Indeed a mighty fire gives birth to cold, timid ashes.

Our ancestors resisted the Great British Empire for decades before we were pacified. Ekumeku in what is today Anioma lasted for 3 decades before they could put it down. In the SE, we resisted for almost 2 decades.

Today, in just 3 years of Apeeshit , my brethren are capitulating. “Let’s not put all our eggs in one basket”. “This NK should shut up before he puts us in trouble.” This is really embarrassing!

If we actually want to develop our land, we need to look inwards. The secret to development is not building roads and bridges. Physical capital of all kinds deteriorate with time. The key thing in development is capacity. If you lack capacity but you got some Chinese to build roads for you then when the roads fail you’re back at the beginning if you don’t have the funds to repair them.

It is just a cargo cult mentality when people believe they can become developed because some foreign contractors are overpaid to put in some inadequate infrastructure in their neighbourhood.

A cargo cult is a belief system among a relatively undeveloped society in which adherents practice superstitious rituals hoping to bring modern goods supplied by a more technologically advanced society.

All successful countries developed by acquiring capacity through training, education and health care. When you acquire the required capacity, you can build your own roads, bridges, railways and other infrastructure. You can maintain them. Your productivity improves and you can develop more physical capital. If you combine this capacity with a conducive environment for doing business you’re on your way to becoming a rich society.

There is no other magic formula to development. We should not allow politrickcians to decieve is that we are locking ourselves out of some goodies if some token Igbo person is not representing us on the table. They usually don’t represent us. They represent themselves, their family and close cronies ( who may not even be Igbo). I am shocked that I have to explain all this.

We cannot depend on the FG to develop our land, they can’t even develop anywhere. Even Abuja is ringed with slums. We need to look inwards as our forebears did in the 40s and 50s, pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and walk the talk.

Dalu nu!

TonyeBarcanista:


Rematch? As in the lives of innocent people no longer matters? Why couldn't they go to find the culprits instead of killing innocent people in the aforementioned territories?

Nigerians and our barbaric ways of doing this

That’s traditional nah.

As it was in the beginning so shall it be in the end.

ItsMeAboki:
Those political bigots stoking the embers of ethno-religious hatred while using the youths as willing tools towards their myopic selfish ambition should now hang their heads in shame.

The question is why do you have so many young people ready and willing to murder other people at the drop of a hat.

Sadly, I don’t see anyone addressing the root causes. It’s not even clear that the leaders care about the root causes just endless sermonizing.

oilyngbati:
My brother, sometimes it’s best to sacrifice something/someone, count your losses and move on. Sometimes in business, you cut cost in order to make profits. During the June 12 political saga, the entire Yoruba leadership agreed to “sacrifice” abiola in order to safe the calamity that would had befell their region. And today, the Yoruba are better for it.
Nnamdi kanu is a miscreant and out of control dog who cannot be put on the leach, hence; should be eliminated so that Ndigbo can be saved from the embarrassment. Someone rightfully portrayed how he's opening up another enemy front for us in the SS. We don’t need this crap!

Whether you have NK or not, you’re encircled by enemies. The earlier you understand that and know that you can only depend on yourself the better for you.

If you will make enemies because some fugitive (not even a political office holder) made a statement then you had no friends there in the first place.

Nations don’t have friends. You may have allies if your interest align but that is that.

For me, NK has good nuisance value. Our Igbo politicians held all kinds of powerful positions through the PDP for 16 years with nothing to show for it. Is it now that they would perform some magic through Atiku after Mumuharri and his third rate accountants have sunk the whole country into debt slavery?

We should get serious! Anyone thinking that we are going to develop SE with FG money isn’t simply realistic. At least not with the fiscal mess the country is in right now.

oilyngbati:
Igbo cannot be held to ransom by one deranged lunatic. Kanu is just one man and we must find a way to sacrifice him for our own good and survival.

You want to sacrifice him? Who gave you the choice.

If everything was ok in Igboland, there will be no NK. Demagogues may offend people but they only arise when there are fundamental issues in the society. If his message doesn’t resonate with a cross-section of our society, he won’t have mass followership.

Rather than singing about how you want to sacrifice NK, think about how to solve the environmental issues that gave birth to him.


I don’t frankly believe that Atiku is going to do it for us either. We need a fundamentally different approach to escape.

pazienza:


Lol! He's likely an IPOB member.
Those lots will sell the rest of us to SS minorities as slaves, if it will make SS people accept their version of Biafra.
You never even see anything.
See Nnamdi Kanu using Ph time for his broadcast, instead of Enugu,Aba , Onitsha or even Abakaliki time.

