₦airaland Forum

People should let this young man have some dignity in death.

I hope he has a family that can speak. His image both dead and alive has been turned into a political tool.

IMO, Posting this young man's unclothed dead body on Facebook and all over the internet just to score cheap political points is very wrong, very undignifying and very sad.

jerseyboy:
NYSC  is a monument to waste bequeathed of this and future generation as a consequence of the militarization of our national psyche and institutions.

Period.

@lastpage,

You asked for messengers of God who were also politicians and I gave you enough examples, now you are dismissing them as 20th century Christians. Dude, be consistent. You did not start Christianity and you did not invent the words "politician" or "messengers of God".

I cannot provide you names you can "honestly vouch for" bro, Millions already vouched for some of those people. Except messengers of God are only those who are approved by lastpage

You described a politician as

1.) Who is a POLITICIAN? S-I-M-P-L-E-S, as we say: Someone who stands for and vies for an ELECTIVE OFFICE, by putting his or her name on the Ballot. Politicians are not appointed, they are voted for! They are not civil servants also.
Please note: Politician derives from the word "POLITICS". So, a Politician practices politics, as a Profession.

That is an extremely narrow definition of a politician. There are politicians who never put their names on the ballot, but I still went with your definition and provided examples to fit your narrow definition. Maybe you need to read my post again, or did those pastor-politicians I listed shoot people to become presidents?

If you have no evidence to dismiss those pastors, priests as messengers of God, there is no need for me to go on with the conversation. I don't know who a REAL messenger of God is beyond what I can see and what they claim about themselves. We might have to ask God to be really sure.

BTW, I don't care too much about Bakare's religion, if he were worshipping Sango, I'd be more passionate. I simply came in to reply your challenge about "politicians" and "messengers of God" My point has already been made.

A politician or political leader (from Greek "polis" is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making. This includes people who hold decision-making positions in government, and people who seek those positions, whether by means of election, coup d'état, appointment, electoral fraud, conquest, right of inheritance (see also: divine right) or other means. Politics is not limited to governance through public office. Political offices may also be held in corporations, and other entities that are governed by self-defined political processes.

^^ that is a much broader definition of politician. But even within your narrower definition, those names I provided earlier fit perfectly.

^^ Great videos, thanks!

Lijadu sisters are personal favorites. . .

Joe Igbokwe, They will rig then accuse you of terrorism when you resist.

lastpage:
Now, ASK yourself: Did Jesus ever stand-up for elective office? Was his name EVER on the Ballot box?
Did prophet Jeremiah, despite his involvement in "Preaching the good news" to errant rulers EVER stand-up and put his name on a ballot box, and seek VOTES? NO!. Did he rule over some people, with their consent? NO!
SHOW ME ONE PERSON WHO EVER WAS GOD'S messenger, who was a Politician, IN THE VERY SENSE OF THAT DEFINITION.

There are hundreds of them, probably thousands, except you have your own personal definition of "God's messenger" and "politician"

I know many Nigerians consider themselves biblical scholars and co-authors of the Kings James Bible   so I will leave biblical names like David, Samuel and co out. I'll stick with modern day pastor, sheperd, priest, and ordained ministers who are also politicians like:


Fernando Lugo, president of Paraguay.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4543645.ece

John Bani – President and head of state of Vanuatu from 25 March 1999, until 24 March 2004. Anglican priest.

Mike Huckabee – former governor of Arkansas and Baptist minister.(recently ran for US President)

Pat Robertson – Republican supporter, former United States presidential nomination candidate, and former Baptist pastor.

Thomas François Burgers – President of the South African Republic 1871–77 and pastor.

Makarios III – archbishop and primate of the autocephalous Cypriot Orthodox Church (1950–1977) and first President of the Republic of Cyprus (1960–1977).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makarios_III <<-- example of a religious leader who walked his talk.

Robert P. Shuler – Prohibition Party candidate who received the highest vote in any election in U.S. history, Methodist pastor.

