USA Africa Dialogue Series - ANTI-SOUTHERN TERRORISM AND POLITICAL ECONOMY IN NORTHERN NIGERIA : OBI NWAKANMA : LET IGBO GO - MY FATHER AND RELATIVES WERE KILLED IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

A very rich thread on anti-Southern terrorism, represented by what I describe as the pogrom culture of Northern Nigeria, directed against Southern Nigerians in the North, and its relationship to Northern political economy. 

The thread is clear enough even though the earlier discussions are  at the bottom. 

The thread discuses incidents and issues spanning the the 1960s to the present.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ugo Harris Ukandu <abujarock@gmail.com>
Date: 10 February 2012 04:29
Subject: ||NaijaObserver|| OBI NWAKANMA LET IGBO GO - MY FATHER AND RELATIVES WERE KILLED IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

 

OBI NWAKANMA LET IGBO GO - MY FATHER AND RELATIVES WERE KILLED IN NORTHERN NIGERIA, WE LEFT NORTHERN NIGERIA TOTALLY

AND THE WORLD TODAY STILL  HAVE MANY BETTER PLACES FOR PEACE LOVING PEOPLE.

 

 

 

Obi Nwakanma,

 

 

Please my dear brother,  I have read you several times in these forums asking Ndigbo to stay in Northern Nigeria and fight back, a place for obvious reasons

they are not wanted. Nigeria is not a country but merely a geographical area of groups of tribes and people and nothing in common among them. When  reasonable people and reasonable majority  keep quite and are silent you should get the message. The reasonable majority in Northern Nigeria are silent and are not coming out to protect the Christians or minority tribes in the North. Even Northern Christians are in danger and we know it. That majority in North are not coming out to fight for justice to protect Christians and minorities and you should get the message loud and clear. I have stopped blaming the Moslem Hausa Fulani not for these massacres,  and I now look at Igbos who cannot learn to go HOME or seek other places on this Earth that can protect  them - Northern Nigeria is not one of them. Just look at what is happening in the middle belt states like Jos, Plateau, Tiv, Taraba, Zango Kartaff, Benue etc. and you can see the internal fire and nakedness that has engulf the North, and then what is an Igbo man doing in Mubi, Sokoto and Maiduguri in 2012 - hoping on failed state Nigeria to protect them?

 

 

 

 

 

 

My brother, My father and many of my relatives were killed, murdered, massacred in Northern Nigeria beginning from the 1950s,  and my family and relatives keep

moving to so called SAFE places in the North then like Jos, Bukuru, Zaria, Kafanchan etc. Do you know that thousands of Igbos were eventually killed in the

so called SAFER places in the Northern than in Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto etc. Do you know that thousands more Igbos and Christians from southern Nigeria were killed and massacred in isolated and safe Northern villages and small towns than is recorded and many died  without any body knowing anything about them, just because they were listening to people like you. According to one news story, One of the Abuja Bomb victims on Christmas day 2011 bombing  was living in hot bed Kano, and he decided to move to Abuja suleija (SAFE PLACE) and that was were he was killed eventually - IGBOS ARE INCREASINGLY BECOMING JUST STUPID. WHAT IS DRIVING US FROM OUR LAND - WHAT. THE KIDNAPPERS, RITUALISTS AND 419ERS ARE OUR RELATIVES AND RELATES, AND WE HAVE TO STAND UP AND FACE THEM AND CHASE THEM AWAY FROM IGBO LAND AS A DUTY FOR IGBO NATION. WHAT IS STOPPING IT.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obi Nwakanma, you cannot live every where you want even here in America. Some zip codes and neighborhood will not let you in IN this country,  but why are you not living in Alaska. it is safe and comfortable and got good living indexes, Why are you not living in Idaho which is almost 100 percent white. People really do not have to live any where they want, because there are many reasons that restrict us to only some certain places and you know what I mean. Igbos really do not have to live anywhere they want period. People have to seek out their own comfort zone and Northern Nigeria is not a comfort zone for Igbo and Christians period. We have live it and tasted it. It is not fun. People have to be safe and comfortable to live in any nation, but in Nigeria no body is safe in certain areas right now and people just have to leave and go back to their neighborhood. It is practised here in America. You have Jewish neighborhood, Italian neighborhood, Mexican neighborhood, Swedish neighborhood, Irish neighborhood etc. Why must Igbo think that they can continue to go live in other peoples neighborhood when Igbo have neglected their own towns and neighborhoods. My brother my family learned the hard and bitter lesson, and we have learn to now live in only where we are wanted and you can figure that out easily.

