₦airaland Forum

[quote author=George_D link=topic=297179.msg4265356#msg4265356 date=1248863011]same thing you have been smoking too. only that i refused to take the
larger share and left it for you! [/quote]That can't be true!! I doubt if you can afford the Chocolate flavoured blended Cuban Cigars that I smoke.  Your cheap substitue clearly causes brain damage.

Let's begin the logistics. Who will make the Suya sandwiches, and who will bring the vans full of iced purewater? profits cannot exceed 10%, it shouldn't be a money making venture but assistance in Logistics to make it bearable. No other products but approved T-shirts for the march at the 10% profit  will be allowed. Pricing should be posted. It's all about logistics yo!!! Traffic control coordinators will be needed with reflective vests too. We will need Fashola to provide us with security personnel and MedVac Helicopters, hmm, Maybe a couple of ambulances with medical personnel will do though. A site for off-street parking next to that New hotel must be arranged as well. Parking shall not exceed N200.00/car with security to watch over the cars too. This has to be properly organized to show Nigerians how to protest. Alternative routes need to be identified and cleared of obstruction with traffic control wardens on the ground. Radio and TV stations should be involved to warn people of the expected traffic and how to avoid the area. This will thus allow the protesters the area as the designated spot to galvanize at.

sandee575:
Lastpage,
I would rather learn to drive before owning a car. So would i want to fill the potholes on my roads before embarking
on constructing water fountains at my roundabouts and junctions, i would build estates for the people to live in to bring
rent rates down before having visions of banning advance rents, i would emulate the Ghanaian government's success at
providing electricity for their people even as their President has no jet of his to fly in (we have a fleet), etc

What you fail to realize is that if it were left to Fashola, there wouldn't be an issue with power in Lagos. This is a guy who understands the importance of Industry which relies on power. Unfortunately, as discovered with the Egbin power plant which Lagos State built, the constitution requires that power is distributed evenly across the country regardless of the source. Lagos therefore produces power only for 2/3 of it to be lost in transmission to Abuja. The fact of the matter is that there are a few IPP projects in Lagos already built. These are currently acting as Private power projects targeted at Industrial customers. If the constitution was changed, I could almost bet that Power will be continuous along the full length of South Coast of Nigeria. Well, of course it will depend on MEND leaving the gas pipes unruptured.

[quote author=George_D link=topic=297179.msg4264870#msg4264870 date=1248858779]point of order! atlas cove is a federal government facility not that of
lagos state. the ground where it is sited is owned by the federal government.
let's not be too carried away.[/quote]And what have you been smoking? Ole Boy, abeg dey read small before you post.

lastpage:
Will that be web.dot.larez.at.yahoo.dot.com ?

I also have something for your attention concerning your "conspiracy theory"!

Cheers.

Lastpage

If you go to my profile here, you can just click on the yahoo ID to connect. But looks like you've gone to bed now, so you can add me to your yahoo. architect4stars.

@Lastpage, I sure love your words of encouragement. But I'm starting to have an uncanny feeling that there is a conspiracy probably started by Politicians to frustrate Nigerians that return from diaspora. Could it be a case of Schizophrenia? I am still not sure if you are a man or woman, but from Afarikorodo, I will assume that you's a Dude. Holla at me on yahoo from my profile if you have yahoo.

I want to commend all those that have taken up the issue, and willing to get out there and do something. I am with you 100%. We need to also remember that the Cabal that we speak about surround us as well. Their agents are also active in trying to derail this thing.  There are many bastards who live off the blood of the common Nigerian, who would not like to see this work. Ignore them and let them all go to HELL. Also there are the pessimists who do nothing and achieve nothing. It is better for one to know that they have tried, even if they fail, than someone who never gets off their butt to do anything. Thanks to all those ready to move this thing forward. God will guide you and make it successful. I am with you all the way. Just let me know what I need to do.

@Lastpage

You are always consistent about commenting on issues of Nigerian welfare. For this you should get a shout-out. As you mentioned, we owe it to Nigeria as thanks to God for giving us the exposures that better enlighten us. Who else will do it if not us? The irony is that I have archived over 30 Gig of information to assist in setting standards and awareness that I am not doing anything with so far. My experiences indicate that Nigerians tend to focus on the wrong things. You approach them with knowledge, and they are more engrossed with calling you "too know", instead of focusing on the importance of the information you are providing. This clearly discourages intellect.

I am about tired of Naija and may just end up leaving the country never to return again at the rate of discouragement that I am getting. People are only interested in stealing your ideas without compensation, while not quite getting the full picture yet. They end up messing up when they try to carry out these ideas without the proper research required. But then, it's usually stolen government money that they use, and hence abandon the project after realizing it wasn't as simple as they had deemed.

Why are we so bent on being enemies of progress? We can't give up though. I will keep trying for another year, and hope to meet some listening ears who are capable of doing things.

Ozodi Thomas has a lot of patients running loose on Nairaland.

A Wenger:
Good idea in principle but as with most things they always put the cart before the horse.  There is a reason why Landlords charge 2 years upfront, those are the issues that they should be attempting to address.  The infrastructure does not exist for what they want to do.

For example:  1. A credit rating system  to verify the credit worthiness of a prospective temant and a database to blacklist defaulters
                       2. the process for evicting defaulting tennants
                      3. High associated costs of the building process
                      4 availability of land and building loans (just to mention a few)
                      5.Height restrictions on housing developments due to legislation and safety (lack of reliable firefighting)

If they really are smart and want to leave a legacy they will focus on solving the causes not the symptoms,  Nobody wants to pay 2 years upfront, tenants do because the environment doesn't give them a choice and a piece of legislation won't change anything.  It can't work! if they surprisingly find a way to enforce it, it will merely discourage developers from the housing market.  Instead of using beer parlour mentality to solve this issue they should be looking to embark on a massive road building programme to open upen new and existing areas and increasing the height restrictions for buildings so we can start building housing skyscapers in instead of wasting land.  When  a landord buys a piece of land for an exhorbitant rate, and can only erect a fixed no of flats because of height retrictions, then he is going to want to make as much as possible on thosefew tenants, if he could go higher, the flats costs less per unit and hence less rent.   If they focuses on these, the issue will resolve itself without the need for mickey-mouse legislation, if the supply of housing units is increased, people will shun landlords asking of exhorbitant rents or multiple year payments.


[b]Some of you guys obviously think Fasola is doing a good job and yes he is an improvement but some of his ideas are ill concieved and some though good are poorly implemented, personally my view is that all this eko o ni baje nonsense is simply that your standards and expectation level have been lowered by years of poor governments

1. take Lekki express way, any foreward thinking person would be erecting flyovers, what are we getting?  roundabouts and tollgates, how does a roundabout ease traffic flow?
2. take BRT, I have been on Ikorodu road many times and seen the BRT rendered useless because a bus had broken down on it, because it has been cordorned off with boulders, the effect that even the buses can't use it and instead of easing traffic you turn a 3 lane highway into 2.
3. all this useless paving stones they use to tar the roads in lekki, makes for a horrible driving experience.  The excuse is always that the roads wash away,  all you need to do is to enforce standards in road construction and clear the drains, make it on offence for builders to dump sand and gravel on the roads and enforce fines on owners of undeveloped plots etc[/b]


When you try to kill a fly with a sledgehammer, most times you damage your wall and the fly escapes!   Lagos will nevre be a truely 21st century city with mediocre, substandard, half baked area boy approach to solving municipal problems.


Don't get me wrong I still like the guy

While most of the issues that you touched on have been addressed in the past, I have highlighted the ones that I'd like to comment on. Please scroll back within the thread to see the other comments.

I recently had a chance to discuss the issues of roadways with someone heavily involved in the Lagos State government. This discussion was based on a granite mine/plant that I have on my radar screen. After spending over 2 years researching granite, roadways/asphalt, and concrete plants to the point of being capable of writing books on them, I approached this person with the idea. The response that I got completely deflated me. 2 years of intensive research was reduced to "Are you the first to want to do granite?"

This was a response of ignorance, which is typical in government. My being black/Nigerian was all that it took to wave me aside. I will therefore just mention a few conclusions of my research that could have benefited us but were not considered as important.

