And of course, Igbos have resisted APC by and large: Ngige is essentially the only former significant PDP person that went over to APC

The only original (now former) PDP person who has resisted APC so far is Mantu (former Deputy Senate resident)
Imagine Atiku is now a chieftain of APC

Imagine two former PDP-elected House speakers (from the North), are now APC

No principles, no core convictions, no political ideology. Nothing

Olakanmi Oluwatuyi dissects APC: its irony, quagmire, and hypocrisy

1. Between 2007 and 2010, Tinubu spent virtually his last kobo to ensure he sent Segun Oni out of the Ekiti State Government House. He did. Today, Oni is the National Vice Chair of APC, a party same Tinubu, not another one o, is the national leader.

2. Audu Ogbe once told opposition parties there was no vacancy in Aso Rock. He was national chair of the ruling PDP then. Today, he is a minister under a government being controlled by that same opposition.

3. Tinubu once told Obasanjo that he was the "problem of Nigeria". But same Tinubu went to Obasanjo that they had finished the construction of the opposition ship. They wanted him to be the navigator! The old fox readily accepted.

4.Nasir el-Rufai, the diminutive governor of Kaduna State, once told Buhari that he was not a presidential material. Today, not only is Buhari president but the loquacious el-Rufai is a governor on Buhari's party. He bashes PDP to no end nowadays.

5. Fayose and Fayemi once mounted same rostrum, campaigning in Ekiti with Fayose carrying placard at his father's burial in 2009 that they should vote for Fayemi. In 2014, same Fayose contested against Fayemi and sent him to the Former Governors' Club.

6. Majority of top politicians shouting 'APC, Change!' were shouting 'PDP, Power!' in 2011!
Now, all these took place within the last TWELVE years! Not that they took place before you were born hence, you did not witness them. Therefore, if you still want to kill yourself because of Wike or Amaechi, please go ahead.

BY THE TIME THEY ARE BACK IN SAME PARTY IN 2019, WE WILL BE MARKING THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF YOUR STUPID BUT TIMELY DEATH!- Olakanmi Oluwatuyi

Friday, August 8, 2014
Abia monarchs on war path over 2015 governorship

by Stephen Uka, Umuahia


The recent decision of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in Abia State, to zone its governorship ticket in 2015 to Abia South senatorial district, seems to have set traditional rulers on collision course as those not favoured by the decision have vowed to resist the move.


But as they strategise to realise their dream, the pro-zoning monarchs have warned them to steer clear or face dire consequences of their actions.


The anti-zoning monarchs led by the paramount ruler of Ngwa land, HRM, Eze Benard Enweremadu, recently met at his palace where they made public their position, arguing that all governorship aspirants of Ukwa/ Ngwa extraction including those from councils outside Abia South district should be allowed to join the race.


According to them since the creation of the state there has never been a time when zoning was respected, hence, all aspirants irrespective of their place of origin should be given equal opportunity to contest so that the best among them would emerge.


The group further argued that since politicians from other zones were not barred from contesting in 1999 and 2007 when the North and Central zones won the seat respectively, it would be strange to hinder willing contestants from other zones from testing their popularity in 2015.


Other prominent monarchs opposed to zoning include Eze Emmanuel Chiavoghinefu, and Eze Nelson Nmerengwa who said that it would be a grave error to exclude Isialangwa North, Isilangwa South and Osisioma councils of Ukwa/ Ngwa bloc regarded as the head of Ngwa land from the race just because by senatorial delimination, they fell within Abia central zone.


The royal fathers therefore asked PDP to reverse its decision on zoning as it was capable of causing disharmony among Ukwa/ Ngwa communities that have for decades maintained ancestral links.


They further argued that zoning would engender peace, fairness and equity in the polity in line with the Abia Charter of Equity.


But in a swift reaction, the Abia State council of traditional rulers sternly warned royal fathers to desist from organising and participating in political meetings or face the wrath of the council.


The council's position was contained in a press statement by the Chairman, Eze Eberechi Dick; the first DeputyChairman, Eze Godwin Chionye, and the second Deputy Chairman, Eze S A Okorie.


The council strongly frowned at the political meeting held in the palace of Eze Enweremadu , and cautioned royal fathers in the state to steer clear from partisan politics, and instead, tosupport the government of the day.


Abia Council of traditional rulers further noted that the trio of Eze Enweremadu, Eze Chiavoghilefu, Eze Nmerengwa and their followers lacked the authority to speak for the traditional institution in the state as they were not part of its leadership, and so enjoined members of the public to disregard their opinion on zoning.

http://odili.net/news/source/2014/aug/8/803.html

Nightshift: What we as Africans need is soul searching; asking ourselves hard questions about the connection of the slave trade with the current social- political dispensation on the continent.
Is stealing African's wealth for Western banks not a form of another trans-Atlantic enslavement?

If there is an evil consequence of slave trade, it should [b]also [/b]go to the slave buyers, not just the slave sellers; yes, no?

