Akan A1:

[size=8pt]Akan[/size] is the largest, greatest and most dominant ethnic group 2 ever walk the surface of the earth, Period! I, Akan will 1 day become a gr8 nation,

Do not get ahead of yourself? Just one of the major ethnic groups either Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba are more than the entire population of Ghana. Simply ONE of our groups. That is not including the small ethnicities that reside in Nigeria.

I really do not think this thread is meant to discuss Igbo political though or egalitarianism.

All I should say there is reason why the Ndigbo say "IGBO ENWE EZE."

Meaning Igbos have no king.

Well the truth is, Igbos are not lemmings who follow someone just because he is seen as our "leader." Nnamdi Azikiwe was a political leader who was Igbo, but this does not mean all Igbos were in support of him. People like my grandfather disliked Nnamdi Azikiwe for what he did to Eyo Ita.

The same goes for Ojukwu who commands the respect of most Igbos, but as you can see, even though APGA is seen as Ojukwu's party, they are still having trouble attracting Igbos to the party platform.

Who cares who we voted for in the past? I am only interested and who we shall be voting for in the future. Hopefully, our destiny lies with APGA.

And hopefully we can bring Rivers State under the fold after Amaechi leaves office.

odumchi,

I disagree with you my brother concerning Ghanaian society. I lived in Ghana for 4 years of my life and I understand the dynamics of the country. You say the North is Hausa? Northern Ghana is not Hausa, but Dagomba, Dagari, Mamprusi and many others. They are not Hausa! However, the people of that region do speak a dialect of Hausa, because Hausa is a lingua franca throughout West Africa.

You are right about the Akan people though. Never make the mistake of calling a Asante man a Fante. However, they are united through their language. I would say it is like Yoruba or Igbo. It is more like Delta Igbo and an Ikwerre. Both speak Igbo, but have different cultures.

And Ghana's politics is quite civil. The main parties are NPP, which is seen as an Asante party and NDC, in which the Ewe people support. The people who are the swing vote are normally the Fante who sometimes support NPP and other times support NDC.

The country has a THRIVING democracy. The same cannot be said of Nigeria.

Thank you Nairaland's economist on discussing why currency is a poor way of looking at a nation's economy. I lived in Ghana, when they changed from the Old Cedi to the new Cedi and their economy wasn't changing much.

Maybe we should cut off their oil supplies and see how they feel about that.

I hate how they try to push their values on us.

Africa does not need their aid. The continent is the wealthiest in terms of natural resources. Why should we need aid from a resource poor continent?

Maybe we should start nationalizing our industries and see who will feel the pain more! 

Enough is enough with these Western cultural pressures!

They are trying to push their social norms on us!

Who needs their aid anyway?

Some of my kinsmen are in Zimbabwe and all they do is talk about the women. But they say they have to be careful since the AIDS rate is so high. 

paraphase:

1 USD =1.5 GHANIAN CEDI


1 GHANAIAN CEDI = 103 NAIRA (You can google it for confirmation)

One naira used to be one million Ghanian Cedis but now, One Ghanian Cedi is one trillion Naira.Ghana has completely met Nigeira on the race track and also overtook her.Congrats to all the PDP voters

Even though I believe Ghana is doing well, I do not think you should compare currency, which is not an accurate way of seeing how well their economy is doing.

The Ghanaians just revalued their currency. Simply dropped a few of their zeros. It is an old trick, but it means nothing. The Old Ghana Cedi is more accurate.

Zimbabwe girls have big nyansh!

I love Shona women. . .

I have no problem with this. We invest in their countries, why not allow them to invest in our own?

ezeagu:

Yeah, but 'diversity' and 'unity' is the key just like in Nigeria. You need millions of acres of land and even more languages to make a country the 'giant of Africa'. You cannot become developed if you are not 'diverse' and if you do not have as much land and people.

[size=14pt]'Look at America!'[/size]

I love the sarcasm.

My response would be to look at Europe! Most Europeans countries are dominated by ONE ethnic group.

Why is this in the Politics section? Should this not be in the crime section?

And why does it matter for Nigerian? Isn't this an Irish-American gangster?

