₦airaland Forum

Conventionally,it takes two to tango but in attempt to rewrite an axiom,the geezer met his waterloo.

NDI-IGBO Kwenu! Are we that desperate that we must force ourselves on others? Dr. Pat Obiefule asks!



I greet you all. Ndewo nu! I have tried very hard to resist the urge to jump into this Igbo-Yoruba-Hausa-Nigeria discourse; but the more I read the posts on all sides of the argument, the stronger and more irresistible the urge became. So here we are.



As a brief recess from all these high and low impact intellectual aerobics, may I please ask that you patiently walk through and analyze the following basic anecdotal scenario with me regarding the Igbo-Nigeria quagmire? Here we go:Nigeria is a polygamous man; hence the many wives - Alhaja Yoruba Nigeria, Hajia Hausa Nigeria, Lolo Igbo Nigeria, Mrs. Efik Nigeria, Mrs. Edo Nigeria, Mrs. Ijaw Nigeria, etcetera.



Picture Nigeria’s majestic mansion (main house) strategically located in the front center of his compound and surrounded by the individual bungalows belonging to each of the wives and her children.



While each of the other wives and her children are busy developing/beautifying and maintaining their bungalow and its surrounding, Lolo Igbo’s children decide to leave her own bungalow and instead reside with her co-wives and help develop their bungalows.



Lolo Igbo’s children are fairly patriotic, but regrettably not “matriotic” (made that up, hahaha!) because they help their half-brothers and half-sisters develop and maintain their mothers’ bungalows while neglecting their own home which is Lolo Igbo’s bungalow. Now, Lolo Igbo’s bungalow is rapidly becoming dilapidated. Meanwhile, Lolo Igbo’s co-wives and their children feel that Lolo Igbo’s children have overstayed their welcome and want them to go home to their mother and help her rebuild her crumbling bungalow.



Understandably, Lolo Igbo’s co-wives and their children insist that Lolo Igbo’s children are welcome to visit their respective bungalows to enjoy for a while, but not to move in and try to displace them from their own homes.



But alas! Lolo Igbo’s children would not have it. They feel instead that it is their father’s compound and they are ENTITLED to leave their mother’s bungalow and reside in any of the other ones, if they so desire. (IDEALLY RIGHT, WHERE THERE IS LOTS OF LOVE; BUT NOT ALWAYS PRACTICABLE ESPECIALLY IF THERE IS NO LOVE LOST)Of course the half-brothers and half-sisters are enraged by Lolo Igbo’s children’s stubborn defiance; so, in attempting to forcibly eject them from Lolo Igbo’s co-wives’ domains, lots of the Igbo children lose their lives.



Now, Lolo Igbo and her surviving children cry, “Bloody murder!”



As a bona fide Eziada Igbo, I then ask:



1. Under the circumstances, do we really have the right to blame anyone else but ourselves?

2. Do we not say in Igbo that: ukpara okpoko gburu, nti chiri ya”?

3. Are we so resolute in our own self-ascribed level of knowledge and wisdom that we’ve gone to the stream to fetch water with a basket (amakam ihe, jiri ekete kuru mmiri)?

4. Do we not understand the simple basic fact that we cannot force ourselves on someone who does not want us even if we happen to be siblings or half siblings? After all, we don’t get to choose our relatives (half-siblings included), only our friends.

5. Have we stopped to wonder why our half-brothers and half-sisters are not breaking down our mother’s door trying to come and reside with us their?

6. And what about our polygamous father, Nigeria? What is his stand in all of this?

7. Could it be that he has turned deaf ears and looked the other way because our mother, Lolo Igbo Nigeria, is his least favorite wife?

8. Could it also be that allowing us to renounce his paternity claim on us and secede from his polygamous dominion would hurt his ego and embarrass him, but more importantly deny him access to the economic resources in our mother’s backyard?

9. Assuming these reasons were totally or partially true, shouldn’t that be strong enough motivation for us to retreat to our mother’s domain, rebuild it, and then make our case when we come to the general family meeting table at the main house (father’s mansion)?

10. Have we not determined that we can actually retreat to our mother’s domain, rebuild and develop it while still sharing our last name (Nigeria) and a peaceful co-existence with our half-siblings within our father’s polygamous kingdom?

11. Isn’t that how it really works in most polygamous families?In more general terms (non-scenario specific), may I then ask:



1. Will it be deemed over-reaction on my part if I characterize as callous, those who cite “One Nigeria” as the impetus for espousing the establishment of micro Igbo dominions within other linguistic regions of Nigeria even in the face of foreknown unflinching hostility?

