₦airaland Forum

meekhat:
It is either this tribalists/racists are poor and frustrated or timid locals who never got exposure outside the enclave. I can't never believe that an educated/civilised person can be deeply immensed in tribal hate as this op.
Please note that attending any Nigerian University does not necessarily mean one is educated.

KingOKON:
.

I told him to check Uganda n Kenya or Ethiopia n Djibouti?
He de shout Yoruba Yoruba, common sense hard walahi

Davash222:
A tout in Onitsha is wiser than a PhD holder in your village.

Odingo1:
I dey o, na quarantine make Person lie low.

Oluomo is more refined person now and good to go

Odingo1:
Before you don’t know that if river Niger runs through kebbi state and if kebbi state is a country, kebbi have right to sail it ships through river Niger to reach the ocean as a member country of river Niger international waterways.

You should learn to educate yourselves and not sounding uneducated in a public forum. gosh!

Tissaia:
It’s A Lie: Igboland Is Not Landlocked By Aloy Ejimakor
Ndigbo are undoubtedly an indigenous people presently lying within Nigeria. So, international law will surely come into play if a conflict arises out of Nigeria’s persistent institutional resistance to granting a seaport to Igboland.

BY ALOY EJIMAKORMAY 17, 2020

It’s often said that a lie told so many times, if unchallenged, may - in course of time - begin to pass for the truth. One of such is the terrible lie, institutionally purveyed since the end of the Civil War, to the effect that Igboland is landlocked or that it has no access to the sea. The purpose of this essay, therefore, is to debunk that lie with some simple historical and topographical evidence that are even in plain view, if you care to dig or do some physical exploration of your own.


Suffice it to say that it is a profound tragedy that entire generations of the immediate post-War Igbos never bordered to check but seemingly accepted this brazen institutional falsehood, largely intended to taunt the Igbo and put them down. A few that knew it to be false just didn’t care anymore. That History was banned since the end of the Civil War made it worse, plus the fact that most people don’t take physical Geography that serious anymore, otherwise they would have known that Abia, Imo and Anambra States have varying short-distance paths to the Atlantic Ocean through Imo, Azumiri and Niger Rivers. It’s not really rocket science, as you can easily confirm this if you know how to read Google Earth; or conquer your fear of swamp snakes and walk through these areas on foot.

There are also many other hardly explored waterways and slithering tributaries, including the remote reaches of Oguta Lake and Oseakwa River in Ihiala (Imo State) that meandered through Igbo-delta wetlands to the Southeastern ends of the Atlantic waterfront. These rivers have varying lengths of short navigational paths to the Atlantic, and in some cases, are far shorter nautically (and even on footpath) than the Portharcourt, Calabar and Ibaka seaports are to their side of the Atlantic.

Many of these pathways, including particularly the ones from the outer reaches of Imo and Azumiri Rivers terminate at the Atlantic at no more than 15 to 30 Nautical miles to the beachhead. To put it in lay language, one nautical mile equals 1.8 kilometers. Thus, the contiguity of Southeast (not even the greater Igboland) to the Atlantic is less nautical miles than the Atlantic is to the seaports in Calabar, Onne, Ibaka, Lagos and Portharcourt. If you discount the territories excised from Igboland during State creations and the damnable boundary adjustments, it will be far less.

To be sure, Ikwerre land or Igweocha which bears the greater portions of the Portharcourt seaport was dredged up to 50 miles to the Atlantic front through the Bonny River. Onne seaport was dredged up to 60 Miles to the Atlantic and Calabar seaport was dredged 45 nautical miles to the Atlantic. Ibaka seaport is about 30 nautical miles to the Atlantic and the Lagos seaports dredged up to about 50 nautical miles to the Atlantic.

Compare all these to Obuaku in Abia State, which is only 25 nautical miles to the Atlantic from the confluence of Imo and Azumiri River which itself separately lies not more than 30 nautical miles to the Atlantic beachfront. The less obvious one is the little-known Oseakwa River in Ihiala (Imo State) which is mere 18 nauticals to the Atlantic, all with its 65 feet of natural depth, unarguably comparable to no other River in Nigeria.

Additionally, what is geopolitically known as Igboland today is far smaller than what it was and legally supposed to be. As far back as 1856, Baikie - one of the earliest and credible Geographers of ancient Nigeria, had this to say - “Igbo homeland, extends east and west, from the Old Kalabar river to the banks of the Kwora, Niger River, and possesses also some territory at Aboh, an Igbo clan, to the west-ward of the latter stream. On the north it borders on Igara, Igala and A'kpoto, and it is separated from the sea only by petty tribes, all of which trace their origin to this great race" (Baikie, William Balfour, published with a sanction of Her Majesty's Government in 1856).

But with that infamous post-War abandoned property policy and the egregious institutional injustices in boundary adjustments and the widespread anti-Igbo gerrymandering, Igbos physically and psychologically lost their vested ancestral lands, all to the point of not caring anymore about their historical contiguity to the Atlantic, which their ancestors beheld and called the ‘Great Sea’. The psychological beat-down got so bad that some of the descendants of these Igbo ancestors (nearest to the Atlantic and now lying outside Southeast) are no longer sure whether they are Igbo or not.

The worst injustice was In 1976 when the Justice Nasir Boundary Adjustment Commission made a serious and targeted agenda of carving out core Igboland territories into some neighboring States of the South-South. But they didn’t quite make an absolute success of it. They missed the southernmost Southeast lands that possess Rivers that meandered through slices of Igbo-friendly South-South territories and ended up at the Atlantic, thus unwittingly placing Igboland and its right of access to the sea under the canons of customary international law.

