₦airaland Forum

PTH:
whatever.

There is very little to hold unto here, more like trying to make a lot of rabble to pass on a point that wont stick.
Yeah there are "ethnic rivalries" between people of the same race in America but have you ever heard of Italian Americans demanding that political office be zoned to only Americans of Italian origin for a particular period?

Have you ever heard of Latinos demanding a state of their own within the US? Ever heard of blacks demanding it is now the turn of the black man to rule the USA? Is federal allocation based on ethnicity in the USA? Is there evidence of quota system (don't mention affirmative action here please), federal character operating in the US, India, Britain?
Where is the rivalry brewing between black americans and blacks of african origin? Is it really a political issue in the USA that would cause Bush to lose his sleep? Lets' be candid here!

Please when we make examples let us be sure we even know what we are arguing about. Whatever differences exist in Britain, i am yet to hear of a zoning formula. No where did i define ethnicity as a race.

You are very right but is it so simple to merely claim that our problems are solely the fault of the people? Where we not the same people when we had leaders like Nnamdi Azikiwe and Awolowo? Like Ono rightly pointed out, is ignorance solely responsible for our problems? The citizens of Dubai are not as learned as we are and yet their entire country is a tourist attraction.

Our issue is not the people BUT the political institutions we have in place. As long as we have a political document (the constitution) that gives ample room for corruption, sacrifices merit on the altar of quota system and gives undue advantage to land mass rather than productivity, we will remaiin underdeveloped no matter how intelligent we becoome.

ave never seen a worse answer. if u r really davidylan then this effort is a pure disappointment i swear.

what are they smoking?

http://www.indebtwetrust.org/

PTH:
Sijien, i know that nonsense you quoted came from aisha2 eh. . . or whoever. I will be back to take on the issues raised on that rejoinder much later. Its sad that such an individual refused to put the quote under their own ID rather choosing to hide under urs to continue perpetuating ignorance and myopia.

it looks like denex is correct about you.

are you really davidylan?

babyosisi:
these people are fools.
How can people destroy their own land and claim they are fighting to get sympathy for their land.
They ought to be castrated in the market square as a deterrent to other fools.
This is assuming they didn't just capture innocent citizens.

where is ono?

but the guy yarns alrigth as per isreal and palestine issues now

denex:
@Sienna


PTH is the professional debunker formerly known as "davidylan".

who be sienna abi eye dey pain u? wetin do davidylan? seun ban am? na so seun go dey ban all im better members dey go

Jakumo u harah o!

I dey always trip when dis guy write sha. No be lie d guy dey lie.

http://chxta..com/2007/08/wallowing-in-ignorance.html

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

---Maya Angelou

It may be bliss, but I wonder whether the promotion of ignorance in the world might not be going just a little far at the moment.

In his regular Times column, Rod Liddle argues that people who understand "gibberish" about "the present world credit crunch" should be shunned as "tiresome acquaintances, dangerous dinner party guests, unsuitable sexual partners, etc." I'm so with Elliott in his take on that article, and the new and dangerous habit humanity seems to be developing, shunning knowledge and enlightenment in favour of insert word here (personally I'm inserting Paris Hilton),

The problem with far too many people in Nigeria is ignorance. There are so many Nigerians that have chosen, by accident or design, to remain within their little shells. So many of our people have no clue as to how the rest of the country is, and even worse, do not want to know. This problem is endemic particularly in the far North, and the West of the country. One of the great things I can say about people from the East, and to a large extent the South is that they are more mobile than the others. But then again, even with that mobility, how many of them actually open their minds to the conditions of others?

I was once called a liar when fresh from my first ever trip to Minna, I told some friends that neither IBB nor Abdulsalami Abubakar did much for the place. The guys chose to stick to their (rumoured) stories of eight lane super highways and solar powered street lights all built with oil money from the South. Thankfully, a quick peek through Nilla's blog should just about set that impression right. As long as we don't know anything about one another, we would continue to be suspicious of one another.

