₦airaland Forum

i want you guys to payclose attention to the attached picture. this is a project awarded and. bankrolled by. Lagos State Govt. Why is chinese on the banner? Our official language is English, not Chinese....so is the Chinese there for people of Lagos who do not understand English but can read Chinese? i mean just wonderig

kodewrita: 1) Yes ajami is definitely a hausa INNOVATION.
2) I am Yoruba as earlier mentioned.
3) You are painting a wrong image of us here. Only the misguided ones among us (the lunatic fringe) are swayed by the kinds of arguments being made here. Most yorubas are too busy with making the money to care whats on it. If you are so concerned about it, why dont you find out what it means?

ajami is not an hausa innovation. ajami use was widespread in yorubaland up till the use of latin script to communicatr in yorubaland. yorubas were using ajami before they even knew anything called islam. so its use is not exclusive to hausa.

kodewrita: ?
When the yoruba deem it fit to invent their own writing script, then it will be placed on the note. Otherwise, it makes no sense asking for it to be removed.
Nsibidi is not understood by most Igbo and as such, it makes no sense putting it there except for sentimental reasons.

The ajami hurts nobody being there. Unless you want to claim those illiterate Northerners are not equal citizens as you are. The fact is that ajami is as widely used in the north as english is in the south. in fact novels written in ajami are so popular that people buy them in markets in kano. Common everyday people. let's not allow our own limited knowledge and bigotry blind us to a living social phenomenon in our midst.

@geeez i support putting ajami script on our street signs. in fact I support having street signs with names in 3-4 languages. Totally. But will your incompetent administrations do that? NO.

is ajami an hausa invention? you are lucky in the north yoruba is not as callous and evil as you people up there.....you should have two options only: 1. remove ajami and use same currency as rest of nigeria, or 2. create your own ajami inscribed currency and then be forced to an exhorbitant rate of exchange when you transact business below the niger.

lets wind back to topic.

lets not set a precedence.demanding that yoruba and igbo must be included to occupy presence with hausa ajami. we should call for its removal as a primaru choice and in the alternative we call for regional currency on which people can put whatever graphics and language or letter suits.

i must be selfish here when we talk of the multiplicities of languages. i cant speak for other parts but i can speak for west. yorubaland has always had one language, before, during and after colonialism. the other parts where multiplicities of tongue is a problem will need to find ssolyuion that works best to harmonize interests.

regional currency helps as well to return resource rights and market controls to the people.

Deep Sight: Yes, but ofcourse, why give the Hausa in ajami the exclusive privilege? The Yoruba in latin may need or want the same privilege, no?

see second prgrph abve

deepsight,

the CBN act is what it is! what you have done is like saying see the constitution to understand why the president has exclusive right to exterminate bokoharam......no one disputes that as commander in chief he does. the contention is, why hasn't he?

on the second part, how about three different currency notes? im sure you see things unfolding here. thank God its only a brain exercise here.

geeez: So why aren't you requesting that we use the inscriptions on our road signages because that's the only language some people understand? And what makes you think there aren't Nigerians who can't read Arabic or English but can read Yoruba? What about those people?

geez, it should not be about language.

as i said in earlier post, if you write in yoruba, you commit the same violation as hausa written in ajami because the yoruba itself will be written in latin.

Deep Sight: Currency notes are left at the approval of the President under the CBN Act.

So this issue does not arise.

Now let me ask you a question: what happens if the rest of Nigeria other than the north reject the current notes.

.....if the president had such exclusive power it would have been exercised in past regimes.

the south has no such ball power to stand up for political direction. i should not even make it a north/south issue....
.it cuts three ways!

deepsight,

i think i will pick 2 in your post as the root cause why it has continued to be used.

if it was required in 1960 when north was 1/10th literate, it should be reviewed and removed now that even almajiri speak fluent pidgin.....in practical matters it is not needed, but in principle its a good political tool and a dayam effective one.

taharqa,

on the presence of arabic on national objects, it is also (i think) on the embroidery with the coat of arms sewn onto army officers hat. im not 100% sure but I think it is there. I know with certainty that it was there at one point in past but cant say if its still there or not.

i want to bring an issue up here that none who supports removing the currency ajami has yet thought of.

