₦airaland Forum

aswani:
I admit I am not an expert on the names of Port Harcourt indigines.

However, if you go to Edo state, which I don't believe has any Indigenous Yorùbá's, a lot of people bear Yoruba names.

So your assertion might not necessarily be true.

You are not an expert, yet you went ahead to give your ignorant opinion.
Edo don't speak Yoruba language.
Ikwerre speak a dialect of Igbo language, have same gods as Igbos, same market days, same Amadioha.
It's not same situation between Edo and Yoruba.
A better comparison will be Yoruba and Okun in Kogi State.

Pure lies.

Kizyte:
In Nigeria, it's very easy to siphon government money without anyone asking questions, this is the only reason we are still under developed.

Constructing a 500km road which cost about 200 Billion Naira, when e don reach Nigeria turn, dem go tell you sey na 2 trillion.

Cost of fixing a pothole which cost about 45k, dem go tell you 1m.

How we want take grow as a nation?

If you raise objections you will be labelled Igbo and hater of the government

Christistruth00:
The Portuguese don't eat Cassava or Garri neither do the British

Lagos had an entire Brazilian Quarters with thousands of returnee slaves

Yoruba returnee Slaves brought it from Brazil
It was one of their Staple diets in Brazil

Rev Samuel Ajayi Crowther took it to Onitsha with the Christian Gospel

Did I mention that uth was also Rev Ajayi Crowther who taught the Onitsha People how to make Garri?

Portuguese brought it from Brazil where they colonized.

Christistruth00:
It was not the British who brought Cassava and Garri
They don't even eat it
It was the Returnee Yoruba' Slaves who brought it with them from Brazil
And it was Rev Ajayi Crowther who brought it to Igboland to save the people from severe food shortage and starvation there

Cassava was brought by the colonials.
The Portuguese in particular.

History of Nigeria will be kind to Igbos, posterity will vindicate Ndiigbo.

Christistruth00:
It was Rev Samuel Ajayi Crowther who first took Cassava and Garri to Onitsha, to help overcome a very serious food shortage as the population was near Starvation
Garri became an Instant Smash hit and Super Star in Igboland because Cassava grew everywhere it was planted whether the soil was fertile or not and it Sustained the Population

The same effort that produced one tonne of Yams produced 20 tonnes of Cassava and in shorter time
Your forefathers were so grateful for it

Nonsense as usual.
The Igbo were very populous before any slave called Ajayi crowther set foot in Igboland.
Ofcourse we are grateful for the introduction of Cassava by the colonials just as Europeans were grateful for the introduction of potatoes.
Who doesn't like more food especially one that requires less strength to cultivate and less soil fertility to yield.

Dogalmighty17:
I really don't get it. Why is it that you the igbo have to become defensive and point fingers at other tribes? Why? I drew my focal point from 2004. You went far back to the 60s and 70s?

In what way did what you posted further give elucidation to the body, spirit and overall content of my post?
If what you say is true, why haven't the igbo shown that in the recent Nigerian Democratic experiment?

I am siding no tribe. I am from a minority tribe in the Nigerian political space. However, on behalf of every minority tribe in the country, this is us giving you the igbo, hausa and yoruba notice. We are sick and tired of your sh.t. You guys need to get your act together.

Leave Ndiigbo out your sick ignorant analysis.
Since 1999 to today, SE have always voted in Bloc.
We voted OBJ in 1999 and 2003, we voted for Yaradua in 2007 and GEJ in 2011 and 2015 in bloc.
We voted Atiku in Bloc in 2019 and Obi in 2023.
No other region delivers a bloc vote like SE does.
If you have issues with your Hausa and Yoruba overlords, go settle with them, leave Ndiigbo alone.

Dogalmighty17:
I ask this question with all heaviness of heart. The ever eternal optimist that I am, I grew up with faith and belief in this country. Yes, things generally weren't optimal then. The military was in power for 16 years of my life. Excuses could be made then that the military couldn't really provide the elusive 'dividends of democracy'. Advocacy was made for civilian rule. We got it in 1999. 24 years later under Democratic rule, is Nigeria better off?

Here are some shocking indices.
1. Poverty rate.
As at 2004, the earliest record available under the Democratic government, Nigerias poverty rate was 54.4%. In 2023, it is 63%.

