₦airaland Forum

PapaBrowne:
To be fair, they are correct!

That is one huge funny problem with Nigeria. We just like rhetoric. That's how people voted in APC without asking what they meant by change.

We are screaming restructuring without any group coming out with a concise study on how we should go about it.

I support restructuring. Maybe I should try come out with a document on how we should restructure. Infact, I would.

If you listen to yourself again you'll find out that you have been scammed by the ACF pretenders. Did they say they are ignorant of the word restructure? My friend, don't be deceived.
No single individual or group can tell Nigerians what to restructure and how to restructure it. Let there be an agreement on restructuring first. Then Nigerians both the marginalizing and the marginalized will discuss the way out.
Please leave Northern ACF alone. They have seen the mouth of the bird and are still asking to know where the bird feeds from.
If you come up with an idea about how to structure before the agreement, you make yourself a fool. The sensible thing you do is to know what you want. ACF is looking for a free lunch so that they will steal people's ideas and make them their own. They did not start today.
Let us agree first that Nigeria is not balanced. Some sections of the country are cheating on others. Will they deny that? Restructuring is what we can do to balance the equation so that every section of the country feels at home with the system.
If the Arewa people are looking for interpretation of something so clear as Restructuring Nigeria, then they are playing to the gallery!

sarrki:
In a sane society fayose should be languishing in the prison now

So in that case he can't be the messenger

Having said that its a private meeting one on one

Yes languishing in prison for saying what you never wanted to hear, abi? Jokers everywhere. Why do people hate truth?

ALMUSTAQIM:
IF THE PRESIDENT IS AWAY FOR MORE THAN 60 DAYS, WHAT IS YOUR HEADACHE?

Whaat! So he was elected to be left in London, not carrying out his presidential functions? You must be very sick!!!

Jesusloveyou:
fashola said you should be the judge,
Is it fair for stupid goje to remove the second Niger bridge that will benefit you Ipods for his street light ?

Thanks for your patronage, but you are being political. Please keep that to yourself!

Oluwamuyeewa:
Misplaced priorities

That car can feed many homeless people in his streeet

As if you give a hoot about the homeless. You're just being jealous and mischevious, you know.

NwaAmaikpe:

I don't trust his motives since this 'Muslim' is a single female.

By the way, Mazda Passenger Vans (MPVs) are terrible to give out as a gift.

So that brings my question....
Is that a car or a carton?

Have you ever given out a toy, let alone a bicycle in your life? This is a car that is being talked about here. A car you may never buy in your lifetime due to your poor state!

lonelydora:
They are different, but form same village. There are many Kyaris and Abbas

Na waooooh!

lonelydora:
The name "Kyari" is too popular in this administration. So many Kyaris making waves.

Abba Kyari is a competent policeman.


Abba Kyari for IG.

Is he the same Abba kyari, the Chief of Staff to PMB?

mokt:
Whats gonna happen to Igbos on Nairaland after they all leave Nigeria for Biafra?Just wondering.

Hmmmm! You're missing them already?

Okoyiboz3:
When Kanu was threatening Nigerians, Bob Manuel was silent, when he solicited for guns to fight Nigeria, he was deaf and dumb.

Now, the supposed third largest tribe in Nigeria was threatened by less than a dozen Northern youths and a whole population of millions are panicky.

He has turned to special adviser now that they have bought expensive market from the northern people. Kanu beat the drums of war and they must all dance to the rhythm since they failed to caution him.

Hmmmm! You should not rejoice or celebrate yet. It is not yet time to give a dog a bad name just to hang it.
You feign ignorance of 97 & 5% barrier units of Nigeria. Well, you need to be educated why a country you claim to jointly owned is being ruled one-sided. When Jonathan from the S/S ruled your likes said Igbo has taken their turn but when you want to cheat yourself you tell S/S people that they are different from Igbo.
You do recruitment you cheat the Igbo. You create states and local governments you cheat the Igbo. You build roads you cheat the Igbo. When your people are looking for just 180 cut off mark to get university admission, the Igbos are forced by JAMB to get above 350 to get the same admission. When Igbos are struggling to make money and build their business, your lazy brothers and sisters are planning how to start an unrest so as to loot and steal Igbo properties.
Why should the people not demand for freedom? Why should they remain in bondage? Whenever they rise to speak for their right you call them names simply to intimidate them. What did they do?
Someone called them thieves, well, you can bear witness to that no tribe in Nigeria can deny not being a player. There are bad people everywhere, but you deny it and give a better part to the Igbo, no problem. You should as well know that the Igbo should be experts in other things even in battle. Do not think that they are panicking while you rejoice and plan on how to share their properties among yourselves. You are all losers trying to reap where you did not sow.
Only real men can tell people to leave their lands together with their properties. Only then you will kbow they mean business. Your quit notice on the Igbo is dubious and criminal.
Ask those that issued that threat, they were all trained by proceeds from Igbo property loot during their self-imposed riots. The government they brought to power as their messiah has failed them. So they are looking for Igbo property to steal. It is a shame. Those who coined the name "parasites" did not make mistakes!

Alariwo2:
who takes Afenifere seriously? Useless back stabbers that almost sold Yorubas into slavery of GEJ and his Igbo backbones but for timely intervention of Tinubu, APC and other progressives.

The Hausa man knows the structure of Nigeria and they know those stubborn parasites crying secession. They have been asked to leave peacefully now till october 1 so why can't they leave? Why must they lump yorubas into everything they do.

