Why even continiue to address this brain dead (addy) respectfully? I washed my hands off this typical and topical yoroba when he failed to simply answer direct questions. His only joy is the inflamatory jargon he drops now and then.
quote:Is this just habit?
No! It’s omenala for them the conflicted and confused embarrassment of Nigeria as asserted by the British who saw their treachery earlier thus;
"...but have you ever heard that YORUBA was “anglicized” from the phrase “YOU ROBBER”. I didn’t make it up but go and read the history of the British first encounter with the “YOU ROBBERS of Nigeria”, though your people have done a great job in suppressing this important part of our national history and your ethnic history."
quote:Response : I do not posess a copy of that constitutoion, however this should be left for the SANs of the land to interptret. – addy
quote:I made this known in my write-up that did not make sense to you. Buhari and IBB do not have the albatross of "rebellious insurrection" hanging on their necks – addy
This yoroba boy would want us to believe that the violent takeovers of the government by these awusa lords of his are unimportant for them to be checkmated. IBB and Buhari are more a danger to that monkey nation as posited by Wole Soyinka than anything Honorable Ojukwu ever did or would do.
___________________ 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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What a coward you're that will whin on a mere mention of your ugly wife but will instist on discusing another man's wife, when i say that you're very stupid, some people seems not to understand me, look, i now find your stupidity exceeding that of aremu obasanjo. Nobody owes you any explanation on the beauty queen and her marriage. FOOL, you most recorgise that, numero uno: her breed is not found among your race, numero dos: none of your household is fit to count among her servants, only in your dreams. atulu-offia!
___________________ 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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___________________ 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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posted
MeBiafra and Okwyonwuka, After you heve expressed your angst the way you know best, shall we now return to the issues? MeBiafran, that you are cerebrally challenged is not in any doubt , what should continue to baffle all right thinking humans is the base level to which you will degrade in the exhibition of your tomfoolery. The flawed feeling of self-importance has left you totally incapable of coming to grips with your dire shortcomings, which are evident for all to see. If we take away all the abuse on your Yoruba nemesis, doubts exist that anything important will filter out of your gray mater, that is if it is intact at all; what with all the abuse you were subjected to by your masters at ogbete market. I have nothing but pity for you. Mr. Old man no common sense!
Okokomaiko, you are a lost cause without the slightest hope of redemption. While it is true that you can remove a man from the bush, it is quite difficult to wean him of bush mannerisms. You are so devoid of decorum and common sense that your buffoonery stinks to high heavens. Thank goodness, you dont live in the Western World. I send my condolences to whomever has the unenviable lot of sharing space with you; poor woman. Heaven bless her soul. I doubt if your pedigree is not traceable to the Okija lords.
___________________ This war of attrition on the Igbo must end now! Posts: 441 | From: california, US | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:I however do! Here it it and please try to read it sometimes before you inadvertently drive yourself to shoplift, your worldwide tradition and trademark. If suddenly it should be left for the SANs to interpret why did you ooze your motor park opinion, Monkey?
....MeBiafran.
Again, in the quest to feel important, our house nitwit has dumped the Constitution of the Federal Republic on me. I don't have any use for this document now so you may jolly well keep it. People like you who are ready to die for Biafra will be expected to carry its constitution around, not the Nigerian constituition. The monkey's motor park opinion is way better than any that you have managed to put together in your over 500 amateurish and idea-deficient write-ups, Idiot!
quote: This yoroba boy would want us to believe that the violent takeovers of the government by these awusa lords of his are unimportant for them to be checkmated
....MeBiafran
We all know to whom the Hausas are lords. As far back as 1957, Chief Awolowo made it clear to the Hausas that for the Yorubas to play vassal we had better do our things separately. That is the maxim that guides the proud Yoruba tribe. While at it, the best brain to come out of your tribe, Nnamdi Azikiwe, in a common moment of infantile docility, after being feted and toasted by the house of Othman dan Fodio exclaimed that the Ibos are the beautiful bride of Nigerian politics. You guys have successfully played the second fiddle so much so that any claim to the presidency of the nation is automatically believed to be a jostle for the crumbs from your master's table, beautiful bride indeed. Come 2007, the cycle will be repeated and your likes will remain here, mouthing excuses and pointing fingers at your "Yoruba boys"
This is pathethic, I actually attributed much more articulation to your reasoning than this. I asked three very simple questions and you failed misreably to address all three. I knew you had no points when you intially set off trying to impress with fine proses and meaningless sentences. You have one more chance to redeem your self before your posts become completely irrelevant in this thread.
