₦airaland Forum

davidylan:
Nigerian women seem to have a problem with the mixed chics in nollywood.   Subconscious resentment maybe?

But they looff the mixed, abi na yellow nollywood men,   

I will not allow them to ride me in my own country.

Unfortunately, he "rode" you already.

I feel sorry for the sista though, abuse is abuse no matter the situation. I'm particularly disgusted at the way Nigerian Police and our people treat cases anytime a white foreigner is involved, this self hate is just sad, it's even sadder in her case because she's a woman and a Nigerian man will probably get away with this kind of act if he has money and power too. Either way she's effed.

Osama10:
Hmmmn, this is getting intresting.

You can say that again. . . intriguing

I hope they will do the right thing and get to the bottom of all these. . .

They knew Okah was planning something right? Yet, a Director of the SSS still died from the blast that killed mostly Nigerian security officials. Was that some kind of coincidence?

Were they trying to defuse the bomb?

Did they know the exact location of the Bomb?

or they just planted this thing themselves and got blown up while doing it?

Where are all those Nigerian reporters? they need to do their jobs and ask questions because, this whole drama isn't making any sense. . .

We don't need them to pass the Law, we shall assume the Law. . .

9jacyberactivist, if you indeed did that, May your days be long. . .

at least he made a significant political statement without killing other people,

valacious:
see the[b] yellow mopol[/b] is laughing,

Dusting for prints? after spare part squad don walk all over the scene or before? SMH

Some of us asked that curious question Yesterday about the possible involvement of some fifth columnists in all these, considering how ludicrous it will be for MEND to do this and risk losing their ND support ( not saying all terrorists are reasonable).

I was especially waiting for Okah or some top MEND figure with a real face to confirm or deny their involvement. Now that Okah has claimed ignorance. This opens up several other possibilities. . .

@T9ksy(I wrote "Twy" earlier, apologies. . .) very well, you are entitled to your opinion.

BUT my views did not suggest an abandonment of culture, culture by the way is dynamic and it will always change, it's always been fluid and it will continue to be, regardless of what we think or do. What I'm concerned with is the absence of egalitarian principles both in this fake union that we have and in the ones that we might build if we agree to spilt along ethnic lines.

I welcome my culture and I understand the human need for ethnic loyalty or similarities. As long as your worldview does not violate my right to exist and live in liberty, dignity and freedom then we can share a nation. If you violate me, I will fight you like an enemy, even if we share the same culture or last name.

We can choose to isolate ourselves into any region we want, by all Means, embrace culture. I do too. But individual citizens need the assurance of freedom and liberty, something I believe we can all push for within the "union" we currently have. If we split, people like me will still demand the same. We should not replace the oppressor's tribal marks and continue the oppression. That is my point.

haha Nothing like boti jare

Oh Planta! what happened to that product sef?

davidylan:
hehehe bros milk dey and MILK dey.

Walahi My bro! Milk pass milk.

But after pouring those powdered things in a used can of Peak Milk, all "Milks" become Equal   Pako boys started forming same level with us "omo Buti" for boarding school because of Powdered Milk.

Sachet powdered Milk was a great leveler in those days

davidylan:
a selection of poverty-stricken folks here. 

Typical breakfast - cornflakes with peak milk (the dutch one), bread and scrabbled eggs or toast.

who mentioned moimoi and ogi there? 

HAAHAHAHAHA!! Identified Like a true naija bred Pako-bota. Only the ijinle's can pull out nuanced differences like that

I now agree that we have too many Never-been-to-Naija, Never-Spent-Naira-before folks on Nairaland 

^^ we do carbs anytime, everyday

[quote author=Aloy+Emeka link=topic=522638.msg6858357#msg6858357 date=1285960710]Shouldn't we work towards emancipating the mind first because even if we vote Ronald Regan as Nigeria's president today, he will never succeed with the frame of mind the citizens find themselves in. The government should set the ball rolling by launching an aggressive media campaign against tribalism for a sustained number of years and the newer generation will begin to see that their problem is not the man/woman from the next village, rather it is their own kinsmen who steal from them in the name of ethnic and religious politics.[/quote]Good contribution!

