₦airaland Forum

Attacking Soludo is just ignorance and professional envy.


Soludo's contributions cannot be overlooked.


He's an economist, not a police man, and that he helped to build up the economy from subterranean depths is just a fact. If people around him and in the banking sector were extremely corrupt while he was doing so, that doesn't change his contributions.



This Aganga guy doesn't seem all that intelligent, to be lashing out so desperately like this.

This is one of the few times in his thousands of posts on this forum that becomrich/nigeria1's maps are actually driving home his point forcefully.

Obiagu1:
Can you explain this a little? Not with to many words though.

What I meant was that it seems to me that the racist colonial states that supported Biafra made no effort to pretend or act like they supported Biafra for any reason other than to stop black Africa from having a large powerful state. Basically, if they succeeded in throwing the supposed "giant of Africa" (that term had already been coined by the Western press by that time) into "disarray", then it was only a matter of time before the same could be repeated throughout the continent and then they could justify their rule and their states (Portuguese controlled Mozambique, minority white rule Rhodesia, apartheid South Africa) based on the failure of African-run states to survive. As an added bonus, or maybe even the main motivation, they would also have no large African states to stand up to them, but only a multitude of small, rival, antagonistic (towards each other) mini-states, some of which would have needed Rhodesia, South Africa, or Portuguese Mozambique to gain independence or to survive economically. This is the perspective that seems most logical to me for explaining their support and it is inherently contrary to the idea that random countries, such as Russia or Egypt were shaking in their boots at the thought of a "black power in the world."

We should even remember that this was the same time when those Russians were taking their leftist social philosophy to the fullest logical extremes possible regardless of race and were naming things after Patrice Lumumba and later supported Angela Davis, all in an effort to undermine the "racist capitalist" West. To then join up with Britain, one of the pillars of the "racist capitalist West" could only have been out of sheer opportunism to get a say in Nigeria's future (keep in mind that Russia has its own natural resources, and plenty of them, so this was not even economic opportunism, but pure political opportunism) and swing the largest potential power in Africa towards respect/sympathy towards the Soviet Union. It should be noted that during the Balewa government, Balewa told Nkrumah in no uncertain terms his preference for capitalism and the West over any kind of inkling of socialism and deliberately stalled the opening of a Soviet embassy in Nigeria among other anti-communist activity. (See Britain, Leftist Nationalists and the Transfer of Power in Nigeria, 1945-1965 by Hakeem Ibikunle Tijani for a very interesting insight into the political inclinations of pre-independence and post-independence Nigeria)

Russian opportunism may have worked. Gowon may have made no inroads towards leftism, probably because he knew his primary debt for support lay with Britain but Murtala Mohammed quickly moved away from the West and towards a more "neutral" stance, though that may have had as much to do with South Africa and other points of contention with the West.


This is not to say different countries were not inclined to support Biafra out of sheer sympathy and compassion or for benign or non-malicious reasons.

The Irish, the People's Republic of China (through propaganda, not arms), Israel, France, Tanzania, and Papa Doc Duvalier-controlled-Haiti supported Biafra, and clearly not for the reasons those three I mentioned earlier probably did. A few, such as China or France, supported Biafra for economic reasons (potential economic gain), and some countries, such as Israel or Haiti supported Biafra out of sympathy with Biafra's situation. Israel sympathized with the pogrom/persecution aspect of Biafra's situation and Haiti sympathized with them because there were Igbos in Biafra and Igbos constituted a major portion of Haiti's ancestry/descent.

Seun,


Why was Afeni's name changed to DaHitler on all his posts?


Just wondering.

Nait:
This is true that "Kano has the highest population in Nigeria". Those that are trying to compare Lagos with great Kano state, actually they didn't know Kano and how it is. And I'm sure we were eliminated the kids between 1 to 30 days, that's why we gone up with just 0.37 people. if is to say we counted with those kids, I'm sure we will be 15-20% ahead of Lagos state.

Do you really believe this?

Or are you just keeping up appearances?

Diligence:
NDIGBO were seen as threat for no JUST cause. Imagine Russia warning Britain that if they allowed Biafrans to succeed, they would be dealing with the most powerful black power in the world! No wonder they participated fully in holocaust against the Jews of Africa during the Biafra vs the world war!

"But whom Jah bless, no man curse, " It is written!