Nightshift: In my opinion, African Americans need not come to Africa for whatever cleansing since Africans were equally guilty of selling their forefathers.
It's a game of the mind for those who think that coming to Africa for cleansing will in anyway alter their inner feelings about slavery in America and its African root.

You could read from their (AAs) own responses on post two that their opinions are divided on the issue. It is a matter of choice. For practical purposes, it is a useless venture, but for psychological, cultural and sentimental purposes, it is worth the exercise.

BTW, many of them are also doing DNA analysis to ascertain their African ancestories. Is that also useless?

Nightshift: For clarification, i meant that the descendants of African slave sellers ought also go for cleansing if descendants of former African slaves, who were never enslaved are coming to Africa for " cleansing". Wasn't Trans - Atlantic slave trade against God and humanity?

Have you done your own cleansing?

Nightshift: Dude, i am not from the ethnic group you've mentioned.

Yeah!!! If you are from the North, your ancestors did not engage in the trans-saharan slave trade. That is why the blacks of the Arab world are no longer descendants of black African slaves from the Sahel/Sahara (northern Nigeria)
If you are from the south (ex Igbo or Yoruba,) your ancestors at the slave ports in Calabar,Ibeno, and Ijawland (Riv, Bay, Del states) did not engage in slave trade. And if you are Igbo, your own ancestors also were involved in the slave trade. Tell me more, dude.

Nightshift: Ironically, the descendants of Igbo slave sellers are not cleansing themselves of the iniquity committed by their ancestors against fellow Igbo people.

Yeah! Your Yoruba ancestors did not engage in slave trading. That is why Ajayi Crowther and other Yoruba slave returnees are no longer Yoruba.

careytommy: Cleansed?

From right: African American Sidney Davis (first commenter on post two), Prof Catherine Acholonu and an unidentified Igbo clergyman in a historical meeting in Igboland recently

Sidney is also pictured in his bowler hat right at the center back of the first picture in the opening post

Rhino.5dm:
[size=28pt]What is this? A university or primary school?? [/size]

compare this face me I face you, with this. . .

Comparing Church money investment with private investment by an academician?

Sidney Davis · Follow · Top Commenter · Boston, Massachusetts
First some errata,
1. " Irene Toland.... Her father told her they come from Eastern European Jews, but she felt a cultural disconnect and lack of identity." It was not "Eastern European Jews" but "Ethiopian Jews" that is a part of our family oral and historical tradition. Irene Toland is my mother.

2. "“We black people have been robbed of that history and I don’t know why they are so ashamed of Africa.” Should not be understood to mean that black people in America are ashamed of Africa. She was referring to Nigeria in particular.

Nigeria probably has as much a "stigma" from colonialism as we do from slavery. What many of us have experienced were negative reactions about our coming to Nigeria and even today Nigeria is not the country of choice if at all for African Americans traveling to Africa, especially for the first time and the perceptions African Americans have of Nigerians themselves are also negative. Of all the areas and countries on the African continent, Nigeria is the LEAST known, most misunderstood and researched. So there is a wide knowledge and culture gap not only between African Americans and Nigerian studies, but the world and Nigerian studies. What she discovered as well as all who were a part of this pilgrimage was the richness and the great antiquity of Igbo culture that the majority of African Americans do not know about, which is ironic considering that the majority of captive Africans came from the Bight of Biafra, Igboland.

================================

Deborah Martin · Top Commenter
I would love to do something like this. I have a 15 year old I'd love to bring to this also. Our community needs a healing.

===================================

Sidney Davis · Follow · Top Commenter · Boston, Massachusetts
@ Deborah Martin, like us at Ebo Landing Project Ancestral Repatriation.
==============================================================================


Mary Arthur · Grambling State University
No, I understand what Rita is saying. I am happy that the people who took this trip felt they had a breakthrough; however, my parents and community (I assume like Rita's) taught and modeled for us who we are and thereby instilled a level of pride in us that we never had negative feelings about ourselves that we had to wash off ---either literally or metaphorically.

===================================================================

Sidney Davis · Follow · Top Commenter · Boston, Massachusetts
@ though it is a strong emotional experience for many, it has nothing to do with pride or negative feelings. It has to do with cosmic and spiritual forces that impact on experience. Regardless of how we feel or what we know, we cannot deny the cosmological, spiritual consequences of our experience.

