Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Cornelius Hamelberg
Chidi Anthony Opara
CAO.
Olayinka Agbetuyi
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Chidi Anthony Opara
CAO.
Kenneth Harrow
ken
Kenneth Harrow
Dept of English and Film Studies
Michigan State University
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-803-8839
har...@msu.edu
http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/
On 09/06/2017, 21:59, "Chidi Anthony Opara" <usaafric...@googlegroups.com on behalf of chidi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>(Peaceful)separatist agitations don't have to result to people being slaughtered.
>
>CAO.
>
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Chidi Anthony Opara
CAO.
Rex Marinus
Agbetuyi, you did not get the hint of reproach in Chidi and Ken Harrow's retort. The first thing that comes to your mind when the Igbo protest, or raise a voice to complain about their situation, is Igbo bodies slaughtered across Nigeria and trucked back to the East. Why do you conceive of that kind of carnage when it comes to the Igbo? Why do you have to kill the Igbo for political speech, for asking for justice, or for actually asking for recognition of the equality of all Nigerians failing which separation? Why is it that the only Igbo who has to stay alive in your mind is the silent Igbo, or the prostrate Igbo, or the malleable Igbo, or the Igbo who is merely "photo-on-the wall"? Now you say, "Amen!" But "Amen!" to what? To a Freudian slip? I will only ask you to be very careful with what you wish for. The Igbo are very angry and are not looking again to be slaughtered. We must make every effort to allow peace, secure it, and avoid every urge to engage in slaughter, so that we do not open the kind of dangerous floodgate Ken Harrow has alluded to. You must note this however: the Igbo are not willing to live in Nigeria as "conquered" people, or people who "surrendered" their rights with war. If seeking justice in Nigeria means slaughter of the Igbo, then you must gird your loins with hardier cloth, and you must be prepared to kill them all. But I just hope that more civilized, more humane, and more tolerant impulses prevail, and not the impulses that dream about scattered Igbo body parts ferried home for burials.
Obi Nwakanma
Sent: Friday, June 9, 2017 10:53 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Olayinka Agbetuyi
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
CAO.
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Olayinka Agbetuyi
Rex Marinus
"Speak only for your jaundiced self as Obi Nwakama and not for the Igbo. I have more Igbo real friends than you do!"
-Olayinka Agbetuyi
Agbetuyi:
I am going to make this my very last statement on this round of talk on Biafra because, not unexpectedly it did quickly degenerate into school-yard antics. It has become predictable, circular and boring. When people cannot deploy coherent argument, or when they enter slippery zones where they have nothing better to say, they resort to blackmail and name calling. You want to bully me with the age of you sister. I do not give a shit how old you are, or how old your sister is. Age alone does not confer regard, integrity and wisdom, none of which, I'm sorry to say, you have demonstrated, do. You have for instance not defined how it is that my argument is frivolous. Is it because I reminded you of your tendency to invoke carnage on the Igbo when they seek justice? Yet I am the one who is a "laughing stock." I do not know who is laughing, and who is the "stock." But this cliché is deployed to silence those who speak to things that are either beyond your comprehension, or that frighten you. There are two kinds of laughter: there is the laugher of the fool who laughs because he dos not know when to laugh, and there is also the laughter of the inebriated, who has a compulsion disorder at that point of over excitement. And so you can laugh all you want, if it makes you happy to think that Obi Nwakanma is a "laughing stock" in your forum. I mean, you must have clearly taken opinion samples from members of this forum to come to this claim. it is all in character of course, that you either do not know the exact meaning of the terms you use, or you are as often as it is true remarkably full of beans. But what do you expect of people who could call Ojukwu a "coward": a man fights a war, goes into exile, returns to great acclaim, and sits "gidigbam" in the capital city on his return, and never stopped talking, never pulled punches, and never hid behind the veil of silence. When all the Generals who fought him saw him, they often stood in attention to salute him or otherwise fled from him. If such a man were a coward, then "cowardice" has a different meaning. But of course, the Agbetuyi's and the like, because they need to feel happy with themselves call Ojukwu a "coward," Obi Nwakanma, some "laughing stock," and Achuzia, "self-acclaimed war lord." You think you can really bully me with such verbal blackmail? Who gives a shit what you think? What you think does not really count where it matters most.
And please, do not insult the word "friendship." You have no Igbo friends. You have "Igboanguish" - its a form of a Nigerian national anxiety disorder; the same that affects redneck neighborhoods in the American south when it comes to African-Americans. You'd see the most racist of such say, "I have black friends." If you have Igbo friends, you wouldn't say it; there is nothing special in having Igbo friends, and the very fact that you mark them as "Igbo friends" speaks to the real issue here. I'd be unable to help you. You need to consult a shrink to deal with this depth of the unheimlich. You must stop thinking about Igbo bodies trucked home for burial because they protest. Period. The Igbo have articulated the very basis of their demands: that Nigeria must begin to treat all Nigerians with equality. The Igbo suffer disproportionately in the Nigerian enterprise - by all the indices that they have deployed in their complaints which I will not rehash here. But at the core of Igbo demand is the equality of citizenship. No Nigerian must be discriminated against wherever they reside in Nigeria. No section of Nigeria must be favored to the deficit of any part. In other words, all policy of development must be based on the human index and the human factor, not on the geographical. Public service must be transparent, etc. The Igbo understand that they have to lead the charge in the transformation of Nigeria, as they did in the anti-colonial movement, for the restoration of the equal rights of citizenship. But now hear you: "the Igbo complain too much, everybody is marginalized. They should shut up!" I am paraphrasing you. But the Igbo have never asked you not to protest; nor have they suggested that you be killed and your body parts be recovered from across Nigeria for seeking social justice. These are your very words: "Why is the case of Igbo unique and why must a section of the Igbo continually blackmail the rest of Nigeria with secession to wrest more than their just due from the federation?" This statement eerily echoes that which feeds the impulsion to genocide, whether it was by what was said of the Jews in Europe- before their expulsion from Spain or by the Nazi pogrom, or with the Tutsis in Rwanda, before their systematic slaughter. But you do not have the emotional intelligence to get even the subtle hints made by Ken Harrow or Chidi. Yet I am the laughing stock. And if you care to follow the responses to this question about Biafra and the conclusion of the war - you'd immediately notice that it follows a known and predictable pattern. It is often by the same people, from the same section of the forum and of the nation. These folk suffer from extreme forms of the anxiety called "Igboanguish." They feel rattled by the fact that the Igbo want equal rights and justice: how dare these "conquered" or "vanquished" Igbo who "surrendered" their rights?, you guys ask. This monomanic compulsion to contain the Igbo is the reason why the Igbo want out. There is your answer. But why do you want to live with the Igbo in the same country? You don't like them. You feel threatened by their presence. You can rid yourself of this Igbo problem by writing to your rep in the National Assembly to support the Act of referendum to determine the choice for secession. That is the democratic and civilized thing to do. Not blackmail the Igbo with the threat of slaughter. Once the Igbo have their own country, you may now turn back any of the buses that you see leaving the East daily towards the West at your borders. You can then also not only restrict their entry, but legitimately expel them, and through visa regulations make certain that the Igbo vermin no longer infests your neighborhood. But for as long as they are part of the same country, their rights to disperse and settle, and enjoy all the rights of citizenship must never be denied them. That's their just due. You cannot want the Igbo and not want them at the same time. There are many Igbo in this forum who keep silent, and watch, and do not bother to respond to the inanities of this obsessive anti-Igbo lynch mob. I do not speak for them. I speak on the simple premise that I have something to say, and that I will follow the Achebean injunction to "balance the stories," so that years from now, if anybody ever finds cause to read these exchanges, they will know who actually is the "laughing stock," and that yours is not the single story. In other words, I write this for my grand children. But I too have become too bored with its circularity. I shall have nothing more to say o this subject until another round of lies that needs to be corrected surfaces. And there you have it.
Obi Nwakanma
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
"Speak only for your jaundiced self as Obi Nwakama and not for the Igbo. I have more Igbo real friends than you do!"
-Olayinka Agbetuyi
Agbetuyi:
I am going to make this my very last statement on this round of talk on Biafra because, not unexpectedly it did quickly degenerate into school-yard antics. It has become predictable, circular and boring. When people cannot deploy coherent argument, or when they enter slippery zones where they have nothing better to say, they resort to blackmail and name calling. You want to bully me with the age of you sister. I do not give a shit how old you are, or how old your sister is. Age alone does not confer regard, integrity and wisdom, none of which, I'm sorry to say, you have demonstrated, do. You have for instance not defined how it is that my argument is frivolous. Is it because I reminded you of your tendency to invoke carnage on the Igbo when they seek justice? Yet I am the one who is a "laughing stock." I do not know who is laughing, and who is the "stock." But this cliché is deployed to silence those who speak to things that are either beyond your comprehension, or that frighten you. There are two kinds of laughter: there is the laugher of the fool who laughs because he dos not know when to laugh, and there is also the laughter of the inebriated, who has a compulsion disorder at that point of over excitement. And so you can laugh all you want, if it makes you happy to think that Obi Nwakanma is a "laughing stock" in your forum. I mean, you must have clearly taken opinion samples from members of this forum to come to this claim. it is all in character of course, that you either do not know the exact meaning of the terms you use, or you are as often as it is true remarkably full of beans. But what do you expect of people who could call Ojukwu a "coward": a man fights a war, goes into exile, returns to great acclaim, and sits "gidigbam" in the capital city on his return, and never stopped talking, never pulled punches, and never hid behind the veil of silence. When all the Generals who fought him saw him, they often stood in attention to salute him or otherwise fled from him. If such a man were a coward, then "cowardice" has a different meaning. But of course, the Agbetuyi's and the like, because they need to feel happy with themselves call Ojukwu a "coward," Obi Nwakanma, some "laughing stock," and Achuzia, "self-acclaimed war lord." You think you can really bully me with such verbal blackmail? Who gives a shit what you think? What you think does not really count where it matters most.
And please, do not insult the word "friendship." You have no Igbo friends. You have "Igboanguish" - its a form of a Nigerian national anxiety disorder; the same that affects redneck neighborhoods in the American south when it comes to African-Americans. You'd see the most racist of such say, "I have black friends." If you have Igbo friends, you wouldn't say it; there is nothing special in having Igbo friends, and the very fact that you mark them as "Igbo friends" speaks to the real issue here. I'd be unable to help you. You need to consult a shrink to deal with this depth of the unheimlich. You must stop thinking about Igbo bodies trucked home for burial because they protest. Period. The Igbo have articulated the very basis of their demands: that Nigeria must begin to treat all Nigerians with equality. The Igbo suffer disproportionately in the Nigerian enterprise - by all the indices that they have deployed in their complaints which I will not rehash here. But at the core of Igbo demand is the equality of citizenship. No Nigerian must be discriminated against wherever they reside in Nigeria. No section of Nigeria must be favored to the deficit of any part. In other words, all policy of development must be based on the human index and the human factor, not on the geographical. Public service must be transparent, etc. The Igbo understand that they have to lead the charge in the transformation of Nigeria, as they did in the anti-colonial movement, for the restoration of the equal rights of citizenship. But now hear you: "the Igbo complain too much, everybody is marginalized. They should shut up!" I am paraphrasing you. But the Igbo have never asked you not to protest; nor have they suggested that you be killed and your body parts be recovered from across Nigeria for seeking social justice. These are your very words: "Why is the case of Igbo unique and why must a section of the Igbo continually blackmail the rest of Nigeria with secession to wrest more than their just due from the federation?" This statement eerily echoes that which feeds the impulsion to genocide, whether it was by what was said of the Jews in Europe- before their expulsion from Spain or by the Nazi pogrom, or with the Tutsis in Rwanda, before their systematic slaughter. But you do not have the emotional intelligence to get even the subtle hints made by Ken Harrow or Chidi. Yet I am the laughing stock. And if you care to follow the responses to this question about Biafra and the conclusion of the war - you'd immediately notice that it follows a known and predictable pattern. It is often by the same people, from the same section of the forum and of the nation. These folk suffer from extreme forms of the anxiety called "Igboanguish." They feel rattled by the fact that the Igbo want equal rights and justice: how dare these "conquered" or "vanquished" Igbo who "surrendered" their rights?, you guys ask. This monomanic compulsion to contain the Igbo is the reason why the Igbo want out. There is your answer. But why do you want to live with the Igbo in the same country? You don't like them. You feel threatened by their presence. You can rid yourself of this Igbo problem by writing to your rep in the National Assembly to support the Act of referendum to determine the choice for secession. That is the democratic and civilized thing to do. Not blackmail the Igbo with the threat of slaughter. Once the Igbo have their own country, you may now turn back any of the buses that you see leaving the East daily towards the West at your borders. You can then also not only restrict their entry, but legitimately expel them, and through visa regulations make certain that the Igbo vermin no longer infests your neighborhood. But for as long as they are part of the same country, their rights to disperse and settle, and enjoy all the rights of citizenship must never be denied them. That's their just due. You cannot want the Igbo and not want them at the same time. There are many Igbo in this forum who keep silent, and watch, and do not bother to respond to the inanities of this obsessive anti-Igbo lynch mob. I do not speak for them. I speak on the simple premise that I have something to say, and that I will follow the Achebean injunction to "balance the stories," so that years from now, if anybody ever finds cause to read these exchanges, they will know who actually is the "laughing stock," and that yours is not the single story. In other words, I write this for my grand children. But I too have become too bored with its circularity. I shall have nothing more to say o this subject until another round of lies that needs to be corrected surfaces. And there you have it.
Obi Nwakanma
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2017 1:01 AM
Cc: Olayinka Agbetuyi
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
Obi:
Let me be forthright with you: You are rhe same age as my youngest sister who holds the same doctorate degree as you do and if she argues in the same vacuous way that you do she knows I would disown her. Agbetuyis dont argue like babies.
You debase the qualifications you hold with the irresponsible line of argument you pursue which has made you the laughing stock of the forum. I tried my best to shield you from attack by exasperated members but you are your own worst enemy.
Did you read the piece byJibrinIbrahim on perception of marginalization by ethnicities in Nigeria? Why is the case of Igbo unique and why must a section of the Igbo continually blackmail the rest of Nigeria with secession to wrest more than their just due from the federation.
I repeat any such Igbo must feel free to withraw to Igboland to continue to deal only with fellow Igbo and leave the other responsible Igbo who realize that living is a question of give and take with other people to continue with their livelihoods in any part of Nigeria in a spirit of give and take.
