THE FEAR FACTOR

THE GOVERNMENT IS CAUSING THE PROBLEM NOT THE IGBO —Dele Momodu

But some Igbos are so scared of …tell me…of what type of consequences? —that they are busy seeing war mongers in the East– and looking for Facebook warriors, and proffer no single solutions whatsoever— and prescribe a slavish robot- like unresponsiveness to the structural inequalities meted against Igbos?

Who told you that Kanu doesn’t want peace? Have things started changing and you continue to see zero sensitivity to his attitude?

Was he there when the INDIGENIZATION DECREE that took away the heights of the Nigerian economy from Igbos was made? What did those advising a slavish and moronic reaction do then as so called Solomons of that time?

Was Nnamdi there when we were humiliated and decapitated economically by the £20 policy? What did your fathers do when indigenousness, quota system and federal character became official policies all over the country to divest Igbos of their edge in many of these areas? What did you do when THE LAND USE ACT was used to check Igbo predilection for acquisition of land?

Was Nnamdi the causes of those riots in which Igbo properties and lives were suddenly destroyed up North and have them scurrying back to the East to start life anew under the most painful and humiliating circumstances? What have these so-called men of wisdom who seek influence without responsibility done to ensure the safety of lives of Igbos, let alone their respect and humanity? We were all here in 2019 when the right of the Igbo to go to the ballot box and vote in Lagos or elsewhere was fatally challenged and their private markets locked up leaving great patriots in the streets as the worst level of outcasts possible in any society? What did many of these Igbo lawyers and doctors sermonizing and demonizing those currently complaining of injustice do at critical times like this? When Buhari knocked down the first private university built in Nigeria by Nnanna Ukegbu in Imo state (because the North didn’t need them at the time–even don’t still need them), what did you do? The federal government, up till today, has made a policy of turning the entire South East into an economic cum investment desert by providing absolutely no infrastructure or incentives for the operations of top notch multinationals and other investors– to the effect that the greatest Igbo intellectuals and tycoons could hardly make Igbo land their base by virtue of natural osmosis to regions of high investment friendly centers like Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Kaduna, what did you do?

The list could go on and on. Admissions, rule of law, appointments, just name anything that the Igbo has not just been marginalized in but humiliated in as well? People have advised government to engage Kanu. Have they? They wouldn’t because they are still in a mindset that sees him as crassly inconsequential even as the wind continues to gather momentum? Where are the Igbo Obasanjos and Gumis? All these wise counselors should do something drastic to convince the government of the need to engage not allowing their mother’s crotch to become the subject of market jest.

Where are our Fayoses, Fani-Kayodes, Falanas, Umars, Soyinkas and so on? Where are our Dinnos? Aisha Yezufu? With the exception of few people like Olisa Agbakoba, Abaribe, Oby Ezekwesili and Ugochinyere Ikenga,( and others I may not know), IgboIand is deeply in crisis of judgement, sabotage and fear.

Who told you that young Igbo youths angry at these things want war? If half of all influential Igbos who waste their energy on preaching eternal slavery to their youths in the midst of this crisis were to speak up like this great man DELE MOMODU, this problem would simply thaw and disappear. I don’t know what they are waiting for to knock sense into them. In the North people have hoisted flags, declaring personal caliphates out of Nigeria’s land and the government rounds them up and gives them scholarships and in the East Kalu expresses a desire for a plebiscite to be conducted and you term him a rebel? Didn’t Britain conduct their own and leave the EU? Why must we make monsters out of moving clouds? Sometimes you think of all this and wonder if Kanu’s signature acerbity is not a function of his frustration with this generation of Igbos who would do nothing to protect their own but everything to destroy them. Who told you that all the people involved in this agitation necessarily want Nigeria broken? I cherish Nigeria but not under the circumstances Igbos currently belong to it.

Now do something positive and please stop this campaign of calumny against those who are man enough to say no to a structural life of injustice. If the Igbos believe in their self respect they can use their combined economic and demographic powers (especially outside their zones–as Jews do in America and other places–) to stem the tide of this violent and perennial dehumanization. NOW IF THERE ARE BETTER AND WORKABLE ALTERNATIVES, EXPLOIT THEM but be humble enough to give sympathy to your people’s plight when necessary. YOUR EFFORT IN THIS DIRECTION MAY QUICKLY MAKE THE “SCARY” ALTERNATIVES MORIBUND. But before then, acknowledge your fear– we all are–but ask God for the spirit to go through these things without violence.