₦airaland Forum

Most erudite Yorubas, and the real intelligentsia like Soyinka et al are class apart in their world view. Ojukwu was, and will remain a hero to all those who believe in justice, fairness and equity. The truth that he stood for will forever stare us in the face and poke us in the eyes until we do something about it.

Yesterday Igbos were massacre and their land pillaged; their friends and neighbours were turn against them by crafty tongued pretenders who stole for themselves their land and resources to enrich themselves.

Today, while Igbo and other southern minority tribes still suffer casualty here and there; the old foes know no peace neither! The country witnessed no stability. Today Beroms are murdered in their sleep, Tivs are sacked in their land by the hausa/fulani invaders and fundamentalist. Yorubas risk losing their ancestral land in Kwara, Kogi. The Efik, Ibiobios are denied federal development (ports) in other to undermine the Igbos. The Ijaws want their oil back from those pretentious thieves and collaborators. The hausa/fulani have lost their only priced asset - power! And recently they have turned their guns against themselves and the world in the name of religious fanaticism, for which they are now despised! What a country!

All this could have been avoided if Nigeria had listened to the eloquent voice of wisdom from the young Ojukwu - to live together we have to move apart slightly!

He should donate N2 billion to my Zone - SE for erosion control "or whatever excuse he can think of before he is sacked! Foolish 'terrorist'!

@topic/op[

A troll on the lose! 

alj harem:
During the subsidy protest, the FG told us that once the subsidy was removed, the refineries would be built but now they are saying they would not build it again.

Why ?


https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-888542.0.html

And has the subsidy been removed?

^^^^

Well, something has come from it. Sanusi will surely realize that public funds is not for him to dispense according to his whims and caprices. If it is indeed true that Sanusi spent public fund to obtain a Honorary degree, if which way is he then better than some of the bank's MD he sacked?

Sanusi is a corrupt as they come!

Indeed, T.A. Orji should shape up or ship out. This is not time for child-play,  Abia has all the trappings fro greatness, Orji is just standing in the way!

If there is any credibility to this new, Fashola ticket will be supported 'massively' like the Ribadu ticket was.

END OF STORY!

Any conference that will allow the Niger Delta, and other oil producing regions/states to use their resources to develop their region/state the same way oil was used to develop Abuja (in the North), I will lend my support.


It will be ironic, and indeed very sad if when the oil finally runs out, the Niger Deltans will still be paddling old wooden canoes on oily creek in despondence. This is what every justice seeking Nigerian should aim to prevent.

SNC, true federalism, and resource control! On Aburi we stand!

Commonwealth on paper. Unlike Biafra, you've had no trial run. Anyway, it is not your call. Fall in line!

Even if the North take possession of all the revenue Nigeria derives from oil, they will still be years away from eradicating polio and educating their populace. Backwardness has been ingrained in their culture and religion.

In any case it high time Niger Deltans derives some benefits from their resources. Full resource control is what I support, or division of Nigeria.

Every Zone will and should act in it's best interest. It is in the interest of the South East Zone to go strongly for the presidency if they can forge a solid alliance with the SS and Middle Belt. Where this is not possible the next possible scenario will be to thrown our full support for the 'North' represented by David Mark. Fashola presidency will mainly serve Tinubu's business interest and may not be good for SE, SS and MB. The final alternative is to embrace the next 'unfavorable' regime with a brand of militancy only the SE can conjure.


But for now, let's see how this rumour unfolds.

Boyloaf:
I dnt want to hear stories! Just get him! Dat was my last word of command!

Dead or alive! Preferably dead!

The Yorubas can sacrifice Kwara and Kogi for greater good. Call those states a Greek's (Yoruba's) gift. They will serve as trojan horse anytime Yorubas want to pick bones with the hausa/fulanis.

Men like Ojukwu are rare. To witness a burial of another Titan like him, Jonathan may have to wait another 100 years. Ojukwu was simply the greatest Nigerian that ever lived. Fact!

^^
Lol. I see.

If the plan of the governor was to embezzle money, I am pretty sure he could have done that much more easily by constructing new roads or fixing old ones. A new government house and a civic centre which will be rarely used coupled with a new liaison office building in lagos state is quite dumb.

I 've made up my mind to boycott Nairaland tommorow in any case.

R.I.P. great one!

ekt_bear:
WTF?!?!

Are you fvcking high? Gold mine?

Is it a gold mine to sell something for 5 cents when it costs you 10 or 15 to make?

Stop posting if you don't understand the issues!