 

 

 

 

Why are you deceiving these people for Gods sake. There is no safe place any more in Northern Nigeria for Christians, igbos and other tribes,  and how could you fight  back when the is tight gun OWNERSHIP control laws in Nigeria, Nigerian police is poorly trained and equipped. The army barracks and police station are usually the first target of the mob attack.

 

 

 

 

My father was killed because he believed what you are preaching today,  but it was impossible then and it is impossible now. My father and family

were very successful in the North as  business man doing business all over Northern Nigeria, and he trained and moved many of our relatives

to the North, because he felt that it was safe then like you make us believe now. All my family members speak fluent Hausa till today.

 

 

  See how bad it was then, every train, cars and buses coming down from Kano and Kaduna down to Jos, Bukuru, Kafanchan and even up to Gboko, Oturpko,  Benue were stopped and all the Igbo and southern Passengers were massacred by the security agencies who were spear heading the killings.

 

REBOUND

 

After the massacre and killings in the North, My mother brought us all back to the East. We suffered for while especially during the civil war.

We went back to the village and started from farming the land in our village. I am glad to tell you that after coming back to Igbo land,  and we started primary school

etc. and many of us succeeded thanks to the patient and prayers of our late mother. Nine of us became college graduates and we are scattered all over the

world today. My father now has almost 20 grand children and tgreat grand children and 80% of them today are college graduates in different areas and live in different places on this Earth and other are traders and business men and women etc.

 

 

Obi Nwakanma, we did this without living in Northern Nigeria. One do not have to live in Northern Nigeria to make a decent living.

The Jews were very rich in Germany before the world war in 1945. Tthe Jews left Germany after the genocide in 1945 and have few Jews in Germany compared to 1945, but today  the Jews are ten times richer all over the world than what they hard in 1945 in Germany and the Jews found and choosed other parts of the world

that are welcoming to them like the USA, Israel, Brazil, South Africa, Britain, France etc.,  and today the Jews are much richer and are enjoying

the comfort and riches of places that are welcoming to them.

 

 

 

Igbo have to learn to go and live in places that are welcoming,  and have strong laws that protects human rights or Igbos have to expand from their homes lands.

This is the bitter lesson Igbos have to learn to stop this madness forever.

 

 

 

Ugo Harris Ukandu

Nigeria Democray and Justice Project

Washington, DC

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Sent: Wed, April 27, 2011 8:08:32 PM
Subject: Re: WHY THE NORTH IS ANGRY ( AND KILLED MY FAMILY AND GAVE US 20 POUNDS)

Re: WHY THE NORTH IS ANGRY AND KILLED MY IGBO FAMILY AND GAVE US 20 POUNDS

Mr Hamza,

I come from one of the Igbo families who lived in the North and you are accusing of quote " "Outside government in most of the northern states, southerners (particularly IGBOs) run the economies of these northern states. All the major aspects of commerce in the north is controlled by southerners (mainly IGBOs), as such many of these barely literate northern youths feel that (maybe in a childish way) they are supposed to be in control of their economies" unquote Hamza Aliyu

I will here educate you on how Igbos have survived hardship and struggle before the war, during the war and after the war till today. My family and my poor father and relatives and what they represents before they were killed are the stories of 80 %percent of Igbos who travelled to other parts of Nigeria to make a living. After the war many igbos remained in the East Igboland and many returned to North and many members of my family moved to other parts of Nigeria (south West and South South) and others parts of Africa like Benin Republic, Cameroon, Togo, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, some moved to Europe, America. For me I moved to Cameroon with my sister then back to Nigeria and to America.

The question I have is why are Igbos and other Nigerian and African tribes who are doing the same business and trading in other parts of Nigeria and other parts of West Africa not being killed and massacred on a constant basis for religious and ethnic reason like it happens in Northern Nigeria constantly. Why is this not happening in other region of Nigeria and other parts of West Africa since after the war, but it has continued in the North with many reasons attributed to it, but the same prevailing economic situation that is in the north is also in other places in Nigeria and West Africa and yet they do not go and massacre people constantly for religious and ethnic reasons.

