The ekwensu you know is better than the eshu you don't know.

APC has too many unknown. Their no to SNC has been a big minus. Asuwaju daughter made iya oloja breaking due process and norm and many others leaves too many doubts about their credibility

So yes for GEJ.......at least get the SNC thing on deck

nwabobo: Now that GEJ has come to correct the imbalance, some 'prodigal' Southerners are joining hands with the same set of people that oppressed them to make the country ungovernable for him so as to return the country to status quo where the Southerners will remain in perpetual servitude to the 'born to rule' Muslim North.

Like Oshiomole

Nyiam is a patriot to say the least.

Why would Oshiomole be pursing a personal agenda using a public Office?? Why

Small small wind dey blow...foul nyash don......O..N

erinolu: Una dey look am for the wrong place oooo.....Its already happening but see where BBC see am below...


Rare solar eclipse in America, Europe and Africa


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24793350

Copied from the BBC

..It was first visible in the southern United States, and is moving east. The best view of the total eclipse on land was visible from Gabon.

Una dey look am for the wrong place oooo.....Its already happening but see where BBC see am below...


Rare solar eclipse in America, Europe and Africa


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24793350

More from the Vanguard....


".....God bless you. That is the basic truth. Oshiomole has refused to be reasonable, rather, he has chosen the life style of a confutionist and a motor park personnel. He is too quarrelsome and I wonder how his cabinates are managing him. He is a very fastideous person. I do not know why he and his co-travellers in APC, those bunch of incompetent group should see the NA-confab as a PDP affair. It is very unfortunate. While we accept that two wrongs can not make a right and that noise should not be used to stop noise which is to say that Nyiam should not have responded the way he did,, it is necessary to note that if Nyiam has committed an offence, Oshiomole has committed a crime of treason by insighting people against a National issue. Look, let us be factual, if Oshiomole forgot to show respect to a President of a Country, what respect does he expect or should anybody expect to be shown to him? I do not know why the Chairman of the Committee should allow Oshiomole to teleguide their time. Even after they had gone to his Office he kept them there insulting the President and they were paying attention to him as if that was the reason why they went there,he still came to the public to further display his reckless attitude. It is not every body that would tolerate that rubish and that was what Nyiam proved. Let be noted again that they did not go to Edo State to visit Oshioole. Their going to his Office to see him was to show him respect and he has no right lording it over them, The President sent them. e should be mindful of other people's time. How can single handedl delay the meeting from ten Am to one Pm, just to prepare insult on President? Nyiam's case is an offence of necessity and that is an offence committed to prevent a worse offence which was coming from this thug called Oshiomole...."

Copied from the Vanguard....



".... Indeed I have watched the video repeatedly because I am a stakeholder whose homestead in under threat as a result of oil exploitation, a phenomenon which some contributors to this forum including Governor Oshiomhole and his gang of APC have not and will never experience. The Femi Okurounmu committee has already been set up so Governor Oshiomhole's objection should be directed at the Presidency for which the governor is better placed by virtue of his frequent interaction with the President. The committee was not there to seek legitimacy. What Oshiomhole did was to call into question the basis of the committee and to incite the people against their President. The Governor made no contribution as to his preferred modality for constituting the conference. Rather he would want the committee not to exist. This was outright foolishness and a poor partisan political footwork on the part of the Edo state Governor. The Governor chose to use the platform for political propaganda against the President. By so-doing, he had failed to show respect to the Presidency as a constituted authority. The Governor should hide his face in shame. The Governor foolishly spoke about history but the truth of the matter is that when the time comes to write the history of this country probably after 2015, Oshiomhole would be recognised as a man who worked against the interests of his people..."

homesteady: So who's at fault now? Is oshiomole not at fault?

Copied from Nyiam speech....


".....So when people started booing the governor, I went to the chairman to remind him about the rules of our committee. The chairman said we should give him a chance to continue. He carried on with his derogatory remarks and it was at that point I then said no, not again...."

Copied from the Tribune....


"......Speaking with journalists yesterday, Edo State chairman of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, described the governor’s comments as “uncultured, uncivilized and pre-emptive, meant to discourage millions of citizens of the country from the good intention of Mr President.”

He said: “How do you pre-empt the outcome of an exercise that has not taken off by condemning it and by telling Nigerians that you don’t expect anything good to come out of it? It was an indictment on the president, the country and the populace, especially those who have been clamouring for this type of conference.”





“....He (Oshiomhole) should be mindful of what he says because he is no longer a private person. He is a public figure and he should see himself as such.

“He should stop acting in a manner as if he is playing ‘Area Boys’ politics or politics of ‘Oshobei’ as exemplified by the labour unions, where the man who makes the loudest noise, becomes the leader,” Orbih said....."

Copied from the Punch...


