₦airaland Forum

Odum my prime minister, please have mercy on me when you get around to draw the great Onlytruth, Eze Ndu di n'eziokwu 1 of Igboland; Eze Ndigbo Nairaland.
I will live with any drawing provided there is a RED CAP on top of my head. I don't care how you achieve that! hehe.

Traffic solution.

Traffic problem.

According to the website, Onitsha is the 5th fastest growing city in the world.
This city needs a world class infrastructure to go with its status as an emerging megacity.
This monorail is very welcome, along with a befitting international airport!

We shall get there umunne m! Amen.

One day we will wake up to discover that Igboland is at par with most developed countries.
Otu a ka anyi kwesiri isi na akpa ike!

Source: http://www.globim.com/onitsha.html

While viewing Enugu City monorail project, I noticed that the same company is designing one for Onitsha. Here's the short project information culled from the project website.

Globim Monorail

[size=14pt]Onitsha, Nigeria Monorail System[/size]

Onitsha City in Anambra State is the 5th fastest growing city in the world. It is the biggest market in West Africa, the economic nerve center of Nigeria and the gateway to Eastern Nigeria (UN Habitat, 2009). Due to its rapid pace of growth and its projected growth rate, it is experiencing tremendous transportation challenges.

System Specifications

Phase-1 is budgeted at US$503 million (₦82 billion) and is 36.2 km (of equivalent single track) monorail running from Nkpor Junction - Awka Rd. – Old Market Rd. – Bright St. – Iweka Rd. – Ziks Avenue – Niger Rd. – A232 Hwy – Limca Rd – Nkpor Junction.
Project entails finance, survey, design, construction, and operation of the line.
Initially 5-6 minute headway between trains and decreasing to 3 minutes as needed.
4 to 6 car-trains with capacity 440 to 660 people travelling up to 100 km/hr based on station separations.
Trains will be electrically powered on a straddled beam system.
Train power will be electric.

PROUD-IGBO:
Maybe i've missed it, but i don't think there's a stop at the Int'l Airport. If this is an oversight, they would do well to correct it and include Emene in the route.

Yes, you missed it my brother.
The answer is in the same website info you posted earlier:

System Specifications

Phase-1 is 22 km of equivalent single track monorail running from Akwuke along Agbani road to Coal Camp - Ogbete - Market road - Zik Avenue - Agbani road and back to Akwuke.
Subsequent phases would link the monorail to the cities of Abakpa Nike, Emene, New Haven and Uwani
Project entails finance, survey, design, construction, and operating the line
Train capacity 500 to 660 people per train travelling up to 100 km/hr depending on station distance
Phase-1 is budgeted at US$305 million (₦50 billion) with a projected timeline of 30 months to build after completion of survey and design

Anybody saying that SE MUST support Jonathan in 2015 is only decieving himself. People are insulting the SE here by saying that we have no political agenda or philosophy. Well we proved y'all wrong when we voted for Jonathan overwhelmingly in 2011. We will prove you wrong again.
If you see SE supporting Jonathan in 2105, just know that a MAJOR concession has been granted the SE. No more, no less.
All these Ijaw only meetings won't force the SE to support Jonathan.
For me, I'm counting the number of FUCTIONAL INTERNATIONAL airports in SE.
Else, everybody will answer his father's name in 2015.

Odunnu: When Ojukwu was alive, I heard him say publicly that a man cant claim to be Igbo if he doesnt have a land in Enugu. Lol.
Go get your land and be a complete Igbo man

Sounds just like the Ikemba!
And I totally agree.

The law of gravity is being demonstrated in real life.
If you snatch a toy from a kid and raise your hand where the kid cannot reach it, all the kid needs to do is sit down and wait. Soon gravity will force that hand down, and the kid will jejely collect back his toy.
One down, more to go!

I would be lying if I say that Nigeria's economy is not growing, I don't believe it is the third fastest growing in the world though.
Erm, did the minister count the number of Nigerians who fell into poverty in the same period under review? National GDP/economic growth without commensurate growth in personal income IN REAL TERMS (not in theory) is tantamount to running while standing on the same spot.

Umu Igbo, one thing I have to keep telling you is that our destiny is in our hands!
We can turn Igboland and East into a first world region in Nigeria. For me, that is the easiest way to prove our case in Nigeria - a case that we have been set back by the Nigerian system. All these airports can be developed within 2 years if we understand the need and how they would transform our corner of Nigeria.
I want our region to speak loudly for us!
I know we can do it. So, lets do it!

