Igala Land's 14-Point Agenda

Just some additions...

 

Recently, I was made aware of the concept of preventive Health Care, advocated

for societies where there's a crisis in the Health sector as we have in Igalaland.

Can we as a group activate awareness campaign to drive preventive Health Care and

ensure our people have less cause to visit these clinics... mosquitoe nets, exercise,

use of condoms, nutrition, boiling drinking water/filter if possible, basic sanitation etc, etc

Ufedo can create Posters with specific message. In doing this, we should be able to

partner with relevant organisations eg NACA etc, etc.

 

Can the Local Govts paint medicine stores in a particular colour to distingusih sellers of

Original drugs vs fakes????? Could be sign boards etc, that people may look out for when

they want to buy genuine drugs etc.

 

Can Ufedo work with Igala Medical students Association, either ABU, Jos, KSU, to run health

programmes in Igalaland on target dates.

 

Is there a Theatre Arts Dept at KSU? Can the students there put together a drama/play on

staying healthy and we transmit that across the state.

 

My suggestion would be review all the ideas put foward by this Adhoc team and agree 1 or 2

and really drive implementation.

 

Thanks.

 

Arome

Oga Arome,

That was a masterstroke, you have motivated us all to put on our thinking caps. I pray Umaru’s government would remember  Igala land in the scheme of things in reality too.

Agriculture is it, with the kind of land mass that we have and the fact that it has historically been the mainstay of our economy, if we can have the an initiative like the AADP that we had in the past then we would be there. I have consistently maintained in recent times that  AADP AND KSU remains the key government institutions that have had very profound effect on Igala land development wise.

-          A fertilizer blending plant is desirable since the complaints has been that the land is not fertile anymore.

-          Improved seedlings which would translate to increase yield.

-          Mechanized farming too can be encouraged by way of having tractors to be hired by individuals and co – operative societies.

-          Establishment of a Micro Finance bank to let our people access funds easily.

-          Educating our people on the need for them function as a group by way of co – operative societies rather than going it alone.

-          Massive deployment of extension services to pass on new techniques of farming to our people.

-          Massive rehabilitation of feeder roads to make for the movement of the produce to major markets like Anyigba, Abocho.

-          We can even invite Zimbabwean farmers like Kwara State did with the attendant benefits of employment for our people and also transfer of modern farming techniques.

-          Poultry and fish farming too should be encouraged.

-          Irrigation farming can be introduced passing through Bagaji in Omala,Ibaji e.t.c.all year round farming is a possibility.

-          Selected youths can be sent to Israel or Songhai centre In Benin Republic to be trained.

Finally, I am in agreement with Chogu’s suggestion that positions on the way forward to vision 2020 be articulated by willing individuals at the Ofakaga meeting and collated into a working document that would help us engage and lobby  our leaders both at the National , State and Local levels.

 

Brethren,

For obvious reasons, i think, we should put Education at the fron Burner in the proposed

"Igala Development Charter." In doing so, we should have the followings at the backs of our minds:

 

(A) Topical Issues

1. What is the present state of the educational sector in Igala land?(Of course we know this

    to be in a very poor state).

2. What are those percieved wrongs in the educational sector in our land that need to be

    corrected?

3. Do we have condusive learning environments in our land in favour of our children

    (structures, furniture etc etc)?

4. Establishment of mini-computer/ IT Training Centers in each of the 9 LGAs in Igala land.

5. To what extent is the vicious circle of povery in our land an impediment to the academic

    pursuits of our children(No doubt, this is acute....... we may therefore, have to call for a

    free system of education from the Primary to the Tertiary levels of education in IG land.

6. Training and Re-Training of Teachers to meet the challenges of the ever changing learning

    environment.

7  Establishment of an Igala National Library

8. Establishment of LG Educational Foundations in the 19 LGAs in IG land..

 

(B) Sensitisation:

There is need to  sensitise the people back home regarding the need to speak in one voice

in favour of Educational Development as the Cardinal need of the Igala Nation. Like Josep Addison would have it " Education is a companion which no crime can destroy,. Education

develops the mind. It opens the mind to boundless possibilities of the human being. The developed world is the result of a developed mind, the mind which sees possibilities because it has been liberated from the shackles of ignorance."

