₦airaland Forum

pazienza:
Not really by much. Dunukofia dialect isn't that far from Idemili's own. My cousins are from the part of Ogidi( Uru Ogidi), that shares boundary with Dunukofia towns of Umunnachi and Umudioka, and I had spent one week in Ukpo before.

Their dialect is not far off from the Idemili dialect, atleast that's what I personally think.

Umu-Dunukofia communities have evolved over time to adopt some of the speech patterns of their neighbors.

Ukpo-akpu being the eldest of Dunu Okofia's offsprings has a dialect close to that of Abagana. Ifite Ukpo the second son speaks so much like Awkuzu and Umunya...with so much use of the letter V in place of F in their pronounciations...more of Omambala dialect.

The third and fourth sons, Nnachi and Dioka, have assimilated so much speech patterns of their immediate neighbors, Ogidi, Eziowelle etc.

Then the last born of Dunu Okofia - Ukwulu- speaks in much the same way as Ifite Ukpo... More of Omambala. However, you can hardly identify these differences when they're gathered.

On the other hand, Ndi Abba speaks in the same manner as Ifite Ukpo their "host". and not Abatete.

baybeeboi:
Please,which in which country can Imo state be located?

You must be a re.tard not to know one of the states that load your state's pocket with petro dollars.

I no blame una! Enjoy the confusion while it lasts

@Op, Do you know that Igboland does not start and end in the South East just like Yoruba land is not limited to the South west or even Tiv land limited to Benue state?

Even if Igboland is limited to the SE, it is no problem. Lagos state is smaller than the smallest state in the South East which is Anambra and yet Lagos hosts a population of over 20 million.

Interesting....Actually where Lugard signed the warrant for the largest prison ever built for black people on earth!

The ruins antiquated as the current state of the prison called Nigeria.

barcanista:
Very Important:
1. If you are an Igbo Supremacist, Ijaw Supremacist, Urhobo Supremacist, Efik Supremacist, Ikwerre Supremacist, Ibibio Supremacist or any other tribal supremacist, this thread is NOT for you. Though we will be glad to see everyone drop their supremacist ideology.

2. We don't need to be violent to get what we want. If you are a promoter of violence, please drop the idea and embrace strategic and non violent means. The West(Yorubas) is a typical example of pursuing an interest without firing a single bullet. It is not cowardice to be strategic, it is not bravery to be violent.

3. To people of non-eastern origin, this thread is neither an Eastern supremacist thread nor a racist thread. It is a thread that is aimed at promoting the socio-political and economic interests of the "easterners" within the Nigeria State(similar to Afenifere Renewal Group and Northern Groups).

4. The term "easterners" include our brother in the defunct Mid-western region I.e Present day Edo and Delta States. It does not exclude those with "eastern" origin in diaspora.

Glad with your efforts, it's a calling. I urge you to stick to your guns.

In retrospect, the game changer was way back in 2010 when the former chairman of the Ijaw National Council, Dr. Wolf Obianime, appeared before the World Igbo Congress in Washington. It was very emotional. Needless repeating what happened.

But, If our forebears could co-exist harmoniously in the same continguous borders for thousands of years before Nigeria, why can't we?

I love what you're doing. You got my blessings

BiHung:
And if GMB bans free press now...they will say he is wicked.

Decree 4 loading....

If u people voted Buhari for the purpose of stiffling dissenting voices or freedom of expression, then you're in for a rude shock.

The man Buhari will not have such powers. He MUST dance to the dictates of democracy like jonathan; take all the insults both real and the unreal or chip out. If he feels aggrieved the only option will be to seek redress in the court of law, finish!

That's the way the cookie crumbles in the type of presidency he applied for.

Fifth columnist assignment completed!

Jonathan defeated and about to return to Otuoke.

In the first place he was never actually there to add any value to the administration.

Tell me what he did with all the trumpeted 'experience'.

Important: Nairaland's Rule 2 Has Been Updated by Ishilove: 9:54am
Please note that Nairaland's Rule 2 has been updated.

It was formerly: "Don't abuse, bully, deliberately insult/provoke, fight, or wish harm to Nairaland members."

It has been updated to : Don't abuse, bully, deliberately insult/provoke, fight, or wish harm to Nairaland members OR THEIR TRIBES.

Deliberately insulting, provoking or wishing harm to any tribe or ethnic group will no longer be tolerated.

Thank you.

Regards.

I'll advice the Mods to quickly take down this thread as it contravenes the above bolded stipulations.

The express will of Imolites was to vote in the pattern of the presidential election and which they did, but alas, Rochas twisted it.

Come what may, Imo state will still fall in the hands of the incoming opposition base of SS/SE

We are promising Nigerians a rich and robust opposition, one which is in total control of the oil fields of Nigeria.