===================================================================


Mary Arthur · Grambling State University
We were taught the problem was theirs, not ours! And, yes, you would have to work harder to overcome the obstacles constructed by them, but you could do it. And, we did!
Reply · 1 · Like · Follow Post · July 18 at 2:40am
=======================================================================
Rita Ogburn-Mccall · Top Commenter · Niskayuna, New York
Wow.. all that? I am so grateful for strong parents. No need for washing something that I never owned.
Reply · 1 · Like · Follow Post · July 15 at 4:04pm
========================================================
Sidney Davis · Follow · Top Commenter · Boston, Massachusetts
I am sure you did not mean what you sound like. I think I can say not only are the participants from strong parents and strong, loving and nurturing homes, but among us were Ifa Priests and an a priestess, five academicians, two with PhDs and one PhD candidate. It is easy to be critical of something of which much is little known. One must understand African cosmology and spirituality as it relates to "slavery" to understand the significance of the "cleansing" we experienced.
Reply · Like · July 16 at 8:13pm

Yelonda Brown · Ivy Tech Community College
Thank you all for sharing this with me.PEACE.
Reply · 1 · Like · Follow Post · July 15 at 5:41pm
=============================================
Deborah Martin · Top Commenter
This is interesting. I'd like to go and take my 15 year old with me. I'd like to make a way for others to come and do this, in particular those kids who like to go about shooting up the place. Somehow I'll find a way to do this.
Reply · Like · Follow Post · July 16 at 11:07pm
=================================================
Lebogang Emmy-Lee Maseko · University of Johannesburg
Great article,I hope you find some peace.With lots of love from South Africa.
Reply · Like · Follow Post · July 18 at 7:13pm
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Mary Cuthbertson · Charlotte, North Carolina
This is so interesting.
Reply · Like · Follow Post · July 16 at 5:03am
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Veronika Amaechi · Follow · Top Commenter
there is more to come, I hope...
Reply · Like · Follow Post · July 16 at 12:13pm

Prof Acholonu was a senior special advisor to Obasanjo and a first-rate Igbocentric lady. Very smart, intelligent historian. She is heavily involved in the Igbo-Jew project as well.

More:

Prof. (Mrs) Catherine Obianuju Acholonu (born 26 Oct 1951, Orlu, Nigeria) is a Nigerian writer, researcher and former lecturer on African Cultural and Gender Studies. She is the former Senior Special Adviser (SSA) to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Arts and Culture, and foundation member of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA).
Contents

Biography

Catherine Acholonu was born in Orlu to the family of Chief Lazarus Olumba. She attended secondary schools in Orlu before becoming the first African woman to gain a master's degree (1977) and a Ph.D. (1987) from the University of Düsseldorf, Germany.[1] She taught at Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri, commencing 1978.

Acholonu is the author of over 16 books, many of which are used in secondary schools and universities in Nigeria, and in African Studies Departments in USA and Europe. Her works and projects have enjoyed the collaboration and the support of United States Information Service (USIS), the British Council, the Rockefeller Foundation and in 1989 she was invited to tour educational institutions in USA, lecturing on her works under the United States International Visitor’s Program. In 1990 Catherine Acholonu was honored with the Fulbright Scholar in Residency award by the US government, during which she lectured at four colleges of the Westchester Consortium for International studies, NY, USA.

Part of her work has taken her into the wider sphere of sustainable development. In 1986 she was the only Nigerian, and one of only two Africans, to participate in the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on “Women, Population and Sustainable Development: the Road to Rio, Cairo and Beijing”, which was organized jointly by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Division for the Advancement of Women, and the Division for Sustainable Development. This took place in the Dominican Republic, and focused on the mainstreaming of gender into the Plans of Action of the UN world conferences of Rio, Beijing and Cairo. Prof Acholonu holds several awards from home and abroad.

From 1999 to 2002, she was the Special Adviser on Arts and Culture to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a post she resigned from to seek election, along with a number of other writers who felt their inclusion in Nigerian politics would for the good. However, she lost the contest for the Orlu senatorial district seat of Imo State, and drew attention to irregularities and rigging.

She was recently appointed African Renaissance Ambassador by the African Renaissance Conference with head quarters in the Republic of Benin, and Nigeria’s sole representative at the global Forum of Arts and Culture for the Implementation of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNFAC). She is listed in the International Who’s Who of World Leadership, USA; the African Women Writers’ Who’s Who; the Top 500 Women in Nigeria; Who’s Who in Nigeria; and the International Authors and Writers Who’s Who, published in Cambridge, UK.

Acholonu is the Director of the Catherine Acholonu Research Center, Abuja (CARC). The center, based in Abuja, is pioneering research into Africa's pre-history, stone inscriptions, cave art, and linguistic analyses of ancient symbols and communication mediums from the continent. She argues that Nigerian rock-art inscriptions known as Ikom Monoliths prove that "Sub-Saharan African Blacks possessed an organized system of writing before 2000 B.C." and that she and her assistants are able to translate these.[2] In her book They Lived Before Adam: Prehistoric Origins of the Igbo The Never-Been-Ruled she argues that Igbo oral tradition is consistent with scientific research into the origins of humanity. Speaking at the Harlem Book Fair, Acholonu summarised the content of her argument in the book as follows:

Black Americans undergo cleansing from ‘slavery stigma’ in Africa
by Chika Oduah | July 15, 2013 at 2:20 PM

It took a trip to Africa to change 10 lives forever.

