₦airaland Forum

Atlantian:
Biafrans are in many countries because they are marginalized and are travelling outside their torture zones to earn a living. Currently, the coal deposits and the unexplored deposits oil in the Biafran region will catapult that region to a great country. I agree, they will need a visa to enter Nigeria and do business. But Yes, you will need them to sell your spare parts and develop your real estates. That is how it should be. But Biafrans and Biafra allies are ready to move on. I personally will like to apply for citizenship of Biafra as far as we have a better living condition than the present comatose.

Thanks for letting us know that you view Nigeria as a "torture zone". Those were your words, not mine. The best thing would have been to move back into the South-East and develop it, into a sheer heaven on earth, instead of jetting out to other countries.

However, they prefer to reside in those other countries where they have no say in how their own affairs are run, where their opinions do not count, where they can be deported at the drop of a hat, and where they would have to devise many schemes in order to get residency or valid papers. But then every man to his own.

Trust me, there are too many non-Igbo who are ready, willing and able, to move into the spare parts business & real estate industry, once your brothers leave Nigeria. Selling spares is not rocket science, honestly. Non-Igbo Nigerians can easily develop a new Alaba market, if need be. And there have always been people from all ethnic groups in Nigeria, selling real estate. The Igbo do not have any extra-ordinary or special skills in this area.

Yes, Biafra has unexplored oil deposits in Anambra & Imo. But then, so does Nigeria too in other parts of Ondo, Edo etc. Don't forget that part of the oil wells in Anambra, also flows straight through to Kogi land. And seismic data from Kogi has confirmed that commercial deposits of oil exists in that area. Last time I checked, the Igala in that part of town were not ready to leave Nigeria, for anywhere else. Badagry has also been found to have small deposits of oil and gas. An agreement to set up a processing plant in that area, is being signed as we speak. In Lake Chad at the northern part of Nigeria, there has been no oil but massive pockets of trapped gas which can be processed, piped and tapped for future use in gas-to-power schemes. After all, there are countries without a drop of oil that still survive. Does anyone remember Japan? Or Singapore?

By the time you leave, the rest of Nigeria would have to take other sources of revenue (such as tin, solid minerals, feldspar, gold, iron ore mining etc,) much more seriously, as well as Agriculture. Rivers Niger and Benue can be nurtured to supply adequate fishing stocks. Ogun River, Epe waterside, Yewa River, Osun River etc, can also do the same job. Don't forget that Argungu is where you find the largest fishing stocks, every year. The Atlantic Ocean also flows through the shoreline of Lagos and a few other places. Malaysia made a fortune from non-oil exports. So can we. The Lagos Free Trade Zone (FTZ) and the Olokonla FTZ are all here in Nigeria. The bitumen deposits in parts of Ondo State, are enough to tar our roads if properly harnessed. Your departure will spur us to concentrate on these things. Construction work has already started on Dangote's refinery in Olokonla area of Ondo State.

Remediation of lands affected by oil spillage, would then take centre stage. Buhari is leading the way by implementing the clean-up of Ogoni land. After the remediation, if the non-Igbo parts of the Niger-Delta choose to increase their fish farming activities, then there should be no issues. But then, it would depend on which of the minority tribes in the Niger-Delta, wish to remain in Nigeria. It is solely their call.

So you can see, that the remaining parts of Nigeria would survive quite well without the Igbo. Once they leave, we would reinforce our borders, increase trade restrictions on in-bound foreign items in order to foster local development of goods and services, and place a ban on any products manufactured in Biafra, from coming in. So forget about having your cake and eating it.

Therefore, your folks do not need to wait forever to apply for citizenship of Biafra. Ask them to renounce their Nigerian nationality, right now. Tear up their passports. And ask your director to issue each of them with a new travelling document, without further delay.

Don't forget to remind them to excavate their shops on the way out, and take them along. We will keep ourselves busy, building new ones. When it is time for us to review their visa applications, Biafrans will be forced to be polite and vice versa. Rudeness would lead to visa denial on the spot. And once they arrive, they would restrain themselves from preaching hate-filled epistles, since they know that deportation is a reality.

So nobody should prevent Biafra from becoming a reality, abeg!! We are more interested in those who would be left behind.

9jacrip:
You're funny.

You'd be surprised they will eventually grow stronger as a country if they get their acts together. The beginnings are bound to be rough considering the Nigeria negativities they'd be carrying over - the corruption, the all man for himself mentality, the class of chop chop politicians etc which they'd be better off getting rid of.

And there will always be migration it does not mean the country will not grow.

Your optimism is interesting...may it carry you far. But to tell the truth, non-Igbos do not care if Biafra grows or not. Because it does not affect them one way or the other. People just want to be left alone in peace. A country is not won by noise-making, internet clamouring or media content.

