₦airaland Forum

Nice news.

Looks like everybody is making their way to Lagos

Onlytruth:
Posted by: eku_bear
Of course they would be hosting HEAVY weapons -tanks, mobile artillery pieces and multiple rocket launchers, etc.

No be AK-47 full for MEND hand? 

I guess it would be easier to assess things if I knew how strong the Nigerian military was. Not sure all of that would be needed, if one were to strike quickly. But I don't have enough information to know. . . definitely wouldn't want to jump in blindly.

As for the training, that is where the 60% would come in. They will provide the immediate force until others complete their training.

Believe me, if Biafra was heavily armed from DAY ONE, Biafra would have won that war because the first batch of Biafran soldiers were from the top ranks of the Nigerian military, and the first set of volunteers (which usually make the best fighters) died before weapons could get into Biafra.

Weapons remain the key.

Indeed. If you'd had an additional 3-4 years to stockpile weapons and soldiers, you'd have been a lot more successful. In that type of situation, I think the best thing to do is to delay, delay, delay until you are as strong as your opponent.

Then again, perhaps this was impossible for Ojukwu to do.

@Chyz: Just skimmed through it, but it looks like just a bunch of southerners swapping places with southerners? Least, for the most part.

Also, no mention of changes in rank-and-file.

@Onlytruth:

Depends on the weapon. AK-47s can be made pretty cheaply.

Tanks, jeeps, planes, boats, things like that are harder to get.

And training also requires some time and investment. If you have a bunch of poorly trained soldiers even armed to the teeth, they'll be slaughtered by probably even 1/2 or 1/4 of their number well-trained soldiers.

Obiagu1:
A beg, make them start it now and should make their agenda known from day 1, to create Sharia State of Arewa out of Nigeria.

That makes it a lot easier for us, quickly gather them together and draw a line across Nigeria, Arewa for them, Southern Nigeria for us.

Not clear to me how this helps bring about the partitioning of Nigeria, though. Sort of need uprisings in the south as well.

Presumably they want to kill off what they view as collaborationist Muslim politicians and replace them. Doesn't mean they want to secede (as much as I wish that this were the case  ).

He raises some pretty good points. And he has data to support his hypothesis.

Will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Onlytruth:
Posted by: eku_bear
C'mon now! No be like dat na. 

But something close ->say 60% local catchment area, 40% other Nigerians, but weapons ->100% local.

Leaders are very sneaky 'y'know. They are not really like the rest of us.

What do you mean by weapons 100% local? They are typically stored on site anyway, right?

60% is probably enough to get the job done (as far as flexibility goes), but 100% is even better. I'd rather have 100% of my soldiers be men whose allegiance is unquestionable, rather than 40% that I must watch carefully.

So is this N700/kilo Abagworo cited just specific to PH? How much does chicken cost elsewhere in Nigeria?

I'm kind of surprised it is so damn expensive. I guess most chicken in Nigeria is going to be free-range, which raises the costs somewhat (perhaps substantially.) But the differential seems quite high, at least using this figure he provided.

[quote author=Chyz* link=topic=597402.msg7657423#msg7657423 date=1296701737]I guess everyone has forgotten about the changes that GJ made to the military which will allow more southerners to be recruited.I guess I'm going to have to go and do some digging.BRB [/quote]Yep, if you find something like that, post it.

If I had it my way, SW military and police would only be folk from that region. . .

Would certainly increase the options, as far as secession goes.

[quote author=EzeUche_ link=topic=597402.msg7657381#msg7657381 date=1296700133]Remember who is in charge of the military. I am sure the Igbo man knows what he is doing. All he has to do is look at the mistakes done by Ironsi. Behind every Igbo man's mind, we know what Northerners are capable of.[/quote]Personally, I don't mind having military bases in my land. . . assuming the rank-and-file is from the same ethnic group.

Otherwise seems like a liability.

I'd love to respond more thoroughly to some of the posts here, but proly won't have time until the weekend. Til then. . .

Err, if the soldiers there are drawn from the same group they are usually drawn from, I don't see how this can be viewed as a good thing.

No more bosh bashing, please

Abagworo:
Let me break it down.Half kilo of raw chicken goes for 350 Naira.

Damn. That is very expensive, no?

700 naira per kilo. 2.2 pounds per kilo. 150 N to dollar. So $2.12 per pound?

I see it listed for $1.29-$1.52/pound at my local Safeway:
http://shop.safeway.com/superstore/

Kobojunkie:
$3 per mouth is still way too expensive for the majority in Nigeria.

Do people eat garri only, then? I'm trying to figure out:
1) What your typical meal is
2) How much it costs

Hrm, how much does a pound of beef (or the equivalent amount of beef) cost in Nigeria?

And say one pound of chicken?

Trying to compare the prices to how much I spend at the grocery store for the same goods.

What is the point of picking this Ugochukwu guy? Will he be able to deliver any votes?

