Nigerian oil has a lifespan less than 10 years. So the best bet for Ndigbo is to begin redirect their investments back home. The struggle for Presidency is always about the oil resources, let nobody be deceived, that era is permanently over in Nigeria!
Nigeria must brace for these twin evils: Its either people control their resources or oil's influence globally continues to diminish. In all, let the Igbo stand for social justice as always.

Why do people ask this question regularly? It means many of them are myopic as to the future. A Nigerian President of Igbo extraction is possible but I do not want it, and I wish the Igbo won’t also want it.
Until and unless Nigeria is restructured for meritocracy and competitiveness, the country will never develop. An Igbo President is the only hope for Nigeria’s departure from the doldrums, but will other hat-filled elites allow it?
Let the Igbo fight for devolution of power, fiscal federalism, six zonal federalism and they will unleash their potentials on the globe not just Nigeria. As for now, they should reject the idea of Presidency in a corrupt and unjust system currently being operated by Nigeria.

I think Anambra is undisputably the most populated state in Nigeria, and likely the most populated, near homogenous indigenous enclave in Africa. There is no national capital in Africa and Nigeria that you don't find Anambrarians in their hundreds of thousands doing their businesses.

Presidency should not be the focus of Igbo now rather a restructured Nigeria. Just like the Afenifere vowed to use Jonathan's National Conference to extract the structure of a Nigeria they would like, Ndigbo should grab this opportunity with both hands. If we restructure Nigeria, there would be no need to fight over the Presidency. Afterall, during the era of regional govts, Ahmadu Bello preferred the North to Lagos.

Presidency should not be the focus of Igbo now rather a restructured Nigeria. Just like the Afenifere vowed to take Jonathan's National Conference to exert the structure of a Nigeria they would like, Ndigbo should grab this opportunity with both hands. If we restructure Nigeria, there would be no need to fight over the Presidency. Afterall, during the era of regional govts, Ahmadu Bello preferred the North to Lagos.

Nonsense, where will ur 100 million refugees come from? Igbos leaving south south means igbos will also leave south east. Yeyerity

Abagworo:

Most of you not old or experienced enough just think simplistically that a post disintegration period will be peaceful. That's impossible as there will be another polgrom in the North, abandoned property in the Southwest and free for all inter-ethnic battle in the Southern tip. Igbos will have to leave South-South, Southwest and North carrying their spare-parts and their mansions on their head. There will be total religious crisis in the North as well. Infact there will be a meaningless war that will lead to the highest number of refugees in human history with more than 100million refugees.

This ill-informed people have handed the PDP automatic re-election. Now the slogan against APC will be that it poaches from same discreditted platform-PDP. Two, there is no difference whatsoever in terms of internal democracy within the APC where Tinubu imposes his candidates.
Finally Jonathan, will have serious sympathy since its obvious the G7 band and their APC allies are out for their selfish interest ab-initio.

Arewa and blind quest for power at all costs. Chickens coming home to roost.

Umuigbo ndi oma, ndi oma! Ndi ofe? Mhhhhhhhhh

All these because these people feel oil money, which they are using to fund ostentation- multiple marriages, pilgrimages, jihads, will continue to flow. They are mistaken because they will end up breeding more poverty by the time the proceeds stops flowing from the south or as they remain indolent.

Poor planning and misplaced priorities. SMh for TA

Because your brother couldn't get the votes for ur chop chop attitude. Break ko, up ni, mchhhh

The man is an Arewa fundamentalist. Can go ahead and build Jerusalem on Kano soil, but once the free oil money they are guzzling with their skewed 40LG structure, the whole projects will come crashing.

Btw I hope Ibos will not begin rushing there to invest? 'Cos they will be the people to face selective shop inspections and violence when they begin to prosper there.

Afam4eva:
When you said "Igbo Speaking", i thought you were referring to indigenous Igbo speaking.

No my brother, I just used the phrase to show the affinity. But its hightime the youths in the east confronted the truth and the history so they can seperate facts from fiction being sold to them. This is the only way we can rediscover our true selves and forge ahead.

