₦airaland Forum

Tunami:
you don't understand me, i mean their alliance with fulani people in the of one nigeria. Example look at what happened in lagos recently, can that happen in hausaland?

Those Hausa people would not have done such if we had our own army and police in Yoruba land and yes Hausas have been worsted in attacks in Kaduna and Kano by Northern Christians even when they were in power. Its all about getting guns and there are Northern Christian Generals as well who would not sit by and watch when the shit hits the fan.

Tunami:
bro. you're right bt some yorubas that have fulani blood won't agree with you.

Yoruba is Yoruba whether with some Fulani, Igbo, Hausa, Calabar or Tapa blood. There are many prominent Yoruba people with some Fulani ancestry, the present Owa Obokun Ijesa is one of them. So Fulani blood does not make someone less Yoruba but those who don't agree will be free to leave Yoruba land which is not a prison.

leke12:
Let there be one southern nigeria in which parliamentary system of govt is practised. Every region will be fully represented, all land will be govt owned and proceeds from each region will be 60/40 btw it and d govt. Having a one nigeria is like having a dog full of ticks.....note= dog rep southners while northners rep ticks. They have nothing to contribute except to suck our blood.

See how you mess up yourself. Yoruba are more than enough to be a country on their own with Yoruba language as lingua franca while protecting other languages like our old Akoko language and the Egun language. We don't need people who don't speak Yoruba or who don't practice our culture. Enough of all the idiocy. There must be a basis for nation building.

Deadlytruth:
Zik was not only an NCNC element but the national leader of the NCNC. If really the NCNC co-sponsored wetie which was in protest against the broad daylight rigging in favour of the Akintola-Balewa Coalition, then how come Zik soon afterwards made a U-turn, dumped the wetie solidarity and went to accept a position again with the Akintola-Balewa coalition against which he was sponsoring wetie? It is either Zik was a crass opportunist being consumed by a lust for power and position or that he never really co-sponsored wetie.

However you have not clarified how your theory that "the plotters came for murderers" explains why the Igbo boys spared Zik, Okpara and Dennis Osadebey whom you claim were not murderers but killed Okotie-Eboh who was even far less a murderer by the same standard as Okotie-Eboh was the first NCNC man to realize that their party made a fatal mistake by aligning with NPC instead of AG. He also was the first and only NCNC member to warn Balewa for carrying the quarrel with Awolowo too far immediately Awo was jailed and the Western Region started boiling. Zik continued to enjoy the game while over 2000 Yorubas had died. So how does your theory explain that Zik was not a murderer but Okoti-Eboh was?

I never exonerated the coup plotters. If you read the Major Nzeogwu coup speech, you will conclude they were not in the right frame of mind. I don't support the killing of Chief Okotie Eboh just because he was the Finance Minister and the so called ten percenter which was taking party contribution too far. They gave contracts to party members and expected them to fund the party with ten percent. That was wrong as contracts were supposed to be awarded on merit as much as possible and political parties funded voluntarily by members. Chief Festus Okotie Eboh did nothing to warrant being killed. Then there were many Yoruba in the NCNC but Dr Zik was the leader. His name was also in the Federal constitution. His position of President was only ceremonial like that of the Queen of England and you can not blame him for the failure or success of government. He was just ceremonial. He can not reject the call to resume at the position. Since he was there before, however his party was removed from government. The coupists killed so many people they should not have killed as you said especially officers but there was no reason to kill Dr Zik as well or the Eastern Premier as they did nothing wrong. Dr Zik had no power in government and little or no influence.

If Dr Azikiwe had done something wrong or publicly incited to do wrong, it would have been recorded and he would not have escaped punishment. We can not just rewrite history like that. Some of the coup plotters and assassins who survived the coup and the war were later assassinated by the secret service.

AlomoReloaded:
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha .... Yorubas don finally open eye... thank God say jungle don mature, una don begin wise up... I'm glad. The truth is... the real enemy of Peaceful Nigeria, is Northern Nigeria and Northerners!!!

The country is unworkable is the problem. It is a failed experiment. No section of the country should be blamed. Thesame Hausa you are blaming voted Chief Awolowo, a Christian as President, they also voted Basorun Abiola in Kano against a Kano indigene. Left to them, the Kanawa, Chief Awolowo would have been President. So you can't be blaming them as that is dishonest. Fact is the country is unworkable.

PiperAlpha:
What are you waiting for now? Pull out now. Stop visiting other states. Just sit your ass down in your domain, and there you have it. Yeye.

Nigeria is unworkable and it will disintegrate. It is a matter of when. I believe the Yoruba will take the initiative but that does not mean that the Yoruba will not continue living in other places. Before Nigeria, Yoruba were living in other places. Breaking up is to get our acts together and become respectable participants on the world stage in a new nation that will secure lives and properties of its citizens, not one where Hausa gangs will be killing and maiming people, burning down churches and etc.

BlackTechnology:
But you guys mocked IPOBs

I for one did not mock IPOB.

In the past, when people used to say the then General Buhari was sponsoring Boko Haram, I used to argue against them saying Boko Haram originated from Kanuris disgruntled with Nigeria and that the politicians so far associated with Boko Haram are all PDP and not from General Buhari's party, so he most probably knows nothing about the terrorist organisation. Meanwhile the former President Jonathan publicly stated that there were Boko Haram in his government. The meaning of the statement was made clear last year after President Buhari won the elections when the DG NAFEST, an Igbo man stated publicly that his men arrested 12 trailer loads of guns and ammunitions at a border post headed into Nigeria illegally and that it was the former NSA, Colonel Dasuki that came to release them by force. He said the NSA threatened him openly that he would finish him off if he tried to obstruct him in any way. The weapons entered the country and the killings of innocent people continued. The DG reported the matter to President Jonathan and nothing was done about it. The NSA remained in his position. President Jonathan was such an inept President. All he did was to publicly note that the Boko Haram are now domiciled in his government. Also, he himself was accused by no less a person than his fellow Bayelsan, Henry Okah the Niger Delta freedom fighter of masterminding two or three bomb blasts in Abuja in which innocent Nigerians were bombed to death. That is by the way.

