₦airaland Forum

christejames:
approximately one hour if your car was fast enough but 1hr 30mins, if your car was quite slow. As for the flight, there is no airport or aerodrome at Nsukka presently but in no distance time we would have one in this zone... LOL!

sheymoni:
Wole Soyinka Ndi-Igbo Fabrication. TheCable apologises to Soyinka over ‘Igbo’ story

The management of Cable Newspaper Ltd, publishers of TheCable, would like to make the following statement concerning our report on the lecture by Professor Wole Soyinka at the Harvard University Hutchins Centre for African & African American Research.

Soyinka was quoted to have made derogatory remarks about the Igbo over their voting pattern in the March 28 presidential election. He has since denied the offensive quotes attributed to him.

After a thorough in-house investigation, we have come to the conclusion that the story misrepresented the views expressed by Soyinka in the question-and-answer session after his lecture.

We take full responsibility for the inaccuracy and promise that we will continue to strive to improve our standards.

Also, we wish to reiterate that we take our professional responsibilities very seriously, as our readers can attest to.

We hereby offer an unreserved apology to Soyinka, Ndigbo and our readers.

Signed: Management of Cable Newspaper Ltd

TheCable apologises to Soyinka over ‘Igbo’ story http://www.thecable.ng/thecable-apologises-soyinka-igbo-story via @thecableng

all4naija:
Overrated mediocre town not a city!

BuddahMonk:
[size=13pt]Indirect rule was success in North, failure in East but in West nobody knew their stand till today, you cant say whether indirect rule was a success or a failure in West, everything about a people is sitting on the fence, unable to create a clear cut agenda and unable to speak with one strong voice.

In Confab, South went with resource control as part of the agenda, South East stood on resource control, South South stood on resource control, when it got to South West Lagos delegates where saying different things, yoloba delegates where saying another things(that everybody will control resources except oli), Afenifere was waiting to know what the North will say in order not to ruffle their feathers....this was how everything about resource control fall yakataaa[/size]

rexbuton:
Hello..
Jonathan's loss at the polls has come and gone, It is actually a blessing in disguise, it saves us the pain of answering every stupid question on what our 'brother' was doing.. But I will tell you that we have been conned in the biggest scam in our history. As a bini man I am pleased with the outcome of the elections and the role religion played in it, but truly Jonathan was not pro-active. He is the sort of happy-go-lucky guys that you find sometimes and surrounded himself with people of questionable character, Nigeria doesn't need that kind of person. Nigeria needs an authoritarian government that would clamp down on press freedom and violate rights. Jonathan has been eased out and I am pleased for the following reasons:

1. The governance of Nigeria is a poisoned chalice :- Not even a theocracy can solve the ills in this country, and everyday the problems become worse. From unemployment to corruption to Power to Environment. And these problems are global problems, that we cant solve. Verily I say unto you, Buhari will not fix a single problem in this country, he will be continually overwhelmed and if he is honest enough he will scream that there are forces in his cabinet sabotaging his plans. In fact let's wait till inauguration before discussing this.. But there is this popular misconception that elected public officers are most corrupt but I put it to anyone that the most corrupt persons in the country are in the civil service. The permanent secretaries and directors sit on so much corruption that they can't afford to stand up even for a minute. Elected public officers just steal money, ministries have institutionalized corruption, the type that even the executive cannot understand completely. Such as that of NNPC and it's subsidiaries. The report did not indict any person, instead it indicted the NNPC working model, if we had access to NPDC's accounts we would have protested for it's immediate closure

2. America is trying to further divide the rich and poor in the world by taking away means of self reliance. Over time, countries who have moved from underdeveloped to developed status have a currency which they trade with. At times it is human resources e.g. China, India, other times it is Crude oil as seen in South America and the gulf oil states. With free-falling oil prices as schemed by the world powers, most countries would not have the means to pursue meaningful development. Buhari has already come out to say that the oil prices are not favorable for his policies. But he should remember that the price had started falling even before his election victory and he used if for his campaigns.

3. I live in the North, these people are extremely helpful and friendly, Jonathan did a lot here.. The southerners who voted buhari continue to argue that Jonathan was daft, we agree. Considering the fact that he sited 9 out of 12 universities in the north, and shipped fertilizers there to boost their farming drive, the well said Almajiri schools anthem and employment in the civil service. The thank you message from the North was echoed throughout the north :: "VOTE OUT THE INFIDEL".. That was the easiest election campaign message ever.. It was more efficient than promises of electricity, Agricultural development, Water, Waste management, trips to the moon e.t.c. That message is your surest way to get to Abuja. Do not tell me about how the north voted jonathan in 2011, minus the fact that the PDP rigging machine rigged the election, the Buhari project was not yet mature. BUt his post election comments about soaking baboons proved to the North that he was the right man.
Jonathan did not do anything in the south, he trusted his brothers, even on the eve of his election betrayals they still voted for him but it wasn't enough. If Jonathan had not rigged the election figures in the north, the results would have been more disgraceful but would have been a real reflection of what happened there.

