As an Igbo person, I often wonder what would have happened from 1967 till today had Ojukwu simply surrendered to Gowon after Aburi Accord was breached; you know, play dead and let the sleeping dog lie. Apart from the dead victims of the war, these could have happened:

(1)  There would never have been 12 states created with the intent of weakening the East

(2)  The Igbos would be effectively emasculated (at least temporarily) in the new scheme of things

(3)  There would never have been any abandoned properties anywhere

(4)  Some Niger deltan elements won't hate Igbos based on lies told by our common oppressors after we lost the war

(5)  The north and west (the beneficiaries of the new power game) would declare open season on Niger delta oil with  Igbos powerlessly doing "siddon dey look" after the emasculation.

(6) Maybe if Igbos do well in the "siddon dey look" game, we would have even produced a president of Nigeria (albeit a weak one or puppet) by now

(7) Ojukwu would not have risked and lost his father's wealth and his personal standing in Nigeria. He'd be in the class of the Obasanjos and the Babangidas.

Something tells me that Ojukwu knew all these before he decided to fight almost bare handed.

So, why did he decide to fight anyway?

The most reasonable explanation is that the man was thinking about the interest of the whole of the eastern region and that is the only reason he chose to fight.
As a man who accurately foresaw the future of Nigeria, this man chose to fight for something higher than himself -justice and fairplay.
He fought and lost, but those he fought for must never forget why he fought. We must resist the lies!

I am proud that my hero fought in defense of the whole east including our kith and kin in Niger delta. We would do so again if necessary and as long as some elements there don't continue their line of thinking. 

I thought Ojukwu ran off like a scared chicken
Did he fight

I posted this because some guy was asking this question yesterday and he got me thinking. He wondered why Ojukwu didn't abandon the war at some earlier stages instead of waiting to be defeated.
I thought about it and discovered that it would have been worse for the east.
It was good that we fought to a decisive end.

At op,

Why are you insulting Ikemba by comparing him with incestuous OBJ and kleptomaniac IBB?

Odumegwu Ojukwu may you live long!! . . . Ndu idi asogbugo anyi bu umu gi.

Also, thank you very much for not participating in that Save Nigeria rally organised by Yoruba men and women.

metal-gong:

Odumegwu Ojukwu may you live long!! . . . Ndu idi asogbugo anyi bu umu gi.

Also, thank you very much for not participating in that Save Nigeria rally organised by Yoruba men and women.

Some bitter tribalists are so consumed with hatred that they will cut off their nose to spite their face.

metal-gong:


Also, thank you very much for not participating in that Save Nigeria rally organised by Yoruba men and women.

Thats a very dumb statement to make.

Sunny_bobo:

At op,

Why are you insulting Ikemba by comparing him with incestuous OBJ and kleptomaniac IBB?

Yes, I had to make the comparison because even some south south elements respect OBJ and IBB more than Ojukwu. I know there is an Olu Obasanjo way in Port Harcourt for instance.
In today's Nigeria power game, those two carry more clout (even if misguided and undeserved) than Ojukwu. He didn't have to lose so much. However, I believe he is more immortal than IBB and OBJ. He stands taller than those two ultimately. That is why his legacy must be defended by all former easterners.

Katsumoto:

Some bitter tribalists are so consumed with hatred that they will cut off their nose to spite their face.

ooh, you expect me to kiss the stinking hole of you Yoruba murderers. May be you can also tell the Jews to dine with the masterminds of the holocaust.
You guys should have ended the rally in front of Awo's grave. Who knows, the devil might wake up and help his fellow Yoruba men.

Anyway, If you cant deal with the what I said, then jump off the cliff.

This is becoming annoying and tiring

metal-gong:

ooh, you expect me to kiss the stinking hole of you Yoruba murderers. May be you can also tell the Jews to dine with the masterminds of the holocaust.
You guys should have ended the rally in front of Awo's grave. Who knows, the devil might wake up and help his fellow Yoruba men.

Anyway, If you cant deal with the what I said, then jump off the cliff.

