@ Candy
I like your post.

Yo Nilla How body

@ Candy,

That was a very nice post,it certainly got me thinking.

@ nilla and cutey,

thanks for the good comments.

The above topic was quite interesting, with as diverse a response as the writers, its expected. How I wish a comment to each of the contributors can be done, but all the same quite educative. Generally speaking our nation should achieve more than what we are experiencing now, but you can't beat the maxim that says "FOUNDATION MATTERS".

No matter the edifice you intend putting up, if you miss it at the foundation level, you are in trouble; rectifying it is not impossible, but its a lot of hard work that you may even be tempted to pull down the whole structure and start all over again.

Now you may pull down the present structure, but still retain the concept, but now ensure that the FOUNDATION STRUCTURE is properly done, its only then and then your peace and joy of building is guarranteed. 1914 was a long way back, but it never matters for how long you've been travelling on a wrong road, you will never get to the desired destination.

The VISIONEERS( British) of the amalgamation was never altruistic from the very beginning, and there is no need now to start crying over the spilled milk, however we had an ample opportunity in 1960 to lay a new FOUNDATION but we  blew it still, because the then architects of our nationhood were not SECURED enough in their LEADERSHIP competence, and all they were after was; what will acrue to me, my people(ethnic clans) that the new BABY (our Nation) does not matter to them; it was a time-bomb going somewhere to happen. Fortunately it hasn't exploded, we still have a chance, but it has to be on a new foundation. Some of the comments given by members of the forum are familiar in our national daily discuss, but they are too simplistic, not SIMPLE but simplistic. They will never get us out of the woods.

Everything rises and falls on LEADERSHIP, goes the saying. But the Leadership that we are talking about here is not just about those occupying one position or the other, majority of those sitting in those offices; either private or public are NOT prepared for those positions, and what you don't have you cannot give, the lawyers would say. When the Leadership is right EVERY OTHER THING will be right, our best bet is to go back to the basics of Leadership training right from primary school level till we are able to create a paradigm shift in our mentality as a people, this is a process and not an event as we will always desire in environments like ours, it is like this CHANGE should happen over night; it never does, its always over TIME. But we have to start, and this task is too important to be left in the hand of the govt.

As a matter of fact, the way it has always worked is that the INFORMED about what we are talking about begings with private initiative at every fora available to teach and MODEL this SERVANT-LEADERSHIP kind of mind-set, that will make us to appreciate the importance and the truth that the only way out of our LOGJAM is to unlearn certain errors like SELF-CENTREDNESS, SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, and begin to imbibe GOOD NEIGHBOURLINESS, BEING YOUR BROTHER'S KEEPER etc. Every other principles of nationhood and leadership can then follow this basic ones. We will surely talk more on this in this forum.

@Iderawole,
your post is a lil' bit difficult to read(don't tell me to wear my glasses as i don't need one ),a lil' spacing and paragraphs here n there will help make it easier for us to read.

Thanks candy, correction noted, but I hope you read it all the same. Your comments too. For your sake I will modify the arrangement for better reading.

Candy, I forgot to ask you; whats going on over there in your base, hope you are still in AUS. How is life over there; politics, leadership, education etc.

I believe you will agree with me that all that we need to focus on now is majorly attitudinal change in all the fabrics of our society. ATTITUDE determines your ALTITUDE as the saying goes, when we are properly groomed in the handling of what goes on in the inside of us, then all that happens outside will be a small thing to handle.

There is a palpable fear in the life of Nigerians, and that accounts for most of our actions; you ask me; fear of what?, Fear of the UNKNOWN, what will happen tomorrow, let grab all I can grab today, for me, oh NO, but also for my wife, children, grandchildren, my late wife too, and all those funny way of seeing life, forgetting that the LIFE of a man does not consist in the abundance of what he possesses. Candy , enjoy your evening.

nice thread / dialogue.

indeed our VALUE SYSTEM needs to change before anything can change in that country. However the most difficult thing to do is change the way we think.

Perhaps the Government should provide every Nigerian citizen with self-help" books such as 7 Habits of highly effective people?? ??

How do we got about changing our attitude?

What a name!!, Mr 50kobo, your question is apt and that should be the concern of the majority of us. ATTITUDE is not a gift, it has to be developed, particularly the positive one that we are talking about now.

