₦airaland Forum

I'm still looking for the full speech by Chukwumerije, and I will post it here.

I just had to rehash some key points in his speech:

In the quest for political leverage, our loud deadlines and projections on the election of a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction have been mocked by the Nigerian system. Our place on the rung of Federation's power ladder has slid to 5th or 6th level, yet we are the largest single ethnic group in the country. On the social front, the Igbo cultural personality is treated with as much respect by the rest of Nigeria as the regard which animals of the forest reserve for the once-respected red crest of the rooster!

I'll be back later to deal with this anumanu.  

@PointB

That goat is not Igbo. I'll bring proof later. But this (thread) is not the place to bring it.

Bro Dede1,

I have always known that the goat is NOT Igbo.
He can fool non- Igbos, but he can never fool true sons of Ala Igbo.

Posted by: Okija_juju

Nwokem, Osoqua ghi, keep thinking to yourself that the world is out to get indi igbo,  Keep fighting with air, keep generating conspiracy theories about a plot to wipe indi igbo into extinction. Come 2015, with the present state of affairs in Igbo land, an Hausa man would be president. Indi Igbo are there screaming Marginalization, Genocide and all that crap, the NIGER DELTA has produced a President and a Vice president. Keep singing the same tune, the middle-belt would produce a president before the Igbos,  You think that the present political dispensation is still riding on that zoning bullcrap?? Think again. The election of JEG in the midst of heavy weight Northern political opponents should be a pointer to indi Igbo that zoning will not get us there. Until we as indi igbo eliminate the hate in our mind, stop living in the past (BIAFRA), stop celebrating criminals and crooks (Uwazuruike, Kalu and co) and conciously make an effort to reintegrate into Nigeria, the status quo would remain the same.

There will be no more war in this country same way their will be no more military rule.

I am an igbo man, Anambra true and true,  My heritage is not in contention, my grand father fought that biafran war that y'all seem to love to shout about, I've heard terrible stories about that war, my grandmother lost 4 boys (her sons) in 1 day from an aerial bombing raid during that war, so stop acting like y'all are some type of war heroes of some sort.

The young generations of indi Igbo need to take over the helm of affairs. Bring up bright ideas that would propel us out of the cesspit that the older generation (uwazuruike & co) are hell bent on remaining in. The actualization of the indi Igbo dream would not come from living in the ashes of the Biafran war. Ojukwu who led us into that ill-thought war is at the brink of death yet the younger geration who have nothing but tales to remember that war by have held on to the past with a firm grip.

I am sick and tired of hearing the same old tale of marginalization and the genocidal crap, it was a war (well as far as the igbos were concerned because to the rest of Nigeria it was quelling the uprising of a renegade band of terrorists). Where the igbos marginalized worst that the Niger Deltans? The creeks and water-side dwellers? Abeg make una look bush jor!!

I tell everyone that the best thing to happen to indi Igbo was the failure of Biafra. At this rate, by now Biafra would have been like war-torn Sierra-leone or Liberia or even Sudan.

I have moved on, the rest of us should do so as well,  


Indi Igbo ekene'm unu o!!


Ask for you, I still want to believe that the reason you went to that cybercafe was to apply for the salesboy position at Chukwuma & Son enterprises. I would suggest you focus on that and make the maximum use of your 150 Naira,

@Okija_juju

My friend, I am adequately convinced that YOU ARE NOT IGBO. Period.
Pray, which Igbo son calls NDI "indi"?
The only Igbo that uses such strange words are "Yoruba" ones. LOL.
There are many Nigerians from other tribes who can tinker or patch along with Igbo language.
This is what gave you away.

And stop your idiotic attempts to sound intelligent.

The ultimate truth is that Igbo are THE heartbeat of Nigeria. Heck we are even the heartbeat of Africa. If you doubt me, look at NOLLYWOOD.
Remove Yoruba or Hausa from Nigeria today; Nigeria will continue as if nothing happened.
Remove Igbo from Nigeria today, EVERYTHING stops and Nigeria ceases to exist. FACT.

That leads me to one famous saying by an Igbo musician.

"Onye na aro onye ka ya anya, na eme ya nkiri" - Whoever is eyeballing his superior, is only looking in admiration.

Like I keep saying too "The offspring of a lion does not chew grass".
We Igbo are lions. We feed on fresh meat!

OP take note.

I also saw how some people desperately tried to trivialize this, and have been trying to muddle the waters by saying things like "the whole country is f0cked". This may be true; but some parts are inherently backwards.