If there is any act of violence against the persons of such Igbo I can guarantee that we the conscientious non Igbo will be their first line of defence and that they dont need such bigoted, prebendal, self-seeking, pretencious, ethnic jingoist and rabble rousers as yourself as champions of their interests.
Speak only for your jaundiced self as Obi Nwakama and not for the Igbo. I have more Igbo real friends than you do!
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Rex Marinus <rexma...@hotmail.com>Date: 10/06/2017 06:59 (GMT+00:00)Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
Agbetuyi, you did not get the hint of reproach in Chidi and Ken Harrow's retort. The first thing that comes to your mind when the Igbo protest, or raise a voice to complain about their situation, is Igbo bodies slaughtered across Nigeria and trucked back to the East. Why do you conceive of that kind of carnage when it comes to the Igbo? Why do you have to kill the Igbo for political speech, for asking for justice, or for actually asking for recognition of the equality of all Nigerians failing which separation? Why is it that the only Igbo who has to stay alive in your mind is the silent Igbo, or the prostrate Igbo, or the malleable Igbo, or the Igbo who is merely "photo-on-the wall"? Now you say, "Amen!" But "Amen!" to what? To a Freudian slip? I will only ask you to be very careful with what you wish for. The Igbo are very angry and are not looking again to be slaughtered. We must make every effort to allow peace, secure it, and avoid every urge to engage in slaughter, so that we do not open the kind of dangerous floodgate Ken Harrow has alluded to. You must note this however: the Igbo are not willing to live in Nigeria as "conquered" people, or people who "surrendered" their rights with war. If seeking justice in Nigeria means slaughter of the Igbo, then you must gird your loins with hardier cloth, and you must be prepared to kill them all. But I just hope that more civilized, more humane, and more tolerant impulses prevail, and not the impulses that dream about scattered Igbo body parts ferried home for burials.
Obi Nwakanma
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Friday, June 9, 2017 10:53 PM
Cc: Olayinka Agbetuyi
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
Amen!
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com>Date: 09/06/2017 22:39 (GMT+00:00)To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
(Peaceful)separatist agitations don't have to result to people being slaughtered.
CAO.
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Olayinka Agbetuyi
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Olayinka Agbetuyi
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
The SW political elite have previously been the primary advocates of restructuring the nation's political and economic organization to allow for the independence of its constituent units rather than the current crippling dominance from the centre and the debilitating dependence on the mono-economy represented by Niger Delta oil but the previously loudest voices from that region have been muted since they succeeded in entering Aso Rock through the vice-presidency of Yemi Osinbajo, silence inspired by their Hausa-Fulani allies who have consistently voiced their resistance to reworking the political and economic organization of the nation.
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Olayinka Agbetuyi
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Chidi Anthony Opara
CAO.
Kenneth Harrow
Kenneth Harrow
Dept of English and Film Studies
Michigan State University
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
Olayinka Agbetuyi
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Cornelius Hamelberg
To the Muslim Brethren the message is clear : Surah Ali 'Imran ayat 103
Exiting a Nigerian National Brotherhood that comprises more than 250 ethnicities and (a veritable tower Babel) as many diverse tongues, should prove to be no easy task, even if it is or was the desire of each and every region to leave the Federation at one and the same time. This would append so many new, bright and colourful flags fluttering on the Africa Union flagpoles and for the less endowed, it would still continue to be a matter of SURVIVAL
Survival. It's a word you don't hear on the lips of the corrupt elites, wherever they are...
Boko Haram wants its Caliphate. Can't that too be arrived at through a peaceful referendum?
Of course, it should be easiest for the Delta Region to make such a decision to leave Nigeria, in no time at all the Delta Region could be like Kuwait or any of the Gulf States, because the Delta region is the headquarters of the nation's capital assets, the nation's lifeblood, the region where as Fela says, Oil dey flow underground like-e river and that's why the Delta would be a sine qua non for anybody's healthy economy, not least of all our hypothetical Biafra , which the oil-soaked & environmentally degraded Delta could join voluntarily, certainly preferable to being forcibly annexed - even if the Delta can do without Biafra; but how well could Biafra be, without some Delta oil?
Surely, having lived together for so long - and a friend in need is a friend indeed, this is not a time for one part to leave the other parts/ brothers of Nigeria in the lurch.
One of the values held by social democracy is that the strong, should help the weak....
Fast-forward Vision : With an abundance of people like Philip Emeagwali the so called " father of the Internet" being of Igbo extraction we are to suppose that the so revered Biafra could be the first African Nation to put a monkey in space...
On Sunday, 11 June 2017 21:52:56 UTC+2, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju wrote:
The Biafra vision is trans-Igbo in its ideological fundamentals but is Igbo in its practical expression.
The SW political elite have previously been the primary advocates of restructuring the nation's political and economic organization to allow for the independence of its constituent units rather than the current crippling dominance from the centre and the debilitating dependence on the mono-economy represented by Niger Delta oil but the previously loudest voices from that region have been muted since they succeeded in entering Aso Rock through the vice-presidency of Yemi Osinbajo, silence inspired by their Hausa-Fulani allies who have consistently voiced their resistance to reworking the political and economic organization of the nation.It has therefore fallen to the largely Igbo pro-Biafra agitators, pursuing the secession vision of the reworking of Nigeria, to struggle for a social structure that is shaped in the interests of its citizens, not the interests of colonial master Britain who created the dysfunctional nation and the right wing Muslim North, who have succeeded in bleeding the nation through various structural controls, from multiplication of local governments in their region as opposed to other regions as a means of attracting federal revenue and the establishing of ridiculously low cut off marks as opposed to high cut off marks for other regions in entrance exams to schools and universities, breeding a culture of mediocrity.Do you want a country where you and your descendants are empowered to actualize their potential,where excellence is central in the quest for education and job placements, where you will be free from Fulani terrorism as the nomadic advance guard of terrorists run cows across your schools and farms, attacking and killing any who oppose the destruction of their lives and property by such atavistic lifestyles?Do you want a nation in which the parasitic, initiative deadening culture of flow of oil from the Niger Delta to the federal centre and its distribution to the regions as the central economic activity is terminated, as each region or nation struggles to build its own economic structure, taking the country into industrialization, attracting back to Nigeria or nations created from the older country citizens across the world who have fled to other nations because their own country is asphyxiating to human development?If you do, join the Biafra secession struggle or the restructuring struggle. Taking refuge in castigating the Biafra struggle as it champions freedom from slavery is equivalent to sustaining your own slavery in the killing fields of Nigeria, where the massacres of thousands, murderous colonization initiatives exemplified by the massacres in Agatu in the Middle Belt and Nimbo in the South East, by the militia/politician network of Fulani terrorists,who remain free to walk the land even as they boldly and loudly justify their massacres of communities, demonstrates your status as worse than that of second class citizens, being that of sub-humans whose lives are at the mercy of their murderous masters.thankstoyin
On 11 June 2017 at 19:28, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:
The contemporary struggle for Biafra is anchored on the conviction that Nigeria, as it is presently constituted, is a failure that stunts the development of its citizens and only the self determination of its constituent units can assure the development of adequate human value.
On 11 June 2017 at 06:57, Rex Marinus <rexma...@hotmail.com> wrote:
"Speak only for your jaundiced self as Obi Nwakama and not for the Igbo. I have more Igbo real friends than you do!"
-Olayinka Agbetuyi
Agbetuyi:
I am going to make this my very last statement on this round of talk on Biafra because, not unexpectedly it did quickly degenerate into school-yard antics. It has become predictable, circular and boring. When people cannot deploy coherent argument, or when they enter slippery zones where they have nothing better to say, they resort to blackmail and name calling. You want to bully me with the age of you sister. I do not give a shit how old you are, or how old your sister is. Age alone does not confer regard, integrity and wisdom, none of which, I'm sorry to say, you have demonstrated, do. You have for instance not defined how it is that my argument is frivolous. Is it because I reminded you of your tendency to invoke carnage on the Igbo when they seek justice? Yet I am the one who is a "laughing stock." I do not know who is laughing, and who is the "stock." But this cliché is deployed to silence those who speak to things that are either beyond your comprehension, or that frighten you. There are two kinds of laughter: there is the laugher of the fool who laughs because he dos not know when to laugh, and there is also the laughter of the inebriated, who has a compulsion disorder at that point of over excitement. And so you can laugh all you want, if it makes you happy to think that Obi Nwakanma is a "laughing stock" in your forum. I mean, you must have clearly taken opinion samples from members of this forum to come to this claim. it is all in character of course, that you either do not know the exact meaning of the terms you use, or you are as often as it is true remarkably full of beans. But what do you expect of people who could call Ojukwu a "coward": a man fights a war, goes into exile, returns to great acclaim, and sits "gidigbam" in the capital city on his return, and never stopped talking, never pulled punches, and never hid behind the veil of silence. When all the Generals who fought him saw him, they often stood in attention to salute him or otherwise fled from him. If such a man were a coward, then "cowardice" has a different meaning. But of course, the Agbetuyi's and the like, because they need to feel happy with themselves call Ojukwu a "coward," Obi Nwakanma, some "laughing stock," and Achuzia, "self-acclaimed war lord." You think you can really bully me with such verbal blackmail? Who gives a shit what you think? What you think does not really count where it matters most.
And please, do not insult the word "friendship." You have no Igbo friends. You have "Igboanguish" - its a form of a Nigerian national anxiety disorder; the same that affects redneck neighborhoods in the American south when it comes to African-Americans. You'd see the most racist of such say, "I have black friends." If you have Igbo friends, you wouldn't say it; there is nothing special in having Igbo friends, and the very fact that you mark them as "Igbo friends" speaks to the real issue here. I'd be unable to help you. You need to consult a shrink to deal with this depth of the unheimlich. You must stop thinking about Igbo bodies trucked home for burial because they protest. Period. The Igbo have articulated the very basis of their demands: that Nigeria must begin to treat all Nigerians with equality. The Igbo suffer disproportionately in the Nigerian enterprise - by all the indices that they have deployed in their complaints which I will not rehash here. But at the core of Igbo demand is the equality of citizenship. No Nigerian must be discriminated against wherever they reside in Nigeria. No section of Nigeria must be favored to the deficit of any part. In other words, all policy of development must be based on the human index and the human factor, not on the geographical. Public service must be transparent, etc. The Igbo understand that they have to lead the charge in the transformation of Nigeria, as they did in the anti-colonial movement, for the restoration of the equal rights of citizenship. But now hear you: "the Igbo complain too much, everybody is marginalized. They should shut up!" I am paraphrasing you. But the Igbo have never asked you not to protest; nor have they suggested that you be killed and your body parts be recovered from across Nigeria for seeking social justice. These are your very words: "Why is the case of Igbo unique and why must a section of the Igbo continually blackmail the rest of Nigeria with secession to wrest more than their just due from the federation?" This statement eerily echoes that which feeds the impulsion to genocide, whether it was by what was said of the Jews in Europe- before their expulsion from Spain or by the Nazi pogrom, or with the Tutsis in Rwanda, before their systematic slaughter. But you do not have the emotional intelligence to get even the subtle hints made by Ken Harrow or Chidi. Yet I am the laughing stock. And if you care to follow the responses to this question about Biafra and the conclusion of the war - you'd immediately notice that it follows a known and predictable pattern. It is often by the same people, from the same section of the forum and of the nation. These folk suffer from extreme forms of the anxiety called "Igboanguish." They feel rattled by the fact that the Igbo want equal rights and justice: how dare these "conquered" or "vanquished" Igbo who "surrendered" their rights?, you guys ask. This monomanic compulsion to contain the Igbo is the reason why the Igbo want out. There is your answer. But why do you want to live with the Igbo in the same country? You don't like them. You feel threatened by their presence. You can rid yourself of this Igbo problem by writing to your rep in the National Assembly to support the Act of referendum to determine the choice for secession. That is the democratic and civilized thing to do. Not blackmail the Igbo with the threat of slaughter. Once the Igbo have their own country, you may now turn back any of the buses that you see leaving the East daily towards the West at your borders. You can then also not only restrict their entry, but legitimately expel them, and through visa regulations make certain that the Igbo vermin no longer infests your neighborhood. But for as long as they are part of the same country, their rights to disperse and settle, and enjoy all the rights of citizenship must never be denied them. That's their just due. You cannot want the Igbo and not want them at the same time. There are many Igbo in this forum who keep silent, and watch, and do not bother to respond to the inanities of this obsessive anti-Igbo lynch mob. I do not speak for them. I speak on the simple premise that I have something to say, and that I will follow the Achebean injunction to "balance the stories," so that years from now, if anybody ever finds cause to read these exchanges, they will know who actually is the "laughing stock," and that yours is not the single story. In other words, I write this for my grand children. But I too have become too bored with its circularity. I shall have nothing more to say o this subject until another round of lies that needs to be corrected surfaces. And there you have it.
Obi Nwakanma
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2017 1:01 AM
Cc: Olayinka Agbetuyi
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
Obi:
Let me be forthright with you: You are rhe same age as my youngest sister who holds the same doctorate degree as you do and if she argues in the same vacuous way that you do she knows I would disown her. Agbetuyis dont argue like babies.
You debase the qualifications you hold with the irresponsible line of argument you pursue which has made you the laughing stock of the forum. I tried my best to shield you from attack by exasperated members but you are your own worst enemy.
Did you read the piece byJibrinIbrahim on perception of marginalization by ethnicities in Nigeria? Why is the case of Igbo unique and why must a section of the Igbo continually blackmail the rest of Nigeria with secession to wrest more than their just due from the federation.
I repeat any such Igbo must feel free to withraw to Igboland to continue to deal only with fellow Igbo and leave the other responsible Igbo who realize that living is a question of give and take with other people to continue with their livelihoods in any part of Nigeria in a spirit of give and take.
If there is any act of violence against the persons of such Igbo I can guarantee that we the conscientious non Igbo will be their first line of defence and that they dont need such bigoted, prebendal, self-seeking, pretencious, ethnic jingoist and rabble rousers as yourself as champions of their interests.
Speak only for your jaundiced self as Obi Nwakama and not for the Igbo. I have more Igbo real friends than you do!
