The current mayhem going on at Igwe Ocha (I refuse to call that city by the name given to it on behalf of a British pervert, Lewis Vernon Harcourt, a one time Secretary of State for British Colonies) has reignited the old debate of whether Ikwerre is Igbo or not, hence whether Igwe Ocha is an Igbo city or not?

        Generally, I do not see eye to eye with the Biafra Internet Brigade but on this issue there should be no doubt where my sentiment lies. Nevertheless, let me make it crystal clear that I am not a Biafran.  For one thing, the name Biafra is insulting to me. 

        Biafra is the name of a village in Portugal; I am not a Portuguese and, therefore, cannot be named by a Portuguese word.

        I am from Alaigbo.  It is not up to you to decide what you call me, it is for us to do so and in as much as Igbos generally refer to their home as Ala, it follows that their land is Alaigbo (Igbo land).

        I should also make it abundantly clear that I am not for Balkanizing the already too small African countries; I am for enlarging them. 

         I want all of West Africa united as one country and, ultimately, all of Africa united as one country. This is my goal and I am not asking for any ones input in making that decision.

        My goal will come to pass, like it or not, for it is the inevitable direction of history. History is moving towards larger and larger polities, not small ones. The future is one Africa.  However, within that (initially West Africa and ultimately) Africa each ethnic group must constitute a state. 

        There are about five hundred legitimate ethnic groups in Africa (I have documented these in my writings on African politics), so we must have five hundred states in Africa.

        Thus, we shall have an Africa Federation with five hundred states.  This is the inevitable future of Africa. I am not asking for your opinion on this matter, for you have no say so on the matter. History does not ask for your opinion. History has inexorable path and there is nothing any of us can do to change it. Africa Federation of five hundred states must come to pass.

         Each of the five hundred states of Africa (an Africa reorganized by Africans, not Africa as organized by Europeans for their own economic interests) must comprise of one specific ethnic group (the smaller ethnic groups lumped into multi ethnic states).

        Each state must rule itself.  Each state must have a unicameral (not bicameral) legislature of no more than fifty members. The legislature must select a prime minister from the party with the largest members in it. Each state must elect a ceremonial governor. Each state must have a merit recruited independent judiciary.

        Each state must be divided into districts, not to exceed fifty districts (if you like, you can call them counties or local government areas) with the pattern of state governance replicated at the county level, viz a county council of thirteen members, a county administrator and a county court.

        At the city and town level the same pattern of governance is replicated: a town/city council of eleven members, a town mayor and a town court. 

         At the central level a federal unicameral legislature of no more than five hundred members (one member from each of the five hundred states), a prime minister, a ceremonial president, and an independent judiciary.

       At all levels of governance, each elected office holder has a term of five years. 

          I have elaborated on this matter elsewhere and do not need to rehash it here. Let me just say that the above are statements of conviction and must be fought for.

        I am excruciatingly aware that Africans in their laziness and cowardice are not used to making statements of conviction and devoting their lives to them and fighting for them and, if need be, dying for them. Like cowards everywhere they just want to live and live for what nobody quite understands.

        What are you living for, anyway? A man ought to live for something or die. For our present purposes, the ideas articulated above are not up for debate, they are final.

         Now, to the immediate issue at hand, the status of Igwe Ocha.  Igwe Ocha is part and parcel of Alaigbo.  This issue is not up for debate.

         Ikwerre is part of Alaigbo and it is not for us to debate what nature and nature’s God made. 

         Alaigbo stretches from Igwe Ocha to Agbo in present Delta State. All Igbo speaking people, no matter how different their dialects are, must be part of Alaigbo state.  This is a settled matter and it is silly always revisiting it as if it is up to us to change it.

        I understand that the Biafra secessionists like to debate the issue with the Ikwerre separatists. But there comes a time in a man’s life when his mind ought to be made up and he takes certain things for granted and stops debating them. My mind is made up on what constitutes Alaigbo and we ought to stop this very irritating intermittent debate on whether certain parts of Alaigbo are part of Alaigbo or not.

