₦airaland Forum

fayaayoa:
Reading the piece makes me laugh, anyway am a yoruba middle aged man so I will definitely have sentiments like everyone of you.
My truth is Igbos and Hausa/Fulanis had alliance to control the country while the yoruba played the opposition. The pact was sacrosanct until the first coup which was biased and opened the eyes of every rational nigerian to know that Igbos were wickedly ambitious. This was the genesis of Hausa and Igbo hatred. The Biafra war was the result of 2 biased coups; yorubas were victims of the two coups.
The truth be told, presently yorubas are the unifying factors of the three major tribes. Yorubas have learnt their lessons and they are ones really playing the politics.
My advise is Hausa/Fulani should mentally disassociate from the belief they are meant to rule; they are least developed of the three tribes. they need to respect and appreciate every tribes especially the Niger-Delta and learn to work with them.
Igbos-whatever that happened in Biafra war was self inflicted. When wars are fought, many things are certain; destruction, death and hatred. You need to move on, don't get fixed on the past failure, play the politics. Germany has moved on from the world wars, Japan too. There is much better opportunities for the igbos in Nigeria than Biafra.
Niger-Delta- Restructuring has never being the problem. Bad leadership, you need to change the crop of leaders you have. There is absolutely no reason why the region has not developed with the money pumped in via 13% derivation, Federal allocation, NDDC and Ministry of Niger Delta., One of your son President for 6 yrs and so on. hold your leaders accountable then you will see the difference.
Yoruba- continue to play the politics and develop your region. Make other south west states an extension of Lagos. Make the south west autonomous for agriculture and industrialization.

EvilMetahuman:
I know. I meant put them down for good, cos they are like cockroaches, they will always come back unless you put them out of their misery for good.

And it has to be now before they gain more control.

Cooly100:
Edo is part of the Afonjas..Who cares what you do...I was right in my assessment...

fuckpro:
...come 2023 if ibos are not given the presidency then forget Nigeria

martineverest:
let me burst ur bubbles.its even harder to convince the ibos in south sout to join biafra.....they dont see themselves as ibo

Cooly100:
Lead a movement to purge ourselves of this trait, that has be going on since 1914, and I will believe you...

Oyiboman69:
The goals they want to achieve with new Biafra – Tanko Yaksai

dailytrust.com.ng

Jun 4, 2017 2:04 AM

Alhaji Salihu Tanko Yakasai, a former Special Political Adviser to former President Shehu Shagari, spoke on why the agitation of Biafra continued to attract attention, why it is impossible for the Igbo to secede and why they will be better off in Nigeria than Biafra, among other things.



Why is the agitation for Biafra gathering momentum in recent times?

Well, the agitation for Biafra started soon after the demise of Major-General Aguiyi Ironsi. So the name is not new. The only difference is that the old Biafra actually was intended to occupy the whole of southern region. 

It was a scheme for getting the entire southern Nigeria to break away. The intention was to block the North from access to the sea. If that happened, the North would be starved of many things coming from the port, including fuel and imported items we rely upon. So that was the old Biafra. Because of that, when they were preparing to declare Biafra, southern minorities from the present day Cross River and Akwa Ibom led a delegation to the North to plead with General Hassan Usman Katsina, the then military governor of Northern Nigeria, to plead with the central government not to allow Biafran secession to succeed because, according to them, if it was allowed to succeed, they would remain forever as second class citizens in what would be known as Biafra. 

The young men are not agitating for the five Igbo-speaking states to constitute Biafra, rather, they are thinking of the old Eastern Region, with the four minority states, together with five majority Igbo-speaking states. You don’t dismiss idea by a wave of hand. But the practical aspect of it is very difficult because all along there has not been love lost between the Igbo and their minority.

In fact, when Nigeria was to be granted independence and constitutional conference was held in 1957, the minorities in the East complained of oppression and marginalisation by the Igbo. They wanted their interest to be safeguarded in an independent Nigeria. It was agreed that a special arrangement would be made to protect their interest, and it was made with the creation of the Niger Delta Development Authority which was put under the care of Shehu Shagari, who was then the parliamentary secretary to the prime minister.  It was decided that the development of the Niger Delta shall not come from the Eastern Region, even though they were located under the old regional government. 

I don’t think it is possible for the minority to go into any political association with the Igbo.

