₦airaland Forum

PROUD-IGBO:
And he needs to either invest in mechanical road sweepers, or employ people to do it. All that dust/dirt by the road sides doesn't look nice and is very annoying; it gives the city an unkempt look. If Enugu and Uyo roads can look clean, i don't see why Owerri can't do likewise.

Those pictures are from Orlu.Okigwe is also receiving similar attention with some roads being expanded and dualised as well. Owerri is very clean and he is creating more roads in owerri as well.Imo state is on total overhaul.

Spyder, you need to show us the interchanges at Enugu.Enugu has the best road network in the East. My best one is the one near new market at Osha -Enugu Express. Like these

Choosing a name becomes very difficult due to the fact that the focus of this group covers Ala Igbo in all geopolitical locations in Nigeria. ENYI sounds good, but I would add a star to represent a wildcard thus: E*NYI. Our people outside the eastern region should speak up now if they feel excluded by the name and propose a more suitable name.

Ala Igbo is in Nigeria, so focusing on Ala Igbo is also focusing on Nigeria. I also realise that there is more potential if we cooperate with our immediate neighbours and other Nigerians at large, but such cooperation must be based on mutually beneficial agreements/understandings. We must not grant concessions to those who are unwilling to reciprocate.

In order to avoid conflict of interest, I think we should focus inward for now while also participating in the national scheme of things. Our objective is more or less centred on liaising with our political leaders for economic and political prosperity while holding them to account and also enlightening our populace.

Nigerian psyche is quite complex and intentions/actions are often misconstrued and viewed from ethnic/religious perspectives. Holding our own to account and charting our own economic course should not be a problem for other ethnic groups. They can copy from us if they wish or form alliances on mutually beneficial concerns.

Therefore, I think that our objectives should be as follows:

1. Political/Economic renaissance: I am unable to separate the two because I think that economic growth is largely driven by political decisions. Government is the policy maker and biggest spender as well and those in government are politicians. I think that our engagements with government should be advisory and based on networking rather than confrontation on all issues. To this end, we must find a way to have the ears of those that matter, so that our advice/suggestions will enjoy the considerations they deserve. To this effect, we should act as a lobby group by pushing and applying subtle pressure for economic reforms.

However, there are some economic needs that will require more aggressive demands and I am sure that we will identify those projects as we progress. E.g upgrading of facilities at Enugu and Imo Airports; Niger Bridge and the river port in Onitsha.

2. Watchman-ship /Accountability: This will involve knowing all our elected officers at the federal and state levels. I suggest that we split the task among an agreed number of committees to make the task easier. We should use The FOI bill as a tool or vehicle to achieve this objective. I have used the UK version of the bill on three occasions and have also responded to FOI inquiries so I understand the fundamentals of the bill.

3. Education and Awareness: This will involve reaching as many people as possible and educating our people about mass action, using Imo state election as a reference point. I also hope that we expand the scope to cover reaching our high institutions to understand their needs and how to help them educate our young ones. The main focus of this objective will be to help our people become interested decisive on election days.

All those objectives are expandable with time, but whatever we do; we must not set ourselves up to fail. I should also suggest that we do not get sucked into giving a carte blanche support for any political party; however we can make endorsements depending on the political paradigm of the day while retaining our neutrality, non-affiliation and our principle of bringing pressure on misguided political decisions or political office holders.

Finally, our overall objectives should be strategic by design while deliberating on the tactics to employ in order to achieve our strategic goals.

Re: Motto; I think that “Reclaiming the future” is good, but I will like to add a slogan like “onye a-ghala nwanne ya” or “Igwe bu Ike” or “Ibu anyi danda” or “Ikenga”. They all mean the same thing, which is “strength in unity”.

spyder880: why should the authorites allow these guys to spoil the city looks, people are dumping and selling granite along the road towards the express from Loma linda estates, somebody should do something about this

Govt should just seize the granite and use them for road repairs.

Considering that Lagos is a very small state in area; where then is "Fashola working" this "work" that we keep hearing if people are saying that roads in all LGAs are bad ?

Spyder, biko mee osiso tinye foto, akpiri adogbugo m

PROUD-IGBO:
Thanks for the pics and the effort you took in snapping them.

Maybe it's just me and the fact i'm something of a perfectionist, but i would advice the Governor to do a couple of things:

1) plant more trees by the road sides to give the city more of a lush green feel;

2) ban the pasting of posters willy-nilly as it defaces the city and itches my eyes just seeing them in pics ;

3) have at least two well maintained and manicured parks where families can go to to 'catch their fun' (that phrase makes me laugh anytime i hear it- it's so Nigerian );

4) maintain all street and traffic lights, immediately fixing any that gets damaged (i noticed some street lights were missing some parts, and i didn't see the traffic lights that were installed a few years back, though i hope those are still working as well). Taking care of little things like these are a pointer to tell if the bigger things in a city are managed well.

I also hope there's an adequate public water scheme, and that the intracity bus service is still working and maintained well.

