₦airaland Forum

Negro_Ntns:
Sustainability.

When I say the Eastern region sustains the country economically, I meant that for the past 50 or more years and for the forsseable future more than half of the Federal Government revenue is coming from crude oil. Tax revenue in Nigeria is not sustainable. Cash crops are not sustainable.

When I say Yorubas are politically, economically, academically and culturally powerful, I am referring to historical facts and as well the capabilities that we have but have chosen to neglect becasue as I stated clearly. . . we are in a state of convenience.

Let me give you example. Nigeria is one of the world's top cocoa producer. On the futures and commodities market cocoa trade like gold. . . highly desirable and very reliable. Yet the price of cocoa on the market is controlled by Europeans. They are the consumers, we are the suppliers but yet they are the ones fixing the price. Cocoa is only found in the western parts of Nigeria. As an independent nation, I expect the Yorubas to refocus on the cash crops in the region and develop it for sustainable revenue. Thats just one example out of many.

Ignorance know no bounds. Cocoa is produced by 14 states in Nigeria and those cut across many of the southern states. If you say some Yoruba states (notably Ondo) are among the highest cocoa producers, you make more sense than saying cocoa is ONLY found in the west. Are you conversant with present day economics of Nigeria?

Dede1:
Wow!!! Most of the sentiments expressed on the issue of investments of Ndigbo and the need for sovereign nation of Biafra make for serious agitation for independent nation for Ndigbo. How could Ndigbo leave in the same country with bunch of morons who had weird thoughts such as the ones expressed by the anti-Biafra crowd? Ijawman, you are better than this crap.

Dudes, the last time I a checked, Ndidgbo had heavily invested in Cameroon, Togo, Republic of Benin, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast. I might add that being Nigerian citizen had not jeopardized their investment in those countries. Why would Biafran citizenship of Ndigbo lead to the confiscation of their investment in what would remain from disintegrated jungle called Nigeria if not for abhorrent hatred of Ndigbo by their fellow Nigerians or the syndrome of abandoned property?

That (in bold) is bound to recur and I am afraid that Igbos cannot do anything about it. Solution? Repatriate your investments to Igboland or out of Nigeria (at least before you can talk of secession without (or with little) tears.

olabukola:
Do you people think the ibos never thought of this issue by now? They lost all after the civil war but today they compete at any level in Nigeria.
That their Biafra is more important to them than houses and shops. If Nigeria can't let them do biz they will take their biz to other afro countries.
Then Nigerians will go to Biafra to buy . Think of the humilation we will get in this case.

We have never thought of any issue. Achieving Biafra is something that is possible but the plans on how to achieve that have not been actually made. It seems that we are basing our sentiments on the likelihood that we will bounce back again (like we did after the Biafr war) after losing investments in Nigeria, but we should not always be losing investments because we failed to plan well ahead. I am sorry to say this, I think Ijawman has been reasonable in his argument so far. No be naija we we all know? Even if they permit you in paper to continue living and owning businesses in their country, they will turn round and use religious riots to get back at you. How many non-Igbos invest heavily in Igboland?

More reasons for resource control

PTI in Kaduna ‘ll triger North-South crisis, say Gbagi, Okpozo
National News Jul 5, 2009 WARRI—BUSINESS mogul and former national chairman of the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi and prominent Niger-Delta leader, Senator Francis Spanner Okpozo, have warned that the Federal Government’s plan to build another Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) in Kaduna, a non-oil producing state at a cost of N19 billion, will trigger a monster crisis between the North and South.

Fuming with rage, both distinguished Niger-Deltans, who spoke in separate interviews with Vanguard weekend, said the proposal of a PTI in Kaduna was an unpopular course of action that was borne out of brazen irresponsibility and should be jettisoned immediately in the interest of peace in the country.

According to Gbagi, “the import of the decision to build a PTI in Kaduna is that Federal Government wants to disintegrate the country; that is the long and short of it and I advise that we should be very careful because we are dealing with an explosive issue”.

