₦airaland Forum

kettykin:
Nice to hear that t

he same people who starved to death more than 40 years ago are now on top of the nigerian food chain producing best in academic, entertainment, sports, business, banking and now own the major real estate in nigeria while the same people who order the starvation are now tenants, taxi, bus drivers, omonile, gang cultists, area boys, beggars, trolls and noise makers.

God has a way of turning around destinies.

MeAboki:
LOL, quite true, they almost ate my late grandfather; he was a policeman in the 50's on duty in their region; luckily he escaped, otherwise I wouldn't have ever been born - chai, imagine being part of somebody's lunch, mba Tufiakwa!

Volksfuhrer:
Why can't these elders respect themselves?

rexbuton:
modified":

Every government has extreme opposition and unofficial mouth-pieces.. AIT played their part for Jonathan the same way Sahara Reporters did for buhari.. So he shouldn't act like a child!
It's always wise to keep your enemies in play and see what they would pull off

akinegba1:
Olumide, an undergraduate from Ekiti state said he wouldn’t understand what made his parents give him the marks at a time when his contemporaries are no longer having them.

“ Whenever I look at myself in the mirror and see those marks, I feel funny. Some of my friends call me sergeant because of the marks and some make jest of me by calling me the guy that had a fight with the tiger. I know these marks are horrible. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been embarrassed by them.

I wish I could turn things around and I know that if anything could be done to alter then, I would do so when I become financially viable. I only hope it won’t affect me in the employment market when I graduate. They make me look like a bush person. I don’t like the marks at all, and girls don’t look at my face twice. No girl is dying for my love. When I approach girls, the expression on their faces are often discouraging.
Mere looking at me, people wonder at me. Outside the school, people think that I am an uneducated person. I wish I could wipe it off because relationship wise, I have lost a lot of things”.
Biola Dada, a hairdresser said she hates her face and doesn’t understand why she was given such marks.
“My mother doesn’t have them and my father is dead. All my sisters have tribal marks and my mother said it’s from my father’s family. But I tell you, it isn’t funny at all.
My sisters have to lower the standard of the kind of husbands they would have loved to marry. My sister who has an OND in Mass Communication married a driver whereas she wanted to marry a journalist but the deep horizontal marks on her face hindered her from getting the man she wanted. I have finished secondary school and would want to marry a polished man but none has approached me except artisans.”
Rotimi, a building contractor jokes about the horizontal marks on his face. According to him, he has been asked many times if he was attacked by a wild cat, but he always laughed it off. Rotimi believes he has nothing to be ashamed of as the scarification or tribal marks enhance his handsomeness .
“All my siblings have tribal marks but we could not give our children because we know that what gave reason for tribal marks is no more there. The marks were for identification during the tribal wars and slavery.”

Myth of origin
In Yoruba land, a story was told of a certain king named Sango who sent two slaves to a distant country on an important mission. In due course they returned, and he found that one slave had achieved successfully what he had been sent to do, while the other had accomplished nothing.
The King therefore rewarded the first with high honours, and commanded the second to receive a hundred and twenty-two razor cuts all over his body.

That was meant to be a severe punishment, but when the scars healed, they gave to the slave a very remarkable appearance, which greatly took the fancy of the King’s wives. Sango according to the tale therefore decided that cuts should in future be given, not as punishment, but as a sign of royalty, and he placed himself at once in the hands of the markers.
However, he could only bear two cuts, and so from that day two cuts on the arm have been the sign of royalty, and various other cuts came to be the marks of different tribes.

Saturday Vanguard also learned that at a time when kingdoms were invaded and people were kidnapped, clans started marking their members to differentiate themselves and also to be able to know where an individual belonged to, peradventure there were chances for their return home.

Slave trade later became the primary reason for the advent of tribal marks in Nigeria although it became a fashion trend over time. Studies further revealed that tribal marks became a necessity in the old days as a result of the incessant communal wars and slave trade experienced then.

“Families became separated as people were often taken away as slaves and to avoid completely losing their folk, they decided to mark their faces, hoping it would help to withhold family ties. Such marks were used by individuals to trace their source, no matter how long they might have been held captive.
But when these wars ceased, the act of marking the face did not stop, because people then realised that besides the initial purpose for tribal marks, it also beautified the face.”

In those old days, when a child was born, the proud father would want the child to be given tribal marks as a way of expressing that he was the legitimate father of the child as well as a way of identifying the child in their family lineage or ethnic group. It is believed that the best way of identifying people of same ethnic group is the similarity of their marks and in that case, they protect their interest.