Imagine a state spending 80 - 90% of revenue on salaries?  
Is that not pure leeching off the state resources?
I will keep saying this.
I am one of those calling for the renegotiation of Nigeria (if not its outright total disintegration) because, there is no similarity in mindset and attitude towards public resources.  
Some parts like to depend on state resources more than other parts.
My concern is that the part that depends more on state resources always see the contest for power at the center as a matter of life and death.
All it ever achieved was to make Nigeria the most indebted country in Africa, before the debt was negotiated down by an Igbo woman. Mallam has been gradually increasing the debt again!

Just look at SE and tell me that this region can't survive as a nation.

I forgot to add mitoFAG. F0cked up region.

Anambra, I'm a proud son. 

Now where are all those thieves who have been calling for Peter Obi's head, simply because he shut the coffers against them?
You know yourselves in Nairaland. Shame on all you enemies of financial probity in Anambra state.

I'm also proud of Imo (as always). The heartland never disappoints umu Igbo. Thanks Rochas.

Even T.A Orji managed to pull this one off. I'm still looking at you Orji with my left eye; but thanks for keeping Abia financially sane.

Umu Igbo ejim unu eme onu. Jisie nu ike.

In all, I am not shocked anyway.

LOL @ SW ra-pe figures.
What do you expect? Sometimes I wonder what folks should expect from a region where BK/Babe, Fstranger, Arsenefc, GoatBluetooth and his twin Seanet were unleashed without warning.  
I pity women that side, eziokwu.  

Here's the way I see it.

BOTH are "languages". Both are codes

A code may be telling a story or reporting an event. It may not be issuing out step by step instructions.
While a computer program is almost always issuing SPECIFIC sets of instructions (STEP BY STEP).

Every computer program "speaks" a "language".
Every code also "speaks" a language too.

Programming is coding, but coding MAY NOT be programming.

Frankly, the only sensible point being made by aribisala0, which must be resounded, is the fact that current geopolitical zones have outlived their use.
They were created (through the inspiration of an Igboman -Alex Ekwueme) to demostrate to the minorities in Nigeria (especially Eastern minorities) that Igbo man is not trying to throw them under the bus or swallow them up.

It was an incongruous overkill (if you ask me); all to make a point.

Well, the point has been made. Only foolish Nigerians would still advocate this nebulous and unwieldy political concoction which attempts -predictably in utter futility- to string together the strangest of bedfellows.
The minimum that must happen is that we return to regions.
Even if we maintain the current geopolitical names, the states constituting each zone needs to be reviewed.
Else, if we must maintain same zones, then, the zones MUST have equal name of states. Simple.

Posted by: ezeagu

We have at least one on nairaland.

LOL. Eko-psychoIle.

Posted by: cheikh

@^^ Does the above quote not sound very hollow in the light of the sacking of so called non-indigene staff spat between Abia state and Imo state ?. A house divided cannot stand. A people without vision, foresight and long range creative thinking plans rarely make it to the so called "promised" land. The current so called Igbo leadership are too short term oriented in thinking and lacking genuine creative problem solving abilities. They are too ego centric and easily pliable and dazzled by gimmicks by anyone and sundry. They seem to be quick to make grand standing statements without well thought out ideas and plans for viable, implementable actions. Please think and review the implications of the spat between Abia / Imo and perhaps other Igbo states like Ebonyi too. The situation demands serious thinking and action plan before looking outwards to projects like the Centre where the general feeling of antipathy against the Igbo is enormous and those representing the various Igbo communities at the Centre are not exactly people of vision or emotional attachment to their people. It's as serious War!

I totally agree with all the bolded. I would like to believe that Uche Chukwurije's plans must have addressed that, hence the wide applause it is receiving from various Igbo groups. If you read the quotes from his speech, that is the impression you get. The three key areas he identifies are the critical areas that need seriously brain work.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with ONE step forward.

I haven't listened to such VERY HIGH quality choir anywhere in Nigeria since 90s.
This was common in Igboland before now.
Today, there is nothing. It has been killed by the Nigerian confusion.

[flash=480,360]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSTQoQ-urRw?version=3&hl=en_US"[/flash]

The most important of Chukwumerije's points is the Recovery of our group cultural personality.

I have lamented here that our culture is being muddled and confused in the Nigerian dungeon.

I was watching a South African theater art by the "Soweto Gospel Choir" and was amazed by the similarity to our Igbo choirs in the early 80s (during civilian rule), all of which are now dead.

I started wondering how a South African black group could retain much of their cultural singing and dancing under white rule, than Igbo maintaining our singing and dancing under Hausa/Fulani/Yoruba rule.

If you go to youtube.com you would see how vibrant all these South African black theater groups are.
Now, try watching "Nigerian national troupe"; you would become so confused and embarrassed.  

We need to reclaim and revive our culture. Else, we die. This is ultimately really a matter of cultural life and death.

^^

Frankly I don't even care about Nigerian presidency. I just want MASSOB to be supported by ALL Igbo politicians.
We can do a lot with it. I know you know what I'm about.

