It is extremely troubling to review the catalog of problems Igbo/Biafrans are having with the nigerian state since the end of the war. The most disturbing is how it has come to pass that the natural resources, particularly crude oil, found mostly in Igbo land, are today under total control of our Yoruba arch-enemy. You can go to Igwe Ocha (PH), Egbema, a town that sits in my backyard, and all you find are Yoruba people in full controll of management positions in the oil industry. And yet our engineers and other college graduates roam the Lagos streets looking for none availabe jobs. It must be made clear that these oil industry jobs are Igbo/Biafran jobs, and are being denied the Igbo by Yoruba high-handedness with the BiafraNigerian government.
At the same time, the foreign companies that work with the Yoruba to run the industry have all relocated their administrative units to Yoruba land, providing the financial capital used to fund the ngbati press, which has made it a number one goal to oppose Igbo interests in BiafraNigeria.
I could go on and on, but it's not enough for Igbo/Biafrans to simply talk about the injustice and the arrogance of the Yoruba. Of greater interest is what the Biafrans must do to change this increasingly unbearable situation. Is it going to take another Biafra-nigeria War to get these corrections?
BTW, those who would argue that NdiIgbo/Biafrans are allowed residence in nigeria must realize that the Igbo contributions in nigeria far outweigh anything they get in return in a major inbalance.
[ January 09, 2004, 03:45 PM: Message edited by: Amadi O. ]
___________________ achieve Biafra and show the difference Posts: 642 | From: Los Angeles, CA | Registered: Nov 2002
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The Oil business is just one such incidence. Visit 9th Mile at Enugu and the Coca-Cola industry there is being run by the Yoroba. At first, it was the top management that was Yoroba but now, they are firing the younger Igbo graduates and importing their people. Whoever said that the Yoroba do not like to live outside the SouthWest, is leaving in the past. This people have taken over the Industry even to the clerical level. Our people, the landowners, are mostly drivers and messengers to these foreigners.
Something needs to be done. I am afraid that by the time this their baba or is he uncle in Aso Rock goes, it maybe too late, they would have grown some tap roots.
TGIF. AUDI
___________________ Feel me? Ofu onye ana asi unu abia go. - Ednut Igbo-American . www.airamericaradio.com visit her. Posts: 2447 | From: Mother Earth | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
Amadi O. you've opened another very meaningful thread which should help many of us begin to understand from whence the mosquito bites.
Lever brothers Aba limited where my dad worked as a senior manager before and after the war, full of bright Igbo professionals, is now saturated with unqualified Yoruba managers at all top management and middle management posts, leaving bright young Igbo graduates as usual jobless and looking in from the outside.
When I read the Newspapers and think of the names that I come accross both in private and public industry like Nitel, Nepa, and other public works type organizations, all you see of their management staff for those located in the East, are Yoruba Names.
There must be a solution. In private industry, the Europeans saw an advantage of Lagos as a former capital and seaport and fell for the lip-service of the politicking Yoruba who sought Igbo positions (vacated due to mass migration in fear of their lives) with unparalelled opportunism and have worked hard to their politicking credit to keep it all in the family.
Those same Europeans also saw an advantage to curry favor with their Yoruba host, and with top management positions locked in place by wars end and handed down through nepotistic appointments since then, there has been no chance for Igbo to penetrate the barrier at all.
Those who moved to Lagos no matter how skilled and able, were surrounded like square pegs in a round hole and harnessed of their skills without a commensurate sense of ownership no matter how high they rose on personal merit.
If this battle is not fought at all, then the droves and droves of college graduates which Igbo are producing in the millions yearly all over the world would have nowhere to go but to age in their respective host nations, only to find out when you go home for Christmas or for funerals that the manufacturing industries in your home state are being run by Yorubas, while our talents and contributions are being underused and under appreciated abroad, and our graduate crop is turning to "buying and selling" or outright crime, when unable to open and operate personal enterprise as professionals in their various fields.
___________________ YA CAIN'T KEEP A GOOD MAN DOWN :) Posts: 1182 | From: TEXAS | Registered: Oct 2001
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While the issue raised is no doubt a concern, and perhaps, the result of a calculated attempt to attain a particular goal, I feel that it has the makings of unintended consequencies, that may very well undermine the concealed objectives. I am inclined to view it another way.