Roadways

1.  Roadways have been built since the Roman times, but enlightened countries continue to find ways of improving the designs of these roadways for construction, and have recently made some leaps in their research. Their research has developed especially 2 types of roadways design systems that gets the most bang for their costs. These in the United States are the Superpave (Superior Performance Pavements) system, and Stone Matrix Asphalt.

2. It has been determined that in order to meet the requirements of these systems, the most important aspect is in the gradation and monitoring of the source of the aggregates (granites, gabro, basaslts etc.) , utilized. There are various parameters that must be met for these rocks to be certified to meet standards.

3. Once these sources have been approved, then there are other issues such as sizing and mixes for the asphalt. Other specifications such as the addition of polymers to the bitumen, makes for the design of roadways that will theoretically last for over 25 years before needing major improvements. Some roadways built as test roads have exceeded this time frame without needing major repairs.

4. Roadways are designed based on their classification which indicates the level of traffic expected on them. Interchanges (flyovers and ramps), bridges, and u-turns areas are used as per traffic requirement in each class of roadways. I don't believe that in my 26 years of living in the United states that I ever saw a roundabout. This is clearly European.

The guy that I was speaking with advised me that Lagos state government cannot afford to build the ramps and flyovers which is the reason for the roundabouts. I tried to tell him that in reality, they could not afford not to build them. But then, the issue was waved aside.

This is typical of the backwards thinking that plagues Nigerian government. In advanced countries, they do what is termed as the Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) of a Roadway before ever trying to build one. One of the most important parts of this is the cost  of delays. Nigeria is oblivious of what the true costs of traffic jams does to it's economy, and the politicians fail to even understand the concept. Instead they say things like "You have spent too much time in America". When will we start thinking correctly? When will we understand the value of our human capital and it's productivity?

A couple of other important things that I must mention that no one pays attention to is the quality of concrete that people use to build houses, especially multi-storey ones. There is noone testing the sources or quality of granite used in our concrete. Do you know that granites are known to exist in many cases with uranium? Do you know that granite emits radiation? Do you know that many houses are being built with contaminated granites which end up making people sick from radiation exposures? But try to tell anyone in Nigeria, and they will tell you granite is granite. Ignorance kills.

Secondly, advances in the study of concrete has shown that some particular mixes actually end up causing aggregates to gel within the concrete and thus loosening/weakening the strength of the concrete over time. I can almost bet that this is one of the factors for the collapse of many buildings. When this gelling occurs within the columns holding up decks, it is only a matter of time before they collapse. There are also other issues about the quality of sizing in specification concrete. Recent studies have indicated that the ratio of sizing of the aggregates is very important in the mixes. Using cement sand and gravels in volumetric proportions alone don't quite cut it.

These are just a few observations of negligence and ignorance that I have noticed in the Nigerian environment. I have tried to educate some about this, but then they always remind me of the White men who they have in charge working for them. It is an irony that whenever I have technical discussions with these Lebanese guys that they call White men, I usually find out that they would have only qualified as laborers on any of my jobsites in the United States, where I design/built since 1986.

Here is an article that sums up some of these guys going around posting junk all over the internet.

From: ozodiobi osuji <africainstitute@, >
Subject: [AfrikHealth] EXPLORING IGBO MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES
To: AfrikHealth@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, April 18, 2009, 4:42 PM

This paper explores the nature of delusion disorder, its variants, such as schizophrenia, paranoid type and paranoid personality disorder and how they relate to a specific African group. The paper will be developed in a workshop (to which folks are called to participate in). What is said about delusion disorder applies to all human beings; therefore, any one who so wishes could learn from it. The writer, however, found it necessary to delimit his focus of analysis to a specific African group and that is not to say that the issue does not affect other African groups or human beings in general.

EXPLORING IGBOS MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES
Ozodi Thomas Osuji

I am putting together a two day (Saturday and Sunday) workshop(s) on mental health and Igbos. I found it necessary to do so because of two reasons: the disturbing level of delusional disorders in Igbos and Igbos tendency to not accept this fact and, instead, find it necessary to verbally abuse whoever points out the obvious in them. I wrote about the palpable delusional issues in them and instead of them pausing to find out whether what I said was true (or a mere projection of my own issues to them) they haul abusive verbal missiles at me. Hardly a week goes by that one of them does not write to me, cussing me out, calling me a whole lot of negative names. The piece I did on the reasons why they claim to be Jews elicit the most response from them. Apparently, it struck a cord in their psychopathology. These people feel so inferior about themselves that they rejected themselves and identified with others, those they imagine are superior persons, Jews, and want you to collude with their obvious paranoia and tell them that they are Jews (read, tell them that they are superior persons, as they imagine Jews are) and if you do not they feel mad at you.

We have to explore why these people are doing what they are doing, for it is no longer a laughing matter. They generally run around fancying themselves superior to their Nigerian neighbors. They seize on flimsy evidence to justify their delusion of superiority. They would tell you that Hausas do not qualify to directly enter Nigerian universities (what it takes to qualify to enter Nigerian universities would not qualify you to enter good universities elsewhere, so qualification is always relative). They glibly tell you that Hausas enter universities on quota grounds. You ask them to provide you with evidence for their claims. Providing evidence for their delusional claims is not one of their strong points. Clearly, Hausas are as qualified as any other Nigerians to attend Nigeria ’s universities.

There is no shred of evidence that the Igbos are superior to any other Nigerian tribe (their average scores on standard IQ tests, such as Stanford-Binnet and WAIS/WISC, are the same as those of other Nigerians; they perform at the same levels in SAT, GRE and other college entrance examinations) . Their feeling of superiority is imaginary, is based on their rejection of their real selves and identification with fantasy ideal selves.

The ideal self is the self the neurotic wishes to be, a self that is superior and powerful, the opposite of the imperfect real self. Some individuals completely identify with the false, ideal self and come to believe that it is who they are. From its perspective they go about fancying themselves better than ordinary persons; they see people as inferior to them (that is, they project their rejected inferior selves to the rest of us).

White racists do this a lot. Generally, white racists are those white folk who feel inordinately inferior and come to believe that if they felt superior to black folk that it would make them seem superior. Of course, their behavior is deluded since in reality no race is superior to other folks.

We, black folk, feel insulted when white folk feel superior to us. We feel insulted because we know that despite the fact that white scientific and technological civilization is ahead of black civilization that all human beings are the same and equal. Come to think of it; one can understand why confused white racists feel superior to blacks for their material civilization is obviously ahead of Africans material civilization. But can one understand why Igbos should feel superior to other Africans? What in Igbo civilization makes Igbos seem superior to other Nigerians? Is it their underdeveloped political structure and culture before white men came to Nigeria ? The very Hausas and Yorubas they feel superior to attained what Marxist call feudal political state (a prelude to the contemporary bourgeois state) and they, Igbos, were only at the rudimentary communalistic stage of socio-political development.

Naturally, those Igbos look down on feel angry at them. The mad man looks down on folk and in his delusion expects the folk he imagines himself superior to, to accept his delusion of superiority, but they cannot and that makes him angry for they had not validated his preferred delusional self view.

Other people feel resentful towards the deluded person for daring to feel superior to them. Occasionally, people attack the deluded person, if only to bring his swollen ego down to human proportion.

Thus, occasionally, other Nigerians attack Igbos, and or kill them. But instead of learning from being attacked and killed that they are not super men, as common sense would dispose them to learn, their delusion waxes stronger. If they were super men, God’s elect how come they are easily killed by whoever wants to kill them? Obviously they are not special at all; they are not invincible, they are mere human beings at the mercy of other human beings.

Instead of accepting their vulnerable reality, they increase their sense of superiority and present themselves as innocent persons to the world. They say, in effect, see, we are innocent persons whom bad other persons attacked and killed; have sympathy for us.

Normal persons shrug off their silly claims of innocence for they instinctively realize that where there is smoke there is fire. If you are routinely attacked by other persons there must be something about you that makes them attack you. People don’t just get up and attack whoever they see. People attack the neurotic who feels superior to them for it makes human beings feel angry for other human beings to feel better than them.

All human beings, black and white, the various African tribes are the same and equal. Therefore, if you fancy yourself better than other persons you infuriate them and they want to attack you, if only to teach you the lesson that you are not better than them.

The mad man does not learn from experience and instead go about pretending to be superior to other persons. No amount of rational feedback to him that he is the same and equal to other persons makes him give up his delusion of superiority, for that delusion is a mask for his perceived sense of inferiority.

