1.
Jude Danmbaezueposted toFahamu
THIS IS A REPRODUCTION OF AN ARTICLE THAT IS MORE THAN A
DECADE OLD YET VERY THERAPEUTIC FOR US ALL TODAY
N T A - A M E X P R E S S FOR 2005
This is a correctional programme for the nation
THE NIGERIAN ARMED FORCES DOES NOT IMPART POST-SERVICE UTILITARIAN SKILLS TO ITS OFFICERS AND MEN
The Nigerian Armed Forces as an institution does not impart any viable professional skills to its officers and men that can give them adequate gainful employment on retirement. That is why they are all over the place jostling and hustling for political appointments and patronage. It is only inNigeria Nigerian
Academy
Just take a census of who is who in the present government in all the states of the federation. There is hardly any retired officer who is satisfied with his lot and/or loot! Only a few are proud to keep their hands clean or heads high above clandestine business connections. Only a negligible number can be confided in to retain any gentleman’s agreement! Show me the ex-army, navy or air force officers that have established reputable business concerns and so have given employment to the youths of this nation. It is hard to single-out anyone that has not enriched himself while in uniform or out of it! Most of them are directly or indirectly involved in governance either at the local, state or federal levels. It is shameful that after thirty-five years in uniform, most retired army officers condescend to party politicking and brigandage. Go over toBritain ,
France and USA
But inNigeria
I was a kid when the Late Nnamdi Azikiwe propounded the theory of diarchy in 1972. I had just gained admission into theUniversity of Lagos Lagos
University
Today, thirty-five years later, his prophetic depositions are coming true. Whereas the Great Statesman actually recommended a diarchy wherein the civilian class produced the presidents, governors and other versions of social and political leaders and the military class their deputies; to act as safety valves to checkmate the excesses of the political class, the reverse is now being implemented. The most annoying aspect of the nauseating saga is that it is the half-baked, semi-educated elites who should know better the import of Zik’s recommendations, are the very ones hovering around with piles of ‘curriculum vitae’ chasing the military class for some appointments. This is the clearest evidence that the level of Nigerian education has fallen so low that princes are now servants in the socio-political arena! Shame to all those involved in Nigerian politics who prefix ‘Professor’ or ‘Doctor’ to their names! They are glaring disgraces to the universities that awarded them such titles in the first place, and a disappointment to their local communities for being such low political prostitutes. Whereas their high-sounding degrees should give them positions of ‘prima inter pars’ wherever they find themselves and equally place them above board, they are the lowliest of the political class for now. They are simply the errand boys used to write speeches and organise protocols to deceive the populace.
Think of all the double-speaking canaries that have served in the various military juntas that raped our democracy; sugar-coated information ministers, chairmen of electoral commissions, local ambassadors of military governors, image makers and money-laundering agents and such other appointments they chased around in the past regimes and you will feel sorry for Nigeria, yourself and Africa. What are retired officers looking for in politics? Did the military academy train them to lead civilians or soldiers at the battle front? Well, if the nation cannot revisit the charter establishing the academies in the country and re-orientate officers and men of the armed forces to their primary roles, political hooliganism shall forever be the recurrent pastimes of every retired General, Brigadier and Colonel. Do not say I did not warn you! After all no one listened to the Great Zik ofAfrica , so why should any one take me seriously.
What was ‘Maradona’ stating in 1999 when he proposed OBJ as the best option for a civilian president? When willNigeria
TO THE EDITOR,
sunnewsonline@mail.com,
This is a privileged article. I am a research scientist busy with finding an alternative to the anti-retroviral drugs with which the West is currently fleecingAfrica
and other developing nations. So for me to make out time and script this piece
is under the compulsion of the Holy Spirit. If you love this nation, publish it
unabridged. I am a soldier and I can take all the shots. Write me or phone.
After 48 hours, I will send it to another newsprint if you neglect to take this
golden opportunity to earn your salary. This nation needs just a handful of
honest and diligent men and women who tell the truth, live the truth and
propagate same without fear or favour. I have never taken part in politics nor
sought for nor got any government patronage since I retired voluntarily in
November 1979. Today I trek the streets of Enugu whereas my name and that of
the current 3rd term-seeking president appeared on the same Part II Orders, an
official gazette showing officers who retired honourably. It grieves me that
that the educated class including all the journalists are allowing ‘me-guards’
to run the palace of this nation, whereas the only training they received was
how to fight external aggressors of the nation and manage violence when invited
to do so. So, why do you allow them to buy the consciences of everyone with the
money they stole from the treasury of this nation?
May God bless our country by giving us genuine leaders so that our wives and children will smile once more as they did before the civil war, Amen!
While I still remain an oppressed compatriot,
Yours in tears for my beloved nation,
…………………………………………………………………….
Dr Jideofo Kenechukwu Danmbaezue, D.Sc. in Psychometrics,
Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Existential Family Therapist,
formerly a medical oficer in NIGERIAN AIR FORCE 1976 - 1979
Flt Lt Dr J. K. Danmbaezue, D.Sc., FACRS, (rtd.)
Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Existential Family Therapist,
P.O. Box 1995, ENUGU, NIGERIA
E-mail: saintkenez@yahoo.co.uk 08039097614,
Jude Danmbaezue
THE FALLACY OF BELIEVING THAT A SOLDIER CAN LEAD CIVILIANS IN A DEMOCRACY IS UTTERLY FALSE, PUERILE AND UNINTELLIGENT. SOLDIERS LEAD MEN WHO WERE TRAINED TO OBEY ORDERS BLINDLY WITHOUT QUESTIONS AT THE BATTLEFRONT. SO NO REAL TRAINED OFFICER CAN LEAD MEN WHO HAVE THE OPTION TO REFUSE ORDERS, ASK QUESTIONS AND DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES THE RIGHT COURSE OF ACTIONS TO TAKE. LET US FACE THE FACTS. THE PROLONGED MILITARY RULE IS WHAT DESTROYED THIS COUNTRY. LET US STOP THE FOOLERY OF THINKING THAT ANY BUHARI, BABAGINDA, OBASANJO e.t.c. .e.e.t.c. IS QUALIFIED TO BECOME A PRESIDENT or EVEN A GOVERNOR IN A DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED ADMINISTRATION.
Jude Danmbaezue's photo.
N T A - A M E X P R E S S FOR 2005
This is a correctional programme for the nation
THE NIGERIAN ARMED FORCES DOES NOT IMPART POST-SERVICE UTILITARIAN SKILLS TO ITS OFFICERS AND MEN
The Nigerian Armed Forces as an institution does not impart any viable professional skills to its officers and men that can give them adequate gainful employment on retirement. That is why they are all over the place jostling and hustling for political appointments and patronage. It is only in
Just take a census of who is who in the present government in all the states of the federation. There is hardly any retired officer who is satisfied with his lot and/or loot! Only a few are proud to keep their hands clean or heads high above clandestine business connections. Only a negligible number can be confided in to retain any gentleman’s agreement! Show me the ex-army, navy or air force officers that have established reputable business concerns and so have given employment to the youths of this nation. It is hard to single-out anyone that has not enriched himself while in uniform or out of it! Most of them are directly or indirectly involved in governance either at the local, state or federal levels. It is shameful that after thirty-five years in uniform, most retired army officers condescend to party politicking and brigandage. Go over to
But in
I was a kid when the Late Nnamdi Azikiwe propounded the theory of diarchy in 1972. I had just gained admission into the
Today, thirty-five years later, his prophetic depositions are coming true. Whereas the Great Statesman actually recommended a diarchy wherein the civilian class produced the presidents, governors and other versions of social and political leaders and the military class their deputies; to act as safety valves to checkmate the excesses of the political class, the reverse is now being implemented. The most annoying aspect of the nauseating saga is that it is the half-baked, semi-educated elites who should know better the import of Zik’s recommendations, are the very ones hovering around with piles of ‘curriculum vitae’ chasing the military class for some appointments. This is the clearest evidence that the level of Nigerian education has fallen so low that princes are now servants in the socio-political arena! Shame to all those involved in Nigerian politics who prefix ‘Professor’ or ‘Doctor’ to their names! They are glaring disgraces to the universities that awarded them such titles in the first place, and a disappointment to their local communities for being such low political prostitutes. Whereas their high-sounding degrees should give them positions of ‘prima inter pars’ wherever they find themselves and equally place them above board, they are the lowliest of the political class for now. They are simply the errand boys used to write speeches and organise protocols to deceive the populace.
Think of all the double-speaking canaries that have served in the various military juntas that raped our democracy; sugar-coated information ministers, chairmen of electoral commissions, local ambassadors of military governors, image makers and money-laundering agents and such other appointments they chased around in the past regimes and you will feel sorry for Nigeria, yourself and Africa. What are retired officers looking for in politics? Did the military academy train them to lead civilians or soldiers at the battle front? Well, if the nation cannot revisit the charter establishing the academies in the country and re-orientate officers and men of the armed forces to their primary roles, political hooliganism shall forever be the recurrent pastimes of every retired General, Brigadier and Colonel. Do not say I did not warn you! After all no one listened to the Great Zik of
What was ‘Maradona’ stating in 1999 when he proposed OBJ as the best option for a civilian president? When will
TO THE EDITOR,
sunnewsonline@mail.com,
This is a privileged article. I am a research scientist busy with finding an alternative to the anti-retroviral drugs with which the West is currently fleecing
May God bless our country by giving us genuine leaders so that our wives and children will smile once more as they did before the civil war, Amen!
