
Rueben demonstrated a lot of confusion or mischief or both in his handling of this issue. He navigated between making points and justifications for and against secession throughout. I will try to come up with some of the reasons why people like me are calling for secession as the last resort, especially if the powers that be will continue to reject the idea of a Sovereign National Conference. I will use Rueben's words as much as possible.
a. The northern power elite has continue to make sure that the Igbo are kept out of sensitive positions in government and consigned to the role of second fiddle.
b. The Hausa-Fulani has also instructively not stopped taking off the heads of Igbos in the North. The Igbo and other southerners are routinely killed in their hundreds.
c. Nigeria as a country has no building plan, no foundation, no road map or they have been abandoned and therefore Nigeria is uniquely structured to fail and fail it must.
d. For many Nigerians, their citizenship is useful only as a label without a sense of citizenship. Many have fled never to return; their hope of reconnecting with Nigeria forever sealed. Major Nzeogwu should be told many of us are still ashamed to be called Nigerians and many are called because they have no better alternative for now.
e. Nigeria is merely a space within which we live without any feeling except that we feel safer as members of our own ethnic group and only within our enclaves.
f. A Nigerian is always confronted by hostile fellow-citizens who in fact wish him dead daily and also a public system that is not interested in the individual in any form either as human being or as a citizen.
g. Nigeria is a country where anything at all is unpredictable and anarchy is clear possibility all year round. A country where nothing works.
h. Many Nigerians believe there is no government in Nigeria since successive ones at all levels have shown lack of capacity to address the problems of the people and make society function. Every encounter with government is a nightmare. The purpose of government in Nigeria is to enrich its leaders and enslave its people.
i. The project called Nigeria has failed as there is injustice and inequalities in the land coupled with the callous manner in which the structures of government have been kidnapped by a few, who believes and behaves as if it is their birthright to rule forever even with ineptitude.
j. Nigerian national currency has Arabic or Islamic inscription in a secular society without having Arabic as its official language. The motto of its Army is inscribed in Arabic. The Nigerian National Assembly building in Abuja by design and structure, is a mosque, when it not meant for Moslems alone as a place of worship. Yet the lawbreakers that meet there, don't care as long it provides shelter to share their loots.
k. Crude oil is produced in Niger Delta but its money is spent in the northern desert and
l. Some northern states have become republics within a republic capable of doing whatever they like and getting away with it. They have thrown the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the dust of the great Sahara Desert. And nobody dares talk or else his head will be taken off him.
Yet, in spite of all these, a Rueben Abati has declared that the Igbo and nobody for that matter can secede especially under Obasanjo because "he made his career but helping to finish off the Ibos. He has also been a good friend of the north. If the Ibos provoke him with any threat of secession, he would have no option to do his duty as Gowon did". He went further to say that the Northerners have made Nigeria secession-proof by taking off the 'heads of Ken Saro Wiwa and his kinsmen and "Obasanjo would not hesitate to take off some Ibo heads to prove a point" if MOSSOB and Ojukwu get too serious talking about secession.
Ridiculing his own Yoruba people Rueben said, "Yoruba were talking about secession. They even set up OPC and they have a constitution but you can be sure that if push comes to shove, the average Yoruba will stockpile food and stay indoors and 'siddon look'. He won't cross the line". To him every talk about secession is 'body language' as nobody really means it. I had thought only sadists could speak in this manner. How I wish I can speak like Obasanjo. I would have said, "Reuben need to get his head examined". The purpose of the examination would be to find out if his head was still appropriately communicating with his hand as he wrote all these junk. I think Rueben should be told that 'body language' is a non-verbal form of communication where eye contact and the use of gestures take the place of the use of words. Again his use of 'body language' is patently wrong.
From the above twelve reasons for secession drawn from Rueben's write-up, there is no doubt that, there is something fundamentally wrong with Nigeria, which seems to have defied solution. It follows therefore that there are more reasons for the Igbo and Yoruba to want to secede from Nigeria today than were in 1966. It is the same thing that has always blinded us from learning from the past especially our past mistakes. It follows therefore that we cannot learn from our own history. The only people who can wish or pray for the survival of Nigeria as a country and as it is constituted today are the very few parasites, less than 1% of the population, who have been benefiting from the so-called unity in diversity by sucking the blood of the sufferers.
Without the fear of getting my head taken off by Rueben's prescription, let me declare again that I have never had, don't now have and will never have any faith, trust and confidence in one Nigeria as it is configured today. My reason has always been that it was a deceit and fraud right from January 1st 1914 when it came to being. If it was a British experiment, Nigeria has failed its architects. I was old enough to fight in the civil war but I refused. As a Yoruba, I was one of those who proudly wore the T-shirt "On Aburi We Stand" in 1967 because I knew the Igbo has their right to self-determination. Nothing has happened to change my mind except to reinforce my conviction that Nigeria needs a serious all round redesigning, restructuring and reconstruction.
This has been the stand of many lovers of Nigeria and Nigerians over the years. Have we been calling for war? No, far from it and God forbid. All we have been saying and are still saying is that each of the national or ethnic groups in Nigeria should find a way of coming together to decide their own individual destinies, which would decide the destiny of the whole. Simply, to convey the Sovereign National Conference. Is there anybody preaching secession as a first option? No, but some of us would opt for secession if we continue to be treated as second class citizen in our own country; as endangered people who are gradually but systematically going into extinction by the systematic decimation of our people including our leaders. Yet, every effort would be made to achieve our objective in a very peaceful atmosphere devoid of violence, bloodshed and war. The Abatis and the Obasanjos and any one for that matter should be told, No More War.
It is for this noble objective that some well meaning Nigerians have tore down ethnic walls and tribal barriers especially between the Igbo and Yoruba, the West and the East to establish the 'Faju-Ronsi Institute of Peace and Harmony'. The objectives include promoting and achieving peace and harmony between and within the peoples of the regions in particular and Nigeria in general. Promote and defend their political, economic and human rights. Ensure that our peoples have a controlling or determinate voice in all the affairs of any geographical entity called their country and never again will they or their children or future generations be tre