₦airaland Forum

Is there any reason delta state has its own thread out of 24 states
Is there something special about delta apart from its oil

I still don't believe that the noble prof must have maqde such an ignorant statement based on the debate, I would have expected him to say that he doesn't expect Nigerians to vote for any of those on show,,
From time memorial the noble prof has always been for true federalism, fiscal independence of the federating units, not this present system that encourages laziness and corruption. The main contestants want to continue with the structure as it is, promising to fight corruption, thus displaying a serious lack of creativity, an essential component that the next leader of this country needs to have to take us out of our failed state.

Another reason I find it difficult to believe is the obvious reality of the key political parties.
Buhari who desires to be the president of this country leads an extremist islamic core north party that's has become a refuge for those who lost out in the PDP. The man himself understands that he is viewed in the south as a religious bigot and decided to quench this stink by choosing a pastor from the south.

Ribadu is being made the stooge for the SW party, and with the rascal tinubu forcing him to choose his vice from the SW, he is only now useful in making sure that northern votes for BB arfe split. In terms of track record the older version. of AC (AD) ruled in the SW for4 good years with absolutely nothing to show

If they want to distribute money by blatantly sharing cash to selected people, then they have missed the point,
There is no substitute to working hard for your money, relaxing and waiting to recieve monthly stipends will never help the ND cause, in fact I will boldly say that that has killed Nigeria 2day, social order , innovation, determination to progress and protect what has been developed so far is killed by this lazy arttitue we have developed in nigeria over the years, waiting for the FG to spread the oil money around,

In places where common sense prevails, people/businesses pay their council taxes, councils pay taxes to LGs, Lgs or Cities pay taxes to states, and states to FGs, (May not be exactly like this!!!)
I such situations, people can come together and form their towns or cites as long as they meet the minimum tax and other cirteria.
Take the example of Jos North LGA, it was created by IBB to give the Hausas opportunities to control that area of Jos, this translates to opportunuity to collect your own FG share, if Jos North had to pay tax for existing, we wouldn't have all this blood spilled,

Everybody in Nairaland is complaining about the twisted logic of most policies in Nigeria but 95% of Nairalanders refuse to acknowegde the fact that these policies are contructed to encourage laziness, That is why you can have a state like ogun state with so many professors but not much real development, because nigeria has become a factory that churns out unproductive scavengers, Each region has developed its strategies and over the years fine tuned these strategies to get a greater share of the oil wealth,

Back to the main topic at hand, dispensing cash is definately not the way to go, like I said, there is no substitute for hard work, The best way forward is for communities to participate very actively in the oil industry, Mining, exploration, drilling, processing, piping, sales, shipping, refining etc,
If there is oil in your land or your offshore, communities can set up companies to manage these process, or pather with more technical firms,
They will then have more say in contracts, recruitment, development to their immidiate enviroment etc,
I have often said, It is better communities to pay the FG or state 87% tax resultng from your sweat than to wait for 13% derivation, it doesn't, and will never help any body, More derivation = More curruption,

There is a very big difference between derivation handouts and true resourse control by the owners of the oil,
Issueing monies to currupt state leaders or community chiefs will never result in infrastructural development.
The only way this would happen is if we allow proper resource control, communities mine the oil by themselves or with technical patherners, set up technical servicing companies, grow the economy in the ND and pay taxes,

ibedun:
Oyinbos!!!!

They sure know how to demoralise and confuse us.

Lagos is a great place and its never as bad as we are always too quick to believe.

Most of this 'international' surveys are really meant for western audiences and their endless ego trips.

Guy wake up from your slumber, stop decieving yourself

Pataki:
They think the money they have can move people's vote this April, they will be shocked!

Fresh Air?? Must be a terminology only meant for the zoo. We are not animals, and these thieves, murders, looters, enemies of progress to national development should all be rounded up and sent to jail.

We shall see, how far Jonathan ODECHUKWU will last with all these shameless moves and affiliations he is making here and there.

A DROWNING MAN IS A DESPERATE MAN!

Nigerians be warned!

Pataki you should take the full package not the part you like, its either GEJ allows free and fir election or not!!! what there to be shocked about?
What is your alternative to GEJ? I hope it not OBj's attack dog, Ribadu or Jihadist Buhari??

Most pple haven't a clue, they just want to replace one corrupt government with another one.
If you ask me PAT UTOMI, is the only politician I have ever heard making sence, he talks in terms of real development I can relate to,
not free busses, free health care, few tarred roads here and there, free education, buying trash cans, all cosmetic rubbish

Reasonable leaders should state strategies that would lead to real depth in the manufacturing sector, strategies to achieve structured urban development vis a vis electrical power distribution, intelligent talk,
I repeat that I have not heard any of the major contestants talk this way, except for Pat Utomi, but he doesn't have the grass roots support across the country and cannot win now, even in a free and fair election.