"...And the most annoying thing is that the committee went to Oshiomole's office for a private interaction before meeting the entire representatives of the people. And in that private meeting, the governor aired his disbelieve and opposition to the conference. Why did he ''gate crash'' into the people's venue and continued with his opposition to the conference, even when he had earlier done so in his office. He deserves what he got! They want Nigeria to remain the way it is...."


"...Oshiomole should be cautioned. He is not the only who knows to talk. They should have allowed those ethnic nationalities to deal with him. This conference is passionate to all ethnics and everyone will go to any length to defend it. I have always said that these APC people are no longer in touch with reality..."


"...It was good that PAC on National Dialogue apologised(to show maturity) but honestly,the Gov. deserves the insults he got from the crowd..."


"...Oshiomole is my gov but we( in Edo state) know the gov talks too much and most times deviating from the point.He always assume the posture of 'Mr know all' .This has caused problem for him several times.Everyone knows in Benin that his administration is a one man show.Yes,PAC MUST accommondate all views but as a GOV (or high ranking public officer) you must been careful with,not neccessarily what you say, but how it is to be said.His personal views can be taken(in some quaters) to mean the views of Edo people...."



"... Without holding any brief for Col. Nyiam, it is irresponsible for a sitting governor to say Dialogue is not a solution. The fact that Conference or Dialogue had taken place 10 times in the past does not mean that this one will come to nothing. If people do not dialogue what do you expect them to do in the face of tightening and hard pressing economic, political and security tensions ?? The Governor should be seen to be speaking the mind of majority of the people of Edo state in such Town hall meeting and not his personal views because it is about issues that directly affect the people and not an individual ...."

homesteady: So who's at fault now? Is oshiomole not at fault?

Copied from the Vanguard......

"..I stand with col.Nyiam (rtd) on this matter no matter what. Oshiomhole should have respected himself, atleast he had given his opinion during the 40 mins meeting with the commitee earlier in his office.."

"People who don't want this NC to go ahead should just STAY AWAY! The NC Committee are asking people to give them their views on how it should be organised, so why do those who don't want it at all be there? Oshiomole has no business attending that meeting. This NC is CRITICAL to Nigeria's well being and I have not heard anybody against it proposing any alternative. I use to respect Oshiomole but now I see he is nothing but a trouble maker. Col Nyiam should not have resigned. Oshiomole himself said he was against the NC because talk of Nigeria breaking up or changing its arrangement would put off foreign investors! His eyes are on oyinbo not his own people. Foreign investors who bring in $1 but take away $3 - how is that helping Nigeria?"

"...I guess Oshiomole cannot differentiate between statesmanship and personal issue with the President of Nigeria. He was meant to show respect and transmit his view to him personally.
If he were the president of the nation who was represented by the committees, will he adjudged that action as being good?.."


"...I met Col. Nyiam in Abuja about 3 months ago and we engaged ourselves in a robust exchange on the state of the nation. He is a passionate, patriotic and extremely intelligent individual. I commend him for standing up to one of APC's pretentiously omniscient characters. APC members irritate me with their holier-than-thou, know-it-all approach to issues. God bless Tony Nyiam for putting Oshiomhole in his place. Governor, my foot! Respect begets respect...."


"...Nyiam was right. The crowd has continued to shout down on the govt. before the col. said whatever he said. The governor in the first place did not want the conference hold in his state, that's why he came to the venue to repeat what he has already told the panel before..."

"..Is this the same events that Channels TV also aired? Col Nyam was absolutely correct. The majority of the audience roundly shouted Oshiomole down and insisted on his leaving. Col Nyam may have reacted more angrily than every other committee member and that is understandable. This man put his live on the line in an event that we are all struggling to manage its outcome. All the operational base of Boko Haram and their supporters were those they announced through Maj. Gideon Orkar to leave Nigeria alone. Col Nyam has sacrificed for
the ethnic minorities more than Oshomole, indeed they are incomparable, the later is only a beneficiary of struggle while the other is a product of
sacrifice. Enough said..."

emmymdk: 90mins in Calabar will decide if we go revenge...

90 mins...before or after?

So na who come dey lie now...Ethiopia or 9ja..?

The Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) has denied that there was an attack on the Nigerian team in Addis Ababa after their World Cup play-off first-leg tie.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) said the team bus was attacked by Ethiopian fans and that midfielder Nosa Igiebor was injured.

The Super Eagles, who won the match 2-1, have reported the incident to Fifa.

But the Ethiopian FA says an investigation led to no proof of the incident taking place.

"There was no attack," EFF president Juinedin Basha told BBC Sport.

"There was no one injured - either players or individuals from the Nigerian team on Sunday. This is what we found out from our investigation.

"We have checked everything. We've got nothing that shows that a player or any other individual was injured by fans.

