The Valor of Ndigbo in Relative and Realistic Assessment.

emma okwuahaba and Miss Saint Joe O


.Kunle:

Incidentally, you are hibernating adrift in one of the countries, Tanzania, that recognized Biafra. With your sophomoric inanities and toilet resuscitations, I am not sure even a Salvation army in a village square will have you on a pro bono basis.

I did not read your infantile last mails but you may repost if they are relevant to what you need to know. As a social and political toddler, your horizons are limited to your stomach...how Baba Awololo created roads, gave you bread, fishes and fresh air, too. That is fine. But the Ndigbos prized liberty and they could fend themselves.

Your lesson today: The  Rise and Imbalance of Nigerian Military. Have a paper and pencil, or you can use chalk. I will simplify the writing for your benefit. You can skip to the 5th paragraph, which deals with how the military was stacked against the Ndigbos.

Mind your skull, there was nothing called Nigeria before the 1900 and Awolowo was not born in a Nigeria. To implement administrative, economic and political feasibilities, the colonial designers, with Lord Richard Lugard, almagamated Northern and Southern Nigeria on January 1, 1914. In the stitch, the only idea people had in common was a new name called Nigeria with different administrative units.  Even though the Ndigbos were accustomed to a more vibrant, democratic and and organized society, they sooner found themselved infused and weaved into strange under-development both in innovation and mindset.

Even the first 1922 constitution with elected members to the Nigerian legislative council did not empower the body to make laws for the North.  Grilling with different phases of anxieties, Nigeria was re-devised with administrative units in 1940: Northern, Eastern and Western provinces and the colony of Lagos with increased powers. The result only deepened the separateness and strengthened regionalization, which was further capped by Sir Arthur Richardson's constitution of 1946. By all indications, you could say three different countries held by threads of hope and good luck (before the guns). Thus, the regions existed in precarious and mutually distrustful balance. Do you call that an inspired country?

Go and ask, this came from Obasanjo's own mouth:  "The only point on which Nigerian political leaders spoke with one voice was the granting by the British of political  independence -- and even then they did not agree on the timing." So what is it about the independent minded and oriented Ndigbos that gives you fever and enrapture your infertile Oduduwa mind? For how long would your shadows and mere pictures imprison you as a mental refugee in your own body? How is the Ikemba responsible for the causes that predate his own birth? IBK, you and your Oduduwan tootless she-men should understand the difference between Cause and Symptoms.

Anyway, administrative unease is a different lesson; let's get to the military and the war. Before, 1965, there was nothing called the Nigerian Military as we know it today. It was part of the British West African Army and it was called Royal West Africa Frontier Force, which included armies from Ghana, Gambia and  Sierra Leone. The first Nigerian to command the Nigerian Army  was  J.T.U. Aguiyi Ironsi and this was nearly five years after independence in 1965.  That was when merit meant anything.
Entry into the Nigerian military was based on a quota system. To encourage, aid and abet  the North, whose people were taught to believe education and innovation were sacrilegious and they were also reluctant to get into the army, the North provided 60% of all the military recruits; the Western and Eastern regions provided 15% respectively; and the Midwest 10%. Standards were lowered, which produced a culture of functional illiteracy and barrack mentality.
It was crystal clear that the group that dominated and controlled the Army would tip and aspire to run the federal government. IBK..Kunle, come down from the roof from which you spew churlish nonsense and look at the facts: Almost all the military installations were concentrated in the North and that was even before the Major Nzeogwu's coup of 1966.
Northern Nigeria: 3rd Battalion; Field Battery  (Artillery);  Field Squadron  (Engineers) 88 Transport Regimen;  Ordinance Depot;  44 Military Hospital;  Nigeria Military Training College; Reconstruction Squadron & Regiment; Nigerian Air Force;   Ammunition Factory. All located in Kaduna.
Kano had the 5th Battalion and Zaria had the Recruitment Training Depot and Nigeria Military School.
Western Nigeria had the 4th Battalion located in Ibadan and the Reconstruction Squadron in Abeokuta.
What did Eastern Nigerian get? Just the 1st Battalion located in Enugu.
Can you explain how Eastern Nigerian could have fought the whole Nigeria in a war that lasted more than two years if not of the inherent superiority and morale of the Biafra army? Do you apply critical thinking when understanding anything?
 Your next lesson would be on the Aburi conference in Ghana and how the Ikemba outfoxed his unprepared counterparts with sheer intelligence. After realizing what hit them, Gowon, in efforts to keep Nigeria one, created 12 states. The move was initially aimed to divide the East but that was considered too obvious and impolitic. The Ikemba responded with a declaration of the state of Biafra. Remember, after the reprisal killing in 1996, Awolowo, too, opined on the secession of Western Nigeria if Eastern Nigeria was allowed to secede. So why was he ridding on Ojukwu's tails? He did not have his own independent mind?
At any rate, my intent is not to cast aspersion but to indicate to you that the Biafra army should be studied for valor. The talk of preparedness is therapeutic for the enfeebled. Ok, IBK..Kunle, change your political diapers and see whether you learnt anything on relative assessments.
While on that, these were the words of Gowon:
"It is with a heart full of gratitude to God that I announce to you that today marks the formal end of the civil war....This ends thirty months of a grim struggle."
Does that sould like a cake walk to you?
In 2000, in a BBC interwiew, these were the words of the Ikemba:
 "At 33 I reacted as a brilliant 33 year old. At 66 it is my hope that if I had to face this, I should also confront it as a brilliant 66 year old....I don't feel responsible at all. I did the best I could."
IBK...Kunle, the  veterans of the Biafra war deserve more respect. They fought and Nigeria was never the same. Even the way Gowon was leapfrogged to power over more senior officers changed. When Murtala was killed, Obasanjo came to power. In more ways that certainly escape your lazy mind, Ndigbos banished complacency as it was known.  You all are beneficiaries of their bravery.