₦airaland Forum

Kobojunkie:
That is a bold faced lie !

Prove it Kobowhore!!! 

Even in Alaigbo, most of the beggars are Hausa or those Moroccans.

We Igbos are too proud to beg. It is not in our culture.

^^^^^^^

At least you will never see an Igbo beggar. We are better than that and it is beneath us to beg another man for money.

But that is not beneath you Yorubas and the Hausa. Whenever I am in Lagos, I have to give a few Naira to your little Yoruba Street Urchins.

ezeagu:
Aro gave the British an excuse to conquer them and that was the continuation of slavery.

Why would we get rid of our revenue? Even if we stopped, they would have found another excuse to conquer us. A weak Igbo clan like the Ngwa would have ran to the British for protection and that would cause us to lose our sovereignty as well.

SEFAGO:
^ Retard - You are jealous too much. Where is teh gibo equivalent of Ogunlesi

By David J. Lynch, USA TODAY
HOUSTON — Whatever mental image is conjured up by the words "Texas oilman," it's safe to say that Kase Lawal isn't it.
A devout Muslim, Lawal, 52, doesn't drink or smoke. The Nigerian-born executive exudes an unflappable calm whether discussing racism in America, spiraling political violence in his homeland or the intricacies of the oil business.

J.R. Ewing, he's not.

Yet, CAMAC International, the privately held independent oil and gas company Lawal founded two decades ago, today boasts $1.5 billion in annual revenue, 300 employees and offices on three continents.

Teaming with some of the biggest names in the global oil business, Lawal has prospered by zeroing in on difficult environments, including Nigeria, where militants in recent months intensified their attacks on oil facilities and kidnapped foreign workers, and his next objective, Venezuela, home to anti-American President Hugo Chavez.

"I've been very lucky in the partnerships I've been involved in. … More importantly, it has been the blessing of God," Lawal says.

Lawal's unlikely path from Ibadan, a city of 3.8 million people in western Nigeria, to success as an energy-industry entrepreneur illustrates the unsung role of foreign-born talent in the USA's innovation-era economy. More than 25% of the engineering and technology companies launched in the decade ending 2005 were started by foreign-born executives, according to a new Duke University study.

Lawal's tale is also a reminder that a knack for adjusting on the fly is as essential for would-be business mavens as following a fixed blueprint.

Lawal first came to this country as a college student in 1972, his imagination fired by John Wayne movies and the civil rights struggle then unfolding in the United States. His goal at the time was utterly pedestrian: a job that would leave time for family life and ultimately provide a decent pension.

Starting in business

But while studying for an MBA, Lawal became intrigued by the possibility of helming his own operation. Then, on a long-haul airplane flight from Africa to Europe, he happened to sit next to a university professor from Cameroon, Nigeria's neighbor, who was looking for someone to supply American tobacco for a new cigarette factory.

Returning to Houston, Lawal, then a research chemist for Dresser Industries, spent months researching the tobacco business in his spare time. Finally, he sent price quotes to the professor, who gave the go-ahead for a purchase.

That was the good news. "The bad news was, I didn't know how to buy tobacco. I don't have money or financing," Lawal says in an interview on the 22nd floor of an office tower in Houston's tony Galleria neighborhood.

That didn't stop him. Lawal found a tobacco supplier in Springfield, Mo., who agreed to extend credit. Over a traditional Ozarks dinner of chicken-fried steak slathered with thick gravy, Lawal sealed the deal that launched the Cameroon-American Company (CAMAC).

For four years, he concentrated on securing financing from the government's Export-Import Bank and hiring commodities experts who knew everything Lawal didn't about his new industry.

"The management team — that was the key partnership," Lawal says. "It's the bedrock of our organization."

A turning point for the young company came in 1989, when Rilwanu Lukman, then foreign minister of Nigeria who later became secretary general of the oil producers' cartel OPEC, visited Houston. At a Rotary Club meeting, Lukman told him the Nigerian government wanted to spur development of a local energy industry. With his knowledge of Nigeria and his Houston address, Lawal was ideally positioned to attract major oil companies, Lawal says Lukman told him.

Lawal approached 19 major oil companies in the USA and Europe, looking for partners. But with West Africa only beginning to appear on oil industry maps, unsolicited proposals from an unknown commodities salesman with no oil patch experience elicited predictable responses. "They all laughed at us," he recalls.

Lawal knew he had to get beyond cold calls. To make contacts, he borrowed a friend's membership card and began loitering around a country club frequented by golf-playing oilmen. He eventually met a senior vice president at Conoco, who put him in touch with the firm's CEO, Dino Nicandros.