These touts in Lagos are a MAJOR problem. How can a city be considered world class when you have these Area boys running around?

ekt_bear:

While certainly people who produce stuff are respected more by me than those who don't, at the end of the day when it comes time to pay bills, a lazy man who has a gold mine or oil well on his property is just as good as the intelligent man who uses his brains to generate wealth (well, not quite, but close enough.)

So yes, Bayelsa doesn't produce anything. But sometimes being lucky enough to have dinosaurs die on your patch of land (or however else oil was formed) is better than being industrious, creative, etc

But relying on a resource that doesn't last forever is not very smart. Becuase once that resource is used up, what can you fall back on. The place that is known for production will always do better than the places they rely on resources. Europe does not have much resources, but those countries focused on production and look where it led them.

Sagamite:

No.

Foreign companies produce it and pay Bayelsa.

Now tell me, what does Bayelsa produce?

Trick question for those who do not understand what you are saying.  

In terms of production, we can discuss the aquaculture production if you would like.

Ghana is doing well, because it is dominated by one group and that Akan people. That includes the Ashanti, Fante, Akyem, Denkyira, Kwahu etc. Even though they view themselves as separate groups, they are united by their indigenous language of Twi.

This dominance of the Akan people can be seen in their language, in which Northern Ghanaians such as the Hausa and Dagomba speak Twi, the Ewe in the Volta region speak Twi, even the Ga people of Accra speak Twi.

It also helps that Ghanaians is a small country and easy to manage.

No one is saying that Fashola is not working, because he is. I simply think he is overrated. Lagos continues to have many problems.

It would seem that Anambra APGA needs to get its act together. I will place my hope in Okorocha who has a history of philanthropy and caring about the people. Hopefully, this can translate into meaningful development in Imo state. We in Abia are watching.

I lived in Ghana for four years, when my father was opening up that market to his business, I can tell you that I did not face any hostility being a Nigerian in that country. Many of my friends are Ghanaians and they treated me like family.

Ghanaians do not hate all Nigerians. They dislike impoverished Nigerians who come to their country daily. Ghanaians do not have any problems with wealthy Nigerians who invest in the country. My father is one of those investors who have friends within their government.

Ghana will do well with their own. People do not understand that Jerry Rawlings cleaned . Even though he was brutal, the man still changed Ghana.

Plus it also helps that Ghana is dominated by one indigenous language group, which is Twi. The Akans make up a majority of the country, even though Akan groups like to act like they are an ethnicity. Make no mistake in calling a Fante man an Asante and you will know true ANGER.  

Akwaaba my fellow Nigerians!

ezeagu:

But they're not a 'giant of Africa' with thousands of square miles of land and billions of tiny, 'united' ethnic groups. This is impossible. A country with only one dominant nation, the Akan?

It shows that even a small nation can become great.

Andre Uweh:

The Ekiti womem may protest half unclothed to stop this menace in their state. It has happened before as in the photograph here.

bashr4:

supported ,such rubbish must stop. where is ileki idi its time to protest half unclothed again

If Ileke-Idi is a part of this, I would like to see this protest personally!

pleep:

Are akwa ibom & cross rivers state technically in the Niger delta?

Technically they aren't.

Only Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa is the true Niger Delta.

Ghana GDP Growth Accelerates to 23% 


,  as Oil Production Starts

June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Ghana's economic growth accelerated to an annual 23 percent in the first quarter as the West African nation began producing oil for export, the country's statistics agency said.

Growth compared with 9.5 percent in the fourth quarter, Grace Bediako, head of the Ghana Statistical Service, told reporters in the capital, Accra, today.

Expansion was led by a 162 percent jump in mining and quarrying, which includes the oil industry, while agriculture grew 39.2 percent. Ghana began production of oil from its offshore Jubilee field in December. Output is about 70,000 barrels a day and may climb to 120,000 next month, according to the field's operator, London-based Tullow Oil Plc.

"Base effects imply that industry will continue to show strong year-on-year growth from the second quarter to the fourth," Yvonne Mhango, a sub-Saharan Africa economist at Renaissance Capital, said in an e-mailed note today.