- Rumsfeld is holding the middle easterners who happen to be non American citizens based on the home land security act promulgated by congress, therefore Rumsfeld is acting within the confines of the law. You have used a very poor example here and you still are inferring that people can be harrased for merely expressing an opinion deemed not to be favourable to the government. Now my question again, what laws of BiafraNigeria has Dim Ojukwu a citizen broken by expressing his opinion ? To make it simplier for you, would it not be easier to lay charges against him if the government felt his utterances were seditious or capable of raising insurrection ?
- The constituition of BiafraNigeria has been made available to you by MeBiafran. Can you refer us to the section that enables the SSS director or even the IG of police to invite citizens for discussion without due process ? I am not certified with waiting for the SAN's since you already proferred an opinion on this matter.
- Does the law differentiate between those with the "albatross of insurrection" hanging on their necks and those who do not when it comes to obeying court orders ? Mind you Ikemba has not disobeyed a court order like Buahari and Babangida, but how is BiafraNigeria different from a banana republic if it applies the rule of selective obedience to court orders ?
[ September 25, 2004, 01:33 AM: Message edited by: chiboy ]
Posts: 1532 | From: USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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Do you think Addy has any answer?, and that if he did he would proffer it willingly if he felt it would enlighten him and expose faulty rationale on his part?
MeBiafran, Addy’s singular purpose on this board as on several others is one and only one: Propaganda against Igbos and Biafrans and a persistent effort to use contorted reasoning to win as many converts as possible.
Just as adamantly, Addy’s motive was easily detected upon his slithery advent on board, and roundly rejected in all its ramifications since, and despite overtures (no matter how cunningly disguised and how tenaciously packaged and resubmitted), that rejection has remained final.
His subsequent fallback role therefore has been to distract and censor discussions deliberately by obfuscation of the critical issues, through scurrillous expressions of contempt against Igbos wrapped in pretentious civility and labored prose, and characterized by the following generalizations:
Yorubas are currently in power, everything they do is right, and everything Igbos claim is wrong!
Current Yoruba Federal presence is a demonstration of Yoruba intellectual supremacy over Igbo.
Yoruba triumphalism, through the vicarious celebration of Obasanjo’s temporal encounter of power is evidence of collective Yoruba wisdom and cultural correctness over Igbos.
Illegalities commited against Igbos by Obasanjo’s “democratic” govt are absolutely justifiable to show Igbos to respect Yoruba power.
Illegalities commited against Igbos by Obasanjo’s “democratic” govt are absolutely justifiable since Igbos are rebels who dont know their place.
You Igbos on this board engage in Yoruba bashing, unlike Yorubas on Yoruba dominated boards.
Igbos espousing Biafra and including this entire BNW board should be rounded up and shot for treason.
A careful review of every evasive obfuscation to which Addy resorts when he has been trounced through sound but painfully bitter reason by board members here at BNW will reveal traces of the reppetition of any vituperative combination of the above, bitterly dispensed to inflict maximum scorn, but helplessly demonstrative of overwhelming evidence and confession of abject failure on his part.
I even challenge Addy to peruse his postings and accept the fact that having heard all the above contemptuous angst on this board and on others by people like himself, we are unimpressed by the overarching goal to distract, in fact, if anything, Addy’s presence on this thread should serve as a compliment that we are doing something right and striking some nerves somewhere. Having reviewed his modus operandi, and what his current posturing admits to us, We should therefore recognize Addy’s intent whenever he joins a thread, and co-opt hiss energies to advantage to continue to achieve our own objectives.
The following headline and excerpt is what was gleaned from Fridays edition:
quote:Court Restrains FG from Arresting Ojukwu From Emmanuel Ugwu in Enugu This Day September 24, 2004
While commiting despotic acts, the above is the image intended for the world, Our obligation is now to challenge and bring light to the true image of this vindictive buffoon of a character Obasanjo, and there is a history in many archives of the occurrences that have occurred in this regime which substantiate and justify the collection of criminal brutality and injustice by him especially against Igbos.
___________________ YA CAIN'T KEEP A GOOD MAN DOWN :) Posts: 1182 | From: TEXAS | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
Chiboy, I have said all that i needed to say to you or whoever on that issue. I really do not have the need for your certification.
Ukaobasi wrote:
quote:Addy’s singular purpose on this board as on several others is one and only one: Propaganda against Igbos and Biafrans and a persistent effort to use contorted reasoning to win as many converts as possible.