"The Ethiopian people are known to be respectful to any African from every corner. This is our culture, this is our history and the Nigerians are our African brothers," he said.

Basha, however, acknowledged that there were some angry fans, following a late penalty, which was converted by Nigeria's Emmanuel Emenike.

"Of course the stadium was full of angry fans, who were disappointed by the referee's decision, especially after he ruled out the first goal."

The Walya Antelopes thought they had opened the scoring after 24 minutes through Saladin Said, only for Godfrey Oboabona to clear off the line.

The NFF said in a press statement that fans attacked the team bus with stones after the match, and that the rear window of the bus was shattered.

"Igiebor was the unlucky one as the stone slashed his right palm leading to profuse bleeding that was immediately attended to by team doctor, Ibrahim Gyaran," Ben Alaiya, the Super Eagles press officer, said.

The Ethiopian FA was fined last January after travelling Ethiopian fans at the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa threw bottles at Zambian players.

The East Africans travel to Calabar on 16 November for the return leg of the play-off, with the winners progressing to the World Cup finals in Brazil


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24594098

Very informative !!!

all4naija: She converted to Islam at the age of 15. She is a Muslim without any argument about that.

Hmmm... converted to islam and became brainwashed into being a blood spiller. Hmmmm....and that is the way the stupid ideological religion has fooled someone to thinking it's the way of God.

Islam is simply terrorism. ..QED

peterphd: See what the "religion of peace" can turn some minds into? These people should be exterminated!

Imagine being converted into an Islamic terrorist. Stupid ideological religion that only knows how to spill blood.

wasak: SAW THIS ON FACEBOOK AND DECIDED TO SHARE.
Abraham Lincoln’s letter to his son’s Head Master a Respected Teacher,

...Treat him gently; but do not cuddle him because only the test of fire makes fine steel.

...He is such a fine littlefellow, my son.
Abraham Lincoln.

Powerful notes, but i truly like this one; only the test of fire makes fine steel

Those wey no want read their books for school always end up idiots and failures
Those wey no want listen to their papa and mama, always end up idiots and failures
Those wey no want follow laid down laws and instructions, always end up idiots and failures
Those wey no fear God, walahi!!!, always end up idiots and failures

Abraham Lincoln, your words are golden, the fire of hard work through studies, the fire of hard work through obedience to ya papa and mama, the fire of hard work following laws and instructions and above all, the fire of hard work following God can only make you a better person like STEEL....

Una don hear !!!!

[quote author=Pygru][/quote]

True, A leopard never changes its stripes

HNosegbe: I guess the info in the link below is incorrect:



Wait oh,

"Major General Ibrahim B. Buhari?"

Funny !!!

HNosegbe:

A coup is a coup.

Hope you read the interview properly.....See an excerpt pasted below for your digestion....

""....in our setting we misuse words. And because we are used to misusing words, we believe even words that are not really the truth. A military coup would be a coup against an elected government.""

So was Dimka's action against an elected government?

HNosegbe: List of coups and their respective coup leaders:

Jan 1966: Kaduna Nzeogwu.

Jul 1966: Murtala Mohammed (not Gowon).

1975: Murtala Mohammed (again).

1976: B.S. Dimka.

1983: IBB (not Buhari).

1985: IBB (again).

1993: Abacha.

Why Dimka dey your list nahhh....He did not boot out an elected government, but a Military one

erinolu:

Are you saying your stay in power would have been brief, only long enough to prepare for elections?

Yes. We would have stayed just 18 months to do basically three things, which Nigeria still needs to do. They are: a national census, a proper headcount. I’m happy that as I’ve been saying for years, Festus Odimegwu, the new chairman of the National Population Commission, clearly said there has been no credible census in Nigeria since 1816. The fact is that Nigerians have been so ignorant and have refused to deal with the crucial matter. The census, right from the British time, has always been used to perpetuate the internal colonisers over the rest of Nigeria. The three things we would have done; first a proper national census, so we can know how many we are and how we are spread. If we truly know what the Nigerian population is, over 40 per cent of the constituencies in the North-West and North-East, would not exist. We can only know that if we do a proper census and that is why today, Festus Odimegwu’s life is being threatened because he wants to give us a true count for the first time.