It isn't by force to comment on everything.

How exactly did you arrive at the conclusion that the current tariff is not a fair price for power generated across the country?

Nice move!

Yoruba for instance have Afenifere while Ndigbo have Ohanaeze Nd’Igbo and both have their own militia i.e. OPC and MOSOB respectively. By the way, much to the credit of Hausa-Fulani ethnic group, they are the only major ethnic group in the country, who don’t have any ethnic based organizations to represent them let alone an umbrella organization for that matter.

Bloody liar!! What is Arewa Consultative Forum? And is Boko Haram not an hausa/fulani/kanuri militant arm?

ekt_bear:
Please read and comprehend before posting. This is not the solution. . . unless states have the ability to set their own prices, then the FG has effectively just shifted its own money-losing operation onto someone else (the states.)

There is still more regulatory work that needs to be done.

State having the ability or not to fix their price is not the issue here, and it will not prevent states like Lagos, P/H, Anambra  from attracting investors. At times we seem to ask for too much, and look for excuses why result cannot be achieved.

States having the go ahead to generate power was the crux of the matter, now that that has been resolved, the greed for excessive profit seems now the stumbling block. In any case, electricity tariff is being reviewed almost quarterly, that should suffice. Power generation and distribution is a gold mine, it is not a money losing operations. In any case, let see how states government respond to this.

Ojukwu and the True Nigerian Spirit


01 Mar 2012

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Guest Columnist By Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Tributes

One of the best things about the passing of Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu is the kind of tributes which the news of his passing has elicited across the country. The former leader of Biafra has enjoyed the distinction of being eulogised across the political, ethnic and religious spectrum. From every part of Nigeria, Nigerians, high and low, prominent and ordinary, old and young have stepped forward to honour him with moving tributes. For a man whose life was defined by the role he played in the turbulent three years of the Nigerian Civil War, a man for whom the prefix “rebel” was once de rigeur, this was quite an achievement. The praise is also very well deserved because the life of Ojukwu exemplifies what can happen when principled courage meets patriotism. Here was a man who went to war out of conviction but who also, out of conviction, decided to stop fighting and come home to contribute to achieving the purposes for which he went to war, this time through civil and democratic means. The Eze Igbo Gburugburu was indeed a rare man who without giving up his principles, made peace with his enemies and joined hands with other patriots to seek solutions to the challenges of nationhood.

For me, and I am sure many other Nigerians of my generation on the Biafran side who are old enough to remember the cataclysmic events of the Civil War which largely defined our youth, the wave of tributes triggered by Chief Ojukwu’s passing has evoked a sense that things have come full circle. Many young Nigerians do not know that the Nigerian Civil War was one of the most tragic landmarks of the 20th century, a conflict whose horrendous human suffering inspired the founding of one of the most important humanitarian organisations in the world, Medecins san Frontierres (Doctors without Frontiers). In all, an estimated one million persons perished in the war; some estimates cite double that figure.

The response to Ojukwu’s passing has, simultaneously, recalled the nightmare years of war and also acted as a balm of healing for those deep pains of yesterday. The memories are many. I remember helping my mother and a collective of other women in Port Harcourt cook for Biafran soldiers, making “dry packs” of preserved foods to feed soldiers at the war front. I remember my father, a Brigadier in the Biafran Army and head of the Biafran Organisation of Freedom Fighters (BOFF) in his uniform. I remember young men relatives, friends, and neighbours – who waved goodbye as they went off to war – and never came back.

It is against this background that one can best appreciate the balm the overwhelmingly positive reaction to Ojukwu’s death. The man whose name some saw as a symbol of division has, in death, done so much to unite Nigerians. That is the spirit that I want us to celebrate and share with our children. It is the positive spirit of renascent Nigeria, a spirit that acknowledges the problems and the pain, yet refuses to give up on the shining possibilities of a brighter future. It is the spirit that refuses to be defined by glib negatives, a spirit that insists on doing the difficult but necessary work of building a strong foundation for a better future, even as we learn from the mistakes of the past. It is this kind of spirit that inspires hope for Nigeria. It is the spirit of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. Thank you, Ikemba, Eze Igbo Gburugburu, thank you for sharing your strong but resilient spirit with us. Thank you for teaching us how to fight and how to make peace while standing strong. Thank you, Bianca for being there till the end, thank you Odumegwu-Ojukwu family for your great gift to Nigeria. And thank you Nigeria for celebrating and honouring our remarkable brother and son.


http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/ojukwu-and-the-true-nigerian-spirit/110408/

I can conclude that South South will be making strategic mistake in the future if they ever cast the vote for the Northern politician. Furthermore, is it in the best interest of Middlebelt and SS to ensure the South East Zone has additional voting block in the NA assembly, via additional State for the zone.

