In the following address given eleven years before Nigerian independence, Nnamdi Azikiwe calls for self-determination for the Ibo as they along with other ethnic groups march toward an inevitably free Nigeria.  This address was delivered at  the Ibo State Assembly held at Aba, Nigeria, on Saturday, June 25, 1949.

Harbingers of a new day for the Ibo nation, having selected me to preside over the deliberations of this assembly of the Ibo nation, I am conscious of the fact that you have not done so because of any extraordinary attributes in me. I realize that I am not the oldest among you, nor the wisest, nor the wealthiest, nor the most experienced, nor the most learned. I am therefore grateful to you for elevating me to this high pedestal.

The Ibo people have reached a cross-road and it is for us to decide which is the right course to follow. We are confronted with routes leading to diverse goals, but as I see it, there is only one road that I can safely recommend for us to tread, and it is the road to self-determination for the Ibo within the framework of a federated commonwealth of Nigeria and the Cameroons, leading to a United States of Africa. Other roads, in my opinion, are calculated to lead us astray from the path of national self-realization.

It would appear that God has specially created the Ibo people to suffer persecution and be victimized because of their resolute will to live. Since suffering is the label of our tribe, we can afford to be sacrificed for the ultimate redemption of the children of Africa. Is it not fortunate that the Ibo are among the few remnants of indigenous African nations who are still not spoliated by the artificial niceties of Western materialism? Is it not historically significant that throughout the glorious history of Africa, the Ibo is one of the select few to have escaped the humiliation of a conqueror’s sword or to be a victim of a Carthaginian treaty? Search through the records of African history and you will fail to find an occasion when, in any pitched battle, any African nation has either marched across Ibo territory or subjected the Ibo nation to a humiliating conquest. Instead, there is record to show that the martial prowess of the Ibo, at all stages of human history, has rivaled them not only to survive persecution, but also to adapt themselves to the role thus thrust upon them by history, of preserving all that is best and most noble in African culture and tradition. Placed in this high estate, the Ibo cannot shirk the responsibility conferred on it by its manifest destiny. Having undergone a course of suffering the Ibo must therefore enter into its heritage by asserting its birthright, without apologies.

Follow me in a kaleidoscopic study of the Ibo. Four million strong in man-power! Our agricultural resources include economic and food crops which are the bases of modern civilization, not to mention fruits and vegetables which flourish in the tropics! Our mineral resources include coal, lignite, lead, antimony, iron, diatomite, clay, oil, tin! Our forest products include timber of economic value, including iroko and mahogany! Our fauna and flora are marvels of the world! Our land is blessed by waterways of world renown, including the River Niger, Imo River, Cross River! Our ports are among the best known in the continent of Africa. Yet in spite of these natural advantages, which illustrate without doubt the potential wealth of the Ibo, we are among the least developed in Nigeria, economically, and we are so ostracized socially, that we have become extraneous in the political institutions of Nigeria.

I have not come here today in order to catalogue the disabilities which the Ibo suffer, in spite of our potential wealth, in spite of our teeming man-power, in spite of our vitality as an indigenous African people; suffice it to say that it would enable you to appreciate the manifest destiny of the Ibo if I enumerated some of the acts of discrimination against us as a people. Socially, the British Press has not been sparing in describing us as ‘the most hated in Nigeria’. In this unholy crusade, the Daily Mirror, The Times, The Economist, News Review and the Daily Mail have been in the forefront. In the Nigerian Press, you are living witnesses of what has happened in the last eighteen months, when Lagos, Zaria and Calabar sections of the Nigerian Press were virtually encouraged to provoke us to tendentious propaganda. It is needless for me to tell you that today, both in England and in West Africa, the expression ‘Ibo’ has become a word of opprobrium.

Politically, you have seen with your own eyes how four million people were disenfranchized by the British, for decades, because of our alleged backwardness. We have never been represented on the Executive Council, and not one Ibo town has had the franchise, despite the fact that our native political institutions are essentially democratic—in fact, more democratic than any other nation in Africa, in spite of our extreme individualism.

