₦airaland Forum

Ogoni militant: I am happy with the developement so far anytime Ibos declear their republic, we shall follow suit we have our plans too.

I will advice you yorubas to think of your own repbulic. Stop this atitude of drawing people back. Are you enjoying what is hapening in Nigeria today? Hausa are kinling everybody in the North including your yoruba people. I can bet you that you cannot see any Ogoni man in the north.

You are aware of your people in the north that are Taxi drivers killed. Stop this your attitude. Let yorubas join hands and call for their own country.

Ogoni is prepering already

....preparing for what?

Obiagu,

You will open a stinky can of worms with your preoccupation to discuss 1906 amalgamation.

I warn you to let it rest. Alaigbo was part of the Royal Niger chartered territories and it was brought into the Southern protectorate as well...

Igboland with Tiviland were chartered territories. Yorubaland was a colony, Hausaland was a protectorate and there was Niger Coastal (oil) protectorate.

Igboland was merged into the Niger coastal to form Southern protectorate with capital in Calabar.

Yoruba colony was brought in later and we were never called Southern protectorate. The merger was called The colony of Lagos and the Southern protectorate. Lagos and Calabar were capitals. Shortly after a third capital was added in Warri.

Leave the 1906 alone unless you want to cause distress to you and your fellows.

^^^^
Omg!

ak47mann: Meanwhile, the Igbo do not seek his permission or anybody's permission for that matter to live and thrive in Lagos. Igbo who came to Lagos, and who reside everywhere in Nigeria do so because they can. They are Nigerians and have a right to live and prosper anywhere in Nigeria and be protected under the laws of Nigeria.

They do not need the magnanimity or permission of Ayo Opadokun who himself is a settler in Lagos much like the Igbo residents. Ayo Adebanjo, Femi Fani-Kayode, Biyi Durojaiye, and Ebenezer Babatope all threw their hats in the ring in challenge of Chinua Achebe's view of their idol.
But it seems as though against Achebe's articulate and textured views, these are Calibans learning their first curse-words against their master! They "cuss out" the writer, Achebe, but they are yet to contradict him. It is not just enough to defend Awolowo. It is important to defend him with facts; to show that Achebe has lied against him. But the evidence is too compelling. Achebe has not lied against Awo.

Achebe is disgruntled on a number of issues as are many igbos and their grief revolve around money....that

1. Awo confiscated or seized their bank accounts
2. That the £20 disbursement was a settlement in lieu of the seized financialasets.

In response to your post I am stating that Achebe was lying about the monetary seizure and also that the £20 was an emergency recovery payout and never was it a replacement or compensation for any seized asset.

No one in West or any where in any part constituting Yorubaland seized and failed to return to igbos their rightfully owned properties. Looking at the igbo ingratitude towards Yoruba especiall, in retrospect I wish you had received the same treatment in West as you did in South and North in regard to right
of return.

I have asked the question repeatedly for igbos to say categorically where these so called "forfeited" savings and investments were held and no one has taken me up on it....maybe you can.

These igbo zion movement or jewish movement, whatever they are called are supposed to zionize the igbo people but i wonder.....have they seen this picture?

I loove this song......enjoy them live on Soul Train.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gyQwCIKh94&feature=youtube_gdata_player

We all know what a referendum means. But it does not appear that there is a union of minds as to what a Constituent Assembly connotes. For even when there was a duly elected Parliament for the country, many apparently intelligent people called for the setting up of a Constituent Assembly to review our Constitution. They went further to suggest that such an Assembly should  consist of representatives of various interests, including political parties, trade unions, farmers’ organisations, trading concerns, etc. A body constituted in this way and in the circumstances then prevailing, cannot strictly be described as a Constituent Assembly. The pre­requisite of a Constituent Assembly is the overthrow of a regime or the establishment of a new State. We already have the former. But the inherent and inseparable attribute of a Constituent Assembly is that it must be composed of the accredited representatives of the people duly elected by the registered voters in the country, in the same manner as members of Parliament or Legislature are elected. This we must have. Anything other than this, we submit, cannot in strict constitutional sense and usage, be a Constituent Assembly. And it would be a grand deception not only to give it that name, but also to describe any constitution produced by a handpicked motley assembly as the PEOPLE’S CONSTITUTION.

As regards referendum, the questions which should be submitted to the people must be few and straight forward and must  relate only to fundamental issues. In our own considered view, the people should be asked to make a choice from the following alternatives: Federalism or Unitarianism; Democracy or Non-democracy; Socialism or Capitalism.

From Awolowo's Doctrines.

IN any case, speaking generally, it is our fervent hope that, for many a year to come under the new dispensation, austerity and discipline, in public as well as in private life, will be the order of the day, and that we shall have very few occasions for ostentation and vainglorious pomp and pageantry.

(30) The head, picture, image, representation, name, or description of any living person should not appear on any coin, currency, postal or money order, or stamp, in circulation and use in Nigeria; with the proviso that the signature of the Governor, Director or other official of the Central Bank of Nigeria on the country’s currency shall not be regarded as such a name or description.

(31) The statue, statuette, or bust of any living person should not be made or erected at Government expense.

Constitutional provisions to give effect to these propositions are necessary and urgent in order to prevent the spread to Nigeria of a fell political disease which is already in evidence in certain parts of Africa. Once a Head of State or Government begins to put his head on his country’s currency, etc., and to commission the making and erection of his life-size statue at Government expense, then it is certain that he has fallen victim to tenacity of office. At that stage he finds it extremely difficult to contemplate retirement or loss of office to an opponent in an electoral contest. For as far as he is concerned either event might mean the disappearance of his head from the coins. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons for putting his head on currency and coins, is to hold himself out as the fountain of the people’s wealth, as contrasted with his opponent who cannot make such a claim. In order to stay in office for the rest of his life and to keep his head on the coins and his statues in the streets, he descends to dishonourable and villainous practices during elections.

