₦airaland Forum

A faction of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) headed by Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, has expressed its readiness to hand over 50 percent of its weapons to the Federal Government in demonstration of its acceptance of amnesty offer.
Some of the weapons to be handed over include 7,000 AK-47, 1,000 general purpose machine guns (GPMG); unspecified number of bombs; other explosives and full military and police uniforms; surface-to-air missiles, grenade launchers and gun boats over the next one week.

http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4376:amnesty-militants-set-to-hand-over-8000-arms-others-&catid=85:national&Itemid=340

CBS News
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Aug. 9, 2009
[size=15pt]Family: Nigeria Sect Leader's Father-in-law Killed[/size]

The father-in-law of an Islamist sect leader who set off violence that left hundreds of people dead in northern Nigeria was shot and killed and buried in a mass grave, a relative said.

Babakura Baa, the eldest son of Baa Fugu Mohammed, said Wednesday that he believes police killed his father after he went voluntarily to a police station because he heard that authorities were looking for him.

Mohammed's daughter was one of four wives of Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of a sect that attacked churches, mosques and police stations last week, beginning a wave of violence that left over 700 dead.

Police declined to comment on the allegations by Babakura Baa.

Mohammed had given Yusuf money and land to build a mosque and a headquarters.

Mohammed went to the police four days after his son-in-law had launched his attacks on July 26 and the day after police leveled his compound in the northern city of Maiduguri, Babakura Baa said.

He said he was told his father had been executed the day after he turned himself in.

"We saw photographs of Baa Fugu's corpse with gunshot wounds, and we learnt that the body of our father was also buried alongside others in a mass burial last Saturday," he said.

Borno State Police Commissioner Christopher Dega declined to comment, and his spokesman did not answer telephone calls.

Yusuf's Boko Haram sect _ the name means "Western education is sacrilege" _ campaigned for the abolition of Western education and the implementation of strict sharia law.

Extrajudicial killings are very common in Nigeria.

Yusuf himself was shot dead by police after being captured alive.


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/09/ap/africa/main5227883.shtml

@Onlytruth.
Where you not the one advocating that Igbo's should join the North and SW to loot the ND?

PS I am not Ijaw. But Ijaw are by far the majority group in the ND and they trouble no one.

Afaukwu:
How did you arrive at that?

The highest scores for 2009/10 JAMB all come from the ND. Damn us ND minorities!
[list]
[li]Miss Edem Cross River State (310)[/li]
[li]Friday Obukohwo Delta State (308)[/li]
[li]Moses-Gombo Kuroyefa Bayelsa State (308)[/li]
[/list]

nex:
Hmmm? You want me to try it?

Tomorrow, I can go to ring road in Benin City and see how many people can read a Newspaper. Then tomorrow, I'll be going to Ogwashi-Uku for the first time. I try that too.

I used to think the South South was the second most illiterate region after the north.

Sorry, but thats called ignorance.

This article has some nice graphs, factor in population and do the math http://nigeriaworld.com/articles/2009/feb/101.html

Afaukwu:
How did you arrive at that?

It is based on quota system and common entrance and JAMB results.
You can also observe it in the streets, there is practically nobody in urban areas that does not understand English or can't read.

These are the highest density education states in Nigeria:
Delta, Edo, Akwa-Ibom, Cross-Rivers, Oyo, Lagos , Imo and Anambra States

These are the lowest density states:
Kaduna, Sokoto, Borno, Adamawa, Kano, Niger, Zamfara

Na wa! 419 at official levels.

A team of accountants and tax experts assembled by THISDAY to scrutinise the 2005 oil and gas industry audit report just released by the Nigerian Extrac-tive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) returned this verdict in their submission.
A breakdown shows a discrepancy of $1.091 billion or N162 billion (converted at N148.75/$) has five components: petroleum products imports ($544.296 million), share of NLNG profit for 2005 ($207.00 million), royalty ($164.265 million), Petroleum Profit Tax or PPT ($91.076 million) and reserve addition bonus ($84.502 million).
According to the team of experts, the Hart Group that conducted the audit confirmed on page six of its report that total petroleum products imports in 2005 was 5,901,879 metric tonnes (mt) of petrol (premium motor spirit) and kerosene (DPK) and AGO. 
However, records the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) deposed to on oath show that the national oil company paid for 6,739,257 mt of petrol, kerosene and AGO in 2005.
This means that the country was forced to pay for 837,379 mt of products not supplied. At an average price of $650.00 per mt, the country was allegedly fleeced by $544.296 million or N80.964 billion.
“The quality of data the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) is questionable,” the Hart Group reported, adding that “measurement practices are not consistent or in accordance with international best practice”.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=151189

nex:
Nobody got better. Some people just got worse slower than the others.


