chino11:



Whether you accept the facts on the ground or not the truth will continue to be seen. Where are the industries in Aba?? Nnewi has better road network than the whole of Abia state. Anambra is the only state in Nigeria that has three cities that can pass for state capital (Awka, Onitsha and Nnewi). Have you forgotton that recently due to insecurity in Abia state all the banks shut down and there was major movement of people from that town even up till now. Listen i'm an Igboman but am not proud of Aba for anything. Its a disgusting place. Also recently armed men stormed MTN office and killed all their staff. It was in Aba that three journalists where kidnaped. Listen my friend Aba has been in the news for very dirty and bad news. I dont want to compare Onitsha with Aba because it will be too unfair, because Onitsha will be too much for Aba ngwa. It will be like comparing New York and Nairobi. That is why I blv I can do it justice by using Nnewi. Aba is so dirty that motor part dealers are trading on the enugu-ph exp road. Its alwys an eye-saw passing thru Aba.

That Aba has been in the news for all the wrong reasons does not mean that Nnewi, which is rural compared with Aba is now more industrialised than Aba unless you are implying that all the industries relocated from Aba to Nnewi during the kidnap crises. I asked, how many roads do you have in Nnewi talk less of good ones? Apart from Nkwo Nnewi, which other markets do you have ?

I just pointed out where you would find the industries in Aba including those that are quoted on the stock exchange, but I will leave you to wallow in your ignorance.

Regarding the selling of spare parts along the express way, do you realise that Alaoji spare parts market abuts the express way ? I guess you are not aware. Apart from that, is there anywhere in Nigeria that you wont find roadside trading ?

Talking about filth, Onitsha is no better than Aba and I would advise my Anambra brothers to pay more attention to town planning and stop building in a disorganised manner and blocking drainages. You can accuse Aba of anything but you can't accuse it of narrow crooked roads and buildings that are out of line. If you doubt me, take a look at the aerial view of Aba, Onitsha and Nnewi and compare.

Anambra may have a bigger economy than Abia (verification needed), but Aba's economy is at least 4 times the economy of Nnewi.

I applaud the Nnewians for their efforts, even as most of their industries are indigenous, but to compare to Aba which has had regional, state, indigenous and multinational inputs would be laughable.

chino11:


Lets not wash the dirty linen of Abia state in the alter of NL. Leave that matter, we all know that Abia state has nothing that make any economic sense to compare to Anambra state. Industries in Nnewi alone can over run the entire Abia state. So lets not go there. The economy of Nnewi is far bigger than the economy of Abia state put together. What industry are their in Abia state, ? Is it the bad roads in Aba, the dirty environments all over. Which investor will go to such unsecure places like Aba and Umuahia. Abia state is a disgrace to Igboland.

You simply do not know what you are saying. You talk about bad roads scaring away investors; true that, but does Nnewi have better roads than Aba and how many roads do you have in Nnewi by the way?

You also talk about insecurity scaring away investors; true as well, but was it not just in the last one year that the insecurity in Aba reached an alarming proportion or do you think that the industries already in existence all packed up and left ? Do you realise that three Chinese workers were kidnapped and one lost his life in Nnewi when Innoson started the construction of his auto plant and that incident nearly destroyed his investment?

How big is nnewi  compared with Aba ? Do you realise that most activities in Aba are either commercial and industrial ? Do you also realise that there are multi nationals in Aba ? How many are there in Nnewi ? How many markets do you have in Nnewi and how many small scale(backyard) and large scale industries do you have in Nnewi ?

Apart from the industrial layout in Aba central, which is fully subscribed, you have industries littered every where in Aba. Starting from toll gate (Enugu -PH express), which is part of metropolitan Aba, you would see big industries to your left and right until you get to the city through Ariaria end, but before you get to that end, turn right at Abayi junction towards NNPC depot and you would see that the industrial zone there is heavily subscribed. I wonder why people make very ignorant statements.

Do you know that the primary reason Geometry Power Supply  chose Aba to start their independent power supply was because of the sustainable industries there and the existence of a gas line which Shell invested in because of the industrial clusters in Aba ?

Many things contribute to the GDP of a place including Service, industrial and commercial activities and Nnewi can only dream of competing with no more than a third of Aba. That is why I am upset with Abia governor for neglecting Aba, because Aba to Abia, should be a cash cow in terms of taxes and employment.

@ Topic, are SE states performing in accordance with their potentials ? NO. Are they, the poorest in Nigeria ? HELL NO !

