₦airaland Forum

Becomrich}:
if una smart, una for done take style cut[b] bayelsa [/b]and yoruba into benin republic.

Bayelsa is Eastern Nigeria. It stays there. You can carry your Odualand to Benin jeje!

Becomrich}:
i am only trying to make you see how democracy work. If we had 3 region. and northerner had been there, obasanjo  yorubas had been there, who do you think would have been president from the East now. Ijaw or Igbo?? Una not smart. continue to shout south south. Mugu.

Which "northerner" do you mean? Gowon? IBB?

What is the problem if an Easterner called Goodluck Jonathan rule Nigeria instead of Ojo Maduekwe? Same people, same fate, same destiny.

Becomrich}:
Nobdoy created the south south, my friend.

wetin happen be say, Igbo man think say, him want catch ijaw man mugu. But Ijaw man out smart igbo man. He land ijaw man into the presidency.  Why Ijaw man they tell Igbo man to they follow them shout south south.

Honestly who be mugu. Ijaw man or Ibo, who have become mumu.
continue they follow them shout south south? and see if any igboman would ever be president.

May be in 2048 when the igbo become president una go get the story.

So how is that any of your business? I thought you are from Benin republic! hehehe!

Becomrich}:
from looking at the satellite picture, the igbos must have knew that Amachie and odili were igbo people. it looks like they just wanted to cheat the system that why they created it. So that they would have a large part of the national cake. revenue,

But it has put them into serious trouble that why jonathan from a small ethnics group is president. Even the Igbos in the south south like amachie and odili and others can not become president, if they zone it to the south south, if they create a zone like that. So they were trying to be smart. but it land the igbo people into serious trouble. And they now instead of an Igbo man as president, we have an ijaw man.

And as long as the igbo keep on talking about the south south, the igbo would never be president of nigeria. Because population is what they use in democracy.

Let igbo continue to talk about south south as see , if an igboman would ever been president. Population is what they use in democracy.  when they zone the president to south south again, Ijaw man go get it again. Who then do you think is mumu. Una or them.
Can Amachie or Odili become the president of South south Republic

There will never be south south republic. What new tree are you smoking today? You can't even follow your own logic.
If Igbo is 90% of the East according to you, how can you create a south south republic?

excanny:
I am yet to believe this conjecture. I still need some kind of reaction to this by the supposedly involved persons. That God some of them are still breathing.

First off, i tried accessing the link provided, but to no avail.  

My question here is, if the intention of creating this SS was to give the Igbos some breathing space, why then do we still have a large considerable chunk of Igbos and Igboid groups in the SS, especially in Rivers state?

It seems to me that some things aren't just adding up. Anyway, i need to google more to verify some stuffs.

Bros, the thing is quite simple. The idea of 6 geo-political zones was really about bringing equal voice to everyone in Nigeria without ruffling too much feathers. It was the best option that the ruling Abacha junta could accept. The unspoken aim though was to disorganize the north like the north did in the east. If eastern minorities could enjoy political voice, why not the northern minorities? What is good for the goose must be good for the gander, right?

If we lose control over our minority neighbors thanks to the north, the north must also lose theirs thanks to Ndigbo. Recall that we lost control over our region after the war in 1970. These our leaders wanted to bring that feeling to northerners, and they did it.
Great scheme, masterfully executed. The north never forgave Ekwueme because of that, and they showed him their displeasure during the PDP primaries in 1999.
As for the Igbo in south south, I think it is to Igbo advantage that they stayed there. We lost nothing there.

Sometimes I wonder whether we the younger emerging leaders of Igboland can ever match the ingenuity of our fathers. Those guys are simply geniuses.

Beaf:
No, it will depend on how the data is presented. It would have to be 100% professional, 100% honest, on its own website etc.
Even if bias creeps in, there will be counters, and then counter-counters until the govt realises the need to man up and provide accurate statistics.

It can be done but only by investigative reporters like Saharareporters (if they are still credible) and others like them (if they are interested). It is not for pedestrians like myself. Ours is to do punditry when they release the data.