While I still remain an oppressed compatriot,
Yours in tears for my beloved nation,
…………………………………………………………………….
Dr Jideofo Kenechukwu Danmbaezue, D.Sc. in Psychometrics,
Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Existential Family Therapist,
formerly a medical oficer in NIGERIAN AIR FORCE 1976 - 1979
Flt Lt Dr J. K. Danmbaezue, D.Sc., FACRS, (rtd.)
Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Existential Family Therapist,
P.O. Box 1995, ENUGU, NIGERIA
E-mail: saintkenez@yahoo.co.uk 08039097614,
Jude Danmbaezue
THE FALLACY OF BELIEVING THAT A SOLDIER CAN LEAD CIVILIANS IN A DEMOCRACY IS UTTERLY FALSE, PUERILE AND UNINTELLIGENT. SOLDIERS LEAD MEN WHO WERE TRAINED TO OBEY ORDERS BLINDLY WITHOUT QUESTIONS AT THE BATTLEFRONT. SO NO REAL TRAINED OFFICER CAN LEAD MEN WHO HAVE THE OPTION TO REFUSE ORDERS, ASK QUESTIONS AND DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES THE RIGHT COURSE OF ACTIONS TO TAKE. LET US FACE THE FACTS. THE PROLONGED MILITARY RULE IS WHAT DESTROYED THIS COUNTRY. LET US STOP THE FOOLERY OF THINKING THAT ANY BUHARI, BABAGINDA, OBASANJO e.t.c. .e.e.t.c. IS QUALIFIED TO BECOME A PRESIDENT or EVEN A GOVERNOR IN A DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED ADMINISTRATION.
Jude Danmbaezue's photo.
o
Jude Danmbaezue
NTA-AM
EXPRESS PROGRAMME For Wednesday 7th February 2007 ADOLESCENTS, ADULTS &
ADENESCENTS Many Nigerians, both those at home and some in Diaspora are not
fully aware that they are many adolescents in adult bodies! This morning, NTA ENUGU Nnamdi
Azikiwe International
Airport
14 hours ago
o
Jude Danmbaezue
TRAGEDY OF POST-COLONIAL
CITIZENS Depersonalisation Syndromes among Indigenes of Developing Nations By:
Dr Jideofo Kenechukwu Danmbaezue, (D. Sc. in Psychometrics) Consultant Clinical
Psychologist & Existential Family Therapist, MD Kenez Health Klinik & Happy
Family Network International, E-mail: saintkenez@yahoo.co.uk or Phone:
0803-9097614 PREAMBLE: Where I was born, we have this local saying; ‘He who
does not know where the rainfall starting beating him, will never know where it
stopped’. Another warns; “A rat that joins a lizard in playing in the rain, to
remember that when the lizard is dry, it will still be wet.” In my culture, one
does not interpret proverbs. I dare do so for my readers who are non-indigenes
of Igbo land; both idioms imply that anyone who does not know who he is or
where he is coming from will definitely not know where he is going! The words
of the elders of my people of Biafra are
definitely words of wisdom. They can write a doctoral thesis with just an idiom
or a statement of the fact with a simple analogy! Let’s look at these: • The
bat is totally blind and is neither an animal of the sky nor of the land! • The
bat is neither a bird nor a rodent for it hasn’t any feathers yet it flies! And
though it has the anatomy of mammals and a skin with furs it neither crawls nor
runs on all fours, yet it feeds like birds, amphibians and rodents! • The bat
says he knows how ugly it is, so it has resolved to fly only at night! But not
the citizens of underdeveloped or developing nations of the world! They have
not learnt any lessons from the bat or applied that wisdom. Rather, they fly by
day or night unperturbed and even borrow feathers of all shades of colour and
revel in wearing the furs of their erstwhile colonial masters! What a tragedy!
The picture of the only mammal that can fly captured with special night vision
camera bat 3 bat [bat] (plural bats) noun Flying mammal: a small nocturnal
flying mammal with leathery wings stretching from the forelimbs to the rear
legs and tail. Bats eat fruit or insects, usually hang upside down when
resting, and often use echolocation to detect prey and to navigate. Order:
Chiroptera [Late 16th century. Alteration of backe < N Germanic] have bats
in the belfry to be slightly but harmlessly eccentric (informal) like a bat out
of hell extremely fast (slang) Microsoft® Encarta® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft
Corporation. All rights reserved. To establish a universe of discourse I owe
you the duty of defining the most important terminology in this dissertation
that the witty elders of my nation have dismissed with a few pragmatic
analogies from a purely western-oriented scientific point of view.
Depersonalisation, in clinical psychology, is a state in which an individual
feels that either he himself or the outside world is unreal. In addition to a
sense of unreality, most depersonalisation syndromes may involve the feeling
that; • one's mind is dissociated from one's body; that • the body extremities
have changed in relative size; that • one sees oneself from a distance; or that
• one has become a machine. Mild feelings of depersonalisation normally occur
during the normal processes of personality integration and individuation in a
high percentage of adolescents and young adults, and it need not impair social
or psychological functioning. Such feelings may also occur in adults after long
periods of emotional stress. When such significant social or occupational
impairment continues, however, an individual is considered to have a disorder
that should be treated. Feelings of depersonalisation may also be present as
features of some personality disorders and as symptoms of depression, anxiety,
and schizophrenia. Depersonalisation as a characteristic of psychological
disorder is a prominent theme in existential and neoanalytic theories of
personality. The term depersonalization has also been used to refer to social
alienation resulting from the loss of individuation in the workplace and the
community. The irreversible loss of personality identity of the indigenes had
been subconciously programmed through the imported brands of religion,
politics, socialisation and early education offered them by their rulers. They
imbibed foreign mannerisms, through aping the imported culture and dressing
codes of their colonial masters. These habits and traits remain intact after
long years of colonisation and are not erased for lifetimes of those
individuals who grew up idolising them. To barely glimpse at the psychological
programming techniques that produced half-natives we might as well look at the relevant
subtle and subliminal methods employed by these colonial masters. THE TRAGEDY
OF POST-COLONIAL CITIZENS ALL OVER THE GLOBE: The causes of depersonalisation
syndromes in human beings are obscure, and there is no specific treatment for
it. When the symptom arises in the context of another psychiatric condition,
clinicians opt for treatment that is aimed at that particular mental illness
and gradually attempt to re-integrate the patient into one self-actualising
individual over a long period of psychotherapy sessions. In our study, however,
no pots-independence indigene realised that s/he even had a depersonalisation
problem. That is the irony of the scenario. Abnormality here disappears as more
than 99 % of the population are immersed in it. In our research efforts on
depersonalisation among formerly colonized peoples, we intend to bring to
consciousness the subtle and bizarre conditions it thrives and then explain the
hurdles that one who is immersed in two contrasting cultures must deal with.
Just like the patient in my clinic feels or perceives his/her body or self as
being unreal, strange, altered in quality or distant, the citizens of a country
that has recently won its independence have generalised identity crises. This
state of self-estrangement may take the form of feeling as if one is a robot
designed by dissimilar architects and constructed by two unfamiliar engineers
who studied in different universities. The ex-colonialist is living in a dream
world. Psychologically, s/he has been uprooted half-way from her/his
socio-cultural milieu and transplanted into unfamiliar territories. Having
little or no time for the transition, s/he is not in control and may never be
in real control of the environment both physically and emotionally. Here is
when, how and where the wisdom of our elders comes in. Most post-colonial
literates are never masters of the intellectual faculties. In short, one is not
control of one's actions. De-realisation is another variant of the problems we
face in this scenario. The feelings of unreality concerning objects outside
one, often occurs at the same time as they occur in one mental life.
Post-colonial depersonalisation may occur alone in neurotic persons but is more
often associated with phobic, anxiety or depressive symptoms emanating from
haphazard enculturation paradigms. This variant most commonly occurs in younger
women than men and may persist for many years after political independence has
been won. This group find the experience of depersonalisation intensely
difficult to describe and often fear that others will think them insane. As
with other neurotic syndromes, it is more common to see many different symptoms
than depersonalisation alone. (Culled from this author’s Ph.D. thesis proposal
relating to The Psychopathology Of Fanaticism In 1981 dealing with the
aftermath of Rev. Jones Mass Suicide in Guyana, in West Indies) THE ROLE OF
COLONIAL PROPAGANDA IN DEPERSONALISATION Propaganda is the more or less
systematic effort to manipulate other people's beliefs, attitudes or actions by
means of symbols (words, gestures, banners, monuments, music, clothing,
insignia, hairstyles, designs on coins and postage stamps, and so forth).
Deliberateness and a relatively heavy emphasis on manipulation distinguish
propaganda from casual conversation or the free and easy exchange of ideas. The
propagandist has a specified goal or set of goals. To achieve these he
deliberately selects facts, arguments, and displays of symbols and presents
them in ways he thinks will have the most effect. To maximise effect, he may
omit pertinent facts or distort them, and he may try to divert the attention of
the reactors (the people whom he is trying to sway) from everything but his own
propaganda. Comparatively deliberate selectivity and manipulation also distinguish
propaganda from education. The educator tries to present various sides of an
issue—the grounds for doubting as well as the grounds for believing the
statements he makes, and the disadvantages as well as the advantages of every
conceivable course of action. Education aims to inducing the reactor to collect
and evaluate evidence for himself and assists him in learning the techniques
for doing so. It must be noted, however, that a given propagandist may look
upon himself as an educator, may believe that he is uttering the purest truth,
that he is emphasising or distorting certain aspects of the truth only to make
a valid message more persuasive, and that the courses of action that he
recommends are in fact the best actions that the reactor could take. By the
same token, the reactor who regards the propagandist's message as self-evident
truth may think of it as educational; this often seems to be the case with
“true believers”—dogmatic reactors to dogmatic religious or social propaganda.