Personally, I like to think that I am a realistic fellow. While I would not go so far as to call myself blindly optimistic, I prefer to see the glass as half full, rather than half empty. You see, I believe that a healthy dose of optimism is extremely necessary for the attitude to exist such that things can get done. Simple example: back in my Itex days, I was told to go to Northern Nigeria to set up a payment scheme for VMobile as it was then known. On arriving, I found that their link to Lagos in Kano, Jos and Abuja, was basically messed up, nevertheless, I still tried my best to make the thing work until it became evident that their IT department needed to sort themselves out. In much the same way, I complained on this 'ere blog that I hate programming, still do. Nevertheless, I didn't sit down and despair (which would have meant failing my exams), but got my head down, did the best that I could, and managed to finish with a C in the blasted module. A third example from my own life again was just a few days ago, when the lift at my place broke down. My neighbours were willing to let sleeping dogs lie, but I took the initiative, spent my time and money to get the people responsible to come and do their jobs. That is adopting a 'can do' attitude to things, and that is the only way things get to work. Sadly, a lot of my country men aren't made of that cloth. No, a lot of Nigerians are overly pessimistic, and the anonymous army that has been visiting this blog in recent times is a good example of that pessimism. As someone pointed out, pessimism is a very dangerous animal. The effects of which include despair. I don't know which is worse, the despair in itself, or the fact that many Nigerians are involved in painting the country with all sorts of lurid colours to foreigners. While there is a strong need for criticism if Nigeria is to move forward, some of this so called criticism is borderline disgraceful. People seem to forget that at the end of the day they are still Nigerians, and when they make comments such as, 'I can't do business with Nigerians,' the listener would involuntarily add you to that list of Nigerians that he can't do business with.

When a person gives in to despair, there is absolutely no way back for that person whatsoever. Things are done, finished, ended. That is what a lot of Nigerians seem to be giving in to in recent times, and it baffles me because there is no reason for Nigerians to despair of Nigeria yet. Why do I say there is no reason for us to despair? My response is one word, India.

India is currently building up to the celebrations of 60 years as an independent nation, and is widely looked upon, along with Brazil, China and Russia as one of the next set of super powers on the planet. Yet, having spoken at length with Indians in my class over the last year, I realised that this country has more problems than the problems that seem to be weighing Nigeria and Nigerians down. I have said before, and I would say it again that whatever problems we think we have in Nigeria, they have them on an even larger scale in India. Population growth rate is a problem; Corruption is a problem; Lack of infrastructure is a problem; Power (NEPA in Naija speak) is a major problem; Cost of doing business is about the highest in their region; Rich versus poor divide is a problem; Ethnic tensions are a problem,

Recommended viewing: BBC Hard Talk interviews with an Indian politician and a businessman. While the politician is more negative, the businessman is positive, and we are seeing signs of that in Naija as well. Like in India, I believe that it is the world of business, not the world of politics, that will pull Nigeria forward.

The Nigeria must break up people

One of the fondest claims of the 'break Nigeria up' brigade is that having ethnically homogeneous nations would hasten development. Such a claim is terribly erroneous. The most successful country on the planet at the moment is undoubtedly the United States of America, and that country is in no way ethnically homogeneous. If you look at the five biggest economies in the world right now (after the US), Germany, Japan, China and the UK, only Japan can lay claim to being an ethnically homogeneous country. At the same time, these people forget that probably the best example of a failed state on God's green earth at the moment, Somalia, is largely ethnically (and religiously) homogeneous. Breaking Nigeria into nations with single tribes or ethnic groups will not make the current problems disappear. People like Adedibu, Uba and Yerima would still have their mortgages to pay in the West, and would continue as is usual.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, I would say that most of the advocates of break up are either semi-literate, or have simply failed to think things through. To be honest, aside from the cry 'break up', I have never heard any one of them ever put forward a plan as to how he would make his new country successful if such a break up should occur,

Nigeria may well be a "contraption", an amalgam of various ethnicities but so is the US - a colonial contraption that was acquired through genocide against Native Americans, conquest and theft of land from Mexico, etc. Germany is a "contraption" that was brought together by Otto von Bismarck's hand of iron in various wars during the mid nineteenth century. Italy is also a "contraption" of city states brought together by Garibaldi, and sacrificing their sovereignty to become part of a bigger entity. So is Spain with Andalucians, Basques, Castilians and Catalans. Spain still has its own separatist groups, part of the legacy of Franco's regime. The UK is a country whose constituent countries were all conquered by the English. India has at least 25 active separatist groups, some of them with governments in exile!

Our people should stop trying to rewrite history by suggesting the existence of nations of antiquity to which Igbos, Ijaws, Yoruba, etc can return to. Yes, the Soviet Union failed and broke up, but that was a case of the constituent republics returning to their pre-Soviet existence. As the Soviet Union was breaking up, "contraptions" like Italy, Spain, the UK, etc, were subsuming their sovereignty into an even bigger "contraption" - a European super-state. We are still waiting for the "contraption" of the US to return California, Nevada and Arizona to Mexico. While all these peoples are consolidating their strength, a lot of our people in their myopia and selfishness are calling for division.