Smh at Ribadu. . . not a serious candidate.

Kobojunkie:
@Poster, there's got to be cheaper alternatives out there because $7 is too much for the average individual.

I pay much less than that myself for food. Unless I'm eating out. My typical meal, I probably spend $3 or 4 on (averaging over eating out and homecooked.)

Too many states in Nigeria already. But more states = more cash, I guess.

I wish the cash aspect could be separated from the # of states. . .

This thread has made me hungry 

7 bucks seems expensive for what you got, though?

One thing that has always struck me about Nigeria. . . having the same lifestyle there as in the West isn't any cheaper. If anything, it is more expensive.

^-- I'm a bit surprised that you say that wealthy Nigerians are the primary buyers of these bonds. Lots of more profitable opportunities in Nigeria than bonds, if you if enough money.

How on earth did this thread get derailed.

Barake is NOT a northerner, as the OP suggested.

So discussions of the merits of a north/north ticket, etc aren't really relevant

Another step making it harder to break apart the country

[quote author=EzeUche_ link=topic=597244.msg7651517#msg7651517 date=1296637560]The borders are so porous up North, it is not surprising that this occurred. That being said, we witnessing one of the legacies of colonialism.

It is sad to see that the Hausa of Northern Nigeria are separated from them brethren in Southern Niger and Northern Benin. The same goes for the Kanuri, in which the bulk of their population lies in Chad. Colonialism really messed up Africa.[/quote]Hopefully one day both the Hausa Republic and the Kanuri Republic will exist.

PITY the books of Leuven, a seat of learning since 1425. The Dutch humanist Erasmus taught at the university; Mercator, the Flemish cartographer who projected the globe, learnt maths there. But besides intellectual ferment, Leuven has known much cultural vandalism. Some manuscripts were carted to Paris when French revolutionaries closed the university. The library was set ablaze by the Germans in the first world war. It was rebuilt with international (mainly American) help, and burnt again in the second world war.

In 1968, though, it was the Belgians themselves who cleft the book collection during their language wars. To Flemish students’ cries of Walen Buiten (“Walloons Out”), the French-speaking bit of the university was ejected. The library’s 1.6m books were divided, often by the crude expedient of keeping odd-numbered tomes in Leuven and sending even-numbered ones to the new campus of Louvain-la-Neuve, in French-speaking Wallonia.

The 1968 partition divided the Catholic church (both universities are Catholic) and brought down the government. Belgium’s conservative Catholic party split into Francophone and Flemish halves, followed by the liberals and the socialists. Belgian politics became tribal, with each party championing its own linguistic agenda. Over the years these rows have turned Belgium into a near-ungovernable federation, with powers devolved downwards. The Belgian state has become a hollowed-out shell, with a little-loved flag and a forlorn sovereign, Albert II, who could yet end up as the last king of the Belgians—indeed, the last Belgian.

Chronic bickering since the election in June 2010 has left a caretaker government in office for 230 days and counting, a European record. Belgium is on course to beat Iraq’s 289 days without a government. Yet the country has so many layers of administration that daily life goes on. Belgian ministers made a decent fist of their country’s six-month rotating presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2010. Eurocrats in Brussels are only faintly aware of living in a paralysed country. And, despite a few recent wobbles, the bond markets seem largely unconcerned about Belgium’s giant public debt of close to 100% of GDP. It was only on January 23rd that Belgian students organised protest rallies to urge their country’s politicians to get a move on.

The world gives little thought to Belgium. Yet it may soon have to pay more attention. As the crisis drags on, a break-up of Belgium looks less unthinkable than it was. The effects would be felt far beyond the fantasy world of Tintin and Magritte’s bowler-hatted men falling from the sky.

Paradoxically the slow dissolution of Belgium, the most pro-European of countries, goes hand in hand with the (uneven) deeper integration of the EU. Belgium is facing its worst troubles just as the EU confronts the gravest challenge to the euro. One way of looking at Belgium’s divide is as a counterpart to the EU’s split between a Germanic, frugal north and a subsidy-dependent Latin south. Financial markets stand ready to dump Belgian bonds at any hint of formal partition, because of uncertainty over who would repay the country’s debts. But, for the moment, the euro gives all parties the luxury of intransigence. Without it, the stalemate might have triggered a run on the Belgian franc.

Today’s blockage is unlike previous ones in that an avowedly separatist party, the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), has for the first time become dominant in Flanders. Led by Bart de Wever, a charismatic bruiser, the N-VA’s appeal stems precisely from popular exasperation with the messy, unsatisfying compromises of the older political groups. It wants a decisive shift of powers to Flanders, and makes little secret of its wish to see Belgium “evaporate” within the EU. Danny Pieters, the N-VA president of the Belgian Senate, says he sees no need for a Flemish army: one day Belgian forces will be part of a European one. For the N-VA, Europe is the acid that will help to dissolve Belgium.

