₦airaland Forum

5 A day ago Nosa James: I no like where you put my people. We do not want to be with igbo, we want to be with the yorubas
4 A day ago Emeka Okafor: Great biafra
3 A day ago Ali Aliyu: divide the user country.
2 A day ago Ahmed Baba: I support this petition.
1 A day ago Mohammed Idris: I support this petition. divide ,

16 29 minutes ago Shina Charles: I support this petition.
15 7 hours ago CHIGOZIE IGBA: I support this petition.
14 8 hours ago Olawale Bello: I support this petition.
13 11 hours ago Abu Mohammed: I support this petition.
12 12 hours ago Ahmed Bello: Many people in Nigeria are so unhappy, while some are getting rich from the rest of us.
11 12 hours ago Tobi Olorunyomi:
10 12 hours ago Kemi Ladi:
9 12 hours ago Inyang Uwem:
x
8 12 hours ago Kefre Bassey: We want out of nigeria. Please help us.
7 12 hours ago Edet Udeme:
6 12 hours ago Essiet Udeme: Break up Nigeria please
5 12 hours ago Aniekan Udeme:
4 12 hours ago James Udeme: I support this petition.
3 13 hours ago Uche Ndibe: useless country.
2 13 hours ago Mohammed Ishaya: Some are becomeing rich , we are poor.
1 13 hours ago Ali Hong: I support this petition.

Nigeria was amalgamated in 1914 by the British, before the amalgamation there were two separate nations, the Northern and Southern Nigeria. It was made to serve the purpose of the Colonialist for trade which shaped Nigeria to what it is now. But the system is simply not working after 48 years of getting independence in the 1960.

The Northern and Southern Nigeria are most of the times crisis, a war was fought in the 70s which the South East of Nigeria fought for the separation of their region from the cancer called Nigeria which exists till today.

The simple fact is, Nigeria is not ONE, and can never be forced to be ONE, in order to enjoin a lasting solution to the current Nigeria's instabilities, Nigeria needs to be divided.

Therefore, we seek petition for the creation of the following out of Nigeria;

1. Arewa Republic [Northern Nigeria]
2. Biafra Republic [South Eastern Nigeria]
3. Nigeria [Middlebelt Region]
4. Odua Republic [South Western Nigeria]

We urge the United Nations, the African Union, and the current Nigerian Government to urgently separate the country peacefully, and let each region have full autonomy over its resources.

This is for the benefit of our Future Generations, if we leave Nigeria in the current setup, it will end up in a very chaotic and bad situation, and will hardly become part of the developed countries in thousands years to come.

Let us forget about the mistake of 1914, let us correct this mistake in 2009.

Happy New Year to you All!

Ibime:
My sister, with this kain grammar, I wonder wish newspaper you dey write for. . . . abi na Gamji.com?

Ibime:
Sorry to say, but from the tone of his piece, he is definitely one of you.
auwal, where do you get writers like this from? No wonder he is working for gamji.com.

Muza:
Shekarau munafuki ne

Whenever there is a crisis in the North, whether ethnic or religious, it is the fault of the Hausa-Fulani; and this will be the line of majority of the Yoruba press. When IK Mou wrote his version of what happened in Plateau in the BusinessDay, he wrote that the Hausa-Fulani started the conflict by burning churches and the market place before there was a reprisal on the mosques. Would you want him to write otherwise? Would any commission of enquiry make him to accept that the Hausa-Fulani can be a victim? He was generous enough however to concede that the Hausa-Fulani have found themselves for the first time at the receiving end. First time? There was no Mile 9, there was no Sagamu? There was no Zangon Kataf, there was no Numan? Like I said earlier, you cannot win against prejudice.

nuzo:
All of a sudden, shekarau became evil?
Something seem not to be adding up here. You guys have always praised him and yerima as the defenders of your religion and north.

But unfortunately, everyone knows that the grouse by these northerners against this crimininal is not because of his fights against Ribadu but because he hasnt sanctioned yet another genocide on christians and Igbos in kano recently.

