₦airaland Forum

Enugu vs Anambra tussle dates way back, and has continued owing to the tendency of the supposedly enlightened individuals to adduce character stereotypes for other people: Anam people are backwards-thinking, Nsukka people are primitive, Onitcha people are arrogant, Udi people are ill-mannered and on and on. How in Gods name do you think you can define a thousand persons with a single character sketch?! That is simply intellectual laziness! I have actually paid disinterested attention to Ozodi Osuji's essays and it's easy to argue with him, he too has a fundamental flaw: his tendency to rely on stereotypes. That is the basis of our problem. The day we abandon this tendency to fit a group of people into a character stereotype, then we might as well begin to understand ourselves. I grew up in Enugu and the family next door were from Owerri (Umunjanwoke) yet they are the nicest family I have ever known. The mother would often take me and her kids to Polo Park or the Zoo or Nnaji Park in New Haven. She took me to work (Immigration) one time just so I would see what a computer looked like). She encouraged me to sit for the Shell scholarship exam-and I was successful. My mother (her landlady) would reciprocate by sending their family 'ofe akwu' or 'abacha' or driving her children and I to Obiagu (reputed to have several masquerades at Christmastime). My parents own two blocks of 15 flats in Enugu and these are the families I grew up with: 1 Delta family, 1 Abia family, 1 Ebonyi family, 4 Anambra families, 4 Enugu families, 3 Imo families.
There wasn't even the slightest misunderstanding between these families. We grew up like brothers and sisters. I had a remarkable childhood, and I grew up very fit for society, and I won't let some silly internet trolls attempt to rewrite the best times of my life by attempting to tell me the Echetebus and Obis from Awka and Agulu respectively are selfish and insolent or that the Akpaenyis and Nwatus from Ezeagu and Nkanu are duplicitous and overbearing Or that the Orjis from Ohaozara had other motives (That family cherished nothing more than discipline, and their finesse was enviable). The first 18 years of my life was spent with these 14 families who loved me and whom I loved.

Enugu continues to be the melting pot for all Igbo people, and continues to evolve a newer generation of Igbos so please kindly sheathe your swords and desist from saying a bad word against your brother. The first time I visited the State library (a treasure I discovered thanks to the Ebonyi family), I read this wise saying from an American text: 'a good thought produces a good word, a good word produces a good feeling, a good feeling between us leads to love and peace.

Conversely, an evil thought produces an evil word, an evil word produces an evil feeling, an evil feeling between us leads to...
Hate, Strife, War, Disrespect etc

networkgenuis: Have you deleted and installed new one?
Which connection protocol are you using?

Yes I have. UDP 500.

networkgenuis: If you are having problems connecting your Droidvpn, delete and reinstall. They upgraded their server yesterday.

Stillnotworking. I've restarted my phone, switched servers... It no longer works for me since I changed location.

centje: I love that mag too...and its free. I just downloaded the new edition,its available on their website in pdf format. The mag has a smart concept behind it! I think they are based in enugu.

I just followed the link. That mag is awesome. Methinks we should leave comments for the team as a way of encouraging them. It's the least we can do. Who knows, our comments might eventually improve the website's online ranking and widen its readership. I cherish people who are passionate about what they do.

Mr New Zealand isn't quite the cutest guy up there.

It's baffling how few of the Yorubas here are getting worked up! Over what exactly? Some comment made by some dude who may or may not be Igbo.

Plus, I was made to understand that tribalism is a game nairalanders play, so since when did it cease being a game, such that you guys have begun sending Anti-Igbo BBM broadcasts. Clearly, you're taking this too much to heart... This is quite disturbing, yet strangely hilarious.

strangest: If I beat your child, is is your mother that will complain OR my mother? If yoroubas were actually deported as you claimed without facts then it is in the interest of the yoroubas to complain. Foshola has done it before and this is the second time he is doing again amist the protest. Nigerians cannot be deported within their own country and such a man like Fashola need to forget about politics for the rest of his life for this silly act and I am sorry for Ngige that is coming out for Anambra's post on AC platform because Fashola has reduced his chances of winning.