So what is the essence of shouting GEJ down when you are not proposing better

jason123:
By the way, the way these Ijaws are insulting the SW is unfair because it was the SW that put him there. It was the SW that stood with him when Ojukwu and the SE was supporting IBB. It was the SW that STOOD with him when other people were talking about removing him. Now he wants to bite the hands that fed him. It is not done that way.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-426847.0.html
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-440358.64.html
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-515531.0.html
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-515783.128.html

Jason123 since when have ND insulted the SW, is crying against injustice being perpetuated by so called sofisticated people injustice

How does praising GEJ for untangling the rest of the country from those like oando, conoil, AP and the rest amount to insulting the SW

In the early 70's the combination of a ethnocentric Awolowo and an Economically naive Gowon decided it was a good time to nationalize major foreign companies, Awolowo knew fully well that the yorubas were the only ones in decent positions to buy this shaers and gain control of the countrys economy, this is the awolowo that some wanted to rule this country,

How can a people boast of being so hard working/educated, but have nothing to show for it, can one easily spot the difference between Ondo state with it millions of professors and zamfara state with 5 professors, of what use is your educational advancement if it doesnt propel the contry forward technologically, economically, If the educational advancement is meant to deprive the rest of the country of their natural gifts, sell shares to yourselves when the rest of the country is on its knees recovering from a civil war, organising yourselves into ethnic political parties because you feel you cant share, then to hell with your educational advancement, at present it is of no benifit to me, infact it has a negative impact on me and my people.
OBJs major obsession was how to pipe gas to OTA, can u imagin that?

In 2009 or 08 not too sure now, GEJ was hosted by a group of yoruba elders , and when it was his time to speak, after praising the SW for their educational advancement as usual, he went ahead to mention that he would prefer a situation where there six cities like Lagos across the six political zones, benifits being the reduction on population strain on Lagos, and at the same time spread of economic development to other goegraphicall areas, I am pretty sure that this innocent statement must have been seen as a threat by his host,

In life when you have spent quality time positioning yourself to always be in control, chances are that you have also taken good time to decide how handle threats to your dominance, I dare say that this bring GEJ down campaign on NL is one of them,

Presently, from what I have seen so far, GEJ has not impressed me, but no one has even the so called fashola, but I can say that he is not a tribalist that wants to grab everything for his ethnic group, thats a stain fashola has for belonging to AC and buhari has for implementing a vast majority of PTF projects in the core north,

I am begining to think the unnecessary outrage over the section of GEJ's comments might have something to do with free flowing petrol all over the country, through out OBJ's time all the depots in the rest of the country were shut down, creating artificial scarcity in the rest of the country apart from Lagos and the west.

GEJ came and destroyed all the Lagos controlled supply,
I think there is still some deep resentment over that,
Its just a guess, it may be a wild one,

Because I can't place a finger on what triggered the level of annoyance, if anything the statement could be regarded as a priase of the west sofistication, necessitating the need for PDP to produce its best, but thats the way I saw it,

jason123:
1) Yes, I believe ACN is better than PDP. Why? Because, firstly, they showed political maturity and resilience when PDP won all the states except Lagos( yoruba state) which promted OBJ (a yoruba man) to seize the funds coming to lagos.
Secondly, ALL PDP governors have violated the SW and indeed the country while ACN have done the opposite, that is why it (ACN) would win outside the SW (EDO state)
2) When you said it is impossible for ACN to rule this country because of yoruba this, this is a quick question, ARE their candidates yorubas Is RIBADU and (hopefully) Ngozi okonjo Iwela, yoruba The merger was meant to give ACN a national character but Buhari wanted to be the flag bearer, that was why it broke down. Do you know Chris Ngige is in ACN?

From the first two points, can you see that you are the one looking at things from a tribal point of view and not from a nationalistic point of view.

3) You are right when you talked about Godfatherism etc but do you think if Fashola decamps from ACN, he would not win Lagos state? Have you noticed that that "God fatherism" does not really work in the North (especially in the NW) and SW? Eg, OGD and OBJ are fighting, Ciroma and Atiku and also, Fashola would still win Lagos no matter the party he decamps to.

4) You and I cannot judge on how things are at the LG level because they have limited control and resourses, for example, how many roads are controlled by the LGs? How much funding do they get? Even if there is any development made by the LGs, you would not see it because you do not stay in one LG for the better part of your life, do you? What I mean by that is, you probably move from one LG is another even single day but you probably stay in one state for a longer period of time, so you really cannnot judge.

5) Your last point is quite saddening, the reason is, you are the one looking at issues from a tribal point of view. Okay, how do you know that a party is a tribal party? Is it because of the rotation or zoning, that is how you conclude PDP is a national party? Every party ( not too sure about APGA though ) has members all over the country. If a "tribal party" like APGA, CPC or ACN can bring your development and make things work, why not vote for them?? The person that would rule you would probably be someone from your own ethnic group ( if that is what you want, judging from what you typed) and on National issues, if these "tribal parties" would give you the much needed hope the country desperately need, then why not vote for them


It is because of the rotation in PDP and the idea that someone from the ND is ruling this country, that is why most of the ND would vote for him (GEJ) although he has nothing to offer. Most people are not really concerned about where the president comes from.
We Nigerians do not know what we want, when we say, "we want change, development etc" but we do not mean it. I mean, how can we justify a vote for GEJ? He has no clear manifesto, no blue-print, yet we would still vote for him . While other people would vote for him because of the perceived "North", but the question is, is the north not sufferring has your people are
Let us do away with tribal or regional sentiments, please, we do not need that in Nigeria. Thank you. I would be expecting your reply.