Guy, do whatever you want to do, but kindly ask your brethren to stop their hate-filled rants. It will eventually win them more enemies than friends.

And in terms of diplomatic relations, there are no permanent friends..only permanent interests. There are too many people willing to step into your people's shoes in Nigeria, once they leave.

cheruv:
The only Country you're yet to find Igbos is North Korea due to the isolationism adopted by the ruling Kim dynasty.
We're spreading..and when Biafra comes,we'd reintegrate the African Americans in the US and the Caribbean back into Igbo culture. Prince imperial Nnamdi Kanu has already mentioned that.
See you

Guy, why you dey fall my hand, nah? When did the African-Americans in the US become Igbo? Haba!!

superstar1:
Real Reasons For The Pogroms

To Achebe, the final straw that led to secession was the alleged 30,000 Igbos killed in the North. He carefully structures the narrative to locate the reason for this systematic killing/pogrom/ethnic-cleansing in the so-called usual resentment of the Igbo and not from the fallout of the first coup in the history of Nigeria. Achebe dismisses the targeted assassinations as not an Igbo coup. The two reasons he gives are because there was a Yoruba officer among the coup plotters and that the alleged leader of the coup, Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, was Igbo in name only. “Not only was he born in Kaduna, the capital of the Muslim North, he was widely known as someone who saw himself as a Northerner, spoke fluent Hausa and little Igbo and wore the Northern traditional dress when not in uniform (p79).”

Really? First, it was not mysterious that Azikiwe left the country in October 1965 on an endless medical cruise to Britain and the Caribbean. Dr. Idehen, his personal doctor, abandoned him when he got tired of the endless medical trip....

Second, the eastern leadership was spared when others were murdered. Third, the head of state, Major-General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Igbo, did not try to execute the coup plotters as was the practice in a purely military affair. Ojukwu told Suzanne Cronje, the British-South African author, that he asked Aguiyi-Ironsi to take over and told him how to unite the army behind him. That was the reason he made him the governor of Eastern Region. .....

Five, during the Aburi negotiations, why was full reprieve for the coup plotters put on the table? Six, a freed Nzeogwu by April 1967, before the secession, joined in training recruits in Abakaliki for the inevitable war with Nigeria. He later died on the Nsukka front, fighting for Biafra. That was Achebe’s Hausa-speaking, kaftan-wearing Kaduna man, who was Igbo in name only. It was an Igbo coup. The same repackaging was attempted for the invasion and occupation of the Midwest. It was called liberation of Midwest from Hausa-Fulani domination when it was simply another Igbo coup for Igbo ends, planned in Enugu and headed by a Yoruba man.

However, the January coup did not foment a much more visceral response in the Western Region since their assassinated political leader was viewed as part of the corrupt, troublesome, election-rigging class. To Westerners, the coup was good riddance to bad rubbish. But to the Northerners, who were feudal in their social organisation, it was a different matter.

Sardauna was their all in all; he was the heir to the powerful Sokoto Caliphate and descendant of Usman dan Fodio. More than Azikiwe and Awolowo, Sardauna was the most powerful politician in Nigeria (pg 46). Murdering him was murdering the pride of a people. Achebe chooses to ignore this perspective and more importantly the fact that the Igbo in the North were widely taunting their hosts on the loss of their leaders. Celestine Ukwu, a popular Igbo musician, released songs titled Ewu Ne Ba Akwa (Goats Are Crying) and others celebrating “Igbo power”, the “January Victory.” Posters, stickers, postcards, cartoons displaying the murdered Sardauna begging Major Nzeogwu at the gates of heaven or Balewa burning outright in pits of hell or Nzeogwu standing St. George-like on Sardauna, the defeated dragon, began to show up across Northern towns and cities. These provocations were so pervasive that they warranted the promulgation of Decree 44 of 1966 banning them. The Igbo did not stop. Azikiwe is more honest than Achebe. In his pamphlet, The Origins of the Civil War, he writes: “Some Ibo elements, who were domiciled in Northern Nigeria taunted northerners by defaming their leaders through means of records or songs or pictures. They also published pamphlets and postcards, which displayed a peculiar representation of certain northerners, living or dead, in a manner likely to provoke disaffection.” These images and songs eventually led to the so-called pogroms/ethnic-cleansing/genocide, not the coup. The coup was in January, the pogroms started late in May and the provocations were in between.

However, the Igbo in the East did not sit idly by. They started the massacre of innocent Northerners in their midst. Achebe chose to ignore this account since it does not serve his agenda so we return to Azikiwe: “Between August and September 1966, either by chance or by design, hundreds of Hausa, Fulani, Nupe and Igala-speaking peoples of Northern Nigeria origin residing in the Eastern Nigeria were abducted and massacred in Aba, Abakaliki, Enugu, Onitsha and Port Harcourt.” It is worthy to note that these Northerners never published nor circulated irreverent or taunting pictures of Eastern leaders unlike the Igbo of the North; they were just massacred for being Northerners.

