WHY DOES THE WHOLE WORLD KEEP QUIET WHILE EVIL IS BEING PERPETRATED IN NIGERIA IS THE REASON I AM POSTING THIS FOR ALL TO SEE AND IT IS ALSO MY 66TH BIRTHDAY GIFT TO ALL MANKIND AS A QUERY TO THE UNITED NATIONS/

ALL HAIL THE BRITISH EXPERIMENT ABOUT TO EXPLODE IN 2015 AS THE POLITICIANS CANVASS FOR DISUNITY INSTEAD OF HOLDING A GENUINE NATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR A TRUE FEDERATION 

Jude Danmbaezue shared a link. 46 minutes ago near Lagos

THIS ARTICLE CAN BE FOUND AT THE POSTS I MADE IN 2011 FOR THE INVESTIGATIVE RESEARCHER WHO REALLY WANTS THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE WHOLE TRUTH 

WHY AM I POSTING THIS FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TO SEE? .... AN INTELLIGENT PERSON MAY ASK ..................... A Biafran adage or funny parlance states “ The reason why the hen being taken to the slaughter for making a soup or stew for a human meal is screaming loudly, not because what or who is holding tight will release its firm grip on her BUT so that everyone will hear that at least she made a bold effort to call for help not that she hoped for freedom from entering into the soup pot.” In my culture we do not interpret wise sayings..think ….

THE COLONIAL MASTER LORD LUGGARD IN 1914 WITH THE CONNIVANCE OF HIS HOME GOVERNMENT DELIBERATELY AMALGAMATED A BACKWARD REGION TO RULE A MORE EDUCATED AND PROGRESSIVE REGION IN ORDER TO EXPLOIT IF BY REMOTE CONTROLS FROM 10 DOWNING STREET AND BUCKINGHAM PALACE. TODAY THEY ARE AT IT AGAIN AND OUR FOOLISH POLITICIANS WHO ARE ONLY AT ABUJA FOR SELFISH REASONS ARE BUSY STEALING FROM THE NATIONAL TREASURY INSTEAD OD RESTRUCTURING THE NATION. SOON THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY WILL HEAR THERE IS ANOTHER ETHNIC CLEANSING. WHY CAN THE WORLD KEEP QUITE WHILE EVIL IS BEING PERPETRATED IS THE REASON I AM POSTING THIS FOR ALL TO SEE AND COME TO OUR RESCUE.     ……   REV. PROF. J. J. KENEZ, D.Sc.   

EMAIL SENT TO REUBEN ABATI AT ABUJA NIGERIA, NONY MBAEZUE IN USA AND NINE OTHERS ON APRIL 26 2011

NIGERIA IS A BRITISH 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 was/is merely an experiment in mediocrity by the British Political Class designed by expert neo-colonialists to maximise her full exploitation of the natural resources of the natives! The evidence is so clear and unambiguous. For thirty years, with only a few years respite, the civil polity in 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 protégé 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. 
In the 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 could move on. In 1979, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who commanded like Buhari, a cult-like following chose to go to court to contest the results of the Presidential election in part, his disciples insist, in order to prevent violent protest in the South West, and the occurrence of another “wild wild West phenomenon.” It is such statesman-like conduct that is required from Buhari at this moment.” 
I thank Reuben Abati. He is a courageous journalist! I doff my cap for a patriot! In short, he literarily stated that Buhari incited the Muslim youths to lynch anyone who stopped them from winning the Presidential election. Remember that a vehicle plate number slogan; “BORN TO RULE” came from the Northern home state of the Sultan. 
THEREFORE, MY DISSERTATION IS: 
“Nigeria is a perfect example of the British legacy of deliberately under-developing her ex-colonial territories. This resulted in the dark years of a revolving door of military dictators in a bedeviled Nigeria. From the end of the unnecessary fratricidal war till 1999 the polity has not known peace nor had any respite from the marauding military dictators, all from the North, who changed batons in a marathon race of looting the national treasury, perennially reducing our GNP, depleting the natural resources in the Delta region, misappropriating our foreign reserves, maiming opposition leaders and successively clinging onto political power as their late mentor had taught them to do.”