Anne McBride – Canadian politician ordained in the Assemblies of God.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_pastors_in_politics


I'll just add that I'm very proud of Tunde Bakare and his decision to put his "money" where his mouth is. I know success has many friends, if they had won, the conversation here will be very different. At least he pursued what he believed in and has reportedly spoken about several times(according to those who like Oyinbo religion and listen to his sermons)

Given how much Nigerians rever and respect their pastors, If more Nigerian pastors can be that involved in fixing this country by speaking Truth to Power, if they can go beyond collecting tithes and offerings from their oppressed congregants. If more can stake their time and resources on specific political issues, maybe this country will be better than it currently is.

I'm proud of Tunde Bakare.

^please collect his/her house address and Unique DNA sequence too

naijababe:
Somebodi jelos me! Somebodi jelos me !! Somebodi jelos me!!! Because of my britishness

Ok, I will let them be for now, since they have you to keep them straight

Chrisbenogor:
Can you give me a link caused I watched his interview.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13126971
I think an audio is attached to that report, I don't know if it's in hausa, you can check it, it was posted on some NL threads earlier in the week.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13126839
Another report

Yes bro, we will continue the discussion on other threads, Many of us have raised the need to focus on fundamental and radical changes, until we do that, we will continue groping in the dark.

I see no reason why division should be off the table too, by we can't even get anywhere until we start focusing on these things politically.

amor4ce:
If this country gets divided and the religious north get their own nation, what is the probability of drone attacks over there within 2 years of separation?

[quote author=ekt_bear link=topic=651455.msg8185227#msg8185227 date=1303517189]^-- wth would that happen?

I'm guessing probability is close to nil[/quote]I understand Nigerian muslims are generally Sunnis not Shia's. Although there are many who practice the Shia beliefs I think they are in the minority. Also the more conservative, more hardline Wahhabi school of islamic thought is not common in Nigeria. And the hardcore Shia beliefs only arrived in the last 30-40 years. I think Sufism was more prevalent in black Africa No?

These are just assumptions from my personal readings. So, I don't expect drones in the North if we can fix the social, economic and political issues they have.

I'm not a Muslim, hopefully more knowledgeable Muslims on the thread will correct my errors if there are any.

Chrisbenogor:
My grouse is this, we are complaining about a ruling party that is not doing enough. The opposition are worse off, I curse the day I thought to vote in Buhari and the CPC obviously all they care about is the North. I ask again is it too difficult to organize a press conference and condemn the killing of any youth corp member? I mean this bad too bad, how will these people then assure us that they are willing to listen to the cries of people not outside their region?

Look Yar adua was forced on us through a farce that was called an election, why did they not go about killing people in the North then? Oh well because they got what they wanted abi? having fully experienced the NYSC I fcking know what these people that died are passing through am sorry I am might not be rational I am just so angry!

You are still focused on the symptoms, I'm trying to address the fundamentals. I do not care about the parties right now. CPC, ACN PDP, they have work to do and roles to play if we want to prevent Somalia on our a$$es.

I repeat, while the killings of the past week, like several killings in the course of our political history are regrettable and should be condemned, I'm expecting more to happen and nothing will be done to get anyone any justice until we address the Fundamentals. Fix the system and the problem will be half-solved.

Chrisbenogor:
Thats one way to look at it, but the clearer picture on the ground is that Nigerians are not yet as sophisticated as that. 99% of the votes buhari got was because of extremism and the whole northerner syndrome and nothing else. The people do not want things to change thats how I see it.

Nigerians will not get "sophisticated"(we are culturally sophisticated enough though-another topic) soon. But that is why we don't have 150million people in government, the political class are supposed to be the solution providers, the top echelon of society, they are clearly failing the rest of us. The mass of our people may not understand how to change things but if the top 0.1% are clueless about it too, then we can continue to expect more chaos.

EDIT: qualified "sophisticated"

Chrisbenogor:
What stops the CPC from issuing a statement condeming the killing of corp members?
What stops the CPC from seriously campaigning using their influence in the North to protect these innocent people?
Why the fck do they trivialise the deaths of these very brave Nigerians?

THEY SHOULD GET OUT JOR!

These are the symptoms of a disorganized system, as terrible as these deaths are, like so many political and social conflicts we've had in Nigeria, they are just symptoms of a disease that needs to be addressed.