The government of Eastern Region did not stand up to stop these massacres. Neither did the Igbo intellectuals. Ojukwu, the military administrator, even made a radio broadcast, saying he could no longer guarantee the security of non-Eastern Nigerians in the East and that Easterners, who did not return to Igboland, would be considered traitors.

This was the time Professor Sam Aluko, who was the head of Economics department at University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and personal friend of Ojukwu, fled back to the West. Azikiwe continues in his book: “Eyewitnesses gave on-the-spot accounts of corpses floating in the Imo River and River Niger. Radio Cotonou broadcast this macabre news, which was suppressed by Enugu Radio. Then Radio Kaduna relayed it and this sparked off the massacres of September – October 1966 [in the North].”

I Above Others

Achebe, like Enugu Radio, suppressed this information and goes on to pivot the “pogrom” on the fact that the Igbo were resented because they were the most superior, most successful nationality in the country. He claims (on pg 233) that they were “the dominant tribe,” “led the nation in virtually every sector – politics, education, commerce, and the arts (pg 66),” which included having two vice-chancellors in Yorubaland; they the Igbo are the folkloric “leopard, the wise and peaceful king of the animals (pg177),” they “spearheaded (pg 97) the struggle to free Nigeria from colonial rule.” “This group, the Igbo, that gave the colonising British so many headaches and then literally drove them out of Nigeria was now an open target, scapegoats for the failings and grievances of colonial and post-independent Nigeria (pg 67).”....

Does anyone know where copies of this book written by Azikiwe can be found??!

It would make interesting reading.

@LastProphet, any ideas..?

Almighty God, I pray the Igbo are allowed to get the Biafra they deserve, without any further delay.

Anyone who tries to stop them will be infested with a thousand flies.

Let them go, biko. They don't want to stay. Na by force?? Nobody should persuade them to change their minds, oh! At least, we will then know those who are left, and willing to make Nigeria work.

We know that within one month after they get their independence, they will still come back lobbying and begging for entry visas to get back into Nigeria as most of their shops, houses and businesses are located in different parts of our country. At that time, everyone will know who is who.

Even till now, they are unable to stay still in one place which is why you find them in strange countries (even those with unpronounceable names)

Anything that can be done to get them started on their journey, would be most welcome.

Then we can apply immigration quotas for a few Biafrans seeking to come back into Nigeria. Foreign nationals from other countries are welcome to stay behind. At least, they do not insult other ethnic groups or visit them with hate.

No one should hold the Biafrans back. Enough is enough!!

9jacrip:
I have always thought Igbo leaders or frontline politicians support the Biafran movement but they may not come out of the closet with it, yet.

Regardless, the movement is stronger now and they have enough human resources spread across the world not to mention the ally states and now recognition from UN, it will be foolish to arm twist them to stay if they are indeed ready to go.

I pray, like I always have, that they get the Baifra of their dreams, the country they so desire. I often wonder when I hear many of my Yoruba folks get a 'hard on' over one Nigeria and opposing the self actualization of another group knowing fully well we have our potentials to develop separately and pull the weight of Africa behind us.

Make una change Nigerian map abeg. When e remain us and the North, my people go get sense to do a self-appraisal.

Almighty God, I pray the Igbo are allowed to get the Biafra they deserve, without any further delay.

Anyone who tries to stop them will be infested with a thousand flies.

Let them go, biko. They don't want to stay. Na by force?? Nobody should persuade them to change their minds, oh! At least, we will then know those who are left, and willing to make Nigeria work.

We know that within one month after they get their independence, they will still come back lobbying and begging for entry visas to get back into Nigeria as most of their shops, houses and businesses are located in different parts of our country. At that time, everyone will know who is who.

Even till now, they are unable to stay still in one place which is why you find them in strange countries (even those with unpronounceable names)

Anything that can be done to get them started on their journey, would be most welcome.

Then we can apply immigration quotas for those Biafrans that are seeking to come back into Nigeria. Foreign nationals from other countries are welcome to stay behind. At least, they do not insult other ethnic groups or visit them with hate.

No one should hold the Biafrans back. Enough is enough!!

nurey:
you are one funny dude, no one needs to tell you to have extra tyre, jack, wheel spanner etc no matter who you are and what kind of car you drive all these are necessities that comes with a car.

Guy, it does NOT come with all Tokunbo cars. So your assumption is misplaced. And last time I checked, torch light was not included as part of the standard stuff that comes with most vehicles... even in new cars.

Oh, a bottle of drinking water should also be carried by all ladies, in their cars. It just might come in handy. As well as a small bottle of sanitizer. Just saying.

nurey:
that's why I said a lady. not women.