Economically, we have laboured under onerous taxation measures, without receiving sufficient social amenities to justify them. We have been taxed without representation, and our contributions in taxes have been used to develop other areas, Out of proportion to the incidence of taxation in those areas. It would seem that we are becoming a victim of economic annihilation through a gradual but studied process. What are my reasons for cataloguing these disabilities and interpreting them as calculated to emasculate us, and so render us impotent to assert our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

I shall now state the facts which should be well known to any honest student of Nigerian history. On the social plane, it will be found that outside of Government College at Umauhia, there is no other secondary school run by the British Government in Nigeria in Ibo-land. There is not one secondary school for girls run by the British Government in our part of the country. In the Northern and Western Provinces, the contrary is the case. If a survey of the hospital facilities in Ibo-land were made, embarrassing results might show some sort of discrimination. Outside of Port Harcourt, fire protection is not provided in any Ibo town. And yet we have been under the protection of Great Britain for many decades!

On the economic plane, I cannot sufficiently impress you because you are too familiar with the victimization which is our fate. Look at our roads; how many of them are tarred, compared, for example, with the roads in other parts of the country? Those of you who have travelled to this assembly by road are witnesses of the corrugated and utterly unworthy state of the roads which traverse Ibo-land, in spite of the fact that four million Ibo people pay taxes in order, among others, to have good roads. With roads must be considered the system of communications, water and electricity supplies. How many of our towns, for example, have complete postal, telegraph, telephone and wireless services, compared to towns in other areas of Nigeria? How many have pipe-borne water supplies? How many have electricity undertakings? Does not the Ibo tax-payer fulfill his civic duty? Why, then, must he be a victim of studied official victimization?

Today, these disabilities have been intensified. There is a movement to disregard traditional organization in the Ibo nation by the introduction of a specious system of a form of local government. The placing of the Ibo nation in an artificial regionalization scheme has left an unfair impression of attempted domination by minorities of the Ibo people. In the House of Assembly and the Legislative Council the electoral college system has aided in the complete disenfranchisement of the Ibo. As a climax, spurious leadership is being foisted upon us—a mis-leadership which receives official recognition, thus stultifying the legitimate aspirations of the Ibo. This leadership shows a palpable disloyalty to the Ibo and loyalty to an alien protecting power.

The only worthwhile stand we can make as a nation is to assert our right to self-determination, as a unit of a prospective Federal Commonwealth of Nigeria and the Cameroons, where our rights will be respected and safeguarded. Roughly speaking, there are twenty main dialectal regions in the Ibo nation, which can be conveniently departmentalized as Provinces of an Ibo State, to wit: Mbamili in the northwest, Aniocha in the west, Anidinma and Ukwuani in the southeast, Nsukka and Udi in the north, Awgu, Awka and Onitsha in the centre, Ogbaru in the south, Abakaliki and Afikpo in the northwest, Okigwi, Orlu, Owerri and Mbaise in the east, Ngwa, Bende, Abiriba Ohafia and Etche in the southwest. These Provinces can have their territorial boundaries delimited, they can select their capitals, and then can conveniently develop their resources both for their common benefit and for those of the other nationalities who make up this great country called Nigeria and the Cameroons.