After we are done mourning, crying, blaming, grieving and sometimes hating, we will have to focus our attention on fixing the system and the root causes. Else we will repeat the cycle again.

These parties need to start articulating their fundamental idea on how to fix the centralized system we have. It is foolhardy to expect anything better than nonsense from the silly over-centralized FG system we have.

The center controls too much power. It will be foolish to expect the President to sit down and watch his party defeated when he has absolute control over the Police, Army, INEC, Treasury, Ports(air and land), and an overwhelming majority in the House of Assembly with little to no oversight.

Men are not infallible and Politicians are not saints. We need to help them so they can help themselves.

Reduce the power of the central government and strengthen checks and balances, if we don't make this fundamental changes, we will continue to see this massive chaos until we become Somalia.

Hopefully sensible people across all parties will gain the upper hand in the next four years. I'm not betting on it.

Time For National Healing-CPC

April 21, 2011 - 20:32

Good Morning, Gentlemen of the Press: Democracy is accepted universally as the best for the stability of Human governance. As eloquently attested to by recent happenings in the Arab world, more and more Nations are gravitating towards credible democratic governance!

Elections form the nucleus of Democracy. The plausible argument for this is that elections provide the people the constitutional empowerment of freely choosing their leaders.

Since the return of the Nigerian nation to democratic governance in 1999; there had been disputes trailing the conduct of each election. The election held in 2007 has, arguably, been adjudged as the worst in the electoral history of Nigeria.

The admission by the late President Umaru Musa-Yar’adua of the flawed election that brought him to power also lent credence to the need for putting in place a credible electoral process. In a demonstrable show of statesman-like disposition, concrete steps were taken in ensuring electoral reforms; the culmination of which was the empanelling of eminent Nigerians to navigate the way forward.

The major contention was the issue of true independence for the Electoral body. Though the recommendation of the eminent Nigerians was for the appointment of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be done by the National Judicial Commission, the government of the Federation felt otherwise.

The choice of Professor Attahiru Jega, a man with antecedent of meritorious service to the nation, was generally seen as a fitting response for the yearning of the people for demonstrable integrity at the top echelon of the commission.

The Electoral process was kick-started with an elaborate voters’ registration exercise, involving full biometric data capture- a development that drew applause as the necessary building block for the attainment of credible elections. Quite justifiably, the electronic register so produced contains data that should naturally facilitate resolution of electoral malpractices that have bedeviled past elections.

It is instructive to mention the hiccups experienced with the voters’ register verification exercise nationwide. There were numerous cases of prospective voters with valid voters’ cards not finding their names on original places of registration. This was attributed to the presence of virtual polling units, which are only known in greater details (of location and number
of registrants) by INEC without clear visibility by the Parties.

After a fault start, the national elections started with National Assembly elections on 9th April, 2011. As a way to give vim to the call for electoral transparency, INEC introduced the open-secret ballot system whereby voters would be expected to be accredited, vote and wait for the counting of the vote.

After polling, the result is displayed at the polling units. Afterwards, the results from the Polling Units are collated at the Ward Collation Centre (WCC). The aggregation of the results from the different wards are in turn done at the Local Government Collation Center (LCC). The results from the LCC are collated at the State Collation Center (SCC).

Ordinarily, this should be salutary; but on the contrary, transparency stops at the Polling Units while travesties hold sway. For instance, with the hindsight of two elections, it is clear why the PDP-led Federal Government sought the assent of the Council of States to use the Military for the Elections.

Despite the repeated assurances by INEC that soldiers would remain in their Barracks, only to be deployed to quell incendiary occurrences; the reality on the field was that at each collation center, soldiers were deployed to block the way of officials from opposition parties while granting unfettered access to the ruling PDP chieftains.

BUILD UP TO CONFLAGRATION
After National Assembly elections, on Sunday the 10th of April 2011; the governor of Jigawa state, Alhaji Sule Lamido drove to the private house of Alhaji Farouk Adamu, the Gubernatorial candidate for Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), in a manner reminiscent of a conquering war-lord over an occupied territory.