Guy, the person you responded to, has a valid point. Are you saying all ladies that drive or own cars, also have babies?? What would a single lady without a child be doing with a car seat, in her car?? I don't get it oh!

And if she is not a muslim, why should she have a hijab inside her car??

yorubatic:
You are one of the reasons, igbos think yorubas are fuuls with Capital F, ...is thesame brave igbos who are fighting for biafra you talking about? Thesame people you are begging on your knees for them stay in your one Nigeria? The same people our cowardly Awo fought begged and fought so the remain with us?

Has Yoruba ruined your brain? Are you drunk with oily soup that you don't know cowardly history? Dont you know the igbos called our so called lagos NO MAN'S LAND. don't you know the igbos almost take over lagos? Dont you see the igbos representatives in our house of assembly? Dont you know Zik almost have been our premier during those days? And soon, the igbos might take over lagos without anyone blinking an eye?

Why are you making caricature of us? Are such a low lifer that you don't that nobody takes us seriously? NigerNigerians see yorubas are clowns who only rant and curse like market women...do you even think?

Ooh I see, you think that our diabolical and fetish way of life would save us....we are not talking about Inbreeding or ritualism here. ..we are talking about the future of Odu'a. ..I know you lack knowledge, hence you think we are talking about agberos and toutism.

You better start campaigning for odua republic. ..federal mugu...FM, just rant and curse as usual without making sense

Why are you quoting me? International Mugu!! Have you taken your medications today to help you think straight, you silly wanabee??

Ì ̣nà-apù ̣alā? What is my business with Odua republic? Why not direct your misguided question to the Yoruba people??

Na so una sickness dey start.... Yorubatic - Ndị àkàloògòlì jì yà aka

This is a SCAM!! Run, run, run!!

Nnamdi kanu should be able to release funds to complete this bridge, nah!

You didn't even mention extra tyre, jack, wheel spanner, C-Caution, fire extinguisher, torch light etc. So what if she gets a flat trye on a deserted road? Na make-up bag she go take change am??

But this car is not in Nigeria now. So how can one arrange an inspection?

There is another view to this issue

The North Does Not Control Nigeria’s Oil Blocks
_{By Toyin Akinosho | March 7, 2013 | Premium Times}

Senator Ita Enang’s spirited claim at the National Assembly Wednesday to the effect that 83% of the country’s oil block is in the hands of northerners appears to be inspired from assertions contained in an old article by a newspaper commentator, Mr. Ross Alabo-George whose famous essay was titled Poverty And Deprivation: Why The North Is Poor.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_{In the excerpt below, Toyin Akinosho, a petroleum geologist with over two decades of work at Chevron and now publisher of the well-regarded Africa Oil and Gas Report, argues angrily that such lines of thought canvassed by the likes of Senator Ita Solomon Enang and indeed Mr. Ross Alabo-George are merely hysterical, and tendentious, designed to mislead the public. Mr. Akinosho characterizes the arguments as crappy and crummy. It is excerpted from the African Oil+Gas Report for the value it brings to the current debate about Nigeria’s oil resources and the National Question.}
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Alabo-George’s article plays up so well the sentiments that a good number of Nigerians, especially middle class types excluded from the spoils of the petroleum subsidy, and allied deliverables, nurse about the kind of leadership we have suffered since independence.
But it has gone around so far and keeps being forwarded so rampantly, largely because it plays to the ethnic schism; the suspicions that each of us harbours, in our different silos, about “the other”.

It’s largely a response to the disingenuous claim by Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Central Bank Governor, that the Boko Haram insurgency is a response to the 13% derivation allocated to the oil producing states from the federation account. “There is clearly a direct link between the very uneven nature of distribution of resources and the rising level of violence”, Sanusi told The Financial Times of London.

Alabo-George’s piece is compelling when he contrasts what non oil-producing Southern states have been able to do with their supposedly meager allowances with what their Northern counterparts have done with their own allocations.

“Ekiti State has about the same revenue as Yobe and Gombe”, he contends, “but only 17 students passed WAEC and NECO in Gombe state last year, while Ekiti State is known for its high literacy level”.

I find two beautiful quotable quotes in the article:

(1) “Borno State has a bigger budget than that of Cross River, a Niger Delta State. While the leaders of Cross River over the last decade have transformed it into the nation’s leading tourist destination, those of Borno have transformed it into a Somalia”.

(2) “Gombe State has a bigger budget than Enugu and Anambra, why has MASSOB not bombed anyone”?

But once Alabo- George ventures beyond the political economic analysis and starts to list who owns what oil and gas assets, his article is a litany of inaccuracies and lies. He gets it totally wrong.

He writes about the estate of the late Mai Deribe, the Bornu State born businessman, supposedly owning a huge oil field; Rilwanu Lukman having controlling shares in Afren; Atiku Abubakar being the stupendously rich beneficiary of the profits of Intels, the logistics company; Aminu Dantata’s Express Petroleum. He ties Amni Petroleum to only Sani Bello.
So much conspiracy theory.

