₦airaland Forum

[quote author=~Bluetooth link=topic=601921.msg7702212#msg7702212 date=1297309745]was lagos once an annex of benin ? [/quote]Possibly. There are various interpretations, like a) that the Oba's son was directly sent to and made Lagos a city-state, or b) that a rebellious Iyase (general) took over Lagos and established the monarchy and then got on good terms with Benin again, after which tribute was sent or c) other interpretations

I don't care about specifics, though. Just the IDEA . I need to write my name in the annals of history and recolonizing Lagos seems like a good way to go about it.

Lagos should just be re-annexed by Benin. It'll stop all this saber-rattling between Igbos and Yorubas and also, we (Benin) need a seaport.


I personally want to lead the charge.

Xris74:
Why Bayelsa Can't Reveal State of Finance’
From Segun James in Yenagoa, 07.20.2007

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Bayelsa State government has said it will not disclose the state of its finances, so as not to embarrass Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.
It, however, said “if the EFCC will do its job well, some people should be running away from Bayelsa.”
Special Adviser to Governor Timipre Sylva on Political Affairs, Dr George Fente, said this during an interactive meeting with political leaders and representatives of gubernatorial candidates in Yenagoa, yesterday.
According to Fente, because there is a “level of secrecy in government, Timipre Sylva cannot give the debt profile. We cannot wash our dirty linen in public. Jonathan is now the Vice President, we cannot embarrass him as a fellow Ijaw man.”
Giving the 24 local government councils (called G24) created by former Governor DSP Alamieyeseigha as example, Fente said each is given N10million monthly for development purpose, yet nothing is on ground to show for it.
According to him, this money, which amount to about N2.4 billion yearly cannot be accounted for. So much fund was released to local governments, yet there is nothing to show for it.
N10million to each G24 LGAs every month without any tangible project on ground. But individuals including civil servants have choice houses in Abuja and Yenagoa. It is really sad.”
He said that it was in the bid to correct these drain pipes on the state resources that the government began with the audit of government staff.
Fente lamented that the state pays over N2 billion in salaries every month even as the activities of militants in the creek has drastically obstructed operation of oil companies in the state.
Earlier in his speech to the gathering, Fente told the political parties’ leaders that the Sylva administration intends to run an all inclusive government with open door policy that is open to criticism and advice from well meaning Bayelsans.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=84079

If only Ijaw militants had adopted this philosophy. Johnny might not have had such a hard time politically.

hmmm. . .

I see. Good points, though I was under the impression that Britain had been ruling India since the 1700s. Overall, I see why they did what they did. Shame Nigerians had be 40-50 years behind educationally in addition to how far behind others they were in other aspects. These Brits were just so exploitative. They didn't learn from their own history. Sometimes I wish the Romans had made mincemeat of them and made the British Isles into Little Rome.

I guess this Maduka is just another unprincipled, power hungry goon in Nigeria.

The British actually had India and Egypt as colonies for much longer than Nigeria and didn't set up colleges and schools immediately or in many locations, so I don't see the difference, unless you can provide evidence to the contrary. With regard to South Africa,  I'm pretty puzzled by how they did more for colonial black South Africans than they did for Nigerians, for basically no reason. I had earlier thought that more black South Africans were more integrated into Western life and living since they had been coming to white cities since the 1800s and that that might have been the reason, but I don't really think so  now. The Niger Delta, for example, had been interacting with the British for a long time (trade) and could have immediately benefited from British development when they were made protectorates, but the Brits didn't give a damn. I guess they viewed Nigeria the way Belgians viewed the Congo - exploit, pillage, and move on.  Much of it can directly be blamed on Lugard and British governors like him, who had a kind of twisted respect for indigenous African rule and wanted to see indirect rule of the territories by the British using the African rulers who were forced into protectorates or previously overthrown by British to rule over the communities that the British conquered. Lugard ensured that Nigerians went on living somewhat similar to how they had been for a long time, except with their wealth being transferred to Britain and free labor being used by Britain.

When you consider that Nigeria is inherently politically unstable and that the way they set it up directly contradicted and rubbished the history of the pre-colonial area, it just makes me loath what their colonialism did to this area even more.

