kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/8580BCAD-5E53-4940-AB3B-03173B3B1700%40gmail.com.
Gloria is spot on.
It’s not just simplistic to claim that the war was fought to stop genocide; it is a dangerous self-deception. I, too, survived that war. I, too, grew up consuming the Igbo leaders’ version of the war. But then I read books. I asked questions. I’m still searching for answers. But I’m now sure of one thing: that war could have easily been avoided. It only needed a wiser cadre of leaders. I don’t easily blame the past, but if I were to do so, I’d begin with those who herded me and my family into a war that was totally avoidable. It’s good to read books that seem to affirm our beliefs; it’s also good to interrogate them.To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB29827028AF8A83C095760E23A6330%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAN18w%3DeYP5rzY1%3DTKrprzUiKNqJCX5h%3DiA4fz2YTS04GfMZdhQ%40mail.gmail.com.
''It said that intelligence gathered has it that the first set of the armed and criminally minded hoodlums will arrive the State with the pretence of settling peacefully with their host Communities while the other set will come later to lunch an attack and cause havoc.''
Vigilance is the price of liberty.
toyin
Editedhelpful analysis, till you had to slip in your APC politics-''I have also used this to explain how this same feeling propelled a person with lofty academic credentials as Mailafia to give the potentially explosive interview on the imminent invasion of the South by Boko Haram and Fulani Herdsmen, and false accounts of plane loads of arms already shipped to the South.''OAAthe evidence suggests the invasion is already underway and the arms have already arrived.years before Mailafia, Soyinka made a similar claim of arms being dropped on Fulani cattle routes, well before the explosion of the Fulani herdsmen militia on Buhari's 2015 ascension, the massacre by them in Nimbo in the SE, their taking over forests in the SW and engaging in kidnapping and robbery, leading to monarchs in the SW to cry out, and the founding of a SW self defense unit, Amotekun, all after the regular rivers of blood Fulani herdsmen militia unleashed in the Middle Belt.Within all this no one is so much as arrested as Miyetti Allah, representing the Fulani herdsmen militia and led by Nigeria's most elite Fulani, justifies massacres of Nigerians.Mailafia is simply specifying details of the Fulanisation and Islamisation vision of the present govt that OBJ and Danjuma have pointed out.So, sir, dont isolate Mailafia as if he is alone amidst actors from various contexts saying similar things and as if his utterances are not reinforced by evidence in plain sight.The DSS is not deceiving Nigerians by harassing Mailafia. The same DSS that behaves as if it is not aware that Miyetti Allah is the equivalent of a terrorist group and that the Fulani militia have been rightly described by international terrorist watch agencies as one of the world's three deadliest terror groups.toyinOn Wed, 30 Sep 2020 at 22:57, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:helpful analysis, till you had to slip in your APC politics-''I have also used this to explain how this same feeling propelled a person with lofty academic credentials as Mailafia to give the potentially explosive interview on the imminent invasion of the South by Boko Haram and Fulani Herdsmen, and false accounts of plane loads of arms already shipped to the South.''OAAthe evidence suggests the invasion is already underway and the arms have already arrived.years before Mailafia, Soyinka made a similar claim of arms being dropped on Fulani cattle routes, well before the explosion of the Fulani herdsmen militia on Buhari's 2015 ascension, the massacre by them in Nimbo in the SE, their taking over forests in the SW and engaging in kidnapping and robbery, leading to monarchs in the SW to cry out, and the founding of a SW self defense unit, Amotekun, all after the regular rivers of blood Fulani herdsmen militia unleashed in the Middle Belt.Within all this no one is so much as arrested as Miyetti Allah, representing the Fulani herdsmen militia and led by Nigeria's most elite Fulani, justifies massacres of Nigerians.Mailafia is simply specifying details of the Fulanisation and Islamisation vision of the present govt that OBJK and Danjuma have pointed out.So, sir, dont isolate Mailafia as if he is alone amidst actors from various contexts saying similar things and as if his utterances are not reinforced by evidence in plain sight.The DSS is not deceiving Nigerians by harassing Mailafia. The same DSS that behaves as if it is not aware that Miyetti Allah is the equivalent of a terrorist group and that the Fulani militia have been rightly described by international terrorist watch agencies as one of the world's three deadliest terror groups.toyin
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB29827028AF8A83C095760E23A6330%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.
