₦airaland Forum

Point is very simple, guys. Suppose a guy with the same exact name as you is a serial rapist somewhere. Won't you be the first one to expose the guy, make sure he gets locked up and make sure people don't confuse him for you? Phillip E is not calling himself an Igbo scientist. Or an African-American scientist. He is calling himself a NIGERIAN and African scientist! Do you not see how his lies reflect poorly on all Africans, and Nigerians especially? Jeez, it is very, very simple. Dunno why you guys want to reduce everything to some mystical persecution of Igbos, or something. I personally don't give a damn that he is Igbo, he could be Itsekiri. But as soon as he attaches "NIGERIA" to his name, I have to be concerned.

Let's agree to disagree, then. And to be honest, I don't think Yoruba really migrate east. So not sure how that economic argument benefits us. And if you are motivated by fear that I'm saying form Yorubaland and kick out the Igbo, I'm not saying that. I want the best and most talented Igbo to stay in Yorubaland and eventually become part of us. In fact, I want the best people all over the world, white, chinese, indian, whatever to move to Yorubaland.

So have no fear that partition would mean losing your property in Lagos, or something. At least, I'm not an advocate of that.

chyz:
We don't reason in the same way because i am reasoning with the actuality. Nigeria must break up.I am tired of the yorubas having to be bothered about whatever it is,whether good or bad, we Igbos do or have done. When your people get their own country they won't have to worry about Emeaqwali. That will be the end of it.

Completely agree. But hopefully you see my perspective. White man doesn't know the difference between Igbo and Yoruba. "Oh, Dapo. You are from Nigeria! Oh yeah, Phillip too is from Nigeria!"

You feel me? So I'm getting tarred with the same brush as this crook. Which as you can see is entirely unfair.

chyz:
I cant wait till this country breaks up because i see now that we igbos arent giving the yorubas enough space to shine thats why i suggest and will push for us to separate.

I agree that the country should be broken up. Your post is good evidence of why. Here you are supporting a crook because of ethnicity. A crook who is not only making the name of your country look bad, but also your people. For me, I know that fraudulent Yoruba make my people look bad. So I'll be the first to attack them. I guess that you do not reason in the same way.

Look, you'll probably be able to find a few counterexamples like Switzerland. but if you form a list of the top 20 countries by GDP, or say GDP per capita, you'll notice a clear trend.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Igbo/Hausa people or culture. But I live here in California and also really like Reggae. That doesn't mean California needs to enter political union with Jamaica, or something.

The current system is not working. 50 years of no progress. Partition the country.

Ikengawo:
i don't buy the homogenous argument because the homogenous countries in africa, Somalia, and Eritrea, are two of the hottest messes on the planet.

It makes no difference, if you're PEOPLE in unable to stay on subject on a thread about their future on a website, they're unable to develop cause that feat more complicated.

ethnicity isn't holding us back, corruption is, and all of our tribes have corrupt leadership.

Development in nigeria is halted by money being stolen when it's given to governors and local government heads. My governor and local government head are igbo men. If the country splits they'll still be Igbo and still be thieves.

If I believe that a homogenous country is a prerequisite for a good country, this doesn't mean that homogeneity GUARANTEES a good country. As Somalia is a good example of.

Look, if Yorubaland were its own country, well, we have our own mechanisms for dealing with frauds and crooks. I'm not saying that corruption would go away immediately, but the cockroach Yoruba who want to steal would then have very little room to hide from justice. The current structure of Nigeria does not allow us to do that. Yoruba man can steal in his homeland and then go live in Abuja. If the country were partitioned, cockroaches like that can be squashed.

Ileke-IdI:
So he lied his way into fame. . . . has he not achieved better after that fame? Is he the typical arrogant Nigerian? As you guys have Awolowo, let them have their hero in the light they perceive as, why glorify his "flaws"?

TewMuch, I dey vex for you and Aigbofa. smh

Fine, this is all well and dandy. Honestly, I woudn't give a damn about the man or what he does if he and I were not linked by the name Nigeria. If Yorubaland separates from Nigeria someday (as I hope), then I'll have absolutely no reason to crack down on fake 419 Igbo scientists. But until that day, I have to. Because fake 419 Igbo scientists make me look bad too.

