Thanks for the input regarding this ominous turn of events as we contemplate the issues of this thread, even to Addy whose exasperation and venom coupled with defensiveness of Yoruba honor has my sincere empathy. CSE and NwaAro, thanks especially for the accurate assessments.
Barely 24hrs after the warning consider the following:
Is Aremus quest for raw power so blinding that he fails to see the moral and ethical failure of the precedents he is now setting with regard to how low he is willing to stoop to achieve it?
Not only does he commit brazen rigging, he is now willing to commit murder to silence legitimately dissenting voices, and the person he has chosen to harm is non other that Dim Ojukwu and his supporters.
To this end any Insider/Plant at IRIN and other Media sources inside and outside Nigeria have now been given the marching order to publish smear campaigns of calumny to establish the legal basis for the suppression of the masses with brutal force, in a civilian dispensation that is supposed to be democratic?
Looking at the story above, one can see where unproven assertions have been inserted to legitimise the impending catastrophe!!!
1.) They have accused potential protesters of producing bombs, a malicious accusation to justify the intended commision of mass murder.
2.) The news item has dutifully established on its last line the historical footnote that Ojukwu led the rebel........ against Nigeria in which...... died.
I repeat again, This is an ominous development!!!
The obvious intent is to intimidate, but for the first time, it must not be allowed. Peaceful protest is the right of freedom loving people.
Passive resistance to injustice, such as practiced by Martin Luther King, cannot be attacked with malicious and brazen violence and preemptive lies such as IRIN and others may now be helping to lay the groundwork for.
Shooting an aggrieved gathering of innocents in this quest for power beyond being sacrilegious is a human rights violation!!!.
We must begin to contact civil rights groups worldwide to investigate these acts being prepared as we speak by a failed govt who will stop at nothing (including planting instigators in preparation for wanton murder) to perpetuate the appearance of legitimate power!!!.
___________________ YA CAIN'T KEEP A GOOD MAN DOWN :) Posts: 1184 | From: TEXAS | Registered: Oct 2001
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quote:NIGERIA: Police alleges plot to scuttle Obasanjo's swearing-in
LAGOS, 20 May 2003 (IRIN) - A plot by some unnamed groups to mar the inauguration of President Olusegun Obasanjo for a second four-year term on 29 May has been unearthed, Nigerian police reported on Tuesday. The plot involved mass demonstrations and planting explosives around Nigeria, they said.
"Some people have gone as far as manufacturing explosives with the aim of using the same to cause panic and make the country generally ungovernable," Nigeria's police boss, Tafa Balogun, said in a statement broadcast on state radio.
Without giving any details of the alleged plot, Balogun said the law enforcement agencies were poised to crackdown on those fomenting trouble. He said public demonstrations could only be held with police permits. Applications for the permits must be made 48 hours ahead of time.
Obasanjo won 19 April presidential elections by a huge margin, but opposition parties allege the vote was massively rigged in favour of the ruling People's Democratic Party. This was Nigeria's second polls after the 1999 election that ended more than 15 years of military rule. Obasanjo won that election.
Both local and international observers said the elections, the first to be managed by civilians in 20 years, were marred by widespread fraud, particularly in the country's southeastern states.
The main opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, rejected the results and threatened "mass action" to stop Obasanjo's inauguration if the vote was not re-run. A group of 17 opposition parties have called on the president to step down and allow an interim government to be headed by the chief justice to organise fresh elections.
Mike Ahamba, lawyer for Buhari's All Nigeria People's Party, told reporters on Monday he will file a case at an election tribunal before Wednesday, to challenge the election results in 21 of Nigeria's 36 states.
The police statement underscored a build up of tension in Africa's most populous country of more than 120 million ahead of the swearing-in.
On Monday, Obasanjo met with defence and security chiefs as well as governors from the volatile southeastern states to discuss security matters ahead of 29 May, when all elected state governors will also be sworn in.
On the same day Buhari, who like Obasanjo was a former military ruler, met in his northern hometown of Daura with Emeka Ojukwu, the candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, who came third in the polls. Aides said they discussed a response to the planned inauguration of Obasanjo.
