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While everyone discussing the up and downside of the SNC or the national dialogue, the real problems are a matter of historical record that no amount of talking will resolve. The link below is to the complete version of the following important document, and its discussion of Northern dominance and atrocities in Nigeria directly preceeding the Biafran Struggle for Independence. For purposes of this discussion South includes both South and East.
PROCLAMATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF BIAFRA
1967
PRINTED BY THE GOVERNMENT PRINTER . ENUGU
PROCLAMATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF BIAFRA
IT IS RIGHT and just that we of this generation of Eastern Nigerians, should record for the benefit of posterity, some of the reasons for the momentous decision we have taken at this crucial time in the history of our people.
The Military Government of Eastern Nigeria has, in a series of publications, traced the evils and injustices of the Nigerian political association through the decades, stating also the case and standpoint of Eastern Nigeria in the recent crisis.
Throughout the period of Nigeria’s precarious, existence as a single political entity Eastern Nigerians have always believed in fundamental human rights and principles as they are accepted and enjoyed in civilized communities. Impelled by their belief in these rights arid principles and in their common citizenship with other Nigerians after Amalgamation, Eastern Nigerians employed their ideas and skills, their resourcefulness and dynamism in the development of areas of Nigeria outside the East. Eastern Nigerians opened up avenues of trade and industry throughout the country; overlooked the neglect of their homeland in the disposition of national institutions, projects and utilities; made available their own natural resources to the rest of the country; and confidently invested in the general economic and social development of Nigeria. Politically Eastern Nigerians advocated a strong, united Nigeria; for ONE COUNTRY, ONE CONSTITUTION, ONE DESTINY. Eastern Nigerians were in the vanguard of the struggle for national independence and made sacrifices and concessions for the cause of national unity. . They conceded the inauguration of a Federal instead of a Unitary system of Government in Nigeria.
Leaders of Northern Nigeria have told us several times that what our former colonial masters made into “NIGERIA" consisted of an agglomeration of peoples, distinct in ‘every way except in the colour of their skins, and organized as a unit for their own commercial interests” and administrative convenience.. The name “Nigeria”. was regarded by many as a mere “geographical expression”.
In course of time, the peoples of the other parts of Southern Nigeria found that they possessed many things in common with those of Eastern Nigeria, and while the colonial master made adjustments to accommodate these common ties between the Southern inhabitants, the peoples of the North insisted on maintaining their separateness.
On October 1, 1960, independence was granted to the peoples of Nigeria in a form of “federation”, based on artificially made units. The Nigerian Constitution installed the North in, perpetual dominance over Nigeria The Federation was predicated on the perpetual rule by One unit over the others. The Constitution itself contained provisions which negatived the fundamental human freedoms which it purported to guarantee for the citizens. Thus were sown, by design or by default, the seeds of factionalism and hate, of struggle for power at the Centre, and of the worst types of political chicanery and abuse of power. .One of two situations was bound to result from that arrangement either perpetual domination of the rest of the country by the North, not by consent, but by force and fraud, or a dissolution of the federating bond. National independence was followed by successive crises each leading to near disintegration of the country. Some of the major events which are directly attributable to the defective and inadequate Constitution may here be mentioned.
In 1962, an emergency was imposed on Western Nigeria Jurists agree that the imposition was unconstitutional; it was a ruse to remove certain elements in Western Nigeria known to have taken a firm stand against the misuse of political, power. A puppet of the North was manoeuvred into power in Western Nigeria.
Also in 1962, and again in 1963, Nigerians tried for the first time to count themselves. What should ordinarily be a statistical and dull exercise was, because of the nature of the Constitution, turned into a fierce political struggle. The official figures established by these censuses have been discredited.Federal elections followed in December, 1964—elections which have been described as the most farcical in our history. Candidates were either kidnapped, killed or forced to withdraw from the elections. Results announced were in direct opposition to the actual facts. The Southern parties had boycotted the election, and the deadlock which followed brought the country near to dissolution. The situation was patched up; the conflagration was brought under control, but its embers lay smouldering.
(Sounds like politics as usual to me. But to proceed...)
ON October 11, 1965, elections were held to the Western House of Assembly. The puppet Government of that Region existed, not by the will of the people of Western Nigeria, but because of the combined power of the Federal Government and the Northern Nigeria Government which installed it. The electorate of Western Nigeria was not permitted to declare its will in the elections. Fraud, foul play and murder were committed with impunity. The smouldering embers of the recent past erupted with unquenchable virulence. The irate electorate showed its resentment in its own way. Complete disorder followed. Yet, the Federal Government dominated by the North fiddled with the issue and even refused to recognize what the whole world had known, namely, that Nigeria was on the brink of disaster.
Only the Armed Forces remained politically uncommitted and non-partisan. Some of their officers and men revolted against the injustices which were perpetrated before their very eyes and attempted to overthrow .The. Federal Government and Regional Governments. In desperation; the Ministers of the Federal Government handed over power to the Armed Forces under the Supreme command of Major-General J. T. U. Aguiyi-Ironsi.
The Military administration under Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi made the first real attempt to unite the country and its peoples. The Northerners saw in his efforts the possibility of losing their control of the affairs of the country. So while its leaders paid lip service to unity, they laid plans for making sure that it could never be achieved. Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi was, of course, an Easterner, but the majority of the individuals at the head of affairs were not. At no time under the civilian rule did Eastern Nigerians hold a dominating position in the government of the Federation.
On May 24, 1966, the Military Government issued a. decree designed to provide a more unified administration in keeping with the military command. The people of Northern Nigeria protested against the decree and on May 29,1966, thousands of Easterners residing in the North, were massacred by Northern civilians They looted their property The Supreme Military Council set up a tribunal to look into the causes of these unprovoked acts at murder and pillage and determine what compensations might be paid to the victims. The Northern Emirs declared their intention to pull Northern Nigeria out of the Federation rather than face the tribunal . But the Supreme Military Council justly decided that the tribunal must do its duty.
Then on July 29, 1966, two months after the May murders and despoliation, and four days before the tribunal was due to commence its sitting, the real pogrom against Eastern Nigerians residing in the Federation began. Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi and his host, Lt-Col. Francis Fajuyi,, were kidnapped at Ibadan and murdered.This time Northern soldiers acted in concert with Northern civilians. Defenceless men, women, and children were shot down or hacked to death; some were burnt, and some buried alive. Women and young girls were ravished with unprecedented bestiality; unborn children were torn out of the womb of their mothers.
Again on September 29, 1966, the pogrom was resumed Thirty thousand Eastern Nigerians are known to have been killed by Northerners. They were killed in the North, in Western Nigeria, in Lagos; some Eastern soldiers detention at Benin were forcibly removed from prison by Northern soldiers and murdered.