(edited)

Yoruba Kwenu

What's this obsession with control of Lagos? People should be wanting their area to be richer than all of Lagos, rather than trying to partition or keep parts of a Yoruba enclave that was only forced into union with other non-Yoruba places after the British navy took it over in the 1850s. People talking about businesses or infrastructure are naive or deliberately dishonest. The real worth of any land is the space/size of the land itself, its location (a coastal port, for example) and the concomitant advantages that location provides, any natural resources in the area, and possibly the historical/cultural significance of the area. Things like businesses and infrastructure are ephemeral and can be replaced or built up as needed, so they could never provide a pretext for sharing the land, location, and resources of an area with outsiders. Accept reality.

This is the first time I'll ever agree with this ROSSIKE chap on this forum, despite his excessive Afrocentrist/Pan-African tendencies. Good job correcting some bizarre assumptions on this thread.

One thing I will have to  disagree with regarding the establishing of the University of Ibadan in 1948, about 30-35 years after Nigeria was fully "pacified" by the British, is that you have to take account whether there was a sufficiently large population of literate and "second-generation" Nigerians to warrant establishing a Nigerian university. And by this I mean not only students, but also lecturers, staff and professors that  could result in the indigenous running of the university. So let the Brits slide on that one. There weren't that many Nigerians with Ph.D's or even master's prior to 1960.



@ Justcash, don't derail this thread with pointless whining. What's stopping you from going this very moment and developing Port Harcourt the way you presume the British would have? Did Amaechi institute a Justcash ban in Port Harcourt? By the way, the Western region excluding Lagos was richer than the East and had the same level of infrastructural development, or possibly greater (Ibadan, for example), so I don't see what all this babble about the East is about.


Concerning Port Harcourt read http://www.adakaboro.org/the12dayrev/chap3 to get some sense of what the non-British were turning it into. Apparently liquor houses, gambling centers, and brothels were all that the East could make of Port Harcourt after the British left.  That said, Port Harcourt could actually be something today, so I'm glad it didn't remain in British hands.

Specifics?

matazzmagi:
The Igbo fought with sweat and blood to win Nigeria's political freedom. They labored to win the freedom of Hausa, fulani, yoruba, chamba, Angas, Fulfulde, Jukun, Etkywan, Kpan, Mumuye, Agatu, Basa Gbagyi, Gbari, Bacama, Bade, Kanuri, Marghi, Ebira, Kakanda, Edo, Esan, Okpameri, Iyayu, Arigidi, Egun, Tiv, Igede etc had got hatred and savagery in return. Where are their humanity? Nigeria awaits the inevitable,

Who was Herbert Macaulay? Who was George Alfred Williams?

Isn't it true that Zik allowed political freedom for some of these groups to be delayed in 1957?

Ok. Without google, could you tell me what the Iseyin-Okeiho rebellion was?


I just think you and some other posters have a distorted view of colonial resistance in Africa. Let's just agree to disagree.  

ezeagu:
I still keep the claim.

The claim is unfounded. That was my very point. How can you still keep the claim? Are the Ashanti not West Africans?

With regard to Nigeria, read "Disaffection and Revolts in Nigeria during the First World War, 1914-1918" by Akinjide Osuntokun or Nigeria: background to nationalism
by James S. Coleman or Colonialism and Violence in Nigeria by Toyin Falola

[quote author=EzeUche_ link=topic=599800.msg7694575#msg7694575 date=1297214513]We also have Anglo-Aro wars.

Remember who were the last to fall in Nigeria. It was the Aro-Igbo. And it was the Igbo who provided the stiffest resistance to British rule in all of Nigeria.

I guess you haven't heard of the Ekumeku rebellion 1883-1914 amongst the Anioma Igbo.[/quote]Did I deny the existence of the Anglo-Aro wars? And the Aro-Igbo were one of the last to be invaded. As for stiffest resistance, that's debatable. I don't want to derail this thread too much. But this idea of other groups not providing any significant resistance is mythical and that's what I wanted to point out.

Binis had the Ologbosere of Benin and Oviaweri

Esan had the king of Uromi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogbidi_Okojie)

Yorubas had the Oba of Lagos resistance to British occupation in 1851 and the Egba kingdom (1914 & 1918) and the Abeokuta women's tax protest (1948)

I don't see much difference between the Egba revolt and the Aba women's war, and I think history is being distorted by trying to say only this or that group resisted. Yorubas, Igbos, Edos, etc. resisted.