However, my guess is that only electoral data can hold enough information for such analysis because almost every person over the age of 18 votes in Nigeria, and their LGA info is part of their biometry obtained during registration. We can't say same about education records, driving record, taxation record and pension records.

Even almajiri in Damaturu de vote sef! 

Beaf:
^
Why can't people like yourself, who are equiped with the skills and tools provide scientific population estimates from satellite data? Dude, you can easily do it.
Let the era of deception fade away through citizen power.

Even if I can do it, people will group me with Becomerich when I post the data!

That is why the Nigerian government is the only body capable of presenting the data credibly.

Becomrich}:
Andre Uweh, Dr Alex Ekwueme and the rest of igbo at that time looks like they trick abacha to create the south south. thank God, it was never done. He died before it went through.  Dr Alex Ekwueme and the igbos must have knew that the Ikwerri people. Ndoni people where Igbos. when abacha was doing this. most nigerian never knew that ikwerri, ndoni  people were igbo, it was Peter Odili and Amachie who became governor that allowed every one to know that river state was mostly igbo people.


There is no constitutional backing to the 6 zone and there would never been an constitutional backing to it.

If you look at this picture below. over 90% of the people of this area are Igbo people.  We are looking at the satellite pictures, and we can tell you, over 90% of the people are Igbo people. Cross river state is not that populated with people.



look in your so call south west. We have Ijaw and egun people in your so call south west.
Why is this area in the picture is  not term whole of south east,  even include the annag and efik.  ?
Since Ijaw and egun people are also part of the so call south west.

90% of the people in this picture belong are igbo people.  You see how funny your so call 6 zone was. we are look at the satellite picture, it is telling us over 90% is Igbo.  Now you see how your wayo is working against you now for the presidency.

Imagine if Dr Alex Ekwueme and his fellow had done it right that, who do you think would be the present president of nigeria. An igbo. Wayo don put una for trouble.

So you see why your so call 6 zone can never work.  


The point it for abacha to want to force people then he lock up many people in jail. But thank God , he die. May be that is the reason God killed him.

Andrew you see how Wayo put una for trouble now. Una wayo backfire against you, I dey laugh now.

hehehehe! 

Become~kolo at his best! 

DapoBear:
You are correct. I don't trust the North with power for this reason  Unfortunately, there is a decent chance they'll get it again this year.
Fair enough, whatever you think is the best approach for your people. Personally, my hope is that Yorubaland weans itself off of federal allocations anyway, as Lagos has done (70% of its revenue is internally generated.) Once your land is self-sufficient, then things like national censuses don't really matter as much. At least, this is the way I think about it.
The #s don't translate to political power unless they are official, though.

Which is why we are having this debate. We need official numbers or scientific estimate; we need something to confer true legitimacy to the political process. You don't want the minority to be ruling the majority under false pretenses, do you? 

As for economic self reliance, believe me I am not interested in federal allocations (though that is how things work in Nigeria ). I am more interested in calculating the number of folks who should be planned for -housing, health care, education, retirement, etc, and who should be paying taxes and other related things.

I believe that Nigeria's biggest asset is not oil. It is the people.

^^
Seconded powerfully!

@ PhysicsQED

So how will that spoil my day? In fact it has made my day!  

The gist of the article is that Igbo has ALWAYS borne the interest of southern minorities at heart contrary to what some of these minorities have been saying. We are the only majority group that acted on the feelings of our minority neighbors to have a political space and control their own affairs. As you showed in the "Middle belt" thread, it even began with Zik.

That does not mean that it is in Eastern interests to pursue disparate political goals in Nigeria since we are still neighbors and blood relations.  We did it just to allow peace and dignity. I would want these minorities to understand the context and take over the struggle to re-unite the Old eastern region. Our (South East/South) clout in Nigeria can only gain from it. We have nothing to fear or lose from such unity.

