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Home Opinion OPINION: LAGOS AS THE MOST VIABLE STATE MAY SECEDE

Nna, what types of insults are these? Insults, what do you mean by insults? Please stop jare!

Lagos State is the richest in the whole of Nigeria and that has been proven many times. If you do not believe it, ask Obasanjo that tried to starve Lagos State during his authoritarian civilian rule. Lagos simply ignored him and moved on. What is surprising is that Lagos did not hijack all the taxes Federal Government collected in Lagos during that time, a tit for tat. Believe heaven and earth, if Lagos had the power, Obasanjo could have come back begging on his knees.

I see, so those are the insults Lagosians felt. If that was all, we could have kissed and made up. What bothered many Lagosians is why every little group in Nigeria, that cannot live within their means keeps on threatening the whole country that they want to secede. We keep on hearing about secession in the North and South everyday. We have looked into their leaking or creative accounting; we are still looking for just one of them that can be viable. Or proven viable before.

There are some Southern states that get special derivations from the Federal Government because of the amount of natural resources they produce. The last we heard, some of them are struggling to pay workers’ salary. It just does not make sense. The more money they get from natural resources, the more they want. Even if all the money is given to them, the fear is it will be going to the same leaking basket. How did we live before and how are we going to after oil.

Farouk Martins Aresa THEWILL_- September 11, 2016
https://thewillnews.com/opinion-lagos-as-the-most-viable-state-may-secede/?amp=1

Your clannish way or no way.

ican2020:
Another worthless thread

Usually people negotiate for positions in a new government, others remain in opposition to press alternate constructive solutions to appeal to more voters in the next election.

But to blackmail the winner into unity goverment?

Is there a difference between al-Shabab, Boko Haram, Unknown Gunmen, Igboho?

Some were curbed, some ran wild and other untamed. Bottomline is people are still not safe, they are getting very worried about their surroundings.

Even Lagos, one of the safest place in the country was painted red just for political reasons and bad belly.

World press warns of wider threat after Kenya attack

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-24226112 24 September 2013

Farouk Martins Aresa in South Africa's African Herald Express:

"Most of the developed and socialist countries have succeeded in curtailing nefarious activities of the religious extremists in their environment. Their success unfortunately has driven these devils into African countries. The problem here is that most of the developing countries simply lack the complicated and financial resources to take them on."

Europe
Stanislav Khatuntsev in Russia's Izvestiya:

"Now it is Somalia that is the main stage of fighting against radical 'Islam'. If groups like al-Shabab win there, the region will become the second most important centre of jihadism after the al-Qaeda nest in the border territories of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Then north-east Africa will be lost in endless wars accompanied by bloody massacres."

Francois Sergent in French daily Liberation:

"It remains that this act with its high media profile in the heart of an African capital very much turned towards the outside world... risks strengthening this group by giving it unexpected publicity, and risks closing the region's countries to tourists and travellers frightened by the risk of attacks."

Editorial in Britain's The Daily Telegraph:

"Britain has been one of several Western countries providing the equipment and technical support to help Nairobi wage an effective military campaign against the terrorists in Somalia. The Kenyans, moreover, have acquitted themselves well, helping to drive al-Shabab out of the main cities and disrupting its operations… It is clearly in Britain's interest that we continue to provide the Kenyans with every possible assistance to ensure that they achieve this worthy objective. "

Americas
James Fergusson in The New York Times:

"Many Somalis there live in economically marginal communities and, as elsewhere, some teenagers join criminal street gangs… But if young people are impressionable, their malleability can cut both ways... Given opportunities, support, and acknowledgment that Islam and violence are not synonyms, the vast majority of young diaspora Muslims are likely to reject extremism on their own."

Editorial in Canada's Toronto Star:

"Somalia remains a dangerous, contested place. But the al-Shabab have lost turf, lost revenues and lost direction, with some wanting to fight a wide African regional jihad and others a local war. The group still has several thousand fighters and controls many rural areas. But it hasn't been able to dislodge the new government and has been reducing to suicide bombings and hitting soft targets, hoping to destabilise the new regime and scare off its support. Killing children in a mall is a strategy of desperation, not strength."