1. how are we going to pass it in NASS when the bill will require 2/3 majority and the north control that 2/3 power?

2. if by some miracle the bill passes to become law and the ajami is removed and then the northerners refuse to honor or accept the modified notes in their region, then what do you do to prevent a national catastrophy?

ndigbo is all too quick to find the easy way out of hardship, cutting corners and abandoning what does not conform to your schemes.

you should learn the wisdom of tenacity and stamina to see through a hindrance and to overcome a wall barrier.

one who cuts and run is not a warrior but a coward.....

On this matter, i am sure if america or britain were using ajami on their notes our people would love also to have ajami on our notes......

such is our fate that on a similar discussion on islamic banking southereners will not relent the opposition until it was revealed that america, britain and france all support it and in fact similar banks exist in britain.

to actualize self-determination and independence one must be willing and fearless to stand out from the crowd. of the three groups, hausa is best at setting its own course and destiny, standing out of the crowd and unilaterally doing what is in its best interest. there should be no surprise at all why they dominate and call the shots.

tomakint: I am talking of the way it was done on our #5, #10, #20 and #50! For instance, our #50 have the following; Naira Hamsin, Naira Iri ise and Aadota Naira why can't they do such on the higher denominations? My point!

you are guilty of writing in latin script.

why do we have latin script in our currency denominations?

yeah, but putting the inscription in the three major languages using what script?

give me example using one of the languages.

That is very doubtful. How much is the quality of leadership on parade in alaigbo today? Charity begins at home.....we dont want to wait till 2015 to find that out, that's a scam. Show us now!

c.fours, i apologize o jare, just discovered my error.

alstacs,

an arab will look at that inscription and not understand what it means. he can make out the letters but he has no clue what it says.

it will be like an english person looking at the word "bawo" and telling you i see b, a, w and o....but he cannot make sense out of it. so if yoruba can write his language in latin letters and igbo can write "ezioku" in latin letters, what stops hausa from choosing to write and read in arabic letters. whose authority compels any of us to stick with latin as the script for. communication?

since 1960 no colonial authority has forced us to communicate in latin letters, we have chosen not to exercise our freedom. for an alternative. hausa has choosen the alternative here. if igbo wants to include insibidi, they should have the right to do so. this is how you exercise freedom and self determination. we ought to learn from this example.

[quote author=Okiki_Oluwa]20 children can't play together for 20 years.
It's just another version to the meaning of your post.[/quote]no, its not another version. lets be careful about applying our sense of social liberalism to culture and customs. the op version using 10 is inaccurate because it is unauthentic. 20 is not just a nominal number in yoruba language, it also has a cosmic definition and characteristics that are lackingin 10.

english people use base 10, yorubas don't. lets not get it mixed up please.

kunletiwoo: [size=14pt]Ogun omode o le sere fun ogun odun[/size]

NOTE: It's void of punctuations as requested because, I'm using a Computer System's Keyboard and not a Nokia Phone Keypad

^^^ this is the correct parable.

@op, please modify your request to fit the original above. there`s no parable in yoruba language called "ten friends cant be friends for ten years". accept the interpretation given by kunle and find diacritics for it.

richest nigerian man - Dehinde Fernandez
richest nigrrian woman - Folorunsho Alakija

richest nigerian - Dehinde Fernandez.

why does this issue come up once every 3 months, are you guys sponsored to recycle this hot topic?

you cant question the arabis letters on currency and excuse arabic numerals for counting the denominations.... 1,2,3,4,5...... these are of arabic origin as well.

nerdivist: the Yorubas will say o jo gate ko jo gate, o fi ese mejeji tiro. Was in not the same rochas that was involved in the rumble with one other state governor over seat I'm not sure but the issue of the police man that was beaten up for not opening the gate on time, was it rochas or another governor

The dude is on some controlled substance, he is on the edge. Read about him here....very revealing.