Bliss4Lyfe: lollz, ok bliss won't disappoint, this is easy. Pick an object and split into two. The larger half is Onitsha international airport terminals and the other half Asaba Airport terminals. A plane is much appealing for the object.

The design should take two phase. That is the front of the building should be a mirrored glass structure with steel framework like the Heathrow airport terminal below. Whilst the top of the building should have a semi-circle birds eye view. like the second image below.

The watch tower could have a round sky scraper mirrored glass and steel structure as opposed to the tradition watch tower structure. Under-ground car parks could be represented buy the planes wheels in this case three. Provision should be made for train terminal and boats for those arriving by the waterways.

Below is a rough sketch.

Blyss my beloved sister, I love your sketch for the Asaba/Onitsha INTERNATIONAL airport.
I am waiting for you to complete it and present it here.
You know I won't mind a combined airport at Onitsha/Asaba. You have to show us how your idea of "twin terminals" would look.
Thanks in advance!

odumchi: It's well established that the South-East is in dire need of an international airport(s). But if there will be more than one, where should it be located?

I think that one in Enugu and another in Owerre is a good idea. The Enugu one would serve the Northern portion of the SE while the Owerre one would serve the Southern portion.

@Eze, onwere emailu mzigara gi.

Yes Odum. Please note that SE should have THREE international airports!

One at Enugu, one at Owerri and one at Onitsha, or Asaba!

Nwanne m PROUD-IGBO, you have no idea of how happy you have made my day with those pictures/renderings of Owerri INTERNATIONAL Airport!
You see, this is the type of development we deserve in Igboland, and I bet you that we can bring them to FULL fruition.
IT IS IN OUR HANDS!

Owerri is simply gorgeous!

Imagine landing in that airport from yankee!

My sister [b]Bliss4Lyfe[/b]I'm still waiting for you to start that thread on the airports designs.
We need to start it ASAP so as to engage in posiitve discussions about how to transform our East into a new bouyant region.
We need those airports for that transformation process.
Thanks!

strangerf: Omo inna, i doubt they can maintain it.


Sooner or later, all the people rendered jobless by [b]this one mall in town [/b]will start kidnapping the few that can afford to shop at this mall. Thoughtless human beings, Ibo people.

The truth is that more is on the way. We are hustling for more and will get much more.
I don't know whether you can show me a mall like this one in Okitipupa your home town. hehe!
BTW don't let Igbo boys catch you here. You know that they have plenty pictures of your own towns.

Sam_Ikenna: On the issue of this call for international airports and seaports, I think the FG is missing a wonderful opportunity to use one stone to kill two birds. The FG's abdication of duty is the reason groups like OPC, MEND, and MASSOB have huge following. Simple thing as to give people that which they need and also deserve is a herculean task for then. Even after we suffered to build Owerri Airport, FG still went ahead to smite our hearts.

For a nation to compete locally and internationally there are certain basic infrastructures that should be in place and its beyond me how our govt is always too quick to come up with words like "vision 2012, vision 2020, Rebranding Nigeria" yet the place they're rebranding is delapidating.

The East deserves and needs international airports, Niger bridge, seaport, dredging of River Niger from PH upto Northern Nigeria. Putting those things in place will enable smooth movement of goods and services, increase economic activities and, most importantly, lift many unemployed out of poverty.

And to be fair, its not only Eastern Nigeria that needs these sort of new infrastructures or rehabilitation of existing ones, some regions also need FG's attention in education, agriculture, roads, etc which brings me to the question - these needs that people demand to be provided with, are they absurd? If we say no, then why cant the FG go ahead and provide these much needed infrastructure that will help make her citizens competitive both in local and international sphere.

We have no business building a nation that competes with her hands tied behind her back. In china, eventhough the govt is irresponsibly clamping down on freedom of speech, one thing they've done quite well is to seek out what exactly makes the life of their people a little easier. In Nigeria, instead of our FG playing the role of economic stimulator it actually plays as our economic hamperer. Since 1970 or there about our FG has been hijacking and dominating the private sector from oil to Nitel to Nepa and what we saw was one castastrophe to another.

Since we all know the FG has been the economic over-lord for a larger chunk of our national life isn't it unholy that after intentionally killing Owerri Airport (Huge sweat of ours that we thought merited international status) they would leave us with nothing? This behavior of Nigerian govt is unacceptable to my generation both in the east and across the nation considering that if the East, just as other regions in this country, were to be on their own they would have all or most of these infrastrutures without breaking a bucket-load of sweat.