Seriously, who does she think she is? A token of American democracy that get attention or whose letters get discarded on a daily basis.

She stood a better chance by going through the American Embassy in Lagos claiming her people are being killed because they are Jews.

1. Ndi-Igbo no dey get tribal face marks. Those scarifications belong to Ndi-Yoruba. Igbo have smooth fine face, skin color closer to whites as Jews and tattoos.

BTW, Nsipidi are not Igbo, try Efik and Ibibio.

It can only happen in Imo

FatimaAbubakar:
You need mental evaluation. People like you who are illiterates and very shallow in understanding modern politics always rush online to type because you could afford 100 Naira to purchase 100mb data. Hope Uzodinma in Imo was declared governor from 4th position. Maybe you were in a deep coma when these events were happening.

There was this popular Radio Talk show host diagnosed with cancer at the peak of his career. We all felt bad and scared that he was going to die. Surprisingly, he was the one reassuring us that he would enjoy and spend the rest of his time fulfilling his activities with all the time left in him with grace. After all, we are all getting closer everyday to the day we die.

This wonderful guy told his listeners that none of us know when we are going to die, not even the doctors that predicted his time because he could be hit by a car, earthquake or senseless war before his time. It was more amazing that some fatal predictions were revised because of new scientific discovery, Karma, wrong diagnosis or so called miracle cure. He actually outlasted the Radio Station.

https://www.modernghana.com/news/1225772/fatal-health-diagnosis-must-not-destroy-the-best.html

It doesn't make a difference how many times you tell people Nigeria and Africa in general is a better place to stay than all the glamor abroad.

In the first place, the glamor and privileges are for their own people not for hustlers like you. The only thing they see in you is hard labor to fire their economy and take care of their aging population.

The sarcastic excuse is that you are going abroad and ready to pay the price for the sake of your children. A good culture we grow up with in Africa. But outside Africa, you might as well throw those children away! They are no longer yours and you have lost them.

What we have in Nigeria is private extortion by gangsters not taxes. These are political cronies and reverse Robin Hoods that steal coal to Newcastle. What they spend in a month for necessities and bills abroad can take care of a year's bills in Nigeria.

The same is true of liars fooling you that they make average salaries and live like a king. They are not even loved and the best of them barely tolerated. They are so lonely, their mouths smell because they have nobody to talk to or play with. So when they get to their houses, some take it out on their spouses and children.

Until we learn how to tackle AKOTILETA, japa crowd are only compounding our problems at home. The agents making money off them are not different from African chiefs selling their people into slavery in exchange for Ogogoro.

How do others live abroad? Suffering and smiling.

https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/319857/fatal-health-diagnosis-must-not-destroy-the-best-of-our-life.html

There was this popular Radio Talk show host diagnosed with cancer at the peak of his career. We all felt bad and scared that he was going to die. Surprisingly, he was the one reassuring us that he would enjoy and spend the rest of his time fulfilling his activities with all the time left in him with grace. After all, we are all getting closer everyday to the day we die. 

This wonderful guy told his listeners that none of us know when we are going to die, not even the doctors that predicted his time because he could be hit by a car, earthquake or senseless war before his time. It was more amazing that some fatal predictions were revised because of new scientific discovery, Karma, wrong diagnosis or so called miracle cure. He actually outlasted the Radio Station

There was also the story some of you may have heard about a man that was misdiagnosed. He lost all hope and gave up on life before his death. Lying down helplessly on his sick bed. As soon as the doctor came to apologize that the laboratory switched his result inadvertently; he jumped up and danced around the hospital staff. We cannot but wonder what happened between the moment he was lying down ready to die on the sick bed and when he got the good news.