The change needed in our attitude can only be realised with the acceptance that all is NOT well with us, Then we,ll be ready to listen counsel. Everybody is suffering in Nigeria in one way or the other; we cant wait for a VISIONARY leader to come up b4 we start the revolution we are talking about. It begins with each person, as we start asking ourselves: why am I here?, why did God creat me? as we get bordered with things like this individually, answers will start showing up.

look at what positive attitude will do to us, It will:

1. determine aour approach to life.
2. " our relatioship with people.

@Iderawole, I bet 10-20 years ago it wouldn't have been such a bad name.

I think at this point most Nigerians are aware that it is not well with us, however we just continue to live life with the "hope" that things will change.
We are very religious people, and with religion there is abundance of hope. Maybe we need a public dialogue , a televised programme (Bring Frank Olize back!)

I agree with your reasoning (about positive attitude) However I don't see how Nigeria today will have a visionary leader. Except that visionary leader chooses to get the position through dishonest means, "play the game" like the others.

With regards to your suggestion about leadership training at primary level, I guess for this to have maximum impact, the Ministry of Education will have to change the curriculum, and perhaps introduce a course on social values? My point here is that it has to start from the family, from the home. Even in Nigeria the religious institutions have failed to instil moral values. We cant rely on the state/ education/ religious institutions, rather the family is the starting point and these other institution do best as supportive mechanisms.

Long live Nigeria!

there are 2 main things hindering nigeria:

No 1.  niaja is not working because a lot of nigerias ruling  class :politicians, top military brass are homosexuals and foggots usually behave like women and these gays are running the country like a womans kitchen.

name it whether its IBB, sarki mukhtar, sola rhodes, alex akinyele, abdulasalaam abubakar, orji kalu, james ibori, etc thay are all homosexuals , I'm starting to think that obasanjo and yar adua could be gays as well! this gay thing is a cult, an international one!

No 2. The fulani: they are african gypies that have no particular home , they are spread all over west and east africa when they are not in power in one country, they take the money they have stolen from one country to rule another one. If not then how did bamanga tukur become a minister in sierra leon?

These fulani have support from arab countries, pakistan, india, germany, european union. this is why there where allegation that orji kalu and some southern poiticians got their political campaign funds from certain arab countries, channelled through people like IBB.
they make sure that its the fulani agenda that the united nations hears thats why most nigerian ambassadors to UN have been fulani up till gambari today.
they also have a larger share in most of the major companies in the world than any other west african tribal group.

Nigeria is not working because of quota system by northerners. When porous brains are manning several important ministries and key positions they didn't qualify for in the first place, what do you expect?? Don't know why many of you will leave out the obvious truth and prefer beating around the bush because you are benefiting from the silly system.

i also agree with quatasyste. IBB and previous governments made sure they carved the northen states to look big on the map so that they will appear powerful and appear to have a large population.

if anyone has ever gone to NDA or police exam. they will notice that the number of people in the northern state lines are very few. and the number of candidates in the states from the south are very large. along the line in their careers a lot of southerners are retired prematurly because of quota system, only to get to the top and have a norhterner appointed over them . or a northerner controlling their seniors because thy used their connects to help certain southerners get to the top. and its the same in civil service.

this is where we get the term nothern apologist i.e a southerner who is playing boy boy to some northerners in order to have some power of his own e.g orji kalu and  pa awoniyi of arewa consultative forum and alhaji lateef adegbite (chief imam of nigeria). nothing concerns awoniyi with arewa because he is not a fulani, he is a yoruba from illorin. its a different case if it was saraki or gambari in arewa because they are fulani from illorin!

QuotaSyste:

Nigeria is not working because of quota system by northerners. When porous brains are manning several important ministries and key positions they didn't qualify for in the first place, what do you expect?? Don't know why many of you will leave out the obvious truth and prefer beating around the bush because you are benefiting from the silly system.

Obasanjo ruled the country for 8 solid years, Tell me the porous brains and the non porous brains during his tenure.