I had thought General Buhari had no direct link with Boko Haram but how Boko Haram are able to maintain their hold on territories, confronting soldiers and etc remain a mystery as it requires huge funding to be able to do that. However, when President Buhari resumed as President, he immediately reinstated a police commissioner that was dismissed for facilitating the escape from prison of Kabir Sokoto, the Boko Haram bomber. He reinstated the police officer and paid the backlog of his salaries. He did not stop at that. There was a certain General Ahmed who commanded against the Boko Haram in the Northeast, men under him opened fire on his convoy, attempting to assassinate him for betraying them to Boko Haram and getting their comrades killed. An inquiry was set up by the last administration and the General was retired or dismissed from the army. That General Ahmed has been reinstated by the President Buhari administration. Also President Buhari released at least 182 Boko Haram detainess upon resuming as President. So President Buhari has shown himself clearly as at least a Boko Haram sympathiser. Thesame President Buhari was described as a dollar billionaire by Chief Okey Nwosu, so he might as well be the major Boko Haram financier as well. Why not?

Now, army officers who were really fighting the Boko Haram like the junior officers arraigned for mutiny and like Brigadier Ransome Kuti who was dismissed from the army for not sitting on his arse to wait for a Boko Haram battalion bearing down on him when half of his men were practicing Muslims are the ones that are being victimised while the Boko Haram collaborators in the Army and the police are being reinstated, promoted and decorated by the President Buhari administration. It is left for people to put two and two together to arrive at four.

Yoruba army officers and men, younger than myself, my age mates and older than me, with young wives and little children are being wasted regularly in the Northeast. This must stop. These people in the North east want Sharia. So they must have their Sharia, the country must break up and our people must return home to secure here. Those in the North east who don't want sharia must declare their own sovereignty, then the whole world will support them, if only to buy them weapons. I have seen many obituaries of army men of Ilesa origin who died at the hands of Boko Haram leaving behind their young ones and loved ones. This is not fair. They are not dying for a good cause.

The President can not be sending people young enough to be his children to go and die in the North east while he himself is a Boko Haram supporter. This must stop.

The only respite for the Yoruba is to be in a separate nation as the largest group in Africa, then set examples for others. A small nation like Switzerland has produced 133 academic Nobel laureattes while we have only one. That is a shame. We are human beings as well and we should contribute fully our quota to human development and that can never be possible while we remain members of an evil and insane entity like Nigeria. So we have to get out.

We need our army, police, navy, currency, control over our economy and everything. That way non Yorubas will never again be in a position to gang up and start destroying lives and properties in Yoruba land as some Hausa do and also as some Fulani cattle rearers do. It has to stop.

Let us get our acts together. All Yoruba cities from Niger state to the Atlantic ocean must as one opt out of Nigeria as a matter of urgency. We don't need regionalism or true federalism in Nigeria. What is best is a separate national identity for our people.

May God assist us.

Deadlytruth:
I don't agree that Zik co-sponsored the wetie riots in favour of Awolowo's side. If he did he would not have suddenly turned around again to dump UPGA and rush back to join the Akintola-Ahmadu Bello NNA-NPC coalition when the latter offered him his empty ceremonial president position once more. Zik was a very unprincipled man and a crass opportunist who could do anything to get anything. As long as Zik worked with Ahmadu Bello at the initial stage to unconstitutionally capture the Western Region for NCNC-NPC by way of having Awolowo jailed and helping Balewa disobey the privy council verdict that declared Akintola unfit to remain as Premier, then Zik was as guilty of murder as Ahmadu Bello. It was only after census was rigged against the whole South including Zik's Eastern Region that Zik began to antagonize Ahmadu Bello. Had Ahmadu Bello rigged the census against only the Western Region and inflated the Eastern Region's numbers as he did for his own Northern Region, believe me Zik would not have rejected the result as he was hell-bent on crushing the Western Region by any available means all aimed at humiliating Awo to boost his influence over the entire South.

I was not there actually but reliable accounts insist NCNC elements co sponsored the wetie riots. It required funding, organisation and etc. PM Balewa said his government will not interfere in the Western region crisis but Chief Akintola went to meet Sir Bello and the story changed. Dr Zik was a ceremonial President and the real ruler of the country was Sir Bello. If he had applied common sense and respected himself, he would have earned the respect of the AG people but his agenda was different and it was the total subjugation of everybody by whatever means, rendering everybody useless. Dr Zik was not with him on that. Dr Zik and PM Balewa were members of the Ogboni society and an Ogboni person is under an oath to never be in support of evil at any time backed with a solemn prayer that if he derails he should not prosper.

Deadlytruth:
Going by the same standard by which you judged Zik not to be a murderer, the Okotie-Eboh whom the Igbo boys killed was not a murder as well. So why did they kill him and let Zik free? I am a SS person from Okotie-Eboh's area, hence your logic aimed at defending the duplicity of those Igbo boys will never sell in my eyes.

Your claim that Akintola was killed because he fired back at the Igbo boys fails the test of holistic analysis in the sense that the Igbo boys also killed Okotie-Eboh who did not resist them but even knelt down and passionately begged them in all humility to have mercy on him. Why kill such a person who was so humble at the point of being killed? Too baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!
Those Igbo boys were just animals in human flesh.

However, the Igbo boys themselves did not claim they came to kill murderers but to kill all the politicians who were part of the failed NPC-NCNC coalition. So why leave out Zik who was a major actor in that coalition?

