₦airaland Forum

_*singing* "Winner ohhh, winner ! x2. . . . Peter Obi you don win ohh, "

denex:
And you should try to investigate the relationship of Abiola and the Minister of Defence during the interim government.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200706120101.html?page=2

check make you see the relationship between the National hero abiola, and the 3 time coup leader, Abacha. Read so that you will no how much effort Abiola put into handing this country and inevitably, his life, over to Abacha.

Thank you for the link. I have read the report and there is nothing sinister, or uncomplimentary about Abiola in it. Instead, the whole article talks about the main protagonists of the June 12 saga, and how they all ended up.

You claim Abiola handed this country and inevitably, his life, over to Abacha.
. Wha-a-at??   That's poppycock! At the time Abiola paid his initial visit to Abacha who had just taken over power from the ING, he obviously thought that Abacha was a man of honour who could help him out, and do the right thing to reverse the annulment. _{Please note:} At that time Abacha had not shown his true colours.

But what happened? Abacha had his own agenda, and refused to help Abiola. What is wrong with what Abiola did? Haven't you at some point or the other, put your trust in an individual, and that trust was betrayed? Does that make you a bad person? Did you hand over your life to that person? Please Denex, that article did nothing to prove that Abiola was bad. If anything, it serves to reinforce the fact, that the chap managed to make Nigerians sink their differences, even if it was just for a short while.

I reproduced part of that article here.

[quote author=This Day, ANALYSIS, 12 June 2007:Posted to the web 12 June 2007]That election widely believed to have been won by the late millionaire businessman come politician, Abiola, was annulled by the military regime of his friend, General Ibrahim Babangida. The annulment came on June 23, 1993 after results from 14 states had emerged, giving clear victory to the late business mogul. The story about how and why the election was annulled and who did what in the circumstances leading to the annulment is yet to be fully told and may unfold some day. Immediate past President Olusegun Obasanjo after many years of denying Abiola his dues in the nation's history added a comic angle to the June 12 saga when he said recently after leaving power that Abiola's election was annulled for "bad belle", a Yoruba word for envy.

But to underscore the continued relevance of June 12, at least two states, Lagos and Ogun, are known to have declared tomorrow, June 12, work-free day in commemoration of the historic event. In Lagos where the late business mogul used to live and where some of his businesses were domiciled, the state government chose June 12 as its Democracy Day as opposed to May 29 picked by the immediate past government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. In Ogun where Abiola hailed from, a statement by the state government called on the residents of the state to use the occasion to reflect on the life and times of the late Abiola who died in the service of the country.

Indeed, the June 12 election is remarkable in more ways than one. Nigerians from all walks of life went into the poll and voted in unison for a leader who had built bridges of friendship across the length and breadth of the country. Apart from breaking the religious barrier, Abiola's election also broke the ethnic barrier. He was reported to have had more votes in the North than in the South. He even defeated his opponent at the poll, the National Republican Convention (NRC)'s Alhaji Bashir Tofa, in his Kano home state. As part of its contribution to the voting process, the election marked the debut of the Modified Open Ballot System where voters would queue up and then vote in secrecy in small enclosures. It heralded the use of the Option A4 system. Both Abiola and Tofa emerged through the Option A4 system where they were thrown up from the ward to the national convention level in Abuja. But as events have turned out so far, that election is also remarkable in the harvest of deaths that has followed since 1993; the harvest of deaths of the principal actors in the June 12 episode.

Abiola returned from abroad to continue the struggle for the actualization of his mandate, but his believe that he had a friend in charge was soon proved wrong. Following the attitude of Abacha to June 12, Abiola declared himself president at Epetedo Play ground in Lagos. Abacha which by then had become a maximum ruler ordered the arrest of Abiola, clamped him into detention and charged him for treason. But there was no doubt that Abiola was a political prisoner with many international personalities coming to his detention place to confer with him to forgo his mandate. It was in this situation that Abacha died. The General Abdulsalami Abubakar administration that succeeded Abacha was already negotiating with Abiola but he was said to be resolute in his demand for his mandate. His steadfastness surprised many who thought Abiola would caved in soon. It was during one of those negotiations that Abiola died on July 8, 1998, a month after Abacha died. It was in the presence of a delegation from America. He was said to have died of cardiac arrest after taking a cup of tea. But it was ironic that Abiola died in the presence of the Americans, the same country he thought would help him actualize his mandate
[/quote]

feelgood:
Laudate, you heard wrong. The Delta Igbo also practised the osu system. I'm beginning to get clueless as to the purpose of this thread - to discuss a social malaise that belongs to the dustbin or to ridicule another ethnic group?