Namely, that the presence of these new job beneficiaries in our area will inadvertently create an environment whereby non-Igbos in Igboland, will begin to invest in their place of sojourn, ie., purchase property, start businesses, raise family, generate a tax base and thereby supporting the social systems. This no doubt will provide a level playing field, which in the past had been a one-way affair, culmininating in the harsh reality of discrimination, persecution and acrimony, which led to the loss of Igbo lives, property and security. If the consequence of this iteration of Nigerian political largess, turns out to foster the safeguard of lives and the protection of all property and investments, regardless of ones geographical location, then Igbos would be better prepared for the New Economic Realities, critical for our survival.Posts: 119 | From: USA | Registered: Aug 2001
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My goodness where have you been old pal? yours is one gentlemanly natured set of postings missed on this board.
Yes You are quite right in that perceptive approach and I will endeavor to include that way of looking at it in my consideration of this issue henceforth.
I do have to say however that the positions Igbos occupy in Yoruba or Hausaland today are not nearly as relevant to ownership and decision making capacity as obtains with the Yorubas in Igboland today, furthermore, Igbos as usual are not anywhere as malicious and criminally tribalistic in the pursuit of ambition and status and the nepotistic monopolization of that status for siphoning purposes as the Yoruba have always proven to be.
Per what Ednut was saying let me expantiate on the aggressive and dogged pursuit with which Yoruba occupy these decision making positions and then insulate themselves by filling their immediate subbordinate positions with their own.
If as an Igbo Manager you are stupid enough to be looking for talent based on merit alone, you will be egged on in every possible way as long as that merit goes to a Yoruba, if you try to get an Igbo, something must be found to discredit that person if the position is a sensitive one ie along the path to the top, usually from operations, through lateral training all the way to MD.
If you manage by dint of recognition from a European corporate expatriates observation to elevate, you will get to work the next day to find charms and amulets with some other objects of ritual sacfrifice sitting on your table. For those who ignore and decide to throw holy water on the spot after cleaning it out, you then have to make sure that at any company functions, you are not accepting any already opened drinks, or any overtures from female underlings sent to seek out a usual weak point, if these were not enough, you have to watch the traffic with eagle eyes to make sure no vehicle comes knocking you off based on an appointed mission.
Those who would now jump out shouting Ukaobasi the tribalist am sure will abound, but I say what I'm saying not because I'm Igbo, but because this is exactly how the Yoruba eliminate each other when clawing their way to top positions, after which having attained it, money is borrowed, a block party is thrown in advance celebration of the wealth to be siphoned, streets are blocked off, and borrowed money is sprayed indiscriminately to demonstrate largess, based on anticipated earnings and new status.
The status is most especially prized in that sooner or later money siphoning means will be devised to make up for lost time, and in order to sustain that position for life, together with all the trappings (such as cook steward, drivers, security men, gardeners, company cars, and company house in a GRA), age, if not already fudged on the resume prior to hire, would continue to decrease as the years progress. Usually, many Igbo are not hip to these ongoings and find themselves busting ass to attain elevation based on merit, giving true record, and always worrying about being seen to be neutral and all-inclusive when in positions of hiring and firing.
At the end, in combination with the cut-throat ambition and the intrigues and politicking used to get to the top by Yoruba, including much kissing of asses and bowing and backstabbing, the company is first reduced in standard (except on paper), drained of resources, handled like a personal empire, and then passed onto a tribesman when the inevitable day of retirement approaches. While the company may then diminish to a shell of its old self when being run by Igbo and European top management in equal numbers, it is maintained in some ragged form or fashion as a source of status, and sooner or later another generation with youngblood and new ideas come in to take over and maybe sometimes bring some Europeans in with them.
If a conducive atmosphere is present like the demise of Abacha and the ascendance of Aremu, then they go for the jugular by all out removal of potential Igbo competitors while hiring Igbo sub-underlings to keep operations going and Igbo messengers and drivers to consolidate and drive home the sense of Igbo non ownership and Igbo exclusion.