Six months after Irene Toland, Sidney Davis, Robin Almeida and Pamela Ramsay joined a group traveling to Africa, the effects of that trip still have not worn off.

This was not your typical African safari, point at the monkeys and “feed the children” sort of gig. For these 10 African-Americans, the journey to the West African country of Nigeria was nothing less than a spiritual, cultural pilgrimage.

In Nigeria, the most populous black nation in the world, they underwent a ritual cleansing from what they call the stigma of slavery. A local king washed their hands and feet as part of the cleansing.

Rituals and royalty

“They woke us up very early, we had no idea what we were doing,” says 53-year-old Robin Almeida. She describes the whole ordeal as an out-of-body experience, and says she feels a great privilege to have been part of the group.

The king, Eze Chukwuemeka Eri of a town called Aguleri in southeastern Nigeria, conducted the ritual ceremony following Igbo traditional rites. Afterwards, he pronounced the visiting African-Americans as princes and princesses of the royal house, bestowing them with Igbo names. Almeida was given the Igbo name Princess Ogechi Eri.

The pilgrimage was part of the inaugural Ebo Landing Project , a 2012 initiative of Nigerian historian and scholar, Catherine Acholonu. Acholonu, a former Fulbright Scholar who also served under the administration of Nigeria’s two-time president Olusegun Obasanjo, says the Ebo Landing Project is needed to help African-American break ties with their enslaved past and give them a sense of honor.

“We want to build a generation of African-Americans who have royalty,” says Acholunu.

Blacks on the bad side of the numbers

She claims African-Americans are suffering. For her, the circulating statistics and trends – like the ones that describe African-Americans as less likely to graduate from a university, more likely to have a child outside of marriage, more likely to experience nutrition related illness – is proof of a societal epidemic.

“The African-American condition comes from the fact that they’ve been demeaned and denigrated,” Acholonu says. “They feel like second-hand citizens.”

Almeida agrees.

“In a sense we are still slaves here [in the U.S.]; it’s just covered up,” she says. “You don’t see it. 90% of the black men in this community are in jail.”

For her, the 2012 trip – her first ever to Africa – instilled a sense of self-respect and dignity.

After the trip, Massachusetts-resident Irene Toland returned to her job as a beauty advisor at a local Walgreens store. She says she is a changed person with a newfound “sense of peace.” The New Hampshire native said she rarely saw African-Americans in her childhood, outside of her family. Her father told her they come from Eastern European Jews, but she felt a cultural disconnect and lack of identity.

“…I just didn’t know who I was, where I really belong,” says the 79-year-old.

This was not her first time in Africa. She’d been to Kenya on a tour, but for her, the pilgrimage to Nigeria was like nothing she had ever experienced. Now, she’s encouraging other African-Americans to participate in the 2013 trip, but admits that getting participants to go to Africa to connect with their ancestral past may be a challenge.

“There’s a lot of shame and there’s a lot of hurt,” Toland explains. “That’s why I’m trying to tell them to know about their history.”

“We black people have been robbed of that history and I don’t know why they are so ashamed of Africa.”


http://thegrio.com/2013/07/15/black-americans-undergo-cleansing-from-slavery-stigma-in-africa/#s:participants-in-aguleri

sssssss

Gregory University to Rank Among World Best -Ibe

Photo

Dr Gregory Ibe is a renowned businessman, erudite academic and Proprietor of Gregory University, Uturu, Abia State. In this encounter with Anacletus Anyanwuocha and Timothy Akingboye in Abuja, the Abia state-born technocrat urged the Federal government to support private institutions in the country in order to address the vexed sues of high cost and quality of tertiary education in Nigeria. He also touched on other issues of national interest. Excerpts:

My name is Dr. Gregory Ibe, the Proprietor and Chancellor of Gregory University, Uturu. I am also the President of Gregory Iyke Foundation, to which the university belongs.
On the maiden edition of the University's matriculation.
I am a lecturer; I used to teach in Abia state University. There is something I normally ask my students: what is the definition of an achievement and many of them would come with different answers. But for me; “achievement is equal to talent plus preparation.” We are going into matriculation because God is blessing our dream and passion, according to what He wants us to do.

Challenges
The only challenge is the hurdle you create for yourself as a man; anybody without challenges would be tired and die off. The only happiness I have as a person is the challenge I create for myself, which is what gives me joy. It is when I look at those challenges that I start to think of how to maneuver, how to get over it. Those things are the intrigues that make a man. The intrigue a woman passes through when she has conceived up to the point of delivery is what makes that pregnancy interesting. After few months, if you give her another opportunity, she would like to be pregnant again and still go through those intrigues that give her the challenges of bearing a child.

