₦airaland Forum

PhysicsQED:
The point is that, if the U.S. doesn't regret those "active actions" in South America or the Middle East, and would never, for example, have regrets for propping up Israel to the point that it continues with the settlements in what is meant to be Palestinian land, then how much sense does it make to claim that a situation (a threat to an ambassador) would make it have regrets over a "passive action" that still doesn't place them at fault for what happened, especially considering that even if they had "actively acted" during the war, it still wouldn't avoid the current situation (the threat against a U.S. ambassador)?

Okay let us agree to disagree. You choose to focus only on the threat to US ambassador which the report never claims was the cause of the regrets while I choose to situate the situation in the long term US strategies in her war against terror with respect to Nigeria, West africa and the African continentv and beyond.

PhysicsQED:
You refuse to even see my point. Biafra would not be relevant to stopping terrorism in Arewa and as an enemy nation, its intervention would only make things much much worse.

Boko haram is not at risk of "overrunning the rest of Nigeria" or "overrunning West Africa". Boko haram is a northern Nigerian problem that Nigerians that live in the north have to deal with and in the event of an Arewa, it would be an Arewa problem which they would have to solve internally.

I see your point of view but do you see mine? Saying that Boko Haram is an Arewa problem is funny when there is no such Nation. And if there were. Thinking that it would not be exported is the height of denial. See this:

Our goal is to Islamise Nigeria by force, and we will – Boko Haram
January 29, 2012- from The Guardian, UK -



The Islamist group Boko Haram, which has killed almost 1,000 people in Nigeria, will continue its campaign of violence until the country is ruled by sharia law, a senior member has told the Guardian

“We will consider negotiation only when we have brought the government to their knees,” the spokesman, Abu Qaqa, said in the group’s first major interview with a western newspaper. “Once we see that things are being done according to the dictates of Allah, and our members are released [from prison], we will only put aside our arms – but we will not lay them down. You don’t put down your arms in Islam, you only put them aside.”

Qaqa, whose name is a pseudonym, said the group’s members were spiritual followers of al-Qaida, and claimed they had met senior figures in the network founded by Osama bin Laden during visits to Saudia Arabia.

The interview comes a week after Boko Haram claimed responsibility for Nigeria’s single deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 186 people in the northern city of Kano.

In an audio message posted on YouTube on Friday, the group’s current leader, Abubakar Shekau, threatened to bomb schools and kidnap family members of government officials.

“If [security forces] are going to places of worship and destroying them, like mosques and Quranic schools, you have primary schools as well, you have secondary schools and universities, and we will start bombing them.”

Shekau rejected calls for a negotiated peace from President Goodluck Jonathan, who on Thursday called for the shadowy sect to step out of the shadows and engage in dialogue.

Nigerian officials have voiced hopes for a negotiated settlement with “moderate elements” of the group. “Under the circumstances, if you look hard enough, you can find moderate elements you can communicate with,” General Andrew Azazi, the national security adviser to the president, told the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

Western diplomats say Boko Haram has splintered and the hardliners leading the factions responsible for the wave of violence that has killed some 250 people this year appear to have rejected any suggestion of dialogue.

The Guardian was able to contact Abu Qaqa through an intermediary from the group’s home state. The go-between has been in contact with the group since its inception, and met with its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, several times before he was killed in 2009. For most of the interview he used a voice modulator, but local journalists confirmed that his undisguised voice matched recordings of previous interviews.

Qaqa said Shekau and others had travelled to Saudi Arabia for training and funding. “Al-Qaida are our elder brothers. During the lesser Hajj [last August], our leader travelled to Saudi Arabia and met al-Qaida there. We enjoy financial and technical support from them. Anything we want from them we ask them.”

He said recruits from neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger had joined the group. A recent UN report said weapons from Libya may have been smuggled to Boko Haram and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb via Chad, Niger and Nigeria.

Security officials and diplomats in Abuja said they had no evidence of a link with al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia, but an official confirmed that “elements of Boko Haram have made contact with external groups”. The extent and frequency of that contact was unknown, the official said.

In the decade since it first appeared, Boko Haram has graduated from crude driveby attacks on beer parlours to bombing security buildings in the northern Muslim heartland. Its most audacious attack targeted the United Nations building in the capital, Abuja, killing 25 in August. In recent weeks, Christians institutions have increasingly come under fire. A Christmas Day bomb attack on a packed church just outside the capital claimed almost 40 lives.

But Qaqa said the rights of the country’s 70 million Christians, who represent half of Nigeria’s population, “would be protected” under the group’s envisioned Islamic state. “Even the prophet Mohammed lived with non-Muslims and he gave them their dues.” But he said everyone must abide by sharia law: “There are no exceptions. Even if you are a Muslim and you don’t abide by sharia, we will kill you. Even if you are my own father, we will kill you.”

Speaking fluent but non-native Hausa, the lingua franca across the Sahelian belt on the cusp of the Sahara desert, he said: “It’s the secular state that is responsible for the woes we are seeing today. People should understand that we are not saying we have to rule Nigeria, but we have been motivated by the stark injustice in the land. People underrate us but we have our sights set on [bringing sharia to] the whole world, not just Nigeria.”

