"... Nigeria signs railway contract with Chinese firm President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday signed a contr! act for the re-development, modernisation and expansion of the railway transportation system with a Chinese construction company. The contract would cover 1315 kilometres from Lagos to Kano for a Standard Gauge Railway Line. It will be built in five segments on Design-Construct- and-Maintain basis over the next five years by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC). Following the signing of the contract, construction work is expected to commence concurrently on the following five segments: Lagos-Ibadan (181 km); Ibadan-Ilorin (200 km); Ilorin-Minna (270 km); Minna-Abuja- Kaduna (360 km); and Kaduna-Kano (305 km)." News Report --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apparently, the contract is worth US$8billion. It will connect "Nigeria's two main commercial cities, Lagos and Kano." This is arrant rubbish, a ridiculous situation which cannot and should not be allowed to stand. To build a railway line that connects Lagos and Kano to the exclusion of Port Harcourt or indeed any city in the east is the height of official stupidity and possibly black-on-black racism. To call it phase 1 or whatever is a gross insult, an infantile trick because this is all part of an official policy of shutting down the economic infrastructure of eastern Nigeria in a desperate bid to create a Yoruba commercial hub in Lagos, linked to the Hausa heartland to mirror the post Biafran balance of power in Nigeria. The Lagos-Kano railway line contract is illegal to the extent that Igboland is excluded.
Where are Soludo, Nnamani and other Igbo while this pointless and racist farce is being played out in Nigeria ? Where is that woman who ranted about due process over Owerri-Onitsha road? Where is the due process in this sickening illegality? And where will be the source of fund for this illegal and racist project? Who approved it? Will this farce stand?
Photo: Blighted Igboland - from Obigbo through Ohaji, Obrikom, Ebocha, Owaza, Umuechem to Kwale. Money to fund the illegal Lagos-Kano railway is coming from here. Will the Igbo let this farce stand?
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More interestingly, work on the illegal Lagos-Kano railway is to start immediately , ASAP without much ado, no COREN, no endless designs, no nothing. By contrast, the so-called 2nd Niger bridge will have to wait for god-knows-what.
Second Niger bridge? Na lie! Otu awughi l'ezi! No bridge will be built. Not today, not tomorrow. Not in 2007. The second Niger bridge has become yet another opportunity for Mr. obasanjo to continue with his relentless Igbo baiting. It has been going on for a long time. When the design is not rejected by COREN, it is faulted by the works ministry. Once we were told that an Italian firm had offered to construct the bridge and recover its cost by managing the road for some years under the build-operate-and-transfer scheme (BOT). This too was rejected. So what now?
Photo: Disney's Mickey Mouse Mr obasanjo is taking the mickey out of Ndiigbo.
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The silly old chap is taking Igbo people for a ride, big time. What is even more galling is that he announces these fake projects, gets the accolades, then turns around to insult Igbo intelligence. The only positive thing is that no condition is permanent as Zik once told Asika. Soon, obasanjo will be consigned to the dustbin of history where he rightly belongs and Igbo people will survive. This fact is axiomatic and non-negotiable.
Six years ago, the same obasanjo proclaimed that he was going to rehabilitate the Oji River power station, the only such facility in eastern Nigeria abandoned since 1970 for punitive reasons. Today, the Igbo are being are being told why the station would never be rehabilitated even as Mr. obasanjo is at Onitsha delivering yet another empty promise. Where are: Alaoji power station, Aba Dry Port, Onitsha Inland Port, Oguta Lake Port etc.? Otu awughi l'ezi!
Even the corrupt funny-looking lad (FLL) called Atiku Abubakar is also making a mockery of the Igbo race. Six years ago, he went to Enugu and laid the foundation stone for the trade fair complex proclaiming that it would be completed in one year. He got the accolades, then turned around and made a complete fool of the Igbo nation, obasanjo style. Today, Enugu trade fair is still held in a make-shift location even when those in Lagos and Kaduna are held in their permanent sites.
Photo: Atiku Abubakar (FLL) laid foundation stone for Enugu trade fair complex in 1999, pledging one year completion. Seven years on, nothing has happened. The man is taking the piss and loving it. Otu awughi l'ezi!