This agitation started right from the time of Obasanjo, with Uwazurike as its leader. Now, I think Uwazurike has realised that it is an impossible task to realise their dream; that is why he is more or less quiet. This young man, Nnamdi Kanu, was just a broadcaster. I don’t know whether he was under Uwazurike or on his own, but he was not a leader on his own. He was a broadcaster. I believe he got some of their people in the United States, collected their money and set up a radio station, which I think is being broadcast from America and beamed somewhere in West Africa. The boy became popular after his arrest. I think what they are trying to do is to develop the agitation into a political movement and try to gather support from the Igbo and any of their sympathizers.

This agitation for new Biafra came at a time when the Niger Delta people are agitating for resource control, and at the same time, the South-West, who are more interested in brewing trouble in the country, joined forces with them to change the whole issue into restructuring. So there is now a connection between the agitation for restructuring, the realisation of Biafra and resource control. They started during the 1994/95 constitutional conference, where they were holding regular meetings. At that time, every week, the minority from the East would meet with Igbo, and after that, they would meet with the Yoruba. All these three ideas emanated from former Vice President Alex Ekwueme. 

This is the situation now.  The issue to be addressed is whether the present Biafra would include the former Eastern Region, whereby the four minority Igbo-speaking states would join forces with five Igbo-speaking states and form new Biafra? That has not been spelt out. The only thing I heard was that Rivers would not be part of the Biafra; I think Akwa-Ibom too. But it is not clear yet whether the four minority Igbo-speaking states have openly declared that they are not going be part of Biafra. This is the immediate challenge the agitators for new Biafra will face. But grant it that Biafra will materialise; everybody is aware that the major ethnic groups in Nigeria are Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. 

The minorities are everywhere and our minorities are not distinct; we are interwoven. Even the North-Central, which is the official area regarded as the Middle Belt, is made up of six states. Four of the six are Muslim majority; they are Nasarawa, Niger, Kogi and Kwara states and the minority elements left in Plateau State, for instance, are themselves fighting one another. In addition, they don’t speak with one another except in either Hausa or English. None of them can speak with the other in their own native language, and all of them were at loggerheads with the Tiv. Initially, when our committee was asked to recommend creation of states, we intended to create Middle Belt state but when the idea was put forward, the people of Niger said they were out of it; the people of Ilorin said they were out of it and the people of Kogi also said they were out of it. So the old Plateau had to be merged with Benue and made one province while other provinces were regrouped.

So, the reality is that the three major ethnic groups, Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo, need Nigeria. Every one of them needs Nigeria. Let’s start with the Yoruba. Most of the industries are located in the South-West, mainly in Lagos, some in Ogun and some in Ibadan. According to a letter written by the late General Adeyinka Adebayo, the industries in Oyo are owned by Lebanese and Indians, but 70 per cent of the industries located in Lagos State are owned by Igbo. So the industries that are manufacturing goods in the South-West and some in the Eastern Region have the whole of Nigeria as their market, a market of about 200 million people. If there is no Nigeria, there would not be that market and what would be the consequences of lack of market? 

First, the goods cannot be sold, there will be no production and there will be unemployment, and the people that are employed in industries located in the South-West are largely Yoruba. The day there is no Nigeria, there will be massive unemployment in the South-West. This is apart from the food and livestock they are getting from the North. If there is no Nigeria, they will not get them, and if they are going to import, it will take time and will be costly. By nature, they cannot grow livestock and some food items in their area. The geographical situation in South-West is different from that of the North; the animals they are growing do not enough meat and milk, unlike the ones in the North.

For the Igbo, at present there is no village where there is a flourishing market where you cannot have the Igbo conducting their own businesses. And they are living in peace; nobody is harassing them. They live within thousands of other ethnic groups and nobody is attacking them. It is a well known fact that the business of building materials is surrendered to Igbo people, as well as electrical appliances, fittings and spare parts. Commuter transportation; those luxury buses that are plying our roads from one state to another are owned by the Igbo. The day there is no Nigeria, the Igbo will have no alternative than to relocate to their states. And with the hate speeches being circulated on the social media and other platforms, it is impossible to have a peaceful dissolution of Nigeria.

That is the take on the Igbo and the Yoruba people. We the Huasa Fulani too need Nigeria. I have sat alone, without reading any book and said to myself: “What do we need from Nigeria?” And I have come up with five things we really need Nigeria for. One, we have no way of having immediate access to the sea than from Nigeria. If there is no Nigeria, we have to go to Libya, and there are no enough roads to achieve that. 