Please examine the scale of Igbo suffering and the destruction Igbos experienced, and yet Igbo have picked up their pieces and loss and are moving on Stating with my family. AFTER IGBOS LOST THE WAR EVERY TRIBE AND ETHNIC GROUP IN NIGERIA HAD ADVANTAGE AND WERE LEADING IGBOS IN ALL MEASUREMENT OF QUALITY OF LIFE, AND IGBOS WERE TRAILING BEHIND EVERYBODY INCLUDING OUR NEIGHBOURS BY FAR AND IGBO WERE DESTITUTE 10 YEARS AFTER THE WAR, BECAUSE THE RECOVERY ACTUALLY TOOK IGBOS OVER 20 YEARS. EVEN MANY IGBO WOMEN ABANDONED THEIR FAMILIES TO MARRY SOLDIERS AND OTHER TRIBES IN DESPERATION TO SURVIVE AND IGBOS CALLED THEM (AGARACHA MUST COME BACK) . TODAY MOST OF THOSE WAR CONQUERED IGBO WOMEN ARE ASHAMED TO COME BACK TO IGBOLAND, AND MANY OF THEM DIED A LONELY LIFE AS THEIR SO CALLED SOLDIERS HUSBANDS ABANDON THEM TO MARRY YOUNGER WOMEN. THEY ARE ALL OVER NORTHERN NIGERIA AND WESTERN NIGERIA AS 3RD AND 4TH WIFE AND VERY UNHAPPY AND WE HAVE THEM MANY FROM MY AREA. This was how bad it was in Igboland from 1966 to about 1975. It was really bad for Igbos then after the defeat.

WARS AND CONSEQUENCES IN IGBOLAND

To start with, if you look at the wars going on in Libya now for two months just look at the suffering, deaths, destruction, hardship and the havoc it is creating under two months. Look at the actual war in Iraq it lasted for 6 months and the rest is occupation for stability, and look at the war in Afghanistan it lasted for two months and the rest is occupation and stability and all these wars were prosecuted and deployed by world powers.

Biafran Nigerian war lasted for three and half years (31/2) of constant bombing, destruction and starvation prosecuted and fought on Nigerian side for three and half years were WORLD POWERS who supported Nigeria against Biafra were Britain, Russia, Egypt, All the Muslim and Arab league Nations supported Nigeria, and almost all African OAU members except only 5 or 6 OAU African countries supported Biafra without physical help or supply and all of them were weak nations, and Biafra was able to hold on and fought like brave MEN AND WOMEN for almost 4 years WITHOUT OUTSIDE HELP AND PRODUCED THE WAR TOOLS BY THEMSELVES. This will tell you the scale of destruction of this war to Igbos. Igboland infrastructure and life was totally destroyed in Igboland within this almost 4 years of war. Infact Biafran Nigerian war is the 7th longest modern combat war after Iran Iraq War, Vietnam War, second world war, Sudanese war, Congo war, Angola War, and it is the 4rd longest combat war in Africa after Sudanese war, Congo, Angola wars, just because Igbos want to separate from and be free from Nigeria, and Nigeria refused and still people likeyou and some Northerners can not let Igbos be who they want to be. Biafra genocide was the highest first black on black genocide before you had Ruwanda genocide, Sudanese genocide etc. and these are the real issue about the trauma and suffering Igbos went through and lossing almost three million adults and children.

MY FAMILY EXPERIENCE IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

I will tell you my poor family from Igboland experience in the North from 1964 election, but you know Nigeria crisis and killing of Igbos and southerners in the Northern Nigeria stated many years before 1960 and non of my family members were or is a politician then or now and none has access to Nigerian Governments money, and none has ever been a government contractor, because we new that it is made for few in Nigeria then and now and we pursued farming, trading, buying, selling and education as our way to get out of poverty. Today we have broken the circle of poverty in my family in any standard of measurement you can use American standard, European standard or Nigeria standard. we, my fathers family and my whole extended family have passed that poverty index, but we are not rich like millionaires or billionaires, but we are rich with confidence and Gods blessings of life and good health as least today, and we are not dependent on Government to do anything for our family and we have never felt that way from my fathers time. We only use opportunity God and the system provides.