People cannot be deceived anymore.

http://www.gamji.com/article8000/NEWS8404.htm

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The title of this discourse will surely anger many. It is not meant to please any group either. What I intend to do is to discuss the recent crisis in Plateau State in a different context. At the end we may be able to understand what roles we are to play in the political configuration called Nigeria.

Many are knowledgeable about Nigeria’s history. Many know that there were at one time two protectorates: North and South. There came to be an amalgamation in 1914, followed by regions with NA system; then States with the present Local Government system, (includes the blood-spilling Jos North Local Government area.

The transformation of the political structure of Nigeria has not yet given us an acceptable living condition. We are at home with riots, killings, maiming; and we have our share of IDP’s (internally displaced persons). Can we say that we heard the last of crisis after the recent one in Jos? Nothing on the ground seems to suggest that. Of more importance to me is the fact that Nigerians seem to stick to their past, however ugly and unrewarding it might be.

The politics of Nigeria is still the first Republic model: extreme hatred amongst Nigeria’s major tribal groups; that is the Hausa-Fulani, the Yoruba and the Igbo. One would have thought that with the success of power shift, the main contending blocs would have sheathed swords, and redefined the battle to be of ideas and programs. But that seems not to be the case. We have moved to a more dangerous platform: the politics of religion.

Conflicts bring out the beast in man. When people are in conflict, all the contending parties are right; and no Jupiter will make any of them to agree the he has some share of the blame. Political intrigues know no bounds. You do not tell someone the weapons to use in war: any weapon that gives victory or causes the most harrowing damage will willingly be used. You can for instance entice someone to a course of action by doing an act which you surely know will lead your enemy to act in the way you want. If you decide to take your preaching to the territory of an opposing believer, brazenly trying to show that he is not in majority in the area you are targeting, you surely know the outcome you want: your enemy will riot, certain number of your followers will lose lives and properties; but in the end you achieve your propaganda value: your enemy is behaving true to type.

Hausa-Fulani gave Plateau State a lingua-franca: Hausa language. The diverse tribes within or on the Plateau do not understand each others dialects. Hausa is spoken by all of them. We may see changes in the future if the ethnic cleansing ideology takes root. Hausa-Fulani gave the non Hausa-Fulani residents of the Plateau their traditional dress. Before that they were naked, or wearers of animal skins. In turn the different tribes offer to the Hausa-Fulani alcohol; and this they vehemently reject as a societal culture. Many leaders of Hausa-Fulani do guzzle alcohol, but it is not the culture of the majority of the society.

We digressed to the realms of values to show that it is one of the impediments to integration. Ironically, Botswana, to my understanding a predominantly Christian country, is waging war against alcoholism. Why is it that the regulatory agencies of aviation have zero tolerance for alcohol in those who pilot planes? Alcohol is evil and we all know it. But some insist that it must form part of their culture.

Lagos prides itself as being the economic nerve centre of the country. It generates the highest internal revenue, and consumes 70% of the nation’s power output. However, are the Yoruba the only consumers of Lagos’s industrial output? The Igbo can be found in the remotest corner of the North; trading and making fortunes in the midst of the legendary poverty of the Northerner. However they are safe as long as the political machinations of their politicians do not cause the host communities to seek vengeance.

Whenever there is a crisis in the North, whether ethnic or religious, it is the fault of the Hausa-Fulani; and this will be the line of majority of the Yoruba press. When IK Mou wrote his version of what happened in Plateau in the BusinessDay, he wrote that the Hausa-Fulani started the conflict by burning churches and the market place before there was a reprisal on the mosques. Would you want him to write otherwise? Would any commission of enquiry make him to accept that the Hausa-Fulani can be a victim? He was generous enough however to concede that the Hausa-Fulani have found themselves for the first time at the receiving end. First time? There was no Mile 9, there was no Sagamu? There was no Zangon Kataf, there was no Numan? Like I said earlier, you cannot win against prejudice.

There was a time when the Western world wanted a united Nigeria. Then the Hausa-Fulani were the darlings. Having more experience with governance based on knowledge, (due to their Islamic heritage) they were able to lead because thy understood human nature better. Their earlier leaders were able to eschew corruption, and to care for the down-trodden. Today, Western intelligence agencies want a more fragmented Africa: an Africa with dispersed population, living in camps in the dense forests, unable to farm, and being fed through Western-donated food packs. They want Nigeria to disintegrate.

