firstly ,i do not believe that the antagonism between the ijaw and other south south minorities on one hand and the igbo {south east} on the other is as bad as some igbo think. the igbo would definitely want us to be more united however like I've stated in my earlier post if the only goal of achieving better unity is biafra then it probably
will not improve much for now because the greatest fear the rest of Nigeria and the south south have regarding igbo is IGBO DOMINANCE .
the white man says "perception is reality" and the igbo on nairaland may say they don't wish to dominate anybody but we all know how an igbo man can come into yur vicinity to trade and take over yur village .what is actually a brilliant trait could also be a hindrance {just like the Jews are perceived worldwide }.the Jews have also been persecuted worldwide partly because of the same gift of industry .
as far as the current relationship btw igbo and ijaw there are lots of igbo doing ,business's in rivers state ,bayelsa
warri etc infact lots of igbo own shops in yenagoa .even in the rural areas of rivers and bayelsa there are igbos living and conducting business peacefully .the high rates of intermarriage also shows that the perceived antagonism is not so bad .i personally do not believe that in Nigeria today the ijaw have less affection for the igbo than any other majority ethnicity .
the civil war also strained political relationships between both groups . hopefully people are healing .and my igbo cousins should realise that the ijaw also lost people who fought for biafra.
i would like to know the igbo view on this "antagonism".

@ kobojunkie ,
you live in america so you should be better versed on human rights .if you want to debate with a people dont you think you should accord them that respect and call them'' igbo ''as they wish to be called? if i had to give points for this debate you already flunked since you dont even know the correct name of the people you want to debate with FYI.

@ chinenye ,thanks for yur expose on the term igboid and the contest in which you have used it. to answer your first question about igbo been indigent to opobo and bonny .i already stated in my earlier write up about the main founder been an ngwa man and going by this ,there definitely are indigent igbo.mr founder probably came with some kinsmen and wives and kids.
          as to your second question about ibani people acknowledging the ngwa founder .there are some that may acknowledge this but given the issue of multiple migrations and  sociopolitics not all ibani people may acknowledge this . opobo people came from bonny and they acknowledge king jaja as their founder. another fact which i did not mention was that prior to the advent of slave trade the main language spoken in bonny was the ibani language however this language was mostly lost and replaced with igbo when bonny became a major slave and oil palm export zone in other words bonny became a commercial nerve center and igbo bieng a trade language substituted 
the ibani lect .however even the ibani lect already had a lot of igbo influence and up till today kalabari,okrika,and ibani languages have a lot of igbo influence /loan words.infact almost all rivers state groups and even bayelsa ijaw groups have had their language influenced by igbo.
as for kalabari people ,the story is of thier origin while also similar to the ibani in terms of migrations is a bit more complex and has some significant differences . that would be another days tale .

@ABAGWORO  I'm sorry for generalising but there are some igbo people who maintain that most of rivers state is igbo and this includes kalabari ,ibani,abua,engenne ,ekpeye etc whether this is borne  out of ignorance or fact is disputable
i do know that most ibani {bonny and opobo ] and kalabari people have igbo ancestry through acculturated slaves and according to various  documented accounts most of these islands originally had fewer than a thousand people however slaves from  the igbo hinterland and other places including ijawland  were used  to populate these places and help in the growth of the ''HOUSE SYSTEM''. this in addition to migrant igbo ,efik,aro ,ibibio and ijaw traders/fishermen helped to build the population.

          most  ikwerre and some ika  amongst others have maintained they are not igbo and as long as some igbo keep insisting they are then it appears that some igbo are forcefully trying to get them to acknowledge igbo ethnicity .please note that i am not here to argue about who is wrong or right ,i am  just pointing out the fact that this is  a controversial  issue .
  @ABADAM it really doesn't matter what the rest of Nigeria calls us there is nothing wrong with being igbo and i have pointed out that most rivers state groups actually do have a relationship with igbo. so trust me iam not afraid to be called igbo i am just contributing my quota to this discussion  which as topic says ''origin of the igbo and their ''NEIGHBOURS'',and also trying to set certain facts straight .i have always maintained that ethnicity has  a lot to do with identity besides culture , language, shared history and ancestry and ethnic borders are fluid /dynamic and are also subject to politics and socioeconomics

@CHINEYE ,your post on langage is interesting ,but at what point is a language a dialect of another or  a lect of its own . herein lies the contention of some of these groups of people that you classify igbo/igboid.most bonny and opobo people speak igbo the central type of igbo but with a  different accent . a few of them speak the ibani [an ijoid language]  which is similar to the  okrika and kalabari language  ,and some opobo people speak efik .their ancestry as i have pointed out is similar to the okrika with migrants from different places  including igboland . infact it   has been  said  that the  main founder of bonny was an igbo hunter / fisherman from ngwa . however most of them bear ibani names and have English last names a few of them bear igbo names . in opobo a form of greeting/identification  is umu-afor ubani which is igbo [  the opobo people are actually  people from bonny ,the anna pepple house who left main stream bonny under the leadership of king jaja a well known former acculturated igbo slave due to internal wranglings in bonny .he left to form the town of opobo and became king . so chineye  would you call the opobo and the bonny ijaw or igbo or efik or what ?

