cre8tivity:


sweet boss, very very sad to know where your mind is at, i thought you were on my side. i guess, i was wrong.

Darling, I’m on your side. The difference between us is that I want more people probed and arrested _{and even probably jailed for life} while you’re just a bit more liberal.

spikedcylinder:

Try telling those extremist Christians/Muslims that there is no God. In an almost lawless country like Nigeria, you'll be clubbed to death on the spot.

But don't you think the earlier we separate the God-factor from our personal affairs, the better?

cre8tivity:

i can not remember making that statement, but this statement is not far from the truth. don't you think? should i list the names of obasojo's close associates that have been arrested lately? i honestly think that obasojo is partially responsible for some of our problems in nigeria today. don't you think?

That's the only truth you've honestly managed to squeeze out from your keyboard in a while now, only that you didn't include Yar 'Adua and all other Nigerian politicians and pastors _{(oh plus Ribadu).}

PeeDaVinci:

though not all use the word "breaking news" but with the trend now, i can see everybody starting using the "breaking news" word very soon

You're right. It got me thinking at some point that Seun has started paying for threads with a minimum number of comments.

_{Then that would have been a breaking news.}

lucabrasi:

@post
hmmmnnn, i see, there is fire on the mountain,and everybody seems to be on the run mr toks evidence plsevidence pls,we r still waiting , he he he

[center]You really wan know eh? [/center]

I’m not someone to shy away from confrontations but you know how it is when you start mentioning names of people on a public forum, it could destroy them and I don’t think it’s fair. Like I said earlier, one of the guys was deported and has came back to the UK in a different name (so you could imagine how unfair it is on the guy to start spilling the beans now). But I’ve given the guys first name as Segun and believe it or not this is not a lie. They made more than £60,000 in the deal (this is not hearsay because I personally know the dude). DapoLam knows this things as his brother was shuttling between London and Nigeria then and claiming the funds using different passport with different names and collecting the funds. They even went as far as Ghana. I’m not fibbing but I’ll hold it here. I’m not here to snitch on anyone as people’s lives are in jeopardy. What’s the point?

More so, Piccadilly police station have more evidences so I'm not gonna give out names at all.

lol, tboy1 said it first.

@ poster, if you look at all headlines, we don't all use breaking news though do we?

cre8tivity:

on the judgement day, do not be surprised to see saddam hussein/ osama in heaven while some of us chill on the other side. don't be stupid, God is God and he sees us (good or bad) as equal regardless of how we pray or approach him.

Aren't you concerned of God's judgement on you especially when you close on eye at Yar 'Adua (Obj and co) and open the other at Ribadu?

lucabrasi:

which one ababio or chemistry for beginners?

Because of the length of your post most times, I’ll compare you to an Ababio – is that sorted?

lucabrasi:

every single human being is selfish and will pursue their self interest first before anything, its basic human nature and shouldnt be counted against the man

Now, I’ve got to admit that you’re at it again though you still have a point but I’ve got to say damn boy, must you always twist everything in order to support these goons; but I’ve still got to give it to you though as you have a vey good point there, it just doesn’t suit this argument and doesn't partain to Nigerian leaders.

Have you ever heard the mantra, lead by example? _{You probably had.}

lucabrasi:

i cant help but feel sorry for socia prefect goodluck jonathan, he has had nothing but bad luck since he became the vice president,i bet he ll be wishing he had been a governor instead of vp

So would you support him if he changes his name to Badluck Jonathan?

lol @ Jakumo and JJYOU

B.O.S.S.:

[b]They bid us to fast for the betterment of the country. Wasn’t our former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, a born-again Christian? Isn’t the present head of state a devoted Muslim, a Godsend? Aren’t our leaders anointed by God to lord it over us, and that we must accept them no matter what? Don’t we depend on our relationship with God to pass exams, drive cars without fuel, heal the ailing, and prosper? Aren’t we all chaste, honest, morally ramrod-straight, our leaders the paragons of honour? Don’t we fear God so much so that we only enjoy moderately, satisfied with our missionary-position mindset.

I'm talking of the Christian and Muslim God. The moment our leaders admit that they have really mixed a great deal of delusion with the being and originality of God,

Its time we deal with each other with open-mindedness and concentrated originality. I think what the writer is tying to get at is the difference of approach of how we look at God in Nigeria as compared to the western world.