Oil acreage ownership in Nigeria does not have ethnic colouration. What’s more important, sustaining production from oil and gas assets, whether or not awarded by the state, is determined by how much of a businessman you are.

When Jibril Aminu handed out oil prospecting blocks, in the first comprehensive effort “to encourage indigenous participation” in 1991, he gave blocks to companies owned by Folawiyo, Abiola, Adenuga, Udoji, Ibru, Igbinedion,(all Southerners) as much as he gave to enterprises set up by people like Saleh Jumbo and Mai Deribe.

Between 1991 and 1993, we suddenly had over 25 companies, that were Nigerian E&P companies and they took themselves so seriously that they set up an association they christened “Nigerian Association of Indigenous Petroleum Exploration Companies”. But what did these people do with the acreages? They were mostly clueless about how to progress things.

Out of that class of awardees, only Mike Adenuga created what you could really call an E&P company. He is the only one producing oil today, from his own block. It’s bad enough that Nigerian indigenous private acreage holders don’t produce, as a collective, up to 150,000 Barrels per day, or 7% of the national daily production, so why are we fighting ourselves?

And I am less keen on how much you’re getting as rent from the asset you are holding, than the capacity you are building as manager of a Nigerian oil company who is awarded the asset, in trust for the rest of us. I am for an ongoing, earnest debate on the National Question. But false information misleads all of us into false conclusions, which reduce the complexity of the solutions we ought to be proffering.

The author cites a number of hydrocarbon acreages belonging to Northern elites, but ignores the fact that holding an acreage is one thing; getting value out of it is another. That so many people believe the poorly researched article, and so instantly forward it that it becomes one of the most travelled essays on the National Question, is testimony to poor knowledge of how the oil industry works.

The first field the author mentions is Obe field, which, he rightly claims, is held by Cavendish Petroleum, a company set up by Alhaji Mai Deribe. Alabo- George lied by saying that the Obe field, the main hydrocarbon pool in OML 110, contains 500Million barrels of oil reserves.
The Obe field does not have a proven 20 Million barrels. I am not sure it has 10Million barrels. It is not producing as I write. The Obe field has not produced for five years, since 2007, when Tranfigura, the last technical partner engaged by Cavendish, walked out.

I don’t know what discipline Mr Alabo-George belongs to, but this point I am about to make is well known to every junior petroleum geologist with three year experience in the crummiest E&P company: If a field holds 500Million barrels of oil, proven, in shallow water Nigeria, it won’t lie fallow. Investors would rush it.

In countries where you don’t have the complications that the NNPC brings to the table here, fields that haven’t proven much more than 500Million barrels are “rushed” through to development.

Ghana’s Jubilee field didn’t prove a billion barrels before the country’s authorities approved a field development plan. Apart from Nigeria, Angola, Libya, Algeria, Ghana (now, since 2008) and perhaps Equatorial Guinea, no African country has a billion barrels in proven reserves. 500 Million barrels is half of that.

Mr Alabo-George says that Obe has the capacity to produce about 120,000 barrels of crude oil daily from its OBE 4 and OBE 5 wells. What sort of numeracy is this? Or is he dreaming these figures? How can a field with less than twenty million barrels “have the capacity” to produce 120,000 barrels per day?. What’s capacity?

Alabo George’s second example of a wealthy northerner swimming in oil money is Mohammed Indimi, “a Fulani and close friend of General Ibrahim Babangida”. He says “Oriental Energy Resources Limited runs three oil blocks: OML 115, the Okwok field and the Ebok field. OML 115 and Okwok are OML PSC, while Ebok is an OML JV. All of them good yielding offshore oil blocks”.

The author just doesn’t care to verify his claims. True, Indimi’s Oriental Resources holds the three assets. OML 115 is not producing as I write. No one has certified that there’s a producible field in the acreage. Ebok is being produced, on Oriental Resources’ behalf, by Afren, a UK listed company. Last year, the field delivered an average of 8,000 Barrels of Oil per Day(BOPD), according to Afren’s website. You can google it. Okwok, as I write, is still in development. Translation: it has produced nary a drop of oil.

Aminu Dantata’s Express Petroleum holds the Oil Mining Lease 108, with technical partners Shebah Petroleum, which bought out Conoco, the original technical partners. Fine.

The Ukpokiti field, the main asset on the acreage, produced for quite a while; and should have made the Dantatas quite rich, over a period of more than seven years. The field died out at some point and is being revived as I write.

“NorthEast Petroleum is owned by another Fulani businessman from the North East, Alhaji Saleh Mohammed Jambo”, Alabo-George testifies. “The license was awarded to him by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida”. Another truth: North East Petroleum has NEVER produced a single drop of oil since that award in the early 90s. There, simply, hasn’t been a discovery worth the while for operator TOTAL.

