₦airaland Forum

felifeli: We have a battle between two nonsense candidates so I say may the most less nonsense man win.

collynzov5: So all elected officials and government appointees in APC states should abandon governance and converge in Osun for almost a week?
Further evidence that APC is just power hungry and doesn't really have the interest of the people at heart.

Na now things dey clear for people eyes


Some were hoodwinked before


maybe na all their elected memebers for outer planet

go convergefor naija when the general elections comes

YEYE FOWLS


I no fit SHAAOOUUUTTTTT

This is just the beginning

of a really interesting game.


Let the Game begin

:-

CONTINUE DIARIS GOD OOOOO


All our money that you are "thiefing"

Continue God is watching us

Never of thi

Qiute revealing

Dsage1: Could you please show us the evidence?

Sir, unlike PDP, no APC governor has been remove by the court. So what is your point?

There are thieves

And

There are super thieves!!!

Firefire: No! Fashola come a cross as a good man but in the wrong company

... Bad company corrupt good manners

Aguntan to ba ba aja rin.....

Firefire: Only in Fashola 1st term.

Fashola 2nd term is a Complete disaster, he has lost his credibility by 60% I understand his hand is tied as he must do his god-father bidding by bringing out fund meant for Lagos development into the Project of acquiring more states into their coven.

Any progressive party must play by the rule. Party Primaries. Simple.

Party Primaries.... in APC? -when Baba S'ope is still there!

come off it

or u mean primarily - parties... owambe

Dsage1: And you think without rigging, Omisore will defeat Aregbesola?

PDP has already made a costly mistake by nominating 'Omisore' as its Gubernatorial candidate. Aside Ile-Ife and its environment,Iyiola is not so popular and well acceptable(due to his violence attitude and integrity)in others towns.

If Omisore win, then something is definitely wrong somewhere.

On how many occasions has APC won elections without rigging?

I hope they will continue in their ways

Whether they do or not, most lagosians are fed up with their style


they definitely have but a limited timel left

DIARIS GOD

HMM

thought provoking

Firefire: The truth will be told come 9th August 2014.

Aregbesola would be sent packing.

Enough of stealing from all SW states.

Enough of party that does not respect her citizens.

Goodbye APSin, Goodbye Raufu

Odabooooooooooo

Odigbereeeeeeeeee

Odigboseeeeeeeee

Less than 7 days on the count down


Going.........


goin.......


go..

mkpakanaodogwu: So GEJ no die again?,silly people.supporter of APC

I tire ooo

so you sef see am


People Sha

What is he saying??

Laughing in spanish

commitee this committee that

lets see what will come out of this

if only it is true

Their end has come

but only if the goverment and others involved are sincere

in the fight against BH

Unna no fit redeploy?

Just an advice

needs to be reflected on

Dry joke

Firefire: Glory be to the name of our God.

I am so glad.

It is understandable

Mesef happy

I fear fear

These are interesting times in Osun State. Interesting times because it seems that the fear of the voters have become the beginning of wisdom for the politicians in the state. It is a good thing for democracy except that this was not the case until the Ekiti earthquake that swept out an arrogant state executive that is an apt representation of the APC’s leadership who never gave a damn about what the people thought, felt or wanted. It is a beautiful thing that the voters are now the beautiful bride. It is a good development and it would serve our people well on the long run regardless of whatever mistakes that might be made going forward.
The voters, or if broadly viewed, the people of Osun have a lot to thank the people of Ekiti State for since June 21, 2014 when they voted out Kayode Fayemi and sent him packing. This event has caused the lot of the people in Osun State to improve. It has caused their so-called “revolutionary and unusual” governor, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola to come down from his high horse, walk on the scraggy ground and feel the pains of Osun people that he had hitherto ignored . Suddenly, things that were thought hitherto impossible have become possible in Osun State. Things that the teachers, the artisans, the Local government employees, the civil servants and other pressure groups thought could not happen have been happening. Just all of a sudden!