Hamza, to break the poverty circle, everybody have to work hard with their senses, head, body, family, relationship, behaviour, attitude, learning, education and be civil with law and order. To break the circle of poverty and breaking from poverty does not mean one has to be a billionaire or millionaire, but to try to be less problematic to society and forget about basic government help, because too much Government help creates dependency. Government has a responsibility of say 30 %percent and the other 70% percent is the responsibility of the individuals. Government can provide school, roads, and other basic infrastructures but individual has to use them to achieve the other 70% percent individual success rate and in Africa individuals have to do more to survive because of the prevailing situation in Africa.

Startingt with my family as an examples of what 80% percent of Igbo family experiences in Nigeria, Your logic does not make sense on why the North is angry, because after the Nigerian Biafran Civil war, Igbos properties and bank accounts were seized and taken away from them. Igbos lost everything they owned and many other assets were lost and taken by the Government and by other tribes including the Hausas, Yorubas, and other tribes all over Nigeria and they benefited from our loss, and I mean Igbos lost all of their assets all over Nigeria, Igbos lost their landed properties and houses, and Igbos lost all the opportunity they hard before the war. In fact Igbos started from scratch and from nothing still being hounded by the Nigeria Government and other tribes.

Igbos had no peace or comfort before and after the war. Igbos also lost their place in Nigerian Government position and place in the civil services, lost their place in the Nigeria army, navy, air force, police force and lost their place at the Federal and Eastern Region Government. Igbos lost when the former Eastern Region was broken during the war by removing them from Eastern Region thereby creating the abandon property problem in Eastern Region like in the present day Rivers State, Akwa Ibom, cross Rivers and Bayselsa states. Igbos also lost their properties all over Northern Nigeria, Lagos, Benin, Ibadan etc. Igbo future was destroyed and setback by this war and finally the Federal Government of Nigeria came with the shocker - THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA SEIZED ALL IGBOS BANK DEPOSIT IN ALL THE BANKS IN NIGERIA, AND GAVE THEM ONLY 20 POUNDS EACH NO MATTER IF YOU HAVE ONE MILLION POUND, TEN MILLION POUNDS OR 50 POUNDS. IGBO PROPERTIES AND ASSETS WERE DEVALUED AND RENDERED WORTHLESS NO MATTER THE VALUE AND WORTH ALL OVER NIGERIA..

Hamza, my family, my large relatives and many Igbo families and many Families I know lost all of their bank account deposit, lost buildings, houses and landed properties in Jos, Bukuru, Kafanchan, Kano and Kaduna etc, AND IT RETARDED IGBO EDUCATION AND SOCIAL FUNCTION FOR THREE AND HALF YEARS (31/2) DURING THE WAR AND THEN IGBO MARGINALIZATION STARTED FROM THE END OF THE WAR IN 1970 UP TILL 1990 AND STILL ON GOING IN MANY INSTANCES JUST BECAUSE IGBOS WANT TO SEPARATE AND BE ON THEIR OWN.

My father was killed and many of my uncles, relatives and cousins were killed also. I can still remember the cry of little children and women at Jos railway station when the mob surrounded the station full of Igbos and southerners who were struggling to run back to East and Southern Region. I saw as a child dead bodies all over the road to the rail way station. The police and Army claimed they were there to protect us, but we later found out that they were conniving with the mob to massacre the igbos, and other southern people. As I am writing this today i feel dejavu all over again over and over again all the time for families and lives lost. I shed tears each time as a child i remembered what happened and what is still happening.

Hamza, we ran back to the East without anything in the East and my father and others relatives did not return and we started farming in the village and my mother said that she will not let my father dream die and that she will carry on to things my father wanted for all of his children and that was education. When we returned from the North we did were like strangers in our village and still the war was going on, and we were running from one bush to the next and from one refugee camp in my village to the next.

Hamza in the name of God no member of my family was ever a politician and no member of my family had any good government work. Hamza, my father did not finish elementary school education because of hardship before he left to fend for himself. All my family engaged in trading, buying and selling. None of my family held any government job and no member of my family had access to Nigerian Government money or contract, and so we started as farmers and traders. my mother was a seamstress and tailor. As a child I knew my father only as a trader of yam and food stuffs and my mother was trader and seamstress.

We came back to the East and it was not easy. My mother had 9 children with no father and the oldest was just 20 years old still in high school in the North and could not finish because of the war.

