₦airaland Forum

Worried by the country’s protracted political logjam, the Ikemba Nnewi, Dim, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu has declared that Nigeria is not a nation yet but a country of many nations.

Ojukwu who has been critical of the state of the country, in a foreword to a book, “Reflections on Revenue sharing amongst tiers of Government in Nigeria” written by a don and a political economist, Prof. Ralph Nwokedi, argued: “All must realize that Nigerian nation that what we have now is a group nations that we hope to fuse into one. We may wish for one, we may dream of one, whatever we do, in order to have Nigeria we have to face each other across a conference table, redraw our plans or make adjustments, restructure or structure abinitio a new Nigeria. This is what this situation demands”.

Ojukwu who has been a strong advocate of the convocation of a sovereign national conference observed: “Whenever I say that a con-federal structure is best suited to our temperament, I say so in the context of a Nigeria that must exist. I do not say it in order to break up Nigeria. I say confederation as possible glue for keeping the big Nigeria alive. If we are nailed willy-nilly into a union, which we find unacceptable, then the inevitable must be a break up. This is not a self-fulfilling wish. It is logic”.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2009/dec/31/national-31-12-2009-02.htm

The mere fact that the south maintains homogeneous levels of education and development should facilitate the process of negotiating a new nation. The Ethnic Nationalities Conference is an existing platform to attempt that.
An exhaustive conference should precede all other processes leading to separation from the north.
For it to work the following should be enshrined in the constitution:

(1) You live in a place for one year (or two), you qualify to be a resident for purposes of tax, benefits and contesting elections.
(2) There must be no quota system or federal character. You prove your competency, you get the job, period. This will ensure rapid development to first world status.
(3) All children under 18 must be in school.
(4) The Capital city can be anywhere (who cares) provided it is strategic enough for easier defense.
(5) No zoning of elective positions. You contest once you meet the minimum residency requirement.
(6) Capital flight or money laundering to attract long jail terms or capital punishment.
(7) All males must serve in the military for a period to be determined before continuing to university or after university.

There's many more, but I believe no one in the south would be cheated by any of the above suggested points.
The north would struggle with most of the above points. Like I said earlier, the south west and/or south south must lead this, we (south east) will happily follow.

On closer observation, I don't think Publisher=becomerich.
Publisher's written English is far better.

Aloy~Emeka:
Publisher=becomerich.

publisher:
I have looked at the Nigerian project through years and i have come to the conclusion that its best the Southern part of Nigeria secedes from the North. Nigeria's industrialization is being slowed down by the northern elites and few southern cohorts.
For decades,the northern aristocracy had intentionally made majority of their own people illiterates,this was a deliberate move to suppress opposition. Today,many northerners are seeing the light but there's a limit to how far they can go with education as their political fathers keep on creating phantom islamic sects like 'Boko Haram' which deliberately scares poorer northern Muslims out of the class rooms.
I think the southern part of Nigeria must now realize that our destiny with that of the core north is doomed,just see how Yar'adua's northern kitchen cabinet has made a mockery out of our constitution. I have no doubt in my mind that if Obasanjo had suffered a mild stroke during his tenure,Atiku would have taken over. Atiku still plotted to take over even where his boss was hale and hearty.
We must liberate ourselves from the backwardness that the north has plagued on the entire nation. Let's leave Abuja for them as our parting gift. [b]And let the likes of Fashola,Donald Duke,Soludo,Enahoro,Soyinka,Tinubu,Dokubo Asari, [/b]and other well meaning southerners come to the table of a sovereign southern Nigeria conference where we can chart our course as a group of the most enlightened black Africans on the planet.

The time is now, long live the federal republic of South Nigeria.

You left out the great Ikemba Nnewi- Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and Ralph Uwazuruike. I like the idea anyway. There are only two regions qualified to lead this movement -South west (Yoruba) and South south (Ijaw). South east will happily follow if we believe the leaders are serious.
And the flag is cute too.

Katsumoto:
That really made me laugh; are you planning to be around for 700 years? History is filled with many examples of a conquered people who fought their conquerors and obtained their freedom in the process. As far as I know, there are occupying forces anywhere in Nigeria. I don't know why you think that example was relevant. If you bent on disintegration and/or secession, then please mention the disintegration of Czechoslovakia which was rather peaceful.