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Rex Marinus <rexma...@hotmail.com>Date: 10/06/2017 06:59 (GMT+00:00)Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
Agbetuyi, you did not get the hint of reproach in Chidi and Ken Harrow's retort. The first thing that comes to your mind when the Igbo protest, or raise a voice to complain about their situation, is Igbo bodies slaughtered across Nigeria and trucked back to the East. Why do you conceive of that kind of carnage when it comes to the Igbo? Why do you have to kill the Igbo for political speech, for asking for justice, or for actually asking for recognition of the equality of all Nigerians failing which separation? Why is it that the only Igbo who has to stay alive in your mind is the silent Igbo, or the prostrate Igbo, or the malleable Igbo, or the Igbo who is merely "photo-on-the wall"? Now you say, "Amen!" But "Amen!" to what? To a Freudian slip? I will only ask you to be very careful with what you wish for. The Igbo are very angry and are not looking again to be slaughtered. We must make every effort to allow peace, secure it, and avoid every urge to engage in slaughter, so that we do not open the kind of dangerous floodgate Ken Harrow has alluded to. You must note this however: the Igbo are not willing to live in Nigeria as "conquered" people, or people who "surrendered" their rights with war. If seeking justice in Nigeria means slaughter of the Igbo, then you must gird your loins with hardier cloth, and you must be prepared to kill them all. But I just hope that more civilized, more humane, and more tolerant impulses prevail, and not the impulses that dream about scattered Igbo body parts ferried home for burials.
Obi Nwakanma
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Friday, June 9, 2017 10:53 PM
Cc: Olayinka Agbetuyi
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
Amen!
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com>Date: 09/06/2017 22:39 (GMT+00:00)To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
(Peaceful)separatist agitations don't have to result to people being slaughtered.
CAO.
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
2.' The Ndigbo have their representatives in the National Assembly, why can't they use a democratic means similar to that of the Scottish in the UK? '
3. 'I have been at the vanguard for the struggles for restructuring long before you joined this forum and am still committed to its ideals long before Biafranists hijacked its ideals.
4. A. 'The present structure does not suit 'the right-wing Hausa Fulani' alone but is the product of the agreed deliberations of all Nigerians as enshrined in the 1999 constitution'
'even if the Delta can do without Biafra; but how well could Biafra be, without some Delta oil?'
The Biafrans are convinced that their central asset is their resourcefulness, magnified by a common vision, not natural resources from anywhere.
The Biafra vision is not identical with working within the current politic and economic organisation of the South East. The Biafra vision may be seen as based on the understanding that the current political and economic structure of Nigeria works against the developmental potential of all its units. The people running the South East are not evidently Biafra advocates nor are they trying to provide examples of what Biafra could be if given a chance.
By virtue of their membership of this group, readers would be aware of the great value of social media in following developments in Nigerian politics.Correlating this with other sources and a knowledge of Nigerian history greatly facilitates watching this history unfold, understanding this progression and taking part in its unfolding.
I am not up to date with Yahoo and Goggle groups, which are also excellent, on account of time constraints, but I currently use Facebook a lot. For views for and against Biafra, by Igbos and non-Igbos, I find the Facebook accounts of the following people very useful. I have also added names of Facebook groups which I hardly use these days on account of time, but which are also enlightening.
Mgbeke Obi- hard core pro-Biafran
Nneka Aroh- eloquent summariser of views on Nigeria's dysfunctionality, with particular reference to how it affects Ndigbo
Ena Ofugara- federalist, anti-balkanisation, with sympathy for challenges faced by Ndigbo
Zainab Usman- Hausa-Fulani scholar advocating for a Biafra referendum [ although she blocked me bcs I insisted on discussing Fulani terrorism, the terrorist alliance between Fulani militia and Hausa-Fulani politicians, as central to the drive by Nigerians to be free of a union where such a govt sponsored dehumanization is possible.
Mohammed Said Jidda- Hausa-Fulani political activist advocating for a Biafra referendum, to my surprise on account of his threat to the life of any Northerner who voted for GEJ's govt in the 2015 elections.
Chidimma Egwuenu- anti-Biafran, pro-restructuring
Tony Osborg- federalist campaigner for restructuring to true federalism
Ademola Adigun- federalist
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Olayinka Agbetuyi
Segun Ogungbemi
Sent from my iPhone
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Cornelius Hamelberg
An aside and a slight point of correction - re - "Salman the Scottish First Minister who organised the referendum"
An excursion : The name Salman sticks in the eye of course, because first of all it doesn't sound Scottish, even if these days you never know, since further South, the city of London does have a mayor by the name of Sadiq Khan; but even before then those who fear the emergence of Eurabia have the UK on the map as "North Pakistan"
Well, at least in Shia Islam there's the most famous Salman - Salman al Farsi - i.e. Salman the Persian (whose idea of building a trench contributed to the Muslims victory in the historic "Battle of the Trench." Then there's the most infamous Salman yet, that scoundrel Salman Rushdie (later Knighted by Her Majesty) the author of "The Satanic Verses " which ignited the ire of Iran's First Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini in the form of a literary fatwa : The Death penalty! Some still say that it was an extreme form of literary criticism. And here too we could be talking about a double entendre since in the novel Salman Rushdie appoints Salman the Persian as the Prophet's scribe - ( historically inaccurate) and a mischievous one at that - a scribe who would make slight changes when writing down the revelation - and since the Prophet did not notice his errant editorialising, the scribe was emboldened to experiment with making other changes in his manuscript. A very sensitive matter in terms of historical inaccuracies and considering the inerrancy of the Quran as scripture, a very sensitive matter indeed - so conspiracy theorists could readily believe that Rushdie was an imperial agent hell -bent distorting and disparaging Islam, for which reason he should be punished two times : Hanged, drawn and quartered in this life and then dance on hot coals in the hell-fire, for more than one eternity. Cf. The Latest Decalogue
I read "The Satanic Verses" a few months before the Fatwa was issued and Rush-die of course went underground - as I suppose , you would have done, too (Pikuach nefesh) . Before the Fatwa I thought it was a phantasmagoria battle between good and evil - and had read it mostly because I liked all of Rushdie's earlier stuff , especially because Rushdie did not seem to suffer from that kind of enormous respect for Her Majesty's English , the kind of respect that probably inhibits some writers - and even non writers suffering from grammatical inhibitions. Rushdie cd kick the lingo in the ess without needless " corrections"from Frank, Farooq or France. Ah Rushdie's infamous famous three about the English lass: find her, fuck her and leave her which Ahmed Deedat did go on about.
But to the point. The current First Minister is Nicola Sturgeon and the then First Prime Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party who worked indefatigably for that Referendum was Alex Salmond ( sounds remarkably close to " Alex Salman)
(BTW I was in New York at the time, but I'm told by some of the soul Brothers who represented Sweden at FESTAC in Lagos in 1979 , that when they were asked where they were from they replied, "Sweden" but what their interlocutors heard was "Sudan" - that made more sense to them. The Sweden of both ignorance and the imagination being the place where polar bears come from. In a similar way when asked where do you come from and I answer Sierra Leone, people, especially from the Middle East, then follow up with a second question : Syria ? They must be hard of hearing. Does Syria sound like Sierra Leone? ( True up till today the Lebanese in Sierra Leone are called " Syrians" - they arrived in Sierra Leone more than a hundred years ago, when there was no Lebanon) . Also occasionally - people who have never heard of a country called Sierra Leone follow up my answer with a second question : Surinam? Some others even go a little further : Sri Lanka?
Meriting my asking ; " Do I look like a Tamil tiger?
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2017 1:01 AM
Cc: Olayinka Agbetuyi
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
Obi:
Let me be forthright with you: You are rhe same age as my youngest sister who holds the same doctorate degree as you do and if she argues in the same vacuous way that you do she knows I would disown her. Agbetuyis dont argue like babies.
You debase the qualifications you hold with the irresponsible line of argument you pursue which has made you the laughing stock of the forum. I tried my best to shield you from attack by exasperated members but you are your own worst enemy.
Did you read the piece byJibrinIbrahim on perception of marginalization by ethnicities in Nigeria? Why is the case of Igbo unique and why must a section of the Igbo continually blackmail the rest of Nigeria with secession to wrest more than their just due from the federation.
I repeat any such Igbo must feel free to withraw to Igboland to continue to deal only with fellow Igbo and leave the other responsible Igbo who realize that living is a question of give and take with other people to continue with their livelihoods in any part of Nigeria in a spirit of give and take.
If there is any act of violence against the persons of such Igbo I can guarantee that we the conscientious non Igbo will be their first line of defence and that they dont need such bigoted, prebendal, self-seeking, pretencious, ethnic jingoist and rabble rousers as yourself as champions of their interests.
Speak only for your jaundiced self as Obi Nwakama and not for the Igbo. I have more Igbo real friends than you do!
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Rex Marinus <rexma...@hotmail.com>Date: 10/06/2017 06:59 (GMT+00:00)Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
Agbetuyi, you did not get the hint of reproach in Chidi and Ken Harrow's retort. The first thing that comes to your mind when the Igbo protest, or raise a voice to complain about their situation, is Igbo bodies slaughtered across Nigeria and trucked back to the East. Why do you conceive of that kind of carnage when it comes to the Igbo? Why do you have to kill the Igbo for political speech, for asking for justice, or for actually asking for recognition of the equality of all Nigerians failing which separation? Why is it that the only Igbo who has to stay alive in your mind is the silent Igbo, or the prostrate Igbo, or the malleable Igbo, or the Igbo who is merely "photo-on-the wall"? Now you say, "Amen!" But "Amen!" to what? To a Freudian slip? I will only ask you to be very careful with what you wish for. The Igbo are very angry and are not looking again to be slaughtered. We must make every effort to allow peace, secure it, and avoid every urge to engage in slaughter, so that we do not open the kind of dangerous floodgate Ken Harrow has alluded to. You must note this however: the Igbo are not willing to live in Nigeria as "conquered" people, or people who "surrendered" their rights with war. If seeking justice in Nigeria means slaughter of the Igbo, then you must gird your loins with hardier cloth, and you must be prepared to kill them all. But I just hope that more civilized, more humane, and more tolerant impulses prevail, and not the impulses that dream about scattered Igbo body parts ferried home for burials.
Obi Nwakanma
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Friday, June 9, 2017 10:53 PM
Cc: Olayinka Agbetuyi
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
Amen!
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com>Date: 09/06/2017 22:39 (GMT+00:00)To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
(Peaceful)separatist agitations don't have to result to people being slaughtered.
CAO.
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East Lansing, MI 48824
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Igbo ethnicity is not equatable with the Biafra vision. Some Igbos want to remain in Nigeria, and would be happy with an Igbo Presidency. Some Igbos want to remain in Nigeria but demand a restructuring of the nation. Some insist that failing restructuring, secession must follow. Some are convinced that all avenues have been exhausted and secession is the only option left. Some hold that the secession demand is a way to get restructuring, being the lesser evil in the minds of those who want to uphold the status quo. Others hold that only secession is acceptable in any circumstances.
We should read what pro-Biafra advocates think and see what they have to say for themselves.
For those who wish to read these debates among Igbos for and agst Biafra, you could see Chidimma Egwuenu's Facebook status update of 9th June 2017 and the responses to the post.
On Political Office and Political Power
Is political power exercised purely by placing people in particular positions? What is the level of power that can be exercised by those position?
Even people like senator Ben Bruce who used to make proposals about how to address the problem have fallen silent after the Hausa-Fulani politicians, apexed by national ruler Buhari made clear their alliance with the terror group through action and eloquent inaction and silence in the face of the massacres committed and openly justified by the terrorists. It took Fayose to initiate the self help strategies represented by state controlled militia and state enacted laws that are the first answer to the problem, a move other states are emulating
It is under the noses of Osinbajo, Saraki, Ekweremadu and others that grass was imported to pacify the vampires by feeding their cows and efforts were made to seize lands across the nation to ranch these cows after the failure of the effort to seize land across the nation to create grazing routes for these private business people whose ethnic kin dominate much of the Nigerian political space.
I wonder if you are not aware of these developments.
Ken.
Devolution in Scotland is the half way solution to PREVENT separation.
About half of Scots did not believe in separation and that was why the referendum was held. (SNP lost even more seats to the Conservatives in Scotland in the just concluded elections including Salman who supervised the referendum)
The result of the last general election in the past few weeks now indicate that even FEWER Scots now believe in outright separation than at the time of the referendum. (SNP lost more seats to the Conservatives in Scotland including Salman the Scottish First Minister who organised the referendum.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------
From: Kenneth Harrow <har...@msu.edu>Date: 12/06/2017 00:59 (GMT+00:00)To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
Segun, scotland can legally separate through devolution, can’t it? Is that an option for biafra?Other similar questions for quebec, and for northern ireland. aren’t they different, legally?kenKenneth Harrow
Dept of English and Film Studies
Michigan State University
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
We should read what Igbos have to say for themselves.
For those who wish to read these debates among Igbos for and agst Biafra, you could see Chidimma Egwuenu's Facebook status update of 9th June 2017 and the responses to the post.
Will the Kaduna Declaration slow down or eliminate this strategy out of fear of huge displacement and massive economic loss by Igbos in the North? What options are available to make the secession option less attractive, apart from strategies of intimidation? Some are suggesting an Igbo Presidency even though the 2019 Presidency is locked into the North through the zoning by both PDP and APC, the two major parties. Voices for restructuring may be seen as increasing in volume among Ndigbo after the Kaduna Declaration but even restructuring is declared a no go area by the fed govt.
On Political Office and Political Power
Is political power exercised purely by placing people in particular positions? What is the level of power that exercised by the people in those position?
Even people like senator Ben Bruce who used to make proposals about how to address the problem have fallen silent after the Hausa-Fulani politicians, apexed by national ruler Buhari made clear their alliance with the terror group through action and eloquent inaction and silence in the face of the massacres committed and openly justified by the terrorists. It took aggressive opposition Ekiti state governor Ayodele Fayose to initiate the self help strategies represented by state controlled militia and state enacted laws that are the first answer to the problem, a move other states are emulating
It is under the noses of Osinbajo, Saraki and Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President and others that grass was imported to pacify the vampires by feeding their cows and efforts were made to seize lands across the nation to ranch these cows after the failure of the move to appropriate land across the Nigeria to create grazing routes for these private business people whose ethnic kin dominate much of the Nigerian political space.
Are we to pretend not to be aware of these developments bcs we desire to appear detribalised in the face of what is obviously tribally mobilized military and political warfare?
Olayinka Agbetuyi
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Olayinka Agbetuyi
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Ken,
Let me thank you, thank your patience and tolerance in advance, for putting up with the kind of answer I suspect that I'm going to give : More questions.
I want to at least satisfy my conscience. Con-science
"Everybody
who read the Jungle Book knows that Riki tiki tavi's a mongoose who
kills snakes.