Of course, your reasoning here is critically flawed. First, i am not a member of any other messageboard with a Nigerian thrust, and i do not have as my motive for joining this place, Propaganda against the Igbos. Like every right thinking Nigerian who went through a Nigerian college as an Aluta Continua advocate, my curiousity was to take a dip in here and explore ways to help achieve unity in diversity. What keep my juices flowing is the robust discussions about finding ways to keep Nigeria running on the planks of equitable considerations. That much i espoused in my earlier writings. You guys apparently blew the chance to show the world your good intentions and much taunted Republicanism by allowing your negative feelings against all non-Igbo entities to permeate your thoughts. Not even the best brains here are spared.
My supposed intention to malign and disparage the Igbos will be better attained by co-opting other Yoruba writers on this board for that singular purpose, however this I have avoided at all cost and instead I have embarked on a one-man crusade to try to let Biafrans see reason that in as much as every thing Biafran may be good, not all thing Yoruba or Hausa is evil.
quote:Yorubas are currently in power, everything they do is right, and everything Igbos claim is wrong!
As far as i am concerned, Yorubas are not currently in power and not everything Igbos do is wrong. I really do not see things from that perspsctive. Abuse Obasanjo and the members of the power elite till kingdom come, Of course i spent years in college doing exactly the same thing, but show uncharacteristic charity by avoiding UNFAIR generalizations. Do not make this a war between Igbos and the Yorubas because in doing this, Southen Nigeria is being perpetually held down.
quote: Current Yoruba Federal presence is a demonstration of Yoruba intellectual supremacy over Igbo.
Current Yoruba federal presence is not proof of intellectual supremacy over Igbo. If anything, what we are forced to read here over and over again is the abject lack of ingenuity in the Yoruba psyche. There is absolutely nothing i have written against the Igbos that Amadi O has not written about the Yorubas. Matter of fact, mine has been a reactive attack which lends credence to my intentions.
quote:Yoruba triumphalism, through the vicarious celebration of Obasanjo’s temporal encounter of power is evidence of collective Yoruba wisdom and cultural correctness over Igbos.
Please refer me to any hint of Yoruba triumphalism vis-a-vis Obasanjo's ascendancy to power in any of my write-ups. It is non-existent because i do not share that myopic view to life. I am damned too educated to feel triumphant because Obasanjo is in power. Matter of fact,I see his sojourn in power as a blunder of historical proportions. Yoruba wisdom, Yes!. In every vice, there is a virtue. While you guys prefer to see Yoruba cunning as a vice, i prefer to call it Native Wisdom, from which Igbos can benefit.
quote:Illegalities commited against Igbos by Obasanjo’s “democratic” govt are absolutely justifiable to show Igbos to respect Yoruba power
Now you are stretching it too far. See how you deliberately use "Obasanjo's govt" and not the Yoruba nation. Your intention is clear though. Illegalities committed by anybody against anybody is viewed passionately by me as an abberation. In as much as I believe that all Nigerians deserve a better lot in life, not any less the Igbos, i maintain that achieving your objectives should not be at the expense of others. That is exactly what you seem to be striving to achieve here.
quote:Illegalities commited against Igbos by Obasanjo’s “democratic” govt are absolutely justifiable since Igbos are rebels who dont know their place.
Kid me not!. Illegalities committed against Igbos by Obasanjo's govt are absolutely unjustifiable. Igbos are not rebels who dont know their place. I will not waste my time here if i thought so as i will be content to stay by the sidelines and smile to satisfaction knowing fully well that "they are being put in their place". I absolutely have no place in my mind for such wicked thoughts. Can anybody please understand me here?.
quote:You Igbos on this board engage in Yoruba bashing, unlike Yorubas on Yoruba dominated boards
I belong to no other msgboard, not even the much talked-about Egbe omo Oduduwa republic, i am therefore not in any position to compare notes. But yes, you Igbos on this board have elevated Yoruba bashing to a fine art, and nobody seeem to be a total exception. When i start reading you gently admonish MeBiafran for defiling the OOni of Ife or Amadi O for his wild claims of Igbo superiority as against Yoruba inferiority, more Yorubas will join in your quest for the actualisation of Biafra, even with our very limited dictionary. Ojukwu may then very well become my hero, you know.
quote:Igbos espousing Biafra and including this entire BNW board should be rounded up and shot for treason
Better put; Any man who detests injustice and works to put an end to such, should be summarily executed. Biafra of the common man in Nnewi is no abberation, but Biafra as espoused by Igbo writers on BNW is to me, an euphemism for "superior people". What sense will it make to substitute one dictatorship for another?.
quote:A careful review of every evasive obfuscation to which Addy resorts when he has been trounced through sound but painfully bitter reason by board members here at BNW will reveal traces of the reppetition of any vituperative combination of the above, bitterly dispensed to inflict maximum scorn, but helplessly demonstrative of overwhelming evidence and confession of abject failure on his part.