Perspectives like this always puzzle me. It's more or less obvious that Biafra would have been a moderately developed country.


However, doesn't it seem that something more along the lines of a "Southern Nigeria" or Nigeria itself would actually be potentially the most powerful black country in the world, if done correctly? (Nigeria wasn't done correctly post-civil war, of course) I mean, if Nigeria could actually work, wouldn't that be the case? If so, why would the Russians work to allow a country that could be a large power to form? Russians were just opportunists. I think the support that racist colonial Portugal, South Africa, and Rhodesia stealthily gave to Biafra suggests they may have viewed Biafra and Nigeria in exactly opposite terms from your own. Perhaps someone could explain why.

Onlytruth:
@first bolded:
You forget that Awolowo was involved in a plot to overthrow the government which led to his being jailed years before the 1966 coup. Undecided
You also forget that Awolowo has been linked with another failed "revolution" which ultimately led to his death.
The man was always looking for ways to overthrow government. The Jan 1966 coupists knew this fact and wanted to deliver him his dreams on a platter.

@second bolded: SPOT ON! Cool

1. Setting up a paramilitary wing of AG, in anticipation of a showdown with Akintola/NNDP or in order to overthrow NNDP and takeover the government of the Western region can hardly be compared to conspiring to or agreeing to eliminate Balewa and Bello to take over all of Nigeria.

2. The supposed "failed revolution" is quite literally the unsubstantiated allegation (rumor mongering) of one man.

Jen33:
PhysicsMHD I'm afraid you're talking a lot of tripe. The black Moors rescued Europe from the Dark Ages.
They brought CIVILIZATION to much of Europe (some say MOST of Europe) by their greater schooling and mastery of the sciences. That's just a fact of history. I've no idea where you're coming from talking about Spain as if everyone does not know that the Moors were responsible for the civilization of Spain. You talk as if the whites spontaneously developed in the 1500s out of nothing. But development does not occur in a vaccum. It was the Moorish civilization of the region from the 700s through to the 1500s when they were defeated, that led DIRECTLY to the European Renaissance

Only some of the moors were black, and for the record, the Moors/North Africans got their civilization from the Middle East (the Caliphate + the Persians). Even though the first university was in North Africa, the first houses of learning, and the Islamic scholarly tradition was long before that.

The Islamic Golden Age + Crusades leading to interaction with the Islamic world did lead to the European renaissance, but attributing it all to some Moors in Spain is just fanciful. Al-Andalus was a major component, but not the origin. As I said earlier, the Moors themselves were "civilized" by earlier Muslims from the Middle East.

And you really have no reason to attack scholars who research and publish their findings with regard to the African origin of Chinese civilization, of Indian, Mexican and Meso-American civilizations etc.

Their claims, apart from being born out of an inferiority complex, are unprovable and suffer from a poverty of evidence.

The argument that such scholars do not research the histories of African kingdoms within Africa is baseless. Some do, some don't. The late Dr Chancellor Williams for instance, was a reputable African American historian who spent 16 years of his life in Africa, visited up to 40 countries on the continent,  researching ancient kingdoms and states which most of us have never heard about.

His book, The Destruction of African Civilization has been described as the black man's bible, so thorough is it in its investigation of the African story starting from 4,500 BC!

http://www.amazon.com/Destruction-Black-Civilization-Issues-D/dp/0883780305/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1295739470&sr=1-1

So please try to read more widely before coming here to attack scholars and people who wish to learn about their  history.

Actually, what I said is that the overwhelming majority don't make detailed studies of sub-saharan African kingdoms, which they don't. Instead they rely on Western Academia for information on them. Prove me wrong. I would be interested in finding out how many Afrocentric scholars are also legitimate Africanist historians, because I have not come across many.

Andre Uweh:
Ndigbo about 200,000.
Yorubas about 80,000.
Hausa and Fulani about 20,000.
Ijaw about 10,000.
This figures are mere rough estimates.

These figures are completely made up.

Also, you don't stay in the U.S., so how would you even know what reasonable estimates are?

Igbos are more, but they don't edge out Yorubas by such an extreme margin. 2.5 times as many seems incorrect.

For the record, there are many more people from Edo state than Ijaws in the U.S. from my experience from multiple cities, but you didn't mention them.

There are even more people from Akwa Ibom or Cross River than Ijaws from my experience, but you didn't mention them.