The keynote in this address is self-determination for the Ibo. Let us establish an Ibo State, based on linguistic and ethnic factors, enabling us to take our place side by side with the other linguistic and ethnic groups which make up Nigeria and the Cameroons. With the Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri, Yoruba, Ibibio (Iboku), Angus (Bi-Rom), Tiv, Ijaw, Edo, Urhobo, ltsekiri, Nupe, Igalla, Ogaja, Gwari, Duala, Bali and other nationalities asserting their right to self-determination each as separate as the fingers, but united with others as a part of the same hand, we can reclaim Nigeria and the Cameroons from this degradation which it has pleased the forces of European imperialism to impose upon us. Therefore, our meeting today is of momentous importance in the history of the Ibo, in that opportunity has been presented to us to heed the call of a despoiled race, to answer the summons to redeem a ravished continent, to rally forces to the defence of a humiliated country, and to arouse national consciousness in a demoralized but dynamic nation.
Sources:

Nnamdi Azikiwe, Zik: A Selection from the Speeches of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Governor-General of the Federation of Nigeria formerly President of the Nigerian Senate formerly Premier of the Eastern Region of Nigeria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961).

Search through the records of African history and you will fail to find an occasion when, in any pitched battle, any African nation has either marched across Ibo territory or subjected the Ibo nation to a humiliating conquest.

Let me quickly clear the air before chest beaters start to make noise.

Azikiwe was not truthful in his recollection of archived African history. The truth is wars and territorial confrontations and rivalry for dominance in Africa is fought amongst giants....no Empire pay any mind to small and defenseless people like Ibos. What are you going to gain by fighting Ibo? It is a downgrade for a big and respectful Empire to go and bully a small village of yam farmers.

Read the history of conquest in Africa and you will see that Oyo only warred against mighty conquerors....Songhai, Ashanti, Dahomey, Fulani, Nupe.

Fulani warred Kanuri, Hausa, Nupe, Oyo.

Kanuri warred Fulani, Bachama, Darfur

Bariba warred Dahomey, Fulani.

Nupe warred Oyo, Fulani.


So who get time for some small inconsequential collection of villages who compete amongst themselves in wrestle bouts and the winner is declared the village hero.....when in Oyo, their heroes are on horseback galloping into enemy territory to go enslave the men and chop the women poussy for spoil?

Without looking at the dates , it is obvious that He made this speech before oyel .

OPCNAIRALAND:


Let me quickly clear the air before chest beaters start to make noise.

Azikiwe was not truthful in his recollection of archived African history. The truth is wars and territorial confrontations and rivalry for dominance in Africa is fought amongst giants....no Empire pay any mind to small and defenseless people like Ibos. What are you going to gain by fighting Ibo? It is a downgrade for a big and respectful Empire to go and bully a small village of yam farmers.

Read the history of conquest in Africa and you will see that Oyo only warred against mighty conquerors....Songhai, Ashanti, Dahomey, Fulani, Nupe.

Fulani warred Kanuri, Hausa, Nupe, Oyo.

Kanuri warred Fulani, Bachama, Darfur

Bariba warred Dahomey, Fulani.

Nupe warred Oyo, Fulani.


So who get time for some small inconsequential collection of villages who compete amongst themselves in wrestle bouts and the winner is declared the village hero.....when in Oyo, their heroes are on horseback galloping into enemy territory to go enslave the men and chop the women poussy for spoil?

There was nothing empiric about oyo.
It was more or less a kingdom of indigenous people Inferior to the benin kingdom.
The only time the Oyo kingdom attempted expansionism across benin republic, it was given a total humiliation by women from dahomey.
Igbos on the other hand just like the ancient greeks before persian invasion did not see the need for an empire. There were no group of people strong and organized enough in west africa to actually pose any existensial threat to the igbo people to necessitate the creation of an igbo empire.
The greeks too who were more or less independent city states similiar to the igbo nation, would not have created any empire but for the threat of persian invasion.
And when the greeks did, they sowed the seed of a mighty empire that would rise to its glorious peak through alexander the great.

This jobless yoruba OP. I have told you several times to call Chukwujekwu to give you a job so that you can feed your family.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/2800197_bu202_jpegc2f2ff0506c65c25c52325d9b8bd9b81

Nobody can claim to be more an Igboman than Ikemba himself. He lived and was buried a Nigerian. To all those seeking a Caveland in my backyard, I put it to you that even your grandchildren will live their live as Nigerians.