The key word is MAINTAINANCE.

Number 3 was the main idea behind open spaces in Owerri and Enugu. I know for sure that parts of Achara layout and several other areas in Enugu were originally designated as open spaces.

In Owerri, parts of Ikenegbu, Ama JK park, garden park and other areas were also planned to be open spaces with the most significant park being the LAVAM park at the other side of Otamiri, near the dam. The military governors turned around and built other things on those lands and sold the remainder to private people.

Although , I was happy about the development of polo park mall in Enugu; I was also disappointed that they chose polo park when they could have chosen any other location for the mall and modernized the park. Polo park was part and parcel of the original Enugu and we had loads of fun there as kids. I think we should go back to our open space planning in order to avoid cluttering.

ACM10: Efulefu can also mean someone who works against his/her people interest or engages in activities that conflicts with his/her people collective interest. It can never translate to someone who is lazy, lacks drive or hopeless. Sorry, daddy is wrong on this one.

Nwanna, I think Ogugua's definition can also be encompassed within the several meanings of efulefu.E.g a 30 year old man that has no job and does not make any effort to get one and indulges in useless activities like getting drunk all the time and steals stuff from people is an efulefu. A man who goes about squandering his inheritance or selling collective properties like land and has no intention of creating wealth is an efulefu. Those people can be classified as lazy, useless and drive-less. Your own definition is also very correct.

ogugua88: It was out of anger. There are a few members in this group that I truly don't appreciate. I see them more as conspiracy theorists and fear mongerers who spin news to suit their theories. It may have been an attack on the group, but I assumed that the purpose of the leader was to represent this group. If that's not the case, then I apologize.

I've already registered for the newsletter but I'll still be keeping my eyes peeled.

Bless you. I should point out that what you call conspiracy theories and fear mongering may not be entirely baseless and might be from personal experiences and facts on the ground. They might just be their reactions to situations they found distasteful, just like you reacted during the occupy period.

I am sure that when you were eager for Nigerians to hit the streets, you went ahead and showed your support regardless of whether area boys and extortionists were also going to join the protests.

I am not saying that you should participate in something, regardless of the characters of your associates or their ideology, but you have to realise that they have the rights to express their fears and convinctions as long as their views and opinions do not set out to disparage others or to preach the hatred of other people. In other words, everyone's rights must stop where the next person's rights start.

Ogugua,

Thanks for being articulate. I do have my reservations concerning some of your points though, but that's down to individual differences, preferences and methodology so I wont argue with your position.

Thanks for acknowledging that your initial post "may have come acrosss the wrong way, but I stand by what I said", but there was nothing positive in that post to "stand by".

It was an unprovoked attack on an organisation you knew nothing about, without first finding out what the organisation was about.

It was an outright onslaught on other people's rights to free association and freedom of choice. It was an attempt to define what other people's priorities should be. I can go on but I will leave it at that.

I will leave you with your statement below; ponder on it and conclude if it has any bearing to answers you have received so far.

ogugua88: I agree with this last bit. I don't know what "The Igbo Cause" is. Nigeria is a mess in its entirety. I don't know how they find time or opportunity to focus on "The Igbo Cause". It's embarrassing that there are people who are still calling themselves Biafrans, who are still fighting for a(n) Biafran/Igbo cause, who can't put their vendettas aside to deal with a much bigger problem. They may think Igbos are the best tribe or have their own agenda, but they still come from Nigeria, one of the most unstable, feared nations not only in the continent, but in the world. Some priorities need to be straightened.

Ogugua,

You assumed that we intend to use letter writing as the only tool for our task. You breezed through my post without pausing to read what I wrote. I said that:

We realise that Nigeria is hitting below par and that our reps are incorrigible. There are some people among us who have links and contacts to reach our leaders to bombard them with ideas and demands. Through this grp, we also intend to reach the grassroots to enlighten them of the responsibilities of our reps. We also intend to make direct contact with real people.

This association is still at infancy, but we are determined to make it work.


In other words, I said that we intend to galvanise our actions through the links and contacts we have at our disposals. We intend to reach REAL people as well as internet people. We also intend to reach the grass root through personal involvement and contacts. I don’t see how all those are different from your suggestions up there.

I do not do pessimisms and I never fail before trying. I consider all options and adopt a strategy which is most suitable in my judgement.

Apart from the president and vice, the remaining political office holders were elected at state level, so we will target our leaders at state level. There are some projects, which are of no concern to someone in Lagos or Kano but very important to SE region and neighbours. We do not want conflict of interests to limit or hinder our progress. We will be focusing on changing Igboland for now, while participating in the national scheme of things.


You mentioned setting up picket lines and using megaphones in market places and handing out pamphlets in order to get people into mass action to achieve Enugu airport for example. I am sorry to say that is being simplistic and naïve.

There are times for militancy, there are times for dialogue and there also times for subtle pressure. The potent weapon of all is the education and awareness you create through interaction, which arms the populace for election day fight.