Ini gone bad no be small. What a nice jackpot for the police. Their parents will now have to pay a lot a money to secure their release. Some of them might have been sent to school with the last buck at home in the first place. I always said that it is essential to be smart to pull off this confra thing.

Abagworo:

Some viki boys wey go ini don enter wahala be dat.dat thing no be pirates or buccaneer.

In a nutshell,this news is another funny one like those Dokpesi texts.

My thoughts too except the puzzle of presence of a lady. They were "sallying ruggedly" on their way to island. Very foolish thing to do in these trying times, they will learn the hard way now they have been caught.

revolt:

Let's support zoning. It will Guarantee our political relevance. Gej will only favo
your s.s. When he finishes what happens to the east. Since its a known fact that the typical s.s man would rather vote a megida than vote a Daniel with igbo origin. Ohanaeze will lead us to political suicide.

"You could guess how a meal would taste from the way it smells"

If northerners were interested in Igbo presidency, why did Jonathan become Yaradua's VP in the first place ?

If Yaradua had remained alive to complete "8" years, do you think that they would waved Jonathan goodbye in favour of an Igbo person ?

People from both divide have fought for the presidency from the beginning, so the whole zonal thing has always been a sham, except to the gullible.

I am yet to see any integrity from any of those screaming "zoning", they have all looted public funds at one time or the other and they all display such wealth in a "what can you do style ?" and people still want them to come back ?

In my opinion, Jonathan is not a lot better than the rest, but he is the one eyed man, in the land of blind (PDP).

As for Igbo interests, they would be best served by an Igbo person or their immediate neighbours, especially their far eastern neighbours.

auwal87:

The Ultimately Good people of the present Northern Nigeria are not participating in Politics simply because they do not believe in the system. The present structure of Nigeria is a blush.

What the Good people of the present Northern Nigeria wants is a free country where laws and orders are applied to every citizen without considering his rank or status in the country. They want a Nigeria where every citizen has right to liberty, education, health, and security of his life and his property. To achieve this, the Good people of the present Northern Nigeria wants the National Assembly to amend the country's constitution and get the following things done in matter of days.

1. Let each state in the country establish its own state police departments and abolish the federal police structure
2. Let each state in the country control 100% of its own natural resources, contributing certain percentages of the revenue to the country (Just don't let Ndu_Chuks catch you on this one.)3. Let there be regional governments, with 1 ceremonial president with very less power at the central government
4. Let the traditional rulers of each state be represented in their regional governments executive council

With this structure, Nigeria can change in matter of months not years, economy will improve drastically.

Central Bank of Nigeria will remain as it is (so we continue to have the Naira)
Nigerian Military (Army, Airforce, Navy, etc) will remain as it is (So we continue to have military power)
Nigerian Immigration and Customs will remain as it is. (so we continue to have our Nigerian passport and ports as one)
State Governors, State Assembly, Local Council Chairman, Councillors, will all remain the structure

What this change will bring is peace and transparency, no confusion in matter of governance, because all citizens will be looking forward to their regional government to provide its means of sustainable development.

Let the first step be the granting of 100% control of resources. 10% to the central government, 30% to the regional government, while 60% to the state governments. Reason why regional government will get 30% is the number of states in that region is more than the number of states that the central government will get the 10%. For instance if the present states remain i.e. 36 states, the central government will get 10% from each state of Nigeria, while the regional government of northern Nigeria will get 30% from each state of northern Nigeria.

I know some regions will suffer because of the drastic reduce of revenue, but they should learn to live like that because even the so called oil wealth is not forever, the regions must therefore find ways to generate their own revenue that will cater for their development. e.g. in Kano we have population, therefore trade is blessed, with Singer market, kwari market, and dawanau market alone, Kano can survive. in Jigawa, we can have center of learning where the government concentrates more on Education, so people from all over Nigeria or even outside Nigeria can go to Jigawa for studies (that is what brings most revenue to the UK government), in central north we have mining, in north east we have agriculture, etc. Overall, there must be structure to invite foreign investments, there must be structure to improve the tourism sector.

If I will be Nigeria's president today, this is the first thing I will do. Honestly.

That's quite a progressive outlook in my opinion.

I would change a few things though; no need for traditional rulers in the capacity you want them and state and local government structure would need a massive overhaul and downsizing.

There would be no more than 7 councilors per LG and the LG Chairmen would replace the state house members. They would be known as constituency speakers, while the House leader would be known as State Speaker. Laws would be debated and made by Constituency speakers, but the Local councilors would also have a vote in what would be known as the State Gen Assembly before laws are passed.