Anyi bu umu Nigeria. QED.

CSTR2:
There was nothing empiric about oyo.
It was more or less a kingdom of indigenous people Inferior to the benin kingdom.
The only time the Oyo kingdom attempted expansionism across benin republic, it was given a total humiliation by women from dahomey.
Igbos on the other hand just like the ancient greeks before persian invasion did not see the need for an empire. There were no group of people strong and organized enough in west africa to actually pose any existensial threat to the igbo people to necessitate the creation of an igbo empire.
The greeks too who were more or less independent city states similiar to the igbo nation, would not have created any empire but for the threat of persian invasion.
And when the greeks did, they sowed the seed of a mighty empire that would rise to its glorious peak through alexander the great.

mugu take this and cure your ignorance. ewu IBO

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyo_Empire

Dahomey Wars
The reinvigorated Oyo Empire began raiding southward as
early as 1682. [11] By the end of its military expansion,
Oyo's borders would reach to the coast some 200 miles
southwest of its capital. [12] It met little serious
opposition until the early 18th century. In 1728, the Oyo
Empire invaded the Kingdom of Dahomey in a major
campaign of its cavalry. [11][13] Dahomey warriors, on
the other hand, had no cavalry but many firearms. Their
gunshots scared the Oyo cavalry horses and prevented
their charging. [14] Dahomey's army also built
fortifications such as trenches, which forced the Oyo
army to fight as infantry. [15] The battle lasted four days,
but the Yoruba were eventually victorious after
reinforcements arrived. [15] Dahomey was forced to pay
tribute to Oyo. The Yoruba invaded Dahomey seven times
before finally subjugating the small kingdom in 1748

and this is what you called inferior to the Benin kingdom

By 1680, the Oyo Empire spanned over 150,000 square
kilometers. [1] It reached the height of its power in the
18th century. [10] And despite its violent creation, it was
held together by mutual self-interest. [23] The government
was able to provide unity for a vast area through a
combination of local autonomy and imperial authority.

CSTR2:
There was nothing empiric about oyo.
It was more or less a kingdom of indigenous people Inferior to the benin kingdom.
The only time the Oyo kingdom attempted expansionism across benin republic, it was given a total humiliation by women from dahomey.
Igbos on the other hand just like the ancient greeks before persian invasion did not see the need for an empire. There were no group of people strong and organized enough in west africa to actually pose any existensial threat to the igbo people to necessitate the creation of an igbo empire.
The greeks too who were more or less independent city states similiar to the igbo nation, would not have created any empire but for the threat of persian invasion.
And when the greeks did, they sowed the seed of a mighty empire that would rise to its glorious peak through alexander the great.

more for your ignorance

Under his successor, Abipa , the Yoruba repopulated Oyo-
Ile and rebuilt the original capital. [5] Despite a failed
attempt to conquer the Benin Empire sometime between
1578 and 1608, [5] Oyo continued to expand. The Yoruba
allowed autonomy to the southeast of metropolitan Oyo,
where the non-Yoruba areas could act as a buffer
between Oyo and Imperial Benin. [9] By the end of the
16th century, the Ewe and Aja states of modern Benin
were paying tribute to Oyo. [10]

.

OPCNAIRALAND:


Let me quickly clear the air before chest beaters start to make noise.

Azikiwe was not truthful in his recollection of archived African history. The truth is wars and territorial confrontations and rivalry for dominance in Africa is fought amongst giants....no Empire pay any mind to small and defenseless people like Ibos. What are you going to gain by fighting Ibo? It is a downgrade for a big and respectful Empire to go and bully a small village of yam farmers.

Read the history of conquest in Africa and you will see that Oyo only warred against mighty conquerors....Songhai, Ashanti, Dahomey, Fulani, Nupe.

Fulani warred Kanuri, Hausa, Nupe, Oyo.

Kanuri warred Fulani, Bachama, Darfur

Bariba warred Dahomey, Fulani.