Oh, so the Delta Igbo practised it? Thanks for the correction. For your information, various folks have discussed this 'social malaise,' to borrow your own words, in other threads. Both Igbo & non-Igbo alike. But I noticed that when a non-Igbo makes a comment, it attracts all kinds of condemnnation. But when an Igbo person makes that same comment, on the same issue, most folks are silent. Why?

As for the purpose of this thread, kindly ask the person who started the thread.

On a final note, nobody is ridiculing any ethnic group. _*Hiss* And am beginning to get tired of repeating myself. Go back to the begining of this thread, and read all the posts, so that you can get the direction of the whole story.

I-man made an accusation. I responded & defended my point of view. Others jumped on the bandwagon, to now imply all sorts of stuff. That's their own problem. 

Like I said before, the 'osu' issue does NOT affect me in any way, since am not Igbo. I guess too many people on this thread, feel offended by the fact that a non-Igbo passed a comment, on something they consider to be personal.

denex:
I want to let you know that "na from clap them dey enter dance".

Meaning. . . . just what exactly?

That you can run around smearing anyone with warped deductions, they never expressed? Or you can read repugnant meanings into their comments, or even infer that they would think along a particular warped line, just because your own thoughts run along similar lines? Please get real!!

denex:
SHARING BAGS OF RICE DURING ELECTION CAMPAIGN IS CRIMINAL.

We have heard. What next?

denex:
And I can say that the problem of power outages which have been on since since independence are now being ameliorated by the IPPs without the fear of you misconstruing it to seem I am was claiming that the IPPs failed in 1960.

Let us wait and see the magic, that the I.P.Ps will perform. Power supply has been erratic in my area, for a long time. So I will not count my own chickens, before they are hatched.

calyx:
@Laudate

I really do think you should make your contributions allign with a post in question. You almost made me believe we were contributing on how to let the osu sytem hold sway since it seems 'every Igbo is osu' instead of our own efforts to disassociate ourselves at least from such practice.

Calyx, kindly let me know one thing: "In what way did my post fail to align with the topic in question?" I made a comment, I-man jumped on it and accused me of  'keenly looking for the unsavoury aspects of Igbo people'. I responded. He went further to accuse me of using the phrase "how odd," in a reply dripping with condescension. Again, I replied by citing facts to show that other Igbo people had made similar remarks, which reveal that the 'osu' practice existed, so why castigate me for pointing out something other members of your ethnic group, have described in great detail?

Now to babyosisi:
[quote author=babyosisi ]By the way laudate,I would like to know those villages you claim have 60 to 70 percent osu.
This will be an adult education for me.

Osu is nothing but a remnant of a pagan culture where one group claims superiority over another for whatever reason.
It is fast dying, and has been greatly reduced in significance,it has been outlawed legally by the Eastern Nigerian laws of 1956 and 1963 and denounced vehemently by all Churches in Igboland[/quote]Answering this question, may be misinterpreted by folks who have an axe to grind with Laudate. Anyway, here goes: The villages I heard include Umuaka in Imo State where their people still categorise one of their 10 villages as 'osu,' as well as Umuode in Nkanu East Local Government, Enugu State.

From what I have heard, this practice is not found among the Delta-Igbo or those Igbo from Rivers State and Abia.

As for the laws that you cited, since its' promulagation no one has been prosecuted under this law. Kindly do some research on this law and its' aftermath.

I am not Igbo, so this practice does not affect me in one way or the other. But saying that I haven't seen it, just because some folks haven't had an encounter with an 'osu', would be like trying to deny that racism exists in parts of the Western world, just because I have not been a direct victim.

Anyone wishing to attack me for making this observation can have the floor. It is your call.

[quote author=I-man link=topic=59301.msg1203862#msg1203862 date=1181855521]Give us a break.Nobody said you said the above but that is the clear logical implication of your earlier comment here:
If there is nothing wrong with distributing a bag of rice to a voter,why not N500?Your reasoning is clearly jaundiced and abhorrent.Nobody should defend what is clearly a crime.It is a blatant crime to distribute food to potential voters.[b]That you are proudly defending the indefensible is shocking.[/b]The masses are hungry indeed!