In the long run, however, he is deposed or assassinated; his statues are destroyed by the angry and exasperated citizens; and the country is involved in the new expenditure of having to withdraw the old coins, etc., from circulation and replacing them with new ones. All this has happened before in the Dominican Republic, and is already happening in Africa. The tragedy of this type of malady is that every megalomaniacal tyrant believes that his predecessors in infamy and depravity were just not clever enough!

In any case, what does an African Head of State or Government gain by having his head on coins and his statues all over the place, while the masses of his people wallow pitifully in a slough of ignorance, poverty, and disease? Nothing, but the contempt of civilized and right-thinking people all over the world!

(32) Documents circulated, or statements and speeches made, by any person in the Federal Parliament or Regional Legislature should not be given any special protection, but should be actionable in the same way as documents circulated or statements and speeches made by anyone at a public meeting.

It is common knowledge that many Nigerian parliamentarians have in the past employed the cover of parliamentary privilege to defame their private or public adversaries, viciously and deliberately, even when the latter had no opportunity of defending themselves on the same forum. It would appear that many of our public men have not developed enough broad-mindedness and sense of decency and chivalry to be accorded the sacred protection which parliamentarians enjoy in Britain and other civilized countries. And we are of the considered view that it would do our public life a world of good if this privilege were withdrawn.

(33) If it is to have any chance of permanency, the new Constitution should be drafted by a Constituent Assembly, and then submitted for approval to the people in a referendum.


We all know what a referendum means. But it does not appear that there is a union of minds as to what a Constituent Assembly connotes. For even when there was a duly elected Parliament for the country, many apparently intelligent people called for the setting up of a Constituent Assembly to review our Constitution. They went further to suggest that such an Assembly should  consist of representatives of various interests, including political parties, trade unions, farmers’ organisations, trading concerns, etc. A body constituted in this way and in the circumstances then prevailing, cannot strictly be described as a Constituent Assembly. The pre­requisite of a Constituent Assembly is the overthrow of a regime or the establishment of a new State. We already have the former. But the inherent and inseparable attribute of a Constituent Assembly is that it must be composed of the accredited representatives of the people duly elected by the registered voters in the country, in the same manner as members of Parliament or Legislature are elected. This we must have. Anything other than this, we submit, cannot in strict constitutional sense and usage, be a Constituent Assembly. And it would be a grand deception not only to give it that name, but also to describe any constitution produced by a handpicked motley assembly as the PEOPLE’S CONSTITUTION.

As regards referendum, the questions which should be submitted to the people must be few and straight forward and must  relate only to fundamental issues. In our own considered view, the people should be asked to make a choice from the following alternatives: Federalism or Unitarianism; Democracy or Non-democracy; Socialism or Capitalism.

(To be continued)

(in continuation)

NIGERIA is a land of plenty and of want. It is very rich in natural and human resources, but it is extremely deficient in the quality of the three productive agents of labour, capital, and organisation. Politically it is free; but economically it is utterly subservient.

With an area of 356,669 square miles, Nigeria is ‘the size of France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom’ put together  And with a population of 55.6 million, it is half  ‘France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom put together’, and the ninth largest country in the world.

Its comparatively large area is replete with valuable agricultural, forest, animal, water, and mineral resources. In human and natural resources, it compares more than favourably with Congo Kinshasa and Mauritania, respectively, The density of its population is greatest in its South-Eastern and South-Western parts. But, otherwise, its peoples are fairly well-spread out all over its face; so that there is neither over-population nor under-population in any of its States,

Though only about 16% of Nigeria’s soil is under cultivation, yet the country produces enough of a large variety of foods and livestock for domestic consumption; and its exports include large quantities of agricultural, forest, and animal products, such as cocoa, oil-palm produce, cotton, groundnuts, rubber, timber, and hides and skins.

Even all this, impressive as it is, falls well below what the unaided fertility of the country’s soils is capable of producing, In its report, entitled Agricultural Development in Nigeria 1965-1980, the F A.O. classifies 37% of Nigeria’s soils as of high and medium productivity; 47% as of low productivity; 79% as having strong, good, and medium potentialities; and 10% as of slight potentialities. Only 16% of the country’s soils is classified as of very low or no productivity, and 11 % as of very slight or no potentialities.

Nigeria’s potentialities are enhanced by the fact that, geographically, it lies roughly between latitudes 5° and 15° north of the Equator, and is blessed with a fairly mild tropical climate.Consequently, barring malaria and other debilitating diseases, its climate favours human exertions of a high order. It also favours the growth of good-quality wheat, carrot, potato, etc., and the cultivation of better-quality cotton as well as a number of Mediterranean crops and fruits.

The country’s mineral products, so far as they are known, include tin, columbite, lead, zinc, iron-ore, uranium, coal, gas, and oil. Nigeria is now one of the largest mineral oil producers in the world. It would be reckless to say that Nigeria’s list of mineral resources is closed. Some twenty or more years ago, the country was a not inconsequential producer of gold; and there are speculations, even now, that diamond and reasonable deposits of gold might be discovered, if expert and diligent search is made for them. In this connection, it must be emphasised that the geological survey of Nigeria is still in its inchoate stages, and, therefore, very far from being comprehensive or thorough.


The ethnic diversity of Nigerian peoples has political disadvantages which we have noted; but its economic advantages are tremendous and without qualification. Each ethnic unit has innate skills and traits which, speaking generally, are peculiar to it. Some excel in agriculture, others in manufacture, and yet others in the distributive aspects of economic activities.

There is a very happy combination of geographical and ethnic divisions of labour in Nigeria: what one area or ethnic unit lacks the others supply; and the whole country stands potentially enriched thereby.As a whole, the peoples of Nigeria are by nature hardy, industrious, alert, ambitious, forward-looking, and eager to learn.Even the once-conservative, easy-going, and complacent sections of the community are fast undergoing a revolutionary change of outlook and behaviour in order to keep pace and conform, in modem economic terms, with their fellow-countrymen who have different traditions and are comparatively quicker in embracing some of the more beneficial patterns of Western civilization.