Yes we should work towards emancipating our minds. The harsh political fact is that very few will do that in the absence of an inspiring leader or group of leaders. One of the main duties of a true revolutionary leader is to educate and inspire more people than his opponents. That is the problem I have with the so called activists we have in Nigeria; they are doing a poor job of carrying the people along. We need to rescue our people, North and South from the hands of these Avaricious Looters and their criminal, Bomb throwing, fake revolutionary friends.

We need inspirational leadership, Because It will be impossible, IMO, for a group of people to suddenly "get it" in a collective moment of personal reflection.

One other way by which you and I can help is in the area of Education. Teachers, professors and enlightened education policy makers or policy pushers can help push for change, our people lack a real and robust education experience. We know little of our History, pre or post colonial and we lack a cohesive and unifying National ideology that transcends Culture, ethnicity or religion. I see Education as an area of opportunity for those who are concerned. Education is not Oil business and neither is it very attractive to the looters( I know some have interests in it).

As an example; Religious Nigerians, especially those of the Evangelical strand are doing it effectively, they are succeeding in getting to the minds of our young, they have schools, TV programs and even Universities(i have nothing against them BTW). We might need to borrow their method though. Educating our children, spreading the gospel of political, critical and revolutionary enlightenment, social egalitarianism, with an emphasis on reason over silly beliefs will go a long way to help. Call it propaganda or whatever, we need to get it done. The "great hope of the black race" can't continue like this.

So, yes we should work towards emancipating the mind. But it will take inspiring leadership.

[quote author= Ibime on Today at 04:49:03 PM]My main problem with this action is that it doesn't have groundswell base support in Niger Delta. I cannot think of the rationale behind this except its somehow linked to elections.

As for those asking "what do these people want", if the true MEND is behind this, then I refer them to Rotimi Williams statement that "The constitution lied against itself ab initio by the opening statement of We the People". Those who forgot what the Niger Delta kerfuffle is about should remember that AMNESTY was never an end goal but constitutional review, fiscal federalism and land rights.

As for this bombing, its ill-advised, a PR disaster and has no moral basis considering that most Niger Deltans are presently focussed on getting Jonathan over the finishing line and want no trouble at this stage. All this could be linked to elections as Otokx opined, otherwise the only other explanation is that Henry Okah is an obdurate single-minded modafucka. No further comment till more evidence comes to light.[/quote]It makes no sense to me too. I'm tending towards your side of the analysis until it becomes clearer. I Don't want to indulge in unfounded conspiracy theories, but I sense there are some bigger elements outside MEND involved in this.  I hope Okah will talk pretty soon.

My Intel mind is telling me that MEND is not behind this act

That was my first thought. But it's been hours and they've not denied anything. so they probably did it.

I'm more saddened by the thought of John Campbell[ George Bush's Nigeria Troll] smiling and gloating wishing this will turn into a war so his resume can be boosted a lil bit more.

I hope we don't fall into the trap.

I also see Big Oil rejoicing over all these, after all war or no war, the drilling will continue as long as they settle the right folks.  Hopefully this won't lead to more suffering for innocent Nigerians. I still maintain this is a Senseless Act.

There is nothing revolutionary about a bunch of thugs without a straightforward ideology unleashing mayhem on innocent people.

This whole thing smells of a deeper conspiracy, I hope I'm very wrong and my "Mary-Jane" is just good like that. . .

Oyb; abeg e don do   Maziuche; biko. We have more important issues to argue about.

@Twy, great contribution, I don't want to repost the whole thing, but your comments on Blyden is educative. I know the name but not too familiar with his history I'll look it up promptly, Garvey i'm very familiar with. But I'm not sure about the reasons why we don't teach Nigerian students these aspects of history. I believe they will understand it if we labour to teach.

