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.

Little-known Facts About the Nigerian Civil War

This post contains facts about the Nigerian Civil War that young Nigerians may not know about. This post is not exhaustive in anyway and no post ever will, but attempts will be made to post more 'little-known' facts about the Civil War later.

• The initial plan was to create states in the Eastern Region only. The plan was shelved because it considered unwise, and 12 States were created throughout the country on 27 May 1967.
• Prior to the war, the North had the absolute majority within the rank and file of the Army because of the ethnic quota system. 
• The letters of the name of Head of state of Nigeria, GOWON, came to mean "Go On With One Nigeria" during the war.