Hamza, the Igbo spirit of my mother, father and my brothers sustained us. my mother died some years ago but we achieved success as she helped to produce 7 (seven) University graduates in my family and 2 (Two ) special education diplomas. Adding my father and mother grand children now we have produced 17 college graduates in every field of studies and are living independently and we are living all over the world in USA,Africa, Europe, Nigeria, Aba, Umuahia, Enugu, lagos, Abuja etc. and we thank God and honor the great spirit our father gave us for surviving.

we did it with nothing and only 20 pounds.

Hamza we did it with village farming after the war, some confidence and we did not depend on the Government or any body. We only carried out our fathers wish, and may I also remind you that my father left Igbo land around 1940 as a young man from a poor farming family in Igboland to Northern Nigeria and he succeeded and had a family and built a business. We came back empty handed without any thing and started afresh after the war

I want to finally remind you that being poor is not a reason to be stupid. Being poor is not a reason to destroy other people. Also being poor and if no body educates you, if no body train you or nobody help you is not a reason not to educate your self or help yourself. some of the most successful people in this world educated themselves and lifted themselves out of poverty.

poverty is not enough reason to be ignorant and refuse to learn, because some of the most law abiding and good people in this world are poor people.

Ugo Ukandu

Washington, DC

On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 9:29 AM, hamza aliyu <hamingra@...> wrote:

thank you mr paul for at least agreeing that economics rather than religion is fueling these criminal acts.

the concept of corporate social responsibility is what i am proposing as one of the various soultions (not the solution!) to the problem in the north.

"But that is as far as your credits go; your thesis that southerners could emancipate Northerners is irresponsible to say the least"

the thinking behind your above statement beats me! I always thought that we have always insisted that corporate entities who make their profits from a particular locality, should as a matter of social responsibility, give back a token of this to help in the development of the community.

I never proposed that the "southerners should emancipate the north"! or that is that what MTN, banks and other corporate entities are doing in nigeria, emancipating us?

The problem we have is that we, with all our educational qualifications, still cannot apply creative thinking to everyday problems. The FGN in dealing with the Niger Delta problem employed creative thinking and we are better for it today!

Mr Paul, am sure you know that be littling a human beings beliefs can never allow you the opportunity to proffering solutions to problems he or she is facing. We must learn to communicate solutions rather than prejudices. for the northerner, religion is a very important aspect of living, and except you want to convert him, the only way he can change is if you provide solutions that does not debase his religion. Your achievements in life today is more to do with the choices you made than with your beliefs! So it would be unhelpful for you to say that the "fuedal systems" (why not call it exactly what you mean, ISLAM) practiced in the north are responsible for their problems (at least that is what i got from that statement!).

I still feel that CSR is a good way of solving the problem. AND WHO SAYS IT IS OUT OF PLACE FOR THE SOUTHERN MERCHANTS TO EMANCIPATE THE NORTH!

did africans not get "emancipated" by the WHITEMAN'S AND ARAB religions!

hamza

From: Paul Oranika <oranika@...>
To: OlaKassimMD@...; nigerianid@yahoogroups.com; omoodua@yahoogroups.com; NIDOCANADA@yahoogroups.com; nigerianobserver@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 1:10 AM
Subject: Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] To Hamza-- WHY THE NORTH IS ANGRY

Letter to Hamza Aliyu

Mr Aliyu stated:

"Outside government in most of the northern states, southerners (particularly IGBOs) run the economies of these northern states. All the major aspects of commerce in the north is controlled by southerners (mainly IGBOs), as such many of these barely literate northern youths feel that (maybe in a childish way) they are supposed to be in control of their economies. Now one may say this is not the fault of the southerners, but is it not the same reason that the Niger Delta “militants†gave for taking up arms. People feel that they should be in control of the “goose that lays the golden egg†, in this case buying and selling! Of course, it is unrealistic and downright stupid for anyone to say that southerners (especially IGBOs who have made an art of commerce) to leave the north, but it is time that IGBO commerce merchants start training and setting up northern youths to stand on their own, the same way they set up their kith and kin. It is unbelievable that an IGBO merchant would live in a place for 30-40 years and did not build the capacity of ONE indigene of the community to become like him, rather 10-15 youths from IGBOLAND would be beneficiary from his sojourn in “Hausaland†. Can a Hausa man do same in IGBOLAND? Now that is not sustainable development!"

