T he first part of the title of this piece was taken from a controversial article on African Literature written by Chinweizu, Onwuchekwa Jamie and Ihechukwu Madubuike in the mid 1970s.

The article was to become an integral part of a still controversial, provocative but profoundly influential book, 'Toward the Decolonization of African Literature' which was published in 1980. In the article under reference, the authors criticized those African writers who abandoned the traditional aesthetic values of their people, who showed no particular discernible concern for the condition of the African as well as the challenges and obstacles he faces, but have elected to place their art and creative enterprise in service of an obscurantist, esoteric and highfalutin euro-modernist vision. The authors see these writers as having disconnected from their true African calling and become alienated from their people's search for authentic identity and affirmative possibility.

Here, I am not concerned about the raging debate over the direction of African creative practice and the critical responses to it. I am not also dealing with a literary situation with all its complex and contradictory signification. Rather, I am addressing a very real and concrete problem in Igbo politics, and the perception the rest of the country has of the Igbo political elite. This concrete problem relates to the conscious, deliberate and self-serving abandonment of the Igbo cause within the context of the wider Nigeria caused by a section of the Igbo elite in the promotion of their narrow, selfish interests.

Though parallels exist between Chinweizu and his co-author's rage against prodigal African writers who were urged to come home, and the ignoble role being played by this class of the Igbo political elite against their people's true interest, needs and aspirations. In the former, we are witnesses to a lively intellectual debate while in the latter we are observers to the wholesale negation of identity by those who express a sham and shallow love for Nigeria; a love that can only be demonstrated through the consistent and perfidious assault on the integrity of the Igbo nation as a constitutive part of the Nigerian State.

It appears that every society, at every historical phase, produces two different kinds of leaders: those who genuinely love their people, who will readily lay down their lives in the furtherance of their well being, and who still successfully balance the needs of their people in relation to the needs of other people who share common territory, citizenship and higher national values with their people. There are yet those who promote their self-importance by rejecting their people, by failing to identity with their expectations, and who readily lend themselves as clients, errand boys and willing tools in the hands of others whose intentions towards their people are less than noble.

They believe that the only available path for their upward political, social and economic mobility is the path of dishonour, the path of being lackeys to local hegemons, and the path of thwarting at every turn, through deeds and pseudo-intellectualism, the authentic aspirations of their people to better their lot and condition. Interested more in the applause they gain from those who goad them on in this process of disconnection from their roots and less in identifying with the daily struggles, anguish and lamentations around them, they inhabit a shadowy, bat-like world of open scorn at home and concealed disdain by those in whose employ they are.

One of the greatest tragedies of modem Igbo politics in the context of the wider Nigerian political and democratic process is the emergence of clientele political elite who have cornered resources,

Political opportunities and placements meant for their people but who do not care a hoot about the precarious condition of existence of this same people, the lack of basic, functional infrastructure in their area, and their systematic institutional marginalization within certain commanding national sectors and heights. This tragedy becomes burdensome when viewed within the framework that the clientele Igbo political elite presently occupy dominant positions in Nigeria's federal set-up and within the ranks of the during Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); that they have used this dominance to literally shut down the political space, never to be penetrated; that the process of inducting newer and younger Igbo political and business elite into the mainstream is skewered in favour of those who will collaborate with them and further their clientele agenda; and have also aided and assisted in the persecution, humiliation and harassment of authentic Igbo leaders who dare to question the unjust policies they and their patrons promote.

My many years as a business leader and the 8 years I spent as the Governor of Abia State have exposed me to the enormity of this challenge and the deep strangle-hold this crowd of political pretenders exercise over our people. I know that many other people in my potion have equally been traumatized by this invasion of the Igbo political base and the rupturing of Igbo political consensus by this crowd. What some other people may lack may be the courage of their conviction to speak out, to lay at the theatre of Nigerian political discourse this strange phenomenon, and to seek the understanding of others to the on-going battle to rid Igbo land of this political scourge.