As far as him fighting for his mandate is concerned.No politician fights for elective office as much as the Nigerian politician.Having spent so much money bribing the electorate,guess how his money would have been recouped[/quote]What logical implication, are you going on about?? The warped extrapolation that you made from my comments, using your own twisted perspective? Where did I state in black & white, that since I see[i] nothing wrong with distributing a bag of rice to a voter,why not N500?[/i]?? Do you think everyone thinks along the same warped & twisted lines, that you do??

You have a habit of ascribing impure & depraved motives to me. It just shows the disgusting way your mind works. Your antics are nauseating.

If you have nothing better to do, than to hate a man who is six feet below the ground and cast aspersions on his memory, when he is no longer alive to defend himself, then please go ahead. I have gone through my posts and I don't recall telling anyone that Abiola was a Hero, or a Democrat or a Saint. All I have said & will continue to say, is that he ran a formidable campaign and offered people a credible alternative to the status quo. His opponent Bashir Tofa, had little or nothing to his name, that would have made a credible difference. In my opinion, if Tofa had won, the election would not have been anulled and quite frankly, all the those throwing insults at Abiola today would have passed similar or worse comments about Tofa.

I'l leave the floor to you to throw all the brick bats that you want to unleash. Feel free.

denex:
I said a GSM is trying to close the gap that ITT telephone lines did not and you misconstrued it to mean that I claimed Abiola supposed to provide GSM services. So who is trading falsehood?

Additionally, I'm saying if you can justify a politician sharing bags of rice, you can do the same for a politician that hands out N500 notes. Afterall is a bag of rice not more valuable and more obvious than N500? And thereby, you can even justify exchange of Ghana Must go on the premise that the masses are suffering.

You claimed that Abiola widened the communication gap that GSM is now trying to bridge. I refuted it by claiming GSM was not the technology in use then. Why then did you use the GSM as an analogy to castigate Abiola's purported non-performance in the same sentence, if you were not trying to relate the two? Why blame anyone for drawing a conclusion from a statement, whose premise you obviously designed?

All you are trying to impute to me, does not hold water. It is like saying that if someone annoys you and you slap him, then you can also go to the extent of holding a gun to his head & pulling the trigger. Puh-leeze!

Denex, kindly stick to what I wrote down in black & white and stop ascribing innuendoes to me. So if I feel a politician shared out rice to masses did nothing wrong, do you think I would not know that sharing out Ghana must go is a criminal offence? Or what kind of deductions filled with junk, are you trying to put across?

Please get a life! Continue the hate. Afterall, Abiola is dead & buried. And there is still a state holiday in his memory, wether you like it or not!

denex:
@laudate

My friend, stop addressing issues as if you're discussing at your favourite amala spot. I said GSM is now ameliorating the inadequate telephone infrastructure caused by the ITT scam, I didn't say the ITT project came with a GSM licence. Must telephone line mean GSM?

No, telephone lines do not mean GSM. The Global System for Mobile Communication is just one of the telecoms technologies through which voice services, can be deployed. What you initially wrote & I quote, was:

denex:
you should be asking me to show you the absence of the ITT telephone lines, the absence of money in the national treasury laundered through Kudirat's account for IBB. Abeg I will miss him O! I will miss abiola because the communication gap he tried to widen between Nigeria and the developed world is gradually being closed by GSM.

You said the 'communication gap he tried to widen between Nigeria and the developed world is gradually being closed by GSM.' You made the initial link. That was why I asked my question.

denex:
On Obanikoro, you're only saying all this because he wasn't cast into jail by a Hausa man for five years. If that had happened, you would have been claiming now that Fashola rigged the elections.

By the way, how can you compare somebody that is distributing promotionally branded campaign apparel to another man that is giving out rice? O ga O! Next thing you will say it's okay to distribute N500 notes because the people did not have transport money, then he will distribute Ghana must Go and you people will explain that it is because the masses did not have fat bank accounts. Bribe is bribe! The man is a criminal.

Stop imputing words, verbs and sentences that I did not construct, to me. Stop putting words into my mouth. It is irritating. Where did you ever read that I said it's okay to distribute N500 notes because the people did not have transport money, then he will distribute Ghana must Go and you people will explain that it is because the masses did not have fat bank accounts? Only someone with a warped perspective like your own, would let his mind go that far.