        Finally, the current crisis in Igwe Ocha shows the lack of political will and resolve of the thieving crowd at Abuja. It shows that a resolved group can actually destabilize Nigeria. 

        A resolute leader should descend on Igwe Ocha, shoot and kill all the cultist, gangs or whatever the criminals disturbing social peace call themselves. Close your eyes and kill them. In killing them you set an example to all those who wish to disturb social peace. You do not pussyfoot with criminal gangs, you kill them.  Don’t even bother arresting, judging and jailing them; that is too expensive; it costs money to house and feed criminals in prisons; get rid of them (cost control).

        All political states are maintained by exercise of brutal power; governance is violence by political means; politics is war by other means; politics is organized violence.

      Man is a savage and unless you exercise brute power on him he would kill other men, so you must always hold a gun over his head if you want him to be law abiding. This is called political realism.

        Take away the power of coercion and there is no such thing as a nation state; take away the police of any city and chaos and anarchy reign in the land. The leaders of the Nigerian polity must therefore not hesitate killing those who disturb law and order.

          If Musa Yar Adua and his fellow rigger princes want to regain control of Igwe Ocha they know what to do and ought to do it.

          (If all these sound like the voice of dictatorship, so be it. If it surprises you that a man who talks about metaphysics is also an advocate of brute exercise of power then you are new to the ways of politics. Martin Luther in 1517 posted his ninety nine challenges to the Bishop of Rome and initiated the Protestant Revolution. Then he recognized the implication of what he wrought: all sorts of people felt emboldened to interpret the Bible as they saw fit and, therefore, were no longer willing to accept centralized interpretation of the Bible. The consequence was the breakdown of centralized authority in Germany. The young idealistic Luther grew up quickly; he recognized what happens when human beings are not organized, when their desire for independence and individualism are given free reign. Anarchy reigns in any land where there is no social organization, which means suppression of the excesses of individualism. Luther appreciated that every society must use power to get the people to conform to a set of norms/doctrine if it desires social harmony. Thus, he aligned himself with certain German princes and used brutal force to destroy the various extremists insisting on interpreting the bible as they saw fit. In time it came to pass that only two churches emerged in Germany: the Catholic Church in the South and the Lutheran Church in the North.  Idealism and abstraction is not the same as realism. In the here and now world, in dealing with human beings one must assume that one is dealing with savages, animals not innately given to law and order; one must, therefore, use coercion to get them to abide by the laws of the land.  Only a handful of human beings, the thinkers, at any point in time, are capable of using pure ideation in ascertaining what is right and living accordingly. The average human being is morally weak and would always choose the line of least resistance, so you must use force to get him to respect other human beings rights and properties. Without the blind exercise of power in society there would be no society; this is the human condition, until you change human nature and make human beings angels; which, I am afraid to say is not going to happen as long as people live in bodies and have separated egos, with each ego seeking his self interests at the expense of other egos.)

 Ozodi Thomas Osuji

August 13, 2007

Robot  Villager

# 1 ON THE FUTURE OF IGWE OCHA Ozodi...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 14.08.2007 02:34

Son of the Delta  Villager

# 2 In the first place the name Igwe Ocha goes a long way to prove that this land does not belong to the Igbos. Igwe Ocha refers to the White man's palour or it can be interpreated directly as his throne. Harcourt was the first white man to build a structure in Port-hacourt and he obtained the permission to build his trading facility from the Ijaws who are the owners of the land. Your Igbo "name" for Port-hacourt shows that you even came to know Port-Hacourt after the white man and that is why you refer to Port-Hacourt as the white man's parlour. The Ijaws are refered to as an aboriginal ethnic nationality and Port-Hacourt is one of their oldest settlements. It was originally called Ogbogbo and later refered to as Olomu-Ogbogbo when it was turned to the trading center. According to Ijaw traditions, communities are also described by the activities that operate in them which meant that the Ogbogbo (Port Hacourt ) was also refered to as Borokiri describing trading activities just like it is in Warri. I do not blame this writer, I blame Dr. Abati that is actively using his position to forment violence and create conflict. He has asked Yar'Adua to carry out a violent military campaign against the Niger-Delta, now he has raised a torny issue that may create a crisis between the Rivers people and their Igbo neighbours all in a bid to cause distraction from the corrupt and in-human acvtivities of the Obasanjo's regime and if Yar Adua is not mindful he would let himself to be used . Mikky has said it if the yorubas want political office they know how to get it. Nigerians let themselves to be used to pull Abacha's undemocratic government down, it led to Obasanjo coming in, and it has been proven that Abacha is a lesser devil. One can only hope Yar'Adua would not let himself to be used to wash Obasanjo's evil record and other Nigerians would not let tribalists like Mr Abati to lead them into things that would be against their interests. Like Awo a fellow yoruba journalist, Mr. Abati is pushing others to do what Awo pushed them into in 1967, Nigerians should not allow themselves to be used a 3rd time. Posted by Son of the Delta| 14.08.2007 04:59

