REAL POLITICS AND THE NIGER DELTA QUESTION

Ozodi Thomas Osuji

 Generally, I stay away from Nigerian politics. This is not because I do not understand politics but because I understand it too well and do not see any need making noises about things that are not going to change. I accept political reality as it. I am not sentimental at all. In political categories, I am what is called a political realist, a person who sees politics for what it is: men struggling for power and the strong dominating the weak.

 In real politics allowances are not made for such sentimental subjects as morality and religion. This is because there is no evidence that God exists or that law is anything but a social construct. In nature, as Thomas Hobbes pointed out, what exists is war by all against all. In the wild strong predatory animals eat weak ones; big fish eat small fish; lions and tigers feed on sheep and deer. Simply stated, in nature there is no morality, unless you want to define morality as the strong eating the weak (as Adolf Hitler did…see his Mein Kampf).

 Political idealism, such as Jean Jacque Rousseau’s (Social Contract), on the other hand, hopes for a polity where all people share power. Indeed, the more utopian liberal idealist yearns for participatory democracy where all people gather to discuss issues and vote on them and all votes count.

 Political realists say that liberals’ hope for equality is not going to happen, not if what we know about human nature remains constant.

 Politics, as Harold Laswell defines it, is the struggle to determine who gets what, when and why. The powerful decide who gets what. In America, for example, the Anglo-Saxons (English) decide who gets what in the country and this is because it is their country; the rest of the white population are welcome guests; as for the other races, Asians and Africans, well, they can stick around provided that they have no illusion that it is their country.

 Politics is not old wife’s fairy tales; it is the struggle for power and control over a given territory. If one is interested in power and control one reads Machiavelli (Prince) and schemes for power and if one wins fine, if not, well, what can I say, that is the nature of the game, some win some lose. Indeed, some losers’ heads are cut off and hung on poles that are lined on the apian way leading into Rome, to teach other challengers to the rulers what could happen to them hence deter them from rebellion.

 Let me reiterate: empiricism or what our British friends call logical positivism is on the side of political realists. Human history shows that always and everywhere the strong lord it over the weak and that law is positive law, that which men construct, not abstract justice dictated by non- existent gods. Politics is organized violence.

 In Nigeria Hausas, Fulanis and Yorubas rule. This is the God honest truth. We do not need to sugar coat facts and make them what they are not.

 Igbos, the other large ethnic group in Nigeria that could be politically relevant, are a defeated people and for all intents and purposes are like blacks in America; they are unwelcome guests in the land and can enjoy the hosts largesse provided it does not get into their heads that they are the children of the table. As long as the Igbo know his place in the Nigerian scheme of things and abide by them he is tolerated by the powers that be in Nigeria.

 Hausas and Yorubas are the lords of contemporary Nigeria, with Hausas playing the top fiddle and Yorubas the second fiddle (see, they alternate who rules, from Hausa to Yoruba, from Yoruba to Hausa; from Murtala Mohammed to Olusegun Obasanjo, from Obasanjo to Shagari, from Obasanjo to Umaru Musa Yar Adua, but never to Igbos!).

 At the moment these two groups use the Nigerian military, which they dominate, to steal oil (money) from the Niger Delta. They use the money they stole to develop Hausa land and Yoruba land. And to mask their stealing they throw some crumbs to the other ethnic groups. Incidentally, by receiving money from Abuja the non-Hausa-Yoruba states are made culprit in stealing Niger Delta oil.

 Without mincing words, these two groups are thieves; they take what does not belong to them. Ijaw oil does not belong to them; it belongs to Ijaw people.

 They use violence to steal Ijaw oil. Perhaps, they rationalize their criminal behavior with the idea sovereignty. Nigeria is supposed to be a sovereign nation and the national government is supposed to have control over the entire territory of Nigeria.  

 Let us examine the idea of state and sovereignty. State is not a natural phenomenon. The idea of nation-state (which began with the treaty of Westphalia in 1648) is an artificial political construct. Nation-state is a man made artifact that, hopefully, serves some useful purpose. However, the fact that it seems functional does not deceive us into thinking that it is a natural phenomenon. The state is a social construct, men conceptualized it to serve their purposes, and when its purposes are gone it will be reconceptualized. (I have reconceptualized the idea of states in Africa; as I see it, extant nation states in Africa are imposters; they were imposed on us by European foreigners and, therefore, are not legitimate states. Africa Federation/Union is the only recognized sovereign state in our neck of the wood.)