@OW11 ,
i have read the book where abagworo got some of this information from. the book is titled tribes of the lower Niger delta .and is available on line .i do know that there are lots of okrika families  who migrated from igbo land and  there are parts of okrika where igbo/a mixed language of igbo and okrika  is spoken as a first language e.g in ogan ama and george ama ,even in amadi ama .a lot of okrika families also bear igbo names e.g wachukwu ,ibanichuka ,olunwa , amadi, olungwe and okujagu families to name a few .however not all okrika people migrated from igboland. there where also migrants from ijaw land specifically the amassoma community and  of course other aro migrants and migrant izon [ijaw fishermen].what we need to understand is that the various ethnicity's have experienced population growth and are not what they where in the days of our forefathers .in those days some ethnic groups or subgroups consisted of   just a few thousand people .  and okrika as a subgroup of the ijaw /ibo at that time was not the okrika nation  as it is today. 
@ABAGWORO however even the author of that book claimed that it was difficult to accurately verify a lot   of THE INFORMATION SINCE A LOT OF IT WAS ORAL HISTORY AND EVEN AT THAT TIME PEOPLE FROM ONE ETHNIC GROUP GAVE CONFLICTING REPORTS .THEREFORE THE AUTHOR HIMSELF CAST ASPERSIONS ON SOME OF THESE CLAIMS .its interesting that the author wanted to group everyone into two  broad categories ijaw and igbo .but we know that there are ethnicity's in the  Niger delta  that are neither ijaw no igbo .prior to the civil war the igbo was the dominant group in the southeast and there were groups that sought to  identified more with igbo e.g via names, intermarriage,speaking igbo as a mixed or second language  etc however after the war these groups have now come to assert there identity and/or  have aligned with other larger groups.the okrika identity today is with the larger  ijaw nation. to all my pan igboists  friends we the people of the south south and the people of the south east can achieve a lot politically in todays nigeria but the igbo shouldnt force idshouldn'tn others .i must not be igbo to coperate with the igbo .the igbo need to find a new message that appeals to most people from the former eastern region ,besides  the concept of biafra. that concept still leaves  some people shivering . take for instance ,the term niger delta has gained  more acceptance and support because of the underlying concept of identifying with one another based on our common resouces ,and percieved   mistreatment from the nigerian government .obama won the election in usa not by flying the race but change banner. the reason ive brought politics into this seemingly innocent thread is that at the heart of ethnic  identity in todays nigeria , political relevance and power is the ultimate goal.

@aloy emeka and ezeuche .firstly i hope you realise that the Good Lord did not name any ethnicity .from what my bible tells me Adam gave names to animals and his wife eve but no ethnic group was named {go figure ].secondly how has what Ive said suit me? i have used the same argument for both itshekiri and the ikwerre/delta igbo groups.lastly you have just buttressed my sentiments with your outbursts. @ ALOYWHEELS OR ALOYEMEKA remember NL is a place where people express opinions and that's exactly what it remains so please nobody is going to die if you call itshekiris yoruba .if i have generalised about the igbo forgive me but it seems that is the opinion of most igbo on NL.

itshekiri people are related to yoruba via ancestry and language .however they are not yoruba in the traditional sense of the word .similarity and sameness are not the same. secondly they also have elements of edoid /edo culture this does not also make them edo .all these mixtures along with their geographical location have given rise to what we now know as the itshekiri ethnicity.as i have always posited ethnicity , also has a lot to do with identity .the itshekiri have always identified themselves as a seperate ethnicity even before the coming of the white man.i do not believe the yoruba have ever tried to dominate the itshekiri .the same  logic goes for the ikwerre and other groups in delta states whom the igbo are forcefully trying to claim .if they see themselves  as seperate from the larger igbo nation then so be it.however it seems our igbo brothers always get extra mad when the ikwerre  say they are not igbo {udezue,ezeagu ezeuche and andrew uweh take note}.it is really up to them to identify themselves as they please ,considering the fact that they also have mixed ancestry and ,origins and some do bear edoid names .by the way why do you all get so mad when these people say they are not igbo ? i really dont see yoruba people get mad when the itshekiri say they are not yoruba.afterall there has never been   a composite igbo empire prior to the coming of the british.

@ ezeuche ,there is no south south abi ? so yur igbo ass can lord it over others in that region ?

Rumu is part of the Ikwerre dialect and they reserve the right to name their communities the way they please . the  Igbo feel  offended when the Ikwerre say they are not Igbo and most of you would love a situation where the Ikwerre admit to being Igbo.However, you deride them at every turn and even mock their language .It is this same domineering ,disrespectful and dismissive  attitude that made a lot of the other southern minorities wary of the Igbo in the  former eastern region and also contributed to the partial  lack of support from the other minorities for the biafran war  .This ultimately contributed, howbeit partially to the loss of the biafran war. The igbo need to understudy successful expeditions in diplomacy to help them interract with each other and also with their neighbours.

@ibime
ive followed most of yur posts and really do think yur brilliant .but" laughing in tongues " cmon,yu are supposed to pray for them .abi yur papa no be missionary?

to andre-uweh,
you have just buttressed my point. one million "rivers igbo wives "and one million "bonny cousins" still doesn't make you an indigene of rivers state
how about your wife and udezue's bonny cousins, if they are well versed in rivers state /portharcourt issues  come on the forum and discuss. its
strange when you argue with na 2day ,ijaw girl and ow11 about these issues . BTW give me a link to the threads on SE igbo  states.

udezue, will you  please quit the insults. you can  state your case without been insultive, and if you really want us to grant you rivers state citizenship then you need to respect us and we will review your application.

why is it that igbos from the south east are always arguing about rivers state and portharcourt issues .?.do you have a hidden agenda ? why don't you folks allow okrika and ikwerre peeps and other rivers state indigenes to slug it out .i am not saying that you cant make contributions   but some of you speak like you are an authority on these issues .how come you never argue about owerri ,aba ,enugu ,abakaliki,but its always about phcity/rivers state issues .

becomerich yu are a grammatical clown

you have three options in dealing with this situation.
1. ditch him
2. tell him how you feel about his incessant rantings about his ex .its making you uncomfortable
3. ditch him if after nos 2 there is no change