You meant to say there are NO occupying forces in Nigeria. So, if that is the case, why was the Biafran war fought and why are we having this conversation? Why do we have a group fighting in the Niger delta today?
Why can't the vice president of Nigeria take over in place of a sick president? Why can't I secede even if only my tribe goes? There are thousands of whys which prove that indeed there is an occupying power in Nigeria.

Katsumoto:
Please refer back to my comment about motives; I[b] said that I believed that Nzeogwu had a noble cause but I do not think that cause was the same for some of the other plotters.[/b]

I don't think we have enough information to reach that conclusion. We can also speculate on the motives of Okars accomplices. The coups failed and we may never know the rest of the stories.

Trust you to miss the humour and light-hearted tone of my remark and rather go for the pessimistic view of the other party.

If you noticed, I have not used caustic words on you. We've been discussing, but I demure at attempts to humorize issues of survival -life and death of innocent people. It could repeat if not thoroughly discredited and condemned.

Katsumoto:
I really don't get this your 'them against us' mentality. How do you mean by your type? Why do you think there should only be one side to an argument? If someone does not share your point of view, that person immediately becomes the enemy. Let us take a cue from the British. The MPs put difficult questions to one another, attack each other's ideas, motives, and records with the world watching but still socialise afterwards. Even the actors of January 1966 had different motives and those motives are hidden. We can only speculate on what their motives were because they did not succeed. Do not speak with 100% certainty because as far as I know, you were not one of them.

You sure say I no be one of dem?

On a serious note I think you should read Nzeogwu coup statement. You should also read Gideon Okar coup statement. As far as documents can prove, those were nationalistic coups. They were naive of course because you cannot have a nationalistic coup in the absence of a credible nation.

That really made me laugh; are you planning to be around for 700 years? History is filled with many examples of a conquered people who fought their conquerors and obtained their freedom in the process. As far as I know, there are occupying forces anywhere in Nigeria. I don't know why you think that example was relevant. If you bent on disintegration and/or secession, then please mention the disintegration of Czechoslovakia which was rather peaceful.

Nigerians are always selfish and assume that they must personally benefit from their struggles. It doesn't have to be like that. The strategy you use against a formidable foe might require that you hand over the struggle to generations unborn. The Spanish example is only illustrative -to show how focused and determined a people can be in their match to freedom.
You are right that Czechoslovakia disintegrated without a fight, but Yugoslavia didn't. Nigeria is a more stubborn situation than those two. So, I know why I used the Moorish conquest and rule of Spain.

^^^
In addition to that, in another thread, I alluded to the fact that the Moors occupied and ruled Spain and Portugal for over 700 years. When the time came, the Spanish patriots sent the Moors packing back across the Strait of Gibraltar. So, I no longer delude myself in thinking that I would be free anytime soon, but when the time comes, no force on earth will stop our match to freedom.

Katsumoto:
Last question, was it really necessary to kill all those people?

Some naive Nigerians are still calling for a bloody revolution to "cleanse Nigeria" (to kill off some prominent people). I wish them luck with that, and I advise my Igbo brethren to steer clear of such plots. Nigeria's emancipation is in God's hands because of your type and ndu_chucks who still fail to acknowledge the true motives of the Jan 1966 plotters.So, just relax and settle in for a loooooooooooooooooong period of pain.

ndu_chucks:
Please lookup the meaning of the word almajiri, I don't believe you know what it means. dummy.

It is synonymous with terror: mass killer, begger, illiterate, dirty, rapist, retrograde and everything else in between.
Our history amply makes that clear.

Katsumoto:
I agree that some effort has been made in educating the Northerners. I do believe that they were not encouraged properly; while the southerners were competing for the best JAMB, Bar, Common entrance, etc results, the Northerners were not motivated because of the disingenous approach of their leaders. Why do you think the British did not push for the education of the North? Because they realised that they could rule indirectly through the Northerners. It was a strategy designed for selfish (British, Northern elite) ends.