Afam4eva:



This is the problem. Instead of you to look inward, you always want to compare yourself to others who are probably like you in order for you to look better. That's how failures reason.

You forget that you said other zones are building new airports and other projects? That's why I posed the question. I accept there is paucity of development ideas in the SE but Enugu and Imo are a pride. That apart I have my utmost faith in this much derided region. It's just a matter of time before they get it right.

There will be multiplier effects in its huge diaspora remmitances, commercial and industrial sectors, agro-allied industries etc. But for Fed Allocations, the conspiracy since the end of the war is to limit the progress of the area. My guess though.

Afam4eva:
Just to correct an impression, only Elechi Amadi is an Igbo speaking Niger-Deltan.

I agree that Elechi Amadi is Ikwerre Igbo and therefore understands Igbo naturally, but both Saro Wiwa and Boro grew up among Igbo. Saro Wiwa lived mostly in Umuahia and was in Govt College. His Igbo was impeccable. Boro stayed in Nsukka, enjoyed Eastern govt subsidies and was even elected Student Union govt President in UNN. Check your facts.

The region receives the lowest allocation, check ur records. But the number of housing estates across the cities in the south east is opening up new areas. New investments especially SME are coming in.
BTW can u show me just one city in SW that is better than any of the SE capitals?

Arewa is so obsessed about their so called 'civil war victory' and you often hear them talk arrogantly about their liberation of the Niger Delta or South South from their Igbo brothers. They use this refrain to justify their control of 90 per cent of oil blocs, high revenue allocation through greater number of states and hamlets as local governments, control of the armed forces and bureaucratic apparati of government.

I read this trash always and besides Paul Unongo's interview in Sunday Trust Oct 27, 2013 page 58. Late Muhammed Shuwa interview Daily Trust Nov. 5, 2012, most of their commentaries celebrate the balkanisation of the Eastern region-but any suggestion to Northern unity as an illusion, like Prof Ben Nwabueze wrote recently, is greeted with fury.

On this premise, Northerners virulently resist any constitutional change in the status quo. They always remind Niger Deltans, who question the lopsided and exploited federalism, that they should be grateful having been liberated from the Igbo. I am Igbo-speaking Niger Deltan and the truth is a lie told frequently unassailed assumes truism. So many Niger Deltans, before the advent President Goodluck Jonathan and out of psychological insecurity,began to believe that "the 'Hausa' were our messiah." The North was thought to have 'saved' our lands from the Biafrans and helped us fight them from our 'resources'. During this period the North reaped bountifully from the region politically with glee and without any recompense.

Now the chickens have come home to roost. And the North are no more seen as genuine allies. The North simply sees the region, lumped with the Igbo, as conquered peoples, their resources as spoils and booties of war. They still cannot reconcile that the "junior partners" can produce a President over and above the deft, rampaging, manouvering and strategic Muslim Fulani. And they have responded violently and legally as is their nature.

Back in the old east, besides the suspicion bred by the Aro-led slave dealings, are there major highlights of majority-minority killings? Are there cases of political marginalisation or developmental seclusion? With near homogeneity factor in old East accentuated by high inter-marriages, historical, cultural, religious, economic, geographical and perhaps, political ties, can we correctly say the Igbo are at war with their neighbours?

Why did Eyo Ita, from present Akwa Ibom become first premier of Eastern Region? Why did Igbo back Philip Effiong as new leader of Biafra after Ojukwu's departure for peace talks in Ivory Coast? Why did several non-Igbo Easterners make so much impact politically and militarily in the Eastern setting?

People like Margaret Ekpo, a Calabar woman won the Aba seat for Eastern Assembly and Udo Udoma began the Ibibio State Union in the 1940s in Aba. W.U. Bassey was the third in rank to Ironsi, Louis Edet was the highest Eastern-backed Police officer and first indegenous IGP; Clement Isong was Nigeria's first CBN governor; Henry Etim Duke was first board chairman Customs and Excise; Mathew Mbu was second Eastern nominated Foreign Affairs Minister after Aja Nwachukwua. Okoi Arikpo and Imoke senior werte all non Igbo who found their internationally acclaimed destiny within the Eastern govt.