The second thing would have been a conference, which would allow Nigerians to negotiate how they want to coexist. Today, we have a situation where there are abuses of the federal character system. For example, a candidate from say Delta State has to score 170 to pass, while another from another part of the country is required to score eight. Such abuses cannot really be acceptable by a people who have a nation. We are yet to have a nation. The imperative of a conference cannot be ruled out; people need to negotiate. The third thing was to conduct a free and fair election, which has eluded Nigeria for long. In all the regimes, a semblance of free and fair election we see only in a few states in Nigeria basically Lagos and the other states in the South-West. I’m not saying they have achieved it, but we see relatively free and fair elections in these regions. It is not surprising why these regions are the most developing, South-West is the most peaceful, relatively compared to other regions and of course it is the region, where there is relative collective governance of the people. I must give credit to this government, led by President Goodluck Jonathan. The Ondo and Edo states governorship elections, which were relatively free and fair, are credit to Jonathan’s government. These are the things we would have done in those 18 months and those three things whether we like it or not, have to be done. First, we must have a proper census and that is why all Nigerians must support Festus Odimegwu to give us a proper census. Two, we must sit down and negotiate our corporate existence. We must stop deceiving ourselves with these fraudulent elections we’ve been having.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Would that have been due to the ethnic coloration of previous coups?

Sure. It is sad that democrats are missing the issue that we were fighting against, which we still need to fight against. It is a situation where they take over power and give advantage to their people to the extent that today if we count the local governments we have in Kano and Jigawa which are states not up to Lagos in population, the local governments are up to three to five times the number of local government areas in Lagos. Lagos is a place, apart from the Niger Delta which gives us foreign exchange earner. Lagos contributes over 70 per cent of our non-oil revenue generation and the same Lagos gets less than what Kano, which produces less than two per cent, gets. This is why I must say Lagos State made a mistake, instead of relocating the problem where it lies; it is not about deporting Igbo beggars to Onitsha end of the Niger Bridge. Lagos should take the right steps legally or otherwise to assert the rights of the state which is being the owner of the Value Added Tax and the sales tax generated in Lagos. The things we fought against are still structurally within our polity. Today, you cannot pass a bill at the National Assembly, if two zones — North-East and North-West — do not agree. So, two zones can stop four zones — South-East, South-West, South-South and North-Central — from moving forward. The irony of this is that these zones are in the semi-desert areas that are usually less populated going by all empirical evidence. We have problems with our census figure; that is why they have all those constituencies and that is why they planned coups to perpetuate that.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Now that we have Delta and Bayelsa states and we have the Ministry of Niger Delta and an Ijaw man is the head. Do you think these are enough to right the wrongs of the past?

Those issues are again the usual Nigerian way of dealing with things; rather than go for a holistic tactic. A fundamental thing essentially is to restore power. Once power is restored to the people it is left to them. All these things are just temporal measures. The fundamental issue is to return Nigeria to true federalism. This talk of diversifying our economy cannot happen if we do not have fiscal federalism. People forget that when we had proper federalism, the main foreign exchange for Nigeria was agriculture. So, we have to go back to that


http://www.punchng.com/feature/interview/ibb-not-buhari-overthrew-shagaris-govt-col-nyiam/

***********************************************************************************************
These 3 grey areas in the interview are assigments for us to ponder on;
(1) True Census of Nigeria that will show correct population figures of the different states as that affects the character of the compostion of the national assembly. How can Kano post a higher population figure than Lagos. And by this Kano has higher number of National Assembly members than Lagos and have better voting advantage.

(2) We must negotiate our corporate existence as we do not practise true fiscal federalism. Nigeria as it is presently is a LIE, our Federal character is a LIE. According to the great Sage Awolowo, Nigeria is but a geographic expression. A people forced into a nation for the economic benefit of the imperialist British. Can't we re-write their wrongs and decide how we want to collective live together. Great democrats like Anthony Enahoro by wisdom canvassed for a Soverign National Conference so that we (different Ethic nationality) can decide how we want Nigeria to be.

(3) We must correct the LIE LIE election we have been posting all these years. It only brings in nonentities who think for their pockets not our collective good

me i don talk my own !!!!

In this interview, Col. Tony Nyiam, who was part of the failed attempt to oust the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s military government in 1990, tells WAHEED BAKARE and ALLWELL OKPI, how the Orkar coup originated and its relevance to Nigerian politics

You said what has come to be known as the Orkar coup was not a coup but an action. What is the difference between the two?

I said it was a pro-democracy action to stop a situation where there would have been perpetual diarchy in Nigeria, where politicians in uniform would have put a system in place for them to rule forever. I’m talking about a system similar to what the Arab uprising dismantled in Egypt.

But a more senior military officer, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, referred to it as a coup.

It is because in our setting we misuse words. And because we are used to misusing words, we believe even words that are not really the truth. A military coup would be a coup against an elected government. Our action was not against an elected government. In fact, it’s the responsibility of a military officer to rise up against anybody who takes over power from an elected government, which the government we took action against did. The government we took action against, which was part of the Muhammadu Buhari to Ibrahim Babangida regime, had usurped power from the elected government of Shehu Shagari. If there is a coup that overthrows an elected government, it is the duty of a military officer to do a counter-coup to restore democracy.

Would you have done the same thing if Buhari had remained in power to that time?