------------------------------------------------Flt Lt J. K. D. Mbaezue,(rtd)

LET ME PRESENT MY FIRST UNEDITED ACADEMIC WITNESS;
Historical Experts from WIKIPEDIA, THE FREE ENCYCLOPAEDIA


Nigerian Civil War

Date 1967–1970
The diagram shows independent state of the Republic of Biafra in June 1967.
Location 
Southern Nigeria 
Result 
Nigerian victory 
Belligerents 
Nigeria Biafra 
Commanders 
Yakubu Gowon Odumegwu Ojukwu 
Casualties and losses 
200,000 Military/civilian casualties 1,000,000 Military and civilian casualties 

The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War, 6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970, was a political conflict caused by the attempted secession of the south-eastern provinces of Nigeria as the self-proclaimed Republic of Biafra.

CONTENTS 

1 Causes of the conflict
2 Conflicts during the colonial era
3 Military coup
4 Counter-coup
5 Pogroms
6 Oil
7 Breakaway
8 Civil War
9 Stalemate
10 War's End
11 Aftermath and legacy
12 References
13 See also
14 Bibliography
15 External links

Causes of the conflict

The conflict was the result of economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of Nigeria. Like many other African nations, Nigeria was an artificial structure initiated by the British which had neglected to consider religious, linguistic, and ethnic differences [citation needed]. Nigeria, which won independence from Britain in 1960, had at that time a population of 60 million people consisting of nearly 300 differing ethnic and cultural groups.

The causes of the Nigerian civil war were diverse. More than fifty years earlier, Great Britain carved an area out of West Africa containing hundreds of different groups and unified it, calling it Nigeria. Although the area contained many different groups, three were predominant: the Igbo, which formed between 60-70% of the population in the southeast, the Hausa-Fulani, which formed about 65% of the peoples in the northern part of the territory; the Yoruba, which formed about 75% of the population in the south-western part.[citation needed]

The semi-feudal and Islamic Hausa-Fulani in the North were traditionally ruled by an autocratic, conservative Islamic hierarchy consisting of some thirty-odd Emirs who, in turn, owed their allegiance to a supreme Sultan. This Sultan was regarded as the source of all political power and religious authority.

The Yoruba political system in the southwest, like that of the Hausa-Fulani, also consisted of a series of monarchs being the Oba. The Yoruba monarchs, however, were less autocratic than those in the North, and the political and social system of the Yoruba accordingly allowed for greater upward mobility based on acquired rather than inherited wealth and title.

The Igbo in the southeast, in contrast to the two other groups, lived in some six hundred autonomous, democratically-organized villages. Although there were monarchs in these villages (whether hereditary or elected), they functioned predominantly as figureheads. Unlike the other two regions, decisions among the Igbo were made by a general assembly in which every man could participate.

The differing political systems among these three peoples produced radically divergent customs and values. The Hausa-Fulani commoners, having contact with the political system only through their village head who was designated by the Emir or one of his subordinates, did not view political leaders as amenable to influence. Political decisions were to be obeyed without question. This highly centralized and authoritarian political system elevated to positions of leadership persons willing to be subservient and loyal to superiors, the same virtues required by Islam for eternal salvation. A chief function of this political system was to maintain Islamic and conservative values, which caused many Hausa-Fulani to view economic and social innovation as subversive or sacrilegious.

In contrast to the Hausa-Fulani, the Igbo often participated directly in the decisions which affected their lives. They had a lively awareness of the political system and regarded it as an instrument for achieving their own personal goals. Status was acquired through the ability to arbitrate disputes that might arise in the village, and through acquiring rather than inheriting wealth. With their emphasis upon achievement, individual choice and democratic decision-making, the challenges of modernization for the Igbo entailed responding to new opportunities in traditional ways.

These tradition-derived differences were perpetuated and, perhaps, even enhanced by the British system of colonial rule in Nigeria. In the North, the British found it convenient to rule indirectly through the Emirs, thus perpetuating rather than changing the indigenous authoritarian political system. As a concomitant of this system, Christian missionaries were excluded from the North, and the area thus remained virtually closed to Western education and influence, in contrast to the Igbo, the richest of whom sent many of their sons to British universities. During the ensuing years, the Northern Emirs thus were able to maintain traditional political and religious institutions, while limiting social change. As a result, the North, at the time of independence in 1960, was by far the most underdeveloped area in Nigeria; with a literacy rate of 2% as compared to 19.2% in the East (literacy in Arabic script, learned in connection with religious education, was higher). The West enjoyed a much higher literacy level, being the first part of the country to have contact with western education in addition to the free primary education programme of the pre-independence Western Regional Government [1].