 What is natural is nation (if by that is meant a people who speak the same language, such as the Ijaw nation, Igbo nation, Yoruba nation, Edo Nation, Tiv nation etc). 

 When the nation state is gone the nation remains for it is a natural phenomenon, not an artificial construct like the idea of state.

 The idea of sovereignty is a legal construct made up by the practitioners of international law. It has no validity in nature. In nature there are no boundaries; animals from one part of the world migrate to other parts of the world. I lived in Alaska (a professor at the University of Alaska) and during the southern winter birds from the south ( America) migrate to Alaska where it is summer and reverse the trend during Alaska’s brutal winters. The point is that in nature animals go to wherever they can get food, until powerful ones demarcate certain territories for themselves and use force to prevent other animals from entering them.

 The state is an artificial construct and nothing it does makes it natural. Criminals can get control of the state and use its power of coercion to steal from the people. We know that African leaders are, in the main, terrorists who appropriated the state and use its apparatus of power to intimidate the people into allowing them to steal their property.

 Politics is war by other means and war is politics by other means, Von Clausewitz teaches us (see his On War), and those who can use violence in a merciless manner always rule those who are squeamish over spilling blood.

 Let us quickly dispose another issue that folks invest with unnecessary emotions, law. Every society has law. Men are ruled by law. The question is: who made the laws of a particular society? The powerful make law and apply it on the weak. Law is a means of controlling the weak and checkmating the powerful.

 Law does not stand for justice (whatever that is). The question of what is just is left to moralists, idealistic philosophers and religionists to ponder but is not the domain of politics.

 In America, for example, the ruling British class passed laws making African Americans slaves. Remember the Dred Scot case (1857); Plessey versus Ferguson case (1896). Those were the Supreme Court’s rulings on race matters. In the first the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, John Tanner, ruled that the black man has no right that a white man should respect hence run away slaves were returned to their masters. In the second case the Court ruled that separate is equal hence decreed Jim Crow for black Americans. That is law for you.

 Let us cut through the chase and not fool ourselves. Law is politics at work; it is a means of controlling the masses. Therefore, to those who tell us that the Nigerian state rules the Niger Delta according to Nigeria’s law a political realists asks: who made and administers those laws? Hausas and Yorubas make and administer Nigeria’s laws. They make laws that enable them to serve their interests and in this case to take from the Niger Delta and that is all there is to it. Let us not hear one more word, pin, about law and the Nigerian state!

 Of course when Nigeria’s power equations change different laws would be made; the new ruling class would pass laws that serve their interests at the expense of the defeated groups. That is the way it has always been and will probably always be. We are not talking political idealism here, remember. In America white folk used their laws to relegate black folk to second class status and called their self serving behavior law. Well, by and by accounts would be settled and whites would be relegated to second class status according to new laws (unless, of course, human nature changes and we learn to respect and love one another…and that prospect is possible hence though I am a political realist I also dabble in metaphysics…actually, many realists are also metaphysician; Isaac Newton, despite discovering empirical laws of nature, such as gravity and mechanics, believed in the occult!).

 Let us, then, say it as it is: Hausas and Yorubas are thieves who appropriated the Nigerian state and use its powers to steal oil from the Niger Delta. There is no other reason why they take the oil from the Delta other than the fact that they control the Nigerian state and with its power could take whatever they want from any part of Nigeria (and give the masses song and dance notions about sovereignty and law).

 When the Nigerian state collapses, as it is bound to collapse (no state ruled by out-right criminals’ lasts forever) Hausas and Yorubas would stop stealing what does not belong to them, Ijaw oil.

 If by chance the Western world discovers alternatives to fossil fuel tomorrow and no longer buys Nigeria’s oil there would be no need for the Hausas and Yorubas to be in the Niger Delta, for they would have no need to steal oil since nobody would buy it from them (criminals need those they can pawn their stolen goods on).

