₦airaland Forum

@ekt

cocoa, palm oil, yams, cassava, sorghum, millet, corn, rice, livestock, groundnuts, cotton and vegetables combine to give us 45% of GDP, bulk of that comes from the North (apart from cocoa, palm oil and maybe cassava). I believe cocoa is mostly export, what of those consumed here, how much do we spend on food compared to cocoa that is exported, I believe GDP takes that into consideration.

@manny
Oil contributes 95% of foreign exchange earnings, do you guys in the Niger delta see all of that? The north is poor because of its leaders, revenue allocation formula and corruption, poverty causes social problems.
You guys have never hidden your dislike for Sanusi anyway so I can not expect you guys to be objective, if you are asked to write a paper on BH, you will look at all angles not just the ones that Southerners like to hear, by the way I am a southerner and I definitely I am not marrying more than a wife, I find it funny that people who have never been to the north sit in their homes in the US and other places calling people who are far more hardworking than their rent seeking peopel parasites.

@bashr

Pro-Biafra means another country out of Nigeria, nothing shared, pro federalism means each state determines its futures but still owes allegiance to the central government. As per the OP, let me ask why your name is bashr8 when we know you are Igbo, what are you doing with a muslim name?

It was a nice write up, tainted by the fact that Fani Kayode did not effect any change when he was there, he was just an abuser of people, at least we now know him as someone not to give power but that should be in the opposition.

@Negro

Can you break down this your big big english for us, which one is this na, do you want me to dive for my thesaurus?

@manny

80% of our foreign exports not 80% of all earnings, do you know how much Nigeria makes from VAT and other taxes alone? We are talking of GDP here and not foreign earnings.
The North contributes more than 1/3 as it has more than 70% share of the 45% in agriculture, note that 70% of 45% is already 31.5% of total, abeg let us say the truth when we see it.

We also know that the OP is not a Yoruba man but one of the numerous IDs of our resident eastern brothers, none of the yoruba guys will start a thread like this except in retaliation and I do not see any thread that warrants that, our brothers from the east off the internet have got their thinking caps on and are ready to work with people on ground to better themselves, the ones online are just rabid, pro-baifra people who have lost sight of the realities on ground, dreaming of a biafra without thinking of what it will cost to achieve it.

@Nchara

I counter your arguments, you resort to insults, I do not want Igbos to leave as the ones off Nairaland are better human beings than their representatives here, we will go through the problems together and we will come out more united to the chagrin of these online guys that are praying for a break up.

@ekt

I have not gone through that discussion but based on the statistics from that site I posted, the north contributes close to 50%, I hope you guys know that Kano, Sokoto and Kaduna are major trading points.
The guys who do not want Nigeria to split is their elite, oil money is easy, in dollars and anyway it is easier to divide and rule with other ethnic tribes than when it is the north, who will they say is their enemy.

@ekt_bear
I stand corrected, on the GDP thing, the issue is that agriculture is not properly taxed, hope you know that if it well taxed, peeps down south will pay more for food, the northern governors do not have anybody but themselves to blame, but, what Sanusi is saying also holds, in a country where derivation is what runs most states, spreading the resources unevenly will lead to social problems in those poor states, AK and Rivers probably need less than they are getting or can get by with less than they are getting, we do not even need to cut their allocations, cut the one at the Federal level and you can put that on top of what you give to the poor states until we can all sit down and fashion a true federalist structure instead of the unitary one given to us by the khaki boys.

@mike

There is nothing ancient about having 3 wives, it is their culture, we are not westerners, anyway, would it be nice for the northerners to tell all southerners to go home (afterall some are 40% of Kano's population according to some people) or Lagosians to tell all non yorubas to go home so that their allocations can be enough, one thing that pained me during the census was our eastern brothers going home to be counted in their states and now coming back later after the census knowing (or probably ignorant) of the fact that population also determines how much you get.
Sanusi is probably the only honest man in GEJ's government, he will see out his term and wait patiently to become the emir of Kano and there is nothing anybody can do about that, Nigerians need to be told the truth even if it hurts.

@ekt

The North contributes close to 50%, the bulk of agriculture, part of wholesale and retail, some part of telecomms, the only part we know for sure that they do not contribute is crude and when you look at refined product, they have a share of the 14.7% from that sector.
http://www.nigerianstat.gov.ng/

@Nchara

All those companies you have mentioned do not constitute up to 10% of lagos economy, transport business is not controlled by Igbos, all those buses plying the SW and Kwara are controlled by Yorubas, those plying the East by Igbos, those going to Edo and Delta are controlled by the respective people, the North is a mix of everybody, not everyone takes luxurious bus, go to Karu park in Abuja and see buses controlled by Yorubas loading Lagos and Abuja environs.
I laugh at your assertion that almost half of the students of unilag are igbos, hope you know that catchment area has something to do with admission and as per profs, that one is a blatant lie.
Why not tell your 50% Igbo that are running things to go back to their villages and lets see if the effect will be 50%, Igbos are contributing to the economy of Lagos as much as other people, to say you guys contribute 50% is laughable.