At the time of the incident, millions of Eastern Nigerians resided outside the East and persons from other parts of the country lived in this Region . While Eastern Nigerians who assembled at Northern airports, railway stations and motor parks, were set upon by Northern soldiers and civilians armed with machine guns, rifles, daggers and poisoned arrows, the Army and Police in the East were specifically instructed to shoot at sight any Eastern Nigerian found molesting non-Easterners living in the Region. By early October, the sight of mutilated refugees, orphaned children, widowed mothers and decapitated corpses of Eastern Nigerians arriving at our airports and railway stations inflamed passions to such an extent that it was found necessary to ask all non-Easterners to leave the region in their own interest. Since the events of July, 1966, there has been a mass movement of population in this country. Nigerian society has undergone a fundamental change; it is no longer possible for Eastern Nigerians to live outside the Region without fear of loss of life or of property.
Two facts emerge from the events described above. The widespread nature of the massacre and its periodicity—29th May, 29th July, and 29th September—show firstly, that they were premeditated and planned, and secondly, that Eastern Nigerians are no longer wanted as equal partners in the Federation of Nigeria. It must be recalled that this was the fourth in a series of massacres of Eastern Nigerians in the last two decades.
I've posted this document so that people can remember who we are about to have a dialogue with, and from whom we are expecting some democratic concessions. At present I don't know of any apologies made or any remorse shown for the atrocities committed and those still being committed by these Northern folks. Let me remind the readers that freedom is never given; it must be taken. If you don't have the heart for it, you must content yourself with serving the Fulanis, like the Hausa have done for generations.
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Some may see no reason for me to have posted the above document but I think it embodies the basic dilemna for us as we look toward a change in the body politic; and it may also prepare us for the big let-down when it comes. As it is said, those who neglect to remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
___________________ The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves... Posts: 665 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I'll get back to you on this Greg, but meanwhile, it should be known to all that our struggle did not start with the SNC, and will not end with it.
"Those who make peaceful change impossible, invariably make violent change inevitable".
Come what may, this nonsense cannot be allowed to continue!
Posts: 17 | From: London, UK. | Registered: Jan 2005
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Ndewo nnaaaaa! Just to add to what you started in order to keep alive what our position has always been regarding the nonsense “expression” called nigeria. Our main aim is to infuse the truth into the oblongata of these marsupials we are forced to live with against every known norm, that is to say people of opposite behavior can never ever live in harmony. Their religion alone is a bigger menace to civilization. Could anyone tell us the last time a Buddhist monk or a Hebrew engaged in act of terrorism? Here ya go!
quote:“The Supreme Military Council held its meeting in Ghana on the 4th-5th January.”
Final Aburi Communique
The Supreme Military Council of Nigeria resumed its meeting in Ghana on the 5th of January and continued and concluded discussion of the remaining subjects on the Agenda. The Council reached agreement on all the items.
On the powers and functions of the Federal Military Government the Council reaffirmed its belief in the workability of the existing institutions subject to necessary safequards.
Other matters on which agreements were reached included the following: (1) Re-organization, administration and control of the Army. (2) Appointments and promotions to the senior ranks in the Armed Forces, the Police, Diplomatic and Consular Services as well as appointments to super-scale posts in the Federal Civil Service and the equivalent posts in the Federal Statutory Corporations.
On the question of displaced persons the Supreme Military Council agreed to set up a committee to look into the problems of rehabilitation and recovery of property. In this connection the Military Governor of the East assured the Council that the order that non-Easterners should leave the Eastern Region would be reviewed with a view to its being lifted as soon as practicable. Agreement was also reached that the staff and employees of Governments and Statutory Corporations who have had to leave their poses as a result of recent disturbances in the country should continue to be paid their full salaries up to the end of 31st March, 1967, provided they have not found alternative employment.
The Council agreed that the Ad Hoc Committee on the constitutional future of the country should be resumed as soon as practicable and that the unanimous recommendations of the committee in September 1966, will be considered by the Supreme Military Council at a later meeting.
The Council unanimously agreed that future meetings of the Council should be held in Nigeria at a venue to be announced later.
The entire members of the Supreme Military Council express profound regret for the bloodshed which has engulfed the country in the past year and avow to do all in their power to ensure there is no recurrence of the unhappy situation.
The members of the Supreme Military Council place on record their profound appreciation and gratitude for the constructive initiative and assistance rendered by the Chairman of the National Liberation Council, the Government and people of Ghana.
Statement by the Supreme Council on the Reorganization of the Army, and the Approval of Senior Appointments, and its Declaration on the use of force
I. The Supreme Military Council now meeting in Ghana has agreed on the following reorganization of the Army: The Army is to be governed by the Supreme Military Council the Chairman of which will be known as Commander-in-Chief and Head of the Federal Military Government.
There will be a Military Headquarters on which the Regions will be equally represented and which will be headed by a Chief of Staff. In each Region there shall be an Area Command under the charge of an Area Commander and corresponding with the existing Regions.
All matters of policy including appointments and promotions of persons in executive posts in the Armed Forces and Police shall be dealt with by the Supreme Military Council.
During the period of the Military Government, Military Governors will have control over their Area Commands in matters of internal security.
The following appointments must be approved by the Supreme Military Council:
Diplomatic and Consular posts. Senior posts in the Armed Forces and the Police. Super-scale Federal Civil Service and Federal Corporation posts. Any decision affecting the whole country must be determined by the Supreme Military Council. Where a meeting is not possible such a matter must be referred to Military Governors for comment and concurrence.
II. We the members of the Supreme Military Council of Nigeria meeting at Accra on 4th day of January, 1967, hereby solemnly and unequivocably: DECLARE that we renounce the use of force as a means of settling the present crisis in Nigeria, and hold ourselves in honor bound by this declaration. REAFFIRM our faith in discussions and negotiation as the only peaceful way of resolving the Nigerian crisis. AGREE to exchange information on the quantity of arms and ammunition in each unit of the Army in each Region, and also on the quantity of new arms and ammunition in stock.
(Signatures of the nine leaders).
Lt.-Col. Yakubu Gowon
Colonel Robert Adebayo[/b]
Lt.-Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu[/b]
Lt.-Col. David Ejoor[/b]
Lt.-Col. Hassan Katsina[/b]
Commodore J.E.A. Wey [/b]
Major Mobolaji Johnson[/b]
Alhaji Kam Selem[/b]
Mr. T. Omo-Bare[/b]
Secretaries:
Mr. S.I.A. Akenzua - Permanent Under-Secretary, Federal Cabinet Office
Mr. P.T. Odumosu - Secretary to the Military Government, West
Mr. N.U. Akpan - Secretary to the Military Government, East
Mr. D.P. Lawani - Under Secretary, Military Governor's Office, Mid-West
Alhaji Ali Akilu[/b]
- Secretary to the Military Government, North
Compiled by NOWAMAGBE AUSTIN OMOIGUI, MD
“DECLARE that we renounce the use of force as a means of settling the present crisis in Nigeria, and hold ourselves in honor bound by this declaration.”