As for Obanikoro, I am not a fan of the guy so why are you insisting that I am only saying all this because he wasn't cast into jail by a Hausa man for five years. If that had happened, you would have been claiming now that Fashola rigged the elections. Please point me to that part of my post where I made such claims in black & white! Do you have a problem with understanding what I wrote down here in simple English? So why are you making allusions to something, that has never even crossed my mind? Watch it, Denex. Don't trade in falsehood. I lose all respect for those who do so.

[quote author=I-man link=topic=59301.msg1203059#msg1203059 date=1181841815]Spare me the drivel.The question is whether Abiola was a "democrat" not whether he was qualified to run for office.We had a dictatorship from 1983,no where is he known to have uttered a word of criticism about the brutal practices of these dictators-Buhari and IBB.Far from that,he was a personal friend to IBB.

So howelse did we come to the conclusion that he is a "democrat"?Because he ran for office effectively and succesfully?Is that not blatant hogwash? I pointed out earlier that many dictators also ran for office effectively and succesfully.You don't become a democrat simply because of the way you ran for office.

Talking about the manner he ran for office.Does that include the rather brazen bribery of the voters?According to our law,that is a felony.In any civilised country,such brazen bribery will be condemned and you won't have people hailing the briber as a "democrat" .
Nothing wrong with a man fighting to become President.My point is that such fight does not make one special.There is nothing inherently praiseworthy in fighting for your own personal ambition.[/quote]Drivel? Hehehe. . . . you make me laugh, I-man. The question of wether he was a democrat was raised by you! Or have you forgotten your previous post where you stated that:
[quote author=I-man ]He died fighting for himself to become President .[b]There is nothing in his life history that indicates that he was a principled democrat.[/b]If Hitler was denied an electoral mandate he had won,he too would have fought to get it back[/quote]Now back to your grouse with his method of campaign. He distributed rice. So what? Various politicians have distributed different things, on their campaign trail. Some have distributed face caps, T-shirts, fabric a la Saraki, name it! The guy knew the masses were hungry, so he spoke to them in a language they understood. Food! His opponent Bashir Tofa, what did he do? Kindly let us know. And he left a parting gift in most of the communities he visisted, by digging boreholes to provide clean water for them. In other communities, he donated generously to their educational endowment fund and provided scholarships throughout Nigeria. Other politicians did far less, thasn he did to cultivate friendships across this nation.

I-man, you were obviously not in nigeria when Abiola contested that election. Or you wouldn't be drawing all these lame conclusions. Obviously, you are an ardent supporter of Bashir Tofa. Say hi to him, when next you meet.

denex:
@dazangel11

okay, I see you do not understand. You are talking of soon we will observe June 12 as a public holiday, when we're trying to ask Lagos state government whether June 12 will continue being a public holiday.

Tell am, jare! May the holidays continue!

denex:
@laudate


Rather than tell me to show you the presence of evidence of the crimes I mentioned, you should be asking me to show you the absence of the ITT telephone lines, the absence of money in the national treasury laundered through Kudirat's account for IBB. Abeg I will miss him O! I will miss abiola because the communication gap he tried to widen between Nigeria and the developed world is gradually being closed by GSM. I will miss all the times I used to be scared of when the next military coup will be sponsored. I will miss the suffering Abiola and IBB put the masses just so he could bribe them with ordinary rice.

Talk is cheap. Provide proof my friend, and do not rely on hearsay or pepper-soup joint gist. As for GSM, when did that technology appear on the world map? Was it during the time that the ITT contract was given out? Please don't let me talk, because telecomms technology is something that changes so fast. I don't recall reading anywhere, that Abiola was asked to supply GSM phones or set up cell-sites using GSM technology. Was it 2G or 3G? Let us know.

denex:
Very soon you will make Obanikoro a national hero and carve out a holiday for him because he challenged election result. WHO STANDS TO GAIN? If Abiola's struggles finally made Abacha give in, is it me that would have become president?

The only good thing I know Abiola did was that he loved sports. That's all.

I really do not give a hoot about Obanikoro. I will continue to say it, wherever I can. . . that guy was (and still is) a bad product. The greatest mistake PDP did in Lagos, was to field him as a governorship candidate. I hope they learnt their lesson. Am happy, Tinubu schemed them out & put Fashola in, even though am not a fan. So please do not even compare Abiola to Obanikoro. They have absolutely nothing in common.

naijaking1:
@all

It's a great day not for Andy Uba, Obi, or even OBJ, but for the spirit and soul of rule of law in naija.

