₦airaland Forum

chewwie:
Saying blacks can't be Jewish is extremely shallow, stupid and straight out bigoted! Judaism is an ethnicity and a religion like Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, etc.
Feel free to insult and criticize Kanu, that's your business, you're free to, but don't make claims you cannot support!
Who is this white supremacist you speak of? I hope it isn't the same one sharing vents to wretched African countries?

Jews are my cousins I lived with them. Next Pls

valirex:
You know it . He tells them they are animals in a zoo and they hail him

Lol

maestroferddi:
Trashy article written by a pitiable hack pretending to be Igbo...

He suggested the Niger Delta people will not cooperate to allow Igbos move their goods to the sea...

How absurd and narrow-minded!

US in central North America and yet both Canada and Mexico have been tapping from her Uber development and industrialization...

Don't worry about the Igbos. When we reach the bridge, we shall cross it...

what if there's no bridge or water to cross?

valirex:
They're so delusional

to think that, they're bragging most intelligent people in nigeria. Just because you have college degree and can type good English. Voila u are intelligent

The next president of Nigeria
Insha Allah

Lol this people SMH

The right honorable gentleman
God bless you sir, the next president of Nigeria. If any I-pigs mention me, they're not legitimately born

Dtribeless:
The author is discussing the Biafran concern, as we already know the Northerners have the same issue. Just to give you some perspective -- the SS bleeped Ojukwu up. What makes you think that will change? Igbos need Nigeria more than any major ethnic group; they are all over the place. Serious Igbos want nothing to do with Biafra; they know it will set them back 50 years. They keep quiet on Kanu because they need his agitation to get a larger slice on Nigeria's political fortunes. Again, one Biafra is declared and accepted, Igbos will be deported en masse. I have heard some Igbos banking on dual-citizenship; good luck with that.

thank u for this.

Marine54:
Fulani's female terrorist spotted ! Dunce.

I'm not Ipob or boko haram.

Asuito7:
so according to you the North will not be shipping(both import and export) their fine works? Well that will be their problem to bear.

If so what then concerns you with Biafra shipping their works abroad whether their land is locked or not

I don't want a situation where the black man is always viewed as criminal

Asuito7:
If it landlocked what then will you say about the North abi is it both sealocked and landlocked

Burkina Faso is shipping through Ghana, Botswana is shipping through Namibia and South Africa, Ethiopia the same thing through Eritrea and a couple of other European countries. Just go and find out.

If these countries are doing this, what do you think of Biafra. They will ship through their southernmost neighbors if eventually their southernmost neighbors doesn't join them in their independent country. And as such their economic activity continues.

I always laugh at you guys ignorance when it comes to this Biafra landlocked of a thing.

You should even worry about the North because they are not closer to the south and the Atlantic Ocean unlike Igboland.

The North are not trying to ship their fine work abroad

Crixxx:
Yolo...... Bats at work

lol

He is acting anyhow. We will come for him somedays. he thinks he is Kim Jun un. but he forgets the Armed men protecting him are majority northerners

Pdpiots

popesco123:
your wretched parents are not upto his his toilet paper

Lol we are anonymous here how do u know about my parents? If it's to hurt me u av failed

mmars:
He died of natural cause at the age of 78

I know... Just taking them by the horns

Do Not Be Deceived: Igboland Is Landlocked And Will Face Economic Hardship By Churchill Okonkwo
It is also important to warn that landlocked Igboland should not be deceived by the success of the few rich landlocked countries like Switzerland that specializes in finance, which does not travel by boat, and its high-end manufacturing is integrated with Europe's single market.

BY CHURCHILL OKONKWOMAY 19, 2020

Chinua Achebe, in Things Fall Apart, tells a story of Okonkwo, the main character, who was banished from his village of Umuofia for accidentally shooting a young man. When it was time for Okonkwo to return, after seven years in exile, he instructs his wives and children to prepare a huge feast for his mother's kinsmen in a gesture to show his gratitude for their support. When asked why he was “overloading the table with food,” he said, “I cannot live on the bank of the river and wash my hands with spittle.”


Suffices to say that like Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart, Igbos who are known to be outgoing are not washing their hands with spittle, because across the Nigerian landscape, they are living right at the banks of the Benue River, Kano River, Kaduna River, Ogun River, Sokoto River, Cross Rivers, etc. They also thrive at the banks of these rivers and “overload” their abode with human and infrastructural development.

Unfortunately, every now and then, one of the most absurd analyses by the proponents of an independent state of Biafra which is that the five Igbo states in imaginary Biafra is not landlocked makes it to the mainstream media. Last week, in a piece “It is a lie: Igboland is not Landlocked” published in Sahara Reporters, Aloy Ejimakor presented what looks like overwhelming evidence on how easy it is to transfer Apapa Port to the banks of the “Atlantic” Oguta Lake in Igboland for the business of shipping.

