Here is an interesting take by a great academician, according to several sources - an excerp from a recent interview of Professor Ango Abdullahi, former Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria:

South-South, the oil-rich region is popularly described as the goose that lays the golden egg but deprived of the benefits therefrom. Some opponents of zoning want Jonathan who is from that zone to run for president in 2011 just to make those long suffering people happy?


I say, where was the South-South in 1914? And where was the South-South in 1945, 1960? Where were the eggs being laid and hatched? It is in the record that, it was the farmers in the North that produced the groundnuts and resources that supplemented the various budgets of the West and East up till 1970. Recently, Adamu Fika put down the figures, year by year in terms of federal budgets and regional budgets and how much resources had to be wired from the northern area to other parts of the country to run their governments. Simply because some new ducks are laying eggs now, the chickens of previous years are no more important. The notion that the area of the country that produces the most resources each time should produce the leadership of the country is very nonsensical.

I'd also add that the vast majority of our oil deposits which are located hundreds of miles from the coast is not in the South South, East, West, or any other region.  Most of the oil is in Nigeria's sovereign region, so you people cannot singularly claim this oil.

If una like make una secceed along with Eziachi, FACE, Beaf and their cohorts, we go still keep most of de oil for out off-shore terrritory. We fed you people with groundnuts from the North back in the days and with Cocoa proceeds, una no complain then, so make una take chill pill.

The Prof should be asking ''where was the north east and north west in 1014, 1945 and 1960. Some times I wonder at some professors from the north who are not well-informed.

I guess Palm oil never existed, you know the Oil Rivers Protectorate of the British. . . . . .  THAT STARTED OFF NIGERIA! I guess the former Eastern Region DIDN'T produce HALF OF THE WORLDS PALM KERNELS at one point.

Oh, let's forget Udi division and it's coal, Enugu wasn't founded because of a coal industry. [size=15pt]Port Harcourt (a commercial 'hub' today) wasn't built for Enugu's coal.[/size][size=20pt]THE RAILWAY TO MAKURDI AND JOS WASN'T BUILT BECAUSE OF ENUGU AND PORT HARCOURT,[/size] Iva Valley mine what? Ta! Get out! It's groundnut they were chopping and living on!

Only fools believe the tribalistic story that Ango Abdulahi and his ilk wish to spread. It is so funny that they attempt to twist history out of the bitterness that loss of power (which they think is their birthright) has brought.

Groundnut and other crap werent half as important as rubber and oil palm in colonial times. Indeed, the Royal Niger company which formed the basis of Nigeria traded in only palm oil and slaves. It is important to note that the areas where Oil Palm grew and oil business was done were the Niger Delta and South Eastern Nigeria. There was no trade that was more important or more sustaining to the piece of land called Nigeria than palm oil, after palm oil there was no break to the discovery of crude oil in the 1950's.

Groundnuts never even fed camels, talkless of Nigeria.

So all liars, tribalists, and similar fckers shame on you!

This is really a ridiculous comparison. You say they were fed, but prior to the British conquest and amalgamation were any of these "South-South" groups starving? Was the groundnut in the north and elsewhere allowing those who produced it to live at some higher level of development? Were these "South-South" people "dependent" on northern farmers prior to the creation of the Nigerian state? Is this claim of East and West being dependent on groundnut  and other Northern resource proceeds but the North not being dependent on proceeds from other parts of the country really to be believed in light of the crushing poverty widespread among much of the North? Was the palm oil trade that British traders were trying to control, and even crushed Benin to have unhindered access to, worth nothing?
I would very much like to see the specific figures and claims that have supposedly been compiled because what this man is saying sounds like fiction. As for the oil thing, your statement is not really correct,




As you can see, not only is there much oil in Southern Nigeria (that only shows some of the stuff being explored, not all of the oil) on land, but the oil offshore could not possibly fall under any region but the region closest to it if that region were to secede. And there is probably oil all over Southern Nigeria on land, the stuff being exploited is just in one specific area though, so that area is for the time being the goose that lays the black gold.