Another moronic posts; you have never contributed intelligently on this forum. All you ever contribute is hate and it will consume you so much one day that it will kill you. Yoruba this, Hausa that etc, The rest of the world is moving on and you are stuck in a time capsule. You even argue like a primary school pupil; which adults makes statements such as these, 'then jump off the cliff'?

@Katsu

I understand your feelings about Ikemba not participating in the rally, but you must think about it honestly and properly to understand that he shouldn't have participated.

Look, the Ikemba is not in the same political league as the Soyinkas and others who participated.

There are too many enemies lurking in the shadows trying to gain access to him. Even if he participated, I'd say he should be surrounded by a thick human wall of thousands. We know Nigeria well and we know how people like Chuba Okadigbo died. He was killed/poisoned in one of such rallies. That's a fact.

There are those bent on starting another war in Nigeria, and one of the quickest ways of achieving that is to harm Ojukwu. Enough said.

Ojukwu helped us a little bit
But Niger Delta would have remained the same without him.

mama-gee:

Ojukwu helped us a little bit
But Niger Delta would have remained the same without him.

I strongly doubt that because even current Nigerian government is not being as aggressive with MEND as they would have because of what people like him might do. Not that they expect him to fight(he is too old for that now), but he could inspire Ndigbo to join the MEND. So, a lot has not happened because he is still alive and there has not been an effective replacement for him yet. Just my thoughts.

^^^
In fact it is in Nigeria's interest that he is still alive and providing a kind of subtle leadership to Ndigbo.
A leaderless Igbo could be unpredictable.
If the whites were still leading Nigeria, they would have provided the best security to Ojukwu just like they did to Mandela in South Africa. But we Africans are funny.

Katsumoto:

Another moronic posts; you have never contributed intelligently on this forum. All you ever contribute is hate and it will consume you so much one day that it will kill you. Yoruba this, Hausa that etc,    The rest of the world is moving on and you are stuck in a time capsule. You even argue like a primary school pupil; which adults makes statements such as these, 'then jump off the cliff'?

What an imbecillic assertion! May be I will sound intelligent whenever I start to believe the poorly fabricated lies you ninny have been spewing on this forum or may be when I start to dine with Yoruba devils who masterminded the genocide against Ndigbo.
I dont need to shut up and pretend as if nothing happened. Again, if you are not comfortable with the truth, then jump off the cliff.

Some Igbo folks are regretting this war and feel that we should have thrown everyone in the east under the bus. At least we wouldn't have some peeps sniping at us ungratefully.

Onlytruth:

As an Igbo person, I often wonder what would have happened from 1967 till today had Ojukwu simply surrendered to Gowon after Aburi Accord was breached; you know, play dead and let the sleeping dog lie. Apart from the dead victims of the war, these could have happened:

(4) Some Niger deltan elements won't hate Igbos based on lies told by our common oppressors after we lost the war

(7) Ojukwu would not have risked and lost his father's wealth and his personal standing in Nigeria. He'd be in the class of the Obasanjos and the Babangidas.

Something tells me that Ojukwu knew all these before he decided to fight almost bare handed.

So, why did he decide to fight anyway?

The most reasonable explanation is that the man was thinking about the interest of the whole of the eastern region and that is the only reason he chose to fight.
As a man who accurately foresaw the future of Nigeria, this man chose to fight for something higher than himself -justice and fairplay.
He fought and lost, but those he fought for must never forget why he fought. We must resist the lies!

I am proud that my hero fought in defense of the whole east including our kith and kin in Niger delta. We would do so again if necessary and as long as some elements there don't continue their line of thinking.

Oga abeg lets appraise issue rightly here.

If there are Niger Deltans that hate the IGBOS as you have said , then the Civil war had little or nothing to do with it. The grouse of the Minorities against the Eastern Regional Government was as a result of utter neglect and selective development , coupled with a sustained machinery to deny the minorities proper identity in the political and economic space of the nation .

Make i no talk too much.