In the South, the missionaries rapidly introduced Western forms of education. Consequently, the Yoruba were the first group in Nigeria to become significantly modernized and they provided the first African civil servants, doctors, lawyers, and other technicians and professionals.

In Igbo areas, missionaries were introduced at a later date because of British difficulty in establishing firm control over the highly autonomous Igbo villages. ………….(Audrey Chapman, “Civil War in Nigeria,” Midstream, Feb 1968). 
However, the Igbo people took to Western education zealously, and they overwhelmingly came to adopt Christianity. Population pressure in the Igbo homeland combined with an intense desire for economic improvement drove thousands of Igbo to other parts of Nigeria in search of work. By the 1960s the Igbo had become politically unified and economically prosperous, with tradesmen and literate elites active not just in the traditionally Igbo South, but throughout Nigeria.[2]

Conflicts during the colonial era

The British political ideology of dividing Nigeria during the colonial period into three regions North, West and East exacerbated the already well-developed economic, political, and social competition among Nigeria's different ethnic groups. For the country was divided in such a way that the North had slightly more population than the other two regions combined. On this basis the Northern Region was allocated a majority of the seats in the Federal Legislature established by the colonial authorities. Handiwork of Deceitful Colonial British Administrators

Within each of the three regions the dominant ethnic groups; the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo respectively formed political parties that were largely regional and tribal in character: the Northern People's Congress (NPC) in the North; the Action Group in the West (AG): and the National Conference of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) in the East. The present disintegration of Nigeria provides the evidence that these parties were not exclusively homogeneous in terms of their ethnic or regional make-up, rather they prove the fact that these parties were primarily based on ethnic cleavages in one region and one tribe. To simplify matters, we will refer to them here as the Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo-based; or Northern, Western and Eastern parties. The subterfuge of Britons is clearly demonstrated here; ignoreing the well-known British alphabetical order of presenting H before I and then Y.

During the 1940s and 1950s the Igbo and Yoruba parties were in the forefront of the fight for independence from Britain. They also wanted an independent Nigeria to be organized into several small states so that the conservative North could not dominate the country. Northern leaders, however, fearful that independence would mean political and economic domination by the more Westernized elites in the South, preferred the perpetuation of British rule. As a condition for accepting independence, they demanded that the country continue to be divided into three regions with the North having a clear majority. Igbo and Yoruba leaders, anxious to obtain an independent country at all costs, accepted the Northern demands.


During the Nigerian civil war of 1967 to 1970, the Nigerian government imposed blockades around 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 anticolonial 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 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.

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 controlled from Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street by remote controls, while we mistakenly think it is the Northerners that are our real enemies.

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,

• Ex-Major, BA6532, Degema Strike Force, 12th Commando Brigade, Biafra, 1968 - 1969.
• Retired Substantive Flt Lt, NAF 759, Kano & Kaduna, 1976 -1979 


HAPPY EASTER FOR SURVIVING TILL THE YEAR 2011. 
GOD BLESS AND KEEP ALL OF YOU SAFE FOR ME!
A FULL TEXT OF WHAT REUBEN ABATI TOLD US
Abati: What I Saw On Election Day 
Sunday, 10 April 2011 00:00 By Reuben Abati Opinion - Columnists 

