On Aburi we Stand --Ojukwu

Nigerians leaders met in Aburi, Ghana on the 4^th – 5^th of January, 1967 to try to resolve their differences. Unfortunately, the meeting only served to ‘postpone the evil days’—the Civil War. On May 30, 1967 Lt.-Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu spoke his mind about the non-implementation of the Aburi Agreement through is now-famous ‘On Aburi we Stand’ Speech. The speech is reproduced below:

                                         

                     ON ABURI WE STAND            

Anybody who was present at the Aburi meeting or has read the minutes, the communiqués, statements, and verbatim reports would be surprised that a person who calls himself a head of state could so deliberately mislead accredited representatives of foreign governments by saying that the implementation of each item of the conclusions required prior detailed examination by the administrative and professional experts in the various fields. The conclusions in Aburi were no proposals but decisions taken by the highest authority in the land.

Quotes by Obafemi Awolowo

One way to determine a man’s character is by checking out his words—effectively reading his mind. The list below contains quotes by the late sage Obafemi Awolowo, one of Nigeria's founding fathers.                                                                                                                                                     

·        “Any people that is starved with books, especially the right type of books, will suffer intellectual malnutrition, stagnation and atrophy”

·        “After rain comes sunshine; after darkness comes the glorious dawn. There is no sorrow without its alloy of joy; there is no joy without its admixture of sorrow. Behind the ugly terrible mask of misfortune lies the beautiful soothing countenance of prosperity. So, tear the mask!”