Many Igbo professionals, falling back even further in retreat, then find themselves willing to do anything to curry Yoruba favor, and so you have a situation where they are ready to sellout other Igbos just to be accepted, both on the private and the public fronts.
From the foregoing, one may see that many of these wounds are self inflicted like Ednut said, and that despite those wounds externally inflicted by others, Igbo have never sat down to observe and review the trends and come up with a plan of how to come out of the debacle.
Ever since Justice Onyeama made that comment about Igbo dominance of all aspects of political, social and economic life of Nigeria following the departure of the Europeans, The Yoruba have made it a point that despite whatever differences they may have amongst each other, they would not permit the upstart young Igbo to fulfill such a belief and at any cost. Can we give credit here and learn from that determination?
Yoruba regularly meet in clubs and professional organizations to determine whose turn it is to occupy a position, and together with advise and intercessions gained from their elders and coupled with their tendency to give advisory positions as honorary board members and managing directors (a paying position mind you) to their retired executives, it is no wonder they have largely succeeded in consolidating their position and maintaining offensive posture (with respect to their stated determination) with the benefit of Aremu’s presidency and much to their long term strategizing focus and credit toward keeping Igbo at bay.
Can we overcome the deficit? It is up to the present generation to think it out. If we continue with the holier than thou approach to operating things in which ownership and supremacy belong to Igbo, or in which Igbos being in Igboland should be Hosts not guests and messengers we will never break the current temporary logjam, no matter how hard we work individually and how much we want to be seen as meritorious fair players. Let us regain momentum and ownership of strategic industries including banking and the press, and guide Yorubas toward “buying and selling in competitive numbers then we will fully be able to review the beneficial impacts of interstate trading and domiciling with regards to a unifying leverage in the “Nigerian" experience.
I hope we can all come up here with some bulleted suggestions on what we are actually doing wrong, how to remedy it, and how to turn things around long term, if indeed our generation is serious about making a concerted effort toward that direction. I look forward to others contributions in that vein, not withstanding the many distractions which will inevitably try to dilute the import of this thread by attempting to derail its general direction with uninspiring side entertainment.
___________________ YA CAIN'T KEEP A GOOD MAN DOWN :) Posts: 1182 | From: TEXAS | Registered: Oct 2001
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Thanks for inquiring about my whereabout. I'm quite fine, just a little busy lately, but I always take the time to check in on the board. Your articulated reasoning in such matters of great import, is by my account unmatched in these gatherings, and have earned my utmost respect and regard.
Who can argue with the description you made so eloquently, in its stark and lucid clarity. Like you opined, we do need to come up with a plan to confront this catastrophic trend. Where do we begin?. I will attempt to profer some thoughts in this regards, in the course of this thread, and encourage others to do so, in what I believe is a pertinent matter, especially, as we begin a new year. It is my hope that we will continue to use this forum as a platform to generate substantive ideas for the renewal of our people.
Posts: 119 | From: USA | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
As expected, the simple-minded one-nigeria Igbos on this board are again going to be naive about Yoruba malicious strategy on this matter. The issue here goes beyond simple analysis of Yoruba intentions. It is a question of control of the God-given wealth of Biafra, its industries and means of production - a national security problem. It is also about how to protect the welfare of our nationals against the aggression of the Yoruba and olusegun obasanjo, whose intentions are to colonize the Igbo nation, using our own people - something the white man could not do.
It is no longer news that the Yoruba leadership, dating back to awolowo, rejected the idea of nigeria as a united nation, with citizenship and residency rights that are valid regardless of where the citizen lives. Being the most parochial, self-centered tribalists in BiafraNigeria, the Yoruba is in the nigerian enterprise strickly for what it can get, particularly resources in other people's territory. It used the long absence of Biafrans in nigerian establishments during the war to hone in the ability to monopolize whole public establishments, including those it should not control for lack of requisite technical or managerial skills such as NEPA, Nitel, the fianancil sector of the BiafraNigerian economy. The Yoruba is also in control of industries that naturally reside outside its own national boundries, such as the oil and gas fields of Biafra. It is like New York blacks going to run the oil industry in Houston. It just doesn't make any sense.