Nupe warred Oyo, Fulani.


So who get time for some small inconsequential collection of villages who compete amongst themselves in wrestle bouts and the winner is declared the village hero.....when in Oyo, their heroes are on horseback galloping into enemy territory to go enslave the men and chop the women poussy for spoil?

the irony of life, you call them chest beaters but you're the one doing the chest beating. Funny you think wars are always fought with guns,obvious you haven't heard of psychological warfare..the igbos might have been defeated in arms warfare but they clearly conquered nigeria...The phone you're using to type this rubbish was probably brought in by an igbo man, the clothes you're wearing now is being produced by an igbo man...use ya head son

liberty300:
the irony of life, you call them chest beaters but you're the one doing the chest beating. Funny you think wars are always fought with guns,obvious you haven't heard of psychological warfare..the igbos might have been defeated in arms warfare but they clearly conquered nigeria...The phone you're using to type this rubbish was probably brought in by an igbo man

lmao so if you give me phone and I pay you for it you've conquered me?

Jaideyone:
lmao so if you give me phone and I pay you for it you've conquered me?

Haaaaaa!

OPCNAIRALAND:


Let me quickly clear the air before chest beaters start to make noise.

Azikiwe was not truthful in his recollection of archived African history. The truth is wars and territorial confrontations and rivalry for dominance in Africa is fought amongst giants....no Empire pay any mind to small and defenseless people like Ibos. What are you going to gain by fighting Ibo? It is a downgrade for a big and respectful Empire to go and bully a small village of yam farmers.

Read the history of conquest in Africa and you will see that Oyo only warred against mighty conquerors....Songhai, Ashanti, Dahomey, Fulani, Nupe.

Fulani warred Kanuri, Hausa, Nupe, Oyo.

Kanuri warred Fulani, Bachama, Darfur

Bariba warred Dahomey, Fulani.

Nupe warred Oyo, Fulani.


So who get time for some small inconsequential collection of villages who compete amongst themselves in wrestle bouts and the winner is declared the village hero.....when in Oyo, their heroes are on horseback galloping into enemy territory to go enslave the men and chop the women poussy for spoil?

so it is long that ibos have been crying and whining.

The only worthwhile stand we can make as a nation is to assert our right to self-determination, as a unit of a prospective Federal Commonwealth of Nigeria and the Cameroons, where our rights will be respected and safeguarded. Roughly speaking, there are twenty main dialectal regions in the Ibo nation, which can be conveniently departmentalized as Provinces of an Ibo State, to wit: Mbamili in the northwest, Aniocha in the west, Anidinma and Ukwuani in the southeast, Nsukka and Udi in the north, Awgu, Awka and Onitsha in the centre, Ogbaru in the south, Abakaliki and Afikpo in the northwest, Okigwi, Orlu, Owerri and Mbaise in the east, Ngwa, Bende, Abiriba Ohafia and Etche in the southwest. These Provinces can have their territorial boundaries delimited, they can select their capitals, and then can conveniently develop their resources both for their common benefit and for those of the other nationalities who make up this great country called Nigeria and the Cameroons.

This is an old article, I myself had posted many times on this site.

But each time I see this part of this article, I marvel at the insight of Zik, and I wonder what later beclouded him to be a Nigerian nationalist instead of Igbo nationalist.

Zik should have been fighting for Igbo independence, and not Nigerian independence.

Could it be personal greed that blinded him later in his life? He had the perfect vision at the start, he knew we had nothing in common with Oodua and Arewa people, other than skin color.

OPCNAIRALAND:


Let me quickly clear the air before chest beaters start to make noise.

Azikiwe was not truthful in his recollection of archived African history. The truth is wars and territorial confrontations and rivalry for dominance in Africa is fought amongst giants....no Empire pay any mind to small and defenseless people like Ibos. What are you going to gain by fighting Ibo? It is a downgrade for a big and respectful Empire to go and bully a small village of yam farmers.