What to do?

We talk about the lack of infrastructure in Nigeria, but then we all sit down and wait for the government to provide it. True, it is the government's responsibility, but when government continuously fails, a little bit of self help would go a long way. We hardly see that in Nigeria. Compare a mindset like that of the Malawian kid, William - who went out to build a windmill from scrap plastic and wood to power his family home in rural Malawi - to the typical Lagos residents whose homes and streets always get flooded every year but will choose to grunt and grumble and live life as it is.

At this juncture, I'd like to point you towards the fine article on this issue in Grandiose Parlor.

What to do? Change our attitude. As Gandhi so eloquently put it, 'You must be the change that you wish to see in the world.'

well said afam. come u and chxta know? d guy link u for im blog. (http://chxta..com/2007/08/why-it-may-take-eternity-for-nigeria-to.html)

d same army u guys are critiscising just stabilised PH. see, there is a limit to what an army can do to its own citizens in a civilian dispensation that is why all these militants have been runnig freely. where dem dey when abacha was around and everybody knew that he for no waste time send army enter d place?

PTH:
The Nigerian airforce still uses alfa jets made in the 1960s, they use beetle helicopters the world has long since abandoned as trainer aircraft, the navy is hopeles. We have enough fire power to "humble" rebels.

ignorance na serious disease sha. the first alpha jets were made in 1978. jets have a lifespan of up to 40 years and are upgradeable many times over the period. air beetle is not a helicopter. it is a trainer aircraft that is made in nigeria. kai. go and read first b4 u start displaying ur ignorance all over the place.

after some mumu peeps go call am alhaji goslow

Xris74:
Yet we live in ''one Nigeria''

stupid fool have you seen the roads in delta state? travel from warri to patani and see something.

Ugwumba:
@ ono, this childishness is part of the reason why intelligent discourse is difficult in this forum.

@ laudate:

1. If Ironsi's, Ojukwu's and Nzeogwu's (all career military officers, too) mistakes have been attributed as 'Igbo' mistakes, how are we not entitled to state that Ogundipe's (career military officer) cowardice (which we know is not in contest - from notable Yoruba military leaders like OBJ, Scorpion etc. in their memoirs) is the Yoruba's.

I, by no means, attribute cowardice as being in the nature of the Yoruba, but this was used in the context of the events during that period to demonstrate where the leaders and most senior members of these tribes went wrong.

You may note that I indicate that the Yoruba displayed bravery in a different context when the continued pressure on actualizing the 'Abiola' mandate led directly to the OBJ presidency.

The Igbo, have also had their moments of cowardice in the recent history of Nigeria where a number of the Senate presidents buckled under sustained pressure from the presidency.

Courage and cowardice are alter-egos - the absence of one is the other.

2. You state that Ohaneze has only supported resource control since the discovery of oil in Imo and Abia. This you, of course, must be aware is blatantly false, since oil was discovered in these states in the mid-1960's before resource control became an issue.

You may be unaware of the history of oil exploration in Nigeria, for which you may be forgiven, but to parade such inaccuracy to 'score points' does not speak well of your intentions.

3. I do not deny that the Igbo (my tribe) have not always been good neighbours and many may have fancied control over their neighbours, but it has much less to do with oil than a typical human weakness - the majority tribe always wanting to lord it over the minority.

We all suffer from this in Nigeria, and until we learn that the three most populous tribes must allow the rest an equal voice in the affairs of the nation, we cannot go forward.

Nothing annoys me as much as the WAZOBIA sentiments that are expressed in many facets of Nigerian life. If I was from any of the less populous tribes, I would truly be livid.

If you do not find my posts balanced, I will not offer any apologies, because everyone writes from his/her personal leanings and experiences - mine is left of center and, unapologetically, Nigerian first, Igbo next.

ugwumba i hail you o baba! i wish chxta and nutter were still around!

opec is here to stay for a long time. the US doesnt have the kind of muscle to do away wit opec anymore.

not all naija delta people

kalu is a thief and i hope ibori goes down with him.

u people are just talking rubbish. as usual.

tell them o

stupid move

is igbinedion on d run too?

some people can never be satisfied.

did he write it by himself?

yaradua will reduce it and win some points

i wish him best