We deserve these airports, seaports,and even more. GEJ and NA should not wait for parallel govts to mushroom across the nation before they swing into action, time to act is now.

Nwanne I'm imagining how airports at Owerri, Onitsha and Enugu would boost the economy of the SE and Igboland.
Methinks that all the other infrastructure will start trickling in once these airports become fully international, because foreign visitors and investor would troop there! I have been wanting to come to Nigeria with my partners, but I know that I cannot bring them to land in Lagos or Abuja and then drive all the way to Enugu. It is a risk I cannot allow them to take. There are many Igbo like myself who want to bring in investors and professionals, but are hindered by lack of international airport in SE. I would NEVER board a local flight in Nigeria. I become more determined about never boarding a local flight after the Sosoliso debacle at Port Harcourt.
I only board international airlines. Period!

Enugu always reminds me of how beautiful Igboland is. See lush greenery and cool environment!

bakila: You are living in Nigeria, some folks writing tribal rubbish are not. Like someone said the bigots have reported for duty. Our collective bigotry has left those at the helm of affiars with plenty options to amass wealth and leave us messed up. If all the sectional Army and civilians have directed their concern at those in power we would have been less frustrated.
But alas Onlytruth Eze gburugburu of Niaraland is a Biafran.

It is because every Igbo is a Biafran at heart. If you keep them from Nigerian presidency a little longer, they would take steps to establish Biafra in the physical. For now, they are watching you and the country you captured to see how far you want to go with that overlord mindset. After 2015, anything can happen.
Achebe said that Nigeria is a "cobbled" together country. I remember that a cobbler is a shoe mender. So, naija na shoe wey oyibo patch put.
Achebe is a legend, and he knows what he is talking about.

^^

Nwanne, I choro nno ka onye obuna konye akuko nime ife a, cha cha.

^^
We need that airport at Onitsha as soon as possible. I envisage a boom in Anambra state if the airport becomes operational. In fact the boom will shake the Nigerian national commerce because I see some businesses shifting back to SE from other parts of Nigeria.

cob·ble defined

1    [kob-uhl] Show IPA
verb (used with object) -bled, -bling.
1.
to mend (shoes, boots, etc.); patch.
2.
to put together roughly or clumsily.


So, Naija na original patch work.
Nuff said Achebe!

Achebe is a man of letters of international repute. You better read his choice of words very carefully.
Now, here are the words that stood out for me:

"Nigera, a country desperately cobbled together by British merchants,missionaries and politicians"

[size=16pt]OJUKWU: A GIANT WHO LIVED FOR OTHERS[/size]
Being a tribute to Ojukwu taken from Pages 23-26 of the Book of Tribute-Life and times
of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu

By Chinua Achebe

There is a cruel irony in the coincidence between the death of Ikemba Nnewi, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu (1933-2011) and a disturbing surge in sectarian violence in Nigeria. Ojukwu’s life, career, and abiding commitments were shaped by just such trying circumstances as Nigeria faces today. That his death and funeral
are framed by the familiar circumstances that he fought against four decades ago clearly projects the significance of his life and the unsolved challenges confronting our dear homeland. A beleaguered nation sorely needs Ikemba’s voice at this juncture to caution our feet against treading the path of thunder.
And even in death his voice rings clear, as urgent and resonant as perhaps only he had the ability, bearing the message of restraint, justice and restitution.

This giant of a man may now lie inert, but his intrepid voice speaks to all of us from the grave. We should listen and hearken to the message that issues from him. The question is: Are we ready to listen?
Or are we like the proverbial housefly devoid of counsel that journeys with the corpse into the grave?
I have called Ojukwu a giant of a man, and I know there are people ready to challenge the praise.

Even so, I am confident that in death, his stature and the scale of his achievements will rise above the malice and
scepticism of his traducers. Why do I think he was a giant?

One mark of greatness lies in how a man or woman responds to onerous historical challenges and how his or her ideas and vision endure over time. Ojukwu was barely 32 when history thrust him onto the stage of great
convulsions.[b]Nigera, a country desperately cobbled together by British merchants,missionaries and politicians [/b]showed signs of its shaky foundations. Bitter regional and sectarian rivalries and resentments had combined with corruption and rigged elections to bring the fledging nation to a jagged edge. After several waves of ethnic cleansing of southeasterners, there was little doubt that the idea of one Nigeria was strained beyond forced amalgamation.