Number of matriculating students and courses the institution is offering now.
My dream and passion to contribute to this sector is taking and draining every aspect of me. Creating that intrigue, I have to go to United States, interviewed more than seventy professors of Nigerian origin. I took professor of economics from More House in Atlanta, Professor Juliet Elu, who is the immediate past President of Association of United States of America and brought her to be Vice-Chancellor. Now, somebody would ask, where are you getting the money from? It is not that I have the money but I said we would navigate out of it; why did I go this far, because I want our products and our university to be comparable to that which obtains in the American system.
Today, we have over four affiliates in US with four universities; we are doing what we call Students Exchange Program; Faculty Exchange Program, Collaboration and Entrepreneurship Programme with business start-up. This summer, lecturers from United States would be in Uturu to share ideas with our lecturers and get our students involved in researchable activities. For example, we have already agreed with other universities that are doing graduate programme to have our graduates work with them at Masters Level and I got appreciable and wonderful collaborative effort.
Moreover, in this university, the approval we got from NUC is to run three colleges; we have the Humanities, we have the Social and Management Sciences as well as Human and Applied Sciences. So we have about twenty four programmes for the eighty five students that we have right now. There are some that did Post UME which we are expecting to resume on or before matriculation, scheduled for 9th of February, 2013, and by the time they resume, we would give them more tutoring in compliance with the law of NUC which stipulates that you must have done sixteen to eighteen weeks of class work before doing examination.

How affordable is the tuition fee?
Private ownership is by name, all that we are doing is service to humanity; provide job for the people, both academic and non-academic. We are helping for the development of the nation, when you pay salaries; you are developing man-power. The nomenclature of someone being the Proprietor or Chancellor is completely out of the way. What the government ought to do is to give grant to anyone who is moving into this kind of business so that tuition will be free. For example, what is the essence of charging N350,000 per student and there is no electricity and you burn N6m monthly on diesel, excluding salaries that worth N11m monthly? You consider the wear and tear of the vehicle and its maintenance, putting mechanicals to work, buying computer accessories such as printers and its inks and running the system. So, if you do minimum amount of N22m a month and run it for twelve months, you will discover that you can never recoup any more. It is only passion that drives some of us to do what we are doing.

http://globalparagonmagazine.com/Gregory%20_University.html

Hernadez99: Bros,there is no "Extreme Poverty in the South!!

There is, I promise you. Visit Osun and Oyo and Ekiti.

eye4eye: @op

Have you been to the east before making this conclusion? East and northern Nigeria have no infrastructural facilities. There is little difference between them. If there was no Lagos or other areas in SW that gave opportunities to eastern people, eastern people wouldn't be wearing cloths today.

STFU. In the south the Yorubas are the poorest. Yoruba beggars with plates everywhere.

kunle4toye@yaho:
Leave okorocha and ngige alone and let them join political party of their choice.

Who has stopped them from joining any party they choose? Likewise leave Igbos to vote for whom they want to. Anambra elections is not national politics. It is local. Please concern yourselves with the politics of your state, region or national. Stay away from Anambra local politics if you are not from Anambra or an Igbo, and if you do not live in Anambra (non-Igbo).

Hernadez99: Like you don't know the answers to your questions!!


The Northerners are Dull,Greedy,Wicked,Stone Hearted and Brainwashed fellas who only think about 72 effing Virgins

Poor southerners are too proud to exhibit their poverty and some often do anything it takes (including crime) to escape poverty. I am convinced that no poor Igbo, Edo or Yoruba, Delta, ''Calabar'' etc will knowingly allow their impoverished household to be photographed. It does not mean there is no extreme poverty in the south; it is a matter of self pride to not overly exhibit it. This is contrary to the hausa/fulani, where crime to escape poverty is existent but to a seemingly lower scale.

Do these suggestion also apply to Igbos in SW, in the light of recent developments in Lagos?

Meanwhile here is the full article suggesting, even if passively, about how it would have been better to burn the billions of pounds the UK gives to Nigeria as aid than give it to Nigeria



A country so corrupt it would be better to burn our aid money

By Michael Burleigh

PUBLISHED: 18:14 EST, 8 August 2013 | UPDATED: 18:41 EST, 8 August 2013


Nigeria is not quite the most corrupt country on earth. But according to Transparency International, which monitors international financial corruption, it is not far off — coming a shameful 172nd worst among the 215 nations surveyed.

Only countries as dysfunctional, derelict and downright dangerous as Haiti or the Congo are more corrupt.

In theory, Nigeria’s 170 million-strong population should be prospering in a country that in recent years has launched four satellites into space and now has a burgeoning space programme.
Frankly, we might as well flush our cash away or burn it for all the good it's doing for ordinary Nigerians

Frankly, we might as well flush our cash away or burn it for all the good it's doing for ordinary Nigerians

Moreover, Nigeria is sitting on crude oil reserves estimated at 35 billion barrels (enough to fuel the entire world for more than a year), not to mention 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

It also manages to pay its legislators the highest salaries in the world, with a basic wage of £122,000, nearly double what British MPs earn and many hundreds of times that of the country’s ordinary citizens.
The oil industry is highly corrupt, with 136 million barrels of crude oil worth $11¿billion (£7.79 billion) were illegally siphoned off in just two years from 2009 to 2011

The oil industry is highly corrupt, with 136 million barrels of crude oil worth $11¿billion (£7.79 billion) were illegally siphoned off in just two years from 2009 to 2011

No wonder the ruling elite can afford luxury homes in London or Paris, and top-end cars that, across West Africa, have led to the sobriquet ‘Wabenzi’, or people of the Mercedes-Benz.