“Education” for one person may be “propaganda” for another. THE ROLE OF
COLONIAL EDUCATION IN DEPERSONALISATION Education is a discipline that is
concerned with methods of teaching and learning in schools or school-like
environments as opposed to various non-formal and informal means of
socialisation; in rural development projects and education through parent-child
relationships. Education can equally be thought of as the transmission of the
values and accumulated knowledge of a society. In this sense, it is equivalent to
what social scientists term socialisation or enculturation. Human babies are
born with what ancient and modern philosophers term “tabla-raza”, which
literally translates into “a clean slate”. Their brain is a new blackboard for
teachers to write on. Imprinting begins at birth just as birds!
Children—whether conceived and reared among the Zulus of South Africa, Biafrans
in West Africa, New Guinea tribe’s people, the Renaissance Florentines, the Red
Indians pf North America or the middle classes of Manhattan in USA —are born
without culture. Education is designed to guide them into learning a culture,
moulding their behaviour in the ways of adulthood and directing them toward
their eventual role in society. In the most primitive cultures, there is often
little formal learning, little of what one would ordinarily call school or
classes or teachers; instead, frequently, the entire environment and all
activities are viewed as school and classes, and many or all adults act as
teachers. As societies grow more complex, however, the quantity of knowledge to
be passed on from one generation to the next becomes more than any one person
can know; and hence there must evolve more selective and efficient means of
cultural transmission. As society becomes ever more complex and schools become
ever more institutionalised, educational experience becomes less directly
related to daily life, less a matter of showing and learning in the context of
the workaday world, and more abstracted from practice, more a matter of
distilling, telling, and learning things out of context. This concentration of
learning in a formal atmosphere allows children to learn far more of their
culture than they are able to do by merely observing and imitating. As society
gradually attaches more and more importance to education, it also tries to
formulate the overall objectives, content, organization, and strategies of
education. Literature becomes laden with advice on the rearing of the younger
generation. In short, there develop philosophies and theories of education. The
outcome is colonially structured formal education—the schools and the
specialists called the teachers, lecturers and professors become agents of
transferring colonial hierarchy of values. The worst hit by this variant are
those who travel overseas to study in the home countries of the colonial
masters! As scholarships abound, many of these indigenes study in other
countries and on return what we have are professors still tied to the apron
strings of the varied backgrounds vaunting their foreign accents. That is the
beginning of the confusion that results in depersonalisation syndromes among
the elite! One can only begin to imagine the role confusion the students they
produce will bear for the rest of their lives after studying in a department
where lecturers who studied in Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, France,
Italy, Germany and USA groomed them for bachelors, masters or doctorate
degrees! That is depersonalisation unlimited for ever! THE ROLE OF COLONIAL
PROPAGANDA IN RELIGION & POLITICS The archaeological remains of ancient
civilizations indicate that dazzling clothing and palaces, impressive statues
and temples, magic tokens and insignia, and elaborate legal and religious
arguments have been used for thousands of years, presumably to convince the
common people of the purported greatness and supernatural prowess of kings and
priests. Instructive legends and parables, easily memorised proverbs and lists
of commandments (such as the Analects of Confucius, the Judaic Ten
Commandments, the Hindu Laws of Manu, the Buddhists' Eightfold Noble Path), and
highly selective chronicles of rulers' achievements have been used to enlist
mass support for particular social and religious systems. Very probably, much
of what was said in antiquity was sincere, in the sense that the underlying
religious and social assumptions were so fully accepted that the warlords'
spokesmen, the pharaohs' priests, and their audiences believed all or most of
what was communicated and hence did not deliberate or theorize very much about
alternative arguments or means of persuasion. The systematic, detached, and
deliberate analysis of propaganda, in the West, at least, may have begun in
Athens about 500 BC, as the study of rhetoric (Greek: “the technique of
orators”). The tricks of using sonorous and solemn language, carefully gauged
humour, artful congeniality, appropriate mixtures of logical and illogical
argument, and flattery of a jury or a mob were formulated from the actual
practices of successful lawyers, demagogues, and politicians. The earliest
ethical teachers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle compiled rules of
rhetoric thus; (1) to make their own arguments and those of their students more
persuasive and (2) to design an effective counterpropaganda against opponents
and also (3) to teach their students how to detect the logical fallacies and
emotional appeals of demagogues. The spread of all complex political systems
and religions probably has been due very largely to a combination of earnest
conviction and the deliberate use of propaganda. This mixture can be detected
in the recasting in various times and places of the legends of the
Judaeo-Christian messiah, of heroes of the Hindu Mahฤbhฤrata, of the Buddha, of
the ancestral Japanese Sun Goddess, of the lives of Muแธฅammad and his relatives,
of the Christian saints, of such Marxist heroes as Marx, Engels, Lenin, and
Stalin, and even in the story of George Washington and the cherry tree.
Scattered and sometimes enlightening comment on political and religious
propaganda has occurred in all major civilizations. They refer to such
propaganda stratagems as the seizure and monopolisation of propaganda
initiatives, the displacement of guilt onto others (scape-goating), the
presentation of oneself as morally superior, and the coordination of propaganda
with violence and bribery. For all these the primitive people that colonialists
meet on arrival had no answers. So they were disadvantage! RETURN TO THE BASICS
IN TRADITIONAL EDUCATION IS THE PANACEA The role of primitive education in
pre-colonial cultures had all along been ignored by the prejudiced notion that
the people are uncivilised. The colonialists were always in a hurry to teach
them their own modes of socialisation. In their selfish interest to communicate
their political structures so as to maximise their economic profits, the first
thing that the subjugated people must be taught is their own language. Next is
their taxation rule! This is the genesis of the depersonalisation process. Any
therapeutic remedy that ignores a return to the original traditional
educational programme is bound to fail. It is the abrupt truncation of this
that was, is and will still be the remote cause of de-realisation syndromes in
post colonised mentality. So let us witness what anthropologist found out! The
purpose of primitive education is thus to guide children to becoming good
members of their tribe or band. There is a marked emphasis upon training for
citizenship, because primitive people are highly concerned with the growth of
individuals as tribal members and the thorough comprehension of their way of
life during passage from pre-puberty to post-puberty. Because of the variety in
the countless thousands of primitive cultures, it is difficult to describe any
standard and uniform characteristics of pre-puberty education. Nevertheless,
certain things are practiced commonly within cultures. Therefore, I dare affirm
that the term education can also be applied to primitive cultures in the sense
of enculturation, which is the process of cultural transmission. A primitive
person, whose culture is the totality of his universe, has a relatively fixed
sense of cultural continuity and timelessness. The model of life is relatively
static and absolute, and it is transmitted from one generation to another with
little deviation. As for prehistoric education, it can only be inferred from
educational practices in surviving primitive cultures. Children actually
participate in the social processes of adult activities, and their
participatory learning is based upon what the American anthropologist Margaret
Mead has called empathy, identification and imitation. Primitive children,
before reaching puberty, learn by doing and observing basic technical
practices. Their teachers are not strangers but, rather, their immediate
community. In contrast to the spontaneous and rather unregulated imitations in
pre-puberty education, post-puberty education in some cultures is strictly
standardised and regulated. The teaching personnel may consist of fully
initiated men, often unknown to the initiate though they are his relatives in
other clans. The initiation may begin with the initiate being abruptly
separated from his familial group and sent to a secluded camp where he joins
other initiates. The purpose of this separation is to deflect the initiate's
deep attachment away from his family and to establish his emotional and social
anchorage in the wider web of his culture. The initiation “curriculum” does not
usually include practical subjects. Instead, it consists of a whole set of
cultural values, tribal religion, myths, philosophy, history, rituals and other
knowledge. Primitive people in some cultures regard the body of knowledge
constituting the initiation curriculum as most essential to their tribal
membership. Within this essential curriculum, religious instruction takes the
most prominent place. THE PROPER ROLE OF PRE-COLONIAL EDUCATION IN AFRICA Education is the process which provides the young
with the knowledge, skills, and values which a society believes are necessary.
Various forms of traditional education have existed in Africa
for hundreds of years before the arrival of the first white man on our shores.