I think that Nigeria would be better off with more independent northerners. With more educated northerners, the northern elite would wield less power.

Does that also explain why the northern elites refuse to educate their peoples? If the answer is the affirmative, how do you think southern elites can solve such a problem? Let me tell you this, until the north sees an equally armed and irrational counterpart in the south, they would never educate their people. The northerners believe that violence will guarantee their continued domination of Nigeria. That is why an almajiri like ndu_chucks is here to defend backwardness and insult the section of the country that has ever won international respect for Nigeria. His section is "cursing" the black race. Nonsense!

ndu_chucks:
I have been enjoying your conversation with Afam and I must say that I appreciate its mature nature.

While the Araba killings in question were deplorable by any standard, it is quite obvious that it was triggered by the coup, marked by the killing of leaders from the North and West, as you pointed out.  

Onlytruth, in his infinite dumbness decided to ask a silly question and I felt compelled to straighten him out.  Onlytruth is a seccesionist who is not interested in reason or facts - he is what my friends would calll olodo rabata. dan iska

Happy New Year in advance.

And you are a duplicitous unionist who is not interested in reason or facts.
Your thieving kinsmen desperately need the union to enable you continue with your thefts. Ok, since you so much believe in the union, why not hand over the presidency to Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
Why are you pussyfooting  
Only the gullible will continue buying your lies. Muddefukcer.

Katsumoto:
Something else that I have noticed. Football was the best and only sphere of life gluing Nigeria together. I think Nigerians are integrating better these days. There are a lot of inter-tribal marriages. There is collaboration in films, music, and other arts amongst all the tribes. These positive changes will help in better cohesion in the future. Southerners should stop looking down on Northerners; the Northerners have been failed more by their leaders than the southerners have been failed by their leaders. The south must push for the education and enlightenment of the North. Once that happens, Northerners would be able to think and act for themselves rather than depending on the words of some mischief makers.

I completely disagree with you on the bolded points. Since as far back as I can remember, the north has enjoyed all types of educational preferential treatment and financial support from the federal government. None of those efforts helped move the north away from Islamic to western education. We don't owe them anything. If I can contribute to scholarship schemes for the poor peoples of my town in Igboland, the northerners who have stolen lion shares of Nigeria's money should be able to do far more for their people.

ndu_chucks:
The bolded is a silly and dumb question. Soldiers killed off their revered leaders in a matter of 1 day, civilians reacted to the killngs, and you ask such a dumb question.

Dumb question for a mass murdering Almajiri

Katsumoto:
Where have been all the while? Have you been following this discourse?

He has been watching from the safety of his spiderhole in Mutallab-land 

@Katsumoto
^^^^

Just before the Kumbaya, you side-stepped the fact that the killings of Igbo civilians (the pogrom proper) was not conducted by military personnel of the north or elsewhere. It was conducted by civilians -neighbors killing neighbors. I believe that is at the heart of the discourse. I don't really care much about northern soldiers killing Igbo politicians and soldiers. Igbo civilians never participated in anything in January 1966. So, how come civilians in the north and west descended on their Igbo neighbors in an or.g.y of killing? That is at the root of the whole national question. The Machiavelli quote is really unfortunate and out of context. That question could help prognosticate a possible repeat. Are Igbos safe in Nigeria? What will trigger the next killings?

Edruezzi:
[b]So, suppose Biafra had somehow won its war. Nigeria would quietly go and lick its wounds and assemble a bigger army. [/b]To undermine Biafra it would start to support rebellions in X River and Rivers. I have lived in Port Harcourt. The people there, including Ikwerre, who speak a dialect of Igbo, don’t particularly have anything to do with Igbos. Remember, half of Biafra’s land area consisted of non-Igbo areas. When the shooting started the Igbo fought and died alone.

I don't know what you really understand about modern warfare and military might. Y'all keep thinking that it all takes large armies to win wars. Israel sits in the middle of the most violent region in the world. She doesn't have the largest army there, but I can assure you that no country in the middle east wants a war with Israel. You think Biafra would simply keep a makeshift conscript army after independence? Keep dreaming. If Biafra be, I bet you that no African country will want to fight Biafra. That will guarantee long term peace.