Even if we agree with you that the Igbo guys came for only the murderers, Zik also was as guilty as Ahmadu Bello because they both colluded together to cause anarchy in the Western Region which led to over 2000 deaths of both Awo's and Akintola's followers. Zik's attempt to use his Igbo boys in Western House to help Akintola and Ahmadu Bello capture the West for NNDP-NCNC-NPC coalition sparked off the first violence in the Western House. So by any standard you term Ahmadu Bello a murderer, Zik also qualifies as one.

It was Sir Ahmadu Bello that was responsible for rigging elections in the West, the NCNC co sponsored the wetie riots that followed according to accounts I heard because the NPC dumped them to ally with Akintola's NNDP to form the new government. So in that light, Dr Zik can not be put on thesame pedestal as Sir Bello. I dont support the way of the coup plotters, I dont support the killing of people who were not murderers and who did not waste human lives. The coupists lacked respect for human lives. They were not much different from the religious rioters who act without common sense. One has to recognise the sanctity of life even in full scale war.

isalegan2:
What do you think the soldiers came to do at Akintola's house? Deliver cake and jollof rice? So he should not have shot at them? He should just have waited there for them to come in to rape and kill all his family and take him to the bush and set on fire.

What did Tafawa Balewa do to be tortured and killed and what did Ahmadu Bello do to justify being murdered and his body defiled and the image circulated around to the enjoyment of the masses?

The downfall of the first republic was caused by those who rigged elections in the Western region and herded the AG leaders who won the election into jail on treasonable felony convictions. The coupists were irrational and they killed many that should not have been killed, many innocent officers were gunned down but it is said that it was an ashtma attack that killed Sir Tafa Balewa and not bullets. I am saying maybe Chief Akintola would not have been killed as he was merely fighting for self survival and not to oppress anyone, the buck stopped at the Sardauna's table and he can not be absolved from culpability on the deaths that resulted from rigging elections in the West. No human life is more important than the other. People that see the Sardauna as a hero are free to see him as such but he was no hero to me. The country should be disbanded, it will mean everybody will get serious. It will be a big impact on the globe if Nigeria is disbanded immediately.

Deadlytruth:
Do you really have any facts to prove your claim that Yorubas are backstabbers? Igbo are the real backstabbers. A coup was planned to kill all corrupt politicians and on the day of action the Igbos killed every other tribe's politicians and military officers and left their own brothers untouched. Is that not backstabbing and betrayal? And that was what led to the war.
Now, tell me how Yorubas ever betrayed Igbos.

People keep saying the coup plotters should have killed all politicians. Why is that? You kill only murderers, then recover stolen money from corrupt politicians, any other thing is madness. Dr Zik did nothing to warrant being killed and maybe Chief Akintola would not have been killed if not that he was firing at the soldiers. Life is sacrosanct, President IBB seized power in this country without shedding any blood despite that the regime being removed committed judicial murder. So the coupists should not have killed all corrupt politicians but only murderers. After the coup, Nigeria would have broken up since the Northern soldiers were prevailed upon to vacate the West which they did, only Gen Gowon remained in Lagos but then the Biafrans believing the Yoruba to be cowards invaded the West with Biafran forces. That was the singular event, the reason why we have Nigeria today, the West joined the war against Biafra, if the Biafrans had seen the Yoruba as respectable and equal humans, Nigeria would have split in 1967 under the watch of Britain and etc but the adventurous Biafrans ruined it. Once again, if they had not invaded the West, the West would have seceded.

Deadlytruth:
You obviously are not very acquainted with Nigeria's political history. FYI Igbos have been the peoblem of the South from the very beginning in 1960. Igbos are the authentic slaves of Hausa.

In the 1959 election towards independence, the AG of Yorubas, led by Awolowo, avoided Hausa Fulani parties like NEPU and NPC and aligned with UMBC the middle Belt party based in Jos and Makurdi; while the Igbos' NCNC led by Zik chose to align with NEPU the core North's (i.e. Hausa-Fulani) party. At the end of the election Zik's NCNC won about 89 parliamentary seats while Awolowo's AG won about 73. The Niger Delta Congress won about 8 seats and other smaller parties too won some few seats. In all, the Southern parties and their allies won a total seats of 178 parliamentary seats while the Hausa-Fulani NPC won only 132 seats. But no single party won a simple majority to enable it produce the prime minister on its own. It meant alliances had to be formed. At that point Awolowo the, yorubas' leader, approached Zik, the leader of Igbos, and proposed that all Southern parties... the NCNC, the AG and NDC, come together and use their combined seats of 178 to defeat the North's 132 so that Zik a Southerner would become the first Nigeria Prime minister and thereby disgracing Ahmadu Bello and proving him wrong on his belief that the North was born to rule. But Zik turned Awolowo's offer down, took his 89 seats to form alliance with Ahmadu Bello's 132 seats. This gave rise to the Igbo-Hausa NCNC coalition which now had 221 seats while Awolowo's AG with 73 seats was left in the cold as the opposition. The Igbo-Hausa Coalition formed the government with Hausas producing the prime minister in the person of Tafawa Balewa while Igbos were the junior partners (slave equivalent) a therefore given the powerless position of governor general in the person of Zik. It was beginning from that moment the North took the born-to-rule philosophy to be confirmed by Zik and Igbos. The North had always hated Awolowo for his progressive ideas and ideological politics even before independence because they saw Awo's free Education policy as a threat to the Northern Feudal Oligarchical system that thrives and survives on the ignorance of the followers and ordinary men. So on getting to power with the help of Zik and Igbos in general the Hausa-Fulani NPC now decided to silence Awolowo once and for all. Zik quickly presented himself as a willing tool in the hands of Ahmadu Bello to achieve that. So the North used the power which Zik and Igbos gave them to first repress the Yorubas and hound Awolowo into jail while Zik helped them instigate widespread violence in the Western Region with the assistance of the Igbo members of the Western Region's parliament just in order to please their Hausa masters. Zik even went as far as liaising with Akintola, Awolowo's brother but enemy, in his quest to crush AG completely so that his Igbo-Hausa alliance will dominate Nigeria with Igbos being the junior slave partners. But just a month after Zik successfully helped the North to jail Awolowo his fellow Southerner, the 1962 census was held and the North used its federal might to rig it badly against the South and especially against Igbos in order to maintain their dominance and even cut Zik off completely. It was at that point Zik realized he had been foolish and stupid all along. He now had to fight the Hausa-Fulani alone as he had helped them imprison the Awolowo who would have supported him from the Western side. It is the result of that population census that has led to the North having 19 states and FCT today while the South has 17. But thank God that the Igbos who gave power to the North to rig that census have suffered the consequences more than everyone else today as only the Igbo's SE Region has 5 states while every other Region has at least six. The Northwest of the Ahmadu Bello whom Zik aligned with now has 7 states. Call it nemesis if you can. Also the North used the federal power (whic Zik and igbos gave them in 1960) to kill thousands of Igbos later on in 1967 both in the North and even within Igbo land all during the War. While the massacre of Igbos was going on during the War Zik still ran to support the North all in the name of "one-Nigeria) Call it stupidity if you can.

