₦airaland Forum

@ 2much,
Olukumi are not Igbos. Aniomas are Igbos.

There are aleady encouraging signs of unity. Ohaneze President, Ralph Uwechue is from Anioma. Also the Anambra slot in GEJ's cabinet is filled by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is from Anioma.

The Delta Igbo part must join us in SE.

@ Genius 100,
Ofcourse Anioma would have to join the South East. That way, South Eastern traders and industrialists can really cooperate with Anioma bankers like Pat Utomi (Bank PHB), Tony Elumelu (Uba) Jim Ovia (Zenith), Nduka Obaigbena (Thisday) Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, e.t.c, to develop Igboland.

@ 2MUCH:
If what you are saying is true, then what explains the presence of Igbo sounding towns like Umuokoro in the Ile-Ife area?
Point of correction-Moremi did not defeat the Igbos. She only married the Igbo king, and learnt the secret of the Igbo warriors victories, in their attempts to regain their lost town of Ile-Ife. She then went and told the Yoruba soldiers.

It was only then that the Igbos were defeated. The Igbos now settled in the present day Delta and Igbanke, in Edo State. If not for the weakness of the Igbo king for tings of the flesh, Ife would probably still be an Igbo town today.

I advice you to read the link again I typed again, go get a copy of the book Equianoism, and also ask Ife indigenes some pointed questions about the original owners of Ile-Ife.

@ 2much
According to the book Equianoism, isbn 978 978 908 474 6, the Olukumi are the Igbos who once occupied Ile- Ife- go read up on Queen Moremi. Given that history, it's no suprise Yoruba's understand some of the words the LUKUMI IGBOS speak.

At 2much,
Before you talk about that read this.
http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/the-greater-igbo-nation-by-ishaq-d-al-sulaimani/

@ Chyz, it's high time. Anioma people have really sufered.

Imagine how Ndigbo would forge ahead with Tony Elumelu, Jim Ovia e.t.c in the South East. What about Nduka Obaigbena and his This Day? It's time the Igbos come together. Only selfishness can stop us.

Posted on 20/07/2011 by Prince Charles Oforkaja

Igboland doesn’t end at the mouth of the River Niger. It extends to encompass the Anioma (Igbo) part of Delta State.
Across the polity, there is now a wide acceptance of the need for a sixth Igbo state. As a consequence, several political groups from the South East have been angling for their localities to be carved out as this new state. These moves are not advisable. What Ndigbo need now is an Anioma State, west of the Niger.

At least the Igbos from the South East have internal autonomy, and the chance to develop themselves to an extent. The Anioma people don’t. For instance, they have never produced a governor in Delta State, despite the rich array of administrative talents they posses. They must be given their own chance. They cannot be left to wallow in neglect forever.

The Rivers State Igbos are doing well, so we don’t need to worry about them. But we must save the Anioma people. They are one of us.

I am talking of the land of Olaudah Ekwuano and Chukwuma Nzeogu. They are one of us.

http://igbodefender.com/?p=222
© igbodefender.com 2011

Mu hehehe

Posted on 07/07/2011 by igbodefender

Many years ago Igboland was the biggest supplier of palm oil to the world. Today, our palm oil sector is almost moribund.

We have grown to soft, and lost our leadersip as a result. Fortunately, as the Igbo saying goes, ” when someone wakes up, that is his morning.” The time has come for the Igbos to wake up, and revive our palm oil industry. A resucicated palm oil sector will provide jobs for our youths. It will reduce crime, and increase the internaly generated revenue of the region. A PALM OIL REVOLUTION is hereby called for.

State Governments in the region should begin handing out’free’ sub-plantation leases, and significant monthly stipends to youths who are ready to dedicate at least, ten years of their lives to living in and tending to these lands, and cooperating with the state governments to turn them into palm oil farms. Existing big land owners should also be reached out to, with the aim of granting concessions to those willing to embrace the revolution. Agro support services should be provided to all who embrace the vision.

Affluent private individuals and organizations should also organize cooperatives, using the same model.

There sould also be a concerted effort to biuld local factories, and find foreign markets that will soak up the local supply that this revolution will generate.

We can still become the developed land we were destined to be. Our culture has imbued us with a powerful ability to rise from the ashes and achieve.

Let us therefore inaugurate this Palm Revolution without further delay.

© 2011 igbodefender.com
Source:igbodefender.com

Posted on 07/07/2011 by igbodefender

Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State has done well by inaugurating a committee, to look at ways of reviving the Aba Textile Mills. Analysts point out that Governor Orji may be deeply committed to the revival of the mills, given it’s potential of providing hundreds of new jobs.

We ask Governor Orji to use the revival of the mills as a concurent launching pad, to reposition Aba, as a world leader in the designer apparels sector. His model should be Northern Italy, not Dubai. He should turn Aba into a cottage industry of designer labels.