DapoBear:
As I said earlier, they probably have the correct #s in their possession. They just don't release them. If they have the data in their hands, then the false publicly released figures will not negatively affect national planning.
Lol, I'm not pro North, dude. What common interest do Yoruba and the North have? Zilch. If anything, I'm anti-North. But again, think about it. If you release correct population figures, then doesn't that also suggest rewriting federal allocations too? Do you think they'll be willing to give up billions of dollars without a fight? Especially as they have nothing really else to fall back on? No education, no infrastructure, no foreign investments, a land being slowly consumed by the Sahara desert?
People are at their most dangerous when they are backed into corners with no way out. I think a better approach is to slowly take away the North's power over the course of time, as is basically happening now. There is nothing wrong with achieving your objectives slowly and steadily.

BTW, like I said earlier, it is not most dangerous for my ethnic group, it is most dangerous for yours. Yours will be the one that swaps places with them in the nation's demographics, not mine. Yours is the one that has a lot of their wealth and assets in the north. Mine does not. In any case, I'm not opposed to correct figures being released. I just don't see how it benefits my group in any way, so don't see why we should extend a finger in fighting for this particular change.

You are right that the information has been collected. Most likely so. I also agree that a gradual approach may not be a bad idea, provided the goal is firmly in focus. But we know that all it takes for us to return to another 40 years of lies is another northern presidency which can happen soon.

Believe me, I am not bothered by whatever negative impacts it could have on my ethnic group. I still don't understand your logic about danger to my ethnic group if it turns out that we are the single largest ethnic group in Nigeria. In fact I see it in opposite!

I say that because I have seen a lot of my people trying their best to get the north to support their presidential bid before they can reasonably contest. I believe that they are underestimating their own population and hence potential political power in Nigeria.

DapoBear:
I would imagine that they have correct figures in their possession. Just that once they gather the correct data, they then cook the numbers before publicly releasing them. So as far as internal planning goes, it isn't an issue.

If you don't think there is any danger in a group going from #1 in population to #3 when almost all of their power in the country is based on this #1 status, so be it. All I know is that my own group is listed at #2 now, and is likely #2 in reality, population-wise, so any change is not likely to affect us.

I don't have "fear." Notice I'm not saying I would be sad or happy if anyone ganged upon your group. But just pointing out realities.

Finally, you should learn the difference between a majority and a plurality. The former is more or less invincible, the latter much less so.

I am a bit disappointed that you would throw national planning (hence development) under the bus just because of sectional considerations, especially one that has held Nigeria's development down for more than 40 years. Does it occur to you that we would not have half of our current political problems if things are done properly in Nigeria?

So, because a section of the country could lose their ill-gotten political power, we must now forget about Nigeria?
We must now forget about setting the right foundations for national development?

Bros, you see why it does not make any difference whether a Nigerian leader is educated or not. You are a thoroughly educated guy , but you are willing to think this way.  Quite shocking! 

Nna, give us proper population and demographics of Nigeria. Let heavens fall! Nigeria is bigger than any individual or group!

We need it for NATIONAL PLANNING. 

DapoBear:
^-- I don't think you are a friend of Jonathan, then. The allocations that go to the North, almost all of their power is built upon falsified census figures. If Jonathan tries to single-handedly fix this, he will probably be killed.

Simply put, you cannot expect to take power away from another group of people without expecting them to fight back. This is like backing a dog into a corner. Extremely dangerous thing to do, and a strategic mistake, imo.

In any case, are you so sure you want the true figures to be known? You realize that all hearts and minds in Nigeria will then unite against your group, right? And you might say, "Well Nigeria is already against us." But these things are relative. The easiest way to unite the other groups in Nigeria that don't necessarily like each other (Yoruba, Hausa, Middle Belt, South South) is to give them an external threat. It isn't clear to me that the benefits outweigh the costs, for your side.

You should study other countries like Lebanon where the official demography is clearly false, but maintained so that bloodshed and chaos are avoided.

hahaha!

I believe that Nigeria should conduct a credible census or gather the data other ways to allow for proper national planning. All first world countries have such data. You cannot plan without it.
This has NOTHING to do with being Igbo. It has everything to do with planning.
Of course I don't expect that there won't be resistance, but remember that for more than 40 years Nigeria did not have a national ID card. It was fought by the same people until Obasanjo showed up and faced them down.
Believe me, heavens won't fall if we gather Nigeria's true demographics.