Read the history of conquest in Africa and you will see that Oyo only warred against mighty conquerors....Songhai, Ashanti, Dahomey, Fulani, Nupe.

Fulani warred Kanuri, Hausa, Nupe, Oyo.

Kanuri warred Fulani, Bachama, Darfur

Bariba warred Dahomey, Fulani.

Nupe warred Oyo, Fulani.


So who get time for some small inconsequential collection of villages who compete amongst themselves in wrestle bouts and the winner is declared the village hero.....when in Oyo, their heroes are on horseback galloping into enemy territory to go enslave the men and chop the women poussy for spoil?

That quote is the only thing you see there to comment on, being an archtribal bigot you wouldn't let an opportunity so big like that to pass you by in castigating the only point that put Igbos in the green light.

Chest beating is allowed here.

Zik has a northern heart without the Igbo spirit, that even uptill now there is no known state structures of high repute that is named after him. Everybody has a personal agenda and he wasn't left out. FG eulogises him but his brothers... Hmmmmm. So you can shove that letter into the fermenting armpits of a human cadaver.

In this unholy crusade, the Daily Mirror, The Times, The Economist, News Review and the Daily Mail have been in the forefront. In the Nigerian Press, you are living witnesses of what has happened in the last eighteen months, when Lagos, Zaria and Calabar sections of the Nigerian Press were virtually encouraged to provoke us to tendentious propaganda. It is needless for me to tell you that today, both in England and in West Africa, the expression ‘Ibo’ has become a word of opprobrium.

The Early signs were there. This isn't different to what we see today, only that the Calabar section has naturally come around.

But Zik was well aware of these negativities emanating from the Oodua and Arewa, yet he ignored them, like an ostrich, buried his head under the sands, hoping that somehow, miraculously, these people perceptions of Ndiigbo will change, but 66 years down the line, the cracks remain there.

There simply was and remain no basis for the unity of Ndiigbo and the Oodua Arewa, no shared natural boundary, no shared culture, no shared language, no shared traditions, no shared religion, no identical political ideologies, nothing, nada, null.

We are simply not the same with them, and that will never change, 100 years or 1000 years from now.

Things Zik saw in 1949, we still see in 2015, a whooping 66 years later, it's our duty to free our children and unborn generations from this curse of a union, where Zik failed or decided to fail, we must succeed, no sensible well breast Fed Igboman can be a one Nigerian apologists, only those in dire need of brain transplant surgery are.

Happy birthday to myself

liberty300:
the irony of life, you call them chest beaters but you're the one doing the chest beating. Funny you think wars are always fought with guns,obvious you haven't heard of psychological warfare..the igbos might have been defeated in arms warfare but they clearly conquered nigeria...The phone you're using to type this rubbish was probably brought in by an igbo man

Na achievement b dat?

Oll dz fake Biafrauds seff!!!

[b] Economically, we have laboured under onerous taxation measures, without receiving sufficient social amenities to justify them. We have been taxed without representation, and our contributions in taxes have been used to develop other areas, Out of proportion to the incidence of taxation in those areas. It would seem that we are becoming a victim of economic annihilation through a gradual but studied process. What are my reasons for cataloguing these disabilities and interpreting them as calculated to emasculate us, and so render us impotent to assert our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

I shall now state the facts which should be well known to any honest student of Nigerian history. On the social plane, it will be found that outside of Government College at Umauhia, there is no other secondary school run by the British Government in Nigeria in Ibo-land. There is not one secondary school for girls run by the British Government in our part of the country. In the Northern and Western Provinces, the contrary is the case. If a survey of the hospital facilities in Ibo-land were made, embarrassing results might show some sort of discrimination. Outside of Port Harcourt, fire protection is not provided in any Ibo town. And yet we have been under the protection of Great Britain for many decades! [/b]

This Nigerian idea of rubbing Peter to pay Paul had been in place from the very beginning, Nigeria was created simply for exploitation of all involved.