Good one

....Simply because the Oil Fields of Nigeria are securely in the hands of those US and UK don't want in power.

However, this is simply beyond them.....If these elections are repeated twenty times the voices of Akwa Ibom and Rivers people will still prevail.

chimkaire:
....and your point is ....


Meanwhile, have you asked the people you are fighting for if they see themselves Igbos?

I don't get where your ''tribalism undertone'' attack is coming from

Do you think i have all that time for your type? You met the wrong guy!
Bye

barcanista:
I saw the thread of Ikengawo and I smiled. The process of unification is progressing. I was happy when I read the opinion of the respondents. If we continue to make use of social media to promote this unity, the sky will be our starting point.

You're spot on.
Thanks

chimkaire:
Mbok, how's ''Nyesom'' Igbo
I'm Igbo, dunno the meaning and even ''Wike'' in Igbo is ''Nwike'' I presume

The tribe of the governor elect does not matter. He could come from any tribe in Rivers.
Ijaw, Ikwerre (Igbo), Ogoni, Obollo is irrelevant here. Preach an ethnic blind society.

However, if you are interested in the etymology of Nyesom Wike, here is it:

It is in full: ONYESOM NWIKE

barcanista:
That is just the gospel truth. We can only have our desired strong and collective political bloc as united easterners if we live our collective unity and not just Preach it. Rivers and Delta has just shown through the Governorship election that the era of divisive politicking has long gone and buried. Our cousins in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, and the entire SE states and those living in diaspora spoke through their votes during the Presidential contest that we are not divided. We need to do more to preserve these statement and consolidate on our collective unity.

Social media is the watch word; it can make or break a people. We shall endevor to encourage discussions based on love and mutual respect.

One "Ikengawo" opened a thread that went against this spirit, not only he was rebuked by almost all the Igbo respondents, the thread was eventually deleted by the Mod. He got the message; the people wants to move on and they've already done that. I'm very hopeful.

barcanista:
Wike is 100% riverian whether Ikwerre(or igbo). He has the right to rule like every other person in rivers State. I'm 100% Riverine and a proudly supporter of the people's choice. We(Riverine) are not people with "born to rule" mentality. We supported Odili, an Ndoni man(or Igbo man) for 8years. We voted for Omehia(Ikwerre) in 2007 against Princewill, a Kalabari Prince. We voted Amaechi(Ikwerre) against Abiye Sekibo, an okrikan and riverine in 2011. Now we've voted Wike against Dakuku. The message is simple, there is no division in Rivers State whether upland or Riverine.

This is a victory for all rivers State and we are happy!

I urge you to keep spreading the messasage. Some are so bitter we've moved away from the civil war mind set. Eastern Nigerian peoples must be one and we shall continue to show that in words and deeds. As it happened in Jonathan's, so shall it continue. SS/SE shall continue to gather around her sons and daughters who aspire for national/regional positions irrespective of whether he/she is a Tamuno, Chidi, Ikuru, Okon, etc.. Wike's win is a victory for all Rivers people, and rightly so.

WHY EASTERN PORTS ARE LYING FALLOW

on September 26, 2013 / in Sports 8:15 pm / Comments


By Jude Njoku
GOING to Apapa from any part of Lagos is akin to travelling through the biblical “valley of the shadow of death.”

The reason for this description is not far-fetched. Apapa is home to the nation’s busiest seaports, hence the traffic snarl on virtually all the roads leading into and out of the town.

It is commonplace to find heavy-duty trailers and articulated vans stuck on the highway for several hours, thereby impeding the free flow of traffic in that axis.


In fact, the traffic jam along the Oshodi-Apapa expressway, has been directly linked to the congestion in both the Apapa and Tin-Can ports. Vanguard learnt that the congestion is a fallout of the snail-speed offloading of containers by the port terminal operators and acute shortage of space for the trucks to park while waiting to discharge their consignments.

The irony is that while the Lagos ports are heavily congested with ships queuing to get port calls to berth, the eastern ports are lying fallow due to little or no patronage.

Apart from the Port at Onne in RiversState, the other seaports located at Port Harcourt, Calabar, Warri and Koko are, mildly put, existing only in name. Another irony is that most importers who make use of the Lagos Ports have their businesses in the South South and South East geo-political zones.

Stakeholders in the maritime industry who spoke to Vanguard laid most of the blame for the under-utilization of the eastern ports on the corridors of the Federal Government and the foreign shipping lines. The government is said to have rolled out policies that have directly and indirectly stiffled the operations of eastern ports.

Concessioning of ports

Prior to the concessioning of ports to private operators in 2006, the Federal Government gave up to 30 percent discount as incentives to shipping companies willing to use the eastern ports. Most of these shipping companies jumped at the bait and the result was a boom in the operations at the eastern ports. But this incentive was withdrawn after the concession.