Ojukwu had led the failed session of southeastern Nigeria as Republic of Biafra which resulted in three years of civil war. When the war ended in 1970, over one million had been killed.
[ENDS]
I am deeply suspicious of IRIN now because I just never saw the same focus toward reporting the election rigging.
A lot of these AFRICA NEWS SOURCES and networks etc. have now proven themselves to be agents of whitewash penetrated by neocolonial apologists who it now appears know how to use them to manipulate internal power in their different African "countries"
If this is how reputable organizations like IRIN (from the story in the previous posting above) have now let their organizations be tricked, penetrated and manipulated by tribal jingoists who will post articles from that vaunted position in aid of tricksters like Anenih (as Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso must have done at the behest of Aremu), then I fear for what the meaning of democracy and freedom will become when "Nigerians" are finished with it.
Don't even start about life and marriage, which Yoruba leader has kept a decent family ? Was it Abiola who impregnated his house girls and slept with peoples wives or is it baby father Aremu who has fathered kids for known women of easy virtue. When Ige got smoked I told forumites to watch as the illegitimates will begin to crawl out of the wood works, sure enough uncle Bola did not spare his lifetime partner Atinuke the humiliation of extra marital affairs.Let's not even talk about the crying general who despite having numerous wives was caught with a prostitue when he should have been carrying out his coup.
Ikemba married his wife fair and square, we know it means nothing to you coming from a "baby father" culture but in Igbo culture that means a lot so there can be no shame there. Bianca is a wife deserving of a king, long live EzeIgbo gburugburu.
Posts: 1534 | From: USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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quote:Ikemba married his wife fair and square, we know it means nothing to you coming from a "baby father" culture but in Igbo culture that means a lot so there can be no shame there. Bianca is a wife deserving of a king, long live EzeIgbo gburugburu
I will be the last man to support the Yoruba race on this score. However, when you decided to dedicate a whole BNW messageboard to finding and exposing other tribes' faults, you are holding your own race to a higher standard and damn it, you should be ready for the scrutiny too just as you scrutinize the Yorubas.
quote: which Yoruba leader has kept a decent family ?
Are you not forgetting the indefatigable Obafemi Awolowo?
___________________ This war of attrition on the Igbo must end now! Posts: 441 | From: california, US | Registered: Jan 2003
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Quote: -------------------------------------------------- "Only in the culture of the "annointed ones" will a supposed general sneak out on his brainwashed lieutenants to a life of seeming comfort, leaving the homeland in flames; at least the areonakakanfo came back in the thick of things to shore up the confidence of his followers. ..just one silver bullet from Gowon's goons would have spared the world of this debased specie of homo sapien."---Addy. --------------------------------------------------
Who was it that made the "supposed general" to be followed and loved by his people TILL DATE to the envy of you actually BRAINWASHED Nigerians? Have you in your pettiness forgoten that your "indomitable" double-speak Awolowo was the one who said "if the east go, the west will follow"? But when the East went as agreed and SIGNED in Aburi the architect of tribal politics in Nigeria (Awolowo) sneaked back to join the Nigerians and later positioned the Yoruba who later collected everything the Igbos worked for, and to add salt unto injury, he was the same person who suggested and implimented the "food-as-weapon- of war" theory. Boy, if you should be honest, you can see that it was the Nigerians, most especially the Yorubas through the ethnic-motivated actions of Awolowo that made Ojukwu the cult-figure that he is today - even amongst the most educated Igbos.
Besides, looking back now, and judging from what Nigeria of today offers you and your generation to come, would any sane person ever question the "brainwashed lieutenants" for even comitting suicide to stop the GENOCIDAL Nigerian from exterminating the Igbos? So far the failure of the Nigerian system to live up to what is expected of normal society justifies Ojukwu/Igbos's action of 1966. The fact that those of you who retained and stole from the Igbos after the civil war are suffering like (in some cases more than) the Igbos shows that Ojukwu was and is still RIGHT and Gowon and you Nigerians fought waht can best be described as LOSERS' WAR.