2. Are these individuals capable of empathizing with the individuals and families whose hearts and lives have been shattered and forever changed by the consequences of the pogroms that have punctuated our history?

3. Does it not make more practical sense that a sustainable egalitarian “One Nigeria” would be better negotiated and achieved with mutual respect by designees of each linguistic group who come to the Federal table from a strong, confident and respectable home base rather than a resentful, envious, and even spiteful victim-minded one?

4. If I come to your home and you decide that I have overstayed my welcome and ask me to leave, or else lose my life; is it not foolhardy, to say the least, for me to not only insist on staying, but also demand the right to share your home?

5. Will it not be wiser for me to heed your request or threat and exist gracefully, and once secured in my own home (developed or not), then express to you my disappointment for being excused from your home?

6. For those who propose claiming dominion in another man’s land, and then establishing and nurturing strategic alliances for safety and security; do you honestly believe that when the chips are down, there are enough Hausas and Yorubas that would lay down their lives to save that of an Igbo friend?

7. Given the proven intellectual prowess and enterprising acumen of Igbos, can any of you even begin to imagine the paradise that Igbo land would become if Igbos were to invest in their land, half the energy and resources we spend in developing other lands?

8. Even though Igbos don’t have the enormous land mass that exist in the north, for instance; could we not build on top of buildings, so that Igbo land becomes known in the world as, among other things, the land of sky-scrappers?

9. Would that be such an impossible dream to accomplish?

10. Have we not yet realized that we are the direct architects of all the ills (kidnappings, child trafficking, corruption, armed robbery, etc) that plague Igbo land? Why? Because all those ills are the unintended consequences of our insatiable lust for non-Igbo lands and our willful neglect of Igbo land?

11. Will I be branded a pessimist if I dare predict that until we choose to shift our focus from constantly retelling the tales of woes in Igbo land (problem mindset) to churning out possible solutions (solution/result orientation) to those ills; we will continue to spin the wheels of status quo, while delusively expecting a new outcome?My brothers and sisters of Igbo extraction, “ariri erigbuole umu Igbo”! Let us for once in our collective live take the challenge to retreat and develop from within. Let us initiate an “Operation Develop Igbo land” and insist that until full development is accomplished, all roads lead to Igbo land. We can do it! The devil is always in the detail, of course. So, think results! Think solutions! Brainstorm! No idea is too big, too small, or too irrelevant to be considered. Keep your ideas coming until we find one or some that will work! If you condemn someone else’s idea, please lay out your reasons, then present your alternative(s) along with the underpinning rationale(s).Long live Ala Igbo (Lolo Igbo Nigeria)!Long live Nigeria!!!



Udo diri unu!

Much love

Eziada

Dr. Pat Obiefule(Opuruiche Nwanyi

The general public is not convinced about the scorecard he recently touted for himself because his achievements have somehow been under-or mis-communicated to the public. Besides, a number of the achievements have been in elite sectors, such as airport remodelling, establishment of a Sovereign Wealth Fund, setting up of a dozen universities, N7bn to reburbish the Vice-President’s Lodge; and the purchase of additional presidential jets. These are projects that are not readily visible, known, or directly beneficial to about 70 per cent of the population, who live on $2 a day or less.

There have been no remarkable improvements in the sectors which directly impact the peoples’ lives — power supply; education, health care, and agriculture. No marked improvement on the nation’s major highways, especially in the South, except the belated award of the contract to fix the dilapidated Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The other major arterial road in the South, the Sagamu-Benin Expressway remains a death trap, as trailers derail or overturn when their drivers suddenly manoeuvre unexpected potholes and bumps. The unnecessary loss of lives and property on the roads is complemented by the terrorist activities of Boko Haram, which keeps striking despite a state of emergency and an offer of amnesty.

Jonathan’s handling of the economy has been ambiguous at best. Armed with figures, graphs, and chats, couched in World Bank, the IMF and Goldman Sachs jargon, his economic management team has been engaged in doublespeak. In one context, they tell us the economy is growing. In another context, they express regrets about rising unemployment, ballooning domestic debt, trillions of naira lost to leakages in the petroleum sector, and the collapse of the manufacturing industry.

To read comments on any website frequented by Nigerians is to witness the savage verbal bricks that Nigerians – many of them holders of advanced degrees – hurl at each other across ethnic lines. Name any unprintable name, and you’d find that Nigerians use it against their fellows from other ethnic groups in daily verbal warfare. I fear that, should the occasion arise in Nigeria – God forbid! – many Nigerians would be quite ready to butcher members of the ethnic “other” with a genocidal glee that surpasses the horrors the world witnessed in Rwanda.