@ OuotaSyste: You are a big fool to stick every problem in Nigeria to the north.

you see if we are to say the real truth major gideon orkar summed it up as " the homosexual fulani cabal" and he was going to austrasize them (cut off) and change the name of the southern part of nigeria to kwaneria or yoredigbo (yoruba, edo and igbo) ! while the north would still be called nigeria.


This is why the F.G. over the past few decades has intensified the dredging of the river niger, so that if the north has to cut off, they will not be a land locked country, they have also been intesifying looking for oil in the north lately as well as any industry that can help them be self sufficient.

The typical northerner does not want to work or show up for work but when its time for top appointments and for salary thats when you see them, they want to reap where they have not sewn. There are virtually no northerners that are petroleum engineers but they want to be collecting and spending oil revenue anyhow,  also they want to be the ones representing nigeria at OPEC (rilwan lukman).

If I'm not mistaken MC Usman on this forum may be major general MC Usman!

when theres a riot in the north the soldiers and police don't get involved but when there is a riot on the south. the northerners will direct that a soldier go to his village to kill his own indigene for rioting!

we are still waiting for EFCC to clamp down on parralel market /black market currency operators i.e mallams that carry out their activities in most hotels or on the roadside. Ribadu did not and dare not touch them. currency black market is a serious economic crime and sabotage, where is the "economic" in "EFCC"

let ribadu put his money where his mouth is , thats why hes not recieving justice because he refused to give justice (by not arresting his kinsmen)!

i have to agree with MC Usman slightly because there is no such thing as one unified north as the sultanate and media has made people believe . actually non fulani northerners do not get alog well with the fulani.

for example the zuru people of kebbi state don't get along with fulani who  are scattered around the outskirts of kebbi state. same with plateau state- the birom don't get alog with the jasawa (fulani in jos) same in kano the kanuri in kano don't get along with the fulani. also the nupe and bassa don't get along with fulani.

These are all because the fulani initially came as squatters on their land but soon became permanent residents in all these areas. most of these indegenous northern tribes had a democratic system of leadership that utilized many elders.

the fulani came and imposed "emir equvalent titles" on these indegenous  nigerian tribes such as gwom jos these titles where fulani imposed i.e they did not exist before the fulani came to meet these tribes in nigeria.

so pinpointing the problem more accurately its not northerners that are the problem in nigeria its fulani more specifically who are causing the problem.

The igbo officers (nzeogu) that planned the first coup killed mailamari, yar aduas father and the saduana because they felt that it was those fulani that where using the likes of okotie eboh to steal money and to give the money to fulani, they would use the stolen money to buy shares in companies abroad and properties and to invest in businesses like julius berger etc over the years. the fulani spearheaded by the likes of hassan katsina decided to insight the middle belters (gowon and co) against the igbo's thereby causing the first civil war.


Its the fulani that imposed gowon, the same fulani after they used gowon decided to oust him and put murtala mohammed in place, its the fulani that supported obasanjo (buhari, late yar adua) and then they regained control during shagari and buhari. Its the fulani that where behind babangida if not then he would have not appointed sambo dasuki.  Sani abacha came in and changed the fulani calculation when he changed the sultan to maccido.

The fulanis did not like what abacha was doing so theres a possibility that they killed abacha. after abacha died the fulanis came and used tony anenih for the ground work to make obj president and now the fulani have regained full control with yar aduas brother assuming the throne! most likely if a southerner is to become president after yar adua it will most likely be a northern apologist i.e some of anenihs boys e.g mike akhigbe, or ibori that will be next, if its a middle belter that will be president it will most likely be david mark!

I also agree with MC Usman about what obasanjo and his usless set of yorubas did : i.e fani kayode, funsho kapulakun etc they looted, they abused power, they threw wild parties, their children are spending money anyhow,  all the things that people accused fulani and northerners of doing is what abasanjo and co did. not to mention the sexual escapades that where going on during obj;s regime i.e stella and ben bruce, moji obsanjo and her father in law (obj) and all manner of nonsense all in the name of democracy!

