₦airaland Forum

[quote author=One_Naira]Have you ever been to Phillip Emegwali website before? He speaks of Igbo history, Igbo culture, Igbo descent, etc. a lot and the man is an Ex-Biafra solider (a child then so he was a cook). Una should try researching before jumping to conclusion. Also, try to travel and live within the group, the way umu ndi-Igbo believe the lie and divide and conquer tactics used on them is starting to scare me.[/quote]Very correct, the man always talks about biafra with so much nostagia.He attended some biafran delegate confrence in Houston some time ago

wired123: Read up on what Philip has to say. You will be surprised. The current Igbo language was from the Ancient Yoruba language, the OLUKUNMI. I am surprise as well. Who knew Igbos are actually Yorubas . . . .

Are you high on something?

Onlytruth: My brother thank you for a round and complete analysis of the truth.
I had thought that with more education and analytical thinking, our people would get past these narrow highly subjective conclusions about our reality.
Let me tell you, my town Nnewi has been in the same land disputes with ALL our neigbors -Awka etiti, ukpor, utu, Oraifite, Nnobi and even Ichi and Ojoto.
The story is usually the same when you have a big urbanising town enchroaching into surrounding towns. It is the same in ALL PART OF NIGERIA.
We also discriminate inside when marriage issues are concerned, based on old tales of who did what to who. Even INSIDE Nnewi town, there are two villages that avoid inter marriage due to the same old tales. None of these ever changes the fact that we are all Igbo, living inside Igboland.
I don't even want to go into some fallacious claims about Onitsha and MASSOB, and about Onithsa indigenes and business ownership in Onitsha.
I simply marvel that anyone would even dare to make such intractable claims.
Well, we are all entitled to our opinions. All the rest of us can ever do is to correct as much disinformation as possible.

Onitsha (town and people) is at the heart beat of Igboland.

In as much as i agree with what you and one kobo abi na naira said, don't be quick to dismiss what Logic Mind claimd or term it as fallacy. though onitsha is accomodating now than before, all that Logic Mind said is nothing but the hardest truth.
I live in inland town onitsha. oguta road to be presise, and school at st. charles special sci sch. awka road. and am from anambra (oyi na omambala) in anambra state.
Nwannem tell yourself the Onlytruth! nwa onitsha a di ebu onye bulu, ifugo onisha ebe ona agba boi boi, how can they own a shop in main mrkt? anyi choro ka anyi di n'otu, ma ife Logic Mind kwuru bu ezi okwu.

I think we should ask our president where he hails from as well, in 2011 he adopted the use of Azikiwe in his name just to gain votes from the east, 2015 is upfront and this time we shouldn't be suprise to see or hear him add Ibrahim or seun to his name. Mr Goodluck Jonathan should help us out here coz I just heard he's from oyicha. Lolzzz

Logic Mind: I did bros, I did. They all claim to be Igbo. Some say they are Igala but just a minority. When I deal with them I have no doubt they are Igbo. But, and this is a big but, they don't do things with the rest of us as per the examples I gave. Why?
I don't hate them. I'm just saying what I heard and saw and only wish to be enlightened further.
My girl's my called me "nwa onye igbo" in my face FFS. How do you want me to interprete that?

The problem with us Igbos is that we don't want to know our history. We just condemn anything we don't like and pretend it doesn't exist instead of calling it out and tackling it head front. We hope that if we ignore it, it will go away. Well, it doesn't. Our problems remain until we face them.

I have asked questions of/from both sides. Have you?

Onlytruth: My brother, I also grew up in Onitsha and spent an overwhelming majority of my life so far in Onitsha. That town is like my second home.
In fact I can call myself an Onitsha boy, 'cos I know that town like the back of my hand. The indigenes of Onitsha are perhaps the most accomodating Igbo in Igboland. Those people are simply awesome!
They carry on with their customs, even in the midst of what others may call a stampede of their land. Enu Onicha has almost become sucked into the main market, odo akpu and ochanja markets, yet, on a day when they would do their traditional festivities, they still do it with grace and cheer.

Nwanne, ndi Onicha di nma o. I won't say more than that.

All the other things you raised, like the name calling, happen in all parts of Igboland. My Nnewi neigborly towns call us "agbaja", and we call them "ndi enu oha".
So, if Onicha indigenes call others names, it is not new in Igboland.

Eziokwu my brother, if there is anything we Ndigbo do badly, it is that we tend to emphasize our differences (like you are doing now) rather pessimistically, while Hausa for instance would call other northerners "Banza bokwai" but still hold them in the deepest "northern brotherhood". For Hausa, it all ends in the name. That is why they are able to rule Nigeria as a very powerful political block.
For some of us, the names now form opinions about why we should not unite! You see my point?
That is why I try my best, at every turn and in every circumstance, to educate our people about the REAL FACTS of unity.
Let us not make mountains out of mole hills of our little differences, which other tribes have since surmounted, even though theirs were GULFS.