Hamza Aliyu

Dear Hamza

I think you deserve some praise for your honesty and boldness to put forth your writing above. The credit you deserve comes from the fact that you are honest and willing to define these problems rightly from the economic angle which I strongly believe and have often mentioned and referenced in my past writings that the underlying causes of these sectarian violence in Northern Nigeria have economic roots and implications.

In doing this you have also bankrupt the psychoanalysis peddled here that the reason why our Igbo brothers and sisters are attacked in the north is because they insult people. Such infantile propositions have been settled here once and for all. Yes these attacks in the north are resulting from the economic angle and nothing else. But that is as far as your credits go; your thesis that southerners could emancipate Northerners is irresponsible to say the least. The problem of the North however is that the youth anger is often directed to the wrong people. The southern merchants in the north belong to a different class of Nigerians, these merchants whether they come from the east or the west are largely individuals who worked hard all their lives to acquire their wealth through their sweat.

The anger of the Northern youths may be understood and justified if these youths are directed to the Northern elites and power structure many of whom acquired their wealth through the back door, and instead of using such money to improve the living standards for their constituencies, they often engage in elevated level of ostentatious and conspicuous consumption. Now don’t misunderstand me here as saying that this problem is only directed to the North. There are also similar numbers of southerners who acquired their wealth through the back door.

The reason why the southern youths rebel in the Niger Delta is totally different from the path chosen by the Northern youth. Niger Deltans are fighting against injustice and irrationality of the government that would undermine and degrade the natural environment of their region to exploit the minerals. The government would then use these resources to develop other regions of the country while systematically denying such privileges to the geese that lays the golden eggs. But what about other youths in non Niger Delta areas in the south are they engaged in similar violence and attacks on non Southerners? The answer is no. Many of the southern youths go to colleges and universities both at home and abroad. Some pursue businesses as a way of surviving.

It is also a fact that the feudal systems which are still largely intact in many parts of Northern Nigeria is also an impediment towards economic modernization. Jonathan’s government recognizes the problems of youths all across Nigeria, particularly those in the North and has promises to pursue policies that would address these problems. So for anyone to suggest that Southern merchants in the north are the causes of youth poverty in the north is a simply false. Economic empowerment and transformation comes out of individual resourcefulness and ability to acquire education and skills which are a sin qua non for today’s technologically driven global economy. Unfortunately individuals who fail to understand these realities and focuses on preserving redundant policies practiced under feudal societies are sadly mistaken. This is the same road that India, China, Brazil and other countries are travelling now to attain respectable economic growth and empowerment. It is the same road that the north and the rest of Nigeria needs to travel if we hope to seriously address the mounting problems of the nation.

Those are my views, yours always welcome

Paul Okechukwu Oranika

From: "OlaKassimMD@..." <OlaKassimMD@...>
To: nigerianid@yahoogroups.com; omoodua@yahoogroups.com; NIDOCANADA@yahoogroups.com; nigerianobserver@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, April 25, 2011 6:42:27 AM
Subject: NigerianID | WHY THE NORTH IS ANGRY

Lady Joan and Dr Jack:

Hamza failed to mention the role played (or not played) by northern Nigerian elites

in the pauperization of the masses--mostly youths who are uneducated and unskilled--with no prospects

of ever becoming productive citizens through the labour of their own sweat in any field of human

endeavour.

This is the reason that the first targets of the post-election riots were some notable northern

Nigerian elites, including political leaders as well as traditional rulers whom they accused of supporting GEJ

and thus causing the defeat of their favorite candidate, Buhari.

I also find the general tone of Hamza's comments as cold, callous and without much feeling

for the human lives and limbs that have been lost or destroyed in the riots in northern Nigeria.

Hamza writes casually about Jega being responsible for the youth corpers becoming 'collateral

casualties" because they have become part of the elites simply because they were helping

to conduct elections in northern Nigeria.

Hamza also dodged the question of who is primarily responsible for making 99.99% of the rioting

northern Nigerian youths illiterate in both western (English Language) and (Islamic terms Arabic and the Quran), to the extent that they can

only identify themselves by their language and religion and are willing to maim and kill anyone who does not speak Hausa fluently

or look like them!

Charity begins at home. All Nigerian ethnic groups must first attempt to lift themselves up socio-economically, before demanding

for a Marshall Plan or Amnesty Program from the federal government as a panacea for all that hails their region of Nigeria.