The 1918 Egba uprising comprised more than 30,000 people.


I already knew about the Ekumeku rebellion. It was first studied in detail by Phillip Igbafe, a Bini historian, something you probably didn't know.

(edited)

ezeagu:
No, just some stories about shells with Great Britain written on them. Shame they'd treat the Igbo so harsh for being the only ones that gave them a worthy challenge of resistance in West Africa, well apart from Benin. Who would people rather associate with, lap dogs, or people who will die for their freedom? I'll suck it up like an early 20th century Aba woman against the odds.

Where does this myth originate from? Are the Ashanti not in West Africa all of a sudden? Read about the Anglo-Ashanti wars.


Also, what was the Egba revolt (1914)? What were the Warri tax riots (1927)?

Please don't distort history.

henry101:
You have also spoken about Lagos or anywhere in the West as
unsafe for the Easterners to hold a meeting. Nobody can
tell when life will be lost, but I think, speaking the minds of
entire people of Western Nigeria and Mid-Western Nigeria, that if
anybody can at this stage take the life of an Ibo man or an
Easterner, or if any outstanding Eastern loses his life by the
act of someone else, the whole of the Western Region and the
Mid-Western Region will take it as the end of Nigeria. I
can give that assurance on behalf of Western Nigeria and Lagos."


Did Awo keep his promise?
Instead He became the vice to Gowon.
Atleast we all knew why.
Smart my foot!!!!

Tell us why?

If my memory serves me correctly, the East seceded and later engaged in badly cloaked territorial expansion.

Andre Uweh:
@Physics or whatever you call yourself. Did Richy tell you that he is a moderator?. In this thread opinions have been divided, yet you have not questioned opinions of those on the other side of the argument. Do not make me wonder how neutral you are.
Even when Richy was a moderator, there was no favouritism from him. But what do you have today?. A situation an Igbo is banned permanently while others are banned and unbanned within 24 hours. Please do not shift from your neutrality.

Why would RichyBlack need to tell me that he's a moderator? It says very clearly in the politics section that he's the moderator of the foreign affairs section of this forum.

Who are those on the other side of the argument? Katsumoto? dayokanu? Are you actually claiming I haven't questioned their opinions? I questioned dayokanu's glorification of Adekunle and his Ogbomosho rant the minute he brought it up. I'm not debating Katsumoto again on his views on the Jan. 1966 coup because I don't want to derail this thread but also because I believe that we agree that Ironsi severely misruled Nigeria and took steps that were only replicated by later military dictators, despite there being no need for such.

My first username (PhysicsQED) was banned permanently, should I now allege a conspiracy against my ethnic group?

cap28: The ignorance of the likes of Dayokanu and his support for the genocide perpetrated by the likes of Adekunle is quite nauseating to behold.

Dayokanu let me explain a few things to you that you do not seem to understand - Adekunle was used by the northeners to acheive one objective - the defeat of their enemies the igbo, as soon as he acheived this objective he was tossed aside and recommended for compulsory retirement.  

Why did Adekunle end up a peniless , bitter drunk while his nothern masters ended up as members of the nigerian elite, why did the likes of TY Danjuma, Joe Garba, Abacha, Babangida, Shuwa and Useni  end up as multi billionaires while Adekunle ended up almost destitute?  Can you not see that Adekunle was nothing but a pawn?

It is common knowledge that shortly after the July 66 coup many yoruba soldiers feared for their lives and wanted to desert the army en masse.  Here is an excerpt from Oil Politics and Violence by max siollun:

"Yoruba soldiers were also afraid that after northerners finished off igbo officers they would be next.  Concerned for their safety yoruba soldiers sent a delegation consisting of Lt Col Obasanjo, Major Oluleye and Captains Akinfenwa and Ogundeko to the northern region's military governor Lt Col Katsina, to report their fears. Katsina arranged for Major Obasanjo to be smuggled away for his own protection.  Some Yoruba officers wanted to desert the army either individually or en masse as part of a self protective yoruba withdrawal.

"Colnel Adebayo was out of the country when the July 66 revolt commenced.  He returned a few days later and succeeded Fajuyi as the western region's military governor.  Adebayo later articulated yoruba fears as follows: "The Yorubas are afraid of moving around with the northern troops because they feel, well they have done something to the easterners maybe it is our turn next."
- oil violence and politics  page 132 - max siollun

This is hardly the conduct of brave and courageous men is it Dayokanu?

