₦airaland Forum

edicolove: @Alj_Harem,
Nairaland,
World Wide Web,
Nigeria
10 April 2012,

8:50pm

Dear Sir,

PLEASE STOP THE PROPAGANDA

My attention has been drawn to your recent post here on NL where you attempted to portray you and your people as victims. I wish to put the records straight.

You are not a victim, you are the OPPRESOR!

Nigeria gained her independence Oct 1st, 1960. Since then, we the people of the Niger Delta have been marginalised, ridiculed, scorned and manipulated by your kit and kin. You have used the advantage given to you by the colonial masters and diverted our God given natural resources to develop yourselves. Now, we have come of age and demand equity but alas, you are trying to play a new card. You are trying to play the victim. Let me repeat it again loud and clear for the world to hear, you are the OPPRESOR, not the victim. You occupied choice positions in the military, civil service and multinational companies and from those positions, you enriched your kit and kin.

Our position is simple. We are either equal partners in this anomaly of a union or we want out. We are fully ready to back our demands with action and no matter the attempts to intimidate us, we will not succumb to your blackmail.

Get this message into your thick skull!

Yours

Ed

Saro wiwa


I am a Khana. The Khana along with their cousins, the Gokana, Tai and Eleme have, since 1947, been grouped as Ogonis, in the Ogoni Division. Today, the Khana and Gokana are in the Bori Local Government Area, the Tai and Eleme are part of something called Otelga, a hybrid Local Government consisting of the Okrika Ijaws, the Ndoki Igbos and the Tai and Eleme. We belong to Rivers State.

[b]The Ogoni number about 500,000, which makes me an extreme minority in a Nigeria of one hundred million people. The first secondary school in Ogoni country was established one hundred years after the first secondary school in Yorubaland, the CMS Grammar School in Lagos (185. These two facts alone, in the first instance, establish my pitiable plight. I am unfortunate to be a Nigerian. I would rather not be, but I am doing my level best to be one, and a good one at that. Being a Nigerian means that my brother Nigerian of the Bura ethnic group in Borno State has been told that I am a "Southerner," equal to the Yoruba or Igbos who are numerous, well-educated and are after the jobs which the "northerner" ought to have. I wander, therefore, through the Federal Civil Service and am lost in the competition between "northern" and "Southern" Nigerians, between the Igbo and the Yoruba, between the various clans and religions of the various peoples of Nigeria, between personal ambition and greed. I am lost. I cannot truly answer the name Nigerian. [, ][/b]

I was a graduate student when the cataclysmic events of 1966 happened. Apart from my revulsion at the needless murders of the innocent, nothing upset me more than Ojukwu's dishonest formulations and his attempt to kidnap the Ogoni, among others, into his Igbo empire called "biafra." I knew that he pinned his hopes of the economic viability of "biafra" on the oil of the Ogoni and the Ijaw. I rebelled. I became Secretary of a small committee which met nights in Port Harcourt and issued a communiqué calling on Gowon to create a Rivers State by decree.

When, by sheer quirk of fortune, this happened in 1967, I abandoned family and caution, crossed the fighting lines and found myself in Lagos. There I became a member of something called the Interim Advisory Council of Rivers State and, subsequently, Administrator for Bonny. I returned to the war front and struck up friendships with gentlemen like Sani Bello who comes from Kontagora, Akinrinade from Ife, Obasanjo from Abeokuta, Yakubu Danjuma from Takum, Dan Ato, now deceased, from Bida. I had reason to hope that my nightmare as an Ogoni in Nigeria was about to end.

With the war ended, and as a Commissioner in Rivers State, I soon found that the Rivers State for which I had fought did not end my nightmare. [b]In the first place, oil money from Ogoni country (as well as Ijaw country) was being carted away to Lagos, leaving the Ogoni illiterate and backward. This is anti-federalism. Worse still, the Ijaws were taking their frustrations out on the non-Ijaws of the State. For the Ijaws alone number more than the eight other ethnic groups in Rivers State put together. Though historically disunited, the Ijaws find unity when it comes to lording it over the non-Ijaws. The Ijaws will want to perpetuate this. Today, there is not even a Commission from my Local Government Area in the Rivers State Cabinet such as it is. My dilemma as an Ogoni is not about to end.

Lost in this dreadful nightmare, I went in 1971 to see Chief Awolowo at the Federal Ministry of Finance. There was nothing I told the sage that he was not aware of. He showed me his writings on the issue and bade me seek the mid-Southern State he had proposed in 1966. Thus was the quest for a Port Harcourt State begun. In 1974. When we started, there was no shortage of opponents. To the Ijaws, I became a traitor. [, ] The creation of this State would alleviate my nightmare and show Nigeria how much it has robbed and neglected the Ijaws of the oil-bearing Delta.

So, what do I really want? I want a place where my children can regain the independence which was the Ogoni patrimony before the advent of colonial rule and before Nigeria's independence consigned them to slavery at the hands of their neighbours. I want the option of CHOICE. And I am not begging for it. I DEMAND it. And I also want that option for Hauwa Madugu, the 21-year old Youth Corper in my office. She is a Jenju from Gongola State. So that we can both be better citizens of Nigeria and end our collective nightmare.

