In 1994, a young ambitious accountant working with Gurantee Trust Bank, Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe, wedded his sweetheart, Chizoba Nwuba. Wigwe would later become a Director with the Bank, resigned and took over Access Bank along with others. He would build the Bank to become one of the biggest in Nigeria

Wigwe, his wife Chizoba, and their son Chizzy, died in a Helicopter crash in February. They would have celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary this year

A picture of President Vladimir Putin, Jay-Jay Okocha, Diego Maradona, Pele and Nwankwo Kanu

When men were men

While some people are lamenting online about the increased hardship under Bola Tinubu, Igbos have started doing the opposite, they have started celebrating the hardship

In a video that has gone viral on Facebook, a group of Igbo traders bought several cartons of beer and drinks to celebrate the hardship the Tinubu administration has brought on Nigeria

According to them, they had warned Nigeria about Tinubu, but Nigerians chose not to listen. The men then started singing an Igbo song that God ordained Tinubu as President so as to reset the brains of Nigerians with 8 years of suffering

They also demanded maximum support for Tinubu to continue after 2027 and that no Igbo should protest against the hardship in the country

https://www.facebook.com/100066676973079/posts/pfbid02ksh9M7ToYW1g8Rwb2huGbGoC6gz92ixYSWenukdzAZY9T6fesf195HCRRPK8Kzdl/?app=fbl

Access Bank boss, Herbert Wigwe, opened his palatial Queens Drive Mansion, Ikoyi Lagos, in December 2023. The House is reported to have cost him 5 billion Naira to complete. Two weeks ago, he hosted billionaire businessmen, Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola to Dinner in his newly built house

Two weeks later, Herbert Wigwe, his wife Chizoba, and his son Chizzy, would all perish in a Helicopter crash in America

zoedew:

High population density is responsible for that. The land mass even if equitably distributed is not sufficient to accommodate the population. One reason why the Igbo are largely diasporan.

But the smallest state in Nigeria, Lagos, can contain over 20 million people and still have space for forests?

HugeElephant:


Why was Bianca Ojukwu told to go back to her state to contest? . Bianca Ojukwu wanted to contest for Senator in Anambra but was strongly resisted because she's originally from Enugu.

So you people actually believed that fake news?

As the 2023 elections approached, there were threats against Igbos living and doing business in Lagos. They were told not to participate in Lagos elections, their places of business were sabotaged.

70 year old Frederick Nwajiagu, the self styled 'Ezendigbo Ajao estate' makes a video where he rants about inviting IPOB to protect Igbo investments in Lagos. The video goes viral, and Yorubas call for his head, call him unprintable named, urge the security forces to get him. security agents swoop down on him, and he is charged for terrorism

But there is another group that have been terrorising and killing Yorubas in Ondo, Oyo, Ogun and Ekiti. The same group recently killed 3 Yoruba obas.

However, the same reaction that followed Ezendigbo is not seen with those that killed Yoruba Oba's, no shouting and screaming anywhere

Why did the mere words of a 70 year old man, angry at how his people were treated, mean more to Yorubas than those actively killing their Oba's?

Is it because Ezendigbo is an Igbo man?

Lagos is the economic engine room of Nigeria, and the most developed. It is the smallest but also the most populous state. The only state that has land border with Lagos State is Ogun State

Despite the wealth and potential of Lagos, its closest neighbour, Ogun State, never managed to tap into that wealth.

The capital of Ogun State, Abeokuta, is a glorified village. The only other places worth mentioning, Sango-Ota and Sagamu, are nothing to write home about.

Why is it that Ogun State never developed to the level of Lagos, despite being closest to Lagos?

Forbes magazine, this September, rated 52 year old Elon Musk as the the richest man on earth with an estimated fortune of 230 Billion Dollars. Thats almost 10 times what Dangote is worth.

Musk has come a long way. Born in South Africa in 1971 to South African businessman man, Errol Musk, and Canadian model, May Musk, he moved to Canada the 1994, then the USA, where he set up Paypal that proved to be a global money spinner. Today he owns global brands such as Tesla, Twitter, SpaceX, Neuralink and Open AI

To celebrate becoming the richest man in the world, Elon Musk showed off the room where he keeps money in his house.

Akwa Okuko Tiwara Aki, reputed to be the richest native Doctor in Nigeria , has been reportedly kidnapped in his new hotel which he just opened last Christmas

The event was reported by his close friend and fellow billionaire native Doctor, Alusiego Ezobi.