This became passed down from family to family, members of the same village, identification of royal lineage and people from the same lineage. But different sets of people have similar tribal marks that differentiate them from people from a different lineage or village.
Since tribal marks are used mainly to differentiate ethnic groups, they vary. There are marks on the cheeks, forehead, on the temple, under the chin and so on. There are vertical lines, horizontal, both vertical and horizontal, slanted lines on both cheeks. These marks are in patterns based on the ethnic group of their bearer and have different meanings and different names.

Tribal marks no more necessary now
A Yoruba adage says that a person with facial marks will not remain missing for too long. According to the people, such a person, if separated from his relations during war or other conflicts, would meet someone who would identify his town and even his family through his facial marks. But that was then. These days, people view those with tribal marks with a certain disdain.

Individuals and friends make jest of those who wear them. The reasons adduced for them like inter-tribal wars and slave trade no longer exist. What many called ‘abiku’ or ‘ogbanje’ in those days in many cases have been found out to be sickle cell anemia. Most people who have marked faces would not do same to their children and those who have another opportunity would not inscribe such on their faces.
Some people without tribal marks said they would avoid friendship with those whose faces are marked if possible.

Favour Chude, a student opines that the act of marking the face is inhuman in nature and should therefore be abolished.
“ Government should do something about emphasis on the tribes of people. We talk of one Nigeria now and so we do not need Igbo tribe, Yoruba tribe or Hausa tribe on the faces of one Nigeria. Tribal marks should be eradicated. I cannot marry a man with tribal marks if he is the last man on earth. I’m not saying I hate people with tribal marks but there is a limit in associating with them.

The practice is barbaric and reminds me of the pains an individual undergoes to get them. “It puts me off when I see a young person having 14 marks on each cheek. What kind of culture would permit a baby’s face to be slashed 28 times? When a guy has such a mark, no matter how brilliant or intelligent he is, such a person often has complex and has a problem socialising. I’ve never dated a guy with tribal marks and I cannot.”

With the increase in the cases of HIV/AIDS and blood -related infections, it is becoming deadly to use sharp objects on people especially as such objects in rural and even urban societies can enhance further transmission of the diseases. In Nigeria today, tribal marks have become a criminal offence in some states and this in a way has helped to reduce the act across different tribes in the country. Osun State during the administration of Olagunsoye Oyinlola, banned people in the state from giving facial marks or tattoo to their children.

Section 24 of the law says,”No person shall tattoo or make a skin mark or cause any tattoo or skin mark to be made on a child.” Section 24 (2) of the law says, “A person who tattoos or makes a skin mark on a child commits an offence under this law and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding N5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or serve both fine and imprisonment”.
Equally, Ekiti State government under former Governor Ayo Fayose passed a Child Rights Law which forbids all forms of tattoos and tribal marks on children of the state.
Nigerian leaders with tribal marks

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/10/marked-life-tribal-marks-attractive-repulsive/#sthash.EJjIyUke.dpuf

zendy:
There's the saying that " Igbo eh nwe Eze". This means that " Igbos don't have kings" ( although the accurate translation is that Igbos never had and will never have a king). That's just the egalitarian nature of the Igbo man that he doesn't recognise anyone as his superior wherever he is. That's why the Igbos never had central form of authority unlike the Yoruba that had the Oyomesi and the Hausa that had the Sokoto caliphate. To this day, it still amazes an Igboman like me that a Yoruba man can prostrate on the floor to another human being bacause I know that someone will have to kill me before I can agree to do this. We Igbos have been fighting colonialism for a long time. We fought the authority of the British but failed,we fought the Northern dominated Nigerian army in Biafra and failed but I'm proud of my people for fighting where others ran away like cowards. When we win, we shall win big. Until then,we keep fighting

ezeagu:
This is what the British (Col. Heneker) had to say for the Aro Igbo trenches

EdCure:
I salute their bravery.

superstar1:
Spartans had 300, we have 129,
Though you were few in number, but you were a battalion at heart,
They came in one way, you scattered them in seven ways,
You turned their nights into day and day into night,
Eclipsing their souls forever, vanquishing their spirits eternally, sending the invaders to the Hades and abyss of no return.

Against all odds, you demonstrated courage and wisdom,
You showed us the power of brain over brawn,
The advantage of wisdom over strength,
The superiority of effective number over numerical strength,
The effect of quick strategic thinking over chest beating.