Ah, let's expose Mr GAGUT too.

Here is a review of Gabriel Oyibo's book (http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Unified-Theorem-Gabriel-Oyibo/product-reviews/156072689X/ref=cm_cr_dp_synop?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#R3O8L16989G0TH)

on amazon.com by Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate in Physics, Professor of Physics at Stanford, and current US Secretary of Energy

[quote="Steven Chu"]Crank Dot Net gave Oyibo its highest rating - a five star or "CRANKIEST." Crank Dot Net is the authority on "cranks, crackpots, kooks and loons on the net." A professor of physics will ROFL (Roll On the Floor Laughing) at Oyibo's schizophrenic theories.[/quote](Here is a link to Steven's review on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3O8L16989G0TH/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm)

See the mocking tone? Do you really want 419 scientiest and academic frauds like this associated with YOUR name, YOUR country, Nigeria? They make YOU look bad. We cannot support these frauds. Hell, we have to be the first one to denounce them, even before the white or Chinese man does.

asha 80:
I am sure he is going to give USA as the exception

Heh, the US is 60%+ white. And of the 40% or less who aren't white, a lot of them are very into mainstream white American culture. If you think about it for a bit, countries like Nigeria (and Lebanon, India before the partition, Yugoslavia, etc) are not going to be successful. To have a successful country, you need one culture that the majority of people feel allegiance to. By having Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, you've made that impossible. There is implicitly tension, discord, and distrust. Less time spent building and more type spent jealously squabbling over oil stolen from the Delta.

bawomolo:
ummm some phd programs do take bachelor degree holders. it just takes longer for them to get their doctorate

what are these prizes?

Indeed. At many schools you can apply for a MS/PhD program, where you earn both. a MS is not a prerequisite for gaining admission to a PhD program, at least in the areas which I am familiar with.

afam4eva:
You are the biggest FOOL i've met on nairaland yet. Thank God you have no proof so just shut your hell hole.

Na him be your papa? Relax, it ain't that serious. Unless you are financially profiting from his fraud, then you shouldn't take it so personally.

I'm confused. You made a claim, I demonstrated how it is false. Why the snide remarks? If you have some other evidence to support your POV, then feel free to put it forth.

I suspect you'll have to take a different approach than the one you tried above; most of the top economies in the world are ethnically homogeneous countries.

afam4eva:
Jeez, you understand english at all. Abeg tell us where emeagwali claim say him get PHD.

Well, it is sure going to be hard to refute his claims, since as the article points out he never directly claims them. People call him Professor, Dr, but he doesn't correct them. So yes, you are correct, he never technically claimed to be a PhD. Nevertheless, he is still a 419er for letting people call him that.

afam4eva:
I will believe you only if you show me an evidence. Don't be a FOOL like your peers.

What type of fake PhD has no publications in real journals? I googled and didn't find any papers written by him. Google for yourself, nothing comes up. He is a fraud. These days everything is archived online, so if I google your name I should be able to find at least one paper you've written.

Sigh, if we can have a guy like this who is clearly a fraud, and some are rallying behind him because of ethnicity or skin color, how on earth will corruption ever cease in Nigeria? Any crooked politician can steal billions and then accuse those who go after him of being tribal bigots.

Smh.

Ikengawo:
that doesn't make any sense.
russia and china have more diversity then nigeria, they're running a 3 legged race just fine. separation is way out of the question. lets deal with real facts.

That is not functionally true. Russia is very diverse, but is dominated by a single ethnic group (the Russians) who make up 80% of the population.

China is even more lopsided; 90%+ Han.

Moreover, Russia has been dominated by its predominant ethnic group for 800+ years. In the case of China, the Han have dominated it for literally thousads of years.

Wow. This dude is a 419er. Should be ashamed of himself. You guys should read the University of Michigan lawsuit he filed for racial discrimination (http://www.michbar.org/opinions/appeals/1999/102999/5473.html). Do you think American universities will be keen on admitting more African students after such a bad experience with a fraudster like Emeagwali? Terrible.

