Anyone who told you the Igbo were disappointed by their total eclipse in the political echelon of this country would have made, perhaps, the most understatement of the century. Yes, the disappointment resonates but was not altogether surprising because of the obvious age-long hatred that Nigerians harbour for the Igbo. One had hoped though that the recalcitrant contraption would for once repent of its needless animosity and put a leg forward n true nation building. That, unfortunately, did not happen, as hate-induced decisions have hastened the country’s slide to infamy.
Nevertheless, the conspiracy of political exclusion of the Igbo in Nigeria’s leadership and decision-making kitchen does not in any way deter the never-say-die spirit of the Igbo. Yes, it is sad and disappointing but yet it is steroid and adrenaline for the athletic spirit of the Igbo.
Those who think their hatred can break the Igbo spirit deserve pity for lacking in understanding of how the Igbo are wired. The more they try to bend the Igbo, the more the people spring up more resolute, like a reed that lets wind ride over its back. The Igbo are like a stubborn fly perching dangerously on the bollocks of Nigeria. You just must be careful how you drive it away or you do yourself great harm.
They have passed worst roads, beginning from genocide, starvation and evil policy of £20 for your millions. Yet the people survived to occupy a dominant place in the country. That is the root cause of the hatred, jealousy for the people’s ingenious enterpreneural conquests, which has become live charcoal on the head of a country that hates. Surely, for as long as Nigeria does not atone for its sins and place the Igbo where they rightly belong, the country will continue to burn.
What is being experienced now is child’s play compared to what lies ahead because karma has come to avenge the blood of the innocent. Did the God of the Igbo not say He would overturn and overturn…?
So, let nobody expect the Igbo to join in the cowardly declarations of doom in certain quarters. We have already fought our own war and learnt our own lessons and, now, their God is taking their Pharaohs to feed the fishes of the River Niger for them. Short of defending their homesteads if need be, let others go fight their wars and leave the Igbo out of it.
However, the Igbo must develop a homegrown political model that encourages homeward integration, whereby its sons and daughters repatriate most of their investments to Igboland. You cannot be arming your haters against yourselves by populating and developing their lands. The way Nigeria is going, implosion is imminent and they should not be caught napping. There is also nothing wrong in fortifying the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), or restoring the Peoples Progressive Alliance (PPA) and using them as springboards to political resurgence.
These are thoughts to be revisited some day. So, I have decided not to bother much about Nigeria and her troubles, at least, for today. I have decided to shun national politics to return home to my state, Imo, which is still reeling under the crushing chicaneries of mentally limp administrators that left the state prostrate and bleeding.
Hope lies ahead for the state, surely, considering the pedigree of the new helmsman, Governor Emeka Ihedioha. One is not in doubt that Ihedioha will deliver on his mandate and people’s trust. To do that, however, he needs to shine his eyes well, as a Nigerian parlance goes.
I am most uncomfortable with developments in Imo, how shamelessness is being exhibited as badge of honour.
It is no longer news that six members of the Imo State House of Assembly last Monday defected to the now ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The six lawmakers, five from Action Alliance (AA) and one from APGA, announced their defection in a letter they addressed to the Speaker, read by the Clerk of the House during plenary.
Tagging along with his colleagues, the immediate past speaker of the House and running mate to Uche Nwosu, gubernatorial candidate of AA in the recent elections, Acho Ihim, also defected to the PDP during the inauguration of the ninth assembly in Owerri. There were other defectors too and many more to come in the days ahead, all heading to PDP.
Interestingly, only in December, last year, most of these lawmakers trooped to this same AA because of no other reason but to please the lord of the manor then, who squeezed both manliness and manhood out of them. The then governor had insisted on making his son in-law his successor via the AA, and, like obedient dogs, the so-called lawmakers followed their master, licking droppings from his behind, as they turned Imo into a graveyard of dreams in the most bizarre governance ever witnessed in this country. And, truly, just as Uche Nwosu noted in his message to Ihim, they would all rush back to AA if, God forbid, Nwosu finds favour before the election tribunal.
They are a congregation of ravenous vultures, period. Poor souls! To imagine that these conscienceless lackeys and comrades-in-arms with the immediate past government’s gangsterism could so shamelessly jump ship too soon is a lesson in disservice. These men abandoned their gavel and transmuted into appointees of the executive they were elected to oversight, allowing the man a field day to turning the state inside out. After helping the governor to ruin and run Imo aground, the schemers and scammers have come again. Very dishonourable ‘honourables’. So sad, so pitiful. Ihedioha, beware! None of them has the interest of your person, government or Imo at heart.
As we wait for men, real men, to take the Igbo to our place of destiny, may this breed never cross our paths. On a lesser scale, as all eyes rivet on Ihedioha to restore the glory of Imo, may the boat ferrying fortune hunters to torpedo his noble dreams for the state capsize before arriving at Douglas House, Amen.
Let somebody shout alleluia!