As for your "fears" of a possible gang up against Igbo in Nigeria; first of all, that is none of our concerns these days. Secondly, have you ever seen where THE biggest ethnic group is gagged in any country of the world? It just won't succeed because the tail cannot wag the dog.

I dey laugh o!

[size=16pt]Dick Cheney faces bribery scandal charges in Nigeria[/size]

Nigeria's anti-corruption agency is to charge former US Vice-President D. Cheney over a bribery scandal that involves a former subsidiary of energy firm Halliburton.

Agency spokesman Femi Babafemi said that the charges were likely to be brought next week.

The case involves engineering firm KBR, which has admitted bribing officials.

Mr Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive before becoming vice-president to George W Bush in 2001.

Mr Babafemi said the charges were "not unconnected to his role as the chief executive of Halliburton".

KBR last year pleaded guilty to paying $180m (£115m) in bribes to Nigerian officials prior to 2007, when it was a subsidiary of Halliburton. The firm agreed to pay $579m (£372m)in fines related to the case in the US.

But Nigeria, along with France and Switzerland, has conducted its own investigations into the case.

Office raid

The bribes concerned the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in southern Nigeria.

KBR and Halliburton have now split, and Halliburton says it is not connected with the case against KBR.

Halliburton denies involvement in the allegations.

It has complained that a raid on its office last week by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission officials was "an affront against justice".

Ten people were detained for questioning and later released.

A prosecutor quoted by Agence France-Presse news agency said those charged would include former and current leaders of Halliburton and officials from firms in a consortium involved in the LNG plant.

Nigeria is a member of the oil cartel Opec and is one of the world's biggest oil exporters.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11902489

DapoBear:
How on earth is Yoruba likely to be more numerous than Igbo? Their home region is 95%+ Igbo, and they are also a significant number in all other states in Nigeria.

What then would you estimate, if you had to place percentages? Or if you had to guess the true population of states?

Are even Fulani sef really that numerous? There are two types, city Fulani who speak Hausa and the nomads. I don't think either group is very large, is it? And the Hausa-speaking Fulani are basically Hausa, at this point, no?

I'm not as traveled in Nigeria as you though (or traveled at all, period), but I'm surprised by your estimate.

EDIT: I don't mean nomads. You know the ones who have those little villages in the bush? Those types. They are the same ones who herd, right? And there are the city ones.

I believe that Abagworo is orchestrating his windy attempts at appearing cosmopolitan again.  Rational folks are not fooled though.
No one has ever done a credible census in Nigeria since 1953. So I don't know where his figures are coming from.

You rightly pointed out the large presence of Igbo outside Igboland, which cannot be said of the Yoruba.

The most credible way to find out Nigeria's population distribution is to require ethnic information on national documents, eg, ID cards, voting cards, tax documents (if there is anything like that).

There are embedded interests fighting against this effort, but they are not insurmountable. This is one of the things I expect(ed) Jonathan to fix. He can and he should!

SapeleGuy:
It appears even you are having doubts about wisdom of Ohaneze's endorsement of Jonathan. With the WIYC endorsement for Ribadu it is apparent that you have little to fear from the pre colonial kingdoms of the Niger Delta, in fact it would appear that stones are being thrown from within the glass house. Unfortunately the issue of mistrust is much closer than you would like to admit.

I don't have doubts about Ohanaeze's endorsement. I come from a school of thought which teaches that not everything is for sale. BELIEVE ME. 

The kids who endorsed Ribadu are just truants.

Having said those, if this election is ever free and fair, Jonathan has his work cut out for him because I see a lot of Igbos growing more uncomfortable with a south south that keep making statements suggesting that Ndigbo are part of their problem.

If we are in a no-win situation with folks down there, the Ohanaeze endorsement won't help him on elections day.

^^

You still did not provide any new information to counter[b] Obiagu1[/b]'s claim. If the NCNC was opposed to the creation of midwest, would it have been created? NO.

Zik was arguably Nigeria's best NATIONAL leader at the time and all you did was provide evidence that he had conceded creation of some states under STRICT conditions. If he was not Zik, he would have opposed it everywhere in Nigeria. Yes, Zik was liberal (to a fault if you ask me). On this issue, Sarduana was more resolute in his defence of a united north. He understood the dangers of conceding it under any circumstance.