I agree that Theophilus Danjuma, also a Northerner, is entitled to contest for the award of the man who made the most fortune, at a sitting, on an oil acreage in Nigeria.

Alabo-George’s article, in his rush to conclusions, even understates the significance, by claiming that Danjuma’s company, South Atlantic Petroleum Limited(SAPETRO), made $1Billion from the deal.

The truth is that China National Overseas Offshore Company(CNOOC ), signed a definitive agreement with SAPETRO to acquire a 45% working interest in OML 130 for $2.268 billion cash.

I don’t know how much the broker of the deal took, but I am yet to confirm if the Nigerian government earned any withholding tax from that transaction. In spite of what he has earned “upfront”, Danjuma’s SAPETRO gets 25,600 Barrels of Oil per day for its 15% of OML 130 from the Akpo field, which is delivering 175,000BOPD.

But if you complain about Northerner Danjuma, what about the Alakijas, a Yoruba couple whose company, Famfa Oil, is “entitled”, every day, to 25,000BOPD from Chevron operated Agbami Field, located in deepwater OML 127?? These two companies are two of the four largest producing Nigerian companies today. The other two are Adenuga’s Conoil (25,000BOPD) and Seplat Petroleum (37,000BOPD, operated, 16,000BOPD, equity).

Only one of those four companies is Northern owned. And it is outright falsehood that “ 80 per cent of crude oil and gas produced by indigenous companies is controlled by the North-East”.

But, as I said again: which technical and managerial capacity are we building on the back of the rent collected from these leases. It’s the real job.

The last example I’d touch, before the concluding commentary, for space purposes, is the case of Rilwan Lukman, who Alabo-George cites as having controlling shares in Afren, the UK listed company. Lukman was there on the ground floor of the construction of Afren, around 2004, no doubt, but the key founders of Afren are Ethelbert Cooper, the Liberian businessman and Osman Shahenshah, who is the current Chief Executive.

What people like Lukman and Egbert Imomoh, the other Nigerian on the company’s board in the founding days, did, is the kind of thing I urge Nigerians in their positions to do.

Use your knowledge to access and create value, not to grab and destroy value. Cooper and Shanenshah knew that Lukman(then out of office both from OPEC and as Nigerian special adviser), and Imomoh (then recently retired as Deputy Managing Director Of Shell Nigeria) knew the Nigerian oil industry deeply and could access oil and gas fields that were lying fallow. After Afren has recovered its investment via cost oil, Afren and the company continue to share the proceeds from the field 50:50 for the life of the field. Afren uses Nigerian technical capacity to a large degree and it trains a lot of people. But it can do more.

Afren has never benefitted from bid round or government-sanctioned discretionary awards, so why would anyone link Lukman’s involvement in Afren in a list that has a number of Northerners supposedly benefitting from government largesse? That is part of the trouble I have with Alabo-George’s essay.

What Atiku Abubakar has done with Intels has parallels in other sectors of the economy and is comparable with what Yoruba chieftains, Ijaw leaders, Igbo High Chiefs, Idoma overlords, etc, etc, have done with many other companies operating here.

That’s how people became key shareholders of companies like Julius Berger. As I write, the key sentiment underlining the complaints against the tolling on the Lekki Expressway is that “most of the money will go to Tinubu’s pocket”. That’s the word on the street.
Brokerage is not a bad thing on its own, but what we need to stress is a level playing field, rule of law, security of tenor and equity and fairness as much as possible, for all.

I’d focus on the recent deal in which Shell and Agip have had to pay in excess of one billion dollars to Dan Etete, a south-south man, for stakes in Oil Prospecting Lease OPL 245. And I would ask “Is that necessarily right”? Should the president, a south-south Ijaw man, have waded in to ask Shell and Agip to move the deal forward? But that’s a story for another day.

In my book, people from everywhere have taken advantage of the unstructured way we have dispensed with oil and gas acreages. Naming names about which Northerner got what size of the pie is less useful than a focus on how government is insisting on open and transparent bidding, but more importantly, on Nigerian technical know how and management.
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/123588-the-north-does-not-control-nigerias-oil-blocks-by-toyin-akinosho.html

wytecat:
What lies? You are sick!

I don't read your post, and that's a fact.

Continue telling lies.

wytecat:
Were ni iya e! Asewodiran!

You are the one having sleepless night, I'm still having fun. It's not even 8.30 pm.

I only read the first and last lines, so I don't know what's in between.

Haba! Why are you telling lies that even a kindergarten child cannot buy? You do not know what is in between? Very funny!

Continue having sleepless nights. You have just told the whole world your mother's middle name which is:"Asewodiran!" Shior!