Gbawe:
Indeed . A good Nigerian leader , with an exposed global perspective, will seek to lead well for all Nigerians. It amazes me how  , when some of our leaders gain serious international acclaim as visionary thinkers and achievers , we still prefer to see them as feudal and tribalistic leaders because of how some of us can never move beyond ethnicity . If Ribadu is the typical Northern Mullah bigot what on earth was he doing trying to win over the American congress , when he dialogued with them, by arguing Nigeria's corner?

Well, let's see. I'm an AC man myself. If they choose him and present him properly, I'll support him. But like I said, I do not trust northerners at all. Why is he not contesting in the north to fix that region? It is like a man with a filthy home telling me he wants to clean up the entire neighborhood. Ribadu needs to clean up his home first before he tries to clean up all of Nigeria.

Gbawe:
He is not. We simply need to start looking at issues from the perspective of what Nigeria needs the most at this point in time !!! Nigeria is going nowhere until corruption is tamed . Nothing works in Nigeria because of corruption. Corruption derailed the NIPP scheme . Instead of the nation gaining Megawatts of power OBJ and his cronies got grotesquely rich. It will be the same under GEJ. Good initiatives will be cynically hijacked by his many, many corrupt cronies. Corruption is simply our biggest headache and the greatest impediment to our development. Jonathan will never fight corruption. That much is obvious with the sham Halliburton trial that is designed to play to the gallery rather than indict the real bribe-takers to include some former heads of State. When the most corrupt and vile men in Nigeria (like Anenih) are behind Jonathan what progress can any Nigerian realistically expect from his Government?

Fine, Jonathan sucks and is likely to be corrupt. But at least he will be a weak president, and not a strong one. And thus he cannot be too greedy.

Buhari or any of these Sharia "dip the Koran into the Atlantic" Hausa-Fulani imperialist types, not a chance in hell I'm supporting them. A guy like Buhari might not chop much money, but he will chop off some heads, tighten the control of the federal gov't over the states, and generally make life unpleasant. No power project is EVER going to happen in Southwest Nigeria if a northerner is in power. Why on earth will they help build Yorubaland? We all know what will happen the very second Yorubaland becomes strong, we'll separate from Nigeria. You are being very naive if you think any of these Northerners want to help us.

Realistically, if we want electric power and other services in Yorubaland, we'll have to build it ourselves. And I have no problem doing this. I just don't want some fearful Northerner sabotaging it, the name of their game is to slow down any progress in Nigeria (especially SW Nigeria) lest we become too advanced. If a weakling like GEJ gets into power, we will have a lot more freedom and leeway to assert our independence from the Nigerian federal gov't. Try this with Buhari and blood will be spilled.

I've always been skeptical of these Yoruba as Egyptian or whatever theories. White man always wants to assume that decently advanced people who he discovers must have gotten the culture from somewhere else. While it is certainly possible that Yoruba are descendants of some sort of weird Sudanese or Egyptian culture from biblical times, it seems to me very unlikely. Most likely situation is that they've been in West Africa for thousands of years.

Plus from what I've read/know from genetics, West Africans are distinct from East African types. So if we were some sort of migrants, you should be able to detect this through DNA testing. Somehow, I highly doubt you'll find anything to support this hypothesis.

But yeah, this external validation stuff pisses me off. Yoruba people could be descendants of goats and donkeys for all I care, I'll still love my people. We don't need any external validation from anybody.

Gbawe:
I must say that I find your honesty refreshing . Too many lie here in their blind support for certain candidates . At least you do not lie about GEJ's "superhuman" abilities when all Nigerians see is a politician who is more of the same . I am glad you may still consider Ribadu. If he gets the ACN ticket you might actually be pleasantly surprised by the number of undoubted progressives , from all regions of Nigeria , who support him. It is not coincidence that one man enjoys the support of the undisputed good guys while those who have destroyed Nigeria are behind Jonathan and IBB.

Your sentiments about the North is understandable but you must understand that the region is changing. The region is now witnessing the emergence of a young class of detribalised leaders who are fed up of being regarded as a parasitic leech on Nigeria's flesh. We should recognise the emergence of these men and women and support their effort so that the North too may change for the better. EL-Rufai and Ribadu actually come to mind as two Northerners who have spoken consistently against the entrenched retrogressive system in the North. I would expect either of the two to understand that the North must begin to act differently if it is to make progress. There are Northerners who understand that "tough love" is what the region needs most . More autonomy for all regions means that the North will have no choice but to shun intellectual indolence and an over-dependence on federal allocation if it is to make progress.