Boosting and weakening our immune system by our optimistic or pessimistic take on life may prolong or shorten our ability to fight diseases. It is important to realize that lack of will in our ability to fight devastating forces, or more powerful opponents even in a war, means we have already lost the battle. No matter what we consider an insurmountable force against us, giving up must not be our option. Cowards die many times before their death, they say.

.....

They look for straws to hand on to, anything against the wall that will stick and the most frivolous excuse that will turn their own supporters off.

Why wail, sulk, cry and bawl like babies.

Yet, no Nigerian leader has ever done anything for their people.

Stop it!

How can someone just wake up from slumber and claim East was the fastest growing in the world

You got it from your dream or what? Ask those older than you, they ran out of the East to go into Cocoa farms as laborers.

Many ran out to get free Education in the West.

Most of the Industrial Estates were in the West anyway. The only University was in the West.

Up till today Easterners are still trooping out in thousands daily to the West overrunning every social and economic facilities.

Una nor dey taya.

There was an Election in Nigeria and there were 1st and 2nd votes getter.

The loudest noise from an empty vessel is still coming from a distant 3rd crying and wailing that he won.

What is this?

Many Nigerians have lost their morality and will have problems raising upright children that can succeed in life without criminality.

My criminals are better than your criminals, so we voted for criminals as Presidential candidates.

https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/319669/youths-repel-uncultured-invaders-stop-terrorizing-grassro.html

The aberration we see today in leaders is disheartening to say the least. These recruiters of evil doers and destruction are the same entities that deprive Youths the opportunities they need to solve the pressing needs of their local communities with their skill and talents. So, Youths in desperation fall into their hands as instruments of terrorism or leave for what they think are greener pastures in foreign land as inferior beings. If colonial masters leave your countries in ruins, what makes you think they would love us there?

It is no longer a secret that many African countries make good money from natural resources like oil and diamonds far in excess of what they made from Cocoa. Yet, Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana and Awolowo in Western Nigeria made unprecedented progress in Industrial Estates and Education that the colonists repressed to extend Africa dependence as colonial masters. When they were kicked out like the French in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), the British and Portuguese in East Africa, they abandoned and intentionally left projects uncomplicated. 

Haiti in the Americas is another case in point. The French not only destroyed projects, they taxed Haiti and demanded heavy compensation as a condition for withdrawal to gain Independence. They made sure Haiti never recovered, even today. African slaves were told to be grateful they were sold outside. Otherwise, they could have been slaughtered and eaten alive. It is strange coming from slave masters that sold their own children by raped slave women, into slavery like cattle.

While Africans are running out of their countries where foreigners get rich. Our Youths just want to get out since they believe their salvation is not where others get rich; because they have an indoctrinated neo-colonial mentality. Usually, the obstacles they face outside are greater than the ones they left at home. But they can at least eke out some subsistence living, better or more tasking than where they are well known. 

If we want to understand how that can happen up to the present day, we have to revisit what Nkrumah meant by Neo-Colonialism. It boils down to handing over power to unscrupulous elements within us that can deliver laundered earnings to them by remote control without being held responsible. It has never been a secret that if Europeans, Americans and lately Asians want to get rich, they rush to Africa.

YOUTHS: REPEL UNCULTURED INVADERS & STOP TERRORIZING GRASSROOTS

One of the most important prayers of our parents was: our children would grow to achieve more than they did. Those prayers and struggle to accomplish better goals for our Youths bestow admiration and respect for elders everywhere, not only in Africa. Even when we disagree with elders, our Youths always had a way of expressing their objections without being disrespectful. We have opponents among learned cultures and reasonable people like ours, they leave enough room to disagree without being disagreeable.

Youths everywhere are the social conscience of their communities and countries. It is no longer valid that most Youths are liberals because they have hearts and those over 40 years old are conservatives because they have brains. We can demonstrate good hearts and brains at any mature age. As we get over our 50s, we revert back to good hearts after realizing we cannot take with us what we acquired with brain and experience. All the rush for money boils down to a rat race trumped by good health to enjoy a little more out of whatever we acquired.