It's also a geat day for democracy and civility- where the offended has a hope of getting justice from the courts of the land.

It's a great day for the long suffering people of the Anambra and the whole Igbo land that has suffered worse under OBJ than all previuos governments combined.

OBJ could not directly mess up Igboland, but he had the Andy Ubas and the Chimaroke Nnamanis do it for him.

Let us hope that when Peter Obi gets back into power, the Chris Ubas of this world will not unleash their fangs and make Anambra ungovernable for him to rule, in the same way Adedibu & Alao-Akala made Oyo State uncomfortable for Ladoja.

Donzman:
How do you figure my ethnicity is all I live for?. . .I live for more than my ethnicity but my ethnicity is part of me, that is why I say "my" ethnicity. If you do not wish to have yours be part of you, that sucks for you!


You're probably one of those clowns who caution their kids for speaking their native languages at home, F out of here.

All hail the Minister of Insults on nairaland!! The Onwanetilora of Tribalism, a.k.a Donzman! Igwe!

[quote author=I-man link=topic=57333.msg1203356#msg1203356 date=1181845319]If this was the initial impression,"that Osu issue wasn't even a reality",that you gathered from my posts,I must question your powers of comprehension or the lack of one.Let me reproduce my first post
Now who in the world with a basic grasp of grammar would have drawn the conclusion,reading the above,that the Osu issue "wasn't even a reality".?[/quote]You can question whatever you like. You claimed you had never seen one. And then you wondered why it was only non-Igbo folks who had seen it. You stated in your previous post, that: "Lived in Igboland for 22 years,never saw or witnessed Osu. I did first hear about it in my Social Studies(Junior Sec) and subsequently heard or read about it.I still don't know any Osu.More likely to hear about it on Nairaland than in real life" Now do you remember that bit? The fact that you claim to have heard of it first in junior sec., without still seeing it, and also your claim that it was more likely to come up on nairaland, than in real life, shows that it wasn't a reality for you.

[quote author=I-man link=topic=57333.msg1203356#msg1203356 date=1181845319]You blither a lot  The question we are dealing with is the scale of the Osu issue and not whether it exists at all.By describing as "odd", an Igbo woman's assertion that she had never seen an Osu,you give the impression that the Osu issue is so widespread,that it is odd for an Igbo person who lived in Igboland to have missed it.[/quote]No. . .  I-man, I leave the blithering, to you. It is an art, in which you excel. And I will continue to describe it as 'odd,' that you haven't seen an osu person, because most of the Igbo folks I know, who do not even live in Alaigbo readily tell me that they know those who are 'osu' within their own respective communities! A few have even gone as far as to confirm that they know of whole villages in Igbo land, populated by 60% or 70% of 'osu' people. So if an Igbo woman who has spent most of her life inside (not outside) Alaigbo, says she hasn't seen an 'osu' person before, then she must have either lived a very sheltered life, or must be in some sort of denial, or she might even be 'blithering', to use your own words.

[quote author=I-man link=topic=57333.msg1203356#msg1203356 date=1181845319]My analogy to prejudiced white people is apt.Many prejudiced white people view all sorts of unwholesome practices by Blacks as widespread.For instance,we had a series of infanticides in London of African(DRC Congo) kids allegedly possesed by evil spirits.Some prejudiced white people deemed it odd anytime I told them I had no personal knowledge of an African kid being killed for being "possesed".They wanted to believe its widespread because they had seen the dead kids .One told me to stop being in denial.

Any self confessed "keen observer" of Igbos will know its not odd for some Igbos to be totally ignorant of Osu pratice.Unless of course,you are like the white colleagues in London who find it hard to put in perspective any bad thing they hear about Africans[/quote]Your analogy to white people doesn't hold much water, as it relates to this topic. All those white folks who claimed you were in denial, should have been given a history and/or geography lesson. Simply tell them, that the DRC Congo is to Nigeria, what Latvia in the former USSR, is to London. Simple.

Now back to the topic. In one breath, you claim that cultural practices vary across Igbo land, in the next breath you claim that "It sure does exist in some parts of Igboland but there is nothing remotely odd in claiming ignorance of an Osu." Make up your mind. So if cultural practices are so widely divergent across Igboland, why would it be 'odd' for someone to claim that he or she has seen it, even if he or she isn't resident in Alaigbo or if he or she is non-Igbo?

