ekt_bear:

Individual in my opinion is kind of murky.

Especially in an African setting. . .

I think bringing things down to the level of community/town/lga should be sufficient, since those are pretty reasonably well-defined entities.

Yes it's murky. Especially due to some of the reasons I gave earlier. Our current LG arrangement is the closest thing to our original cultural and ethnic arrangement it's the way to go really.

I don't care if my village has no mineral resources, as long as we are allowed the freedom to chart our own developmental course with minimal control from a strong Central and State Govt, I'm fine, we will do well.

“They’ve built cells in Kano,” said Paul Lubeck, a northern Nigeria expert at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “They have much deeper networks in Kano than anybody ever assumed. My position is, this is a remarkably successful insurrection, more than anybody ever could have thought.”

“God has already positioned us to follow his rule,” said one of the men, 25. “At any time, we can gain victory. Because God will give it to us.”

This is absolutely dangerous, I see nothing good coming out of this deep and illogical mixture of blind ideological religious faith and politics.

Unfortunately the people managing Nigeria don't seem like they know how to fix this. Amnesty will not work, throwing money at them will not work like it did temporarily in the Niger Delta. We will have to have a serious conversation about restructuring this country along more egalitarian lines to fix this. Maybe ultimately allow them to find their own path in a new nation or be here on totally new terms.

Every citizen appears aware of the glaring contrast between his or her own life and those of the elite.

Hopefully our greedy, ruling elites will become aware before it's too late, before they become Lunch. . .


Having said that, even the North cannot afford this accommodation they are giving to Boko Haram murderers, this can only lead to more pain and destruction for all. .

ekt_bear:

I don't mind this idea of the ownership of natural resources being owned by the people.

But if that is the case, then one must apply the principle to its logical conclusion. . . you cannot simply stop at saying, "this oil doesn't belong to the FG, it belongs to State X." Especially when State X is multi-ethnic, and the lion's share of the oil in that state is produced by one ethnic group.

Instead you must say that it belongs to such and such group of Y LGA.

And by that reasoning, as I stated earlier, any potential disputes over oil wells are purely between the relevant ethnic groups in Ondo/Delta, namely Ilaje Yoruba and Itsekiri, respectively.

As I said, I don't particularly have a problem with this.

If in some future Yoruba Republic, 90% of the oil wealth of Ondo is spent by Ilaje LGA and they turn this LGA into Dubai, more power to them. I have no problems personally moving down there. . . nor should anyway else in Yorubaland (we are about the same size as NY State, so not that big.)

I so much agree with you. The argument for local control is very sound and relevant. Nigeria's unitary system (by practice) is one of the major impediments on our way to sustainable economic development. No reason why this theory should not be applied as you stated it. the same applies beyond oil resources to Electricity generation, water resources, Roads, right of way, Land use, etc.

Actually I wl'd have preferred to carry the conclusion to the level of individual ownership, but due to the problems of history, geography and record keeping, it will be very hard to do that at this stage, so the best way I think is to make sure that resource ownership (for tax and revenue purposes) reside in communities and or cities. I'll prefer cities or LG's so that long term non-indigene residents can partake also.

This will considerably reduce the power and control currently enjoyed by the FG and State Governments. It will be hard to get this done though, those Overlords at The FG and State Level will probably fight to the death.

So Sagamite found his old friend back? or he found him?

You two need a fight ring, I can organize it.

The "Owners of Nigeria" are not ready though. They are still busy making money from the present chaos called Nigeria.

You might have to tarry a while for them. Sorry.

sheyguy asked:

If they are truly fighting for the people of ND, why accept amnesty when oil spillage is still rampant in the ND?

Although I sympathize with the plight of genuine ND agitators, This is an important question.

Pa Omoigui for all his story is worth, referenced Bendel which included today's Edo and Delta.

Oshiomhole mentioned Edo. Do you know which communities along the border Omoigui was referring to? Until then, you can't say it's Edo, it's most probably present day Delta.

“Therefore, I would want that he be laid out as a Roman General. You know he was in love with the army and had loved Roman Generals. Therefore, he would be laid out as a Roman General,” she said.

Roman General ??

Why not lay him out as a Biafran or African General? Which one be Roman again?

Take the job.

Even Iya Basira, the mama put owner beside my house is very busy and she has 4 kids. There are no easy careers if you really want to be fullfilled.

Take the job. A sad unfulfilled woman may not make a good mother anyway. Just learn to balance life, motherhood and work like millions of other women.

Take the job.

OBJ and his goons problems is not my business and Edo and Ondo do not have any major oil well dispute that I know of, but I'm ready to be educated.

However I'm aware of land disputes around the Imeri (Ondo)  Okpe (Edo) border areas. I basically blame that issue on the visionless state creations done by past FG idiots. But ultimately I expect these ethnic communities to find lasting solution to their problems if the FG and their Abuja Overlords can take their noses out of local issues.

These issues should ultimately be about the real owners of the land and the resources.

First the property owners, ethnic and individual. No one gave the FG the right to allocate and share land resources, they usurped it.

IMO, Ilaje & Itshekiri oil and land issue should be there's to solve.

Oshiomhole is definitely speaking about Oil wells he intends to get back from Delta State, not Ondo.