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Gen. Abacha's Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) awarded the contract for the dredging of the river niger to the British firm Westminster Dredging Plc. obasanjo cancelled it. Now the project has become another piece of theatre, recurring in every "budget", but never implemented, a veritable tool for making a mockery of the Igbo.
The 80km-odd Onitsha-Owerri road has taken more than 6 years to build, the contract being awarded and re-awarded to every other construction firm on earth. Today CCC, tomorrow Julius Berger. If it took that long to build an 80-km stretch of road (i.e. approx. 20 km a year!), Julius Berger would be out of business by now.
The case of Akanu Ibiam International Enugu is another matter. Obasanjo and his so-called Federal Executive Council (FEC) proclaimed the upgrading of the airport to international status , a decision which was highly praised by Igbo people everywhere. This was gazetted. Later Mr Yaguda, Hausa, the aviation minister, announced that the government had awarded a N3billion contract to PW Construction Company to upgrade the airport. Up till today, no N3billion, no upgrade, no PW. It is clear that there was no plan to spend even a farthing on upgrading Enugu airport, yet the "president", ministers, FEC were involved in a web of lies drawing into the whirlpool, PW, a reputable international company. This shows the decrepit level to which governance in nigeria has sunk.
Photo: Debasing governance in Nigeria: PW Construction Company, a reputable firm drawn into Nigerian whirlpool of lies when Alhaji Yaguda announced fake N3 billion Enugu airport contract. Otu awughi l'ezi!
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A reporter who visited the airport this September wrote:
"... Akanu Ibiam Airport is perhaps, the only one in Nigeria where airport taxi drivers come straight to the tarmac to scramble for passengers disembarking from the few flights that ply Enugu daily. No airport official was on ground to explain why or how the taxi drivers, without hindrance, got through the only security gate and an outer fence, apparently meant to deter unwanted persons from the tarmac. Apart from this obvious lapse, there is no visible security presence, which leaves travellers wondering whether one is in an airport or a Lagos motor park. As aircraft take off and land, what one beholds is enough to confound even the most unaffected observer...The perimeter fence is another thing entirely. Broken at various ends by footpaths, it is like a rabbit hole dotted with a labyrinth of escape routes..." Ernest Omoarelojie. Enugu/Accident Waiting to Happen 2006/9/6)
The design of the so-called 1000-lane 2nd Niger bridge has been drawn and re-drawn in the past 7 years. When the old bridge started to collapse, the Nigerian authorities hurriedly dispatched foreign engineers to fix the cracking metalwork to keep Igbo people quiet. Meanwhile, work on the $8billion Lagos-Kano railway continues apace without much ado. Naturally COREN is not involved in the design of this project, no be so?
Photo: New $8.3billion Lagos-Kano rail line For immediate implementation, no COREN. By contrast 2nd Niger bridge undergoes endless designs by obasanjo and COREN
Why does the 2nd Niger bridge have to wait until 2007? Because Mr obasanjo is taking the mickey out of Igbo people yet again. The Nigerian government has no intention of building a 2nd Niger bridge anytime soon, period. You can take this basic truth to the bank
Photo: Onitsha- Igbo leaders winning and dinning with obasanjo while he mocks Igbo humanity.
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Reacting to yet another fake promise of reconstructing Enugu-Onitsha Road , an Igbo commentator wrote:
"...Since 1999 obasanjo came into power all that the South East has gotten are promises of reconstructing or rebuilding federal roads in the five states. It is now almost 8 years and all things being equal, obasanjo will leave office by the end of May 2007. Yet none of the promises made for infrastructural development in Ala Igbo has seen the light of the day...Igbo buffoons mouth piecing for him continue to delude and deceive themselves believing that Ndi Igbo are not seeing through them and obasanjo’s wicked acts against the Igbo nation..."- Igbo Forum
What is really intriguing is this: there are over a million Igbo living in rich countries and capable of financing a robust confrontation with the Nigerian state and its agents. Igbo people can kick Nigerian butts and get whatever they want, but they have chosen to turn the other way while a great people is being converted into a slave race by fellow blacks in the 21st century. Worse, Igbo leaders who should be questioning the blatant abuse of Igbo rights are busy wining and dinning with obasanjo, the arch-Igbo-hater of our time.
Photo: Mr obasanjo- semi-literate geriatric and Igbo-hater: mocking Igbo people and getting away with it for inexplicable reasons. NC
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