The rate of growth of the population is estimated at roughly 3% per annum. Thus, without more conscious effort than hitherto on the part of Nigerian governments towards economic development, this rate of population growth does imply, other things being equal, an equivalent autonomous growth rate in all the sectors of the country s economy.In spite, however, of its actual and potential abundance of natural and human resources, the facts reveal, as we shall demonstrate them presently, that economically, Nigeria is an underdeveloped and dependent country.

In substantiation of this assertion, it is necessary first to describe and define the essential characteristics of economic underdevelopment and dependence, and then to set out the factual circumstances which place Nigeria in the categories of economically underdeveloped and dependent countries.

(To be continued)

No problem Alhj. I think chyz moved on to something else already...hes restless!

Obi,

You have deviated from the objective and purpose of this project. Let me bring you back home.

Amalgamation has either produced a net gain or a net loss for the people if this country. Address how the gain or loss, depending on the side you debate on, has impacted lives.

Nobody doubts that humanity is connected by one cord....at a higher level of cosmic relationship, yes differentiation fades out. In a political setting there has to be discrimination and prejudice, otherwise we should have "human land" instead of Yorubaland, Igboland, Hausaland....and so on.

Ayo cannot become a Sarki on the Katsina throne. Obi cannot become Olu in Ibadan and Ado cannot become Eze in Onitsha. These are politically distinct lines of demarcation from which man derives for himself sovereign powers and authority to rule over other men. The power is contained within a small circle thereby raising its social worth and only those in this circle have the disposition and honor to bestow power beyond the confines of the circle.
Those outside the fence will have to use a greater force to overcome the circle and dissipate their influence and authority. This results into confrontation and turf battles.

The peoples and land that were congregated to form Nigeria had variant political structures, each differing from the other as dictated by the flavor of thei ethnic customs. Some existed at a far more advanced and evolved political state than others.

There are two ways in which a political body integrates into a much broader pool of political inclusiveness. Look up these two words:

1. Aggression
2. Congression

With aggression, the political body is subjected to humiliation and then exploited into a forced, non-consenting partnership. With congression, the political body exercises honor and ideals as a way to expand and belong and share in an alliance of cooperative numbers.

Each of these customary political societies were humiliated, exploited and then forced to subordinate their Sarki, their Eze and their Olu to a foreigner in the center who their god-King must now bow to in homage. A political concept totally foreign and contradicting to the African ways and nature.
.....in fact, it is a blasphemy to the land that the King of the people must pay homage to any other than God, or by extension, the deities of God!

This is why the spirit is troubled.

After the white man left we did not see fit to correct the anomalies, instead we escalated the aggressive take over of regions.....confiscated their powers and put it centrally where Ayo can now effectively control the Katsina throne or Obi can manipulate the Ibadan throne or Ado can sack the Onitsha throne.

This is why the spirit is troubled.

The remedy is to de-escalate while simultaneously employing the congressional approach to divest power from amalgamated statues so the spirit can be liberated to choose its own course.

@Post,

You ought to cover face in shame. What was the casualty on their side?

[quote author=Sisi_Kill]@ Negro_Nations
Sensei....you are on the future debaters list, yes?

No more after the debate...debate for you, this is me officially throwing you in the ring. [/quote]Im the official troubleshooter for the debate floor. It will be a conflict of interest for me to also jump in and debate.

Everybody know alredy that im the best debater here....no need to prove it on the floor.

Sisi, u sabi look for trouble o

nitlad: Followed the debate yesteday, and I've gotta say it was awesome, (kudos to the debaters Obinoscopy and Katsumoto. Top blokes they are). And it was an excellently executed exercise too(give the kudos to Jarus for that). A few things could be done better though.
I thought Obinoscopy came out as the more spontaneous debater in light of his arguments and responses to rebuttals and questions while Katsumoto was well loaded for this (dude sure knows his onions).
Obinoscopy's perfomance is all the more surprising given that his was a side that on the face of it (at least that was my thinking before this debate) you would be hard pressed to find valid points. Yet he gave a masterclass from what presumably should be a doomed corner. Your reference to Somalia was particularly striking!
Kats inspite of your eggheadous perfomance (lol if there is anything like that), I'm not sure you succeeded in undeniably tying any of the problems bedevilling this nation to the 1914 Amalgamation throughout the duration of the debate. I stand to be corrected on this, perhaps I missed it.
I personally believe amalgamating the Northern and Southern Protectorates is/was a historical tragedy, but this debate made me realise that the problems in this country didn't necessarily stem from amalgamation.
All in all, it was an insightfully knowledgeable and exhilaratingly brilliant exercise!

Obi is yet to associate the human factor with his narratives of brotherhood and progress.

In 1914 certain ethnic groups in Nigeria, Yoruba is a good example, were already far evolved above and beyond the stages of development in East or North and the amalgamation was a retardation on the natural abilities and destiny of their sociocultural evolution.

While certain groups may have been helped into enrichment and evolution by the resulting aggregation if lands and peoples, the opposite is true for theYorubas. Amalgamation promised sovereingty and shared pool or joint ownership. Joint ownership of what, I ask? How can you be promised sovereingty over a land whose ownership has not changed hands?

To those who before amalgamation had never tasted sovereingty or had no social ideals and a robust philosophy and creed for moving their people forward, yes those people today have what they otherwise wihout the aid of the 1914 contract would ever have. Those who had it ended up loosing it and their momentum in the resulting madness and chaos of Nigerian nationhood.

Lets separate the corn from the chaff......the bottom line of SNC rests on that dissatisfaction with the loss of self identity for substitution with joint identity.

Dede1: If I did not know the cradle of the bases of your plank, I should have quit reading at the first epistle you posted as introductory. Believe me, you could have spared us the exigencies of skewed formation of political parties in the amalgamated Nigeria and stress sociopolitical interests of concerned principal players such as British and ethnic nationalists in the protectorate. Nigeria\Biafra civil war, Bakassi and retrogressive nature of Nigeria are foremost examples of the ills brought about by the 1914 amalgamation of the protectorates.

At least, you did me proud.

Oh ok, here we go...obahiagbon of nl. yeye esquire

Gboliwe: What have we done to you Negro?