 

The future development and upliftment of the Igala land therefore lies in the educational development of its citizenry.

 

We should also sensitise our people to the effect that both the gilr and the boy child are entitled to equal educational developments. The girl-child should therefore be allowed to acquire as much education as the boy instead of any early marriage.

 

(C) Authonomous Body:

This initiative of the Federal Government should be run by a commission(Igala Education Commission?) independent of the existing ministry of education. The body shall have freedom of action and decision making to enable its operators perform at optimal levels

 

(D) Targets:

The body to run the initiative,shall be given bi-annual targets during which their performances shall be evaluated. Persons that would do such evalutions shall not be members of the commission but independent persons selected from this group from time to time. The reports from such an exercise, shall be reviewed by the national executive of this group for further decisions.

 

(E)Office Location:

Since the initiative shall be in favour of Igala land, the commission shall have its headquarters located in Igala land(Anyigba) . This way, the operators will be able to reach out to the nooks and cranies of Igala land in its drive towards achieving its set targets.

 

(G) Funding:

The commission should be such that it can recieve its funds directly from the Federal Ministry of education and/or from direct allocation from the Federal Government as the case may be. This way, the bottlenecks at the state's Ministry of Education and the commission will therefore be better placed to carry out its functions effectivelly.

 

Writing in a hurry...... Pls come up with Action plans to enable us compose the needed

handbook on "Igala Development Charter"

 

Rgds,

David Abutu

 

 

--- On Tue, 25/11/08, Okeme, David wrote:

From: Okeme, David

Subject: [IgalaProject] Congratulations. .. Igalaland is now included on 14 Point Agenda!!!!

To: IgalaProject@ yahoogroups. com

Date: Tuesday, 25 November, 2008, 9:40 AM

 

For once, let's pretend Yar Adua has fallen in love, deep love with Igalaland, and people....

 

 

He has decided to include Igalaland in the 14 points agenda (whatever that means...).

To facilitate it, he has asked this Honourable House for a proposal -  what is that

single project that may be done to transform Igala land by 2013..., in 5 years.

 

What would be our inputs???

a) The obvious. Education. Thanks to the work of the education committee.

a) Not so obvious. Which network/artery of roads that if constructed can generate commercial

    heat that will propel the local economy.

c) Is it agriculture? ?? Do we bring back AADP style project???? Do we send 50 Igala Youths to

    Isreal to learn specific agric skills and arrange financing to start such projects in Igalaland?

d) Is it energy??? Coal etc? Do we ask for 15% derivation?? ?

f)  Do we reactivate failed industries: Okaba, Idah Sanitary Ware, Acharu Oil Mills etc, etc....

g)  Do we appoint more Igala sons into govt - knowing such slots would go again to the usual people

     or their sons/cronies? ??

 

How do we rank these priorities, if the list is this long... and more.

 

As we evolve as a group, we should be able to articulate a need agenda, which we can make into

a small pamphlet and may use to engage, solicit, lobby and even confront our leaders with, so that

development efforts would be concentrated and sustained to good effect.

 

This work can only start now, that we have collectively built Igalaproject into a dynamic team.

Great and welldone to all. Now is the time to move to the next level. And we need the active engagement

of all in this phase. 

 

If we all agree, then we can start working on the Igala Development Charter....

 

 

Arome

GIve Peace A Chance in Anyigba

Drs. Ocheje, Yakubu and all,

 

Like everyone of you, my heartfelt sympathy goes out to the families who have directly fallen victim to the rising tide of politically motivated acts of violence in Igala land. Those of us who have not fallen victim yet might as well start readying ourselves, because at the current rate, it is a matter of time (not if) we all get consumed.

However, I have a slightly different take on this issue today.

It is very well that the number of Igala patriots who trade ideas on this and other web forums and e-boards has grown exponentially in recent years. It can also be very uplifting to get a sense of the passion folks feel when they express themselves about the different problems ravaging our land on these web forums. It is even encouraging to begin to get official responses to issues and concerns expressed here, as did Dr. Aaron Baba on the recent (unexplained) disappearance of on-line version of Kogi Graphics newspaper.