Lets be honest about this - the men who implemented the coup of January 66 largely comprised of igbos had the courage to act on their convictions the yorubas had neither the courage nor conviction to do anything about the corruption, greed and rot that was seeping into the nigerian system at that time,this is why they failed to form an alliance with the igbos after the July 66 coup.
It is clear from the events in the western region at the time that the yoruba hated the northern stooge Akintola but they did not have the courage to overhaul the system, when a group of courageous men stepped forward to remove the cancer imposed on by a corrupt cabal of nigerian polticians headed up by the Sardauna of Sokoto - the yoruba sat on the sidelines waiting to see who woudl be victorious.  When the Januay 66 coup failed instead of the yoruba to allign with the south they took the coward's way out and opted to become errand boys for the north - is that something to be proud about Dayokanu - that is a shameful chapter in your history and the sooner you let this seep into your brain the better for you.

The northerners outnumbered the combined numbers of igbo and yoruba soldiers and this why they gained the upper hand militarily.  The sardauna of sokoto was a man of great shrewdness and cunning, he introduced the quota system for military recruitment so that northerners would be recruited in greater numbers than southerners, because he knew that he who controls the military of a country will always control the power of that country.

Today we are reaping the outcome of the Sardauna's plan for nigeria, a nation run by a criminal cabal of murderers, former coup plotters and genocidists, are you better off with this arrangement?

With the exception of fela kuti, Wole Soyinka and Gani Fawehinmi i dont think you have any men of courage who you shoudl feel proud about, note how all of you remained as mute and mice during the perseuction of all of the above mentioned men by these same northerners - shame on you!!

Granted dayokanu has morphed into a complete goon in this thread, I feel the need to point out that this is a distortion of history.

1. The corruption/greed/rot was also extant during the time that AG was the opposition under Awolowo and when Awolowo refused to enter into a unity government with NCNC and NPC as Balewa wanted. So the corruption also started off with NCNC leaders (such as Zik and Okotie-Eboh) and with NCNC sitting back and letting NPC politicians engage in the degradation of the Nigerian state.
2. Akintola was absolutely, positively, and unequivocally NOT a Northern stooge. How many times must this be repeated before people get this? Read the book S.L. Akintola: His Life and Times to get an idea of who the man actually was and understand his completely legitimate (not Northern sponsored or inspired) feud with Awolowo. Refer to my earlier post for an extremely brief summary: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=599800.msg7687150#msg7687150
3. Fajuyi and Ademoyega were involved in the coup, and Banjo was a military radical suspected of being involved in the coup (but apparently wasn't) or planning something. How is that sitting on the sidelines? Anyhow, the Yorubas actually had more to lose than Igbos from the coup being successful, so it's surprising that there were any Yorubas that supported or were involved in the coup, especially given how Igbos dominated the mid-level officer ranks relative to Yorubas. When Ironsi started misgoverning Nigeria, it was Victor Banjo (a Yoruba man) who had the guts to try and eliminate him.
4. When the Jan. 1966 coup failed, it could more accurately be said that  those who had UPGA political leanings (such as Fajuyi) became errand boys for the East. Those who were NNDP (such as Akinjide) or had northern leanings (such as Adekunle) stuck by the North. No betrayal there. Akinjide and people like him did not hide their disdain for Igbos so I don't see the cowardice there.
5. Following the July 1966 coup targeted at Easterners, Awolowo tried to foster a peaceful southern alliance but was rebuffed severely by (an irrational) Ojukwu.

RichyBlack: Useless Nigeria!

A coup that was celebrated on the streets, from Lagos to Enugu to Maiduguri, as a military intervention to stop corruption and general lawlessness particularly in Western Nigeria, was labeled an "Igbo coup" and used as justification to murder thousands of innocent Igbos.

After the pogrom, Igbo leaders wanted more guarantees from Nigeria that the lives of Igbo men, women and children will not be at risk outside of Igbo land. Of course the inept Nigerian rulers could not give such guarantees and reneged on a mutual accord signed in Aburi, Ghana.