 If oil is no longer demanded by the international economy the Nigerian state would not have the money to maintain its military in the Niger Delta. Indeed, given the fact that the empire of thieves have neglected all other sectors of the Nigerian economy and rely solely on oil revenue to fund their lavish lifestyles, if oil is not demanded the Abuja clique would have no money to pay for any kind of military and the damn artificial construct called Nigeria would break apart and the various ethnic groups go their separated ways.

 (An English woman, the girl friend of Frederick Lugard, Flora Shaw, coined the name Nigeria, by combining Niger and area; the criminals ruling Nigeria do not even feel shame that a white woman gave them their so-called name and change it to something African; but, as they say, thieves have no shame or honor. Why not call Nigeria and Africa Alamanu; Ala = land, Manu = people, hence people’s land?)

 In the first paragraph of this essay I made it crystal clear that I am a political realist, not a political idealist. I am not at all sentimental about politics. I accept politics for what it is: the struggle for the means to control a particular piece of real estate. Politicians are not different from criminal gangs; they struggle for control over territories and the powerful prevail. Having obtained control over a given territory the gang members exploit its resources for their good. Nigerian politicians are not different from politicians all over the world; they are antisocial and or narcissistic personalities jostling for control of a given territory so as to exploit the resources in it. That is the way it is and one does not cry over spilled milk, over reality.

 With the above caveat in mind, let me state that I do not have misguided sympathy for the Ijaws. I look at them with disinterested, impersonal, objective and unsympathetic political eyes. Moreover, I am an Igbo and have not forgotten Ijaw treachery towards Igbos. I am aware of the role Ijaws played in the defeat of Alaigbo (Igbo land), aka Biafra, by the Nigerian state.

 Emeka Ojukwu, a political novice, perhaps, actuated by idealistic desire to protect his fellow Igbos when they were massacred all over Nigeria, declared independence for what he misnamed Biafra (Biafra is a village in Portugal, not an African Nation, our nation is Alaigbo; please take note of our real name; I do not want to hear the rubbish called Biafra, again). Ojukwu did not understand real politics and was out maneuvered by the shrewder Hausas and Yorubas.

 Obafemi Awolowo, for example, was said to have come to Enugu with a bag of tricks and seemed to encourage Odumegwu Ojukwu’s diplomacy challenged son to go ahead and declare secession from Nigeria and that Yorubas would support him? 

 In the meantime, the astute politicians of the North and West employed the classic divide and conquer method they learned too well from the British. They persuaded the Ijaw, the Efik and even a segment of Igbo people, Ikwerrres, to dissociate from Ojukwu’s misadventure. Having obtained the loyalty of the Niger Delta people, the Nigerian military dealt Ojukwu’s ill equipped military a death blow.

 Nigerians defeated Igbos with the support of the Ijaw and Efik people. Apparently, the Ijaw and Efik believed that it was in their best interest to side with Nigeria because they feared Igbo domination. It is probably true that Igbos would have dominated the Ijaws and Efiks if they had won that war. Therefore, the Ijaws and Efiks had a right to be wary of Igbos. If I was in their position I would be wary of Igbo designs. We are talking real politics here, not sentimentalism.

 However, in real politics before one makes alliances one thinks through the long term consequences of what one is doing, for everything one does may come back to bite one, as the Nigerian state is now biting Ijaws!

 Apparently, the Ijaws and Efiks did not know how to choose sides; they did not know what is good for them. Yes, they had a right to be cautious over Igbos but they still had to wonder which of the two evils, Igbos and Hausas, best served their interests. They did not recognize that the Nigerian state, specifically the Hausa Fulani and their Yoruaba allies, were not interested in them.

 As Igbos say, let the truth be said and shame the devil. As far as Hausas are concerned Ijaws are Igbos. See, when they killed Igbos in the north they did not distinguish between Igbos and Ijaws, they killed Ijaws, too.

 For what it is worth, I doubt that there is an Ijaw man that does not have Igbo blood flowing in his arteries. How do they say it, blood is thicker than water; no Igbo man would kill Ijaw people; trust me, I know what I am talking about, when I see Ijaw folk it is like I see my fellow Igbos; we are one people.