The arab north with the collusion of our neighbors in the west (Yoruba), broke every single item in this accord less than six months after the fact hence here we are today 2005. When these guys that abhor the truth continue to wallow in their ignorance, one is forced to question or even insult their being because the truth is always glaring in their faces in black and white yet the northern elements would want people to believe they and not us, the Igbo are the disparaged. No wonder despite hanging onto power for almost fifty years, they still remain educationally challenged and so it will be, ISEEEEEEEEEEE!
___________________ BIAFRA: The land of my ancestors now, yesterday and always. So it will be! Posts: 2483 | From: Ala Igbo | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:On Aburi we stand "The Distortion of Aburi Accord" By Odumegwu Ojukwu - May 30 1969
Anybody who was present at the Aburi meeting or has read the minutes, the communiqués, statements, and verbatim reports would be surprised that a person who calls himself a head of state could so deliberately mislead accredited representatives of foreign governments by saying that the implementation of each item of the conclusions required prior detailed examination by the administrative and professional experts in the various fields. The conclusions in Aburi were no proposals but decisions taken by the highest authority in the land.
What happened in fact was that specific matters, namely, the decrees and sections of decrees to be repealed, the mechanics of army reorganization, and the question of rehabilitation of refugees, were referred to experts. The meeting of the financial experts to consider the question of rehabilitation of displaced persons has not been held because the Ministry of Finance does not think that such that such a meeting would serve any useful purpose. The army experts met and reached agreements, but these were rejected.
Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon told the Heads of Missions that the agreement about returning the regions to the positions before January 17 also meant in effect that the federal government in Lagos would continue to carry on its functions as before. He failed to inform the world that the decisions taken at Aburi, the federal government meant no more than the Supreme Military Council. No one of course who knows the sort of advice Lieutenant-Colonel Gowon is receiving in Lagos would be surprised by this suppression and distortion of the truth.
The actual Aburi decisions read as follows: Members agree that the legislative and executive authority of the Federal Military Government should remain in the Supreme Military Council, to which any decision affecting the whole country shall be referred for determination provided that where it is possible for a meeting to be held the matter requiring determination must be referred to military governors for their comment and concurrence.
Specifically, the council agreed that appointments to senior ranks in the police, diplomatic, and consular services as well as appointment to superscale posts in the federal civil service and the equivalent posts in the statutory corporation must be approved by the Supreme Military Council.
The regional members felt that all the decrees passed since January 15, 1966, and which detracted from previous powers and positions of regional governments, should be repealed if mutual confidence is to be restored.
It is difficult to understand the introduction of the word "veto" into the matter. The Aburi Agreement was that any decision which affected the whole country must receive the concurrence of all the military governors because of their special responsibilities in their different area of authority and so to the country as a corporate whole.
On the reorganization of the army, it is for Lieutenant-Colonel Gowon to explain to the world what he means by the "army continuing to be under one command," when in the very next sentence of his statement he also speaks of an agreement to establish area commands corresponding with the existing regional boundaries. This contradiction in itself tells the truth, and one does does not need to belabor the point.
The actual decision of the Supreme Military Council as recorded in the official minutes reads as follows.
The Council decides that: (i) on reorganization of the army:
(a) Army to be governed by the Supreme Military Council under a chairman to be known Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Head of the Federal Military Government.
(b) Establishment of a military headquarters comprising equal representation from the regions and headed by a Chief of Staff.
(c) Creation of area commands corresponding to existing regions and under the charge of area commander.
(d) Matters of policy, including appointments and promotions to top executive posts in the armed forces and the police, to be dealt with by the Supreme Military Council.
(e) During the period of the military government, military governors will have control over area commands for internal security.
(f) Creation of a Lagos garrison, including Ikeja barracks.
It is clear from the Aburi decisions that what was envisaged was a loosely knit army administered by a representative military headquarters under the charge of a Chief of Staff and commanded by the Supreme Military Council, not by Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon as he claimed in his present statement to the diplomats.
According to the Aburi Agreements "the following appointments must be approved by the Supreme Military Council; (a) diplomatic and consular posts; (b) senior posts in the armed forces and the police; (c) superscale federal civil service and federal corporation posts."
Everyone with even the most superficial acquaintance with the Nigerian civil service knows what those expressions mean and connote. To confuse issue, Lieutenant-Colonel Gowon gave the impression that the main difference between him and me on this particular decision was that I insisted on canceling the appointments of existing civil servants. I can think of nothing more slanderous.
It is clear from Gowon’s statement in question that he is prepared to distort the verbatim reports of the Aburi meeting. To keep the public informed, the Eastern Nigerian Broadcasting Service will be playing the tape records of the proceedings live at scheduled times.... Arrangement have been completed to transform those tape recordings to long-playing gramophone records ... We are also going ahead to print and publish the documents and records of Aburi meeting. We in the East are anxious to see that our difficulties are resolved by peaceful means and that Nigeria is preserved as a unit, but it is doubtful, and the world must judge whether Lieutenant-Colonel Gowon’s attitudes and other exhibitions of his insincerity are something which can lead to a return of normalcy and confidence in the country.
I must warn all Easterners once again to remain vigilant. The East will never be intimidated, nor will she acquiesce to any form of dictation. It is not our intention to play the aggressor. Nonetheless, it is not our intention to be slaughtered in our beds, We are ready to defend our homeland.
Fellow countrymen and women, on Aburi We Stand. There will be no compromise. God grant peace in our time.
And there, ABURI ACCORD, we will continue to stay! The new Aburi being called by aremu with a new twist will vindicate those of us from the Eastern Region who all along knew the nigerian experience will remain just that until a more equitable way of governing is established. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on ME! All I gotta say for now.
___________________ BIAFRA: The land of my ancestors now, yesterday and always. So it will be! Posts: 2483 | From: Ala Igbo | Registered: Apr 2004
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Brother, you capture the very essence of the problem. How does one talk with these people. Even when civil war was the alternative, and the Muslim military leaders had supreme power to implement their part of the agreements, they opted for war. How much less attention will they pay to the demands of a political dialogue when the participants are like fattened sheep and goats instead of intrepid lions. I can hear those sheeps' demands now; baahhh this, and baahh that; but the noise of their bleating will fall on deaf ears, and if and when the dogs are let loose upon them, they will scatter, some to the anonymity of the fold, others to the slaughterhouse. All the while the Northern muslim politicians and their army and police will be laughing to themselves.
Clearly, the dynamics of our participation in this body politic has to change. We must have lions with both teeth and claws cos we cannot expect sheep to bring home the prey.