Well, when I was a
young man I was led to believe there were organisations to kill my
snakes for me, i.e. the church,
i.e. the government , i.e.
the school. But when I got a little older
I learned I had to kill them myself" ( Donovan : Riki
Tiki Tavi
At primary school (in Fulham ) I learned a rime which began
"Sticks and stones may break my bones , but words can't hurt me"
Another version is "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never break me"
They tried to instil that kind of attitude in us at school , not least of all to avert the fist fights that were a daily occurrence in the playground - between friends, sometimes directly after playing/ sharing marbles. For the sensitives (many dimensions), be they Joos (another spelling, don't take offence) Christians (another faith) or Muslims (other believers), another truth could be, "Sticks and stones may break my bones and words can also hurt me"
Because words have meanings, trajectories, they can therefore cause offence and offence can have consequences -
such as that once upon a time a contract
was put out by Iran's supreme head
on Rushdie's head -
they wanted him not alive
in the name of Allah subhana ta'ala
they wanted Rushdie dead...
Still don't know if there's any truth to "Muhammad’s dead poets society" as precedent.
One practical reason could have been the danger of fifth columnists.
Consider - and this is authoritative about the Prophet of Islam ( s.a.w.) : "The number of the campaigns which he led in person during the last ten years of his life is twenty-seven, in nine of which there was hard fighting. The number of the expeditions which he planned and sent out under other leaders is thirty-eight." Read on...
The venerable Toyin Vincent Adepoju made the following apparently rational assertion in this forum:
A few years later he re-framed the assertion in what he hoped was a rhetorical question:
" Does God or Allah need to be defended, or protected by us, mere mortals, who are his creation?"
There is no easy answer. Should the laws that apply in this forum, about name-calling and the danger of descending to "the primitive moment" also apply to Literature? I am inclined to agree with you - but - BUT we cannot legislate away the predictable/ unpredictable consequences - no more than murder is prevented because the Almighty has legislated through His revelation at Mt. Sinai, " Thou shalt not kill"
Judaism has it's own law of blasphemy (only God can be blasphemed) and in Islam this extends to vilification of all those that Islam regards as prophets too - Jesus, King David, King Solomon, Lukman - although the honour due to the Prophet of Islam seems to be more jealously protected than that of any other Prophet. So in Stockholm a few years ago there was the Ecco Homo exhibition without anybody coming to any grievous bodily harm or death at the hands of some Muslims...
As for me , having made a precautionary distinction between suicide and Martyrdom, I don't know how far I would resist torture and the threat of immediate death (as in the case of Sabbatai Zevi) when it comes to defending the Almighty's honour as per Kiddush Hashem ...
Some fifteen years ago subscribed to one of the freedoms being promoted by David Horowitz : the right to be able to critique religion without falling foul of religious authority, in some cases the death penalty...
The problem of religious language and anti-religion language causing offence will only evaporate after science has the upper-hand. I came to this conclusion exactly this evening - we ( two Scrabble freaks, Ken Baskin ( African-American) Lefifi Tladi ( back in town from Pretoria, South Africa ) and yours truly, Cornelius Shalom Aleichem (Abeokuta City) had finished five games of Scrabble this evening when the conversation turned to religion - during our sets of Scrabble I had quoted from today's Forum :
"Thinking a thing in English is thinking English about a thing"- Ngugi wa Thiong'o as I told them that Nigerians are now taking over the English language sphere as world Champion in Scrabble and that last year's world champion was beaten badly in Lagos this year by some other Nigerians and that before Nigeria took over the French had had their turn as world champion of the English word game (My guys had two Scrabble dictionaries which were consulted occasionally. ( By the way Ken - "ger" has not yet found its way into those dictionaries, but "gerah" has.) I told them that I'm sure that the Nigerian professionals would have memorised those dictionaries forwards and backwards by now, so what are we waiting for? Well obviously these guys are word-men and worldly too, so, soon enough they were spouting cosmology, evolution - I swear that if some White Folks had eavesdropped on us it would have confirmed their cherished prejudices - at one point they were uniformly agreed that (evolution) didn't I know that ( preposterous suggestion) it was three monkey sitting in Ken's kitchen right on top of Stockholm, top floor, playing Scrabble. Do monkeys have souls? I asked them. (Well the Pakistani and Indian Muslims want to ridicule Hinduism's Hanuman who it is their wont to refer to as " the monkey god". Maybe there should be a law against that too.
If it were left up to me, should a guy like Lars Vilks ever arrive in Riyadh or Tehran he should be given ten good lashes on his bare bottom, right there at the airport and asked if he would like some more.
I must get up now - ( had haemorrhoids this morning) - sitting too long at the computer. Looked at myself in the mirror this morning and could not say like Jesus, (John 14: 9 ) : " he that hath seen me hath seen the Father" considered a blasphemy by the Pharisaic authorities of the day and a capital offence.
I wish that I could have said, " I am an old scholar, better looking now than when I was young. That’s what sitting on your ass does to your face." (Beautiful Losers)
Still happy, I leave you with the title song of this album : Gorilla...
So long,
Cornelius
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Salimonu Kadiri
Biafra secessionist venture has nothing to do with restructuring of Nigeria from unitary to pure federalism. Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, will cure himself of phobia for what he constantly refer to as Hausa/Fulani domination, if he bothers to acquaint himself with history of Nigeria. Who propagated for unitary central government in Nigeria and when was it implemented and by who?
The National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroon (NCNC), as it was known in the 1950s, led by Nnamdi Azikiwe propagated for a unitary constitution for Nigeria which was strongly opposed by the Action Group (AG) led by Obafemi Awolowo. He expatiated, "As between the various ethnic groups, I argued, there were differing standards of civilisation as well as uneven stages in the adoption of western education and the emulation of western civilisation. A unitary constitution with only central government would only result in frustration to the much push-ful and more dynamic ethnic groups, whereas the division of the country into regions along ethnic lines would enable each linguistic group not only to develop its own peculiar culture and institutions but to move forward at its own pace, without being unnecessarily pushed or annoyingly slowed down by the others (Chapter 12, EVOLUTION OF A FEDERALIST in AWO : The Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, p. 164-165)." For opting for Federal constitutional government in Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe and his NCNC branded Awolowo a fascist who wanted to balkanise Nigeria and he called Federalism, Pakistanization.
After the 1959 Federal election, none of the political parties secured a majority to rule at the centre. Awolowo stated plainly that he could serve in a national federal government led by Nnamdi Azikiwe, but not in the one led by a feudalist. NCNC and AG together had 164 seats as against NPC 148 in the House of Representatives. However, Azikiwe entered not only into a coalition government with the NPC, but also conceded the post of the Prime Minister to Abubakar Tafawa Balewa on the belief that since Northerners had no so much educated people, the Igbo would control all the apparatus of governance in the country. Truly, as Chinua Achebe confirmed on p.66 of his book, There Was a Country, the Igbo led the nation in virtually every sector - politics, education, commerce and the arts, the achievements made possible by the NCNC coalition government with the less educated Northerners. The Deputy leader of Action Group and Premier of Western Region drew attention of Awolowo to the ethnic lop-sidedness in the recruitments and appointments in the federal public service and parastatals against the Yoruba and urged Awolowo to join a national government led by Balewa, so that the Yoruba could get their share of federal appointments. Awolowo replied that officials were to work for the entire nation and not alone for their respective tribes. That was the major cause of conflict between Akintola and Awolowo. When the Yoruba Kings (Oba) summoned both of them to a reconciliation meeting, Akintola spoke in Yoruba to describe the impossibility of Awolowo's ideology of democratic socialism. He said, "TÍ A BÁ DÉ IBI TÍ ERÁNKO PÉJO SÍ, NSÉ LÃ'WÁ OHÚN T'ÓJÒRÙ FÍ HA IDI; TÍ OBÁ SÉ BI ÈNÌYÀN LÃRIN ERÁNKO, WON YIO WULÈ PÁ ONI." Literarily translated, it means, "When you are in the midst of animals, pretend to be like them because if you try to behave like human beings, the animals would kill you for nothing. What Akintola said implied that Awolowo should be as tribal as Azikiwe and his NCNC by joining the national government led by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Everywhere in Lagos is SÚKU-SÙKU, Akintola said, if you go to Lagos. SÚKU-SÙKU was Akintola's euphemism for the Igbo shortened name, Chukwu. The dispute over joining the federal government by the Action Group was exploited by the NCNC/NPC coalition government to overthrow the government of Western Region controlled by the AG. The crisis that followed, led to the two coups of 15 January 1966 in which Major General Johnson Thompson Aguiyi Ironsi triumphed as the Military Head of State.
Traditionally, a military coup is usually followed by the release of political prisoners jailed by the ousted regime, immediately after take over. Ironsi dumped that tradition by not releasing Awolowo and others jailed by the NPC/NCNC regime. Instead, he appointed Francis Nwokedi as one-man commission of inquiry on a unitary form of government in Nigeria. In his Budget broadcast of 31st March 1966, and before Nwokedi submitted his report on unitary form of government in Nigeria, Aguiyi Ironsi said among other things that, "I am convinced that the bulk of our people want a united Nigeria and that they want in future one government and not a multitude of governments." By the end of April 1966, Francis Nwokedi had submitted his one-man constitutional review in which he recommended the abolition of the Regions. Despite oppositions, Ironsi promulgated Decree No. 34 of May 24, 1966, to establish unitary form of government in Nigeria. On May 28, 1966, riot broke out throughout Northern Nigeria in protest against unitary government. Since the NCNC manifesto had always advocated unitary form of government in Nigeria, many considered Ironsi's decree No. 34 as implementing NCNC political agenda. By coincidence, NCNC was mainly an Igbo party and with Decree No. 34, many Nigerians regarded the military take-over as an Igbo coup. In addition the refusal of Ironsi to release Awolowo from prison was alluded to his well-known opposition to the unitary form of government and releasing him before decree No. 34 was well established beyond reversal was dangerous to the regime. Two months after Decree No. 34 Ironsi was overthrown in a bloody coup but subsequent regimes retained Aguiyi Ironsi's unitary form of government in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The overthrow of Ironsi eventually led to civil war that ended thirty months after it started. The current Igbo led resuscitators of Biafra are claiming that since the end of the civil war, the Igbo people have been marginalized, reduced to second class citizens, oppressed and treated as a conquered people in Nigeria. It is extremely ridiculous that a group who claims to be marginalized, oppressed, treated as conquered people and reduced to a second class citizens would have produced the Vice President of Nigeria in the person of Dr. Alex Ekwueme, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Edwin Ume Ezeoke, Presidents of the Senate - Chuba Okadigbo, Evans Enwerem, Adolf Wabara, and Anyim Pius Anyim, and Deputy Senate Presisent Ekweremandu. The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning under Babangida was Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu and many Igbo enjoyed juicy appointments under General Babangida to the effect that Ohaneze Ndigbo conferred the traditional title of Ogugua Ndigbo on him. There was a Minister of Finance under President Obasanjo named Okonjo Iweala. The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria then was Charles Chukwuma Soludo just as Kingsley Moghalu had been Deputy Governor of CBN. Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife was Special Adviser to Obasanjo on Political matters while Andy Ubah was a Special Adviser in the Presidency. Obasanjo's Minister of Aviation was Kema Chikwe and the Minister of Defence after Theophilus Danjuma was the son of Aguiyi Ironsi. Under President Jonathan, the Chief Economic Adviser to the President was Dr. Nwanze Okedigbe. Once again Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala was not only Jonathan's Minister of Finance but Coordinating Minister of Economy. And when Sanusi Lamido was driven out of the Central Bank as the Governor, he was replaced by Godwin Emefiele. In fact, what had to do with the Finance and Economy of Nigeria under Jonathan was controlled by persons of Igbo ethnic group. Director General of Budget Office was Bright Okogwu; Director General of Bureau of Public Procurement, was Emeka Eze; Director General of Bureau of Public Enterprises was Benjamin Ezra Dikki; Director General of Security Exchange Commission was Arunma Oteh; Director General of Nigerian Security Exchange was Oscar Onyeama; MD of AMCON was Chike Obi; MD of Sovereign Wealth Fund was Uche Orji; Director General of Housing Fund was Sunny Iroha; Managing Director of Bank of Industry was Evelyn Oputa; Chairman of Investments, Securities Tribunals was Nnenna Orji; Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) was Anyim Pius Anyim; Director General of Pension Commission(PENCOM) was Chinelu Onuoha; and Director General of Debt Management Office (DMO) was Dr. Abraham Nwankwo. Lest we forget, Jonathan's Minister of Aviation was Stella Adaeze Oduah and because of official malfeasance she was replaced with Osita Chidoka. Professor Bath Naji was Minister of Power but when he attempted to sell PHCN to his proxy company, he was removed and replaced with Professor Chinedu Ositadinma Ndubusi Nebo, while Dr. Sam Amadi was the Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission. Since Abacha time up to May 29, 2015, Wilson Orakwe Emeka Offor had been the sole government contractor awarded Turn Around Maintenance of Nigeria's four oil refineries for billions of dollars so that they would be able to refine 445,000 barrels of crude oil per day to meet domestic consumption. The list of important positions held by persons of Igbo ethnic group can infinitely be long, nevertheless, I stop here to mention that the Chief Of Army Staff under Jonathan for a long period was General Azubuike Onyeabor Ihejirika before he was replaced with Alex Badeh. Viewing the above narratives it is a heightened self-induced paranoia for any Igbo to claim that the Igbo people have been marginalized in Nigeria since the end of the civil war.