National Assembly would have no more than 2 members from each of the 36 states or if regional, no more than 12 from the 6 regions.

We spend nearly 80% of our budget on recurrent expenditure, leaving less than 30% for capital expenditure, out of which a significant amount is looted.

slap1:

I recall playing football in the said primary school with some of those boys for the two days we were there. We saw them as harmless dudes, although we saw their guns, because they told us they were not going to harm us, that they just want to play football with us. That was last year and this kidnapping thing has not even started and we took them for local thieves. The priest himself has a gun, a pump-action riffle he used to scare miscreants away during bazaar sales.

You played football with the fellas that lived around the church, you saw their guns, thought they were local thieves and still imagined that they were harmless ? Were you just naive, plain silly or are you the type of person that would continue to condone evil as long as you don't feel threatened ?

The priest may not have been involved in the act but it is unlikely that he was unaware of a defensive sandbag in front of the building next to his residence, which was set up by gun wielding civilians. It was his moral duty to report such development to the right authorities . What about those that worship at the church ? Were they also naive like Slap 1 ?

grafikdon:

I always pictured the Osisi character as one of those dubious ''fine boys''. This image here gave me a tremendous jolt. Usually, people with somewhat unpleasant facial features make up for that shortcoming by clinging to some redeeming qualities, like a good haircut for instance, but this guy, I am afraid. . . not so much.

I can now see why he was a dreaded kidnapper. Forget his AK47, the sight of his face would make anyone voluntarily offer to pay twice the amount demanded by him.

FIFA can go to hell. Time for corrupt Sepp Blater to haul his freight. He is very silly trying to play God. Why does he not penalize countries' FAs for letting their governments fund FIFA competitions ?

The nations FF is not self financing, therefore it cannot and should not be free from govt regulation one way or the other. If fifa wants it otherwise, they should also penalize the FF for receiving funds from the government.

The ministry of sports are the employers of NFA and NFA was not set up without the ministry of sports initiating that move. I do understand limiting the involvement of the sports ministry, but that involvement should include the hiring and sacking of NFA chairman by the sports, otherwise the FA chairman would be a law unto himself as exemplified by Adamu. FIFA is talking absolute nonsense in that regard.

FIFA should first of all purge itself of corruption, unfairness and sit tight attitude of FIFA presidents with no legislation designed to limit years of reign and have frequent elections in the spirit of democracy.

The sports ministry has no business running football directly and making decisions such as the league timetable, relegation/promotion of clubsides, league sponsoring and TV rights, players transfers and regulation and things that have to do with  direct running of footy.

ndu_chucks:

FACE, I never accused you of showing any form of hatred for northerners, in fact I know enough about you not to expect the portrayal of such hatred.

According to the agreement that gave rise to Jonathan as VP, the next PDP presidential candidate should come from the North - that’s all I am pointing out. I agree with you that we all should be supporting the best candidate for the country based on their leadership abilities and vision. Most people, including you, would agree with me that Jonathan does not possess these qualities.

Pat Utomi has been stained by his loan scandal as far as I am concerned and Duke’s Tinapa theft is not a quality I admire. You by the way have refused to mention Ribadu or Gusau– I wonder why.

Ndu_Chucks da Ndu_Chuks. You never accused me of hatred and what is this

ndu_chucks:

I expected you, of all people, to have a nationalist take on these issues as opposed to a tribalistic one. Your hatred for Northerners will do nothing but continue to eat you up.

? Are you smoking ganja with pito today or what ? Ok go and mellow and come back. You know I hate northerners but you know that I would not portray such hatred. That's some strong weed in action right there.

You accused me of insinuating that the next president must come from PDP, yet you went and started lamenting how PDP had an agreement.

Jonathan is the one eyed man among other blind contestants from PDP. When credible contestants come forth in PDP, I shall support them regardless of where they come from. You are used to being handed things on a gold platter, e.g quota system, but I am used to working hard for stuff so you must change and also try to work hard like the rest of us. Put forward a credible candidate to contest like everyone else or go and sulk in a quiet corner.

You have your choice in Gusau and Ribadu and I look at Gusau as one of those that should be shot for looting the country and for being a coupist. What are Gusau's accomplishments other than being a coupist and looting the nation dry ? The man himself said that he wants to run because of the arrangement of "pass the batton" that he had with Babangida and Abacha before Abacha died on him. I am disappointed that you even mentioned Gusau.