The following is an excerpt from the COMPLAINT MADE TO THE DIRECTORATE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR THE STUDY OF THE CRIMES OF GENOCIDE, commonly called the "Genocide Papers." They are maintained for posterity by Ekwe Nche. It is sobering reading for the One Nigeria adherents. If you want to read the complete report go here... www.biafraland.com and search the site for the "genocide papers." I can't post this link directly to the document in question for some unknown reason. Apparently someone or something doesn't want this information easily linkable for viewing. Also my computer has just been hit with several viruses and my firewall is going nuts right now. Not to worry. I know a little about computers too. Hmmmm, also the link I had in my browser memory just mysteriously dissappeared.
quote:Tribunal are still available to give evidence before this Committee if required. The recorded proceedings of the Tribunal as well as the report are too bulky for translation for example 235 witnesses gave evidence. It is pertinent to observe that the Atrocities Tribunal found as a fact that the Northern Nigeria authorities with their collaborators had devised a seven point programme aimed at a complete extermination of the then Eastern Nigerians (now Biafrans) in Northern Nigeria and other parts of the Federation. The programme is outlined as follows: 1. (a) to kill off the Major-General and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, T.J.T. Aguiyi-Ironsi (b) to kill off all the Yamiri Army Officers; (c) and subsequently purge the Army of Yamiri by killing the rest in the ranks. 2. With the aid of the Westerners in the Army, to take complete control of the Armed Forces, the Police and the Navy and to purge off the Yamiri in these Forces too. 3. To kill off and dispossess all the Yamiri domiciled in the Northern Region. 4. To use the control of the Armed Forces to take control of the country's Government. 5. To revenge Sardauna's and Abubakar's death by killing Dr. Zik, Dr. Okpara, Ojukwu and Major Nzeogwu. 6. To destroy Port Harcourt, Enugu and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. 7. To kill all (a) Yamiri in top civil service posts; (b) all wealthy Yamiri - male and female; (c) all Yamiri educational giants; (d) all grown up males and females of Yamiri; (e) to leave out only sucklings in Yamiri land. (Tribunal Report pp. 133-134) Page 6 Contd.../ It should be noted that radio broadcasts from Kaduna in the early part of the present war did blatantly confirm the objectives of the programme and the course of events ever since has proved the deliberate and faithful execution of the programme. Programme nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 have now been fully achieved. In the present war the brave and determined resistance of the Biafra people have so far prevented the conclusion of programme No. 7. Two remarkable examples may be given about how the rank and file of the Nigerian Army feel about their mission in Biafra - a feeling which the Nigerian Authorities have expressly and implicitly fostered. Soon after the launching of the war of aggression by Nigeria on 6th July, 1967, and ever since, the Nigerian radio based in Lagos has consistently broadcast before and after its main news programme a war song in Hausa which bears the following interpretation "Let us go and crush them. We will pillage their property, ravish their womenfolk, murder their menfolk and complete the pogrom of 1966". The Nigerian Army acts faithfully in the spirit of this war song. A scrap book belonging to one GANIYU SODEINDE, NA. 38611, Nigerian Army Weapon Training Depot, captured from the enemy at Bori contains the following account of what his Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Onifade, who was also killed in the front, very often repeated to his men about the official Nigerian attitude towards Biafrans: "He (referring to Lt.-Col. Onifade) expressed doubts at the possibility of Nigeria subjugating Biafra in the present war. Even if this were possible, he said, there was the danger that another generation of Biafrans could spring up. He said that Germany had once faced the same period of trial in her history which Biafra is facing at the moment; but today, the Germans are leading the world in technological skill. Similarly, he predicted a glorious future for Biafra if allowed to exist. But inherent in such a situation, he felt was the obvious THREAT to Nigeria both now and ever. He stated that what all sons and daughters of Nigeria should do to prevent such a situation from developing was not only to subjugate Biafra but at the same time to ensure that a new generation of Biafrans does not rise up to perpetuate their race. He commanded us to kill every Biafran we meet." Page 7 Contd.../ The issue as to whether genocide is being committed in Biafra or not raises no problems at all. The Nigerian authorities have admitted that there is genocide going on in Biafra. They however disclaim responsibility for same and accuse Biafrans with the perpetration of these crimes against humanity. In their paper to the O.A.U. Consultative Committee, the Nigerian delegation cited examples of total extermination of towns and villages in Calabar area of Biafra. The issue therefore is who is responsible for these acts of genocide - Nigeria or Biafra. To decide this one has to remember that about 90% of the total population of the areas presently occupied by Federal Nigerian Troops are either behind the Biafran lines or hiding in the bush. Those behind the Biafran lines are seen by all visitors including the international relief agencies in their hundreds of refugee camps. Those hiding in the bush as well as those who fled behind the Biafran lines are obviously running away ! from Nigerian troops.
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More historical atrocities committed by Northern Muslims upon Igbo people. Igbos must constantly re-visit these past crimes to keep a clear understanding of how we must deal with the Muslim oppressors of our nation.
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Lest we forget who we are dealing with... and I don't care what groups are embarassed about this information. It is a historical record and we need to refresh our memories constantly.
“What had started as a belief was transmuted to total conviction; that they could never again live with Nigerians. From this stems the primordial political reality of the present situation. Biafra cannot be killed by anything short of total eradication of the people who make her. For even under total occupation Biafra would sooner or without Colonel Ojukwu, rise up again.”
The Biafra Story
Frederick Forsyth
"Surely, when a whole people is rejected by the majority of the state in which they live, they must have the right to live under a different kind of arrangement which does secure their existence. States are made to serve people; governments are established to protect the citizens of a state against external enemies and internal wrong-doers."
President Julius Nyerere
Biafra, Human Rights and Self-determination in Africa.
April 13, 1968 (Dar es Salam)
We, “The Igbo Coalition in the Americas”, want to alert you about a serious humanitarian issue, the immense injustice that has befallen our peace loving, God fearing population, a people steeped in the Judea-Christian and democratic values, the Igbo (or Ibo) nation in Nigeria.
Nigeria is at a crossroad again and as usual the Igbo nation is the scape goat. There is a concerted effort by Islamic extremists and Islamic political leaders in the Feudal-Moslem North to subjugate the Igbo nation. This plot is openly and enthusiastically supported by such countries as Iran, Libya and Sudan. To Muslim extremists, the Igbo nation is the only force that stands between them and the total Islamization of West Africa.
We, the Igbo people have suffered many pogroms in the past. We are the survivors of the most brutal genocidal massacres ever unleashed in Africa, south of the Sahara. We have paid an immense prize at the hands of Moslem radicals who consider the Igbo nation as the most despicable of infidels outside of the Republic of Israel. In the past 50 years, more than 5 million Igbo people have died in pogroms, wars and massacres designed to “teach the Igbo a lesson”. For our rich Judea-Christian and democratic values, many Moslems regard us Igbo as little better than vermin, worthy of the most brutal treatment.
To illustrate the urgency of our plight, below is a small snapshot of a few of the pogroms and acts of genocidal slaughter that the Igbo have suffered in Nigeria since 1945:
Crimes of GENOCIDE Committed by NIGERIA on the IGBO
“We do not want, Sir, our Southern neighbours to interfere in our development.... I should like to make it clear to you that if the British quitted Nigeria now at this stage the northern people would continue their interrupted conquest to the sea.”
Mallam Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (1947)
Later to become Prime Minister of Nigeria
1945 Northern Moslems kill HUNDREDS of IGBO civilians in the Northern city of JOS and loot their properties worth hundreds of millions of dollars!