So much ado about oil sef

Anyway the Ondo Delta Oil issue is largely between Ilaje and itshekiri people, I expect them to always find a solution, it's the bloodsucking FG I'm worried about.

And we want to progress and have a reasonably just society?

What do you expect the winner of an election like this to do in office ?

Issorai. . .

@ fayawo it appears you are very worried about Nigeria's image and the issue of corruption.

I understand how you feel and it can be overwhelming sometimes. I think another poster @Ifyalway iirc had the same "nigeria moment" few months ago.

I'll offer some recommendations :

Our problem is a combinatiion of history, geography and culture,  plus a good dose of badluck.

Read about the "gilded age" (just google it) America's period of runaway political and public corruption. History has a way of putting things in perpective.

Without understanding what is wrong with us we cannot solve it.

then we can discuss after. . .

fayawo:

The question is

What can be done about this 419 branding that has destroyed our image both within and outside the country?

What are the possible solutions?

Until we cultivate a culture that is commited to holding people accountable for their crimes, nothing can be done.

How many policemen have we jailed for illegal toll collection?

Looter governors nko?

Abacha Famiky kept a big chunk of their loot with no verifiable source of legal income, same with IBB, Gowon, OBJ (bought Ota farms with his military salary?? Get outta here    )

Perm Secretaries are bankrolling their children's Education at US and UK schools with the few hundred thousand/month they make in salary  ??

People see these things and want to be like them, because there are No negative consequences for looting in Nigeria

You can't change this image unless you are ready to fight impunity to a standstill. Sorry.

Righteousness exhalts a nation, no be so una Bible talk?

You cannot progress with so much injustice against your own people. Bloods crying out for justice. You can't progress with that.

For those who were too young when Abacha and his murderous goons ruled Nigeria:

Zakari Biu was the commander of a secret police unit called Strike Force under the control of Abacha. Strike force was accused of several human rights abuses including the callous kidnapping and murder of Mr. Bagauda Kaltho corespondent for TheNews magazine, one of the several Lagos based papers that were critics of the Abacha junta.

The Justice Oputa Led Truth commission received Several petitions detailing Zakari biu's involvement in those killings. OBJ chased him out when he became President in 1999 but they never really prosecuted him (typical Naija ostriching)

Anyway, he found his way back to the police 10 years after and was re-instated ( can you believe that? No accountability) so here we are again.

That is the reason why some of us are saying, Zakari Biu suspended again

I can bet my toe, nothing will happen to this guy and one day he will run for political office and win, probably senate.

I hope people are not going to naively follow NLC again, Civil society groups should and can organize their own protests and shame NLC into joining.

No point trusting NLC with leading anything, they are not different from the FG

New university, probably has not graduated their second set and this generation of old foooools are already stealing thousands of dollars.  

No way you are bribing $50k if you are not trying to steal contract money.

The sad thing is that not a single one of these self confessed thieves will go to jail for this. SMH

kalokalo:

The same Oniwon that has a 1 million dollar+ home in Houston TX. You all need to see the way his 2 party freak kids paint the town red in NYC and Houston. How is Asuko (his son) able to receive 8 - 10 thousand dollar monthly allowance from Nigeria? From his dad's salary?

Nonsense!!

Asuko got his money from his summer job and his salary. He works 4 jobs. As for the $IM house, Oniwon won a lottery

There is NO corruption at NNPC

ekt_bear:

Now imagine if those northerners had produced these "cards to emancipation", ~50+ years ago, like Awolowo did.

Instead they are still enslaved.

Quality, insightful leadership makes a difference. . . while clearly bad leadership can be disastrous.

Yes there was an actual card plus a host of other well reasoned, forward looking policy moves by Awolowo and his team.

LOL 

Oniwon needs a Comedy show

When you attract and hire Poo, you are bound to pay Poo

^

Good plan.

^
Ok I'll keep checking back then. Yes make it sexy, we need people to access and use it easily.

BTW, do you know if the copyright has expired on the book? I know it's valid for about 20+ years or so in some jurisdictions then it can enter into the public domain stage.

ekt_bear:

Regarding my comment about making this "History of the Yorubas" book publicly available, here is what I have so far:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40560748/hty.pdf

(2 megabyte PDF)

Going to require a lot effort to fix the OCR errors, though. Hopefully i can figure out a way to distribute this work among many people, wikipedia style. . .

If I do figure out such a way, then perhaps some of you would be interesting in helping.

I'm not a techie, but I'm ready to help, sign me up. I can learn and I can type when I'm free.

She should translate this into Hausa and drop the leaflets over Maiduguri and Kano Central markets.

No point preaching to the choir, those who need to read can't find her blog.

Same problem exist in the South w/o the religious fanaticm angle.

Nice article though.

I heard there is excess blood in America, can Mobil and Chevron help us get some as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility?

Blood is scarce at my local hospital abeg

So are we saying ND people slaughtered their dreams and struggles on the Altar of one man's ambition?

Wonderful

Let's be patient, GEJ will take care of his people and deliver true federalism and resource control by 2015. N do.

Interesting survey, so our Government has a 64% approval rating? Really?

Na wa o.