After the ensued pandemonium, over hundred canisters of tear-gas had been fired and the brother-in-law to Alhaji Adamu forcibly removed from the premises. Alhaji Farouk Adamu was also detained for several hours by the State Security Services (SSS).

At the wake of the bomb blast in Suleja, Niger State; the CPC house of Assembly candidate, Alhaji Abdullahi Lado, was arrested by SSS on March 3rd in an intimidating swoop on opposition candidates. He had been held incommunicado ever since, despite that there had been another more devastating bomb blast in Suleja.

On Sunday the 10th of April, 2011; two men (Messrs Akinlolu Akinto and Habila Stephen) were caught with a van loaded with about 100,000 ballot papers for the presidential elections of Saturday the 16th April, 2011. On further investigation by the police, they averred that about five of them were involved in the same business. On thorough search of the printing press, an additional one million copies were discovered.

At the end, it was discovered that over twenty-five million ballot papers had been printed by this company called TULIP PRESS belonging to Alhaji Bello Gwandu, the former managing director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). Meanwhile, the accused persons were released by the Police because they were identified as INEC contractors.

When INEC was contacted to shed more light on this, we were simply told that contractors were expected to produce dummy ballot papers.

On further inquiry, we were told that dummy ballot papers were printed to deceive voters with valid card but unable to find their names on the register. Though this was not part of the process made visible to political parties; we were still at a loss why a whooping 25 million of such ballot papers would be printed. The explanation left much to be desired.

At the beginning of the preparations for the elections, Professor Jega pointedly asserted that the ballot papers for the election would be printed outside the shores of the land. But with the spate of numerous cases of ballot stuffing, the INEC Chairman had, in a volte face, admitted to the ballot papers being printed in Nigeria and distributed directly to the states by the same contractors. This is a clear infraction of the electoral act which requires the Political Parties to examine the electoral materials for the states!

Owing to the assurances by INEC that the votes of the electorate would count in the elections, many Nigerians saw the opportunity presented by the elections to use their vote to remove from power the political party that had brought them misery and woe in the last twelve years. Two notable examples: In Kano, a woman endured birth contraction and delivered while on the queue to cast her vote. In Kaduna, a woman just put to bed earlier in the day and begged to be taken to her Polling unit to cast her vote!
 
2011 Presidential Election.
As stated earlier, the electoral process was anything but fair and transparent after the Polling Units.

The time is propitious to give a snap shot across the states:

ABUJA—Many cars stuffed with ballot papers were alleged to have driven out of the FCT minister’s residence.

RIVERS-    The Hausa community prevented from voting.

NASARAWA- Ballot papers given not enough in most polling units eg.
PU/25/08/07/037 in Lafia.

GOMBE- Hon Magaji Doho in KWAMI LGA was apprehended with ballot papers. Also in Bajoga the DPO and the electoral officer were caught with ballot papers.

BAUCHI- In Missau and Azare LGA with short supply of ballot papers. 45,000
ballot papers missing in missau.

In Bajoga, there was ballot stuffing in the house of Dr Musa Babayo’ house. In Bogor LGA, There was ballot stuffing at Dr James Landi’s house.

AKWA IBOM- Voters were intimidated at ward 1 unit 1 David Ejoor barracks. Armed thugs chased away INEC Staff at polling units.

IMO- At Umueshi ward, Idiato South LGA, accreditation and voting were done at the same time before 12:00 noon.

BORNO- 12 JEEPS arrested with ballot papers, but the police later released them.

KADUNA- Fulani   herdsmen in kagoma, chased away in Kagoma, Aso and Bade in JAMA’A LGA. COLLATION AT INEC SITUATION ROOM, ABUJA.

The INEC Chairman appointed notable academics as state coordinators for the Presidential elections. Some coordinators’ presentations were suspended after discrepancies were discovered in their figures; which lend credence to the fact that they only read out what was handed down by their collation officers.

The attention of the INEC Chairman was drawn to many infractions of the electoral process by our representatives. After conferring with his colleagues, he called for a recess. On resumption, he simply ignored revisiting the issues and went ahead with the announcement.