Igbo agitation (mind you that Igbo elements held sway in NCNC leadership) must be the ONLY REAL impetus (the "what is in it for me" that led to Midwest being created. As you rightly pointed out, if NCNC was in alliance with AG, the Midwest would not have been created, since Igbos would not worry about a "Yoruba control of Igboland".

I also speculate that the whole Igbo agitation must have been a result of the carpet crossing incident, remember the Yoruba fear of "Igboman controlling Yorubaland". Nothing really gets done politically in Nigeria unless majority interest is somehow involved. That is a historical fact which I don't want to spam this site with.

Sounds like Obasanjo.

Ibime:
Shebi Uwueche told us he consulted far and wide, yet his youth wing are telling us this stories. WIYC is the only group who didn't collect money to endorse their candidate. The rest of em are thieves.

E be like say you no de support your brother Jonathan for this election.

I've noticed a pattern whereby you castigate Ohanaeze for supporting Jonathan.

This South south region is even more confused than I thought.

Nsiman:
@ onlytruth and Dede1, are u saying this with regards to the const'tn of the FRN? If the south-southerners or your so call minority is not worth being integral part of the FRN, then let us go and form our republic.

lol. So who is stopping you? Just don't go with any part of Igboland.

As for a middlebelt/southern minority union, I dey laugh o!

excanny:
^^^
They should be making any endorsements independent and without consulting their elders.

This is why i described them as clueless youths.

I'm laughing so hard. Maybe these kids are following the truancy of ChinenyeN [/b]and [b]1025 .

Dede1:
The so-called south-south is not an entity as far as Nigerian polity is concerned. My people say that it is o[b]nly a fool who does not known his elder sister is a visitor[/b].

That is if the older sister is cute! What happens if she is ugly?
She go plant dia o!

On a serious note, I often wonder why southern minority groups always make this mistake of saying things like these:

“ You know that the Middle Belt and other ethnic nationalities apart from the dominant Hausa/
Fulani in the north as well as the south- south [b]share common pains [/b]and aspirations

What pains are they talking about? They have been ruling themselves and controlling their own affairs since 1967. That is more than 40 years ago! In fact they have even enjoyed power at the center more than Ndigbo since then.

So, what pains are they still talking about?

This is why is it really hard to trust the intentions of these southern minorities. They think that only they can gang up against majorities. One of the these days, majority tribes in Nigeria will gang up against them. We will then see who is more powerful in the game of gang ups! The more they do this, the more Igbo question support for Jonathan.

I'm still holding steady though.

Jakumo:
Yes, food for thought indeed.  Nigeria is caught between the devil of the southward approaching Sahara desert, and the deep blue sea that is inexorably submerging more of Nigeria's most expensive and intensively developed beach-front real estate with every passing year.

As much as I admire the grand design that inspires Lagos State Governor Fashola's multi-billion dollar coastal reclamation and construction projects on the Lagos shoreline , the rising sea level effect of global warming is very likely to turn that envisioned Dubai-style mega-city into an underwater curiosity for scuba expeditions touring the sea floor in future decades.

I remember asking some strong questions about the Eko Atlantic city. I was concerned that the sea wall planned for the project will not be enough to contain the deluge when it sets in fully.

Nigeria needs some serious planning. My disappointment with Nigerian leadership is based mainly on its inability to see beyond oil in the Niger delta. That region is even more threatened by the sea, but no one is planning for its survival on the evil day.

malu-brain:
Dude stop please. why you call me akin egba? If I am akin Egba may my whole family die and if am not may all yours die. eediot. If you don't have anything to say just shut up and live the politics of land creation and federal allocation to us experts.

If you don't get aggressive in nigeria, hausa and fulani and ibo will take everything. cant you see we are sidelined in this current politics. jonathan wants yoruba vote for a bag of rice from his filthy wife. is he crazy. we need more than that and that will be allocating Kogi, Edo and Kwara states full Yoruba SW states and the accompanying electoral votes.

hehehehe!

Where's my own bag of rice sef? lmao.

