Armaggedon:
I don't bother about the opinion of amarabae and ChinenyeN because they have a history of emotional approach to Igbo identity issues. Meleszenawi himself is even anti Biafra. I only have problem with pazienza who has been a pan Igbo champion but has allowed frustrations arising from Igbo denials get the better part of him that he started doing the opposite of what he was known for.

SLAP44:


Audio Anambra

Baba face your state in Kaduna, that you spent a lot of time in Onitsha and learnt a few sense can never make you Igbo.

SLAP44:


Same way those in denial in Ikwerre fed fat on your northern ignorance since 1970 but go back at night and felicitate with their Igbo brothers each time they need anything. We vote together because out destinies are tied together.

Blood is thicker than water, how can you, a northerner understand that.

selemempe:
the ohaneze secretary is currently doing that....he has not been beaten...mumu sombori

MelesZenawi:


He is feeding fat off you guys emotions when his state don't even pay one naira to Ohanaeze..Lol.

selemempe:
ok but nobody has broken his neck na...lol

Goal post shifter...fact bender

ChinenyeN:

By far and large, they've excluded themselves as a population. So the conversation is more so about whether or not it is worth it for Igbo to pester them into including themselves again, despite the population's sentiment and anti-Igbo rhetoric.

Ezemust:
whe ameachi was governor he won igbo best governor of the year

Armaggedon:
what is your own solution to the problem?

hammer0:



My own solution is simple.


Be patient with them.


Encourage marriage with them becos it seems some of them married Ijaw and that is affecting them too.


Thirdly, have lots of joint venture with them and take every opportunity to tell dem dey are Igbos and always expect them to deny but tell dem anyway and not get angry.

selemempe:
lol but you were the emotional one in the room. You are afraid of being insulted when you say ikwere are igbos...lol

You should know that we know that they hate igbos... you are not telling us something new...lol but we also know how nations are created..hence the reason why for every ikwere person who claims ikwere is not igbo, you will have two igbos who will show up to piss him or her off by telling him the real truth without remorse.... you should learn that or quit discussing the topic

Amarabae:

The fraudster just parked at oyigbo .
E for enter ikwerre land, make rumuohnaikwerre boys tear am into two ....
I believe in live and let's live.
I love Igbo nation,
Stay on your own and allow them stay on their own.
You don't want, na their oil and ph city you de eye.
Criminal nnamdi kanu slaves.
Come and take it na.

Amarabae:

Just rest from arguing with them.
Their psyche is messed up by that albino fraudster, their saviour.
Just rest and ignore them.
They will be alright Las Las.
Most of them are jobless and still living with their parents despite being over 35.
They are lords of online trolling,
I trust ikwerre people, leave nairaland, go to their communities and try rubbish.
Even the albino fraudster sensed danger and stayed away from ikwerre land

Armaggedon:
I don't bother about the opinion of amarabae and ChinenyeN because they have a history of emotional approach to Igbo identity issues. Meleszenawi himself is even anti Biafra. I only have problem with pazienza who has been a pan Igbo champion but has allowed frustrations arising from Igbo denials get the better part of him that he started doing the opposite of what he was known for.

gidgiddy:


Well at least Nnamdi Kanu is preaching that people be given the right to choose their identity via a democractic referendum. Nobody can dent that this honourable

Its much better than you Nigerians who have since adopted the identity that Lugards girlfriend chose for you all.

MelesZenawi:


Are you not contradicting yourself...

Then why forcing Ikwerre to be Igbo since they have chosen their Identity as Ikwerre.

SonOfEl:


not all of them deny being igbo..... so take them as they come, although in an inconsequential manner.

Odingo1:
Ikwerre remain Igbos until they stop speaking Igbo and stop bearing Igbo names. They should start to speak Bini and bear Bini names.

When they commit crime with their Igbo names, others will call Igbos bad names without knowing if person is Ikwerre, ika or Igbanke.

MelesZenawi:


Are you not contradicting yourself...

Then why forcing Ikwerre to be Igbo since they have chosen their Identity as Ikwerre.

That's were you're showing your naivety. until you stop Igbos from giving them preferential treatment over non Igbo's in marriage matters.