We all feel like we are inferior and are not special. The exigencies of being a human being, an animal that knows that nature does not treat him as if he is special, an animal that would like to be special yet an animal that nature snuffs out and dies and rots and smells to high heaven. We feel like we are nothing special and would like to feel like we are special, important, and superior. But healthy persons know that they are none of those things hence accept their humble selves.

The deluded person is unable to accept humility and, instead, uses his imagination to fashion a grandiose ego self concept, identify with it and come to believe that it is who he is in fact. He goes about pretending to be special.

Special indeed; you put a bullet into his swollen head and he is dead and becomes food for worms. He is so important that he is food for worms. So much for human importance!

Igbo sense of inferiority and compensatory superiority feeling is long standing. During my father’s generation, Igbos from Onitsha used to deny their Igboness and, instead, claim to be from Benin . Even Nnamdi Azikiwe, a supposedly university graduate, in his autobiography, My Odyssey, wrote that his Onitsha folk came from Benin . That is correct; a university graduate did not understand the self damaging implication of what he wrote. The implication is that he believed that Igbos are primitive and that Benin folk are civilized. By identifying with the supposed civilized Benin folk he fancied that he was now civilized. As it were, affiliation with a supposed civilized people washed away his supposed inferiority and lack of civilization and somehow made him superior and civilized!

Onitsha folk, believing in the fantasy that they are from Benin , looked down on other Igbos. They claimed to be “Umu Eze Chima,” a prince of Benin who supposedly left Benin and settled in Alaigbo.

Please note that that phrase, “umu eze chima”, is Igbo. In Igbo, umu means children of, Eze means chief, Chima means God knows; hence children of chief God knows; none of these words is Edo, Beni language meaning that these people are not Edo people but Igbos masquerading as Edo folk!

My father and his fellow Owerri folk used to gather and speculate on what sort of madness took hold of Onitsha people to dispose them to deny their Igboness and identify with Edoness, and from that standpoint look down on their fellow Igbos.

Ontisha folk used to call Owerri folk Ndi Igbo or Onye Igbo (Igbo people) and saw themselves as non-Igbos. This was supposed to imply the inferior status of Igbos Vis a Vis their superior self!

In return, Owerri folk called Onitsha folk Ndi Njekoebe…people who want to be other people, people who want to be Beni people; in other words, lost souls, fools. It would have taken a lot of doing to persuade my father’s Owerri generation to see Onitsha folk as sensible folk; to them Onitsha folk were “anuohia”, bush animals, fools who had no common sense.

Consider: the white man came to Alaigbo in the 1850s. He established an elementary school at Onitsha . Thus, Onitsha folk were the first Igbos to go to Western type schools. White missionaries came to Owerri in 1902 and established schools thereafter. That is to say that Onitsha folk had fifty years of heads up ahead of Owerri folk. Therefore, during the 1960s most educated Igbos were from the Onitsha area and Owerri folk were relatively backward. Now, any one with any kind of common sense would understand this situation, for fifty years gave Onitsha folk a lot of advantage over Owerri folk in the race to acquire Western education. Instead of appreciating the obvious reasons why they seemed ahead of Owerri folk, many Onitsha folk assumed that they were superior to Owerri folk! In today’s Alaigbo Owerri folk, more or less, produce as many university graduates as other Igbos put together! Onitsha folk are, relative to Owerri folk, less educated (they tend to be good at trading).

The salient point is that this folk lacked the power of good observation and empirical realism led them and tended to jump to unwarranted conclusions about people’s inferiority or lack thereof.

The tendency to see themselves as inferior and identify with another group that they see as superior is continuing today. Today, many Igbos call themselves Jews!

Genetic testing shows that Igbos are not related to Jews (I speak from experience, for I have done genetic testing to ascertain my group affiliation; I am African).

Igbos are a member of the Niger-Congo African group. They are related to Yorubas, Edos, Tivis and their other Nigerian neighbors. In fact, they are related to Hausas and don’t even know it!

Please note that the Yoruba term Omo means the same thing as the Igbo term Umu; Omo is Yoruba for Igbo children. This means that the two languages had a common root and diverged from each other not too long ago. My village is called Umu-Orisha; Yorubas have Omo-Orisa. One can go on and on pointing out the common roots of Yoruba and Igbo languages, showing that the two people are the same people but instead of accepting their oneness Igbos stress what differentiates them and like confused fools would like to see themselves as not Africans but as Jews!

(The implication of their not being African, were that true, is that other Nigerians could ask them to pack up and leave, to go to the Middle East where Jews live and are persecuted by Arabs! That is, their infantile claim to be Jews could come to hunt them as their neighbors try to kick them out of Africa . They are not known for political sagacity and perspicaciousness. If they were sensible they would emphasize their Africanness, and not glibly talk about their foreignness in a misguided effort to seem superior to their Nigerian neighbors.)

The sad part of it all is that those Igbos want to be like, Jews do not accept them! To the best of my knowledge, Jews do not go about claiming to be related to Igbos! They probably see Igbos as primitive Africans and do not want to be associated with a primitive folk.

In the empirical world, observations shows that, in the main, human beings tend to want to associate with those they perceive to be better than them. In this light, Jews probably see white Europeans as better than them and want to be seen as whites even though they are Orientals, Semitic folk. Jews are not different from Arabs (they share the same Semitic language…see Arab Salam and Jewish Shalom mean the same thing).

Clearly, Igbos are Africans and not Jews; it is inferiority feeling that makes them claim to be Jews, and labor under that delusion in a misguided effort to prove to themselves that they are Jews hence a superior people!

If you want to heal their delusion disorder and tell them that they are not Jews, they hate you and would attack you. I dared point out that they are Africans and not Jews and since then they hate me and write me hate letters. The fools apparently think that they can alter reality by their jabbering, by making noise. They can stand on their heads and claim to be superior to other Nigerians or to be Jews but the fact is that they are none of those things and those of us who are invested in the truth would not be persuaded by their childish vituperations. It is not up to human beings to change reality; all that is up to them is to accept reality as it is and make the most of it.

The Igbo tendency to feeling inferior and masking it with false superiority is shown by their penchant for titles (a trait they share with other Nigerians). These days they want to be called Dr or Professor or Chief or all three together (hence Professor Dr Chief Do-Nothing). Apparently, they feel that being called those seeming important titles makes them seem superior.

Let us see. The term professor is French and means teacher; the term Dr (PhD means doctor of philosophy) is someone who is dedicated to contributing to knowledge, and the term Chief is the head of a barbarian German war band.

I do not see how any of these foreign originated titles apply to the Igbos and Nigerians that crave them! They do not contribute to knowledge hence are not doctors of knowledge, they do not teach any relevant thing in their largely second rate universities hence are not professors; their society did not have chiefs before the white man came to them hence they cannot legitimately be called chiefs.

Clearly, Igbos title craziness is meant to make them seem important in our eyes, but are they important?

Important for what contribution to civilization, or is it for merely stealing from the Nigerian treasury to make them seem rich (wealth is okay if it is generated from ones industry, not if it is stolen, as it is mostly their case).

To show you how absurd these people have become, these days some of them want you to call them by their vocational titles; thus, if an engineer you must call him Engineer( who does not know who to fix anything), if Architect (Architect who builds a house that falls down tomorrow). The sad part of it all is that some of these clowns went to school in the West and know that folks in the West do not masquerade around with such titles; in the West folks are simply called Mr. Mrs. or Ms regardless of their academic attainments (the term professor and or Dr is obviously necessary in college campuses but not to be employed outside academia).



The term paranoia is of Greek origin; it means rejection of ones real self and identification with a wished for fantasy, ideal self.

The paranoid person rejects his actual self, whom he sees as not good, constructs an ideal self and identifies with that false ideal, superior all powerful self and presents it to other people to accept.

If other people collude with the paranoid person and see him as he wants to be seen, superior, he likes them but if they see him as he is, an ordinary human being, he feels humiliated, belittled, degraded and fights back, fights to make you see him as superior. The paranoid person fears been demeaned, that is, fears not been seen as the wished for grandiose important self. The worst crime you can commit towards him is to see him as an ordinary human being; he could physically (and certainly would psychologically) attack and kill you for daring to see him as a mere human being. (I called Igbos ordinary human beings and since then they attack me…this is how the paranoid process works, they want me to collude with their mental disorder and see them as emperors, naked emperors, I should point out.)