And if there is nothing remotely 'odd' in claiming ignorance of an Osu as you put it, why would you now have a problem with someone who says the initial impression gotten from your posts, was that the 'Osu' issue, wasn't even a reality? Oh, so those who have seen it are wrong, while those who haven't seen it, are right?

achike:
my own people are very hardworking.they excess in Jamb.they are the best nigeria has to offer.

They 'excess' in Jamb. . . . indeed!

As for the best Nigeria has to offer, well, those can be found in every ethnic group in this land!

[quote author=I-man link=topic=57333.msg1202410#msg1202410 date=1181833814]@Laudate
What you have to recognise,for someone who once claimed to be a keen observer of Igbos,is that Igboland has a diversity in cultural practices.What may seem normal to one Igbo person may be totally unheard of to another.So when  I or Babyosisi tells you the followingYou don't respond in the following mannerFor someone who portrays herself as knowledgeable,there is nothing remotely odd about this.

Nobody here is saying that Osu doesn't exist entirely.We are simply saying its ridiculous verging on the ignorant,to claim that its "odd" for an Igbo person not to know of an Osu.It sure does exist in some parts of Igboland but there is nothing remotely odd in claiming ignorance of an Osu or even in claiming that its not widespread since many of us Igbos who lived long in Igbo land can't identify a single Osu .[/quote]Oh, thanks for the information. But please note: Your own reality or the things that happen in your own world, are so different from the encounters I have had, in mine. The initial impression I got from your posts, was that the 'Osu' issue, wasn't even a reality, because you stated that you had never seen one. No one is arguing with that. But then you turn round & say "Laudate, you must have been looking out for it", as if I was out to just dig up the flaws of the Igbo, or as if this was something others' hadn't even talked about before!  If I see something which you haven't seen, would it be right to lie & say that I haven't seen it, too? In your view it may be odd. In mine, it is not. And I am sorry, but I really can't tailor my responses, to suit your pre-concieved ideas. That would be pretence, wouldn't it? Or what name would you call it?

[quote author=I-man link=topic=57333.msg1202410#msg1202410 date=1181833814]To pretend otherwise is either a result of pretentious claims of knowledge in the midst of utter ignorance or simply barely hidden spite.Let me tell you what is  odd,the fact that,like on this thread,most of those who claim to know about the Osu are like you non-Igbos.Now,that is really odd .I guess its the aforementioned keeness  [/quote]No one is pretending. And in fact, if anyone has laid any claim to pretence, it is you!! Please go through this site again, and carefully take note of all those who have spoken about the[i] 'Osu' [/i] problem. Are they ALL non-Igbo, like you want us to believe? 

Most of those who claim to know about the 'Osu' problem are not the non-Igbos. On the contrary, the non-Igbo who bring it up, do so because of what they have heard from their Igbo friends & counterparts. In seeking enlightenment, they come to this site to ask more questions. And different points are raised, by both the Igbo & non-Igbo alike. People go away with a better understanding of the issue, than they had before. What I have found most interesting, is that the responses from the non-Igbo, usually seem to be : "I really couldn't care less." But the Igbo folks[i] (with the exception of a few),[/i] often warn the posters to be careful, or make dire predictions of what would happen, if they go ahead and marry an 'osu' person. Now whose fault is that?

achike:
.this what the Yoruba's do best

Am sure the yoruba people will give you an appropriate answer, soon. But in the meantime, tell us. . . what do your own people do best?  

ono:
With all these mounting evidence, I'm beginning to think that the Yourubas, no matter how highly placed, have, as part of their DNA, the inherent nature of stealing. Apology to my Yoruba friends out there, but I'm just speechless.

Is it possible that Seun might want to pilfer something somewhere if given the opportunity?

What are you apologising for, when you have stylishly insulted them to their faces? A segment of one particular society messes up, and you turn round to say there is a defect in ALL members of that society, isn't that a bare-faced insult?

If someone said  everyone in the Niger-Delta people is either a thief or a kidnapper, simply because the militants in that area have been taking foreign oil workers hostage, would you say they were right or wrong?

[quote author=I-man link=topic=59301.msg1202894#msg1202894 date=1181839941]Your post is long on rhetoric but short on substance. He spent time,money and efforts campaigning to be President.There is nothing special about that.You are just turning logic on its head.