Two security men were saud to have lost their lives as the kidnappers stormed Triple P hotel, Oba, Anambra state and whisked Akwa Okuko away

Na so

ican2020:
Good one but the ones from SE do not see you as core Igbo

2023 presidency for core Igbos only –Anyim

They see you as inferior Igbo yet you are telling people to go to court, good luck to you

Well go to his page, it was Igbos from the SE that congratulated him the most for not denying being Igbo, while those who are not Igbo tried to discourage him

A few days ago, there was an argument about who the top 4 human rights activists of Igbo extraction in this modern age are. Many people suggested Ezeaku of Ebonyi State, Okwulora of Enugu State and Lord Zeus of Anambra

However, controversy ensued when many people suggested the well known activist, Harrison Gwamnishu of Delta State, as the 4th person. While Harrison Gwamnishu is from Ubulu-Uku, an Igbo speaking part of Delta State, there was an argument if he is Igbo. Some said that his surname "Gwamnishu" has no meaning in the Igbo language

Harrison Gwamnishu then took to his Facebook page to clear the air. Using the Igbo language, he said that he is 100% an Igbo man, and that his surname 'Gwamnishu' is just the Ubulu-uku dialect of saying 'Gwamniru' or 'Gwamnihu'(say it to my face) in central Igbo

He also went on to say that while some people from the Igbo speaking part of Delta state, known as Anioma, may deny being Igbo, he was not one of them. He also said that South South and South East were to things created to encourage division

https://www.facebook.com/100000479373538/posts/pfbid0HNcs2hfSkMp39NTh8Q1mgwApQdPC7n6zAkWym3Pa7kM7U8MqPXzazSy6SpUeDT15l/?app=fbl

muykem:
Kogi contribute more than south east of Imo and Abia states put together.

And what does your North contribute?

richmond500:
Oga please read and understand before typing.
Firstly, "We are looking forward to a better 2moro irrespective of how bad the past was" means we are looking forward to a country where disunity, injustice and insecurity will be minimized irrespective of how bad it was.

Secondly but this ur post-election fiasco is giving us a hard time means the disunity u people have created and embraced post-election is what we find troublesome.

In a nutshell, a better 2moro is possible if u guys stop hating, move on from electoral loss and work with the present administration for a better 2moro.

People have said all the above many times with every election, they will still be saying the sane with future elections as things get worse

Dsalvo:


You people are insufferable messiah worshippers walahi. No wonder Kanu and Ekpa are using you all to drink Akamu. Did you read the article where it confirms Obi worsened the poverty rating of Anambra from 20% to 68%?

It is you people's messiah worship and clannishness that will see you lag behind after all regions of Nigeria have overcome their problems to be on an upward trajectory.

Choose technocrats and achievers you reject that. Instead you all start killing for Kanu and Ekpa like brainwashed zombies. At worst you make Ikpeazu, Ekweremadu, Kalu and co your leaders for life in different political offices.

Many replies here show you people to be blind hero worshipper who cannot even read with how you praise Obi when the article illustrates he is a failure.

You are beyond salvation because a man who cannot see what he is doing wrong will never move forward.

This one has left the topic to talk about Kanu and Ekpa

richmond500:
Most of us are looking forward to a better 2moro irrespective of how bad the past was.
But you guys are giving Nigeria a difficult time with this post-election fiasco

A better tomorrow to come from disunity, insecurity and injustice? Not possible

seeyounow1:
ISSELE UKU was established by eweka of benin

Oh really? Ask any Benin person to tell you what Issele Uku means, or did Eweka establish the place to give it an Igbo name?

Buhari and APC supporters cannot refute that Buhari is leaving Nigeria in a bigger mess than he met, so they attack Obi

MasterJayJay:
A region that has produced most presidents of Nigeria is the headquarters of poverty, illiteracy, terrorism and kidnapping.

Very unfortunate

The North is a lot more poor than the south, thats a fact.

So if Obi says he will lift Nigeria out of porverty starting with the North, he is order

MindHacker9009:
It was Ironsi that introduced Decree No 34 of 1966 called the Unification Decree.
You are the one that needs to educate yourself with history.

He also put his own people only in top posts.

At the early stage of his tenure, he appointed a three-man advisory team made up of Chief Francis Nwokedi, a Permanent Secretary, Dr. Pius Charles Nwabafor Okigbo and Colonel Patrick Anwunah, who later became Chairman and Head of the Orientation Committee at that time.

He replaced the then Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr. Taslim Olawale Elias with Chief Gabriel Chike Michael Onyiuke (SAN), former Director, Public Prosecution, Eastern Nigeria from Nimo in the present Anambra state.

