alj harem:

LOL at 100 % Igbo

Maybe you need to educate yourself

http://www.scribd.com/doc/75837782/Bit-About-Eastern-Ijaw-People

shymmex:

I know a guy who's from Agor or abor - and every time people call him Igbo, he's always quick to correct them.... I will tell him about this forum - so, he can tell everyone if he's Igbo, or not.

shymmex:

I know a guy who's from Agor or abor - and every time people call him Igbo, he's always quick to correct them.... I will tell him about this forum - so, he can tell everyone if he's Igbo, or not.

shymmex:

I know a guy who's from Agor or abor - and every time people call him Igbo, he's always quick to correct them.... I will tell him about this forum - so, he can tell everyone if he's Igbo, or not.

alj harem: [size=18pt]We are not Igbos the bitter truth[/size]


I condemn in totality, the attempt of many people outside the Anioma region trying to re-write the history of the ethnic group as no group from the outside can re-write our history. The Aniocha, Ika, Oshimili, Ndokwa, Ukwani are one indivisible people with one destiny called Anioma, and located within the south-Southern region of Delta State Nigeria.

There is nothing controversial about the history of Anioma people as the Igbo make us believe. No single ethnic nation can lay claim to the ownership of the region because the people are entirely distinct and distinctive like other ethnic groups in the country. Even the vast humans and personalities produced over the thing by the Anioma ethnic group cannot be overwhelmed by any single or group of ethnic groups because we deserve to be known as we desire.

Other ethnic groups apart from the Igbo have since recognized the Anioma as being distinct from what anyone can call “sub” A long time ago our fathers, the founder of Anioma realized the difficulty of going with any one group in the country because it would amount to marginalization and thought up the political idea of “Anioma” Anioma no matter what you think refers political and cultural quadrants of Aniocha, Ndokwa, Ika and Oshimili. A people are defined and made to be what they say are, in the light of this no group, large or small possess any moral right to re-define the social and political destiny of people. We, the people of Anioma are defined by our culture, tradition, history and geography and we cannot be geographically re-situated because we were in the first place made to naturally so by the almighty God.

We do know that Anioma people have the feature of diverse origins but we have become united by culture and history and nothing, I repeat nothing can change this development. The culture we have developed have now become distinct from those of others, and nothing can explain this in the contrary. No individual or group of people can write our history better than us because we understand ourselves better than them from the outside do. We inhabit the West and they inhabit the East, we are situated in the South-south geo-political zone today as defined by the Federal Government of Nigeria, while they inhabit the South-East geo-political zone. We have since sacrificed a lot to them, while we have benefited nothing from them.

We are in the eyes “fake Igbo” while they are their eyes “core Igbo,” they call themselves “Igbo” and call us “Delta Igbo” In 1967, they did not consider at all that we were Igbo when Republic of Biafra was declared, Bifra started from Onitsha and ended just before Cameroon but when more men were needed to fight, we hurriedly became Biafrans. When the issue of State creation in Nigeria re-surfaced we once again became South-southerners which we truly are. This is enough to let us stay on our own, every Anioma person(s) who continue to attend Ohaneze Ndiigbo and try to force it on us should first of all open the agenda of Ohaneze and tell us their plans for us.

They use linguistics to want to force us to agree that we are what they have devised as “Igboid” but we know that though Igbo language is intelligible to all in Anioma, more than half of the people of this ethnicity speak languages that are related to Edo, Igala, Idoma, old Yoruba etc which if expressed an Igboman from South-east will not understand. It is very vexation to remember that the people of South-east went to war with Nigeria in 1967 because they felt they were not Nigerian but Biafrans and today they try forcefully identifying us as Igbo only orally and on papers, and then denying us of this when it matters. Linguistics alone cannot justify the ethnicity of any group. Similarity in names too cannot justify homogeneity in ethnicity.