Obinoscopy: Gboliwe dearie, pls help me ask him O. I'm afraid now in nairaland, I look over my back nowadays to watch out for Negro cos I just might get shot by him

@Negro, I'll challenge your arguements probably by tomorrow cos I'm kinda busy. And for the records, I have a polarised view on this amalgamation. I can argue either way but the bottom line is this: WE ARE WHAT WE CHOOSE OURSELVES TO BELIEVE

oh no, you have done nothing wrong, neither of you is in trouble or anything like that. The threat of a punch and the talk of being upset was for dramatic effect to demonstrate and drive home the point i was making, viz........you can seize control of events and determine its path forward simply by exercising the bad side of human nature.

Amalgamation, whether in 1906 or in 1914, was the exercise of that badness. It was followed up by series of many more bad and cruel and hateful actions.... It diverts energy away from positive and healthy response and interaction and incites suspicion and caution. Instead of living, we are arrested by fear. Your own response is a testimonial proof to the theory.

No guys, no harm....we are all in the same boat and trying to find solutions.

Obi, put Chief infront of Negro next time.

Pdp are thugs...dem don come again to disturb and disrupt peaceful atmosphere in motor parks. Bunch of touts !

Ok now, feel better.

So my brother Obinoscopy, as I was saying....you skipped a most important aspect of amlgamation and that is, the human cost. Man is land and land is man! When you rule over a man's land you rule over his destiny and his future.....everything he stands for or hope to become, his history and artifacts, his energy and toil.....all these things are no longer the posession of his might or will but they become a heavy burden on his spirit. Instead of living, he is preoccupied with fighting to regain freedom and liberty.

There are people who have said slavery was a savior for African Americans. That if their fore fathers and mothers had not been enslaved and rescued out of Africa they would have ended up victims of one tragedy or another that plagues the continent and would today be in same backwardness and hopelessness that is uniform across Africa. When you make a claim like you have done talking in retroactive gains of amalgamation you are supporting such callous and cold views as on the slavery issue. One should then say Hitler was a rescuer cause without his hatred for the Jews they might not have realized a sovereign state, or that Igbos ought to give thanks because without the civil war they might not have scored this much success in self employment.

Igbos will tell you fast they had rather have a Biafraland even if it would mean sacrificing personal success than to gain all the wealth and still not have a homeland.

How is an African American despised and hated in America better off than an African displaced from his or her land by war and rivalry? Just two months ago an African American man was shot and killed by white policemen pumping over 40 bullets into his body.. They were acquited in court and freed of any wrongdoing. How is this supposed to be a better life than that of a Tutsi machetted to death by a Hutu? They are both acts of human atrocities and those carted away from the continent by slave traders are not anymore immune or shielded from the danger of "good and bad" than are their brothers and sisters left behind in Africa.

There is no way the loss of Biafra could be a pivoting advantage with which to pacify Igbos for their subsequent economic success.....especially when the success is precariously edged against temperaments and sensibilities of a hostile land.

You can already see how many times land and human conditions is coming up here. Whatever man becomes and whatever becomes of man is intimately tied to land and its resources, or lack of.

The interest of England in the lands of the people who currently constitute Nigeria must be weighed against what was going on in England itself at least 100yrs or perhaps 50yrs leading to 1914.

What was England going through in its own land and people between 1814 and 1914? How and to what extent did the amalgamation of 1914 impact the people and society of the British homeland? If you study this history you are almost to come to a regret for the rubbish you have written defending amalgamation.

After the meal i can hardly keep my eyes alert. I will get sleep but I am not done with responding to you. You shall hear again from me tomorrow.

Obinoscopy,

Good job to you as well and I honestly commend your effort. You will not win this debate but the fact you even stepped forward to speak for amalgamation is worth cheering. So I applaud you.

Forgive me if you find my naked truth too heavy for your spirit but Im going to pull you into territories of human nature that you have never before been exposed to but when Im done here you will discover a new horizon in the inter-exchange between man and society.

After reading your output on the debate floor a part of me wants to shake your hand in admiration, and then another part of me wants to poke in your eye for daring to even stand up in favor of what I passionately detest.

These two sides of me is the expression....albeit, "an unbridled".....expression of my nature; the good and the bad! The two stand in polarity to one another, yet if you take one away then you diminish my being and the essence of my manhood is wrecked. It is an inner struggle to use judgement and discretion in balancing and sustaining the two.

I am not alone in this inner struggle to balance the polarized force of good and bad, every full blooded human specie in the heirarchy chain of reproductuon is likewise endowed in their spirit and physicality to exhibit at one time or another this "unbridled" energy.

In Oyo empire of old qthe kingmakers would alternate the throne between strong and mild characters. Having successive line of mild mannered kings is bad for society....it weakens and emancipates the pride of culture and land.

There is intent in such phrases as "good cop, bad cop"; "carrot and stick";"reward and recognition"......and everyone of them indicates the two polar sides of good and bad in human nature.

Even in America, their election is manipulated to produce an alternating scheme in which a strong President and a mild Congress or a mild President and a strong Congress will emerge for any two year session of the overlapping tenure between the White House and the House of Reps.

I care to open on this note about human nature in my response to your arguments because I want to reveal a knowledge to you and the gravity of which you need to understand in order for your mind to expand beyond the narrowness you attributed to in your debate and favor for amalgamation.

You have made brotherhood the principal theme of your favor and you drew on the uniting force of other people and places as models for why we ought to be content with amalgamation. I am upset, and in case you missed it the first time I should insert here in repetition that I would throw a upper cut in your eye. Dont be mad at me....its just my human nature!

If I say Obi, my brother. That reference of brotherhood is to a degree limited by the name OBI itself. The barrier of limitation in this case is monumental and has nothing at all to do with your personality....but rather with a prejudiced stance on identity. OBI is not AYO and neither one of them is ADO. This prejudice is monumental. Therefore, our brotherhood across cultural lines is a contract dictated, not by love and obligation, but bound by interests and needs.