Until you stop your govt from making the east pay for their sins while rewarding them as minorities in matters of natural resources.

until you make your govt operate a clearly defined ethnic boundary, ethnic population figures not just for indigenous language and cultural preservation, but to ensure that policies have a clearly defined path, then your rants will go unnoticed. These are structural issues designed by fulani govt supported by britain. It should be handled in a reasonable way.

BBC held a townhall last year. Bbc Hausa did for north which includes many non Hausa speakers, BBC Yoruba did for sw including Lagos and kwara, while BBC Igbo did for SE and Delta Igbo excluding an Igbo majority Rivers state, which was left to BBC pidgin to conduct.

If BBC could do it in Hausa for the entire north without considering other non ethnic hausas, why doing it in pidgin in rivers state were majority speak Igbo? is there any ethnic group in Nigeria that speak pidgin as their first language?

why do you think IPOB always call out BBC?

They were only acting out a policy handed to them by the British and Fulani govt. A policy targeted at unifying the north and Dividing Igboland.

It's called identity politics and its largely (but not entirely) caused by state partitioning instead of state creation. There is a lot of make-belief in politics. Dismantle the Fulani imposed structure which place Igbo's against each other and watch that fizzle away. Your ranting is counter productive.

When Northern Sudan saw that self determination in south was gathering pace, Sudan's govt partitioned south Sudan in away that would trigger mutual suspicion among the southern groups as they did in the Eastern region. But dimka the biggest group in the south handled it with tact and today, they are free. This is what I expect to do instead of the emotion laden approach of cutting your nose to spite your face in frustration.

Ojiofor:


An Ikwerri man is the current secretary general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and in few years time one of them will become president general.
They are still participating actively in Igbo social gathering and no one is forcing them to belong.

MelesZenawi:


They hate reality.

Especially the Enugu folks like selemempe and slap44......They love to dream alot.

Let them continue dreaming coz soon we are going to float Omambala ethnic nationality worldwide...

ChinenyeN:
A gala dị la ịgba awhna ke m la whne na to..

Look, the message is simple. The Ikwerre as a community have already made their sentiments and official position known. They couldn't care less about having anything to do with Igbo. This is a plain, simple and verifiable position.

So it is one thing to say, "we want to continue roping in more and more stragglers until we rope them all", and it is another to act oblivious to the current anti-Igbo rhetoric and sentiment by saying that Ikwerre should be part of your [ethnic-]nation, when they've already made it clear that they don't like you. Nor do they want to be friends with you.

We are talking about something current. We are remarking on an ongoing track record, and some of us (such as myself) are saying we should mind our own business and focus on providing tangible sustainability for ourselves, instead of spending countless man-hours trying to convince people that do not like us to be part of us. Yet, you want to call us the emotional ones here.

The only emotional ones are the Ikwerre who flare up at any mention of proximity and relations with Igbo. You want to continue having hot debates with them about their "origin" and "culture" and "language" as if any of that actually matters. At the end of the day, they'll still tell the world that they don't know who you are.

That is madness on your part. Please, let us just focus on building something whole with what we have already as it is and keep moving. If there are any more reasonable ones like Okwukwu, then they will undoubtedly show up when the scene is right. No one wants to join apparent losers.

You're even devaluing the prestige of your "Igbo" club by begging vocal anti-Igbo people to join you. For the sake of all of our collective and respective eke, what sort of sense does this even make? None. We should just focus on ourselves and keep moving. If they like, they'll show up. If they don't, it won't be anything new.

I guess after this anything else I say will just end up being a repeat, so if you have questions or disagreement, simply refer back to the statements above. There is a response for you in here somewhere.

MelesZenawi:


Like I said earlier they are feeding fact from your emotions. His state contributes nothing to Ohanaeze coffer as demanded but feeds from other. I congratulate his diligence on that. My only happiness is that Ansg has stopped paying anything to Ohanaeze for a long time.

Goodluck..

Ojiofor:


How do you know they are not contributing?
They should have rejected membership of Ohanaeze outrightly if they were not Igbos.
As for Anambra state,don't even go there.

Ojiofor:


How do you know they are not contributing?
They should have rejected membership of Ohanaeze outrightly if they were not Igbos.
As for Anambra state,don't even go there.

ChinenyeN:
A gala dị la ịgba awhna ke m la whne na to..