2. Out of school children.
In 2004, Nigeria had a percentage of 30.04
% of out of school children. As at today, Nigeria has the highest number of out of school children in the world.

3. Extrajudicial killings.
Extrajudicial killings in Nigeria as at 2004 was 997. They numbered 4,545 in 2022.

4. The exchange rate.
The naira to dollar was exchanging for 135 naira in 2004. By 2022 ending, it was 768.

5. Nigeria's debt profile.
Nigeria's debt profile in 2004 was 46.25 billion dollars. In 2022, it ended at 103.1 billion dollars.
6. Happiness Index
As at 2015, Nigeria was the 78th happiest country in the world(there was a not too distant time before 2015 when we ranked happiest). At at 2023, Nigeria has the worst happiness index in the world.

I can go on and on. Should I even mention how far we've fallen in the global corruption index? We all know the answer to that. My overall point is, there is NO SINGLE METRIC that Nigeria has improved on since the emergence of democracy. We have consistently gone backward in everything.

If you notice, I've based my start date on 2004. Not for any reason but that consistent records on the above indexes weren't consistent pre-2004.

Now, I am not in anyway saying life in Nigeria was better pre-democratic rule. In fact, I am of the view that military rule put Nigeria in the mess it is now. The military never allowed strong institutional development. A country is only as sound as the institutions governing it. In this, both military and civilian governments have failed.

So, why is Nigeria in the mess it is currently? We have allowed ethnic and tribal sentiments to becloud our sense of judgement and reasoning. We have consistently elected failures into office and we will keep doing so. I used to be of the view that the uneducated voters in Nigeria were the problem. However, that appears not to be the case. It is the sound intellectuals in Nigeria, who package deadbeats and present them as viable candidates to be voted for.

What sound marketable antecident did Obasanjo, Jonathan, Buhari and Tinubu have that they were voted into power? In what world was Obasanjo better than Olu Falae? We missed it in 1999.

Are technocrats the solution? Not in Nigeria. Every person at the top echelon of the CBN, PHCN, FAAN, NPA, NMA and every top government agency, are academically sound people who can do exploits in any other country in the world. Why are they all failures in Nigeria? Why?

Why does Nigeria have the worst performing currency in Africa? Why can't the technocrats in charge of electricity increase MW beyond the measly 4000 megawatts Nigeria has struggled with for over 15 years now? Why is it that during conflict, neighbors resort to arms, destruction and killing instead of calling up law enforcement agents? Why can't Nigeria get anything right? This is shameful.

So, I ask again. Is there hope for this country?

I'll answer. So long as we keep embracing a culture of lies, a culture of subjugating the truth, a culture that places loyalty over competence, there is no hope for this country.
Our politicians aren't really the issue. They come from among us.

Our togetherness is not the issue. Our unity isn't the problem. If Nigeria divides today, the east will slide into bloodshed, the north will slide into dictatorship. Only the yoruba will maintain some form of democracy (I'm not yoruba).

The above paragraph, gives a glimpse of why Nigeria got to where it is. The North was very okay with dictatorship so long as a northerner was there. The East, never really cared for governance. They thrive in chaos. Till today, only the east has no cohesive power and voting bloc in Nigeria and that will never change. The West, the yoruba, do have democracy engraved in them. But they are stuck with seeking some form of validation from the north.

Nigeria can't work until these ethnic cleavages are handled.

You are talking nonsense as usual.
In the old regional system of government, it was the West that slipped into Operation Wetie and wild wild west chaos.
In the precolonial period, it was same West that fought Each other for years in the name of Kiriji.
The North had the Tiv uprising.
The most peaceful region in Nigeria before 1970 was the East, because the Igbo never believed in conquest or expansionism.

Thank you.

Probz:
What’s awa supposed to be? Ain’t never heard of it.

See Ofe Awa here.
Both the raw leaf and the soup.
In the whole Igboland, only Enugu (Nkanu) people use it.

ChinenyeN is not even an Igbo person, so I wonder what all these her infactuation with Igbo language and its clusters of dialects is all about.