When embattled easterners demanded self-determination, Ojukwu displayed true greatness by accepting –and quickly rising-to the challenge of leadership. In proclaiming his people’s choice to live as a separate national entity called Biafra,he bravely entered a territory that was for the most part uncharted. True, he had read history at Oxford, but he had no history of secession in Africa to go by. He and Biafra had no models.

Ojukwu’s Biafra was, then an experiment in the best sense of that word. Along with the confident, self-posessed, but never pompous man who led us, we had to learn every lesson about the dim prospects and huge frustrations of founding a nation, as we went along. Even so, through the sheer eloquence of his representation of the plight of his people, the passion and charisma he brought to the Biafran cause, and his powers of engagement with Biafrans and others,Ojukwu found a way to stamp the Biafran struggle in the world’s consciousness ,to elevate his people’s struggle onto the international platform.

Much of the grit,inventive genius and resilience of the Biafran people owed to Ojukwu’s inspiring leadership. For a child of uncommon privilege-his father Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu was once Nigeria’s towering
businessman-he exuded a common touch and infectious charm and empathy that galvanised Biafrans and many supporters around the world. His cosmopolitan background-born of Igbo parents in Zungeru, Northern Nigeria, experienced
adolescence as a student in Kings College, Lagos, South Western Nigeria, and studied abroad-was an asset that defined his engagement with the world. If he soared above other public figures in Nigeria and is so well celebrated, it was partly because of his disdain for the culture of wanton accumulation at the
expense of the people. Instead he made self-disregarding sacrifices as the leader of an economically strapped Biafra.


Ojukwu always insisted, rightly, that the fact that Biafra ultimately buckled should not be read as a sign that the cause itself was misconceived. He was adamant that the quest for Biafra- as a quest for justice
and equity –lives on and will continue to reverberate in Nigeria and elsewhere.
He made point of rebuking Nigeria for behaving all too frequently as if it had not fought a war. True to Ikemba’s vision, forty years after the war, Nigerians from various regions have continued to agitate for a sovereign national conference to determine the structure and terms of a federal union.

Another measure of Ojukwu’s greatness can be glimpsed from his deportment once he returned to Nigeria, after a prolonged exile in Cote D’Ivoire.
A man of lesser stature may have chosen to disappear from public view and engagements. Not Ikemba! He decided that being a shy Nigerian was out of the question. Regardless of the occasional taunts he received from various corners
of Nigeria-including from among some of his own people-he rolled up his sleeves and offered himself as a labourer in Nigeria’s vineyard. He knew more than many, the steep price that millions had paid for the prospects of founding a Nigerian nation. He knew too that Nigeria remained an unfounded idea, that it was caught in the cycle of lost opportunities, of promising roads not taken .Above all, he knew the risks involved in partisan politics ,but would rather take the risks than remain a spectator in the process that shaped the lives of
his people.


In death, his voice has understandably become louder. Like a venerable ancestor, that he is, he has much to teach us about the negotiations and investments we must make in order to dispel the dark clouds that are
looming over us, especially at this dangerous chapter in our history. If we listen,we can still usher in the long-dreamed achievement of our collective aspirations.A man like Ojukwu was a rare masquerade, the kind that appears once in a generation among a people.

May his soul rest in perfect peace.

Chinua Achebe is
professor n David and Marrianna Fisher University and Professor of African
Studies at Brown University,Providence, USA

Ileke-IdI:
What's the difference between a mass murderer and one that advocates for mass murder?

So when you sit your lazy azz on NL all day crying "Biafra is getting ready. . . ", "We will repay the yorubas and huasa. . . ", you did not know that you were pushing for thousands of innocent deaths?

You don't have to have a gun in your hands to be called a murderer. You're old enough to realize that.

So, if I say I want my people Ndigbo to secede from Nigeria because Nigeria thinks we are a captured people, and have been abusing us since 1970, it would then be tantamount to "pushing for thousands of innocent deaths"? Which logic book are you using again?
Murtala Muhammad's?
Which school do you people attend anyways?
Your level of mental derangement baffles me a lot!
Imagine this type of illiteracy.

This is why you are mass murderers and would want all those wanting to leave Nigeria to be gunned down summarily.
Well, you won't have the opportunity to do that because there is THE HAGUE these days!

^^

And his sister mass murder advocate comes to the rescue. hehehe!
Mass murderers!