Logic Mind: I did bros, I did. They all claim to be Igbo. Some say they are Igala but just a minority. When I deal with them I have no doubt they are Igbo. But, and this is a big but, they don't do things with the rest of us as per the examples I gave. Why?
I don't hate them. I'm just saying what I heard and saw and only wish to be enlightened further.
My girl's my called me "nwa onye igbo" in my face FFS. How do you want me to interprete that?

The problem with us Igbos is that we don't want to know our history. We just condemn anything we don't like and pretend it doesn't exist instead of calling it out and tackling it head front. We hope that if we ignore it, it will go away. Well, it doesn't. Our problems remain until we face them.

I have asked questions of/from both sides. Have you?

MATURED REPLY WORTH OF EMULATING

This does not give us steady light

Logic Mind: I have always had deep suspicion about the onitsha ado people. Their behaviours and cultures are very different from other igbos.
Like the Yorubas, they hate the rest of us.
Unlike igbos, you don't see them in business. They are mostly in white collar work like Yoruba.
Even zik's behaviour before during and after the war didn't sound like he had the interest of umu-igbo at heart.
Onitsha indigenes call others "nwa onye igbo". Meaning child of igbos. Onitsha people rarely identify with other igbos.
You won't find a shop in any of the major markets in onitsha owned by an onitsha indigene. Infact, they have been accused several times of setting fire to the markets. They treat other igbos in Onitsha as immigrants.
They are still fighting up till today with neighbouring Obosi and Nkpor over land ownership. They are accused of invading from across the river niger and taking over Obosi land, renaming it onitsha ado and are now reselling the plots back to igbos at exorbitant prices.
Their women are so promiscuous like the Yoruba ones.
Like the Yorubas, they practice incest and bury their dead chiefs with other humans.
They chased away igbos from onitsha when the federal troops were advancing and didn't join the igbo refugees nor partake in the war effort. Instead, they provided food, shelter and assistance to the Nigerian invading forces. Ifeajuna, an onitsha indigene, conived with banjo, a Yoruba backstabber, to betray the war effort in the west.
Maybe they are Yoruba afterall.

Guy,there isn't anything unique about Onicha that you will not find in their Idenmili and Asaba neighbors and even in remote Awka. Anambra north is saturated with Igala migrants and so is Enuani and you can quickly identify them by their first or last names. The only culture of known that Onicha probably borrowed from outside Igboland is their kingship system which was borrowed from their former neigbhours,the Benin. This is a historical fact because Onicha ugbo and Onicha Olona doesn't practice Nze na Ozo,Ofala,Igba odu and host of other practices Onicha Nmili borrowed from their Nri landlords. Obosi man,Awka,and Asaba man doest trade ,gbaa boi nor buo obulu,so,how does that make an Onicha man any different. I challenge you to tell me what make Onicha culture "very" different,according to you. Onicha,Obosi,Asaba and some Idenmili towns were the first to obtain western education and that propelled their likeness for white colar jobs. Obosi,Asaba,Nkpor,Ogbaru and even remote Umuoji all have Ezechime migrants but none is running around screaming "we nobi Igbo" nor deriding our fellow Igbo. Somepeople think Owerri,Obosi,Awka,Mbaise and Nnewi women are promiscous,so,how does that make Onicha any different ?

I will tell you the problem with "nwa onye Onicha"; He hates trading because he thinks it an Occupation for the uneducated,hence,it beneath him because he has been made to think that education is equal to civilizatio. But guess what,he is also marvelled at the rate those uneducated "nwa onye Igbo" get rich and that makes him jealous and hateful. He can't achieve such success,so,the only way he can make himself feel good is to talk down on that same person who is wiser,clever and richer than him. Today,you will see their women marrying outside Onicha which makes them really angry and increase their hate for the "nwa onye Igbo". Everything nwa onye Onicha has today was given to them by the so called inferior "nwa onye Igbo"; Be it land,culture and the famous main market. Now,tell me who is inferior to whom!

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sambony4luv:
I think we should ask our president where he hails from as well, in 2011 he adopted the use of Azikiwe in his name just to gain votes from the east, 2015 is upfront and this time we shouldn't be suprise to see or hear him add Ibrahim or seun to his name. Mr Goodluck Jonathan should help us out here coz I just heard he's from oyicha. Lolzzz

it goes without saying, that he has Yoruba links which he decided not to explore, but rather went with the Igbo politicial terrain instead.