Elders remain the keepers of culture, etiquette and history. This is the reason Yoruba say: Agba kin wa loja ki ori omo tuntun wo. Where there are elders, kids seldom go astray. One of the sayings in Things Fall Apart was: though age is respected, achievement is revered. So if a kid knows how to wash his hands he would eat with the elders. The same is true in the teachings of the holy Books. Degenerated culture leads to monkey see, monkey do. The greed of some elders leave very little good characters for the Youths to emulate.

Youthful exuberance is a highly desirable character of the youth to encourage and further progressive ideas but not to make money at neck breaking speed. Unfortunately, today's youth cannot wait to get into nefarious activities like rituals, 419s, drug peddling and worse, terrorism. Their recruiters pay Youths more money for hopeless deadly missions in order to further their own selfish goals.

TBC.

Obi multiple personality as a drug dealer caught up with him in Britain. Let him try Asia

It is not about facts or data. It about dogmatic principle.

For peace sake, declare Obi or Atiku as President.

Northern Nigeria is broken up for the first time since Aminu Kanu, for good or bad.

So is the Southwest and Southsouth for good for good or bad.

No Region cast monolithic votes except Southeast.

How do we come back from the animosity because those that did not vote for anyone else but themselves grief because others should have voted them.

But others did in the Presidential Election.

Back to kids play in the fifties. We had marbles that we played with in every corner. If we were not playing marble, there were agbalumo seeds called “stations”. We would draw a circle and move back some yards. In that circle, we may bank 25, 50 or 100 in it and play with five or ten stations outside. Whoever got most in by finger flicking, would win all the stations in the circle. These were serious games,  cheating got you in trouble.

This was how we learned honesty from our childhood days. If you want to know how a country improvises, check children’s gadgets. Then, we also had the cones called ikoto made from aluminum. Some of us did not like that game because if you lose, the tip of the cone would dance and sometimes penetrate your palm. It was painful but once you were in, you had to abide by the game and suffer the consequences when you lose.

We must not forget the kites. Those that had mothers with those Singer hand sowing machines did cause some damages by stealing the threads. It was another competition trying to fly higher and higher. We also had swimming clubs for those kids in Lagos at Onikan and Rowe Park.  May God bless Eja Nla, Dr. Alakija that devoted his disposable time to others’ children, actually any kid.

We dominated the streets with felele soccer balls. Whenever the cars were coming we moved until another one showed up. Yeah, some of those under 30 may be wondering which city or village was that. There was so much to write about but little space left.

The topic of this article is when we were Nigerians but nowhere has Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba or Efik come up yet. All the kids were Nigerians, and the rules of honesty were strictly adhered to. Most of the schools have kids from different part of Nigeria, even in the not so big cities. Actually, kids from different parts of Africa to be precise. West Africans or South Africans were also Nigerians in those days.

Variety of food from different parts of Nigeria and Africa were the norm. Some of our parent did not allow us to eat outside. But believe me that rule was only good around the house. Once we stepped out, anything went. Where kids get so much appetite with their little bodies is not a miracle if you remember your childhood. There were some outside sellers of variety of foods. Something in their food always brought you back.

We all cook rice and garri at home but there were some delicious differences to the ones cooked on the streets. Even beans: ewa- Ghana and ewa- igbado when cooked on the streets were different to the ones cooked at home. We had mossa and abodo. If you grew up in the major cities like Lagos, there were two or three types of those two. One could be Ghana recipe, Togo or Yoruba types. There was kenki with Ghanaian flavor.

Tuwo were about two or three also and we had them with different stew or soup. Starch that was either Warri or Urhobo made, could have also come from Calabar but with okasi soup, Imo. But as kids, we could care less; all had one entry to the stomach. The point here was we were proud of our African food. Those eating European food in those days were killing themselves with bacon, sausage and potato wey nor get pawa.

Wow! Just trying to get to the sixties in our secondary school days, we have not even touched most of the primary school days in the fifties.  Nigeria was the best!