Governor Orji should immediately inaugurate a micro-finance skim for established apparel and shoe makers in Aba. Consultants should also be hired from Northern Italy to come and teach the Igbo artisans some useful tips on the manufacture of designer goods.

A fashion academy, and business incubator should be set-up in the city, with the aim of graduating and financing highly skilled new artisan-entrepreneurs. The faculty of this academy should also be staffed with the above mentioned Italian fasion consultants.

Northern Italy is a region which started like Aba, but today, produces a lot of desinger items. Think of the status ‘Made in Italy’ brands have in our minds.

With a little organization, Aba can produce answers to Gucci, Versace, Bennetton, e.t.c.

The term ‘Aba Made’ can become a globalbrand.Theodore Orji can easily become one of the most memorable Igbo leaders who ever walked the surface of earth. We sincerely hope he reads this.

© 2011 igbodefender.com
Source: igbodefender.com

Posted on 07/11/2011 by igbodefender

Ogbonna Onyenweaku



Rochas Okorocha’s first touch with the people was through philanthropy. And it all started with a bang to reach and touch the people where it matters most. And to get the firmest hold on the people with his tender compassion of helping them, Rochas Foundation was formed as a non-profit organization that seeks “to better the lives of the under-privileged in society; to increase their chances of making a better future for themselves and their family, and to become fully contributing, valued members of a productive society.” With a beautiful first programme called Reach Out and Touch Programme (ROTOP), it visited the orphaned children and the homeless, offering food, warmth, companionship and comfort. From there, it began dealing with minor health problems and providing basic medical initiatives such as clean water, antiseptic wipes and inexpensive medicines.

As if looking to enter a door for greater opportunity to assist Nigerians in general Rochas Foundation moved to the education sector where many children 11 years and above who could not continue with their secondary or high school education were given scholarships in five schools at Owerri, Kano, Jos, Ibadan and Ogboko.

Still, Owelle Rochas Okorocha maintains his vision that 1,000,000 African children will receive a free education through his schools by 2015, thereby creating a brighter future not just for the children but for Nigeria herself. And he has been the sole contributor to his charity which started in 1994 providing everything that the common man in the Reach Out and Touch Programme or the children within his Foundations could possibly need.

Okorocha’s worldview can be summed up in one word: philanthropy. And this is what he had been widely known for. Now he had acquired a political platform as a state governor. Many elected governors see governance as an opportunity to plunder and solely enrich themselves, but we are convinced Okorocha is going there for greater power of philanthropy in the sense of near absolute selflessness and total devotion to elevating the state and its people. If Okorocha could use his resources to help the less privileged, it would be out of place for him to misappropriate the state’s resources, we sincerely believe he would maximize benefits to citizens of Imo State. Okorocha has set the bar of dedication, obvious transparency and pragmatism. He can never lower it. He will keep upping it for his own one-man competition. Okorocha is going to compete with himself for Igbo leadership. The road to this unique prominence was cleared for him by providence. This honour of leadership had been thrust on him. He must accept it lead effortlessly to glory.

Okorocha should see himself as a GOD-SEND to liberate the Ndigbo, who have for decades lacked leadership and direction. He should start immediately the process of bringing all Ndigbo and not only Imo people together. He is now the beacon of hope for all Ndigbo and every Igbo man or woman sees him as the new face of Igbo leadership. Therefore, he should not disappoint. He has started well with the free education, which he said, will not be funded from government purse, but rather from his foundation already being support by another individual with 200,000 copies of exercise books. Those that listened to his inauguration would have noticed the high hopes and expectations on the faces one another in the crowd. And there was no doubt that people believed in all his promises.

The rumour that Okorocha would rejoin PDP to achieve his presidential ambition to us is silly and a calculated distraction from people that do not want him to lead Igbos to the promised land. Rochas Okorocha (OWELLE NDIGBO) should rather see himself like ASIWAJU AHMED TINUBU, who has already stepped into the big shoes of PA AWOLOWO and he is generally accepted in all Yoruba land today. Okorocha should try well to step into the big shoes of great ZIK of Africa. Though Tinubu started as a senator, he became what he is today when he was the governor of Lagos State. Rochas Okorocha has even more support base than what Tinubu had when he started. We believe that he will do better than Tinubu if he handles the present position well and remains focused, we all believe he will, then success will pursue and overtake him. He should now think of how he can make APGA an all Igbo party like Tinubu did in Yoruba land with ACN. This is not going to be easy, but if with the kind of support he is getting all over Igbo land now and beyond, he will achieve it, so long he remains consistent. He must shun any semblance with the former Governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, who every Igbo man and woman thought had the ace for being the face of Igbo leadership of this generation, only for him to chicken out at the last minute. Orji raised the hope of Igbo people, particularly the youths with his powerful speech at Enugu during the OHANAEZE summit tagged ‘WAKE UP CALL,’ plus other speeches and statements against Igbo marginalization