How I wish Awo were still alive! He would have understood. He knew the country well!
[/b]


http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/Awo%20and%20the%20Creation%20of%20States.htm

Beaf: ACN is a political party that desperately wishes to be identified as an ethnic group.
ACN lives and breathes ethnic chauvinism. What other political party has its leader describing a section of the country as "fishermen?"

All hail Nazi's!
All hail fascist's!
All hail ACN!

sconsults: This is a very easy process.separate urea from urine by electrolysis.hydrogen and carbon dioxide accumulates at the cathode While nitrogen and hydrogen accumulates at the anode.pass the hydrogen through pottasium hydroxide and it oxidise into potassium carbonate.the rest is free hydrogen. This is low level chemistry project in high school.only in Africa will this be an achievement.

edicolove: These ACN peeps have never had people take them on and have been having a field day till they met the Niger Delta peeps. Now they have more than their match. Acting Criminals of Nigeria, ACN.

ekwy nwa: really? since when?

solomon111: I wonder why we cant just occupy the NASS and ASO ROCK.
We are not ready to pay for the price of freedom yet.Me inclusive!.

ekwy nwa: confused ,mallam how far? it really sucks to be a nama

Beaf: One ID indeed.

Yeah, one only has to criticise ACN to be called a bigot on NL. What other party does that?
ACN is a just a nascent version of the BNP or KKK.
How does anyone get called a bigot for criticising ACN if the party is not desperately striving to be seen through ethnic lenses.

What a pity!

All hail ACN! All hail fascists!

Or will you say because I am from the North, I should not slam bunkering? Some of them are friends of past government and this present government of Dr Goodluck Jonathan. One thing I want people to know is that the group that I lead is pro-Nigeria and not pro-North and you will never see me defend a corrupt Northern elder in my political life of about 40 years.

PointB: Middle Belt of course, who else are the natural owner?

ekwy nwa: @ Chino tell them, they re cowards and that they shall remain.

patrick89: Y are u people always forcin igbo people to believe dat ojukwu led them to war that took millions of there lifes and properties? Y are u forcin igbos to believe that he is a vailian and not a hero? I think they are d best people to make those decision not you! People should stop all these "I knw better rant", and allow them to idolize anyone they like the way they want. As for me, I think u people didn't knw all these issues better than them, yet they still believe he is the greatest igbo man ever lived, it will be stupid and crazy for someone outside to claim to knw about my father than I do, make una chill jari!

edicolove: Its interesting how you are trying to play the saint here. You lads started criticising GEJ when he was not even sworn in. Simple proof that it had nothing to do with issues. But the man continues to proove you lot wrong. Even when some have threatened and are making good their threat that the country would be made ungovernable. Tell me which other president since independence has made far more fundamental policy changes in such a shory time. FOI, official secrects act, PHCN structure, Railway act, just to mention a few.

paparazy09: I wonder why some people choose to see the truth and yet derail.

The 10billion withdrew from CBN coffers,was it returned since the Senators didn't accept it according to Nnamani. Cos I noticed he skipped that part.

Secondly,he mentioned that when the bill was brought to the house,after much delibrations,he asked every member to return to their constituencies and talk to their people.He chose to sit on the fence because his hands have been soiled.

Remember.........every onlooker is either a traitor or a coward!

NRI PRIEST: Exactly what "yiba-ara" civilisation are you talking about ? What where your civilised yiba-ara people wearing before the they got ass whopping from the nupes,hausa invasion and the shameful defeats the Oyo kingdom surfered in the hands of the jihadists? Do you want me to continue!
Sometimes it better to just shut up rather than open your mouth and embarass yourself!

Am sure you never heard about the "akwaette" fabric in the 17 and 18centuries! You like claiming things you didnt invent, including the "Ife king head" sculpture which you copied from the "Nri head" which was made in about 4cen. before ife kingdom developed!
I will advice you yiba-aras to shut up and continue to chest beat without mentioning Igbos to get your full credits!

Weak minded "dark monkeys"(yoriba) !!!

Demdem: When obj was there, these same people called him gorilla, yawa no gas ooo. Yaradua came, sickler go-slow was the in-thing, Aboki no send. Now that the fisherman is on the throne, they are crying blue murder. Nonsense.

edicolove: My guy, if you looking for an opportunity to lash the Ibos, go ahead. I am not from the south east. I am Niger Delta thru and thru. But that is not even important. What's imporant are that we must have a country where evry tribe is equal and respected. GEJ should be criticised as president but how does insulting his name, traditional attire and such stuff count as proper criticism. Please tell me?

edicolove: My guy, you want to lie to yourself? Go ahead! The Hausa/Fulani and Yorubas controlled Nigeria for the last 50 years. That's a big fact! The Ibos where a strong force before the civil war but since then, its being Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba. From military to civil service to multinationals. Things have only started to change since the last few years. That is why OBJ is the only Yoruba man I truly respect because he is the one that has tried to balance the power of recent but you folks have hated him for that and fought him to a stand still. Yet you call us the bigots. Fully really.