The fact is that the individual is not his ideal self; he is an actual self, an imperfect human being living in body. He might as well have the courage to accept who he is and make the most of it rather than clamor for an impossible self, ideal superior, powerful self. Nothing Igbos do would make them superior to other people, for they are not.

Actually, if you wanted to be objectively empirical and looked at their society’s material accomplishments you would see them as an inferior people, indeed. The level of their political development is the most rudimentary (what Marxists call primitive communism). They had only town, village polities and did not develop an Igbo wide political structure. They did not develop writing; their numbering did not go beyond a few hundreds. They did not develop the wheel. Their science is very primitive, so primitive that you are compelled to ask: where were they when other groups were moving ahead and developing higher civilizations?

However, as my fellow Bruin (UCLA) Professor Diamond pointed out in his seminal book: Guns, Germs and Civilization, there were mitigating reasons why Igbos remained very primitive relative to other groups. For example, they did not have horses and it is a demonstrated fact that those who had horses tended to be more mobile and engaged in wars of conquests hence had superior civilizations. The point is that Igbos do not need to be ashamed of their paltry contribution to material culture; they do not need to seek to escape from their reality by claiming to be who they are not, Edo , Jew etc.

What Igbos need to do is accept themselves as they are and then join the scientific world and make their contributions to the world of science and technology and not just pretend to have done so already, for they have not done so already (some of us know who is who in the world of physics, chemistry and biology and know that not one Igbo has made a seminal contribution to that world).

Mental health lays in accepting ones self as the same and coequal with all people and not pretend to be better than any human being. The moment the individual fancies himself superior to other persons he is deluded and now needs to be healed of that mental disorder. The purpose of psychotherapy, especially cognitive behavior therapy, is to help shrink the individual’s swollen ego to normal proportions where he accepts our common humanity.



It is about time that we made concerted efforts to inform Igbos of the nature of mental health and how they are behaving like deluded persons by always wanting to be seen as superior persons when they are not. If not healed they would continue their shenanigan and continue sowing social conflict, disturbing our social peace and generating others attacks on them. It is about time that they are taught that mental health lies in accepting reality as it is, the reality of humility.

Human beings are not the grandiose gods they would like to be seen as; they are mere animals. Eco homo, Nietzsche said. Human beings are feeble creatures, vulnerable animals that make a whole lot of noise.

As the extraordinarily insightful Shakespeare pointed out in Macbeth, human life is like a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury but signifying nothing. We strut about on the world stage and seem like we matter but in time die and are eaten by (as Hamlet observed) worms.

Mental health lies in accepting the human reality as it is, and not denying it and pretending to be gods that we are not.

Human beings commit heinous acts when they pursue false self views. Adolf Hitler saw himself as totally inferior and rejected that negative self concept and then conceptualized himself as a superior, ideal self. He extended his imaginary superior self to his fellow Germans. He sought to prove to the world that he and his Germans were superior persons and that their neighbors, especially Slavic persons and Jews etc were inferior persons. Thus, he embarked on a deluded, paranoid war and by the time the mad man was finally stopped he had killed over fifty million persons.

Human beings are a threat to other persons when they fancy themselves superior to them. Igbos disturb people’s peace when they pursue their imaginary superior selves and it is about time that they are healed of that delusional disorder and shown how to live in peace with their selves and their neighbors.

In the USA, believing themselves as superior persons, many Igbos see their spouses as not recognizing their imaginary important selves and beat them up (to make them see them as important) and are, of course, arrested and jailed. Domestic violence is a crime. America’s jails and Psychiatric hospitals are filling up with deluded Igbos! (Their manifestation of the other mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, mania etc, tends to be at the same level as in other human groups hence not a cause for concern. For some reason paranoia is very rampant in Alaigbo and it is time that we explored why and sought ways to heal it, rather than play the ostrich, put our heads in sand and pretend that what is there is not there.)

The paranoid person thinks that he can fool other persons into believing that he is what he is not, ideal, perfect person. Those of us with clinical experience can tell the paranoid character from a mile away. Generally, he is physically rigid and emotionally inflexible. He is tense, so tense that if you raised your voice he would jump! Paranoia is, among other things, intense fearfulness and anxiety.

The paranoid person is like a soldier at the battlefield and feels that the entire world is made of enemies and is out to get him, persecute and kill him, so he feels justified in his guardedness. He is so guarded that he is always looking right and left to see if other persons are not there to harm him; in fact, when he sits down he sits away from folk, puts a distance between them, for he does not trust them enough to be close and intimate with them. (The clinical names for these states are ideas of reference and ideas of centrality; they feel like they are in a fishbowl, and are the center of the world and all people see them and are preoccupied with them; they fear being seen as not good enough hence harmed, therefore they must be on guard lest other persons harm them.)

The paranoid person is suspicious and does not trust any one to look after his self interests; he believes that only he can protect his interests.

When he laughs, you can sense his inflexibility in his laughter, we call it paranoid laughter; it is forced, as if unnatural; this is because he is trying to laugh from his imaginary ideal self; it is when one laughs from ones real self, a humble self that ones laughter is natural and spontaneous.

The paranoid person always misinterprets what other persons say and sees them to demean him. He believes that folk deliberately set out to make him small and since he does not want to be seen as small he feels angry at whoever he feels sees him as small. Generally, he accuses folk of looking down at him. In doing so he makes them feel angry at him, for no one likes to be falsely accused of doing what one did not do. He is always provoking other people’s anger at him. This is called paranoid self fulfilling prophecy, accusing people and making them fight with him hence gratify his presupposition that other people are hostile to him, that we live in an unfriendly world.

One such Igbo paranoid personality, he goes by the foreign name of Franklyn (he is not even political aware enough to realize that going by the white man’s name is inappropriate for an African), would try to avert his reality by calling one ill understood psychiatric names that he gleaned from casual reading. It is obvious that he knows diddlysquat about mental health issues but the clown would call you schizophrenic as if he knows what schizophrenia is!

These people will go to any length to avoid looking into themselves and developing insight into their obvious psychopathologies. They would rather see themselves as Nigerians victims and blame Nigerians for the issues their crummy personalities generate for them.

I generally have pity for them but have decided to heal them and not pussy foot and pretend that ignoring their psychological issues would make them go away. These issues have to be addressed and healed, to the extent that they can be healed, and what cannot be healed is lived with, and they develop the wisdom to know the difference.



This workshop will explore the nature of delusion disorder, aka paranoia. Delusion disorder is belief in what is not true (such as a sense of ones superiority and specialness) to be true and no amount of rational reasoning would make one not believe it. Why do some persons have systematic belief in what is not true as true and wont give such false beliefs up in the face of contradicting evidence?

The workshop will explore the cultural reasons why this disorder seems rampant in Alaigbo, such as Igbo competitiveness, Igbos lack of acceptance of people as they are, Igbos tendency to accept people only when they seem successful, and Igbos consequent fear of being who they are lest they risk of social rejection, and desire to become imaginary successful persons so that other Igbos would accept them. Competitive societies and conditionally accepting societies, as Carl Rogers pointed out, tend to produce neurotic persons, whereas unconditionally positively accepting societies tend to produce healthy persons.

The workshop will look at putative biological antecedents in psychotic disorders; however, so far, there are no known or accepted biological causal factors in pure paranoia. In schizophrenia, paranoid type, there appears to be biological causation (dopamine issues)? The various neuroleptic medications (such as Zyprexa, Risperdal etc) appear to reduce the bizarre delusions found in schizophrenia (such as reduce their claim to be god) and hallucinations. There are no hallucinations in pure delusion disorder and paranoid personality hence medications appear contraindicated and dept psychotherapy called for.