He said the government, through the Minister of Petroleum, Alhaji Rilwanu Lukman, halted the training of engineers at the PTI, Effurun in Delta State, to kill the economy of the region and now wants to awaken the Northern economy with a PTI in Kaduna, saying it was preposterous for government to think that line of action Olorogun Gbagi said students of a Petroleum Training Institute were supposed to work in oil-related environment and wondered why the PTI in Delta State should not be developed to a world-standard institute by the federal government.

He said: “It is a slap on the people of the Niger-Delta for the government to build another PTI in Kaduna. The Minister of Petroleum should be called to order because what he is indirectly saying with this kind of wicked plan is that Niger-Delta is not safe, but this is the region where you are digging the money with which you run the nation. My friend, it is not nothing short of double standard.

“Even the money voted for Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) is not being used well for the development of the region. Why should international airports not be built in Escravos, Delta state, Eket, the one in Rivers state expanded for oil companies to fly their workers there.

“As Petroleum Minister, has Lukman not travelled wide enough to know that in other areas, you don’t use money derived from an area to develop another area when the area in question is not develope?.

“This is why I have said and I am repeating here that all the oil companies operating in the Niger-Delta should move their headquarters from Lagos to their major locations in the region. Chevron for instance should move to Warri, Shell to Bayelsa state or Rivers state and Exxon-Mobil to Eket.”

Also brimming with anger, Senator Okpozo asserted, “the federal government cannot initiate that plan at all because it is dangerous. Dangerous in the sense that it will be a misrepresentation of what is actually on ground. If the North is not producing oil, what is the rationale of putting the school there?

“I ask, does the federal government know the implications of what it is contemplating, it will lead to a big crisis between the North and South. I advise Yar’Adua to listen less to suggestions being made by interested groups in the North.

“They have a School of Agriculture in Gwom, the idea is that the North is agriculturally dominant, and nobody is objecting here in the South, why is it, therefore, that anything in the South, they want to replicate it in the North even it ought not to be so? They moved the Naval Headquarters sometime from Lagos to Abuja, the Yorubas were not okay and they fought against it until it was transferred back to Lagos.

“Maybe what we in the Niger-Delta should be asking for is that the Kaduna Refinery should be brought back to the region because it has no business being there. The idea of building a PTI in Kaduna is a non starter. If anybody is contemplating it, it should be stopped because of the consequences”, he asserted.

Senator Okpozo said if he were President Yar’Adua, he would not dabble into such no-go-areas because when the chips are down, those who are beating the drums for him on the sideline would abandon him to his fate.

What is wrong in getting federal allocations by people who have overall contributed more than others in the development of a country? What is claim in that? We are talking here about relative proportions. ok!

Kobojunkie,

Maryland in the US is far smaller than Utah or Colorado and tens of other states, but has a higher population than those and many other larger states. Nearer home, Lagos is the smalles state but has the highest population (of course, of people from all over Nigeria). Thus, census and therefore resource allocation, is not based on land mass but on THE NUMBER of PEOPLE. Get that into your skull. Orji Kalu also did fight on the census figure of Abia. Tinubu's, Kalu's and other state's efforts amounted to nought as census matter is beyond their (state) purview. The rest of your response are still the same old rigmarole unworthy of a response. Bye

Abagworo,

While it appears that the poster's logic is a bit flawed under an ideal situation, but I have seen how he tries to impress upon us that Nigeria is not US or other wetsren countries where things follow the rule. Based on what we know, do you think a Nigeria without Igbos, after allowing Biafra to go, especially if fighting was involved,  will still let Biafran citizens retain ownership of 70% of the property in its capital (Abuja)? Remember that SHELL (which you cited as an example) is not owned by a single individual and that Nigeria (sadly) worships anything Oyibo? Hence, a white man is safer in the North than an Igbo man.