Farouk Martins Aresa

BY RGUILD /  FRIDAY, 14 JUNE 2013 /  PUBLISHED IN ARTICLES

The 50s were fun for those of us in primary schools, without “elite” barracks mentality. Television came to Nigeria but only nightly for two or three hours if you live in Kaduna, Enugu, Ibadan or Lagos. Other areas might be getting some reception as well. We saw Nigerian/foreign shows and great musicians were also featured like Bobby Benson and Sam Akpabot. Ogunde had always been the main show but usually at Glover Hall Lagos.

There was a great deal of fun for kids like us. We made most of our toys and played along with rules and nature. Since the gutters were clean, we made our own little boats and followed them sailing from one street to another. The implication here is that the gutters flowed with maintenance mentality. One of the reasons was that stagnant water attracted mosquitoes, so they had to be cleaned very often. We learned appropriately.

Believe it or not we had these health inspectors in major cities going into people’s houses to check if they were clean. Even in the villages where there might be no health inspectors, it was because villagers were naturally cleaner than city people. There were long brooms used to sweep the surroundings. Even the mud houses were clean in the villages. Those people on higher economic scale, cemented their houses over the mud.

So if you went out of the major cities, you would see villagers early in the morning, especially the children cleaning their surroundings before going to school. Before jumping to 80s, 90s and on, the last place I saw the old Nigeria was in the West Indies. When I saw those little kids doing their chores in Jamaica before walking to school, I saw old Nigeria even in their cities where water came out of the pipes in the markets.

When We Were Nigerians

NewsRescue- If you are wondering how Nigeria that was fighting for Independent Country became one that is fighting for disintegrated country, look no further than our “elite” schools where the shakers and spoilers in the barracks with some unscrupulous civilians took over tasks totally above their heads. Not what Herbert Macauley, Ernest Ikoli, Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello, Awolowo, Enahoro etc. fought for. Didn’t they call Awo a doomsayer?

Unfortunately, you cannot find many in politics. Indeed many of them looked down on politicians as hustlers without tangible professions. There were exceptions of course, those were dedicated radicals determined to wrestle control of the destiny of their people from colonial masters. The fight then was Independence by any means. We had it easier than East and South African fighters hosted at University of Mandela Prison.

Those were the good old days when Nigerians were proud to be Nigerians anywhere in and outside the Country. Nigerian/African universities’ B.A.Sc. was as “good” as British and “better” than American specialties where you could get PhD in anything you want!

It was so inconvenient to be anywhere else but Nigeria, hence we heard about people flying hot eba and efo orisirisi or edikaikong to London. England was never a place to stay for long unless you flunk your examinations many times. As soon as you leave home, counting of years started, wondering when you would be back with a B.A.Sc

TBC

When you know how illogical the position of your opponents are no matter the facts, why waste your persuasive faculty?

Because if lies are repeated long enough, liars start believing themselves.

Why waste your time confronting them heads on?

If you don't, they pass lies from one generation to another.

Leave them alone ai beg nah!

Not in my backyard o!

Which of these rascals was sitting on Awolowo's statue?

Mmmm, great people finally discovering themselves.

Another Yoruba chest beater.

Ndi-Igbo Loved & Cherished By Most At Home

There is no other place Ndi-Igbo are loved or cherished more than in their own Country, from the South to North. Even just before secession of Biafra, which was one of the lowest points in Ndi-Igbo history, more people throughout their Country empathize with them. More youths in the schools were supporting Ojukwu until the war actually started. Unfortunately, many events did overshadow the story of bravery of men and women that took unusual risks on both sides.

These risks, in and outside Biafra enclave never gain enough traction or respect after the war. It has got to a point where all the stories we hear about are those that hate the Igbo and who the Igbo hate. These stories are packaged and re-told over and over again to create more animosity for future generation. There are so many out there, one would think Nigerians never loved one another throughout their history and only married casualties of war to express dominance.