The Petroleum Decree was promulgated in November 1969 because 1970 was a year of pay since royalties were paid every 3 years then. (Even Biafran war bonds had 1970 and 1973 maturity dates). The pay was for the Federal Government and the Eastern Regional Government as usual. But since the last pay, the Eastern Region had been broken up into Eastern Central state with no oil and Rivers and Cross Rivers states with all the oil. The Decree then routed all the revenues from territorial areas and continental shelves to the Federal purse. What that eventually created was the dictatorship of the centre. Whether the country was under democratic regime or military junta, federalism or regionalism, Nigerians were chained to the dictates of centre. And this dictatorship was enhanced by the fragmentation of the country into more states. Nigeria started out as two independent countries. Economic calculus brought the two together not political expediency or ethnic pacifications. But the partitioning of the country into more states was being driven by political and ethnic pacifications not economic imperatives. And this always enhances dictatorship of the centre since many of these states are not self-sustaining and huge amount of money would be lost to bureaucratic overheads. The first test for existence of any State should be, if the Federal Government does not give or take any revenue from me, would I survive? If not, the State should not be created because the meagre resources of Peter would have to be robbed to pay Paul.

Finally, to help the North get back on its feet, the confab delegates must break the dictatorship of the centre by insisting on resource control. That is what Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni 8 stood for. The North used to be the Niger Delta of Nigeria. The two million that fled during the 1966 ethnic cleansing were there because of the economic opportunities that the North had to offer. Bola Ige, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Emeka Ojukwu were born by parents who went to seek refuge in the North’s economic prosperity. Therefore, the North must not underestimate its own potentials by rejecting resource control. A new quest for wealth through foreign investments and provision of technical training for all would force the North to compromise on retrogressive practices and ancient beliefs that stand in the way of modern economic prosperity.

On the other hand, the responsible and honourable leaders of the South-South should not settle for less than they are. A no deal is better than a bad deal. Because in the future, if a Dokubo, Boyloaf, Togo, Ekpemupolo or any of their ilk blows up the Niger Delta or kidnap foreign workers, we shall not call them resource control activists or Niger Delta Justice advocates, we shall call them terrorists. For this is the time to comprehensively articulate their grievances and stand their ground. Anything short of this becomes not the North’s fault, not the Federal Government’s, not the oil companies’ but their own fault.

In the Commons when Churchill was asked what kind of financial stress a huge railway network to connect a region bigger than the size of France and Italy put together was going to inflict on Britain’s budget, he replied: “The cost of the railway extension at present authorised will be met by Southern Nigeria, so that the British taxpayer will not be affected” (Hansard, 19th December 1906). Sir Percy Girouard came in and delivered the 366 mile Baro-Kano railway line at £3,800 per mile - half the price of Lugard’s projection. In 1912 with his proposals for Continuous Administration accepted, Lugard was brought back from Honk Kong to deliver access to the sea with frictionless fluency by amalgamating the two independent countries. What we call colonisation was to Britain business opportunity.


The railways were fine, the weather cooperated, the Sultan of Sokoto and Shehu of Borno had pledged their loyalty, cotton was blooming in Gusau and Funtua the same way they blossomed in Mississippi and Alabama, Tin had been discovered in Jos, groundnuts, tobacco, ginger, hide and skin had been added to the mix, what followed was 50 years of aggressive and unbridled “business opportunities.” The figures leapt for joy. From 200 tonnes before the railways, groundnut export shut up to 41,000 tonnes in 1915. In 1949, a year after the North was amalgamated legislatively with the South, 10 tonnes of cotton and 378,000 tonnes of groundnuts were exported compared to 103 tonnes of cocoa from the South. By 1961, the North was responsible for 37.8% of world’s supply of groundnuts. In 1963, groundnut exports soared to 650, 000 tonnes fetching the Northern marketing board a cool £46million. The booming northern economy also generated an ultra-wealthy rich class. In the mid twenties, Alhassan Dantata swiftly replaced Southern money men like Captain Labulo Davies, Alli-Balogun, J.H. Doherty, William Akinola Dawodu, Braimah Igbo, J.K. Coker, Karimu Kotun as the richest man in the country. When UAC, a subsidiary of Unilever which controlled 80% of Nigeria’s exports started out in the North, they needed someone who would go around to the farmers and buy their products and encourage them to grow more and more cash crops needed in Europe. They found Dantata, a small time but willing trader and made him their agent. All those iconic pyramids of groundnuts by railway lines which were the towering symbols of North’s wealth were the hard work of Dantata.