And you heaped more curses on her by acknowledging that "Were ni iya e!"

Continue dragging your mother in the mud!

wytecat:
Mother pass mother now!

The one that gave birth to her children and made them Asewo right from the womb, and the one that taught her children to never sell their bodies, which one is deserving of respect? There you go!

Your mother was an Asewo and has passed it down to y'all, just as her own mother passed it to her.

You are useless bunch with no self respect and morals.

Well, from your posts here you are very familiar with brothels and the way asewos ply their trade. That is obviously what your mum passed down to you.

If she had taught you to respect your body, then you would not even have been able to know what an asewo is, or what a brothel looks like. But obviously you do, judging by your comments on this thread.

And your last comment shows that she taught you the tricks of the trade, because you just confessed that: "Your mother was (is) an Asewo and has passed it down to y'all, just as her own mother passed it to her."

Continue dragging your mother in the mud. Your sleepless nights have just started.

wytecat:
Oloriburuku ni iya e! Ko ni da fun iya e oloshi.

Your useless mother that gave birth to you won't have peace wherever she is, Basttard.

Asewo is your heritage, that's the only thing you contribute to Nigeria, oloshi AMUKUNMEKO.

Wow! When it was pointed out earlier that you had zero respect for your mother, you acted as if you did not understand that comment. Now look at what you have just done.

You have called your mother unprintable names again, by announcing that: "Oloriburuku ni iya e! Ko ni da fun iya e oloshi." Why must you heap curses on your own mum like this??

You even went further to say: " Your useless mother that gave birth to you won't have peace wherever she is, Basttard.". Nah, it is well-known that you are describing the person who gave birth to you. All your antics have left your mother in distress. No one with a child like you, can ever have peace.

Ah..o ma se, o! All the asewo work you have done has obviously left you with an incurable problem that cannot be resolved. Instead of asking your mum for help, you have turned round to curse her. Alaini ronu. Continue dragging your mother in the mud.

Glad to know you now have sleepless nights.

wytecat:
Hehehe! Your sisters are being priced like pure water at street corners and taken home for dog to hump just for you to to feed your families. Check how many retired prostitutes that have not been killed by Aids are left in your family.

Haba! Wèrè olóríburúkú ni Wytecat yii, o! You mean that after peddling your own sisters at street corners, you then offered them to a dog to hump??! Yuk! Must you expose all your evil deeds like this?? Kai!

And you are here denying and pretending to everyone that the retired prostitutes killed by Aids did not come from your family, when you are the one already broadcasting it right here? O ma se,o!

wytecat:
That's the only thing you are known for Every female in your family is Asewo. You feed and live off that.

Generational Asewo, I'm sure you are drilled too, has your behind started leaking yet?

You will soon start wearing diapers if you are not already. Family of pimps and whhores.

Oh dear... now you have gone off on a tangent and added not only your sisters, but each of your female relatives to the category of asewo and whhores that wear diapers. Weren't you the one that p.imped them out, too??!

O ma se, o! ( You really know a lot about the asewo trade, from the comments you posted up here. It's okay. There is no need to tell us, that you are an active member of the asewo club.

wytecat:
Have you pimped set up appointments for your mother for tomorrow? Hurry go and take care of that, you must eat now.

Nah... you are the p.imp, have you forgotten?? If you do not hawk your mother to all and sundry, you'd be broke. How sad. Continue dragging her in the mud. Ohun tí alàimòkan fi n se ‘ra rè, l ó pòju.

wytecat:
Your mother is the bitttch that's being
pimped by you, your mother is the fleas infested whhore. She's the one that slept with your whole town counting, distributing hiv, and you are the product of all of that. Shameless manbiatch!

Ye, ye, ye ... come and see o! You have extended your neurotic hatred to your mother. What did she do to you??! This obsession you have with your mum is driving you round the bend. O ma se, o!

So tell me the truth....you mean your mum slept with "your whole town counting, distributing hiv, and you are the product of all of that?? On top of everything, you now referred to her as a "Shameless manbiatch!". Even if she did all these things, must you be the one to broadcast it??!! The more you continue dragging your mum through the mud, the greater your descent into shameful absurdity.

Na wah for you, oh!

wytecat:
I don't care what I bring to it, you deserve it foool, didn't you call your mother a lesbian? But you forgot to say she's a fleas infested whhore.
You get burnt when you dip your hand in fire.

wytecat:
Foool, go and stop by the trailer park brothel where your mother works and drag her home, Abi night never falls. Omo ale jatijati.
Foolish product of sperm collection.

Haba! Why are you showing the world that you have zero respect for your mother??!

First, you called her a 'lesbian chief' in your previous post. Thank goodness, there is evidence to back it up.

Now, you are referring to her as a fleas infested whhore! You even went as far as to state her residential address, by mentioning a brothel! Kilode?

