Biafra - 40 years later (Part 1)

May 30^th 1967 – Declaration of the Republic of Biafra.



Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu -' led' a group of majors mainly from the eastern part of Nigeria, in a military rebellion against the Nigerian First Republic. Other key players included Major Ifeajuna, Mr Sam Agbam, Captain Emmanuel Nwobosi, Major Tim Onwatuegwu, Major Adewale Ademoyega, Major Christian Anuforo, Major Humphrey Chukwuka (Chukuka), Major O. Okafor, Captain Oji, Captain Ben Gbulie and Major John Obienu.



Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Prime Minister (left) and Sir Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto - Assassinated by Nzeogwu in the early hours of January 15, 1966


Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi - The military coup of 1966 brought him into limelight as the first military Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. He was assassinated by the revenge seeking counter-coupists on July 29, 1966 at Ibadan, along with his brave host Lt. Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, led by T.Y Danjuma.



T.Y. Danjuma(l), Murtala Muhammed - Alleged primary actors in the orgy of death and massacre that was visited on about 300 Igbo military officers by Northern soldiers.



Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, citing the northern massacres and electoral fraud, proclaimed with southern parliament the secession of the south-eastern region from Nigeria as the Republic of Biafra, an independent nation on May 30, 1967. The Nigerian government, led by Colonel Yakubu Gowon, launched a "police action" to retake the secessionist territory after an initial thrust by Biafran forces into adjacent non-Igbo territory. The war began on July 6,1967.

Quote: "Let us go and crush them. We will pillage their property, rape their womenfolk, kill off their menfolk and leave them uselessly weeping. We will complete the pogrom of 1966" (The theme song of Radio Kaduna, government-controlled, 1967-1970).

WARNING: You may find the pictures below upsetting.

WAR PICTURES - Inside Biafra
“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.” - Ernest Hemingway






















Quotes

"...I saw several hundred of Zombie-like creatures -men, women and children, lying, sitting or squatting in the midst of others who were dead. The living ones were completely reduced to skeletons and could not talk. I was seeing for the first time... kwashiorkor... Frankly, I took fright... I believe that any foreign troops from anywhere in the world occupying Ikot Ekpene or any other town in Biafra would have shown much more sympathy..." (Gen. Alex Madiebo, Ikot Ekpene, July 1968)

"One word now describes the policy of the Nigerian military government towards secessionist Biafra: genocide. It is ugly and extreme but it is the only word which fits Nigeria's decision to stop the International Committee of the red Cross, and other relief agencies, from flying food to Biafra ..." Washington Post (editorial) July 2, 1969

"The loss of life from starvation continues at more than 10,000 persons per day - over 1,000,000 lives in recent months. Without emergency measures now, the number will climb to 25,000 per day within a month - and some 2,000,000 deaths by the end of the year. The new year will only bring greater disaster to a people caught in the passion of fratricidal war." Senator Kennedy appeals to America's Leaders for greater humanitarian aid to Nigeria - Biafra and efforts to end the civil war. Sunday, November 17, 1968

"...it (mass starvation) is a legitimate aspect of war..." Anthony Enahoro, Nigerian Commissioner for Information at a press conference in (New York, July 1968)

"Starvation is a legitimate weapon of war, and we have every intention of using it against the rebels..." (Alison Ayida, Head of Nigerian Delegation, Niamey Peace Talks, Republic of Niger, July 1968)
"All is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don't see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder." Chief Obafemi Awolowo (Nigerian Minister of Finance)

"I want to see no Red Cross, no Caritas, no World Council of Churches, no Pope, no missionary and no UN delegation. I want to prevent even one Ibo from having even one piece to eat before their capitulation. We shoot at everything that moves and when our troops march into the centre of Ibo territory, we shoot at everything even at things that do not move... "
( Benjamin Adekunle. Commander, 3rd Marine Commando Division, Nigerian Army).

The End


Collapse of Biafra,December 1969 to January 1970



Nigerian solidiers occupy the Uli airstrip



General Gowon, General Effiong and Chief Justice of Biafra Mbanefo in Lagos, January 1970

EastEnders - The Hypocrisy that a soap opera can expose

I watch EastEnders - not unfailingly, but if it’s on a TV near me then I will watch it.

Anyway, on Friday, I watched EastEnders with a bunch of Wifey’s friends, and some of mine. These are mutual friends that we have known for a long, long time – secondary, university friends, that sort of link.