Don't take these jesters seriously. Yorubas were deported by Fashola and they were busy waiting for Ndigbo to retaliate and fight their war for them; sounds like some folks in SW have maldescended tes.tes. They see Ndigbo as tools to be used, and when the mood catches them, they tell Ndigbo to "crawl back to their villages in the East".

If Fashola's actions are unconstitutional and undemocratic --as is the case here--, then call him out instead of resorting to juvenile tit for tat exchanges. Talk about cutting one's nose to spite one's face.

Shame on the despot called Fashola, and shame on all the supporters of this evil action!.

pesty100: Dis kind of thread never makes it to the front only d one where ibo re yabbing yoruba makes it

Why in the hell would a thoughtless thread as this, created by someone with a negative IQ make it to the front page?!

The handwriting is on the wall for all to see; the man, Fashola, has revealed his true identity as a mindless bigot and a tribalist- as is the norm where he comes from.

Excellent penmanship. Saying it as it is - no sugarcoating.
This North-South divide continues to widen, and continues to devolve into violence.
May be someday -we don't know when- Northern Nigeria will realise this author tried to help her, by prodding her to take up a challenge with the South, and attempt to be better.

BTW, soon the Southern competitors, true to their spirit, will hijack this thread and make it into Yoruba vs Igbo.

Mods, I think a thread like this that attempts to solve a foundational problem, needs to get a wide readership. In other words, Front Page please!

Azuka Onwuka
Azuka Onwuka
| credits: File copy
Last week, the National Teachers’ Institute announced that about 80 per cent of teachers in Northern Nigeria were not qualified to teach. Just before that, the Federal Ministry of Education had announced the cut-off marks for admission into the Federal Government Colleges, known as Unity Schools, with the shocking piece of information that while the cut-off mark was as high as 139 for a Southern state like Anambra, it was as low as two, yes two, (out of a possible 200 marks) for pupils of a Northern state like Yobe.

According to the Federal Character Commission, “In 1954 when Nigeria opted for a federal form of government, the concept of Quota System as a policy was adopted in the recruitment of persons into the officers’ corps of the armed forces and the police as well as in admissions into educational institutions,” to promote a fair representation and close the existing disparities among the parts of the nation. On the surface, it is a good idea, because it ensures that no single area gets into federal establishments to the detriment of other areas.

However, over the decades, it has dealt a heavy blow on the psyche of Northern Nigeria. Man is naturally competitive. Man performs at his peak in times of difficulty: the maxim “necessity is the mother of invention” captures it. The collapse of communism bears testimony to this. Remove competition among people, provide amenities for them equally, reward them equally — no matter their individual contributions — and the will to excel evaporates. Even though the Federal Character policy was established with good intentions, those who created it and those who still support its continuance are indirectly not wishing the North well.

In the 2007 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, Imo State produced more candidates seeking admission into the universities than all the 19 Northern states put together. That is not just shocking but dangerous. The top five states with the highest number of candidates were Southern states. They are as follows: Imo 93,065; Anambra 64,689; Delta 61,580; Edo 57,754; Akwa Ibom 47,928; while the lowest five states were Northern states as follows: Sokoto 3,925; Taraba 3,832; Zamfara 2,904; Jigawa 2,541; and Yobe 2,516.

The trend remains virtually the same year after year. For example, last year, the top three states were Imo (123,865 candidates); Delta (88,876); and Anambra (71,272); while the last three states were Northern states.

Last month, UNESCO released a report that ranked Nigeria as the country with the most number of children out of school: a whopping 10.5 million – the population of Portugal! No doubt, a larger proportion of these children would be from the North. Some blame the almajiri system for this. It is a system that was created to offer young boys the opportunity of being groomed and tutored by a religious leader, so as to grow into exemplary members of society. But it has gone awry, making these young boys roam the streets begging, with nobody to direct them, and then growing up into angry youths that can be used to cause mayhem at the drop of a hat.

Right from birth, the Northern child is disadvantaged. While his Southern counterpart grows up attending school, the Northern child does not. Through education and entrepreneurship, the Southern youth grows up with more opportunities in life. He knows that he can only succeed in life through excellence. That drive makes a southerner successful and he trains his children in good schools, instilling self-reliance and competitiveness in them, thereby improving the chances of the children even succeeding more than him. The average Yoruba person does not want an Igbo person to beat him in any field of human endeavour and vice versa; that spurs both sides to excellence. The average Urhobo person, Efik person or Bini person does not want an Igbo person, or Yoruba person or Ibibio or Ijaw to beat him. So there is healthy rivalry among them, which leads to excellence and success.