I have to give the fulani respect when it come to their own version of democracy because you hardly hear of scandals apart from stealing of money, but if its yoruba in govt not only do you hear of stealing of money you also hear of all manner of scandals and juju going on.

as for an igbo or south south govt we are still waiting to taste what their own govt will be like! it may even be worse than the yorubas and fulani combined because its igbo behind nollywood films they will turn the entire country into a film with scandals, comedy, drama, hired armed robbers, hoodlums, assasins roaming freely

Nigeria is not working for the same reason a class of 250 pupils will not work with one teacher but structure the class to about 30 pupils per teacher, the teacher will have more individual time with each pupil and whatever their special need is.

If you bring United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain and throw them together as one single country, do you expect it to work, no matter how civilized they are? Who do you think will produce the leaders? Where will the capital be? Do you ever expect an Englishman to vote for a German in an election of any sort? Even within the United Kingdom, the Scots, Welsh and the Northern Irish had always guarded their independence with such a vigor that they have their separate national emblems, anthem, sports teams, devolved govt, currency etc.

Nigeria is country of at least 5 nations that has little or nothing in common until they discovers oil wealth and the oil kept their leaders together as they enjoy the oil booty without the rest of the population. That is why Nigeria is not work, a marriage of people that love to hate each other but pretend they never notice just to keep the oi money flowing for the few elites and rest of their sheep without shephered.

Eziachi what you said  is quite true.

But we are too far into a an amalgamation to want to split up now, social intergration by marriage, schools, religous organisations are what bring us together as well as a sense of national belonging and pride, but when most of the facets of our national identity are fulani /hausa in origin and nature it will take time. these issues should have been addressed by now by the senate, natioanl assembly and i can guarantee that they will end the war in the niger delta, these are:

1. the change of the coat of arms (because the current one  depicts 2 historical fulani tribes i.e the horse and the eagle which symbolize the ancient sokoto and katsina empires respectively. (nigerian tribes had their own historical coat of arms before the coming of the british: for the nupe it was wild pig, for the igala/idoma  it was hippopotemus, for the edo it was elephant. for the kanuri its was camel and lama etc

the coat of arms can simply be river niger and benue in a y shape


2. the change of the word naira from our currency which is a hausa word meaning "money in the form of paper". same thing kobo means "petty metal money"

3. the removal of arabic inscriptions from the naira

4. a more unifying name for the country such as "federal republic of  kwaneria or wazobia"

5. change of the national flag which is a 100% representation of the official uniform of the ancient sultan and warriors of sokoto. even the nigerian amry uniform is just a british version of clothing of the colours that where historically worn by the sultan of sokoto i.e green and gold

the new flag should be 4 or 5 colours which can include , green (hausa), yellow (igbo), red (edo) and blue (yoruba) and maybe brown (for middle belt)

jimmyjam:

Eziachi what you said is quite true.

But we are too far into a an amalgamation to want to split up now, social intergration by marriage, schools, religous organisations are what bring us together as well as a sense of national belonging and pride, but when most of the facets of our national identity are fulani /hausa in origin and nature it will take time. these issues should have been addressed by now by the senate, natioanl assembly and i can guarantee that they will end the war in the niger delta, these are:

1. the change of the coat of arms (because the current one depicts 2 historical fulani tribes i.e the horse and the eagle which symbolize the ancient sokoto and katsina empires respectively. (nigerian tribes had their own historical coat of arms before the coming of the british: for the nupe it was wild pig, for the igala/idoma it was hippopotemus, for the edo it was elephant. for the kanuri its was camel and lama etc

the coat of arms can simply be river niger and benue in a y shape


2. the change of the word naira from our currency which is a hausa word meaning "money in the form of paper". same thing kobo means "petty metal money"

3. the removal of arabic inscriptions from the naira

4. a more unifying name for the country such as "federal republic of kwaneria or wazobia"

5. change of the national flag which is a 100% representation of the official uniform of the ancient sultan and warriors of sokoto. even the nigerian amry uniform is just a british version of clothing of the colours that where historically worn by the sultan of sokoto i.e green and gold

the new flag should be 4 or 5 colours which can include , green (hausa), yellow (igbo), red (edo) and blue (yoruba) and maybe brown (for middle belt)

My brother, thank for your last post but the difference between us is that I am not akin to sentiment but reality. Anyone who is honest to him/herself will know that in a million years, Nigeria structured as one individual entity will never work and cannot work. I will love it to work but all sorts of unammendable circumstances has made Nigeria impossible to function as a single entity.