Sharia law is already in place across 12 states in the Muslim-majority north. Few believe the group’s radical ideology has traction in Nigeria’s mainly Christian south, which is also home to millions of Muslims and has so far been out of the group’s reach.

Raising his voice for the only time during the interview, Qaqa denied reports that some governors in northern Nigeria paid the group monthly allowances in exchange for immunity from attacks. “May God punish anyone that said so,” he said, before adding that the group has popular support in the north.

“Poor people are tired of the injustice, people are crying for saviours and they know the messiahs are Boko Haram.

“People were singing songs in [northern cities] Kano and Kaduna saying: ‘We want Boko Haram’,” Qaqa said, describing how the group can blend into the communities in which it operates. “If the masses don’t like us they would have exposed us by now. When Islam comes everyone would be happy,” he said.

Diplomats say Nigeria’s security services are belatedly attempting to gain control of the situation, which was previously dismissed as an internal, northern squabble often fuelled by politicians with personal grievances.

“There is an ongoing review of all security agencies,” the presidential aide Ken Wiwa said. “This is a relatively new phenomenon in Nigeria and the administration is working hard to improve its capacity to respond. There are various other initiatives which will be implemented but this is as much a political as a security issue.”

An official said Nigeria’s central bank was involved in measures aimed at strangling the group’s external funding sources, including speeding up a cashless economy.

http://africanheraldexpress.com/blog7/2012/01/29/our-goal-is-to-islamise-nigeria-by-force-and-we-will-boko-haram/

PhysicsQED:
Houvest, I NEVER wrote, claimed, suggested, or even insinuated that the U.S. government "never expresses or feels regrets for past actions" and it is [b]extremely [/b]dishonest to even suggest that I did. If you can't understand English, I have no intention of discussing anything further as I have no time for fools or liars.

So what was the point of mentioning Middle East and South America as if you only regret active actions and not passive actions.

PhysicsQED:
In what possible way could a Biafra be of any relevance to terrorist threats being made against the U.S. ambassador to a sovereign Arewa republic?

There isn't any pretext on which Biafra could be involved in the political affairs of Arewa and vice versa unless the actions of one was affecting the other.

There is no connection whatsoever between Islamic fundamentalist terrorism and the Nigerian Civil war. It's just an incredibly silly claim.


South Korea is a check to communism spreading further among Koreans. South Vietnam was an attempt stop communism spreading further among Vietnamese. Biafra would not be relevant to the issue of Islamic terrorism in Arewa because these would be different countries and any external action - and from an enemy nation - would only exacerbate the problem.

Please have a more wholistic approach. Think of US strategies to contain terrorism in West Africa, Africa, the world not just the imaginary Nation of Arewa. As it is now what stands against Boko Haram overunning the rest of Nigeria, W. Africa,etc if it succeeds in overwhelming the Nigerian Government if there is no strong Counterpoise in the region?

The U.S. hasn't expressed regret for any of the actions that they actually did take in certain parts of the Middle East or South America. It's more than doubtful that the U.S. government would express regret over something  that had nothing to do with them.

PhysicsQED:
Either you have very serious reading problems or comprehension problems. I never wrote anywhere that the "U.S. never regrets its past actions" and indeed it would be absurd to suggest that this was the case. It's funny how you had to google around for the example of the Chinese, when a much simpler example would be the Native Americans or African Americans who are much more obvious and who the U.S. government has already expressed regret over the mistreatment of these groups on multiple occasions.

Regretting the actions in Greece openly after visiting Greece is different from their actions in South America, which I doubt they will ever apologize for. Equally, they will never apologize for propping up Israel to the point where that country feels it doesn't have to abide by international law with respect to the settlement issue because they feel that they are majorly/mostly still right in propping up Israel in that way. U.S. ambassadors and even a president have visited Nigeria yet not one has ever even considered the Nigerian civil war relevant to current U.S. - Nigeria relations or commented extensively on the Nigerian civil war and yet you're engaging in self delusion over something posted on a site with propagandistic overtones.

Since you don't seem to comprehend a simple argument, I'm not going to bother trying to spell it out to you any further.

All you folks that appear intellectual but resort to condescension and insults for damage control when you are shown up need to change your style.

You wrore this:The U.S. hasn't expressed regret for any of the actions that they actually did take in certain parts of the Middle East or South America. It's more than doubtful that the U.S. government would express regret over something  that had nothing to do with them.
Then you went ahead to show regret US had shown over Greece. Does that not debunk your earlier position or is Nigeria in South America or Middle East? Or was the Civil war related to the cold war? So why cite those places as planks for things that happened in Africa? It does not make sense. I have shown you that passivity does not confer non-liability and actually historians have labelled US passivity then as dubious. You go again to ask whether any US official had acknowledged their error to Nigeria when you had earlier conceeded that the article mentioned 'secret'. Why the somersaults?