All that changed in 1966. From an economic giant, the North became a welfare case. When farmers harvest their groundnuts or cotton or hides and skin, they take them to the middlemen or directly to nearest UAC or John Holt warehouses for cash. The top staffs of these companies were British while the record keepers, warehouse supervisors were mostly Igbos. Also due to literacy differences, clerks of the civil service, post and telegraph operators, electricity corporation’s maintenance technicians, the water treatment workers, foremen of construction gangs were mostly Igbos. Those who drive the trains, service train engines, give train signals and the train stations supervisors were mostly Igbos. Laird, Britain’s deputy high commissioner in Kaduna wrote of Northerners who could have held these jobs: “They seem to have little desire to improve their way of live…Any money left after paying their taxes is spent on purchasing a new wife or new bicycle…”

Then it started on 28th May 1966. Based on a flawed estimate of ordinary Igbos’ culpability in the coup of January 15 and Ironsi’s handling the affair, then began a systematic effort to ensure every Igbo in the North that was not dead must be made afraid to stay. It mattered less that most of these Igbos were born and bred in the North and do not have residences in the East. Up to 2 million fled. Even those that were working on Kainji dam project were quickly airlifted to Ogbomosho when report came to Impregrelio, the Italian civil engineering giant that the murderous yaniska (sons of wind) were mobilising with fanatical ferocity in Minna ready to storm the construction site and dispossess it of every Igbo worker. According to archived records, 50 were killed and 900 safely evacuated. The Briton who was the engineering supervisor of the Zaria train depot said he witnessed one of his own train mechanics murder 5 of his co-workers because they were Igbos.
When the dust settled, it was discovered farmers who managed to haul their harvests to the warehouses could not sell them because the trains were not working. Charles Dymond, the Commercial Counsellor at the British High Commission in Lagos travelled to the North to survey the extent of the of the damage. When Lugard sewed up the country and became the governor-general, instead of governing from Lagos, he governed from the North because he had the dream that with effective management, the North could be what India was for the Empire. Dymond saw that dream in tatters as he surveyed the place from 2 – 13 October 1966. Then the civil war came and after it, instead of going back to the status quo, Petroleum decree No 51 brought a new source of easy money more stupendous than reliance on agriculture. While the American Civil war led to the rise of the North as an economic giant, the Nigerian Civil war ended it.

Wrote G.G. Darah: “It was the Gowon-Awolowo diarchy that abolished the derivation principle and funnelled all the revenue to the ravenous central government under the guise of depriving the breakaway Biafra Republic of 1967-1970 of funds to prosecute the civil war.” This is incorrect. The Petroleum Decree was signed on 26 November 1969 29 months into the war and roughly a month before it was over. The war according to West Africa Magazine of 19th October 1968 was funded with sales of gold and silver jewelleries donated by Biafran women, donations from Igbo communities aboard, reserve currencies from two regional branches of Central bank, international aid diverted into arms purchase, sale of palm oil, war bonds and most importantly, cash loans and arms from the Charles De Gaulle’s Government. In October 1968, another $12million was deposited in a Moroccan bank awaiting Biafran emissaries to arrive to pick it up. Oil money was not used to fund the war even though without it Biafra would not have contemplated secession and the Federal Government would not have done so much to defeat the secession. For instance, Adekunle’s battalion which later became Third Marine Commando Division was not tasked to go and win the war, that was for Danjuma’s First Division or Murtala Mohammed’s Second. Adekunle was tasked to deprive the Biafrans of access to the sea, liberate the oil producing regions and secure oil facilities so that the oil companies will know who should have the next royalties. After the Battle of Bonny of 25th July 1967, he radioed Lagos that all the 3.9 million cubic metres in 16 tanks at the Bonny oil terminal were recaptured without damage. Gowon was reported to be ‘overjoyed.’