 

But as good as all of these developments may be, I don't see (as yet) an alternative to making the elected representatives of the people feel the full weight and depth of our disappointment in them. And as far as I can tell, there is no better medium to convey those feelings than through (Igala language segments) on radio Kogi. If you ever travel to Igala land and interact with the folks on the ground on their information sources and news consumption, you will discover that there's no medium comparable to this organ in terms of effectiveness and credibility.

 

And to some extent, through the physical version of the said Graphics newspaper, by way of open letter, of the kind Momoh has just put out. Not long ago, Fr. Tony Agbali also put out an analysis of our problems, which most of us considered excellent. But pray, what use is an excellent analysis if it does not get to the critical mass of both policy formulators, decision makers and the grass roots folks whose lives are mostly affected by, and dependent on these developments (or the lack thereof).

People, the way I see it, nothing is going to change or get done if we don't resolve to start speaking truth to power. Governor Idris and all the underlings between the seat of government in Lokoja and Abuja down to Anyigba, Idah, Abejukolo, Dekina, Ankpa and what have you, need to hear that, as Igala people, we are tired of being scared living in, or traveling home to be with our kins.

 

Similarly, those in the opposition today like Abubakar Audu, as well as the little ones lurking in the wings to jump into the political fray all need to start getting the heatfrom all of us. The idea that Igala children can be recruited and nurtured into monsters and terrorists to the point where even their original recruiters will become slaves to them is untenable. Just imagine the audacity of political thugs in Kogi state allegedly taking their criminality across state borders to the residence of a ploice operative in Makurdi because the officer was courageous enough to cause the arrest of their kinpin!  By the very nature of political power acquisition and deployment in our land, once these scoundrels have been recruited, armed and paid their seed money, it takes no time for them to snowball into uncontrollable thugs.

 

And like all anti-social elements, these thugs seem incapable of seeing anything wrong in the havoc they wreak on innocents. Similarly, their principals who belong in different camps may not see anything necessarily wrong in the use of these miscreants to achieve political ends. Which is why the rest of society, including you and I must stand up and call these things as we see them. To the right quarters.

Igala Association, USA, UK, Igala Project, Ufedo club (if it still exists) and even those of us who are unaffiliated have a roll to play here. As Americans like to say it, this is neither a Republican nor a Democratic issue. This is an IGALA problem.

 

Abu Acheneje.

Igala Land Explodes in Politically Motivated Violence

Brethren,

The spate of violence in our land is assuming a different dimension entirely. Political thugs have become tools for settling interpersonal sqaubles as well. I have just spoken with the Ogohi of Ejule who has confirmed to me that there has been some inter-party fighting between the members of PDP and ANPP over an issue that seem too immaterial to mention.

The story runs thus.......Two young men belonging to these parties having a relationship with the same lady were at each other's jugular and before you know it, gun tottling supporters of either side went on a shooting spree that left a young Ibo chap dead rith there at the community center. This has lead to a lot o chaos with each party spoiling for a further

show down.

In the meantime, the Ogohi himself has reported the mayhem to the state commissioner of Police and the DPO of the need for an influx of Mobile Police men to flush out these miscreants. It is as sad as that.

Who knows the community that may be the next to experience this sad state of general insecurity in our land? The chief Security Officer of the state must do something fast or we shall have no alternative than to hold him responsible for the wanton destruction of life that has become the order of the day in in our land.

Rgds,

David Abutu.