Two, we need the current oil revenue. In Nigeria, only six states can survive with the oil revenue they are getting. There are four oil bearing states that cannot survive with the quantity of oil located in their areas. These states are Abia, Imo, Ondo and Edo, they have oil, but it is not as much as they could rely on for survival. But Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa-Ibom and one other state can survive with the oil located in their respective areas. So, during the first Biafran agitation Ojukwu entered agreement with France whereby he gave concession for the entire oil and gas resources in the Biafran region. If Biafra succeeded, there was no way the Niger Delta people could claim ownership of oil and gas located in their areas. 

Three, the North also needs education. Today, in most of our universities the lecturers are mostly from the South - even the students. We need education and we cannot get it without teachers, so we need Nigeria to get teachers from southern part of the country to come and teach us. 

Four, we need the technical know-how the South has. So we need them for that. 

Five, we also need the South for investment. The only northerners that have huge investments are three - Aliko Dangote, T. Y Danjuma and Alhaji Abdulsamad Isyaka Rabi’u. But if you go to the South you will get thousands of them with huge capital. 

So, the three major ethnic groups need Nigeria because everybody is benefiting from Nigeria. For the Igbo, if there is no Nigeria, there will be no market for them to do their businesses. At least if you take the North, you are talking of 55 per cent of the population of Nigeria, which is about 100 million out of the 180 million of Nigerian population. The Yoruba also need market because their industries cannot sell the goods to themselves. By nature, the Yoruba man likes the Hausa man more than the Igbo man and the Igbo man likes the Hausa man more than the Yoruba man, yet the Yoruba are now trying to convince the Igbo to forget aganist the Hausa. 

The Igbo, unfortunately, are lacking in diplomacy. This is the weakness of the Igbo and that is what the Yoruba are capitalising on to manipulate their way of thinking. During the first declaration of Biafra, it was a public knowledge that when Gowon sent Awolowo to persuade Ojukwu not to embark on secession, they met on the River Niger bridge and discussed. Later on, the media said that according to unofficial report, Awolowo assured Ojukwu that if they seceded, the West would also secede. When he came out, he declared publicly that if by any act of commission or omission the East was allowed to go, the West would follow. This is the public announcement he made and the record is there, which means the West would also secede from the rest of Nigeria. The Igbo believed in him and Ojukwu told all the Igbo to go back to their respective areas. At that time, the Igbo were holding various positions in government, but they all left. When they came back after the civil war, they found that the Yoruba had occupied their positions, and till today, they have not regained such positions, and they will never regain them.

https://dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/the-goals-they-want-to-achieve-with-new-biafra-tanko-yaksai/200428.html

fuckpro:
...come 2023 if ibos are not given the presidency then forget Nigeria

ZombieTERROR:
Don't allow this old hags to deceive you
The south needs to come together
See how they view Yorubas
Yet they tilt towards the north politically

The south needs to unite
We have a common enemy

Eggcelent:
With Due Respect For Their Ages & Personal Accomplishments, I Will Advise These Old Men To Please Refrain From Some Of These Utterances.

We Should Move On From The Past & Work Towards Building A Better Society For Ourselves & The Next Generation.

Thanks

Koolking:
It's not a movement. It should be a conscious effort like true repentant. It's a personal undertaking by each and everyone of us.

EvilMetahuman:
always emotion, zero brain.

Is presidency your birth right that they need to give you on platter?

Super1Star:
See this clown.

Asari Dokubo said more than this.

Tompolo threatened more than this.

What happened?

Nothing will happen.

Eggcelent:
With Due Respect For Their Ages & Personal Accomplishments, I Will Advise These Old Men To Please Refrain From Some Of These Utterances.

We Should Move On From The Past & Work Towards Building A Better Society For Ourselves & The Next Generation.

Thanks

Super1Star:
The Biafrau.d agitators and the devilish "Weed" fake Jews are the ones complicating things. It is unachievable with the way the constitution is and they are just being sentimental and acting with the same emotion that led to death of over 3m people in 1966.

Ask them how they will navigate the fundamental issue of constitution, the next thing is they will start abusing you, as if their abuse, cry and early morning jogging exercise and sit at home protest will change anything in the constitution.

We demanded for restructuring in April of 1994 and ALL the regions were laughing at us. We told them they will all come back to it in years to come. Finally they have all come back to it.

From restructuring it becomes easier to disintegrate after a while.