I have absolutely no problem with being trounced with superior argument. But apart from a handful of people here, no one has convincingly put a lie to my theses. What most people do here is resort to abuse, sneaky questions,(Who are the Yorubas, answered..blah, blah, blah...) and other ways to obfuscate discussion, in an attempt to be seen to be contributing to issues; those voices have assumed a stridency of such decibel that schorlarship and deliberateness are daily being sacrificed on the alter of incompetent reasoning.
___________________ This war of attrition on the Igbo must end now! Posts: 441 | From: california, US | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
A popular precedent in Nigerian court and a source of legal power to the common man------> Ojukwu speech does not constitute treason and therefore is within the confines of his inalienable right, the right to speak his mind and the right to provoke the government, person or group. That is why you people live in the western society because you value freedom.
The actual achievement of a democratic society is that it gives a tolerably good time to the common man and the underdog to speak their mind. Or, at least it tries; and it is, I think, for this reason that Ojukwu, other reasonable people and the common man, minus ADDY sees it as a creed to resist arrest. A true leader is the one that encourages his people to speak their mind. But I doubt the possibility, since we have High school graduates as SSS, sharia and Obasanjo in our midst.
Hail Biafra
[ September 25, 2004, 03:41 PM: Message edited by: Waypoint1Biafra ]
Posts: 1672 | From: Minnesota USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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Was that nonsense you posted up there meant to be a defence from my cursory analysis of your motives on this board?, if so you’re wasting your time, since you merely re-confirm those very characteristics enumerated. This thread is still about Ojukwu’s harrassment at the hands of the SSS/death squad agents of Obasanjo as an illegality which all Igbos should rally to condemn, but I think you imagine we are here to seek Addy’s input on inter ethnic harmony. WE’RENOT!!!
For jumping onto this thread mouthing distasteful and reprehensibly vulgar commentary regarding another man’s wife, you make a nuisance of your manhood and project your cultural and overall upbringing in disgraceful light!
I hope you can at least spare yourself undue further embarrassment by keeping the feeble whimpering and whining about: “Igbos dont like Yorubas even though we Yorubas are trying to help them” wah! wah!wah! drivel to a minimum, out of a modicum of shame and self-respect.
Now lets get back to the subject at hand: The following are current headlines of the unfolding events which continue to highlight the outrageousness of the intent of the “Nigerian government in this matter and how they have succeeded in rallying Igbos of all shades together.
Below is the typical Yoruba view. One which appears to understand what the critical issues are, yet vacillating with trepidation between cynical exploitative opportunism and bold denouncement of blatant illegality:
Notice that despite the autor's effort, traces of any semblance of underlying good intention by this author is ultimately muffled by the overall display of fear and half heartedness in the choice of words selected, such that in the end nothing of import other than gratuitious advice has been profferred into the thin air out there.
___________________ YA CAIN'T KEEP A GOOD MAN DOWN :) Posts: 1182 | From: TEXAS | Registered: Oct 2001
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Here is an interview by the Guardian where this poor Igbo correspondent appears to have been sent by the newspaper to Uwazurike with questions intended to entrap him. Seeing nothing to grab onto, they then title it “I advocate the Soviet example......”
Igbos all over the world are watching these cynical moves by the Government of Obasanjo to demonize MASSOB, and by extension Igbos Biafrans and Ojukwu to the West (by making a sublime connection to the word SOVIET)through the agency of this malicious news organization called the Guardian, all in aid of gaining official Western approval and silence to exterminate Igbos with their SSS death squads.
It should come as highly suspicious that of all the words spoken by Uwazurike, the one selected for the title of the article was: “I advocate the Soviet example......”
WE ARE WATCHING! THE WORLD IS WATCHING!! JUSTICE SHALL PREVAIL!!!
Sorry for not responding earlier. I have been pretty occupied.