(Paranoid persons generally do not go to therapists; they tend to see themselves as healthy and see therapists as sick and look down on them; paranoid persons feel superciliously superior to most people, therapists included…one of them, a fellow barely holding on to reality, sees therapy as women’s work; in his delusion he believed that he has put therapists down and that that made him feel superior but all he did was affirm his delusion! As I pointed out elsewhere, one of the reasons Nigerians, so far, are unable to govern themselves is that most of their leaders have mental disorders, especially personality disorders such as paranoid, narcissistic and antisocial, and they do not know it. Until these people are healed I doubt that any good can come out of their country. You do not expect mentally and or personality disordered persons to do the right thing, such as care for their people; instead, you expect them to steal from their people and derive perverted sense of importance from stealing from their people. The more paranoid ones do what paranoids do: blame other persons for their inappropriate behaviors; paranoid persons do not accept blame for any of their inappropriate behaviors; to accept blame is to feel imperfect but they want to feel perfect, so whatever is not perfect in them they must deny ownership of and attribute to other persons fault…and like childish persons expect those they blame for their problems to accept blame!)

The workshop will juxtapose delusion disorder (and its variants, such as paranoid personality and schizophrenia, paranoid type) to the other psychoses (such as Mania, Depression etc) and personality disorders, such as antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders. It is designed for mental health professionals (psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers and counselors) and interested lay persons. Continuing education unit (hours) will be given to those who desire them.



*For this workshop we shall use the following books; prospective participants should read them in advance, for the workshop is intended to be a graduate level seminar type where participants are already familiar with the literature and can therefore meaningfully contribute to the discussion.



REQUIRED READING



Adler, Alfred (1909) The Neurotic Constitution.

American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.

Beck, Aaron (1990) Cognitive Therapy for Personality Disorders.

Horney, Karen (1950) Neurosis and Human Growth.

Meissner, William (1980) The Paranoid Process.

Meissner, William (1984) Psychotherapy and the Paranoid Process.

Rogers, Carl (1947) Client Centered Therapy.

Shapiro, David (1972) Autonomy and the Rigid Character.

Shapiro, David (1972) Neurotic Styles.

Swanson, David et al (1970) The Paranoid.

Uchendu, Victor (1968) Igbos of Southeast Nigeria .

Please email to me to get further information on time, place and cost of the workshop(s).

Ozodi Thomas Osuji, PhD

April 20, 2009

ozodiosuji@gmail. com

Dede1:
Ibime,

The dude is simply disingenuous. He has adamantly refused to learn. Negro_nuts and his/her ilk are on covert mission and must be watched very carefully. This mission was initiated by the western region of Nigerian government publication of 1967. The easterners must make sure that these deceptive stunts being performed by lily-hearted punks remain jokes.

It is quite obvious that you are the epitome of the Igbo man Ozodi Thomas describes. I think it is time that I seek that article again and post it here. Your tone is typical of your self perceived superiority with leaves you clearly deluded. You have a bunch of twists and turns without references to your sources, which I guess makes you the indisputable source itself. Ozodi Thomas article coming up. Here on Nairaland!!

Here is my opinion so far as I now immerse myself into learning about the History of Nigeria:

The current climate of Nigeria is clearly affected by traditions of the various cultures. It awakens curiosity to note the historical social structures and ways of life, and reflect them in the current trends of thoughts from the various regions. I can see some uncanny resemblance in the general attitudes of the political stooges in Nigeria. It is obvious that each school of thoughts can be reflected in their historical social structures. This may be the main reasons for the conflict in governing Nigeria.

I will subsequently advise that we all begin to analyze these facts as a prelude to better understanding of each other rather than point fingers. Fact still remains that we are all somewhat intertwined through marriages and common relationships. It will indeed be a travesty if we cannot find ways to better live together. Let's leave all our bias aside and discover each other. We can use this medium as a forum for discussing these discoveries and taking it to an intellectual level. A result could be a powerhouse of advise to our current leadership. See? It might just be much more simple than what we are making of it.

Here is some information that I find interesting. Note that this source is dated 1991. I mention this date to stress the importance of time-frame. It is most probably less biased because it has not been tainted by the polluted information now being spread after the Internet hit Naija. I will advise that people read more from this source because it basically summarizes Nigerian history in the views of the Western world. You will find information regarding various tribal affiliations of Nigeria as well. Here is the link: http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-9333.html

Nigeria
[size=14pt]Yoruba Kingdoms and Benin[/size]

As far as historical memory extends, the Yoruba have been the dominant group on the west bank of the Niger. Of mixed origin, they were the product of the assimilation of periodic waves of migrants who evolved a common language and culture. The Yoruba were organized in patrilineal descent groups that occupied village communities and subsisted on agriculture, but from about the eleventh century A.D., adjacent village compounds, called ile, began to coalesce into a number of territorial citystates in which loyalties to the clan became subordinate to allegiance to a dynastic chieftain. This transition produced an urbanized political and social environment that was accompanied by a high level of artistic achievement, particularly in terracotta and ivory sculpture and in the sophisticated metal casting produced at Ife. The brass and bronze used by Yoruba artisans was a significant item of trade, made from copper, tin, and zinc either imported from North Africa or from mines in the Sahara and northern Nigeria.

The Yoruba placated a luxuriant pantheon headed by an impersonal deity, Olorun, and included lesser deities, some of them formerly mortal, who performed a variety of cosmic and practical tasks. One of them, Oduduwa, was regarded as the creator of the earth and the ancestor of the Yoruba kings. According to a creation myth, Oduduwa founded the city of Ife and dispatched his sons to establish other cities, where they reigned as priest-kings and presided over cult rituals. Formal traditions of this sort have been interpreted as poetic illustrations of the historical process by which Ife's ruling dynasty extended its authority over Yorubaland. The stories were attempts to legitimize the Yoruba monarchies--after they had supplanted clan loyalties--by claiming divine origin.

Ife was the center of as many as 400 religious cults whose traditions were manipulated to political advantage by the oni (king) in the days of the kingdom's greatness. Ife also lay at the center of a trading network with the north. The oni supported his court with tolls levied on trade, tribute exacted from dependencies, and tithes due him as a religious leader. One of Ife's greatest legacies to modern Nigeria is its beautiful sculpture associated with this tradition.

The oni was chosen on a rotating basis from one of several branches of the ruling dynasty, which was composed of a clan with several thousand members. Once elected, he went into seclusion in the palace compound and was not seen again by his people. Below the oni in the state hierarchy were palace officials, town chiefs, and the rulers of outlying dependencies. The palace officials were spokesmen for the oni and the rulers of dependencies who had their own subordinate officials. All offices, even that of the oni, were elective and depended on broad support within the community. Each official was chosen from among the eligible clan members who had hereditary right to the office. Members of the royal dynasty often were assigned to govern dependencies, while the sons of palace officials assumed lesser roles as functionaries, bodyguards to the oni, and judges.

During the fifteenth century, Oyo and Benin surpassed Ife as political and economic powers, although Ife preserved its status as a religious center even after its decline. Respect for the priestly functions of the oni of Ife and recognition of the common tradition of origin were crucial factors in the evolution of Yoruba ethnicity. The oni of Ife was recognized as the senior political official not only among the Yoruba but also at Benin, and he invested Benin's rulers with the symbols of temporal power.

The Ife model of government was adapted at Oyo, where a member of its ruling dynasty consolidated several smaller citystates under his control. A council of state, the Oyo Mesi, eventually assumed responsibility for naming the alafin (king) from candidates proposed from the ruling dynasty and acted as a check on his authority. Oyo developed as a constitutional monarchy; actual government was in the hands of the basorun (prime minister), who presided over the Oyo Mesi. The city was situated 170 kilometers north of Ife, and about 100 kilometers north of present-day Oyo. Unlike the forest-bound Yoruba kingdoms, Oyo was in the savanna and drew its military strength from its cavalry forces, which established hegemony over the adjacent Nupe and the Borgu kingdoms and thereby developed trade routes farther to the north (see fig. 2).

[PDF]

Figure 2. Yorubaland, Eleventh to Nineteenth Centuries established agricultural community in the Edo-speaking area, east of Ife, when it became a dependency of Ife at the beginning of the fourteenth century. By the fifteenth century, it took an independent course and became a major trading power in its own right, blocking Ife's access to the coastal ports as Oyo had cut off the mother city from the savanna. Political power and religious authority resided in the oba (king), who according to tradition was descended from the Ife dynasty. The oba was advised by a council of six hereditary chiefs, who also nominated his successor. Benin, which may have housed 100,000 inhabitants at its height, spread over twenty-five square kilometers that were enclosed by three concentric rings of earthworks. Responsibility for administering the urban complex lay with sixty trade guilds, each with its own quarter, whose membership cut across clan affiliations and owed its loyalty directly to the oba. At his wooden, steepled palace, the oba presided over a large court richly adorned with brass, bronze, and ivory objects. Like Ife and the other Yoruba states, Benin, too, is famous for its sculpture.