@toksAjayi Tell me the truth - How much are you getting paid by DapoLam? _{It must sure be a hell lot of fees to represent a fraudster.}

There's absolutely no reason for this thread. It smacks of hypocrisy. You're black, I'm black - so what? How does that affect the price of fish? Afterall, there's a billion other blacks out there.

[center]There Is Probably No God. Now Stop Worrying And Enjoy Yourself. [/center]

Written by Adebowale Oriku
Thursday, 29 January 2009
London transport – buses, trains – is often awash, busy really, with images and words of advertisement. Now you might be a poetry-reader to notice Poems on the Underground, and a poem-lover to bother perusing the few, often catchy, lines. But you don’t need to be a student of semiotics - signs - to notice the murals bedecking the red London buses. Often promotional adverts of newly released films, West End musicals, pictures captioned with blurbs, taglines and dates of release. The London buses were pressed into service when ‘Africa came to London’ with a menagerie of contortionists, fire-eaters, dancers, drummers and sundry performers in wildlife costume.

As a subscriber to the New Humanist and a member of the British Humanist Society, I could not but notice the words picked out in tricolour against the side of the red bus, There is probably no God. Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Yourself. I was pleased to glimpse this legend one afternoon a couple of weeks ago in the Oxford Street, London. A chance, even serendipitous, sighting as I had not been to Oxford Street for more than year. I moved out of London almost four years ago but, even when I was living in the city, the commercial anthill that is Oxford Street had never held a draw for me. I had seen the promo picture carrying the words in a newspaper just before the advert went out, but I didn’t imagine I would run into it on the first day it came out.

As a humanist, this was like a minor epiphany, the New Year’s intellectual handsel. Weeks before, the queasier and the more restless of the evangelical wing of Christians had objected to the advert running on London buses, as it was thought by this negligible fringe that it would cause offence.

The idea was mooted by Ms Ariane Sherine, a member of the British Humanist Society. She thought there was a vacuum to be filled with such an advert. Apart from immigrant groups like Nigerians, Ghanaians et al, the number of Christians is on the wane in the United Kingdom. Broadly speaking, religion has all but been wiped off the sociogeography of the British islands and their indigenous people. Only immigrants from the middle east and the South East Asia complement the wave of African religiosity in Britain with an Islamic variant of Abrahamism.

Aside from the highly contentious fact that bishops are still allowed to sit with other unelected peers in the House of Lords, there is a fairly vocal Christian lobby in the UK. It is this sort of groupings and their counterparts in Islam, Judaism and some other religions who often defend the existence of a few ‘faith schools’ in the UK. But in spite of all this, Britain is solidly a secular country, a modern western European nation in which religion has become a historical formality. Few of the British political leaders who have any belief would dare flaunt it in the public – it is simply not an election-winner. ‘We don’t do religion,’ former Prime minister, Tony Blair, once declared via his press secretary. Tony remained a closet Christian until he left office, and even now he is still a skulking rather than spiky High-Churchman. And the incumbent, Gordon Brown, has this diversionary and rather Freudian habit of quoting his clergyman father, he would never talk about his own faith or lack of it.

There are however certain Christian noisemakers whose relevance to British life is no more worthy than that of Muslims who fierily protested at the publication of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses or the Danish cartoon of their prophet. Such Christians had also protested at the broadcast of Jerry Springer the Opera, a parodic musical in which a Jesus-figure was infantilised, wearing nappies and so forth. The musical ran its course anyway, in spite of the Christian protesters.

These religious busybodies, in this instance curiously unsupported by their Islamic brethren, had again thought it was righteous to protest when Transport for London decided to take on the advert, There is Probably no God. The Christians, again playing martyrs, contended that the advertising campaign was offensive and derogatory to religious people, and that the advert would not meet the standards of substantiation and truthfulness.

The British Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) threw out the Christians’ case. The watchdog submitted that the British Humanist Association's campaign - There is Probably no God - did not breach the advertising code or mislead consumers. The ASA council asserted that the advert was an expression of the advertiser's view and that substantiation or lack of it had nothing to do with its message – not forgetting the word probably. The Advertising Standards Agency agrees that the content of the campaign would not gladden the hearts of many believers, but it was unlikely to mislead or to cause serious or widespread offence.

