₦airaland Forum

Lol. I know, umunna know, umunne know even Tinubu set knows that an Igbo man will rule Lagos BEFORE a Yoruba man rules any state in ala Igbo

SalamRushdie:
The world is just waiting for Nigerians to take the bull by the horns and kick out Buhari

The matter is now beyond Buhari sef. Nigeria is of no strategic importance to the world anymore. Now the world is looking for how to partner with likes of Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia etc

OP-Nice post. The truth is that Nigeria was created to serve British interests. It is an artificial country designed to be ruled by the north and it has lasted this long only because the military held power for so long and because of SE/SS oil.

In the first republic there was a rebellion by the Tiv nation, the Ijaw nation led by Boro also rebelled, Biafra happened, Yorubaland was in crisis etc If not that the country used Igbo blood to settle, Nigeria would have ended by the end of the 1960s.

The 1970s seemed okay because there was plenty of oil money to share and we thought it would last forever but today oil is becoming worthless.

Today we have democracy but have never been so divided. Our only hope is to get a constitution that we ALL will contribute to creating not the 1999 constitution drafted by northerners and forced on all of us.

If not give us a referendum and let us decide. My part of the country will vote to leave. That I am sure of

It is such a privilege to be here in a conference in honour of Professor Chinua Achebe, an inspiration and teacher to all of us.
I have a long connection to Nigeria. Not only was I, an Ambassador there, I have travelled to and from Nigeria for a number of years and have a deep and abiding vital emotional attachment to the Nigerian people, their magnificence, their courage, artistic brilliance, their irony, sense of humour in the face of challenges, etc.

And, I hope that we keep that in mind when I say some things that I think are counter to what we normally say about Nigeria. And, I say that with all due respect to Eric Silla, who is doing a magnificent work at State Department and to our good friends from the legislature; because I have a feeling that we both Nigerians and Americans may be doing Nigeria and Nigerians no favour by stressing Nigeria's strategic importance.


I know all the arguments: It is a major oil-producer, it is the most populous country in Africa, it has made major contributions to Africa in peace-keeping, and, of course, negatively if Nigeria were to fall apart, the ripple effects would be tremendous, etc. But, I wonder if all this emphasis on Nigeria's importance creates a tendency to inflate Nigeria's opinion of its own invulnerability.

Among much of the elite today, I have the feeling that there is a belief that Nigeria is too big to fail, too important to be ignored, and that Nigerians can go on ignoring some of the most fundamental challenges they have,many of which we have talked about: a disgraceful lack of infrastructure, the growing problems of unemployment, the failure to deal with the underlying problems in the Niger-Delta, the failure to consolidate democracy; and somehow feel will remain important to everybody because of all those reasons that are strategically important.
And I am not sure that that is helpful.

Let me sort of deconstruct those elements of Nigeria's importance, and ask whether they are as relevant as they have been.

One in five Africans is a Nigerian, so…

We often hear that one in five Africans is a Nigerian. What does it mean? Do we ever say one in five Asians is a Chinese? Chinese power comes not just for the fact that it has a lot of people but it has harnessed the entrepreneurial talent and economic capacity and all the other talents of China to make her a major economic force and political force.

What does it mean that one in five Africans is Nigeria? It does not mean anything to a Namibian or a South African. It is a kind of conceit. What makes it important is what is happening to the people of Nigeria. Are their talents being tapped? Are they becoming an economic force? Is all that potential being used?

And the answer is Not really

And oil. Yes, Nigeria is a major oil producer, but Brazil is now launching a 10-year programme that is going to make it one of the major oil producers in the world.

And every other country in Africa is now beginning to produce oil.
And Angola is rivaling Nigeria in oil production, and the United States has just discovered a huge gas reserve which is going to replace some of our dependence on imported energy.

So if you look ahead ten years, is Nigeria really going to be that relevant as a major oil producer, or just another of the many oil producers while the world moves on to alternative sources of energy and other sources of supply?

How influencial is Nigeria?

And what about its influence and contributions to the continent? As our representative from the parliament talked about, there is a great history of those contributions. But that is history.

Is Nigeria really playing a major role today in the crisis in Niger on its border, or in Guinea, or in Darfur, or, after making many promises, any contributions to Somalia?

The answer is no. Today Nigeria is not making a major impact on its region, or on the African Union or on the big problems of Africa.
What about its economic influence?

Well, as we have talked about earlier, there is a de-industrialisation going on in Nigeria” lack of infrastructure and power means that with imported goods under globalisation, Nigerian factories are closing and more people are becoming unemployed. Nigeria is becoming a kind of society that imports and exports and lives off the oil, which does not make it a significant economic entity.

Now, of course, on the negative side, the collapse of Nigeria would be enormous, but is that a point to make Nigeria strategically important?
Years ago, I worked for an Assistant Secretary of State who had the longest tenure in that job in the 1980s; and I remember in one meeting a Minister from a country not very friendly to the United States, came in and was berating the Assistant Secretary on all the evils of the United States and all its dire plots and in-things in Africa.