To make things worse, the freight charged for using the eastern ports was hiked. Stakeholders who spoke to Vanguard in Port Harcourt recently alleged that these measures were deliberate because the Government wanted to give undue advantage to the western ports.

Operator’s perspective: The Managing Director of Ports & Terminal Operators (Nigeria) Limited, the concessionaire to the premier seaport in Port-Harcourt, Mrs Lizzie Ovbude enumerated some of the constraints the concessionaires are grappling with. She said, “I know that when NPA was still the master sea dock, to improve traffic in the eastern flank, NPA had to give about 30 percent discount. That was some years back, before the concessioning.

They gave about 30 percent discount to vessels that are willing to come to the eastern ports. That was a kind of encouragement to enable vessels to come to this part of the country. But after the concessioning, there has been no such encouragement.”

She alleged that there is a conspiracy by ship owners to stifle the operations of the ports in Port-Harcourt. Her words: ”For Port HarcourtPort, I don’t know whether it is a kind of conspiracy from ship owners; you know that the shipping industry is dominated by foreigners.

They own the vessels. I do know that we have done a lot of marketing campaigns from Port Harcourt Ports here. We have been to clients at Enugu, Aba, Onitsha, Nnewi, that is the eastern flank who import through Lagos and made them know that we are actually back. They have shown a lot of interest but one issue we have always had is the vessels to bring such cargo, that is, containerized vessels.

“Before now, we had reached an agreement with two shipping lines who agreed to come and as we were doing the marketing campaign, they suddenly withdrew their vessels. And you know, when you have been to a client once, twice and they are showing interest and suddenly everything goes that way, they will not take you seriously anymore.

That is what the shipping companies have made us look like. And up until now, we still have clients that have been calling, making enquires on vessels that could come…

Containerised vessels

They are all foreign ship owners and if they say they are not coming, we cannot force them to come. And that is why you see a lot of importers go to Lagos and begin to truck their cargo down.”

Although Mrs Ovbude agreed that the channels in Port-Harcourt Port 1 are not big enough for containerized vessels to berth, he listed efforts made by her company to expand the draught to enable moderately bi vessels to come in. He was pissed by the fact that the Federal Government is not doing anything to dredge the port to pave the way for containerized vessels to come to the oldest seaport in the eastern part of the country.

“They complain about channels but I want to say that even though ships have grown bigger and they want to take comparative advantage of bigger vessels because your cost on a bigger vessel is the same as your cost on a smaller vessel. If you have a bigger vessel that will bring much cargo, you will spread your cost and it becomes lower than when you take a smaller vessel that will bring small cargo, small tonnage; your cost goes higher when you spread it on small tonnage cargo.

That is an issue, the non-dredging of the channels, the non-dredging of the ports. That is why I said from the beginning that I may not be able to tell you all the constraints because I will talk from the perspective of a port operator but freight forwarders will have their own issue. If you go into the terminal, you will see the extensions we did to be able to achieve a deeper draught to allow for at least moderately sized vessels to come..

At a point, the facilities became very dilapidated and operations went down. We have also been marketing, telling our clients that the port is no longer what it used to be. We have made it operational once again. When the facilities went down, there were no plants. Today, we have bought kalmar container handling equipment and so the equipment to operate efficiently are there.

Deeper level draught

The stacking area is there, the berths have been improved because we have extended into the water to achieve some deeper level of draught. Government will need to do something and what government needs to do is, the type of encouragement they gave to shipping companies a few years back, they need to bring it once again,” she canvassed.

Another issue which the PTOL boss would want the government to look into is the alleged monopoly granted to INTELS Services, the concessionaire for the Onne ports, to handle oil and gas related cargo. “We have been trying to tackle it in the most legitimate manner we think it can be tackled. We have taken the issue to the National Assembly; there has been a public hearing on it and that is the issue of oil and gas related cargo.

INTELS still claims that they are the only ones that have the right to handle oil and gas related cargo. The National Assembly has said that in as much as we are a multi-purpose terminal and the lease agreement we signed with the government has given us the right to handle general cargo, we should not be restricted. And there has been an advert from the Ministry of Transport in 2008 specifying that no terminal has monopoly of any cargo.

“We are all concessioned terminals and ports and we have been given a level playing field. So, it is for us to go out and market to our clients and attract as much business as we can into our terminal. But you see, there was one circular that the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, issued which was what necessitated our taking the matter to the National Assembly.

[b]Despite the fact that we were given the status of a multi-purpose terminal which means we can handle any type of cargo, NPA in the circular tried to restrict us and the National Assembly has made it clear that we cannot be restricted.

But the foreign importers still fear that if they bring their ship to this place, the ship may be turned back because of that singular circular. What we have been trying to do is to educate them with the circular issued by the Ministry of Transport in 2008, the public hearing on the issue and the House of Representatives resolution that has not given any monopoly for any cargo,” she clarified.