Going back to the East and leaving your loved ones behind was a very difficult and emotional decision for interethnic couples and their children. This was why some Yoruba and Hausa had to follow their families back to the East. Unfortunately, only very few of those confidential families “secret” during the war (were told) dare tell; some are reluctant even today in the East. Those who did are not enough. More of these stories have to come out.

It was the same on the other side of Biafra, where people hid Igbo they loved and cherished from the Nigerian Army. As we later found out, some of the Army officers themselves had Igbo relatives in hiding or at home. Most of the boarding schools including those in the North kept their Igbo students away from sight in case some Nigerian Army might invade their schools.

It is not a story of “them say”. This writer was a student at Ondo Boys High School while fighting was raging some miles away at Ore. Actually about two of the dormitories were vacated for Nigeria Army and the wounded were treated at a hospital nearby. The brother of our Principal was an officer at the War Front. Anyone old enough knew Captain Iluyomade or late Canon Iluyomade that later became the Principal of International School, Ibadan.

Go, get him! Canon Iluyomade had Igbo students hiding in his school while his own brother was fighting Biafra Army at Ore. He was not the only principal that did that, all the schools in Ondo and all over Nigeria did. Most of the student knew that and none of them informed the Army. Whenever Nigerian soldiers challenged anyone on the street, crowd would gather prevailing on them that whoever it was, was our son. No soldier dared challenge any woman.

Indeed, this writer was challenged in his father’s car. There was no fear whatever, but disgust from a little boy for that soldier. He was drunk and unruly asking for his Yoruba mark. The point here is that most in the community loved and supported our Igbo brothers and sisters. Many of us did not want to separate from our Igbo relatives and they did not want to separate from us.

History must be told and lesson must be learned to prevent the same mistakes made in the past. So there are two sides to a story just as there is a third side to the same story from neutral or a disinterested party. Perpetrating atrocious stories from each side without balancing them with the factual story that we also loved and cherished one another is a disservice to these children.

Children that were not born during the Nigeria/Biara war are telling stories passed on by those that felt so bitter that they do not want to remember the days they loved and cherished their Nigerian brothers and sisters just as they were loved and cherished by the same Nigerians. What these children fail to realize is that stories of conquered and conqueror, victims and oppressors, hosts and guests, disenfranchised and perpetrators, oppressed and oppressors vary.

Ndi-Igbo still boils thinking about their dead and wounded common people just as Hausa think about their dead and wounded leaders. Both have learned never to cross one another’s path again. Sandwiched between them are the Yoruba and minorities that also lost their leaders and common people. However, the reactions of the three main ethnic groups and the minorities are not given due respect, demonizing even benefactors, in the different stories they passed on.
Some people have made careers out of Igbo/Yoruba/Hausa hatred. None of them has been able to justify why Hausa fight one another, why Yoruba fight one another or why Igbo fight one another. Please there is no intention here to trivialized or minimize the act of war brothers wage on one another. But this notion that Nigeria has existed for one hundred years and we have never loved one another must be put into proper perspective.

Ethnic and civil wars in Africa are not only Nigeria/Biafra problems in particular but an African problem in general. Some have justified and portrayed it as Africans without respect for human dignity or life, treating one another worse than slave masters from other continents. Whether we persecute within ethnicities or not, Ife/Modakeke or Aguleri/Umuleri wars are no different from Somali with the same culture and language or to South Sudan based on ethnic loyalty.

It is unfortunate that in Africa where we are our brothers’ keeper and it takes a whole village to raise a child, we are fragmented by unhealthy rapacious competition. Economic opportunism serving the least amount of people rather than the greatest number of people has overtaken our communities and generosity has been replaced by individual greed to convert as much as possible for personal harem and into families’ bounties.

Most African leaders have turned a town, village or family into different states and countries to rule. It does not end when one ethnic try to dominate or colonize another. This does not in any way justify so many wars in Africa spanning from competition between hosts and guests.