Nah siddon dey look I dey for their matter.

He said that we are not Igbo. It’s only himself and his Hopeful friend that are Igbos.

Very hilarious!

TheOdd1sOut:
That stupid pastor should be arrested and persecuted.
He stained the body of Christ and damaged its reputation.
God will judge him

Person when them done kill? You want come arrest dead body to come join your “body of Christ”?

Abagworo:


Forget all these sentiments bourne out of deceit, Buhari is winning 2019 and it is still very wise for Igbos to join the winning team as it was in the past before we were relegated by Jonathan.

Buhari knows Igbos don't hate him but rather Igbos were used as scapegoat by Jonathan just like Atiku is attempting but won't work. Imo State will give Buhari over a million votes to cancel out whatever plans Atiku has with others as they will be fully scrutinized. Some Igbo Governors that intend to contest 2023 elections will do all within their powers to destroy Atiku chances in their States.

Taa!

So Igbos shouldn’t vote their conscience? They should vote just Mumuharri because he’s going to win? Which begs the question. Why should we bother voting for him even as he is clearly eminently unsuitable for the position he occupies but he’s going to win anyway?

Obi1kenobi:


Sorry, but the emboldened simply never happened. And nobody made any elections about Igbos.

Anecdotal evidence for the highlighted is a lot stronger than your evidence for Igbo “hatred and bitterness”. Lauretta Onochie is still an appointee of the Apeeshit government.

Obi1kenobi:


Let's keep it civil. I don't care to trade insults with anyone this fine day. None of what happened in 2011 is relevant to the 2015 election. Nigerian politicians rarely have the good grace to concede their defeat (GEJ being an admirable exception). That doesn't mean Buhari told anybody to go and slaughter people in the streets. Post-election and general political violence is unfortunately a way of life in the North. I don't see the relevance of that to Buhari.

So a politician’s antecedents do not matter? I didn’t say he told anybody to kill people. At least I don’t have any evidence for that. However, his refusal to calm his supporters indicates his tacit approval for their actions.

Obi1kenobi:


Anecdotal observations. Interacting with Igbos. Following chatter on Igbo cyberspace, whether on forums like Nairaland or social media like Facebook. Right from the election campaign stage, Igbos set themselves up as the opposition to Buhari. If you developed a search algorithm and picked a random 10 people who insulted Buhari with every degrading tag, Igbos would absolutely dominate overwhelmingly. I'm surprised you find this disputable. We never hid our utter disdain for Buhari. But this is all anecdotal of course. The most empirical evidence was in voting patterns where Buhari lost in a total landslide in the SE - by far his biggest defeat in any region.

Then there was Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB and their rhetoric. And those guys were hardly an insignificant minority. The constant insults Buhari received online in that period was unprecedented.

Unless you were 5 years old in 2011 (very likely), you should understand where the negative sensitivities towards Mumuharri comes from.

The guy lost an election in 2011 and his supporters (probably out of intense love for other Nigerian) unleashed an orgy of mass killings against non Muslims and Non Northerners including notably a number of youth corps members.

At the beginning of the violence, GEJ made an appeal to Mumuharri to use his not inconsiderable influence to appeal for calm but our so called statesman (who was no doubt actually enjoying the violence) only insisted on his phantom mandate.

How do expect an reasonable Igbo person bearing in mind that our people have been at the receiving end (countless times) of this kind of senseless violence.

That is why the imbec1le is called those names (which I think are actually appropriate given his crimes).

Obi1kenobi:


Of course Igbos should stick with PDP. We have no choice at this point. The time they could have made serious inroads in APC was in 2015, trying to get in Buhari's good graces, but we've burnt our bridges completely with the APC hierarchy, and there's no chance than Tinubu's political machinery would surrender all they've labored for to Igbos. And rightly so.

I would keep saying it that the bitterness and hatred Igbos harboured for and directed at Buhari since the 2015 elections went too far and was disproportionate to whatever perceived wrongs they thought he ever did to them. Not even Niger Delta people whose son lost the election went as mad as Ndigbo did after that election - culminating in the Kanu-led IPOB tantrums. They have directed a lot of hatred at Buhari and at this point, the guy has probably just said "screw it.....I'm sick of these people". I genuinely believe Buhari would have been prepared to hand over to an Igbo man for justice and equity had we supported or at least respected his mandate, but there is no way in hell he'll ever do that now.

How do you genuinely expect Igbo people to love Apeeshit when they (Apeeshit) made the entire 2015 elections about Igbo people. They had their campaigners literally preaching and advocating for genocide on Igbo people. How the fvck you do you think a people that have actually survived genocide will not be sensitive about idiats jumping over themselves prescribing and justifying mass murder on Igbo people for not supporting their ambitions?