If this talk is about PDP, how does Ribadu fit in ? Ribadu was a selective attack dog in his time, rude with dictatorial tendencies so I do not view him in the same light as you do. Why did you not mention Col Umar ? He does not fit your bill right ?

I am all for continuity and stability and for that reason, Jonathan should emerge as PDP candidate if no other credible candidate wants to step up and convince me why they are better than Jonathan. Let me make it clear that Jonathan would not be my first choice PDP flag bearer if not for his useless opponents, because I do not think he has the grit, zeal,decisiveness and leadership qualities I would love to see in a president.

Now, what loan scandal are you talking about, Re: Pat Utomi ?

ndu_chucks:

I expected you, of all people, to have a nationalist take on these issues as opposed to a tribalistic one.  Your hatred for Northerners will do nothing but continue to eat you up.

The issue being discussed is really a PDP affair and I’m afraid you cannot discuss it rationally with a tribalist mind set.  You have already defeated yourself by insinuating that the next President must come from the PDP party. Shame on you. IBB, Atiku, and Buhari are not the only Northerners running for the Presidency ?

Ok, I am trying to figure out where I showed any form of hatred for northerners.  

Last time I checked Buhari was not in PDP so I did not limit my response to PDP aspirants.

I want PDP out as well, but who has mounted a serious campaign to oust them ? And why must the next president come from the north ? Is it your birth right ? OK lets throw our weight behind Pat Utomi or Donald Duke; if not show me who is better from the north.

The football pitch is nice and the grass looks good, which is what matters to players. However, the stadium itself is ordinary and plain. The covered section is about 10% of the entire stadium and the roofing of the stand is plain. Apart from the pitch, there is nothing to oooh and aaah about the stadium.

ndu_chucks:


What makes you think that I or Ango Abdullahi speaks for the North? Please stop allowing tribalism becloud your better judgement.

Pathetic desperation. If you do not believe that Ango abdulahi's stance represents northern position, why are you going about quoting him ? And here I was, thinking that you had some integrity.

Double speak will not take you anywhere. You guys had no intention of letting the SS or SE produce the president in 2015. Karma was just hanging around the corner with his paycheck and he paid up.

Fate dealt you the wrong cards in the end , so you must now play with those cards. You guys keep talking about your right to 8 years uninterrupted rule but you cannot point to what you did with the other 37 years of misrule. Step aside and support prosperity. The everyday northerners should stone people like you for misleading them all these while and maintaining an elitist status , using them as a tool for mayhem and setting up yourselves as people to be revered. dan Iska.

O.k, let's assume that you should produce the next president in 2011; who do you want us to support ? Babangida, Atiku or Buhari ? You gotta be kidding me !

By the way Ndu-Chuks, before you start dragging oil rights, better go and helep your brothers wey flood wan kill, jus because una no sabi open ordinary gate for dam.

Anyways, my commiserations to them and I hope that the owners of the dams (state or federal) provide adequate aid and compensation to the affected people.

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1105ap_af_nigeria_floods.html

Ndu_Chuks da Ndu_Chuks. N na geshua alhaji. Ka na lahia ko ?

Na waa for you. Why is this oil so important to you ? Why do you think that you will all shrivel and die without oil ? Na waa for unu.

In my opinion, the north has so much potential, which you guys have refused to tap. Build the the right type of houses and your land scape will be a sight to behold. You have the type of weather that would guarantee a boom in tourism, something in the mould of kenya. All you need to do is to develop some game reserves and stop the mass murdering of innocent people at the drop of a hat. More education for your people wouldn't be a bad idea too.

Now, you and Ango make me laugh with this your groundnut angle. While your fore fathers were on a Jihad rampage back in the days, the dutch, Portuguese and the British were trying to out do each other for the oil coming from the south (the hinterland of south - call that east- in particular), so much that UK signed a treaty with King Jaja and recognising his kingdom of Opobo as a Kingdom all because of palm oil. It was also because of oil that they deposed and sent him on exile.

Coming back to recent history. Umuahia was the largest palm oil exporting hub in Africa -make that the entire world- until the civil war and there were many British companies in Umuahia doing nothing but oil trading (John Holt was the biggest of them all). Enugu coal fields were among the largest in Africa. The south as a whole had more important cash crops than the North so why are you shouting groundnut this and that ?

As for seceding and the north still benefitting from oil; do you really believe that the north could fight the whole south if it came to that ?

I expect more of such bold moves from Jonathan. Time to grow some balls and recapture people like me who were losing patience in his lack of courage.