That was how the Igbos sold the South to the North which therefore became masters in Nigerian politics while Igbos continue to align under them as slaves like in 1979 (NPN-NPP alliance) and 1999 (the PDP made up of Igbos and Hausa-fulanis) till today.

So judge fairly, who is the slave of Hausas between Yoruba and Igbo? Be honest in your answer!

The Igbos have not been shortchanged by states. The population of the SW is at least 180 percent of SE, so if they have 5, we should have 9. We and NW have been shortchanged. Everything is upside down. So the solution is to disband the country as everything is a mess.

justice2016:
Na lie Igbos voted for NPP Zik party . Another lie Abiola got the highest vote from Se/SS . And remember the INEC boss was an iggbo man Humphrey nwosu who went ahead to release the election result despite refusal by IBB . Please don't distort history

I am talking of SE alone, not SS/SE because that is not Igbo. SS has many groups that allied with the Yoruba at one point or the other but the SE never allied with the Yoruba at any point even when Chief Awo offered to be Minister under Dr Zik.

obaino860:
people always make d mistake of saying DAT Hausa's are d problem we have in Nigeria,,but I want to prove DAT wrong
YORUBAS are d problem of d southerner and Nigeria,they are cowards,dirty ,betrayer since independence...da have betrayed their fellow southerners and today da seem to stand alone,and be used like slave by d Hausa's.
d Hausa's know DAT Yoruba's are wicked,nuisance but will always want to align with them to achieve political powers....
d yorubas will one day be disgraced and chased out of Nigeria to be with their brothers at Benin republic,,because da have caused enough chaos in Nigeria....their cup will soon be full,wen all Nigeria will stand and bounce on them,after seeing d evil da represent in Nigeria.

If Yoruba allowed a Northerner to be President, it means they are their benefactor at that instant. Throughout when Chief Awo was contesting for President with Hausas voting for him, Igbos voted for NPN because of VP position even when Chief Awo chose an Igbo man as VP. When Bashorun Abiola won the election too, Igbo voted against him and for a Northerner but he still won with states like Kano voting him. So if you check your history, the real facts, you will see that Igbos fit the description of slaves of Hausas more but it is better to divide up the country.

Ifa is scholarship, apprenticeship and etc. Even if you have not gone for igbo odu you can still be an authourity by studying. In the olden days you had to study for years to qualify as an independent practitioner, then you continue studying till you die. If you are very brilliant and resourceful, you will be able to develop new oogun on your own. Entering igbodu is good but it is merely symbolic, scholarship is the more important quality.

If we get our acts together, there will be no fake Babalawos as there will be an institute to examine them to determine that they can recite all the 256 odus and some extensions, then know the basic etutus, by knowing like 2 or 3 thousand Ifa verses and the basics of rituals, a practitioner may be licensed but still placed under tutelage of a more experienced Awo from there through practice he will move to MSc level, Associate degree, Phd and etc. Thus fakes will be eliminated.

These things do not happen in civilized countries because they are well organised . Such never happened in pre Nigeria Yoruba land, Hausa land or anywhere. It does not happen in Europe. Xenophobia attacks don't happen in Europe because it is accepted that everybody is working for everybody by paying into the social security system. There are places in London, Kano, Kaduna, Jos and etc controlled by the Yoruba, places in Ibadan, Lagos and etc populated by the Hausa and etc, it should not result to confrontations and killings in a normal nation. This is why Nigeria should be broken up for normal nations to emerge. In that way, the Yoruba or Igbo that choose to live in Kano will not foment trouble there, neither will the Hausa in London. When the Ghanaians were more than the Igbos and Hausas in Lagos, they did not foment trouble. That is how things should be if the whole space is properly organised into viable nations where interests are properly alligned.