Even after the freaking elections, their political appointees like Perpetua Onochie was talking (an actual public servant) was writing about how Igbo means Slave. Since then their supporters and members have outdone themselves to insult Igbo people.

Sorry, you don’t get to blame the customers (Igbos) for not buying a product, you blame the business (Apeeshit) for failing to market and target properly but they have a palpable hatred for us. Even Igbo Apeeshit members join in demeaning and insulting Igbos just to fit in to the literal party line.

The only parallel I can think about is the Republican Party that has gone out of its way to alienate African-Americans just to shore up white support (the so called Southern Strategy). Ironically, just like Apeeshit they then turn back and blame blacks for being wedded to the Democrats.

So while the Republican exploit endemic racism in certain parts of the American heartland to stay in power, Apeeshit has resolved to exploit endemic Igbophobia to retain power. They then turn back and disingenuously blame Igbos for irrationally hating Buhari and his cohorts.

Pleeeeez!

nnamdijonathan:


5 cargo airports in the SE? Do you know the number of containers that get transported from Lagos to Onitsha annually? Even 15 cargo airports cannot carry that number. Have you asked yourself how many Cargo Airplanes will be utilized to import all those goods and the cost of purchasing the Airplanes and transporting the goods by air? No country can achieve a great economy by depending on air import and export that is why Switzerland had to build to Swizz canal, Ethiopia had to construct a rail from Djibouti's seaport to Ethiopia, DR Congo had to ensure that they claimed the small portion of land in Angola thereby dividing Angola into two just to have access to the sea.
The quantity of containers a cargo ship can transport at a time is more than the quantity 100 cargo airplanes can transport at a time. Ndigbo must discover a way to have access to the sea by any means possible even if it involves spending billions of naira over the next 5 years on dredging the Imo river.

Swizz Canal!

Lol

pazienza:


Very good analysis.
Tinubu has APC on the lockdown . APC is in his full grasp and poised to present a Yoruba Presidential candidate after Buhari. This is clear even to the blind. The Igbo APC are powerless bunch.

As far as 2023 presidential race is involved, there is nothing for Ndiigbo in APC.
However, that does not mean we become antagonistic to Buhari this 2019.

I think we are being distracted by shiny things.

We need to focus on developing Alaigbo and forget these positions. Our political class (with very few exceptions like Odua) has never handled these FG posts for the good of Alaigbo. They have disappointed. After 16 years in power, what have we gained from PDP as common Igbo people. Is it Roads, Railways, Ports or Power?

The only thing we have gained is incumbents using FG power to perpetuate themselves in power without regards to their performance.

Tactically, it’s better for PDP to lose so that our governors will know that they have to rely on us to stay in office.


Ultimately, we all need to come together and craft a plan to develop our region without relying on shifting Nigerian political sands. When the political class find themselves out of national reckoning for another 4years and with increasingly determined Biafra agitators snapping at their heels. No one will tell them that they need to seat down and craft an inclusive plan for economic development )not glass tunnels)

PortHardcore:


He goes into specifics.
2019 MUST WATCH: Sowore debates Moghalu on minimum wage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heb6EqO40yg

Moghalu summed it up nicely. He is just seeking for cheap popularity. He clearly doesn't understand maths. This just reminds me of all thos daft promises they were making in 2015.

We are talking about increasing wages by over 500% and he is talking about legislative salaries. How many legislooters do you have compared to the number of workers? How about states that can't even pay the current 18K? They guy is still in aluta mode. He's clearly unserious.

Jayloy:


Why can't minimum wage be 100k or do you think 18k is enough? And moreover, he has explained where he hopes to get the money from. He floored Moghalu on this same issue on their debates on TVC last week. Imagine the 5 million dollars Gaduje hid in his Babariga. I'm sure people like you would scream to high heavens that he'll cause inflation if he said he was going to add it to workers salary.
Which candidate are you supporting and let's compare their ideas if you think his is not quality enough.

It’s not a simple question of people stealing. It’s also a question of mathematics. Minimum wage is currently at 18k and you already spend 60% of budget on recurrent expenditure (mainly salaries and allowances).


If you increase the minimum wage to 100k , where are you going to get the additional budget from? We are not even talking about the fact that capital expenditure will all but disappear but also debt servicing which now stands at over 30% of government revenue will be compromised.


We need to do a sense check of promises before parroting them.