You don’t set up pickets and disrupt other people’s lives just because you think that an airport is the best thing in the world. Your pamphlets and megaphones will be wasted resources. As a business owner and manager, I know that you have to target your resources to where they are most effective and productive.

Let’s take your occupy protests for example; do you think that all Nigerians support subsidizing petroleum products? Do you not think that those who disagree with subsidy also have their own rights and deserve to use communal roads without fear of molestation? Do you not agree that people have rights to protest or stay at home or open their businesses as normal? Do you believe in freedom of choice?

Do you agree that it is not a sin/crime to abstain from joining your protests just as we acknowledge that you have the rights to peaceful protests and demonstration while recognising everyone’s rights?

You talked about Facebook as a communication medium, which we have not discounted. How is writing your opinion on Facebook going to change the leaders, going by your own assertion that they don’t read beyond 2 paragraphs of mails ?

You see that you contradicted yourself , because on one hand you said we should be in the trenches as the only means to reach the people and on the other hand you said that Facebook, which is also an online forum is a potent tool (I don’t dispute that by the way).

The question then begs; why did you choose to cheer people on from the safety of Facebook rather than going to the trench yourself?

There are several online groups already and several Facebook accounts with regards to activism in Nigeria, but we will work with them differently. Rather than proliferate more Facebook accounts, we will try to establish links with like minded groups out there.

Our mission is to add pressure to the leaders while sensitising the society and creating a base and alliances for joint action if required.


I also believe in joint action, but in a different way. I have put myself in the firing line before and paid for it. As a fresher in Uni, I was at the lead of demonstrations.

I was once in a group where we decided to force the hands of an establishment against an unfavourable decision they made. Realising our strength in numbers, we decided that we would go into meeting with the executives and negotiate the situation. We also agreed to resign en masse if they refused to rescind some of their decisions.

We had to go into the meeting one after the other and being the most vocal and leader of the group, I was called in before the other 23 people to discuss the issue at hand. They wanted me to discuss personal terms but I insisted on group terms. They told me that I was a very valued member of the establishment and that they were keen to retain me. As agreed with my group before hand, I told them point blank I was resigning my position if they were not ready to make communally beneficial concessions.

They asked me to take a seat in the waiting room while they called the others in for talks and I informed the rest of the group of my resignation as planned.

The others went into meetings with the executives, and as they filed out one by one; none of them could look me in the face… all of them had accepted personal terms: I had been betrayed and let down by those who stood to benefit less than my self if I had discussed personal terms.

I was called back into the meeting room and they tried to persuade me by assuring me that they had reached personal terms with the others. I told them that I was still going to resign as I could not work with the same set of people ( I felt a million daggers on my back). Two days later, management called me and offered me a post as a branch manager in another branch and I accepted the post. One year later, I ventured out on my own.

The epistle up there was to tell you that I also have strong principles and will rather prefer to work for common good.

At this point, I will inform you that I am also in touch with the grass root and creating employment at home. I intend/hope to lead Abia State one day or speak for Abia at the federal level. It is a journey which has started and being followed to the best of my ability. When the time comes, I will make it known here if I find it necessary.

For now, join us if you are convinced that there are many ways to skin a rat.

Lastly, I think you are intelligent and very passionate but I will advise that in future you should consider stating your opinion and advice without launching outright attack, filled with scorn and no solution proferred. You should never jump into the deep end without understanding the depth of the sea.

Regards.

ogugua88: After you've blessed him, I can't correct him for misunderstanding me just as you did earlier. Fine.

The question is are YOU interested in all of Nigeria's well-being? Yes, Igboland is on fire, but so is the nation. Nigeria is not our neighbor. It is our home and it encompasses several groups and regions, including Igboland. I'm not betraying loyalties when I say that Nigeria can use the efforts of all Nigerians, including fellow Igbos. All I've suggested is for Igbos to multitask. If you and the rest can agree to that, then I will assist Eze Ndi Igbo Nairaland Parliamentary Office wherever they wish me to to the best of my ability. If you can't, then just as you stated, you don't need me here.

Let me help you out a lil bit. Our aim is to form a pressure/advisory group through which we could reach our leaders/reps.

We realise that Nigeria is hitting below par and that our reps are incorrigible. There are some people among us who have links and contacts to reach our leaders to bombard them with ideas and demands. Through this grp, we also intend to reach the grassroots to enlighten them of the responsibilities of our reps. We also intend to make direct contact with real people.

This association is still at infancy,but we are determined to make it work.

The way politics works is that you have to hold your own reps/leaders to account. eg, if I need the Enugu international airport and FG is not coming forth with it, I cannot start bothering the Oyo state senators to press for it.
If I am annoyed that the power sector is bad and I can't get to the minister, I will contact my reps to take up the issue rather than writing Kaduna reps.

If my state governor is useless and the reps are corrupt,I cannot mobilize voters from Sokoto to vote them out. Charity begins at home.