KoboJunkie,

I am not surprised with your response, such which propel the canvassers of Biafra to do more:

1. You mean there is no Igbo worthy of the presidency? Did we have worthy Yoruba and northerners before they got there and messed up the system with thie incompetence?
2. Obviously, you cannot do much as a minister. The expreriences of Soludo and Ngozi Okonjo Iweala in their bid to enhance the economic fortune of Nigeria are classical examples. Many of their sound policies were overidden by the presidency of the day. You can now see why an Igbo (they have shown themselves worthy) should be allowed to exercise the full authority of a president like YARADUA and Obasanjo have done. Anyways, the PDP has zoned it to the Igbos after Yaradua. Let us see how faithful they will be. Whenever that is the case, I will join the PDP and campaign for the Igbo man/woman they have selected as long as they made a right choice of getting an Igbo who will show the difference between an Igbo and others.

3. Is Iwu to be bame for the flop in the election more than Obasanjo and Yaradua the beneficiaries? Now tell me before Iwu came on board who was there and were elections not rigged then? This is not about Iwu as a person but about a system failure. After Iwu is gone, there will still be rigging in Nigeria until the system is corrected. Iwu did not directly oversee the recent election in Ekiti. Was it free and fair?

4. On states, every other zone has six states and the North West even has seven. But the Igbos have five only. This has impacted on
the number of ministers, rep members, senators, federal allocation and all other things coming to the zone. On what basis should Igbos have the least number of states if not for a premeditated arrangement to marginalize them?

5.On census, you again, also wrote like a kid. Census is a federal affair and no data presented by any state is valid. Go read you constitution. Fashola and Tinubu tried to show that Lagos is more populated than Kano; what effect did it have on the federal govt? So, a well organized census will almost certainly show that Igbos are the single most populated group in Nigeria, and will thus, provide cogent reasons for equating the states and all that follow after that

6. Resource control is being fought mostly by the south south and south east. The Yoruba, and to the greatest extent, the North, are against resource control. Even Uwazuruike the MASSOB leader has asked the MEND guys not to give up on their quest for resource control despite the so-called amnesty. Do you know that the stones in Ogun and Oyo and other stone bearing states in the North are being quarried (mined) by private individuals who only pay taxes to the states? Why is the oil in ND and Igboland (and of course Ondo) different? Why are they not controlled by the states?

Again such idiotic response from you push the massob and mend guys FURTHER deep in their belief

Kobojunkie,

As you seem to have noted, many Igbos are not interested in Biafra (I am one of them); However, for Igbos to contribute to mending what all of us have contributed in spoiling, we need to be given the chance to do so. The bargains are as follows

Presidency (like other major groups who helped spoil Nigeria have tasted)
Equal number of states in each zone
accurate population census
Resource control (50-100%)

These are not too much to ask or are they?

Thanks Ijawman for raising this point. We will be looking at the legal and other implications.

Interesting question that we Igbos need to address . Indeed, there are a number of things we need to sort out before a succesful Biafra can be achieved

1. Igbo need to know how many Igbo there are in Nigeria (easy to do within Igbo states)
2.We need to know how many of those live in Nigerian states outside Igboland (all those Eze Ndigbo outside Igboland should take up this assignment
3. They need to compare the land mass to the number of Igbos around to ascertain if the expected influx will contain all Igbos that will be leaving Nigeria
4. They need to begin to invest more at home to cushion the effect of a relocation
5. They need to plan for a long time before they reach a final conclusion (10-15 years)
6. They need to consult Igbos in the diaspora
7. They need to find out if Uwazuruike has not sold his own house in lagos (I know he has a duplex somewhere around Isolo/Okota/Ago Palace road) and moved all his personal assets to Okwe, his home town
8. They need to get it at the back of their minds that the new Biafra will not include any non-Igbo speaking people (I prefer that)
9. They need to figure out how to harness the abundant oil and gas in Imo, Abia, Enugu and Anambra without waiting for oil from Ijaw and other ND states.
10. They need to be sure that they can pull out of Nigeria without a gun shot being fired (only in that condition can they retain their properties in Nigeria). Otherwise they are considered war booties

11. Following from point 10, I doubt that Nigeria will permit 70% of the properties in her capital (Abuja) being owned by foreigners (Biafrans)

your opinion; stick to it.