They have history of bloody pogroms against these same Igbos in the North and not Yorubas. The Northerners see Yorubas as best friends which is paining the Igbos so much

You have written rubbish. Please don't deceive yourself, the last time I went to the north, I saw how disdainfully an average Hausa person regards the Yoruba. They called them "Kolo-kolo" people. That means, people that can never be trusted. Tell me, where is then the friendship you are deceiving yourself with?

adadike281:
Igbo women are ever so beautiful. Bianca and I are shinning examples.

Let me see your picture to confirm that!

LionDeLeo:
Nonsense.

How did they react when some species of nematodes were busy insulting everyone in the name of some dreamy utopia self determination?

Why is it that these idiots in black can't issue warning to the miscreants fanning the embers of war since the 2nd qtr of 2015?

Even the SS accepted the election results in good faith and have since carried on, but some rats won't just let us be.

Without those "rats" your father would not have married your mother. Those "rats" brought a little meaning to your mizrabule life!

All Mods take note. Let's support the youths.

The Social Media is awash with comments and reactions from Nigerians after discovering that more than one year of creating the Youth Entreneurship Support Programme (YES-P), the participating Nigerian youths are yet to get disbursement from the Bank of Industry (BOI). The angry youths who had passed through difficulties to ensure that they do no disappoint Nigeria, took their complain to the VP/Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.

Excerpt:

WHAT THE ACTING PRESIDENT MUST KNOW ABOUT THE BANK OF INDUSTRY YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMME (BOI YES-P)

It has become necessary to cry to His Excellency, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo concerning the lingering deceit of the Bank of Industry against the enterprising youths of our great country. Even the blind can see the passion with which His Excellency is trying to steer the Nigerian economy from a monolithic, import-dependent, unemployment-drowned economy to a diversified, export-driven and creatively-productive one. The strides he has taken to launch different intervention and social support programs to encourage entrepreneurship, harness the youths’ potentials and grow the SME segment of the economy is plausible. However, it is sad that the Bank of Industry (BOI) is stopping at nothing to bring his lofty vision to naught.

Recall that in March 2016, the Bank of Industry launched a program to support and empower annually, at least 5,000 young entrepreneurs with soft loans, through a program tagged Youth Entrepreneurship Support Programme (YES-P). The idea seemed noble since it has been identified in several studies that lack of funding constitutes over 80% of problems faced by young entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Well, it may interest His Excellency to know that the BOI program was all deceit, decoy and a stunt to garner cheap publicity through the media. We have seen on various media, the management of BOI claiming that the YES-P program has been a complete success, while in reality, only a minute subset of the total final application has been attended to. The rest are cunningly dishonored, ignored or tactically delayed to discourage the participants.

Whenever participants of the BOI programme try to voice out their grievances and expose the BOI; the bank quickly use tax payers’ money to run media adverts to cast dirt on the image or eligibility of participants. Their tactics is to claim that participants submitted fake academic certificates, inflated the cost in their invoices or that ideas or businesses they presented do not meet their minimum Risk Acceptance Criteria (RAC) therefore are not fundable. Permit a little digression on these claims.

IN THE BEGINNING
Among the over 80,000 young entrepreneurs who applied to be supported with soft loans via the programme, about 5,000 were selected by BOI as having viable/fundable ideas or businesses. These 5,000 selected entrepreneurs were subjected to over 3 months online and in-class intensive trainings and later certified as eligible. It is appalling however, that after the training, only 1,350 entrepreneurs (just 27% of the trained/qualified participants and 1.8% of the total participants) were able to submit the final application, the rest could not meet the cut-throat, extra-strict criteria set by the BOI to deliberately discourage participants from sending in final request for the loan. Besides changing the rules several times half way to discourage participants, they have since disqualified a lot more people out of the measly 1.8% selected/trained participants with the excuse that their idea is no longer fundable.

The question is why disqualify ideas which have been initially picked as laudable after adding months of training to further enrich them? Why would ideas like fish production, food processing, bread baking, renewable/alternative energy production or online selling be called non-viable and termed to be businesses not reaching the BOI minimum Risk Acceptance Criteria (RAC)? Why would they disqualify a university graduate – whom same BOI claim to have spent 600 million naira of tax payer’s money to train – on the basis of lack of experience? How much experience did Mark Zuckerburg or Bill Gates have before building the revolutionary billion dollar unicorns we all know today? Even those of us who have started our businesses over 3 years ago are still disqualified for not having experience on same business; it is clear that these are diversionary tactics.

BOI TREATING PARTICIPANTS WITH DISREGARD AND DISTRUST
The Bank of Industry have been treating participants of YES-P as thieves and opportunists for the past one year, They have been insulted by BOI officials, ignored for several months with no information on the way forward. Participants get threatened with disqualification for daring to ask questions, disqualified after several months and no real explanation is given. They claim Nigerian youths are not to be trusted.

The question is how much trust did arms-carrying militant groups build before being doused with billions of naira in amnesty payouts? Do youths have to be taken for granted because they are civil? Do youths have to become militarized and violent or join armed struggles before they can be given a chance in this country? Must we sacrifice the future of this country at the altar of the ego of a few opportune officials?

