posted
Rick Friendly neigbors is not something you wake up over night an achive. I do believe in that Baseball field dream slogan that says, "If you built it they will come" A friendly neigbor willing to trade with you depends on what you are selling and what your neigbor wants. As it is today many African countries trades with their neigbors amount to little or nothing, except may be south Africa.
Another point is this who said you have to depend on the trade with your neigbors in today's economy to be viable. During my MBA I took international finance that you talked about. Trades between neigbors sometimes find more resistance than trade with non neigbors. USA trade more with China than Mexico who is few miles away from san Diego and Texas. Many people in US resisted NAFTA more than any other trade treaty. Have you stop to wonder why after almost 30 years ECOWAS is still a pipe dream?. I don't want to get into a shouting match with you, Biafra as a nation may not have to trade with her neigbors in order to have a vibrant economy. I like to remind you that companies go where the labor pool is educated and available, and diversified. otherwise many companies will be headquatered in Mississippi instead of Sillicon valley California, or Burbank and Hollywood. As far as your country Nigeria goes, as long she practices this one size fits all mentality, the SNC you are dreaming is just that a dream. Also as long some of you continue think that breaking up Nigeria is a taboo, our people's standard of living, will continue to lag behind other developing countries.
Thanks for your interesting post. However, you have deviated from the main focus. You see, you are correct by saying that trade knows no boundary. To sum it up, we live in a global village (economy).
Let me now bring you back to the main focus of that debate.
The reference was Switzerland as a model of a prosperous landlocked nation. Switzerland was used as a model to imply that if it can be prosperous as a landlocked State, then the future State of Biafra can also achieve the same prosperity. There was nothing wrong in using Switzerland as a benchmark. Benchmarking, if used properly, is a powerful tool to success.
Where you missed the point was that, our main focus, were on two economic variables.
1. Free access to a seaport(import and export trade)
2. Free access to airspace.
a. Ok, do you expect a landlocked State of Biafra to go and purchase "Rights" to fly out(airspace) of Biafra from United State, Japan, South Africa, or from its surrounding neigbors?
b. Ok, do you expect a landlocked State of Biafra to go and purchase "Rights" to utilize a seaport from United States, Japan, China, Canada, South Africa or from its surrounding neighbors?
c. Did you think that Switzerland, as a prosperous landlock State, purchased "Rights" to airspace or "Rights" to a seaport from Nigeria?
Well, Mr. Biafra, these "Economic Rights" of survival, of a nation, can only be purchased from ones friendly neighbors. Switzerland can only purchase those "Rights" from its surrounding friendly neighbors. Future State of Biafra can only purchase those "Rights" from its friendly surrounding neighbors.
The issue of international trade and international finance came out to answer a question posed by by Mr. Ukaobasi. He was wanting to know if University Professors ever use Switzerland, a prosperous landlocked nation, for classroom discussion? My response was, yes. I emphasized that most Professors discuss the issue, in Internationa trade or International finance classes.
Finally, your post was mere of a text book rehersal than the application, that I am trying my best to present to you and to all others who care.
Posts: 288 | From: California | Registered: Jul 2003
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"…since our neighbours are unwilling to let go of the Gowonian war-time fiction of landlocked Igboland, it is time we introduced water politics big time if only to show who is in charge… Igbo…control 100% of water supply to the Niger delta…may well call the bluff of their detractors by claiming absolute sovereignty over all water originating from Igbo territory….and there is nothing anyone can do about it…"
The favourite topic of Igbo-haters across Nigeria is the issue of Igbo "access to the sea" or lack of it. I have persponally heard even semi-literate folks of non-Igbo hue gloating over this subject as a supposed counter-argument to the Igbo quest for self-determination whenever the issue is raised. Despite evidence to the contrary, it has continued to be a vogue among Igbo haters to wave the mantra of "landlock" each time Igbo people claim their inalienable right to self-determination.
Not that access to the sea is important as these clowns imagine it to be. In fact, the fixation with sea access is a legacy of the cargo cult mentality of our slothful detractors who wake up in the morning, tie their wrappers around their waists, drink ogogoro and sit down, waiting for the whiteman 's ship laden with manufactured goods to berth in their doorsteps for their utmost enjoyment. By contrast, the Igbo economy functions differently, having switched lately from trading to manufacturing. Goods made in Igboland are sold in West, Central Africa and beyond and increasingly those who want our goods come to Igboland by land, air and sea to buy them.
If sea access were that important, why did the state of Biafra (1967-70) continue to function normally long after its access to the sea was blocked? And why does Nigeria with a long coastline lag behind the states of Botswana and even Zimbabwe in human development? Why are Nigerians starving with their long coastline while the landlocked Swiss enjoy the highest standard of living on earth?