Now, he must also make his manifesto readily available to anyone who is interested and take his campaign to the grass roots. National dailies or the internet could be used for that purpose.

In my opinion, he is the one eyed man in the land of the blind. The presidency is his to lose, but he must show some grit, sincerity and leadership qualities.

________________________________________
Goodluck Jonathan's Declaration Speech - Full Text
18 September 2010 14:42 

Forty months ago my predecessor in office and I embarked on a joint ticket in the governance of our great country, Nigeria. Sadly, he passed away on the 5th of May 2010.

MAY HIS GENTLE SOUL REST IN PERFECT PEACE, AMEN.

With the death of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, the mantle of leadership of our great nation fell on me. However, the days leading to my presidency were very trying times for our nation. We confronted those moments and their challenges to national security with patriotism and care. I appreciate the role played by the National Assembly, Governors, Civil Society groups, the mass media, and other patriotic Nigerians.

The late President Yar'Adua and I shared great dreams for our country. We toiled together to realize those dreams in order to justify the confidence Nigerians reposed in us. Together we swore to execute a joint mandate and today I come before you to make a pronouncement based on that undertaking.

The past four months that I have served as President of Nigeria have opened my eyes to the vast potentials of this office as a potent instrument for the transformation of our country. I discovered that by sheer willpower, I could end the long queues and price fluctuations in our petrol stations. Today, all our refineries are working, saving us huge amounts of funds spent on importation of petroleum products. (Good to know, but it would have been good to acknowledge that the works were started by Yar’adua, who was widely perceived to be useless in office. Some credit wouldn’t do him harm and would highlight your honesty.)


I discovered that by insisting that the right things be done, we could begin a turnaround in our power sector by involving the private sector in power generation and distribution. As you can see from the lower quantities of diesel that you are buying today, power generation has significantly improved. (Did this happen overnight or were the ground works laid by Yaradua? What exactly have the private sector done in contribution to the present level of power supply? Have they started operation and when did they start rolling out their equipment? I have seen parts of the energy blue print and it looks like the right step and I hope that you would be committed to implementing it.)

I have put in place new gas policies and very soon, we will be saying goodbye to gas flaring in our oil fields. Working with the National Assembly, we rolled out a law that requires companies operating in the oil and gas sectors of our economy to utilize an appreciable percentage of their goods and services from local sources. We saw to it that normalcy began to return to the Niger Delta by ensuring government's fidelity to its promises, and this has helped to stabilize our national revenue. (In addition to that, we need a body to actually enforce the laws (I know we have the EP Agency, but they need to be empowered for enforcement actions). There should be an environmental protection act, which covers all aspects of the environment. The EPA should cover pollution by other industries as well. For example, breweries have been known to have destroyed entire rivers because of discharge of spent yeast into rivers, which propagate at an alarming rate and clog the water ways. Cement industries also send harmful effluents into rivers. The fines for defaulting should be unlimited and to the point of liquidation if need be.  )

In the last few months, I embarked on monumental projects in our road infrastructure to end the carnage on our federal highways. I began several projects to make our water resources available for drinking and farming. (I would like to know which roads have been rehabilitated and any new water project commenced since you became president. I propose a public contracts liability act, which forces contractors to redo substandard works at no cost to the government with a possibility of liquidation and jail time for the directors of such companies should the affected companies fail to comply.) I targeted our educational system to return quality and competitiveness to them. (How? )I re-addressed our drive for self sufficiency in food production.( How?) I have taken bold steps to confront our security situation. In this regard, we are pursuing the revision of our laws to be more responsive to international conventions and more punitive to criminals. (How? By promoting the erstwhile police boss in lawless Abia to the inspector general? Our laws are not the problems, but enforcement of those laws. What is your blue print for the reorganisation and retraining of the police force and the provision of adequate crime fighting equipment and good welfare package? What is your approach to flash points like Jos, Aba and Oyo state?)

I set the stage for free and fair elections by constituting an electoral commission comprising of Nigerians with impeccable credentials for firmness and incorruptibility. I charged our anti corruption agencies to speed up the war against corruption, and respect no sacred cows in the process. In the management of the economy, I advocated a more transparent banking industry, price stability, low inflation, and aggregate increase in productivity as a way to drive us to a more prosperous economy. In International Relations, I advanced the respectability accorded our country by effective engagement in global fora.

From the moment I was sworn in as President, I came under intense pressure to make a declaration concerning my political future, but declined to do so because it would have immediately distracted us from all the development initiatives we have accomplished so far.