If you have ever heard of Ezechime, then realize that this Diokpa from Benin Kingdom now in Edo State is progenitor of many Anioma communities too numerous to mention here such as Onitsha in Present Anambra State, Onicha-Ugbo, Onicha-Olona, Issele-Uku, Issele-Mkpitime, Obamkpa, etc but the problem the people of Anioma have at the moment is that the ethnicity did not fit into the early ethnography’s invention of ethnic identities in Nigeria. There are some towns and communities in Anioma whose history laid claim to originating from Igboland notably Ibusa and Asaba but not all Anioma people are Igbo. The Agbor (Ika) are far from being Igbo as their progenitor arrived from Edo may centuries ago to found the communities.

If the Igbo cannot help us realize our long sought dream of Anioma State, they should leave us alone and not bother us with whether we are Igbo or not, this is no longer important in our history since we have since revolved our own distinct kind of history, linguistic and culture, capable of advancing us. “Anioma people are now a special breed, endowed with intellectual gift… today, Anioma people are using that gift of intellect to make contributions to democracy and national unity in Nigeria and around the world. This commendation is a testimony of many of the contributions Anioma women, have made over the years in Nigeria and elsewhere (Challenges to Democracy and National Unity in Nigeria: The Case Study of Anioma People, Sadiq A. Abdullahi)

We have been marginalized by the Federal Government and Igbo ethnic group who have constantly denied us of the creation of Anioma State, and our own neighbouring ethnic groups but we know that the visions of our leaders shall never be undermined. We have no inheritance in whatever ethnic group near or close that want us only in terms of population to politically score a point and seek to outsmart other ethnic groups in the country. And all of you who are seeking to reverse or turn back the hand of our history by writing our history in Wikipedia.org and else where we admonish you to keep away from seeking to attempt to turn back the hand of clock. Our own is our own, and your own is your own. Leave us alone and let us grow.

http://www.contour2002.org/article/between-ndiigbo-and-anioma-the-bitter-truth

Andre Uweh:
Igbo people in Anioma, enjoy.

alj harem: Ika is not Igbo stop claiming

I wonder what these igbos wants go gain by trying to liken the ika people(agbor.Umunede,owa etc) to be igbos.Everywhere i go these igbos keep saying this nauseous trash.For the fact that our people allowed the igbos to migrate in mass to our land does not now mean that we are igbos.Pls the ikas can never be igbos.God forbid that we will join the igbos.Dodo umunem do nim kwe ni enyi ele ndigbo.Abi ndiigbome.Lol.My fellow ika brothers help me speak this out.We are bini not igbos.Tnks

https://www.nairaland.com/392463/why-ika-nation-can-never

Andre Uweh:

Enjoy

alj harem:

LOL Just as Nupe is yoruba. Enjoy

Anioma: Igbos Leave Us Alone!

I want to preface this write-up by emphatically stating that we are “Anioma,” our region can and should only be correctly referred to as “Anioma” and not “Western Igbos,” “Ika Igbos” or even “Delta Igbo,” all of which presage nothing but “fake Igbos.” Care should also be taken not to refer to us as “Delta North” as we have never heard of “Ebonyi East,” “Lagos North” or “Sokoto South” these derogatory and discriminatory references are threateningly tending to overshadow and send our prestigious name, Anioma to its early grave, so the proper usage of this name is of uttermost concern to me.


Contrary to prevailing circumstances and dilemma which relegate us to the background in Delta State and Igbo politics, such as poor representation in political affairs of the State, lack of amenities, ethnic identity crisis, deliberate marginalization, abandonment by our Igbo kiths and kin from the South East etc, we know we are still a great nation to reckon with. This write-up will therefore focus on the two factors which have been egregiously and heavily weighing down the Anioma ethnicity, and at best have prevented us from finding our bearing, how our Anioma region with innumerable associations, countless social groups, technocrats, political office holders, professionals of Anioma extraction, etc have contributed to the disgraceful predicament of the present state of the region.