If we succeed in improving Igbo land, Nigeria will benefit from it, unless you think that improvement of Igbo land will be non-beneficial to Nigeria.

All we want is to effect change from within.

Now that I have given you an insight on why we want you to join us, could you please, advice on how you think we can change Nigeria without looking inwards.

By the way,I am a strong supporter of reforms that will make Nigeria a better place in the long term; reforms like power sector deregulation, complete removal of fuel subsidy and a cashless/reduced cash economy.

Umunne na umunna. O di mma otu unu si gbachizia ndia nkiti. Ndi no na otu nzuko eze; okwa unu ahuna ihe mere m ji si na anyi agaghi e-buru ihe anyi kpara na nzuko gbasara oganihu anyi,wee buputa ha ka akpaa maka ya n'ebea. Onye ndi iro gbara gburu gburu na eche ndu ya nche mgbe nile. Ekwere m kwesie ike na ihe nile anyi n'akpa bu ihe anyi ga ahu isi njedebe.

Anyi agaghi abu o-ka mma na ama; a na esi n'ulo mara mm puta n'ama !

Umunna, ndi na achi anyi na owuwa anyanwu, a-naghi achizi anyi achizi. Ebu na uche anyi na nzuko eze bu na anyi ga na eweta atumatu oganihu owuwa anyanwu mee ka ha rue ndi okwesiri iru aka. Oge mkpotu a-gafeela, ugbua bu omume.

I buru nwa afo owuwa anyanwu choro ka umunne gi no na ulo na agba na okporo uzo di mma, nuo mmiri dimma, ga ulo ogwu na uloakwukwo di mma, biko gaa ka idee aha gi n'ihi na igwe bu ike.

Onwere ufodu n'ime anyi maara ka esi eru ndi ochichi anyi; anyi choro ka ndi ahu puta gosi onwe ha. O buru na i chobeghi i-puta na ihe maka ezigbo aha gi, o nwere email nzuzo a na akpo hush.com; were email ebe ahu ka iruo anyi aka.

FACE anaghi etu onu, mana FACE anaghi etinye aka n'ihe n'enweghi atumatu ma obu ogwugwu. A naghi m enwe ohere ma oli, mana e weputara m ohere maka oga n'ihu anyi. E lekwara m anya, na mgbe n'adighi anya onye FACE bu ga aputa ihe.

Eze anyi bu Only_truth n'agbali sie ike na ihe gbasara njiko na oganihu ndi Igbo. Ka anyi kwado ya maka na o dighi ofele.

Nke a bu okwu ikpete azu m ga ekwu n'ebe-a.

Ndu_chucks and Gbawe, I would ignore you on another day, because I have seen your posts and I know that you breathe and live antagonism. Your views and what you think do not count on this issue. Really, I would not engage you because you are not worth my time; Ndu-chucks, not on this occasion, Gbawe, not ever. Ndu_Chucks, if you believe this statement:

It is this kind of egotistical mentality and unwillingness to share the table of discussion with intelligent women, which is substantially responsible for the demise of Ndigbo.

then charcoal is white. Subjugation and Igbo women do not appear in the same sentence. Look inward and take thine own advice.

BlackPikiN: Are you freaking outta your mind.

In Nigeria I repeat it is only the Igbo that have their women in elective and sensitive posts.

If I lie, bring your own make I see am.

I repeat it is only the SE women in Nigeria that have continuously fought their to the top without fear and intimidation in the midst of strong willed men.

Again if I lie, state your own facts.




[b]Eze Onlytruth, Point B, ACM10 and the rest, una suppose apologize to Ogugua, she got a say too.

If there's any strong young Igbo lady, I repeat Ogugua bu Ada eji agamba!
Quote mua anywhere.[/b]


Gbawe you be mumu as usual. Na to quote and write long nonsense na him dem go dey see you.

Nonsense nincompoop.

Blackpikin, no one owes her any apology. You said that "she got a say too". Well, her " got a say too" ends where other people's "got a say too" start from. In other words, she can not be infringing on other people's rights to free association, just because she got a say too. Surely, she can make her points without being condescending to other people's choices and preferences. Ada eji a ga mba or not, her challenge to other people's fundamental rights to association and choice are nothing but fascism.

Who is she to dictate what other people's priorities should be ? If she has issues that are of priority to her, why not take action on them and leave others to take actions on what they perceive to be a priority ?

I do not care what people say or do as long as they don't try to force their views on me, infringe on my rights or try to ridicule my prerogatives. I am one of the most unbiased Nigerians you can find on this planet and my friends cut across all groups and yes, I understand all three major languages in Nigeria , but I will not tolerate rubbish from people or sell my roots for porridge. I do not engage in tribal mudslinging or ethnic baiting and my few posts in 5 years speak for themselves.

Surely, I can accommodate being Igbo and Nigerian at the same time; I have done that all my life. Without any atom of doubt, I can also accommodate being Igbo and Biafran at the same time. None of those choices are written in blood and set in stone !

