Word: ibos
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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With full military honors, Major General Aguiyi Ironsi was buried last week -for the third time. Though it had never been confirmed by the government, everyone in Nigeria knew that Ironsi, an Ibo tribesman and an Easterner, was shot to death six months ago by Northern army officers who toppled him in a coup. Ironsi's executioners first buried him in a shallow roadside grave, and then in a cemetery in the Western city of Ibadan. The decision to exhume Ironsi's remains and fly them East for burial in his home town of Imuahia Ibeku...
Ironsi's reinterment was only one of the delicate matters that have lately been agreed on by his successor, Lieut. Colonel Yakubu Gowon, and Eastern Military Governor Odumegwu Ojukwu, an Ibo and the second most powerful man in Nigeria. At a retreat near Accra in Ghana-it was their first meeting since Gowon's July 29 coup-the Nigerian chiefs earlier this month agreed to start mending the broken fabric of national unity with a week of mourning. For two days, the whole nation flew its flags half-mast for Ironsi. For the next three-in the North...
Safely Home. When Governor Ojukwu returned to his capital of Enugu, he climbed into a car and rode triumphantly through the streets-principally to show the skeptical Ibos that he had not been murdered. "This is the first realistic step taken in solving our problems," he commented, urging his tribesmen to accept the loss of Ironsi as "one more sacrifice for the good of Nigeria." The exultant tone was justified for Ojukwu brought home some significant concessions from Gowon. Gowon agreed to split the nation's army into four parts, each recruited in its own area and under...
...Ibos refuse to yield, they would not be without justification. Nigeria is now, more than ever before, divided into separate and hostile regions. Last October's riots seem to have convinced the Nigerians that they cannot live safely among members of another tribe. The surge of refugees fleeging homeward has included not only Ibos, but also Yorubas returning to the West and Hausas to the North. With communications closed, trade between the regions has come to a standstill. Even Nigeria's universities, traditionally neutral meeting places for members of feuding tribes, have been crippled by the new crisis. Almost...
Nigeria's Northern and Western Regions consider a loose confederation and Ibo secession equally unattractive. The East has just discovered large deposits of oil, and its neighbors want to make sure that they share in the benefits. The North declared that if the East tried to pull out of the federation, it would use force to bring the rebels back. The Ibos responded by arming...