And it certainly did not cause an iota of offence. Before the advert was bannered on the side of the buses, discussions on blogs and newspaper columns had even proved that few people really cared whether the advert had gone the whole hog and hollered, There is no God. What had made Ms Sherine to hit upon the idea was what she considered the very haughtiness of religionists who were free to place adverts on and in most places, adverts spieling such clichés of belief and proselytization as ‘Jesus Lives,’ ‘Hell is Real.’ As well as wishing to give voice to atheists and non-believers, Ariane also wanted to provoke debate – and was there a debate!

At first, Ariane had thought it would take months for the British Humanists to raise the money to place the advert in January of this year. But within a few hours of the media broaching the issue, thousands of pounds had been raised, people came down with money enthusiastically – with religious zeal, if you will.

This had also provided another opportunity for Professor Richard Dawkins, distinguished occupier of the Chair of Public Understanding at Oxford, to weigh in heavily on religion. For decades, Dawkins has been the most eloquent and vigorous exegete of his near-namesake Charles Darwin, the propounder of the Theory of Evolution - the yearlong bicentenary of whose birth was flagged off a couple of days ago. Professor Dawkins is perhaps the most influential antireligionist living today. He does not excuse his tetchiness, his impatience with, even his ridicule of religion and its defenders and practitioners. His last book, The God Delusion, is a piece of deicidal higher criticism in which Dawkins aims a smart, swingeing cosh at God, religion and people who are religious, whom he considers delusional, and in a lot of cases, dim. Having come down with a chunk of the advert fee, the professor could also be depended upon to provide a wordbite during the debate: “This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think – and thinking is anathema to religion.”

Trust Professor Dawkins to deliver heavyhanded belabouring of religion at a wink. While it was refreshing and salutary to read, just as the words There is Probably no God might not overwhelmingly affect a long-fossilised belief in God, it hardly set me into any sort of rigorous mental callisthenics. For me, it is as likely as not that there is no God. Forget the simplexity of double negative equals positive, the crux-word here is the negative ‘no’. Probability – or probabilism in an analogous sense – is a potent word in philosophy, philology, theology, physics, mathematics and logic. The humanists knew better than to have written God is only a Probability. Now stop Worrying and Enjoy Yourself. This would have given believers in God a foothold, a ledge on which to stand and leap, headfirst, into the deep end of the murky viscid pool of God-argument, an argument no one wins easily – especially God-believers.

Of course this advertising campaign had turned the probability fallacy on its head to achieve its end. The conclusion is, just because something could not happen, it could not: Since the likelihood of God’s existence is dubious, his being is therefore dubious, if not nonexistent. Occam’s razor would cut atheists the bigger slack here. But beyond such devil’s advocacy, people in London and Britain, by and large, live their lives without the bugbear of God and his scapegoated fallen factotum, Satan, without the sanctions of religion, the elementary polestar of Wisdom Theology, they enjoy themselves without worrying about what God would think of MouthAction or cunnilingus or ‘binge-drinking’ every Friday night. Generally, manmade laws and rules have supplanted the anachronisms of the Ten Commandments and hellfire – by the way, the first Hellfire Club which had rakes, sots, philanderers as members, was established in the 18th century in England. And certainly, fear or love of God has nothing to do with the relative transparency in governance and governing in Britain. Nor was it God who taught them how to queue, how not to drop litter with sublime carefreeness.

[b]I have wondered whether such an advert campaign could be launched in our beloved country, Nigeria, I mean in the best of all possible Nigerian worlds. Oh, but I shouldn’t wonder. Aren’t we a very religious country, with a very religious people, godly folks? If the British leaders are timid enough to mumble We don’t do God, Nigerian leaders shout from the housetops about how godly they are. They call on us often to pray for the nation, some of them even take on the role of imam and deacon to lead the prayer from the plush innards of their palaces. They bid us to fast for the betterment of the country. Wasn’t our former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, a born-again Christian? Isn’t the present head of state a devoted Muslim, a Godsend? Aren’t our leaders anointed by God to lord it over us, and that we must accept them no matter what? Don’t we depend on our relationship with God to pass exams, drive cars without fuel, heal the ailing, and prosper? Aren’t we all chaste, honest, morally ramrod-straight, our leaders the paragons of honour? Don’t we fear God so much so that we only enjoy moderately, satisfied with our missionary-position mindset. Aren’t we a nation of virginal female undergraduates, of modest men whose minds are sublimated with godly cares? Don’t we all live spare, spartan lives because of our fear of God?