My fellow senators are disconnected from what is happening in Nigeria and what is happening to Nigerians.The don't read books and newspapers.I told one of them to read a news item on Sahara Reporters,he retorted,SAWARA what?What is that?

The above statement was made by Babafemi Ojudu,a serving senator representing Ekiti State, at the MUSON CENTRE,Lagos,while delivering the vote of thanks today at the presentation of a book written by Professor Ropo Sekoni,titled:Federation and the Yoruba Character:Essays on Democracy of Nationalities in Nigeria.

Source:I was there live and direct!

My take:The highest paid in the world yet the most cavalier and irresponsible.

Ribery had an outstanding season by winning a Trebble for Bayern, yet some pple will vote 4 Messi or Ronaldo...Na back of TV pple dey watch?

In the public vehicle today!

A man seated beside me was seriously engrossed in the reading of the Holy Koran, his rosary firmly held with his right hand; suddenly things changed!

The man brought out his mobile phone-A Blackberry, he started chatting through his BBM. And as a jobless man that I was, I was really engrossed with spying on his private messages. Then I saw the name of the person he was chatting with Teju, and in the message i read; 'do you know that Ramadan will be over by tomorrow? Men i have really missed you o! I can't wait till Friday to devour you, just make sure that you watch enough Bleep movies so that we can enjoy with new styles!' I was completely carried away with the long-neck job that I dint know when a terrible knock landed on my head! It was the man that meted out the right punishment on me, i apologised then he said, 'thank your star am still fasting today if not i would have killed you for poke-nosing into my own private affairs.

Then the journey continued, a fat madam made a call and i heard her saying 'Clara abeg arrange the shop well o! Customers go resume on friday again, tell John make hin ice the Canned Beers wella!

Immediately the woman ended her call, my disciplinarian received a call and i heard; 'Comfort, today is the last day of the fast and i won't have your time this week please come on sunday and i promise you that i shall be fun...'

Ahh... I could not hold it any longer so i bust into laughter and unfortunately for me i farted and it smelled so horribly that it caught every ones attention. After receiving 3 heavy punches on my fragile head again by my disciplinarian, i was ejected from the vehicle by the driver!

In the middle of my journey, i have no money but i have ATM Card; this is a bush so how will i locate a bank?

Somebody help me!

Marriage,the only institution in the entire world where certificates are awarded before gaining admission.

alpha conde: If he is doing this surgery in the country then I pray for him to be operated successfully. But if he goes overseas I pray never to see him again. The choice is his

So you wan make him go Igbobi National Orthopaedic Hospital where him and victims of okada accident go share the same ward.Never in his lifetime.

I have a Master’s degree in International Business from Bolton University.

Practical lesson on how to do International Business in deed. I think he needs to learn more in the Nigerian prison.

For those friends of James Ibori who remembered to congratulate him on his birthday on sunday, you have my respect. It shows you are genuine friends. That irrespective of his current travails, you can still identify with him, shows you are real friends. I like people like these, who are no fair weather friends. Many became super rich through through him doing genuine business with his government but never remembered him today. That is why l respected Wada Nas. He was one Abacha associate who never left Abacha even when things got awry. But how many of those fawning opportunists who placed series of advert pages when Stella Obasanjo died, still remember his memoriam? I prefer friends who stand by you, even if they don't agree with your misdemeanor but who out of commitment to friendship, stand by you during travails. God, give us true friends and help us to identify them and give us the grace not to take such friends for granted.

For those friends of James Ibori who remembered to congratulate him on his birthday today, you have my respect. It shows you are genuine friends. That irrespective of his current travails, you can still identify with him, shows you are real friends. I like people like these, who are no fair weather friends. Many became super rich through through him doing genuine business with his government but never remembered him today. That is why l respected Wada Nas. He was one Abacha associate who never left Abacha even when things got awry. But how many of those fawning opportunists who placed series of advert pages when Stella Obasanjo died, still remember his memoriam? I prefer friends who stand by you, even if they don't agree with your misdemeanor but who out of commitment to friendship, stand by you during travails. God, give us true friends and help us to identify them and give us the grace not to take such friends for granted.

You can take a man out of the bush but you cant take the bush out of a man.

As far as I am concerned,Ramadan is simply an euphemism for hunger strike.

Coefficient: Are you saying we should be spineless and remain in perpetual subserviency?

Let Nigeria flex her muscles and let us see who will be the ultimate loser.My guess is as good as yours.