Unlike the Yoruba kingdoms, however, Benin developed a centralized regime to oversee the administration of its expanding territories. By the late fifteenth century, Benin was in contact with Portugal (see European Slave Trade in West Africa , this ch.). At its apogee in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Benin even encompassed parts of southeastern Yorubaland and the small Igbo area on the western bank of the Niger. Dependencies were governed by members of the royal family who were assigned several towns or villages scattered throughout the realm, rather than a block of territory that could be used as a base for revolt against the oba.

As is evident from this brief survey, Yoruba and Benin history were interconnected. In fact, areas to the west of Nigeria, in the modern Republic of Benin, were also closely associated with this history, both in the period before 1500 and afterward.

Data as of June 1991

rhymz:
From most of the posts I ve read on this thread,i realy am amazed at the grasp of history and quality of the arguements from Afam,ikeyman,Face,ibime and most especially Dede1,I realy respect the way U put things in perspectives.This group ve shown what is alwayz lacking in discussions on NL,intellectually based arguements with moderate facts and logic.Obviously,U can tell when an un-intelligent kid is debating,it's usually a catastrophic mix of unfounded hear-say,bad language construction and d use of uncouth language and majority of the responses to this group's arguements are from such kids.Am not even going to talk about thier bias cos if they can atleast convey it in a way that is succinct and void of stupid childish temper tantrums one can take them seriously.As for the poster,it's funny that U re not capable of intellectual indulgence and yet U try too hard to make urself look like one,what is the need of making claims to which U ve no proves.Lol,Dede1 is Ur antidote, Hahahahaha, U thought U could ve a smooth sail and dazzle Ur fellow small minds by churning out fabricationz and lies U stumbled onto which also got U wowed but the likes of Dede1,Afam,ibime,Face,Emeka aloy etc ve cut U to size,for a fact,U wowed small mindz like urself.I expect U not to reply to thier counter arguements cos obviously U don't ve any answerz to things U know little or nothing about.The only ppl who will see things through Ur jaundiced eyes re Ur fellow small minds,U ve already wowed them,U can't stop now and make sure U don't respond to this post cos i ve not directly or indirectly asked U to prove Ur lies they re Ur opiniönz,use them,eat them do what U like with them, afterall,they re only useful to U.

Geeze, how blatant can these follow follow people get. Suddenly after complimenting Negro_Nts, they wake up with the idea of complimenting each other. I am here laughing hard. Isn't this parallel with the reasons they despise Yorubas? Here is a guy seriously lacking in the understanding of basic English, obviously lacking any comprehension, yet bold enough to talk about intellect. Question is if his IQ will even register on any sort of scale. The irony here is clear. If a guy like this complements that party, we can tell what level of intelligence is being displayed. These guys obviously have a hidden crush for the Yorubas and will copy every step that we take. This is very flattering.

Dede1:
In academia, Nigeria was up and running to ellipse any progress Ghana had achieved. By 1963, Nigeria had four Universities namely ABU, Unibadan, Unilag and UNN. The VCs of the universities were two expatriates and two Nigerians. The Nigerians were Prof. Kenneth Dike and Prof. Eni Njoku of Universities of Ibadan and Lagos respectively. Please folks you must understand that in academia then, the position of tenured professorship is strictly based on academic merit. It should be recalled that when Prof Eni Njoku merited the position VC of Unilag, Dr. Obabiaku (sp) was not even a full professor at Unibadan. However, when Eni Njoku tenure was due for re-appointment for second four-year term, a Yoruba born Minister of Education who has just defected from NCNC to NNDP decided to inject tribalism to Nigerian academia by appointing Dr. Obabiaku (sp) to the post of VC of Unilag. The minister for education was no less a person than Chief Richard A. Akinjide.

Due to the shaming of the very Nigerian young academic repertoire by ethnic biased and tribal driven minister, the expatriate VC in UNN had to appeal to the government urging that Prof. Eni Njoku should replace him at UNN.

Sources please, quote your sources. The British recently unsealed a whole lot of documents regarding their involvement in colonial Nigeria. There are new facts coming out that there was in-fact a conspiracy to shut down Awolowo by the British, and Yorubas generally because they  were regarded as a threat even to the British Kingdom. Yorubas were considered very advanced in their thinking and strategies and if allowed to develop unchecked would become a threat to the dominance of the Western world.

It is unfortunate that even today, certain Nigerians feel like whatever Oyinbo said back then was flawless. They fail to think of who's interest Oyinbo was working for. It is clear that the British decided to sabotage Nigeria which they have successfully done, and we can clearly now see the weapons that they used. Propaganda is a major tool of warfare, and why will Nigerians let the British to continue judging who was in-fact qualified for professorship at a time that they were carefully orchestrating a ploy to sabotage Nigeria.

Language has been linked directly to sophistication in logical clarity. Oyinbos have recently confessed that the Yoruba language is the most advanced that they encountered in sub-saharan Africa and Africa as a whole. The extensive sophistication in both vocabulary and idioms shocked Oyimbo, and is still a subject of ongoing research in different parts of the world. This is the closest Oyinbo will ever get to admitting that an African language is more sophisticated than English. You guys need to stop being pawns and start finding joy in sharing the hidden wealth of africa. It is not everything that you try use your aggressive competitive energies to kill.

In the United States, a world of cultures are celebrated in different parts. My own better pass your own, na him dey kill Africa and na de reason wey we no grow be that. Yoruba towns continue to exist in many parts of the world. This is clearly because of the fact that it is a very strong culture that mere slavery could not stifle. Nobody had to travel to these countries to start trying to force them to accept new facts and doctrines to propagate this culture. It still lacks any central body that holds it together, and yet it survives. Just accept these facts and let's move on. We will have to create a Mecca of sorts in Ile Ife to accommodate this unquenchable culture that just won't die. I don't blame Biafrans for trying to go out and steal parts of it to boost their image.

Afam:
@larez,

You have asked some questions that deserve answers but when you make accusations as if they are statements of facts including condemning a people based on actions of a few people then it makes perfect sense to ignore you and your questions as in reality you are grossly inconsequential in the scheme of things in Nigeria, bitter truth you must live with.

On Biafra

I have never hidden my position on Biafra, as at today their is nothing like Biafra unless all the other states that were part of the then Eastern region agree to be part of Biafra so the reckless statements by some clowns even on this forum that all Igbos support Biafra or that Igbos should not live in any part of Nigeria but Igbo land to do business really are unfortunate and shows a lot of ignorance and knowledge about the facts on ground.

On a separate Igbo nation

The facts are there for all to see and feel. The core Igbos states alone have more than enough crude oil, coal and limestone to build an sustain a progressive nation and make money selling them after all we are naturally business oriented people, not so? When it comes to natural resources only an ignorant person would fail to see what the 5 Igbos states have.

On non Igbos not doing business or doing well in Igbo land

This should ordinarily be obvious to all because most of the other tribes make their money from institutions and federal based organizations not regular businesses. So, when federal presence is almost non existent in Igboland it becomes very difficult for non Igbos to settle there as they do in Lagos or Abuja (after all it is not all the western areas that you see Igbo people doing business).

After the war about 20 or 40 pounds were given to the Igbo man to start life afresh and with such "large foreign direct investment" from the federal government the area cannot be an investment destination for a lot of non Igbos.

In any case, you have different areas in the south east with significant population of non Igbos. I merely touched on some of the accusations for the sake of argument to prove that even if the accusations were indeed correct that there is enough justification.

It seems a lot of people find it difficult to think through issues especially when it comes to tribes or ethnicity as I don't understand why someone would believe lies being told by someone maybe because their have common tribal interests. What is the essence of getting any education if one cannot train the mind to read, digest, assimilate, analyze and conclude on issues based on logic, facts and common sense and not based on sentiments and tribal or religious mindset and bigotry?