--- On Wed, 17/12/08, Atâyi Babs wrote:

From: Atâyi Babs

Subject: [IgalaProject] Please give Anyigba peace: An Open Letter to Kogi State Governor

To: igalaproject@ yahoogroups. com

Date: Wednesday, 17 December, 2008, 10:34 AM

----- Forwarded Message ----

From: Dr. Paul D. Ocheje

To: igala@yahoogroups. com

Sent: Tuesday, 16 December, 2008 21:36:50

Subject: Re: [IgalaNet] Please give Anyigba peace: OF the Sanctioned Destructio n of Properties and lives

I send my personal commiseration to Dr. Yakubu and all others on this forum who hail from, or have relatives at, Anyigba on this gory incident. Violence in the very heart of Igalaland! Well then, it is only a question of time before it radiates to other parts of the land. My recent visit to Igalaland coincided with the local government council elections. I watched with horror as youths, bedecked in what can only be described as accoutrements of war, rode past me on their way to my village on (I counted) 25 motor-bikes. When I got to Anyigba, I discovered that an even larger number of youths had taken over the main street of the town, chanting and threatening the political opponents of their candidate as the candidate drove in an open vehicle through the town. The language of political "discourse" in our land is fraught with violence, and Dr. Yakubu's appeal to the political authorities to curb the spread of lawlessness is not a moment too soon. One hopes that the authorities listen. I appeal to all of us on this forum as well to reach back to our relatives at home with a message of peace. Violence and poverty is an incendiary mix. Perhaps the poor can entertain hopes of redemption with hard work, prayers and luck, but in violence all hope is lost. Those who can hear, let them listen!

Paul.

From: "aauhm@netzero. net"

To: odekina@yahoo. com

Cc: igala@yahoogroups. com

Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 1:59:59 PM

Subject: Re: [IgalaNet] Please give Anyigba peace: OF the Sanctioned Destructio n of Properties and lives

Odekina:

Thank you for your response. The attack you talk about, I am not aware of it and the information that I got from Anyigba did not mention such. Although, there was constant mention of sounds of gun fires which has become routine in Anyigba these days. Please could you shed more light on these explosions -where, who are the victims and who are the suspected perpetrators. It will be appreciated if we start actively reporting happenings in Igala land on this net -such will keep us informed of various atrocities that are committed against the Igala people.

I was also just informed that a house was vandalized along Egume Rd and speculations are that the victim entered into a deal and wanted to outsmart his associates. This need to collaborated too.

We have to be vigilant and should not be cowed by these thugs no matter who they work for.

Momoh Yakubu

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

Sorry Dr Momoh, you did not complete your story. There was an explosion that killed two people in Anyigba prior this event you are reporting, those behind it should be brought to book too.

'Ewn kitura, kakuma dukoche wa'

--- On Mon, 12/15/08, aauhm@netzero. net wrote:

From: aauhm@netzero. net

Subject: [IgalaNet] Please give Anyigba peace: OF the Sanctioned Destruction of Properties and lives

To: igala@yahoogroups. com

Date: Monday, December 15, 2008, 12:36 PM

It is not surprising that the political violence that has overtaken Kogi State is a sanctioned violent perpetuated by the people in powerful positions through their surrogates. This allegation have been attested to by different people in position to know about the hands behind these violent behaviors. Recently, the Ohinoyi of Ebira land came out openly to condemn the attitude of those in Lokoja who have made Ebiraland a land without peace the past years (4 +).

The violent have become so intolerable that even political and government personals are not safe in Ebira land. This was further confirmed by one of the Ebira chiefs in a recent piece in the Leadership newspaper. Further confirming the hands behind these violent was the arrest of the senior aide to the state government in Lokoja shortly after the tribunal verdicts were read in Lokoja when the said individual went to a hotel in Lokoja to destroy properties of people believed to not have supported the governor.

This political violent is by no means confined to Ebira land but it has been the hardest hit characterized by the looting, killings, and wanton destruction of properties. As the Ohinoyi stated "whole villages have been turned into ghost town and wilderness litered with burnt homes and properties'. The violent that is visited on Anyigba has not been given a wide publicity like the ones in Ebira land. The wide spread attention that those in Ebira land recieve is because of the fact that the Igala people are not speaking out.

We have been quiet for so long. The unfortunate thing is that Anyigba that is know for the vigilante activities -whereby anybody that is known to belong to the underworld are fished out and ask to leave the town in the past is condoning these dastardly acts. Through the vigilante (popularly called then Egwu Abudu) Anyigba was kept free of violent crimes and robberies. Now, people are openly in broad day light not only being deprive of their properties but of their lives without questions asked. This is happening to both descendants of Akogwu Apkele (foundation of Anyigba) as well as people that migrate to Anyigba. Yet vioces are not raised to condemn these acts of violent that being meted out to people. Anyigba used to be a place that when injustice is taking place people rise against it. I am stunned and surprised by what is happening on the streets of Anyigba today.