BTW, how many people listens when Gowon (the guy was not even able to win a Senatorial seat from his Langtang people) speaks? Away from his grass-root popularity in Igboland, ask any Nigerian jounalist and they will tell you that if you want to sell your paper, just have a chat with the EZEIGBOGBURUGBU and your paper will sell like hot cake. Now you know why Obasanjo had to assembly his Security Chiefs because of one man? Nigerians must get this; OJUKWU WAS, IS, AND EVEN AFTER DEATH WILL CONTINUE TO BE THE MAN NIGERIANS DID NOT AND CANNOT BEAT; JUST AS HE WILL REMAIN A HERO TO US IGBOS. So chew your envy!
--------------------------------------------------"At least we are on the same page in my assessment of your demi-god.Whatever made the East decide to choose Obasanjo over and above Yale-educated, suave, and urbane Olu Falae in 1999,...---Addy --------------------------------------------------
Just like others before you, here you expose your hypocrisy again. You want the Igbos to reject Ojukwu, an Oxford-trained scholar and embrace semi-illiterates like Obasanjo. There's no harm in learning from ones mistake. There's no dount that Igbos made a grave mistake to have voted for Obasanjo in 1999, but the fact is that what occassioned that was because Nigerians were given the option of choosing between two devils - Olu falae whose pro-Yoruba agenda/inclination was well know - and an Obasanjo whom we now know was only lip-servicing when before he assumed power in 1999 talked of "one Nigeria" and made most Nigerians believed that he will be fair to ALL Nigerians. Now we know him better, hence our rejection.
Be it in the know that we Igbos are not quarelling with the Yorubas (or other Nigerians) for voting for whom they want. Rather what we are angry about (as every people should) is a CLEAR conspiracy by the Yorubas and other Nigerians to dictate who rules over the Igbos and Igboland. If Obasanjo is good for you Yorubas in 2003, fine and good. But no one should tell us that we Igbos must either reject Ojukwu (and the APGA party) and embrace the obviously TRIBALISED and ANTI-IGBO Obasanjo. That's our case and it's a universal case.
Addy, could you give us any other explanation for the Yoruba silence if not because the accused is no more a Northerner (Abacha & co) but a fellow Yoruba (Obasanjo)?
Posts: 997 | From: Germany | Registered: Mar 2001
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NwaAro, You have proven time and time again that my respect for you is not misplaced. Thanks for your usually engaging pieces.
quote:Have you in your pettiness forgoten that your "indomitable" double-speak Awolowo was the one who said "if the east go, the west will follow"?
It beats my imagination, like it should beat anyone's imagination, that a supposedly republican and liberated people will on the words of a politician, who at the time was barely on ground in his locality, go to an ill-prepared war that would turn out to cost over 1m lives. Wait a minute, and 36 years after, hold on to this faulty mantra as self-evident. I just do not get it. Obafemi Awolowo of 1966 was facing so much persecution from the powers-that-be, i.e NPC/NCNC, he had just lost his son to a freak accident and was fighting for his political life both in the West (Ladoke Akintola) and nationally (Balewa/Azikiwe) so much so that it would be impossible for him to rally even his immediate family in Ikenne to war. Now, an Oxford-trained Igbo blue-blood reportedly tied the fate of over 20m Yorubas to an innuocuos statement credited to him and headed to war with his people? Whao! Some 30 odd years after the war, the Igbos remain in the federation, things have not changed and more importantly, the Yorubas continue to receive oppobrium for any ailment that ails the Igbo. Maybe it's me, but i find ABSOLUTELY NOTHING of which any body should envy the Igbos, and I say this not to denigrate them but just as i passionately feel. I have a gut feeling that many Nigerians feel the same way.
quote:So far the failure of the Nigerian system to live up to what is expected of normal society justifies Ojukwu/Igbos's action of 1966. The fact that those of you who retained and stole from the Igbos after the civil war are suffering like (in some cases more than) the Igbos shows that Ojukwu was and is still RIGHT and Gowon and you Nigerians fought waht can best be described as LOSERS' WAR.
