honeychild:


I hardly insult people but men your own IQ is sub zero. Here you are answering to a fake yoruba moniker. And so you believe everyone is doing the same thing.

One would have expected a race of "world developers" to know that PH is a metropolitan city where people of all tribes live.

and in your own foolery you couldn't differentiate between adeola and adiola most times I wonder the type of material used in creating you people certainly not sand cos the thinking capacity of your type is lower than a cattle

EzeUche:


Niger Deltans hate Nigeria more. They have been given a raw deal.

That is why they are swelling the ranks of IPOB

But you wouldn't know that Yoruba would you. Always carrying the Biafra matter on your head.

And I am half Ibibio. So don't tell me about my people.

well I'm full ibibio and you're dead wrong

martyns303:


Your systematic killing, taking over lands and renaming them. We are familiar with your antecedents, it will be going from frying pan to fire to join you Igbos.

We fought and lost, Ken Saro fought, Adaka Boro fought, and recently revolted. We have decided to go legal, referendum.

The Igbos fought and lost, resulting in over 2 million deaths. Just because we are not carrying placards and making noise doesn't mean we are not doing anything.

dont mind him. ND fought to escape the yoke of the Igbo controlled eastern region and the federal government as far back as the 50s. And recently MEND has fought too. We just don't want biafra and will never be biafra

honeychild:


Nope. They are an enlightened bunch who know that who and what you worship is your personal choice. In every yoruba family there is a mix of christian, Muslim and traditionalist.

I repeat....we do not do religious bigotry.

That's a dangerous mix there. It explains a lot about the confusion in this tribe.

martyns303:


Just imagine the useless question, will u get out from this place!!!!

answer it if you think it's a senseless question

Amberon11:
According to what I was told, the soldiers asked everyone to pronounce a certain word ; those who didn't get the right pronunciation were killed as they thought they were Igbos.

My parents, their friends, and several relatives have confirmed this fact.

That is why Nigerian government is fighting tooth and nails to ban the teaching of History. Too many mass killings of civilians of the Niger Delta.

mekaboy:


Honestly, I as an Igbo don't even understand it? What's the big deal about ND?

I will only support the unity of Igbos and ND in the call for true federalism, so that another region far away does not control the resources in our backyards.Because even the so called wealth of the ND is creating billionaires in another region and not theirs.

Let every region develop at their own pace.

Leave the NigerDelta wealth alone. It is none of your father's business. Let it create wealth in whatever planet but let Igbo leave ND wealth alone. Stop being the unity beggar you accuse others of. Leave NigerDelta alone.

successmatters:


That's a dangerous mix there. It explains a lot about the confusion in this tribe.

Like I said, we are "sophisticated" enough to keep things in their proper places. To less cerebral peoples it seems an impossible feat. Not our fault if you cannot comprehend.

successmatters:


Lol

I find your stand amusing, you are doing nothing presently to form your own nation or even complain of the decades of northern oppression on Niger Delta, you only regain your croaky voice each time you hear the word Biafra.

Is this not very amusing indeed

Who opened this thread to lament about Biafra, you!
Have you ever opened a thread to lament about Fulani rape of Urhobo girls and women? NO.

That is why I think you are not from the Niger Delta, you are more concerned about stopping Biafra than the welfare of the Niger Delta people.

The quote above is enough for Igbo to go to hell. The NigerDelta as clearly shown they'd rather deal with the aboki far away than deal with their marauding Igbo neighbours that is hell belt on confiscating both their land n wealth. They wear the shoe and knows only Igbo's pinches them.

Ballmer:


The quote above for Igbo to go to hell. The NigerDelta as clearly shown they'd rather deal with the aboki far away than deal with their marauding Igbo neighbours that is hell belt on confiscating both their land n wealth. They where the shoe and knows only Igbo's pinches them.

They have nothing to worry about, it will be a mistake of unmeasurable proportions to allow the Minorities who are as destabilized as water to join Biafra. Let them stay on their own.

successmatters:


Stop twisting and dodging my question, how many threads have you opened that supports your love of the Niger Delta?

How many threads have you opened to condemn Fulani rape of Urhobo women and girls right there in the Niger Delta.?

How many threads have you opened to continue the fight from where Saro wiwa stopped?

He does not need to open any thread to condemn the Hausa Fulani rape because it is obvious who the immediate threat is and that is the Igbos.

How many thread have you opened to condemn the long throat of your Igbo clan over the NigerDelta oil ?