Successive governments had managed Ill-advisedly to ignore certain aspects of our history, I think it's a shame, we rubbed ourselves of critical discussions in the classrooms that would have presented a clearer picture of what our nation is or could be. The years of military rule and their interest in forging a pseudo-united front for political control reasons didn't help either. I believe it's not too late.

@ Topic, This is just Senseless. . .

Beaf:
Despair and hate are totally different things. What is expressed by most here is despair and it is right to be in despair about Nigeria, because it is only after we acknowledge the wrong that we can begin building the right.

Beaf you spoke well on page one. Well said! Just make sure GEJ understands

My "we go party Yanfu Yanfu" people don turn this thread to another thing, I no blame them sha, we all process the day differently.

manugbo:
Dear KILODE,

Do u mean i have enemies from 6 or 5 Villages? Hell no!

Im reporting FROM UGWUNAGBOR LGA!

Keep doing it jare, we appreciate it!

manugbo:
let them go to Ihie- in Ugwunagbor LGA , and make sure they cover inside Ngwaiyiekwe. thats where those boys camp. They despoil both young and old women in those villages.

OK, we hear you, I hope those soldiers are reading this o,

All those Maggots who wont let our children grow up, must be dealt with.

Manugbo, keep it coming, abeg no use this one do your enemies bad things sha o! na only kidnapper locations we want. Leave innocent people out o.

I'm not sure about this bloody revolution business.

I don't believe we've explored all means yet, The price to pay for now seems too much, too many of my people are still too uneducated and ignorant. They will suffer the most(not that they are not suffering already). I'm not able to stomach that right now. I can understand the temptation, like Sankara said

You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness -Thomas Sankara


But we have to exhaust all avenues, else we perpetuate our people's sufferings and achieve nothing.

[quote author=Aloy+Emeka link=topic=522638.msg6850634#msg6850634 date=1285856845]Enough of the excuses. Our greatest threat in Nigeria is the mindset of the present and future generation and not the bigoted past generation. Many countries across the globe had bigoted ancestors who supported slavery, despoil, cannibalism, etc and they were able to navigate away from that and realize that their forefathers were blind but the reverse is the case in Nigeria. Tell a Northerner that Balewa was bigoted and he will cut off your head and it doesn't matter whether you present facts to him that he vehemently resisted Azikiwe and Macaulay who were trying to bring unity. Tell a Yorubaman that Awolowo was a tribal bigot and a scum of the earth whom I prefer to call Africa's Adolf Hitler and the Yorubaman will flip and give you 10,000 reasons why you are wrong and foolish at that; Tell an Igbo man that Kaduna Nzeogwu planned a bigoted coup and he will list the names of Yoruba soldiers who participated in the coup without considering whether those Yoruba soldiers participated because they were misled into believing the coup was for a cause or may be they didn't have any option of defecting knowing how the military is. Their families may have been hostages during the coup.

Bottom line, we place tribal integrity above human values. It doesn't matter if all of us are roasting in hunger and pain as long as the supremacy of our tribes remains in tact. That sort of thinking was what Azikiwe gave in his 1952 Speech at Lincoln university and then he allayed it as one of his fears that at the rate we are going, Africans will be more absorbed with tribal superiority than the value of their own lives and it is a pity.

So, our greatest threat is our retrogressive mind and not how our ancestors erred. Since we are able to identify these flaws, what is holding us from correcting them?[/quote]There are no unnecessary "excuses" in my post, certainly not for bad leadership.

I agree with most of what you wrote, but we look to history for guidance so we can limit the repetition of past errors.

I hold no brief for Balewa, Awolowo or even Azikiwe. I maintain that you cannot compare the "Nationalism" of people who were born before Nigeria was formed to that of You and I who have now lived in Nigeria all our lives.

They negotiated based on their fears and what they were familiar with, those people were more British then they were Nigerians, after the British left, It was sensible for them to ask what is in this new arrangement for us (me and my people)?