First and foremost, so called Aburi pact has always been a fraud that was perpetrated by ojukwu against an illiterate Gowon that could not read what he signed during the conference.on getting home,Awolowo and co thwarted the igbo plan qnd informed Gowon that Aburi was a secession plan by the igbo from nigeria.this is the root of igbo annoyance with yoruba.all the same credible wars are never won by "guerrillas" which the uniformed igbo armies were at that time.so nothing would have happened if the igbo didnt go to war with the nigeris government and her peole.however,the igbo would have even got a better place in our democracy rather than being treated like outcast !

~Bluetooth:

First and foremost, so called Aburi pact has always been a fraud that was perpetrated by ojukwu against an illiterate Gowon that could not read what he signed during the conference.on getting home,Awolowo and co thwarted the igbo plan qnd informed Gowon that Aburi was a secession plan by the igbo from nigeria.this is the root of igbo annoyance with yoruba.all the same credible wars are never won by "guerrillas" which the uniformed igbo armies were at that time.so nothing would have happened if the igbo didnt go to war with the nigeris government and her peole.however,the igbo would have even got a better place in our democracy rather than being treated like outcast !

Treated like outcast? You either do not know the meaning of the word "outcast" or you're just trying to sound annoying.

Nigeria will break up except we overthrow that generation. Our parents holding us down. Youths come together forget the tribalism these bigots invented and taught. Break free from the matrix take the red pill

Onlytruth,

Thanks for posting this.

The only regret I feel concerning that war is the many lives lost (on both sides). That war was inevitable as Gowon, and his cohorts, breached the Aburi Accord and failed to protect thousands of Igbos massacred outside Igboland.

A bright aspect to the war was a realization of defeat by Ndi-Igbo. That sense of defeat, particularly after Awolowo's evil recommendation that Igbos be given 20 pounds (only one third of eligible Igbos got that 20 pounds), made Ndi-Igbo more worried about their well-being and so instilled a fighting spirit to survive. After 40 years of hard work, we're beginning to see the fruits of such labor. Today, the South East has the lowest poverty level among all the geopolitical zones. See Human Capital, Institutions and Poverty in Rural Nigeria

I feel that this sense of business, "don't wait for government", hard work, etc. may have been helped by a defeat that shook the Igbo psyche but did not break it down.

~Bluetooth:

First and foremost, so called Aburi pact has always been a fraud that was perpetrated by ojukwu against an illiterate Gowon that could not read what he signed during the conference.on getting home,Awolowo and co thwarted the igbo plan qnd informed Gowon that Aburi was a secession plan by the igbo from nigeria.this is the root of igbo annoyance with yoruba.all the same credible wars are never won by "guerrillas" which the uniformed igbo armies were at that time.so nothing would have happened if the igbo didnt go to war with the nigeris government and her peole.however,the igbo would have even got a better place in our democracy rather than being treated like outcast !

You can not blame Ojukwu if Gowon was not intelligent enough to understand the ramifications of the accord or for signing what he did not understand. You may have your opinions on the contents of the accord but you certainly can not call it a fraud. If I had to choose between what Ojukwu was advocating in Aburi and the useless 'federal character' being practised in Nigeria today, I will choose most of the provisions advocated by Ojukwu in Aburi.

Katsumoto:

You can not blame Ojukwu if Gowon was not intelligent enough to understand the ramifications of the accord or for signing what he did not understand. You may have your opinions on the contents of the accord but you certainly can not call it a fraud. If I had to choose between what Ojukwu was advocating in Aburi and the useless 'federal character' being practised in Nigeria today, I will choose most of the provisions advocated by Ojukwu in Aburi.

[size=16pt]GOOD MORNING KATSUMOTO![/size]

~Bluetooth:

First and foremost, so called Aburi pact has always been a fraud that was perpetrated by ojukwu against an illiterate Gowon that could not read what he signed during the conference.on getting home,Awolowo and co thwarted the igbo plan qnd informed Gowon that Aburi was a secession plan by the igbo from nigeria.this is the root of igbo annoyance with yoruba.[/b]all the same credible wars are never won by "guerrillas" which the uniformed igbo armies were at that time.so nothing would have happened if the igbo didnt go to war with the nigeris government and her peole.however,the igbo would have even got a better place in our democracy rather than being treated like outcast !