THE ANNOUNCEMENT AND THE EFFECT.
Following the announcement, there were spontaneous incendiary protests in many parts of the Nation, notably the North. Many cases of arson were reported and lives lost, mainly of innocent people. We hereby seize this opportunity again to sue for peace and equally pray for the them families of the deceased that the Almighty God would grant them the grace and fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.

We have taken notice of the overzealousness of our security agencies. The tense atmosphere in some parts of Northern Nigeria is being exploited by the security forces to intimidate and decimate opposition parties ahead of the Governorship and Assembly elections on 26th April, 2011.

Indiscriminate arrests of opposition functionaries are rife at this time. As we speak, over 200 CPC party agents (for the next elections) have been picked up by the security forces and kept incommunicado. The same acts of fascism are also being perpetrated in Minna, Kontagora, Suleja, Minna, Sokoto and Kaduna.

In Kaduna, Sheik Abubakar Tureta had his rights crudely abused when some Policemen stormed his house and took away  over 20 Islamic adherents under his custody. On calling the Inspector General of Police (IGP), he was coldly told, “because you are not with us.”  The right to choose one’s political persuasion is firmly guaranteed in the Nigerian constitution.

The over-militarization of Northern Nigeria is already creating a siege mentality among the people. By merely pasting of electioneering campaign posters of CPC is enough to earn an individual detention without trial.

Aside the debilitating effect of the curfew in states of the North, the shoot-on-sight order had been used to maximally decimate the opposition parties ahead of the state assembly and governorship elections on April 26, 2011.

Meanwhile, it is instructive to correct the insidious notion being peddled around that the protests were sponsored and ethno-religious. Nothing can be farther from the truth!

In the last 48 hours, some people have even told us as party leaders to call the protesters to order as if we have leash on them. General Muhammadu Buhari, in a statesman-like manner, had sued for peace. It must be stressed here that on Monday the 18th of April, 2011; while travelling to Abuja from Kaduna, General Buhari’s convoy was attacked. The drivers escaped with injuries.

The fact that the protests evinced the torching of the residence of notable traditional rulers of Northern extraction showed that the raison d’être was non-religious.

In our checkered political history, there had been similar spontaneous protests by the people in some other parts of the country; at that time nobody was accused of instigating the voters.

We want to seize this opportunity to alert the nation on the ominous signs of the use of coercive power of the state to diminish the strength of the opposition and  create the ambience for massive manipulation of polling.

Meanwhile, I wish to intimate our teeming supporters and the nation at large about the ruling of the Appeal court in the governorship tussle among CPC members in Kano and Katsina states. The governorship candidate for Kano State is Brig-Gen Lawal Jafar-Isa and his counterpart for Katsina state is Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari.

Let me say clearly that all hands must be on deck to ensure the party’s success not only in these states, but also in all other states. It is time to eschew bitterness and bickering so that we would record resounding success.

I thank you for your attention.
Rotimi Fashakin.

http://www.saharareporters.com/press-release/time-national-healing-cpc

Ibrahim BA, you are bringing great points and perspectives to the thread. Keep it coming bro.

seanet02:
Eye se epe mo amo eyi te seyi
"Aro Aro Mo"

Lagbara Ele'dua

Eniyan jakujaku of Owu

We will deal with you later, for now we need to focus on removing your rotten legacy from our cities.

^ The cyclical nature of Life and History is something to behold.

I was not an active poster on NL when this thread came up in 2009, just a ghost reader then.

It's amazing to read all the usual politics posters on this thread and compare their rhetoric during this election period to their sentiments on here. I must say a lot of folks have been pretty consistent with their sentiments.

What a thread.

The election was a farce, a product of a shytty system.

No matter how much fragrance you spray oh shytte, it is still shyyte.

I think his attire is ok.

But he needs to lose that fedora hat already

This is terribly sad.

Gbawe:
As far as power supply is concerned , we can only hope the FG can deliver on its pledge of "full privatisation" in the sector . Let us hope too that our indolent legislators can expedite the passage of any privatisation bills presented . One can only regret that the PDP still hold the majority in the Senate and lower House . No doubt many PDP Senators are in bed with the enemies-of- national progress (Petroleum Companies, Diesel Barons, Generator set suppliers, etc, etc) . Nothing demonstrates this more than the feet dragging going on as regards the passage of the PIB and Ekweremadu (Deputy Senate President) calling PIB protestors "charlatans" when , in reality, they are actually patriotic Nigerians.