nero africanus  Villager

# 3 =Son of the Delta;199547>In the first place the name Igwe Ocha goes a long way to prove that this land does not belong to the Igbos. Igwe Ocha refers to the White man's palour or it can be interpreated directly as his throne. Harcourt was the first white man to build a structure in Port-hacourt and he obtained the permission to build his trading facility from the Ijaws who are the owners of the land. Your Igbo "name" for Port-hacourt shows that you even came to know Port-Hacourt after the white man and that is why you refer to Port-Hacourt as the white man's parlour. The Ijaws are refered to as an aboriginal ethnic nationality and Port-Hacourt is one of their oldest settlements. It was originally called Ogbogbo and later refered to as Olomu-Ogbogbo when it was turned to the trading center. According to Ijaw traditions, communities are also described by the activities that operate in them which meant that the Ogbogbo (Port Hacourt ) was also refered to as Borokiri describing trading activities just like it is in Warri. . son of the delta , i dont think you have this right , port harcourt was named after the then british secretary of the colonies , lord harcourt , later viscount lewis harcourt the secretary of the colonies was not a trader in the then oil rivers or southern nigeria , he was a politician at white hall much like condi rice. gt basden described port harcourt as igwe ocha in his book " the ibos of nigeria " as being occupied by igbos and roving ijaw traders. according to this book which was written in the late 1920s , the ijaws were more like settlers who had travelled from the west during the first oil boom( palm oil) that started after the end of slave trade. the ijaws in ph area were actually under a city state much like opobo. modern day ikwerre people wont find this ijaw claim to PH funny :D Posted by nero africanus| 14.08.2007 05:26

Hamattan  Villager

# 4 =Son of the Delta;199547>In the first place the name Igwe Ocha goes a long way to prove that this land does not belong to the Igbos. Igwe Ocha refers to the White man's palour or it can be interpreated directly as his throne. Harcourt was the first white man to build a structure in Port-hacourt and he obtained the permission to build his trading facility from the Ijaws who are the owners of the land. Your Igbo "name" for Port-hacourt shows that you even came to know Port-Hacourt after the white man and that is why you refer to Port-Hacourt as the white man's parlour. The Ijaws are refered to as an aboriginal ethnic nationality and Port-Hacourt is one of their oldest settlements. It was originally called Ogbogbo and later refered to as Olomu-Ogbogbo when it was turned to the trading center. According to Ijaw traditions, communities are also described by the activities that operate in them which meant that the Ogbogbo (Port Hacourt ) was also refered to as Borokiri describing trading activities just like it is in Warri. I do not blame this writer, I blame Dr. Abati that is actively using his position to forment violence and create conflict. He has asked Yar'Adua to carry out a violent military campaign against the Niger-Delta, now he has raised a torny issue that may create a crisis between the Rivers people and their Igbo neighbours all in a bid to cause distraction from the corrupt and in-human acvtivities of the Obasanjo's regime and if Yar Adua is not mindful he would let himself to be used . Mikky has said it if the yorubas want political office they know how to get it. Nigerians let themselves to be used to pull Abacha's undemocratic government down, it led to Obasanjo coming in, and it has been proven that Abacha is a lesser devil. One can only hope Yar'Adua would not let himself to be used to wash Obasanjo's evil record and other Nigerians would not let tribalists like Mr Abati to lead them into things that would be against their interests. Like Awo a fellow yoruba journalist, Mr. Abati is pushing others to do what Awo pushed them into in 1967, Nigerians should not allow themselves to be used a 3rd time. I guess the area called Port Harcourt must have been inhabited originally by Ijaws and Ikwere-Igbo whom they share boarders with, therefore there has to be a boundary somewhere. At least I know of the large district of the city called Diobu which is its original name, and Diobu is not Ijaw word or is it? On your interpretation of the word 'Igwe Ocha' you made reference to the white man based on the word 'ocha' meaning white in Igbo, but Igwe Ocha means white sky and I guess the Ikweres in giving that name to the area were describing its physical features dominated by the sea. This in essence means an endless view of the white sky and its reflection on the sea . It is common habit among Igbo people to give names to places based on physical features especially when they are very imposing, like in the case of 'Igwe Ocha'. Posted by Hamattan| 14.08.2007 05:37