Anyway, EastEnders is currently running a secret love affair between ‘Stacey Slater’ and ‘Max Branning’. Max is an older guy – maybe late 30s or early 40’s while Stacey is in her late teens or early twenties. There is also a twist; Stacey once went out with Max’s son, Bradley. It’s the sort of storyline that certainly spawns banter. We all have an opinion, mostly opinions in line with our latest new generation churches.

“Max is called a cheating bastard and Tracy, a little (unmentionable)”, says one of the women. The women wonder why anyone would ever do a ‘Max’ – cheat on their partners with a little girl (Guys are all quiet at this point or maybe wearing some guilt, spotting a directed question when they hear one). Everyone forgets that Max is just another 'Sugar Daddy' (Is that what they are still called?), something that isn’t exactly unfamiliar to most of those condemning him. These were ‘big girls’ who wouldn’t consider breathing the same air with ‘small boys’ like us in the day. In those days, one had to have a Merc V-Booth, a couple of flourishing businesses, a pot belly and a lot of money to burn to even be considered worthy of their attention. Being in UNN at the time, you didnt need an education. Being an OMATA guy was just fine enough. There were stories abound at the time. One guy took this girl out. She wanted some tissue, and he 'ordered' the waiter to get her =N=100 worth of issues. "Nne, ichoro tissue, wetaraya tissue 100 Naira. Nne Libe ego" (Babe, do you want some tissue? Please get here 100 Naira worth of tissues, Babe, eat money)

London is a leveller (A famous saying for those still stuck in their past )…lol

You ask anyone who hadn’t had a ‘Max’ in their past to throw the first stone…

Silence.

Golden….

P.S. In June's Edition of Esquire Magazine (UK), there is a piece on Nollywood - Inside the world's most dangerous film industry

Sven, Rio, Chelsea, football...

It’s no longer news that Chelski ‘stunk’ the place out against ManYoo on Saturday (Sorry Calabar Gal & Uwem). Fergie unexpectedly descended to “the special one’s” level and tried to match his strategy. It totally backfired. Chelsea ran out winners and all the ‘neutrals’ had their afternoon ruined by two enemies (well one) of football.

Rio Ferdinand also let himself down. His gesticulation that Drogba had bad breath was in poor taste. That single act of idiocy meant that I wasn’t too upset about Chelsea’s lucky victory.

One really wonders what Comrade Abramovich and many Chelsea fans really make of Chelsea and their boring football. The comrade must secretly wish he invested his ‘proceeds’ at the Emirates. Football is principally about entertainment and only ‘The Arsenal’ can guarantee that week in, week out (as they say).

Sven was also on TV this week. Letting everyone know how he saved the FA loads of money by effectively taking a pay cut. What a generous guy!

I think most of the ‘stick’ Sven got was simply because he was a foreigner. It didn’t have a lot to do with football. Anyone who honestly imagines that this bunch of Englishmen could win the world cup is in urgent need of a brain transplant. Make God the football manager of England and trust me he will struggle. Sky TV may have made superstars out of these guys, but the quality hasn’t gotten any better.

I will sign off by wishing Liverpool all the best tonight. Arsenal’s loss to Barca last year still haunts me till this day. I think Liverpool is a decent team with pedigree and a very good manager. As the only English team left in the competition, I kinda want them to win. I however don’t buy into all that talk about supporting English Teams in Europe. There is no way I will wish Spurs, ManYoo and ‘Johnny just come’ Chelsea any luck, anywhere.

The Great Escape (I)

Countdown - May 29th 2007

1. Atiku Abubakar [Vice President]– USA
2. Chimaroke Nnamani [Enugu State Governor] – Spain
3. Achike Udenwa [Imo State Governor] – Unknown

The President’s son

Like many of you I saw the pictures posted by Dare Obasanjo a couple of weeks ago. I got a trigger from Ijebuman’s blog. There is also a huge response to these pictures on Grandiose Parlor’s blog. Like most folks, I dropped in my two cents and left it at that. But that was until my friend called me last night asking whether I had seen the aforementioned pictures.

My friend had just seen the pictures and he was beside himself with fury. He started off by saying that OBJ could not accuse Dare’s mum of “playing away”. He wasn’t complimentary to Dare’s looks either, but I never make it a habit to remark on how folks look. We have a saying that anyone who ‘yabs’ someone for being unattractive is in some way ‘yabbing’ the God that created such a person. He thought the pictures were distasteful, showed a lot of self-importance and was simply unjustifiable. Dare he said was playing to an ‘Oyibo’ audience, most of whom see Nigeria for what it is, the equivalent of a small state in the US, just a few light years away from sophistication. He might have been trying to impress a girlfriend and was generally oblivious to the suffering in the country that his dad presides over. My friend also had a few choice words that I have decided to leave out of this post.

