By Ikenna Ozulumba Mbaegbu
“Igbo man,” some usually say “is the cause of it all and even a huge hindrance to his own progress. Out of his selfish tendency, he has helped to bring disunity upon his own people.”
When people make the erroneous statement such as the above, I shudder to think about their lack of understanding about the position of the Biafran people in Nigeria.
Well, they say, “everything in this life remains meaningless until they are clarified.” Here, I have come to explain why some Biafrans are the way they are today.
Earlier today, I had boarded a bus en route to Nnewi, one of the cities in Biafra land. On reaching to “Eke Nkpor,” the driver had decided to stop by a nearby gas station to refill the vehicle. At the station, we had discovered that the price of the fuel had increased to #300.00 per litre.
A middle-aged woman who was sitting beside me shouted, almost on top of her voice, “chei, Igbos, and their covetousness! Look at it nah, they are selling fuel above the government fixed price! Is this how we will rule ourselves when we finally get the Biafra we are clamoring for?”
At this point, my attention was drawn and I looked at her and said in a very calm manner, ma'am, I think you are wrong there. You are only focusing your attention on the problem alone instead of what caused it.
“How exactly do you mean by that, young man?” She had sharply replied.
She was dark in complexion and seemed to be in her late forties (if am not mistaking). She was Plump and of average height and had this big nose that looked like that of “Buker T” in the wrestling world. And she normally picked it whenever she talked. It appeared to be a habit she had formed over the years and not in hurry to let go.
To clear the woman’s jaundiced view over the Biafra issue, I had begun by highlighting before her those factors that had helped in contributing towards the nation’s (Nigeria) backwardness.
One of such factors is a bad government. The mantle of leadership has fallen into the hands of criminals and total misfits and this has led to economic mismanagement as wealth is not properly generated even to the grass root, foreign investors and human resources not encouraged and the desire to create and produce what will help the country to grow has been killed from its infancy.
The government only focuses its attention on the oil (natural resources) in Biafra land. The cabals who claim to be the leaders of the country corner all the wealth that these resources generate into their own pockets, just for their own personal gain, thereby impoverishing the masses and rendering them weak to even fight for their rights and enjoy the proceeds from their own land. All these have caused the country to continue to move back to the “Stone Age” when others are progressing every day by day.
The average Igbo man doing his business, as the woman had earlier pointed out is not the major cause of the problems in Nigeria but those unscrupulous elements, those vultures in the country’s parliaments are the ones orchestrating this evil acts. By so doing, it has allowed them to continue to remain in power.
The fact is, corruption has eaten deep into the fabrics of the country, Nigeria and it all began with its leaders. If they are not involved in it, what then stops the government from setting up a panel that will be monitoring and controlling the price of commodities in the market?
Also, the fact is, the Islamists from the northern extraction that occupy the seats of power in the Nigerian government houses only encourage all these nefarious activities just to disfavor the Christians (Biafrans) living in the eastern part of the country. If not, why is it that during the “Sallah cerebration period,” we never heard of such thing as fuel increment? This shows that the ISLAMIZATION PROCESS is now in progress.
It is simply an error of generalization when one relates some Igbo men’s covetousness towards their business and the need to make a fast buck, especially in this Christmas period to why the struggle for the Biafra restoration should be dropped.
Someone once told me that every Igbo businessman is a profiteer. Just allow an Igbo man a modicum of chance in your area of business and he will monopolize the whole establishment. Could this actually be true?
But then, it is so true that the only reason most Biafrans are the way they are today is that our people are being constantly marginalized and the struggle to succeed in this unfavorable condition now remains the only option of an average Igbo man. He will do anything just to survive and as well conquer.
Didn’t they say that “necessity is the mother of invention?” It simply means that man’s physical and mental efforts are at their best when his existence is threatened or when he finds himself in a desperate situation. The fact is that most Biafrans are the way they are today due to the conditions confronting them.
Let’s just call “a spade a spade” here, Igbo man who is just struggling to survive the hardship prevalent in the country is not the major cause of the problem but its leaders. It then pains me so much to have people try to blame him for being the cause of it all when he is only trying to make a “lemonade” out of the “lemon” which the government of the contraption called Nigeria has brought him.
The fact still remains that the problem of the Indigenous people of Biafra today is not just about the Igbo man going against his brother or against his own people but a thing that was brought upon them by the other peoples they are merged with (the Hausa – Fulani people and the Yorubas). The aforesaid races were helped and continued to be helped by the British government to marginalize the Biafran people due to the oil discovered in their land so that they will continue to steal from them.
And to perfect and facilitate this heinous crime against humanity, they introduced the all mighty “DIVIDE AND RULE” formula to destabilize and disorganize us so that they will be able to control as well. They planted this ember of discord into our midst and have continued to fan it, the reason being that they will keep us busy fighting each other while they milk away our God’s natural given gifts. But then, some gullible ones among us are so myopic to even see the handwriting clearly written on the wall.
Therefore, I call upon all Biafrans to realize who the real enemy is, here. The real enemy is not your brother (a fellow Biafran) but the foreigner (The Hausa – Fulani people, the Yorubas, and the British government) who has come like a friend and turned us against each other. Let us stand together and fight these demons out of our land forever! This evil that has come to wipe our race out, these agents of Lucifer who have brought these sufferings and untold hardship upon us, we must stand to flush out of our system. Only the restoration of our dear lovely nation, BIAFRA will set us free from this captivity of negativity that we are being trapped in over the years. Let’s embrace her and fight towards restoration.
Publisher: Prince Richmond C. Amadi
For Umuchiukwu Writers
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