Jason123,
I have tried with facts and historical evidences to show you that AC is a tribal party with its major support base in the southwest, and for some reason you fail to see this obvious point, either because of my inability to effective push across this simple point or your self denial.

I also tried to show you that on the strenght of past records AC/ADs states on the average have not performed better than PDP controlled states, and what ever little success was achieved, be it PDP or AC was based on the individual capacity of the governor ruling that state.

The question is why should non yoruba person choose a currupt SW party over a currupt party that has membership across the country
Instead you want me to convince you that PDP is a more national party than AC, Well I don't think this needs further trashing. Use your church mind to decide,

But in case your may not know, there is a special relationship between a leader and his/her followers and in most cases it transends techical ability. It is an unexplainable believe the follower has that the leader has his interest at heart. Once this believe is broken, the leader no longer becomes acceptable in the eyes of the follower, its a hearts and mind thing, belonging to a tribal orientated party actualy sell you short in the eyes of other ethnic groups in this country, no matter how good your technical abilities are, For this simple reason that Awolowo was never accepted in the rest of the country, no matter his achievements in Lagos, and that is why fashola cannot be the president of Nigeria,

Weather you like it or not, Fashola would have stood a better chance of becoming Nigerias president as a performing PDP governor.

Its like asking a technically gived member of KKK to become president to become president of the USA, Black americans will never accept it, no matter his achievements, or asking a black panthers member to become president, whites will never accept it,

But before we derail from the original topic, PDP with GEJ rsents a better choice for nigerians now than whoever AC try to present because like I said before tribal platform has been tried and tested, proven to be truely tribal bigots by surrendering all SW states to OBJ because a yoruba man was at the center, but now want their states back because this is no longer the case,

Jason123, i am not blaming you, as a Yoruba man in a currupt country like nigeria, your default natural alternative is look for the option likely to take care of your interest first, and that would be AC, but the same cannot apply to the rest of the country, Just be true to yourself
Don't try hard to convince me that AC is better than PDP, cos I know that,
They have the smae messed up leadership,
There has been no significant inprovement in human capital development, Job creation, innovative wealth creation, sustained technological advancement, reduction incurruption in any AD/AC or PDP states.

take care and be true to yourself

jason123:
Okay, what about Edo state What about the mandates stolen by PDP members in the SW? What has PDP done in Delta state compared to what ACN has done in Edo state??
To cap it all, he called the elected leaders in the SW as rascals which means the electorates in the SW are rascals since they elected rascals, is it not?

jason123 do u honestly think that AC/AD is a better party than PDP what is your yard stick
At the state level we have governors with modest infrastructural achievements like Fashola, Rotimi, and even Ibori(belive it or not) from both parties,
It will not be possible to compare at the national level because AC can never rule this country, that would mean subjecting this country to the wimps of the yoruba intelligentia, the same argument applies to a party like AGPA,

That means we are left with LGAs and states, in terms of development there is really not a lot to cheer about, be it AC or PDP, its the same old story of curruption, godfatherism etc,
The best we can talk about is tarring of roads, buying of busses in some states based on the individual drive of the govs, not because the party structure compels such,

Jason123 can u beat ur chest and tell me that it is not business as usual in LGAs controlled by AC

So u can see that asking me about AC in EDO state belittles the level I choose to approach this matter from,


the way I see it there are 3 ways to approach the type of national issue concering party organisation and leadership in niger

1 By pretending to be an advocate for a better party (while in reality u r just a tribal bigot)
2 Openly admitting to be a tribal man, and let every body know this from the start, your position on national issues will now be seen very clearly
3 Actually being nationalistic minded and acknowedging that when it comes to party politics in Nigeria, the beautiful ones are not yet born

sbeezy8:
not really a big deal

Fashola u r too good to even trade words with obj- gej-akala-oyinlola

first i was thinking maybe fashola should run for president but naw i actually want more of a tribal party for ACN- to be cohesive like the old days. OBJ Akintola really fuckd it up.

SW was progressing when they were ALONE no need to be at the center of everything.

GEJ should just win presidency with votes from the SS SE middle belt and NE-

I WOULD RATHER ACN and Labour party be labeled tribal awoist and SW leaders than in the same light with OBJ ZIK etc

Yoruba folks should relax not really that serious

Thanks sbeezy8 for speaking out the truth, because this is the base line from which most of your compatroits argue although they fail to admit it,

I have nothing wrong with standing on roof tops to shout that PDP is this or that, they are messed up, they are useless etc,
But I have a major issue when you propose an equally useless but tribal party as an alternative,
Rememer that AC has ruled the west before in the form of AD, all AC chieftains were all in AD, please tell me what was achieved from 1999 to 2003 in the west

I prefer you openly admit to being a tribal afiliated personnality and confess openly to that, then pretending to be a nationalist,
I have checked major news websites and the statement by GEJ is not even a major news item, ,

Like I said Fashola can never lead Nigeria, his supporters here are doing him more harm than good, Bet you GEJ will not give him the extra popularity he is seeking, thrust there will be no more responses from GEJ on this issue.