After reading the submission that you addressed specifically to me, it seemed to me then that you intentionally decided to go against your own conscience on this matter so as to stir up some ill-feeling for some members of this board who you might think have co-opted the task of disparaging your ethnic group. There are differing ways of analyzing your knee-jerk responses to perceived slights against your origins, but at the risk of vastly deviating from the topic at hand, I will say a few things here to address that matter. I am not seeking to muzzle you, deny your freedom of expression or the right to your own opinions, but I hope that you would be able to review your intentionally underwhelming statements on this matter.
quote: I am of course yet to hear a whimper from you when these clowns put pen to paper to disparage the outstanding culture of a people who have exhibited nothing but LOVE towards them. It seems you are content with being a passive participant on such occasions. On this board, it's been open season for the Yoruba nation, whose offense it may seem, is having a prodigal son of his,forced down his throat. The good works of the likes of Soyinka, Solarin, even Awolowo are daily rubbished on this board. Matter of fact, to belong here, you must have a derogatory name for the Yorubas. So what gives?
If your intention was to foster an atmosphere conducible to reconciliation between yourself and members of this board, then calling us “clowns” is hardly the way to go about it. To your credit, you have properly identified that I am not an active participant is such exercises designed at denigrating Yorubas. Also, there are many Igbos here who are not unduly pre-occupied with lampooning the Yoruba race or ascribing wholly disreputable intentions to every deed by an average Yoruba person. The problem to me is that you have ceased to bear in mind then, that this board has all shades of people that participate in it, or read the contributions from it.
There is therefore no need for you to paint with a wide brush the sentiments, opinions, or predispositions of members of this board. This tendency to see the board as an Igbo board purely because of the disproportionately larger number of Igbos here is perhaps the driving force behind a number of your pronouncements on this board which have willfully tended away from a sincere discussion of the issues. It is very regrettable that, even on serious issues, you cannot for once drop this partisan cloak. As many writers (including me) have made it known, you are a good writer but it is rather defeatist to use the possibility that others’ posts may have been opposed to your ethnic group on a number of issues to drop the intellectual value of your contributions. It seems even to a casual eye that a lot of your incendiary statements are structured to whip up anti-ethnic sentiments or elicit personal attacks on your person. At a point, I thought it was your perverted way of attracting attention no matter how negative; at another time, I thought you were just trying to play the devil’s advocate. Suffice it to say however that such actions on your part may take away even the modest gains you may have made in impressing upon the opposing side the fact that you were only seeking to mend the proverbial fences.
Secondly—and on this, I am merely expressing my PERSONAL opinion—past history, of which I am sure, you are well aware, has helped to mold the views of a lot of Igbos regarding the Yorubas as a whole. I am not fooled that you do not know that claiming that politically, the Yoruba have exhibited nothing but LOVE for the Igbo could be seriously challenged. All over this board, the members who have repeatedly had an unflattering thing or two to say about the Yoruba regarding politics have supported their opinions with reasons which I am willing to wager are centered on historical precedents. For me, it is rather complex to explain, but I can say that many Igbos today have bosom Yoruba friends or relations or even professional colleagues. In such familial or professional circumstances, the average Igbo person is unencumbered by negative feelings about the Yoruba as a homogenous political unit.
Nonetheless, in political circles, the mutual suspicion between both ethnic groups still exists. This animus also exists between the Yorubas and Hausas, or between the Hausas and Igbos. On the strength of this truism, it would be puerile for you to come to a Hausa dominated board, constitute yourself a nuisance of sorts by repeatedly typing callous, divisive and wholly derogatory statements and insinuations about Hausas (because some Hausas on this hypothetical board have expressed distrust of the political Yoruba) and at the same time seek to pass yourself off as someone trying to repair Hausa-Yoruba relations. The same holds true in reverse.
Now, between yourself and I, Addy, I do not know if this trust chasm can ever be bridged or really how one can go about doing it. Some are of the opinion that the best way to maximize feelings of mutual trust between the Yoruba and the Igbo lies in establishing conditions that allow the Igbo to actively compete in every sphere of opportunity. Therefore, seeing that Nigeria, as thus constituted, has disproportionately clamped down hard on the interests of the average Igbo person when compared with the average Yoruba person, such an atmosphere that would foster the friendship based on competition and mutual admiration are thus non-existent. It is one of the reasons that propel the notion of self-determination because, as you very well know, regional autonomy is a complete farce in Nigeria. The point here therefore is that in matters of politics, this animus has been sustained by years of dissonance brought about by the aggressive struggle for a piece of the national pie. My take is that a lot of Igbos and Yorubas on a personal, real life basis (as opposed to political settings), do not carry about the weight of mutual distrust especially here in the USA, where opportunities abound.