Before he entered the race to become President,he was not known for campaigning for democracy.His record for activism is non-existent.What was his role throughout the military dictatorship that started in 1983?Here is someone whose record as an activist for democracy is non-existent.We are supposed to believe he was a Democrat because of the way he ran for President.If he was not involved personally in the race and someonelse mandate was stolen,I doubt whether he whether he would have joined those who campaigned against IBB and Abacha.

There is not a shred of evidence from his life history that he had a selfless passion for democracy.Don't tell me he was distrubuting bags of rice What a country! Distrubuting bags of rice while campaigning for an office would be viewed rightly,in any civilised setting,as sheer bribery.What a strange nation [/quote]Oh, so now the requirement for public office, is that you must have been an activist in your former life, before you can think of campaigning for an election?? Yikes!

If his mandate was stolen and he fought for it, what on earth is wrong with that? Has Peter Obi not been fighting to reclaim his mandate? If the owner of the mandate does not fight for it, who do you think would do so? His enemies?

Your logic is strange, I-man. But then am not suprised. Such absurdity could only have come from you. I guess you would have preferred it, if Bashir Tofa who was Abiola's opponent had won. _*Hiss* Tofa must have been a great activist, in your own eyes!

youngies:
The judgement says "INEC erred in law to have conducted election when Obi has not finished his tenure".

The last election held in Anambra is a nullity. Fresh election will be conducted.

Yippeee!! Hallelujah! There is a GOD!!  

Up, Peter Obi. Oya, make una join me to sing this chorus. . . . "Winner ohhh, winner x2. . . Peter you don win ohh"  

achike:
this is because of the yorubas Agberos in lagos.

And all the OMATAs in Onitsha!!  

debosky:
I remember those days at UNILAG, the mere sight of those things parked outside the main gate could make students cool down, these area boys need to know that they cannot disrupt our lives because of their greed, if they want to fight they should do it at home where their wives and kids can be brushed properly in the fighting

Gree-ee-eat Akokite!! Gre-eea-at!!

denex:
Abiola is an uncommon criminal. A gentle scoundrel. People are crying crocodile tears that the man did not become president. I only wish that he did become president, those tears would have been real!

Someone that sponsored coups that claimed human lives and threw the country into turmoil, attacked this country of billions even when that world billion was not familiar to most Nigerians, crippled our telecommunications industry and put us behind Togo and Benin in terms of teledensity, somebody who campaigned by using bags of rice and other foodstuff to bribe the poor masses for their votes.

May he rot in the hottest enclave in hell, and may the devil order another bucket of brimstone to be poured on his head.

This development in telecomms that we are celebrating today, if not for Abiola, would have been part and parcel of our daily lives since the early 1980.

Any Nigerian that can singlehandedly cause Togo and Benin Republic to be ahead of Nigeria in any sphere of life should not escape the second death that is not of the flesh but of eternal torment.

Denex, this is cyberspace. Provide facts, not hyperbole.

[quote author=I-man link=topic=57333.msg1197005#msg1197005 date=1181687610]Maybe you have a particularly keen eye for the unsavoury aspects of Igbo people.Like those white people looking out for all the bad things Blacks are up to

Lived in Igboland for 22 years,never saw or witnessed Osu.I did first hear about it in my Social Studies(Junior Sec) and subsequently heard or read about it.I still don't know any Osu.More likely to hear about it on Nairaland than in real life.

Its a shame it still goes on.Its immoral for the victims of the practice to go through it.The only good thing that comes out of it is that it allows folks like you to use it as a whipping stick on Igbos [/quote]Strange, you never saw it before. Contrary to your impression, I never went looking for it. An Igbo colleague of mine wanted to get married to a fellow Igbo guy in another dept. So when her mum came to Lagos from the village and she introduced the guy, all hell almost broke loose. The mum wept & wailed that her daughter wanted to disgrace her. The rest of us didn't understand what the furore was all about. So we made enquiries. And that turned out to be our first encounter with that word 'osu'.