He is right.
What is Mali, what is Niger? An abominable conglomeration of unrelated African ethnic groups cobbled together by France for her own selfish interest of exploitation and plunder.
If the French withdraw their support of the government, and the trapped ethnic nationalities in those colonial abominations you call countries choose to fight for Independence, the current Mali, Niger, etc governments will not be able to contain them without arms support from the West.
Even if they get arms from the Russia to try to suppress them and the west out of vendetta decides to fund the rebels, it will be a stalemate and the country will be divided in the end..

The same thing is applicable to Nigeria.
The west created it and are the only reason it's still alive.
Make no mistake about that. Macron is 100% right.

otino:
The team visited the Trans-Niger Pipeline Right of Way in Owaza, Abia where an array of dismantled illegal connections were observed.
Hope u get it now

You don't know your geography.
Abia is North to Rivers State.
Pipelines for crude oil export don't run from Rivers to Abia, they run from Abia to Rivers.
The connection in place siphons crude oil from Abia to Rivers for onwards transportation to the Atlantic ocean for exports.
So the crude oil in this instance couldn't have come from outside Abia as that wouldn't make sense.
Hope your bigotry had been cured.

By the way, Owaza oil Fields in Abia is the oldest in Nigeria after after Oloibiri as it was discovered in 1957 just a year after Oloibiri,but Oloibiri has ran out of crude oil since a decade ago while Owaza fields is still going strong.
This is what they will not teach you in school when hate filled people go on rant about how Igbos wanted to steal "Niger Delta" oyel in Biafra.

Who God has blessed, no man can curse. Ndiigbo are blessed.

AfricanColumbus:
Anioma state will do well

Would be nice if they can give Oza-nogogo back to Edo, while Edo gives Igbanke back to Anioma.

kokoA:
There are also idegenous Idomas in Enugu state. It's a normal thing

Just Etteh community and they share the town with Indigenous Igbos and Igala migrants.
Etteh also has no boundary with Benue State.

Lagos for Yorubas only, Abuja a no man's land for every Nigerian.
Yorubas have PhD in hypocrisy.

SmartPolician:
In the March 2023 guber election in Abia State, people massively voted for Governor Alex Otti of the Labour Party in the hopes that he would rewrite the lachrymose narrative of an ironical "God's own state" that has grappled with bad leadership at the state level since 1999.

Apparently, Mr. Otti is not leaving any stone unturned in an effort to justify the confidence the people have reposed in him. As a result, he has embarked on urban renewal projects and massive cleanup of Aba, the commercial capital of the eastern state.

Now, check out the before and after pictures of Cemetery Road, one of the popular roads in the commercial epicentre of the state.

The road lacks aesthetics.
They should mark the roads and paint the cabs, do some flowers planting.

BoldBrainz:
Says the kolanut-munching Ndigbo bastard whose abacha-contaminated brain is too dense to know that they're two working ports in the Niger Delta that are currently in the process of being dredged for optimum economic yield.

Attache by force.
Does Ugep have seaport?
You want to attach to the seaport of other ethnic groups by hiding behind ridiculous Niger Delta tag?
How is Ugep Niger Delta?
Are you anywhere close to River Niger let alone the Delta of River Niger?
What is wrong with you?

Abagworo:
It is not right to leave your people at the mercy of others simply because they were manipulated into submission. The stories of what happened to Ikwerres after the war is not told in full. What was told is how Igbo properties were seized and declared abandoned whereas the "Igbo" included Ikwerre. During the war and when the heat of the war was much in Rivers State both Igbos of Southeast and Ikwerres,Etches were targeted for annihilation and everyone ran across Imo and Orashi river to Southeast camps for survival. When the war ended and everyone returned both the property of Igbos and Ikwerres were declared abandoned with then Rivers Government asking them to go back to Southeast. The Ikwerres were later allowed back based on unknown agreement to allegiance with elders which we all don't know except for the few still alive. This video was shot at Igwuruta just at the end of the war.



https://www.tiktok.com/video/7218217949516107051?_t=8f2FckZiTlV&_r=1

I for one understand the difficulties Igbos surrounded by Igbophobic minorities who were eyeing their ancestral lands and tried to use FG Igbophobic Yoruba and Hausa Fulani to seize the ancestral lands of those Igbos in SS faced.
I have written extensively about it.
Had Ikwerre not denied being Igbo, Ijaws would have seized PH totally from them, the supreme Court under Igbophobic Hausa Fulani and Yoruba would have thwarted justice.
The same thing happened in Ukwuani, Ndokwa in particular with those Isoko squatters they accomodated as customary tenants all out to use the opportunity to claim all their lands riding on Hausa-fulani and Yoruba Igbophobic agenda, Ukwuani and Ndokwa had to be unequivocal in denying Igbo identity to thwart that agenda.
Enuani didn't face such existential threat as their immediate neighbors are mainly fellow Delta Igbos or Anambra State.
So a discerning mind will understand while Igbo denial were and remain strongest in Ukwuani and Ikwerre when it comes to Igbos in SS.
Zik and Ukiwe understood those realities.