I don’t support any of the candidates. I have only listened to Moghalu speak. He appears to understand some of the issues but I strongly believe the Nigeria as currently structured is beyond the abilities of any president, no matter how competent. We need to restructure and very quickly or else we are irredeemable screwed. Unfortunately, restructuring isn’t an Executive issue but a legislative one.

Jayloy:
People just run their mouth anyhow instead of being grateful that a bold youth like them is leading a movement to take back this government from recycled politicians. The movement is #Takeitback and not Sowore2019 because he himself knows that the youths who should vote for his likes are shouting Atikulating Obediently. Atiku who has been relevant in our politics since 1980s now contesting almost 40 years later.
Now let me ask you, who among the politicians have a vibrant campaign like Sowore. What of the quality of ideas his presenting. The youths need to be smart. And mind you there have been rumours especially by Deji Adeyanju that all the other youthful candidates have been bought save Sowore. My only issue with Sowore is that he doesn't know how to do little hypocrisy to win friends like many Nigerians.

Which “quality of ideas”?

Don’t make me laugh. I like him but his ideas especially regarding the economy are scary. He suggested that the minimum wage should be increased to 100k. It truly boggles the mind to think about the fall out from such a policy.

I think you stick to his “activism”.

hammerF:


The money u will use to dredge can build your deep seaport on the far eastern island of Rivers.

Deep seaport belongs in the Sea and River port belong in the River.

I am happy to give Jaja of Opobo children that one.

Nke anyi bu nke anyi.

It’s strategically better to dredge the Imo river up to Ndoki land and build a port there than to build one at Opobo (that is an island), currently inaccessible from the mainland except by watercraft. The cost of connecting the mainland by land (ideally highway and rail) to Opobo may even exceed the cost of dredging the short distance from Ndoki to the sea. The only other cost is taking care of that bridge between Ogoni and Akwa Ibom.

Moreover, King Jaja’s children are now Ijaws.

This is awesome. Really impressed.

InyinyaAgbaOku:


Thank you. One of them up there even went about blaming Igbos and asking them to work on themselves. E get nothing person no go hear for this matter.

We are making too much of this thing. These people don’t need all this attention. It’s better we spent time discussing more important things rather tangential issues.

Runalong333:



So the agitation for Biafra is still on in some parts of the east?

I didn’t get the memo that it stopped. Was there a time that Obi was in support of IPOB? So what is their business with his personal political ambitions.

Runalong333:
Now that many are atikulating and the excitement over Peter Obi has taken over many parts of the east , does this mean the struggle for Biafra is nolonger relevant?. I'm happy that you guys want to embrace Nigeria for once, but what does this really say about you. You get one person put as VP and you abandon something that generations of your people have fought for ?. Can a man who abandons something he embraced as his identity for so long be trusted not to betray others , since he clearly has betrayed himself?. I'm not trying to insult you guys , but I really want to understand what this all means . For years we have been hearing how Yorubas are subservient to the North , was it all jealousy because you guys wanted to be the main servants of the north?.

Nb//

I'm as igbo as I am Yoruba .

You were probably living under a rock or took a quick trip to some alternate universe when IPOB stated their resolve to boycott the 2019 elections.

Or maybe the IPOB statement isn’t clear enough and you prefer faceless NL usernames.

Zainab Ahmed, said the country still has significant legroom for more borrowings with its total debt profile at just three per cent of GDP.

Let me understand this;

Debt servicing is at 3% of GDP.

FG spending @ca. $30 Billion is 6% of GDP(500B)

Even if you consider the total consolidatEd revenue that is 12% (FG is roughly 50%) of total public revenue (less local IGR).

So what this nice lady is saying is that we are using roughly 50% of FG revenue to service debt or 25% of total public expenditure for debt servicing. And that is okay?

It’s tragic that barely two decades after escaping debt peonage, we back again. Really sad.

sorom4:
This APC Government is what I will not even pray for my enemy to have. See as dem dey chew gum on millions of Nigerians head.

Some of those suggesting folks vote Oby Ezekwesili, Donald Duke... are testing a sneaky way of helping their choice, Mohammed Buhari ride to easy victory. Some even pretend to mount a moral or intellectual high ground, announcing that they are "disappointed in Nigerians who want a thief" like Atiku as president, these folks who can't recognise the dissonance in such an argument coming from someone who supports Buhari!