Like I stated previously on another thread , Nigerians are[b] fond of touting the notion of "true federalism" but it was only the SW region ,when push came to shove , that voted as if it wants the concept actualised[/b] . If the centralised control of the PDP is not substantially reduced then it becomes a bit more difficult to get them to do what is right . Afterall , the PDP is the same Party described by the Americans as a congregation of folks with self-serving interests and ulterior motives.

Nigeria is a region where powerful yet clueless and indolent laggards , in politics, drag others backward deliberately . With the way the SW voted it is clear we want progress. I just hope indolent PDP politicians , powerful at the centre but not from the SW, will not attempt to frustrate our progress . I would have liked far less PDP legislative control , as we did our bit to gain that , but we can only vote out the PDP in our region. We can't force others to do the same even if , IMO,  that would have been the right thing to do considering the 12 years misrule of the PDP and the fact that non-PDP legislator sponsor and vote in favour of progressive bills far more than a PDP dominated Senate and lower house.

Thank you jare. A quick glance at the bills proposed in the House assembly since 1999 will reveal which party has a more progressive, more forward thinking orientation and ideology.

190:
[color=deeppink]

so Hausa eat Indomine too, I thought they eat Just cassava leaves  [/color]

That was why I posted the advert, to help our ignorance

nagoma:
Kilode , do I have to say I am a northerner before you read my postings? I still hate this sectional thing but my conclusion is we cannot continue staying together as one country. Pls read my posting above.

Sorry I missed your post bro, I will re-read it.

Yes, I will like you to say you are a northerner so I can understand your perspectives better, that is the whole point of the thread.

IMO, There is nothing wrong with being sectional if we stop our leaders from using our diversity as a control tool.

Our leaders turned sectionalism into a bad word, it can serve us well to understand it does not always have to be negative, it depends on how we systematize our differences.

EX:I shouldn't piss on your culture or religion just because we are in the same united Nigerian, neither should we have the same laws in all communities. we can sectionalize even our laws and codes. One size does not always fit all.

I like my culture and I'm proud of if, I don't want to deny other people that same satisfaction, We are a diverse people and there is nothing wrong with that AT ALL.

It is the same elite preaching pseudo-unification One-Nigeria messages with military control and political brainwashing who are always the first to use our different cultures and religious beliefs against us. We need to stop their manipulations

I will like to know if you are Hausa because it helps me to understand you better. It is human, differences are not evil. The British forced us into one country to help them form a one system for selfish reasons, We can reform the system to fit our own realities.

A lot of our leaders are selfish liars playing with our minds for selfish reasons. They too are victims of the Nigerian system, they just know how to control it to their advantage better than the mass of our people.

Osanobua Punish Lord Lugard

[quote author=ndu_chucks link=topic=651455.msg8175839#msg8175839 date=1303403485]@Kilode!, the problem with Nigeria is the system of government which is unfair to the poor in every region of the country. Spliting the country will not stop the corruption and continuous ra.ping of the poor by the few elite and other educated political barawos. 

We'd be better off restructuring the government - true federalism, state rights, weaker center, e.t.c. are much better options than spliting. Besides, there is no political will to split -  federal forces will deal with any group who is seriously trying to split the country at the moment. You people will split only when the USA and China believes that the split will not affect the flow of oil to their countries, it is impractical at this point in time.[/quote]I agree. splitting will not be easy, restructuring, which I definitely prefer will not be easy too. The same elites(Political, Military, Business, Religious and Cultural) who are opposed to splitting are also afraid of restructuring. So, we are now at the stage where we realize who our real enemies are.

Like my previous location signature said: "Mankind shall not be free until the last king is strangled in the entrails of the last priest" -Diderot

We will not get a just Nigeria until we deal with our Political, Cultural and Religious oppressors. The French had to do it, the New colony Americans did it. Even China did it by removing the monarchy. Any system we adopt must fundamentally reduce or curb the power of the few who are oppressing the majority.

