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Biafra’s forgotten children.

The claim that Gabon’s president Ali Bongo is actually Nigerian has shone a spotlight on a subject not many were aware of, that of the children airlifted out of Biafra, and Nigeria, some never to be reunited with their families. Now they are adults.

 In his latest book titled Nouvelle Affaires Africaine (New African Affairs), French writer Pierre Péan claims that Gabonese president, Ali Bongo is not actually from Gabon and that he is of Nigerian heritage. He claims that Ali Bongo was adopted from the secessionist state...
of Biafra during the bloody Nigerian Civil War by Omar Bongo, the now deceased previous Gabonese president and father of Ali Bongo.
Pierre Péan’s charge led Ali Bongo’s opposition to demand a DNA test from the president. Péan also claims that Bongo presented a forged birth...
certificate during the 2009 elections & that the elections were rigged, stating that the real winner was Andre Mba Obame.
Ali Bongo’s heritage & background has become a serious issue of contention for some, & has led to protests in Libreville over Bongo’s legitimacy as president.
According to the Constitution of Gabon, no one born to foreign parents can be president. It should be clear that these are all unsubstantiated claims. Ali Bongo ascended to the presidency in the 2009 elections, following the death of his father Omar Bongo who was President of...
Gabon for almost 42 years.
The drama of Ali Bongo’s background is having an indirect effect. It brought the spotlight on an issue that many people (Nigerians included) aren’t aware of: the issue being the transport of children out of Biafra to other African countries during the..
Nigerian Civil war.
(Western coverage of the Nigerian Civil War began a trend in reporting of famines and wars in Africa that we are yet to be rid of: anonymous half-naked individuals with no voice of their own, weak and emaciated with hollowed-out features, kids with extended...
stomachs, etc.)
As part of the strategy taken against Biafra, Yakubu Gowon and the Nigerian military implemented a blockade that stopped food and medicine getting into Biafra. The Nigerian military government intended to starve Biafra into defeat. The blockade affected the most..
vulnerable: the elderly and children. Thousands of children died from starvation and malnutrition. At one point, an estimated 1,000 children were dying daily. In fact, visages of the war to the world outside of Biafra were images of heavily malnourished and distended bellies of..
kwashiorkor-stricken children. These images created a rallying cry for action and humanitarian relief.
Humanitarian relief efforts from Western Christian groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) became paramount for the survival of Biafrans.
Empathetic groups coordinated and worked together to deliver food and medicine to Biafran civilians in an effort to save innocents, risking their own lives in the process. Many were cut down trying to circumvent the blockade enacted by Nigeria.
These were clandestine flights and secret missions taken out in the darkness of night in an effort not to alert the Nigerian military. This was known as the Biafran Airlift.
While it is widely known that these humanitarian missions occurred, what isn’t as widely known is that...
many orphans and malnourished children were airlifted out of Biafra to relief camps in various African countries. Most of the children were airlifted to relief camps and feeding centers in Gabon, Ivory Coast, and Sao Tome.
Many Biafran children were nourished back to health in these camps.
Sadly, following the war, the Yakubu Gowon admin did not take the steps to return these children back to their families. It was simply not a priority for the Nigerian govt and their displacement is not discussed.
It’s like it never happened. Displacement of the Igbo people from the war in general is not discussed. It’s a hot button issue the Nigerian government refuses to acknowledge or address, even today.
Prior to the onset of the civil war, thousands of Igbos were killed in Anti-Igbo Pogroms across Northern Nigeria. Millions more fled, abandoning homes, businesses and employment in order to survive. They were all displaced. This was why Biafra wanted to secede from Nigeria.
The United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) was able to identify 3,911 children who were airlifted out of Biafra. They were returned to their parents, surviving relatives and foster families in the event that no blood relatives remained.
Despite the herculean efforts by the UNHCR, there are still scores of children unaccounted for. In addition, the identity and complete numbers of children who died in the relief camps, those who were abandoned in their host countries and those who were too young to identify...
themselves is not actually known. To date, many Igbo families don’t know what became of their children or if they even survived.
The US based non-profit group Igbo League has undertaken the task of identifying and, if possible, reuniting these children – who are all adults now –
with their loved ones. The project is known as the Echezona Project. The Echezona Project aims to identify all parties involved in the Biafra Airlift program in order to create a database of all the children taken to relief camps.
Their goal is to cross-examine their compiled database with the UNHCR’s database of the children who were returned to their families. In addition, locating burial sites of children who did not survive in the relief camps is also part of the agenda, so that DNA analysis can be...
conducted in order to at least bring some closure to many families.
While the Igbo League is a fine and noble organization, in an ideal world a non-profit should not be leading the movement to reunite these children (now adults) with their families, Nigeria should.
Like many things in Nigeria, the government has failed to address issues affecting its own citizens. Those who don’t learn from the mistakes of the past are bound to repeat them. Is Nigeria learning? Will Nigeria remember Biafra’s forgotten children?
Probably not in this lifetime. Lest we forget, it was a Nigerian govt that tried to starve them all to death in the first place. Acknowledging the existence of the forgotten Biafran children would mean that the Nigerian govt would have to acknowledge her war crimes as well.
Culled from https://t.co/hfwZCEx08S