There have been attempts to categorise the Hausa in mile 12 with the Bororo who cause problems all over the country with their nomadic cattle rearing activities but it is clearly by people who do not understand Nigeria and her peoples. Hausa are not cattle rearers just like Igbos and Yoruba are not cattle rearers. The Hausa are traders and artisans in Sabos across the country. You will hardly get to see a Hausa man herding cattle. They are farmers, traders and artisans. Then it does not necessarily mean only the Bororo Fulani herd or own cattle, because there must be Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa elements among the cattle rearers too and definitely among owners who use mainly the nomadic Bororo Fulani to herd their cattle. I can remember during my NYSC when a woman in the village I served near Nsukka told me that the Bororo are now mixed with Abakaliki people and that the Abakaliki people are the ones causing problems with farmers. That was during a scuffle between the village farmers and the cattle rearers who moved thousands of heads of cattle in to the area destroying farms in the process. So the cattle owners, consisting of people from all backgrounds but mainly Fulani, are also responsible for the killings by the Bororo across the country and when Hausa traders clash with others, it has nothing at all to do with, neither can it be associated with the activities of the cattle rearers that is a menace to farmers across the country and the Bororo can not be said to be Muslims in the real sense of the word. So their constant struggle with farmers is not a Jihad but more of an economic struggle because we live in a foolish nation.

Once again, the solution to all the melee, foolishness, wanton killings and etc is to break the country into workable and viable units where interests can be easily alligned. Our own new country as Yoruba will take all our lands from Southern Niger state to the coast of the Atlantic ocean. Ilorin that ignorant people always bring up is totally surrounded by Yoruba towns with Obas. Then a Yoruba man bearing Gambari like the Ilorin emir is probably or definitely of Hausa descent and not Fulani just like a Yoruba man bearing Aguda surely had ancestors who were Catholics. There are Ilorin Yoruba people with Fulani ancestry but they are not from the Emir's family I believe. I draw this observation from the Emir's name, the Yoruba are careful with names. If a Yoruba man's name is Gambari, then his origin is Hausa and not Fulani but of course if his DNA is tested anywhere in the world, it will be identifiable as majorly Yoruba. Thesame applies to Kano people of Yoruba origin.

So all unnecessary distractions that may be employed to keep our people trapped in the Nigeria contraption should be extinguished. The unworkable entity of Nigeria should be disbanded immediately for more viable entities with easily alligned interests to emerge. May God assist us.

divineappo:
@OP; i like ur post about Norway but you ended it with tribal bigotry

So wanting Nigeria to break up is tribal bigotry?

Norway is a small nation of around 5 million people. Norway produces oil equivalents that is more than Nigeria's in value per annum. If a country can be said to be a monoproduct economy the way that word is used in Nigeria, then that country is Norway, since over 50 percent of exports is oil which forms around 20 percent or so of GDP. The only difference is that small Norway which is less than the population of Osun state in Nigeria has a budget that consists of 20 percent oil money only despite that they make more oil money than 180 million Nigeria. The oil resources are state owned like in Nigeria and the economy is a mixed economy comparable to the defunct Western Nigerian government with its Produce marketing board, free education and free health care for the masses. The Produce board is comparable to Staat oil, the Norwegian oil company while their socialist intervention policies are thesame. The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund close to a trillion dollars today is a replica of the now comatose Oodua conglomerate. The Norwegian fund is said to control 1 percent of public shares globally and 1.3 percent in Europe.

Norway has no currency crisis like Nigeria, Venezuela, Russia and etc are experiencing despite that they have a very small population with a large oil income. However they reduced this income/government revenue to 20 percent of government budget by having one of the highest tax regime in the world where income tax approaches 50 percent of income. They thereby declare budget surplus every year, putting the excess in their sovereign fund. If they had been like Russia (oil income is 50 percent of government revenue) or like Nigeria (oil income is 80 percent of government revenue), then they would have needed to devalue their Krone has oil price dipped, so as to fund their Krone expenditures but they have no need for that because they have planned and do not want to depend on something they did not put there.

Norway is a good country. A country that is carrying on the work of creation as the Creator intended. God bless the country. Our people in Nigeria should take a cue from Norway. Yoruba people must secede from Nigeria. All our cities from Jebba in Niger state to Lagos must come under one umbrella, so that we can chart a new course for the advancement of our people while collaborating with others. May God help us.

It is not often that you find a group of nation states protecting a sister nation state, because to them, that state is the source of human civilization. That nation state being protected is the Ife Ooni and the protectors were the other Yoruba states of Oyo, Ijesa, Owu, Benin, Ijebu and etc before British colonisation. The Owu capital was destroyed by the other Yoruba states for breaking the decorum. Aare Ona Kakanfo Afonja compelled Alaafin Aole to commit suicide for sending the Aare to sack an Ife village. That was the situation in Yoruba land before British colonisation and it is the tradition that the people from Benin (Igodomigodo) are attempting to rubbish. It is unlikely that a replica of such an arrangement exists anywhere in the world apart from among the Yoruba and some other West African people who see Ife as the source of human civilization. Ife to the Yoruba represents the first land that protruded above the oceans and one Ife is established by or settled from another Ife from the beginning of time. So the people in Ife have an anthem enjoining them to remember they are the head of the world and origin of human civilization. This of course is purely symbolic but yet instructive because no doubt, the tradition was kicked off from the very beginning when ancient astronauts from outer space landed on Earth and founded the first Ife. Ife is almost the least politically relevant or strong among the Yoruba states, so the headship is merely symbolic even among the Yoruba. It is just to keep tradition.

All the above does not mean the other languages in the world derived from Yoruba as proposed by the new Ooni because even Yoruba is a mere derivative of Orofe an ancient language of an ancient Ife still known by some Awo, even that Orofe must be derived from earlier Orofes and etc. Today, we are not speaking a language that our ancestors of ten thousand years ago will be able to understand. This is why the world languages are not derived from Yoruba or Orofe. Maybe the earliest Orofe though but when the first Ife was established, there may have been less advanced hunter gatherers on Earth. However, the language of Kemitic Egypt was an ancestor of modern Yoruba language. Anyone can see this from the Ptahhotep saying 'Bu nfr zu bw bin' meaning where we loved became an evil place. The modern Yoruba equivalent is 'Ibi a fe du ibi bi' and it can be easily seen that it is thesame language despite that the person who rendered it in that form is not a Yoruba speaker.