The idea of Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala running as VP to Atiku is quite interesting, but I won't support it. Here is why.

If Atiku wins the PDP primaries (which I strongly doubt), the combination of Atiku/Iweala would be a VERY POWERFUL combination because Atiku will get his votes from the North, while Iweala gets the rest of the votes from the south. She will get votes from south east and south south, and possibly south west. So, their ticket is "hot".

But my concern is the 2015 calculation. If Atiku keeps to his promise to serve only one term (which I doubt even more), and Iweala is now left to vie for the presidency, she will not win because the north will not vote for her (being a woman); then, the Ndigbo would be saddled with a no-win situation. Power can then be smuggled out of our hands! Unless there are only women contestants running for other major parties in 2015, she will not win.

Anyone seriously looking for Igbo VP for Atiku should forget about any candidate with political "k-legs" in Nigeria.

For now, in my book, Soludo is the crown-prince of Igboland in terms of national politics.

These kids sef. Who told them?
Nwa ewu n'akpo ikiri, o si na ona agba egwu!

Faeb:
The bolded is a ton of rubbish if you don't mind. I gave you a website, waado.org, but you argued it was an Urhobo website, which I find not only ridiculous, considering that the Urhobo and Edo where were the majority group in the midwest; that aside, the authors of waado.org are almost all PhD's. I also find it condescending, that you wish to go on ethnocentric conjecture rather than written down history, which has never been contested.

I can only advise two things for you to research:
[list]
[li]Google Jereton Marierie, James Otobo, Osadabay (that will give you a definite idea of how the Premiership went to Osadebay; and a couple of things need to be corrected in todays politics _{God bless Ohaneze for their foresight. They have embrased what we've been canvassing for donkey years.})[/li]
[li]A very fundamental issue for you to find out, is why the Anioma went with the Midwest movement, rather than seek to drift Eastward[/li]
[/list]

You will find that your research will reveal in stark and incontestable reality, how the mistakes that were made in the East and North are dominating Nigerian politics today. Mistakes of the past allied with core Northern scheming caused the Igbo to be alienated from politics for decades. The core North, on the other hand is still, in 2010, making the same sort of mistake all 3 major groups in the 3 regions made (and got burnt by to various degree's) in the 60's.

Compared to every other region, the South South is by far the most politically sophisticated, because there is no overall dominance by any group. I laugh each time I hear people say it is fake, simply because it isn't based on any of the major groups; thats just bloody funny! After a horrible civil war in the Midwest and east, after numerous ethno-religious pogroms in the North, after Operation Wetie in the West; after serial failures at nationhood, puntuated by violent, half literate armed thugs and their coups, punctuated by tribal laws like Ciroma, Yakasai, Kanti Bello etc; above all, after the numerous bids for freedom by ethnic minorities from the strangle hold of the majorities, from the Birom etc in the Middle Belt to the Edo and Urhobo in the Midwest. . . After all these, people still think being ethnically centred is a way forward? I dey laugh o!

I laugh when I see such a statement as bolded. Folks find it easy to be carried away in Nigerian politics. Anyway, here is my take on that.

The South South is NOT the most politically sophisticated in Nigeria; it is just the most fortunate SO FAR.
Every student of Nigerian politics know that when it comes to political power-play, there is no South south. I say this because, the region is a product of invidious politics. It is like a man who quarreled with his wife, and she ran out of the house, only for the man's neighbor to "come to her rescue" by offering her his bedroom to spend as many nights as she wants! The woman (south south) is "enjoying her freedom"(being poked by Hausa/Fulani), while her husband (the Igbo) waits for her return.

If not for the stupidity of the January 1966 coup plotters, there will be no South south today. And even as it stands today, if there is no change of course, the inevitable fate of that region is further balkanization with the following groups eventually emerging separate -Edo, Urhobo/Isoko, Igbo, Ogoni, Ibibio/Annang and Efik.  The only real unifier of these groups is the Igbo, much like the Hausa/Fulani is the unifier of the North.  I don't know how long folks from this region will keep being unreasonable.  As I write this, majority tribes in Nigeria aren't really happy that minority tribes are riding on their backs to power. But, that is called compromise, not political sophistication by the minority. In fact far from it!