I promise you that another Nigerian war involving one or more of the large ethnic groups will produce at least 30 million refugees and kill at least 10 million people.
Go figure.

If those planning the war realize that the casualties will likely be on their own side, they will become reasonable and give peace a chance. The mistake you guys keep making is by assuming that the next war will resemble the first in casualties and outcome. I think that line of thinking will be your greatest undoing.
I won't say more than that we live in a remarkably different world today.
The moors occupied and ruled Spain for over 700 years. The day the Spanish took back their country, the Moors stood no chance.

SEFAGO:
^ y[b]ou also missed the part about the lack of economic feasibility in the south east[/b].

Also don't forget Ojukwu's view of Britain's role in the war  itself.   Everyone likes white people sef

I didn't miss that. That was just an estimate. There were other estimates which never materialized. I was only interested in facts, i.e. what happened, not what was predicted. Vast parts of Igboland remain fallow even today. Smaller countries with resourceful citizens(eg Israel and switzerland) have succeeded more than larger countries with useless citizens (eg Sudan and Niger).

Sunny_bobo:
Are you from outer space? You seem not to know that the Americans know more about Nigeria's internal issues even more than your sickly president.

Maybe perusing the following post civil war report will answer your question above.


http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/53862.pdf

To go off point a bit -
It is very refreshing to know that no western nation sold heavy arms (tanks, aircraft ) to Nigeria during the war. UK only sold light arms. The USSR (God punished them!) sold the heavy weapons.
It is also good to know that western opinion was sympathetic to the Biafran cause. Public opinion in the UK supported Biafra and US donors helped save starving Biafran children. This is a very useful information.
Thanks for that link Sunny_bobo

SEFAGO:
Wow, this seems like a thesis , I wish you could help me write mine. Anyways everything you are saying is ludicrous. EVerything you stated is predicated on an assumption that all Nigerians are robots. While you are busy planning all this- some yahoo yahoo boys will be getting ready to scam potential investors, some secessionist will be working (online of course) to over throw the empire.

Infact assuming everything goes perfectly, you will probably end up in debt like Dubai. Great economies aren't built this way.

I never thought I could laugh at any of your jokes. Good observation though.

citizenY:
@Emperor


I will hesitate to encourage you to come back home and begin your campaign as it is a very
pregnant and potentially dangerous enterprise. I appreciate your chivalry, radical and resourceful
disposition but the consequences of failure will be disastrous. It will take you a long time as Emperor
before you stabilise your position and introduce the Visa loterry that will bring in your specialists
from around the world to come and take our jobs. South Africa is doing well ,as you are doing there ,
and there is no Emperor there.

ROTFLMAO ! Great observation!

EmperorOlu:
You seem to have a problem with reading and understanding; I won't even explain my plans in regards to whites managing our government. Go to my previous post and read to understand. I resent that you refer to Nigerians as Negros that is a very derogatory term to address your people by.You may be a “Negro” but we are “Nigerians your obsession with your tribe lives a bitter taste in my mouth because i realize that you are not a patriotic Nigerian but a instead patriotic Igbo. You have shown that you don’t what happens to the rest of Nigeria as long your Ibo land is saved. Well I can’t say I am surprised ,that is typical Ibo selfishness at play.

Thank you for that observation! Not to puncture your "emperorship" schemes, people are identified (and should be) by their tribes and race in the US. It has worked. Negro only means black in Latin. Omo Ibo is  meant for offense but it only means Igbo son. Aboki is also meant for offense but it tamely means friend in Hausa. So it is either you are trying to be clever by half or you are trying to hoodwink the gullible.  

Your last statement makes me laugh to my bones, you Igbos can't even fight a democratic government but you want fight an emperor. Nigeria has never really had a democratically elected government before. All the elections were rigged and the democratic president were looters. If you can fight ordinary civil servants, how can you fight a military trained emperor with full backing of the armed forces?

And you think the situation will continue ad infinitum? I don't know what you are smoking, but Nigeria is not working exactly for the same reasons. You think the solution is to impose an emperor? Na wa o!

