Here are some key points of the willings commission set up before independence to look into grievances of minorities;
EXCERPTS FROM A 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”


“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.”

“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 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.”

https://scannewsnigeria.com/news/willink-report-1958-the-following-are-excerpts-from-a-the-report-of-the-commission-appointed-to-enquire-into-the-fears-of-minorities-and-the-means-of-allaying-them-otherwise-known-a/

It can be seen that most of the allegations against the igbo were found to be unfounded (just as in present day Nigeria) by the commission, the feeling and perception of the minorities was still important enough to recommend the creation of a separate state for non igbos.

Ballmer:


You have only chosen to be gullible. I am a Yoruba and 1000% in support of referendum but Igbo would not dictate terms and conditions of the referendum. They can do that only when an Igbo man is the president in essence if they chose to break up Nigeria then it would be their loss. You read tru the article but did not read tru the deceit of the writer. Do not let any senseless Igbo hoodwink you into hating the northerners.

If you must hate let that be on your own accord. Igbo are born with hate and will perish by it. It is impossible for the British to merge three nation without any representation from a part. It is not possible. If you read through the formation of Isreal as unfair as the British were they still insisted on certain rights for the Arabs which was what led to their persecution by the Jews Zionist till they hurriedly left the catastrophe they created for the USA to take over.

NEVER BELIEVE A THING FROM ANY IGBO PREACHING HATE ANGER DISDAIN AGAINST OTHER TRIBES. IT IS THE POLITICS THEY KNOW HOW TO PLAY. IGBOS WERE NEVER INCLUDED YET AZIKWE DELAYED OUR INDEPENDENCE FOR THREE YEAR SO THE HAUSA FULANI CAN BE A PART OF NIGERIA HE INTENDS TO RULE.

U need to go for serious medical checkup

Where is the hate in the write up?Or is he lying?The earlier u yorubas get rid of fear of Nigerias breakup the better becos nothing lasts forever.

OP, what is the content of the signed document?

bookmarked

wirinet:


Forget oil. You guys seem obsessed with oil. Only the political elites benefits from oil, the ordinary Fukani, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Tivi, etc, man does not benefit of care about oil. It was only recently (with the anmesty) programme that some ordinary Niger delta youths benefited anything from oil sales.

The north cannot separate from Nigeria even if oil if found in the north because of;
1. Access to the sea. They will not want to be landlocked.
2. Climate Change; The desert is accelerating south, the lake Chad has dried out and their agricultural livelihood is threatened.

The igbos shouting separation will be the worse adversely affected in terms of separation.
They would need to FORCE the old eastern minorities to secede with them because if not;
1. They will be landlocked
2. The igbos have very little oil and most of the oil reside with minority tribes.
3. The igbos are also suffering serious environmental issues like erosion.
4. The core Igbo landmass is very tiny.

Igbos building a country with eastern minorities will only make the new country a mini Nigeria with only one major ethnic group. The minorities will be in a continuous struggle to avoid Igbo domination. This was the situation in the East Pre and even post independence.

My friend hear this..
even the president, APC/PDP, Nigerians (enlightened) and foreign economist knows that OIL revenue has been sustaining this country so let's not even pretend.. the reason Nigeria has not dived into complete anarchy is because of the money from oil proceeds & Lagos massive raking of revenue, God forbid any thing happens to any of these sources please tell me what else do Nigeria produce/export that can fetch her forex?
keep sentiments apart and see the gross mismanagement of human/natural resources..

lemme tell u, Hausa/Igbo/Yoruba/minorities have all failed to corporate & build on the remains of what the British left behind, our stupid leaders from each States/geopolitical zones are after one thing: gather enough for my family/allies, use the rest to do something that will make the masses vote us next election..
when i read From Third World to First: The Singapore Story [Lee Kuan Yew], i discovered that singapore is nearly as culturally/ethnically divided as Nigeria. so what's our excuse?
we can continue to pretend all is well till reality deals us a grave blow..
lemme ask you one question































What is the NIGERIAN DREAM?
one love bro!

chemgee:

My friend hear this..
even the president, APC/PDP, Nigerians (enlightened) and foreign economist knows that OIL revenue has been sustaining this country so let's not even pretend.. the reason Nigeria has not dived into complete anarchy is because of the money from oil proceeds & Lagos massive raking of revenue, God forbid any thing happens to any of these sources please tell me what else do Nigeria produce/export that can fetch her forex?
keep sentiments apart and see the gross mismanagement of human/natural resources..

lemme tell u, Hausa/Igbo/Yoruba/minorities have all failed to corporate & build on the remains of what the British left behind, our stupid leaders from each States/geopolitical zones are after one thing: gather enough for my family/allies, use the rest to do something that will make the masses vote us next election..
when i read From Third World to First: The Singapore Story [Lee Kuan Yew], i discovered that singapore is nearly as culturally/ethnically divided as Nigeria. so what's our excuse?
we can continue to pretend all is well till reality deals us a grave blow..
lemme ask you one question































What is the NIGERIAN DREAM?
one love bro!

Oil plays a central role in our lives because we rely on a rent economy, and because we are more interested in consumerism rather than production. Although this habit was acquired during the our first interactive relationship with European merchants whereby, they take natural resources (and later slaves ) for consumer products like alcohol, cloths, mirrors, etc. We are yet to wean ourselves from that consumerism.

The minute we look in instead of out and start producing what we need and rely less on imports, oil will start playing a less central role in our lives. Norway export just a bit less than Nigeria at about 1.5million barrels per day, but oil play relatively less significant role in their economy. Believe me, no amount of crude export can get us out of our economic doldrums.

The problem we have is human rather than resources. After all the human resource is the most important of all resources. Hausa, Yoruba, igbo are all part of the Nigeria problem as their elites jostle for power, position and advantages. The Hausa has a grip on political power with Yoruba giving some challenge. Igbos who have lost out are playing the spoiler and prefer to split the baby in half (in fact so many parts) instead of letting hausas (and sometimes Yorubas) always having full custody of the baby.

I am tired of always blaming the British for our present predicament. Agreed, the British made a lot of damage and set lots of booby traps, but we were not the only country that passed through similar experiences at the hands of the British. The US, India, Ghana, Palestine (now Israel ), and in fact over one third of the countries in world passed through the same British experiences. So our own situation is not unique. What made us unique is that we love to whine and wail (and pray) rather than make the effort and time to actually confront the problems.

There is no Nigeria dream or even American dream, what we have is human dream. Every human being strive to survive and thrive and make a better life for himself and his family. That's why humans had been migrating since recorded history - to find a better place to thrive.

Ballmer:


You have only chosen to be gullible. I am a Yoruba and 1000% in support of referendum but Igbo would not dictate terms and conditions of the referendum. They can do that only when an Igbo man is the president in essence if they chose to break up Nigeria then it would be their loss. You read tru the article but did not read tru the deceit of the writer. Do not let any senseless Igbo hoodwink you into hating the northerners.

If you must hate let that be on your own accord. Igbo are born with hate and will perish by it. It is impossible for the British to merge three nation without any representation from a part. It is not possible. If you read through the formation of Isreal as unfair as the British were they still insisted on certain rights for the Arabs which was what led to their persecution by the Jews Zionist till they hurriedly left the catastrophe they created for the USA to take over.

NEVER BELIEVE A THING FROM ANY IGBO PREACHING HATE ANGER DISDAIN AGAINST OTHER TRIBES. IT IS THE POLITICS THEY KNOW HOW TO PLAY. IGBOS WERE NEVER INCLUDED YET AZIKWE DELAYED OUR INDEPENDENCE FOR THREE YEAR SO THE HAUSA FULANI CAN BE A PART OF NIGERIA HE INTENDS TO RULE.