The British taxed all regions, took the money home to Britain, and used a token of the money to develop places in Nigeria there were domiciled.

In this regard, all parts of Nigeria were exploited, but the parts where the Whites were not domiciled at like Igboland, suffered a greater exploitation, as next to nothing was done in those regions, everything was diverted to places like Lagos and it's surrounding.


In the face of this, why then did Zik become a One Nigerian apologist, instead of one Igboland apologist?

CSTR2:
There was nothing empiric about oyo.
It was more or less a kingdom of indigenous people Inferior to the benin kingdom.
The only time the Oyo kingdom attempted expansionism across benin republic, it was given a total humiliation by women from dahomey.
Igbos on the other hand just like the ancient greeks before persian invasion did not see the need for an empire. There were no group of people strong and organized enough in west africa to actually pose any existensial threat to the igbo people to necessitate the creation of an igbo empire.
The greeks too who were more or less independent city states similiar to the igbo nation, would not have created any empire but for the threat of persian invasion.
And when the greeks did, they sowed the seed of a mighty empire that would rise to its glorious peak through alexander the great.

Maybe you're talking about the Egba and the only time that OYO was defeated came in the hand of the Hausa/Fulani (Usman dan fodia). After the fall of Oyo there begins the Rise of Ibandan warriors. The Chest beating eastern Gorilla were only fighting for women and land with the jungle. It didn't even expand towards Benin except doing the civil war that he met the waterloo @ ore.

Jaideyone:
lmao so if you give me phone and I pay you for it you've conquered me?

the same method china used to conquer the world....they started the same way

liberty300:
the irony of life, you call them chest beaters but you're the one doing the chest beating. Funny you think wars are always fought with guns,obvious you haven't heard of psychological warfare..the igbos might have been defeated in arms warfare but they clearly conquered nigeria...The phone you're using to type this rubbish was probably brought in by an igbo man, the clothes you're wearing now is being produced by an igbo man...use ya head son

There are several Nigerians who are into big buisness and not only igbo iliterant traders.

liberty300:
the irony of life, you call them chest beaters but you're the one doing the chest beating. Funny you think wars are always fought with guns,obvious you haven't heard of psychological warfare..the igbos might have been defeated in arms warfare but they clearly conquered nigeria...The phone you're using to type this rubbish was probably brought in by an igbo man, the clothes you're wearing now is being produced by an igbo man...use ya head son

no wonder dey bleat day and night dat igbos hav taken ova dia ancestral lands.dia dead brains no fit comprehend say we get equal rights as dem in any part of our county.

liberty300:
the same method china used to conquer the world....they started the same way

bunch of jokers

LadyFiona:
That quote is the only thing you see there to comment on, being an archtribal bigot you wouldn't let an opportunity so big like that to pass you by in castigating the only point that put Igbos in the green light.

Chest beating is allowed here.

Zik has a northern heart without the Igbo spirit, that even uptill now there is no known state structures of high repute that is named after him. Everybody has a personal agenda and he wasn't left out. FG eulogises him but his brothers... Hmmmmm. So you can shove that letter into the fermenting armpits of a human cadaver.

Are you sure...how about the Nnamdi Azikiwe university

pazienza:
[b] Economically, we have laboured under onerous taxation measures, without receiving sufficient social amenities to justify them. We have been taxed without representation, and our contributions in taxes have been used to develop other areas, Out of proportion to the incidence of taxation in those areas. It would seem that we are becoming a victim of economic annihilation through a gradual but studied process. What are my reasons for cataloguing these disabilities and interpreting them as calculated to emasculate us, and so render us impotent to assert our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

I shall now state the facts which should be well known to any honest student of Nigerian history. On the social plane, it will be found that outside of Government College at Umauhia, there is no other secondary school run by the British Government in Nigeria in Ibo-land. There is not one secondary school for girls run by the British Government in our part of the country. In the Northern and Western Provinces, the contrary is the case. If a survey of the hospital facilities in Ibo-land were made, embarrassing results might show some sort of discrimination. Outside of Port Harcourt, fire protection is not provided in any Ibo town. And yet we have been under the protection of Great Britain for many decades! [/b]

This Nigerian idea of rubbing Peter to pay Paul had been in place from the very beginning, Nigeria was created simply for exploitation of all involved.