My fundamental being is Igbo, which is a sin qua non to my being Nigerian or any other nationality within that geographic location. This means that I will always look towards making ala Igbo a comfortable place for my generations to come, because there is no country without origin. This should also rub off on Nigeria as place if the Ndu_chucks and Gbawe of this world also adopt the same approach to better their ethnic lands, which are also sin qua non to Nigeria.

PointB: Let me pick the fuel subsidy strike and a few other comments of yours.

If we (Igbos) did not join in that strike, does that not mean anything to you? Have you forgotten that prior to that strike, for all intent and purpose, it appears like Igbos were being targeted and hacked down in their numbers by Boko Haram in the North? Besides, was fuel subsidy the biggest headache of Igbo, and indeed Nigeria? When the issue of second niger bridge, and international airport, and indeed federal presence in Igboland is what we should be protesting for? Look around you. Is Igboland not part of Nigeria? To what extent has successive central government demonstrated this? Beside, are there no bigger issues in Nigeria than the fuel subsidy removal that warrants such vigorous politically motivated protest?. I thought you will be pleased that Igbos did not go the way of herd mentality!

As per showing our full potential on matter concerning Ndi Igbo, I don't know where that come from, and I haven't really observed it. And I think if Igbo were to really act selfishly, the bulk of our investments will find the way back home. In any case, Nigeria is tending towards regionalism, if we can get as many Igbo man and woman to think 'Igboland' that's a fine start.

By the way to avoid contradicting yourself, you should consider quitting the Anambra association in California, and join the Nigeria Association, as it make more sense since you are more 'Nigerian' than other (Igbos). But I bet you won't, as you will realise like some of us that you disdain here that indeed 'Charity begins at home.' and that a prosperous, developed and thriving Igboland is good for Nigeria. And like OnlyTruth said, who want Biafra if we can have a just and fair Nigeria?

Peace be unto you my sister!

Point B, you captured her glaring hypocrisy, and I would leave it at that. She belongs to her hometown association, yet she had the cheek to ask what others were doing forming their own associations.

What she did was to challenge a very important human right instrument and a very important bill of rights, which is covered by the first amendment of the country she lives in. A right, which many people fought for and died for: FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION/ASSEMBLY.

People with fascist views all have one thing in common; they do not respect other people’s freedom of choice. It has to be “my way or the high way” with them. It is laughable, pathetic and psychopathic that those that support fuel subsidy should feel that those of us who do not should join them in their protests to prove our Nigerian hood. It is even more pathetic when those with such strong views live in societies that recognise freedom of choice, right to remain silent and freedom of speech.

Anybody that asks for the essence of our association and tries to make a mockery of it does not know what it takes to be Igbo. Our fore fathers have been in associations with things to show for it.

Onye Igbo obula that is in touch with ala Igbo can testify that we have built schools, health centres, bought transformers, done rural electrification because we hold meetings (Association) where we decide on projects we should execute in Ala nnaa. Why should we stop or hide because someone feels that we should start building from top to down ?

Not that we owe any explanation to hypocrites, but for the benefit of those that share our views; the aim of this our association is to bring renaissance to Igbo land and Nigeria at large. We are on the move and we plan to start reaching our leaders through contacts and resources available to us.

We have intelligent and professional people among us and we intend to transfer our knowledge, experiences and ideas to Igbo land and regional neighbours who are interested without any charge for our time or services. This forum/association is open to everyone who is interested in development, equity and justice. Ndi Igbo and friends of Ndi Igbo are welcome to join. Nairaland cannot provide us with the platform for the serious and practical discussions that we hold.

Charity begins at home and we have chosen that we must put our house in order before trying to put the whole Nigeria in order. Who says that we cannot fix our homes while contributing to the nations growth as well? Life is not a one way street, so everyone must multitask to get anywhere.

Forward march to the task ahead !

Onlytruth: People like you are what we call "Ndi ogba ka o data ego" - translated (because I can almost be certain that you cannot read Igbo ) it means those who would throw their clans, families and friends under the bus just to win the approval of others, or to appear "fair minded". If you were a man, you would be called something much worse (like efulefu, lol).
I say this, not on the strength of your post above, but on your general posts on Nairaland.
Our (IGBO - yes we are still here and will continue to talk! ) people say that "Onye siri na umunna ya na awi ara, na ara nke onye ahu ka!" -a person who thinks that ALL his kinsmen are mad, that person is suffering from the worst kind of insanity.
Nuff said.

This thread is not really for people like you who thinks that Igbo redemption lies in our disappearance, or total silence and subsumption under other groups in Nigeria. To you, we should never self identify; we should just shut up and tip toe around, unheard. Unfortunately for people like you with the WORST type of inferiority complex and self hate, we are a nation of about 40 million people.
Only a fool would believe that such a HUGE nation can ever be silent.
Keep deceiving your self and your few brainless minions on Nairaland.