But ask yourself, why do they still need to continue the game of Igbo denial?
The Hausa-Fulanis and their Yoruba partners no longer have the veto power of military Government to do and undo, Ndiigbo in SE have since fully recovered from the civil war, we are no longer weak. We have the finance and diaspora population to protect Igbo land and those at the borders of Igboland from Hawks.
Why do Ikwerre and Ukwuani need to continue playing the deinal game?
Why have they conveniently forgotten why they started the denial game to start with?
Was it not to protect their lands from expansionist Minorities neighbors who wanted to ride on the prevalent Hausa Fulani and their Yoruba partners "crush Igbo" agenda,to declare them strangers in their ancestral lands and appropriate those lands for themselves?

Why have their elders conveniently failed to tell their children this, instead a nauseating story of Igbos trying to annex their lands was concocted and served to them.

Why would Igbo want to annex places we already see as Igboland.
Why would we want to kill people we see as Umunne?
Where is the common sense of these people to not even see that their elders have lied and have refused to come pure to them..
They are Igbos themselves and they know the traditions. The Igbo is tied to his ancestral Ala/Ali/Ana/Ani/Eli and must be buried there iif he must transcend to the realm of his ancestors.
It's madness what has happened to Igbos in SS with the exception of Enuani.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/04/rebisi-in-history/amp/https://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/04/rebisi-in-history/amp/

This is how they came cap in hands when Rivers State jungle they were initially happy with turned sour in their mouths.


They remembered they are Igbos and Ndiigbo helped.
But I assure you, this generation of Igbos are built different.
No such help will be offered in the future.
All the insults and denigrations you allowed Minorities to hide behind you to dish out to Igbos while you either joined hands or kept tactical approval silence will be remembered and you will not be forgiven.
You will not have an ally in us.
Just make sure you are strong enough to dig out by yourself.
Maka adaa ama ama.

[quote author=Abagworo post=125272372][/quote]They are bunch of evil people.
I pity any Igbo group that are too dense to see that once Ndiigbo are gone, they will channel their Igbo hate towards them ( Igbos in SS).

Ndiigbo will not beg Igbos in SS to jolt back to senses and return to Nzuko Umunna with SE.
We will let them have their wish with the Minorities, with the promise that no help will come from us to them in the future when the jungle in that tower of Babel Minorities country mature.
We will not play the Zik/Ukiwe role again.

Onulu ube nwanne ga-akuchi nti !

Abagworo:
Yielding to territorial and ethnic manipulation is one of the signs of weakness at the center. No ethnic nation should yield their territory for outsiders to divide and determine their boundary. After the defeat of Igbos and the creation of new ethnic groups out of the Igbo nation by the federal government and Igbos accepted it then (1970) they became perceived as weak hence the establishment few years later of the Nasir boundary commission to further excise territories thought to be rich in oil resources from then East Central State and Bendel State into Rivers State. This includes Ndoni, Egbema and Obigbo.

When you lose a war you are usually at a weak position.
Germany lost huge hectares of land to Poland after losing second world war, it's even worst in Germany case because the native Germans in those lands were forced to leave their ancestral homes and migrate back to lands in modern day Germany under USSR support of Poland.
Ikwerre feared similar fate if they retained their Igbo tag, with Ijaws well poised to strike and appropriate Ikwerre lands to themselves with full support of the Hausa-Fulanis and Yoruba controlled Igbophobic FG of post civil war era.
This was why they rushed and denounced attachment to Igbos and were able to save their lands, even winning the Ijaws in supreme Court over PH ownership in immediate post civil era. That wouldn't have been possible If they remained proudly Igbo. Every rational Igbo that understands history appreciate why Ikwerre had to play Igbo denial game they played in old Rivers state post civil war.
The Igbophobic Hausa Fulani and Yoruba Government of the day would have thwarted justice, if Ikwerre remained proudly Igbo.