Since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999, Southerners in the persons of Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan have ruled Nigeria as President for eight and six years respectively, totalling fourteen years. Rather than restructuring into true federalism, they enjoyed ruling with the unitary constitution that concentrates power at the centre. The impoverishment of the Nigerian masses have been perpetrated by the political elites from all, and indeed major, ethnic groups in Nigeria. It is the Nigerian masses that have been marginalized and oppressed by the alliance of ethno-religious groups governing the country. Instead of holding the ruling elites accountable for the mismanagement of our national incomes and resources, resuscitators of secession are helping to divert attentions from national looters and plunderers. All along, IPOB, MASSOB and BIM have preached openly not only for an Igbo Republic but for a Biafra that will include satellite none Igbo ethnic groups beyond Igbo ethnic natural territory. Interestingly, none of the Igbo political and business billionaires cautioned or warned the Igbo ethnic supremacists demanding for secession. Rather, they attribute the agitation for Biafra to the marginalization of the Igbo in Nigeria. In the online Nigerian Guardian of June 9, 2013, the then President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Gary Enwo Igariwey, was quoted as saying, "We have the population and the Igbo are the only people with over a 25 per cent spread in any part of this country. We are not underdogs under any circumstances, we have the capacity to decide who can be president or who cannot be because we have the numbers." It cannot be denied that the Igbo are everywhere in Nigeria, something that would have been impossible if they are hated and persecuted by their host communities in other parts of Nigeria as it is being politically touted. Now, when the Arewa Youth reciprocated to the IPOB and MASSOB's agitation for secession in what can be termed as Mutually Assured Ethnic Destruction, by demanding that all Igbo in the North should leave the North within three months and all Northerners in the Southeast should leave at the same time, hell broke loose. The Arewa Youth ultimatum is very intelligent because it will deescalate ethnic war threat that have been constantly chanted by IPOB and MASSOB for some years now. If all Igbo in Nigeria return to the Southeast, other Nigerians in the Southeast will not consider Igboland safe for them and will automatically leave, resulting in an Igbo Republic. The Arewa Youth ultimatum is not different from the order of MASSOB, in 2015, to all Igbo in other parts of Nigeria to return to Igboland. see http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/11/return-the-south-east-massob-tells-igbo. On the 25 November 2015, the National Director of Information, MASSOB, Mr. Uchenna Madu directed Ndigbo residing outside Igboland to start returning to their homeland and he gave reasons for his directive. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/11/biafra-agitation-reveals-seast-neglect-marginalization-igbo-leaders. Yet between 1999 and 2015, the Southeast received 17 trillion naira as revenue allocations from the Federal government. Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, will probably be able to help us with the information of how much income Nigeria has earned between 1999 and 2015 and how much money each state in Nigeria has derived from revenue allocations shared by the Federal Government. Thereafter, we shall be able to ask our rulers both at Federal and State's level to account for how they have disbursed our collective national earnings. That I consider intellectually worthwhile and intelligent than the rantings over the Hausa/Fulani's fictitious domination as if to say they are not human beings like Edo, Igbo, Yoruba, Ibibio or Ijaw people.
S. Kadiri.
Skickat: den 11 juni 2017 22:03
Till: usaafricadialogue
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
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Kenneth Harrow
rushie’s blasphemous words were pronounced by a troubled character and they expressed his crisis of faith. When the words came to the point of pointedly insulting not allah or muhammed, but rather ayatollah komeini, it is said, he put the book down and pronounced the fatwa.
The nazis burnt the books they didn’t like and tried to exterminate the people they didn’t like
To condemn someone because of his attacks on one’s beliefs or identity or anything, as if the words carried harm like acts is not to distinguish words and acts. If the words promote acts, like encouraging people to commit a crime, the responsibility for the words falls on the speaker, who incurs punishment, in most countries, though not the u.s.
If the crime, however, is blasphemy then the community that is offended should use words back, not deeds to punish the speaker.
I base this not on first amendment rights, but my sense of basic human decency—not on the sense that I am the lord.
but then I am not a figure in power, not given the chance to prove how awful a ruler I am. Instead, I dream of al-hallaj who submerged himself in the divine like a wave in the ocean, about which he could only say the words that resulted in his death.
In fact, jesus was not any different; if I worked on it, I could easily put moses or muhammed in the same position.
Gotta go and get ready for tomorrow
ken
Kenneth Harrow
Dept of English and Film Studies
Michigan State University
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
'The first group to attack was not the fed govt but Biafra.
The very declaration of Biafra was an act of war against the Constitution and the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the same way that the secessionist gambit of Boko Haram was a declaration of war against the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.'
There is a world of difference between the non-violent self defensive strategy of Biafra in relation to the fed govt at its founding and the murderous quest to set up an Islamic caliphate by Boko Haram through terror initiated by the terrorist group.
Anyway, as Nigerians we are all in the same terrible situation .
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Obafemi Awolowo and Odumegwu Ojukwu
In discussing the ideological formulation and practical expression of restructuring and secession in Nigerian history, the more apt comparisons are between the SW political leader Obafemi Awolowo and the Biafran leader Odumegwu Ojukwu, rather than between Awo, Zik and Aguiyi-Ironsi. The politics of Nnamdi Azikiwe as a SE Igbo were very different from that of Ojukwu, the other famous SE Igbo of the same period. Ojukwu is also very different from Aguiyi-Ironsi, a famous general from the SE and first military head of state, both in his strategies and the contexts in which those strategies were developed
Awolowo was imprisoned for treason by the fed govt, if I recall correctly, bcs it was believed he planned to secede. Ojukwu chose to secede bcs he was convinced that was the only hope for Ndigbo in the light of the fed govt enabled pogrom of thousands of Igbos in the North and the later failure of the Aburi Accord meant to secure significant autonomy for the various regions, but which was truncated by the fed govt's unilateral revisions to this agreement.
Awolowo may thus be described as one of the earliest ideological formulators of the federalist vision but that vision may be seen as first presented as a practical strategy under the impress of the dire circumstances of the Aburi Accords, a vision in which Ojukwu and his negotiating team placed great hopes as the last resort to avoid secession and possible war.
The Kaduna Declaration explicitly invoked IPOB's sit-at-home order in commemoration of the Biafran dead, a peaceful protest very different from any calls by any other pro-Biafra group to Igbos to relocate to the SE, describing as provocation to other Nigerians a peaceful sit-at-home to remember war dead as is done in various pubic holidays in Nigeria and across the world, as with the SW June 12 remembrance public holiday in Nigeria .
Why this focus by the Kaduna Declaration on IPOB's sit-at-home? The fear of the power demonstrated by the peaceful civil disobedience call and its compliance, a vital strategy in either reworking the nation or balkanising it in the face of readiness in use of armed force by the fed govt in resisting such creative transformations.
Some of these critics demonise the secession vision as a personal threat while in fact its a call to arms to all Nigerians to fight for an equitable nation for Nigerians by Nigerians or the creation of new nations where such equity can be more readily pursued.
Biafra secessionist venture has nothing to do with restructuring of Nigeria from unitary to pure federalism. Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, will cure himself of phobia for what he constantly refer to as Hausa/Fulani domination, if he bothers to acquaint himself with history of Nigeria. Who propagated for unitary central government in Nigeria and when was it implemented and by who?
The National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroon (NCNC), as it was known in the 1950s, led by Nnamdi Azikiwe propagated for a unitary constitution for Nigeria which was strongly opposed by the Action Group (AG) led by Obafemi Awolowo. He expatiated, "As between the various ethnic groups, I argued, there were differing standards of civilisation as well as uneven stages in the adoption of western education and the emulation of western civilisation. A unitary constitution with only central government would only result in frustration to the much push-ful and more dynamic ethnic groups, whereas the division of the country into regions along ethnic lines would enable each linguistic group not only to develop its own peculiar culture and institutions but to move forward at its own pace, without being unnecessarily pushed or annoyingly slowed down by the others (Chapter 12, EVOLUTION OF A FEDERALIST in AWO : The Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, p. 164-165)." For opting for Federal constitutional government in Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe and his NCNC branded Awolowo a fascist who wanted to balkanise Nigeria and he called Federalism, Pakistanization.
After the 1959 Federal election, none of the political parties secured a majority to rule at the centre. Awolowo stated plainly that he could serve in a national federal government led by Nnamdi Azikiwe, but not in the one led by a feudalist. NCNC and AG together had 164 seats as against NPC 148 in the House of Representatives. However, Azikiwe entered not only into a coalition government with the NPC, but also conceded the post of the Prime Minister to Abubakar Tafawa Balewa on the belief that since Northerners had no so much educated people, the Igbo would control all the apparatus of governance in the country. Truly, as Chinua Achebe confirmed on p.66 of his book, There Was a Country, the Igbo led the nation in virtually every sector - politics, education, commerce and the arts, the achievements made possible by the NCNC coalition government with the less educated Northerners. The Deputy leader of Action Group and Premier of Western Region drew attention of Awolowo to the ethnic lop-sidedness in the recruitments and appointments in the federal public service and parastatals against the Yoruba and urged Awolowo to join a national government led by Balewa, so that the Yoruba could get their share of federal appointments. Awolowo replied that officials were to work for the entire nation and not alone for their respective tribes. That was the major cause of conflict between Akintola and Awolowo. When the Yoruba Kings (Oba) summoned both of them to a reconciliation meeting, Akintola spoke in Yoruba to describe the impossibility of Awolowo's ideology of democratic socialism. He said, "TÍ A BÁ DÉ IBI TÍ ERÁNKO PÉJO SÍ, NSÉ LÃ'WÁ OHÚN T'ÓJÒRÙ FÍ HA IDI; TÍ OBÁ SÉ BI ÈNÌYÀN LÃRIN ERÁNKO, WON YIO WULÈ PÁ ONI." Literarily translated, it means, "When you are in the midst of animals, pretend to be like them because if you try to behave like human beings, the animals would kill you for nothing. What Akintola said implied that Awolowo should be as tribal as Azikiwe and his NCNC by joining the national government led by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. Everywhere in Lagos is SÚKU-SÙKU, Akintola said, if you go to Lagos. SÚKU-SÙKU was Akintola's euphemism for the Igbo shortened name, Chukwu. The dispute over joining the federal government by the Action Group was exploited by the NCNC/NPC coalition government to overthrow the government of Western Region controlled by the AG. The crisis that followed, led to the two coups of 15 January 1966 in which Major General Johnson Thompson Aguiyi Ironsi triumphed as the Military Head of State.
Traditionally, a military coup is usually followed by the release of political prisoners jailed by the ousted regime, immediately after take over. Ironsi dumped that tradition by not releasing Awolowo and others jailed by the NPC/NCNC regime. Instead, he appointed Francis Nwokedi as one-man commission of inquiry on a unitary form of government in Nigeria. In his Budget broadcast of 31st March 1966, and before Nwokedi submitted his report on unitary form of government in Nigeria, Aguiyi Ironsi said among other things that, "I am convinced that the bulk of our people want a united Nigeria and that they want in future one government and not a multitude of governments." By the end of April 1966, Francis Nwokedi had submitted his one-man constitutional review in which he recommended the abolition of the Regions. Despite oppositions, Ironsi promulgated Decree No. 34 of May 24, 1966, to establish unitary form of government in Nigeria. On May 28, 1966, riot broke out throughout Northern Nigeria in protest against unitary government. Since the NCNC manifesto had always advocated unitary form of government in Nigeria, many considered Ironsi's decree No. 34 as implementing NCNC political agenda. By coincidence, NCNC was mainly an Igbo party and with Decree No. 34, many Nigerians regarded the military take-over as an Igbo coup. In addition the refusal of Ironsi to release Awolowo from prison was alluded to his well-known opposition to the unitary form of government and releasing him before decree No. 34 was well established beyond reversal was dangerous to the regime. Two months after Decree No. 34 Ironsi was overthrown in a bloody coup but subsequent regimes retained Aguiyi Ironsi's unitary form of government in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The overthrow of Ironsi eventually led to civil war that ended thirty months after it started. The current Igbo led resuscitators of Biafra are claiming that since the end of the civil war, the Igbo people have been marginalized, reduced to second class citizens, oppressed and treated as a conquered people in Nigeria. It is extremely ridiculous that a group who claims to be marginalized, oppressed, treated as conquered people and reduced to a second class citizens would have produced the Vice President of Nigeria in the person of Dr. Alex Ekwueme, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Edwin Ume Ezeoke, Presidents of the Senate - Chuba Okadigbo, Evans Enwerem, Adolf Wabara, and Anyim Pius Anyim, and Deputy Senate Presisent Ekweremandu. The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning under Babangida was Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu and many Igbo enjoyed juicy appointments under General Babangida to the effect that Ohaneze Ndigbo conferred the traditional title of Ogugua Ndigbo on him. There was a Minister of Finance under President Obasanjo named Okonjo Iweala. The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria then was Charles Chukwuma Soludo just as Kingsley Moghalu had been Deputy Governor of CBN. Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife was Special Adviser to Obasanjo on Political matters while Andy Ubah was a Special Adviser in the Presidency. Obasanjo's Minister of Aviation was Kema Chikwe and the Minister of Defence after Theophilus Danjuma was the son of Aguiyi Ironsi. Under President Jonathan, the Chief Economic Adviser to the President was Dr. Nwanze Okedigbe. Once again Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala was not only Jonathan's Minister of Finance but Coordinating Minister of Economy. And when Sanusi Lamido was driven out of the Central Bank as the Governor, he was replaced by Godwin Emefiele. In fact, what had to do with the Finance and Economy of Nigeria under Jonathan was controlled by persons of Igbo ethnic group. Director General of Budget Office was Bright Okogwu; Director General of Bureau of Public Procurement, was Emeka Eze; Director General of Bureau of Public Enterprises was Benjamin Ezra Dikki; Director General of Security Exchange Commission was Arunma Oteh; Director General of Nigerian Security Exchange was Oscar Onyeama; MD of AMCON was Chike Obi; MD of Sovereign Wealth Fund was Uche Orji; Director General of Housing Fund was Sunny Iroha; Managing Director of Bank of Industry was Evelyn Oputa; Chairman of Investments, Securities Tribunals was Nnenna Orji; Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) was Anyim Pius Anyim; Director General of Pension Commission(PENCOM) was Chinelu Onuoha; and Director General of Debt Management Office (DMO) was Dr. Abraham Nwankwo. Lest we forget, Jonathan's Minister of Aviation was Stella Adaeze Oduah and because of official malfeasance she was replaced with Osita Chidoka. Professor Bath Naji was Minister of Power but when he attempted to sell PHCN to his proxy company, he was removed and replaced with Professor Chinedu Ositadinma Ndubusi Nebo, while Dr. Sam Amadi was the Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission. Since Abacha time up to May 29, 2015, Wilson Orakwe Emeka Offor had been the sole government contractor awarded Turn Around Maintenance of Nigeria's four oil refineries for billions of dollars so that they would be able to refine 445,000 barrels of crude oil per day to meet domestic consumption. The list of important positions held by persons of Igbo ethnic group can infinitely be long, nevertheless, I stop here to mention that the Chief Of Army Staff under Jonathan for a long period was General Azubuike Onyeabor Ihejirika before he was replaced with Alex Badeh. Viewing the above narratives it is a heightened self-induced paranoia for any Igbo to claim that the Igbo people have been marginalized in Nigeria since the end of the civil war.