ENDLESS EXCUSES AND SHIFTING OF DEADLINES TO FRUSTRATE PARTICIPANTS
For over one year, the Bank of Industry has subjected YES-P participants to one new criterion after another; they give excuses weekly and change their own deadlines several times. Some participants have even been issued fake Offer Letters in some states so they can buy time and forestall angry protests from irate participants of YES-P. It has become obvious that they only intend to fund a very small percentage of the participants and use that to deceive the public that the program is a success.

The BOI has been severally quoted in the media to have improved the economy by supporting thousands of youths through the YES-P initiative; meanwhile only less than 100 participants have received funding. The rest are being disqualified with flimsy reasons every passing day.

SOME EXAMPLES OF CRITERIA SET BY THE BANK OF INDUSTRY FOR A SUPPOSED INTERVENTION PROGRAM
Each participant was mandated to submit 2 guarantors worth double the requested loan amount (someone seeking 5 million naira must get 2 guarantors worth 10 million naira), the guarantors must present their bank account statements, declaration of financial net worth, certificate of occupancy for landed properties with building in it.

Any landed property without building is unacceptable, they are to submit their letter of employment, letter of last promotion, pay slips etc.

Participants are to pay a processing fee of 1% of approved loan amount and legal fees in cash before disbursement is approved.

SUMMARY OF OUR COMPLAINTS
The bank of industry rules are too strict, they are meant to deliberately discourage participants from applying for the loan.

Applications are rejected without explanations whereas BOI could have called in such participants whose business plan do not meet BOI standard and guide them to ensure they get an opportunity to pursue their dreams.

BOI is more interested in claiming success in the media than achieving real success in the programme
There is unnecessary delay in disbursement of the loan

Some branch of BOI are issuing fake, invalid offer letters to participants to deceive the public.

The BOI are thinking too narrow in the box and not giving young entrepreneurs room for innovation in an age of tech explosion.

IN THE LIGHT OF THE ABOVE, WE HEREBY PLEAD WITH YOUR EXCELLENCY THE ACTING PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA TO:
Set up a monitoring committee for the programme headed by the Federal Ministry of Finance or Trade and Industry.

Invite the EFCC to investigate the spending habits of the BOI and ensure that there is fairness and due process in the use of funds.

Invite representatives of BOI YES-P participants to defend themselves in the face of the many lies peddled against them by the BOI.

Prevail on the BOI to disburse funds to participants whose certificate has been verified and reduce the time it takes to verify certificates to at most, 14 days.

Prevail on BOI to soften the criteria and become more flexible with guarantor issues in line with the new Collateral Registry Act.

Prevail on the BOI to immediately drop the 2 million naira funding barrier placed on startups, they should give equal chance to all participants to access the 5 million naira loan because all businesses are unique and require varying amounts of fund to run; besides most businesses need more funds than can be expressly estimated.

Prevail on the BOI to re-visit the business plans of the participants who have been rejected and provide guide to them so that their knowledge can be updated where it is lacking. Every trained participant with genuine academic certificate should be given the loan.

Prevail on the BOI to correct the calculation of amortization to reflect decreasing rate of interest on the loan.

Those who were unable to put in final application for the loan should be given another 3 months to meet up the criteria and submit their application.

Prevail on BOI to immediately immediately soften other loan criteria to incorporate the tenets of a true intervention program and give room for participants to get the loan.

In the mean time, we have appealed to the teeming population of the YES-P participants to wait for the intervention of His Excellency, before they proceed on the next course of action. We thrust that Mr. President (Ag) will do the needful as a father with listening ears.
Thanks.

Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!

Singed:
Bank of Industry’s Youth Enterprise Support Program Participants (BOI YES-P)
Contact: yespforprogress@gmail.com

My attention was drawn at publication in Punch newspaper of 01/06/2017. It's about the utterances of the representative of Bank of Agriculture's South East Zonal Office, Enugu, Mr. Aaron Obigbo, who spoke at a workshop organised by a research institute, the Development Strategy Centre, Enugu, that the people of South East don't repay loans.

I truly find this unbelievable and hard to accept. This allegation by the Bank of Agriculture of the unwillingness of South-East businessmen to repay loans is to me a way of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it. The alarm raised over high rates of loan defaulters among borrowers in the South-East cannot just go like that. Nigerians need to know these defaulters and how the loans are obtained.

Making such an expensive and high profile allegation in a popular place as this calls for a serious investigation. In that workshop themed, “Pro-poor growth, unemployment and poverty in Nigeria: A South-East agenda”, organised in partnership with the African Economic Research Consortium, Kenya, the BOA representative said the Bank of Agriculture was faced with challenges that stemmed from the unwillingness of its borrowers in the South-East to pay back loans obtained from the bank.

Obigbo alleged that businessmen usually disguise as farmers to approach the bank for loans in the zone.

He said, “Our (South-East) businessmen come to the Bank of Agriculture and borrow money and they will not repay.

“Some will collect inputs and sell them. They collect these inputs as farmers but they are not farmers.

“The man in the North will collect loans from BOA and pay back but our big men from the South-East collect this money and don’t bother to pay back.”

My concern here is whether the loans have gone bad and irredeemable or that the borrowers have turned to ghosts? It baffles me that someone is making a very cheap but high allegation on people who over the years have been complaining of government neglect. If this allegation is true, then let's join hands and expose them.

I say this because I am not comfortable with what is being said here. There were contradictions in the speech. The man equally accused the state governments in the South-East of their inability to take advantage of various schemes initiated by the bank, particularly the Anchor Programme, to better the lives of the people in the region.