If the foundation of a house is compromised, the structure will definitely show signs of crack. I still shudder to think of what would have been, if Zik the beautiful bride had not sold his conscience, if Aguiyi Ironsi had gotten it right, or if Ojukwu had not excercised youthful exhuberance and had listened to the private advise of People like Awolowo- yes the same Awolowo, Nigeria may not be a failed state which it is today. There are not enough blame to go round y'know. Pray tell me, if the East was trying to secede, what was Ojukwu trying to accomplish by trying to overrun Lagos? hmmm.
quote:Away from his grass-root popularity in Igboland, ask any Nigerian jounalist and they will tell you that if you want to sell your paper, just have a chat with the EZEIGBOGBURUGBU and your paper will sell like hot cake
Like i said in a previous thred, majority of Nigerians view Ojukwu as an irritant whose face they will gladly be rid of. When he rides out his nuisance value, his latter day friends from Daura will gladly put him where he belong.
quote:Just like others before you, here you expose your hypocrisy again. You want the Igbos to reject Ojukwu, an Oxford-trained scholar and embrace semi-illiterates like Obasanjo. There's no harm in learning from ones mistake
I gladly accept the honor of being viewed in the light of "others before me". I am not bothered by your assessment of Obasanjo, as i have repeatedly tried to say. Yorubas know their heroes and leaders and I make bold to say that Obasanjo is nobody's hero, he is just a political neccessity in 2003.
quote:Be it in the know that we Igbos are not quarelling with the Yorubas (or other Nigerians) for voting for whom they want. Rather what we are angry about (as every people should) is a CLEAR conspiracy by the Yorubas and other Nigerians to dictate who rules over the Igbos and Igboland. If Obasanjo is good for you Yorubas in 2003, fine and good. But no one should tell us that we Igbos must either reject Ojukwu (and the APGA party) and embrace the obviously TRIBALISED and ANTI-IGBO Obasanjo. That's our case and it's a universal case
The Yorubas again. Where is the Yoruba conspiracy here?. The top echelon of PDP is sorely lacking in Yoruba representation, INEC is headed by a Bini man, Anenih is a south-south baron, etc, etc. Can someone explain the obvious Paranoia about Yoruba conspiracy please!!!!.
quote:Addy, could you give us any other explanation for the Yoruba silence if not because the accused is no more a Northerner (Abacha & co) but a fellow Yoruba (Obasanjo)?
Most news outlets operating out of Lagos are owned by non-Yorubas, why have they not spoken out? Why must the Yorubas always speak out? How many spoke out in 1979 when the Yorubas alleged that Awolowo was rigged out of the presidency, by no less a person than Obasanjo?. Just because he was serving your interest at the time, you heard nothing, saw nothing, and did nothing (pardon my spin).
___________________ This war of attrition on the Igbo must end now! Posts: 441 | From: california, US | Registered: Jan 2003
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Tell them my brother! All these people want to blame Yoruba for all their problems. Tell them O jare! Hahaha!
Posts: 213 | Registered: May 2001
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Obasanjo should be ashamed of himself when you have 88% of Nigerians saying that the elections were rigged and the results should not stand, and still 88% says that Obasanjo and his party are responsible for the rigging.
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quote:Originally posted by addy: Pray tell me, if the East was trying to secede, what was Ojukwu trying to accomplish by trying to overrun Lagos? hmmm.
That the Nigerian government who could not protect its Igbo so-called citizens but decided because of oil that seccession was not acceptable is not in question here. Having made that decision and attacked Biafra to complete their genocidal intent, is it such a bad war strategy that Ojukwu decided to take the war to their capital city; Lagos? please tell me. Is it such a bad war strategy that Ojukwu should overrun the Midwest from which Nigeria was conducting sneak attacks and opening up fronts? Those who would have you believe that they were "neutral" know that at best they are being disingenuous and in your heart of hearts when you remove all the murk am sure you do too.
quote:Originally posted by addy: How many spoke out in 1979 when the Yorubas alleged that Awolowo was rigged out of the presidency, by no less a person than Obasanjo?. Just because he was serving your interest at the time, you heard nothing, saw nothing, and did nothing (pardon my spin).
Addy, tell me which Igbo was in the corridors of military power where real power belonged that could speak out. Tell me how many Youruba spoke out. Tell me what kind of clout Igbos enjoyed in 1979 just barely 9 years after a civil war? Tell me. Tell me which type of human being being done a favor by an occupying military would rise up to request that someone who had requested their anihilation and disenfranchisement be conferred president? is your mind so clouded?
quote:Originally posted by addy: Maybe it's me, but i find ABSOLUTELY NOTHING of which any body should envy the Igbos, and I say this not to denigrate them but just as i passionately feel. I have a gut feeling that many Nigerians feel the same way.