The British taxed all regions, took the money home to Britain, and used a token of the money to develop places in Nigeria there were domiciled.

In this regard, all parts of Nigeria were exploited, but the parts where the Whites were not domiciled at like Igboland, suffered a greater exploitation, as next to nothing was done in those regions, everything was diverted to places like Lagos and it's surrounding.


In the face of this, why then did Zik become a One Nigerian apologist, instead of one Igboland apologist?

This is simple. You can't invest ur money on hostile land. The money met for the eastern development by british is used to bombard the igbos

So the cry of marginalization was already on as far back as 65 years ago.

While I agree that Nigeria needs fundamental restructuring, I do not believe secession is the solution.

Nnamdi azikwe fvcked us up...

He shoulda stop saying one Nigeria shit, he shoulda allowed us to go!...

Look at how fvcked the country is now?

Nothing good, all the goddamn system are working bad.

oluspencer:





This is simple. You can't invest ur money on hostile land. The money met for the eastern development by british is used to bombard the igbos

How was Igboland a hostile ground. Remember that it wasn't in Igboland that Kiriji battles occurred.

pazienza:
The only worthwhile stand we can make as a nation is to assert our right to self-determination, as a unit of a prospective Federal Commonwealth of Nigeria and the Cameroons, where our rights will be respected and safeguarded. Roughly speaking, there are twenty main dialectal regions in the Ibo nation, which can be conveniently departmentalized as Provinces of an Ibo State, to wit: Mbamili in the northwest, Aniocha in the west, Anidinma and Ukwuani in the southeast, Nsukka and Udi in the north, Awgu, Awka and Onitsha in the centre, Ogbaru in the south, Abakaliki and Afikpo in the northwest, Okigwi, Orlu, Owerri and Mbaise in the east, Ngwa, Bende, Abiriba Ohafia and Etche in the southwest. These Provinces can have their territorial boundaries delimited, they can select their capitals, and then can conveniently develop their resources both for their common benefit and for those of the other nationalities who make up this great country called Nigeria and the Cameroons.

This is an old article, I myself had posted many times on this site.

But each time I see this part of this article, I marvel at the insight of Zik, and I wonder what later beclouded him to be a Nigerian nationalist instead of Igbo nationalist.

Zip should have been fighting for Igbo independence, and not Nigerian independence.

Could it be personal greed that blinded him later in his life? He had the perfect vision at the start, he knew we had nothing in common with Oodua and Arewa people, other than skin color.

Yes greed for fame


I realize that societies prosper when men are ready to contribute positively even if they won't be remembered or praised.

oluspencer:




Maybe you're talking about the Egba and the only time that OYO was defeated came in the hand of the Hausa/Fulani (Usman dan fodia). After the fall of Oyo there begins the Rise of Ibandan warriors. The Chest beating eastern Gorilla were only fighting for women and land with the jungle. It didn't even expand towards Benin except dOPoing the civil war that he met the waterloo @ ore.

Oyo village empire was defeated and ransacked by Nupe warriors and her Oyo ile capital seized. Forcing Oyo to move down south.

Again Oyo was defeated by the Fulanis and her Ilorin border seized and converted to an Emirate with a sitting Gambari Emir, with Ilorin Yoruba citizens converted to eternal slaves that have been gradually " Hausa- fulanized" over the decades.

You should bow down your head in shame.

It took the intervention of Britain and USSR and ceding of Bakassi to Cameroun to Bring the Biafrans down.