We indeed do God, we overdo God, hyper-do him, we’ve almost done God to death. [/b]

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/guest-articles/there-is-probably-no-god.-now-stop-worrying-and-enjoy-your.html

Vernor:

Obj is my mentor i love him

Good luck to you. But make sure you keep your wife, sister, aunt, mum and even grandma away from him else he'll cease to be your mentor by the time he finishes dealing with them.

i_laugh:

Which one is better? Blind patriotism or foolish un patriotism - which one is absurd - cursing your country and wishing it evil, or praying for it and wishing it well, which one is better? Acountry you wish evil for can never give you anything in return but the same evil which you wish for it, no wonder some of us make it better in the same cuntry you cant find anything good in.

Mate, It has nothing to do with that at all. We all wish Nigeria well but when all these weird news comes out and it gets weirder and weirder by the day how else should we comment? Should we see blue and call it red or see black and call it green?

Listen man, nobody wishes evil on Nigeria but when the leaders intentionally spit on the people they’re supposed to serve, then that’s utter wickedness and it’s just uncalled for.

Why do you base your comments in a prejudiced view? You think you’re Nigeria’s greatest friend unbeknownst to yourself that you’re actually doing the country evil by commending it even in the face of evil and calling us who see evil and criticise it foolish.

You’re not doing yourself any good except you desist from these one-eye-closed judgemental views and see Nigeria for what it is – Not Working. It would have been better if Nigeria is trying (or even trying too hard) but she’s not.

Call me foolish but I damn know well that I'm helpipng my country by being a fair critic than a foolish and blind ass-kisser.

The country is in it's elegant decline and all its faded glory - Thanks to people like you who see evil and would never comment.

i_laugh:

foolish people.

Blind patriotism – Dumb ass!

JJYOU:

not even your president

And I'm not didputing that at all.

_{Maybe in 50years time, I'll be able to see real patriotism displayed by my president}.

I guess NANS has changed a great deal. It's not what it used to be. Students used to fight for their rights now they're awarding the man who refused them their rights _{(to free votes).}

WHAT A COUNTRY!!!

Now this is what I call dedication. I wonder how many Nigerian Civil servants would be able to “look the other way” when offered a bribe 10times their salary.

That’s typical patriotism shown by the Liberian not the kind of lip-patriotism.

[center]Award for Liberian bribe 'hero' [/center]


An airport customs officer in Liberia has been honoured by the West African country's president for refusing a bribe from a Nigerian drug trafficker.

Richard Karyea was offered $20,000 (£14,000) to look the other way by a Nigerian smuggler trying to bring cocaine in to Liberia two years ago.
The sum was more than 1,300 times his $15 (£10) monthly salary but he refused and handed the man over to the police.

He was named Civil Servant of the Year 2008 and given a $1,000 (£700) prize.
Mr Karyea was honoured by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf at a civil service awards ceremony in the capital Monrovia.

DVD player
After refusing the bribe in 2006, Mr Karyea was made redundant - he suspects his colleagues arranged to get rid of him.

But he has gone on to bigger and better things by landing a job as deputy chief examiner at the ministry of finance.
"It wasn't difficult to turn down the money," Mr Karyea told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
"If it took me 50 years to earn that money, I'd want my conscience. I will always want my conscience."
Mr Karyea said the drugs were hidden in a DVD player.
He called the owner of the package into his office and told him he was going to open it up.
"He grabbed my hand and said 'Ah! Oga-sir! Please don't'", said Mr Karyea.
But he suspects not all the officials are so honest at Roberts International Airport just outside Monrovia.
Later he saw the man boarding a plane to go back to Nigeria.
Even though it would have taken him many years to earn the same amount as the bribe he was offered, Mr Karyea is happy.
"Right now I'm rejoicing," he said.
West Africa has become a major waypoint for South American smugglers taking cocaine into Europe.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7855480.stm

Listen, there's no issue mailing the guy the details but I'm just not sure because I thought why shuold I do that as I would be mentioning names and that's a great deal of concern. But the fraud in London in which DapoLam and his brother were part of remains the truth and yes, I know about it and I'm not lying (though I never partook in it).