The first and major issue of dilemma confronting this region is the problem of ethnic identity, the present state of the region weakened by abandonment and lack of vision has again raised the question on whether Anioma people are Igbo or not. This question has generated a lot of debates in the past and present, and will continue to do so even as it hampers growth and development in this region and presents us with nothing but pauperization. I make bold to comment that the attitude of the Igbo of South East to their Anioma counterparts have not really justified that Anioma are Igbo except on papers, and that if ever the people South East deem this necessary, they have always relied and ended such only with historical support and not more, however actions have failed to justify this.


Evidently the Igbo will always count on us to support the large population density of the entire Igbo nation by for instance stating that the Igbo are 40 million if a thorough and unbiased population census is organized in Nigeria but it does not go beyond this. An Igbo may also want to merely count on similar names existing between the Igbo and Anioma as a reason for justifying the Igboid relationship with both regions, but ask an Anioma just what he has gained from the South East; he looks at you endlessly and tells you “nothing.” We have been in this situation for long, so it is not in the least surprising. The Igbo are taught in school that the Igbo are only in South East, in this case what happen to others? It is for this reason that the phrase “core Igbo” exists in our dictionary today.


I am still racking my brain to remember the last time any Governor from the South Eastern part of the nation officially visited the Anioma region even if it is solidarity one. The place of issues bothering on Anioma is what is missing in Ohaneze Ndiigbo’s agenda, do we not know this? Interestingly, the Igbo have in some way been frustrating the race for the actualization of Anioma State because to them there is no reason why the State should emerge, this apparent when a committee headed by Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu on State creation for the Igbo completely and arbitrarily ruled out the choice of Anioma State for the Igbo because according to them this could mean another State for the South-South geo-political region, but right senses accord us the knowledge that the emergence of Anioma State would make a sixth State for the South East, if the Igbo so desire it to be, Is Onitsha today a community within the South East not an Anioma community I ask? We may for certain reasons, clear or unclear ignore this but history will not because no one can turn back the hand of clock. An Anioma State would have been a full-fledged Igbo State for the Igbo, the great Chuba Okadigbo realized this before his death.


It is a fact that the Anioma people have never been in the agenda of the Igbo contrary to what an Igbo writer like Ogaranya Uju Nkwocha Afuleze tries to force down into our throats. We have now deeply understood from Emma Okocha that when the Republic of Biafra was declared as a secessionist State from Nigeria by Chukwuemeka Odimegwu-Ojukwu, Anioma was not included in the maps of Biafra, instead the declaration only claimed Onitsha, a part of Anioma community now lost to the South East but in the pogrom that accompanied this, Northerners did not spare Anioma people because historically, and to the best of their knowledge, Anioma are completely part of Igbo nation, the result was that we shared in the killings and maiming.


Some Igbo Historians have argued that the events that led to the civil war was caused by the Late Chukwuma Nzeogwu but these Historians fail to understand that first and foremost, Nzeogwu was not the leader of that coup, again he (Nzeogwu) only acted in reciprocity of the bad treatment and marginalization being manufactured by the Northerners and targeted at the Igbo, a race he felt he was part and parcel of but when the battle line was drawn, he quickly realized that he was not in the arrangement of Ojukwu when he was ostracized from the affairs of the then Biafran Republic. I have lost count of the number of Army Commanders of Anioma extraction Biafra had. We died for the lived and died for the Igbo during the Nigeria-Biafra War, in the history of the Biafran War today, there is no Igbo community singly or put together that died as a result of organized massacres than the Anioma communities.


Yet the rejection of Anioma people as proper Igbo or as “fake Igbo” peoplewho cannot speak Igbo properly has continued to this day.


“Again in the 2007 election, as a prelude to that charade, Prof. Pat Utomi {from Ibusa}, whose wife is from the East, went to OHANAEZE to solicit for support for his presidential ambition. Chief Orji Uzor Kalu also went to solicit for his too. A section of OHANAEZE that rejected Pat Utomi, gave me a terrible food for thought. One of them, according to some daily Nigerian newspapers’ reports, hankered abject adroitly : “Is he really a proper Igbo man? Look at him, he cannot even speak Igbo properly.” Others even insinuated that his name did not sound Igbo. I was shocked to the bone marrow. I couldn’t believe what I was reading from prominent Igbo citizens.