According to the BOA representative, while states in the northern part of the country are maximising the opportunities provided by the Bank of Agriculture, many states in the South-East are yet to identify with the bank. He then urged South-East governments to utilise the funding opportunities provided by BOA, and also abide by the institution’s terms and conditions.

I want to be sure of something here. The same people labelled as criminals are being called upon to come and borrow money? The thing I know Bank of Agriculture in the South East for is playing to the gallery. I challenge BOA to please publish the names of those businessmen who borrowed money and refused to pay.

Fellow Nigerians, let us expose the evil ones, whether it is SE businessmen or BOA staff. We need to move forward!

However, the unanswered question raised by BOA remains: "Northerners and Southerners who are better in repaying bank loans?

When the Youth Entrepreneurship Support programme (YES-P) was launched by the present administration, hopes were high and the youths of Nigeria heeved a sigh of relieve that the government is truly carrying them along.

A portal was opened for them to submit their business proposals. They did, and thousands of Nigerian youths submitted wonderful proposals. Selection was not easy but winners emerged at the end.

The winners were invited for a three months online tutorials followed by examinations on each course provided. At this stage too, the winners where notified of their advancement to the next stage. That is a 5-days inclass training in some parts the Nigerian geopolitical zones.

During the training, the participants who passed through the rigorous exeecises got the shock of their life. They were told the the journey to obtaining the N5m business loan was not going to be an easy one. There the Bank of Industry completely took charge of the programme and since then the participants have been having it rough.

Stringent milestones were given by BOI and among them are two guarantors who will declare their assets and give their networth on oath sworn in any High Court; the participant must submit their highest education certificates.

Information gathered from the participants show that majority of the participants dropped for not being able to get guarantors. Those who succeeded in getting guarantors were given offer letters after paying 1% appraisal fee of the approved loan sum. Most of the participants confided to the reporter that they had to borrow the money for the appraisal fee with the hope of getting disbursement soonest, but was not to be.

This is almost a year the YES-P programme was launched and two competitions were conducted but till this moment none of the participants have been paid a dime even after meeting all the requirements including paying appraisal fees to BOI.

It is really unfortunate that BOI has an image making programme that is running on Channels television which gulp a lot of money, yet that same BOI is not living up to expectation.

One wonders whether the YES-P programme is truly à government programme or is it just a brainchild of BOI. Recall that in his speech, the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, did not mention the YES-P programme in his democracy day speech. He talked on Home grown school feeding program, N-power, Anchor borrowers programme and micro credit scheme for artisans, market women and traders. Is it NOT still crystal clear that YES-P quite unlike YouwiN, is NOT a programme funded by the Federal government of Nigeria?

The essence of this write-up is to let Nigerians know what the YEP-P participants are passing through after all the troubles they were made to pass through.

When BOI was contacted on the issue, they claimed that some of the participants did not submit their highest education certificates as required. They also said that the consultants they employed to verify the certificates were having difficulties getting adequate information from most Nigerian institutions.

Noted. But why must BOI wait till the whole certificates are cleared before disbursement? Should those without certificate issues not to be disbursed. The former DG of BOI in acting capacity promised the participants on two occasions for disbursement, yet nothing was done. Now BOI has a new DG, will he listen to the cries of these young entrepreneurs and release the money they have sufferred much for? Now I see the difference between YES-P and YouWiN!

Let the government do something and look into this matter as this is capable of spoiling its reputation among the youths.

I took a look at the utterance credited to the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai and I discovered the real problem that Nigeria is faced with.

I would have kept quiet had it been this was an ordinary person's ranting but this coming from a person of Nasir El-Rufai's status can never be taken lightly. Nasir, apart from serving as a minister in Nigeria, is presently the governor of Kaduna State in the same Federal Republic Of Nigeria. A governor whose state had up to 50% Christians.

I have come to realise that the problem of Nigeria today is not Islam, but the people. But to tell you the truth, am in doubt presently. The muslim ramadan period is here again. Last Saturday May 27th, 2017, the fasting actually kicked off.

The governor's statement no matter the time he made it can be interpreted in many ways. First the governor is indirectly instilling fear into non Muslims in his state. And also he has sent a clear message to Muslims to attack and if possible kill any Christian found eating during Muslim fasting periods. And that statement has directly exonerated any Muslim attacker. This is very sad.

A statement from Family Writers, an online platform says: "Kaduna state was the same state Fulani herdsmen killed more than 800 Christians in a Christmas period. It was also in Kaduna state that the same governor paid Fulani herdsmen for killing Christians and sacking villages. Do I need to tell you that the said governor is a Fulani and also a Muslim. Muslims have been killing and attacking people, yet we are told of how real and peaceful Muslims and Islam are...

"Is it not last time that an Igbo man was killed for urinating in a gutter close to a mosque. They lynched him.... When Boko Haram started, it was same thing. Many Muslims were either silent or supporting them, until they started bombing mosques. Someone should call governor El-Rufai to order."

It will not be enough for someone to secretly pat El-Rufai at the back but to openly get him to apologise to Nigerians whose unity and peaceful co-existence he is destroying. Our preseent government do not seem to have the will power to caution or even punish fellow party members, loyalists and associates. It's very unfortunate.

Now that fasting has begun, do you force everybody to fast, whether or not they know the reason for fasting, or is it a punishment for them to be part of your neighbours? Fasting is not by force. It must be done willingly otherwise it becomes a rape of faith!