 Hausas and their allies could care less about the welfare of Ijaws; what they had their eyes set upon was the oil revenue from Ijawland. Oil, let me repeat, oil, was the real reason why Hausas and Yorubas fought the Igbos.

 If there was no oil booty to be obtained from the Niger Delta and from Alaigbo Hausas would have satisfied themselves with selling their groundnuts (peanuts) and cotton to the West and left it at that. Please remember that all along Hausas had wanted to separate from Nigeria, that they did not want anything to do with Southern Nigerians until some crooked eyed Briton reminded them of the value of black gold. As folk in America say, “there is money to be made in them Delta’.

 If Ijaws believed that Hausas had their interests at heart when they joined forces with them they are the greatest fools that walk this earth. Hausas and Yorubas are simply after Niger Delta oil and could care less that human beings live in the delta. For all they care the mangrove forests of the Delta could be burned down by oil flays as long as money is made for the Nigerian state. 

 The Nigerian state needs the oil money coming from the delta to develop Hausa land and Yoruba land even if it means leaving Ijaws to live like paupers.

 Currently, Ijaw youth have taken up arms and are fighting the Nigerian state. Of course they will not win that war. Population matters. Ijaws are about four million people. Hausas and Yorubas are about sixty million people. There is no way on God’s earth that four million persons can defeat sixty million persons. This is reality check number one for the Ijaw. 

 If the Ijaw wants to win that little war of theirs they have to form alliances that increase their population base so that they have a large pool of people to draw soldiers from. Who could become their natural allies? Igbos?

 Given what they did to Igbos during the “ Biafra war” I doubt that Igbos are sentimental about Ijaw folk. Not long ago, the third rate mind called Ken Sara Wiwa trashed Igbos. And what did he get for all his labors? The Nigerian state (Abacha regime) pumped bullets into his idiot mouth and put him out of his misery. Next time around he ought to study real politics and realize that even if his immediate neighbor is aggressive, as no doubt Igbos are, he had to find a way to live with them rather than think that he could alienate them while hoping that folk from far away Sahel could rescue him.

 Igbos are the natural allies of the Ijaw. The Ijaw, till today, don’t seem to have recognized this fact hence they insult Igbos every which way they could.

 I, as an Igbo, would rather stay aside and have the Ijaw kicked around by the Nigerian state. My cynical mind tells me that Ijaws need to get what is coming to them. How do they say it? What goes around comes around. I am not sentimental at all about politics or about human beings. In American slang, Ijaws need to have their asses kicked real good so that they learn to respect their Igbo neighbors.

 I do not think that the MEND wannabe soldiers recognize that they cannot complete what they started, win that little creeks war of theirs, until they think strategically and tactically. To win that damn war, Igbos must be dragged into it. This is what they ought to be doing; they ought to be trying to trick Igbos into getting involved on their side, even if it means telling them lies to the effect that Hausas are cooking up something dreadful for them. Igbos have a tendency to paranoia, so why not appeal to their paranoia by telling them that Hausas are out to get them?

 If I were the Ijaw I would appeal to Igbo sense of persecution by other Nigerians and that ought to get them joining forces with them! Manipulate peoples weakness is one of the teachings of Machiavelli, is it not?

 Diplomacy is the art of making lies seem the moral truth.

 Whoever accuses Africans of being students of real politics? Africans always look at problems from the short run but not from the long haul. They pursue immediate gratification, a habit that has to be checked if they really want to become serious political actors.

 For our present purpose, the Nigerian state is ruled by a bunch of criminals head quarted at Abuja. The criminals are stealing Niger Delta oil. They will continue doing so until an alternative to oil is found and at which point they will go find other things to steal and the Ijaw would be set free, free at last.

 Did I hear me say free? Good gracious, where is my knowledge of political realism? The Ijaws and Igbos have a score to settle. When the Nigerian state disappears, the Igbos would seek vengeance for what was done to them. You do not kill two million Igbos and think that there would be no grievance and vengeance, do you? The seeds of mutual destruction have been planted in Nigeria and every which way you look at it there will be rivers of blood. 