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“INEC tried this time”, was how many Nigerians responded to yesterday’s re-scheduled National Assembly election. Not quite. It was an election in which many Nigerians were constructively disenfranchised, we had something that looked like an election, INEC seemed better prepared than it was last week, but still, we may be faced with an electoral process in which to use a familiar Nigerian phrase, we are likely to “fumble and wobble to the final.” A situation whereby something that looks like what we desire attracts enormous praise is fast becoming a Nigerian pastime and it is a sign of our underdevelopment. We praise state governors for digging boreholes, for constructing roads, and for providing hospitals, as if these are extra-ordinary achievements. And so, we praise INEC and the security agencies for holding one week after the original date, after two postponements, an event that looks like an election. But there are questions to be raised still and areas in which quick improvements are required. Was the election free and fair? Was it credible? Is it of international standard? Are there logistics challenges that INEC still failed to address? These are the questions.
There were reports that the election was generally peaceful. It was marred however, by reports of violence in parts of the country which raise serious questions about the capacity of the security agencies to ensure law and order, not just on election day but before and after. There was a bomb explosion at the INEC Office in Suleja, Niger State on the eve of the elections resulting in the death of about 13 youth corps members who had gone to check their postings for the Saturday event. On election day, the Labour Party, FCT Senatorial candidate, Kayode Ajulo was kidnapped, hours after he received death threats on his cell phone. There was also electoral violence in Osun leaving five persons dead. There were bomb explosions also in Maiduguri (10 casualties) and in Kaduna. In Ibadan, Oyo state, there were reports of thugs intimidating voters in certain areas. The presence of security agents at polling centres may have prevented violence in many places, but there is a lot more to be done to prevent post-election day violence. With soldiers and policemen on full alert on election day, and with a restriction of movement order in place, even the thugs and their bosses were intimidated into silence. We have secured peace on election day with the barrel of the gun. But are there plans to prevent the violence that may come after, resulting from likely protests about disenfrachisement and dissatisfaction with outcomes?
The bomb explosion in Suleja is particularly sad and totally condemnable. The victims, dead and injured, were mostly youth corps members, young men and women who had offered to serve their country, even if many of them would consider the N7,000 paid as stipend to each electoral official, attractive. These are children from poor, struggling families, no child from a rich Nigerian family would offer to expose himself or herself to the risk of being an electoral official! The INEC office was said to have been packed full, before a loud bang was heard. Jega, the INEC chair, condemned “this cowardly and dastardly action, which seems designed to instill fear in Nigerians and paralyze their aspirations for peaceful and credible elections.” He looked really sad on television as he read his statement. But not the Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner who on Channels TV described the bomb explosion in Suleja as “an individual thing”. He argued that we shouldn’t have expected any serious security arrangement since this was only a case of youth corps members going to check their postings and that if it was an electoral event, adequate security would have been provided.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner needs to be told that security at every INEC office must be taken as top priority, and that must include all the collation centres, posting centres, INEC stores if there are any, before and after the elections. Those who chose election day, and the night before, to detonate bombs are making a statement: the same kind of statement that was made on October 1, 2010 on the occasion of Nigeria’s golden jubilee anniversary: that anyone can challenge the Nigerian state with impunity and get away with it. The Lagos REC’s response is just as asinine as the prompt response by the FCT Police to the abduction of the Abuja Labour Party Senatorial candidate, to the effect that the abduction was “stage-managed.” Was there an investigation to determine that? And if so, has anybody been arrested to own up to the fact? Those saddled with maintaining law and order must be even more vigilant after elections have been concluded. Every effort must be made to ensure that those hapless youth corps members and other ad hoc officials involved in the Suleja bomb incident are assisted with medical and trauma care. The families of the dead should be paid compensation and INEC officials must visit those families. We should not give the usual impression that we do not value human lives in this country.
INEC was a

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Jude Danmbaezue I was still a second year student at the university of Lagos where the Great Mathematician PROFESSOR CHIKE OBI of blessed memory queried the purveyors of QUOTA SYSTEM thus; Is bravery and gallantry equally distributed among all men, if so, with Quota System, 

WHEN 10 IGBO SOLDIERS DIE AT THE BATTLE FRONT, WILL OUR TROOPS ALL WAIT TILL 10 YORUBAS AND 10 HAUSA SOLDIERS DIE BEFORE THE TROOPS MATCH FORWARD?

We need veritable and practical answers now from the brilliant ex-generals who want to rule Nigeria despite having no political training for the job! IS THIS NOT WHAT THEY SHOULD SOLVE AS SUPERBRATS IN MILITARY RANKS? Only AIR RAID or probably BLACK SCORPION can come to our rescue now;

WHERE ARE ALL THE TOUGH TALKING GENERALS OF THE NIGERIAN ARMY WHO CLAIMED THAT THEY WERE SPECIALISTS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF VIOLENCE?