I must say that during the period I spent in the North, the kind of comfort I saw the people exercising in poverty was unbelievable.

This was during a period where most people down South had the notion that Northern Generals were ruling, therefore the Northerners were enjoying. That was the period they suffered the most under those leaders.

As for Jigawa state, I don't even know what to say. People are suffering O! That's why when I see my people in the Niger Delta cry that they're being marginalized, they are suffering, they are poor, I laugh. When the kind of poverty in Jigawa hits down south, we will start smiling in order to conserve energy to combat hunger.


Poverty is a Northerner. I don't need CBN figures to confirm what I've seen with my own eyes.

ND people can only thank God that he endowed them with "liver" (the real difference is that the ND has the highest some of the highest literacy rates in the country). Northerners in poverty believe it is as Allah wishes.
I am shocked that Western Nigeria is second to the North, though.

bawomolo:
catapults were their weapons of choice?

It would seem so. That is their weapons cache from Bauchi state.

akigbemaru:
@Naijaking1 or Biafran-king1

Your chicken has come home to roast, not quite long you and Dede1 were boasting that Igbo people are the reason why more regions were created out of Northern and Western regions.
Just like how OBJ put Yar' A dull in government, would he have the power to control him anymore? Definitely no! Leave these people alone for God sake!!!
Mind you Awolowo created the Mid-western region, not you Igbos. This is our western territory and you could feel our impacts of Benin, Delta and Bayelsa.
You should try to solve Igbo problems first and as you know Benin will never fall under Biafra and has more advantage on Ijawland than Igbos from Far East.

I really hate it when goons from majority ethnic groups think they somehow own the minorities. It is the closest you can get to outright racism. . . "our western territory" indeed.
We really don't care about your "western territory" and want no part of it (you can shove it up your anal orifice).
We have our own "ND territory", thank you.

Na small small dem de start. Then one day, you hear how several billion was spent clearing savanah land with nothing to show.

These are the weapons captured from Boko Haram. This story has many loopholes, who killed the 1000; was it the army and police or was it the crude and wretched weapons below? Someone needs to tell the truth.

Morizo:
We hurriedly got the independence we were yearning for and started fighting amongst ourselves. Our Pre-colonial leaders are to blame for this. They should have been interested in the transfer of technical know-how not POWER! look at the asian Tigers today. They are enjoying the positive side of Colonialism while we are languishing in the negative side.

What is the "transfer of technical know-how" and were on Earth has it occurred outside of strategic alliances? Like I said earlier, we need to apply logic to our circumstances; nobody develops a country that isn't theirs. "Transfer of technical know-how"? . . .The basic principles of recent inventions have existed for donkey years, "transfer of technical know-how" will never happen. We might as well wait until kingdom come for manna from heaven.

We have the brains and talent, so what’s wrong? Something must be amiss with the vehicle if it wouldn’t start or shudders to a halt after a miserably short distance.
Nigeria has a fundamental issue with inertia. The inertia is caused by 250+ ethnic groups tugging at each other and the centre (FG). These constant battles grind down our ability to react on time or make effective decisions and this has been worsening in an increasingly tighter spiral. The solution is to set up a proper framework that will satisfy all 250+ ethnic groups or break the country up. We are currently on the road to nowhere.

The country needs to be set up in a way that fosters the interests of all 250+ ethnic groups. The Colonial master set the country up in a way that would work for them after slavery was abolished, so that they didn’t lose the economic benefits of slavery. All they did was move the plantations from the Americas to Africa.

nex:
Nobody can mention anything that the Brutish did in Abia state? Okay let's go to the next state and see whether anybody can mention a single road, a single electric pole or even a single tree planted by Lugard and the rest of his Brutish invaders. Next state in alphabetical order ;
ADAMAWA:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Ask them! Your questions prove that the premise (foundation) of this thread is fatally flawed. It couldn't have been put better.

Threads like this are really embarrassing. For example, the British built universities, but what courses were available and why; what section of the population was covered and why; what was the curriculum; what were the graduates like; what were the catchment areas and what did they emphasise? That single area is symptomatic of the traps we have either needed to negotiate or have sprung. It doesn’t have to stop with education, how many were served by their electricity grid and where did they have to live?