You only have to Look at how Ututu people in Arochukwu LGA lost half of their lands immediately after the civil war to people from Odukpani LGA cross River that they accomodated as customary tenants in their lands in pre colonial era.
If Ututu were not Igbo, that wouldn't have happened.
Losing a war comes with a price and Ikwerre refused to pay that price by cunningly severing ties with Igbo, it's understandable.

My grouse with them is that the post civil war era is gone, Igbos are no longer so weak and the Hausa-Fulanis and their Yoruba partners are no longer wielding military veto power.
Zik and Ukiwe have helped them cage Ijaw in Bayelsa, so why then does Ikwerre people still see the need to continue the Igbo denial game?
It hasn't helped Odili( I know he is Ndoni but it's same game they are all playing), it hasn't helped Amaechi, it hasn't helped Wike, and it will never help any of them at the federal level.

The Ijaw threat has been eliminated by pinning them in Bayelsa, the Ikwerre are in full control of PH like they always wanted, the country is under civil rule so the Hausa-Fulanis and Yoruba partners can't wield big veto power and gift their(Ikwerre) lands to their Ijaw partners, as punitive measures against Ndiigbo and reward to their Ijaw partners, without it being challenged fully in supreme court.
The Ikwerre current posture is nolonger acceptable to SEners, the general and growing consensus in SE today is that Ikwerre are expandable to our future endeavors and shouldn't be paid attention anymore.
There is a limit of humiliation and rejection a people can accept before they moved on.
Germany left their territories in Poland and even Tyriol in Italy, yet they are the biggest economy in Europe today.
None of those abandoned Germanic territories in Austria, Lichtenstein, Italy (Tyriol), even German speaking parts of Switzerland are as developed and advanced as Germany today.

So yes, Ndiigbo are more than ready and capable of leaving Ikwerre behind and march on to our future.
While we rue the loss of those territories and brothers who have turned enemies eager to team up with our enemies to cajole and ridicule us, we also appreciate the fact that what we have in SE is greater than whatever we could have lost in those other places.
In Igbo language, we say "Nkemjika" !

gidgiddy:
Ikwerres are free to claim whatever ethnicity they want, but what you said above is nonsense. You think you share more boundary than Emohua LGA and Ikwerre LGA share with Imo State? You think you inter marry more than them? What do you think you will know about Ikwerres that someone from Imo will not know? You probably dont know a single word in the Ikwerre dialect. Dont make us laugh

The person behind that handle is from Ogbomosho.
He knows nothing about Igbo or Ikwerre.
All his parents taught and that he will teach his children is Igbo hate.

Wainey:
The Ikwerres has always denied that they are not igbos, why are the igbos always trying to tell them who they are?

Oga we are not interested, if igbos tribe is so good as you claim, people will not be denying you. Go and work on ur tribe first, we the SS are not interested.

Ntoor

There is no "We" between you and Ikwerre.
If you can't grasp this simple concept, then this discussion is pointless.
Ndiigbo have no interest in whatever backward place you come from, so you can as well go and stay where the sun don't shine.
The Ikwerres who are in Igbo Organization know that there is a "We" between them and other Igbos, the opinions of dissenting Ikwerre people matters and will be put on a plebiscite on the day of reckoning, but your inferior Igbo hating Yoruba opinion trying too hard to mask under minorities of SS is irrelevant.

That's the point.

Wainey:
I am Rivers man and share boundaries with Ikwerre, so what affects them will indirectly affect me, cos we share alot with them, we live with them as neighbor, we intermarry, we know their traditional food more than you igbos, we trade with them more than you do. Except cultural dressing and language that u share with them, I know more about the Ikwerres than you ever will, I see them more as a brother while you see them as a tool to actualize ur agenda.

Igbos should leave Ikwerre and the SS people alone, we are not interested

You are not Ikwerre or Igbo.
That's the point.
You are an outsider.

We have many Ikwerres who are members of Ohaneze Ndiigbo, Amaechi in particular attends Ohaneze events, the current Ohaneze Ndiigbo president in South Africa is an Ikwerre man.
Obi Wali son is an Ohaneze chieftain, Obi Wali himself was going to declare his Igbo identity in media before he was gruesomely murdered.