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 Nigeria that retired officers from the army, navy and air force are ungentle-manly. They tell lies, they bribe, they cheat and they dupe even their friends or snatch other people’s wives. This is possible, because since the civil war ended in the country in 1970, our military colleges do not turn out gentlemen officers any longer! Admission is by quota system and nepotic connections. Only sons of emirs, retired senior officers and those who are ready to pay thousands of naira get admissions into the Nigerian Academy. So, how do you expect gentlemen to be turned out from such politically-polluted institutions?

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 Britain, France and USA to compare notes; you will see most of their counterparts contributing meaningfully to the economical development of their countries. The skills they acquired while in service are channelled into productive endeavours. They are role models to the youth who greet them, as ‘Gentlemen Officers’. A greater percentage of them are revered patriots with national honours bestowed on them for their contributions to the upliftment of their communities after retirement. 
But in Nigeria, a country of ‘vagabonds in power’, the pastime of the average retired army officer is partisan politics of ‘kill-and-eat’ mentality. They train and manage despicable political thugs!

37 minutes ago · Like

WHY I AM POSTING THIS FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TO SEE, AN INTELLIGENT ONE MAY ASK. A Biafran adage or funny parlance states “ The reason why the hen being taken to the slaughter for making a soup or stew for a human meal is screaming loudly, not because what or who is holding tight will release its firm grip on her BUT so that everyone will hear that at least she made a bold effort to call for help not that she hoped for freedom from entering into the soup pot.” In my culture we do not interpret wise sayings..think ….

THE COLONIAL MASTER LORD LUGGARD IN 1914 WITH THE CONNIVANCE OF HIS HOME GOVERNMENT DELIBERATELY AMALGAMATED A BACKWARD REGION TO RULE A MORE EDUCATED AND PROGRESSIVE REGION IN ORDER TO EXPLOIT IF BY REMOTE CONTROLS FROM 10 DOWNING STREET AND BUCKINGHAM PALACE. TODAY THEY ARE AT IT AGAIN AND OUR FOOLISH POLITICIANS WHO ARE ONLY AT ABUJA FOR SELFISH REASONS ARE BUSY STEALING FROM THE NATIONAL TREASURY INSTEAD OD RESTRUCTURING THE NATION. SOON THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY WILL HEAR THERE IS ANOTHER ETHNIC CLEANSING. WHY CAN THE WORLD KEEP QUITE WHILE EVIL IS BEING PERPETRATED IS THE REASON I AM POSTING THIS FOR ALL TO SEE AND COME TO OUR RESCUE.     
……   REV. PROF. J. J. KENEZ, D.Sc.   

COMMENTARIES ON THE INTERNET ABOUT A BEDEVILLED NIGERIA

http://diaalnews.com/news/14593

The heavyweights in Northern Politics are to be responsible for this. Yet they want to become PRESIDENTS without the political training needed for the job. Whereas General Yakubu Gowon, REALISED HIS ERRORS AND SO WENT BACK TO SCHOOL, the fools who served under him during the needless civil war think that A NIGERIAN MAJOR GENERAL RANK UNDESERVEDLY HOISTED ON THEM DURING THE BACKYARD WAR ENTITLES THEM TO A DOCTORAL DEGREE IN GOVERNANCE. I weep for them and their progeny.

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. .....................

THE REASON ALL OF THEM ARE IN GOVERNMENT IS BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO HANDICRAFT, PROFESSIONAL SKILLS TO EARN A LIVING, SO THE NIGERIAN POLITY IS CONVERTED TO ENEMY WAR FRONTS AND THEY LOOT OUR TREASURIES. .............

BELOW IS THE ONLY SOLDIER I KNOW WHO NEVER PARTICIPATED IN ANY GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS OR CIVILIAN POLITICS SINCE RETIREMENT IN THE 198OS

AND TO DATE IS A PRIVATELY EMPLOYED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST WHO COUNSELS ADOLESCENTS ABOUT TO MARRY AND TREATS OTHERS PASSING THROUGH MARITAL CRISES.

HE HAS A TOTAL 15 STANDARDISED PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS FOR SCIENTIFIC FAMILY COUNSELLING AND HAS WRITTEN MORE THAN 9 BOOKS ON FAMILY HEALTH ISSUES. HE OWNS THIS SITE THAT HAS BEEN 'ENWISDOMISING' THOUSANDS OF YOUTHS.