I challenge you just I did your other friend produce proof that the tabloid writes fairy tales else you are the one living in denial and self-delusion.

Physics wrote:
Anyway, assuming that an "Arewa Republic" had been created following a Biafran victory, America would still have an ambassador to that country, and Boko haram would instead be threatening to kill that ambassador. So either way a U.S. ambassador would be threatened. So the argument of this article doesn't even make sense.
And
[b]Islamic fundamentalism and Islam are separate issues entirely from the Nigerian Civil War which was not religious, but ethnic and political, and the way the author of the article tried to connect them shows that he's possibly confused. And during the Nigerian civil war, the Hausa and the Fulani were probably outnumbered in terms of participation by their non-Muslim "Middle Belt" allies anyway.

With due respect, you seem not to have thought deeply over the ramifications of the Boko Haram issue vis-vis global terrorism and long term US interests. The issue is not friendship with Muslim Nations or Boko Haram's threat to US ambassador but how this affects African and global stability and how they will impact the US war on terror which is their main concern now since the end of the cold war. South Korea, South Vietnam and many other Nations were facilitated by the US as a check on Communism and Socialism and to form bases of operation against those ideologies. What if US has realised that the Boko Haram issue is not going away any time soon and is actually al Quedda's instrument of destabilisation of Africa and beyond and that a Biafra would have been a check to this the way the other Nations I earlier mentioned were checks to Communism?  Wont they regret not supporting  Biafra in retrospect? This has to do with strategic thinking and long term results not just a hit and miss solution as they tried in Somalia and ran away.

However you are entitled to your argument and I have no plans to change your mind but just asking you to stretch your thoughts a little bit more instead of dismissing the article as illogical.

Since all these are said to be secret, we may never know the truth as there are intrigues involved but it is wrong to dismiss an article as illogical because of looking at it from one perspective but future events will tell.

Onlytruth:
Biafran alliance with the US can only be dwarfed by the UK alliance with the US, because of ancestral reasons (English formed the US).
Biafra however would almost certainly be the "Israel in Africa". No doubt about that.  

The US has HUGE Jewish population.
The US also has HUGE Igbo population.

Both are NATURAL allies.  

What they fail to understand is that there was a very strong pro-Biafra lobby in US during the Civil War that split public opinion in two. Generally there was a strong global outrage over what the world powers were doing against Biafra and for US to have remained neutral  in face of a genocide was almost as criminal as the actions of Britain Russia,etc.

[quote author=ekt_bear link=topic=869169.msg10190637#msg10190637 date=1329174393]You want me to argue why a crappy tabloid is in fact a crappy tabloid?

What would be the purpose of that? How is that a good use of my time?[/quote]Classical excuse for a cop-out. You have nothing to say. Just  the usual stereo-typing. Like I said before it would not take you 2 minutes to bring out scores of their fairytales. Do not make allegations you cannot prove.

Physics wrote

Actually, my point was more that they don't regret those actions, not just that they don't express regret, so I should have stated that. But whether openly or secretly regretted, the point is that if there's nothing to suggest that there was ever any "secret" regret over affairs that they actually interfered in that had to do with the cold war (in the case of South America) and which they might actually have a reason to regret, there would be no reason to feel regret over issues that had nothing to do with them (Nigerian Civil War) and which they didn't involve themselves with.

The question is this, if you have the power to stop the death of 3.5 million people and you did nothing to stop that, have you not done sometthing wrong and if you find out later that this your inaction was the wrong policy, Can you not regret it since we have established that the US can and does regret past actions? Forget all other story and answer this simple question? Does the world regret not intervening in Rwanda? Do you only regret active actions? Can't you regret passive actions? Note that historians regard US role in the Nigerian Civil war as dubious. http://www.jstor.org/pss/721864

PhysicsQED:
@ houvest

Interestingly enough, after a bit of searching, I did find one instance where a (Democrat) U.S. president openly expressed regret over siding with a certain Greek regime during the cold war:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19991121&id=yuwyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mAgGAAAAIBAJ&pg=5353,5100677

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/21/world/clinton-tries-to-subdue-greeks-anger-at-america.html

Good a thing that you yourself have debunked your whole argument before that US does not regret its past actions so no need for me to start debunking them. Dig further, you are going to see more.

[quote author=ekt_bear link=topic=869169.msg10187610#msg10187610 date=1329143639]You put a lot of effort into a debunking a source (Republic Report) that is basically an Igbo "man gives birth to three-headed dog" sort of tabloid.

Still, I suppose worthwhile to make it crystal clear why nothing they said is of any value.[/quote]You have come again with the same baseless accusations that I quarrel with you about. You could have made more sense if you cited evidence in your allegation  except that it is an Igbo tabloid. A little account of some of their reports where a 'man gave birth to three headed dog' would have sufficed instead your write-up shows you up as a prejudiced armchair commentator. The  Republic website is there with their archives. It wont take 2 minutes  to dig up scores of such fairytales if really your assessment is accurate. Please come off these spurious allegations. They show you up in bad light.