Yet 70 per cent of Nigerians live below the poverty line of £1.29 a day, struggling with a failing infrastructure and chronic fuel shortages because of a lack of petrol refining capacity, even though their country produces more crude oil than Texas.

And that poverty is not for want of assistance from the wider world.
Poverty: Millions of Nigerians are living in poverty, despite the country earning huge profits from its oil deposits



Since gaining its independence in 1960, Nigeria has received $400 billion (£257 billion) in aid — six times what the U.S. pumped into reconstructing the whole of Western Europe after World War II.

Nigeria suffers from what economists call the ‘resource curse’ — the paradox that developing countries with an abundance of natural reserves tend to enjoy worse economic growth than countries without minerals and fuels.

The huge flow of oil wealth means the government does not rely on taxpayers for its income, so does not have to answer to the people — a situation that fosters rampant corruption and economic sclerosis because there is no investment in infrastructure as the country’s leaders cream off its wealth.
Nigerian police can be easily bribed to look the other way in a country where corruption in Nigeria is endemic

Nigerian police can often be easily bribed to look the other way in a country where corruption in Nigeria is endemic

Corruption in Nigeria is endemic — from parents bribing teachers to get hold of exam papers for their children through clerks handed ‘dash’ money to get round the country’s stifling bureaucracy to policemen taking money for turning a blind eye.

It is at its most blatant, perhaps, in the oil industry, where 136 million barrels of crude oil worth $11 billion (£7.79 billion) were illegally siphoned off in just two years from 2009 to 2011, while hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies were given to fuel merchants to deliver petrol that never materialised.

Whether the country is ruled by civilians or soldiers, who invariably proclaim their burning desire to eradicate civilian corruption, it makes absolutely no difference.
The huge flow of oil wealth means the government does not rely on taxpayers for its income, so does not have to answer to the people

The huge flow of oil wealth means the government does not rely on taxpayers for its income, so does not have to answer to the people

The military ruled Nigeria between 1966 and 1979 and from 1983 to 1999, but if anything, corruption was worse when they were in charge since they had a habit of killing anyone threatening to expose them.

It is estimated that since 1960, about $380 billion (£245 billion) of government money has been stolen — almost the total sum Nigeria has received in foreign aid.

And that even when successive governments attempt to recover the stolen money, much of this is looted again.
President Sani Abacha, a military dictator who ruled in the Nineties, had accrued a staggering $4¿billion (£2.58¿billion) fortune by the time he died

President Sani Abacha, a military dictator who ruled in the Nineties, had accrued a staggering $4¿billion (£2.58¿billion) fortune by the time he died

In essence, 80 per cent of the country’s substantial oil revenues go to the government, which disburses cash to individual governors and hundreds of their cronies, so effectively these huge sums remain in the hands of a mere 1 per cent of the Nigerian population.


Political power is universally regarded as a chance to reap the fortunes of office by the ruling elite and its families and tribes.

The most egregious example was President Sani Abacha, a military dictator who ruled in the Nineties and accrued a staggering $4 billion (£2.58 billion) fortune by the time he died of a heart attack while in bed with two Indian prostitutes at his palace in the nation’s capital, Abuja, in 1998. Abacha’s business associates did nicely, too — one of them deposited £122 million in a Jersey offshore account after selling Nigerian army trucks for five times their worth.

Public office is so lucrative that people will kill to get it. Nigeria has 36 state governors, 31 of whom are under federal investigation for corruption.

In one of the smallest states, a candidate for the governorship occupied by one Ayo Fayose received texts signed by the ‘Fayose M Squad’ — and it was clear the ‘M’ was for ‘Murder’ when they stabbed and bludgeoned a third candidate to death in his own bed.

By the end of its term of office, the British Government will have handed over £1 billion in aid to Nigeria.

Given the appalling levels of corruption in that nation, this largesse is utterly sickening — for the money will only be recycled into bank accounts in the Channel Islands or Switzerland.

Frankly, we might as well flush our cash away or burn it for all the good it’s doing for ordinary Nigerians.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2387359/Nigeria-country-corrupt-better-burn-aid-money.html#ixzz2bhheL1k1
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Why is the North always made the face of poverty in Nigeria?