Since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999, Southerners in the persons of Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan have ruled Nigeria as President for eight and six years respectively, totalling fourteen years. Rather than restructuring into true federalism, they enjoyed ruling with the unitary constitution that concentrates power at the centre. The impoverishment of the Nigerian masses have been perpetrated by the political elites from all, and indeed major, ethnic groups in Nigeria. It is the Nigerian masses that have been marginalized and oppressed by the alliance of ethno-religious groups governing the country. Instead of holding the ruling elites accountable for the mismanagement of our national incomes and resources, resuscitators of secession are helping to divert attentions from national looters and plunderers. All along, IPOB, MASSOB and BIM have preached openly not only for an Igbo Republic but for a Biafra that will include satellite none Igbo ethnic groups beyond Igbo ethnic natural territory. Interestingly, none of the Igbo political and business billionaires cautioned or warned the Igbo ethnic supremacists demanding for secession. Rather, they attribute the agitation for Biafra to the marginalization of the Igbo in Nigeria. In the online Nigerian Guardian of June 9, 2013, the then President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief Gary Enwo Igariwey, was quoted as saying, "We have the population and the Igbo are the only people with over a 25 per cent spread in any part of this country. We are not underdogs under any circumstances, we have the capacity to decide who can be president or who cannot be because we have the numbers." It cannot be denied that the Igbo are everywhere in Nigeria, something that would have been impossible if they are hated and persecuted by their host communities in other parts of Nigeria as it is being politically touted. Now, when the Arewa Youth reciprocated to the IPOB and MASSOB's agitation for secession in what can be termed as Mutually Assured Ethnic Destruction, by demanding that all Igbo in the North should leave the North within three months and all Northerners in the Southeast should leave at the same time, hell broke loose. The Arewa Youth ultimatum is very intelligent because it will deescalate ethnic war threat that have been constantly chanted by IPOB and MASSOB for some years now. If all Igbo in Nigeria return to the Southeast, other Nigerians in the Southeast will not consider Igboland safe for them and will automatically leave, resulting in an Igbo Republic. The Arewa Youth ultimatum is not different from the order of MASSOB, in 2015, to all Igbo in other parts of Nigeria to return to Igboland. see http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/11/return-the-south-east-massob-tells-igbo. On the 25 November 2015, the National Director of Information, MASSOB, Mr. Uchenna Madu directed Ndigbo residing outside Igboland to start returning to their homeland and he gave reasons for his directive. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/11/biafra-agitation-reveals-seast-neglect-marginalization-igbo-leaders. Yet between 1999 and 2015, the Southeast received 17 trillion naira as revenue allocations from the Federal government. Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, will probably be able to help us with the information of how much income Nigeria has earned between 1999 and 2015 and how much money each state in Nigeria has derived from revenue allocations shared by the Federal Government. Thereafter, we shall be able to ask our rulers both at Federal and State's level to account for how they have disbursed our collective national earnings. That I consider intellectually worthwhile and intelligent than the rantings over the Hausa/Fulani's fictitious domination as if to say they are not human beings like Edo, Igbo, Yoruba, Ibibio or Ijaw people.
S. Kadiri.
Från: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> för Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>
Salimonu Kadiri
If one, for the sake of convenience, should agree with you that Biafra was declared in protection of Igbos following the anti-Igbo pogrom in the North in which thousands of innocents were massacred and the failure of the Fed. govt. to guarantee the safety of Ndigbo, then, one should expect you to demand that Biafra should have contained only Igbo ethnic group. However, following Aguiyi Ironsi seizure of power after the coup in which all casualties, except one, were non-Igbo, and Decree No.34 of May 24, 1966, riot broke out throughout the North on May 28, 1966 and did not subside even after 29 July coup 1966 that overthrew Ironsi and installed Gowon in power. Refusal of Ojukwu to recognise Gowon as the new Supreme Commander helped to undermine Gowon's position to gain control over the soldiers in the North. The riots stopped later, but towards the end of September 1966, a radio broadcast from Cotonou alleged that Hausas leaving in the Eastern region were killed and the broadcast was relayed by the BBC and Radio Kaduna. In revenge Igbos in the North were attacked in thousands. By the end of October 1966, the riots and revenge killings had ceased. If Biafra had been declared exclusively for the Igbo before the end of October 1966, one would have understood Ojukwu, instead, he waited until May 30, 1967, and forcibly annexed non-Igbo into his Biafra.
On Aburi accord, you recalled wrongly. The Aburi accord was completely incorporated into Decree No.8 which was approved by the Supreme Military Council at its meeting in Benin on March 10, 1967, which Ojukwu refused to attend. Off course, the Decree contained additional provision authorising the Supreme Military Council to declare a state of emergency anywhere in the country, if situation called for it, and except it was consented to by, at least, three out of the four military Regional governors. As it was, three of the four Regional governors were in the South and it would have required the approval of two governors in the South collaborating with the only one governor in the North to declare a State of Emergency, for example, in the then Eastern Region. So, Ojukwu's rejection of Decree No.8 was a pretext to declare his predetermined Republic of Biafra.
It was unfortunate that Igbo civilians who never participated in the military slaughter of non-Igbo in January 1966 were attacked and massacred in the North. However, Philip Effiong gave reasons for the reaction of Northerners in his book, Nigeria & Biafra : My Story. Under the subtitle, THE GATHERING STORM, he wrote, "In the course of my duties as Principal Staff Officer at General Ironsi's SHQ, I received a number of intelligence reports about the arrogant and sometimes abusive attitude of the Igbos in the North and the suppressed anger of many Northerners, including our Northern Army officers (p. 76)." Further on page 88, Effiong wrote in the subtitle, THE MAY DISTURBANCES thus, "It must be added that the attitude of the Igbos in the North, as reported in some papers at the time of the first coup, was particularly provocative and contributed to the violent eruption of emotions, giving some encouragement and reason for action." Lastly on page 332, Effiong wrote, "I must also state that the attitudes of the Igbos in the North after the first coup of 15 January 1966 was somewhat provocative and contributed to the hardening of the attitude of the Northern leaders when the massacres began in July 1966." These are the facts that should not be ignored while condemning the Northern rioters of May to October 1966.
S. Kadiri
Skickat: den 15 juni 2017 15:34
Till: usaafricadialogue
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Kenneth Harrow
Kenneth Harrow
Dept of English and Film Studies
Michigan State University
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
Dear Ken,
Let me thank you, thank your patience andtolerance in advance,for putting up with the kind of answer I suspect that I'm going to give : More questions.
I want to at least satisfy my conscience. Con-science
"Everybody who read the Jungle Book knows that Riki tiki tavi's a mongoose who kills snakes.
Well, when I was a young man I was led to believe there were organisations to kill my snakes for me,i.e. the church, i.e. the government , i.e. the school. But when I got a little olderI learned I had to kill them myself" ( Donovan : Riki Tiki Tavi
At primary school (in Fulham ) I learned a rime which began
"Sticks and stones may break my bones , but words can't hurt me"
Another version is "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never break me"
They tried to instil that kind of attitude in us at school , not least of all to avert the fist fights that were a daily occurrence in the playground - between friends, sometimes directly after playing/ sharing marbles.For the sensitives(many dimensions), be they Joos (another spelling, don't take offence) Christians (another faith) or Muslims (other believers), another truth could be, "Sticks and stones may break my bones and words can also hurt me"
But to the point. The current First Minister is Nicola Sturgeon and the then First Prime Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party who worked indefatigably for that Referendum was Alex Salmond( sounds remarkably close to " Alex Salman)
Salimonu Kadiri
Before May 24, 1966, Nigeria was governed by a federal constitution and the four regions were relatively free economically from the government at the centre. It was General Ironsi who implemented the NCNC long time advocated ideology of unitary form of government for Nigeria that abolished the Regions and federalism. About the two coups of 1966, it is naive to assume that Ironsi did not stage his own coup against the Majors. When Major Patrick Chukwuma Nzeogwu at 12:30 noon of January 1966 broadcast his revolutionary military take over in the North, General Ironsi caused Lagos Radio to announce, at 14:30 pm, that he and the vast majority of the army were loyal to the federal government and described what happened as mutiny that would be brought under control. When Lagos Radio was caused to announce the loyalty of the Army to the federal government, Ironsi knew already that Balewa the Prime Minister had been murdered. What a loyal army should have done after quelling rebellion within its rank was to provide security so that the Parliament could meet to elect a new Prime Minister. That was the process set in motion when the NNA majority in the parliament nominated Zana Bukar Dipcharima as their candidate for the office of Prime Minister and UPGA nominated Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe as their candidate. Then, Ironsi told them that he could not guarantee the loyalty of the army unless power was handed over to him. Nwafor Orizu, the acting President told the parliamentarians that he was not going to assent to their election of a new Prime Minister. Dipcharima and Mbadiwe were forced to sign a handover paper to the military in order to make it look legal even though the constitution had no provision for such transfer of power. There were indisputable evidences that Ironsi had foreknowledge of the coup through his infiltrators among the Majors and he planned meticulously to steal their revolution and supplant them.
Awolowo was jailed on trump up charge of planning to overthrow the NPC/NCNC led federal government by Balewa and Azikiwe. His trial was preceded by the overthrow of the Action Group controlled government of Western Region and its replacement with a Quisling's regime. You may wish to know that after the Jos conference of the Action Group in February 1962, the party adopted Democratic Socialism as its ideology. Thus, Samuel Gomsu Ikoku, the AG opposition in the Eastern House of Assembly, replaced Ayo Rosiji as the Secretary General of the AG. Anthony Enahoro, S.G. Ikoku and Patrick Dokotri, of the UMBC that was in alliance with AG, were also tried along with Awolowo. It would not make sense to assert that Awolowo planned to secede from Nigeria with an Igbo Secretary General of AG, an Esan as a second deputy leader of AG and a TIV from UMBC led by Joseph Tarka.
When Yakubu Gowon pardoned and released Awolowo on August 2, 1966, Nigeria was in chaos. In his Statement at Ibadan on May 1, 1967, he made it clear that if the Eastern Region was allowed to secede, West would also secede. Then on May 5, he led a peace delegation to Enugu to convince Ojukwu that their were better political options than secession. Ojukwu branded Awolowo's peace initiative as stillbirth. The war to keep Nigeria as a united country had nothing to do with unitary system of government. Awolowo served under Gowon's Government just as Enahoro and a host of other southerners. Shortly after the end of the war Awolowo resigned from the government. Ojukwu wore the beards of Fidel Castro but acted like the Katangese secessionist of the Congo, Moise Tshombe. His Ahiara declaration of 1969 was a smokescreen designed to divert attention from the impending defeat of Biafra. Did Ahiara declaration restructure Biafra to the effect that the Ibibio, Effik, and Ijaw were allowed to rule themselves?
You claimed that restructuring/secession is not about appointments yet the Igbo who are clamouring for secession say that their demand is premised on marginalization of their ethnic group in federal appointments. I have proved beyond every reasonable doubt that the Igbo have never been marginalized in Nigeria and they, like officials from other parts of the country, have been incompetent, corrupt and roguish. I am convinced that even if Nigeria is restructured into a village a country with the current crops of intellectuals and politicians, nothing but tragedy far greater than that of Southern Sudan will be achieved.
S.Kadiri
Skickat: den 15 juni 2017 19:24
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Professor Harrow,
In the name of love and reverence for life, how do you to put an end to the violence that’s motivated by a sense of religious righteousness?
SÄPO (The Swedish Security Service) has just woken up to the reality; they can now smell the coffee and the gunpowder too as they upgrade the number of radicalised Muslims in Sweden from a mere 200, to "thousands" - although - so they say - only a tiny number of the thousands have the operational ability to make bloody hell in our country. But radical being such a broad term, it probably includes those who would resist oppression of any kind " by any means necessary"
Just for the record:
As you have rightly said, without any room fort miss-understanding, you are not The Lord. Sure, Hallaj was misunderstood. He would have got away with it if his executioners had thought that he was mad. Wasn't Jesus also crucified for saying "ana anal haq"? / "I am the truth"? In Jesus' case he is being reported to have said, "I am the way, the truth and the life ; No one comes to the father except through me." That must have sounded like a challenge to the other Rabbis, Pharisees, making them see red > the blood of Jesus - a Rush-die type fatwa on his head because of what he said.
Of course nowadays, with or without your students or disciples, should you arrive in Jerusalem around the time of the Passover / Easter and make such a claim even at the Mea Shearim, nobody would take you seriously or threaten you with crucifixion. On the other hand if you were to assert that kind of identity in Saudi Arabia any time of the year, that could cause some trouble for you (at which time some leverage from Trump could be your only hope. In such circumstances, I think that preaching Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' Not in God's Name would just make matters worse for you or whoever.
There are two hadiths in this link which illustrate how some of the true Believers (Mumin) believed in those days. The women in question preferred to submit to the punishment ordained by the Sharia in this life - in order to avoid the everlasting fire in the life after death, the olam ha ba
You say that I can chose which side I am on.
My first Sufi teacher Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh said that after the Prophet of Islam sallallahu alaihi wa salaam blessed the Hereafter the Muslim community that he left behind was divided into
(1) The Arab Nationalists who became the Sunnis
(2) Those who chose to follow Ali ibn Abi Talib (a.s/ r.a) i.e. the Shia
(Incidentally, Imam Ali ( a.s.) was martyred on exactly this day the 21st of Ramadan - having been attacked with a poisoned sword in the mosque at Kufa on the 19th of Ramadan 40 A.H
( 3) The Sufi who transmitted (and still transmit) the esoteric teachings
to which group belonged your Mansur al Hallaj and this book by him : Tawasin
I have heard two of Dr. Nurbaksh's close disciples, one by the name of Terry Graham and the other by the name of Leonard Lewisohn refer to (1) and ( 2) as "the legalists "
My second Sufi teacher Hazrat Sultan Husayn Tabandeh Reza Ali Shah was also a trained Mujtahid and his father's compendium Pand-i Salih ( Salih's Advice) outlines the general rules of that order...
There's also the Rifai order . There are also other orders...
The problem for the Mumin is that he may rightly or wrongly understand that he is obeying orders from Allah the One and Only ALMIGHTY.
I had some difficulty coming to terms with the mass execution of Jews in Medina - I asked some alims/ scholars about it and was given the ultimate Quranic injunction as an answer: Quran 5: 33
Both the Bible and the Quran have their say on homosexuality for example - and you may call them fundamentalists if you want , the zealots who would like to wipe out / " purify" Tel Aviv which is currently "the Mecca of the Gay" in the Holy Land of Israel. The fundamentalists of the 21st century are keen to implement the death penalty, according to their own understanding of what they believe to be a Divine punishment.
The alims say that the Almighty's word cannot be abrogated.
As Chief Bolaji usually says,
And there you have it.