How many thread have you opened to preserve the identity of the NigerDelta ?

How much did the Igbo support Sato Wiwa's fight or NigerDelta initiatives ?

Stop screaming like a rabid dog all over the thread let the Igbo desist from their dubious ways n leave the NigerDelta alone to themselves. The Igbo's can go away or go to hell with the 5 igbotic States in their enclave.

Ballmer:


He does not need to open any thread to condemn the Hausa Fulani rape because it is obvious who the immediate threat is and that is the Igboa.

How many thread have you opened to condemn the long throat of your Igbo clan over the NigerDelta oil ?

How many thread have you opened to preserve the identity of the NigerDelta ?

How much did the Igbo support Sato Wiwa's fight or initiative ?

Stop screaming like a rabid dog all over the thread let the Igbo desist from their dubious ways n leave the NigerDelta alone to themselves. The Igbo's can go away or go to hell with the 5 igbotic States in their enclave.

According to you, you could enjoy someone raping your people, but instead prepare to have a quarrel with your neighbor who has never hurt you before, while the rape continues?

May God save you.

successmatters:


According to you, you could enjoy someone raping your people, but instead prepare to have a quarrel with your neighbor who has never hurt you before, while the rape continues?

May God save you.

I hope you are not deranged ? Did you read the part where your Igbo fore fathers forcefully stole their land and now gunning to confiscate their wealth too.

Adiola:
old man so you don't wanna grow up keep quoting yourself am looking at your IP right now

I know reality can be a bit confusing...
Keep looking, now you have seen the IP, soon you will see the shape of the device linked to the IP, then the hand holding the device, punching the keypad..... To the mind forming the words.

I don't know why all this noise about ND and oil. The Igbos have oil and lots more, untapped, but still doing better without oil. How much more when Nigeria is restructured and we manage our resources with transparency?

Ballmer:


I hope you are not deranged ? Did you read the part where your Igbo fore fathers forcefully stole their land and now gunning to confiscate their wealth too.

What I read was his subtle attempts to downplay the current and steady raping of Urhobo and south south women and girls, and crying about an imaginary alleged attempts to steal their land.

successmatters:


According to you, you could enjoy someone raping your people, but instead prepare to have a quarrel with your neighbor who has never hurt you before, while the rape continues?

May God save you.

What is all this neighbor neighbor nonsense, did we tell you we are looking for neighbors?

Neighbors that have never supported us, that watched while we burn, neighbors that were killing us. What kind of evil neighbor is that?

The man in Abia and the man in Owerri have something in common, they speak same dialect (or close enough), share the same culture, of the same tribe. Please what is the relationship between the man in Bayelsa and the man in Abia or Owerri? Don't come here and form familiarity.

You said the man up North is "raping" us, is he not raping you too? What have you done? Why are u leaving ur own rape and is concerned with ours? The man up north is taking our oil and we are resisting it, but u want to take both our oil, land, culture and identity. You are trying to steal our very soul.

You want us to form an alliance with you to fight a common enemy to achieve your selfish interest. When you urself is not a friend of ours.

obong:
well I'm full ibibio and you're dead wrong

Is that so? If I am to believe you are Ibibio and not Yoruba, what would make an Ibibio hate the Igbo?

Plenty of Ibibio reside in Abia, and Aba is their second home.

Ibibio and Igbo have intermarried with Igbos in Abia.

mekaboy:
All lies. How come all the oil blocks are not controlled by igbos today? Wouldn't it have been better if igbos controlled the oil blocks as their neighbors, than far away North?

go and read Nigerian history, you were born Nigerian no matter what you claim now.

oil blocks where shared by IBB in the 1980s after the war

martyns303:


I am 100% Niger Deltan, why are the Igbos so eager for the ND to merge with Biafra? When the ND can use the same referendum for self determination. You are accusing the North of forcibly integrating Igbos into Nigeria, and here you are forcibly trying to integrate another region into Biafra. Is that not hypocrisy?

Look at that one up there complaining that they should be controlling our resource by the simple fact that they are "our neighbors".

During the Civil war, the people of ND were simply casualties, each side fighting to integrate us into them for the sole purpose of our wealth. We say no more, in the event of the disintegration of Nigeria, we are neither going with Biafra or the other side. We are standing on our, no longer shall we be used.