It was just an agenda to kick him out after 4 years, from the BH insurgency to the Chibok girls, Sanusi's allegations and the other wahala were part of the grand plan but Jonathan was too busy trying to solve them individually without thinking if they were all connected afterall.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS
It is however pertinent to note at this time that Boko Haram has gone to bed.. We are happy and sad at the same time, happy because we can finally stop having a page on BBC and CNN for the wrong reasons. And I'm sad due to the strange timing of their cessation of hostilities. As innocent as my humble heart, it still tries not to link the BH cease fire with the election results. BH is crumbling faster than a pack of cards, today 200 girls are released tomorrow 190 girls.. Let us just say it was due to Jonathan's dying bed wishes with his last chakra, but even America during her occupation of Iraq did not achieve large scale victories like these even in more favorable terrain. A few might still argue that a handful of bombings here and there still occur; this is what I will refer to as tapering. In pharmacodynamics, when administering a drug especially and endogenous substance such as a hormone, you don't just stop the drug once, instead you gradually reduce the dosage so that the body's natural production mechanism will take over. If BH had just stopped on the sunday after elections, the uproar would have been too much.. This goes to show how much people are willing to sacrifice their kin just to achieve an agenda. Anyways the NE has a fairly large christian population so no harm done.

Concerning the issue of permanent voters card, i see it as a means to constantly disenfranchise or underenfranchise the south. The figures polled by the north will continually be put forward with additions in every subsequent election. A time will be reached and they will tell you that the population in gombe is thrice that of Bendel and Rivers. And their methods are very systematical and carefully arranged. The Kaduna state government has just told us that over 3.5 Million children were immunized on sunday, just kaduna state. I don't need to press home the handiness of these immunization figures. But keep in mind that they will be used in a few years as reference points. I won't even be surprised if Buhari commissions a census in the guise of the former being unreliable. The census figures will just be like our election results. When elections come, they will vote their kin and use traitors here or the very intelligent progressives to garner their 25% and move on.
Gani Adams, speaking at a Press Conference at Ikeja, queried how 90% PVC collection in Boko Haram affected states became possible despite the insecurity and a very large number of displaced persons (IDP’s) in various Internally Displaced Persons camps and then Lagos, a peaceful state having just 45% PVC collection.

According to Gani Adams, the inequality in PVC collection between peaceful states and stats battling insecurity is a curious case that goes beyond the thinking imagination of a reasonable mind which is clouded with evil intention.

With 30,000 fraudulent polling units in the Northern region and not creating any additional polling unit in the South, designated as voting centers and having being heavily criticized by some eminent Northern elders, this increased the voter number in the north considerably
“In a Normal and sane nation, this singular act is a subversion of popular interest which should have earned massive condemnation. We also saw the massive PVC collection figures in war ravaged areas and comparing them with peaceful areas doesn't ake any sense at all.

In fact the elections were paradoxical.. If the north had massively voted Jonathan and we in the south massively rigged him out, it would have been easier to accept and understand. Today the South SOUTH and South-east even the south has nothing to remember jonathan for.. Jonathan is not a hero, Jonathan failed us

Brothers, real smartness is not the ability to win online arguments, it is your ability to determine what happens around you. We must learn from the mistakes of Ironsi and Jonathan, and decide our fate.

akinegba1:
As incredible as it may seem, many people find tribal marks repulsive.

The first time Akinwunmi travelled to the United kingdom several years ago, he recalled how a little white girl approached him where he was seated at the airport and studied his face. Akinwunmi had four long horizontal lines deeply etched on his two cheeks.
The girl was aged about six. Akinwunmi was initially embarrassed at the way the girl stared at him. Her parents were seated a few yards away and not knowing how to send her away, he decided to engage her in a conversation.

Then, the girl came clean to ask about the marks on his face and he told her he fought and killed a lion. Impressed, she ran back to her parents shouting on top of her voice that she wanted her doll and a biro. She was shouting that she had just met a brave man who had killed a lion.

The little girl drew the attention of many who shifted their gaze to Akinwunmi’s direction and wondered at him. Some of the men even nodded in admiration at his bravery and the little white girl returned, holding her doll and a biro. She lovingly caressed Akinwunmi’s face and the marks on his face before giving him her doll for his autograph.

Now visibly embarrassed, Akinwunmi held her hand and told her he didn’t fight or kill a lion but that the marks on his face were tribal marks he got as a child. On hearing that, the little girl shifted away and screamed in horror, shouting that he was a savage. Her scream attracted airport officials who came to her rescue and found her pointing at Akinwunmi’s tribal marks as the face of a savage.
That was over thirty years ago.