L0L!! ndu chucks you need to try harder!! i have been wondering, where is this guy? ndu?, and behold! Ground nuts was feeding nigeria since 1914!!!!
Vintage!!! ndu chucks. kana nan lafiya? anyi sallah lafiya? ina agenche!!!! sanu!! kwo?

hibernating

LWKMD Classic Ndu_Chucks a.k.a Alhaji Abubakar Jubril Uwaezuoke, the only Fulani native of Arochukwu.

I guess Palm oil never existed, you know the Oil Rivers Protectorate of the British. . . . . .  THAT STARTED OFF NIGERIA!

slave trade started off nigeria abeg.

palm oil trade was introduced in place of the slave trade.

PhysicsQED:

This is really a ridiculous comparison. You say they were fed, but prior to the British conquest and amalgamation were any of these "South-South" groups starving? Was the groundnut in the north and elsewhere allowing those who produced it to live at some higher level of development? Were these "South-South" people "dependent" on northern farmers prior to the creation of the Nigerian state? Is this claim of East and West being dependent on groundnut and other Northern resource proceeds but the North not being dependent on proceeds from other parts of the country really to be believed in light of the crushing poverty widespread among much of the North? Was the palm oil trade that British traders were trying to control, and even crushed Benin to have unhindered access to, worth nothing?
I would very much like to see the specific figures and claims that have supposedly been compiled because what this man is saying sounds like fiction. As for the oil thing, your statement is not really correct,




As you can see, not only is there much oil in Southern Nigeria (that only shows some of the stuff being explored, not all of the oil) on land, but the oil offshore could not possibly fall under any region but the region closest to it if that region were to secede. And there is probably oil all over Southern Nigeria on land, the stuff being exploited is just in one specific area though, so that area is for the time being the goose that lays the black gold.

For a second I thought you were becomrich . I had to cross check the name.

@topic it doesn't matter whether the south was still an embryo in those years. . . all that matters is Ribadu is going to be president 2011

Groundnut and other crap werent half as important as rubber and oil palm in colonial times. Indeed, the Royal Niger company which formed the basis of Nigeria traded in only palm oil and slaves. It is important to note that the areas where Oil Palm grew and oil business was done were the Niger Delta and South Eastern Nigeria. There was no trade that was more important or more sustaining to the piece of land called Nigeria than palm oil, after palm oil there was no break to the discovery of crude oil in the 1950's.

Groundnuts never even fed camels, talkless of Nigeria.

you wish.

Peoples Argue recklessly.check historical records the north was wealthier than the south pre indpence days.as far As agrarian products were concerned they have always been more productive farmers. unfortunately black gold has blinded everyone even us in the south.

Ndu_Chuks da Ndu_Chuks. N na geshua alhaji. Ka na lahia ko ?

Na waa for you. Why is this oil so important to you ? Why do you think that you will all shrivel and die without oil ? Na waa for unu.

In my opinion, the north has so much potential, which you guys have refused to tap. Build the the right type of houses and your land scape will be a sight to behold. You have the type of weather that would guarantee a boom in tourism, something in the mould of kenya. All you need to do is to develop some game reserves and stop the mass murdering of innocent people at the drop of a hat. More education for your people wouldn't be a bad idea too.

Now, you and Ango make me laugh with this your groundnut angle. While your fore fathers were on a Jihad rampage back in the days, the dutch, Portuguese and the British were trying to out do each other for the oil coming from the south (the hinterland of south - call that east- in particular), so much that UK signed a treaty with King Jaja and recognising his kingdom of Opobo as a Kingdom all because of palm oil. It was also because of oil that they deposed and sent him on exile.

Coming back to recent history. Umuahia was the largest palm oil exporting hub in Africa -make that the entire world- until the civil war and there were many British companies in Umuahia doing nothing but oil trading (John Holt was the biggest of them all). Enugu coal fields were among the largest in Africa. The south as a whole had more important cash crops than the North so why are you shouting groundnut this and that ?