Good response to arrant nonsense. Ndeewo !

It's possible that the op is a fake. However, I believe in looking at the content of a message regardless of the messenger and there after I can decide on what to do with the message.

I have also heard a few things regarding Massob but it is also possible that those things I heard were done by pseudo MASSOB members. If that be the case; it is a failure on MASSOB leadership's part. We want a Biafra that respects the rights of individuals, not a mafia set up.

I have my reservations about MASSOB, yet I have the Biafran dream. Let us give ears to all parties regarding the activities of MASSOB and if there is any truth to the allegations against them, we should be speaking as one to condemn those activities and dissociate ourselves from them. I had my own experience when Bakassi boys were in Onitsha and it was disgraceful. I believe that MASSOB is also made up of a large chunk of the bakassi boys.

There are always miscreants in organizations, but it is the responsibility of the leadership to call them to order.

Onlytruth Nwanna, o ruo kwala afo iri-abuo m dere Igbo n'uloakwukwo. N'eziokwu, onye maara Igbo ofuma tulee ihe m dere, o nwere ike inye m akara ato n'ime akara iri.Ihe kachasi mkpa n'edemede obula bu rikom, kpom na i-de okwunile na mkpuru na mkpuru ma o bu n'ahiri n'ahiri. Ndewo.

Nedu210 Nwanna, aghotara m ihe i kwuru, mana ihe m jiri tapia ufodu okwu ndi ahu na bekee bu maka na ha a-bughi okwu ndi igbo nile na ekwu mgbe nile.E dere m ya otu ahu ka onye obula ghota, n'ihi na o bughi onye obula maara ufodu okwu ndi ahu. O nweghi onye uta diri na nkea, n'ihi na ufodu okwu ndia bu okwu ohuru nke mere na soso ndi guru akwokwo Igbo na ndi bi n'ala Igbo na ndi na a-ga uka (church) e doro n'Igbo bu ndi ga ama ihe ha putara.O bughi ndi bekee nile maara ka esi ede okwu bekee.

N'ezie, a-hutubeghi m onye n'ekwu ihe di ka "supee re m aha gi", kama ihe onye obula n'ekwu bu " spelliara m aha gi", "ngwa nye m example" "e use-ola m uzo ahu last week".

Igbo anyi zuru oke, mana eziokwu bu na olile anya nzuputa asusu Igbo di n'aka ndi ime obodo na ndi okenye. Onye Igbo bi na nnukwu obodo n'ekwu okwu, o na ejikari okwu bekee agwa ya ka oburu engligbo.O bu ihe nwute, mana o bu ihe mere eme.

Odumchi, jisie ike; i bu nwa mazi kajara akaja. Ekele diri gi.

Chinenye, I maara otu esi ede Igbo izugbe ofuma. Jisie ike.

N'obodo m n'ime Umuahia, o buru na ndi okenye kara aka noro na nzuko na ekwu okwu, o nwere ka ha si ekwu okwu n'usoro n'usoro n'ato m uto. Onye kwu chaa okwu, o si "aka m ji a-habeghu m ye" (literally : i have not let go of my grips, meaning; my interests are still on this issue).Mgbe ndi okenye no n'ama !

Umunne na umunna, aka m ji a-habeghi m ye !

Umunne na umunna, ekele diri unu nile. O na amasi m na onye obula no ebe-a na agba mbo i-de Igbo. O bu kwa eziokwu na anyi kwesiri i-gba mbo n-akuziri umu anyi asusu anyi, maka na nwanne di na mba.

Gbasara i-de na Igbo izugbe; o ga ekwe nghota karia ma o-buru na anyi na ede ihe dika e si a supee (spell) ya na Igbo izugbe, karia i-de ya ka osi a-da na nti anyi. O buru na anyi dee ya otu-a, o ga ekwe nghota karia, ma obuladi (regardless) ma i ji olu ndi unu dee ya. Atumatu (example): anhu = ahu, hwe = ihe etc. O buru na anyi jisie ike dee ihe ndi obere-a ofuma, mgbe o gbadoro anyi, mee ka anyi dee ya ka osi ada anyi na nti (olu anyi), onye na-agu ya, ga-agu ya serere wererem (smoothly).

Ihe ozo di mkpa, bu rikom na kpom (punctuations). Rikom na kpom na-eme ka mmadu mara mgbe o kwesiri izu ike.O buru na i-dere gawa n'ihu ma i-tinyeghi rikom na kpom, o ga e-siri ndi ozo ike i-guta.

Ihe ozo anyi kwesiri i-ma bu na a, e, i,!, o , o(with dot) na aru oru onochiri mkpo aha (pronoun), mbu-uzo (prepositions)na enyemaka ngwa( helping verb).

O buru na i dee onochiri mkpo aha na mbu-uzo dika ha bu okwu nke onwe ha (separate from the verb or conjunction), o ga ekwe nghota karia. I nwere ike i-deko enyemaka ngwa onu ma o buru na i nwere okara elu na okara ala (accents) na computa gi; ma o-bu were okara etiti (hyphen -) jikoo ha onu.