In 1998 - 1999, I was among the few Igbo political leaders that made a strategic assessment of the prevailing political situation and came to the inescapable conclusion that a higher national, interethnic and inter-institutional conspiracy has made the Obasanjo presidency a foregone conclusion. I canvassed this unpopular view among the Igbo elite but was met with a stout resistance. But being a realist, I reluctantly settled for that choice and mobilized support and resources for its realization. Yet, the choice I made was predicated on a set of pledges and guarantees for the gainful integration of the Igbo into the political mainstream in the following directions:

i. That key cabinet positions should be allocated to the Igbo.
ii. That key parliamentary positions should also be reserved for them.
iii. That the deplorable condition of federal roads in Igboland should be speedily tackled.
iv. That, through enabling legislations and executive policies, a friendly environment should be created for the pursuit of Igbo business and commerce.
v. Finally, that the ultimate Igbo quest, as a testament of their sense of belonging to the Nigerian state - a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction should be factored in any future power negotiation in Nigeria.
Eight years down the line since these guarantees were made by Obasanjo, he systematically negated and breached them, in active collaboration with a section of the Igbo elite who he promoted and surrounded himself with.

My first real and serious conflict with Obasanjo had to do with the proper placement of certain Igbo leaders into key cabinet positions, and it is a story that I reserve for another time. Though he eventually buckled under intense pressure on this, I became marked out as a 'dangerous' politician who will stop at nothing in getting what I want for my people. The second and enduring conflict has to do with my repeated demands that the federal roads in Igboland should be attended to and quickly too. Because I never let up in this agitation given the sorry state of these roads which still persist as I write this, a full scale war was declared on me and those others who stood their ground, spoke out and held up their heads proudly.

An attempt was made to impeach me, sponsored from outside and executed by the clientele elite. I was eventually hounded out of a party I helped to form and fund. The banks I have interest in were destroyed by executive fiat. Slok Airline was forced out of the Nigeria sky, legitimately secured oil businesses were cancelled, and presently, politically-sponsored charges against me subsist in several federal high courts. All these, apart from the consistent and sustained harassment and pursuit of my family members some of who have been criminalized without any probable cause.

The point of interest in this narration is not my sometimes lonely walk on the path of effecting group interest, or the personal humiliations that attend it. The real issue deals with the trumpet sound of support provided the oppressors by one's kith and kin, and their celebration of the apparent defeat of the Igbo spirit. While one can take the pain, that in the context of national competition, each group may sometimes undo the other to secure a higher advantage, and a higher ground, it is difficult to take the pain of betrayal at the home front, by a class of individuals who, being thoroughly alienated and removed from the burning issues that excite their people, give a willing hand to the oppressors in their ruthless assault against people's integrity, dignity and humanity.

As I have already observed in the principal part of this series, "A journey Through Time", Igboland is currently buffeted by the wave of political disunity, occasioned in part by the collapse of elite consensus and the absence of a coherent political platform that will propel the people's interest. In the present circumstance, the task of social and political mobilization becomes increasingly difficult and fraught with grievous impediments. Yet, the reconstruction of an Igbo political base remains a serious challenge and a compelling agenda, in so far ~ other ethno-national and geo-political bases are currently being reconstructed (one needs only refer to the Afenifere Unity dialogue that took place recently).

However, this task cannot be successfully carried out or prosecuted without riding Igboland of the clientele political elite who daily pollute its political atmosphere. To rid Igbo society of these elements and the negational philosophy they espouse will mean identifying them, and I have provided sufficient clues in characterizing and profiling them to make this exercise a relatively easy one.

This task will also involve mapping out clear political programmes with deep intellectual and strategic content capable of rallying the people under a common political banner, and capable also of systematically deconstructing pseudo-federalist posturing of the leading members of that group as a precondition of, one - reconstructing a solid Igbo political machine, and two - deploying that machine, in partnership with other reconstructed ethno-national and geostrategic platforms, for the sustenance of the Nigerian idea, the promotion of the Nigerian spirit and the realization of Nigerian values and ideals.