Opinion article written by Farouk Martins Aresa

Published 9 years ago on 2014/01/07

https://newswirengr.com/2014/01/07/farouk-martins-aresa-ndi-igbo-loved-cherished-by-most-at-home/

Some people really need to be ignored even after contradicting yourself in the same sentence. It could also be lack of exposure.

This is a popular topic in foreign universities, maybe not in schools where they stopped teaching history.

Foreigners will be paid to teach you.

tungamaje:
The article should have just simply quoted the German explorer instead of the title. Isn't this the same thing you accuse Igbos of?

YORUBA UNITED NATION: THE MOST CIVILIZED ETHNIC GROUP IN THE WORLD

Scholars throughout the world that have studied the Yoruba Culture and Religion have been intrigued by the ancient history of YORUBA of West Africa. German explorer Leo Frobenius came across some sculpted bronze heads and terracotta figures in Ile-Ife, convinced he had discovered remains of the mythical lost city of Atlantis. Beyond the way Yoruba accommodate other religions and cultures without giving up their own, they have surprised other scholars, so much that doctoral students must be careful how they present dissertations for approval. You may see within the same family a Reverend father, a respectable Imam and a prominent Babalawo. This is a volatile mixture in most cultures.

The disappearing glory of Yoruba civilization, culture and esteemed blood in a country deluged with money but only abject poverty to show for it must be reversed. This must be through intensive workshops by Think-tank reorientation groups at home and Diaspora; not by political moneybags. These Yoruba speaking groups, though massively located in Western Nigeria, are all over West Africa, Brazil, Cuba in Central and Southern America. They can be identified by their religion, language, Santeria and ORIKI. Some Yoruba artifacts unveiled at Iwo Eleru near their historical home of Ile-Ife, dated as far back às 10,000 B.C.

Oyo, Yoruba old Empire practiced the world's oldest form of Cabinet Government system. It was where the system of Check and Balance sent the Head, Alafia packing by opening the Calabash when the people had lost confidence. Oba Koso! The loss of check and balance in the world culture and governments as the Yoruba became sucked into the Federal Government of Nigeria of the day has bankrupted their Regional Government and Culture. The same Culture that served Yoruba efficiently with meager Cocoa income thrusted Western Region of Nigeria into First In Africa, wealthier than many European countries.

The success of those Yoruba leaders in Nigeria Regional Governments boosted Industrial and Housing Estates. Free Education and Hospitals attracted Africans and the world sought employment as skilled workers: teachers, doctors, engineers employed, were able to send money home to their families in Asia, Europe and Americas. It became the melting pot where world citizens got along inside United Yoruba Nation recuperate from the sordid past of Slave Trade. Dedicated people with skills and talents find solutions to local problems boosting the economic engine of their country. Unlike the Yoruba children running out today while soldiers of fortune are running in to snatch the ripe glory at the top and call it their own.

In retrospect, Western Region was nothing short of an Economic Miracle! The Culture, Skilful managers and their policies covered every inch of Western Nigeria from Ilorin to Lagos, from old Midwest to Dahomey now Benin Republic because the Industrial Estates and Free Education attracted those beyond. Judicious management of talents, natural and human resources were not by luck or accident. It was the culture of accountability passed on from the old Oyo Cabinet system. Community Esusu and Cooperative practice from the top to the grassroots ensured success where it took a village to raise every child in Africa.

The Miracle that extended to Eko, now popularly called Lagos had also been blessed by the natural location near the sea where the Aromire (sea friendly) and the Oloko (ship owners) dwell. Putting the scenario into perspective today, we have to go back in history of how Yoruba skillfully changed Eko over the centuries to this Lagos, fighting off soldiers of fortune. Natural beauty of land and people attracted so called explorers, Muslim and Christian religious missionaries that paved the way for Slave Trade in West Africa.