[b]Edit:

- The highlighted statement is highly interesting and of high significance.

- Do you have further evidence for the statement highlighted above.

- I am interested in knowing more about the statement highlighted above.

No2Atheism:

- Do you realise that the highlighted statement is very strong and of high consequence.

- Do you have further evidence for the statement highlighted above.

I tire oo

Katsumoto
during that period,there was true federalism.the north have a leader,the west have theirs but i wondered why the east never liked their own azikwe but instead someone somewhere felt like applying force to get a secession was the right thing to do.i blamed Gowon for his ignorance but however the war was an avoidable one which if Ojukwu had use his head well may have achieved his objective by today.Gowon may be an illiterate but a military head of state which everyone of us know was an illegal and brutal one.what i'd expected ojukwu to have done was to have taken to democratic means to achieve his objective and not taking up arms against a federal govt.
richyblack
cant you see that the igbo tribe is loosing its place to the south south.i used to know of "wazobia" an acronym of the three major tribes.when i was growing up,my perception was that these three tribes were all nigeria have till i came of age and learn otherwise.honestly,the igbo need to rise up and take up its place politically in nigeria sentiments apart.

~Bluetooth:

Katsumoto
during that period,there was true federalism.the north have a leader,the west have theirs but i wondered why the east never liked their own azikwe but instead [b]someone somewhere felt like applying force to get a secession was the right thing to do.[/b]i blamed Gowon for his ignorance but however the war was an avoidable one which if Ojukwu had use his head well may have achieved his objective by today.Gowon may be an illiterate but a military head of state which everyone of us know was an illegal and brutal one.what i'd expected ojukwu to have done was to have taken to democratic means to achieve his objective and not taking up arms against a federal govt.
richyblack
cant you see that the igbo tribe is loosing its place to the south south.i used to know of "wazobia" an acronym of the three major tribes.when i was growing up,my perception was that these three tribes were all nigeria have till i came of age and learn otherwise.honestly,the igbo need to rise up and take up its place politically in nigeria sentiments apart.

Ojukwu was forced to act because he cared for his people. I question some of his strategy but there was little he could do. His people were being murdered all over the country; he had to call them back to give them safety. The only problem I have with Ojukwu was that he ran after the war. Ojuwku had the most to lose with secession. His father was the wealthiest person in Nigeria with most of his assets in Lagos. How many people do you think would have offered protection and hope to others even when they stand to lose their inheritance in doing so.

I may have issues with some of his actions after he fled but before that, he acted with all nobility; a virtue absent in most Nigerian leaders.

What is the difference between ojukwu and hitler who both fought an unnecessary war;causing the death of many people due to selfish interest.ojukwu should have poisioned himself too if he's a good leader just like hitler did

~Bluetooth:

What is the difference between ojukwu and hitler who both fought an unnecessary war;causing the death of many people due to selfish interest.ojukwu should have poisioned himself too if he's a good leader just like hitler did

You are very very funny and ignorant. He fought for a specific reason, which is to liberate the East from the Jihard thirsty, backward people of Northern Nigeria. Awolowo was too shortsighted to see what Ojukwu saw. The Ahiara declaration said it all. Currently, We (Nigerians as a whole) are suffering what he saw in 1969. He had enough wealth and power, what other selfish reason do you think he was fighting for?

Like I said , You are really funny and ignorant.

I hear you justcash but why did he run away if he's not a c o w a r d.

Justcash:

You are very very funny and ignorant. He fought for a specific reason, which is to liberate the East from the Jihard thirsty, backward people of Northern Nigeria. Awolowo was too shortsighted to see was Ojukwu saw. The Ahiara declaration said it all. Currently, We (Nigerians as a whole) are suffering what he saw in 1969. He had enough wealth and power, what other selfish reason do you think he was fighting for?

Like I said , You are really funny and ignorant.

I have to agree with the bold. Though I love and respect Awolowo, but i wish he had seen today then, he would have allowed aburi accord to stand and negotiated the west secession.

IMO, I think Awolowolo and Zik at that time were blindfolded with their desire to rule the entire nation, cos they were are not satisfied being a regional leader.