On this site, a number of Igbo folks have made allusions to the practice. In fact, one of them not only acknowledged that it was still thriving, but replied that "it was a fate, worse than death." His words, not mine. If in your 22-year sojourn in Alaigbo, you never encountered the issue, it doesn't mean others haven't. Some of those who have acknowledged the practice include the following:

Douzy on « #3 on: September 15, 2006, 06:10 PM »

Sbucareer « #20 on: September 17, 2006, 10:51 AM »

mamaput « #28 on: September 17, 2006, 12:07 PM »

in the thread: Would You Marry An Osu? The thread is also in the Culture section. Read their responses. And tell us what you think. Maybe, they too have a particularly keen eye for the unsavoury aspects of Igbo people, to use your own words.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-23527.0.html

Another thread titled Re: I'm About To Marry An 'Outcast' (Osu) Guy, also talked about the same problem. People like Saintchux « #19 on: April 16, 2007, 10:17 AM » and Stellose « #52 on: April 20, 2007, 04:27 PM » also made different comments about the subject. They were (and still are) Igbo. Was it Laudate again, that used "a particularly keen eye for the unsavoury aspects of Igbo people", to use your own words?

ThiefOfHearts:
*rolls eyes*

Who the hell cares if YOU havent seen anyone say it? Who are you again? I freaking have and that is my point. Case Closed. You've never been to The States so who are you to tell me what I havent seen or heard

ThiefofHearts, you need to know Donzman by now. If he can't blame a non-Igbo for all the ills in Alaigbo, he will claim that his own perspective is the only one, that is valid. And he will make this claim till kingdom come, even when the truth is so patently obvious. A lot of Edo folks I know, speak Yoruba, and some of them even bear Yoruba names, especially those from Akoko-Edo local govt. area. The late journalist Tunde Giwa was a good example. Yet, Donzman wants us to believe that all Nd'Igbo from Agbor to Ebonyi, have never confused an Edo man with a Yoruba person. I beg, make we hear word.

Donzman:
Who pays attention to Laudate anymore?. . .It has been established, this individual is to Igbos as anti-semites are to Jews, always looking for ways to criticize.

It's always non-Igbos who jump out at this Osu thing out of sensationalization by the likes of Laudate. We also had some poster come on Nairaland to preach this and that about him/her being Osu, only to go and ask and find out that he/she is not. Obviously this individual does not know anything about Igboland but hears the likes of Laudate sensationalizing the issue and assumes that because his/her name is Nwosu or something, that he/she is an osu.

Hehehe. . . typical dodgy Donzman strategy. Blame Laudate for all the problems in Alaigbo, that are listed on nairaland. Cool! The fact that other Igbo folks have come out strongly to say it exists, and they are aware of it, doesn't matter. But if Laudate mentions the word, boom! Take the easy way out and blame it on Laudate. Nothing wey person no go see for here! Chei!

[quote author=I-man link=topic=59301.msg1198503#msg1198503 date=1181740591]He died fighting for himself to become President .There is nothing in his  life history that indicates that he was a principled democrat.If Hitler was denied an electoral mandate he had won,he too would have fought to get it back.[/quote]

stanech:
Thank u. Na only you know wetin i dey try talk my guy.

Abiola no do anything as far as i am concern. I wonder why he should be called a national hero. The election was annuled by a millitary government. He won the election fine. But he is still among one of those dead thieves in this country. I no want offend anybody oh, but the guy is not worth celebrating.

Now this is where you guys miss the point.

For the first time in the history of Nigeria, citizens from various walks of life, were united enough to sink their differences and vote for one man who sold his candidature to the people, and worked hard to bridge the North-South divide. His party fielded a Muslim-Muslim ticket. Yet, people still voted for him, because he represented a different breed from the established cadre of politicians. Like someone said: "Abiola allowed us to rise above ethnic and religious differences ,  ." This to my own mind, was the legacy of June 12.

Abiola spent his time, money & efforts campaigning and meeting with people, in different towns, villages & districts in order to win their support. He did not impose himself on our public conciousness, rather he sought our approval. If he wasn't a democrat, he would not have run such an exhasutive, challenging, all-encompassing campaign, deploying men, materials and personal resources to ensure that everyone knew what he stood for, and spelling out all what he offered. His opponent Bashir Tofa did little by the way of campaigns, believing instead that the strength of the Northern oligarchy would give him victory. 

Abiola never laid claim to sainthood, indeed he had many failings. But for reminding Nigerians that they had a choice & offering us that bold choice in an election that was deemed to be one of the 'freest' in this country, Abiola to my mind, deserves to be remembered. Comparing him to Hitler is unfair, because he never exhibited any animosity, towards any race or creed.

docokwy:
Only in Yoruba land.

Yeah, they learnt it from the OMATA guys at your end. have you forgotten?