How can 129 ''Spartans-like soldiers'' wipe out a garrison?
How can 129 ''Spartan-like soldiers'' ensure the capitulation of a whole Division of invaders of our serenity?
How can 129 ''Spartan-like soldiers'' ensure confusion and scampering of a Battalion of bandits and marauders?
Indeed, those that were with the Spartans in their imaginary forms, are more than the invading marauders.

The Defenders of the western region,
The lions of the Ore jungle that consumed every pretender calling himself somebody, when he is nobody,
The Sun that deems all pretending ''rising sun'',
The Oodua machines that recalibrate all malfunctioning compasses,
The Questioners and Thwarters of fake secession dreams.

We celebrate you and we say thank you for defending us and our canaanland, that flows with milk and honey, with your lives.

You are not forgotten our heroes, our own dear 129 ''Spartans''.

sukkot:
biafra education at work. how do you expect to run biafra if you can barely speak english ?

sukkot:
YEAH AND YOUR BIAFRAN SOLDIERS WERE LED BY A GALLANT YORUBA WARRIOR SOLDIER NAMED BANJO. CASE CLOSED.

Duru1:
Why would you not believe the crap from the goofy character since you believed Lt Col Francis Fajuiyi begged to die with Gen Ironsi. It was the same Osun propaganda Yoruba are capable of generating. It is funny that 8th Battalion under Major Ochefu had become 129 Nigerian army personals of shaky Yoruba natives.

ekenedegreat:
Stop ranting!! the soldiers mentioned were not yorubas rather, they were hausas. Yorubas cannot and will never fight a war due to their cowardice.

sukkot:
he is a coward but he alone kicked the arse of 50,000 biafra men. i laugh in sambisa

T9ksy:
Abeg, get over yourself jo! Do i look like i give a da.mn whether you agree with my statement or not. The fact of this discourse is that your "gallant and courageous" Biafran Liberation Front-touted by your hollow chest-beating warlord as "the greatest army in black africa" was stopped at ore by a hurriedly assembled group of infantary men led by a yoruba man. How you choose to deal with this fact is of no consequence to me.

T9ksy:
Yeah, the war was being planned in lagos which just happens to be in yorubaland BUT by northerners, your so-called enemy. It was the northerners who were slaughtering your people in the north which made you start going back to your new but short-lived nation-biafra. we had our own grouse with the northerners too and were dealing with it our own way, taking full cognisance of the reality on the ground. However ojukwu deemed it necessary to fight his enemy on yorubaland.

Oh, so biafran's push towards lagos wasn't an attack on the yorubas but ojukwu just wanted to capture the city........like he did the Mid-west region and impose his rule on them? Like we were going to fall for that lame excuse.

Ojukwu's enemy was the north but he needed to capture other regions first before finally developing the liver to confront his main enemy You ought to listen to what you write sometimes and maybe then you will realise how d.aft it actually is. You need to fight your enemy on another man's land!!!









@ Bolded.............yeah right but then it only took 176 yoruba infantary men to stop the great(sic!) Biafran Liberation Front in his tracks at Ore!!!

Ponponkon:
You claimed to have fought Biafra from beginning to end,yet,you never rose to the rank of a General nor full Colonel because you are Yoruba and you bottled it up. This man is a coward indeed.You are afraid of North

NewNigeriaMind:
War is not won by mouth or muscle,

What brain power and tactics from well thought out strategy can achieve will take muscle a longer time.

So the biafra solders made a retreat not knowing the men at ore are less than 200.

History is about to repeat itself again.

This time, there will be nothing like no victor no vanquished. It's winner take all.

chiefinalowo:
biafran soldiers were visionless..
Can you imagine biafran soldiers were going to the Great Yorubaland to fight Federal Forces with Cassava sticks.

EUROBOMBER:
Did you read the write up at all? The Biafran soldiers thought that Ore was heavily enforced that is why they did not move beyond that bridge, if they had know that just 129 soldiers were there they would have easily overrun them and head straight for Lagos which was the target.

I laugh hard at the bold part, go and read about Major Okafor and how he completely destroyed Nigerian army second division during the war. We had a lot going against us then that is why we lost the war. If we had just a quarter of the weapons you guys had the outcome would have been different.

Which war did adekunle fight? He was busy shooting women & children within the outskirts of Biafra while the man went forward under Etuk. Do you know that Biafran forces destroyed one-third of adekunle's 3rd marine commando even before he could start operation OAU?

Obasanjo himself took a shot in the arse at some point when he had to flee battle.

plainmirror:
From the above passage chose the best suited description of the duo...........

1) A show of shame by two grown-ups

2) A uniformed mad man on a special misson

3) An illiterate woman without driving knowledge

4) An immobile fuel attendant