11 November, 2011
05 August, 2011
Arthur Unegbe & Victor Banjo...Heroes or Villains?
It has been a while since I posted something of note on this blog. Recent happenings in the Nigerian polity have woken me from my slumber and got me thinking.
Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (Rtd?) has recently been in the news and has ruffled not a few feathers in just a couple of days.
What could he possibly know that has kickstarted a smear campaign against him by people who were hitherto regarded as saints, untouchables and untaintables?
One thing is for sure, a man who has been locked up for 13 years has got nothing much to lose. Going by the number of weeks/months that recent VERY High profile cases in the country were dispensed with or paused indefinitely, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha has served and over-served the number of years He would have been sentenced taking into consideration that He might have been allowed to plea-bargain as in the norm these days.
Before Major Hamza Al-Mustapha is branded a Hero by teeming Nigerian cyber-activists, lets take a trip back memory lane and take a look at the role that two characters played that has earned them a place in Nigerian History. Were they Heroes or Villians?
The two characters are Lt. Col Arthur Unegbe and Lt. Col Victor Banjo.
So much has been written about them by so many people and I will not pretend to have a new insight on who they were or what they stood for. I'll just surmise what I know.
Lt. Col Arthur Unegbe
Lt. Col. Unegbe is remembered correctly or incorrectly as the Igboman that clogged the wheels of the first Nigerian coup, January 15, 1966.
Lt. Col. Unegbe was the Quartermaster-General of the Nigerian Army at Army Headquarters in Lagos and supposedly had the key to the armory which the coupists were keen to get into to secure weapon and ammunition. He was killed for resisting. Most historians have painted him a man that was averse to the coup and his killing during the coup has undermined the propaganda that the coup was by IGBO men in the Nigerian Millitary to entrench the interest of IGBOs in the Nigerian polity.
Max Siollun on dawodu.com has a different take on why Unegbe was killed. Please read http://www.dawodu.com/siollun1.htm
Lt. Col Victor Banjo
A few years ago at the Covenant University Library, I read "Breaking the silence" by Victor Banjo's elder sister who i believe did her best to portray her brother as an unfortunate victim of circumstances.
Lt. Col Victor Banjo was the first Nigerian Director of the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Corps of the Nigerian Army. In those days, young educated men who enlisted in the Nigerian army quickly rose up the ranks and were in control of vital positions before they clocked 30.
Victor Banjo was killed on the orders of the Biafran authorities together with Lt. Col. Ifeajuna on September 22 1967, the man who conceptualised the Jan. 15, 1966 coup.
That is an irony for students of history to explore. How could Ifeajuna who planned an IGBO coup be executed by the Supreme Millitary Council of Biafra?
For more on Victor Banjo, please Read this piece by Reuben Abati http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/reuben-abati/victor-banjos-gift-to-the-nation-18.html
As someone said, someone's hero is another's villain.
What is your take on Arthur Unegbe and Victor Banjo? Heroes or Villains?
Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (Rtd?) has recently been in the news and has ruffled not a few feathers in just a couple of days.
What could he possibly know that has kickstarted a smear campaign against him by people who were hitherto regarded as saints, untouchables and untaintables?
One thing is for sure, a man who has been locked up for 13 years has got nothing much to lose. Going by the number of weeks/months that recent VERY High profile cases in the country were dispensed with or paused indefinitely, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha has served and over-served the number of years He would have been sentenced taking into consideration that He might have been allowed to plea-bargain as in the norm these days.
Before Major Hamza Al-Mustapha is branded a Hero by teeming Nigerian cyber-activists, lets take a trip back memory lane and take a look at the role that two characters played that has earned them a place in Nigerian History. Were they Heroes or Villians?
The two characters are Lt. Col Arthur Unegbe and Lt. Col Victor Banjo.
So much has been written about them by so many people and I will not pretend to have a new insight on who they were or what they stood for. I'll just surmise what I know.
Lt. Col Arthur Unegbe
Lt. Col. Unegbe is remembered correctly or incorrectly as the Igboman that clogged the wheels of the first Nigerian coup, January 15, 1966.
Lt. Col. Unegbe was the Quartermaster-General of the Nigerian Army at Army Headquarters in Lagos and supposedly had the key to the armory which the coupists were keen to get into to secure weapon and ammunition. He was killed for resisting. Most historians have painted him a man that was averse to the coup and his killing during the coup has undermined the propaganda that the coup was by IGBO men in the Nigerian Millitary to entrench the interest of IGBOs in the Nigerian polity.
Max Siollun on dawodu.com has a different take on why Unegbe was killed. Please read http://www.dawodu.com/siollun1.htm
Lt. Col Victor Banjo
A few years ago at the Covenant University Library, I read "Breaking the silence" by Victor Banjo's elder sister who i believe did her best to portray her brother as an unfortunate victim of circumstances.