Instead, you just extrapolated the diaspora based on assumptions about population within Nigeria and tendency to go to the U.S, and made up some ratios. None of which were probably on the mark.

Your figure for Hausas or Fulanis is a complete fairytale. Relative to other groups, there are barely any of them here, so you even got the ratio wrong.

Also, your final figure only comes to 310,000. That's very likely a huge underestimate.

Yeah. He recently posted a profile of who he is, in fact. Map genius and Yoruba Beninese philosopher. Electricity engineering guru and childhood friend of most of Nigeria's politicians and their relatives. And of course he is the great mind behind this globe dot com. He may also own several planes.

Who is "Another Becomrich"? Never seen that username on here.

fstranger1= Another Ezeuche

This is all unsupported conjecture.

Even the part about Anuforo being the ringleader over Ifeajuna seems incorrect.


And there is no way Awolowo, whose contempt for the NPC was quite real, would have stepped in to illegally replace them knowing he had openly talked about the Northerners being backwards and antagonized them (by attempting to campaign in the North) so even if this were true, which it isn't, it would only suggest that the coupists were dumb beyond belief, extremely ignorant, or delusional.

fstranger1:
Another Becomrich = PhysicsMHD

?

What does this mean exactly?

2. I was never of the opinion that Awolowo deliberately intended to negotiate with the NPC and NCNC at the same time. In fact from what I've read in that biography of Akintola, Awolowo seemed to have an immense disdain for the NPC and had never even considered such a union, but for Akintola it was exactly the opposite and he went ahead to negotiate for an NPC-AG alliance without consulting the real leader of the party (Awolowo) and by this act, engaged in "anti-party activity" (though, from Akintola's point of view, the AG was not Awolowo's sole and personal property, one of the main reasons for their clash). As for Akintola not refusing to confirm that he was on the phone to negotiate with the Sardauna, there is no reason he wouldn't confirm  if he thought there was nothing wrong with AG uniting with NPC and telling Zik that that was what was going to happen, but the fact that the call came exactly when Awolowo went to negotiate with Zik does suggest that it was a premeditated trap for Awolowo. My point, regardless of whatever actually happened, was that Zik would still have had reason to suspect double-talk or deceptive activity because of what appeared to have happened on the surface.


By the way, if you have not read it already, Chief S.L.A. Akintola : His Life and Times, is a very interesting book, not only for painting a reasonably sympathetic portrait of Akintola (who I think was misunderstood, though I still have problems with him (rigging, sponsored thuggery, chauvinism, etc.)), but also for the very insightful, detailed picture it paints of Nigerian and especially AG politics in that era and the rarely mentioned (in other books) specifics of meetings and negotiations between politicians, parties, etc.

As for the Akintola to Bello tip of a coup, that's not clear to me so if you could provide a source, I would appreciate it.

Here is what I've read:

"As long as he remained Premier, it became necessary for Akintola to continue to act tough. Plans were made with the Prime Minister and the Sardauna to use force to break the back of the resistance in the West. Akintola and Chief R.O.A. Akinjide, the Federal Minister of Education and Secretary General of the NNDP, went to meet the Sardauna in Kaduna on January 13, 1966. Present at the meeting were the Commander of the Fourth Battalion of the Nigerian Army stationed in Ibadan, Lt. Colonel A. Largema who was a regular visitor to the Premier's lodge and had become a friend of Chief S.L. Akintola. The visit to Kaduna was apparently made to review the security position in the West and to devise what other steps were needed to be taken to guarantee life and property. By this time, the security forces had been stretched to their limits. All the NNDP leaders were by permission of the police acting on instructions from the Prime Minister, provided not only with armed police but also with revolvers which they carried individually. Akintola and his Ministers were told to expect armed attacks by thugs of the UPGA and they were prepared for the worst. The situation was so terrible that when travelling, Ministers of State were followed by armed guards while they themselves carried revolvers. There were frequently armed ambushes of political opponents particularly in areas that the AG refused to give up. Houses of opponents were put to torch while opponents waited at the entrance to kill people trying to escape the fire. Cars of opponents were burned at random; traditional rulers who remained on the side of Chief Akintola were driven away from their thrones. AG and NCNC thugs, particularly the latter, went about on party orders spraying their opponents with petrol and then igniting them with matches. The situation became intolerable for everybody. All the attempts of both the federal and state governments to put down the rebellion proved abortive. It should, of course, be remembered that this chaos was not region-wide, but the disaffection in Abeokuta, Ijebu and Ondo provinces was such that the normal functions of government virtually ground to a halt. The options were few. The Federal Government could again take over the running of the affairs of the region under emergency powers conferred on the Prime Minister by the Constitution or the Prime Minister could back Akintola by force which would be tantamount to a military government in the West. He could let things drift and adopt a "wait and see" policy. He chose the second option of supporting Akintola at all cost.
During the crisis in the West, Chief Akintola had the habit of spending the weekend in his home town of Ogbomosho where he had a huge mansion. He went there apparently for the peace of mind which he never had in the Premier's lodge. He knew that in Ogbomosho, no matter what the situation was, he could count on his own people. It was also his style to be close to his Ogbomosho roots partly out of pride. He knew he would never have been what he was without the support of his people. It was therefore strange when he told his wife on the weekend beginning Friday, January 14, 1966, that he would stay in Ibadan, and that she should go to Ogbomosho, presumably to prepare their mansion for a private visit from Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, who was then on official visit to Nigeria. Mrs. Faderera Akintola left Ibadan and stopped at Igbajo, her home-town, on a circuitous route to Ogbomosho. Chief Akintola had just returned by then from a meeting with the Prime Minister and the Premier of the North, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto in Kaduna. Nobody is sure of what was discussed in Kaduna. Opponents of the three of them claimed that they were preparing to instigate a coup d' etat which would favour their political goals and aspirations. But what was most likely to have been decided was the increased use of the police and the army to subdue and suppress opposition forces in the West. But of course Akintola and the others were in possession of intelligence reports that the NCNC and the AG were planning a military putsch in conjunction with their sympathisers in the army. This report may just have been a figment of their imagination. Whether the tip was dismissed outright or countermeasures were being prepared is not clear to this day. What is certain is that Chief Akintola had just arrived from Kaduna on January 15, 1966, and saw to it that everybody had a cup of Ovaltine with Paludrine, a prophylactic against malaria - a practice he seems to have believed in religiously." - Akinjide Osuntokun, Chief S. Ladoke Akintola: His Life and Times

Katsumoto, I did not have the books on hand to reply with a source, but I made a visit to the library recently for other reasons, and found the sources of what I earlier stated.


1. My original reference to a tip was not to the same tips that you are apparently referring to. I would like to see the source(s) of your claim about the two different tips (Ifeajuna to Zik and Akintola to Bello to Balewa) as I can't recall reading about such tips.


"The concept of a coup in Nigeria was not new. In the constitutional crisis of December 1964, several lieutenant-colonels, mainly Ibos, and including Ojukwu, had talked of military intervention but nothing had come of it and the army, true to its British traditions, had kept out of politics. However, as the situation deteriorated, some of the younger officers began to plot seriously and it seems probable that the 'inner circle' of the January group had its genesis in August 1965, even before the disastrous, catalytic elections in the Western Region ahd taken place. Contrary to popular belief and Nzeogwu's own claim, it appears that the original caucus did not include him. Majors Ifeajuna (the high-jumper) and Okafor (commander of the Federal Guard) were the principal plotters and they brought Nzeogwu - dubbed by one writer, 'the Brutus of the coup' - in later since they needed an efficient and strongly motivated man to direct operations in the North. By the end of October 1965, there were seven officers in the conspiracy: five majors and a captain were Ibos and the remaining major was a Yoruba."- John De St. Jorre, The Nigerian Civil War




"The roles of Ironsi and Ojukwu-both Ibos from the East-have also caused a great amount of speculation; subsequent propaganda has either implicated (Federal) or exonerated (Eastern) them. The favourite interpretation of Ironsi's part is that he was told of the plot by the conspirators and replied something like this, "O.K., boys, if you pull it off, I'm with you, but if you don't, you're on your own.' In a manuscript written by Ifeajuna after the coup, and now believed lost, he claimed 'our general, whom we expected to help us, let us down', but there is no real evidence for this. Ironsi, who had first commanded the Nigerian military contingent then the entire United Nations force in the Congo, was already at the pinnacle of success and was no radical firebrand. In fact, when he had heard that a military move against the government was in the offing in December 1965, he had informed the Prime Minister, but the story was discounted for lack of proof and the general feeling that military coups could not happen in 'stable' Nigeria. Ironsi, 41 years old at the time of the coup and a former N.C.O. in the colonial army, who had risen to be the first indigenous commander of the Nigerian army a year earlier, was poles apart in background, education and temperament from the idealistic and hot-headed young majors, even though he came from the same tribe. His actions on the night of the coup - the fact that he was at a party on a ship in Lagos harbour probably saved his life - and his shock at the death of his comrades (among other deficiencies, Ironsi could list acting) were too genuine to be written off as a clever piece of dissimulation. Moreover, he took quick and brave action, at some personal risk, to crush the coup as soon as he knew about it."- John De St. Jorre, The Nigerian Civil War