Vanguard observed that although the operator has tried to improve its berthing facilities, only a few light vessels like fish, salt and wheat vessels discharge at the ports. Rice and Cement vessels which used to come, rarely due so due to the hike on duty on the them. In fact the warehouse which was used by Dangote Cement was being dismantled when Vanguard visited the port.
[/b]
Freight forwarders’ perspective: Freight forwarders who reeled out the challenges facing their operations, accused the federal government of churning out policies that were deliberately targeted at strangulating operations in the eastern ports. The duo of Mr. Uche Solomon Eluagu and Chief Obi Chima told Vanguard that the disparity in freight charges has greatly impaired the operations of ports in the eastern flank.

Mr. Eluagu who is the Public Relations Officer of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, Onne Seaport chapter , alleged that the Federal Government is encouraging capital flight to Lagos by its deliberate policy of strangulating the eastern ports.

He declared: “ The government is deliberately strangulating and frustrating the business activities in the eastern ports, thereby creating capital flight to Lagos. Let me give you a practical example. The question everybody is asking and which is begging for an answer is: “What is the rationale behind an importer who is based in Port Harcourt, Aba or Onitsha shipping his cargo to Lagos?

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- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/09/eastern-ports-lying-fallow/#sthash.JHtha6HQ.dpuf

Really? I don't believe we've heard all the whole story. This party barely got 100, 000 votes in the pres. election in Imo and now.....

How could that have happened?

We may need a Tambuwal VP in our team very soon to face an APC presidential candidate called Yemi Osibanjo.

That's it, no two ways about it! 'conny man die conny man bury am' Petty dreamers!

haywire1:
Keep deceiving urself, no b only Wike na Tonto Dike mcheeeeew. Igbos should stop this political party regionalism agenda,it's pulling d igbo race backward, we all knw Wike is synonymous to violence so why shouting nd hailing Wike who is only interested in OIL money.

Let's wise up naija, PDP will only use Rivers state as a revenue for money generation. Igbos should wise up biko





*

What about it if PDP use Rivers as "revenue for money genration"? So it was okay for Amaechi to use it to make make Buhari president?

So much money for the incoming opposition; almost ALL the oil producing states in NIgeria are effectively in their bag.

With all that to spend, it's promising to be a robust, attractive and fight to finish opposition politics the coming eight years.

Chei...Rivers was one cash cow APC wanted badly.

Effectively, almost ALL the oil producing states are in the hands of the incoming opposition.
The next eight years will be very interesting in the Nigerian opposition politics. With so much zeal to punish betrayers!

A very rich opposition block indeed!

Finally, after sixteen odd years of Orji Kalu and Theodore Orji, Ndiabia are finally free.
It's not easy. Dr. Alex Otti had to resign from his multi millon salary job as the CEO of Diamond Bank to save Abia state and it seem to have paid of.

I will expect him to liase with his APGA and fellow banker, Dr. Obiano of Anambra to set a road map of industrialisation of Aba, refocus on the Obuaku seaport project.

Nice one

Igbo people are the Nigerian enigma. I say this cos they're the most friendliest and forgiving people but yet some think they're very vindictive.
FFK once crossed the line, but since then his actions and utterances have shown contrition. Afterall, Igbo forgave people that even did worse to them during the failed war of emancipation and even supported them against all odds in their political aspirations.


The problem is some people and groups would rather continue to stiffle the great Igbo race and hoping to get a pat on the back each time.
These are the set igbo will continue to rebuff and show vindictiveness.

FFK, your words are so soothing. You did well.

The PDP is going through the process of sieving the seeds from the chaff. After which it'll emerge a formidable opposition. With major oil producing states under her kitty, be rest assured of an epic battle with APC.

It shall be well. We will remain in opposition and make sure betrayers are punished whenever Buhari is done. To do this, the SS/SE would not mind to cede the presidency to the North west, take the VP and humiliate the South western presidential candidate (Yemi Osibanjo) at the polls.

Let them enjoy now. The game is just begining!

Demmzy15:
Please read the article and stop spilling sh't!!

There is nothing in the piece that has not been written previously.

Ok, but the bottom line is that Ilorin was taken by force by a Fulani led/inspired army. And that the Yoruba mainstream tried to recapture it and failed. And that Ilorin today is an officially Fulani emirate. And that the Fulani wouldn't relinquish Ilorin without a bloody fight as it is their nearest range to the sea.

Black Africans are most times stupid. So "sacredness of the stool" must be defended even when the occupier is threatening the lives of innocent law abiding people? You guys must be big time jokers!!!!!



Leaders that were one zillion times more powerful than the Oba of Lagos Island were dethroned and even killed cos of their demeanor.
Would an Akiolu even shine the shoes of Hitler or Musolinni? NO

Idiiots!