Cornelius
Cornelius Hamelberg
Corrected.
Professor Harrow,
In the name of love and reverence for life, how do you put an end to the violence that’s motivated by a sense of religious righteousness?
SÄPO (The Swedish Security Service) has just woken up to the reality; they can now smell the coffee and the gunpowder too as they upgrade the number of radicalised Muslims in Sweden from a mere 200, to "thousands" - although - so they say - only a tiny number of the thousands have the operational ability to make bloody hell in our country. But radical being such a broad term, it probably includes those who would resist oppression of any kind " by any means necessary"
Just for the record:
As you have rightly said, without any room fort miss-understanding, you are not The Lord. Sure, Hallaj was misunderstood. He would have got away with it if his executioners had thought that he was mad. Wasn't Jesus also crucified for saying "ana anal haq"? / "I am the truth"? In Jesus' case he is being reported to have said, "I am the way, the truth and the life ; No one comes to the father except through me." That must have sounded like a challenge to the other Rabbis, Pharisees, making them see red > the blood of Jesus - a Rush-die type fatwa on his head because of what he said.
Of course nowadays, with or without your students or disciples, should you arrive in Jerusalem around the time of the Passover / Easter and make such a claim even at the Mea Shearim, nobody would take you seriously or threaten you with crucifixion. On the other hand if you were to assert that kind of identity in Saudi Arabia any time of the year, that could cause some trouble for you (at which time some leverage from Trump could be your only hope. In such circumstances, I think that preaching Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' Not in God's Name would just make matters worse for you or whoever.
There are two hadiths in this link which illustrate how some of the true Believers (Mumin) believed in those days. The women in question preferred to submit to the punishment ordained by the Sharia in this life - in order to avoid the everlasting fire in the life after death, the olam ha ba
You say that I can chose which side I am on.
1987 : My first Sufi teacher Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh said that after the Prophet of Islam sallallahu alaihi wa salaam blessed the Hereafter the Muslim community that he left behind was divided into
(1) The Arab Nationalists who became the Sunnis
(2) Those who chose to follow Ali ibn Abi Talib (a.s/ r.a) i.e. the Shia
(Incidentally, Imam Ali ( a.s.) was martyred on exactly this day the 21st of Ramadan - having been attacked with a poisoned sword in the mosque at Kufa on the 19th of Ramadan 40 A.H
( 3) The Sufi who transmitted (and still transmit) the esoteric teachings
to which group belonged your Mansur al Hallaj and this book by him : Tawasin
I have heard two of Dr. Nurbaksh's close disciples, one by the name of Terry Graham and the other by the name of Leonard Lewisohn refer to (1) and ( 2) as "the legalists "
1989: My second Sufi teacher Hazrat Sultan Husayn Tabandeh Reza Ali Shah was also a trained Mujtahid and his father's compendium Pand-i Salih ( Salih's Advice) outlines the general rules of that order...
1991 the Rifai order and one more order of the Shadhiliyya branch...
The problem for the Mumin is that he may rightly or wrongly understand that he is obeying orders from Allah the One and Only ALMIGHTY.
I had some difficulty coming to terms with the mass execution of Jews in Medina - I asked some alims/ scholars about it and was given the ultimate Quranic injunction as an answer: Quran 5: 33
Both the Bible and the Quran have their say on homosexuality for example - and you may call them fundamentalists if you want , the zealots who would like to wipe out / " purify" Tel Aviv which is currently "the Mecca of the Gay" in the Holy Land of Israel. The fundamentalists of the 21st century are keen to implement the death penalty, according to their own understanding of what they believe to be a Divine punishment.
The alims say that the Almighty's word cannot be abrogated.
As Chief Bolaji usually says,
And there you have it.
Cornelius
Olayinka Agbetuyi
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Kenneth Harrow
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Cornelius Hamelberg
2 a-m.
Dear Ken,
Loquacious and verbose, let him ramble on.
Where have all the young men gone ?
Sadly, what some people don't realise is that as a result of all this fratricidal killing and maiming in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Nigeria, everywhere, simultaneous with whole societies being destroyed, uprooted, millions internally displaced, millions of refugees, millions of broken families, so many widows, the Muslim fighting force of able-bodied young men is gradually but surely being depleted. That what's happening and when they are war-weary and completely finished, somebody produces a peace treaty which dictates the terms of surrender to the defeated and then says, "Sign here!"
About some of the conditions that produce jihadists, what you say is corroborated by many reports and newspaper articles about the making of a jihadist.
It's a surprise for some that the London Bridge attackers were not some hard-nosed Islamists : London Bridge attackers were regulars at Sunday afternoon pool sessions
When his country is attacked and occupied by foreign forces what is the Jihadist supposed to do? There are many passages in the Quran that give him the legal cover if not the motivation to fight whatever injustices he may perceive, such as imperialism and colonialism.
Lovey-dovey Sufism and sufistic aphorisms such as "Love is the bridge between you and everything" do not translate into put down your weapons of resistance and love your enemies...
Here's some other news that will make some people feel or see blue: Russian Ambassador to Israel: We Do Not Consider Hamas And Hizbullah To Be Terrorists At All...
When David Grossman was here a few years ago he told us that at the height of the Second Intifada, in the Jerusalem neighbourhood in which he lived they had to split their children up and send them to school in different buses; still looming large, the spectre of a young man boarding the bus, wearing an outer garment a couple of sizes too big for him, with sleeves down to his fingertips or with a pack strapped to his back at the sight of which everybody dives out of the bus. As the Quran says , "And thou wilt find them (the Jews) greediest of mankind for life and (greedier) than the idolaters. (Each) one of them would like to be allowed to live a thousand years. And to live (a thousand years) would by no means remove him from the doom. Allah is Seer of what they do."
But I think that even Chidi would be scared if Biafran Security were to make a public announcement there in Owerri that thousands of radicalised Muslims /potential Boko Haram radicals had moved to his town or were already there living legally in Igboland and potentially wishing their fellow citizens no good. In a free Biafra (Bia-free-a) things would be a little different...
SÄPO's new figures that in Sweden right now there are thousands of "radicalised" Muslim extremists living in our midst, not behind bars but roaming free in their thousands is scary. It increases the national paranoia, everybody on the alert : Breaking news: thousands of radicalised Muslims/ Muslim extremists in our midst. Where? Everywhere !
And here Apostle Johnson preaching violence and destruction in the name of Jesus...
It's bad enough when Cornelius who has nothing against Islam sees anyone sporting a Talibanic beard and thinking "Ah! One of them !"or "potentially one of them" and you can never be sure! I have a friend from Algeria, who lost an arm fighting with the Mujahideen against the Soviets in Afghanistan (He is now more of a theologian than an Islamic warrior - the second to last time I met him he said that he could assure me that on no occasion did the Almighty ever speak to Aaron.)
Several Muslim men and women have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join forces with various Jihadists there. Some have returned and having acquired some military experience it is feared that they could turn on those perceived to be their local enemies...
You say, "but if it came to more repression of the muslim community as a strategy to end it, I am sure that will backfire." By "backfire," I suppose you mean " explode"? Implode - with lots of fire? Sooner or later repression leads to explosion. In as far as anti-Muslim immigration is the islamophobic wind of change blowing over Europe, each and every terrorists attack in Europe just makes things worse. When I first heard about the Tower in London burning down to the ground, my first thought was arson on a tower where mostly foreigners and a large number of Muslims lived...
After SÄPO's announcement a great many Muslim youngsters could now be under suspicion - if not by the Security Police, then under suspicion by their neighbours - everywhere - in the streets in the department stores, in the tube, boarding the bus right now, at the airport. There was the case of a woman who was seated next to a bearded young man resulting in her refusing to travel on that plane...
I sent this titillating quote to a friend from France :"Mieux vaut être avec une vieille femme qui vous conduira au succès que de sortir avec une jeune fille qui a toujours faim (SOPEKA) et qui vous mènera (conduira) à la ruine "( President Macron) and got this in reply : "I don't like Macron and don't intend to vote for him on Sunday. The first thing he did was to support an anti-Israeli Arab-supported vote at Unesco ("Israel has no cultural ties to Jerusalem"LOL!!!) If he prefers old women that's his problem! I don't care a fig!"
My own response to that is :" If it's true that he said such a thing, then Macron is no better than a couchon"
Still no relief for my piles... writing this kind of crap about how mortal we all are makes me painfully aware that our days are numbered and that I personally could be "the greediest of mankind for life" with no prophetic dreams yet about the 72 dark eyed virgins waiting for me or Macron to look forward on the other side, am in no hurry for the carnival to be over and to meet my Creator.
Praying that tomorrow is another day.
Cornelius
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Kenneth Harrow
Chidi Anthony Opara
I totally agree with you.
CAO.
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
CAO.
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
CAO.
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Chidi Anthony Opara
CAO.
Cornelius Hamelberg
Chidi,
This thread is getting kind of long, going through so many twists and turns. Now we're here:
Why does the chairman of IPOB have to be so incendiary, talking like this before his trial doesn't help matters much:
‘Anyone Who Says Biafra Will Not Be Achieved Will Die’ - IPOB Leader, Nnamdi Kanu Spits Fire
You know that what he says in at least some small way impacts on Igbos throughout the Naija federation and beyond. When he is not brought to order after making such outlandish utterances it could be interpreted that the silence of the Igbo elders means their consent, not just their indifference, because this unpeaceful way has its inevitable consequences and who the hell does he think he is to pass the death sentence on law-abiding citizens of Nigeria? Is that not inviting hell to descend on the Igbos once again?
As always there's more than one side to a story; I wonder what you make of this piece from propaganda and destabilisation avenue:
RECOLONIZATION OF NIGERIA:Neo-imperalist agenda - forex and political destabilization.
Cornelius Hamelberg
Believe it or not , this Night of Power , when I got to this part of a certain prayer
" So great is Your Mercy that You grant the right to live even to the unbelievers who deny You"
for a few seconds my wayward thoughts went to Brer Nnamdi Kanu and his edict that
The line of prayer quoted is from chapter 10 of " The Unveiling of Love " by Sheikh Muzaffer Ozak al-Jerrahi
the chapter entitled " A Prayer" ...
indeed, " Love is the wine" and from that point of view my appeal to Oga Kanu is PLEASE even as we repent of mistakes in the past,
for now and forever, let us be kind to one another
there should be no problem calling the other, Brother....
Kanu of course is speaking of the future, not the past or the present
here too reminiscent of the Exodus 10:28 - words of dramatic irony, from Pharaoh to Moses :
"Pharaoh said to him, "Go away from me! Beware! You shall no longer see my face, for on the day that you see my face, you shall die!"
Fact is that Pharaoh never saw the face of Moses again....
You know what I mean?
"My
love she speaks like silence
Without ideals or violence"
(Love
minus zero/ No limit)
H O
--
Chidi Anthony Opara
I do not waste my time with characters like Kanu. You at least know me and several other Igbos, now the question is; does it look like Kanu represents us?
The Kanu hate speeches is being used as a blackmail tool. Kanu tongue-lashes everyone, including those you want to call him to order. All the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria however have their own Kanu.
CAO.
Cornelius Hamelberg
Mazi Chidi,
In plain prose : I agree with you completely.
What's wrong with our man? There he goes, violating the terms of his release, his bail conditions such as
the prohibition against holding rallies, granting interviews or addressing a "crowd" of more than ten people whilst awaiting his trial. As if he is unaware of those bail conditions and maybe intoxicated and getting too big for his boots, a little giddy being so much in the limelight and loving every moment of the media's glare, he has inauspiciously proclaimed himself militant "Messiah of Biafra" - about which I say, well, there are many false prophets and false messiahs - not only of Israel - and in Rabbi Kanu's case it's maybe a prefiguration of his trial, eventual long prison sentence or crucifixion/ execution and martyrdom. All that remains is his last supper with his twelve disciples - after humbly washing their feet. Meanwhile - while he's still a free man let him continue to enjoy prancing around like a pop star, wearing his special colourful robes and Ray Charles sunglasses - delivering lengthy speeches to large crowds - in English too, so that the rest of the world that doesn't speak Igbo can hear and understand him, he has been granting interviews - to al-Jazeera among others and - without any military training or experience is still talking like a great military general like Julius Caesar or soon to be guerilla leader like Che Guevara.
As a result of all of the above, we can see plainly see that his conviction is a foregone conclusion - what we don't yet know is the severity of the sentence that he is going to receive in order to set a statutory example to those who advocate taking up arms against the Federal Government for any reason whatsoever.
What do the Igbo elders say ?
Among the venerable Igbo elders I have in mind stalwarts like stiff upper lip Emeka Anyaoku and in my time in Nigeria, Shagari's second-in-command Alex Ekwueme. On the religious-ethical front, on the world stage we have a moral authority like Cardinal Francis Arinze who we should imagine would much prefer a non-violent revolutionary Brother Nnamdi Kanu walking in the footsteps of his Jewish Brother Jesus and reflecting the values of the Sermon on the Mount, instead of spitting fire and threatening his neighbours with death, as if he doesn't know that Igbos live all over the federation and are liable to tit-for-tat eye for eye retaliation - starting with pogroms in the North as has happened before.
I should like to add Biko Agozino to the honourable category of "Igbo elders" even though he may be too young for that. So what say ye if he is included in the category "Junior Igbo elder " - like a junior senator ? ( When I was eighteen I thought that I was certainly a grown up)
Ten years later , the scars of war were still visible in Aba, Umuahia and Owerri, according to other's testimonies because I myself don't know what those places looked like before the war and I guess that Igbos under the age of fifty can't remember either
We (Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani Kalabari alike, including Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo) have a moral obligation to condemn Kanu's outrageous - and dangerous beating of war drums when we should be talking peaceably about the best way way to go forward and about a referendum to begin with...
All of the above, notwithstanding, it may be a just a blip, but Nnamdi Kanu's place in history is still assured. He has and is still fulfilling his function: amplifying the Biafra cause which in my view, especially in the world outside of Nigeria, I believe many people would support, not least of all here in Sweden , if it is all approached peacefully - starting with a referendum. (I know that an irate Baba Nnamdi Kadiri Esq probably won't hesitate in taking me to task by asking me "How do you know that "many people in Sweden" would support the Biafra cause, ? Did you conduct a referendum whereby you verified their commitment? )
Well, first of all, believe it or not there are the questions that we have to answer in the grave and not before. On the Day of Judgement Nnamdi will probably be asked about his accomplishments on earth that should merit his being granted a seat near the throne of Majesty. At that point, everyone of us will have to speak for him and herself not just on behalf of making America Nigeria/ Biafra etc. "great again". I think that on the day of that trial most of us, including the Nigerian judges will be pleading for mercy -
Na so a see am o!