Dare, to give him some credit, is not hiding. He is giving as well as he gets on Grandiose’s blog. He is possibly infuriating more people as he continues to dig, but he must think that he is defending his right to take pictures and publish them. My judgement is that he might have misread the motives behind the ire, and possibly sees it as resentment and ‘bad belle’.

I never knew Dare was OBJ’s son. I got to know about this guy via RSS Bandit, an open source RSS/Atom aggregator based on the Microsoft .NET framework. I have also seen a couple of his interviews on Microsoft’s Channel 9. I am always impressed when I see Nigerians thriving on a global stage, not just within the confines of Nigeria (i.e. Nollywood superstars)

Pictures like this, especially the one taken of the servant, ‘may’ have not led to any storm had they been taken by someone who wasn’t a ‘public’ figure. However one imagines that there is some responsibility that comes with being the President’s son.

Black Looks leaves the building

:-(

Nigeria's Commonwealth Games Bid Site Hacked

I heard Nigeria was bidding for the Commonwealth games in 2014, so I decided to take a look at the bid site.

Alas, the site has been hacked, and I bet you they haven't noticed it. And if they have maybe they dont know what to do about it.

An encounter with Jon Gaunt

Most of you may have never heard of this person – Jon Gaunt. Mr Gaunt, or Gaunty as he calls himself is a radio presenter on talkSPORT, a brash, ‘tabloid’ styled second-division radio station based in the UK.

Gaunt is a right-wing phone-in host who is convinced that the United Kingdom is run by a sect of politically correct liberals who only serve the interests of the non-indigenous folks.

Public opinion about this man is divided. Many people see him as a big-headed, fat, selfish, war-mongering, hypocritical, right-wing bigot who encourages racist callers and cuts off anyone who challenges his Daily Mail world-view.

The white van man on the other hand disagrees. Like the chauvinists who mainly call his show (between 10am – 1pm every week day) Gaunty is a hero. They – the ones who always say things like “I am not a racist, I have many ‘coloured’ friends”- look up to him. They plead with him each day to join politics and save this country from going to the dogs. There is even an online petition to have him elected as the next Prime Minister. The last time I checked, there were only 11 votes!

My ‘encounter’ with this man happened last week. I tuned into his program, and once again the topic was about immigration. “Britain is full, we don’t need anyone else” ranted the chosen one. Immigration seems to be the only topic this man discusses every single day. Like a Pentecostal pastor, he whips his listening audience into frenzy. Bigots call in and generally pat him on the back; those who disagree are often as not cut short or argued down, their opinions subjected to a lengthy and one-sided examination.

I decided there was no point calling into the show. I went to his fan site, registered and posted a message. I wanted to know whether he wasn’t getting bored with the rhetoric. Little did I know that the self acclaimed busy presenter also had an eye on his site.

On reading my message, Gaunty went into a rant of all rants. He called me all sorts of names, live on Radio. His monologues were briefly punctuated because he had to break for commercials. After the commercial break he still wouldn’t let off, so I posted another message reminding him that by choosing to insult me, he was only acknowledging the fact that he was ill-equipped to cope with an intelligent discussion.

And then they all dropped in, the clandestine bigots that hide behind screens, and in their apparent sanctuary are willing to take cheap shots. We gave as good as we got, one solitary voice against a mob of xenophobes. In a way, they made my case for me. They inadvertently justified the urgent need to have more immigrants in this country, if only to fill the intellectual gaps that they have forsaken.

Prejudice reversed

Funny how times have changed.

Over the past few weeks, I have bumped into a number of people who are to some extent ill at ease with the recent arrivals of our brothers and sisters from the East. Most of these friends are moving out, pulling their kids out of school, and just not wanting to have anything to do with this part of London anymore.

They blame the new arrivals for the drop in standards in schools, high crime rates and poor hygiene habits. They point the finger at them for placing a strain on the National Health Service, the benefits system and for lowering the values of their properties.

They see these folks are parasites, not willing or able to work, refusing to integrate and creating small communities of their own. They don’t assimilate some folks say.

The visitors from the East are the recent migrants from Eastern Europe, and the folks complaining – Africans.

P.S. My other blog has a piece on Carrie Lucas, a soul sister of the 80s.