http://news2.onlinenigeria.com/latest-addition/205725-imo-state-governor-rochas-okorocha-punches-governor-obi%E2%80%99s-aide-over-a-chair.html

http://naijagists.com/governor-rochas-okorochas-aide-beats-policeman-to-coma/


Imo state is one of the oil producing states that get 13% derivation on top of allocation from Federation Account . The state is only 5,430 sq km in size, smaller than Ekiti state and only a little bigger than Lagos. Its population from last census was 3,934,898. This time last year it received a total. #3,181,942,814 from federal allocation (state share + 13%). That was just from one month revenue sharing! On average, it receives about the same amount on a monthly basis, so you can conveniently multiply that by 12. It's debt is #18,367,203. So what's Rochas doing for a small, managable size state, with small managable population and small debt but monumental income? For the same period, Lagos has 3 times more population, no 13% oil derivation and 7 times more debt but is yet well governed.

Read this blog from his own people.

http://www.imostateblog.com/2012/12/13/opinion-owelle-rochas-okorocha-cannot-govern-cannot-lead-and-cannot-think-prof-igwe/


Rochas is who all Igbo people proclaim as their new "Owelle", the Zik of modern age. He is not dissapointing in that area at all. True to type and character, and like the past Owelle, the new one has also found his groom in the North..... Ndigbos say Rochas is their best political candidate for national contest to Presidency and will go against Fashola. Well, Rochas think someone else is best fitted for the job of stabilizing andunifying the country.

read this.....

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/aliyu-can-stabilise-nigeria-says-okorocha/134881/

Debe

*’I am Biafran leader’s son’

It was an interview that had to be conducted. After the declaration that  the late Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Ezigbo Gburugburu’s Will had been announced and a lion share had gone to Bianca Odinaka Olivia Ojukwu, the deceased’s wife, Sunday Vanguard set out to get all sides of the story, especially after the statements by Emeka Ojukwu, one of the children. Last week, we published the CODCIL verbatim.Today, we bring you an extensive interview with Chief Debe Ojukwu, the disinherited first child of the late Biafran warlord.  He spoke about the Ojukwu Nigerians and Igbos never knew, just as he spoke about Bianca, his father’s wife, and her role as a small mother in the house. 

This is a first part. Excerpts:By Charles Kumolu &  Gbenga Oke

How was it like growing up with you father,  Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, at the time when he was the leader of Biafra, particularly given that he had multitude of challenges to contend with as the leader of the Biafran nation?

My name is Chief Debe Ojukwu, I am the eldest child of the late Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. I am a lawyer. I am a community leader.I did not stay with him during the war just like every other person.

Where were you at that time?  Because it was  reported that you had to change from the school you were attending in Lagos to Government College Afikpo?

 That was not what happened. I schooled in Lagos.I had gained admission into some elite school in Lagos at a very young age of nine. Then the war interrupted that progress and we all had to relocate to the East.I am telling you about 1965. I was born on August 3, 1956. By 1965, I was nine years old and had taken the common entrance examination. Because of the crisis that broke in 1965, I could not carry on with that, we had to relocate to the East.

You would have lost some years

Yes.  Most of us lost three years because of the war.Most of us did not go to school between 1968, 1969 and 1970.Where were you all these while?I was all the time with my mum in Enugu.

Why your mum?

Yes because it was safer to be with her. Being with her shielded me from my father’s personality, because it would be easy to attack the son of my father during the war. When the war ended in 1970, I got into Saint Mary’s Uwani. After that, I entered Government Secondary School Afikpo. Then the school was temporarily quartered in Enugu at the Institute of Administration, which is now Enugu State University of Science and Technology, because  soldiers were living at the premises of Government Secondary School Afikpo. We were there until 1973  when the soldiers left there.

I left and traveled to see my father, who was in exile in Ivory Coast. I visited him  a couple of times. He asked me what I wanted to do; I told him I wanted to go to Harvard. I applied and they said I met their criteria. I took my London GCE in class three because I had lost three years because of the war and I wanted to regain those three years. I was always the first in my class. When I took it (London GCE) in class three, I entered for only five papers, which were English, Physics, Maths, Chemistry and Biology. Then in Afikpo, our pride was reading the sciences.