End. #Nigeria #NigerianHistory #Biafra #NigeriaBiafraWar #NigerianCivilWar #Igbo #Biafrans

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The Amazons of Dahomey.

It is noon on a humid Saturday in the fall of 1861, and a missionary by the name of Francesco Borghero has been summoned to a parade ground in Abomey, the capital of the small West African state of Dahomey.

He is seated on one side of a huge, open square right in the center of the town–Dahomey is renowned as a “Black Sparta,” a fiercely militaristic society bent on conquest, whose soldiers strike fear into their enemies all along what is still known as the Slave Coast.

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President Muhammadu Buhari’s romance with Niger Republic has become an affront to the national interest of Nigeria. When he was sworn-in as an elected president in 2015 he went to Mamadou Issoufou’s presidential palace in Niamey, Niger Republic, to celebrate.

They gave him the reception of a conquering Fulani warlord: a white horse and sword.
I found that curious. How can a Nigerian leader celebrate his electoral victory in a foreign country and not Daura, his supposed hometown in Nigeria?

Answer has since been provided through Buhari’s policy actions in the past 5+ years. We have since learnt that Buhari is a first-generation Nigerian whose father, Ardo Adamu Buhari, a duck seller, had migrated from Niger, settled in Nigeria and married a Nigerian woman, Zulaihat.

The borders defined by the European colonial masters mean nothing to typical Northerners. When you hear that Nigerian borders are porous, what it really means is that there is no intention in the minds of Northern Nigerians and their elite to create an effective barrier between..

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Later today, I'll be tweeting on the origins and history of the Ika people of Anioma. Please turn on notifications if you're interested.

The Origins And History Of Ika People of Anioma.

Ika communities mostly comprise the following: Agbor, Owa, Umunede, Mbiri, Abavo, Orogodo, Otolokpo, Igbodo, Ute-Okpu, Ute-Ugbeje, Idumuesah, Akumazi, Ekpon (Edo State), Igbanke (Edo State), Inyelen Edo State).

The Ika people are specifically located in the North-West of Delta State but some like Igbanke, Inyelen and Ekpon are presently located in Edo State.
Other Ika communities found in Edo State are Owanikeke, Owa-Riuzo Idu and Igbogili.

Specifically, Ika people occupy Ika North East and Ika South Local Government Areas of Delta State and a land area of about 117.45 square kilometres. Since the 2006 population census did not stipulate the official figure for ethnic groups, the total population figure of the Ika..

people remains officially unknown.
The dialect of Ika people is Igboid group (Williamson, 1968). This according to him is because it has no noticeable difference from the general Igbo language spoken within the Anioma area only weak phonological and lexical difference separates..
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1995 ‘coup’: How Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Gwadabe were maltreated — Ex-EFCC chairman.
A former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri has given a fresh insight into the 1995 alleged coup during the Gen. Sani Abacha regime.

Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Col. Lawan Gwadabe and Senator Chris Anyanwu were all tried and ended up in jail on the strength of the allegations against them.
Yar’Adua died in the Abakaliki Prisons while serving his term.

Mrs. Waziri believes there was something dubious about the alleged coup and the caliber of names linked with the plot made it questionable.
The former EFCC boss in her newly released memoir Farida Waziri: One Step Ahead recalls how she and a former Chief of Staff,...