As expected, those without a good understanding of the Nigerian physical and human geography; no good grasp of the maritime industry, and no clue on the economies of shipping and logistics are attempting to push water uphill. The campaign to entice Igbos to withdraw from the waters off the coast of Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri, etc. is an attempt to force the waters to flow uphill.

Forget about the “dredging” of the Oseakwa River in Ihiala, the Azumiri River, or the “Atlantic Ocean” at the mouth of OgutaLake, the truth is that Igboland is landlocked and will suffer, economically. Do not let anyone deceive you about that. All you need to confirm that is to consult a good physical geography teacher. If you do not have one, simply go to Google Maps on your phone and look for blue markings indicating water bodies and decide for yourself how close the Atlantic Ocean is to Igboland. It should be that simple, if only you approach this quick visual research with an open mind.

Here are some facts per World Bank economists working on trade logistics issues, being landlocked is a major reason why 16 of the world’s 31 landlocked developing countries are among the poorest in the world. According to the Economist, of the 15 lowest-ranking countries in the Human Development Index, eight have no coastline. All of these are in Africa.

Without seaports, these landlocked countries pay more and wait longer for imported food, and other goods. Also, they have an equally hard time exporting, with the result that they trade less and grow more slowly than their coastal neighbors. A quick look at the map of Africa and the location of Central African Republic, Burundi, Niger, Chad, South Sudan, Mali, and Burkina Faso, will give you an idea of what it means to be landlocked. So, it is clear, the most obvious handicap of Igbo people who are known for international trade will be moving goods to and from ports.

It has been augured that the actualization of the state of Biafra does not mean that Igbos will be forced to come back to the land-locked states. We are told that we will still have access to the ports in the neighboring countries around landlocked Igboland and as such can easily import and export goods and services. A counterargument is that if Igbos are forced to pass through dozens of police checkpoints between Lagos and the Niger Bridge, Onitsha, under one country Nigeria, how many roadblocks will be put in place if Biafra is an independent country?

Just imagine that for a moment.

Now, imagine also what will happen if the same blockade is put in place from the northern, southern, and eastern boundaries all around Igbo land. How on earth will such an independent state be independent economically? If the movement of imported heavy goods must be re-transported inland to landlocked Igboland, how on earth will the economy be viable?

I am a teacher who makes use of graphics to help my students understand some concepts that would otherwise be difficult to grasp. So, for clarity and easier comprehension, I ask that you pause here and take another look at the Nigerian map. Pay particular attention to the location of Apapa, Port Harcourt, and the new Lekki Deep Sea Port under construction. Then, slowly move your eyeballs inland towards Igbo states for a good understanding of why seaports are sited on the coast of major water bodies. So, forget about emotions and sentiments, a sea is a sea and a river is a river.

So, do not let anyone deceive you, international treaties can promise access to the oceans, but the responsibility for implementing them lies with the governments of the "transit states". Now, imagine how happy and eager the minorities in the Niger Delta region will be to help build infrastructure that would mainly help their landlocked Igbo neighbors. They have little incentive to.

Also, just like Nigeria has closed its borders for months now, transit states to landlocked Igboland can interrupt commerce making the economic viability of landlocked Igboland difficult. For Nigeria with known civil strife between ethnic nationalities, landlocked Igboland will have to reroute trade at exorbitant cost, reducing their competitiveness. You cannot argue with facts.

It is also important to warn that landlocked Igboland should not be deceived by the success of the few rich landlocked countries like Switzerland that specializes in finance, which does not travel by boat, and its high-end manufacturing is integrated with Europe's single market. Also, Botswana, a middle-income landlocked country, exports diamonds, which are shipped by air. Pointing at such countries offers little hope to a landlocked Igboland without similar natural resources and with people that are heavily involved in the importation of heavy goods in containers.

From the analysis, above, you will see that it is not necessary to tell a wise person to get out of the sun. We are Igbos and we are wise. There should, thus, be no need for anyone to tell us that land-locked Igboland is an economic disaster waiting to happen.

On a final note, when you show the moon to a child, it sees only your finger. Sadly, no matter the size or how full and bright the moon is, people who want to see the Atlantic Ocean at the banks of Oguta Lake or Otamiri in Imo state will see one. But, do not be deceived, landlocked Igboland will be an economic disaster. As my father used to say, I am a teacher and my responsibility is to keep teaching irrespective of whether the students are listening or not.

The worlds of the elders do not lock all the doors; they leave the right door open. Igbos should not lock themselves up. Rather, we should leave the right doors open as we work for an equitable and better Nigeria, for all.

Together, we can.

Churchill Okonkwo, Ph.D.