There is nothing wrong with being tribalised. I don't understand why this is such a pejorative amongst Nigerians. It isn't as if Nigeria has been a country for 1000s of years or something. It was 20 or 30 different nations smushed together by the British. I am a Yoruba tribalist, and seek what is best for my people, yet somehow this is supposed to be bad. Yet when an IRA terrorist blows up a building somewhere in the UK in support of the Irish people, somehow he is looked as a hero, Irish-Americans in New England celebrate, etc. How come nobody is calling out these Irish, French, Polish, etc guys as tribalists? Why is it only Black Africans who get labeled tribalist? There is absolutely nothing wrong with loving your own people.

I have no beef with a guy who loves his people, Hausa, Fulani, Igbo, whatever, it is entirely natural. But if the interests of your own people do not align with mine, I cannot support you.

These Northern progressives talk a good game. But as I've said earlier, talk is cheap. Let them go contest for governorship in their own lands and reform those places first. If they are able to do that successfully, then I might consider supporting them nationally. But to be honest, I do not trust Northerners at all. Talk is very cheap. And once they get in power, their perspectives might change.

I'm not inclined to trust another person's talk. Only thing I'll trust is that their incentives align with mine. GEJ, if he rocks the boat too much he is toast. So we know if he gets in power, he cannot screw things up too badly. Buhari? If you vote for him and he gets into power, your descendants will curse your name 1000 years from now.

Trusting northerners to lead you is like carrying a scorpion on your back. The question is not if it will strike, but only a question of when.

Olaolufred:
@ Dapobear,

Really moved by your statement. Though from the Closest Neighbour.

Like UN presence in Many part of the backward nations, Our Citizen home or in Diaspora should know that the time is come to help Govt. at Local and state level in Developing the system.

Fayemi said, 1 Laptop per Student is posible With his experience in lobying foreign partners.

Free Education and Health Services is possible when we know how to do it.

I believe these are not only achievable, but can be achieved with glamour.

However, you and me will be instrumental in the race for the betterment of our states.

On the Figures you needed, I think NGO at home could have some of these facts.

Or we could verify from Ministry of education.

I don't agree with the one laptop per child stuff. It is completely unnecessary. All you need is a computer lab open somewhere in each town with open access. I didn't get a laptop until I graduated from college myself, I had a pretty clunky and cheap desktop PC. But it was functional, and got the job done. Let's not waste money focusing on non-essentials. Books, pencil and paper, calculator, desks, tables, etc are more important than laptops.

Also, I Googled, appears the education budget is posted online:
http://ekitinigeria.net/State-Budgets/DETAILS-2009-BUDGET.html
(see the middle of the page.)

Roughly 6.5 billion naira over the course of the year, for the entire state, equivalent of 43 million a year? So only 3.5 million a month. I'm pretty sure we have enough Ekiti internationally to cover that amount.

Hrm, and if we set it up properly through a transparent non-profit organization (i.e., books audited by some trusted third party, administered the funds through say the Red Cross)  say based in the US, then contributions then become tax-deductible. So it would be easy to convince random Americans to chip in.

I think this is pretty doable.

Ileke-IdI:
Dapo, God bless. I was going to write same thing earlier, but I didnt think these ppl were worth it.
A LOT of Ekitis dont stay to invest in their state. 95% of Ekitis on NL are NOT in ekiti state. 95% of Ekitis that I know are buying houses in Ekiti so it'd be easier when they go home. Wht are my people like this? Why cant we build up our state? Like I said before, LOTS of Nigerian professional workers [doctors, pharmacist, engineers, etc] and students in Florida are from Ekiti.

Brain and talent, we have it. Development, we seems to be lacking.