As for seceding and the north still benefitting from oil; do you really believe that the north could fight the whole south if it came to that ?

Beaf:

Only fools believe the tribalistic story that Ango Abdulahi and his ilk wish to spread. It is so funny that they attempt to twist history out of the bitterness that loss of power (which they think is their birthright) has brought.

Groundnut and other crap werent half as important as rubber and oil palm in colonial times. Indeed, the Royal Niger company which formed the basis of Nigeria traded in only palm oil and slaves. It is important to note that the areas where Oil Palm grew and oil business was done were the Niger Delta and South Eastern Nigeria. There was no trade that was more important or more sustaining to the piece of land called Nigeria than palm oil, after palm oil there was no break to the discovery of crude oil in the 1950's.

Groundnuts never even fed camels, talkless of Nigeria.

So all liars, tribalists, and similar fckers shame on you!

cheap lie

~Bluetooth:

cheap lie

When certain airheaded tribalists have nothing to contribute, they say things like the above. Sad.

Beaf:

When certain airheaded tribalists have nothing to contribute, they say things like the above. Sad.

I have told you to stop this your lies.Nigeria survived basically on cash crops exportation before oil was discovered.the list of crop below show their importance and how they have sustained Nigeria up till after independence:
*Cocoa
*palm kernel
*palm oil
*cotton
*groundnut
*Rubber
*sugar

@OP

Granted the fact I disliked the voices from the so-called south-south about crude oil for everything in today’s Nigeria, it was the combination of crude oil, treacherous southern Nigerians and northern region that foisted war against Biafra and created the so-called south-south.

~Bluetooth:

I have told you to stop this your lies.Nigeria survived basically on cash crops exportation before oil was discovered.the list of crop below show their importance and how they have sustained Nigeria up till after independence:
*Cocoa
*palm kernel
*palm oil
*cotton
*groundnut
*Rubber
*sugar

Verifiable facts are always better than guesswork. Here goes;

The Colonial Contest for the Nigerian Region 1884–1900: A history of German participation, by Olayemi Akinwumi.
Hamburg: LIT Verlag, Geschichte Band 43, 2002. 122 pp. €17.90 (paperback). ISBN 3-8258-6197

~Bluetooth:

I have told you to stop this your lies.Nigeria survived basically on cash crops exportation before oil was discovered.the list of crop below show their importance and how they have sustained Nigeria up till after independence:
*Cocoa
*palm kernel
*palm oil
*cotton
*groundnut
*Rubber
*sugar

What a load of misplaced conjectural crap. Cocoa only sustained western region not Nigeria. When Shell D’arcy requested for capital to sustain crude oil exploration in Southern Protectorate, I guess it was western region, with its cocoa, that cried poverty. I shall remind few loudmouths on this board that northern region and its groundnuts came to the rescue.

Dont mind these groundnut people. At the time they were producing groundnut, they were keeping 50% of the proceeds, but when we talk 13% dem go dey shout like no man business.

If they wanna see how poor a country supported by groundnut and Cashew is, they should go to Guinea Bissau.

We had Palm Oil production in South East region as well as Coal in Enugu, iron ore in Delta, tin in Jos, Cocoa in the West, whilst the middle Belt produced most of the cash crops. Meanwhile these desert dwellers in the core north are talking about groundnut whilst migrating South to Jos to steal land for their namas since they live in desert.

By the way Ndu-Chuks, before you start dragging oil rights, better go and helep your brothers wey flood wan kill, jus because una no sabi open ordinary gate for dam.

Anyways, my commiserations to them and I hope that the owners of the dams (state or federal) provide adequate aid and compensation to the affected people.

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1105ap_af_nigeria_floods.html

The OP is partially correct in his assessment that groundnut was a major source of Nigeria's foreign earnings pre-crude oil days.
Cocoa, groundnuts and palm products were the primary source of foreign earnings back then with cocoa and groundnut as the top earners followed by palm products.