 The alternative is to restructure Nigeria and make every ethnic group a state within the Nigerian federation, and form a national government that is not the denizen of thieves. In a true federation each of the constituting states is in charge of its resources. In this light, Ijaw state should be the owner of the oil resource coming from it. However, as in the USA the businesses mining oil and individual citizens must pay federal and state income taxes. The central government needs money to carry out its functions. Corporate and individual taxes are often as high as forty percent. All Nigerians and businesses in Nigeria must pay, at least, twenty percent of their annual incomes to the federal government in taxes. (I must make it abundantly clear that I am not one of those Africans that want to break up the already small African states. In fact, I want to expand them; I am an Africanist and work for a United Africa. I am not an ethnic revanchist at all. In that light, I have written painful truths about my so-called ethnic group, Igbos.)

 Each state must be economically self sufficient and should not wait for the central government to go steal Ijaw oil revenue and come share it with it.

 If each state is expected to be economically viable and pay its way we would not have the many states we currently have in Nigeria. We would have no more than fifteen states; ten made from each of the major ethnic groups…Igbo state, Yoruba state, Edo state, Ijaw state, Tiv State, Efik state, Uhrobo state,  Hausa state, Kanuri state etc and the smaller ethnic groups lumped into additional contiguous five states. I have covered this subject in other writings.

 For now what is worth noting is that Hausas and Yorubas are stealing Ijaw oil money and that that is the unvarnished truth. It is high time that Nigerians learned how to speak the truth and quit beating around the bush when they talk about the trouble with Nigeria. The trouble with Nigeria is that it is a country ruled by thieves. The rulers of the empire of thieves exist to hijack oil revenue from the Niger Delta; they do not exist to develop Nigeria but to steal from her!

 The only reason why these criminals steal what does not belong to them is because they have the military power to do it. There is no such thing as justice in their behavior.

 And before we get carried away by sentimental considerations of what is just, let us remember that nature is amoral. In nature, as Thomas Hobbes pointed out in his seminal book, Leviathan, the powerful enslave the weak. It is a predatory world we live in, a dog eat dog world, and tigers eat sheep. Don’t cry for me, Argentina, Eva Peron said.

 I do not cry for Ijaw folk; as I see it, they are getting what is coming to them and from this sad experience would learn what politics is all about. They will learn to make peace with their neighbors and not betray them. In politics there are no permanent alliances; there are only temporary arrangements that serve political actors current interests. The current nightmare in the Delta will, sooner or later, end. The men from the north will one day pack up and leave. 

 Igbos and Ijaws and Efiks must coexist and therefore must find a way to make arrangements that serve their mutual interests.

 Ijaws do not have to like Igbos; in fact, they have a right to be wary of Igbos design on their territory. That been said, they still have to deal with Igbos. In politics you do not have to like those you form alliances with. During the Second World War, Churchill and Roosevelt hated the Bolshevik Stalin with passion, and wanted him dead, but they formed an alliance with him to defeat the evil genius called Adolf Hitler.

 Igbos are a difficult people to deal with; you ought to ask me about that, yet they must be dealt with. Until the Ijaw learns how to deal with the Igbo, well, the thieves from the North and West will continue stealing their oil wealth. (And as long as they rely on stealing will not develop the entrepreneurial and political skills necessary for governing a well running modern polity. It is in our mutual interests to teach these gangsters to stop stealing too much and for the first times in their unproductive lives work for their living.)

 This essay is my advice for the Ijaw, given to them for free; they ought to pay me a consultancy fee for it!  Well, I know the value of what we did not pay for!

PS: I wrote this essay after reading Edwin Madunagu’s piece, Reflections on the Niger Delta, published on the editorial pages of the Guardian (6/25/2009). In general, Madunagu comes across as a utopian socialist writing fairy tales for school children but in this particular piece he appeared to understand the nature of real politics. He talked about the collusion of Ijaws and the Nigerian state in defeating Igbos and how the Nigerian state is currently rewarding the Ijaws for their cooperation with the current Nigerian “police action” in Ijaw land. I particularly appreciated his description of the role Isaac Adaka Boro played in defeating the Biafrans. This piece gave me the impression that Madunagu has finally grown up, discarded that school boy socialism of his. In the past, he tended to come across as an anachronistic relic from the era when socialism, communism and Marxism were political chic and he amused Nigerians with his understanding of them. In his present piece he seemed a mature political observer and that prompted me to reinforce his views with this essay.