Yours sin-cerely,
Cornelius
Cornelius Hamelberg
17.30 -Stockholm, Midsummer’s Day...
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Kanu risked death at the hands of the Buhari regime, which from its record with the massacred Shites and pro-Biafra reporters and its support of the community massacring Fulani terrorists, is not queasy about shedding blood, eventually spending two years in prison without giving up his vision.
IPOB followers who have been murdered by the same regime during a peaceful prayer in a church yet persist in the struggle.
CAO.
Chidi Anthony Opara
Kanu's method, instead of accelerating the actualization of Biafra rather impedes it. The hate speeches and his "Supreme leader" tendency are drawbacks and unnecessary.
There are other groups pursuing the Biafra cause, but I concede that Kanu's IPOB is the loudest.
Yes, Kanu is a folk hero, but it will take much more than that to actualize Biafra.
It is not true that I am anti-Kanu.l wrote against the violation of his rights when it was very dangerous to do so and published almost every "Free Kanu" release free of all charges.
CAO.
Olayinka Agbetuyi
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> CAO.
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Salimonu Kadiri
Baby Nnamdi Hamelberg,
May the Gods of Sweden, Odén and Tor, and the Goddess of Sweden, Freia, deliver Nigeria from those who preach that divided we, Nigerians, stand and united, we fall. Since Swedish Gods and her Goddess are more powerful than Hebrew and Arabic Gods, I am sure that They will grant the prayer of Nigerians to remain united as brothers and sisters regardless of devilish efforts of Lucifers.
S. Kadiri
Skickat: den 22 juni 2017 17:35
Till: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
Cornelius Hamelberg
Baba Kadiri,
Isn't Thor the Swedish version of Yoruba's Shango?
It's possible that some of the Italians are still swearing by Mars , but didn't Jesus say "swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King" ?
On the Yoruba (Oduduwa) - Igbo (Biafra ) axis it could be a showdown between Olodumare and Chukwu (assuming that there is a difference between them) If there is a difference and both of them are jealous, what happens then?
You are familiar with Ola Rotimi's "The Gods are not to blame" - so lets skip the argument about which God is responsible for the state that Nigeria is in or which God is stronger; it seems to me that if the Nigerian Gods are united at least on a national, if not a universal level, then the peoples of Nigeria could also be united under the One God and I guess that therein lies the strength in monotheism: you, Chidi and Obi all united under one God and I suppose that the good people of Zamfara would like to make a strong political plea for Allah subhanahu ta'ala as a unifying factor. As you yourself are aware, there's no way Nigerian Muslims (some 55% of the nation) is ever going to accept any other God or Gods (shirk). The Christians of course have issues with "qul huwa allahu ahad" even if you argue the merits of the Omnipotent's divine mathematics. The Jews of course have issues with al- Islam and with Jesus who Islam recognises as the Messiah of the Jews.
The question that we must examine and answer are :
1. Is it OK to legitimise racism and tribalism in the name of this and that religion?
2. Be honest now. What do you say about Biafra wanting a divorce from Nigeria? Surely they should not have to go to war to liberate themselves from an unhappy marriage?
It should be interesting to see how the Pro-Biafra people are going to react to whatever punishment is meted out to Nnamdi Kanu...
Chidi Anthony Opara
Your Arewa Republic would definitely belong to the civilized global community. This will surely entail the observation of International laws.
CAO.
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Ibukunolu. A. Babajide
It is the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam that kill on behalf if their God and have a policy of my way or the highway!
Cheers.
IBK
Sent from my Windows Phone
Malami Buba
Here’s me thinking that you’ve gone too far with your ’Northerner and ’New Arewa’ Caps; and now Chidi has extended the reach to ‘Arewa Republic’. Notice the EngHausa toponym, and its inference to Zungur’s ’Jumhuriya’ poem. All fascinating - linguistically, that is!
Cornelius Hamelberg
Something to believe in : Brotherhood
This will be my last posting till the 26th of October 2017, unless I have migrated to heaven by then...
Is the venerable Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju one of the "others" when he says that "Some others argue that Kanu has refined his stance. Now that he has brought his struggle to Nigeria, his methods- both speeches and action, have become wholly non-violent."
In that case are we supposed to take the venerable Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju's word as gospel about Biafra's Messiah as being "wholly non-violent"
So, this was the old Kanu ? ( The Somali civil war started in 1991)
Has Nnamdi Kanu become a pacifist or is he still shooting from both sides of his mouth, on the one hand " civil disobedience" and on the other hand declaring as recently as a few days ago, that "Anybody that says Biafra will not come, will die !"
Incendiary non-violent speeches and and non-violent actions eh? Ahimsa ! Who can deny that Nnamdi has not even hurt a fly? So Kanu does does not intend to go for a rumble in the jungle with the security forces?
Biafra: Nigerian league of veteran journalists warn against hate speeches
Insurgency: DSS uncovers plot to attack Kano, Kaduna others
On the last Friday of Ramadan Muslim World marks International Quds Day
On Thursday, 22 June 2017 18:23:52 UTC+2, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju wrote:
Chidi has long been anti-Kanu, like some Igbos.Chidi, could you please share why you are not for Kanu and what you suggest as an alternative in terms of strategy?Some others argue that Kanu has refined his stance. Now that he has brought his struggle to Nigeria, his methods- both speeches and action, have become wholly non-violent.He seems to be perhaps the most powerful force in the SE, a reality the Nigerian govt is struggling to deny.The reality is that when those Ndigbo who oppose Kanu are able to develop and promote a vision of the same depth of appeal as the Biafra vision and do this with the level of self sacrifice as Kanu and his followers are doing, yet persist in their vision, then the anti-Kanu opposition will begin to command significant attention.
Kanu risked death at the hands of the Buhari regime, which from its record with the massacred Shites and pro-Biafra reporters and its support of the community massacring Fulani terrorists, is not queasy about shedding blood, eventually spending two years in prison without giving up his vision.
IPOB followers who have been murdered by the same regime during a peaceful prayer in a church yet persist in the struggle.For now, the main anti-IPOB group is a revitalized Ohanaeze, who claim their own demands are centred on marginalization of Ndigbo, particularly in appointments. The govt is happy to announce them as SE leaders of thought, but I get the impression they are largely a spent force who command little loyalty from most Ndigbo.Some Igbos are making a strident effort to seize the narrative from Kanu, presenting themselves as intellectuals who should pursue a restructuring rather than a secessionist vision. The question people like me are asking is 'where were you all these years'? The debates they provoke, however, are vital for stoking the fires of aspiration in finding a way out of the current Nigerian semi-failed state situation.Kanu's IPOB is now offering grants to schools in the SE who will teach history, particularly that of the SE. A magnificent move, taking the struggle into the educational and cultural realm.It is my prayer that IPOB persist in their demands for a Biafra referendum, pursuing their goal through vigorous education strategies in the SE and nation wide.I would be so happy if they succeed in their vision of stopping political activity in the SE through their abstention strategy.Someone has to do something decisive to break the vampiric structure of the Nigerian state. The IPOB drive is creating shockwaves leading in that direction.More power to them.toyin
On 22 June 2017 at 17:27, Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com> wrote:
Mazi Cornelius,
I do not waste my time with characters like Kanu. You at least know me and several other Igbos, now the question is; does it look like Kanu represents us?
The Kanu hate speeches is being used as a blackmail tool. Kanu tongue-lashes everyone, including those you want to call him to order. All the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria however have their own Kanu.
CAO.
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Chidi Anthony Opara
Exactly what I am doing here and at other places.
CAO.
Chidi Anthony Opara
What if Nigeria is restructured and working well and I still want a homeland of whatever name for my people and I go about persuading them to join me in the quest, offering no other reasons other than that it's our inalienable right, would the quest be unlawful?
CAO.
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Salimonu Kadiri
Eze-Cornelius Hamelberg the 1st of Njikoka,
A correspondent name for the Swedish deity, Thor, in Yoruba is not the issue here as every group of people in the world has the right to worship whatever God they wish.
A casket seller sees every living human being as a corpse just like those wishing the disintegration of Nigeria see differences between the Yoruba, Olodumare, and the Igbo, Chukwu. However, the DNA of the Yoruba and the Igbo, and in fact the entire population of Nigeria, is Negroid. That is why the Yoruba Bàbá-aláwo is just another name for Ezemuo in Igbo. Recently, the Governor of Abia State between 1999 and 2007, Orji Uzor Kalu, attended to a court seating of his trial for looting the state's treasury of the sum of nearly 3 billion naira during his tenure. Mr. Kalu appeared in court dressed up like an Hausaman with a huge Turban on his head. Everyone, seeing him mistook him for Sultan of Sokoto. Not only that, when Justice Binta Nyanko granted Orji Uzor Kalu bail in July 2007, his bail conditions were fulfilled by two Northerners, General Ibrahim Babangida and Atiku Abubakar who signed his bail papers. No matter how much Nnamdi Kanu pretends, he has no Jewish DNA in him and the earlier this Albino stops seeing himself as a Caucasian Jew, the more he will stop having problems.
You asked, "Is it OK to legitimatise racism and tribalism in the name of this and that religion?" That question should be directed to your half brothers, the Caucasian, who since our encounter with them have used religion and racism to oppress and exploit the Black race. Must I remind you that it was Pope Nicholas the Fifth who in his Bull of 1450 quoted Leviticus 25 and Exodus 21 to justify the enslavement of the Black man. You are hereby also reminded that in 1492, Rodrigo Borgis became Pope Alexander VI. In his 1493 Papal Bull leading to the Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal, black people were declared the property of those countries. In 1857, a US Pastor and a Doctor of Divinity, George D. Armstrong wrote a book titled Christian Doctrine of Slavery for a pro-slavery argument. Twenty-five years earlier, 1832, a US Professor of History, Metaphysics and Political Law at William & Mary College, Virginia, in his pro-slavery argument wrote a book titled, Slavery Ordained by God. The economic and political problems which Nigerians, and in fact, the entire Africa, are still battling with today could be traced to our enslavers now known as Global leaders. In view of the aforesaid, your question as to if it is OK to legitimatise racism in the name of this and that religion is grossly misdirected.
Concerning your request on what I have to say on your belief that Biafra wants a divorce from Nigeria, I must confess that I have never been aware of any marriage between Nigeria and an entity called Biafra. The Igbo were born in Nigeria like all other ethnic groups in Nigeria and by birth we are all Nigerians by birth and not by interethnic marriage.
The Igbo have ancestral land area in Nigeria and if they for any reason want to confine themselves inside their ancestral geographical area in the present day Nigeria, I do not think anyone can stop them. That is the essence of Arewa Youths' call on all Igbo to leave the North within the same time that all the Hausa/Fulani in Igbo land (Southeast) should return to the North. Simplified, if Sierra Leoneans in Sweden, for certain reasons, are no longer pleased with living in Sweden, the best solution for all Sierra Leoneans is to pack their bags and bagages and resettle in Sierra Leone. It can't be wise or logical to demand a referendum in Sweden for Sierra Leoneans to decide whether to exit Sweden or not. So far, I do not know why the Igbo want a sovereign state of Biafra out of Nigeria, and I do not know the geographical land area that is contained in their Biafra.
S. Kadiri
Skickat: den 23 juni 2017 18:00
Till: usaafric...@googlegroups.com; Cornelius Hamelberg
Kopia: Olayinka Agbetuyi
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Chidi Anthony Opara
Homelands are carved out of existing nations.
CAO.
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Chidi Anthony Opara
Agreed, but would such action be considered unlawful?
CAO.
Chidi Anthony Opara
again I agree with you, but will add that Biafra can still be achieved through that method, the Nnamdi Kanu and Ralph Uwazuruike hysteria notwithstanding.
CAO.
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Chidi Anthony Opara
CAO.
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Chidi Anthony Opara
You are right about inalienable rights to protest. You are right about inalienable rights for homelands where they do not exist or where people are denied access to such homelands. This does not fit the Biafranists scenario.
If under the federal Constitution such homeland is the common patrimony of ALL Nigerians it is illegal to agitate to make such the exclusive preserve of only one ethnic group in the federation.
It is in that consideration that government forbade Arewa youths from giving the Igbo the ultimatum to leave the North. The North equally belongs to the Igbo, Edo and Yoruba as much as ethnic northerners. But one can understand the context of the Arewa youth action in view of the agitation for Biafra.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com>Date: 24/06/2017 21:50 (GMT+00:00)To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Achuzia and Realuzation of Biafra
It cannot be unlawful, peoples have inalienable rights to agitate for homelands, so long as such agitations are non violent.
CAO.
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Olayinka Agbetuyi
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Chidi Anthony Opara
CAO.
abashafa
On 23 Jun 2017 13:20, 'Malami Buba' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
> Ashafa,
> Here’s me thinking that you’ve gone too far with your ’Northerner and ’New Arewa’ Caps; and now Chidi has extended the reach to ‘Arewa Republic’. Notice the EngHausa toponym, and its inference to Zungur’s ’Jumhuriya’ poem. All fascinating - linguistically, that is!
>
> > On 22 Jun 2017, at 20:18, abashafa <abas...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > As a Northerner #I Stand for a peaceful actualization of Biafra as an independent jungle for the Igbos#. To me the time has come and there should be neither pretence nor drawbacks. Let us make it a reality. Professor Soludo, another silent ideologue for Biafra nightmarishly said when Biafra becomes a reality, Igbo's can remain anywhere they are ad citizens of ECOWAS as if the Igbos would force the New Arewa to remain in ECOWAS. Jokers!!! May God make Biafra a reality in the shortest peaceful way.
> >
> > On 22 Jun 2017 18:38, Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Toyin,
> >> Kanu's method, instead of accelerating the actualization of Biafra rather impedes it. The hate speeches and his "Supreme leader" tendency are drawbacks and unnecessary.
> >>
> >> There are other groups pursuing the Biafra cause, but I concede that Kanu's IPOB is the loudest.
> >>
> >> Yes, Kanu is a folk hero, but it will take much more than that to actualize Biafra.
> >>
> >> It is not true that I am anti-Kanu.l wrote against the violation of his rights when it was very dangerous to do so and published almost every "Free Kanu" release free of all charges.
> >>
> >> CAO.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
Olayinka Agbetuyi
Ibukunolu. A. Babajide
Sent from my iPhone
Ibukunolu. A. Babajide
Ibukunolu. A. Babajide
Sent from my iPhone