1953 Northern Moslems pounce on IGBO civilians in the Northern city of KANO, HUNDREDS of IGBO men and women are killed and their property worth in the hundreds of millions are looted!
“The seeds of the trouble which broke out in Kano on May 1953 have their counterparts still in the ground. It could happen again, and only a realization and acceptance of the underlying causes can remove the danger of recurrence.”
Official Report of the 1953 Massacre in Kano
British Administrative officer
“Mr. Chairman, Sir, since 1955 this government had laid down a policy. First Northerners, second Expatriates and third non-northerners. Mr. Chairman, Sir, I have noted very carefully all the speeches made by all the Members in the Honourable House and I am ready to put up to my Government their views and I hope my Government will give them consideration ... I think these two things are the major things I have to answer now. One is on scholarship and the other is on how to do away with the Ibos.”
Alhaji Mustafa Ismaila Zanna Dujuna (Minister of Establishments and training)
AN INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS FIND
PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF GENOCIDE
1966 * MAY * JULY * SEPTEMBER *
(The worst pogrom in all of Africa up to that time!)
“It is pertinent to observe that the Atrocities Tribunal found as a fact that the Northern Nigeria authorities with their collaborators had devised a seven point program aimed at a complete extermination of the then Eastern Nigerians (now Biafrans) in Northern Nigeria and other parts of the federation. The program is outlined as follows:
1. (a) to kill off the Major-general and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, T. J. T. Aguiyi-Ironsi;
(b) to kill off all Yamiri (Igbo) Army officers;
(c) and subsequently purge the Army of Yamiri by killing the rest in the ranks.
2. With the aid of the Westerners in the army, to take complete control of the Armed Forces, the Police and the Navy and to purge off the Yamiri in these forces too.
3. To kill off and dispossess all the Yamiri domiciled in the Northern region.
4. To use the control of the Armed Forces to take control of the country's Government.
5. To revenge Sarduana's and Abubakar's death by killing Dr. Zik, Dr. Okpara, Ojukwu and Major Nzeogwu.
6. To destroy Port Harcourt, Enugu and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
7. To kill all
(a) Yamiri in top civil service posts;
(b) all wealthy Yamiri - male and female;
(c) all Yamiri educational giants;
(d) all grown up males and females of Yamiri;
(e) to leave out only sucklings in yamiri land.
(Tribunal Report pp. 133 - 134)”
AN INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS FIND
PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF GENOCIDE
“The army was even more deeply involved. The following graphic report was given to the Atrocities tribunal by Paul I. Okwawa, the teacher we mentioned earlier, should silence the argument as to whether or not Nigerians had the intention to exterminate Biafrans:
“At 6.30 p.m. on October 1st we arrived at the (Kano) Airport and to my greatest surprise I saw a sight that drove fear into my heart. Literally all the Northern ex-politicians had gathered at the airport in their immaculate white gowns. I saw Aminu Kano. I saw Maitama Sule, Inua Wada. Many Europeans also came to the Airport. Exactly at 6.50 p.m. soldiers in green shirts and trousers invaded the Airport.
“I had a presentiment that something bad was in the air, and as we sat near our luggage we wondered whether these ex-politicians and their European, Asian and Arab friends had come to witness the final liquidation of our people. Soon shots were heard everywhere. That day was declared a public holiday, and as usual many Ibos came to the airport ....
“one soldier ordered me outside and asked me where I came from. When I told him I was a Mid-Westerner he told me I was lying because he knew where I came from. What I heard was: “About turn! Quick march!” I heard a shot behind me and I fell down and passed out.
“How long I was there before I came round I could not tell. But when I became conscious, a heap of dead men was on me. Some still breathing but others stone dead. It took me some time to extricate myself from the dead bodies heaped upon me. I crept over other dead bodies as I tried to hide because soldiers were still shooting people in their hiding places at the airport. ...”
AN INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS FIND
PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF GENOCIDE
“Bestialities and indignities of all kinds were visited on Biafrans in 1966. In Ikeja Barracks (Western Nigeria) Biafrans were forcibly fed on a mixture of human urine and feaces. In Northern Nigeria numerous Biafran house-wives and nursing mothers were raped before their husbands and children. Young girls were abducted from their homes, working places and schools and forced into sexual intercourse with sick, demented and leprous men.
Mr. Erif Spiff (Eye witness)
Atrocities Tribunal
AN INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS FIND
PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF GENOCIDE
“Finally, the monstrous atrocities which accompanied the groesome massacres of 1966 bore testimony to the fact that the perpetrators were religiously intent on genocide. There were numerous cases of torture and humiliation, maiming and mutilation, gouging out of the eyes and tearing out of the womb, slaughter and decapitation - atrocities which can only be explained by the determination of the perpetrators to destroy Biafrans in every conceivable way. A witness, Dick Iwobi, described to the Atrocities Tribunal an outrageous method of murder which Northern Nigerians practised on Biafrans:
“This punishment is one of the most dreadful way of crucifying a person. A heavy rod is tied across the back of the chest of the victim with his hands stretched and secured firmly on the rod. While the victim may still be standing on his legs, he is as helpless as a man nailed to a cross. In this position they then proceed to torture the victim by plucking his eyes, cutting his tongue or cutting his testicles ...”
AN INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS FIND
PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF GENOCIDE
Band of killers, mostly Moslems, in all Hamlets, Villages, Towns and Cities in Northern Nigeria carried out one of the most barbaric pogroms in contemporary history against the Igbo living in Northern Nigeria. At the end of three waves of all-out massacres, FIFTY THOUSAND IGBO (and other Easterner Nigerians) were slaughtered. Among the dead were men and women of all ages, as well as children. Unborn fetuses were not spared during these three months when armed marauders prowled everywhere outside of Eastern Nigeria, hunting Igbo people down like animals: Pregnant Igbo women were captured, their bellies ripped open and their unborn children hacked to death.
1967 - 1970 (Nigeria - Biafra War)
“Let us go and crush them. We will pillage their property, rape their womenfolk, kill off their menfolk and leave them uselessly weeping. We will complete the pogrom of 1966"
The theme song of Radio Kaduna, government-controlled, is the above chant in Hausa.
“There has been genocide, for example on the occasion of the 1966 massacres ... Two areas have suffered badly [from the fighting]. Firstly the region between the towns of Benin and asaba where only widows and orphans remain, Federal troops having for unknown reasons massacred all the men.”
“According to eyewitnesses of that massacre the Nigerian commander ordered the execution of every Ibo male over the age of ten years.”
Monsignor Georges (sent down on a fact-finding mission by His holiness the Pope)
Le Monde (French evening newspaper)
April 5, 1968
THE BRUTALITY OF NATIONS
DAN JACOBS
“All is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don't see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder.”