Why did the Igbo ban their members from contesting the 2011 Presidential elections for the first time post Nnammdi Azikiwe for a near hundred per cent support for a Goodluck Jonathan, an Ogbia minority in Bayelsa State and in the process, lose over 3000 souls and goods and properties destroyed in North? Why would an Anambra State- a state blessed with more human resources, development, better GDP and per capita income and far more international clout than Jonathan's Bayelsa decide to sink or swim with him examplified in the state elections where it vowed not to allow him shamed by detractors who want to use the state to test their popularity in their continuing onslaught against a constitutionally entitled incumbent?

Infrastructurally, a look at the layout and aesthetics of major cities in the old East shows a uniform development pattern. The Eastern govt continued from where the British left off in Enugu, PH, Calabar, Aba, Onitsha, Owerri, Uyo, Umuahia, Ikom, Ikot Ekpene, Abakaliki, Awka, Orlu, Bonny among other cities of the East. Michael Okpara replicated the Enugu Presidential Hotel in P/Harcourt and a six storey Metropolitan Hotel in Calabar. The University of Calabar and University of PH were satellites of UNN? Okpara built the Obudu Cattle Ranch, Nkalagau Cement Factory Enugu, Golden Guinea Breweries, Umuahia, Trans Amadi Industrial Zone, Onne Free Zone all in PH, and severa lrice and palm produce industries all over the East and grew the region's economy at 12 per cent before the Malaysians came to pick their first seeds its palm oil and agro skills.

Against this background, I consider the North's claims paternalistic and spurious. claim of the North that they liberated Niger Deltans from some other humans, who are not even superior to them, not a tool to destroy southern solidarity and degrade the dignity of the Niger Deltan?

So the questions are: Who liberated who from who? Is the South South a liberated zone of the North? Is it a case of soured grapes or cheap blackmail? Or is it a case of divide and rule?

If we are to take the traitors' positions of Ken Saro Wiwa, Adaka Boro and Elechi Amadi, all Igbo speaking Niger Deltans who claimed in the course of the war of freedom by Biafra that Igbo will dominate the rest as the reason for North's messianic posture, how do you reconcile it with their exploitation of South South oil and the vicious onslaught against Jonathan?

Why all these Lagos-based self critics for pecuniary gains by so called Igbo? All said I think it was strategic Gov Obi blocked any attempt by APC to berth in Anambra for assaults against Jonathan. Okorocha will receive his shocker very soon. So long as they do not mean well for Jonathan, they won't get cooperation from Igboland.
Its hightime the Igbo learnt political schemings soaked in ethnicity. The last time President Nnamdi Azikiwe tried the one Nigerian phantom when other leaders were busy playing regional cards and developing their peoples, the entire Igbo race ended up bloodied and yet to recover. Bring it on jare!

Sorry u appear not to get his point. U can't continue to blackmail ndigbo with this issue of producing president of nigeria. Its not a must. There is already first gov general, first civilian president(though ceremonial queens position) and first military head of state, non transformed the average igbo neither did the various hausa fulani and yoruba presidents.
The reality is at the end of Jonathan's conference, nigeria will be restructured in such a way that the centre will no longer counts. Hope u get it, mourner than the bereaved!

payless:


Werey! You are the real olodo stup1d man. Was Ekwueme's 1999 presidential bid at the PDP Presidential Convention in Jos discussed or not? Was he not the Igbo candidate? In the write-up, what was the reason given for his inability to win the PDP presidential slot? His colossal showing at the convention was as a result of what most people think of an average Igbo politicians.

I think the Igbo language is highly spoken by millions in non-indegenous commercial clusters across Nigerian and Africa. But it would have fared far better if the native Igbo descendants of the returneee slaves in Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea and Gabon are to understand the language.