When you look closely, there are more clamors for resource control, for ethnic identity, then you had twenty or thirty years back. MASSOB exists to keep on tearing the Nigerian identity. Would the reader want to remember when the United States wanted the Nigerian Government to let OPC be? Who then owns or funded the OPC? The Yoruba would say it is a justifiable outrage against Northern hegemony then using the Nigerian army. But what of today, is the hegemony still a reality?

Humans and conflicts seem inseparable; for though we always call for justice and fair play, we are not able to inculcate same; nor are we able to set up and maintain institutions that ensure that we don’t play with justice. The Nigerian State, nay the Nigerian Constitution, does not exist in the minds of the citizens. You believe that you are a Nigerian in an area where your tribe is not in the majority to your own peril. So whether there are ten million Hausa-Fulani in Jos North local government of Plateau State is not the issue. The main issue is: who are more in number in all the surrounding areas of the State? And it is those in the outlying area who will be fueled by the zeal of ethnic identity to try to cleanse their state of those who ‘forced’ them to wear clothes. You may reflect on certain characteristics of two tribes that are many in number and are enterprising: Hausa-Fulani and the Igbo. Wherever they set up business do they try to bring in those who might be the earlier settlers of the place? Most unlikely. They go about their lives as traders but not as missionaries. It is the missionary who is after winning hearts and minds. He is also the one most qualified to use incendiaries, even if they are in the form of words, and mutilated ideology.

The integration that Nigerians desire in order to really be democratic is really still domiciled on Jupiter. It is many light years away. In the interim, sanity demands that we understand our limitations. There was failure in the normal traditional peace brokers when they allowed an election contest between a Hausa-Fulani and a Birom: the Hausa-Fulani must (‘pentacostically’) lose. I may have offended some, but it is the reality is it not? It is a contest defined to be between a Muslim and a Christian; and it is apparent the Christians have overall majority in that State; your majority in a particular Local Government does not give you electoral advantage: the State is ours, you are a settler, accept that status or pay with your lives, limbs, and property, and so on.

So what is next? The onus is on the one who found himself in an enemy territory. Sit down with your ‘canine’ host and decide a charter of your ‘tenant’ and ‘landlord’ relationship. Should you have voting rights? Or would you accept the one that says you can vote and not be voted for? Should you have property rights? Or should you take cue from the PDP youth leader who says that those whose properties were burnt should not be compensated, for that will entice them to burn their properties for gain in the future?

This is all a manifestation of intense hatred. But what is the source of this intense hatred? It comes from religious leaders, and the inheritors of the politics of the First Republic. Can you fight it? You can, if you remove religion from people’s hearts! Then they will kill each other due to causes such as ethnic grouping, land disputes, creation of local government, and so on. Concluding on a wishful thinking note, Nigeria may know more peace if South- West changes its perception of what politics is all about; or be brave enough to leave Nigeria.

As for minorities of the North, and even those of the South, you may not want to believe it, but the Hausa-Fulani you despise is your best guarantor against extermination. If Nigeria disintegrates, you may come to the same realization.

Shekarau On Ribadu’s Dismissal
By; Muhammadu Aminu, OFS
http://www.gamji.com/article8000/NEWS8405.htm

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The comments of people like Shekarau are not in anyway surprising. I live in Kano, I supported Malam Ibrahim Shekarau in 2003, I know how well he has justified the mandate he won in 2003 courtesy Buhari's SAK declaration. It is unfortunate Shekarau choose to destroy what made him popular - his superficial integrity and Buhari. What Shekarau would have said is if the allegations against him by Nuhu Ribadu were wrong or correct. Ask anybody in Kano that is not benefiting directly from Shekarau's government if there is anything worth celebrating for all the billions he has received as allocations. All the things Kwankwaso was accused of, Shekarau has since beaten the records. With such comments from people like Shekarau who is by every standard a political opportunist, an elected governor (in his first term), what again do we need to justify the fact that Ribadu is being persecuted. I have always known Shekarau has a hand in the travails of Ribadu. He would have used the time he used to celebrate the down fall of Ribadu to explain to Kanawas if he was indeed innocent of the allegations of corruption against him. I have no doubt that the allegations then compared to the executive financial recklessness of the last 19 months is like comparing a goat with a cow. We all agree Ribadu took some wrong steps but obviously, we are not in doubt that he is right with virtually all the allegations against all the criminals parading themselves as Executive Executhieves (or former).