The decree 34 people talk about, how many Nigerians have taken the time to read it? There was nothing in that decree that abolished Regions or resource control. The onlly thing that decree did was unify the system of promotion in the civil service between the 4 Regions and the federal government

waynetee:
You can't think straight forward, when ironsi put the whole resources under one person(him), the regional government collapse automatically because all the regions have to depend on him.
Gowon only made sure the wealth is evenly distributed by breaking the power into pieces (states)

Ironsi is a greedy and a very foolish leader.
everyone, including his people would have been doing far better than this because they will still have control of the oil. But he foolishly give it out thinking igbos can rule the whole Nigeria.. Absurdity at it peak

may we never have his likes rule us ever again.

All 4 Regions were controlling their resources right up to the day Ironsi died, at no time did Ironsi tamper with resource control

Saying that Gowon made sure that Gowon made sure the wealth was distributed evenly, you dont do that in a federation. Its for all Regions to develop their resources and progress at their own pace. Anyone distributing wealth evenly 8n a federation is a thief because its not supposed to be done that way

GeneralPula:

You kept on screaming resource control - which resource control did Gowon took away?

Mention the transferred resources..

Where we are today? - Igbos constituted to 98% of the problems that took us backward to where we are today..

Before Ironsi became head of state, Nigeria was doing fine with it own regional system! Out of greed and wanting to have a say on another man’s land, ironsi/Ojukwu used wuruwuru to scrap Nigeria regionalism. No one actually saw it coming that way!

Gowon was actually a hero here. He was the man that saw thru the future. One thing I love is how Niger delta was drafted separate with their oil. I won’t be surprised if that’s exactly what’s paining you..

Gowon and other Nigerians in government then, saw thru Igbos greed & deceit. Then they capitalized on it and spread everyone to be independent since we’ve been drafted to be under centre control by Ironsi. That way, we have control over our lands but under what we now called federal government... How’s that a bad thing?

The resources you’re mentioning - did they take away any resources from Igbo land? Whatever the Igbos own during eastern region, it’s still there till date. Isn’t it?

Niger delta still have all their resources in their land. Did they take anything away from them?

Gowon was actually a hero. He protected our interest respectively after the shocking nonsense unitarism from Ironsi. If Nigeria go back to regionalism today, then you’ll realize it was never gowon to be blamed but Ironsi..

Well I suggest people like you should do more research rather than keep repeating the lies you were told. At no tine did Ironsi abolish the the Regions nor take away resource control from them. Infact, all 4 regions were existing and controlling their resources right up to the day Ironsi was killed

The only thing the Regions did not have was democracy as it was military rule

It was Gowon that came after Ironsi and abolished all 4 Regions with decree 14, and removed resource control with decree 15, Google is your friend

Forget Lagos that had unfair advantage by being the capital of Nigeria for many decades, the only place in the South West that is developed enough to qualify as a city is Ibadan

Akure and abeokuta dont make the mark and are towns at best. Ado Ekiti and Osogbo are glorified villages.

I wonder where people get this myth that the South West is the Dubai of Africa?

Dozie Odogwu Mmobuosi, better known as Dozy Mmobuosi, is set to buy English Football club, Sheffield United. Dozy Mmobuosi is CEO of Tingo International Holdings and a native of Onicha-Ugbo in Delta State

Please someone help Sanwo Olu! He is drowing and even Michael Phelps may not be able to help him

Where is MC Oluomo?

Where is Tony Kabaka?

Where is Shina Rambo?

Only people like these can save Sanwo Olu from electoral destruction

*LAGOS 2023: TINUBU AND SANWO-OLU MUST CARRY THEIR CROSSES*

by

Moses Oludele Idowu

Let me begin by way of clarification: I am not a card- carrying member of any party and have no loyalty to anyone. My loyalty is to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Of late I have been inundated with several calls, posts and solicitations imploring me to support the re-election of Babajide Sanwo- Olu, the APC gubernatorial candidate in Lagos State. The way these calls and posts and bombardments through various formats and platforms are staged it is like Lagos is under imminent attack from foreign takeover and external invasion.
It is these irritatingly vacuous and asinine propositions by opportunists and third - rate social media activists and mediocre intellectuals that I want to demolish in this intervention. The manipulation of information, the deployment of ethnic sentiments and religious sympathies; the dubious and maniacal insinuations and rearranging the facts to suit intended sinister purpose by people who neither love Yorubas nor care about religion is what irritates me and which I want to expose here.
I have been closely associated with Lagos since 1995 and until recently I have lived there. So I am aware of the entire history of the Fourth Republic as per Lagos State and all the administrations that have ruled Lagos since 1999.
This is why I am a bit disturbed at the campaigns of calumny flying around about the supposed takeover of Lagos by a certain tribe. If you have ruled a place consistently for 24 years under the same party and you are still afraid of takeover then it is a proof that you failed in your assignment or you didn't do all that was required of you. It is not for you to run from pillar to post or demonise another tribe but to calmly see your own failure. If you train a child for 24 years and now that child wants to rebel and change his parentage it is actually not his fault but the parent's.
That is the truth they are not telling you which I will tell you here.

