IGBO LEADERS HAVE NO SHAME – ETCETERA
again with another post!
Read below:
I was told that every Igboman who heard Ojukwu's
speech after the Biafran war was filled with a
renewed sense of pride and hope. A hope that one
day the Igbo nation will rise and become a force of
reckoning not just in Nigeria but in the entire black
world. I have read that speech over and over and
each time I read through, I am filled with pride and
imagination of how those who heard the words
pouring out of the mouth of the warlord himself
must have felt. Before going any further, let me
recount a little part of what the late sage said while
addressing the press:
"In the three years of the war, necessity gave birth
to invention. During those three years of heroic
bound, we leapt across the great chasm that
separates knowledge from know-how. We built
rockets, and we designed and built our own
delivery systems. We guided our rockets. We
guided them far, we guided them accurately.
For three years, blockaded without hope of import,
we maintained all our vehicles. The state extracted
and refined petrol, individuals refined petrol in
their back gardens. We built and maintained our
airports, maintained them under heavy
bombardment.
Despite the heavy bombardment, we recovered so
quickly after each raid that we were able to
maintain the record for the busiest airport in the
continent of Africa. We spoke to the world through
telecommunication system engineered by local
ingenuity; the world heard us and spoke back to us!
We built armoured car tanks. We modified aircraft
from trainer to fighters, from passenger aircraft to
bombers. In the three years of freedom we had
broken the technological barrier. In three years we
became the most civilised, the most technologically
advanced black people on earth."
Ojukwu, with those few lines, defined the ingenuity
and never-say-die spirit God has embedded in the
marrows of the Igboman. But my question for
Ndigbo is, where has this ingenuity for which the
entire world has given them a standing ovation,
gone? Why can't it be used today to enhance the
cause of Ndigbo? Can't we re-enact the same war
time feat to launch ourselves back to reckoning
again in Nigeria and in the entire black world?
Since Ojukwu died, Ndigbo have been like sheep
without a shepherd. Those who we thought could
take up the mantle of leadership are nothing but
selfish entities who care for nothing but their
personal interest. As I am writing this article, I just
got words that a senator in Imo State has been
discovered as a saboteur working against the
interest of his people because he has been
promised to be made Senate president in the new
political dispensation which begins on May 29.
What is it with Ndigbo and greed? How long are we
going to kill ourselves? Isn't it a gargantuan shame
that a tribe as populous as Ndigbo can't provide a
single individual that is seen to be credible enough
to be elected president of Nigeria? A casual
observation of the performances of the governors
of the south eastern states will reveal their level of
under-performance since 1999. Case point, take
Aba which has failed to enjoy any meaningful
development since the 1929 Aba women riot. The
place is a total mess. What have the governors
done with what has been accruing to the state in
the last 16 years of democratic rule?
The fact that these individuals who have
mismanaged fortunes of the state consider
themselves fit to even contest election is a slap on
the faces of Ndigbo. Ndigbo, are we cursed? The
red-cap goons known as Ohaneze do nothing but
crawl from one place to another offering
themselves for sale and for use. This has been their
money-making scheme for too long and it can no
longer hold water. Can't we take a cue from the
style Dangote adopted and made a kill? The Yoruba
have already adopted it and it is working. We have
to restrategise to become that economic power
house we crave. The idea that every Igboman who
makes money whether through his ingenuity or by
accident becomes misguided and begins to push
for political office even though they are clearly not
professional politicians should be discarded.
We hear of Dangote, the Dantatas, Otedola, Mike
Adenuga, the Okoyas, where are the Igbo
equivalent in terms of their organisational set-up?
Most of our businesses are largely one-man
businesses and whenever the founder dies, the
whole thing dies. Ndigbo must do away with their
selfishness and personal greed, otherwise we will
continue to languish as a people. We must redirect
our thoughts away from the deeply engrossed
notion of "to make it in life," "we must make money
at all cost." What Ndigbo should learn from the just
concluded elections is that without a harmony of
opinion, all our efforts will yield nothing. Igbo
kwezuenu."
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