If the cesspit called Nigeria remains, them numbers of reps in the National Assemble counts!

Those of us who had some form of confidence in this regime's commitment to solving the power problem are not in anyway surprised by the move. If anything, I would say, perhaps they took little more time than necessary articulating the policy. Maybe, it could be that the regulatory framework was being tweaked to address issue of financial commitment by parties concerned - state and private partners.

That said, I wonder what excuse state governors and opposition parties will now use as excuse for their inability to deliver stable power to their constituency.


Let there be light!

Yujin:
@onyewec3, well said.
The battle has just began. The northern representatives will mount all the pressures they can muster hoping that GEJ will yield. They are good in attacking since the south seems to be docile. The best approach to kill this folly/greed is not to be defensive as they expect the south to do but to ignore them(their request) & make your own(ask for resource control). Indeed, the polity will be heated up which will lead us to SNC otherwise WAR breaks out. Remember that SLS was the first to mention this so called lopsided allocation to justify BH. ACF seconded & now northern reps. members want to use their lopsided regional advantage to effect it. It is part of the grand plan. Southern reps. pls, don't try to defend it rather, attack back with resource control. Employ whatever means available to you. Only two lifelines will be available to those parasites: SNC or WAR/DISINTEGRATION. They have asked for it; GIVE IT TO THEM.

I concur with this!

Okija_juju:
I see a Revolution around the corner. . . . The ethnic line along which this country has been divided is about to be widened.

Oya O!! MEND, Bakassi Boys, MASSOB, BZM, NDVF, e.t.c. . . Time to start the agitation all over. . . The only difference this time should be that we should not make our own states/environments unsafe like the last time. .

I thought you were for one Nigeria; and Biafra is old news? Why the about turn? Embrace your one Nigeria oga; embrace aboki!

I think Nigeria should operate a regional system, but where this is not considered feasible, additional state for South East Zone is appropriate. I cannot fault Rochas for using the quintessential justice fighter - Ojukwu - funeral to channel this very important message.

Justice and fairness demands that South East be given another state. Rochas is right on the money!

Northern elites as represented by the likes of El Rufia and Sanusi Lamido Sanusi will never fail to blame their failure to provide leadership and vision to the people on others.

Why is there no free and compulsory primary education in the North? Why are pupils not given free foods, cloths, books, bursary, quarans etc just to get them to go to school? Why are the likes of Sanusi, El Rufia, and even Ribadu not championing western education in the North? Why does an average Northerner think that individual southerners are better off due to 13% Derivative and oil money, rather than imitating their tendency for above average formal education?

It all point to leadership! Frankly speaking the Northern leaders have failed their people. By reaching out only for political power, without paying attention to mental education development, they have sold their people's tomorrow for their today!


El Rufia and co should eat the humble pie, admit they have failed in their responsibility of elevating their people from ignorance and poverty, and then go back to the drawing board. Free and compulsory formal western education should be the starting point in their new thinking, political power is pyrrhic victory, if they ever learn anything from their history!

Even if they get 50% of oil revenue but scorn western education necessary for 21st century world, South will still be ahead in every positive index for years to come.

Northern elites as represented by the likes of El Rufia and Sanusi Lamido Sanusi will never fail to blame their failure to provide leadership and vision to the people on others.

Why is there no free and compulsory primary education in the North? Why are pupils not given free foods, cloths, books, bursary, quarans etc just to get them to go to school? Why are the likes of Sanusi, El Rufia, and  even Ribadu not championing western education in the North? Why does an average Northerner think that individual southerners are better off due to 13% Derivative and oil money, rather than imitating their tendency for above average formal education?

It all point to leadership! Frankly speaking the Northern leaders have failed their people. By reaching out only for political power, without paying attention to mental education development, they have sold their people's tomorrow for their today!


El Rufia and co should eat the humble pie, admit they have failed in their responsibility of elevating their people from ignorance and poverty, and then go back to the drawing board. Free and compulsory formal western education should be the starting point in their new thinking, political power is pyrrhic victory, if they ever  learn anything from their history!

I support the arguments that geo-political zones be the federating units. Where this is not feasible, the equalization of the states in each geo-political zones should be done. Fair is fair!