Source: U.S. Library of Congress
http://countrystudies.us/nigeria/58.htm

Here is a snippet from the article.

Most Nigerians eat grains, but the production and consumption of sorghum (guinea corn) and millet are heavily concentrated in the savanna north. In 1980 the two grains accounted for 80 percent of Nigeria's total grain production. Corn production in the savanna middle belt benefits from heavier rainfall, which frequently permits two crops a year. The demand for rice, much of it imported, increased dramatically during the affluent 1970s, but had to be cut back during the foreign exchange shortages of the 1980s.
Cocoa and groundnuts were Nigeria's two major exports until petroleum surpassed both in 1965. Cocoa, cotton, groundnuts, oil palm products, and rubber were the principal export crops in the 1960s and early 1970s, but with export reorientation, only cocoa remained of any importance after 1975. Although Nigeria was the world's largest exporter of groundnuts in the early 1970s, groundnuts fell from the export list by the end of the 1970s as a result of the severe Sahel drought of 1972-74 and a viral disease in 1975. With assistance from the World Bank, the government restored cocoa production in the late 1970s and 1980s through replanting programs and producer price supports. The resulting increase in cocoa output (to 200,000 tons in 1988) kept Nigeria in third place among world cocoa producers, after Ivory Coast and Ghana.

Beaf:

Only fools believe the tribalistic story that Ango Abdulahi and his ilk wish to spread. It is so funny that they attempt to twist history out of the bitterness that loss of power (which they think is their birthright) has brought.

Groundnut and other crap werent half as important as rubber and oil palm in colonial times. Indeed, the Royal Niger company which formed the basis of Nigeria traded in only palm oil and slaves. It is important to note that the areas where Oil Palm grew and oil business was done were the Niger Delta and South Eastern Nigeria. There was no trade that was more important or more sustaining to the piece of land called Nigeria than palm oil, after palm oil there was no break to the discovery of crude oil in the 1950's.

Groundnuts never even fed camels, talkless of Nigeria.

Beaf, you are beginning to sound like a broken record and your write-up above is filled with elements of gross intellectual dishonesty. Those who are not lazy and would do the appropriate research will confirm that prior to the discovery of oil, Nigeria enjoyed the luxury of God blessing it with vast agricultural and solid mineral resources. Infact by 1960, Nigerian economy was driven largely by the non-oil sector, especially agriculture:

[list]
[li]Agriculture contributed 70 per cent of non oil GDP.[/li]
[li] Employed about 65 per cent of the total labour force [/li]
[li] The country enjoyed moderate standard of living; food self-sufficiency and was a net exporterof agricultural commodities. [/li]
[/list]

Let me add that most of the said Agric based economic activities took place in Northern Nigeria. Olodo.

FACE:

By the way Ndu-Chuks, before you start dragging oil rights, better go and helep your brothers wey flood wan kill, jus because una no sabi open ordinary gate for dam.

Anyways, my commiserations to them and I hope that the owners of the dams (state or federal) provide adequate aid and compensation to the affected people.

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1105ap_af_nigeria_floods.html

I share your concern for the flood victims. The culprit of the disasater is the Chief Engineer incharge of overseeing the activities that lead to the disaster. Guess what his first name is - Engr. Okechukwu. I have to believe that there was no conspiracy involved in the tragedy.

ndu_chucks:

Beaf, you are beginning to sound like a broken record and your write-up above is filled with elements of gross intellectual dishonesty. Those who are not lazy and would do the appropriate research will confirm that prior to the discovery of oil, Nigeria enjoyed the luxury of God blessing it with vast agricultural and solid mineral resources. Infact by 1960, Nigerian economy was driven largely by the non-oil sector, especially agriculture:

[list]
[li]Agriculture contributed 70 per cent of non oil GDP.[/li]
[li] Employed about 65 per cent of the total labour force [/li]
[li] The country enjoyed moderate standard of living; food self-sufficiency and was a net exporterof agricultural commodities. [/li]
[/list]

Let me add that most of the said Agric based economic activities took place in Northern Nigeria. Olodo.