Quite clearly, access to the sea is not a pre-condition for national self-determination or even national survival. However, since our neighbours are unwilling to let go of the Gowonian war-time fiction of landlocked Igboland, it is time we introduced water politics big time if only to show who is in charge of these matters. In this piece therefore, we examine the false claim that Igboland is landlocked and warn the originators to steer well clear of a subject that may open a dangerous new dimension to problems of state failure in Nigeria.
"Landlock": Tracing the origin of a Mantra.
The emergence of access to water issue in Nigerian politics is a clear indication of the ability of the black mind to plot evil and compound problems at every level. It is easy to gloat about Igbo access to the sea. But contrary to the gleeful posturing of the addle-headed clique hell bent on introducing water politics, especially in the Niger-delta area, a dispassionate analysis of the water question will yield rather surprising conclusions to the utter chagrin of Igbo adversaries.
The irony is that those who claim ownership of water in our region and seek to control access to it have conveniently forgotten that their territories contribute nothing whatsoever to the water resource of the region and that any activities upstream might well complicate the ecological stability of the Niger-delta region as we know it. To sum it all up: no River Niger, no Niger-delta. In future, Igbo people may well call the bluff of their detractors by claiming absolute sovereignty over all water originating from its territory. And being the dominant power in the area, there is nothing anyone can do about it. So we might as well begin now to get this message through and make clear to Igbo detractors as to who is in charge in the area straight away before this water politics get any further.
To make it brutally clear, Igboland straddles both sides of the River Niger, which gives Igbo people 100% control of water supply to the Niger delta. The Niger-delta itself is a triangle of rivulets and creeks with Aboh, an Igbo territory, standing at its apex. This is the clearest we can get in defining the character of any water related conflict that may arise in the future.
In the Middle East where water politics is far more developed, Israel and Turkey have built a series of irrigations and dams which enables them to turn on and off, water supply to Jordan and other Arab states. Since the Igbo territories on both side of the River Niger are at least not contested, a day may yet come when the Igbo will resort to the Israeli method. We hope it does not come to that in our beloved region. This is both uka and inu for those who wish to introduce water politics to southern Nigeria.
Is Igboland Landlocked?
Hell no! Even when narrowly conceptualised as the five eastern states, Igboland is still accessible to the sea. To start with, the River Niger is navigable up to Onitsha and beyond all year round to any size of vessel. Besides, Igboland is linked to the Atlantic coast through numerous points from Oguta Lake through Orashi River down to Azumini in the eastern delta. As it was during the days of the slave and palm oil trades, so it is today- as far as access to the sea is concerned, Igbo people are spoilt for choice.
With respect to other areas of Igboland outside the five core states, the choice is theirs. During the Biafran War, the Nigerian regime and their advisers were well aware of the territorial sweep of Igboland but were hell bent on enacting a fictional tale of the landlocked Igbo.
In fact, as early as 1958 when some elements started to demand the creation of the s-called Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers State, the British colonial masters made it quite clear, after a careful study, that such a state would be impossible to create because it would not be contiguous, being cut into two by Igbo territory which stretched all the way to the sea (Willink Commission, 1958). By this, the Commission was referring to not just Port Harcourt, but Igbo settlements in Bonny, Opobo and other parts of the eastern Niger-delta. The reality of these settlements cannot be wished away.
On Port Harcourt, a city which has been the butt of unmitigated anti-Igbo resentment, the Willink Commission concluded as follows:
"The Rivers Province includes 300,000 Ibos of whom 250,000 are in Ahoada Division and 45000 in Port Harcourt. Port Harcourt is built on land that belonged originally to an outlying branch of the Ibo tribe called Diobu. But it is largely inhabited by Ibos from the interior who have come to trade or seek employment" (Willinks Commission, Colonial Office. London, 1958).
Not even Isaac Boro, the Ijaw creator of Niger-delta republic managed to include Port Harcourt and southern Igbo territories in his dream republic. But in order to perform the abracadabra of a landlocked Igbo territory, Mr Gowon and his supporters had to disregard everything that is known about the history, geography and ethnography of southern Nigeria. This fiction has since been compounded by the so-called boundary adjustment commissions etc. It is now up to those Igbo directly affected by the state creation fiction to assert themselves.
Gowon's Psychological Warfare Ploy
The claim that Igboland is landlocked is of recent origin. Prior to the Biafran war, the area historically referred to
as the Bight of Biafra or eastern Nigeria had an integrated economy which linked the hinterland to the coastal areas. This complex economic grid was maintained throughout known history from the period of the slave trade through legitimate commerce to modern times. What then is the origin of the claim that Igboland is landlocked?