On the contrary, with no education, no artisanal skills and lack of competitive spirit, the Northern child grows up with extremely low chances of success. He cannot secure a decent job; he cannot even offer specialised services of an artisan; he is afraid to start off a small-scale business because he virtually has nobody to understudy. The only available job is the most difficult and yet the least remunerated: the work of a labourer. He supplies water in 25-litre kegs to people who live on the fourth floors with no elevators for N50 per keg. He uses a wheelbarrow or tub to move sand and concrete at construction sites; he stays around markets to help those who have bought heavy items like tubers of yam and bags of rice to move these items from deep inside the market to their vehicles or even home. And for all this hard labour, he gets paid pittance.

As he renders this poorly paid service to people, does anybody expect him to be happy with the successful people around him? It is impossible.

The Northerner is not less intelligent than his Southern counterpart, neither is he weaker or less creative. How many people can beat the business acumen and creativity of Alhaji Aliko Dangote, or the automobile design ingenuity of Jelani Aliyu, or the academic intelligence of Nasir el-Rufai, or the resoluteness of Col. Abubakar Umar and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, or the football skills of Tijani Babangida and Daniel Amokachi, or the musical talent of Innocent Tuface Idibia, or the organisational and leadership abilities of Sir Ahmadu Bello?

Some would claim that Islam is the reason for the North’s poor embrace of education. If that were so, why is a predominantly Christian state like Taraba found among the states with the lowest literacy rate? Saudi Arabia, the headquarters of Islam, is very education-focused with a literacy rate of 85 per cent, ranking 116th of 194 countries. Indonesia, the most populated Muslim country in the world, is education-savvy with 92 per cent literacy rate. The United Arab Emirates has 90 per cent literacy rate. Nigeria has 72 per cent literacy rate, but should actually be in the 90s.

The danger in having the North lag behind is that Nigeria has to always move at the pace of the North or put appropriately, lag behind with it. Nigeria is a unit and cannot move and leave some parts behind. Again, the more the South moves ahead of the North, the more conflicts will arise between the North and the South. While the North will feel that the South is cornering the joint resources of the nation, the South will feel the North is pulling it backwards.

One other factor that has worked against the North is its long years of ruling the country. There is a form of complacency that comes from the feeling of “We are in charge.” At such periods, you let your guards down; you don’t complain so as not to overheat the administration of your “kinsman”. But when your brother is not in charge, you feel left out and thereby complain the loudest of marginalisation. Those in charge bend backwards to satisfy you with different projects. The North should de-emphasise its focus on the presidency. Forty years of Northern presidency – civilian or military – have not offered the North any tangible advantage.

Those who hate the truth would rise in righteous anger, seeing this treatise as the work of an enemy rather than digesting the hard truth and finding solutions to a worsening problem. And those who love ethnic bashing will quickly see it as advantage to start shooting at the North. But the truth is that the progress of the North will serve both the interest of the North and South.

There should be a two-way approach to this problem. The North should set up a 20-year target to catch up with the South in education and entrepreneurship. The Northern states must make it an offence for any parent to deny their child education. The state governors and local government chairmen need to start a programme of sending as many Northern children as possible to Southern states for their secondary and tertiary education. The new Northern youths need to leave their comfort zone: compete with their Southern counterparts, interact with them and imbibe some of the ways of the Southern people.

The second aspect concerns uneducated youths who may no longer want to go to school. Lack of education is no impediment to success. The Northern governors and local council chairmen should start an intensive skills acquisition programme for the youths. A labourer cannot train another, neither can he rise much in life if he continues as an unskilled labourer. But someone who has learnt masonry, tiling, sewing, vehicle repairing, generator repairing, painting, plumbing, etc, can grow to a level where he will have apprentices. Massive construction takes place non-stop across the federation. Nigerians have an unquenchable appetite for cars and fashion. So, they need these services. That way, the number of skilled workers increases; the earning power of the people increases; and such people can afford a better life for their children, gradually changing the face of their community.