He was going on and on and finally the Assistant Secretary cut him off and said, You know, the biggest danger for your relationship with the United States is not our opposition but that we will find you irrelevant.”

Nigeria-America relationship

The point is that Nigeria can become much less relevant to the United States. We have already seen evidence of it when President Obama went to Ghana and not to Nigeria. He was sending a message that Ghana symbolised more of the significant trends, issues and importance that one wants to put on Africa than Nigeria.

And when I was asked by journalists why President Obama did not go to Nigeria, I said, what would he gain from going? Would Nigeria be a good model for democracy? Would it be a model for good governance? Would he obtain new commitments on Darfur or Somalia or strengthen the African Union or in Niger or elsewhere?

No he would not, so he did not go.

And when Secretary Clinton did go, indeed, she also went to Angola. Who would have thought years ago that Angola would be the most stable country in the Gulf of Guinea and establish a binominal commission in Angola?

So the handwriting may already be on the wall, and that is a sad commentary.
What it means is that Nigeria's most important strategic importance in the end could be that it has failed.

That is a sad, sad conclusion. It does not have to happen, but I think that we ought to stop talking about what a great country it is, and how terribly important it is to us and talk about what it would take for Nigeria to be that important and great.

It takes an enormous amount of commitment. You do not need saints, you do not need leaders like Nelson Mandela in every state, because you are not going to get them.

South Korean example

I served in South Korea in the middle of the 1960s and it was at the time when South Korea was poor and considered hopeless. But she was turning around, later to become, to every person's amazement, then the eleventh largest economy in the world. I remember the economist in my mission saying,it did not bother him that the leading elite in the government of South Korea were taking 15 to 20 per cent off the top of every project, as long as every project was a good one.

That was the difference. The leadership at the time was determined to solve the fundamental economic issues of South Korea and turn her economy around.

It has not happened in Nigeria today. You don't need saints. It needs leaders who say, You know we could be becoming irrelevant, and we got to do something about it.

Princeton Lyman - Former US Ambassador to Nigeria

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/01/nigeria-becoming-irrelevant-in-the-world/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Na wa ooo

ANIOMADEI2018:
I accept Buhari has not done anything for Nigeria in the last 3yrs of his administratiovn, but come 2019, some of these will be on his CV.

- All salary arrears paid up

- All contractual debts paid up

- All Pension arrears paid up

- All money owed Biafran war veterans paid off

- Almost known treasury leakages sealed up

- Treasury thieves being investigated and prosecuted

- Recession overcome within one year

- The foreign reserve keeps growing despite low oil price

- Inflation is reducing

- The Capital market rated highest globally

- The ease of doing business rated high

- Greatly reduced food import bills

- Greatly increased Internal Revenue Generation drive

- Revamped and more effective tax regime

- More efficient and more responsible Civil Service

- All Federal roads being reconstructed across the Country

- Fast rails being constructed between the state capitals

- Gas pipeline being laid from South to Abuja, Kaduna and Kano

- 13 Modular Refineries being built in ND

- Private Financing for our three Refineries being negotiated

- Private Refineries to collocate with the existing Refineries being concluded

- Influx of foreign companies increasing

- Increased investments by domestic investors

- The Electricity Generating capacity at 7000 MW

- Transmission Capacity at 7000 MW

- Distribution capacity being restructured to inject more capital and expertise

- The economy of Nigeria being Restructured from oil based to Agric, Solid Mineral and Manufacture based

- Boko Haram now a distant ding in the orchestra of general quietude

- IPOB now a mute idea ready for discussions at the right time

- Niger Delta Avengers now reduced from a movement to Madam’s Patie military wing for retaining her loot.

- Military vehicles sourced from a Nigeria car manufacturer for the first time

How do you sleep at night

This is crap. You cant be a real oil producing state if you are not getting increased derivation. Give us 13% then we will accept. Just because the Buhari government is thirsty for Igbo votes they sharply approve modular refineries

God punish devil. After bringing python dance and killing plenty of our youths they have now come for votes. Too late Buhari is going home next year

Onijagidijagan:
May i use this opportunity to persuade our igbos to vote for Buhari the only formidable leader amongst the candidates vying for the position of the president in 2019 for the following reasons:

1. There is a saying " if you cannot beat them join them"instead of our brothers in the east to just throw their votes away to the opposition parties that cannot defeat Buhari, they should swim with the tides and work hand in hand with Nigerians. who knows if Igbo candidate will represent the African largest party (i.e APC) in 2023.

2.it will reduce the level of envy and hatred they have for Nigerians (Yoruba, Fulani and Hausa)

3.If the five governors of the eastern states are elected under the platform of APC, Igbo presidential ambition will see the light of the day without restrain.

4.More capital projects and infrastructures in the eastern states will be guaranteed.

