I have often taken on the duty to criticize my fellow elite, (I hope that the really big boys will agree that I am one of them), on matters of grave importance to the polity, whether in the pan-Nigerian context or local as in the quest for Power Devolution/#Restructuring or the agitation for #Biafra. My conclusion has been that most of our people, who could jolly well go by the title "Onwanetilora" or several variations of it, have fully abdicated their responsibilities to their own people.
Whereas the political class can be accused of contributing nothing to the commonwealth, it will be wrong to conclude that every other hard working and successful entrepreneur has got his act together. Such a conclusion will be hasty, especially if the individual in question has an obscene attachment to a mechantilist worldview where the individual counts for nothing. Even competent operatives who get jobs, opportunities and privileges that they do not deserve contribute in distorting the landscape for the professionals to thrive. Ndigbo have more than their fair share of such. They only lower Ndigbo in the esteem of our compatriots. That other groups, say the Yoruba, are doing the same thing in varying degrees, does not invalidate my observations. The entire system is rotten.
My first reaction on reading the following vicious attack by Dr Nicky Okoye of Anabel fame on Nnamdi Kanu and his own Igbo people was to ask in street parlance, "Dem send you?"
I have managed to read a measured rejoinder to Nicky Okoye, written by one Charles Ugwu. He has calmed me down enough to put down the following lines.
God bless you.
There is so much background noise out there. I just got to read Nicky Okoye's insult to Ndigbo only yesterday. The complaint of Ndigbo all these years was not a matter of bread and butter. Based on Okoye's personal succeess, not to mention Coscharis, Slot, Leo Stan Ekeh, Ihenacho, INNOSON, etc, etc, it is clear that what Ndigbo want goes beyond individual successes. Our compatriots fear and resent our success and our tendency to strive, regarding the later as a capital offence. Meanwhile Okoye is busy counting Igbo billionaires! .Haba! . When your dirt poor Okada driver has been groomed to look down on you, what kind of life is that? That he can stick a knife in you even in the heart of Lagos or Umuahua, not to mention Gusau, shows you how little your billions count.
Ndu-ka-ego!
There is so much background noise out there. I just got to read Nicky Okoye's insult to Ndigbo only yesterday. The complaint of Ndigbo all these years was not a matter of bread and butter. Based on Okoye's personal succeess, not to mention Coscharis, Slot, Leo Stan Ekeh, Ihenacho, INNOSON, etc, etc, it is clear that what Ndigbo want goes beyond individual successes. Our compatriots fear and resent our success and our tendency to strive, regarding the later as a capital offence. Meanwhile Okoye is busy counting Igbo billionaires! .Haba! . When your dirt poor Okada driver has been groomed to look down on you, what kind of life is that? That he can stick a knife in you even in the heart of Lagos or Umuahua, not to mention Gusau, shows you how little your billions count.
Ndu-ka-ego!
After spending the better part of my life struggling to contribute to Nigeria's development, it was with sadness that I decided a number of years ago THAT NONE OF MY GRANDCHILDREN WILL BE INVOLVED IN ANY DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY NORTH OF ABUJA. Fortuitously, the Arewa Youths have shrunk that envelope further. Let me see someone blame me for that.
By focusing on our financial successes, Nicky Okoye has given more credence to that false narrative that for Ndigbo it is all about money. For those of us with a strictly inellectual bent, it does not occur to his type that the structure of the current system makes it impossible for us to soar. I will personally forgo N1b just for the privilege to shake this country to its very faulty foundations. Many others, Ndigbo and non-Igbo alike will give an arm and a leg to keep things the way they are. There you have one of the several faultlines.
Charles Igwe wrote about, "those of us equipped with the greater vision and understanding of the adjustments and alignments that create and preserve the fair rights of the Igbo and others caught up in the Biafra experience to participate in Nigeria as currently constituted or subsequently restructured." . That is grammar. .
We should proceed with an apology to the youths that we have abandonned without leadership. To show up now only to complain about the rough edges of Nnamdi Kanu is highly insensitive. Where was Nicky all this while? Where are the others?
We should proceed with an apology to the youths that we have abandonned without leadership. To show up now only to complain about the rough edges of Nnamdi Kanu is highly insensitive. Where was Nicky all this while? Where are the others?
I am so bitter about the attitude of late comer to this struggle for #Restructuring, #TrueFederalism or #Biafra. (Take your pick.) They think that the world and the struggle will stay on "Hold" until they return from their latest trip to Tokyo and have unpacked their bags! What arrogance?
One last thing. Contrary to the insinuation by Nicky Okoye, nobody gave a microphone to Nnamdi Kanu. He grabbed it by himself. It has been stated time without number on these pages that NATURE ABHORS VACUUM!
No comments:
Post a Comment