That Ndigbo are supporting Jonathan is because of that belief that we should control our region (give our wife a little freedom in order to keep her). Nothing more. You control your region by allowing minorities in it to taste power once in a while. Zik and his crew failed to do that.

This is not political sophistication by the minority. It is mere political sagacity by the majority. 

The "wife" can of course reject her husband and stay with the neighbor until she is past "menopause", by which time the "husband" would have married another wife!. 

@PhysicsQED

I followed your long posts (though I think readers get lost by long posts), but I still cannot see any other rational or urgent reasons for the creation of the Midwest when others like COR and Middlebelt failed in theirs.

Like I said earlier, it is more likely that Igbos in the East gave the defining impetus for the creation of Midwest because they hoped to "one day" carve Igboland out of that too and unite it with Igboland to the east of the Niger. Common sense. Of course no rational person would expect NCNC elements to announce it openly when the NCNC was a national party.

To get to these rational conclusions, please answer these questions:

If Igbos in the western region were happy and, the Igbos in the Eastern region very happy that Igboland was split in half with one half under the control of the  Yoruba, do you honestly believe that there is any amount of agitation by other minority groups in Midwest that would remove them from the west? Please answer this honestly!

What is there (about midwest creation) for the NCNC that it cannot get any other way? 

What is that special interest by the NCNC to split the west, when they resolutely rejected the same thing in the East, and the north rejected same in the north?

Remember that these parties understood that Nigeria should not be splitting up into states. Zik called it balkanization. NCNC, AG and NPC all hated it!

Was it just a power show? I strongly doubt that!
Never forget that NCNC was very sensitive about appearing tribalistic. That party valued its national outlook, thanks to Zik and his fierce Nigerianism.

My educated and logical guess is that there must have been a VERY STRONG agitation by Igbos in the East for Igboland to be united, much like how the Ijaws also wanted a united Ijawland, but the NCNC must have been embarrassed about that agitation due to its image.
They therefore must have gone for the best compromise available -hide under minority agitations in the midwest to surreptitiously carve away Igboland from Yoruba control.

I wasn't there, but the above scenario is very logical and plausible.

Abagworo:
I am not being pessimistic but rather realistic.The way Ohaneze and our so-called leaders are going about things,it is not coming soon.We need to take care of our region first just like the Southwest has seized control of their region before we can have the power to negotiate or even make any meaningful impact.

I have always been for us building our region first. I don't like quick fixes. But the bottomline of my argument is that Igbo presidency is a MUST FOR NIGERIA. Everybody with brains knows that.

The North know it more than any other part of Nigeria because they want Nigeria to remain one.
Of course some of them are still being mischievous, but after this Jonathan saga, those ones will also become reasonable. They North does not want to rock the Nigerian boat or shake its foundations. That is what most of my Igbo folks must always remember. We are not as weak as they think. We may actually be the single largest tribe in Nigeria.
If we bear all those things in mind, we can then DO WHAT WE WANT now -support anyone we want in 2011, and still make a solid claim to Nigeria's presidency in 2015 or 2019 before it goes to any other region.

We just need focused leadership, and I think Ohanaeze is providing that.

Abagworo:
Igbos should emphasize more on increased federal presence and true federalism.Igbo presidency is not coming soon.

I think you are being unnecessarily pessimistic about our chance of producing a Nigerian president. IT IS EASY to do that. We just need to use our brain for once. Yes, neither Jonathan nor the North can give it to us. ONLY WE CAN DO IT FOR OURSELVES. But it starts with us rallying round our leaders and following them. If Jonathan fails us after endorsing and following him, THERE WILL BE A NEXT TIME. Nigeria will not end unless we say so.

That next time, the south south will be under a moral debt once more to support us. Moreover, just by rejecting the north this time, we will earn more respect from ALL parts of Nigeria including the north.

I even believe that Igbo presidency is CAST ON IRON. We have one joker going for us and that is that the North does not want Nigeria to disintegrate. They know we can force disintegration of Nigeria. At least they know we are large enough to cause SERIOUS problems for Nigeria. So, they are not looking at us as people think.