Tinubu, despite all respect Yoruba have for their elders, still stood his ground against Obasanjo’s threat, shakara and garagara, and even when the federal allocation to the state was withheld to punish him, he remained focused because he knew where he was going to. Today, we are all witnesses to what is happening in the South west politically. He has retired Obasanjo, not only from politics but also from the contention to Yoruba leadership. Okorocha as a matter of interest of uplifting Ndigbo politically, should team up with Governor Peter Obi and push APGA into the sub-consciousness of all Igbos as our own party the way Tinubu has done with Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Yoruba land. Today, he is the undisputable leader of Yoruba with all respect. Owelle Rochas Okorocha has the philanthropy which his foundation and also the kind of support he got since he decided to run for the governorship of Imo State. The way all Imo people supported him now will be the same way all Igbos and beyond will support him when he goes for the higher one at the right time. Therefore, he should not be in a hurry for the presidency, at God’s appointed time he will clinch it. Right now, he should face the task God has given him, the task of leading the Igbos out of political dead dreams like Joseph did for people of Israel from Egypt.

Okorocha is roller-coasting to greater glory and what is common to men as far as corruption is concerned, will not be common to him. The inglorious burden of corruption, shame and dishonour are far removed from our governor.

Okorocha should also remember that when he deviates from his calling to mundane things, he would not only disappoint himself, he would disappoint the entire Igbo nation. Okorocha’s sincere touch with the less privileged has opened up vast political opportunity for him. He has just been launched and the spaceship is for him alone in Igbo land today. As long as he remains who he is, the control room manned by the Igbo electorate will remain in his support and the sky is limitless for him.



Chief Ogbonna Nwadede Onyenweaku is Chief Coordinator, Concerned Citizens of Igbo Leaders Forum; 08023364981, 07052554785, email: igboleadersforum@gmail.comLeaders Forum

Source:igbodefender.com

Ohaneze Reads Riot Act To New Ezeudos- ‘register or be sanctioned’
Posted on 07/09/2011 by igbodefender

The Lagos State chapter of Ohaneze Ndigbo, yesterday read the riot act to all intending Eze-udos in the state, insisting that all new Eze-udos present themselves to the chapter before coronation, or risk non-recognition by Igbos in Lagos.

Speaking at the monthly General Assembly of Ohaneze Lagos, held at the AP Club on July 9th 2011,the president of the body, Chief Oliver Akubueze decried a situation where Eze-udos would refuse to present themselves for official recognition by the pan-Igbo body.

Chief Akubueze warned that new Eze-udos who ignored the directive would be given a punitive fine when they finally came to the body for recognition.

Continuing in the same vein, the Sceretary-General, Chief Thomson Ohia noted that in the South East and South South, government had to sanction the emergence of a new traditional ruler before they could parade themselves as such. He insisted that it was Ohaneze’s prerogative to play the same role in Lagos State. ” In our home states, new kings get their official certification from their respective state governments before they can be coronated. In Lagos Ohaneze is the organisation vested by Ndigbo to play that role.

Reacting to statements that the former chairman of the Imo state Council of Traditional Rulers, HRH Eze Cletus Ilomuanya had banned the practice of giving Eze titles outside Igbo land, Chief Ohia stated that HRH Eze Ilomuanya had no authority to tell Igbos resident in Lagos how to conduct their affairs.

He listed the presentation fee to Ohaneze Lagos as a Hundred Thousand Naira.

The President, Chief Akubueze later presented a letter of recognition to the new Eze-udo for Ifako-Ijaiye.

Source:igbodefender.com

Anyone with a pc should please go to the original site, and repost this. I can reformatt this because I am posting with a handheld.

The Golden Legacy Of Theodore Orji: How He Can Awaken The Sleeping Giant Called Aba  (originally Published on 07/07/2011 by igbodefender.com  

Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State has done well by inaugurating a committee, to look at ways of reviving the Aba Textile Mills. Analysts point out that Governor Orji may be deeply committed to the revival of the mills, given it’s potential of providing hundreds of new jobs. We ask Governor Orji to use the revival of the mills as a concurent launching pad, to reposition Aba, as a world leader in the designer apparels sector. His model should be Northern Italy, not Dubai. He should turn Aba into a cottage industry of designer labels. Governor Orji should immediately inaugurate a micro-finance skim for established apparel and shoe makers in Aba. Consultants should also be hired from Northern Italy to come and teach the Igbo artisans some useful tips on the manufacture of designer goods. A fashion academy, and business incubator should be set-up in the city, with the aim of graduating and financing highly skilled new artisan-entrepreneurs. The faculty of this academy should also be staffed with the above mentioned Italian fasion consultants. Northern Italy is a region which started like Aba, but today, produces a lot of desinger items. Think of the status ‘Made in Italy’ brands have in our minds.  With a little organization, Aba can produce answers to Gucci, Versace, Bennetton, e.t.c. The term ‘Aba Made’ can become a globalbrand.Theodore Orji can easily become one of the most memorable Igbo leaders who ever walked the surface of earth. We sincerely hope he reads this.  © 2011 igbodefender.com