The Almighty God can never force anyone to believe in or follow Him. He created man with the power to make choice for himself. He will never force anyone to fast or pray. He only gives you a clue.

Killing someone for the sake of religion is unacceptable. It is never a way to worship God. Satan is the one who leads people to sin. God does not contradict Himself. He wishes everyone to come to the knowledge of truth and eschew evil. Killing in the name of God is evil.

Friends, it is my candid prayer that Nigeria remains one and indivisible where every citizen will be protected and cared for, equally. Don't point at Boko Haram, don't point at Niger Delta militants, don't point at OPC Miscreants, don't point at Biafran agitators, rather take a cursory look at the government and its make up.

The occupants are the same people who created the problem that Nigeria is battling with. Because they want to justify their actions, they wanted it to continue. They disorganized the youths, distabilized the economy and bastardized the political atmosphere, using the uninformed youths to advance their antics.

The youths of Nigeria must wake up. The president of France today is in his thirties. That is abomination in Nigeria and he attends meetings of world presidents with ancestors from Africa who refused to hand over leadership to the younger generation.

Will the likes of El-Rufai see the dawn of a new Nigeria?

Hmmm! I see something!!!

Pictures of Lagos @ 50 events have started creating ripples in the minds of Nigerians.

The body language of the VP around Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State speaks volume.

1. See how Tinubu greeted Rochas.
2. See how VP Osinbajo admired Rochas.
3. The VP finally bowed before Rochas in a handshake.

I leave you with your judgements!

HungerBAD:
This write up is an embarrassment.

Stopped reading when i got to the part where he said the Igbo Officers foiled the Coup.

TRUTH has no hidding place, just like LIGHT, no matter how hard you try to hide it, it glows!

You may not like to hear true stories especially when it is told by one you never liked. To be honest with you, if hearing truth is an embarrasment, I will need to be embarrassed!!!

However, that you stopped reading did not mean the write-up was not making sense, but because it was not saying what you wanted to hear. I have always known you as a judgemental reader. Where it doesn't favour you, you condemn it.

Imagine turning a deaf ear when an eye-witness gives an account of an issue. It is not your fault, only those that brainwashed you need to be blamed!

Truly an eye opener. Now, over to you Gowon and Obasanjo! No matter how long you hide TRUTH, one day it will surface!

Arguably the best address from the Biafra @50 event at Abuja! Professor Uzodimma Nwala is firebrand! A masterpiece!

Prof Uzodinma Nwala has made our day with this piece.
Biafra 50 Years After -
Reconciliation: What have we learned?
Paper presented at The Conference -
MEMORY AND NATION BUILDING: BIAFRA 50 YEARS AFTER:
A SOBER REFLECTION.
By
PROF. T. UZODIMA NWALA
President
Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF).

Introduction.
Before I thank the organisers of this Conference and pay my tribute to the Memory of my friend, late Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, in whose Foundation Center this historic event is being organised, let me quickly dismiss certain lingering pernicious fallacies that have dominated all discussion about the coup of January 15, 1966 and the Biafra War.

First, the Chairman of the occasion, Alhaji Ahmed Joda, has alluded to the January 15, 1966 coup as an Igbo coup that, according to him, was replied by a Northern coup of July 29 1966.

Let it be said loud and clear that that coup, namely January 15, 1966 coup, was not an Igbo coup. It was a coup led by certain Igbo and Yoruba Officers, involving the active participation of soldiers from the North. The aim, as has been stated again and again, by the leaders of the coup was to release Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was in detention at the time and install him the Prime Minister of Nigeria.

That coup was foiled by Igbo military officers. Igbo political leaders and activists knew nothing about the coup.
Again the Incursion into the Mid-West by the Biafran troops was not a quest for territorial grabbing by the Igbos. Ojukwu sent troops under the Command of Col, banjo in response to Chief Awolowo’s request for troops to help liberate Yoruba land from the occupation of soldiers from the North. By the time Col Banjo got to Ore, the British had gotten Gowon to offer Chief Awolowo Vice Chairmanship of the Nigerian Government. Awolowo, therefore, asked Banjo not to proceed on his mission.

General Yakubu Gowon knows the truth of all these things. And that is why the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) had written him and asked him to tell Nigerians and the whole world the truth about the January 15, 1966 coup and the Biafra incursion into the Mid-West.to stop all the lies against Ndigbo, which have been the basis of the burden they carry as a nation within the Nigerian Federation.

Secondly, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the former Head of State and a frontline commander on the Federal side during the war, said that they (the Federal military leaders) conducted the war without any hate or vengeance because it was a quarrel between brothers.

To this one is constrained to ask a few pertinent questions
How did the world come to describe the conduct of the war as POGROM?
What about the policy that hunger was a legitimate weapon of war and so was justified in its application against the Biafrans?
What about bombing of refugee camps, market places, churches, etc?

Again, when Chief Obasanjo said that they, the victorious side, have been more magnanimous than the victors in the American civil war, where, according to him, those who lost the war never had a chance to be President of America until several decades if not a century later, I would ask him WHAT ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA? WHAT ABOUT NELSON MANDELLA?

Such assertions rather than heal the wounds of the war, keep the wounds aglow, rather than reconcile pour raw paper of unjustified arrogance on the wounded hearts of the Biafrans. How can you genuinely talk about reconciliation with that kind o mind-set. The truth is that for General Obasanjo, the Biafrans are defeated people. Period!