[quote author=PROUD-IGBO link=topic=869327.msg10187606#msg10187606 date=1329143606]^^^The economic intergration and centralized management of the South East economy is what i strongly believe in and i mentioned something similar when responding on a thread last year about a project going on in Imo State:


I hope we can soon move to the point of actually doing something, instead of talking about solutions all the time.[/quote]Thanks. Well people must continue talking untill thec ideas are actualised.

PhysicsQED:
Well, the U.S. and U.K. had a special relationship at that time and the British government actually expressed modest "moral support" for the Vietnam war (http://www.americansc.org.uk/Online/Wilsonjohnson.htm), although it didn't send troops. But there was really no pretext which the U.S. could use for interfering in a civil war in the U.K.'s former colony anyway, and there is nothing to suggest that the U.S. government would have taken military action. And if they had objections, they could have been raised, but they weren't.

As for the Vietnam war, being "bogged down" with Vietnam wasn't really the issue. They simply deferred to Britain. U.S. diplomats even explicitly said that they were deferring to Britain as the country (Nigeria) was within their sphere of influence.

The U.S. hasn't expressed regret for any of the actions that they actually did take in certain parts of the Middle East or South America. It's more than doubtful that the U.S. government would express regret over something that had nothing to do with them.

As for whether a war is unjust or not, that always depends on what perspective one is looking at it from.

Please read the report again. It never said that US has expressed regrets but this : With recent assassination threat emerging from Boko Haram Islamic Fundamentalists and their partners against the US Ambassador to Nigeria, US and Major European authorities secretly regrets siding with Federal Troops during the Nigeria/Biafra civil WAR, 1967 to 1970 that killed 3.5Million Biafrans because of the fast-spreading Islamic fundamentalism in Nigeria and elsewhere.

Secret internal communication between EU and UN diplomats demonstrate that the United States is apprehensive of past actions against Biafra, which it now regrets. United States Russia, Britain and others supported Nigeria Federal Troops in Nigeria/Biafra hostility. Credible source knowledgeable with US-internal memos states that ‘US now regrets its support for Nigerian Federal troops in its face-out with Biafra in the 60s”, insider of internal US working relationship with Africa who spoke on a condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on sensitive security problem fac

ing Nigeria, disclosed our insider source.

As for US regretting its actions in the Middle East,what did they do there that they should regret? Do you regret doing something inself defence?I do not get your drift here. If you are referring to Bush's lies that got them into the second Iraqi war, then you should know that it has been thoroughly condemned in US and resulted in policy reversal there. All troops have been pulled out of Iraq.

However US does not waste time to regret their mistakes, one of the things that make them great, eg http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/World/Story/A1Story20111009-304032.html, http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/08/Obama-regrets-Afghan-civilian-losses/UPI-55691307568676/. Us fought a civil war because of the injustice of slavery and only nuked Japan as a last resort so why cant they regret their actions or inactions in not stopping the death of 3.5 million Biafrans especially with the threat of Islamic fundamentalism threatening them and the rest of Africa from Nigeria at present. Why the eager desire to deny this news as credible?

Waku dragged OBJ to ICC because of the ZAki Biam genocide but is treating the death of Igbos by Boko Haram as nothing. http://allafrica.com/stories/201201301811.html

[quote author=Okija_juju link=topic=869169.msg10186276#msg10186276 date=1329132149]did you look at the highlights?!

Even I could report this same news from the comfort of my toilet seat, with a laptop on my leg, a joint in my mouth and shi't coming out my anus. Says alot and no real sources to lay your hands on. It might as well be hearsay news from a beer palour filled with drunken retards/[/quote]Yes you can always see what you want to see. I asked if this same report were credited to a western medium, would you still try to crucify the messenger and abandon the message. Since we may never know the credibility or otherwise of the medium, the question should be this: Is the news incredible in light of unfolding events?

PhysicsQED:
JFK died in 1963. He was far from the worst president, although he made some mistakes.


On the issue of Biafra, the U.S. couldn't go against it's most important ally (Britain) in the world at the time, so there was never even a question of the U.S. intervening once the U.K. had decided its course of action.

You are right about Kennedy. I suspect it was his vice Lyndon Johnson that was in power then. However I disagree that US could not go against her ally at the time. Probably wouldnt is better especially as they were bogged down with the war in Vietnam. It does not however stop them from regretting their action or inactions against an unjust war and genocide with the benefit of hindsight and unfolding world events.

[quote author=Okija_juju link=topic=869169.msg10186076#msg10186076 date=1329130500]Once more, Ndigbo playing the victims and seeking attention.

Republic reporters!! Who the bleep' are they and what do they report?!

Look at the shabby reporting style!! Let me show you how useless the news was;

Even HINTS and BETTER LOVERS have reported useless news in a much better fashion than this.


Please Ndigbos, lets move on beyond this Biafran thing, I am tired of playing victim. Nobody is even looking at our faces anymore. Even the Niger Delta has achieved a president before us because we are there crying and sulking in the background.[/quote]Dont understand your point. The original news about BH threat on US ambassador was first reported by 247ureports not the republic and was all over Nairaland why are you criticising the republic? I guess its because you are bemused that the news disagrees with your appetite. If this were reported by say Newsweek or Times what would have been your reaction. In any case the news is not strange to some of us who study global trends and are able to forecast foreign policies of Nations.