The main problem with threads like this it really plumbs the depths for shallow thinking. Sometimes, it makes me wonder if there are trolls deliberately forwarding these foolish views.

Anybody who has been privileged with an education to A level or beyond, has come across the study logic to some degree or the other http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic

I will leave you all with this. Nigeria has acquired two drones (pilotless aircraft), but cannot fly them, because operational costs were not involved in their calculations. This one incident embodies every one of Nigeria’s problems, the unwillingness of our people to apply logical thought.

The best thing for Nigeria would be a split into regions that can exist in harmony. That way each can take care of themselves and develop at their own pace.

Both sites look like rubbish.
The whole rebranding thing is a whitewash for the theives to make their zero substance speeches, it reminds me of this https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-222281.0.html

[quote author=Yoruba-man link=topic=307483.msg4323776#msg4323776 date=1249835501]You are correct - One time when i was doing my NYSC in Abia state. The ritualist told me if want to become a billionarie over nite i should go sleep with a black goat just like the one above.[/quote]

Hmm! Yeye man, you should have done it in the bush na, abi de owner tie im goat wit magun !
And that goat is very ugly sha.

@naijaking1
I think you should post the lagos businessmen thing as a new thread. It would create a good discussion.

. . .One thing. If this is a MEND / OPC type meeting, you need to inform becomrich. He will furnish you with JTF's current coordinates with regard to your location, so that you can have enough time for evasive action.
becomrich is the only NL member with a google earth server in his kitchen, so he can also offer you (free of charge) the latitude and longitude of the nearest oil well(s) to Ikotun/abaranje.
If you don't know how to swim, there are many ND guys/babes here that can teach you (swimming is very important for dat kain work).

blackSpade: ~~~Kaduna, with its unique cultural heritage and creative potential, is well placed to exploit new paradigm shift for sustainable economic growth and becoming a key actor in the knowledge driven-economy. That is why our 11 Point Agenda has ICT as a tool to empower, reconstruct, restructure and re-engineer~~~

Excuse me! Are the people not going to be educated before there can be a "knowledge driven-economy"? Are we talking of the same region that peddles Sharia and Boko Haram? Create a campaign for education and build schools instead of wasting money on fancy 3D images.

Some governors will do anything to further their 2011 ambitions no matter the cost while their people live deprived and brutish lives.
"ICT" my foot! You can bet that those 3D images were not even produced in Kaduna or Nigeria, although there are Nigerians quite capable of producing them. Reason? No dollars to exchange hands.

This is just another avenue to launder oil money while people wallow in poverty in the Niger Delta, that is why the info is hard to find. Rubbish.

Gbenga78:
I need Nigerians' opinion on the extent to which other extraneous variables (e.g., poverty, lack of stringent legal measure, lack of parental monitoring, unemployment, etc) could contribute to criminal offending in Nigeria in the absence of drug taking.  I need one or two paragraphs per each variable(not sentence) in order to respond to the question

You can't even say please, yet you want us to write your exam for you. "I need". . . "I need". . . "I need". . .

I hope the suggestion from Lagos is taken up by the Lagos state govt. They have everything to gain. I doubt Sokoto will suggest anything remotely similar (a large percentage of ND looters are from there).
I also hope that it is taken up by the FG and aside from the FG tax, every state has to either pay a levy to the ND or give a portion of their mineral or other resources to the ND; an easy formula can be worked out for that.

naijaking1:
White wash, white wash, and still more white wash.
5%, 10%, 50%, 100%, or whatever it's going to be a cover up.
These people know the way it's done in TX, OK, LA and other places with oil, or valuable minerals.
Let the owner(s) of the land extract their God given resources, and pay applicable taxes.
That's the way it's done all over the World, why can't it be done in Nigeria?

Exactly!

SapeleGuy:
Beaf , i get your drift but how many more symposiums, jamborees commissions and conferences do we need on this matter. Why can't they just implement the recommendations that they already have?

I'm not sure if you're talking about the Ledum Mitee report, so I won't address that. A more complete version of what I meant is below.

All current recommendations are really built on quicksand, with ND people as an afterthought; something more is required. my earlier post was concerned with the wider Nigeria, not the Niger Delta which wins which ever way things go;.