The answer lies in the Biafran War (1967-70) when the Nigerian regime acting under the advise of the Harold Wilson Labour government in Britain decided to create a caricature of Igboland which they called "East Central State", an area tucked away between the defunct Cross River and Rivers States. This was part of a psychological warfare against Igbo people. The aim as articulated by Gowon himself was to create an Igbo "Switzerland" in Nigeria.
Let's hear the US Department of state on the matter:
"…Gowon went on to say that… he had therefore been considering various ways of (offering)… Ibos option of seceding and establishing their own "little Switzerland" within Nigeria. From the care with which Gowon led up to this and unusual precision of his language, and with which Ogbu (Edwin) listened and watched me, it was evident that they regarded this as major if not brilliant gambit…I commented that this was new idea to me and asked whether his reference to Switzerland meant that he had in mind landlocked Iboland. He said yes… I wondered whether this move might not lead …in disintegration of Nigeria which he wanted to prevent. Gowon stoutly rejected this possibility….I said I strongly hoped it would not be necessary to take such radical step, and urged that every effort… be made to find a solution…The only new element is Gowon's Iboland idea…a psychological warfare ploy…" (US Department of State. Diplomatic Archives on Biafra, 1967) anti-Ibo sentiments of many Nigerians in Eastern minority areas.
The reference to Switzerland in the same context as Nigeria is a proof of the utter stupidity of Gowon and his clique. Would most Nigerians not prefer a landlocked and little Switzerland than their own pointless state? Anyway the idea of a landlocked Igboland, Gowon's psychological warfare ploy against Igbo people has become the fad among budding Igbo haters and their supporters across Nigeria. Unless this rubbish is nipped on the bud here and now, we may well be heading towards the Middle Eastern style politicisation of water and its consequences.
Effectively, Igbo detractors have refused to dismantle their war time misinformation machine 30 years after the war. Continuing to wage psychological campaign against Igbo people is a gross violation of Igbo rights in post-war Nigeria. Unless this is stopped here and now, Ndiigbo will have no choice but to start fighting back, making brutally clear, the distribution of water resources, access and control in southern Nigeria - maka ndi uta.
Let's now conclude this piece as follows:
1. The 40 million Igbo people have a right to self determination which is both immutable and non-negotiable.
2. Access to the sea is not a pre-condition for and will not circumscribe Igbo right to self-determination.
3. Igboland even when narrowly defined still has access to the sea via several points.
4. The politics of water is a two-way sword which in the final analysis will hurt the originators more than Igbo people. The message is clear: no mater how resentful you are, steer clear of the politicisation of water.5.
5. If our neighbours would not let go of the war-time political fiction of landlocked Igboland, the time has come to lay bare at every opportunity, the true position regarding the control of access to water in the Niger-delta which is 100% in Igbo hands.
Mz Kevin Ani
CIVIL RIGHTS LEAGUE-NG
NSIBIDI PRESS
[ August 25, 2003, 08:03 AM: Message edited by: Amadi O. ]
___________________ achieve Biafra and show the difference Posts: 642 | From: Los Angeles, CA | Registered: Nov 2002
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I find it very interesting that some characters have not responded to this blaringly enlightening post above. Posts: 27 | From: Onitsha | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote: Okwyonwuka, Yours as excellently enunciated above in your last post is well-digested and fully accepted.I am resisting the urge to cold shoulder your gobbledegook as the mere ranting of an ant, full of fury but signifying zip; so i will humor your contumacious disregard for savoir faire a little by engaging you in an educative skull session.
"Addy" like Jagede the poplar teleseries charactar of the seventies, working hard to impress on okwyonwuka of his invisbility and importance. Moron, hold on to your triumphant celebrations, you have no brians, to say the fact, i still hold my feelings hard on you. I challange you to make a post in Spanish language, if you do i promise to respond by posting in both Spanish, Portuguese, Zulu and Shona languages. fool, go figure!
___________________ He likened the second coming of Christ to the realisation of the Biafran dream, stating that at a time people least expect, the much sought Biafra would be a reality..Rev. Fr. Cornelius Ezeiloaku Posts: 622 | From: santiago, chile | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
Quote: --------------------------------------- "I find it very interesting that some characters have not responded to this blaringly enlightening post above."--Mkpume. ---------------------------------------
They will do when they find another handle to replace the 'Osita H. Olisa' they used to disgrace themselves.
In their little mind they thought that using an Igbo handle will make their REHEARSED LIES become the 'absolute truth.'...They were mistaken.
Posts: 997 | From: Germany | Registered: Mar 2001
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