Few days ago the ubiquitous and noisy Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria ( PFN) Lagos State Chapter through its executive unanimously adopted Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the candidate and asked people to reelect him for a second time.
With due respect and in all humility I stand to tell you that what you did was wrong. It is not your place to adopt a candidate or seek for the re-election of a candidate of any party. As clergymen you are supposed to be neutral and maintained neutrality. And if you must be partisan then it has to be private not using the corporate organ of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria.
The Labour Party candidate is also a Christian too, so on what basis are you showing partiality between two candidates?

I am also aware of several Yoruba Groups and Yoruba Nation activists who have been busy writing, posting, soliciting for the need to prevent Lagos from been captured by outsiders. Thus, they want us to vote the APC candidate and reject the Labour candidate whom they claim is an agent of the vehicle of complete Igbonisation of Lagos.

I sympathize with genuine Yorubas who feel sincerely bothered and worried that Lagos State is about to become a no- man's land which is what the Labour Party's victory would signpost.
However, the seeming loss of Lagos didn't begin today; it began long ago. It began when someone because of his ambition and greed began to sell through his agents every choice estate to developers, non- indigenes and even non- Yorubas. He didn't consider then that the effect will come back someday to haunt him.
Yorubas have been losing Lagos for a long time. I could see it but others of my tribesmen can't see it.
Now I am afraid it is late. The consequences of your foolish actions are now here.

I will speak exhaustively another time of how Yoruba began to lose Lagos but let me just mention few cases that our duo will remember.

* *Excluding Lagos from Yoruba Struggles*

If you observe for a long time Lagos usually stand apart from other Yoruba states. It rarely identifies with other Yoruba states in their struggle or share the collective aspirations and desires of the Yoruba Nation.
They see other Yorubas as grabbers and usurpers who want to eat Lagos wealth. Observe that during the Constitutional Conference Lagos stood apart from other Yoruba states in their position. " Gedegbe leko wa" - was their slogan meaning, Lagos stands apart.

When the Southwest was besieged front and left by Fulani invaders and herdsmen terrorists and the governors met for a common position was Lagos part of it?
Only a deputy governor represented Lagos State at the meeting. And when the Amotekun was set up Lagos was not part of it. Tinubu has always loved to govern Lagos as a fiefdom and not share it with anyone.
Good. So fight the battle too alone. Why are you now appealing to Yoruba sentiments. So go face the battle alone. "Lagos stands apart?", Good, so stand apart and fight your electoral battle without appealing to Yorubas to help you.

* *The General Adebayo's Letter*

Before his death the late General Adeyinka Adebayo wrote a passionate letter to Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Since I read that letter I have kept a copy of it. It was a beauty of a statement by someone who have seen it all, a patriot and a passionate Yoruba man conscious that all politics is first local.
What Adebayo warned about has already befallen the Yorubas now in the Southwest. How many industries today existing in southwest are owned by Yorubas? How many existing in Lagos are owned by Lagosians and Yorubas?
The paper industry used to be exclusively owned by the Yorubas. Go to Mushin today and see who now control it.
The banking system used to be the turf of the Yorubas. Today another tribe has displaced you lock, stock and barrel.
How has your policy impacted this or brought it about?
What have you done about addressing the genuine concerns expressed by that illustrious army general in the last few years?
Why is it only about election you are concerned about and returning to office? Of what use is a Yoruba control of Lagos when it is the Yoruba administration that has impoverished its own people?
Whether you are aware of this or not your policies have driven many Yorubas to find succour elsewhere outside Lagos. And don't forget that for every Yoruba man that leaves Lagos two Igbos or northerners come to take his place. That is why you now have the dangerous demographics that you have today. That is one of the factors that resulted in the Waterloo of February 25 and the worse is yet to come except you do the right thing and take the right steps. It.is still not too late if you know what to do but it is not by deploying ethnic sentiments; it has gone beyond that. Pray you will find the wisdom to know what to do before Saturday.