It will not solve all our issues or remove all oppression. A system based on egalitarian principles may not be implemented 100%, but 50% is better that 2%, 70 better than 65% .

One reason why I do not like the outcome of the last election is that it reinforced the idea that we cannot remove this central power. I hope GEJ can work to curb it but I will not bet on it. We might need to get a popular uprising eventually.

The Western MOC's and their state supporters will always be a central factor as long as we have oil, but even they are not stupid and their power is not limitless. The agents of structural changes will have to court their support strategically with reasonable assurances, else we all go down together. Ask The Niger Deltans how they did it. . .

[quote author=ndu_chucks link=topic=651455.msg8175255#msg8175255 date=1303393278]The Nigerians I deal with from in all parts of Nigeria do not discuss spliting the country or show any interest in it. Those of you in diaspora are the ones who keep talking about it. None of your leaders will even bring the topic up for discussion at any level; GEJ is definitely not interested in it. There are more Igbos in the North than are in the whole of SE, do you think those people support spliting the country?[/quote]A lot of the Nigerians I deal with talk about splitting, and I deal with many Nigerians in Nigeria. I guess we are all colored by our experiences. BTW, because we split don't mean Dangote will be forced out of Lagos, that will be dumb, it should not mean that Yoruba Oil and gas professionals have to leave PH, that will be silly. It doesn't mean my Igbo friend here has to break up with his Hausa babe, actually that will be good for his competition.

If Nigerians can own businesses in Ghana, China and Dubai, I don't see how a split should send everyone back to their country. Except it's a violent division.

Ouright "SPLITTING" is not the only political solution we can use, it is more like a worst case scenario, those who think it will lead to war should also realize that some if us who advocate it are speaking in the sense of a negotiated political division, not something you necessarily need to put a gun to peoples head to achieve. I repeat, I mentioned splitting as a worst case scenario.


Now, there are other possibilities which should work for a truly Federal Nigeria or any if it's confederacies-If we decide to form loosely independent regions.  We need to break this central control we have in all sectors into smaller admin units. Like it was discussed on another thread and alluded to by ekt_bear,  our country is too centralized for the kind of political and social culture we have. This is not an homogenous country.

Politicians can easily run to the center and commit atrocities on their communities, steal funds and still get protection from the federal army, federal police and federal centralized treasury, just because they belong to the ruling party.

What we've witnessed this week shows that it will be harder for a political leader to exercise too much control locally if he does not have local power, the local competition will kill him off easily. Even VP Sambo's house got burnt in Kaduna.

We need to take police powers to local units, my police should be from my community, staffed with people from my community not outsiders, they understand the language, the culture, their family shares the pain and misfortunes plus the successes of the community.

Same should apply to the management of utilities, education and even specific local laws. The center should only bother about maintaining fundamental or universal Nigerian laws and codes, plus national defense and monetary policies. We don't have to split, but if we can't make this behemoth work we better be ready to do just that so other regions can go practise whatever they think is right for them.

It is foolish to think we can continue to manage this Nigerian behemoth based on sentiments of forced unity. Nigeria was formed in 1914, there are still people alive who were born before 1914, it's not too late to form a new nation or at least RADICALLY restructure this one. We will get used to it like we got used to amalgamation within one generation. Folks need to quit with the elitist fear tactics.

So IMO, It's all about the system, If we can't restructure and reduce the influence of the center we better be ready for a bigger conflict in 2015 and beyond. I'm personally predicting Somalia on out a$$ess if we don't restructure. If not for oil, we would have been Somalia already.  

Where are the Northerners now? Only Nabadaba and namfav since? We need more perpectives from them. Ndu_chuks is pan naija he doesn't count

@Nadanbata, splitting is not the end, it is just one political tool. I want restructuring and I do not care about the UN as much as you do. If Nigerians vote overwhelmingly for a political solution.  The UN will just add more names to their number list, it has nothing to do with them really. If you had said Oil companies I would understand

Anyway I can post links to my ideas on what we need to do. Outright splitting is not the only option.

I don't want to derail this thread though. This is for you and yours to speak and share your perspectives. Fire on!

@eku_ bear, Thank you! so the kids melted one southern heart?  Now we are getting there.