Any vote, be it a protest or moral-absolution vote that goes to any candidate that is not from a party with an equal financial clout and popularity as Buhari's is a vote for Mohammadu Buhari; a vote that endorses the murders in Jos, Agatu (Benue), Adamawa, Nassarawa, Kaduna, Nimbo(Enugu) and anywhere else where bandits, Fulani cowherds men or whatever those roving murderers are called roamed unfettered while President Buhari and VP Osibanjo kept playing identity semantics. It is a vote against Leah Sharibu; a vote that sanctions pain and suffering; a vote that identifies the voter as an evil person who endorses the pains Nigerians endure since Buhari. You can give it whatever interpretation, but this is the truth.

So people should vote Atiku because he is better?

Well, the better of two evils is still evil. Just resist evil.

If he performed well in the said sextape, then he has nothing to be ashamed about. In fact as an African man, he should be proud.

On the other hand, if he performed like instant noodle, then he should beg this people. If possible, share some $$$ with them before they ruin his reputation.

Funnicator:


I hope you know that DSP Ike Ekweremmadu and Govs Ugwuanyi and Ikpeazu were present at said meeting that arose and had Umahi declare SE Govs were indifferent to Obi 's emergence.

So stop heaping the blames on Umahi alone.

Attack all including DSP, Ikpeazu and Ugwuanyi.

Thanks,

My criticism has absolutely nothing to do with the VP thing. I had made a similar statement before about this issue even before all this brouhaha over VP.

For the record, I don’t really care about who becomes the president of this shitehole. It’s going to be more of the same anyway. Restructuring is not going to happen anytime soon. At least not while they pumping valuable hydrocarbons from the ND. It’s also doubtful that Atiku is going to have any success at the polls. We talking about a despot called Mumuharri here.

However, I very concerned about the future of our homeland. The key ingredient in that future are our children. We must educate them. It’s really important. In some countries, parents face prison terms for not sending their wards to school.

Apart from that, Umahi’s approach reminds me so much of Roaches. Use the first term to do some dazzling prestige projects while ignoring needed programs (all with borrowed funds) then come back for the second term and institute a disaster.

GuyWise:
[s][/s]
Stop typing rubbish, Umahi is presently the most useful and hard-working Governor in the SE now, just because he represented the thoughts of 5 SE Governors shouldn't be a reason for you to insult him, you guys should stop typing rubbish.

STFU clown.

He’s doing fvck all if 20% of children in his state are out of school.

Funnicator:
Umahi is ambitious.

The Soludo and Iweala he is pushing are technocrats who may be uninterested in taking over from Atiku as the first Igbo president.

The Governor has been eyeing that spot; little wonder he asslicks Buhari even more than Yahaya Bello.

That’s why he’s wasting the Ebonyi State scarce resources building imbecilic prestige projects like all those flyovers to nowhere and the ret@rded glass tunnel. Meanwhile, almost 20% of Ebonyi state children are out of school. The highest in the SE.

This is exactly how the fat toad in my state (Roaches) was pretending to build all the roads in the state at the same time. We were complaining then but the ignorant few said he was “trying”.

If the people of Ebonyi know what is good for them, they should kick out the bastard.

Ambitious my big black blockus!

Interesting!

It looks like the VPs are more accomplished than their principals.

Unfortunately, the VPs are spare wheels.

You clowns have started this shite again.

Last time it was, “even if he presents NEPA certificate..” Four years later, hunger has reset your brains but you’ve not learnt anything. You’re still looking for another obviously flawed candidate to support.

The better of two evils is still evil.

superlightning:


Dude, am sorry to say this, you are ignorant and dubious.

REPUBLICANISM - The structure nations works with today has always been part of Igbo culture.

If it confuses you then seek for education.

Igbo politics was decentralized yet held together by a common cultural creed. Eze aro confederated with many clans thus giving rise to the ARO CONFEDERACY.

Aro confederacy controlled many territories within and beyond igboland. They also had a diplomatic cum judicial structure.

They used NSIBIDI as their writing system. They wrote with on trees, clothes, houses, open skin, etc.

They trade just like the Fulani and Yoruba to the western world and middle east included SLAVERY. Palm oil was also a major cash crop in aro confederacy.

They had a structure which is today being lauded by anthropologists and researchers.

The British who practiced monarchy could easily relate to the Fulani and Yoruba mornachial structure, but not igboland. Why? Because they (British) were not Republicans. So stop regurgitating ignorance here.

Nri dealt more with socio-religious duties of alaigbo. Aro did that too, but concentrated more on expansionism through commerce.

Enough of your half-truths.

The guy is stubbornly ignorant. Imagine talking about using a cavalry in the tropical rain forest. He’s comparing the Aro with Ijebu that were defeated all in one afternoon. I tire for the guy. I can’t even bring my self to discount most of the ignorant crap he posted. I’ll just ignore the clown henceforth.