Fashola will be able to perform better if he is left to handle most aspect of the lagos infrastructure including the federal one with a police force controlled from the grass roots (not state), but at the last constitutional conference the west and north refused to support resource controls and all the modifications that go with it,

This has been identified as a behaviorial pattern of the average westerner, being double mouthed,
-you want to control your on own economy, but continue enjoying the free resourses from others,
-you promise to break away if any section is allowed to go but turn around to betray them
-you pretend to support the ND in complaining about piping of oil to refinery in KD but turn around to pipe gas to Ogun state for LNG project

if Fashola alone makes AC great then Rotimi should also make PDP great abi no bi so

*the SW is to important to be left in the hands of* ignored statement
*Rascals* the hype of the moment,

though I cannot claim to be in GEJs mind, I can swear on my life that he will never try to intentionally insult anyone directly, remember him receiving insults from Atiku, and not responding, remember the insulting treatment from yaradua click, remember the insults recieved from Alams pple in bayelsa, and not bordering to respond, he simply is not that kind of guy,


Fashola is doing some good work in lagos, but can never be the president of this country, and y, because belonging to a tribal party deny's him of this previlege.

Beaf you have to understand the mentality of the average yoruba man, to appreciate their thinking and writing,

First of all they are better than the other Nigerians, Look at the evidence,
They will always want to keep to them selves, from UPN to AG to AD to AC,
The SW states were only in the PDP because of OBJ and now that the idiot has left power, the status is now beginning to normalise, PDP loosing out in the west should not be a great surprise to any historian worth his salt,

The SW is not returning to AC because it is a better party but because it is their place of abode,
Judging from the primaries, the AC leadership tussles, the imposition of candidates etc, I challenge anybody to prove that AC is actually a better party, I am not saying that PDP is good, please don't get me wrong, but AC is not better,

Then the question, why should I as a Nigerdelta, support a tribal party like AC or APGA when PDP cuts across the divide.

Yes GEJ talked about rascals, I may have been wrong, but I felt he was referring to internal PDP opposition, lets say I was wrong, I still don't think it warrants the tribal inspired response been seen here, This same thing happened when atlas cove was attacked some time ago,


Gej has many flaws and many of his balancing acts have meant that he needed to dine with the devil, but we see the same in Lagos were Fashola had to beg Tinubu when things became heated, Tinubu was on EFCC wanted list but Ribadu no longer talks about this,

I repeat AC is not better than PDP, and is infact worse because it is an ethnic party. Both parties are corrupt but one has ethnic affiliation and the other is national.

There are some PDP govs performing as well as there are some AC govs underperforming, afterall if AD which gave birth to AC did so well they would not have been removed, and if the argument is that PDP rigged, can you beat your chest and say that AC/AD did/does not rig

To me there is nothing like good wife or good husband when it comes to marriage, I think what exist is good match, perfect match, bad match etc.
Marriage is like an advanced form of friendship, There are those that last forever, and those that fade out after some time.

If you are lucky enough to find the the right partner or friend, its all good, if not then you may be in for it,
If two people don't gel, no matter how you cook or clean, it doesn't matter, they either tolerate the mariage of break up, no other option.

Genetically, I also don't believe that men are designed to cheat, I think its in the training and upbringing,
Boys are trained to be adventurus and explore, while girls are trained to be domestic,

In certain parts of the western world were boys and girls are brought up the same way, cheating ,levels will almost be the same.

bk/babe90:
Sure! Yall landlocked, yes or no?

BK what does land lock have to do with anything? Is any part of Nigria better than Luxemberg in Europe??
What has nigeria achieved with all the sea coast we have?
If we hate them so much, we should be willing to let them go,

Lets be honest with ourselves, it won't kill,

David mark should have called for better police action to curb the menace, not state of emergency, if Jos with thousands dieing earlier in the year did not get SOE, why should the whole east, ? Thats just outright ethinc hate.

Igbos culturally and historically are free spirited and repulican by nature, unlike other ethnic groups which are usually bound by rigid hierachical/traditional structures, If properly managed it can be very advantageous as evidenced in commerce, technology, academics etc but if mismanaged we will have what is ongoing in Abia today,

They are always on the move, trying to break boundries, Maybe thats why the rest of nigeria is afraid of them, particularly the Yorubas, This is probably what Awo saw, and tried desperately to push the yorubas to the highest heights of the Nigeria economy, smartly trying to use the civil war to wreck them financially, but they can't be held down, its their nature, despite not being in control of the federal apparatus, they are almost on equal footing with yorubas today, even surpassing them in some fields, Imagin a town like Nnewi being industrialised by their share effort, while the FGN under OBJ made all efforts to industrialise Ota with oil money,

If they can achieve all this without FGN assistance over the years, what happens if they acquirement their own power? The fear of the answer has been drummed into the collective hearts of the rest of Nigeria.
Instead of harnessing this potential we have figured out local nigerian ways of handling the issue.
In the north, they developed a 2 yearly cycle of religious violence! from kanu to kaduna to wherever,