Ghana's currency, the cedi, gained 0.1 percent to trade at 1.5165 per dollar by 1:14 p.m. in Accra.

Gross domestic product expanded 7.7 percent last year, compared with growth of 4 percent in 2009, the statistical agency said May 11.

Faster growth does not pose a threat to the Bank of Ghana's monetary policy, Sampson Akligoh, an economist at Accra-based Databank Financial Services Ltd., said in an e-mailed note yesterday.

"Monetary policy will remain expansionary in line with inflationary expectations," Akligoh said.

The inflation rate fell for a third month in May, reaching 8.9 percent, the statistical service said June 15. The central bank cut its key lending rate to 13 percent from 13.5 percent last month, after leaving it unchanged for three consecutive meetings.

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=211821

I do not think Jonathan on the Nigerian forces can handle Boko Haram.

Sanusi is scaring away investors. People who truly understand markets such as myself should know that international investors are afraid of such talk!

This is what happens when you give them an inch and now they are taking a yard.

"ZIK OF AFRICA"
THE EARLY YEARS

"Zik was one of the most practical, most pragmatic people that I knew during my political life. Whenever he was in London, I was always very, very happy to welcome him to my residence at 8 Aylestone Avenue, Brontesbury Park, for our group discussions about our individual and collective fight for independence and self rule. Zik would listen quietly as so-and-so said this-and-that and as arguments and discussions would stray from reality. When Zik finally spoke in his careful, measured and logical way, it would refocus our discussions to the more practical and achievable objectives.

I had great admiration for his intellect, his logic and most of all, his intense love for his Motherland, Nigeria."

-Ngwazi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda
Founding President of Malawi



There is a profound feeling of humility and inadequacy that comes over me whenever I begin to write about one of the great indigenous men and women of Africa. No matter how well I think I may have known them, personally or through the written word, I am very aware of their complexity as people with feet in two worlds, the contemporary and the traditional. As a non-African friend of Africa, I realized years ago that I have been and am privileged to have been allowed only rather superficial glimpses of their complexity and the elements that made them great. No where is that more apparent to me than attempting to write about the incredible life of the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the great "Zik of Africa", first President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe was born on 16 November 1904 in Zunguru, Northern Nigeria, to Onitsha Ibo parents. At a very early age, he was exposed to the inequities of colonialism (a realization that was to cause him to eventually drop his anglicized first name), when his father, Obed-Edom Chukwaemeka Azikiwe, a civilian clerk for a British army regiment, was forced to leave his job because of discrimination. The memory of this sorrowful event was to have a continuing major influence on his political attitudes and actions in the years to come.

Like most of the African greats, young Nnamdi had an insatiable quest for knowledge, and the rural life of turn-of-the-century Zungura provided only the barest minimum of educational opportunity. In his early years, he spoke only the Hausa language of the north but at the age of eight, he was sent to Onitsha to live with his paternal grandparents where, under their determined tutelage, he became fluent in the Ibo and Yoruba languages and eventually, English. His earliest formal schooling began at the Roman Catholic and Church Missionary Society’s Anglican missions at Onitsha where he excelled both in academics and sports. Outgrowing Onitsha’s academic capabilities, Nnamdi moved on to the Wesleyan Boys High School in Lagos and then again to the Hope Waddell Training Institute in Calabar, an historic place to which he would return years later under much different circumstances.

Once again, in common with his fellow African greats, schooling was insufficient to fuel his towering intellect. He read voraciously. He devoured the philosophy of Marcus Garvey and the writings of W. E. B. DuBois. He followed very closely the career of The Great Aggrey of the Gold Coast (Great Epic Books Newsletter archive: May, June, July, 1998) . The "Black Zionism" of Garvey intrigued him. DuBois’ THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK, Chicago, A. C. McClurg, 1904, shocked him and The Great Aggrey inspired him. He was to tell me many years later that the fortuitous finding and reading of an obscure 1903 DuBois publication, POSSIBILITIES OF THE NEGRO; THE ADVANCE GUARD OF RACE, was to be an everlasting and enormous influence on his business and political life.