Look, the message is simple. The Ikwerre as a community have already made their sentiments and official position known. They couldn't care less about having anything to do with Igbo. This is a plain, simple and verifiable position.

So it is one thing to say, "we want to continue roping in more and more stragglers until we rope them all", and it is another to act oblivious to the current anti-Igbo rhetoric and sentiment by saying that Ikwerre should be part of your [ethnic-]nation, when they've already made it clear that they don't like you. Nor do they want to be friends with you.

We are talking about something current. We are remarking on an ongoing track record, and some of us (such as myself) are saying we should mind our own business and focus on providing tangible sustainability for ourselves, instead of spending countless man-hours trying to convince people that do not like us to be part of us. Yet, you want to call us the emotional ones here.

The only emotional ones are the Ikwerre who flare up at any mention of proximity and relations with Igbo. You want to continue having hot debates with them about their "origin" and "culture" and "language" as if any of that actually matters. At the end of the day, they'll still tell the world that they don't know who you are.

That is madness on your part. Please, let us just focus on building something whole with what we have already as it is and keep moving. If there are any more reasonable ones like Okwukwu, then they will undoubtedly show up when the scene is right. No one wants to join apparent losers.

You're even devaluing the prestige of your "Igbo" club by begging vocal anti-Igbo people to join you. For the sake of all of our collective and respective eke, what sort of sense does this even make? None. We should just focus on ourselves and keep moving. If they like, they'll show up. If they don't, it won't be anything new.

I guess after this anything else I say will just end up being a repeat, so if you have questions or disagreement, simply refer back to the statements above. There is a response for you in here somewhere.

pazienza:


Common sense that doesn't seem to be common these days in Igboland.
How did we descend to this level as a people?

Iheukwumere!

pazienza:
Armaggedon:



No one gives them preference over non Igbos in marriages. Igbos intermarry with all minority ethnic groups in defunct Eastern region. From Ijaw, to Ogoni, to Ibibio/Annang/Efik, to Ekoids.
It just so happened that Ikwerre men have insatiable taste for Igbo women rather than marrying their own women, the prefer to marry our ladies, they even discuss about it in their forums, it's a big issue for them.
Marriage issues are not national issues,they are individual issues, so I don't know the naivety you speak of.



We don't have control over this. But we have control over who should be Igbo and who shouldn't, we have the power to ensure that Igboid groups who want to exploit our pains at the hands of FG for their own clannish upflitment are thwarted.
We have the power to ensure that only groups willing to suffer with us and beat the FG hurdles gets the right to be Igbo. We have the power to weed off and baracade off opportunists like Ikwerres who has cunningly mastered the delicate act of taking advantage of our own pains for their own political and economic advancement.
A wise people would exercise this power, while an emotional people will not. You are the emotional one who can't separate opportunists from real kins, I'm the ruthless one who is ready to throw the opportunists under the bus and move the Igbo forward. A brother who cannot identify with you to see off a bully, and is too quick to deny kinship with you when the bully approaches, because he doesn't want to sustain injuries for standing with you, but is only willing to identify with you, only if you are able to overcome the bully, is no brother, because trust me, the whole school will identify with you when you win the bully, you will be a fool to continue referring to this opportunist as a brother. Don't get it twisted, I was once in your boat, but I grew, I evolved, I got over emotions with time, and now I can see clearly, you might one day do same, but I hope it doesn't you long, because we can't afford to waste another 50yrs.



Again, you speak of things not within our control, while I speak on things within our control. We are Igbos,we might not be able to decide who is Igbo, but we sure have the power to decide who isn't. We simply expel them from our ethnic organizations, and raise hell whenever any Nigerian tries to label them Igbos. We do this, we would have set a solid foundation for out next advancement.



This is my problem with people like you. Your emotions blind you from seeing what's is starring right at you. You keep making up excuses for those Igbophobic Igboids in Rivers state, you are too emotional to see the truth. You blame everyone but those Igboids for their own actions, you blame their fellow minorities,especially the Ijaws for Igboids Igbophobia, you blame the FG, now you are blaming BBC.
Did it not occur to you that those Igboids were not included in BBC Igbo, because unlike you who sit in your arm chair and making up your own opinions based on sentiments and emotions, the BBC crew actually visited those communities, carried out research and found out they wanted nothing to do with anything relating to Igbo, hence why they were not put in BBC Igbo?
Any Igbo who ever lived in Rumu villages know that Rumu people are always upset when they find out that as an Igbo, you can understand what they speak and call Ikwerrelanguage? Those lots don't want anything to do with Igbo, be it Igbo politics, Igbo language, or Igbo people.