So one might say people like the Biblical Moses, ancient Jews who lived in Egypt, Egyptians and etc will be understood to a reasonable extent by modern Yoruba speakers but we the Yoruba are not Egyptians just like the English are Celts and not a Germanic people despite speaking English, a Germanic language. Celts on the British isles are typically made up of 70 percent Celtic genes and 30 percent Germanic genes yet they speak a Germanic language. It is something like that that happened to the Yoruba after a huge number of Egyptians relocated to the Ife area thousands of years ago. We took up their language and abandoned our old Akokoid languages but we are still thesame people, though now mixed with our long lost brothers, the Kemitic Egyptians. This is obviously why the Yoruba have been observed to have non zero Neanderthal genetic content. The Kemitic Egyptians brought the Neanderthal genes which they earlier got from European origin people with part Neanderthal ancestors. So some Neanderthals who roamed Asia and Europe are my ancestors as a Yoruba person.

However tonal languages are more in their ancient form than non tonal languages. Yoruba has five tones of which three are in common use. The other two are in words like Alagba (chief priest) and Olopa (police) not in much use. There is an Asian language with 8 tones. So you will be able to speak the language, not only with a talking drum as do the Yoruba with Yoruba but probably with a piano as well!

All languages were obviously tonal in the past and still are to some extent since accents are also tones but if a language is constantly disturbed, it can lose tonality gradually. Ancient Greek was written with diacritical marks like modern Yoruba and spoken with tonality just like modern Yoruba but modern Greek is a non tonal language like English and is no longer written with diacritical marks. I believe if a language that lost tonality is allowed to rest it will redevelop tonality again.

The position of the Ooni might be because modern Yoruba is a descendant of Kemitic Egyptian and Kemitic Egyptian is acknowledged as the fore runner in building human civilizations but that is only in recorded history of 5 thousand years ago. The Egyptians themselves spoke of ancient civilizations that far superseded theirs like the Atlantis, they spoke of many floods destroying series of Earth civilizations mocking those who maintain a story of one flood destroying the Earth. Then they buried their dead facing West Africa, signifying home and at the end most of them relocated South to join the Ife people after the demise of their civilization. The Ife story was not started by them, nor the Olodumare concept or the Ifa divination system. All those are indigenous to the Ife people. Apart from being ravaged by pestilence, I believe the Ife people were relatively undisturbed from the beginning of time. So also many other groups across the globe. Our old language was Akokoid according to an Awo I heard on radio who said Arigidi was the word used by our ancestors to refer to a house before the word ile came into widespread use. That word occurs today in place names in the Akoko area.

So all languages are modern languages and they are not really descended from each other but the languages of Asia and Africa are more in their original state than European languages since many of them are still tonal. The origin of language remains one of the most difficult questions to answer just like the origin of human existence and saying one modern language is descended from another modern language does not suffice.

Cant you see that this appraisal of the former President is to present him in the right light? as against the campaign of calumny going on against him.

Trade and cooperation between two countries, two people, two entities is reducible to or can be likened to division of labour. Like in, a full time carpenter still needs food, so he has to go to a market supplied by a full time farmer who goes to a market supplied by a full time carpenter for his furniture needs. Using such an example, it is clear that free trade enhances prosperity and that everyone gains when a market deal is concluded. No losers.

Easing trade and migration will help everybody, provided that all nations stick to thesame basic economic system. We are all humans. If there is something the EU is not doing right, it is better to suggest a way to do it better, then cooperate with them. Unrestricted Trade and cooperation enhances prosperity. That was Adam Smith's gospel and he was a Briton.
Personally I would say Britain should insist on an EU parliament where representation is based on GDP size. Turkey should be admitted. If you don't like Islam, then you shouldn't like Christianity as well. Abandon your own Christianity and advise the Turks to abandon Islam for a sounder concept of God as a gentleman. Britain rode to prominence on trade with Europe. It was British clothiers looking for ways to supply Europe woollen cloth at a competitive price that was a major factor that led to the industrial revolution. If not for the European cloth market that spurred the industrial revolution, the British empire might have ended up like the Spanish empire before it.
The EU is a trading bloc and not a country.
Europe has no official language or national identity and what is happening in Europe is what the whole world should copy.

What has Britain got to gain? Access to markets, then a shared defense budget instead of the huge British defense budget leading to more funds freed for human development in Britain. The benefits of cooperation are limitless and unquantifiable.

What has Britain got to lose? Some say control over immigration policy but the EU is not poor and if Germany is not complaining, why should Britain? Also, the British themselves have the highest number of nationals per capita of all European countries, who are expatriates all over the world.

Presidents Obasanjo and Babangida are the most villified politicians in the country. They are also the most interested in the affairs of the country of all the past heads of government, especially President Obasanjo.

President Obasanjo said he joined the army because it offered him a refuge from poverty as he was not born with a silver spoon. Apart from someone like Colonel Victor Banjo and maybe a few others, it is rare to see the children of the elite among the Yoruba in the armed forces. The British established the Nigerian army though not under that name. It was natural for them to use mainly Middle belt Christians as rifle men and not the Yoruba obviously because their main contender that could have overrun their Lagos outpost would have been Ibadan, a Yoruba state so it may not have made sense to staff the ranks of their armed forces with Yoruba men. However, Ibadan ended up as an ally of the British when they supported the British with up to 50 thousand men during the expedition to occupy the Ijebu country after the Ijebu expelled European traders and refused them passage through the Ijebu lands. After this expedition, the Ibadan had its hand full with the Kiriji war for 16 years and it was the British again that arrived Igbajo to broker peace and put all the Yoruba under mutually agreed British protection leading to colonisation. Meanwhile, the foundation of the Nigerian army had been laid and it was with rifle men drawn principally from the Christian middlebelt areas of Benue and Plateau. Later, the Yoruba were in the opposition in Nigeria and did not really see the army as their institution. None of the Yoruba leaders arrested for treasonable felony during the first republic was a soldier and none of them put their children in the NDA. For example, my uncle retired as a Doctor in the Nigerian Army and would have been a General in the Medical Corps but my Grandad insisted he must not join the army, asked him to leave the military hospital after his NYSC and take a job at a teaching hospital in Ilesa but the military authourities refused to release him, so he retired there. It is likely that one of the first scions of the Yoruba elite to voluntarily and willingly join the Nigerian army is the General Eniitan Ransome Kuti who has now been jailed for cowardice and dismissed from the army. That is just by the way.