General Abdulrahman Dambazau watched Obasanjo confidently rubbish the allegations leveled at him by Colonel Bello Fadile during the trial.
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Terrible things happen in Nigeria. We've lost the present and we want to lose the future.
I just left Transcorp Hotel Abuja, after my news analysis at Arise News TV. As I stepped to the lobby of the hotel, I saw a bevy of pretty young girls in their early 20s crowded in a corner.

There were all skimpily dressed as if there were commercial sex workers. The time was 10.30pm.
One of them rushed to greet me. “Good evening sir”. She was one of my students. I recognized her clearly because she had a slight disability and I paid attention to make sure she...

followed the coursework. I was shocked. I recognized three of those hotly dressed pretty young girls as fresh graduates of my department.
What are they all coming to do at this kind of Hotel at this hour and dressed in this manner? Of course, I think I know what it is.

A Nigerian politician or man of means may have arranged them for his pleasure, and those of his friends and acquaintances. Everyday, our girls are disoriented by these politicians who have neither shame nor conscience, because they have access to power and money.

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UAE,which chaired the confernce asked Imran,What is the problem for the Islamic world with India building a temple in their country?
What is the problem for the Muslims of the world with the AyodhyaRama Temple? We hv no interest in interfering in the intrnal affairs of India.

In addition, we have provided 13 acres of land in our country for temple construction and 13.5 acres of land for parking and other facilities for Hindus.

Nowhere in the world have Hindus, who live and study attempt or incite riots or carry out suicide attacks in the name of

religion. They are peaceful and live according to the laws of the land.

Temple construction in India is an internal matter of India.  That is not the issue to be discussed here now.  India will look after India.

When will Pakistan repay the money it

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"Let me start by saying that I am a historian, I see dead people. But more seriously, I am constantly torn between the temptation to see patterns developing over time, and the fear of hasty generalizations and anachronistic comparisons. 1/n

"Nevertheless, the present situation forces me to explore the possible historical dimensions of the problem we're facing today. 2/n

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"In the summer of 1876, that's a historical quote, as Midhat Pasa was trying to draft a constitution, Edhem Pasa wrote to Saffet Pasa, and I quote in Turkish, 'Bize Konstitusyon degil enstitusyon lazim' ('It is not a constitution we need but institutions'). 4/n
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The Next 20 Years

Just look around you in Nigeria, for example. 20 years ago, the ATM machine was a novelty. No bank issued debit cards- maybe just the foreign ones. There were no banking apps. You couldn't transfer funds the way we do now.

It took 7 days for your 'upcountry' cheques to clear- meaning that if someone pays you a cheque in Sokoto and you pay it in in Ibadan, you had to wait for 7 days to receive value. Later, it became 3 days.

I recall as a young banker, I used to go to the CBN Clearing House with a box that was locked by my supervisor and which could only be opened by the CBN Clearing Supervisor. I carried that box like it was my life.

I had cheques of other banks and a very huge calculator we called casting machine inside that 'portmanteau'.

Around this period 20 years ago, there was an influx of new generation banks that changed the landscape. Now, see how the banks have changed in 20 years. In just 20 years, the banking sector in Nigeria is the one of the most sophisticated in Africa. So much progress has been made
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I laugh because those expectations are what keep a lot of people single. Being single is also not a bad thing as I have been more single in my lifetime than I have been in relationships. I also learned a lot about what kept me single for all those years. It was largely idealism.

Let me digress a bit to one of the pivotal encounters in my life when someone literally came out of the darkness to evangelize to me.

He deliberately ran towards me to deliver a message as if he had been sent on an errand. He told me that God doesn't want perfection.

He said, God wants us to strive towards perfection but knows we will never attain it. He said I should not beat myself up whenever I don't measure up but I should remain trying. It is the act of trying that is desirable. God is the only perfection and we strive to be like God.

I became an Atheist after that conversation. I took the opposite direction in search for perfection. In a roundabout way, it led me back to faith.

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All the leftists in the comments like oh no prageru made a good point lol


Polls consistently show conservative support for nuclear energy. It also has high support among elites. The myth that it is unpopular in general isn’t true—although it is unpopular in almost every specific case where they need to site it

Article is old but yeah

This study finds that risk & benefit predict individual opinion the most, followed by the share of nuclear energy already extant, followed by ideology (conservatives support more)

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Timur Lang, was the founder of Timurid Empire. He was born in April 1336 CE, somewhere in central asia.


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Lachit Borphukan's humiliation of Aurangzeb.

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Guts, resolve and glory!

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