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.

Top 10 facts About Nigeria

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. Its population is estimated at over 160,000,000. The next country (Ethiopia) has just about half the population of Nigeria.

In 1929, the Aba riots occurred. It was a riot by women against high taxes imposed by British officials. The low return on their palm kernel crops lead to this. During the riot, buildings were burnt and some officials were driven off. Government troops sent in killed about 50 women.