I say we should adopt MASSOB as our enforcement arm.
Every serious group has an armed wing. Only Ndigbo.
I'm happy that someone as high as Senator Uche Chukwumerije is the one advocating this.

I always laugh at all these Igbos who want to be more "patriotic" than other Nigerians.
I'm seriously laughing at such foools.

Ok, I came across some of the quotes from his speech:


"Path To Igbo Self-Rehabilitation explained its essence in the opening paragraph thus: "The dialectical flow of Nigerian's history has now swept Ndigbo to what Zik once described as the brink of an open grave. Ndigbo must today -not tomorrow - regain themselves and re-assert their corporate personality in our multi-ethnic Federation or diffuse into isolated individual entities in the anonymity of Nigeria's multitude. The purpose of this brief address is to draw our attention to this threat and offer suggestions on a mode of urgent redemptive positive action."

"Content analysis of the Nigerian press in the last three decades will probably indicate that no ethnic group has fielded as many super-patriotic expert-advisers on Nigerian unity or is as ready to sound and act holier than Pope Nigeria as members of the Igbo ethnic nationality.

"But all these noisy activities have neither induced a change of heart in the Nigerian System nor restored our rights and dignity in the Federation. Today, South East zone still carries the open wounds of a savage genocidal war. She is the backwater of Nigeria, scoring low in economic, political and social indices. On the economic front, the fact that an indisputably major national project, Second Onitsha Bridge, has been abandoned by Federal Government to South East self-help through the euphemism of Public Private Partnership while similar mega national projects in other states or zones receive full Federal funding is an eloquent statement on Nigeria's attitude to the challenge of repair of our war-destroyed economy. In the quest for political leverage, our loud deadlines and projections on the election of a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction have been mocked by the Nigerian system. Our place on the rung of Federation's power ladder has slid to 5th or 6th level, yet we are the largest single ethnic group in the country. On the social front, the Igbo cultural personality is treated with as much respect by the rest of Nigeria as the regard which animals of the forest reserve for the once-respected red crest of the rooster!

"The Result? The nose-dive of the ethnic group, beginning from the collapse of our Igboness in 1970, has continued so relentlessly that the group is on the verge of extinction. Yes, total disappearance of a group from the institutional centre of our multi-ethnic Federation is a refined form of extinction. Extinction does not refer only to the death chambers of physical extermination and genocide. Total disappearance of a group from a political map is a refined extermination entraining the same grim harvest to a group which allows itself to disintegrate into lone disparate stars in the firmament."

Senator Chukwumerije's proposal for halting and reversing the slide of Ndigbo amounted to a three-sided rescue operation as follows:

•Functional unity anchored on a core group.

•Launch of a 'Marshal Plan' to the rehabilitation of our war-shattered economy.

• Recovery of our group cultural personality.

"In increased effort to optimally realise the potentials of its grass roots-oriented republican constitution, Ohanaeze needs to do more to reach three groups. One is the large reservoir of elders and statesmen in our large family to enrich and strengthen Ime-Obi. The second is the youths. Youths are the teeth or the fangs of any disadvantaged group struggling for redress. Distancing ourselves from our main youth organizations like Massob will cost us the leverage necessary to re-direct their energies to constructive ends WITHIN THE AMBIT OF THE LAW. The causal relationship between OPC/June 12 and South West access to the Presidency for twelve years, or between youth militancy and Niger Delta's current access to Presidency, or between a politicized Boko Haram and North's determination to win the next round of Presidential election points to the fact that youth militancy has become an effective weapon in the armoury of group struggle. It is the fatherly duty of Ohanaeze to devise means of constructive engagement with our youth bodies as members of our large family."

"It was the Niger Delta militancy that ensured that President Goodluck Jonathan became President of Nigeria while the Boko Haram sect is being used by the North to achieve its presidency bid in 2015. The Igbos should therefore incorporate the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) into its system to ensure that an Igbo emerges as President of Nigeria [in 2015]."

It appears that the document is making waves among Igbo groups worldwide.
We Nairaland pundits need to see and comment on it.

@my Igbo brothers,

Anyone seen this Uche Chukwumerije roadmap document?
I've always trusted Uche Chukwumerije in terms of Nigerian national politics. He ranks VERY HIGH in my book.

2015 Presidency: Groups adopt Chukwumerije’s speech as Igbo roadmap


BY Tony Edike
ENUGU—SIXTEEN Igbo groups rose from a meeting in Enugu Monday endorsing Senator Uche Chukwumerije’s epistle to Ndigbo as the authentic roadmap for Ndigbo as the Igbo race pursues self-discovery and political salvation.