The orgy of violent that welcome the verdict of the election tribunal which has been metted against those that are known supporters of Prince Audu should be condemned by the government and the government of Idris should facilitate the prosecution of the people that have carried out acts of violent against anybody particularly the ones that happened in Anyigba in the past few days. The time for protection of these criminals is over and anybody that stands in the way of justice in these matters is not fit to hold any leadership position.

On the day of the verdict, properties of supporters of Prince Audu were damaged in Lokoja which led to the arrest of the aide to the governor. While the destruction of peoples properties were going on in Lokoja, at Anyigba similar acts were being carried out. These continued for days. Apart from the one I reported a few days ago where a truck was destroyed and the Igbo shop keeper was brutalized and money extorted from him -a few days later the same Igbo man was a victim of extortion and brutalization too by the same thugs.

Attack on Alhaji Salami: The same gang of thugs went to attack Alhaji Salami Abdulahi's home and businesses. At his home, houses were damaged, some burntand all the cars in his compound were destroyed -reports indicates that people that visit his home were all reduced to tears because of the extent of damage to properties. As if they thugs were not satisfied, they went to his business (filling station and trailer depot along Idah Rd) destroyed anything of value in the place. The thugs burnt the car of his brother in law who happened to be the chairman of Ofu Local government for intervening on the side of Salami. Others that suffered loses are so numerous to be mentioned here.

However, of particular interest is the pathetic story of Abu Onu Abimaje (a butcher) who was lucky to escape with his wife with the clothes on their back after their houses were set on fire -they lost everything. All these are said to be perpetuated by a Rambo -the chief thug at Anyigba. The tragedy of this situation is that the perpetuator are known faces at Anyigba. Why are they allowed to carry on like this. It is more worry when you have a descendant of Akogwu Akpele (maternal lineage) as the Governor of Kogi State and these guys are armed to the teeth to cause mayhem at Anyigba.

We are aware that no development has came to Anyigba since the tenure of this governor but the Anyigba people have had more than enough share of their political thuggery and violent visited on them. I appeal to the state governor on behalf of Akogwu Akpele descendant that he should rain these people in and let Anyigba develop naturally as God had wished it to do. These violent will limit the attractions that Anyigba has for business investments.

I will also appeal on behalf of those that their properties were destroyed that the governor allows justice to be served. The brain behind these dastardly acts be brought to book. This appeal is more relevant as most of the victims of this acts are not beneficiaries of government loots of any type. I know Salami for a very long time -as a mechanic apprentice and as an enterprising business spare part seller in the 1970s and as a petrochemical merchant and transporter (1970/80). I used to help him when he goes to Makurdi NNPC depot for his allocation then and also as a contractor with AADP then. This man made his money legitimately through hard work like the governor as a furniture manufacturer/ merchant and a hotelier before becoming the governor. These facts are known to the governor as I am sure he know Salami before the recent political activities. That is the more reason he must allow justice to be served in this case. He must call these boys to order and example must be made of the perpetuators of violent acts this time.

We are tired of Anyigba people being harassed and violated at will as is going on all in the name of politics. The politics that have not brought any meaningful development to Anyigba. So your excellency, the Anyigba people ask of nothing of you but peace. Call these thugs off the streets of Anyigba and we wish you all the best of your remaining term in office.

Dr. Momoh Yakubu

IGALA ECONOMICS

Hi,



Good job with all the conversations we had on this group in the last 
few months, I guess you don't know this but a lot of people are at 
the back ground and we read each mail and try thinking through each 
perspective. I want to commend us all and possibly ask for your help 
on something.

My Name is Godwin and I live and work in Lagos, I've had reasons to 
travel to Kogi lately, it's amazing how you'll never really 
understand the extent of lack and un-harnessed opportunities we live 
with back home.

On the job I've had occasion to be part of groups that seek to revamp 
businesses and one of the things we tell business owner is that you 
can not afford to live in the past in a fast paced generation.