The strategy in the west is propaganda, play the negative aspects of the Igbos until the Igbos themselves begin to look down on themselves, (I need to mention that this strategy is also being used on the nigerDelta),
Tell them they are the scourge of Nigeria, the highway criminals, the 419ers, the drug dealers, sing it to the high heavens, they offer nothing to nigeria,
keep calling a child a fool and he grows up feeling foolish, never underestimate propagander of the lagos controlled press,


As a Niger Delta person I would rather work with an Igbo the a Yoruba because u can early read the Igbo man and tell what he is made off(good or evil), A yoruba man is more likely to pretend to have ur best interest at heart only to betray u when u least expect or sell you out to another yoruba man.

Short term solution: Onovo should be sacked

Medium term solution:
1-Next IGP should be assigned targets to meet, failing which he will be sacked
2-Sacking should have an extremely punitive outlook, not a kind of retirement with associated benifits

Long term solution

amazonia:
The Nigeria police force as now constituted, is outlasting it useful life. Policing urgently need decentralization Police department should be a local govt. affair. With a police chief answerable to the chairman. Local govt. chairman appoints, or nominate candidate with counsel members approval. And state police department to deal with intra- state issues. And a national charter for interstate crimes. local force made up of local folks will easily get coperations of citizens to help solve crimes. Moreover as an indigene, they are likely to know who the bad guys are. Our National police as it is now, is a decoration. They cannot, and will not be able to protect citizens when push turn to shove

Local govt Policing/ decentralising the police force to be achieved in line with true and proper federalism for the country.

I just don't understand the reasoning,
A place that host the countries main international airport
-main sea ports
-once hosted all the ministries-
-All headquaters of all parastatals
-All headquaters of all private companies
-had the higesst concentraction of federal govt roads etc etc to mention just a few,

If you trun Abuja into a state ask Rotimi to rule it, I'm sure he will be rated far higher than say governor of Bayelsa State!!
Y reason like this?
.

Ikengawo:
Lagos has been the largest and most wealthy city in all of west africa prior to oil, and was a metropolis at the time of independence, when there was no oil.


oil has little to nothing to do with the lagos economy dude.

Lagos was initially set up as a federal capital teritory, similar to Abuja today, It was initially meant to be a place for all but this was hijacked and it was turned to a state, there is no denying that lagos is in its present position because of the long presence of the federal govt there, not because of better leadership from Lagos governors, major infrastuctural work and expansions in lagos took place during Gowons oil boom era and truely the foundations of lagos have it roots in huge population draw from over concentration of fgn and oil economy.

Fashola is trying, but so r other state govts likt rotimi and donald duke, but the take off point for fashola is far higher than other governors,

Please don't bring up the issue of allocation because the pdp governors in the ND are not accountable to the nigerdelta people, they r accountabe to the FGN, You saw how OBj spent money from Odili and Ibori whiles pretending to care for ND,

Right now the contribution of lagos to the national economy is actually no where to be seen, despite all the oil money spent there over the years, instead they are grabbibg what should be meant for other states,

This is not the way things are done,
In uk for instance, London is capital and financial hub, aberdeen is oild hub, new castle is industrial hub and so on, deveelopment is spread,

In nigeria lagos is made to be hub of everything, aba and onitsha traders now have to come tru lagos, lagos is oil hub, telecoms hub, industrial hub, banking hub so y won't the population grow out of propotion, there is nothing else to do elsewhere,

naijaking1:
Why don't you guys give it up for Kobo this time?
You doubted the association between Niger Delta and kidnapping in Abia, she showed it you.
Some of you even doubted whether Abia is a Niger Delta state, and she proved her case.
Love Kobo, or hate her, the points she makes here are strong.
We should learn to attack her points, not her person.

Naijaking!,
Please read btw the lines and see kobojunkie for who she is and what she is trying to achieve!
The fact that criminal gangs in Aba and east have resorted to kidnapping is just a phase of criminality that
happens all over nigeria, no area is excluded, from yahoo, to bank robberies by masses of people to
ethnic violence, ritual killings to what ever phase of crime may come up next,

By actively trying to tie Aba kidnapping to ND struggle kobojunkie is trying to pass some kind of information
some of us already know, She is indirectly saying "how dear we use violence to fight for our right, "

I remember the june 12 era, and how there were constant riots in lagos because the yorubas were angry,
Each time there a riot in lagos, shops had to be closed to avoid the experience of looting,
Nobody ever came out to say yorubas are looters and criminal rioters. Instead the whole nation joined in unison to comdem
babangidas military junta,
Now nigerdelta is in the middle of a strugle for control of its resourses and all you can do is to figure out ways
of focusing peoples attention to the criminal aspects, all in an effort to justify your evil ways,

Pls ignore kobojunkie, from her calculations if she she can tie abia kidnappers to the nd militancy then she can succed in her quest to label the ND struggle in negative light, aside from the politics of the matter everybody knows which state are Nd states

Mariory:
I'm sorry but, please tell me you don't seriously believe what you typed there. There is only one army in Nigeria, the rest are armed gangs. Case in point, armies don't surrender their weapons and so called "idealogy" when offered money to register at camps.