Because they are selfish and land grabbers, who want to be the masters over the great people of south south.

mekaboy:
I don't know why all this noise about ND and oil. The Igbos have oil and lots more, untapped, but still doing better without oil. How much more when Nigeria is restructured and we manage our resources with transparency?

So tell your brothers to stop including Niger Delta in your dream country

EzeUche:


Is that so? If I am to believe you are Ibibio and not Yoruba, what would make an Ibibio hate the Igbo?

Plenty of Ibibio reside in Abia, and Aba is their second home.

Ibibio and Igbo have intermarried with Igbos in Abia.

Cultist! The Chief Idiot of Biafra! you ran away from the other trend to this one why? Or are afraid? sorry I forgot you cowards down east.

martyns303:
THROWBACK ON BIAFRA:
FEW FACTS EVERY RIVERS & BAYELSAN MUST KNOW ABOUT THE DECLARATION OF THE STATE OF BIAFRA IN 1967.

1. Did you know that the State of Biafra was declared three (3) (30/05/1967) days after Rivers State (comprising present Rivers State and Bayelsa State) was created on 27/05/1967?

2. Did you know that one of the reasons for the declaration of Biafra (which is rarely spoken about) is the creation of Rivers State, which appeared, rightly so too, to have whittled down the grip and control of the then Eastern Nigeria over the resources and affairs of the area called Rivers State, especially Port Harcourt City?

3. Did you know that before the creation of Rivers State (and the resultant declaration of Biafra-three days after) that Port Harcourt was literarily "colonized" by the Igbos, who used their influence as the majority group/tribe in the then Eastern State of Nigeria to marginalized the present people of Rivers and Bayelsa States?

4. Did you know that the oppression and marginalization were so much that the indigenous land(s) of the Port Harcourt people especially were forcibly taken over from them, renamed and developed by force; and if resisted, such resistant indigene was arrested to Enugu and some were not lucky enough to survive the maltreatment, inhumanity that followed?

5. Did you know that the atrocities and inhumanity were so much that the Nigeria Government acknowledge it and agreed to concede a state for the indigenous people residing in the present Rivers and Bayelsa State?

6. Did you know that as a result of the manifest oppression and brut force in the manner which the Igbos forcibly took over land from the indigenous people of the area within Rivers and Bayelsa, especially Port Harcourt, Rivers State was the ONLY STATE IN NIGERIA, (not even in the state of the champions on either side of the war), after the Civil War, where landed Properties were declared ABANDONED PROPERTY upon a Military Decree (which exists as part of the Laws of Rivers State till date)?

7. Did you know that the Abandoned Property Law was made to allow the Igbos show prove that the properties were legitimately acquired, and with mutual consent of the original indigenous owners?

8. Did you know that 85% of the Igbos could not show legitimate prove of acquisition of those "forcibly" acquired properties in Port Harcourt and that they still bear old grudge till date for the loss?

9. Do you know that they still retain same old attitudes, with no form of remorse and apology to Rivers people.



Cc: tonyebarnista

1. Did you know that Biafra was divided into autonomous provinces with the minorities having about half of the total provinces in Biafra? They only got two states( Rivers and South Eastern states) in Nigeria.

2. Do you know that right before Gowon and his bunch of Arewa-Oduanistanis startered chanting One Nigeria, the North was chanting "Araba" meaning disintegration! They wanted out of Nigeria until the British intimitated them of the crude oil deposits in the East and they all started chanting One Nigeria. In other words, Arewa-Oduanistanis started chanting One Nigeria because of oil.

Do you also know that Biafra was declared after deliberation by Eastern consultative assembly (ECA)which had members from all ethnicities in the Eastern region, Frank Opigo,an Ijaw member of the ECA representing yenegoa, it was who suggested that the new republic be named Biafra.

3. Do you know that an independent commission called Willink report set up to investigate alleged accusations of Igbo domination of Eastern minorities found all the accusations to be false and lacking in substance. Do you know that honest minorities like Mbu also agreed that at no point did Ndiigbo marginalize or dominate her minorities neighbors.

4. Did you know that there is no evidence whatsoever of this falsehood ever happening. All land the Igbo acquired from minorities area were acquired by paying going fees for them. This very fact was reiterated by El rufai when he was FCT minister that Ndiigbo had acquired majority of the lands in Abuja, by buying the lands off those who the government originally allocated the lands to. Every sincere Nigerian knows that the Igbos pay the best for lands and they always seek out Igbos when they are in need and want to sell their lands to raise money.