As in all things human, I am not going to pretend that there are no exceptions. The point however is clear, and it applies equally to Yorubas, Hausas or Igbos. While I do not expect you to agree with the uncomfortable specter of passively reading the demeaning opinions of some regarding your ethnic group, you have to agree that there are very strong reasons that generate them. Your manner of approach therefore is very important. You cannot be seen alternately trying to broker some cyber peace between Yorubas and Igbos, and at the same time indulging freely in the same activities that you condemn. Being passive in discussions of that sort (like you properly identified that I am) neither mean that you are in support or in opposition to the statements. It simply means that you acknowledge the right of that particular individual to express his or her opinion. I do not know exactly what may have informed a particular statement targeting your ethnic group, but usually, the advocate would have a news story or a comment to show exactly where he or she is coming from.
If you were interested in improving Igbo-Yoruba political relations (daunting as that task might appear), then you have to address the advocate in particular to see if there are common grounds upon which to foster a better understanding. What you don’t do—as you have done severally on this board—is to reinforce the same behavior that spawns the statements. If I were in your shoes, I’d understand that the mere fact that there are more Igbos here simply mean that of course there are people that would espouse all manner of seemingly chauvinistic opinions regarding the Igbo. I would not take umbrage at these statements. Furthermore, if you include the fact that quite frankly, a majority of Igbos are tired of the whole one-Nigeria charade as it is right now, you may begin to understand certain pronouncements which are without a doubt very pungent. The same would have been obtainable if the situation was reversed. I have also heard a lot of Yorubas talk about their culture in absolute terms. I call it national (I hate the word “tribe” by the way) pride. It doesn’t bother me in the least. In the light of these, are you honestly saying that you do not see how your actions on this board may have indeed ossified the negative feelings that you are seeking to stem?
Thirdly, Addy, you are not the only Yoruba person on this board. That you have taken up the unenviable task of trying to correct perceived prejudices does not automatically mean that you would be successful. Chuck it to human nature. Irrespective of how you conduct yourself, there are some that you just cannot persuade. That does not mean therefore, that any valuable point you may have made have gone unnoticed. I have observed you mildly. At times, you make statements that show that indeed you do understand where a lot of Igbos are coming from on issues political, but almost immediately you sabotage your own efforts on account of what a few advocates may say. That is hardly any way to go about it. You try to do too much you know. I do not know when the Yorubas on this board came together to crown you “AreOnakakanfo: Defender of the Yoruba Race”.
Some Yoruba people on this board, strange as it might sound to you Addy, are very much in support of the actualization of Biafra, as you may or may not be opposed to it. Some Yorubas here are also of such depth that while they do not necessarily condone the supposedly wanton denigration of all things Yoruba, they however understand the underlying historical and political currents that drive these disparaging anti-Yoruba remarks. They have perhaps realized that trying to change views cannot possibly work in the type of environment Nigeria currently has. For example, with the help of religion and the collusion of the press and government, declining social trends like poverty and lack of civil rights in a lot of the Arab Middle East have been successfully pinned on American exploitation of oil. It has helped to breed the animosity against America which in turn produces terrorism. You can aver therefore, that as long as such discrepancies exist, there is nothing the average American may say by way of fostering inter-religious or inter-cultural accord that would ultimately stem the torrent of negative feelings.
To contextualize therefore, some Yorubas here have fully realized that as long as the unjust system continues to deny Igbos and the minorities in the Niger-delta their respective rights (including their respective rights to self-determination), attitudes which negatively portray the Hausa and Yoruba cannot be wished away, or tamed. It probably explains why they are not in the business of defending every charge against the Yoruba or why they are fully in support of the actualization of Biafra. Have you thought about this yet in your urge to demand some altruism from the average Igbo person there?
Ultimately, on the current subject of Ojukwu’s ordeals with the SSS, I feel that you have become captive to the same demons that you are trying to exorcise. Rather than give honest and frank opinions which would tremendously help your chances at promoting the peace (believe me, a lot of Yoruba people I have seen are supporting Ojukwu civil rights against the tyrannical, lawless SSS), you have found it expedient to sacrifice personal integrity, fairness and circumspection on the altar of crude partisanship. It is very unbecoming of you. Shall we then say that if a revered and respectable ELDERLY member of the Yoruba race was the receiving end of this current impasse with the SSS, your reaction would have been the same? Would your reaction have been of gratuitous cynicism for this hypothetical Yoruba leader and unveiled crudity in reference to his wife? Would you have kicked against all conventional wisdom by naively waving off the scenario as an attempt by this hypothetical Yoruba personality to grandstand?