If we had seen the same indications during Buhari’s time, the plan by the military to perpetuate itself, we would have done that. But Buhari wasn’t of that kind of mould.

Are you saying your stay in power would have been brief, only long enough to prepare for elections?

Yes. We would have stayed just 18 months to do basically three things, which Nigeria still needs to do. They are: a national census, a proper headcount. I’m happy that as I’ve been saying for years, Festus Odimegwu, the new chairman of the National Population Commission, clearly said there has been no credible census in Nigeria since 1816. The fact is that Nigerians have been so ignorant and have refused to deal with the crucial matter. The census, right from the British time, has always been used to perpetuate the internal colonisers over the rest of Nigeria. The three things we would have done; first a proper national census, so we can know how many we are and how we are spread. If we truly know what the Nigerian population is, over 40 per cent of the constituencies in the North-West and North-East, would not exist. We can only know that if we do a proper census and that is why today, Festus Odimegwu’s life is being threatened because he wants to give us a true count for the first time.

The second thing would have been a conference, which would allow Nigerians to negotiate how they want to coexist. Today, we have a situation where there are abuses of the federal character system. For example, a candidate from say Delta State has to score 170 to pass, while another from another part of the country is required to score eight. Such abuses cannot really be acceptable by a people who have a nation. We are yet to have a nation. The imperative of a conference cannot be ruled out; people need to negotiate. The third thing was to conduct a free and fair election, which has eluded Nigeria for long. In all the regimes, a semblance of free and fair election we see only in a few states in Nigeria basically Lagos and the other states in the South-West. I’m not saying they have achieved it, but we see relatively free and fair elections in these regions. It is not surprising why these regions are the most developing, South-West is the most peaceful, relatively compared to other regions and of course it is the region, where there is relative collective governance of the people. I must give credit to this government, led by President Goodluck Jonathan. The Ondo and Edo states governorship elections, which were relatively free and fair, are credit to Jonathan’s government. These are the things we would have done in those 18 months and those three things whether we like it or not, have to be done. First, we must have a proper census and that is why all Nigerians must support Festus Odimegwu to give us a proper census. Two, we must sit down and negotiate our corporate existence. We must stop deceiving ourselves with these fraudulent elections we’ve been having.

There is the argument that we don’t need to have another conference since we have representatives at the National Assembly.

It is the most ignorant assumption. Why do I say it is ignorant? With all the political scientists we have in our midst, people forget that what we are practising is what we call indirect democracy. What do I mean? The proprietary right over people’s sovereignty is delegated to people we elect to make laws for us. When it comes to making constitutional reforms or constitution making, you go to what is called direct democracy. Direct democracy means direct voting by the people in the form of a referendum and that is why the universal practice is that a constitution making process that does not go through a constituent assembly, whose decisions are approved by a referendum, is null and void. We see the examples. Look at South Sudan; it’s creation resulted from a referendum. How is it that Nigerians do not understand that for a constitution to be legitimate, it has to be driven by the people, and the people are usually represented by a constituent assembly? And this constituent assembly is usually made up of non-partisan politicians, because partisan politicians are only concerned with the next election. They are not concerned about posterity or long-term issues in the country. So, constitution which outlives people and a generation should be driven by civil society, collection of every nationality in the country and clerics. I would cite an example. My second home is in Scotland and in Scotland those who drove for the national conference were the clerics of the Church of Scotland, they were at the forefront. We also saw it in Ireland. Britain has the oldest parliament in the world, why are they allowing a constituent assembly to go ahead, while there are parliaments? It is only in Nigeria that such argument is raised because of the ignorance of the difference between direct and indirect democracy. That’s why I have tried to do an aide-memoir to aid constitution- making. There are certain basic principles of constitution-making, which if we do not follow, would be like building a house on quicksand.

Do you think we would have been able to tackle these problems if the June 12 election had not been annulled by Babangida?

The thing is, Chief MKO Abiola, who I had the opportunity to work with when he escaped from Nigeria to UK, was a man that we lost because his plan was to correct the national issues and start democracy in Nigeria. But because some western interests in Nigeria did not want this, they colluded to do away with him.

You once said soldiers could be recruited for a coup without their knowledge. How is that possible?

Yes, there are many instances. You might want to verify this from Gen. Buhari, he was not the initiator of that coup that brought him in as Head of State, it was Gen. Ibrahim Bako and Babangida that initiated it. But because they wanted a credible figure as a face, he was brought in. He did not know the genesis of that coup. He was not quite aware of the original idea behind the coup and that was why when he decided to make a change, he was forced to step aside. So, if this could happen to a whole Gen. Buhari, who was supposedly the leader of a coup, it shows how many soldiers can be brought in that way.

Does that mean overthrowing Shagari’s government was IBB’s idea?

It was the idea of late Gen. Bako and IBB. Buhari was only brought in because they needed a face with integrity.