Onye nwekwara ntuzi aka(corrections) na ihe ndi-a, tuzikwaraa anyi aka n'ihi na otu onye anaghi a-bu ama-ama amachaghi amacha.

jason123: I guess most Northerners now prefer Abuja airport to Kano.

I don't think so. Nearly all the northern states have their own functional federal government built airports. Kano is nearly 500KM away from kano. Why would anyone living near Katsina, Yola, Kaduna,Jos, Ilorin prefer Abuja airport, which is moons away from their local airports ?

Onlytruth: ^^ Contd.
Now if you add a statistically very SIGNIFICANT + or - 30% of traffic at Lagos which usually terminates in SE, the Enugu and Owerri airports if given full international operations, would dwarf Kano, and even Abuja.

You people should learn to speak the truth always even if it hurts you.

Spot on. All airports in the north are operational international airports with the exception of markurdi airport. According to the last stats (2009) from FAAN. Katsina int. airport had more international passengers than domestic passengers. All the int airports in the north get a significant portion of their passenger numbers from int flights.

Now according to FAAN, Enugu and Owerri airports handle more domestic passengers and flights than any airport in the north apart from Abuja. Enugu had 6286 flights and 366592 passengers while Kano domestic handled 4135 flights and 188722 passengers and kano internation 1971 flights and 134760 passengers making a total of 6106 flights and 323482 passengers. Owerri had 4362 flights and 276962 passengers which also surpass kano domestic.

http://faannigeria.org/documents/statistics/2009-Annual-Passenger-Traffic.pdf

http://faannigeria.org/documents/statistics/2009-Annual-Aircraft-Movement.pdf

Given that international passengers from the east end up somewhere near Owerri, Enugu or PH;granting full international status to Owerri and Enugu will see both airports alsopicking up numbers in international flights and passengers.

Finally, I think it is criminal that nearly all the airports in the north have full international airport status while airports like Enugu, Owerri, Benin and Warri remain local airports. This summarises the cheating that goes on in Nigeria.

Regarding what our reps do in Abuja; mostAll of them only go there to grab their own share of GMG bags and I don't think it is a PDP thing. Ngige is regarded as a progressive, but have you opened the webpages anyday and seen any thing (bill, proposal etc) credited to him? It is time to start teaching them a lesson. They have been going scot free because the electorate only focus on their governors and not realising that their reps are also accountable to them. We should start educating our people about the responsibilities of our reps.

Ndu_Chucks, yes we can accomplish a lot on our own if we tried harder, just like we achieved Sam Mbakwe Airport on our own; just like we set up Anambra and Imo universities as pioneer state universities in Nigeria when we realised that quota system and being "educationally advantaged" were holding us down. Yes, that is our new message; a message of self help and economic growth just like our fathers did, just like we plan and execute during our christmas meetings in Ala Igbo. However, heaven knows that we are not going to forfeit our own fair share of federal government projects because of self help; if not every state should self help and leave FG alone.

Yes, Mungo Park discovered the Niger where it was hiding from the natives. It was hard job in those days when natives had to rely on well and rainwater, until good ol' Mungo happened along, grabbing the Niger by the scruff of the neck and presenting it to the natives.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NIgerianWorldForum/message/132321
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asaba/message/13577
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NigerDeltaForum/message/3138

If you are referring to the links above, none of them have any verifiable source or link to govt documents and the tables are simply a figment of someones imagination in the absence of any source to back them up. However, this link http://www.nigerianstat.gov.ng/ext/latest_release/ssd09.pdf? has a source and is verifiable.

I will leave this thread now and I hope people have learnt their lessons about making outrageous claims designed to belittle others.

ekt_bear: Actually, anyone mind typing up Table 3.26b and 3.26c (pages 174 and 175) from this: http://www.nigerianstat.gov.ng/ext/latest_release/ssd09.pdf?

Type up and share as a spreadsheet.

FACE or someone else?

I have done a quick addition of the first two periods from pg 174-175 and they check out with the zonal totals I used. You can do same to verify.

I missed the official record you posted; I only saw the data from the other thread which was debunked at the time. Could you please post the source of the official record your referred to ? Thanks.

From the data: https://www.nairaland.com/925938/which-state-most-educated-nigeria/9


In 2005

SE App = 249618 SEAd = 41026 Ratio = 6:1

SW App = 249618 SWAD = 22901 Ratio = 9:1
A commensurate proportionality in SW Admission should no less than 34351 admissions. Percentage shortfall = 33%

2006
SE app =275758 SE Ad = 26498 Ratio = 10:1

SW app = 227834 SW ad = 17001 Ratio = 13:1
A commensurate proportionality in SW Admission should no less than 21667
Percentage shortfall = 22%

2007

SE app = 263144 SE ad = 32448 Ratio = 8:1

SW app = 218763 SW ad = 25578 Ratio =9:1
A commensurate proportionality in SW Admission should no less than 27496
Percentage shortfall = 7%

Average percentage shortfall for period = 20.7%

From the data so far, it is clear that SE applicants are more in number and also more successful in securing admission (higher pass rate).