Instead of asking the two candidates to present their programmes and manifestoes, they were busy hankering on whether one of them is a “proper Igbo” or not. I was shocked of words. If any Igbo person does not know the meaning of Utomi, then that person should take a suicidal dive into the river Niger.” (Igbos of Delta State and Crisis of Identity (Conclusion) by Ephraim Adinlofu

Interestingly, Pat Utomi is a member of Ohaneze Ndiigbo. We should never beg the Igbo to accept us as their kiths and kin rather the Anioma leaders should devise ways of wining the battles by taking the fate of the region in their hands, is the region must succeed. The status of Anioma is not strange in the polity of Nigeria, consider the seeming ethnic affinity existing between the Isoko and Urhobo, yet the Nigerian constitution and people recognize these as two distinct ethnic groups in the country. The case of Itsekiri who mixed with Benin and Yoruba as the Anioma are mixture of Bini and Igbo is also a case study here, the Itsekiri people are today distinctly an ethnic group separate from the Yoruba as well as Bini. When Peter Okocha was stabbed in the back, Ohaneze never collectively took up his course and addressed it. Instead he was abandoned to his fate.

It is for this reason that I totally disagree with the view of Ogaranya Uju Nkwucha Afuleze linking ethnicity to divinity thus:

“First, it is not up to them to say what they are and what they are not. When God created them, He did not ask them who they wanted to be. He just created them Igbo. The only way you'll know who belongs to what ethnic group in Nigeria is the name and what language the name comes from. Anybody whose name is Amadi or Onyeri, or Eke, or Odili, Wanodi (Nwanodi) does not need to tell you who he is. He is Igbo, his politics notwithstanding”

Perhaps I am the only one in this whole universe who knows that the activities of European Missionaries to Nigeria altered ethnicity and tribes in the country either due to their lack of understandings of these tribes or as a deliberate means of achieving their selfish aims and objects. And this act extends beyond the Nigerian confines. Much of the countries we today refer to as Arabs were never Arabs but were arabized, typical of these countries are Egypt, Syria, and Iran etc.

If a true organization capable of articulating the answers, responses and solutions to the challenges confronting the Anioma ethnicity emerges, the question of whether Anioma are Igbo or not will become a thing of past. This will also take care of the lack of leadership problem challenging the region today as a second factor confronting Anioma. If Ohaneze, Arewa and Oodua exist in Igbo land, North part of the nation and among the Yoruba, why cannot Anioma people sit down and devise a forum for championing the course of the region instead of relying on the Ohaneze’s assistances which never comes anyway?

The fate of Anioma people in the hands of Ijaw, Urhobo, Isoko and Itsekiri also need to be addressed. These our brothers in what is believed to be their own Delta State have arrogantly dominated us since the creation of State. While there is nothing to show in Anioma as part of Delta State, there is everything in these other areas to show they are the “core Deltans” At least warri is the unofficial and economic capital of the State while Oghara is the administrative capital. Chief Ibori made them so. This is purely because we are considered Delta Igbo in foreign lands. The Anioma people need to work harder towards the actualization of Anioma State, and only this will make our crisis of identity a thing of the past

http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/anioma-igbo-ijaw-itsekiri-urhobo-isoko-leave-us-alone-650412.html

alj harem:

LOOL are you minding them. Even Onitsha people are not Igbo

afam4eva:

You should have picked Ndoki. Al_harem has already chosen Agbor. Your lies can't look identical now. Spice it up a lil bit.

alj harem:

I am enjoying it, you can enjoy this as well

Andre Uweh:
Enjoy

alj harem:

It even get better I never even know say Ndokwa done disown una

LOL ROMFLAO !!!!!!!!