I agree with Eze, the war was totally avoidable. A series of miscalculations and unfortunate events culminated in the war. And there is enough blame to go around. From the “fighters” led by Awolowo on one side and Akintoila on the other side in the western region political conflict that lit the fire; to the federal government led by Prime Minister Belewa that mismanaged effort to take political advantage of the situation; to mutinous Nigeria soldiers led by Nzeogwu and Ifeajuna that naively thought they could wrestle power from the corrupt federal government and hand it over to a better leader (Awolowo) and Nigeria will live happily ever after; to the army led by Ironsi that successfully ended the coup but did not hand power back to civilians immediately and punish the coup plotters as they should have; to the counter-coup or the so-called "July Rematch" masterminded by Murtala Muhammed with Danjuma, Babangida, Buhari and others involved; to Ojukwu insisting (among other things) that Gen Babafemi Ogundipe the most senior officer at the time after Ironsi should be in-charge and not Gowon (who Okukwu actually liked as a person); to Ojukwu outwitting Gowon at the peace conference to get all he wanted, to Awolowo and others advising Gowon to not follow-through with the agreement; to Gowon reneging on Aburi agreement reached with Ojukwu in Ghana that would have resolved everything peacefully, to Ojukwu stubbornly refusing to give Gowon the space he asked for (in private) to maneuver and come around to the same end; to Ojukwu further refusing to take other exit ramps available including especially wise advise his friend Prof Sam Aluko gave him repeatedly; to both Ojukwu and Gowon taking further actions (such as creation of state by Gowon and declaration of Biafra by Ojukwu) that changed the status quo and made civil war almost inevitable.
The point is that no single person or event was responsible for the war, but each built on the other and ultimately culminated in the civil war. And today, we still seem to have not learnt the lessons as political leaders and operate with both impunity and insensitivity and those who think they have upper hand at any given time refuse to accommodate or compromise.
As someone who has been involved in this unhelpful game from the second coup (the remarch) till date, Buhari should know better than to ignore recent advice from Obasanjo, Sonyika, Danjuma, and other to make Nigeria work for all. He seems to be a captive of the rematch mindset. Such mindset must be replaced with one that sees and treats all Nigerians as true brothers and sisters (that they are) and the country as belonging to all. Aftercall as both individual and groups, our fates are linked to those of other Nigerians.
To avoid future civil war, those in power should focus more on what is in the best interest of the whole (not just themselves or their group) when making political decisions.
Okechukwu Ukaga, MBA, PhD
Assistant Dean
University of Minnesota Extension
Dean's Office, 1420 Eckles Ave, Coffey Hall
University of Minnesota
St. Paul, MN 55108
Website: www.extension.umn.edu Phone: 218-341-6029 Email: ukag...@umn.edu
Book Review Editor, Environment, Development and Sustainability (www.springer.com/10668)
"Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of
stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach" --
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTQm8jF1z9gkmA%3DvOPmFwGYOM_Or5AvTXTUBjTJkauKeug%40mail.gmail.com.
Sure, bro.
The notion that the Biafran war was waged against the genocide of the Igbo is not true. The killings ended around September 1966 while the war began in July 1967. Between these months there were negotiations, conferences, and accords which were not kept. War broke out because the East wanted to secede from the rest of the country. It is only logical that secession by a group would be seen as “treasonous” (Zik) by the federal government, which would do everything within its power to keep the nation united, especially given the prize to be won.
I’m not being original in stating that the war was not inevitable. Soyinka’s The Man Died offers a glimpse of the abovementioned negotiations and the moral justification to sue for peace.
I fully understand the trauma my people suffered when truckloads of corpses arrived from the North in the months of September, 1966. I don’t know how I would have reacted if I had been of age then. I cannot condemn those who called for secession. But a dispassionate look at the events that precipitated it all should also take into account the feelings of those whose leaders were killed during the 1966 coup.
On a more practical level, and this is where the adverb "easily" applies and why I invoked “wiser leaders”: You don’t go to war without a standing army and without allies. You don’t go to war in the belief that God is on your side. One famous Rabbi once said: “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? (Luke 14:31). It wouldn’t surprise me if he was quoting Sun Tsu who lived about 300 years before him, and who said: “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win” - The Art of War.
Again,
it is easy for me to judge the past from the comfort of my present. But that’s
why we go to school. That’s why we strive to be intellectuals. That's why we ought to subject every aspect of the past to ruthless examination in order to avoid its repeat.
To be sure, some wars are unavoidable, the most notorious example being the Second World War. Most can be avoided by the application of good diplomacy. War is absolute evil. I've scars to bear witness.
Eze
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTQm8jF1z9gkmA%3DvOPmFwGYOM_Or5AvTXTUBjTJkauKeug%40mail.gmail.com.
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB2982659AD71D5DA96CAE50C2A6300%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB2982659AD71D5DA96CAE50C2A6300%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB2982659AD71D5DA96CAE50C2A6300%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB2982659AD71D5DA96CAE50C2A6300%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.