I wish they were able to have more trust in each other, but unfortunately that did not happen.

Now, for the present generation, our reactions to and approach towards protecting what we perceive to be our collective interests will definitely be different, we've inter-married, we've developed similar tastes in music, food, religion, language and other areas, we should be able to negotiate better, that was the basis of my analysis. I think that agrees with your conclusions also.


Now I will not assume that all Nigerians share the same national values, but I'll say we can work towards making it so for the majority. That is where the work should be. We need to address those foundational issues that will give every Nigerian a sense of belonging.

I see little wrong with ethnic allegiances in the absence of a cohesive, national set of values that can bind us together. The British couldn't do it because frankly it was none of their business, they came here to exploit and enrich themselves.

Our leaders failed to do it, either due to ignorance or the the sheer weight of the responsibility, I fault them too, but I can understand the dynamics of that period. The union was not of their choosing, and they did not collectively plan it or agree to it like the Americans did. There was a third party that messed the synergy up

Now, it is our responsibily to get it right. I totally agree with you on that.

So, I think a more egalitarian system of laws and governance, pushed by leaders who believe in Freedom, Liberty and the Rights of the individual over those of regions, cultures, religions, e.t.c, is the way to go. Those are the foundational issues that we have to address. Nations where those values are now practised effectively had to overcome and deal with those foundational issues also.

So, Looking back at history is not an exercise in seeking-excuses. I believe we need to do a lot more of that actually.

oyb:
my flight into abj this morning was full of musicians prolly enroute to perform naija at 50; gej the new wind

wande coal, zakky, the prince or some such

bunch of lapdog prostit-utes - just like all those yoruba musicians who endorsed abacha back in the day

SMH, O ma se o, Anyway, what was I expecting?

Shameful celebration of 50 years of Shambolic leadership.

You can Imagine IBB now speaking against a centralized Government, OBJ singing about popular protest against public waste, he even tried to give federal character a new image(after all it's not like Zoning ) mind you, he hates regional politics o, but sharing position based on federal region is fine.

I laugh in Jukun.

Bro, Tell Abuja we said hello, I hope you have some Fela songs on your Phone or something, it will help clear the mess a bit  

oyb:
was in abuja today

actually,

i'm still in abuja at the airport hoping this fecking air nigeria which was scheduled for 7.25 pm will come through so i don't have to spend october 1 in this town of sycophants with all these bloody nigeria at 50 and fresh air billboards everywhere

I feel your pain dude, the stench of avarice all around you must be puke inducing.

@ Topic, I'm not surprised that there are people here who view this show of shame by Dame the Dumb as simply some kind of poorly planned good gesture, if we don't have folks who think like that in Nigeria, we won't have clueless politicians like Goodluck and IBB talking down on us.

So go figure!

emexi:
its unfortunate that govt  has concentrated all its effort at aba, while the main badboys laugh to the bank, i can authoritatively tell that this badboys are having a filled and happy day , this guys are in uqwati and umuiku -isi -asa in ukwa-west local govt area of abia -state , i must state here that the security authorities know this guys, if the police are really serious ,they should move in this village and solve this problem  once and for all . all kidnapping  acts  are in umuiku-isi -asa of ukwa west lga area of abia state. the abia police knows , the police station at obehie -ukwa west lga of abia state is aware  , do  something  gej

Thank You! keep it coming.We need geographic coordinates or street numbers too

Let the singing and confessions continue. Don't stop o!

Shango fire all of una from North to South if you don't keep your hands off our Children!

Raise your money some other way, try farming or something.

Sad display of stupidity! Is this the best we can hope for? Really? This?

Did y'all see those mofos with belts and kobokos? Smh

Osama10:
I like that part of your comment.

Hahaha I glanced at your NL name and I'm guessing why you might like it. Can you help us do the Job on these neverdowells? I think it will make the whole rebuilding Nigeria thing faster and less costly. I'll give you Abuja

Beaf:
We live in very different times from Boro and this isn't 1966 either. [list]
Sit aside and watch, you will come to appreciate the saying; "he who pays the piper dictates the tune."