Conoco deal key

In the 1970s, Conoco had been burned by a West African middleman who had promised more than he could deliver, so Nicandros was wary. But after thoroughly vetting Lawal, even checking him out with the local police department, Nicandros dispatched a team to investigate the Nigerian program. In 1991, Conoco and CAMAC agreed to jointly operate and share production from any Nigerian discoveries. "It was perhaps the turning point in the life of this organization," Lawal says.

CAMAC later added as partners on other projects British Petroleum, Eni/Agip and the Norwegian state-owned oil company, Statoil. Lawal expanded into Colombia and has plans to add Venezuela, though Nigeria remains the core of the business. The company expects to begin drilling its latest well there within a week, says Joseph Alex Loftus, executive vice president.

The oil majors bring technical expertise and deep financial pockets. CAMAC brings political contacts, local market knowledge and some cash to these deals. "This little company actually has foreign experience producing oil in Nigeria, which is different than just serving as a local partner," says Monica Enfield, an analyst for the consultancy PFC Energy.

Over the years, CAMAC's revenues have climbed from $114 million in 1999 to $1.5 billion today. In November, CAMAC ranked 272nd on Forbes' list of the top privately held companies in the USA.

For Lawal, CAMAC's success has translated into both wealth and stature. He and his wife, Eileen, live in a 14-room, 15,264-square-foot house appraised at $3.5 million. The "me" wall in his conference room features photographs of Lawal with former president Bill Clinton, whom he accompanied on a 1998 trip to Africa, and flanked by former president George Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush. In 1999, Olusegun Obasanjo spent two hours in Lawal's office shortly before returning to Nigeria to contest democratic presidential elections, which he won.

"(Lawal) has the ability to open doors that have been shut for a very long time," says state Sen. Rodney Ellis, who attended the meeting. "He's a shrewd businessman."

Today, Lawal delegates the day-to-day running of CAMAC while he concentrates on public service work and a new commercial venture. Though he plays down his experience with racism as not overly "injurious," Lawal acknowledges still-vivid memories of the trouble he had securing financing as a minority-owned start-up. In 2005, he acquired Unity National Bank, the only black-owned bank in Texas, and is relaunching it as a financial institution catering to minority-owned businesses.

What keeps him going? "I'm always, always very scared and afraid of failure," he says. "There's no complacency here. You cannot — because the moment you have that sense, you've lost it."

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2007-01-08-entre-lawal_x.htm



Seems like the man did have a connection with people in the government and that is how he made much of his money.

And what about this Igbo group that defeated the Fulani?  

I never heard of this war, nor have I heard of the Fulani getting past the Tiv, Igala or Idoma in order to make an inroad in the dark forest of Igboland.

sjeezy8:
quick question why does the Aro sign have a european Sword Gun and Crown on its flag? ahahahah lfmao yehhhhh

^^^^^^^^^


The Aro just like the power Asante Empire used European weapons for our conquest of our neighbors. Unfortunately, we sold slaves to the Europeans, but with the end of the slave trade, the British considered us a threat so they defeated us in battle.

ChinenyeN:
Deede, it is beyond Facebook.

EzeUche, you keep making those comments about Aro incursions into Ngwa, and now I'm almost completely certain that you don't really know the history between Ngwa and Aro.

'

Ngwa boy, I feel you do not know much about the Aro raids that sent shockwaves throughout all of Igboland.

Do not act like Ngwaland did not feel the pinch of the Aro raids. I would hear stories about forefathers raiding Ngwa settlements near Umuahia for slaves.

Udezue, let the Ngwa declare war on us!   Lets separate the men from the boys.

006:
Hahaha, do you think Aros could have dominated?
Remember that Akabe people stopped the rampaging Fulanis talk less of Aros. Common Ngwas stopped you folks and you're still talking.  

Yes we would have dominated the entire East. Once we consolidated our rule over the Igbo and Ibibio, we would have struck at the Benin Empire and then finish off the crumbling Oyo Empire.  

And you think the Fulani are tougher than the Aro?    Fulani horsemen could not penetrate the Eastern forest so of course they would lose. We Aro excelled in jungle warfare with our Ohafia allies.

^^^^^^^^

I'll be happy to be your friend Ngwa boy. Maybe I can civilize you to Aro ways and you spread that among your people.

^^^^^^

At least our politicians are not killing each other in the do or die politics that the Yoruba play. Let them focus on the mundane.

Kobojunkie, were you feeling left out?  I know how my people can be 'clannish'

ChinenyeN:
I have a hard time believing it is out of concern, EzeUche. You're not one I take seriously, because you play a lot with your words. You don't joke enough though for me to ignore your comments.