My father okayed my going to Afikpo, after spending some time with him in Ivory Coast, I came back to Nigeria and discovered that I made four papers out of five. That was what hindered my going to Harvard. Since I couldn’t proceed along the line I’d wished for, I decided to join the Nigeria Police Force.

Police Force? How were your days in the police?
The aim of joining the police was to make money and pay for my private tuition because I felt that one could make it by dint of hardwork, instead of the stereotyped way. It was an adventure. I trained at Police College, Ikeja, after which I was posted to Aba. From there, I was posted to Afikpo. After that, I was called back by the Force to do the Inspector course because my four credits qualified me to join as a cadet Inspector rather than constable. I went to the college and had people like Hafiz Ringim, Saleh Abubakar, Audu Abubakar, Abinu Shawa and others as course mates. I could have stayed back with the four credits, but I went to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka,UNN, to study law in 1981. I got my LLB after four years as the first known name to do that without troubles. I finished my studies at the appropriate time. I went back to the police after graduation and at the expiration of my study leave.
How did the Force treat you? Were there prejudices?
The Force was very cagey, I lost promotions on certain occasions because certain interests felt I was there to finish what my father could not accomplish. Because of that I was drafted to go for cadet training, which I should not have gone for because I was already an officer. However, I proceeded and graduated as the best student. I was the first police officer that got a presidential commission because of my performance. We were the first set of the Police Academy.

I was in police until I was now invited to come and manage my grandfather’s properties. Actually it is the management of the properties that is the cause of the whole hoopla.

Before we get to the issue of the hoopla, you just told us that you visited your dad in Ivory Coast on many occasions. Can we know how your father’s family operated while he was in exile in that country?
When he went on exile, he had a woman who was with him.
That was Emeka’s mum and people took her as the First Lady of Biafra. Her name is Njideka.
But while they were in exile, they fell apart and she came back to Nigeria.
She did not come back with her children. Emeka and his siblings remained with my father in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast.
It was when she left that Stella Onyedor stepped in.

He came back from exile with Stella.
He stayed with Stella and, after her, Bianca came in.
I had always stayed with my mum. And we occasionally visited dad.
Ideally, when a child is small, the custody is granted to the mother until the child becomes an adult. I always visited and stayed with my father in Ivory Coast, he stayed in Cocoordi and Benjaville. Then my grandmother was staying in Gwake. The family had always been there. It was like a war situation, the family was scattered like that until he came back in 1982 and started bringing the family together in Nigeria.


Coming back, can you recollect how it was for him in the early days of his return?
When he returned, he found out that most of his family things and issues were not well organised. You know what it means for a man to be away from home for thirteen years under those circumstances. That was why his children lived at variance – scattered.


What was the relationship between you, your siblings and your father before Bianca came into the family?
It was a very cordial relationship. I did not suffer because my mother shielded me and that is why I am very level headed. For the other children, my father started playing mother and father’s role until Stella stepped in.

Stella will pretend to play mother but it could not be like their own mother.
There could always be friction under such circumstance. But my father has always been overtly protective of his children. So, I can figure that when Bianca came in, I was too old to start expecting maternal care, because I was like a big brother to her. When she came in there was this war of attrition.

Please give an instance of this?
The first one happened with Emeka’s younger sister.
I understood there was a day she and Bianca fought in the kitchen.

Fight! How?
Yes they fought in the kitchen, so I was made to understand.

Was your father not in? How could that have happened?
He was in.
He came into the kitchen and took sides with Bianca and that was what made that girl to leave the house till date.
She was expecting her father to protect her, but the father turned and protected his wife. She could not understand that till date. That is the kind of attrition then, because all of them were age mates. Chukwuemeka was born in 1965, the sister Mimi, was born 1966 and Bianca was born in 1967, so it was easier for me to put in authority because I was much older than them.