You cannot convince me that amalgamation produced an enrichment and upliftment in our sociocultural values that opened a gateway for the Igbo to marry Yoruba or for the Hausa to marry Igbo, when in fact Africans by tradition left traces of their progeny along trade routes all over the continent before the white explorers got here. The Yoruba and Fulani wars did not stop intermarriage between the two. Contrarily, marriage was a medium for peace making between warring cultures. I beg to opine that amalgamation was a sour interference in that ancient tradition and caused a cold relationship and distance between political rivals who otherwise would have bridged relationships of alliance and belonging through the matrimonial inter-exchanges.

On the comparison of American model to the realities of Nigeria....you also missed the human element. A Michael Smith in NY is a Michael Smith in South Carolina, is a Michael Smith in Texas, is a Michael Smith in California, is a Michael Smith in Montana, is a Michael Smith in Iowa. Here in Nigeria, an Ayo in Ibadan is not an Ayo in Umuahia or in Katsina.

So why is that? It's called land!.

Yes land.....like England, Deutchland, Finland, Igboland, Hausaland, Yorubaland...and so on.

I need to eat, Im starving...be back soon.

Katz,

Great job pardner, nice points and great output.

I read the entire debate and comments. Obinoscopy and Katsumoto good job guys.

Obi, you gave it your best shot but you missed the issue by a wide margin. I dont want to spoil this floor, the outpouring of impression is in good measure and should not be diluted. Meet me in the other room when you have time and if Im gone my response to you will be waiting for you to digest.

Good luck to the debaters.

Katz, have mercy on them and don't show off.

Sayonara!

Katsumoto: This is not necessary prince negro of Lagos. Jarus has stated that the floor would be thrown open after the results are declared.

You should have thrown your hat into the ring.

Oh i see, so you can treat me like a rag doll. Lmao! The last person I want to debate is a Katsumoto.

I would have joined in and elected to go first on the debate but the time window is not open on my schedule. This first topic is a particularly passionate one for me....I am vehemently opposed to amalgamation or any talk of nationhood with non-Yorubas. We can exist and partner as neighbors but I dont want to co-own a house with any of them.

Next time you address me you capitalize the "p" in the Prince or i will not answer you.

Jarus,

Can debaters reach out for lifeline?

If yes, I suggest that the request should be made on the Debate floor but the side help and whisper should be done in here in the General Session room.

If you say no lifeline is allowed youve killed my lobbying job Mr Chairman...

To all participants and observers please let us display respect and decorum in the debate room. If anyone has a grudge or a vent take it out of the debate and step into this thread and let it out. Let us treat that room with same respect we will give to an assembly floor.

Just so you all know, I self nominate myself as a troubleshooter for the debaters. If a debater on same side of the subject needs a lifeline...holler at me.

IT is fashionable these days to refer to underdeveloped countries as developing countries. But it must be generally agreed that the phrase ‘developing country’ is a euphemism for ‘underdeveloped country’. The two phrases are commonly used as synonymous. But in our view, the expression ‘underdeveloped country’ is more precise and more forthright than ‘developing country’.

To confine the latter phrase to an economically backward country is misleading and deceptive. No country in the world is stagnant or static. Every country is developing all the time, whether it is already highly developed or terribly underdeveloped. Indeed, the so-called advanced or developed countries are, relatively, developing faster than the underdeveloped ones. The expression ‘underdeveloped’ is, therefore, a more appropriate epithet to distinguish those countries which are economically backward from those which are economically advanced.

A more or less arbitrary mathematical yardstick is sometimes used by economists to identify countries which are economically backward. If a country’s per capita national income is equal to or more than one­fourth of the per capita national income of the United States of America, it is said to be developed. If  it is below one-fourth, the country is said to be underdeveloped. But, if we go by this arithmetical identification, we miss the true badges of economic backwardness, and the real differentiae of an underdeveloped country.

The outstanding physical features of an underdeveloped country must, therefore, be stated. The most prominent feature is extreme povertv. In an underdeveloped country, both the natural and human resources are partly not utilised, partly under-utilised, and partly mis-utilised. This non-utilisation, under-utilisation, and mis­utilisation of resources is wholly due to lack of adequate capital and technique, and to ignorance and poor health, leading to general inertia and want of the requisite enthusiasm on the part of the country’s labour force.

Such of the country’s natural and human resources as are partially utilised and developed are mainly foreign-trade oriented. This orientation is promoted and encouraged by foreign enterprises for their own benefit, and it automatically generates a system of dual economy in the underdeveloped country. A lot of unhealthy economic consequences follow. The resources which are devoted to the production of export crops are comparatively better developed than those which are devoted to the production of domestic goods. The indigenous enterprises which are engaged in foreign trade are usually better off, economically and materially, than those of their fellow­citizens who are engaged in domestic economic activities. This difference, in material rewards, induces the economically active sections of the community to ignore the cultivation of crops for domestic consumption in favour of export crops. The country itself becomes dependent on foreign trade for its economic sustenance. In order to pay comfortably for the primary produce imported by them, the foreign entrepreneurs deliberately stimulate in the more prosperous sections of the underdeveloped country an inordinate propensity to import. The resultant effects in the underdeveloped country of this unwholesome foreign-trade orientation are unfavourable terms of trade, unstable export markets, and a persistent adverse balance of payments.

It is common knowledge that any form of economic activity or development demands, in addition to natural and human resources, the existence of adequate capital as well as technological and managerial competence. All these, as we have hinted, are very scarce in an underdeveloped country. Adequate capital is lacking because savings per capita are low, and savings per capita are low because technological and managerial knowledge is either nil or hopelessly deficient, and because the masses of the people are ignorant and unhealthy, and hence economically unenthusiastic and undisciplined.

In order to make up for these basic deficiencies, an underdeveloped country always strives to excel itself in creating a congenial and over-generous atmosphere for attracting foreign capital as well as technological and managerial personnel. In this process, it makes itself more economically subservient to foreign interests.

Furthermore, the gap between the rich and the poor is wider in an underdeveloped than in a developed country. The reason for this is not far to seek. The rich, in an underdeveloped country, are invariably the professionals, and those engaged in foreign-trade oriented activities - exporting agricultural products and importing finished articles; while the poor are those engaged in peasant and subsistence farming, and in unskilled employment.