As President and leader of this government, I decided not to place partisan politics above the immediate needs and priorities of our people. I therefore told Nigerians to give me time to concentrate on my work, and that at the appropriate time, I would make a public statement on my political future after widespread consultations.

Those consultations have now been concluded. The Independent National Electoral Commission has recently announced a time table for the 2011 general elections in the country. My party, the Peoples Democratic Party, has also published a timetable for its primaries.

In the circumstances and after a thorough self examination and prayers with my family, I, Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan have decided to humbly offer myself as a candidate in the Presidential Primaries of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party, in order to stand for the 2011 Presidential elections. I pledge once again to all the people of this nation that they will have a free and fair election, even as I stand to be a candidate. In this race, I have the honour to have as my running mate, Architect Namadi Sambo, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Our country is at the threshold of a new era; an era that beckons for a new kind of leadership; a leadership that is uncontaminated by the prejudices of the past; a leadership committed to change; a leadership that reinvents government, to solve the everyday problems that confront the average Nigerian.

I was not born rich, and in my youth, I never imagined that I would be where I am today, but not once did I ever give up. Not once did I imagine that a child from Otuoke, a small village in the Niger Delta, will one day rise to the position of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I was raised by my mother and father with just enough money to meet our daily needs.

In my early days in school, I had no shoes, no school bags. I carried my books in my hands but never despaired; no car to take me to school but I never despaired. There were days I had only one meal but I never despaired. I walked miles and crossed rivers to school every day but I never despaired. Didn't have power, didn't have generators, studied with lanterns but I never despaired.

In spite of these, I finished secondary school, attended the University of Port Harcourt, and now hold a doctorate degree.

Fellow Nigerians, if I could make it, you too can make it!

My story is the story of a young Nigerian whose access to education opened up vast opportunities that enabled me to attain my present position. As I travel up and down our country, I see a nation blessed by God with rich agricultural and mineral resources and an enterprising people. I see millions of Nigerians whose potentials for greatness are constrained by the lack of basic infrastructure.

I see Nigerians who can make a difference in the service of their country but are disadvantaged by the lack of opportunities.

My story symbolizes my dream for Nigeria. The dream that any Nigerian child from Kaura- Namoda to Duke town; from Potiskum to Nsukka, from Isale-Eko to Gboko will be able to realize his God-given potentials, unhindered by tribe or religion and unrestricted by improvised political inhibitions. My story holds out the promise of a new Nigeria. A Nigeria built on the virtues of love and respect for one another, on unity, on industry, on hardwork and on good governance.

My fellow Nigerians, this is what has brought me to Eagle Square today. I have come to say to all of you, that Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan is the man you need to put Nigeria right. I have come to launch a campaign of ideas, not one of calumny. I have come to preach love, not hate. I have come to break you away from divisive tendencies of the past which have slowed our drive to true nationhood. I have no enemies to fight. You are all my friends and we share a common destiny.

Let the word go out from this Eagle Square that Jonathan as President in 2011 will herald a new era of transformation of our country; an era that will end the agony of power shortage in our country. Let the word go out from here that I will be for the students, teachers and parents of Nigeria, a President who will advance quality and competitive education. Let everyone in this country hear that I shall strive to the best of my ability to attain self sufficiency in food production.

Let the word go out that my plans for a Sovereign Wealth Fund with an initial capital of $1billion will begin the journey for an economic restoration. (While I am all for the SWF, I need a detailed explanation of what it is and its objectives including funding and discharge. )This restoration will provide new job opportunities and alleviate poverty. Let the word go out that our health sector will receive maximum priority in a new Jonathan administration, a priority that will ensure maximum health care and stop our brain drain.

Let all the kidnappers, criminal elements, and miscreants that give us a bad name be ready for the fight that I shall give them. Let the ordinary Nigerian be assured that President Jonathan will have zero tolerance for corruption. Let the international community hear that today I have offered myself to lead a country that will engage them in mutual respect and cooperation for the achievement of international peace and understanding.

To help me in these tasks effectively, I will re-train, revamp, and motivate the civil service.( I expexpect to see details of how, in your manifesto)

My dear good people of Nigeria, I got here today by the power of God and the support of all Nigerians; all ethnic groups, North, South, East and West. I am here today because of your support and prayers. I want all of you to know that I am one of you and I will never let you down! I want you to know that I will keep hope alive; I want you to know that your time has come.

I stand before you today, humbly seeking your support for me, Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, to run for the office of the President of Nigeria with Architect Namadi Sambo as my running mate.