Lt. Col Victor Banjo was the first Nigerian Director of the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Corps of the Nigerian Army. In those days, young educated men who enlisted in the Nigerian army quickly rose up the ranks and were in control of vital positions before they clocked 30.
Victor Banjo was killed on the orders of the Biafran authorities together with Lt. Col. Ifeajuna on September 22 1967, the man who conceptualised the Jan. 15, 1966 coup.
That is an irony for students of history to explore. How could Ifeajuna who planned an IGBO coup be executed by the Supreme Millitary Council of Biafra?
For more on Victor Banjo, please Read this piece by Reuben Abati http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/reuben-abati/victor-banjos-gift-to-the-nation-18.html
As someone said, someone's hero is another's villain.
What is your take on Arthur Unegbe and Victor Banjo? Heroes or Villains?
05 April, 2011
05 February, 2011
Reflections on the Nigerian Civil War.
An Excerpt from Chapter 3, Reflections on the Nigerian Civil War by Raph Uwechue
In the current Nigerian situation what we have is a stale-mate-no definite agreement to live together but no agreement to separate. In such a case only a compromise solution is reasonable and realistic. We should not separate-since there is no agreement to do so-but we should not suffocate ourselves in too tight an embrace to cling together.
The important thing is that in the light of our past and present experiences, an adjustment should be made such that can allow the best in different communities to come out while keeping the worst in adequate check.
The Nigerian Federal Constitution as it stood at the opening of 1966-that is before the introduction of the current army rule-could be compared in geometrical terms to a rhombus.
Taken in its totality, this particular rectangle has everything that is required to make a square, namely four equal sides and a total angular sum of 360 degrees. Yet it cannot stand squarely on any plane simply because the angles are unevenly distributed.
In Nigeria we have nothing to add or subtract in order to make our country firm and stable. The only treatment required is the mere adjustment of the angles of our constitutional rhombus to make them right angles and so produce a structure that can stand squarely on any given national base.
I do not believe that this task is in any way beyond our capabilities.
In view of the reality and peculiar awkwardness of our situation, the time has come for us to try the same trick as Christopher Columbus did some five centuries ago. He made an egg stand on one of its ends, simply by flattening and thus broadening its base.
We can make Nigeria stand, and all our people secure and happy by broadening the base upon which our union is founded. Until our various peoples have had enough time to learn more about one another and discover and appreciate the hidden beauty and values locked up in the multifarious habits and cultures of our numerous ethnic groups, we have no realistic choice open to us other than that of lengthening-and thus relaxing the cracking tension on it-the cord that holds us together.
Raph Uwechue. (1971). Secession and the problem of minorities. In: Reflections on the Nigerian Civil War. New York: Africana pub. Corp. pg 66 - 67
In the current Nigerian situation what we have is a stale-mate-no definite agreement to live together but no agreement to separate. In such a case only a compromise solution is reasonable and realistic. We should not separate-since there is no agreement to do so-but we should not suffocate ourselves in too tight an embrace to cling together.
The important thing is that in the light of our past and present experiences, an adjustment should be made such that can allow the best in different communities to come out while keeping the worst in adequate check.
The Nigerian Federal Constitution as it stood at the opening of 1966-that is before the introduction of the current army rule-could be compared in geometrical terms to a rhombus.
Taken in its totality, this particular rectangle has everything that is required to make a square, namely four equal sides and a total angular sum of 360 degrees. Yet it cannot stand squarely on any plane simply because the angles are unevenly distributed.
In Nigeria we have nothing to add or subtract in order to make our country firm and stable. The only treatment required is the mere adjustment of the angles of our constitutional rhombus to make them right angles and so produce a structure that can stand squarely on any given national base.
I do not believe that this task is in any way beyond our capabilities.
In view of the reality and peculiar awkwardness of our situation, the time has come for us to try the same trick as Christopher Columbus did some five centuries ago. He made an egg stand on one of its ends, simply by flattening and thus broadening its base.
We can make Nigeria stand, and all our people secure and happy by broadening the base upon which our union is founded. Until our various peoples have had enough time to learn more about one another and discover and appreciate the hidden beauty and values locked up in the multifarious habits and cultures of our numerous ethnic groups, we have no realistic choice open to us other than that of lengthening-and thus relaxing the cracking tension on it-the cord that holds us together.
Raph Uwechue. (1971). Secession and the problem of minorities. In: Reflections on the Nigerian Civil War. New York: Africana pub. Corp. pg 66 - 67
01 February, 2011
21 January, 2011
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