The Chukwumerije epistle, titled Wake up call: Path to Igbo Self-Realisation, delivered at the recent 2011 Igbo Day celebration at Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, has been generally hailed by Ndigbo at home and abroad as an honest and patriotic agenda-setting document for the Igbo race.

The groups, which met at the Igbo Youth Movement, IYM, Secretariat GRA, Enugu, agreed to work together, assisting each other and co-operating as a team to build synergy to move Igboland forward.

Briefing newsmen after the meeting, President of IYM, Evangelist Elliot Uko, said Ndigbo was in dire straits at the moment because of decades of marginalisation and deliberate efforts by past regimes in the country to divide and hold down Ndigbo.

Uko said Igbo were surprised that such a beautiful document could come from a serving PDP senator, urging Ndigbo to be guided by Chukwumerije’s admonition in their pursuit for political relevance.

He announced the setting up of five committees to articulate and aggregate various shades of opinion from Igbo traders, civil servants, the clergy, traditional rulers and Igbo in the diaspora.

The committees are those of mobilisation, enlightenment, strategy, finance and integration and they are expected to brief the groups’ general meeting scheduled for December this year.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/10/2015-presidency-groups-adopt-chukwumerije%E2%80%99s-speech-as-igbo-roadmap/

Posted by: igbo2011

They need lesss states not more :' More states means less for each state and more money to steal.

If you meant less states for EVERYBODY and equal number for each zone, then you are right. Else bullocks.

Yea, but how do you deal with lien issues associated with most.
You can have a house that is $1, but the city placed a "blight lien" of $400,000.
Then what? LOL.

Never thought I'd see the day.

Posted by: aribisala0

no need to abuse your family.
truth is it WILL NEVER happen that they create new states in the south east alone.

why??

it has to pass in 24 states houses of assembly and right now the SE has 5 1/2
where are the other 19 states that will vote to create 2 states in the SE and NOT increase their own.
ordinary local government created in lagos has NOT passed even with supreme court decision


in fact if they create 2 in the SE they will create 2 in kano alone so bring it on. .

Never say never in Nigeria! That is one lesson I need you to learn and bear in mind.
The SE governors said that SE would not support ANY constitutional amendment if the zones are not equalized.
I believe that is the FIRST salvo. More is coming. Some of you think you have monopoly of treachery.
I'm really loving the new emerging Nigeria. Just don't cry tomorrow. LOL.

^^

Every Nigerian knows about it. The only thing I have to say (as a typical Igbo man) is that it is not anyone's fault.
There is nothing that cannot be reversed.
It makes no sense to have all the most important national registration councils in Lagos alone.
We solved the Nigerian law school issue by spreading it out.
The same should apply to other such institutes.

^^
Ok, correction taken. But I wonder why folks are going crazy over a five month budget in a 12 month year. N.Delta needs to feel they are part of this country.
I still maintain that SE allocations won't be published like that because we always attract the highest envy.
I know that all the federal roads in SE has been awarded and their funds disbursed, plus Enugu airport, Onitsha port, and second Niger bridge contract. I would only start agitating if nothing happens by the end of NEXT YEAR. 

Posted by: dayokanu

Calabar used to be a federal capital and Lagos stopped being Capital 20yrs ago

Yes I know that, but Lagos (thanks to what some would call conspiracy) keeps holding firm to some of the most important national institutions. I'll give some examples.
All the professional medical and other associations still have their headquarters in Lagos. WHY?
One of my relation wanted to obtain his license in order to practice his profession. He had to travel all the way to Lagos to do that. He had all his education and Youth service in Anambra, but had to travel to Lagos (for the first time in his life) to do this. Why couldn't he do it in Awka or Enugu?
The same applies to most professions I know.
But, I believe that all these would be redressed soon, 'cos it makes no sense at all.

Lagos is still the de facto federal capital in many ways.
Calabar never enjoyed such protracted privilege.

Posted by: olawalebab

no comment, top 3 state without an airport. Hmm, what comes to mind when anambra is mention is onithsa, nnewi (not as the former), chris uba governor kidnap saga, okija shrine. I think these factors make the state more popular than any other factors. @onlytruth. Are you saying lagos is not part of SW or what?

I am saying it is not your typical south west state because it used to be a federal capital territory. I was only saying that other SW states shouldn't piggyback on Lagos to claim more popularity, because in all the years I've been travelling from Onitsha to Lagos, I've never gone beyond Lagos. My only other visit to areas outside Lagos was during my youth service which was in Ijebu (Ago Iwoye). I've never gone back there ever since.

Posted by: Rhino.5dm

He who pays the piper calls the tune.
BTW, SE region is ommited from that list

My friend, there is more than enough accommodation for SE in the sharing equation.
It doesn't have to be listed. We know. 

I even think that Kano is so because it has an international airport. BIG DEAL.
If Anambra has any such airport, then, no other state would even come close.