I was still a second year student at the university of Lagos where the Great Mathematician PROFESSOR CHIKE OBI of blessed memory queried the purveyors of QUOTA SYSTEM thus; Is bravery and gallantry equally distributed among all men, if so, with Quota System, 
WHEN 10 IGBO SOLDIERS DIE AT THE BATTLE FRONT, WILL OUR TROOPS ALL WAIT TILL 10 YORUBAS AND HAUSA SOLDIERS DIE BEFORE THE TROOPS MATCH FORWARD? We need veritable and practical answers now from the brilliant ex-generals who want to rule Nigeria despite having no political training for the job! IS THIS NOT WHAT THEY SHOULD SOLVE AS SUPERBRATS IN MILITARY RANKS? Only AIR RAID or probably BLACK SCORPION can come to our rescue now;

WE NEED AN INDEPENDENT FREE FOR ALL NATIONAL CONFERENCE OR ELSE FULFILL THE PREDICTIONS MADE BY SOME U S A POLITICAL ANALYSTS AND FUTURISTIC PUNDITS WHO HAD PREDICTED AS FAR BACK AS 2012 THAT NIGERIA WILL BREAK UP IN 2015 AND WE DID NOT TAKE THEM SERIOUS. WHAT WILL SAVE US IS A TRUE FEDERALISM ALONG THE LINES AGREED AT ABURI DURING THE EARLY STAGES OF THE UNNECESSARY AND FRATRICIDAL CIVIL WAR THAT PORTRAYED IN SIMPLE LANGUAGE THE FUTILITY OF LORD LUGARD'S NEO-COLONIALISM MISADVENTURE OF AMALGAMATION OF 1914 ............

It is inevitable now. Nigeria cannot stand some people, who have a very queer mindset. They believe their religion is superior. They are sympathetic to Boko Haram. They are victims of a 50 year old brain-washing agenda. Some politicians mobilized them along ethnic and religious lines during last elections.
They were told that Southerners are infidels. Nigeria simply cannot survive the way it is structured. These ignorant Northern youths are merely victims of brain-washing. The violence will continue even after Boko Haram. Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gun powder.
It is not Jonathan’s fault. Jonathan’s is merely the target. Nigeria must be restructured now before it is too late. The ongoing exodus of Ndigbo from the North and the refusal of the government to assist them is the last straw. If something gives and violence erupts, Nigeria will simply cease to exist. Igbo is a very dynamic race, when Ndigbo take up arms, not even the UN can contain the explosion.

THE REMEDY TO THE NIGERIAN PERENNIAL MILITARY SEEKING TO BE PRESIDENTS OR GOVERNORS QUESTION IS TO BAN ALL SOLDIERS FROM POLITICS UNTIL EACH HAS GOT AT LEAST A BACHELORS DEGREE IN POLITICS SAYS DR JIDEOFO DANMBAEZUE, A retired Flt Lt of the Nigerian Air Force 1976 - 1979 and Major in the Biafran Commandos, 1968 – 1969

2015: WILL HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF IN NIGERIA?
By Osondu Ahirika and Kenez Danmbaezue

George Santayana it was, who said, "Those that forget history are condemned to repeat it." That's a fact of life as real as reality. This is in spite of St. Paul's disclosure that, "...this one thing I do, forgetting that which is past, I look forward to the goal that I may win the prize..."(see Philippians 3:13). Such amnesia for the past canvassed here by Paul is contextual, and cannot abrogate the realism of Santayana's maxim. 

If you had doubt that history does replicate itself, then let me shock you with these facts. If you have the calendar of 1975, don't throw it away. It is the same with the 2014 calendar currently in use. Its January 1, falls Wednesday and it ends on Wednesday 31 also. Same with 2014.

Other years that share strictly same datelines with 2014 are, 1986, 1997, and 2003 for the past. In future, this 2014 calendar will replay for the year 2025 and 2031. Truth is, every year has such parities, past and future.

If that does not suffice, then this should. football stakers in Pool who characteristically follow the English and Australian football seasons will tell you their forecast finds solid assurance in both hindsight and foresight. They bet, because, they believe most assuredly, that, history will repeat itself. Often, it does. Sometimes in reverse order. For, as one philosopher said, history repeats itself, but as a farce. 