lionking  Villager

# 5 @ nero and harmattan U guys are wasting your time trying to educate the miseducated and misled cyber-rabble rouser that does not even know where the rain began beating his people. I am still waiting for him to come out boldly and call the names of the streets and neighbourhoods in PH that he refers to as 'old Port Harcourt town'. I know his type only too well. They dare not for fear of Ikwerre people on this board. Rather than think long and hard about where the rain started beating their people and adopting multi-pronged, foundational and long term strategies to end the oppression and exploitation of their people, SoB and his fellow ND elite parasites prefer short cuts to generate looting opportunities for themselves e.g. they find it much easier to generate mass murder and mayhem in PH with hope that the FG will proclaim a state of emergency and remove Omehia, knock out Amaechi and thus enable them to install a Governor-General in Rivers state. When the GG fails to deliver the goods to the long suffering Ijaw masses who now start questioning their so-called leaders, the ND elites will quickly resurrect the 'evil neighbours' bogeyman 40 years of the end of the civil war. Yeye dey boom Posted by lionking| 14.08.2007 06:17

Son of the Delta  Villager

# 6 =nero africanus;199552>son of the delta , i dont think you have this right , port harcourt was named after the then british secretary of the colonies , lord harcourt , later viscount lewis harcourt the secretary of the colonies was not a trader in the then oil rivers or southern nigeria , he was a politician at white hall much like condi rice. gt basden described port harcourt as igwe ocha in his book " the ibos of nigeria " as being occupied by igbos and roving ijaw traders. according to this book which was written in the late 1920s , the ijaws were more like settlers who had travelled from the west during the first oil boom( palm oil) that started after the end of slave trade. the ijaws in ph area were actually under a city state much like opobo. modern day ikwerre people wont find this ijaw claim to PH funny :D Nero Africanus, Thank you very much for your show of maturity, I do appreciate your reference to the statement of gb basden, but his account does not represent the total picture of Port-hacourt. The Ijaws had trading and not political agreements with the Westerners, and that is why even though they first had contact with the Europeans Lagos first became a colony. When you look at the story of people like JAJA (Jumbojumbogha) who was taken as a child and groomed by Ijaws and later settled in Bonny which is part of the present Rivers state it shows that the Ijaws were not mere settlers, the Jaja era was before the Oil trade era, In fact he lost his life before the "Oil boom", and that was because just like his Okirikan Counterpart and the other Niger Delta rulers, did not want to adhere to the British ideology that the trading deals with people like Harcourt were colonial agreements but trading agreements. I also appreciate your use of the word 'the modern Ikwerre' I think this is a very tricky term, the word Ikwerre have been abused by many it is just like the case of Delta state where there was an attempt to smuggle ALi must go' wife as a senator representing the state. The Ijaws and other ethnic nationalities that make up Rivers state including the Ikwerres all know the relationship that exists between them and their boundaries within the different communities long before the Europeans came. Posted by Son of the Delta| 14.08.2007 06:33

Tony  Villager

# 7 @Son of the Delta: Point of correction, Igwe Ocha means "White sky" in Igbo language. Cheers. Posted by Tony| 14.08.2007 06:34