Aba would be an even bigger cesspit if it wasn't for Igbos from all across Igboland trying to civilize the Bush Ngwa, Like I said, you Ngwa are weak and insecure.

Sorry if your culture does not have a rich history unlike the Aro or Ohafia.

Kobojunkie:
_{Ok . . . this does not work for me . . . . better stoke the fire}

Arochukwu people are rats !!! WOOHOOO


roflmao  . . .

We rats would have controlled all of Alaigbo if those daaammn oyibos did not end our reign over the East! We held sway not just over some clans of Igbos, but also the Ibibio.

The Ngwa stopped our advance once, but we would have eventually subdued those weak people.

ChinenyeN:
Who said anything about being special? Don't turn the exhibition of my loyalties into something they aren't. No where did I claim, or even insinuate that the Ngwa were special.

Do you deny the fact that Ngwaland is plagued with criminality?  I will go as far as saying that Ngwaland is bringing down Abia State. It is out of concern for Aba, that we the enlightened people of Abia do not allow the creation of the new state knowing that Ngwaland will become even more violent. 

And ChinenyeN . . . Your signature irritates me! Ngwa this and Ngwa that.

^^^^^^^

Bla bla bla! The Ngwa are not that special though. Am happy with Ngwa babes from Aba!

Dey love d Aro swag!

We must solve the crime problem in Ngwaland! 

I always say that every Igbo criminal caught is most likely from Ngwaland. When will they become enlightened like the good people of Arochukwu?

This Kobo girl use of "Ibo" makes me very angry. Total disrespect. We Igbos should ignore the wench whenever she uses "Ibo"

[quote author=onye_ngbu link=topic=445416.msg6067659#msg6067659 date=1274380441]if it ever actually comes to splitting of Nigeria, it will b best to leave them to decide on that one.[/quote]Frankly, I could care less about what the Ijaw choose. If they want their own nation, then so be it. But I refuse to have a landlocked Igboland! Never in a million of years. Especially when our boundary is just miles to the sea.

However, I doubt that would ever happen. Just like Donald Duke when he was gov was requesting for Igbo businessmen to invest in Calabar, we will never be landlocked due to the need of the other minorities for our business acumen. The Ijaws cannot survive on oil alone.

ezeagu:
But the Ijaw are the true South-South and a true nation, do they not also deserve the same position of independence for themselves? After all the Ijaw are not Igbo and their lands are quite significant.

Ijawland is way too small to be considered a nation. Just divide it up with the East and the Midwest then that would solve the problem.

A nation filled up with only Ijaws would fail. Their nation would not progress due to their laziness. They need Igbos in control to lead them in the right direction.

sjeezy8:
Theres some Igbos who already know the that Majority of Eastern Ijaw, Ogoni and Efik people will want their own republic or One Nigeria and not Biafra.

I agree with you about the Eastern Ijaw and Ogoni but not the Efik people. I know these people very well, and they fought for Biafra in large numbers. These people out of all the minorities of the East were the Igbos true allies in our time of need.

Now the Ogoni will always fear Igbo domination but you see that the Igbo did not come to their rescue when their champion was killed by Abacha. And no one trust the Ijaw.

ChinenyeN:
You denying them of an autonomous region of their own, while you fight for an autonomous region for yourself.

Ngwa man, you are starting to be a thorn in my side as well.

South-South is another way of dividing the former Eastern Region. They were not clamoring for this back in the good ol days

ChinenyeN:
Hypocritical, don't you think?

How so? This South-South issue is starting to become a thorn in the Igbos side. It really is.

^^^^^^

And these people call the Igbo tribalist. We do not support our corrupt people and we throw them away. But the other tribes do not do this.

I hate the fact that my people like to brag about speaking another man's language. It is quite sickening.

Anyway, I am in support of going back to the regional framework. North, East, West and Midwest. I'll be daaaammmnnn if someone creates a South-South region! 

Confused people of the fictional South-South, you will never get your nation or region!

South Africa has its own problem. Especially with those HIV infected men who are despoiling young children in their belief of finding a cure for the disease.

Or why do South African men love to despoil their women? It just doesn't make sense. The country has the highest despoil rate other than the Congo in the entire world.

Or how about the Boers are continuing to push around Africans in their own land. The Zulus, Xhosa and other groups still haven't pushed those invaders out of their country. hehehe 

Whenever politicians go to Dubai, it is steal money. Like someone previously stated, they probably started stealing money.

Even our politicians are drug pushers!!!

This nation is wicked o!

Why do we have to have a nation with these people? Come on southerners, they are dragging our nation behind. Let us leave them to their own devices!!!