I like this idea even if TA Orji is not credible enough to opine it. In fact I have so much faith in Abia state, and I am a STRONG believer that ALL Igbo states should have DIRECT access to the outside world (America, Asia, Europe etc) whether by water or air.
This will strengthen our negotiated position in case Nigeria splits.
So whoever brought up this idea should be patted on the back, not ridiculed.
I would borrow for such a project than what others have borrowed for in SE.
This is my idea of a capital project that will tranform the economy of Abia and environs.

But they have been providing shallow leadership to Nigeria from 1966 till 1999.
Who is really shallow? The North with a female literacy of 7% or the South South with a female literacy above 90%?
These people should please shut up.

atlwireles: The oil wells taken from Awka-ibom and Abia, by the same government and handed to Rivers never made headlines.

U de mind that man. He is grasping at straws and seeking a legitimate reason to dump APC again and return to PDP.
Just watch as he returns without conditions.

Abagworo:

You just floored your relevance by making this sort of baseless comment. Jonathan might speak Igbo just like Gowon might speak Hausa but their 1st languages are Ogbiya and Angas. IBB's 1st language is Gwari.

You are a known outcast amongst Igbo folks in this forum. Your words are insults to other Igbos, so for you to agree with me would be an insult to me.
Because of you, some Igbo have started to believe that Igbo is not one.

papparatzzi2013:

how does speaking a language, makes you that ethnic group.

i speak french and spanish fluently. does that make me a french or spanish?

na wa oo for NL.

I know the context in which Mr President used that.
I remember vividly during my youth service when we (I and my friend from Akwa Ibom state) were discusing a particular Northern president (I won't mention his name), another corper from BENUE state jumped in. You need to hear this guy's views. He was nothing more that an Hausa man!
The truth is that of the so called Northern minorities, perhaps only the Zangon Kataf (and maybe the Birom these days) may truely be classified different from the rest of the Hausa in PRACTICAL TERMS.
Now, bite me, but I stand on that!

GEJ spoke the truth! But I don't expect his haters to agree.

Which of the so called Northern minority that ruled Nigeria is not VERY FLUENT in HAUSA. In fact I can bet that Hausa was their FIRST language.
Is it Balewa, is it Babangida, is it Gowon, or Abdusalami? Go and check!
Hausa was the lingua franca of Northern Nigeria. Such language uniformity did not happen in the East or the West.
Can anyone in his right senses say that Jonathan's first language is Igbo? Can Jonathan even speak Igbo?
You people like to twist Mr President's words always, but why twist your own brains too?
Tufiakwa.

GEJ is right; this letter will be quoted for all time in Nigeria's history. It will be a watershed of sorts, and I pray that issues raised in it will somehow spin a sponteneous chain reaction that ensures that old rogues in Nigeria are permanently caged for the good of our chidren's future.

This is the good old prof that we all love and respect. Sir, you spoke the truth!

akpomeme: Gej response is an eye opener and a reminder to all those who feel they are Landords of Nigeria that they are not.., iyabo to his dad; you don't own Nigeria.

He will soon find out that Nigeria has changed, and that his type has been swept away for good in Nigeria.
The next phase is to bring them to justice for their crimes against the Nigerian people.
No amount of letter writing will cover OBJ's sins against Nigeria.

Hehehe! Those pictures are verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry funny!
And they speak volumes!

I think that he is scared of responding this time, after getting a thorough lecture in GEJ's reply. The old ape of Ota is a natural born coward and knows when to quietly tuck his tail between his legs and run.
I remember when he came in newly as civilian president in 1999. He kept leaving the country CONSTANTLY to test the anti-coup mechanisms he put in place to ensure they are working. He wanted to be safely out of the country should any coup happen. Nigerians tagged him "away president" those days. It was TY Danjuma that held the forte in the coward's absence.

Something tells me that GEJ may be planning something for that evil man, and he got a wind of it. There are many subtle accusations from GEJ against Obasanjo in his reply. He must have seen the handwriting on the wall.

I really hope that GEJ is using Teddy Rosevelt's style : Speak softly, but carry a big stick!

Obiagu1: I knew it.

He has been writing letters to the President.
Now that the President has nullified all his claims while indirectly calling him clueless, murderer, thief, etc, he wants to sheath his sword.

Why not react and the next thing he'll get is jail time.

I also think that is why he is not responding this time. The old ape of Ota is a natural born coward and knows when to quietly tug his tail between his legs and run.
I remember when he came in newly as civilian president in 1999. He kept leaving the country CONSTANTLY to test the anti-coup mechanisms he put in place to ensure they are working. He wanted to be safely out of the country should any coup happen. Nigerians tagged him "away president" those days. It was TY Danjuma that held the forte is the coward's absence.

Something tells me that GEJ may be planning something for that evil man, and he got a wind of it. There are many subtle accusations from GEJ against Obasanjo in his reply. He must have seen the handwriting on the wall.

I really hope that GEJ is using Teddy Rosevelt's style : Speak softly, but carry a big stick!

Magic Bishop:

Who are we fighting?

Nigeria does not need to waste money on stup1d military hardware that will be obsolete by the time they agree to sell it to us rather I will like to emphasis on TRAINING for our troops and also a marked downsizing in their numbers.

We don't require an air force since what we have is more like a Chair Force. The U.S. coast guards has more helicopters than our fighting force.

[size=16pt]It is obvious that we may never require a standing army against any invader rather our army has been used against her own citizens more than any other force in history. The role of our army is no more than an occupying deterrent to secession and the role it has come to play[/size] within the boko insurgency should have been adequately handled by an efficient police force in the first place.