Yes Addy, but then why do they? Why not stop the charade of "One Nigeria" and let these hated people be on their own. This is what our issues are.
quote:Originally posted by addy: Like i said in a previous thred, majority of Nigerians view Ojukwu as an irritant whose face they will gladly be rid of. When he rides out his nuisance value, his latter day friends from Daura will gladly put him where he belong.
How do they view Aremu now that he has unveiled and foisted his nuisance value on the rest of the nation? How do his one time best friends from Daura view him? For Igbos, his irritant value is without question and they would largely ignore him if he was privately foaming at the mouth and spewing his anti Igbo venom from Otta instaed of rigging elections in Igboland to continue doing so from Abuja.
Then comes this gem:
quote:Originally posted by addy: Yorubas know their heroes and leaders and I make bold to say that Obasanjo is nobody's hero, he is just a political neccessity in 2003.
By the keyboard stroke of this one last statement, you totally nullified the validity to all previous statements about non complicity of Yoruba. Why? because what people are complaining of on this board is not about Yoruba looking out for their own interests, but about Yoruba ignoring even their own long term interest as long as they percieve a short term benefit. In the statement above you have validated the abuses of Abacha, Aremu, IBB, and others like them past present or future and hopefully, you will stand by it when the tide turns again and same precedent by you is held up to you as a reason by people you would expect to be rational and sincere.
Addy, this is what its all about at BNW. None of that stuff about burying the past for the sake of harmony. Imagine if me and you were getting along harmoniously and you were harboring these type of beliefs of Igbos and I was harboring my own feelings about Yoruba, stabbing away at each others backs while wearing the most amicable smiles on our teeth?
If we cannot do this kind of venting and dialogue as you enjoy here at BNW I shudder to think what the alternative might be?
Through his massive vote rigging, Aremu has just told us all to let bygones be bygones and suppress our venting at the suppression of our voices and get along, preaching at us from the pulpit what he has never held himself to all his life.
Ko buru. Let us continue to be one by force.
___________________ YA CAIN'T KEEP A GOOD MAN DOWN :) Posts: 1184 | From: TEXAS | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
It is no secret that nothing would have made the genocidal Yoruba and their bloodthirsty co-murderers happier than to know that General Ojukwu was murdered during first Nigeria-Biafra. The extent to which that bloody desire permeated Yoruba consciousness is evident from the words of Addy who wrote,
quote: just one silver bullet from Gowon's goons would have spared the world of this debased specie of homo sapien.
What Addy failed to clarify was that “Gowon’s goons” were Yoruba. Thank God, Biafrans correctly understood that an important objective of the Nigerian Genocidaire was the murder of general Ojukwu. That was why no stones were left unturned to preserve his life. Today, General Ojukwu’s words send shivers down the spine of that Yoruba moron in Aso Rock and the rest of his tribesmen. For that reason alone, the Biafrans made the right decision in sending the General out when they did.
Addy also wrote,
quote:Pray tell me, if the East was trying to secede, what was Ojukwu trying to accomplish by trying to overrun Lagos? hmmm
People like Addy seem to have forgotten that more Igbo officers, including the head of state of Nigeria were murdered in Yorubaland that in any other part of Nigeria. Igbo civilians were murdered on their way back to Biafra from Yoruba territory.
If the Yoruba themselves were not taking part in the slaughter of those Igbo officers and civilians, the Yoruba were happily providing bases in Lagos, Ibadan, and other places from which the Hausa-Fulani, Tiv, Lantan/Jukun murderers were operating. It is criminal for anyone to suggest that Biafrans had no right to attack and attempt to cease Lagos or any other place that harbored the various genocidal terrorist brigades that operated in Yorubaland in the 1960s. The only mistake was that Ojukwu himself at that time thought that there was a Yoruba man that could be trusted, and he put the traitor, Banjo, in charge.