There is one other feature which is common to all underdeveloped countries. As a result of the conquest of space and time, brought about by highly developed systems of communications and information media, all underdeveloped countries, without exception, are exposed to the demonstration effects of the consumption  patterns of the developed countries. For psychological reasons, the underdeveloped countries unreflectingly imitate these consumption patterns- placing a premium on ostentations, status symbols, and the like - with disastrous distortions to their economies, and disturbing and unsettling effects on their social structure and political progress generally.

(To be continued)

IN view of all that we have said on the point, AN UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRY can be defined as ONE WHOSE NATURAL AND HUMAN RESOURCES ARE PARTLY NOT UTILIZED, PARTLY UNDER-UTILIZED, AND PARTLY MIS-UTlLIZED, AND IN WHICH THERE IS A GROSS DEFICIENCY IN THE QUALITY OF THE THREE PRODUCTIVE AGENTS OF LABOUR, CAPITAL AND ORGANIZATION.

Two implied but important assumptions need to be explained. Firstly, it has been assumed that every underdeveloped country has enough of natural and human resources for its purposes. It is true that some countries are richer in these things than others. But it is also true that, granting a rational exploitation, mobilization, and deployment of these resources, each country has enough of them to make it carry on a happy and economically free existence. Instances are not wanting.Israel has shown that any kind of land or natural resources can be made productive, as long as the other productive agents are sufficiently qualitative and optimally quantitative.

What the Israeli experience has proved beyond any dispute is this: the only difference, between a country which is rich and the one which is poor in natural resources, is that the same dose of the other productive agents will produce better results, when applied to the one than when applied to the other.

In the Sudan, the Gezira Scheme has also shown that natural resources which appear hostile and barren can be tamed and made abundantly fruitful, when the right quality and quantity of the other productive agents is applied to them. Under the Gezira Scheme, not only has a once-barren desert land been converted into one of the most fertile and productive areas on our planet, but also the nomadic population, which was once uneconomically thinly spread all over the place, is now being permanently settled into viable and lively towns and villages.

Secondly, it has been assumed that Nature has so organised the affairs of this world that no country is deficient in or starved with natural or human resources. Those economists who speak of underpopulation or over-population relative to the natural resources of a country, are, like Malthus before them, only building far-reaching theories on a complete misunderstanding of man’s infinite resourcefulness in the face of difficulties. When Malthusl enunciated his famous but erroneous theory of population, he had taken the qualities of the productive agents as given for all time, and had not applied his mind to the vast improvement which was possible and which has since been made in the inherent qualities of such agents.

At this stage in human development, it should be admitted that the optimal concept of population is a measure of man’s incapacity to keep pace with his economic problems, as and when they arise.

Economic dependence or subservience is the opposite of economic freedom. In economic usage, however, economic freedom is a phrase of art. It is an inseparable characteristic of the capitalist system.  It means - for the individual, interest group, or a country - freedom of industry and enterprise. In this sense, economic freedom epitomises the postulates of capitalism, and its enjoyment is subject to the” two fundamental economic forces of (I) supply and demand or the price mechanism, and (2) marginal utility or productivity.

In other words, a country can be said to be free, in the capitalist economic sense, when, under the auspices of supply and demand and marginal utility, it exercises the right to property, to employ its resources as it thinks fit, to manage its affairs on the basis of equality with, and with the same opportunity as, other countries, and to pursue-its own self-interest to the exclusion of others.

We have seen in Chapters 6 and 7 how inimical to human welfare this kind of freedom is. To be of any good to a country, economic freedom must be understood in a politico-economic sense. In this sense, ECONOMIC FREEDOM EXISTS WHEN A POLITICALLY SOVEREIGN COUNTRY, INDEPENDENTLY OF OUTSIDE CONTROL OR DIRECTION, ORGANIZES THE EXPLOITATION AND DEPLOYMENT OF ITS TOTAL RESOURCES FOR THE BENEFIT OF ITS ENTIRE PEOPLE, UNDER A SYSTEM IN WHICH THE  FORCES OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND AND OF MARGINAL UTILITY ARE CONTROLLED AND CANALIZED FOR THE COMMON GOOD.

It is important to bear this distinction in mind for a number of reasons. Firstly, the postulates of capitalism, as we have previously noted, are false and a snare; and the forces of supply and demand  and of marginal utility, when they are allowed to operate without conscious control, are injurious to all human freedom. Secondly, it is possible for a country to be economically free in the capitalist sense while the majority of  its citizens are enslaved, as was the case in European countries under feudalism and laissez-faire capitalism. The converse of this is also true; namely, it is possible for the citizens to enjoy economic freedom, in the capitalist acceptation of the term, while the country as a whole is economically enslaved, as is the case with underdeveloped countries including Nigeria. Thirdly, economic freedom, in the politico-economic sense, is also the opposite of economic subjection, in the same sense. While, in this sense, economic servitude for a country is a concomitant of political subjection, economic freedom does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with political independence.

(To be continued)

FROM the foregoing definitions and analyses, two inferences appear to us to be incontestable. First, a country is underdeveloped simply because it lacks the following indispensable prerequisites of development, namely: education, and good health; technical, managerial, and administrative competence; and capital. Second, an underdeveloped country, by the very fact of its underdevelopment, is permanently exposed to the foreign exploitation and deployment of its resources, and hence to economic dependence, subjection, and what is now called neo­colonialism, even though it is politically independent and sovereign.

We now turn to the facts which, in our view, place Nigeria so firmly, properly, and glaringly in the company of underdeveloped and economically dependent countries, as defined and described, as to permit of no reasonable quibble or rationalisation on the point.The per capita G.N.P: of Nigeria is £22. This is about 1/43rd of the per capita G.N.P. of the United States of America, and about 1/23rd of that of Britain. It is one of the worst two in the world, placing Nigeria in the same poverty bracket as India.

As we have noted earlier on, only 16% of Nigeria’s soil is under cultivation. Of the remaining 84%, 62% is uncultivated and not utilized; forests, mountains, and rocks cover about 21 %; while buildings occupy about1%.

