Ndiigbo Are Sinking In Political Boat

Written by Odimegwu Onwumere

If no one is thoughtful about the plight of Ndiigbo in the political system in Nigeria, I am thoughtful. I wet my eyes in prayers and my voice crack in advice and my pen dry in trying to address some key issues debilitating the state of health of the Igbo nation. Especially, when I remember that this esteemed democracy in Nigeria has only made Ndiigbo popular, as a people still looking for direction and praying for solidarity. Many Igbo ¡responsible¢ children are spitting at the ugly situation Ndiigbo are facing in Nigeria or have made themselves face, because of some of the self-acclaimed Igbo-leaders, who do not have the Canaan land at heart for Ndiigbo, as the best resort for Ndiigbo, but prefer to talk with the voice of Jacob but wear the flesh of Esau. What bizarre!

It left me dumbfounded that during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Convention at Eagle Square on Saturday March 8th 2008, Ndiigbo exhibited yet another political harlotry, without the expected happened. Ayim Pius Anyim, who was a contender of that exalted seat, Ben Johnsoned to Katsina for condolence of the emir then. Perhaps, seeking for political support, because, perhaps, he remembered that nothing was left at home.

Sam Egwu, ex-governor of Eboyi State, was also a contestant. He was good as a Governor, but it was glaring that he was a stooge for OBJ. And that could be why OBJ was the backbone of his campaign. Though, both Anyim and Egwu were beneficiaries of the PDP¢s kleptomaniac obligations and objectives, as a wild party that had mastery on how to perfect election rigging. 1999-2003 and 2007 are case study for historians.

While Nigerians were eyes opened hoping among Anyim and Egwu, the later having won the "war", a stooge in the person of Prince Eze Vincent Ogbulafor was (s)elected as the PDP chairman. Today, instead of the Prince becoming the Prince of Ndiigbo, he has preferred to be PDP¢s Prince Of Hope. Ala-Igbo, so far, becomes court of battle, on political matters. And many Igbo have died, like the SSG that died, while defending Hon. Olubumi Patricia Etteh, who was caught in the hard web of corruption.

There are a lot of Judas in every tribe in Nigeria, but Ndi Igbo can ask Chiefs Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Arthur Nzeribe, Emeka Ofor, the Uba family, and a host of others, to tell Nigerians who the Judas in ala-Igbo are.

Without this expression and the Igbo understanding who the Judas is in ala-Igbo are, there is no tendency of Ndiigbo jumping off the sinking boat, the political bewilderment that has rocked Ndiigbo.

There is political naivety brazenly Ndiigbo do not bother much about. They forgot that should Yar¢Adua survive the 18 grounds of appeal of Buhari at the Supreme Court, the South-South would wage a war to succeed Yar¢Adua in 2015. And no Igbo care about this fear? Yes. Ndiigbo now have the PDP party Chairman in their political shelf; it is wise they began fighting the party to zone the presidency to the south East.

Crying as marginalized will never solve any problem. And Ndiigbo has been known as the crier of marginalisation. So it will continue if nothing is done now and Yar¢Adua¢s tenure is over. I wonder what the socio-cultural groups in ala-Igbo are doing to seeing to the rehearsed plight of Niigbo. It seems that Ohana-Eze, Aka ikenga, and so on, have failed the Igbo nation, but do not want to stoop and accept their defeat. They are not even bating to reposition themselves. Do the groups in ala-Igbo know that the current shadowy PDP division of the country into South and North is a calculated fraud? All, to humiliate the Ndiigbo? What could the six geo-political expressions in Nigeria mean, if not fraud? Or better put, to divide and rule Ndiigbo.

The telling issue is that many sons of Igbo have told Ndiigbo and Biafrans to forget the Biafran Holocaust, but Nigerian government in ernest owe Ndiigbo great apology for that to be effected. How can the Igbo history forget so soon the 50,000 men, women and children massacred in cold blood in Northern and Western Nigeria? Pregnant women disembowelled and the foetuses slaughtered simply because they would grow up to be Igbo, Ibibio, Efik, Anang, Ogoja, Ijaw? Two-million children, nursing mothers, old women and old men starved to death? Mothers and daughters raped and carried away as war booty? Several trillion dollars worth of Biafran property looted, confiscated and destroyed, billions of British Pounds belonging to Biafrans and lodged in bank accounts stolen by the Nigerian government while granting owners of these monies twenty pounds per family?

This is what Dr. Orji Kalu and Chief Ikedi Ohakim, who conferred on themselves the Igbo leader, are asking Ndiigbo to forget. What has Kalu, a man who was promised the vice-presidency of Nigeria in the last election, learnt so far from the Igbo political problem. The Evil Empire called Nigeria only want buffoons from the Igbo nation to occupy positions in Nigeria, people the Empire can control. Why has it not given Chief Odimegwu Ojukwu any political appointment since after the war? Should Ndi Igbo forget? What have the Nigerian government done to Biafrans who survived the killing of thousands of their family members and relatives, looting and burning of their property in Kaduna, Kano, Damboa, Minna by Sharia zealots and agents of the Evil Empire?

However, it does not disturb me so much when I remember that it was the rat at home that told the one in the bush that fish is in the kitchen. We all know that the imposed Obasanjo administration made Igboman the senate president, but he was rusticated from the position by the Igbo-Abuja mercenaries. Abuja errand boys. Another Igbo mounted the saddle, yet the same Ndiigbo were used to frame him up and he was removed, even if we all know that he was part of his own problem. Ndiigbo have refused to learn from their Hausa/Fulani counterparts. Because they refused to learn this, it will take His grace for them to jump off their political sinking boat. It is a pity.

Odimegwu Onwumere, writes from Oyigbo, Rivers State. +2348032552855. [email protected]