The fight for Eko later called Lagos started in 1452 when Pope Nicholas V issued a Papal Bull called Dum Diversas that granted Portugal and Spain 'full and free permission to invade, search out, capture and subjugate slaves in West Africa. So in the 15th Century the Pope, by that edict, blessed the capture of slaves along the West African coast. When some people claimed the Portuguese named Eko with a similar name in Portugal as Lagos; the Yoruba named Eko as a similar name in Ekiti. Just as you have New England, New Britain, Sudbury or Windsor in the Americas. Europeans even named sugarcane plantations in Africa and Americas after themselves as Saints: St. Lucia, St. Vincent, St. John etc to be worshiped during slavery!

Put into proper perspective, some centuries later the Europeans "discovered" River Niger, Nile all the way down to the Bight of Biafra. The British system sneaked in as Private companies or Protectorates but whenever they met resistance or defeat, the Royal Navy was ready as Backup. Indeed, some of the resistance and defeat they met in Africa were at the hands of formidable powers of the Shaka Zulu, the Ashanti, Ethiopian, Jaja of Opobo, the Ijebu, the Kanuri and the Oba of Bini. The British Royal Navy and soldiers of fortune did not divide and conquer Africans alone. They also used African Armies. Britannica.com/list/more fascinating battle of African colonial era

Therefore, the fight for Eko by proxy, gunboat diplomacy, religions and other means did not start in the 20th Century. If anything, Eko has managed to survive since the 15th Century after centuries of assaults by different powers. Eko survived each of these assaults out of the resilience that characterized formidable Africans even when sold into slavery in the Diaspora. While the Yoruba share most of these good traits like other Africans, their local Culture that also survived in the Diaspora gave them an edge. Tijani Oluwas of Lagos precedent case of Lagos ownership at thePrivy Council, the British highest Court finally and legally settled it.

After the 1900s Slave Trade, the Yoruba found their way back home mostly in Eko popularly known as Lagos and started all over. Those that were resettled outside of Western Nigeria could trace their cities, towns and villages back by ORIKI, another cultural heritage that distinguished Yoruba. While it is obvious many of the returned slaves took Christian or Muslim names of their Slave owners, others were baptized with Christian and Muslim names as practiced worldwide. The free born Yoruba and the returned freed slaves continue to build Western Nigeria as they did from the first invasion of the Portuguese after the Papal Edict of the 15th Century.

The First In Africa accomplishments in Western Nigeria was built on the unique Culture of the Yoruba, live and let others live OMOLUABI, the resilience of African power that has survived the test of times throughout the world beyond the imagination of those that plunged African civilization into the Dark Continent. No where are the contrasts better demonstrated than in the hands of those who managed Cocoa compared to Oil incomes. We must not give up in face of the last Election where 3 soiled characters were presented as Presidential candidates. Omoluabi rejected one of them in both his home and adopted states. Talikawa also woke up. Only one ethnic group voted for no other but their own.

Unfortunately, the advent of Oil Income into Nigeria in trillions of Dollars and Pounds by various estimates of local and international organizations like OXFAM only plunged Nigeria into abject poverty. It was mercilessly plundered by the same Nigerians, aided and abetted by their foreign partners in crime. The fact that meager Cocoa earnings turned Western Nigeria into First In Africa and trillions of dollars turned Nigeria into the abject poverty capital of the world is enough!

Source: https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/319101/yoruba-united-nation-the-most-civilized-ethnic-group-in-the.html

The so called leaders in Lagos should be leaders of thought, ideas and principles where progressive plans are hatched out and tendered for implementation by Government, non-profit agencies, philanthropists and the grassroots.

This Election is a Wake Up Call. The urgency and opportunity presented must not be missed.

What an insult from the U.K ambassador preaching to the most civilized people in the world not to say in Nigeria.

Until recently, Britain denied West Indians and Africans that fought WWI and II for them all over Europe; legal papers to work and collect benefits. Bloody hypocrites.

Until Africans get the privilege and opportunities Igbo have in Lagos with impunity, he should keep his mouth shut

These are the same people that preached Post Racial USA and world after Obama became United States President.

While, while and while they were planning for Trump. They returned to the good old days, a century back.

Barbarians preaching to the most civilized people on Earth.