You will find that I provided actual documentary evidence, while you have provided mere wishes and dreams. Ode buruku!
Your folk have been foolishly threatening to secede, so I guess you are here to parley and find out if anybody will be willing to hear one last sob story for some drops of oil before you head into the desert. Make una secede na, and live on groundnuts!

. . .Unfortunately for una, all the agriculture you talk about takes place in the Middle Belt, only sand de grow for una area. So secede, let us see.

Rakumin dajij.

Dede1:

@OP

Granted the fact I disliked the voices from the so-called south-south about crude oil for everything in today’s Nigeria, it was the combination of crude oil, treacherous southern Nigerians and northern region that foisted war against Biafra and created the so-called south-south.

Stop your relentless attempt at rewriting Nigerian history. First of all, Biafra did not exist prior to the war, and has never existed as a nation, recognized by UN or any other credible foreign body.

I am disappointed that you can publicly and boldly insinuate that Chukwuma Kaduna was a treacherous southern Nigerian and also that Ojukwu, was a treacherous southern Nigeria. Most would agree that these 2 names cannot be omitted when naming some southerners whose actions significantly contributed, to say the least, to the civil war.

Beaf:

You will find that I provided actual documentary evidence, while you have provided mere wishes and dreams. Ode buruku!
Your folk have been foolishly threatening to secede, so I guess you are here to parley and find out if anybody will be willing to hear one last sob story for some drops of oil before you head into the desert. Make una secede na, and live on groundnuts!

. . .Unfortunately for una, all the agriculture you talk about takes place in the Middle Belt, only sand de grow for una area. So secede, let us see.

If your documentary evidence was from accounts given by Sir George Goldie, then you should go and hide your head in the sand, in shame! Please quote reliable authors if you want to be taken seriously.


I will return shortly to show you the fallacy of your claims in several posts, of northern parasitism. If anybody be parasite, na all of una. I dey come.

^
And you think your wishes and wild imagination by some miracle, carries more authority than Sir George Goldie (who by co-authored with J.E. Flinch)?

Wonders shall never cease!

Beaf:

Verifiable facts are always better than guesswork. Here goes;

The Colonial Contest for the Nigerian Region 1884–1900: A history of German participation, by Olayemi Akinwumi.
Hamburg: LIT Verlag, Geschichte Band 43, 2002. 122 pp. €17.90 (paperback). ISBN 3-8258-6197

http://www.essay-911.com/samples/economy-nigeria.htm

•Economic history

The modern economy of Nigeria started with palm oil trade that forced out slave trade at the beginning of the 19-th century and initiated the export of Nigerian

raw materials in exchange for the import of British industrial goods. After the year 1853 the export of cacao and peanuts brought a

greater income than the export of palm oil.  In the 20-th century pat, tin, wood and skins became the most important items of Nigerian export. In

1901 the oil was found in Nigeria, but the export of crude oil began only in 1958 and in 10 years it became the main source of currency income in Nigeria.

I hope beaf can now see that oil palm was  useless and worthless and only cocoa and groundnut actually brought greater wealth to nigeria as far back the

year 1853 

groundnuts are an extremely important crop.

No there was no south south before.

~Bluetooth:

http://www.essay-911.com/samples/economy-nigeria.htm

•Economic history

The modern economy of Nigeria started with palm oil trade that forced out slave trade at the beginning of the 19-th century and initiated the export of Nigerian

raw materials in exchange for the import of British industrial goods. After the year 1853 the export of cacao and peanuts brought a

greater income than the export of palm oil.  In the 20-th century pat, tin, wood and skins became the most important items of Nigerian export. In

1901 the oil was found in Nigeria, but the export of crude oil began only in 1958 and in 10 years it became the main source of currency income in Nigeria.

I hope beaf can now see that oil palm was  useless and worthless and only cocoa and groundnut actually brought greater wealth to nigeria as far back the

year 1853   

The bit in red makes your post utterly funny. Please quote reputable sources, not sample essays.