Ozodi Thomas Osuji, PhD

June 27, 2009

ozodiosuji@gmail.com

Robot  # 1 | 28.06.2009 07:56

This is an essay on political realism. It points out that given the nature of politics, a competitive game where the strong dominate the weak and steal from the weak, that the current powerful groups in Nigeria, Hausas and Yorubas, are dominating Nigeria’s other ethnic groups and stealing oil from the Niger Delta. This is not an occasion to become emotional for it is the nature of the phenomenon called politics. It ended with a little advice for the Ijaw, assuming that they want to get rid of the parasites sucking oxygen out of their bodies. ...Read the full article.

denker  # 2 | 29.06.2009 06:30

At the moment these two groups use the Nigerian military, which they dominate, to steal oil (money) from the Niger Delta. They use the money they stole to develop Hausa land and Yoruba land. And to mask their stealing they throw some crumbs to the other ethnic groups. Incidentally, by receiving money from Abuja the non-Hausa-Yoruba states are made culprit in stealing Niger Delta oil. Without mincing words, these two groups are thieves; they take what does not belong to them. Ijaw oil does not belong to them; it belongs to Ijaw people. ..in chorus, say it loud. They are bunch of BANDITs!

denker  # 3 | 29.06.2009 06:54

As Igbos say, let the truth be said and shame the devil. As far as Hausas are concerned Ijaws are Igbos. See, when they killed Igbos in the north they did not distinguish between Igbos and Ijaws, they killed Ijaws, too. No doubt about that. We are 50% Igbos. Oil, let me repeat, oil, was the real reason why Hausas and Yorubas fought the Igbos. I do not think that any honest Yoruba will deny this fact! Igbos have a tendency to paranoia, so why not appeal to their paranoia by telling them that Hausas are out to get them? :p:p:p:D:D:D

cheta ojukwu  # 4 | 29.06.2009 18:10

Mazi Osuji, in fact, you are a son of the soil. In my opinion, You have done justice to the Niger-Delta imbroglio. You are a man of full wisdom. Nothwithstandingly, Biafra is more accepted than Ala-Igbo. According to an Igbo Chieftain and a Biafran hero-Col J. Achuzia, the Ijo's proposed Biafra as against Enyimba or sort of prior to hostilities with Nigeria.There are about 27 percent of non-Igbo people in the then Eastern Nigeria and it will be unfair to them to name the country Ala-Igbo. Cheta nwa Ojukwu. Cultural Secretary, Igbo Youths UK.

Chief Kalu  # 5 | 30.06.2009 12:57

Another good write up. Thought provoking too.