They should number in their millions, and when added to offsprings of Biafran war evacuees in Gabon, Zambia and Cote d'Ivoire it would have been a strong African population. Also, there are massive Igbo descendants in Haiti, Brazil, Jamaica, Honduras and Southern USA.

The Hausa language is the highest in West Africa. The use of the language by the BBC, VOA, Deutche welle, China radio etc attests to this. Lately many international christian channels, having realised that the Igbo has the highest christian population bloc in Africa, have been using the language in their broadcasts. We hope to see the mainstream channels do same.

I think the Igbo language is highly spoken by millions in non-indegenous commercial clusters across Nigerian and Africa. But it would have fared far better if the native Igbo descendants of the returneee slaves in Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea and Gabon are to understand the language.

They should number in their millions, and when added to offsprings of Biafran war evacuees in Gabon, Zambia and Cote d'Ivoire it would have been a strong African population. Also, there are massive Igbo descendants in Haiti, Brazil, Jamaica, Honduras and Southern USA.

The Hausa language is the highest in West Africa. The use of the language by the BBC, VOA, Deutche welle, China radio etc attests to this. Lately many international christian channels, having realised that the Igbo has the highest christian population bloc in Africa, have been using the language in their broadcasts. We hope to see the mainstream channels do same.

My Presido ride on till 2019, onwe ihe mega!

Any calculation that excludes my own Ndudim Godwin Elumelu in the governorship equation of Delta State in 2015 is a misnomer.

His highpoints: 1) An experience politician with two terms in the House of Reps and on each occasion landing the solid committee chairs for Power and Health.

2) He has been cleared of any fraud allegations by the courts as a result of his inquiries in the power sector. Obasanjo stands indicted for the illegal waivers he granted for the IPPs and the disappearance of $16bn. But who will hold Obasanjo? Poor Ndudi.

3) He is from a solid financial background. His brother was for boss of United Bank for Africa, UBA and now Heirs Holdings, a global omnibus investment organisation.

4) He is connected to the powers that be and is endeared to President Goodluck Jonathan and other PDP leaders in Abuja.

5)He is a true Igbo son with full knowledge of his culture and respect for elders and critical stakeholders.

Let us be sincere, can the resource rich south and MB accept an Arewa president so soon?

I think your topic is directed against the Igbo, but do not forget they fought so hard for three years against the rest of the country and world to establish a distinct nation outside Nigeria. If your Awolowo had not hatched his evil devices, the story would have been different.

Now there are massive events to stay put and manage in Nigeria. Quit thinking secession masked in regionalism, the Igbo are ready to crush such efforts because there will be no more abandoned properties.

These Presidential aides are now doing the right thing telling us what's happening with our leader.

Anyway get well soon Presido.

And to evil wishers, nothing, nothing must happen to the President either in Nigeria or outside!

These presidential aides doing the right thing now by letting us know. Anyway quick recovery Presido.

And on a serious note: Nothing must happen to the President either in Nigeria or outside!

I thought you were talking of a Niger-Indo football match. Try it and see how many goals you will concede!

Now we know how this people are making their money. With crony capitalism laced with excessive debt overhang, and shady tax under-writing or outright evasion, Nigerian economy keep bleeding under the greedy clutch of these acolytes of power. Smh.

National Confab: APC is standing against the people – Odumakin
on november 17, 2013 at 3:12 am in politics
By Dapo Akinrefon
Mr Yinka Odumakin is the National Publicity Secretary of the Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere. In this interview, he takes a swipe at the All Progressive Congress, APC, for kicking against the National Conference proposed by President Goodluck Jonathan. Excerpts:
In recent times, you have taken a decision that is favorably disposed to the National Conference proposed by President Goodluck Jonathan. What is the basis of your optimism?
Dr Tunji Braithwaite said at the town hall meeting recently, that the  conference is a divine agenda to perhaps give Nigeria a lease of life because Nigeria, as it is, is heading for the precipe. Next year will be our centenary celebration and there is a widespread mood among those who are frustrated with the way Nigeria has distorted the aspiration of its people. And that may be the  year to put an end to Nigeria.