Son of the Delta  Villager

# 8 =Hamattan;199554>I guess the area called Port Harcourt must have been inhabited originally by Ijaws and Ikwere-Igbo whom they share boarders with, therefore there has to be a boundary somewhere. At least I know of the large district of the city called Diobu which is its original name, and Diobu is not Ijaw word or is it? On your interpretation of the word 'Igwe Ocha' you made reference to the white man based on the word 'ocha' meaning white in Igbo, but Igwe Ocha means white sky and I guess the Ikweres in giving that name to the area were describing its physical features dominated by the sea. This in essence means an endless view of the white sky and its reflection on the sea . It is common habit among Igbo people to give names to places based on physical features especially when they are very imposing, like in the case of 'Igwe Ocha'. You have not told me the what "Diobu" means if you do I would tell you not only the meaning but also the history behind its name. The Igwe is being used in the same way Obi is used to describe the Courtyard of a royalty it has nothing to do with the skies which in the first place can never reflect on the Sea. The Sea is not a mirror please, you come across as if you have not come in contact with Seas and large water bodies. Posted by Son of the Delta| 14.08.2007 06:42

Son of the Delta  Villager

# 9 =lionking;199559>@ nero and harmattan U guys are wasting your time trying to educate the miseducated and misled cyber-rabble rouser that does not even know where the rain began beating his people. I am still waiting for him to come out boldly and call the names of the streets and neighbourhoods in PH that he refers to as 'old Port Harcourt town'. I know his type only too well. They dare not for fear of Ikwerre people on this board. Rather than think long and hard about where the rain started beating their people and adopting multi-pronged, foundational and long term strategies to end the oppression and exploitation of their people, SoB and his fellow ND elite parasites prefer short cuts to generate looting opportunities for themselves e.g. they find it much easier to generate mass murder and mayhem in PH with hope that the FG will proclaim a state of emergency and remove Omehia, knock out Amaechi and thus enable them to install a Governor-General in Rivers state. When the GG fails to deliver the goods to the long suffering Ijaw masses who now start questioning their so-called leaders, the ND elites will quickly resurrect the 'evil neighbours' bogeyman 40 years of the end of the civil war. Yeye dey boom THe Ijaws and their Ikwere neighbours along with the other ethnic nationalities of Rivers state know their place in the state and of course, you Lionking do not even understand the ethnic setting of Rivers state I have said, and as a result , I can not waste my time explaining the setting of Port-hacourt because you would not understand it especially since you do not have the power to influence any thing. Posted by Son of the Delta| 14.08.2007 06:49

Son of the Delta  Villager

# 10 =lionking;199559>@ nero and harmattan U guys are wasting your time trying to educate the miseducated and misled cyber-rabble rouser that does not even know where the rain began beating his people. I am still waiting for him to come out boldly and call the names of the streets and neighbourhoods in PH that he refers to as 'old Port Harcourt town'. I know his type only too well. They dare not for fear of Ikwerre people on this board. Rather than think long and hard about where the rain started beating their people and adopting multi-pronged, foundational and long term strategies to end the oppression and exploitation of their people, SoB and his fellow ND elite parasites prefer short cuts to generate looting opportunities for themselves e.g. they find it much easier to generate mass murder and mayhem in PH with hope that the FG will proclaim a state of emergency and remove Omehia, knock out Amaechi and thus enable them to install a Governor-General in Rivers state. When the GG fails to deliver the goods to the long suffering Ijaw masses who now start questioning their so-called leaders, the ND elites will quickly resurrect the 'evil neighbours' bogeyman 40 years of the end of the civil war. Yeye dey boom THe Ijaws and their Ikwere neighbours along with the other ethnic nationalities of Rivers state know their place in the state and of course, you Lionking do not even understand the ethnic setting of Rivers state I have said, and as a result , I can not waste my time explaining the setting of Port-hacourt because you would not understand it especially since you do not have the power to influence any thing. Please it is Son of the Delta, abbreviated as SOD, thanks. Posted by Son of the Delta| 14.08.2007 06:51

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