How can you say that we had almagamated too deep to separate? Go and tell an abused and bruised man or woman in an abuse marriage or relationship that it's too late to separate or divorce. Or more practically, go and tell nations like Ukraine and others that because Soviet Union was over hundred years old, that it's too late to separate.

No man, institution or any nation is expected to solve a problem with the same method all the time and expect a different result. A nation that still bring the likes of Rilwanu Lukman into govt and expect to flourish must be living in a cocoon land. Rilwanu who had been in the corridors of Nigerian power even before you and me were born is back becuase of Nigerian structure as one nation, where, where you come from is the onions of all thing than your ability to perform. Nigeria as one nation is the reason a no hoper like Yar Adua is the leader of over 150 million people.

Those people who had conviniently ignored this glaring fact that Nigeria is a man made cosmetic country structured to fail from the start should one day be truthfull to themselves, and until them, you guys must continue to ask questions everyone must knew the correct answer but tent to ignore it thinking that one day miracle will happen.

Nigeria isnt working partly because people arent patriotic. We dont love nigeria enough to be unselfish.

Everyone is out for themselves or their people. We do not believe in Nigeria.

If we were patriotic, corruption will be reduced because our leaders will think of Nigeria, their fellow compatriots and what they can do for them before lining their own pockets.

Tribalism would almost be a non issue (where the wrong people are put into positions/roles they have no knowledge of solely on the basis of tribe etc) because everyone thinks of themselves as NIGERIANS first before whatever tribe they may be from.

We need to promote a sense of togetherness. That we are all in it for the long haul. Nigeria is our country. I do acquiesce that years and years of hate, mistrust, stereotyping, ingrained habits which have been passed down from generation to generation cant be glossed over with a 'group hug', but it is a start.

Why is Nigeria not working?,Because Nigerian and other African political leaders use Caucasian economic books to
rule their countries ,but they do not acknowledge the psychological factors
holding back the  Nigerian such as:
(1) Capitalistic literatures founding western economics are based on the
nature of western Europeans. Therefore introducing many of these
policies will have adverse affect on Nigerians who are different by
nature.

(2) The white Jesus of Christianity that makes black saviours harder to
develop amongst our own race and makes Nigerians reluctant to do
for self  depending only on Caucasians for help.

(3) The lack of black consciousness in Africa  gives Nigerians less
purpose to achieve.

The demise of Africans many would say is mainly due to the colonial powers leaving these countries after independence with unstable undemocratic political structures and negative EU/US trade barriers. There are hundreds of books on this subject that will give you far better insight as to the political and economical problems of Africa. These are functional problems. The reality is there is a psychological problem with Nigerian citizens which stems from religion and the manipulation of history and rejection of universal laws and the right actions based on those laws.Christianity is a negative force to Nigerian and Africans, not the Bible, but Christianity they are two different things. What happens is the white Jesus character is positioned as a saviour in the minds of Africans. Unlike the west nearly all Africans in Africa don’t know the full mentality of Caucasians in the west.Without studying the diversity in Caucasian nature, and often with the white Jesus being the only non-black face seen in thousands of villages throughout Africa , a god complex occurs. A belief system that ties a certain race or individual closer to god (God Complex). Millions of Africans believe Caucasians are their saviours through Jesus so they do not get up to change their own lives. The corrupt political leaders of Africa use 2nd and 3rd Reich tactics to maintain control ,because this is all they have learnt from alternative Caucasian history on how to govern. They could only see this as an alternative way of managing a country without introducing liberalism, which in their eyes would lead to the eventual loss of ethical morality. They continually implement Caucasian economic and religious ideology in to Africa,which is not in line with the nature of the African, therefore it will never work.
You can tell that these African governments still follow the Caucasian ideologies from what is taught in their school systems.The African school education system is completely warped. In Mali today in the school education system they teach children that mankind is about two million years old. Yet in that same country bones where found of Africans 28 Million years old. They continue to follow the European school system, which is continually warping their universal consciousness.

horus , please the bible does not make any reference to jesus being white, and this is not a forum for canvassing of us treating oursleves as war enemies. also the same bible warns that there should be no causing of fights among two friends or brothers.

a better method to solve the ethnic issues in nigeria is for the southerners to be more unified and voice out their one voice in the senate or national assembly and pass it as a motion and eventually a bill,because its by this democratic means that such change can be effected they should simply demand under the auspices of southern politicians association of nigeria for all the points as i outlined above.  i.e change of coat of arms, flag, naira etc i.e more reflection of national representation in the form of the symbols of our nationality.