When Abiola was murdered what did Nigerians do? Did you see any one coming out saying he was going to fight the military? Ojukwu is old school and has become a toothless bulldog without and foreign funding. The future is ours now, they had their chance but they screwed it up.

You should ask your Yoruba brothers. Why ask me?

Go and ask MEND they will tell you how the military has pounded them to a pulp, how many Nigerians do you think are ready to die to protest a new style of leadership. What you should be worried about is that if such a situation should arise, that the president, dictator, leader, king or emperor will have the best interest of the people at heart that is what matters. If GOD has written that Nigerians will be saved by a monarchical leader who are you to go against. What you should be praying for is that GOD should bring a good leader to Nigeria regardless of what style of leadership he chooses to lead Nigeria by.

The last time I checked MEND just carried out another attack last week.

Don’t make me sound mean or power hungry, what I am hoping for may never happen, then again it might. Everything is left to destiny; in my heart I know why I have taken this path.

All third world dictators start with a "God sees my heart" mindset. At the end, thousands are left dead and the national resources stolen.
Like I said earlier, not all Nigerian peoples are oafs. My people never had a central commander or leader until the Biafran war when we felt a need to rally round our beloved leader Ojukwu. If we feel a need, we would rally round another warrior to fight again. At least this time, our diaspora can fund the war to the tune of billions of dollars. So ol boy abeg carry your plan to Lesotho.!

Thanks Afam.

@Katsumoto

It is disingenuous of you to equate the American war on terror with the genocide of 1966. It is like comparing apples and mangoes. Nigerian civilians woke up one day and started killing their neighbors because of the actions of few soldiers. Like Afam pointed out, if the northern officers carried out the whole operation of killing Igbo officers and politicians (even if they killed all of them!) it could still somehow be rationally defended.

The fact remains that Nigerian civilians woke up and started killing their neighbors. And when the dust settled, about 50,000 lay dead. The only rational explanation would be that these killers had other reasons to embark on the killings. The only real historical comparison would be the 1994 Rwandan genocide when Hutu civilians butchered 800,000 Tutsis just because a Hutu President (Juvenal Habyarimana) was killed.

I'll tell you one thing, until people like you stop defending an open evil, Igbo minds would never truly be Nigerian again. Stop defending or justifying evil.

I have nothing to say to Sleek_P except that the history of Nigeria is still unfolding.  Don't be gleeful yet!

Creating federal and state police by employing more graduates
Dissolving state government and eliminating the state governor title
Converting states to Imperial Provinces

The entire "plan" is riddled with contradictions. You want us to be proud and free, yet you want whites to take over key government functions. I don't blame you. Nigeria is a joke and as such attracts all manner of "solutions". I won't apologise for feeling thoroughly insulted that you want to be an Emperor of a 150 million negro nation. The 35 million African Americans are more than a handful for the most powerful country on earth, and yet you think you can subdue Nigerians enough under your dictatorship to implement heaven on earth. I laugh with heavy Igbo accent.
Like I said before, just make sure you excise Igbos from Nigeria first or else we would fight your "emperorship" to the last man.  

EmperorOlu:
By saying “they never born you” that you are not capable of having an intelligent debate, it also shows that you have low self esteem and don't believe in yourself to do great things for your country. Those people who become great in life are people who aim high. I aim high and i fear GOD only. You can remain on the sidelines and watch real Nigerians take back their country.

Dumb people won't be able to comprehend my argument, the end justifies the means. Whether you are led by a president ,king or military leader what is important is that food is on the table for the people.

Look at all the monarchs in the world, Great Britain, Canada, china, Japan, Spain just to name a few. All the citizens of these countries are loyal and disciplined. And these countries have excelled. do you know why? Because when you are a king who will succeeded by your son you will take good care of your people because you don't want to lose it throne in a revolution. Unlike presidents who spend a maximum of 8 years ,presidents know they have a limited time so they steal as much as they can during that time.

And by the way I am a black man and more Nigerian than you will ever be

And you are intelligent enough to miss all the contradictions and low self esteem in your "plan" for our emancipation.
You should start by learning that not all inhabitants of Nigeria are oafs.
You can't even implement your "plan" in Lesotho. Ewu!