We will fight for JUSTICE!

We will fight for all Nigerians to have access to POWER!

We will fight for qualitative and competitive EDUCATION!

We will fight for HEALTH CARE REFORMS!

We will fight to create jobs, for all Nigerians!

We will fight corruption!

We will fight to protect all Citizens!

We will fight for your rights!

My dear country men and women, give me your support, give me your votes and together we will fight to build a great nation of our dreams!

I cannot end this speech without thanking you all for attending this occasion. Your huge attendance is a loud testimony of your support for us. For this I am very grateful. I pray that the Almighty God abides with you and sees you safely back to your respective destinations.

When you return, tell all those at home that as we celebrate our fifty years anniversary as a nation, Goodluck has come to transform Nigeria and I will never let you down.

Thank You.

May God Bless you all!

And may God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!

- GOODLUCK EBELE AZIKIWE JONATHAN, GCFR.

(I understand that declaration may not equal to a detailed manifesto, which I presume you have. Where can we read your manifesto and how readily is it available to the man on the street? I expect the manifesto to give full details of the following:

Security, Transportation, Healthcare, Education, (including roads, inland waterways and railways). Environment, Drinking water.
Electricity, oil and gas, small scale industries, micro finance and mortgage finance, social security, children services (including orphanage, child abuse, domestic servitude, compulsory education etc). The economy (very detailed road map including diversification and government commitment). The Inland Revenue service. Food sufficiency. Ecological disasters.)

chiozor:

@slap1
just like Rivers have Emergency Call-112 which connects distress call to the Police Room, is there none for Abia State.
by the way, what was the justification of promoting the AIG in Abia to IGP,

That was an eyebrow-raising decision. The rate of crime in Aba alone should have been enough reason to put him on probation, talk less of promotion.

I weep for Aba. The place is gradually being brought to its knees. I heard that cost of accommodation has gone through the roof in Owerri and umuahia because of mass relocation from Aba, all because of a few rascals that shouldn't take more than 2 weeks to smoke out and flush out.

bawomolo:

it be like say you get experience for this business

I had an obsession for fire arms and military hardware when I was a lot younger. I also received some training for the use of fire arms and I loved the military and military life. I dreamt of being a combat soldier or fighter pilot and everyone in my family thought that I would be one of those. However, I hated regimentation and the fact that I would never be free to pursue riches while young unless I was ruthless to seize power by force like IBB and co . With regret, I went to a regular Uni, but it was the right decision as I am free to do what I want.

If I was a prince Harry and money was guaranteed, surely, I would have gone to the military.

Gamine:

Is someone kidding me

The trailer is filled with hilarity,

Only in Nigerian movies, you can kill someone from the roof with shotgun

Yes, you could kill someone with a shotgun fire from more than 500 yards depending on the type of explosive projectile used. Effective range is usually less than 50 yards when a cartridge is used but much longer when a shotgun slug or rifle bullet is used.

Ibime:

Song by Nembe people:

Erika nimiga ye re biyo bo
Igbobo ebetu tubo re o fe ma
Tubo re o nyana ma, Nembe n'ongu?


Translation:

I ask this out of ignorance
They say he is an Igbo, but who bought him?
And who is his master, people of Nembe?


Lesson:

There are 67 houses in Bonny. Name one house with Igbo name.

Anyone can make up a song and sing anything they feel like singing, doesn't make the song true.

Is it not possible that not everyone belongs to a house ? The Pepple house had Igbo originators. Some of the non-English names you imagine are Ijaw names might have meant something to the Igbo who settled there.

For example, the name of my clan "Afara" does not have any Igbo meaning to me. The following kindreds are found in my clan: Ohokobe, UmuOkeyi, Ohobo, Agata, Ishiama and one or two others.

Apart from UmuOkeyi and Ishiama, the remaining ones have no Igbo meaning to me, but might have had  meanings to my ancestors. There are many names like that in Ibeku and throughout Igbo land; does it make them non Igbos ? No, because I can trace the history of my own Ama to nearly 400 years in terms of who begat who and I know that at least Ohokobe and Okeyi were related and so do all the clans in Afara. The same applies to the non-Igbo sounding names in Bonny.

otokx:

But why should an Ugwuoha be heading NDDC? Does his village produce oil?

Such arrant display of ignorance, warped IQ and unreasonable hatred ! It's probably ok to embezzle NDDC money with a different name that sounds right to you

From all the documentations, it is clear that the Igbo were present in Bonny from the beginning and played a significant role in shaping the place, starting from the founder Azimini who was of Igbo descent.