In general, I've never understood how some of these guys reason. "Haha, Anambra is more developed than Ekiti!" That doesn't mean I want to live there, lol. After all, if development is all that matters to me, I sure as hell I'm not going to pick Anambra, I'll stay here in SF. Or move back to DC. It is like a one-legged man making fun of a shorter one-legged man, "Haha, I'm taller than you!" Makes absolutely no sense. Then when you take into account factors like security, pollution, cleanliness, it becomes a one-legged man making fun of a short, but quite handsome dude.

Back to your point, it is a chicken and egg thing. Like I said earlier, I'd love to move to and live in Ekiti State. My aunt live in Ado-Ekiti, and her house is pretty nice, I really like that city a lot. But for me to move there and start a business, I need there to be cheap electricity and affordable high-speed internet access. This is the real problem with Nigeria, the ingredients you need to start businesses cost too much. Here in the US, power is really, really cheap. In Nigeria, it is expensive. Same with internet. Makes it very difficult to get things started.

There are like 2-3 business I could do off the top of my head if I had access to those two things, Outsourced phone/tech support, and contract software development. Grab an office building somewhere in Ado-Ekiti, hire the best computer science/math graduates I can find, and put them to work developing software for hire. But to do something like this, you need good internet access. And you also need NEPA to not be screwing things up. And if NEPA is not reliable, then you have to buy a generator and keep it fueled, which reduces the profitability of your business.

Seriously, why don't we just power Ado-Ekiti alone? That would be a good start.

Why not just break the country into more manageable pieces? Or if that is too extreme for you, have a strongly federalist government, and devolve most of the power to states? That to me seems a far better course of action than inviting the white man to run the country.

One thing you have to keep in mind, the type of white dudes who want to move to Nigeria are typically looking to enrich their own pockets, not necessarily make things better there. So if you want to turn over political power to them, you should expect corruption to increase. After all, Westerners are used to consuming far more money annually than your typical small-time corrupt Nigerian politician. Google a bit for some of the contracts that George W Bush gave to his Halliburton buddies, the amounts of money they chopped will make your mouth drop.

Don't get me wrong BTW. I strongly dislike OBJ (though my father likes him.) I don't trust any politician, to be honest. But I at least want politicians who will not make things worse, and put their Northern cronies more strongly in power. At the very least, I need a guy whose interests align with mine. A southerner voting for a northerner is like a a pack of wolves voting a bear as their leader. The wolf and the bear are natural enemies, their interests do not align in any way, shape or form. I can make common cause with the Igbo, Middle-belt, Edo, etc, but never with the Northerners.

Gbawe:
This will not happen under Jonathan . He has the support of far too many folks who benefit from how Nigeria currently is for him to ever be an agent of progressive change. My brother , let us be honest with ourselves. OBJ , as far as I know , is not a Northerner yet he never moved us closer to what you and many of us desire in 8 years as a democratic President!!!! Instead he spent tonnes of money fooling us with an insincere SNC (soveriegn National conference) where Nigerian could "talk about what ails them" including more autonomy for regions. All the time his intention , according to many, was to use the SNC to seek legal approval for his third term bid !!! What I am saying , in essence , is that we need a sincere President. Soyinka has withdrawn as a negotiator in the ND post-amnesty talks because he is disturbed by a lack of sincerity from those involved . We don't need to be rocket scientists to know he means the Government of Jonathan is insincere .

All in all , I believe Northerners exist who will move Nigeria closer to where she needs to go far better than Jonathan can. It is even obvious right now !!! Who are the prominent Nigerians who support Ribadu and Buhari ? Who do we then see behind Jonathan ? That should speaks volumes to you. If all the progressive Nigerians , who want precisely what you wan't and have fought for it , can support the likes of Ribadu does that not show that they believe that a Northerner can move us forward better than GEJ?

Why on earth do you believe any northerner wants this? If I'm a Northerner, I'd want as strongly central a gov't as possible. Look, let's keep it real here, their part of the country is poor as hell. They don't want federalism, and they don't want progress. Progress means strength for Yorubaland to break its current bondage and separate by force. What incentive does a Hausa or Fulani man have for democracy and federalism? Again, if I were Hausa or Fulani, I would be against those things. They can only hurt the North. If I'm a Northerner, I'd want to leech the resources of the delta until that runs dry, and use those resources to enrich my own people, build up a "Nigerian army" (that is primarily Hausa), etc.