People appealed that peace be given a chance, that the FGN is ready to right the wrongs, I don't think they were wrong to give peace a chance, from experience of civil wars in most african countries, they fight for so many years and they end up resolving the problem at a round table, the armies of both the govt and rebel forces form a united army , etc,

This is after so many lives have been lost,
so y not sit at the round table and give the oppressors time to retrace themselves, if there is ever cause to take to militancy again, nobody will dear ask to give FGN a chance.
Thanks

Kobojunkie,
Please what is your point in all of this

What do you have against the NDs, Are you really a foolish person or you just like to play devils advocate, argueing against sensible arguments for the sake of it.
Anybody normal nigerian will appreciate the clear differences between nigerdelta militants and Aba kidnappers have no direct relationship, nigerdelta militants were mostly ijaw and Aba kidnappers were mostly ibo,

You carry on as if the ND and SE don't want peace, as if they are delibrately rascal, and no good can come from them,
You have never once proposed a solution to the injustises experienced in theses areas before they resorted to violence,

All you say is when there is peace there will be investments, but I have asked you why this investment didn't come before the violence started??
I sure you have another idiotic reason for that!!

When I was in uni we staged a protest against Abacha on the streets on Benin, in no time touts took over the protest and started looting shops, destroying etc, No reasonable person will say Uniben students went out to loot, or destroy or steal, there was a reason why the demonstration started , they fact that there was looting, violence etc does not does not and should not take away the fact that Uniben students were protesting against Abacha administration,

In the same vain there are some militants who are ready to give there lives to ensure a better life fo the NDs and they took up arms to fight for a just cause, and there are many who will take up arms when the need arises, But there are also those people who take advantage for personnel benefits (people like Kobojunkie whould rather focus on these people as the representatives of the ND strugle inoderd to discredit the ND struggle).

because Kobojunkie comes from the ethnic group of the real oppressors she tried her best to justify their position in the country. Deep down she knows the truth, but pride and shame will not let her admit the truth, that is why I like becomerich0, even though I disagree with the rubbish he says, he speaks his greedy mind, ,, he want the oil, so he is busy redesigning maps and satellite pictures to achieve this aims. all of a sudden, yorubas that did not give a hoot when midwest was cut out of western region, now want the NDs to be part of them, inorder to control the oil resourse and they give foolish reasons why they must be the ones to control the oil,

They ND militants resulted as a result of years of oppression, and weather you like it or not they are acting as a counter balancing force against an army and navy dominated by northerners and westerners, That is the reason why GEJ is president today, they may not be a neat way to go but that is the only language you domineering bastards from the north and west seem to understand.

I don't know y people are thinking that armnesty of what ever is called is the end of the agitation, to me, the ball has been passed to FGN and the rest of Nigeria, You begged for an end to the oil industry destruction, lets see if you are sensible enough to allow justise reign,
I can humbly tell you that if justise is not allowed, few years from now a new brighter and more determined set of militants will be the ones championing the cause, and the action will not be limited to ND areas alone, remember the Lagos bombing Pls lets not let this happen, Stop giving stupid reasons for injustise, don't be a greedy asshole, if you claim you are that educated, don't use it to rob others of theri natural resources, If you claim you are so educated the rest of the country should look up to you for development leadership, like is being done in Japan and S-Korea, countries without mineral resources.

Imagin people asking if the militant who fight gorilla warfare can stand the nigerian army in frontal war how stupid is that?? if they could they they would be called the ND army, their successes are based on gorila warfare, ability to distabilise economic activities,
Lets ensure resource control at land ownership level, justise, and then peace.

I tend to agree with proudly9ja that Unis and Polys were set up for a different reasons,
I would also like to add that educational systems the world over are organised into levels and the higher the level you attain, the more rewarding life could be hence
PHD>MSC>BSC>HND>OND, eqn 1

It would be stupid to Equate HND with BSC else
PHD=MSC=BSC=HND=OND, eqn 2
Which makes no sence

Definately eqn 1 is how life is, if you have HND, expect HND treatment, if you have BSc, expect BSc treatment, stop asking for same conditions as MSc or PHD,

If nigerian civil service decide to equate BSC to HND, they shouldn't stop there! They should equate BSC to HND to OND to COE and even WAEC, Then we can truely be satisfied with our foolishness as a nation

illusion2:
can anyone tell me the economic activity that will sustain /pay for this airport ?

This people are completely visionless.

I'd rather he spent that money to buy MMA off the FG & reap the coninuos & guaranteed profits.

Every state wants to build their own airport,when common sense should tell them the business activity /security feasibility should come first.

Who's going to fly into a war zone full of kidnappers & trigger happy policemen ?

When BBC did a piece on lagos tittled "welcome to lagos", people like this were up in arms against the article, insisting that it was not a true representation of lagos, and that BBC was trying to scare investors from lagos, 
This same people will turn around and say "Who's going to fly into a war zone full of kidnappers & trigger happy policemen?" in reference to the entire niger delta.