*Yinka Odumakin
Here is President Goodluck Jonathan who, two years ago, said there was no need for a National Conference. All of a sudden, he changed his mind. I think it is something that all those who want this country to continue, who love this country and who believe that there is an alternative for this country before it disintegrates, should grab with both hands to ensure that we sit down for the first time in our history since 1914 that we were amalgamated to discuss this nation.
The North and South did not meet until 1946, though amalgamation took place in 1914. There is a structural imbalance. So, this conference has given us an opportunity for the component units of the country to come together, for the first time, and discuss their union of how they want to live together so that we can live in peace and harmony.
The suspicion is that President Jonathan has been stifled by the North, which is clamouring for power and that his sudden change of mind is spurred by the fact that he wants power in 2015.
Well, sceptics are free to their opinions and I think the issue is that the credibility of President Jonathan is at stake or that he wants power but I think that should not be the consideration of those who love this country. It is just the fact that he has provided a window for reforms and we should turn that window into a door.
I have said it before that the fears of the cynics is that they doubt Jonathan’s intention and also that they do not want Nigeria restructured. The major groups, given that the Okunrounmu panel has been going round the country, there is an emerging consensus that every section of Nigeria wants a conference. There may be divergence on how we should compose and there is the consensus that representation should be on the basis of nationalities.
There is a kind of understanding that the existing geo-political zones should be used as basis for representation. Every section of this country has accepted the conference but the only people who are against this conference are the All Progressive Congress.
What informed your allegation?
It shows that they are in politics not for the people but about themselves. I think they have this thinking that this is their best time to go to the centre. They have been recruiting  people from the Peoples Democratic Party which they said was a corrupt and useless party, they have been going round to meet governors to join them. There are some delusions in their approach, they must be poor students of history to think that they can vote any sitting president out of office.
So for a group of people to think that one man will be in charge of the armed forces and they will still defeat him, I want to see them making that history. More importantly, people, over the years, have been talking about true federalism and the rest this is an opportunity for us to achieve that,and to now begin to raise all kinds of excuses to frustrate the desire of our people to get out of bondage shows one thing, they want to lead the people they do not understand.
It takes the Yoruba people to come to a consensus on any issue but once they come to that consensus, it will be difficult to change position. Those who did it in the First Republic saw it, those who followed Abacha in 1993 to 1999, what happened to them? From the 1950s, what the Yoruba have fought for is Nigeria’s autonomy, true federalism, now they want to have that autonomy and some people want to stand on their way and say they cannot have it saying they should wait till after the 2015 election.
They are deceiving our people. Go and ask for the APC manifesto today, it is there that they are committed to the same Constitution that enslaves our people. So if they say we should wait till after election, who are they deceiving, when they have written in their manifesto that they are committed to the existing Constitution? They just want to do ‘Gbajue’ for our people or one chance. And our people will not fall for that. From what happened in Akure and Lagos, it was clear that there was no organisation in Yoruba land that is not in support of this conference.
Afenifere, Yoruba Unity Forum, OPC – everybody was there!  It was clear where we are. So they are standing against the people and I watch them and laugh.  One man came in the plane, he had not even stepped down from the plane and he said he does not want the conference and all of you now say that is the thing.  Were the present governors in Yorubaland the same governors in Yorubaland in 1999?
How can we talk about constitutional development and issue for Nigeria and some people, who are governors in the South-west, would not think they should consult their leaders – those who are the authorities in their states? That Fashola would not even ask Mr. Tunji Braithwaite: ‘Sir, what do you think about this matter? before taking sides with a man who just jumped down from the plane, who has not talked to anybody?