These guys ran a money transfer company down. DapoLam, TunjiLam and a boy called Segun (surname withheld) were all part of the clan. I'll not give away too much though. You could swear all you like but the truth remains standing and I'll never lie to jeopardise someone's future, what do I gain? I don't even know him neither would I lose sleep over his future victory. I just want you to know that this same issue of corruption pervades the Nigerian politicians home and abroad.

@ eldee

Have you seen how rude the embassies' staff are? They are very very rude to the point that one day I called to ask why the renewal of my passport was taking longer than usual i.e. three and half weeks (and counting) instead of the normal two days but the response was; "you're very stupid for questioning our actions, how dare you speak to me like that? How old are you sef?". The lady eventually hung up on me and I kept calling and whenever she realses it was me, she hung up. I eventually had to use some personal contacts to help me sort it out.

As a result of that, I missed a couple of job interviews and some other important appointment with my bank.

Overall, what I'm getting at is that even our embassy is not as organised to handle the Nigerians abroad and I bet the embassy staff might even bully people into voting for their candidate if this proposal gets the go-ahead. I just cannot put it past them.

You could leave corruption in the shores of Nigeria but you can never take out the corruption ingrained in the thread and veins of Nigerian politicians.

toksajayi:

I have heard about this boy before now but sincerely most seems untrue and the ones that are true are either about his brother or some people that were using his name back then.I am a realist and that is why I had to come to Ibadan now to do some research on this boy.

Other people have also heard about him. How come you heard the wrong thing> How come you only heard positives.  Even Lucabrasi confessed that he didn't hear good things about him. You're trying to flog a dead horse. This case is dead anf you cannot change our minds by lying aboutDapoLam. We know he'll rig the election when the time comes anyway. Shhhhiiiioooo

toksajayi:

Trust me,He is doing a great job here.I heard he fed about a thousand street kids recently and took Father Xmas to the local areas,that sounds fantastic.Wld anyone of us think of doing that?He is planning a centre for the less privileged as I heard also.

Did he feed them with the money he made from the inflated contract that was awarded to him by his dad the one he didn't carry out)? Trying to compare him with Obama, Obama ko Obama ni.

I think there’s a lot of grey area surrounding this new development and while I think this is a good progress (for the future) I sincerely hope it works because we cannot even implement a fair election at home right now, so what more about the foreign land?

Dede1:

The problem of most Nigerian men encounter is the idea of sticking with one regimental exercise of mounting women. Other exercises like running, riding bicycles, playing tennis and visiting the gym should be encouraged.

Without trying to rubbish your post, maybe the police officer's just quite aware "that the calories burned during sex is roughly the equivalent of fast walking, jogging, or weight lifting for around thirty minutes" and that's probably why he decided to rather have sex than chase thieves.



_{http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/calories-sex.shtml}

must_a_far:

let the rigging from the diaspora begin.

Are you predicting doom?
No be me make that comment above o

I'm so worried for the people (including me). So what will happen now? These people have turned the country into their personal matter and it's no more about the people they're meant to govern but about themselves.

Kobojunkie:

Roflmao!!! So, why come air her disgust of self and others on here? I mean I go through the article and then her response and just wondering if this was @Nigeria1/@BecomeOne with yet another moniker, having one of his episodes on here. roflmao!!

You know there can never be another Nigeria1/@BecomeOne as they'll always be counterfeits.

Either way though, there’ll be always be bias in the selection of who leads who because we are all humans and we would always put ourselves first. I’m kind of beginning to think the Biafran wagons who want their independence might have a point, just by looking at the past heads of Abuja leaders.

Kobojunkie:

what the frell are you going on about ? @Mpele Are there two topics in here or something??

I think he's going on about the topic which says FIFA loses faith in Nigeria - https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-225200.0.html

Fifa loses faith in Nigeria 


By Oluwashina Okeleji
BBC Sport, Lagos   


The Under-17 World Cup is due to take place in Nigeria in October
Fifa vice-president Jack Warner has raised fresh concerns over Nigeria's preparations for their hosting of October's Under-17 World Cup.