In any case, on what bases do the Yoruba seek to control large public and private enterprises in BiafraNigeria anyway. Is it for the efficiency it brings to these businesses or the value it adds to the organizations? Do we find these businesses and public companies showing performance for the years they have been under the perculiar, parochial Yoruba "shofisticated" tribal management. The answer to both questions is as self evident as the five years of olusegun obasanjo control of the management and administration of BiafraNigeria and the oil fields of Biafra.
Why should Biafra/Igbo continue to subsidize the incompetence, parochialism and arrogance of the Yoruba, who continue to ignorantly assume it knows more about running an organization/country than a bunch of clueless, second-rate technical and industrial administrators.
NdiIgbo/Biafrans, it is time we take a cold, hard look at the malicious intentions of the Yoruba in regard to Igbo/Biafran national interests. Biafra/Igbo have been at the receiving end of Yoruba aggression for too long. Our liberalism and accommodation of harmful opponents must change; we must begin to look at the issue as a matter of Biafran national security. This means that those who collaborate with the enemy for whatever reasons, like ngige, ojo, kalu, iwuanganwu, etc, must be sanctioned with treason and hunted down by the law enforcement arm of MASSOB. Personal relationship with individual Yoruba must remain at that level.
___________________ achieve Biafra and show the difference Posts: 642 | From: Los Angeles, CA | Registered: Nov 2002
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My last entry was directed at those Igbo who would call us tribalists for questioning the undeserved position the Yoruba holds in the ownership and management of public enterprises in BiafraNigeria. It was meant to pre-empt the frivolous argument about one-nigeria that keeps us from taking action to stop the Yoruba from using tribal gang-up and backdoor conspiracy to prevent competition with the Igbo/Biafrans. But your insight and dept of investigation above have laid bare the machanics of how the Yoruba has managed to keep the Igbo/Biafrans at bay despite superior technical and management skills. Now it is up to us Biafrans on this board to come up with effective counter-measures to check the Yoruba treat, which we have allowed to run on for too long.
[ January 11, 2004, 12:17 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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"...second evidence of the reconstuitution of the anti-Igbo axis is the re-emergence of Obasanjo and other key players in the anti-Igbo axis in the current Nigerian political scene....With this analysis in mind, the question arises: what became of the those Igbo-Yoruba meetings of the Abacha era? ...Mz Ani, 1998
The Reconstitution of Anti-Igbo Alliances. (From the archives, July 1998)
Not long ago when there was a prolferation of Igbo-Yoruba Meetings among Nigerians abroad, we raised the question: Why is it that each time Yorubas are pushed to the wall in the Nigerian power matrix, they start seeking for an Igbo-Yoruba rapproachment, but when they are bailed out, they turn against us?
Recent events in Nigeria have confirmed our worst fears about the purpose of those meetings and compelled us to alert Ndigbo to the present attempts to reconstitue old anti-Igbo alliances in the name of "national reconciliation".
It is a known fact that during Gen Abacha's regime, the reactionary civil-military alliance binding Northerners and South-Westerners against Ndigbo came under intense pressure and collapsed, leading to the incaceration of key players such as Obasanjo, Bola Uge, Diya, Adisa etc. During this period, the main concern of South-Western strategists was to reonstitute their alliance with the northerners, an arrangement in which they served as the Juior partner while Ndigbo were marginalised. Many schemes were hatched by south-westerners to achieve these aim. The best known of these was the demand for the release of Abiola to head a government of "national Unity". However, towards the end Abacha's rule when it became clear that he (Abacha) had been adopted as sole candidate for the presidential election, the South-Western strategists completely changed their tactics and started to advocate clandestinely for what they called "the devil's alternative" i.e. the Abiola-Abacha presidential ticket! (Details of this treacherous plot have comprehensively discussed in the Lagos "Guardian" newspaper, April and May 1998 editions).
Two issues are clear from the above: (a) behind the clamour for the validation of the annulled June 12 1993 presidential election laid the desire to reconstitute the anti-Igbo axis. (b) all the schemes hatched by the South-Western strategists including government of "national unity", Abacha-Abiola presidential ticket and even the Diya coup were carefully crafted to exclude Ndigbo.