I really don't suffer fools. If you were not blinded by your tribalism, you would have noticed that I was specific in each instance that I used Biafra and Igbo. The fact remains that my closest friends are Igbo, but they did not come directly from the bush to start making noise in Lagos before going abroad. They settled themselves to learn and adapt culturally to avoid spilling the type of ignorance coming from your likes.

My association with enlightened Igbos has allowed me to be able to differentiate the moronic bush men who have tasted money for the first time, from people who come from homes of distinction in Igboland. Your calibre of people who choose not to learn from the past to ensure your peaceful tomorrow, will never affect or change my predisposition towards my classy friends who happen to be Igbo. There is a clear distinction of the difference in my mind.

However, you have really gone beyond the point of return in your new scheming attempts to change Yoruba history. My fear at this point is that your types will galvanize the Yorubas against the Igbos generally due to your fellow ignorant Yorubas. The fact is that when push comes to shove, your leaders will be held responsible for the atrocities that you will cause by not speaking out and stopping the nonsense early. Yorubas have always been a wealthy people who have learnt the good and evils money bring and know how to handle wealth graciously. This is in contrast to you bush men who have never seen wealth and will end up being victims of the wealth in itself. What we are currently seeing is what the Western world refer to as the Nouveau Riche syndrome. You won't understand what I am speakiing of, because it is something mere money cannot purchase but has to be bred. You are displaying the breed of a street mutt which is the result of the political thuggery now fully embedded in Nigerian Politics.

Ole, oju o ri ola ri.

udezue:
Keep your support to yourself. Of what importance are you? You ask a bunch ignorant ass questions not worth answering. Worry about you not us.

I am not surprised at your response and infact expected it from your likes and co-conspirators. You will go to all means of avoiding healthy debates because of your agenda. You do very well in the midst of fools who cannot think for themselves and shout down intellects who ask you to provide proof instead of propaganda. You are the epitome of evil, and I will not be a part of those few good men who stand idly by. People like you who are in the business of causing havoc and disunity have awaken people like me who will fight you to submission.

[quote author=Negro_Ntns link=topic=298478.msg4250647#msg4250647 date=1248595749]Looking at the 1959 election results it is evident that what started in the mid-50s is now manifested into a political advantage for the North. There is clarity here that the North is favored by the British, starting back to the allocation of 50 seats for their representation in Parliament, the reluctance of the Governor General to honor the unanimous agreement by Southerners to obtain independence in 1956 and his deferrence to the North's opposition for the date.[/quote]I am very proud of you and your efforts to seek truth about the historical events that has brought Nigeria to this point. You have clearly focused and tried to be objective in your analysis. Please continue to ignore the efforts of those with an agenda to distract your clearly logical reasoning. Truth stays universal, and will always rear it's ugly head. I hope your next step will be an effort to debunk all the lies circulating the internet on various sites such as wikipedia.

There is a clear objective that has been embarked on by the so-called Biafrans who refuse to come to terms about the past by seeking truth. These people are ready to sacrifice more innocent lives without dealing with issues that led to what they claim to be genocide. Their leaders clearly brought ethnicity and nepotism into the Nigerian Political climate, and it is obvious that they are keeping their areas ethnically clean to pursue a future hidden agenda.

One should ask these questions:

Why is Igboland not conducive to acceptance of other Nigerians (foreigners) for development?

Why are Biafrans perpetrating frauds all over the internet by lying about being marginalized?

Are hausas and Yorubas Governors, Senators and House reps in Igboland today?

How rich are their political title holders in comparism to the common Igbo-man?

How long does it take for their Political Class to get filthy rich from having nothing until getting in power?

What difference is there is these occurrences as compared to other regions?

Why do they continue to invest and develop other parts of Nigeria when they are seeking a Biafra?

If by God's grace they get their Biafra, do they think the rest of Nigeria will leave itself vulnerable to security threats from Biafra by having them run freely and try to control the economy of what is left of Nigeria?

Have they ever heard the adage of eating your cake and wanting to have it too?

Are they aware that most Yorubas support them in their bid to have Biafra?

Are they aware that most Minority groups within their so-called Biafra do not want anything to do with their Biafra?

How would they address this issues, and what are they proposing as the demarcations of Biafraland?

How will getting all over the Internet and insulting Yorubas and Hausas help them achieve Biafra?

With those questions asked, I want to assure my Igbo friends that I vow to personally support them in achieving their Aim of Biafraand once the above questions have been adequately addressed. I believe that those not interested in being part of Nigeria should be free to emancipate so the rest of the country can be free of agitators who are clearly blackmailers in disguise that only want to find ways of lining their pockets without earning it.

nex:
I am very happy that tribal sentimentalism has taken over this thread.

Ikeyman, virtually everything on that your BBC history memo is a lie.

The Moroccans conquered Spain, Portugal and some parts of Italy in about 700 AD. Spain and Portugal were amalgamated to form Al Andalus (Andalucia) which was not freed till about the 1400s. By the Frankish Crusaders under the blessing of the Pope.

After about a century of the roaming around Northern Africa, those muslims expelled from Spain and Portugal started a Jihad which earned them a home and a Caliphate in Sokoto.

Immediately after their liberation, the Spanish and Portuguese having learnt a lot in sailing and warfare from their colonial masters, started sailing around the world aimlessly till they discovered America and then the trans-Atlantic slave trade started.

So please, take anything these Europeans teach their children with a pinch of salt. The Moors and Berbers of Morocco conquered and ruled Italy, Spain and Portugal for approximately 700 years and it took all the militaries of Europe led by the french to finally defeat them. Europeans used to call those 700 years the dark ages. Some say its called the dark ages because they don't remember what happened during that period. Some say its the dark ages because things were really bad. But the truth is that they call them the dark ages because they were ruled by brown skinned people and after the Moroccans left Portugal and Spain, these became the most success countries in Europe till the jealous british declared war on Spain.


Coming to the Yorubas, no one knows where they are from. Even Oduduwa doesn't know where they are from. When the Binis revolted against the Ogiso (people of the sky) dynasty because of their indulgence in human pleasures, the half human son of the ruling Ogiso and when he reached a place where people worshipped him, the Bini tried to lure him back to rule, but he told them Izoduwa (I HAVE CHOSEN A HOME). In Ife that is.

And here is a typical example of what i am saying. In your process of trying to debunk one story, you add your own story as well. Why don't you state your sources? I personally find what you posted almost insulting. You talk about "Izoduwa". Who is this Izoduwa that you mention? This name has just started circulating recently, while "Oduduwa" has been around and continues to exist sinc enay colonial writings ever existed. You guys really need to stop manufacturing stories and new names to justify your political ambitions. The truth is universal.

The problem here is in the complacency in Yorubaland. Yorubas are too comfortable and fail to realize the power of information warfare. Wikipedia is currently gaining popularity all over the world and the Biafrans have cleverly embarked on information warfare by using this medium effectively. He who controls information controls History, and Yoruba leaders a failing woefully in this regard. There are many inaccurate new pieces of information being spread in various forums and Biafrans are clearly playing a game of being victims. There is a scheme to avoid the issues that led to the war which was basically the efforts of the Igbo to dominate power in Nigerian politics and their slaughter of leaders from other parts of Nigeria. Nepotism and Coups are clearly the inventions of Igbos which has been the main factor in the destruction of Nigeria currently. History should not be allowed to be rewritten. If this trend continues, I can see that history will repeat itself. All the issues leading to the War and it's consequences should be visited thoroughly by credible intellects representing all regions of Nigeria.

The Northerners and Westerners are very lacking in propagating true information about the facts. Fiction has curently overtaken truth and should not be allowed to stand for long. The world is reading these lies and beginning to believe them as facts. This is the Grand Mother of 419 currently being perpetrated against Nigeria while Westerners and Northerners are sitting passively. You better wake up before it is too late. Both areas need to seriously visit Wikipedia and debunk a lot of false claims being posted on it.

And here are the details finally just as thought:

AP’s response was brief and immediate. The same day it got the letter from Access Bank, it replied to underscore how bad the company felt about what the transaction was turning to be.

In their letter signed by Segun-Idahor and Falasinnu, AP wrote as follows: “Your letter on the subject matter was received with great shock. The CBN spot rate on 30th November when it matured was N116.62/$ and the black market rate is between N119 & N122/$. We hereby advice that you amend your records accordingly”.

After five months and with the matter still unresolved, the company decided to petition the CBN to see if the apex bank could help resolve it.