On Twitter @Churchillnnobi


http://saharareporters.com/2020/05/19/do-not-be-deceived-igboland-landlocked-and-will-face-economic-hardship-churchill-okonkwo

EnglishUsa:
our leader dey pain you for heart enhh Because you never thought igbos will have a leader like our able nnamdi kunu, remember when he said buhari is mad.....go and tell Buhari he cant jail me .. This one pain you and died Buhari never jailed him. You are very surprised how igbos love themselves

Lol

ArcSEMPECJ:
Kaiii....wahala shge ni

How can you allow this guy expose your empty Brian?

You could have kept quiet for us to guess if you have sense or not.....

Anyway is a pity dear......a won o otiso`daada ruori olodo

whatever dear. Periander, Cleopatra, Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Socrates, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Hitler. They committed suicide and I don't think they're cowards. U are not talking about my boyfriend dumb me suicide here

If u don't have anything useful to comment just read and move on no disrespectful behaviors here

The Self-defeating Idiocy Of Nigerian Secessionist Movements By Dele Farotimi
It is possible to galvanize Nigerians behind a quest for a better Nigeria, one that is just and fair to all, than to chase the illusion offered by secessionism. Every Nigerian that is not in government, or a friend of government, is a victim of the injustices, that permeates the Nigerian experience. The Nigerian ruling class do not bicker over their tribal differences, and even the ones that have demanded restructuring, and encouraged secessionist voices in the past, becomes great nationalists, once they are given room at the feeding trough.

BY DELE FAROTIMIMAY 19, 2020

Imust confess to having been once possessed of the intellectual indolence required to embrace the asinine belief, that Nigeria’s problems, and more particularly, my interests as a “Yoruba” man, would be resolved by a breakup of the “Nigerian federation”. I was ideologically committed to the creation of a Yoruba nation, and at a minimum, I was happy to accept a “restructured” Nigerian state.


I have come to the knowledge of just how foolish I was, and I have little patience with those that have continued to hold to this distractive and idiotic position, because they are the ones that have been blinded to the truth. The Nigerian state can never break up peacefully, and whilst they are wasting their energies and lives seeking the unachievable, what is easily achievable, and much better, is being lost.

If Nigeria were to be a nation founded on the equality of citizenships. If laws shall be the foundation upon which the state is found. If all are truly equal before the law, and the laws be not, the instrument of injustices and institutional wickedness, the secessionist noises would have never been heard. If a man’s tribal origin has nothing to do with his rights as a citizen, or his weight, before the law, if his religion is his business, and solely his, if Nigeria is what it was purposed to be, nobody would want to be part of a smaller nation. If some people do not profit by claiming to speak on behalf of the divisions that they have created and fostered, the secessionist voices would have been silent.

Dele Farotimi
The inequities and injustices of the Nigerian state, are the breeding ground for the demands for tribal homelands, but I assure you, that the Nigerian state is too strong to be broken into the tidy enclaves sought by the secessionists. The Nigerian state knows this, and works always with this knowledge. I will even go as far as to say that the Nigerian intelligence agencies have even encouraged these tendencies, as a part of the efforts to distract critical attention away from the failures of the state, and to both delegitimize and criminalize genuine dissenting voices, that have embraced secession in their frustration with the Nigerian state.

I have treated the issues of our multiple levels of citizenship extensively in 'Do Not Die In Their War', and I am dealing much more extensively with the intellectual error undergirding secessionist movements in Nigeria in my ongoing work, but I have recently become increasingly convinced that we are sleeping through a revolution that has commenced without announcing its arrival, and the common lullaby being sang for the somnambulists, which are in truth, dirges, are secessionist songs. I ask that you open your minds.

The sum of the Nigerian minorities, is larger than whichever believes itself the biggest of the three dominant ethnic groups, that are the ones, that have ever demanded to secede. The minorities are more than the biggest of the ethnic giants. Let me help you to understand. The Nigerian state has never been predicated on the equality of citizenship. It has always been characterized by the rights acquired by the group. The regionalization of Nigeria by the British was an exercise in administrative convenience, and the management of scarce resources and systemic efficiency, were the cardinal reasons behind the adoption.

What did not feature in colonial considerations, were the several minority ethnic groups, that were arbitrarily Balkanized, and rendered the subjects of the mostly overbearing ethnic majorities in the regions created. The Bill of Rights that was contained in the Nigerian Independence constitution, was a direct result of the agitations of the minorities, and a recommendation of the Willinks Commission that was raised to address the concerns of the Nigerian minorities. The minorities have always found common cause in refusing to be part of any secessionist undertaking, and this is informed by a commonality of their fears of domination, subjugation, and repression by the majority tribes.

The fundamental human rights sections of the Nigerian constitution, owes its origins to the fears of the minorities for the inequities of the Nigerian state, at birth. Why would they support any secessionist agitation by any of the three behemoths? What has changed?