Addy tells us that Obasanjo is not a Yoruba hero. That is Addy’s way of confessing that the Yoruba have failed to implement the agenda that their “hero” articulated. Today, the Yoruba are content to pore over the shortcomings of Obasanjo as a Yoruba “hero” and as a Yorubaman to attempt to cover up the reality that Obasanjo is indeed the very personification of what the Yoruba have become, a vassalage of the North, one that relies on stolen resources for its survival. Thus, Afenifere and Obasanjo would collude to commit electoral fraud, but the poor moron would be blamed for it all since he is not a Yoruba “hero.”
It is no secret that Awo went to his grave hoping for the day that Hausa-Fulani soldiers would leave Yorubaland. In Ojukwu, the envious Yoruba see the resistance to domination that they and their leaders could neither initiate nor sustain. Wishing that some “silver bullet” would end Ojukwu’s life is all that is left for them. By all means, the Yoruba are welcome to brood over what might have been. But, I am willing to bet that not even the Yoruba moron in Aso Rock is dumb enough to harm Ojukwu.
[ May 23, 2003, 12:19 AM: Message edited by: Patrick ]
Posts: 397 | Registered: May 2001
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quote:Maybe it's me, but i find ABSOLUTELY NOTHING of which any body should envy the Igbos, and I say this not to denigrate them but just as i passionately feel. I have a gut feeling that many Nigerians feel the same way. - Addy
I share your line of thought. People should not waste their time envying others –how they run or don’t run their lives. Every nation, including the Igbo nation, should decide for herself what priorities to pursue. I have not heard that Igbos ever had to rely on Yoruba doctors, engineers, traders or teachers to run their affairs. Many before Addy have repeated how they do not envy Igbos and have gone on to make complaints or jokes that Igbos have too many traders or that not enough male Igbos are going to school.. Usually, I ask myself why a yorubaman is getting worked up about welfare of Igbos. I thought such crocodile tears are limited to those who live in Nigeria. How wrong! I was starting a new job and met this Lagos physician who was already working there. He started by telling me how he studied/worked in Lagos and how his Igbo colleagues were not just studying but also interested in business. Not even the presence of other colleagues from other countries stopped him telling me how he expected me to fit the profile he was painting. That I was better qualified, better paid and higher in the pecking order despite just starting did not shut him up. That I did not share the misery of studying medicine in a lowly Lagos University did not stop him repeating his nonsense about what he expected me to be. Not even the fact that I knew pretty shortly that he was a problem doctor stopped him ranting about Igbos as natural born traders. And even if so, why a man struggling to be a doctor should despise another who is better at being a doctor and far better at being a trader as well. The Yorubas should not run their lives so as to keep Igbos happy. Nor should the Igbos.
Posts: 624 | Registered: Mar 2001
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quote:But, I am willing to bet that not even the Yoruba moron in Aso Rock is dumb enough to harm Ojukwu.
moron: A stupid person; a dolt. psychology . A person of mild mental retardation having a mental age of from 7 to 12 years. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive. Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Obasanjo the moron has many written texts to his name than most college professors; including Nzeogwu , in which at great personal and political risks in some parts of Nigeria, he eulogized his very good friend, Chukwuma Nzeogwu.
quote:I thought such crocodile tears are limited to those who live in Nigeria. How wrong! I was starting a new job and met this Lagos physician who was already working there. He started......CSE
The Lagos Physician was not exhibiting his Yorubanness, but was obviously trying to make up for his personal inadequacies and professional shortcomings. People like them abound in all tribes. To now place his behavior in the context of his place of birth is not only insulting to an entire race, it is also racist.
___________________ This war of attrition on the Igbo must end now! Posts: 441 | From: california, US | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:Why not stop the charade of "One Nigeria" and let these hated people be on their own. This is what our issues are.