I have always wanted to ask this question. Is it really true that the North is the poorest region in Nigeria or is it a matter of who best shows the world how poor they are? Search as hard as you want, every photo you see of Nigeria's poor people always depicts the North. Yet this regions has some of the richest Nigerians, from past military rulers to the multitude of minions they have enriched. Do you know that there is a store in the UK where descriptions of good are also done in Hausa, in addition to English?
I am baffled at the irony of this whole thing

This is a picture (from the website below) with the title ''70 per cent of Nigerians live below the poverty line of £1.29 a day, struggling with a failing infrastructure and chronic fuel shortages''

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1929 Aba Women Riot: 80 Years Of Distorted History

The single road leading to this community that in 1929, produced some heroines
of Nigeria’s anti- colonial struggle, remains unmotorable while the few primary
schools in the place reminds the visitor of the Hobesian state of nature, with their
dirty and busy surroundings and the children who were literately forced to line up
in the hot sun this Thursday afternoon, May 7, to wave to the visitors, wore rags
as uniforms, with many of them on bare foot.

Nchara which shares boundaries with the Ngwa people of Abia state on its North-
West and the Anangs of Akwa Ibom state, on its Southern part,occupies a pride
of place in almost every history book that chronicles the Nigerian political
development, at least between 1914 and 1960.

It is from this community which is described by one of its sons, as having a “fair
topography but a rich soil” which produces more than a quarter of the food stuff,
especially cassava, consumed by Abians, that a group of women, led by the very
courageous IKONNA NWANYIUKWU ENYIA, confronted their Warrant Chief,
OKEUGU, who dared to enforce the obnoxious law then by the colonial masters,
that women should start paying taxes, like their husbands.

That confrontation led to what is there after referred to in Nigerian history cum
political Science books, as the ABA WOMEN RIOT OF 1929.

Though the heroic struggle of Madam Ikonna and her compatriots which led to the
abrogation of that unfair piece of law, not only in Igbo land but in other parts of
colonial Nigeria, is only given a footnote in most books that records it, the effort of
these heroines of the peoples war have never been adequately honored by the
Nigerian state.

More painful too, is the fact that historians or chroniclers of that part of our
National history have never taken time to correct the several distortions that have
been associated with the Nchrara women’s confrontation of the dreaded Warrant
Chief and the District Head (DH).

For instance, that act of valour by Madam Ikonna and her colleagues continues to
wear the wrong tag, “Aba Women Riot” when the scene of action was never in Aba

Again, no effort has been made to record for generations unborn, other struggles
waged by Nchara/Oloko women under the leadership of Ikonna, nor is there any
account of the historical background of the lady warrior and up till now, nothing
has been done either by Ikwuana Council Area, the Abia state or federal
Governments of Nigeria to honuor or immortalize this great women whose patriotic
zeal, courage and acts of valour must have inspired and influenced such other
female Nationalists as Margaret Ekpo, Chief Mrs Funmilayo Ransom Kuti, Hajia
Gambo Sawaba, among others, who came after her, to join the struggle against
socio, political and economic oppressors in Nigeria.

Madam Ikonna, born in 1877, into the family of Mazi Orji Onwuama Onyeukwu
from Oloko Village but got married to the family of Enyia, Ndiokpolu Akanu
Achara, in Oloko Clan of the old Bende Division of what is now known as Abia
state

A very beautiful woman in her youth, Ikonna was said to have been so loved by her
father that he gave her the name, (Ikonna), meaning her father’s heart throb
because she had so much resemblance with him.

Again, her beauty, strength and fearlessness, became for her as a young girl,
sources of disadvantage. Going by the belief then that the Whiteman’s education
was meant for only Lazy male children, coupled with the fact that her no nonsense
attitude could lead her into trouble that may result in her being sold into slavery,
forced her parents not to allow her venture into acquiring what she herself was
later to tag the “White man’s staff” (Western education).

But her educational disadvantage did not prevent her from getting married to Mazi
Enyia Mgbudu of Umu Okengoegbe, Obewon Amahia, to whom she bore four
children, a girl and three boys. As a young woman, Ikonna had both the leadership
qualities and militant disposition to organize the women of Nchara, Oloko clan, for
positive action against societal ills.

So in 1929 when Chief Okeugo, the Warrant Chief of Oloko, in obedience to the
wishes of the colonial masters, broke the sad news that women should start
paying tax, Ikonna mobilized the women folk to confront the authorities.

She went beyond her immediate Nchara community, to Umugo, Ahaba, Usaka
Eleogu, Azuiyi, Obeahia, Amizi and Awomuku, all neighboring communities within
Oloko clan, to mobilize women for a protest match against the tax law and that
protest was said to have taken the women, who were in nudity, except the local
Akori leaf they used in covering their women hood, to the residence of the District
Head whose name was given as Captain Hill.

At Chief Okeugo’s house, Ikonna was said to have personally charged at the man,
pushing him around and removing his cap. Also at the District Head’s house,
Ikonna and her protesting colleagues, also had a brush with the guard (Cotuma)
who they subdued. She was however arrested and detained by the colonial
authorities over the protests and later prosecuted by acommission of enquiry set
up for that purpose by the colonial authorities but that did not deter her from
engaging in further protests years after.