Traditionally education is usually information about survival in one’s cultural
milieu. The child learns from his parents and from elders the importance of
traditional religion and customary law. He learns the traditions and history of
his people. He imitates the habits and customs of his parents and elders. Over
a period of time, he learns the customs and the way of life of his people. In
some communities when the child grows up, he has a short period of formal
instruction with his age mates in an initiation school and may perform some
sort of initiation ceremony before he is accepted as an adult member of the
community. Formal education in modern times takes place in nursery, primary,
and secondary schools, followed by colleges and universities modelled after
western styles. These teach young people the skills and knowledge that will be
useful in getting a job. The economic development of a country depends on the
quality of these schools and universities, and on the quality of their
teachers, pupils and students. If a county does not have enough skills, the
country cannot develop. Therefore, governments treat education as an investment
for the future. Governments, therefore usually work out some form of
educational planning. For example, in 1973 the National Council of Education
met in Lagos Africa
is the difference between education in the big cities and education in the
rural communities. Schools in the community claim that they do not receive
enough money and that most city teachers do not want to come and work in the
rural areas of the country. Each government tries to work out a system of
education that is best suited to its own country. They work out how much they
can spend, how much they will give to each part of the educational system and
to each region of their county, and they try to keep as their basic aim the
need to produce skilled people who will find useful jobs and help their county
to develop. This will in effect encourage self-employment and industry rather
than all waiting fro white collar jobs. (Ref. African Encyclopaedia (1974)
Oxford University Press) BRIEFS ON SOLUTIONS TO THE UNDER-DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA Africans in the African colonies were
indoctrinated with the notion of the inherent supremacy of European culture
through everyday interaction with Europeans and through the few colonial
schools Europeans established. The political systems of the indigenous African
peoples were transformed, as traditional African rulers were usually forced to
act as pawns of the colonial administration. Colonialism also had a major economic
impact on Africans, as agricultural commodities, minerals, and people were
usually exported from the African colonies to Europe and the New
World rather than being used for the direct benefit of Africans.
Roads, bridges, ports, and other facilities were built only to facilitate this
export trade. Slavery and the colonial system were hated by Africans and were
institutions that the Pan-African movement arose to combat. Pan-Africanism also
developed to overcome the obstacles facing the African Diaspora—a scattered,
diverse, and often disadvantaged population of people of African descent.
Pan-African thinkers would maintain that, although they were dispersed
throughout the world, African people and people of African descent were a
unified people and should try to work together for the good of all. In 1957 Ghana Ghana would
be incomplete without the independence of all of Africa .
To work toward this goal, he appointed Padmore to establish a Pan-African
Secretariat within the Ghanaian government. The secretariat pursued the twin
goals of total African independence and continental political union in two
series of international conferences, held between 1958 and 1961: First, the
All-African Peoples’ Conferences were held to stimulate independence movements
in other African colonies. Second, Nkrumah organized the Conferences of
Independent African States to establish a diplomatic framework for the
political union of Africa . By inviting
representatives from independent North African states to the conferences and by
holding the 1961 All-African Peoples’ Conference in Cairo , Egypt Europe rather than existing African
traditions. These half-way measures must stop if we aspire at reclaiming what
has been lost through many decades of colonial domination by the whites. We
cannot afford the luxury of aping them in everything we do or depend on finished
products and services from developed economies. To institutionalise therapeutic
measures will be difficult until Africans realise the depth of mental
enslavement all of us in! One social area where we are still mentally enslaved
that has refused us independence is RELIGION. Only Professor Chinua Achebe
identified this factor early and bemoaned it affront on the culture of his
people: The writings of 20th-century Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe consider the
impact of the modern world on traditional African culture. Achebe earned
international renown with his first book, Things Fall Apart (1958), a novel set
in eastern Nigeria Africa . This writer, a consultant clinical psychologist,
is calling on all who have benefited from tertiary education to deploy what
they acquired for the liberation of our kith and kin that do not realise that
they are still mentally colonised! Here, I rest my case! DR JIDEOFO KENECHUKWU
DANMBAEZUE, D. Sc, in Psychometrics Consultant Clinical Psychologist &
Existential Family Therapist
13 · 27 January at 20:19
o
Jude Danmbaezue
NIGERIA IS AN
EXPERIMENT IN MEDIOCRITY A British Legacy in Deliberate Underdevelopment of
Ex-Colonial Territories Resulted In the Dark Years of a Revolving Door of
Military Dictators in a Bedevilled Nigeria By: Dr Jideofo Kenechukwu Danmbaezue,
D.Sc. Consultant Clinical Psychologist& Existential Family Therapist Kenez
Health Klinik & Happy Family Network International 5 Church Street, Federal
Housing Estate, Trans-Ekulu, Enugu Phone: 0803-9097614 or 0805-1764999, E-mail:
saintkenez@yahoo.co.uk You can also visit my website:
www.happyfamilynetwork.hpage.com for more THE PREAMBLE: Has anyone ever
bordered to ask, why was a primary classroom teacher preferred to lead a
developing nation whereas that country had a British-trained barrister and an American-trained
journalist as leading nationalists? Alternatively, put it this way, what was
the rationale that warranted hoisting a ‘Homo Faber’ non-politician that never
participated in the agitation for independence on an emerging nation whereas
vibrant and prominent nationalists were available and eager to serve. They were
deliberately ignored, maligned and craftily sidelined. The answer is simple for
any political analyst who is worth his salt in evaluating the divide-and-rule
diplomacy of Britain ; Nigeria Africa ’s
most populous and the largest black nation worldwide bled under a revolving
door of military rulers! Her citizens were simply ignored to grunt and die! THE
DEPOSITION: Dr Jideofo Kenechukwu Danmbaezue, ex-Biafran Commando Major
(BA/6532) of the Commando Brigade & Retired FLT LT (NAF 759) of the Medical
Corps, emphatically states that NIGERIA IS AN EXPERIMENT IN MEDIOCRITY BY
BRITISH NEO-COLONIAL MASTERS designed to exploit and under-develop it through
remotely tele-guiding the Northern Mediocres they had hoisted/helped to cling
to political power since her pseudo-independence in1960. To date they
manipulate them from Buckingham Palace/No 10 Downing
Street ! The experiment is on-going; the 2011 post election riots
prove my case. From the end of the unnecessary fratricidal war till 1999 the
polity knew no peace and had no respite from the marauding Generals, all from
the North, who changed batons in a marathon race of stealing authority, maiming
opposition leaders and successively looting the national treasury. You may not
blame them; they were drafted into the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) early in
life for the sole purpose of dominating the Southerners for ever and were
indoctrinated that the military would rule in the future by the Late Sultan
Ahmadu Bello, the Sarduana of Sokoto, the leader of NPC. General Buhari, a
protรฉgรฉ of the Late Sultan used it as his main campaign manifesto by reacting
to the principle thus; he told Northern youths that if an ‘unbeliever’ from the
South won the 2011 Presidential election; they would be slaves for the next 40
years. Read about all his tactics of playing on ethnic and religious sentiments
from both local and international media. Below is a recent witness/exhibit:
According to Friday, 22 April 2011 00:00 by Reuben Abati in Opinion –
Columnists; “It is Buhari’s CPC that has literally been on the offensive. There
is no iota of doubt whatsoever that the angry youths who have made a section of
the country ungovernable believe that they are acting on behalf of the CPC.
They have been chanting: “mu ke so, ba muso hanni” (It is Buhari we want, we
don’t want an unbeliever”). General Buhari has been quoted in the media saying
that he deplores the violence, he has also spoken on BBC Hausa service and he
has issued two statements in English language to that effect. General Buhari
has to do much more than that. His responses to the electoral process and his
party’s have been at best contradictory and mischievous. It will be recalled that
in the first week of March 2011, General Buhari advised his supporters to
“lynch” anybody who tries to rig the April polls. In his words: “you should
never leave polling centres until votes are counted and the winner declared and
you should lynch anybody that tries to tinker with the votes.” Subsequently,
with his supporters having been so incited, General Buhari disclosed that he
did not intend to go to court as a person, but that his party could do so, in
the event of his not winning the election. In the same month of March 2011,
Buhari’s running mate, Pastor Tunde Bakare also allegedly declared that there
would be a “wild wild North” if the elections were rigged. Buhari and Bakare
were strongly criticized for this, with pointed insinuations by a group called
“Coalition for Transparency and Integrity” that the CPC duo did not have the
right temperament for the job that they sought. On April 16, General Buhari
after voting complained about unusual aircraft movement and the distribution of
ballot papers that had already been thumb-printed: “Buhari said that it was the
responsibility of young people as major stakeholders to ensure that the
elections were free and fair. If they allow the ruling party to mess them up,
it is they who will suffer for the next 40 years.” (The Punch, April 17, at
page 14). There has been a lot of lynching in the North since then! Today, we
also have on our hands, a “wild wild North”. So, what exactly does General
Buhari want? And what should he do? I have read the statement issued by General
Buhari titled “Message of Peace and Hope.” There is very little about hope in
that message. A speech in which the General writes off the entire election as
fraudulent and Jega as insincere, and shows no sign of reconciliation with the
opposition says nothing about hope, rather it says everything about the likely
dangers ahead. General Buhari should realise that it is precisely this kind of
attitude that led to the current crisis in Cote D’Ivoire US Presidential election in 2000, Al Gore could
have put his feet down over Florida : the
margin between him and George Bush Jnr was so close, but in the end, he
conceded defeat so America Nigeria KADUNA Nigeria Nigeria Nigeria Great Britain carved an area out of West Africa
containing hundreds of different groups and unified it, calling it Nigeria Nigeria Nigeria Nigeria Nigeria Britain Nigeria BUCKINGHAM
PALACE AND 10 DOWNING STREET BRITAIN Biafra , effectively cutting
off the secessionist state’s food supply. The resulting famine in Biafra was devastating, as upwards of one million people
died of starvation. The swollen bellies and ankles of these Biafran children
are symptoms of kwashiorkor, an extreme form of protein-energy malnutrition.