The Ikwerre are more than capable of making their input on the matter of Unity with Igbos, you were never invited, it's an internal affair between Igbos and Ikwerres. You are a meddlesome outsider, your people don't have half of the human resources Ikwerre and Igbo have, so you are too inferior for your inputs or opinions to be needed in these discussions, you should focus on your own domestic issues.

Sharing boundaries with Ikwerres means nothing.
You should stay in your lane. That's the point.

Wainey:
Did they tell you there is anything special about them? If there is anything, it is igbos that is irritating with the constant attachee.
They have told you ages ago that they don't want to be called igbos, but the igbos don't want to rest.

They don't want to feel special, they just want to be left alone, it is very good if you don't join them in this inter tribal conflict that is going on in Nigeria, let the SS people breath

You the one who is irritating with your interest in this topic.
You are neither Igbo nor Ikwerre, so why are you meddling into the issue?
Don't you see you are annoying and desperate? Don't you have issues where ever backward place you came from to solve?
Doesn't it stink of unhealthy Obsession for a non Igbo and non Ikwerre like you to be putting mouth into what is a domestic matter between Igbos and Ikwerre?

You are a typical meddle Igbophobic Yoruba man.
You have your Ilorin issues to solve, you still have issues to solve with Okun and co.
There is still issue of Hausas in Lagos fighting and killing you.
You infact have too many domestic issues of you own, but you will leave it and be diving into Igbo domestic issues.
You are pathetic.

Paul Anber's essay "Modernization and Political Disintegration: Nigeria and the Ibos" published in the journal of Modern African Studies vol. 5, No 2 (Sep, 1967) 163-179. See pp 171-172 for excerpt:


" '' A system of Universal primary education was introduced in Eastern Nigeria in 1953, though the mission schools had already prospered in the Region long before then. Despite the fact that there was a requirement for limited contributory fees, education continued to be very much in demand. Even at the time when universal primary education was first introduced, the percentage of the population over seven years of age who were literate was higher in the East than in any other Region: East, 10.6 per cent; West 9.5 percent; North, 0.9 percent. Since 1959, the East has had more teachers and pupils than any other area of the country, with the heaviest emphasis on primary education.

Figures for elementary and secondary education indicate that the approximate ratio of teachers to population in 1963 was 1 to every 1,500 in the East, 1 to every 2,500 in th West, and 1 for every 10,000 in the north. Other statistical data reveal how rapidly the standard of living rose among Ibos. The East had the most extensive hospital facilities in the country by 1965, the largest regional production of electricity in the country by 1954, and the greatest number of vehicle registrations by 1963. The economic orientation of the Ibos was also reflected through membership of credit associations:in 1963 the East had 68,220 individual members, the west 5,776, and the north a mere 2,407." ''... His source was the Annual Abstract of Statistics ( Federal Office of Statistics, Lagos, 1965

Raf4:
Can you mention any development, infrastructure or a known landmark building or project in SE b4 the civil war? The region was largely combination of villages then. It was Awolowo's empowerment and SW and other regions' acceptance and accommodation that gave you platforms to flourish immediately after the war.
So, be humble and appreciative.

Southwestern dead journalism of Calumny stands no chance against Igbos in this IT age.
Wake up.

https://www.nairaland.com/2497740/vintage-pictures-onitsha-anambra-before#up

Are Odua and Arewa people ready to accept these conditions now ?

Just look at the quality of buildings in that background.
Ndiigbo dey try as individuals, forget.
If we had a country of our own, our Politicians will be collecting wotowoto, they know it too which is why most of them are pro NIGERIA.
NIGERIA represents retrogression and Haven for looters and never do wells.

horsepower102:
Nice.

We need create opportunities for these bright students.

Otti is looking promising.

16-Year- old Master Mbaraonye Ncheta Evans from Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State, got A1 in the entire 9 subjects, emerging as the overall best in the recently 2023 WAEC.

Master Mbaronye, the last child of a seasoned Abia Industrialist and business mogul, Chief Evans Mbaraonye, hails from Itungwa, Obingwa Local Government Area, Abia State emerged the overall best In May/June 2023 West Afican Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), beating over 1,500,000 million candidates that sat for the school examination in the five member Countries in the Sub- region.