Strangely, perhaps, this same erosion of sovereignty is seen as an antidote to violent nationalism. European integration overcame the historic enmity between France and Germany. Ireland’s entry into the EU helped to end the worst of Northern Ireland’s sectarian war. In the Balkans, the EU offers the balm of membership to heal the trauma of the Yugoslav wars. But is this not all romantic nonsense when Belgium, a founder of the EU as well as the host to its capital, struggles to hold together? No, says Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank. By “taking the gun out of politics”, the EU has contradictory effects. It makes it easier to draw violent groups into politics; but it also allows peaceful nationalists to act up, and voters to support them, because there is no danger of bloodshed.

Put the carving knife away

This does not mean that Belgium can dissect itself without anybody worrying. Spain and Italy would not be the only places to fret about the precedent of rich regions pulling away from poorer ones. Scottish nationalists speak of independence within Europe. Many ex-communist countries have big national minorities: think of Hungarians in Slovakia. Redraw Belgium and break the mystique of European tolerance—and one creates doubts across much of the EU’s eastern swathe.

Changing national borders only rarely resolves nationalist and ethnic disputes. Where communities overlap, tolerance, minority rights, autonomy and cross-border co-operation are better democratic tools. Take Brussels. If Flanders breaks away from Belgium, could Brussels, officially bilingual but overwhelmingly Francophone, leave Flanders? Indeed, this conundrum offers the best hope that, in the end, Flemings and Walloons will live together somehow. Splitting a city is harder than breaking up a university—luckily for Belgium, and perhaps for Europe.


http://www.economist.com/node/18008272

Jim Chanos, president of US-based Kynikos Associates and one of the world’s most famous hedge fund managers, talks to the FT's John Authers about China's property bubble and the implications for the rest of the world.

http://video.ft.com/v/772837551001/Why-Jim-Chanos-is-short-China

[quote author=na2day! link=topic=596640.msg7649516#msg7649516 date=1296602010]There is a reason you separate military and the police,
One fights the enemies of the state; the other serves and protects the people.
When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people!
- Admiral Adama -[/quote]Heh. Didn't think I'd run across a fan of that show here.

If Nigeria functioned properly, Fashola would be running for president and win overwhelmingly.

Kano State Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has repatriated six Nigeriens who were arrested while attempting to secure the voters card during the ongoing voter registration exercise.

State Commandant of the Service, Brasca Emmanuel Ifeadi told reporters in Kano yesterday that three out of the six aliens had already obtained their voters' cards, while the other three were in the process of registering before they were nabbed by Immigration Officers.

Mr Ifeadi, while parading the six suspects to newsmen at the Headquarters of the Command, said that the six suspects have been immediately repatriated.

Those arrested after securing the voters' cards are: Murtala Yahaya, Mohammed Akilu and Yusuf Rabilu, while those caught trying to register are: Abdullahi Lawwali, Salisu Mohammed and Murtala Mokhtar.

Mr. Ifeadi explained that the Command in Kano will ensure that foreigners do not participate in the ongoing voter registration, as well as in the April general elections, through effective monitoring.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5671728-146/immigration_deports_six_nigeriens__.csp

^-- Who cares what those posters think?

He has made a decision about which state he wants to be a part of, and moreover that state wants him too.

He might be Igbo, but at this point has nothing to do with Anambra and the rest of those states.

The Kenya example with Barack was spot on.

asha 80:
so much of a country that says it is a federalist state

Tell me about it 

Most states at this point are beggars.

Wish I had a list handy of states ranked by IGR.

Tue Feb 1, 2011 4:13pm GMT
(Adds details, background)

LAGOS Feb 1 (Reuters) - Nigeria's Lagos state plans to raise 60 billion naira ($395 million) under its bond issuance programme in 2011, up marginally from 57 billion naira in 2010, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

"We will continue with our bond issuance programme. As a matter of policy all loans are for capital projects," Lagos state commissioner for budget and planning Ben Akabueze told reporters.

Lagos state is home to the commercial hub of Africa's most populous nation, a sprawling city of more than 14 million people which badly needs its infrastructure upgraded.

Lagos is rare among Nigeria's 36 states in generating 70 percent of its revenue internally from taxation and public services such as buses. Most of the country's states depend on their share of federal oil revenues in the OPEC member nation.

Akabueze said internally-generated revenue rose to 176 billion naira ($1.2 billion) last year and that the state plans to spend 412 billion this year, 233 billion of it on recurrent expenditure.

The funds from last year's bond issue are being used to upgrade one of the main roads into the city into a 10-lane expressway as well as funding the development of a light rail transit system.

Lagos state governor Babatunde Fashola -- widely popular for his efforts to reduce crime and improve infrastructure -- is running for a second term in April elections and is widely expected to win.(For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: af.reuters.com/ ) (Reporting by Oludare Mayowa; Writing by Nick Tattersall)

http://af.reuters.com/article/nigeriaNews/idAFLDE71023R20110201