Indeed, before we can talk about reconciliation, we must accept that grave wrongs were done to the Biafrans, Before, During and Since the end of the war.

Tribute to General Yar’Adua.
NOW, Mr Chairman, Ladies and \Gentlemen, let me go on to thank the organisers of this Conference - the Yar’Adua Foundation and the six Nigerian Universities partnering with the Foundation; the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa who have provided support for this Conference - Biafra: 50 Years After.

What is more, I would like to pay tribute to the memory of my late friend, General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. I met him for the first time during the 1994-5 National Constitutional Conference. There we struck a friendship that would have born great fruits but for his untimely death. I personally escaped being arrested with him.

General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, became a great democrat after the war despite his aristocratic background. He genuinely believed that this wobbly Federation could be given a dependable foundation. Consequently, he set out to recruit gifted compatriots to work with him for that purpose. What a great hunter of talent Shehu was!

I remember two memorable moments in our interaction. One afternoon, after lunch in his house, we sat down on the sofa. I asked him

“General why is it that when you are not smoking cigar (cigarette), you are chewing kola nut?

He answered me. I will not tell you his answer today. Wait for my Memoire that should be ready by my next birthday.

At another moment, also after lunch with him and late Prof. Aborisade, we sat down on the sofa. Shehu said to me “Dr Nwala, let me show you why we Northerners are reluctant to relinquish political power”.

He brought out two volumes of strategic studies which he had commissioned some intellectuals to produce in preparation for the Constitutional Conference of 1994-5. I glanced through volume 1 which deals with the indices of power in Nigeria. I read the discussion, looked at the statistics and the graph, and shook my head, and said to myself this guy is a great political actor. I also reserve the details of what I read in that volume as well as our discussion for the sake of my forthcoming memoire.

I saw those two volumes of strategic studies at the Library of the Yar’Adua Center when I visited there about two week ago.

What is important in this narrative is that General Yar’Adua was avery sincere leader, he always spoke to me and to anyone in his political company from the bottom of his heart. He was sincerely in search of a genuine way forward. He was a man who knew that all is not well with the Nigerian Federation and genuinely sough the correct path to its healing!

The point of the story is to reveal a bit of the life of this great political strategist, who if he had lived after that Conference, he and the powerful circle of comrades he had built at the Conference would have helped to see to a more liberal accommodating political order in Nigeria. Shehu was the darling of a liberal democratic movement that was emerging in Nigeria before he died. He was equally hated by what many of us call the hegemonist who have consistently aborted every opportunity to create a democratic political culture. It is the later who have consistently made it difficult to achieve a genuine reconciliation in Nigeria. It is these forces that have insisted on a Federation founded on the peace of the grave yard.
Yes, General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua along with the compatriots he had worked to put together would have constitute an authentic force for reconciliation and national integration. He was a victim of the forces of hegemony.

Post –Biafra Reconciliation – What Lessons?

During the trial of Adolf Hitler after Germany and her allies lost the war to the Allied Forces, the following exchange took place between Hitler and his interlocutor – Interlocutor to Hitler: You were responsible for the Second World War?
Hitler: No! The Versailles Treaties was.

I believe this Conference has been provoked by the renewed agitation for Biafra. In that case, a similar question can be posed to the Biafra Self-determination Agitators in Nigeria today as to whether they are responsible for the renewed Agitation for Biafra.

I imagine that the Biafra Freedom Agitators, just like Adolf Hitler, would emphatically respond NO! They would rather blame the present upsurge for Self-determination and Biafra and all its fallouts on all those leaders on the victorious side who, rather than pursuing the path of genuine Reconciliation, pursued the path of punitive retributions against those who lost the war.

Unfortunately, as it was in the case of the defeated Germany that was neither pacified nor conciliated, nor was it permanently weakened, so do we find in the case of Biafra, that despite all the retributive measures against her people, Biafra and the Biafrans, have neither been pacified, nor conciliated, nor have they been permanently weakened.
Unlike the Treaty of Versailles that exerted bloody pound of flesh on the side that lost the First World War, the victorious side in the Second World War padded their retributive actions with the Marshall Plan. And thus unlike the intended Carthagenian peace of the Versailles Treaty of 28 June 1919, the Marshall Plan brought a relatively permanent peace to Europe that withstood the shock waves of the cold war including the Cuban Missile crises.

In pursuing the lessons of the retributive post-war treatment of the Biafrans, I would ask the leaders on the victorious side –

When you took all their financial deposits in the banks and paid them only £20 (twenty pounds), what did you expect the result to be – pacification, conciliation or to have them permanently weakened?

When you allowed massacre of unarmed soldiers and leaders even when they had declared their return to Nigeria, what did you expect? I mean when you murdered Prof. Kalu Ezera or when you killed unarmed Col Onwuatuegwu in cold blood, what did you expect?

When you killed and also buried alive thousands of innocent civilians in Asaba, was that a circus show?

I escaped being killed at the end of the war through the mysterious intervention of my college mate, Mr Nwogugbe from Asa in Abia State who was a member of the Nigerian battalion that overran my area on that fateful day of January 8, 1970. The solders had sent for me and when I arrived at Nkwo Mbaise their base, Nwoguegbe instantly recognised me and shouted Nkume! I responded Nwoguegbe! Despite being introduced to his commander, Captain Jibowu, the later took him to one corner, asking to be convinced why I should not be treated in accordance with the official instructions, namely to waste any such able-bodied young-man who may have been an actual or potential Biafra soldier. I was lucky. Nwoguegbe saved me, but several of my mates from my community were not. Cornellius Oguikpe, Michael Osuagwu, Efriam Chukwunoyerem, Echewodo Onwunali, all were murdered at the end of the war by the Nigerian soldiers.