The above is a reason i am so passionate about Igbo/yoruba relationship. The only thing left for the Yoruba to do to show love towards the Igbos is maybe invite the Igbo in to his bedroom to know his wife.The reason they call Lagos a no-mans-land is the sheer population mix of all tribes. Many parastatals(both private and public concerns) in YorubaLand are headed by competent Nigerians of Igbo Extraction ably assisted by their Yoruba counterparts, with no qualms. Many Yorubas give their children freely to their Igbo brothers and sisters in marriage with no reservations, and many Yorubas are willing to give up their comfort and even life, for the sake of their Igbo brothers and sisters, yet all we hear and read is how the Yoruba hate the Igbo. Even before the war, the Igbos have only paid lipservice to co-operation with Yorubas. Zik operated his chain of newspapers from Lagos, raised his family among Yorubas, and even gave his children Yoruba names. Yet when it came time for political rapproachment, he would rather the handshake across the Niger, not even as a co-partner, but in a relationship that made no guarantees. Not a few Yoruba continue to be befuddled by the logic of the man they prefer to call the 'great Zik' or 'asiki-iwe' (meaning; repository of knowledge). In doing the above, Zik literally told the Yorubas to go to hell, and God knows, to hell and back they went because this was what set the tone for the long years in political wilderness for the Yorubas. The Yorubas daily experience the same injustices that the Igbos are exposed to in Nigeria. I should know. Yet when it comes time to shake off the yoke by coming together, the passions of the Biafran war rises to the surface, and the name calling begins. I guess it is the reason the Yorubas seem to have given up, and it's now become..To thy tents oh Israel. Yorubas will be the first to tell you that political power is transitory, the moment Obasanjo steps down from the presidency, he becomes naked, and whichever tribe/people decide to tie its well-being to such power is naive..certainly not the Yorubas.The Presidency of the country does not in any way guarantee redress for any tribe,as the yorubas know. The Biafran war needs to be studied so we can learn from the mistakes of the actors who were human and acted according to the dictates of their time. With these lessons we can free ourselves from recrimination and salvage the country from its under-achieving status.
___________________ This war of attrition on the Igbo must end now! Posts: 441 | From: california, US | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:The Lagos Physician was not exhibiting his Yorubanness, but was obviously trying to make up for his personal inadequacies and professional shortcomings. People like them abound in all tribes. To now place his behavior in the context of his place of birth is not only insulting to an entire race, it is also racist. -Addy
No, my experience is more common than you have suggested. Nigerians I have debated on the internet repeat the same statements as my good friend –the Lagos physician. Let me use write-ups by two well known internet personalities to illustrate my point; Bolaji Aluko, a Yoruba nationalist ( never mind that his father famously described him as foolish) and Clement Ikpatt, (formerly a diehard one Nigerian, now a leading advocate of a religious republic of the Niger Delta).
quote:Anyway, not that I mind women going to school, but Anambra men should not just be reduced to saying, for example, "I be Ogbete-to-Alaba-Market treader (ie trader), but my wife get PhD for Mericine!" I shall be back!
quote: Yorubas will be the first to tell you that political power is transitory, the moment Obasanjo steps down from the presidency, he becomes naked, and whichever tribe/people decide to tie its well-being to such power is naive..certainly not the Yorubas.The Presidency of the country does not in any way guarantee redress for any tribe,as the yorubas know. -Addy
I respect and share your views about the transitory nature of political power. However, I doubt that you speak for the Yorubas or for that matter the Yoruba political leadership. Does the realisation that political power is transitory explain the sudden abandonment of the SNC? Does it explain the reluctance to challenge the most rigged election in the history of Nigeria?
Posts: 624 | Registered: Mar 2001
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quote:Maybe it's me, but i find ABSOLUTELY NOTHING of which any body should envy the Igbos, and I say this not to denigrate them but just as i passionately feel. I have a gut feeling that many Nigerians feel the same way….addy
To my understanding, CSE was replying to your above stated comment, when he plainly expressed his experience. How else do you expect one to explain an apparent phenomenon?
CSE wrote,
quote:I thought such crocodile tears are limited to those who live in Nigeria. How wrong! I was starting a new job and met this Lagos physician who was already working there. He started......CSE
and went further to make a justifiable statement at the end of his post
quote:The Yorubas should not run their lives so as to keep Igbos happy. Nor should the Igbos…CSE
This did not stop Addy referring to the above statement as racist
quote: The Lagos Physician was not exhibiting his Yorubanness, but was obviously trying to make up for his personal inadequacies and professional shortcomings. People like them abound in all tribes. To now place his behavior in the contex
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
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