Beaf:
ndu_chuks is sounding very very desperate.

I wonder why? Yar Adua has been trying this Africom stunt for a long time now, it has not worked. The simple reason is that, it is fo.ols and criminals thinking that they can use the US to do their dirty work and preserve their filthy bunkering lucre (the country losses US$14 billion annually). The very same people are using almajiri, sharia and Boko Haram as political tools, but God don catch de bas.tards.

The scion of a leader of their evil cabal  took the war from Katsina to Detroit.
De boy papa na serious mafia member, with cabal connections with everything from the infamous NNDC to the first Islamic bank and every other thing unprogressive in the country.

I laugh in Mutallab.

!

Beaf make you no kill me o!

Immediately you mentioned trying to be an Emperor, you lost about 35% of Nigerians who are Igbo. We don't care if you are promising us heaven, the moment you want us to bow to you, dem never born you!

Furthermore, you sound like a whiteman with schemes of how to create an empire "in the middle of the jungle".

Katsumoto:
There wasn't a similar case in the Eastern region because the situation in the west was created as a result of Awo going to the Federal House as the leader of the opposition leaving his deputy Akintola as premier. It is almost impossible to ascertain what would have happened if it was NCNC that was in opposition rather than AG. But we do know that the circumstances in the Eastern and Western regions were dissimilar.

The rest of your argument is fine.

This is half-truth. The socio-cultural and political circumstances in the Eastern and Western regions were dissimilar, Period. You however acknowledged that the Federal Govt was partly to blame for the problems of the west then. The undue Federal influences are the 800 pounds gorillas in the rooms of Nigerian political mess. Obasanjo did everything within his power to export that western Nigerian godfather idea to South east and South south in his 8 years rule.

That is why I reject the notion that godfathers would thrive in the east if we have more regional control. Dem never born the person wey go try am for Igboland! Igbo people say that "ofu onye siere oha, oha ericha, mana oha siere ofu onye, ogaghi ericha!" roughly translated -(no sinlge individual is stronger than the entire community). That saying is at the root of Igbo republicanism. So godfathers can't thrive in Igboland without Abuja's propping.

RichyBlacK:
One essential ingredient for a solution to our many political problems is the resolution (or some honest attempt at resolving) the set of issues that led to the Biafran War.

So much effort has been made to push the war under the rug: changing Bight of Biafra to Bight of Benin, excluding the war from primary and secondary school curricula, tacit negative portrayal of Igbos to create some justification for the atrocities committed against them between 1966 and 1970, etc. However, the deeper we bury the war, the deeper we bury any comprehensive solution to Nigeria's socio-political problems.

Thanks again Bro Richy, I couldn't say more.

dat mudderfucker should rot in HELL. Nonsense!

Katsumoto:
If those are your arguments, why are we not seeing proper developments at the LG and State levels? Afterall, there are Igbo running Abia, Yoruba in Oyo, and Fulani in Sokoto.

Because they are too small to survive on their own. Mind you that states were created as a strategy to divide the then Eastern Nigeria. States were created precisely to create disunity within regional blocks to enable whoever controls the center control all. That is why the states head to Abuja for stipends.

If you have a SNC now, who will represent Abia, Anambra, Oyo, etc? Will it be the current political elite or a new set of leaders? My guess is, it will be the current elite. If they manage to get the disintegration of Nigeria or confederations, do you think they will just disappear?

The people we elected under APGA were never allowed to win. They were all rigged out. So, stop mistaking those thieves in Abuja for my true representatives.  I know for sure that if we are allowed (by Abuja) to elect our representatives, you wouldn't be asking that question today. It took the direct intervention of Ojukwu for the PDP imposition of Andy Uba  in Anambra state to be halted. So, civil war characters are still representing our people more creditably even today.
Forget about those thieves you refer to. 
In a regional or confederal setting, none of them will see power because we the people can stop them without being shot at sight.  They are impositions and you know it.

^^^
So, I guess my point is that the 50s and 60s were our golden years. The regions did great in all spheres. I wonder why confederation or regionalism should fail us now.
Anyway let me guess why: some people are too drunk from oil.