Agidimolaja  # 6 | 01.07.2009 03:35

It pained me so much each time I read articles by some of our people who are parading themselves as Phd. holders. I discovered to my amazement that while some of those folks may have actually been awarded the Phd degree,nevertheless the articles they write,the opinions they express sometimes set them out as having graduated but never really educated. There are quite some of them on my list here that I simply nicknamed "intellectual 'mugus' ". Although they write in good English,and they seem to be more English than the people of England, but the opinions they expressed and how they expressed them can possibly make the sun to start rising from the west. I read the article written by one of those intellectual "mugus' named Thomas Osuji.Trust me,I found out recently that this man is so uneducated, proud and silly. His article, REAL POLITICS AND THE NIGER DELTA QUESTION has no other place than garbage can.The article stinks like Irish pig. It is a long article as it is characteristic of the man,therefore,time and space will not permit me to respond word for word.I shall simply touch those that I considered as more important. It is sad that this uneducated Phd. holder is an ardent student of European history but he knew nothing about the history of his homeland. Osuji reported to us that he stayed away from political issues because he sees no reason in making noises about things that are not going to change. In politics,it is not so.In politics some things will change while somethings will not change.That is why there are constitutional amendments which is practiced in all democratic societies, including USA. Here him again. "IN NIGERIA,HAUSAS/FULANIS AND YORUBAS RULE. IGBOS,ANOTHER LARGE ETHNIC GROUP IN NIGERIA THAT COULD BE POLITICALLY RELEVANT,ARE A DEFEATED PEOPLE .......THEY ARE UNWELCOME GUESTS IN THE LAND.... While he is parading himself as a Phd. holder,this man talks like someone who have never been to school at all. Apart from the stupidity in those statements,this man is more than guilty of the same offence for which he at one time accused Chinua Achebe.Osuji is hereby falsely dubiously hammering on the so called Igbo marginalization. But,are Igbos marginalized in Nigeria? Only a blatant liar will say, yes. If Igbos are not wanted in Nigeria,why then was no one tried and executed for their activities before and during the civil war?It is on record that no one was ever charged to court on that sad matter.Even the Jan.15 boys who started the whole mess were eventually pardoned. Emeka Ojukwu the then Biafra leader was also pardoned and allowed to run for political offices. The second Republic Vice President,Alex Ekwueme was an Igboman. After the civil war,huge amount of money was voted for rehabilitation and reconstructions of Igbos.In most political parties,Igbos feartured prominently. Only a fool will say it, that Igbos are unwelcome in Nigeria. Here him again. HAUSAS AND YORUBAS ARE THE LORDS OF CONTEMPORARY NIGERIA ....THEY ALTERNATE WHO RULES, FROM HAUSA TO YORUBA,FROM YORUBA TO HAUSA;FROM MURITALA MOHAMMED TO OLUSEGUN OBASANJO,FROM OBASANJO TO SHAGARI,FROM OBASANJO TO UMARU YARADUA,BUT NEVER IGBOS. Pls can someone tell this uneducated Phd. man that when Sir Tafawa Balewa was murdered,the next Head of State was Gen.Aguiyi Ironsi,an Igbo man. Can someone remind him that the first Governor General and President of independent Nigeria was Azikwe,an Igbo man. When Ironsi was murdered,the next Head of State was Yakubu Gowon.He is neither an Hausa man nor a Yoruba man,he is an Angas. How then are Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba alternating? When Muritala was again murdered,the next man and the senior most military officer replaced him,that is how it ought to be.That senior most who also was the Deputy to the killed Head of State happened to be a Yoruba man. When Shagari was ovethrowned, Buhari,a Fulani man came in.It was not another Yoruba man. When Buhari was overthrowned,IBB came in, not a Yoruba man. IBB is a Gwari. After IBB came Shonekan,a Yoruba man.After Shonekan,Abacha came in.Abacha may have been born and grew up in Kano,Abacha was however not an Hausa/Fulani.Abacha was a Kanuri.His tribal marks testified to it.After Abacha came Abdulsalam.He too is Gwari like IBB before Obasanjo made a dramatic second coming.Where then is Osuji's proof of alternating between Yorubas and Hausa/Fulani? The only thing that is eluding Igbos however is Presidency.The fact that Igbos have not succeeded in capturing the Presidency is not because of any hidden plan to deny them of the Presidency.The fact remained the same that Igbos have not been able to win a Presidential election. As long as Igbos are picking the nose with the wrong finger,it will continue to be difficult,if not impossible for them to win Presidential election. The man is not done yet with his bunch of useless nonsense. Hear the uneducated Phd. man again. AT THE MOMENT THESE TWO GROUPS USE THE NIGERIAN MILITARY,WHICH THEY DOMINATE,TO STEAL OIL(MONEY) FROM THE NIGER DELTA.THEY USE THE MONEY THEY STOLE TO DEVELOP