Can you give other instances?

Gen. Yakubu Gowon was not part of the coup that brought him in. He was a decent man. Nigerians like to play what the Yoruba people call bojuboju; they bring a figure with integrity to cover up their real intention; the real intention of politicians in uniform who have found cheap party. Many elements of them are in our partisan politics today.

That means such heads of states were under the control of the coup plotters that installed them.

Obviously. And these people are still the reason why we are not allowed to have a proper census, they are still the ones ensuring that we don’t have a conference as well as a free and fair election because if you give the people their rights to choose who to governs them, you have freed them and these oligarchs don’t want that.

Could it be a defence in the military to say I wasn’t part of a coup, I was just brought in?

It couldn’t be a defence because at the point you know that it is a coup, you should do everything possible to resist it.

Even at the risk of taking your life?

That was what we did. At the point when we realised that they were going to perpetuate the military government in Nigeria, we took the risk.

Can we say this plan was an Hausa-Fulani agenda, since most of these military leaders are northerners?

We cannot reduce this thing to an issue of a peaceful Hausa-Fulani man or a peaceful Yoruba man or a peaceful Igbo man. I think we are above that. What we see is an interest of oligarchs, who think power and money controls and there are all sorts of people in that fold. For a long time, you may say one ethnic group has a preponderant membership of that group.

It was reported that the late Gideon Orkar wanted to excise northern Nigeria from the country. Was it part of the agenda?

The unsung hero, Gideon Orkar, was far from anybody who wanted to divide the country. He was calling all regions of the country to some conditionality that they have to meet, if they want us to coexist. It was because that was an era when certain people were saying that they were superior, and that power was their prerogative and that they had the monopoly of power.

Would that have been due to the ethnic coloration of previous coups?

Sure. It is sad that democrats are missing the issue that we were fighting against, which we still need to fight against. It is a situation where they take over power and give advantage to their people to the extent that today if we count the local governments we have in Kano and Jigawa which are states not up to Lagos in population, the local governments are up to three to five times the number of local government areas in Lagos. Lagos is a place, apart from the Niger Delta which gives us foreign exchange earner. Lagos contributes over 70 per cent of our non-oil revenue generation and the same Lagos gets less than what Kano, which produces less than two per cent, gets. This is why I must say Lagos State made a mistake, instead of relocating the problem where it lies; it is not about deporting Igbo beggars to Onitsha end of the Niger Bridge. Lagos should take the right steps legally or otherwise to assert the rights of the state which is being the owner of the Value Added Tax and the sales tax generated in Lagos. The things we fought against are still structurally within our polity. Today, you cannot pass a bill at the National Assembly, if two zones — North-East and North-West — do not agree. So, two zones can stop four zones — South-East, South-West, South-South and North-Central — from moving forward. The irony of this is that these zones are in the semi-desert areas that are usually less populated going by all empirical evidence. We have problems with our census figure; that is why they have all those constituencies and that is why they planned coups to perpetuate that.

Do you think the action failed because the northerners were not involved and because of the conditions given to them to be part of Nigeria?

First of all, our action and Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu’s action were the only actions that were not palace coup. The likes of Bako and IBB’s coup which brought in Buhari wer. The fact is that the government of Shagari was a government that the military was highly involved in because of the ethnic kinsmanship. There was a fight over contracts that broke the coup. It was an in-house thing. So, the coup was driven by people’s selfish interests and that is why I don’t call it a military coup, I call it a politicians-in-uniform coup. Nzeogwu’s action and our action were done by outsiders, who felt this cash-and-carry ruling and stealing would not be allowed to continue.

If the action had been successful, who would have been the head of state?

It would have been Maj. Saliba Mukoro. He was the initiator. They heard about me and they wanted some senior people to be part of the action. When they approached me, I didn’t accept immediately because I wasn’t the type that will go for a coup or any action. But when I heard the strength of the argument, and in line with my insight as to what was happening in government because I was a close aide to Babangida and Sani Abacha. It would have been immoral of me to report the young officers. I was torn in-between reporting these young, overzealous and selfless boys, who wanted certain issues solved and maitaining loyalty to the military government. People forget that it was because of the action that Delta State was created. And the system in Delta State today has fraudulently prevented one of the people who initiated it, Great Ogboru, to govern. People forget that Bayelsa State was created because of the action. And that’s why I still find it sad that till today, even with the President coming from Bayelsa, no Bayelsan government has honoured those boys who sacrificed their lives for the Niger Delta. I have said it over and over that these chaps deserve to be honoured. I think the Niger Deltans, President Jonathan and the Ijaw should take cue from the Yoruba and honour those boys. The majority of the boys in our action were Niger Deltans for obvious reasons.

Were you the only colonel in the action?