Now, Akinwunmi is 57 years and happily married. He has five kids. None of whom has tribal marks.
“ I cannot subject my children to the embarrassment I suffered over the marks I have on my face. Even in my school days in Nigeria, they called me all sorts of names because of the severe tribal marks my grand parents put on my face. As a young man, I remained a virgin for a long time because the kind of ladies I wanted to date rejected me due to the marks on my face. The greatest thing that happened to me was getting educated and qualifying to be a doctor otherwise it would have been disastrous for me.

It was difficult for me to get a woman to marry, I mean the kind of woman I wanted. The ladies hated the ugly marks on my face. Even my wife till today does not like my tribal marks even though she eventually accepted to marry me. Her attraction then was travelling to live in UK with me but I guess along the line, she began to love me despite my tribal marks”. This is just one of the stories shared by people with tribal marks on their faces many of whom would not give such marks to their children.[/b]

Nowadays, tribal marks have become the dying lore of ancient days. Some of the young people who have it feel resentment towards their parents for giving them such scars in the first place.

[b]During his tenure as Ekiti governor, Fayose banned the inscription of tribal marks in Ekiti. Women are worse off for it. A woman that has four lines each on her cheek may have it tough in getting a husband in the present time no matter how pretty she is.
There have been reports of many who resorted to plastic surgery to reduce the effect of the scars or completely remove them.
Of beauty and heritage.

Across the major and minor tribes in Nigeria, tribal marks have become a way of identification. Such marks reveal instantly, the tribe of anybody who has such a mark. In Yoruba land, tribal marks are an age-long practice of identification of peoples’ origin.
The marks reveal whether one is of Egba, Nupe, Ilaje and other Yoruba origin. Different tribes use these marks and designs as a form of identification, beautification and protection.

These tribal marks are created using sharp instruments such as razor blades, knives or glass and in some cases, flesh is cut from the skin to create a gash, which later heals and leaves a permanent pattern on the body.
In an encounter, Alhaji Adegboye, an octogenarian who had what he described as Egba tribal marks told this writer that in the old days when there were inter-tribal wars, tribal marks were used as a source of identification.

“People who were migrating to other places had these marks given to them as a mark of identification so that whosoever came in contact with them would know instantly where they were coming from. There are tribal marks that tell you instantly that someone is an Egba man, an Ilaje person or an Ijesha man.

There are also big families that have their family marks and wherever they see each other, they would recognise themselves from the marks on their faces or hidden elsewhere in their bodies.
An individual’s tribe or family typically dictates the pattern in which tribal marks are inscribed on their faces, stomach or legs. Specific families are charged with the responsibility of creating these marks. These household names are also used to sing their praises. The skill of making these marks is passed from one generation to another.”

Alhaji Adegboye,had tribal marks not only on his face but also on parts of his body.
“ In my days, they are considered beautiful. Every first son in our family must have a tribal mark. I am a first son and I was given these beautiful marks at birth. My younger ones did not have them. Our first daughter, that is my mother’s first daughter has words tattooed on her chest, arms, and legs.

These words are praise words, which are complimentary phrases about the person they are inscribed on. As she grew up, she also added more tattoos on her neck and arms. My sister has on her arm , a tattoo depicting a man’s name and a heart sign on her hand. Perhaps, she must have been in love when she gave herself that mark. Other parts of her body had drawings that I couldn’t decipher.
“ My grandmother also had a lot of marks. Apart from the tribal marks on her face, she had several marks all over her body that as a boy, I used to be struck by how she withstood the pains.

“ Ironically, things have changed. None of my children or grandchildren has any tribal mark. I lived in London and had my children over there. I would have loved my first son to have a tribal mark but the British doctors would not hear of it.
And because my children were all British citizens, we couldn’t give them the marks at that time. When we returned home to Nigeria, my wife passed on and I married another one. But she is not Yoruba and kicked against it.
She quickly reminded me that none of my children from my first marriage had a tribal mark and for peace to reign, I obliged her. She has three children for me and they didn’t have tribal marks”

Looking back, Alhaji Adegboye said his tribal marks did not pose a big challenge to him. “ The women were not crazy about me and I was not a ladies’ man. I was the serious type but when I made up my mind to settle down, I began to approach women. There was a particular lady I wanted to marry but she was a Christian.

She told me pointblank that she would not marry a Muslim especially one with tribal marks. I wooed her but it did not work and because I liked her character, I told my cousin who is a Christian about her and she married him. My cousin didn’t have any tribal marks anyway.
“ That tradition is fading out now. In fact, it has faded out although I still see a few people who wear minor tribal marks. The ones I see these days are not as deep like the one in the past. The young people have also made fancy of tattoos. The entertainers and actors are using it to suit their trades. These days, young people have all manner of designs on their bodies and they call them tattoos but they have rejected tribal marks.”

Although these marks have a long history of tradition and culture, some Nigerians believe the practice of scarification as it is called should be stopped, because they are “barbaric” or unfashionable and antiquated.

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/10/marked-life-tribal-marks-attractive-repulsive/#sthash.EJjIyUke.dpuf