Why now?? The person wey do you like this, go answer case for God's kingdom, oh. Continue ranting! Alaini ronu...

wytecat:
Oh my! That you are dumb can't begin to describe you.

You were on board with me and others yesterday,. Are you saying you didn't read any post written by others? How then do you know who said what? Did you close your eyes through the comments?

You are an animal!

Your brain power is now less functioning than that of an ant, sorry for yourself.

You quoted me first with fighting words, and I warned you, all posts are still there for people to go through since you are now crying for help.

Eeyah! What a pity! So it is yesterday's matter that is still causing you pain. Take am easy oh.

You have finally told us your problem in clear terms: You are "brain dead, an animal, and your brain power is now less functioning than that of an ant."

Would you like someone to show you the direction to the nearest hospital so that you can receive treatment for your hate-filled condition??!

Obviously, you think someone will give you cash here, for the number of insults that you release online. Oya, have the floor and knock yourself out. Hehehehe!

wytecat:
Where is your mother? @ the brothel, so what respect do you have for her?
What's your tribe foool? You are too ashamed to mention yours. At least I have a tribe some find worthy to be denigrating, and work tirelessly to that end, yours can't be mentioned, it's more or less a dead, non existing tribe

Eeyah! But you were the first one to bring your mum into this conversation, now. If you had any respect for her, you would never even have made any reference to her.

Now you have gone further to mention a brothel. Is that where she plies her trade??

Must you continue showing the whole world that you lack home training??

Oh, you want to know my tribe?? Why?? Are you trying to get my tribe to come and beg, on your behalf?

wytecat:
Matter pain who? You no get game self!

Honestly my hands are tied cos I don't want to kill a mosquito with a sledge hammer.

Up it and find me warming.

I just described laudate, get it!

Your mother is d lesbian chief now!

Eeyah! You are the real mosquito here. Always buzzing round, seeking attention.

Instead of you to face those who have just finished denigrating your tribe, and give them an answer.....you are here chasing Laudate, trying to get attention. I actually find your attempts amusing. Because I know you are a woman, I have restrained myself from giving you the kind of answer you so rightly deserve.

You have so little respect for your mum, that you would describe her as a lesbian chief. Na wah, oh. This hatred you have for yourself is amazing. But why extend it to your mum?? Pity!

wytecat:
You are brain dead I'm not.

I repeat you lose your eyes if I didn't dig through your posts. Just yesterday you were telling someone about how you are not Yoruba.

It doesn't take a rocket science. You are known here as the guy fighting to not be called Yoruba.

You finally proved my point. You were following my posts. That is why you could recall what I wrote yesterday. And there was no fight. It was just a case of setting him straight. You are the one that is struggling hard to pick a fight with those on this thread.

Get a life!!

wytecat:
Who are you? Oh skirt sniffing dog! I used all those words to describe you douche!

Yes I'm doing this at work cos, I can.

I bet you are one unproductive she male with a worthless life.

You can keep typing epistle, but I only read first and the last line.

Hmmn...na so di matter pain you reach??

It is now easy to see that you are just seeking attention. Again, I wonder how a person like you can suffer from so much self-hate as to describe herself in such foul terms!

You have gone further to classify yourself as a "skirt-sniffing dog." Wait o, are you a lesbian??!

And then you went further to label yourself as a "douche, unproductive she male, etc" . Chai! The person who made you hate yourself this much, has a case to answer with God!

Hmmn

wytecat:
And if I didn't dig through your posts, you will lose your eyes. I don't have time to dig any post here, let alone you Nairaland chicken.

ROFLMAO!! This bit really cracked me up. If you did not go digging through my posts, how did you know that I had made it clear in my previous comments on several occasions, that "I'm not Yoruba?"

Tell the truth and let the devil be ashamed, oh!

Is it diesel or petrol engine? And what is the price? And the brand?

wytecat:
So why are you acting like a dog on heat?

It seems you are a nobody, with no purpose, that's blown whichever way.

And if I didn't dig through your posts, you will lose your eyes. I don't have time to dig any post here, let alone you Nairaland chicken.

Hehehe... Wow! You have described yourself with so many foul epithets on this thread, that it is really clear to everyone,that you suffer from self-hate,in spades. How can any right-thinking person describe himself as "a dog on heat?"

Well, since you are obviously feeling like "a dog on heat", must you bring it to everyone's attention?? Please keep such stuff to yourself. No one is interested in those kind of morbid details.

Now back to the topic. For you to classify someone else as a 'Nobody', means you are obviously worth nothing, yourself. It takes one to know one. Apologies to the Nairalander whose username is actually Nobody - no disrespect intended.

And the lack of purpose definitely refers to the way you have been wasting your employers' time at work, by responding to posts on NL, while you are supposed to be on duty.

Get a life.