the patriotic duty of every Nigerian to dance on the grave of General Sani Abacha. Contrary to the Levickian PR his supporter Prof G.G. Darah did for him in his article Dancing on Abacha and Yar Aduas’ Graves (The Guardian, 17-18th July 2014), Abacha remains the most despicable leader Nigeria ever had. He killed Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni 8, he killed Pa Alfred Rewane, Kudirat Abiola, Suliat Adedeji, Rear Admiral Olu Omotehinwa, Dr Omatshola, Musa Yar Adua, Madam Tinubu while others like Alex Ibru and Pa Abraham Adesanya were his near-misses.Countless students whose name we don’t even know were massacred while standing up for the democratic ideals of June 12. We pay tribute to Wole Soyinka, Anthony Enahoro, Gani Fawehinmi, Beeko Ransome Kuti, Frank Kokori, General Akinrinade, Hassan Kukah, Olisa Agbakogba, Ayo Obe, Chima Ubani, Dan Sulaiman, Kayode Fayemi, Emeka Anyaoku, Femi Falana, Sola Adeyeye and some of our finest and fearless journalists and editors still around today: Odia Ofeimun, Nosa Igiebor, Chris Anyanwu, Babafemi Ojudu, Kunle Ajibade, Bayo Onanuga, Dapo Olorunyomi, Akin Adesokan, Ogaga Ifowodo, Niran Malaolu, Osifo-Whiskey, and others assassinated like James Bagauda Kaltho. These illustrious Nigerians formed the minds of my generation and made it impossible for us to believe lies.Today, Nigerians should hug themselves with tears of joy and say, yes, we survived that evil monster. Yet, that is the person that is worthy of ovation and reverence in Prof G.G. Darah’s value system. Our primary problem as a nation is not the lack of memory but an addiction to perverse values, diseased morality and gutter sense of human decency. Once the value system which is the DNA of any society is allowed to corrode, all other things fall apart. The onset of the American Civil War led to the rise of Northern Nigeria. Cotton was the oil of the 19th century. Great Britain the world’s most industrialised nation then relied on America as its biggest supplier. The cotton industry based inLancashire wasthe second biggest industry after agriculture offering employment to 3 million Britons.The huge wealth derived from cotton production was the reason America’s southern states held on to slavery even whenother western nations had abandoned the evil. Then came the civil war which disruptedsupplies. The Lancashire business group had to look for cheap alternatives. Through the “bible and plough” policy of the British missionaries, jungles around Abeokuta rapidly began to make way for cotton fields. When America re-entered the supply market in 1870, the world prices of cotton crashed to pre-war levels and that checked the cotton expansion in “Southern Nigeria.” The British Cotton Growing Association (BCGA) did not give up on diversification of suppliers though.In 1905, backed by the BCGA’s reconnaissance report, Winston Churchill an MP for Lancashire reported in the House of Commons that Northern Nigeria had been discovered to offer a reliable and rich production of cotton. Investment there musttherefore be allowed to proceed. But the only problem was the absence of mechanised, business-friendly and export-compliant transportation network. In one of his autobiographies, The River Warabout the conquest of Sudan in 1898, Churchill recounted being awed by a Canadian Lieutenant in his ‘Railway Battalion’ who knew the strategic importanceof railways and knew to the last detail everything about their design and construction at minimal cost. This young lieutenant documented them in “ponderous volume several inches thick; and such was the comprehensive accuracy of the estimate that the working parties were never delayed by the want even of a piece of brass wire.” Since then Churchill had it in mind that this young lieutenant, Percy Girouard described elsewhere as “a blend of French audacity of imagination, American ingenuity and British doggedness in execution” would do great things for the Empire.Lugard may be a great military strategist and an indefatigable administrator but he was not exceptional as an engineering director. So in 1906 when Lugard as the Governor of Northern Nigeria submitted proposals for “Continuous Administration,” by which he would still be able to govern his protectorate even when he was out of the country for a long time, Churchill as the undersecretary forColonies rejected it and Lugard resigned in September. As the Yoruba say, eni ti a fe sun ni ina to tun fi epo para, 2 ge 4 [He whom we plan to roast alive is even beautifying his own skin with petroleum jelly. Ride on].In the Commons when Churchill was asked what kind of financial stress a huge railway network to connect a region bigger than the size of France and Italy put together was going to inflict on Britain’s budget, he replied: “The cost of the railway extension at present authorised will be met by Southern Nigeria, so that the British taxpayer will not be affected” (Hansard, 19th December 1906).Sir Percy Girouard came in and delivered the 366 mile Baro-Kano railway line at £3,800 per mile – half the price of Lugard’s projection. In 1912 with his proposals for Continuous Administration accepted, Lugard was brought back from Honk Kong to deliver access to the sea with frictionless fluency byamalgamating the two independent countries. What we call colonisation was to Britain business opportunity.The railways were fine, the weather cooperated, the Sultan of Sokoto and Shehu of Borno had pledged their loyalty, cotton was blooming in Gusau and Funtua the sameway they blossomed in Mississippi and Alabama, Tin had been discovered in Jos, groundnuts, tobacco, ginger, hide and skin had been added to the mix, what followed was 50 years of aggressive and unbridled “business opportunities.”The figures leapt for joy.From 200 tonnes before the railways, groundnut export shut up to 41,000 tonnes in1915. In 1949, a year after the North was amalgamated legislatively with the South, 10tonnes of cotton and 378,000 tonnes of groundnuts were exported compared to 103 tonnes of cocoa from the South. By 1961, theNorth was responsible for 37.8% of world’s supply of groundnuts. In 1963, groundnut exports soared to 650, 000 tonnes fetching the Northern marketing board a cool £46million. The booming northern economyalso generated an ultra-wealthy rich class.In the mid twenties, Alhassan Dantata swiftlyreplaced Southern money men like Captain Labulo Davies, Alli-Balogun, J.H. Doherty, William Akinola Dawodu, Braimah Igbo, J.K. Coker, Karimu Kotun as the richest man in the country. When UAC, a subsidiary of Unilever which controlled 80% of Nigeria’s exports started out in the North, they needed someone who would go around to the farmers and buy their products and encourage them to grow more and more cash crops needed in Europe. They found Dantata, a small time but willing trader and made him their agent. All those iconic pyramids of groundnuts by railway lines which were the towering symbols of North’s wealth were the hard work of Dantata.All that changed in 1966. From an economic giant, the North became a welfare case. When farmers harvest their groundnuts or cotton or hides and skin, they take them to the middlemen or directly to nearest UAC or John Holt warehouses for cash. The top staffs of these companies were British while the record keepers, warehouse supervisors were mostly Igbos. Also due to literacy differences, clerks of the civil service, post and telegraph operators, electricity corporation’s maintenance technicians, the water treatment workers, foremen of construction gangs were mostly Igbos.Those who drive the trains, service train engines, give train signals and the train stations supervisors were mostly Igbos. Laird, Britain’s deputy high commissioner in Kaduna wrote of Northerners who could haveheld these jobs: “They seem to have little desire to improve their way of live…Any money left after paying their taxes is spent on purchasing a new wife or new bicycle…”Then it started on 28th May 1966. Based on aflawed estimate of ordinary Igbos’ culpabilityin the coup of January 15and Ironsi’s handling the affair, then began a systematic effort to ensure every Igbo in the North that

So Wetin come happen wey North com bcom parasite and home to bloodspilling Jihadists? North na Joke anyday fo goodnews!!