Quota system or federal character is derogatory and has worsened things for the North. Every Northerner who loves the North must tell Nigeria to stop insulting the North with this federal character bait. The North must refuse anything offered it on a platter: it is either a Greek gift or a poisoned chalice. The North should save itself by rejecting this insulting Unity Schools’ cut-off marks that cut it off from development and modernity

Source:http://www.punchng.com/opinion/the-harm-nigeria-does-to-the-north/

homerac7: ^^^

You are typical example of foolishness that's borne out of crass ignorance. You have access to internet but it has not benefited your education, no thanks to Nairaland, Facebook, 2go and Badoo. You glory in being able to read and write and yet wait for me to give reasons why a clearly flawed data on YOUR OWN country and people, aren't you unfortunate?

oK, I will oblige you by pointing out one typical flaw in each of the maps to prove how stupeed you are not to make those simple observations.

Map 1: Most of the areas covered are not Hausa/Fulani land. They comprise over 200 different other ethnicities.

Map 2: GDP is incorrect measure of wealth in this case, HDI and/or GNI will be more relevant.

Map 3: How is Yobe state (that just has 2/400 pass score point in National Common Entrance and one of the worst educationally disadvantaged states) at par with Ogun state educationalwise?

Map 4: Extremely most of the primary health care immunization challenges are in the northern states, not south. Cases in South are rare and isolated.

Mind you, I have been to most of those regions and seen tons of reports on these basic issues. I could go on and show many more inaccuracies, but that will be flogging a dead horse.

Now you see how very unfortunate you are to sit your ignorant butt here and wait for a German to tell you who you are? ...STUPEED EEDIOT!

And we should take your word over empirical evidence, right? Besides, the researchers were specific in their evaluation. They used female literacy rate to study education, and percentage of infants with adequate immunisation to study health, and GDP to study wealth, whereas your conjecture is based on using an entirely different set of parameters: Unity Schools' cut-off, presumed 'healthcare immunisation challenges' and HDI, so you are bound to get a different result. But until your own publications are ready let's argue within the confines of the available data. But, come to think of it, that's not even the point of the thread!

homerac7: what I think for sure is that your demographic maps are incorrect. it is sad that a Nigerian is using map drawn by an "Ulrich" on Nigerian forum. How can a German know you better than yourself? Well...I have travelled fairly wide around Nigerian, and I know that all the maps (maybe except the oil pipeline routes which i am not sure of) are highly inaccurate.

So son, get a more accurate map, or data representation (not from BBC pleeeeease!), then you can have meaningful and unbiased analyses.

There may be specific inaccuracies in the data, but, regardless the OP's argument is unassailable: We are just too annoyingly divided; We are like the antithesis of the United States. May be we should be called the Three Nigerias in Nigeria.

ife4luv21: confirmation from cc...mtn bbc 1k is capped 350mb while mtn bis 1500 is capped 3gig.....

Really? I'm using BBC and my android has eaten up 2.2G in under 4 days.

Brother, a picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. One picture would speak much more than your treatise. Post pictures if you have them.

VAQAXY: It is called planning..

Obi plans months in ahead for any project he is to execute. He is very consistent with all his programmes and projects. The 5 star hotel, Shoprite and ICC in Onitsha, even the Agulu Lake Hotel Resort-Awka were all planned about 3years ago but today they are all standing. If you do not plan, you plan to fail.

Obi is not a regular Nigerian governor who wakes up one morning and start doing something he never planned for. Such projects are usually abandoned because there is no fund ab-initio to implement it. The picture the Op, post is about 7 months ago, the level of work has gone far.

Obi is not focusing on comestics activities on the state capitals like most governor does. He is spreading development all over, making every part of Anambra habitable and comfortable unlike most part of SE. Anambra is a state where somebody will live in Agulu and even Ekwuluobia and goes to work in Awka; another will be living in Oba or Nsugbe and goes to work every day in Onitsha.

This is due to wide development in the state, every corner of the state has basic infrastructure as assess roads, health centers, electricity, etc, such things as this are still dream in most of SE areas. That is why Anambra is presently achieving MDG which was recently confirmed by the world bank.

mike404: NO BE YOU BE CHINO

Chino48: The work and asphalting of Upper Iweka axis has gone beyond what is shown on the picture, this is def. as old as 7months old pix. The entire stretch/corridor been covered with another layer of asphalt and grass/flowers being planted on the open areas as at last week I passed Emeka Ojukwu Way.