That brings me to the issue of the Igala economics:

 

it's so 
disheartening that the best of national economics as it concerns 
various industries are left in the hands of other ethnic groups.
 A quick look at the board and you'll see Zenith bank proudly 
affording the people of Delta and Edo State the opportunity to build 
careers in almost every sector of the Nigerian Economy. We cannot 
discuss the future of banking/business in Nigeria without the mention 
of Jim Ovie, Elumelu, Ibru etc, every time you mention this names, it 
might surprise us that we mention their states and tribes as well. To better understand how this works, I'll illustrate with the 
following analogy, if you live in a rented apartment, you'll often 
not understand that your land lord wakes you up every morning to go 
to work, he tells you not to spend too much and save hard so you can 
pay him, the long effort to save through a year which we often call 
Set-aside Invest able Fund (SIF) is in another light a form of 
compulsory adherence to the slavery of the landlord who you must pay 
by the end of the year to allow you stay another year.

 

If the basic 
reason for working is to have fulfilment; in that we want to be part 
of a system that is geared towards making positive impact in this 
nation, then I guess that basic reason is rather jeopardized cos all 
we seem to do by paying the land lord annually is helping your land 
lord live a better life and not the nation as it seems. The land lord 
happens to have studied that need that would never cease. The need 
for accommodation and as a person thinking ahead of the masses, he or 
she just keyed into that need and became a god in this regard- that 
he now becomes the sacred reason why you save all year.(Plan to own a 
house today)

The likes of Zenith bank, Globacom and Dangote are just another form 
of land lords but this time around they don't manage your house, the 
manage the life of over 140million persons.

 

The are economic lords, 
my friend calls them principalities; you'll never see them mingle 
with issues that don't affect their immediate business objective... So 
they all fight to manage the Nigerian Foreign Reserve (NFR), do you 
think its because they love Nigeria or the fact that they'll make 
money from doing so.

Anyway my point is this, if Nigeria currently seems too complex for 
us to take on, I guess Kogi -Igala land should not be a problem.

I understand from a couple of projects my office is working on 
currently that from the profit MTN made in its first year in Nigeria, 
at a time when little or nothing was expected from a country that was 
barely getting back into democratic rule, its obvious that Kogi State 
definitely has a lot of profit to offer any one that had a good 
business model, I want to believe that the time for building filling 
stations and one star hotel is long gone.

In many states we hear of financial misappropriations and later the 
said thief ends up becoming a legitimate (If I can call them that) 
business entity in that the funds are diverted into starting viable 
corporate organizations that rank global standards. It would show you 
that stealing in itself requires a good use of style accompanied with 
a VISION- then the stolen money is used to fund a vision that 
translated in to a big company; now don't get me wrong, I don't 
support the idea of stealing government funds.

 

I am only trying to 
show us that VISION is often enhanced by CAPACITY and from what I see 
the so called igala top shots do when the have resources, its obvious 
we have a big problem of outdated business models, for its never 
really a problem to build a hotel as much as the hotel lacks finesse, 
neither is it a problem to build a fuel station but the extent of 
competition within that sector makes it worthless seeing that the 
population in Kogi state don't have the economic capacity to turn 
around that investment in a short period.
 The need for careful study of the igala population then creating a 
relevant business model that rank high standards has never been so 
required as much as now. The projects/strategies used that our 
supposed civilized or high capacity indigenes have financed in the 
last ten years makes it impossible for us to boast of a viable 
business unit that can employ 100 igala graduated globally; Let me be 
more specific, we do not have a company in the world that is majorly 
owned by an igala person that can employ 100 igala university or poly 
leavers with the ability to pay them on an interswitch or starcom pay 
standard. I did not bother mentioning the likes of globacom cos even 
our governor's legitimate income cannot rank the income of some 
friends I know back at the company.