Northen Nigerian elites must carry their own share of the load in lifting their people up the socio-economic ladder in Nigeria.

The majority of the young entrepreneurs including the Okada drivers from southern Nigeria (that Hamza referenced) were also

products of abject poverty. Along the way some find an older brother, sister, uncle or aunt or other relatives and even the occassional benevolent strangers who struggle to loan them some money with which they started their micro-business ventures

There cannot be true peace in a jurisdiction where a few wealthy folks live large and the majority are hungry

and lack access to decent education, basic healthcare, accomodation and other essentails of life.

The idea of assisting the poor by feeding them one meal at a time must give way to one in which the poor

are taught and provided the means to provide for themselves.

"Each one teach One Teach One; Each one Lift One"

along the socio-economic ladder is a recipe for social progress anywhere in the world.

But the solutions must begin close to home!

Bye,

Ola

-----Original Message-----
From: joan.Osa Oviawe <joanoviawe@...>
To: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sun, Apr 24, 2011 11:25 pm
Subject: Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] WHY THE NORTH IS ANGRY

I thought I was the only one offended by Mr. Hamza's casuistry.

By his logic, all the Hausa/Fulani Forex dealers and cattle sellers in various parts of Southern Nigeria should become "socially responsible" corporations- taking full responsibility for the economic welfare of unemployed and restive indigenes. Is this line of reasoning logical?

Saludos,
jOo

On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 8:16 PM, Dr. Omubo Jack <omubo@...> wrote:

Hamza: I really want to maintain my cool, and make sense of what I am writing here. It does make me very sad to read from someone who seems reasonable, comparing the situation of hard working Igbos in the north to "lazy" Alhajis in agbada, loafing around the refineries, petrochemical industries ,and wharfs, making thousands of naira for absolutely doing nothing, in the south. Let us examine a work-day for a mallam in Port Harcourt at a refinery or a petrochemical outfit. He wears his agbada, and drives to the site. He has his fellow Hausas in every strategic positions in all federal government outfits. who give him contracts to lift oil, or other products. The Alhaji does not even understand what is written on the paper. He calls an Igbo man, who gets a tanker and a driver, and lifts the oil to its final destination. The Alhaji pays the Igbo man, the driver and the tanker 50% of the profit, and retain the remaining 50% for himself. Now, let us compare that situation to an Igbo man who travels the dangerous terrain, with goods from the south to the north, and spends days to sell the goods for minimum profit. How can you compare the two situations, and believe that they can invoke the same sentiments in the youths of both regions?. This is the most hypocritical, or would I say, the most stupid explanation I have read so far about the unrest in the south and in the north.

I will accept that the unrest in both regions like every other unrest in any part of the world is borne out of poverty , alienation, and hopelessness among the youths. This is where the comparison ends. The unrest in the north has a religious undertone, and the belief that the sharia judicial system is the ultimate answer to creating an egalitarian society in the north, while the unrest in the south has no religious or political inclination. It is spontaneous, and emanated from the instinct to survive a prevailing extincting circumstance. This is a people facing total annihilation due to the wealth buried under their feet, and a government so greedy for the wealth that the habitants are viewed as threats and irritants that should be wiped off if necessary, to reach the wealth. Hassan, do not pray for the same fate to befall your people, as it's with the people of the Niger Delta.

Dr. O. B. Jack

From: hamza aliyu <hamingra@...>

To: NigerianWorldForum <NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com>; "naijaintellects@googlegroups.com" <naijaintellects@googlegroups.com>

Cc: NIDOA NIDOA <nidoa@yahoogroups.com>

Sent: Sun, April 24, 2011 10:38:06 AM
Subject: [NIgerianWorldForum] WHY THE NORTH IS ANGRY

When UMYA launched the Amnesty Programme in the Niger Delta, many in the nation and international community hailed it as a wise move to a particularly thorny issue. One thing that was unique about the uprising in the Niger delta was that the entire “militants†as they are called are young people (what we call youths), some as young as 12 years old armed with AK 47!