JOK REPLIES WAKU ON "IGBO CAN’T BLACKMAIL NORTH"
.By Igboville Research-And Strategic-Planning in Igboville - · Edit Doc.Senator Joseph Waku are you a Northerner? When you read some so called leaders or elders you simply think of old age related illnesses that require medical help. Senator Joseph Waku, Vice President of Arewa Consultative Forum is one of those men who seemingly need help. Given that am not a medical doctor, I will avoid recommending he sees a psychiatrist, though common sense analysis of his interview with Sunday Sun Newspapers indicates that only a psychiatrist can help him. It is not uncommon for slaves to overwork themselves to please their master and be accepted. That's slave mentality and it is common among those who were enslaved for long. Unless am mistaken, Joseph Waku is from Benue state in the Middle Belt of Nigeria. As his name, Joseph, suggests, he is a Christian, just like Yakubu Jack Gowon of Plateau State. The self evident truth is that Joseph Waku's forebears were conquered by the Hausa/Fulani and effectively assimilated. Even the Hausa language was imposed on them and at some point they started feeling like Hausa/Fulanis and lost their real identity and sense of pride as a people. For some of them, the only path to political relevance is to kiss the ass of the slave master. The best ass kissers get rewarded with political positions and used from time to time as the attack dog of the slave master. Students of history will tell you that the most brutal Nigerian combatants during the civil war were from the Middle Belt. It is also a known fact that more Igbos were massacred in then Benue-Plateau axis than in Sokoto/Kano. Yakubu Gowon, Theophilus Danjuma, Yakubu Pam etc were used by the "real" North to fight their dirty wars. Not long ago, a group called United Middle-Belt Youth Congress, UMYC, demanded a separate identity for the people of the region to "differentiate them from the Hausa-Fulani and Kanuri peoples of the far North". Leading a delegation of executive officers of the congress on a courtesy call to Vanguard’s corporate office in Lagos, the group’s President, Mr. Abuka Onalo, said the people of the Middle-Belt were "now remorseful of their roles in past actions of spearheading Northern interests that did not benefit their people". Obviously these are Joseph Waku's children realizing that their fathers acted as slaves would.How will Mr Abuka Onalo and his group feel after reading Senator Joseph Waku arguments for the "North"? The United Middle Belt Youth Congress on a visit to another Lagos media house in December 2011 strongly decried the manipulation of Joseph Waku's people against Igbos during the civil war. 'We know the ignorant years that have passed when we went to war. When they mobilised us to war and told us 'ah they want to terminate you people. The Igbos are majority and in fact they are coming to swallow you people'. 'A lot of us went to the bush to fight. I know how many families of our brothers that we lost in that war. Not to talk about our other brothers, the Igbos who we went to fight ignorantly.' The president-general, Abuka Omababa said. He added that while it was disheartening enough that they were manipulated into a fratricidal war with the Igbo, the Hausa/Fulani 'were in Sokoto and Kano relaxing and watching the two of us kill each other.' Joseph Waku should have learned from these young people and the only reasonable conclusion I can reach is that he needs psychiatric help. Obviously certain errors cannot just be attributed to foolishness given the truism in Chief M. I. Okpara's assertion that "first fool no be fool, second fool na proper foolish". In my part of the country, "proper foolish" is simply madness. In fighting the cause of the North, men like Joseph Waku forget even the truth that stares them in the face. People from the Middle Belt are not Northerners and have never been treated as Northerners by the Hausa/Fulani. At best, they are accorded the rights of "favored slaves" when there is need to do xmas for the "conquered territories". As the Jos crisis have shown, when the come become, everyone will answer his fathers name. Berom versus Hausa conflict is a typical case of the "slave" revolting against the master. The consequence is the massacre of the people by so called Hausa/Fulani herdsmen and compromised security forces. Even Boko Haram said they are killing Igbos and Christians because "muslims were killed and eaten in Jos". That's the same Boko Haram Senator Waku was sent by the Northern establishment to defend. He was told to go and "fight for the North" as if it wasn't the same North that is killing Middle Belt Christians in Jos, Kaduna, Kogi, etc. Why won't Waku listen to the youths? 'Whenever there is riot in the north, it affects us. Our people run like any other southerner. If you look at these youth corps members that were killed, they brought two to Kogi. So, if Kogi is north, then why is north burying their children?'