Take this too. On Sunday, March 2, 2014, Nigerian International Ike Uche was sent off while playing for VillarREAL football club at home against REAL Betis FC in the Spanish La Liga. This was the second red card of his career. Ironically, three years ago, precisely on April 18, 2011, Ike Uche was given the marching order, in a game he was playing then, for REAL Zaragoza FC against VillarREAL FC. Can you discern the pranks history plays sometimes in her reincarnation? That's why I deliberately capitalized the word, REAL, in Uche's real experience. See the farcical trajectory of history with Uche. 

Okay, done with that, I believe I have convinced you that, history does repeat itself, when we ignore its trail. See the alignment at APC for instance....What did Akintola do with Ahmadu that is not being repeated by Tinubu and Buhari now. strange bed-fellows are teaming up again as was the case in 1965 before the WILD WILD WEST saga that precipitated the 1966 coup d'etat and the civil war. Boko Haram is a mirror image of Wild Wild West, and the present poaching of PDP stalwarts by APC strategists who went all the way to America to hire political crooks to plot the results of an election to be held in 23 months distant time.... A WORD IS ENOUGH FOR THE WISE .. BUT I FEAR WE HAVE NO WISE MEN IN NIGERIA NOR SOCIAL PHILOSOPHERS WITH HINDSIGHT.

Major Nzeogwu Kenechukwu Mbaezue, BA 6532,

12th Degema Strike Force, Biafran commandos 1968 -1970

&

Flt Lt Jideofo Kenechukwu Davidan Mbaezue, NAF 759,

Foundation Medical Officer, Trainee Pilots Psychologist,

NAF Medical Centre, Kano, Kaduna 1976 -1979

A KENEZIAN EXISTENTIAL COMMENTARY ON ISSUE OF THE TOOTHLESS BULLDOG WE REFER TO AS UN i.e. THE UNITED NATIONS THAT ONLY EAITS TILL THERE IS ETHNIC CLEANSING BEFORE THEY RUSH TO APPLY THEIR BELATED ‘FIRE BRIGADE INTERVENTIONS’ IN FAKE PEACE KEEPING OPERATIONS

The first  time I heard an elderly man use the analogy of a hen screaming for help that she knew was not forthcoming, I retorted like this; THE REASON WAS BECAUSE SHE WAS SHOUT ING TO THE WRONG AUDIENCE, NAMELY HUMAN BEINGS….to which a cock nearby retorted thus … NA LIE OO..  IS IT NOT THE SAME HUMAN BEINGS THAT CHASE AWAY THE KITES OR HAWKS THAT SWOOP DOWN TO CARRY HER DAY-OLD CHIICKS … You see, at the time I had the gift of hearing animal talk WHEN I WAS STILL IN STANDARD ONE AT ‘NEMPI CATHOLIC MISSION SCHOOL’ IN ORU LGA OF PRESENT IMO STATE, FOUR YEARS BEFORE NIGERIA GOT IT PSEUDO-INDEPENDENCE, so I burst out laughing so much that the elders thought I was laughing them to scorn…THEY GOT ANGRY. My daddy, mummy, brothers and sisters were not around to notify them that I had the gift, so I had to tell them myself, despite the fact that I knew quite well that they would not believe me…

MY DADDIES, I am not laughing at you SIRS, it is the cock they caused my uncontrollable laughter by telling me that I was wrong by suggesting that the hen in your story was not screaming to the wrong audience RATHER THAT HUMANS HAD NEPOTIC INTERESTS, SKEWED PREFERENCES OR ETHNOCENTRIC-SPECIES PERSPECTIVES WHEN THE HEN WAS SHOUTING FOR HELP ..They laughed and then demanded that I ask the cock to expatiate on his thesis…. THIS IS HIS LOGIC; ….

1. Human beings are racists and nave an apartheid scale of preferences when they kill animals below their status in the animal kingdom
2. They are so myopic when a meal of chicken meat is the topic in question, more so when the hen is past MENOPAUSE that humans classified as OLD LAYERS
3. Therefore, they develop deceptive hearing problems and refuse the listen and interpret the urgency of the CRY FOR HELP of poultry chickens in danger.

COUNT YOUR TEETH WITH YOUR TONGUES MY DEAR READERS OR ELSE FIND THE NEAREST BIAFRAN ELDER AROUNG YOU TO EXPALIN WHAT I HAVE SAID AS IT APPLIED TO THE POLITICS OF THE CAUCASIAN RACE.