By way of comparison and contrast, 81 % of Britain’s land area is cultivated and utilized. ‘The rest is mountain and forest, or put to urban and kindred uses.’ This comparison may sound unfair, having regard to the fact that 54 million people live in Britain with an area of 88,760 square miles. But the frightful inadequacy of Nigeria’s land utilization can be seen more vividly by comparison with Britain on other grounds. Of the 27 million Britons who are engaged in civil employment, only 800,000 of them-i.e., 3% - do farming, and utilise, among them, 46 million acres of land; an average of 571/2 acres per head of the active British farming population. In Nigeria, however, out of our 25 million active labour force, 20 millions - i.e., 80% - are actually engaged in tilling 37 million acres of land, an average of about 1.8 acres per head of our active farming population.

Thus, by the forcible and irresistible propulsion of statistics, we arrive at the very unpalatable but valid equation whereby one British farmer is equal to 32 Nigerian peasants. In the industrial sector, the output of one British worker has been said to be equal to that of between 5-10 Nigerian workers, all depending, in the case of Nigerians, on the particular industry and the kind of labour-saving devices in use.

If our farming, storage, and marketing techniques were modern, apd if the education, health, and general living conditions of our farmers were much better than they are, much more acreage of land would be brought under cultivation; far fewer people would be needed on the farm to produce more food and export crops than at present; and the productivity and standard of living of the farming population would rise considerably.

But the truth, as we know it, is that our farming and storage techniques remain more or less the same as those employed by Adam and Eve, soon after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. What improvement there is in our marketing technique has been brought about, unconsciously by the corresponding improvement in transportation. In the case of export crops, the techniques of storage and marketing in respect of plantation and non-plantation products are as good as can be. As for production technique, it is excellent in the plantations; and while there is big room for improvement in production technique among non-plantation producers of export crops, the technique employed in producing domestic crops is poorer by far.

The masses of Nigerian people are pathetically malnourished and disease-ridden, and wretchedly clad and housed. But the Nigerian farmers or peasants are more so. The annual output per farmer or agricultural worker is £40.2s. as against £177 per non­agricultural worker. Though there are no statistical data on the point, it is a notorious fact that farmers who are mainly engaged in the production of export products like cocoa, groundnuts, etc., are much more well off than those whose main occupation is the production of domestic food crops. At any rate it is estimated that only about 300,000 farmers are engaged in the production of cocoa. They cultivate an average or 5 acres each, and earn about £90 per head, i.e. more than double the average for all the 20 million Nigerian farmers. The picture is the same among those engaged in non-agricultural occupations. A top Civil Servant earns, all told, as much as £4,000 per annum, as against the daily paid male worker who earns only £90 in a whole year.

The comparable figures for Britain are approximately £ I ,000 per annum for a male manual worker - the equivalent of Nigeria ‘s daily paid worker, and £9,200 for the best paid Civil Servant. In other words, whilst the daily paid manual worker earns 1/44th of what is paid to the best paid Civil Servant in Nigeria, his counterpart in Britain earns as much as 1/9th of what is paid to the Secretary to the Cabinet who is the highest paid Civil Servant in Britain, It is easy to infer that, as between the Nigerian peasant engaged in subsistence farming on the one hand, and the Nigerian merchant, business executive, or entrepreneur on the other, the gap must be much wider.

(To be continued)

TAX evasion is a chronic and widespread disease in Nigeria, It is more so among those (other than salary earners) who are assessed to personal income tax than amongst those who, because of their obvious poverty, are presumed to have an income of  between £I and £50, and are, therefore, called upon to pay only a Poll Tax or what is popularly known as Flat Rate Tax. In the published figures of the Western State, which is, comparatively, the most progressive and most developed State in Nigeria, about 210 people declared an income of over £300 each, whilst about 600,000 are each presumed to be within the  £I - £50 income range, Even if the number of tax payers in each income bracket is doubled to make up for tax evasions, the result for our present purpose is the same. The gap between the poor  mass of the people and the rich few is very wide, and is already generating growing and bitter disaffection between the two classes.

In 1963 when we gave ourselves a population of 55.6 millions, we had only a total of 563 medical practitioners including specialists, and a total of 25,794 hospital beds, giving us respectively a ratio of approximately I medical practitioner to a population of 100,000, and I hospital bed to a population of  2.000q. The present official ratio of I medical practitioner to a population of 50,000 is erroneous and misleading; because it does not take the existing estimated population, which has been growing at the rate of 3% since 1963, into account. In Britain, by comparison, there are 35,000 medical practitioners including specialists and 464,000 hospital beds, to a population of 54 millions. The ratio is I medical practitioner to a population of 1,540, and hospital bed to a population of 116. It would be invidious to compare the qualities of medical practitioners and hospital beds in Nigeria and Britain.

Altogether, only 3 million of our children are receiving instruction in 15,000 primary schools. Of these 3 millions, only half-a-million are receiving instruction in the Northern Region, which is 5-3.5% of the entire population of Nigeria. There are 160,000 pupils in our secondary schools, 6,700 in our vocational schools, 3,200 full-time and part-time students in our technical institutes and colleges, and 10,000 students in our universities. Comparable figures for Britain are  9 millions in primary schools, 2.8 millions in secondary schools, 2 million full-time and part­time students in vocational, technical, and technological institutes, and 167,000 full-time students in British universities.

Our backwardness in the field of education is aggravated by the fact that we are short of teaching personnel at all levels. There is a shortage of 4,550 graduates and of 5,182 intermediate-level teachers, in our post-primary and teacher training institutions.

Even at our present slow  rate of economic growth, year in year out, we trail very far behind our high-level manpower needs, both of the senior and intermediate categories. We are very short of everything: doctors, engineers, accountants, economists, managerial and administrative staff, etc., etc. We have already given the figures showing our shortage of high-level manpower in the teaching profession; another example relating to agriculture will suffice.