So General Obasanjo joined the army under such an atmosphere, trained as a technician, trained as an officer just like others, got commissioned and started to rise, fought the civil war, was appointed Chief of General Staff after a coup while his more popular and senior colleague during the civil war, Brigadier Adekunle was retired. He later became Head of State when an attempt by some Middle belters to return one of their own to power after General Gowon was removed by Northern Muslims was foiled. General Obasanjo was the consensus candidate while General Yaradua became the Chief of General Staff. He quietly did his job, kickstarted a return to democracy, publicly voted for the NPN and handed over to Alhaji Shagari, a Northern Muslim and gentleman. General Obasanjo was accused of stealing 2.8 billion dollars by the UPN but his lifestyle after leaving office exonerates him. He became a struggling farmer. His first wife wrote a book where she said she needed money and President Obasanjo was not forthcoming, so Basorun Abiola wanted to advance a loan but was reported to the Alake by President Obasanjo for interfering in his marital affairs without his consent, so Basorun Abiola withdrew. Later the woman got money, then started a poultry using land and other resources of the then retired General Obasanjo, who then emerged after the business has blossomed to start posturing as the owner being the husband and landlord but Mrs Obasanjo would have none of that probably because Gen Obasanjo then had left her for Mrs Stella Obasanjo, she then attempted to relocate her birds to a neutral place but it ended in a scuffle with her husband and she ended up being detained by the police and she said Mrs Stella Obasanjo seized the opportunity to telephone her young children to inform them that their mother has been arrested for stealing chickens.

All these information are in the public domain and General Obasanjo was just like Prof Oluwasanmi who retired as OAU Vc to become a poultry farmer around thesame time. I believe his Araromi farms was bigger than General Obasanjo's farm but later after being jailed for coup plotting by General Abacha, General Obasanjo emerged as a consensus civilian President and after two terms he retired for the second time. He is now one of the biggest farmer and employer of labour in the Agric sector, doing more than his fair share of providing food security for the nation. He is a bit like President Clinton who became very wealthy after office. Of course he may have helped himself but I believe he will support a compulsory public asset declaration for all Nigerians.

Niflheim:
@Lawani

I once went for an Atheists/Humanists meet up at UNILAG in August last year!!! I will never forget the words of Professor Douglas Anele....................................."Olodumare is far more superior to Jehovah, for Olodumare never wrote a book instructing his followers to kill other people and take over their lands!!!"

Olodumare is not Jehovah. They are two different entities. All nations had national deities in the past and all nations went to war and occupied lands. If you are worshipping the national deity of the Jews, you can not blame the Jews for that because it is your fault and they never asked you to worship their deity or are you saying they should have remained in Egypt? Remained in Babylon? Or remained in Europe?

If you make your country a secular nation. What you have done is you have opened yourself up to infiltration by the competing ideologies of Christianity and Islam who are fighting to the death for global dominance. Each and everyone of the hundreds of their sects want total control over all humans, which means you must bow down to the sadistic beast they worship for you to be a good person to them and they want you as a nation to remain secular long enough for them to run you over. This is why the only way out for any nation is to go back to the old Gentleman God known by our ancestors. That God is the only refuge from the demonic onslaught of bad religion.

People like PMB saying Nigeria is a monoproduct economy in public all over the world are grossly uneducated and misinformed. It is really sad that such people are in positions of authourity. Really sad. Such ignorant people should lead private lives and should not have exposed themselves to ridicule by seeking public office. A 15 billion dollar annual oil income means zero to 180 million people anyhow you look at it. If the whole globe were using one currency and are under similar tax regime and organisation, then the only estimation of GDP will be by Purchasing Power Parity and Nigeria's may be around 2 trillion dollars per annum but by the trick of forex it might be said to even be less than 500 billion dollars nominally pa today as Naira has fallen. So as a President of a government leeching on oil from the poorest and most enviromentally degraded communities in the country, communities that have been ruined by oil exploration activities of government, while non indigenes like PMB who see themselves as civil war conquerors are oil money dollar billionaires, leaving the main economy unattended to and to crumble while facing oil to raise government revenue, it is better to always remember to emphasise that your budget is a monoproduct budget, never refer to the economy as a monoproduct economy, the economy is not a mono product economy, it is over 90 percent non oil, has the highest number of billionaires in Africa, and a very high proportion of silent millionaires in the informal sector which dominates the economy. A man like PMB who has ambition but lacks vision, empathy, morals, gumption and etc spells calamity if put in any position of responsibility. His kind of ambition to be President is vain. Total vanity. He never expected to win. He was just contesting for the need of something to spend his hoarded loot on.

tubouncen:
Grow up, accept defeat just like ur hero did

Not everybody against APC was a supporter of President Jonathan. Some people just want to see an end to the foolishness going on in the country.