This is a follow up to that question. Did Bianca’s coming create any frosty relationship between your father and the larger Ojukwu family?
It did not. The larger family was not united then for certain reasons.
My own father was the first natural child of my grandfather. That was the bone of contention. They were not of full blood. Based on that, there had always been petty jealousy among them. My father had always argued that they were not his brothers, but he went on to make a name for himself outside my grandfather’s name. That fame definitely attracted envy from some members of the larger family. So, during the war they could not talk to him.
But after the war, they started gaining their voices.
During the war, some of them were working with the Red Cross in Biafra.
He never betrayed his brothers because he was the Head of State. And that was the benevolent attitude he had.
But after the war, some felt that the giant had fallen and it was time they have their own pound of flesh. After the war, they did not make attempts to recover my grandfather’s assets in most parts of the country. They were only concerned with the ones in the East which they were using for their immediate needs. My father was writing letters from Ivory Coast to them, telling them to go and recover the seized properties. Maybe some thought he would die in exile, but God,in His infinite mercies, made it possible for the Federal Government to grant him pardon and he came back to Nigeria.

If you check, you will discover that most people that fought civil wars in history died in exile. Robert Lee of the United States of America and others died. But if you check, you will discover that my father led with justice, equity and kindness. And that contributed to making the pardon he received from the Federal Government possible.
For instance, history has it that sometimes he would come to share relief materials to the populace because he felt that the officials were not doing enough.

When he came back, the issue at stake was the properties, but the properties were abandoned properties. And nobody did anything about them in his absence until 1993 when then President Babangida released the properties to him.
It was after the release that the litigation started. And they started laying claim to them. After the war they started arguing about who was going to be the executor. They had running battle for the properties. The same people, who are with me in court today, were the same people fighting him in court then.

So, the larger Ojukwu family had always had friction about properties.
And when the properties were released to him, he refused to administer them with the family. It was based on that refusal that they approached me, and said they trusted me.
They said they were going to surrender the ones they were holding and begged that I manage all the properties.
That was how I started administering it to preserve my grandfather’s legacy.
When I was doing it successfully, my dad was happy. They will come behind my father to instigate me against him, saying that he maltreated me and he did not pay my school fees, but I was not interested in that.
They will also go back to him to tell him that a child trained by a poor teacher could not be successful. Bianca was not instrumental to the quarrel in the larger Ojukwu family.
But when she now saw the problem brewing, she bought into it.


Could you expatiate on this issue of your father being a natural son of the late Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu?
There is a way natural issue comes up. Natural one is when you meet a woman and copulate with her in order to produce a child. That is a natural child. There are children you adopt from the motherless babies home. There are children your wife may have had before marrying you and you automatically become their step dad. The one you adopted is your adopted son; the one from your wife is your step son. There is also another one called foster child. There is even the one they call professional son. So the natural son is the one you had through the natural means of coitus. Even if you have a child through artificial insemination, people might say he is not your natural son. So when I say natural, I know what I am saying and DNA can confirm that. But no matter any means you get a son, once he calls you father, you should treat him as a son. That was why in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo was told not to have a hand in the killing of Ikemefuna because the boy called him father.


What would you say Bianca brought to the family, having known your father as a man who fought hard and survived and needed comfort?
She brought comfort, youth and vitality. But then it drove my dad, because I had always been of the opinion that if my father had a woman of my mother’s age living with him, things would have been different and stablised.
But then when you marry a woman of a certain age which is at variance with your age, the drive would be fast but it leads to accident.

Accident, how?
For instance, the younger girl might want to go to a party and you will not have any option than putting on jeans and attending the party with her at the age of 60.
There was a day we went to Eko le Meridian Hotel. The hotel had a restaurant at the sixteenth floor. It was for Valentine and other expensive dinners. I went with my wife, then she was my girlfriend and my father came in with Bianca. I hope you understand how I would feel in that situation. You know, ideally, I should not be running into my father with a young lady in a restaurant at that age.