-UMBYC Permit me to extract key quotes from Waku's Sunday Sun interview and make brief comments in the hope that he will read them and stop selling himself and his people cheap.1. "As hardened as former President Obasanjo was, he brought into consideration authoritarian spread of appointments. The National Security Adviser of Mr. President was a northerner. The Director General of SSS was a Yoruba man but a Muslim. And so it was for all other service chiefs. These are sensitive positions. Now, Jonathan went and picked National Security Adviser from his village. He picked Director-General of SSS from his village. He picked Chief of Army Staff from his village. "That Waku does not know that the Chief of Army staff is a proud Igbo man from Abia state speaks volumes on the kind of job Waku was hired to do. Again, is this man from the moon? Where was he when Shehu Yardua, Shagari, IBB, Abacha and Buhari led this country? Does it mean those positions were not "sensitive" then, since all available records to me shows that Northerners occupied all those positions and added President and Commander in Chief to them? Does it not even matter to hirelings like Senator Waku that apart from the current President who occupies the number one position, the number 2, 3, 4 and 5 are occupied by Northerners? Yet nobody is yelling. Can we sit down as a nation and agree on a formula for sharing political offices? Why is Waku's North afraid of a national conference if they feel strongly that they are marginalized in the current dispensation? My guess is that a National conference will even strip them of some of their current positions. 2. "And I have never heard a responsible person from that region coming up to say these young people are saying this on their own. So, one begins to wonder whether this is a grand plan to cause confusion so that Nigeria can disintegrate. To hell with disintegration of Nigeria. Let everybody answer his father’s name. Let them go and drink their oil, we will eat our yam. Yoruba will eat their cocoa in their region. Life will still continue." Given that Senator Waku never said anything against United Middle Belt Youths who asked for separation from the North, it will at this time be fair to say his "real" self supports their call. Am also convinced that it was his real self that voiced these lines before retreating. "To hell with disintegration of Nigeria. Let everybody answer his father’s name. Let them go and drink their oil, we will eat our yam. Yoruba will eat their cocoa in their region. Life will still continue." Senator Waku, Nigeria does not need to disintegrate for your wish to come through. All you need do is campaign for 80% derivation so that we will use 20% to keep the centre while those who produce yam and/or groundnut will use it to develop their states as against using oil money to fund Islamic terrorists. We can have a true federation where nobody will blackmail you sir. Unless am mistaken, when you were my current age, derivation was 50% and nobody asked anybody to go "to hell". Why must we disintegrate before you and your slave masters allow true federalism and 80% derivation? I challenge you to recommend national conference to your masters and see how they will disown you as a "non Northerner".3. "But the president is sitting down there and listening to people making advertisement of secession and they are not arrested. Yet, some fools somewhere are saying why don’t you arrest Babangida? Why don’t you arrest Atiku? Why don’t you arrest Gusau? Why don’t you arrest Ciroma?"Senator Waku, if those "asking for secession" are to be arrested then all those who vowed to "make the country ungovernable" should also be arrested. Or are they more Nigerian than others? What are they contributing to our national economy that gave them the right to incite anarchy and still enjoy protection from the state? I can understand it when those who pay the piper dictate the tune. In Nigerias' case, those who have the resources sustaining our penchant to steal should be allowed to dictate the tune. Am not aware that anybody is complaining about the North's control of revenue from solid minerals, groundnut, cows and yam. Nobody is even asking for subsidy on those goods. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. 4. "When his election was annulled, we all teamed up with him. But when Yoruba decided to make it Yoruba affairs, I then pulled out. I pulled out because I was working for a Nigerian that I knew his competence. I knew his support cut across borders of religion and tribes." Senator Waku, you lied. You simply abandoned Abiola because the Hausa/Fulani told you to do so. You were not alone. Even his VP, Babagana Kingibe also dropped Abiola's cause. As at the time you and others worked for Abiola, he was financially liquid and freely dispensing financial favors. I challenge you sir, to tell the world that Abiola's money never "blessed" you.5. "Nigeria is not all about religion or tribe. But when one tribe is trying to claim that it is wiser than others, that is where we have problem that is going on now." It is true that Nigeria is not all about religion or tribe, as long as it is the interest of the North that is served. Abiola's muslim-muslim ticket with Kingibe clearly served the interest of the North. Buhari's muslim-muslim ticket with Idiagbon also favored the North. What if we have President Goodluck Jonathan running with pastor Adeboye will the North accept that ticket? Will Waku's north accept President Yaradua, Vice President Ekwueme, Senate President Tinubu, Speaker Uwazulike and CJN Ibinabo? For your information sir, that is what we are living with, currently. And as long as the North is favored, all well and good. That's what Nigeria is all about: "making the North happy". That's what your interview is about too. 6. "But if those staying in the north are tired of staying in the north, they are free under the constitution to move. But the north cannot accept a blackmail that Igbo are being targeted. Let them come out with what is motivating them to move back home. Of course, they are free to move anywhere in this county." Obviously you don't believe your self, given that you also said this "They (Igbo) probably have recorded more casualties than any other tribe. They recorded more casualties because in terms of religion, particularly in the north, the Igbo dominate Christian religion. So, if a church is burnt, naturally, Igbo who are in the church would be affected." If a mosque at Aba is bombed and Ama Awusa attacked, will it amount to targeting your "Northerners"? I have this feeling that if that reverse scenario had happened you and your ACF would have gone to war. Hypocrites! 