5. Did you know that Biafra was open to UN supervised plebiscite in minorities areas in Biafra to determine where the allegiance of Eastern minorities lie, a request Gowon rejected.
Did you know that Eastern minorities were killed likewise the Igbos in the North, as the North dont care if they were Igbos or not. Did you also know that Nigerian army shot at minorities in PH areas, and indeed did starve Igbo children and minorities children into kwashiokor through their starvation policy.

6. Did you know that minorities especially Ijaws took over Igbo property in Rivers out of envy, greed jealousy and lack of foresight, as they and everyone knew those Igbo individual s that owned those property acquired them out of sheer hardwork and bought them out of their hard earned money either from the Ikwerre native owners or from the Eastern region government.
Are you aware that the aim of the FG was to.make sure that a permanent rift continues to exist between the Eastern minorities and Igbos to ensure free flow of oil, as no where else in Nigeria was abandoned property policy was OFFICIALLY adopted by the FG, it was your greed and coverteous nature that made you fall for the gimmick.

7. See No 6.

8. Those lands where acquired from native Ikwerre land owners after fair price had been.paid for them. With no C of O and with the Ikwerre themselves trying to curry favour from the Ijaws who Nigeria made the new keeper s of the Rivers state, it was hard for those lands to be reclaimed. Those who bought from the government with a C of O majority of them succeeded in reclaiming theirs, while some didn't.
The price Ikwerres paid is that the Ijaws through acquisition of those property and lands through the Abandoned property saga now have a foot print on PH and are never going to let go. Igbos lost temporary but Ikwerres lost permanently.

9. Rivers people ( Ijaws) owe Igbos apology and not the other way round, but we are not going to dwell on it. Those houses are now old and dilapidated while Igbos had moved on an.acquired lands all over Nigeria and the globe and had built magnificent edifices and mansions on them.
Chukwu has been faithful to his people.

pazienza:



1. Did you know that Biafra was divided into autonomous provinces with the minorities having about half of the total provinces in Biafra? They only got two states( Rivers and South Eastern states) in Nigeria.

2. Do you know that right before Gowon and his bunch of Arewa-Oduanistanis startered chanting One Nigeria, the North was chanting "Araba" meaning disintegration! They wanted out of Nigeria until the British intimitated them of the crude oil deposits in the East and they all started chanting One Nigeria. In other words, Arewa-Oduanistanis started chanting One Nigeria because of oil.

Do you also know that Biafra was declared after deliberation by Eastern consultative assembly (ECA)which had members from all ethnicities in the Eastern region, Frank Opigo,an Ijaw member of the ECA representing yenegoa, it was who suggested that the new republic be named Biafra.

3. Do you know that an independent commission called Willink report set up to investigate alleged accusations of Igbo domination of Eastern minorities found all the accusations to be false and lacking in substance. Do you know that honest minorities like Mbu also agreed that at no point did Ndiigbo marginalize or dominate her minorities neighbors.

4. Did you know that there is no evidence whatsoever of this falsehood ever happening. All land the Igbo acquired from minorities area were acquired by paying going fees for them. This very fact was reiterated by El rufai when he was FCT minister that Ndiigbo had acquired majority of the lands in Abuja, by buying the lands off those who the government originally allocated the lands to. Every sincere Nigerian knows that the Igbos pay the best for lands and they always seek out Igbos when they are in need and want to sell their lands to raise money.

1. Please keep Rivers State out of your mention, Rivers State was created for the indegenous people of Rivers.

2. We have no business with either of the 3 major tribes shouting disintegration, we ourselves want the same thing.

3. Lies, go to the first page of this thread and read the report, the massacre in calabar still remains in our hearts.

4. How do a report in Abuja affects me down in the ND? The ND was once part of the eastern region and the igbos being a majority did as they pleased. Come down to PH and I will show u 100s of houses that were abandoned properties, evidence of the Igbo property grabbing culture.

Do not attempt to distort history. We have not forgotten.

pazienza:



1. Did you know that Biafra was divided into autonomous provinces with the minorities having about half of the total provinces in Biafra? They only got two states( Rivers and South Eastern states) in Nigeria.

2. Do you know that right before Gowon and his bunch of Arewa-Oduanistanis startered chanting One Nigeria, the North was chanting "Araba" meaning disintegration! They wanted out of Nigeria until the British intimitated them of the crude oil deposits in the East and they all started chanting One Nigeria. In other words, Arewa-Oduanistanis started chanting One Nigeria because of oil.