We Yoruba people might support their political ambition and forget their past betrayals.

Can i hear all the igbo on this forum should comment Sai Baba!!! till 2023.

DAPADA!

They are not interested in making any port in the east viable. No be today matter

deji17:
Hmmm

The North was not ready for independence in the 1950s and till today the north is still not ready. Thunder fire Lugard

JackBaueress1:
This time around, I will not campaign for him. he's a failure and should go and rest and think of how he will look after Zahra's unborn child.


What a monumental failure!!!

Dem hack Berem account?

joeyfire:
Rochas take. Animal like you

Mods wey the picture na?

Rochas take. Animal like you

imhotep:
Emir alariiwo of the Abeokuta caliphate

cc lzaa onyeoga

Afo'm oooo

gidgiddy:
Captain Nwankwo, Ironsi's ADC has already told the story of Ironsi's death many times.

TY Danjuma was who killed Ironsi and Fajuyi. Had Nigeria been a civilized place, Danjuma would have gone to jail for murder

Danjuma and all the other middlebelt officers who took part in the coup were the biggest mugus

LZAA:
a group of northern NCOs
william walbe was among them
danjuma arrested ironsi but was shoved aside by the NCOs

While I agree that Danjuma didnt pull the trigger I don't agree that Danjuma was shoved aside. Igbo officers in Abeokuta were already being shot by Domkat Bali and co and it is something they planned seriously for months. I believe Walbe, Bello and others took Ironsi and Fajuyi to kill them with the full knowledge and complicity of Danjuma. Unless there are facts to the contrary

5thElement:
The picture you posted says nothing about drugs. Now be a good boy and run along now.

Cowardly kid. Be a man or eff off

AnambraDota:
Most Nigerians in Saudi prisons waiting for execution for drug trafficking are yorubas, they used Hajj as an avenue to traffic on drugs

Many popular Fuji musicians made big money from cocaine trafficking in the 1970s before anybody had opened eye to what cocaine was

5thElement:
I wish there was a filter to help me screen off foolish posts.

Two Yoruba men were killed in South Africa. No mention of drugs.

Do you want me to post links of Igbos being killed all around the world for you?

E be like say you wan cry today.

Better let sleeping dogs lie.

Yoruba guys in SA like other Nigerian criminals do drugs, 419, armed robbery etc Your hypocrisy notwithstanding. Do you want me to bring up the news article of your Oba caught abroad with drugs? Be my guest

5thElement:
And what has your post got to do with anything we are talking about here?

I thought you were smart. Check the names of the Nigerians in that article while you attempt to talk about Igbos in South Africa

5thElement:
Anything that gets you through the night bro.

You are allowed to wallow in self delusions. Your choice.

I'm sure South Africans will say otherwise though. So also will Malaysians and Indonesians.

Smh

LZAA:
danjuma DID not kill ironsi

So who did

CSTR1002:
Just look at this one.
.Your Yoruba forefathers were to first to submit to colonial rule in the whole of Nigeria.

Without a fight ;

While Ndi Igbo fought the British bitterly for years. Umu anioma in particular fought a bitter guerrilla war for more than 10 years

ImperialYoruba:
You should be ashamed. Abia citizens are not allowed in the civil service in Enugu but you are proud that fulani was your mayor.

Bloody slave

Lie

"Where is the C in C?" - Ojukwu's question to Gowon after Danjuma and Walbe murdered Aguiyi Ironsi in the counter-coup of 1966

fk001:
Divide and concur will not work for you...





Yoruba's are united

@ "concur"

Hmmmmmmmmm

Afonja effed up big time

BishopMagic:
All hail the latest fat boiling frog

https://i1.wp.com/media.premiumtimesng.com/wp-content/files/2018/04/IMG_20180401_070811.jpg?w=760&ssl=1

[img]http://sallyember.files./2014/02/frog-heat-beaker.jpg[/img]

;

Osinbajo na roasted frog

deomelo:
[s][/s]




Look at this useless villager using mimiko, another useless man to defend the useless and worthless one in his village. Silly ipob


So, if mimiko is useless and backward, your own borehole and keke governor must be too?.


Silly ipobs..

Healthcare is more important than bus stop Eko Ile Argue with your shadow....Yet no pipe borne water in Lagos State or even light rail na bus stop you dey celebrate

[quote author=deomelo post=66322622][/quote]So a motor park not better than God is Good Motors park is more important than low-cost ambulances that save lives carrying sick people from rural areas to hospitals. Same thing that Mimiko implemented successfully in his state for pregnant women with the Abiye Safe Motherhood ambulances few years ago

So a lightrail train, pipe borne water, healthcare facilities are not as important as bus stop

Your matter is more hopeless than I thought

Eko Ile abi na Deomelon you dey answer now. So na motor park not better than God is Good Motors, Jibowu wey you dey use console yourself now. What about the lightrail na? Still in voicemail after 20 years