People like Shekarau are the major problems of the North and Nigeria in general. They find it easy to run back to Islam and Qur'an to cover their dirty acts and shameful reign. Malam, the same Islam you refer to is serious about accountability. Islam is serious about good governance. The holy prophet was a leader of his people and we know that administration is much more than employing some party thugs and call them hisbas. We know very clearly Malam that Islam is all about equity and justice. In an Islamic system, being a governor is not an automatic means of wealth. Be Sincere Malam, if you stand before Allah this minute, will you look Allah in the face and tell The Almighty (SWT) that you govern Kano State judiciously, prudently, astutely and free of corruption? Malam you need to be told that if you consider the travails of Nuhu Ribadu as the teachings of Islam, then you should sincerely stand in the Ka’abaa and ask Allah to let you (Shekarau) also go through the teachings of Islam as he is going through. Malam, Nuhu Ribadu is only going through the teachings of all the public criminals that have unfortunately ruled us in the last nine years. Much as we know that Ribadu was wrong to have seen Obasanjo as being “clean” we also clearly do know that all the governors are worst than common thieves including His Excellency Malam Ibrahim Shekarau himself. We do not need any soothsayer to know this. We do not need to pay any Malam to know and clearly too that Malam has not also loved others as he loves himself and the people who aided and funded his coming to limelight. Malam, should be told and loudly too that his reign as a Governor will expire come May 2011. The Sule Yau’s of this world should tell Malam that when his likes would have been forgotten, the Ribadu’s of this world will still exist in our hearts. Senator Kabiru Gaya should please sound it to Malam that when it will be a thing of shame for some of us to let our children read about one Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, it will be joyous and a source of pride to hear our children speak about one Malam Nuhu Ribadu. Shekarau should be told that we are not surprised he spoke the way he did. Afterall, nobody will expect any criminal to speak well of the Police. We know the criminal here and we are not in doubt who, the police is. It would have been a miracle of the world if Nuhu had survived this apparent witch hunt and wicked persecution. I have always told people Shekarau is involved and his comment has made me a prophet. Shekarau has left no one in doubt that the Ibrahim Shekarau we all supported in 2003 is no more. The Shekaraus of this part of the world should be told this will not continue for ever. He should be told that if he could be voted for as he was in 2003, the people of Nigeria will still rise up against people like him. Shekarau may be fooled to think we still listen to him, all what we hear when he speaks is the voice of a man who was in the right side of humanity before he was pitied and voted for as governor of Kano State.

Shekarau should be told that when his likes would have be sent back to smelly and dirty part of history, the Nigeria populace will remember Nuhu Ribadu as a man who stood and fought for the integrity of a country bastardized by political opportunists. When the name Ibrahim Shekarau will not mean more than that of a passer by to an Almajiri in the street of Brigade, the name Nuhu Ribadu will resonate loud in halls of Bayero University, Kano. When Ibrahim Shekarau will only be remembered as a man who represented the problem of Nigeria, Malam Nuhu Ribadu will be remembered as one who represents/represented the solutions.

Somebody should please tell Shekarau that no matter how much he and his criminal colleagues try, we know who is on our side. We know those we will advice our children to consider as role models. We know those who Allah himself will be proud to have into this world. We know very clearly those who stood by and fought for us. We know those who will be remembered for good by Nigeria and Nigerians. We know those who will be remembered in the syllabuses of our schools in the future. We know very clearly how history will remember everybody. We know those who have traveled abroad to bring us honour as a people and as a nation. The whole world knows is the criminal and who fought criminals. May Allah (SWT) judge us all according to our deeds and intentions. I hope the Shekaraus of this world will say amen. Ribadu, don’t worry, we know them all. They have reached the peak of their life but for you Sir, this is just the beginning.