Yes, post-Biafra was not attended by any genuine efforts to seek reconciliation nor even to find out what led to the war. Rather, what we have witnessed is decades of vengeance, arrogance and conspiracy against Alaigbo and Ndigbo –
Yes these are on record -
Immediate post-war punitive massacre,
Dismissal of some officers on the losing side, reduction in rank of others
Dismissal of civil servants.
Secret Execution of some officers (Col. Onwuatuegwu, Prof, Kalu Ezera)
Abandoned property seizure of Igbo property.
Punitive boundary adjustment.
Closure of the Eastern Sea Port and Railway lines.
Deliberate policy of encirclement of Alaigbo, inciting Igbo outside Igbo heartland to reject their Igbo identity.
Deliberate policy of exclusion from the governance and power equation i Nigeria..

Deliberate policy of exclusion from the governance and power equation i Nigeria..
Deliberate policy of destroying Igbo businesses.
Continued massacre, lynching of Igbos in many places in the North
Insensitivity to the plight of the IDPs of Igbo extraction who were initially the major targets of Boko Harm bombings and killings.
No serious effort at post-war reconstruction and reconciliation

I strongly recommend to all those who care to understand how the Igbos view their predicament in the Federation to read the Petition of Ohanaeze ndigbo to the Human Rights Violations Investigating Committee of 1999. It is captioned
The Violations of the Human and Civil Rights of Ndigbo in the Federation of Nigeria (1966-1999).

President Obasanjo should speak to the nation now about why and how that initiative of his was aborted. A Truth and Reconciliation was a great idea, but just like all National Conference decisions meant to deal with the resolution of the injustices of the system. It was arrogantly dismissed and nothing happened.

Biafra : A Collective Guilt
Have we forgotten that Biafra was a collective guilt and that those who created the Nigerian Federation did so to satisfy their own agenda They designed a local a local agenda for the same purpose?
Have we forgotten the cause of Biafra and the war? Have we ever come together to examine why Biafra?
Obasanjo’s Truth Commission and the Justice Oputa Commission were arrogantly dismissed and nothing happened.
Who was the aggressor in that war?

Aborted Efforts to Solve the Nigerian Problem
What about several efforts to sit down and dispassionately examine the fate of the Federation and how to heal the wounds of the past. Several aborted historical opportunities for peace and stability, or a genuine democratic system include -
Ibadan Conference of Sept/Oct 1966
Aburi Accord.
Abiola’s election that wuld have set a precedent.
1994-5 Constitutional Conference and the 1995 Draft Constitution, the best Constitutional Draft in the history of Nigeria.
Conferences organised by Obasanjos regime.
President Jonathan’s 2014 Conference.
Current Ferocious opposition to restructuring.

Laying the Foundations for Genuine Reconciliation – The Biafra Initiative
The Birth of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) – A child of the post-war East Central State Youth Volunteer Services Corps (ECSYVSC) whose memo to General Gowon led to the establishment of the NYSC by the Federal Government.
I led the delegation, as Chairman of the ECSYVSC, that delivered the Memoradum to the Federal Government on the eve of the first post-war independence anniversary, precisely on30th September, 1970.
In response General Gowon had given Dr Ukpabi Asika’s Government £75,000 (Seventy-five thousand pounds) in appreciation of that historical initiative of the youth of Alaigbo.

The great objective of that historical initiative as conceived by us, the youth of Alaigbo, was to forge a genuine instrument of national reconciliation and national integration.

What has happened to the NYSC? Any credit to the initiators? Several attempts have been made by the chaps in the NYSC Foundation in Abuja to interview me in order to draw inspiration from the original mind that conceived the NYSC; each time they were discouraged from a follow-up.

It was the same way that a former Governor had advised the Federal Government to create an institution to house the Biafra scientist. The answer was no!, because doing so would give credit to the Biafrans.

The Road to Reconciliation.
Not Restructuring but Renegotiation of the basis of the Nigerian Federation.
Nigeria is a multi-national Federation. The task is to agree on the terms for a form of political union among these nations and mini-nations.

Unless this is done, there would never be any stable Federation uniting all these peoples who are culturally, religiously and philosophically separate nations and mini-nations.

Prof. Uzodinma Nwala
President
Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF).