MEET MY SECOND ACADEMIC WITNESS; ROBERT STOCK OF MICROSOFT ENCARTA ENCYCLOPEDIA
Throughout the early 20th century, Nigerians found many ways to oppose foreign
rule. Local armed revolts, concentrated in the middle belt, broke out
sporadically and intensified during World War I (1914-1918). Workers in mines,
railways, and public service often went on strike over poor wages and working
conditions, including a large general action in 1945, when 30,000 workers
stopped commerce for 37 days. Ire over taxation prompted other conflicts,
including a battle in 1929 fought mainly by Igbo women in the Aba area. More
common was passive resistance: avoiding being counted in the census, working at
a slow pace, telling stories ridiculing colonists and colonialism. A few
political groups also formed to campaign for independence, including the
National Congress and the National Democratic Party, but their success was
slight. In 1937 the growing movement was given a voice by Nnamdi Azikiwe, an
Igbo nationalist, who founded the newspaper West African Pilot. Nnamdi Azikiwe
Nnamdi Azikiwe was an important nationalist figure in colonial Nigeria and
became the first president of independent Nigeria in 1963. UPI/Corbis World War
II (1939-1945), in which many Nigerians fought for or otherwise aided Britain,
increased the pace of nationalism. The growing anti-colonial feeling was most
strongly articulated by two groups, the National Council of Nigeria and the
Cameroons (NCNC), led by Azikiwe and supported mostly by Igbo and other
easterners, and the Action Group, led by activist Obafemi Awolowo and supported
mostly by Yoruba and other westerners. By the early 1950s, other parties had
emerged, notably the Northern People’s Congress, a conservative northern group
led by the Hausa-Fulani elite. The regional power bases of these parties
foreshadowed the divisive regional politics that would follow colonialism.
Pressure for independence from within Nigeria was complemented by pressure from
other nations, and from reformers in Britain and in other colonies. In 1947 the
British responded by introducing a new constitution that divided Nigeria into three
regions: the Northern Region, the Eastern Region, and the Western Region. The
Northern Region was mainly Hausa-Fulani and Muslim; the Eastern Region, Igbo
and Catholic; and the Western Region, Yoruba and mixed Muslim and Anglican. The
regions each had their own legislative assemblies, with mainly appointed rather
than elected members, and were overseen by a weak federal government. Although
short-lived, the constitution had serious long-term impact through its
encouragement of regional, ethnic-based politics. The constitution failed on
several counts, was abrogated in 1949 and was followed by other constitutions
in 1951 and 1954, each of which had to contend with powerful ethnic forces. The
Northern People’s Congress (NPC) argued that northerners, who made up half of
Nigeria’s population, should have a large degree of autonomy from other regions
and a large representation in any federal legislature. The NPC was especially
concerned about respect for Islam and the economic dominance of the south. The
western-based Action Group also wanted autonomy; they feared that their
profitable western cocoa industries would be tapped to subsidize less wealthy
areas. In the poorer east, the National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons
wanted a powerful central government and a redistribution of wealth—the very
things feared by the Action Group. The eventual compromise was the 1954
constitution, which made Nigeria a federation of three regions corresponding to
the major ethnic nations. It differed from the 1947 constitution in that powers
were more evenly split between the regional governments and the central
government. The constitution also gave the regions the right to seek
self-government, which the Western and Eastern regions achieved in 1956. The
Northern Region, however, fearing that self-government (and thus British
withdrawal) would leave it at the mercy of southerners, delayed the imposition
until 1959. In December 1959, elections were held for a federal parliament.
None of the three main parties won a majority, but the NPC, thanks to the size
of the Northern Region, won the largest plurality. Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa,
head of the NPC, entered a coalition government with the eastern NCNC as prime
minister. The new parliament was seated in January 1960. Robert Stock of
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation, a historian from
America here; presents the perspectives of the West on the result of the
British experiment, in 1966. BACKGROUND OF THE PSEUDO-NATION CREATED BY BRITAIN
(Unedited) With an active Parliament and a sturdy economy, the most populous
country in Africa had seemingly made an easy transition to independence in
1960. Nigeria's 250 tribes, each with its own language and customs, were
divided into three and later four regions, each dominated by major tribes:
Hausa and Fulani in the North (29.8 million), Yoruba in the West (12.8
million), and Ibo in the East (12.4 million). Although Western impact came late
to the larger and more populated Muslim North, ruled by powerful feudal emirs,
its legislative majority dominated the federal Parliament. The better-educated,
change-oriented, aggressive Ibos in the East, many of whom immigrated to key
positions outside their crowded region, resented Northern dominance and the
many evidences of federal corruption. The tragic events of 1966 began on
January 15 when a military coup by army officers toppled the government and led
to the establishment of military rule under an Ibo general, Johnson T. U.
Aguiyi-Ironsi, who surrounded himself with Ibo advisers. Northern resentment
led to attacks on Ibos, and on July 29 the regime of General Ironsi was
overthrown, and Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General) Yakubu Gowon, a
Northern Hausa, became the chief of state of the Federal Military Government
(FMG). In September some 20,000 to 30,000 Ibos were massacred, and many more
were attacked and maimed. Having reason to believe themselves marked for
extermination, Ibos from all over Nigeria returned in a mass migration to the
Eastern Region, where, under their regional military governor, Lieutenant
Colonel (later General) Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, many pressed for local
autonomy and the more militant called for independence. The break came on May
30, 1967, three days after the federal government divided the four regions into
12 states in a move to decentralize and thereby reduce tribal antagonisms. Cut
off by the division from coastal trade and oil resources which would have made
them economically viable, the Ibos declared the independence of the Eastern Region
under the name of the Republic of Biafra (taken from the name of an inlet on
the Gulf of Guinea). Fighting broke out in June, and despite Biafran forays
during the early months of the war, the federal forces had, by the end of this
year, closed an ever-narrowing ring around Biafra, which continued to resist in
guerrilla fashion. Foreign Support. Somewhat incongruously, the countries
supplying arms and other aid to federal Nigeria include Great Britain, the
Soviet Union, and the United Arab Republic. Britain's motives include its
colonial ties and post-independence trade and oil connections with Nigeria.
Soviet aid of MIG fighters is attributed to anticipated ideological, trade, and
oil concessions in federal Nigeria, which it sees as the inevitable winner.
Egypt sympathizes with its Muslim co-religionists in the Northern Region. The
United States, officially neutral, has barred arms sales to either side. But
the U.S. government has acknowledged the FMG as the only legitimate government
of Nigeria, a move which has evoked anti-U.S. sentiment among Biafrans. Public
reaction against shocking reports of Biafran starvation has led three European
countries—Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, and Belgium—to halt arms shipments
to federal Nigeria. Biafra has received military aid from France, ostensibly
for trade and oil preference should Biafra win. France also reportedly wants to
spite the United States and Great Britain. On July 31 the French government
called for a resolution of the war on the basis of the right of self-determination.
Portugal has given Biafra the use of its air ports and telecommunications.
Tanzania, in April, became the first country to recognize Biafra as an
independent state. Three other African countries—Gabon, the Ivory Coast, and
Zambia—recognized Biafra in May. Reports of Starvation. In October the head of
the World Council of Churches relief program in Biafra estimated deaths from
starvation at 186,000 in July, 310,000 in August, and 360,000 in September.
Relief flights of food to Biafra, which reached an average of 15-18 a night,
reduced deaths in October to about 200,000. Forecasts predicted 25,000 deaths a
day in December unless a cease-fire was called. The International Committee of
the Red Cross has fed 750,000 victims daily in what is left of Biafra, plus
500,000 daily in areas taken by federal troops. Many groups and prominent
individuals, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, have
criticized the American government for not sending direct food relief to
Biafra. But U.S. officials maintained that they could not authorize such
flights without permission from the federal Nigerian government and that U.S.
government food and other aid must be channelled through private church relief
agencies and the ICRC. Direct night flights to Biafra have been harassed by
federal Nigeria, which had demanded that relief shipments land on federally
held territory. Biafra would not accept such an arrangement, however, claiming
that food passing through federal hands might be poisoned. In November the
federal government said it would allow daytime flights of relief supplies into
the Biafran airstrip at Uli, but the Biafran regime did not agree to this
arrangement, possibly because night flights containing arms shipments would
then be open to federal attacks. Unsuccessful Peace Talks. Peace talks began
with unsuccessful secret sessions in London during January and February. More
promising preliminary talks in early May led to an agreement that peace
negotiations should begin in Kampala, Uganda, later that month. These talks,
however, made little progress and were cut off by Biafra on May 31. At the
August 5-September 9 talks in Addis Ababa, under the auspices of the
Organization of African Unity, the warring representatives again deadlocked.
Federal Nigeria has insisted that Biafra give up independence as a condition
for peace; Biafra has replied that only autonomy can save the Ibos from
massacre. On August 12, Pope Paul VI appealed for an end to the civil war. At a
September meeting in Algeria, the OAU passed a resolution calling on Biafra to
cease its fight for independence and to cooperate with Nigeria in seeking
peace. Most of the 40 OAU member nations themselves contain tribal minorities
with easily awakened antagonisms toward their central governments. It is feared
that Biafra's success might prompt other rebellions and lead to a balkanization
of Africa. Nigeria's ambassadors have played upon this fear in the capitals of
African nations. At least one Biafran friend altered her stand. Dame Margery Perham,
an Oxford University specialist on Africa who in August declared Biafrans as
'overwhelmingly the injured party ... who dare not surrender,' changed her mind
on a subsequent visit to Nigeria. In September she broadcast a plea to Biafrans
to surrender as the only way to save millions from death and starvation.