Clearly, in December 1965, information about the coup leaked and Ironsi moved to inform the government and was ignored.

Zik decided to get out of there (late 1965) and stay out. Balewa didn't. That was my point. In doing so, he made himself seem like less than a "father of the nation" by running away when things got too hot. Not to say that it wasn't ultimately the right decision. But it was bad for public relations, is what I was saying.

ROSSIKE:
PhysicsMHD said:

Aaah. . .  all those old European flags, statues, and statuettes we've seen of black potentates - male and female - adorned with crowns and other royal paraphernalia were actually images manufactured in Van Sertima's bedroom, or otherwise dreamt up by black 'propagandists', correct?

The funny thing is that your insolent dismissal of the clear evidence shown here indicates your brazen willingness to embrace old invalid conjectures which EXCLUDE these highly important and influential black Africans from the history of Europe, for reasons best known to you.

Perhaps the ''laughter'' of your overlords in the western academia was one of nervousness at detection?

All of this Van Sertima stuff is such a clear evidence of an inferiority complex and I want to point out some things.


Why is it that the overwhelming majority of these "scholars" are so obsessed with proving black origins of cultures they acknowledge as "civilizations" :


a) Egypt

b) Spain.

Black Spanish nobility? So what? What Spanish civilization was there, really? Prior to acquiring Roman culture Spain were Goths + Celts with no art no architecture, no anything and their medieval kingdoms were less than those than multiple Africans' kingdoms before they got guns, knowledge of the compass, writing, etc. from foreign sources. Claiming the Moors of Moorish Spain is not much better. The actual Moors were "civilized" only through external sources. The Spanish Golden Age started around the early 1500s and it's achievers were clearly white so what's the point of claiming that their earliest kings were black?


c) Vikings (the freaking Vikings? as a "civilization" higher than that of Africans? Because of a few big canoes used for massive ra-pe and looting expeditions? One look at dignitaries in Nok statues (http://memoiredafrique.com/en/nok/galerie-amis.php) and comparison with Viking "civilization" shows which group was more refined and removed from "barbarism". Imagine, Blacks can already claim Nok, Axum, Nubia, and more yet here they are trying to claim infamous canoe ravagers  )


d) Celts of the British Isles (Picts, Welsh, Scottish, original (non-Germanic, non-Viking) English etc,) who also did nothing really significant prior to the Scientific revolution and Renaissance (except for one assortment of large stones, probably moved into position with hundreds of people for some ritual), two events which were done by people who were clearly white, and which came about through knowledge from foreign sources. They did nothing in their earlier times for anyone to be trying to claim that their earliest kings or later medieval royalty were actually descendants of the as yet unsubstantiated black seafaring kingdom or unproven black Phoenicians.)

e) Olmecs,

f) Minoan Crete,

g) Colchians (what did the black Cochians do that anyone ones to claim them? Get left behind by some Egyptian general and sit around while the the white Colchian state developed?)

h) Phoenicians

i) ancient Vietnamese, ancient Cambodians,

j) ancient Chinese,

k) ancient Indians

and more, but are  curiously absent on making even the slightest detailed study of known sub-Saharan African civilizations?

Rather they rely on the same mostly Western academia that they claim is holding back the truth on the black origins of groups A through K above for information on most of the actual sub-Saharan kingdoms and city-states and selectively pick and choose what they consider worthy of their scholarly "corrections" to history. 

Don't you see the blatant contradiction in relying on the same Western academia for information on certain historical areas (Nubia, Axum, Ife, etc.) but alleging a massive cover-up on almost all other historical areas?