In 1957, that is 28 years after the “Aba Women” riot. Ikonna led yet another
women protest against the Eastern Nigerian Government led by late Dr. Nnamdi
Azikwe. This time it was against the government policy of excessive taxation
against the men.

Ikonna and her colleagues had reasoned then that self rule having been achieved
by the Eastern region, the indigenous government had no business imposing
excessive taxes on the citizens. The government saw reasons with her and
relaxed the tax law, but not before warning her not to lead any women unrest
again, before she left Dr. Azikiwe’s office in Enugu .

Two years later, in 1959, the woman was again, up in arms. The Eastern Nigerian
Government had shared a certain food formula among school children which
claimed the lifes of some of them. Ikonna again, led another delegation of women
to Enugu where they demonstrated against the government policy. She was of
course arrested and detained for a couple of days but released because the
government feared that her continued detention could spark off another women
riot.

For a woman who did all these for humanity, it is expected that she should be
honored and the accounts of her acts of valour be given a pride of place. But this
has not been the case.

Apart from the giant seize statue of the woman recently erected by Ikonna’s
ground children and the May 7 visit by representatives of women from Igbo
speaking parts of Nigeria to her grave side, there is nothing to show that once in
this life time, there was a woman known as Ikonna Nwanyiukwu Enyia.

In other climes, the Nchara community that produced her would have been turned
into a tourist centre. Will Nigeria ever consider this? Time will tell.

THE FIRST EDITION OF THIS PIECE, WAS DONE BY THE AUTHOR, [CHUKS
EHIRIM], THE POLITICAL EDITOR OF SUMMIT NEWSPAPER, IN MAY 2009.

COMMENTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO THIS WORK SHOULD BE DIRECTED
TO cehirim@yahoo.com. phone; 08033325614

Dudu_Negro: thats exactly my point!!

in the pursuit of equal opportunity the social fabric of cooperative alliance and unity is being damaged. equal opportunity is saying there is someone at top and there is someone on bottom and the person on top must swap position with the one on bottom ...or in the alternative, must slow down his pace of progress so the slow person at bottom can catch up and the two are side by side but neither is ahead of the other. that idea goes against the flow of nature and humanity.

humanity is about respect and fairness, not about equality. none of us is created equal. why are we trying to force equity?

We are definitely on the same page. I abhor both quota system and rotational presidency. But in Nigeria it is apparent that some groups like quota system but hate rotational presidency and vice versa. I am not sure what they drive at in doing so.

Dudu_Negro: naturally we are africans and culturally ethnic, the fact that we speak english does not in any way make us english people.

we are yoruba, igbo, hausa and many other people here. in my own yoruba culture, we are a commonwealth made of different land (ijeshaland, ijebuland, egbaland, aworiland, igbiraland and so on) each people have their own authority centered at the top by an oba. the egba does not go wanting to be oba over ijebu or awori, and the ijebu does not agitate to be an oba over ijesha or igbira. the traditional structure had its checks and balances to ensure fairness across the commonwealth. when an oyo start messing with the affairs in ekiti or egba or ilorin, then he invites trouble and confrontation.

recently acn was shut out of ondo with the help of afenifere group standing by mimiko. the same afenifere is the one behind "dawn" and regional integration for all yorubaland. they support unity on the land but by same token respect diversity in politics. there is no talk of equal opportunity here, there is no superior, inferior relationship.....you deal with what life gives you. the sooner we go back to our ways the better for our overall progress and growth.

the concept of equal opportunity is a hindrance on society here. it works for english people and white people because their nature is flawed in the belief that they are superior to every other race. it will not work for us.

But I have read where people from Ondo complain of the domination of Yoruba politics by the Egba and Ijebu. Same for Anambra in Igboland, and most likely Ijaw in SS. This means that at splitting, different subgroups of Nigeria will carry on with cries of marginalization against those dominating within their regions.

Sisi_Kill:

Lmao! Receptionist and Typist is even beyond my imagination. . .I actually thought they were just gonna sit there looking pretty.

If these women had been men, the headline will not read 6 Male blah blah. . .their GENDER obviously played a big role in why they were hired and that is the crux of the matter here.

If they were hired based on merits then leave it at that, why try to becloud the issue by throwing their gender into it?!!

Permanent Secretaries are technical/professional heads of the ministries. They are not secretaries to the governor/president. They help the minister/commissioner (who in most cases in Nigeria are politicians illiterate on the subject matter of the ministry) to run the ministry.

afam4eva:
Then the center wasn't attractive. These men you listed became popular from being the premier in their region. Regionalism renders the center almost redundant. As long as the owners of the land can manage their resources by themselves, they won't care who's at the center. Rotational presidency came up due to the fact that some people think they're been shortchanged by the center. So, they clamor for someone from their place to become the president so that he will bring development to them. So, with regionalism, that will be covered.

I agree this is possible as long as we have 100% resource control and contribution of a token by each region to the federal purse for national security.
But 100% resource control in Nigeria of today? It's like walking on water's surface.