DeRay98:
You made some valid points here but not all especially claiming Yorubas are victims. There were groups among the Yorubas who wanted to join Biafra especially in the military,they fought on the side of Biafra. The Army commander who lead the troupes that temporarily took Benin for Biafra was Yoruba. He was defeated when Col. Ogbemudia resurfaced with re-enforcement after initially disappearing to avoid their arrest.

ikechizoba:
my dear,they are first class betrayers..,Did you see this line when he said" the South-West, who are more interested in brewing trouble in the country"

kumulus:
All this one this man is saying no be am at all..... Reading indeed would take you to places and knowledge is Power. Recently I stumbled on a particular exposè on the American civil war and democracy... It revealed the truth about the global elite and how they create conflicts and strife to enable them stay in power. Trust me when I tell you our politicians are mere learners in the game of scamming, if you doubt read up articles on the likes of Rockefellers, JP Morgan, Rothschilds dynasty...and the lust continues. The agitation for Biafra is a plot by the world elite for resource control, if granted the Igbos would suffer for it big time in the stretch...


The Church is a big player in this...you will agree with me that the Igbos have the highest amount of Catholics....therein lies the infiltration...the funding the Biafra agitators boast of is from the Church...and they haven't lied about having that much support.

*** I recall I once read in a newspaper from the 70's a article where a popular Igbo traditionalist/spiritualist who was before that time himself a practicing Catholic ( a Priest) stated clearly and firmly in an interview that if any of his numerous sons chose not to follow his path, they can only be Catholics...and I wondered why he said that.

I know all I have said might seem confusing but find time and read the book in the link below...see for yourself how this elite feed off our troubles, chaos and disaster.

Biafra is just another of their game plan, they destabilize Nigeria and they're guaranteed a strong foothold in defiant Africa.


https://decryptedmatrix.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/The-Secret-Terrorists-by-Bill-Hughes.pdf


United we stand...Nigeria MUST remain!!!

fuckpro:
... The hand writing is on the wall that's the culmination of the Biafran struggle...am not a Biafran am a strategist so stop the insult and reason as a matured mind

ProWalker:
The questions are where are these industries located and who own them?
We have mainly the Ikeja industrial hub, which one is owned by Igbos ?
He mentioned the phantom Gen Yinka Adebayo as his source
Allow the abookii man to keep playing on your emotions

fuckpro:
...come 2023 if ibos are not given the presidency then forget Nigeria

ozoneboy:
I am an Imo Biafran living in Port Harcourt,But sorri to say this you are as sturbon as goat,even our closest minority neighbour the Ikwerres don't even want to use ear to hear anything about biafra,and you are still their talking about them.Stupidity is when you do the same thing and expect a different result,the Minorities worked against Biafra from inside,and made sure it didnt stand,when Biafra failed they took over all your properties and killed of Igbo's that came back for them.
We that are leaving with these minorities are telling you people that the minorities will sabotage Biafra again without thinking twice because they don't want it,and you guys don't want to listen.

LordOfNaira:
I have always said it that if the Yorubas or the Hausas want their countries today, they will get it. Igbos must understand that it takes more than gra gra to secede. A Northerner says something that sounds divisive and the Igbos here have swallowed it with the stupidity of an animal (apologies to George Orwell). Imagine a Northerner speaking nothing of the atrocious stance of the North while he tries to make Igbos view Yorubas and some minority groups as the clog in the wheel of their progress. I just pity these sets of Igbos. If they go on like this, allowing the North, especially, to feed them garbage, they will suffer greatly.

The Northerners recognized their shortcomings and when the Yorubas led by Awolowo wanted clause for seccession included before independence, the Northerners resisted it and won the Igbos over to resist it. And yet when there is a problem, these Igbos are quick to align with their real enemies (the Northerners) against Yorubas.

evilNL:
The north need access to sea of the south
The north need oil revenue from ND
The north need teachers from the south
The north need technical know how of the south

Meanwhile the south only the market of the north
Who is deceiving who

What does the ND need the north for
Why can't people reason?

Why do southerners behaves as if they can't govern themselves?

Cooly100:
Mister, you will wait till eternity for that to happen...If French revolution had waited for meek and gullible people like you...they won't be where they are today...

EvilMetahuman:
and what is the strategy?

How do ibos intend to become president in 2023 without alligning with the gworo chewing or ewedu eating people?

kelechi17:
which Nigeria .mtcheeeeeeeew

Ngokafor:
..They do not know what time it is...every region is waiting for them in 2019 to clamour for Osibanjo..e go do them like film trick..

..As for Tanko Yassai..do not trust whatevr comes out of his mouth.