Candidly, I think that your view of Ojukwu is still stuck in the civil war time warp hence your undisguised attempts at rubbishing the essence of the man and how he has exercised his rights as a full-fledged citizen of Nigeria. When you are not making statements on the basis of your irrational fear of Ojukwu and his role in the Civil war, you are tendering other meaningless excuses. For example, When asked why Buhari and IBB could afford to thumb their noses at constituted authority and still get away with it, while Ojukwu or indeed any Musa, Yinka, Nsikak, Chinedu, Nosa or Omono must be hounded by the fascist wing of this democratic experiment, the SSS, you offered the blighted excuse that two wrongs don’t make a right. But apparently, you forgot that apothegm when you opted for the path of dishonor in retaliating against what you perceive to be vilification for the likes of Soyinka, Solarin etc.
This is becoming too long, and I have lost the desire to continue. Like I said initially, my aim is not to deny your right to say absolutely any thing that you wish. One can only wish that the sort of democratic values that you would want to take root in Nigeria, the atmosphere of understanding between Igbos and Yorubas, the cessation of undue partisanship in commentary especially as it regards matters affecting others can be helped by your own personal actions on this board. As I talk to you, I talk to myself. I am sure you can appreciate the earnestness with which I have conveyed my points. It would be infinitely better if you snapped out of this facile ‘AreOnakakanfo’ disposition for a moment to view the larger picture. Events are still transpiring none of which bodes well for anybody. I still think that your statements and reasoning so far on this thread have been driven by other partisan trivial concerns. Yours have been a non-punctilious hodgepodge of underwhelming enunciations geared towards testing the conventional confines of political rhetoric. As sad and disappointed as I am over your inability to see the victimization by instruments of the state against persons (irrespective of class, religion or ethnic group) opposed to the appalling insouciance of a wretched government pertaining civic, environmental, social or economic matters, I still maintain that your right it is, to view matters as you please.
Let us keep watching the unfolding events in between bouts of laughter like you recommended earlier, shall we? I suppose indeed, there are a lot like you for which this ugly situation is a huge laughing matter. Have a good weekend Sir.
Abeg, let me put the full text of that interview here:
quote:Another OJUKWU Exclusive:I’m on a crusade to free Nigerians
By Celestine Okafor Assistant Editor Saturday, September 25, 2004
DIM Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, former leader of erstwhile Republic of Biafra and presidential candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in the 2003 elections, has been in national mention since the State Security Service (SSS) invited him to Abuja for a chat. He did not honour that invitation, and raised alarm that his life was under threat. And only on Thursday, he went to court to seek legal backing from turning down the SSS invitation.
Yet, both the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP and the Federal Government had earlier insisted that the ex-warlord must answer the SSS call. As well, important dignitaries and notable ethnic bodies have been flooding his Enugu residence in show of solidarity. Weekend Vanguard spoke two hours with Ojukwu at his Coal City home on Wednesday night and he fielded questions on his recent invitation by the Service and its aftermath. He also debunks the impression in some quarters that he was daring the government, arguing that all he insists are that actions of government and its agents must conform with the provisions of the law. You will, no doubt, enjoy the Ikemba in his best elements.
For some weeks now, you’ve been having an encounter with the State Security Service (SSS) over their invitation to you. What’s the crux of the matter? And did you ever anticipate that this thing will turn out this way? It is difficult, very difficult to anticipate exactly things that had happened without reason.
That I could be invited? Yes, I could be invited, I was invited but I don’t see any reason for my invitation. But then, after it happened, I was very surprised to note that ever since the Obasanjo government came to power in 1999, it has been sliding down very rapidly into dictatorship. It is sometimes, quite tragic for Nigeria that when everybody in the civilised world is trying to democratise their environment even more, we seem to have turned our back on civilisation and going straight back to the caves.
Of course, nobody denied that there is an authority in the country. No matter my position, no matter my political leaning, the fact remains that Nigeria has a president who is a member of a political party. But the other thing that makes me very worried in the face of what is going on in the country today is Nigeria’s future. Nowhere in the world is an invitation compulsory no matter what it is.