Speaking at an event in Abuja to launch the official emblem, Warner said: "I have always had faith in Nigeria but at the moment that faith is not there."

Warner is chairman of the organising committee for the tournament, and was not impressed after touring the facilities.

"I cannot go back to Fifa and say yes, Nigeria is ready, because plenty still has to be done before we get to that stage.

"Apart from Abuja, only the stadium in Ijebu Ode is ready and encouraging of the nine stadiums presented.

"I feel pain, but even though I do not want to take away the joy of [the launch] tonight, I still have to be honest and face the truth.

"And the truth is that you still have a long way to go, but I have always believed in Nigeria and I know you can do it."

Warner did not say that the tournament will be taken away from Nigeria, but he made it clear that time is running out.

"Hopefully when we return in March, things would have taken a better shape," he said.

"But please, get started with the work at these stadiums and let us fulfil the promise of Africa hosting all three World Cups in 2009 and 2010."

Last year Fifa expressed concerns over the progress of preparations, and in October, Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua decided that the country should pull out of hosting the event, until the budget was revised.

At Monday's event, the country's Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan, assured Fifa that there will be an improvement.

"We know what is expected and we promise those things will be in place by the time you return, it is a promise," he said.

"The importance of football to the Nigerian people cannot be undermined and that is the more reason we will ensure massive improvement."

Nigeria lost the right to host the 1995 Under-20 World Cup, due to lack of facilities and medical concerns.

But the country successfully hosted the tournament four years later, with Spain winning the trophy.

With South Africa hosting the 2010 World Cup, the continent will also this year stage the Under-20 World Cup in Egypt, and the Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/7853991.stm

[center]Why Abuja Is Not Nigeria's Capital[/center]

Written by Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
There is something about the North that I admire so much. They have never hidden their disdain, hatred and lack of belief in the so called “one Nigeria.” At every opportunity they have demonstrated by their deeds and words their non-belief in Nigeria. Ironically, the South has continued to be fooled, and to make sacrifices for a nation that has never been and will probably never be. Notable Southern leaders like Dr Nnamidi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo amongst others did not have the wisdom and vision to appreciate the Northern hatred for the rest of Nigeria and to predict the impossibility of the nation they set out to construct.
Though Chief Obafemi Awolowo did make proclamations of a “mere geographical expression” in reference to Nigeria, it is likely such a statement was made more out of a strategy for political bargaining than as a conviction, as evidenced by the volte-face that ensued when the civil war brought the first real opportunity for the balkanisation of Nigeria. Chief Awolowo of course choose Nigerian unity against the ideals of balkanisation for a nation he had earlier rightly diagnosed and identified as a “mere, unworkable geographical expression.”

Dr Nnamidi Azikiwe on his own part was so steeped in his Pan-Africanist ideologies and his belief in the brotherhood of Black Africans that he totally ignored the warning signals and alarm bells emanating from the North. Lofty as the ideals of Pan-Africanism might be, Dr Nnamidi Azikiwe should have been smarter and more reflective in contemplating the unworkable nation he sought out to construct with unwilling partners from the North, whose only interest to date in the Nigerian project remains domination and exploitation of the Nigerian space. In the process of achieving their primary aims, the North has engendered gross injustice, inequality, segregation and gross violations of the right to life and property of thousands of Christians and Southerners.

The warning signals from the North was so obvious from the pre-independence era, that only a blind man could have ignored it. By 1945 the North had begun their long history of intolerance against Southern Nigerians which culminated in a bloody riot in Jos. In 1953 another display of intolerance was unleashed in Kano when bloody riots were organised by the Northern leadership against Southerners in protest against the Southern support for independence.

It is no secret that the North vehemently opposed independence from Great Britain, and several times opted for secession. It was only when independence ensured their domination of the Nigerian space that they found it acceptable. With the coup of January 1966, a perfect pretext to further unleash a campaign of ethnic cleansing was found. 50,000 innocent Southern civilians, ordinary everyday people, peasants, artisans, traders, women, children were massacred in an orgy of violence orchestrated by Northern leaders. In the aftermath of the genocide, they yet again proclaimed secession (araba) before the British convinced them of strategic interests they needed to control. From then on, the mantra changed to “one Nigeria,” not of love or a genuine interest in nation building, but as a convenient ploy to lock down the Nigerian space according to their whims and caprices. The end of the civil war, aided and abetted by Southern “mugus” only served to further consolidate the North, which has since then unleashed with greater impunity their insensitivity and “born to rule” agenda.