[size=13pt]Ndokwa not Igbo [/size]
By Omenazu Ofili

MR. Ikebudu’s letter to the Editor titled Re: The position of Ukwuani in the Delta Maze in the Vanguard of Monday, September 4, 2006, made a sorry reading, what with his indictment of his ethnic stock. The letter was a response to Francis Uchekaogwu’s piece, Locating Ndokwa in the Delta maze, which featured in the Vanguard of Thursday, August 31, 2006. Ikebudu chided Uchekaogwu for “wondering at both the source and incidence of the problem which he and his likes are consciously and unconsciously fueling". He dismissed the problem of identity of the Ukwuani as artificially created by a ridiculous denial of their Igbo roots, the aftermath, according to him, of a government-imposed Igbo defeat complex syndrome. Thus, in Ikebudu’s opinion, the bane of underdevelopment and other problems in Ndokwa is their denial of their alleged Igboness.

Ikebudu apparently appeared to be confusing issues. Why do Igbos like him blame their tribal shortcomings and failures on a supposed government anti-Igboism? Why do they still see themselves as still suffering from the defeat in the civil war of late 1960s when other tribes who were on the same Biafran side have since put the war behind them, preferring to chart a new course for themselves? If Ikebudu appreciates his indictment of his tribe as extremely selfish, with innumerable mannerisms that can asphyxiate any right thinking person, then, he ought not blame a government-imposed defeatist syndrome for the woes of the Igbo.


The Ukwuani or Ndokwa man does not share any of these traits with the Igbo. They lack the selfish aggression of the Igbo. Neither have they ever seen themselves as Igbo, right from pre-colonial times. A walk through history’s lane of antiquity will reveal that they cherish and treasure their Ukwuaniness. It did not start in the 1960s; so it cannot be dismissed as self (Igbo) denial arising from a defeatist complex. Neither can it be waved aside as distancing from the Igbo stock in the hope of tremendously enhancing economic fortunes since our pride of ancestry as Ukwuani did not start with the creation of states or the discovery of oil.


Ukwuani is a unique and distinct language created and endowed by God on the Ukwuani people. Its similarity with any other language should not be taken for sameness, just as the similarity of most extant European languages with Latin or with one another does not confer synonymity on them. Austria is not Germany, neither is Portuguese, Spanish nor Dutch Afrikaans. Ukwuani language is the very essence of our Ukwuaniness and we all have a duty to project and protect it. In spite of the lingual affinity, the average Ukwuani man does not see himself as an Igbo. A generalized grouping that does not take into cognizance the feeling and conviction of the Ukwuani man on this issue of identity does not change his perception. Until slave trade, colonialism, Christianity and globalization, the Ukwuani man had very little to do with the Igbo. They were mutually apart, mutually unintelligible in language and each maintained its prejudices against the other. Both have a separate identity, which should be recognized and respected. People should, therefore, beware of ascribing an identity to a person different from what that person likes to be identified as.


The language similarity often resulted in people erroneously categorising the Ukwuani as Igbo or a sub-culture of the Igbo, just as they have been ethnically mistaken for some of their neighbours like the Isoko and Urhobo. The average Ukwuani man, however, has never seen or identified himself as Igbo. Neither did he understand the Igbo language. In fact, Igboland was a distant territory until colonialism and globalisation resulted in increased contact and interaction between both peoples. Dr. S. N. Nwabara observed in Iboland: A Century of Contact with Britain 1860-1960, that until recently, the name Igbo, was not shared by all Ibo speaking peoples.


The riverain peoples occupying the banks of the Niger, including the Ndokwa, referred to the Ibo hinterland as Ndigbo and to themselves as Ndimili (Ndosumili) or Ndiolu. There exist substantial differences between Igbo and Ukwuani people. The low level of mutual intelligibility and diverse cultural disparities mark the Ukwuani out as a distinct ethnic group. It was in this light that Hon. Ossai N. Ossai, member representing Ndokwa West constituency in the Delta State House of Assembly, moved a motion in 2003 for the official recognition of Ndokwa (Ndosumili and Ukwuani) ethnic identity through the transmission of communication about state matters in their language. The motion received near-unanimous acclamation with only one dissenting voice. It is only fair to concede to the Ukwuani the right to self-determination to choose an identity for themselves.