7. "He has spoken sufficiently because you know that it was not the turn of the South to produce the president. Let me not deceive you, people are angry. Our governors in the north are angry. But they don’t know what to say and the people of the north are against them because they sold out. They betrayed the confidence reposed in them; they sold out the north." While I love and respect Adamu Ciroma, am wondering if the same people that voted and continue to vote PDP are the same people we are talking about. Could it be that ACF and such like-minded groups like Boko Haram, are manipulating the people to be "angry"? If it is true the "real people of the North" felt "betrayed" by their governors, how do you explain the fact that the same people overwhelmingly re-elected Murtala Nyako of PDP? As far as I can see, the angry people are the political cabal who had power for 38 years of Nigeria's 50 and yet literacy level in the North is the worst in Nigeria. What exactly did those of you in ACF do for your people apart from turning many to Almajirin and raw material for Islamic terrorists?8. "The President and Commander in-Chief of Armed Forces said that there are Boko Haram members in the executive council, the police, SSS, and the military. And we northerners are saying bring these people out so that we can be vindicated that we don’t know them, We northern leaders are even contemplating that Boko Haram is his own making to blackmail the north so that they can secede"This is pathetic and the major reason for my recommendation of psychiatric examination. Is he saying that Kabiru Sokoto, Zakari Biu, Abubakar Shekau, Abul Qaqa, Comrade Nuhu Intelligence etc are not Northerners? If the North really believes that "there are some people somewhere that are fueling this crisis to give a dog a bad name" it therefore suggests to me that somebody might have also "engineered" October 1st Bombing to give a dog a bad name. It is simple logic that what you suspect others of doing are things that you do or want to do. With the recent Zakari Biu angle and the mysterious appearance of his son at the site of October 1st bombing, Nigerian security men should re-investigate that bombing. Senator Waku may have given us a new lead. 9. "Government should not be personalized. Government should be inclusive and not exclusive. Governance is not exclusion, Government is to extend hands of fellowship to various interest groups so that you can always get feedback as to when they are happy. Jonathan should make a statement about the South-South’s provocative pronouncements because we are suspecting that someone is behind them. And it is not the best." Inclusion and extending hands of fellowship simply means invite us to also come and chop. Rather than all the rigmaroles from Senator Waku, he simply should have asked the President to give him and his ACF friends appointments or contracts. From all indications Mr President is willing to "transform" his opponents if they are ready to denounce use of violence as a political tool. Already we are reading about new appointments involving his erstwhile rivals and/or their supporters. For those sponsoring Boko Haram, the minimal condition should be to denounce, disown and expose their boys. You cannot hold a sword over the nation's head and come here to talk about "inclusion and fellowship". Those who are already "included" by Boko Haram should not "fellowship" with Nigerians. They are the enemy of Nigerian people. Doesn't matter if they are the suicide bombers or the message carriers. All are terrorists! In October 2009, one of Senator Joseph Waku's political daughters, then Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri advocated a psychiatric examination of people who are standing for public office in order to determine their suitability or otherwise. I wish to second her but expand the list of those to be tested to include out of job political jobbers and hirelings. These are the people that are normally used for dirty jobs by politicians. Obviously the sponsors of Boko Haram didn't get their expected response from Ndigbo. The plan bombed and now they are losing the momentum. Kabiru Sokoto, Zakari Biu and Abul Qaqa are in jail and singing sweet melodies like canary birds. Very soon, arrests will be made, including very senior members of some ethnic groups. Igbos have decisively proved they are for ONE Nigeria. Reward them with 2015! Help Waku to rediscover himself. http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2012/feb/12/national-12-02-2012-001.html http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/12/were-not-northerners-middle-belt-youths/ http://www.?u=http%3A%2F%2Fallafrica.com%2Fstories%2F201112191306.html&h=9AQHk5Hx3JOK 12/2/12