Economic Developments. Federal Nigeria introduced new currency notes on January
3 in a move to stop Biafra's use of Nigerian pounds to buy arms abroad. Biafra
was thus forced on January 30 to issue its own currency notes—which it imported
from Switzerland—and postage stamps. While the cost of the civil war is
incalculable in lost lives, one American economist estimated the financial cost
to federal Nigeria at over $840 million. Nigeria was also hurt financially when
Great Britain devalued the pound, as Britain is Nigeria's main trading partner.
On January 18 the federal finance minister announced new controls on
nonessential imports in an effort to strengthen the country's foreign reserves.
Area and Population (including Biafra). Area, 356,669 sq. mi. Pop. (1963),
55,670,052. Density per sq. mi., 156. Principal cities: Lagos (cap.), 450,000;
Enugu (cap. of Biafra), 63,000; Ibadan, 600,000. Government. Federal Military
Government. Military head of state, Maj. Gen. Yakubu Gowon, rules Supreme
Military Council and is advised by 12-member civilian Federal Executive
Council, with Chief Obafemi Awolowo (Yoruba tribal leader) as vice-chairman.
Finance. Monetary unit, Nigerian pound; £1 = US$2.80. Budget (est. 1968-1969):
federal revenue, £152 million, of which £54 million reverts to state
governments; federal expenditure, £96 million. Trade (1967). Exports, £241.8
million; imports, £223.6 million. Principal exports: petroleum (1967, 14.8
million tons), peanuts, palm kernels, cocoa, palm oil, rubber. Principal
trading partners: United Kingdom and other Commonwealth nations, United States,
Japan, Netherlands, West Germany, Italy. Agriculture, Industry, and Mining.
North: peanuts, cotton, hides, skins, columbite, tin. South: palm products,
cocoa, rubber, timber, crude petroleum (1966, 20.7 million tons). Communication
and Transportation. Railways: 1,870 mi. Roads: 50,000 mi. maintained, 10,000
mi. tarred. Motor cars (1965): 27,705. Education (1966). Primary enrollment,
3,025,981. Secondary enrollment, 211,305. University enrollment: Ibadan, 2,729;
Nigeria Usukka, 3,482; Ahmadu Bello, 895; Ife, 945; Lagos, 1,119. Armed Forces.
Federal Nigeria. Before the civil war: army, 7,000 troops; navy, 1 frigate, 3
patrol boats; air force, approximately 20 single-engine craft, several jets,
several trainers, about 6 helicopters. Oct. 1967: 42,000 troops, 18 planes.
Eastern Region (Biafra). 5,000 troops, 6 helicopters. Oct. 1967: under 10,000
troops, 2 bombers. Culled from Microsoft Archives that consist of articles that
originally appeared in Collier's Year Book (for events of 1997 and earlier) or
as monthly updates in Encarta Yearbook (for events of 1998 and later). Because
they were published shortly after events occurred, they reflect the information
available at that time. Cross references refer to Archive articles of the same
year. 1968: Nigeria Biafra Encircled. After a year and a half of bitterly
fought civil war, the Federal Republic of Nigeria had all but defeated breakaway
Biafra. Toward the year's end, advancing federal forces had reduced Biafra's
borders from an original 29,484 square miles to under 4,000 square miles, or an
area some 100 miles long and 30 miles wide. In May, Biafra's vital port and oil
center, Port Harcourt, fell to federal troops. In September federal forces took
Aba, Biafra's last administrative center and the largest of its few remaining
towns. Umuahia, the last Biafran stronghold, was encircled in November. The war
was kept going by guerrilla tactics and by foreign-supplied military equipment
and food. During the second half of the year the world was shocked by reports
that as many as 25,000 Biafrans were dying each day from starvation, the result
of the viselike federal blockade through which only harassed night flights
could penetrate with food. Civil War Background. With an active Parliament and
a sturdy economy, the most populous country in Africa had seemingly made an
easy transition to independence in 1960. Nigeria's 250 tribes, each with its own
language and customs, were divided into three and later four regions, each
dominated by major tribes: Hausa and Fulani in the North (29.8 million), Yoruba
in the West (12.8 million), and Ibo in the East (12.4 million). Although
Western impact came late to the larger and more populated Muslim North, ruled
by powerful feudal emirs, its legislative majority dominated the federal
Parliament. The better-educated, change-oriented, aggressive Ibos in the East,
many of whom emigrated to key positions outside their crowded region, resented
Northern dominance and the many evidences of federal corruption. The tragic
events of 1966 began on January 15 when a military coup by army officers
toppled the government and led to the establishment of military rule under an Ibo
general, Johnson T. U. Aguiyi-Ironsi, who surrounded himself with Ibo advisers.
Northern resentment led to attacks on Ibos, and on July 29 the regime of
General Ironsi was overthrown, and Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General)
Yakubu Gowon, a Northern Hausa, became the chief of state of the Federal
Military Government (FMG). In September some 20,000 to 30,000 Ibos were
massacred, and many more were attacked and maimed. Having reason to believe
themselves marked for extermination, Ibos from all over Nigeria returned in a
mass migration to the Eastern Region, where, under their regional military
governor, Lieutenant Colonel (later General) Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, many
pressed for local autonomy and the more militant called for independence. The
break came on May 30, 1967, three days after the federal government divided the
four regions into 12 states in a move to decentralize and thereby reduce tribal
antagonisms. Cut off by the division from coastal trade and oil resources which
would have made them economically viable, the Ibos declared the independence of
the Eastern Region under the name of the Republic of Biafra (taken from the
name of an inlet on the Gulf of Guinea). Fighting broke out in June, and
despite Biafran forays during the early months of the war, the federal forces
had, by the end of this year, closed an ever-narrowing ring around Biafra,
which continued to resist in guerrilla fashion. Foreign Support. Somewhat
incongruously, the countries supplying arms and other aid to federal Nigeria
include Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United Arab Republic.
Britain's motives include its colonial ties and post-independence trade and oil
connections with Nigeria. Soviet aid of MIG fighters is attributed to
anticipated ideological, trade, and oil concessions in federal Nigeria, which
it sees as the inevitable winner. Egypt sympathizes with its Muslim
co-religionists in the Northern Region. The United States, officially neutral,
has barred arms sales to either side. But the U.S. government has acknowledged
the FMG as the only legitimate government of Nigeria, a move which has evoked
anti-U.S. sentiment among Biafrans. Public reaction against shocking reports of
Biafran starvation has led three European countries—Czechoslovakia, the
Netherlands, and Belgium—to halt arms shipments to federal Nigeria. Biafra has
received military aid from France, ostensibly for trade and oil preference
should Biafra win. France also reportedly wants to spite the United States and
Great Britain. On July 31 the French government called for a resolution of the
war on the basis of the right of self-determination. Portugal has given Biafra
the use of its air ports and telecommunications. Tanzania, in April, became the
first country to recognize Biafra as an independent state. Three other African
countries—Gabon, the Ivory Coast, and Zambia—recognized Biafra in May. Reports
of Starvation. In October the head of the World Council of Churches relief
program in Biafra estimated deaths from starvation at 186,000 in July, 310,000
in August, and 360,000 in September. Relief flights of food to Biafra, which
reached an average of 15-18 a night, reduced deaths in October to about
200,000. Forecasts predicted 25,000 deaths a day in December unless a
cease-fire was called. The International Committee of the Red Cross has fed
750,000 victims daily in what is left of Biafra, plus 500,000 daily in areas
taken by federal troops. Many groups and prominent individuals, including
Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, have criticized the American
government for not sending direct food relief to Biafra. But U.S. officials
maintained that they could not authorize such flights without permission from
the federal Nigerian government and that U.S. government food and other aid
must be channeled through private church relief agencies and the ICRC. Direct
night flights to Biafra have been harassed by federal Nigeria, which had
demanded that relief shipments land on federally held territory. Biafra would
not accept such an arrangement, however, claiming that food passing through
federal hands might be poisoned. In November the federal government said it
would allow daytime flights of relief supplies into the Biafran airstrip at
Uli, but the Biafran regime did not agree to this arrangement, possibly because
night flights containing arms shipments would then be open to federal attacks.