HAUSA LAND AND YORUBA LAND..... WITHOUT MINCING WORDS,THESE TWO GROUPS ARE THIEVES,THEY TAKE WHAT DOES NOT BELONG TO THEM.IJAW OIL DOES NOT BELONG TO THEM.IJAW OIL BELONGS TO IJAW PEOPLE. Poor Osuji, pls lend me your ears. As a Phd. hoder that you claimed to be,you must be blind to the truth if you don't know that Yoruba land was already a developed region when oil was no factor.You ought to know that we did not build our Cocoa House,the first skyline in Nigeria with oil money neither did we establish the first TV Station in Africa with oil money.We did not use oil money to build the first modern football stadium in Nigeria - Liberty Stadium- neither did we use oil money to carry out our free primary education program.The Co-Operative Bank,The National Bank,The Housing Estates were never built with oil money. Pls point to a single thing in Yoruba land that we built with oil money,thou blatant liar. Facts cannot be denied. Nowhere in Nigeria is developed with oil money hence Nigeria is today as it is with no equiped Hospitals,no good roads,no electricity,no water supply etc. Oil money is not Yoruba land or Hausa/Fulani land or any other tribe's land. Oil money are in private bank accounts in foreign lands.Most if not all the money have been stolen by corrupt officials.But guess what,these thieves are not restricted to Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani lands.They are well spread out. A large number of them are Igbos,your own people. Worst still,a large number of petrol thieves are Ijaw leaders. Which money did Ibori steal,was it not oil money?Which money did Alamieyeshegha steal,was it not oil money? The man incharge of OMPADEC was from Niger Delta.You knew what happaned to OMPADEC and its huge amount of money. IBB is supper rich,where did his money come from,was it not from oil?Mind you IBB is not a Yoruba man nor Hausa/Fulani man. The money that Orji Kalu stole,was it not oil money? Kalu is an Igbo man. Those who stole the over $16 billion meant for electricity during Obj's time,are there not so many Igbos and Ijaws among the thieves? Yes! You must therefore be out of your mind when you shamelessly called Yorubas and Hausa/Fulani thieves. How about all those thieves among your people.Why was Chuba Okadigbo impeached? Was it not oil money that Yakubu Gowon gave to your Igbo man,Ukpabi Asika after the civil war for reconstruction and rehabilitation?What happened to the huge amount of money? The Board of enquiry set up by Muritala Mohammed founded him guilty of stealing.Ukpabi Asika was an Igbo man. By the way,what school of thought informed you that the oil in Ijaw land belongs to Ijaws? No, it is not their oil.It is the oil of the people of Nigeria.By our constitution,they are not the owner,the Federal Gov't owns it. It is a living fact that cannot be denied that Ijaw people who have lived in that place for centuries did not discover the oil.It was the Gov't of Nigeria that discovered and developed the oil. The question you should ask your Ijaw friends is that,what did their leaders,elites,governors do with the 13% derivation that they have been collecting from the Federal Gov't. All the money allocated to Ijaw land are now cooling in their leaders' private bank accounts,yet Ijaws are taking up arms against the Federal Go;t instead of hanging their rogue leaders. Go up to Hausa/Fulani lands and see how wretched the people therein are.Ask yourself where are all the money stolen by their leaders.The same thing happens to Igbo land. Lagos may have been partially developed,once upon a time.It was developed then because Lagos was the Federal capital, not because it is a Yoruba land. If oil ceases to be in demand by foreign buyers, trust me,Yorubas are not going to suffer a bit because we were already very successful before the advent of oil. Apart from that,Yorubas can live and be very happy within the borders of their Kingdom,we need not stampede other people's land in other to make a living

denker  # 7 | 01.07.2009 04:30

=Agidimolaja;368173>HOGWASH Oil, let me repeat, oil, was the real reason why Hausas and Yorubas fought the Igbos. Mr. Agidimolaja, comment on the quote above. Stop messing around in the Village-Square. BTW, what is keeping Oduduwa in Nigeria?

toksy  # 8 | 01.07.2009 06:18

Originally Posted by Nigerdelta Oil, let me repeat, oil, was the real reason why Hausas and Yorubas fought the Igbos. Was oil the rationale behind Ojukwu's decision to send Igbo "liberation troops" to invade Yorubaland with undisguised intention of ruling the region from Enugu? Was this same "curse" the raison d'être, which compelled Ojukwu to invade and over-run the mid-west region?

denker  # 9 | 01.07.2009 06:27

toksy, what is stopping the Oduduwa Nation from declaring Self Determination? As far as I'm aware the Igbos/Ijaws will not fight them.

toksy  # 10 | 01.07.2009 07:35

what is stopping the Oduduwa Nation from declaring Self Determination? As far as I'm aware the Igbos/Ijaws will not fight them. I have already answered your question above, on another thread.

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