Given this background, we can assert that the emerging character of the Abubakar's regime points to the re-emergence of the old anti-Igbo axis in the name of "national reconciliation". This assertion is supported by the recent appointments in the military by the regime. In this unique or even bizzare version of "national reconciliation", Abubakar appointed some southern elements including some Yorubas into top positions, e.g.Oladayo Popoola as the commander of the "Nigeran" Army's 2nd Division in Enugu and Ayinla to head the Navy. No Igbo person was appointed to any position whatsoever. Given the so-called "southern solidarity" that was often referred to during the Abacha's regime, one would have expected Popoola, Ayinla and other South-westerners recently appointed by Abubakar to reject such appointments and refuse to assume these positions until Ndigbo (a substantial portion of the "south") is also represented. Have they not gleefully accepted their positions and forgotten about "southern solidarity"? Will this farce stand?
The second evidence of the reconstuitution of the anti-Igbo axis is the re-emergence of Obasanjo and other key players in the anti-Igbo axis in the current Nigerian political scene. Using Obasanjor as an examplar, it is clear that those who harbour intense anti-Igbo agenda are again of the prowl in Nigeria. According to Igbonekwu Ogazimora of the "Post Express", it was Obasanjo (irked by his inability to capture Owerri during the war) who instigated the plot to exclude Ndigbo from any positions of athourity in the Nigerian army. He was reported to have recommended to his Northern allies that Ndigbo should never again be put in a position to "threaten national security". In simple, uncoded language, this means that no Igboman should be allowed into the top echeleon of the army. It has also been revealed by one Onukaba Ojo in a biography of Obasanjo, that he (Obasanjo) was responsible for not only the humiliation of the Igbo leadership who negotiated the end of Biafra in 1970 but also ensured that Ndigbo got nothing from the surrender by recommending to his Northern allies that those defeated in a war could not give conditions. Before Obasanjo's hardline stand, Igbo leaders were insisting on the renegotiation of the 12-state structure in which Ndigbo were not initially consulted. Obasanjo's treacherous stand put paid to that and ensured that Ndigbo were treated as defeated people.
The re-emergence of the key players in the South-Western/Northern alliance suggests that this reactionary alliance is about to be reconstituted. This assertion is also evident in the pattern of "consultations" and meetings being conducted by the regime in which Igbo representation is basically non-existent on both the government's and "opposition" sides. Ndigbo should keep this scenario in mind as we observe the Abubakar's regime.
With this analysis in mind, the question arises: what became of the those Igbo-Yoruba meetings? Why do we no longer hear about Igbo-Yoruba meetings now that the pressures are off the Yorubas? Why do the Yorubas always seek meetings with Ndigbo when their position in the Nigerian power structure is threatened only to turn coat when their power position is restored? Have Ndigbo not been conned yet again?
Kevin Ani. _______________________________________________________
*This article was written in mid-1998 well before Obasanjo dreamt of capturing politicval power. The questions are: where are those great Igbo political pundits who were on the warpath over the issues raised above? Why have they gone to sleep, leaving Wada Nas and Balarebe Musa to articulate the anti-Igbo character of the Obasanjo clique? Isn't it crystal clear now that even Abacha had far more respect for Ndiigbo than Obasanjo? What are we going to do now that Obasanjo is doing us in in our own country?
NSIBIDI PRESS tm
___________________ achieve Biafra and show the difference Posts: 642 | From: Los Angeles, CA | Registered: Nov 2002
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Thank you for those kind words. Am greatly humbled, and God bless you for your continued input.
Amadi O,
10-4 on your prior posting, I understand now even more.
My improved understanding leads me to believe though, that we must remain cognizant that the battles exist on two planes;
One at the more strategic Biafran nationalist level,
and two;
At the level of the current status based on the ongoing pretence of a "One Nigeria" in which a sense of ownership of private and public industry (through positions of top management and middlemanagement) in the heart of Igboland and Biafra, has been surgically excised from our control despite an overabundance of degreed professionals, without so much as a whimper on our parts through a carefully articulated strategy to take back ownership and power, within a specified period of the near future and onwards.
You have identified an important problem, and I agree about the need for serious action to deal with the problem. I am behind you 1000% How do we proceed to the action phase?
Posts: 155 | Registered: Mar 2001
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