Past a certain point (beyond claiming parts of Egypt) you have to see the irrationality of the kind of allegations and claims being thrown around.

You sound like some of the people on this site:

http://www.raceandhistory.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl/noframes/#855

You're all recycling the same vague ancient references with no really strong arguments or definitive proofs of any of these claims.

dplordx:
@PhysicsMHD


I am business man. I have 2 registered companies I built from scratch.

Oh wow!. . . big man, huh? Stifle yourself . What you're trying to present as some major achievement is freaking commonplace. I didn't ask  what so-called businesses  you run. At the end of the day, your thinking is neanderthal like. There's absolutely no difference between what you said  and what I might hear from the average  racial supremacist concerning the “difference between (insert ethnicity/race here) people  and other human beings."

I have lived in Bayelsa for 6 good years and I know the big difference between the ND people and other people of Nigeria.

And yet you don't know Bayelsa has always been a rural undeveloped area from the very beginning of this country to now? The difference  between Bayelsa and the rest of southern Nigeria is that it's an almost entirely rural area and other places aren't and have been developing since colonial times.

Even my own people the ibo suffered heavily in the civil war long left this mental lassitude and we've successfully conquered the commercial soul of the country while the yoruba maintain education.

Who asked what people you belong to or what they're doing? Who asked what the Yoruba are doing now? Im-becile.
Guy, look at the number of ND people heading or owning banks and rethink your statement. Delta has one of the highest GDP per capita in the state, Rivers too.

Abeg take your argument to your students. Your logic is totally limited to classrooms and your students who would soon see how limited your postulations are.

Students? Lol, what a clown. .
What postulations? I've said it before and I'll say it again, your whole argument is asinine. Your own people, and mine, have not failed to produce  thieves and looters with supporters and money-grubbing sycophants. Look at what Orji just did in Abia! 457 assistants! Is that an ND thing?

@cold

why on earth would you argue with PhysicsMHD?
The guy lives in the textbooks he's always wallowed in while hunting for his Phd.
Go through his posts and you will see that this is a guy who likes to argue just for the sake of arguing, all his opinions are based on blatant non-contextual theories that doesnt even point to any concrete solutions.

Arguing for the sake of arguing?  What would  you call what you are engaging in right now? You came in to this thread to argue like a fool merely for the sake of arguing even when what you wanted to argue about had little to do with the thread pictures. Now after being told what you really are, you're still rambling on about nothing just for the sake of rambling. Shut up and go sit in the corner.
Few of my posts are from arguments. If you actually  did look through my posts. But I'm not surprised  to see you just making stuff up. You have so many “businesses”  to attend to after all.

Northern Nigerian culture is Sahelian.


More similar to North African than some other African cultures, but not Middle Eastern, I think.

The Benin bride price is 1 kobo or some other extremely small amount. It's just tradition.

The purpose of this is to say that the daughter is priceless and no real monetary value can be put on her and to mock the idea of "selling" one's daughters.


This is has been my experience from numerous weddings (a relative of mine just got married, in fact). When and where did this person pay a whole 25 naira? 25 naira is so little though that it probably also gets the point across.

asha 80:
Benin no get masterplan?

As far as I can tell no. I mean Oshiomole is definitely putting in some effort though. When last I visited, they were demolishing/removing and marking for removal homes and businesses that were blocking the expansion of new roads.

_{off topic. physics can explain to me how auchi came to be a moslem town?was their an islamic invasion there?}

Read page 4 of this document:

http://www.arewahouseabung.org/Oseni.pdf

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:i5PkxYQ2vIUJ:www.arewahouseabung.org/Oseni.pdf+authorship+of+major+manuscripst+edo&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjZW3QNSdFNFoyvtLJK8ygl5GTEW3rw10sbai2RCwet0llfIFbo5Fn0_SLMriWbEXDFhiWi5awLYvN_43owJojUTbO-3wUF-lsHxRIVIRxutSWfFvO7jG9BnHU40U_nNV0tBQQ1&sig=AHIEtbRKQAKZNdfjlwgM7CBnurgBkU5bgw

You can't say "liberal arts" with as powerful a sneer and with as much derision in your voice as you can "arts."


That's probably the root of it all. Anyway "arts" is a more accurate term actually. Liberal arts actually included science in olden times.

Ok, perhaps I misread him.