Chief Awolowo (Minister of Finance)
THE BRUTALITY OF NATIONS
DAN JACOBS
“Unfortunately this [Gowon's] enlightenment at the top level does not penetrate very deep: a lagos police officer was quoted last month as saying that “the Ibos must be considerably reduced in number”
Dr Conor cruise O'Bien
21 December 1967
New York review
“The same UNICEF representative went on to convey something of what lay behind this intransigence: “Among the large majority hailing from that tribe (Yorubas) who are most vocal in inciting the complete extermination of the Ibos, I often heard remarks that all Nigeria's ills will be cured once the Ibos have been removed ...”
THE BRUTALITY OF NATIONS
DAN JACOBS
“I want to see no Red Cross, no Caritas, no World Council of Churches, no Pope, no missionary and no UN delegation. I want to prevent even one Ibo having one piece to eat before their capitulation. We shoot at everything that moves.” Asked what his forces would do when they overran the center of Ibo territory, Adekunle replied, “then we shoot at everything. Even things that don't move.”
Colonel Adekunle (Commander of the 3rd Marine Commando)
THE BRUTALITY OF NATIONS
DAN JACOBS
Comments: General Obasanjo (current President of Nigeria) continued with the above policy after he replaced Adekunle as the commander of the 3rd Marine Commando.
“One word now describes the policy of the Nigerian military government towards secessionist Biafra: genocide. It is ugly and extreme but it is the only word which fits Nigeria's decision to stop the International Committee of the red Cross, and other relief agencies, from flying food to Biafra ...”
Mayer
Washington Post (editorial)
July 2, 1969
In July, a Northern led army declared war on the Igbo/Easterners in their homeland in Southeastern Nigeria who, out of utter shock at the pogrom unleashed against the Igbo, had concluded that Easterners/Igbo were not wanted in the Nigerian Federation and had declared the Eastern Region the independent Republic of Biafra. By the time the war ended in January 1970, more than THREE MILLION IGBO people, including over a million children had died. Many of the dead, especially children, had died of starvation, a result of the deliberate policy of the Nigerian government, which had imposed a total land, sea and air blockade of Biafra, prohibiting even food and medical deliveries to the war zone!
“The war seems to be reaching its conclusion, with the terror of possible reprisals and massacres against defenseless people worn out by deprivations, by hunger and by the loss of all they possess. The news this morning is very alarming ... One fear torments public opinion. The fear that the victory of arms may carry with it the killing of numberless people. There are those who actually fear a kind of genocide.”
Pope Paul VI
THE BRUTALITY OF NATIONS
DAN JACOBS
“Until now efforts to relieve the Biafran people have been thwarted by the desire of the central government of Nigeria to pursue total and unconditional victory and by the fear of the Ibo people that surrender means wholesale atrocities and genocide. But genocide is what is taking place right now - and starvation is the grim reaper. This is not the time to stand on ceremony, or to 'go through channels' or to observe the diplomatic niceties. The destruction of an entire people is an immoral objective even in the most moral of wars. It can never be justified; it can never be condoned.”
Mr Richard Nixon
September 9, 1968
During the Presidential campaign
“The loss of life from starvation continues at more than 10,000 persons per day - over 1,000,000 lives in recent months. Without emergency measures now, the number will climb to 25,000 per day within a month - and some 2,000,000 deaths by the end of the year. The new year will only bring greater disaster to a people caught in the passion of fratricidal war.”
Senator Kennedy appeals to America's Leaders for greater humanitarian aid to Nigeria - Biafra and efforts to end the civil war.
Sunday, November 17, 1968
“However, Richard Nixon got a very different sense of the situation when he met Rogers and officials of the African Bureau. Following their briefing, he telephoned his National Security adviser and said: “They're going to let them starve, aren't they, Henry.”
President Richard Nixon
THE BRUTALITY OF NATIONS
DAN JACOBS
Since 1980 thousands of Igbo have continued to be attacked and massacred!
1980 Northern City of KANO!
1982 Northern City of MAIDUGURI!
1984 Northern City of YOLA!
1985 Northern City of GOMBE!
1986 Northern Cities of KADUNA and KAFANCHAN!
1991 Northern Cities of BAUCHI, KATSINA and KANO!
1992 Northern City of ZANGO KATAF!
1993 Northern City of FUNTUA!
1994 Northern City of KANO!
....
2000 (Feb.) More than 3000 CHRISTIANS which included more than 2000 IGBO were slaughtered in cold blood by Northern MOSLEM FANATICS in the Northern City of KADUNA!
2000 (Apr.) Northern City of DAMBOA!
AT PRESENT SECRET KILLINGS OF IGBO CONTINUE IN THE NORTH!
As we write, a well-designed plan is being carried out throughout Nigeria. The Igbo people are the largest single ethnic group of Christians in all of Africa. As usual the current plan targets the Igbo for subjugation, even destruction. The Igbo nation continues to pay a heavy prize for their religious beliefs and ethnic background!
Before we continue on this subject, we ask that you look at the map below:
As shown in the map above the following states: SOKOTO, ZAMFARA, KATSINA, KEBBI, NIGER, JIGAWA, YOBE, BAUCHI, BORNO, KANO, GOMBE are now Islamic states. These states have unilaterally adopted Islam as their state religion and legal/criminal code, in direct and flagrant violation of the constitution of Nigeria. They have even gone further to stop and confiscate the assets of legitimate businesses that belong to law abiding citizens, mainly Igbo.
To understand the implications of what the Igbo and other non Moslem nations face in Nigeria, we have included the map of states in Nigeria showing the unfolding ISLAMIC REPUBLIC. Muslim extremists and their political and religious leaders now believe that, for Nigeria to remain one country, it must now become an Islamic nation. The people of Southern Sudan, for more than 30 years, have been involved in a life and death struggle with the Arab, Islamist Northern Government in Khartoum, in a total rejection of the Islamization of their area. We the Igbo people totally reject the TALIBANIZATION and ISLAMIZATION of Nigeria. The Igbo people do not want to live in an Islamic republic. We want to live in a nation in which the law makes a clear separation between church and state, where the law respects the rights of all citizens to follow the religion of their choice, where government can not make policies favoring one religion over another.
It is important that we stress the following:
Islam is a great religion and we have nothing against Islam or Moslem, whether such Moslems live in Nigeria or else where. We recognize the right of Moslems in Northern Nigeria, or else where, to practice and live by the Islamic principles in their own NATION. They have now declared that right and we support them.
Since the Igbo and other non-Moslems have every right to practice whatever religion they choose and live by whatever principles they choose, it is important that the free world recognize and accord this equally very important right.
This threat to Islamize Nigeria, and in fact West Africa can best be illustrated by the two articles below:
#1
Post Express
Category: News
Date of Article: 06/05/2000
Topic: Libya to Build Islamic Varsity in Kano ... Signs N30b contract
Author: Bassey Inyang, Kano
Full Text of Article:
To further promote Islamic education in the country, the Libyan government, over the weekend in Kano, signed a contract of $300m (N30 billion) for the construction of an Islamic university in the city.