Igbos make all thier money only to give it out as tithes, donations, offering to clever yoruba pastors like Adeboye, Oyedepo, Kumuyi, Adefarasin, etc. These intelliegent yoruba pastors (charlatans) use the money to build big big churches, houses and universities in lagos.
I like the yoruba pastors sha, they are suave and they have style... the average Igbo pastor like Lazarus Muoka dresses like a tout, (that chosen church vest is an eyesore) and they dont know how to speak "phonee" english, they preach with their heavy igbo accent and look like wrestlers eg Bishop Mike Okonkwo. The igbo pastor/charlatan is a learner where his yoruba counterpart is! Dear Igbo pastors step up your game a little bit!
NB
A tip: Go and meet pastor chris oyakhilome to teach you some tricks in the game.

THE President and Prime Minister

This guy has the callow maturity and mind set of a 10 year old boy but the the physique of an adult.

Mugabe wins again, 89 year old war horse & only ruler of Zimbabwe since independence wins once more..

To retaliate a country’s policies, you must have a corresponding amount of power to act. If Nigeria slams a £10,000 visa bond on the UK citizens, what other cards do we have to deal with if the country responds with another policy? Can Nigeria match them discrimination for discrimination, and xenophobia for xenophobia? Do they display as much desperation to come here as we do to their country? How many UK nationals want to visit Nigeria compared to the 180,000 Nigerians that apply to their country? Do they hold “Anointing for Visa” services in their churches like we do here? Do their citizens go to church to “praise God” and testify that they had been offered a visa to abandon their own country? We have been too true to Nietzsche’s observation: no one is such a bold liar as an indignant man.

Karl-Maria Kertbeny or Károly Mária Kertbeny (born Karl-Maria Benkert) (Vienna, February 28, 1824 – Budapest, January 23, 1882) was an Austrian-born Hungarian journalist, memoirist, and human rights campaigner. He is best known for coining the words heterosexual and homosexual in 1869.

It’s conventional wisdom in Nigeria that titles, however hollow, matter. In many quarters, the quality of a person’s mind is of no consequence. What matters is self-advertisement, buttressed shamelessly in the adornment of antiquated, silly honorifics. So we went from addressing people as Chief (which has no meaning, really) to calling them High Chief, Double Chief, or Double High Chief – terms that inspire embarrassment on behalf of those who flaunt them.

Which year did Nigeria first take part in the African Cup of Nations and who scored Nigeria's first goal in AFCON?

Mergic: Whu scored the first golden goal in football?

Oliver Bierhof of Germany in the final match against Czech Republic of Euro 1996 hosted by England.The match ended 2 goals to 1 i favour of Germany.

For any Nigerian desperate to migrate to the UK -and will do so illegally- the £3000 bond is a only a small hurdle.

Nigerians will make all the noise on social media but will eventually pay.

Besides, those who can afford the sum easily are not the ones who will become illegal immigrants.

Those who cannot afford it are the ones who will lose it.

Yes, Nigeria is that badly screwed.

Is this Aswad Ayinde a Nigerian? .... too many speculations, one thing I know is that when he won MTV or whatever award he won, I don't know that Nigerians celebrated him as one of their own.... Now dat e don do wetin person no suppose do, I dey see headlines claiming him.... Okay oooo.. Make CNN go look for im family house for Lagos o to go interview im grandmother abi

Just in:

The On going warning Strike by 774 Local Governments is hereby called off. Work resume tomorrow

The functions of Local Governments, as spelt out in the Nigeria Constitution, are as follows:

• Collection of tax and rates
• Issuance of licenses for vehicle, hawkers, television, bicycles and naming of streets.
• Provision and maintenance of local markets
• Registration of death, birth and marriages that occur with area of jurisdiction
• Provision of libraries and schools
• Provision and maintenance of healthcare facilities
• Provision of customary courts that handle issues that pertain minor disputes, divorce, minor traffic offences, disagreement over any piece of land

My take: It is in Nigeria here you ll see State Govs, after rendering local govt useless, taking glory of local Govt's works. Building of local market and roads, provision of healthcare facilities and construction of local roads are works of LG not State Govt but here you state Govs running jingles on Radio and Tvs claiming all of local govt works as its achievements. Granting total autonomy to local govt, they won't support but found pleasure in spending their money!

Hear what Lai. Mohammed of ACN said about scrapping of SIECs by house of Rep

"Why will they scrap SIECs? What is the guarantee that if local government elections are conducted by INEC it will not be worse than the ones that have been organised by the state governments?...It is very dangerous to allow INEC which is controlled by the Federal Government to conduct local government elections..."

anonimi: Does ACN/APC's clamour for true fiscal federalism extend to the LGAs autonomy?
If yes, how have the ACN lawmakers ensured their quest for fiscal federalism is reflected and incorporated in the ongoing constitution amendment

Senator Sola Adeyeye and Oluremi Tinubu of the ACN voted against the constitution amendment bill on 'Local Government Autonomy'.