If You ask me I will rather see more funds going into civilian policing than the army

I am compelled to agree with the bolded words.
So, while they are busy guarding against local secessionists, a foreign power can simply walk it and recolonize Nigeria.
Smart.

DerideGull:

Nigeria has enough to defend itself.

Dede you fail my hand o.
So, you mean that even you don't know that Nigeria has not enough weapons of modern warfare?
I hope you saw how the French routed the trouble makers in Central African Republic with only 300 men.

hercules07:

You want to see wetin? Who will sell 4th gen fighter aircrafts to us, submarine nibo?

So, you mean that Nigeria with MORE maritime resources cannot buy a sub while South Africa has three (the last time I checked)
You do well o.

funkybaby:

Really?

Then how come they've been unable to end the boko haram menace?

Thank you for asking this question.
When I read that Boko Haram drove into town in trucks and in hundreds of men, I knew instantly that there is no aerial surveillance along the North East border.
All it takes is for their movement to be picked up by a UAV and figther aircrafts dispatched immediately to obliterate them.
Nope, didn't happen!
They came to town, did their thing and left jejely.

ndu_chucks: The budget you see does not include funding for fighter jets, heavy weaponry, tanks etc. Making those figures public would jeopardize our national security. Rest easy, nwanne m, the millitary is well provided for.

I hope you are sure o. I say this because when Abacha was in charge, the budget then was around $2 -3 billion, and our GDP then was around $66 billion.
Now, our GDP is pushing above $400 billion, isn't it sensible to upgrade our defence spending accordingly?

I want to see a SUBMARINE and some 4th gen fighter aircrafts, and I want to see some modern anti-aircraft systems in place.
Are you saying we have these?
Please enlighten me.

I just saw the 2014 budget that allocated about $1.6 billion to the entire Nigerian armed forces -Army, Navy and Airforce, and I started to wonder.
How can such a military defend a nation of 170 million BLACK African people?

The last news about a Boko Haram attack in the North East stated that the insurgents came to town in trucks (TRUCKS! ) , and they numbered hundreds.
How hard is it to send up a 24/7 aerial surveillance of the North East border with Chad, and Cameroon? It is only as hard as acquiring a modern surveillance aircraft. How much is that these days? Not much I must say!

Again up till now, I cannot understand why the Nigerian Navy has no Submarine... not even ONE.

How can they defend and protect Nigerian maritime resources against foreign thieves? How can they defend Nigeria against foreign aggressors?
Methinks that our entire annual military budget should NEVER go below $20 billion for starters, and it should be steadily increased to above $30 within the decade. We need modern air defences and sea defences -modern combat and surveillance planes, and modern submarines and ships.

Nigeria is a resource rich country, and there are those eying those resources.
I repeat, 21st century will not be kind to weak and dumb countries.
We are sitting on some of the best resources on earth, and there are those who want it.
A word is enough for the wise!

Yet, the the great APE of Ota found his mouth to insult a sitting president with his sanctimonious crappy letter.
He should thank his stars that Jonathan is a democrat through and through, else he would be smelling his nyash by now.
Shameless ape.

shymexx: It seems these clowns have never watched the British parliament and how they shout one another down, including the PM and deputy PM.

Anyway, she looks like she has down syndrome - so I can't really blame her.

Coupled with the innate victim-card syndrome, then you would have a double whammy of stupidity.

Just tell her to go provide answers to the 50 questions. End of.

So, just to make a point, you had to insult ALL people with down syndrome? Some of you Yoruba posters are nothing more than pure goats.
I STRONGLY doubt that any Igbo poster would be so callous and dumb.
The women you are insulting have risen to career levels that your entire generation will never attain. FACT. You are here foaming in the mouth like a goat getting ready to be slaughtered for sallah.
Honestly, someone nearby should permanently slap your mouth shut.
Anumanu.

@Op, but would you say that South Sudan would rather go back to status quo ante -revert back to old Sudan? lai lai
All new nations go through teething problems. FACT of life.
The problem with Nigeria is that somehow major stake holders in that country has failed to tell themselves the truth about the problems facing Nigeria. They adopted lies, and even CURRENTLY blocking attempts at getting to the truth.
If they had told themselves the truth, we would have since (around 1976) laid ALL the foundations that sustain a big country like Nigeria.
It didn't happen because of some of reasons people are calling for Nigeria's disintegration today.

Innocent kids toiling away at school work while their governor galivants around looking to export thuggery to Anambra state. Thank God his thugs were stopped and jailed at Owerri.
Useless man.

Olamagnifico: So Afenifere is the real Yoruba now... Hahaha

Some time ago u ppl haild wole soyinka and later insultd him...

Am sure u guys will insult afenifere very soon...

IBO Hypocrates

Look let me tell you this, the REAL Afenifere is REAL and is led by REAL Yoruba interests, not "come and eat" interests.
They have a credible history. That is why I would always think through any of their proposals that I don't agree with, but I hardly insult them because they have earned their credibility. Now, I'm talking about the Afenifere with Ayo Adebanjo in it. I would NEVER insult Ayo Adebanjo, just like I would never insult Wole Soyinka (irrespective of political differences).

I don't know if it is me, but I think that the military budget is too small for a country the size and signifance of Nigeria.

Who shall defend Nigeria should there be an attempt to recolonize Nigeria?
With a military budget of less than $2 billion?
I shudder.

I repeat, the 21st century will NOT be kind to foolish countries. The morality in the world is dying out fast.

A word is enough for the wise!

Imagine a sane person threatening WAR if Jonathan wins in 2015.
Well, the Igbo people say that "soso osisi nuru na a ga egbu ya wee kwuru ofu ebe". I won't translate it.
The warning is to Igbo people.