The Yorubas have the most impressive secessionist arguments. I should know, I had argued a few of them in my time. They are the most homogeneous of the old regions, and the few ethnic minorities to the fringes of their territories have been mostly assimilated, and aside from the Ondo riverine boundaries with the Ijaws, and the troublesome issues of Ilorin and the Okun Yorubas of Kogi, they have few conflicts to resolve. But where would the rest of Nigeria be, if they allowed the secession of the part of Nigeria, that has by the exertions of all, become the economic engine room, of the Nigerian state?

The Igbo’s have been the loudest of all the secessionist voices. They have fought the Nigerian civil war, paid a heavy price for the war that they had no choice but to fight, and are still paying till date for their daring. But the Igbo secessionists would forget the truth of their own history. They are the ones that have proven the thesis that I seek to establish, and to watch the refusal to draw the strategic lessons for which entire generations paid a hefty price, is a disservice to their sacrifices.

Nigeria has an Igbo problem. At the root of the many seemingly intractable problems assailing the Nigerian state, is the refusal to allow the equality of citizenship. The Igbo man has never asked to be treated different from anyone. I have never heard Ndigbo asked for anything that he is unhappy to see other Nigerians enjoy. I have never heard anyone say that what the Igbo man is demanding, injures their own rights, and I have not heard of any, that would reject the Igbo charter of demands from the Nigerian state, if the same were offered to them. If Nigeria would resolve its Igbo problem, it would have answered its crises of nationhood.

Twenty-one years after the military junta had left office, years in which the states have been exclusively ruled by sons of the soils. The governors, legislators, local government chairpersons, and all members of the state governments, are not foreigners posted to loot the state, how well have the states fared? Who is responsible for the bulk of the rots that the secessionists point at, as validation for their agitations? Granted that the Nigerian state has facilitated the evil by the evil governance systems, but how do they expect to cure these institutional maladies in their utopian republics?

In the Oodua Republic being sought by the Yoruba irredentists, where would Tinubu be? Would the rulers be different from the current lot that afflicts the people? What would be different in that republic? Would the Ibadan allow the Oke-Ogun people to rule Oyo State? Would Okeho allow Saki to take the slot? Ofiki people nko? Would the Yewa-Awori in Ogun State become eligible for the gubernatorial office? Ha! Lest I forget, would the Ikorodu people then get a shot at the governorship of Lagos State? And this is amongst the homogeneous Yoruba.

Igbo Kwenu! Would the Anambra man be the one that rules first? What about the Ebonyi man? Ehn ehn, where are the Ijaws in this Biafran Republic? The Ikwere and other lost tribes of the Igbo people nko? Where would the Orji predators of Abia be? Would you be hosting annual New Yam festivals to beat the Ekweremadus of the Biafran utopia? Those pesky Calabar people nko?

I will not even bother to address the many issues that would render it impossible for what you would call the north to secede. I will merely ask that you picked up a map of the Nigerian state, and seek to divide its northern part according to the disparate ethnic groups, that have endured centuries of political and religious oppression, in the hands of the Fulani and Kanuri hegemonies.

It is possible to galvanize Nigerians behind a quest for a better Nigeria, one that is just and fair to all, than to chase the illusion offered by secessionism. Every Nigerian that is not in government, or a friend of government, is a victim of the injustices, that permeates the Nigerian experience. The Nigerian ruling class do not bicker over their tribal differences, and even the ones that have demanded restructuring, and encouraged secessionist voices in the past, becomes great nationalists, once they are given room at the feeding trough. We play into their hands, when we accept the divisions that they have sown, to keep the people divided, and unable to see the commonalities of their afflictions.

I cannot resolve the argument in this article, but I am striving to ensure that the argument is comprehensively and extensively dealt with in my upcoming book. My intention is to sow a seed of doubt in the mind of the secessionists, and perhaps force the more intelligent ones amongst their ranks, into some introspection. If the efforts being exerted on secessions, are focused on the identification of common interests and purposes, how much better, would Nigeria be?

We shall continue this argument in due course.


http://saharareporters.com/2020/05/19/self-defeating-idiocy-nigerian-secessionist-movements-dele-farotimi

PDP

FortifiedCity:
Your comment is quite disjointed...no offense

Ok thanks Shakespeare

Smoke55:
the Real Coward Is Awolowo That Took Rat Poison To Avoid Being Arrested.

it's act of courage

Nah. Thank you they not the only humans in nigeria

Oh the mighty has fallen biafra is more powerful than ancient Egypt but now is under Nigeria... Sorry

Cowarddd. I will attend my parents burial, I will mourn the people who died because of my scam, before mourning my dog. As freedom fighter I will not indulge in a disgusting behaviours. I will not ask a white supremacists to help my cause. As a black, I will not claim I'm Jew. Anyways a fraudster will do that

Good