Unsuccessful Peace Talks. Peace talks began with unsuccessful secret sessions
in London during January and February. More promising preliminary talks in
early May led to an agreement that peace negotiations should begin in Kampala,
Uganda, later that month. These talks, however, made little progress and were
cut off by Biafra on May 31. At the August 5-September 9 talks in Addis Ababa,
under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity, the warring
representatives again deadlocked. Federal Nigeria has insisted that Biafra give
up independence as a condition for peace; Biafra has replied that only autonomy
can save the Ibos from massacre. On August 12, Pope Paul VI appealed for an end
to the civil war. At a September meeting in Algeria, the OAU passed a
resolution calling on Biafra to cease its fight for independence and to
cooperate with Nigeria in seeking peace. Most of the 40 OAU member nations
themselves contain tribal minorities with easily awakened antagonisms toward
their central governments. It is feared that Biafra's success might prompt
other rebellions and lead to a balkanization of Africa. Nigeria's ambassadors
have played upon this fear in the capitals of African nations. At least one
Biafran friend altered her stand. Dame Margery Perham, an Oxford University
specialist on Africa who in August declared Biafrans as 'overwhelmingly the
injured party ... who dare not surrender,' changed her mind on a subsequent
visit to Nigeria. In September she broadcast a plea to Biafrans to surrender as
the only way to save millions from death and starvation. 1969: Nigeria Civil
war continues. The most populous country in Africa continued to hurtle toward
disaster in the third year of a devastating civil war. By September 1968,
Federal Military Government troops had squeezed Biafra's 12.4 million people
into a 5,000-square-mile area; the area has now been reduced to less than 3,000
square miles. The starvation of more than 1.5 million people on both sides has
shocked the world as the war has dragged on, with the FMG receiving British,
Soviet, and Egyptian military aid and Biafra receiving Portuguese and French
aid. Other nations have responded with food and medical shipments, which must
cross FMG territory to reach Biafra. Biafrans fear that the FMG will poison the
food; the FMG insists on inspecting shipments to prevent arms smuggling. The
FMG halted flights by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on
June 5 and continued to fire on illegal night flights made by paid volunteers.
Both sides continued to use starvation deliberately for political ends. The
once prosperous Ibos, sure that they will never regain their former high status
in Nigeria, fought on in this bitter war. The United States remained officially
neutral but continued to recognize the FMG as the only legal government.
Americans supplied money, food, and medicine to relieve Biafran suffering, but
this may only help prolong the conflict. A battle for oil. The war-drained FMG
treasury was bolstered by industrial expansion, increased cotton exports, and
an oil boom. Wartime import restrictions have forced local production of some
manufactured goods, so that industrialization has nearly doubled since the war
began. Cocoa and peanut production have slipped, but cotton exports have
increased. Oil is the FMG's big money-maker. Port Harcourt, recaptured by the
FMG early this year, is the source of over half the country's oil. By 1975,
Nigeria expects to earn $840 million (mainly from Shell-British Petroleum and
Gulf Oil), double the current revenue from all sources. Oil income is also
expected to be important in financing postwar reconstruction. After May,
Biafran ground and air forces struck repeatedly at FMG's Port Harcourt oil
installations. Some dozen hedgehopping and rocket-equipped Swedish-built
Minicon training planes were flown mainly by Biafran pilots trained by Carl
Gustav von Rosen, the Swedish count who is Biafra's chief air force adviser.
These Biafran air strikes aimed to sap the FMG's oil-based economy and to goad
British and American oil companies into pressing the FMG for peace. Relief
flight talks stalled. After the shooting down on June 5 of a Red Cross mercy
flight by the FMG, only a trickle of relief shipments on night flights piloted
by private volunteers reached besieged and starving Biafrans. On August 3 a
Canadian crew of four died in a Canair Relief Agency night flight plane crash
near Uli airstrip in Biafra. On September 12 the ICRC reached an accord with
the FMG on a three-week experiment of day flights with FMG arms inspection at
the Red Cross base in Cotonou in neighboring Dahomey and further FMG inspection
rights in the capital of Lagos. The plan seemed likely to abate Biafra's fear
of poisoned food dispatched from FMG territory and was also a slight change
from the FMG's former requirement that relief flights originate or touch down
in FMG territory. But hopes were dashed on September 14, when Biafra Radio
rejected the accord as militarily advantageous to the FMG. On October 22,
Biafra Radio proposed that the ICRC resume night flights and hand over food and
supplies to private pilots willing to risk FMG ground fire. A new relief
proposal was made in October by several prominent Americans, including former
vice-president Hubert H. Humphrey, Mrs. Coretta King, and Lieutenant General
William H. Tunner, who commanded the Berlin airlift in 1948. The plan would use
12 jet-powered helicopters operating from an aircraft carrier 50 miles off the Nigerian
coast to shuttle food and medical supplies directly to FMG and Biafran
starvation areas. Peace hopes dim. Worldwide hopes for Nigerian peace did not
materialize from Pope Paul VI's three-day visit to Uganda, July 31-August 2,
despite his talks with representatives from both sides. Peace hopes were
revived again in late August by statements made in London by Nnamdi Azikiwe, a
distinguished elder Ibo serving as Biafra's representative abroad. He is a hero
of Nigerian independence, a former prime minister of the Eastern Region, and
was Nigeria's first president. Having originally opposed secession, he now
called on Biafra to give up the struggle and labeled as unfounded Biafra's fear
of genocide in a reunited Nigeria. He pointed out that more Ibos now live
without harassment in FMG territory—up to 5 million—than the approximately 3
million Ibos still in besieged Biafra. Biafran leaders were shocked and angered
by his views, by his return to the FMG capital of Lagos on September 5, and by
the warm reception given him by Major General Yakubu Gowon, the FMG leader.
Peace initiatives were thought more likely to come from the 41-nation
Organization of African Unity, which held its sixth annual meeting September
7-11 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss Nigerian peace, among other matters.
President Julius K. Nyerere of Tanzania, one of four OAU countries to recognize
Biafra, called for a cease-fire. FMG representatives would not accept a
cease-fire unless Biafra ended its secession. Ibo leaders in turn rejected negotiations
based on reunification. A fresh approach sounded by the FMG's Gowon on
September 10, calling for peace talks without preconditions, reportedly was
accepted by Biafra two days later, but no direct talks took place in September
or October. Acting from his present position of strength, Gowon was reportedly
anxious for peace talks and seemed loath to make a massive quick kill, as urged
by FMG hawks. Biafra's General Odumegwu Ojukwu and other leaders continued
their guerrilla resistance, believing that they would be executed and the Ibos
would be long harassed if Nigeria were reunited. Amnesty for civilians. The
FMG's Gowon marked the ninth anniversary of Nigeria's independence of October 1
by ordering the release of civilians imprisoned during the civil war. The first
major figure released was playwright Wole Soyinka, freed from a northern
Nigerian jail in Kaduna on October 8. His plays have appeared on New York and
London stages. A yoruba of western Nigeria, be had publicly sympathized with
the Ibos in September 1966 and had been jailed August 17, 1967, after a visit
to Biafra. Military action. Little military action occurred after April, when
Biafra won back the town of Owerri, now its provisional capital. Biafra
continued to make hit-and-run ground attacks and desultory air hits on oil
refineries near Port Harcourt, 15 miles north of which the Biafra front line
was said to be. So far an estimated 500,000 Biafrans have been killed in
action. Biafran leaders claimed that 7.5 million Ibos minority tribes live in
the oppressed Biafran enclave, but FMG authorities argued that the number
within Biafra's shrinking defense perimeters was much smaller. 1970: Nigeria
Civil war ends. Organized resistance in Nigeria's 30-month, bitterly fought
civil war ended January 12 with a declaration of surrender over Biafran radio
by Major General Philip Effiong. He succeeded secessionist leader General
Odumegwu Ojukwu, who fled January 11 to asylum in the Ivory Coast.
Unconditional surrender was accepted on January 15 by federal Nigerian leader
Major General Yakubu Gowon, who declared general amnesty 'for all those misled
into attempting to disintegrate the country.' He added: 'We have been reunited
with our brothers.' The end became imminent on January 10 with the collapse of
Owerri, Biafra's third provincial capital, and on January 12 Uli airstrip,
Biafra's last link with the outside world, was captured. The civil war took an
estimated 2 million lives, including many Biafran children and women, and cost
over US$840 million according to the federal government. Relief efforts. The
federal government's insistence on supervising all foreign relief operations in
war-devastated areas, partly because of the pro-Biafra bias of some relief
agencies, allegedly made for more red tape and a slowdown in meeting relief
needs. An April 11 report from relief workers stated that 50,000 persons had
died of starvation since the end of the civil war. The Nigerian Red Cross
relief operations distributed an estimated 3,000 tons of food a week to 3
million people, mostly children, at the peak of the emergency in March. Relief
operations were gradually reduced in scale and were taken over on June 30 by
the National Rehabilitation Commission, which coordinated the efforts of
voluntary relief agencies. These agencies promised to keep 14 teams operating
until the end of September. Reconciliation and reconstruction. An international
team of observers reported on January 16 that neither widespread starvation nor
mistreatment of Biafrans had been found in the areas visited between Port
Harcourt and Owerri. Secretary General U Thant of the UN, in Lagos on January
18, also reported no evidence of violence or mistreatment of the civilian
population. In Lagos on February 19, U.S. secretary of state William P. Rogers
praised Nigerians for their 'vital work of reconciliation and reconstruction.'
Such early favorable accounts were marred by later reports of severe troop
misbehavior, continued scarcity of food, and slow disposal of relief supplies.
In February, 35 Catholic priests were jailed and fined for breaking immigration
laws, and 64 missionaries, including ten nuns, all active in Biafran relief
work, were deported. An August 15 decree stated that any public servant who
supported the rebellion would be dismissed or forced to retire. The federal
Ministry of Information clarified the decree on August 17 by stating that its
purpose was not to penalize all officials but only those who were proved to
have exhibited 'undue enthusiasm' in furthering the rebellion. Gowon announced
on April 20 that former Biafra would be reinstated as the East-Central State on
an equal basis with the other 11 states in federal Nigeria. The state would be
led by Ukpabi Anthony Asika, an Ibo who had been appointed administrator of the
East-Central State in 1967 and who had remained loyal to Nigeria during the
civil war. The government made a flat exchange payment, worth US$56, to each of
the 200,000 persons who had deposited Biafran currency in the Central Bank.