Andre Uweh:
Enjoy

alj harem:

More pics please

Andre Uweh:
Interprete what this Delta Igbo motto is

alj harem:

LOOL are you minding them. Even Onitsha people are not Igbo

sosodat:


@above,

Yeah, Onitsha, Imo, Anambra, Enugu, Abia everywhere all the southeast are not Igbo, alhaji harem is probably that which is Igbo in Nigeria....hope you're now happy ....Ode

zeeleso: THE general belief held by most southerners about the North is that the region is not just mainly Muslim, but wholly Muslim. Whenever I meet someone from the South and introduce myself, I am correctly placed as a Christian. But once I am asked my state and I say Borno State, the next question becomes, ‘Are you a Muslim?’ This is despite my name being a very common Biblical name, Mark, which is the second Gospel. Matter of fact, I have been asked that question while attending a church programme, with a Bible conspicuously held in my hands. You could imagine my surprise at that question. This has also been the experience of a lot of friends with common names such as ‘Emmanuel’, ‘Daniel’, etc.

To start with, out of the 19 Northern states, at least five have a majority Christian population: Plateau, Adamawa, Nassarawa, Taraba and Benue. At least six more have at least 40 per cent Christian population. These states include Niger, Gombe, Kaduna, Kogi, Kwara and either Borno or Bauchi. That then leaves only Kano, Kebbi, Katsina, Jigawa, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara as having Muslim populations above 60 per cent. How then are we all seen as Muslims?This misconception could be excused when the person has an Arabic name, as there are many Northern Christians who bear names such as Jamila, Habiba, Halima, Sadiq, and Yunusa and so on. But when the person has an obvious Christian name and is even attends church services, you really begin to wonder.

Another common perception of the North is that we are all Hausa. My usual response to this is to borrow the logical argument of Simon Kolawole, the Editor-in-Chief of THISDay Newspapers. In an article in which he attempted to educate his largely southern readership base about the North, he went thus:

“If out of the estimated 250 tribes in Nigeria, we can say that the South-West is mainly Yoruba with a few other tribes around Badagry area, the South-East wholly Igbo and the South-South being most diverse in the South with about 40 tribes, that still leaves the remaining 200 tribes in the North.”

How then are we reduced to one single ethnic group, Hausa? It is only the North-West that is close to being homogenous, mainly Hausa and Fulan[/b]i, but with still some minority tribes in the Zuru area of Kebbi State and the multi-diverse Southern Kaduna. The [b]North-East and North-Central is filled with tribes, many of whom I have never even heard of. For example, Adamawa State is so diverse that the largest ethnic group, the Fulani, is just three per cent of the entire population. In my home state of Borno, there is a local government so diverse that from one village to another, you are likely to meet an entirely different ethnic group. The number of tribes there are so many that we just address the people as ‘Gwoza people’, after the name of the local government.

Even though we all speak Hausa as a lingua franca in order to communicate amongst ourselves as trading partners over the centuries, that doesn’t make us Hausa people as much as communicating English doesn’t make you and I English people. As a matter of fact, in the North-East, Hausa people are a minority and virtually non-existent in the North-Central region.

Now, this is one belief that whenever I am confronted with, it takes me a great deal of self-control not to flip out and lose my temper.

Times without number, when I tell people I am from Borno State, I am asked how come I speak such good English. What the hell? What am I supposed to speak? Arabic? The general expectation is that someone from the North is not supposed to be this learned, this well-spoken and articulate in English, this knowledgeable. I remember when a friend asked me if my mother went to school, and the surprised look on his face when I told him that my mum earned her masters’ degree over 20 years ago. There was also a time when my dad met someone at the Lagos International Airport and they got talking. When my dad told him his profession, the man, in a fit of surprise, exclaimed, ‘I didn’t know that there were professors in the North’.