My inference is that the Ibani/Ijaw were also present at some point, but have always been in the minority, hence the minority status of their language on the island to this day.

Everyone agrees that Bonny grew as a result of slave trade followed by palm oil trade, post slave trade era. Everyone also agrees that the two elements to both trades (humans and palm oil) were sourced from the hinterland while the buyers(market) were the Europeans who were anchored at the coast.

Back in the days, villages/clans were regarded as different countries, which made it easier for neighbouring clans to raid each other for slaves with the result that the Owere man for example did not have a problem selling the Mbaise man if he had the chance to do so.

All the slaves taken to Bonny for marketing were taken by Igbo merchants to the Europeans in their anchorage.

Ijaw people did not go to Igbo land to raid them for slaves and any story to that effect is contorted and false.

When the land of Bonny prospered, it attracted people from neighbouring brass, Kalabari etc, but the migration was not enough to put them in the majority. They also called themselves Ibani, after Ubani which was already in existence.

At the end of slave trade, Igbo merchants also took palmoil from the hinterland to Bonny, which was already a prosperous trading port. The fact that the leaders of the two key houses at the height of Bonny prosperity were Igbo people, coupled with the majority status of their language gives credence to the reports by Europeans who actually lived in and walked the lands, that the Igbo/Eboe were probably the first to settle there.

It is note worthy that not much was recorded of the other houses and their leadership, if not, I am sure it would have been revealed that a lot of them had Igbo leadership as well. It is also note worthy that in Annie Pepples house, leadership changed hands from Igbo father to Igbo son and to a freed Igbo man. If the Ijaw/Ibani were in charge, that would not happen.

At this point, I would like to point out that some people have made concerted efforts to rewrite history. Example, I was reading an Ijaw article on Opobo and they refused to acknowledge the roots of Jaja, whom they kept referring to as King Jack Pepple or Juwo Juwo as opposed to Jubo Jugboha. What would it take from them to tell the same stories of Jaja as known by everyone else?

My conclusion is that both parties migrated from other lands, which were their origin and settled in Bonny and both parties have rights of ownership of they lands they occupy and since the tail does not wag the dog, the majority settlers would be right to frown upon an attempt by the minority to claim ownership of the land and if absolute claim were to be allowed, the majority easily have it bagged.

ChinenyeN:

Let's backtrack right here FACE. Where are you getting the bolded from? In fact, Onlytruth and I went over that exact same issue, in this exact same topic "The True Extent of Ala Igbo". Did you not see that in your reading? I don't know what the problem is, but you (plural: EzeUche, Onlytruth, 006, Andre, etc. and now you) seem to have a thing for insinuate stuff about me.

By the way, this example of yours, concerning me, doesn't fit in with the rest of your post.

Chinenye, don't argue what you don't know about. The Ngwa dialect is not homogeneous across the board. There are variations from the northern part to the southern part.

I have actually lived in alaigbo and the Ngwa are my hometown next door neighbours and I understand ngwa without straining my ears. A word like "gini" for instance is also ngiri, giri and nugu, nnu (sound) for different Ngwa groups. The relevance to my post is that going by your position on dialect, three or four ethnic groups should also materialise from Ngwa just like you have efik, Ibibio and annang.

Ibime, thanks for your response, I never knew that Okirika Ijo and Warri Ijo were mutually intelligible. I take it that Kalabari and Okirika speak the same language then,albeit different dialects ?

I have said that Ibime's brushed-up history of "his Ijaw" folks can only be as true as Ijaws claiming full and perpertual ownership of the stolen "abandoned properties" they're residing in PH.
From inventing thr regatta as war house canoes, to owing most of the water ways of the eastern naval command, these parasites Ijaws have no shame amending standard history to suit their immediate political needs.

Naijaking, I asked Ibime those questions because in my opinion, he says things as he believes them to be without the need to fabricate. Not that he is always right, but he is quite honest in that regard.

I asked him because I really want to know and I don't think that the answers to those could be fabricated as the questions are without ambiguities.

I once asked an Ibibio friend to clarify between Ibibio, Efik and Annang and I was made to understand that those language are dialects of each other. That is the same confusion (mine)  I seek to clarify from Ibime.

It's just like Chinenye saying Ngwa this and Ngwa that without realising that there are various Ngwa dialects With the Ntigha person speaking  a dialect closer to Ubakala(Umuahia) than the Ngwa dialects in areas near near Ndoki.