Titled “Letter of Protest on Foreign Exchange Transaction between African Petroleum Plc and Access Bank”, the letter was directed to the Director, Banking Supervision Department of the CBN and signed by M. S. C. Aviomoh, executive director, Finance/IT and Falasinnu.

The protest letter goes thus: “We write to formally protest about the unacceptable action of Access Bank Plc on Foreign Exchange Transaction with African Petroleum Plc. We opened an account with Access Bank Plc in 2007. They availed us a $50m facility on 12th May 2008 for the purpose of importing petroleum products through letter of credit.

“On 25th July 2008 a letter of credit was opened in favour of Glencore Energy UK Ltd on our behalf by Access Bank Plc. The receiving Bank – BNP Paribas SA. Amount on the letter of credit $38,973,000. The actual amount negotiated and paid was $35,153,822.15 as contained in the commercial invoice dated 5th August, 2008 by Glencore Energy UK Ltd.

“On 2nd December, 2008 Access Bank Plc advised as through a Debit Note dated 1st December, 2008 that our account has been debited with N4,464,535,413.05 being the Naira value of $35,153,822.15 at N127/$. We objected to this rate and informed them of the official rate of N116.62 by Central Bank as at that date through our letter dated 2nd December, 2008.

“The bank has done four (4) other Letters Of Credit before this disputed one. The letters of Credit were paid according to normal documentary Credit through the CBN Bid Options. Copies of the letter Credit, Form M, Commercial Invoice and Debit to our account in October 2008 for the same product financed are attached.

“The request of the Bank for us to pay them in foreign currency (United States dollar) is inappropriate for the following reasons:

(a) The Form M and the Proforma Invoice were used to open a letter of Credit for the import
(b) The suppliers have been paid using the Central Bank of Nigeria fund at the rate as at November 2008 or earlier
(c) Using the same forms to purchase Foreign Exchange will amount to round tripping, an offence we will not like to associate our company with.

“On the strength of the above, we hereby appeal to Central Bank of Nigeria being the regulatory body in matters of this nature to adjudicate in the interest of equity and fairness”.

It appears Access Bank has no patience for this type of legal process whose outcome may not be very binding hence its recourse to the law court for proper adjudication on the matter.

Beginning from today when the matter would be thoroughly examined by the court till the end of the case, surely more facts would be emerging until the end when the truth would be well established. The only clause is that given the Nigerian legal system, this case could take almost a decade to decide.

Source:http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/07/25/femi-otedola-one-battle-too-many/

By the way, the top right corner of the coloured area that is white, will be the Airport.

As you can see, Fashola Get Mouth,

Mesef get mouth, bringing it to you, Exclusive!! Lekki Land Use Map. M
All Architects and Planners, Let the debates begin!!!

On a serious note; This is great for Lagos State. We now realize the need for planning and zoning. I like the general concept, but I believe there are some areas that need to be improved to maximize it's potential. I cannot give away my ideas for free, but I can see some Florida type marine sub-divisions. The vision is alive. This image is available at 24X36". Can't load it up at that size though. Holla back at me for consultation.

This is why I am sure there is magomago involved. If the terms are exposed then they will have to explain why they denied other Nigerians who offered the bank better terms. Nigeria is indeed Orwellian. What is good for the goose, needs better terms for the gander. Wuruwuru Magomago people. Banks only go by who you are and not your risk factor.

I feel you. You may be correct. I had mentioned this earlier about the possibility of it being an open letter of credit which can be used in a turn-around basis over time. The reason that I doubt if this is the case is because of the Nigerian exchange system which auctions forex. That means each time the facility is reused, the Bank will have to reapply for the amounts needed for the deal. This consequently means that we will be talking about many deals at various rates, instead of a single deal at the auctioned forex rate. I am therefore more predisposed to think it was a single deal. By the way, is it legal for a Nigerian Bank to leverage forex within Nigeria? I had assumed that large sums used outside of Nigeria will need documentation via CBN to authenticate the purpose for it. Since the Bank wasn't the intended user of the Forex, then it will be illegal to charge their fees, and then try to leverage Forex as well to their advantage.

The fact is, there was mugumugu, and both parties may have criminal exposure. There are 2 things here. Either the Bank went into partnership with the company which therefore makes them partners who provided forex, or bankers who were used to facilitate the forex via a Naira loan to the company. For this service, they therefore charged fees. They cannot have it both ways however as they can only act as business partners or strictly a financial institution that facilitated the transfer of funds for the company. Please note that this is separate from giving a loan which purchased the Forex. Fees and interest will govern the payment of a loan separately. We should stop being Mugus to these Banks who think we are not sophisticated enough to understand how it works.

Access Bank is wrong, and they do not have anything to stand on. They have to declare their form of participation in the deal which by the way things look now may be the case of trying to have your cake and eating it too.

cooldudeng:
We can't really fault any party for now, until we see a copy of the offer letter and agreement but it's like the bank is just trying to take advantage of AP and make cool spread off them. In fx transactions, there are always exchange risk but this is not a typical fx transaction and the exchange risk shouldn't come to play at all.

WRONG!!! The only time there is an FX risk is between the time a decision was reached to purchase FX, and the time the purchase was executed. Continuing risks only involves foreign companies doing business outside of their registered boundary. These are the kind of lies Nigerian banks tell people to continue to milk them dry. FX is irrelevant if your transactions remain solely within an individual economy. The Bank can be blamed in this case if it tries to change a Naira loan (which is currently Nigerian currency last I checked), into a Dollar loan. CBN records will confirm the correct exchange rate on the single day that the transaction was made.

klas:
Is there really any forex risk in this transaction? Bared of semantics, what Access granted is to me a naira loan. AP's form M and proforma invoice from its supplier was reportedly used by Access to bid for forex from CBN which was used to open the letter of credit. The case here is that Access provided the naira to fund the bid from CBN. So essentially I dont think it bore any exchange risk and therefore there should be no exchange variation. If Access had funded the LC in the first place from an off-shore loan, the form M would have been "not eligible for foreign exchange" and hence could  not have been used to bid from CBN. It appears it wants to make profit on CBN's fund.

YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!!!!

A/P should counter sue and take them to the cleaners followed by a racketeering charge. It is time naija stops doing Mafia biz. This is how depositors get duped as well when you make forex payments dollar to dollar and pay fees and then find out that they short the payment that you sent. This is how EcoBank does it!! Damned crooks!!

adigun101:
I am not critisizing Awo but after going through a book written about Awo and all his missed legacies for Nigeria, I tried to convey it across to people who saw different opinions on the man which where not apparent to me.

My take is that no individual is perfect , we will need to draw from the positives on individuals while not abandoning their negatives. If these allegations are true we need to re-examine them but nothing should take away the good qualities of the man.

I have spoken to a german who highlighted the great merits economically and politically of the Hitler era but rounded it of with Hitler being the worst thing that happened to Germany.

Did Awo really Marginalise the Niger delta . Is it true that Awo justified his treatment of present day midwestern state by stating that the western regions finances came from cocoa which were produced in the core yoruba areas and hence the selective development. From many accounts the midwest was delivered from the marginalisation of Awo by Dennis Osadebey's NCNC which led to the creation of Mid-Western State.
They often alledge that Awo reneged on his principles on the discovery of crude oil in the Niger Delta area in conaivance with Gowon.

I grew up in todays's midwestern region and there is absolutely nothing in the whole of Edo/Delta states that can be attributed to Awo. Isn't that quite suprising.

I will welcome more opinions but please do no turn this to a Biafra Oduduwa fight.

It is because of Awo that your parents were educated enough to educate you.

Becomerich, How much would you pay for his picture? I may still have one of him that I took at a party in Atlanta.

Do people even realize what Wikipedia is? So if I go to Wikipedia and make my own entries whether true or false, people will just jump on it and accept it as gospel? Wikipedia is a collaboration of anyone in the world. This means you can post any junk that you please there and people are open to refute it or authenticate it. Wikipedia therefore means nothing until words posted there are collaborated as facts by noted and reputable Historians. It is unfortunate that Nigerians have turned it into a forum to wage propaganda war. Shame on us. Show the proof and facts.

presido1:
Make sure u don't come back apologising again

is that a Biafran Threat? Do I need to have my AK on standby?