* *Policies Alienating Yorubas*

Another factor in the crisis that has befallen the APC is the policies, deliberate policies that tend to drive natives away for reasons best known to them.
I will give few examples.
Under Bola Ahmed Tinubu virtually every Igbo governor had a plot in Lagos State but Tinubu denied a fellow Yoruba governor this opportunity.
Lam Adeshina was governor of Oyo State and he helped Tinubu covered his tracks at a time when he claimed to have attended Ibadan Government College which is untrue. It was this governor who ensured that the records was not found.
Yet how did Tinubu pay back? He applied several times for a plot in Lagos without Tinubu acceding the request even when he gave Igbo governors the privilege. Anytime Lam Adeshina came to a meeting in Lagos he must return before night to go and sleep in Ibadan.
This is the same Tinubu who is now claiming to love Yorubas than Oduduwa.
Whenever he is threatened he always resort to ethnic card like when the APC cabal was trying to deny him the ticket. But how much does he really love Yorubas?
There was riot in Ibadan and markets were destroyed and Yorubas killed. Did you hear his voice? Did he donate anything?
But he has donated for rebuilding Katshina market, Kano market except Yoruba land.
This is the man who is now appealing to Yoruba not to allow Igbos to takeover Lagos.
Who cares?

The policies of APC took properties of the natives and gave them to the highest bidders. Yorubas were evacuated in Badia under the name of redevelopment and who got the prime land thereafter?
Yorubas were evicted from Tejuosho market and a new ultra modern market built which the poor Yorubas cannot afford. Did your government give them the loan or empowerment to be able to take them? Today Igbos largely have also taken it.
These are the Yorubas you want to vote for you on Saturday, the same Yorubas you have impoverished through your market- driven philosophy and neo- liberal economic policies.
What about the Ilajes? You destroyed their shanties without building a replacement for them.
What about the owners of Makoko and other indigenous lands that your government, backed with touts and police evicted by force of arms to God- knows where?
These are the votes that would be missing on Saturday.
Your government drives away street traders and arrest them for street trading while the touts who extort money from motorists are left unmolested and unaddressed because they are "cooperative mobs." Those are the Yorubas who may vote against you on Saturday.

How about the Housing Estates? Who owns the choice land in Lagos Island today? In Banana Island, Osborne Ikoyi, Lagos Atlantic etc. You have sold everything that can be sold in terms of landed estate, so future Lagosians will wake up to pay the debts that you have generously incurred for them.

What happened on February 25 was not just an Igbo affair or even youth revolt. It was a Yoruba revolt too. Many Yorubas are aggrieved the way APC and especially Bola Tinubu has managed Lagos State in the past few years. That was the tsunami you saw last Saturday.
You can still prevent the hurricane that is coming if you do the right thing even as late as it is, not by appealing to ethnic sentiments. It doesn't mean anything because you really didn't love Yorubas and the people now know it.
It is left for you to do the right thing before it is late. Saturday will soon be here.
Please stop appealing to Yoruba or ethnic sentiments. Use your records of achievement in the last 24 years if they are good enough.
Be prepared to carry your cross. It is now pay back time.

Follow me:

Facebook: Moses Oludele Idowu
Twitter: @MosesOludele

You have understand Yoruba paranoia concerning Lagos. Lagos is the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria, may be even West Africa. If Lagos had not been in Yoruba land, what would Yorubas have to boast about? Is it Abeokuta? Is it Akure? Or may be Ibadan?

There is nothing spectacular about those places and Abeokuta and Akure are just 'ordinary'. Lagos gives Yorubas a false sense of achievement


But the question is, would Lagos have become what it is had the British not made it capital of Nigeria? Would Lagos have become the commercial centre of Nigeria had it not received massive direct and indirect investments by virtue of it being the capital of Nigeria from 1914 to 1991?

Its one thing to own the land, its another to make anything of the land.

The truth is that Lagos is what it is by the commonwealth of all Nigerians, and if people feel they have contributed to a project, its only natural that they feel they have a stake in that project. The paranoia of Yorubas about Lagos is unfounded

In 2003, Peter Obi sought to be Governor of Anambra State under the little known party called APGA that had no elected members. The election's were held, and Peter Obi was announced third place behind PDP and APP. Peter Obi alleged fraud and went to court to challenge the results, some people told him not to waste his money. After a long court battle, the courts declared that Peter Obi was the authentic winner of the elections

20 years later in 2023, Peter Obi sought to be President of Nigeria under the little known party called Labour Party that had no elected members. The election's were held, and Peter Obi was announced third place behind APC and PDP. Peter Obi alleged fraud and went to court to challenge the results, some people told him not to waste his money. After a long court battle, the courts declared that Peter Obi......................?