Seeing that Igbos were not safe in a country where the government facilitated the murder of thousands of innocent Igbo men, women and children, Biafra was declared as country comprising ALL the ethnic groups of Southern Nigeria, east of the River Niger. These ethnic groups all suffered along with Igbos because the very high levels of illiteracy in Nigeria guaranteed the following logic "if you're not from the North (Hausa), not from the West (Yoruba), and not from the MidWest (Bini, Urhobo, Itsekiri, etc.),  then you must be Igbo". A simplification still in force to this day.

The coming of Biafra led to the civil war; a war fought to keep Nigeria one.

Today, over 40 years after the war, how is that country called Nigeria faring? Let us examine the realities:

1. The corruption the Igbos wanted to stamp out through their wicked "Igbo coup" has metamorphosed into an institution and most Nigerians see corruption as just another part of everyday life. The levels of corruption today will make those corrupt politicians of the first republic cringe! For example, no politician worth his/her salt steals millions anymore - what insult? Embezzlement of public funds is now in the billions!

2. The Nigerian government continues to facilitate the murder of her citizens through the use of its police, army, etc.:
**Men of the Nigerian Police Force will shoot to kill anybody, including women and children, that "disobey" them or refuse to give them bribe.
**The Nigerian Army has been used to wipe out villages, murdering thousands of Nigerians; the same people they're supposed to protect.

3. The Nigerian government does not honor treaties and promises. This has reached a point whereby most Nigerians do not trust the government on almost any issue.

4. As it was in 1966 when innocent Igbo men, women and children were massacred, today we get similar reports from many parts of the country, e.g., Jos. The one major difference is that there was no internet then to see the pictures of murdered Igbos, and television was not as common as it is today. The similarities are striking:
**Apprehension and prosecution of the criminals involved in the murder of those innocent men, women and children in Jos, is as likely as the late Yar'Adua running for election this year.
**The government has been accused of taking sides, and eye witness reports have confirmed the involvement of uniformed police and military men.

Verdict? Nigeria is worse today than it was in 1966, the year the campaign against Igbos in Nigeria started. What a shame!

1. Even very late in 1966, it was not actually known that so many Northerners and Westerners had actually been killed in the Jan. 1966 coup. Balewa, Maimalari, and a few others were assumed to just be missing. So the ethnic pattern of the killings was not actually known when those celebrations broke out. If not for so many beloved and dignified Northerners and Westerners being killed whose deaths could not possibly be "justified" (as Akintola's, and apparently Okotie-Eboh's somehow could be) I doubt if the July 1966 coup or the pogroms could have occurred. People were celebrating the demise of Akintola in Lagos and other parts of the South, but if you actually think people in Maiduguri or Kano were celebrating the demise of the Sardauna, provide some actual evidence.
2. Igbos were murdered out of fear of a suspected "Igbo takeover" following Ironsi's misrule and because some Northerners had wanted to dispossess Igbos of their property even before any coup (see Nwankwo and Ifejika's book), not merely because of the Jan. 1966 coup.
3. There is a fundamental intellectual dishonesty in defending a brutal and horribly bungled coup as being justified and then complaining when those on the other side of that coup react in the same manner and with similar brutality. Either condemn the Jan. 1966 coup and also condemn the July 1966 counter coup but don't praise one and then condemn the other.


You're waaaaaaay too emotional and biased to be any kind of moderator. I'm really surprised they gave you a mod position. Not that there aren't a few other emotional and/or biased mods (Jarus could be seen as having a slight pro-Northern bias, for example), but you're worlds away from people like mukina or Jarus in composure and rationality.

Nothing is certain.


This is false hope, probably.

I don't know where this idea that Lagos was not bombed comes from. Probably propaganda.

Akintola was not a Balewa or Bello stooge, Ezeuche. Stop trying to rewrite history. He was a shrewd politician in his own right and his main concern was seeing that Yorubas left their pariah/opposition status and integrated into the national scene. Balewa offered Awolowo the chance to form a unity government that included NPC, NCNC, and AG, and Awolowo repeatedly refused Balewa's overtures on principle. Akintola's frustration at Awolowo's unwillingness to compromise, and the resulting exclusion of Yorubas from important positions led him to form an alliance with the North on his own initiative.

(His second concern was usurping Awolowo as the leader of the Yoruba.)

Anyway, Akintola was in the wrong, but not a stooge in any real way.

