₦airaland Forum

Abagworo:
For Abagworo,I cannot stand 1 hour at Onitsha-Ado but I can spend my life at Ado-Ekiti.The condition of living there is much better.

Indeed. I've never really been a fan of filthy, overpopulated places, personally. If it is nice, populous and CLEAN city, sure. But otherwise I'd much rather live somewhere rural, clean and safe. If Ekiti state had constant power and high-speed internet access, I'd much rather live there than even Abuja or Lagos, to be honest. With high speed internet access, it would be pretty easy for me to set up a business of some sort. And the overall cost of living and quality of life would be better.

I'm just not a fan of traffic, crime, pollution, urban poverty, etc. And if we can maintain a good standard of living without those things, all the better, imo. Quality over quantity, in my opinion.

Regardless of the situation, education needs to be free in Ekiti. Honestly, they should start up a website, collaborate with Paypal and setup some sort of internet sponsorship thing. I'd be happy to sponsor the education of children in Ekiti, and I'm sure I could convince many of my non-Nigerian friends here to do the same. These politicians need to think more creatively to accomplish their goals. Setup a nice looking website like this (http://www.freerice.com/), make everything transparent (i.e., no stealing of money), and you'll be able to easily raise enough money internationally to pay for Ekiti schools.

I commend those two for returning to Nigeria. I would like to return there some day myself. But it is much harder than one might think. Well-paying, interesting jobs are plentiful here in the US. In Nigeria, not as much. And people don't seem to realize how frikking EXPENSIVE nigeria is compared to living in the US at the same standard of living. Blows my mind how expensive it is living there, usually third world countries are supposed to be cheap.

~Bluetooth:
Lol. . .ekiti in 1800 ? Lwkmd !

Indeed. Last time I went to Nigeria, I purchased a book on the Ekitiparapo war (google it, if you are not familiar with it.) When the war started, we Ekiti were fairly underprepared. But we had lots of Ekiti in Lagos running businesses who raised money to support the war effort. Without their contributions, we'd very likely have lost the war.

Isn't anything new.

Ideally we can see this happen after Nigeria is partitioned. Otherwise progress will be slowed down. Have you ever run a three legged race before? You partner up with a friend, tie onf your legs to his with a rope, and then try to run. As you might imagine, it is very difficult, and much harder than just running separately. That is how Nigeria currently is, and why the country has not progressed in 50+ years. Better to separate and progress separately than to stagnate together.

You've got the right idea, becomerich. But there is no point in introducing currency certificates or whatever. First, we need to kick the leeches and collaborationists in Yorubaland gov't who would sell out their birthright for a pot of stew.

Then we need to lobby the United Nations hard to allow us to have a free and fair political referendum in Yorubaland. I think if you could have a free and fair vote, most Yoruba would vote to separate. Then once Yorubaland is free again, we can start making progress.

Good. PDP cannot win fair elections in Yorubaland. And the sooner the PDP is kicked out of the southwest, the better the country will be.

Ekiti is a pretty poor rural state in the hinterland. But at the same time, we have a lot of talented people. Just most of them don't live there any more, off in Lagos, Abuja, US, Canada, etc. Pretty funny, I was at a party last weekend in downtown San Francisco hosted by some Nigerians I know,  so many of the people there from Ekiti.

And actually, this is not a recent phenomenon. Even in the 1800s, lots of Ekiti were off elsewhere doing business and trade. I think this is the nature of our people, go elsewhere, make money, then retire to Ekiti. Not many other options when you live in a relative hinterland.

Of course, it would be better if we didn't have to go elsewhere to make money, but I think that is just the nature of things. Also, truth be told, I've visited lots of cities in different parts of Nigeria, and many of them look filthy. Ekiti on the other hand is clean, peaceful, pristine, with wonderful hills and mountains nearby. I want the economic advantages of industrialization, but I'm not sure I want the rest of the negatives that come with it. Hopefully we can find a path to success that doesn't despoil the beauty of our state.

ndu_chucks: Almajiris are at the bottom of my priority list. If I want to protest, I'll protest why Goodluck Jonathan is not President right now. I'll protest why our votes don't count. I'll protest why there are no jobs. I'll protest the north-south political rotation. I'll protest why the Delta area is ravaged by pollution and poverty!

You have to focus on the big picture, not the small. The big problem is that Nigeria either needs to split apart into at least two countries, or at the very least needs to become a truly federal state, not the centralist state that currently exists. Any of these other concerns are meaningless.

Stick with issues instead of personalities, buddy. It will do you people a world of good. 

By the way, the Almanjiris who you mock at every chance you have, are the most marginalized Nigerians along with the commoners of the south/south region (I'm not talking about people like Beaf and Sapeleguy here - our resident internet thugs/warriors).  You and your fellow Nigerians should hide your heads in shame for the continued marginalization of these people.

Instead of mocking them here, you should be organizing protest of their behalf. olodo.

Notice the insidious way in which ndu_chucks speaks? He subtly implies that Nigerians are the ones oppressing the almajiris! Not their parents for kicking them out of the house at a young age to beg, or their state governors who have looted billions from the Delta.

Charity begins at home. If the northerners cannot take care of their own people, then they should expect no aid or assistance from the rest of us. You can't expect me to feed your child before I feed my own.

The only aid I'm willing to give is harsh laws that will punish people child abuse like the Almajiri system.

edoyad: http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/remi-oyeyemi/jonathan-goodluck-vice-president-in-uthman-dan-fodios-estate.html

It isn't clear to me if Ahmadu Bello could have been foolish enough to truly say such words in a newspaper. But what I do know is that if you consider the history of the land called Nigeria before the British came, it was one long march of Fulani conquerors south, and so that quote certainly reflects the way they think.

To be 100% honest, given the loss of Ilorin and the tendency of the Yoruba peoples to fight among themselves, I'm not sure how much more land and identity we would have lost if the British had not come when they did. Would my own Ekiti have been enslaved, with a Fulani Emir placed over us?

I suspect the same is true for the middle-belt, but I do not know your history as well as I know that of my own people.

Clear-thinking people should realize that Southerners and Middle-Belters have the same exact enemy in this nation.

I'm not advocating hatred or racism against Fulani or Hausa people. But is their aristocracy, the feudal lords of old who want to reap where they did not sow that is the enemy. Of course, they have willing tools, agent provocateurs like ndu_chucks who by their words and deeds reveal their true intentions.

ndu_chucks is a fool. Or at the very least, an agent of those who believe things like this:

“This New Nation called Nigeria, should be an estate of our great grandfather, Uthman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities in the North as willing tools, and the South, as conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us, and never allow them to have control over their future.”

ndu_chucks: Why are you complaining so much? You started a post based on a false premise, and so people corrected you. Now you are complaining?

Adding to Beaf's point,

The only people who want Middle Belters to be falsely labeled as Northerners are those who want to see Northern domination of this country forever. You know as well as I do that if there were fair and free elections in this Nigeria, the middle belters would ally with the South rather than with the North.

I usually just browse without posting, but I felt compelled to post here.

Edoyad's point is extremely simple. He and most other middle belters do NOT view themselves as northerners! They are their own distinct group. You do not have the right to lump them in with Northerners; it is a decision only they and they alone can make.

What is so hard to understand here? Yes they live in a place North of Yorubaland or Igboland, but they have a entirely different culture and way of life.

The "salient points" of "unity and diversity" are meaningless here; there is no real strife between middle belter and southerner, so why should peace between them be surprising?