Railway restoration was begun in areas devastated by war, some night flights
were resumed, the eastern ports of Port Harcourt and Calabar were opened to
foreign ships, telephone lines were restored between Lagos and Enugu,
government incentives were offered to villages to organize rural development
projects, and a number of schools were reopened. Foreign relations. Nigeria
moved toward normalizing its foreign relations, particularly with nations which
had recognized or aided Biafra. Gowon met in Lagos on February 25 with French
deputy Aymar Achille-Fould; although the restoration of amicable relations was
announced, some antipathy remained toward France because of its support of
Biafra. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the opening of the summit meeting of the
Organization of African Unity on September 1, Emperor Haile Selassie of
Ethiopia announced that a 'total reconciliation' had taken place between
Nigeria and the four African countries which had recognized Biafra: Gabon, the
Ivory Coast, Tanzania, and Zambia. Earlier, in May, resumed relations were
sought by the Ivory Coast, whose president had conferred on the matter with the
presidents of Chad and Gabon, all three of which are tied closely to France.
Secessionist leader Ojukwu, in exile in the Ivory Coast, also attended the
meeting. In October, Ojukwu was asked to leave the Ivory Coast, ostensibly
because he broke his promise to refrain from political activity by granting
news interviews. He was reportedly refused asylum by Switzerland in late
October. Nigeria resumed commerce with Cameroon on the Benue River on August 14
as a result of an agreement on strengthening ties and signed a treaty of
friendship and cooperation with Dahomey on August 19. Also in August, Gowon
visited Algeria, the Sudan, and Egypt. Civil war lessons. Federal victory
evoked worldwide press speculation about the reporting of the civil war,
starvation as a weapon of war, and the motives of intervening powers. In
retrospect, some critics cite press reports as all too often emphasizing
atrocities at the expense of socioeconomic and political analysis. Some editors
and reporters presented a primitive stereotype of Africans, particularly
federal soldiers. In order to gain world sympathy, recognition, relief, and
arms, powerful Biafran lobbies in such countries as the United States and Great
Britain encouraged emotional reports presenting Biafrans as wronged,
beleaguered, and starved. Advocates of this position point out that Biafran
capitulation was caused as much by waning outside support as it was by federal
military action. Some reporting of humanitarian efforts may have unfairly
presented the federal government's reasons for insisting on supervision of
relief shipments. Some relief agencies publicly favored Biafra, frankly called
themselves 'bootleggers of mercy,' and gave the rebels tacit recognition by
illegally dealing directly with them. Little stressed, too, were the paranoid
Biafran fear of poison in federally inspected food, the possible arms
concealment in relief shipments from or passing through countries recognizing
Biafra and committed to its victory, the inefficiency of competing relief
agencies, their interdenominational rivalry in order to gain an advantage for
future proselytizing efforts, and the capitulation of the big powers to their
propagandized public, which wanted to hasten and increase relief shipments.
Speculation also centered on the motives of the intervening powers and on the
consequences of their intervention. Britain's support of the federation it had
launched was clear, and its subsequent trade benefits were understandable.
Former French president de Gaulle's aid to Biafra was seen as consistent with
his antipathy to the Anglo-American alliance, his encouragement of separatism
as in Quebec, his hoped-for dominance of Biafran oil-production potential, and
his fear that a powerful federal Nigeria posed a threat to African countries in
the French economic orbit. The Soviet Union's motives were explained as another
attempt to gain a foothold in West Africa after its recent failures in Guinea
and Ghana. The United States' prohibition of arms to either side was seen as a
test of its resolve not to act as world policeman and not to counter every
Soviet intrusion. In general, observers felt that, having learned the stern
lessons of big-power involvement, federal Nigeria is likely to pursue an
independent course and to keep foreigners at arm's length for some time to
come. Outlook. Restrained optimism marked Nigeria's tenth independence
anniversary on October 1. Gowon promised a new national census by 1973 and a
new constitution as preludes to elections leading to a return to civilian
government by 1976, or earlier if possible. Most close observers saw Gowon's
leadership as a necessary factor in maintaining peaceful progress, but few had
expected the elections to be delayed as long as six years. Those who are
optimistic about Nigeria's future point to the rapid pace of the return to
economic and social normalcy. A reasonable reconciliation with the Biafrans has
been achieved despite dire predictions of their being massacred. The federal
victory held together over 400 diverse tribes, and the 1967 redrawing of the
former four contentious regions into 12 more equitably balanced states should
help prevent tribal differences from causing another war. In February the oil
industry output exceeded the highest prewar level, making Nigeria the world's
tenth-largest oil producer. In November, Gowon announced a four-year plan to
develop Nigerian industry. The government plans to control the nation's
industries and 'strategic natural resources' to make sure companies comply with
the planned growth timetable. The oil industry, presently entirely foreign run,
will be taken over by a planned national oil corporation. The development plan
appropriated $658 million, of which $114 million will be spent in 1970-1974,
for implementing industrial expansion. In addition, money was allotted for
expansion and modernization of the public transportation, educational, and
agricultural systems. From the end of the unnecessary fratricidal war till 1999
the polity knew no peace and had no respite from the marauding Generals who
changed batons in a marathon race of maiming opposition leaders and
successively looting the national treasury. WHEN SHALL WE BE TRUELY INDEPENDENT
OF BRITAIN? We are being manipulated from Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing
Street by remote controls, while we mistakenly think it is our Northerners
brothers who are being used against us are our real enemies. They are not! They
have been brainwashed! MY DEAREST COMPATRIOTS, DON'T SIT ON THE FENCE, OUR
CHILDREN'S FUTURE IS AT STAKE. I NEED VERITABLE ANSWERS NOW BEFORE ANOTHER
CIVIL WAR ENGULFS US. Dr Jideofo Kenechukwu Danmbaezue, (D.Sc. in
Psychometrics), Consultant Clinical Psychologist/Existential Family Counsellor
• F/Major, Degema Strike Force, 12th Commando Brigade, Biafra, 1968 - 1969. •
Retired Substantive Flt Lt, NAF Medical Service, Kano/Kaduna, 1976 -1979. HAPPY
EASTER FOR SURVIVING TILL THE YEAR 2011. GOD BLESS AND KEEP ALL OF YOU SAFE FOR
ME!
26
January at 01:38
o
Harold Guiob
A CALL TO
REGISTER FOR ELECTIONS IN NAMIBIA - THINKING ABOUT A DIFFERENT SOCIAL CONTRACT
FOR AFRICA! Oriental City encourages all eligible Namibians to register now in
order to participate in the national elections later this year. Your vote is
the finger that switches electricity on in State house, Parliament, the Courts,
Police and Prisons. And so, with just one thumb - and with a little help from
villagers into the polling booth - our old and blind meme in Ondobe transfers
her sacred trust to men and women she has never seen and never will, to ensure
that her grandchildren 'see and taste' the life she has not seen and tasted!
Voting therefore, is not an end in itself, a destination or a quantitative
exercise that ends with dropping your ballot into the ballot box. It is
fundamentally more than that. It is a sacred means to achieve a credible
outcome. It is a journey. It is a qualitative relationship between the voter
and the trust holder. It is a Social Contract that cannot be betrayed! We, the
voters, supply the sword to the 'gladiator in the middle of the ring'. When the
battle is won, the victory must be shared! All must benefit….starting from the
invisible work-horses behind the pavilion, who identify the forest, who gather
the wood, who make the fire, who burn the iron, who shape the sword, who
sharpen the sword...to the visible cheerleaders on the pavilion who drop the
complete and lethal weapon into the ring. These tenets of the social contract
assist in redefining the purpose of elections in Africa. And so, it matters
less where we cast our ballots, whether in Tjaka Ben Hur, /รข ≠gomes,
Okamatapati, Sibinda or Kaisosi, it is about the big picture. Our eyes must
always be fixed on Africa. Therefore, our national voter education campaigns
must seek legitimacy in the African social reality in order to remain relevant
to the rapidly changing social conditions on the continent. Goal posts keep
changing and what we celebrate as a record today becomes a minimum requirement
tomorrow! Your vote in Rehoboth therefore, must speak to the social conditions
in South Sudan, in the Central African Republic, in Mali and in Egypt and say
NO to armed conflicts, to political violence, to loss of property, to hardships
of forced removals from homes and the despicable social conditions in refugee
camps on foreign soils. In the words of Pope Francis: 'in the person you today
see simply as an enemy to be beaten, discover rather your brother or sister,
and hold back your hand! Again, your vote in Vaalgras must speak to Africa and
say YES to dialogue, political tolerance, peace, development, solidarity and
social progress! Your vote is more powerful than you think. Your vote is a vote
for a better Africa! SO, GO OUT ALL AND REGISTER NOW!
21 · 24 January at 14:28
o
Dico Sea
God bless u Fahamu for the
great work you are doing on behalf of africa continent. I am an africanist to
the call ,who rebel against the imperialist and the practices of the
imperialism. Africa is my land, Africa is where I belong,and in africa I will
die, so I must do everything within my reach to help my african peoples in all
corners of the earth. Africa Unite.................
11 · 21 January at 17:58