[quote author=EzeUche_ link=topic=599800.msg7687057#msg7687057 date=1297122001]There are over 100 Aro Communities in Nigeria.

Until the British firmly established authority in what became Nigeria in 1901, various peoples of Nigeria moved freely and settled in different parts of the country. Some settlements were achieved by peaceful means, others were through a mixture of diplomacy, localized wars and negotiations.

Whereas Aro Okporoenyi and Izombe typifies the first category, Aro Ndizuogu and Ndi-Eni (Ndikelionwu, Ndiowu, Ndiokparaeke, Ndiokpalaeze, Ajalli, etc.) are of the second order.

Some Aro settlements (communities) within the second order (diplomacy and negotiations) signed away their rights (of conquest) recognized at that time by international law as the strongest right of any nation.

Aro Ikwere, Aro Cameroon and Aro Ajalli, among others, have either lost their settlements or are in heated micro-battles with dominant cultures for their independence and sovereignty.

http://www.arookigbo.com/files/aro_people/aro_people.php[/quote]Ok, but where in Cameroon were they? Near the border? What you posted actually seems to imply that Aro Cameroon is an Aro community in Nigeria.

ezeagu:
They were in Gabon, let alone Cameroon. They went further than Cameroon.

Yeah, but what's the evidence for this?

When I hear this claim it reminds me of some Benin people claiming we were in Ghana Where's the proof?

Yeah during the war he became Yorubanized.


But I meant that Adekunle might have been pushed towards the role he chose as a Northerner. As a Bachama (Northerner), Adekunle was possibly just carrying out his (sectional) "obligations" to crush the Biafrans, rather than caring about Akintola.

Wasn't being daft, that was outright mockery. Bringing current small scale computer manufacturing here and there in Nigeria as an example of what we couldn't have done under the British is just dumb when the very first computers were only being set up in the 40s and 50s.



Anyways, this isn't worth my time. Keep deluding yourself. 

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=592828.msg7604401#msg7604401

^^^^^

That's a pretty good summary of the real state of things.

Adekunle actually identified with his northern roots (Bachama) prior to the war apparently, not his Yoruba side. So all this Ogbomosho this and that some people are talking here is probably misplaced.

There can't be full scale war between the East and the West because the Midwest is in the way and we don't give two flying fu-cks about this stupid desire to thrash other Africans while the rest of the world progresses.

@ Ezeuche, why do you keep claiming Aros were in Cameroon, where is the actual evidence for this?

dayokanu:
6 July
0 July

15 July  Fighting breaks out between the federal and Biafran troops.
The first Division of the Nigerian Army under Colonel Mohammed Shuwa captures Ogoja.
Biafran aircraft bombs Lagos.
Shuwa captures Nsukka.  


Third Marine Commandos Division of the Nigerian Army under Colonel Benjamin ADEKUNLE captures Bonny.
The rebels invade Mid-West and capture Benin. Later, in a hurried response, a Second Division of the Nigerian Army under Colonel Murtala Mohammed is formed.
Gowon declares total war. Lagos bombed again.

http://www.ogbomoso.net/adekunle6.html

Written by the man who mauled the Biafran uprising Benjamin Maja Adekunle. How proud am I to be from the same town as this man.

He knows how to deal with an uprising.

[size=18pt]BENJAMIN ADEKUNLE, Dayokanu hereby salutes you wherever you ight be for your exploits in dealing with those that killed my Great uncle Aare ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland. Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola[/size].

May God bless your soul  

"As his war letters clearly demonstrate, he was too temperamental and schizophrenic to provide good leadership in peace time. It is also apparent from his son’s book that he believed the war was about oil, not Nigeria ’s unity. “Plainly speaking” he said in the biographical section of the Book, “the Federal troops fought the civil war because of the rich crude oil found in the coastal areas. Those who fought are never told the truth.”



Twenty-six years after the war, Adekunle seemed to have changed his story. In an interview with the Weekend Concord (July 6, 1996) which the son quoted in the book, the Black Scorpion regretted that he fought, not for oil, but to keep Nigeria one. “While some of us were dying in the battlefield for the restoration of Nigeria as one country,” he said, “some people have their eyes on one particular subject – oil, the live wire of the economy, the new fulcrum or pendulum of power. While we fought for one country, some people have been reaping where they did not sow. They have been reaping from bogus population figures fashioned to suit their selfish purposes…”