Jaideyone:
just a few days osibanjo talked about learning from history but these mor0ns will her listen.

the driving factor in the killing of the ibos prequel to the civil war was the killing of the premier of the north and the taunts any followed by ibos living in the north.

yes hausas have a plot of uneducated street urchins that can become weapons of murder but the ibos are not helping matters either.

if Buhari is 74 (official age maybe 80 real age) and its normal for old people to have health challenges. as a Yoruba man and an advocate of a better Nigeria (true federalism) I believe he did the right thing handing over to the VP but I don't support his decision to seek ,medical care abroad.

yes it's OK to call for his resignation or maybe even impeachment but wishing the man dead and attributing geriatric illness to God's wrath and saying all sorry of silly things in just dumb. what do we have to gain by making inflammatory statements about the presidents health and wishing him dead? you might not like his policies but playing politics with someone's life and wishing him dead makes you just as bad as the uneducated Hausa fulanis who are ever willing to kill innocent people.

long story short the ibos are just as guilty in destroying the unity of this country as the Hausa and Yoruba. in fact the ibos are trying harder to pull the country down.
God forbid Buhari dies there will be jubilation in he south east and that will fuel another round of hate and probably killings in the north.

we are the architect of our own misfortunes not the British that brought us together

You just lied to yourself!

azimibraun:
When you see a serious people who want independence, you will know... I am so disappointed in the whole modus operandi of the Biafra pursuit. It's should be a comprehensive 50 year plan 30 years at the least. Not this incoherent, not all encompassing, lopsided, lack of a common focus, philosophy and participatory agitation.

You must be a great dreamer, please wake up, it's day break!!!

azimibraun:
And you think I have that time? Guy park well. Go prepare yourselves and come back in 50yrs to demand for a country of yours. BIAFRA must be achieved but not to an unprepared lot. It's not by the colours of the flag or one Mr Director. It's by actual preparation over time and gradually pulling out of Nigeria the mother country. You want biafra and every danm day buses are loaded with Igbos going to the South West and North of Nigeria to start their lives instead of the reverse gradually. Go build the east, start gradual withdrawal of people and investment in Nigeria and come prepared.

See who is talking... Now you have grown... Igbos have developed you, you owe them alot! Thanks to the Igbos otherwise this one would have ended up in the gutter picking rubbish!!!

PBundles:
Nice for him whatever floats your boat, but in the bigger picture utter nonsense.

I have IBO blood in me from my mom side ( she is actually IBO and Hausa believe it or not) and this whole IBOP is nonsense. Lets look at the larger picture, yes one can say that there was a time that easterner were disenfranchised, but is that the case now and for the last 15 years. Have they not been sharing the oil proceeds accrodingly? Was there not a deal made with the delta in which terrorists where paid off. Where else has that happened? If that were to happen to BH, the same guys who benefitted from the Delta deal will be talking rubbish.

Have easterners not held high positions of office, yet what have they done to assist the growth of the east. Instead they are the most corrupt. Instead of them to be called out they are applauded, like Ibori at the detriment of their future, kids etc.

Those calling for IPOB should ask why hasnt ONE high ranking politician followed the cause, simpe because they see it has no merit.

Even Okujwu before his passing said it was over and now we have this Kanu insighting more trouble, only to do what Ojukwu did, shout and beat on his chest and at end of the day was a coward. In all the photos from the Biafran war show me ONE just ONE where he was at the warfront or any where he saw action. You wont find any why, he was busy feeding himself. While Biafrans died of hunger every photo shows him with a fat belly. Bragging he would fight to the last man, sending small boys to fight with one bullet and then ran away with a mercedes benz and loads, only to return and then contest for presidency for the same country he said should be split. Now Kanu is looking to agitate to see if he can blackmail the federal government, at the end poor mans kids will be killed and he will reap the benefits. Some may be offended by this, but someone has to tell you the truth. Stop this nonsense.

Not so fast dude! If IPOB is nonesense as you alleged, what happens to O'odua and Arewa? They must be a complete nonesense! Use your head and reason properly. You have Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, then you have Arewa, ...... and O'odua!!! Does that make any sense to you?
You are just jittery of the power of the people of the old Eastern Region. They must unite!!!
By the way, how old are you to know how Ojukwu fought the war? Anyway, go back and ask your father, he might have a clue.
When next you want to comment on an important issue, try not to spue trash. Igbos are known anywhere they are. I can't trace an original Igbo blood in you, all I see is one with crude oil hungry blood. I have the original, come closer and get transfused!
The Igbo know themselves; they are pure blooded, not of a mixed blood!

fuckingAyaya:
how will a thief lunch something nd invite his fellow thieves

Common sense that is not common should tell you where thieves supposed to be: they don"t go about writing and launching books. If they are thieves as you said SHAME on you and your leaders for allowing them freedom, meaning that your anti-corruption crusade is a mirage in the desert!

vedaxcool:
[s][/s]

Hatred has melted the cerebrum of this one.

You ignored the message to console yourself with a blush of message of "hatred". I no blame you.

najoke:
but Kanu who was in jail for 2 yrs can look fresher than fresh.....when you guys were making noise on how fresh Kanu looks in prison you did not see any lie in that.....when we say Ipobs are the most gullible and hypocritical species on planet earth.......you just proved us right

Meaning you just scammed yourself by believing what you believed?
This is serious!!!!

sammydirectly:
Ipad, abi na ipod, abi ipob are a disgrace and embarrassment to Nigeria and black race in all ramifications.

So sad.

Quote me and die in Lagoon.

Even if your father is the juju priest of Africa, nothing will happen. When you divert issues to suit your selfish ideology and reasoning, no iota of treath will save you. Why are you afraid of the Igbos? They are one million percent better than all of you put together.
Go to the north and see the lives of those who were trained with the loot of Igbo property. See them in the Senate or Reps, they don't excel. You can read the Bible and see for yourself the end of those who oppress others with leadership: Isaiah 14:1-21.
When you map out a section of the land and unleash wickedness on them, the repercusion is unavoidable!
Your hatred for the Igbo race tells a lot about you. It's high time you faced the fact and progress. You don't need to joke with almost everything!