If it is an invitation, it is an invitation. If you ask me to come to the wedding of your daughter, if it is not convenient for me, I do not come. Take the matter at hand; I got an invitation from an individual who claimed to be a member of the SSS without even the courtesy of an identification card, nothing. Uptill this minute (Wednesday night) that I am talking to you, how many days after, there is no identity of the person who came to my house. He said he was from the SSS, no proof; that I am invited to see the director-general of SSS, no note, no piece of paper, no warrant, nothing of that to show that he was acting on the mandate of the state security. I think that was absolutely improper and discourteous to any free citizen of this country.
And the interpretation being given by some people in government was that Ojukwu was feeling too big to honour invitation from the State Security, that he was daring the government. That is not true, can’t be true if things are done properly. I even expect the President or whoever in government to simply admit that this thing was not done right. At 70 years, I claim to have acquired wisdom with the passage of the years.
Of course, with all we hear these years, 419 this, 419 that and people disappearing without any trace and the state unable to get down to these things of course, I wouldn’t take that (shoddy invitation) serious and the authorities should be reasonable enough to understand my plight. I have never disrespected nor disregarded anybody in all my life without any clear good reason to do so. That actually made me to insist that whatever it is, it should be done properly. That evening, I said to the visitor: “I’m sorry, it is not convenient.” That’s what I told him. I had hoped that whatever was his mission, he would go away. And suddenly, things grew out of proportion with SSS, and I started getting strange calls from people whose voices I cannot recognise.
I think the people of Nigeria should understand clearly what was at stake. Of course, it is early to say to anybody that he (Ojukwu) refused invitation. I am proud that I still have the presence of mind to assess situations and act as appropriate. I could not go anywhere when I do not know who wants me. Even now, I don’t attend meetings if I don’t see the agenda. Over the days, I’ve been thinking. And it occurs to me actually that the Nigerian people are sliding into something like a police state. But suddenly, somebody comes to tell me that you are wanted, by who? Nobody wants to tell me, neither does anybody claim responsibility for my invitation.
I have mentioned those people who have been killed in very curious circumstances and up till now, the killers have not been found by all the numerous security agencies in this country. That is too bad for a nation. If somebody wants to do to me what had been done to those Nigerians who were killed, it is not possible. But if they do, they will certainly find it difficult because I will make it very difficult for that person.
Why do you certainly see the whole thing as an act of psychological intimidation?
What else is it? The SSS has been frightening Nigerians all the time. They haven’t got the powers they try to claim. Even if they have to arrest anybody, they are required to do that using the police. Their own job is purely investigative. They are the investigative arm of the security, find something, then go to the police and the police will effect the arrest. That is the law. Not just walk in in a mysterious fashion into my house and expect me to follow sheepishly.
But the Police Affairs Minister, Chief Bozimo has said that you surely have a case to answer with the State Security, does that not justify the invitation? Well, I’m still thinking whether or not to sue him for libel in his personal capacity. I have a case to answer. What he (minister) should do is to show me what I have done. But instead, some people are sitting somewhere to look for anything they will say Ojukwu has done wrong. If they can’t find any uptill now, they will desperately search for one or cook up something just to teach him (Ojukwu) a lesson that afterall, we are in power. In the alternative, they will say let’s wait for him to slip into our net with one mistake or the other. But the truth is that I am a free citizen with clear conscience.
I do not do anything bypassing the stipulated legal procedures. I do my things in the open. I have never been subversive to the state but I have the inalienable right as a citizen to disagree with people in government over fundamental issues affecting me and my fellow citizens. That has been my style all my life. I expect the minister to show me facts. What have I done to have a case to answer? But that is the problem with Nigeria. We do not operate with our mother tongue. So, it is a question of somebody who is fixed at the level of cliches.
I have a case to answer, he forgets that he is a Minister of Police Affairs, not a policeman. I have a case to answer, what has he (minister) been able to establish against me?
But then, that’s another problem with Nigeria. It appears I’ll be getting into this kind of problems. I intend to re-teach Nigerians how to stand up for their rights because that is what will guarantee Nigerians safety from dictatorship. Democracy is not cosmetics, it denotes character.
If you carry a gun, you can call anything you want to do democratic. I feel that before I finish, people will start realising that it is their duty to protect democratic practice by they themselves insisting on their democratic rights. But do you realise that the impression is still being held in official circles that Ojukwu is acting above the law. The PDP said that much...
PDP as a party, everybody will tell you, they are suddenly obtuse. They don’t know what they are talking about. How did they come to that decision that I act above the law? I want to know. What Nigerians should know I’m fighting against, is a political character thinking that it is itself above the law. Nigerians should know that PDP has no right to steal the democratic mandat
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