In short we need an all inclusive, more tolerant goverment, and leaders,

we also need a reorientation right from the family level. i.e the northerners should stop making their children feel that they are better and more entitiled to nigeria than any other ethnic group also the southerners especailly the niger deltans and easterners should stop training their children to be so rebellious and to stop trying to outsmart or cheat, the yorubas should stop training their children to be so loud, lously and double faced.

IBB has been known to quote that reorientation and change in nigeria starts at the family level, whats so amazing is that IBB who really knows about this good governance, policy and politics but yet he merely payed lip service to all those things because he then turned around and did the total opposite lol because during his regime all we heard was fulani this and fulani that!

jimmyjam:

horus , please the bible does not make any reference to jesus being white, and this is not a forum for canvassing of us treating oursleves as war enemies. also the same bible warns that there should be no causing of fights among two friends or brothers.

a better method to solve the ethnic issues in nigeria is for the southerners to be more unified and voice out their one voice in the senate or national assembly and pass it as a motion and eventually a bill,because its by this democratic means that such change can be effected they should simply demand under the auspices of southern politicians association of nigeria for all the points as i outlined above. i.e change of coat of arms, flag, naira etc i.e more reflection of national representation in the form of the symbols of our nationality.

If only

kobo junkie I'm glad you liked my post. it may sound impossible but its true. because if the fulani can be so unified i don't see why southerners cannot. because the fulani culture naturally does not make them loyal to their kins men meaning a fulani woman can deny or leave her husband, or a son can deny his father if they where historically caught in wars.

also with a motion in national assembly at least they will not be regarded as militants because they will be following due process.

ive also noticed that any politician that is anti fulani ususally does not win political office, e,g ojukwu did not win, instead orji kalu won, same with uwazurieke. also ive noticed that the key people who want to break up from  nigeria don't like to seek political office in the first place thats why people like dokubo askari don't seek political office, instead they feel that change should come from war or the gun, but so also did the likes of orkar and nzeogu and t.y danjuma and buhari, ibb etc!

however there are a few fulani that actually like southerners and are well educated, well exposed and that really want the country to do well, an example of this is buba marwa.

jimmyjam:

kobo junkie I'm glad you liked my post. it may sound impossible but its true. because if the fulani can be so unified i don't see why southerners cannot. because the fulani culture naturally does not make them loyal to their kins men meaning a fulani woman can deny or leave her husband, or a son can deny his father if they where historically caught in wars.

also with a motion in naitonal assembly at least they will not be regarded as militants because they will be following due process.

ive also noticed that any politician that is anti fulani ususally does not win political office, e,g ojukwu did not win, instead orji kalu won, same with uwazurieke. also ive noticed that the key people who want to break up from nigeria don't like to seek political office in the first place thats why people like dokubo askari don't seek political office, instead they feel that change should come from war or the gun, but so also did the likes of orkar and nzeogu and t.y danjuma and buhari, ibb etc!

I do not dispute the possibility of this, I just hope we get to using our heads soon, and start making these things happen, instead of fuming at the mouth and throwing out more excuses as is the order of the day. Kills me when I think how much better we, as Nigerians, can live, IF ONLY we would act and act in unison, regardless of our ethnic differences.

the answer to that is very simple as. nigeria is blessed natural resources. but hte people in authority are only after their pocket

the middlebelters also encourage and indulge the fulani, by allowing themsleves to be dragged along as errand boys wheather its langtang (jerry useni, john shagaya) or otukpo (david mark, onoja) or minna (IBB, jerry gana) or abubakar audu of kogi or awoniyi or kwara.

these middle belters know that its in thier best interest to tell these fulani the truth, but they cant seem to face up to them because they feel that thier own power or relevance in the country could be threatened, taken or replaced by a southern ethnic group such as the edos or yorubas etc and so based on this the middle belters also started looking down on the southerners.