“A series of miscalculations and unfortunate events culminated in the war... to Gowon reneging on Aburi agreement reached with Ojukwu in Ghana that have resolved everything peacefully;" – Okey Ukaga
“As for Gowon reneging on Aburi agreement with Ojukwu, that cannot be true since Decree No.8 promulgated on 17 March 1967, embodied everything agreed to in Aburi, Ghana, except for an addition that granted the Supreme Council power to declare a state of emergency in any region, provided it is supported by three out of the four existing regions then. Incidentally, three of the four regions were situated in the south and declaration of emergency in a State would not have been easy to obtain. Decree No. 8 was nothing but a loose federation which could have afforded the regions to prepare to opt out of the federation eventually but Ojukwu was too much in a hurry. Decree No. 8 was abrogated on 27 May 1967, when Gowon split the country into 12 states simultaneously as Ojukwu's Consultative Assembly urged him to declare a Sovereign State of Biafra. The rest is history.+ -S. Kadiri
“For the sake of the present and future generations of Nigeria, we should always endeavour to give correct accounts of the Nigerian civil war and events that led to it.” – S. Kadiri
Yes, we should always give correct accounts, so let's be clear about implementation or non-implementation of agreement. If Decree No.8 promulgated on 17 March 1967 embodied ALL OF AND NOTHING ELSE but what was agreed to in Aburi, then we can honestly say Gowon did in fact implement the agreement. But as you, Kadri, acknowledge here, that was not the case. More importantly, the most reliable source, Gowon himself acknowledged as much and gave reasons why he could not and did not completely honor the agreement. He also indicated that he had asked Ojukwu to give him space and time as he was balancing Ojukwu’s demand for full implementation of the Aburi agreement and pressure from others for him not to do so. I remember reading somewhere where Gowon talked about being sick with malaria after returning from Aburi and trying to figure out how to move forward by balancing the pull from different sides, and all he was getting from Ojukwu is “on Aburi we stand” and finally he (Gowon) out of frustration, he gave up and said to himself: well, “on Aburi he (Ojukwu) would fall”. I believe Gowon. So your notion that the agreement was implement is NOT true. We can quibble about why and how much, but we cannot honestly say it was implemented. As Toyin Adepoju rightly noted, when two parties make an agreement, no party has the right to unilaterally amend that agreement or to implement most and not all parts of the agreement or to add something else not mutually agreed to. Doing any of that amounts to breach of agreement, which is act of breaking the terms set out in a contract. And that is what Gowon did with degree 8 of 17 March 1967 and again when he split the country into 12 states on 27 May 1967. We need to accurately document and share our history "for the sake of the present and future generations of Nigeria." And there you have it.
OU
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB2982E7EF21D90B9A15AE6E5CA6310%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.
“A series of miscalculations and unfortunate events culminated in the war... to Gowon reneging on Aburi agreement reached with Ojukwu in Ghana that have resolved everything peacefully;" – Okey Ukaga
“As for Gowon reneging on Aburi agreement with Ojukwu, that cannot be true since Decree No.8 promulgated on 17 March 1967, embodied everything agreed to in Aburi, Ghana, except for an addition that granted the Supreme Council power to declare a state of emergency in any region, provided it is supported by three out of the four existing regions then. Incidentally, three of the four regions were situated in the south and declaration of emergency in a State would not have been easy to obtain. Decree No. 8 was nothing but a loose federation which could have afforded the regions to prepare to opt out of the federation eventually but Ojukwu was too much in a hurry. Decree No. 8 was abrogated on 27 May 1967, when Gowon split the country into 12 states simultaneously as Ojukwu's Consultative Assembly urged him to declare a Sovereign State of Biafra. The rest is history.+ -S. Kadiri
“For the sake of the present and future generations of Nigeria, we should always endeavour to give correct accounts of the Nigerian civil war and events that led to it.” – S. Kadiri
Yes, we should always give correct accounts, so let's be clear about implementation or non-implementation of agreement. If Decree No.8 promulgated on 17 March 1967 embodied ALL OF AND NOTHING ELSE but what was agreed to in Aburi, then we can honestly say Gowon did in fact implement the agreement. But as you, Kadri, acknowledge here, that was not the case. More importantly, the most reliable source, Gowon himself acknowledged as much and gave reasons why he could not and did not completely honor the agreement. He also indicated that he had asked Ojukwu to give him space and time as he was balancing Ojukwu’s demand for full implementation of the Aburi agreement and pressure from others for him not to do so. I remember reading somewhere where Gowon talked about being sick with malaria after returning from Aburi and trying to figure out how to move forward by balancing the pull from different sides, and all he was getting from Ojukwu is “on Aburi we stand” and finally he (Gowon) out of frustration, he gave up and said to himself: well, “on Aburi he (Ojukwu) would fall”. I believe Gowon. So your notion that the agreement was implement is NOT true. We can quibble about why and how much, but we cannot honestly say it was implemented. As Toyin Adepoju rightly noted, when two parties make an agreement, no party has the right to unilaterally amend that agreement or to implement most and not all parts of the agreement or to add something else not mutually agreed to. Doing any of that amounts to breach of agreement, which is act of breaking the terms set out in a contract. And that is what Gowon did with degree 8 of 17 March 1967 and again when he split the country into 12 states on 27 May 1967. We need to accurately document and share our history "for the sake of the present and future generations of Nigeria." And there you have it.
OU
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB2982E7EF21D90B9A15AE6E5CA6310%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB2982BEEBA5D1CC5E94334389A6310%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DBAP192MB10027CD34ABB0BF3AC6810A7AE0E0%40DBAP192MB1002.EURP192.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DBAP192MB10027CD34ABB0BF3AC6810A7AE0E0%40DBAP192MB1002.EURP192.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DBAP192MB10024AFED9013A59913CA1A7AE0E0%40DBAP192MB1002.EURP192.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.