People like Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti and Senator Ben Murray Bruce of Bayelsa are doing their best to oppose the hypocrisy of the APC government and to suggest ways out of the pit Nigeria has found herself, but the APC people, those who want to fight corruption while allowing secret declaration of assets are doing their best to shout them down for the country to keep going backwards as has been happening for decades now. These two people, Senator Bruce and Governor Fayose are people who do not have assets they may be ashamed to publicly declare. They made their money before joining politics and if they continue in Nigerian politics, they might emerge poor after a long time. This is unlike the APC people, many of which are billionaires on government money and can not be able to explain away their sudden wealth. They keep deceiving the people and shouting down people who want real change.

No one ever arrives at the right or best position at first try, it is always after series of considerations and articulation of positions that the best way forward can be fashioned out but Senator Ben Murray Bruce and Governor Fayose are at least honest and not like the APC people and their followers who are mainly hypocrites.

They charge Senator Ben Murray Bruce with publishing his new book abroad while campaigning to people to buy made in Nigeria products, whereas the man may have his reasons for publishing his book abroad. The book is downloadable for free on his website and he is not seeking profit from it. The Senator is trying his best. What has the APC people done to compare with him?. Their campaign was to stop corruption in the country but they are now in a dilemma as they can not declare their assets publicly and explain into details how they came about such assets but Senator Ben Murray Bruce and Governor Fayose can do that. So the Senator and the Governor are on a higher moral pedestal and are better leadership materials than any of their people that they are following.

People suggesting passionately viable solutions should not be attacked the way the APC people are doing to Governor Fayose and Senator Ben Murray Bruce. Rather you articulate a better way forward if you know any or if you are really for the advancement of humanity and not a saboteur in disguise.

I will say while buying local is good, the right approach is to make a nation conducive for production, attractive to foreign investors and etc, so that local production can be competitive and there will be no need to go out of your way to buy local. No business man will buy local, if it is 200 percent of the cost of the imported counterpart or if it is of lesser quality that can not perform the task you need it for. International trade will continue and no country can produce everything it needs. If we encounter aliens today, trade will start immediately and such a trade will improve the quality of life in both human civilizations that just made contact. All nations should gear up and make their space conducive for production and open to trade. I would not use a Nigerian publisher if a US publisher will serve my purpose better. For instance, all Nigerian musicians who made it big on the international stage were promoted and marketted by non Nigerian companies. So much for buying local. However, Senator Ben Murray Bruce and Governor Fayose are honest and on the right track while the APC people are deceivers.

I have for long considered the implication of the Yoruba saying 'Aguda o je labe Geesi, ise owo mi ni mo nje' meaning 'The Aguda do not feed under the Geesi, I eat out of my own labour'


Geesi is the Yoruba word for the British and I have no idea how that word was arrived at to describe the British. The Portuguese are called Potogi, the French are called Faranse, all of which rhymes with their name.

Aguda is however a name borne by many Yoruba people, added to that, the Catholic church is referred to by the Yoruba as Ijo Aguda meaning 'The church of the Aguda'. There are now many claims as to the meaning of Aguda with some people saying the word refers to Brazillian returnees in Lagos who were Catholics but the saying I quoted above is not a Lagos saying and there is no reason for anyone to see Brazillian returnees as at par, equal to or competitors to the Geesi ie the British. It does not add up.

The meaning of a word can change over time if the elders who coined the word are no longer around to set people right. So in that light, I posit that Aguda was the Yoruba word for Germany or Deuschland as they call themselves. This is deductable from the fact that the Oyo empire was in control of the Togolaise and Beninoise coastline of the Atlantic ocean in the past before their decline. So they were trading with the Germans as well and Togo later became a German colony or outpost. The Germans were also trading in Nigeria before the Berlin conference. The British or Geesi arrived before the Germans and were known to the Yoruba before them but when the Germans or Aguda arrived, they would have shown themselves to be a different breed by being insurbodinate to the authourities of the British trading companies, deferring only to their own chain of command. I believe this is the origin of the saying 'Aguda o je labe Geesi'. As a reinforcement to this thesis, the early Catholic church missionaries to Yoruba land would have been more of Germans leading to the Catholic church being labelled 'Ijo Aguda' or 'Church of the Germans' as other missionaries from Protestant denominations like Anglican and Methodists were British or Geesi.

Though I was not there, I nevertheless believe this analysis until a better one is put forward.

rhymaster:
If anyone wants to leave the West and go back to the East, it would be highly welcome! The fact is they do not want to leave, will anyone leave Lagos and head to Sambisa forest? Head back to Yobe? Never! It is the same thing like leaving the West and heading back to Abia or Anambra or Ebonyi state! Leaving will create opportunity to improve the West and replace the editing population with highly trained foreigners who come so work, holiday and for tourism which is far better than millions of migrants descending on the lands only looking for what to eat!

The Yoruba are also in other places like Kaduna, PH, Kano. A Maiduguri man even told me there are more Yoruba in Maiduguri than Igbos and Kaduna is as cosmopolitan as Lagos. Our people too are in other places all over the world as citizens and people here is what makes here good, yet non Yoruba may not be more than 30 percent of SW population. In a place like Onitsha, non indigenes will be the majority and someone said Yoruba outnumber the indigenes there. So it cuts across and if people are coming to your place, it is a bonus, an opportunity to join hands together and do great things.

If you buy local and even do more than that, the value of the naira will still fall against the dollar if your government is depending on a dwindling dollar revenue instead of Naira from the economy. All nations who depend on oil dollars have devalued their currency to raise more money and that is what is happening in Nigeria. To stop that trend, then your government's revenue must be from taxes in the local currency.

So, buying local will not save the Naira, neither will it save the Russian, Venezuela or Saudi Arabian currency. Anything other than your government depending on tax revenue from your economy in your own currency will amount to a futile effort because the government will not stand for it. They are for the dollar.