I don't deny that the federal government has recorded abysmal failure in many areas, under both civilian and military rule, that would be crucial to aiding the growth and development

A good example is the massive amounts of natural gas in the southwest and the coal in the southeast not being used for energy/electricity despite being right in front of us. It makes no sense to me. Perhaps specialists know something that I don't about this, but I've thought about it for a while and haven't been able to figure out why nobody is doing anything with all those resources in front of them.

As per the roads and buildings, I still maintain that outside funding is needed to build and maintain all of that until such a time where taxes are enough to maintain them + build new ones, there's no way a (non-Abacha) federal government will just decide to focus on any one large city over hundreds of others if it can't also pay for improvements in the hundreds of others at the same time.

It's great that they even have a city/state/or regional master plan. That shows the kind of seriousness which is bound to produce results regardless of outside help. I doubt I could say the same for my own home city or state with regard to having a coherent, systematic plan.

Making universities more expensive would improve quality in certain areas, but something tells me that the bright, quality graduates emerging from such institutions would be robbed at gun point immediately after leaving their graduation ceremonies by the hordes of mediocre and inadequate students-turned-thugs who were kept out of higher education.

On a serious note: In a country where college scholarships are fought over and obtained almost entirely through academic merit or through being indigenous to the region, and not handed out, like in the U.S., merely to those in need of financial assistance (FAFSA comes to mind here as one example), and in which wealth distribution is so skewed (less of a level playing field - a multitude of poor people, a small but growing middles class, and a minuscule rich class) that few could actually meet the true costs of a university education, no sane government or university would go about raising tuition costs to anything like the Nigerian equivalent of what university education costs overseas. Just my two cents.

Nwa Nnewi:
Nigeria is a physical giant but a mental dwarf, otherwise Nnewi would have been developed to rival Abuja in both architecture and function.

Developed by who?

I hope you don't mean the federal government and are instead complaining about local government failure. There's absolutely no justifiable reason why the federal government would focus on that one city (Nnewi) over the multitude of others in the federation. It would be no different than when Abacha was using federal money to build up Kano (a historical capital city of hundreds of years) as though Kano had any precedence or priority over the others in the federation, or "deserved" to be built up more than every other city because it was/is a commercial center and hub of activity.

The only cities which will ever have any priority to the dirt-poor Nigerian governments (federal and local) are those that are capitals of the country (Lagos, previously, and now Abuja) simply to keep up appearances or capitals of a state (the government of a state usually spends disproportionately high amounts on the state capital.). The oil-poor (not "oil-rich" Nigerian federal government cannot possibly afford to truly build up and/or maintain every decently sized city in Nigeria, nor can the state governments of most states afford to build up every decent sized city within their state.

This Nnewi is not even a capital and yet people are lamenting over it in particular as though other non-capital cities are faring any better. If the infrastructure is rotting in that city, as in any many many other cities in Nigeria, it's up to the state government and concerned citizens to look for outside sources of funding for developmental projects. Blaming it on the federal government is just weak.

Becomrichn:
That really a high number of people having Masters Degree 2,875.  That new in Nigeria. The truth is, most people go back if they cant find jobs.

I believe the solution in Nigeria should be entrepreneurship program. This is what we lack. I remember many years ago, when I came to canada. I know someone who when he graduate from the university, never send a resume to anyone. He started his own business.  He is doing very well.
He lives in an half a million dollar house. he own two officers in two different location. While at that time. I was just coming from Nigeria. I just started looking for a job. and I was worry for him, because i had the nigeria mentally.

70% of black people in the USA own thier business. Can you imagine 70%.

What we have to do is run entrepreneurship program.  And get them bank loan to start thier own business.  They would employ other nigerian with time.  Imagine if the  2,875 post graduate student employ 100 people. That is  287500 people.

If I was the president. i am going to  give them loan and they would start business. This business in time would do well. I remember been on nigeria villages square many years ago, and philip adekunle was so oppose to new universities in Nigeria at that time. And I remember saying something. That it is just a matter of time before they become big.

I would love to start a university in Nigeria but I cant give bribe  to get a licence. If they can give me the licence for free, I would start a university in Nigeria. I want to do it. But I cant give bribe. This is one of the reason I find nigeria a hard country. i cant give bribe. I just cant do it.

I doff my hat to you sir.

Becomrich- a big mapper, but an even bigger thinker. And a man of principle, to boot.