Do you also know that Biafra was declared after deliberation by Eastern consultative assembly (ECA)which had members from all ethnicities in the Eastern region, Frank Opigo,an Ijaw member of the ECA representing yenegoa, it was who suggested that the new republic be named Biafra.

3. Do you know that an independent commission called Willink report set up to investigate alleged accusations of Igbo domination of Eastern minorities found all the accusations to be false and lacking in substance. Do you know that honest minorities like Mbu also agreed that at no point did Ndiigbo marginalize or dominate her minorities neighbors.

4. Did you know that there is no evidence whatsoever of this falsehood ever happening. All land the Igbo acquired from minorities area were acquired by paying going fees for them. This very fact was reiterated by El rufai when he was FCT minister that Ndiigbo had acquired majority of the lands in Abuja, by buying the lands off those who the government originally allocated the lands to. Every sincere Nigerian knows that the Igbos pay the best for lands and they always seek out Igbos when they are in need and want to sell their lands to raise money.

Great job. These people can go to any length to tarnish our image. IPOB is doing a great job lately... but if these people are bent on not joining Biafra, we should ditch them for goodness sake. We can try our best to get our Igbo speaking brothers in ND to join us. This will make more sense to me than anything else.

martyns303:


1. Please keep Rivers State out of your mention, Rivers State was created for the indegenous people of Rivers.

2. We have no business with either of the 3 major tribes shouting disintegration, we ourselves want the same thing.

3. Lies, go to the first page of this thread and read the report, the massacre in calabar still remains in our hearts.

4. How do a report in Abuja affects me down in the ND? The ND was once part of the eastern region and the igbos being a majority did as they pleased. Come down to PH and I will show u 100s of houses that were abandoned properties, evidence of the Igbo property grabbing culture.

Do not attempt to distort history. We have not forgotten.

Speak for your tribe. ND is a collection of various ethnic group. I don't think that Indi Etche, Egbema, Ndoki, Omuma or even the Ikwerres made you their spokeman. If you are an Ijaw, fine. You can go ahead and convince them not to join Biafra, but you should also accord the Igbos in ND the right to choose their political destiny. Inugo.

mekuzi09:

Speak for your tribe. ND is a collection of various ethnic group. I don't think that Indi Etche, Egbema, Ndoki, Omuma or even the Ikwerres made you their spokeman. If you are an Ijaw, fine. You can go ahead and convince them not to join Biafra, but you should also accord the Igbos in ND the right to choose their political destiny. Inugo.

See ur level of ignorance? All those tribes u mentioned are people with Igbo origin found ONLY in parts of Rivers State. And here is the interesting part, they want nothing with Biafra, stop confusing urself.

[BIAFRA’S PROVINCES & ADMINISTRATORS
Aba
Mr. Moses Onwuma*
Abakaliki
Mr. Samuel Mgbada
Annang
Chief Ekukinam Bassey
Awka
Mr. Paul Nwokedi
Calabar
Prof. Eyo Bassey Ndem
Degema
Mr. S. N. Dikibo
Eket
Mr. S. J. Edoho
Enugu
Mr. Christian Chukwuma Onoh
Nsukka
Mr. Frank Onyeke
Ogoja
Mr. Frank Ugbut
Oji River
Dr. Godwin A. Odenigwe
Okigwe
Mr. Sam I. Mbakwe
Onitsha
Mr. R. I. Iweka
Opobo
Dr. S. J. Cookey
Orlu
Mr. R. I. Uzoma
Owerri
Mr. Duke Njiribeakor
Port Harcourt
Mr. Emmanuel Aguma
Umuahia
Mr. Simeon Ojukwu
Uyo
Chief J. Udo-Affiah
Yenegoa
Chief Frank Opigo
====

Minorities got about 9 provinces in Biafra, Gowon only offered 2 to them.
Groups like Ogoja who were fighting for separate state were subjected under Efik-Ibibio-Annang , by Gowon.

Biafa not only offered Ogoja freedom from Igbo, it offered her same from Efik-Ibibio-Annang and also offered Annang freedom from Ibibio.

Gowon knew that a plebiscite in Biafra would have failed him. Groups got better deals in Biafra, the Ijaws and Efiks might have liked the Rivers state South Eastern( Cross Rivers ) arrangement, but other Eastern minorities wouldn't have.

martyns303:


See ur level of ignorance? All those tribes u mentioned are people with Igbo origin found ONLY in parts of Rivers State. And here is the interesting part, they want nothing with Biafra, stop confusing urself.