It is good to ignore some of the B.S going on here, but once in a while records have to be set straight for those who like to put others on the defensive.

Sorry for the poor display. See https://www.nairaland.com/925938/which-state-most-educated-nigeria/9 for a better display of tables.

Oroma (epe in Umuahia ) –Orange
Pear – ube
Ube bekee - Avocado
Udara- star apple
Icheku (nkwa -Umuahia. Nchichi - Owerri)– velvet tamarin
Ede – Cocoyam (also known as edo in the carribean; one of few Igbo words still in use in the carribean. Another is unu which also means unu)
Okwuru – Okro/okra ( another word derived from Igbo)
Ona – water yam
Ji – yam
Akpu (Jigbo in Umuahia) – cassava
Unene – banana
Ogede (Abirika – Asa-Ngwa axis) – plantain
Egusi (eli-li – umuahia) – melon seed
Ugu (full name- akwukwo ugu) – Fluted pumpkin leaves
Ugba – oil bean
Oji- kola nut
Ugiri – now to be known as giris ( © Ify Always ) in the absence of any known name.
Oha/ora- name unknown
Okazi - ?

Odunnu: Berry- icheku
what is ugiri?

Icheku is velvet tamarin.

Udara is star apple - maybe.

Odenigbo Aroli: The uzo iyi(way to the stream) is performed to usher in the new farming season; It is used to beseech the gods and the spirits of the land for a successful farming season. On the day of the uzo iyi,all the streams and rivers in the town are barricaded with a virgin palm leaves and nobody and I mean nobody goes to the rivers or the streams! There are twenty three villages in umuoji and each comes to the festivals with more than one masqurade. This festival has been in existence since the 14th century. Governor Peter Obi attended last years festival during his speech discloses that it was the masqurade from from Umuoji that helped Anambra state to win the first position at the 2006 Abuja cultural carnival tagged; Abuja carnical and won the second place in 2007 for Anambra state. The festival attracts personalities from all walks of life and most Idenmili Kings do attend. The governor is currently lobbying big corporation for sponsorship of the festival just like Ofalla Onicha.

Ife di na Oji !

That's nice. Ours is limited to the two hamlets (one village) that use our local stream. Nobody goes to the stream on that day and there is some merriment, which is very very low key in comparison to yours. I like yours though.

There used to be a masquerade festivals in the east, which attracted masquerades from everywhere including Calabar areas. The festival was stopped because the first three ended up with masquerades showing off their strengths.

The first one was in Enugu and one masquerade from Udi silenced the other masquerades drums by "remote control", until they paid some money. All of them came prepared for the Aba festival, and according to my brother (he probably added salt and pepper)spectators were being pinned at the gates by masquerades. There was even a case of mortar and pestle arriving the scene unaccompanied.(yeah my bros tells them stories like dat)

The next one was in Owerri and was good. The last one that got the festival suspended was in Enugu. Udi masquerade tried their antics again and silenced many drum sets but not all. So they decided to take on the masquerades individually and came face to face with masquerades from Izuogu the land of the great Pericoma.

Udi masquerades were able to silence Izuogu masquerades initially, but Izuogu restored their sets after breaking some eggs. Then to everyone's amazement, Izuogu set Udi masquerade on fire by "remote control". Onye obuna na oso.

Anyways good on your people and I hope you keep it up.

Obiagu1: I recognise that dialects differ but not when an animal is given a name that belongs to another animal.
I try to incorporate the different dialects if I know them. Alligator is found mainly in North America. Aghu/Aghi is actually a small alligator looking reptile; I can't find the name now. Just a little bigger than lizard.
Ijere is a type of ant and not a name for ants.
Camel is anyinya (there's nothing like [b]e[/b]nyinya). I don't know the name for a horse.
Calling Kite egbe by someone does not change its actual name. Kites remain Nkwo, ogankwo etc but not egbe. Egbe is bigger than kite (nkwo).

Obiagu, Kite is egbe and falcon is nkwo or ogankwo. While they are both birds of prey, egbe (kite) is subtle, forever soaring, seraching for and simply picking it's prey from the ground unawares, but the falcon (ogankwo) is a fighting bird and engages other birds and animals much bigger than itself.Inyinya is standard Igbo for horse while inyinya-ibu refers to donkey and maybe camel.

Brilliant. Your uzo iyi festival must be great. So many mmanwu in your villa. I can't count more than 4 from my own villa.

Does your uzo iyi festival have any thing to do with maintaining the path to your stream/river/spring water ? We do have ikwa Uzo (path maintenance )or ikwa uzo Iyi (river path maintenance), but not on a grand scale like yours.