If given option between Igbo and Hausa language, these people will choose Hausa language.
BBC did no wrong, BBC unlike you are not interested in foisting things on people, they obeyed the people wish.
In Delta Igbo, there is a very good balance of Anti and Pro Igbo groups, with Asaba/Prof Edozien being pro Igbo and Asaba being the most important city in Anioma,the pro Igbo group there will always win it.
I belong to an Enuani facebook page, when BBC Igbo did a documentary on Asaba massacre and on a female pilot from Ibuzo and it posted on the group.
Not a single voice in the group contested why they were being grouped as Igbo. They all related with the language. Even the characters there who were against being labelled Igbo on a different thread there , had no problem with BBC labelling them Igbo.
Let BBC Igbo try and run a documentary on an Ogba, Etche or Ikwerre person and try to pass them off as Igbos, hell will break lose.
You might like to continue engaging in self deceit, but I don't.




Northern minorities hold not a single animosity towards Hausa people and Hausa language, they don't consider Hausas threat, neither do they hate anything relating to Hausa, if you ever lived in the North, you will know this.



Because IPOB hierarchy are only interested in emotionalism and not pragmatism, just like you are currently exhibiting.



Nobody is dividing Igboland. Nobody can divide a people who want to stay together. Those Igboids will die than be called Igbo, the Hausa-Fulani did nothing, better stop the self deceit.
The war ended since 1970, Rivers state is not governed by any Hausa-Fulani man.



The Hausa-Fulani did nothing without the cooperation of those Igboids, they Hausa-Fulani only helped them achieve their heart wishes. The Umuezekhoha clan are in Benue (Northern Nigeria) they have been there since 1970, yet still retain their Igbo identity and long for unification with us till today. The Yorubas in Kogi have been in Northern region since 1938, yet they identify as Yorubas and always proud to relate with Yorubas, recently when SW started Amotekun, the Kogi and Kwara leaders sent letters to SW leaders to include them. BBC crew did their homework and found out the people were comfortable with their Yoruba identity, hence why they were put in BBC Yoruba.




The tact here would be to completely grant Ikwerre and their bandwagoners theor independence clamour by expelling Ikwerre persons from all Igbo organizations and making sure to publicly disgrace any Ikwerre who tries to claim Igbo in public.
Then we can reach out to Ikwerre, Ogba, Ekpeye, etc as independent ethnic groups and as mere neighbours and nothing more, just as we reach out to Ijaws, Ogoni, etc, and device means to work on our freedom.
The Dimka didn't work with other ethnic groups in South Sudan as members of Dimka ethnic group, but as independent ethnic groups of their own.
We can and should still work with Ikwerres in matters of mutual interests, but never as members of Igbo ethnic group, if for any reason our interest involves throwing Ikwerres under the bus, we should not blink an eye to do it, knowing fully well that when reversed, they will not hesitate to do same to us.

hammer0:



U are siding with those against igbo unity

pazienza:


Ikwerre, Etche, Ekpeye and Ogba are not Igbos.
These people are opportunists and resents you as an Igbo more than they do Yorubas and Hausas.
I know it's painful, but it's the truth. Accept it, make peace with it, learn from it, let the pain serve as a motivation to make Igbo great.

I stand for Igbo Unity (SE plus Umuezekhoha and whatever is remaining of Enuani who are still comfortable with their Igbo identity and have no Igbophobia, if with time they all turn Igbophobic, then we must discard them too).

The Igbo is sick and dying because we have too many necrotic tissues (Opportunists ) attached to us.
We need to totally excise all the dead tissues attached to us, so that we can heal and grow once again.
It's about time we started this important project.
I still stand for Igbo unity. Ikwerre, Etche, Ekpeye Ogba and what other Igboid out there that is not comfortable with being Igbo ARE not Igbos.
Anyone thinking of allowing those opportunists to continue taking advantage of Ndiigbo, by classifying them as Igbos is not a friend of Ndiigbo.