Azikiwe was also carefully tutored in the great customs and traditions of his Ibo people and of the Nigerian nation. He quickly recognized the dichotomy of the two worlds in which he was part; that of the contemporary educated African and of the future custodian of venerable and vital tribal traditions and national culture. He vowed never to sacrifice one for the other and he remained ever-faithful to that vow.

Brief unfulfilling civil service employment followed secondary school. Determined to continue his education, Azikiwe traveled the well-worn path to the United States. In 1925, at age 21, he enrolled at Storer College at infamous Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, where he quickly acquired the nickname "Zik", by which he was to be known for the rest of his life. He spent one year at Storer, also enrolling in an intensive correspondence course in American Law and Procedures through LaSalle Law School of Chicago. He excelled in both.

America of the 1920’s, while offering Zik obvious opportunities, was oftentimes disillusioning, and indeed hostile, to the young Nigerian. Poverty stricken, depressed and homesick for Africa, and deeply affected by racial taunts, he went from job to job under the name of "Ben Zik", trying to earn enough to continue with his education. In 1926, he matriculated to Howard University in Washington, D.C. where a hoped for job fell through causing even greater financial strain. Finally, in early 1927, an offer of a steady on-campus job at Lincoln University enabled him to complete his undergraduate degree in Political Science. On to Columbia University and a part-time teaching assistantship, allowing him to obtain a certificate in journalism while editing the COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SUMMER SESSIONS TIMES (1930), his first foray into the publishing world. In 1930, Zik was back at Lincoln University where he was awarded an M.A. in Political Science with honors and wrote and published his first book, LIBERIA IN WORLD POLITICS, self, 1931. Finally, in 1932, he traveled on to the University of Pennsylvania on a scholarship where he earned an M. Sc. With honors in Anthropology, coming to the attention of the great Professor Bronislaw Malinowski of London University.

After graduation in the late spring of 1934, Zik journeyed back to Africa, passing up Malinowski’s offer of Doctoral pursuits at London University in favor of beginning his efforts on behalf of Africa. While in transit in the Gold Coast, Zik met the already well known trade unionist and newspaperman, I. T. Wallace-Johnson of Sierra Leone. Wallace-Johnson offered Zik his first professional employment as editor of the AFRICAN MORNING POST, an Accra newspaper which he accepted and worked diligently at for three years, narrowly escaping prison after being arrested for publishing a "treasonous" article, a charge that was fortunately overturned on appeal.

In February, 1937, Zik finally returned to Nigeria filled with a passion to somehow be of great influence in the future of his homeland. He was very well educated. He had read broadly, absorbing the spectrum of politic philosophies, embracing everything from the days of ancient Greece to the current state of world political dogma. He had succeeded as a journalist, tasting Britain’s wrath when their colonial system was challenged. He was keen to pursue business and commercial interests. Physically, he was an imposing figure in any crowd. Zik was more than six feet tall, broad shouldered and of very pleasant countenance. He possessed a courtly, almost "old world" charm. When he spoke, it was in a clear, mellifluous voice that at once pronounced the speaker’s humility and authority. His voice and delivery were described as "seductive, eloquent, persuasive and spell-binding".

Zik, though still considered young at 33, living in a land where wisdom is equated with age, was clearly a very gifted man, destined to figure prominently in colonial Nigeria’s future. He knew it. His fellow Nigerians knew it and, watching uneasily, the British colonists and authorities also knew it. Just what his role and impact was is the subject for December’s Great Epic’s Newsletter "Zik of Africa, The Business and Political Years".

http://www.onlinenigeria.com/people/ad.asp?blurb=66

What are you talking about alj_harem?

Everyone across Africa has heard of Nnamdi Azikiwe. . . Not Awolowo who is seen as a tribal champion.

Nigerians should be thanking Nnamdi Azikiwe for having FREEDOM from Great Britain. No one in Nigeria comes close to Nnamdi Azikiwe in terms of an elder statesman that is widely respected.

He was a true NATIONALIST and Pan-Africanist.

The way you hear some people on Nairaland discuss Fashola, you would think he is some messiah. At least some people know the truth.