Unfortunately any law for royalties will be an addition to a patchwork of hastily made laws to bandage leaks in the system. This stark truth about this is thrown up when you consider that Nigeria is in increasing moral and legal entropy; ridiculous laws have been inherited from the colonial master (e.g. "wandering" without regard how they affect those at the brunt. Some laws have been made to facilitate exploitation. Other laws have been derived from "studies" of foreign democratic systems whose cultures and morality levels are alien to ours; also whose societies lack our experience with ethnic diversity (Nigeria is the most ethnically diverse nation on Earth http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_eth_gro-people-ethnic-groups). Almost every Nigerian individual and region feels oppressed by the state. Just about everything is broken.
It is in this regard that the suggestion of a fundamental re-examination of the laws and regional bonds has been made. Without this, we find ourselves with the incredible contradiction of a secular state where huge swathes have adopted Sharia law.

Yes, while suggesting a national conference sounds a bit idealistic, it has to be emphasised that it is the only option open to Nigeria if it is to escape the increasingly viscous whirlpool of confusion that is reaping the seams and joints of nationhood asunder; each new recommendation only worsens things because wider consideration is not given to the whole. If there is to be the slightest chance of survival, the fundamentals need to be examined.

Unfortunately, aside from Lagos and Sokoto, there is no economically viable state outside of the Niger Delta; this in itself is an obvious disincentive to a sincere national conference. http://odili.net/news/source/2009/jul/23/219.html

The only winner in all this will be the Niger Delta; they can take these royalties, never disarm MEND and then ask for much more; again and again until the country splits (circa 2011). Then there will be no need to bother about derivation, royalties and other palliatives.
The Niger Delta is the only region that can afford to be patient in the present Nigeria, the rest of the country needs a national conference like a headache needs Panadol.

naijaking1:
You should be attacking Vanguard, not me. That's another case of misplaced priority. Funny. . .

Yes you are funny. Very.

You've taken a story and dishonestly twisted it. You were given several opportunities to retract, but you stupidly stuck with a twisted tale witnesses from both sides of the fence have told you is patently false.

You are now the laughing stock of this thread.

afam4eva:
What's the guarantee that breaking the country will solve the problem. I think it will give room for more corrupt people who could not steal enough in Nigeria to do that.

What happens to those who have properties in other parts of nigeria.

If a region is currently not producing money (most aren't), what would there be to steal after breakup?
It seems more logical that breakup will force all regions to work toward self sufficience or go begging. We will see the return (or harnessing) of cocao, groundnuts, oil palm, coal, solid mineral expoitation, manufacturing, tourism, solar energy and I.P.

As far as I'm concerned, if the bill succeeds it will just be another bandage rather than the medicine the contraption called Nigeria needs.
If it passes; it will just be another exercise to remove pesky impediments to the free flow of loot. Another palliative; good for local ND communities as Ibime pointed out, but useless to the nation (if that term applies).

What Nigeria desperately needs is a true and honest definition (national conference); that is the only way the country will survive.

@naijaking1, are really this thick?
You sound so ridiculous with this stupid argument Ijaws have problems with Urhobo's (and its getting worse). The worst thing is that you want to continue that foolishness even with both Ijaw's and Urhobo's telling you that it is simply impossible.

You have made yourself the laughing stock of this thread.

The answer is a national conference.
We have never recognised and undone the evil the British did to us (best exemplified by the fact that the name Nigeria was given by lugards mistress).

The mistake we have been making is not seeing that Nigeria was set up for the benefit of others. Its called divide and rule.
Our ruling elite have simply replaced the British and are using divide and rule against us.

There are only three things keeping Nigeria together, they are; brute force, sentiment and greed. All together, they amount to the same exploitation, only this time its by the Hausa-Fulani.

The reason for the current problems all over the place is that the Hausa-Fulani are permanently losing their overwhelming influence, resulting in a power vacuum. Only a democratic system can sieze this vacuum, if the army does, it will definitely end in open war.
The answer is a national conference.

blacksta:
Yar adua will setup 21 man committiee to look in this matter and list of names will be released in 2050


how about that

Dede1:
Unfortunately, some folks have gone from adequate contributor to ridiculously mediocre. The issue we had at hand was an attempt of making a hero out of a common criminal. Isaac Adako Boro was not a hero. The peeps such as Beaf, na_so, Sapeleguy and even Ibime had gone hair- wired in determined measure to twist truth and convert falsehood into truth.

@Sapeleguy

You tried very hard to blackmail both naijaking1 and me with such twisted post. But your intelligence or lack thereof reduced you to an inherent betrayal artist.

Logic or sentiment?! Certainly far from logic.