As it stands, international law of the sea guarantees Igboland (whether it remains Nigerian territory or not) unhindered access to the nearest sea (in this case: the Atlantic) peacefully by the many short-distance rivers, waterways and tributaries that originated from Igboland but ultimately washed into the Atlantic through contiguous South-South territories. For avoidance of doubt, there’s particularly the Obuaku confluence in Ukwa West (Abia State) that flows through Ikot Abasi in Akwa Ibom State before expanding out and washing into the near-reaches of the Atlantic. And the River Niger which ultimately joined the Atlantic through a vast network of hardly explored creeks and mangrove swamps that abut the Bight of Bonny in the South-South.

Nigeria is subject to the International Law of the Sea and is therefore bound to abide by its provisions, should the need arise in a scenario of persistent sovereign oppression of an identifiable indigenous group. The others are the United Nations Treaty of the Sea and the African Union Treaties and Conventions on the Sea, including particularly the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, which Nigeria ratified and domesticated in 1983. The pertinent provisions are mostly embedded in the copious provisions relating to the collective economic and commercial rights of indigenous peoples lying within the Treaty nations. Ndigbo are undoubtedly an indigenous people presently lying within Nigeria. So, international law will surely come into play if a conflict arises out of Nigeria’s persistent institutional resistance to granting a seaport to Igboland.

Aloy Ejimakor is a Legal Practitioner.

http://saharareporters.com/2020/05/17/it%E2%80%99s-lie-igboland-not-landlocked-aloy-ejimakor
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helinues:
$20,000 @ N400 exchange rate, that's N8m per month excluding other benefits.

Celebrate others so that people can also celebrate you

olasaad:
I don't get it Metaphysical which one is committee of Yoruba leaders so because of what Ganduje did to kano emirate this people think it will work for them too now but just like they said if a governor grant them the power, another will reverse it back later. Moro, Shao and Jebba are the one in severe pain over this matter.

gidgiddy:
There is an unwritten rule in Nigerian politics that power should rotate between the North and South every 8 years, for the sake of equity and fairness. No sooner had Buhari won his second term than the political calculations of 2023 started.

While most people in Southern Nigeria believe that power should move to the South after Buhari would have concluded his 8 years in 2023, the question is which of three zones in the South, SW/SE/SS, should it go to?

If equity and fairness is why the Presidency should come down to the South in 2023 then the SW has no business producing the President that year!

The South West have had their 8 years with Obasanjo, the SS have had 4 years with Jonathan while the SE has not had a shot at it yet. Since the SW have had their 8 years in this democratic dispensation, it is only fair that when the Presidency rotates to the South in 2023, it should either go the SS, to enable them complete their 8 years, or go to the SE who have not had it at all

If the SW insist on taking a shot at the Presidency in 2023, then it means that fairness and equity does not mean anything to them. Therefore, the SE/SS should work against the SW producing the President, even if it means power staying in the North.

To support SW Presidency in 2023 will amount to giving the the SW a 'third term' when the other two zones in the South are yet to equal the two terms the SW have already had.

The SE/SS should say NO to a 2023 SW Presidency! If the SW insists on cheating the rest of the South in 2023, then let the whole South be cheated!

oluwadabira111:
Kwara is Fulani and Fulani is kwara? anybody doubting it should ask why kwara is part of north central and not south west

OFFICIAL336:
But yorubas are claiming that Ilorin is Yoruba land.

Justpassingby45:
Working against the south is what southwest knows how to do it better... Example is what happened in 2015.

AhoadaRivers:
yorrobbers deceiving themselves as usual and telling themselves their usual 'make-me-happy' tales.

Even their old men and profs who should be telling them the truth are engrossed in their own self deceit, eating their own shiit and pretending it tastes like chicken peri-peri.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide has assured Ndigbo living in the 19 Northern States of their safety.

Ohanaeze gave the assurance following the burning of Fulani settlements in Obodogba in Okpanam Community in Oshimili North Local Government Area in Delta State by irate youths who were protesting the killings of the Okpanam Vigilante group Chairman and the Secretary.

OYC said it has reached out to the Northern youths, especially the President of Arewa Consultative Youth Forum, ACYF, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, and the spokesman of Coalition of Northern groups, Mallam Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, and had a fruitful deliberation and agreements on the matter.

OYC said the Northern youth leaders have promised to halt any attempt to instigate reprisal attacks against Igbos.

The Igbo youth organisation, in a statement signed by its President-General, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, said, “Igbo youths are in strong synergy with Northern youths, especially the Arewa Youths and Coalition of Northern Groups.

“We have passed the stage where anyone will sow seeds of discord amongst the Ethnic Nationality Youth Groups.

“We discovered that no person was killed during the burning of Fulani settlements, but we condemned vehemently the killings and murder of Emeka Chosen as popularly known, the Okpanam Vigilante Chairman and His Secretary and call for forensic investigations to unravel and subsequently arrest the perpetrators.

“We had Confirmed from Anioma Youth Council President Enurdi Marcus that Normalcy has been restored.

“With the collaborative efforts of Arewa Consultative Youth Forum and Coalition of Northern Groups, OYC had foiled any attempt to destroy Igbo lives and properties in the North in retaliation of Okpanam episode, irrespective of our political differences with the North, we are ready to sacrifice our differences with regards to the protection of lives and properties of all Nigerians whether in the North or South.

The Igbo youth group further called on Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State to ensure that Security agents are fortified in Okpanam and Ibusa (Ibuzor) communities.