Their main anger was the neglect of their home land (where the “golden egg†is laid!). They bombed, killed, kidnapped and assaulted anyone (whether citizen or settler, Christian or Muslim, foreigner or Nigerian) connected to the oil industry. The FGN, in a rare show of wisdom, decided to engage these youths rather than use force. Today militancy is “almost “a thing of the past (even though most of the militant leaders are still vowing to go back to the past activities if they do not get their way!) , and we, the Nigerian nation is better for it.

Now another uprising by young people is rearing its head in the North. Call it Boko Haram or “barbaric and inhumane Muslim zealots in the Northern part of the country†; there is a problem with youths in northern Nigeria.

Pictures of the majority of the rioters (many newspapers carried them) are youths, some not even in their adolescent age carrying sticks and machetes. What does a child know about politics, talk less of feeling angered to the point of killing a fellow human being?

The main issue is why are these barbaric acts targeted at Southerners (specifically IGBOS!)? The answer maybe more simple than we would want to believe. IT IS ECONOMIC ANGER!

The same anger that pushed the youths of the Niger Delta to take up arms against their nation (a treasonable act whichever way you look at it). If the Amnesty programme had not come at the time it did, the Niger Delta and the nation in general would have become ungovernable for anyone. Many people who come to the north for business (particularly IGBOs) do not think that there is need for Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) or need to give back to the community where they make their millions from.

Outside government in most of the northern states, southerners (particularly IGBOs) run the economies of these northern states. All the major aspects of commerce in the north is controlled by southerners (mainly IGBOs), as such many of these barely literate northern youths feel that (maybe in a childish way) they are supposed to be in control of their economies. Now one may say this is not the fault of the southerners, but is it not the same reason that the Niger Delta “militants†gave for taking up arms. People feel that they should be in control of the “goose that lays the golden egg†, in this case buying and selling!

Of course, it is unrealistic and downright stupid for anyone to say that southerners (especially IGBOs who have made an art of commerce) to leave the north, but it is time that IGBO commerce merchants start training and setting up northern youths to stand on their own, the same way they set up their kith and kin. It is unbelievable that an IGBO merchant would live in a place for 30-40 years and did not build the capacity of ONE indigene of the community to become like him, rather 10-15 youths from IGBOLAND would be beneficiary from his sojourn in “Hausaland†. Can a Hausa man do same in IGBOLAND? Now that is not sustainable development!

Looking at the crisis in the north as religious or political is being naïve at best and mischievous at worst. Take it from me (I am a Muslim Northerner), 99% of the youths in the north are illiterate in western education and 99.9% are illiterate in Islamic education. But unfortunately, those they identify as “economic masters†are Christians and the only sense of identity for northerners is their language and religion (since they are not educated). I deliberately put language first because during these crises whether you escape or become a victim is not dependent on your religion but on whether you speak the language fluently and look like them. Many Muslims have been victims (killed or maimed) because they dressed in western clothes or could not speak Hausa fluently!

Northern youths are angry like their counterparts in the Niger Delta parts of Nigeria, but are worse off because the “Amnesty programme†they require is not only from the Nigerian government but from Southerners (especially IGBOs) who have the capacity but are unwilling to do it.

That Youth Corps members are targeted primarily this time around is not by mistake. They have been identified as part of the system and no longer non partisan. (JEGA did not think through about using the NYSC especially the effect it would have on the scheme itself). It is unfortunate that the NYSC is collateral in this economic war.

The IGBOs need the north (there is very little space and capacity in IGBOLAND to absorb the teaming population of young entrepreneurs from IGBOLAND. So like nomads, they need to move to greener pastures. Northerners are hospitable to anyone and resources like land and labour are easily and readily available. This is not so true in IGBOLAND and YORUBALAND. Therefore there is the need to rethink the very concept of doing business. If for example in a series of ten automotive spare parts shops, 4 are owned by “indigenes†, the trickledown effect economic wise would be enormous and it becomes fairly difficult for rampaging rioters to target these shops as they know that some of their own would be affected. Anger towards the “haves†would reduce as these “rampaging Muslim religious northern youths†would start to believe that sooner than later the opportunity for economic emancipation would come.

Southerners have a golden opportunity to become the economic emancipators of the north but time is running out and the door of opportunity is fast closing. Engaging the rampaging northern youths and building their capacity is the only way to stop this less than animal behaviour that is taking hold in the north. Northern leaders are a product of the system so cannot do much (they even need the same “Amnesty programme†like the youths).

THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW

HAMZA

 

 

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