This guy would prefer that the money would be used to buy MMA and develop it instead of an airport in Asaba,
Please don't get me wrong, I am not argueing in favour or against the airport in Asaba, I am only interested in the alternative you suggested that, Delta state govt should buy MMA in Lagos!!!!

I think somalia and nigeria are equal in terms of all indices of underdevelopment,
*war torn roads
*war ravaged public utility system
*regular outbreaks of ethnic strive
*similar gross income per capita
*similar educatioal level
*militant crisis
*crime rate
*technology
*industry
*telecoms industry
*curruption
*election rigging
*Military brutality

Some areas where nigeria is better
*flashy cars
*football (can be contested)
*movie industry
*importation of anything foriegn
*Comedy industry
*Owambe party industry
*music industry
*religious worship

Ol boy to me both countries, guys don't let the fact that
Our circle of friends r up and doing, there is still
Massive poverty in the land

Omoabike thanks for the contribution,
But it seams th security situation, the 13% to d state govs and other present ongoings seam to be a convinent excuse,
Ok let's rewind to time past say mid 80s to early 90s when we had military dictators and peacful Nigerdeltans. 2hat was the excuse for running ND economy from lagos then UK oil economy is not and has never been run from london, so also US oil economy from NY, despite the fact that NY and london have 400% better infrastructure, it may be a difficult pill to swallow but a lot of injustises being dished out to d nigerdeltans but intelligensia from the west,
If you would remember during the cocoa boom era, when lagos was still a federal capital territory, where all Nigerians could claim equal ownership(like abuja today), the cocoa economy was rooted and operated from Ibadan, I personnally can't think of any infrastructure cocoa impacted on lagos.(I may be wrong here).

Much later after the cocoa boom and after so much development of lagos with federal funds it was converted to a yoruba state during one of the constitutional conferences(can't remember which). That is probably the real reason y d rest of nigeria started thinking of an alternative home,

From what I read of the Bafokeng people they may be heading towards failure, just the way nigeria did, let me explain my point,
The king, is bulding schools, building sports training centers, building toilets, buying this, buying that, buying buying, buying, buying, I didn't see anything in the articule about developing capacity, capacity to build schools, capacity to build stadium, capacity to process your platinium by yourselves, instead of exporting the ore and smiling like u have achieved somethbing, developing capacity of this nature goes way beyond having grsduate,even quality graduates, and to me that is where nigeria failed becos after curning out so many graduates, all the ministary jobs got filled and lack of industrial capacity meant even after spending years working, you would be a paper pusher,

Y am I saying all this, it goes back to tbe topic of this thread and the key questions posed here, how can ND use it resources to develop industrial capacity to build an economy (this is very different from a company training)
. As far as I am concerned, there is absolutely no reason or justification whatsoever to deny the ND pple of this opportunity.

Kobojunkie:
OH WOW!!! you mean you didn't start this thread? You did not earlier claim that LAGOS itself made some demands on the oil companies? You did not mention YORUBAs in reference to Lagos earlier? come on, be honest when debating as it does at least help your side a bit.

Please kindly reference where I said Lagos state made demands on the Oil companies. What I remember saying is that the Yoruba leadership of the oil companies have strategecally and unfairly situated the operations of the Oil companies in Lagos. I hope u r not on any sort of medication?
The FG tru napims insisted that the Oil companies relocation their operations from abroad and the yoruba leadership of the oil companies hijacked/ prevented this from going straight to ND for very selfish and tribalistic reasons. This has been happening since time memorial,
Please kindly attached scanned copy of certificate of sanity from a popular and well recognised mental health institute along with your next response. I begining to think I might not be interacting with a normal person.

Kobojunkie:
Oh Wait!!! So I HAVE TO EXPLAIN how to attack LG to you? ROFLMAO!!!
You claimed YOU CANNOT step up to your LG, and I told you the problem is NATION-WIDE and not ND ONLY. But the same you claimed LAGOS( LOCAL) has been able to make demands on Oil companies, but somehow forget to mention that the reason your own ND Government( LOCAL) has refused to step up to the plate is because it has so far not felt the need to do so.
So, IF YOU accept that the LOCAL can still do something from the very point you made earlier of Lagos, but REFUSE to also accept that the main problem is probably your LOCAL, and not the FEDERAL which you SEEM to EXPECT to do for you what LOCAL Government is meant for, what in the world are you still going on about?But you CANNOT make such DEMANDS of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT when IT IS NOT THE JOB of the FEDERAL Government to MOVE PRIVATE COMPANIES FROM ONE STATE TO ANOTHER JUST BECAUSE. What else? FG should come wipe your arses for you?

You are probably a beneficiary of what internal management the cocoa economy by the yoruba for the benefit of the yorubas, but you can't let go of Oil economy for the NDs. You have to be a really wicked asshole to sleep well defending this fact. And that is why I keep saying that the problem of the ND is not and never the North!!


It is the same pple that want only the Lagos Ports to work, The north will not be interested in making the Ports in the ND not working, The east will be happy to encourage the ports in ND to work so that Aba and Onitsha warehouses can be stocked thu them, Only one set of people feel that they would loose if ports in the ND work and your guess is as good as mine on who they are.