The F.A.O. records a shortage of about 1,000 graduates in agricultural faculties’ for adequate staffing of essential government services for agriculture’. According to the same authority, the immediate needs of agriculture are to expand total capacity for agriculture and veterinary students in our universities to 1,550 by 1967/68. In fact, the number of students in agricultural faculties in 1967/68 was below 1,000. With the loss of potential high-level manpower in certain parts of the country, caused by the current civil war, the position, in the near future, is going to be much worse.

Excessive waste of resources, due to injudicious investment arising from lack of technical and managerial competence on the part of Nigerian private businessmen, abound everywhere. With very few exceptions, Nigeria’s public corporations are veritable hotbeds of criminal waste of natural and human resources. This is due mainly to fraud, corruption, and unspeakable inefficiency on the part of the Nigerians and, sometimes, non-Nigerians, who manage these corporations.

Most of the Nigerian executives, in charge of these heavily capitalised public concerns, have been appointed out of sheer favouritism and nepotism, and are without any special merits or qualifications for their onerous assignments, with the result that most of Nigeria’s public corporations and public-owned companies are grave and almost unbearable public liabilities, and constitute a permanent drain on the country’s coffers.

From all accounts, it would appear that the Government of Nigeria has a knack for misapplying our capital investments.. It was excusable that the railways built for us by our colonial masters never could do more than 20 miles an hour on the average. But it is unpardonable for us to repeat this performance as we did recently in the case of the Bornu Railway extension. Our roads and bridges are indefensibly narrow; and constitute unmitigated death-traps for their users. Our telephone systems and electricity supplies are disgracefully inefficient and unduly expensive. All of them ­railways, roads, telephones, and electricity supplies - are hopelessly inadequate for our requirements.

(To be continued)

PhysicsQED: I should definitely be available this Saturday, as long as nothing comes up. I look forward to reading each debater's arguments.

Physics, you are a judge? How did we end up with so many judges from South-South? Where is the Federal character on this panel? Do we have anyone respresenting the Sharia bloc? How about the bokoharam bloc, where is the balanced view?

I'll tell you what.....I like you cause you are my brother from the Bini bloodstream, otherwise I"ll kick you out. waado!

A few years ago I was looking for a second car online, I wanted a sports car, and saw this ad where the owner took time to explain what to expect in the car performance. He listed the engine hp, the torque, the cubic inch intake, the take off speed from the block in a quarter mile chase..... he finished by sharing how many championships the race version of this sports car had won. I took time to read this ad several times over to find something fascinating and impressive that will convince me to invest in it. I could find none. So I settled for something else that caught my attention and truly impressed.

....an ad that talks about how in the event of a mechanical failure, a built-in "limp home" feature will overide and reduce engine combustion and output by half to get me home safely.

All human beings, at the base of our nature....in the depth of our spirit and the privacy of inner quietude, move towards one end. That end is a risk-free existence. What is risk? Simply put, risk is "anything unknown" or "anything unrevealed" or "anything hidden" or "anything not understood".

Data talk and statistical numbers are the new protocols for intelligent communication. We throw numbers at people and say "look, the numbers dont lie". We must be careful with the way we handle data. Natural numbers themselves are beneficial to society....but most of the data we throw out as facts cannot be concluded as facts until it has been tested and proven to be a fast calibration of the indices it models.

Take for instance the dials on the dashboard of your car. Those are data. If you just filled up your car at the gas station then you would expect the tank dial to indicate a full tank. Right? This interaction between you and the dashboard is called data analysis, at its most simplistic level. If the dial remains at E then you instantly recognize that a fault exist somewhere and you troubleshoot that error to correct it. By taking a corrective action to fix a fault you have demonstrated discretion. So, dials are aids, like data, to assist humans in making discretions and decisions that keep us safe and live risk-free......they are not meant to replace or substitute our need for decision and discretion that affect lives of our people.

Many air accidents and crashes result from erratic avionics and mis-interpretation of dials by trained pilots. When a pilot flies VR (visual rules), he/she uses the horizon and landscape to fly low altitude using physical visual references to maneuver the airplane. This type of flying is okay for hobby pilots and amateurs. All commercial and professional pilots must obtain IR (instrument rating). In ground school, where a pilot takes simulation training, a headgear with a retractable front visor is attached to the skull. When the visor is lowered it blocks all frontal and peripheral view of the horizon and disables the trainee's ability to independently judge spatial orientation and respond to it. For his or her movement in space the pilot undergoes a training teaching him or her to trust, depend and rely on an entity external to his/her own faculties for relational glide through space. Upon passing the simulation training the pilot becomes intimate and dependent on a set of calibrated electronics......compass, gyroscope, altimeter, speedometer, thermometer...etc to judge height, distance, angle, pitch, yaw, ....and so on.

So during an approach for landing the electronics calculate height and distance and gives the pilot the angle of glide to touch down the plane. There is a dial (corresponding to the airplane nose & wings) that has a X/Y reference of the horizon and this dial must be lined up to the horizontal axis of the azimuth. If its above it, the angle or pitch is too much...if not corrected to the speed and thrust of the engine the plane could stall and result in catastrophy. If the nose and wing dial is below the horinzontal, then the plane is descending off course and if not corrected would land the bird in a farmland or in residential homes instead of a tarmac in an airport and result in an inferno and destruction. The rudder, the wings, the fins, the ailerons....everything on the external surface of an airplane has a dial and reference to guide the pilot for safe take off, cruising and landing.

What happens when a functioning avionics go bad mid flight at 10000 ft asl? This is where the pilot is expected to become self-dependent again and must fly by the " seat of the pants". .......by his natural abilities!

So we must be careful in the way we relate with data and statsical values and the correct interpretation must be derived and applied in a way that softens risk and uplift our society generally.

....data cannot do anything, good or bad, for the human population. Only people have the ability to help or ruin society. Data acts as an aid in the hands of people to carry out this end goal. Whatever the data say, we must not substitute or surrender our responsibility to society to an untested, uncalibrated, unproven model advertised as facts and truths for our people.

It is a blasphemy for Kalu to put an Igbo presidency as a savior for Nigeria. A reckless and illusive forecast for 2015.