I agree with you, Chino as I happened to pass through Onitcha 2weeks ago. Peter Obi has done an amazing job from Limca Roundabout up to the Bridgehead. If you have access to pictures, kindly post them.

In Ondo town, Ondo State power has improved tremendously from about 6-8hrs/day when I first arrived in January to 21+ hours yesterday. Whatever the Ministry of Power is up to is yielding very good results here.

It's nice to stumble on this thread. Nuclear boy, django et al, nice job. It is okay to post good and bad pictures of your city despite criticisms. I was surprised to hear from a Yoruba friend that the city of Ibadan has, not 4 or 5, but 11 local government areas. Therefore I don't suppose her having a higher-than-average number of sub-par settlements comes as a surprise. Another poster once exposed the bad infrastructure in Onicha, and barely a year later, the Government has taken great steps towards solving those issues, and the residents are the better for it.

Sir Spyder, I just stumbled upon this masterpiece (while going through your other masterpieces ). It looks like a small thing, but you really have no idea what you have done, and what its overtones have been. I felt the trepidation in the first few pages; your eagerness to expose the ills of government, and the reluctance that trailed it as you wondered whether that action would be akin to feeding the NL tribalists with enough info to turn back and taunt you--and I'm quite glad ACM10 gave you the necessary prod to walk past the crossroad.

It has been a year since you published these horrendous photos, and yes, you shamed Government, and yes Government was ashamed! Have you been to Onicha recently? The entire stretch of road from ?Limca Roundabout (I mean the area where the Army Barracks is located) all the way to the Bridgehead is near-perfect with 10+ lanes of well-tarred roads gliding through Onicha. All the 4+ storey buildings have come alive. The view of Onicha from an up-slope on the expressway is breathtaking. And the Bridgehead? So cleaned up you would hardly recognize it anymore if you saw it,as is said in Southeastern parlance. Honestly, I was awed by the transformation going on in Onicha. I wish I had done the sensible thing and take pictures.

Let's imagine you had simply turned a blind eye to the decadent infrastructure that Onicha used to be known for (like the page 1 posters wanted), the sad state-of-affairs might have continued. But you didn't! And so, you took your pen (in other words) and condemned Government, and bared her inefficiencies and ineptitude, and she, (referring to the Government, not Peter Obi ), being human, and therefore penetrable to shame, found herself disgraced in the market square, searched her soul and then re-discovered herself! Hurray and Halleluia, The Pen is ever mightier than the Sword! Imagine if the 35 other State Governors and the Man at Aso Rock were also human, and likewise penetrable to shame? I know, I'm orgas.mic.

This is a lesson for all the disciples of bad government, who would rather throw their dirty linen in the closet. After all, out of sight is out of mind? If that were only true!

Please kindly help me solve this issue: I'm not able to download pictures while surfing the net on my Nexus 4. I also tried it on my Nexus 10, but met the same problem. The browser actually says 'download complete' but doesn't open the image. I use Chrome browser, and have even tried Dolphin yet the problem persists. Help a brother!

I thought journalism was about unravelling the truth, but our newspaper companies seem to be better adept at stringing beads of gossip together. The obvious underlying issue in contention is whether the said Airport is a Federal or State establishment, and the newspiece couldn't even establish that. The journalist's greatest achievement was to present divergent views of people who supposedly ought to be in the know, and then leave the reader to riddle whether the airport belongs to the Federal or State government.

Until our politicians decide who owns this simple airport, I'm on strike!

Ikengawo: I think a system of automation would clear up the madness.
One of our problems is the us of humans and physical power for everything. Police shouldn't be standing outside in the sun like agbero, put them in a vehicle, response time and corruption with drop dramatically, and a 'tax collector' should be walking door to door collecting 'tax' with his own bare hands. Property owners should have to submit their bank account for automatic withdrawal.

Practical solutions. But the persons in the corridors of power are still too busy frolicking with oyel money. May be when the US and India drop their oil imports to zero, then a semblance of sanity would hit us.