U were making sense until u started preaching hate more than d writer, d writer has giving names of d persons presence in d amalgamation signing, u objected without giving us d real names to prove d writer wrong instead u became tribal by calling Igbo's hate. Mr man we are not here for tribal war rather for learning and educational gain. Learn and teach others bcus by so doing we know our history

Reski:
The igbos have been playing the victim card all their lives. Yet they produced the first president in an independent Nigeria. Carried out the first coup that ended the first republic kept a straight face and claimed the chief coupist kaduna Nzeogwu was more hausa than igbo. Agreed but another igbo man benefited from the same coup that indirectly led to the civil war and clamour for an igbo sovereign nation.
Yes igbos have reasons to complain about been schemed out of things and only when they produce another igbo president which i support whole heartedly will this sense of exclusion can ever be curtailed to some extent.
But igbos created the problems for themselves when they started playing the power game with the north in the 60s and lost out. Since then the north have successfully found ways to combine with the yorubas to solidify their position at the center. which any sensible group would do in an imbalanced system such as ours.
I hear a lot of bear parlour argument about an igbo man declaring biafra as soon as presidency shifts to the south east. I laugh in different voices because a lot of folks do not understand the power and the huge benefits any group in control of abuja can accrue to themselves and their supporters. who owns a ferrari and throws it a way for a piece of keke maruwa in name of getting a sovereign nation.
Some of these things will answer the biafran question and make Nigeria a better union for the years to come.
1. Lets restructure how the national cake is shared. I mean the center should have the lesser share. States should control what they make.
2. One more state in the south east.
3. State of emergency on basic education in the north.
4. An igbo president by 2019 or latest 2023
5. Every part of the country should come up with a 10 year development plan that suits them to be pursued vigorously.
Lets not deceive ourselves Nigeria is a poor country with terrible leaders across all tribes. Without Biafra what has the south east leaders done within the current system. Are there no governors in the south east.? Abi do you think its not this same group of guys that have under performed that will lead a sovereign Biafra without handouts from big daddy in abuja?

I dont know what is wrong with gullible nigerians like u, can't we have a history base discussion to know who we are without people like u deviating from d subject matter to tribal hate and nuisance.
Debunk any of d writers line for better learning and understanding.

muykem:
The writer is perfectly correct but silent on important aspect that also need to be noted. 1. Amalgamation intention is not to form a country but for administrative convenience of colonial master. 2. At Independence it was throw open if we should go together or individually, zik vote along with Tafawa Balewa for one Nigeria while Awolowo was against. First Republic political alliance said it all.

Thank u my brother for been civil unlike children of ignorant deviating from d topic.
U are correct, Zik should b blamed for this one Nigeria and not Lugard

ezenwajosh:


Let me tell u one truth.....if Azikiwe never did what he did....it would have been worst for u and I today,....now they are now taking it back to where it was back then.....take it or leave it....this country is gonna turn to Islamic country and Christians will be forced against their will or be killed.....a full function of Sharia law will take place..... NIGERIA was created to be Islamic country

Just imagine this bold face lie, the west under Awolowo was doing great, all that was needed was independence as a country.
But no Zik would rather lump everyone together because of his selfish agenda, he wants the whole country to be together, so that he and his people can seize the country and suppress others.
For your information, the current Nigerian embassy in UK, used to be the embassy of Western Nigeria.
We know as the matter dey go, no be today, e don tey.

The colonist couldn't reason the way we are doing .if Igbo's were not included !! it is not because they hated them but they might not be visible or friendly to be associated with then .To me if they were not included their leaders then should be blamed not the "country amalgamated or those leaders that amalgamated it. Where were your leaders then? If Igbo's played good roles in amalgamation process. I don't see why they would be exempted for the manifestation of their struggled .my friends Igbo's if you want political power relate yourselves with people and politics positively.If you want Biafra look for a reliable leader and follow up with god politics but you can fight for both at the same time.blaming game can't take you anywhere .

The colonist couldn't reason the way we are doing .if Igbo's were not included !! it is not because they hated them but they might not be visible or friendly to be associated with then .To me if they were not included their leaders then should be blamed not the "country amalgamated or those leaders that amalgamated it. Where were your leaders th[color=#006600][/color]en? If Igbo's played good roles in amalgamation process. I don't see why they would be exempted for the manifestation of their struggled .my friends Igbo's if you want political power relate yourselves with people and politics positively.If you want Biafra look for a reliable leader and follow up with god politics but you can fight for both at the same time.blaming game can't take you anywhere .