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Declaring the best book ever written is tricky business. Who's to say what the best is? We went one step further: we crunched the numbers from 10 top books lists (Modern Library, the New York Public Library, St. John's College reading list, Oprah's, and more) to come up with The Top 100 Books of All Time. It's a list of lists — a meta-list. Let the debate begin.

LamidiObi:
dream on. no southerner will rule nigeria again. if you want war we give you another one. we are born to rule you. live with it.

Did you want to write that you are born to run down Nigeria? You will soon be sent to sahara desert where you belong. Ewu.

The chickens are coming home to roost. I knew it was only a matter of time. As for the disunity hype,  one wonders what group is united in Nigeria. Buhari contested election against his own Brother Yaradua. Not of talk of Atiku. Till date, their cases are still in court. Who is fooling who here? I dey sidon look

I said ''if''. I do not think anybody here is more Igbo than me, but if he is found to be involved 9following a thorough investigation), even Igbos should deal with him

Kidnapper fingers MASSOB leader
From Ali M. Ali in Abuja, 07.01.2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Leader of a kidnapping gang that recently abducted two Chinese, Innocent Orji Alias ‘B’ Stone General, yesterday alleged that Leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Chief Raphael Uwazuruike, an Army Corporal, Ike Nwachuchu, serving in Lagos and an Onitsha based millionaire, Chief Innocent Igbowa, are his major sponsors.


He made this allegation while being paraded by Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, alleging that Uwazuruike recruited him shortly after his arrest by the Federal Government, preparatory to forming an army of protesters that will stage rallies and protests to force government to release him.

He also said Uwazuruike, through his personal assistant, directed him to meet Igbowa, who gave N1million as take-off grant, while Nwachukwu kitted the group members with army uniforms.

Commenting on circumstances surrounding the death of one of the Chinese in their custody, he said the man died due to heavy rainfall in the bush when they fled from their camp during gun battle with security agents.

He said, “I started with MASSOB. Uwazuruike made me Chief Commandant when we buried Gabriel Ogwu from Mbaise. This is because I was in charge of training the boys in parade and others. In 2006 when Uwazuruike was arrested, he asked me to lead the boys to make noise by organising rallies and protests to force the Federal Government to release him.

“ We now thought of ways to generate funds for the project. We then moved to Nnewi, to meet one Innocent, to help us and he gave N1million but my boys came and presented N400, 000 to me, saying they got the money from traders in the market who donated as part of their contribution to the project.

“One corporal Chukwubuka Ike Nwachukwu, serving with the Nigeria Army in Lagos provided us with military uniforms and military training by taking us to various places where we spent at least four days in the bush. He later led us to an abandoned prison yard in Nnewi, where we slept for some days. One early morning, he took some people on patrol, and when they returned, he said they have gone to destroy a nearby Police station and I freaked out. I said that was not part of their mandate. He left with the AK 47 rifles he collected from the Police and that was the beginning of our misunderstanding with him,” he narrated.

He said after the incident, he took his men to one of their camps in Ebonyi State and sent them to Innoson Group of Companies in Nnewi, where they Kidnapped Innocent and the two Chinese, and later released Innocent after receiving N20million ransom.

He said the money was used to pay salaries of N20, 000 each to the 28 men under his Command, and to sponsor five of his men’s wedding.

Max Siollun:

what is your PERSONAL opinion about the Igbo position in Nigeria and the cry that they have been marginalized? I am sure you have an opinion, even if you happen to be Yoruba or Hausa (which it does not seem to me). Thanks in anticipation

Does anyone have a photo of the 20b govt house in Bayelsa reputed to be the finest in Nigeria?