I admit the fact that the North lags behind the South educationally, especially the North-West and the North-East. But this is not due to our inability to comprehend what we are being taught, but rather[b] due to the incompetence of leadership in the region to give education its premium importance[/b] as a form of human development. We, like every other human being on the face of this earth, can excel when given the opportunity. Talent and intellect abounds everywhere. Opportunity, however, does not. I personally know of many northerners who have excelled nationally and internationally. Daily, the story of young men like Ahmed Mukoshy, who is born, bred and schooled in Sokoto, and yet, rose above his environment to become one of the emerging forces in IT in this country in his early 20s inspires me. This is just one example among many that I could cite but for the lack of space.

I find it outright disgusting whenever people claim that if not for federal character and ‘zoning’, no northerner would be able to compete in this country. Last week, I was shocked when a friend said only 10 per cent of northerners in the Federal Civil Service deserved their places on merit, and went on to add that if he had not known me personally and I were to get a job with the Federal Government, he would believe that I did not earn it on merit.

The most ridiculous one I encountered was when earlier this year, former Minister of Finance, Dr Mansur Mukhtar was appointed a World Bank director. Most of the commentators on the 234Next article announcing this achievement for this Nigerian and Nigeria made the ludicrous assertion that the appointment was done to please the North, that Dr Mukhtar did not merit it. Little did they know that Dr Mukhtar had worked at the World Bank and the African Development Bank, prior to his heading Nigeria’s Budget Office on the invitation of the then and present Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and former World Bank Managing Director, who also recommended him for the post of Finance Minister when she rejected former President Umaru Yar’adua’s invitation to join his government. What is even worse is that they did not care to know: their minds were already made up and could not be confused with the facts.

Another common belief among southerners and most especially spread by southern newspapers is that the entire 19 Northern states act and think as one when it comes to issues of Northern politics. This is one of the biggest untruths about the North. Whenever northern Nigeria is mentioned, the people of Benue, Kogi and Kwara states do not feel it refers to them. Geographically, they are part of the North; politically, however, they and the entire Middle-Belt act independently. This can be clearly in the last elections where President Goodluck Jonathan won in 7 Northern states, even against his strongest opponent, General Muhammadu Buhari, who is a northerner. This was something I am sure a lot of people in the South, save for the political savvy, did not see coming.

One common sight of this perception being entrenched by newspapers is when politicians of Northern extraction speak on national issues. I have innumerably seen a washed-out Northern politician, without any influence or popularity speak regarding an issue, and the next day, newspapers carry bold headlines saying, ‘North rejects this’ or ‘North plans to do that’, quoting the same washed-out politician as speaking for the entire North. I have rarely seen a Bola Tinubu speaking and being quoted as the mouthpiece of the entire Yoruba ethnic group, or a Chief Edwin Clark for the Ijaw people. Methinks this is a way of selling newspapers by capitalizing on the image of the North as one single, political force which moves in a particular direction all-together

Admittedly, as people of the same region, we share a lot in common culturally and socially in the general terms: our mannerisms, modes of dressing, traditional titles (apart from paramount rulers with the exception of emirates), etc. Despite that, the Jukun in Taraba and the Kataf in Kaduna are very different in the specifics, as even the Bura and Marghi people of Borno/Adamawa States. To pick the attitude of one ethnic group in the North and attach it to all the others, is to put it mildly, a very short-sighted way of knowing and understanding the people of Northern Nigeria.

Another belief in the South is that the entire North is but an empty landmass with nothing but trees.I remember the controversy of the 2006 census when Kano State was said to have a slightly higher population than Lagos State. Many of my southern friends called it ‘an impossibility’. In the words of one of them, ‘Lagos is so populated that when you throw grains of rice into the air, they wouldn’t land on the ground, but on people’. However, they all forgot to factor in land mass, because Lagos State is a much smaller state than Kano State, and hence has the highest population density in Nigeria, hence making it look as though it was way more populated.
http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/politics/39214-the-north-that-southerners-dont-know