 

To effectively become a rallying point in the economy of any nation, 
we'll need to address our understanding of style and quality, it has 
to be better that what is obtainable in our local system,in other 
words you need to begin to dream as an igala man or woman. You cannot 
allow the seeming absence of resources to hinder your mind from 
projecting into the world of business. The average cost of an 
imagination or a dream is still =N=0.00 and I can assure you that in 
100yrs it would not change. As cheap as that might be, it's the most 
important instrument needed to lunch you into the world of 
possibilities. For only when we have dreams that are taller than us 
can we begin to evolve to reflect the kind of character needed to 
achieve it?

You'll say we have dreams but no money, I'll say the people who have 
money have only showed the possible dept of our dream as people in 
the Nigerian Economic Context (NEC), we should be able to dream and 
let the passion cause us to develop in character to support the 
dream; so we look at buying up an insurance company as and example, 
you'll need to understand the workings of an insurance company,cos it 
would be unwise to seek to buy what you don't understand.

 

Secondly 
you might need to work in one to understand the problems the 
encounter currently, after that you might need to go back to school 
so you can project yourself from a more global perspective as an 
international student of the insurance sub sector.
You quest to buy up a Nigerian insurance company would require a lot 
of work but permit me to say the first step is in dreaming.

Doing business in Lagos with credible companies made me understand 
that waiting for kick backs or seeking for contracts from the 
government reduces you in to a man or lady that survives on pennies 
when you can own the entire system. 

If you want a contract from the government, you need to show that you 
have capacity, not only by putting papers together but you need to 
build a brand that reflects capacity, you need to imagine becoming a 
JB or PALAPINA or Coscharis within the sector you so desire. You 
cannot keep thinking you'll get far with the connection mentality cos 
even the god fathers would find it difficult to sell you as a brand 
when there's really nothing to sell.

The economics of Igala land is currently in the hands of illiterates 
and shop owners, there are endless opportunities and we seem not to 
see them.

 

The ibo boys open shops and we all follow, we need to begin 
to up the standards and let them fight to catch up.

When next you go to a major store in Lagos, Abuja, Uk or in America, 
try asking your self how possible it is to replicate this superstore 
in Kogi state even if it has to be on a small scale but let the 
quality and finesse be high enough and you'll see that Kogi State or 
Igala Land is as profitable as any other state, we just need to deal 
with the needs and up our standards and the people would evolve to 
reflect their unending desire for class and exclusive service 
delivery.

I strongly believe igala land and kogi state as a whole have 
intelligent people who can key into the opportunities that currently 
exist within, the question is how…….?

Thank you for your time.



Godwin


PRESS RELEASE

 

Excerpts Of The World Press Conference

At The Premises of Radio France Internationale, VON Broadcasting House, Ikoyi, 20^th December 2008

 

Project IGALA, a think-thank of Nigerian Intelligentsia of Igala extraction, with a membership that cuts across six continents and a focal commitment to the overall development of the Igala nation through educational, infrastructural and economic interventions, addressed the World Press recently on dangerous slide to anarchy and violence in Kogi State.

 

Project IGALA notes with dismay the deplorable state of insecurity of lives and property in the state as evidenced in the recent orgy of violence and senseless killings that greeted the recent gubernatorial tribunal’s judgment in the state and with particular reference to the Lokoja ,Anyigba and Ejule disturbances which left many innocents dead.

 

Equally disturbing is the seeming helplessness of Security Agencies like the SSS and the Police, and the conspiratorial silence of the State Government in the unfolding macabre dance in the state. These have fueled the attractiveness of the declaration of a state of emergency in certain quarters.

 

Project IGALA condemns in no unmistakable terms, the resort to violence, thuggery and destruction of lives and property in order to settle political differences and the desecration of the core values of peace and neighbourliness of the Igala people on the altar of dangerous politics which currently thrives in the facilitation of militia groups and the recruitment of Kogi’s future leaders into bloodletting gangs.

 

We therefore call on President Umaru Musa Yar’adua to, as a matter of urgent national importance, intervene by way of increased military and police presence in Igala land and Kogi state in general before the region cascades into an orgy of unmitigated violence, thuggery and militancy of stupendous proportions.

 

Project IGALA remains resolute in its drive to achieve communal peace and prosperity through socio-economic engineering of the Igala society.

 

Signed

Musa Haruna                                                                               Atayi Babs

Scribe                                                                                                Moderator

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