By Rev Fr. OFFOR EVARISTUS 

Nemesis is really catching up with us, and our political and military bureaucracies are not helping matters at all. More blood of the innocent is wasted in the name of maintaining the peace of the country. This scenario played out in the South-East where, “Operation Python Dance,” being staged by the military is causing more harm than good to the citizens.

The scenario resembles the Igbo adage, ‘’to hang a dog, give it a bad name’’. The Igbo people are conjured to be terrorists because their sons and daughters are agitating for self-determination which of course, is their right. Today, they are being hunkered and hunted. Everything the Igbo person does in this country is construed to be bad even when they have been on the ground for over 45 years.

Though, I do not support any agitation outside the acceptable norms, yet those who refuse to make peaceful change happen, invite violent change. So, to have pronounced the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) a terrorist group, was not good. To have pronounced the IPOB a terrorist group is another round of invitation to unleash more pains, sorrow and prolong the victimization of the Igbo race.  Instead of looking for ways to rectify the wrongs of the past and present through the outcome of all the different national political conferences and human rights abuse panel held in the past or the present agitation for restructuring, the government wants to distract the prayers of the majority of Nigerians.

Now that millions of Nigerians are calling for restructuring that will create a sense of balance in the structure that has held the Igbo people as third or fourth class citizens, government still threatens fire and brimstone on how to inflict more pains and grief on them. In fact, tagging the hapless IPOB members terrorists is only but unfortunate, derogatorily unlawful of when compared to those other ethnic groups who throw explosives that destroy both human and public chattels yet are settled with Amnesty and dialogic remunerations.

Why is the Igbo case different? Why has the federal government refused to implement the ‘’no victor, no vanquished’’ and ‘’the 3Rs’’ philosophies since the end of the Nigerian civil war? Why has the federal government refused to call those Igbo youths for a peace talk and treat them as the Niger-Delta youths and even the dreaded Boko Haram members who were initially begged for dialogue? Why is the Igbo case still messy and heartlessly marooned? 

Can you beat an innocent child and still threaten him not to cry. I was elated on the night of September 15, 2017 when one fearless but honest lawyer, Barr. Oshoma Liborous, not an Igbo lambasted the military and federal government’s blind attention to the problems of the Igbo nation which have continued to breed perpetual agitations, acrimonious slandering and ill-treatment. He truthfully affirmed that the race is being denied the right to justice, equity, equality and respect and called on the federal government to address the issues threatening the Igbo existence as well as that of the country.

On the contrary Rtd. Col. S. Hassan Lambo claimed that the operation python dance was proper. I watched their arguments on the Channel TV’s ‘’Politics Today’’. I really campaigned for this ruling national party, but I am now questioning the grace and spirit behind it. Is this ruling party thinking of the 2019 presidential elections? Instead of calling for peace and love, it has brought us more economic woes, political and ethnic tension.

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Frankly speaking, the South East does not want a python dance but the old but  “sweet banana sweet’’ dance that will take care of the age-long 3rs-reconciliation, reconstruction and rehabilitation. What they truly need at this point in time is an honest ‘’no victor no vanquished’’ treatment, and never military occupation. Since the whole ethnic regions are boiling in one way or the other, what we need now is operation restore our heroes’ past and a present dispensation built on free and fair elections, food and job security, social justice and equality of all.

We need operation feed the nation; operation electrify the whole nation. Now should be the holy hour of redemption by the ruling APC party with its mantra “change starts with me”.  Otherwise 2019 will decide its fate.

We need a change from political and tribal domination to freedom and equality of all tribes and religions, a change from military occupation to true democratic “LOVE Dance”, a change from ethnic and religious favoritism to the “common brotherhood dance”, a change from python dance to love and respect dance, a dance from inequality to equal healing in all political bureaucracy and so on. We need to move away from the dance of python to dance of equity and faith in our national pledge and anthem…’’freedom and unity’’.

Since the South West, the North and South South were all compensated politically, the Igbo people who lost millions of their own and all their economic wealth to the federal government after the war  the need a respite from the dance of negligence and federal apathy to “reggae dance of ONE LOVE”. Finally, in as much as this writer does not subscribe to any violence or disrespect to the rule of law, justice and fair play are the ingredients that will stop agitations. Even the federal government and all its umbrella agencies must submit to the laws of the land, because he, who goes to equity must have clean hands. The question is’’ does the federal government treat all the tribes equally the same way. In national appointments, how many Igbo are in the military, police, customs echelon? Agitation is an index of inequity, marginalization, wickedness, oppression, injustice and political intrigues. The Federal Government ought to think twice and know why the Igbo person is still on the ground politically and ethnically.

Instead, the soldiers have brought hardship and fear into the zone. Responsible governments such as the US, UK, Germany, France, etc, would have called the agitators to dialogue or the Legislators debated the burring issues with a view to providing their needs and desires.

The Igbo people truly need a sense of belonging, inclusion and not exclusion in the national polity. The Federal Government must ensure the safety of the people, because continued intimidation may worsen the situation, especially when the youths remember the callous treatment meted on their kith and kin during the pogrom and the civil war.

Rev. Fr. Offor writes Enugu via [email protected]