The $300 million school is to be known as Moumar Gaddafi Islamic University, Kano, a name borrowed from the Libyan strongman Col. Moumar Gaddafi. Addressing newsmen in Kano over the development, the Director of the World Islamic Call Society (WICS), Mr. Mohammed Ali, said his organization is handling the project on behalf of the Libyan government, adding that the school project would be financed from the "Jihad Tax" paid by Libyans.
Ali disclosed that the decision to set up an Islamic university for the propagation of the faith in Nigeria was informed by one of the five pillars of the faith which provides for the prosecution of a Jihad (holy war) to spread the religion, first championed by Holy Prophet Mohammed."Whatever we are spending is from the pocket of the Libyan people called "Jihad Tax" it is one of the Islamic pillars that you have to do it with your money or through any other means" Ali, who spoke through an interpreter stated.
According to Ali, the idea behind the university was to ensure that the Islamic knowledge was preached throughout Nigeria and other sub-Sahara African countries.
He stated that the idea behind the university was also aimed at checkmating the influence of European imperialists in Nigeria and Africa at large, adding that at the fullness of time, the project will facilitate the formation of the United States of Africa (USA).
Ali said the move by Gaddafi to propagate the teaching and learning of Islam in Nigeria was not new as the leader of the Jamahariah was only following the footsteps of his forefathers who helped in bringing Islam to Western Sudan. Ali, who also spoke on the conflicts in parts of Nigeria as a result of the introduction of the Sharia said the conflicts wee not borne out of the Sharia but external forces from outside the country who were bent on splitting Nigeria. He asked Nigeria to resist foreign powers with all resources at their disposal so as to keep the country united.
Ali disclosed that the WICS was enjoying every amount of support from the Kano State government and the Federal Government as well, saying "President Olusegun Obasanjo and Gaddafi are very good friends."
The Gaddafi University which is to be cited along Gwarzo road in Kano city, will be constructed by Messrs AG. Ferrario Ltd.
The school will cover all landscape of 137 hectres, and will teach all conventional subjects ranging from medicine, sciences, agriculture, engineering, arts and a host of others.
The contract papers were signed on behalf of the construction firm by Mr. Constantino Ferrario while Mohammed Ali signed on behalf of the Libyan government.
*************
#2
The Guardian Online -
Tuesday, June 6, 2000
Nigerian Moslem leaders to attend Sharia summit in Niger
NIGERIAN Moslem scholars and leaders will attend a Sharia summit scheduled for Niger Republic's city of Madawa alongside their counterparts from Togo and Republic of Benin this week, British Broadcasting Corporation said yesterday.
The summit is to promote Islamic law in the sub-region.
*************
These two articles above and others that we can provide if needed, will definitely point the trajectory to an unfolding Islamic conquest if permitted. Remember that since 1945, Southern Sudan has been in a death struggle against this impending conquest.
We are told that “Nigeria has taken steps towards a fairer, more democratic government, that the elections held in February represent a positive sign for Nigeria's future.” But does this also extend to the Igbo? Below is a verifiable track record of the so called fair democratic Obasanjo's regime.
New Heights in Marginalization (Obasanjo regime)
“A conversation with one of the most impressive ministers provided significant insight into the political aims of the federal Government .... The Minister discussed the question of the reintegration of the Ibos in the future state .... The war aim, and solution properly speaking of the entire problem, he said, was 'to discriminate against the Ibos in the future in their own interest'. Such discrimination would include above all the detachment of those oil-rich territories in the eastern Region which were not inhabited by Ibos at the start of the colonial period (1900), on the lines of the twelve-state plan. In addition the Ibos' freedom of movement would be restricted, to prevent their renewed penetration into other parts of the country ... Leaving any access to the sea to the Ibos, the minister declared, was quite out of the question.”
The Biafra Story
Frederick Forsyth
If the history of skewed appointments since independence leaves any one in doubt about the emergence of a pattern, the Obasanjo regime has cleared such doubts. No regime has betrayed so much disdain for the rights of the Igbo in its appointments as the Obasanjo regime. We review the appointment so far. It is important to stress that no Igbo has attained the position as executive head of state of Nigeria since the end of the Nigeria-Biafra war in 1970; also glass ceiling has been created to limit Igbo from attaining ministerial positions in the following departments: Defense, Foreign, Petroleum, Internal Affairs, etc
i) National Security Council:
South West (Yoruba) 4 (including the President)
North Central 3
North East 2 (including Vice-President)
North West 2
South South 1
South East (Igbo) 0
The absence of any person from the South-East zone contravenes section 14(3) of the 1999 constitution, especially as paragraph (1) of section 25 of part 1, 3rd schedule of the 1999 constitution dealing with the composition of the National security Council provides that two additional members may be appointed to the National Security Council at the president's discretion.
ii Armed Forces:
The South East (Igbo) does not presently have any Major General or the ranks above it in the Nigerian Army, or the equivalent rank in the Nigerian Air Force and the Nigerian Navy and therefore, cannot produce any of the service Chiefs. Moreover, the number of officers of South-east (Igbo) zone is far short of the one sixth of the total as required by Section 14(3) of the 1999 constitution.
iii Nigerian police:
Out of the 16 top police officers, VIZ, IG, DIGs & AIGs, there is only one AIG of South East (Igbo) origin, contrary to the constitutional requirements in Section 14(3). (IG - inspector general of police, DIG - deputy inspector general of police, AIG - assistant inspector general of police)
Also, the South-East (Igbo) Zone under the present structure of the Nigeria Police Force, would appear to be a colonized territory because:
Anambra State Command (an Igbo State) reports to the AIG based in Benin (South-South Zone).
Enugu State Command (an Igbo State) reports to the AIG based in Makurdi (North-Central Zone)
Abia, Ebonyi and Imo States Commands (all Igbo states) report to the AIG in Calabar (South-South Zone).
There is need for the zonal structure of the Nigeria police Force to be changed so that the Police State Commands in the South East Zone constitute its own zone with its zonal office based in the South-East zone, to which all the state commands of the 5 South Eastern States (Igbo) will report, as is the arrangement in other geo-political zones. It was recently that due to the demands of Igbo at home and in diaspora that Obasanjo grudgingly agreed to give the South East its own zonal command.
iv. Allocation of Ministries
We quote the protest of South East (Igbo) Zone of the ruling Peoples democratic Party:
“We note that in the allocation of portfolios to the ministers appointed, there is a gross imbalance against the South-East (Igbo) Zone in the number and importance of the portfolios. Persons from the South-East Zone were given 3 Cabinet ministerial positions, which is the lowest number of all the Zones, and 4 ministers of State.”
For comparative purposes, it may be noted that:
South-west has 5 Cabinet Ministers (excluding Petroleum under The President) and 4 Ministers of State.
North-West has 6 Cabinet Ministers and 4 ministers of State.
North-Central has 4 Cabinet Ministers and 3 Ministers of State.
North-East has 4 Cabinet Ministers and 4 Ministers of State.