@ekt

Political power in the hands of the military guys can not be counted against the north, those guys were mostly clueless except for maybe Buhari's regime, most of the others just came to plunder the country.
I do not accept your assertion that the black man is weak or lazy, the north that is called a parasite contributes a significant percentage of GDP via agriculture and others using simple implements, the black man is hardworking, it is the leaders that have let us down.
People using this interview to link Sanusi to BH are not worth listening to, he has made a point that I believe is correct and using just a small percentage of our grey matter would show that he is not saying that is the only reason but it provides a link.

I have checked it and had to register (nothing spoil, will check out FT more), I agree with Sanusi that there is a link between insurgency and resource distribution, but, it should not be used as an excuse neither is it the only one (Sanusi does not claim it is the only one), I will try to explain. States in the North depend on federal allocations because they can not tax agriculture appropriately (42% of GDP is quite significant) and they are steeped in their elitism that makes them think they should depend on the Federal government for their existence (unhealthy and sad), the little they received from the allocation has been further reduced due to all the special allocations to the southern states (not the fault of the southerners, na dem get resources), this has led to less money to the most populous part of the nation, now we know corruption is rife over there, but, if the money allocated was used without corruption, it would not have been enough to meet the needs of these states, thereby bringing with it all the social problems we are witnessing now (or providing foot soldiers for the BH guys), now the uneven allocation of resources might provide a link, the solution is not to allocate evenly, the first solution is to use what you have expeditiously while looking at how to raise revenue, another thing is to shrink the FG's allocation from 56% to something around 25 to 35 %, the savings can be given to the states and LG, especially the struggling ones.

Can we have a link to the Financial Times article that the author made mention of before we start castigating the man, the original post was a report by a third party on what Sanusi said, can we have the real article?
A lot of the people blabbing here have always hated the man so they can not be objective, others only go with him when it suits their own ambitions, I will not criticize until I see the real article.

What is all this nonsense about Igbos earning 50% of Lagos? Is it only spare parts that makes the Lagos economy, this is why you guys are stoking up so much hatred for yourselves, you come online claiming things that can not be substantiated and in the process insulting those who are your hosts.

I do not begrudge GEJ going with 24 aides to the AU or wherever he has gone, though they are too many, he is the president and some of those aides can be business people too, what I can not stand and will not stand is Patience going with any aide at all to ethiopia in another jet, that is sheer wastage, people should also not compare Nigeria to the US, Obama earns less than senators here and those aides of his will surely earn less than our aides in Nigeria.

The marines also say the same thing, the Israelis should butt off our problems, once they get involved every goddamn terrorist will be willing to take them on and those useless middle east princes with more money than sense will start sending money to BH, abeg we do not need Israeli or American involvement.

@alh

You will go and make agreements with those who are no longer relevant in Yoruba politics, goodluck to you o, when GEJ needed the SW he went to Tinubu, but you will go to Ikenne?

I do not  know, maybe because of Social Media and the likes, they are not radicalised, it is also possible that Nigerian students are after only one thing and that is money.

What are we going to do about this?

There is power outage here in Lagos, he might be doing great in your own area, he is not doing anything where I am.

Kanu is a good man, though he is approaching 50, he is one man with a good heart (pardon the pun)

@Dalover

I can confirm that those who wanted to go to work did, even my wife had to go to work during the strike because her company needed her services and she passed through Ojota.

GEJ squandered the goodwill he had with the civil society and the peeps of SW, he does things in very naive ways.

I am not sure Lagos gets much from the ports as everything is controlled by the FG, let the ports be built elsewhere, less trucks on the road and consequently they last longer, as long as the demand from the SW and some parts of the North is sustained, ba wahala, other regions developing is good for the country, more people leave Lagos to those places, other opportunities open up, we wish other regions well, that can not be said for some of the people posting here.

Lagos port will survive any port created anywhere, the demand is more than enough for it, anyway, the ports belong to the FG as it is and Lagos state is not getting enough revenue, imagine the state getting just 50% of what accrues to the FG, let AK build their port, goodluck to them, Lagos will not die because of it.

The world against us mentality of our Igbo brothers online might just annoy other groups to really unite against them, then they will know the meaning of progroms, tell your leaders to reach out to other groups, do not come with that condescending belief that you are better than others, remember the path to the East goes through Benue and Kogi, form alliances with these people based on equality else, they will stand down when the guys from the north come marching.

@jp Phillips, let it rest. @Chuksxp, cross country Jibowu, though they might ferry you around before you get to minna sha o.

@Rhino

I beg, protect the identity of the ladies, do not allow the guys here to allow you do something that is not right.