Keep quiet. Have you conducted a poll to determine their decision? Limit your rant to your ethnic group Mr Man.

pazienza:
[BIAFRA’S PROVINCES & ADMINISTRATORS
Aba
Mr. Moses Onwuma*
Abakaliki
Mr. Samuel Mgbada
Annang
Chief Ekukinam Bassey
Awka
Mr. Paul Nwokedi
Calabar
Prof. Eyo Bassey Ndem
Degema
Mr. S. N. Dikibo
Eket
Mr. S. J. Edoho
Enugu
Mr. Christian Chukwuma Onoh
Nsukka
Mr. Frank Onyeke
Ogoja
Mr. Frank Ugbut
Oji River
Dr. Godwin A. Odenigwe
Okigwe
Mr. Sam I. Mbakwe
Onitsha
Mr. R. I. Iweka
Opobo
Dr. S. J. Cookey
Orlu
Mr. R. I. Uzoma
Owerri
Mr. Duke Njiribeakor
Port Harcourt
Mr. Emmanuel Aguma
Umuahia
Mr. Simeon Ojukwu
Uyo
Chief J. Udo-Affiah
Yenegoa
Chief Frank Opigo
====

Minorities got about 9 provinces in Biafra, Gowon only offered 2 to them.
Groups like Ogoja who were fighting for separate state were subjected under Efik-Ibibio-Annang , by Gowon.

Biafa not only offered Ogoja freedom from Igbo, it offered her same from Efik-Ibibio-Annang and also offered Annang freedom from Ibibio.

Gowon knew that a plebiscite in Biafra would have failed him. Groups got better deals in Biafra, the Ijaws and Efiks might have liked the Rivers state South Eastern( Cross Rivers ) arrangement, but other Eastern minorities wouldn't have.

Don't mind them. Hates and Igbophobia usually blind them from facts and reality.

The 1958 Willink's Commission Report that
explains Eastern minorities' rift with the Igbo
THE FOLLOWING ARE EXCERPTS FROM THE
REPORT OF THE COMMISSION APPOINTED TO
“ENQUIRE INTO THE FEARS OF MINORITIES AND
THE MEANS OF ALLAYING THEM”, OTHERWISE
KNOWN AS “THE WILLINK COMMISSION REPORT
OF JULY 1958”
THE HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL BACKGROUND.
1. “More than 98% of people who inhabit this area
(the ‘Ibo Plateau’ of the Eastern region) are Ibo and
speak one language, though of course with certain
differences of dialect. There are nearly five million
of them and they are too many for the soil to
support: they are vigorous and intelligent and have
pushed outward in every direction, seeking a
livelihood by trade or in service in the surrounding
areas of the Eastern Region, in the Western Region,
in the North and outside Nigeria. They are no more
popular with their neighbours than is usual in the
case of an energetic and expanding people whose
neighbours have a more leisurely outlook on life.”
2. “Though there has been no great kingdom or
indigenous culture in the Eastern Region, the
coastal chiefs grew on their trade with the
(European merchant) ships and they adopted
customs, clothing and housing more advanced than
those of the peoples of the interior on whom they
had at first preyed for slaves. They came during
the 19th Century to regard the people of the
interior as backward and ignorant, and it was
therefore a blow to their pride, as well as to their
pockets, when the Ibos began to push outwards
into the surrounding fringe of the country and
particularly into the Calabar area, to take up land,
to grow rich, to own houses and lorries and occupy
posts in public services and in the services of large
trading firms.”
“It was among the Ibos, formerly despised by the
people of Calabar as source of slaves and as a
backward people of the interior, now feared and
disliked as energetic and educated, that the first
political party formed.”
3. “It is important to remember that of this (Ogoja)
Province’s 1,082,000 inhabitants, 723,000 are Ibos,
almost entirely in Abakaliki and Afikpo (Divisions),
while the census classifies 350,000 as “Other
Nigerian Tribes.”
4. The Rivers Province …includes the two divisions
of Brass and Degema, both overwhelmingly Ijaw,
and the Ogoni Division. The former Rivers Division
also includes over 300,000 Ibos of whom 250,000
are in Ahoada Division and 45,000 in Port
Harcourt. Port Harcourt is a town of recent growth
and of rapidly increasing importance; it is built on
land that blonged originally to an outlying branch
of the Ibo tribe, the Diobus, but is largely inhabited
by the Ibos from the interior who have come to
trade or seek employment….Of the total 747,000 in
the Rivers province, 305,000 are Ibos, 240,000 are
Ijaws and 156,000 are Ogonis.”
5. “The strip to the south of the Ibo block, is
physically, divided by a block of Ibo territory,
tipped by the important Ibo town of Port Harcourt
and tribally divided between the Ijaws and the
Ogonis.”
6. “In the whole of this non-Ibo area there is
present in varying degree some fear of being over-
run, commercially and politically, by the Ibos….. if
Ahoada and Port Harcourt, which are really Ibo, are
considered with the solid centre of Ibo population,
there are 54 seats for the Ibo area and 30 for COR
(Calabar, Ogoja and Rivers) in (Eastern Regional
House of Assembly).”