South-south has 4 Cabinet Ministers and 4 Ministers of State.
Social Dis-empowerment
[ i] Employment in the Federal Sector
In spite of this elaborate provision of the constitution that there should be predominance of a few ethnic or other sectional groups and in spite of the powers given to the Federal Character Commission in this regard, some ethnic groups and some sectional groups have continued to have predominance in share of employment at the expenses of some other ethnic groups especially Igbo.
The deliberate under-representation in aggregation of States, effected by giving Igbo ethnic group less number of States than its population merits is a predictable ploy to ensure that Igbo will be permanently short-changed in the distribution of employment and other resources. Today, Igbo (South-East) lag, in the distribution of employment and amenities, behind the Yoruba (South-West) and the Hausa-Fulani (North-West), the two other major ethnic groupings with which Igbo rank in population.
The situation in representations and employments in International Organizations in Nigeria shows a similar pattern of marginalisation. Even among the three southern zones Igbo have been worse off. It is a major path of the marginalisation plan and cynical divide-and-rule tactic that for all positions coming to the southern zones, those at the helm of affairs have always contrived to head such positions away from the Igbo zone (South East) in favor of the other two zones especially the South West (Yoruba) in furtherance of the marginalisation of the Igbo.
Admittedly, some other zones from the north are also disadvantaged in terms of number of staff, but the reason, unlike the case of the South-East (Igbo) (where there is abundant and available relevant manpower in all fields of human endeavor), is that the zones have a paucity of the requisite manpower.
Racial Discrimination
(a) Exploitation
“Fortunately the oil statistics both of the major oil companies and of the Nigerian Government are available for study. For the month of December 1966 out of total production in Nigeria 36.5 per cent came from the Midwest, which was not part of Biafra. Of the Biafran production for that month, Lagos' own figures show that 50 per cent came from Aba Province (pure Ibo area), 20 per cent from Ahoada Division (majority Ibo area), and 30 per cent from Ogoni Division and Oloibiri (Ogoni/Ijaw area).”
George Knapp
Aspects of the Biafran Affair, London
pp. 27, 28, 53 and 54
50% of Nigeria's crude oil export come from Igbo speaking areas, and most of these areas have been carved out of Igbo states into non-Igbo states resulting in the separation of families and communities which has resulted in the further marginalization of the Igbo nation.
The presence of Igbo, a diaspora people, boosts the population figures of their resident States in census counts. Also, the contributions of the Igbo residents help the economy of the States. Yet, the Igbo residents are denied the full benefits of citizenship in all such States in many subtle but effective ways. Such ways include:
(i) Exclusion from the benefits of Federal Character Law:
Dispensations (such as scholarships and employments) which flow to States (which means explicit geo-political basis of States, not tribes) are shared by their governments exclusively to the indigenes, as against the stranger residents, normally Igbo.
(ii) Differential Civil Obligations:
Different tax assessments and school fees operate in favor of the indigenes, against the detriment of “stranger elements”, mainly Igbo. The heavier loser in this legal network of exploitation is the Igbo land. In a country where population size is a vital variable in revenue sharing, Igbo land loses the head-count of millions of her children in diaspora during national census (Igbo in diaspora- outside South East zone, constitute at least 50% of the overall Igbo population).Yet she is made to bear and suffer the grim natal obligations for these millions whom Nigeria denies the full protection of citizenship and residency rights through the manipulations of “State of Origin” proviso.
(b) Discrimination and attacks in business
“I was having a talk to Enahoro the other week and asked him whether Ibos would ever be allowed to move around Nigeria after the war. He replied, “Well the army boys tell me they do not intend to let more than 50,000 Ibos live outside the east Central State ever again”.
Senior Canadian Correspondent
The Biafra Story
Frederick forsyth
Igbo businesses suffer also from many other discriminating laws. In Katsina State, there was unprovoked molestation of Igbo entrepreneurs in August 1999, resulting in arson on Igbo hotels, restaurants and businesses. This was followed soon after by similar destruction in Zamfara State following the islamization of the State. Again, all these acts seemed to enjoy immunity from the law. The nearest which Igbo got to an official acknowledgement of injustice was President Obasanjo's reply to the letter of protest of Dr Orji Uzo Kalu, Governor of Abia State, in which he expressed his satisfaction that Katsina State Government had taken measures against recurrence of such incidents. Officialdom was, as usual, coldly silent on compensation for destroyed businesses or punishment of offenders.
(c) Society's Scape-goats
“But even at this stage certain points can be made with absolute certainty. First, whatever has been done, the Nigerian Military Government and its Head, the Supreme Commander, cannot escape responsibility in law.
“Second prima facie cases already exist against individual Nigerian Army commanders for instigation of, or responsibility for, distinct and numerous cases of mass murder over and above the requirements of war.
“Third, the charge of genocide is too big for the world authority vested by the signatories of the Convention in the United Nations to be required to wait for a post factum inquiry, or none at all. If the Convention is to rate as anything other than a useless piece of paper, a reasonable suspicion of genocide must suffice to bring investigation. This reasonable suspicious has been established months ago; and the United Nations is in breach of its own sworn word, embodied in Article One, so long as it continues to refuse to investigate. Lastly, whatever the Nigerians have done, the British Government of Harold Wilson has voluntarily made itself a total accomplice. As of December 1968 there can be no further question of neutrality, or ignorance, or a helping hand to a friendly government. The involvement is absolute.”
The Biafra Story
Frederick Forsyth
Finally, the Igbo has always been the favorite scapegoats of the various ethnic political and religious conflicts and clashes in the country. The property of Igbo are frequently looted whenever there is group conflict, whether or not the Igbo are involved.
(d) Protection of the Law
In all the riots Igbo were made victims as they were killed and their property destroyed or looted. In the history of Nigeria, no government has ever offered compensation or any other form of redress to the Igbo even in cases of perfunctory official inquiries. Ndi Igbo (the Igbo) enjoy less protection of the law than any other ethnic group in Nigeria. A blood-chilling celebration of the licence of impunity to the rest of Nigeria in their treatment of Igbo citizens was the confident action of the mob who hoisted the head of a murdered Igbo citizen, Mr. Akaluka on a pole in a macabre street procession of triumph right in the presence of law enforcement agencies, in Kano, during an orgy of days of Igbo racial-baiting and massacres.
Economic Dis-empowerment
Denial and Delay of infra-structural Facilities
The unwillingness of Federal Government to repair or reconstruct the bad infra-structural facilities damaged during the war hardened into cold indifference or indeed opposition to the existence of any infra-structures in Igbo land. The roads in the five states of South East (Igbo States) have been acknowledged by all observers as the worst in the Federation.
The attitude of the federal Government is clearly illustrated by one incident. The Onitsha market, the commercial knob of Nigeria with links of patronage to most states of West African sub-region, was burnt down in a fire disaster. The evident value of this market to the economy and foreign image of Nigeria should have been enough strong reason to move the Federal Government to re
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