That in Ogun State, Governor Ibikunle Amosun would not go to Kola Ajibola, a former Attorney-General, a former World Court judge – ‘what do you think sir, about this matter?’ before following a man who just came from the plane and was takling about the conference. That in Ekiti State, a Kayode Fayemi would not think that:  what does Chief Afe Babalola or Wole Olanipekun think about this matter? Let this conference hold, after that, you will come and face the Yoruba people.
How do you think this conference can be useful such that the Yoruba race can make the best out of it?
Of the tripod in Nigeria, Yoruba is the only one that has never questioned the corporate existence of Nigeria. After the legislative crisis of 1946, the Sadauna was quoted to have said “the mistake of 1914 has come to fore”, that is the amalgamation was a mystic. And in the revenge coup of 1966, the theme was ‘Araba’, lets divide Nigeria.
In  fact, after the 1953 motion by Enahoro for independence, the North came out with their own agenda which amounted to nothing but confederation.  When the Igbo got frustrated, they took up arms against Nigeria for three and a half years. In fact, at every point, in spite of what they did to Awolowo between 1960 and 1965,  Yoruba never took arms against Nigeria, to say let us divide the country.
For five years, we engaged Abacha; there was no resolution that we should divide Nigeria. So we believe Nigeria can prosper through federalism and Yoruba will be going to the conference asking for true federalism and regional autonomy. That is what we want out of this conference because we know the benefits and we know that dangers of not having it. Any experiment with a unitary Constitution in a multi-ethnic and multi-lingua nation is bound to fail. And if you are in doubt, go to Sudan – two major nationalities on unitary constitution were at war for over 50 years.
In Cyprus; the Spanish speaking and the Turkish speaking, for over 1,000 years they have been together, there is still tension.  In Syria today, the Kurds have been asking for autonomy for a long time. Even the problem in Iraq was because the one million Kurds there were asking for autonomy. Yugoslavia has disappeared from the world map since 1991.
So we believe that for Nigeria not to disintegrate, we need to come together, understand ourselves and then constitute ourselves in a way that we can live together in peace and harmony. Why Nigeria is not working is that it is said that the speed of a convoy is that of the slowest moving vessel. That is, if you have ten vessels and there is one among them that does not have locomotion like the rest, that will be the speed of that convoy; except the others get frustrated and decide to break away from that convoy, they will continue to move at the same speed.
That is what Nigeria has been doing in 53 years, because we are not exposed to the same level of speed at the same time. Between 1955 and 1965 when Awolowo led Western Nigeria, the least we spent on education was 29.8 percent in any year. There was even a time he spent 41 percent. Now suddenly you  came and say you want…unitarism – you want to standardise – you want all of us who have not invested that kind of money to go at the same pace. So for as long as your son cannot score 200 in JAMB, my son who scores 201 does not have a place in the university whereas your own son who scored 100, because he is not from my area where I’ve invested in education over a long time, must go to the university while there is no space for my own.
The second thing, it is said that birds of identical pulmage flock together. That is the normal thing, but in order not for birds of identical pulmage to flock together in Nigeria, Nigeria puts all the birds in one cage and locked them up and then because the birds are not in their natural habitats – because birds are supposed to fly – but they cannot fly anymore, then start to peck and bark at themselves inside the cage.
But now the president has gone ahead to say the outcome of the conference is to be submitted to the National Assembly as part of the ongoing constitutional amendment, which those who against the idea have further pointed to as part of the flaws of the proposed conference?
The statement made by the president was a convenient excuse for those who don’t want the conference ab-initio. Well, even if President Jonathan said we would take it to the National Assembly, which we have disagreed with, is it not better than them who said they are committed to the current Constitution that enslaves our people?
We have disagreed with the president on that and I think the president himself must have seen what the people are saying. The final authority lies with the Nigerian people and it is very clear.  The president put his view on the table but his view may not be the view. When we finish, the National Assembly promulgates our constitution into law; they will repeal the current the present decree which Abdulsalami promulgated; Decree 24, and put in the new Constitution that has been produced by we the people.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/11/national-confab-apc-standing-people-odumakin/