OK2NV:
Blame Kennedy. That guy was the worst President to occupy the white house. Struggling with a serious medical condition and addicted to steriods and pain killers, JFK was not on sound footing all the time. He also had very low morals as he was having extra-marital affairs, links with the Mafia. JFK started and escaleted the cold war (Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile crisis), started the most disastrous military campaingn since WWII (Vietnam) and the worst legacy was to support Nigeria against Biafra all because Ojukwu grew a beard and so he most be a commie b@stard like Castro and also cos the West did not want to appear to their new arab buddies that they were supporting a crusade in Africa.

Quite revealing. Contradicts Mark Anthony. It appears that the good Kennedy did lives after him. His evils are interred with his bones.

CSR (corporate Social Responsibility)at work.

Great idea.

chukwuawka:
Ndiigbo can develop their homeland. Whatever else they have denied us, we still retain full control of the five south Eastern states. The five Igbo state governments could integrate the economies of these five states into a kind of Economic Union of Eastern Nigeria, with one central Planning/Management committee. Without Federal assistance, we can still turn this zone into the South Korea of Africa, in terms of economic and technological developments. We can do it. As individual states, we can not achieve much, but if we integrate the economies of our five states, we will be bigger and stronger than many wealthy nations of Europe and the far East. Most of those wealthy nations don't have oil so let's not bring oil into it. What they needed for their economic take off, and got, were great leaders. The combined resources of our five states, human and material, could take us to wherever we want to go. If only we know where we want to go. IF only we had leaders who know what to do with what we have. Our major problem, therefore is not maginalisation, but a failure of leadership. We need men who can take a leap of the imagination and initiate positive actions and programs that would bring Ndiigbo out of our present predicament. Right now Igbo are wandering, un-led and unguided, through the vast dangerous expanse of Nigeria wilderness. IF not so, how can we talk of 50 million hardworking, highly intelligent people being marginalised in a third world country like Nigeria. Ndiigbo are bigger than marginalisation.

I know that At the World Igbo Congress(WIC) of 2009 or 2008, such an economic plan was mapped out for the SE states. I do noy know how far they went to pursue its implementation. But it is the Biafra of the mind that Ikemba was talking about. If we cannot use the Biafra of the mind to develop the SE to an enviable level how can we demonstrate a future Biafra of territory? Thanks for your ideas. Please keep more coming. Different creative and constructive ideas are welcome for the survival and greatness of our people. We would analyse and synthesize all these and choose what is best for us.

This is what some of us have long divined. It is not only US but other western Countries. We shall see in the near future what they want to do about it. They better do it fast, help facilitate and empower Biafra as a counterpoise to Islamic fundamentalists agenda to Africa as they have empowererd Israel as a counterpoise to Arabism and fundamentalism in the middle East or or else contend with a fundamentalist Africa as Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism aims to consume the continent and beyond.

Rubbish. The same west you did everything to destroy.

Sack Sanusi already.

We dey wait for the expose'.

Kudos to SSS. Just do not relax now.

More information please.

Now Mod what did you find offensive in my post that you deleted it? Are you completely prejudiced or what? I will repeat it here for all to judge your action: I wrote

Bruise truth, kill truth, bury truth, One day it shall sprout because truth is immortal. One day Nigeria will come to accept the Truth according to Odumegwu ojukwu at Aburi then Nigerians shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set them free.

If you are sincere with yourself, you can take this statement to the hague, it shall never be found offensive. If you have an issue with Ojukwu-ism, take it up with Akpabio whose statement we are discussing here without trying to muzzle opinions in support of it. Better still your attention is needed all over the forum were so much hateful and tribal comments are rife that you have treated with a slap on the wrist. Please do your job properly without annoying responsible posters.

[quote author=see*noevil link=topic=869070.msg10180666#msg10180666 date=1329066252]I would like to believe that you aren't a boko haram apologist and that you probably didn't go through the ACF's statement , so i would like to pull out a segment of the article and ask what you think about that :


compare that to these comments made by THE SAME  ACF here : https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=861750.msg10108331#msg10108331
[size=14pt]
LOL who is fooling who here . Read through both articles and tell me WHO REALLY CREATED BOKO HARAM AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE / REASON. [/size][/quote]+ 1million. You have hit it smack on the head.

These people really think they can play with the intelligence of Nigerians by pulling out as many conspiracy theories as possible out of the woodwork to excuse the North and make the South  especially SS and SE liable. They even tried to bring in their usual divide and rule strategy to divide the south by trying to paint OBJ and by extention the SW in good light and SS and SE in bad surreptitiously bringing up the biafra scare-mongery and scapegoatism to deflect attention from the BH terrorism and attempted to re-build the usual  pan-Nigeria anti- Biafra coalition but this time without the SS.  At no point did he say anything to sympathise with the Igbo dilemma but only said that they are the largest in number in the churches in the North, therefore they should endure it and remain in the North and continue being killed untill the Security apparatus stops BH. Not even the courtesy of admitting that there is a real threat and that they might have to go even if temporarily for their own safety  or send home their wives and children in the interim, to show empathy ; Instead it is the usual northern insensitivity, sadism, wickedness, arrogance and bragadoccio
of  'they should go if they are tired of the North' or 'it is a pretext to seccession'.
However did this man become a senator and what honesty ever is required to become a vice president of ACF? Does the tea and buruntashi served at ACF meetings so intoxicate and blind that  Waku, a supposed christian can not see beyond his nose , the fundamentalist muslim threat on the Nation, his religion and his people?

However Waku should realise that he and his people will be used and dumped by Arewa to fight the SS and SE the way Gowon and his people were used to fight Biafra and later dumped and being targetted presently if he dishonestly continues seeing it as a SE/SS  affair or creation. I cry for you Waku because he that rides a tiger ends up in its belly. Expect more campaigns in this direction in the following weeks using Biafra scare tactics and a spurious claim of SS nepotism as talking points.

However the sun's title of the interview is so sensational that you wont believe that they took out a statement that is about 1 per cent of the whole interview to title it in order to sell their paper.  They should have used a more appropriate and wholistic titlebut probably, if they really wanted to protect Ndigbo and draw attention to it, added this as a sub-script.

Incredible . Did Sanusi really do that? I guess he has bade bye to CBN. Bye Sanusi. I wish you well in your future endeavours.