We were two lieutenant colonels. I was brought in by another lieutenant colonel. But that lieutenant colonel sold out and that was why there was a leakage and we had to rush. The person who recruited me had sold out.

Is he a Niger Deltan?

Yes. His name was Lt. Col. Patrick Oketa.

When you were pardoned, what was your feeling?

First of all, we were grateful to Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and Admiral Mike Akhigbe, who were the initiators of the pardon. These were two gentlemen who were never part of any coup. Power was just dumped on Abdulsalami and true to his character; he wasted no time in returning power to civillians. The system of returning power to civilians should have been better but because he didn’t want to stay a day longer, he left and this is a reflection of his character.

Do you still relate with your colleagues?

Sure, what we didn’t realise is that most of our colleagues who were travelling were very helpful to us, because they knew what we fought for. If our actions were not taken, you would never have had the chance of having an Igbo man as Chief of Army Staff. No Yoruba man would have had that chance either. Why do I say so? Some of us had insight as to a succession plan in the army for the next 50 years. You would never have had the likes of Gen. Martin Agwai being the Chief of Army Staff and Defence Staff, because he belongs to the northern Christian minority. The army, after General T.Y. Danjuma’s time became an army that was to be led by only an ethnic group. People forget that there is a linkage between our action and the chance that MKO Abiola was given for the election.

Now that we have Delta and Bayelsa states and we have the Ministry of Niger Delta and an Ijaw man is the head. Do you think these are enough to right the wrongs of the past?

Those issues are again the usual Nigerian way of dealing with things; rather than go for a holistic tactic. A fundamental thing essentially is to restore power. Once power is restored to the people it is left to them. All these things are just temporal measures. The fundamental issue is to return Nigeria to true federalism. This talk of diversifying our economy cannot happen if we do not have fiscal federalism. People forget that when we had proper federalism, the main foreign exchange for Nigeria was agriculture. So, we have to go back to that


http://www.punchng.com/feature/interview/ibb-not-buhari-overthrew-shagaris-govt-col-nyiam/

erinolu:


While this power tussle rages, the ignoble, uneducated, twisted minded individuals would be recruited and brainwashed to lunch out and fight for some Allah when behind the scene, it’s just power tussling and fight for ideological supremacy.


Na wa for Islam oo

Thousands of Nigerian Muslims hold pro-Morsi rally on August 24, 2013

Thousands of Muslims rallied peacefully in northern Nigeria on Saturday to demand the return of Egypt’s Islamist former president Mohamed Morsi, ousted by the military early last month.

Around 4,000 demonstrators carrying banners and placards chanted pro-Morsi songs and slogans outside a mosque in northern Nigeria’s biggest city, Kano, an AFP reporter witnessed. Organisers put the number of protesters at 5,000.

Egypt has been rocked by political unrest since Morsi’s ouster in a July 3 military coup after massive protests against him.

“We call for the immediate release of president Mohamed Morsi and all political prisoners being detained by the illegitimate Egyptian authorities,” protest leader Sheikh Abubakar Mujahid told reporters.

“Morsi must return to his position as president.”

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation of 160 million people, is evenly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

It is grappling with a four-year insurgency by Islamist group Boko Haram mainly in the country’s northeast.

The violence has claimed some 3,600 lives, including killings by security forces, which launched a military offensive in May to try to end the insurgency.
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See what we mean, Islam is just a political tool where the brainwashed are used to push an ideology. Do those used to stage this rally even understand what is going on POLITICALLY in Egypt. How does this relate to the Moslems ALONE in Nigeria.

Na wa for Islam ooo


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/thousands-of-nigerian-muslims-hold-pro-morsi-rally/

escobar07: I have actually thought about this a few times. oil rivers protectorate and other protectorates are 'not effectively' modern Nigeria

We know its not "MODERN" Nigeria, but its was still Nigeria, as the very same Protectorates are what made the Modern day Nigeria, the same government seating in Calabar were the same that moved to Lagos (The Brits)

Mind you between when the seat of government was moved from Calabar to Lagos (Calabar-1906 to Lagos-1914) took barely 8 years

Alexbond: mumu even if u no do history back drn in skul u suppose see 20naira by current affairs now! is beta u grap it now dat calabar was d first nigeria fct b4 lokoja,lagos n abuja.

No mind am, make we educate am small....

Calabar once served as the seat of Government of the Niger Coast protectorate, Southern protectorate and the oil River Protectorate from 1882- 1906 (effectively the Capital of modern day Nigeria) before the capital was moved to Lagos in 1914

0monnak0da: With the internet the way it is today.It should NOT be difficult to provide some REAL EVIDENCE that once upon a time Calabar was capital of NIgeria. We know that Nigeria was formed in 1914 so that is a good starting point. My proposition is a simple one
CALABAR MAY HAVE BEEN CAPITAL OF SOMEWHERE OR SOMETHING BUT THAT SOMETHING WAS NOT NIGERIA

Ignorance is a show of shame especially when such a one displays it arrogantly

ikenga67: Not surprising. The Brotherhood's brand of political islam is grassroot populism. Nothing could be more threatening to the medieval people that run Saudi Arabia than that. They will seek to destroy it the sme way they succeeded in destroying the socialist (Baathist) movement in the Arab world. And as against the socialists, they will line up with the same allies - the US and Isreal.