Nuhu Ribadu talks a good game. But I highly doubt he is going to support policies that will weaken the strength of his home region. At the very least I know that Goodluck comes from a small ethnic group and does not have a significant power base.

Buhari!? That man seeks nothing good for us. Ribadu I might be convinced; there is a 10% chance I could be grudgingly convinced to accept him. But Buhari? He is loyal only to his people and has no love for mine. I can never support an old-school military Fulani like him. Not a chance.

^-- Thanks for the insight.

Still, I can never support a Northerner for presidency. I want the Northern control of this country broken. Ideally I want Nigeria to be broken up and Yorubaland set free. If I cannot have this, I want a strongly federal government, with as much power devolved to states as possible. No northerner can ever support these goals, for fairly obvious reasons.

Also, is it so bad to have a relatively weak president like Goodluck, a guy separated from the Northern powerbase? The weaker the federal gov't is vis-a-vis the states, the better, imo.

Didn't he claim that he and his ancestors are Fulani from Mali? Why is a Fulani from Mali even allowed to be governor in Nigeria, let alone contest for president? He needs to go back to Mali, northern Nigeria or wherever he is really from. And remove the Bukola from his name, he is certainly no Yorubaman.

So this has been a lot of bold talk by Fayemi. But where on earth does he plan on raising the money from?

As I've said before, he needs to seriously leverage the Ekiti disapora abroad. If you do it properly, you can have us pay for those services, and instead spend the gov't allocation on developing infrastructure (most importantly, POWER GENERATION. Solve the electricity problem in Ekiti and within 10 years it will be one of the wealthiest in Nigeria.)

Can anyone estimate roughly how much it would cost to fund the entire primary and secondary school education for one year for Ekiti state? From Wikipedia, looks like the population of the state was roughly 2.7 million in 2005. What fraction of this population is composed of primary and secondary students? How much does it cost per year to fund your average such student? 10K Naira? 50k Naira? If someone can provide a ballpark estimate of these figures, then we can start figuring out how to raise the necessary money from the diaspora.

To be fair, just because he was against Fayemi in 2006-2007 doesn't mean he is against him now. Jonathan is in a very different situation now than he was then. They both are, to be honest. I certainly don't want Fayemi to turn away any of the resources Jonathan can provide to improve my state, just due to some past beef.

Ultimately, all I care about is the well-being of the Yoruba people and my Ekiti state. If Jonathan furthers this goal, we must make use of him.

This is the most depressing thing on the faith of the earth, and why I have no faith in Nigeria as a state. Electricity! Basic, simple electricity! Something that has been around for 100+ years, yet still does not exist in the God-forsaken land of Nigeria. When I was a little kid, there was no power in Nigeria. Now I'm in my 20s, still no power. What sort of terrible country doesn't have something as basic as electricity? It boggles my mind.

"Ready for business", indeed. Stop talking and get to WORK, Goodluck!

Gbawe:
Indeed . I made the same statement to fans of Jonathan on this forum when I explained to them why their messiah will not win in the SW region if elections are free and fair. The SW region is one of the most politically sophisticated in Nigeria . You cannot expect the men and women of the region to vote for a PDP President when the party has brought unbearable hardship, poverty and underdevelopment. Meanwhile , the only ACN Governor in the region (Fashola) is the best performer in the entire Nigeria !!! Oshiomhole is doing well also !!! It is a no brainer. Minus rigging, any decent ACN Presidential candidate will sweep the votes of the SW region because many now believe that the ACN is the Party of achiever while the PDP is a congregation of criminal vampires . PDP will also lose more States in the SW region if elections are free and fair .

It is really weird. I like Goodluck Jonathan over the alternatives. But I absolutely, positively hate the PDP and want to see it broken. The PDP is the biggest impediment to progress in Yorubaland, in my opinion. Yet for some reason, I like Goodluck. I guess in my mind I think that since he comes from a minority group, he cannot rock the boat too much. If it were a Hausaman or Fulani, I could never support him.

What is the common Yoruba sentiment on Jonathan? Am I out of touch here, thinking he is harmless and liking him?