On the issue of the Will, you will agree that since it was read in Enugu it has been generating a lot of controversies. Your younger brother, Emeka, does not also seem to reckon with the Will. Can we know if you have reservations on the contents of this Will?
I do not know why she conspired against me. The first reservation is that it is no Will.
That thing is a forged document. I have already filed a caveat, so there is no Will.
It is when the caveat will go to trial and I give my voice alongside whomever that is championing it, then it would be tried.
On the surface, you will find out that it is a forged document.
In law, there is what we call Nemo dat quod non habet. It means that you don’t give what you don’t have.


But if Ojukwu shared his properties the way he wished, why should that be anybody’s problem?
It is your right as an individual to acquire and dispose property. If that is how he has chosen to dispose his properties, there is no problem.
My only reservation is some of my properties were among those shared. There was the one my grandmother gave me when she was alive.


Are these properties located in Enugu or where?
I am talking about the one at Nnewi.
She told the whole family that she had given the land to me. She took about eight of us to her village and introduced us to her family.
Emeka was also there. I am her eldest grandchild from Nnewi, but I am not her eldest grandchild. She had three children. One daughter and two sons!
The daughter had one son and three daughters. And Tom Biggard, who died during the civil war, had one daughter and three sons. Then my father is in the middle. So being the eldest of the grandchildren in Nnewi, she gave me the land she bought at Nnewi and she told everybody.

You have dismissed the Will as a forged document. Can you really tell us your position on how the properties were distributed in the document viz a viz who got what?
It is a forgery.

In law, Will is called Volonte in French. It means wish.
This question would have been okay if I was satisfied that what is contained in that document was the wish of my late father. It is someone’s Will, so it is left for that person to come and tell us how he acquired the property.
That is not my father’s Will because he could not have devised my property. That was my first reaction before I discovered that it is a fraud, which the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Police should investigate because anybody that does that is a petty criminal. And there are pre-conditions for occupying public office.
If someone has been proved to have contravened any of the pre-conditions, that person should be stripped of whatever has been given to the person.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/12/i-do-not-know-why-bianca-conspired-against-me-debe-ojukwu/

op,

how about investment holdings owned by Lagos and reserves for future developments?

Obinoscopy: I wonder what's your definition of 'explosive' or 'boring'. But I do know the issue of downsizing the civil service did cause an uproar when it was suggested by Sanusi with people taking sides in the argument.

Bear it in mind that the essence of these debates is to encourage intellectualism, to enlighten the populace and to bring about human empowerment and national development. Any topic that won't achieve such should not be encouraged. Thank you.

Nice response but In the midst of everything else going on at moment, this ranks low on priority and has less direct impact to the social value. We should sponsor topics that has high social visibility.

This has a been a great year here in Nairaland., 2012 has come to a close. We have shown once again that we are a great people. For 12 whole months, each side passionately displayed and held ground to its own turf but yet with a high degree of mutual respect and dignity. What is noteworthy is that there was not a single. act of bigotry, tribalism or prejudice, but admittedly ethnicity was dosed out constantly. Nairaland is the best place to be for happy hour and entertainment. I am very proud and delighted to have gambari and yanmiri as my brothers. It's only one thing missing and I hope to accomplish it next year. In 2013, I hope I will be writing and conversing in Igbo language fluently.

To keep it short, I am giving a pat on the back to all my Igbo brothers and my Hausa brothers, you all rock! I wish one more time to bring to your consciousness, and a befitting time to do so, that there are two sets of people in Nigeria; Yoruba and Others!

Love.

PhysicsQED: ^
lol, I might drop in a few more times that this general topic is discussed. However, I do want to minimize my future posting on Nairaland so that I can gradually wean myself off this site. It's addictive, but I think I want to make posting on here a rarer thing and then gradually move on completely.

we will miss you.

the police woman mess up sleeping on "buka" duty.

the sss guarding kabiru sokoto mess up far worse, pointing weapon at people.

virtuoso01: Just take a look at that gun with the SSS officer.


An israeli made TAR 21 assault rifle.. Very, Very nice.


You cant compare.

geeez: The purported SSS official's picture is that of an Israeli Mossad.

Below is a picture of how armed SSS officials look

The last pic is that of an Israeli Mossad similar to what the OP posted

thank u geez.