And now Al-Qaeda and Shabab in Sudan/Somalia, two very notorious Jihadist Islamist group are calling on the Moslem brotherhood to take up arms and follow their pattern against present day Egypt and of course their age old enemies the Americans.

While this power tussle rages, the ignoble, uneducated, twisted minded individuals would be recruited and brainwashed to lunch out and fight for some Allah when behind the scene, it’s just power tussling and fight for ideological supremacy.

Did you observe how much dollars Saudi is budgeting to support the current Egyptian government to kill off the Moslem brotherhood and keep them silent. Pure politics and power control in the Arab enclave

And the brainwashed who thinks they are fighting for Allah (and not knowing what is happening behind the scene) later on becomes the MENANCE that will be difficult to control as it is in Pakistan, Sudan, Mali, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Chad, Lebanon, Algeria, etc, etc

Na wa for Islam oo

Hmmmm....it's becoming obvious Islam is a political tool/ideology. The Saudis fear the brand of Islam the Moslem Brotherhood is about to unleash on the Arab world may take dominance from them.

While the West is ambivalent about the crisis in Egypt - critical of the Egyptian generals, but reluctant to cut ties with them - some of its key allies in the Middle East suffer no such inhibitions.

Sensing a policy vacuum left by the West, they are rushing to fill it.

Saudi Arabia in particular is positioning itself as the main supporter of the military-backed regime in Cairo. In a calculated snub to Washington, the Saudi princes have declared that if the Americans cut aid, they will increase it.

This comes hard on the heels of the $12bn (£7.5bn) they pledged - with two of their Gulf allies, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates - in the immediate aftermath of the coup which overthrew President Mohammed Morsi in July.

Where the West sees a dilemma, the Saudis see an opportunity - a chance to weaken and even destroy their regional enemy, the Muslim Brotherhood.

From fear to paranoia

The situation is not without irony.

For decades Saudi Arabia used its petrodollar wealth to fund the Brotherhood and other Islamist movements around the world. But in recent years Saudi rulers have increasingly seen Islamism as a threat to themselves and their friends.

This fear turned to paranoia when one of their key allies, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, was overthrown in 2011.

In Saudi eyes, the Obama administration had not just ditched a loyal friend, it had delivered Egypt into the clutches of the Islamists.

The nightmare of many Saudis and other Gulf Arabs was that, having conquered much of North Africa, Islamism would take over their countries, too.

As conspiracy theories go, it is scarcely persuasive.

But it helps explain the lavishness of Saudi Arabia's chequebook diplomacy - and the motives behind the arrest of dozens of Islamists in the UAE, for allegedly plotting to subvert the state.

Bucking the trend

Two regional states have taken the opposite tack. Since the start of the Arab Spring, Turkey and Qatar have backed Islamist movements in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere.

For them, the unseating of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was a shock and a setback. A foreign policy that had looked smart only a year ago now looks distinctly risky.

They are left as cheerleaders for a movement that is bruised and defensive.

Similarly, for the Islamists who lead the government in Tunis, the toppling of President Morsi was nothing short of a disaster. They have lost a key ally, at a time when the political consensus in their own country is under great strain.


Israel's priority is a regime which will put pressure on Hamas - so it favours the army generals rather than Mohammed Morsi
Meanwhile, if the Egyptian generals can count on the oil-rich Arabs, they enjoy support of a different kind - and for rather different reasons - from Israel.

The Israelis look at Egypt through the narrow prism of their security concerns. In a volatile region, they want a regime in Cairo that will put the maximum pressure on Hamas, the Islamist group governing Gaza - and that will uphold Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

They are accordingly far more comfortable with a regime dominated by the generals than one led by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Revealingly, when a Republican senator in Washington called for US military aid to Egypt to be cut off in response to the coup, the pro-Israel lobby swung into action to contradict him


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23775816

Alore:

Looks like all these statistics are all mixed up, the truth and not so true! For instance, Ikom-Mfom road was awarded August 2009 and was due to be completed in 24 months. Why are they claiming as if it is the present government that awarded and completed it within the last 2 years? Same with Abakaliki-Mbok.

http://www.rsdt.gov.ng/index.php/media-centre/picture-gallery/86-rsdt

Very true..The Abakiliki Mbok road work kicked off before 2010, why should this present government take credit for it