THE FEARS AND GRIEVANCES OF MINORITIES

7. “It was suggested (by non-Ibo petitioners) that it
was the deliberate object of the Ibo majority in the
Region to fill every post with Ibos (in public post
and services).….when, however we came to
consider specific complaints about the composition
of public bodies, we found them in many cases
exaggerated or unreasonable.”

8. “The allegation was put forward by counsel (to
petitioners) that the Judiciary (when not European)
was predominantly Ibo, with the implication that
this caused fear among those who are not Ibos.
But it was clearly stated in evidence by Dr. Udoma,
the leader of UNIP, that no occasion could be
adduced of the judiciary acting with partiality. The
fact is that the legal profession is largely Ibos and
the reasons for this do not seem to be Government
action. It is therefore inevitable that there should
be an Ibo preponderance among Judges and
Magistrates. Further, it is the declared policy of
Government that the Judiciary should be federal
and this does not indicate a desire to control it.
Again, the operation and composition of Public
Service Commission here, as in the West, appeared
to us in no way open to reproach.”

9. “In the Police, which in this region alone is
wholly Federal, the number of Ibos in the higher
appointments is not out of proportion to the Ibos in
the region. The force is now federally controlled
and although there are a large number of Ibos in
the lower ranks, this is due to the fact that it has
for long been a tradition among the Ibos to offer
themselves for recruitment in this force in far
greater numbers than any other tribe.”

10. “we noted that in five years, 1952 – 1957, from
a total of 412 secondary scholarships, 216 were
awarded to persons living in the COR areas, while
the figures for post-secondary scholarships were
211 out of 623. The latter is about the right
proportion of one-third, the former considerably in
excess. It was suggested that scholarships awarded
to non-Ibos were of an inferior kind and that the
best scholarships went to Ibos, but we were,
unable to see that this claim held any validity. On
the evidence before us, we conclude that the
allegations of discriminations in the matter of
scholarships are unjustified.”


11. “It was further suggested that loans by the
Eastern Regional Finance Corporation, the Eastern
Region Development Board, and the Eastern Region
Development Corporation were made with some
degree of preference to Ibos. It did appear that
most of the loans made by these bodies were to
Ibos, but that is not to say that this was
necessarily improper. Ibos constitute two thirds of
the population of the region and have a bigger
share of financial and commercial responsibility
than their numbers warrant.”

12. “That there should be modern streetlight in
Onitsha, and not Calabar, was also quoted as
example of discrimination; it proved however that
Onitsha Urban District Council had financed this
measure from their own resources.”

13. “The question of land was repeatedly raised, it
being resented by the Efiks and Ibibios that the
Ibos should acquire land at all in their territory
while the methods by which it was obtained were
also questioned. There is no doubt that on the Ibo
Plateau there is insufficient land for the people and
the Ibos ate thrusting outwards where possible they
acquire land and use it either for cultivation or
building…..This is a matter which will require
legislation sooner or later and it will be delicate to
handle, but the economic process is in itself
healthy and we had little sympathy with a witness
who remarked that there is much undeveloped land
in district and he was anxious that it should not
fall into the hand of the Ibos….We believe that
Governments in Nigeria should be careful not to try
to protect minorities by introducing measures that
would restrict development....”

14. “A group of miscellaneous grievances and
charges against the Ibos from Calabar may be
treated together; we were told that the Ibos did not
observe local customs in the markets….We formed
the impression that jealousy of the Ibos successes
in the markets was the main factor.”