Abuja is part of the continuing evidence to date of an unhidden hatred and contempt for other Nigerians. It was never a capital meant for other Nigerians. Like everything Nigerian, Abuja is an ethnic city, conceived as a Northern capital but masked as a Nigerian capital in order to achieve the end of developing it with resources from other parts of Nigeria. As usual, the North has never hidden the agenda or design of Abuja as a capital of Northern Nigeria. The evidence abounds. In 2003 when the “Miss world” international pageant was to be held in Abuja, Northern leaders proclaimed Abuja a Northern city and opposed the hosting of the pageant on their territory. The long list of Ministers for Abuja listed below, whom but for one exception have all been Northerners is further proof beyond all reasonable doubts of the true and unhidden character of Abuja, and the apartheid system engendered by the North in Nigeria.

List Of Ministers For The So Called FCT

1. 1976-October 1, 1979 Mr. Ajose Adeogun Commissioner for Special Duties in charge of Abuja

2. 1979 – 1982 – Mr. John Kadiya – Hon. Minister FCT

3. 1982- 1983 – Alh. Iro Danmusa – Hon. Minister FCT

4. 1983-31st December 1983- Alh. Halilu Dantoro

5. 1984-1985 – Maj. Gen. Mamman Vatsa

6. 1985- 1989 A.V. Marshal Hamza Abdullahi

7. 1989- 1993 – Maj. Gen. Muhammad Gado Nasco

8.1993-1998 – Lt. Gen. Jeremaih Useni

9. July 1998- May 1999- Maj. Gen. Mamman Kotangora

10. 1999-2001 – Alh. Ibrahim Bunu

11. 2001-2003 – Mohammed Abba Gana

12. 2003-2007 – Mallam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai

13. 2007 –November, 2008- Dr. Aliyu Moddibo Umar

I4.Current-Muhammad Adamu Aliero


Contempt, non-belief in Nigeria and hatred for other Nigerians has also ensured that the North has excluded others and dominated the nation’s leadership since independence. When Chief Moshood Abiola emerged the winner of a free and fair election in June 12 1993, he was killed in a gross act of exclusion and insensitivity. Segregation against Southerners is rife in the North where southerners in every town or city have had to live in separate areas known as “Sabon gari.” Nigeria is the only nation on the face of the earth where there is black on black segregation on religious grounds. Even in core Muslim countries like Egypt, Turkey, Sudan etc there is no segregation between their Christian and Muslim communities.

Acts of intolerance and ethnic cleansing that has consumed over 300, 000 lives (more than some civil wars) in frequent riots, continues to be a way of life in Northern Nigeria. Aside from a domination of Nigeria’s leadership, Ministries of Defence, Agriculture, FCT, Internal affairs and boards like the Customs have long become exclusive preserves of Northerners in a nation of three major ethnic groups and over 150 million people. The apartheid policies of exclusion and domination engendered in Nigeria by the North is enough evidence that Nigeria is a temporary state, serving the interests of an exploitative Northern cabal. It is time we faced the reality and realised that Abuja has never been, and will never be Nigeria’s capital. Southerners who continue to invest in Abuja must be mindful of their folly.

A situation where resources from other parts of Nigeria is used to development a Northern capital such as Abuja while other parts of Nigeria are neglected is definitely not acceptable. As an interim solution, the six zones should have a capital each designated for them. The six cities picked from each of the zones should be designated federal cities, and regional capital development authorities should be created to plan and manage the development of the six regional cities from funds contributed by the federal government and states within the zones. The joint federal-regional funds should be used to implement annual budgets on development projects such as construction of roads, housing estates, cluster industrial parks, schools and other critical infrastructure. Among the many advantages, this scheme will pacify the feelings of exploitation and exclusion by ethnic groups, create new well planned modern cities, create employment opportunities, and reduce the rural urban migration to already over-populated cities like Lagos and elsewhere. Before Nigeria becomes another Rwanda or Baghdad, a word should be enough for the wise.

Comrade Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu

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