Ok beaf went there. Read the bolded again folks, then read this:

Until Nigerians decide in a popular uprising, the owners of Nigeria (Big Oil) will continue to determine the winners of top offices in this country. If they think GEJ will serve their interests better, one trillion IBB's cannot stop him and vice versa. So I read beaf's comment as meaning GEJ 's side are offering them a better deal.[beaf I'm taking you as a GEJ insider, you better confess now ] I hope they are. I'm fine with it as long as IBB and GEJ are not united in corruption.

I prefer they fight themselves, I'm interested in the mutually assured destruction of those holding Nigerians to ransom. Maybe after they are done we can rebuild from the ruins.

Onlytruth:
You did great in your assessment. It is by no means a rant.

Thank you bro, I appreciate!

Hopefully we'll all get there together, or at least co-exist respectfully as Africans in different nations. The choice is our Generation's.

MaziUche0:
Onlytruth,

But the fact in the matter is that Balewa was a true Northern leader. We as southerners may find his words crude, but the man was a leader. If only Nnamdi Azikiwe who I consider an idealist thought like this. The man is perfectly clear in what he wants, and that is northern hegemony and the modernization of the north.

Awolowo also thought like this. Nnamdi Azikiwe & Herbert Macaulay are the only people who could be considered true Nigerians.

Maybe they should have thought like that also, I always wonder about the minds of those who did not think that way in the dying days of Colonial-West Africa.  I mean, we had all those British made nation-contraptions with people who hardly understood themselves or share the same cultural or philosophical worldview,  to make the whole scenario worse, they were basically forced to stay together.

So I agree with your assessment of Balewa, viewed through the prism of regional leadership, he pushed for the needful. Maybe he did so because he saw the folly of fighting for a poorly defined nation -a foreign creation that was ultimatley doomed for failure. But there is nothing wrong with negotiating for your our self interest, especially when you are scared and suspicious of those around you.

I wish they all saw that -all of our leaders from Macaulay to Okpara. maybe we would have been able to work out a better Nigeria under more autonomous regions as opposed to the pseudo-autonomous regions we had.

Now, I understand 60s Pan-Africanists like Nkrumah to some extent, at least they were not just fixated on Country, their vision was for a United Africa. But even Nkrumah failed to adequately convince  the people to share his vision, when he pushed for his socialist themed development projects, regional bickering's and ethnic suspicions led to turmoil, and of course, Imperialists were always ready to add petrol to the fire.

So I sympathise with those leaders who pushed for purely regional interests especially those who had a live and let live agenda (not sure about Balewa's ultimate intentions though).

My personal assessment of why they all failed and what we need to do;

I fault that part of our culture that allowed us to give too much power and reverence to individuals who abrogated the position of power and leadership to themselves, Colonialism dealt us very heavy blows, the biggest punch for me was that they used our culture against us while tweaking the rules.

I believe our people still feared and respected their leaders as their culture demanded, but the cultural tools that would have allowed us to checkmake their excesses were rubbished and made inconsequential by the European systems of government, laws, religion and philosophy which we all bought into or should I say; were forced into.

I still think we can learn and salvage something out of all these, after 50 years of coexisting we can't exactly say we don't collectively enjoy Eba-gaari, or salivate at the thoughts of a well spiced edikaikong soup served with cold Zobo

What I'm saying is we have a lot more in common now than before but we need to negotiate a new Nigeria where individual Nigerian citizens will believe that their interests comes first before any Cultural, religious, class or ethnic consideration.

The key is in individual liberties spiced with Africa themed egalitarianism. The Ranka Dedes and Oga Sir have to give way first or reworked to fit a new Society. Our people need their dignity back for our Country to work.

Make una Forgive my rant, na 50th anniversary thoughts cause am.

Chicharito!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ope o !!!!!!!!