Imagine that during Objs entire ternure, tank farms in ND did not work so that all supplies could come tru lagos. I honestly don't know what else can be classified as wickedness if not this, while lagosians were paying =N=65 for fuel, ND and east were paying =N=150, and then whenever pple in Lagos have to pay a bit higher nationwide strike is declared, A lot of tank farms sprunge up in lagos

Kobojunkie:
So, IF YOU accept that the LOCAL can still do something from the very point you made earlier of Lagos, but REFUSE to also accept that the main problem is probably your LOCAL, and not the FEDERAL which you SEEM to EXPECT to do for you what LOCAL Government is meant for, what in the world are you still going on about?But you CANNOT make such DEMANDS of the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT when IT IS NOT THE JOB of the FEDERAL Government to MOVE PRIVATE COMPANIES FROM ONE STATE TO ANOTHER JUST BECAUSE. What else? FG should come wipe your arses for you?

If after all my explainations and examples on how how government can make companies act accordingly, you still say this then you are truely daft

Kobojunkie:
First the argument from some on here only a couple of months ago was that if only more NDs were allowed in highest office in the country, all things in ND land will be well. Now, we have a Niger-Deltan as president and the EXCUSES FOR FAILURE in the region continue to flow. Why? Don't you think it is time you direct all your anger and fear at those who you claim you did not elect as a majority and make them suffer with your many groups like MEND and co? Imagine BILLIONS of dollars to the Local governments, more than any other state out there can claim and the showers of excuses continue to flow.
If what you want is for Jonathan to turn DICTATOR like his predecessors, then BRING IT ON! I am sure the rest of the country will like to dish out the same LOGIC you are offering here/PLAY THAT SAME card against you when they get power too. And I hope you will be happy with that too then.

So asking mend to attack currupt LG chairmen is your suggestion on how to tackle the curruption in the ND? I don't have words again

sjeezy8:
That doesnt even make sense- How does private companies being in the ND make your leaders in the ND ACCOUNTABLE and provide credible elections?

The only thing ND people are owed is federalism- like the rest of Nigeria but where an Oil company is based should not be of your concern. as its the Oil companies choice

sjeezy, there is a lot of initial txt that lead to this one, maybe u didn't have time to read all of them, kindly spend some time doing so, U may want to revise ur last post

Pifa:
When the oil boom of the 80’s was in full gear, expats abound in the oil producing states. What drove the expats away? If the governors of these states were farsighted, they could have seen the potential of using their proximity to the oil wells to develop their land for industries that rely on crude oil for raw materials. They could do this without taking a dime from the federal government, without owning THE OIL THAT COMES FROM THEIR LAND and without funding these industries themselves.

Pifa what we need in ND is economic development not expat selling their goods, PH and warri had expats for over 30 years and recorded no significant progress, Oil companies just have to move from Lagos, No excuses

Yes the military admisitrator and civilian hooligans did not have the vision etc, they have missed an opportunity but what needs to be done now??

Pifa:
But they had to provide and encourage an atmosphere that is conducive to the commercial interest of industries that would want to establish facilities there. They had to provide good roads, power for the industrial areas (to circumvent the federal government's prerogative over electricity production), enact business-friendly laws and guarantee public safety. They had to developing an educational system that would provide the workforce these companies would need as they multiplied in number.

This is what Lagos is doing. The state government under Fashola has made it its mandate to clear the way for private industries to strive and, in doing so, generate revenues for the government to develop the state (never mind the ill-advised and silly desire to turn Lagos into a mega city). Lagos has determined that it and only it stands in the way of its development, despite the yoke of an overbearing federal government on its shoulders. Their concept is rather straightforward: generate your IGR (internally Generated Revenue) and propel your own growth.

A  lot of infrastructural work is also going on in PH, warri and Yenegoa, maybe not as fast as it should be, but its happening, Militancy is reducing with the amnestice, Can the Oil companies start contemplating moving now?

Pifa:
There was no reason the ND and other oil producing states could not do as Lagos. But when you’ve had governors like Ibori, the fella who slipped away from justice in the UK in the guise of a woman, and the ones who wasted money on useless theme parks, you will understand why the ND may be condemned to an impoverished existence. What about Goodluck Jonathan? Wasn’t his wife caught with $2m in her possession while trying to board a plane for the UK (this is what I read last week, so correct me if I am wrong). Were ND citizens ever offered an explanation for her attempt to smuggle such a large amount of cash out of the country? Isn’t Jonanthan a ND indgene? I understand one of the first things he did when he became president was to send his wife to Dubai for medical treatment.

Since he is president his wife should answer to all of nigeria not ND alone, we encourage EFCC to recover our looted funds from Alams and Ibori, Please none of this excuses justify the Oil economy being run from Lagos for over 30yrs,
Jesus Christ Y r u pple like this?
Are yourbas this wicked and selfish and all the while, so willing to lend thier interlect to perpetrate this injustise?
R u afriad of what will happen to Lagos if the Oil majors move out?
Must you control the Oil industry while the real owners suffer?

You guys are just something else!!